May 08--Lehigh Township police have charged a woman with setting a vacant home ablaze Tuesday afternoon while she had an infant in a car nearby.
Jillian Hope Faustner, 24, of the 3300 block of South Fifth Street in Whitehall Township, was charged Wednesday with arson, risking a catastrophe, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal mischief and dangerous burning.
Faustner was sent to Northampton County Prison under $25,000 bail.
Police said that just before 1 p.m. Tuesday, Faustner set several boxes on fire in the home in the 700 block of Almond Road.
Police said a 5-month-old was in a car parked just 10 feet away when the fire broke out.
Faustner told police she set fire to the boxes because a man she had lived with threatened to burn the items if she didn't pick them up.
-- Pamela Lehman
Copyright 2014 - The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.)
