Burnt victim says…Lover set me on fire

Apr 11, 2015 News

In a surprising turn of events, Ashawnti Parris, the woman who was thought to have set herself on

Critical: Ashawnti Parris

fire last Tuesday at Linden, has confessed to police that it was her lover who set her on fire because he thought she had undergone an abortion.
The woman made her confession yesterday in the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s Burns Care Unit in the presence of a family member and a rank from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Linden.
It is unclear why the woman waited until now to report to the police and her family members what really transpired.
The 25-year-old mother of one is nursing fourth degree burns about her entire body at the aforementioned medical institution.
She had previously claimed that she and her partner were involved in an argument during which she lit herself on fire to get his attention.
However, when doctors examined her wounds, they knew something was definitely wrong with the story being told by the woman.
Investigators were also baffled by the woman’s story since her hands are not as damaged as the other parts of her body and according to police sources, it should have been if she had really burnt herself.
It was late yesterday when she finally decided to relate what she claimed really happened on that

Ashawnti Parris before she was burnt.

fateful day. According to the woman, at around 11:30 hrs on Tuesday, she and her partner of eight months were involved in an argument.
The wounded woman’s mother, Kathleen Waldron yesterday told this newspaper that her daughter explained to family members that her partner thought she had an abortion.
The man, according to Waldron, took her daughter inside the house and tied her hands together before pouring kerosene on her.
“She said that he then lighted her on fire and run out the house. And he (the partner) wasn’t the one who saved her, it was some boy who run in the house and helped her,” the mother related.
Fighting to hold back tears, Waldron explained that her daughter would sometimes miss her monthly menstruation.
“He (Ashawnti’s partner) probably thought she was pregnant but she wasn’t because she went by me the Monday and she got her period right by me, and she called him and ask him to drop underwear for her and a pad,” the mother recalled.
She added that later that day, her daughter and partner got into an argument but she was not aware what the argument was about until yesterday when the young lady informed her .”She (Ashawnti) said that he (her partner) thought I assisted her in doing the abortion but she wasn’t pregnant. The Monday she even told me that she went to check if she was pregnant but the test showed negative,” the devastated mother stated.
The suspect is in police custody as investigations continue.