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In the shadow of death
...Rest House residents still traumatised after brutal 2004 attack
BY KARYL WALKER Crime/Court Co-ordinator [email protected]
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This is the third in a weekly series looking at how the relatives of victims of crime have been coping with their loss. The series, entitled 'Victims', will hopefully point the state in the direction of those in need of emotional assistance and help prod people with information on these heinous acts to share them with the authorities.
IT has been four years since the dreadful incident, but the women of Rest House, St Andrew refrain from talking about it when they sit in their yards; the men don't bring it up when they gather for a drink or dominoes; but the children are still visibly shaken.
Raphael Christie sits close to the spot where his five-month-old daughter Tianna was killed in a vicious attack by her uncle Melton Haase, which left two other children dead and three adults injured. (Photos: Karyl Walker)
On April 24, 2004, a member of their rustic farming village flew into a rage and slaughtered three of their children and injured an equal number of adults, forever altering the way they view the world around them.
Five-month-old Tianna Christie; Petagaye Patterson, six; and Brenda-Lee Dinnal, also six, were hacked to death by their uncle Melton Haase. Injured in the attack were Mildred Willis, now 71; the attacker's sister, Hermalee Taylor, now 34; and Howard 'Tan Tan' Hibbert.
For Taylor - the mother of Tianna and Brenda-Lee, aunt to Petagaye, and sister of the perpetrator - the physical and mental wounds are just as fresh as the day of the tragedy.
"I am still deeply affected by this so much so that I try not to talk about it. It has ruined my life," said the 34-year-old woman, as an intense look of pain settled over her face. "I am still wondering what happened and why."
She recalled that the incident unfolded in the yard she had shared with her brother all of her life. She was chopped on both arms, her back, left leg and face. She escaped death at the hands of her enraged brother by flinging herself down a deep ravine.
Her baby was not as lucky.
"I jump in the gully when him start chop mi, but mi had to drop the baby," she told the Sunday Observer.
Haase turned on the baby, delivering several chops to her face, head and arms.
"I still hear those sounds in my head. I heard when him a chop the baby but I couldn't do anything," said Taylor, who cowered in bushes while her brother delivered the lethal blows to her baby four years ago.
And Haase's lust for blood had hardly been quenched. He made a mad dash for a group of children, who scampered to get away, having witnessed the baby's death. He caught Taylor's other daughter, Brenda-lee, about 100 yards away on the main road in the district and ended her life with a single chop wound which residents said split her skull in two.
"Many times I look and wonder how big my babies would be now," Taylor said as tears streamed freely down her face.
Haase's third victim was his niece Petagaye. He caught her about 30 yards from where her cousin was struck down. Haase opened her skull with a single swing of his machete.
The murders of the two six-year-olds were witnessed by a group of residents, comprised of mostly women who had gathered at a shop. Traumatised and afraid for their lives, they barricaded themselves inside and screamed 'murder!'.
While Taylor seemed unable to come to grips with the reality of her children's death, Raphael Christie, Tianna's father, put on a brave face, smiling as he pointed to the spot where his daughter was so viciously killed.
"A right deh suh she dead you know. Boy we just have to move on. As people we hear about these things but you neva know when these things will happen to you," he said. "If I dwell on it, I might mad so I just try to accept it."
Dr Wendel Abel, a consultant psychiatrist with the University of the West Indies Hospital, said Christie's reaction was a typical male reaction.
"People deal with stress differently and men deal with things differently from women. Women tend to display their emotions while men don't; they tend to hide it," he told the Sunday Observer.
Meanwhile, having killed the three kids and injured his sister, Haase turned his attention to Hibbert, who residents said was the target of his envy. Hibbert managed to save his life only because he grabbed the blade of the machete and fought back, while two male residents joined the fracas and relieved the powerfully built Haase of the weapon. In the end, he received only a wound to the head and cuts across his fingers from holding the machete.
But Haase's rampage would not end there.
"The man went to my yard for my cutlass and start again," noted Christie.
The next target was his elderly mother, Emily, then 66 years old. He hacked into a wooden door to gain access to her small dwelling. She however had the presence of mind to escape through a window.
And though time has passed, the hurt still showed on the now 71-year-old woman's face. She, too, had only a few words to say about the incident.
"I don't want to go back to that place. He was my child and the things he did were terrible. I really don't want to talk about it. We are still in pain," she told the Sunday Observer.
Willis was walking home from her shop, unaware of the still unfolding attack, when Haase pounced on her. He severed her right hand and chopped her across the left side of her face, removing several of her teeth in the process. He also chopped her across her back and almost severed her right leg. Her only option for survival was to fall to the ground and play dead. He eventually left her bleeding heavily on the dirt road.
Today Willis walks with a heavy limp and the scar from the chop in her face is a grim reminder of the fate that befell her in 2004. She is still so badly shaken by the attack that she could only utter a few sentences.
"I don't like to talk about it because when mi remember it mi cry. I still can't come to it all now. Them seh a four year now but me have this fi live with for life," said the woman - 66 years old at the time - as she lifted her right arm which was covered with a sock at the section where it was chopped off.
"Thank you for coming," Willis said solemnly as she limped back inside her house.
There were tears in her eyes as she closed the padlock on her grill.
Victims like Willis, said Abel, need extended periods of counselling.
"People do not get enough therapy and very often they need longer treatment from trained professionals," he said.
But the trauma is no less for those such as Haase's other sister, who managed to escape the madman's deadly blade. He chased her for some distance but she managed to elude him by seeking refuge in a neighbour's house. He nonetheless shook the grill violently while shouting that he wanted to kill her or his nephew Kareem, whom he ordered not to run as he chopped his two cousins. There was also Antonique Headlam, who ran hard and hid under a bus.
Residents said Haase had always harboured violent intentions and wallowed in self-pity. They said he always walked without a very sharp knife or cutlass, and had no woman or children.
"Him always seh nobody no love him and seh him family work voodoo pan him. But he was my friend," said Christie.
In Rest House there are no streetlights and with Haase running through the bushes in a mad rage threatening to kill anyone he came across, residents were forced to stay indoors until day break. The children's bodies were left in the streets and dogs ate the face of the infant.
Haase himself was to meet a very violent end. After hours of cajoling him to come out of the bushes so he could be taken to a doctor, Haase surrendered to the villagers minutes before dawn.
"Him throw down the machete and seh 'si mi yah, anything unu want do unu duh'," one resident recalled. "A man give him a lick inna him head with a big stone and him try grab after the cutlass. Then him start get chop from everyone. Him neva deserve fi live one second more."
Long after Haase was dead, the enraged residents were still chopping his body. Funeral home workers would later put his body in a hearse where the body of his three nieces laid.
"A man chop him pan him foot bottom and say don't come back boy," Christie told the Sunday Observer.
His bed and clothing were torched by the residents while his relatives refused to have anything to do with his body. He was buried many months later inside the May Pen Cemetery, miles away in Kingston. Only four people attended his funeral
...Rest House residents still traumatised after brutal 2004 attack
BY KARYL WALKER Crime/Court Co-ordinator [email protected]
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This is the third in a weekly series looking at how the relatives of victims of crime have been coping with their loss. The series, entitled 'Victims', will hopefully point the state in the direction of those in need of emotional assistance and help prod people with information on these heinous acts to share them with the authorities.
IT has been four years since the dreadful incident, but the women of Rest House, St Andrew refrain from talking about it when they sit in their yards; the men don't bring it up when they gather for a drink or dominoes; but the children are still visibly shaken.
Raphael Christie sits close to the spot where his five-month-old daughter Tianna was killed in a vicious attack by her uncle Melton Haase, which left two other children dead and three adults injured. (Photos: Karyl Walker)
On April 24, 2004, a member of their rustic farming village flew into a rage and slaughtered three of their children and injured an equal number of adults, forever altering the way they view the world around them.
Five-month-old Tianna Christie; Petagaye Patterson, six; and Brenda-Lee Dinnal, also six, were hacked to death by their uncle Melton Haase. Injured in the attack were Mildred Willis, now 71; the attacker's sister, Hermalee Taylor, now 34; and Howard 'Tan Tan' Hibbert.
For Taylor - the mother of Tianna and Brenda-Lee, aunt to Petagaye, and sister of the perpetrator - the physical and mental wounds are just as fresh as the day of the tragedy.
"I am still deeply affected by this so much so that I try not to talk about it. It has ruined my life," said the 34-year-old woman, as an intense look of pain settled over her face. "I am still wondering what happened and why."
She recalled that the incident unfolded in the yard she had shared with her brother all of her life. She was chopped on both arms, her back, left leg and face. She escaped death at the hands of her enraged brother by flinging herself down a deep ravine.
Her baby was not as lucky.
"I jump in the gully when him start chop mi, but mi had to drop the baby," she told the Sunday Observer.
Haase turned on the baby, delivering several chops to her face, head and arms.
"I still hear those sounds in my head. I heard when him a chop the baby but I couldn't do anything," said Taylor, who cowered in bushes while her brother delivered the lethal blows to her baby four years ago.
And Haase's lust for blood had hardly been quenched. He made a mad dash for a group of children, who scampered to get away, having witnessed the baby's death. He caught Taylor's other daughter, Brenda-lee, about 100 yards away on the main road in the district and ended her life with a single chop wound which residents said split her skull in two.
"Many times I look and wonder how big my babies would be now," Taylor said as tears streamed freely down her face.
Haase's third victim was his niece Petagaye. He caught her about 30 yards from where her cousin was struck down. Haase opened her skull with a single swing of his machete.
The murders of the two six-year-olds were witnessed by a group of residents, comprised of mostly women who had gathered at a shop. Traumatised and afraid for their lives, they barricaded themselves inside and screamed 'murder!'.
While Taylor seemed unable to come to grips with the reality of her children's death, Raphael Christie, Tianna's father, put on a brave face, smiling as he pointed to the spot where his daughter was so viciously killed.
"A right deh suh she dead you know. Boy we just have to move on. As people we hear about these things but you neva know when these things will happen to you," he said. "If I dwell on it, I might mad so I just try to accept it."
Dr Wendel Abel, a consultant psychiatrist with the University of the West Indies Hospital, said Christie's reaction was a typical male reaction.
"People deal with stress differently and men deal with things differently from women. Women tend to display their emotions while men don't; they tend to hide it," he told the Sunday Observer.
Meanwhile, having killed the three kids and injured his sister, Haase turned his attention to Hibbert, who residents said was the target of his envy. Hibbert managed to save his life only because he grabbed the blade of the machete and fought back, while two male residents joined the fracas and relieved the powerfully built Haase of the weapon. In the end, he received only a wound to the head and cuts across his fingers from holding the machete.
But Haase's rampage would not end there.
"The man went to my yard for my cutlass and start again," noted Christie.
The next target was his elderly mother, Emily, then 66 years old. He hacked into a wooden door to gain access to her small dwelling. She however had the presence of mind to escape through a window.
And though time has passed, the hurt still showed on the now 71-year-old woman's face. She, too, had only a few words to say about the incident.
"I don't want to go back to that place. He was my child and the things he did were terrible. I really don't want to talk about it. We are still in pain," she told the Sunday Observer.
Willis was walking home from her shop, unaware of the still unfolding attack, when Haase pounced on her. He severed her right hand and chopped her across the left side of her face, removing several of her teeth in the process. He also chopped her across her back and almost severed her right leg. Her only option for survival was to fall to the ground and play dead. He eventually left her bleeding heavily on the dirt road.
Today Willis walks with a heavy limp and the scar from the chop in her face is a grim reminder of the fate that befell her in 2004. She is still so badly shaken by the attack that she could only utter a few sentences.
"I don't like to talk about it because when mi remember it mi cry. I still can't come to it all now. Them seh a four year now but me have this fi live with for life," said the woman - 66 years old at the time - as she lifted her right arm which was covered with a sock at the section where it was chopped off.
"Thank you for coming," Willis said solemnly as she limped back inside her house.
There were tears in her eyes as she closed the padlock on her grill.
Victims like Willis, said Abel, need extended periods of counselling.
"People do not get enough therapy and very often they need longer treatment from trained professionals," he said.
But the trauma is no less for those such as Haase's other sister, who managed to escape the madman's deadly blade. He chased her for some distance but she managed to elude him by seeking refuge in a neighbour's house. He nonetheless shook the grill violently while shouting that he wanted to kill her or his nephew Kareem, whom he ordered not to run as he chopped his two cousins. There was also Antonique Headlam, who ran hard and hid under a bus.
Residents said Haase had always harboured violent intentions and wallowed in self-pity. They said he always walked without a very sharp knife or cutlass, and had no woman or children.
"Him always seh nobody no love him and seh him family work voodoo pan him. But he was my friend," said Christie.
In Rest House there are no streetlights and with Haase running through the bushes in a mad rage threatening to kill anyone he came across, residents were forced to stay indoors until day break. The children's bodies were left in the streets and dogs ate the face of the infant.
Haase himself was to meet a very violent end. After hours of cajoling him to come out of the bushes so he could be taken to a doctor, Haase surrendered to the villagers minutes before dawn.
"Him throw down the machete and seh 'si mi yah, anything unu want do unu duh'," one resident recalled. "A man give him a lick inna him head with a big stone and him try grab after the cutlass. Then him start get chop from everyone. Him neva deserve fi live one second more."
Long after Haase was dead, the enraged residents were still chopping his body. Funeral home workers would later put his body in a hearse where the body of his three nieces laid.
"A man chop him pan him foot bottom and say don't come back boy," Christie told the Sunday Observer.
His bed and clothing were torched by the residents while his relatives refused to have anything to do with his body. He was buried many months later inside the May Pen Cemetery, miles away in Kingston. Only four people attended his funeral
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