#250: The Adopted Orphan Who Killed Her Siblings For Attention - The Real Life Case of the Movie “The Orphan”

25:50He has to look for his third child. So he's scrambling and he's praying that he wouldn't stumble across another dead body. And he calls her name out. And finally, he hears like the creaking of a door. Like, you know, when you crack it open. And he hears her voice. And he screams, Janice. And he runs to her room. And he's putting his hands on her head and shoulders and arms. And he's frantically checking all over her to see if she's hurt. She wasn't hurt, but she's dripping wet. and for a split second, he was panicked that it was blood. But it wasn't. It was water. We're going to come back to this detail.

26:24His clothing too? Her hair is like soaking wet in water. He made sure that she was okay, rushed them out and he kept asking her, are you sure you're okay? Are you hurt? Why is your hair wet? Are you sure it's not blood? Are you bleeding anywhere? Janice is like hyperventilating. She's explaining three men came into the house. They had talked to Gwen and Boy Boy. She had enough time to run into her room. She hid under the bed. She was so terrified. The screams were so loud. There were so many screams. She was so scared. She knew that she couldn't help her siblings and she didn't know what to do or how to even do it.

26:53And then finally it went silent. She didn't know what to do. She was so stressed. She was having a panic attack. So the only thing that she could think to do in the moment was take a bath. Take a bath? Yeah. Okay. So this whole bath thing is interesting, but we're going to come back to it. Okay. It's just very odd because, you know, I know what you're thinking and I maybe we're on the same page. let me know but i feel like a bath is very vulnerable and when you're in a bath you're naked and in a slippery wet tub defense lifts it just feels like the last thing you want to do in a situation where you're not your environment doesn't feel secure but again people grieve differently they respond to shock differently maybe she was in a state of shock where even her brain wasn't registering because you know our brains like to protect ourselves yeah i can't i can't imagine like bath and shower because even shower like you close your eyes you're in the water you can't hear things well and then you got to get the towel like that's a horror movie and then bath too it's just not yeah none of that makes sense and then the water filling up the tub is really loud typically and it takes a while and you're like oh my god i'm so nervous so cruise comforts her and honestly he stayed strong for her because two of his children are dead he keeps it together so that she doesn't break down further he felt like she had already been through enough.

28:06Mrs. McGard Lavella arrives at the scene just after the police and she sees Janice standing there soaking wet, crying, and she rushes up. She hugs her and she's like, oh my god, thank god you're okay. Are you all right? What happened? Where are Gwen and boy boy? Cruz was the one to tell her, tell his wife and the mother of his children that their two kids were dead. Mrs. McGard Lavella is an elementary school principal. She was very loved for being this soft-spoken person. When you're an elementary school principal, you have to be calm, collected. You have to know what to do in the event of a crisis.

28:41You have to know how to handle these things. Kids, parents, staff, literally everyone trusted her to know what to do in every situation. But in this situation, there's like no answer. There's no solution. And it's said that Mrs. McGuade completely broke down in every sense of the word. She was a broken woman and a broken mother. And I think Cruz, seeing his wife break down to the core like this, he had been holding it in for Janice. I think just seeing the devastation in his wife, he broke down. And so the three of them, they're outside the house crying in each other's arms and the McGuade house was taped off as a crime scene.

29:22The police were really busy inside. They found like an abundance of evidence in the living room just scattered everywhere. There were a few different things that could have been used as murder weapons. So there was this bloody baseball bat, a hammer, a few kitchen knives, including the one near the front door, pans, pots, shattered glass bottles, and they had to log all the evidence, take it all in, and they try to match the weapons with the injuries on the siblings. Gwen had been stabbed to death and it seemed very personal. And we know this through all the cases that we've covered over the years, but when a killer stabs a person in the face, it's typically incredibly, incredibly personal.

30:01There is a level of hatred and cruelty, and oftentimes it can indicate that it comes from a place of jealousy. Like that's typically when you see that extensive injuries on the face and her chest and abdomen, but a lot of wounds on her face, which you don't see necessarily in all stabbing cases. So the chest and the abdomen and sometimes the back, those are pretty common areas. Yeah, because face is not to kill, right? Face is just so personal. And again, to ruin someone's face, a lot of experts believe it stems from jealousy. So keep it in mind later. Gwen was stabbed multiple times, just face, chest, abdomen.

30:41She was missing an ear. She had wounds all over her arms and hands, indicating that she fought till her very last breath. Her hair was completely matted with dried blood. Louie's body was just as bad. The police counted 51 stab wounds on his body. Let me repeat that. 51 stab wounds on a 16-year-old's body. How can anyone ever hate a 16-year-old so much to stab them? I mean, even once, but 51 times? Like, it doesn't make sense. Their bodies were so badly damaged, the morgue workers had to physically sew the teenagers back together before their parents could hold a funeral. The investigators that were looking into the case, their initial working theory is that, okay, attackers came into the Maguad house, since, you know, they're going off of Janice's statements as well as the evidence.

31:29Maybe the attackers, they were looking to target one of the better-off families in the area. They most likely thought that the house was going to be empty, but they came across the three Maguad children and all hell broke loose. That was the running theory. That was the very initial theory. But when they're taking log of everything at the crime scene, just laying around in planned sight, there are so many objects of value. TVs, phones, laptops. I mean, if these are thieves that are willing to kill teenagers, innocent children, I feel like they would steal on their way out. And it's not like they were hearing police sirens on their way.

32:01So very quickly, the angle of burglary gone wrong was dropped. The next runner-up as a theory was a family dispute over land. So Lavella had siblings and there have been reports prior that Lavella and her siblings had gotten into these fights over land. Maybe some of the siblings were jealous enough to hurt the Maguads? Maybe they thought that they could get the Maguads to hand over some land if their children were now dead? But the evidence wasn't adding up with that either. I'm sure the police checked the alibis and the motives because in the end, they ruled that theory out too. So now they're out of options.

32:32The family, the public, they all want answers. I mean, this is terrifying to every single family in the area. I think whenever children are involved, it's a huge, huge deal. And like, don't even get me started on what's going on in the US. But, you know, when even children aren't safe, you feel like what is wrong with society? Like we need to do something drastic now. People are demanding answers and change like they're in their homes. So the police, they form a special investigations unit focused on this crime. And the mayor puts up a reward for$5 ,000 for anyone with information that would lead to the arrest of the attackers.

33:05Meanwhile, the police go back to the crime scene. They're like, we got to search through everything again. This is how we're going to break this case wide open. They bring in forensics teams. They're combing through the place. And I'm not sure why they didn't follow up with some of these leads to begin with. But they finally decide. We got to search the perimeter of the house. Not just inside the house. Not just the living room. But like outside. And it's not just the backyard. They're going a little bit further than that. They're expanding their search scope. And that's when they come across this irrigation creek near the McGuat house.

33:34So it's like a small pond. And I guess since they weren't looking for a body or even a murder weapon, they just didn't think to search it until later. They got incredibly lucky. There in the creek was a little plastic bag. It felt like someone had tried to throw it down the creek and they assumed the water would carry it out. But the plastic bag got caught on a tree branch. So it's just stuck swaying in the water. They drag it out and inside are bloody clothes. The killers after the murder had taken the time to change their clothes, put it in a little plastic baggie, tie it up, and throw it into the creek.

34:07Okay, now they're getting somewhere. So with this in mind, they're feeling a boost of confidence, okay? They start combing through the McGuad family house again, and they're searching for anything at all that might seem even remotely suspicious. Meanwhile, the netizens, they're doing their own little investigation. And you know, the police, they explored the burglary gone wrong theory, the land dispute theory, but there was one theory that nobody really wanted to be the first to say. Do you know what I mean? I mean, it just feels almost politically incorrect. It feels wrong. It feels cancelable to be like, we think the survivor did it.

34:43Like even just saying that, that's crazy, right? I mean, normally I'm like, don't say it then. If you think you're going to get canceled, don't say it because you're probably like, don't come up with these theories. Wait, did people think of that right away? Yeah, like netizens were like, I don't really want to say it. They're trying to like come up with roundabout ways of being like, well, there's a few parts. Nobody wants to be like, I think the survivor killed them. The netizens did have some strong points though. And normally I'm against these types of theories because more often than not, they're not true and it just ends up hurting the survivor even more.

35:15But I'm going to walk you through some of the biggest points of contention. Point one, the freaking bath. The bath, okay? This was the weirdest part. This is the part in the case where immediately my little radars are going off. Like it's, it's very strange. When Cruz, the father found her in her room after he found his two children murdered in the living room, he was just so happy that she was alive he was so happy that she wasn't injured but she's soaking wet and she explains to him once the screams of her siblings stopped she took a bath because she was so nervous again what an oddly vulnerable position to put yourself in when there were just three homicidal attackers in your home i think that's even a nightmare to most people being in a bath when intruders break in you just don't feel safe and secured that's why when you're like showering you're trying to open your eyes and you're like i gotta keep looking even cruz said when i heard that and when the shock of my kids passing wore off i just couldn't stop thinking about that part he didn't want to but he couldn't help but wonder like why like wouldn't a more natural reaction to be either run to your siblings bodies keep hiding under the the bed until someone found you or maybe even run out of the house?

36:26Netizens speculated in a very roundabout way initially that she took a shower to get all the blood off of her after she stabbed her siblings. And again, Louis was stabbed 51 times. That's just on his body. That's not including the injuries on Gwyn's. Another point of contention was the fact that Janice didn't come downstairs when she heard Cruz yelling their names. The house isn't massive and from where her bedroom was, I mean, she could hear him banging on the front door, screaming the kids' names, running around to the back of the house. She didn't even scream back. She didn't alert him that she was in the house.

36:55Nothing. She stayed hidden and she didn't come out until she heard him come across his children's bodies in the living room. But there's bigger points to be made. The third point is the room that Janice hid in was ransacked. She said the attackers entered the room and they just didn't see her hiding under the bed and they ransacked her entire room. I don't know. It's just kind of weird. and the house really isn't that big. So if she ran away when the attackers were already inside the house, wouldn't at least one of the three attackers had seen her run to her room? And one of the first places you would check is underneath the bed.

37:31So they just go into her room, ransack the room and think, you know what? I'm sure she's not going to tell anyone what happened. It's weird. Also, she stated that she locked herself in the room and then hid under the bed. If the door was locked from the inside, how did the room get turned inside out? There were also droplets of blood that were inside of her room. And so she's arguing, yeah, because the attackers came into the room and ransacked the place, of course there's going to be droplets of blood because they were probably covered in blood because look at how graphic the crime scene is. But it just wasn't making any sense.

38:03Then the last point of contention was Janice sent the message to her family group chat at 2.48 p.m., remember? After the autopsy, police discovered that the Maguad siblings' time of death was closer to 2 p.m. So what happened during those 50 minutes? This next one is a bit more speculative, but I'm still going to go over it. A lot of netizens were wondering how she was able to post a Facebook post spelled 100 % correctly and including emojis. So the Facebook post begging for help because there were intruders in the house, that post included emojis. Just kind of strange. And on top of that, just a few minutes after posting on Facebook, she changed the last name to her profile to P.

38:46P-E-E. We don't know what P is. Her birth last name is Sabeel. And her adoptive last name is Magwad. I don't know what Janice P is. Wait, after she made a post, she changed her last name? Yeah. So you're telling me you're hiding under the bed and there's three knife-wielding attackers downstairs murdering your siblings. And you're like, I need to update my Facebook name. Like right now. I wonder, okay, this is again speculation time but maybe in her 17 year old mind she thought that if her name wasn't Janice McGuad the police couldn't find her profile so like I think maybe she thinks the police are going to go and be like, oh, you know what, let me just investigate this whole family and okay, Janice McGuad types it in Facebook there's no Janice McGuad Was it Janice McGuad before?

39:29Yes, yeah Oh, okay, she's trying to hide her name That's all they can think of in a 17 year old's head because obviously they're going to find you regardless yeah okay but i'm trying to think like a 17 year old because it's so random for now these are just netizen theories and arguments meanwhile the police would find droplets of blood in rooms of the house that just didn't make sense like the laundry room there were droplets of blood there but the laundry room shows no sign of struggle or anything so the killers just like walked in there spattered some blood around from their clothes and then walked out now the police believe that they do an exhaustive search of the house and the crime scene tape comes down and the mcguards were allowed back into their home to clean and tidy up and I guess figure out what they wanted to do with the place.

40:10Mrs. Maguad felt like a zombie in this house so while the police were investigating all she did was cry and grieve and scream and then crawl up in a ball and then wait for the wave of emotions to hit again and now she's back in the house she's like I just want to stay busy so that these floodgates don't open. She starts tidying up the areas and she starts with Janice's room. It's been ransacked. So this is Louis' old room. Mrs. Maguad starts going through and cleaning up and she stumbles across an ID. She's never seen this ID before. It doesn't belong to her children. She rushes to hand it over to the police.

40:44And since the ID belonged to a 17-year-old male, his name has not been identified to the press. But he's often referred to as Marlon, which is a pseudonym. Lavella did not know Marlon. She had never seen Marlon before in her entire life. So why is his ID in her house? Her neighbors had seen him before, though.

41:04The day of the murders, a few eyewitnesses came forward to say that they saw Marlon heading towards the Maguad residence. And it wasn't just neighbors. A store owner that was asked said Marlon came in and asked him which house belonged to the Maguads. A motorcycle driver said that he even drove Marlon to the Maguad house that day. What? So the police, they finally have their first big lead. And since Marlon's ID was found in Janice's room, they bring her in and they start questioning her. And when I say questioning, I mean that in the lightest sense possible. They're not interrogating her. They're just like, hey, we found this idea in your room.

41:34Do you recognize it? Like, do you know who this person is? Wait, are they suspecting her at this point? Oh, okay. They're just like, oh, like we found this in your room. Maybe it's Louise. Like maybe Louise had a friend, but we just want to know if you know. Just simply asking questions. And she's like, yeah, I know that person. They're kind of taken aback. I don't think that was the answer that they were expecting. They're like, oh, you know this guy? Yeah, I know him. And she breaks down. And she says, I had something to do with the murders. In that interrogation room, in the presence of a lawyer, Janice admits that she and one other accomplice were the ones that murdered the Maguad siblings.

42:13Look, the admission itself was never released. All we know is that she admitted to it. But we don't know how active of a role she took. We don't know if she participated in the physical killing. I think most people suspect that she absolutely did. But we don't even know who her accomplice was. beyond the fact that everyone calls him Marlon. And that's not even like a nickname. That's just an online pseudonym for him. But is he caught though? Yeah, so her and the 17-year-old, they're both caught. We know that he's 17. He works for the church. He worked as the person that sets up the church hall before service begins.

42:47And that's really the extent of what we know about him. We don't even know how the two met, what kind of relationship that they had. Netizens suspect that they were dating, which normally that sounds like a good theory, right? But it's weird because Janice's Facebook, she had pictures with another guy that she would refer to as her boyfriend and it's not Marlon apparently. Speaking of Janice's boyfriend, the police were able to track him down. They questioned him, make sure that he's not involved somehow. He wasn't. But he did say something that struck me as really weird, really interesting. He said that he saw Janice's Facebook post that day of her freaking out that there were intruders in the house.

43:20He saw it. He called her. She actually picked up the phone. But she didn't answer. She didn't respond. It was just like silent on the other line. He didn't hear any strange noises or anything like that. So after a few seconds of silence, he just hung up. He assumed that nothing really bad was happening. Like maybe she was being dramatic. Okay, so this was odd to me. It strikes me as so strange. Either this guy is a really shitty boyfriend, the world's worst boyfriend, or maybe Janice has a history of making bizarre claims or being dramatic. Like it's just really strange behavior. I can't imagine a world where your loved one or anyone posts like that on social media and you're just like, oh, well, it was silent when I called them.

43:58They're probably fine. Unless it's frequent? I don't know. The police immediately track down Marlon. They find out that he has a record. He was caught with illegal drugs not too long ago. And there wasn't even a chance to deny his connection with the Maguad murders because they found Gwen's phone in his bag when they arrested him. Now, this is where the case starts getting really, really strange. So at first, this was looking like a final girl situation, which if you guys know the final girl trope, It's a trope in slasher movies, horror movies, where one final girl at the end survives and she either confronts the killer or she lives to tell the tale.

44:32So a lot of people thought that this was like a final girl situation. But it went from that to being compared to the movie Orphan. Do you know which one I'm talking about? It's about this husband and wife who adopt a 9-year-old girl after they lose their baby. But the 9-year-old turns out to be a 33-year-old woman who is just hellbent on killing the entire family. Side note, I know the movie Orphan was very controversial. A lot of adoption groups hated the depiction of murderous adoptees. And I think that there was even speculations that it affected adoption numbers for like a year or two. I don't think I can really give input on that or anything involving adoption because I don't know.

45:07I guess I was always in the belief that adoption is really good. But then recently I was seeing TikToks of adoptees saying that they feel a lot of resentment towards adoption centers and groups and their adoptive parents. And I'm like, okay, I know nothing about this world to say anything. But this case has been compared to the real life orphan. And I just want to put a disclaimer. Just like any other case, there's bad people everywhere. Like you're going to take a group of people. You're playing a numbers game. There's going to be an evil man, an evil woman, an evil adoptee, an evil religious leader, an evil politician.

45:40They're all kind of evil in that little area. But you know what I mean? So don't take this case or any case as like, oh, this is why I'm scared of these people. or these situations. So anyway, people pointed out the similarities between this case and the movie. Both girls were adopted by a family that was kind-hearted, financially stable. Both girls disguised their hatred and jealousy with like this super fake sweet facade. But the similarities kind of end there. Janice is not an adult. Janice was a minor when she committed those crimes. So she was a child who killed two other children just so that she could be the only child left.

46:13Is that it? That's it? That's the theory. We're gonna get to it. So, I mean, again, I do see why people keep comparing the two cases. It's human nature to draw these connections. But I will say, unlike the movie, Gwen and Louis were very real. Like, these are real people. So the Maguads thought Janice was a troubled orphan looking for a chance at a better future, right? That's what they thought. But she wasn't even an orphan. Her parents weren't dead. They didn't abandon her. They weren't gone. In fact, she was still in contact with her mom at the point that she was adopted by the Maguads. Okay, Janice was born to a pretty rough environment, though.

46:46That much was true. Her parents, Michelle and Juanito, they didn't have much. Most of their meals growing up as a family consisted of just eating sweet potatoes, not even three times a day, like maybe once every four days just to feel full. Sometimes they would eat sweet potato leaves if they didn't have any more sweet potatoes left, or they would ask their neighbors and beg them for rice or eat almost rotten bananas. So Janice did not have a normal childhood. She was never carefree. Her dad was always getting drunk and upset that they didn't have money. And Janice was found on a boat in 2013.

47:17Now, it's hard to say if she was abandoned, like she claims, or if she left her family willingly. But she's found on the boat. She lies about not having parents. Maybe she was embarrassed. Maybe her parents were dead to her after everything that happened. I don't know. I think this part we can sympathize with, right? Like her childhood. And maybe even the fact that she lied to everyone about her parents abandoning her. In a way, maybe she did feel abandoned by them. Either way, it's speculated that she just wanted to be taken in by the Maguads. but all this trauma, all this hurt started resurfacing when she saw how loving the Maguad family was.

47:47She saw how they doted on Gwen and Louis and they protected their kids and loved them and helped them grow into good people and Gwen was beautiful, smart, kind and it's suspected by netizens that Gwen was everything that Janice wanted to be. And so the more comfortable that Janice got with the privilege that the Maguad family could give her, the less content she was getting. The Maguads were loving, but they were strict. So when Janice was adopted, she got her own house duties and chores just like Gwen and Louie had. And this isn't some like Cinderella situation where they're giving her all this work and they're like, you're the adopted kid.

48:18You better do it all. The Maguads were fair. The problem though was Janice was used to living by her own rules now. She just wanted all the positives of living with the Maguads. She didn't really care for the negative parts. She also saw how much the Maguad parents adored Gwen and Louie and she didn't like that. But the crazy thing is they gave Janice the same love. Like from the minute that they adopted her, Janice was treated like a member of the family to an extent where people around them thought that Janice was a cousin that they had taken in. But Janice was not content. She just wanted all of it.

48:50Mr. McGuad thinks that's the reason his children are dead. He said based on her confession she was jealous and envious and she hated our daughter Gwyn because of the love we showered her with. But the netizens are confused because even if she saw all the love Gwyn is getting she also has love like love is not a finite resource how can someone be greedy enough for something like parental affection to kill their siblings to add weight to the theory of this motive remember how she called the mcguad parents mom and dad for the first time the morning of the murders now in hindsight that could allude to her jealousy and her belief that she would soon be their only daughter yeah and i think it's the feeling of maybe janice felt like she could never compete with Gwen and Louis because these are the birth kids and so maybe she felt like the only way to truly be their daughter was to get rid of the birth kids so Janice admitted to being involved in the murders and the theory of why she did it is still being debated but I feel like up until this point even for the McGuads it felt okay it doesn't feel excusable or even understandable but from a psychological standpoint it seemed like you know what I mean it kind of made sense psychologically not in the sense that any murder makes sense like all murders are senseless but i guess psychologically speaking everyone was like i think i can connect the dots i think i see where this is going everyone's like oh she's feeling this intense jealousy never having loving parents she wants all the love to herself she's intensely jealous this is the only way to not be in competition with the birth kids she gets them out of the picture that's what we thought and then the police find text messages in her phone they're in tagalog but they've been loosely translated to English.

50:28The identity of the person she's texting hasn't not been released, but we can kind of assume that it's Marlon. In the text, Janice says, there are seven people I want to kill. I won't tell you who they are now because you might report me, but this is all I have left to do before I can finally get the freedom I want. He texted back, don't do it yet. Think about it first, then do it when you learn how to. They both laugh and she texts him back. I think I can do it now. Tell me, do you think anyone would still take me or accept me if I ever do kill someone? Isn't there a saying that no matter how big your sins are, even if you killed someone, the Lord will still forgive you?

50:59You just have to ask for it, right? Hell, I mean, even soldiers kill people, so I should be allowed to. You're crazy, Janice. But for me, it's okay because I have someone special who will still love and accept me even if I do end up killing someone. Janice says, I'm being serious. I want to be a Marine. Yeah, she wanted to be a Marine, okay? And he says, soldiers don't kill people who wouldn't kill them first. I just want to finally be happy and do what makes me happy. Same. I want to not worry about the people around me anymore. Janice gets upset and she says, whatever. If you don't want to do it with me, then I'll just find someone else who will.

51:31I just can't take my surroundings anymore. It's not healthy for me. Same. Haha. Don't you have anything better to say than just same? Anyway, can you imagine it? I think it'll be fun to kill someone. The other person asks again, who do you want to kill? Let's make a list. I don't want to tell you though yet because you might report me to the authorities. This is all while she was living with them? Yeah. so I don't really know if I believe in this whole like I wanted to be the only loved one not that that's even more excusable but I feel like there's a financial motive there's something on December 16th six days after the murders both Janice and Marlon were arrested they weren't sent to jail because they're minors they were both taken into basically like a juvenile facility and um wait so what's going on with her mom you're saying she's still talking to the mom Yeah, her mom has no idea what's going on with her.

52:21I guess the mom is like, okay, you're just off to fend for yourself. And they would just keep in contact through Facebook. So her mom was a shitty mom. Speaking of Janice's mom, she would actually meet with the Maguad parents. She would look for them and she ran into them at Gwen and Louise Cemetery. So Michelle, Janice's mom, approached them and she got down on her knees and said, I'm so sorry. Every time I see their photos, I can't hold my tears back. I feel I feel how you feel Lavelle lifted the woman back into a standing position so that they were eye to eye And she said you don't need to kneel if only I could make you feel how painful it is But I don't have the courage to do that All I want and all i'm asking you is Maybe you're the one person that can get her to tell the truth of what really happened Michelle janice's mom tried to go meet with janice, but she was not allowed to see her So the killers were tried separately So they were tried for the murder of louis and for gwen separately one for louis one for Gwen.

53:17And when this first sentence came out, it was insane. Oh, speaking of, while they were at this juvenile center, they're provided with like activities. It doesn't even seem like prison. They're going through therapy. They have activities to keep them not bored. And while they're at the center, Janice, for lack of a better word, she gave everyone there the creeps. She just sit in her cell quietly, never made small talk, no interest in anything, just sitting there watching everyone. The other kids there were so scared they asked to be transferred to a different room. So the first sentence came out and the two killers would receive 10 years each for the murder of one Maguad sibling.

53:54So there is still another trial left but the public and the Maguad parents they were outraged like how can someone get only 10 years in prison for taking another life? For taking the life of a child? It said the sentence was light because in the Philippines the criminal age of responsibility is 15. Meaning if you're younger than 15 you get no legal liability, just rehabilitation but janice was 17 so between the ages of 15 and 18 the criminal sentence would be rehab until they reached 18 basically they're gonna they're going easy on them because they were minors when the crimes happened that's freaking crazy yeah the mcguad parents were not happy at all with this sentence neither was the public cruz and lovella they started giving media interviews talking to officials they went on national tv and they just wanted to put pressure on the judicial system.

54:41Lovella admitted something really heartbreaking in these interviews. She said that because of her religion, she was actually willing to forgive Janice. She said she was trying to be understanding and she felt like Janice in her eyes was a victim in her own life. You know, a victim of the system, a victim of circumstance, poverty, the lack of education. She said she wanted to forgive Janice. I mean, this woman is so strong. But then one day, Janice was taken into custody and Lovella was there and the two made eye contact. act. Janice was looking at the woman who gave her love and support and who treated her like her own children.

55:13She looked at the parents of her two victims and her face was completely blank. No remorse, no guilt, not even anger or sadness or confusion, just cold indifference. And that was when Lavella changed her mind. She said, we were so proud when we adopted Janice because we thought God was using us to help this young girl. It was a blessing, but then this is what we get. Then she turned and she addressed Janice through the screen and she said, is this how you repay us after all we did for you? Does Gwen deserve this after convincing us to take you in? After seeing how little Janice cared about killing Gwen and Louie, Lavella no longer wanted to forgive Janice.

55:50There was a lot of outrage sparked because of this case. You know, one of the arguments was recently the age had been raised from the age of criminal responsibility had been raised from 13 to 15 in the Philippines. So a lot of people were debating that. People were debating the fact that Janice was taken into basically CPS in the Philippines and they didn't do anything. So they said that Janice was produced as a killer by the system. Like they should have been able to support her in a way that she didn't have to kill someone, that she didn't have to end up in this situation. And another thing is they were just kind of confused.

56:26If Janice had a mom, CPS didn't know that and they legally let the Maguads adopt her? Like that's crazy. So finally the day comes Janice and Marlon received the second sentence and for the murder of the second Maguad sibling both of them would receive 22 years in jail. So with this sentence and the last one combined the killers would spend about 32 years in prison no chance of parole and the sentence isn't huge compared to other cases we've covered and the Maguads weren't satisfied with the final verdict. Their children were dead but the killers would be able to walk out of prison in their 50s.

56:56They would have half their life left to live. Half a life that the Maguad siblings would never get to have. The Maguad parents they went to therapy and they are in their healing process they've opened up a restaurant in remembrance of gwyn and louis they opened their doors august of 2022 they painted the walls like this beautiful red and yellow color and they named it casa m &m they serve rice dishes and even offer like a dessert bar so now everyone that eats at this restaurant they have a chance to experience just the love and the warmth and the compassionate nature of the maguads and despite all the hurt the Maguad parents seem to be doing as best as they can be.

57:38I think they're finding a lot of strength in their community and I just hope one day they find happiness again. And that has been the viral case of the Maguad murders. What are your thoughts? Please stay safe. I'll see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!