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Top-3-Strange-But-True-DEATH-S-door-DIST · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today we're
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Speaker 1: going to look at three stories that demonstrate that. But
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Speaker 1: before we get into those stories, if you're a fan
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Speaker 1: of the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: Carlos Camejo woke up freezing cold and totally confused. It
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Speaker 1: was September sixth, two thousand and seven, and all Carlos
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Speaker 1: could remember was being on his motorcycle with the hot
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Speaker 1: sun bearing down on him as he wound his way
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Speaker 1: on his bike through the streets of La Victoria, which
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Speaker 1: is a city in Venezuela. Carlos tried to open his eyes,
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Speaker 1: but he couldn't, and then when he tried to move
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Speaker 1: his body, he couldn't do that either, and so he
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Speaker 1: began to panic because he's paralyzed, but he told himself
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Speaker 1: to calm down. If he couldn't move, at least he
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Speaker 1: could think. He could try to process. You know, what's
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Speaker 1: going on here. There has to be an explanation for it.
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Speaker 1: And so Carlos, in total darkness and immobile, began going
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Speaker 1: through over and over again this whole motorcycle trip, which
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Speaker 1: was his last memory, and he remembered that his friend
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Speaker 1: had called him up and asked him to go out
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Speaker 1: on this ride. Carlos used to go out all the
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Speaker 1: time on his bike for fun with his friends and
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Speaker 1: by himself, but now that he was thirty three years
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Speaker 1: old and married, he didn't have the time for it
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Speaker 1: as much. But the weather had been so beautiful that
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Speaker 1: when his friend had called and asked to go out,
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Speaker 1: Carlos said, let's do it. And so Carlos began going
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Speaker 1: over in his head the route that they had taken
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Speaker 1: through La Victoria, and all he could remember was this
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Speaker 1: long straightaway and then a right turn and then nothing.
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Speaker 1: It was like after he made that turn, everything went blank.
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Speaker 1: And as Carlos thought about how weird it was that
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Speaker 1: one he was paralyzed, and two he had no memory
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Speaker 1: of what happened. After he made that right turn, he
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Speaker 1: started to realize that he felt something against his back.
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Speaker 1: It was like there was a block underneath his back,
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Speaker 1: kind of right between his shoulder blades, propping his chest up,
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Speaker 1: and he felt his arms kind of dangling down by
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Speaker 1: the side, and it was very uncomfortable. And as he
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Speaker 1: laid in this totally awkward position, he began to hear
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Speaker 1: somewhere out in the ether, unfamiliar voices, just kind of chatting.
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Speaker 1: And immediately Carlos is like, okay, someone's here to help me.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what's wrong with me, but somebody's here.
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna be okay.
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Speaker 1: And soon whoever was talking near Carlos had moved closer
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Speaker 1: to him, and actually Carlos began to realize that it
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Speaker 1: was actually more than one person. It was at least
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Speaker 1: two people talking back and forth. But again, Carlos can't
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Speaker 1: open his eyes, he can't move, he can't communicate with
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Speaker 1: these people.
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Speaker 2: He just knows they've come closer to him. And after
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Speaker 2: these people had.
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Speaker 1: Moved right up against Carlos, Carlos suddenly felt something metal
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Speaker 1: pressing up against his chin, and it was kind of
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Speaker 1: sharp and it kind of hurt when it touched his chin,
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Speaker 1: and Carlos wanted to scream out and tell them whatever
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Speaker 1: they were doing to stop and at least tell.
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Speaker 2: Him what was going on, but Carlos couldn't make a sound.
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Speaker 1: And then Carlos began to hear this kind of mechanical
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Speaker 1: whirring sound, like a machine starting up, that was very
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Speaker 1: close to where he was, and suddenly Carlos began panicking, like,
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Speaker 1: what's going on?
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Speaker 2: What are they doing to me?
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Speaker 1: And as Carlos' heart rate is starting to speed up,
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Speaker 1: one of the people who had moved near Carlos suddenly said,
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's impossible.
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Speaker 2: This can't be.
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Speaker 1: And then again Carlos felt more pain in his chin,
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Speaker 1: and then the pain got dramatically worse. It went from
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Speaker 1: just kind of like a poking feeling to something going
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Speaker 1: into his chin and he felt it moving underneath his
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Speaker 1: skin like a knife cutting through him. And then whatever
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Speaker 1: it was it went out of his chin. And as
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Speaker 1: this is happening, Carlos is trying so hard to just
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Speaker 1: wake himself up and do something to tell these people
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Speaker 1: to stop, but he just couldn't do it, and then
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Speaker 1: again he felt that sharp pain in his chin, another
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Speaker 1: round of something going into him, moving underneath his skin,
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Speaker 1: and then poking out again, and the pain became so
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Speaker 1: blinding that suddenly Carlos was able to kind of break
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Speaker 1: through this paralysis, and his eyes shot open, and for
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Speaker 1: a second, all Carlos could see was like blinding lights.
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Speaker 1: But then as things came into focus, he saw there
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Speaker 1: were two people, the people who had been speaking, wearing
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Speaker 1: these huge goggles and face masks, and one of them
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Speaker 1: was holding a big needle with black thread attached to it,
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Speaker 1: and that thread was coming from Carlos's chin. They had
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Speaker 1: been running that needle through his face, stitching his chin
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Speaker 1: for some reason, but with no anesthetic. And so as
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Speaker 1: Carlos is staring up at these people in goggles, the
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Speaker 1: people in goggles are looking down at Carlos, and they're
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Speaker 1: totally horrified, and they just kind of begin backing up,
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Speaker 1: not really sure what to make of this, and Carlos
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Speaker 1: again kind of breaking through this weird paralysis he was under.
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Speaker 1: He was able to lift his head up and look
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Speaker 1: down at his body, and he saw, to his horror
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Speaker 1: that he was totally nude. He was laying on a
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Speaker 1: metal table, and there was this why drawn on his chest,
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Speaker 1: starting at his collarbones, coming down right underneath his throat,
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Speaker 1: and then straight down across his chest. And then after
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Speaker 1: Carlos saw this why on his naked body, he looked
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Speaker 1: over at a tray that was right next to this
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Speaker 1: metal table, near these two guys and Goggles who were
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Speaker 1: now kind of backing up, and he saw there was
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Speaker 1: a whirring instrument on this table and it was a
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Speaker 1: circular blade a saw. That was the sound he heard,
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Speaker 1: and that's when Carlos figured it out. Earlier that day,
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Speaker 1: when Carlos had been out riding his motorcycle with his friend,
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Speaker 1: he had gone down that long straightaway in La Victoria.
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Speaker 1: He had made a right turn and parked illegally. Right
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Speaker 1: after this turn was this big truck. Carlos didn't see it,
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Speaker 1: and at full.
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Speaker 2: Speed he impacted the truck.
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Speaker 1: He was thrown from his bike ash into the ground,
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Speaker 1: horrific injuries, and when paramedics showed up, they pronounced him
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Speaker 1: dead on the scene, and so he was moved from
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Speaker 1: the scene of the accident to the morgue.
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Speaker 2: And at the morgue, Carlos.
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Speaker 1: Was strip naked and put on this metal table, and
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Speaker 1: they placed a block underneath his shoulders, kind of propping
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Speaker 1: his chest up, and they drew a WHY down the
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Speaker 1: center of his chest for his autopsy. The two doctors
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Speaker 1: that Carlos ultimately saw chatting and performing this autopsy were
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Speaker 1: going to follow that WHY on his body with the
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Speaker 1: circular saw.
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Speaker 2: That's how they cut you open during an autopsy.
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Speaker 1: But right before they were about to do that, the
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Speaker 1: doctors noticed that Carlos was actively bleeding from his chin,
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Speaker 1: and since he was supposed to be dead, that didn't
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Speaker 1: make any sense, and so that was why one of
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Speaker 1: the doctors had said, oh, my goodness, this can't be
6:48
Speaker 1: and so, not really sure what to make of it,
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Speaker 1: they had just grabbed a needle and begun stitching his
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Speaker 1: face together to stop the blood from going down his chest.
6:56
Speaker 1: And then Carlos opened his eyes and it dawned on
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Speaker 1: the two doctors that, oh, he's alive. That's why he's
7:01
Speaker 1: still bleeding. We should definitely take care of him now.
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Speaker 1: But amazingly, after Carlos came back from the dead, he
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Speaker 1: was simply moved into the hallway and left on this
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Speaker 1: metal table, and the doctors who were going to perform
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Speaker 1: his autopsy, just left the paper that said he needed
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Speaker 1: an autopsy in his pocket, just kind of showing that, hey,
7:21
Speaker 1: we were.
7:21
Speaker 2: Just following orders. Somebody told us to give you an autopsy.
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Speaker 1: This is not our fault. And that's where Carlos stayed
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Speaker 1: until his wife showed up and found him in the hallway,
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Speaker 1: just laying there as if he was still just waiting
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Speaker 1: for his autopsy. Carlos would suffer horrible injuries from the
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Speaker 1: accident and serious emotional trauma from almost being cut open
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Speaker 1: during this autopsy, but he would make a full recovery.
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Speaker 1: On the afternoon of May eleventh, twenty fifteen, fifty five
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Speaker 1: year old Natalia was gathering sad up inside of a
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Speaker 1: Russian forest with her eighty two year old friend Falia.
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Speaker 1: The two of them had been coming to this grove
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Speaker 1: of birch trees for many years. They enjoyed the peace
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Speaker 1: and solitude of nature, and it was also a good
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Speaker 1: place for Natalia to bring her little dog so he
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Speaker 1: could run around while they collected the sap. It was
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Speaker 1: a perfect spring day, The weather was very mild, the
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Speaker 1: sun was out, and the two friends had a great
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Speaker 1: time just kind of moving around to the different birch trees,
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Speaker 1: using their little drills and hammers to get their taps
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Speaker 1: into the tree, and then they'd put their glass bottles
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Speaker 1: underneath each tap to collect their harvest. And then at
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Speaker 1: some point Natalia felt like she had all the SAP
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Speaker 1: she would need, and she began gathering up her things
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Speaker 1: to get ready to leave. And as she did that,
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Speaker 1: she looked over at Vallia and she had found this
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Speaker 1: really big birch tree and she had sat down underneath
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Speaker 1: it and was working hard to set her tap. And
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Speaker 1: so as Natalia registered that Valia was over here kind
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Speaker 1: of doing one more tree before they left, she began
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Speaker 1: looking around for her dog, and she found her dog,
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Speaker 1: and he wasn't too far away from Vallia, and he
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Speaker 1: was just kind of around one of the trees when
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Speaker 1: suddenly Natalia noticed the dog came to a hard stop
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Speaker 1: and it turned and looked deeper into the forest like
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Speaker 1: it had clearly registered something that had put it on
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Speaker 1: alert that was out of view, and so Natalia her
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Speaker 1: view was obscured from whatever the dog was looking at,
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Speaker 1: and so she put down her equipment and kind of
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Speaker 1: moved between the trees to see what her dog was
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Speaker 1: looking at and at some point her view cleared and
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Speaker 1: she saw it. Pretty far off in the forest was
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Speaker 1: something huge, this dark thing kind of moving behind the trees,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly it jumped out from behind the trees and
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Speaker 1: ran towards the dog. It was a huge Russian brown bear,
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Speaker 1: and so totally horrified Natalia's watching.
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Speaker 2: This bear charge her dog.
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Speaker 1: She looks over she sees Valia, who's pretty hard of hearing,
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Speaker 1: is sitting with her back to this bear and the
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Speaker 1: dog still just working on this tree, and Natalia's just
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Speaker 1: frozen for a moment, having no idea what to do.
9:55
Speaker 1: And then instinct suddenly took over and Natalia just turned
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Speaker 1: and began running away, leaving Valia and leaving the dog.
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Speaker 1: But after only running several paces, she stopped and turned
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Speaker 1: around and saw the bear is still trying to attack
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Speaker 1: the dog, but the dog is standing its ground and
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Speaker 1: barking at the bear, which is kind of causing it
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Speaker 1: to back up and be a little unsure of itself,
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Speaker 1: even though this dog is so much smaller and still
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Speaker 1: Valia is not reacting at all. She has not heard
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Speaker 1: the bear of the dog nothing, and Natalia she's looking back,
10:24
Speaker 1: knowing that she needs to do something. She can't just
10:27
Speaker 1: let her friend and her dog get killed. And so
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Speaker 1: Natalia began walking slowly back in the direction of this bear,
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Speaker 1: and she began screaming at.
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Speaker 2: Valia to get up and run with her.
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Speaker 1: But the second Natalia began screaming, the bear went from
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Speaker 1: looking at the dog to turning and looking at Natalia,
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Speaker 1: and suddenly it was like the.
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Speaker 2: Dog meant nothing.
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Speaker 1: The bear had decided it was going to go after Natalia,
10:52
Speaker 1: and so Natalia she's staring at this bear, realizing, oh
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Speaker 1: my god, it's gonna charge me. But before she could
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Speaker 1: even turn to run, the bear had ran at full
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Speaker 1: speed and jumped at her.
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Speaker 2: Natalia turned and she tried.
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Speaker 1: To run, but the bear bit down on her thigh
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Speaker 1: and she felt a crush her leg and pull her
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Speaker 1: to the ground and whip her up against the nearby
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Speaker 1: birch tree, and she's screaming and trying to pull herself away,
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Speaker 1: but the bear is ripping at her leg, trying to
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Speaker 1: yank her back into the forest. And then Natalia she
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Speaker 1: sees her little drill that she uses to set the
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Speaker 1: tap in the trees, and she reaches out and she
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Speaker 1: grabs it and she turns and her leg is being
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Speaker 1: actively eaten by this bear. And she turns on the
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Speaker 1: drill and she's about to jam it into the bear's
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Speaker 1: eye when the bear suddenly stands up to its full
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Speaker 1: height and then just falls all its weight down onto
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Speaker 1: Natalia's chest, and immediately Natalia dropped the drill and the
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Speaker 1: bear clenched down on her throat. Now, at this point, Valia,
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Speaker 1: who again is hard of hearing, she didn't know what
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Speaker 1: was going on. She turned around and saw this bear
11:55
Speaker 1: mauling her friend, and so what does she do. She
11:58
Speaker 1: runs over to this bear right behind and begins pummeling
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Speaker 1: this bear and screaming at it to get off her friend.
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Speaker 1: And the bear, who barely registers Valia hitting it, it
12:09
Speaker 1: just lets go of Natalia for a second. It turns around,
12:12
Speaker 1: and you got to remember, this bear has been eating Natalia.
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Speaker 1: Its face is covered in her blood, and it turns
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Speaker 1: and looks at Valia and Valia she's terrified. She begins
12:22
Speaker 1: stumbling backwards, and the bear is clearly about to jump
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Speaker 1: on Valia. When Natalia, who's barely alive, she sees this happening,
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Speaker 1: and she just begins screaming at this bear while she's
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Speaker 1: laying there, bleeding out, trying to attract the bear to
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Speaker 1: come back and keep eating her to spare Valia, and
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Speaker 1: it works. The bear, hearing Natalia screaming behind it, forgets
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Speaker 1: about Valia and turns back around and resumes eating Natalia.
12:50
Speaker 1: And then just seconds later, the bear actually lifted up
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Speaker 1: Natalia by her neck and it ran off into the woods,
12:56
Speaker 1: carrying her. And so Valia is just left watching this happen.
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Speaker 1: She knows she's not going to be able to stop
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Speaker 1: this bear, and so she just begins running back towards
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Speaker 1: the car, which was not that far from where they were,
13:08
Speaker 1: and when she got out there, she grabbed her phone
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Speaker 1: and she called the authorities. About an hour and a
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Speaker 1: half later, hunters sent by the police along with animal
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Speaker 1: control arrived at this parking lot and they found Volia,
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Speaker 1: who was totally in shock, and she would tell the
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Speaker 1: hunters in animal control where this birch tree grove was
13:26
Speaker 1: where all this happened.
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Speaker 2: And a moment later the.
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Speaker 1: Authorities headed into the woods, and after arriving at the
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Speaker 1: birch tree grove, they actually saw the bear.
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Speaker 2: It was by itself, and.
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Speaker 1: It turned and looked at them, and it began charging them,
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Speaker 1: and they all raised their rifles and they fired at
13:41
Speaker 1: the bear, and they shot at enough times that the
13:43
Speaker 1: bear collapsed right in front of them, and then they
13:45
Speaker 1: shot it one more time to make sure the bear
13:47
Speaker 1: was dead. But there was no sign of Natalia anywhere.
13:50
Speaker 1: But then suddenly the authorities turned and saw something move
13:54
Speaker 1: off in the distance, and out from behind a tree
13:56
Speaker 1: came Natalia's little dog. It had somehow not sustained and
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Speaker 1: any injuries from this bear, even though the bear had
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Speaker 1: originally gone after the dog and the dog it came
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Speaker 1: up to the authorities and then quickly doubled back behind
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Speaker 1: a tree, and so, kind of operating on instinct, the
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Speaker 1: group followed the dog around the tree, and they saw
14:15
Speaker 1: the dog was closely guarding this kind of mound that
14:18
Speaker 1: was covered in sticks and leaves and dirt, and so
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Speaker 1: one of the hunters walked over and looked down, and
14:23
Speaker 1: they realized there was a person underneath this mound.
14:26
Speaker 2: It was Natalia.
14:27
Speaker 1: They pulled off all of the dirt and the twigs
14:30
Speaker 1: and they found her absolutely destroyed ball body, but Natalia
14:35
Speaker 1: was actually still alive. Brown bears are notorious for eating
14:39
Speaker 1: their prey while they are still alive. And in many
14:42
Speaker 1: cases they will gravely wound their prey but not let
14:47
Speaker 1: it die because then the meat is fresher when they
14:49
Speaker 1: come back and eat it later.
14:50
Speaker 2: And so bears will wound their prey and.
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Speaker 1: Then basically bury them, cover them up with sticks and dirt,
14:56
Speaker 1: kind of like putting it in the fridge, and then
14:58
Speaker 1: come back and eat them later on. Natalia was earmarked
15:01
Speaker 1: to be eaten later because she was still alive and buried.
15:05
Speaker 1: Natalia was rushed out of the forest to a nearby
15:07
Speaker 1: hospital and she would stay there for several weeks because
15:10
Speaker 1: she had serious, serious injuries from this bear all over
15:14
Speaker 1: her body where these huge bite marks and a lot
15:17
Speaker 1: of the flesh from her leg had been pulled off.
15:19
Speaker 1: But amazingly, she would recover, although the trauma of merely
15:24
Speaker 1: being eaten by a bear has never left her.
15:31
Speaker 2: Thank you to Betterhelp for sponsoring today's video.
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Speaker 1: I grew up in a family where talking about our
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15:44
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15:48
Speaker 1: forward to twenty seventeen, when I had just left the
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Speaker 1: listen and help. On the afternoon of May twenty fifth,
17:18
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, forty two year old Nicole Gordon was laying
17:22
Speaker 1: on her couch in her home in Atlanta, Georgia, with
17:25
Speaker 1: an ice pack on her head. She had a blinding headache,
17:28
Speaker 1: one of the worst headaches she had ever had, and
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Speaker 1: she was just unable to do anything else but lay
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Speaker 1: on the couch. Nicole really had no idea why she
17:37
Speaker 1: had this terrible headache.
17:38
Speaker 2: The only thing she could think of.
17:40
Speaker 1: Was three weeks earlier, she had been in a minor
17:43
Speaker 1: car accident and one of her car windows had broken
17:45
Speaker 1: and some of the glass had cut her face. But
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Speaker 1: she didn't think that would be enough to lead to
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Speaker 1: this absolutely horrific headache that.
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Speaker 2: Had not gone away for three weeks.
17:55
Speaker 1: But Nicole was a very tough woman, and even though
17:58
Speaker 1: she had thought about going to the hospital over these
18:01
Speaker 1: past three weeks to deal with whatever was causing this headache.
18:04
Speaker 1: She had told herself that, you know, it's got to
18:06
Speaker 1: be something minor. I just need to kind of tough
18:08
Speaker 1: it out here. And what toughing it out looked like
18:11
Speaker 1: was laying on the couch all day long, only getting
18:14
Speaker 1: up to eat and go to the bathroom, not going
18:16
Speaker 1: to work, and just sitting in the darkness with this
18:18
Speaker 1: ice pack, just hoping for.
18:20
Speaker 2: This headache to go away.
18:21
Speaker 1: And so as Nicole was just laying there, she heard
18:24
Speaker 1: her back door open up. It was her boyfriend, Jironte,
18:26
Speaker 1: coming in with groceries. He came inside and he put
18:29
Speaker 1: the groceries away, and then he came into the living
18:32
Speaker 1: room where she was, and he asked how she was doing,
18:34
Speaker 1: and she told him that the headache had not gone
18:36
Speaker 1: away yet and would he mind going into the kitchen
18:38
Speaker 1: and getting her some ivyprofen, which are pain meds, as
18:41
Speaker 1: well as some water. And so Gironte said, of course,
18:44
Speaker 1: he went in the kitchen, he got what she needed,
18:45
Speaker 1: he brought it back. She said, thank you. She took
18:47
Speaker 1: the ivy profen and then she went back to just
18:50
Speaker 1: being totally miserable. But just a second later, Nicole and
18:53
Speaker 1: Gironte heard a knock at the front door, and Gironte
18:57
Speaker 1: he walked over and kind of casually looked through the
18:59
Speaker 1: blinds to see if he could see who was at
19:00
Speaker 1: the front door, and he saw it was Nicole's best friend, Lisha,
19:04
Speaker 1: But instead of going to the door and opening it,
19:06
Speaker 1: Jaronte turned to Nicole and said, Hey, it's Lisha.
19:10
Speaker 2: Do you want me to get the door? And Nicole
19:11
Speaker 2: should just kind of grunted and said no, please just
19:14
Speaker 2: ignore her.
19:15
Speaker 1: Even though Nicole and Lisha were very close, Nicole knew
19:18
Speaker 1: that Lisha was very high energy. She had been calling
19:21
Speaker 1: and texting basically non stop ever since Nicole had begun
19:25
Speaker 1: getting these headaches. Lisha just wanted to help and kind
19:27
Speaker 1: of be around and be a part of her recovery.
19:30
Speaker 1: But Nicole just couldn't deal with that super high energy
19:33
Speaker 1: right now. She could barely have a conversation without her
19:35
Speaker 1: head hurting even more. And she knew that Lesha and
19:39
Speaker 1: Garante didn't really get along too well, and so Nicole
19:42
Speaker 1: figured it would just be better for everybody if they
19:44
Speaker 1: pretended no one was home, and Lisha just went on
19:47
Speaker 1: her merry way but Lesha was very persistent and just
19:50
Speaker 1: continued knocking really loud on the front door. She began
19:53
Speaker 1: calling Nicole's phone, and so Nicole began reaching over and
19:56
Speaker 1: silencing her phone over and over again, and finally Nicole
19:59
Speaker 1: looked over at Jironte and just said, I don't need this.
20:02
Speaker 1: I'm going into my bedroom and I'm lying down, and
20:04
Speaker 1: so she grabbed her phone.
20:05
Speaker 2: She stood up off the couch, you know.
20:07
Speaker 1: She could barely move her head hurt so bad, and
20:09
Speaker 1: she walked, you know, quietly, past the front door, made
20:12
Speaker 1: her way into her bedroom and she was about to
20:15
Speaker 1: lay down on the bed when she made the mistake
20:17
Speaker 1: of opening.
20:18
Speaker 2: Up her blinds just a little bit.
20:20
Speaker 1: Her room was on the front of the house as well,
20:22
Speaker 1: and she wanted to see if Lisha was still there.
20:24
Speaker 1: And when she opened those blinds, Leisha, who was outside,
20:28
Speaker 1: happened to be looking at Nichole's bedroom and the two
20:31
Speaker 1: of them made eye contact, and Nicole's like, oh my god,
20:34
Speaker 1: she knows I'm here. And so Nicole she just shuts
20:36
Speaker 1: the blinds. But now Lisha comes up to the window
20:38
Speaker 1: and she's yelling, Nicole, I know you're there, come on,
20:41
Speaker 1: let me in. I want to help you, but Nicole
20:43
Speaker 1: she just could not deal with it, and so she
20:45
Speaker 1: laid down on her bed and just continued to totally
20:48
Speaker 1: ignore Lisha. Nicole knew that no matter how offended and
20:51
Speaker 1: upset Lesha was for this snub, she would get over
20:54
Speaker 1: it because the two women had been friends for nearly
20:57
Speaker 1: two decades.
20:58
Speaker 2: Nineteen years earlier they had been and they had become
21:01
Speaker 2: friends really quickly.
21:02
Speaker 1: They had been pregnant at the same time, and they
21:05
Speaker 1: began raising their kids kind of like side by side.
21:08
Speaker 1: But in the last five years that Nicole and Gironte
21:11
Speaker 1: had been together, Nicole and Lisha had kind of drifted
21:14
Speaker 1: apart because Lesia and Geronte both had very strong personalities
21:19
Speaker 1: and they just kind of clashed, and Nicole and Geronte
21:22
Speaker 1: had this kind of on again, off again relationship, and
21:24
Speaker 1: every time they were broken up, Lisha would come around
21:27
Speaker 1: and be totally unfiltered with Nicole about how much she
21:31
Speaker 1: didn't like Gironte. But right now, Nicole could just not
21:34
Speaker 1: deal with Lisha, and so despite hearing her yelling for
21:37
Speaker 1: her to come outside, come on, I know you're in there,
21:40
Speaker 1: Nicole just rolled over on her bed with an ice
21:42
Speaker 1: pack on the side of her head and she fell asleep.
21:44
Speaker 2: A few hours later.
21:45
Speaker 1: When Nicole woke up, Lisha was gone as well as Jironte.
21:49
Speaker 1: He didn't stick around for very long. He often would
21:51
Speaker 1: only come over just to check in, and then he'd
21:53
Speaker 1: go off and do his own thing. And so Nicole,
21:55
Speaker 1: who still had this blinding headache, she sat up, She
21:58
Speaker 1: got out of her bed, and she was only able
22:00
Speaker 1: to walk back out into the living room, where she
22:02
Speaker 1: laid down on the couch and.
22:04
Speaker 2: Just went right back to sleep.
22:05
Speaker 1: Even though Nicole had had this headache for three weeks
22:08
Speaker 1: and it had not gotten any better, she really was
22:11
Speaker 1: convinced that taking enough ibuprofen and relaxing long enough would
22:15
Speaker 1: cause it to go away. But over the next couple
22:17
Speaker 1: of days, this headache, which was already like a ten
22:21
Speaker 1: out of ten on the pain scale to Nicole, somehow
22:24
Speaker 1: became like a twenty out of ten, and it got
22:27
Speaker 1: so bad that she couldn't even open her eyes. It
22:29
Speaker 1: was like horrific. And as this headache got so so
22:33
Speaker 1: so bad, her relationship with Gironte started to sour. Jironte
22:38
Speaker 1: didn't really believe that Nicole was actually in the amount
22:41
Speaker 1: of pain that she was in and he kind of
22:43
Speaker 1: began acting like she was just being lazy, and this
22:46
Speaker 1: really upset Nicole because that wasn't true at all. She
22:49
Speaker 1: was just in blinding pain and couldn't do anything. Finally,
22:52
Speaker 1: in late June, so five weeks after Nicole's headaches had begun,
22:57
Speaker 1: and at this point her headache had still not gone away.
23:00
Speaker 2: She was laying on the couch like always, with the
23:02
Speaker 2: lights off.
23:02
Speaker 1: She cut the ice pack on her head and she's
23:04
Speaker 1: just trying to get through the day when she hears
23:07
Speaker 1: the back door open and it's Geronte and he comes in.
23:10
Speaker 1: He slams the back door. He doesn't even say hello,
23:12
Speaker 1: and he just storms into the living room and just
23:15
Speaker 1: looks down at her with a totally disapproving look. And
23:18
Speaker 1: Nicole she kind of looked over at him, and when
23:20
Speaker 1: she saw that look on his face, she had just
23:22
Speaker 1: had it and she said, you know what we're done.
23:25
Speaker 1: And immediately Jironte got so mad and he's like, how
23:28
Speaker 1: dare You've been taking care of you for the past
23:30
Speaker 1: five weeks, bringing you groceries this and that, and Nicole
23:33
Speaker 1: she had no energy to fight with him, and so
23:35
Speaker 1: she just let him rant and rave until finally he
23:38
Speaker 1: was done and he walked out and she was like,
23:41
Speaker 1: thank goodness. A few days later, on June twenty fifth,
23:44
Speaker 1: Lesha was back at Nichole's house knocking on the door.
23:47
Speaker 1: Nicole had actually texted her to let her know that
23:50
Speaker 1: she had officially ended things with Gironte and so feel
23:54
Speaker 1: free to come over. You know, there's not going to
23:55
Speaker 1: be any drama with him being here. And so Lesia
23:58
Speaker 1: had come back over. She was very excited to see
24:00
Speaker 1: Nicole and kind of get over the snaffoo of her
24:03
Speaker 1: being ignored. And when she knocked and nic Coole did
24:06
Speaker 1: go up to the door and she opened it up.
24:08
Speaker 1: And Leisha as soon as she saw Innicle, this is
24:10
Speaker 1: like the first time she's seeing her since Nicole's headaches
24:13
Speaker 1: had really begun, she knew something was definitely wrong with Nicole.
24:18
Speaker 1: Her entire apartment is totally dark, all the windows are
24:21
Speaker 1: covered up, and Nicole is squinting out at Lesha, kind
24:24
Speaker 1: of beckoning her to come.
24:25
Speaker 2: Inside, and Lisia's like, oh my gosh, like how bad
24:29
Speaker 2: is this headache? And Nicole could barely make a sentence
24:31
Speaker 2: and she just said, oh, so bad. It's so bad, And.
24:34
Speaker 1: Solesia came inside and Nicole led her through the dark
24:38
Speaker 1: apartment to the kitchen and back, and Nicole she sat
24:41
Speaker 1: down and Lisia sat down opposite her, and Lisia began
24:44
Speaker 1: asking Nicole questions about her headache, about Jarante, just kind
24:48
Speaker 1: of about her life, and quickly Lisha realized that Nicole
24:52
Speaker 1: really wasn't making any sense. Her answers, even to the
24:55
Speaker 1: simplest questions like what did you eat today, were in
24:58
Speaker 1: fragments and didn't really make any sense. And finally Lisha
25:01
Speaker 1: said to Nicole, Hey, this can't be a normal headache.
25:05
Speaker 1: This is something serious. You need to go to the hospital.
25:08
Speaker 1: And at this point, even though Nicole had been trying
25:10
Speaker 1: so hard to just kind of white knuckle her way
25:13
Speaker 1: through whatever was going on in hopes it would go away,
25:16
Speaker 1: you know, she was starting to realize that there was
25:18
Speaker 1: something wrong here and she needed help from a doctor.
25:21
Speaker 2: And so Nicole agreed to go, and so Leisha.
25:23
Speaker 1: Would help Nicole up and kind of assist her out
25:26
Speaker 1: of the apartment and into Alesia's car, and Lisha would
25:29
Speaker 1: take her to the hospital. And when they got there,
25:31
Speaker 1: Lesia brought Nicole into the emergency room and she explained
25:34
Speaker 1: to the nurses and doctors that Nicole had this terrible migraine.
25:38
Speaker 1: It started after she was in this minor car accident
25:40
Speaker 1: five weeks earlier, and so the doctors and nurses brought
25:43
Speaker 1: Nicole back to one of the rooms and they began
25:46
Speaker 1: kind of treating her the way they would any other.
25:48
Speaker 2: Patient who had a serious headache.
25:50
Speaker 1: They asked her if she was hydrated, They asked what
25:53
Speaker 1: medication she was taking, They asked her what she was eating,
25:55
Speaker 1: how much sleep she was getting. They were just kind
25:58
Speaker 1: of going down the list of different things that could
26:00
Speaker 1: cause this headache, but nothing stood out as a red flag.
26:04
Speaker 1: Even the fact that she had been in this minor
26:06
Speaker 1: car accident and had some cuts on her face from
26:08
Speaker 1: the glass, that really wasn't enough for them to think, oh, yeah,
26:11
Speaker 1: that would cause five weeks of a persistent migraine like headache.
26:15
Speaker 1: They even looked at the cuts on her face to
26:17
Speaker 1: see if maybe they were infected or something, but they weren't. Basically,
26:21
Speaker 1: they had no idea what was causing this, but the
26:23
Speaker 1: doctors and nurses were very concerned because persistent extreme pain
26:28
Speaker 1: in your head could be signs of a stroke or
26:31
Speaker 1: an aneurysm or something, both of which.
26:33
Speaker 2: Can be fatal.
26:34
Speaker 1: So they put Nicole through a series of imaging scans
26:37
Speaker 1: to get a look inside of her head to try
26:39
Speaker 1: to figure out what was going on. And after they
26:42
Speaker 1: finished all these scans, Nicole was brought back to her
26:44
Speaker 1: hospital room and she laid down on the bed, and
26:47
Speaker 1: even though she felt terrible still because of this headache,
26:50
Speaker 1: she at least felt like, Okay, finally, you know, these
26:53
Speaker 1: people are going to figure out what's wrong with me.
26:54
Speaker 1: They're going to give me medication. This headache's going to
26:57
Speaker 1: go away, and I can get back to my normal life.
27:00
Speaker 1: But only a few minutes later, as Nichole is laying
27:02
Speaker 1: there trying to get comfortable, the door to her room
27:05
Speaker 1: suddenly burst open and a swarm of people came into
27:09
Speaker 1: the room looking very concerned. And in the middle of
27:12
Speaker 1: all these people was a guy wearing a suit, and
27:14
Speaker 1: he walked up to Nicole and he said he was
27:16
Speaker 1: a police detective, and he held up one of her
27:19
Speaker 1: scans and he pointed at it. But to understand what
27:23
Speaker 1: he was pointing at on her scan, we need to
27:25
Speaker 1: go back and look at what really happened on the
27:28
Speaker 1: day that Nicole got into that.
27:30
Speaker 2: Minor car accident.
27:31
Speaker 1: Back In early May of twenty seventeen, Nicole and Durante,
27:35
Speaker 1: who were still dating at this point, had just come
27:37
Speaker 1: back to Nichole's house after the two of them had
27:40
Speaker 1: been at a house party together, and Nicole was furious
27:44
Speaker 1: with Gironte because at this house party he had been
27:47
Speaker 1: openly flirting with another woman right in front of Nicole,
27:50
Speaker 1: and so Nicole, after going into her house, brought it
27:53
Speaker 1: up to Girante about how disrespectful that was, and Girante,
27:57
Speaker 1: instead of being apologetic or trying to defend himself or
28:00
Speaker 1: even lie about it, he actually just got really mad
28:03
Speaker 1: at Nicole and said, you know what, fine, I'm breaking.
28:06
Speaker 2: Up with you.
28:06
Speaker 1: And then he began going around her house gathering up
28:09
Speaker 1: all of his things that he had left inside of
28:11
Speaker 1: her house. And Nicole truthfully was so mad that she
28:15
Speaker 1: didn't really care that he was putting on the show
28:17
Speaker 1: of taking his stuff and leaving her. And so after
28:19
Speaker 1: a few minutes of Daronte angrily grabbing his stuff from
28:22
Speaker 1: inside the house, he had an outside to Nicole's car,
28:25
Speaker 1: where he had some more things inside of her car,
28:28
Speaker 1: and so he went in the passenger seat and Nicole,
28:30
Speaker 1: she just reflexively got into the driver's seat of the car,
28:33
Speaker 1: just to make sure that Jarante didn't take anything inside
28:36
Speaker 1: of her car that he shouldn't or mess with her
28:39
Speaker 1: car in some way to get revenge on her. And
28:41
Speaker 1: so she's sitting there, she's watching Girante right next to
28:44
Speaker 1: her gather up his things, and then he hops out
28:47
Speaker 1: of the car, doesn't say a word to her, and
28:48
Speaker 1: then he walked around the front of her car and
28:51
Speaker 1: got into his car, which was parked right in front
28:53
Speaker 1: of hers, facing out towards the road. He climbed into
28:56
Speaker 1: the driver's seat, shut the door, and then he didn't move.
28:59
Speaker 1: And so Nicole she's still sitting in her car looking
29:02
Speaker 1: at Gironte, hoping that he's just gonna leave now, but
29:05
Speaker 1: he wasn't, and so, suddenly, feeling so frustrated and mad
29:08
Speaker 1: at him for everything, she turned on her car and
29:11
Speaker 1: drove forward, not fast or anything, and bumped intentionally into
29:16
Speaker 1: the back of Gironte's car, and then she backed up
29:18
Speaker 1: to where she had been. And after she did that,
29:20
Speaker 1: she stared angrily at Girante, basically being.
29:23
Speaker 2: Like, what, like I want you to leave, like get
29:25
Speaker 2: out of.
29:26
Speaker 1: Here, and Gironte, he was furious and so he threw
29:29
Speaker 1: his car in reverse and he really hit the gas
29:32
Speaker 1: and rammed into the front of Nicole's car, And in fact,
29:36
Speaker 1: he hit her car so hard that her car lurched.
29:39
Speaker 2: Backwards and smashed into her fence.
29:41
Speaker 1: Now Nicole's memory only showed her this exchange. She remembered
29:46
Speaker 1: fighting with Gironte, him getting his stuff, and then her
29:49
Speaker 1: bumping into him, and then him really hard smashing into her.
29:53
Speaker 1: And so when she thought about the minor accident she
29:56
Speaker 1: had gotten into, this was it. But what Nicole did
29:59
Speaker 1: not no as she was laying in the hospital bed
30:02
Speaker 1: as this detective is holding up the skin and pointing
30:05
Speaker 1: at it, is there was actually a whole other series
30:08
Speaker 1: of events that played out after Gironte backed into her.
30:12
Speaker 1: After Gironte backed into Nicole and she smashed into her fence,
30:16
Speaker 1: Gironte got out of his car, walked up to Nicole's car,
30:20
Speaker 1: drew a gun and shot Nicole in the head. That's
30:24
Speaker 1: what happened. This was not a glass cut. This mark
30:27
Speaker 1: on her forehead was where the bullet went into her skull.
30:31
Speaker 1: But obviously this did not kill Nicole. It knocked her
30:34
Speaker 1: unconscious and Gironte picked her up, put her in his
30:37
Speaker 1: car and drove her to his mother's house, where he
30:41
Speaker 1: told his mother that, oh, Nicole was drunk and she
30:43
Speaker 1: got into a small accident, and you know, she just
30:45
Speaker 1: needs to rest. And so Gironte's mom, believing her son,
30:48
Speaker 1: put some neosporn on Nicole's entry wound from the gun shot,
30:53
Speaker 1: put a band aid over it, and kind of looked
30:55
Speaker 1: after her for the night. And then when Nicole came too,
30:58
Speaker 1: she had no idea what happened. Her memory only existed
31:01
Speaker 1: up until Gironte rammed into her. She didn't remember him
31:05
Speaker 1: getting out and shooting her and all of that. And
31:07
Speaker 1: so when Gironte realized that Nicole didn't know he shot her,
31:11
Speaker 1: he just went along with it and said, oh, yeah,
31:13
Speaker 1: you got drunk, and you know, we were fighting a
31:15
Speaker 1: little bit and you got into a small accident and
31:17
Speaker 1: I think the glass fell down and cut your head.
31:19
Speaker 1: You know, That's all that happened, and Nicole believed it.
31:22
Speaker 1: It wasn't until Lesia made Nicole go to the hospital
31:25
Speaker 1: five weeks later and they scanned her head that they
31:28
Speaker 1: discovered a bullet lodged in her brain. And so the
31:32
Speaker 1: detective came in the room holding up the scan and
31:35
Speaker 1: he pointed to the bright spot on the scan and
31:37
Speaker 1: that was the bullet, and the doctors and nurses they
31:39
Speaker 1: told Nicole that we've never seen anything like this, like
31:42
Speaker 1: you should be dead.
31:44
Speaker 2: And also because this has gone untreated for five weeks,
31:48
Speaker 2: your body healed around the bullet, like we can't even
31:51
Speaker 2: take it out now. Your brain has formed itself.
31:54
Speaker 1: Around the bullet and so it will do more damage
31:57
Speaker 1: than good if we try to pull it out. And
31:59
Speaker 1: so Nicole would go on to live her life with
32:01
Speaker 1: this bullet in her head, but she never really fully recovered.
32:05
Speaker 1: As for Gironte, the police would very quickly go after him,
32:09
Speaker 1: but he would flee police and evade them for two years,
32:12
Speaker 1: and then finally when they caught up to him, he
32:14
Speaker 1: was hiding in an attic and there was this whole
32:16
Speaker 1: long standoff, but then finally he would surrender himself and
32:20
Speaker 1: then he would get charged with a host of crimes,
32:22
Speaker 1: many of which he was convicted of, and so ultimately
32:25
Speaker 1: he was sentenced to twenty.
32:26
Speaker 2: Five years in prison. So that's going to do it.
32:33
Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's stories, be sure
32:36
Speaker 1: to check out our podcast called The Mister ball In Podcast,
32:39
Speaker 1: where we have literally hundreds more stories just like these
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