A 17-year-old resident of a Hempfield treatment center for troubled juveniles has been charged as an adult by state police in Greensburg for allegedly attempting to kill another resident by setting fire to her bed. Rebecca Elizabeth Gardner, a resident at the Pressley Ridge treatment facility at 1100 Georges Station Road, was arraigned Monday on multiple criminal charges including attempted homicide, arson and aggravated assault in connection with the alleged attack at 10 p.m. Sunday. Gardner was committed to the Westmoreland County Prison on $50,000 bond by Youngwood District Judge James Falcon pending a preliminary hearing Tuesday. According to court documents filed by Trooper John Zalich, he questioned Gardner in the presence of her father early Monday morning after the fire and she admitted she set it. "I asked (Gardner) what she used to set the bed on fire, and she told me a lighter. I asked her what her intentions were with setting the bed on fire, and she said to kill her (the victim)," said the affidavit of probable cause filed by Zalich. Zalich said he investigated the blaze after firefighters from several departments were summoned to the facility to extinguish the burning bed and ventilate smoke from the building. Zalich said yesterday the juvenile victim, whose name is blacked out in court documents, was not injured. Court records did not indicate what spurred the incident, and Zalich declined comment. Pressley Ridge's facility on Georges Station Road was established in 1992. The residential treatment program, for youths ages 7 to 18, provides services to families of children and adolescents who are at risk of being removed from their homes and communities because of serious emotional and behavioral problems.

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