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What they found inside scarred them forever - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, we have three stories about people who each have
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Speaker 1: like this, one big thing in their life that brings
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Speaker 1: them a lot of happiness and fulfillment and purpose, but
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Speaker 1: unfortunately this same thing winds up being the very reason
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Speaker 1: that their life gets ruined. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark
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Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to
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Speaker 1: the right place, because that's all we do, and we
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Speaker 1: upload two.
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Speaker 2: Three, even four times every week.
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Speaker 1: So if that's of interest to you, on the next
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: One afternoon in June of nineteen ninety three, a movie
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Speaker 1: director named shied Jin sat on a couch in a
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Speaker 1: production studio in the city of Yinchuan, China. He was
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Speaker 1: with a few members of his production team, and they
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Speaker 1: were in the middle of auditioning what felt like the
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Speaker 1: one hundredth terrible actor for the lead role in the
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Speaker 1: film that he was directing. However, this was not an
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Speaker 1: ordinary lead role. The lead role for this film was
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Speaker 1: going to be a dog. So the movie was called
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Speaker 1: An Old Man and His Dog and it was based
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Speaker 1: on this popular novel about a man living during a
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Speaker 1: period of war in China with his loyal yellow dog.
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Speaker 1: People had really responded to the story in the book
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Speaker 1: because it captured just how devastating war could really be
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Speaker 1: on rural communities, and a lot of people in China
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Speaker 1: had seen themselves in the characters in this story. At
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Speaker 1: this point, Jin had already cast the film's human actors,
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Speaker 1: but the dog's role was, by are the hardest to
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Speaker 1: fill and obviously the most central to the movie. He
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Speaker 1: and his team had hosted a bunch of casting calls
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Speaker 1: already and advertised to the public to ask if anybody
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Speaker 1: had a dog that looked like the one that was
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Speaker 1: in this book, and tons of people had answered this ad.
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Speaker 1: But none of the dogs that they brought in were
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Speaker 1: good enough for the film. And the reason for that
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Speaker 1: is Jin knew, you know, the dog needed to look
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Speaker 1: the part, but it was more than that, like the
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Speaker 1: dog also had to be compelling and charismatic despite being
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Speaker 1: a dog. I mean this dog was the hero of
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Speaker 1: the story and the soul of the movie, so it
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Speaker 1: really had to project loyalty and bravery and goodness on
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Speaker 1: screen and sort of come across also as gentle and
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Speaker 1: sweet enough that audiences fell in love with it. But now,
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Speaker 1: as Jin watched yet another anxious, poorly trained dog actor
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Speaker 1: scurry around the room, he felt this wave of anxiety.
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Speaker 1: Jin was starting to feel worried that, you know, maybe
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Speaker 1: the reason all these dog actors were not working out
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Speaker 1: is because maybe the perfect just didn't exist, And if
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Speaker 1: that was true, then his movie would not be good,
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Speaker 1: like he would have a bad actor in the lead
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Speaker 1: role and it would flop. And for Gin, I mean
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Speaker 1: that really represented sort of like a worst case scenario
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Speaker 1: for him. So decades earlier, in the nineteen fifties, Jin
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Speaker 1: had been this prolific director in China, and he had
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Speaker 1: won many prestigious awards. But during China's Cultural Revolution, which
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Speaker 1: was a period of unrest in the country in the
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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and seventies, Jin had been ostracized by the
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Speaker 1: public because of his largely unpopular political views, and ever
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Speaker 1: since then he had been struggling to regain his status
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Speaker 1: as a celebrated filmmaker, and so the chance to adapt
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Speaker 1: this brilliant novel, which was touching and tragic and already
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Speaker 1: beloved by the public, was like his opportunity to prove
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Speaker 1: himself and get back on top. And he knew that,
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Speaker 1: you know, if the movie failed, he was old enough
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Speaker 1: that he would very likely not get another chance like this,
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Speaker 1: and he might be completely forgotten about. And now, as
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Speaker 1: this dog's audition came to an end, and obviously this
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Speaker 1: dog was not going to be a fit, Jin's just
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Speaker 1: sitting there feeling kind of hopeless. And Jin's producer walked
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Speaker 1: up and led the anxious dog in its owner out
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Speaker 1: of the room. And Jin, at this point was so
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Speaker 1: busy worrying to himself about how this movie was destined
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Speaker 1: to fail now that he barely noticed his producer bringing
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Speaker 1: in the next dog an owner. But when Jin looked
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Speaker 1: up and he actually looked at the dog that was
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Speaker 1: now standing in front of him, the one hundred and
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Speaker 1: first audition he was seeing that day, he just stopped
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Speaker 1: and practically gasped because sitting in front of him, right
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the room, was now this new
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Speaker 1: dog that looked exactly like how he had pictured the
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Speaker 1: one from the book.
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Speaker 2: It was shaggy and.
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Speaker 1: Big and yellow haired and had this eager to please
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Speaker 1: look in its eyes that made Gin instantly feel like
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Speaker 1: he was connected to it. The owner who had come
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Speaker 1: in with this dog was a young, friendly guy in
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Speaker 1: his thirties who introduced himself as Chung, and he explained
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Speaker 1: that he had just started a dog training and breeding
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Speaker 1: company and so having his dog cast in this movie
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Speaker 1: would be a really big deal for his new business
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Speaker 1: and would definitely help get his name out there, so
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Speaker 1: this was like high stakes for him too. Now, Jin
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Speaker 1: did not love the fact that, you know, Chung had
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Speaker 1: just begun this this dog training and breeding business, so
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Speaker 1: it meant that very likely he was pretty inexperienced with
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Speaker 1: this this dog actor. However, when the actual audition began,
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Speaker 1: any worries Jin might have had completely vanished. Throughout the
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Speaker 1: entire audition, Chung skillfully directed this dog like he'd been
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Speaker 1: doing it for his whole life, and the dog was
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Speaker 1: obviously really smart and followed all the commands. He was
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Speaker 1: you know, really well trained, and it just seemed like
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Speaker 1: the dog was really devoted to Chung because it really
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Speaker 1: did exactly what Chung asked every single time.
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Speaker 2: But more than that, you know, as.
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Speaker 1: Jin watched this audition, it really felt like this dog
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Speaker 1: didn't just look the part, it acted the part.
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Speaker 2: This was the dog he wanted in this movie.
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Speaker 1: And so after only a few minutes the audition and
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Speaker 1: he told Chung, you and your dog have got the job.
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Speaker 1: They began filming the movie just a few days later,
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Speaker 1: and basically as soon as they started, all the worries
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Speaker 1: Jin had had about maybe this movie not doing so
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Speaker 1: well just completely vanished, because just like he'd anticipated, this
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Speaker 1: dog really was perfect. It obeyed his owner Chung without hesitation,
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Speaker 1: same as it had during the audition. And the camera,
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Speaker 1: I mean, the camera just loved this dog. The dog
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Speaker 1: had this very sweet, tender quality to it that really
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Speaker 1: came out anytime the actor playing the old man interacted
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Speaker 1: with it, which is exactly.
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Speaker 2: What Jin had hoped for.
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Speaker 1: And so Jin knew this dog was going to steal
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Speaker 1: the hearts of everybody who saw it on screen. I mean,
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Speaker 1: this was exactly what he wanted, and so Jin just
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Speaker 1: disappeared into the making of this film. He poured all
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Speaker 1: his focus, all his passion into each and every frame,
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Speaker 1: and by the time production finally wrapped a few months later,
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Speaker 1: Jin was sure they had just made a masterpiece, and
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Speaker 1: Jin was right. The movie was released to rave reviews,
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Speaker 1: and it seemed like everyone who saw it loved it.
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Speaker 1: Not only was An Old Man and his Dog recognized
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Speaker 1: as one of China's top films of the year, but
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Speaker 1: also it was widely regarded as an instant classic worldwide,
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Speaker 1: and so Jin knew that he had accomplished his goal
7:18
Speaker 1: here and that his career now had a new beginning.
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Speaker 1: A year and a half later, on an evening in
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Speaker 1: late January of nineteen ninety five, Jin was reading a
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Speaker 1: script in his living room in the city of Shanghai, China.
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Speaker 1: So the huge success of An Old Man and his
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Speaker 1: Dog had meant that Jin was once again in very
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Speaker 1: high demand, which meant he got lots of phone calls
7:39
Speaker 1: and people wanted him to read their scripts, and he
7:42
Speaker 1: was basically just getting to pick and choose what he
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Speaker 1: wanted to do next. This was like best case scenario
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Speaker 1: for him. So as Jin is sitting there when his
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Speaker 1: phone rang, you know, because his phone again was ringing
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Speaker 1: all the time these days, he assumed it had to
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Speaker 1: be one of his producers who wanted to talk about
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Speaker 1: one of the many scripts they were looking at. However,
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Speaker 1: when Jin and answered the phone, it was one of
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Speaker 1: his producers. But what they said to him completely stunned Jin.
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Speaker 1: His film an old Man and his Dog apparently.
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Speaker 2: Was being banned.
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Speaker 1: Jin when he heard this, he just like sat there
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Speaker 1: for a moment, unable to actually respond to this, like
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Speaker 1: this didn't make any sense. Why in the world would
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Speaker 1: this wholesome movie about an old man and his dog
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Speaker 1: get banned? Like this wasn't political in any way. This
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Speaker 1: was like a wholesome, family friendly movie. So China did
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Speaker 1: ban films with some regularity. Sometimes it was the content
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Speaker 1: itself within the film could be viewed as being you know,
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Speaker 1: unduly influential on the public in a negative way, and
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Speaker 1: so that could cause the film.
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Speaker 2: To be banned.
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Speaker 1: Or it could just be that the people who were
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Speaker 1: in the film, or the producers who made the film,
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Speaker 1: they could have done something in their own personal lives
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Speaker 1: that was viewed as being you know, unduly influential on
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Speaker 1: the public, like in a negative way. They could have
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Speaker 1: had some scandal, and then because of that scandal they
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Speaker 1: could have their work banned. So though the movie itself
9:03
Speaker 1: could be okay, but the people involved in the movie.
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Speaker 1: They're bad, so movie must be bad as well. So
9:08
Speaker 1: that was sort of relatively normal. But Jin's film, An
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Speaker 1: Old Man and His Dog had been out for over
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Speaker 1: a year at this point with no issues. It was
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Speaker 1: viewed as like this masterpiece.
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Speaker 2: Everybody loved it.
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Speaker 1: Everyone had all these great things to say about it,
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Speaker 1: so like it couldn't have been that. The movie itself
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Speaker 1: clearly was okay. And Jin, I mean, he had had
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Speaker 1: a you know, in his former life, he had been
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Speaker 1: politically divisive and it had cost him dearly, but that
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Speaker 1: was that was in the past. He had not done
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Speaker 1: anything political, not in this movie, not in his personal life. Now,
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Speaker 1: like he had not done anything that was scandalous that
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Speaker 1: could potentially warrant, you know, this film being banned. And
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Speaker 1: so Jin's like, what in the world could have caused
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Speaker 1: this movie to be banned? Like what is going on here?
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Speaker 1: And his producer said, like, you're not going to believe it,
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Speaker 1: but it's the dog. It would turn out a few
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Speaker 1: days before the producer called Jin Chung, the owner of
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Speaker 1: the dog who had start in this film, had been
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Speaker 1: arrested for being a serial killer.
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Speaker 2: Over the last five years. He had murdered at least
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Speaker 2: five people.
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Speaker 1: But that was not actually why this movie was being scrutinized.
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Speaker 1: The movie was being banned because of how Chung disposed
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Speaker 1: of the bodies of the people he killed. After murdering
10:21
Speaker 1: and dismembering his victims. He would take those body parts
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Speaker 1: and feed.
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Speaker 2: Them to his dog, the star.
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Speaker 1: Of the movie, and so ultimately the Chinese government banned
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Speaker 1: this film because they knew from now on, now that
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Speaker 1: the news broke about Chung being a killer and what
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Speaker 1: he did with the bodies, that you couldn't watch this
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Speaker 1: movie and watch that dog.
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Speaker 2: Without thinking about the fact that that dog was eating people.
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Speaker 1: Jin would go on to make a few more movies,
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Speaker 1: but they never really worked, and ultimately his career kind
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Speaker 1: of stalled and he never reached the heights that he
10:53
Speaker 1: had hoped for. However, Jin had always hoped that one
10:56
Speaker 1: day he would leave a truly lasting mark on the
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Speaker 1: 's film industry, and he did because he'll always be
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Speaker 1: known for casting a flesh eating dog in his cinematic masterpiece.
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Speaker 1: One evening in December of nineteen sixty six, an eight
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Speaker 1: year old girl named Elaine Ellery hurried after her parents
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Speaker 1: as they walked towards this large factory.
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Speaker 2: In Norfolk, England.
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Speaker 1: Elaine was so excited about the night ahead here that
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Speaker 1: she was literally skipping as she walked along. So this
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Speaker 1: factory was where her father worked, and they were having
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Speaker 1: their big annual Christmas party, and for the first time ever,
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Speaker 1: Elaine was being allowed to go and she couldn't wait
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Speaker 1: to see what was inside. So Elaine was really close
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Speaker 1: with her dad because even though he worked very long hours,
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Speaker 1: he always went out of his way to spend time
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Speaker 1: with her and make her feel very special. In fact,
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Speaker 1: during the work week, it wasn't uncommon for her dad
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Speaker 1: to come home over his lunch break just to give
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Speaker 1: his daughter a big hug and so they could quickly
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Speaker 1: eat together.
12:12
Speaker 2: Before he had to rush back to work.
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Speaker 1: And so now, after hearing about her dad's amazing factory
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Speaker 1: over countless lunch as they spent together, Elaine, for the
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Speaker 1: first time ever, was actually going to be able to
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Speaker 1: see what he was talking about, because to this point
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Speaker 1: she had never even stepped foot inside of the factory. Finally,
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Speaker 1: Elaine and her parents arrived in front of this big
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Speaker 1: factory and in the doors they went, and immediately Elane
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Speaker 1: is like totally struck by just how truly incredible this
12:39
Speaker 1: place is.
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Speaker 2: I mean, it was huge inside, it was.
12:41
Speaker 1: Already packed with people who were chatting about There were
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Speaker 1: all these other coworkers and their kids and their families,
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Speaker 1: and Christmas music was playing, and all she could smell
12:51
Speaker 1: was apple cider and baked goods. And she looked around
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Speaker 1: and she saw the whole interior of this great entry
12:57
Speaker 1: room they had walked into was beautifully decorated for the
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Speaker 1: Hull holidays. There was tin soul and there are all
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Speaker 1: these things hung up everywhere, and there was even fake
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Speaker 1: snow all over the place to give it like a
13:06
Speaker 1: true Christmas vibe. And so Elaine, I mean she had
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Speaker 1: really high expectations of how grand this place was going
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Speaker 1: to be, and so far it had more than lived
13:16
Speaker 1: up to its expectations.
13:17
Speaker 2: I mean, this was really like an incredible thing. So
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Speaker 2: she was delighted.
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Speaker 1: And the whole night she just ran around the party
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Speaker 1: holding her dad's hand, looking at the machines and meeting
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Speaker 1: as coworkers and eating all these treats. I mean, it
13:30
Speaker 1: was really just an incredible time. I mean, the evening
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Speaker 1: was a whirlwind for her, and before she knew it,
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Speaker 1: Elaine was exhausted and back in the car driving home,
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Speaker 1: drifting off into a very happy sleep. The rest of
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Speaker 1: Elaine's childhood was very charmed. I mean, basically, she and
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Speaker 1: her dad stayed very close. You know, they went to
13:48
Speaker 1: that Christmas party every year after that first time she went,
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Speaker 1: and it was always.
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Speaker 2: Such a fun event.
13:52
Speaker 1: And Elaine and her dad continued to have those lunch
13:55
Speaker 1: breaks during the work week. And you know, by the
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Speaker 1: time Elaine was getting old enough to start thinking about,
14:00
Speaker 1: you know, starting a family of her own, she thought
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Speaker 1: hard about the values that her father had instilled in her.
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Speaker 1: One was, her dad clearly worked very, very hard. And
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Speaker 1: the second one was her father clearly prioritized family over
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Speaker 1: everything else.
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Speaker 2: You know, as inconvenient as it.
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Speaker 1: Was for him to come home on his lunch break
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Speaker 1: practically every day, you know, taking a break from you know,
14:22
Speaker 1: backbreaking work in the factory, he still did it because
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Speaker 1: he wanted his daughter to feel prioritized and special. And
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Speaker 1: so she knew when she had a family of her own,
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Speaker 1: she would act like her father. So you can imagine
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Speaker 1: how Elaine felt in nineteen eighty three, when Elaine was
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Speaker 1: twenty five years old, and by this point she'd gotten married,
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Speaker 1: she had two kids of her own. She was she
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Speaker 1: was living up to the example her father had set
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Speaker 1: for her. You can imagine how she felt when that
14:47
Speaker 1: year her father passed away. I mean for Elaine, this
14:50
Speaker 1: was like earth shattering. I mean, she knew he was
14:53
Speaker 1: getting older, and it wasn't wholly unexpected.
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Speaker 2: That he passed.
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Speaker 1: But for Elaine, I mean this truly was like devastating.
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Speaker 1: I mean, her father was like her rock. She had
15:03
Speaker 1: really modeled her whole life on her dad. However, after
15:07
Speaker 1: that initial really intense grief period ended right after the
15:11
Speaker 1: death of her father, Elaine was able to, you know,
15:14
Speaker 1: have a moment of reflection and she realized that, you know,
15:17
Speaker 1: as devastating as it was that he was gone now,
15:20
Speaker 1: you know, in a way, because of the way she
15:22
Speaker 1: had built her life, prioritizing family and you know, living
15:25
Speaker 1: like her dad, that in some ways, even though he
15:27
Speaker 1: was gone physically spiritually, he was very much still with
15:31
Speaker 1: her and always would be. Fast forward forty one years
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Speaker 1: to one afternoon, late in the summer of twenty twenty four,
15:38
Speaker 1: and Elaine, who was now in her late sixties, was
15:41
Speaker 1: sitting at our kitchen table in her Norfolk home, reading
15:43
Speaker 1: the newspaper. So Elaine had retired just a few years ago,
15:47
Speaker 1: and so now her life was pretty much exclusively about
15:50
Speaker 1: her family and about you know, slowing down and truly
15:54
Speaker 1: being retired. And in some ways, the timing couldn't have
15:57
Speaker 1: been better for her to start slowing down, because lately
16:00
Speaker 1: Elaine had been feeling absolutely exhausted. Which was odd because
16:05
Speaker 1: Elaine felt, like, you know, even though she viewed her
16:07
Speaker 1: retirement as a chance to slow down, that she would
16:11
Speaker 1: likely have more energy because she wasn't working anymore, and
16:14
Speaker 1: so her slowing down would sort of be by choice,
16:17
Speaker 1: not because she literally couldn't keep up anymore. But lately
16:20
Speaker 1: it was like a lane had zero energy. It's like
16:23
Speaker 1: all she could do was sit in place and either
16:26
Speaker 1: read or call her kids, and that was basically it.
16:29
Speaker 1: But on this particular day, as Elaine just sat in
16:32
Speaker 1: the kitchen reading the newspaper despite not physically really doing
16:36
Speaker 1: much at all, she suddenly started to feel winded, like
16:39
Speaker 1: she had been running around or something like.
16:41
Speaker 2: It was it was hard to catch her breath, and
16:43
Speaker 2: it scared her.
16:44
Speaker 1: She put the paper down and she sat there for
16:46
Speaker 1: a minute trying to calm herself down, telling herself.
16:49
Speaker 2: This is just like a panic attack or something.
16:51
Speaker 1: But it didn't go away, and she really was struggling
16:54
Speaker 1: to breathe, and so she decided she would get up
16:56
Speaker 1: and go get a cup of water and just you know,
16:58
Speaker 1: take a sip of water and calm down. But when
17:01
Speaker 1: she stood up and began walking over to the sink
17:03
Speaker 1: to get water, like this, this sensation she was having
17:06
Speaker 1: just got worse and worse. And by the time she
17:08
Speaker 1: was at the counter, she's like holding on to it
17:10
Speaker 1: just to stay up on her feet, and she's trying
17:12
Speaker 1: to sip the water, but she's still like unable to breathe.
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Speaker 1: And she realized that this, combined with this recent really
17:19
Speaker 1: intense fatigue, meant something had to be wrong here, Like
17:22
Speaker 1: this was not something she could just write off, and
17:25
Speaker 1: so she hobbled.
17:26
Speaker 2: Her way over to the phone. She picked it up,
17:28
Speaker 2: and she called her doctor.
17:31
Speaker 1: Not long after, one of Elaine's children came by, picked
17:33
Speaker 1: her up and drove her to the hospital. And by
17:36
Speaker 1: this point Elaine she'd come down a little bit, but
17:38
Speaker 1: still that experience of really not being able to breathe
17:42
Speaker 1: really had shaken her up. And so Elaine she goes
17:44
Speaker 1: into the doctor's office and she sits down in the
17:47
Speaker 1: exam room and she explains to her doctor what's been
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Speaker 1: going on and what just happened that day. And not
17:52
Speaker 1: long after that, her doctor got a series of tests
17:55
Speaker 1: done and eventually Elaine got an answer from those tests
18:00
Speaker 1: explained all of her symptoms. However, that answer made Elaine
18:04
Speaker 1: look at her childhood, her charmed childhood, in a completely
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Speaker 1: new and disturbing way. It would turn out, decades earlier,
18:13
Speaker 1: Elaine's father really had been setting a great example by
18:16
Speaker 1: working very hard and always prioritizing his family and always
18:20
Speaker 1: prioritizing his daughter. But what her father didn't know at
18:23
Speaker 1: the time, in fact, many people didn't know at the time,
18:27
Speaker 1: was that his work itself was actually.
18:29
Speaker 2: Putting his family at risk.
18:30
Speaker 1: At this time, in the UK, most factories like the
18:34
Speaker 1: one Alaine's father worked at, made products that contained asbestos.
18:38
Speaker 1: So asbestos is a substance that was used very widely
18:41
Speaker 1: for decades to construct structures, primarily like in construction, it
18:46
Speaker 1: was used a lot. In fact, it was so common
18:48
Speaker 1: that basically any house or building built before the year
18:52
Speaker 1: two thousand likely was made with asbestos inside of it.
18:56
Speaker 1: And so when Elaine was growing up in the nineteen sixties,
18:59
Speaker 1: asbestos was you know, naturally still being used all the time,
19:02
Speaker 1: and her father obviously encountered it daily at his work.
19:06
Speaker 2: But even though they didn't know it at the time,
19:08
Speaker 2: this was a huge problem.
19:11
Speaker 1: For Elaine and her family and really for anybody else
19:13
Speaker 1: who was living a life that was similar to theirs,
19:16
Speaker 1: because asbestos was eventually found to be highly toxic and
19:20
Speaker 1: known to cause a very specific type of very aggressive
19:24
Speaker 1: and very deadly cancer that can sometimes take decades to develop.
19:28
Speaker 1: It was the very kind of cancer that Elaine's father
19:31
Speaker 1: had died from in the nineteen eighties, and unfortunately, it
19:34
Speaker 1: was the very kind of cancer that Elaine was diagnosed
19:37
Speaker 1: with in twenty twenty four, following that you know, difficulty
19:40
Speaker 1: breathing and fatigue spell, and then she would eventually die
19:43
Speaker 1: a year later in twenty twenty five, from that cancer.
19:47
Speaker 1: And so in a tragic twist of fate here, basically
19:50
Speaker 1: it was because of how close Elaine was with her
19:53
Speaker 1: father growing up that she ultimately contracted the same disease
19:56
Speaker 1: that he did. I mean, there's no question he got
19:59
Speaker 1: that cancer because of his exposure to asbestos in the factory,
20:03
Speaker 1: but he would come home from the factory, like over lunch,
20:06
Speaker 1: he'd come home and he'd have lunch with a Lane,
20:09
Speaker 1: and he wouldn't change. He'd give her a big hug,
20:11
Speaker 1: they'd have their lunch break together. He's putting asbestos on
20:14
Speaker 1: his daughter, not knowingly, but he's covering her in this
20:17
Speaker 1: toxic substance.
20:18
Speaker 2: And then when he would bring.
20:19
Speaker 1: Her to the Christmas party, all that white snow on
20:22
Speaker 1: the ground was not snow. It was asbestos. But they
20:25
Speaker 1: didn't know it was toxic. And so ultimately it really
20:28
Speaker 1: was because of how much she loved her dad and
20:30
Speaker 1: how much he loved her that ultimately killed them both.
20:50
Speaker 1: Around nine pm on January eighteenth, twenty fifteen, a sixty
20:54
Speaker 1: eight year old man named Dennis Antiporak stood at his
20:57
Speaker 1: kitchen counter in North Miami Beach.
20:59
Speaker 2: Florida, writing a note.
21:01
Speaker 1: And this note was for his wife and for his
21:03
Speaker 1: adult daughter, Laura, who lived with them, And all he
21:06
Speaker 1: was doing was letting them know that he was going
21:08
Speaker 1: to be stepping out, but he'd be back in a
21:10
Speaker 1: couple of hours.
21:11
Speaker 2: Now.
21:11
Speaker 1: For Dennis, it actually was not that unusual for him
21:13
Speaker 1: to go out this late at night. This was kind
21:16
Speaker 1: of routine. He would often leave the condo where they lived,
21:19
Speaker 1: and he would go down the street to this diner
21:21
Speaker 1: called Denny's, which is a big chain in America, and
21:23
Speaker 1: he would hang out there with his friends, you know,
21:25
Speaker 1: stay there for a couple of hours, and then he'd
21:27
Speaker 1: come back home. And tonight was going to be no different.
21:29
Speaker 1: His plan, as he said in this letter, was to
21:31
Speaker 1: go to Denny's. However, there was one stop he wanted
21:34
Speaker 1: to make before he headed out to Denny's, and he
21:37
Speaker 1: made that clear in his note. He basically provided his
21:40
Speaker 1: loved ones with his evening itinerary. So after finishing the note,
21:44
Speaker 1: Dennis left it on the counter, he grabbed his things,
21:47
Speaker 1: and then he walked out the front door of the condo.
21:50
Speaker 1: Several hours later, around two am, Dennis's daughter Laura paced
21:54
Speaker 1: around the living room of the family's condo with.
21:57
Speaker 2: Her cell phone to her ear.
21:59
Speaker 1: So she and her mother had gotten home around ten,
22:01
Speaker 1: so an hour after Dennis had left, and they had
22:04
Speaker 1: found Dennis's note on the kitchen island.
22:07
Speaker 2: But now you know, it was.
22:08
Speaker 1: Getting really late, and from the note, it seemed an
22:11
Speaker 1: awful lot like he would.
22:12
Speaker 2: Have been back by now.
22:14
Speaker 1: And so now Laura was trying to call her dad
22:16
Speaker 1: to figure out what was going on. However, every time
22:19
Speaker 1: Laura dialed her dad's number.
22:21
Speaker 2: It just went straight to voicemail.
22:22
Speaker 1: And so again now that it's like two am and
22:24
Speaker 1: she's starting to worry about her dad, she knew that
22:27
Speaker 1: he had gone to Denny's, the diner down the road,
22:29
Speaker 1: and so she looked up the number for that restaurant.
22:32
Speaker 2: It was open twenty four to seven, and she called
22:34
Speaker 2: the Denny's.
22:35
Speaker 1: However, when a worker at Denny's answered the phone, and
22:38
Speaker 1: Laura asked, them, you know, hey, is my dad there,
22:40
Speaker 1: because by this point they would know him he went
22:42
Speaker 1: there all the time, the worker said no, he hadn't
22:45
Speaker 1: been in at all the whole night. And so after
22:47
Speaker 1: hearing this, I mean, Laura was baffled, like where else
22:50
Speaker 1: could her dad be? But then she remembered the note
22:54
Speaker 1: because her dad said before he was going to go
22:57
Speaker 1: to Denny's, he was going to make a pit stop.
23:00
Speaker 1: And so she looked at the note again and she
23:02
Speaker 1: was like, that's where he has to be. He's got
23:05
Speaker 1: to be upstairs. So upstairs in this condo complex was
23:09
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of amenities that this place offered for
23:11
Speaker 1: its residents. There was a big gym in a pool,
23:14
Speaker 1: and there were common areas and relaxation rooms and all
23:16
Speaker 1: these different things up there, and Dennis loved going up there,
23:20
Speaker 1: and in his note he indicated that's where he was
23:22
Speaker 1: going to go and go relax for a little bit
23:25
Speaker 1: before going out to Denny's. And so Laura she heads
23:27
Speaker 1: upstairs and the first place she looks is the gym,
23:31
Speaker 1: but the gym was totally empty. No one's up there
23:33
Speaker 1: working out at two in the morning.
23:35
Speaker 2: It was vacant.
23:36
Speaker 1: And her dad's now where to be found. And then
23:38
Speaker 1: from the gym, she went to the pool area, and
23:41
Speaker 1: the pool was closed, but she could look into the
23:43
Speaker 1: pool area itself and there was no one in there,
23:46
Speaker 1: including her dad. He was not in the pool. But
23:48
Speaker 1: then Laura looked from the pool over to this door
23:51
Speaker 1: that was near the pool area that led to one
23:54
Speaker 1: of those relaxation rooms that this condo offered its residents.
23:58
Speaker 1: And in her dad's note, he had indicated he was
24:00
Speaker 1: going up there to, you know, relax, And.
24:03
Speaker 2: So she walked over to the door. She tried the handle,
24:06
Speaker 2: it was unlocked.
24:07
Speaker 1: She pushed it open, and immediately she was hit with
24:10
Speaker 1: this overwhelming smell.
24:12
Speaker 2: She nearly gagged, and then she looked up and she
24:15
Speaker 2: saw her down.
24:19
Speaker 1: So this condo had a whole bunch of different ways
24:22
Speaker 1: for their residents to unwind and relax. They had these
24:26
Speaker 1: like relaxation rooms. They had mindfulness rooms and meditation rooms
24:30
Speaker 1: and yoga rooms. They had the pool, they had the gym,
24:33
Speaker 1: and they had Dennis's favorite relaxation room, which was actually
24:38
Speaker 1: just a sauna. So earlier that night, Dennis went into
24:41
Speaker 1: the sauna expecting to be in there for a short
24:44
Speaker 1: amount of time to just relax.
24:46
Speaker 2: Basically, a sauna, all it.
24:47
Speaker 1: Is is just a closed space that gets really really
24:50
Speaker 1: hot inside, and you sweat and you just kind of
24:52
Speaker 1: sit there and just allow your body to kind of
24:55
Speaker 1: like melt a little bit and relax, and then you
24:56
Speaker 1: get out again.
24:57
Speaker 2: You feel very refreshed.
24:59
Speaker 1: But it's article that you only stay in for a
25:02
Speaker 1: limited amount of time because you're effectively inside of an oven.
25:05
Speaker 1: And Dennis, he went into the sauna, no one else
25:08
Speaker 1: is in there. He set the timer for when it
25:11
Speaker 1: should shut off, and he fell asleep inside the sauna,
25:15
Speaker 1: and then the timer malfunctioned and so the sauna didn't
25:19
Speaker 1: turn off, and so he's asleep in the sauna. It's
25:22
Speaker 1: just cooking him over and over again until he actually
25:25
Speaker 1: has a heat induced heart attack and he dies. But
25:29
Speaker 1: then nobody knew he was in there, and the sauna's
25:31
Speaker 1: still on, and so he's dead in the sauna, basically
25:35
Speaker 1: just cooking.
25:35
Speaker 2: For hours and hours and hours.
25:38
Speaker 1: Until finally his daughter Laura went up there, opened up
25:41
Speaker 1: the sauna door, and found her dad, who by this
25:44
Speaker 1: point was literally charboiled.
25:51
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for watching today's episode.
25:54
Speaker 1: Let me know what you thought of it in the
25:55
Speaker 1: comments below, and remember, we have a whole playlist of
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26:05
Speaker 2: All right, until next time, see y