Award recognizes work on arson case

More than four years after one of the most notorious arson fires in Boone County history, the people who solved the case have been recognized.

On May 21, the International Association of Arson Investigators Missouri Chapter named Ken Hines, assistant chief of the Boone County Fire Protection District, and Connie Sullivan, Boone County assistant prosecutor, as Investigator and Prosecutor of the Year.

Hines, who has been recalled by the U.S. Coast Guard, received his award among his fellow firefighters during a short trip to the Lake of the Ozarks.

“I’m very honored to be presented by all my peers with this award,” Hines said.

Sullivan was recognized at the same ceremony.

“It came totally out of the blue,” Sullivan said. “I didn’t even know the award existed, let alone that I was nominated.”

The awards acknowledge Hines and Sullivan’s work on a 2001 arson fire at 3383 Yeager Road that was set by Frank Wildman, the father of the homeowner. Wildman was bitter about a lack of communication with his son.

The case remained unsolved for three years until Wildman confessed in 2004.

Hines stuck with the case even after the Coast Guard called him up for a stint of about a year.

“He went away to active duty and continued to make phone calls and try to keep the case warm,” said Dave Nichols, president of the arson investigators’ state chapter.

Hines said he picked up the case where he left off after returning from Coast Guard duty in October 2002.

“We had a handful of suspects, and the more we investigated, the tighter the circle got until it got to Frank Wildman,” Hines said.

After finding evidence that Wildman had been in Columbia at the time of the fire, Hines and Sullivan traveled to his Arizona home to search it. They found several calendars encoded with pictures and words.

“The guy had drawn weird pictures, words and patterns on calendars, and (Sullivan) was looking at these patterns and was able to get information out of it,” Nichols said.

Decoding the calendars was like cracking the DaVinci Code, Sullivan said.

Nichols said Sullivan’s involvement in the case was extraordinary.

“She did a lot of investigating herself, and not a lot of prosecutors do that,” he said.

The extended investigation caused the awards to be delayed until now, Nichols said.

Although police investigation and prosecution is often a topic on television, fire investigation is often misunderstood, Hines said: “It’s not like ‘CSI’ on TV. It’s a long process.”

Hines said fire investigation generally centers on determining the origin of the fire and its cause. Investigators examine the pattern in which a structure burns and try to eliminate potential causes, such as smoking or electrical problems.

“A good fire investigator approaches with a standpoint of ‘What occurred?’ and not with a mindset that it was a set fire,” Hines said. “You go into it with no preconceived notions.” Kirk Hankins, a firefighter who assisted in the investigation, nominated Hines and Sullivan.

“(This award) is usually given to someone who breaks big or unusual cases and does something special in the investigative field,” Nichols said.