Oregon teen charged with helping girlfriend plan deadly Monroe County fire

The 17-year-old boyfriend of a teenager accused of setting fire to her Monroe County home has been charged with two counts of murder.

Kaleo D. Pangelinan, who lives in Oregon, was arrested Thursday afternoon by Monroe County sheriff’s investigators and sheriff’s deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Roseburg, Oregon.

Pangelinan was identified as a person of interest early in the investigation.

“We found some digital evidence right after serving search warrants on his telephone and his social media accounts that lead us to get the warrant,” Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman said.

Pangelinan faces an extradition hearing on the Georgia charges.

His girlfriend, Candace Walton, 16, is charged with two counts of felony murder, arson and multiple counts of theft by taking in the Feb. 27 fire that destroyed the home she shared with her mother and special-needs brother on Old Zubulon Road in southwest Monroe County.

Her brother, 21-year-old Gerald Walton, and her mother, 46-year-old Tasha Vandiver, died in the fire.

Investigators initially thought Candace died in the fire, but she was found driving her mother’s care in McCracken County, Kentucky, late in the afternoon on the same day of the fire.

Freeman said he and investigators are “almost certain” Walton was headed to Oregon to meet up with Pangelinan when she was pulled over in Kentucky. She was arrested after “incriminating things” were found in the car.

“As of yet, we just have theories but no concrete evidence on why,” Freeman said.

As for Pangelinan’s role, the sheriff said, “He was not physically here. It was more in planning and execution stage.”

Walton was being held without bond at the Macon Regional Youth Detention Center pending trial.

She is expected to be tried as an adult based on the seriousness of the charges, but she’s being held at a youth detention center because she’s 16.