Texas woman sentenced to 6 years for Washington state church arson attack

A Texas woman was sentenced to six years in prison in connection with a 2023 arson attack on a church in Washington state, according to federal prosecutors.

Natasha Marie O’Dell, 38, was sentenced Thursday on three felonies for the arson of Seattle Laestadian Lutheran Church in Snohomish County, Washington, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington announced.

O’Dell pleaded guilty earlier this year to arson, damage to religious property and obstruction of persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs.

“This offense was devastating and dangerous,” U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead said at the sentencing hearing on Thursday. “Ms. O’Dell deliberately set fire to a church, causing complete destruction.”

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“The scope of the destruction is staggering. You burned down the spiritual home of a congregation … The wounds you have inflicted deepen for each day they are away from their home,” the judge added.

The judge will determine a restitution payment at a later date.

O’Dell was visiting family when she set fire to the church in Maltby on Aug. 25, 2023.

She was linked to the fire through cell phone records, credit card records and surveillance video, according to the plea agreement and the federal indictment.

The investigation tied O’Dell to credit card purchases at a service station, where she purchased some lighters and a container with just over a gallon of gasoline.

Despite the church being destroyed, part of the security system’s video surveillance survived the fire and captured O’Dell moving around the church with a red gasoline container.

In the footage, she was seen emptying the container on the exterior walls of the church and items around the building. O’Dell then moved out of the camera’s view and fire could be seen growing in the areas where she poured gasoline.

O’Dell admitted to prosecutors that she told multiple people she was angry about churches, specifically Seattle Laestadian Lutheran Church. She later told another person that she planned to burn a nearby church.

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The fire resulted in more than $3.2 million in damages to the church, which has incurred additional costs by renting a nearby middle school to hold their services multiple times a week.

A firefighter was injured while fighting the flames and was transported to an emergency room.

“Ms. O’Dell acted with extreme disregard for community safety when she poured more than a gallon of gasoline on the church building and used a lighter to start the blaze,” Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said in a statement. “This conduct put anyone inside the church, the neighbors around the church, and the firefighters who responded in extreme danger. It is fortunate that only one firefighter suffered injuries.”