But in the report, a witness whose name is blacked out tells police Celia asked the witness to bring the plates to Celia's mother's home in Scottsdale for safekeeping. Police retrieved the plates and saved them as evidence.
Early on October 14, Rural/Metro firefighters responded to a fire at the Doane residence. The fire had apparently started in the garage; when firefighters arrived, Celia was trying to catch her pets and said she had no idea how the fire had started.
CeCe Doane, post-Miss Arizona.
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In a signed statement to police, James recounts a phone call he received from Celia at 4 a.m. October 14: "[She] telephoned to tell me, 'I've set the house on fire.' I didn't believe her and told her she should go to bed. . . . I said, 'Good night, Cece' and hung up. At around 7:00 AM, her youngest daughter, Sarah, called and said, 'You need to come up here. Mother has burned up the garages.' Upon my arrival, I was quite saddened to see that almost all of my family's photographs, mementos, and papers were burned. I entered the house in tears and was met by Cece's mother who told me, 'Cece just started a little fire, only a few things were burned. They're just things anyway. No one was hurt.' Cece was sitting on the sofa displaying the demeanor of a drunk. I was so emotionally assaulted, I told her mother to shut up and I left . . ."
Damage was contained mainly to the garage.
Later that day, Paradise Valley police were called to the house, arrested Celia and booked her at Madison Street Jail after she allegedly punched 21-year-old Sarah Leidner in the stomach, after her daughter tried to take a glass of wine away from her. On the way to jail, Celia tried to bribe police to expedite her booking, according to the police report. No charges have been filed.
Days after the fire, Paradise Valley police contacted Chuck Leidner, Celia Doane's ex-husband. Leidner declined an interview request from New Times, but spoke to police. According to Leidner's account, described in the report, "In October of 1987, Celia had hired a known convicted murderer . . . to kill Leidner for the sum of $10,000."
Because the event happened so long ago, the Arapahoe County Sheriff in Colorado had no record of Leidner reporting this information, the PV police wrote.
"Leidner also related that Celia had taken some of his clothes and personal pictures of his family and burned them in the fireplace while he was at work."
There is no police report on that incident, either.
The similarities are remarkable, particularly in the descriptions of the fires set to personal belongings. Again, Celia Doane could not be reached for comment, as she is out of town getting "therapy," as her mother, Lillian Sklan, explains.
Celia's opinions about James are obvious in a civil lawsuit she filed against her current husband November 3. In it, she accuses him of physical and verbal abuse, and of encouraging her to drink when he knew she was an alcoholic.
From the complaint: "All his conduct was designed to cause her to lose her self-esteem, to be unable to function and become a virtual chattle [sic] of James Kenneth Doane."
Sklan echoes those sentiments.
"My daughter has spent nine years with this man almost drinking herself to death," she says. ". . . This man has tried to kill my daughter."
Contact the author at her online address: amy.silverman@newtimes.com
