Woman charged with torching home while boyfriend slept

A 45-year-old Crystal Lake woman was charged Monday with setting fire to a home she shared with her boyfriend as he slept upstairs.

Authorities say Carrie M. Gil used a “liquid accelerant to fuel a fire during the early hours of Sept. 27 at the home on the 500 block of Windham Cove.

According to Crystal Lake police, the fire started in the master bedroom where Gil's 55-year-old boyfriend was sleeping at the time. The fire was confined to the bedroom.

“We believe that an accelerant, probably gas, was utilized by pouring it onto the floor and igniting a fire in the bedroom, Crystal Lake Deputy Police Chief Gene Lowery said.

Neither Gil nor her boyfriend were seriously hurt in the fire, according to police. Both suffered smoke inhalation. The townhouse they shared sustained an estimated $40,000 in damage and was left uninhabitable immediately after the fire.

Police say they arrested Gil at a Crystal Lake-area motel on Monday and charged her with aggravated arson and residential arson, crimes that carry typical sentences of six to 30 years in prison. Her bond has not yet been set.

Authorities said Gil's accounts of the fire and her relationship with the man who was sleeping in the home did not match other information they gathered during the investigation. Among other alleged inconsistencies, Gil told police she was not in the master bedroom when the fire started, police said.

Gil was the only other person in the home at the time of the fire, according to Crystal Lake police.

Deputy Chief Lowery said it would be “premature and inappropriate for him to comment on a possible motive. He did say Gil had not seen the man since the fire.

Further charges could be filed after the state crime lab processes evidence found at the scene, Lowery said.

A search of McHenry County court records reveals just three relatively minor offenses for Gil since 1997, all of them traffic citations.