Indiana Man Charged With Arson After Chopping Off Manhood and Setting It on Fire

A bizarre self-harm incident in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has led to a felony arson charge against a 36-year-old man, after he reportedly admitted to removing his private part and then setting the evidence ablaze inside the detached garage.

According to a report Fox59 published on Wednesday, July 8, the strange case began on May 6, when the Fort Wayne Fire Department responded to a fire at a detached garage. Court documents confirmed that around the same time, police were separately responding to a reported stabbing.

The garage’s property owners told authorities that a neighbor had woken them up to alert them to the flames, according to the outlet. It was only afterward that they realized a family member, Christopher Peden, was missing from the home.

Meanwhile, police encountered a stabbing victim who turned out to be Peden, 36. Per the report, court documents confirmed that as he was transported to the hospital, Peden claimed he had been stabbed somewhere in downtown Fort Wayne and said he’d been threatened the day before.

But Peden’s story didn’t hold up. According to the outlet, he later told investigators he had been “dishonest” about the stabbing and “wanted to be truthful.”

What followed was a far stranger admission: Fox 59 reported that Peden told investigators he had gone to the garage and cut off his own manhood with a kitchen knife, according to the affidavit. He then said he poured gasoline over the severed body part and “set it on fire on the floor of the garage just inside the door,” before walking away until he crossed paths with police.

Investigators recovered several pieces of evidence from the garage, including a red plastic gas container, four lighters and a kitchen knife, per the report.

Peden is now facing a Level 4 felony arson charge. A hearing in the case is scheduled for next week, according to the outlet.