Michaela will get her justice

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

MICHAELA Mason loved to dress up, sing, play pan and football and to go church. Although she only turned 14 in December, the Form Three student of the Point Fortin West Secondary School already had her career path figured out. She was going to become a school teacher, like the mother of her beloved best friend Olivia Chapman.

Michaela was one of four people killed sometime on Tuesday at a house in Sobo Village, La Brea. When her body was found, her throat had been slit. The teen was having a sleepover with Olivia at the rental home of her mother, Abigail Chapman. Olivia, Abigail and their landlord Michael Scott were all found dead. A jilted ex-lover of Abigail’s is the prime suspect and police have launched a nationwide manhunt for him. Police believe Michaela was killed because she happened to be at the house when the killer stormed in.

At their Sobo Village home yesterday, Michaela’s sister, Saffina Thomas told Newsday her youngest sister loved the Chapman’s dearly. “She was always asking to go by them. She would go to church with them sometimes and spend nights over there,” Thomas said. “On Sunday she went to church with them and they brought her home in the evening but she went back by them to spend the night because they were going to a sports day in Olivia’s mother’s school.”

Thomas said her mother, Carla, was not worried about Michaela staying over at Olivia’s home as the girls had been friends for years and Abigail was well known to them. “She was a teacher and she used to help Michaela with school as well. Michaela always said she wanted to be a school teacher like Abigail. My mother knew they were very good people and she didn’t have a problem letting Michaela spend time with them.

“Michaela was a pretty, pretty girl. She loved to look nice and be involved in everything. She was playing pan, singing in church, playing football for her school...she was in everything.” An emotional Saffina said her family are also God-fearing people and she believes Michaela will get justice.