The police department of Clayton, Mo., which is adjacent to St. Louis, is offering an increased reward of $57,000—up from $42,000—for information leading to the arrest of the individual responsible for “intentionally setting fire to vehicles at a Jewish family’s home.”
On Aug. 5, officers discovered three vehicles had been intentionally damaged by fire and found antisemitic graffiti written in the roadway. The damaged vehicles belonged to family members of an American man who had just returned from military service in Israel.
Cpl. Jenny Schwartz, community services and public information officer at the Clayton Police Department, told JNS that “a crime of this magnitude is very rare” in the area.
“We’ve been actively working this investigation from the start. This is not something that we’ve let go cold,” she said.
The department re-released photos of the suspect at the crime scene on Tuesday, in hopes that “there may also be someone that hasn’t come forward yet because information they have they might think is minor,” Schwartz told JNS.
“We want to reiterate that even the smallest, or what might seem to be the smallest, detail could be what helps us solve this crime,” she said.
Schwartz said the police department, in partnership with the FBI’s St. Louis field office, will be “recanvassing the neighborhood and surrounding area.”
The FBI is offering the recent $15,000 addition to the reward, which also includes $10,000 from the Jewish National Defense Network and $2,000 from St. Louis Regional Crime Stoppers. Reward money from the Jewish Federation of St. Louis ($15,000) and the Anti-Defamation League ($15,000) will be paid only if a conviction is obtained.
