The woman arrested for allegedly starting the Highland Lakes fire outside of Divide in October has a long-documented history of mental illness in several criminal cases.

Lacey Tillitt, 77, also referred to as Lowa Tillitt in court records, was arrested by the Teller County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 16 on suspicion of felony arson, according to a news release.

The release states that Tillitt knowingly set fire to her own home northwest of Divide and that because of her actions “over 700 homes were threatened, the entirety of the Highland Lakes area was evacuated, and the surrounding neighborhoods were put on pre-evacuation orders.”

The Highland Lakes fire started Oct. 28 and was 100% contained Nov. 2. It burned 166 acres and forced more than 700 households to be evacuated. The homes represented $300 million in value, and more than 2,000 people were displaced, Teller Sheriff Jason Mikesell said.

This is not the first time that Tillitt has been in trouble with law enforcement, including several recent incidents in the months leading up to the fire.

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According to court documents from Greene County, Mo., Tillitt was the subject of an injunction in a case in which she was accused of threatening a man over an insurance dispute.

According to the petition for a temporary restraining order, Tillitt was accused of calling several employees of the American National Property and Casualty Co. over the phone and making threats, including threatening to kill one employee and his family, as well as making threats to burn down an affiliate office, ANPAC, in Galveston, Texas.

Some of the threats documented in the petition include:

“The world is gonna know when I get done with you.”

“You get somebody on this phone right now who has some clout, or I’m gonna start shooting people.”

The petition notes that Tillitt traveled to the ANPAC affiliate office in Galveston but was “repelled by security personnel,” and later traveled to the ANPAC office in Missouri on Aug. 26, 2024, and refused to leave until the Springfield Police Department arrived.

The petition states that Tillitt’s continued threats — which began in February 2024 and continued up until the filing of the temporary restraining order in August — stemmed from a contested homeowner and property insurance claim between Tillitt and the other party.

Court records show Tillitt was served with a summons in the injunction case by the Teller County Sheriff’s Office on Oct. 15. The case was closed on Dec. 20, according to court records, after a Greene County, Mo., judge ruled that Tillitt is “permanently enjoined from entering near or on the plaintiff ANPAC’s premises.”

Disputes over Tillitt’s home, which is believed by law enforcement to be what started the Highland Lakes fire, have taken place locally in the months leading up to the fire.

Five days before Tillitt is alleged to have started the fire, a Teller County judge ruled against Tillitt and forced the sale of the home at 13 Beaver Lake Circle in Divide.

Tillitt also has had several criminal cases filed over more than a decade in Teller County, with nearly all of the cases including concerns about Tillitt’s mental health and competency.

According to court records, Tillitt was arrested by the Sheriff’s Office and faces charges of misdemeanor harassment and obstructing a peace officer, firefighter or emergency medical service provider.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Gazette, sheriff’s officers were dispatched to Tillitt’s home on June 7 for a welfare check because Tillitt had made “over 17 phone calls” to the Teller County Department of Human Services.

Ralph Parsons, with Teller DHS, told law enforcement that Tillitt “abused the hotline and tied up the lines for a period of over four hours,” and that Tillitt threatened suicide and was hostile and rude to DHS workers in the phone calls.

Court records show that Tillitt’s case remains open, and that a motion for a competency evaluation was ordered on Aug. 11, with a court order for a competency evaluation to be conducted two days later. A records request for the motion for competency evaluation was denied by the Teller County court records department.

Records show that after the fire, Tillitt failed to appear to two court dates for her misdemeanor case, one in December and another on Monday.

Tillitt is scheduled to make her next appearance connected to her misdemeanor case in 4th Judicial District court on Wednesday.

In 2020, Tillitt was arrested by the Teller Sheriff’s Office with accusations of similar vulgar language and concerns about the woman’s mental health.

An affidavit for that arrest details that on Feb. 5, 2020, a deputy was dispatched to U.S. 24 to check on the welfare of a woman, later identified as Tillitt, who was walking alongside the highway alone.

When approached, Tillitt refused help and stated she “was walking and was going to continue walking until she froze to death.”

“No just let me freeze and die. No one cares,” Tillitt told the deputy.

The deputy told her she was not allowed to leave because of her statements of self-harm. The affidavit details that the deputy was holding onto Tillitt’s arm when she kicked his shin, and he arrested Tillitt.

In that incident Tillitt was charged with second-degree assault and misdemeanor resisting arrest and booked in jail on a $10,000 bond, though court records show the case was dismissed less than two weeks later.

In 2015 court records show that Tillitt was found guilty at trial of one count of misdemeanor assault in Adams County, and was sentenced to 12 months probation.

In 2013, court records show Tillitt pleaded guilty to one count of felony menacing with a real or simulated weapon and was initially sentenced to three years probation. However, records show Tillitt failed on probation and was later sentenced to 90 days in jail.

In the menacing case, which began in 2011, court records show that a mental health stay was ordered in both the 2012 and 2013 cases.

Records show Tillitt failed to appear in court several times in both criminal cases.

Jail records show that Tillitt was booked in Teller County jail on Thursday afternoon and faces a $50,000 bond to be released. She does not have a court date scheduled at the time of writing.