Inset: Savannah Streber (Facebook). Background: News footage of Timothy Kuhn in court (WHAM).
A man who was accused of setting a fire that killed an 8-year-old girl in New York had his state charges thrown out. Now, he faces charges in federal court.
Timothy Kuhn, 66, was arrested at his home in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday in connection with a federal charge of arson. According to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime, Kuhn was indicted by a grand jury for “maliciously” setting fire to a Rochester, New York, home on Feb. 28, 2004. Rochester-based ABC affiliate WHAM reported that Kuhn once had a romantic relationship with the woman who lived there. At the time of the fire, the woman was at work while her children, including 8-year-old Savannah Streber, were being watched by a babysitter, who had also brought her 11-year-old son to the home.
The babysitter’s son was the first person in the house to detect the fire, just after midnight. Everyone except Savannah escaped, and Savannah was later found dead in her mother’s bedroom.
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Rochester Police Chief David Smith said the babysitter was able to alert Savannah, but police believed she ran into her mother’s bedroom to find her mother. The babysitter attempted to go back inside the house to get Savannah, but “the fire was already too intense.”
WHAM reported that investigators determined the fire was set intentionally and originated at the home’s back porch.
The case went cold until 2018, when investigators followed up on new information. In 2023, Kuhn was indicted by a grand jury in New York’s Monroe County on charges of second-degree murder and arson. But just as jury selection was about to begin in late 2025, a New York Supreme Court judge dismissed the charges. Local NPR station WXXI reported that a former cellmate of Kuhn’s testified that he told the Rochester Police Department in 2005 that Kuhn confessed to setting the fire and killing Savannah.
Capt. Greg Bello of the Rochester Police Department said when the case was dismissed that the information was “insufficiently documented or acted upon.”
Monroe County District Attorney Brian Green said in a statement after the dismissal, “This disclosure triggered the defendant’s speedy trial rights protected by the Constitution of the United States of America. Accordingly, Judge [Stephen] Miller dismissed the indictment.”
Green added, “I cannot imagine how frustrating and painful today’s events must be for the family of Savannah Streber. It is heartbreaking that there can be no accountability for Savannah’s death.”
Just over a year after the charges were dismissed, a federal grand jury indicted Kuhn for arson of property used in interstate commerce resulting in death. U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo of the Western District of New York said Kuhn would be extradited from Florida at a later date. He is currently in custody.
On a Facebook page dedicated to Savannah’s memory, her family announced that Kuhn had been arrested.
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