Cops: Bride-to-Be Started Fire in Church Building

The bride never made it down the aisle, but police say she did set a fire in the church building where she was supposed to wed the next day. Utah authorities on Monday arrested Lenita "Tessa" Joy Moreno, 25, accusing her of intentionally igniting a blaze inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building in Kaysville while she was decorating on July 10 with the groom and relatives, KUTV reports. According to court documents, investigators say the fire was started under a stack of chairs in the building's Relief Society room using "items that were out of the ordinary, including what appeared to be a tampon."

The groom told investigators that he had visited Ace Hardware with the bride that night to buy hooks for the wedding set-up, ABC4 reports. Investigators say they reviewed surveillance footage from the store and found that Moreno had swiped at least two lighters while the groom was elsewhere in the store, slipping one under her shirt and another one or two into her shoe. Authorities say five other people, including the groom and his family, were in the building when the fire began. They put it out with a fire extinguisher and water from wedding decorations, but it still caused more than $108,000 in damages.

Court documents also say Moreno falsely claimed she had obtained a marriage license. She faces charges including first-degree aggravated arson, retail theft, and providing false information to a peace officer, reports KUTV. Authorities say she admitted giving police a false birth date on the night of the fire. She is "from out of state and through the investigation has been found to... continually be deceptive and take drastic steps to hide her lies," the arresting officer wrote.