24024: Slavin: (pub) EVIL FIRE HOAX (NYPost 010304) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

from: jps390@aol.com

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/37681.htm

EVIL FIRE HOAX

By ROOSEVELT JOSEPH, ERIN CALABRESE and DAN MANGAN

The Brooklyn family shattered by a deadly New Year's Day blaze was on the receiving end of a horrific prank phone call yesterday that wrongly informed kin another beloved aunt had just died of her injuries.

The sicko caller falsely told Joseph Gerard that his sister, Juni Gerard — dubbed the "Mother Teresa" of the family — had died at the hospital, authorities and kin said. The distraught brother immediately began wailing in grief.

The man later learned his 57-year-old sister was still alive.

Four other family members — including two little boys — were killed in the blaze at Juni's Crown Heights apartment. She was one of three relatives left critically injured.

Juni, a home health-care attendant, was still clinging to life yesterday as relatives kept vigil for her and another great-nephew also badly burned.

Juni "is the heart and soul of the family," said her cousin, Marrie Letang.

"She pays school fees for her niece and nephews back in Haiti. She sent money back to Haiti to make them a better home. She takes care of everybody. She is like Mother Teresa."

When the blaze first broke out early Saturday morning, Juni was heard screaming, "Where are my babies? Please, don't let my babies die!"

The "babies" were her three great-nephews, children of Gerard's 38-year-old niece, Nadege Viaud, all of whom were visiting from Haiti.

Viaud and two of her boys — Jeffrey, 5 and Bernard, 2 — as well as another relative, Riboule Lemorin, 40, died in the fire.

Because the blaze was deemed arson, the deaths have been classified as homicides, making the four New York City's first murder victims in 2005.

Another relative, Lamartiniere Norde, 63, picked up Viaud's other son, Marven, 7, and escaped from the burning apartment.

Norde, Marven and Gerard were in critical condition at New York Hospital. Relatives including Viaud's husband, Jean-Claude — who was en route home from Boston when the fire occurred — spent the day there.

Investigators found a gasoline can amid the charred remains of Gerard's apartment.

Additional reporting by C.J. Sullivan


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J.P. Slavin
New York
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