Bride-to-Be Accused of Using a Tampon to Set Fire to a Utah Church the Night Before Her Wedding, Police Say

A bride-to-be allegedly burned down part of the church she was supposed to get married in the very next day. Police in Kaysville, Utah say 25-year-old Lenita “Tessa” Joy Moreno used a stolen lighter and a tampon to ignite a fire under a stack of chairs inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse, causing more than $108,000 in damage. Six people were inside the building when the flames broke out.

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A Wedding Rehearsal Interrupted by a Fire Alarm

Just after 10 p.m. on July 10, Moreno, her fiancé, and several family members were decorating the meetinghouse at 198 W. Center Street for the next day’s ceremony. The group was preparing to head home for the night when the building’s fire alarm suddenly went off, according to a police booking affidavit reported by KSL.com. They rushed to search the building for the source.

Flames Found in the Women’s Relief Society Room

The family located a fire burning inside the church’s Relief Society room. One person grabbed water from the wedding decorations to help douse the flames, while another used a fire extinguisher to stop the blaze from spreading further. The building was saved from serious structural loss, but the damage bill would later climb past six figures.

A Tampon and Applicator Found Under a Stacked Chair

Once firefighters and investigators arrived, they traced the fire’s origin to underneath a chair pushed against the wall among a stack of others. There, they found items that stood out as unusual for the setting: a tampon and its applicator, left on the floor near where the flames had started, according to the probable cause statement.

Surveillance Footage Told a Different Story

Investigators pulled security video from a nearby Ace Hardware store, where the groom said he and Moreno had stopped earlier that day. The footage allegedly showed Moreno stealing two BIC lighters off the shelf and slipping them into her shoes before leaving the store, undetected at the time by anyone around her.

She Denied Ever Carrying a Lighter

Before the fire, someone had asked Moreno directly whether she had a lighter on her. She said no, adding that she did not smoke and had no reason to carry one. Investigators would later point to that denial as one more piece that did not add up once the security footage and physical evidence came together.

A False Name and a Different Birthday

When officers first spoke with Moreno, she identified herself using a different first and last name and gave a birthdate that did not match her Wyoming driver’s license. During a follow-up interview days later, she admitted to stealing something from the hardware store but would not say what it was.

No Marriage License for Her Own Wedding

Police also found that Moreno had never actually obtained a marriage license for the ceremony planned for the next day, despite telling people she had. The arresting officer described her as deceptive, writing that she repeatedly took drastic steps to cover her tracks, extending well beyond the fire itself.

Federal Investigators Joined the Case

The case grew beyond local police. Kaysville fire officials, the state fire marshal, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all took part in the investigation, according to Fox 13 Now. Moreno was arrested on July 27, more than two weeks after the fire, and booked into the Davis County Jail without bail.

The Interrupted Wedding

Moreno now faces charges of aggravated arson, retail theft, and providing false information to police, according to KUTV. What was supposed to be the site of her wedding became a crime scene instead, and the wedding itself never had the legal paperwork to back it up. The case now moves from a chaotic July night into the hands of Davis County prosecutors.