Contributed photos
LEFT: Nurse Carol Waldron in earlier years at the Exed Nursing School in Kingston.
CENTRE: Kadijah Waldron
LEFT: Carol Waldron and husband Michael, with baby Ashley.

Glenroy Sinclair and Nagra Plunkett, Assignment Coordinators

Murder-suicide took on a bizarre face in the tourist capital of Montego Bay, St. James, yesterday, when a 41-year-old critical-care nurse reportedly injected and killed her two children with what is believed to be potassium chloride, before taking her own life.

Their bodies were discovered shortly after 6:00 a.m. yesterday, in the room of a small hotel in Montego Bay, where they had checked in Friday evening.

Dead are Carol Waldron, who was employed to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, Kadijah Waldron, a fourth-form student of the Mannings School and three-month-old Ashley Waldron.

Seven-page suicide note

According to the police, Mrs. Waldron left behind a seven-page suicide note in which she detailed marital problems. The police also said several syringes were found inside the hotel room. A security guard employed to the hotel heard strange sounds coming from inside the room. He informed another worker, who then entered the room by breaking the glass door on the balcony. The police were summoned and on their arrival, the bodies of three females were discovered.

Wrists slashed

Mrs. Waldron, according to the police, had attempted to commit suicide by hanging but the rope broke. Her body was found in the bath tub with the wrists slashed. She had also supposedly injected herself with the dangerous substance.

"In the suicide note, she claimed her husband told her that he was going to England to study law. But she later found out that he was having an affair with another woman in England and said she could not take much more of it," one of the police investigators told The Sunday Gleaner.

He further said that Mrs. Waldron in the note repeatedly said she "could not take it anymore" and begged her relatives, especially her mother, to forgive her. She singled out a brother and sister whom she asked to take care of their children.

"There were so many other things in the letter explaining what they (the couple) have been through in the 18 years of the marriage," said one of the senior detectives who read the letter.

Taking it hard

Mrs. Waldron's family is taking it hard.

"Something really go so? Carol really kill herself and the two pickney dem?" asked a tearful Lena Clayton, Nurse Waldron's mother.

Mrs. Clayton was in a crowd of grieving relatives and friends who gathered at the family home in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, as news of the tragedy spread.

The 41-year-old nurse had been married to Michael Waldron, an ex-soldier and businessman of Grange Hill in Westmoreland, for the last 18 years. He was briefly questioned by the police yesterday, during a telephone conversation. Since then, and up to press time yesterday, the police said they were unable to make further contact with him.

The first of four children for her parents, Nurse Waldron was last seen about 3:30 p.m. on Friday, when she drove from home to downtown Savanna-la-Mar.

Her father, James Clayton, said his daughter picked up her eldest daughter at school and subsequently called to say she was spending the night in Montego Bay.

"She was one of the best persons in the world, very quiet, easy-going and dedicated to her job. Up to yesterday (Friday), Carol was the best daughter in the world. But today, I don't know, I wouldn't have expected her to do something like this," Mr. Clayton stated. "My problem is this one (pointing to a photograph of baby Kadijah). She is innocent. Why she didn't leave 'Dijah' give us?"

Commenting on the situation yesterday, psychiatrist, Dr. Wendel Abel, said depression can trigger a sense of nihilism in people: "If somebody is depressed and they are overcome by a sense of hopelessness and helplessness and powerlessness, so when you get to that point (of severe depression) you also begin to get very negative thoughts. You don't want to live any more."