Man accused of burning down farmhouse in order to impress a woman

Fredrick Bohjanen Jr. of Grandin, North Dakota has been charged with arson and several other felonies after a Cass County Sheriff’s Department investigation into a string of car battery thefts led them to witnesses who said Bohjanen Jr. burned down a rural farmhouse in order to impress a woman. Authorities were originally tracking a string of stolen batteries from around the area.

Fred Bohjanen Sr. told deputies his son told him the batteries were given to him. The elder Bohjanen had said he was planning to sell the batteries to recoup some of the money he recently spent on bailing his son out of jail. Later that day, police executed a search warrant in Erie, the home of Daniel Hengst, and found what appeared to be a small marijuana grow operation. A witness, Amanda Hengst, who had recently lived at the house, told deputies that Bohjanen Jr. and Daniel Hengst had set up the grow operation.



She also told deputies that Hengst and Bohjanen possessed the batteries, which she had recently learned were stolen. In another interview, Daniel Hengst allegedly told deputies he helped Bohjanen Jr. hide the stolen batteries. Bohjanen Jr. was planning to sell the batteries to buy marijuana, Hengst said. Hengst also told deputies he was with Bohjanen Jr. and two women at a farmhouse in Erie when one of the women began asking Bohjanen Jr. to burn down a house.

They went to another farmhouse northwest of Erie, Hengst said, and Bohjanen Jr. set a sheet on fire. When the home was ablaze, the group drove about a mile away to watch it burn, Hengst said. Bohjanen Jr. set the sheet on fire in order to impress one of the women, Hengst said. One of the women, Amber Dewald, corroborated Hengst’s story. She said she told Bohjanen Jr. not to set the fire. Bohjanen Jr., 26, was charged on Thursday with one count of arson, one count of manufacturing marijuana and one count of theft. He was also charged with one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.