In this chilling episode, we delve into the shocking stories of individuals whose lives were forever altered by the horrifying act of being set on fire by their partners or ex-partners. We begin by exploring the gripping account of Judy Malinowski, whose harrowing experience of being intentionally burned by her ex-boyfriend sent shockwaves through the nation. We examine her courageous fight for justice and the enduring legacy she left behind, captured in the compelling documentary, "The Fire That Took Her." Through meticulous research, I also uncover other disturbing cases where relationships turned deadly, revealing the depths of human darkness and the devastating consequences that follow. Join me as we navigate the twisted path of these true crimes, seeking to understand the motivations behind these unimaginable acts and shedding light on the resilient survivors who refuse to be silenced.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready this week?
0:30 Recently, I ran across a show on Paramount + called The Fire That Took Her.
0:36 And honestly, I think it came across a feed on my Facebook one morning and it kind of sparked my interest.
0:44 I looked into it and found this documentary which was very interesting and this happened in Franklin County, Ohio.
0:54 Judy Malinowski was a great student, a great kid, a former pageant winner.
1:02 She was named Miss New Albany.
1:04 She was born back in August the 26th of 83 in Ohio.
1:10 She had a very unfortunate background in that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when she was a young adult.
1:19 She did beat the disease, but it did come back in oh six.
1:24 So she underwent a full hysterectomy.
1:27 And then as happens to many people, she became addicted to pain medications during her recovery.
1:35 And we see this a lot at our medical examiner's office, we see people who had surgery and were in severe pain following the surgery, started taking pain medications and just could not get off of them.
1:51 Her mother Bonnie, who we met on the show.
1:55 She was the Vice president of Consumer Digital Operations at JP Morgan Chase.
2:01 Very well spoken lady.
2:03 I thought a lot of her in the documentary and her dad was Thomas Tinsel and he apparently died very early at the age of 41 back in 97.
2:16 But Judy had a sister, Danielle, a brother, Patrick and then three half brothers, Nicholas Joseph and Mark.
2:25 And what happened to Judy again is sad.
2:30 It happens to a lot of people but she became addicted to these pain medications and was also in a very abusive relationship, unfortunately.
2:43 And it was either because her doctors just cut off her pain medication or she lost her insurance.
2:50 I'm not 100% sure which one it was.
2:52 But she started using heroin and her boyfriend actually was bringing it to her Mike Slager.
3:01 She met him in 2015 because she couldn't get the oxycontin and the Percocet anymore.
3:08 She started using heroin and he was pretty much bringing it to her because he was abusive.
3:15 She tried to cut off the relationship multiple times and he seemed to always find his way back to her as happens in many abusive relationships.
3:28 So it kind of started spiraling but he followed her to a nearby gas station and this is back, August the 2nd 2015, she had left drug rehab.
3:41 He took her there and apparently they got into an argument and she threw a soda on him.
3:49 He doused her with gasoline and set her on fire.
3:53 Now you can see the video on the documentary.
3:57 It's horrifying and I can only imagine the mother having to see that on video, but he actually poured it on her and then bent over and lit her on fire with a cigarette lighter.
4:13 Now, ironically, when the police came to the hospital to question him, he said, yeah, you know, we got into a fight.
4:20 I doused her with gasoline.
4:23 I wasn't really trying to hurt her.
4:26 I didn't think I got that much on her and then we kind of made up and the conversation came around and she asked for a cigarette and she put it in her mouth and I've been over to light it and it ignited.
4:40 Yeah, bullsh*t.
4:41 So anyway, and the police of course, didn't believe him either.
4:45 He had a pretty long rap sheet.
4:47 He'd been in trouble a lot.
4:50 There was a witness that said that the two were arguing.
4:54 He did put her out with a fire extinguisher.
4:57 However, it wasn't until a bystander came and screamed for help.
5:02 He was waiting and pretty much ignored her screams until the bystander said something and then I guess he was trying to look like the good guy and maybe it kicked in.
5:12 Oh, you know, I can say that this happened on accident.
5:15 I was trying to light a cigarette for her, be a good guy for her and light a cigarette.
5:20 But he also got some of the gasoline in her mouth.
5:24 She lost both ears, two fingers and most of her hair and because of the burn injury and damage to her trachea, she could only whisper so she couldn't even talk very loud.
5:38 And you can see that in the documentary as well.
5:41 It hurt me to hear her talk because you could tell that it was uncomfortable and just to see her.
5:46 I mean, oh my God, you can't only imagine 95% of your body.
5:51 She was only expected to live for a couple of days if that.
5:55 And she said that it felt like 1000 hot needles stabbing into her body.
6:01 Now, initially she was in a coma for months, completely disfigured.
6:06 I mean, she was a beautiful girl and completely disfigured by this.
6:11 You'll see in the documentary, there are actual videos of her speaking.
6:16 What I thought was amazing is that she hung on so, so long and I just don't know how she did it.
6:23 But whenever Mike was sentenced, he got 11 years.
6:30 And you know what another thing though I need to mention a really sad thing is that in Ohio, she could not get crime victims compensation because of her history of addiction, which I thought was completely unfair.
6:46 I mean, just because you've been diagnosed with cancer and you are addicted to pain medications, you're not allowed to be a victim and you're not allowed to get victims assistance.
6:59 And I thought that that was crap because, you know, we tell women all the time, you know, you don't deserve to be raped because of what you're wearing or where you are.
7:12 And yet because of your history, you're not allowed to get crime victims compensation, which is not fair.
7:20 That's like telling a woman that she can't get crime victims compensation for missed work after she's been sexually assaulted because she had on a short skirt.
7:28 I mean, I kind of compare the two.
7:31 So anyway, that made me super angry and that was one thing about the show that I thought was completely unfair because obviously she wasn't able to work.
7:40 And I think the mom said that her hospital bill ran up into the millions.
7:46 What I do love is that they passed Judy's law in May of 2017 because of her.
7:53 She actually testified against Mike before she passed away.
7:59 This law was passed, the Ohio representatives passed it to make assaults for violent criminals who intentionally disfigure their victims by using accelerants serve longer sentences.
8:13 And you'll notice in the documentary, the judge actually makes a statement that she feels it's unfair that 11 years was all that she could give him and her hands were pretty much tied by the law.
8:27 But Judy actually was alive long enough to testify against him before she passed away.
8:37 And then her family carried through getting this law passed so that criminals could actually serve longer prison sentences.
8:47 So he was eventually charged with aggravated murder.
8:50 He pled guilty on July 5th and he ended up getting life in prison.
8:56 And this guy, you could just tell by looking at him, he never cried, he never seemed upset.
9:02 He was not remorseful at all during the trial.
9:07 And you can see that in the documentary.
9:09 But one thing that I loved about it is I always like how people take something bad and try to turn something good out of it.
9:17 You always see people, they get dealt a sh*tty hand and they basically just Waller in self pity and continue to decline and spiral until they are depressed and absolutely nothing good comes of it.
9:35 And so it's always nice to see when something bad happens to somebody and they try to turn around and make something good out of it.
9:43 So that was kind of enlightening to me.
9:47 I felt like her mother did a great job.
9:51 I felt really, really bad for her kids because they weren't aware of everything going on because of their age.
9:57 They weren't really old enough to be privy to all the details of her drug addiction.
10:03 Again, you know, we can't tell our kids everything at every age.
10:07 But she was trying, you know, she had gone to rehab and she just got dealt a crappy hand.
10:15 And so just to get caught in an abusive relationship at the same time can definitely make someone spiral.
10:23 And now this happens, I mean, the dousing with gasoline.
10:27 I mean, we've heard of this happening pretty often and I don't remember this story when I was younger.
10:34 I don't remember it coming across the news, but it's happened a lot.
10:39 It happened again in Georgetown, a man chased his girlfriend down during a camping trip and doused her with gasoline, lit her on fire in front of her own kids.
10:49 He actually killed her as well and spent the rest of his life in prison.
10:54 So this happened in Colorado.
10:58 This couple was actually at a wilderness campsite in Barbara Forks area of the Arapaho National Forest.
11:07 The female, her name is Christina Archuleta Blazer and she actually was planning on going on a camping trip with her two boys Vasquez, which is John Vasquez, who was the one that was sentenced to life in prison plus 21 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections, he was going with them.
11:29 So at the camp site, he was actually violating his court ordered terms by drinking.
11:36 She said something to him about it and then he actually killed her because she made a comment to him over his continued use of alcohol.
11:48 Now, after he burned her she was flown by helicopter to the University of Colorado Barn Unit and she had 3rd and 4th degree burns, which is what Judy's burns were.
11:59 Judy's burns were third degree burns.
12:01 They were covering about 60% of her body.
12:05 Now, she only survived about a month and she was never able to communicate how she was injured.
12:14 So she wasn't even able to tell her story or talk about it, but of course, her kids were there and so they witnessed it.
12:20 She had an oldest son and then two younger sons and the younger ones were the ones that were with her when this happened.
12:29 And the poor things, they tried to rescue her, they got first responders to the campsite.
12:35 One of them was six.
12:36 He also suffered second degree burns trying to help put the mom out.
12:42 Vasquez was convicted of felony murder charges, first degree, second degree murder, assault, causing serious bodily injury, child abuse, causing serious bodily injury because of the six year old being injured and then violation of protective order, criminal impersonation and arson.
13:01 This type of situation unfortunately can sometimes be the outcome when domestic violence gets completely out of hand.
13:13 And I mean, not to say that it's only men doing this to women.
13:17 There have also been stories of women who have done this to men.
13:21 So it's definitely not one sided, abusive relationships, things get crazy and for some reason, gasoline and a match or a lighter seemed to be the answer for the other person.
13:36 Now, there is a more recent story that occurred in Lake City Florida and this is actually a woman who was arrested after she set the boyfriend on fire.
13:47 So Stephanie Britton, she was 37.
13:50 She was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and her victim, her boyfriend was actually 72 he was rushed to the hospital with first degree burns on his head back and hands out of the hospital alive.
14:05 Doing great.
14:06 But he said that his living girlfriend set him on fire by pouring rubbing alcohol onto his head and then lighting it with a cigarette lighter.
14:14 I guess there was an argument.
14:16 He was getting ready to go outside because he was trying to get away from her and she threw the alcohol on him and set him on fire.
14:25 He told police that moments prior he was in the bathroom and she set a mattress on fire and he said that he put out the fire before he walked outside to get away from her.
14:36 Of course, when investigators got there, they could smell the alcohol and said that the sheets on the mattress were burned and they could smell the alcohol on the sheets as well.
14:46 So they found an empty bottle of alcohol near where he was set on fire.
14:53 The state's attorney could actually upgrade the charges to attempted murder but she was only charged with aggravated battery only imagine the pain though y'all, I may wimp, I can barely burn the end of my finger and I feel like it would be less painful if I had cut it off.
15:10 I mean, it is so painful to me.
15:13 I can only imagine 95 or 60% of my body being burned.
15:18 I've always heard stories about burn units and how painful it is to de breed and skin grafts.
15:25 And I mean, Judy had 59 surgeries.
15:28 And so, you know, after that, you know, you're sad, anxious, upset, you know, you're not happy that people are having to take care of you.
15:37 You feel like you're by yourself and you relive it constantly in your head because you can't do anything else.
15:43 You know, you're laying there in a hospital bed, always on guard.
15:47 It's just difficult, I'm sure to sleep or to find any kind of enjoyment or pleasure in life at all.
15:54 When you've been through that, I highly recommend this documentary again.
16:00 It's called The Fire That Took Her.
16:02 It's on Paramount +, I believe we just thought that it was very interesting.
16:09 I love hearing stories about like true stories about things that really happen.
16:13 I get tired sometimes of seeing remakes of things that aren't 100% true.
16:19 But to actually see Judy talk, feel the empowerment she must have had whenever she was able to testify against Mike and actually get him life in prison and she did not believe in the death penalty.
16:30 They actually asked her in an interview what punishment she would like to see him get.
16:36 And she said life in prison because she didn't believe in the death penalty.
16:41 He is in prison for life.
16:43 And a lot of that is because of her.
16:46 I love to see women and even men just take control of their situations.
16:53 I do have some really interesting interviews coming up that I think y'all are gonna love.
16:57 These are stories that you really haven't heard.
17:01 Some of them are people that I know some of them are just people that I have met in passing since I've had the podcast, but very interesting stories of their lives and what conspired due to violence or abuse.
17:15 And the thing is once you get pushed over that edge, you never know what you are capable of doing to protect yourself.
17:24 And so I'm super excited about these interviews coming up.
17:28 I don't want to tell you all too much, but there are a couple of different people that are going to be interviewed.
17:32 And so we're going to do a series on women who have overcome some things in their life that seem just difficult to overcome completely.
17:43 So y'all stay tuned for that and we will talk to you soon.
17:48 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies, if you like this podcast and would like to share with others please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple podcast.
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18:02 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.