Arson suspect says she has 10 personalities

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WOODSTOCK, Vermont (AP) -- Rory Kilcullen saw a flickering flame and smelled smoke in the kitchen of his parents' home, then saw a strange woman in the hallway.

He grabbed her by the arm and asked her what she was doing there. She replied: "I'm sick."

With fires burning in two rooms, Kilcullen, 23, let go so he could call 911, watching as the woman's car drove off. But he caught a license plate number and read it aloud to the dispatcher, giving arson investigators in two states a break in a series of unsolved fires.

Questioned later that day, a suspect, Cheryle Potwin, told Police Chief Byron Kelly she suffers from multiple personality disorder and has nine or 10 separate personalities.

Potwin, 49, of Sharon, is now charged in two fires, and investigators in Vermont and New Hampshire are looking into the possibility she was involved in others, including a fire that destroyed the home of a family court judge.

"Two fires is two fires," said Detective Sgt. Thomas Williams, a fire investigator for the Vermont State Police. "That's what we've linked her to so far."

The unsolved fires, which date to last summer, occurred in an area centered roughly on White River Junction, in towns on both sides of the Vermont-New Hampshire line.

On the Vermont side, fires were reported in the towns of Barnard, Hartland, Sharon, South Royalton, West Hartford and Woodstock. New Hampshire's fires broke out in Plainfield and Lebanon.

"We're trying to put together a timeline and see if any of this stuff correlates," said Max Schultz, a fire investigator for the New Hampshire fire marshal's office.

Three occurred on the same day -- September 29 -- and within close proximity of one another.

The first, about 10 a.m., destroyed the Plainfield home of New Hampshire Family Court Judge Ellen Arnold. It has been classified as arson. Potwin has told police she was in the area that day to drop off a dog at a vet.

No charges have been filed. "She's a person of interest. I can't say anything other than that," said Schultz.

The second happened in Hartland, about 10 miles west, where homeowner Ed Tobias returned from work to find smoke coming from the basement of his house. Two cats and a parrot died from smoke inhalation.

The third fire was in Kilcullen's parents' home, around noon. Potwin is believed to have started one fire in the kitchen by piling papers and cloth atop stove burners and another in the living room, where a chair cushion was set ablaze, according to police.

"It certainly was disturbing," said Kilcullen's father, Michael Kilcullen, 56. "Had the house been empty, it would've been burned down."

Potwin, who's being held on $50,000 bail, is charged with burglary and arson in the Woodstock fire. She is charged with arson, burglary and unlawful mischief in the Hartland fire.

The motive for the fires is a mystery, investigators said.

Potwin knew the Tobiases, but it's unclear whether that had anything to do with the alleged arson, Williams said. The Kilcullens didn't know her, according to Michael Kilcullen.

In a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Dr. Margaret Bolton concluded that Potwin understood the charges against her and was capable of helping in her defense.

"The likelihood of her actually having alter egos is maybe one in 10 million," said forensic psychologist Karen L. Gold, an expert on female firesetters.

"I've been in many cases -- not necessarily arson -- in which the defense was, `My alter ego did it.' But that disorder is extremely, extremely, extremely rare. I, frankly, would be extremely skeptical."

Potwin's lawyer, Kevin Griffin, would not comment on the charges against Potwin. "It's a complicated case," he said. "We're trying to put together as many of the psychiatric records as we can."

Whether her claim of having multiple personalities is true -- or could exonerate her -- remains to be seen.

Paul R. McHugh, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has published articles about multiple personality cases, said those who claim it often do so to escape accountability.

"It has nothing to do with multiple personalities," said McHugh. "It's not that it doesn't exist. She has the belief she has multiple personalities, but this is an idea, not a condition in nature."

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