The brutal torture of Jorgia Forbes: How violent kidnapping of pregnant mom by friend led to loss of baby
QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA: A woman who was three months pregnant when she was kidnapped and bashed around by her abductors believes the terrifying ordeal caused her baby to be born prematurely and later die from a bleed on the brain.
Jorgia Forbes welcomed her baby girl Hope into the world in August 2020, four months after she was held captive for nine hours after being abducted by thugs and held at a Gold Unit apartment complex in Queensland. The embattled mother was held at knifepoint, dragged over fences, and stripped after the trio accused her of stealing drugs. She jumped out of a moving vehicle at one point during the struggle, but was chased and dragged back in when bystanders called the police. Doctors would later reveal the heartbreaking news that they found a bleed on Hope's brain, which meant she had no chance of survival without being permanently hooked to a life-support machine.
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"I literally held her in my arms until she turned blue and died," Forbes told Daily Mail Australia. "It was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt, I honestly would not wish it upon my worst enemy."
The devastated mother, 27, said the ordeal began after she agreed to help one of her attackers, Bodie John Collins, who had been kicked out of his residence and so she organized accommodation for him at the Aloha Apartments in Surfers Paradise.
Forbes knew Colins from buying marijuana and even helped him move to the new space. However, Collins kept calling her after she headed home and asked if they could meet as he "wanted to hang out" with her. When Forbes went downstairs, she said her other attacker, Patutahora Hakaria, "jumped out of the bushes with a knife." She recounted, "I had no idea what was going on, or who he was. He was saying to me, "don't f***ing say anything" and had a knife to my throat. He dragged me across the road and threw me in the backseat, where Bodie was and in the front seat was Grace Edmonds, [Hakaria's] girlfriend."
As soon as the group drove off, Forbes' "first instinct was to jump out of the car" and so she opened the door and somehow managed to roll out. "I knew I couldn't just jump out on my feet as I would have broken something, I knew what I had to do to save my life," she said. But Collins and Hakaria eventually tacked her and dragged her back into the car as bystanders realized something was wrong and alerted the authorities.
Forbes was taken to Collin's new apartment, where she was tied up, accused of stealing drugs and threatened with death. The group, however, dragged her to a different place after hearing police sirens. This prompted a police chase that saw Forbes being dragged over fences and forced into a rideshare car. She said Hakaria held her at knifepoint as they tried to evade the police. She even heard police dogs and sirens searching for her. "We were hiding in bushes, I was thrown over high fences - the sniffer dogs were looking for my scent," she said.
The perps shoved her into a rideshare car but were forced to get out and walk the rest of the way. "I could hear the police, I could almost see them, I heard the sirens, I saw the flashing lights," she said. "We went through all the backways, around apartments."
The pregnant woman remembered being forced to climb the high concrete wall of a patio when they finally reached the property around midnight. She was then forced by Collins into a very hot shower, saying it would get rid of her scent and ward off police dogs.
"He undressed me and scrubbed me, I had blood everywhere, bruised and he scrubbed the gravel out of my wounds with a loofah," she recalled. "I was in so much pain, everything burned." Forbes was later offered drugs and she fell asleep, praying and thinking of her older daughter.
Authorities eventually arrived at the property at 6.30 am. "It was the biggest relief of my life," she said, recalling how she woke up to officers picking her up off the floor. "It was a miracle," she remarked.
Forbes revealed that her unborn child was healthy before the horrifying abduction, but developed issues later as scans suggested. The grieving mother believes Hope died due to the extreme trauma she sustained during the abduction when her head was smashed into concrete and she was left battered and bruised with "blood everywhere." She continued, "The trauma I endured, as a mother's instinct, I believe it had something to do with Hope's death."
Addressing the Southport District Court on Monday, July 25, Forbes said, "I remember begging for my life, my unborn child's life, praying for the police to find me before they killed me. The people who did this showed no mercy, several times they were going to kill me." Authorities later revealed how they tracked down Forbes by employing CCTV footage, sniffer dogs, and drones after receiving reports about her abduction.
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Last week, Judge Jodie Wooldridge sentenced Collins to three years in prison with a parole date of April 2, 2023. It's worth noting that he has already served 114 days in pre-sentence custody, and now Forbes is livid with the justice system. "I felt absolutely devastated, heartbroken, and disgusted with the justice system - the whole thing was an absolute disgrace," the grieving mum said of the verdict.
"Such a disgraceful outcome for such a horrific crime. The last two years of my life have been a living hell, while [Collin's life] seems to be great - the justice system has a lot to answer for," she added. Hakaria and Edmonds were jailed last year for five years and three years respectively. Forbes admitted she had been on and off drugs in the past, but has been totally clean in recent months.