VASSALBORO — Krista MacIntyre of Augusta said she learned on Saturday that authorities are searching for her ex-boyfriend because he is an arson suspect.

An arrest warrant was issued this week for Raymond J. Bellavance Jr., 49, who allegedly set the fire that destroyed the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in June 2009.

MacIntyre, 29, confirmed Wednesday that she is the previously unnamed coffee shop employee to whom authorities referred in a news release that said Bellavance “was a boyfriend of one of the waitresses.”

MacIntyre said she dated Bellavance for about two months but had separated from him when she started working at the coffee shop.

“It’s a shock to me, really,” she said of Bellavance being named as the suspect. “I have been very emotional the last few days, because it’s hard for me to deal with something like that.”

The shop’s owner, Donald Crabtree, says that he met Bellavance once after the shop opened, and that Bellavance wanted his ex-girlfriend to be fired, accusing her of illegal activity. Bellavance threatened to have the coffee shop “shut down” if she wasn’t fired, Crabtree said.

Crabtree said the accusations weren’t true, so MacIntyre kept her job. MacIntyre corroborated Crabtree’s account.

MacIntyre said that she has been in a relationship “on and off for about a year” with Crabtree, and that she told Bellavance that before the shop burned.

After Bellavance’s attempt to get her fired, MacIntyre said, she started to seek a court protection order against him. It was never finalized because she missed a court hearing. MacIntyre said she had no further problems with him.

 

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