Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Deadly Devotion: Motherhood & Mayhem, Part 1

Transcript

Deadly Devotion: Motherhood & Mayhem, Part 1 · PNW Haunts & Homicides

• 0:00
  Greetings, friend.
• 0:17
  And welcome to a chilling Mother's Day collaboration podcast.
• 0:21
  I'm your guide, Shane Waters from the Foul Play Crime Series podcast.
• 0:28
  And together we'll be delving into the shadows of Motherhood on this eerie adventure.
• 0:35
  Thirteen skilled podcasters will join us as we explore the darker side of true crime stories.
• 0:44
  Each with an unsettling connection to Motherhood.
• 0:48
  All participating podcasts are listed in the show notes.
• 0:53
  When you hear what you like, I suggest you go find them.
• 0:58
  Before we embark on our haunting journey, although Mother's Day is typically a time to
• 1:05
  honor the love and sacrifices of mothers.
• 1:09
  Today we'll be exploring the twisted tales that lurk behind the scenes.
• 1:15
  As we explore these chilling stories, let's not forget that the role of a mother often
• 1:22
  embodies the ideas of protection and nourishment, of guiding and nurturing their children through
• 1:29
  life's challenges.
• 1:31
  However, as we'll discover, that's not always the case.
• 1:38
  Sometimes, even in relationships that once flourished with happiness and warmth, things
• 1:44
  can take a dark turn, causing everything to fall apart and crumble.
• 1:50
  It's a sobering reminder that the complexity of human relationships and the depths of the
• 1:57
  human psyche can lead to unpredictable and devastating outcomes.
• 2:03
  Now, let's begin our sinister journey.
• 2:07
  Our adventure starts in an abandoned garden, where overgrown vegetation casts dark shadows
• 2:31
  in a chilling wind whispers secrets through the trees.
• 2:36
  Though once vibrant flowers have wilted and the air is heavy with decay.
• 2:45
  As we make our way through the tangled underbrush, we encounter our first podcast or friend,
• 2:51
  Wendy, who joins me on foul play crime series to share a harrowing tale of motherhood on
• 3:00
  a rye.
• 3:00
  It was a beautiful March day on the west coast of America.
• 3:23
  A German tourist was enjoying the magnificent views as he drove down Highway 1.
• 3:28
  He took regular stops to breathe in the fresh sea air and take photographs to preserve
• 3:33
  his memories.
• 3:35
  The coastline was truly spectacular.
• 3:38
  Highway 1 being a firm favourite for visiting tourists.
• 3:41
  Mile upon mile of unspoilt scenery on either side of the road.
• 3:46
  I have in fact done that drive many times myself and it's not something I will ever get tired
• 3:50
  of seeing.
• 3:52
  But it's not always memorable for the right reasons.
• 3:55
  The road is narrow in places, it curves around the coastline like a snake.
• 4:00
  And you are often close to the edge of the cliffs.
• 4:03
  And accidents happen.
• 4:05
  Maybe you lose concentration for a split second.
• 4:08
  Maybe you swerve to avoid an oncoming vehicle this is too close to you.
• 4:12
  It happens.
• 4:14
  And so when this gentleman spotted a car upside down on the ragged rocks below, as he stooped
• 4:20
  to take a photograph, he assumed that it was an accident.
• 4:26
  Authorities arrived quickly and rescuers descended down the rocks to the upturned vehicle.
• 4:34
  There was no movement.
• 4:36
  There were no cries for help.
• 4:39
  They arrived to silence.
• 4:48
  Inside the GMCU con XL, or what appeared to be two women, with the bodies of three children
• 4:56
  found nearby.
• 4:58
  They were all confirmed dead at the scene.
• 5:02
  What a terrible accident.
• 5:04
  A whole family gone.
• 5:10
  Investigators began to try and piece together what had happened.
• 5:14
  A witness from a local campsite came forward to say that he believed he had seen the vehicle
• 5:18
  earlier in the evening.
• 5:20
  And then at around 3am, he heard an engine revving and tires on gravel.
• 5:25
  He got up to investigate but it was too dark to see anything.
• 5:29
  As he returned to bed, he thought he heard cries for help, but assumed it was animals and
• 5:34
  went back to sleep.
• 5:37
  Following the autopsy, the family were identified as the hearts.
• 5:43
  And this is when the investigation turned from an accident to a suspected murder suicide.
• 5:51
  Jennifer H.38 had been driving the car.
• 5:56
  Her body contained high levels of alcohol.
• 6:00
  Sarah also 38 had high levels of benedrill in her body.
• 6:06
  As did those of their three adopted children who were found near the vehicle.
• 6:12
  Marcus, age 19.
• 6:15
  In Jeremiah and Abigail, both aged 14.
• 6:20
  So what had happened that night?
• 6:24
  As friends of the family heard the news, they just couldn't believe that it wasn't an
• 6:28
  accident.
• 6:29
  Jennifer and Sarah had an idyllic life with their six adopted children.
• 6:34
  Or so it appeared from the outside.
• 6:37
  And yes, you did hear that right.
• 6:39
  There were six children, so where were the other three?
• 6:44
  An extensive search of the crash site discovered the bodies of Hannah, age 16, and Sierra, age 12,
• 6:51
  after a few days.
• 6:53
  There was no sign of 15-year-old Devonte.
• 6:57
  The scene and the data from the car was analysed.
• 7:01
  It showed that Jennifer had pulled the car off highway one onto a gravel turnout.
• 7:07
  70 feet away from the edge of the cliffs.
• 7:11
  She had then accelerated the vehicle to around 90 miles an hour before driving straight
• 7:17
  off the edge of the 100 foot cliffs, landing upside down on the rocks below.
• 7:31
  Killing herself, her wife, and their six children.
• 7:36
  There were no signs that she tried to break.
• 7:46
  Jennifer and Sarah Hart met around 1998 at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
• 7:54
  They had fallen in love and moved to Alexandria, Minnesota.
• 7:58
  In 2004, the couple decided to open their home and share their love with foster children.
• 8:04
  Their first daughter was 15 years old, and she told reporters that one day, Jennifer and Sarah
• 8:10
  dropped her off for an appointment with her therapist and just never returned to collect
• 8:14
  her.
• 8:15
  She never heard from them again.
• 8:19
  In 2006, the couple adopted three siblings from Texas, Marcus, seven years old, Hannah,
• 8:26
  four, and Abigail, two.
• 8:29
  In just two years later, in 2008, they adopted three more siblings, again from Texas.
• 8:36
  Devonte, five years old, Jeremiah, four, and Sierra, three.
• 8:43
  Investigations and discovery said, quote, "The heart tribe was now complete and they looked
• 8:48
  like the model of a progressive 21st century family.
• 8:52
  Two white lesbian mothers and six adopted black children."
• 8:59
  Jennifer stayed at home to look after the children while Sarah went to work.
• 9:05
  Jennifer was always on social media, posting photographs of the family, attending various
• 9:11
  events, and having adventures.
• 9:15
  The posts were always positive, portraying a tight-knit family unit full of smiles, fun,
• 9:22
  and cuddles.
• 9:24
  But the reality was very different.
• 9:27
  The children were all being abused.
• 9:31
  The couple were reported to the authorities a number of times.
• 9:35
  In September 2008, a teacher noticed a bruise on Hannah's arm.
• 9:40
  Hannah told them that her mum had whipped her with a belt.
• 9:43
  No further action was taken, but all of the heart children were taken out of school for
• 9:47
  a year by Sarah and Jennifer.
• 9:50
  Then in November 2010, teachers noticed signs of abuse on Abigail, then age six.
• 9:56
  Abigail said that her mum, Jennifer, had held her head under cold water and punched her.
• 10:02
  All of the heart children were interviewed, and they said that they were regularly refused
• 10:06
  food and were often spanked and grounded.
• 10:09
  Sarah took the blame for Abigail's injuries.
• 10:12
  She was charged and convicted of misdemeanor domestic abuse, and sent into a 12-months community
• 10:18
  service and probation.
• 10:20
  It was at this time that all six of the heart children were removed from school for good.
• 10:26
  With nobody checking on the children's welfare, the abuse escalated.
• 10:32
  In 2013, the family moved to Oregon.
• 10:37
  Attendees at the music festivals that the family attended were concerned that the children
• 10:43
  looked small for their ages, and reported that while in photographs, they were full of
• 10:48
  smiles.
• 10:49
  As soon as the camera was turned away, the children looked lifeless and acted like robots.
• 10:56
  Doing whatever necessary to keep Jennifer happy.
• 11:01
  Jennifer convinced officials that there was nothing wrong, and that people just like to
• 11:06
  pick on them because they were different.
• 11:10
  By 2017, the family were living in Washington in a rural property next to Bruce and Dana Gd
• 11:17
  Kelp.
• 11:18
  Bruce and Dana said the children rarely left the house and that the blinds were always
• 11:22
  drawn.
• 11:23
  In 2017, at around 1.30am, Hannah appeared at Bruce and Dana's door banging frantically,
• 11:31
  asking for help.
• 11:32
  Apparently, she said, "Don't make me go back, they're racist and they abuse us."
• 11:39
  The couple were shocked, but before they could react, Jennifer had arrived to take Hannah
• 11:43
  home.
• 11:45
  The next morning, all eight of the heart family arrived at Bruce and Dana's house to
• 11:49
  apologize for the previous night's events, and Jennifer explained that the children had
• 11:53
  all come from mothers who abused drugs and had some issues.
• 11:57
  Dana told her father what had happened and he reported the hearts of the authorities,
• 12:02
  but no action was taken.
• 12:05
  Things didn't improve for the heart children.
• 12:08
  In just eight months later, Davante approached Bruce while he was cleaning his car and begged
• 12:14
  him for some food.
• 12:17
  Bruce couldn't see the poor lad starving, so helped him out.
• 12:22
  Davante made Bruce promise not to mention this to his parents.
• 12:27
  After this first time, Davante asked for food for himself and his siblings a few more times
• 12:34
  before Bruce and Dana reported the family to authorities again.
• 12:40
  A child protection services worker visited the home, but there was nobody in.
• 12:46
  She left a card.
• 12:52
  The following Saturday, March the 24th, Bruce and Dana noticed that the family's GMC
• 12:58
  Yukon was not in the driveway.
• 13:01
  That same morning at 3am, Sarah had text work to tell them she was too sick to come in.
• 13:07
  The last sighting of the heart family alive was at a safe way store in Fort Bragg, California
• 13:13
  on the morning of Sunday 25th of March.
• 13:17
  The next morning, their car was found belly up on the rocks.
• 13:22
  Davante's body has never been recovered.
• 13:24
  With our heart's pounding, we venture deeper into the garden and discover a murky
• 13:54
  pond.
• 13:56
  The stagnant water is a stark reminder of the darker side of motherhood.
• 14:02
  Beside the pond, we find Brandon, who shares a spine-chilling true crime story from their
• 14:09
  podcast Music City 9-1-1.
• 14:24
  The 9-1-1 dispatcher can get any number of types of calls when their phone rings.
• 14:29
  Most of the time, it's a very routine call like a traffic collision, or someone wanting
• 14:34
  a namelence for a person who's just passed out.
• 14:38
  But on occasion, we might get a call that no one wants to hear.
• 14:42
  The call in which children have been hurt or worse.
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  9-1-1, you're 40.
• 15:02
  What's going on there?
• 15:03
  What address are you at?
• 15:05
  Okay, what's going on there?
• 15:08
  What are they doing?
• 15:21
  What do you mean "calling down"?
• 15:28
  They're not calming down.
• 15:31
  Are they repeated the crime?
• 15:34
  So they are conscious?
• 15:37
  Okay, and do you see any medical attention?
• 15:40
  Yes, I don't know what they want.
• 15:45
  Okay, how many children do you have?
• 15:48
  Four.
• 15:49
  Okay, and are they all four not calming down?
• 15:55
  Yes.
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  I just can't call them.
• 16:00
  Okay, what's going on there?
• 16:07
  Yes, we need a ambulance immediately for two babies.
• 16:11
  Okay, what's going on there?
• 16:12
  Okay, and what's going on with the babies?
• 16:17
  They're bleeding right now.
• 16:19
  We need an ambulance immediately.
• 16:21
  Where are they bleeding from?
• 16:23
  We need a ambulance immediately.
• 16:26
  My partner is talking to them.
• 16:30
  Why are they bleeding?
• 16:31
  What happened to them?
• 16:33
  I'm not sure.
• 16:34
  Then the ambulance will be ok.
• 16:43
  Okay, I don't want to go to the side.
• 16:49
  I don't want to go to the side.
• 16:53
  I don't want to go to the side.
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  I don't want to go to the side.
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  I don't want to go to the side.
• 17:15
  Oh my god, something is so wrong there.
• 17:23
  The dispatcher's last comments, "Oh my god, something is so wrong there."
• 17:28
  There's 100% accurate.
• 17:31
  The initial caller, 29-year-old Christina Booth, called 911 just after 1 a.m. on a Sunday
• 17:36
  in January of 2015 in the community of Olympia, Washington.
• 17:42
  Well before the call was placed, Christina and her husband Thomas were enjoying a movie
• 17:46
  with some wine.
• 17:47
  There are three children, one of which at the time was two years old, and the other two,
• 17:53
  twins that were six months old were there in the house with a couple.
• 17:58
  Christina took the two-year-old to bed when the twins started crying.
• 18:03
  During the novel One Call, she said that the babies won't calm down, that she's breastfed
• 18:08
  them, formula fed them, and that they weren't calming down.
• 18:13
  Christina was diagnosed with postpartum depression.
• 18:17
  She was on a prescription medication that was supposed to help her with this, but the overall
• 18:21
  stress was too much for her and she says she reached a breaking point.
• 18:27
  She had said that her husband, who served in the army, often got annoyed at the children
• 18:32
  crying.
• 18:33
  Her solution to this was ghastly.
• 18:37
  She believed if she killed her children, that the house would be quiet again for her husband.
• 18:42
  After putting her two-year-old in bed, she went to the dishwasher, grabbed a knife, and walked
• 18:47
  back to the two-year-old's room where she then slashed her throat.
• 18:52
  She covered up the two-year-old completely, then moved to the twins and did the same with
• 18:57
  them.
• 18:58
  When police arrived, they found the six-month-old twins laying on the couch crying and covered
• 19:03
  in blood.
• 19:04
  The two-year-old was found underneath the covers with dry blood all over her.
• 19:09
  They were all transported to a local hospital where surgery was performed and after all
• 19:15
  three survived.
• 19:17
  Christina was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder and then sentenced
• 19:22
  to 14 and a half years in prison and was also ordered to desist from contacting her children
• 19:28
  after a release.
• 19:39
  We leave the pond and enter a desolate village where the laughter of children has been
• 19:45
  silenced.
• 19:48
  Shadows dance across the empty streets, hinting at the unspeakable horrors that once took place
• 19:55
  here.
• 19:58
  In the eerie silence of the village square, we encounter Pia and Alex, who share a terrifying
• 20:05
  tale from their podcast, "Crimes from the East."
• 20:10
  On May 23, 2012, a man discovered burnt skeletal remains in the Payne National Forest
• 20:24
  area outside Mumbai, India.
• 20:27
  These were the remains of 25-year-old Shina Bora.
• 20:32
  Surely her mother was worried about her missing daughter, right?
• 20:36
  While in today's story we will see how this mother may have helped put her own child in
• 20:40
  this horrific state.
• 20:42
  The story starts with Indrani Mukherjee, who grew up in Guwahati in the northeast of India
• 20:48
  as an only child.
• 20:49
  By 18 she had her daughter Shina Bora and a son Mikhail with a young man.
• 20:55
  After a few years, Indrani was fed up with the stagnant life that seemingly was going
• 20:59
  nowhere.
• 21:00
  And so in 1993, when Mikhail was just a toddler, she abandoned them one fine day with her parents
• 21:07
  and moved to the big city Kolkata.
• 21:10
  Indrani was naturally beautiful, with an extroverted personality to match.
• 21:14
  She charmed her way through social clubs and worked her way up the HR consulting industry.
• 21:21
  She met and quickly married a socialite, Sanjay Kanna, with whom she had another daughter.
• 21:27
  Alex, did you have any thoughts so far?
• 21:30
  Okay, so she had her two kids and was like, "No, I don't like these kids."
• 21:35
  And then she goes and has another one.
• 21:36
  So did she like this daughter?
• 21:38
  Like, what's going on?
• 21:40
  Did she treat this child better?
• 21:42
  By all accounts, she absolutely loved this child.
• 21:46
  And it's rather unfair from the sounds of it, the way she abandoned her first two children
• 21:50
  and then completely doated on this child.
• 21:53
  Okay.
• 21:54
  Now feeling restless yet again in 1997, Indrani moved on to Mumbai city.
• 22:00
  She determined to find a partner with deeper pockets and higher ambition.
• 22:05
  She worked her charm and married a wealthy influential TV network executive called Peter
• 22:09
  Mukherjee.
• 22:11
  By this time, Indrani's two children in Guwahati, Shina and Mikhail were living lonely lives
• 22:17
  being cared for by ailing grandparents.
• 22:20
  Shina expressed anger and sadness over her mother's abandonment in her journal.
• 22:26
  So she's abandoned her third daughter or not?
• 22:29
  No.
• 22:30
  But she remarried again.
• 22:31
  Yes.
• 22:32
  She remarried and she took her daughter with her to her new home.
• 22:36
  And did she have contact with the two children she left?
• 22:40
  From what I read, no.
• 22:41
  She never contacted them.
• 22:42
  She never met them.
• 22:43
  She never really even checked on them.
• 22:46
  Shina saw her mother's face in the newspaper one day in a wedding announcement with a famous
• 22:51
  TV executive, Peter Mukherjee.
• 22:53
  She wrote a letter asking to meet her mother.
• 22:56
  In Indrani knew she had to respond and control the narrative because she had hidden her past
• 23:01
  from everyone.
• 23:03
  No one in Kolkata or Mumbai knew she had two children in Guwahati.
• 23:07
  In 2006, Indrani arranged for 18-year-old Shina and 16-year-old Mikhail to meet her at a hotel.
• 23:15
  There she laid it out straight.
• 23:16
  They could stay with her in Mumbai all expenses paid.
• 23:19
  If they agreed to lie to people and say that they were her siblings, not children, they
• 23:25
  begrudgingly agreed.
• 23:27
  Now Indrani separated the siblings and she never really let them stay in touch.
• 23:32
  She weakened their bond.
• 23:33
  She barely paid their minimum expenses and often used money to control their actions.
• 23:39
  Now this went on till one fine day in 2008 when Shina met Peter Mukherjee's son Rahul from
• 23:45
  his previous marriage.
• 23:47
  They felt completely in love.
• 23:49
  They began a relationship which Indrani was completely against.
• 23:54
  She was perhaps jealous of her daughter getting to be part of this wealthy family by possibly
• 23:58
  marrying Rahul.
• 24:00
  Or maybe because Indrani knew Rahul was technically Shina's stepbrother.
• 24:05
  Although I don't know how it would matter, they're not related by blood.
• 24:08
  Indrani only viewed her two children as burdens and reminders of a past that she wanted to erase.
• 24:16
  Shina and Indrani fought often as Indrani devised conniving schemes to get Shina fired
• 24:21
  from jobs and get isolated from friends.
• 24:25
  In Drani even tried to get her son Mikhail committed to rehab.
• 24:29
  By arranging him to be drugged, he woke up in a mental health facility and barely escaped
• 24:35
  a few weeks of being forcibly held there.
• 24:39
  It sounds like maybe she was just too young when she had the first two kids and yeah, she
• 24:44
  probably resented them for that and when she got her second chance at a life, she was
• 24:48
  really possessive of that second chance.
• 24:51
  So the fact that they came back into her life posed some kind of threat to her.
• 24:57
  To add another level of complication, Indrani and Peter allegedly embezzled more than
• 25:01
  a hundred million dollars out of a TV network that they started and closed up within a few
• 25:06
  years.
• 25:07
  They parked this embezzled money in an overseas account in the name of her daughter, Shina
• 25:13
  Bora.
• 25:14
  Ska-chi.
• 25:15
  Shina had threatened to freeze the money if Indrani didn't treat her well.
• 25:19
  I mean, Indrani only knew how to respect money so maybe that's what Shina thought will
• 25:23
  get her attention.
• 25:24
  But Shina was now a pawn in a very dangerous game with an unforgiving williness.
• 25:31
  In 2011, Indrani used her personal doctor to prescribe various anti-psychotic drugs to
• 25:36
  Shina.
• 25:38
  She felt sick and almost died, but for Rahul, who rescued her and took her to another city
• 25:43
  to get better away from Indrani.
• 25:46
  A year later, Indrani secretly got Shina a job back in Mumbai, which she could not refuse.
• 25:52
  And so she and Rahul moved back to Mumbai within Indrani's clutches.
• 25:58
  The happy couple got engaged and planned to get married soon.
• 26:02
  It was endgame for Indrani now.
• 26:06
  In April 2012, Indrani started to send Shina brief messages as if she wanted to patch
• 26:11
  up their tumultuous mother-daughter relationship.
• 26:15
  Indrani dangled the prospect of paying for Shina's MBA in London to get her to meet her.
• 26:21
  Poor Shina believed her mother had finally come around and agreed to meet her for shopping,
• 26:25
  dinner and apartment hunting.
• 26:28
  Indrani took Shina, sorry shopping, and then allegedly gave her a bottle of water, laced
• 26:34
  with a powerful sedative.
• 26:37
  One Shina was fully unconscious.
• 26:38
  Indrani allegedly strangled her with the help of her driver and ex-husband Sanjay Kanna.
• 26:45
  The trio parked the car in the garage overnight with Shina's body in the trunk.
• 26:50
  Indrani had invited her son Mikhail over to her home the same night and tried to get him
• 26:55
  blackout drunk.
• 26:57
  Mikhail was cautious and locked himself in a room pretending to be sick.
• 27:02
  This saved his life.
• 27:04
  And so leaving Mikhail at home, the three got back on the road the next day to dispose of
• 27:09
  Shina's body.
• 27:11
  Indrani put makeup on her deceased daughter's face and leaned her on the seat next to her
• 27:16
  as if she were sleeping.
• 27:18
  They then allegedly dumped Shina's body in the forest and burnt her remains.
• 27:23
  Rahul, Shina's fiance, was beside himself with worry as Shina had been missing for months.
• 27:30
  Indrani told him that Shina had left him and moved to the US.
• 27:33
  Rahul loved her and so he persevered and finally the cops arrested the driver on weapons
• 27:39
  charges which led to this confession of the entire murder plot.
• 27:45
  Both Indrani and Peter were eventually arrested and their trial is slated to start in the
• 27:50
  coming year.
• 27:51
  No matter what the outcome of the trial is, we can be sure of one thing.
• 27:56
  Indrani was a horrible mother who used her kids like disposable assets.
• 28:02
  I wonder what her third child thinks of the whole situation.
• 28:07
  I'm hoping which is not sending any Mother's Day flowers to Indrani and Jail.
• 28:14
  Yeah, I mean she really tried to eliminate both her kids from her life as if they meant
• 28:18
  nothing.
• 28:20
  And on that note, Happy Mother's Day y'all!
• 28:24
  Happy Mother's Day!
• 28:26
  Our journey takes us through a moonlit forest where a gnarled trees twist and reach for
• 28:43
  the sky like the grasping hands of vengeful spirits.
• 28:48
  In the darkness, a mother's love can turn into something much more sinister.
• 28:56
  In a moonlit clearing, we meet Whitney and Melissa who share a story from their podcast,
• 29:03
  Colts, Crimes and Cabernet.
• 29:11
  This day is extra special to Whitney and I for those that don't know we are both boy moms.
• 29:18
  But let's just jump right in.
• 29:20
  May 14, 1995 was Mother's Day in Universal City, California.
• 29:27
  And it was exactly as you can imagine.
• 29:30
  Beautiful weather, a perfect day with a high of 65 degrees.
• 29:34
  What mother wouldn't want to take this opportunity to have a late dinner with her son to celebrate?
• 29:42
  That is exactly what 61 year old Doris Karasi did.
• 29:47
  Her son Paul Karasi invited her and the mother of his two year old son Sonia Salinas out to dinner.
• 29:55
  They settled on the country star restaurant in Universal Studios City Walk.
• 30:01
  For those that don't know, the City Walk is a strip of restaurants and retail stores that
• 30:07
  is just adjacent to Universal Studios amusement park.
• 30:13
  After what appeared to be a lovely dinner, the four family members headed towards their
• 30:18
  car at the top level of the parking garage shortly after 11 pm.
• 30:23
  Now this was not the only available parking at the time, so keep that in mind.
• 30:30
  What happened on the fifth floor is not entirely clear either.
• 30:34
  What we do know is that Paul stumbled it down to the fourth floor of the garage where
• 30:38
  he encountered a security guard.
• 30:41
  He had cuts on his hands and then collapsed near the stairwell.
• 30:45
  He told the guard that two women had been attacked and that his kid was in the car.
• 30:51
  The guards radioed into the police department and there were several units within five miles
• 30:56
  for another call.
• 30:57
  When the security team followed Paul up to his blue Chevy Caprice, they noted that there
• 31:03
  was quite a scene.
• 31:05
  Two women laying on the ground where it seemed as though a struggle had occurred.
• 31:09
  The doors were wide open.
• 31:12
  The guards noted that the victims had been brutally stabbed in their face, chest and had
• 31:18
  their throats deeply slashed.
• 31:22
  Paul and Sonia's son remained strapped into his car seat in the back seat of the car yelling
• 31:28
  for his mother.
• 31:30
  Paul was covered in blood and originally told officers that he did not touch the bodies
• 31:35
  and he did not know why he was covered in blood.
• 31:39
  He claimed that he unlocked the car and he realized he didn't have all of his keys and that
• 31:45
  someone shoved him in the back demanding money.
• 31:48
  He claimed to say he didn't have any and that the attacker took his fanny pack and pushed
• 31:54
  him to the ground.
• 31:55
  Then he stood up and Sonia and Doris had already been murdered.
• 32:00
  He then said he made his way downstairs looking for help.
• 32:04
  In his interrogation, he couldn't remember what his attacker looked like or which way they
• 32:10
  had fled the seat.
• 32:11
  He did say they had male voices but that was all he could share.
• 32:18
  Paramedics arrived on scene and assessed Paul.
• 32:21
  They found a small cut on his thumb that was not bleeding but could not determine where
• 32:26
  the copious amounts of blood on his clothing could have come from.
• 32:30
  The paramedic did mention that Paul's responses to his questions seemed a bit strange.
• 32:37
  Sometimes he would calmly and concisely answer the question and other times he would get
• 32:41
  emotional with his answers and almost seemed confused.
• 32:45
  In the paramedics experience, most people he encounters after a trauma act withdrawn or upset
• 32:52
  but not both.
• 32:54
  The officers that were a few miles away had received a 911 call for a woman that claimed
• 33:00
  she had pulled over on the side of the road and someone had attempted to rob her.
• 33:05
  The 44-year-old Donna Lee had been stabbed in the back and abdomen.
• 33:11
  She was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for her injuries but they were extensive enough
• 33:15
  for her to need to be sedated.
• 33:19
  One officer stayed with her red Chevrolet Barretta which was strangely locked.
• 33:24
  The officer noted that there were two fanny packs, one that the investigators would later
• 33:29
  learn belong to Paul and the other Doris.
• 33:32
  A blue sweater, a latex glove, a washcloth, a pair of wool gloves and a large butcher knife
• 33:40
  with a blunted tip inside one of the fanny packs that had been tossed aside as well as Sonia's
• 33:46
  purse.
• 33:47
  One of these fanny packs had belonged to Doris and Paul had told the guard back at the parking
• 33:53
  garage that they had been robbed.
• 33:56
  As investigations continue, law enforcement learned that Donna and Paul are not only connected,
• 34:02
  they are co-workers and were in a relationship together.
• 34:06
  Doris, Paul and Sonia all worked at the downtown bridge of the Bank of America.
• 34:14
  A neighbor had told police that when Paul, Donna and Sonia left for dinner around 9pm,
• 34:20
  they were happy and chatty but that wasn't the case a few weeks prior.
• 34:25
  Doris had gotten into a fight with Donna, saying she shouldn't be living there and hit Donna
• 34:30
  in the head with her keys.
• 34:33
  Paul must have put this aside to be able to celebrate Mother's Day with his mom and the
• 34:38
  mother of his child.
• 34:39
  A little further digging into Paul and Sonia's past seemed to draw out some skeletons.
• 34:45
  In mid 1993, Sonia had some health complications and she was in and out of the hospital a bit.
• 34:51
  Doris helped with the then baby but when she finally recovered, Sonia decided to move to West
• 34:57
  Hollywood to stay in her family's home to ease the burden on her health for a little while.
• 35:02
  Sonia brought the baby back and forth to see his father and grandmother but this just wasn't
• 35:06
  enough for Paul.
• 35:08
  He made several statements to his co-workers and friends that he was concerned Sonia's
• 35:12
  family wouldn't allow him to see his son.
• 35:15
  He even made a comment to a fellow co-worker that he hoped that B word had died in the
• 35:20
  hospital.
• 35:23
  Others came forward with character testimonies.
• 35:26
  Talking about how Paul was very controlling, especially towards women and that he had an
• 35:31
  arrogant, wannabe attitude and carried a police scanner.
• 35:36
  Heck, even his Chevy Caprice seemed to lend to him wanting to be a member of law enforcement.
• 35:43
  One even stated he would drive to Hollywood and scare sex workers into thinking he was
• 35:48
  watching them for solicitation.
• 35:52
  In fall of 1994, Sonia took Paul to court for child support and the judge agreed to garnish
• 35:59
  the $375 a month out of his paychecks.
• 36:03
  This put a huge strain on their relationship.
• 36:06
  He made many veiled threats about how the money she was taking put him in dire financial
• 36:12
  strait. He had over $50,000 in consumer debt and was closing in on the need to file bankruptcy.
• 36:24
  Investigations also yielded that whoever committed these murders seemed to have done their homework.
• 36:29
  The location was one of the few blind spots in the cameras of the garage and remember how
• 36:34
  I said that it was not the only parking available between the restaurant and the parking garage.
• 36:41
  Meaning that he would choose that area.
• 36:45
  May 18th, Paul was arrested but later released when prosecution was not ready to press charges
• 36:50
  due to not quite having enough evidence yet.
• 36:54
  A forensic expert recreated the crime scene and evidence for the court and the report showed
• 37:01
  that one of the victims fought back on her attacker and the clothing that Paul was wearing
• 37:07
  that night had a bloody handprint and blood splatter that could have only been present had
• 37:14
  he been close to her during the attack.
• 37:17
  Other evidence supported that there was more than one assailant and Donna's blood was
• 37:23
  found at the scene as well as the victim's blood on Donna's jeans.
• 37:28
  Both Paul and Donna were arrested on first degree murder charges.
• 37:33
  Murder sought the death penalty for both but ultimately Paul received the death penalty
• 37:37
  and is currently on death row while Donna was sentenced to life in prison without the
• 37:42
  possibility of parole.
• 37:44
  Happy Mother's Day!
• 37:57
  As we press on we arrive at a crumbling cafe where mothers once gathered to share stories
• 38:05
  and support one another.
• 38:09
  The dilapidated building stands as a testament to the shadowy secrets that can lie beneath
• 38:15
  even the most wholesome facades.
• 38:19
  Within the crumbling cafe two ghostly figures materialized before us, Amanda and Courtney.
• 38:27
  They share a bone-chilling tale from their podcast, a nefarious nightmare.
• 38:43
  As mothers we always love our children unconditionally and often give them the benefit of the
• 38:48
  doubt.
• 38:49
  Sometimes our job in motherhood is a thankless one.
• 38:52
  But with endless dirty diapers, kissed to boo-boo's, bath time, what to make for dinner, navigating
• 38:59
  growing pains and finding the nicest way to tell your kid know when they want something
• 39:04
  they can't have like candy or the latest video game.
• 39:09
  And then when you think that things are looking up, you're hit with the inevitable pain that
• 39:14
  comes with puberty.
• 39:16
  Emotions grow high, rebellion sets in, social and peer pressure increases and let's be
• 39:22
  honest.
• 39:23
  Kids of all ages can be so mean.
• 39:27
  Depression is at its all-time high in that age, when teenagers are finding out a lot more
• 39:32
  about themselves and becoming a version of who they will be for the rest of their lives.
• 39:37
  While keeping somewhat of a naive and innocence with them as they learn a lot more about right
• 39:43
  and wrong.
• 39:44
  With that, I'm Amanda Cronin.
• 39:47
  And I'm Courtney Fenter, and we are in a furious nightmare.
• 39:50
  Today we will be discussing the case of Rachel Hudson, who very tragically murdered her mother.
• 39:56
  As a teenager, can you remember a time where, despite loving your mom and dad, you also
• 40:01
  just couldn't stand them.
• 40:03
  Some of you are listening to this and cringing.
• 40:06
  Some of you are pretending you have no idea what we're talking about.
• 40:10
  And let's be real here.
• 40:11
  You've had that moment.
• 40:13
  Don't be shy.
• 40:14
  Just admit it.
• 40:15
  But unfortunately, some of you may not have had a decent mother or even a mother figure
• 40:21
  at all, to which we say, "I am so sorry that you've had that pain to endure.
• 40:28
  Believe us, we empathize.
• 40:30
  But many of you are rolling your eyes and chuckling.
• 40:35
  Remembering the time your mom showed up unexpected at your school dance and did the Roger
• 40:40
  Rabbit or something in front of everyone.
• 40:42
  Yeah.
• 40:43
  Moms.
• 40:44
  Am I right?
• 40:45
  This particular case is heartbreaking.
• 40:49
  It's about a girl named Rachel, who felt she needed to, essentially, save her mom or herself.
• 40:57
  But unfortunately, that's not at all what happened.
• 41:01
  This case is very hairy for everyone because as mothers, we have this longing to understand
• 41:07
  and forgive and even empathize with the perpetrator in this case.
• 41:12
  We also feel extreme terror for ourselves and empathize with the family because this could
• 41:18
  very well happen to any mother at any time by any one."
• 41:24
  The Thanksgiving celebration of the Hudson family took a tragic turn when Rachel, who was
• 41:29
  19 years old at the time, fatally shot her mother inside their Virginia residence in the
• 41:35
  early hours of the Friday following Thanksgiving in 2013.
• 41:40
  Of course, she was a mother of her deceased mother, Rachel sent a photograph of her deceased
• 41:44
  mother to her father, who was out shopping for Black Friday sales.
• 41:48
  In an interview exclusively conducted by Dr. Phil from the Hampton Roads Regional Jail
• 41:53
  and Port Smith, Virginia, Rachel discloses the events that lead up to the murder and expresses
• 41:59
  her regret for her actions.
• 42:01
  Rachel has stated that she had attended to end her mother's life and subsequently her own.
• 42:07
  She expressed a desire for her father to be informed of the situation before she took
• 42:13
  her own life.
• 42:14
  It was at this point that she decided to send him a photograph of her deceased mother
• 42:19
  to prove her actions.
• 42:21
  Rachel explains that her father repeatedly requested to speak with her mother despite her
• 42:27
  informing him of her passing.
• 42:29
  She wished for her father to believe her as every moment of reality was unbearable and
• 42:36
  she longed to depart.
• 42:38
  Rachel has shared that her family was under significant strain while caring for her ailing
• 42:43
  mother who was slowly passing away.
• 42:45
  After enduring multiple heart attacks over the years and was also dealing with kidney and
• 42:50
  heart failure, quote, "We had been fusing and fighting a lot and we had promised we were
• 42:55
  going to get along better."
• 42:57
  She said in an interview, "Rachel said that at approximately 1 a.m., she had been engaging
• 43:02
  in a disagreement with her father, Donald.
• 43:05
  According to her account, Donald called her into his room and asked why she was still awake."
• 43:11
  Rachel responded by saying that she had been using the computer which then led to a heated
• 43:16
  exchange.
• 43:17
  She recounted feeling as though the situation was hopeless, with no hope for improvement
• 43:22
  or change and that stress would be a constant presence in her life.
• 43:26
  Rachel was aware that her future held difficult times following her mother's passing and Donald
• 43:31
  eventually left, leaving Rachel and her mother alone in the residence.
• 43:36
  It was at this point that Rachel made a decision that would have a lasting impact on the family.
• 43:41
  Rachel said, quote, "I wanted to kill myself.
• 43:44
  I had an overwhelming sense of not wanting to be there anymore."
• 43:49
  In quote, she said explaining that she felt that her family would be better off without
• 43:53
  her.
• 43:54
  Rachel then composed a suicide note and proceeded to retrieve a shotgun from a secure
• 44:00
  gun safe located in her closet.
• 44:02
  She expressed concern regarding the individual who would discover her lifeless body, acknowledging
• 44:08
  that it would likely be her mother who would hear the sound of the gunshot and find her.
• 44:13
  Rachel further explained that she began to contemplate that impact her actions would
• 44:17
  have on her family.
• 44:19
  Believing that they would be better off without her, in an effort to spare her mother that
• 44:23
  anguish of discovering her body, Rachel made the decision to take her own mother's life
• 44:28
  with a single shot from the shotgun.
• 44:31
  Afterward, Rachel made the decision not to take her own life without first speaking with
• 44:35
  her father.
• 44:36
  After that incident, according to Rachel, she skimmed the suicide note, felt it didn't
• 44:41
  seem adequate, and then claimed that she was apprehensive that her father would arrive
• 44:45
  home to find both her and her mother deceased, and there would still be a firearm in the house.
• 44:51
  She also expressed concern that he might harm himself.
• 44:55
  Quote,
• 44:56
  Rachel had said,
• 44:57
  "Donald was able to persuade his daughter not to take her own life."
• 45:15
  Rachel shared with Dr. Phil that her father advised her against it as he could not bear
• 45:19
  to lose both of them.
• 45:21
  She realized that her family was already in a lot of pain because of her actions, and taking
• 45:26
  her own life would only make things worse.
• 45:29
  Dr. Phil asked her if she had the opportunity to relive that night, would she still shoot
• 45:34
  her mom?
• 45:35
  Rachel had answered,
• 45:36
  "No."
• 45:37
  And claiming that she would contact the authorities and inform them of her suicidal ideation
• 45:42
  with a request for them to assist her with aid.
• 45:45
  Rachel had shown remorse for her actions, claiming that if her mother were able to contact
• 45:50
  her, that she would say, quote,
• 45:52
  "I'm sorry. I'm sorry and that I love her. I wish I could take it back, and I wish it would
• 45:59
  have been different. I didn't want it to be like this at all, and I miss her a lot. I miss
• 46:04
  her every day. I think about her. I'm going to do better. I'm going to do something with
• 46:10
  my life to fix what I've done. I don't want to be known for this. I want to be known
• 46:16
  for something better. One day, I want my parents to be proud of me."
• 46:22
  Rachel was sentenced to 50 years in prison with 35 years suspended and will serve a total
• 46:27
  of 18 years behind bars. After her attorney argued she suffered from mental illness that
• 46:33
  was undiagnosed for years. This case was very heartbreaking and Courtney and I both hope
• 46:38
  you gained and learned something from it. With all of this said, happy Mother's Day. Be
• 46:44
  safe and be vigilant for when you mess with the bees.
• 46:48
  You get the hive.
• 47:08
  We leave the Iri Cafe and find ourselves in a desolate playground where rusted swings
• 47:16
  creak in the wind and abandoned toys are thrown across the grounds. It's here that we meet
• 47:23
  Charlie, who recounts a gripping story from her podcast, Crime Lines.
• 47:39
  Today we're going to talk about how far a mother's love and rage can push her.
• 47:45
  This case starts in 1980 with Mary Ann Bachmeier and her seven-year-old daughter Anna, who lived
• 47:52
  in the city of Luebeck, which was then a part of West Germany. Mary Ann had suffered a lot
• 47:59
  in her life, including first abuse at the hands of her former Nazi soldier father and then
• 48:05
  at the hands of her ultra-religious stepfather. At 16, she was kicked out of her home because
• 48:11
  she became pregnant. She placed that child for adoption. At 18, she had her second baby
• 48:18
  and barely able to support herself Mary Ann also placed that child for adoption.
• 48:24
  Then in 1973, Mary Ann gave birth to Anna at the age of 23. Finally with a stable home and
• 48:32
  a job, she felt she was at a place to raise her child. But only the one. After Anna's birth,
• 48:39
  Mary Ann had her tubes tied. Mary Ann largely raised Anna alone and had to take the little girl to work
• 48:47
  with her at a local bar. And when her shift was over and Anna was asleep on a bench somewhere, Mary
• 48:54
  Ann would stay late, partying with her friends. During the day when Mary Ann would sleep, Anna would
• 49:00
  largely be left to her own devices. At one point, Mary Ann spoke with another family about fostering Anna
• 49:07
  for a while while she tried to get her life back on track, but she never went through with it.
• 49:13
  It seems living without her child even temporarily was not something Mary Ann wanted to do.
• 49:19
  In 1980, Anna was seven years old and was described as an energetic and happy child who was a lot more
• 49:27
  independent than most children her age. On the morning of Monday, May 5, 1980, Anna and Mary Ann
• 49:34
  got into an argument before Anna left for school. Angry Anna stormed out headed not in the direction
• 49:41
  of her school, but instead towards a friend's house. Of course, the friend was at school, so Anna just
• 49:47
  played outside. One of her neighbors, 35-year-old Klaus Gerbauski, invited Anna into play with his cats.
• 49:54
  This was something she had done before, but this time Anna never left the house alive.
• 50:03
  When Anna didn't make it home from school that day and Mary Ann couldn't find her, she called the police.
• 50:08
  Within about 24 hours, Klaus's fiance showed up at the police station to report that Klaus had confessed
• 50:15
  to her that he had killed Anna. Klaus then confessed to the police. He claimed that after he hugged Anna
• 50:24
  oh so innocently, she demanded he pay her five marks or she would tell her mother that Klaus had
• 50:31
  molested her. Klaus said he was afraid to go to jail, so he held Anna in his apartment until he
• 50:37
  figured out what to do. He decided he had no other choice but to kill her. He grabbed a pair of his
• 50:44
  fiancee's pantyhose and strangled the little girl to death. He then put her body into a box and
• 50:50
  buried her in a shallow grave by the canal. Little Anna's body was then recovered.
• 50:58
  The investigators did not believe that this little seven-year-old girl tried to extort Klaus for no
• 51:03
  reason. They fully believed that he had either molested her or tried to when she fought back or
• 51:10
  threatened to tell her mother what happened. That's when Klaus decided he had to kill her.
• 51:16
  They believed this because Klaus had a history. In the early 1970s, Klaus was convicted of molesting
• 51:24
  a six-year-old girl and attempting to strangle her. For this, he was given one year of probation.
• 51:31
  Less than two years after that, Klaus was arrested for molesting two children, a boy and a girl
• 51:38
  both nine years old. He was found guilty and sentenced to a year in a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
• 51:44
  In 1976, Klaus underwent a voluntary castration in an attempt to curb his sex drive.
• 51:52
  Not a chemical castration, but a physical one and supposedly irreversible.
• 51:57
  However, by 1978, Klaus had gone to a urologist and asked for a hormone replacement therapy
• 52:05
  so that he could have a normal sex life with his partner. He had to obtain court approval for this
• 52:12
  which he got. So Klaus was a convicted pedophile who was getting hormone therapy to restore his sex
• 52:19
  drive. He said he knew no one would believe him that he didn't molest Anna if she accused him due to
• 52:26
  his past, and Klaus was right, 40 years later and I still don't believe him. Klaus's trial began in
• 52:33
  March 1981, 10 months after Anna's murder. The prosecutors couldn't prove that Anna had been
• 52:39
  molested so they focused their case on the murder. The third day of trial occurred on March 6, 1981,
• 52:47
  31-year-old Marianne Bachmeier showed up and took her seat. At 10am, Klaus and his attorney came in
• 52:54
  as the judge was about to start the testimony. As soon as Klaus sat down, Marianne stood up, pulled out a
• 53:01
  buretta 70 from her purse, and opened fire, hitting Klaus six times. When the gun was empty,
• 53:08
  Marianne threw it on the ground and waited for the courtroom guards to take her into custody.
• 53:14
  Klaus died within minutes of hitting the courtroom floor. Marianne was charged with murder,
• 53:20
  but her defense claimed this was at most a manslaughter as she hadn't planned to kill Klaus.
• 53:26
  It was a heat of the moment decision and the reason she had a gun was because the life she was going
• 53:32
  to take was her own. On the morning of the shooting, Marianne visited Anna's grave before Klaus and
• 53:39
  was overcome with grief. When she arrived at the courthouse, she overheard Klaus and his attorney
• 53:44
  talking about him making a statement in court that day. She took her seat, thinking about how Klaus
• 53:50
  had accused her sweet daughter of trying to blackmail him, as though her death was because of her
• 53:56
  actions and not his. So when Marianne saw the back of Klaus in court and thought about what he was
• 54:02
  about to say on the record, she couldn't think rationally. She said she had a vision of Anna and
• 54:08
  heard her scream before Marianne pulled the trigger. Marianne was convicted of manslaughter and
• 54:14
  unlawful possession of a firearm. She was sentenced to six years but was released early in June 1985.
• 54:21
  Marianne moved out of the country first with her new husband who taught at a German school
• 54:26
  and then in 1990 after they divorced, Marianne moved to Palermo Sicily where she became a hospice worker.
• 54:33
  In 1996, Marianne was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She returned to Germany and died on September
• 54:39
  17th 1996 at only 46 years old. She was then buried next to Anna. Before her death, Marianne admitted
• 54:49
  that she thought about killing Klaus before she did it, undermining her own defense that it was a
• 54:54
  heat of the moment decision. And later to erase all doubt, a friend came forward and said that Marianne
• 55:01
  had spent days shooting the gun in the basement of the bar where she worked, perfecting her aim so
• 55:07
  she could exact her revenge on the man who took her child away from her. In response to this
• 55:13
  revelation, most people thought who could blame her.
• 55:17
  As we step away from the ghostly playground, we enter a dimly lit alley
• 55:30
  where secrets lurk in the shadows. In the gloom, we encounter Jessica, who shares a spying tingling true
• 55:39
  crime tale from her show The Asian Madness Podcast.
• 55:43
  I've decided to bring you a case that took place in Taiwan because that's where I'm from.
• 55:57
  Quick warning, this case is pretty depressing, not at all happy. Her name is Uruushu,
• 56:02
  and she was a young mother who did everything she could, but sometimes giving it your all just isn't
• 56:09
  enough. Let's begin. Who was Uruushu? I will refer to her as Uru for the segment. She was born in
• 56:17
  late March 1990, and if you do the math, she is very young. Unfortunately, like many others out there,
• 56:23
  she came from a broken home where her father physically abused her mother and the two eventually
• 56:28
  divorced before she started elementary school. Her mother tried her best, even at one point
• 56:34
  remarrying, hoping to give her four children a father figure and a stable family dynamic.
• 56:39
  Despite her efforts, the things who experience as a child really ended up impacting her.
• 56:44
  Growing up, her biggest dream was to have a family of her own, have a present and loving husband
• 56:50
  slash father. That's very normal. Many of us look forward to having our own families,
• 56:56
  but sometimes that want and need can cloud our judgments. When Uruushu was 19, she met and fell in love
• 57:03
  with a man who would eventually become her husband. It was not a fairy tale romance. He would not turn
• 57:09
  out to be the prince charming she was hoping for. He was abusive, she worked her ass off, and after
• 57:15
  falling pregnant the first time, he managed to convince her to abort the baby because it was not a
• 57:20
  good time. In a sense I get it, you're both struggling, it's very difficult to add another member to
• 57:26
  your family. She did as he demanded, but soon after she fell pregnant again, both her husband and
• 57:33
  her mother again, tried to tell her not to have this baby, that it will only add stress on financial
• 57:39
  issues to her already problematic situation. This time though, she was determined to keep her baby.
• 57:45
  As a quick side note, abortion is very much legal in Taiwan, depending on how far along you are of course.
• 57:52
  Uruushu has been did not like that she had a baby, but what could he do? The two decided to get married
• 57:58
  anyway in the year 2013 when Uruushu was 23. Taiwan is not super conservative, but it's quite uncommon
• 58:06
  to see unmarried couples with kids. So now that they got married, you think that at least play the part
• 58:12
  of a happy family, right? Well no, it was at that during their entire marriage, the couple of separately.
• 58:19
  According to sources, the only time the husband was show up to see his wife was when he wanted sex.
• 58:25
  He did nothing for the baby, it was all on her, with her family members occasionally pitching in.
• 58:32
  This unhealthy dynamic continued on for a bit, and by the year 2015,
• 58:37
  Uruh had her second baby, and the couple decided to divorce. At this point, staying married was
• 58:43
  completely pointless. She was the only parent giving two shits about their kids anyway.
• 58:47
  Not saying her ex-husband did not have a say in whether she had a baby or not,
• 58:52
  but it did not seem like they practiced safe sex. And if they didn't, well, there are usually
• 58:59
  consequences, like, say getting pregnant. So beginning in the year 2015, we became a single mother.
• 59:06
  Her educational background was very limited, as in she was only a high school graduate and did not
• 59:11
  earn another degree. Obviously, there are various jobs that do not require college degrees,
• 59:17
  but it was difficult. Most jobs she came across were either low-paying or the hours required
• 59:23
  were over the top. Working regular jobs in Taiwan can be very excruciating.
• 59:28
  Not as bad as it is in Japan or Korea, but there's usually mandatory overtime with no pay,
• 59:35
  very traditional work styles, and of course, low pay, despite living costs not being that high,
• 59:41
  compared to say, the US. Honestly, all the jobs she looked into were doable, definitely could
• 59:48
  have been enough for her, but a hundred percent not enough with two kids. She did find a decent paying
• 59:54
  job at one point, but because they required her to come in every other Saturday, it meant that she
• 59:59
  would have to find childcare for her kids, and that extra expense alone just did not make any sense to
• 1:00:05
  her, so she had to give that up. She would sometimes work several part-time jobs just to have enough
• 1:00:10
  for her and her two kids. You might be thinking, she has family though, right? Her mom, her siblings,
• 1:00:17
  even her sister-in-law, but we were not there. We're not part of that family. It's very difficult
• 1:00:22
  to say how involved they were if they even wanted to be involved, or if we even wanted to ask
• 1:00:28
  her family members for help. She might have wanted to prove to others that she could do it,
• 1:00:33
  that she was not a failure, and as they were her children, maybe she felt it was her sole duty to provide.
• 1:00:40
  By the year 2019, 29-year-old Wu was on the brink of a breakdown. She had no choice but to move in
• 1:00:47
  with her brother and her sister-in-law. She was heavily depressed, in financial ruin, had an unhealthy
• 1:00:54
  relationship with alcohol, and also took a lot of sleeping pills. Her health was worsening day by day,
• 1:00:59
  and people around her began to notice a drastic change. She had mentioned suicide multiple times,
• 1:01:06
  and her first recorded attempt was in November of 2019, where she tried to duct tape her mouth and
• 1:01:12
  nose shut in order to fixate. She was found in time, but instead of helping her, her brother found
• 1:01:18
  her to be annoying. He allegedly texted her after her attempt, saying something along the lines of,
• 1:01:24
  "What is your issue? What are you doing? Trying to die? Do I look like charity?" You better explain
• 1:01:30
  what a duct tape thing was about. If you want to die, take your kids to their father and die together.
• 1:01:35
  Better yet, wear a red dress. FYI, it's pretty typical for some female ghosts in Taiwan lore to wear
• 1:01:43
  red dresses or clothing, because supposedly if you kill yourself wearing red, you come back as
• 1:01:49
  a vengeful spirit. But anyway, the text was very harsh, and understand he felt a lot of pressure,
• 1:01:55
  and if she were to die, would he have to take over for the two children? As someone who was already
• 1:02:02
  depressed and ready to die, these words only made it worse for her. She felt guilty, and like she
• 1:02:07
  was a terrible mother. Around January of 2020, Shed was so much weight, she weighed a whopping 32 kilograms,
• 1:02:15
  approximately 70 pounds. Her two kids also required expensive medical care. How was she going to make
• 1:02:22
  this work? In February of 2020, we decided to take her two kids and leave her brother's home.
• 1:02:28
  Where was she planning on going? Is unknown. Her daughter's teacher found out and informed
• 1:02:33
  social services, stating that we was a single mother with financial stress, and that she needed help.
• 1:02:39
  When his brother got involved, and despite his previous complaints, he managed to get her to come
• 1:02:45
  back to his place, but set some ground rules. She had to stop sleeping all day, and she had to get a
• 1:02:51
  job before the end of March. The two argued over this, and once again, we'll grab two kids and left.
• 1:02:59
  If you haven't noticed, mental health issues is not widely understood or even accepted in
• 1:03:04
  Taiwan yet. The new generation, of course, is a lot more open-minded, but overall, it's still
• 1:03:10
  considered kind of like a myth, like a getover kind of situation. It's very frustrating.
• 1:03:16
  She took them to a motel, and that's when she decided she had to end it for everyone. She tried
• 1:03:22
  to suffocate her kids to death with a pillow, but that failed miserably. A couple days after,
• 1:03:28
  her first attempt to kill them, she tried her hand at it again, this time putting her crushed
• 1:03:33
  up sleeping pills in their jowl cups. Once the two kids fell into a deep sleep, she proceeded to
• 1:03:39
  strangle them with a rope. This time, she succeeded. Of course, she didn't want to live either.
• 1:03:45
  She grabbed the handful of her depression and sleeping pills, swallowed them, drank alcohol,
• 1:03:51
  and fell asleep. She believed that this would have been enough to kill her, but turns out that was
• 1:03:57
  not the case. She was saved again just in time. This was a very upsetting case overall. A young woman
• 1:04:04
  who became a mother to two kids, struggled her entire life to find a kind of warmth she lacked as a
• 1:04:10
  child, but only to end up realizing how cold and lonely the world really was for her. Long story short,
• 1:04:17
  the judge on her trial was not at all sympathetic to her situation. I know, she killed her two young
• 1:04:23
  children. That is horrible, but things are rarely ever black and white. She did not kill out of
• 1:04:29
  malice and she had intentions of ending her life as well. Not that it makes it any better. The judge
• 1:04:35
  refused to look at her overall situation. He called her a bad mother, told her to get it together.
• 1:04:41
  That tons of people are in her situation. If they can make it work, why can't she? If she loved her
• 1:04:48
  kids, she would never have killed them. Therefore, she never loved them. He completely overlooked the
• 1:04:54
  court issues, basically rejecting anything that could have led up to such tragedy. I hated when
• 1:05:00
  people refused to let others have a difficult time. Like you're struggling? So-and-so have it
• 1:05:07
  worse. It's not a suffering contest. No one wants to win the trophy for a worse life ever.
• 1:05:13
  Who wasn't initially sentenced to death, but her sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
• 1:05:18
  So there you have it. A very tragic story of a young mother who wanted to be the best for her
• 1:05:24
  children, who wanted a complete family, but in the end had to resort to some extreme
• 1:05:29
  boys. I know for sure she's not the only struggling parent out there. Yes, you could have been worse,
• 1:05:37
  but does it mean her situation wasn't terrible? Everyone reacts differently under harsh conditions.
• 1:05:43
  Couple that with her crippling depression. It just was a disaster waiting to happen.
• 1:05:48
  I want to give a shout out to all the mothers out there, except to select few like Casey Anthony
• 1:05:54
  and Susan Smith, because you guys keep the family going. Keep the kids alive, and I know there are
• 1:06:01
  sacrifices along the way. Thank you so much, and happy Mother's Day to you lovely people. Stay safe,
• 1:06:08
  till next time.
• 1:06:19
  We leave the shadows of the alley and find ourselves in a once grand dimension,
• 1:06:26
  now overgrown with ivy and shrouded in darkness. It's here we make camp for the night,
• 1:06:34
  and in the first night of our Mother's Day collaboration. Remember, friend, all the shows you heard
• 1:06:41
  from tonight are listed in the show notes in order of appearance, along with a link to find them.
• 1:06:48
  I am Shane Waters from Fowl Play Crime series. It's been a pleasure to be your guide tonight.
• 1:06:55
  I'll see you tomorrow for part two. Good night.
• 1:07:01
  [Music]
• 1:07:11
  [BLANK_AUDIO]