Officials from the ATF, US Attorney's Office and Los Angeles police announce on October 8 the arrest of a 29-year-old man in January's deadly Palisades Fire. Damian Dovarganes/AP

Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, Jonathan Rinderknecht finished up a stint as an Uber driver and drove to a hiking area just north of Pacific Palisades, California.

It was a familiar place for the 29-year-old – not far from where he had previously lived, according to a federal investigator who provided the following account of his movements that night in court documents.

Rinderknecht got out of his car and hiked up the trail, past a sign stating “Danger” and “No Fires/Smoking,” toward a small clearing sometimes called the “Hidden Buddha” for a hollowed out stump where people placed Buddha figurines.

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