Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office
A California man was arrested this weekend on allegations he shot his 75-year-old mom dead in an argument before setting her house ablaze to destroy evidence that could link him to the crime, authorities announced.
Fletcher Pinkham, 39, faces a charge of murder for the alleged crime, which occurred Tuesday in the small coastal community of Little River, about 150 miles north of San Francisco.
Photos of the scene showed that the four-story home of Pinkham’s slain mother, Linda Mercurio, had been turned entirely to rubble, with deputies saying the blaze’s heat was so severe it prevented firefighters from entering it before it eventually collapsed in on itself.