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Geetha Angara Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:30
Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series about the
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unexplained death of Gita Angara. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up
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of what we talked about in our previous episode? Well, our victim here
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is Geeta Angara, a forty three year old chemist who originally hailed from India.
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She graduated top of her class at Loyola College, and after emigrating to
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the United States with her husband, she had three kids and got a bachelor's
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degree and a master's degree in chemistry and then got a job at the treatment
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facility for the Passaic Valley Water Commission in New Jersey. She had a high
1:03
position as senior or chemist, seemed to be well liked in her position,
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though apparently there was some resentment from a few people who did not like a
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female immigrant having a higher position than them, though it doesn't sound like it
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led to any serious problems. But one day at work, Gita went down
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into the basement for what should have been a routine assignment, but she never
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returned and no one could find her, and she was eventually reported missing.
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And then they discovered that because a panel on one of the floors in the
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basement had been tampered with. They looked into it and found a water tank
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which contained some of Gita's personal items, and it would later turn out that
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her body floated to another tank and that her exact cause of death was drowning.
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However, because she has bruised on her body, it seemed apparent that
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someone had assaulted her and attempted to strangle her and probably unscrewed the panel,
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put her body into the tank and then screwed the panel back on to cover
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up what they did. There was a Scottish expert on drowning who looked at
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the possibility that Guta's death could have been an accident, that maybe someone left
2:01
the panel open and she was walking through the basement and fell through, and
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then later on someone went back and screwed the panel back on in order to
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cover up what she had done. But the vast majority of people, including
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DA's family, believed that she was the victim of a homicide and that she
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was killed intentionally. Obviously, because of this security surrounding the plant, it
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meant that one of her co workers had to be the killer, and they
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determined that there were fifty employees working on the day that she went missing.
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They did it eventually narrow things down to three suspects, but a couple of
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years later they suddenly said, well, we couldn't find any evidence on them,
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and now we no longer believe that they were responsible. So it sounds
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like the investigation is right back to square one. And even though it seems
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obvious she was killed by someone who was at the plant that day, they
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just don't have any evidence to conclusively implicate anyone, and the motive for the
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crime is still a mystery. So if you're an unsolved mystery span, you
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might have noticed that this story is very reminiscent of the suspicion death of Dave
3:00
Box, which was featured on the show, as well as an episode of
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The Trail Went Cold and an entire season of the long form investigative podcast Accused.
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In both of these cases, an employee disappeared during the middle of their
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shift at a large plant and was not reported missing for a long period of
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time before the victim or what was left to them, was discovered on company
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grounds. In one case, it was a uranium processing furnace and in the
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other it was a water tank, but no matter the circumstances of how they
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died, you could only hope the victim was not conscious when they found themselves
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in that position. Now, Dave Box was working the graveyard shift and died
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inside a building which was not being used at that particular time of night,
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so if it was a homicide, you can understand how someone could have gotten
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away with it. However, Geta Angara's death was a lot more brazen since
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it apparently took place in an open corridor during the morning hours, so the
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perpetrator got extremely lucky that no one else happened to come by while this was
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going on. While a suicide has been explored as a potential explanation in the
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Dave Box case, no one has ever considered that possibility in Geeta's case,
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because if she jumped into the water tank voluntarily, it obviously would have been
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impossible for her to slide the panel back in place behind her. Theoretically,
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that detail should have eliminated all possibility of her death being an accident as well,
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But this has actually been presented as a potential explanation, and we'll talk
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more about that later on. Now. Dave Box's story has always had a
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major conspiracy vibe surrounding it, because in the months following his death, his
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plan experienced a major scandal once it became public knowledge that they have been causing
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radioactive contamination in the surrounding community. So one of the most prominent theories is
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that Dave was murdered because he was threatening to blow the whistle on the plant's
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unsafe practices. This has been presented as a potential theory in Gheta's case as
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well, but it's unclear what she could have stumbled upon that put her life
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in danger. During this time period, the water facility was in the midst
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of an expensive project to transition from chlorine to an ozone disinfectant system. But
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while this wasn't a popular decision with all the employees, it was hardly scandalous,
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believe it or not. One of the most ridiculous theories which has been
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pushed forward is that the New Jersey Mob was angry about the Water Commission's decision
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to switch to ozone treatment because it would curtail what their contractors were doing,
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so as a result, the mob decided to order a hit on Geita.
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Well, that theory makes no sense whatsoever, because Guita was a chemist who
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had no authority to make big decisions like that. So I don't see how
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murdering her would change anything. No, I'm going to go ahead and let
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everyone know the mob didn't hire anyone to kill her. That is a pure
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conspiracy theory kind of sounding idea. But when you do think about what was
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going on at the plant, it is very clear that Gita stands out out
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amongst the other employees. She's incredibly educated, she immigrated to America. She
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is one of the only women likely at this plant, and she's in a
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place of a supervisory role. And so when there's issues at the plant,
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she's the one who's calling employees in. She's the one asked to retrain them,
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she's the one offering disciplinary actions and things like that when they need to
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happen. And so she's already a target there. She's confirmed that with her
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husband. She said there's tension in the workplace when they talk about it being
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an accident. Could it have been? There is a possibility, right,
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It makes sense if she accidentally fell in and someone later came after she had
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already passed away or was unconscious, they could have screwed that plate back on
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the same could have happened if she was a suicidal individual, I assume,
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because she could have been deceased and someone walks in and finds that plate move.
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But it makes so much more sense that someone wanted her gone. They
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didn't lie like the position she was in. They didn't like the way she
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had authority over them, they felt insecure, they didn't like her as a
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racial minority, they didn't like her as a woman. We know those things
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were active. So then when you have her death and then her body recovered
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thirty two hours later, especially with the bruising, it feels like we're pointing
7:17
more towards foul play. In my opinion, it feels like it could have
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been something as simple as Gita was going to collect this water sample and she
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ran into somebody and maybe had a few words with that person, maybe implying
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that they were doing something wrong, or that is how they interpreted it,
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and they didn't like it coming from her, and that it was an impulsive
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crime of passion rather than something that was pre planned. I mean, the
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beaker was broken there, obviously, if she was killed, there was not
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some other weapon, Like we didn't see any blunt force injuries. So if
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she was strangled and then put in a water tank. It was likely that
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somebody just lost their temper, and who knows if it was from some kind
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of verbal exchange or just something that had been building and maybe at that moment
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just seeing her face was enough for this person to snap. I really don't
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get the sense that there's a massive conspiracy surrounding Gyda's death, and the crime
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may have been more personal in nature. This case is pretty unique in that
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it seems to be pretty solvable, yet at the same time, it's also
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an investigator's worst nightmare. By the sound of things, the exterior security at
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the plant was pretty strong and it would have been very difficult for an outside
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intruder to sneak into the facility and commit this crime. This means that the
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perpetrator had to be one of Gita's coworkers who was on shift that day.
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So there's a pool of fifty potential suspects to work with, But at the
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same time, there really doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence which could implicate
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any of them. Since there was a window of over twelve hours before the
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police became involved, a number of people walked through the basement tunnels past the
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spot where Gita was likely killed, contaminating the crime scene. Contaminating the crime
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scene. The shards of glass on the floor from Gda's broken beaker could have
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provided evidence, but someone took the initiative to throw them away, and due
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to the heavy chlorination of the water, all potential forensic evidence which could have
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been left by the killer on Gita's body, such as DNA and fingerprints,
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were eliminated. With no witness or security camera footage placing a suspect at the
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murder scene, I think the police were hoping that if they interrogated everyone hard
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enough, the perpetrator would eventually break down and make a full confession, but
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this never took place. For a while, investigators were certain that they had
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narrowed down the field to three suspects, but after all these years, they
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apparently now believed that none of these guys were actually involved. So unless a
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confession takes place or someone with inside knowledge of the crime comes forward with information,
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it's really hard to see how the police police will be able to build
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a strong enough case against anyone to make an arrest. It kind of boggles
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my mind too, when you think about there were fifty people there that day
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and they were able to narrow it down to three. We don't know a
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lot about that information. The one guy was down in that area, so
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it was pretty clear he would be one of the people you'd question. But
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I'm wondering if the other two, if fellow employees were able to say they
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had a problem with her, right there was tension with her, and that's
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how they were even brought to the forefront in the first place. Yeah,
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I really wonder about that. I can understand police not releasing that information publicly,
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but when they say we've narrowed it down from fifty to eight, and
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now we've narrowed it down to three, I have to guess that they came
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to this conclusion just from maybe people other employees telling them that these people had
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a problem with the GITA and could have had a motive to kill her.
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While securities protocols preventing outsiders from entering the plant seemed to be adequate, security
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protocols inside the plant were a different story. Since no key card access was
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required at the time, anyone could move about the plant freely and pretty much
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go wherever they wanted. They've since remedied that in the years following Gita's death,
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but investigators have stated that if these security protocols have been around all along,
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it would have been easier to track all of the employee's movements that day
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and possibly determine who is in the basement during the approximate time period Gita was
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killed. It's pretty unsettling to hear that the underground water tanks were not equipped
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with any lighting or ladders, even though there was a five foot gap between
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the water and the panels, so if someone did fall in there by accident,
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it would have been impossible for them to climb out before they succumbed the
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freezing cold temperatures. In addition, the sensor, which was designed to send
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out alerts about changes with the water displacement, just happened to be broken that
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day, which is why it didn't go off when Gita's body hit the water.
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It's possible it was deliberately sabotaged by the perpetrator, but if the sensor
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was simply broke in, that's really not reassuring. Remember this was just over
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three years removed from nine to eleven, and one disturbing point which was raised
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is if the sensor couldn't detect a body. What if there had been an
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attempt at a terrorist act and someone dumped some dangerous chemicals into the drinking water.
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Obviously, Yita's death exposed some major inadequacies with the plant safety protocols,
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and that alone would have been grounds for her family to say, listen,
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you were responsible in many ways for even allowing her body to sit in that
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water for so long, right, and for the aftermath that came with that,
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because had that sensor been working, had those protocols been checked and that
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was working, the moment her body hit that water, the alarms would have
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gone off. So God forbid it was an accident. God forbid, she
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had been rendered unconscious but was still alive. Someone could have run to that
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tank and removed her body and saved her life. And so it really was
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that sensor alone could have been a deciding factor whether she was able to get
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retrieved from that tank or not. And so since there wouldn't be going off
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for hours without someone checking it, someone would have immediately run down there because,
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like you said, at the time, they would have been on alert
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for any potential risk of something foreign going into that water. And that is
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true because Geta's exact cause of death was drowning, so she technically was still
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alive when she first went into the water. We don't know if she was
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still conscious or not. But like you said, if the sensor had gone
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off, there still would have been a chance to rescue her and save her
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life if they had gotten there in time. Oh. Absolutely, you hear
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a people who have been underwater for a couple of minutes, right and are
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still rescued, and so a plant like that, response would be quick.
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When they thought, okay, the rates have the levels of water have gone
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this much over the sensor, something's really problematic down there, there'd be a
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massive rush to get to that tank. And we know when it comes to
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asphyxiating somebody or strangling them that it can take like three four minutes, so
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it can take an inordinate amount of time. I'm more time than I think
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that most people prepare to be in a position with their hands around somebody's neck
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or using a ligature. So it's possible that whomever her attacker was, they
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thought, okay, well she's rendered unconscious. At least if she isn't dead
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by the time she hits that water, she'll die from drowning. I also
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find it troubling that there was a window of over six hours during Geita's shift
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when her whereabouts were unaccounted for, but no one really seemed to be troubled
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by it, and the police were not contacted until several hours after her shift
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ended. I mean, when Gita went missing, she was carrying a radio
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which wound up being found inside the tank, but it's not clear if anyone
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even attempted to call her on the radio to see where she was. Even
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if there was only one person who was directly involved in Gita's death, this
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makes me wonder if others might have been aware of what happened but kept their
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mouths shut. The panel to the water tank weighed about fifty pounds. It
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would have been difficult for one person to remove it, dump get it into
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the tank, and then replace the panel by themselves. So even if only
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one person killed her, they could have enlisted the assistance of others to cover
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the whole thing up. You can't understand how unsettling this whole situation must have
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been for everyone at the plant. It was conclusively established that Geta's killer had
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to be one of the fifty employees working there that day, which men from
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that point on, they all had to keep showing up with the knowledge that
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at least one of their co workers was a murderer and continuing to get away
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with it. I heard the morale at the plant went down following Gita's death,
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and I can certainly understand why, as I'm sure many of the employees
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felt they had to constantly look over their shoulders. I definitely would think there's
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a concern there when you have fifty employees who realized that their supervisor has been
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found in a water tank. They have no idea, just like we're sitting
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here years later with no answers. They have no idea what happened to her,
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and so I would assume that they also learned she had bruising on her.
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The family was likely outspoken that they believed it was a murder, and
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so the people who are looking around there going, well, if it's a
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murder, it was one of us, and it is. It's like that
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game of clue where there's only this many people in the house and we have
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a deceased individual who did it, and it would be that constant fear of
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if we can't figure out what happened to her. Then we make all of
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these assumptions and we're looking back and forth saying it's one of us. So
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am I safe out word? Remember that episode we recorded a few months ago
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about the death of Rodney Marx at the research station in Antarctica. Yes,
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yes, And even though we don't know for certain if that's a homicide,
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you can still imagine the fear that, well, if it was a murderer.
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We're trapped here in the middle of nowhere for a couple more months,
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and at least one of these people is a murderer, so we're going to
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have to constantly look over our shoulder and be frightened for months. And yeah,
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thinking he was poisoned or something. I've got to sit here and eat
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and drink around you people like yeah, I'm pretty sure. We all kept
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saying that it was like the plot of a horror movie, like there was
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no way in or out. We talked about that doctor that basically had to
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perform like a biopsy or a lumbaectomy or whatever and like treat her breast cancer
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at that station. It's just so intense to be trapped there with a potential
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murderer. Oof and it's kind of the same thing here where it's like,
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even though they still got to pay the bills, So even though they're showing
17:30
up to work potentially with a murderer, they still have to keep doing it
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whether they like it or not. It seems like the majority consensus about Ghita
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was that she was a very dependable and well liked person at the plant,
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but there have been quotes from anonymous sources about how some of Ghita's co workers
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resented her because of her education and qualifications and did not appreciate being a subordinate
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for an immigrant. No matter who was responsible, it sounds like investigators have
17:56
always believed this was not a premeditated murder her, but more of a spur
18:00
of the moment crime the passion. After all, Yita had strangulation marks on
18:06
her neck, which seems to imply that the perpetrator had no weapon on them
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and was trying to fatally choke her. And since drowning was her exact cause
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of death, Guita was technically still alive when she was thrown into the tank.
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We know that Gita was heading down into the basement to calibrate the instruments
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when she disappeared, so it seems like she must have crossed paths with her
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killer in the corridor, who subsequently attacked her before they removed the floor panel
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and dumped her body into the tank. But what could have caused things to
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escalate like this? Did Gita bump into someone and get into a heated confrontation
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which led to violence, or did she stumble upon something she wasn't supposed to
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see which led to her being killed. Do you guys remember the pink stuff
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that they were finding in the water. Did they ever determine what that was?
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Because is it possible someone was manipulating and doing something to the system that
18:55
caused that contamination and they're saying, oh what now, we can't use this
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new system. It doesn't work right, like causing a problem, And maybe
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someone was down there doing something like that. I'm not exactly sure what the
19:07
pinkish substance was, but I do know they found it when Geta was absent,
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So it could be one of those things where someone was doing something while
19:15
she wasn't around and she was trying to maybe I'd cover the truth about it,
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like try to figure out what was going on here, and maybe someone
19:22
got paranoid and decided to kill her for it. It was established that one
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of Gita's coworkers from the lab asked her to go down into the basement and
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later went to search for her, where he discovered the broken glass from Geta's
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beaker. Under these circumstances, you can understand why this guy would have been
19:41
one of the three employees that police zeroed in on as a potential suspect,
19:45
But they apparently no longer believe that any of these three men were involved.
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Without knowing anything else about this lab technician or his relationship with Gita, or
19:55
potential motives for wanting to harm her, I cannot evaluate the likely of him
20:00
being the perpetrator. One detail I do find interesting is that before this incident
20:06
took place, some of the plant's employees claimed they had no idea there were
20:10
tanks underneath the basement floor and walked through that area numerous times without even realizing
20:15
there were millions of gallons of water below them. But obviously Guida's killer would
20:21
have known this since they went to the trouble of removing a panel and disposing
20:25
of her body. Considering that many of the screws on the panel were broken
20:29
or missing, and it was left slightly Ajar. I get the impression that
20:33
whoever did this was in a hurry for fear that someone else would enter the
20:37
corridor and catch them. So I'm assuming that when investigators were narrowing down their
20:41
pool of suspects, they focused on employees who might have had knowledge of those
20:45
tanks and the panels. Another odd detail of this case is that they filmed
20:51
an episode of Law and Order spu at the plant one year earlier, which
20:55
contained a scene where a victim's body was found floating inside a water tank.
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As you probably know, the bread and butter of the entire Law and Order
21:03
franchise a fictitious storylines which are based on real life crimes from the news.
21:07
Well, this is a rare occurrence where the real life crime occurred after the
21:11
Law and Order episode. Of course, the whole thing is probably just a
21:15
coincidence, as investigators found no indication that Getah's death was some sort of copycat
21:22
crime. But I can help but wonder if the perpetrator might have seen the
21:26
episode and remembered it, which is how they came up with the idea of
21:29
hiding Geta's body inside a water tank. That gave me chills when you said
21:34
that this was a Law and Order episode, and did you say it was
21:38
filmed at the facility it was, Yeah, so that's just crazy. Oh
21:44
my lord, Yes, that seems really odd. It's also very eerie.
21:49
I don't know, is it that a copycat? Is it? Like you
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said, in the heat of the moment, they said, what do I
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do with her body? And they said, well, wait, we were
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here when they were filming, and they dumped her in the water tank.
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I'm going to go ahead and do that. It seems way too ironic for
22:04
that to be a coincidence. Yeah. Are you aware, Robin, if
22:10
all the employees knew that the plant was used to film that Lawn Order episode.
22:15
That's a good question, because it's possible that they filmed while the plant
22:19
was closed and none of the employees were there because they didn't want to disrupt
22:25
work. But I have to think that they were at least aware of it,
22:27
and that they probably some of them would have at least watched the episode
22:30
and realized, hey, that's where I work. So I'm sure sure it
22:34
was probably common knowledge. I would think they'd know, like here they filmed
22:40
like a ghost Hunter episode, you know, at the local hotel, and
22:44
everyone was like, Oh my gosh, they're filming at the hotel on Thursday.
22:45
This is so cool. I wish I was on you know, the
22:48
schedule that day, and so I would think it was quite a big deal,
22:52
especially such a large show. This isn't like a mom and pop production
22:56
company coming into film a forty five second you know promo. This is a
23:00
Law and Order episode. So I bet they were all quite aware and quite
23:06
excited and then able to say like, oh my gosh, that's my office.
23:07
Holy cow, that's where I go down every day, right, And
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I bet people were quite hyped up about the facility being featured on the show,
23:15
which would lead us to believe that probably if everybody the plan knew about
23:19
this, they likely all watched the episode. Because if your workplace is featured
23:23
on a show like Law and Order, SBU, I think you would actually
23:27
want to see that episode and then talk about it later with everybody at work.
23:32
And that's why it's not implausible that it could have been on the killer's
23:34
mind when they were thinking of a way to dispose of Geita's body. Well,
23:40
investigators actually looked through the possibility that Geta's death might have been connected to
23:44
another similar unsolved homicide which took place in New Jersey over thirty six years earlier.
23:51
The crime occurred on August the thirty first, nineteen sixty eight, at
23:53
a massive eighty six building campus for the Hoffman Laroche pharmaceutical firm, which was
23:59
Lowald on the Passaic County Essex County border. That evening, the body of
24:03
a twenty two year old secretary named Joan Freeman was found in the hallway of
24:07
building number thirty four. She was struck on the hedge several times with a
24:11
wooden mallet before her throat was slashed. Joan had been employed by the firm
24:17
for three years, and since it was a Saturday, she was working there
24:19
alone doing overtime. She had spent the day in a second floor library recording
24:25
the employee's work hours from their time cards before she was attacked from behind in
24:29
the hallway. Much like the Passaic Valley Water Commission treatment facility, the Hoffman
24:34
Laroche campus had a high level of security and was surrounded by fences, so
24:38
access was restricted to employees, meaning that Jan's killer had to be someone who
24:44
worked for the company. However, there were no fingerprints found in the wooden
24:47
mallets, and the knife was never found, so investigators had no forensic evidence
24:52
to identify a suspect. They also found nothing in Joan's background to provide any
24:56
insight into a potential motive for this crime. Over the course of the next
25:00
several months, a grand jury investigation would take place, though I get the
25:04
impression they did not have a specific suspect in mind and only wanted to test
25:10
the waters to see what kind of case they could present if the suspect ever
25:14
popped up on the radar. But even though over three hundred people were interviewed,
25:18
the investigation hit a complete dead end, and Joan's murder is still unsolved
25:22
to this day. Given that both crimes took place in Passaic Valley, the
25:26
investigators on Geta's case thought there were enough similarities to look into the possibility that
25:32
they were connected. They checked to see if there were any employees who had
25:36
worked for both Hoffman Laroche and the water treatment facility during the respective time periods
25:41
of each murder that came up empty, and yes, given the massive time
25:45
difference, I am inclined to believe that these two crimes are not connected,
25:48
because, at the minimum Guta's killer would have had to have been in their
25:52
late fifties if they were also responsible for murdering Joan Well. Joan Freeman's case
25:57
sounds like a pretty baff mystery in its own right. I get the feeling
26:02
that investigators only looked at her murder because they were grasping its straws and desperate
26:07
to explore any possible lead to help them solve Geeta's case. Yeah, it
26:11
does seem like a little bit of a stretch. Are they ironically similar?
26:15
Yes, I mean, you have an unsolved murder in a workplace, no
26:18
forensic evidence to go off of. But other than that, you know one's
26:22
attacked, one strangled, and you have a thirty six year gap. And
26:27
so while you definitely do have killers who have killed over the course of decades,
26:33
to say that you can successfully pull it off in an isolated, confined
26:37
workplace over and over and over again and get away with it so seamlessly,
26:42
I think that would be quite implausible. However, the big complicating factor in
26:48
this case is the theory that Gita could have accidentally fallen into the water tank
26:52
her self because someone left the panel open during the early stages of the investigation,
26:59
no one was even willing to entertain that notion, because well, who
27:03
would have put the panel back in place after she fell in. It seems
27:07
this idea gained traction when Scottish forensic pathologist Derek Pounder pushed forward the possibility that
27:12
the cold temperature of the water caused hemorrhaging on Guita's neck, which could have
27:18
been mistaken for strangulation mars. But there are numerous fallacies with this theory,
27:22
and by Pounder's own admission, this type of thing only occurs in a small
27:27
percentage of drowning cases, and technically Pounder was only presenting a hypothetical scenario without
27:33
actually looking at Gita's body or the autopsy reports, whereas the five pathologists who
27:40
did perform a full examination concluded that she was likely the victim of a homicide.
27:45
I think this theory has gained more traction since the former lead detected James
27:49
Wood, went on the record claiming the Pounder's assessment caused him to change his
27:53
mind and he now believes that Geeda's death was an accident. Well, you
27:59
have to take into account that Wood made the statement after his retirement, and
28:03
no homicide detective wants to end their career with an unsolved murder still on the
28:07
books. So maybe this was his way of rationalizing the whole situation. Well,
28:14
if I could go home and enjoy retirement and not think about the cases
28:18
that haunt me, right, because you don't want to go off of your
28:22
career with unsolved murders lingering. They're people and they matter, and a lot
28:26
of these detectives really do carry those people with them. So if he could
28:30
say, listen, a scientist comes forward. He says that he thinks it
28:33
is a drowning. He said, there's cases like this. I'm just gonna
28:37
go with that, like I could see that being a peace of mind thing.
28:41
But I also when you talk about Pounder, he didn't look at her
28:45
body. Yes, have there been a few cases where there's bruising on the
28:49
neck according to Pounder, Yes, But again we talked about this. I
28:53
believe on episode one where to have her sitting in that position for so long
29:00
that that cold water is going to create just a simple ring around her neck
29:03
of strangulation. I don't buy that. I think you would have either multiple
29:11
rings showing when she got more and more tired and going below the water more
29:15
and more even bruising on her face when she just has her mouth above water
29:18
trying to breathe. Unless she was rendered unconscious before she was put into that
29:25
water and via strangulation and wasn't actually bobbing in the water, But if she
29:32
was fighting for her life, I think there would be different kind of marks,
29:34
maybe even more bruising where she's trying to hit the side of the tank
29:38
and crawl out. Just I'm not buying it. I think when you have
29:44
five people who actually got to see her body and then you have Pounder who
29:48
didn't, and it is just saying, well, once I saw this case
29:51
where this happened, I'm not going to pin my career in a conclusion of
29:55
a case on that assessment. The other ammunition for this theater is the anonymous
30:00
plant insider who claimed that a water quality supervisor may have removed a panel from
30:04
the basement corridor's floor to collect water samples on the day of Keita's death,
30:10
providing a potential explanation for how she could have stepped in there accidentally. The
30:15
evidence seemed to show that the panel had been put back in place very hastily,
30:18
so theoretically, if the responsible party returned to the scene and discovered the
30:22
Gheeta drowned. Because of their own negligence, they could have replaced the panel
30:26
and kept their mouth shut about what they did. I mean, this plant
30:30
obviously had serious internal issues with their safety protocols, so I cannot completely discount
30:34
the possibility that a scenario like this took place. I know that one of
30:38
the three potential suspects investigators focused on was a supervisor, though it's unclear if
30:44
it might have been the same old school water quality supervisor. This anonymous insider
30:48
was referring to. If a person is indirectly responsible for someone's death by negligence,
30:53
but is interrogated as if they committed an intentional homicide, you have to
30:59
wonder if them might affect their demeanor. I know that James Woods said he
31:03
believed that one of the suspects was on the verge of cracking and making a
31:06
confession before he stopped talking to the police. So could this person have been
31:11
overwhelmed with guilt because they were responsible for Ghita's death even though it was purely
31:15
accidental. I mean, I assume you could be, but you would really
31:19
pray that people's moral compass would say, oh my god, there's this poor
31:23
family. There's three children and a husband who are wondering what happened. I
31:27
messed up, Like I removed that panel this morning, and I want to
31:33
tell them what happened, because what if it was the panel falling through or
31:37
she stepped on it and she fell into the water. I don't know.
31:41
Maybe I'm an odd ball, but I feel like I would say, this
31:45
is so accidental? Could it have been my fault? Like I almost feel
31:48
like I'd come forward and be like they found her body down there there was
31:51
a panel missing, Oh my god, I moved a panel this morning.
31:55
Was it that panel? And give information if it's accidental? I don't.
32:00
Yes, someone passed away, But when there's an accident like that, you're
32:02
not going to be charged with murder or something because you didn't screw a panel
32:08
on tight enough. It was a workplace accident and the company would get in
32:13
trouble, but you're not. I don't. I don't know. I guess
32:16
a lot of people cover their own skin before they do the right thing,
32:19
but you'd pray that that wouldn't be the case when a mother dies and people
32:23
are wondering what the heck happened to her. But if there's like five pathologists
32:29
who are saying that their likely way that Gita died was by homicide, then
32:34
I could see if that was already the narrative that somebody, even if they
32:38
accidentally were like, okay, I put the panel there and it was a
32:42
total accident. I didn't know that she was in the tank at that point,
32:45
they might be nervous to come forward and be questioned as a murder suspect,
32:51
because how many times do we see where somebody who is innocent, or
32:54
maybe the one that discovers the body, they're then like suspect numero uno.
33:00
There's times where police do get it wrong or investigators get it wrong. So
33:04
I could see how somebody would be slightly trepidacious if they did that. But
33:08
I'm the same way as you ash. If it were me in that situation,
33:12
the guilt would get me, so I would have to come forward and
33:15
be like it was me. I accidentally did this. I had no idea,
33:17
and I'm sorry. I do see what you're saying too. Though if
33:22
the narrative was already homicide, I might have more like, oh my gosh,
33:25
because ask rebel, he said, please don't ever die in are like
33:30
around me, right, don't let me be the first to find you,
33:34
because he's like, I don't trust people anymore, Like I'd be scared to
33:36
call nine one one and what would follow, you know, because you do
33:39
see these cases where people are accused of murder when a natural death or an
33:45
accident occurs. But I would assume that they knew her body was found in
33:51
that tank, and I'm not sure that the homicide narrative was immediate, but
33:55
like you said, if it was, then oh my lord, maybe I
33:59
don't want to put myself in position anymore. I was just saying, gosh,
34:04
when they're scrambling to figure out what happened to this poor woman, I
34:07
was down there, Like maybe information would have come out before the homicide noticed,
34:13
but it I still am leaning towards the fact that it was a murder,
34:16
given the fact that these five pathologists all agreed and they saw her body
34:22
well. One of the biggest issues with this accident theory is that Gita was
34:27
known for being a very conscientious person, and she'd walked through those basement corridors
34:31
numerous times before, so everyone who knew her found it unlikely that she would
34:37
have failed to notice an open panel in the floor. I also think that
34:40
if Gita had fallen into the tank, her beaker may have been found in
34:44
there, alongside her radio and clipboard, but since it was found broken on
34:47
the basement floor, this suggests that she got into a struggle beforehand. Even
34:52
though an alternate theory was presented to explain how cold water could have caused the
34:58
marks on Gita's neck, Let's not forget that she also had additional bruising on
35:02
her waist and elbow. So I really think the evidence supports her being violently
35:07
attacked. We've covered so many cases where the authorities ruled someone's death to be
35:12
a suicide or an accident and ignored compelling evidence to suggest homicide. But I
35:17
think this is one case where they got it right the first time around,
35:22
and that any alternate theories besides Gita being murdered do not hold up at all.
35:27
But even if by chance, this was an accident, whoever left that
35:30
panel open and caused Geeda to fall to her death still needs to be held
35:35
accountable for what happened. I mean, it's true they need to be able
35:38
to tell what happens so that her family has answers. Again, I think
35:43
the plant as a whole would be more responsible for not having the protocols in
35:47
place, for not having safety checks or signing off when you move the panel,
35:53
all the things that could have been put into place to protect all the
35:57
employees from accidents like that, those would be the things that I'd focus on.
36:02
I think the family needs the answers, and that's what should be compelling
36:06
someone to say, I did this. I need to tell you what happened.
36:10
I'm so remorseful it was an accident and see what occurred. But again,
36:15
I just don't feel like that's the case. I feel like the beaker
36:20
was dropped in a struggle. That's why she got the bruising on her waist,
36:24
Like what part of you would be bruised on your waist unless she fell
36:29
through that hole and hit the you know, the side on the way down.
36:32
She has bruising on her waist, she has bruising on other parts of
36:36
her body. She has that strangulation markings that by pathologists recorded they saw on
36:42
her body. It just indicates more that there was a struggle and a fight
36:46
and then a desperate need to cover her up. And then you think back
36:51
that one year earlier, in that same location, they filmed a lawn or
36:53
episode where a woman drowned in the tank, and I could see someone saying,
36:58
that is genius. I'm going to dispose of her body here and it'll
37:00
be hours before they find her. I'll be home, they won't even know
37:04
what happened to her. Still don't have a clear cut idea of what the
37:08
motive might have been for a homicide, but I doubt the crime was pre
37:12
planned, and I think the perpetrator or perpetrators just got very lucky that they
37:16
weren't caught in the act, and some potentially crucial evidence which could have implicated
37:21
them wound up being destroyed. But no matter how Gheeta died, this was
37:24
just an incredibly tragic end to her life. Remember this is a woman who
37:29
found great success in her male dominated native country for not only becoming the first
37:34
woman to attend Loyola College, but graduating as the top student in her class.
37:38
She then moved to the US to provide a better life for her family
37:42
and was pretty much living the American dream until her life was cut short by
37:45
a pretty horrific death. I read a number of heartbreaking articles about the difficulties
37:51
that Gyeeda's husband, Jaya, and their children have experienced while dealing with her
37:54
loss, as I know that Jaya actually held on too Geda's cell phone and
37:59
would frequently call her voicemail just so he could hear his deceased wife speak again.
38:04
The Ingara family has frequently voiced for frustrations over the police's inability to make
38:08
an arrest in the case, but I honestly get the impression that without any
38:13
real forensic evidence to work with, there's really not much they can do until
38:16
they receive a big break. Perhaps all this case needs for a resolution is
38:21
for the right person to come forward. So if you happen to have any
38:24
information on the death of Geta Angara, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules
38:30
Ashley any final thoughts in this case. I can't stop thinking about her three
38:35
babies and how their father was the one who had to step up and comfort
38:40
his children and the loss of their mother. He also has to try to
38:44
grieve the loss of his best friend and the fellow parent in the house,
38:49
So he's raising these babies on his own without the person who he created them
38:52
with. The children are growing up and having these experiences where their mother should
38:57
be present and she's not. And more so in these cases where you see
39:02
a woman fight so hard and she moves to America to create this dream where
39:08
she says, I'm going to raise a family in America so I can provide
39:12
for them. I'm going to secure my education so that I can financially be
39:17
an asset to my family. And that's what she's doing. And then all
39:22
of a sudden, she doesn't come home one day after work. And I
39:25
can't even imagine what that was like with those three children learning that their mother
39:30
was deceased. And you have this father who, like he said, I
39:34
would call her phone just to hear her voice. Been there, done that.
39:38
It is awful. And yet, like I said, he's also responsible
39:43
for these three children who are grieving as well. So accident or homicide,
39:46
it would be my prayer that someone in that fifty person pool would say I
39:53
have information. It might not even seem significant, it might seem so minor.
40:00
I remember overhearing a conversation where someone was frustrated with her. I remember
40:02
hearing a conversation where someone said they gave information they probably shouldn't have known.
40:08
There was this conflict that I'm aware of. Any of that could be profound
40:14
information, even if it doesn't seem like it. So, like you said,
40:16
without forensic evidence, which we don't have here because of the chlorine,
40:21
and without people coming forward, these cases can't be investigated deeply by police,
40:27
there's nothing to go on. And so at this point it would take somebody
40:31
who's had distance in space and time to say, I have information and I
40:37
don't know if it'll help, but see if it will, and you never
40:39
know, it could both a case wide open. That's what I hope for
40:44
as well. I really, just like you said, Ash, I can't
40:46
stop thinking about her three children and her husband who were left behind. Gito
40:52
was brilliant to be the first woman to be in Loyola College after it became
40:58
co ed, to get a masters and bachelors there, to come to the
41:01
United States to get two more master's degrees and a PhD. She was so
41:07
accomplished and clearly so so intelligent. Oh when I forgot to mention that she
41:12
won the gold medal for being the student at the top of her class,
41:15
being an immigrant woman at the time, being in this position of power at
41:19
this water treatment plant or facility. It couldn't have been easy, and yet
41:23
she managed to navigate it. And I'm sure that she did it all with
41:27
grace because that just seems to be the type of woman that she was.
41:30
And I really hope that in these coming years, before the clock starts to
41:37
run out on who may have done this, people start to die, things
41:40
change. This was so many years ago, that somebody will come forward with
41:45
some kind of information, because even if that person wasn't responsible, I believe
41:50
that there are multiple people there who are aware of what happened and who is
41:53
the perpetrator, because it just seems unlikely that it was one person was able
42:00
to dispose of her body into that tank and to get that panel on there,
42:04
even if it was somebody who just helped in the aftermath during the cleanup,
42:07
there has to be somebody out there who has this guilt that is eating
42:12
away at them just because of the knowledge that they have. And I really
42:16
hope that in these coming years they come forward and give those babies that resolution
42:22
of who killed their mother and why. Yeah, this is definitely such a
42:27
frustrating and heartbreaking case because we've gone over all the points how Ghita was a
42:30
brilliant woman who moved her family to the US and was living her best life,
42:36
but then wound up being murdered in a place she probably never would expect
42:38
it. I don't think she felt that when she went down to the basement
42:42
of her plant to perform a routine check that she would cross paths with someone
42:45
who would kill her. And we talked about how this is both solvable and
42:51
unsolvable because you only have a limited amount of suspects to work with. It
42:54
had to be an employee at the plant, and you, like Jules said,
42:58
could only one person have done this, Like there has to be other
43:01
people who at least know or suspect who is responsible. Yet they have no
43:06
forensic evidence, no security footage, no eyewitnesses, so they just are unable
43:10
to make an arrest. And I keep parking back to the narrowing down of
43:15
the suspects, how it originally went down from fifty to eight, and then
43:19
it was narrowed down to three, and then ten years ago the authorities say,
43:22
well, we no longer believe that these streamn were responsible, and we
43:27
haven't heard anything new since then. We have no idea if other people are
43:30
being reinvestigated and because so little information has been released publicly, we know nothing
43:37
about these suspects, what their motives could have been, and we have no
43:39
idea where the investigation is right now. It's completely inactive, which is a
43:45
real shame. It just sounds like whoever did this probably did not plan what
43:49
they were doing. It could have been a spur of the moment thing and
43:52
they just got incredibly lucky that they were able to do it without being seen
43:55
and without leaving any forensic evidence behind. And who knows. We can hope
44:00
maybe this person has a conscience that one day from now they'll spill the beans
44:04
and confest and we can finally find out the truth. But for now,
44:07
Keith's family still has to live with the pain on not knowing what happened to
44:10
her, and I really do hope that they get answers someday. Robin,
44:15
do you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
44:19
Yes, the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now,
44:22
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