Chaos in the cemetery

CHAOS broke out yesterday at the Valencia Cemetery after funeral services for murder/ suicide couple Joe Nicolaus and his common-law wife Jacqueline Paponette. The burial scene turned rough with members of both sides of the family cursing each other while the bodies were being lowered into the holes. The climax came when a member of the Paponette family actually fell into the grave. Earlier, things moved smoothly at the Praise and Worship Pentecostal Assembly on Pinto Road in Arima, at the funeral service for Pamponette. The atmosphere changed at the Quashie Funeral Home Chapel in Sangre Grande, where Nicolaus’ service was scheduled. First of all, it started late because no minister wanted to perform the rites. At the cemetery, where the couple was buried side by side, mourners abandoned Nicolaus’s coffin and paid all the attention to Paponette, surrounding her coffin to get a last glimpse of the murdered woman, while the hearse attendant handling Nicolaus’s coffin was left without any help to take the coffin from the hearse.

And while family and other mourners openly cried and expressed regret at what had happened to the mother of six, others angrily turned to Nicolaus’ coffin, describing him with names like “killer,” “murderer,” “dog” and “beast.” When the two coffins were placed at the grave site, the families begged that they not be let down in the hole together. When Newsday spoke to Anna Mary Paponette, oldest daughter of Jacqueline, she explained that while several family members were against the dual burial because of the circumstances, they thought it best for the couple’s two children. Jacqueline has six children, the last two with Nicolaus. Nicolaus killed Paponette with a shotgun on August 3 at Nicolaus Trace in Sangre Grande, before drinking a deadly poison.