Metro

Family still waiting to bury B’klyn woman burned to death in brutal elevator attack

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Published Dec. 28, 2011, 2:56 p.m. ET
This undated photo provided by her family shows Deloris Gillespie, 73, who was burned to death when a man sprayed gasoline on her Saturday, Dec. 18, 2011, and set her ablaze in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building. The man accused of the torching, Jerome Isaac, 47, said nothing Monday, Dec. 19, during the brief hearing in Brooklyn criminal court, where he was charged with murder and arson and ordered held without bail in the Gillespie's death. (AP Photo/family photo via Office of Council Member Letitia James) AP

The body of the Prospect Heights woman burned to death in her apartment building elevator is still awaiting final burial.

The family of Deloris Gillespie said that because she was so badly burned in the shocking Dec. 17 attack authorities have not yet officially identified her — leaving her family unable to get a death certificate or proceed with a funeral.

Daughter of Elevator Burning Victim Speaks Out: MyFoxNY.com

DNA results could take months.

Gillespie’s daughter Sheila told Fox 5 that her family has struggled to deal with the violent nature of their loved one’s death.

“No one’s mother deserves to die like that,” Sheila Gillespie said.

“His face was burned and his hands were burned, but I wanted him to feel the same way that she did,” she added, referring to the man believed responsible for the crime.

Jerome “Jerry” Isaac, 47, turned himself in to cops eight hours after the horrific torching that killed the 73-year-old postal clerk and mother of four.

He is being held without bail after being indicted on 10 counts, including first and second-degree murder.

Police said Isaac was angry that Gillespie had refused to pay him for some of the work he had done at her apartment after she discovered he had stolen kitchenware and a DVD player from her home.

Isaac allegedly ambushed Gillespie as the elevator doors opened and she started to step out.

He sprayed her with a flammable liquid, used a barbecue lighter to set her ablaze, tossed a Molotov cocktail at her and then sprayed her again, even though she was already engulfed in flames, prosecutors said.

Sheila Gillespie said her mother was a hoarder and getting access to important documents in her apartment has proved difficult.

“Things in her apartment are just stacked sky-high. You can’t even get in the door,” she said.

The grieving daughter also said that the family does not want to cremate Deloris Gillespie, but may be left with no other choice.

She said her younger brother had told her, “It’s like you’re burning her all over again.”

“But she’s almost ashes now,” Sheila Gillespie added.

To read more, go to MyFoxNY.com.