A former Lakeland teacher’s aide awaiting sentencing for trying to entice an 11-year-old student into sex is believed to have claimed her own life early Sunday.

Police believe Alecia Dotson set her bed on fire in an apartment she shared with her 75-year-old mother on Windsor Street. Police said Dotson was burned in the fire and then she tried to help her mother from the apartment.

“She may have just wanted to set the mattress on fire thinking it was going to be contained to her room and whatever she used to start that fire blew back and hit her and she is in pain. She is panicking,” said sergeant Gary Gross.

Dotson couldn’t get her mother from the burning apartment and went next door to her brother’s apartment. The brother was able to get the mother out to safety.

Dotson was then found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in her brother’s apartment. Investigators believe Dotson claimed her own life.

Dotson was awaiting sentencing in federal court for the sex crime charge. Police believe that may have been a factor in her actions.

"We are just assuming that all was over. You know she is going to jail 15 years' federal time, and she made that decision to end her life. Why she set the apartment on fire…I do not know,” said Gross.

Bay News 9 spoke Monday to a woman who was at the apartment complex. She said she was a family friend. She said the family was trying to deal with the tragedy and the family wanted to maintain its privacy.

The police and fire departments are still investigating.