HISD school secretary sets fire to avoid meeting with principal over missing money, docs state

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Houston ISD secretary is accused of starting a fire to avoid meeting with the school principal about missing money, according to court documents.

Adriana Castorena-Narvaez, 49, is charged with arson after she allegedly set a fire in the conference room of the front office at C.E. Barrick Elementary School at 12001 Winfrey Lane on Oct. 10.

Investigators said they spoke with the school principal, who said there were recent financial problems with the secretary.

Castorena-Narvaez was responsible for the school's finances and depositing cash from fundraising events.

The principal noticed it was odd the fire happened in the room across from Castorena-Narvaez's office and only a few people were at the school when it happened.

On Sep. 16, the principal reportedly found out vendors had not been paid and that cash collected from multiple fundraisers in 2022 were not deposited into the school's account.

Records state that the principal tried to ask her about the financial issues, but Castorena-Narvaez said there was a family emergency and went home.

Castorena-Narvaez came back on Oct. 6 and another meeting was said to be scheduled to go over the financials, but she said there was a medical emergency once again and was taken to the ER.

The day of the fire was the same day Castorena-Narvaez was set to come back to work from the previous emergency.

Investigators said they talked with a couple employees who were there when the fire happened.

According to a school employee who witnessed that day, he arrived early in the morning and did not notice anything was on fire.

The employee said that sometime later, while he was changing lightbulbs near the 5th grade classrooms, he was alerted through radio by the secretary that there was fire.

He reportedly put out the fire using a fire extinguisher and said the fire was "weird" and that it "looked like a campfire piled up."

When being interviewed, Castorena-Narvaez told investigators that she got to the school around 6:38 a.m. that day, saw the worker changing the lightbulbs in the school's main hallway and didn't notice any odor or anything burning in the front office when she got to work.

She then said she put her lunch in the break room and went to unlock her office, which is across the conference room, and noticed an odor of something burning when she sat at her desk.

Castorena-Narvaez said she then left the front office to locate the worker but noticed he was no longer in the hallway.

According to officials, if there was a fire in the front office before the secretary got there, the fire would have caused more damage than what was found when they conducted the initial fire investigation.

Documents state Castorena-Narvaez lit materials at hand in the conference room on fire to avoid a meeting she was going to have with the principal to explain what happened to the money she was responsible for.

A warrant has been issued for her arrest.