› Mansion Fire Breakthrough Department of Public Safety investigators working to solve the June 8, 2008, arson at the Governor’s Mansion said last week that they have found a link between the fire, which was sparked by a Molotov cocktail, and an Austin group associated with a plan to use incendiary cocktails in an attack during the Republican National Convention in Minnesota that same year. Investigators said that after reviewing surveillance video recorded around the mansion four days before the fire, they found images of a white Jeep Cherokee carrying passengers who were taking pictures of the mansion; investigators tracked down that Jeep and its passengers, all of whom have denied responsibility for the fire. Those individuals remain unnamed but are now considered persons of interest, as is another man, depicted in a police sketch, who investigators believe tossed the cocktail at the mansion. Investigators will not say how long they’ve had the information about the link to the persons of interest, and have declined to comment on why they waited until now to release additional video footage of the crime. – Jordan Smith
This article appears in February 25 • 2011.