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Family Who Disappeared Found Trapped Inside Secret Room Locked For 9 Years · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: What is up, EWU crew? Today, we will be covering
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: three unbelievable cases of people discovered in extremely bizarre places
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that will leave you absolutely speechless. If you enjoy true crime, mysteries,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and true stories, be sure to hit the like button
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: and subscribe. Now, let's get into it. The first story
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we are going to be covering today is that of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Sandile Sabia. It is never a particularly fun experience to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: break or sprain a limb. Of course, the most painful
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: part of breaking an arm or a leg is the
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  Speaker 1: pain from the break itself. But the second most painful
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  Speaker 1: part is admittedly the trip to the hospital to get
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the break taken care of. Waiting in sitting rooms can
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: feel like forever. Getting an x-ray can take far longer
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: than one would like. And the actual process of having
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: an injury put in a cast can be both tedious
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and uncomfortable. These were likely the thoughts that Sondale Sabia
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  Speaker 1: was having on May 10th, 2019. when he accidentally hurt
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  Speaker 1: his right leg and realized that a trip to the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: hospital was in order. Sandile, a construction worker and local
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  Speaker 1: of Durban, South Africa, ended up heading to Durban's Mahatma
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  Speaker 1: Gandhi Memorial Hospital in the early afternoon in quite a
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  Speaker 1: bit of pain. When he arrived, he predictably waited his
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  Speaker 1: turn in the hospital sitting room like any other prospective patient.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: After what felt like an excessive waiting period, Sandile was
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  Speaker 1: finally seen by a doctor and ultimately taken in for
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  Speaker 1: an x-ray. His x-ray came back showing that he had
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  Speaker 1: a broken femur and that he would definitely need further
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  Speaker 1: medical treatment. At the time, the staff at Mahatma Gandhi
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  Speaker 1: Memorial Hospital had instructed Sandile to stay overnight for a
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  Speaker 1: few days until he could be properly treated. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: Sandile was set to be transferred to another nearby facility,
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  Speaker 1: Addington Hospital, to see a proper orthopedic doctor for his
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  Speaker 1: cast application. That is, if he made it that long.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: When the time came for Sandile's transfer, hospital staff approached
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  Speaker 1: the injured man's room with his paperwork in tow. But
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  Speaker 1: when they entered, Sandile Sabia was nowhere to be found.
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  Speaker 1: Hospital staff immediately set out in search across the facility
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  Speaker 1: for Sandile, assuming that he could not have gotten very
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  Speaker 1: far with a severely injured leg. After checking on every
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: floor of the building and looking into every other patient's room,
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  Speaker 1: the staff was dumbfounded at the notion that Sandile seemed
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  Speaker 1: to have vanished into thin air. But how could a
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  Speaker 1: man with a very obviously broken leg have made it
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  Speaker 1: all the way out of a secure hospital building? Sandile's
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  Speaker 1: disappearance appeared to make no sense to anyone working in
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  Speaker 1: Mahatma Gandhi Memorial. So staff were quick to report the
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  Speaker 1: man officially missing to local authorities. The South African Police
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Department opened a missing persons case immediately for Sandile and
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: authorities across Durban set out on a small scale search
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: for him. Unfortunately, despite search efforts, not a single person
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: could locate any sign of Sandile. A variety of theories
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  Speaker 1: arose surrounding Sandile's mysterious disappearance, but none sounded feasible, and
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  Speaker 1: no one had any information to work with to determine
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: why Sandile would have gone missing in the first place.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Back at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital, staff could not
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  Speaker 1: help but be incredibly concerned for Sandile's wellbeing. They were
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: meant to help treat his right femur, and he somehow
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: managed to disappear right under their noses. And perhaps that
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: is exactly where they should have checked. Ultimately, it was
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: the smell that gave it away. According to KZN Health
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  Speaker 1: MEC Nomagugu Semelani Zulu, on May 24th, 2019, just 10
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  Speaker 1: days after Sandile had originally come into the hospital, something
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  Speaker 1: was terribly wrong. Nomagugu stated, quote, an unbearable stench intensified
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: at the hospital and eventually it led to the storeroom
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  Speaker 1: where fluid dropping from the ceiling provided the telltale signs
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  Speaker 1: that something was amiss. As the stench began to spread
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  Speaker 1: throughout the entirety of the hospital building, hospital staff decided
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to investigate its source themselves. What they found completely shocked them.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: When hospital staff finally stumbled upon the storeroom that the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: horrid smell was emanating from, they cautiously pushed up against
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  Speaker 1: the ceiling tiles. When they lifted their flashlights into the
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  Speaker 1: space to have a look around, they came face to
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  Speaker 1: face with a decomposing body, the body of Sandile Sabia.
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  Speaker 1: When the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital staff reported the discovered
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  Speaker 1: body to local police and positively identified him as the
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  Speaker 1: man who had mysteriously disappeared from the hospital almost two
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  Speaker 1: weeks before, questions arose surrounding the context of Sandile's death. Sandile,
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  Speaker 1: despite his broken femur, was an incredibly healthy 53-year-old man
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  Speaker 1: who was more than capable of taking care of himself. So,
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  Speaker 1: How did he end up dead in a hospital ceiling?
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  Speaker 1: The hospital itself assured local citizens and police personnel that
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: their facility had impeccably tight security measures in place, with
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  Speaker 1: security guards in every unit of the hospital grounds. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: they even asserted that the only way runaway patients would
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  Speaker 1: be able to slip past security within the hospital grounds
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  Speaker 1: as if they were to change into civilian clothing during
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the busiest parts of the hospital's visiting hours. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: Sandile was found decomposing inside the ceiling of a room
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  Speaker 1: only accessible to hospital staff. When the investigation into Sandile's
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  Speaker 1: disappearance and subsequent death began, many officials believed that Sandile
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  Speaker 1: had actually been one of the hospital's mentally ill patients.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: In fact, Early reports of Sindelay's initial discovery even went
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  Speaker 1: so far as to report that Sindelay had actually been
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  Speaker 1: a mental patient before his disappearance, which was eventually proved
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  Speaker 1: to be false by the hospital. Throughout the investigation, officials
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  Speaker 1: were adamant that they would take the strongest possible action
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  Speaker 1: should anyone be found guilty of any form of wrongdoing.
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  Speaker 1: Despite this, Sendile's death still remains a mystery. And the
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: way his body ended up in the ceiling panels of
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the very same hospital he came to for help just
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: days before his death is also still completely unknown. The
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: second bizarre case we have for you today is that
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  Speaker 1: of Brian Egg. Brian Egg was born and raised in
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco. and spent the majority of the later years
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  Speaker 1: of his life living in San Francisco's South of Market
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood after having spent some of his youth working as
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  Speaker 1: a bartender at the legendary gay bar, The Stud. Brian's
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  Speaker 1: family resided just outside of the Soma neighborhood and visited
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  Speaker 1: with Brian every so often when their respective schedules lined
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  Speaker 1: up properly. When visiting each other was not particularly feasible,
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  Speaker 1: Brian and his brother would simply give each other a
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  Speaker 1: call on the phone to discuss the recent events of
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: their lives. One thing was certain between Brian and his family,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: communication was a crucial part of maintaining their strong familial relations.
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  Speaker 1: In late May or early June of 2018, Brian hadn't
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  Speaker 1: had much time to speak with his family as it
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  Speaker 1: seemed as though everyone's lives were pointing in different directions.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: In response, Brian decided to help out his community more
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  Speaker 1: frequently during his own free time. Brian was known to
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  Speaker 1: clean up some of the alleyways in his Soma neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: whenever he had the chance, and he was actually seen
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  Speaker 1: doing so over one particular weekend. After he had finished
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  Speaker 1: picking up trash in his neighborhood, he had apparently gone
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  Speaker 1: back into his house, according to his neighbor's, And that
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  Speaker 1: was the last time anyone ever saw Brian Egg alive.
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  Speaker 1: In late June or early July of the same year,
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  Speaker 1: just around a month after Brian's neighbors had reportedly seen
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  Speaker 1: the 65-year-old man tidying up the neighborhood, Brian's brother, Devin,
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  Speaker 1: tried to call Brian in order to catch up on
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  Speaker 1: their recent life events. When Devin called Brian's home phone number, however,
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  Speaker 1: He was met with an answering machine requesting he leave
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  Speaker 1: a message. There were two things strikingly wrong about the
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  Speaker 1: answering machine picking up Devin's call. One, Brian almost always
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  Speaker 1: answered his phone and had never used an answering machine
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  Speaker 1: in his life. And two, the voice on the machine
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  Speaker 1: was most definitely not that of his brother's. Devin checked
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  Speaker 1: the number he had dialed to confirm that he had,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, called the correct number. After noting that it
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  Speaker 1: belonged to his brother's phone, Devin attempted to call once more.
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  Speaker 1: This time, Devin was not met with the sound of
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  Speaker 1: an answering machine. This time, someone picked up. According to Devin,
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  Speaker 1: A man who gave his name as Nate allegedly answered
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  Speaker 1: Brian's phone and asked whom he was speaking to. Devin
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  Speaker 1: explained that he was Brian's brother and was trying to
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  Speaker 1: reach Brian at his phone number. Nate ensured Devin that
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  Speaker 1: his brother would call him back shortly and that Brian
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: was simply outside taking his dog on a walk around
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  Speaker 1: the neighborhood. As strange as the situation sounded, Devon nonetheless
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  Speaker 1: found himself waiting for his brother to give him a
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  Speaker 1: call back. Unfortunately, that call would never come. Devon was
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  Speaker 1: not entirely worried about his brother's odd behavior, as it
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  Speaker 1: was possible that Brian was simply busy or had made
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  Speaker 1: new friends who he hadn't met. But by late July
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: of 2018, it became evident to Brian's neighbors that the
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  Speaker 1: man seemed to be missing. You see, Brian was one
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  Speaker 1: of the few members of the Soma neighborhood who was
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  Speaker 1: familiar with almost everyone else. When multiple neighbors realized that
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  Speaker 1: they had not seen Brian for quite some time, word
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  Speaker 1: started to spread fast and a variety of people became
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  Speaker 1: extremely worried for the man's wellbeing. Police received multiple calls
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  Speaker 1: from Brian's neighbors stating their concern regarding the fact that
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  Speaker 1: Brian may have been missing or seriously injured inside his home.
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  Speaker 1: Officers decided to take the time to check out Brian's
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  Speaker 1: home and see if the man was in need of
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  Speaker 1: some assistance. However, every time the police came by, Brian
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  Speaker 1: was nowhere to be found. More so than that, no
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  Speaker 1: one ever answered the door. For one reason or another,
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  Speaker 1: Police determined that Brian must have gone out of town
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  Speaker 1: without letting any of his neighbors know. Because of these assumptions,
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  Speaker 1: the police appeared not too concerned about Brian's apparent disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: The residents of the Soma neighborhood, however, felt far differently.
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  Speaker 1: One of Brian's longtime neighbors, Scott Free, decided to take
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  Speaker 1: to social media to spread word of Brian's possible disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: as he and his other neighbors were concerned that the
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  Speaker 1: police were not taking their claims seriously. After Scott's posts
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  Speaker 1: about Brian started to circulate, many other neighbors who knew
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  Speaker 1: Brian added fuel to the fire by stating that they
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  Speaker 1: were also worried about the man. Collectively, the neighborhood came
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  Speaker 1: to an agreement and vowed to keep an eye on
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  Speaker 1: Brian's home and stay on the lookout for any suspicious
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  Speaker 1: activity or ultimately, any sign of Brian. With all eyes
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  Speaker 1: on Brian's home, it was only a matter of time
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  Speaker 1: before his Soma neighborhood noticed something particularly out of place.
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  Speaker 1: Neighbors claimed to see two strangers to the neighborhood frequently
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  Speaker 1: coming and going from Brian's home. No one in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood had ever seen the two young men before, but
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  Speaker 1: they were positive that Brian had no relation to them whatsoever.
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  Speaker 1: The residents of Soma found themselves once again trying to
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  Speaker 1: convince the local San Francisco police to look into Brian's disappearance.
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  Speaker 1: Though their efforts alone seemed to be rather unsuccessful, Brian's
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  Speaker 1: sister also became concerned about the fact that no one
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  Speaker 1: in their family had heard from Brian in months. So
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: after multiple calls from both Soma neighbors and Brian's own family,
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  Speaker 1: a few officers decided to stop by Brian's house once
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  Speaker 1: more on August 4th. When police knocked on the front door,
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  Speaker 1: they were once again met with silence. According to Brian's neighbors,
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  Speaker 1: the two men they had seen appeared to be homeless
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  Speaker 1: and seemed to be living inside of Brian's house for
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  Speaker 1: quite some time, which partially explained the fact that no
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  Speaker 1: one in the neighborhood had seen Brian recently. Though the
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  Speaker 1: two strangers had not answered the door, nor spoke to police,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: neighbors saw a significant difference in the state of Brian's
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  Speaker 1: home after the officer's third attempt at checking in. Just
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  Speaker 1: hours after police left Brian's home, neighbors claimed they watched
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  Speaker 1: an obscene amount of soap suds leak out from under
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  Speaker 1: the door. In addition to the soap, neighbors said that
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: when they approached Brian's house, they could smell the strong
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: scent of bleach. After the end of what they claim
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: appeared to be an extremely deep home cleaning session, the
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  Speaker 1: strangers from Brian's house were even reportedly seen painting over
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  Speaker 1: a section of the front of the home, including part
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  Speaker 1: of the front door, as if to cover something up.
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  Speaker 1: On August 7th, Brian's sister officially reported Brian missing, and
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  Speaker 1: by August 14th, the Soma residents ended up calling police
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  Speaker 1: yet again after reportedly seeing a private crime scene cleanup
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  Speaker 1: company parked outside of Brian's home for an extended period
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  Speaker 1: of time. This time, police responded to the neighbor's claims
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  Speaker 1: right away and dispatched a variety of officers to Brian's house. There,
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  Speaker 1: officers were able to arrest one of the two strangers,
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  Speaker 1: who the police report stated had been cohabitating in Brian's
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: home for nearly two months. The police report stated that
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  Speaker 1: the man was 52-year-old Robert McCaffrey, who Brian's neighbor said
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: had at least $ 1, 000 in cash on hand that they
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: alleged he was going to use to pay the crime
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: scene cleanup company. Just two days later, police were able
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to locate who they said was the other alleged person
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of interest in Brian's disappearance, 39-year-old Lance Silva, and subsequently
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  Speaker 1: arrested him in a nearby residential hotel. Upon both men
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: being arrested and interviewed, police charged both men with ID
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  Speaker 1: theft and financial crimes as it was alleged that Robert
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and Lance had used Brian's credit cards to possibly purchase
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: a car. One thing that was still unclear to investigators
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: at the time was Brian's whereabouts. In the hours after
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Robert and Lance's initial arrests, police returned to Brian's home
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to thoroughly search for clues regarding Brian's whereabouts. That is,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: if he was still alive. On August 17th, 2018, after
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: four days of searching the home, police discovered something they
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  Speaker 1: never saw coming. Inside Brian's home was a storage room
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  Speaker 1: located directly under a staircase. When police opened up the
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  Speaker 1: storage room, they were immediately met with an unbearable stench.
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  Speaker 1: Inside was one singular fish tank hidden away out of sight.
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  Speaker 1: It was then that investigators noticed that there was something
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  Speaker 1: peculiar stuffed inside of the fish tank. It was the
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: torso of a body that had been beheaded and had
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: its hands removed. The gruesome body was all that was
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: left of Brian Egg. Brian's death was ultimately ruled a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: homicide by a San Francisco medical examiner, and both Robert
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and Lance were charged with homicide, identity theft, elder abuse,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: and various financial crimes. Despite this, the San Francisco District
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Attorney's Office eventually ended up dropping all of the charges
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: against both men, pending further investigation. Robert was ultimately freed
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and Lance ended up being held in jail in Alameda
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: County for a parole violation. But ultimately, Lance too was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: freed from jail. To this day, no one has been
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: deemed guilty in court for Brian Egg's gruesome death. And
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: over a year after Brian's dismembered body was found stuffed
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  Speaker 1: into a chemical-filled fish tank in his own home, his
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: killer or killers remain at large. Finally, the last case
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: we have for you today is one that involves a
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: lot of secrecy and plenty of unanswered questions. In the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: ruins of Rijnevold in the Netherlands, day-to-day life has almost
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: always been extremely consistent. Rijnevold is a place where everyone
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: knows everyone, and rumors spread like wildfire when gossip starts.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: At least the most interesting ones do. The residents of
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Rhinovold tend to keep to themselves for the most part,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: but are nonetheless familiar with the different lives being lived
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: in the areas around them, or at least they thought
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: they were. In October of 2020, a local Dutch cafe
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: called De Castellijn welcomed a new customer for the first
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: time in a long time. As Rijnevold was a primarily
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: rural farm town, cafes like De Castellijn did not often
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  Speaker 1: see the likes of tourists. And when they did, the
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: tourists did not act as strange as the young man
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: who had come to visit on that fateful day in
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: early October. The cafe staff described the man as rather scrawny,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: and said that he seemed almost incapable of making and
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: keeping eye contact with anyone he spoke with. At first,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: it was not clear to anyone else in the cafe
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: if the young man could even speak their language until
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: he eventually spoke up to place his order. When he
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: did speak, the man ordered five pints of beer that
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: he intended to drink alone. When the cafe staff brought
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: him his order, the young man downed all five beers
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  Speaker 1: in one go, leaving everyone around him curious as to
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  Speaker 1: what had brought the man here and why he seemed
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to be acting so very strange. The cafe closed shortly
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: after the run-in with the thirsty young man and the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: cafe staff assumed they would never see him again. However,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the very next evening, the young man came back to
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the same cafe acting just as strange as he had
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: the night before. The staff eyed the young man closely
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: as it appeared that there was something he desperately wanted
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to say, though he remained silent until finally he cracked.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: The cafe staff continued striking up conversations with the young
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  Speaker 1: man as there was something so peculiar about the way
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: he acted. Everyone assumed something was off, but they couldn't
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  Speaker 1: tell what it was Prompted by the curiosity and concern
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: of the cafe's staff and the beer in his belly,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the strange young man blurted out something he knew was
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: meant to be kept a secret. According to the DeCasteline
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Cafe owner, Chris Westerbeek, the young man, quote, said he
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: had not been outside for nine years. Later, he also
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: said that he had four brothers and one sister who
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: lived on the farm. He was the oldest and wanted
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to put an end to the way they lived. At first,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Chris and the other employees from the cafe did not
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: know how to handle the information they had gathered from
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  Speaker 1: the strange young man. Some of the staff speculated that
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the man could just be out of his mind or
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: even alleged he could be on some kind of drug.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: But others saw the desperation in the young man's face
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  Speaker 1: and believed that he was truly scared for his own wellbeing.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: even if his claims seemed wildly outlandish in their small village.
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  Speaker 1: Chris decided to stay cautious and call local Reinfold police
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: to look into the young man's strange and concerning claims.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: When he did so, he had no idea what would
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: come of it. When asked further questions about his circumstances,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the young man allegedly claimed he had been inside for
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: nine years because of some kind of religion or a cult,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing more. The next day, following Chris Westerbeek's concerned
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: call to police, authorities acted on the complaint and visited
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  Speaker 1: the house on the Beitenheiserweg. When they arrived on the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: plot of land, they were shocked to discover what was
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: going on just inside of a farmhouse that local residents
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: passed by every single day. The house was situated over
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: 200 yards from the nearest road and 100 yards from
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the nearest building, which meant people passing by couldn't easily
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: see what was happening. Inside the farmhouse on the ground
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: floor was a small room that officers had initially assumed
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: to be empty. When they took a look inside, however,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: they were taken aback at what they found. Police said
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that inside the small room, they found multiple people, an
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: entire family. Upon being questioned by police, every single member
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of the family claimed that they were all over 18
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: years old and adults, though none of them could give
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: police any straight answers as to why they were all
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: cramped into a single room. Police noted that there were
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: six people living in seclusion on the farm, in addition
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: to 25-year-old Jan, who had been the first and only
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: member of the hidden family to escape into town in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: over nine whole years. Jan was the weary stranger at
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the DeCastellan Cafe who had been nervous and uneasy to
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: tell anyone the truth surrounding his circumstances. Upon their discovery,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: police learned that all six of the people hidden away
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: in the farmhouse were actually between the ages of 12
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and 15, not 18 as they had originally claimed. They
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: appeared to have been taught to lie about their age
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: if they were ever discovered. Though some of them were
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: not very willing to leave the premises, police had all
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: six of the children taken into police care and ensured
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that they were all immediately seen by a doctor to
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: gauge their health. Police were initially uncertain as to whether
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: or not the family had been living in the farmhouse
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: voluntarily and, more pressingly, how they came to be there
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in the first place. Later into the investigation, the police
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: report stated that all six of the children who had
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: been hidden away in the farmhouse had never actually been
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: included in the official registers, meaning that they had allegedly
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: been born in secret and kept completely away from the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: rest of society. Police were quick in tracking down who
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: they believed was the father of the six children, 67-year-old
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Garrett Yon Van Dee. Garrett was taken into custody, but
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: only after investigators alleged that he had not been alone
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: in purportedly keeping his children in isolation. Police said they
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: tracked down an Austrian man by the name of Josef B,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: who locals had known as an odd jobs man who
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: had rented the farmhouse. It is alleged by investigators that
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the two men were running what they referred to in
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the police report as some kind of doomsday cult with
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: no connection to the outside world. The BBC reported that
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: over the years, Garrett is believed to have allegedly mistreated
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: most of the children, though none of the children ended
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: up filing any kind of formal complaints against their father
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: or Yosef. As the investigation went on, police learned that
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Garrett actually had three older daughters who had managed to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: leave the home before the family reportedly withdrew from society.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Upon the police's discovery of his alleged cult formation, Garrett
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was also reportedly charged with money laundering, unlawful detention, and more.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Yosef B was charged and is suspected of kidnapping and
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: money laundering. According to authorities, quote, both Garrett and Yosef
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: knew very well what they were doing was punishable by law,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: and Garrett Van D was the evil genius, but Yosef
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: B was his partner in crime. During the trial, it
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: was revealed that investigators claimed to have found evidence that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: the children were mistreated while at the farm. The prosecution
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: alleged that the children were required to pray for weeks
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: at a time and on occasion were reportedly only given
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: water to drink and nothing to eat. At trial, many
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: of the children stated that they had been purportedly physically
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: punished by Garrett in various ways, which they described as
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: being hit with sticks to being forced to sit in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: ice baths until they lost consciousness. The prosecution also reported
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: that the children were allegedly punished in order to drive
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: out bad spirits, or when Garrett believed that they had
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: been unclean. Police said that they found evidence of such
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: claims also reported in Garrett's own diary entries, which were
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: obtained during the investigation. The investigation into the strange circumstances
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: surrounding the family's isolation is still underway to this day.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Both Yosef and Garrett remain in police custody while investigators
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: attempt to have a better understanding of what exactly took
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: place at the farm over the course of the last
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: nine years. In the meantime, Jan and the children are
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: currently adjusting to the outside world one step at a time.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: The three cases we have covered today are worth learning about,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: as you never know what kind of horror stories might
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: be hidden just under your noses, literally.