A Bucks County woman is accused of setting fire to her home multiple times in an insurance scheme

A Bristol Township woman is accused of setting fire to her home multiple times over 24 hours in an attempt to defraud an insurance company after she fell into default with her mortgage, according to police.

Bristol Township police allege that 59-year-old Catherine Gerretz intentionally set four fires around her home in the 20 block of Yellowood Drive earlier this year before the fifth one left the home uninhabitable.

Gerretz was arraigned Tuesday before District Judge Kevin Wagner on 14 felony charges, including multiple counts of arson, arson with intent to collect insurance, and related misdemeanors and summaries.

She was sent to Bucks County Corrections Center in lieu of $200,000 bail. She had no legal representative listed on the docket as of Wednesday.

Police and fire officials opened an investigation after responding to a June 10 fire at the home shortly after 3 a.m. that left minor damage to an exterior carport wall.

Hours later, while investigating the fire, Bristol Township Fire Marshal Kevin Dippolito found burned candles wrapped in a paper towel and paper plates were also found between the melted siding and exterior wall in one area of the carport, according to a probable cause affidavit said.

The fire investigator also discovered two other areas in the carport area with fire damage that were not seen previously found, the affidavit said.

The new areas were still warm, and Dippolito determined the fires happened after the first fire scene was cleared shortly before 3:30 a.m., and before he returned around 8:30 a.m., the affidavit said.

A fourth area fire damaged area was discovered in the front exterior of the house after Gerretz allegedly asked the fire marshal to check the rest of the house for damage.

The fires were determined to be set intentionally using a gas-based accelerant, the affidavit said.

Gerretz, who inherited the property in 2021 from her late mother, alleged that she returned home from her son’s apartment about an hour before the fire started. She was asleep on the couch when a neighbor woke her, telling her the house was on fire, the affidavit said.

Less than 24 hours later, police and firefighters were back at Gerretz’s house for another fire. This time the home was fully engulfed, and it spread to a neighbor’s home, which was damaged, the affidavit said.

The June 11 fire was brought under control within a half hour, but the home sustained serious damage. An investigation determined the fire was also intentionally set, the affidavit said.

Gerretz, who was staying at a nearby hotel, arrived at the fire scene shortly before 2:30 a.m., about an hour after the fire was reported.

She told police that she returned to her home between midnight and 12:30 a.m. to get some personal items and returned to her hotel room around 1 a.m., the affidavit said. She was asleep when a neighbor called her about the fire shortly before 2 a.m., the affidavit said.

Police checked surveillance video from the hotel, which showed Gerretz and her dog checking in shortly before midnight June 11; Gerretz is then seen leaving the hotel shortly before 1 a.m., the affidavit said.

Police used technology, including cell phone and tower data and an AI vehicle location platform, to determine that Gerretz’s car was traveling toward the area of her home around 1 a.m. — before the fire — and away from her home shortly before 1:30 a.m. the morning of the last fire.

Video from a neighbor’s home security system showed Gerretz’s car allegedly back into the home’s driveway shortly after 1 a.m. and then leave 15 minutes later, the affidavit said. Three minutes after the car drove away, the video captured light illuminating from the fire.

Shortly after 1:30 a.m. Gerretz is allegedly seen on surveillance video walking into the hotel where she was staying and then leaving shortly after 2 a.m.

When police confronted Gerretz about the inconsistencies about where she was around the time of the June 11 fire, she ended the interview, the affidavit said.

An insurance claim specialist told police that the company paid for Gerretz to stay at the hotel after the first fire was ruled as an arson, and the company estimated it would cost nearly $243,000 to replace the home, the affidavit said.

Gerretz allegedly told the insurer and police that her son and his family were planning to move into her home in July because she was having financial problems.

But in text messages the day before the first fires, Gerretz allegedly rejected the idea of her son and his family moving into her home. She wrote to her son that the electric company was set to shut her power the next day and that she was planning to put the house up for sale, the affidavit said.

She also allegedly complained to the insurance rep that the bank kept raising her interest rate and she was having trouble paying her mortgage.

Police learned that Gerretz allegedly stopped paying her mortgage in 2023 and the property was in the process of being listed for sheriff sale. Gerretz allegedly owes a little more than $103,000 as of December, the affidavit said.

In addition to arson and insurance fraud charges, Gerretz is also facing two felony charges for witness intimidation.

Several weeks after the fires, Bristol Township police allege two neighbors of Gerretz reported they found handwritten notes from her in the mailbox threatening them, the affidavit said.

One neighbor told police that their roommate discovered one of the June 10 fires and he helped extinguish it, the affidavit said.

Gerretz is also awaiting trial in Bucks County Common Pleas Court on misdemeanor charges of theft and receiving stolen property.

Bristol Township police allege she stole a wallet containing $550 from a friend three days before the fires at her home, according to a probable cause affidavit.