GRANT COUNTY, Wash. (02OCT2015) – After a more than two-year-long task force investigation into suspicious fires, a 23-year-old Moses Lake man has been arrested and is facing charges including multiple arsons, domestic violence assault and burglary.
Kolton J. Dana was arrested Friday Oct. 30 after investigators developed information which helped tie him to a long list of unsolved local crimes which started in 2013. Those crimes include a string of arson fires in the Soap Lake, Moses Lake and Ephrata areas. He is currently lodged in the Grant County Jail with bail set at $100,000.
The task force included investigators from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Ephrata Police Department, Ephrata Fire Department, the Grant County Fire Marshal’s Office, Soap Lake Police Department, Moses Lake Police Department and Moses Lake Fire Department.
Investigators looked into over 60 crimes including burglaries and arsons in Ephrata, Soap Lake and Moses Lake. The arsons include Dumpsters®, vehicles, occupied dwellings, unoccupied dwellings and wildland. Aside from several burglaries, Dana is a suspect in at least 23 fires set in Ephrata between April 17 and August 18, 2013; a suspect in at least 18 fires in and around Soap Lake in 2014 and 2015; and a suspect in a fire at the Sunland Motor Inn in Moses Lake on July 27, 2015.
Thus far, 30 charges have been filed against Dana:
• One count first degree assault, domestic violence – armed with a firearm, related to an incident which happened in May 2014 involving the mother of Dana’s child;
• 15 counts of first degree arson;
• Six counts of second degree arson;
• Two counts of residential burglary;
• Three counts of second degree burglary;
• One count of second degree theft; and
• One count of third degree theft.
The investigation continues and more charges may be forthcoming. Dana’s first appearance in court will be Tuesday morning in Grant County Superior Court, Ephrata.
“What the public needs to know is that this suspect is off the street thanks to the teamwork of the task force members who devoted hundreds of hours of good old-fashioned investigative work,” said Sheriff Tom Jones. “With Dana in jail, citizens can breathe a sigh of relief.”
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Multiple CRs
PR75/AGT2
