Inside the mind of a firebug: Criminal profiler examines the Palisades arson suspect… the sexual rage, brain damage and family abuse that can spark madness

If Ed Nordskog were to sit across the interrogation table from the man accused of starting the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles’ history, he’d know exactly what he’d ask.

Do you enjoy food? How is your sense of taste and smell? Do you have trouble sleeping?

Those questions might strike you as odd but Nordskog is one of America’s foremost arson profilers. He has spent almost 35 years with the LA Sheriff’s Department and investigated over 2,000 arson cases nationwide. He knows how to pry the motive out of a firebug.

The arson suspect, Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver, was arrested on Tuesday in Florida and charged with deliberately starting January’s Lachman fire, which ultimately expanded and became known as the Palisades wildfire.

The devastating blaze began across eight acres but flared to consume 23,000, killing 12 people, destroying 7,000 homes and businesses and causing $150 billion of damage.

Rinderknecht was held without bond following a court appearance in Orlando on Thursday and will be extradited to Los Angeles where he will be asked to enter a plea. If convicted, he could face 20 years in prison.

And, so far, police say, the alleged arsonist is not cooperating – nor revealing his motivations.

‘A lot of arson motives have to do with anger at somebody, a personal vendetta,’ said Nordskog. ‘If you did something to me, I’m going to come to your house and burn your car in your driveway.

‘Another common motive is fraud. People will set a fire for insurance fraud,’ he added. But, explained Nordskog ’emotionally based fire setting,’ is different.

‘Those are difficult to understand, even as people who study this and interview these suspects all the time. A lot of times, the suspects have no idea why they did it. They just did it,’ he said.

Rinderknecht’s parents were missionaries who moved around the country, and were based in Lima, Ohio, when he was a teenager.

His mother, Jennifer, is originally from Florida, where his sister still lives in West Melbourne with her family. His father, Joel, is a French citizen, and the couple live in France.

One of the questions Nordskog would ask in a bid to get to the heart of Rinderknecht’s motivation is where he went to school.

It might seem a strange inquiry – tangential, even irrelevant – but Nordskog explained: ‘I’m going go back to that middle school, and find the oldest, crabbiest teacher there, and say, ‘do you remember little Johnny Jones?’

‘They’ll know that person, just like that. ‘Oh, yeah, I know that kid. That poor kid, his sister, this happened to her, their uncle was doing this to them, the father’s in prison…’

Nordskog will try to understand the family dynamic, and whether there was anger there. Initial reports suggest that there was.

Police in Florida were called to Rinderknecht’s sister’s home – where he was living – last month, after he threatened to ‘burn the house down’.

Six days later, on September 25, police were called again when Rinderknecht threatened to shoot his sister’s husband.

The couple moved out with their two children; Rinderknecht remained alone at the house until his arrest this week. A gun, legally owned and concealed in a child’s cuddly toy, was found this week in the garage.

Nordskog would also ask health questions to determine if the suspect suffers from possible brain damage. Poor sleep and loss of senses, like taste and smell, are associated with the condition.

He says ‘the overwhelming majority’ of arsonists have brain damage in some form. ‘Nowadays,’ he said, ‘it’s often a chemically induced, through drugs.’

Nordskog has investigated cases of professional athletes – boxers, football players, hockey players – who became serial arsonists from brain injuries.

‘What it leads to later in life is violence towards their family,’ he said. ‘Lots of destructive behavior, wrecking their own homes and some of them set fires.’

Another extremely common characteristic among arsonists is sexual confusion.

‘Arson is one of the few crimes where sexual identity means something,’ he said, adding there was significant research to back up the theory.

‘It’s a massive factor. They may be hiding their sexual identity from their family for religious or family purposes, or from their spouse, or whatever. It doesn’t really matter what it is, but they may be hiding that, which causes tremendous stress in their life.

‘That stress, living this hidden life, leads to erratic behaviors and fire setting is one of those.’

Location is significant. Nordskog said: ‘If this guy’s going to do some sort of emotionally based fire setting, it’s going be to someplace that is near him, or means something to him, or is close by.

‘People that die by suicide tend to go to places that meant something to them with a significant other.’

Rinderknecht lived for several years with roommates on Via La Costa in the Palisades, steps from the start of the Skull Rock trailhead where the fire began.

One roommate, who lived in the house until 2022, told the Los Angeles Times that they would regularly hike the meandering, switchback-filled trail to the summit.

Nordskog said: ‘The site is something personal to him. He’s been to that spot before. He told investigators it meant something to him.’

Using phone records and surveillance camera footage, prosecutors alleged that Rinderknecht was in the area at the time and indeed phoned 911 several times to report the fire as it took hold.

His search history showed him in the days leading to the fire repeatedly watching a French rap video on YouTube, which shows the rapper smoking a joint, setting fire to a handful of bank notes and circling a blazing fire pit.

How significant is the rap video? Nordskog said it perhaps put an idea in his head, but more likely was a simple reflection of the angst and upset

‘Maybe it’s a sad song that means something to that person. A lost relationship is a very common thing for people to be upset about,’ he said.

‘That just tells you that somebody’s probably dealing with some emotional issues at the time.’

Recordings on the suspect’s phone show him racing in his car after the responding fire trucks and filming their efforts to get the blaze under control.

Rinderknecht told investigators in the immediate aftermath of the fire, when everyone involved was being questioned, that he offered to help the fire fighters put out the rapidly spreading flames.

His calling 911 could be for the thrill of seeing the cavalry arrive, or from sheer panic at seeing his fire get out of control, Nordskog believed.

‘They don’t stop to think that there’s actual reality in their actions,’ he said. ‘I’m not saying that they’re crazy, I’m just saying that they’re so embedded into this online culture that they lose perspective.

Part of the footage filmed by Rinderknecht revealed that the glovebox, where he said he kept his lighter, was still open.

Even to Nordskog, with his years of experience, there are some behaviors that will never fully make sense.

‘Why would you film yourself doing something that could put you in prison for most of the rest of your life?’ he asked.