PARIS — A Eustis man is charged with arson and murder of a Mexico woman stemming from a fire two weeks ago at a Mexico home where the two had been staying.

Elijah Cowper submitted photo

Elijah Cowper, 23, appeared Monday in Oxford County Superior Court by videoconference from York County Jail in Alfred.

Justice Maria A. Woodman determined there was probable cause to support the charges against Cowper based on an affidavit detailing facts of the case that was written by a state police detective.

Cowper was held without bail on an unrelated charge.

The woman in the Sept. 26 fire at 15 Tucker St. was identified as 23-year-old Lacey Tidswell.

She was discovered lying in a bed on the second floor of the home.

Cowper was arrested Friday night and charged with arson and intentional or knowing or depraved indifference murder.

Arson is a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Murder is punishable by 25 years to life in prison.

Detective Adam Fillebrown wrote in an affidavit that a neighbor had called 911 to report a fire at 15 Tucker St. that was burning the front porch and was climbing up the side of the building early that morning.

Investigators spoke with a woman who lived in the home, who said she’d seen and smelled smoke after she’d been awakened by “popping sounds.”

She said she managed to escape the fire by jumping from a second-floor balcony, Fillebrown wrote.

The woman, whose boyfriend owns the Mexico home, said Cowper and Tidswell had arrived at the home late on the night before the fire because they had been kicked out of the home where they had been staying.

She said the couple had argued, but later had resolved the matter.

The woman stayed up with the couple until 3:30 a.m., when she went to bed; her boyfriend had turned in around midnight.

She said there were no likely sources to cause a fire on the front porch although there had been a gasoline can there.

A neighbor on Cherry Street showed investigators that her doorbell camera had captured the fire burning at 7:10 a.m.

Four minutes earlier, the camera had recorded a small fire on the porch.

“Cowper is seen walking away from the fire scene and heading down Cherry Street,” away from the fire, while he appears to be “hopping and swinging his arms,” according to the affidavit.

Cowper turned to look at the fire, briefly walked back toward it, then turned and walked away again, Fillebrown wrote.

Roughly a half-hour earlier, the camera showed no signs of fire, according to the affidavit.

The owner of the home told investigators that Cowper and Tidswell appeared to have been “high.”

The homeowner woke up at 5 a.m. and left the home shortly before 6 a.m. to go to work, he said.

Cowper told investigators he left the home for 45-50 minutes after the owner did and went to a home on Chase Avenue where he bought and used “dope” before returning to 15 Tucker St.

He said he saw smoke and fire as he approached and that the home was “engulfed.”

Cowper said he wasn’t able to enter the front door due to the fire. He said he and a neighbor tried to help the owner’s girlfriend who was on the second-floor balcony.

But Cowper’s version of events was inconsistent with the images captured on the neighbor’s doorbell camera, according to the affidavit.

Cowper said Tidswell had asked to leave with him, but he had rejected the idea and she’d gone back to sleep.

Another neighbor said she’d driven by the home about 7 a.m. and hadn’t seen any signs of fire.

An investigator’s dog detected “ignitable liquids” at the top of the porch stairs and that investigators could smell gasoline.

Another Mexico resident told investigators that Cowper had told her after the fire that the last thing he’d told Tidswell had been” “I hope you f***ing die, bitch,” according to the affidavit.

An investigator concluded that: this fire was “likely started with an open flame device, such as a cigarette lighter, with the combined use of ordinary combustibles present on the porch and an ignitable liquid, likely gasoline.” The likely cause of the fire was “intentional human element or arson,” according to the affidavit.

The cause of Tidswell’s death was “inhalation of products or combustion” and the manner was “homicide,” Fillebrown wrote.

A cigarette lighter was found on Cowper.

During an interview at Cumberland County Jail in Portland, Cowper told investigators that Tidswell had called him a “bad father,” something “that makes him very angry.”

Tidswell had tried to physically assault him, Cowper said.

His statements about trying to get help from neighbors were inconsistent with video images, Fillebrown wrote.