The Guyanese couple found dead at separate homes in New Jersey last Thursday morning, weeks after ending a long-term relationship, had been going through “a rough patch” for a good while.
Marcel Grant née Armstrong, 37, originally of Buxton was found dead outside her South Grove Street, East Orange home last week. Winston Fraser, 48, was discovered shortly after at his Irvington home with “an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
The Star Ledger reported last Thursday that Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, said investigators were trying to determine if the incident was a murder-suicide. There has since been no update.
Grant and Fraser were together for just under 10 years, the woman’s relatives said yesterday. The couple had a daughter, who is now 7 years old and lives with her mother’s relatives in Guyana. They indicated that Grant preferred to have her child here because she was concentrating on furthering her education and advancing her career.
Relatives of Grant in the United States are expected to give statements to police there today. The couple, according to her family, started having “a bit of friction” after Fraser lost his job earlier this year. The argument slowly worsened and Fraser began threatening Grant, they said.
“The problem wasn’t that he’d lost his job,” a close relative said. “She [Grant] wanted to see him get up in life… she wanted to see him doing something with himself.”
Questioned about whether the man was abusive to Grant, relatives refused to comment. However, they indicated that whenever they were around, Fraser was always a nice person; he was the sort of man who always helped around the house, they said.
Just over a month before their deaths, relatives said, Grant was still living with the man.
However, they stressed that the relationship had long since deteriorated and the couple only shared the same house. Grant moved to East Orange at the end of April/early May.
Grant, relatives said, had visited Guyana for two weeks during the Easter holiday, and that sometimes the woman would come home when the pressure in New Jersey was too much.
A close family member indicated that she had “a detailed” phone conversation with Grant about threats she had been receiving from her ex-lover.
Pamela Dickson told this newspaper that her nephew and Grant were having a “dispute in their love affair.” The woman said that she and Fraser were close and they would speak to each other often on the phone. Her nephew was not laid off, she explained, but was forced to leave his job because of health problems.
“He was diabetic and he was also suffering from hypertension,” Dickson said. “It was about this time that he and Marcel started having problems… he called me one night earlier this year and tell me how Marcel was telling him she didn’t want a man who wasn’t working.”
Fraser, she said, was married twice before becoming involved with Grant, and she alleged that both his wives had extra-marital affairs which resulted in him ending the relationships. He had made the same accusation against Grant, and it was this, she said, which had caused a steadily escalating problem until Grant eventually moved out.
Dickson admitted that nothing justified what her nephew did. Despite what he did, she said, Fraser was a good man while he was alive, and had helped Grant get to the United States and had supported her for years after.
Grant, The Star Ledger had reported, was a hard-working nurse who was punctual. The woman, friends said, would normally leave her East Orange home about 6.30 am, and when she didn’t show up for work on time on Thursday, co-workers and friends became anxious.
Grant’s body was discovered lying near her white Infiniti G35X on Ashland Place. Police were called to the scene after receiving reports of shots being fired in the area, Loriquet said. Landlord Cecil Tyndall said he was awakened by police officers, who guided him to the driveway, where he saw Grant’s car and her bloodied body. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Thomas said Grant had moved to East Orange about a month ago after breaking up with Fraser.
Third-floor tenant Carlton Crandon said he would often see Grant go out to the front fence to talk to Fraser, although she never allowed him in the house.
