It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy, and the photographs showed glimpses of the rich history and beautiful scenery. But Jessica Colker and Brian Melito were very much in love, and Melito’s camera focused on Colker far more than on the Italian countryside.
With her dark, unruly curls, Colker looked elegant in front of Mediterranean towns and ruins. Melito took dozens of pictures of her on the trip, which he used as an opportunity to trace his family’s roots, and many were posted on his Facebook page. The couple met in Costa Rica through their travels and love of dance, and together, they made their way to Italy. A trip to the Caribbean would prove their last.
As the couple walked on Le-Cheasere beach in St. David, Grenada, the two were attacked by a man, the Royal Grenada Police Force said. Melito reported his wife missing around noon, and police searched the area. Melito, 62, had not been injured, but Colker was found dead. She was 39.
“We don’t have much of this type of crime happening here,” Police Constable Pauline Williams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s very rare.”
An autopsy in Grenada, which lies about 100 miles north of the Venezuelan coast, determined Colker died “as the result of an extensive skull fracture and asphyxia,” police said Tuesday. Police denied that a blade — such as a machete, cutlass or sword — was used in the attack, despite numerous media reports that Colker was attacked with such a weapon.
“They are not getting this information from police,” Williams said of the conflicting reports.
On Monday, a man surrendered to police, claiming responsibility for killing Colker, according to police. But late Tuesday, he had not been publicly identified nor charged. Grenada law allows police to detain suspects for 48 hours, police said. Once released, the suspect could be detained again, Williams said.
Investigators declined to discuss a possible motive in the case. Family and friends of the couple declined to speak about Colker’s death when contacted by the AJC. Late Tuesday, Melito’s personal Facebook page was deleted.
Colker and Melito met while attending a dance workshop in Costa Rica, according to the couple’s webpage on the www.theknot.com.
“We had a smoothie together on the second day of the workshop and spent the rest of the week dancing, talking, surfing, eating great food, swimming in the ocean under the stars, and generally falling in love,” the couple wrote on the page.
Colker and Melita were married in a small ceremony Nov. 1, 2014, at The Howard House, an 1890s Queen Anne Victorian home in northeast Atlanta.
“Since Brian and I have been living independently for many years, we have enough collective stuff to make a household,” Colker wrote on the website. “That said, as we settle into living in Atlanta together, it would be a great gift to experience some of the art culture here.”
One friend, Sarah Greene, told Channel 2 Action News that she had met Colker years before they became neighbors last fall.
“She was beautiful, alive and vibrant, and she really loved to dance. That was her passion,” Greene said. “That was how we met several years ago, before she moved here, next door.”
Greene said Colker loved to travel with her husband and truly cared about people. She said Colker was planning a Valentine’s Day benefit to help refugees.
According to the Georgia Composite Medical Board, Colker was a physician assistant who worked with anesthesiologists at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Her husband is a physician.
Funeral arrangements for Colker were not announced.
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