Jan. 18 fire ruled arson

FORSYTH COUNTY — Forsyth County Authorities have officially ruled as arson the house fire Jan. 18 that burned down single mother Pam Graf's home on Lanier Drive.

The blaze has captured national attention because of what appears to be racially charged graffiti left on scene and the fact that Graf was a public supporter of President Barack Obama.

Graf maintains she was targeted for her political beliefs and said she'd received written threats in the weeks before the incident.

No one was harmed in the blaze, which completely destroyed the home. Graf's three children, ages 11, 14 and 17, were staying with their father, as she was on her way to Washington D.C. for Obama's inauguration.

Division Chief Steve Anderson, who is heading up the investigation for the Forsyth County Fire Department, said the arson ruling comes from information gained in interviews and from evidence on the scene.

"But we won't go into where it started or what started it," he said.

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives have also been working the case. Anderson said ATF agents joined the case because Forsyth is a member of the agency's metro arson task force.

Because the graffiti could possibly be construed as a threat against the president, Anderson said the Secret Service and FBI have been contacted.

"They are only monitoring the case right now," he said. "Not actively working it."

Capt. Paul Talyor, head of Forsyth's Criminal Investigations Division, said the primary focus of their investigation is the graffiti.

"We're trying to determine who wrote it," he said. "Maybe that person can tell us what it meant."

Anderson said at this point, everyone is a suspect.

"We have not eliminated anybody at this time," he said. "The owner, occupant and operator of anything that burns have to be looked at and eliminated at this point."

Graf said she would expect nothing less. She said she's met with Anderson numerous times, as have her parents and the friend who was driving her to Washington D.C. at the time of the fire.

"Of course it's normal for me to be investigated," she said. "I mean, that's the first thing you do. I have nothing to hide — they know everything that I know."

In the week since the initial incident, the case has garnered a lot of attention from various local media outlets — some of it directed at Graf's past.

According to Forsyth County Sheriff's records, Graf is the filer of or mentioned in 11 separate incident reports dating back to September 2006.

They included various domestic situations with her estranged boyfriend — a man who goes by the alias "Reno Savetini" and against whom she'd taken out a restraining order — and accusations of shoplifting from a Browns Bridge Road Hollywood Video in late November.

The shoplifting case was a big mistake, Graf said. She said the store's manager has offered to back her up publicly.

The rest of the reports stemmed from "making poor choices" in who she "associated with years ago."

"It makes it sound like I'm a criminal," she said. "I don't see the connection in what happened to me years ago can somehow link me to blowing up my own house."

Graf said the only thing she can think of is the "obvious" choice: "They're trying to take the glare off the racial hate crime that's happened here."

She said the accusations have hurt her children.

"If I was a suspect and I was arrested for destroying my life and my children's lives, then I could understand pulling up every horrific thing this woman has ever done," she said. "But I am a victim here. If the point is to move this democrat out of Cumming, Georgia, it's working."

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