A 46-year-old woman and her 21-year-old son were charged Monday with shooting the woman’s boyfriend and then setting him on fire in Astoria, officials said.
The woman, Dawn Mcintosh, apparently told police she shot 43-year-old Shawn McWhorter on Saturday morning because he cheated on her, treated her badly, and owed her money, said a law enforcement official.
While talking to Mcintosh, detectives noticed she was missing a fingernail, police said, and a fingernail was found on McWhorter’s dead body.
Mcintosh told police she then enlisted her son, Donte Watkins, to try to load the body into a car. But the deceased was too heavy, the official said, so the pair decided to set McWhorter on fire.
Police found McWhorter, who was from East New York, just before 7 a.m. on Saturday in the back of a home on 14th Street, between 27th Avenue and Astoria Boulelvard.
Mcintosh and her son both lived a few blocks away, police said.
Mcintosh was charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and tampering with physical evidence, police said. Watkins, her son, was charged with tampering with physical evidence.
Both were awaiting arraignment Monday and could not be reached for comment.
