Traces of murder suspect’s injection detected in IGMH nurse’s blood

State prosecutor told the court on Monday that traces of a powerful injection were detected in the blood of Mary Grace Oned Pineda – an IGMH nurse found dead in her apartment last year – and that the same type of injection was found in the apartment of Haleemath Lamha Abdul Rahman -  who, along with Mary’s husband Marvin S. Y. Vargas, has been charged with her murder.

Mary was killed in her apartment on the first floor of Ma. Udhuheykokaage in Male’ City in the afternoon of October 19, 2021. 

Marvin, 30, has been charged with murder with intent, while his mistress Lamha, 24, has been charged as his accomplice.

At the hearing at the Criminal Court on Monday, the prosecutor said the toxicology report of the blood drawn from Mary when her body was first taken to IGMH was being prepared in a laboratory overseas.

“We have received a verbal response. The verbal response is that the toxicology report shows a chemical substance called succinylcholine was detected in Mary Grace’s blood,” he said.

He said that the prosecution would receive a soft copy of the report on Tuesday, and that the original report would be sent via DHL before the end of this week.

Succinylcholine is a medication used to cause short-term paralysis as part of general anesthesia.

Prosecution said that police also found two other types of powerful injections from Lamha’s apartment; potassium chloride and propofol.

The prosecutor said that injection marks were found on Mary’s body. He also said that while the succinylcholine injection found in Lamha’s apartment should have had 10 ml, it had only 4 ml.

In addition to being charged as an accomplice to Mary’s murder, Lamha was also charged with knowingly taking unauthorized control over the property of another, and carrying out an activity that requires permission from an authority, without obtaining permission from the relevant authority under

She was pressed with the latter two charges after police found two injections from IGMH which she had not been authorized to take out of the hospital hidden in an envelope in her bedroom, as well a type of drug issued only for the use of hospitals and medical facilities.

Lamha faces over six years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Lamha admitted to her affair with Marvin in an interview to Sun last year. She claimed they ended their relationship a day before Mary’s death, but got back together again.

She also spoke about the injections and medicine found in her bedroom. Lamha said that one of the injections had been prescribed by a doctor because she had trouble sleeping during the COVID-19 lockdown. She also claimed that the medicine, too, was prescribed by a doctor.

It had been Marvin who had taken Mary’s body to IGMH in an ambulance on October 19. He initially claimed her death as a suicide by hanging, and later changed his story and said she had suddenly collapsed.

Police found the death suspicious and opened an investigation into the case. 

Police arrested Marvin on October 27, 2021 and Lamha on December 16, 2021.

Both Marvin and Lamha had also worked as nurses at IGMH.