
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 15, 1993                   TAG: 9309150219
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mike Hudson
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BOTETOURT ARSON SUSPECT ARRESTED

A man was arrested over the weekend in Roanoke on charges of setting fire to a Botetourt County house he once shared with his former girlfriend.

Earnest Ray Underwood, 37, was being held in the Botetourt County Jail. He has been charged with arson and with failing to appear in court on a drunken driving charge.

A fire Aug. 31 destroyed the house on a spur of Plantation Road leading to Carvins Cove Dam. Flames from the blaze could be seen by motorists on Interstate 81.

Neither Underwood nor his former girlfriend was living at the house at the time, Sheriff Reed Kelly said. When picked up by Roanoke police Saturday, Underwood indicated that he was homeless, Kelly said.

Kelly said a warrant for Underwood's arrest was issued after witnesses told investigators they saw a man matching his description leave the house shortly before it burned. Witnesses also told the Sheriff's Department that Underwood had made threatening remarks about his former girlfriend, Kelly said.

by CNB