Her eerie words from 16 years ago were read out in the Brampton courtroom where Malena Morales’s husband now stands trial for killing her.
“You can imagine Henry is behaving like a saint,” she wrote to her family in Ecuador, “but I know that any moment, a bomb is going to go off and I want to be prepared so he doesn’t try to take my children.”
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The 31-year-old mother told her family and friends that she wanted out of her marriage.
At the beginning of 2006, she and her two sons had gone to stay with her stepbrother Freddy Alcivar in Ecuador with tentative plans to move there as a family. But shortly after Henry joined them, she filed a police report claiming he had thrown her on the sofa and tried to choke her during an argument.
Alcivar told Henry to leave his house and go back to Brampton. Malena eventually returned as well, he said, at the urging of their mother in Canada and also because he said her husband was threatening to take away their kids.
Little had improved, court heard.
In June 2006, Charline Coulardeau began a three-month internship at Finica Foods in Mississauga where Malena worked and they quickly became confidants.
“She told me she didn’t love him anymore and she was not really happy,” she testified over Zoom from her home in France. “She told me one day she was afraid, that he punched the wall close to her face and she was afraid he would hit her, but he didn’t.”
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MANDEL: She complained her husband tried to choke her. Four months later, she was found strangled
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MANDEL: Dad killed mom and then took kids to play mini golf, Crown alleges
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WARMINGTON: Brampton man accused in wife's '06 murder returned from Mexico
Malena’s cold body was discovered by Peel Regional Police in her bed on July 13, 2006 — Crown attorney Brian McGuire has told the jury that a pathologist will tell them the young mother died of strangulation and suffered five broken ribs.
Their oldest son Henry Jr. , 10 at the time, testified to hearing an argument in his parents’ bedroom on the evening of July 11 and his mother begging him for help. He said his father reassured him that everything was fine and took the two boys out to play mini golf and have pizza.
The next day, Henry dropped the boys at his brother’s house and wasn’t heard from again until he was located in Mexico 14 years later and returned to Canada. He’s pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Months before her death, court heard Malena had moved into a Brampton apartment with her sons but was upset when Henry moved in as well. She even called Peel Regional Police but was told there was nothing they could do because his name was also on the lease.
So she set about ending the marriage and asked her family in Ecuador to mail her the police report she had filed against her husband.
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Malena later followed up with an email so buoyant and hopeful that hearing it again all these years later left her stepbrother wiping away tears.
“Having gone to Ecuador was very good for me,” she wrote, thanking Alcivar for all his support. “Though it had seemed that I had lost the battle for awhile, now I realize that I gained strength and ground to win the war.
“My life is getting organized again now that I am working, I have more strength and feel more self-confident and apparently there’s a certain person who doesn’t like that.
“Yesterday I applied for the divorce and on Monday I will sign some papers. It takes one year from then to be finalized,” she wrote. “Hopefully I’ll be back soon. Thanks for everything.”
Two weeks later, she was dead.
mmandel@postmedia.com