MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Ball State University police detective whose hunch resulted in the arrest of a man who has confessed to burning as many as 50 churches in 11 states, admits that luck played a major role in breaking the case.

Sgt. Steve Hiatt, 42, was in his police vehicle on Feb. 9 when he overheard an emergency radio conversation by an ambulance driver about a man with suspicious burns. Hiatt’s curiosity in the report led to the arrest Tuesday of Jay Ballinger, 36, Yorktown, who has been charged with setting fire to seven churches in Indiana dating to 1994.

Hiatt, an 18-year campus officer, recognized Ballinger’s name from a previous church arson investigation. The officer went to Ball Memorial Hospital and interviewed Ballinger’s father who said his son was badly burned when he came home early Feb. 7. An Ohio church had been burned the night before.

"Initially it was just a hunch that I was just listening to the radio and that address was given," Hiatt said. "It was like a light bulb going off. I knew the address because we had some information about the person in question from a previous encounter.

"He was very badly burned and there was something very suspicious about him claiming he was injured in an accident," he said. "My initial feelings were that something was just not right about what he was saying."

The officer notified federal investigators who had been working on dozens of church arsons dating back more than five years.

Ballinger has confessed to setting up to 50 church fires between 1994 and 1998 in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio and Alabama.

Also charged are Angela Wood, 24, of Atlanta identified in court documents as Ballinger’s girlfriend, and Donald Puckett, 37, of Lebanon, Ind. The arrests were made with the help of the National Church Arson Task Force, established in 1996 after series of fires at black churches in the South.

Wood has admitted to serving as a lookout during some of the fires and Wood and Puckett are believed to have helped Ballinger burn down the Concord Church of Christ in Lebanon in 1994 after satanic symbols were scrawled on the porch. All three suspects are white and most of the church burnings in Indiana have involved rural churches with predominately white congregations.

Hiatt said he is relieved the arrest of Ballinger and his alleged accomplices may bring closure to many thousands of church goers hurt by the arsons.

"I am a religious person and he (Ballinger) has affected many, many lives," the officer said. "If he is convicted, I am glad we were able to get him off the street."