Man who survived shooting, house fire charged with insurance fraud

CONCORD, N.C. — A Concord man who was the focus of two separate murder investigations was arrested over the weekend on insurance fraud charges.
        
Timothy Crumitie, 48, was arrested in Concord. He was charged with two counts of insurance fraud.
 
John Penninger lives across from that home and said he noticed that Crumitie hardly seemed concerned as he watched his home go up in flames.
 
"The whole street's full of fire trucks and emergency vehicles and he wasn't fazed at all," Penninger said.
 
Penninger was hardly surprised when he learned that Crumitie had been charged with insurance fraud in the case.
But the new charges raise old questions about the cases where Crumitie is in the clear.
 
"Everywhere he's been, it's murder and money. Murder and money," said Samuel Hood, who learned about Crumitie after Crumitie shot and killed his friend James Blanks in July 2013.
 
Crumitie told police that Blanks had broken into his garage and killed his wife, and that he killed Blanks in self-defense.
 
Blanks' sister says Crumitie didn't tell Concord police the truth.
 
"Everything he is accused of he gets away with .  I don't understand it, I don't understand it," Rochelle Blanks said.
 
She said her brother would never have broken into Crumitie's home.
 
"I just hope they clear my brother's name and relieve some of this anger and stress off my family."
 
Crumitie was also charged with killing a former business partner near Charlotte, but prosecutors dismissed that charge five years later for lack of evidence.