Richland Park woman grieves for her daughter

“If nothing is good in it, then get out – you can’t wait until the last end,” is the plea of a grieving mother from Richland Park.{{more}}

Police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Samantha Garrick, but the mother of the 29-year-old woman believes that her daughter became a victim of the abusive relationship that she was in.

Hence, as she comes to terms with her eldest daughter’s demise, Angeletha Davis is urging women to get out of abusive relationships before it is too late.

Garrick died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Friday, January 2, after she was transferred from the Levi Latham Health Centre, where she was examined after complaining of abdominal pains.

Davis last saw her daughter on Tuesday, December 30, 2008, and didn’t hear anything about her until someone told her on New Year’s Day that she was sick.

The next day, she was told that Garrick was at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.



Davis said that she planned to get nightgowns and other stuff organized to visit her daughter when she heard someone in the supermarket across the road from her home cry out and say that her daughter had died.

“I feel very, very…I don’t find that who ever….you shouldn’t do her like that,” Davis said as she pieced words together, coming to terms with the loss of the first of her seven children.

Davis said that she knew that her daughter was in an abusive relationship and she always spoke to her about it.

“Sometimes when I speak to her she will argue and walk out of the yard and say that she is her own woman,” Davis recalled.

According to Davis, while her daughter could be loud and hasty at times, she usually cooled down quickly and was loved by people in the Richland Park community.

“I want who did this to her to be held responsible,” she said.

Garrick did a lot of planting, her mother said, and no matter what time she came down from the mountain on a Sunday, she made sure she visited the Pentecostal church in the area and placed her offering in the offering basket, “even if the pastor preaching.”

One resident told SEARCHLIGHT that Garrick, who was known as “Malo”, was known in the area for her heavy drinking, but was generally cool and loved by everybody.

Garrick leaves behind four children, the eldest is a first form student, while the youngest is in grade one.

“I am not giving away any one of my grandchildren. Everybody, all their uncles and aunts, everybody will help take care of them,” Davis told SEARCHLIGHT.

A postmortem examination performed on Garrick revealed that she died as a result of blunt trauma to the abdomen. (KJ)