MONROVIA – The victim of attempted murder and aggravated assault allegedly meted out against her by 32-year-old U.S. Missionary, Lucas Richard, Ms. Jessica Lloyd, has been explaining her ordeal from her hospital bed at Liberia’s largest referral health facility, the JFK Medical Center, in the capital, Monrovia.
Jessica, from her sickbed, narrated that she and Richard, with whom it is alleged she’s having a romantic affair, at the behest of the American Missionary, on Thursday, 14 September 2023, had gone for a ride in his vehicle to have had an intimate talk when the incident occurred thereafter.
The young female, who is in a state of disbelief and seems to be grappling with uncertainty over what actually transpired, has come to the realization that Richard indeed wanted to murder her, indicating that he first drove her to a riverside located in the Monrovia suburb of Barnersville, where she’s of the belief he wanted to have killed her and thrown her into the water.
“It looks like there where he wanted to do it first then he just throw me in the water,” she explained, indicating that the riverside was crowded with people, especially street boys widely referred to locally as “grownup boys.”
Jessica further narrated that when she and her alleged assailant arrived at the riverside, prior to disembarking the vehicle, he took from the car a knife which he placed in his pocket, informing her that it was for security purposes since he’s afraid of snakes, should they encounter one, he would have used the knife to kill it.
She stated that it did not occur to her what Richard was actually intending to do with the knife.
Later, while at the riverside, she said they went into a bush where Richard said he wanted to pee, and while peeing, he claimed he saw an animal in the bush and with the knife in his pocket, asked Jessica to come to see the animal as well, but she stated that she refused on the ground that she was afraid.
“Then I just stood up behind him. But it’s like if I was going to go closer, he was just going to kill me right there. So I just stood behind him, when he finished peeing, I said oh, watch your hands,” she narrated.
From that point, Jessica added that Richard drove off with her from that area, and not too far away, he again said he wanted to pee in another bush along the road, asking her to stand behind him, a request she said she did not fully grant, as she stood not too close behind him.
“So when he finished, that’s how we looked for the direction the place the car was, and that’s how we got in the car and we went to the road that’s leading from St. Michael way, so that’s the road we came back with – we got back again on the same road in Barnersville Estate, and we were going to the road leading to Duala,” said Jessica, who illustrated that Richard passed all the crowded places where they could have possibly sat and talked despite pleas from her for him to have stopped the vehicle at one of such places.
She said he kept driving in very isolated areas in the Gardnersville vicinity, even suggesting at one point for them to stop and go to a cemetery to see the graves, look at the names, and the time the people buried there died, but she refused.
Upon driving a little distance further, she stated that Richard complained about defective tyres on his vehicle, and he then parked the car along the road in an isolated area.
At this point, not knowing for a fact, but she’s of the belief that an eyewitness believed to be a commercial motorcyclist, who would later become her rescuer, was standing not too far away from where Richard parked his vehicle.
“So when he parked the car, he said the car tyre had problem he wanted to fix it or change it. I was sitting in the car at first. So when he got down, then he said Jessica I think you will need to help me,” narrated Jessica, who said Richard brought her an iron believed to be a jack, which he told her to turn, while he held another thick iron she could not actually describe.
“So he said just be turning it until I can finish with this other side. I said okay. I was not thinking on anything. So as I was turning it, he said oh, dirt in your hair. He opened up my hair, I felt that he was cleaning the dirt. So he hit it,” explained Jessica, who at this point might have been dazed from the knock at the back of her head, adding; “So I felt that maybe the car tyre burst or the thing I was turning it had current inside it that what jerked me.”
She continued: “I fell in the grass I started jerking, all my slippers left from my foot. But then I woke up. When I woke up, he pushed me back on the ground – but it’s like the boy saw him ever since hitting the back of my head. So, when he pushed me back to the ground, it’s like it was when he took the knife and he was cutting my neck but I was not feeling it.”
Jessica, who was possibly previously drugged or illicitly given anesthesia, stated that she did not feel any of the bodily injuries she sustained during her ordeal at the hands of her alleged attacker when these injuries were being inflicted on her.
Anesthesia refers to the use of medications called anesthetics to prevent pain during medical procedures or surgeries. These medications temporarily block sensory signals from nerves at the site of the procedure to the centers in the brain. Anesthesia can be given through injection, inhalation, topical lotion, spray, eye drops, or skin patch.
“He gave me medicine first, because I took infection medicine it was hurting my stomach in the car so I told him because I was pregnant almost two months and he gave me injection in my vein with some kind of medicine he said I should take all together it will help to stop the vomiting and the malaria,” said Jessica, who stated that she lost her two-month-old pregnancy.
“So he gave me some kind of medicine he said it will not make you sleep just take it. So I took the medicine,” maintained Jessica, who added; “So when he hit my head first when I was jerking, he came over me, I felt like he wanted to help me. So I said I’m alright, Lucas I’m alright. But I was still jerking. I said I’m alright, I’m alright, I’m alright – when I stood up, he pushed me back on the ground. He pushed me, he rolled me down small. It was like he was chopping the neck. It’s like the boy saw him ever since, so that’s why he didn’t go deep. So the boy picked up the stick from far off the boy said hey, hey, hey, so he just left me.”
