Carmen Henderson was found naked and burned to death in his Pennsylvania backyard in 2022. His wife Evelyn Zigerelli-Henderson said he lit himself on fire, but her ever-changing story raised suspicion.
02:00 ET, 21 Apr 2026Updated 09:27 ET, 21 Apr 2026
Evelyn Zigerelli-Henderson killed her 84-year-old husband(Image: Dauphin County Prison)
A woman killed her husband, beloved by the community and known as ‘Grandpa’, by burning him alive naked and leaving him to die.
Evelyn Zigerelli-Henderson called 911 on June 16, 2022, at 5:23am telling operators she thought her husband Carmen Henderson was dead.
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The Pennsylvania 66-year-old told the operator: “I believe Carmen Q. Henderson did not make it. I think he is deceased.”
Retired Susquehanna Township Police Sergeant Richard Wilson told Oxygen’s Snapped he found Carmen’s body naked and burnt on the property. He said: “Some scenes make perfect sense. But this scene completely confused me.”
Dauphin County Prosecutor Mike Sprow added: “She said to the 911 operator that she had seen him at 1 o’clock in the morning, heard him yell and chose at that time not to call 911. She indicated that she found him in the morning when she got up.”
Evelyn took the police to her 84-year-old former policeman husband’s naked, burnt remains. There was more burnt debris including shreds of clothing, shoes, and a belt as well as a burnt chair.
There was a lighter on a table along with a rolled-up paper towel with one burnt end on the ground. “My question is, why is he naked?” Wilson said. “We believe, as he was on fire, he more than likely was disrobing.”
He said there was evidence of using fire accelerant and fly eggs on Carmen’s body which had begun to decay.
“That told me immediately that the story Evelyn told the 911 dispatcher was a complete lie,” Wilson said. “Because there was no way, after a short amount of time, could flies have landed on the body and left their eggs behind.”
They noted Eveleyn seemed emotionless. Prosecutor Breese Lantzy said: “You would expect someone to be hysterically crying and upset and inconsolable. She was just flat and had a monotone reaction to everything.”
Carmen Henderson was known as ‘Grandpa’ in the local community
Evelyn said she had bipolar disorder and had stopped taking her medication and emergency responders thought she may be in shock.
She denied killing her husband suggesting that Carmen had set himself ablaze.
Evelyn told 911 she last heard from Carmen at 1am, then later said she saw him smoking on the back patio around 7 or 8pm the previous evening. She also said she saw Carmen at 11on, then heard him scream her name at 4 or 5am.
Investigators determined Evelyn had waited at least four hours before calling 911 even though she said it was five to 15 minutes.
Wilson said: “Some people make mistakes, some people do bad things, but she, at that moment, struck me as truly an evil person.”
Carmen’s daughter Lori Henderson said Evelyn isolated Carmen from the rest of his family and didn’t allow visitors. Evelyn herself said their marriage as having “up and down” moments.
Sprow said the couple argued over money as Evelyn, almost 20 years younger than her husband, had taken over the family limousine company and had driven the firm into debt.
Sprow said: “We suspected…that she may have grown tired of having to care for him, since he was elderly and was not able to do everything for himself as time went on. That was something that put a larger burden on her.”
Evelyn was charged with aggravated arson and Carmen’s autopsy results showed he was alive while being burnt with soot found in his throat.
Sprow said: “If someone dies from a fire, oftentimes, the thing that kills them is inhaling all of the smoke. His blood results did not bear that out.
“This was a fire that caught quickly [and] burned hot, and so there wouldn’t have been a lot of smoke initially. He was actually breathing in more flames than any sort of smoke.”
Prosecutors thought Carmen may have been set on fire from behind. Wilson said when they presented Carmen with evidence “It was the longest pause of my life. She goes, ‘I did it.’”
Evelyn told police she lit the back of Carmen’s chair. Prosecutor Breese Lantzy said: “His clothes became engulfed in flames. He had called out, ‘Evey, Evey, help me’…as she watched him burn.’”
Then her story changed again. Sprow said: “By the time the preliminary trial rolled around, she was denying that she did the crime. She basically recanted her confession.”
Evelyn’s defense team argued Evelyn made a false confession because she was off her medication and the fire was an accident and started by Carmen.
Prosecutors noted there was no evidence of a mental health diagnosis for Evelyn.
The jury convicted Evelyn of second-degree murder, and she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dauphin County Sheriff Nicholas Chimienti said: “I asked Evelyn, ‘How did those handcuffs fit?’ I said, ‘These were your husband’s handcuffs.’ Her eyes opened up and it hit her.”
At the sentencing, Carmen’s daughter Lori Henderson directly asked Evelyn: “How could you treat someone like that, [who] was so kind to you and loved you and gave you everything?”
“That’s when she broke. That was the first time she ever looked up, and you could see in her eyes that she did it—and that maybe she regretted it.”