3 charged in connection with fire at historic West Virginia church

SHADY SPRING, W.Va. (AP) — Three individuals have been arrested in reference to a fireplace that destroyed a historic church in West Virginia, state police mentioned.

Braxton Allan Miller, 18, of Charleston; James Dean Elmore, 19, of Beckley; and a juvenile boy had been charged in reference to the hearth at St. Colman Catholic Church within the Shady Spring space of Raleigh County, police mentioned Wednesday.

The hearth was reported Sunday morning however had began the evening earlier than, police mentioned.

Miller and the juvenile had been charged with arson and conspiracy, whereas Elmore was charged with accent after the actual fact and conspiracy. All had been being held. It wasn’t clear whether or not they had attorneys who might touch upon their instances.

“We’re deeply saddened to study that the hearth was thought-about an act of arson and was meant destroy this historic construction so essential to the lives of many within the space,” Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston mentioned in a press release.

The historic church was inbuilt 1878 on Irish Mountain and was added to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1984, WCHS-TV reported.