Louisiana Woman Faces Murder Charge in Arson-for-Insurance Scheme

A woman accused of igniting a deadly bakery fire in Gretna, La., last month is facing murder charges after authorities said she torched her business in a scheme to collect insurance proceeds. Authorities say Lesly Martinez, 41, owner of Lesly’s Bakery, was severely burned in a gasoline-fueled explosion that fatally injured her friend, Afi Marta Alvarado-Lopez, 40.The Advocate reports Alvarado-Lopez received burns to 70 percent of her body and died several days after the June 21 fire. “Our suspicions are that the motivating factor was an intent to collect on insurance proceeds as well as her desire to relocate,” Brant Thompson, deputy chief of the state Fire Marshal’s Office, said of Martinez.