A Florida woman has been charged with murder after authorities say she intentionally doused her romantic partner with rubbing alcohol and set her on fire during a Valentine’s Day argument, later claiming she only meant to scare her.
Shannon Felice Stork, 62, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree murder and arson causing great bodily harm in connection with the death of the woman she lived with and was romantically involved with.
The deadly fire happened on Feb. 14, 2024, inside an apartment in Miami’s Brownsville neighborhood.
Deputies and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews rushed to the building after receiving reports that two women had suffered severe burns to their upper bodies.
When first responders arrived, they found Stork and the victim outside the apartment with extensive injuries. Both women were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center with third-degree burns, according to an arrest affidavit.
The victim was initially conscious, but her condition later deteriorated and she had to be intubated. She remained on life support for more than a month before dying from her injuries on March 18, 2024, at 9:30 a.m.
Stork initially told investigators the fire had been an accident.
She claimed she had been cleaning shoes with alcohol before lighting a cigarette, which somehow ignited the flammable liquid and caused the blaze.
Detectives said her explanation soon began to fall apart.
According to investigators, Stork gave different versions of what happened during her first interview, while evidence found inside the apartment did not match her account.
Authorities then brought in experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to conduct reconstruction tests based on Stork’s story.
Those tests failed to reproduce the fire in the way she described.
“ATF personnel confirmed that the defendant’s account of events were not possible to recreate,” investigators wrote in the affidavit.
More than two years after the fire, detectives brought Stork to the sheriff’s office homicide bureau on July 22 for another interview.
After being advised of her Miranda rights, she allegedly offered more conflicting explanations before acknowledging that she and the victim had been dealing with “personal issues.”
Investigators said Stork eventually admitted that she intentionally sprayed isopropyl alcohol toward the woman, soaking her with the flammable liquid before holding a flame near her skin.
According to the affidavit, Stork said she was “trying to scare the victim” when she squeezed the bottle of rubbing alcohol toward her, doused her and ignited the liquid.
The victim’s name has not been publicly released, and authorities have not disclosed exactly what the couple was arguing about before the fire.
The Miami Herald reported that the two women had been fighting on Valentine’s Day shortly before the flames erupted inside the apartment.
Investigators concluded that every accidental-fire explanation Stork gave was inconsistent with both the physical evidence and the ATF’s reconstruction tests.
Stork is being held without bond at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
She is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
That’s a woman? Or is this a tranny identifying as a “woman”?
What you sow is what you reap.She took a life