Story Archive

Burning Desire

Matthew Wong, 50, apparently planned to kill or abduct his estranged wife, Gloria Davis, 47, outside her Tampa Bay, Fla., apartment. According to the sheriff’s report, he covered the windows in the back of his car and waited for her in the parking lot with gasoline, tape, and a pair of gloves. “It appears it was all planned,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry McKinnon. “He was waiting out there to ambush her.” When Davis arrived, Wong chased her, attempting to splash gasoline on her and pulling a lighter from his pocket, investigators say. A neighbor across the street said she heard a woman screaming for help. She looked outside and saw the bushes on fire, then a man screamed, “I’m going to kill you!” — and then he burst into flames. “It was instantaneous,” she said. “He just lit on fire. I don’t even understand how.” Wong was taken to Tampa General Hospital with third-degree burns over his upper body. Davis was unharmed. (MS/Tampa Bay Times) ...Instant karma; just add fire.