Cops: Woman Who Claimed Hate Crime Set Herself on Fire

By Andrew Mach, NBC News

Credit: Facebook

The community of Winnsboro, Louisiana is in shock after 20-year-old Sharmeka Moffitt was set on fire in an attack on Sunday night at a community park.

October 24, 2012 Updated Oct 24, 2012 at 8:48 AM PDT

The Louisiana woman who told police that she was set on fire by three men and that her car had racial slurs smeared on it did the heinous actions she described herself, authorities now believe.

Sharmeka Moffitt, 20, told police she parked her car by a walking trail in Civitan Park in Winnsboro, La., on Sunday evening to go exercise when she was set on fire by three men who she described as wearing white hoodies.

She was able to extinguish the flames herself and when police found her car, the letters "KKK" and the N-word had been scrawled across the hood. But what had the rumblings of a hate crime was all apparently a "self-inflicted situation," police said.

“In less than 24 hours, the state crime lab was able to analyze the evidence found at the scene, including a cigarette lighter, lighter fluid and also the hood of the car that had a paste-like substance spread across it, and it identified [Moffitt’s] fingerprints as well as some female DNA,” Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain told NBC News.

“With this evidence, investigators were able to determine that she was alone in the park that night and made up the story.”

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