Janet Danahey

Janet Louise Danahey (born August 31, 1978) is an American mass murderer who perpetrated the Campus Walk Apartment fire in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States.

On the night of February 15, 2002, as a prank to get back her ex-boyfriend who dumped her, she set fire to a futon outside his apartment. The fire spread to the rest of the building causing students to jump from their windows to escape the flames. After the fire department subdued the fire, in the rubble they found four bodies of students who tried to escape but died in their efforts.

Danahey was later apprehended and faced the death penalty, under North Carolina’s felony murder rule. However she took a plea deal, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Her conviction was very controversial with many questioning the severe sentence and the felony murder rule. The Campus Walk Apartment fire was the deadliest fire in Greensboro’s history until a 2018 fire killed five children.

Background Janet Danahey was born on August 31, 1978, to Mary Belle and Dave Danahey in Greenville, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, before moving to Kernersville, North Carolina. In 1996, she was selected as an Olympic torchbearer, and was arrested for vandalism to personal property on Christmas Eve. Danahey paid a fine and later the conviction was disposed of. She had earned a business administration degree at the University of North Carolina and was working as a gofer making $12 an hour. She had also worked at Syngenta Crop protection for a few weeks doing inventory.

Campus Walk Apartment fire On Valentine’s Day 2002, Danahey invited two of her friends over for pasta and wine. They decided to play a prank on Thad Johnston, Danahey’s ex-boyfriend who had recently dumped her. The trio bought clam juice to pour on his car’s radiator, and drove to the Campus Walk Apartments, a student apartment complex housing 36 residents , but they were unable to find the vehicle and changed plans. Instead, Danahey focused on a box of Christmas decorations left on her ex’s porch. She took lighter fluid from underneath her sink and set out to burn the decorations as her roommates returned to their apartment. Around 2:00 A:M, she poured the lighter fluid on the box and lit it only for the tinsel to melt. Danahey turned her attention to an old futon on the porch, and doused it before seeing a small blue flame. She giggled and left. The fire spread quickly throughout the structure, destroying the wooden stairway, so removing the only method of escape. Four people died in the fire and six others were injured. Many residents were still asleep during the fire and suffered burns to their feet trying to escape, while many jumped out of windows to escape. The victims were from Apartment K, who had tried to make a run from the flames. They were: sisters Donna and Rachel Llewellyn, their roommate, Elizabeth Harris, and Donna’s boyfriend Ryan Bek. Harris fell several stories to her death, as she opened a door to a walkway that was no longer there and fell on a concrete slab, while Bek and the Llewellyn sisters burned to death as they ran down a hallway that collapsed. The four’s remains would be found in the first floor breezeway. After setting the fire, Danahey took off her clothes and walked back to her apartment and asked her friends to take her to a dumpster where she disposed of the evidence. Danahey was later apprehended at her parents home and arrested and charged with murder on February 17, due to her friends turning her in, after seeing on television that the four victims had perished in the fire.

Legal proceedings Danahey was initially only charged with the murder of Rachel Llewellyn, as the other three victims had yet to be identified. Danahey was later indicted on four counts of first degree-murder and one count of arson, and held without bond as she awaited trial. Prosecutors were pursuing the death penalty.

To avoid the death penalty, she pleaded guilty to the four counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. During her sentencing in July she apologized profusely to the courtroom and gave what was described as a bizarre speech: “The angels of your children have come to me, and I have touched their hands, and they have told me what it felt like to feel their flesh burn. I know who they are. They are a part of me now. You are my family now. You are stuck with me now. I hurt you, and I will make that better.”

Aftermath The fire changed building codes in Greensboro with measures put in place to avoid another potential loss of life.

Danahey’s conviction under the felony murder rule was widely controversial, leading many to petition a change to the rule and reduce Danahey’s sentence as well as legislators seeking to end the death penalty in the felony murder rule. The district attorney opposed the suggested reduction of her sentence saying “It was no different than taking a gun and shooting it into an apartment building”. In 2005, a new apartment building was built in the same place where the original one was.

Danahey’s commutation In the years following the fire, Danahey petitioned for clemency. She petitioned for clemency from then North Carolina governor Bev Purdue, but it was denied. On December 30, 2017, she resubmitted her petition to governor Pat McCrory, who commuted her sentence, making her parole eligible on January 1, 2029. Governor Roy Cooper later commuted her sentence again, making her eligible for parole on January 1, 2023. This made her one of the only cases where two different governors from different political parties commuted the sentence of a single prisoner. She was denied parole later the same year.