Josie: How I found love after attack
AWOMAN who survived a horrific attack in which her mother and sister died has spoken about finding love.
Josie Russell, who was nine at the time of the murders, made a miraculous recovery after the family were attacked with a hammer by Michael Stone as they walked home along a quiet country lane in Kent in July 1996.
Her mother Lin, sister Megan and their dog Lucy died at the scene, but emergency workers found a faint pulse when they checked Josie.
Her miraculous survival and recovery in the face of catastrophic injuries has warmed people’s hearts for more than two decades.
Josie and her father, Shaun, moved to Gwynedd in the aftermath of the murders and 22 years on she works as a textile artist and is engaged to her boyfriend of 13 years Iwan Griffith.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine yesterday, Josie said her fiance knew nothing about her when they met in Caernarfon in December 2005.
She told the presenter: “I don’t remember very much. We didn’t really talk about anything. We just carried on with life. We went out and did normal teenage stuff. I’m not a victim, I’m not a survivor, I’m just me.”
The couple got engaged at Christmas 2016, but Josie said they have no firm plans for a wedding day yet.
She said: “At the moment we’re just happy being engaged. Just one day when we’re less busy maybe.
“I’ve just got to get on with life and just carry on. I love my job, it’s all fine.”
The couple now live in the house that Josie moved to after the attack and they are in the process of putting their own stamp on it.
She told Lorraine: “I feel like I’ve always lived in that house. We’re just making it how we wanted it to be now, a little bit more updated, because it’s a very old house.”
At the time of her engagement , she said: “It was on Christmas morning, Iwan gave me chocolates and said, ‘Sorry, I didn’t get you much’. Then he produced the ring – a diamond solitaire – and said: ‘Happy Christmas’.
“He did offer to get down on one knee and propose, but I told him he didn’t have to. It was a wonderful moment because Iwan is not only a wonderful man, he’s my best friend.”
Lorraine also asked how she has managed to overcome her life-changing ordeal. Josie, who works as an artist, told her: “I think just being really, really busy. My work is doing really well. That’s just making me focus on that and the future and everything.”
Michael Stone was jailed for the murders of Josie’s mother and sister in 1998, but has always protested his innocence.