She had a sick feeling...
11 Years ago her daughter met a man that would through the years physically and verbally abuse her and ultimately be charged with her murder. When her daughter started dating him, she had a bad feeling about him right from the start. The signs were there from the beginning but for some reason, her daughter loved him despite the way he terrorized her and thought her love could change him. His behavior towards her was abusive and he constantly put her down. They argued all the time and finally her daughter told him, she was leaving. That was the first time he hit her. She left him. He begged her to come back, he promised he would change and she believed him. She became pregnant and would eventually have two more babies and all 3 children were the loves of her life. She was an incredible mom and her children were everything to her.
Things were getting worse and they begged her to leave him, they even contacted the Women’s Shelters only to be told there was a 6-8 week wait. Her daughter was scared for her and her children’s lives so she kept silent and endured the abuse to protect them. Finally the day came, her daughter was going to leave him, for good this time. They discussed a plan and she was going to go and pick up the grandkids and pretend they were coming for a visit. That plan never happened because he came home earlier than expected and figured out what her daughter was going to do.
She had a sick feeling something was wrong but they had a plan, and she knew that if she did something outside of the plan it could jeopardize everything so she stayed the course. Around 7:00pm she thought she heard her daughter’s voice call out to her. She got in her car and called her husband. He picked up the phone and told her to get over to her daughters place immediately.
The scene that awaited her was something only a movie would show. Police officers were everywhere and two ambulances were already on site. She was panicking and the screams inside her head were threating to come out. She searched frantically for her husband and saw him and she knew instantly her daughter was dead. She couldn’t believe it, she tried to run inside the house to see her but he pulled her back. She started to panic because she couldn’t see the children and her husband told her he found them huddled in their rooms with blood on their clothes and in shock. They kept saying “daddy killed mommy, is daddy going to get us too?” They had witnessed their mom being savagely beaten, stabbed and strangled to death. The heartbreak she endured will never be forgotten; she will never forget the look on her grandbabies faces as they sat crying, never to be the same again.
In 2012 Jessica’s family started the Jessica Martel memorial foundation and since then they have grown into a registered charity, with outreach, office space and a soon to be safe house in Morinville AB for victims of domestic violence. Jessica did not die in vain and this charity is her legacy. Her story is impacting and saving lives every day…