DNA On Cigarette Solves 5-Year-Old Arson Case, JCSO Says

CLAYTON – A single cigarette butt left at a 2020 fire scene has led to an arrest in the case.

After five years, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a Clayton man linked by DNA evidence to an arson that heavily damaged an abandoned house on Loop Road.

Back on November 18, 2020, flames tore through the vacant structure just outside Clayton. Investigators from the Johnston County Fire Marshal’s Office and Johnston County Sheriff’s Office ruled the blaze as arson.

At the scene, sheriff’s detectives found what would become the key to cracking the case: a discarded cigarette butt. It was sent to the North Carolina SBI Crime Lab for DNA analysis. Recently, lab results came back with a match – Daniel John Nolan, 49, of Harding Drive in Clayton.

Nolan, no stranger to law enforcement, was arrested September 29, 2025 and charged with felony breaking and entering and felony second-degree arson. Authorities confirmed he lived near the scene of the 2020 blaze.

Just months earlier, in July 2025, Nolan pleaded guilty to felony burning personal property after setting fire to a mattress and wooden bed frame on May 31, 2025 in Johnston County. Nolan was given a suspended 7 to 18 month prison sentence and placed on 18 months of probation. He was ordered to pay $500 in restitution to the victim and court costs—which, as of October 1, still hasn’t been paid, according to court records.

Nolan will face a judge in the coming weeks as prosecutors move forward with the charges. At last check he was still in the Johnston County Detention Center being held under a $175,000 secured bond.