Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan long-distance runner who competed in the women’s marathon at the recent Summer Olympics in Paris, has died days after her partner doused her in gasoline and then set her on fire. She was 33.

Cheptegei was attacked in her home in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya on Monday. Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom told media that Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, bought a can of petrol, poured it over her during an argument and then set her alight.

Cheptegei was rushed to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret town. She arrived fully sedated with burns over 80% of her body. Hospital spokesman Owen Menach said on Thursday that Cheptegei had died earlier that morning from multi-organ failure.

Ndiema also suffered burns and is being treated at the same hospital.

Rebecca’s father, Joseph Cheptegei, told the Associated Press that his daughter was “very supportive” of her and that he wants her killer brought to justice.

“As it stands now, the criminal who harmed my daughter is a murderer and I have yet to see what the security officials do,” he said. “He is still free and could even flee.”

Statistics on violence against women, particularly intimate partner violence, in Kenya are staggering. According to the government, nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence, rising to 41% among married women.

Cheptegei is the third Ugandan female athlete to die from an intimate partner attack since 2021. Rising runner Agnes Tirop, just 25, was found dead in her home in 2021 from multiple stab wounds. The case is ongoing, but her husband Ibrahim Rotich has been charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty. In 2022, the decomposing body of Ugandan-born Bahraini runner Damaris Muthee was found in the home of an Ethiopian runner. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled. The Ethiopian runner is the prime suspect in her murder case, but he has not yet been arrested.

Fellow athlete James Kirwa from Uganda, who visited Cheptegai in hospital, had wonderful things to say about his good friend. He told the BBC that she was “a very kind person. (She) helped us all, even financially, and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me.”