Man arrested after woman found dead in North St. Paul apartment fire
NORTH ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A man has been arrested after a woman was found dead in an apartment fire Thursday evening.
According to police, emergency crews responded at around 6:30 p.m. to the report of a fire on the 2200 block of South Avenue East. The body of a deceased woman was found inside the apartment.
On Friday afternoon, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said that a 41-year-old man had been taken into custody, roughly around 4 a.m. He had been sleeping under a Highway 36 overpass on the Gateway State Trail in Washington County, investigators said.
He is currently in custody in Ramsey County on probable cause second-degree murder. The investigation remains open.
Jean Cofield, who lives in a basement unit, said it was a long night for everyone evacuated. She said she was finally able to get back into her unit Friday morning.
"Fire alarms were going off so I went out in the hallway and I had seen the fire alarm on the wall flashing all that stuff and then people were coming in saying there was a fire upstairs," she said "Black smoke was coming out of the kitchen. White smoke was coming out of the other [side] but black smoke was coming up from the roof and everything."
Cofield said all of her things are ok, but another resident on the second floor said his door got kicked in during the evacuation and his unit also has a lot of smoke damage.
The landlord said the building is insured but renters' insurance is not required for tenants.
"Based on the preliminary investigation there does not appear to be any risk to the public," police said in a release.
The Ramsey County Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy.