A Teller County woman, who had lost insurance on her home that was set to foreclose, had made several threats to her insurance company that she would light her home on fire, before she eventually did, sparking a wildfire that threatened 700 homes last fall, an arrest affidavit alleges.
Lowa “Lacey” Tillitt, 77, was arrested this week and faces a fourth-degree arson charge, a felony, according to an arrest affidavit from the Teller County Sheriff’s Office. When a deputy arrived at her house in Divide on Oct. 28, Tillitt’s home was fully engulfed in flames and the fire had spread from the house to nearby grasslands and forest.
The Highland Lakes fire, which burned 166 acres, came within 100 feet of two neighboring homes and forced all residents in the Highland Lakes area to evacuate for three days.
In the months before the fire, Tillitt struggled with her insurance company, American National, claiming she did not understand why her insurance was canceled in May 2023, the affidavit stated.
Tillitt’s cancellation policy stated that her house was a fire hazard due to the “large amount of debris” inside her house and brush and vegetation outside that had not been mitigated, investigators with the sheriff’s office and state’s Division of Fire Prevention and Control found.
Conversations between Tillitt and the insurance company became “irate, irrational, aggressive and often hysterical,” a deputy wrote in the affidavit, citing recorded conversations between Tillitt and insurance agents. Tillitt said she did not believe her insurance company was properly addressing her claim or helping her fix her home that they felt was inhabitable.
While speaking to an insurance agent in February 2024, eight months before the Highland Lakes fire, she threatened several times to set her house on fire as a means to take her life, the affidavit stated.
A Teller County deputy called Tillitt to check on her in May and confirmed she was OK, but still having issues with her insurance company, the affidavit stated. About three minutes into the call, Tillitt stated, “Just ignore the calls, I’m OK unless you see my house burning.”
She continued to call her insurance company dozens of times, demanding her problems be resolved. She drove to where her claims adjuster worked in Missouri, before a restraining order was filed, the affidavit stated.
Three days before Tillitt set her house on fire, she called her insurance company demanding to know why her insurance was canceled a year earlier. An agent told her she must make a request in writing, she said she couldn’t and started to cry, according to the affidavit.
“Why didn’t my insurance company protect me? Why did they help to take my home away,” Tillitt said, before the conversation ended with Tillitt yelling and screaming hysterically.
On the day of the fire, she told a deputy that she was burning cardboard boxes inside of her house “to get rid of them.” Her couch caught on fire while she had opened her woodburning stove to add more boxes, she said.
More than 15 fire agencies helped control the wildfire amid forecasts calling for 60 mph winds.
An attorney for Tillitt was not listed in online court records. She is being held in jail on a $50,000 bond, the sheriff’s office said.