The case of a woman suffering domestic violence and abuse, reportedly inflicted by her husband for over 17 years, nearly took a tragic turn when she went missing this week.
However, late word to Amandala from the family of Nathalie Chan, 38, of Corozal Town, is that she has been found safe and sound and is resting with family members in Ladyville tonight.
Chan’s ordeal began at her 4th Street home around noon Saturday, June 6, when her husband, laborer Miguel Chan, 43, apparently got in the house unnoticed and started accusing her of having an affair.
An enraged Miguel began hitting his wife across her body repeatedly, and, according to Corozal police, their son, Carlos, 18, apparently assisted his father by holding down his mother’s hands while his father was beating her. (He is also accused of making threats against her.)
The two men then left, and Corozal police who were called to the scene thereafter could not initially locate them.
According to a report from the Family and Domestic Violence Unit of the Corozal police formation, this was the 5th such reported incident involving the Chans since the start of the year, and the 15th in the last 12 months.
Nathalie, police say, had made an application to the court on May 6 for a protection order, granted for the next six months. Miguel Chan violated that order with his unwanted visit on Saturday, and upon turning himself in to police on Wednesday morning, was charged for breach of protection order.
Today, he appeared in Corozal’s Magistrate Court and faces a fine of $9,000 or a year in prison. Magistrate Leslie Hamilton remanded him until his next court appearance on June 30. Carlos Chan remains at large tonight.
An apparently disturbed Nathalie left her home on Tuesday morning and failed to pick up her younger children from school that evening. She had been missing from then until she was picked up by her family today at the Corozal Hospital. According to family members she had left some of her belongings at a property in Corozal Town where she applied to rent a room, but failed to return.
Family members told local media on Wednesday night that Natalie had sent a text message to them while they were at the Corozal police station earlier that day, as well as to her husband.
The message, as displayed on 7 News on Wednesday night, reads: “I just hope u live happy with your house I love U turn your kids against me u happy now.”
According to family members the message strongly suggested that Nathalie wanted to take her own life. Family members told us she had finally gotten tired of the abuse, tired of the face she put on for the world.
Fortunately for her and her family, she did not succeed. Sister Encarnita Bennett of Ladyville told Amandala by telephone tonight that a series of “Good Samaritans” led them to Nathalie, beginning with the individual who paid her way from Carmelita in Orange Walk, where she was spotted walking on the road to Guinea Grass, to Corozal, to the friend who helped her contact her family, to the hospital administrator who took charge of her on arrival, to the Human Services personnel who allowed her to see her three youngest kids (she is a mother of seven.)
After questioning by police and Human Services, Nathalie was reunited with her family and put on medication. She was mandated to rest for a while to recover from her ordeal, though she just wants to know why she was targeted and in particular, why her oldest son, still at large, sided against her. The oldest daughter is now in charge of the younger ones.
Nathalie suffered a combination of physical, verbal and financial abuse, compounded by the ambivalent attitude of her older children. Cornered and imprisoned, this diabetic, a Jehovah’s Witness, led a miserable existence, her every attempt to get out rebuffed.
Now begins the hard task of healing and coming to terms with her problems. Bennett says the family will do their best to help their sister recover, and wishes to thank the news media covering the story, the authorities who pushed resources to find Nathalie, and most importantly, the general public who followed the story and offered their assistance and support, both at home and abroad.