Guilty Plea For $4 Million Arson Fire at Rochester Church

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The woman blamed for starting a fire that caused millions of dollars in damage to a Rochester church is now awaiting sentencing.

23-year-old Sesen Tesfay was arrested several months after the fire at Peace United Church of Christ in the early morning hours of April 18, 2022. According to court documents, a final damage estimate for the church in northeast Rochester was more than $4.4 million.

According to the criminal complaint in the case, the Rochester woman was accused of using a landscaping rock to break a window on the church's office to gain access to the building. Following the fire, investigators found a large bottle of hand sanitizer inside the church and determined that the sanitizer had been used as an accelerant by the person who started the fire.

The court document says investigators then obtained a "geo-fence" warrant that detected a mobile device that was in the vicinity of the church from roughly 1:30 until 2 AM on the morning of the fire. The charges say the device was registered to Tesfay.

A search warrant was executed at her residence in July 2022 and investigators seized two monitors that matched the descriptions of devices that had been stolen from the church. The criminal complaint says two bins that were labeled "Magazines" and "Soul Colleges" were also found in the home, which were also items the pastor indicated that belonged to the church.

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The charges against Tesfay also stated that her DNA matched DNA samples from the rock that was thrown through the window at the church and the sanitizer bottle.

Tesfay was charged with first-degree arson, second-degree burglary of a religious building, first-degree property damage, and a misdemeanor count of theft. She recently entered into a plea agreement and admitted to the first-degree arson charge in exchange for the dismissal of the other charges.

She is scheduled to be sentenced in February.