MURRAY, Utah — Carole Gilmore knows how lucky she is to be alive. Nearly 5 years ago at a Murray motel, she was set on fire and left for dead by an abusive boyfriend in October 2020.
Gilmore spent six weeks of being in a medically induced coma and then underwent nearly 2 dozen surgeries at the University of Utah burn center. Now she hopes her story will motivate others who are in abusive relationships to get out before it's too late.
Gilmore spoke with FOX 13 News' Scott McKane for the first time about her ordeal, "Know the red flags, know the warning signs, get help, don't do this by yourself because you're gonna end up dead! Don't do this by yourself, I tried to do it by myself and it almost killed me."
Carole's journey to where she is now began back at the motel in October 2020. She says she was trying to leave a violent relationship with her boyfriend at the time, Andrew Todd Curtis. Gilmore says she initially thought it might be true love, but then they started using meth.
"And then the lies came," Gilmore remembered. "Then the abuse came and the sinking of my Gmail, the hacking of all my things, the theft and the abuse. And then it got too deep for me and I realized; 'Oh my gosh, I gotta get out of here, this man's gonna kill me.'"
It was that night at the motel with some friends that Carole says she finally decided to leave Curtis for good. But he had other ideas. "... he took a cup from behind his back and threw it in my face. And I looked down and I'm like; 'Why is he throwing water on me?' And when I looked up, he had a torch lit to my face, and I just went, poof, completely up in flames. And I watched him run away."
Carole endured third-degree burns on over 80% of her body. Despite life-saving efforts by paramedics and a hospital trauma team, she was not expected to survive.
However, after more than a month in a medically induced coma, she woke up with her sister Jimmy at her bedside. "She was there holding my hand when I woke up out of a coma," Gilmore recalled. "She's been my rock; emotionally spiritually, mentally, physically."
Now Carole hopes to be a resource and potentially a rock for others out there dealing with an abusive relationship. "When you get that gut feeling that something is not right, go with it," Carole exclaimed. "Go with it, I don't care how much you love the dude or you care about the dude or vice versa, go with that gut feeling and get out! Go to a shelter, go to a family member, go to a therapist... get out, you know, before it's too late."
FOX 13 News caught up with Carole this week before she had another skin graft procedure. Something she will likely be enduring several more of in the next few years.
Meanwhile, Andrew Todd Curtis is currently serving 3 consecutive five years to life sentences at the Utah state prison in Gunnison.
