Investigation draws national attention, highlights cooperative effort

It’s an awe-filled thing when a church burns. Just ask State Fire Marshal Ed Paulk.
  
“You’re even more in awe when you find out it was burned intentionally,” said Paulk, who’s seen this scenario more times than he’s cared for in the past year — 38, to be exact. “And when five go in one night, it’s just terrible.”
  
It was personal for Alabama Baptists, and on the nationwide front, it was an anomaly — one that made it the nation’s No. 1 case at the time. It drew investigators and national news teams from all over to rural parts of the state, where five Baptist churches were set ablaze the night of Feb. 2, 2006, and four more followed four days later.
  
“As is the case with most tragedies, it brings out the best in people,” said Paulk, a member of Danielville Baptist Church, Honoraville, in Alabama-Crenshaw Baptist Association.
  
Investigators and officers from around the country came and worked long, grueling hours from makeshift command posts in Bibb County and elsewhere in the central portion of the state. Some from as far away as New York even volunteered to come and camp out on the front steps of rural churches, guarding them from possible attacks as the investigation labored on.
  
“When the churches burned, a lot of people took it personally,” said David Hyche of the Birmingham Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who served as the on-site manager for the investigation. “The level of concern and sensitivity was heightened,” he said, and no one on either side of the badge complained about the tedious investigation.
  
The pastors, many of whom are part-time or bivocational, were patient with the extensive interview process necessary with church arson cases, said Hyche, a member of North Shelby Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Shelby Baptist Association. “The response from volunteers, churches and communities was phenomenal. And it was nice to be a part of an investigation that was solved quickly.”
  
A little more than a month after the first fires, officials announced the arrest of three Birmingham-area college-age men — Matthew Lee Cloyd, Benjamin Nathan Moseley and Russell Lee DeBusk Jr. The three, who pled guilty to the charges, are in custody awaiting sentencing.
  
“The case enhanced the church-fire investigation process,” Hyche said, a factor that led to a quick solve in an Oct. 8, 2006, arson case in Talladega County (see story, page 5).
 
The arson cases also changed many churches’ outlook on life — forever. “The burned churches are still working to rebuild, and we still hear from time to time of other people that are out guarding their churches (at night),” Hyche said.