SCARS LIKE thick ropes curl around her neck and snake across her shoulders. The healed lesions on Carlene's (name changed) neck were not there at the start of 2005. She began the year an attractive woman whose jovial personality drew friends to her like bees to nectar.
The year started well and, even though she lost her job, she was confident that she would soon be re-employed. Today, the month is November and employment is the least worry on this 41-year-old woman's mind.
In March, Carlene, mother of four children ranging in age from three to 27, had her throat sliced, was chopped and stabbed numerous times with a Cuban machete. Marked for murder by a woman who believed that she was sleeping with her boyfriend, she was attacked and left for dead. Here is the story, in her words:
It happened on Holy Thursday.
I worked for six years at this place where I met the guy.
We were not intimate. We were just social friends. I am the kind of person who is jovial with everyone. When I lost my job, he kept asking for me and even gave another friend of mine his number to give me.
Muffled voice on phone
When it was coming to Easter, I decided to visit my children in the town. I also decided to give him a call as he had been asking for me. Nobody answered his phone when I called so I left a message saying that he could call me. That same evening, on Holy Thursday, a man called me. The voice sounded muffled, but he said that he was my co-worker. I asked him what was the matter with his voice and he said he had a cold. He said that he would like to see me that evening and that he would be sending his nephew to pick me up. Later, another man called, saying that he was the nephew and that I should meet him downtown.
I went downtown and saw one of my friends while I was waiting for the car. I jokingly told her that she should take the licence plate number of the car as I did not know the people who would be picking me up.
I had some faint doubts, but I had never been threatened in my life. We were friends and I could never imagine that I could be harmed because of anything having to do with my former co-worker.
The car drove up with a woman in the front and I felt better, as there would be a female there. The occupants included this woman, the driver, who was male, and another man in the back. The woman came out of the front and told me to sit, adding that I would soon see my friend but that she would be stopping to pick up her baby first.
Deserted place
They drove out of town and up the hill and drove through several communities until they reached this deserted place. The driver then exchanged places with the woman who drove the car to another deserted place. She seemed to be searching for something. She turned back and after this, made a call, telling someone on the phone to get the baby ready for she was coming. They arrived in a certain community and stopped at a place where houses were far away from the car.
The woman suddenly spun the car around, facing away from the houses, and jumped out, going around to the back of the car. The men both came out and joined her at the back. Then the man who had been driving the car first came to my door, opened it and pulled both my phone and my bag out of my lap, pulling me out of the car too. All I could say was 'What did I do? What did I do?'
Cutting my throat
By the time I could say that , the other man, the dark-skinned one, was cutting my throat with a ratchet knife. (Carlene pauses, unable to talk for a full minute before continuing).
I did not feel when he was cutting my throat. The fear that came up in me numbed my entire body. I was still conscious and I saw when the driver went to the back of the car and took out a Cuban machete. He then came up to me and started to chop. At that time, I fainted.
When I woke up, I heard when the girl said to them, 'uuno take up the bag and phone and come. She drove the car away with the men inside.
They had chopped me four times in the head, twice in my back and twice on my hands. Today, I can't use this finger.
They left. I could not get up for a while, but then I walked down to the closest house and started calling for help. I was calling for minutes and nobody answered. I fainted, waking up to find myself slumped, sitting down against the grille. I said, 'help me nuh, help me nuh. Them chop me and cut me neck and I need to go to the hospital.'
Finally, a man answered and said that he could not come out. I said 'give me a phone call please', but there was no answer. I left this house and headed for the one next door, but I fainted on the way. When I woke up, I went back to the house and started crying for help. At this point, the woman from the house next door came to her window and asked what was wrong.
She told me that help was coming. Shortly after, I saw a car. When I got up and walked towards it and the driver saw my condition, he speeded up and drove away.
I was now lying on my back. I got up one more time and at the same time, a man from another house nearby came out and saw me, expressing shock. He said he had not come out because he thought it was a domestic quarrel.
He and another man then put me in their car at the same time that the police arrived. The police lead the way to the hospital. I had spent one and a half hour begging for help before it came.
At the hospital, the doctor said that the jugular vein was cut and it was repaired immediately. However, there was still internal bleeding and so they operated on me, re-opening the vein and stitching another main vein behind my trachea.
One week in the hospital
I spent one week in the hospital. My daughter took me out as she thought my life was still in danger.
Today, the skin wounds are healed, but my vision is affected; my skull is chipped and I can't use my finger. Sometimes I still feel pain in my head. I have nightmares too.
Up to this day, none of the men have been caught. The woman was taken to court but the case was thrown out for lack of evidence. I gave the investigating officer the licence plate number but he told the court that I gave him two. The witnesses did not come to court. I feel mad. I feel terrible when I think about what happened in court.
My friend from the airport never ever came to look for me.
All of this has affected my children a great deal. It affected my daughter in school.
As for me, I feel I cannot trust anybody anymore. I am afraid. I don't stay in one place at all. I am no longer the jovial person I was. I don't know if I have the drive to work again. I have no self confidence. If I have to go anywhere, I have to push myself.
Financially it's terrible, but I have to give thanks that I am alive. I have tried to contact, via telephone, the two men that took me to the hospital, but I can't get through.
I feel my life was spared for a purpose.
I want to advise people out there that they must know the identity of people before they trust them. I want to say to women too that no man is worth killing for. I want to advise people too, not to be so quick to jump to conclusions. I was not involved with the man at all. Finally, I want to say to my attackers that there is a God above.
None of my father's children have stood by me but I have some friends who have prayed for me and have been there for me. Whenever I call, they are there for me. I appreciate it very much. My children are really a tower of strength also.
I try to live with the scars. My children are my reason for living.
