Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Espooky Tales: The Case of Miriam Rodriguez

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Espooky Tales: The Case of Miriam Rodriguez · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, this is Cristina and Carmen and this is another episode of
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  “Espooky Tales" the podcast for all things "Espooky" but also sometimes very sad, tragic,
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  infuriating, two crime stories and that's what we're doing today, Carmen. Great.
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  Yeah, man, we are gonna have a lesson or story but it's gonna be at the end of the episode
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  before split your recommendations answer the case. We're just gonna dive into this week's case.
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  I don't know if you've heard about and I didn't know her name for the longest time,
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  I just heard about the case but although like headlines or articles that announce or talked about it,
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  all said the same thing. It was like, "Woman takes down cartel by herself."
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  Do you remember seeing that? Yeah, that's who we're talking about today. That woman. Her name was
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  Miriam Rodriguez and again, it's very sad. It happens in Mexico and so if you, you know, don't
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  want to hear a very sad, tragic case then skip this episode. "Miriam Elizabeth Rodriguez Martinez
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  Martinez was born on the 5th of February 1960 in San Fernando, Tamaulipas in Mexico and everyone
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  that knew her since childhood describes her in the same way that she was fierce. She was a fierce,
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  strong Mexican woman and San Fernando was her home. It always has been but it wasn't the place that
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  she knew from her childhood. It changed a lot especially starting the late 1990s and I don't know if
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  you know where San Fernando in Tamaulipas is but I'm sure you can imagine why it changed so much
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  because it became a very dangerous place. It's 85 miles from Brownsville, Texas, you know, along the
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  US-Mexico border. This made it very easy for it to become stomping grounds for cartels because of
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  the location. It's a long highways that lead directly to the US. It's in the desert. It's very easy to
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  make, you know, different smuggling roads for drugs so it was like an ideal location for cartels
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  and that's what happened. By the time she was an adult that's what it became and she was there in
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  San Fernando raising her three children who were now adults as well. Luis, Asalea and Karen
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  with her husband who was also Luis. There they had a cowboy apparel store called Cowboy. No, sorry,
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  where's the name? I wrote it down. Rodeo boots. Wow. That's cool. Yeah. And they've had this store for
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  a very long time. They didn't want to leave but many were leaving because like I said, it was a very
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  dangerous city by this time. It's the stomping grounds for Los Zetas and Los Zetas control San Fernando. They
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  were formerly for people that don't know. Los Zetas were formerly part of a bigger cartel, the Gulf
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  Cartel. They were the armed branch of the Gulf Cartel and then like former military Mexican
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  military members branched off and became Los Zetas. So they were trained, they're armed and they're
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  dangerous. Ever since they split from the Gulf Cartel, they've been feuding with, you know,
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  that cartel and numerous others. Yes, thank you. And I mean, again, very dangerous Los Zetas,
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  they need to finance their way of life. They're feuding with other cartels. So they started
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  kidnapping innocent people for ransom, stealing, extorting local businesses, all typical cartel things.
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  And many, many, many in this area have and all over Mexico have been killed bit the cartel.
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  In 2010, a mass grave of 72 central and South American migrants was found in San Fernando.
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  When, sorry, 2010 and they were possibly killed because they refused to work for Los Zetas. That was
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  like one working theory. The other one was that Los Zetas believed they were going to be recreated by
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  the opposing cartel and killed them before that happened. But I mean, that's still 72. Yeah.
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  Central American and South American migrants, like one would be too much with 72 that's just like
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  out of this world. It's horrendous. And then in 2011, the following year, another
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  193 remains were found across seven different mass graves in San Fernando. All cartel related.
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  How many? Sorry. 193 remains across seven different mass graves. Every time you see the numbers,
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  like I don't grasp it, it's unbelievable. And then those are the mass graves, but it's not uncommon
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  for at least once a month for 20 people to be found in different areas to this day. That's still the
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  case. So yeah, many fled San Fernando because of the increasing violence. But many stayed, including
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  medium and her family, except her oldest son, Luis moved to two hours away. But a lot of people
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  stayed because you know, this was their home. This is all they knew and they had drown in the home,
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  thriving businesses like medium and her family. And then on top of the business, their own store,
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  medium also occasionally did some nanny work in Brownsville, Texas. She would drive across the border
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  to work there a few. Sometimes she'd stay like a week and then you know, go back home. And then her
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  youngest daughter, Karen and her husband will work at the store. And like I said earlier, Luis, the
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  oldest son had moved two hours away to Sue that Victoria, hoping to escape the violence.
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  The Rodriguez Martinez family, they were not rich, but they were okay. They were better than
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  most in this area because of you know, their business and the other work media was doing as a nanny.
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  So as a Lea and Luis were gone from the home and Karen, who was 20, she was still working there,
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  finishing college and working at the family store. And then on the evening of January 23rd, 2014,
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  Karen was leaving rodeo boots. She was in her in the family truck trying to merge into a traffic
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  when two trucks pulled up on each side of her truck, forcing her to come to a stop. Then armed men
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  forced their way into the family truck and drove away with it with Karen still inside. And they
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  drove to the family home. No one else was there because you know, Miriam was in Texas at her nanny job.
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  We don't know where the dad slash husband where he was. He was just gone work at work or something.
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  I don't know. So they bound and gagged Karen and then left her lane on the floor. And then there was
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  a knock at the door. And it was the uncle's mechanic. He had stopped by to work on the family truck.
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  So the kidnappers grabbed him, tied him up. But then they later let him go for reasons unknown to
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  the state. We don't know why he was just they didn't need him. I guess then as a la called Miriam. And
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  immediately Miriam thought something was wrong because you know, as a la was crying and she told her
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  the cartel has Karen. We received the ransom call. So Miriam left the nanny job right away to
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  her home. One of the like hard parts is she had to write the bus. God, she has like this urgent,
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  urgent, urgent crisis going on and she has to wait for the bus. Wait for the bus. Like beyond
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  someone else's time. Yeah. And then on top of that, it was a two hour bus ride, which is that is just
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  I can't imagine having to sit there knowing this is happening and there's nothing you can do because
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  you're just you can't do anything. Yeah. Yeah. You're trying to get there as soon as Miriam arrived
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  in San Fernando, a cele app picked her up and they got another call to Miriam's phone. And it was
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  the kidnappers again with Karen this time. And you know, it was the typical ransom call where they
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  forced Karen to give the message of like drop the money off here and then they just hang up. They
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  don't give they don't give the family a chance to talk to her or anything other than Karen giving
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  them the message. And the family they talked they were like, well, this is this is the cartel. This
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  is a business transaction. They they don't want Karen. They want money. So if we give them the money,
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  obviously, we'll receive Karen in return. And that makes sense like to think that. Yeah. Plus,
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  she wasn't the first kidnapping at all. This was such a common thing. Yeah. Like people knew how
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  these things went. Yeah. It wasn't a matter of if but a matter of when for a lot of people. And so
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  they gathered just under $10,000 with their own savings. Then they went out to get a loan at the
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  bank. And it was so bad that banks now had loans to get families for ransoms. God, that's terrible.
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  Yeah. I can't even fathom being the the lone person. We're like, um, our loans for ransoms actually
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  have lower interest rates like what the fuck? Right. That's terrible. It really is. It's crazy. It's
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  terrible. But they gathered they gathered all this money. They followed the kidnapper's instructions.
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  To the tea, they dropped the money off at the health clinic like they were instructed. And they waited
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  at the local cemetery. This is where the kidnappers were supposed to give back Karen. And they
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  waited hours. The kidnappers never showed. So two days later, medium asked for a meeting with the
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  members of the local cartel and to her surprise they agreed. So she met with the tall skinny
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  light-skinned man with curly hair. They met at a restaurant called El Junior and he told medium
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  that Los Zetas did not have Karen. But he could help find her for $2,000. But then he was
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  contradicted in himself and everything he was telling medium because he was like, well, I'll find her for
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  $2,000. Also, Karen has been such an ideal captive person. She's been so easy to deal with.
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  Okay. So you can't tell someone, hey, I don't have your daughter, but also your daughter is a good
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  kidnapping victim. Yeah. Wow. Also, these these kind of situations are so difficult because yeah,
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  like anyone could be like, hey, I can end you here by all the time. Like, I remember this other. I
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  don't remember the case or the names of anybody because I'm horrible with memory. But I remember
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  that it was this girl. I say girl, but she was probably like early 20s. She went missing from a
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  boat or something like that. Her family didn't know what happened to her. And then during their search,
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  they hired a private detector and gave him so much money, but he had been making up everything
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  he was doing. He wasn't helping them at all. Oh my god. Yeah. And they just gave over all this money.
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  And so like, I think about that guy you just said saying like, oh, I can help you find her for $2,000.
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  And it's like, it's it's so horrible and opportunistic and so easily to be taken advantage of that
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  state of desperation. 100% and it wasn't adding up, but medium, she'd do anything. Obviously,
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  anything to get carried back. So she gave him the $2,000. And during the meeting, the man had a
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  walkie talkie on his belt. And there was conversations going coming in and out that he wasn't responding to,
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  but she overheard the same thing again and again, Samma. And she was like, that must be his name
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  or a nickname that'll come back. So then over the next weeks, Samma, he stopped answering the phone.
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  He so obviously, this was what you said, him being opportunistic. The cartel probably didn't even know
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  he did this. He just was like, oh, this is an easy way to make $2,000. And then other others appeared
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  claiming to be Karen's kidnappers. And they it was always the same thing. They asked for more money.
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  The family continued to pay, hoping to find Karen. It's because they don't know who it is either. Yeah,
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  this terrible. It really is. And after every payment, there were more calls demanding more money.
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  And after each payment that failed to return Karen, they began to lose hope naturally. And I mean,
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  when things like this happen, like no one knows how they're going to react. What's going to happen. But
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  sometimes families lose hope. They start to fall apart. Yeah. So by this time, medium had separated
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  from her husband. She had fallen into despair. They both had fallen into their own despair. He was not
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  doing anything either. He was, I mean, depressed. And so was she. I mean, it's very common for that to
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  happen, like two families, even when someone dies, like a child of theirs dies. Yeah, they don't make it.
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  By this time, medium was living with Assela, the oldest daughter. And she wasn't neglecting
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  pretty much everything. Then one day suddenly, weeks after the first payment was made, medium got out
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  of bed. She shot where she fixed her hair. And then she just turned to Assela in like a super matter
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  of fact tone. She told her Karen's not coming back. Karen's dead. And Assela was like, what's happening?
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  She was confused. Then medium told Assela she would not rest until she found the people that took
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  Karen. And she vowed to hunt them down one by one until her own death. This is when Assela understood
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  the mother that she once knew was gone, completely gone. Any hope that medium maybe had felt or still
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  had it was not there anymore. It was now replaced with the desire to avenge her daughter. And so
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  instead of continuing in the loss and despair like her husband, medium, medium started to make a
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  list of people she knew that were in the cartel. People that she had seen or because you know you're
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  in these towns and you know names like all that house in that corner. Yeah. That house in the corner
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  belongs to so and so and he's like, never look at tell whatever. Yeah. Exactly. So she started to make a
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  list of the things that she knew. And then thanks to the mechanic that was like go during Karen's
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  kidnapping, he was the one that confirmed. Summer was there. Oh, medium met with him and got the
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  details. Then medium cut her hair super short, died a bright red and hopes that when she found
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  Sama, he would not recognize her as Karen's mother, the woman he met at that restaurant.
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  So then medium spent hours looking through Karen's Facebook profile, looking for clues, just
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  clicking on tag picture of their tag picture, just slew them looking for anything that would help her.
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  After days of the search, she finally found something. It was a picture tags with the name Sama.
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  And it was him. She recognized him from her meeting at the restaurant. So she knew him. Yeah, she
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  recognized him in the picture. And he was with the young woman who was wearing a uniform,
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  wearing a uniform of an ice cream shop in Cidad Victoria, where her son lived. She knew the uniform
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  because she'd been there before. So then she went to Cidad Victoria and she stuck the store for weeks
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  until she memorized the young woman's schedule. And she waited outside of each shift waiting to see
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  when Sama would show up because she knew he would. And when he finally did, she followed Sama and
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  the ice cream worker. Yeah. Yeah, she was doing like legit detective work. Yeah. When he finally showed,
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  she followed them to her house and she marked on the address, but she knew she needed more information
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  than just an address. She needed like names, more information on him, anything, right? Yeah. So then
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  she found one of her old government uniforms from years ago when she worked at a health clinic,
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  a government health clinic. She put the uniform on. She used an old ID that so looked like legit.
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  And she spent the day conducting a fake poll in the neighborhood going door to door,
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  getting information on everyone, including Sama. Oh my god. How does she think of this? Wow. Yeah,
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  the determination. And yeah, she got the basic information with this information. She went to
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  authorities, local state, federal. She tried them all, but no one was willing to help. I mean,
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  it was a cartel case like nobody wanted that. Yeah. And not to mention the people that were working
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  with the cartel because we know that's a thing too. So nobody wanted to help her until one police
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  officer, one federal police officer did. He remains anonymous in all of the articles. He never
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  says his name, but he does say the following about her when she pulled her files onto the table. I had
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  never seen anything like it. The details and information gathered by this woman working alone
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  were incredible. She had gone to every single level of government and they had slammed the door
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  in her face to help her hunt down the people who took her daughter. It was the greatest privilege
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  of my career. Oh, that gave me chills. Oh my god. I know. And you know what? I would have remained
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  anonymous to file. So oh, 100%. The files he mentions though, she had like, you know, those folders that
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  have you open them and they like an accordion file, I think is what they're called. Yeah. She had one
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  of those. And that's where she put everything that she was learning into. So it was like a legit
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  big case of files that she carried everywhere with her. So with this information, there was
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  finally enough for an arrest warrant, but it took a while. So when the arrest warrant was finally
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  issued, Sama was nowhere to be seen. Yeah, I knew it. Yeah. And this frustrated medium, of course,
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  but she continued her work to gather more intel on everyone. Eventually though, Sama did turn up
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  two hours away in South Africa. And it was September 15th, 2014, the day before Mexican Independence Day
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  and still on that day, there's festivities leading up to El Vito, right? Yeah. So places are still closed,
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  there's still, you know, things going on. And Luis, who had his own shop in Sudas Victoria, he was
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  getting ready to close his own shop to celebrate when one last customer walked into his store.
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  It was Sama. I fucking knew it. Oh my god. I know. I know. Leave him alone. Well, no, Sama didn't know who he
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  was. He just walked in. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I thought he was going to go kill him or something. No, no,
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  he just walked in to buy some things. No, okay. No, no, you're fine. Luis recognized him from his
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  mom's files. So he immediately called medium. And then he followed Sama. Oh, wow. And like, did not
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  lose trail of him until the police arrived to arrest him. And of course, when the police arrested Sama,
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  he faked a heart. He was like, I have a heart condition. And he was like crying and screaming like
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  that he couldn't be arrested. Basically, been a little bitch. I have no words. But he was arrested.
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  Good. And then he folded. Uh, he started giving names. Wow. Yeah. Everything. He filled the details
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  that my name was missing in her vials. So arresting Sama led police to then arrest Cristian Jose
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  Sapa Dago Salas who had just turned 18 and was pretty young to be part of the cartel. That's young. Yeah.
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  Yeah. And so when he was picked up and being interrogated, medium sat outside of his interrogation room
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  and he could hear Cristian repeatedly asking for his own mom and repeatedly saying he was hungry.
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  And medium entered the room, gave Cristian her own lunch and then went and bought him a coke. Oh my god.
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  Yeah. And the police were like, what are you doing? Let him suffer. Like, yeah, you know, he did this.
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  And then medium told them like, I'm still the mother. And that is a child no matter what he did
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  because she's an amazing person. She's going to make me cry. You're going to cry. I cry.
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  And after she did this, he started talking. And it's, I mean, maybe because of the kindness she showed
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  him. Yes. Yeah. So he, yeah, he said everything. And he then said he could take them to the ranch where
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  all the kidnapped were held killed and buried. It was going to be like a, like, this whole big operation
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  a raid and Mexican Marines and police worked together during the raid and they let medium
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  participate and she put on a marine uniform. Oh my god. I mean, she, she did all of the front work
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  for them. So they better let her write. And when they arrived at the ranch, it was like a scene out
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  of a horror movie. There was a news hanging from a tree. There was debris everywhere. Turns out
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  there had been a firefight between other cartels there 10, like 10 days before this raid. And then
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  they also went through a brief firefight. Oh wow. There was some cartel members that were killed. I think
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  two female members were killed. No, sorry. They were found and the Marines killed them on the spot.
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  That's what happened, which they're not supposed to do, but they did because they're also kind of corrupt.
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  And they found some people that were kidnapped and being held there. Sadly, Karen was not among them.
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  And so the raid was semi successful. I mean, they saved some people. They found some remains, but
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  medium, of course, she wasn't happy because Karen wasn't there. Yeah. And as she was looking around
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  the ranch, she found a stack of personable longings and among them, there was a scarf that belonged
• 19:53
  to Karen and the sea cushion Karen used when she drove the family truck. So Karen had been there.
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  Wow. After they analyzed and you know, identified the remains, they said Karen wasn't there. So
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  she had to be somewhere else. Miriam had to keep looking, right? As they were leaving the ranch, medium
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  passed by a barbecue restaurant that's kind of at the entrance of the road that leads to the
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  ranch. Okay. And she remembers this restaurant. She had been there two days after Karen's could
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  not be in with Aselaa. And sitting outside of the restaurant at a table, there was a girl that
• 20:32
  medium knew Elvia, Yulisa, Bettencourt. And Elvia was sitting by herself, sipping a coke,
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  medium approached her and asked like, Oh, have you heard about Karen? Everyone had been the whole
• 20:45
  city of San Fernando knew about Karen. And Elvia was like, No, I haven't heard what happened. So
• 20:52
  that's weird. It's suspicious, right? Yeah. And that's what medium thought to. And it felt like a stab
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  in the back because medium had known Elvia her entire life. Elvia had been abandoned by her own mother
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  and medium frequently helped her out, gave her Karen's old clothes. She looked out for her and
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  Elvia answering this was so suspicious because everyone knew what was happening. So medium left and when
• 21:19
  she got home, she returned to her research. And she discovered that Elvia was romantically involved
• 21:24
  with one of the suspected kidnappers of Karen, who happened to be imprisoned for a completely
• 21:31
  different reason. So medium went to that prison and just like she had at the extreme shop, she waited
• 21:38
  there every day for hours because she was like, Elvia is going to visit this guy there together.
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  Like, I know it. She did this for weeks. By this time, she had also found out that one of the ransom
• 21:48
  calls for Karen came from Elvia's house. Wow. Medium suspicions were right. Elvia finally showed up to
• 21:56
  visit her imprisoned boyfriend. And when she did, medium was ready to have her arrested. Medium just
• 22:02
  getting it done. She is. So this was three cartel members involved in the kidnapping of Karen
• 22:08
  arrested. She crossed three names out of her list. But as she continued to investigate,
• 22:14
  her list grew and changed because she was researching. Yeah. And then during all of her research,
• 22:20
  she also began to work with other families of the disappeared. They began going to her because
• 22:26
  they saw what she was doing and when she was capable of, too, yeah. Exactly. And it kind of reminds me
• 22:32
  of Maricella Escobelo Ortiz as well because when she started walking every single day to the judges,
• 22:40
  offices, protesting and slowly she was joined by more and more people like people. Other family members
• 22:46
  would disappear. Daughters, sisters, mothers, they started going to her too. And that's what happened
• 22:52
  here too. She began an organization. And this organization would grow to have 600 families in it.
• 22:59
  Wow. Which is way too much. Yeah. So, you know, she was doing this. She was doing her research. And then
• 23:05
  her research yielded another name Enrique Yoel Rubio Flores. And she learned that he had left the cartel
• 23:13
  and became a born again Christian. So she found his hometown. Travel to it is three hours away from
• 23:19
  San Fernando. It's Aldama. And so she drove over there. And she met Enrique's grandmother at the
• 23:26
  local church. Andrique's grandmother told media that Enrique had always been troubled but he finally
• 23:31
  found God. He was attending church again. So, media knew, well, he's going to show up to Mass.
• 23:37
  She was right. So she started attending Mass herself waiting for him to show up. When he finally
• 23:42
  showed up, she had him arrested. And Enrique's family begged her not to do this to have mercy.
• 23:48
  No. No. No. Yeah. Exactly. That's what she said. She was like, no, where was his compassion
• 23:54
  when he took my daughter? You can't just say I'm a born again Christian and everything you did
• 23:58
  wrong is absolved. Let's not write. No. So the only way to hold him accountable is the criminal
• 24:04
  justice system. And that's what she's doing. She could have done worse. She could have killed them.
• 24:08
  Like she could have killed all these people. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. And instead, she's living it up
• 24:14
  to the justice system, which is not always right. You know, exactly. Exactly. And so yeah, she had
• 24:19
  him arrested. And now at this point, she's two years into her fight for justice for her daughter. God,
• 24:25
  two who years. Yeah. And it's the same thing that we said in the Marisolas,
• 24:31
  gov. Or this episode when we talked about women murdered in the military about Benessaghiyan's mom
• 24:37
  and family members, there's no chance to even sit with your grief because they're over here fighting
• 24:44
  against cold ass government, cold ass cartels. There's no, yeah, no chance to grieve. And I just
• 24:51
  got to take a toll like, oh yeah, I can't even imagine. So yeah, two years after Karen's disappearance,
• 24:57
  she's still researching. She's continuing with her list. And the next person on her list was a
• 25:05
  former florist turned cartel member. She had even bought flowers from him when he was a florist.
• 25:10
  When he was before he joined the cartel, when he was like just a struggling florist in the streets,
• 25:15
  he claims he had been forced into the cartel and then he escaped. So when medium finally
• 25:20
  tracked him down, he was selling sunglasses and CDs near the US Mexico border. He immediately
• 25:26
  recognized medium when she was approaching him. So he ran, medium ran after him, tackled him down,
• 25:33
  held him at gunpoint. Wow. And yelled, if you move all shoot and she contacted the police and she
• 25:39
  held them there for an hour until the police arrives and arrested him. And you know, sad and it's true,
• 25:45
  things like that do happen. People are forcing the cartel into the cartel. But again, he doesn't
• 25:50
  think wrong and he has to be held accountable. So exactly. And she's doing this. Yeah. Because again,
• 25:57
  she could have killed them. Yeah. No, for real. And so yeah, she continues with her list. At this point,
• 26:03
  she's three years into her fight for justice. Almost 10 members or actually by this point, 10
• 26:09
  members that were involved with Diccona being had been arrested by her basically. And then it was
• 26:15
  March 22nd, 2017. There was a prison break in South Africa, the 29 prisoners had escaped by Diggin'
• 26:22
  a tunnel. Most were members of Los Setas and the 10 she had released or she had, sorry, imprisoned,
• 26:30
  also escaped, including one of the actual killers of her daughter, two, sorry, two of them, including
• 26:35
  them. One had been captured, one of the killers, but one was still at large. And medium had
• 26:41
  requested protection from the police. But even at this point, she said she wasn't afraid to die.
• 26:46
  Because she died the day they killed Karen. It's terrible because I know that grief and especially
• 26:52
  when someone is taken from you that way, it's not natural death. It changes people, but she,
• 26:57
  you know, she still has other, even though there are adults, other adult children, you know,
• 27:02
  and it's like her other daughter said the mom that she knew died or was gone, whatever her words
• 27:08
  or something like that. Yeah, it wasn't the same woman anymore. Yeah, no you're right. So even after
• 27:13
  the prison break, media was not done. She even went asked like when is it enough. She was like,
• 27:18
  "Me faltando as putas." There were still two bitches left on her list. This was what she would tell
• 27:23
  people. And these were the two women that she knew were involved. So she had finally found one of the
• 27:28
  two women, La Guera Soto. That's what she was known by. She had escaped or left the cartel life. She
• 27:35
  was now a nanny in Sudavigdoria. And a medium found her. Sat outside of her house waiting, sitting there,
• 27:42
  you know, listening to the radio and just waiting for her to come out. Her car battery died,
• 27:47
  what she was doing this. And we survived to jump her car. And then they watched the house together.
• 27:51
  And then when Don broke, medium called the police, La Guera left her house and medium ran after her.
• 27:58
  And she like, like, went around, medium chased. And then she pulled La Guera down to the ground by her
• 28:06
  hair and held her there until the police arrived. She did, however, break her ankle in the process
• 28:12
  of tackling a medium. And I mean, she is not a young woman. She's in her late 50s at this point, 57
• 28:19
  by this time. To be catching up to people and tackling them and shit. Yeah. So yeah, she broke her
• 28:24
  ankle. By this point, three years later, medium had also been to the ranch three times and had insisted
• 28:30
  for it to be checked for Karen's remains again and again. And this is when finally they re-searched
• 28:37
  among the first set of remains that were found in that first raid. And they found that one of those
• 28:43
  femurs had belonged to Karen. Wow. So now it was like officially confirmed Karen was dead. And they
• 28:51
  kept searching on medium's assistance and they found more, more bones, I guess, more bones. And it
• 28:57
  wasn't a complete skeleton. So medium insisted they kept searching until they had all of Karen. But
• 29:04
  they saw how the funeral because they had most of her now. So they held the funeral for her. God,
• 29:08
  that's terrible. It's terrible. It really is. And then on May 10, 2017, so about a month after
• 29:16
  finding like wetta and breaking her ankle, medium was still in crutches. It was Mother's Day, May 10.
• 29:21
  They had been celebrating the day and it was 10.21 pm. She was parking, heading back home. She was
• 29:28
  finally living with her husband again. They had reconciled. She parked on the street, got out of her
• 29:33
  car when a white Nissan truck pulled up next to her and fired 13 times. Yeah. When he heard the shots,
• 29:41
  her husband ran out of the house. He found her laying on the ground. Her hand had been reaching
• 29:45
  for her pistol that she always carried with her. And he called an ambulance and she sadly passed away
• 29:51
  in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. It's terrible. I'm like, how much loss can one family
• 29:55
  take? You know what I mean? Yeah. And I have chills because it's like, it just reminds me of
• 30:01
  Maricella Escobela Ortiz who fought and fought and fought against such a corrupt unjust system.
• 30:07
  Yeah. And in the end, she was also killed, likely by the same people that killed her daughter.
• 30:12
  And she's not the only one obviously because now we're talking about medium who ended up
• 30:16
  the same fate as Karen. Yeah. And even the whole like new, not mass movement that I think we've
• 30:23
  talked about this maybe not, but it began in Argentina, the whole color of purple. And I want to say that
• 30:28
  it was again a mother who lost her daughter in this manner. I think you're right. And then she is
• 30:33
  also killed in the same way. So it's not like just Mexico obviously, but it's still so I don't know
• 30:40
  if you're reading I guess. Yeah. I mean, like, Femiside is alive and real out there. Yeah. That's why
• 30:47
  International Women's Day is such a big deal. That's what it's really for. Okay. People, well, not that.
• 30:52
  It was working class women, but you know, violence, rampant violence against women internationally is
• 30:59
  a part of it fighting against that and awareness of that. So that's why it pisses me off when
• 31:06
  people act like it's a mother's day type of day for women. And it's like, no, we're not celebrating
• 31:14
  women this day. I'm sorry to say it's not to celebrate women. Do not give your wife flowers for
• 31:19
  International Women's Day. Why don't you go and I don't know, do something to uplift and fight
• 31:25
  against oppression of women worldwide instead? Because what is giving your wife flowers do nothing?
• 31:31
  Yeah. Yeah. Become a feminist instead. Not that hard. Why do you clear house instead? Yeah, no. Okay.
• 31:38
  Brandt over. Go on. So her death was a shock to the community that were protesting
• 31:45
  demanding justice for her death. Even the governor of Tamil Lipa himself went on the record saying,
• 31:51
  like, we're going to find her killers. And two men involved in her murder were arrested two
• 31:56
  months after her death, but they weren't they may they may have been the ones who like killed her,
• 32:01
  but they were not acting alone because these were two 18 and 19 year olds. Oh yeah, they're
• 32:06
  feeling we're not. They were given these orders by someone. There were a hundred percent more people
• 32:10
  involved more men involved in her death. And to this day, they remain free. No one else has been
• 32:16
  investigated. And on top of that, those two, the 18 and 19 year old received a 10 to 15 year sentence.
• 32:23
  So on top of that, her family, especially Louise, her son, who has pretty much taken over her work,
• 32:29
  but it's afraid. Of course. I mean, at this point, his sister, Karen, now his mother explicitly
• 32:36
  targeted for her search and fight for justice. Yeah. He even has said, this is a joke of a sentence,
• 32:42
  like 10 to 15 years for the death of his mother. And I mean, the other people involved remain at
• 32:48
  large. Like, but yeah, he took over the group, the 600 member group of other missing kidnapped people.
• 32:55
  And but after her death, the group's activity diminished due to the fear caused by her death,
• 33:02
  because obviously it's scary and what message are they sending? Like you become too loud, you
• 33:07
  become too active. You say too much, we're going to kill you. And we can. And we can get away with it.
• 33:14
  And so far they have. So yeah, the group is still still there, but yeah, the activity has
• 33:19
  lessened. And in fact, it wasn't until another boy was kidnapped in the same town San Fernando
• 33:27
  that the group began to act again. That boy is Luciano and the family even knew, they all knew
• 33:34
  each other. I'm gonna see when he was kidnapped. What year? Very recently, three years ago. Yeah,
• 33:40
  and it was like such a such a similar case. Trucks pulled up next to his, took him, the family paid
• 33:46
  the ransoms just like they were instructed to and the cartel still killed him. And they were like,
• 33:54
  we're not going to do the same thing. Same thing, medium is dead because like they were scared because
• 33:59
  it was all still so fresh. Her her own death was what four or five years before his. Yeah,
• 34:05
  but they didn't say quiet. They marched. They recorded a message with Luciano's mom like asking for
• 34:12
  him back. They put her down speakers and they would drive around town. Oh my god, playing it. I
• 34:18
  would cry. It's it's so sad. They would play this out loud. They interrupted like government
• 34:24
  meetings, protesting. They did a lot. And but they what they were like, we're not going to do is
• 34:32
  track them down and like what medium did because they were like scared. And I think the dad,
• 34:37
  he was interviewed by the New York Times and he says like, we can't all be like medium and I
• 34:42
  commend. I don't know if that's right where it commend her for her bravery, but I'm not that brave.
• 34:47
  Like I'm I'm scared and look what happened to her. Well, even honestly, even then protesting in this
• 34:53
  way, even that could make the matariate because you know, it's not in its affortunate, but um and I
• 34:59
  could of course understand what he's saying about. And not everyone like you shouldn't have medium
• 35:04
  should not have had to do what she did. And this family should also even like ideally, you know,
• 35:11
  ideally, nothing like this would happen, but and it did. But like ideally, the government would
• 35:16
  respond the way it's opposed to law enforcement would investigate the way they're supposed to instead
• 35:20
  of being in bed with the cartels. Yeah, exactly. And it wasn't until this happened with Luciano that the
• 35:26
  group that medium started really started picking up again with their attempts to fight back protest.
• 35:34
  So yeah, it's an at her funeral, um, thousands attended her funeral. They only who she was. She was
• 35:42
  buried next to Karen in the. Oh, I'm not a cry. Yeah, they have these like, I don't know if they're
• 35:52
  seated trees, but it was this part of the pantheon of the cemetery with like trees above it and
• 35:58
  they're next to each other. They're like three plots down from Luciano. Oh wow. That's terrible. And
• 36:05
  even in death, medium managed to catch the last person on her list. Really? Even after her death, yeah.
• 36:12
  So one month after her death, um, authorities in Veracruz found the final person on medium's list.
• 36:18
  They found out they're putta. Yeah, exactly. And they only found her because of medium's intel.
• 36:25
  That's why they knew where to look. So she was a former member of Los Etas. She had fled to Veracruz.
• 36:30
  She was involved in beating and torturing Karen during her captivity. Then she fled to Veracruz to
• 36:36
  raise her son. And yeah, medium did the work gave it to Veracruz officials and they found her
• 36:43
  with medium's information. Good. Two weeks before her own death, medium had updated her whatsapp status
• 36:50
  to say. And again, they were still missing
• 37:13
  parts of Karen. They did the funeral because they had most of her, but not all of her. That's a big deal
• 37:18
  for a lot of people. Well, isn't that belief the Catholic belief? If I remember right,
• 37:25
  that you had to be whole. Your body has to be whole to enter heaven or something like that?
• 37:29
  Yeah, I think so. And it also has, it's like, I know it's a thing with Muslims too because I know
• 37:35
  that's such a big thing in Palestine right now where like, a lot of people are not complete and
• 37:40
  it's such another insult on top of that because now their beliefs are, yeah, I mean, they can't,
• 37:47
  you know, go to heaven. And yeah, they kept searching for her or trying to search for her,
• 37:53
  demanding the authorities to search for her. You can find a bronze statue of Miriam in
• 37:58
  La Plaza Central of San Fernando. And there's a plaque that reads, "Apprendi que el coraje no es la ausencia de
• 38:06
  miedo si no el triunfo sobre el el hombre valiente no es aquel que no siente miedo si no el que conquista
• 38:13
  el miedo." I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over the brave man
• 38:19
  is not one who does not feel fear, but the one who conquers fear. Although I feel like they should
• 38:25
  have put women not man, but I was going to say in the statue of a woman, yeah, woman. But yeah,
• 38:31
  she is still loved by, you know, so many and remembered and visited that plaque of hers is to, yeah,
• 38:39
  it's there. And yeah, it's just like we've been saying this whole time. It's just a tragic, tragic
• 38:44
  case. Like I've seen people covering it and they're like, "Oh, it's so inspiring." But to me,
• 38:49
  it's just so sad and unfair. And obviously this is a strong, strong, fierce woman who had to do this,
• 38:54
  but it's like she shouldn't have had to do this. Yeah, it makes me think of, and there's, I think I've
• 39:01
  talked about this before too, but there's a clip and I don't know her name because I can't remember it
• 39:04
  right now, but there's a clip that goes viral almost every like international woman's day of a woman.
• 39:10
  And it was when the march in Sidao de Mexico got like violent and women like broke and burned down
• 39:16
  like buildings, which honestly, I'm here for it. I'm here for it. But there's one woman who says,
• 39:21
  "Who cares? Who cares if I burn down the world?" Like, she was my world and you took her and you're
• 39:27
  not doing anything about it. And obviously it's on Spanish. And she's like a mom whose daughter was killed.
• 39:32
  And she's saying this and all these stories just make me think of her or also of Vanessa Guillén's mom
• 39:40
  being, you know, outside of her hood by herself with the sign. But Rufina, Maya, who we've talked about.
• 39:46
  Yes. Yeah. How these women, just all the women we've talked about, yeah, yeah, fighting, not a chance to
• 39:54
  grieve. Yeah. And honestly, like going up against the world for their children. It's just sad.
• 40:00
  It is. It is. And yeah, definitely the main takeaway also for me, like you, is not how inspiring it is.
• 40:06
  And of course, it is. That's not to diminish that, but it shouldn't have to be like you said,
• 40:11
  inspiring like these women, these mothers, these families should have been allowed the time to grieve
• 40:16
  and to process and to heal and instead they had to fight and fight and fight and then they were killed
• 40:21
  for it. Yeah. And then after all that, they were killed many times by the same people that killed
• 40:26
  their own daughters. Sorry, my voice is done. But yeah, that was the case of medium,
• 40:32
  Rodriguez. And I'll put pictures up here so everyone can see her bright fiery hair that matches her
• 40:38
  fiery spirit. Yeah. But yeah, I guess I wasn't going to do a listener story, but I was like, you know
• 40:44
  what? I guess we should have like something to underpress me specifically. So now we're going to
• 40:52
  move on to our listener story. And if you have a story that you want us to read, you can email
• 40:57
  espucuitosagema.com. You can DM us on any of our socials. You can submit it on discord. We have a
• 41:04
  channel that says submit your scary story. You can also call the espucuit hotline that number is in
• 41:08
  the show notes or you can record a voice no one email it. All those are options. Carmen's going to
• 41:13
  read it because my voice is done. I've been sick. I'm a little better, but my voice is done. Yeah,
• 41:18
  so yeah. All right. So here goes the listener story. Hetchy guys, big fan of y'all. I really
• 41:24
  love the podcast. I listened to Spotify. I have two stories to tell you. I don't know if you
• 41:30
  find it spooky or not, but I thought they did to me to start on the first story or event and happen
• 41:36
  to my aunt who lives in Guanajuato in Un Rancho. This happened a long time ago. One night she was coming
• 41:43
  back from work and she would walk every day from work to the house. And one specific night she was
• 41:49
  walking near this baseball field and she said that she saw this figure of a man leaning against a tree
• 41:55
  and she passed beside him and told him, "When does it not just goodnight?" And she said that the moment
• 42:01
  he lived in his head, he had red glowing eyes and she just walks past her home. Oh no, that's...
• 42:08
  That was atanas. That was the devil. That was atanas himself. Oh my god, that's so creepy. Yeah,
• 42:16
  that's terrifying. I um, different would Iran home. I would have thrown up. Yep, that's scary. Okay,
• 42:23
  so the next one. My next story happened to my sister, my cousin, my niece, and my nephew. This happened
• 42:29
  back in 2015 in the Rancho where I'm from in Guanajuato. I went to Mexico to celebrate my quinceñera
• 42:36
  and one day when we were in practice and we had to cut it short because it started to rain and then
• 42:43
  stopped until dark. One of my damas couldn't be picked up by her sister because it was muddy and the
• 42:49
  motorcycle could slide through the mud so we decided to walk her home. Makes sense. And then in
• 42:54
  parenthesis, she says, "My mom didn't know we were going to walk all the way to her house which was
• 43:00
  far from where we were having the practice." We walked her and when we were coming back, we walked
• 43:07
  through the baseball field. Oh no, not the baseball field. The one at the end. Okay, wow. And we were
• 43:15
  holding umbrellas because it started to drizzle and we started to feel like something was flying or
• 43:21
  I don't know how to explain it, but something moved the umbrellas from our hands and then we started
• 43:27
  hearing something far like moving through the bushes. I just remember we were so scared that we
• 43:33
  decided to not like back and I wouldn't know the same. And we just ran because we just kept feeling
• 43:40
  something following us and in our mind we just kept saying it's nothing and it was just some cows
• 43:45
  following us. But my cousin looked back, she saw nothing following us and we just ran home
• 43:51
  till this day. I just want to keep it in my head that it was a cow following us. It was the cows. Sure,
• 43:57
  if that makes you feel better, it was a cow. I want to tell myself something like that too. Like,
• 44:02
  oh, it was, but on us back guys, like don't worry, it was just the cows moving behind us.
• 44:08
  Oh my god, it's horrible that it was the same baseball field because that immediately makes
• 44:12
  we think that no, sorry, it was not the cows, it was actually, it was a tenas. Seriously. Yeah,
• 44:20
  that was creepy. Wow. Okay, well thank you so much for your story. That was for sure, Espookie.
• 44:26
  Very Espookie. Yeah, we, I got scared for sure. Yeah, me too. That's it. Don't cross baseball fields.
• 44:34
  I didn't run, and if you do, don't look back and just run back and it was the cows.
• 44:40
  For sure, the cows. And yeah, stay Espookie. We'll catch everyone next time. Bye. (https://www.espookytales.com/the-case-of-miriam-rodriguez/)