EDMONTON - For two years, Florentino Jajoy and his wife tried to make her better.
For two years, she took different medications to deal with worsening mental health problems that left her unable to work, unable to stop crying.
For two years, he worried about his wife for almost every moment of every day.
But he never worried that she would hurt their children.
That changed on Tuesday morning, when homicide detectives came to Jajoy at work and told him that his son was dead, and that his wife was in police custody.
“She was sick. She had mental illness. She wanted to get better,” he told the Journal on Thursday. “She was not happy in the last two years, but we tried to help each other. I tried to tell her, ‘It will be fine. Life will be good.’ But it was hard all the time.”
Police were called to the family’s south Edmonton apartment at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, and arrived to find the body of seven-year-old Omar Jajoy, who was pronounced dead in hospital. Nerlin Sarmiento, 32, was arrested at the scene, and was later charged with first-degree murder in her son’s death. She is slated to appear in court Friday.
Florentino Jajoy started dating Sarmiento in their home country of Colombia 12 years ago, when they were still in their teens. The two immigrated to Canada five years ago, seeking to give their son and daughter, now 10, a better life, but Jajoy said they didn’t find it.
Instead, the family struggled. Jajoy said both he and his wife had trouble finding work, and could barely eke out a modest living in an expensive city.
Two years ago, Sarmiento began having serious mental health problems. Jajoy said doctors were never able to determine the exact nature of her illness, and her diagnosis ranged from schizophrenia to bipolar and severe depression.
Jajoy said his wife was put on numerous medications, but it never seemed to work for long.
She was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward twice in recent months, once in the summer and again for a month in the fall, after a period in which she cried almost constantly.
“She wanted, she really, really wanted, to not be sick anymore,” Jajoy said. “She only showed love. She all the time was a good wife, and we just tried to help each other until she recovered her health ... We loved each other.”
While trying to get help for Sarmiento’s mental problems, the couple also tried to secure social assistance that would lighten their family’s burden in other ways, including applying for a housing subsidy, and for Sarmiento to be placed on disability while she was unable to work. Their applications were never successful.
“We tried to live a normal life, but we never did the last two years,” Jajoy said. “We tried to understand, and we tried to get help. But we didn’t get help. We didn’t get the opportunity.”
A funeral will be held for Omar Jajoy on Friday.
His father described Omar as a loving, smart boy, “a beautiful son” that his wife loved deeply.
“As a family we support each other,” he said. “We love each other. She loved Omar so much.”
On Monday night, the couple spent the evening at home together, watching movies and talking. Jajoy thought his wife seemed better than she had for a while. He remembers her smiling.
Two hours after he left for work Tuesday morning, the police came to see him.
“Everything was OK until I got the news. I don’t know what happened the last two hours ...,” he said. “I don’t understand anything now.”
The Edmonton Journal