Authorities arrested a 77-year-old woman with a history of mental health concerns and assault convictions for starting the Highland Lakes wildfire in Teller County last October while burning down her own home.
Arson was suspected from the beginning. The Highland Lakes fire started on Oct. 28, 2024, and burned 166 acres near the town of Divide. Evacuations temporarily displaced 2,000 people in 700 homes.
“This area is densely packed, even though we are a rural community, there's a lot of homes in there, and there's a lot of residents, so it was harrowing,” Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said in an interview.
Only one home was destroyed, the home of the accused arsonist, Lowa ‘Lacey’ Tillitt. Five days before the fire, on Oct. 25, a Teller County judge ordered the sale of Tillitt’s home — she had stopped making payments on the property in September 2023.
Tillitt is the second high-profile arson arrest for a fire started in 2024. In September, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office arrested Jason Alexander Hobby on charges of starting the Alexander Mountain fire near Loveland. That fire destroyed 28 homes, causing $32 million in damages. Hobby’s next court hearing is scheduled for April.
A CPR News investigation in 2021 found that Colorado had the worst rate of determining the cause of large wildfires. State lawmakers subsequently passed legislation that added millions of dollars to create a more robust fire investigation unit, and those state investigators began working with local authorities on potential arson cases last year. Sheriff Mikesell said state investigators, and other agencies, assisted in this case.
Tillitt had a string of arrests between 2011 and 2020, according to court and arrest records. In 2011, she was arrested by Teller Sheriff’s deputies for driving under the influence, assault and obstructing a police officer. She pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to three years probation. Her probation was revoked and Tillitt spent 48 days in jail. A mental health stay was ordered briefly in the case.
In 2015, Tillitt was arrested in Adams County for misdemeanor domestic violence assault, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months probation. In 2021, she was arrested for assault on a police officer in Teller County and received a 12-month deferred sentence. Tillitt was again arrested in 2024 in Teller County, four months before the Highland Lakes fire, for misdemeanor obstruction of an officer and harassment.
Tillitt is being held on a $50,000 bond in the Teller County jail on charges of felony 4th Degree Arson. She has no court dates scheduled yet.
Sheriff Mikesell said he hopes the arrest sends a message of accountability in a county that has had some of the largest wildfires in state history.
“More fires than I can count, I've had to be in control of,” Mikesell said. “All of them are such a scary ordeal for us, the residents, and really the responsibility is on all of Colorado to make sure we don't have large forest fires that are manmade.”
