--- title: Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting Girlfriend on Fire description: Clarence Duwell Dear allegedly set ablaze Dawn Hensley during a domestic dispute. canonical: https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-28T15:18:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:39:11.603Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting Girlfriend on Fire og:description: Clarence Duwell Dear allegedly set ablaze Dawn Hensley during a domestic dispute og:url: https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting Girlfriend on Fire twitter:description: Clarence Duwell Dear allegedly set ablaze Dawn Hensley during a domestic dispute twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting His Girlfriend on Fire on Christmas Day by [Tim Nudd / People](/author/people/) ## Tim Nudd / People Dec 28, 2015 3:18 PM CUT by [Tim Nudd / People](/author/people/) ## Tim Nudd / People Dec 28, 2015 3:18 PM CUT A Pomona, California, man has been charged with murder after he allegedly doused a woman with gasoline on Christmas Day and lit her on fire. Police arrested Clarence Duwell Dear on Sunday after he boarded a bus in Altadena, California, two days after he allegedly murdered Dawn Hensley during a domestic dispute, [according to a police report obtained by PEOPLE](http://local.nixle.com/alert/5555060/ "undefined"). According to the report, officers were called to a Cordova Street address at around 1:44 p.m. on Christmas Day to investigate reports of a person who had been set on fire. Dear, 51, and Hensley, 41, had allegedly been having “a heated argument that escalated to physical violence,” police said. “It appears that during a domestic dispute, the suspect chased the victim from their residence and was able to douse the victim with gasoline. The suspect then ignited the victim, possibly with a lit cigarette. The victim collapsed in the street and the suspect fled the scene in an unknown direction,” police said. Neighbors treated Hensley until Los Angeles County fire personnel arrived. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died a short time later, police said. Dear was taken into custody without incident on Sunday after police received a tip that he was riding a bus in Altadena. He is charged with murder. His bail was set at $1 million. _This_ [_article_](http://www.people.com/article/woman-murdered-gasoline-fire "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://people.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/"},"headline":"Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting His Girlfriend on Fire on Christmas Day","datePublished":"2015-12-28T15:18:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:39:11.603Z","description":"Clarence Duwell Dear allegedly set ablaze Dawn Hensley during a domestic dispute","url":"https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/","keywords":["Murder","Crime","fire"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tim Nudd / People"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4162036/suspect-muder-charge-christmas-fire/","name":"Suspect Charged With Murder After Setting His Girlfriend on Fire on Christmas Day"}}]}] ```