Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Kuřim Case - Part 2

Transcript

The Kuřim Case - Part 2 · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In the last episode, we began discussing the extensive story
0:11
Speaker 1: known as the Curum Case, so be sure to check
0:13
Speaker 1: out part one of that story before listening to today's
0:16
Speaker 1: part two. With that being said, my name's Ben.
0:21
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
0:24
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast. The following material, intended for matial
0:34
Speaker 1: audience listener discretion is advised. Are you ready for the
0:56
Speaker 1: rest of the case, Let's do it?
0:59
Speaker 2: I think so.
1:00
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people were a little bit
1:02
Speaker 1: upset that we left off where we did.
1:04
Speaker 2: I think, well, honestly, the last few Part two is
1:06
Speaker 2: people have been like, okay, like pretty chill about it.
1:08
Speaker 2: But yeah, this one, people were like, you drop part
1:11
Speaker 2: two right now.
1:14
Speaker 1: Don't worry. The weight will be worth it. I've got
1:18
Speaker 1: a lot to go over, so we'll be talking about it,
1:20
Speaker 1: and of course, I mean, first and foremost, I do
1:22
Speaker 1: have a recap to do. But even before that, I
1:25
Speaker 1: have some amazing patrons to think. So people who signed
1:28
Speaker 1: up over in Patreon this week include Jenna McCreery, Alicia Kimmitt,
1:33
Speaker 1: Jay Hernandez, Maddie Wade, and Samantha Schroeder. So thank you
1:37
Speaker 1: very much. To you amazing people for signing up and
1:39
Speaker 1: supporting our show. We appreciate you, we do.
1:42
Speaker 2: You're the best. You are the best, the bestest of
1:44
Speaker 2: the best.
1:45
Speaker 1: And with that being said, you ready for the recap?
1:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do need a good recap.
1:51
Speaker 1: I do need a good recap. Okay. So before police
1:54
Speaker 1: ever found Andre in that cupboard, the situation inside the
1:57
Speaker 1: Morova family's home had been spiral for years. It started
2:01
Speaker 1: when Clara took in a girl she believed was a
2:04
Speaker 1: traumatized thirteen year old girl named Anka, not realizing that
2:08
Speaker 1: this teenager was actually a grown woman named Barbara Skerlova
2:11
Speaker 1: pretending to be a child. So, with help from fake
2:14
Speaker 1: messages written by a so called doctor, Clara slowly isolated
2:19
Speaker 1: her sons and began following harmful instructions that pushed her
2:23
Speaker 1: towards harsher discipline. Things escalated further at a remote cottage,
2:27
Speaker 1: where they orchestrated months of structured abuse, confinement, and psychological
2:32
Speaker 1: manipulation against both of her two young boys. When the
2:36
Speaker 1: family moved back to Kurum, Andre was kept in a
2:38
Speaker 1: locked cupboard under the stairs and watched through a hidden
2:41
Speaker 1: security camera. Now that camera's signal accidentally leaked and appeared
2:46
Speaker 1: on a neighbor's baby monitor, leading police to the house,
2:50
Speaker 1: rescuing the boys, arresting the adults, and unknowingly placing Barbara,
2:55
Speaker 1: which was you know, Anika, this child into protective care
3:00
Speaker 1: as if she were just another one of the child
3:03
Speaker 1: victims of the home. And that is where we left off. Okay,
3:08
Speaker 1: ring a bell, you got it, it does.
3:10
Speaker 2: Yeah that it all came flooding back to me in
3:15
Speaker 2: not a good way, fair, because that was shit.
3:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. So, when eight year old Andre and
3:22
Speaker 1: ten year old Jacob were finally pulled from the Minerva home,
3:25
Speaker 1: authorities transferred them, along with Anica, to a child's shelter
3:30
Speaker 1: in Bruno. Staff, of course, assumed they were dealing with
3:33
Speaker 1: three different traumatized miners from the same household, each requiring
3:38
Speaker 1: urgent psychological attension, well and physical attention too. And Andrea, well,
3:43
Speaker 1: he was in the worst condition. His weight, injuries, and
3:46
Speaker 1: mental state made it clear he had lived in confinement
3:49
Speaker 1: for far longer than anyone initially realized. Within a day,
3:54
Speaker 1: he began showing symptoms of acute stress, like panic attacks,
3:57
Speaker 1: uncontrollable shaking, and dissociation. Doctors moved him back into the
4:02
Speaker 1: hospital for stabilization.
4:04
Speaker 2: That poor boy right.
4:06
Speaker 1: Now, Jacob, being older, physically stronger, and not singled out
4:10
Speaker 1: like his younger brother, was coped a little more quietly.
4:13
Speaker 1: He answered staff questions in short, flat sentences and avoided
4:16
Speaker 1: eye contact. The first evening, he lingered in the doorway
4:21
Speaker 1: of every single room in that facility before ever stepping
4:24
Speaker 1: beyond the threshold inside of a room. It was an
4:27
Speaker 1: instinct that was left over from months of not knowing
4:30
Speaker 1: what was waiting behind a door in the room if
4:32
Speaker 1: he enters, what's going to be in their waiting form?
4:34
Speaker 1: What punishment, what abuse? That sort of thing?
4:36
Speaker 2: Oh?
4:37
Speaker 1: Will he even be locked in? Who knows? Oh?
4:39
Speaker 2: Man?
4:40
Speaker 1: Okay, So it was a lingering form of trauma like
4:42
Speaker 1: a PTSD almost like just entering a room even that people.
4:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, you wouldn't even think like anyone else, You wouldn't
4:49
Speaker 2: think twice about that, correct? But and then he literally
4:52
Speaker 2: a doorway is like a pause for him exactly. Oh. Now.
4:57
Speaker 1: Anica meanwhile behaved exactly as one would expect from a
5:00
Speaker 1: frightened teenage girl rescued from a chaotic home. She spoke softly,
5:04
Speaker 1: kept to herself, and asked repeatedly whether Clara was angry
5:08
Speaker 1: with her. Now Clara is the mother of the two boys.
5:12
Speaker 1: Staff interpreted this as attachment trauma. She was supposedly the
5:15
Speaker 1: adopted daughter, right, so they did what they could to
5:19
Speaker 1: encourage her, you know, basically rest and reassure that she's safe.
5:24
Speaker 1: Nothing appeared unusual, But the next night the shelter staff
5:28
Speaker 1: began noticing some inconsistencies. Anica didn't act like a typical
5:33
Speaker 1: thirteen year old, not in posture, not in her conversational patterns,
5:37
Speaker 1: not even in the way she moved around the room.
5:39
Speaker 1: When asked about school or hobbies, she deflected or claimed
5:43
Speaker 1: she couldn't remember. Her emotional responses didn't quite match the
5:46
Speaker 1: situations she was in, and while her file indicated she
5:50
Speaker 1: was frail and ill, she managed to climb onto her
5:53
Speaker 1: bunk bed with surprising ease. Still, none of these details
5:57
Speaker 1: were alarming enough on their own. Staff simply know them
6:00
Speaker 1: for psychologists to review in the morning. But the morning, well,
6:04
Speaker 1: the reviews they never came, because during the shelter's nightly rounds,
6:08
Speaker 1: workers checked every room. Jacob slept curled near the wall
6:12
Speaker 1: as usual, his breathing shallow and uneasy, but the bed
6:16
Speaker 1: beside him Anica's. It was empty, and a window in
6:20
Speaker 1: the room stood wide open. It wasn't a window a
6:24
Speaker 1: child could open alone. It was heavy, stiff, and fitted
6:27
Speaker 1: with a catch that required some significant strength to lift it.
6:31
Speaker 1: Every door was locked, the building was under supervision, Yet
6:35
Speaker 1: Onnica still managed to disappear without waking anyone. So, considering
6:40
Speaker 1: the situation, authorities launched an immediate search, assuming she'd had
6:44
Speaker 1: actually been kidnapped by someone connected to the abuse case,
6:49
Speaker 1: since it must have been an adult who'd opened the
6:51
Speaker 1: window to get her out.
6:53
Speaker 2: See, I'm just on the edge of my seat, like,
6:56
Speaker 2: how are they going to They gotta figure this out
6:58
Speaker 2: sooner or later, because this is it's just its part
7:02
Speaker 2: just pisses me off.
7:03
Speaker 1: It's a wild ride through all this coercion masquerading and
7:09
Speaker 1: basically like horror cause play, it's not play, but you
7:14
Speaker 1: know what I mean, it's a wild ride. So yeah,
7:17
Speaker 1: just buckle up.
7:18
Speaker 2: Who the fuck does she think she is? Basically is
7:20
Speaker 2: all that is going through my mind.
7:22
Speaker 1: No kidding. So the working theory was that a person
7:26
Speaker 1: involved in the whole cottage situation or the Curum house
7:29
Speaker 1: had broken in to remove her, possibly fearing that she
7:32
Speaker 1: might talk and become a witness in later trials. Police
7:37
Speaker 1: patrolled bus stations and searched wooded areas. A helicopter with
7:41
Speaker 1: thermal imaging even swept nearby forests. Within twenty four hours,
7:45
Speaker 1: national media picked up the story. There was a possible
7:48
Speaker 1: missing teenage girl out there who was frail, sick, and
7:51
Speaker 1: she was possibly abducted by the same network of individuals
7:56
Speaker 1: that had harmed these two young boys. It was an
7:59
Speaker 1: all out search. But then in the thick of it all,
8:03
Speaker 1: something happened. Letters arrived. Three handwritten envelopes appeared in different locations,
8:11
Speaker 1: the bernou On Budsman Office, a national newspaper, and the
8:15
Speaker 1: office of the President of the Czech Republic. Each contained
8:19
Speaker 1: the same nine page message, written in an oddly formal
8:23
Speaker 1: style and signed Onika Merova at the end the letters,
8:29
Speaker 1: though I couldn't find exact copies online of exactly what
8:33
Speaker 1: they said, but I did find information on you know,
8:35
Speaker 1: summing it up, The letters insisted that Clara was a
8:39
Speaker 1: loving mother who had been simply misunderstood. They also claimed
8:43
Speaker 1: that Andre had lied to save himself and had often
8:47
Speaker 1: hurt her Onica when no one was watching. Onnica pleaded
8:52
Speaker 1: in the letters for forgiveness on Clara's behalf and said
8:56
Speaker 1: that she had run away because she couldn't bear to
8:58
Speaker 1: see her mother for it all. Experts who examined the
9:03
Speaker 1: letters immediately doubted that they came from a child. The
9:08
Speaker 1: well formed sentences, the phrasing and structure of it all
9:11
Speaker 1: suggested an adult with a high degree of emotional awareness
9:15
Speaker 1: was actually the one behind them. So they didn't believe
9:19
Speaker 1: this was actually written by Anica. They believed it was
9:22
Speaker 1: written by whoever had taken her.
9:24
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I just have to say to anyone who
9:28
Speaker 2: saw what kind of state the one boy was in
9:32
Speaker 2: would know that he wasn't like, really capable of hurting
9:35
Speaker 2: anyone else.
9:36
Speaker 1: Well, exactly why they think it's coming from one of
9:38
Speaker 1: the adults, right, So it's an adult lying. They don't
9:41
Speaker 1: think this is actually Honica's writing. So the structure, the
9:44
Speaker 1: way it's written, it doesn't sound like a child because
9:47
Speaker 1: they at this point they.
9:48
Speaker 2: Still think still think she's a child.
9:49
Speaker 1: They still think she's a child, So they think, okay, well,
9:51
Speaker 1: Honica clearly didn't write this. This boy is clearly a victim,
9:55
Speaker 1: so it's clearly lying it's someone who's taken her, who's
9:58
Speaker 1: written this framing and trying to you know, save their
10:01
Speaker 1: own skin. Okay, So like the biggest clue of it all, honestly,
10:06
Speaker 1: was that tone. It didn't sound like a frightened girl.
10:09
Speaker 1: It was yeah, okay, something else is going on here.
10:12
Speaker 1: Someone trying to manage a narrative, trying to manipulate the situation.
10:16
Speaker 1: And most likely that would be yeah, an adult, well.
10:19
Speaker 2: Someone walking into this case too. It would sure be
10:22
Speaker 2: quite confusing for them, hey, Like it just would make
10:25
Speaker 2: no sense. Yeah, and the different ways that you would
10:28
Speaker 2: be going and stuff. For us sitting here's like, well,
10:30
Speaker 2: she's a child, but you would just have no idea.
10:34
Speaker 2: It would be quite a hard case to solve.
10:37
Speaker 1: I feel like, literally the next thing I've written is
10:39
Speaker 1: police didn't really know what to make of it.
10:41
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, yeah.
10:43
Speaker 1: All they knew though, like honestly, is that they needed
10:45
Speaker 1: to find her. That's the biggest thing. They don't know
10:47
Speaker 1: really what the hell to make of these letters. They're confusing,
10:51
Speaker 1: and they're just like, Okay, well she's still out there,
10:53
Speaker 1: and in their mind she's still a victim, so they
10:55
Speaker 1: need to keep pursuing and looking so the search for
10:58
Speaker 1: Anica intensified as days passed with outsidings. Posters were spread
11:03
Speaker 1: across Bruno and police they combed through forests and apartments
11:06
Speaker 1: linked to the Merova family, trying to see if they
11:09
Speaker 1: could find any clue of her. News anchors continued to
11:12
Speaker 1: describe her as a fragile, thirteen year old girl in
11:14
Speaker 1: need of medical care, likely terrified in hiding after witnessing
11:18
Speaker 1: the abuse of her brothers. But inside the children's shelter,
11:21
Speaker 1: forensic teams were examining the room Anica had stayed in.
11:25
Speaker 1: They expected to find evidence of whoever had taken her.
11:28
Speaker 1: That's what they were looking for, you know, fingerprints on
11:30
Speaker 1: the windowsill, footprints, traces of anything. But instead they found
11:34
Speaker 1: something odd, something stranger, something they didn't expect to find.
11:39
Speaker 1: DNA swabbed from the surfaces around the bed did not
11:43
Speaker 1: match Clara or Katerina or any staff member either, and
11:48
Speaker 1: it didn't match Anica, whose samples they had on file
11:51
Speaker 1: from the adoption process. So this DNA was of someone
11:56
Speaker 1: they had no clue who it would be. What this
11:59
Speaker 1: DNA did match, at least though was partially, was a
12:03
Speaker 1: man named Han Scurl. Now remember last episode in part one,
12:08
Speaker 1: during the whole cottage time, I did mention that there
12:11
Speaker 1: were adults, quote unquote who took part in the abuse.
12:14
Speaker 1: You remember that. Yeah, so there were more than just
12:18
Speaker 1: the two sisters and the onnica which Barbara. There was
12:22
Speaker 1: more than that. Hence why I said the adults end. Okay,
12:26
Speaker 1: I'll be getting into them in this part.
12:28
Speaker 2: Too, Okay, because things are kind of coming together. Because
12:31
Speaker 2: even when you were talking about anaka being taken and
12:34
Speaker 2: you were saying, like the network of people, and I
12:36
Speaker 2: was like, who else was involved in this shit? But okay,
12:39
Speaker 2: here we go.
12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this was the DNA that partially matched Han
12:45
Speaker 1: Skirl he was arrested in the connection with that cottage abuse.
12:49
Speaker 1: And now the DNA, as I mentioned, it's a partial match.
12:52
Speaker 1: But the thing is, it wasn't his. It was only
12:56
Speaker 1: a partial match, so it means that it belongs to
13:00
Speaker 1: a close relative, and in this case, it was a
13:02
Speaker 1: close female relative and the only one that fit was
13:07
Speaker 1: his older sister, Barbara Scarlova.
13:11
Speaker 2: What the shit? This was already freaking confusing and messed up.
13:16
Speaker 1: It is a little bit, which is exactly why I
13:18
Speaker 1: brought this into part two, because it needs that time
13:21
Speaker 1: to explain. There was a So Barbara is a thirty
13:24
Speaker 1: something year a woman that we already know, and she
13:26
Speaker 1: had worked at Katerina's youth center for years. So when
13:31
Speaker 1: she initially was there as this child that Katerina brought
13:34
Speaker 1: home to her sister Clara, right as this you know,
13:37
Speaker 1: frail child, she was actually working there. She had taught
13:41
Speaker 1: at this youth center. Barbara had attended staff functions, she
13:45
Speaker 1: had walked the hallways as an adult woman there, not
13:48
Speaker 1: initially as a child. Now, when staff from that Bruno
13:53
Speaker 1: youth center looked at the photograph that the media were
13:55
Speaker 1: circulating as Anica, that's when the stars started to align.
14:00
Speaker 1: They realized, wait, that's Barbara. They realized they hadn't recognized
14:06
Speaker 1: her at first because when she was presenting herself as
14:09
Speaker 1: a child at this place, she had this downward gaze glasses,
14:13
Speaker 1: you know, she was often with her soft posture, her
14:16
Speaker 1: now shaved head, oversized clothes, and it all was presenting
14:20
Speaker 1: this Onnica and they never looked close enough to see Barbara.
14:24
Speaker 1: But now that they had the photo in front of them,
14:27
Speaker 1: they realized, that's that's Barbara. She looked younger, thinner, and
14:31
Speaker 1: styled different, Yes, and pasted as a teenager. But as
14:34
Speaker 1: one employee remembered, that's not a girl, quote, that's Barbara,
14:39
Speaker 1: and they called police immediately.
14:41
Speaker 2: Okay, is that not super odd that she would be
14:44
Speaker 2: doing this at this same center? You think that you
14:47
Speaker 2: would pick a center you didn't also had previously worked at,
14:51
Speaker 2: because the chances of someone recognizing you and stuff you
14:54
Speaker 2: know or higher. You're right, it's amazing she got away
14:57
Speaker 2: with it, really.
14:58
Speaker 1: Definitely, But I don't know if she really walked the
15:01
Speaker 1: halls as a child too much. It was more so
15:04
Speaker 1: some of the people working there that she was presenting to. Okay,
15:09
Speaker 1: So I'm sure she was there at times, yes, and
15:11
Speaker 1: she made herself very scarce to some of these other employees,
15:14
Speaker 1: but it was targeting certain individuals, like Katerina for example.
15:19
Speaker 2: Hmm, okay.
15:20
Speaker 1: Well, so the revelation hit the case like an absolute shockwave.
15:25
Speaker 1: It was a sudden, clear moment that the child they've
15:28
Speaker 1: been trying to adopt, protect and search for had never
15:32
Speaker 1: actually been a child at all, and the focus of
15:36
Speaker 1: the investigation shifted as they began piecing together what they
15:39
Speaker 1: could of Barbara's life now that they had her name.
15:43
Speaker 1: So she Barbara had struggled with physical and developmental conditions
15:47
Speaker 1: since childhood, which kept her stature small and her features
15:51
Speaker 1: quite youthful. She grew up in a fractured home with
15:54
Speaker 1: an alcoholic mother and an absent father deeply involved infringed
15:58
Speaker 1: spiritual groups to cults. As she entered adulthood, she began
16:03
Speaker 1: drifting between identities, sometimes appearing in psychiatric facilities as a
16:06
Speaker 1: runaway team, other times inserting herself into families she had
16:10
Speaker 1: convinced to care for her. Her ability to mimic adolescent
16:14
Speaker 1: behavior wasn't perfect, I want to mention that, but it
16:18
Speaker 1: was good enough to work. She acted timid around authority figures,
16:22
Speaker 1: hunched her shoulders as she wore oversized children's clothes, and
16:25
Speaker 1: adopted the mannerisms of kids trying not to upset adults.
16:29
Speaker 1: Combined with her naturally small frame, it was enough to
16:32
Speaker 1: fool teachers, doctors, social workers, and experienced psychologists as well. Honestly,
16:39
Speaker 1: anyone who didn't examine her too closely. You know, maybe
16:43
Speaker 1: those doctors were just trying to get the session done.
16:45
Speaker 1: The psychologists assuming it's a child and treating her like
16:49
Speaker 1: a child and not really thinking outside the box.
16:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, but also in those situations, why I don't blame
16:59
Speaker 2: them because why would exactly why would you be sitting
17:01
Speaker 2: there and be questioning if this person is actually a child.
17:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you look at her as an adult,
17:08
Speaker 1: I'm sure each one of them would have found it
17:10
Speaker 1: out relatively fast. But why would.
17:14
Speaker 2: You You're looking at her other issues, like bigger issues. Really,
17:18
Speaker 2: how can I try to solve these for her? Not like,
17:21
Speaker 2: holy shit, this isn't a kid.
17:23
Speaker 1: Definitely. So, with help from her brother Keyan and Katerina Morova,
17:28
Speaker 1: she built this Anica persona from the ground up. The
17:32
Speaker 1: tragic backstory, the sickly appearance, the carefully timed tears, all
17:37
Speaker 1: of it reinforced by this mysterious doctor, whose messages, by
17:41
Speaker 1: the way, were later traced back to email accounts controlled
17:45
Speaker 1: by Katina Clara's sister.
17:49
Speaker 2: Wholely shit.
17:52
Speaker 1: So, in short, Katerina was one of the puppet masters
17:58
Speaker 1: behind this whole thing.
18:00
Speaker 2: You know, this that crossed my mind. I was like,
18:02
Speaker 2: I kept questioning if the sister was involved, but I
18:04
Speaker 2: was like, no, no, there's no way, but holy frick,
18:08
Speaker 2: she is an evil monster, Like she's doing this to
18:11
Speaker 2: her sister and her freaking nephews then correct, Okay, that
18:16
Speaker 2: is okay, it just keeps going with the messed up shit.
18:21
Speaker 1: In this case, it does because guess what, even the
18:24
Speaker 1: adoption exam member from part one, when Anica went into
18:29
Speaker 1: you know, had her birth certificate, age ass asked all
18:32
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. They exam and there was an
18:34
Speaker 1: actual child who filled in for her against Clara being
18:37
Speaker 1: aware of it well during that exam, which seemed like
18:40
Speaker 1: solid proof of her age and all that, it was
18:43
Speaker 1: of course an illusion. The girl who underwent the X
18:46
Speaker 1: rays the DNA testing was not Barbara. It was a
18:49
Speaker 1: friend's daughter, coach styled and presented as Anica for one afternoon,
18:53
Speaker 1: and doctors had no reason to spect. They were evaluating
18:56
Speaker 1: an impostor, which was this girl that Katerina helped bring in.
19:04
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, yeah, I am just shocked here.
19:09
Speaker 1: Every official document issued afterwards, the birth certificate, adoption approval,
19:14
Speaker 1: legal identity, it all sat on the foundation of this fraud.
19:18
Speaker 1: And when the system finally started to crack, when the
19:21
Speaker 1: boys were rescued at the house and cureum, when it
19:23
Speaker 1: was rated, Barbara did exactly what she had done in
19:26
Speaker 1: the past. She ran and she vanished.
19:31
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm I have like serious questions.
19:34
Speaker 1: Okay, shoot, what do you got?
19:36
Speaker 2: I mean, you're probably gonna answer them, But what the
19:37
Speaker 2: fuck that's your question? What the fuck that is a
19:41
Speaker 2: that is a pretty good question. Actually, what was the
19:45
Speaker 2: sister gaining from this? I honestly is she just an evil,
19:50
Speaker 2: evil person?
19:53
Speaker 1: I don't have a solid answer for it. The best
19:58
Speaker 1: thing that I can have to answer that for you
20:01
Speaker 1: is its cult like mentality and thought process behind it.
20:05
Speaker 1: That's really what it boils down to. I have a
20:08
Speaker 1: little bit of some details that we might discuss that
20:10
Speaker 1: might help voute your thought process, but there's not really
20:13
Speaker 1: a solid foundation for that answer.
20:16
Speaker 2: So really, I guess in a way, Clara is also
20:19
Speaker 2: a victim here in.
20:20
Speaker 1: A sense, yes, definitely, Yeah.
20:23
Speaker 2: Not near to the extent that her boys are, but
20:25
Speaker 2: like to a degree.
20:27
Speaker 1: To a degree. But she is also very much so
20:32
Speaker 1: responsible still, So she was victimized, but she was also
20:36
Speaker 1: perpetuating the abuse and is not innocent.
20:40
Speaker 2: No oh, no, one hundred percent nod.
20:43
Speaker 1: So, after the escape from the children's shelter, Barbara slipped
20:47
Speaker 1: across the border, first heading east, then heading quietly north,
20:50
Speaker 1: moving through Europe with the ease of someone who lived
20:52
Speaker 1: in the shadows for honestly most or life like, almost
20:55
Speaker 1: like she knew what she was doing. Her first confirmed
20:58
Speaker 1: appearance came in June of two thousands at the Czech
21:01
Speaker 1: embassy in Copenhagen. She walked in with her father, a lawyer,
21:05
Speaker 1: and two journalists, an odd entourage honestly for someone who's
21:09
Speaker 1: in hiding and terrified of the public eye. But I
21:12
Speaker 1: digress regardless. She presented identification in the name of Barbara
21:17
Speaker 1: Skerlova and calmly asked embassy staff to take DNA samples,
21:21
Speaker 1: as if she were simply clearing a misunderstanding. She confirmed
21:25
Speaker 1: her identity, answered a handful of questions, then left as
21:29
Speaker 1: abruptly as she arrived. Now embassy staff didn't really know
21:33
Speaker 1: what to make of this. They were a little bit confused,
21:36
Speaker 1: and they notified the police of the incident, but when
21:40
Speaker 1: they got there it'd be too late. She was already gone.
21:43
Speaker 2: Now.
21:43
Speaker 1: Where she went next seemed almost impossible, even for her.
21:47
Speaker 1: It was by late two thousand and seven when a
21:49
Speaker 1: thirteen year old boy named Adam appeared at a school
21:52
Speaker 1: in Oslo, Norway. He was introverted and he was strange
21:57
Speaker 1: and quiet, with traits that didn't immediately stand out classroom
22:00
Speaker 1: full of awkward teenagers. Teachers noted that Adam kept his
22:04
Speaker 1: head down and rarely spoke unless spoken to. His clothes
22:06
Speaker 1: hung loose on his frame, and his hair was buzzed short.
22:10
Speaker 1: Staff members did think something was off, but there was
22:13
Speaker 1: nothing really alarming enough to trigger an investigation. To say,
22:16
Speaker 1: Some believe he looked more like a girl dressed in
22:18
Speaker 1: boy's clothes, but shrugged it off, as you know, maybe
22:21
Speaker 1: hormones or late bloomer. Who knows, there's a plethora of
22:25
Speaker 1: things that it could be. Some also thought he behaved
22:28
Speaker 1: older than his peers, but attributed it to whatever family
22:31
Speaker 1: issues he had. See not only was Adam now in
22:34
Speaker 1: this new school, but he was also in a youth
22:36
Speaker 1: foster home. What no one realized was this Adam was,
22:41
Speaker 1: of course, what you' already suspecting. Adam was a thirty
22:44
Speaker 1: three year old woman named Barbara Scarlova.
22:47
Speaker 2: So she's just doing it again.
22:48
Speaker 1: She's doing it again. She had reshaped herself over, she
22:52
Speaker 1: had gained weight, shaved her head again, and adopted the
22:54
Speaker 1: slouching posture of a teenage boy who didn't want any
22:57
Speaker 1: sort of attention, and like before, mimic the speech patterns,
23:01
Speaker 1: emotional flatness of someone withdrawn overwhelmed. And of course it worked,
23:07
Speaker 1: but her new identity began to unravel the very same
23:10
Speaker 1: way her last one did. Quietly and through small inconsistencies
23:15
Speaker 1: see Adam quote unquote struggled to answer routine questions about
23:19
Speaker 1: his past, His recollections contradicted themselves at times, and he
23:23
Speaker 1: avoided medical exams. He reacted with fear when paperwork was
23:27
Speaker 1: mentioned and when school staff contacted the address listed on
23:31
Speaker 1: its file. While more discrepancies piled up, then came the
23:35
Speaker 1: breaking point, the real Adam, who Barbara was being an
23:40
Speaker 1: impostor of. While their relatives reported the boy missing and
23:44
Speaker 1: authorities realized the teenager living in Oslo could simply not
23:49
Speaker 1: be Adam, so Norway's police acted quickly, but again they
23:56
Speaker 1: were too late. Adam realized that you know what they
24:00
Speaker 1: were running at a time, and it vanished from his
24:02
Speaker 1: foster placement and followed a trail leading back toward the
24:06
Speaker 1: Czech Republic. Meanwhile, Chech investigators confirmed what they had feared,
24:10
Speaker 1: Adam was in fact Barbara this whole time.
24:14
Speaker 2: Okay, well, where did the real Adam go. They didn't
24:17
Speaker 2: kill them, did they. No.
24:18
Speaker 1: I don't believe that had anything to do. I think
24:20
Speaker 1: it was an opening of well, here's an identity.
24:23
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
24:25
Speaker 1: Now it didn't take long before she was found shortly after, thankfully,
24:29
Speaker 1: in a rural area north of Oslo, alive, uninjured and
24:33
Speaker 1: carrying a children's book and a Teddy Bear when she
24:35
Speaker 1: was arrested.
24:36
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
24:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, the items almost looked staged, as though she was
24:40
Speaker 1: like stepping back into character for a moment when she
24:43
Speaker 1: saw the officers approaching. But thankfully it didn't fool them.
24:48
Speaker 1: Norway extradited her to the Czech Republic and the facade
24:52
Speaker 1: collapsed immediately. The girl in the adoption photo, the missing teen,
24:56
Speaker 1: the fragile child rescued from Kurum, the runaway danger, the
25:00
Speaker 1: the boy sitting quietly in the Norwegian classroom. They were
25:03
Speaker 1: all the same person, and it all pointed to her.
25:06
Speaker 1: Barbara had successfully fooled teachers, foster parents, social workers, medical staff,
25:12
Speaker 1: border authorities, crossing two countries, and more, not through magic
25:18
Speaker 1: or genius, but because she manipulated how people react to
25:23
Speaker 1: vulnerability and their kindness towards it. She knew exactly which
25:28
Speaker 1: behaviors invited sympathy, which mannerisms lowered suspicion, and how to
25:34
Speaker 1: slip into the background just long enough to avoid scrutiny.
25:40
Speaker 1: But once she was back on Czech soil, there were
25:42
Speaker 1: no more identities left to run too. Now there were
25:46
Speaker 1: a lot more names to this story than just Barbara.
25:49
Speaker 1: In fact, in total, there would be six defendants that
25:54
Speaker 1: would be in the courtroom, and once they were all
25:57
Speaker 1: in custody, investigators began sifting through years of messages, documents, emails,
26:02
Speaker 1: and testimony to understand how they were all connected and
26:06
Speaker 1: how an ordinary family spiraled into something that looked like
26:10
Speaker 1: organized madness. And the first major discovery was surprisingly simple.
26:16
Speaker 1: Doctor andre Z, the specialist Clara referred to for you know,
26:20
Speaker 1: every child rearing decision, they did not exist. As I mentioned,
26:24
Speaker 1: every email, medical instruction, all of it, the toll treatment
26:28
Speaker 1: plan had come from accounts controlled by her sister, Katerina Morova.
26:33
Speaker 1: There was no trained psychiatrists, no oncologist, no trauma expert.
26:39
Speaker 1: The all of it was simply being manipulated. The authoritative
26:44
Speaker 1: voice that Clara believed was saving Anka was nothing more
26:47
Speaker 1: than a mass created by her own family circle. Her
26:50
Speaker 1: own sister. Now, this revelation was a wild one, but
26:54
Speaker 1: it didn't answer the question everyone was asking, and the
26:56
Speaker 1: question you've already been asking why, And this is the
27:01
Speaker 1: best I have for you here, So to try and
27:03
Speaker 1: understand that, investigators turned towards the Skirl family, Barbara and
27:08
Speaker 1: her brother Yan, and specifically their father, Joseph's girl. So,
27:13
Speaker 1: Joseph had once been a leader in a boy's scouting
27:16
Speaker 1: group that blended outdoor survival with rigid spiritual doctrine. Former
27:22
Speaker 1: members later described the environment as very obsessive and punishing,
27:27
Speaker 1: framing as character building, of course, but it was saturated
27:31
Speaker 1: with fear and control. Some compared it to break them
27:35
Speaker 1: down and build them up philosophy. But whatever the case,
27:39
Speaker 1: it was extreme. Authorities were careful not to label it
27:43
Speaker 1: a cult in the legal sense, but there were clear
27:46
Speaker 1: signs of a closed belief system, strict dominance, for example,
27:51
Speaker 1: higher chys, moral absolutism, and a fixation on purifying behavior.
27:59
Speaker 1: There was all also a long history of psychological manipulation
28:03
Speaker 1: in the household that Barbara and her brother Jan had
28:06
Speaker 1: grown up in. Now, it is important to note that
28:09
Speaker 1: nothing actually tied Joseph directly to the events in Curum,
28:14
Speaker 1: but the imprint he had on the mindset that shaped
28:17
Speaker 1: his children, especially Barbara, was extremely difficult to ignore. In
28:22
Speaker 1: this case, it was the same pattern of control, secrecy,
28:26
Speaker 1: self reinvention that appeared repeatedly, which explains a fair amount
28:30
Speaker 1: of the psychology where this all stemmed from. Now, the
28:34
Speaker 1: father may not have been involved in this case, but
28:36
Speaker 1: Barbara's brother Jan was, and he, along with another woman
28:40
Speaker 1: named Hannah and another man named Jan, joined in at
28:45
Speaker 1: the cottage and in forced the so called re education
28:49
Speaker 1: with increasingly sadistic methods. Now, Hannah and this other person, Yan,
28:56
Speaker 1: both worked at the youth center where Katerina and Barbara worked,
29:01
Speaker 1: So you have four individuals working at this youth center
29:07
Speaker 1: who then created this whole story about this Onnica to
29:12
Speaker 1: be adopted by Clara and then in doctrine the whole
29:16
Speaker 1: abuse system upon her two young boys. Basically because of
29:22
Speaker 1: the whole history Barbara and Jan grew up with and
29:26
Speaker 1: their fathers Joseph cult like experiences. It's a lot to
29:31
Speaker 1: take in.
29:33
Speaker 2: That is, all of this is so unexpected to me.
29:36
Speaker 2: I Like, I knew the story was a law, but
29:39
Speaker 2: this is it's huge. It's way more than I ever respected.
29:43
Speaker 1: It's so in depth and it goes back a long time,
29:47
Speaker 1: and exactly why I can't answer that, Well, why did
29:49
Speaker 1: they do this? There is no real answer. It's just
29:53
Speaker 1: very cult life. Cult like messed up ideologies is basically
29:58
Speaker 1: what it boils down to. But there's no no real
30:00
Speaker 1: explanation of why. Jeez, sure you may have had these ideologies.
30:06
Speaker 1: Clara and Katerina might have been very susceptible from a
30:09
Speaker 1: young age for their ritualistic, very extreme spiritualistic and religious
30:15
Speaker 1: upbringings and the ideologies of grandeurism that they had as children,
30:20
Speaker 1: So they may have been susceptible to these ideas too,
30:23
Speaker 1: but there's still no full explanation.
30:27
Speaker 2: Hmm. Okay, I was sitting down here to record this today.
30:33
Speaker 2: I was not prepared for all this shit at all.
30:36
Speaker 1: Which is a reasonable response. Can't imagine that anyone really
30:40
Speaker 1: would be. Yeah, So all six of these adults that
30:43
Speaker 1: were discussing were involved and had participated in the abuse
30:48
Speaker 1: at some level, some getting giving orders of abuse, some
30:51
Speaker 1: carrying them out, some supporting the system that allowed it
30:54
Speaker 1: to continue in some shape or form. They took part. Now,
30:59
Speaker 1: whileations swirled publicly about secret sex ritual motives or coordinated networks.
31:06
Speaker 1: The court focused on what could be proven. There's a
31:09
Speaker 1: lot of you know, discussions and theories, that sort of stuff.
31:12
Speaker 1: The court needed to focus on the facts and what
31:16
Speaker 1: the evidence showed was horrifying enough without any mythmaking. Clara
31:20
Speaker 1: had been manipulated and may have been partially blinded by
31:24
Speaker 1: what had happened, but she also made choices. Katerina, on
31:28
Speaker 1: the other hand, knew full well what she was doing,
31:30
Speaker 1: as she orchestrated much of the structure, but of course
31:33
Speaker 1: she denied being responsible. By the time the trial approached,
31:37
Speaker 1: the line between delusion and manipulation, as well as cruelty
31:41
Speaker 1: honestly had blurred almost completely. But that wouldn't stop the
31:45
Speaker 1: pursuit of justice in the name of these two boys
31:48
Speaker 1: who were abused. On June seventeenth, two thousand and eight,
31:52
Speaker 1: the court room in Bruno was crowded as six defendants
31:55
Speaker 1: sat across from the judge, each responsible for a different
31:57
Speaker 1: part of a story that horrified the tire country. Clara
32:02
Speaker 1: Morova appeared exhausted from the moment she entered the room,
32:05
Speaker 1: and when she testified, she surprisingly didn't try to deny
32:08
Speaker 1: the events. Instead, she admitted pulling her sons out of school.
32:12
Speaker 1: She admitted to isolating them and using punishments she now
32:15
Speaker 1: described as unthinkable. In fact, she even cried so hard
32:20
Speaker 1: at points that the court had to pause for her
32:22
Speaker 1: to regain her composure. According to her, everything began with
32:28
Speaker 1: the instructions she believed were coming from a trauma specialist
32:31
Speaker 1: treating Anika. She said she was convinced that if she
32:35
Speaker 1: did not follow the guidance exactly as written, she would
32:39
Speaker 1: lose the girl that she had promised to save, and
32:42
Speaker 1: that her own sons would spiral into something dangerous if
32:45
Speaker 1: left undisciplined. Listening to her, it was clear she wanted
32:49
Speaker 1: the court to understand that she hadn't set out to
32:53
Speaker 1: harm her children, even though that was exactly what she
32:55
Speaker 1: ended up doing. Now. Psychologists did support part of her claim.
33:01
Speaker 1: They described her as highly vulnerable to influence, emotionally dependent,
33:06
Speaker 1: and operating in the state of constant stress. But they
33:09
Speaker 1: were very firm in one conclusion too, Despite the pressure
33:13
Speaker 1: she was under, she still understood what she was doing,
33:17
Speaker 1: and she still made those choices to do it. As
33:21
Speaker 1: for her sister, Katerina, she entered the trial with far
33:24
Speaker 1: more composure she admitted to helping create onnica and form
33:28
Speaker 1: the whole identity of the documents in the hospital deception,
33:31
Speaker 1: but the moment the conversation shifted to the abuse, her
33:34
Speaker 1: tone changed. She insisted she never intended for things to
33:38
Speaker 1: go so far, She never met harm or never even
33:42
Speaker 1: expected her sister Clara to follow the quote unquote doctor's
33:45
Speaker 1: messages so literally. And when the judge asked who wrote
33:49
Speaker 1: the emails signed by the imaginary physician, while she simply
33:53
Speaker 1: refused to answer, and her refusal honestly says a whole
33:56
Speaker 1: lot more than confession.
33:58
Speaker 2: Ever could say something that doesn't make any sense. She
34:01
Speaker 2: doesn't she didn't expect her sister to follow them, right,
34:05
Speaker 2: and then so that makes her not like at fault
34:10
Speaker 2: for sending them.
34:11
Speaker 1: Right, and then it's okay, well if you even if
34:13
Speaker 1: that is the argument, Okay, even if she is correct
34:16
Speaker 1: in saying that you send a message to your sister,
34:20
Speaker 1: you don't expect her to actually follow it, and you
34:22
Speaker 1: see her actually follow it, and you continue sending the message,
34:26
Speaker 1: you know she's gonna follow it.
34:27
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, okay, right, there just makes no sense. She
34:32
Speaker 2: is okay, so.
34:33
Speaker 1: She's just completely out to lunch in bullshitting, trying to
34:35
Speaker 1: save her own skin. Now then there was of course Barbarauskerlova,
34:40
Speaker 1: sitting small and strangely expressionless behind the others. Her testimony
34:44
Speaker 1: was almost surreal. She presented herself as, of course, a victim,
34:49
Speaker 1: someone terrified, coerced, and confused. She claimed that the boys
34:53
Speaker 1: attacked her and that she had been tied up, as well,
34:56
Speaker 1: that she fled only because she feared for her life.
35:00
Speaker 1: She didn't address the part that you didn't fit, or
35:03
Speaker 1: her escape from the children's home really, or anything like that,
35:06
Speaker 1: the appearance in Norway is Adam, or any of these
35:09
Speaker 1: other years masquerading as a child long before she had
35:12
Speaker 1: ever met Clara. She never explained any of that, only
35:14
Speaker 1: the convenient parts that made her look like a traumatized
35:17
Speaker 1: victim as well. The psychiatric experts didn't buy her version,
35:21
Speaker 1: not even for a second. They emphasized that she exhibited
35:25
Speaker 1: no signs of psychosis, delusion, or dissociative identity disorder. But
35:30
Speaker 1: what she also showed was an extraordinary ability to manipulate
35:35
Speaker 1: the people around her. One expert described her behavior as
35:39
Speaker 1: quote calculated innocence. Now, the remaining defendants Yon's Girl, which
35:44
Speaker 1: is Barber's brother, Jan Turk and Hannah Basova, who were
35:49
Speaker 1: two other employees at the youth center, denied outright that
35:52
Speaker 1: they were abusers whatsoever. They claimed they believe the boy
35:55
Speaker 1: suffered from severe behavioral issues and that the punishments were
35:58
Speaker 1: part of a structured method to correct them. But the
36:02
Speaker 1: injuries told a very different story, and so did the boys.
36:05
Speaker 1: Their descriptions of who hit them, who dragged them, who
36:07
Speaker 1: took part in all the agonizing abuse was painfully clear,
36:11
Speaker 1: and the defendant's claims of ignorance simply couldn't stand against
36:15
Speaker 1: the physical evidence and everything else that was against them.
36:20
Speaker 1: And as the trial went on, a clear pattern emerged.
36:23
Speaker 1: Each adult had relied on others to justify their own actions.
36:28
Speaker 1: Clara believed Katerina and the doctor. Katerina leaned on Barbara's
36:33
Speaker 1: authority within the invented world they built. Barbara made use
36:36
Speaker 1: of Clara's desperation and Katerina's loyalty, and the others followed along,
36:42
Speaker 1: accepting you know what instructions as truth because challenging them
36:45
Speaker 1: would have required actual critical thinking, which they clearly lacked,
36:49
Speaker 1: and confronting the horror of what they were participating in
36:52
Speaker 1: was clearly too much for them. It was influence, manipulation,
36:57
Speaker 1: and pressure. Those were all the real factors, but none
37:02
Speaker 1: of that erased their responsibility. Every adult in that room
37:05
Speaker 1: had seen the boy's condition, heard their cries, and chosen
37:09
Speaker 1: not to step in or stop it. Whatever brought them
37:12
Speaker 1: into the situation, whatever convinced them it was necessary, they
37:16
Speaker 1: continued long after any reasonable person would have recognized the reality.
37:23
Speaker 1: It was clear that the trial wasn't really about figuring
37:25
Speaker 1: out whether something terrible had happened. That much had been
37:29
Speaker 1: undeniable from the start. It was more about determining how
37:32
Speaker 1: a group of seemingly ordinary adults became the architects of
37:36
Speaker 1: an absolute nightmare, and which of them understood the truth,
37:39
Speaker 1: even as they claimed they didn't. When the trial finally
37:43
Speaker 1: came to a close in Bernou in two thousand and eight,
37:45
Speaker 1: the evidence and witness testimonies left very little room for doubt.
37:50
Speaker 1: Clara Morova, the boy's mother, was found guilty and convicted
37:55
Speaker 1: of torture and abuse of a minor. The court acknowledged
37:59
Speaker 1: that she had been manipul related, but not to a
38:01
Speaker 1: degree that excused her actions. Katerina Morova, her older sister,
38:06
Speaker 1: was found guilty in the same way and was convicted
38:08
Speaker 1: of child abuse. Barbara Skerlova, who had spent years passing
38:13
Speaker 1: as a teenage Onika, was found guilty and convicted of
38:17
Speaker 1: involvement in the abuse, including participating in the confinement, manipulation,
38:21
Speaker 1: and rituals inflicted on the boys while posing as a
38:24
Speaker 1: teenage girl. Hans Skirla, Barbara's older brother, and Han Turlik,
38:28
Speaker 1: the youth center instructor, were each found guilty and convicted
38:31
Speaker 1: of child abuse after witnesses and boys confirmed their involvement.
38:36
Speaker 1: And finally, Hanna Bosova, a longtime acquaintance of the Skerlova
38:40
Speaker 1: siblings who had also spent time in the cottage, was
38:42
Speaker 1: also found guilty and convicted of child abuse for her
38:45
Speaker 1: role in enforcing the punishments, helping maintain control over the boys,
38:49
Speaker 1: and supporting the groups twisted ideology. But by the time
38:54
Speaker 1: the judge finished reading the verdicts, every adult tied to
38:59
Speaker 1: the case had been found guilty. Then finally came sentencing.
39:05
Speaker 1: Each defendant stood as the sentences were delivered, and for
39:08
Speaker 1: a moment it seems as though justice had finally arrived,
39:11
Speaker 1: But for many people, the numbers handed down told a
39:16
Speaker 1: very different story.
39:18
Speaker 2: I'm about to get real pissed you think so. I
39:21
Speaker 2: have a feeling by how you just stated that.
39:25
Speaker 1: Well. Clara Morova, the mother of the two young boys,
39:29
Speaker 1: was sentenced to nine years in prison.
39:32
Speaker 2: Okay.
39:32
Speaker 1: The judge acknowledged her emotional vulnerability and the psychological pressure
39:36
Speaker 1: that she was under, but also made it clear that
39:39
Speaker 1: none of it excused what she had done to her
39:41
Speaker 1: own children. She had participated willingly, even if she understood
39:45
Speaker 1: later how manipulated she'd been. As for her sister, Katerina Morova,
39:51
Speaker 1: while she was given ten years, the court pointed to
39:54
Speaker 1: her role in constructing the fake identity, forging documents, and
39:57
Speaker 1: orchestrating much of the deception that kept professional and authorities fooled.
40:02
Speaker 1: She had acted with a level of planning that went
40:04
Speaker 1: far beyond emotional influence.
40:06
Speaker 2: Okay, that's way too low for her.
40:09
Speaker 1: Barbara Skerlova, the woman in her thirties posing as a child,
40:13
Speaker 1: received five year sentence.
40:15
Speaker 2: What the actual shit?
40:17
Speaker 1: She received only five years in prison. Her long history
40:21
Speaker 1: of masquerading as child in these childish identities, like her
40:24
Speaker 1: critical role in the whole manipulation of Clara, all of
40:26
Speaker 1: it and her presence throughout the abuse. Somehow it didn't
40:29
Speaker 1: translate into a harsher penalty, and she only got that.
40:33
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that's not enough time. She's going to
40:35
Speaker 2: be out in the five years and be doing all
40:37
Speaker 2: this shit again.
40:38
Speaker 1: The three other adults received the following sentences for their
40:41
Speaker 1: roles in the abuse and torture as well. Jan Turik
40:44
Speaker 1: received five years, Yon Skirl, Barbara's brother, received seven years,
40:49
Speaker 1: and Hannah Basova received seven years. Each of their sentences
40:54
Speaker 1: was given depending on the level of physical harm the
40:56
Speaker 1: court was able to directly attribute to them. With each
41:01
Speaker 1: sentence handed out, the courtroom filled with shock. None of
41:06
Speaker 1: the penalties match the severity of what the boys had endured.
41:09
Speaker 2: No shit is okay, especially barbarus. Oh my gosh, some
41:15
Speaker 2: of the like the brother or whatever the fuck got
41:18
Speaker 2: longer time than her.
41:19
Speaker 1: Correct.
41:21
Speaker 2: She is literally just like completely nuts.
41:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean honestly, even the fact of just you know,
41:29
Speaker 1: false identities, that shit, Yeah, a fucking massive thing right there.
41:33
Speaker 2: Because they're just gonna let her enter into this into
41:36
Speaker 2: the world again, and she's gonna just keep doing this
41:39
Speaker 2: kind of shit. It's clearly just going and getting a
41:42
Speaker 2: job and living life. Is not in the yards for her,
41:45
Speaker 2: not her forte. I still stand by that would be
41:48
Speaker 2: much easier than all this shit.
41:49
Speaker 1: But well, I do have to say a certain point
41:52
Speaker 1: she will become old enough to not portray children anymore.
41:55
Speaker 1: But that's not to say she won't manipulate others, you know,
41:57
Speaker 1: pretending to be sickly or who knows what right, Oh.
42:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, she'll think of some sort of other thing exactly. So.
42:04
Speaker 1: Once the trial ended, the public's reaction was immediate, and
42:07
Speaker 1: it was also visceral. In newsrooms, cafes and living rooms
42:10
Speaker 1: across the Czech Republic. People asked the same question, how
42:14
Speaker 1: could torture this extreme result in such short prison terms? Commentators, reporters,
42:21
Speaker 1: they all called the sentencing insulting, incomprehensibly light, and a
42:25
Speaker 1: failure of the justice system. Even veteran journalists admitted that
42:30
Speaker 1: they had never seen such a gap between the brutality
42:32
Speaker 1: of a case and the punishment that followed afterwards. What
42:37
Speaker 1: unsettled everyone the most, honestly, though, was the knowledge that
42:40
Speaker 1: everyone in this case, all the adults involved, would be
42:44
Speaker 1: freed within a decade, every single one of them, and
42:48
Speaker 1: by the early twenty tens, they had all completed their
42:51
Speaker 1: reduced minimum terms and walked out of prison, legally finishing
42:56
Speaker 1: with the consequences behind them.
43:00
Speaker 2: They're all out at this point.
43:01
Speaker 1: They are. Meanwhile, the two young boys who suffered the
43:04
Speaker 1: most in all of this, Jacob and Andrea, would never
43:08
Speaker 1: escape the legacy of what happened to them. No legal sentence,
43:11
Speaker 1: regardless of the term, could erase the psychological scars or
43:15
Speaker 1: the years that they lost. In the days after the
43:18
Speaker 1: two of them were rescued, Jacob and Andrea were kept
43:21
Speaker 1: under close medical watch, and the full extent of the
43:23
Speaker 1: trauma became impossible to ignore. They were pale, dangerously underweight,
43:28
Speaker 1: and carried injuries that told their story long before either
43:32
Speaker 1: boy was able to get the courage to tell them
43:34
Speaker 1: what happened themselves. Nurses documented all their injuries and scars,
43:38
Speaker 1: while doctors described them as children who had been systematically broken.
43:43
Speaker 1: Sleep was honestly, at times almost impossible for them. Every
43:47
Speaker 1: noise jolted them awake. They avoided eye contact and moved cautiously,
43:51
Speaker 1: as if expecting consequences for every single thing that they did.
43:56
Speaker 1: The simplest tasks eating at a table or holding utensils,
43:59
Speaker 1: even choosing a place to sit felt overwhelming. They even
44:02
Speaker 1: began to experience developmental delays as a result of what
44:05
Speaker 1: they went through. Therapists did their best working with them,
44:09
Speaker 1: and progress was slow, but there were signs of healing
44:12
Speaker 1: too now. Once their health did eventually stabilize, the question
44:16
Speaker 1: of where they would live took center stage. Social workers
44:20
Speaker 1: determined that returning to Clara was out of the question,
44:24
Speaker 1: and the courts quickly stripped her of any custody rites
44:28
Speaker 1: So the boys replaced in foster care, which was an
44:30
Speaker 1: environment that proved a lot gentler and far more stable
44:33
Speaker 1: than anything they've known for years. They began building the
44:36
Speaker 1: routines of normal childhood, with schools, meals, friends, hobbies, and
44:40
Speaker 1: all the things that a young kid should have. Their
44:43
Speaker 1: father re entered their lives as well. The divorce had
44:45
Speaker 1: pushed him away long before the abuse began, but the
44:48
Speaker 1: boys still recognized him, still had memories of weekends together
44:51
Speaker 1: before everything changed, and slowly that relationship started to rebuild,
44:56
Speaker 1: and soon he would be granted custody of them both
44:59
Speaker 1: for all all the progress they made. Though trauma never
45:02
Speaker 1: disappears cleanly, certain triggers stay, and so do certain habits.
45:06
Speaker 1: But compared to children who once slept on concrete floors
45:09
Speaker 1: and flinched at the sound of footsteps. Jacob and Andre
45:13
Speaker 1: grew into young men with the chance to take on
45:16
Speaker 1: the world and choose their own futures, something that should
45:20
Speaker 1: never have been taken from them in the first place.
45:23
Speaker 1: In the years following the trial, the people responsible for
45:26
Speaker 1: this whole ordeal slipped quietly back into the world, each
45:29
Speaker 1: of them released after serving the minimum required portion of
45:32
Speaker 1: their sentence. Their re entry into ordinary life didn't spark
45:35
Speaker 1: the kind of public outrage the verdicts did, unfortunately, mostly
45:39
Speaker 1: because the news of their release was given little attention.
45:42
Speaker 1: It felt as though the system wanted to move on
45:44
Speaker 1: from the case as quickly as possible, even if the
45:47
Speaker 1: public didn't. Clara Morova left prison in twenty thirteen. By then,
45:52
Speaker 1: she had completed therapy, undergone evaluations, and she said she
45:56
Speaker 1: understood the gravity of what she'd done. The courts, as
45:59
Speaker 1: I mentioned, reinstated none of her parental rights, and she
46:02
Speaker 1: has remained out of the public eye ever since. No
46:05
Speaker 1: official updates mentioned where she lives or what she does now,
46:08
Speaker 1: only that she is barred from working with children in
46:11
Speaker 1: any capacity. Her sister, Katerina was released a year later.
46:16
Speaker 1: There was even less information about her. Journalists attempted to
46:19
Speaker 1: track her down after her release, but every lead ended
46:22
Speaker 1: with a dead end. What is certain is that she
46:25
Speaker 1: also received standard restrictions preventing her from taking any job
46:29
Speaker 1: involving miners. Beyond that, her whereabouts remain unknown. Barbara Skulova,
46:35
Speaker 1: the woman who once lives Anica and later described herself
46:38
Speaker 1: as the teenage Adam, completed her sentence in twenty twelve.
46:42
Speaker 1: Authorities allowed her to change her name, and she reportedly
46:46
Speaker 1: survives on disability benefits while living somewhere undisclosed. There have
46:51
Speaker 1: been no confirmed sighting since, only rumors online about someone
46:54
Speaker 1: who resembles her. None have ever been verified. The remaining
46:59
Speaker 1: three defenders, Yon Turrek, Yon Skirl and Hannah Basova serve
47:03
Speaker 1: their sentences and live lives that the public no longer
47:06
Speaker 1: have access to. All of them were also legally prohibited
47:09
Speaker 1: from working with children. Beyond that, their paths remained largely untracked.
47:15
Speaker 1: As for the boys, their public lives, well, they're not
47:18
Speaker 1: really so public, and that's definitely a good thing. Privacy
47:22
Speaker 1: is the kind of mercy the world certainly owes them.
47:25
Speaker 1: The Kurrum case became one of those stories that spread
47:28
Speaker 1: far beyond the borders of the Czech Republic, and with
47:30
Speaker 1: that attention, while it came layers of speculation that often
47:33
Speaker 1: overshadows the verified facts. The crimes themselves were already disturbing enough,
47:38
Speaker 1: but the gaps in the timeline, the secrecy surrounding certain details,
47:42
Speaker 1: it created a kind of void that rumors rushed into.
47:47
Speaker 1: One of the most persistent claims involved cannibalism in this story.
47:51
Speaker 1: During the trial, witnesses described an incident which Andre suffered
47:55
Speaker 1: injuries to the back of his thigh. The explanation given
47:58
Speaker 1: was that the wound had been intentionally inflicted as part
48:01
Speaker 1: of a punishment ritual. Investigators documented the injury, and the
48:05
Speaker 1: court accepted that it had been caused deliberately. What no
48:09
Speaker 1: one could confirm, though, was establishing what had happened afterwards.
48:15
Speaker 1: Some accounts claimed that a piece of skin or flesh
48:17
Speaker 1: of being cut and then consumed by the adults present
48:19
Speaker 1: in the cottage. Others say Andre himself was forced to
48:22
Speaker 1: eat it. What we do know is the injury was real,
48:26
Speaker 1: but everything beyond that it entered a gray area where
48:30
Speaker 1: evidence ran thin and memories conflicted. It became one of
48:34
Speaker 1: the cases most sensational elements, often repeated more boldly than
48:38
Speaker 1: it should ever have been. Another set of rumors suggested
48:41
Speaker 1: that the abuse in the cottage had been recorded for
48:44
Speaker 1: paying viewers, sometimes framed as dark web content or part
48:47
Speaker 1: of a larger exploitation ring. This idea spread quickly online,
48:52
Speaker 1: likely because there were in fact cameras involved and the
48:55
Speaker 1: family had their ties to a fringe religious group that
48:58
Speaker 1: encouraged this strict con over children. But during the investigation,
49:02
Speaker 1: police never found any footage of the boys being abused
49:05
Speaker 1: that appeared to be created for profit, nor did they
49:08
Speaker 1: uncover any distribution network. They did find personal recordings and
49:13
Speaker 1: surveillance used inside the home. But despite this, the idea
49:17
Speaker 1: of a hidden audience watching from afar it still circulates
49:20
Speaker 1: among people who follow the case casually, even though it
49:23
Speaker 1: was never supported by physical evidence. Then there's a theory
49:26
Speaker 1: that a cult directed everything from behind the scenes, and
49:29
Speaker 1: there's even a theory that connects this story to the
49:31
Speaker 1: horror film called Orphan, and it became part of the
49:35
Speaker 1: mythology behind this whole story. The parallels, well, they're obvious.
49:39
Speaker 1: An adult woman posing as a child to infiltrate a family.
49:43
Speaker 1: Many viewers assumed the movie was actually based on Barber Skerlova,
49:47
Speaker 1: especially since the case received international coverage around the same
49:51
Speaker 1: time the film was being developed, but the filmmakers never
49:55
Speaker 1: cited her as an inspiration, and the timeline honestly it
49:58
Speaker 1: suggests the script was already underway before the Curum case
50:02
Speaker 1: was ever fully public. The resemblance is striking, but it
50:06
Speaker 1: appears to be just that resemblance, a coincidence rather than
50:10
Speaker 1: a direct adaptation. All in all, a lot of rumors
50:14
Speaker 1: cling to this story because parts of it still feel unfinished.
50:18
Speaker 1: People disappeared from public view, others refused interviews, authorities never
50:22
Speaker 1: release certain details, and some documents remained sealed from the public.
50:26
Speaker 1: Silence often breeds imagination, and the Curum Case contains enough
50:31
Speaker 1: unanswered questions to keep those questions alive for decades. But
50:35
Speaker 1: when separating truth from speculation, the core story remains horrifying
50:39
Speaker 1: without any of that added embellishment. Though two young boys
50:43
Speaker 1: were tortured for a fabricated narrative that convinced adults to
50:48
Speaker 1: do the unthinkable, the documented facts show more than enough
50:53
Speaker 1: cruelty on their own, and cases like this tend to
50:56
Speaker 1: also be remembered for their villains, for the shocking photos,
50:59
Speaker 1: the unbelievable twists, but at the center of it, while
51:03
Speaker 1: it was two young boys who didn't deserve a single
51:05
Speaker 1: hour of what was done to them, the horror of
51:08
Speaker 1: their story is in the simple fact that adults chose
51:12
Speaker 1: to torture children, and a pair of brothers had to
51:15
Speaker 1: learn how to live afterwards. The Curum case remains a
51:20
Speaker 1: reminder of evil, for sure, but it also stands as
51:24
Speaker 1: proof that even the smallest window, like a glitching baby monitor,
51:28
Speaker 1: for example, can be enough to pull someone out of
51:31
Speaker 1: the dark. Two boys survived because a neighbor happened to
51:35
Speaker 1: turn on the wrong device at the right time, and
51:39
Speaker 1: it saved their lives. And that is the story of
51:43
Speaker 1: the Kurum case.
51:46
Speaker 2: Right, I have forgotten how this kind of started and
51:49
Speaker 2: went down.
51:50
Speaker 1: Well, there's so much to this story it's easy to
51:52
Speaker 1: kind of lose track of how it really started off
51:54
Speaker 1: in the first place.
51:55
Speaker 2: Huh. Well, I mean, gosh, the fact that like these
52:00
Speaker 2: two boys, they had their childhood just destroyed. And that's
52:03
Speaker 2: like when it's supposed to be one of your most
52:05
Speaker 2: magical times of life, you know, yeah, fortunure, it just
52:08
Speaker 2: got taken away from them. Is just that's really what
52:11
Speaker 2: this is all about.
52:12
Speaker 1: It is and I mean, I don't mean to overshadow
52:16
Speaker 1: what they went through, but the silver lining is at
52:19
Speaker 1: the very least they managed to come out of it.
52:22
Speaker 1: They have some semblance of their life afterwards, and they
52:25
Speaker 1: have you know what they've they've got someone like their dad,
52:27
Speaker 1: they're now there for them. Right.
52:29
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I mean what they endured, it could have
52:31
Speaker 2: gone with quite differently, some of the stuff they had
52:35
Speaker 2: to go through. It's like, it's surprising they, you know,
52:37
Speaker 2: didn't die, so right, the fact that they still get
52:40
Speaker 2: to live their life and it's got to be better
52:43
Speaker 2: than It's better than that, right, one hundred percent.
52:45
Speaker 1: And it's who's to say that, Hey, if that guy
52:48
Speaker 1: didn't buy the right baby monitor model or turned it
52:53
Speaker 1: on the next day, who knows that that signal could
52:56
Speaker 1: have been intercepted. Yeah, and that could have been the
52:58
Speaker 1: thing that saved their lives. Probably was the thing that
53:01
Speaker 1: saved their life, which honestly, in retrospect, puts it in
53:04
Speaker 1: this perspective like, Okay, what small thing can any of
53:08
Speaker 1: us do to help save someone else's life? You never
53:11
Speaker 1: know what thing you're going to do could pull someone
53:13
Speaker 1: out of the dark, whether it's physically like that, pulling
53:16
Speaker 1: a person out of a literal dark cramp space being abused,
53:20
Speaker 1: or just a mental space, pulling them into a better
53:23
Speaker 1: spot where you know what, that could save their life too.
53:27
Speaker 1: So remember, be kind, just do the little thing. Be human,
53:32
Speaker 1: You never know what impact you can make.
53:34
Speaker 2: And observant really too. Yes, So on that note, hey.
53:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for being here. This was definitely a
53:41
Speaker 1: heavy and in depth case.
53:43
Speaker 2: It was.
53:45
Speaker 1: We appreciate you being here. If you want to check
53:46
Speaker 1: out all the description stuff in the podcast, we got socials,
53:50
Speaker 1: all that good stuff. I'm just going to leave it
53:51
Speaker 1: at that for now, we appreciate you being here.
53:54
Speaker 2: And until next time, I just have to say, have
53:57
Speaker 2: like a nice warm hot chocolate today.
54:00
Speaker 1: This something to warm the soul from head.
54:02
Speaker 2: I think I think that that's our recommendation.
54:04
Speaker 1: So okay, warm hot chocolate. We'll make one after
54:06
Speaker 2: This, yes, and until next time, stay wicked.