A Blaze Of Glory

Redding, Connecticut, is a wealthy town of about 9,300 people in Fairfield County, an hour and fifty minutes by road from New York City. In 1994 three young men from the area, Scott Awerbach, 21, David Frolick, 22, and Jason Trueswitz, took the upper flat at Portland Avenue in the Georgetown section of town. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In July 1981, after two 12-year-old boys threw water bags at his van on Hillsport Road, he chased one of them down and beat him badly enough to damage his ear permanently. this part of the story is covered for now As a landlord he was equally short-tempered. In 1991 he threatened to break a late-paying tenant's legs and put his belongings on the porch; in July 1993 he told another tenant, Troy Harvey, that he would board up the flat and blow his head off with a shotgun. Harvey paid by express delivery the following day. details of the account remain covered until revealed The difficulty came in March 1995, when their rent cheque bounced. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The tenants asked for a few days. this part of the story is covered for now On 29 March he drove up from North Carolina, let himself into the flat, carried their belongings into the glass atrium and the drive, removed the toilet, thermostat and telephone, broke a sofa and a CD player, and nailed plywood across the door. The tenants estimated the damage at about $3,000, sued him and went to the police. A warrant was issued. They also complained to the town, and inspections found no heat, no toilet, a leaking roof and fire hazards; the house had been turned into three units without permits in a zone where that was prohibited. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now He took the rental plate off the front and drove north, a twelve-hour trip. At about 12.20 pm on 18 April, Lauren Spear, who lived in the ground-floor flat with her five-year-old son, was at the end of the drive collecting mail when she saw him pass in the Tempo. He began to turn into the synagogue car park next door, changed his mind and drove on, turning his head away so that she saw only his grey ponytail. Later he parked in that car park with the tailgate against the wall. Freddy Altamirano, the tenant in the rear ground-floor flat, was watching television around four o'clock when the picture went dead. details of the account remain covered until revealed Altamirano knew him; he had helped him clear out the upstairs flat a few weeks earlier. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He then saw him climb a ladder to the roof and go in through the sliding glass door of the upper flat. David Frolick and David Gartrell, a 26-year-old landscaper and volunteer firefighter known as Jeeps, were inside. this part of the story is covered for now He dragged both bodies into the bathroom and stacked Gartrell on top of Frolick. Awerbach, Trueswitz and Sean Hiltonin, a 22-year-old friend who was always around the flat, worked in Stamford and left between five and a quarter past. They were home about 35 minutes later. details of the account remain covered until revealed He then poured an accelerant, thought to be petrol or paraffin, over four of the bodies, set them alight and started fires through the upper flat and in the basement. Neighbours ran out. In the glass atrium they found Awerbach alive, hanging from the spiral staircase, shot and burned. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Five men under 30 were dead. this part of the story is covered for now He stopped in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to telephone his father-in-law in Hilton Head, spent a night in a motel in Wade and reached the condo late the next afternoon. The day after, he returned the Tempo to You Save and screwed the front plate back on. It had done 1,929 miles in three days, and a floor mat in the car matched the petroleum residue on a victim's charred clothing. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The defence argued mistaken identity, pointing to a grainy security photograph of a ponytailed man at a mobile station and suggesting Altamirano had confused similar-looking men. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Scott Awerbach and Sean Hiltonin are buried in Umpawaug Cemetery in Redding.