The man suspected of intentionally setting a Wendy’s restaurant on fire last month and taking money from the business was employed as a manager there, a city police detective testified.

Michael Sheehan, 40, of Bowling Green, is charged with second-degree arson, third-degree burglary, theft by unlawful taking, tampering with physical evidence, first-degree criminal mischief and intimidating a participant in the legal process.

The fire occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 21 at the Wendy’s on U.S. 31-W Bypass, heavily damaging the store, and Sheehan was arrested March 13.

Sheehan appeared Wednesday in Warren District Court for a preliminary hearing in his criminal case, at which Warren District Judge John Brown bound the case over to a grand jury.

Detective Jordan Tyree of the Bowling Green Police Department testified that investigators found that a door to the restaurant had been unlocked and, though an estimated $2,000 was missing from the safe, no evidence showed the safe had been forced open.

“It was presumed that whoever did break in had a key to access both,” Tyree said.

A DVR box containing the store’s surveillance footage had been cut and removed, so Tyree said he canvassed nearby businesses for their security footage, which he said showed a man wearing black clothing and with most of his face covered entering the Wendy’s around 3:30 a.m. Feb. 21 and cutting off the power.

Tyree said the man is then seen running from the building, circling back around nearby businesses and returning to the Wendy’s about 50 minutes later, leaving a short time afterward with the DVR box.

“Shortly after (the suspect) flees the scene, the business was observed going up in smoke and the suspect continued fleeing,” Tyree said.

The Bowling Green Fire Department found some accelerant at the scene, but Tyree said it was unclear whether the substance “was bleed-over” from a pressure washer on site.

Tyree said he contacted a district manager for the business and learned that four employees would have had keys to the exterior doors and the safe at the time of the fire, one of those employees being Sheehan.

Questioned by police, Sheehan denied any role in the burglary, theft or fire, saying he was supposed to help close the store that night but ended up working late at the Smiths Grove location and had decided to help open the store the next morning, Tyree said.

“He told me he responded to the scene when he got a call from one of his co-workers,” Tyree said.

Police learned that Tyree had asked off from work for the weekend after the fire to visit his mother in Utah, and had told the district manager he had flown there, then traveled to California and found time at the end of the weekend to visit a relative in Nashville.

Tyree said police spoke with people who reported seeing Tyree in the area that weekend and federal law enforcement officials informed police that Tyree did not fly to Utah that weekend.

Police interviewed a Wendy’s district manager who noted a burglary had occurred at the restaurant eight months before the fire, and the locks were changed at the safe afterward, with four employees being provided with new keys.

The district manager also provided more information about Sheehan.

“She advised that Sheehan had expressed concern that one of the district managers was going to come in and check to see who was stealing from the store,” Tyree said, going on to say that another employee had seen Sheehan doing cash returns at the register, going back to count the money and possibly taking it from the safe.

Police also viewed surveillance footage from a motion-activated camera at a building near Sheehan’s home and Tyree testified that footage from around 4:30 a.m., Feb. 21 showed a “suspicious subject” covered in a white sheet.

“A male subject who was either running or on a bike, completely covered in a white sheet, (is seen) going up the driveway and all the way to the back of where Mr. Sheehan’s residence is,” Tyree said. “I thought it was very odd.”

Police interviewed Sheehan’s girlfriend, learning from her that she saw Sheehan get dressed in black clothing shortly before 3:30 a.m. Feb. 21, and that Sheehan expressed concern to her that a district manager would review camera footage from the Wendy’s to find out who was taking money from the store, the detective said.

“She advised he told her he was going to try to retrieve the (DVR) box and destroy it,” Tyree said.

Police have not recovered the DVR box and have no information on how it may have been disposed.

Tyree said police interviewed Sheehan’s girlfriend on March 11 at BGPD headquarters and that she brought her own recorder to the session.

“She advised that Mr. Sheehan told her that if she talked to the police about this that he was going to kill her, and if she absolutely had to talk to us she needed to record it so he could hear it,” Tyree said, adding that her recording captured a portion of her interaction with city police, who recorded the entire interview. “She did believe that threat to be legitimate because he had assaulted her numerous times in the past and showed me pictures of those assaults.”

Sheehan remains in Warren County Regional Jail under a $50,000 cash bond.