[Music] okay this sounds like a scene out of a horror movie but it's part of a real life case that just happened in the Philippines December 10th 2021 so this is pretty recent 17 year old Janice is hiding under her bed there were three masked men that had broken into the family home they're going room to room attacking anyone that they stumble across Janice is hiding underneath her bed literally a horror movie Janice managed to slide under the bed but she had no idea when the door to her room would open when they would walk in if they would even see her maybe I don't know maybe they would drag her out by her ankles she didn't make any noise she she can't make any noise she obviously can't call the emergency service lines she doesn't even want to talk she's terrified so she starts texting her family group chat hoping her parents would read it and maybe they would send help they would come to save her her parents are both at work she's home alone with her two siblings and she starts texting the group chat three masked men enter the house they're attacking us please please help I can hear them screaming they're hurting us please that was at 2 48 pm Janice could hear her siblings scream for help and she was getting no response from her parents maybe they didn't see it yet they were at work so she didn't know what else to do or who else to turn to I mean think about it like how quickly do your friends respond to your texts so instead at 3 pm so just about 12 minutes later Janice as quietly and as quickly as her sweaty fingers allow her to she posts on Facebook guys help me please someone broke into the house help please I don't want to die I'm here inside a room hiding right now please please help and then she heard footsteps approaching her door her bedroom door she didn't know if it was a parent a police officer or maybe it was the three masked men her father would later come home to find two of his three children dead [Music] thank you as always full show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com this case is pretty recent it's based in the Philippines and a lot of the sources were a mix of Tagalog in English I did get a Tagalog speaker to help translate and help with the research but of course there are still things I think that can get lost in translation if you guys know anything about this case that I didn't mention today please let us know and with that being said let's get into the very very strange case that everyone is comparing to a very specific Hollywood horror movie like one of the most iconic horror movies because this case is truly one of those instances where you think you're like I know where this is going and then it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse so let's go back to December 10th 2021 really quick clearly this is a crucial day this is the day that Janice is hiding under her bed and immediately the beginning of the day was off to a memorable start a good start it was the first time that Janice called the maguads her parents maguad Mr and Mrs mcguod Mom and Dad they were leaving for work they were kissing the kids on the cheek and she called them mom and dad I mean I'm sure they told her for a while now that she can call them whatever she feels comfortable with but she finally called them mom and dad that's a huge day for any adoptive parent you you feel accepted I you feel like you earned this child's trust you earned the title I imagine Mr maguad Cruz his first name is Cruz went to work just Smiley like ear to ear split grin he just seemed really excited about this and about the family that he was working so hard for so while he's at work his co-worker opens the door he's a teacher so opens the door to his classroom pops his head in and is like don't freak out Mr maguad don't panic but your house has been ransacked you need to go home now Mr Maguire panicked he freaked out he runs out of the office I think it took him about 15 minutes to get into his car drive all the way home from the the school and there was no context given to him about what his co-worker said all he knew is that his house was ransacked and his three kids were at home or they were supposed to be at home he's terrified he can't care less about the damn house he just needs to get home for his kids okay he forgot his house key in the hurry because when he jumps out of the car he runs to the front door and he doesn't have the key he's shaking the handle it's locked he's pushing up against the door it's still locked it's not budging so he decides I gotta try another door he turns to leave the front door and he looks down because there's like a crunch underneath his feet he realizes that at the front of the front door just on the floor is a blood-soaked blanket and a knife the handle of the knife was also missing so he tries yeah just the blade part I imagine and this is speculative but I imagine that would happen if you were using the knife to do like very severe things for the handle to break off there must be a lot of force applied in some sort of Direction I don't think anyone came in with just a knife blade so he tries the front door again and this time there's a stronger sense of you know panic and distress after what he saw he's banging on the doors shouting his kids names three kids nothing the door won't even budge so he runs around the house to the back door and he's still screaming his kids names like Gwen boy boy it's a nickname Janice and so he's running through around the house to the back there wasn't even a single screen coming from inside the house it was eerily quiet he gets to the back door Yanks it open thankfully it's unlocked and this is when Mr Maguire realizes he's gotta protect his kids okay so of course any father wants to immediately run into the house and scream as kids names and frantically just look for them making sure that they're alive but he's thinking if there's an attacker if they're maybe holding my kids hostage so that they can't scream and shout I gotta be quiet and maybe I can at least sneak up on the attacker that's what he's thinking he's like maybe I can knock them out so as quietly as possible he starts tiptoeing through the kitchen and the minute he steps into the living room his entire life at least how he knew it ended in that moment the entire living room was painted red with blood you couldn't even see the floor that's how much blood there was broken vases that were knocked over there were glass shards everywhere blankets were soaked in blood they were just thrown around even things that didn't belong in the kitchen like pans pots baseball bats they were just in the center of all of this and they were covered and soaked in Blood and in the middle were the bodies of two of his three children they had been murdered whoever did this was clearly sick and deranged and angry I mean the injuries on the Maguire kids were really bad one of them was even missing an ear it had been severed off now one of his children did manage to survive but they were incredibly distraught obviously they had been hiding under the bed when the attack took place and they heard everything every noise coming from downstairs in what was supposed to be one of the best day of Cruz Maguire's life it was now like a living nightmare every time he closed his eyes all he would see are the two kids laying in the living room before we get into who survived how it happened I need to give you a breakdown of the Maguire family and it starts with four maguads the two maguad parents Cruz and lavella and their now teenage kids Gwen and Louis so it's the four of them until one day Gwen and Louis they're both teenagers they come home they're like Mom Dad we gotta talk to you about something they sit their parents down and in like the most professional Shark Tank proposal concise calm well thought out presentation they're telling their parents why they need a fifth member of the family why they need to adopt gwyn's best friend Janice it kind of sounds crazy it's like no we're not just gonna adopt your best friend so that you can have a never-ending sleepover that's not how life works but the kids are like mom hear me out she's an orphan she's been bouncing around from house to house she is working as a live-in nanny right now and she's never gonna have a future like this she hasn't even been able to go to school or study or have a childhood she's constantly working and then the minute that the family decides they don't need a nanny anymore she's gonna be out on the streets she's 17. she was forced to grow up when she was like five years old please please please can we just can we just let her move into our house and she said that she would cook and clean and do the laundry and all of this and we don't even have to pay her she just wants to feel safe please please please please please please please parents are like okay what this is really intense do you know how old they they are the yes Louis the boy is 16 and Gwen just turned 18. oh okay so they're all teenagers yeah like teen teens yeah and the parents are like I don't know guys we don't even have a spare room the 16 year old Louis the boy is like well I guess you sleep on the couch like I'll give up my room I mean a 16 year old boy to give up his room that's very very selfless he's like come on guys like you always told us we have to help our friends in need like come on Mom Dad they're begging and they're like let us have a private conversation about this because this is a lot and the few points that they keep coming back to as adults are Gwen's friend Janice was just a kid you know just like their kids she deserved the fighting chance at life they had seen her around and yeah she looked miserable also in the Philippines just like everywhere else in the world when a young woman doesn't have the proper resources or support system there there's a very real risk that they might end up on the street and once that happens it's very likely that she could potentially be forced into work or worse and even just the thought and threat of that looming over Janice's head I mean as parents that's heartbreaking like this kid is growing up knowing that this could happen to her at any moment just like one choice from somebody else she has no control over her life no safety net the Maguire parents decide maybe we can take the burden off of Janice she's just a kid she shouldn't have to worry about making sure that she has enough food and shelter so the maguads are very religious they thought you know what maybe the Lord has blessed us with enough to provide for our family and a little bit more because maybe we were meant to provide for Janus look the Maguires are incredible people I mean there are so many families with even more than what the Maguires had and they probably wouldn't agree to this but they were just not normal people so the maguad family they went from four to five members they formally adopted Janice into the family like legal papers and everything so let's talk about each one of the family members Mr maguad Cruz the father he worked as an elementary school teacher and it seems like his career path was on the right track he was spoken very highly of constantly getting recognized for his good work there was a promotion in the works so he was doing well financially as well and his wife Novella she was the principal at the same elementary school so the two of them they don't make like an insane amount of money they're School teachers they're a principal but they were considered more privileged in their town they owned land which is a huge deal they're able to support their kids they didn't have to choose between putting food on the table for the night or turning the lights on a lot of families around them unfortunately had to make a choice between the two now the two kids Louis maguad nicknamed boy boy he's the youngest he's the 16 year old he's like the charismatic one in the family he's calm but he has this like energy when you meet him you're already spilling your life Secrets like your deepest fears what you want to become one day and you're like why did I just tell this random boy that I just met all my deepest fears in life I think he was just very warm and comforting people felt inclined to open up to him when they saw him he also never judged anyone in fact he would find a way to relate to you so that you don't feel alone or weird so he's 16 at this point and he tells his parents I'm gonna continue working hard at school and I'm gonna grow up and I'm gonna be a lawyer this is a huge commitment to make at 16 years old but he was he was down for it okay I don't know just reading about Louis he seems like the type that I would be very intrigued by like he's very smart but he's also very creative he plays the guitar he likes to read and draw so that's Louis the youngest of the family boy boy his older sister's name is Gwen and she was really the studious one like the super smart one like Louis smart but Gwyn is intense for example she was a girl scout as a kid and you know how they have those like sashes that they wear her sash was filled with batches and pins there wasn't even a single space left for an extra pin she completed every level of the Girl Scouts program in her free time for basically for fun and she's like wow I kind of need my challenge so in high school she enrolls for this um pre-med prep school at the local University for high schoolers she's like I'm gonna grow up and be a doctor so I don't know what the maguads did but they've raised their kids right like one wants to be a lawyer one wants to be a doctor and they're both really upstanding moral kids she also volunteered in her free time okay I swear she's like a college acceptance administrator's dream candidate and yeah I probably want her to be my doctor okay she's really approachable if you happen to be at a gathering of any sort like a party you're feeling extra shy uncomfortable you're like I don't know a single person here I'm so nervous she would sit with you and keep you company the whole time okay you know how some people will come and sit with you and they'll chat you up but the minute that someone more interesting comes in or a friend of theirs comes in they ditch you they're like okay bye have a good one Gwen was not like that she would sit there until you were comfortable she would be there with you the whole freaking time that's how she meets Janice her best friend and now adopted sister the maguaza really well liked and they're constantly being invited to these social Gatherings now one of their close family friends had a living Nanny that would tag along to all these dinners and parties and just kind of run after the family's kids so she's a living nanny for one of the maguad's family friends hmm so she's brought to these parties on a working basis you know she's running around looking for the little kids that she's supposed to watch and there's a bunch of other teenagers there that are just teenagers like Gwen and Louie they're there because it's fun and it's a Saturday but she's working and Gwen noticed her on more than one occasion mainly because you know Gwen's like she looks like my age she must be my age but wow this is she's working so Gwen strikes up a conversation with her and they instantly click Janice is a year younger she's 17. when Jess turned 18. and the two of them are like attached at the hip after the first time they start talking their favorite thing to do this is like their go-to whenever Janice could get off work for a few hours they would come up with these elaborate photo shoot sets and they would like hang up sheets in the backyard and do these fancy little backgrounds they would set up the little string lights they would try to time it with golden hour and then they would do each other's makeup and hair and they would spend hours just goofing around trying to take pictures of each other they also really enjoyed filming tick tocks together just of them dancing it's really cute it seems like they're really close friends they kind of look a little shy doing the dances but Louie is really cute and Charming okay in a way that little brothers typically seem to be he's like sticking his hairy leg out to block the girls when they're dancing and they're all like laughing and swatting his leg away so the three of them they look very comfortable with each other so it's like once they're comfortable Gwen feels like she can finally ask you know the question like why are you living nanny for this family like you don't seem to enjoy it do you need to make money for your parents like what's going on you can tell me or if you don't want to you don't have to tell me Janice opens up and she says I don't have parents and she starts walking Gwen through her life story and it's pretty heartbreaking Janna said her first real memory started when she was like eight years old before that she doesn't really remember much she just remembers she's eight and a stranger found her wandering around a ship by herself like a giant boat not even like a cruise like I'm talking like a shipping container boat her parents were nowhere to be found I don't know they may have lost her but more likely Janice believes that they just completely abandoned her The Stranger was nice and thankfully not a child predator because they helped post Janice's name and picture on Facebook okay I don't know if that's a good idea but you get it and they were posting on online forums to see if her parents were looking for her nobody ever responded finally Janice is dropped off at the Philippines version of CPS the department of social welfare and development we're just going to call it dwsd and that's where Janice state so she's bouncing around from home to home and then recently she was offered a job as a live-in nanny for this young family and she took it okay so she hates the job she hates it but don't get me wrong she's so grateful for this opportunity I mean to have like a family taker in and let her live with them that's a great job you know it's sad though she like gets to see these young kids live this amazing life with a family that care about her she sees Gwen and all the teenagers at the Gatherings being you know teenagers they have stress but it's different they have parents to comfort them she told Gwen one of the things that she wished for the most growing up she just wish that she could run around with kids she wished that when she was running around she would fall down scrape her knee and she could just have a mom to run to that would hug her and put it on her lap and blow on her knee and tell her it's okay I got you I mean even now Janice said she wished that all she had to worry about was getting good grades and getting accepted into college and not getting fired and being without a home and having nothing to fend for herself so Gwen is really emotional when she hears Janice's Story I mean for one she had come to see Janice as her sister so to hear about how hard her life was I mean it was rough but another reason was I'm sure I touched on the privilege that Gwen felt like she had to know that she was lucky enough that she could always depend on her parents to be there so like side note Gwen's parents they're not like free for all parents they're not showering her with amazing luxurious items and like letting her do whatever she wants just because they were doing okay didn't mean that they were spoiling the kids each member of their family they had their own set of chores everyone had to pitch in the kids had to study they had to get good grades everyone had to be responsible they had to go to church on Sundays like there were a lot of rules they were actually pretty strict parents but Gwen and Louis had come to really respect their parents for that they really were raised really really well like I I think the fact that Gwen and Louis are even comfortable enough to ask their parents to adopt Janice that just shows you how tight they are how close they are so Janice moves in she gets formally adopted okay she moves into Louie's room he moves out he's permanently on couch Duty now and from the moment from the moment that Janice moves in everyone treats her like family they wanted her to feel like at home they enrolled her in a school immediately I mean she had all this room to breathe now she didn't wake up every single morning to worry about work and putting food on the table she was just a kid she said for the first time she had the luxury of daydreaming about her future like what her Dreams Are Gonna Be what she wants to be when she grows up she had never done that before so after moving in the three siblings they get closer and closer they kept doing their photo shoots hanging out all the time Janice even went on vacation with the Maguire family for the first time so really close now I do want to make it clear not everything with sunshine and rainbows I'm sure any adoptive parent will tell you that it's freaking hard when a new child has to get accustomed to their like new environment learn the rules and even just to trust the adoptive parents it's a long process there's this long hard grace period you have to go through and it's completely normal for there to be hiccups along the way you just have to be open about it which the maguads were I really do think that them being Educators help them in this whole process they were always patient and understanding so Janice's first hiccup came a few months after her adoption the Maguire family had land and a few pigs that they were raising on this land so they have little pigsters and Crews sold one of these pigs for about 200 US dollars he takes a little cash it's a bunch of small bills he puts in a little cash jar in the primary bedroom because he knew that I don't know maybe he'll need it for an emergency one day the same month his elderly parents test positive for covid now in the Philippines in 2021 there were these quarantine facilities that you have to go to so at least in this area so his parents they're being quarantined in a government facility and they would need money for food and supplies while they were stuck in there Cruz is like okay perfect I knew that that 200 was going to come in handy he runs to grab it from his little glass jar and it's freaking empty it's gone he's like that's so weird so he asks his wife hey babe like have you seen the money she's like no why would I touch the money he asked those kids and they're like no I haven't seen the freaking pig money like why would it where what he's like okay well do you guys know where it would be everyone's shrugging they have no idea they all start helping Crews search for the missing money crews even wondered if maybe thieves had gotten into the house to take the money but that didn't make sense because nothing else was stolen and usually someone was home so wouldn't they have known they also have these big dogs that bark like crazy at strangers so he's genuinely puzzled by this it's like this is a case of missing money this is mind-boggling to me the family look around for hours you know the family is doing well enough to feed the the kids and everyone they're financially stable to a degree but they don't just have a ton of extra money laying around so Cruz really was counting on this 200 to give to his parents he needed it they're doing everything couch cushions under the refrigerator under the stove they're turning over all of the rugs and one of the kids picks up Janice's backpack not because they think it's in Janice's backpack but to search the ground underneath Janice's backpack her backpack was suspiciously heavy again he had received small bills for the sale of the pig including I believe like heavier coins maybe and so it's not just like two 100 bills they're like oh that's weird because we're doing remote learning we don't really have a lot of textbooks in our bags right now so they thought what the hell why is her backpack so heavy but they didn't they didn't accuse her they just kind of glanced at Janice and she saw the kid her sibling holding her backpack and it was just the look of guilt was so clear on her face it was clear as day she confessed this turns out Janice had a secret compartment that she made in her backpack so you know the bottom flap of your backpack you open it up and you look inside and you're like oh and that's the bottom of the backpack well she undid the seam created a little empty space between the fabric and the actual inner lining of the bottom of the backpack hid the cash in there sewed it back on basically creating a false bottom for her backpack very crafty but the crazy thing is and this is why I'm like I don't know if I can be a parent because it takes so much patience and understanding because I'd be like why'd you do that that's crazy but Chris wasn't even angry he I mean he was disappointed he's human and her new family they all looked at her confused and disappointed but Janice was breaking down she's like I'm so sorry I don't even know why I did that like I know you probably hate me now it's awful I'm so sorry from stealing from you please like I totally get it if you want to kick me out of the house if you want me gone like I get it if you never trust me again but please I'm just so sorry I really don't know why I did that the Maguires were hurt but they also kind of understood so Janice had grown up with nothing she didn't have the security that the Maguire kids had grown up with and side note stealing is actually very common in families with recent adoptees especially with money and food it comes from the child's scarcity mindset so I mean think about it if you never know where your next meal or money for your next meal or even shoes or socks is coming from and now you're suddenly in a place with an abundance of food of course you're gonna think I should probably grab some more so I can save it for later when I inevitably need it again there's no way you're just gonna take it for granted immediately and be like this is my life now unlimited food these children truly believe this family's gonna let them go They're Gonna face scarcity again and they need to stock up I know it's messed up that she stole the money but it's kind of heartbreaking when you think about the psychology of why an adopted child might steal from their new families so yeah the mcguods were disappointed but they got it they understood and it didn't matter to them because it's like when your kid makes a mistake what do you do they're still your kid and Janice is their kid that's all they thought about it Janice is our daughter of course we're not going to turn our backs on her because she did something wrong she just needs guidance so after this little hiccup the family focuses on rebuilding that trust and it wasn't on this Janice you made us lose our trust in you so earn it back it was more so that maguad's trying to comfort Janice to reaffirm in her belief that their family now and she never has to worry about food for as long as all of them live because she's family after this incident the family actually come out stronger than before more bonded together Gwen started tutoring Janice when everything went into remote learning and December 10th of 2021 before the Maguire parents left for work Janice turned to them and called them mom and dad it was supposed to be a very very very good day but there was a problem Janice their adopted daughter whom they thought was legally categorized as an orphan meaning without parents well it turns out Janice wasn't even an orphan in fact she was regularly communicating with her mom on Facebook what so what the hell is going on here back to the day of the murder December 10th of 2021 I'm not sure how Cruz's co-worker knew that the family home had been ransacked maybe he saw Janice's Facebook post or someone he knew had seen it but Cruz Rush's home finds two of his children dead in the living room he tries to check if there was anything a small pulse or anything but there was nothing it said Cruz dropped to the ground and he cried out he's religious he cried out Lord why did you have to take both of them why do I have to lose both of them why and then he collects himself as best as he can because he's still a father he 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 called 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 her his hands on her head and shoulders and arms and he's frantically checking all over her to see if that she's hurt she wasn't hurt but she's dripping wet and for a split second he he was panicked that it was blood but it wasn't it was water we're gonna come back to this is 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 attacked squid 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 and 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 gonna 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 when you're in a bath you're naked and in a slippery wet tub defenseless 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 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 Mrs 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 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 in elementary school principal you have to be calm collected you have to know what to do in the event of a crisis you 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 said that Mrs mcguod 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 maguad house was taped off as a crime scene the 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 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 there 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 faces just so personal and again to ruin someone's face a lot of experts believe it stems from jealousy keep it in mind later Gwen was stabbed multiple times just face chest abdomen she 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 saboons on a 16 year old's body how can anyone ever hate a 16 year old so much to stop them I mean even once would 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 Maguire house since you know they're going off of Janice's statements as well as the evidence maybe 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 Maguire children and all hell broke loose that was the running theory that was a 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 so very quickly the angle of burglary gone wrong it 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 them again 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 the 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 especially investigations unit focused on this crime and the mayor puts up a reward for five thousand dollars for anyone with information that would lead to the arrest of the attackers meanwhile the police go back to the crime scene they're like we gotta 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 gotta 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 Maguire house so it's 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 our 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 okay now they're getting somewhere so with this in mind they're feeling a boost of confidence okay they start combing through the maguad 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 did 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 like even just saying that that's crazy right I mean normally I'm like don't say it then if you think you're gonna 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 really want to say it they're trying to like come up with roundabout ways of being like well well 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 but I'm gonna walk you through some of the biggest points of contention point one 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 what in 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 netizen 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 gwyns another point of contention was the fact that Janice didn't come downstairs when she heard Crews 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 nothing 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 hidden 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 so they just go into her room ransacked the room and think you know what I 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 then the last point of contention was Janice sent the message to her family group chat at 2 48 PM remember after the autopsy police discovered that the maguad siblings time of death was closer to 2PM so what happened during those 50 minutes this next one is a bit more speculative but I'm still gonna go over it a lot of netizens were wondering how she was able to post a Facebook like 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 p e e we don't know what p is her birth last name is sabil and her adoptive last name is maguad 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 um okay this is again speculation time but maybe in her 17 year old mind she thought that if her name wasn't Janice mcguard the police couldn't find her profile so like I think maybe she thinks the police are gonna go and be like oh you know what let me just investigate this whole family and okay Janice Maguire types it on Facebook there's no Janice Maguire was it Jim Janice mcguard before yeah oh okay she's trying to hide her I mean that's all they can think of in a 17 year old's head because obviously they're gonna 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 splattered 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 maguads were allowed back into their home to clean and tidy up and I guess figure out what they wanted to do with the place Mrs mcguod 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 Louie's old room Mrs mcguard 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 and 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 Marlin which is a pseudonym lavella did not know Marlin she had never seen Marlin before in her entire life so why is his ID in her house her neighbors had seen him before though the day of the murders a few eyewitnesses came forward to say that they saw Marlin heading towards the Maguire 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 Marlin to the Maguire 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 do you recognize it like do you know who this person 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 Louis 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 look 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 participate 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 Marlin 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 um the person that sets up the church Hall before service begins and 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 Marlin 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 he 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 boyfriend the world's worst boyfriend or maybe Janice has a history of making bizarre claims or being dramatic like it's 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 they're probably fine unless it's frequent I don't know the police immediately Tracked 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 Maguire murders because they found gwyn'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 tropin 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 so 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 nine-year-old girl after they lose their baby but the nine-year-old turns out to be a 33 year old woman who is just hell-bent 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 I guess I was always in the belief that adoption is really good but then recently I was seeing tick tocks of adoptees saying that they feel a lot of resentment towards adoption centers and groups and there are 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 they're all kind of evil in that little area but you know what I mean so don't take this case or any case it's 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 in 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 is 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 mcguods okay Janice was born to a pretty rough environment though that 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. now it's hard to say if she was abandoned like she claims or 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 mcguods but all this trauma all this hurt started resurfacing when she saw how loving the Maguire family was she 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 Quinn was everything that Janice wanted to be and so the more comfortable that Janice got with the privilege that the Maguire 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 Louis 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 you better do it all the mcguods 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 Maguire parents adored Gwen and Louis 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 Mr Maguire 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 Gwen because of the love we showered her with but the netizens are confused because even if she saw all the love Gwen 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 maguad 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 once you 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 maguads 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 the identity of the person she's texting hasn't not been released but we can kind of assume that it's Marlin and 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 saying that no matter how bit your sins are even if you killed someone the Lord will still forgive you you 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 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 do it with me then I'll just find someone else who will I 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 I 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 mom speaking of Janice's mom she would actually meet with the Maguire parents she would look for them and um 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 um Gwen and when this first sentence came out it was in say 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 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 their the creeps she would just sit in her smell 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 so there's still another trial left but the public and the Maguire 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 freaking crazy yeah the Maguire parents were not happy at all with this sentence neither was the public Cruz and lavella they started giving media interviews talking to officials they went on national TV and they just wanted to put pressure on the judicial system lavella 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 lavella was there and the two made eye contact Janice was looking at the woman who gave her love and support and who treated her like her own children she 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 those 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 Louis lavella no longer wanted to forgive Janice there was a lot of um 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 in to 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 the situation and another thing is they were just kind of confused if 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 son 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 they would have half their life left to live half a life that the Maguire siblings would never get to have the Maguire parents they went through therapy and they are in their healing process they've opened up a restaurant in remembrance of Gwen 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 Maguire parents seem to be doing as best as they can be I 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 Maguire murders what are your thoughts please stay safe I'll see you guys on Sunday for the Minnesota bye