Female postal worker swallows fatal dose of rat poison
Kaieteur News
July 14, 2004
A 31-year-old female postal worker took a fatal dose of rat poison on Monday night after accusing another woman of having an affair with her reputed husband.
Andrea Nedd, a mother of two, died at the Georgetown Hospital at around 03:00hrs yesterday, about three hours after locking herself in a bedroom and ingesting the poison at her Lot 565 Tucville home.
Nedd’s reputed husband, Floyd Dawson, said that his spouse had constantly accused him of having an affair with a neighbour. He said that the dispute between the two women had reached the court, and things escalated at around 21:00 hrs on Monday, when his reputed wife punched the other woman.
The woman reported the assault at the East La Penitence Police Station and ranks there sent a message informing Nedd that she was wanted at the station.
Dawson thinks that Nedd believed that she would have been detained and decided to take her own life.
Instead of reporting to the police, the postal worker bundled her children into a taxi and accompanied them to her mother’s home.
However, she then left her mother’s home with the children and took them to other relatives.
“She told a brother: ‘Yuh’all aunt want to keep them (but) yuh’all gun mind them,’” a sister said.
Dawson said that his reputed wife came home alone around 23:00 hrs and told him that he would have to find someone to look after the children. Shortly after, Dawson said that Nedd drew some water from a tap in the yard.
According to Dawson, his reputed wife then went to the couple’s bedroom and shut the door.
However, she opened it shortly after and he lay in bed, attempting to pacify her, unaware that she had already poisoned herself.
It was only when his wife began to groan and vomit a slimy fluid that he realised what had occurred.
Dawson said that he immediately contacted the woman’s family before going to the East La Penitence Station to report the incident and appeal to the police to summon an ambulance. The ambulance eventually arrived and took Nedd to the Georgetown Hospital, but by then, the poison had already taken effect.
A sister who was at the hospital recalled Nedd saying, “Lord, save my life,” before eventually passing away.
Relatives confirmed that the woman had attempted to kill herself in a similar manner last February, and had even telephoned to tell them of her suicide bid.
She had then shut herself in her room, but was saved when a family friend climbed into the bedroom and retrieved the poison before she could swallow it.