This Woman Frantically Attempted to Text Her Father After Being Stabbed by Ex-Boyfriend

Derrick Martin remembers the last message he received from Julia.

No parent wants to experience the nightmare and fear of receiving an emergency text from their child. Yet, for one Detroit dad, Derrick Martin, that day came on Friday night when he received a single message from his daughter after she had been severely wounded by her ex-boyfriend.


About six months ago, Julia Martin broke off her relationship with her boyfriend of three years. When her boyfriend came to her Chicago home on Friday evening to retrieve an engagement ring he had given her, he violently attacked her.

The ex-boyfriend forced the door open and stabbed Julia multiple times before he jumped out of her window, ultimately ending his own life.

After being stabbed, Julia desperately tried to save her own life. She dialed 911 and told them to send an ambulance and that she had been stabbed by her ex-boyfriend. While they sent help, she then called her father, but he didn’t answer right away.

“Not only did she call me, she texted me while she was going through all this,” Derrick Martin told the Chicago Tribune. “She was calling everybody, saying that she wanted help. She called another friend and she was panting over the phone, trying to get her breath. He thought it was a prank and he hung up on her. He feels so bad.”

Eventually, Derrick saw Julia’s message that read, “Call me ASAP.”

Julia was then taken to Northwestern Medical Hospital, where she would later be pronounced dead from her serious stab wounds. Derrick could not believe the terrible fate that his daughter met.

“There was no indication he was dangerous … I never would’ve thought that in a million years,” Derrick Martin said. “She never went into that much detail about how bad it was, she was just telling me that they had broke it off and that she was planning on giving the ring back,” he added.

Julia had graduated from Michigan State and worked in human resources at a local architecture firm.

“She was strictly into her career, always striving for greatness,” Derrick said. “She was never satisfied being stuck in one position, she always tried to get higher and higher and higher.”

Derrick’s mother, father and brother have also recently passed away. He’s moving Julia’s body back to Detroit for a burial. Julia’s mother also passed away two years ago. Derrick has one other daughter, Jasmin, 22, who has a son. Now they are the only close family that Derrick has in his life.