Isabela Antelmo-comben (Irene), also known as Isabela Maramore, is an eighteen-year-old nurse from the island nation of Dominica. In 2021 she immigrated to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where she lives with her husband and three-year-old son. She worked as a nurse in the public hospital in Santo Domingo before she decided to marry Renato Maramba, a forty-one year-old construction worker. On the day of their marriage, Renato was overcome by fatigue and asked Isabela to help him rest. As a result, they decided to get married and Isabela became pregnant with their son, whom they named Leonel.
Two months later, on their third month of marriage, Renato experienced a heart attack and died on the operating table at the Santo Domingo hospital. According to the Dominican newspaper La Gaceta, Isabela was told by doctors that her mother, Iris Maramba, was not equipped to handle the financial crisis brought about by her husband’s death and had taken a job as a housekeeper to earn extra money. Two weeks later, on the day of her wedding, Isabela collapsed in the hotel lobby. Doctors pronounced her dead at 9 am that morning, but her family insisted on carrying out an autopsy in order to determine the cause of her death.
After reviewing the medical records it was discovered that during the two week period her mother had falsified her documents and forged the birth certificate of the deceased Leonel Maramba in order to get a working visa for workers in the Dominican Republic. As a result, Leonel had no proof of his nationality or age, thus leading to his death while attempting to migrate to the United States. After conducting its own investigation, the Dominican Nationality Commission (DNC) found that both Leonel and Iris had been illegally working in the country under the table of another individual with a legitimate occupational title. The commission stated that Leonel and Iris Maramba were two of ten Dominican nationals who falsified their employment or nationality in the past decade and had committed numerous crimes including drug trafficking, fraud, and visa fraud.