LOS ANGELES — The suspect in a string of arsons in the Los Angeles area is also under investigation in his home country of Germany for a house fire last fall, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Harry Burkhart, 24, is suspected of setting more than 50 arson attacks over New Year’s weekend that caused an estimated $3 million in damage. Authorities believe he was angry over his mother’s legal troubles and went on a nighttime rampage of burning parked cars a day after she made an initial court appearance last week. Charges could be filed against him as early as Wednesday.
Burkhart is being investigated in connection with an Oct. 14 house fire in the Marburg area north of Frankfurt, Germany, Marburg prosecutors’ spokeswoman Annemarie Wied told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Burkhart did not live in the area, but his name emerged as a suspect after he filed an insurance claim shortly after the fire, Wied said.