A four-year-old girl bravely called the police and reported her father for stabbing her mum right in front of her, while she and her siblings were in hiding from the abusive man
After years of abuse, Neilyann Ysam had had enough. She took her four children from their home and fled.
Neilyann, 24, was hiding at her aunt’s home with her young children to escape the violence reportedly endured in the home she had shared with her partner. But within days, he had caught up with them, determined to take back control.
S Mate Joseph, 29, is alleged to have stabbed the mother of his children in a frenzied, fatal attack right in front of his children’s eyes, as well as another youngster who was in the home at the time.
Despite the traumatic and terrifying event that had unfolded in front of her, Neilyann’s four-year-old daughter took immediate action.
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The brave little girl quickly called the police in Portland, Oregon, and, in four heartbreaking words, described what had just happened: “My dad killed my mom.” The young child then also informed the police of her dad’s first name.
Joseph also is said to have rang the authorities, allegedly telling the police he had stabbed a “loved one” and that he had no idea if they had survived the attack, and gave a house number that matched where the mother of his children was found, though he did not give a complete address.
The police arrived and immediately took the children out of the crime scene – luckily, none of the kids had been harmed. Joseph was arrested later that day in his Washington hometown.
His alleged abuse of Neilyann had been on record for years. In 2019, he pleaded guilty for assaulting her whilst she was pregnant, and when officers arrived on the scene his 16-year-old brother is reported to have approached them waving a knife, leading the officers to shoot him. Police involved in the incident were cleared of wrongdoing in a later investigation.
The following year, Joseph was found in a vehicle with Neilyann, despite a protection order that had been issued previously.
He has been charged with second-degree murder and first-degree burglary, and has entered an initial not-guilty plea, something local press says is “standard procedure” at this stage. Joseph also has pending charges in another county for Driving Under the Influence.
The deputy district attorney overseeing the homicide unit, Brian Davidson, told local press: “I’ve been doing this quite a while. I have had cases like that before, but they’re pretty rare.
“It’s again a horrific thing for a child to witness any act of violence and certainly one of this order of magnitude, you just can’t, again, overstate how terrible that is.”
He also pointed out that the data shows the first few weeks after leaving an abuser are the most dangerous, and that victims should seek support, adding, “It’s just incredibly important that the community know that if you see someone who looks like they’re in trouble that, you know, to reach out and to try to provide help.”