Mourners say farewell to slain nurse
A memorial for Merin Joy in the employee parking lot at Broward Health Coral Springs.
CORAL SPRINGS Merin Joy was buried Wednesday, warmly remembered as a compassionate hard worker who was grateful to have worked as a nurse in South Florida.
Coral Springs police say Joy last week was stabbed 17 times and then run over by her attacker’s car as she lay on the ground. Her husband killed her outside her workplace, Broward Health Coral Springs, the police said.
Joy was buried near Tampa. Many mourners in a Brandon church wore purple ribbons, a traditional color for domestic violence awareness. They bent down and removed the wreath of white flowers on her head to kiss her, weeping, before her casket was rolled out of the church to the burial site.
Joy was leaving her last day working at the hospital on July 28 to flee her violent marriage, police said.
She had left her 2-year-old daughter in her native India with her parents for safekeeping while she made plans. But she was attacked in the parking lot as she left her last overnight shift caring for COVID-19 patients.
Before she died, she revealed her attacker’s identity, the man captured on hospital surveillance tape waiting in the parking lot for 45 minutes for her: 34-year-old Philip Mathew, her husband, according to police.
No decision is imminent on whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Mathew because the new coronavirus has disrupted court proceedings.
Formal charges have not yet been filed, according to a spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office.
“It would be premature for prosecutors to say if they would seek the death penalty because they can’t convene the grand jury to present cases and there is no first-degree murder indictment unless a grand jury decides that is the appropriate charge,” the prosecutors’ office said.
On July 30, a judge ordered a complete psychiatric screening for Mathew. Arrested on a murder charge, he is being held in Broward jail with no bond.
On Monday at Joy’s wake, in Davie, she was laid in an open coffin on a white bed with orange flowers to match her wrap. Family and friends described Joy as a devoted nurse with “a contagious smile” who dreamed of becoming an anesthesiologist.
One nurse recalled how he was assigned to train her when she was new at the Coral Springs hospital.
“I think she should be training me,” he said he remembered saying. “She would help me when I was behind … or there was a crisis situation.”
Her cousin recalled a relationship that made the girls the best of friends.
“She was one of the few people I shared my soul with,” she said.
Another mourner called for compassion: “Domestic violence is worse than a virus,” she said. “Don’t judge other people [and ask], ‘Why didn’t you leave yesterday?‘”
Joy’s hospital supervisor said Joy had told her that in India, there were no computers at the hospital, and she made her records with handwritten notes. But she assured her bosses that “nursing is nursing, it comes from the heart.” And she was grateful for the opportunity to work in America: “Thank you for believing in me,” she told her supervisor.
“I want to be a better person, I want to be more like Merin, that aura … and just love everyone unconditionally.”
Joy’s family originally planned to bury her in India, but they said her body, in its condition, would not be able to make the trip. The wake and funeral were livestreamed so her parents in India could still be there.
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