Chapter 45

 

On a day of gale-force winds and pounding rain, the following was front-page news:

 

LOCAL WOMAN ARRESTED FOR FIRE AT LE BEAU CHÂTEAU

 

Brianna Worth of Cannondale is being held at Northern Correctional Institution after she allegedly set fire to Georgette Ark’s Cannondale estate at 23 Old Farm Highway on December 1st, which resulted in the death of handyman Miguel Ángel Diaz of Bridgeport, CT.

 

Surveillance video showed Worth pouring canisters of gasoline in the home’s first-floor living and dining rooms before igniting the fire and exiting the home. The fire spread quickly through the entire first and second floors, said Police Chief Kevin Knight.

 

An autopsy revealed that Diaz was knocked unconscious during a fall down the home’s main staircase. He died of smoke inhalation.

 

“[Worth] really wanted to destroy that house,” Knight said. “She posed as the home’s caretaker and called Secure, the resident’s fire and security monitoring service, and had all the fire alarms temporarily shut down, claiming that a plumbing company was testing the home’s connected interior sprinkler system.”

 

During questioning, Brianna Worth admitted that she started the fire as a form of revenge against Leigh Gilding, whom she claims was having an affair with her husband, Edward Worth. Brianna Worth claimed the woman was inside the home when she began the fire.

 

The Cannondale Fire Department was alerted to the fire through a 9-1-1 call made by the home’s real caretaker, Jack Turner. Turner couldn’t be reached for comment, but Chief Knight confirmed that, during questioning, Turner said he was on the estate when the fire began. He was overseeing plasterwork and attending to repairs. Turner said there was no one other than himself and Diaz in the home prior to Worth’s entry and the start of the fire.

 

Worth has a long history of run-ins with the law. In 2006, she was arrested two times over a thirty-day period for assaulting two relatives, including her four-year-old son. She completed a court-ordered anger management program that year and has been an active anger management counselor and life coach in Norwalk for four years. A psychiatric evaluation was recommended by the chief prosecutor.

 

Brianna Worth is married to Edward Worth, a commodities trader with Standard Bearer, which is currently being investigated for insider trading. The couple’s house is currently on the market with White’s Realty for $3.7 million. The Worths have two children and have lived in the area for over ten years.