Richland Park woman dies after brutal stabbing

Vesta Rawlins, 41, of Bristol Road, Richland Park, was stabbed multiple times about her body on Tuesday around 8.30 p.m. Her three-year-old daughter was also wounded in attack, but survived. Police have detained 54-year-old Emerald Mack of Mesopotamia in relation to the stabbing death of Vesta Rawlins, 41, of Bristol Road, Richland Park.

Rawlins, a mother of eight, was stabbed multiple times about her body on Tuesday around 8.30 p.m. Her three-year-old daughter was also wounded in the attack, but survived. The girl was cut on one of her hands and villagers said she fainted before being taken to hospital.  

Mack is the father of Rawlins’ last two children, including the one who was wounded.

Yesterday, when SEARCHLIGHT visited the rural community where Rawlins lived with her children in a small wooden house, neighbours used words like, “cool”, “loving” and “generous” to describe the woman who worked as a community health aide, taking care of elderly persons.

Rawlins’ oldest son Denniston, sitting under a bamboo shed eating a plate of pasta, said he was too upset to talk about the incident. The dreadlocked youngster, dressed in black shirt to demonstrate his grief on his mother’s passing, said he was not at home when she was stabbed and he had no idea what led up to the incident.

However, a dreadlocked man commented, “We feel real funny about what happened; nobody expect this to happen.” He added, “Vesta was a good friend; she always stay close to everybody…that man always telling she he go kill she, but she never take them things serious.”

One of the dead woman’s female neighbours said that on the night in question, she heard a commotion and when she came out of her house she saw the wounded lady. “She like somebody stab she, and one of the stab in she chest was spouting plenty blood,” said the bereaved woman, who revealed that she used a towel and pressed it against the wounded woman’s chest wound before she was whisked off to seek medical attention.

Rawlins was taken to the Evesham Health Centre in Mesopotamia and later transferred to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) in Kingstown, where she underwent surgery, after which she was warded in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She died yesterday between 7.30 and 7.40 a.m.

One of Vesta’s cousins said she witnessed her dead relative being threatened many times. “He use to always say he go kill she,” said the angry woman.

A police investigator said on Thursday that the matter is still under investigation, with Mack being treated as the main suspect. This is the 20th violent death recorded here this year.(LC)