Prologue
Date of statement: 4/15/2013 Time: 2:17 PM Place: Forest Glenn Community Hospital
Full Legal Name: Joanna Elaine Daniels D.O.B: 9/21/1989
SS# 294-79-2019 Phone: 213-555-1839 Apartment # 3A
Forest Glenn, Alabama 20977
Full Statement:
“I loved to listen to stories about murder. Since I was a recipe blogger, I had a lot of time to listen to Dateline and watch documentaries about Ted Bundy. My Netflix list was mainly cooking tutorials and cheesy crime shows.
I cooked a lot and made up some weird stuff because I had just found out that I was pregnant. I was very happy but my boyfriend, Jeff, was not. Well, he was, until the ultrasound showed that we were having a girl.
That’s when he started to fat-shame me. He tried to convince me to find another job, so I wouldn’t be tempted by food. I told him that I was never extremely tempted by being in the kitchen, so being pregnant wouldn’t change much.
When my stomach started to grow, Jeff refused to buy groceries for me, and we had to make separate trips. If he was doing all of this to me, I couldn’t bear the thought of our daughter growing up with that.
I was about five months pregnant when I had a miscarriage. I cried every day. But Jeff didn’t seem upset or even sympathetic to me. He told me that since I wasn’t pregnant anymore, I should start losing weight.
I didn’t have to stay with him because of our child anymore, so I left him and took my stuff with me. I got an apartment and independently finished grieving my miscarriage.
One night, I forgot to lock my door. I lied down in bed and remembered soon after. I was tired, so I forgot about it and fell asleep. It was a safe area, so I was fine with it for one night.
I woke up around three in the morning to the sound of the door being opened. I thought that maybe I had dreamt it until I heard footsteps going through my kitchen. They stopped for a minute, then started again. I turned on a dim lamp beside my bed.
That’s when I saw the silhouette in my doorway. He didn’t have a mask, so I quickly realized that it was Jeff. I looked him down from head to toe. He was holding something that glimmered in the moonlight. He had a knife.
I started screaming as loud as I could. He ran towards me, grabbed my pillow, and pressed it, hard, against my face. I madly swung my fists through the air and must have hit his nose, because he yelped and let go of the pillow. He clung to his nose long enough for me to get out of bed and start running to my door.
Before I could open it, Jeff caught up with me, grabbing me by the throat. He covered my mouth and told me not to scream. He knocked me to the ground. He sat down next to me and yanked my hair harder than I have ever felt.
Jeff held my shoulders down. I was gripped with fear. He looked me in the eye and said something that I would never forget. ‘You are too fat to live. You aren’t good for anything. I hope I can put you out of your misery.’
With that, he sunk his knife’s shiny fang into my stomach. Pain rushes through me and explodes in my stomach. I thought quickly and remembered my crime shows. I stayed still. I held my breath. I pretended to die.
Jeff threw his knife onto the ground and sat down beside me, facing away from me. That’s when I saw my chance. Jeff was crying, buying me time. I felt around for the knife and found it near my dresser. I grabbed it and sank it into the back of his neck. He fell on the floor, blood spurting out like water from a sprinkler.
I checked his pulse and felt nothing. I had to call nine one one. I stood up but collapsed back down. I tried to keep pressure on my stomach, but I felt the blood run between my fingers. I lived on the top floor of my apartment complex, so I couldn’t get onto the street. But then, a blood-soaked lightbulb went off.
I went to my kitchen and got my white tablecloth and a small cup by the sink. I then dragged myself onto my balcony, feeling more pain than I have felt in my life. I held the cup on my injury. When it filled three-quarters of the way with blood, I looked down on the ground beneath me and saw a woman walking down the sidewalk.
I dumped the blood in front of her, so she wouldn’t walk right into it. She looked up at me and I dangled the tablecloth over the side of the balcony. She noticed and took out her cell phone. Everything went black after that.” (End of Statement)
