UPDATE 3/27/23 — Harvey was been formally charged with five felonies:
- First-degree burglary.
- Second-degree arson.
- Stealing a firearm or explosive.
- Second-degree burglary.
- Second-degree arson.
He has not yet been scheduled for a court appearance.
Original article, published March 25:
LEBANON, Mo. — A man from Lebanon has been arrested for trying to light a house on fire and burglarizing a home earlier in March.
Rene Harvey, Jr., 53, was arrested March 24 for arson, burglary, possession of stolen property and felon in possession of firearm.
According to a press release from the Laclede County Sheriff’s Office, Harvey made contact with a woman at her property in the 37000 block of Dawn, asking about a trailer that had been on the property decades prior and saying he had been in prison and was wrongfully accused.
The woman got in her car to get help from a neighbor and returned to find smoke coming from the house on the property.
With the woman’s description of Harvey and the vehicle he was driving, deputies were able to locate Harvey and arrest him in connection with a separate burglary that happened earlier in March on Miami Drive in Laclede County.
While searching the vehicle, deputies recovered a firearm that was allegedly stolen from an acquaintance of Harvey’s.
Harvey has not yet been charged in the burglaries, arsons and weapons case.
Harvey was released from the Department of Corrections in November 2022 after being sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 murder of a Camdenton woman. Harvey was 26 years old when he was convicted for the crime.