DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270667

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   69 lines

BEACH WOMAN IS SET AFIRE, DIES BOYFRIEND FLEES, BUT LATER TURNS HIMSELF IN TO POLICE IN N.C.

A woman burned to death after her boyfriend doused her with a flammable liquid and set her on fire Wednesday, according to police.

After she was set afire, the woman darted out of the residence and down a flight of stairs, where she collapsed and died. Flames spread through the woman's apartment in the College Park area, gutting it.

Police spokesman Lou Thurston identified the victim as 26-year-old Lynell McKleny. Her boyfriend was identified as Jarrett Pickett, 27, whose last known address was in the 7800 block of Ogden Ave. in Norfolk. Pickett is stationed aboard the destroyer Arthur W. Radford.

Picket turned himself in to police in Williamston, N.C., on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. Murder charges were pending. A Virginia Beach detective traveled there by police helicopter Wednesday evening.

A downstairs neighbor rescued two of the woman's children moments before the couple's argument turned deadly, police said. Thurston said the neighbor snatched the children from the woman's residence after the man poured a flammable liquid on the woman. Thurston declined to identify the neighbor because the neighbor is a witness to murder.

Police said the children, a 1-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, were taken to a hospital for evaluation, but didn't appear hurt. A third child of McKleny's wasn't home when the fire started, Thurston said.

The crime stunned neighbors and relatives, who said the couple's relationship didn't seem that troubled. Others, however, said McKleny was trying to leave Pickett.

One woman, who asked that her name not be used, said that Pickett visited with McKleny's relatives and friends during the weekend and that everything seemed fine.

Police records show that officers had been sent to the home for a domestic fight once earlier this year.

On Wednesday, officers went to the apartment, in the 1200 block of Edenham Court, around 11:20 a.m. Neighbors had called police to say the couple's argument had turned violent. At one point, Thurston said, the victim also spoke by phone with dispatchers, but Thurston didn't have details of that conversation.

When police arrived moments later, McKleny was dead, Pickett was gone, and the apartment was burning.

Police Officer Troy T. Williams suffered mild smoke inhalation when he helped evacuate neighbors in the apartment complex. He was treated at a nearby hospital and later returned to work.

Throughout the afternoon, distraught relatives, including the victim's mother, rushed to the apartment complex after seeing the fire on midday television newscasts. Many collapsed into the arms of other relatives, police officers and a police chaplain.

``She's dead!'' the mother screamed to a woman who had run to the yellow crime-scene tape encircling the scorched apartment.

``Why?'' the woman wailed, and collapsed into a puddle of water that had drained from fire hoses.

Police said Lynell McKleny was a relative of William McKleny III, who was fatally shot by burglars on July 25. William McKleny was visiting his girlfriend's home on Osprey Street when a group of intruders mistook him for a drug dealer who used to live at that residence. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Lynell McKleny, 26, was doused with gasoline and set afire in her

apartment Wednesday on Edenham Court. A neighbor saved two of her

children.

Map KEYWORDS: MURDER FIRE

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