A Virginia woman out on bond for a pipe attack has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly burning another woman to death while she sat on a couch, according to cops.
Savannah Renee Adams, 28, was free on a $1,000 bond for an assault last year when she turned up at Tiffany Nicole Dunford’s home in Max Meadows in far western Virginia on Sunday, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.
She allegedly poured gasoline on Dunford, 37, as she sat on a couch outside her home — then set her on fire, fleeing as the other woman burned to death, according to the Wythe County Sheriff’s Office.
When police arrived, Dunford was still alive — but writhing in pain and suffering from “severe burns” that covered “most of her body,” the sheriff’s office said, with gruesome crime scene photos showing the charred couch.
Dunford was airlifted to a specialist burn center, where she died the next day.
Before she died, Dunford told investigators that Adams was responsible — and the suspect was busted Monday when she turned up at court for the earlier, unrelated attack, according to the Herald Courier.
Adams was initially charged with attempted second-degree murder. That charge was upgraded to first-degree murder after Dunford died.
The motive for the savage attack remains unclear.
However, the two appear to have known each other, according to WSLS, which did not elaborate on the relationship
“Tiffany is too nice of a person, and this is devastating to me and my family,” Dunford’s cousin Nicole Reyna told WXFR. “She didn’t deserve to be burned.”
Adams had twice been convicted of trespassing before the alleged pipe attack in October last year, according to the local outlet.
The accuser in that case, Norma Coffey, said Adams had threatened her before she turned up at her trailer in anger at being evicted, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the local paper.
“I really didn’t think she would (come back), but she did,” wrote Coffey, who said she screamed “that Savannah was trying to kill me” as the suspect repeatedly swung a metal pipe at her. Adams was charged with assault and trespassing in that case.
Adams is being held without bond at the New River Valley Regional Jail, records show.
She is scheduled to appear in court on January 31.
