An 80-year-old man, once deemed unfit to stand trial on arson charges, allegedly burned himself alive in his Nashua, New Hampshire, apartment building on Tuesday and killed another resident.
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At approximately 3:26 a.m., Nashua, NH, firefighters responded to 19 Orange Street for reports of a fire at an apartment building.
Seven residents escaped the building, and firefighters recovered Scott Thomas, 66, from his apartment. He was transported to a local hospital but was pronounced deceased.
Gerald Gutekunst, 80, was found dead in an upstairs apartment.
The fire was deemed suspicious after law enforcement learned that Gutekunst had been charged in 2019 when he allegedly set his own apartment on fire in Hudson, NH. He was dragged from the building and found in possession of notes indicating that the arson was an attempt to murder the other residents of the building in revenge for an eviction notice.
Following that incident, he was charged with arson and attempted first-degree murder, but he was released when he was deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Because of his release, Gutekunst was free to allegedly start the fire on Tuesday that killed Thomas.
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office provided an update on Wednesday after autopsies determined that Gutekunst and Thomas both died of smoke inhalation and ruled Gutekunst’s death a suicide and Thomas’s death a homicide.
The investigation remains ongoing, but the preliminary assessments have determined that, shortly after 3:03 a.m., Gutekunst locked his apartment door and started a fire inside.
He made no attempt to escape, and communications reviewed by investigators suggest that he intended to kill himself.
The fire spread to the rest of the building, leading to Thomas’s death.
Law enforcement does not believe Thomas was an intentional target of Gutekunst’s alleged arson.
“The Attorney General has preliminarily concluded that Gerald Gutekunst intentionally committed an act of arson inside his apartment in an act of self-harm, and that this act recklessly caused the death of Scott Thomas under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life. Because Mr. Gutekunst did not survive, criminal charges may not be brought for Gutekunst causing Scott Thomas’ death,” said the NH Attorney General’s Office.
