ROCK, Trelawny — RESIDENTS of the small seaside community of Rock are still struggling to come to grips with last week’s dreadful murder of 26-year-old hotel worker Raymonde Alexis-Brissett, a Haitian native, who was eight months pregnant.

She was mercilessly bludgeoned to death, allegedly by one of her furious countrymen, at her Jamaican home in Rock, Trelawny, on Friday.

Doctors at the Falmouth Hospital futilely fought to save the badly beaten, unconscious woman, but as a result of their prompt and decisive actions, managed to save the unborn child who had to be removed from the corpse. The baby, who has since been named Elizabeth Raymonde Brissett, has been transferred to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where she is said to be in a stable condition.

Married to cruise ship worker Lamar Brissett seven years ago, Alexis-Brissett has been among a small group of Haitian natives, living a quiet life in a small section of the quiet Rock community for over eight years.

It is still not clear what triggered Friday’s deadly attack, but police reported that the tragedy occurred about 11:45 am, when the helpless woman who was alone at home, was attacked by the suspect, who used a piece of quarter-inch steel to inflict severe blows to her neck and upper parts of her body.

She reportedly ran outside the house calling for help, but collapsed shortly afterwards near a fence in the yard.

The alleged attacker was subsequently held by the Falmouth Police, shortly after the gruesome incident.

“When I rushed to the scene I saw the man (attacker) with the piece of steel in one hand and a stone in the other and Raymonde was lying there gasping for breath,” said one male community member who appeared to be still shaken up.

Two Haitian natives, Marie Alexis, cousin of the deceased, and Mimose Bell, a close friend of the deceased and her family, seemed deeply hurt over the incident when they spoke to our news team in Rock yesterday.

Bell wept uncontrollably, as the teary-eyed Alexis sadly reflected on the bizarre incident.

“A pure head lick him give the woman. Him no sey mek him bruk her foot or so. Him break her neck with the steel,” said Alexis, as she recounted the chilling event.

“When I got the call at work I started crying and rushed home. When I got home she (Alexis-Brissett) looked blacker than usual and her head swell big, big. She was gasping constantly and the baby was jumping up and down in her belly.”

Meanwhile, the deceased’s bereaved husband, Lamar Brissett, was a picture of

grief yesterday.

He told the Jamaica Observer West that he last saw his wife alive when he visited her last week Wednesday, after the cruise ship on which he works called at the multi-billion-dollar Falmouth port, less than a mile away from their matrimonial home.

The grief-stricken hubby, who was in Mexico when he received news of his wife’s horrible death, flew into the island on Sunday, much earlier than the scheduled October date.

“Mi never know it (marriage) would end this way,” he said, as he tried to put on a brave face, adding that he is now hoping that their daughter will survive.

The distressed Lamar described his wife as a

hard-working and very generous person.

“During construction of our house, if the labourer working with the mason a drag him foot, she would mix the mortar herself. Is she who carry the marl during construction,” he recounted. “More time mi tell her mi will pay somebody to do the work (but) she say no. She just hard-working. She don’t depend on nobody, she nuh rude. Boy, mi nuh know wha feh sey, boy. She too good feh pass away like that.”

Meanwhile, Alexis revealed that the reason her cousin was at home at the time of the deadly attack was because her feet were badly swollen, “and so she opted not to go to work”.

She described her cousin as a generous person who was even kind to the alleged attacker.

“Recently him ask her feh food and she just go and take a pack of brown rice and one whole chicken and give him. After that him come to her feh money and she sey she don’t have no change is $1,000 she have — and she give him the $1,000,” the anguished cousin disclosed.

“After that him see her a wash and him ask her feh wash feh him and she sey oh God, you see me foot them swell up, so she call mi

next cousin Lexis and complained.”

Lamar, too, described his wife as a kind person.

“No matter how much of my friends dem come visit, she always offer them something to drink, at least.”

Residents described the suspect as a person who behaved in “an odd manner”. They claimed that he

sleeps little at night and constantly smokes.

“At nights him just walk through the community speaking loudly in different languages. He is always smoking a tobacco cigar,” one resident disclosed.

Up to yesterday, the suspect who remained in custody was yet to be charged.