Background: Fawn Ridge Court in Greenville, Wis., where Nicholas Grundman allegedly set a house on fire (Google Maps). Inset: Nicholas Grundman (Outagamie County Sheriff's Office).
A Wisconsin man whose wife filed for divorce and told him to leave their home allegedly tried to burn his estranged spouse alive.
Nicholas Grundman, 47, was charged with attempted murder, arson, stalking, and other charges after police said he tried to set his estranged wife's house on fire while she was inside. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime, Grundman's wife filed for divorce in February after being married for about a year and a half. Police said she told them Grundman was a "full-blown alcoholic" who could not hold down a job, a situation that caused problems in their marriage.
In January, after the woman came home to find a newly unemployed and intoxicated Grundman, she told him to leave.
Police said just after midnight on March 19, a 911 call was placed reporting a fire at a residence on Fawn Ridge Court in Greenville, Wisconsin. The caller, later identified as Grundman's wife, said her attached garage was on fire. She was the only person in the house and was able to escape safely with her three cats and two dogs. She later told police that she had been fast asleep when one of her cats started "pawing at her face" and woke her up. "Within seconds," she told police, "my house was full of smoke."
After realizing the fire was in the garage, Grundman's wife was able to put out the fire with an extinguisher. Her car was damaged as well as personal items that belonged to her son.
According to the complaint, Grundman's wife spoke to police days later about her situation with Grundman. She said that after telling him to leave the house, she paid for him to stay at a hotel first and then an Airbnb. He eventually left the Airbnb and she lost track of where he was staying in the middle of March. However, he then started to text and call her "almost to the point of harassment," allegedly every 30 minutes throughout the night.
On the day of the fire, Grundman's wife called him to tell him to stop contacting her. He allegedly told her, "If I can't have you, no one is going to have you." He then hung up on her.
Police asked Grundman's wife if she was fearful of her estranged husband, and she replied, "Absolutely."
Investigators said they found accelerant at the scene of the fire as well as a bottle of lighter fluid.
On March 31, police went to a construction site where Grundman was working and placed him under arrest. He was allegedly carrying a backpack with a loaded Ruger Security-9 handgun that his wife said he had taken with him when she kicked him out of the house. When police asked him if he had been at the house, he said, "I wasn't technically there, but I was being stupid." He explained that while he did not go in the house, he regularly drove past the house to see if his wife was having someone over.
Grundman told police that March 18, the night the fire was allegedly set, was one of his "driving around days." Police noted in the complaint that during this line of questioning, Grundman's voice began to "shake." Grundman told police that he "fell off the wagon" that night and drank "two 30 packs" of beer before driving past his wife's house.
When police asked Grundman if he still had access to his wife's garage, he "put his head down" and answered, "Yes, sir." He then admitted that he accessed the garage on the night of the fire. After police told him that further testing would reveal proof that an accelerant was used, Grundman allegedly confessed that he "used gasoline" and "put a little bit next to the fridge." He allegedly dumped more gasoline on the workbench in the garage then set it on fire with a lighter.
Grundman denied that he tried to kill his estranged wife.
Grundman was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of arson, stalking, three counts of criminal damage to a property, and carrying a concealed weapon. He is currently in custody at the Outagamie County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million cash bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 14.
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