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Second arrest made after body found severely burned in St. Pete alley

A mother and daughter are accused of 'mutilating' Heather Olmstead's body back in August.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A second woman is behind bars for setting Heather Olmstead's body on fire in a St. Petersburg alley last month, according to an arrest affidavit.

Julie Heltman Curran, a 64-year-old woman from Pinellas Park, is charged with abuse of a dead body. According to arrest records, Curran mutilated Olmstead's body on Aug. 18 by lighting her on fire using a "flammable substance."

RELATED: St. Petersburg police identify burned body as 31-year-old woman

St. Petersburg Police responded to the call of a fire in an alley behind Emerson Avenue South near 29th Street South. Authorities later said Olmstead's body was found next to a trash container.

Police say surveillance video they obtained shows a white Ford pickup pulling away from the burning container. The vehicle that was registered to Curran was later identified through more surveillance footage collected in the area.

Credit: William Olmstead
Police identified the woman as Heather Olmstead

At first, authorities were unable to identify the body due to the severity of the burns. Later, however, a fingerprint was able to be used to positively identify the 31-year-old.

Curran was arrested on Sept. 8, just two days after her daughter, Cree Worley, 30 was arrested for the same charges. 

Arrest records do not show Curran charged with anything else related to Olmstead's death. Olmstead's cause of death has not been determined, according to authorities. 

Earlier this month, 10 Tampa Bay's Angelina Salcedo spoke exclusively with Olmstead's father. He told her she was working to turn her life around after getting out of jail a few months prior. 

"She had her issues and everything, but she was a good, kind-hearted person," William Olmstead said.

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