HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) — Someone intentionally burned down a mobile home where 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford was raped, killed and buried four years ago this month, authorities said Monday.
The child's abduction and murder by John Evander Couey prompted lawmakers in Florida and other states to pass Jessica's Law to keep better track of sex offenders and punish repeat offenders more severely.
A fire late Sunday gutted the vacant trailer currently valued at $20,000 where Couey, a repeat sex offender, used to live in a wooded neighborhood of mobile homes about 60 miles north of Tampa. State fire marshals ruled it arson on Monday.
"It was an intentionally set fire," said Sam Venzeio, a spokesman for the fire marshals office. Authorities are seeking people with knowledge of the incident.
Authorities said only one other act of vandalism has occurred at the property since Jessica's death. She was snatched from a bedroom of her nearby home on Feb. 24, 2005. A cement block was thrown through the trailer's window that year in April.
Couey was convicted of murder in March 2007 and sentenced to death.
He told investigators he kept Jessica in a closet for several days before burying her alive outside the trailer, which was within sight of her own home. The sheriff's office, however, contended that she was killed immediately.
Jessica's father had criticized the Citrus County Sheriff's Office for initially focusing on his family and failing to search Couey's trailer.
(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with fire marshal deeming it arson, corrects that one other act of vandalism has occurred on the property since Lunsford's disappearance.)
