I just want to be normal again – Kidnap victim

A broken relationship, a kidnapping, a failed escape attempt, a note slipped silently into a medicine container, police, rescue and murder.

Scenarios that are normally depicted in a Lifetime Movie? No, all part of Mewanah Hadaway’s three and a half month ordeal, right here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

Mewanah’s kidnapping story, which broke around April 15 saw her alleged abductor eventually being charged in a different case, the cold case murder of Sharleen Greaves. The Hollywood plotline has flung the 23-year-old young lady into the national spotlight, but what Mewanah really wants is to move on with her life.

“I would just like to be happy. Go back to school and so on,” Mewanah told SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday.

The young lady from the quiet village of Vermont, “quiet until sometime like this”, she said, relived her nightmare with SEARCHLIGHT yesterday.

So how did Mewanah become trapped in a house in Vermont for three and a half months?

The young lady said that she was on her way home from work on January 1st, looking at fireworks in the sky from the Buccama Bay Resort, when she was met by her alleged kidnapper and told that she should come to his home to remove items that she had left there.

The two were involved in a relationship that began in August 2015 which ended in November, so Mewanah did not think anything was amiss when she was asked to come collect her belongings. She said that they broke up because of his aggression.

Mewanah said that her ex-lover managed to get her to come collect her things because when they were together it was not always bad.

“He was not all the time abusive but he had his moments. He appeared to be a gentleman at times, always there for you but you would never expect that underneath all of that he has that going on,” said Mewanah who had known him as a child as they attended the same Adventist Primary School.

She however did not know that he was deported and he told her that he had come home to fix his aunt’s house.

She ended up being prevented from leaving on that fateful New Year’s night and all the rest is history.

“I was scared for my life, he (kidnapper) would say things that make me think he would kill me. One time I would feel hope and then another time I would think I was going to die…one time he asked me if I think that he would chose my freedom over his freedom,” said Mewanah.

The woman, whose freedom was rudely ripped from her, was told that if she screamed or tried to escape she would be killed and when she did try to escape one time, she was caught and shown a hole in the yard and told, “that is how far I am willing to go,” she understood that to mean she would be killed and buried in the yard of what was then her prison.

“He has a double personality and depending on how mad he got he would do certain things, he punch me in the face once. He saying now that he dig the hole for septic tank but, you don’t dig septic tank like that.”

During the days, Hadaway would sleep or her kidnapper would allow her to watch a movie on his tablet, “probably to be hospitable”, she said. She revealed that the two elderly women who lived in the house and the caretaker who eventually aided in freeing her, did not know that she was there and she was told if she screamed or did anything to alert anyone, she would be killed and that person would also be killed.

“The mentally ill lady would cook sometimes and sometimes I would eat three meals or sometimes just lunch and dinner. There were times when I was hungry,” said Mewanah.

She noted also that when the kidnapper would leave for extended periods of time he would drug her with what he said was “Tylenol PM” and “I would sleep for hours”.

“When he was around me he would talk to me regular. Amicable conversations and tell me he love me. He use to tell me will kill me and nobody know I was there,” explained Mewanah who was kept in her underwear or sometimes given one of her abductor’s t-shirts to wear.

Mewanah’s kidnapper had her Galaxy S5 smartphone and he would text her family and close friends, “normal conversations and he even got me to send a voice message to the woman who had my son. Plenty people was vex how I was saying that I left the country for Antigua just so”.

So how did she escape this living nightmare?

The smart thinking young lady said that she found writing material when her alleged abductor left her in the kitchen and went outside to do something.

“He put me in the kitchen and I wrote on a piece of paper, ‘I need help…I was here all along’ and I put it in the container in the fridge. I was there alone for about 15 to 20 minutes and I know that the lady who come to give the old lady the insulin would come around 4.30,” said Mewanah who said that the day after she put the note in the refrigerator, the police came knocking as the caretaker found the note.

“When the police came, he come in and tell me people outside to me and told me to say I name Kimberley, he said if I said anything else he would kill me so when I went to the police I said my name was Kimberley and I made up the last name Moses and Richland Park and they were about to leave but one of the officers was on the phone getting a description of me and like the person identified me.

“I felt a relief when they came because I use to feel like I was living in a nightmare…every night he would lay next to me and he use to speak about when he was in the United States and he use to speak about his gang life but I’m not sure if he was in a gang because he is a very good liar,” said Mewanah.

Mewanah said that although her alleged kidnapper is behind bars on remand, she is still a bit worried as he told her that he belonged to a gang in the United States and he was capable of “certain things”.

“I hope he goes to jail and just stay there but even then I still wouldn’t feel secure,” she offered.

“He has friends, I still scared because you don’t know if he have friends out there and if he said to them do this or do that. It doesn’t matter if he has them in the area or not, he has friends whether man or woman. He threaten me multiple times.”

She said that since she was freed, she has had no contact with him and she doesn’t want to either.

“I have nothing to say to him,” she stressed while adding that she is glad that her case helped the police tie her kidnapper to Greaves’ murder but she is kind of disappointed the way things are going.

“It is a good thing that my case is helping them but in a way my case is being side-tracked. It’s kind of a good and not good feeling”, explained Mewanah who said that she understands that the man that took her has commented that he will be freed of all charges.

“He is a very careful person so if he says he will get off he has to know why but I know a lot of persons want to hurt him,” said Mewanah.

The slimly built young woman who said that she lost weight during the abduction said that a number of things about Greaves’ case keep worrying her, for instance, the photos with the charged man at Greaves’ Bijou Real Estate office.

“I didn’t know Sharleen Greaves but how come the photos didn’t surface in Sharleen’s time, when her murder was being investigated but they surface now? How come the police was checking all her friends and they didn’t check him?” asked Mewanah.

Mewanah explained that since her story became public, persons have been saying a lot of negative things, constantly making assumptions while others have been making suggestions about how she should carry on her life, but she isn’t about any of that.

“People saying things like private my Facebook account and things like that but I don’t think that I should go through all that, I think I should be able to live normal… people saying I wasn’t kidnapped and it’s affecting me negatively, I just want to be normal,” said the Vermont resident who was not seen for three months.

She said that being abducted and fearing for her life has left her with strange feelings, especially when in public.

“When I going certain places I will be sceptical because I don’t want to be around too much people. It is like standing and looking out for somebody or something to get you… it’s kind of uneasy, so sometimes most of the times, I’m indoors cause being outside is scary and threatening,” explained Mewanah.

The timid young lady who despite her ordeal manages to smile and laugh at times said that she wishes to continue her studies at the Kingstown Technical Institute (KTI) where she had been enrolled before being snatched.

She added also that she would like to continue her bartending course.

She explained that when she was taken, she was on holidays from KTI and was doing a bartending course while also employed as a bartender during the nights.

“I lost the job because of what happen and I have not gone back to the job since. I haven’t really been going to deal with my business because since being freed it is police and doctor and other things,” said Mewanah who desperately wants to get her life back on track.

“I could care less if strangers don’t support me but I have the support of other people and that’s good,” she said.