Joanne Marie Connelly

Hidden Scars of a Precious Birthright Joanne Marie Connelly

It was the late 1970s, and Joanne Connelly was a recent high school graduate working at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Raised on a steady diet of Disney films and fairytales, the young woman was eagerly waiting for a prince to come into her life.



Judas Montejo was a radiology resident from Colombia who arrived to study at the hospital on a temporary visa. He was attractive, with a boyish charm and a Latin American accent that set hearts fluttering along the hospital corridors. When he set his sights on Joanne, she fell for him quickly. He took her to visit his parents in Bogotá, Colombia, and eventually the two married.



Slowly, Judas's true motives became clear. A clinically diagnosed malignant narcissist, Judas was interested in one thing-the US citizenship he could secure through marriage. He would turn Joanne's fairy-tale life into a nightmare, eventually abducting their child and leaving her, alone and terrified, amid the violence of the Colombian drug wars.



Based on true events in Connelly's own life, Hidden Scars of a Precious Birthright is a tale of one woman's struggle to reclaim her child and her rights in a foreign land-and a testimony to resilience and unwavering faith.