I saw athlete running towards me on fire after attack, neighbour tells BBC

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing

Outside the house where Rebecca Cheptegei lived, flowers have been placed on grass that was charred as the runner rolled on the ground to try to put out flames engulfing her.

The 33-year-old Olympic runner died on Thursday from injuries sustained when her former partner allegedly doused her with petrol and set her ablaze days earlier while at home with her two daughters.

“I was in the house and heard people screaming, ‘fire’. When I came out, I saw Rebecca running towards my house on fire, shouting ‘help me,” Agnes Barabara, Ms Cheptegei’s immediate neighbour, tearfully told the BBC.

“As I went to look for water and started calling out for help, her assailant appeared again and doused more petrol on her, but then he too got burned and he ran off towards the garden to try to put it out. We then went to help Rebecca.”

“I have never seen anyone burn alive in my life. I didn’t eat for days after that incident.”

“She was a very good neighbour and just recently she shared with me maize she’d harvested.”

Police are treating the death as a murder, with her ex-partner named by police as the main suspect. Local administrators said the two had been in conflict about the small piece of land where Ms Cheptegei lived, with the case awaiting resolution.

He will be arraigned in court on charges once he is out of hospital, where he continues to recover from injuries he sustained during the incident.

“We have opened a file, investigations are at an advanced stage,” divisional criminal investigations officer Kennedy Apindi told the BBC.