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Dead woman endured years of abuse by her killer
The dead woman Reona Payne
As investigators continue to be tight-lipped about the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old Travel Agent, Reona Payne, close friends and relatives familiar with the situation are coming forward to offer some answers as to what they said may have led to the killing.
A close friend of the Travel Agent said that prior to her death, the woman was enduring years of abuse at the hands of her reputed husband, Orwain Sandy, who shot and killed her last Saturday.
Relatives said the situation got worse after the couple launched a business together. One man said that the woman complained that Sandy was taking all the credit for the business.
The family member said Payne was a “strong independent woman” and did not deserve to die the way she did.
He said that Sandy and Payne lived together for more than three years and he suspected that Payne was being abused during this time because of “how she would look.”
“When you look at her after knowing her for the time I knew her, you can tell something was wrong with her,” he said.
Another relative of the dead woman said the couple would argue a lot.
“The arguments would start off small but they always turn into something big,” she said.
The relative said, during the arguments, Orwain and Payne would always go into a room which she said appears to be sound proof.
She said Payne would stay in the room for hours before “coming out with a look of sadness on her face.”
The relative said that mother of three was not open to family and friends about the abuse but confided in a close friend last December via Facebook messenger when she was threatened.
In the messages, Payne told the friend that Orwain threatened to kill her.
“Next thing you know he is screaming he would give up his career for me…he would put me in a box…and he punched me in my face,” she wrote.
The woman sent pictures of her swollen face to her friend.
The relative said that a few months back, a report was made to the Child Care and Protection Agency when Sandy cut Reona’s eldest daughter’s hair after he told her “there can only be one man and woman in this house.” The child had combed her hair in a particular hairstyle.
The family member said the matter was never investigated.
Payne’s family members are still trying to wrap their heads around what transpired last Saturday.
The relative said that Payne’s youngest daughter is too young to truly understand the magnitude of the situation, but her two eldest children are still traumatised because they also saw their mother’s dead body on the side of the road.
Reona Payne was, on Saturday last, fatally shot by Orwain Sandy, her reputed husband after the two were involved in a heated argument in Alexander Village.
After shooting Payne, Sandy drove himself to the Ruimveldt Police Station where he surrendered and told officers what he did.
He is in custody and assisting with investigation.
Reona Payne left behind her three children in mourning from her marriage. Sandy had two children of his own from his previous marriage.
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