Northampton serial arsonist Anthony Baye released 16 years after fire sprees that killed two

NORTHAMPTON — After setting 27 fires between 2007 and 2009 that terrorized Ward 3 neighborhoods — including 15 in one night on Dec. 27, 2009, one of which killed an elderly man and his adult son — Anthony Baye, now 41, has been released from prison.

Then 28, the serial arsonist pleaded guilty in 2013 to multiple charges, including arson and manslaughter, and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison.

Baye was arrested after setting the string of fires to homes, vehicles and garages in 2009, one of which killed World War II veteran Paul Yeskie Sr., 81, and his son, Paul Yeskie Jr., 39. Following his release from state prison on April 9, Baye is expected to stay in a halfway house on Park Street in Boston and remain on probation for 15 years, according to court documents sent to victims upon his release.

It’s a night that Elaine Yeskie, 91, said Monday that she’ll never forget.

“I went home, my husband sent me upstairs, and that’s when they died downstairs … I went upstairs to use the phone because the ones downstairs didn’t work,” Elaine Yeskie recalled in an interview Monday morning. “I was in a daze, walking around the house and it’s full of smoke. The ceiling hadn’t come down yet, but everything was all smoke, black smoke. I got out just before [the ceiling] came down. I went around looking for them and they weren’t out there.”

While Baye spent more than 16 years in custody, many of his victims, including Elaine Yeskie, expressed anger and unease with Baye’s release and possible return to Northampton. Yeskie added that since the death of her husband and son, she has not yet received an apology, or any signs of remorse, from Baye.

“He got out too soon, way too soon; he got away with murder. He should have gotten life in prison; he killed two innocent people,” Yeskie said. “He went to college while he was in prison — he got a college degree for killing two people.”

Yeskie’s sentiments were echoed by another unnamed victim, whose home was among those Baye burned down. This victim spoke anonymously amid concerns that Baye might retaliate against her.

The victim said she did not find any evidence that Baye completed any mental health or substance abuse treatment while he was behind bars. She said she plans to install a security system on her property in anticipation of Baye’s return to Northampton.

“The only thing that I’ve seen is a picture of [Baye] smiling with a puppy and a blog post about him participating in a restorative justice program, which is a bunch of bull[expletive] because if there was any restorative justice, it would have included the victims, which I’m told that it did not,” she said. “I have seen no indication that he is rehabilitated … he had ample opportunity to apologize to the community, to his victims, for years — no one has heard an apology.”

In the blog post referenced by the unnamed victim, published by the nonprofit news organization Chalkbeat, Baye vouches for social-emotional learning curriculum in public schools. He claims that his insecurities in high school set him down a path of substance abuse and, eventually, arson.

“In high school, I struggled with self-confidence. Like so many teens, I was consumed by people’s perceptions of me. I learned to hide my insecurities behind false bravado,” Baye wrote in a first-person account. “I pretended everything was OK and coped with my struggles by abusing drugs and alcohol, acting out in increasingly damaging ways. I stole, I damaged property, and, as I got older, I began to light fires.”

Baye went on to write that if he had learned how to better express his “feelings and emotions” as a kid, the “trail of destruction that caused so much pain” could have been avoided.

Northampton attorney David Hoose, who represented Baye in 2010, explained that although he had not spoken to his former client in years, he was “very happy to see that [Baye] has finished paying his debt to society.”

Hoose said he was also happy to have read Baye’s blog post, remarking that he believed it was evidence of his former client’s growth while incarcerated.

“I was very happy to see that he has matured and grown during his time in custody,” Hoose said. “It’s proof that people can change in positive ways while repaying their debt to society.”

Glenn Siegel, whose house burned down during the same arson spree that killed the two Yeskie men, said that he has “moved on from the trauma of that period,” hoped that Baye has been rehabilitated and wished the former inmate a peaceful and constructive life.

“What he did was horrific and he caused a lot of trauma to a lot of people, but I still hope he can live a constructive rest of his life,” Siegel said. “I hope that he took the time that he had in prison to reflect on his actions and rehabilitate himself so that he won’t be a threat or danger to the community and can become a productive member of society.”