Woman cyberstalks ex, torches his home in Washington, feds say. She’s going to prison

A 56-year-old Idaho woman will serve two and a half years in federal prison after federal prosecutors said she cyberstalked her ex-boyfriend in Spokane, Washington.

Kimberly Ann Brischle of Post Falls also broke into the man’s home and set a fire inside a closet in April 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Washington said in a news release.

Spokane firefighters doused the blaze, but a judge ordered Brischle to pay $175,000 for damage to the home, prosecutors said.

Brischle “used online applications to obscure her identity” to continue sending threatening emails and texts to the man for the next several months, the release said.

In one, she told him she had hired someone to torture and mutilate him, and kill his dog, prosecutors said.

“As this case demonstrates, the line between online activity and real-world consequences can become blurry for some — and frankly, it is a miracle and a relief that no one was hurt by the fire in this case,” U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref said in a statement.

Brischle pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and cyberstalking across state lines in May, court documents said.

She was sentenced Friday, May 27. No contact information for her attorney was available.

This story was originally published May 31, 2022 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Woman cyberstalks ex, torches his home in Washington, feds say. She’s going to prison."