Wailing inconsolably that her murdered daughter was calling her, a distraught Erica Thomas chased in vain after the hearse taking her body away yesterday afternoon.
Thomas and her mother Linda Thomas both had to be restrained as the body of Patricia Fletcher-Thomas was brought out of her Phyllis Lane, Enterprise, Chaguanas, home and placed in the back of the hearse. Fletcher-Thomas, 26, was killed in her living room yesterday morning, one day after celebrating her 26th birthday.
As she chased the vehicle, Thomas shouted, “Patrice calling me, Wait! Wait! Wait!” but the driver never stopped. Thomas also tried to hold on to the driver’s door before he pulled off, but her fingers were prised loose by her relatives.
Amid chaotic scenes, one man, said to be an uncle of the deceased, shouted this message as the vehicle drove off: “Watch the kinda man allyuh picking up”.
Relatives of Fletcher-Thomas said a man now in police custody threatened to carry out the very act on her birthday. She spent her last hours alive partying with members of her dance group and returned home around 5.30 am yesterday. Less than six hours later, her semi-nude body was found on her living room floor with a gaping gash to the neck.
Fletcher-Thomas was a dancer at Nationwide Cultural Performers, a best village queen, a supervisor at Francis Fashion Shoe Locker and a mother. Her daughter, Kimora Roopnarine, was beaten to death three years ago. Her autopsy said she died from blunt force trauma to the abdomen. No one was ever arrested for that. Her cousin, 15-year-old Conan Celestine, was killed Christmas night last year. He was shot in the house adjacent to where Fletcher-Thomas was killed.
As the community came out, mostly out of anger, some out of sadness and disbelief, one man shouted that death has been following the woman for some time. A fellow dancer told the media Fletcher-Thomas was regarded as a “Ranker” because she worked for all she wanted and never depended on anyone.
Police officers had to protect the man in custody from an angry crowd of neighbours, who blamed him for the killing. Intent on vigilante justice, they tried to get to him to beat him up. Relatives told the media that on Fletcher-Thomas’ arrival home, she saw the man’s car and alerted them. When he showed up after her body had been discovered, relatives, aware that he had been at the house earlier, tried to pounce on him, but the lawmen stepped in.
Fletcher-Thomas’ daughter was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility suffering from an asthmatic attack yesterday and is said to be with relatives resting comfortably.
Fletcher-Thomas is the 13th woman killed so far this year and one of eight people killed in the Central Division between Friday and yesterday.