Glenroy Sinclair, Staff Reporter
VILMA MAIS, a 62-year-old member of the Stella Maris Church in St. Andrew, died yesterday after she was viciously attacked on the church compound.
Mrs. Mais, the wife of prominent attorney-at-law Peter Mais, was lifted from the churchyard yesterday in critical condition after she was attacked, robbed, then stabbed by a man who grabbed her handbag. She later died at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
Assistant Commissioner George Williams confirmed the incident shortly after 6:00 p.m. yesterday.
"She was stabbed in the side of the neck," ACP Williams said.
Reports are that it was customary for the 62-year-old housewife to visit and pray at the church daily. She was in the process of leaving the compound yesterday when the man attempted to grab her handbag. A struggle developed between Mrs. Mais and her attacker, during which she was stabbed.
A spokesperson at the Stella Maris Church also confirmed the incident, but declined to say much more.
A Roman Catholic priest assigned to the church confirmed that the woman had died and referred The Gleaner to the church pastor, Father Michael Lewis, who was unavailable up to press time yesterday.
For most of the evening the Roman Catholic priests were holding a special mass on the church compound.
This latest incident comes three days after gunmen struck at a church in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, and killed one of its members. According to the police, 28-year-old building contractor, Durraine Giddeon, was talking with other church members on the compound of the Full Truth Gospel Faith Ministry on Church Road, Bog Walk, when he was attacked by a man who shot him several times.
WAITING MOTOR CAR
Eyewitnesses told the police that the man later walked away from the scene and escaped in a waiting motor car that was parked outside the church gate.
Yesterday's incident occurred while the nation joined several countries around the world in the recognition of International Women's Day.
Another woman was also injured in a separate incident. According to the Olympic Gardens police, 28-year-old Nickiesha Jones was shot in the neck while at her home in Tower Avenue, Olympic Gardens, St. Andrew, yesterday morning.
