Girlfriend Faces Charges After Man Found Engulfed In Flames Behind Astoria Building
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Queens woman is accused of fatally shooting her boyfriend and then trying to conceal the death by setting his body on fire, police said.
The body of 43-year-old Shawn McWhorter, of Brooklyn, was found shortly before 7 a.m. Saturday behind 27-18 14 St. in Astoria.
Dawn Mcintosh, 46, killed McWhorter during an argument, police said. She then allegedly enlisted her brother's help to get rid of the body, but when they couldn't move him, they doused him with lighter fluid and set him on fire, police said.
Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said firefighters doused the flames, but McWhorter was dead.
Police found a fingernail on his body, which linked Mcintosh to the murder.
"We start talking to people who he knows. We talk to his girlfriend. She says she hadn't seen him that day," Boyce told reporters, including WCBS 880's Rich Lamb.
But detectives noticed Mcintosh was missing a fingernail. She was questioned and confessed to shooting McWhorter twice. It was all about infidelity and money, Lamb reported.
Mcintosh was charged with murder, weapon possession and tampering with physical evidence.
Her brother, 21-year-old Donte Watkins, of Queens was charged with tampering with physical evidence.
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