The 19-year-old University of Ottawa student, who now has scars on the back of her hand, scalp and forehead, said the June 27 attack left her terrified of people and jumping over “every little sound and every little thing.’ “Half of me is here, half of me keeps replaying what happened that night,” said Reddy, who broke her silence speaking to CBC for the first time since surviving multiple stab wounds and a bullet. who was shot by the police. Although there were warning signs throughout the years, no one on Anoka Street—including the killer’s own father—anticipated a tragedy of this scale, which began in the living room of the Ready family’s two-story home and spilled out into the street. and ended with the police shooting both Ready and her attacker. Her mother, Anne-Marie Ready, 50, and her sister Jasmine Ready, 15, both died that night, something she only learned hours later at the hospital when a sergeant from the Ottawa Police Service arrived. “When I was initially told, for a solid five minutes there was absolutely nothing, I was just screaming and trying to be calmed down by nurses and other officers,” she said. “I just kept screaming, ‘I don’t have a mother anymore! I don’t have my sister anymore!” Catherine, seen in the background at her family home, didn’t find out her mother and sister were dead until hours after the attack. “I just kept screaming, ‘I don’t have a mother anymore! I don’t have my sister anymore!” (Michel Aspirot/CBC)

The attacker was charged a few days earlier

Joshua Graves, son of the Readys’ next-door neighbor, also died that night. The 21-year-old was the intended target of the police bullets that also hit Ekaterini. Details later emerged that he had been arrested, charged and then released on bail for sexually assaulting and stalking another 16-year-old girl just three days before his deadly rampage. But as Catherine and her father Raphael recall the sequence of events that night and make connections to previous disturbing encounters with Graves – including how he once planted a kiss on Jasmine – something else comes into focus. The Ready family home on Anoka Street. Next door, with the white garage doors, lived Joshua Graves with his father and stepmother. (Michel Aspirot/CBC) The attack was “systematically planned,” said Rafael, 52, who was working in Barbados when it happened. By his family’s admission, Graves was fighting his own demons. His years of harassment, intimidation and threats of self-harm culminated in a double homicide that not only shocked the Alta Vista community, but highlighted the larger issue of gender-based violence. This is why Catherine and Raphael want to talk. As survivors, father and daughter want to regain control of the narrative of what happened to their family. “You appreciate the fact that everyone tells you to be strong,” Raphael said. “But it’s a process you have to live with.” “You appreciate the fact that everyone tells you to be strong, but it’s a process you have to go through.” (Michel Aspirot/CBC)

One last call

Every night for five years, Rafael made a video call to his family from Barbados, where he worked in the construction industry and still owns the house in which he and Anne-Marie had planned to spend their retirement together. He usually called around 10:30 p.m., after they had eaten dinner and before they went to bed. (The Readys tended to dine late at night.) On the evening of June 27, Anne-Marie called Raphael unexpectedly early, around 9:00 p.m., before passing the screen to Catherine and Jasmine. The conversation didn’t last long and Raphael told his daughters to call back at the usual time after they had eaten. “That never happened,” he said. Rafael video chatted with his wife and daughters every night from Barbados, where he worked in the construction industry. This is a screenshot of one of their calls. (Submitted by Raphael Ready)

A knock on the door

After dinner that night, Kathryn said she and her sister went upstairs to get ready for bed while their mother stayed downstairs. All three were wearing their pajamas. Catherine was in her room on a video call with her boyfriend when she heard a knock on the front door. Both sisters went to the top of the stairs overlooking the front entrance of the house where they saw Graves standing. “He came in and asked my mother, ‘Hey, I need to talk to you. I just need help,” Kathryn said. “Right away I knew something was wrong.” From the top of those stairs, Catherine and Jasmine could see Joshua Graves at the front door of their family home. He told their mother that he needed help. (Michel Aspirot/CBC) He said he instinctively grabbed Jasmine by her shirt and told her to go stay in the room while she went downstairs to check on their mother. “I didn’t feel comfortable with her being alone with him,” she said. When she got downstairs, Catherine said she felt compelled to pull her mother aside, feeling a “strange feeling” about the visit from Graves.

“No one did anything”

But Anne-Marie was preoccupied with Graves, who by then was sitting on the sofa in the living room, so Catherine slipped into an armchair across from him to keep an eye on things or, in her words, to be “a discreet presence in the room.” “My mum had got him a glass of water and sat on the sofa and asked what was going on,” she said. “He took a sip and put it down. And then he stabbed my mom in front of me.” Katherine said she saw Graves quickly pull a knife out of his pocket with his right hand. After stabbing her mother, Catherine said he turned to attack her. Hearing screams from the living room, Jasmine rushed downstairs. Momentarily distracted, Graves flew in her direction. Jasmine and Anne-Marie, seen together in this photo, died in the attack. Anne-Marie’s last act was to try to protect her daughter from further harm. (Michel Aspirot/CBC) As the fight ensued, Catherine said she tried calling for help from their home phone, including calling 911. “I felt like I wasn’t getting an answer, so I dropped the phone and started running,” he said. He left the house. “I was on my hands and knees in the middle of the street, covered in my own blood,” she recalls. “I was screaming at the neighbors to try and help and nobody did anything.”

She begs for her life

Meanwhile, according to what the investigators told Raphael, Anne-Marie mustered what little strength she had left to save her youngest daughter. They also tried to escape the house, but never made it past the garage. “She collapsed in front of the garage on top of Jasmine with her arms wrapped around her, trying to protect her body,” Raphael said. “And he kept stabbing them.” She said Graves was “only aiming for Jasmine’s face,” stabbing her multiple times, including in her eyes.

Family members say they will remain emotionally scarred after the attack on Anoka Street

Raphael Ready says the emotional wound from losing his wife and youngest daughter will likely never heal. Catherine Ready says the terror of that night will stay with her. Graves then approached Catherine, who was lying in the street, and began stabbing her. She remembered pleading and screaming at him to stop. “And I just heard him say, ‘I can’t stop,’” Kathryn said. “Then I thought I was going to die.” But he didn’t, because help finally arrived. According to the Ontario police, Special Investigations Unit, the Ottawa police officers ordered Graves to drop his knife. When he refused, three policemen fired their weapons, killing the young man but also hitting Catherine. In addition to multiple stab wounds, Catherine was also hit by a police bullet as they tried to stop the attack. (Michel Aspirot/CBC)

Her mother was her role model

The next few days in the hospital were dark for Catherine, who remembers lying in her bed on The Ottawa Hospital campus, crying and wishing she could speak to her mother one more time. I lost my whole universe. I have never felt so alone in my life.- Catherine Ready “I just had to ask her, ‘Mom, what am I doing?’ Can you hold me for a while while I try to figure it out?” Kathryn said with tears in her eyes.
The pain she felt from the knife and gunshot wounds, and the broken leg, felt insignificant compared to the immense grief that overwhelmed her. Catherine said her mother was her role model, her biggest inspiration. Anne-Marie Ready, seen here flanked by her daughters, received her PhD in international business in July 2019 while working as a trade commissioner with Global Affairs Canada. (Submitted by Raphael Ready) A trade commissioner with Global Affairs Canada, Anne-Marie spoke five languages ​​and had served abroad in a number of high-profile positions, including the Canadian Embassy in Peru and the Canadian High Commission in Barbados. Half French Canadian and half Guyanese, she has lived an adventurous and fulfilling life, earning three degrees, including a PhD in international business, all while working and raising her young children.
“On days when I felt like I couldn’t do it, I was overwhelmed, she would be there to sit with me and tell me I could do whatever I wanted to do,” Catherine recalled of her mother. During those difficult days, Catherine said her sister Jasmine’s tight hugs, warmth and patience also comforted her. “She was three years younger than me, but I think she was really the one who taught me how to love,” he said. “She was my soulmate.” When she returned home after more than three weeks in the hospital, reminders of Catherine’s mother and sister were everywhere, including those birthday decorations. (Michel Aspirot/CBC) “I will…