Janice the cold blooded adopted daughter in Philippines

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The Evil Secret of a Well-Behaved Adopted Daughter: What Kind of Schemes Lie Beneath Her Angelic Appearance? A Real-Life Philippine Version of "Orphan"

Movie enthusiasts are likely familiar with the thriller "Orphan," which tells the story of a couple who adopt a seemingly innocent and kind girl who is actually a monster. The real-life case we're discussing today is a true-life version of "Orphan," exposing the darkest aspects of human nature.

In Mlang City, a small city in southern Mindanao, Philippines, the Magu family lived a simple and happy life. The father, Cruz, was a high school teacher, and the mother, Lovera, was an elementary school principal. They had two children: an 18-year-old daughter, Gwen, and a 16-year-old son, Luis. The family was harmonious and content. The couple were kind-hearted, often helping the poor elderly and children in their community, and were well-liked by their neighbors. The siblings were also well-mannered, academically excellent, and frequently volunteered at church.

However, they never imagined that their purest kindness would drag their family into an abyss.

December 10, 2021, was the darkest day of Cruz and Lovera's lives. At 2:58 p.m., Cruz received a call from a friend saying his house might have been robbed. He immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed home. He arrived home around 3:15 p.m. and as soon as he opened the gate, he saw a blood-soaked blanket and a bloodstained knife on the ground. The front door was locked, and he knocked and called his children's names, but there was no response. He hurriedly entered the house through the back door, and when he reached the living room through the kitchen, the scene before him almost made him collapse to the ground.

His two children lay silently on the floor, surrounded by large pools of blood. His eldest daughter, Gwen, was covered in bruises and bright red cuts. His younger son, Louis, lay lifeless, his hands bound behind his back, his mouth gagged, and his body also covered in wounds. Cruz suddenly realized what was happening and immediately made a phone call, but there was no answer. He began shouting, searching for the third person who should have been home—Janice. Just then, a door opened, and Janice, looking startled, called out, "Dad!"

Janice wasn't actually the Cruz couple's daughter; she was an orphan they had adopted five months before the incident. Initially, the couple was reluctant to adopt her, firstly because they already had two children, and secondly because Janice was already 17. But their daughter, Gwen, repeatedly begged her parents to take her in. Gwen and Janice had met at a church volunteer event; the two, being of similar age, hit it off immediately and became best friends. Janice told Gwen that she came from a poor family, her parents had died early, and she barely survived on odd jobs and welfare. Recently, she had a falling out with the aunt who had taken her in, and now she had nowhere to live.

Kind-hearted Gwen decided to help and told her parents about Janice's tragic past. Lovera, unable to resist her daughter's repeated pleas, softened and agreed. Janice thus moved into the Cruz family and became their adopted daughter. At first, everything was fine. She was well-behaved and intelligent, respectful to her husband, and as close as sisters with Gwen. They went to school together, used TikTok together, and got along well with her younger brother, Louis. Louis even gave up his room for Janice, sleeping on the sofa himself.

Unexpectedly, five months later, this tragedy occurred in their home.

Seeing Janice unharmed, Cruz breathed a sigh of relief. He called the police. Janice cried, saying that several thugs had broken in and robbed them, and she had locked herself in her room to escape. Cruz asked her why she hadn't answered her phone; she said she was in the shower and hadn't heard anything. Cruz looked at her wet hair, unable to believe it—invaders had broken into the house, and she didn't even know what was happening in the next room, how could she be taking a shower?

The police quickly arrived at the scene. Preliminary investigation confirmed the two deceased were Gwen and Louis, and several suspected murder weapons were found nearby, including a hammer, baseball bat, knife, and broken bottles. The police handed these tools over to forensic experts and conducted a thorough search of the scene and surrounding area.

When questioned by police, Janice stated that she and Gwen were in their room when they suddenly heard Louis screaming and the sound of things breaking coming from the living room. They went out to investigate and saw three masked assailants assaulting Louis, repeatedly hitting him with a hammer and baseball bat, and one of them stabbing him with a knife. The assailants discovered them and grabbed Gwen. She then ran to a small room, locked the door, and hid under the bed. She also texted her mother, but received no reply, so she posted a plea for help on Facebook.

After the special investigation team was established, they compared the evidence and physical evidence at the scene with Janice's testimony and discovered several major inconsistencies.

Inconsistency 1: No valuables were missing from the house. The Cruz couple checked the house and found that apart from the siblings' cell phones being missing, no valuables were missing. Although the scene was messy, there were no signs of ransacking. The investigation team found a plastic bag in a nearby irrigation ditch containing blood-stained pants and underwear; the blood belonged to the murdered siblings. This indicates that the perpetrators cleaned up traces in the laundry room and changed their clothes before fleeing. In other words, if their target was money, they had ample time to loot, yet they only took two cell phones.

Flaw Two: The scene showed signs of excessive violence, suggesting a revenge killing. The forensic examination revealed that the siblings died from excessive blood loss caused by repeated stabs with a sharp object. They also had soft tissue contusions, skin abrasions, and multiple fractures caused by repeated blunt force trauma, as well as slashes and cuts from a sharp object. This extreme level of injury suggests the perpetrators were driven by extreme anger, making the killing more of a venting of frustration than a cover-up. If they were just ordinary robbers, they wouldn't have spent so much time torturing them. Combined with the lack of stolen valuables, this case is highly likely a revenge killing. But the siblings were usually well-behaved; who could they have offended? The Cruz couple were known for their kindness and had no enemies.

Flaw Three: Only family members knew the location of the murder weapon, indicating the presence of a mole. According to the father, Cruz, the hammer was his usual tool for repairing things, kept in a drawer in the laundry room, its location known only to his eldest daughters, Gwen and Janice. The baseball bat belonged to his younger son, Louis, and was usually kept on the second bunk of his bed. The location of these two key murder weapons was known only to the family. If a stranger had committed the crime, they would either have brought the weapon themselves or used a conspicuous item like a kitchen knife. There were no signs of disturbance at the scene, essentially ruling out an outsider. Among the family members, the couple had alibis, leaving only Janice. Even if she wasn't the murderer, she was an accomplice.

After the incident, the Cruz couple suspected Janice even before the police. The mother, Lovera, recalled more details: Janice was very considerate when she first moved in, but this didn't last long. Once, when Lovera nagged the children to tidy their rooms and clean the kitchen, Janice's expression turned very unpleasant. After that, although she would help with cooking, she would go straight back to her room after finishing, her attitude becoming increasingly cold. On December 3rd, the family went to General Santos for a trip. Lovera wanted to take two family photos of just the four of them, so she told Janice to take her own first, and they would call her later. Janice seemed hurt. Lovera kept thinking about it, and more and more questions arose in her mind.

She also remembered receiving a distress message from Janice that afternoon. She immediately called, but Janice didn't answer. Janice said she only posted for help on Facebook because she didn't receive a reply from her mother. Leaving aside why she didn't call the police directly in an emergency, the fact that she included three crying emojis in her post was very strange.

When the lab notified them that Janice's fingerprints were found on the hammer and baseball bat, her guilt was confirmed. Eight days after the incident, on December 18th, Janice, accompanied by her lawyer, formally pleaded guilty, admitting to conspiring with another minor to murder Gwen and Louise.

Janice revealed her motive: envy, jealousy, and hatred. She was jealous of everything Gwen had—a wealthy family and loving parents. She resented why Gwen could obtain what she couldn't have effortlessly. In her eyes, Gwen's kindness in taking her in was nothing more than cheap pity, a condescending act that infuriated her.

Lovira recalled the morning of the incident, when Janice suddenly called them "Dad" and "Mom"—the first time since moving into the house. The thought sent chills down her spine—perhaps that "Dad, Mom" was the prelude to her murders. She decided to kill the two children that afternoon; only then could she take their place.

The news of Janice's confession caused a public uproar. Netizens revealed that besides posting two fake pleas for help, she also posted a condolence message: "Deepest condolences to A and Bobo," accompanied by five crying emojis, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do," plus four more crying emojis. It's hard to imagine how this girl could calmly wash away the blood after brutally murdering two people, feigning shock and grief, and even tagging the victims' accounts at the end of the post. Even more shockingly, the investigation team found Janice's mother and two sisters—she wasn't an orphan at all; her feigned orphanhood was likely a ploy to elicit sympathy. A Facebook post by Lovera on January 1st mentioned that one of the suspects was a member of the Social Welfare Development Agency and had received several sessions of psychological treatment during her supervision. Online sources also revealed that as early as 2013, netizens were searching for a Janice who claimed to be an orphan. If this is the same person, was she abandoned by her parents or did she run away from home? Why would a child with a family become a member of the Social Welfare Development Agency as if she were an orphan? And why did she need psychological treatment? Without the police's disclosure, we will likely never know.

Afterwards, Janice's mother went to the Cruz couple seeking their forgiveness, while the couple only cared about whether Janice and her accomplice would receive the punishment they deserved. On March 8th, Lovera posted that they attended a court hearing on March 7th; one of the two suspects pleaded guilty, while the other pleaded not guilty. They believe in the law and hope it will bring justice to the children who perished.

This case has sparked widespread attention and discussion in Philippine society, particularly regarding juvenile delinquency. Some argue that education should be the primary approach to juvenile crime, with punishment as a secondary measure; others feel that lenient sentences given simply because the perpetrator is young are unfair to the deceased victims.