UPDATE

REWARD! REWARD!

An insurance group offers a reward for the name of the person or persons who set that barn on fire and killed those 8 horses in Morgan County. It was an arson and WE are calling it a hate crime!!

Brent Whitehouse hopes a reward of up to $5,000 offered by the Blue Ribbon Arson Committee will help find the person responsible for setting a fire that killed his horses and destroyed his barn Sunday night. The State Fire Marshal's Office has ruled the fire was arson. Derogatory statements were painted on the barn walls and doors just before the fire, said Shane Cartmill, spokesman for the fire marshal's office. Whitehouse said because of those statements, the fire marshal's office is looking at the possibility of a hate crime. The reward, sponsored by the Ohio FAIR Plan Underwriting Association, works with law enforcement, firefighters and insurance industry personnel in an effort to combat arson. The fire marshal's office is asking anyone with information regarding the fire to contact them.

We've included these numbers:

Anyone with information regarding this fire is asked to call the fire marshal’s office at 1-800-589-2728 or the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office at 740-962-4044.