A Seattle woman is fighting for her life and four people are dead after an unhinged man set his family on fire using gasoline and a torch at a Puerto Rico dinner party.
Kate Donahue, 25, traveled with her fiancé, Jesus Sanchez, from Washington to Florida, Puerto Rico, to meet her soon-to-be family.
But as soon as 14 people sat down for an early New Year's dinner, Sanchez's uncle, Justino Sanchez Diaz, 45, came into the room with a 20-pound container of propane gas and doused them with kerosene.
He then set them on fire using a homemade torch – a stick wrapped with a towel soaked in fuel.
"He planned the party so that everyone would show up," police spokesman Lt. Reinaldo Jimenez said.
The alleged attacker lived with his parents and sister at the two-story home where the horror unfolded.
Witnesses described the guests fleeing from the home one by one, several of them bald and nearly naked with their hair and clothes singed.
"Everyone came out yelling, 'He's crazy! He's crazy,' " said neighbor Viviana Bruno.
Donahue's fiancé died early yesterday as a result of the attack, in addition to Sanchez Diaz's mother, 17-year-old niece and 32-year-old cousin. Several are in critical condition.
Donahue was flown to Miami on yesterday morning in an air ambulance to receive treatment.
"The prognosis of this woman is very poor," Puerto Rico Medical Director Ernesto Torres said during a morning radio interview. "The young woman, like the other youth, Jesus, has burns over 90% of her body, which is not compatible with life."
Sanchez Diaz has been charged with murder. Since the arson, he has refused to eat or talk about his motive, according to police.
Friends and family set up a Facebook support page for Donahue and Sanchez, before Sanchez died. The couple had gotten engaged just weeks ago and their wedding was planned for this summer.
"Their last words before they were intubated were, 'For each other,' " Donahue's mother, Michelle, said. "She loves him."
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