Pa. Arson Suspects: Ghosts Ordered Barn Fire

HANOVER TOWNSHIP, Northampton County — A teenager said he was high on drugs when a ghost living in a barn told him to burn it down, according to Northampton County Court records.

Josh Strohl, 18, of West Union Boulevard in Bethlehem was charged Monday with arson and criminal mischief in connection with a Feb. 7 blaze at a barn in the 700 block of Stoke Park Road in Hanover Township.

Strohl was sent to the county prison under $70,000 bail, police said.

According to Colonial Regional police: When crews arrived to the fire, the barn was engulfed in flames. Fire officials determined the blaze began in a lower level of the barn, owned by Polaris Bio Investors of Allentown. The barn had an assessed value of $10,300.

A few weeks after the fire, police were contacted by Scott Milham, fire marshal for Hanover Township. Milham said he was contacted by the Bethlehem Area School District because Strohl was overheard on a bus bragging about burning down the barn.

Several students told police about Strohl's statements, including that he was high on drugs and with his 17-year-old girlfriend in the barn at the time of the blaze. Strohl told his fellow students that a ghost told him to light the fire, police said.

On March 14, police interviewed Strohl's girlfriend with her parents present. She told police that she and Strohl believed the barn was haunted because three people had died there.

The girl told police they believed if they set fire to the barn, it would free the ghosts. They returned to her home and got a propane torch they used to set a crate of papers ablaze.

Police said the girl is charged as a juvenile, also with arson and criminal mischief.

— Pamela Lehman

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