(Trinidad Guardian) Determined not to let 14 years of marriage go down the drain, Ardia Yearwood-Marchan and Peter Marchan were trying to make life work.
But those efforts ended when the Fyzabad couple’s burnt bodies were found inside their Isuzu D-Max pickup at Petrotrin Forest Reserve on Wednesday night.
Marchan-Yearwood, 38, was a dance teacher at the La Romain High School while Marchan was a civilian mechanic at the Southern Division Fire Headquarters, Mon Repos, San Fernando.
Police said an anonymous caller reported a fire off Sudamah Trace, Fyzabad, and when officers responded they found the burning pickup along the No 42 Road and contacted the Siparia Fire Station. When the blaze was extinguished, firefighters found the remains seated in the pickup burnt beyond recognition. Although investigators linked the bodies to the couple, DNA analysis and comparison of dental records will have to be used to confirm their identities.
Investigators, spearheaded by Snr Supt Nazrool Hosein, are yet to determine whether the deaths were a double murder or murder/suicide.
However, they learned the couple had at argument at Marchan-Yearwood’s home along the Guapo Main Road, Fyzabad, hours before their bodies were found. They are working with the theory that she could have been killed and placed in the pickup before being taken to Forest Reserve.
Speaking at Marchan’s Robert Hill home yesterday, a relative said the couple separated last November and Yearwood-Marchan had moved back to her mother’s home.
However, he said they were trying to rekindle their marriage and they would both spend time at each other’s home. He said up to when he saw Marchan on Sunday and spoke to him on Tuesday, everything appeared to be going well.
Relatives said they spent Wednesday together and when they left that afternoon, they sped off in the vehicle and it appeared that they had an argument but no one knew what it was about.
The next time they heard of the couple was when police reported that their pickup was found burnt with two charred remains inside.
At Yearwood-Marchan’s home, relatives said they were not ready to comment on her death.
However, students, past and present, described her as a loving teacher. Former student, Shyienn Millette, 19, said Yearwood was a mother figure to those she interacted with at the school.
“Miss Yearwood was an outgoing and a very straightforward person. If she didn’t like what you were doing, she would come and talk to you about it. “She was a respectable person and students never really gave her trouble because they were comfortable with her. She was a mother figure and a friend to us so to hear that she died is really heartbreaking,” Millette said.
Several people also posted condolences and tributes to Yearwood-Marchan on her Facebook page after news of her death spread.
