Police: Woman Planned To Burn Home, Allege Rape

PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind -- A Putnam County woman asked a neighbor to burn her house and help her blame someone they would allege tried to rape her, the county prosecutor said.

Authorities alleged Christina Snyder, 31, concocted the scheme so she could collect insurance money. Snyder was arrested after the neighbor told police of the plot and that she offered him $5,000 to participate, authorities said.

Snyder was charged with attempted arson, attempted insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit arson, 6News' Jack Rinehart reported.

According to court records, a bank had filed for a mortgage foreclosure on Snyder's rural home.

The prosecutor alleges that Snyder, to persuade authorities that someone had tried to rape her, asked her neighbor to slap her around, bind her hands with duct tape, and write "whore" on her shirt.

Snyder wanted the neighbor to then set fire to her home and rescue her and her dog, the prosecutor alleges. She would have told police that a masked man who tried to rape her set the fire, according to the prosecutor.

Snyder told her insurance agent two months ago that she feared he ex-husband would burn her house, authorities said.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Snyder started pitching the plot to her neighbor in July.