Couple charged with burglarizing a fire-damaged house
FAIRVIEW TWP — State police Tuesday arrested a husband and wife team who they say broke into and looted a fire-damaged home on more than one occasion.
The couple are also accused of bringing two teenage children with them during the alleged crimes.
Matthew E. Maley, 34, and Nicole E. Brown, 33, both of Petrolia face a list of felony and misdemeanor charges. He is being held in the Butler County Prison on $5,000 bail. She is free on similar bail.
Police said that over the weekend they developed information linking Maley to the theft of property from a house on Anderson Road that had been recently unoccupied due to a fire.
Stolen from the two-story log cabin home, according to court documents, were two flat-screen televisions, boots and women's clothing, household items, video games, phones and speakers.
The owner had salvaged the items from the fire in December before they turned up missing, investigators said.
Police subsequently obtained a search warrant for the defendants' home on Forrest Street, according to court documents, where they found all the missing property except for the phones and one Bluetooth speaker.
Maley during an interview Monday at the barracks “admitted that he made entry multiple times to remove items to include TVs, clothing and sweepers,” a police affidavit said.
He allegedly identified Brown as his accomplice when he broke into the home the second time. He also acknowledged that Brown's children, ages 13 and 14, were with them.
