November 2025 - Magazine - Page 57
November 2025
Mr. Rinderknecht had been living and working in California, and moved to Florida shortly
after the fire, according to authorities.
The initial blaze Mr. Rinderknecht allegedly started on New Year's Day was called the Lachman fire. Although it was quickly suppressed by firefighters, it continued to smoulder underground in the root structure of dense vegetation, according to investigators, before it flared
up again above ground in a windstorm.
The suspect was familiar with the area because he was a former resident of Pacific Pali-
sades, officials said. He had lived one block away from the Skull Rock Trailhead, where he
allegedly started the fire.
He lit it with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year's Eve,
according to the indictment. Two passengers rode with Mr. Rinderknecht earlier on New
Year's Eve. One passenger told investigators he remembered the driver had appeared agitated and angry.
Officials said they had used his phone data to pinpoint his location when the fire initially
started on 1 January, but when they pressed him on details he allegedly lied to investigators, claiming he was near the bottom of the trail.
Uber said Mr. Rinderknecht wasn't on the popular ride-sharing app at the time of the fire,
but the company worked closely with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives (ATF) to help determine his whereabouts using GPS data and other relevant
information.
The company also said it removed Mr. Rinderknecht's access to its platform as soon as it
learned of his suspected involvement in the fire, but it noted he passed his initial background check in 2023 and annual check-ins thereafter.
Authorities said they also found other links between Mr. Rinderknecht and the fire on his
phone, including videos that Mr. Rinderknecht had taken of firefighters trying to put out the
flames. The phone also showed that he repeatedly called 911 just after midnight on New
Year's day, but could not get through because of patchy mobile reception on the trailhead. There was a screen recording of him trying to call emergency services and at one
point being connected with a dispatcher.
Mr. Rinderknecht also asked ChatGPT: "Are you at fault if a fire is lit [sic] because of your
cigarettes?" Investigators said the suspect wanted to "preserve evidence of himself trying to
assist in the suppression of the fire".
"He wanted to create evidence regarding a more innocent explanation for the cause of
the fire," the indictment said.
Investigators noted that Mr. Rinderknecht appeared nervous during their in-
terview with him on 24 January this year, and his carotid artery would pulsate
whenever he was asked who had started the fire.
