Former Pasco Mission Leader Admits Seeking Arsonist

Fri., Nov. 21, 1997

Associated Press

The former general manager of the Tri-City Union Gospel Mission admitted trying to hire someone to burn down a Pasco house.

Under a plea agreement, Liz Thayer faces a six-month jail sentence during sentencing Jan. 6. She would have faced 1-1/2 to two years in prison if convicted of second-degree solicitation of arson in a Franklin County Superior Court trial that was to begin Wednesday.

Thayer answered, “Yes, your honor,” when Judge Philip Raekes asked if she asked a former mission resident to torch the building for pay and that she intended the building to be burned.

The prosecution accused Thayer, 53, of soliciting Clint Crowder to burn down a house the mission had sold to Nancy Pickens, the girlfriend of Thayer’s brother. Thayer was accused of targeting the house because Pickens began renting it and refused to pay Thayer a kickback.

Key prosecution evidence came from taped conversations from a police microphone Crowder wore while talking to Thayer about the proposed arson.

Thayer was suspended this summer from her position as general manager until after the trial. Mission officials said they will decide soon whether she will be dismissed.

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