COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 27 years for strangling his wife and setting her body on fire inside a Madison Township home in 2021, according to Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Tyack’s office.
Mamadou Diallo, 43, was sentenced in court on Wednesday after being found guilty last week of two counts of murder, aggravated arson, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse in connection to the death of his wife in 2021. He will be required to register as a violent offender and an arson offender upon release.
On Sept. 30, 2021, Madison Township firefighters responded to a fire at a home in the 3500 block of Noe Bixby Road. Mamadou and his two young children were found safe outside the home.
As crews contained the fire shortly after arriving on the scene, first responders found Mamadou's wife, 32-year-old Fatoumata Diallo, in the basement of the home.
During the investigation, authorities learned that Fatoumata was set on fire after she had been strangled. According to court documents, firefighters discovered her with a coaxial cable wrapped around her neck and a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid beneath her body.
A criminal investigation then began, where detectives discovered that despite Mamadou’s claims, he had been in the home before the fire. Detectives also found one of his shirts stained with his wife’s blood, a release from the prosecutor's office says.
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