Woman got unsettling text message just before friend set on fire

At 2:26 p.m. Tuesday, Laura April received a disturbing text message from Christopher Hanney.

She said he wrote: "I'm sorry for all I've done. Now I am the monster she made me out to be. I love you all. God bless. It's time I met my fate. Goodbye."

April's boyfriend, who also received the text message, called Hanney but only got voice mail. She texted him. Both got no reply.

She called Hanney's wife, Audrey Mabrey, and got no answer.

Then she turned on the local news and her worst fears were realized.

Sheriff's officials say Hanney doused his wife with an accelerant and set her on fire at their Apollo Beach home. Mabrey suffered burns on 80 percent of her body. He suffered injuries from the fire or self-inflicted wounds. Both were flown to Tampa General Hospital.

On Wednesday, Hanney was charged with attempted first degree murder and transferred to Orient Road Jail, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Web site. Mabrey remains in critical condition at the hospital.

April said she and Mabrey met four years ago while working at a Brandon Chili's. They quickly became close, in part because their children are close in age.

April said Mabrey is a warm and strong person who made her feel comfortable. She said Hanney was likable and he even took care of her children.

"You would never know it that he could do something like that," said April, 27, of Valrico. "I don't know what set him off, what threw him over the deep end."

April said Mabrey had moved past the relationship with Hanney, who was 18 years her senior. She was taking courses at Hillsborough Community College with the aspiration of first becoming a teacher and later a college professor, April said.

After learning of the incident, April went to the hospital but hasn't been able to see her friend.

She feels confident Mabrey will survive.

"I know she will pull through," April said. "She is such a strong person. She's a fighter."

Before Tuesday, deputies only once had responded to the 7565 Oxford Garden Circle home in Apollo Beach. That was on Oct. 20, when Mabrey called 911 saying her husband was pushing her around and had tried to rape her.

No charges were filed that night because of inconsistent stories and an unwillingness by Mabrey to prosecute the case. But the statements in the report point to problems in the marriage.

Hanney had accused his wife of seeing another man and Hanney even grabbed her cell phone that night and talked for about 30 minutes to a man he believed was her boyfriend. The report said Hanney asked him where he should send her "because she was not going to stay here."

Hanney denied trying to rape his wife and said he even gave to her the key to the car - the only working vehicle the couple had - to leave. She said they were separated but still living together.

She said one sleeps on the couch and one sleeps on the bed. He told deputies they were not separated and even had consensual sex the day before.

The report includes a request not to prosecute, signed by Mabrey.

"I was not physically harmed," she wrote in the document. "It was a misunderstanding."

After the Oct. 20 call, deputies turned the case over to the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office for review. Prosecutors looked over the reports and decided not to file charges.

"We had a waiver of prosecution [signed by Mabrey], no witnesses and no injuries," Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi said this morning. "Plus, she gave inconsistent statements and there was alcohol involved."

After a 911 call reported an explosion and fire at the home, firefighters found Mabrey inside; Hanney, who worked as a Transportation Security Administration security officer at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, was in the backyard.

The couple's two boys - ages 4 and 11 months old -- weren't home at the time, fire officials said. They were with a babysitter nearby in Apollo Beach.

Christopher Hanney's sister, Noreen Hanney, said the family is overwhelmed by the news.

"It's rough; it's really rough," said Noreen Hanney of New York.

She is waiting to hear from a sibling who should be in or arriving soon to Tampa to be with Christopher Hanney.

"We don't know anything," Noreen Hanney said. "We don't know what condition he is in."

Mabrey's uncle, John Mabrey, drove up to the hospital Wednesday from Venice. He said he wasn't able to see her because her mother, Lisa, was in the room at the time.

"I said a prayer in the chapel for her, and that's all I can do," Mabrey said.

"It's one of those scenarios, a curveball life throws at you," he said. "It's pretty sad."

Court records show Hanney divorced his previous wife in 2007. Hanney and Mabrey filled out a marriage license application May 27, 2008, and were married less than two weeks later.

Facebook friends of Mabrey sent messages back and forth Tuesday, asking everyone to pray for her.