KOTTAYAM: The four gunshots fired inside a small white church in New Jersey in the US are still getting echoed in Kunnaserry Thoompanakkunnel house at Pazhoothuruthu in Kaduthuruthy. The house of Reshma James, where her aged parents, James Joseph and Mercy, and her younger brother Jude live, is shrouded in shock and silence broken only by wails.
Reshma, the 24-year-old nurse had telephoned her parents, James and Mercy at Pazhoothuruthu home early in the morning of the fateful day. “I’ll call you again in the evening,” Reshma had told her brother Jude. In the evening, however, came the long-distance call that announced her death.
Reshma, the only daughter of James and Mercy, had got married on August 25, 2007, to Joseph Sanish Pallipurath, 27, son of Pallipurathu Mathew from Nilambur, settled for long in California running his family business. After marriage, Reshma, a BSc Nursing graduate, flew to the US with her husband. According to Reshma’s family members, the marriage was on the rocks right from the start.Still, the couple arrived here coinciding with their first wedding anniversary celebrations. A family friend, Aniyan Panavelil, told The New York Times that the couple returned to India for a month to try to work things out with counselors, but the effort failed.
Family members said that Reshma flew back to the US alone, apparently due to lingering marital problems. She returned to New Jersey on September 12 this year to join her cousin Silvy Perincheril, 47, who is the principal of the church’s Sunday school and a nurse settled in New Jersey with her family. Reshma has two brothers. Rony James works in Italy and Jude James is a plus-one student. Relatives are making arrangements to bring Reshma’s body to Kadathuruthy at the earliest.
Dennis John Malloosseril, 23, the second victim, was a director of the Clifton St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church. Dennis belongs to the Mallooserril family of Valiyangadi in Kottayam. His parents and other relatives also had got settled in the US for long. His father Abraham John works with the US government service.