Cause of Wesley Earnest house fire still under investigation

Investigators Monday had yet to determine the cause of a fire Friday night that destroyed the Smith Mountain Lake house of a former school administrator accused of killing his wife.

Authorities have spoken to Wesley Earnest about the blaze at his home, said Capt. Mike Miller, of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, who would not say where Earnest is staying.

“We’ve made no conclusions,” Miller said. “It’s still all under investigation.”

Earnest was not at home at time of the fire.

He is charged with first-degree murder in the December 2007 death of his estranged wife, Jocelyn Earnest, at her Forest home. Bedford County prosecutors accuse him of staging the crime scene to appear as if she shot herself in the head.

Earnest, a former assistant principal at Heritage High School, had been an assistant principal in Chesapeake before he was arrested. He currently is out of jail on bond awaiting trial in June.

Emergency dispatchers received a 911 call around 6:45 p.m. Friday to the home at 1357 Clearwater Drive. When fire crews arrived, the house was already engulfed in flames. It burned for more than an hour; no one was injured.

Neighbors said Earnest didn’t spend much time wasn’t at the lake house and hadn’t been seen there in the days leading up to the fire.

Miller said the house at Smith Mountain Lake is listed as Earnest’s primary residence.

Earnest is not required to stay in Bedford County as a condition of his bond, however he is required to stay in the state, said Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz.

Bedford County tax records show the Moneta property’s value as $1.2 million. Earnest purchased the land with his late wife in 2001. The home is a total loss.