PARIS — Investigators found racing memorabilia belonging to a retired Oxford Plains Speedway announcer in the home of the arson suspect’s parents, an affidavit released Monday stated.

Robert G. Conrad, 34, of Western Avenue in Paris, a former Oxford firefighter, remained jailed on a charge of arson related to the March 13, 2007 fire that destroyed a home at 303 Country Club Road in Norway. The house belonged to Robert Walker, a retired speedway announcer who was a Norway selectman at the time.

Senior investigator Daniel Young of the state Fire Marshal’s Office said in his report that Conrad was identified as a possible suspect because he and Walker’s daughter “had recently broken up and the break-up was not an amicable separation.”

Walker said in an interview Sunday that his daughter and Conrad dated for a year, but that they broke up well before the fire occurred.

Young said that despite extensive fire damage, investigators determined that several items from Walker’s extensive collection of NASCAR memorabilia were missing. They included Dale Earnhardt Sr. photographs and models of race cars. A search of Conrad’s parents’ home on Staples Avenue in Oxford found several such items, some of which Walker identified as coming from his house.

Young said Conrad’s girlfriend, 31-year-old Tanya Stickney of Western Avenue, told investigators that Conrad was involved in the 2007 blaze after they questioned her about a fire that occurred Friday morning at 67 Jenny Lane in Oxford.

Oxford fire Chief Scott Hunter said accidental causes were ruled out in that fire, which started on the rear porch and caused approximately $15,000 damage.

Hunter said the fire was extinguished by the time firefighters arrived. The home’s occupants, Barry and Carol Laufer, woke up due to the smell of smoke and were not injured. Hunter told investigators that Conrad was a suspect in two March fires ruled suspicious and has relatives living in the area of Jenny Lane. He said Monday that the Laufers are not related to Conrad.

Young said Stickney admitted to investigators that she acted as a lookout while Conrad set the early morning fire at Walker’s house. She said Conrad told her before the fire that he knew Walker was no longer living there and that he would steal items from the house. Stickney said that Conrad picked her up the evening of March 12, 2007, and said he was going to burn Walker’s house.

Stickney said Conrad entered the house and checked to see if anyone was inside, then broke a window between the breezeway and residence and set the curtains on fire. She said Conrad told her that he started the blaze near electrical wiring to allay suspicion. Young said Stickney’s account is consistent with the determinations of the Fire Marshal’s Office as to the origin of the blaze.

Stickney said she and Conrad had a scanner in their residence, and that Conrad returned to the scene once fire departments were dispatched. Young said Stickney told him that she and Conrad usually go to “everything that goes on and to what they hear on the scanner,” but that she stayed in their apartment after the fire was set.

Hunter said Monday that Conrad frequently showed up at fires and other calls that came over the scanner. Hunter did not go to the fire at Walker’s house, but was told that Conrad showed up there.

“There are people that do that,” Hunter said when asked how frequently people go to calls toned out on the scanner. “But there are arsonists out there that would do that because a lot of them like to see their work.”

Conrad was formerly a volunteer firefighter with the Oxford Fire Department, but Hunter said he was removed from the department six or seven years ago.

“There were some personnel issues there that we dealt with and we agreed he would be let go,” he said.

Stickney told Young that she did not relay the information to the police because Conrad told her he would kill her and her family if she ever mentioned the incident to anyone. She did tell one person, who confirmed that she approached him in November  2008. Stickney wore a concealed listening device monitored by the Fire Marshal’s Office and Oxford Police Department when visiting Conrad on Friday evening and tried to start a conversation about the fires.

Police arrested Conrad in the interests of Stickney’s safety after he became hostile and accused her of wearing a wire, according to Young’s affidavit.

At Conrad’s initial court appearance Monday before Judge Paul Cote in the South Paris District Court, Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne asked that bail be set at $10,000 cash or $50,000 worth of real estate. He said he was concerned with Conrad’s ability to abide by conditions since he twice violated probation on a 2004 conviction of terrorizing in which Walker’s daughter was the victim. Beauchesne asked that Conrad also be forbidden from contact with Walker, his daughter, Stickney and Stickney’s family.

Defense attorney Maurice Porter said Conrad has no history of failing to appear in court, pays child support, and has a full-time job. He recommended a $1,000 cash bail or a pretrial contract. According to his booking information at the Oxford County Jail, Conrad is employed as a maintenance worker with PropSys in Lewiston.

Cote agreed to Beauchesne’s recommendations, but said a pre-trial contract may be an option after further review by the court. He set July 7 for Conrad’s arraignment or a status conference in Oxford County Superior Court in Paris.

Beauchesne said investigators did not have enough to charge Conrad with the Walker house fire until the recent incident.

He said the District Attorney’s Office is currently not contemplating charges against Stickney, but more might be filed against Conrad after the conclusion of the investigation into the Oxford fire.

Walker was residing at the Norway Rehabilitation and Living Center at the time of the 2007 fire, after suffering his sixth stroke about two months earlier. He now lives in an apartment in Norway.

He was an announcer for Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford for more than 30 years, retiring in 2006, and was a Norway selectman from 1998 to 2007.

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