This article first appeared in NJ Urban News, a content-sharing partner of NJ Spotlight News.
After a much-heralded homicide-free winter in Camden — the first in 50 years — a woman whom the city loved was beaten to death with a baseball bat just as spring arrived.
Lisa Mellet, 51, was killed on March 25 on the streets she called home. Surveillance video showed her being struck repeatedly at 5th and Erie streets, in North Camden, around 11:30 p.m. Enoch Rembert, 28, was charged with first-degree murder, according to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office.
Credit: (April Saul/NJ Urban News)The outpouring of grief for Mellet was intense, and included a sidewalk vigil and two memorial services last month: one on April 1 at Assumption Church in Atco and another on April 26 at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden.
In a city where residents often express resentment for the white people who come to a largely Black and Brown city for methadone and wander the streets, Mellet — herself a Caucasian addict who walked through Camden constantly — was a beloved exception.
Mellet was a local girl, growing up in the Cramer Hill neighborhood, graduating from Camden Catholic High School and Rutgers University with a degree in social work. Her sister, Nadine Engel, described Mellet as a “sassy” young woman who lit up a room, while others remembered her fuchsia lipstick and love of fashion.
‘A white soul’
After Mellet fell into addiction and homelessness, family members tried to help. Mellet’s niece, Stephanie Winter, recalled spending hours driving around Camden with Mellet’s mother looking for her to get her into treatment. Ultimately, nothing worked.
Still, those in the city who loved her lent a hand regularly to a woman they described as “sweet,” “kind” and “intelligent.”
“We here in Camden knew her in her brokenness,” said Sister Helen Cole of Guadalupe Family Services, who had known Mellet for 20 years and organized the memorials. “So many people gave Lisa their time, their positive energy, their prayers, their hope for her.”
Josie Ocasio met Mellet more than two decades ago on a karaoke night at a local bar. Amid a crowd of Black and Brown people, Ocasio called Mellet “a white soul.”
She never let Mellet’s struggles destroy their friendship, nor did Ocasio’s mother. When visiting relatives questioned Mellet’s presence in the Ocasio home, where she occasionally bathed, ate or slept, Ocasio said her mother, who also loved Mellet dearly, told them, “If you don’t like it, you get out, because Lisa’s a part of this family.”
Clayton Gonzalez Jr., 11, who considered himself a friend of Mellet’s, was among the attendees at the Camden memorial. “He would call me if he saw she was struggling,” said his father, Clayton Gonzalez.
Mellet gave birth to three children and arranged for friends to adopt them. A daughter, 16-year-old Justina Goudy, said at the Atco service, “I know it’s in my best interests having the family I grew up with,” but wished she had met Mellet in person. “I drove to Camden so many times looking around for her, and I came really close a lot of the time,” she said. In a phone call, Goudy said, Mellet “told me she loved me and called me her baby. … I will forever be grateful.”
Looking past addiction
Many of those who were touched by Mellet said she had a positive impact in the city.
Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes, who was a social worker for more than 15 years, said Mellet “paid the ultimate sacrifice as a social worker.” Mellet, he said, “was trying to teach us something, that maybe we could be more humble or more sensitive and ask: What can we do to help those who really need us?”
Sister Helen Cole said of Mellet: “The ways you gave us the opportunity to be generous we will carry with us every day.”
For Ocasio, Mellet “helped me understand that you cannot judge people by the way they walk or the way they look.”
At the cathedral service, Engel, who moved out of Camden years ago, said she had not seen Mellet in a long time. In a recent phone call, Mellet, who was not known to complain about her situation, had told her sister, “I’m good.”
Engel thanked the mourners on behalf of her family for the way they treated her sister.
“Your love and kindness towards our Lisa was a gift to Lisa and to us,” she said. “You looked past the addiction and everything that came with that, and you saw her beautiful, vivacious heart. It is no wonder she never thought to leave this city where she was so loved and cared for.”
