Police say a Fairmont man accused in the murder of a Fairmont woman physically attacked her before intentionally setting fire to her apartment in March.
Additional details were included in recently-filed criminal complaints that charge Clyde Eugene Dean Jr. of 19 Little Ln., Fairmont, with first-degree murder and first-degree arson in the fatal fire that claimed the life of Cheryl Diane Willis.
According to the court papers, the Fairmont Fire Department was sent to 519 Gaston Ave., Apt. 3 in Fairmont, on March 15 for a structure fire. On the scene, firefighters found a white female, who was later identified as Willis. She was unconscious inside the apartment.
After she was removed from the apartment, rescue crews found a wound on the right back side of her head, according to the court papers. She was also severely burned.
Willis later died March 16 at UPMC Hospital in Pittsburgh after first being airlifted to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown.
During the course of the investigation, the Fairmont Police Department and the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office determined the cause of the fire to be “incendiary and deliberately set for an unlawful and malicious purpose,” the court papers state.