South Carolina officials said Monday there is currently “no evidence” indicating that the fire at the home of Circuit Court Judge Diane Schafer Goodstein and her husband was arson, following days of speculation, according to a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Reports broke Sunday that a fire engulfed the 69-year-old state judge’s Edisto Island home in South Carolina Saturday, according to The Post and Courier. People online speculated that the incident was arson. South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) Chief Mark Keel said, however, that the preliminary investigation found no evidence to support the theory of a “pre-fire explosion.”
“At this time, there is no evidence to indicate the fire was intentionally set. SLED Agents have preliminarily found there is no evidence to support a pre-fire explosion. The investigation into the fire is still active and ongoing,” Keel said.
“Upon the conclusion of the investigation, SLED will issue a follow up statement with additional information,” Keel added. “I urge our citizens, elected officials, and members of the press to exercise good judgment and not share information that has not been verified.”
At the time of the incident, Goodstein and her husband Arnold Goodstein, 81, were at the residence. While Goodstein was not injured as she was walking her dogs at the time, Arnold Goodstein sustained injuries after jumping out the back of the house to escape the fire, The Post and Courier reported.
Videos circulated online showing the home completely engulfed in flames as black smoke rose from the house.
According to Goodstein’s court bio, she began her professional career as an associate in 1981. By May 1988, Goodstein was elected by the South Carolina General Assembly as the Resident Circuit Judge for the First Judicial Circuit.
Arnold Goodstein also served in both the South Carolina House and Senate, according to his bio. He was first elected to the Senate in 1969 and 1970 before switching to the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1973, then returning to the Senate from 1975 to 1979.
When reports first broke about the fire, online speculation from Democrats such as former Biden aide Neera Tanden, Newsom’s director of communications Izzy Gardon and writer Wajahat Ali appeared to suggest the fire was a deliberate attack.
“@elonmusk, any thoughts about South Carolina Judge Goodstein’s home burning to the ground in an apparent act of arson that almost killed her family? You just tweeted against judges today, so I’m curious if you feel you engaged in some dangerous hateful rhetoric?” Ali wrote in an X post on Sunday.
“A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this judge. Today, the judge’s home is on fire,” Gardon wrote in a post on X.
Tanden also wrote a post on Sunday evening, stating on X, “We need to get to the bottom of what happened here but this happened hours after Stephen Miller attacked judges for insurrection.”
Due to the fire, three people were hospitalized with injuries, with one being air-evacuated to a nearby hospital in the state, according to The Post and Courier.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Joe Gratz/Flickr)
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