…Yvette Peters endured an abusive relationship for years
A pall of gloom has settled over Victoria and neighbouring villages of Golden Grove and Nabaclis, East Coast Demerara, as relatives and friends of 51-year-old Yvette Peters, allegedly murdered last Wednesday by her husband at her Newark, New Jersey home in the United States, await the arrival of her remains for burial here later this week. Her grieving mother, Mrs. Rachael Forde, managing to muster up strength and courage, yesterday told the Guyana Chronicle that her daughter’s body has already been prepared for burial and is now awaiting a flight confirmation date from the airline for her to be flown home for burial at Victoria Village.
Meanwhile, reports coming out of New Jersey where the viewing of the body was held on Sunday,                                                      spoke of deep anguish as scores of relatives, friends and other mourners huddled together as they paid their last respects to one remembered as a loving and caring wife, mother, daughter, sibling and nurturer to the many whose lives she touched  during the more than 25 years she worked as a health care provider, both in Guyana and the United States.
Among those gathered to pay last respects in Jersey were her son and daughter who shared the home with her, her many siblings, including her younger sister Faye, who was inconsolable, since it was on her birthday that Yvette died. Notably absent was the accused who has since been taken into police custody.
Yvette Peters, the fourth of eight siblings to Rachael and the late Samuel Forde of Victoria, East Coast Demerara, was stabbed to death shortly after 23:00 h last Wednesday, amidst screams from her two children who tried desperately to call 911.
Reports said that the suspect, her husband, at whose hands she endured a ‘stormy relationship’ for more than a decade, entered the home while she was out, secluded himself and awaited her return. Armed with a knife, he allegedly pounced on her when she entered the building and dealt her about eight stabs.  Relatives said the terrified children (son and daughter), on figuring that he had gone berserk, locked themselves in a bedroom and called 911 for help. However, by the time the officials arrived their mother was already dead.
A villager in Victoria, who claims to be a close relative of the suspect, expressing shock, at the gruesome killing, recalled that the murdered woman had endured a life of misery at the man’s hands.
“When we heard that their papers had been fixed for them to travel to the United States, my heart burned to think that that girl would be away with him and from our watchful eyes.  But we hoped and prayed that he would change for the better” the woman recalled sullenly.
Meanwhile, the dead woman’s mother, Mrs. Rachel Forde, lamented, “Yvette was a very quiet girl, she went through years of storm but always had a smile on her face.”
Recalling what a hard working and industrious woman her daughter was, she said that it was her ambition that yielded her the beautiful home she eventually purchased and shared with her two children.   Recalling that she only moved into the home last December, and was killed less than nine months later, she added:  “She was taken away from that house, but Jesus has prepared a better one for her up there.”
Relatives claim that initially the couple lived in a rented home with their children, but after they moved into the new home and her husband continued to lead her a dog’s life, she ordered him out.
“Ashamed, and a proven loser, he could not take it,” one relative said, “so he probably decided that if he could not live in it (the new house) then neither should she.”
Yvette who was born and educated at Victoria, then Golden Grove, took up nursing as a career and worked as a pharmacist as well. She served at the Georgetown Public Hospital and the President’s College, Golden Grove, before migrating to the United States about nine years ago.