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Inside the Prison - The Tragic Demise of Paula Josette · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive, where we well, you know,
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  we dive deep, we get to the bottom of things. Today,
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  we're taking a look at a case out of Mexico,
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  hermos Stillo, Mexico to be exact.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one's a tough one's at a real heartbreaker,
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  and it raises some well some really big questions about
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  how things work or how they don't work when it
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  comes to prisons, like are they really there to protect
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  people to rehabilitate? This case makes you wonder.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So we've got news reports, court documents, first hand accounts,
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  the whole nine yards, and it all starts to paint
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  a pretty grim picture. Right, So let's start with the basics.
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  Twenty three year old Paula Josette heads to Siso Iwo
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  prison January fourteenth, twenty twenty four. It was a conjugal visit, right.
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  Speaker 2: She was there to see an inmate she had met
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  online on Facebook.
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  Speaker 1: Actually Facebook and prison. That's wow, that's a story for
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  another deep dive.
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  Speaker 2: Right, yeah for sure.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, but back to Paula.
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  Speaker 1: She gets to the prison around six pm, right, that's right,
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  six pm.
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  Speaker 2: She enters the prison. Seems like a normal visit at
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  least at first normal.
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  Speaker 1: How normal can a prison visit really be?
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  Speaker 2: Touche? I guess you know? Routine is more like it.
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  But here's the thing. Just three hours later, everything goes sideways.
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  Nine pm. Emergency services get a call from the prison.
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  It's about Paula.
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  Speaker 3: She's she's not she's.
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  Speaker 2: Unresponsive, not breathing, Hold on, hold.
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  Speaker 3: On, three hours. That's it. What the heck happened in
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  three hours?
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  Speaker 2: That's the question, isn't it. Nobody seems to know, or
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  at least nobody's saying anything. And it gets well, it
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  gets worse. Ten four or five pm. Paula's body is
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  driven in a prison van by the way to the
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  general hospital.
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  Speaker 1: They drove her to the hospital after she was already
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  I don't even know what to say to that.
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  Speaker 3: Just awful.
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  Speaker 1: And the hospital they well, they couldn't do anything at
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  that point, could they.
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  Speaker 2: No. She was declared dead at ten forty nine pm,
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  just four minutes after the prison van dropped her off.
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  Speaker 3: Dropped her off?
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  Speaker 1: My god, Okay, so what's the official cause of death.
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  What are they saying happened to this young woman?
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  Speaker 2: Officially a heart attack?
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  Speaker 1: A heart attack. Twenty three year old woman has a
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  heart attack in prison. I mean, come on, that sounds
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  a little, well, a little too convenient, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly how Paula's mother, Presida Arizona feels. She believes
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  her daughter.
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  Speaker 1: Was murdered, murdered, and from what I'm seeing here, she's
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  not getting any answers from the people who should be
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  giving them to her.
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  Speaker 2: Nope, not a peep.
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  Speaker 3: So we're talking about a system that's supposed.
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  Speaker 1: To be well protecting people, right, and instead we have
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  a young woman dead under let's just say it, really
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  shady circumstances, and her mother, Bresida, she's getting absolutely nowhere
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  with the authorities.
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  Speaker 2: It's worse than that. It's like they're actively trying to
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  keep her in the darks.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like they think, oh, it's just another prisoner,
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  it's just another grieving mother sweeping under the rug. Nobody
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  will care. But Presida, she's not letting them get away
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  with that issue.
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  Speaker 2: No, not a chance. Presida. She's like a dog with
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  a bone. She's been digging, investigating, pushing for answers. And
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  let me tell you, she's uncovered some seriously sketchy stuff,
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  Like what.
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  Speaker 3: What kind of stuff are we talking? About give me
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  the details.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So, remember how Paula was at the prison for
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  a conjugal visit. Standard procedure for any visitor, even for
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  these types of visits, is to check identification at the gate. Yea, right,
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  I mean it's a prison. You think they'd be all
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  over that. Yeah, you'd think, right, But guess what. There's
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  no record of Paula's ID being checked.
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  Speaker 1: Wait what they just they just let her in, no
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  questions asked.
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  Speaker 2: Seems that way. There's no documentation of it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that's that's a big deal, right, I mean, that's
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  not just some small oversight. That's a major security breach exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And it gets worse. Let's talk about the medical response,
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  or should I say the lack.
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  Speaker 1: Thereof Oh man, yeah, you mentioned that earlier, something about
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  it being a weekend.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. Apparently medical assistance was delayed because it was a weekend,
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  a weekend, like people don't have emergencies on the weekends.
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  Speaker 3: Are you kidding me? They just left her there to die?
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  Speaker 2: It certainly seems that way. And then there's the whole
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  transportation of the hospital thing. The prison claims they took
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  her to the hospital that she died on the way there.
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  But the hospital records tell a different story. Yeah, the
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  hospital says she was dead on arrival.
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  Speaker 1: So they lied, They lied about her being alive. Why
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  why lie about something like that?
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  Speaker 2: Cover up? Maybe they thought if they could make it
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  look like they tried to get her medical attention, it
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  wouldn't look as bad. Who knows. But it gets worse.
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  When Brezida asked for Paula's things, you know, her purse,
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  her phone, things that might have clues about what happened,
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  well are gone, gone, vanished. The prison says they have
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  no record of her belongings.
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  Speaker 3: Poof gone unbelievable.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm guessing the security cameras they were out of
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  commission that night.
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  Speaker 2: What else malfunctioning cameras, missing belongings, a total disregard for
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  basic procedures. It just stinks, you know, it.
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  Speaker 1: Stinks to high Heaven. It's heartbreaking. This poor woman, she's
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  up against a wall, a wall of silence and lies.
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  It's enough to make you lose faith in well, in everything.
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  It's scary, you know, to think about this mother, Bresida.
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  She's going up against a system that just seems well
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  broken and without people, without reporters and investigators willing to
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  ask the hard questions, to dig a little deeper this,
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  all of this, it would just be swept under the rug.
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  It's like nobody would even know Paula Josette's name.
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  Speaker 2: It's a sad reality, and not just in Mexico. This
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  idea that some lives, some stories, matter less than others.
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  It's something we see time and time again, and it's
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  often connected to things like poverty, race, gender, and in this.
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  Speaker 1: Case, well, it's hard not to see the parallels. Right,
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  a young woman gone and nobody seems to.
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  Speaker 2: Care exactly, and it makes you wonder how many other
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  Apollo's are out there, how many other families are being
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  denied answers, denied justice.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, But in terms of Paula's case, in terms of
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  getting some kind of justice for her, for Presida, has
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  there been any movement have they? Have they held anyone
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  accountable for what happened?
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  Speaker 2: There have been some arrests made.
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  Speaker 3: Really who did they arrest?
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  Speaker 2: Two prison officials, Fernando arturo In and Juan Pedroan.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, and what are they being charged with?
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  Speaker 3: What did they do?
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  Speaker 2: Failure to comply with their legal duty? Basically, they're saying
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  these guys. They didn't do what they were supposed to
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  do and that led to well to what happened to Paula.
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  Speaker 1: So I mean that's something, right, it's a start. They're
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  being held accountable.
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  Speaker 2: Well, here's the thing, a judge they granted them bail,
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  so they're out awaiting trial.
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  Speaker 1: They're out, they're free after all of this.
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  Speaker 3: It's just I don't even have words.
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  Speaker 2: It's a slap in the face to Presida, to anyone
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  who cares about justice, and to make matters worse, these arrests,
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  they don't even address the core issue who is ultimately
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  responsible for Paula's death? Because of these charges, no one
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  is being held directly responsible for that.
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  Speaker 1: So what now? Where do things go from here?
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  Speaker 2: Presida, she's not giving up. She's working with some organizations,
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  groups that are dedicated to fighting for victims of gender
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  based violence. One of them is the National Citizen Observatory
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  on Femicide.
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  Speaker 1: And what are they trying to do.
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  Speaker 2: They're pushing for a real investigation, an independent investigation into
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  Paula's death. They want to know what happened, and they
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  want to make sure that those responsible, whoever they are,
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  are held accountable.
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  Speaker 1: It's a long shot. But I have to hand it
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  to Presida.
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  Speaker 3: She's not giving up.
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  Speaker 1: She's fighting for her daughter and maybe, well maybe for.
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  Speaker 3: All of us.
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  Speaker 2: That's what's so powerful about this story, isn't it. This
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  one woman, Brisida, She's shining a light on something that
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  so many people would rather ignore. It's about justice, yes,
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  but it's bigger than that. It's about demanding transparency, about
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  holding those in power accountable, about recognizing that every life,
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  every single life, has value.
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  Speaker 1: It's a powerful message and it's one that I hope
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  our listeners will carry with them because this isn't just
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  some isolated incident.
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  Speaker 3: This is about all of us. This is about.
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  Speaker 1: Demanding better, demanding justice for Paula, for Bresida.
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  Speaker 3: For everyone.
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  Speaker 2: Couldn't have said it better myself this deep dive.
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  Speaker 3: It's been tough.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie, but it's also been incredibly important.
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  I want to thank you for lending your expertise to this,
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  for helping us all understand this story a little bit better.
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  Speaker 3: And to our listeners. Keep asking questions, keep digging, keep
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  Speaker 1: Fighting for what's right, because silence it only benefits those
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  who want to keep us in the dark.