A former Big Apple human rights lawyer was shot and killed on the tiny Pacific island where she was the acting attorney general — with friends saying Tuesday that she was planning to return soon to the US.
Rachelle Bergeron, 33, had just returned home from her daily jog Monday on the island of Yap when she was shot in the chest and leg — with her dog also being shot dead, officials said.
Her husband, Simon Haemmerling — whom she wed almost a year ago — was inside the home baking brownies and raced out at the sound of three gunshots, according to a friend, Amos Collins.
A nurse used a blanket to help move her unconscious body onto her husband’s flatbed truck and she was raced to Yap Memorial Hospital, Collins said. She was pronounced dead on arrival, local official Constantine Yowbalaw confirmed to the Pacific Daily News.
The FBI is sending a team to help the investigation, bureau spokesperson Michelle Ernst told the paper Tuesday.
The killing of the chief prosecutor has shocked the tiny island of just 11,000 people, with Gov. Henry Falan using a Facebook video to announce the “tragic day in our history.”
“Yap’s spirit is broken by this senseless and heinous act,” Falan said, addressing the “darkness” for the island and offering “our united, heart-felt condolences” to Bergeron’s loved ones.
“Her loss will be greatly felt by all who knew her.”
Collins also posted about the “unimaginable loss,” writing, “Everyone is in shock; it all happened so fast.”
Bergeron was from Wisconsin and first moved to Yap in 2015, with the government proudly touting her time working human rights cases in both Washington, DC, and New York.
She is still a member of the New York State Bar, records show, and had been working in Manhattan until shortly before she left for Yap. The island is nearly 4,500 miles west of Hawaii.
While in New York, Bergeron had set up a youth outreach program focused on identifying potential sex trafficking clients for Sanctuary for Families, according to her LinkedIn, also offering legal advice to sex trafficking victims.
She was also a legal intern in the city for several months with the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2010.
A friend, Julie Hartup, said that Bergeron was hoping to soon start a family — and was eager to return to the US.
Hartup said it was hard to believe what had happened to her friend.
“She had a fun laugh; she loved her dogs; she loved going running; she really cared about the community,” Hartup said of her friend.
“She was trying her hardest to do the best job she could, and ultimately somebody took her life for being so good at her job.”
The Federated States of Micronesia, located about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia, has close ties with the US under a compact of free association and the US dollar is its primary currency.
With Post wires