by Alan Feuer and Nate Schweber

Wendy Burlingame's father, Charles,
piloted American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001, before hijackers
flew it into the Pentagon.
The New York Times, 12/6/06
(Dec. 6) - Five years after her father’s
plane crashed into the Pentagon in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a
woman was found dead yesterday in a fire at the Galaxy Towers apartment
complex in Guttenberg, N.J.
The woman, Wendy Burlingame, 32, was
discovered by firefighters in a short hallway between the kitchen and
the bedroom of her 10th-floor apartment where the four-alarm fire began,
said Edward DeFazio, the Hudson County prosecutor. Mr. DeFazio said the
fire, which law enforcement officials are calling suspicious, began
shortly after midnight in the apartment Ms. Burlingame shared with her
companion and was still under investigation, as was the cause of Ms.
Burlingame’s death. No one else was injured in the fire, Mr. DeFazio
said.
Ms. Burlingame was the daughter of
Charles F. Burlingame III, a 25-year Navy veteran who was the captain of
American Airlines Flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon on Sept.
11., 2001, killing 189 people.
Mr. DeFazio said her companion of three
years was among several people being interviewed in connection with her
death. He would not identify the companion, but tenants in the complex
identified him as Kevin Roderick.
Sebastian Rojas, 27, lives downstairs
from Mr. Roderick. He said that while he did not know Mr. Roderick and
Ms. Burlingame well, they were “real late-night people” whose footsteps,
and two dogs, he heard constantly above his head.
The two dogs were also found dead in the
home, Mr. DeFazio said.
Shortly before the fire
erupted, Mr. Rojas said, there were “louder
noises than usual” coming from the apartment
upstairs, “like somebody running around up
there, like somebody doing something up
there in a rush.”
Then he said he heard a
thud — “like somebody dropped something”—
and three or four minutes later the
building’s fire alarm sounded. Mr. Rojas
said that within minutes his apartment
filled with smoke. He then safely left the
building.
Lucy Gell, who works at
the building’s front desk, said that Ms.
Burlingame was a kind, generous woman with
“model good looks.” She added that Ms.
Burlingame had brought her down a plate of
turkey and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving,
saying that Mr. Roderick was out.
Debra A. Burlingame, Ms.
Burlingame’s aunt, was reached at home last
night before she even knew of her niece’s
death. She burst into tears on the phone and
would not comment further. Ms. Burlingame’s
mother, Nancy Perfect, was also reached at
home last night. She, too, declined to
discuss her daughter’s death.
Copyright © 2006 The New
York Times Company
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