Apartment fire suspect known for drug use

Most of Shannon Marie Mills’ neighbors said they knew little about the woman accused of starting a fire at their apartment complex Sunday morning, but those who spoke to her said Mills lived in another world — a medicated one.

Police arrested Mills on Monday in connection with a blaze that displaced nearly 100 of her neighbors after she confessed to taking sedatives and sparking a cigarette before dozing off early Sunday morning.

Police believe her actions caused the blaze that gutted an apartment complex at 1212 E. Dallas Ave. The fire destroyed one building and damaged another, leaving dozens homeless.

Mills told investigators she took two Ambien pills, two Tylenol PM capsules and some Nyquil before going to bed, court documents state. She awoke only after gagging from the heavy black smoke in her apartment.

But instead of calling police or fire departments, Mills left the door to her apartment open and simply walked away, police said. An officer later found her covered in soot near the 500 block of East Business 83.

“She suffered from insomnia,” said Eloy Lucio, who lived across from Mills. “She would take a lot of pills.”

Lucio said his wife and he were one of the few residents who spoke to Mills. Their conversations were often impersonal and she mostly talked to him about the landlord and being behind on her rent, he said.

But there was another side of Mills that bothered Lucio.

“It seemed like she was always in another world and that scared me,” the 42-year-old said.

He recalled several occasions in which Mills appeared to be hallucinating.

“She told me she saw men hanging from the moon, trees levitating and that her dashboard and tires were melting,” he said. “There was one occasion where she was really high and she thought someone had killed (her boyfriend) and chopped him up into little pieces. And she started crying and crying.

“‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to go rest,’” Lucio recalled telling her that time. “‘You might get hurt. Go inside and rest and sleep it off.’”

Tenant Rick Liscano, 31, said he often heard neighbors complain about Mills, who allegedly knocked on their doors at odd hours of the night in search of cigarettes.

“She did a lot of drugs,” Liscano said. “I just find it weird that everyone in the building knew she was on sleeping pills.”

A McAllen municipal judge arraigned Shannon Mills, 26, on two counts of deadly conduct, a class A misdemeanor, Monday. Her bond was set at $10,000.

If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail and a fine not to exceed $4,000.