N. Miami woman burned in 'very unusual' car arson

By Akilah Johnson, Miami Bureau, Posted May 7 2002

Sun-Sentinel Link

NORTH MIAMI -- Police are trying to piece together the events that led to 21-year-old Odeline Monestine being almost burned alive inside her car early Monday morning.

Monestine's injuries were so severe she could not speak Monday, so detectives canvassed her North Miami neighborhood, interviewing relatives and neighbors and sifting through the charred remains of her green Toyota Camry.

Lead Detective Alanzo Rhymer called the case "very unusual."

He said Monestine's family told police she arrived at her house on the 1300 block of Northeast 135th Street about 2 a.m. Monday, but soon went out to get a book from her car.

That's when two men with dreadlocks who spoke with Jamaican accents came up to her and asked for her car keys, Rhymer said. When she refused, they ordered her inside the car, doused it with a flammable liquid and set it afire.

"Laughing, they set the car on fire and ran," said Monestine's brother, Patrix. "That's when she got out of the car and started screaming. At first we thought she was crying because her car was burning."

But he quickly realized his sister's cries were due to her burning skin and not the flaming car.

Unable to put his emotions into words, all her father, Pierre Monestine, could say was that his daughter "was studying to be a teacher ... it's bad, very bad," as he motioned to the sections of the body where his daughter was burned -- face, neck, torso, arms and legs.

Odeline Monestine was in critical yet stable condition late Monday at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center, with burns covering more than 36 percent of her body.

Neighbors said they smelled what they thought were chemicals or wires burning.

"We thought maybe it was the [air conditioner], then we heard this boom," said Rudvy Taylor, who was staying with nearby relatives. "We went outside and saw it was a fire, ... we didn't know the girl was in the car."

Monestine recently graduated from Miami-Dade Community College and is majoring in secondary education at Florida International University.

At Miami-Dade she was reintroduced to a high school friend who would eventually become her husband.

Alcy Colin, 25, and Monestine were married Friday in a private civil ceremony, he said.

The first time he saw her he told her he was going to marry her. Monday, when he saw her at the hospital, he wasn't sure what to say.

"She doesn't think she is going to be the same," he said.

On Saturday, the day after their wedding, the back seat of Monestine's car was slashed. Police are looking for a possible connection between the two incidents, said North Miami Police spokeswoman Kathleen Ruggiero.

Colin said he "doesn't have any idea who might do this. She doesn't have any enemies."

Akilah Johnson can be reached at akjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5001.

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