Death stalks the 106th batch

Oct 16, 2016 Features / Columnists, Murder and Mystery

– They were best friends embarking on a career to save lives. Did some psychopath take theirs?

By Michael Jordan

Fitzroy Dublin doesn’t trust in coincidences. But back in 1989 a case chockfull of coincidences came his way. Two young, vibrant women, two best friends from the same class, suddenly fell ill. Within the space of six months,

Were they murdered? From left: Dormayne Dublin, their male colleague and Jacqueline Langford

they were both dead.
After eleven years, this case still torments him. It’s a case that he has a personal interest in solving. After all, one of the young women is Mr. Dublin’s daughter. Others may call it a case of ill luck. He calls it murder.
When Dormayne Dublin was attending school, the former Bygeval Multilateral student displayed artistic talent and her parents envisaged enrolling her in the Burrowes School of Art.
But in 1995, three months after graduating from school, Dormayne indicated that she was interested in a career of nursing. She enrolled in the Georgetown School of Nursing and put everything into her career.
Enrolled in the 106th batch, she became close friends with another young nurse trainee, Jacqueline Langford. The two, along with a male student nurse, soon became almost inseparable.
Then, in March, 1998, while they were preparing for their final exams, things went scarily awry.
The healthy 22-year-old Dormayne Dublin suddenly fell ill.
It seemed like nothing serious at first, just a fever and chills. But the fever was not abating, and she was eventually admitted to hospital. She underwent a battery of laboratory tests which failed to unearth the reason for the nurse’s illness.
Dormayne’s mother would visit her in the mornings, and the woman became concerned when she realized that her daughter was beginning to have hallucinations.
Once, the trainee nurse imagined that she was on television receiving several awards. On another occasion, she spoke about seeing a sister at the hospital, even though the sister was not there.
Eventually, Dormayne became so weak that she had to be assisted to the hospital washroom.
And yet, no one could tell the Dublins what was wrong with their daughter.
Fitzroy Dublin had his suspicions, though. On March 23, about 13 days after she was hospitalized, he enquired from her whether she had ever eaten anything from anyone.
She said no. But Dormayne did recall that about a week before she fell ill, she was at a gathering with other student nurses when someone brought a tumbler with a beverage which they all drank. He never found out who gave his daughter the beverage.
Ten minutes later, Dormayne passed away.
According to Mr. Dublin, who witnessed the autopsy, the late forensic pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo concluded that his daughter had succumbed from a stomach ulcer. But Mr. Dublin is adamant that his daughter had no stomach ulcer, though that is what he says was written on her death certificate.
Then in August 1998, Dormayne’s best friends, 23-year-old Jacqueline Langford, and the male trainee nurse who was their ‘batch mate’ also fell ill under mysterious circumstances.
The male nurse trainee survived, but, like her friend, Dormayne, Langford died.
Mr. Dublin also viewed that autopsy, and he became further convinced that his daughter was the victim of foul play, although it was suggested that Langford had succumbed from pulmonary thrombosis, an ailment that affects the lungs.
According to him, a senior medical official who also witnessed Langford’s autopsy reportedly muttered: “something wrong here.”
He says that the official expressed the view that someone administered a poison, which gives a delayed reaction, to the two young women and their male colleague. (That male colleague would die some time later from an unrelated illness). At the time, a relative of Langford had stated that she was informed by Dr, Mootoo that poisoning was suspected.
In a brief interview with me, the same medical official confirmed that there were indeed suspicions of foul play in the deaths of Dublin and Langford.
According to the official, the overriding feeling was that someone had poisoned them.
The suspicion, he says, was that someone in the medical profession, had a grudge against the two young women and their male friend, someone who was perhaps mentally unbalanced, had committed the act.
“It is deeper than you think,” he says.
He says that an investigation was launched, but the culprit was never found.
Tissue samples were reportedly taken from the victims and sent to a Trinidad laboratory.
Nothing was reportedly found in the samples to confirm suspicions of foul play. However, some local experts suggested that the diagnosis may have been affected because of the lengthy delay in sending them overseas and the way they were stored.
Reports at the time indicate that the samples were stored for several weeks in a cupboard.
The official says that following the investigation, recommendations were made that nurses be given their own cupboards, and that they be fitted with locks.

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We can be reached on telephone numbers 22-58465, 22-58491, or 22-58458. You need not disclose your identity.
You can also contact Michael Jordan at his email address [email protected].