Rehabilitation Ahead for St. Tammany Parrish Dispatcher

St. Tammany Parish (LA) sheriff's dispatcher Marylin Mayo has been flown to Atlanta (Geo.) for rehabilitation after she underwent back surgery for injuries she suffered when a pine tree crushed the patrol car she was riding in during a funeral procession June 13th. Mayo's fiancé, Cpl. Linden Raimer, was driving the patrol car and was killed by the tree, felled by a sudden thunderstorm that packed 51 mph winds. Mayo, 26, now faces many months of rehabilitation and recovery, but doctors say she will remain paralyzed from the waist down. Mayo has told her family that she intends to return to work when he rehabilitation is complete.

St. Tammany Bureau

Kevin and 911 CARES, we cannot thank you guys enough for everything you have done for Mary.  Her spirits are so very high that I am in awe of her inner strength and determination.  You are correct in that she intends to resume her career with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office in Communications. 

We are going to be upgrading some of our Bramic consoles to be safer for her when she does return.  The consoles already raise and lower in a sit-stand mode but we are going to add a “kill” switch to several of them to disable the console if it were to encounter any obstacle while lowering, to protect her legs.  She is an awesome individual and we thank you for the attention that you have given to her and continue to give. 

**Note from 911 CARES. Mary wears size medium t-shirts, she will surely need some for her daily re-hab. Let’s send her some cool agency shirts so she will show her 9-1-1 pride! (911 cares is sending out some sweat pants and shirts today) The address of the rehab facility is as follows:

Patient Mary Mayo
Shepherd Center
2020 Peachtree Road, NW
Atlanta, GA 30309-1465
404-352-7345

In addition to the generous assistance you have already provided, we wanted to let you know about a benefit for Mary on September 23rd. It is being conducted by the Sheriff’s Office. We are looking for items to be donated for silent auction.  We think baseballs, footballs, jerseys, from any sports team or public safety agency would be great. As always we thank you and 911 Cares for your support. **Note from 911 CARES. Does anyone have a summer or winter cabin they would be willing to “donate” for a week or a weekend? How about crafts or other “auctionable” products? If all else fails, send a Wal Mart gift card to Jack and he can buy something cool like a TV or DVD player with the cards that are sent. Call Jack at St Tammany to help in this worthy cause!

Jack Varnado, ENP
St. Tammany Parish Comm. District
985-898-4911

Kevin Willett
PSTC - Public Safety Training Consultants
www.pstc911.com   www.911cares.com
WK: 650-591-7911 x 102
FAX: 650-591-8911
PGR: 800-880-5277
E-mail: kevin@pstc911.com
PO Box 5508 - Redwood City, CA 94063

Original activation:

St. Tammany Parrish Dispatcher Needs your Cards and Prayers

St. Tammany Bureau

Though filled with grief over the sudden death of a colleague, St. Tammany Parish sheriff's Cpl. Linden "Beau" Raimer had every reason to look forward to brighter days.

Raimer's 10-year anniversary on the department was four days away, he was close to becoming a sergeant, and he was engaged to fellow Deputy Marylin "Mary" Mayo, who was at his side Wednesday in a funeral procession that was nearing the Covington gravesite of their fallen comrade.

The couple hadn't set a date yet, his father, Linden Raimer, said. "But they were talking about it. And talking about a vacation wedding."

But their life together came to a shocking and tragic end Wednesday afternoon when a violent thunderstorm sent a pine tree crashing onto their patrol car, killing Raimer, 35, and critically injuring Mayo, who may be permanently paralyzed.

Deputies notified the Raimers that there had been an accident and picked them up at their home near Waldheim to take them to St. Tammany Parish Hospital where their son had been taken.

"I was thinking an accident in a funeral procession couldn't be that bad because nobody's going that fast," Linden Raimer said. "But when we got to the hospital, and I saw all the deputies out there, I knew it wasn't good."

Cpl. Raimer was pronounced dead at the hospital. His future bride, 26, was transferred to Tulane Medical Center, where Strain and other department officials visited her Thursday.

Mayo was conscious and able to speak Thursday morning, but she was placed in an induced coma later in the day and was breathing with help from a ventilator, Strain said.

He said Mayo has a spinal cord injury that doctors expect will leave her paralyzed from the chest down.

"We continue to hope and pray for a medical miracle that will enable Mary to walk out of the hospital on her own two feet," Strain said.

The sheriff spent about an hour visiting Mayo and her family Thursday evening at the hospital. He said doctors told him Mayo can hear and understand people talking to her.

"I assured her that there are 600 people at the Sheriff's Office praying for her recovery and that we need her back when she's able to return," he said.

Mayo's family, including her brother who is a Baton Rouge policeman, declined to talk to reporters, but Strain relayed a message from them.

"This is a family whose children have dedicated their lives to public service," he said. "Now they're asking for the public's prayers for Mary as well as for Beau and his family."

Strain said Mayo was told Thursday morning before she was placed in a coma that Raimer had died.

"The fact that they were planning to get married just adds another layer of sadness to this whole tragedy," he said.

Mayo, a dispatcher for the Sheriff's Office in Slidell, and Raimer had been dating regularly for about a year, the elder Raimer said. And the setting of a wedding date was fairly imminent, he said.

"They were talking about a vacation wedding with friends and family."

One of those friends was Hilery Mayo, 32, whose funeral the couple was attending Wednesday. Mayo, who was not related to Mary Mayo, died Saturday morning when his patrol car hit a tree near Folsom while answering an emergency call.

"They were close friends," Raimer said. "They worked together for years. They both started out working at the parish jail" before becoming road deputies.

Raimer said he was very close to his son. "I'd talked to him twice a day. And he dropped by the house regularly."

Cpl. Raimer, who graduated from Covington High School and attended Southeastern Louisiana University, had law enforcement in his genes. His grandfather was a 50-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department and his two great uncles were 20-year veterans of the force.

Since the tragedy, the family has been deluged with condolences from friends and law enforcement officers from throughout the area. The father said his son was also a field training officer for the department, "and one deputy told me he learned more from my son in four weeks than he did anywhere else."

Former deputy Wendelle Roberts, who graduated from the police academy in the same class as Raimer in 1999, said he was a "deputy's deputy" and a good friend. "He watched out for all of us and had our backs all the time."

Although she retired from the department in 2002, Roberts said she maintained contact with Raimer and other deputies. His friends and co-workers were looking forward to his marriage to Mayo, she said. "Everybody was excited about that, that he'd finally found somebody."

Roberts said Raimer was "dependable and always had a smile. He handled business in a professional, courteous manner."

She attended the funeral of Deputy Hilery Mayo on Wednesday and was shocked to hear news of Raimer's death. "He was just always there. I can't believe it's happened," she said. "He was an awesome guy."

The back-to-back tragedies have left the Sheriff's Office family reeling, and Strain said deputies have been coping with their losses through solidarity.

"It's instinctive for law enforcement people to want to be around other law enforcement people in this type of situation, and that's exactly what we're seeing now," he said, noting that no deputies had requested time off to grieve.

Even Deputy Jeff Mayo, Hilery's brother, is currently on duty and attempting to console Raimer's family, Strain said. "One of the most difficult challenges we're having is making him take some time off and stay home," he said.

In case some deputies need more than camaraderie to begin the healing process, the Sheriff's Office has brought in mental health counselor Tom Terrell for further assistance. A representative of the Employee Assistance Programs of Louisiana, Terrell spoke to about 80 Sheriff's Office personnel Thursday, providing them with examples of the typical responses to such a loss.

But, he said, this case was anything but typical.

"I've never experienced anything like this," said Terrell, an assistant coroner for Tangipahoa Parish who has been licensed as a counselor since 1969. Afterward, Terrell said he emphasized conversation and open discussion, and told deputies that he will be available by phone 24 hours a day. No one approached Terrell about further counseling following his presentation, but he said that was understandable given the magnitude of the tragedy.

"What I saw was people who were still numb," he said, likening the trauma to that caused by Hurricane Katrina, which he said only began markedly affecting some people six or seven months after the storm. "They're going to stuff a lot, but sooner or later it's going to come up."

Linden Raimer said the entire Sheriff's Office has done everything possible to help the family deal with the tragedy.

The department has set up four accounts at Resource Bank for donations in memory of Raimer and Hilery Mayo, and in support of Mary Mayo and Deputy Mark Bott, who was injured in last week's patrol car crash with Mayo.

When the family realized that E.J. Fielding Funeral Home in Covington wouldn't be big enough to hold all those who want to pay their respects, Maj. Donald Sharp called Strain who called Parish President Kevin Davis to arrange for the services to be held at the parish courthouse in Covington, the father said.

Strain said Raimer is deemed to have been killed in the line of duty and will receive the full honors that come with that distinction at a memorial service Saturday at 11 a.m. at the parish courthouse at 701 N. Columbia St. in Covington. Visitation is from 9 to 11 a.m.

Raimer's family has requested that there be no funeral procession. The sheriff said deputies will line Jefferson Avenue to pay their last respects as the hearse carries Raimer to a private burial.

Strain said Raimer will be posthumously promoted from corporal to sergeant.

"He was about to take the test for sergeant, and no one has any doubt that he would have passed it with flying colors," Strain said.

Please direct cards and letters to

St. Tammany Parrish Dispatch
St Tammany Paris SO
PO Box 1120
Covington, LA

Contact Jack Varnado jvarnado911@bellsouth.net if you have inquiries.

Kevin Willett

PSTC - Public Safety Training Consultants
www.pstc911.com   www.911cares.com
WK: 650-591-7911 x 102
FAX: 650-591-8911
PGR: 800-880-5277
E-mail: kevin@pstc911.com
PO Box 5508 - Redwood City, CA 94063