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A man has done the unthinkable after stabbing his girlfriend of three years to death for returning his engagement ring and breaking up with him. The man identified as Rodney Harvey after executing the gruesome act, also killed himself by jumping to his death from her apartment.

The woman identified as Julia Martin had broken up with her boyfriend before the incident happened.

According to the ChicagoTribune, Martin, a 27-year-old from Detroit, tried to save her own life. She grabbed her phone and called police about 7 p.m. She asked them to send an ambulance for her. She told them the name of the man who stabbed her.

Then she called her dad.

“Not only did she call me, she texted me while she was going through all this,” her dad, Derrick Martin said Monday. “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.”

Unfortunately, Martin doesn’t check his phone often and didn’t see the text message from his eldest daughter until much later. It read: “Call me ASAP.”

Julia Martin was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m. from multiple sharp force injuries.

Harvey, 35, of the 2300 block of South Michigan Avenue, was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. at the same hospital. His death was ruled a suicide.

Martin was a Michigan State graduate and a human resources supervisor at a local architecture firm. She had never given her father any reason to worry that the man she spent so much of her life with was dangerous.

She recently told him that she had started dating again, her father said.

“There was no indication he was dangerous … I never would’ve thought that in a million years,” Derrick Martin said.

She did call her dad awhile back and ask that they connect and meet in person to talk. Just last weekend, he drove down from Detroit to spend time with his church-going, go-getter girl.

“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 recalled.

The pair went to a winery and enjoyed each other’s company, he said. “God works in mysterious ways,” Derrick Martin said. “He must’ve known it was going to be my last time to see her.”

Julia was the adventurous and ambitious type, her father said. Once she graduated college, she took a human resources job in Houston because she was always looking for ways to challenge herself, like recently obtaining a certificate in her field that led to a raise, her dad said.

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

Julia Martin just received her passport for a New Year’s trip she was planning to Africa, her dad said. She traveled all over the country and hoped to one day live and work in New York City. After living far away in Houston, her family was happy she was living in Chicago, close by.

She had a little sister, Jasmin Martin, 22. Her mother died two years ago, of heart complications, after 20 years of marriage, Derrick Martin said. The day they buried his wife, Jasmin told her dad she was pregnant.

Derrick Martin also has recently buried his mother, father and brother. He’s having Julia’s body moved back to Detroit for burial. Now, Jasmin and her son, Cameron, are the only close family Derrick Martin has left.

“I just pray, I just ask God to give me strength,” he said. “It’s like he keeps taking people that’s close to me and I don’t know why. You can’t question God, you just figure there’s a plan. And you pray.”

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199 COMMENTS

  4. d guy should go to hell cus dats were he belong……if it was ma sister nd it wud neva b i swear i must stab him d way he stabbd her.

  7. 3 years????what do u expect before mr.man??that she should continue waiting for you??anyway RIP 2 d deceased

  9. That serves her right…..after 3 gud years of relationship Ur nw saying Ur nat interested anymore…..he should have even killed u instead instantly

  11. Na by force to marry, if na my sister dat guy stabs to death na to use thesame knife stab him back. The Babe say she nt want again na for u to free her ,marriage no be by force.

  29. The guy no do well at all na, a whole 3yrs shey na engagement degree she dey read? May her soul rest in peace…. And i hope some ladies can take this as a warning also because some guys out there are not ready to settle down so in order to make the chiquita stay with them, they propose marriage with a ring just to tie her down.

  41. They dated for 3 years not engaged for 3 years. The guy is wrong but something is wrong somewhere, so let’s not judge until we hear the full gist!!! #justmyopinionsha#

  49. I never gave a woman a ring before, rather three women i been with gave me rings…i don’t know what it is like giving a woman ring..

  51. Do u know how much of his money n time she has wasted?wen u come to poor children dat can beg and wreck a man look at a Nigerian girl.#beggars. But for killing this fine bitch bros go serve ur warrant/ #jailhim

  54. Wada 3years or 4yrs or 7yrs DAT is not d problem it depends when d money comes but killing her is d worst mistake d would have been a way out for dam to settle

  58. The guy no try but some heartbreaks are hard to bear that can easily lead u to kill urself or kill somebody..but am very sure he did it out of frustration and annoyance and must have regretted doing it now i therefore solicit that justice should be tempered with mercy

  60. This is just a madness. There is meny fishes in the ocean, why killing one another
    Well may her soul Rest In peace.

  61. It’s not compulsory she must marry the guy after engagement, d guy for look for another fine girl na……dem no fit ask continue their love for hellfire ooo

  65. If true say u kill us gf bcos she returned ur ring, bros u get more than mind I wonder waiting she Don pass true for ur hand for d past 3gud yrs! Women wake up!

  68. Why would she go to return ring, she will say it from a far and send some1 to give it to him. She brought it upon herself.

  69. 3yrs na small thing self,I know of a frnd who dated his gal since 2006 and now they are married 2016,but what am trying to picture now is that,the gal is trying to pay back the man for keeping her waiting for 3yrs.

  71. D man no well he need bad punishment…
    Why him go engage d girl for 3yrs without marriage
    D girl na lord of d rings….
    Chai

  74. Three years and u kill her, d u ask her why or d u even know the kind of pressure she was going through in our parents house. Guys reason well b4 u act and I believe u get d kind of punishment u desire.

  87. Me I no badu engagement ring ooooo hol lam Weller…or u give it to me on d alter…..how can u engage a girl for 3 years ……becks of that she will be losing d ones that supposed to be her hobbby wot kind of world is this……so painful rest in peace…..

  90. Three fucking good years, dat’s monitoring spirit.. The guy need deliverance.. Guess he picks the ring on the street,,,, Aboki

  94. That guy is evil, is not a must that people marry each other after dating, some will date for 5yrs or more than but at the end they will go their separate ways. Please they should examine this guy to know weda his is insane

  96. I’m not in support of the guys action, but if it were to be a guy that returned the ring, ladies will be like ,’CHEAT, AFTER DATING FOR THREE YEARS YOU ARE SETTLING WITH SOMEONE YOU THINK IS BETTER’. Let’s try to be rational at times. RIP

  99. DAT MAN IS AN ANIMAL BIG OME AT DAT.APE HE IS. SHE NO TRY? GUY NO GO FIT DATE ME FOR THREE YRS AND U NO TALK ABOUT MARRIAGE MY DEAR NO BE DO OR DIE STUFF OOO WIT SPEED I GO FIND D MOVING CAR BEFORE I GO ENTER KEKE WEY PERSON GO D PUSH FOR BACK BEFORE MOVING. BUT IF I HAPPEND TO BE D GIRL I WILL COME BACK AND TAKE HIM WIT ME JUST TO BALANCE D MATHIMATICS HE STARTED.

  108. I dnt need any interpretaion 4 dis wicked man action dis is one of d reason d girl return d ring to u.she see d devil in u early n how hot tampered u could be.RIP GIRL GOD WIL PUNISH HIM 4 U O

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