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Thursday, May 8, 2025

Co-workers of murdered nurse call for justice: O’delle was loved

by

Radhica Sookraj
15 days ago
20250423

 

An au­top­sy con­duct­ed on the body of mur­dered nurse O’delle Lal­man-Bap­tiste re­vealed she died from a sin­gle gun­shot wound to the head.

Her broth­er, Miguel Lal­man, told Guardian Me­dia the au­top­sy was done yes­ter­day, three days af­ter her body was dis­cov­ered about two kilo­me­tres away from where she was snatched by armed gun­men.

She was ab­duct­ed af­ter her hus­band, Math­ias Bap­tiste, stopped to uri­nate at the side of the road at Carlsen Field, Ch­agua­nas, around 11 pm on Fri­day. One of the kid­nap­pers was lat­er shot dead by po­lice when they in­ter­cept­ed the get­away ve­hi­cle.

Lal­man said they were in the process of ar­rang­ing the fu­ner­al, which will take place at her par­ents’ home in Bonasse Vil­lage, Ce­dros.

On East­er Mon­day night, Lal­man-Bap­tiste’s col­leagues at the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal held a can­dle­light vig­il to ho­n­our her mem­o­ry on the hos­pi­tal’s com­pound.

Clad in pink, the colour she loved, they held up their can­dles and sang Go Light Your World.

Speak­ing at the vig­il, friend and col­league Ava Camp­bell, re­mem­bered Lal­man-Bap­tiste as a de­vot­ed and com­pas­sion­ate nurse.

“O’delle was the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of a nurse. No mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion, no mat­ter how peo­ple treat­ed her, she re­spond­ed with kind­ness. She treat­ed every­one with re­spect. I want peo­ple to know O’delle was loved. I felt it when I vis­it­ed her home. I want to re­mem­ber her for her smile,” Camp­bell said.

Co-work­er Asha­ki Renne strug­gled to speak. “I re­al­ly love you. I miss you. I pray your fam­i­ly finds strength. I pray your friends, your batch­mates—God will give us strength,” she sobbed.

Ker­lene Joseph, who cared for Lal­man-Bap­tiste’s three-year-old son, De­lanie, said, “O’delle loved her son.”

Si­mon Alex­is, her su­per­vi­sor at the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty, com­fort­ed mourn­ers as he read from the Bible say­ing even in grief, God will pro­vide strength.

“We are nev­er alone. Though the walls may ap­pear to close in, the Lord is near. He waits for us to call up­on Him. The pain is re­al, but we are not with­out hope,” he said.

Cousin, Tri­cia Sama­roo, spoke on be­half of the fam­i­ly.

“Though our hearts are break­ing, this ges­ture brings com­fort. Every­thing that was said here tonight is what we have known of O’delle since she was a lit­tle girl. Thank you to the staff, the man­age­ment, and every­one who made this pos­si­ble. This is some­thing we will car­ry in our hearts as we try to get through,” Sama­roo said.

In­cum­bent Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Point Fortin, Kennedy Richards Jr, called for uni­ty and jus­tice.

“These are not easy cir­cum­stances. I met O’delle once or twice. She was the kind of per­son we want in health­care. This gath­er­ing speaks to the life she lived. It’s a hard thing for any fam­i­ly to face. I hope we all con­tin­ue to ral­ly be­hind her loved ones. I pray jus­tice is served,” he said.

As the can­dles flick­ered in the night, he urged every­one to re­mem­ber her as some­one who loved oth­ers.


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