Residents of Cheesefield, Linstead, were in shock on Saturday morning after they woke up to the news of the gruesome killing of one of their own.
The body of 44-year-old Nicola Sittal, a mother of four, whose youngest child is a one-year-old, was discovered in a canefield on Saturday morning by cane cutters about a mile and a half from her home. She was found lying face down with multiple stab wounds over her body and her forehead bashed in.
Emotions ranged from disbelief to sadness as scores of residents gathered at the scene to view the wounds on Sittal’s body, which were evidence of the trauma and violence that the woman experienced before her demise.
“A yesterday (Friday) mi see her and she was looking hot as usual. Mi can’t believe that somebody would do this to such a nice woman,” said Joan, a resident of the community, who viewed the deceased woman’s body before the crime scene was secured.
Sittal’s sister, Aleshia, said her sister was a very good person who did not deserve to suffer such a violent death.
“Nicola is not a pushover. She can defend herself, so it must be that she was attacked unexpectedly; but whoever killed my sister will have a guilty conscience to live with all their life,” the teary-eyed woman said.
The police theorised that Sittal was likely killed elsewhere overnight and her body dumped in the canefield.
She was the second woman to have died violently in Linstead in three days.
Last Thursday, 63-year-old Murdeline Sullivan was chopped to death in an apparent home invasion in Buxton Town. Her husband was wounded in the incident.