아들 해친 뺑소니 차량을 우연히 발견한 여인 > 신비/기적/예언

아들의 생명을 앗아간 뺑소니 운전자를 어머니가 우연히 찾아내 화제를 모으고 있다.

사진#1
Joy English says she was led to turn into an area and stop at a van. Police arrest- ed its owner in her son's death. -- Gary Moore / The Star

지난 10월 26일 저녁 美 인디애나폴리스의 한 도로에서 자전거를 타고 가던 27세 청년 브레들리 잉글리시가 자동차에 치어 사망했다.

목격자들은 멀리서 달아나는 희색 밴 아니면 SUV 차량을 보았다고 진술했지만 현장에는 사고 차량의 파편 이외에는 특별한 증거가 없었다. 사건은 영원히 미궁으로 빠질 가능성이 컸던 것.

어머니 조이 잉글리시로서는 아들의 갑작스런 죽음도 고통스러웠지만 범인을 잡을 수도 없어 더더욱 견디기 힘들었다. 그런데 기적 같은 일이 일어났다. 온통 죽은 아들 생각밖에 하지 않던 이 여인이 사고 발생 후 29일 만에 뺑소니 차량을 발견한 것이다.

추수 감사절 전날 조이 잉글리시는 아들의 무덤에 갖다 놓을 꽃을 사기 위해 차를 몰았다. 그러다 설명하기 힘든 기운에 이끌린다. 인디애나폴리스 교외에 있는 이동 주택 차량 촌으로 진입해야겠다는 생각이 든 것이다. 그 곳에서 하얀색 밴을 발견한 여인은 자동차 번호를 적어 경찰에 연락을 취했다.

어머니의 막연한 제보를 받고 조사에 착수했던 경찰은 놀라지 않을 수 없었다. 사고 현장에 떨어져 있던 파편과 용의 차량의 파손 부위가 정확히 일치했기 때문. 29세의 뺑소니 용의자는 체포되었다.


자동차를 몰던 조이 잉글리시 여인은 아들 생각을 하며 하염없이 눈물을 흘리고 있었다고 있었다고 말했다. 그러다 보이지 않는 손에 이끌리기도 하듯 범인 차량이 있던 곳으로 들어서게 되었다고.

그녀는 신의 도움이 없었다면 범인 검거는 불가능했으리라 믿는다. 이번 일을 통해 "슬픔과 고통의 시간 동안 신이 함께 한다는 확신을 갖게 되었다"다는 그녀는 아들을 잃은 슬픔이 조금은 가벼워졌다고 밝혔다.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/199071-8244-009.html

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Mom: God led me to van sought in son's death

By Paul Bird
paul.bird@indystar.com
December 2, 2004


GREENWOOD, Ind. -- Joy English was driving to a store on Thanksgiving eve to buy Christmas flowers for her son's grave when, she said, she had an urgent prompting from God.

She said she was guided to turn into the Friendly Village mobile home park off County Line Road, west of Ind. 135 in Johnson County, where she eventually stopped by a white van.

She thought it might be connected to her son's hit-and-run death.

On Tuesday, a call from Marion County Sheriff's Sgt. Doug Heustis confirmed her hunch.

Israel Cardenas, 19, Greenwood, was arrested Tuesday by Heustis on a preliminary charge of failure to stop after an accident causing death and driving while his license was suspended. He was being held Wednesday afternoon in the Marion County Jail on $15,000 bail.

Bradley English, 27, was fatally injured about 7 p.m. Oct. 26 when a hit-and-run driver struck him as he pedaled his bicycle along Shelby Street, south of Stop 11 Road in Indianapolis.

Witnesses said the vehicle was a white van, sport utility vehicle or truck. Later, investigators learned from debris collected at the scene that the vehicle was a late 1980s or early 1990s model Dodge van or truck.

Cardenas' van is a 1993 Dodge.

Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Phil Burton said Heustis compared pieces of crash debris to Cardenas' van. "They fit like a puzzle," Burton said. He credited the arrest to mother's intuition.

Police said the van was not visible from the road.

Joy English said the entire experience was divinely guided.

"I had no control over my own car," she said. "It just makes me know that God is truly with us in our mourning, sorrow and trials, and this is proof he is truly with you. There is a God, and he does exist."

English and her husband, Mark English, live in the Auburn Trace subdivision in White River Township, three miles south of Friendly Village.

On the afternoon of Nov. 24, she decided to drive to Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, 8040 S. U.S. 31, Indianapolis.

"I went the long way, up Peterman Road, and as I was driving I had this urgent prompting to pull over -- pull over now!" Joy English said.

She said she was thinking of her son and crying as she listened to Christmas music, and a voice said to her over and over: "Only a mother's love." She stopped crying.

"I turned off the radio, and the next thing I saw was the van, and I wrote down the license plate number," she said. "I couldn't see the front of it to see if there was any damage."

She said her cell phone rang, and it was her sister, Jeri Hanford.

"I told her where I was and that I didn't know why I was there," English said.

Hanford drove to her sister.

"She (Hanford) knocked on the door of the trailer where the white van was parked and asked for someone just so she could see the front of the van. It had damage," English said.

English telephoned Heustis and gave him the information.

"I told my husband that I don't want to sound like a cuckoo, but that it was such an urgent prompting that I almost had to make a U-turn to get into that park. I never felt more amazed."

English said that as horrible as her son's death was, finding the van was amazing.

"It is not every day that someone gets to experience God like that," she said. "I believe God led me to it. I give him all the praise."

Call Star reporter Paul Bird at (317) 444-2709.

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