Alaska News

Police: Anchorage woman doused sleeping man with gasoline before setting fire

According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 25-year-old Gina Vigilio of Anchorage was arrested Saturday on charges of arson, first-degree murder, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and assault, after police say she set a fire that killed her boyfriend Friday.

Anchorage police said that Virgilio allegedly doused 24-year-old Michael Gonzales with gasoline as he lay sleeping on the sofa. She then lit a match and set the apartment on fire.

Firefighters responded to the McCarry Street Apartment building in Mt. View just before 2:30 a.m., where Gonzales was announced dead at the scene.

Residents were evacuated and some were treated for minor smoke inhalation, but no one else was seriously injured. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze before it spread to the rest of the building. Although Gonzales and Vigilio's apartment was destroyed, others suffered only mild smoke damage.

Vigilio was arrested a day later in Anchorage and booked. She was originally scheduled for a court appearance on Sunday; however it has postponed due to mental health concerns. Virgilio is currently on suicide watch, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Virgilio's mother told police that her daughter had been addicted to drugs. Gina Virgilio initially told her mother that her boyfriend had spit gasoline at her and tried to use an aerosol can as a makeshift flame thrower when the fire started.

Police later interviewed Gina, and after that interview, she told her mother that she had poured gasoline on and around the couch where Gonzales slept before starting the fire and fleeing the apartmen, according to police.

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The Bee also reported that at Providence Alaska Medical Center, where Gina was admitted, she allegedly waved a female nurse into her room and told her "I did it -- I killed Michael."

Read much more, at the Sacramento Bee.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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