By Nicole Hensley From New York Daily News

A Georgia woman vacationing with her husband on the Caribbean island of Grenada was brutally killed Sunday morning while walking along a sandy beach, officials said.

Jessica Colker, 39, and her husband, Brian Melito, were attacked near their oceanside resort by a man wielding a cutlass-style blade, police said.

Melito, 62, managed to escape the assault, but his wife did not. Her body was found minutes later after the suspect fled into nearby mangroves, according to local reports.

An autopsy report released Tuesday determined that an extensive skull fracture and asphyxia caused her death.

The couple, world travelers who fell in love while traveling through Central America, had been married for only two years after a three-month engagement.

They met at a dance workshop in Costa Rica and spent the rest of their vacation “dancing, talking, surfing, eating great food, swimming under the stars and generally falling in love,” according to site dedicated to their 2014 wedding.

Colker’s alleged killer, Dave Martin Benjamin, surrendered himself to St. David authorities Monday morning, MTV News Grenada reported, citing authorities.Benjamin was recently released from prison.

The U.S. Embassy in Barbados that it had aided local police in investigating Colker’s death.

“The Embassy is working closely with officials investigating Ms. Colker’s death, and asks that the public respects her family’s privacy during this difficult time,” officials said.

Colker worked as a physician’s assistant at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

“Jessica was a valued member of our Children’s team,” hospital spokeswoman Julie Holkeboer said in a statement to the paper. “We are deeply saddened by this horrific news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family.

IMAGES:

Jessica Colker was killed when she and her husband, Brian Melito, were attacked near a resort in St. David, Grenada, on Sunday morning.

Dave Martin Benjamin, who turned himself over to authorities on Monday morning, is the suspect in Colker’s death. St. David Police Department

For more on this story go to: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ga-woman-slain-vacationing-grenada-resort-article-1.2509366

Related story:

Death in Paradise’ murder of woman in the Caribbean shocks British tourists on beautiful holiday island

BY JIM HARDY From Daily Mirror UK

A 39-year-old American woman, understood to be from Georgia, was found brutally killed on deserted beach

Shocked British tourists were caught up in a ‘Death in Paradise’ murder today on a beautiful Caribbean island.

An American woman tourist was found brutally killed in Grenada on a deserted stretch of beach.

The 39-year-old victim is understood to be from Georgia, US, and she had arrived at the world-famous La Sagesse resort with her husband last night.

Police sealed off the murder scene and armed men – said by locals to be soldiers with assault rifles – started searching the undergrowth flanking the beach.

British woman’s magazine journalist Sue Hardy, 63, was along a number of UK tourists on the beach when the drama began around 11.30 local time this morning – 2.30pm British time.

Sue, from Inkpen, Berkshire, on holiday with her family, said: “There were about thirty of us on the beach including little children and people were getting a bit nervous and edgy because it was obvious something serious had happened.

“It appears the American woman tourist – described as ‘very beautiful’ by one member of the staff I spoke to – had gone off for a stroll along the beach with her husband, who I gather is grey-haired, distinguished-looking and quite a bit older than her.

“At La Sagesse there is the main beach, about half a mile long, with the little restaurant and also some apartments in the main hotel building overlooking the beach.

“The woman and her husband had arrived last night so this must have been one of their first walks along the beach.

“After walking for half a mile round the bay, where you are still in sight from the hotel and restaurant and the main area where tourists sit out in the sun, you can go up a path which leads through a sort of mangrove swamp, with steps so you don’t walk into the mud.

“After about 100 yards through this somewhat dark swampy area, you come out on to another beach which is totally deserted.

“No-one can see you there – but of course nobody can see if anyone attacks you there.

“I’ve been there on previous visits to La Sagesse and I always felt a bit spooked on that deserted beach.

“We’re on our sixth trip to Grenada and the beach at La Sagesse is our favourite on the island.

“It’s a world-famous beach, in lots of guide books and tourist reviews – it’s absolutely fabulous.

“But I wouldn’t venture on to that other, hidden, beach again.

Mrs Hardy went on: “It seems a man – or men – jumped out and attacked them.

“Some staff ran back to the deserted beach but by the time they got there she had been murdered.

“They said she was lying on the edge of the water.

“It quickly became obvious it was more than just a robbery. “

Soldiers with guns appeared and then guys carrying cases were splashing through the incoming tide to walk along the beach – I assume it was the forensic Murder Squad people.

Mrs Hardy added: “They put up tape to stop people crossing through to the deserted beach.

“About half an hour after the first hue and cry went up, we heard this horrible shouting and crying from the hotel.

“It was so loud that you could hear it above the noise of the waves crashing on to the beach and it went on for about a minute.

“Everyone was standing up and looking to see what it was.

“It was a man’s voice but it was a sort of terrible animal-like wailing and sobbing.

“Lots of couples visit La Sagesse because it is so incredibly beautiful – some even have their weddings on the beach and you get lots of honeymooners.

“It’s an awful, awful thing for anywhere, but for Grenada it is catastrophic because it always prides itself on being the safest island in the Caribbean.

“Most of the tourists on Grenada are English or American. I was in shock, so was everyone else.

“There was such a sad sight – she’d left her beach shoes lying on the sand near the restaurant.

“I assume she’d kicked them off to go for a romantic walk with her husband on their first full day in paradise.

“I took a photo of the shoes lying there.”

IMAGES:

Beach where an American woman tourist was found brutally killed. Pictured – the shoes of the victim Wessex News

Beach: The sight where an American woman tourist was found brutally killed Wessex News

British tourists: Many UK residents holidaying on dream island have been left shocked by crime Wessex News

Beach where an American woman tourist was found brutally killed Wessex News

For more on this story go to: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/death-paradise-murder-woman-caribbean-7239297