Arson Charges Filed: $60 Taxi Ride to Escape Crest Hill Fire

Will County prosecutors filed three arson counts against Lindsay Marie Rozner on Tuesday, charging the Wilmington woman with aggravated arson and two counts of residential arson for an August fire in Crest Hill.

The fire broke out at 9:11 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, in unit 4 of a three-story condominium building at 2331 Bicentennial Avenue. Investigators determined the blaze was incendiary, with origins in the mattress of the main bedroom and the carpet of a second bedroom. Evidence samples tested positive for charcoal lighter fluid, a medium petroleum distillate. Firefighters had to force open the locked main entrance and patio slider doors to reach the fire, which damaged the ceiling, walls, and carpet within Rozner's unit.

Rozner was already in custody under the SAFE-T-Act for unrelated charges when she told police that God commanded her to start the fire because her landlord had acted illegally. She stated her father is God and that she was chosen as Jesus' daughter. During a Sept. 18 interview at the Will County Jail, Lockport Township Fire arson investigator Jason Pytlewski recorded her saying she squeezed lighter fluid onto the floor and threw lit matches into the room.

Court records show Rozner had received a 30-day notice to vacate the unit shortly before the fire. She claimed she was hosting three homeless individuals, including a woman and two men, when she became upset about them using crack cocaine in the bathroom. She left the apartment at 8:41 p.m. according to her GPS ankle monitor data. Flock camera footage showed her running to a Toyota Prius, the taxi of American Taxi, where she told the driver to go quickly.

Rozner paid the driver $60 cash to take her to a Marathon gas station in Braidwood. From there, a passerby drove her to the home of 32-year-old Joseph Hollis in Godley. Hollis told police he was unaware she was coming and that she simply showed up. He later learned she had taken a bandana from him earlier in the day, which she described as him being an "Indian giver."

Rozner, 40, listed no permanent address on her asset paperwork and reported monthly wages of $3,600. She has two children and is divorced. Her pending criminal history includes cases from 2025 for criminal trespass and battery, as well as a 2026 case for possession of ammunition without a FOID card. Previous charges, including domestic battery from 2023, were dismissed after she completed military veteran's court.

Prosecutors noted that other residents, including two children, were home during the fire. Rozner admitted she knew people were upstairs but felt assured everything would be okay because God was in control.