BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
Top Photo: The burned remains of a trailer show the damage caused by suspected arson. A female in the home at the time of the fire says she was trapped in her bedroom as flames engulfed her exit through the front door. She jumped from a window with her dog. (Photo by Sarah Stephens.)
Editor’s Note: For the purposes of this article, we will refer to the female victim of the fire as Tina.
On Thursday night a fire destroyed a trailer on Martin Drive in Autauga County with a female resident, Tina, escaping through her bedroom window with her dog.
Alan Wayne Bone, 73, is in the Autauga County Metro Jail charged with miscellaneous charges and Arson. He remains in jail on a $60,000 bond. Acting Sheriff David Hill said his office is investigating the case, as well as the fire marshal. It is possible that Bone could face more charges.
We spoke with the female victim this morning at the remains of her former home on Martin Drive, as she tried to sort through anything left.
For the past 10 years, she had lived in the home with her boyfriend, Tim Bone. At times Tim’s father, Alan Bone, would live in the trailer with them. Tim Bone has been incarcerated in the Autauga Metro jail on unrelated charges since November.
Since that time, Tina claims she has called the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office multiple times because she feared her life was in danger with Alan Bone remaining in the residence. She claims that Alan Bone made multiple threats to burn down the home. She has several videos and photos she claims she has tried to share with the sheriff’s office, but said, “They were not interested.”
In the last week the calls for help had escalated, and Sheriff Hill said there are at least three times when deputies were asked to respond. In those instances, reports were filed, but warrants for Alan Wayne Bone were not issued.
In one incident all the way back to November 20, 2022, a deputy’s report states Tina’s allegation that Bone had threatened to stab her and to blow up the house with her inside. (See graphic of narrative below. Copy of narrative provided by Tina.)
Sheriff Hill did not get into specifics as to why there were no warrants issued, but said there are multiple sides to the story.
This built up to Thursday afternoon, when Tina went to the sheriff’s office to again try to file a warrant and to have Alan Bone removed from the home. She was sent to the Circuit Clerk’s Office where she met with Circuit Clerk Deb Hill, (wife of Acting Sheriff David Hill) as well as several other deputies. During that time, Alan Bone also joined the meeting.
“Basically, I was told that I was lying, we needed to grow up, quit arguing and go home. I was told I was acting childish. They would not issue a warrant for his arrest or get him out of the house,” Tina said. “They told us that if we called the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office again, we would both go to jail.”
Circuit Clerk Hill acknowledged that meeting did happen Thursday afternoon, but said during that meeting no mention of threats of burning down the home were shared to her knowledge. She did confirm that both Tina and Alan Bone were advised to get along and go home.
Circuit Clerk Hill said she believed the issue was resolved, and the two left in different directions.
Within hours of that meeting ending, both the Autauga Deputies and the Pine Level Fire Department responded to the trailer which was engulfed in flames, and then placed Alan Bone under arrest for Arson.
Now homeless and having lost everything she owned, Tina said a Fire Chaplain became involved, and arranged for a motel room for Thursday night that would also accommodate Tina’s dog.
“While I was at the motel, a female deputy from Autauga County showed up, apologized, and gave me food for my dog, a change of clothes and some snacks. She told me that I had misunderstood, and if I felt my life was threatened I could have called for help and would not be arrested. I tried to tell her that every time I had called the sheriff’s office I felt my life was being threatened. No one would let me get a warrant any time I tried.”
Among Tina’s photos and videos she claims she tried to show authorities, is a photo of Alan Bone in her bedroom, seated in a chair holding what she says is a knife. A separate video shows a man coming into her room she says is Alan Bone with a hammer and destroying a television. On the video she calls the Autauga County Sheriff’s Office and tells the person on the other end that she had been attacked by a hammer, her television destroyed, and that Bone knocked over a refrigerator in the kitchen. That portion is also on the video, which she said she tried to get deputies and other officials to view.
“No one wanted to hear anything about that, and here we are,” Tina said.
In the climax of this ordeal Thursday night, Tina said she had returned home after the meeting with Autauga County officials and was in her room trying to avoid Alan Bone. “I had no TV, as he had destroyed that (in November) with a hammer,” she alleged. Tina said she smelled smoke and went into the kitchen where she found her coffee pot on the stove with the burner on. She said she unplugged the oven and told Alan Bone he had lost his kitchen privileges if he didn’t know how to use the appliance.
She said she went back into her room, and Alan Bone allegedly asked her where the paper plates were. Soon after she again smelled smoke and tried to enter the living room.
“Flames were everywhere and I couldn’t get out of the front door,” she said. She claims Alan Bone was outside near the doorway laughing.
She was able to use her cell phone to call 911, and jumped out of the window with her dog. Soon after Pine Level Firefighters and Autauga County deputies were on scene.
Friends have since stepped up and Tina will be living on their property for the time being in Elmore County.
While we were speaking to Tina this morning, an Autauga deputy arrived saying he had received a call from a concerned neighbor that people were going through what remained of the trailer. Once he identified Tina, he told her she was free to take her personal possessions. A second deputy then arrived on scene, but the first deputy told him the situation was handled.
Both Deb Hill and Acting Sheriff David Hill said that they were not aware of the seriousness of the multiple calls from Tina, and the investigation continues. Hill said there is a lot of information surrounding the entire case, and more information will be shared as the case progresses.
