By Ardy and Dave
A normal 14 year old young lady is bubbly and full of cheerful spirits. So was Mary Joy until that fateful evening of Nov. 7, 2020 when the hands of time changed the tempo of her life – forever.
She thought that what happened to her was just a nightmare and that in the morning after, she will wake up forgetting the negative episode in her dream.
However, every time she sees the scars on her shoulders, on her nape, on her head and the elastic bandage that covers what is left of the evening attack, she is reminded of the grim reality that she is a victim of one of the most terrifying and horrible assaults ever done on a young girl such as she.
Thank God, Mary Joy survived an attempt on her life and on her dignity as a young growing girl. Thank God, that scarred people, are beautiful. But scars are the extended metaphors of the heavy “downpour” during that evening that left an imprint in her – physically, psychologically and emotionally.
Mary Joy is slowly recovering from the terror that almost consumed her sanity especially when she related to us how she shivered as she saw her own 3-year old sister hacked to death allegedly by her stepfather; and when she saw herself losing her two hands because the same man, whom she considers her protector, allegedly and mercilessly cut them off with the use of a sharp instrument, in front of all her siblings and mother who were all asleep when he came in.
Listening to her story made us recall some unbelievable scenes only a movie director could concoct for the best horror entry into a filmfest.
In that fateful night, the suspect identified as Rufino Ybañez, reportedly drunk, barged into the sleeping area of Mary Joy and her half sister, at that time sleeping, and he allegedly went on a hacking spree.
Without any apparent provocation, Ybañez allegedly hacked Mary Joy – first severing her hands by the wrist. As the suspect was hacking the 14-year-old Mary Joy, the 3-year-old sister tried to shield her “ate” and ended up at the receiving end of the hacks of the suspect.
Did the mother come to the rescue as she was in the same room? Did the 3-year old half sister instantaneously die? Did the neighbors hear the shrieks and scream of the Mary Joy? Did the alleged assailant feel the remorse after seeing his own daughters bathe in blood from the wounds inflicted on them allegedly by their own father? (To be continued)