Police say the March 17 apartment assault left Rachel Price with severe burns and led to upgraded attempted murder charges.
HOLLYWOOD, FL — A South Florida woman who police say was set on fire by her roommate inside a Hollywood apartment last month says she is still in constant pain as the case against the other woman has grown into an attempted murder prosecution.
Rachel Price spoke publicly this week as investigators and prosecutors continue building the case against Kymesha Tarpley, 48, in an attack police say began with an argument and ended with gasoline, fire and a rescue by a neighbor. The case matters now because Tarpley’s charges have been upgraded from the counts filed immediately after the fire to include attempted murder in the second degree, while Price begins what she has described as a long and painful recovery from burn injuries that changed her daily life.
Police have said the attack happened March 17 inside an apartment on the 3300 block of Emerald Point Drive in Hollywood. Price said she and Tarpley, whom police identified as her roommate and former girlfriend, argued before Tarpley left and later returned carrying a gas canister. Price said she confronted her about it. “What are you planning on doing with it, and if you are going to do anything with it, go ahead and do it,” Price said she told Tarpley. Price said the response was immediate and devastating. Tarpley “tossed the gasoline on me that was in the gas can and threw the lighter on me and set me on fire and watched me burn,” Price said. Price said she had no time to react. She said all she could do was scream as flames spread over her body inside the apartment.
A neighbor identified publicly only as David said he heard those screams from the apartment below and ran toward the danger. David, a fire marshal, said he smelled smoke, grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed upstairs as thick smoke filled the hallway. He said he banged on the door and worked to put out the fire, injuring his own hand in the process. “To see the pain on her face, while she was here screaming and crying the whole time, that’s not an easy thing to witness,” David said. He later described the sound as unlike an ordinary scream, saying it carried a level of pain and trauma that stayed with him. Price has said she hopes to thank him in person for saving her life. Without that quick response, the injuries and the fire itself could have become even worse before first responders arrived.
Police said the victim told officers at the scene that Tarpley threw gasoline on her. Price was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with serious burns. In her interview this week, she said the damage included second- and third-degree burns to her face and burns to her arm, leg and hair. She said she spent nearly a month in the hospital. The injuries, she said, continue to shape nearly every part of her routine. Eating is difficult. Talking on the phone is difficult. She said she must stay out of the sun for at least a year and take several medications as she heals. “My face has second- and third-degree burns and I don’t feel like myself,” Price said. She also said she lowered her head and closed her eyes as the attack unfolded, a reaction she believes may have kept her from losing her sight. “I could have been blind,” she said.
What remains unclear is what exactly led the argument to turn into such extreme violence, and investigators have not publicly laid out a full account from Tarpley beyond saying she gave officers a different version of events. Police initially described the case as a domestic disturbance. In the first stage of the case, Tarpley was booked on charges that included aggravated battery and arson causing great bodily harm. A judge denied her bond soon after her arrest, according to early reporting on the case. Since then, the legal picture has shifted. By Tuesday, authorities had added attempted murder in the second degree, a move that signals prosecutors believe the evidence supports a more serious claim about intent and the level of danger Price faced. Tarpley remained jailed without bond at the Paul Rein Detention Facility, according to the latest reports.
The setting of the attack has also sharpened the stakes of the case. The fire broke out inside a multiunit apartment building, where smoke and flames could have threatened other residents as well as the woman police say was targeted. Neighbors were drawn into the emergency within moments. David’s account of smoke billowing into the hallway suggests the danger was not limited to one room. In burn and arson cases, investigators typically work through physical evidence, witness statements and medical records to establish how the fire started, how it spread and what injuries resulted. Public reporting in this case shows parts of that picture: an alleged gasoline canister, a lighter, a badly burned victim, a fast-moving response from a nearby fire marshal and emergency treatment at a major Miami hospital. But some pieces still are not public, including whether additional forensic findings or recorded statements helped support the upgraded charge.
Price’s account has also turned the story from a police case file into a longer recovery story. She said the shock of the attack has not fully settled in, even weeks later. “It still hasn’t hit me, to be honest,” she said. She described feeling unlike herself as the healing process continues. That recovery includes more than skin injuries. It also includes finding a new place to live, managing medical bills and physical therapy needs, and trying to process an act she said she never saw coming. “Honestly, I just want to know why,” Price said. “I’ve never had no ill will toward her.” That question hangs over the case because the public record still offers only the outline of a dispute, not a fuller explanation for why prosecutors say it escalated into an attempted killing.
Even with the criminal case advancing, Price’s public comments have not centered on revenge. She has spoken in blunt terms about the pain of the attack and the fear of what could have happened, but she also said she hopes Tarpley gets help. “I just hope she finds the help that she needs,” Price said. At the same time, she said she went to the Hollywood Police Department on Tuesday to complete the process of pressing charges, underscoring that the emotional complexity of the case does not lessen its seriousness. Her words show both realities at once: a survivor trying to heal and a victim cooperating with a prosecution in a case that now carries one of the most serious violent felony allegations short of a homicide charge.
For now, the case stands at a turning point. Price is out of the hospital but says she remains in pain every day, and Tarpley remains jailed as prosecutors pursue attempted murder, aggravated battery and arson counts tied to the March 17 fire. The next major milestone is likely to come in court as the upgraded charges move through hearings in Broward County.
Author note: Last updated April 14, 2026.