Why this woman became friends with the man who stabbed her in the face and killed her best friend

THROUGH a Google search, Grace found the man who murdered her friend and stabbed her repeatedly. Now they are friends.

Lynette Grace, now 56, was brutally knifed five times in the face and torso, while visiting her best friend Eddie Bell, who was fatally stabbed. Picture: PA Real Life

A WOMAN has befriended the man who killed her best friend — after finding him on Google.

Lynette Grace, 56, has released the heart-wrenching letters between her and killer Johnny Bell, who stabbed her five times in the face as well as killing her best friend — his mother Eddie Bell.

In the letter, Johnny, who is in prison, said: “I owe you overall above else my ‘sincerest apologies’ for the pain and suffering I have caused you.

“I cannot erase nor remove the mental or physical scars that I caused you, but if you will allow me the chance to express to you my deepest sorrow I would greatly appreciate the opportunity.”

Remarkably, Bell and Lynette met up after she received the letter and the pair are now friends.

Lynette has now visited Johnny seven times in prison. Picture: PA Real Life

Johnny had brutally knifed Lynette five times in the face and torso, while she was visiting her best friend Eddie, who was fatally stabbed.

For years after the 1991 attack, Lynette buried what happened to her and Eddie deep in her psyche.

But in 2011, after telling a colleague about what happened, Lynette found Johnny on Google — and decided to write to him.

Lynette is now friends with Johnny who stabbed her and her friend. Picture: PA Real Life

Lynette has visited Bell seven times in jail, and cheers him up when he’s down.

This year, Lynette even wrote to the parole board, pressing for his release.

Lynette said: “Johnny told me that I was the last person he expected to visit him in prison.

“I learned something even more important during our conversation.

“I found out that Johnny was not the monster I thought he was.”

His next parole hearing is likely to happen in 2019, and despite everything Lynette is adamant he should be freed.

Most importantly, she has been able to ask him the question that has tormented her for years: “Why did you do it?”

Bell revealed that he carried out the attack because he’d been grounded by Eddie — and caught using the phone.

Lynette added: “I have come from a place of pain to one of forgiveness.

“Not everyone understands.”

Lynette was invited to a church in Canada to speak about forgiveness, in 2013. Picture: PA Real Life

Lynette was working in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, when she was stabbed.

After her mum died suddenly in her sleep of a heart attack, Lynette travelled home to Toledo, Ohio, for the funeral — going on to Columbus, Ohio, to see Eddie, 56, who she knew from church, a few days later.

Lynette recalled: “She was like a mother to me. We were so close.

“We were in her kitchen eating her famous red velvet cake and chatting, when I went upstairs for a sleep.”

At around 6am the next day, Lynette was woken by her friend screaming: “No, Johnny.”

She said: “I went downstairs and asked Johnny, who was then 16, what the noise was.

“I asked if his mother had suffered a bad dream. He said yes.”

Then, in the basement, Lynette saw something she’d never forget.

She added: “Eddie was there, lying in a pool of blood, I turned to Johnny and he stabbed me five times, in the face and body.”

Terrified, she ran into the street, frantically banging on neighbours’ doors.

Lynette remembered: “I was weirdly calm. I felt like God was with me. He was protecting me. He was there. I could actually hear his voice.”

Taken to Grant Medical Center in Columbus, she underwent hours of surgery and was later told she that Eddie had died.

The only photo Lynette has of her friend Eddie Bell. Picture: PA Real Life

Lynette said: “At first I didn’t believe it. But gradually it sank in. I was so sad. I missed her. I was angry.”

Around a year later, Bell pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and felonious assault and was jailed for 40 years.

In the following years, Lynette moved back to Ohio and obtained a degree in legal studies from the state’s Columbus University.

She continued: “In the back of my mind I always wondered what happened to him, but I never pursued it.”

Then, at work in 2011, she found him — via Google.

She added: “I wrote to him and a month later I received a response, he’d written a page, an entire letter.

“He said how sorry he was.”

The pair then met up in Ross Jail, Ohio, a few months later.

Lynette said: “He was crying, so I told him a joke I’d heard in church. He laughed.

“Then he asked if I could forgive him.

“I realised in that instant that I could. It was like a burden had been lifted off me. I’d changed a life.”