06/19/2026
He Called 911 Seventeen Times After Starting a Fire That Killed 12 People
Jonathan Rinderknecht was an Uber driver who felt isolated and angry at the world. Prosecutors say he lit a brush fire in the Santa Monica Mountains on New Year's Eve 2024 using just a Bic lighter. That fire smoldered underground for a week, then resurfaced as the Palisades Fire—killing 12 people and destroying over 6,000 homes. But here's the twist: Rinderknecht called 911 seventeen times to report the fire. Behavioral analysts say that was part of the act. The full breakdown of how they caught him and the chilling evidence will surprise you.
The part about him asking ChatGPT if he could be blamed for a cigarette fire is wild. Full story here: https://geni.us/https-CNN-com