Emerald resident Sky Louise Geehoy set fire to her Hospital Road unit

A woman who set fire to her home, with the blaze spreading fast throughout the two-unit single dwelling causing neighbours to flee, lied to police, saying she didn’t know what happened. Read here how they busted her.

Sky Louise Geehoy, 25, had been living in a Department of Housing residence on Hospital Road, Emerald, when she set fire to the foam of her lounge chair in an effort to kill herself, the Emerald District Court heard this week. The fire, which was lit on June 13, 2021, totally destroyed the structure, causing $221,953.80 in damages.

A woman who set fire to her home, leading to the destruction of the two-unit single dwelling and causing neighbours to flee, was high on methamphetamines, drunk and had threatened suicide after an argument with her former partner.

Sky Louise Geehoy, 25, was living in a Department of Housing residence on Hospital Road, Emerald, when she set fire to the foam of her lounge chair, the Emerald District Court heard this week.

The fire, which was lit on June 13, 2021, totally destroyed the structure, causing $221,953.80 in damages.

Crown prosecutor Ryan Godfrey said the neighbour, a man, and his visiting mother, fled the second unit when the smoke alarm went off.

“The defendant made, it seems, immediate admissions to a number of people that night, however, when spoken to by police, professed she had no idea what happened and how the fire started,” he said.

Mr Godfrey said in phone calls to her former partner and grandmother after the fire, intercepted by police, Geehoy made admissions that she deliberately lit the fire.

Sky Louise Geehoy, 25, had been living in a Department of Housing residence on Hospital Road, Emerald, when she set fire to the foam of her lounge chair in an effort to kill herself, the Emerald District Court heard this week. The fire, which was lit on June 13, 2021, totally destroyed the structure, causing $221,953.80 in damages.

The court heard Geehoy feared she had been captured on CCTV arguing with her former partner on the phone just before the fire.

Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said her client, who started using meth when she was 19, had an argument that night with her former partner who had left her and moved to New South Wales.

She said the argument was about Geehoy’s drug use and desire to join him in NSW, but he didn’t want her to.

Ms Shaw said the mother-of-two was high on meth, had consumed alcohol and ended the argument with the man by saying “well, I’ll just go kill myself then”.

She said Geehoy came to her senses after lighting the fire, fled the dwelling and grabbed “the important things” she had previously packed.

Geehoy’s mother died when she was a teenager and her father went to prison for a long time when she was 13.

Geehoy pleaded guilty to one count of arson and was sentenced to three years prison to be released on parole on September 23, 2023.