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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Sisters of UWI worker killed by boyfriend: Be careful who you allow into your lives

by

Sascha Wilson
1016 days ago
20220927
Sisters Crystal Cox, Joanna Edwards and Lisa Edwards comfort each other at their Freeport home yesterday, as they recall their last moments with their sister Marissa Edwards, who was found dead in Couva on Monday.

Sisters Crystal Cox, Joanna Edwards and Lisa Edwards comfort each other at their Freeport home yesterday, as they recall their last moments with their sister Marissa Edwards, who was found dead in Couva on Monday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

“Be care­ful who you al­low in­to your home and in­to lives.”

The warn­ing has come from the fam­i­ly of 39-year-old Maris­sa Ed­wards, who was killed by her boyfriend, who then took his own life days lat­er.

Speak­ing with re­porters at their Freeport home yes­ter­day, Ed­wards’ sis­ter Lisa said they nev­er imag­ined this out­come, as Ed­wards’ boyfriend, Sime­on Roopc­hand, had a broth­er­ly re­la­tion­ship with them.

Lisa said he was not a vi­o­lent per­son.

“Be care­ful, know who you let in­to your home and your fam­i­ly be­cause this has left us bro­ken. She is our sis­ter. There is a child with­out a moth­er, a moth­er with­out a daugh­ter, a sis­ter with­out our next sis­ter,” she said.

Marissa Edwards

Marissa Edwards

“Just be care­ful, be­cause you nev­er know who you could let in­to your home, be­cause the per­son did not show signs of ag­gres­sion or a bad side. He used to laugh and play. We had nick­names. He was like a broth­er. For him to turn and do this to this fam­i­ly, he was self­ish,” she lament­ed.

They said Ed­wards was ex­cit­ed about go­ing with her 16-year-old daugh­ter to reg­is­ter for A-Lev­els but she nev­er got the chance.

De­scrib­ing Ed­wards as their pro­tec­tor, an­oth­er sis­ter, Crys­tal Cox, said they come from a strong-spir­i­tu­al back­ground, as their fa­ther is a pas­tor, so Maris­sa was God-fear­ing, gen­er­ous, hard-work­ing and fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed.

Ed­wards was in a re­la­tion­ship with Roopc­hand, 51, for about two years, but she had planned to end the re­la­tion­ship, they said.

While Roopc­hand was not abu­sive, Ed­wards’ sis­ters said he would ac­cuse her of be­ing un­faith­ful. How­ev­er, Cox said she did not like the way he spoke to her and had warned her sis­ter that he was dan­ger­ous.

“Even though he would not have been giv­ing off that dan­ger­ous per­sona, I just felt that he was dan­ger­ous,” said Cox.

But she said Ed­wards dis­missed her warn­ings, in­sist­ing that she could take care of her­self.

Sad father, pastor Dodridge Edwards, at his home in Freeport yesterday.  His daughter Marissa Edwards was found dead in Couva on Monday after being reported missing.

Sad father, pastor Dodridge Edwards, at his home in Freeport yesterday. His daughter Marissa Edwards was found dead in Couva on Monday after being reported missing.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Ed­wards, an ad­min­is­tra­tive clerk at the Fac­ul­ty of Med­ical Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ St Au­gus­tine cam­pus, left her home with Roopc­hand around 7 pm on Sep­tem­ber 18 to go for drinks.

Roopc­hand ar­rived at Ed­wards’ home that day around 6 am, claim­ing he had come to pick her up for work and to take her daugh­ter to school. When rel­a­tives sub­se­quent­ly in­quired about Ed­wards’ where­abouts, he claimed he dropped Ed­wards on the high­way by a track which leads to their home.

Roopc­hand dropped and picked up Ed­wards’ daugh­ter from school that day. He in­sist­ed he did not know where she was and pre­tend­ed to be con­cerned. How­ev­er, Cox said he be­gan act­ing sus­pi­cious­ly when they told him that the GPS on Ed­wards’ phone was not col­lab­o­rat­ing with his sto­ry. She said he sub­se­quent­ly sent mes­sages to fam­i­ly mem­bers, claim­ing that they had ru­ined his life.

Relatives of missing administrative clerk at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the UWI, St Augustine, Marissa Edwards, at the scene where her body was found at Exchange Road in Couva on Monday.

Relatives of missing administrative clerk at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the UWI, St Augustine, Marissa Edwards, at the scene where her body was found at Exchange Road in Couva on Monday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Roopc­hand’s car was found in Tabaquite on Tues­day and on Sat­ur­day his body was found hang­ing from a tree.

While “it’s re­al­ly hard” to cope with her sis­ter’s death, Cox be­lieves if they don’t even­tu­al­ly for­give him, they would not be able to heal.

“I tru­ly be­lieve that I am learn­ing to for­give on a dai­ly ba­sis, that is why I am try­ing not to say any­thing about the in­di­vid­ual be­cause we need to heal. I be­lieve that hurt­ing peo­ple hurts peo­ple,” she added.

Ed­wards’ de­com­pos­ing body was found in drain off Ex­change Link Road, Cou­va, on Mon­day by mem­bers of the Val­lence Ramb­harat-led Hunters Search and Res­cue Team and her broth­ers, who had been comb­ing ar­eas in Cen­tral and Tabaquite since she dis­ap­peared.

Ed­wards’ rel­a­tives iden­ti­fied her body at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre yes­ter­day and an au­top­sy is ex­pect­ed to be done this week.


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