Arson in Olde Towne was started by ‘Molotov cocktail’

Clinton woman charged in domestic-related incident in Gaithersburg

The man, his girlfriend and another person were at the residence Thanksgiving morning. They were not injured.

Wilcox was charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder and three counts of attempted second-degree murder, as well as several arson-related charges, including first-degree arson, according to charging documents.

Wilcox also faces charges stemming from a Nov. 21 incident where she broke into the same apartment and attacked her former boyfriend and his girlfriend with a wine bottle and box cutter. They were not injured, according to charging documents.

Wilcox was charged with two counts of first-degree assault and several other charges in connection to that incident, documents state.

She is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds, according to a facility spokesman.

‘‘Apparently she had come to the apartment on the 21st, the night before, and threatened her ex-boyfriend, and assaulted him, and so Montgomery County Police had a warrant for her,” said Pete Piringer, a spokesman for county fire and rescue services. ‘‘And apparently she came back the next day and set the fire.”

The early-morning blaze started in the living room of the victim’s apartment. Wilcox threw the homemade explosive through the sliding glass door, according to Piringer.

‘‘It was a fire bomb — or what some people call a Molotov cocktail,” he said Friday.

Residents of the building were evacuated for several hours, Piringer said. The fire caused an estimated $10,000 in damages to the apartment, he said.

Investigators quickly considered Wilcox a ‘‘person of interest” after learning she had broken into the apartment at approximately 4:30 p.m. Nov. 21 and attacked her former boyfriend with a box cutter, Piringer said.

The man and his girlfriend said they heard ‘‘a banging noise” and saw Wilcox climbing through the balcony window, which ‘‘had been smashed by a large wooden fence post,” according to court documents.

Wilcox then grabbed a wine bottle and chased the couple with a box-cutter she pulled from her shirt.

The man said Wilcox attempted to stab him and hit him with the bottle. He pushed her into a room while his girlfriend went to a neighbor’s house and called police.

According to documents, the man locked himself in the bathroom; Wilcox pounded on the door then eventually left.

A warrant was issued for her arrest later that day.

Thanksgiving morning, the man, his girlfriend and a friend awoke to fire in the living room where they slept. The man put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

A circular hole in the sliding glass door and the remains of a 32 oz. charcoal lighter can that smelled of lighter fluid indicated arson, according to charging documents.

Investigators attempted to reach Wilcox at home in Clinton, according to Piringer’s statement. They left information that she was wanted by Montgomery County and Gaithersburg police. Wilcox turned herself in later that day.