Cottonwood Police arrested 26-year old Joshua Dawson of Cottonwood in connection the arson of three government buildings in Cottonwood in 2013. Sgt Monica Kuhlt says the crimes occurred during the early morning hours of April 1, 2013 unidentified suspect(s) set fire to 3 different businesses in Cottonwood including City of Cottonwood’s Human Resource and Finance building at 816 N. Main Street. Of those three the City building sustained the most damage resulting in over $380,000. Kuhlt says the investigation went cold until mid-2017 when new information surfaced. She says this new information was the result of a YCSO investigation in which they were looking at Dawson and two other suspects. Dawson used Molotov-cocktails to set fire to the buildings.
