By MONROE ROARK
Staff Writer

A Peachtree City woman was among the victims last week of one of the worst mass killings ever in the metro Atlanta area.

According to published reports, Vadewattee Muralidhara had recently taken up Internet trading and was taking a computer course at the Piedmont Center office complex in Buckhead when Mark O. Barton arrived and went on his shooting rampage.

Muralidhara was in the offices of the Atlanta All-Tech Investment Group when she was shot Thursday afternoon, along with many others in the area. Nine people were killed in Buckhead, and nine others were injured.

Barton also murdered his wife and two children in Stockbridge, and later took his own life.

Muralidhara, 44, was a native of Trinidad and Tobago who moved to Peachtree City from Swainsboro about six months ago with her family. She met her husband, a native of India, in Trinidad and Tobago, and the family moved to the United States in 1994.

Ironically, her family and friends said the reason they moved to this country was to get away from crime.

Her survivors include her husband, Dr. Kesturkoppal Muralidhara, a Peachtree City pediatrician, and two children — her son Rishi and daughter Arti, also of Peachtree City.

Funeral services were conducted Sunday at Carmichael Funeral Home in Peachtree City. The service was conducted according the Hindu religion, of which Mrs. Muralidhara was a devout practitioner, having recently returned from a pilgrimage to India.

Further plans include burial in Trinidad this week, according to a spokesperson for Carmichael.