Suspect in Indiana County arsons arrested again, charged with intimidating witnesses; reward for information increased
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A former Indiana County firefighter arrested last fall in connection with three arson fires was arrested again Wednesday along with his father on charges of intimidating witnesses in the case.
State police in Indiana and the state police fire marshal’s office in Punxsutawney said charges of intimidating a witness and criminal use of a communication facility were filed against the former Plumville firefighter Dylan C. Dalessio, 19, and his father, Douglas S. Dalessio, 51, both of Plumville.
Both men were arraigned before District Judge Susanne Steffee of Homer City and ordered to jail after failing to post $200,000 and $100,000 bond, respectively. Dylan had been free on $50,000 bond since Oct. 19, awaiting trial for the 2018 and 2019 arsons.
According to state police, the arrests were made after an investigation of recorded telephone conversations between the Dalessios and the victims that occurred at the county jail in October when the younger Dalessio was being held there. Court documents do not describe the nature of the threats or intimidation the men are accused of making.
At the time of the recorded conversations, the younger Dalessio and another former firefighter, Nicholas Leone, 22, of Creekside, were incarcerated for allegedly using a “Molotov cocktail” to set a fire that destroyed the furniture store in West Mahoning Township on Jan. 25, 2019, according to Trooper Russell Stewart, a state police fire marshal at the Punxsutawney station. The store, owned by Roman Blyer, 26, of Smicksburg, is in an Amish region in the northern portion of the county.
During an interview after the pair’s Sept. 24 arrests, Leone told state police Fire Marshal Chet Bell of Greensburg that they also set fire on Dec. 29, 2018, to an abandoned garage and carport containing a 1998 Ford Taurus along Bailey Road in Washington Township, Indiana County.
Leone allegedly also told Bell during the interview that, early on Dec. 21, 2018, he was with Dalessio when Dalessio used gasoline to set fire to a barn along Route 954 , also in Washington Township. The pair were later charged with setting both of those fires.
Both Leone and Dalessio were members of the Plumville Volunteer Fire Company that responded to the three fires. Prior to his arrest, Leone had quit the Plumville fire department and applied to the Creekside Volunteer Fire Company, police said.
Trooper Clifford Greenfield said the arson investigation was conducted with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the county district attorney’s office as part of the ongoing joint Pennsylvania State Police-ATF investigation into a series other suspicious fires that occurred in the northern Indiana County area from 2015 through September 2019.
The ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division increased its portion of the reward by $5,000 to $13,000, due to the expansion of the investigation. Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers also is offering an additional $2,000 reward for information resulting in an arrest and conviction, bringing the total reward to $15,000.
According to the ATF, properties targeted have included automobiles, ATV’s, barns, sheds, vacant and occupied residences and the Harmony Grove Lutheran Church in Creekside. Investigators said the church was destroyed one year ago, on Feb. 26, 2019, and the arson remains unsolved.
Anyone with information should call the ATF 24/7 hotline at 1-888-ATF-TIPS (1-888-283-8477), the Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-4-PA-TIPS, or email ATFTips@atf.gov / submit tips via online www.pacrimestoppers.org. Tips can be submitted anonymously using the Reportit® app, or by visiting www.reportit.com, using the Philadelphia Field Division as the location.