Mr. Ballin
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Susan Morrison (on Lorne Michaels)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Susan Morrison (on Lorne Michaels)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Susan Morrison (on Lorne Michaels)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Scott Payne (retired undercover FBI Agent)
Please enjoy Scott Payne. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Scott Payne (retired undercover FBI Agent)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Scott Payne (retired undercover FBI Agent)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Matt Murphy (homicide prosecutor)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Matt Murphy (homicide prosecutor)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Matt Murphy (homicide prosecutor)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Matt Murphy (homicide prosecutor)
My brain was more what you were thinking, Monica, after I took the test.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Wednesday 2024
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Wednesday 2024
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Wednesday 2024
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eric Topol Returns (on longevity)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eric Topol Returns (on longevity)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Eric Topol Returns (on longevity)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird
Please enjoy Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird
Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Megan Rapinoe & Sue Bird
So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
David Sedaris #5
I love David Sedaris. Please enjoy. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
David Sedaris #5
Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
David Sedaris #5
So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Keith Payne (on the psychology behind the political divide)
Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Keith Payne (on the psychology behind the political divide)
Stay tuned for more Armchair Expert, if you dare.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Sharon McMahon (law and government teacher)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Sharon McMahon (law and government teacher)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Sharon McMahon (law and government teacher)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Toto Wolff (team principal of Mercedes F1 team)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Toto Wolff (team principal of Mercedes F1 team)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Toto Wolff (team principal of Mercedes F1 team)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anthony Anderson
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Nick Kroll Returns
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anna Kendrick Returns
Please enjoy Anna Kendrick. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anna Kendrick Returns
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Anna Kendrick Returns
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Wow. I think that we have a very similar experience. I grew up here in Los Angeles. I was the only mixed kid, let alone only brown girl in my class. And we're talking 80s. So at the birthday parties, girls would French braid each other's hair. And I was like, check, please. no one's getting their fingers through this.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And then there were those cute little barrettes in the 80s that people would put little lanyard pretty like strings in. Those didn't fit in my hair. Or like when I went to Mary Wigmore's boy-girl swim party, I had short hair and it was very curly. And Zandrick was like, go under the water. And so I'd go under the water and he'd be like, do it again. And I'd do it again.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
He goes, your hair looks like a sponge. And I'm 51 years old and it still hurts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And then he was also the kid that was like, hey, will you talk to Mary for me? It was always about my friend Mary. A hundred percent. Who's like beautiful, wonderful, funny.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
When you said detour, what I heard was... The choice to detour for ourselves. We made that choice. We were like, I'm going over here to protect myself.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
You are very astute. And I also didn't realize, because now that I've had four children and my body has become something I don't recognize, I look back at my young self and those grounding states and I was like, wow, I was so cute. Oh my God, you were so hot. My boobs were so cute. So perky.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I had the best boobs. I had the best little bod and I didn't know it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
The other thing is, I don't know if I know how to recognize people hitting on me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I genuinely don't think I'm that aware. I don't know what it looks like. When you said you saw it happening for Monica, did she not see it?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
He was kind of flirty. He's the best. He was amazing. He's the fucking greatest of all time. He really is. Continue.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
So questions equal... Interest. Okay. I agree. I'm not there yet. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I also don't think I've ever pursued anyone myself. So I don't know how it works. I can only imagine it can be painful when you pursue people and they don't reciprocate. So maybe his move is not so cool because... But he tried.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I totally get it. I've been ghosted in that way as well. And it makes you feel like, oh, no good deed goes unpunished. Why did I fucking open like a sliver of my heart? And I wasn't going to. I was being smart. Yeah, you went against what you thought was right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
It's clear to me. But I will say, I don't think it's the last text you'll ever get from him. Well, it might be the last text he ever gets from me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Anyway, we really got derailed. I disagree. That was good rail. I think you're right. And I love that you've thought about it. That makes me love you more because I know as my friend you see me. So that makes me feel really good. And I'm also in good company because it's such a similar experience. I was, you know, in a small group of kids growing up and felt so ugly duckling vibes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And I had a similar thing of like the boy I loved my whole childhood. The elementary school that I went to, we were a small group of kids, was 25 kids. And I was in love with Dax. You know him? I never—
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Well, I told you, you're the only other Dax I've ever known. That's the only Dax other than him I've ever heard of. Dax was the love of my life, and he did not love me back. All my friends do. I loved him. I loved him. I loved him. He was fucking huge, and he had this big blonde bowl cut. He's super hot now. He's grown out of his bowl cut. But he's a very handsome, married man.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
In the old days, he was the love of my life. I just knew that that was my person. And we were really good friends. And then junior high, great friends. And I was like, it's about to happen. It's about to go down. Nothing happened. And then he left school, but then he came back as a senior. And I think he had the nerve to tell me at our 30th high school reunion, like, oh, I was in love with you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I was like, you know what, bitch? First of all, that doesn't count. Exactly. And do you even believe him? I don't.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I don't believe him. Like, why didn't he tell me then?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
It just like sent a shiver down my spine. I'm trying to think. I mean, yes and no, because I feel like I've also worked out some things. I also have, well, my dad's Jewish. I guess he looks white. My dad is superhuman great guy. He's like the best guy in the world, so I don't have bad dad stuff. It's really interesting. There's a type of white guy that I know I'm invisible to. Interesting.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And it's kind of like a fratty guy. They can't see me. I don't register for them. They don't know what to make of me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
They don't get it and they don't want to get it. It doesn't compute. And I do find that very fascinating.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
You're triggering a slight memory of being single. By the way, I've only had like three boyfriends.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
No, but that's the thing. They're just long relationships. I haven't been like dong to dong or anything like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
But I do remember being in a bar once like on the west side. Maybe I was in Venice and my hair was, I started relaxing it when I was at SNL, but before it was my natural curls. It's very thick, natural curly hair.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
At the Groundlings, yeah. Once I got to SNL and couldn't get under the wigs, we had to like reroute. And then I just never got out of the route. I'm going to get there one day.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Thank you. Me too. But I was going to say, I met a guy at a bar and he was like, hey, wild woman. Oh my God. And I remember being like, oh, that's what you see.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
First of all, thank you for this question because no one has ever asked me this and you're making me feel really good. It definitely happened.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I should have come here a long time ago. No one has ever said this to me in my entire life. I don't know what to answer. In Groundlings, I had a boyfriend.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Most of it, and then he dumped me. I passed up so much comedy dong for this guy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I feel like between Groundlings and Saturday Night Live, having a boyfriend, I missed out on so much comedy dong.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And we're not talking about aesthetics. No. Emotionally twisted dongs.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
I dodged so many bullets in that respect. But the other thing is comedians and most thespians have such a fun flirtation. Right. So you get to have that, especially with these dudes that feel like your brother is But yeah, I wish I'd gotten a lot more pussy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
But that's why you had boyfriends. That answers that. I had moved back to LA with my college boyfriend.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Oh, you're like oblivious to that. I do have that because I've noticed in life, I'll say something, I'll say, yeah, he likes you. You're like, what?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
Why do you think that is? Because I find that fascinating about myself. My own personal theory is that I'm also a little bit of a boy because of my upbringing. I grew up with my brother and my dad. After my mom passed, you know, I was seven. So the majority of my childhood home was my dad and my brother. And my brother's older and he was super funny. So I just wanted to be like my brother. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Best of Monday 2024
And so I'm a little bit of a dude DNA wise, you know?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Michelle Williams
Please enjoy Michelle Williams. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Michelle Williams
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Michelle Williams
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Cynthia Erivo
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Cynthia Erivo
Yeah, I would. I mean, I have friends that I would. Yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Cynthia Erivo
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Cynthia Erivo
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Mo Amer
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Mo Amer
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Mo Amer
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jude Law
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jude Law
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jude Law
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lisa Kudrow
Okay, please enjoy Lisa Kudrow. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lisa Kudrow
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Lisa Kudrow
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jon Bernthal
Please enjoy Jon Bernthal. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Balan, the host of Mr. Balan's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jon Bernthal
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Jon Bernthal
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Morgan Freeman
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Morgan Freeman
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Morgan Freeman
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cruise Ship
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cruise Ship
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cruise Ship
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Thanksgiving II
It was a good opportunity for me to do my favorite person.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Thanksgiving II
This Thanksgiving when you get your bird and all the trimmings, remember to hit your knees and thank the man upstairs. Take two, three hours and say your prayers. Say them good and say them loud. Take a couple bites. Hello. Oh. Thank God.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Thanksgiving II
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Thanksgiving II
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Thanksgiving II
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Mother-in-Law
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Mother-in-Law
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Mother-in-Law
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Public Transit
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Public Transit
Enjoy. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Public Transit
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Crazy Ex
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Crazy Ex
Do you want to sing a tune or something? We don't have a theme song. Oh, okay, great.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Crazy Ex
Please enjoy Crazy Exes. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Crazy Ex
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Haven’t Confessed to Parents
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Haven’t Confessed to Parents
Enjoy. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Haven’t Confessed to Parents
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cults II
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cults II
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cults II
Do you want to sing a tune or something? We don't have a theme song. Oh. Okay, great.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Cults II
Please enjoy Cults Part Two. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Wild Card VI
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Wild Card VI
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Wild Card VI
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Wild Card VI
Do you want to sing a tune or something? Or a theme song? Oh. Okay, great.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Little League/Coaching
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Little League/Coaching
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Little League/Coaching
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Little League/Coaching
Sporty men don't tend to be the most evolved of our kind. Yeah, I think we could probably agree on that. Because CTE?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Armchair Anonymous: Little League/Coaching
Do you want to sing a tune or something?
Guru: Don't Cross Kat
After the Spell | 6
Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Guru: Don't Cross Kat
After the Spell | 6
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Guru: Don't Cross Kat
After the Spell | 6
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Guru: Don't Cross Kat
After the Spell | 6
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 676: Listener Tales 98: Witches!
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here, and I am so excited to tell you all about a podcast from Ballin Studios called Redacted Declassified Mysteries, and it's hosted by the incredible Luke LaManna. From covert government experiments to bizarre assassination attempts, Redacted dives deep into the astonishing true stories of uncovered secrets, lies, and deception within the world's most powerful institutions.
Morbid
Episode 676: Listener Tales 98: Witches!
Stories like the mind-bending truth behind Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were smuggled into America to advance U.S. technology and intelligence during the Cold War. Or the shocking story of Charles Manson and the CIA, revealing how a notorious cult leader might have been entangled in a web of covert operations.
Morbid
Episode 676: Listener Tales 98: Witches!
Trust me when I tell you, the stories are real and the secrets are shocking. Be sure to follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna on the Wondery app or wherever else you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 658: Listener Tales 96: Buhtz
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 658: Listener Tales 96: Buhtz
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 658: Listener Tales 96: Buhtz
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 666: Episode 666 - Listener Tales of the Beast
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 666: Episode 666 - Listener Tales of the Beast
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 666: Episode 666 - Listener Tales of the Beast
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 662: The Exorcism of Roland Doe
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 662: The Exorcism of Roland Doe
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 662: The Exorcism of Roland Doe
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 660: Herbert Mullin: The Killer Hippie (Part 1)
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 660: Herbert Mullin: The Killer Hippie (Part 1)
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 660: Herbert Mullin: The Killer Hippie (Part 1)
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 659: The Unsolved Murder of Kristin O’Connell
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 659: The Unsolved Murder of Kristin O’Connell
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 659: The Unsolved Murder of Kristin O’Connell
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Morbid
Episode 657: Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Morbid
Episode 657: Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Morbid
Episode 657: Boston’s Great Molasses Flood of 1919
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
Hey, it's me, Mr. Ballin. Thank you so much for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. Today, I've got something different, but very special for you, something I know you're gonna love. Our studio, Ballin Studios, has another incredible brand new podcast for you to listen to.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
And now, here's a clip from episode one of A Twist of History, How Murder Went Viral. When you finish this clip, go and check out the full episode wherever you get your shows. Enjoy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
We already know you guys love storytelling with twists and turns, of course, and what better way than with history to provide some of the most compelling stories ever? The brand new podcast is called A Twist of History, and I'm about to play you a clip of it. But first, I want to tell you that this is not going to be a traditional history podcast.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
These are not only going to be told in the fully immersive story format you're used to getting from Ballin Studios, but they will also have a clear connection to the things in our everyday lives. For example, why are we obsessed with true crime stories? It turns out that reason is from over a hundred years ago.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
If you enjoyed that clip from A Twist of History, be sure to head on over to the show page and tap the follow button so you don't miss out on any of these incredible origin stories. New episodes come out every Wednesday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
And in this story, it's not just the grisly murder or the daring escape or the thrilling hunt that will suck you in. It's the way that that story sparked our cultural obsession with true crime that makes it so much more fascinating. And that's just episode one. Do you know how Hollywood became the movie mecca? Or why we don't use the metric system?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
Or even why we can find bananas in all of our supermarkets? These stories will not only answer those questions, but they will blow your mind. Just those examples I gave you, they involve pirates, the CIA, political assassinations, and Thomas Edison being a big bully.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: A Twist of History
History is never a straight line, and pretty often we can pinpoint a remarkable, thrilling twist which affects everything that follows. So go search for our new podcast called A Twist of History and hit that follow button and begin listening right away. The show is free, of course, and new stories will come out each and every Wednesday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
Hey, it's me, Mr. Ballin. Thank you so much for listening to Mr. Ballin Podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories. Today, I've got something different, but very special for you. Something that I know you're all going to love. Our studio, Ballin Studios, has another incredible brand new podcast for you to listen to.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
And it's hosted by none other than Nexpo, a YouTube creator with millions of subscribers on his channel. Nexpo is truly an incredible storyteller, and now he's launching his podcast with new and exclusive stories you can't find anywhere else. It's called Late Nights with Nexpo, and each week, Nexpo will bring you a terrifying story that will absolutely shake you to your core.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
From the most bizarre unsolved mysteries, to going down the internet's creepiest rabbit holes, to chilling true crime, Nexpo will explore the stories that actually keep him up at night. And if they're keeping him up, I'm pretty sure you'll want to listen with the lights on. or off, depending on how much you like to scare yourself. Either way, one thing's for sure, you'll be hooked.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
So now, I am proud to present you a full episode of Late Nights with Nexpo. It's called Madness on the Mountain, and in it, Nexpo dives into an eerie mystery of death and survival, which still stumps people today. In 1993, seven hikers set out into the Camar de Bon mountains, but only one returned alive. And the reason for their sudden violent deaths has never been explained.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
So what happened on that mountain? After you finish listening to the episode, please go follow Late Nights with Nexpo wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Late Nights with Nexpo will come out every Wednesday. Enjoy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's story is a good old-fashioned spooky story. It's about a missing person in Taiwan, and it takes a totally bizarre turn, and I'll say most of you will probably get the most thrill out of the apartment scene.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Detective Lin figured, you know, if Leo was somehow involved in whatever happened to Mariko, let's say she was killed, and let's say Leo was responsible for killing her, maybe if they followed Leo long enough, he might drive to an area that was kind of connected to her murder. Maybe her gravesite, or the place where he killed her, or something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
You know, going to kind of strange, random locations without a fare would likely be an indication to police that that was a place of interest. But, as the police tailed Leao, that's not what he did. Leao basically never ever left his cab. Leao basically just picked up a passenger, drove them where they needed to go, and then repeated, over and over and over again, all day long.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then at the end of the night, instead of going home to his apartment that police knew he had, he would just sleep inside of his cab, just like in parking lots and stuff. And the only times he would go into his apartment appeared to be just so he could go to the bathroom or maybe shower or something because they would see him through the window.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But whenever Leia went into his apartment, he went through the same totally weird ritual every time. He would be in his cab, parked out front of his apartment, and the police are, you know, parked far enough away that they can watch this.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And Leao, at some point, would begin kind of frantically looking all around him, as if he was looking for somebody who was trying to hurt him, or who was spying on him or something. And then after kind of making sure the coast was clear, Leao would open up his door and sprint, like absolutely as fast as he could, into his apartment building.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And he'd only be in there for like a couple of minutes before he'd come bombing back out and practically dive into his cab.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
lock all the doors and then you know he'd clutch his golden statues and he'd rub his fulus that were taped all over the inside of his cab and he'd continue frantically looking around you know to make sure nobody was there to hurt him or something and then after a little while he'd kind of calm down he'd put his statue back on the dash he'd kind of make sure his fulus were all in place and then he would drive away
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
On the morning of February 4th, 1991, a taxi cab driver named Wang was chatting with the taxi dispatcher at headquarters when suddenly, for no clear reason, the dispatcher stopped talking to Wang and just began staring intently at something behind Wang. And so Wang noticed this and right away he turned around to see what it was he was looking at.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
So, of course, Leao's behavior, you know, from the police's perspective, was totally bizarre, but in Detective Lin's mind, it didn't really seem like the behavior of a murderer. It seemed more like the behavior of someone who had lost their mind. Finally, on March 4th, 1991, Detective Lin decided that he just needed to speak to Leao, which required, you know, basically ambushing Leao.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
So, Detective Lin coordinated with his officers who were out surveilling Liao, and he had them tell him when Liao was at his apartment, you know, going in to use the bathroom.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And when they called in to Detective Lin that, hey, he just got to his apartment, he's about to run inside, Detective Lin and some other officers raced to the apartment, and they were all ready outside for whenever Liao came running back out to dive back into his cab. They were going to intercept him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And now, Detective Lin and his colleagues didn't really know how Leao was going to react to having all these police standing there ready to grab him. I mean, was this guy going to be hostile? Was he going to be aggressive? Was he going to be scared? Sad? They had no idea. It just seemed like Leao was totally unstable, so they all kind of had to be ready for whatever reaction he was going to have.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
However, the way Leao ultimately reacted to this was not the way any of the officers suspected. When Leo came bombing out of his apartment after a very short bathroom break, he began charging down the stairs towards his cab and then seemed to kind of realize there were all these detectives and police officers all standing in front of him, literally getting ready to grab him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And Leo just collapsed to his knees and began sobbing and thanking them over and over and over again. Now, Detective Lin had no idea what this was. He didn't really understand what Leia was thanking them for, but he didn't waste any time trying to figure out what was going on. Instead, Detective Lin just went up to Leia and said, hey, we need to speak to you at the station. Will you come with us?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And Leia was like, of course I will, of course I will. And so Detective Lin drove Leia out to the police station. And when they got there, Leia was saying things like, oh, I wish I could just stay at the police station with you all. Like, this is where I'm safe. I want to stay here. Now, Lin didn't really respond to this. He just kind of said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then they went inside together to head towards the interview room. And as they're walking there, Leia was saying over and over again to Detective Lin and any of the officers he passes by, you know, thank you so much. You're my savior. Thank you.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Now, the police had no idea why Leo was treating them like his saviors, because to them, they're like, dude, we just ambushed you and brought you to the police station to question you about potentially being involved in a murder, so I don't know how we saved you. But, it would turn out, Leo had a really compelling reason to believe they really had just saved him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Because, it would turn out, Leo had this absolutely terrifying thing happening inside of his apartment. Just several minutes earlier, when Liao had run into his apartment, so right before he charged back outside and police grabbed him and took him to the station, you know, when he was still inside of his apartment, he stepped inside and the apartment was totally dark.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But all Wang could see was just a window that looked out to this huge fenced-in parking lot that was full of taxi cabs and their drivers. This is where they would go to wait for fares. And where the taxi headquarters were located was right near the airport in a very busy city called Kaohsiung City in Taiwan. And so taxi cabs in this area were really in high demand.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
All the lights are off, all the shades are drawn, and immediately Liao felt his heart starting to race. And he looked around his apartment and it was totally silent, but then he heard it. He could hear on the far side of his apartment, in a room that he couldn't quite see into, the sound of breathing. But Leao lives alone. There shouldn't be anybody here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
He has no pets, there's nobody here, but he hears breathing in another room. But Leao knew there was nothing he could do. The only thing he could do was just try to get in there, go to the bathroom, and get out as quickly as possible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so very slowly, Layal began kind of tiptoeing across the living room floor, kind of making sure to stay out of eyesight of the doorway that led into the room where the breathing was coming from. And as soon as he kind of got past an area where he could be seen from the doorway, he ran the rest of the way down the hallway. He cut into the bathroom and shut the door and locked it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then as quickly as he could, you know, he did his business. He used a washcloth to clean himself because he didn't have time to take a shower because of what was going on inside of his apartment. And then once he was all done, You know, he took a deep breath, and then he opened up the door. And this time, the apartment was absolutely silent. There was no more breathing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Leao, thinking he had this opportunity to get out of here without being caught by this thing inside of his apartment, he turned and just started running towards the door. And as soon as he did, he began to hear a voice, a hoarse female voice, screaming at him from the other side of his apartment, screeching, "'Why? Why? Why?'
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And as Leo is just about to get to the door, he turns and he sees Mariko, the missing woman, running with her hair all knotted and matted, hanging over her face, sprinting towards him from that back room. And Leo, he only managed to barely get out of his apartment and shut it and lock it before she ran into the door. And then it went silent again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
This is why Leia was acting totally crazy, because he was terrified of what he believed was like this demonic entity inside of his apartment. He didn't think that was a real person. He thought it was like the spirit of Mariko or something, and she was haunting him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so he had no idea what to do, he didn't know who to tell, and he just began living out of his cab instead of dealing with whatever was going on in his apartment. And so when Leao charged outside after this latest encounter with Mariko, you know, he sees the police, and Leao is just overwhelmed with relief. Hopefully, he's thinking, they can get rid of her and his life can go back to normal.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But, as overjoyed as Leo appeared to be, and now having the police on his side, you know, finally being able to deal with whatever was going on, when push came to shove, Leo actually did not feel comfortable immediately giving up details of whatever was going on with Mariko inside of his apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But as Leia was brought by Detective Lin to the police station to tell them what was going on with how Mariko was in his apartment and she was haunting him, you know, it seemed like it was the ghost of her or something. You know, as Leia was having that conversation, other police officers were sent to Leia's apartment to go see if maybe Mariko really was in his apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so as Wang looked out at the very busy parking lot full of drivers talking to potential customers, you know, to Wang, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was just a typical busy day. But when Wang kind of looked at the dispatcher like, I don't really see what you see, the dispatcher just raised his finger and kind of pointed in the direction that he was staring.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Maybe that's where she had been this whole time. Maybe she broke into this guy's apartment and was just squatting there and harassing him. And that was the mystery. That's where she's been. But when police went into Liao's apartment, there was no sign whatsoever that anybody else besides Liao was living in that apartment. There was no sign of a break-in. I mean, there was nothing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
It was just Liao's apartment. And so this made police really suspicious of Liao. because his story was so outrageous. And also he's talking about a person who's actively missing, Mariko. And so the police really pressured Leao to, you know, come forward, give us more information. Why did you say this is Mariko in your apartment?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Because there's nobody in your apartment, you know, tell us what's going on here. And so finally, after four days of intense questioning of Leao, Leao did finally admit to police that there was more to the story. It would turn out Liao really did pick Mariko up at the train station when she arrived in Taiwan for her vacation. So he did give her a ride, just like he said he had.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But Liao had lied about what happened after that. It would turn out, after giving her this ride, Liao stayed with Mariko, and they went sightseeing together, and then Liao invited Mariko to stay with him at his apartment, which again was customary in Taiwan.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Mariko said yes, and she went to his apartment in the evening, and while they were there, Liao did proposition Mariko, and she rejected him. And at first, Leao just let it go. But then after Mariko fell asleep that night, he got his crossbow that he used to shoot dogs and cats, and he went into her room, and he shot her four times with the crossbow, and then cut her head off.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Leia would bury her body the following night. But that same night was the first time Leia began hearing the breathing. In his apartment, he couldn't quite place it. And then, not long after that, the head of Mariko, the severed head, would chase him all around his apartment, screaming, why, why, why, at him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so basically, Mariko's severed head began haunting Liao incessantly to the point where he moved into his taxi cab and put up all those Fulu papers to protect him from evil spirits and also put up all those statues of Buddha for the same reason. I mean, he was living in his cab to protect himself from what he believed was this evil spirit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so when people saw Liao in his cab kind of sitting back and muttering to himself, that was him praying that he would live through whatever was going on with this head. Leia would tell police where he buried Mariko's body, and he would tell police he buried her entire body in one location, including her head. But when police dug her up, it was only her lower half. Her head was missing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Liao was convicted of murder, and to this day he is still in prison. Many people in Taiwan believe that, you know, this case was ultimately solved because of Mariko's spirit, that she played a big role. You know, her head haunting Liao is what drove him crazy to the point where he admitted to police what he did.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Wang turned around again, and this time when he looked in the direction the dispatcher was pointing, he could see immediately why the dispatcher was reacting the way he was. Because the dispatcher was pointing at one of their colleagues, so another taxi driver, whose name was Leo Shui Chung.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then also, people in Taiwan think all those strange phone calls they were getting from that woman who was speaking Japanese and acting frantic and then hanging up, they say that was Mariko's spirit too, that that was maybe one of her attempts just to keep people engaged with the story so that it wouldn't fade and become a cold case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And in fact, even some of the police, including Detective Lin, say they do believe Mariko's spirit played a role. And in fact, Detective Lin said at one point when he was inside of Liao's apartment, he was by himself and he felt someone push him on the back. And when he turned around, there was nobody there. And so he was convinced that Mariko's spirit was inhabiting that apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts, not just this one, but also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, and Run Full. Just search for Ballin Studios on any podcast platform and you'll find all of them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
If you want to watch hundreds more strange, dark, and mysterious stories, just head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And as Wang looked out at him, he saw Leo was sprinting across this very busy parking lot full of all these cabs and drivers and customers. And Leo was clutching this big golden statue of Buddha in his arms as he ran.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Wang and the dispatcher watched Leo, and what he did is he kept running all the way across the lot until he got to his taxi cab, at which point he practically dove inside of it, he slammed the door, locked every door, and then began looking around frantically like he was expecting someone to show up who had been like chasing him or something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But there was nobody around his car, and Wang and the dispatcher kind of scanned the parking lot, and they didn't see anybody who seemed remotely interested in Leo. And so Wang and the dispatcher continued to watch Leo from the window and they saw eventually Leo stopped kind of scanning around for other people.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Believe me, you'll know the scene when you get to it, and it's towards the end of the podcast, so make sure you stick around to the end if you enjoy being spooked.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And at that point, he took that golden statue of Buddha and he placed it up on the dash of his cab. And this was not the first Buddha statue that he had put up there. From Wang and the dispatcher's perspective, it looked like he had at least two or three that were right up there alongside this new one. And then after Leo placed this new golden statue, he sort of sat back in his chair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And from Wang and the dispatcher's perspective, it sort of looked like he had closed his eyes and was praying or mumbling something. But, you know, whatever he was doing, it just seemed kind of odd. And so eventually, Wang and the dispatcher stopped watching Leo, who still just continued to sit back in his chair and, you know, mumble or pray or something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then Wang and the dispatcher looked at each other, and they exchanged very concerned looks. Because they both knew, you know, Leo was kind of a weird guy, but from his behavior today, it just seemed like, you know, something must be wrong with Leo. There has to be some issue.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
So for context, Leo was this 35-year-old guy who lived alone, and he had this reputation of being very antisocial and kind of just rude, like he had terrible manners.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But recently, Wang and the dispatcher and other taxi drivers who worked at this company had noticed that Leo's behavior had gone from being kind of awkward and antisocial to being kind of menacing, like not even including the weird behavior he was exhibiting now, just like in his day-to-day interactions with people. He was just really aggressive.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Like, he always would tell his colleagues at the taxi company how much he hated stray cats and dogs. And, you know, a lot of people found these stray cats and dogs in their neighborhood in the city to be a bit of a nuisance. You know, they'd rummage through trash and make noise or whatever, but nobody really paid them much attention. They were just stray animals trying to survive.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Like, it wasn't a big deal. But for Leo, he like obsessed over hating the stray cats and dogs and how much he wanted them to get out of his neighborhood. And somewhat recently, he had come to work and told his colleagues that he had gone out and gotten a crossbow. And at night, he'd begun shooting at the stray cats and dogs, which totally horrified his colleagues.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And now, Leo had this weird thing going on with his Buddha statues that he was putting inside of his cab. And also, in addition to those statues, he had begun putting on the windows inside of his cab these things called Fulus, which are these little strips of yellow parchment paper that basically ward off evil spirits.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Leo had basically transformed the interior of his cab into this sort of like weird shrine or temple. And in fact, Leo had put up so many of these Fulus on the inside of the windows, and again, all those statues that sat on the dash, that when he drove, he could barely see, because his view was totally obstructed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But despite everybody at the company seeing this totally weird behavior playing out with Leo, nobody went up to him and said, hey, what are you doing with these statues and pieces of paper? Like, what's going on here? Because nobody wanted to interact with him. He seemed like kind of a menace, and so people just kind of let him do his thing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button is at work, go ahead and sneak into their house and crawl into their bed and then open up a Nature Valley crunchy granola bar and very sloppily eat it so crumbs go everywhere in their bed and then without cleaning up anything, just pull the covers over your mess and leave. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But now, as Wang and the dispatcher are watching Leo run across the lot and act totally psychotic, they looked at each other and they were like, maybe we should do something. And so Wang volunteered to call the police. And as Wang turned to go walk out and make the call, he saw Leo peeling out of the parking lot, nearly smashing into cars and people, just driving like a total maniac.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Leo really felt like, okay, yeah, this really is the time to step in. Someone's going to get hurt here. The following day, Wang would contact his friend in the police department and he would explain what was going on with Leo. And to Wang's surprise, his friend told him that actually the police were well aware of Leo.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And that was because not all that long ago, Leo was actually a suspect in a murder case. So about 10 months earlier, in April of 1990, a 23-year-old woman from Japan named Mariko Eguchi had visited Taiwan on vacation, and during this vacation, she had gone missing. Now, at the time, the Taiwanese economy really relied heavily on Japanese tourism.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so Taiwan really aggressively marketed to Japan to, you know, come visit, come on vacation here. And so it was pretty common for Japanese college students to visit Taiwan on vacation to celebrate things like a graduation or a birthday party. And so that's what Mariko was doing. She was here celebrating and she was traveling alone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Also, one sort of quirky thing about Taiwanese culture at the time was it was pretty common for taxi cab drivers to open up their own personal homes to their fares, basically saying, hey, don't stay at a hotel. I'll give you a ride wherever you're going to go. But then at night, you can stay at my house with my family.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so it was just kind of a thing in Taiwan that people visited and stayed at the homes of their taxi cab drivers. So when Mariko came to Taiwan on this vacation, this is what she did. She stayed in the home of the taxi cab driver, and it was during this period of time that she went missing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so naturally, when the investigation began into her disappearance, the first place police went were the taxi cab drivers. And so first, the police focused on a driver in the capital of Taiwan who said he had given Mariko a few rides, he had brought her sightseeing, and then he had let her stay in his home. But he said, you know, after that she left and he didn't see her again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
He had no idea what happened to her. And the police would actually discover that after Mariko left that particular driver's house, she would send a postcard to her family that was dated after she had left. And so basically this ruled out the first driver as a suspect.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so for a little while, this case went cold because the police couldn't find any other taxi cab drivers that had given Mariko a ride. But then a few months later, the police offered a reward for information about what happened to Mariko. And it was then that police got a tip that Mariko had been seen speaking to Leo at the train station before she disappeared.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But when police spoke to Leo, he immediately said, yes, I did give Mariko a ride, but that was it. She didn't stay at my house. It was just this one ride from the train station into town. And, you know, after she got out, I have no idea what happened to her. And so police would ask Leo dozens more questions and they would try to get more information from him, but he just didn't have any.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And then at the same time, there was this flood of all these new tips that began coming into the police station about this case. But it would turn out a lot of these leads, like all of them, were just terrible tips.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
People were calling in totally random stuff just because now there was this monetary reward for information and it was kind of incentivizing people to just call in anything and it was actually making the investigation much harder because now the police had all these bad tips and so they really weren't getting anywhere.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
But despite the slow progress the police were making in this case, this case had really been elevated and become like a huge international news story and lots of people all over the world were following it. And during this time when all these people are tuned in to this case, really weird things began happening surrounding this case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
people in the city began receiving all these strange phone calls from this kind of frantic woman speaking Japanese. And in Taiwan, people predominantly speak Taiwanese and Mandarin, not Japanese. So this is a weird phone call to be getting in Taiwan. And also, at this time, you need to remember that Mariko's disappearance was kind of all over the news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so to get these weird calls from a woman speaking Japanese who sounds totally frantic, it made people in the city believe that it was Mariko placing these strange phone calls. But these calls, they didn't make any sense. It was just a woman kind of yelling in Japanese, and then she would just abruptly hang up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And also there were all these reports of people claiming to have seen Mariko or heard Mariko just in the city walking around. None of it was substantiated, but there was just kind of this eerie quality to the case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so when Wang called his friend at the police department to report Leo for his totally weird behavior, this was at a time when the Mariko missing person case was still totally front of mind in Taiwan and around the world. And also the police were still actively investigating this case. And frankly, Leo had not been ruled out as a suspect in this case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
He was not considered a primary suspect by any means, but he wasn't ruled out yet. And so the police are hearing that Leo's acting really funny and And it made them think, hey, maybe we should reinvestigate this guy and see if he really is connected to the Mariko missing person case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so ultimately, after Wang hung up, his friend in the police department got in touch with the lead detective on the Mariko case and told him about what was going on with Leo. And this lead detective, whose name was Lin Xiaoji, decided he would just put Leo under surveillance to see what he was doing. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung, or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
Starting sometime in the middle of February of 1991, Detective Lin and a few of his colleagues began taking turns trailing Leo basically 24-7. And so the police just kept their distance and they followed Leo all around the city as he picked up his fares.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
An Unforgettable Fare
And, you know, the police never got out to talk to any of the fares, you know, to get insights into whatever Leo might've been saying inside the cab. They just kind of watched from a distance and just wanted to see if there was any obvious red flags.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. If you're a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, then you should check out my other podcast, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He told the aide that he'd be a few minutes late to the meeting, then headed for his office to call the chief of police in Salem, Oregon, where the state hospital was located. Later that afternoon, the superintendent of the hospital, Dr. John Evans, stood in front of a cage of rats in a laboratory. He was holding a plate full of scrambled eggs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Earlier that morning, a coroner had requested permission to perform autopsies on the patients who had died. Dr. Evans allowed him to take six of the dead, hoping the autopsy results could tell him what had happened. A few hours after the coroner had taken the bodies, Dr. Evans received a toxicology report that confirmed his worst fear. The patients had been poisoned.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
More than 400 patients had fallen violently ill in the past 12 hours, and dozens had died. The doctor had no idea what the cause was, and if he couldn't figure it out, he knew more bodies would be joining the ones already lining the inside of the chapel.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
However, nobody knew yet what they were poisoned with or how. The coroner was still running tests. But that was why Dr. Evans was now holding a plateful of the contaminated scrambled eggs that had been served the night before. He was running his own experiment. On a neighboring table, there was another cage of rats and another plate of eggs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
But these eggs came straight from one of the egg yolk canisters still in the freezer. A lab technician had thawed them out that morning. They reasoned that if only the first cage of rats died, that meant the poison had been added into the eggs at the hospital.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
But if both cages of rats died, it meant the eggs themselves had been poisoned before they were shipped to the hospital and tens of thousands of people could be in danger. Dr. Evans placed each plate of eggs into their respective cages and then waited for the rats to eat. A moment later, the rats in the first cage began to shake violently and foam at the mouth.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
They squealed in pain and within minutes, all of them were dead. Dr. Evans looked over at the other cage and saw those rats were just fine. The experiment had worked. It confirmed this wasn't a case of mass contamination or widespread enemy conspiracy. The eggs were clearly just fine when they arrived at the hospital before something or someone poisoned them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
But it also meant there could be a mass murderer inside the hospital who was the one who added the poison. Enraged and disgusted, Dr. Evans called the police. Three days later, on November 22nd, head nurse Allie Wassel, who had ordered her patients not to eat the eggs, sat in Dr. Lidbeck's office speaking to a barrel-chested detective.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The investigators had been interviewing every patient and member of staff for the past two days, trying to determine who poisoned the eggs. Further testing had revealed that the poison was sodium fluoride, better known as cockroach poison. Detectives had even found some in a basement storeroom, but what they didn't know was how it had gotten into the eggs or who had done it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Allie wanted to help, but she told the detective that she hadn't seen anything suspicious. Until that horrible dinner, she'd been on duty taking care of patients. She watched the detective as he scribbled something down on a notepad and she started to feel nervous. Allie assured the detective that the other nurses would confirm her story too.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The detective wrote a few more things down and then looked up at Allie and thanked her for her time and told her she was free to go. Allie breathed a sigh of relief and stood up to leave. As she reached the door, the detective told an officer standing outside to bring in the next person to be interviewed, assistant cook Mickey McKillop. Allie passed Mickey as she was walking down the hallway.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He was waiting in a chair outside the office, bouncing his leg up and down. Allie couldn't help but think that he looked anxious, or like a man who was hiding something. By late that same evening, Mickey McKillop had been in Dr. Lidbeck's office for hours. The detective had asked him the same few questions over and over, pressing him about the way the kitchens were run.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey thought he'd kept his story straight, but he'd told it so many times now that it was hard to be sure, and he knew he was likely starting to confuse the details. All Mickey wanted to do was sleep. He had a migraine that was making it hard to focus, but every time he closed his eyes, the detective would shake him awake.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
and so Mickey was feeling like he would do just about anything to make this interview end. It was obvious the police were suspicious of him, and Mickey knew they would not give up until he, Mickey, told the police what they needed to know. So Mickey decided it was time to come clean.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. If you liked today's story, please invite the follow button on an African safari, but before you go, make sure you sneak 27 raw steaks into their backpack.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey sat up in the stiff wooden chair, and while avoiding eye contact with the detective, Mickey would admit that he did know more than he had told them. Mickey said that he could tell them exactly who had poisoned the eggs. In fact, he had watched it happen. And worst of all, he had not done a thing to stop it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
An hour later, Mickey and his boss, Mary O'Hare, were being led from the Oregon State Hospital in handcuffs. A police officer read the charges. Mickey was charged with manslaughter. Mary was charged with accessory after the fact. Then the officer loaded them into a police van.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey took one last look at the hospital and caught a glimpse of a few patients staring out the windows, terrified looks on their faces. One of the faces he recognized was George Nosen, the psychiatric patient who volunteered in the kitchen. Mickey shook his head. He knew that what he had just told the detectives would change George's life forever.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
When Mickey the cook finally told the truth to detectives, he began by telling them about the terrible evening the sickness broke out. While the nursing staff was running around treating all these patients who were vomiting up blood, Mickey saw George Nosen cowering in the hallway and suddenly Mickey had a terrible thought. He grabbed George and asked him to retrace his steps from that afternoon.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey and George mimed preparing the eggs, getting the frozen yolks, lighting the stove, getting some water to help warm them. Then Mickey followed George down the kitchen steps in search of the powdered milk that made the eggs creamy. At the bottom of the steps, there were two storeroom doors.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Instinctively, Mickey leaned toward the storeroom on the left, which held dry goods, but George led him to the storeroom on the right, which held fruits and vegetables. Mickey felt an icy chill run through him. He watched George turn the key and open the right door. George pointed to a large, unmarked tin canister sitting on the ground inside. It was open and filled with white powder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
A scoop was sticking out of the powder like it had just been used. Mickey's stomach dropped, but he tried to look unbothered. He thanked George and sent him to his room. Then he ran back upstairs and grabbed his boss, Mary, and showed her the canister George had just pointed out. Mary went white as a sheet. It was against the rules for Mickey to have given keys to a patient.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mary told Mickey that she did understand why he'd done it. They were so understaffed, he'd been desperate for help. But if anyone found out, they were both done for, and so they agreed to keep it a secret. Mary had kept her promise and said nothing, but Mickey eventually broke and told the story to the detective in Dr. Lidbeck's office.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Once the detective got Mickey's confession, they knew who had poisoned the eggs at the Oregon State Hospital and how they had done it. That fateful night, George had taken the keys to the storeroom and headed down to the basement. But he went into the wrong storeroom. He went into the right door, and he brought back a heaping scoop of white powder that he believed was powdered milk, but it wasn't.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He then poured that white powder into a vat of scrambled eggs, and in doing so, George had accidentally poisoned his fellow patients with sodium fluoride, aka cockroach poison. To this day, nobody knows why the poison was kept in that storeroom with the fruits and vegetables.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
In adults, a lethal dosage of sodium fluoride is just five to 10 grams, which is a bit more than what you'd find in a sugar packet. Well, George had accidentally spiked the eggs with five pounds of poison. In the end, the charges against Mickey the cook and his boss, Mary, were dismissed. The hospital was held liable since the real culprit was gross understaffing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The only person who suffered any real consequences for the mistake was George, who was unable to leave Oregon State Hospital for another 41 years. George was never the same after that night. He couldn't forgive himself for what he'd done, even if it was just a tragic mistake. The patients who remembered the outbreak bullied him relentlessly for decades.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
And after a while, George started fighting back. He got into physical brawls on multiple occasions. And then in 1983, he got into a big altercation with an older inmate. And during it, George was severely injured and died as a result. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
A quick reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Aaron Lan. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Ryan Potesta. Coordinating producer is Sophia Martins. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Tasia Palaconda.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Fact-checking was done by Andrew Rosenblum. For Ballin Studios, our producer is Alyssa Tommenang. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondry, senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Our producer is Julie Magruder. Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondry. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
This week's story is called Blood Feast. It was late in the afternoon on November 18, 1942. A cook named Mickey McKillop opened the lid of a giant metal vat, then asked his volunteer sous chef, 27-year-old George Nosen, to carry it over to an industrial oven.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Each week, I dive into some of the most bizarre, mind-bending medical stories you've ever heard. Cases that leave doctors scratching their heads, miraculous recoveries that defy logic, and strange medical mishaps that seem too wild to be real. These stories are more than just eerie. They are a reminder of how unpredictable and sometimes terrifying life can be.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey and George were starting to prepare dinner for almost 500 patients across five wards at the Oregon State Hospital, a public mental facility for psychiatric patients. Tonight's menu was scrambled egg yolks and toast, and Mickey, along with his boss, Mary O'Hare, were the only two cooks on duty.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The hospital had been understaffed for a year now, ever since the United States entered World War II. Many members of the nursing staff had left to volunteer for the war effort. During the day, there was about one attendant for every 16 patients, but at night, that number swelled to one attendant for every 150 patients.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey and Mary were so desperate for help in the kitchen that they had started asking trustworthy patients to help them prep for each meal. And one of those trustworthy patients was Mickey's volunteer sous chef, George Nosen. George placed a frozen 16-pound canister of eggs onto the countertop beside the oven. Mickey liked George, and he felt a little sorry for him too.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
George's parents had originally brought him to the hospital for help with his epilepsy, which is a disorder of the brain characterized by repeated seizures. At this time, people were just beginning to understand how epilepsy actually worked. George's parents most likely saw it as a mental condition, which is why they brought him to the state hospital.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
They probably didn't think he was crazy, they just wanted help with getting his seizures under control. But during George's initial evaluation, the staff psychologist would diagnose George with paranoid schizophrenia, and then they had George involuntarily committed for life. Mickey didn't understand how that was possible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He'd never seen George hallucinate or get aggressive like the other patients with schizophrenia, but there was nothing he could do about it. And if he was being honest with himself, he was glad to have someone so mild-mannered and easygoing to help him in the kitchen. Mickey yanked the lid off the canister that George had just set down, revealing hundreds of thawing egg yolks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
These days, a lot of the hospital's food supply came from federal surplus deliveries, since the government was rationing food to help the war effort. The egg whites were used in food that was sent overseas, and hospitals stateside got the leftover yolks. It was time to start cooking, so Mickey dumped out the canister into the metal vat.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He repeated the process two more times until the stove top was crowded with thawing eggs. He handed George a cup and asked for water, and then he lit the stove top so the eggs would warm faster. He let George dump the water into the vat, then the two of them started slicing bread loaves.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Once they were done, Mickey turned on the oven and laid all the bread slices across the metal grates to be toasted. Then he turned his attention back to the eggs. They were finally thawed, so Mickey asked George to grab some powdered milk. It was the only thing that made the egg yolks creamy enough to scramble.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
As Mickey stirred the eggs, he sent George to fetch something else, Postum powder, a caffeine-free coffee substitute they'd been getting from the government over the past year. Mickey even let George mix the drink himself. He'd never let a patient touch an actual dinner item before, so Mickey took a quick sip just to be safe. The Postum tasted like chalk, which meant it was made correctly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He clapped George on the back and told him he'd done a great job. But that momentary taste test distracted Mickey just long enough for the eggs to start burning. Mickey cussed as he turned off the stovetop, wondering how to fix this. He threw in a palmful of salt and then gave the eggs a stir, and then they looked good as new.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Up next is one of my recent favorites from the series. Whether you're new to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or a longtime listener, I think you'll find it just as captivating as I did. If you like this content, make sure to follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
When dinner was finally done, Mickey and George portioned the eggs and toast into buffet dishes and then loaded them onto a big cart for delivery that each of the five dining halls spread across the hospital's wards. By the time they got toward 5, hungry patients lined the hallway outside the cafeteria, urging Mickey and George to please hurry up. Finally, a bell rang and the lines began to move.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
From behind the buffet table, Mickey watched as the patients ladled scrambled eggs onto their plates. He helped serve them each a piece of toast and then sent the patients to sit at the long metal tables that ran the length of the dining hall. And as the patients all dug into their food, Mickey heard someone call out that the eggs were too salty.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey winced and felt bad because he knew he very well could have over salted them. And while Mickey was worrying about the eggs, another patient in the room took a long swig of Postum and then started to choke. One of the nurses walked over to pat the patient on the back, but instead of swallowing, the patient keeled over and threw up on the nurse's shoes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The nurse shrieked and Mickey looked over and saw a red streak on the ground. It took him a second to realize that it wasn't vomit, it was blood. The patient then fell backwards onto the floor and those around him began to scream. The nurse bent over and tried to steady the man who was now having a seizure on the floor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey ran over to help her, but before he could make it, another patient sent a spray of red blood shooting across the table. Mickey shouted for everyone to stop eating. but his warning came too late. More patients began throwing up blood. Others collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain. Mickey didn't know what to do, so he just tried to catch patients as they fell.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
One nurse ran into the hallway and sounded an alarm. Mickey stooped over a patient who was clawing at his own face, saying he couldn't feel it. His lips were swollen and blue. He tried to help the man return to his seat, but the man collapsed back down to the floor and started saying that his legs were paralyzed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Mickey was totally horrified and his hands trembled with fear, and he had no idea what could cause this terrible reaction people were having. Dr. William Lidbeck had just finished dinner when his phone rang at his home on the hospital grounds. When he picked it up, all he heard on the other end was screaming and shouting.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Then a panic-stricken nurse got on the line and begged him to run up to the hospital. Patients across four of the five wards were collapsing, they were vomiting blood, and now losing feeling in their faces and limbs. Dr. Lidbeck dropped his fork, ran out his front door, and tore across the lawn, heading for the side entrance of the main hospital building, a hundred yards from his cottage.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
We put out new episodes every week, and each one dives into a bizarre, mind-bending medical mystery that will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about the human body. In 1944, a doctor covered a deceased patient's body with a sheet and then wheeled their stretcher out into the hallway.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
With every step, the screaming he could hear grew louder. It sounded like every patient inside of the building was in agony. Moments later, the doctor flung the door open and stepped into the hallway, and the scene that greeted him was horrible. The hallway was full of patients sitting on the floor with their backs up against the wall, coughing blood into their laps.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
One man had been strapped to a gurney in the hallway, spasming wildly, blood running down the front of his shirt. His entire mouth was swollen and drool collected at the side of his lips. A nurse ran into the hallway and beckoned Dr. Lidbeck to come quickly. He followed her through a doorway into the cafeteria where he saw dozens of patients writhing on the floor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The nurse that Dr. Lidbeck had followed dashed ahead of him. She knelt down beside one of the patients and started spoon-feeding him baking soda. Dr. Lidbeck caught up to her and asked what was going on. She admitted that the nursing staff had no idea what had caused this outbreak, but it had started right after the patients had begun their dinner.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
She didn't know how to reverse it, but she was just hoping that baking soda would help alleviate their stomach pain. The entire staff was running around in complete panic, trying to manage symptoms. Dr. Lidbeck took a deep breath and tried to push down his rising fear.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He'd never dealt with sudden illness on such a massive scale, but he knew that he couldn't do anything without the proper equipment. He had to get his medicine bag from his office on the second floor. He instructed the nurse to keep working, then ran out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. He turned the corner into the third ward, where the scene was exactly the same.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
It was full of patients covered in their own blood, writhing on the floor. Dr. Lidbeck had always prided himself on having a steely stomach, but this felt unbearable to watch. He rushed through the hallway, stepping over sick patients as he went, and ran up the stairs to the second floor. But as he left the stairwell, he stopped dead in his tracks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The atmosphere in this ward was completely different. The hallway was empty. If it weren't for the screams echoing from downstairs, it would almost feel peaceful. As he walked past open doors, he saw all the patients tucked in their beds. They looked scared, but seemed to be otherwise fine. Dr. Lidbeck was confused. How was this ward so calm when the rest were full of chaos and vomiting patients?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
A door opened at the end of the hallway, and the ward's head nurse, Allie Wassil, stepped out and walked toward him. Dr. Lidbeck thought she looked really pale. The nurse seemed very relieved to see Lidbeck, and she would tell him that she thought there had to be something wrong with the eggs from dinner.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
She said she had taken one bite and they had tasted so spoiled that she ordered all her patients not to eat them. And so her patients were fine, but she had been throwing up ever since. A chill ran through Dr. Lidbeck. He didn't know yet what was causing his patients to vomit blood, but now he knew it very likely had to be related to the eggs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
It was the only thing all the patients had eaten that night, but it couldn't just be a case of spoiled food. An egg would have to be so rotten to cause this that it never would have been served in the first place. It would have been obviously bad. Then a realization dawned on him. If the eggs themselves were fine, it meant that something else had been put in the eggs that night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He was glad that Nurse Wassil had not eaten more of them. Dr. Lidbeck told the head nurse that if she started feeling worse, to please come find him right away. And then the doctor ran back downstairs to tend to the sick patients. As Dr. Lidbeck went down a hallway, he passed by the hospital morgue. A nurse was wheeling a cupboard stretcher inside. One of the patients had died.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Dr. Lidbeck's blood ran cold, but he didn't have time to stop and mourn. There were hundreds of other patients still waiting for treatment, and so he didn't have a moment to lose. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries. a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The morgue at the Oregon State Hospital was already full, so the doctor planned to put this body in the chapel. But when he pushed open the chapel doors, there were already so many stretchers with dead patients with sheets on them inside that there was no room for this patient. The doctor closed the chapel's heavy wooden doors and just stood there, his mind racing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. About 16 hours later, in the late morning of November 19th, Oregon Governor Charles Sprague raced along the highway in his car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
An hour earlier, Sprague had heard about last night's outbreak at the state hospital. Now he was on the way to the state capitol, where an emergency state board of control meeting would soon commence. From the moment the United States had entered the war, Sprague feared a morning like this.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
He was worried that the outbreak at the hospital was caused by sabotage, that the country's enemies had deliberately tampered with these eggs. He knew that the Oregon State Hospital received food rations from the government. The frozen eggs had been part of a shipment to the hospital six months ago. But those eggs had been separated from a much larger batch.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
It was entirely possible that someone had poisoned that larger supply, which was then sent around to various institutions throughout the country. Sprague worried that if someone had tampered with the egg supply, anywhere that had received eggs from that batch would suffer a similar attack. Sprague shuddered at the thought of a spy for the Axis powers poisoning innocent Americans.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
The Food and Drug Administration had already ordered all institutions that received these eggs to immediately stop using them. Sprague's driver stopped the car outside the front steps of the Capitol building. Once Sprague got out, he was greeted by an aide who walked with him up the stairs. The aide had just received word from the hospital.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "Blood Feast"
As of 10.30 that morning, 47 patients had died and their bodies were still lining the hospital hallways and another 350 patients were violently ill. As governor, Sprague needed to make sure that investigators had the resources necessary to investigate the egg tampering and find out who was behind it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. One of my former teammates from back when I was in ABCL has easily one of the most insane personal stories you will ever hear. And he gave me permission to tell his story, so today, that's what I'm going to share with you.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
I climbed out and I sulked my way to the corner where I saw my other classmates who had met a similar fate on this test. They were all sitting in the corner with their backs to the pool in neat rows. And so I was totally gassed from this test. And so when I sat down, I start dramatically breathing really loud and heaving my chest up and down to show off just how hard my test had been.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest — Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
For the next month, Efrem and the Iraqi army unit that he and his volunteers were working with continued to periodically get into small skirmishes with ISIS in these villages outside of Mosul, but the majority of their time was spent providing humanitarian aid and medical care to civilians in the area. Then in May, their mission changed again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
The other Iraqi army units that had been sent directly into Mosul a month earlier to inch by inch eradicate the area of ISIS fighters, they had done a relatively good job, but the last few ISIS fighters had been pushed up into this northern section of the city where they had bunkered down inside of these blown-out concrete structures, and they were putting up an unbelievably fierce fight.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So fierce, in fact, that these Iraqi army units in the city were not able to go any farther forward. They needed armored vehicles and tanks if they were going to be successful. And it just so happened, the army unit that Ephraim and his volunteer group had embedded with, that had been outside of Mosul this whole time, they were an armored unit. They had armored vehicles and tanks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And they were ordered to head right into the heart of Mosul and liberate it once and for all. And so on May 4th, Ephraim and the other volunteers loaded up in their armored vehicles and they joined this huge line of dozens and dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles looking at the western side of Mosul. There was just a field between them and the city walls.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And as soon as this massive convoy began moving forward towards the city, the city just opened up on them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
heavy machine gun fire rocket fire mortars it was just absolute chaos isis knew they were coming and so they were unleashing everything they had on them and ephraim would say after his vehicle actually got inside of the city limits of mosul and was on one of their roads all these booby-trapped cars began detonating all around them and the machine gun fire and rocket fire and mortar fire only intensified
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
At the same time this was happening, Iraqi civilians inside of Mosul saw this unbelievable wave of violence happening and they began trying to flee the city.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Now ISIS had effectively kept them hostage inside of Mosul because they needed lots of civilians in and around the area because it prevented Iraq and America and other forces that were fighting ISIS from indiscriminately bombing Mosul to get rid of the ISIS presence there. And so when Isis saw these civilians running away, they began shooting them to deter other civilians from trying to escape.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so right in front of Ephraim as he's driving into the city, men, women, children are just being gunned down all over the place. Naturally, Ephraim and the other volunteers hopped out and tried to return fire at these ISIS shooters, but they were so well fortified in different structures, they couldn't even see them, let alone hit them. So they did the next best thing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
In about two seconds into this ridiculous performance of mine, one of my other classmates who had been sitting in the corner when I showed up, a big 18 year old kid from Wisconsin named Ephraim Matos, he immediately turned around and made eye contact with me and through gritted teeth, he just goes, shut up. Everybody here is in pain. And then he turned back around.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Ephraim and the others began putting themselves out in the open to draw fire on themselves so that other nearby civilians could run to safety. And for the next three days, that's what they did, constantly exposing themselves and dodging bullets. And then also when they weren't doing that, they were treating these civilians that had been wounded and other Iraqi soldiers that had been wounded.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Now, to this point, Ephraim had seen combat when he was in the United States Navy as a Navy SEAL, and he'd seen combat as a volunteer with this group. But it wasn't until he got inside of Mosul that he saw just how barbaric humans can be to one another. He said he saw so much death and dying all around him that it was like his brain couldn't compute that level of barbarism.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He would later write a book called The City of Death and it was about his experience in Mosul. And he said the reason he named the book The City of Death is because that's what it felt like. Everywhere around him was just death. For the next several weeks, Ephraim and the other volunteers took up a position in the south section of Mosul inside of this bombed out building.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
They created a sort of aid station and there they focused all of their attention on trying to treat as many wounded civilians and wounded Iraqi soldiers as they possibly could. At the same time, the rest of the Iraqi army had pushed north and was slowly chipping away at the last few ISIS fighters.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
On June 1st, so roughly one month after Ephraim and the others have entered into the city of Mosul, they noticed a significant uptick in the number of wounded civilians that were coming to them for help. And so all day and all night, they're treating all these people that are horribly wounded with gunshot wounds and other wounds.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so at some point, Ephraim and the others begin asking these people, you know, what happened to you? This seems unusual that so many people would show up with these wounds. And they all just seemed to be in shock. No one was able to really talk about what happened, but a few people mentioned there had been a massacre somewhere nearby.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But when they pried for more information, there was a language barrier issue and there was just the fact that they were overwhelmed with patients and they needed to make sure their focus was on treating them, not talking to them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
The following morning though, Ephraim and the others got up and decided they wanted to push farther north into ISIS-held territory to see if there was evidence of a massacre to try to figure out what happened to all these people that were showing up wounded. And so Ephraim and the other volunteers, they left their aid station building and they moved north about one block to this huge intersection.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And there they tucked up against this huge concrete wall that protected them from ISIS. ISIS was down the other road that ran through the intersection. They were holed up in this huge bombed out hospital that overlooked this intersection. And so from where they were, ISIS couldn't see them and they couldn't shoot them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
At some point Ephraim poked his head around this wall looking down the road towards this burned out hospital and what he saw along the road shocked him. There were dozens and dozens of civilians that had been killed laying all over the place.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And immediately, I was actually really mad at him because he just totally publicly dimed me out in front of my other classmates. But then it dawned on me he was right. The job we were trying out for, Navy SEAL, they're not looking for people who just feel bad for themselves all the time. And so I never forgot the lesson Ephraim Matos taught me on the pool deck that day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
It would turn out the day before a huge group of civilians had attempted to flee the city and they ran in front of that burned out hospital where Isis was and they gunned them down. and they killed over 200 civilians, men, women, children, they didn't care, and they wounded at least 100 others. And so that was why there was that huge uptick in wounded civilians the day before.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so as Ephraim is scanning this carnage, being careful not to stay exposed for too long, he notices one particularly large pile of bodies. There's about 20 or 30 bodies. He sees in this pile, there's clearly movement. And he can see there is a little girl who's attempting to hide herself under her dead mother's clothing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And then next to this girl were two other adult men that clearly were wounded, but were alive. Ephraim immediately starts yelling to them to run to him, run to him, you're going to get killed out there. But the three of them were completely shell-shocked. For the past 24 hours, they had been laying inside of this pile of bodies, and so they were not going to be able to move on their own.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so Ephraim realized, unless they did something to get them out of there, they were going to die. So Ephraim and the others ran back to their Iraqi army counterparts, and they got them to sign off on a rescue mission.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And their plan was they would have one of the Iraqi tanks drive down that road straight towards that hospital where all the ISIS fighters were, and right behind the tank would be an Iraqi Humvee, inside of which would be Ephraim and the other volunteers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so they would go straight down the road, the tank would serve as a sort of shield for the Humvee, and after the tank passed the pile of dead bodies, the Humvee would be lined up right next to it, Ephraim and the others would hop out, they'd grab the girl and the two other men, pull them back in the Humvees, and then the two vehicles would back up to safety.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Once this plan was in place, Ephraim and Dave and the other volunteers contacted the American military in the area and they got them to authorize a smoke screen. They would fire artillery shells with airburst smoke grenades that would obscure the view of the ISIS fighters in the hospital.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
They wouldn't actually be able to see the tank or the Humvee or this rescue operation taking place right in front of them. And so shortly after these plans are totally finalized and Ephraim and the others are loading up in the Humvee and they're getting in position to turn that corner and begin this operation, the driver of the Humvee says, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
It's not safe. I'm not willing to do it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Ephraim and the other volunteers tried to convince him to still do the operation because they didn't have time to get a replacement Humvee and they had already coordinated with the American artillery units that were going to be firing these shells at a certain time, and so they really didn't have an opportunity to do this operation again if this guy backed out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Not to mention, if they didn't get out there quickly, these three people were going to die anyways. And so finally, when Ephraim realized this driver was not going to budge, he was not going to go in this operation, Ephraim and the others got out of the Humvee and they walked up to the tank driver and they asked him, you know, are you still prepared to go on this rescue operation?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And he said he was. And so even though if they went through with this mission, it would mean Ephraim and the others would be on foot behind the tank, completely exposed, they were still totally down for doing it. In fact, Ephraim would say at no point did they consider canceling the mission. They were so focused on saving these three people that they were prepared to sacrifice themselves to do it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And I, along with everybody else in the SEAL teams, never forgot the totally insane thing that Ephraim Matos did five years later that was picked up by virtually every major news network at the time. Back in 2012, so about a year after our exchange on the pool deck, Ephraim and I graduated and became Navy SEALs. I was assigned to an East Coast SEAL team and he was assigned to a West Coast one.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so the tank driver closed his hatch. Ephraim and the others got behind the tank. They turned that corner so they're facing the hospital. And then a couple minutes later, as planned, American artillery launched these airburst smoke grenades that totally obscured ISIS's view.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And as soon as those smoke clouds were in the air, ISIS came out and just started firing randomly straight down in the general direction of where this tank was. They couldn't really see the tank. They had no way of knowing what they were doing out there. They just knew something was going on.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so meanwhile, Ephraim and the others are tucked up behind this tank as it's slow rolling in, as rounds are impacting all around them, mortars start landing all around them, and it turns out there were other ISIS fighters not just directly ahead of them in the hospital, but also off to their side in other buildings. So they were getting hit from two directions.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Ephraim remembers as he was behind this tank trying to stay as small as he could, he began dry heaving because he was so terrified. He was completely convinced he was going to die that day. Eventually, the tank made its way just past this pile of bodies.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
At that point, Ephraim actually stepped out and fired back towards Isis in the hospital and over towards the berm to provide some cover fire, while Dave and another volunteer ran over and pulled the girl and the other two men out of the pile and behind the tank. The girl and one of the men were okay, they were not badly physically hurt, but the other man was badly hurt and he couldn't walk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so thinking quickly, Ephraim and his team found a piece of sheet metal on the ground behind this tank and they rolled him onto it and used it like a stretcher and began dragging him as the tank began moving in reverse.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so as bullets are still flying all around them, rockets are landing next to them, they're moving, they're making good progress, when the wounded man slips off of the sled and he lands right in the tracks of where this tank is going to go. And for a variety of reasons, Ephraim and the others had no way of communicating with the tank driver.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So the tank driver is just going to keep on moving and he's going to run over this injured man who can't go anywhere. And so thinking quickly, Ephraim leaps down, he grabs the injured guy, and he rolls with him out of the way of the tracks right as it goes past him. But now Ephraim and this wounded man are outside the protection of the tank, and rounds start impacting all around them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
The smoke screen at this point is pretty much cleared, and so Isis sees them. And Ephraim at this point makes a heartbreaking decision. He looks at this guy who he knows cannot move himself. He's badly wounded. He makes eye contact with them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He holds his hand and Ephraim just shakes his head and says, I'm sorry, because he knew he couldn't move him fast enough behind the tank before both of them got shot. And he couldn't throw him on his back in time before both of them got shot. And so he had to leave him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so Ephraim jumped up, he leapt behind the tank right as a volley of fire hit right where he had been standing, and then Ephraim and the others continued moving back. That wounded man would go on to be killed by Isis. Only a few moments after Ephraim was back behind the relative safety of the tank, he suddenly fell to the ground and felt a pain in his right leg.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He had been shot through the leg. but where he fell was right in line with where one of these tank treads were coming. But again, they can't talk to this tank, so they can't stop the tank from running him over. And so a surge of adrenaline came over Ephraim and he leapt up onto his feet and just continued hobbling behind the tank, despite this gaping hole in his leg.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Eventually, they made it all the way back to that intersection where they had started, but the only way they could get back down the alleyway to safety with the Iraqi army was to run across a small segment of the street. Basically, you needed to be exposed for just a second running across. But at this point, the smoke screen was gone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
ISIS knew exactly where they were and they were waiting for them to pop out from behind that tank. And so Ephraim and the other volunteers are screaming across this gap in the road towards the Iraqi army to get them to send an armored vehicle across this road, pick us up and bring us back across. We can't run across this gap without getting shot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But because of the chaos and the noise, the tank is firing, there's mortars, there's rockets, there's gunfire, it's crazy. The message was just not received. And so in a sudden fit of madness and frustration and fear and all sorts of things, Ephraim just runs across the street. And he gets to the other side miraculously without being hit again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And there he tells the Iraqi army, send an armored Humvee across this gap, get the girl, get the guy, get the rest of the volunteers, save them. Seconds later, an armored Humvee crossed that gap. They picked them up and brought them back. And at this point, Ephraim is now lying on the ground behind that concrete wall. So he's relatively safe and he's getting his leg bitched up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And over the next five years, I never saw the guy until I saw him on TV. It was mid-June 2017 and I was on base in Virginia in an office full of other Navy SEALs and we were wrapping up for the day. I was closing my email and powering down my computer and I noticed my phone that was sitting on the table suddenly started lighting up with all these text messages from current and former teammates.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And he remembers when the girl and the guy were brought out and they were safe and alive, the Iraqi army erupted in cheers. It was this unbelievably happy moment in an absolutely tragic, horrible time. The Iraqis would transport Ephraim in an armored ambulance to an aid station south of where this intersection was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And there they would put him on a cot and a doctor would re-bandage his leg and then he would walk away. And so Ephraim has left inside of this room to kind of think about what had just happened. And he looked over to his left and just two beds over from him was the girl he had just nearly died saving. And she was sitting on her cot. She wasn't looking at him. She was looking straight ahead.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Her dark hair was matted down. And she was just kind of staring into nothingness. It was clear she was still in shock. But she did look relatively unhurt. And then at some point, another Iraqi doctor came over and gave her some food and water. And she ate and drank ferociously. Ephraim just stared at her in awe. At that moment, she was the most important thing in his life.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And as he's staring at this miracle child, the doctor that had given her food and water noticed him staring. And he came over to Ephraim and he just said, her name is Demoa. She's four years old and she's going to be just fine. After the doctor had walked away, Ephraim pulled his hat down Oprah's face and he just wept.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Ephraim never had a chance to actually speak to Demoa because she was so scared of everyone around her that he decided to just give her her space. But he would later find out that she was reunited with her living family members and today she is alive and well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
After his injury, Ephraim was sent back to the United States and it was then that he learned their rescue operation had been filmed by a guy who was there that day documenting war crimes by ISIS. He saw this rescue operation happening and he just started filming it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
After this man posted the footage online, it went viral, and before long, major news outlets all over the world were reaching out to Ephraim and the other volunteers for interviews.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
This was the story that me and my teammates in Virginia in that office saw in 2017, and that image we saw of Ephraim standing behind the tank with the AK-47, that was moments before he rushed out behind the tank and provided cover fire for Dave and the other to run over and grab the girl and the other two men.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
The gunshot wound that Ephraim sustained in his leg wound up being relatively minor, if you consider gunshot wounds to be minor. It did not hit an artery, and it did not shatter his bone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so after only a few months, he was more or less back to strength, and instead of just taking it easy, he was in another conflict zone in Burma, this time working with a new volunteer organization, one that he founded called Stronghold Rescue and Relief. and their mission is to protect and care for families in conflict zones.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Their motto is, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Despite being a very small organization, they are having enormous impacts all over the world, but they need our help. They rely on a small army of people who pitch in small donations every month to keep operations flowing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, please consider joining their army by supporting them on a monthly basis just like I am. Also, if you just click on that link, it will bring you to their website and you can see the full unedited footage of their rescue mission.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studio's podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So I grabbed my phone and all the messages said the same thing, turn on the news. And so in this office we were in, there was always a TV that was turned to the news sitting in the corner that was on mute. And so I turned to look at this TV, and on the TV from a distance, all I can see is breaking news and Middle East.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Not just this one, but also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Run Fool, and Wartime Stories. To find them, all you have to do is look up Ballin Studios on any podcast platform and boom, you'll find them all. If you want to watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But before we get into his story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast, because that's all we do, and we upload twice a week. Once on Monday, and once on Thursday. So, if that's of interest to you, go ahead and drop a 2,000 pound JDAM on the follow button. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so given our profession, news like that tended to have a direct impact on our day-to-day lives. And so I assumed all these text messages must be about whatever happened in the Middle East. And so I get up, I walk over, I grab the remote, and on my walk back to my seat, I'm turning the volume up, and everybody else in the room is turning around to watch the TV as well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And we start hearing the TV reporters talking about this group of American civilians that had gone to Iraq and taken up arms against the terrorist organization ISIS. And so as they're talking about this group of American civilians, they put on the screen an image of one of these Americans.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
It was this big bearded guy in his mid-20s carrying an AK-47 rifle standing behind a tank somewhere in the Middle East. And as soon as I saw that picture, I knew right away why I had gotten that flurry of text messages from current and former teammates. It's because we all know this guy. The guy on TV was Ephraim Matos.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Five years earlier, after our graduation, Ephraim checked into his first SEAL team out on the West Coast, and very quickly after he showed up, they deployed to Afghanistan. During one of their missions, Ephraim was in the back of his patrol as they walked across this huge open field as they left this village they had just been in.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so Ephraim, in virtue of being in the back of the patrol, was in charge of looking behind the unit and make sure no one was coming after them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
so Ephraim periodically would turn around and he would look and make sure no one was following them and then at some point when he turned around he saw two little girls that couldn't have been more than five and seven years old running out of the village and start running down the road towards them now earlier in the day when Ephraim and his team had been in that village they had found a children's backpack lying in the middle of the road and when they went up to inspect it it turned out to be rigged with explosives
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Now, no one had gotten hurt. They had defused the explosives, but they were very weary for children's backpacks. And so as Ephraim sees these two girls running up to him, he can see they're both wearing similar style backpacks to the one they found in the road. They were suicide bombers. Ephraim began screaming at these girls to stop, go back, don't come any closer, or I'll have to shoot at you.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But he could tell they weren't stopping. They were just running up the road. He could see there were tears coming down their face. They were totally upset. They were obviously innocent. They were young kids. They'd been put up to this by the Taliban. But Ephraim, because he was in the rear security of his patrol, he had to deal with them like they were threats.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so at some point when they wouldn't stop, he raised his rifle up, he flipped the gun off safe, and he put his reticle right on one of the girls, and he began applying pressure to his trigger. Right as he was about to squeeze and fire a shot, the girls just abruptly stopped. It's like they knew they were about to be shot. And they turned around and they ran back towards the village.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so Ephraim put his finger off the trigger. He flipped it back on safe. He lowered his rifle and he breathed a huge sigh of relief. But even though he didn't have to engage these poor girls, that experience totally haunted Ephraim. In fact, of all the combat he got in on that deployment, that experience with those innocent girls had the most impact on him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
How could anybody force a child to be a suicide bomber? How could anyone be that cruel? And so by the time Ephraim came back to the United States after that deployment, he had changed. That experience specifically had changed him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Even though he believed in the US government's mission over in Afghanistan and in the Middle East, he felt like he could be doing more for these poor innocent people that were just trapped inside of conflict zones like these two little girls. And so over the next few years, he began looking at different conflict zones all over the world where civilians were in the most danger.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And he discovered there was one place that was killing and exploiting civilians at an unprecedented rate. That place was Iraq, where a new terrorist organization had taken power called ISIS.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So in early 2017, when Ephraim's Navy contract ran out and it was time for him to decide if he wanted to stay in the SEAL teams or get out and become a civilian, he opted to not re-enlist, so he left the military, and instead he got on social media and he contacted a foreign volunteer group in Iraq that was providing humanitarian aid to civilians.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And he reached out to them and he said, hey, can I join you? And of course they said, yes, we'd love to have a Navy SEAL come out and support us. And so just a couple of days later, Ephraim sold his house. He packed up a bag of clothes and a backpack. He grabbed his passport and he hopped in a plane and he flew to Northern Iraq all by himself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Now, before we continue the rest of the story, you need to understand just how bold this move was by Ephraim. Now, when he was a Navy SEAL, and so a member of the United States military on active duty, when he went to Afghanistan to a war zone, he had lots of support. If his team got pinned down by the enemy, they could call in an airstrike or they could call in backup.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
If Ephraim got hurt on the battlefield or his teammates got hurt on the battlefield, they could call in special medical teams that would fly in in virtually any condition to come save them. And if Ephraim got captured by the enemy, you better believe America is coming for him. But in this case, Ephraim went to a war zone as a civilian.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He was not in the US military, so he didn't have any of that support. If he or his team got pinned down out in Iraq, they would either have to fight their way out or get killed or captured. If he or one of his new teammates from this volunteer group got hurt, they would have to either save themselves or get killed or captured. And if Ephraim got captured as a civilian, nobody's coming for him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Nobody even knows he's been captured. He is completely on his own. But Ephraim knew these risks. In fact, he knew them better than most people because he had already deployed to a war zone and saw how important it was to have a support infrastructure. So when he flew to Iraq as a civilian, he knew he was hanging it out there, but he just didn't care.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He felt like he had a mission to go help these innocent people because nobody else was. When he arrived in Iraq in March of 2017, he was met at the airport by one of the guys from this volunteer group Ephraim was going out to join.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
He was a very muscular, tattooed American in his mid-30s who introduced himself as Sky, and he said he had been a Marine, and while he was in the Marines, he had deployed to Iraq, so he was familiar with the area. The pair hopped in a vehicle and Sky drove them to the volunteer group safe house in the city where Ephraim got a chance to meet the leader of this group.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
It was a tough as nails former army special forces guy in his mid fifties named Dave. And Dave for the past several decades had been going out to conflict zones all over the world. And he would tell Ephraim that the worst atrocities he had seen committed against civilians in any of these places was where they were right now in Iraq at the hands of ISIS.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
A few days later, Ephraim, Skye, Dave, and a few other American volunteers loaded up into this convoy made up of armored ambulances, and they left the city and they headed west into the countryside towards a huge city called Mosul that three years earlier had been captured by ISIS. On their journey towards the city, Ephraim and the others had to pass through a number of military checkpoints.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Now, most of these checkpoints were stood up by their ally, the Iraqi army. But Ephraim and the others knew that they might stumble upon an ISIS checkpoint, and in virtue of all of them being pale-skinned Americans, they would instantly be recognized as the enemy and fired upon.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
So every time they slowed down for one of these checkpoints, Ephraim and the others would clutch their guns closely and mentally prepare themselves for a potential vicious close quarters fight to the death. But luckily they managed to go the entire distance all the way to the outskirts of Mosul without any checkpoint drama.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And once they got there, they linked up with an Iraqi army unit that the leader of this volunteer group, Dave, had a relationship with. Over the first month that Ephraim was in-country, he worked with this Iraqi army unit to help distribute food and provide medical care to civilians in and around Mosul. Then, in month two of his stay in Iraq, everything changed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Iraqi decision-makers decided it was finally time to retake Mosul from ISIS. This was a huge military movement that required several units to work together and would take several weeks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
The main Iraqi army was going to push inside of the city limits of Mosul and inch by inch reclaim territory from ISIS, while the army unit that Ephraim and his volunteer group had embedded with would be responsible for reclaiming some of the villages around Mosul that ISIS had occupied.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so suddenly, Ephraim and the rest of his volunteer group went from being humanitarian aid workers to having a direct frontline combat role with the Iraqi army. And in his first civilian combat experience, Ephraim ran across an active minefield towards this village that was occupied by ISIS.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And after nearly being blown up at least two times, Ephraim finally made it to this village and he began going house to house with the other volunteers, clearing them of ISIS fighters. And in one instance that he has on camera, he entered into this structure and he saw there were guns in the ground. And they looked around and they couldn't find any ISIS fighters inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But they noticed on the ground there was a piece of plywood. They moved it aside and it revealed this huge hole that led down into the ground. And this hole connected to a huge underground tunnel system that ISIS used to escape gunfights just like this one. And so Ephraim and Dave, who was with him, just hopped right down into the tunnel. They didn't have night vision. They didn't have backup.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
Just the two of them start running down this totally pitch black tunnel, periodically throwing grenades ahead of them in case there are ISIS fighters ahead of them. And at some point, after running for quite a while, just getting ready to come in contact with their adversaries, they reach this big high ceiling cavern that's a dead end.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And they're looking around thinking, okay, I guess no one ran in here. But before they turned around and left the tunnel system, they looked up with their lights and they saw high up on the wall, dug into the wall, was another entrance to another tunnel. It looked like there needed to be a ladder to get up to this additional tunnel entrance.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so Ephraim and Dave look at each other and they're thinking, I bet ISIS fighters ran down here. There was a ladder. They climbed up and went in that entrance and then pulled the ladder up so we can't follow them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
so ephraim and dave couldn't do anything about it they decide okay well you know we'll just go out and we'll tell the iraqi army and see what they want to do so ephraim and dave they leave this tunnel system they go back outside they tell the iraqi army and the iraqi army brings in a bulldozer and they fill in that entrance they had found inside of the house completely seal it up so nobody could go in or get out
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And then later that night, after that village had been cleared of all ISIS fighters, they began hearing muffled explosions underground near where this entrance to this tunnel was. And what it turned out to be was ISIS fighters that realized they had been buried alive. They had snuck down there. They had used a ladder to get up into that crawl space.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
In June of 2011, I had just failed a very stressful and anxiety-inducing underwater test as part of Navy SEAL training. And after I failed this test, my instructor told me to get out of the pool and go over to the corner with the other failures. And so I made my way to the edge of the pool.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
But when they realized they were doomed, they blew themselves up. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung. Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled, sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The City of Death
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three stories about terrifying discoveries people made that would change their lives forever.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
On the evening of June 7th, 2023, a 36-year-old man named Umar Abdullah walked into his bedroom in Tampa Bay, Florida, and right away, he opened up all the windows. Now, keep in mind, Tampa Bay, Florida is really hot. And so by doing this, he was letting in all this really hot air, but Umar did not care. He just wanted whatever was inside of his apartment out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Umar, along with his wife Samira and their 10-month-old daughter, had just gotten back to their apartment after a trip to Ohio, and the second they walked inside, they had smelled this weird smell. And it was something they had never smelled before. This was not like rotten food or anything like that. This was like a chemical smell. But even that wasn't a good description.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
It was like a cross between chemicals and maybe paint. And so at first, Umar and Samira just walked around their apartment, predominantly in the kitchen, looking for things that could be leaking in the fridge or in cupboards or whatever, but they couldn't find anything that seemed like it could be the cause of the smell.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And it was around this point when they were totally stumped that Umar and Samira remembered that their apartment building was extremely well taken care of. Like repairs were done immediately and all the time in every single unit. And the fact that they had been away in Ohio had been known to their apartment manager.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so they thought, you know, maybe while they were gone, maybe somebody had come in here and maybe touched up some paint or made some repairs or something, even though it seemed a bit weird that they hadn't been informed beforehand that, you know, painting or repairs were going to take place in their apartment. But ultimately, that's what they chalked it up to.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so it was at this point that Umar and Samira walked all around the apartment, opening up all the windows. And Samira also lit a candle as well. And pretty soon that weird smell disappeared and both the parents just kind of forgot about it. And so Umar grabbed all their luggage from their trip and began unpacking it into the drawers and putting toiletries away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And at the same time, Samira put their baby in a high chair in the kitchen and then Samira began preparing dinner. And a few minutes later, as Umar was still putting things away, he heard Samira calling from the kitchen to, hey, come out here for a second. And so Umar stopped what he was doing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
He went into the kitchen and he looked at Samira and she was looking very concerned down at their daughter. And their daughter was in her high chair and her dinner was right in front of her, but she wasn't eating. And their daughter seemed really fussy. And normally their daughter was such a get along kid who never fussed, who always ate her food. And so this seemed really out of character.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But despite that, she loved her new hair. In fact, she couldn't wait to show it off at her school. She'd deliberately worn this big hat to hide her haircut, because this would make the reveal to her friends at school that much better. She glanced up Rainer Avenue for any sign of her bus, but there wasn't one.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so both parents kind of stared at the daughter for a second. And then Umar was like, you know what? All the windows are still open and it's getting pretty hot in here. Maybe the baby's just fussy about the heat. And so Samira agreed that could totally be it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so the parents went around the apartment, closing down all the windows, allowing the air conditioning to kick back on and cool the apartment down. But about an hour later, after the apartment had cooled back down, the baby was still very fussy. And at this point, Umar and Samira were trying to put the baby to bed, and they were really struggling with that.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And also, in addition to the baby obviously not feeling very well, Umar and Samira both began to complain that they had headaches. And so at this point, the parents assumed that, you know what, all of this, you know, the baby's behavior and now our headaches must be tied to just the travel we just went through, and we just need a day to recover here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so they kind of rushed their baby through her bedtime routine and eventually got her down. And then Umar and Samira took some ibuprofen to help with their headaches. And then they too climbed in bed and drifted off to sleep, hoping that when they woke up, everybody would feel better again. But the next morning, nobody was better. In fact, everybody was doing worse.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Umar's headache had now gotten much stronger, and Samira, she still had a headache, but also was very lethargic, and the baby was still very fussy. And over the next few days, their symptoms continued to get worse and worse. Umar's headache went from really bad to pretty much blinding, like he couldn't do anything else but think about his headache, and Samira basically had to lay down all day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
It was like no matter how much she slept, she had zero energy, and their poor baby just continued to cry and fuss all the time, and even began to vomit. And so it seemed pretty obvious by this point, after a few days, that the three of them must have caught some sort of bug while they were traveling. That this was not just jet lag, that they actually had some sort of illness.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But the parents were convinced that, you know, they could just kind of rough it out and eventually, after a couple of days, they would get better. But on the morning of June 14th, so this is now a week after coming back home from their trip, not only were all their symptoms still really bad, but on this particular morning, things took a dark turn.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
That morning when Umar went to his daughter's bedroom, you know, he's still dealing with this horrible headache. You know, he makes his way into the bedroom and he goes down to pick his daughter up from her crib. And as he's reaching down to grab her, he freezes because on the bed, on the pillow right behind the baby is all the baby's hair. The baby had clearly lost huge chunks of her hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so Umar at this point forgot about his headache and yelled for Samira. And even though she's super lethargic, she could tell this is an emergency. So she got up and made her way into the bedroom and she looked down too and saw the hair and she reached down and scooped the baby up and she turned the baby over. And sure enough, there was a huge bald spot on the back of their baby's head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But Umar and Samira, they said to each other right away that, wait a minute, you know, I know this is scary, but it is actually a thing that newborn babies sometimes do lose their hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
The city's public transportation system was all out of whack that day because of the weather, and so Tria was becoming pretty impatient because now her bus was over an hour late. She'd already missed her first class of the day because of this bus, and now she was in danger of missing her second class.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But when they went online and looked at the age range of when that's kind of a common thing to happen, it was pretty obvious that their baby being 10 months old was a little bit too old for losing her hair to be considered a normal thing. And so Umar and Samira sat there and continued Googling, you know, what could this be? You know, my 10 month old baby is losing her hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And there were lots of explanations ranging from, you know, ringworm to some severe infection to some rare genetic disorder. And all of it was kind of terrifying. And also none of it really lined up with what they were seeing with their daughter. And so the parents were like, you know what? Clearly, we don't know what this is. We've all been sick for a week. We have to bring our baby to the doctor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so as Samira got on the phone and called the baby's doctor, Umar hopped in the shower to get ready to go to the doctor. And as soon as he began shampooing his hair, he noticed clumps of his hair were falling out. And so all of a sudden it dawned on him that whatever's going on with his baby is going on with him and very likely going on with his wife too.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And it was at this point too that Umar remembered that strange smell when they first walked into their apartment after coming back from their trip. Now, they had opened up all the windows and lit candles and, you know, the smell had kind of dissipated. And then they had shut the windows again and they hadn't smelled it again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so Umar began thinking, wait a minute, maybe we've just gone nose blind to the smell and maybe there's some sort of contamination in the air. Maybe there's a gas leak or something worse than that.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so as soon as Umar got out of the shower and told his wife about how he lost hair and kind of his theory that maybe there was some contamination in their apartment, Umar called his landlord and explained, you know, the whole situation. And the landlord would tell Umar right off the top that, you know, during the time they were in Ohio, nobody went inside their apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
So there's no fresh paint in there. You know, no maintenance was done. So whatever you smelled was not from us. And then the landlord said to Umar that, you know what, as scary as it sounds, it's possible that you might have like a gas leak inside your apartment or maybe you have a Freon leak from your air conditioning system or maybe there's toxic mold.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But whatever it is, we're going to get people in there. We're going to find the issue and solve it. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads because let's be honest, Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And that's when she heard the beep of a car horn and a pale yellow Volkswagen Beetle rolled up to the curb right in front of her. Sotria had to squint through the snow, but she could see the silhouette of a man in the driver's seat of this car, and he was rolling down the window of the passenger side and kind of waving her over.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so later that day, sure enough, a gas inspector showed up to Umar and Samira's apartment and they checked the entire place and they could not find any trace of a gas leak. They checked everywhere. There was no leak. But they did tell Umar and Samira that, yes, we can smell a faint trace of some chemical smell, but we don't think it's gas.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And then after the gas inspector left, the landlord went out and found a mold inspector who came into Umar and Samira's apartment. They looked everywhere and could not find any mold. Then the landlord brought in a plumber to check the hot water heater, but no issues with that. Then the landlord brought an HVAC company in and they checked the air conditioning units and there was no leak.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so finally, after the landlord had kind of run out of ideas for who to bring over to check the apartment, because again, by this point, nobody had found anything wrong with the apartment, Umar just said, you know what, I'm going to call the fire department. And so Umar, he calls the fire department and the fire department, they send over their hazardous materials team or their hazmat team.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so they go into the apartment and they look everywhere and there is nothing. They could not find any source that was causing the smell at all. It seemed very much like their apartment was totally safe and fine. But by this point, it's now been two weeks since Umar, Samira and their baby had come back from that trip and they still felt totally horrible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Umar still had his headaches, he was still losing his hair, Samira had begun losing her hair as well, she still had her headaches, she still felt lethargic, and their baby was still losing her hair, and she still was fussy and miserable.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And all three of them now had developed this weird shortness of breath, where they'd just be walking through the apartment, and suddenly it was like they couldn't even breathe. And so now they've had all these people who can't find anything wrong with their apartment. They'd gone to their doctors and the doctors had no idea what was wrong with them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Curious, she walked up to the now-open window and leaned in, and the warmth coming from inside the car felt great. And this is where Sotria got her first real look at the driver. He was a good-looking guy in his 20s. He was well-dressed, pleasant-seeming, just an overall normal-looking person.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Cutting It Close, and it's a stark reminder to never get into a car with a stranger.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so it was kind of like they had no idea what to do. But clearly this crisis was only getting worse and worse and worse. And so Umar felt like he had no more options. He couldn't leave his apartment. He couldn't afford to do that. And so they were just stuck in this place that seemed toxic.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But all that would change on June 25th, so two and a half weeks after they came home from that trip, because on this day, Umar discovered something about that chemical smell they caught right when they came back in after the trip. You know, the smell that all the people that had come into the apartment had sort of noticed but couldn't identify.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
On June 25th, Umar figured something out about that smell. And so on this day, Umar was in his apartment feeling completely miserable, as was his wife and his daughter who were in the bedroom. But at some point, Umar suddenly caught a whiff of that weird chemical smell.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And as soon as he smelled it, he sort of began to cough and he was about to call his landlord and be like, hey, I smelled it again. But he decided on this day, instead of calling anybody else, he was going to run an experiment of his own.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so instead of trying to get away from the smell, Umar began smelling in the air as deep as he could to try to kind of figure out where the smell was coming from. And so he began walking around his apartment, sniffing the air, kind of tracing the smell. And slowly but surely, he began kind of following the smell through his kitchen, down the hallway, all the way to his front door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And when he got to his front door, he smelled in again and he could tell the smell was the strongest right now. And so feeling a sudden jolt of adrenaline, he grabbed the door, flung it open, half expecting to see like a chemical cloud floating in the air in the hallway. But as soon as he opened the door, there was nothing outside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And when he smelled in the hallway, you know, the smell wasn't really there anymore. And so we kind of looked around for a second, feeling kind of silly. And then he shut the door and he was about to just go back into his apartment and just kind of accept that once again, I got no idea what's going on here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Then he stopped and he turned back around and looked at the actual door, like the actual front door of his apartment. And he began smelling the door and the door definitely had the chemical smell. And so he began smelling and tracing his hands all over this door, not even sure what he was looking for. But eventually he worked his way all the way to the bottom of the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And that's when he felt something. And so suddenly Umar got down and stared at the strange thing he had found on his door. And as soon as he saw what it was, he jumped up and ran to his wife to tell her what he had just found. After talking with his wife about this thing, they came up with a plan.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Late that night, Umar waited until the entire apartment complex seemed really quiet, and then as quietly as he could, he opened up that front door, he stepped out into the hallway, and then he made his way over to the big fake plant that stood at the end of this hallway that was kind of right outside, kind of adjacent to his door, and he hid something in the plant, and then Umar went back into his apartment and he shut the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
He explained that he'd actually been driving on Rainer Ave for a while, and he hadn't seen a bus in a long time, and so he offered to give Sotria a ride to her school. But remember, this is the 1970s, and hitchhiking at the time in America was pretty common, especially on the west coast where Sotria was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And on June 27th, so two days later, the moment Umar and Samira had been waiting for finally arrived. At around 5.30 p.m. that evening, suddenly that chemical smell began to emanate through the apartment, and their baby began coughing so badly she began vomiting.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so as Samira was tending to their baby, Umar very quietly opened up his front door, looked in the hallway, didn't see anyone, and he rushed over to that plant, and he took the thing he had hidden a couple of days before, and he went back into his apartment, shut the door, and went into his office.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And when Umar came out of that office a little while later, Samira was waiting and she was looking at him. And as Umar came out, it was like he was totally ashen faced. He looked completely shocked and he could barely speak. And Samira said, what's going on? What did you learn? And Umar said, we have to get out of here right now. Get the baby. We have to leave right now.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
We're going to the hospital. And so as Samira bundled up their baby and they started getting their things together, Umar called 911 and told the operator what he had just discovered. The strange thing Umar had discovered on his front door two days earlier on June 25th was a weird crack at the very base of his door where you could basically see from inside of his apartment out into the hallway.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And the thing Umar and his wife had decided to hide in the hallway in that plant was a video camera aimed at their front door because they were suspicious that something was making its way through that crack in the door into their apartment and they wanted to catch it on camera.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And that's exactly what happened two days later when around 5.30 p.m., you know, their daughter began coughing and Umar began to smell that smell in the apartment. And he rushed out. He got his camera. He went back into his office. He watched the footage and he could not believe what his camera had recorded. just before 5.30 p.m.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
on June 25th, so right before the smell came into the apartment, on video, you see this guy walk up the stairs and enter the hallway right in front of Umar and Samira's apartment door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And this man had a syringe in his hand and he knelt down and he placed the syringe into that crack at the bottom of Umar and Samira's door and he pushed the plunger of the syringe before pulling the syringe out, quickly turning and disappearing down the stairs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so pretty quickly, she agreed to get in, because she knew this likely was her best chance at making it to school for her second class, and she was freezing. After the man pulled back onto Rainer Avenue, Sotria sat back in the seat, enjoying the warm air blasting out of the vents. And as she did, she looked out her window at the familiar route passing by.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so as Umar and Samira and their baby rushed to the hospital after discovering this video and after calling 911 to tell police what they saw on this video, the police rushed to Umar and Samira's apartment complex. Not to go to Umar and Samira's apartment though, instead to go to the apartment right below Umar and Samira.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
The man who rented that apartment right below them was a 36-year-old named Zuming Li. He was a married father of two who was working on his PhD in chemistry from the University of South Florida. And Umar and Samira thought of him as being a really nice guy. You know, he was very quiet. He kept to himself. He even gave them a gift after their daughter was born.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But on this evening, when the police arrived at Zuming's apartment and knocked on the door, when Zuming opened it up, he was immediately arrested. It would turn out, despite Zhu Ming giving Umar and Samira that gift after their baby was born, well, that was the end of him liking Umar and Samira.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Because as soon as they came home with their baby, Zhu Ming became obsessed with how noisy their baby was. Even if their baby was barely being loud, it completely consumed Zhu Ming's mind. It was like he was obsessed with listening for this baby. And then suddenly, it wasn't just the baby that annoyed him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
It was even the slightest noise he heard above him coming from Umar and Samira's apartment that totally sent him into a rage. And so Zhu Ming began constantly going to the homeowners association to complain about the baby and the toilet sounds and the footsteps he was hearing. And when that wasn't enough, he began going to the police about it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Now, Umar and Samira had been told that their downstairs neighbor really was upset with how loud they were being, and so they did everything they could to be quiet. They felt so bad that they were coming off as being these very loud and disrespectful people, which they were not.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
I mean, they did have a little baby, and babies make noise, but I mean, they were doing everything they could to be quiet. And so they had no idea that Zhu Ming was still just completely furious at them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And eventually, Zhu Ming's fury just became completely unhinged, and he used his chemistry know-how, because remember, he's studying for his PhD in chemistry, to begin putting together this deadly mixture of chemicals that contain things like methadone and hydrocodone, and he put them into a syringe, and he began injecting them into Umar and Samira's apartment to poison them to make them be quiet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so by the time Zhu Ming was arrested, he had been injecting these deadly chemicals into their apartment for a month. That was obviously the cause of all of Umar and Samira and their baby's symptoms. It was this poison. Umar, Samira, and their baby would get treatment and they would fully recover from their poisoning.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But very likely, had they not been quick thinkers and put that camera in place and caught Zhu Ming in the act, it's entirely possible that over time, the poison that was being injected into their apartment would have killed them. Officials are still investigating this case as it's still relatively new. However, the legal process was paused when Zhu Ming was deported back to China.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Zhu Ming has not been convicted of any crime and the criminal case remains open, and if Zhu Ming ever were to step foot on US soil, he would be arrested immediately. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. There's this one, of course, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and there's Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, Redacted, and Late Nights with Nexpo.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Sotria was about to apologize to this guy for making him drive so far out of his way when she heard him turn on his blinker. He was preparing to turn right. And this struck Sotria as odd because as she had explained to him back on the curb, her school was a straight shot down Rainer Ave. There was no need to turn. So what was he doing?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Sotria looked over at the man, expecting him to explain why they were taking this sudden detour. But the man just stared straight ahead. And then a moment later, she heard the blinker turned on again, and she looked up and saw they were about to merge onto Interstate 5 southbound, which was definitely not the way to Sotria's school. And now Sotria felt a pang of fear.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
She opened her mouth to tell this guy he was going the wrong way, but he cut her off. And he looked at her and he said, you know, it's a terrible idea to take a ride from a stranger. The man kept on talking as he merged onto the highway, but Sotria was not listening at all. Instead, she was fixated on what he was doing with his right hand.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
His left hand was on the wheel, but with his right hand, he was fishing for something underneath his seat. And so Sotria's mind began to race. Without taking her eyes off of this man and what he was doing, she traced with her hand and felt for the door handle, but she couldn't feel it. And then she turned and realized there was no door handle. It had been removed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Just then, the man stopped rummaging around underneath his seat. Whatever he was looking for, he had found it. The man sat partway up and looked at Sotria with his hand still hidden behind one of his legs and a determined but emotionless expression on his face. At this point, Sotria felt her heart hammering so hard in her chest that she was worried she might pass out from terror.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
The second story you'll hear is called The Box, and it's about a woman who receives a mysterious box from her neighbor. And the third and final story you'll hear is called What's That Smell?, and it's about a dad who discovers a horrifying secret in his family's apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
All she could think about was what is he hiding behind his leg? What was underneath his seat? But then something strange happened. The man's face changed from determined and almost cruel to confused. Sotria watched as his eyes darted up to the top of her head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The man told Sotria to take off her hat, and with trembling hands, she did as she was instructed, although she had no idea why he was asking. And when the hat was off her head, the man looked shocked, and he dropped whatever it was he had found back under his seat, and Sotria heard it land with a heavy metallic thud, but she couldn't see it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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There was a long, tense silence, and then when the man finally spoke, he just said, "'Why did you cut your hair?' The man immediately got off the highway and drove fast to Sotria's school. When they got there, he opened up the door for her and told Sotria to get out and said she was lucky. Then he drove away. Sotria didn't report this encounter to police.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She was kind of embarrassed that she had gotten into a stranger's car in the first place. And after all, the guy, despite being really creepy, hadn't hurt her at all. And so she basically just tried to forget about it. But a few years later, in 1975, Sotria was watching TV when she saw a familiar face come onto the screen.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It was the man who had given her a ride being led into a courtroom in handcuffs. Sotria dropped everything and turned up the volume, and what she heard made her numb with horror.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Because the newscaster was saying that this man who had given her a ride was a suspected serial killer accused of murdering dozens of young women who he would lure into his pale yellow Volkswagen Beetle and then bludgeon them to death with a crowbar or tire iron. And he had a very specific type when it came to identifying his victims. They were young women who all had long brown hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And this man's name was Ted Bundy. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung, or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Amazon Music Follow Buttons house and reverse all their doorknobs so they turn the wrong way.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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If you haven't discovered redacted declassified mysteries yet, well, you're in for a fascinating journey through history's hidden files. As a fellow military veteran, I can tell you that the host of the show, Luke LaManna, brings a very unique insider perspective to these wild stories.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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From covert operations to historical deceptions, Luke examines verified stories that sound almost too incredible to be true. Like Ana Montes, the defense intelligence analyst who maintained a perfect cover while secretly working for Cuba for nearly 20 years. Or the Tic Tac incident, where a decorated Navy pilot encountered something in the skies that the Pentagon couldn't explain.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Our next story is called The Box. Late one afternoon in April of 2019, a middle-aged woman named Mary was cutting up some vegetables in her kitchen in Northern Spain when she heard a knock on her front door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
So she put her things down, she went to the door, opened it up and standing there was her next door neighbor who was all smiles and she was holding this big box that was wrapped in wrapping paper and had a big bow on it. And then sitting on top of this big gift was a tray of deep fried rolls or croquettes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Mary's neighbor was a 61-year-old woman named Carmen Marino, who was an exceptional chef, and her specialty were making these croquettes. They were filled with different types of meat and other things, and all the time, Carmen would come over and give them to Mary, and Mary loved these croquettes. And so as soon as she saw those, she was like, wow, amazing, and she invited Carmen inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
But Carmen didn't come inside. Instead, she took the croquettes and handed them to Mary, and Mary's like, okay, great, thank you. But Carmen was still standing right outside holding this box, and now Mary's looking at her thinking that Carmen looks kind of uneasy. And so Mary said, you know, what's going on here? What's up with this box?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Carmen was silent for a second and just kind of held this box out, at which point Mary realized, okay, so she's trying to give me this gift. And so Mary reached out and took this huge present and she was like, thank you, Carmen. Like, what is this? What's going on? And Mary, when she looked at Carmen, she could tell Carmen's face was now bright red.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She was very embarrassed about something, maybe whatever she was going to say. And so Mary just waited for Carmen to speak. And so eventually, Carmen would, she would clear her voice, and then she would say, you know, Mary, this is really embarrassing, but I need you to hold onto this box for a little bit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
Okay, let's get into our first story called Cutting It Close. On a snowy morning in 1972, 22-year-old Sotria Critsonis sat at her bus stop in Seattle, Washington, adjusting her knit cap against the cold. The hat actually still felt pretty weird on her head because just a few days earlier, she had cut her brown hair super short, and so she wasn't quite used to it yet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It contains my sex toys, and I'm having company over at my house, and I'm just worried that somehow they're gonna find these things. Mary was so caught off guard by what Carmen was telling her that she just started laughing. But Carmen didn't join in on the laughter. She just kind of looked down like she was totally mortified.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Mary stopped laughing because she felt bad, and then Carmen kind of elaborated on why she had this huge box full of sex toys. She would tell Mary that, you know, she bought them with the intent of using them with her boyfriend, but a couple of months ago he had broken up with her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But Carmen had held on to these in the hopes that the boyfriend would eventually take her back and they would get back together again and get to use these toys. And so even though this was a totally weird and kind of uncomfortable request, Mary kind of felt bad for Carmen.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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One, because she had to make this request of Mary, but also two, you know, it was obvious that Carmen was pretty shaken up about, you know, losing her boyfriend. And so Mary said, you know what? No problem, Carmen. I will look after your sex toys and I will enjoy your croquettes. And Carmen was so relieved and said, thank you so much. And then she turned and hustled back to her house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And then Mary shut the door and she brought the croquettes into the kitchen and she tried one and it was so good. And then she took the big box of sex toys and she went into the hallway. She opened up a closet and she put it on the top shelf and then shut the door. Over the next couple of days, Mary expected Carmen to come back over and reclaim her box of sex toys. But Carmen didn't.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And when days turned into weeks and then turned into months and still Carmen had not come over to get the sex toys, Mary was kind of annoyed But she was just too embarrassed to go over to Carmen and be like, hey, why don't you come over and get your sex toys? And so Mary just decided she would leave it alone and not talk about it. And if ever Carmen wanted them back, she could have them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But if she never asked for them again, Mary didn't care. She would just eventually throw the box away and that would be it. A few months later, on September 29th, 2019, so we're talking about six months or so from when the sex toys were first brought over to Mary's house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Well, on this day, Mary was kind of doing chores in her house when she began to smell a really bad smell coming from the hallway closet where the box of sex toys were. And so Mary opened up the closet and for sure she could tell the bad smell was coming from this closet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And so she started by smelling the shoes that were towards the bottom of the closet to see if maybe she had stepped in something gross, but they were all clean. And then eventually she reached the sex toy box. She pulled it down from the top shelf and it had never been opened.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
You know, it's still wrapped, but she just smelled the box and she immediately recoiled because that had to be where the terrible smell was coming from. It was coming from this box. And so Mary was totally repulsed at the idea that these sex toys smell horrible. But she carried the box into the kitchen and set it down.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
And she thought, you know, is this a horrible betrayal of my friend's trust if I open up this box and look at her sex toys? But Mary ultimately was like, you know what? Carmen has not come back for this thing. I'm opening this up because I need to know what's making this smell. So Mary went over and got a pair of scissors and she cut off the wrapping paper.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And then she opened up the box and inside was like this big thing that had been wrapped in tin foil. So all you saw was tin foil. And so Mary, she reached down and kind of began to peel back the tin foil. It was kind of sticking to whatever was under it. But eventually after she kind of yanked on it, she pulled the tin foil off.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And when she saw what was in there, she began screaming and ran outside and called the police. It would turn out Mary's neighbor, Carmen, who owned the box of sex toys, well, her boyfriend didn't just break up with her a couple of months before she brought the sex toys over.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Discovery
No, her boyfriend, who was a 67-year-old man named Jesus Baranda, he went missing around the time that supposedly Carmen and her boyfriend broke up. And so naturally, Jesus's family began looking for Jesus. And when they couldn't find him, they called the police. And eventually the police called Carmen and said, hey, you were dating Jesus around the time he went missing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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We're going to need to come to your house and search it. And when Carmen heard that, she knew she had a big problem.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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because carmen had murdered jesus and cut his head off with a chainsaw and she still had his head in her house and so what did she do well she boiled his head down and then she put it in a box wrapped it in tin foil and then she wrapped that box in wrapping paper put a bow on it and then went next door to mary's house and said hey can you hold my sex toys for me
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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because she knew Mary would likely not look in the box if it was sex toys. And so Mary took the box, put it in her closet, and then of course, you know, the smell began several months later and she would discover Jesus's head. Carmen was convicted of murdering her boyfriend and she was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Police were never able to locate the rest of Jesus. All they had was his head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But there's a running theory that Carmen may have used the rest of her boyfriend's body and ground it up and then baked him into her croquettes that she gave out to people like Mary and other people in her neighborhood. But that's just a theory. The next and final story of today's episode is called What's That Smell?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On a fall night in 1987, a young woman was walking down the middle of a dark street in a rural Kentucky town. She heard a car turn onto the street behind her, and it sounded like it was driving fast, so she quickly stepped up onto the sidewalk. Suddenly, that car screeched to a stop just a few feet away from her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Now, despite the fact that everybody in that room thought Jimmy was not telling them everything, the chief and the sheriff recognized that they didn't really have any clear evidence tying Jimmy to the murder yet, so they let him go. This decision baffled Lieutenant Fields. He argued that they were just letting Karina's killer walk out the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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On October 5th, three days after Karina's body was found, Fields sat at his desk reading over the medical examiner's autopsy report. The report did not surprise Fields, based on what he already knew about the case. Karina had been cut several times with a blade and had been beaten badly with a blunt object. She'd also been raped before she was killed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The medical examiner believed that this had all taken place the night before Karina's body had been found in the trunk of her car. Lieutenant Fields believed this autopsy report made Jimmy look even more guilty. The violence inflicted on Karina showed the kind of rage that police often saw in cases involving jealous boyfriends and husbands.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But Fields had been told he couldn't go after Jimmy yet, so he had to be patient. The comforter, clothing, and other pieces of evidence found in the trunk of Karina's car and at her apartment had already been sent off to the state crime lab for testing, and Fields knew that those test results might help police close the case whenever they came in.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
While Fields read over the autopsy report again, an officer approached his desk and told him he'd just come across something important that had somehow gone overlooked. On the day before Karina's murder, a young man had called into the station saying he witnessed someone threatening Karina with a gun. And this alleged gunman was somebody the police in town knew all too well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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His name was Jeffrey Lee Boyd, and he was the biggest drug dealer in Central City. The fact that this had gone overlooked didn't actually come as a shock or anything to Fields. This was a small police force with limited resources, and as soon as Karina's body had been found, everything else had sort of gotten pushed aside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields knew Jeffrey Lee Boyd well enough to know that he and his crew of drug dealers were very dangerous, and so Fields didn't want to just go after Jeffrey on potential murder charges unless he really had to. So he asked this officer to go find the witness and tell them to come down to the station. A little later that day, Fields met with this witness.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On October 1, 1987, 20-year-old Karina Mullen slid some file folders into a metal cabinet at the police station in the rural town of Central City, Kentucky. Karina glanced at her watch. It was the end of her workday, but she wanted to finish this filing before she left.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But after only a few minutes of questioning, the young man's story began to fall apart. He went from accusing Jeffrey of sticking a gun in Karina's face, to saying he actually wasn't positive Jeffrey had a gun at all, to admitting he hadn't even gotten a clear look at the man with Karina, so he couldn't even guarantee that it was Jeffrey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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After the interview, Fields told his team it had felt like a big waste of time speaking to this witness. Jeffrey was definitely a known drug dealer and he'd done prison time in the past, but that didn't automatically mean he was Karina's killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And if the police chief felt like they didn't have enough evidence to go after Karina's boyfriend Jimmy, then there was no way he was going to have them pursue a lead based on an eyewitness account that was flimsy at best. So, a few days into the investigation, the team already felt like they were treading water.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And at the same time, Fields began receiving regular phone calls from Karina's dad, who was desperate for any updates. But Fields just kept apologizing and saying he had nothing new to report.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled, sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She had only been working at the police station as an office assistant since she moved to Central City from her family farm about six weeks earlier. But in that short time, members of the small local police force had embraced her as one of their own, and she'd quickly become part of Central City's law enforcement family.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest —
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Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On October 28th, so almost a month after Karina's murder, the police chief called Lieutenant Fields into his office and told him he had some big news. He'd just gotten a call from police in Nashville, Tennessee, and they'd picked up Karina's boyfriend Jimmy for stealing a computer from his work.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They were currently holding him on grand larceny charges, but Jimmy had been talking a lot about the murder in Central City, and so they wanted the chief to know. And now the chief and the sheriff were going to Nashville to question Jimmy again. Fields felt a rush of excitement. He said he knew they didn't have any test results from the lab yet, but he was sure Jimmy was their guy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
That night, Fields paced back and forth in the police station, anxiously waiting for any news. Most of the other officers waited with him. There was the sense that the chief's trip to Nashville was going to help bring this case to a close and finally get justice for their friend Karina. Finally, late that night, Fields' phone rang. He grabbed it and he heard the chief's voice on the other end.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And the chief said Fields was not going to believe what had just gone down in Nashville. Jimmy had not confessed to the murder, but he had admitted to going into Karina's apartment that night. Fields knew this was a huge deal. It meant Jimmy had flat out lied to the police the first time he spoke to them. but the chief said there was something way bigger than that.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Karina finished up her filing and took a few minutes to say goodbye to the officers on duty. It was Thursday, and she had off the next few days, so she told everyone to have a great weekend and said she'd see them soon.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Jimmy said he had gone to Karina's bedroom and seen blood, but instead of calling the police, he had driven around town looking for Karina himself, and when he didn't find her, he just went to his friend's house and fell asleep. This had to be one of the most unbelievable, ridiculous alibis the chief or Fields had ever heard in their law enforcement careers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so a few minutes later, when Fields hung up the phone, he felt this huge sense of relief. the chief and the sheriff were ready to put together a case against Jimmy, because they too now believed he was the killer. On July 19th, 1988, so nine months after Karina's body had been found, her boyfriend, Jimmy, went on trial for her murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Some officers who worked in the state crime lab felt like this case had actually been rushed to trial, because when the lab had finally tested evidence from the case, the results had not tied Jimmy directly to the murder scene. so the case against Jimmy was based entirely on circumstantial evidence.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Fields and other members of the Central City Police believed their case against Jimmy was still strong, and they expected a conviction. After a couple of days, the trial ended, and the jury deliberated for only an hour. Fields sat in the courtroom feeling a rush of anticipation as the jury foreman read the verdict, and Fields heard the words, NOT GUILTY.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Fields felt like he had just gotten the wind completely knocked out of him. He'd spent a huge part of almost a year doing everything he could to ensure that Jimmy would go to prison for killing Karina. Now, any hope of that was gone. The police officers filed out of the courtroom feeling utterly defeated and like they had failed their friend and her family.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And with nine months of work basically erased, they had no idea where to restart the investigation. During the weeks following Jimmy's trial, Lieutenant Fields felt like he was scrambling. But he and his team did decide to revisit the possibility that the killer could be Jeffrey Lee Boyd, that drug dealer who may or may not have threatened Karina with a gun.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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After that, she went outside to her car and drove through town towards the apartment she shared with her two-year-old daughter and another young single mother, who she'd quickly become friends with. Central City was only about 10 minutes from the farm Karina had grown up on, but to her, it felt like kind of a different world.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And this time when they looked into it, they discovered something new about Jeffrey. He was close friends and maybe even lovers with Karina's roommate, Angela. The team immediately went back to their early notes from the case and they quickly found something else they had missed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The medical examiner's toxicology report made it clear that no alcohol or drugs were present in Karina's body when she was killed. But Angela had told Fields and the other detective that she and Karina had been drinking heavily the night of the murder. Fields said he was frustrated with himself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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These oversights could be chalked up to a small team handling a case that might be too big for them, but he apologized for what he saw as a massive misstep on his part. Still, they now had a clear connection between the drug dealer, Jeffrey, and the victim. And they now believed the victim's roommate had lied to them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So, in August of 1988, 10 months after the murder, Fields brought in Angela for another interview. But all she could say was that, you know, maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe she only thought Karina was drinking a bunch when they went out, because she herself had been really drunk and on painkillers. Following his talk with Angela, Lt.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields tracked down 25-year-old Jeffrey at his house, and he happened to be there with an 18-year-old drug dealer named Kramer, who cops believed worked for Jeffrey. The two dealers made an odd-looking pair. Jeffrey was this tall, massive guy who had no problem physically intimidating people, while Kramer was skinny and barely stood 5 feet tall.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields talked to them for a while at the house, but when he got back to the station, he told the chief that both young men had barely said a thing. This seemed par for the course, though, because Jeffrey, who had been questioned many times in the past by police, sort of knew to keep his mouth shut.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Even though Jeffrey had started to seem like a strong suspect on the surface, as the investigation went on, Fields was not able to produce enough evidence to convince anyone that they had a case against Jeffrey. And once Jeffrey fell off the radar, the investigation began to dry up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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In fact, as brokenhearted as police officers and the people who knew Karina still were, there seemed to be an effort from everybody to just move on. Like the only way for the town to heal was to put this horrific murder case behind them despite it being unsolved. And so as months and then years went by, there were only two men who seemed to still be actively looking for Karina's murderer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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That was her father and Lieutenant Fields. Sometimes, Fields would even pick up Karina's dad at the farm, and they would just drive around together, looking for any potential clue that they might have missed. But those clues never surfaced, and the years kept passing by.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Shops lined the main street, there were a few bars and restaurants in town, and it wasn't too far of a drive to a much bigger city with a thriving nightlife. Karina turned off the main street onto a side road, drove a little further, and then parked in front of her two-bedroom apartment, which was one of several apartments in a small but crowded complex.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Eventually, Lieutenant Fields retired from the force, and then once Fields was gone, Karina's dad convinced the state police to pick up the investigation. And they tried for a time to solve the murder, but eventually, they also let the case go. Finally, after over a decade of searching, Karina's mom convinced her husband that he needed to drop the case too.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They could not spend the rest of their lives hunting for a killer that nobody could find. That is not what Karina would have wanted for them. In June of 2006, over 18 years after Karina's murder, Detective Damon Fleming of the Kentucky State Police sat at his desk digging through old notebooks and file folders.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The state police had recently made an effort to revitalize cold cases and Detective Fleming had been assigned to Karina's murder investigation. Fleming knew the case had long since disappeared from public consciousness, but when he took it over, he had gotten the word out to the media in and around Central City that the investigation had been reopened.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And if anybody had information, no matter how insignificant they thought it might be, they should contact the state police. Sitting at his desk, Fleming heard someone call his name. He looked up from the notebook he was reading, and he saw an officer there with this woman who appeared to be in her 30s, and she looked absolutely terrified.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Detective Fleming asked what he could do for her, and she said she needed to talk to him in private. Fleming stood up, signaled for the other officer to leave, and then he led the woman into a conference room. He closed the door behind them, and then sat down across from her at a long wooden conference table.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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As soon as she sat down, the woman kept glancing over her shoulder like she thought somebody was following her. But Fleming assured her they were totally safe in here, and he asked her why she needed to see him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Tears began running down the woman's cheeks as she cleared her throat, and then she told him her name was Samantha Robinson and that when she was 16 years old, she had witnessed the brutal murder of Karina Mullen. Detective Fleming sat there, silent and almost in awe of this woman.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And by the time she stopped talking, he knew that she had given him all of the information he would need to finally close Karina's murder case after almost 20 years. Based on Samantha's story and evidence and interviews from multiple investigations conducted over 18 years, this is what police believe happened to Karina on the night of October 1st, 1987.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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On that night, 16-year-old Samantha Robinson was walking down the middle of a street in Capital City, Kentucky towards her house when she heard a car behind her. Samantha turned and saw headlights rapidly approaching, so she hopped up onto the sidewalk to get out of the way. Suddenly, the car came to a screeching halt right alongside her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The driver's door and the front passenger door flew open and two men came out and rushed towards her. The driver grabbed Samantha and she kicked and screamed, but there was no way she could get out of his grip. The passenger opened up one of the back doors and the driver shoved Samantha into the back seat and then slammed the door shut behind her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Just six weeks ago, when she had moved here, this apartment felt like her first real taste of freedom. Now, Karina loved her parents and living on the family farm, but when she had turned 20 very recently, she really wanted to go out on her own, and she wanted to prove to her parents that she could raise her daughter by herself. But things had not quite turned out like she'd hoped.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Samantha looked next to her and there was the group's leader sitting in the back seat, smiling at her. The car lurched forward and a few minutes later, it pulled up to Karina's apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The back door of the car opened and the driver and passenger grabbed Samantha and pulled her out of the car and up towards the apartment while their leader followed behind, holding a metal club in one of their hands. The driver opened the door to Karina's apartment and told Samantha to keep her mouth shut if she wanted to live.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The leader walked past them and right to Karina's bedroom, where Karina was sleeping. The driver and passenger followed with Samantha and then threw Samantha to the bedroom floor. Karina woke up and saw all the people in her room and began to scream, but the leader jumped on top of her and began beating her stomach with the metal club until she went quiet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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At this point, the leader climbed off of Karina, off the bed, and motioned to the driver. This man drew a knife from his hip, climbed onto the bed with Karina, and made shallow cuts into Karina's neck, arms, and stomach. After that, the driver with the knife, and then the passenger, and then the leader, all raped Karina.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Afterwards, they stepped away from the bed, and for a second, Samantha, who was on the ground, hoped and prayed they would just leave. But the leader raised the metal club, rushed back to the bed, and smashed Karina in the head and nose with it. Karina's nose broke, blood sprayed all over the wall and ran into the sheets, and Karina began to choke.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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At which point, the group just stood there and watched her die. After Karina was dead, the leader told the other two to wrap Karina up in her comforter. They followed the orders and carried Karina in her comforter out of the apartment. The leader picked up Karina's car keys off the bedside table, then yanked Samantha up off the floor and dragged her outside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The leader opened up the trunk of Karina's 77 Chevrolet that was parked out front and told the others to dump Karina inside of it. Then the leader handed the car keys to Samantha and told her if she drove them to the parking garage near the center of town, they might let her live. Shaking and terrified, Samantha did as she was told.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She climbed into the driver's seat with the killers and drove them to a spot behind the parking garage in town and parked the car. And then in a flash, this teenage girl killed the engine, took the keys out of the ignition, leapt out of the car, and threw the keys as far away as she could.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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By the time the killers knew what had happened, Samantha was already running through the shadows and making her way home. The leader sat in the car for a second and just started laughing. They said there was no way this little girl would ever rat them out. She would spend the rest of her life in constant fear that if she did, they would find her and kill her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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and so all three of the killers got out of Karina's car and walked through town covered in blood. The driver and the passenger went their own way, and the leader walked home, showered, and went to bed. The following morning, the killer's leader got dressed, grabbed their badge and gun, and headed to their place of work, the police station.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Karina was raising her child while working at the police station and studying to try to get into nursing school. And she just couldn't do it all. In truth, she missed having her mom and dad's help. And so, after only having been in this apartment for a little over a month, she had decided to move back to the farm.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The drug dealer, Jeffrey Lee Boyd, and his 18-year-old friend, Kramer, helped carry out Karina's murder. But their leader, the one who was in charge of the murder, also happened to become the lead investigator on Karina's murder, Lieutenant Billy Fields.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It would turn out Lieutenant Fields was at the top of the drug trade in Central City, giving out orders and providing police cover while Jeffrey ran things on the street. But Jeffrey just couldn't keep quiet. One day, while he was hanging out with Karina's roommate, Angela, he let it slip that he had cops working with him and protecting him, and Karina heard all of this.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Jeffrey quickly realized he'd made a huge mistake, so the day before the murder, he got his gun and threatened to kill Karina if she talked, just like the witness described seeing. But Fields thought that was not enough. The only way to be sure they would not get caught was to kill her. Fields and Jeffrey were sadistic, though. Murder wasn't enough for them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So when they were driving to Karina's and saw that teenager, Samantha, on the street, they decided to grab her and make her watch what happened next. And what happened next is they raped and killed Karina and forced Kramer to participate. But Karina's roommate Angela had been in her bedroom and heard everything that night. But they threatened to kill her if she talked.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Jeffrey came up with the story about Angela and Karina going out and drinking and taking pills for Angela to tell the police. Fields also told Jeffrey to threaten everybody who lived in that apartment complex. That's why when they were asked by police, all those neighbors said they didn't hear anything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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After that, Fields made sure to personally overlook whatever needed to be overlooked in the investigation in order to steer it away from him and his partners. Karina's boyfriend Jimmy almost turned out to be the perfect patsy for Fields. But in court, Jimmy's lawyers argued that police had bullied and manipulated him into saying things that were not true, and so he was acquitted.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And after Jimmy was found not guilty, Lieutenant Fields led the investigation into his own accomplices, but he made sure to steal evidence from the police station to make sure his accomplices didn't actually look guilty. So eventually the case went cold. It would take almost 20 years for Samantha to finally get over her fear of Fields and Jeffrey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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When she heard the case had been reopened, she went straight to the state police and told them everything. She said she owed it to Karina. Angela ultimately aided the prosecution and was only charged with perjury. She did not serve any jail time. As for the killers, Kramer was sentenced to 60 years in prison and Jeffrey and Lieutenant Billy Fields were sentenced to life.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Karina stepped into her apartment and walked past the few moving boxes she'd already packed up. She saw her roommate, Angela Smith, getting something to eat in the kitchen. When Karina had dropped the news on Angela that she was leaving to go back to her farm, things had not gone well. Angela felt totally blindsided.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, and Redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So, that's going to do it.
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I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She couldn't afford rent by herself, and she had no idea how quickly she could find a new roommate. But Karina had told her she wouldn't just disappear overnight. She would take her time moving out, and she'd try to help Angela get situated with rent before leaving, and so as a result, the tension had begun to ease between them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And this particular evening, the two women were less stressed than usual, because it was just them in the apartment. Karina's daughter was at the farm with Karina's parents, and Angela's ex had her daughter for the weekend. So Karina sat down with Angela in the kitchen and they began chatting about work for a while.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The car doors flew open, and before the young woman knew what was happening, someone had grabbed her, lifted her off the ground, and threw her into the back seat. A second later, the car was speeding off, and the terrified young woman would soon find herself in the middle of a horrific nightmare that would haunt her for almost 20 years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But at some point, Angela got a bit giddy and said she really just wanted to hear the latest gossip on Karina's boyfriend. Karina sighed and kind of laughed at herself. She'd recently broken up with her boyfriend, a guy named Jimmy Springer, who she'd had this on-again, off-again relationship with for eight months.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But almost in the same breath as talking about the most recent breakup with Jimmy, Karina told Angela that Jimmy was actually coming by later to spend the night. Karina knew this sounded sort of ridiculous, but even though she'd just cut Jimmy loose a few days earlier, she was looking forward to seeing him that night when her daughter was gone and they could just be alone together. At 9 a.m.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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the following morning, October 2nd, a city worker was driving to a job not far from the center of town when he noticed something that seemed totally out of place. Behind the parking garage used by the Central City Street Department, he saw an old 1977 Chevrolet car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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This didn't make much sense because people from town normally never parked over here, and he knew this car didn't belong to anyone who worked for the street department. The worker parked his truck and hopped out. He wanted to make sure there wasn't someone in the car who might need help or something. He walked towards the car, and at first he didn't see anybody inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But when he was just a few feet away, he got a good look at the trunk. And without thinking, the worker turned around, ran to the nearest open shop, asked to use the phone, and called 911. Minutes later, Lieutenant Billy Fields of the Central City Police Department arrived at the scene with several other local police officers. Fields got out of his car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He was in his mid-40s and was one of the most experienced cops on the force. He saw the parked 1977 Chevrolet, and from where he was standing, it was clear there were bloodstains on the outside of the trunk. When the other cops looked at Fields and then over at the car he had just stared at, it hit them why he was so upset. They all recognized the Chevy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It belonged to their co-worker and friend, Karina Mullen. Fields walked closer to the car and he saw blood smears that went into the trunk, like whoever had been bleeding might actually be in the trunk. Lieutenant Fields noticed the trunk was not actually closed all the way, so he reached down and opened it, and as soon as he did, he shouted and just turned away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The other officers walked over to him and saw what he was looking at, and when they did, they all looked away too. They had just seen their friend, Karina, laying in the trunk, and she was obviously deceased. She was naked, covered in dried blood with cuts on her hands and neck, her nose had been smashed in, and there were dark bruises covering most of her body.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Buttons house and reverse the hot and cold handles on their shower.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields and the other officers did their best to collect themselves. This was a small-town police force that dealt mainly with petty theft and domestic disputes. They occasionally had to tackle larger drug-related crimes in the area, but none of them had dealt with anything like this. Not to mention the victim was somebody they all knew and cared about.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields told them he knew how upsetting this was, but they still had a job to do, so he and a couple of officers turned back to the trunk and did a more thorough search, while others opened the car and looked inside. Fields found a bloody comforter from a bed stuffed into the trunk next to Karina's body, along with jeans and a pair of women's underwear.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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There was a lot of blood in the trunk, but Fields said there would be a lot more if she was actually killed in the trunk or in the car, versus being killed elsewhere and then moved to the car. The officers who had searched the rest of the car said they did find a few small bloodstains, but nothing that would indicate the attack had actually taken place inside the vehicle.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So as a result, Lieutenant Fields and the others began to think that Karina must have been murdered somewhere else and then thrown into her trunk and dumped here. The bloody comforter could have been used to carry her from the murder scene to the car, and it only made sense that that comforter would have come from a bedroom.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Later that day, after Karina's body had been removed from the trunk and the clothes and the bloody comforter had been bagged as evidence, Lieutenant Fields knocked on the front door of Karina's apartment. A young detective and several uniformed officers stood behind him. Karina's roommate, Angela, opened the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Even though it was the afternoon, she looked like she'd either just rolled out of bed or hadn't slept all night. Angela had met most of these officers before and she knew they worked with Karina, and so she asked them if they needed Karina for something work-related. But Fields didn't waste any time. He bluntly told Angela that Karina was dead and the police needed to search the apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Angela backed away from the door, either too shocked or too scared to say anything. Fields told her to wait right there, and then he and the other officers stepped inside. And immediately, they felt like they had found the murder scene. There was no sign of forced entry at the door, but they could clearly see bloodstains on the carpet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They followed the bloodstains down a short hallway to a closed door. Fields opened it, and when he and the others stepped inside, they knew this had to be Karina's bedroom. They saw photos of her, her parents, and her little girl. But they also saw a scene of complete horror. Blood spatter covered the wall above the bed, and the sheets looked like they had been soaked in blood.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The officers also saw there was no comforter on the bed. There was no question this had to be where Karina had been killed. And so Fields sent the uniformed officers to canvas the apartment complex. The units were all close together, and the walls looked pretty thin. He thought somebody must have heard a violent attack last night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields and the young detective walked back through the apartment and Fields barked at Angela to join them in the kitchen. Fields was usually a pretty easygoing guy, very calm on the job, but this case had already put him on edge. Fields and the detective sat down with Angela at the kitchen table and Fields asked her when she had last seen Karina.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Angela told him that they'd both gone out to a club last night, since neither of their daughters were home, and they'd gotten back at around maybe midnight. They'd been drinking pretty heavily, so they both went to bed not long after that. Fields snapped right back. He didn't care how much she'd been drinking. This was a small apartment, and the two bedrooms shared a wall.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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There was no way Angela didn't hear what happened in Karina's room, and there was no way she didn't see the bloodstains on the carpet when she woke up. Angela hung her head and fought back tears, and as she did, Fields asked her if she was hiding something from them. She stayed silent for a second and then nodded. She said she hadn't just been drinking the night before.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She'd also taken a bunch of painkillers and totally blacked out. She said she was just kind of starting to feel normal again, and so that's why she hadn't heard anything the night before or noticed the bloodstains when she finally woke up. Lieutenant Fields took a breath and eased off a bit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He'd worked enough drug cases in the area to know that the right combination of booze and pills could basically make someone seem dead to the world for a while. This meant there was a chance Angela was actually telling the truth, that she really had no idea what happened over the last 10-12 hours.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Fields and the young detective gave Angela a minute to collect herself, then the young detective asked if there was anyone she could think of in Karina's life who might have wanted to hurt her. Angela said there was one obvious choice. Karina's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Jimmy Springer. Fields and the detective looked at each other.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They didn't know a ton about Karina's boyfriend, but they'd heard enough from her at work to know her relationship had its share of drama. Fields asked if Angela knew the last time Karina had seen Jimmy. Karina closed her eyes and tried to fight back tears.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She said last night, before Karina went to bed, she had told her to keep the front door unlocked, because Jimmy was coming over late and he was going to be spending the night. After leaving the apartment, Lieutenant Fields caught up with the uniformed officers who'd canvassed the area, and they told him that nobody had heard anything strange last night. This made no sense.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The complex was small, and the walls looked thin. How had nobody heard anything? Fields said he would try to figure that out later. He told the young detective to go track Jimmy down and call him in for an interview. In the meantime, Fields would have to drive out to Karina's family farm.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
News of a violent crime like this in such a small town would spread fast, and he did not want Karina's parents to find out that their daughter had been murdered from the TV. That afternoon, Fields sat down with Karina's parents in a large, open room with high ceilings in their farmhouse, and he told them the news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Karina's mother broke down immediately, but her father just stared off into space, almost like his mind had gone completely blank. All Fields could do was tell them how sorry he was and how he would do everything in his power to find her killer. He told them that Karina was part of the family at the police department, and nobody would get away with doing this to her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Fields told the parents that he didn't want to intrude on their grief, but he wondered if they knew anything about Karina's latest boyfriend, Jimmy Springer. Karina's mom forced herself to stop crying for a second, and she got an angry look on her face. She said Jimmy was no good for her little girl. He was jealous all the time, and he had a bad temper.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Karina's dad quickly added that this was not just typical jealous boyfriend stuff that might be expected from a young man. He told Lieutenant Fields that a few weeks earlier, Karina had come to the farmhouse and her face was all red.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When he asked her what had happened, she told him that Jimmy had grabbed her, dragged her into the bathroom, and rubbed off all of her makeup with a washcloth because he didn't like her wearing makeup when she was out. Fields assured the parents that the police were already working to bring Jimmy in for questioning. He said he would update them about the case as quickly and as often as he could.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told them again how sorry he was, then said goodbye and walked back outside to his car. On the night of October 2nd, so a little over 12 hours after Karina's body had been found, Lieutenant Fields sat with the Central City Chief of Police and the County Sheriff in an interview room at the Sheriff's Department.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Fields had been right, and the story of Karina's murder had already made the nightly news in cities all over the area. This was by far the biggest crime to have hit Central City in recent memory. So the chief and the sheriff wanted to make sure they handled everything by the book and that they could control the story in the media as much as possible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Just then, a deputy led Jimmy Springer into the room. Jimmy was 19 years old, tall and skinny, and he wore jeans and a t-shirt. He currently lived a little less than two hours away in Nashville, Tennessee, but police had found him staying with a friend in Central City. Jimmy sat down, and right away the sheriff asked him if he knew why he was there.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Jimmy had already heard about Karina, so he responded by saying he had nothing to do with her death. The police chief asked Jimmy where he'd been the night before, and Jimmy said he'd gone to a local bar with a couple of friends just to have a few beers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Afterward, he swung by Karina's apartment, but when he knocked on the door, nobody answered, so he headed to his friend's house and crashed there for the night. The chief didn't hold back. He told Jimmy he thought he was lying. Karina's roommate had told police she left the door unlocked for Jimmy, so why didn't he just walk in?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
One of Their Own (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Jimmy sat there for a second and began to shift in his seat uncomfortably, but he stuck to his story. The investigators kept pushing, but Jimmy didn't budge. He just kept saying he had nothing to do with Karina's murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On a Monday afternoon in 1986, a detective sergeant in San Antonio, Texas sat in his office and puzzled over two separate cases that landed on his desk that morning. One was a missing persons case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung, or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, and
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
About an hour later, Marin met Kathy's husband, Bill Lipscomb, at the sheriff's station. Marin was aware that Bill was a decorated member of the Air Force, and that he was very young to be a Master Sergeant, which was a pretty high rank. So Marin knew that the smartest way to approach Bill was to be formal and polite, rather than aggressive.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Even though divorce was a classic motive for murder, and Bill was a natural suspect. So in the interview room, Marin reached out and shook Bill's hand and told him he was very sorry about his wife. He promised to do everything he could to bring her killer to justice.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But while Marin was giving Bill his condolences, he was also looking Bill over very carefully, visually checking his arms, his hands, and his face for any signs of injury, like bruises, scratches, or fingernail marks that might be evidence of a recent struggle. But except for the fact that Bill was pale and sweating, he appeared to be physically unharmed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Marin opened up his notepad and asked Bill where he was over the weekend when Kathy had gone missing. Bill said he had been with his and Kathy's children since Friday afternoon. He said they didn't do much, just kind of hung around the house. Bill said Marin could talk to the kids and they would tell him the same thing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On a muggy Saturday night on June 7th, 1986, 29-year-old Kathy Lipscomb parked her car in front of an apartment complex in San Antonio, Texas, and reached into her purse for a tube of lipstick. Kathy tilted the rearview mirror toward her face and touched up her lips. And as she looked at her reflection and swept her platinum bangs to the side of her forehead, she almost didn't recognize herself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Marin nodded and then asked Bill how long Kathy had been living in her new apartment. When Bill sighed at the question, Marin looked up from his pad. He was surprised to see that Bill almost looked angry. Bill shook his head and told Marin that Kathy had only been in the new place for about a week or so, but the neighborhood it was in had been a point of contention between them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said he'd warned Kathy it was a bad area. He didn't like the seedy bars and strip joints all over the place. But Kathy had refused to listen to him. The apartment was close to her work, and she told him it was not his business anyway. Bill shook his head again and looked down at the table. And Marin could tell that clearly the separation between Bill and Kathy was still pretty raw.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told Bill he had just one more question, and then he'd let Bill go home to his kids. Marin explained to Bill that based on the location where Kathy's body was found and the way her clothes were rolled up, not folded, he thought there could be a military connection.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He asked Bill if any of his fellow airmen might have had a problem with Kathy, or if one of Bill's subordinates could have been angry at him. And with this question, Bill went from looking upset at Kathy to looking upset at Marin. He said no, absolutely not. His friends at the Air Force all loved Kathy, and he got along great with the people he worked with, regardless of rank.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He didn't have any enemies, and no one he knew could have done anything like this. Marin sat back studying Bill. He could tell Bill was worn out and getting frustrated, but he didn't find that particularly suspicious, given the circumstances. Marin decided that the best move was just to tell Bill to go home. It was late, and he'd get better interviews in the morning.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The next morning, Sergeant Marin interviewed Bill and Kathy's two young kids, and they confirmed their father's story. They had been with their dad all weekend, just like he'd said. So, Marin decided he had to start from square one. At first, he decided to interview Kathy's neighbors to see if anyone had spotted a person lurking outside her apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
If the killer was a stranger to Kathy, like Marin suspected, then they would likely have found her by simply running into her somewhere and it was possible they might have followed her home. And right away, when he started to canvass, he got a tip and a surprise.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because one of Kathy's neighbors told him that on the day Kathy's body was found, he saw a suspicious person walk up to Kathy's door and then just lurk there for a few minutes before walking away. and the neighbor said this person was a woman, not a man, which was not what Marin was expecting.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When he asked the neighbor for a physical description of this woman, the neighbor paused and thought for a second, saying he hadn't gotten a very good look. But then his eyes lit up as he remembered one crucial detail. The suspicious woman had long red hair, just like the four strands of long red hair the medical examiner had found on the victim's body.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sergeant Marin spent the next couple of days talking to Kathy's family, friends, and coworkers, probing for any information about a red-haired woman in Kathy's orbit. But not one single person had any idea who that could be. Instead, Kathy's friends and family had a different idea for a suspect, Kathy's new boyfriend.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy had only been dating this man for a few weeks, but she was already saying she was madly in love with him. But some of her friends thought the boyfriend was bad news. The first reason for this was because he was married. The boyfriend kept telling Kathy that he and his wife were separating and would be divorced soon, and although Kathy believed him, none of her friends did.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This boyfriend also had a reputation for sleeping around and promising every woman he was with that he was going to leave his wife for them. In fact, he was known for keeping a bachelor pad apartment where he could entertain his various girlfriends without his wife's knowledge. And another reason Kathy's friends didn't like her boyfriend was even simpler. It was because he was her boss.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There was a glow on her face that she hadn't seen in a long time, not since she'd been a newlywed. These days, the happy parts of Kathy's marriage felt very far in the past. Over the last eight years, she and her husband had had two children, who they both loved deeply.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy's boyfriend's name was Dr. David Pearl. It was Dr. Pearl who, on the Monday that Kathy failed to show up for work, sent her co-worker Sarah to Kathy's house to check on her. Kathy's friends knew she had been spending time with Dr. Pearl when she didn't have the kids with her, and that caught Maren's attention.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because the kids had been with their father on Saturday night, which, as far as police knew, was the last time anyone had seen Kathy alive. Maren wanted to know if Kathy had gone to meet Dr. Pearl that night. And so, a few days into his investigation, Maren found himself putting the red-haired woman on the back burner for a new number one suspect, Kathy's boss and boyfriend, Dr. Pearl.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Almost a week after Kathy was murdered, Marin sat at his desk in police headquarters, making a list of possible scenarios while he waited for uniformed officers to bring Dr. Pearl in to be interviewed. He thought maybe Kathy had been pushing Dr. Pearl to get a divorce. Maybe Kathy threatened to tell his wife.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Or maybe, Marin thought, the doctor's wife had already found out about the affair and taken revenge on Kathy. Marin sat back at his desk and wondered if the suspicious red-haired woman who had been seen at Kathy's apartment the day her body was found could be Dr. Pearl's wife. Just then, a uniformed officer knocked on Marin's door to tell him that Dr. Pearl was waiting for him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Marin stood up and followed the officer back to the little interview room where Dr. Pearl was sitting, looking perfectly calm and in control. When Marin walked in, Dr. Pearl immediately reached out and shook his hand. And then before Marin could ask even one question, the doctor began telling him how shocked he was by Kathy's death.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The doctor said it just didn't make any sense because he had just seen Kathy a day or two before she died and she had seemed totally fine. Marin nodded, being careful to keep his facial expression neutral. When Dr. Pearl was done saying how sorry he was for Kathy, Marin looked down at his pad and asked in a very deliberate voice where and when exactly had the doctor last seen Kathy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And at this, the doctor went silent. Marin knew it was clear from his tone that he already knew where and when Dr. Pearl had last seen Kathy. Like he knew about the affair and it was obvious. But what Marin was doing with this question was testing how this very smooth suspect reacted to a little bit of pressure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Kathy had come to feel increasingly trapped in her life, until just about a month ago when she and her husband had finally agreed to separate. To Kathy, that decision felt like it gave her back her freedom, and she knew that who she was seeing now in the rearview mirror of her brand new car was a brand new woman.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Dr. Pearl stared at Marin for a few seconds with a polite but completely blank expression on his face. And after a tense moment, the doctor gave an apologetic smile and said, I'm sorry, but I'm going to need to speak to my lawyer. On Saturday, June 15th, so a week after Kathy had been murdered, Marin was at home taking a day off to try to clear his head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This case had felt like trying to put together pieces from three different puzzles into one coherent picture. None of the clues made sense together. The posing of the body suggested a methodical killer who did not know the victim, but Marin's best suspect was Kathy's boyfriend.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The rolled-up clothes suggested the killer had a military background, and Kathy's soon-to-be ex-husband was a member of the Air Force. But he had a rock-solid alibi, and none of his friends or colleagues had any real link to Kathy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The sexual assault suggested that the killer was a man, but the long red hairs on the body and the suspicious red-haired woman at Kathy's door were evidence that there was a female involved. And beyond all these contradictions, there was very little in the way of actual physical evidence to tie any suspect at all to the murder scene.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So when Dr. Pearl had lawyered up during his interview, Marin had had no choice but to let him walk out of police headquarters without charging him. And since then, the only thing he learned was that Dr. Pearl's wife did not have red hair and had never been to Kathy's apartment. Just then, Marin heard his phone ring and he hopped up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He hoped it was someone calling to tell him there had been a new break in the case, just like the last time he got a call at home. But when he answered, it was just more bad news. A crime scene tech told him that Kathy's car had been found in the parking lot of a restaurant a mile from her apartment. Forensic investigators had searched it for fingerprints, but they came up empty.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Someone had wiped it clean. Over the next few weeks, every lead Marin tried to chase went nowhere. And slowly, newer homicide cases started to pile up, and they began to take up more and more of Marin's time. Marin did return to Kathy's case every few weeks, hoping he'd spot something he missed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But no matter how many times he read the different reports, nothing in them made any more sense than it had in the beginning. A month or two into the investigation, Kathy's mother had called Marin, and he promised her he would make sure that Kathy's murder was not forgotten. But as the months piled up, the case just got colder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By the one-year anniversary of Kathy's death, the only thing Marin knew for sure was that whoever killed Kathy had not killed again, at least not in the area of Bexar County. There had been no other murders reported with the posing of the body or the long red hairs or the rolled-up clothing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By the two-year anniversary of Kathy's death, Marin had begun to dread the calls from Kathy's family because the only thing he had to offer them were apologies. It was not until late 1988, so more than two years after Kathy was murdered, that all the blurry pieces of evidence finally snapped into focus. And it happened because Kathy's family hired a private investigator.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, got out of the car, and walked towards the large apartment building up ahead. And suddenly she felt really nervous, but it was the good kind of nervous. She had butterflies in her stomach because she was on the way to spend the night with her new boyfriend, who she had fallen completely in love with.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When this PI heard about the initial handling of the case and the huge mistake made in thinking that the body of Kathy Lipscomb was that of a teenage girl, he decided to start the investigation all over again. And in doing so, he discovered a critical piece of evidence that somehow the police had missed. That evidence was Kathy's date book.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In this date book, Kathy had written cryptic notes about something called the WAPS test. The PI didn't know what a WAPS test was, but apparently someone Kathy knew had all the answers to this test and was passing them around. To the PI, this sounded like Kathy knew something about some kind of cheating scandal. Not like adultery, like actual cheating on a test.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But the PI wondered, who in Kathy's orbit would be taking a standardized test? It didn't make sense for anyone at Kathy's job, which was at a medical office. On a hunch, the PI called the nearby Air Force base, and that's when he realized he was holding the link that completed the chain of evidence, and broke the case wide open.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, the PI worked with the Air Force, as well as Sergeant Marin, to bring in a man who had, until the discovery of the date book, flown completely under the radar. His name was Clint Richards, and he had worked with Kathy's soon-to-be ex-husband, Bill Lipscomb, in the Air Force. And when investigators brought Clint in to talk, he told them everything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Based on Clint's story and evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Kathy Lipscomb on the night of June 8th, 1986. That night, the killer sat patiently inside of their home on their couch, waiting for Kathy to arrive. They'd been expecting her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
when the killer heard knocking, they walked across the room, put a smile on their face, and opened their front door. There was Kathy, exactly on time as usual. The killer gestured for her to come inside, and she stepped over the threshold while the killer shut the door behind her. As soon as Kathy looked around the room, she realized something was wrong. It was too quiet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But the killer was expecting this. When Kathy turned to confront them, the killer pushed her to the ground and raped her. Then they grabbed an electrical cord they had hidden nearby, climbed on top of Kathy, and wrapped it around her neck. As they pulled, Kathy tried to fight back, but after several minutes, it was too much and she stopped moving.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After Kathy was dead, the killer stood up, crossed the room, and opened a cedar chest. Then they dragged Kathy's limp body across the floor, they folded her at the waist, picked her up, and jammed her inside at the chest, crossing her legs so she'd fit. Once the chest was closed, the killer called a friend.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy's soon-to-be ex-husband had the kids, and for at least a little while, Kathy could put all her worries out of her mind. So she walked up two flights of stairs to the third floor of the building and then rang the doorbell of her boyfriend's apartment. Kathy heard footsteps drawing closer, and then the door opened up, and Kathy beamed at the man standing there.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A few hours later, the killer and the friend carried the cedar chest with Kathy's body inside out of the killer's apartment and loaded it into the friend's vehicle. Then the killer handed the friend four strands of long red hair and walked back inside of their house. The friend drove off with Kathy's body and the hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After a few minutes, the friend turned their car onto a deserted two-lane road outside of town. They pulled over, removed Kathy's body from the chest, and carefully placed her on the ground on the shoulder of the road. Then, the friends set about staging the scene to look as if the killer had posed Kathy's body on purpose.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They rolled up Kathy's clothing and placed it underneath her right foot, and then they laid the four long red hairs on top of Kathy's body. Finally, when the scene was perfect, the friend got back into their car and drove home.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
With Kathy's death, both the killer and the friend were now certain that no one would ever know that the killer had cheated on the promotional exam that the Air Force called the Weighted Airman Promotion Systems Test, or as everybody called it for short, the WAPS test. The friend who dumped the body was Clint Richards, and the killer was Kathy's soon-to-be ex-husband, Bill Lipscomb.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was Bill, the young master sergeant who had moved up the Air Force ranks with shocking speed, who had cheated on the WAPS test. Kathy knew about it, and she had threatened to expose him during their divorce because she wanted Bill to give her full custody of the children.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It would turn out that Marin had been correct in his assessment that Kathy's killer had acted with a plan and had deliberately posed her body, but he had been wrong about why. Bill and Clint had worked together to stage the crime scene to make it look like a murder committed by a sadistic rapist. Those long red hairs were part of that staging meant to throw the police off.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And they had worked even better than either Bill or Clint had expected. And this was because of a chain of events that police themselves had set in motion in their early efforts to identify the body found on the side of the road when they believed the victim was significantly younger than she was. Police had put the description of the victim out to the media and a friend of Kathy's had heard it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
That friend had been the one to make the identification of Kathy's body, but she only did so after going to Kathy's apartment to check on her. The suspicious red-headed woman the neighbor had seen was actually just Kathy's friend. It was a total coincidence, but it had confused investigators for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Meanwhile, Bill had escaped suspicion with his alibi because he had told his young children to lie to the police about being with him all night. Bill had preemptively suggested to Marin that Marin should talk to his kids because he knew they would lie for him. It was only when the PI began poking around on the case that Bill's nine-year-old daughter finally found the courage to tell the truth.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The man grabbed Kathy and kissed her, let her inside, and shut the door behind them. The next evening, Kathy's soon-to-be ex-husband, 30-year-old Air Force Master Sergeant Bill Lipscomb, buckled their four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter into the backseat of his car and began driving to the other side of town, where Kathy had just moved into her own apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She had not been with her dad the night her mom was killed. Instead, her dad's friend, Clint Richards, had taken her and her brother out for dinner. That was why, when Kathy arrived at Bill's house right on time to pick up her kids like she always was, she found the house too quiet and realized her kids were not there. When Kathy turned around to confront Bill, he raped and killed her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A mother of two never showed up to work that morning at the clinic where she was a respected nurse, and none of her friends, coworkers, or family members could get in touch with her. The other case involved a murder. A body had turned up in a grassy field along a deserted two-lane road, and it appeared to be a teenage girl.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Clint Richards avoided prosecution for cooperating with authorities. As for Bill Lipscomb, he pled guilty to Kathy's murder in order to avoid the death penalty, and he was sentenced to 60 years in prison. However, he was granted an early release in May of 2021. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
If you liked today's story and you're looking for more strange, dark, and mysterious content, be sure to check out all our studios' podcasts. They are this one, the Mr. Ballin Podcast. We also have Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, and also Run Full. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you listen to your podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
To watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy was supposed to pick the kids up from Bill's house, but she hadn't shown up and she wasn't answering her phone. So now, Bill was driving the kids to her. When they got to Kathy's building, Bill knocked on the front door of Kathy's unit, which was on the ground floor, and he and the kids waited there in silence. When she didn't answer the door, Bill knocked again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But still, there was no answer. He turned to his kids and tried to smile because he didn't want to upset them, but he knew this was actually really weird. Kathy was never even late picking up their kids, so the idea that she just would blow it off entirely and then also not be home made no sense. Bill told the kids to wait at the door and then he walked back to his car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He got a notepad, a pen, and a roll of tape out of the glove box and walked back to the building. Bill wrote a note stating that he and the kids were there at 6.45 and would try again later. Then he stuck that note to Kathy's front door. Then he looked down at the kids and asked them if they wanted to write their mom a note too.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The little girl nodded and took the pen from her dad and scribbled onto the pad, and Bill tore out the page and stuck that to the door as well. The note read in large block letters, Mommy, we love you. A day later, at around 9.30 a.m.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
on Monday morning, a woman working at a university health clinic named Sarah Bowers had a question for Kathy Lipscomb, who was one of the nurses that she worked with. So Sarah walked over to Kathy's office, but when she stepped inside, it was empty, and Sarah saw that a bunch of pink While You Were Out memos had piled up on Kathy's desk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sarah walked in and picked up one of the messages and read it. It was from Kathy's husband, Bill. He had called in an hour earlier looking for his wife. And this, coupled with the stack of other notes that were very similar, gave Sarah a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Because Kathy was one of the most reliable nurses in the clinic. Like, where had she gone? Why hadn't she called in?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sarah picked up the phone and dialed Kathy's apartment number. She knew it because she and Kathy were actually friends outside of work. But the call just rang without an answer, and Sarah eventually hung up and returned to her desk. But over the next hour, Sarah could barely focus because all she could think about was Kathy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She kept looking up at the clock on the wall, watching the minutes tick by, hoping to see her friend walk into the office with a totally reasonable explanation for why she was late. Or even without an explanation. It didn't matter, so long as Sarah knew Kathy was okay. By the time the clock struck 10 that morning and Kathy still had not shown up to work, Sarah could not stand it any longer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The sergeant looked back and forth between the description of the missing mom and the pictures of the dead young woman. These women were so similar in appearance that he wondered if this may have been the work of a serial killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She got up and walked directly to the office of her and Kathy's boss, Dr. David Pearl. When Dr. Pearl saw Sarah standing at his door with a troubled look on her face, he asked her what was wrong. Sarah told him that Kathy was two hours late to work and she was not answering her phone. And based on the notes on her desk that were piling up, her husband had also not heard from her either.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At this, Dr. Pearl furrowed his brow. Kathy hadn't mentioned anything to him about being late or absent that day. It made him concerned that she might be sick or maybe even injured and couldn't get to the phone. So he asked Sarah to drive over to Kathy's apartment to check on her. Sarah sped over to Kathy's apartment, which was only about 10 minutes away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When she got there, she found the notes on the door and she knocked, but there was no answer. And so feeling kind of desperate, she ran to get the building manager and begged the woman to let her into her friend's apartment. Now, the manager knew this was against company policy to do this, but she could see how upset Sarah was. So she unlocked Kathy's door and let Sarah go inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And what Sarah found inside sent her panic through the roof. The apartment was perfectly neat and tidy, it didn't look like anything bad had happened to her, but there was no sign of Kathy. In fact, it looked like she had not been home for days.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At around the same time, about 15 miles away, an airman who worked at the local Air Force base was driving to work down a two-lane road outside of town when he noticed something lying in the grass on the side of the road. The airman pulled over to the shoulder and got out of his car to investigate. He walked off the road and into the grass and stared down into the weeds in utter disbelief.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When he got over the initial shock, he ran back to his car, drove to the nearest house, and called the police. It took police officers from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office just a few minutes to arrive at the spot on the road where the airman had made his discovery. It was a strange location for a 911 call.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The area was pretty much deserted, and this road was basically only used by Air Force personnel who drove in and out of the base. The police got out of their cruiser and walked to the side of the road into some spiky grass. And just a few feet in, they stopped. For a minute, they just stood there together in silence, looking down.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because there, lying in the weeds below, they saw the dead body of what looked like a teenage girl. She was naked and covered with ants, and they saw thin trails of blood on the sides of her mouth. But as horrifying as all of that was, the officers were actually much more fixated on something else. The girl's body was contorted.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Her legs were bent at the knee, and her ankles were crossed, as if she had been sitting criss-cross style. Her torso had been folded forward, so her chest was resting on her legs, and there was some kind of fabric under her foot. The officers had been to enough crime scenes to know that this girl's body had not just been tossed out of a car quickly by a person trying to get rid of evidence.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, her body had been carefully posed, like whoever killed her wanted her to be found. That afternoon, homicide investigator Sergeant Sal Marin sat in his office at the sheriff's station trying to ID the victim that police had just found on the side of the road. Marin had started off pretty confident that he would be able to figure out who it was pretty quickly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
From the looks of things, the victim appeared to be a teenager and she had been healthy, well cared for, and well-groomed. In other words, she looked like she probably had a family who would definitely report her missing right away. But so far, Marin had not been able to find any missing persons reports that matched her description, and he thought that was strange.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Just then, a secretary came by and dropped off the medical examiner's report from the autopsy, along with the crime scene report. Marin grabbed the medical examiner's report first, and as soon as he opened it, he grimaced. The victim had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death, most likely on Sunday night, so one day before she was found.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So if that's of interest to you, please buy the follow button a very nice pair of slippers, but each week secretly break into their house and replace those slippers with an identical pair that is slightly larger. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Her body appeared to have been posed soon after her death, before rigor mortis had set in, which is the stiffening of the body after death. And to Marin, this felt off. Usually, when young women were murdered, the killer was someone they knew, either a partner, friend, or a family member who acted out of rage or jealousy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sadly, it wasn't unusual to see sexual assault or strangulation in cases like this, but it was extremely unusual to see such deliberate posing of the body. Killers who know their victims often try to cover them up, not display them. Posing a body was evidence of a careful and deliberate killer acting with a plan.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was something that sadists and serial killers did, and it made Marin think that his killer was likely a stranger to the victim. And that was bad news, because killings by strangers were among the hardest to solve. The suspect pool was enormous because the killer could be anyone. But as Marin continued through the report, he spotted what he thought might be his first clue.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Four strands of long red hair that were found on the girl's body. The girl was a blonde, which meant the red hairs could have come from her killer. The medical examiner had examined these hairs under a microscope and they found they had been dyed red and they had no roots. And Marin wasn't sure what to make of this.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The hair could be from a wig or they could be from a woman's head, but Marin found it highly unlikely that his killer was female. He put the autopsy report down and picked up the crime scene report. And here, Marin found his second clue. The victim's clothing, which was a pair of Levi's jeans and a t-shirt, had been placed underneath her right foot by the killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And what Marin noticed was the clothing had been rolled up rather than folded. Marin picked up a pen and wrote down the word military in the margins. Marin knew that people in the military were trained to roll up their clothes instead of folding them because it was more compact and efficient. And the girl's body had been found on a road used almost exclusively by members of the Air Force.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But before Marin got too deep into his theories on the killer, his first priority was to find the dead girl's identity. Only then would he be able to begin retracing her last moments and figuring out who she had contact with in her final days.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So, over the next hour, he began reaching out to local radio and TV stations, asking producers to broadcast news of the crime every half hour, with a description of the young victim. He got the story placement at the top of the afternoon news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Later, at 5 p.m., when still no tips had come in, Marin was getting ready to leave and grab something to eat, but just as he was standing up from his desk, his office door swung open and a deputy handed him a single piece of paper. It was a missing persons report for a woman named Kathy Lipscomb. Her family had just called to report that no one had seen or heard from her since Saturday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And the second Marin started reading the report, he felt a rush of adrenaline. Kathy was petite, blonde, and had gone missing right around the time the medical examiner believed his victim had been killed. Marin thought Kathy might be his victim. But then his eyes settled on Kathy's age, and he felt his excitement drain away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kathy was 29 years old, almost 30, but the dead woman found on the side of the road looked a full decade younger than that, at least, so Kathy didn't seem to be a match for his homicide victim.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Still, Marin wondered if this missing persons report about Kathy Lipscomb was a different kind of clue in his case, because based on Kathy's physical description, it was eerie how similar the two women were. Marin felt his appetite vanish and he sat back down at his desk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He was starting to fear that he could have a serial killer on his hands who was hunting petite blonde women and that Kathy could actually be his second victim. A few hours later, Sergeant Marin's efforts to get the description of his victim blasted out onto the airwaves paid off. By this point, Marin was at home on his couch watching TV when his phone rang.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He walked into the kitchen and picked it up. It was the medical examiner's office calling to tell him that a woman watching the news had heard about the discovery of the body and realized that the description of the young victim matched a friend of hers perfectly. At first, this woman had not wanted to believe it, so she actually had gone to her friend's apartment to check on her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But when her friend did not answer the door, the woman had called the police and the police directed this woman to the medical examiner's office where she would positively identify the body. Marin's victim finally had a name. When Marin heard the name, he immediately turned to the coffee maker on his counter and started brewing a pot. He was going to have to go straight back to work.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because Marin did not have two victims on his hands, he had just one. The dead body of the girl by the side of the road and the missing Kathy Lipscomb were one in the same. Kathy, despite being 29 years old, was just unusually young-looking. This meant that Marin's theory of the case, that he might be dealing with a serial killer, had become a bit more unlikely.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
In the Weeds (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He still viewed the posing of the body as evidence that the killer was a stranger to the victim, acting on a calculated plan rather than a sudden burst of emotion. But he was down to just one victim. And now that his victim did have an identity, Marin had to do the part of his job that he hated the most. and that was to tell his victim's family about the murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On a fall evening in 1996, a young detective sped through the streets of Tucson, Arizona towards an upscale country club.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A little over an hour after the explosion, a woman stepped out of her car and approached the country club parking lot. She looked almost like she was sleepwalking, like she didn't see all the chaos around her. Local police officers immediately stopped the woman from walking any further into the parking lot, and she shouted that she was Gary's girlfriend. Detective Gamber saw this happening.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He'd been waiting for her. A police officer had called her at Gary's house to inform her about what had happened. At first, she didn't believe the cop. She said Gary was out with his friends, and then he was going to come home for a huge surprise party she was throwing him. But eventually, she had accepted the truth, and she said she was coming to the country club right away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber rushed over to her and introduced himself. He said how sorry he was, and he hated to put her in this position right now, but he needed to ask her some questions. Gary's girlfriend looked back at him, still with this glazed expression, and said she would try to help. Gamber glanced down at a few notes he'd scribbled in his notebook.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He knew the doors on Gary's car had been so badly damaged by the blast that it was impossible to tell if someone had broken into the car to plant the bomb. But people had been in and out of the parking lot all day, and so far, nobody had reported witnessing a break-in.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So, Gamber thought there was a good chance that whoever planted the bomb had easy access to Gary's car, so he asked Gary's girlfriend if she had keys to the Lincoln. She said she did, but she said it didn't really make a difference because Gary always left his car unlocked. This threw Gamber off.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Somebody leaving their car unlocked, especially a nice car like Gary's, sounded like something that only happened back in the 1950s. But Gary's girlfriend said that he had this foolish belief that nothing bad would ever happen to him and that people were actually good at heart. She said if it wasn't for her, he very likely would have just left his house unlocked every night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber continued to talk to Gary's girlfriend for a few more minutes. He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but this woman really did seem completely shocked by Gary's death. So he told her before he let her go that he just wanted to know if she could think of anyone in Gary's life who might have wanted to harm him. Gary's girlfriend shook her head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She said Gary had a good relationship with both of his ex-wives and his two grown children from his first marriage. And the children from his second marriage were still pretty little. And she said everybody who knew Gary loved him. He was generous and fun. Suddenly, Gary's girlfriend trailed off, and the look on her face totally changed, like she had just thought of something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber asked if something was wrong, and she nodded. There was one past relationship in Gary's life that had ended badly, and it just continued to get worse. She said Gary had an ex-girlfriend named Robin Gardner, and Gary had left her when she got pregnant. But even before that, Gary had wanted to get out of the relationship because Robin had a temper and had once attacked him with a flower vase.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber asked if Gary had had any contact with Robin lately. Gary's girlfriend said that Robin had called a few months earlier and she left Gary a message on the machine. And all Robin had said was, you're going to pay. Someday you're going to pay.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The day following the bombing, FBI and ATF agents remained focused on possible mob ties to Gary's murder, while Detective Gamber drove to meet Gary's ex-girlfriend, Robin, at her house. By this time, the bombing was all over the news in the region, so Robin was well aware that Gary had died.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Robin opened the door, holding her baby girl in her arms, and she led the detective into the kitchen, where her new husband was already sitting at the table. Gamber took a seat and he didn't waste any time. He said he knew that Robin had once physically assaulted Gary because Gary had called 911 and asked police to remove her from his house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber also knew about the threatening phone message she had left him. Robin's face immediately turned red and she looked very embarrassed. She said she couldn't justify her actions, but Gamber clearly did not have the full story. When she had gotten pregnant, Gary had openly doubted that the baby was his. He broke up with her and didn't want any responsibility for the child.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So she lashed out because she was hurt and scared and didn't know if she'd be able to provide for her baby on her own. But after the baby was born and a paternity test proved that she was Gary's daughter, Gary had said he would help take care of her financially and Robin and Gary's relationship became a lot more civil. The baby started crying a little, and Robin asked if she could excuse herself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gamber said of course, and Robin carried the baby out of the kitchen. Her husband watched to make sure she was out of earshot, and then he leaned toward Gamber and spoke quietly. He said there was no doubt that his wife had a temper. If Robin was mad, she made it really clear.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At about 5 p.m. on November 1st, 1996, 52-year-old Gary Triano stood on the 18th green at the La Paloma Country Club in Tucson, Arizona. Gary crouched down to line up a short putt while three of his friends stood off to the side, giving him a hard time for taking so long. Gary just blocked them out. Almost everywhere else, Gary was known for being loud, impulsive, and never slowing down.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But despite the issues she'd had with Gary, Robin's husband said that she told him that Gary was a good man for admitting he was wrong and doing his part to make sure the baby was taken care of. By the time Gamber left the house, he didn't feel like Gary's ex-girlfriend or his latest girlfriend were the likely killers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He didn't want to eliminate any suspects until he had more clear evidence, but he knew Gary's ex-wives and his grown children could also have a motive to kill Gary. And all of them most likely knew about Gary's strange habit of keeping his car doors unlocked, so they would know how easy it would be to place a bomb in the Lincoln town car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
During the week following the bombing, Detective Gamber checked in often with the sheriff and with the FBI and ATF. The feds were still tracking leads connected to the mafia, and they were delving deep into Gary's financial records. It had become clear that Gary had racked up millions of dollars in debt, and he owed people money all over the world, so they were even following international leads.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But all of the agencies believed Detective Gamber's investigation held just as much weight as theirs. It was still entirely possible that Gary's murder was personal and had nothing to do with his business dealings. So Gamber arranged separate interviews with Gary's two ex-wives. But both of these meetings played out almost exactly the same way.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
All Gary's first wife, Mary, and his second wife, the socialite, Pamela, really told Gamber was that they loved Gary, thought he was a great father, and they had remained good friends with him after their divorces. They were also both heartbroken by Gary's death.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After meeting Mary and Pamela, Detective Gamber did not feel like he had any new information about the case, and he was already starting to get frustrated. Gary's somewhat tangled romantic life had seemed like a strong lead, but his relationships with his ex-wives appeared to have both been pretty healthy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And even as Gary had started to struggle financially, he always paid his child support, so that was not a cause for conflict, and Gamber also had to admit that both women had really solid alibis. Neither of them had been in town when Gary died.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Following the meetings with the ex-wives, Gamber interviewed Gary's son and daughter from his first marriage, who were both in their mid-twenties, and he hoped they would give him something to go on. But they would both say that Gary was a great dad and an amazing friend. He meant everything to them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They admitted that when they were teenagers and their parents got divorced, they had blamed their dad at first, but they ended up loving their stepmom and their two little half-siblings, so any animosity they felt towards their dad had disappeared.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so in about the span of a week, Gamber had met with the people he believed had the clearest personal motives to kill Gary, but he felt like he still hadn't gotten anywhere. At the same time, the federal investigations also seemed to be stalling. There were plenty of leads, but each one of them fell apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So, as November came to an end, everyone involved in the hunt for Gary's killer worried that the case was already drying up and that the killer, who had set off a homemade bomb in the city of Tucson, would remain free and out on the streets. In early December, about a month after Gary's murder, Detective Gamber got a phone call at his desk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And as soon as the man on the line began talking, Gamber could hear the urgency in his voice. The man said he was an investigator from Aspen, Colorado. He'd just seen a news report about Gamber's ongoing investigation, and he had some strange pieces of evidence that he thought might be connected to the car bombing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When Gamber heard this, he felt like he'd just woken up after a long night of sleep. This was the first time he'd been excited about this case in weeks. The Colorado investigator said he'd been working a fraud case for months, trying to track down a man named Ron Young. Ron had bilked a bunch of people out of thousands of dollars.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And back in October, this investigator had found an abandoned minivan in California that Ron had rented. Inside the van, the investigator said he'd found a sawed-off shotgun. He'd also found some potential evidence that he didn't really understand at the time. But after seeing the news report about this car bombing, he thought that evidence he found might finally make sense.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But on the golf course, he always felt calm and focused. Gary stood back up and prepared to take the shot. He took a breath, brought his putter back just a little, and swung. His friends shouted like that might knock the ball off course, but Gary watched it roll across the green and drop right into the hole. Gary let out a huge yell and thrust his fist into the air in celebration.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Gamber was now standing up at his desk, just waiting with anticipation to hear what this evidence was. The investigator said he had found a map of Tucson, Arizona, and a piece of paper with some names on it. And one of those names was Gary Triano. Gamber felt his hands shaking.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He wanted to run out of the station and go find Ron Young right away, so he asked the investigator to please send over all the information he had on him. The investigator said he would do that as soon as they hung up, but he gave Gamber a warning. He said Ron was elusive, and tracking him down would not be easy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Throughout the end of 1996 and the first several months of 1997, Detective Gamber worked with the FBI to try to locate Ron. But after months of searching, Gamber started to feel like the investigator from Colorado had made a huge understatement. Ron was not just elusive, this man was a ghost. None of Ron's family or friends or anyone he knew seemed to have any idea where he was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He might as well have just dropped off the face of the earth. And even with Gamber and the FBI coordinating with state and local authorities across the country, they could not get a viable lead on Ron's location. During this time, the other aspects of the investigation had also hit a wall.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And so even the federal agencies believed that finding Ron was their only real option for keeping the case going. But as more time went by and they still could not find Ron, Gamber started to get the sick feeling that Gary's killer would never be found and his family would never get closure. And for Gamber, who was still so new to the homicide unit, this felt like a total failure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And by early summer of 1997, about seven months after Gary's murder, there was still no sign of Ron. And Detective Gamber's fears came true. The interagency task force that had been working on the case disbanded. The feds left, and Gary's murder was no longer considered a top priority for the Pima County Sheriff's Department.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Gamber did his best to try to return to the case files whenever he could, but he soon had other homicide investigations to lead. And then Gary's murder almost completely disappeared from the news, and the case went cold for a very long time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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On November 19th, 2005, nine years after Gary's murder, a chiropractor in Fort Lauderdale, Florida came home after a day of work, sat down on his couch, and turned on one of his favorite TV shows, America's Most Wanted.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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All he knew was that someone had reported an explosion in the area, but he didn't know what had caused it. Minutes later, the detective pulled into the country club parking lot, and as he got out of his car, it almost felt like he had stepped into a war zone. Car alarms were blaring, shattered glass covered the ground, and nearby, he saw a car with its roof completely ripped off.
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At the time, America's Most Wanted was a very popular show that featured stories about criminals who were still at large in the hope that the viewers of the show might provide tips that could help lead to an arrest. The chiropractor watched the show and listened to a story about a man who was wanted in a fraud case and had possible connections to a murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And as the chiropractor watched, he suddenly got off the couch and got closer to his TV to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing. there was an image of the criminal on the screen. Now, the chiropractor didn't recognize the criminal's name, Ron Young, but he definitely recognized the man because he had treated this man's bad back on several different occasions.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He turned to his friends and looked at them like they were crazy to think they could beat him. Gary grabbed the ball out of the hole, slipped his club into his golf bag, slung it over his shoulder, and then followed his friends into the country club bar.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The chiropractor grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number for the America's Most Wanted tip line. Two days later, federal and local law enforcement arrested Ron Young in Fort Lauderdale.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And days after that, Detective Gamber, who was still a homicide detective, along with other Pima County investigators, flew to Florida to question Ron in connection to the bombing that killed Gary Triano. Detective Gamber felt exhilarated to have the case reopened.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He had always regretted that he had not been able to bring Gary's killer to justice, but Gamber would soon realize that he still had a long way to go. Ron repeatedly denied having anything to do with Gary's murder, no matter how much police pressured him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And so it would take several more years of coordinated efforts between law enforcement organizations across the country and multiple international agencies for investigators to gather evidence to prove that Ron knew a lot more than he was willing to say. And that there was someone else out there on the run who was directly connected to Gary's murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Four years later, on a cold December night in Vienna, Austria in 2009, now 13 years after Gary's murder, members of Austria's federal police force approached an upscale hotel located in one of the wealthiest parts of the city. The lead officer and his partner found the room they were looking for and knocked on the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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When the door opened, the lead officer spoke in German, but the person at the door looked confused. So the officer quickly switched to English and asked them to identify themselves. And when the lead officer heard this person's name, he told them that they were under arrest for the murder of Gary Triano.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Soon after this arrest, the lead officer contacted a supervisor who then got in touch with federal authorities in the United States to start the extradition process. That process took months, but when the suspect was back in Arizona, Detective Gamber interviewed them. And by the time that interview ended, all of Gamber's hard work had finally paid off.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It was a few days before Gary's 53rd birthday, and he thought there was no better way to celebrate than with a round of golf and a drink with his friends. But what Gary didn't know was that this golf game was actually part of a bigger plan.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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After 13 years, he now knew who had murdered Gary. Based on evidence collected over the course of the entire investigation, the following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Gary on November 1st, 1996. At around 4.15 p.m. that day, the bomber sat at a small table in a hotel room, breathing in slowly over and over until they could feel their heart rate slowing down.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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When they felt completely calm, they reached out, picked up the homemade bomb they had spent days putting together, and then slowly placed it into an open wooden box laying on the table. They secured the bomb inside the box and then walked across the room and grabbed the phone. They took a small piece of paper out of their pocket with a number scrawled on it and dialed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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A friendly young man at the front desk of the La Paloma Country Club answered and asked how he could help. The bomber, using an equally friendly voice, asked the young man if Gary Triano was out on the golf course. The young man said he was. He said he had welcomed Gary into the club a little while earlier.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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After that, the bomber hung up the phone and walked back to the table, picked up the box with the bomb in it, and walked out to their car. They set the box in the passenger seat and then drove slowly down the road. No need to take any stupid chances by driving fast. A few minutes later, the bomber pulled into the La Paloma parking lot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They spotted Gary's Lincoln town car and pulled into a spot that was as far away as they could get while still maintaining a clear view of Gary's car. The bomber scanned the lot and they didn't see anyone. So they opened their car door, went around to the other side, and carefully picked up the box with the bomb inside of it. They kept their head down as they walked to Gary's car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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When they got there, they saw that the passenger side door was unlocked. They opened the door, crouched down, and placed the box on the floorboard. The bomber closed Gary's car door and quickly walked back to their car and climbed inside. Then they watched and waited. At around 5.30 p.m., they saw Gary step out of the country club.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Gary's girlfriend had arranged this game with his friends, and she'd gotten some other friends to invite him out to a different bar at 6 p.m., all so she could get Gary's house ready for a huge surprise party she was throwing him later that night. Gary and his friends took a seat at the bar and ordered some drinks. And as they did, they all bragged about the best shots they had made that day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The bomber reached into their pocket and slipped out a small remote control. As they watched Gary get closer to his car, their heartbeat got faster. Gary climbed into his car, and after a second, the bomber watched as Gary leaned down towards the floorboard. And at that moment, the bomber hit a button on that remote.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The bomber heard a loud bang and saw the roof of Gary's cargo flying into the air. In the chaos, the bomber sped out of the parking lot and drove to a nearby payphone. They dropped a coin in, and when the person answered, the bomber said the job was done. The person on the other side of the call didn't say anything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They just hung up the phone and smiled at their two little children who were playing nearby. Ron Young, the man who had eluded authorities for years before getting caught by a chiropractor watching TV, built the bomb and placed it inside of Gary's car. But Ron was not the person who had set any of this in motion. Gary's second wife, the socialite Pamela Phillips, was the one behind everything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It turned out that despite what Pamela had told the police, she was not happy about her relationship with her ex-husband. Because ever since Gary had begun experiencing financial difficulties, he stopped giving Pamela the type of money he had given her in the past. Gary still paid child support and alimony, but there was nothing extra for her like there used to be.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And so Pamela had decided that the only way she could get the kind of money from Gary that she wanted was by killing him. Because Gary had taken out a $2 million life insurance policy, and he had made Pamela and his two kids the beneficiaries.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But until those kids turned 18, Pamela would receive the payout if Gary died, with the understanding that she would manage and invest the money for the kids. But Pamela just wanted the money for herself and did not want to wait any longer. So she offered a man she'd once had a romantic relationship with, Ron Young, $400,000 to do the job.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Ron already had a criminal past, and he had some experience with explosives. So together, Pamela and Ron started planning Gary's murder, and they decided to use a homemade bomb. And in the fall of 1996, they found the perfect way to carry out their plan. Gary's girlfriend had wanted everyone in Gary's family to come to the surprise party she was planning.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So she had invited Pamela and the kids and even told Pamela her plan to keep Gary out of the house. He was going to play golf at La Paloma until around 5.30 and then go to another bar before coming home. So, Pamela now had the perfect time and place for Ron to pull off the murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She knew exactly where Gary was going to be, and she knew Gary never locked his car doors, so Ron would have no problem finding the car and planting the bomb. This all took years for Detective Gamber and investigators to put together, mainly because Ron had been so difficult to hunt down and to get any information from.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But when they finally had him in custody and started getting closer to connecting Pamela to the murder, she took off to Europe. It took a while, but eventually, law enforcement agencies in Austria found her staying at a high-end hotel in Vienna. So they arrested her and sent her back to the United States. Ron Young and Pamela Phillips were both found guilty of murder and conspiracy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The bartender handed Gary his drink, but before he could take a sip, he heard someone calling Mr. Triano behind him. Gary turned, and he saw a young woman in her mid-20s coming his way, and his face just lit up. It had been years since he had last seen her, but he recognized her immediately. She was one of his daughter's friends from when they were young.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Ron received two life sentences without possibility of parole. Pamela received life in prison plus 25 years, also with no possibility of parole. And because of the amount of time this investigation took, it was both Detective Gamber's second homicide case and his last. He retired from the force not long after having helped solve Gary's murder. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
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If you liked today's story and you're looking for more strange, dark, and mysterious content, be sure to check out all our studios' podcasts. They are this one, the Mr. Ballin Podcast. We also have Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, and also Run Full. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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To watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
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Gary stepped away from the bar and the young woman hugged him like she was hugging her own father. Gary asked how she was doing and he wanted to know all about her life. The two talked for a few minutes while Gary's friends drank at the bar. They were all very used to hearing somebody call out Gary's name no matter where they went because it seemed like everybody in Tucson knew him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And in truth, Gary was really well-known around the city. He had been a big-time real estate investor, he'd opened casinos, and he'd run businesses in a bunch of different industries. And before he'd gotten divorced from his second wife, a socialite named Pamela Phillips, they ran in the same circles as Hollywood celebrities and well-known politicians.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The young woman hugged Gary again and said how great it was to see him, and she went outside as Gary made his way back to the bar. He glanced at his watch. It was almost 530 and so it was just about time for him to head to the next bar to meet his other group of friends.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So he threw back his drink and then reached into his pocket, pulled out several bills and carefully folded them into little origami flowers. He put these flowers on the bar for a tip, then grabbed his golf bag, shouted goodbye to everyone and walked out. Gary's friends waved him off and then just kind of shook their heads. Gary couldn't help himself. He always had to make a grand exit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The sun was setting when Gary stepped outside, and so he looked out at the pink and red sky over the mountains and desert in the distance. It was a beautiful day, just about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and Gary smiled. It was perfect days like this that had helped the Tucson real estate market boom, and Tucson real estate had once made him millions of dollars.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But now, standing there, thinking about his money, all he could do was laugh, or he'd just get depressed. Despite the continued growth of the real estate market, the last few years had been tough on Gary financially. He had spread himself too thin, investing in too many high-risk ventures, and some of the deals he'd made had completely fallen apart and cost him a huge chunk of his fortune.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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In order to deal with these massive losses, Gary had recently filed for bankruptcy, and now he was slowly trying to rebuild his wealth. But Gary quickly shook all of this off. From the time he was a young man, he had really believed that no matter what happened to him, he would always land on his feet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The young detective quickly got to work searching the scene, having no idea that he would spend the next 13 years of his life trying to close this case, which would span across the United States and all the way to Europe.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And even though he was not making the kind of money he'd made in the past, and his life wasn't as exciting as it was when he and his socialite ex-wife were hanging out with famous people, Gary still just loved being here in Tucson. He traveled all over and gone to lavish parties in some of the biggest cities in the world.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But at the end of the day, nothing could beat a perfect Arizona sunset over the mountains and the desert. Gary walked across the country club parking lot to his 1989 Lincoln Town Car. He tossed his golf bag in the back and got into the driver's seat. He was about to take off when something caught his eye. There was a small wooden box in the floorboard of the passenger seat.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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His girlfriend must have gotten him an early birthday present and somehow hidden it in the car without him noticing until now. Gary smiled, reached down, and grabbed the box. As Gary was getting into his car, the bar inside the country club was getting louder. More people had just come in from the golf course, and everybody was talking and laughing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But suddenly, a huge bang echoed over all that noise. The glasses behind the bar rattled, and some people hit the floor, trying to take cover. They had no idea what was happening. A nearby transformer might have blown, or they could be in the middle of an earthquake. Nobody knew.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But one man at the bar, who happened to be a doctor, took off running towards the parking lot, and Gary's friends and some others followed. And when they got outside, they felt like they had just stepped into a war zone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Car alarms blared, they saw smoke rising into the air, they saw cars with shattered windshields, and they saw a Lincoln Town car with its windows blown out, its doors shredded, and its roof completely ripped off. The doctor ran right to that car, hoping that nobody was inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But as he got closer, he could see a man sprawled out in the front seat, and most of this man's clothes had been torn off his body, and he looked burned and bloody. The doctor turned around and shouted for the people who had followed him to call 911 and to stay back.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He didn't know if they were all still in danger, and even if they weren't, he didn't want anyone to see what he was looking at inside of that car. The doctor leaned in through the space where the car window used to be. He reached down and grabbed the man's bloody wrist. The explosion that had shaken the bar inside must have killed this man instantly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
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Detective James Gamber of the Pima County Sheriff's Department was clearing the dinner table and putting dishes in the sink at his house when his phone rang. He walked across the kitchen and answered it. It was one of his colleagues from the Sheriff's Department, and this colleague said that there had just been an explosion at La Paloma Country Club, and Gamber needed to get down there right away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So Detective Gamber ran out to his car and sped off through his residential neighborhood. Gamber had only been a homicide detective with the sheriff's department for a short time. In fact, he had only worked one homicide case at this point. But as he drove to the country club, he had no idea if he was even heading to the scene of a murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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For all he knew, the explosion he was racing towards could have been caused by an accident of some kind. A few minutes later, Gamber pulled into the La Paloma parking lot and he saw first responders everywhere. He also saw a different group of people, many of them in golf clothes, standing with two police officers near the main entrance of the club.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The detective got out and walked over towards the first responders and as he did, the scene in the parking lot almost didn't seem real to him. He stepped over shattered glass and he thought he saw a car windshield stuck up in a tree and when Gamber got to the car where the majority of first responders were and he looked inside of it, he knew he was not dealing with an accident.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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There was no doubt in his mind that a bomb had gone off in that car. Gamber stared down at the mangled body in the front seat. He glanced over at the first responders, and even they looked completely shaken. They had seen people who had been pulled from fires, but none of them had seen a man who had been killed by a bomb.
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So if that's of interest to you, when the follow button has finally made it to the last level of Candy Crush, politely ask to borrow their phone for a second just to make a quick call. But instead of making a call, permanently delete the Candy Crush app on their phone. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The detective looked back at the body and he saw something that just seemed odd. It looked like this man's clothes had been ripped off by the sheer force of the blast, but his watch had stayed on his wrist. So Gamber leaned further into the car to get a better look. The glass on the man's watch had cracked and the watch had stopped at 538.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And Gamber couldn't really explain it, but seeing the watch really hit him hard. It was like this man's last moment on earth was frozen in time. Gamber stepped away from the car and walked over to the crowd of people standing out front.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He briefly spoke to the other officers, and then he started taking statements from everyone, and almost all of them knew the dead man in the car, and they said his name was Gary Triano. Detective Gamber continued to gather information on Gary from the people at the club, and he learned a little about Gary's current girlfriend and what people called Gary's larger-than-life attitude.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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As Gamber wrote everything down in his notebook, he heard sirens blaring and cars and vans speeding down the street towards the parking lot. He looked out onto the street and he quickly realized this case was about to get a lot bigger than anything he'd ever worked on. Because most of the vehicles heading this way did not belong to the Pima County Sheriff's Department or the local police.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They belonged to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. And within minutes, Gamber watched as federal agents from the FBI and ATF swarmed the parking lot and took control of the crime scene. After Gamber finished his interviews, he walked away from the club entrance, but he hung back and just watched the activity in the parking lot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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This crime scene had overwhelmed him when he arrived. And now, there were law enforcement officers from multiple agencies searching the lot, and forensics and explosives experts from the ATF and FBI searching Gary's car. Gamber honestly wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Finally, amidst all of this, he spotted his boss, the Pima County Sheriff.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So he weaved his way past federal agents towards Gary's car and approached the sheriff, who looked kind of overwhelmed himself. The sheriff told Gamber that several of the federal agents he'd spoken to thought there was a chance that this had been a professional mob hit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Technicians had already found fragments in and around the car that they believed were from a homemade incendiary device, and they thought this device could be the type of bomb often used by the mafia. This actually all made sense to Detective Gamber because he knew that the mafia had been prevalent in this area since back in the 1970s.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But Gamber wanted to know what their department's role was in all of this. Clearly, the FBI and ATF were running things here, and if the mafia was involved, both of those agencies would probably run the entire case for a while.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The sheriff said their department would coordinate with the feds, but he told Gamber that it was still the homicide unit's job to pursue this like they would any other murder case. So Gamber told his boss, if the FBI and ATF were going to start looking into big-time suspects like organized crime families, then he wanted to start on a much smaller scale.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And right now, that meant talking to the person who would almost always be the first suspect in a murder investigation, the victim's romantic partner.
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Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free.
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No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads because let's be honest, Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here.
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You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Big Bang (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. If you're a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, then you should check out my other podcast, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
He'd been on edge the whole week worrying about his daughter. When he saw it wasn't her number, he felt relieved. But then he realized the person calling him had an area code from Sandusky, the town where Lauren lived. Brad's stomach tightened as he answered. It was one of Lauren's friends. She told Brad that Lauren was in the hospital and that she was not doing well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
This time, Brad didn't hesitate. He raced home, threw some clothes in a suitcase, and sped off to make the seven-hour drive to Sandusky. Meanwhile, Lauren was waiting at the hospital for more test results. One of her close friends who had come to the ER was sitting next to her. When the doctor came back to Lauren, he gave her some good news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Her test results had all come back negative, just like before. They couldn't explain what had happened to her at work, but physically she was fine and she could be discharged. Lauren thanked him, then she turned to her friend and said that it must have been another false alarm. But Lauren could tell her friend still looked worried.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
and deep in her heart, Lauren knew she wasn't okay, no matter what these tests said. Her symptoms might have temporarily gone away, but they were going to return, and as she thought about that, she began to feel this terrible dread come over her. Lauren asked the doctor if there was any other alternative to being discharged.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The doctor hesitated, and then he said, yes, there was, but it was drastic. Hey, listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest. Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. If you liked today's story, please change the follow button's alarm clock sound to the song Tiptoe Through the Tulips and set it for 3 a.m. every day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries. a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying. Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Seven hours later, Brad finally arrived at the hospital in Sandusky and he raced to the admissions desk. Just moments earlier, his daughter had called him with the stunning news that she was admitting herself into the psychiatric ward of the hospital. And so Brad, all he wanted to do was just get to his daughter.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Once he entered the patient area, Brad was greeted by a doctor and brought to Lauren's room. But he was only allowed to see her through a shatterproof glass window on her locked door. And what he saw shook him to the core. Lauren was writhing on the floor, screaming and begging to be let out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She was trying to tear off her shirt, food was splattered on the walls, and an empty tray and plate were upside down on the floor. Brad was stunned. Lauren had called him just a couple of hours earlier and seemed fairly clear-headed, and so he didn't understand how her condition could have changed so drastically.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The doctor explained that he was giving Lauren medicine to treat schizophrenia, which is a serious mental disorder that causes people to hallucinate and experience delusions. They'd already started on her medication, but it would need time to take effect. Brad shook his head in disbelief.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
There was no history of mental illness in their family, and Lauren had always been so happy and well-adjusted. The doctor could only shrug. Schizophrenia did have a tendency to run in families, but it also struck out of the blue, usually in young adults any time between their late teens and early 20s, and Lauren was 25. The diagnosis was terrifying.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Rad was desperate to do something to help, but all he could do was wait for Lauren's medication to kick in. It was early in the morning when Brad left the hospital after Lauren had finally calmed down. He checked into a nearby hotel and sank into an exhausted sleep, thinking about his daughter and praying that she would be back to her normal self by the time he woke up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
After sleeping for a few hours, Brad returned to the hospital. And when he got there, the nurse gave him a rundown of Lauren's condition. She said Lauren had begged the staff to use their hospital phone, and then when they said yes, she had called friends and relatives repeatedly, forgetting she'd already spoken with them. She'd also become very aggressive with the hospital staff.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Brad insisted on going into his daughter's room, so they unlocked her door and he walked in softly, not wanting to scare her. Lauren was sitting on a rumpled bed staring into the distance. Her hair was disheveled and there were dark circles under her eyes. He almost didn't even recognize her. Brad struggled to stay calm as he sat down next to Lauren.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
He tried to comfort her and asked her if she needed anything, but she didn't respond. The medications she was on didn't seem to be working, but the doctor said it could take a while to kick in. Without anything else to hold onto, Brad clung on to that hope. Over the next few days, Brad anxiously waited for Lauren to improve as doctors tried different combinations of medications.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
But on the fifth night after Lauren was admitted to the psych ward, things got even worse. Brad had gone back to his hotel and in a routine that had become too familiar, a phone call startled him awake. It was someone from the hospital. Lauren had experienced a massive seizure and was being transferred to the ICU for further testing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Brad ran to his car, and by the time he arrived at the ICU, Lauren was heavily sedated. He flagged down a doctor in the hall and bombarded her with questions, but it was clear that the doctor was just as much in the dark as he was. All she knew was that Lauren was in critical condition, and they were trying to figure out what was wrong.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Afterward, in the waiting room, Brad called friends and family to update them. He tried to piece together everything that had happened to her in the last several weeks, hunting for any clues that might explain her illness. But all he had was a long list of strange symptoms and events. Brad didn't know what to do, but he was desperate for answers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And so he began mentally going through his list of friends who might have some perspective that could be useful right now about Lauren. And as he did this, one name came up that he and Lauren both had in common, Ken Zemanek. Ken was the father of twin girls who were Lauren's best friends from childhood, and he was also a psychiatrist.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And so Brad hoped Ken could provide some perspective about Lauren's mental state. When he got Ken on the phone, Brad was afraid that Ken would tell him the same things as all the other doctors. That it was possible Lauren had schizophrenia, or that Brad just needed to be patient and wait for more test results.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
But once Brad finished going through Lauren's extensive list of strange symptoms, Ken didn't say a word. After a long pause, he said that the hallucinations and mood swings did point to a mental issue. But what troubled Ken was the seizure. Schizophrenia couldn't have caused that to happen.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Ken paused again and then told Brad he did have another thought, one that could potentially explain everything that had been happening to Lauren. He described it as a, quote, rare bird or extremely rare condition. He suggested that Brad ask Lauren's doctors to test her for this rare condition. Brad listened intently. It was a long shot, but it was all he had.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
After Brad hung up with Ken, Brad googled anything he could find about this rare disease Ken had mentioned. And the more he read about it, the more convinced he became that it was what was happening to Lauren. Brad headed straight to the nurse's station and asked to speak with one of Lauren's doctors right away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
This week's story is called Rare Bird. It was past midnight in June of 2020 in Sandusky, Ohio, and 25-year-old Lauren Wells lay in her bed wide awake. She had to be up early for work and had been trying to fall asleep for hours. But all night long, the faint sound of music coming from her upstairs neighbors had made sleep impossible. The tune they kept playing was extremely irritating.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
For the first time since Lauren's nightmare had started, he felt a real glimmer of hope. The on-duty doctor arrived, and Brad told him about his conversation with Ken Zemanek. But the doctor was hesitant to test for it right away. The condition Brad described was incredibly unusual, and they needed to test for more common conditions first.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Brad immediately tried speaking with another one of Lauren's doctors to see if maybe they would test for it, but that doctor said the same thing. They were going to test for common things first. And this doctor would say that in their entire career, they had never seen a patient with something that rare before.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And so a parade of specialists marched in and out of Lauren's room, but every test they ran was inconclusive. As the hours ticked by, Brad's frustration grew. The next morning, Brad arrived at the hospital and headed straight to the ICU. As he walked down the hallway leading to Lauren's room, he heard a commotion of voices and the sound of beeping monitors.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
He ran into his daughter's room and saw a team of doctors hovering over Lauren. She was lying motionless on the bed and her eyes were closed. Brad stood there in shocked silence until a doctor noticed him and rushed over. He told Brad that Lauren's vital signs were dropping and they were working to get her stabilized.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And so Brad needed to leave and go to the waiting area until the situation was under control. But Brad was sick of waiting in a medical twilight zone. His daughter was on the verge of death and they still had no idea what was wrong with her. He demanded they run the tests that he had requested about this rare illness. The doctor hesitated, but then nodded.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
He finally admitted that they were hitting a total brick wall and were at an absolute loss. But they were at a small community hospital, and so their resources were very limited to both test and treat Lauren for this rare condition if she were to have it. And so if Brad wanted to get her the help she needed, they'd have to transfer her to the Cleveland Clinic, which was over an hour away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
However, getting there was a huge risk. Lauren was so weak, she could die on the transit. Brad was facing the biggest decision of his life, but he didn't hesitate. A few minutes later, Lauren was loaded into the back of an ambulance, headed for the Cleveland Clinic. Brad followed behind in his car, praying his daughter could hold on just a little longer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
When the ambulance finally arrived at the clinic, a medical team was waiting. Brad quickly parked his car and joined them as the team grabbed the gurney that Lauren was on and rushed her towards the entrance. Brad tried to stay calm as he watched them wheel her to the neurological ICU. Lauren's heartbeat barely registered and she was having trouble breathing on her own.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The doctors told Brad that her brain had also begun to swell and so they needed to put her into a medically induced coma to help bring the swelling down. Lauren was given a strong sedative through an IV drip to put her into a state of unconsciousness.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She was then hooked up to a ventilator that went into her mouth and down her throat to keep her breathing and a feeding tube was inserted inside her nose and down into her stomach. Brad tried not to show how scared he was, but he knew Lauren was hanging on by a thread.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Brad spent the next several hours anxiously pacing in the lobby of the ICU while the heads of several departments at the Cleveland Clinic teamed up in an attempt to save Lauren's life. Finally, one of Lauren's doctors walked in with the results of Lauren's newest round of tests. The doctor was incredulous. Brad and his good friend, Ken Zemanek, had been right.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Lauren was sick with something that was so unheard of, most doctors would never think to even test for it. She had a disease called anti-NMDAR encephalitis. Anti-NMDAR is extremely rare, affecting only one out of 1.5 million people per year. It had only been identified 13 years earlier in 2007.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The disease causes severe inflammation of the brain, which then results in hallucinations and a total psychotic breakdown. This explained almost all of Lauren's symptoms, like hearing the strange music and the seagulls and the sticky feelings on her hands and feet, but it turned out that NMDAR by itself wasn't what caused Lauren to get so sick.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Each week, I dive into some of the most bizarre, mind-bending medical stories you've ever heard. Cases that leave doctors scratching their heads, miraculous recoveries that defy logic, and strange medical mishaps that seem too wild to be real. These stories are more than just eerie. They are a reminder of how unpredictable and sometimes terrifying life can be.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The doctor explained that the disease usually signified a deeper, even rarer underlying condition, which would have caused Lauren's other symptoms, like the pain in her side and the frequent need to urinate. Those symptoms were caused by a tumor in her ovary called a teratoma. Teratomas usually strike young women.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Sometimes it was very generic sounding, like elevator music. Then it seemed to switch to some kind of strange experimental jazz. Lauren had just moved into her apartment and didn't want to cause any trouble with her new neighbors, but they clearly were not stopping anytime soon. So she finally climbed out of bed and grabbed her broom.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
This kind of tumor is made up of tissue from other parts of the body, like hair, muscle, nerve, organ, or bone. Normally, when the immune system recognizes a tumor in the body, it creates antibodies to try and kill it off. However, the specific type of antibodies formed from a teratoma can end up targeting more than just the tumor. They can also attack the brain and cause anti-NMDAR.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
In trying to defend her body against this tumor, Lauren's brain had accidentally attacked itself. Brad nearly collapsed from relief. They had a clear-cut answer for what Lauren was up against. It meant they weren't working in the dark. Now they just needed to get the tumor out. A surgeon removed the teratoma the next morning. It was 13 centimeters long, so more than 5 inches long.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And unfortunately, it was malignant, which meant Lauren needed chemotherapy in order to fully recover. For the next two weeks, Lauren stayed in a medically induced coma. Once she was finally awakened, she couldn't remember anything that had happened to her. She had to relearn how to walk and how to talk, but day by day, she got stronger and was finally well enough to go home.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Six months later, Lauren got the news they'd all been hoping for. She was now officially cancer-free. After a full recovery, she went on to graduate from school and earned an advanced degree. Then in April of 2022, she took a new job as executive director of a senior living facility. She never heard phantom elevator music or seagulls again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Steve Chivers. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Matthew Cilelli. Coordinating producer is Sophia Martins.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak, Natalie Bettendorf, and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our producer is Alyssa Tommenang. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondery, senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Our producer is Julie McGruder. Senior producers are Laura Donna Polivoda, Dave Schilling, and Matt Olmos. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She was just about to knock on the ceiling with her broom when the direction of the music suddenly changed. Now it sounded like it was coming from next door. Lauren shook her head in frustration. She didn't want to start a fight with the entire complex. So she climbed back into her bed and threw her pillow over her head. She could still hear the music, but eventually she drifted off to sleep.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The next morning at 8 a.m., Lauren arrived at her job as a nursing home administrator. She had just been hired two months ago, and she was proud that she'd gotten this position at such a young age. Running the nursing home was Lauren's dream job. She loved interacting with the elderly residents and wanted to make a difference in their lives.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
So even though she was running on fumes at this point from a lack of sleep, Lauren pushed through the day, checking in on staff and residents and running various meetings. Thankfully, it was a Friday, so Lauren had the weekend to look forward to. She and her friends were heading to one of the islands off of Lake Erie, which is one of the Great Lakes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Lauren hoped some time outdoors would help her regain some energy. And the weekend getaway was just what she needed. The sun was out, there was a gentle breeze over the lake, and the water was cool and refreshing. Lauren was excited to reconnect with her best friends, and on their first night out, they went out to dance and have some drinks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She forgot about work and her annoying neighbors and just enjoyed herself. But as the evening progressed, Lauren found herself using the bathroom more than usual, but she figured it was just because she was drinking. A little while later, when she was on the dance floor, she felt a sharp pain on her left side. The pain stayed with her the rest of the night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She thought it was menstrual cramps and did her best to ignore them. Nothing was going to stop her from having a fun weekend. And by the time she got home Sunday night, she was feeling better, just like she had hoped. But soon after Lauren stepped into her apartment, her good mood evaporated. Her neighbors were playing that annoying elevator music again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The faint melodies seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Lauren dropped her bags and shook her head. She wasn't going to let this upset her. It was late and she knew she needed to get some sleep. So she unpacked and got ready for bed. But just like before, it was impossible to relax with that music coming through the walls.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She tossed and turned for hours until finally exhaustion overtook her. When Monday morning rolled around, Lauren was definitely not feeling well. She figured she was paying for her weekend of partying, so she tried to shake it off. She made herself a cup of coffee and got on the treadmill for her daily run.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
But she'd only been on the treadmill for a minute when once again, she felt an intense pain in her left side and had to stop running. It almost felt like someone was punching her hard, but from the inside. This pain went far beyond menstrual cramps. She figured something else had to be going on. Lauren thought back to everything she did at Lake Erie.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Up next is one of my recent favorites from the series. Whether you're new to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or a longtime listener, I think you'll find it just as captivating as I did. If you like this content, make sure to follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She wondered if she had pulled a muscle while she was out swimming. It didn't seem likely, but she couldn't think of anything else that would explain the pain. Lauren had no idea how she was going to get through the day, much less the week, but she didn't want to call in sick. She was still new to her job and people were counting on her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
So she slowly got dressed while wincing in pain and got ready for work. And as she did, she thought to herself, at least her neighbors weren't playing that God awful music. Once Lauren arrived at work, she did her morning rounds and sat down at her desk to take care of some paperwork. But as hard as she tried, she just couldn't focus. There was something distracting her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
It was that weird music she kept hearing in her apartment. It made no sense that the same music would be playing in the nursing home. Lauren looked around just to see if there were any speakers nearby, but there was none. She tried to ignore the disjointed melody, but it was impossible. It seemed like it was coming from everywhere. But then she realized something that made her heart start racing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
If there really wasn't any music actually playing right now, that could only mean one thing. The music was only happening in her head. She wondered if she was going crazy, but before she jumped to any conclusions, Lauren thought of someone who might be able to help her. She had a friend who was an audiologist, which is a doctor that specializes in hearing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Lauren called her right away and explained what was going on. She described the strange repetitive sound and said it was following her everywhere. Lauren's friend listened patiently, then told her that what she was describing sounded upsetting, but it actually wasn't uncommon. She promised that Lauren was not going crazy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She said that sometimes people can hear melodies in everyday noises, like busy traffic or the hum of air conditioners. And just like songs that get stuck in your head, these sounds can do the same thing. Since Lauren was clearly so tired, she was probably more susceptible to hearing these noises.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Her friend was sure that once Lauren just got some quality sleep, this weird music she was hearing would go away. Lauren was relieved, but also frustrated. The music was actually the thing keeping her from sleeping in the first place. But she was glad to know that if she could just get some rest, maybe her life would go back to normal.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
As the week went by, Lauren did her best to stay relaxed, but the music in her head just would not stop, and it continued to make sleep nearly impossible. And so a few days after talking to her friend, Lauren again dragged herself to work, and as she headed down the hall toward her office, she noticed a new odd sensation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
We put out new episodes every week, and each one dives into a bizarre, mind-bending medical mystery that will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about the human body. In the summer of 2020, a desperate father ran alongside a stretcher in the ICU of an Ohio hospital, holding his daughter's limp hand. She was on a ventilator and was about to be put into a medically induced coma.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Her hands felt like they were covered in a thick layer of dirt, and they felt sticky too, almost as if a glue stick had melted in her palm. She kept scrubbing her hands with soap and hot water, but she couldn't get them to feel clean. Lauren was totally confused. She'd never felt anything like this before. And it wasn't long before that same sensation spread to her feet.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Lauren felt like her socks were glued to her toes. At first, it was just a little bit irritating, but then it became totally unbearable. She started going barefoot at work, which helped a little bit. She realized it was weird, but she couldn't stand the thought of putting her shoes and socks back on.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Lauren was afraid that there was a connection between her auditory hallucinations and now her hands and feet feeling dirty all the time. But she had no idea what that connection could be. Lauren's instinct was telling her to go see a doctor, but she imagined how ridiculous it would all sound. She hung on to what her friend, the audiologist, had told her about feeling better with some rest.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
And so Lauren convinced herself that this was the weekend she would finally get some sleep and all these problems would just finally go away. That Saturday night, more than two weeks after her strange symptoms had begun, Lauren climbed into bed exhausted. She tried to ignore the strange soundtrack playing in her head, her sticky hands and feet, and the dull pain still in her left side.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She pulled the comforter up to her chin, and she tried to meditate, letting the sounds of birds outside her window lull her to sleep. But after a few minutes, Lauren's eyes flew open. She realized that the birds singing outside her window were seagulls. Seagulls live near water, and there was not an ocean or a lake anywhere near her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The seagulls got louder and louder, and finally sounded like they might just fly right into a room at any second. Lauren knew that no amount of rest was going to make them go away, because just like the music, these squawking seagulls were in her head. She couldn't wait any longer. She needed to see a doctor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Almost 500 miles away in Easton, Pennsylvania, Lauren's father, Brad, was sound asleep at home when his phone rang. He saw Lauren's name on the caller ID and felt his stomach tighten. She wouldn't be calling so late if something wasn't wrong. After he answered the phone, Lauren told him what had been going on for the past couple of weeks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She had reached the point where she was so worried about her symptoms that she was heading to the emergency room to get checked out. Brad could hear the panic in her voice, and that made him scared. He was fully awake now, calculating how long it would take him to drive to Ohio.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
He jumped out of bed and reached for his clothes, telling Lauren he was on his way, but she told him he should stay home. She wanted to see what the doctor had to say before he made such a long trip. Brad reluctantly agreed to hold off, but he told Lauren to call as soon as she had any answers. 30 minutes after talking to her father, Lauren arrived at the emergency room.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She took a breath and then described her symptoms to the admissions nurse, expecting to get some strange looks. But the nurse just nodded and took some notes. Then Lauren was sent back to see a doctor who performed an exam and drew her blood. Lauren waited anxiously as they processed her results. And after a little while, the doctor approached Lauren's hospital bed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She searched his face, looking for any sign of concern, but his expression seemed totally relaxed. He told Lauren that her tests were completely normal. He didn't think anything was really wrong with her. As he spoke, he flipped through her chart and asked about her work. She explained she'd recently moved and started a new job.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
The doctor nodded and said he understood, and he said, you know, Lauren, you're probably just stressed. And then he prescribed her some anti-anxiety medication, and he gave her an order to see a psychiatrist. Lauren was frustrated with the doctor's diagnosis, but he seemed to be certain there wasn't anything else going on with her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
So Lauren left the ER feeling somewhat unsettled, and on the way home, she called her father, Brad. Lauren could always rely on him to be supportive and honest with her. She told him how annoyed she was that all these doctors just assumed she was stressed because of her new job. But she was thriving there and loved the new challenge. It didn't make sense to put the blame solely on stress.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Her dad said he totally understood her frustration, but the doctors knew what they were doing. He asked Lauren to at least start taking the anti-anxiety medication. With any luck, they'd let her get some sleep, and then at that point, with a clear head, she could reassess her situation. Lauren was not convinced, but she promised her dad that she would try.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Later that week, Lauren drove to work as usual. She'd been taking her anxiety medication, but so far, it really wasn't helping. She still heard all the mysterious music playing everywhere she went, and so she really wasn't getting more than an hour or two of sleep at night. She gulped down some strong black coffee, but nothing could cut through her brain fog.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She'd been a zombie at work all week, often losing track of what she was supposed to be doing. Lauren turned into the parking lot, pulled into her parking spot, and then got out of her car, and as she walked towards the building, she left the engine running and her keys in the ignition, and her laptop and purse were still on the passenger seat. Lauren entered the conference room in a daze.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
Just a few weeks earlier, she had been completely fine, but now she was inches from death. Her doctors had no idea what was wrong with her. All they knew was that whatever was going on, it had started when she began hearing a mysterious song.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She felt like she was moving in slow motion, and she barely registered the team of nurses who were already there for the weekly staff meeting. Lauren sat down at the table and tried to read the agenda, but the words looked like a jumble of hieroglyphics. At some point, Lauren tried to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She looked at the faces of her colleagues, who were now staring at her in confusion, and suddenly Lauren realized she had no idea how she had gotten there or what she was supposed to do. The nurses who were at the meeting with Lauren could tell something was wrong with her. They helped Lauren lie down on a nearby sofa and took her blood pressure, which was extremely high.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She could hear another nurse calling 911. Lauren tried not to panic, but the fear was overwhelming. Then her mind went totally blank. By the time the ambulance arrived, Lauren was starting to come out of her trance-like state. The fog that had been clouding her mind had lifted, and she felt more clear-headed than she had in a long time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She insisted that she did not need to go to the hospital, but the staff wouldn't hear of it. And so, after some gentle coaxing, they convinced Lauren to get in the ambulance. The paramedics took Lauren to a local hospital where doctors ran a series of tests. As she waited for the results, she felt surprisingly calm.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Medical Mysteries - "A Rare Bird"
She was so relaxed that she began texting her friends to come hang out with her in the hospital. She said she was having a great time. Lauren's friends were taken aback by these text messages. They knew what she was going through, and this just didn't sound like her at all. A little while later, Lauren's father, Brad, was busy at work when his cell phone rang.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. In the fall of 2003, two detectives were in the middle of a year-long homicide case involving the brutal murder of a 19-year-old girl. And for the first time, they finally felt like they had a viable suspect.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
As midnight approached on June 18, 2002, about six hours after Allie's body had been discovered, her dad Roger walked into the University of Kansas City Medical Center and approached the morgue. He knew this was where his daughter's body had been taken for an autopsy the next day. Roger found an employee and told her he'd be staying there that night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The employee was confused and said they weren't really set up for visitors. Roger said he understood, but he couldn't bear the idea that his daughter was all alone. The employee nodded and said he could stay if he wanted to. Roger thanked her, took a seat on a bench, and began his overnight vigil.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In the days following the murder, detectives Hansen and Langer learned from the autopsy report that while Allie did have bruises that seemed to indicate an attempted sexual assault, no sexual assault had actually taken place. they also learned that she had put up a major fight.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so the medical examiner and the forensics team hoped they would find samples of the killer's DNA under her fingernails. And so while Hansen and Langer waited for these test results, they met with Allie's friends and family to try to get a clearer picture of her life. and they quickly realized Allie was not a young woman who lived dangerously at all.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Allie was a standout student, she did volunteer work, she had a job at school and also over the summer, and she didn't seem to do drugs or drink alcohol. For the most part, her close friends and her boyfriend Phil led similar lives. So the detectives did not think Allie was mixed up in anything or with anyone that would have made her a target for violent crime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And when they got the result of Phil's DNA test, there was no match to the crime scene. In fact, none of the DNA samples collected so far matched anyone in the FBI's national database. And so now Hansen and Langer had to face the fact that they might be dealing with one of the hardest types of homicide cases to solve, a murder committed by an unidentified stranger.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
These types of cases can be so difficult that police often use the old cliche about trying to find a needle in a haystack when talking about them. because the suspect pool is basically infinite. At this point, Langer and Hansen's strongest lead was the man that Allie's friend had seen leaving the pool and getting into his pickup truck on the afternoon Allie was killed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But the detectives had no idea who this guy was. So they had Allie's friend sit down with a police sketch artist to describe the man as best as she could, and the police started distributing copies of the artist's drawing all over town.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At first, this seemed like the right strategy to tackle a possible murder by a stranger because people started contacting the Leawood Police Department with tips almost right away. But this quickly proved to be overwhelming because the man in the drawing kind of looked like a lot of people. He was white, in his late 20s or early 30s, a little overweight, and starting to lose his hair.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so Detectives Hanson and Langer soon found themselves fielding calls from all over the county. But most of these leads fizzled out almost immediately.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At one point, weeks after the murder, the tips got so out of control in Leawood that people were approaching Hansen, Langer, and other members of the police force out in public just to claim that they were sure their brother-in-law or their cousin or some guy they saw was the person from the drawing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The investigative team got help from the county sheriff's department and other law enforcement agencies to try to pursue any viable lead, but none of these tips really seemed to go anywhere. And all of a sudden, months had gone by and Langer and Hansen felt like despite chasing countless leads, they had basically made no headway in the case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And when 2002 came to an end, six months after Allie's murder, the detectives worried that the case was going cold and that they would soon be pulled off of it. On a morning in early February of 2003, so eight months after Allie's murder, detectives Langer and Hansen were working together in Hansen's office when they got a message that Roger Kemp, Allie's father, was there to see them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Langer and Hansen had made a point to meet with Roger throughout the investigation, but they knew he had grown frustrated that no new evidence seemed to be coming in. Hansen went out to meet Roger, handed him a cup of coffee, and then led him back to the office. The detectives began by apologizing to Roger that they didn't have anything new to tell him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Roger said he knew they were both doing everything they could. Still though, he refused to just sit around and do nothing. And he understood as well as the detectives that if things didn't change soon, Allie's murder investigation would become a cold case. And so Roger said he had an idea that he wanted to run by the detectives.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Something he thought would help get the public thinking about Allie's case again. He wanted to put the sketch of the man Ali's friend had seen on some huge billboards in town and maybe out on the highway. He said he also wanted to offer a $50,000 reward for anyone who provided a tip that led police to Ali's killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Roger said he would pay half, and he believed he could get the city to provide the other half. Hansen and Langer discussed it for a second. At the time, using billboards in a murder investigation was a radical idea. Police generally used billboards to help in missing person cases, but Langer and Hansen had never heard of using billboards to showcase a potential murder suspect.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Still, they knew they did need to jumpstart the investigation, and this would definitely get people thinking about Allie again. And really, they were not about to tell Roger he couldn't do something that might help bring him and his family some kind of closure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A few days after this meeting, the first billboard featuring the drawing of the potential suspect went up in Leawood, and it would soon be followed by three more billboards. And almost right away, tips started coming into the police station again. And just like the last time this happened, it got overwhelming.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Langer and Hansen felt energized that the investigation had sort of gotten back on its feet. And so the detectives and their team methodically followed up on any leads that came in. Then on June 18, 2003, which happened to be the one-year anniversary of Allie's death, they got a tip that felt huge.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Someone who had seen one of the billboards called the tip line to say the guy in the drawing looked exactly like someone he knew, a man named Ted Hoover. And when Langer and Hansen heard this name, it immediately rang a bell. And so they dug through Allie's case file and they came back to the notes they had taken from the very first day of the murder investigation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And that's when they saw Ted's name. He was the owner of a local pool maintenance company. Detectives Langer and Hansen didn't waste any time. They got Ted's address, headed out to their car, and drove across town. And when they arrived at Ted's house, they saw an old pickup truck parked in the driveway.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It didn't exactly fit Allie's friend's description of the truck she had seen in the pool parking lot, but the detectives knew witnesses didn't always get all the details right, especially if they were uncomfortable or creeped out like Allie's friend had said she'd been. Langer and Hansen felt like, for the first time in this investigation, they might finally have the killer in their sights.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Both men stayed completely calm as they approached the front door. They needed Ted to talk, so they didn't want to frighten him in any way. Hansen knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a man answered. And this man looked remarkably similar to the sketch the detectives have been staring at every day for the past year. But the detectives didn't give off any signal that they thought that.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, they introduced themselves and asked the man if his name was Ted Hoover. He said it was, and so the detectives asked him if they could come inside and ask him a few questions about the young woman who had been killed at the public pool a year earlier. Ted, who seemed as calm as the detectives, said, sure, and he let them inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The three men sat down in the front room of the house, and Detective Langer started things off by telling Ted that somebody had called the tip line and pointed to him. And so Langer wanted to know if Ted had been anywhere near the pool where Allie worked on the day that she was killed. Ted remained totally calm. He said he was not surprised he'd come up on the tip line.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He'd seen the billboards, and he knew he kind of looked like the man in the drawing. He also said he had not done any work on the pool where Allie worked, but he did have a lot of clients around the area, so there was a chance he could have been maybe nearby that day, but he wasn't sure, and he wasn't great about keeping records of exactly what he did every single day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detectives looked at each other. This all seemed way too convenient. So Langer asked if Ted had ever met Allie Kemp, either at the pool where she worked or somewhere else in town. And Ted shook his head. He said he didn't know her, and he definitely did not have anything to do with her death.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detective spoke to Ted for a bit longer and he was very cooperative throughout the entire interview. However, he couldn't provide them with any kind of solid alibi. And so at some point, Langer asked Ted if he would submit a DNA sample just so they could cross him off the list. And at that point, the calm look on Ted's face completely disappeared and he started acting very nervous.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On the afternoon of June 18, 2002, 19-year-old Allie Kemp walked through the gate at the local pool where she worked in Leawood, Kansas, and headed towards a deck chair. Allie had on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and she had a backpack slung over her shoulder. She also had a huge smile on her face because her boyfriend, Phil Howes, was sitting in the chair that she was approaching.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Ted must have noticed right away the vibe he was giving off because he quickly told the detectives that his nervousness had nothing to do with the case. He just didn't like the idea of his DNA being part of some kind of national database. That just didn't sit right with him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detectives tried to assure Ted that his sample would only be used to help with this particular case, but Ted said he didn't want anything to do with it and he would need to speak with a lawyer. By the time Langer and Hansen left Ted's house, they were confident they had just found Allie's killer. His appearance alone had already been pretty solid evidence.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
I mean, he looked exactly like the sketch. But also, the detectives just didn't buy his paranoia around the national database thing. They figured the real reason he was afraid to give a DNA sample was because he knew the results would incriminate him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Since Ted did not voluntarily give up a DNA sample, the detectives would have to find enough evidence pointing to him that would enable them to secure a warrant so they could demand Ted to provide a DNA sample. And they knew if Ted really was lawyering up, their case would need to be airtight just to get that warrant.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So over the next several weeks, the detectives tried to find any proof they could that Ted had been at the pool on the day Allie got murdered. They got back in touch with the landscaping crew, Allie's boyfriend, and anyone else they thought might have seen him, but they didn't have any luck. Langer and Hansen refused to give up on this lead, though.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was the first time in over a year that they believed they were close to solving the case. So they dug deeper into Ted Hoover's background, hoping to find anything that might give them a clue. And they ended up finding something that completely blew their minds. Because according to multiple government documents, Ted Hoover had been dead for over a decade.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
With this bizarre new discovery, Langer and Hansen went to meet with Ted again. But this time, his house was empty, and none of his neighbors or clients had seen or heard from him. It was like he had vanished without the police even noticing. Hansen and Langer set out to find anyone who might know where Ted was, but nobody knew where he was and nobody seemed to have spoken to him since he left.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And the detectives knew that trying to locate a man who'd supposedly been dead for years and had seemingly just disappeared into thin air seemed like an impossible task. But the detectives caught a huge break when a couple of people who knew Ted said that before he disappeared, he had been dating a woman named Lara Barr.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So Hansen and Langer shifted their focus to her, but tracking Laura down proved to be as difficult as tracking down Ted. She was nowhere to be found in Leawood, or anywhere in Kansas for that matter. Weeks, months, and then an entire year went by, and the detectives were still trying to find this woman who could maybe lead them to the man they were actually looking for.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And in the meantime, they had to tell Allie's dad, Roger, that even though they believed they knew who had killed his daughter, they couldn't track him down. Finally, in the fall of 2004, which was almost two and a half years after Allie's murder, Detective Langer got a hit on Lara Barr.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He learned that Ted's one-time girlfriend, Lara, was now living in Connecticut with a man named Benjamin Appleby, an ex-convict who had been busted for armed robbery and indecent exposure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Phil stood up, Allie threw her arms around his neck, and they kissed. Normally, they wouldn't do this at the place where they both worked, but it was a gray, cloudy day, and nobody was swimming, and there was no other employees on site. Allie had only been back home in the wealthy Kansas City suburb where she grew up for a few weeks after finishing her freshman year at Kansas State University.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And when the detectives began digging into Benjamin Appleby's background as just part of their general investigation into Lara Barr, they realized Benjamin Appleby had a clear connection to Leawood, Kansas and to Allie's murder case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In November of 2004, about two weeks after Langer and Hansen first located Lara, the detectives sat inside of an interview room with local detectives at a small police station in Connecticut. An officer led Lara in, and Langer asked her about her relationship with their suspect, Ted Hoover, and any connection Ted might have to Allie.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Lara appeared to be as helpful as she possibly could be, but it became pretty clear within a few minutes of talking to her that she didn't seem to have any helpful information or really any connection to the murder. However, when her new partner, Benjamin Appleby, stepped into the interview room later that day, everything changed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Just looking at Benjamin made the hair on the back of Langer's neck stand up. And as the detectives spoke to Benjamin, slowly but surely, they realized he must know more about what happened to Allie than he was letting on. And so the detectives went on the attack, asking blunt and aggressive questions. And this tactic paid off because the more they pushed, the more Benjamin began to crack.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And soon, Benjamin broke down crying and said he knew who killed Allie. Based on Benjamin's interview, DNA testing, and evidence collected over the course of the investigation, this is what police believe happened to Allie Kemp on the afternoon of June 18, 2002. The killer walked through the gate and began to scan the area.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They saw the pool was completely empty and that the landscaping crew that had been working nearby had moved far enough away that the killer could remain out of their sight. The killer walked around the pool towards the pump room and then said out loud, Even though the killer had clearly watched Allie from the parking lot and seen her walk that way, so they knew she was over here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And a moment later, Allie called out from the pump room that she'd be out in a second, and when the killer heard that, they felt a rush. And before Allie could even step out of the pump room, the killer stood in front of the door and blocked it and then made a lewd remark about Allie's appearance and also made a clear sexual advance towards her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Allie brushed the killer off and told them to get out of the way and tried to walk past them. The killer grabbed Allie and touched her breast, at which point Allie threw a punch. The killer blocked Ali's fist and immediately lost it and flew into a rage. They grabbed Ali by the shoulders and shoved her further back into the pump room.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Ali fought back, swinging her fist and scratching at the killer's hands and face. But the killer slammed her into the metal shelves and pool equipment fell onto the floor. Ali kept fighting, but the killer punched her in the head and face several times, stunning her and causing her to begin bleeding badly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer threw Allie to the floor and tore off her shorts and underwear, but Allie kept fighting back, so the killer punched her again and again until Allie finally stopped moving. At this point, the killer got up, opened a first aid kit that was on one of the shelves, grabbed a bottle of antibiotic ointment to use as a lubricant, and got back on the floor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And almost as soon as her summer break had started, she reconnected with her high school boyfriend, Phil. They had actually mutually agreed to break up before they went off to different colleges, but now that they were back together, Allie felt like no time had passed at all. And it was nice that they even had the same summer job as pool attendants, so they got to see each other at work sometimes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Allie was still breathing, but she could no longer fight back. The killer began to undress themselves. Then they took off the cap of the bottle and climbed back on top of Allie. And just then, the sound of a car horn began to blare over and over again from the parking lot. And the killer panicked. By this point, they had already decided they were going to rape and then kill Allie.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But now they were worried they were running out of time. Somebody was here. They were going to get caught. So the killer reached for the bottom of Allie's t-shirt. And at that point, Allie began moving again. And she tried to fight off the killer one more time. But the killer turned Allie over, pulled her t-shirt up to her neck, and wrapped it around her throat and strangled her to death.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Afterwards, the killer stood up and stared down at Allie's body. They looked around the room and saw a large blue tarp tucked in a corner. The killer grabbed the tarp, covered Allie's body with it, tried to pull themselves together as much as possible, and then walked out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer then made their way to their pickup truck in the pool parking lot, and before they got in, they made eye contact and smiled at a young woman who was sitting in her car. They didn't realize she was Allie's friend and was the one who had honked the horn. The killer then drove home, convinced they had not been seen by anyone who could pin Allie's murder on them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And for almost three years, the killer would believe they had been right. Until one day, a couple of detectives from Kansas came to Connecticut to question them. it would turn out Benjamin Appleby, the man who was Laura's new partner living in Connecticut with her, murdered Allie.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
However, that was not remotely the whole story, because it turned out Benjamin Appleby was also Ted Hoover, the pool maintenance worker and the investigator's prime suspect. Benjamin had done prison time for multiple charges in Missouri where he was from, so he decided to leave his name and his past behind.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He moved around to a few different places, and eventually he assumed the identity of a boyhood friend of his who had died at the age of 13, Ted Hoover. And with this dead person's name, he moved to Leawood, Kansas, and started his pool maintenance business. That's how he had first seen Allie and decided that he wanted her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But when Allie rejected his blatantly sexual advance one afternoon at the pool, he decided to rape and kill her. But Allie's friend honking her car horn in the parking lot altered those plans and made him go right to the murder. After Benjamin killed Allie, he went about his life like nothing had happened.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And even when Allie's dad got the billboards put up with Benjamin's image clearly on them, he didn't panic. But when detectives Langer and Hansen showed up at his house asking for DNA samples, he realized they were closing in on him. So he decided to flee to Connecticut with his girlfriend Laura and start using his birth name again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But eventually, when the detectives tracked Lara down and learned she was living with this ex-con, a guy named Benjamin Appleby, well, they decided to look into Benjamin Appleby, and sure enough, it turned out he was Ted Hoover. When they finally interviewed Ben Appleby, aka Ted Hoover, in Connecticut, it seemed to the detectives almost like he was an entirely different person.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Allie asked if anybody had come to the small neighborhood pool that day, and Phil told her it had been empty except for the landscaping crew, and he thought maybe the pool maintenance worker was coming by later. Phil grabbed his bag and told Allie he would pick her up that night for their dinner date they had planned. Then they kissed again and Phil walked out to the parking lot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The relatively calm, cooperative man they had spoken to in Kansas had transformed into someone who seemed completely devoid of feeling or empathy. Someone they believed was evil from the second he walked in the door. In that interview, Benjamin ultimately confessed to everything. However, the detectives didn't want to leave any room for a court case to fall apart, so they finally got a DNA sample.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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However, when they pulled up to this suspect's house to conduct a second interview, the detectives quickly realized the house was abandoned and their suspect had just disappeared. And when they tried to track the suspect down, they discovered something totally bizarre that would turn their case on its head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And when the test results came back, Benjamin's DNA matched the sample they had taken from the blood on the bottle and bottle cap at the crime scene. Benjamin Appleby, aka Ted Hoover, was sentenced to life in prison with a chance for parole in 50 years. Roger Kemp's idea for running billboards with the potential murderer's sketch on them was a first-of-its-kind strategy in law enforcement.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But now, as a result of its effectiveness in Ali's case, this strategy has been adopted by police departments all across the United States. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. This podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, and Redacted. Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts to find all of these shows.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So, that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin Podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good you are a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. And if that's the case, then I've got some good news. We just launched a brand new Strange, Dark, and Mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries. a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome. In this free weekly show, we explore bizarre unheard of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between. Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After Phil was gone, Allie tossed her backpack on the ground and sat down in the deck chair. She stared out across the empty pool and saw the landscaping crew trimming some trees on the other side of a low fence. They looked her way and smiled. Allie smiled back, but she kind of shrunk down in her chair at the same time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a Prime member, you can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Being alone at the pool near a group of men she didn't know made her feel sort of uncomfortable. But the landscaping crew quickly seemed to forget about her and get back to their work, and Allie sort of forgot about them. Since there was literally nobody at the pool, Allie decided she would do something for herself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She opened up her backpack and pulled out a few brochures for different educational opportunities she had for her upcoming sophomore year. At college, Allie got really good grades, she was a student athlete, and was involved in multiple university clubs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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In fact, she had been such an exemplary freshman at Kansas State that she had been invited by the US State Department to join a group of 60 students from across the country who would study abroad and learn about diplomacy and American foreign policy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Allie knew it was a huge deal that she'd been asked to join this program, and she would have immediately jumped at the chance, but she also had another great offer. her church group had asked her to join them on a study abroad trip to Russia, where she would work directly with young people in need, which was something she thought was extremely important. Both opportunities sounded incredible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Allie still couldn't make up her mind on which one she wanted to take, but either way, she knew she wanted to travel and experience other cultures. Allie had loved growing up in Leawood, and she enjoyed going to college not too far away, but she was ready to get out of Kansas for a while to see what the rest of the world had to offer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Around 3 p.m., an hour after Allie had gotten to the pool, there still wasn't anybody swimming. So she grabbed her backpack, stood up, and walked around the pool to a small table that was set up on the deck for employees. Once she was there, she pulled out her phone and called her boyfriend, Phil. But he didn't answer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So she left a message and said she was looking forward to their date that night. Allie checked the time on her phone and sighed. Her younger brother, who also worked at this pool as an attendant, had told her he would come by a bit earlier to take over so she could go home and get ready for her date, but that was still almost two hours away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She grabbed a book out of her backpack and started to read, but she didn't feel right doing that on the job, so she decided to do a little work to pass the time. Allie got up, leaving her stuff on the table, and headed to the pump room, which housed pumps, filters, and other equipment to keep the pool clean.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please bring the follow button to a fancy art auction.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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She was just about to start organizing the supply shelves when she heard a voice out by the pool. She thought maybe somebody had finally come to swim. Allie called to the person and said she'd be out in just a second. About two hours later, at 5 p.m., Ali's younger brother opened the gate to the pool, expecting to see his sister, but the pool was completely empty.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He called out for Ali, but she didn't respond. He walked to the restrooms, knocked on the doors, and called for her again, but there still wasn't any reply. This was really weird. His big sister would never just duck out of her shift early. He waited for a little while, thinking maybe Allie had just run across the street for some food or something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But when another several minutes passed and Allie still didn't show up, he started to feel a bit worried. Allie's brother grabbed his phone and called his sister, but Allie didn't answer. And so he dialed another number, his father's number. And when his dad heard what was going on, he said he'd be right over. At 5.25 p.m., Ali's dad, Roger Kemp, arrived at the pool.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He met Ali's brother just inside the gate, and he told his son to stay right there. Roger shouted for Ali over and over as he searched the area surrounding the pool, but Ali never called back. And when Roger saw Ali's phone, backpack, and book on the deck table, he was at a complete loss. It seemed like his daughter had just disappeared.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He looked around for a little while longer, and as he did, he noticed the open door that led to the pump room. Roger walked through the door into that room, and right away he saw there were pool supplies scattered everywhere like they had fallen off the metal shelves they were kept on. And he saw a large blue tarp laying on the floor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And when Roger leaned down and lifted up the tarp to see what was underneath, his entire world shattered. His daughter, Allie, lay face down on the ground. Her t-shirt was tightly wrapped around her throat and she was naked from the waist down.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Her hands and arms were scratched and bloody, her face looked badly bruised and beaten, and her hair was matted with so much blood it stuck to the sides of her face. Roger grabbed his daughter and held her in his arms and told her to please stay with him. That evening, Sergeant Scott Hansen and Detective Joe Langer of the Leawood Police Department arrived at the neighborhood pool.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And then when the bidding gets absurdly high, shock them with a taser so they wave their paddle by accident, thereby placing a bid, forcing them to buy a painting they can't afford. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They were still in shock from the call they'd gotten earlier from dispatch. A young woman had been brutally attacked at this pool, and she'd been rushed to the hospital, but pronounced dead soon after. Violent crime in Leawood was rare, but a murder like this was just completely foreign to them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hansen and Langer walked through the gate, and they quickly met a couple of uniformed police officers who led them around the pool to the crime scene. The door to the pump room was still open, and before they even walked in, the detectives saw pool supplies scattered everywhere, and a pool of blood on the floor near a blue tarp. The detectives put on their gloves and stepped into the room.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Both men were known to be extremely calm and methodical, almost clinical when they conducted an investigation. But imagining what Allie must have gone through in this room made it impossible for them to hide their anger. They were part of this community, and they couldn't believe that something this horrific had happened to a young woman from their town.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After the detectives had looked around the pump room for a few minutes on their own, several members of the county forensics team arrived and quickly began pulling blood samples from the floor. But as the group started investigating the pool supplies on the floor, one of the forensics officers told everyone to stop moving.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He pointed to a small white object on the ground, and he didn't want anyone to accidentally step on it or kick it. As the forensics officer inched across the ground towards this object, Langer and Hansen asked him what was it. The forensics officer stared at it for a second and then said it was a small cap to a bottle, and specifically, it had a brownish-red stain on it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The other officers continued to scan the floor. Partially hidden amongst a bunch of pool supplies, one of them found a small tube of antibiotic ointment, and it had the same kind of stain on it as the cap. The forensics officers put the cap and the bottle side by side, and it was clear they went together. but both objects looked out of place among the other pool supplies on the floor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
However, Detective Langer noticed an open first aid kit on a shelf and he thought it might've come from there. But regardless, all the investigators felt sure that the brownish red stains on the cap and on the tube were blood. So one of the forensics officers bagged the tube and the cap as evidence.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
While the forensics team continued their work in the pump room, the detectives walked back outside and made their way towards the pool. They immediately saw that the arrival of the police had already drawn a lot of attention. Two uniformed officers were doing everything they could to keep a large and growing group of bystanders on the other side of the gate.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detectives headed over to the crowd and with the help of the uniformed officer, they took down names and statements from everyone who was there who claimed to have been near the pool that day. One person in this group was the man who actually managed the pool, and he gave the detectives the name of employees and others who occasionally worked on site.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Members of that landscaping crew were also in the group, and a couple of them said that the only strange thing they had noticed that afternoon was that somebody had been laying on their car horn in the parking lot, just honking over and over again. Also, one of the landscapers added that Allie did not appear to be the first pool employee to arrive that day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Before her, a young man had been there, and when he and Allie saw each other, they had kissed like they were girlfriend and boyfriend. Later that evening, Detectives Langer and Hansen sat together in a cramped interview room in the police station.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They had met with Allie's father, Roger, and also the rest of her immediate family, and after seeing how absolutely devastated they were firsthand, it had really motivated both detectives to do everything they could to solve this case quickly and bring some peace back to this family.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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A little while later, the door to the interview room opened, and an officer let in Allie's boyfriend, Phil, who politely introduced himself to the detectives and then took a seat across from them. As the victim's boyfriend, Phil basically automatically had become the first suspect on the detective's list.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And the nature of this crime made it seem even more likely that an intimate partner could have committed it. The attacker had clearly been enraged and there was potential sexual assault. But only minutes into their interview and Phil had given the detectives his alibi. He had a job at another pool in the community and he had gone there right after leaving the pool where he worked with Allie.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The detectives reached out to his employer at the other pool, and they confirmed that Phil had arrived on time for a shift and had not left early or anything like that. And so Hansen and Langer asked Phil if he would still submit DNA samples, and he agreed to do it without any hesitation. And then after getting those samples, the detectives let him go.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detectives could not fully rule out Phil's involvement, but his alibi was very strong. So they had to admit to themselves that maybe this was not an open and shut case. Not long after the meeting with Phil, a young woman came into the police station requesting to speak to whoever was in charge of Allie's case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hanser and Langer met this young woman and she told them she was one of Allie's closest friends and she had been at the pool that day. And she was sure she had seen Allie's killer. The detectives quickly led Allie's friend to an office and sat down with her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And Hansen said he was surprised to hear that she was at the pool because everyone they'd spoken to so far had said nobody had been swimming that day. Allie's friend said she had not gone swimming either. She said she had pulled into the parking lot of the pool and begun honking her horn over and over again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She told them she was just doing it as a dumb joke, trying to annoy Allie while she worked alone at the pool. But after honking, she never saw Allie. Instead, she said she saw this guy walking out from somewhere on the far side of the pool. She thought it was Allie's boss, so she stopped honking the horn because she didn't want to get Allie in trouble.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But this guy ended up walking to the parking lot and just driving off in an old pickup truck. Detectives Hansen and Langer couldn't believe this. Was there actually a chance this young woman just happened to be at the pool playing a joke on Allie at the exact time of the murder and that she had also seen Allie's killer up close? It seemed too good to be true.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hansen asked her if she knew who the man was, but she said she didn't. However, she said the guy had kind of creeped her out, because before he got into his pickup and drove off, he had looked right at her with the strange look on his face and smiled at her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Stranger (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. On a Monday afternoon in December of 2001, a pair of police officers walked in the side door of a big old farmhouse in the woods in Loudoun County, Virginia.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here. You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue. Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime. Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts, completely ad-free. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest,
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today. Locke got in his cruiser and drove to the office of the towing company, where he found the owner in the lobby.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Locke asked him if he remembered a call on Saturday night about a carload of teenagers stuck in the mud on a dead-end street. As soon as the owner heard this, he scowled. "'Yeah,' he said. "'I remember. "'Those kids stiffed my driver on the bill.'" And now, Locke felt a surge of adrenaline. This was the second suspicious thing he learned about the kids in the stuck car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Not only were they driving down a dead-end road they had no business being on, but they'd ducked out on the towing bill. Now, stiffing the driver was a crime, but Locke wondered if they had done it because they wanted to avoid giving out their real names. Locke asked the owner if he could speak to the driver, and the owner said sure, then disappeared into the back office.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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A few minutes later, a man in a t-shirt with the towing company's logo on it walked out into the lobby and said he was the one who helped those kids. Locke could see from the man's furrowed brow and darting eyes that he was nervous, like he had something sensitive or upsetting to say, and Locke wondered if he was about to break this case open right here, right now.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The tow truck driver gestured to Locke to follow him to the far corner of the lobby furthest away from the back office where his boss was. When they got there, well out of earshot of the boss, the driver started to mumble something about how he'd gone out in the rain and unstuck the car and the kids jumped in and took off without paying.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But then he stopped and looked around like he was making sure they were alone. Once he was satisfied they had real privacy, the driver leaned into lock and said, "'I'll tell you something, but you can't tell my boss.'" Locke quickly nodded yes, completely desperate for the driver to continue. Whatever he was about to say, Locke wanted to hear it. Well, the tow truck driver said slowly, I lied.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The tow truck driver explained that the kids did not stiff him on the bill. In fact, they were perfectly nice and polite, and they didn't seem upset in any way, and they had gone to an ATM to get cash to pay the bill. The driver had decided to lie about the kids running off just so he could pocket the cash. And at this, Locke felt himself deflate.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He could see his theory of teenagers driving around committing crimes and trying to hide their identities slipping away. Locke suppressed an urge to roll his eyes at the tow truck driver and instead promised he wouldn't say anything to the man's boss. He asked if the driver had the kid's names, and the driver said yes. He kept a log of all his jobs. So he had the driver's name and license number.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He also remembered the bank they went to for the ATM. Locke scribbled down the information, thanked the tow truck driver, and then went back to headquarters. Back at his desktop computer, Locke looked up the teenage driver, whose name was Michael Fole. He was hoping to discover that this kid was some kind of serious criminal, but instead, he saw a skinny 21-year-old college student with no record.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He made a pretty unlikely murder suspect. Locke leaned back, feeling disappointed. His hope for a simple explanation for the murder instead of an occult ritual was fading fast. He checked the time and realized it was now mid-afternoon, and he still hadn't talked to the victim's family yet. He decided he would finish running down the final details on the kids in the car the next day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Right now, he had to go find Robert Schwartz's three children and tell them that their father had been murdered. The drive to James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia took about two hours, and it was dark by the time Locke pulled onto campus. Both of Robert Schwartz's daughters, his youngest daughter Clara and her older sister Michelle, were students here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And as Locke parked in front of the residence hall, he saw the campus police officer and the university counselor he had contacted to help with the notification waiting for him. They led Locke into the residence hall, up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway to Clara's dorm. The campus police officer knocked and then stepped aside, so Locke could lead the conversation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The door opened, and Locke saw a young girl in baggy clothes with stringy brown hair and red bloodshot eyes. It looked like she'd been awake for days, and he suddenly felt for this teenager, whose life he knew he was about to change completely. He introduced himself and told her he had something important to tell her, but that she should sit down first.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He watched as Clara nervously backed up and then sat on the edge of her bed. Then, Locke took a deep breath, and in a quiet and steady voice, he told Clara the news. Her father was dead. For what felt like a very long time, the room was completely silent. Clara stared blankly at Locke for so long that Locke started to wonder if she'd even understood him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But right before Locke was about to ask her if she was okay, Clara's eyes seemed to snap back into focus, and she finally spoke. She asked how did her dad die. And now Locke hesitated, choosing his words carefully. He knew he had to be mindful about how much he revealed about the crime, even to the victim's closest family members. Everyone was a possible suspect until they were ruled out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So Locke told Clara that her father had been found dead inside of his home, and what happened to him was a question they were investigating. Clara went back to staring blankly. Locke could tell Clara was in some kind of shock, and so there was no way he was going to leave her alone. So he asked her to come with him, because now they had to go and tell her sister, Michelle.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A few minutes later, Locke stood inside of Michelle's dorm room as Michelle screamed the word no over and over again while Clara tried to comfort her. So far, telling the kids had been just as heart-wrenching as Locke had expected. Notifications were one of the hardest parts of his job, especially in a murder, because Locke couldn't just comfort them and leave.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, he had to stay and question them, no matter how upset they were. Locke looked at Michelle and Clara and decided that of the two of them, Clara was in much better shape to be interviewed. So he asked her to please step out of the room so he could ask her a few questions.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Clara nodded and Locke led her out into the hallway to a quiet corner near the stairwell where it felt like they had some privacy. He pulled out his notepad and asked Clara when she last talked to her father. Clara looked down at the floor and shook her head sadly. Friday, she said. They had talked about her coming home for the holidays in a few weeks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Then she paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was almost a whisper. She said that during that last conversation, she and her father had fought. She had a car but it was back at the farmhouse and she wanted to bring it to school, but her dad wouldn't let her. She looked up at Locke and told him that she didn't know why she had gotten so upset at him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On the evening of December 8, 2001, 57-year-old Dr. Robert Schwartz stood in the kitchen of his farmhouse outside of Leesburg, Virginia, stirring strips of pork and vegetables in his frying pan. Robert could hear the rain beating against the windows, and the sound made him feel at peace. He had the heat cranked up, and he was wearing his most comfortable sweatpants.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Her dad had promised to consider it over the holidays, so she didn't even know why she blew up at him. Now, her final conversation with her father would always be this stupid argument. Locke watched as Clara dropped her head again. He felt sorry for this stunned and awkward teenager.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told Clara he hated to keep pressing, but he needed to know about her father's friends and relationships, and about the people that she and her siblings hung out with. He asked if anyone they knew might have had some kind of grudge against her father. At this, Clara screwed up her face in what looked like deep concentration.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Then she slowly listed off the names of some of her dad's closest friends, but said none of them had a grudge. And most of her friends had either never met her dad, or if they had, they really liked him. But then, Locke watched as Clara's expression changed. It looked like she had just remembered something else.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And suddenly, she looked straight at Locke with a focus in her eyes that he hadn't seen until now. She said one of her friends had recently met her dad over Thanksgiving break, and ever since then, he'd been acting really strange and intense. She told Locke that his name was Kyle Hulbert, he was 18, and they had met at a Renaissance fair a few months earlier.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They had gotten along really well at first, but over the last several weeks, his whole demeanor had changed, although she didn't know why. He'd actually gotten busted on a concealed weapons charge for carrying daggers around a shopping mall, and after that, Clara said she had tried to avoid him. At the mention of daggers, Locke's eyes narrowed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This murder case involved an unusual blade as the murder weapon, and while daggers weren't long like the murder weapon, they were an unusual knife to carry, especially at the mall. Locke's disappointment over the teenagers and the tow truck disappeared as he underlined Kyle Hulbert and daggers in his pad. This was a good lead.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told Clara they were almost done, and soon she could go back with her sister and they could tell their brother together. But first, he needed to know the names of Kyle's closest friends. Clara nodded and started listing off names, which Locke wrote down as quickly as he could. But when Clara got to the last name, Locke's pencil froze on the page.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because Locke knew he had heard this name before. Just a few hours earlier, in fact, when he was standing in the tow truck company lobby. It was Michael Fole, the teenage driver of the stuck car. The next day, December 11th, Locke had Michael Fole picked up by police officers when he left his house with his girlfriend in the car.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Officers took both of them to the station, put them in separate rooms, and told them to wait. Someone would be in to question them soon. Meanwhile, Locke executed a search warrant at Michael's house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
where police seized a desktop computer, two black cloaks, multiple knives, a document about human sacrifice, and a sword with a blade more than two feet long with little flecks of blood still on the metal. That afternoon, when Locke walked into the interview room where Michael was waiting, he felt like he had a pretty good case. Now, he just needed Michael to talk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And pretty much the second he sat down, Locke got his wish. Michael Fole and his girlfriend agreed to tell Locke everything they knew. But their story was more bizarre and more horrific than Locke or anyone else had expected.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In fact, it was so wild and so shocking that it would take several more weeks of investigation before Locke and the rest of the police were able to fully untangle the sequence of events that Michael Fole and his girlfriend sketched out in their interviews that day.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There was nowhere he would rather be on a rainy winter night than inside this home, which had been in his wife's family for generations. He checked the pork, which was almost done, and he reached for a single plate out of the cabinet. Robert used to love cooking, and until just a few years ago, he always made big portions to feed his family of five.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But finally, on February 1st, 2002, so almost two months after Robert Schwartz's death, the police arrested the mastermind behind the murder. And it was not who the police had expected it to be. Based on interviews, evidence, and transcripts from online and phone conversations, the following is what happened to Dr. Robert Schwartz on the night of Saturday, December 8, 2001.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At around 6.15 p.m., the killer sat in the backseat of a car driving down a muddy dead-end road in the woods in a rainstorm. The killer's friend, Michael Fole, was driving, and Michael's girlfriend was riding in the front passenger seat.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Michael and his girlfriend were both talking because they were trying to find the big old farmhouse that was their destination, but the killer was not paying attention to them. Instead, the killer was completely focused on a different voice, a voice that no one else could hear. The voice was named Nicodemus, and Nicodemus was a god.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In fact, Nicodemus was one of six gods that had lived inside the killer's head for as long as the killer could remember. And now, Nicodemus had a warning. Don't go up there, Nicodemus shouted inside of the killer's head. Now, usually, the killer listened to Nicodemus. The killer knew the god was just trying to keep them safe. But tonight, the killer knew they could not back down from their plan.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
innocent lives were at stake because the killer knew something that no one else did, and that was that Dr. Robert Schwartz was a monster. He lashed out with violence even though no one else could see it, and he poisoned lemons and pork with sulfuric acid. And recently, the killer was absolutely certain that Dr. Robert Schwartz had begun planning a murder of his own.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer knew they had to strike first. So, from the backseat of the car, the killer answered Nicodemus, telling the god in a whisper, I have to do this. The car came to a stop in the mud in front of Robert Schwartz's farmhouse, and the killer got out wearing a long black trench coat that hid a 27-inch long sword.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer stalked through the rain up to Robert's front door and started knocking, hard. After a minute, the killer heard footsteps squeaking on old hardwood inside the house. And then the door opened. The killer could smell the dinner that Robert was cooking in the kitchen. Robert stood in the doorway, looking down at the killer in confusion. "'Yes?' he asked.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They had just received a frantic 911 call from a man who said he had found his neighbor horrifically injured on the kitchen floor. The police officers crept through the house, peering cautiously around corners in case the attacker was still in the house. But other than the sound of their footsteps creaking on the hardwood, the home was totally silent. When they made it to the kitchen, they stopped.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer asked if Clara was home, and Robert said no. So the killer asked for Clara's phone number, and Robert invited the killer inside out of the rain while he wrote it down." And this was when the killer decided to strike. As Robert stood with his back to the killer, writing out his daughter's phone number, the killer told him, I know your plans.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But his wife had died four years earlier from cancer, and her death had sent all three of their kids spiraling, especially their youngest, Clara, who was only 15 at the time. Clara was the one who actually found her mom on the morning she died, and she had fallen into a deep depression afterwards.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And as Robert turned in confusion, the killer pulled out the sword and began slashing. Robert tried to protect himself, grabbing for the blade and cutting his hand in the process, spilling blood all over the floor, but the killer was in an unstoppable frenzy. The killer yanked the sword away from Robert and then slashed his stomach.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Somehow, Robert stayed standing as the killer swung the sword and sprayed blood across the kitchen. Some of the blood landed in the killer's mouth, and the metallic taste filled the killer with pleasure and adrenaline. The killer slashed Robert over and over until finally Robert fell, landing face down on the hardwood.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Robert wasn't moving anymore, and Nicodemus was screaming at the killer to stop, but the killer couldn't stop. Some of Robert's blood had landed on the hot stove where it was now sizzling, and the smell filled the air as the killer rammed the sword all the way through Robert's body over and over again, sinking the tip of the blade into the hardwood beneath Robert.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By the time the killer finished, Robert's clothing was shredded and he had been stabbed more than 30 times. The killer stood over his victim for a minute and then calmly walked over to the stove to turn off the burner. And then before he left the house, as a final touch, the killer took the sword and carved an X into the back of Robert's neck.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer did this because X was the signature of an assassin in the fantasy game that the killer loved. That fantasy game was called Underworld. Underworld had been created by the killer's best friend, and it was the killer's best friend who was the mastermind behind the murder of Robert Schwartz.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In the game of Underworld, the mastermind went by the name High Priestess of Chaos, and the killer was called Assassin. But in the real world, the killer's name was Kyle Hulbert, and the mastermind's name was Clara Schwartz. It would turn out Robert Schwartz's daughter, Clara, had never come out of her depression after the death of her mother.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, she sunk deep into misery and also paranoia and became convinced that her father was trying to kill her. And when Clara met Kyle Hulbert at a Renaissance fair, she found a willing player in her dark fantasy world.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Kyle was schizophrenic and bipolar and he'd grown up in foster care and mental hospitals, totally unable to tell the difference between reality and the voices and visions inside of his head. Clara and Kyle, along with Michael Fole and his girlfriend, formed a disturbed little family.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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robert had been worried he might never pull her out but recently clara seemed to have gotten into a really good groove she was 19 now and she had found a tight-knit group of friends who all loved renaissance fairs where people dress up like they're from medieval times clara had created a fantasy game called underworld and the kids all spent a lot of time playing it robert didn't really understand the game but he was thrilled that clara had finally discovered something to be passionate about
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They all played characters in Clara's fantasy game, Underworld, and they referred to each other as brother and sister. And over time, Clara had convinced all of them that her father was trying to poison her by lacing lemons and pork with chemicals like sulfuric acid, and that he was ultimately planning to murder her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so, convinced that Clara was in real danger, Kyle, the underworld assassin, stepped in to protect her. But what Clara did not say to Kyle was that if her father died, she believed she would inherit several hundred thousand dollars.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so, at Clara and Kyle's instruction, Michael and his girlfriend drove Kyle to Robert Schwartz's house in the rainstorm on December 8th, 2001, so that Kyle could stop Robert once and for all. And they might have gotten away with their crime if their car had not gotten stuck in the mud. In the end, Michael Fole was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
His girlfriend accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to just one year. Kyle pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy and was sentenced to life in prison.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And although Clara Schwartz tried to pin the whole murder on Kyle by dropping his name and the story about his arrest for carrying daggers to investigate her lock, she was ultimately caught when police read transcripts of her online and phone conversations with Kyle and her other friends. it was clear that Clara herself was the driving force behind the murder of her father.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy and sentenced to 48 years in prison. In a final twist, it was the DNA research that Dr. Robert Schwartz himself had spent his career on which helped investigators to determine that the blood on the sword belonged to Robert. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
If you liked today's story and you're looking for more strange, dark, and mysterious content, be sure to check out all our studios' podcasts. They are this one, the Mr. Ballin Podcast. We also have Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, and also Run Full. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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To watch hundreds more stories just like the one you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
These days, Clara was away at college, along with her older sister, Michelle, and her older brother, Jesse. And Robert was proud of how he had pulled the kids through their mother's death. He felt like he had sent them out into the world as basically happy and capable people, which was a goal that had seemed very far away in the early period of their grief. He did miss them, though.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Most nights now, he ate alone, with the creaking of the old house to keep him company. His kids had always complained about all the noises the house made, but Robert liked it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He spent his days working long hours as a biophysicist studying DNA at a science and technology firm called the Center for Innovative Technology, where the offices and laboratories were white and brightly lit and pretty quiet. Robert loved his work, but the environment was a little sterile for his taste.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So coming home to an overgrown farmhouse way out in the woods where vines grew up the stone walls and the floorboards squeaked and the nearest neighbors were more than a quarter mile away was a nice contrast. Now, he set his plate down and reached into a bag of tortillas on the counter.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He put two in the middle of the plate, and then he started to tip the frying pan to scoop out the meat and vegetables on top. But before he could turn off the burner and head to the table, he heard a knock coming from the front door. Robert frowned and craned his neck to look toward the door, which had a little window in it, but the rain made it impossible to see out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Robert did not get a lot of unexpected visitors, especially not on a stormy night like this, but he figured maybe it was just a delivery driver trying to keep a package from getting soaked. But whoever it was knocked again, and so Robert turned and walked out of the kitchen and through the front room toward the entryway.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The knocking had gotten fast and loud by the time Robert made it to the front door, flipped the lock, and swung the door open. Two days later, on December 10th, 2001, at around 1.15 on Monday afternoon, a man named Sam Welsh, who lived down the street from Robert Schwartz, was loading laundry into his washing machine when his phone rang.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Sam abandoned the laundry and walked into his kitchen to pick it up. When he said hello, he heard the voice of a friend, and his friend sounded pretty anxious. This friend worked at the Center for Innovative Technology, which is where Robert worked, and the friend said that Robert hadn't come into work today. He had missed an important meeting, and he wasn't answering his phone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And this was about as out of character as it was possible to get for Robert, who was famous in the field of DNA research and had actually worked on the first online database of DNA sequence information. Robert was organized, reliable, and extremely communicative. He never just went silent. So this friend asked Sam, can you please go to Robert's house to check to see if he's okay?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Sam didn't hesitate. He said of course he would. Then he hung up the phone, went out to his truck, and drove to Robert's farmhouse, which was about a mile away at the end of a dead-end road. When Sam pulled up, he saw Robert's car parked on the street and a construction crew digging up Robert's driveway in front of the house. Everything looked calm and normal, which Sam found encouraging.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There, lying on his stomach, was the body of an older man, covered in blood. One of the officers stepped forward and knelt down to check the man's pulse, but it was obvious to both of them that he was dead. The officer was about to stand back up when something strange on the back of the man's neck caught his eye.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He recognized one of the workers as another neighbor of his, so he parked his truck, hopped out, and went over to ask if the worker had seen Robert. But the worker said no. The construction crew had arrived almost six hours earlier at 7.30 that morning, and not only had Robert not come out to greet them all like he normally did, they hadn't actually seen any movement at all inside of his house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, the brief sense of relief Sam had felt when he arrived evaporated. He explained to the construction worker about the concerning call he'd just gotten, and so he asked the worker to come with him to go check on Robert. The two men walked down the driveway toward the farmhouse. They knocked on the front door, but nobody answered.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So they went around to the side door, which Sam knew Robert usually left unlocked. Sam didn't want to just barge in, so when they got to the side door, he first knocked loudly. But again, nobody answered. Sam shot a worried look at the construction worker, and then he tried the knob. And just like he'd expected, the door was unlocked.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Sam stepped inside and called out Robert's name, but the house was completely silent. So, he took a few halting steps. Ahead of him, he could see the kitchen. Sam called out Robert's name again and took one more step forward, right up to the threshold of the kitchen, and then he froze.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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For a long second, Sam stood there completely still, not even breathing, with the construction worker a few paces behind him. Then, Sam whirled around and gave the worker a shove back towards the door. Sam was so afraid that he could barely think, but he managed to shout one single sentence. "'Call the police!'
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Loudoun County investigator Greg Locke was sitting in a classroom in a local school near Leesburg, Virginia, halfway through his first day of a week-long police training course when his pager vibrated. And when Locke looked down at the short message blinking on his little screen, he felt his heart start to race.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He stood up and gathered his things, told the instructor he was sorry but he had to go, then speedwalked out of the classroom. Locke had only been with the Loudoun County Sheriff's Department for a couple of months. He had originally planned on becoming a firefighter, but training for that position had required that he go to the local police academy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And in the police academy, Locke had realized that he actually preferred the slow, puzzle-solving nature of detective work over the fast-paced intensity of firefighting. So he had switched careers entirely and joined the Sheriff's Department. He started off in the crime lab, but he'd just transferred to the homicide unit, which was actually why he was taking this class.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Slowly, the officer reached out a hand and pulled down the collar of the man's shirt. When he saw what was there, he looked back at his partner with an expression of fear, because what he had just discovered could be a sign that there were devil-worshiping occultists prowling their rural community.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Now, Investigator Locke pushed open the front door of the school building where his class was happening and jogged the rest of the distance to his cruiser. He got in, turned the ignition, and peeled out of the parking lot, headed west toward the big old farmhouse in the woods. When Locke pulled up on the dead-end street, he saw the flashing blue and white lights of a sea of police cruisers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It looked like the entire sheriff's department was there. Locke got out of his cruiser and walked down the long driveway and up the front steps of the farmhouse. The front door was open, and as Locke stepped through the entryway, he could tell that the scene was pretty well covered by police and crime scene techs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So he looked for a supervisor to get a rundown of exactly what they were dealing with. Locke found his supervisor standing just outside the kitchen, staring grimly at a man's bloody body. At first glance, it was immediately clear to Locke that whatever had happened here to this man, it had been a frenzy of violence.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The man's body lay face down on the floor, his clothing had been shredded in the attack, and there was so much blood that it had dried in sticky thick pools that spread out all over the hardwood.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Even the bottom of the man's white socks were bloody, which Locke knew meant there must have been a struggle, because the only way for the bottom of his socks to get that soaked was if he had been bleeding heavily and then stepped in it. Locke's supervisor turned away from the body and brought Locke quickly up to speed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Their victim was Dr. Robert Schwartz, who was a well-known biophysicist, and he had been stabbed to death. It didn't appear to be a robbery because nothing had been stolen or rifled through, and there was no sign of forced entry, which meant that, very likely, Robert had opened the door to his attacker willingly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Locke knew that a set of facts like this often meant that a murder victim had been targeted by a person they knew, rather than attacked by a random stranger. And the savagery of the stabbing itself supported that theory, because it suggested a highly emotional killer who felt true rage towards the victim. But Locke's supervisor told him there was one more thing, something incredibly bizarre.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Whoever had stabbed Dr. Schwartz to death had also carved an X into the back of his neck. Locke told his supervisor that he was going to start canvassing the neighborhood, and his supervisor nodded in agreement. As Locke walked back out the front door of the farmhouse, he looked around and shook his head incredulously. This was a beautiful area.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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It was up in the mountains, and it was sitting right above a historic little downtown district with nice restaurants and breweries and coffee shops and a vibrant art scene. It was very hard to imagine any murder taking place here, let alone some kind of ritual killing that involved a vicious knife attack and a symbol carved into the victim's skin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The nearest house was way down the road, and as Locke reached it and climbed the front steps, he realized he couldn't even see Robert's home from here. This gave him a sinking feeling. He was afraid that the people inside of this house could not have possibly heard anything going on inside of Robert's house a quarter mile away. None of the neighbors could have.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Locke knocked anyway, and soon a middle-aged married couple answered, looking concerned. They said they had seen all the commotion, and they asked if everything was okay. Inspector Locke just shook his head and said, no, there had been an incident, but he couldn't say anything about it right now.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Locke told the couple that what he had come for was to ask if they had seen or heard anything suspicious over the weekend. He watched as the couple exchanged a look. Yes, the husband said, as a matter of fact, they did. On Saturday night, during the rainstorm, a soaking wet teenage boy had come to their house asking to use the phone because his car got stuck in the mud a little ways down the road.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The husband said he had looked outside and seen the car, which had a young woman and man inside, and then he said he called a towing company that he knew, and the teenager had thanked him and gone back to the car to wait, and the tow truck driver had arrived not long after. Locke scribbled this down in his notepad, then asked the husband what exactly was strange about the encounter.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It wasn't uncommon at all in an area this rural for cars to get stuck. The husband nodded in agreement, but it wasn't the car getting stuck that was strange, he said. It was where the car was driving in the first place. The teenagers had gotten stuck on a dead-end road. There was literally nothing down there, except for Robert Schwartz's house.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So, the husband asked, what were the teenagers doing down there? Locke left the neighbor's home and checked in by phone with his supervisor to share what he'd just heard about the kids in the mud on Saturday night.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So if that's of interest to you, please take the follow button on a camping trip and leave them way off the hiking trail before setting up camp for the night. After dark, once the follow button has gone to sleep, secretly pack up all of your gear and leave the follow button completely alone in the middle of nowhere. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And his supervisor was instantly interested because the medical examiner had just come and collected the body and his initial examination suggested that the murder had happened on Saturday night too. And Locke's supervisor told him that the medical examiner had also discovered something else that was pretty unusual.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When he had rolled Robert's body over, he found deep marks in the wood underneath where he had been laying. This was important because it looked like the marks had been made by the knife used to kill Robert. In other words, this could not have just been a regular knife like you would find in a regular kitchen.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, the knife the killer had used had such a long blade that when the killer plunged it into Robert's torso, it had gone all the way through his body and then into the floor beneath him, leaving the marks. that meant the murder weapon had a blade that was at least two feet long.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Underworld (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, the murder weapon had not been found inside of the home, so it looked like the killer had brought the long blade with them to the house and then taken it with them when they left. To Locke and his supervisor, the idea of the murder weapon being this long, strange blade only strengthened their fear that this murder might have a ritualistic or even satanic element to it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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But Locke told his supervisor that before they went down a rabbit hole of the occult, they should focus on something a bit simpler that was right in front of their faces. They should track down those teenagers and the tow truck driver.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In 1984, in a small city in northeastern China, a security guard stood outside of a warehouse working an overnight shift. The guard heard a noise coming from some bushes nearby, but he didn't think much of it, because this was a safe town, and usually the hardest part of his job was just staying awake. But suddenly, two thieves in ski masks emerged from those bushes and they rushed the guard.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The man was already so upset and Sun hated that he was about to cause him a whole lot more pain. Sun opened the file folder and pulled out photos of the woman's blouse and the red sandals that had been found at the river. He asked Zhao's brother if he recognized the clothing. Zhao's brother stared at the photos and started shaking his head like he didn't want to accept what he was seeing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But eventually, he looked up and said, yes, those are definitely Zhao's clothes. Sun told the man he was very sorry to say this, but they had recently found his sister's body near the river, and he believed someone had murdered her. Zhao's brother immediately broke down sobbing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sun gave the man a couple of minutes to compose himself, and then he apologized for pressing him at a time like this, but he wanted to know why Zhao's husband had not already reported his wife missing. Zhao's brother wiped the tears away from his face. Then he said that Zhao's husband, Li, was on a business trip hours away, so he wouldn't have had any idea about what was going on.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Detective Sun promised he would find whoever had done this, and then he asked Zhao's brother to please not speak publicly about his sister's death. Sun believed holding back information could be crucial in identifying the killer. Zhao's brother nodded and said that he and his other sister would not say a word.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Later that day, Detective Soon walked through Zhao's house to her and her husband's bedroom. Now, this was not a crime scene, but Soon hoped something there might point him in the right direction. He searched the dresser and bedside tables, but didn't find anything that stood out. He crossed the room and opened up the drawer of a wooden desk that was pressed against the wall.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Inside, he found playing cards, photos, and a blue hardcover notebook. He opened up the notebook and looked at the first page and quickly realized this was Zhao's diary. Sun flipped through the diary and found the last entry. It was dated just a few days before her death.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On July 25th, 1984, a 35-year-old woman named Zhao Xiaolian stood in her doorway talking to an agitated man in Liaoyuan City in Northeastern China. The man was a friend of Zhao's husband, Li, and he kept pacing back and forth, and he was loud and very animated when he spoke.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He read the entry and it really took him by surprise because basically it was one complaint after another about her husband, Li. And all these complaints basically boiled down to the same thing. Zhao clearly believed that Li cared more about money than about his family. Detective Soon bagged the diary as evidence. Now he just needed to track down Zhao's husband.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A few hours later, Detective Soon and members of his team met with Li's boss at the supply company where he worked. And Soon got right to the point and said the police needed to find Li right away. They knew he was traveling for business, so Soon asked where Lee had gone and where he was staying. But the boss got this confused look on his face. He said Lee was not on a business trip.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Lee had been away from work, but because he had said he had this family issue that he needed to attend to. Soon didn't say anything in response to this, but this seemed like a major revelation. It meant Lee had very likely lied about where he was, at least to his boss and to his brother-in-law. soon asked to see where Lee worked, and the boss led the police to an office filled with several desks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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He then pointed them to Lee's desk and then left the cops on their own. Soon began rifling through Lee's desk, and under a stack of papers, he found a photograph of a woman. And it was not Zhao. Then Detective Soon caught a break that could only happen in a small tight-knit community where basically everybody knew each other.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
One of the other officers who was with Soon looked at the photo of this woman and said he recognized her. He couldn't remember her name, but he was sure she had been Lee's girlfriend when they were younger. Detective Sun felt like he was onto something big. He already suspected Lee in this murder, and now this piece of evidence helped him come up with a theory.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Maybe Lee murdered his wife and then went on the run to be with his old girlfriend. And lying about the business trip would have given Lee cover to be out of town for a couple of days before anybody thought something suspicious was going on. For the rest of the day, investigators spoke to Lee's friends. And finally, they found a man who could identify the woman in the photo.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The man told them that the woman was definitely Li's ex-girlfriend, but she had gotten married years ago and moved to a city that was about a three-hour train ride away. So, the following morning, two days after Zhao's body had been found, Sun took a train ride. And he found Li's ex-girlfriend at her house. But he realized pretty quickly this was a waste of time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Lee's ex answered all of Soon's questions, but she said she had not seen Lee or even exchanged letters with him in over a decade. So Soon turned right around and hopped back on the train for the long ride back home. And during this ride, Soon felt frustrated. He felt totally lost. Lee really seemed to have fled, but now Soon had no idea where to look for him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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And he knew Lee had at least a couple of days jump on him. Moreover, traveling by train through smaller towns in this region would allow Li to almost completely disappear because a lot of those trains didn't require a passenger to provide identification. Sun could ask for help from other police departments, but Li could be almost anywhere in China by this point.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Zhao glanced over her shoulder and saw her seven-year-old daughter drawing a picture at a small table in the front room, and Zhao turned and asked her husband's friend to please keep his voice down. The man nodded and then did lower his voice and then told Zhao everything was going to be okay. By the end of the night, she wouldn't have to worry or keep the secret she was hiding anymore.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hours later, Soon got back to the police station, and he was surprised when the chief greeted him with a huge smile on his face. Soon asked him if there had been some miraculous break in the case while he was gone. The chief said no, nothing like that had happened. However, he did have something exciting to show him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The chief walked with Soon out back behind the station, and immediately Soon's face lit up. The other officers were all out there, standing next to a row of brand new bicycles. The chief told Soon he had met with members of the city government and discussed the murder case they were dealing with, and he told them it was larger in scope than anything they had ever dealt with.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so the city government wanted to help the police solve the crime, and they figured by giving them bicycles, that would help them cover more ground and also just generally speed up the process. Even though Soon had spent most of the day feeling really bad about his investigation, feeling like it was going nowhere, now he couldn't help but feel rejuvenated. These bikes were a huge deal.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It meant his team could travel much farther and talk to more people far more efficiently. And Soon reminded himself that this was a community where almost everybody knew everybody. So someone out there had to know something about Lee that could point the police in the right direction. They just had to go out there and find that person.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Over the next several days, Soon and his team were out in force on their bikes, speaking to Lee's friends, his family, and just people all over the community. And finally, about a week after the discovery of Zhao's body, their work paid off. police got a tip from a factory worker in town.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The man didn't say much, but he told them to take a closer look into a robbery that had taken place at the factory's warehouse. Soon was quite familiar with this robbery. It had been a big deal in town. A large quantity of expensive steel pipes had been stolen from that warehouse, but the case had gone unsolved for months.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Soon didn't see how stolen pipes could possibly connect to Zhao's murder, but he'd been desperate for any new leads, and now he felt like he had one. So he took his bike and rode right over to the warehouse. When Soon walked inside, he saw men driving lifts through this vast open space, transporting materials across the floor to get ready for shipping.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
One of the shift managers waved at Soon and then trotted across the floor to meet him. The guy was in his late 20s, and he introduced himself as Ho Le Chung. He led Soon into a nearby office that he said would be quieter than the warehouse floor. Once inside, Sun took a seat at a desk across from Ho and right away asked him what he knew about the missing steel pipes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Ho said he didn't know much, just that eight tons of steel had been taken. And also, he said whoever pulled the job must have had access to the warehouse equipment, trucks, and a team of people. Ripping off that much steel was not a fast or easy job. The detective agreed. It must have been an enormous undertaking.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So he asked Ho if there was anybody he could think of who might have been capable of pulling something like that off. All of a sudden, Ho seemed nervous. Soon picked up on it and asked if he was okay. And in a quiet voice, Ho said he did have an idea about who was behind the robbery, but he was afraid to say.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She just needed to follow the instructions he had given her. The man then said goodbye and wished her luck. Zhao closed the door and just stood there in silence for a second. Then she forced a smile onto her face and turned and walked over to her daughter. Zhao was about 5 foot 3 inches tall, with black hair and dark brown eyes, and her daughter looked a lot like her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Soon leaned forward and told Ho he needed to talk because otherwise people would think he was covering up for a criminal. Ho nodded and then said there was a man police needed to look into. He was a guy who worked for a local supply company, and his name was Lee Siang Dong. Detective Sun felt like he had just been given a huge gift.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It looked like he could have a clear connection between the warehouse robbery and Lee, his murder victim's husband, who apparently had gone on the run.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers. You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free.
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No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A couple weeks later, in early August, Detective Soon and his team continued to collect more information on Lee's possible involvement in the warehouse robbery. But they still weren't any closer to tracking him down. Soon sat at his desk, pouring over his notes from the robbery and the murder case like he did every day. And suddenly, he heard someone run into the building, screaming.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was a man who was dripping with sweat and looked like he might pass out. Soon ran over to him, grabbed the man a chair so he could sit down, and asked him what was wrong. The man told him he had been out walking in the mountains just outside of town, and he saw these four guys pour gasoline over another man and then light him on fire. For a second, Soon just stood there in shock.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But then he snapped out of it, got the exact location of where this man had been, and then he rallied his team together. The officers all ran outside, got on their bikes, and rode off to investigate their second burned body in a matter of weeks. The area where this man had come from, where he had seen this guy get lit on fire, was about nine miles away from where Zhao had been found.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Zhao told her daughter she could finish her drawing later, because for now, she was going to go stay with her uncle for a while. And right away, Zhao's daughter's face lit up and she ran to the door. Zhao followed her and slipped on her favorite pair of shoes. They were red sandals with a low heel. Then she took her daughter's hand and they both walked outside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And when the investigators arrived there, they left their bikes and walked down this long tree-lined path toward a clearing near the foot of a mountain. And as they got closer, the smell of burning flesh filled the air. Eventually, the investigators walked into a clearing. And there, they were quite surprised to find four men still standing over a body that had smoke rising from it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The men's heads were bowed, almost in reverence. Detective Sun immediately began to approach these men to potentially apprehend them, but none of the men tried to flee the scene like he expected them to. Instead, when they noticed him coming, one of these men just told the detective that nothing illegal was going on here. The police had simply stumbled onto a sacred ritual.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, Detective Sun was not the most religious guy, but he was pretty sure no legal rituals included burning someone alive. But the man explained to him they were not burning someone who was alive. They were burning a dead body. All of them were miners, and their friend had died in a mining accident. They believed that someone who died in an accident should not be buried in a cemetery.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, the body had to be burned. Sun just stared at the man. He had no idea what to think about this. He would need to check with the mind to see if someone really had died in an accident, and he would need to research religious customs to see if these men were telling the truth. And on top of all that, he now had absolutely no idea if this burning body had any connection to Zhao's murder.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But as Sun stood there looking at the burnt body on the ground, something hit him. It was so obvious that he got mad at himself for taking this long to think of it. Just like with Zhao, the man on the ground was so badly burned that it would be impossible to identify him by his looks. Sun turned to one of the other officers, and he could barely contain his excitement.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said he had just realized that the reason Zhao's killer had burned her was so she would be totally unrecognizable. And more importantly, because police had kept the news of Zhao's death out of the media, the killer probably believed Zhao still had not been identified. and suddenly soon had a plan to draw the killer out of hiding.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Other members of Soon's team dealt with the body that was found near the mountain, and they would quickly discover the miners had been telling the truth about what they were doing. And as bizarre and unsettling as the ritual had seemed to Soon, it had actually been a huge help to his investigation, and he quickly put the first part of his new plan into action.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Soon visited with Zhao's brother and sister. He asked them to start talking publicly about how they were both going to be interviewed soon by the police about a possible murder. Soon felt certain that the news that Zhao's brother and sister were going to meet with the cops would get back to the killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And Soon believed that the killer, at that point, would reach out to Zhao's siblings in an attempt to keep them from speaking to the police. And it would not take long for Soon to be proven right. Three days after Soon set his plan in motion, Zhao's sister walked out of her house and found a letter taped to her window.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
She read it and immediately ran to her brother's house, and then together they brought the letter to Detective Soon. The letter was from Zhao's husband, Li. It said that he and Zhao were together and they were okay, but they had gotten mixed up in something pretty bad, so they had to flee the city for now.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The pair made their way through the neighborhood that lay on the outskirts of the city, not far from the surrounding mountains. Streets were lined with small gray wooden houses, and Zhao basically knew everybody who lived in these houses. This was a neighborhood where multiple generations of families had grown up right alongside each other.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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They knew their daughter would be taken care of for the time being, and they'd get back in touch as soon as it was safe. Li closed it out by telling his sister-in-law to burn the letter. When Sun read this letter, he knew they were close to solving this case. It would take Sun and his team a bit more time to tie everything together, but Sun, Sun would figure out exactly what happened to Zhao.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Based on the letter that Zhao's sister received, crime scene evidence, and interviews conducted throughout the investigation, this is what police believe happened to Zhao on July 25th, 1984. The killer stood next to their bicycle at the end of Zhao's street as the sun set behind the mountains. They heard bike tires on the road and saw Zhao coming their way.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer smiled at Zhao, got on their bike, and started riding right alongside her. As it got darker, the killer pulled in front of Zhao and led her towards the river not too far from their neighborhood. As the killer did this, they told Zhao they wouldn't have to ride much further, and soon they would both be able to forget about the secret they were both hiding.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer and Zhao reached the riverbank, and from there they could see farmland on the other side of the river. The killer said they would need to cross the river and get to that farmland.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So Zhao got off her bike and laid it on the ground, as did the killer, and then she and the killer walked across the river, which was very shallow, and then when they reached the other side and were on that riverbank, the killer's footprints very quickly disappeared from the wet ground. However, Zhao's did not.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Zhao began to head up for the farmland, but the killer grabbed her by the arm, leaned in close, and whispered something in her ear. And as soon as they did, Zhao's eyes went wide and she began to tremble in fear and she shoved the killer and tried to run. But the killer grabbed her from behind, threw her to the ground, and ripped off her shirt and pants. The killer sexually assaulted Zhao.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The whole time, Zhao remained quiet and submissive, perhaps hoping that when this was over, she'd be let go. But no. When the killer was done, they wrapped their hands around Zhao's neck and began choking her. Zhao coughed and fought for air, but eventually everything went black. The killer tossed Zhao's clothes right next to her and then walked to the nearby farm where they'd hidden a gas can.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They returned to the riverbank and poured gasoline all over Zhao. Then they stepped several feet away from her, put the gas can down, lit a match, and threw it on Zhao. Suddenly, Zhao woke up screaming. She felt her skin burning and peeling away from her. She was engulfed in flames. Zhao heard the river running nearby and on instinct, she got up and ran towards the sound.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Usually, that was something Zhao loved about this place, that sense of community. But now, all she could imagine were her neighbors staring out at her from their windows, trying to figure out the secret that she was hiding from everyone. After walking for a few more minutes, Zhao's daughter let go of her mother's hand and ran down the street to her uncle's house and then knocked on the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Her red sandals fell off and she stumbled forward. The killer looked on in shock. They couldn't believe Zhao had woken up. Eventually, the killer just ran towards her, not really sure what they were going to do. But before they reached her, Zhao had collapsed on the riverbank near a tree, still engulfed in flames. Zhao would let out one final scream, and then she would die.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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The killer waited several more minutes and just watched Zhao's body continue to burn. Then they grabbed the gas can, walked back across the water, picked up the bikes, and disappeared into the darkness. It would turn out Hou Lei Xiang, the warehouse worker who told Detective Sun that the steel pipe robbery could have been committed by Zhao's husband Li, was telling the truth.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Li really had robbed the warehouse. But Hou was his partner in crime. Hou had masterminded the robbery, and then Li had sold the goods directly to a company he often worked with as a supplier, making them both a ton of money. Zhao's big secret, the one she had been desperately trying to hide from everybody, was that she knew what Hou and her husband had done.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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Because a couple of months after the robbery, Li had panicked and told Zhao everything. Zhao was disgusted and couldn't believe he had put his family in jeopardy just to make a quick buck. When Ho caught wind of all this drama, he decided he would step in and try to handle it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
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So he came up with this plan for Li to tell everybody he was going on a business trip, and then in reality, he would just go on the run. He would disappear from town. Zhao was aware of this plan, and she was under the impression that at some point, she and her daughter would also basically go on the run, connect with Li, and they would start a new life somewhere else.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
That's basically what Ho had promised them. But on July 25th, the day Zhao was killed, Ho went to see Zhao at her house, and he told her that Li had actually come back into town undercover. Ho said he could lead her to him, and then she and her husband could escape before the law caught up with them, and then once they were safe, they could send for their daughter and start their new life.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
However, later that night when Ho and Zhao got across the river, it was Ho who whispered in Zhao's ear that Li wasn't there. And that in fact, he'd lured her here just to make sure she never told the police anything about the robbery. Then it was Ho who sexually assaulted Zhao and burned her to death. But that was not the only horrific crime Ho had committed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Because Lee had followed his advice and planned to leave town and go into hiding like he suggested. But right before Lee was about to leave town, which was days before Zhao was killed, Ho met up with Lee, beat him to death with a hammer, and then disposed of his body outside of the city. So after all of this, Ho believed he'd gotten away with two murders.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But when that letter that was supposedly written by Lee arrived at Zhao's sister's house, Detective Sun compared it to other letters Lee had written, and he quickly realized the handwriting didn't match.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So Sun began working with a handwriting analysis expert and compared the letter to documents and correspondence from Lee's family and friends and from employees who worked at the warehouse that had been robbed. And that's how Sun figured out that Ho had actually written that letter. Police would eventually locate Lee's body, at which point Ho would confess to everything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
As this happened, Zhao prayed her brother was actually home. In 1984, nobody where Zhao lived had a car. In fact, even bicycles were seen as a luxury. If people needed to travel for work, they could catch a bus or train from the city center, but typically they just walked everywhere. The people in this area at the time also did not have telephones.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Ho was sentenced to death and was executed, all to cover up some stolen pipes. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts. There's this one, of course, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and there's Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Full, Redacted, and Late Nights with Nexpo. All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So if they wanted to get in touch with somebody out of town, they wrote letters. And if they needed to talk to someone close by, they simply walked over to their house to see them. So it was not uncommon to show up at somebody's house unannounced and to find that nobody was home. But luckily, Zhao saw her brother open up his door and he hugged Zhao's daughter.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And as this happened, Zhao felt like a huge weight had been lifted. She got to the house, and before her brother could say anything, she told him that she needed him to watch her daughter, while she walked to the clinic in town to see a doctor. He said of course, he'd love to watch his niece, but he asked Zhao was she okay?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Zhao said it was no big deal, she just had a little stomach ache and wanted to get some medicine for it. Zhao then thanked her brother, hugged her daughter tight, and said she loved her. Once her brother closed the door behind them, Zhao turned and started walking, but she did not head to the clinic. Instead, she rushed back home.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When Zhao got there, she immediately walked to the back of her house and found her bicycle leaning up against a wall on the small back patio. Zhao's husband, Li, had a good job at a supply company, and Zhao had a well-paying job at a government textile factory. So together, as a two-income family, they were able to afford certain things, like bicycles, that many of their neighbors could not.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They grabbed him and they slammed his head against the outside wall of the warehouse, and the guard fell to the ground in a daze. One of the thieves quickly gagged the guard, bound his hands and feet, and then told him he would need to keep his mouth shut if he wanted to stay alive. Terrified, the guard laid there and watched as these two thieves opened up the warehouse door and ran inside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Zhao rolled the bike to the street in front of her house. She saw the sun beginning to disappear behind the mountains, and she knew it was going to be dark soon. So she put her red sandals on the pedals and rode off as fast as she could. The following day, around noontime, an old farmer wiped the sweat dripping down his forehead. He'd spent hours doing backbreaking work, and he needed a rest.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He walked south and could hear the running water of the Weijin River nearby. The farmer made his way to the edge of his land, and the river came into view. But suddenly, the farmer stopped. Part of the riverbank, about 10 feet from the water, was overgrown with trees and bushes. But through the weeds, the farmer saw something strange laying near one of the trees.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He tried to block the sunlight to get a better view, but he still couldn't quite tell what he was looking at. He walked closer and stared at the ground right near the tree. And suddenly, a look of pure horror crossed his face. He took off running across a shallow part of the river and headed toward the city center that was over 12 miles away.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He left the river and farmland behind, running faster than he had in years. And he kept on running for the entire 12 miles, until he got to the city center and arrived at the local police station. The farmer walked through the door and tried to catch his breath, and as he did, two officers quickly walked over to him and asked what was wrong.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told them they needed to come with him to the river right away. But the officers told the farmer to just rest for a minute and explain what was going on here. However, the story the farmer told them was so shocking, they thought the old man must be confused. But the farmer insisted he knew what he was talking about and begged them to follow him.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So eventually, the officers called over a few other cops and told the farmer to lead the way. The farmer, still exhausted from his run, led the police out of the station, and then they all walked 12 miles back to the river. When they finally got there, the two officers followed the farmer to a tree on the riverbank, and right away they could see the old man had been telling the truth.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But they still didn't want to believe what their eyes were seeing. because laying on the ground, the officers saw a naked charred corpse. They could tell it was a woman who was maybe a little over five feet tall, and she had severe burns all over her body. The burns were so bad that it was impossible to make out her facial features, let alone see any identifying marks.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The officers tried to stay calm, but they had never seen anything like this before. They spent most of their shifts breaking up fights in town or occasionally investigating robberies. That was it. The two officers walked away from the body and joined the other cops, who also had no experience in a case like this. But they did know they had to search the area for potential clues.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So they split into teams, with one group searching the riverbank and the other searching the nearby farmland. On the riverbank, about 20 feet from the body, something caught one of the cops' attention. It was a woman's burned blouse and pants and a pair of red sandals. Just then, another officer called out, and the cop staring at the clothes and the sandals snapped to attention.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Then he joined the other group and saw them looking at a single set of footprints on the riverbank. And it didn't take them long to match those prints to the red sandals. The police continued to search the area, but they didn't find anything else that stood out. And since they had a body and only one pair of footprints that matched the red sandals they'd found, they thought they'd figured it out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This robbery would shake the local community, but it was nothing in comparison to the horrific crimes it would set off and the gruesome discovery the police would soon make on the outskirts of town.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This woman had come to the river alone, set herself on fire on the riverbank, and taken her own life. The following day, July 27th, a detective named Soon Eugene sat at the back of a small, brightly lit meeting room at the local police station. Detective Soon was in his early 30s and had black hair and dark eyes.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He listened to a group of officers talking to the police chief about the autopsy report they had received for the body they discovered by the river. Soon had not been a part of the group at the river, but he needed to speak to the chief, so he sat there and waited. The officer said that the autopsy report did not identify the woman, but it gave a pretty clear picture of how she died.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The body had not been burned after death. She had black carbon foam in her lungs and blood vessels, and that indicated she had been breathing while she was burning. This meant the fire and related smoke inhalation had killed her. And so these officers were saying they felt like that confirmed their theory, that this woman had basically lit herself on fire to commit suicide.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And at this, Detective Soon, who had been quiet to this point, sat up in his chair and shouted, I disagree. The officers immediately turned and just glared at him. Some people in town said Detective Soon was smarter than everybody else, but a few of his colleagues thought he was just plain arrogant.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
One of the officers pointed out that Soon had not been at the river, so he couldn't possibly know what had happened. But the police chief chimed in and asked Soon why he disagreed. Soon nodded and walked to the front of the room. Then with the captive audience in front of him, he said, first, self-immolation, setting yourself on fire, was a rare way for somebody to kill themselves.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please replace the cream inside the Follow Buttons Oreos with toothpaste. Okay, let's get into today's story.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And often when self-immolation occurred, the person doing it was doing it to make a political statement of some kind. And so Soon did not think this woman, who was found in the middle of nowhere and didn't leave a message behind, was making some sort of statement. Before the other officers could argue, Soon said there was actually an easier way to prove this woman didn't kill herself.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said the officers had searched the entire area near the river, but they hadn't found a gas can or any other container that could have held the fuel that burned her.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So either this woman doused herself in gasoline and then walked for miles before lighting herself on fire, or, and Soons said this was way more likely, someone else doused her in some sort of fuel, murdered her by setting her on fire, and then ran off with the gas can. The officers just stared at Soon. Even if he was arrogant, most of them admitted he had made a good point.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But an officer asked him, well, okay, if somebody else killed her, why was there only one set of footprints, which appeared to be the dead woman's footprints? Detective Soon said that was a great question and they would need to look into that. But it was hardly a reason to chalk this whole thing up to suicide.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Soon told the police chief he was sure they had a murder case on their hands and he knew he could solve it. And the chief didn't hesitate. He said, okay, they would treat the woman found at the river as a homicide victim and Detective Soon would lead the investigation. Later that day, Soon walked to the river with several other officers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He held a file folder of photographs that had been taken at the scene the day before. Soon knew that some of his colleagues wished he had kept his mouth shut. It would have been a lot easier if they deemed this a suicide, closed the case, and simply moved on. But Soon was sure he had made the right call.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He refused to believe that a woman could just set herself on fire and not leave any trace of how she'd done it or why. And when Soon stared down at the footprints that were still on the riverbank, he knew he was right. He crouched down and took out a photograph of the red sandals the police had found there the day before.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He glanced between the footprints and the photo, and he knew the officers had been right. The prints matched the sandals. but soon caught something else the others had missed. He gently pressed his hand down into the ground, not far from the footprints, and he was able to make a handprint. However, the ground was so wet that the moment he removed his hand, that print quickly vanished.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was like the ground kind of ate it back up, like water had washed it away. Soon looked at the photo again and fixated on the heels of the red sandals. They weren't high heels, but they were thick and solid, definitely heavy enough to leave a deeper footprint, whereas a lighter, flatter shoe might not have left a mark at all, and they would have just vanished like his handprint.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Soon still did not have a clear picture of what had happened here, but he knew things would become a whole lot clearer as soon as he identified the victim, the dead woman who had worn those red sandals. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. If you haven't discovered redacted declassified mysteries yet, well, you're in for a fascinating journey through history's hidden files.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
As a fellow military veteran, I can tell you that the host of the show, Luke LaManna, brings a very unique insider perspective to these wild stories. From covert operations to historical deceptions, Luke examines verified stories that sound almost too incredible to be true.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Like Anna Montes, the defense intelligence analyst who maintained a perfect cover while secretly working for Cuba for nearly 20 years. or the Tic Tac incident, where a decorated Navy pilot encountered something in the skies that the Pentagon couldn't explain.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Luke and his team dive deep into declassified documents to bring you thoroughly researched, eye-opening stories from the darkest corners of history. Follow Redacted Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Hey guys, Mr. Ballin here.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
You know how I tell strange, dark, and mysterious stories? Well, I've stumbled on some strange, dark, and mysterious medical stories that really are just as wild. Like, there was a story about this woman who accidentally swallowed something that got lodged in her heart. There was a story about a guy where a tree grew in his lung.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Or there was a story about this person who their skin turned bright blue, or this town everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled sometimes for years.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And so that's why I created Mr. Baughlin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body. Follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to listen to episodes early and ad-free? Well, join Wondery Plus or listen on Amazon Music with Prime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The following morning, Detective Soon was sitting at his desk studying the crime scene photos when he heard somebody call his name. Soon looked up and saw an officer standing next to a man who looked like he had not slept in a long time. Soon asked if this man needed his help, and the man told him he was really worried. His older sister, Zhao, had been missing for days.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
soon looked around and saw there was an empty office in the corner. So he scooped up the file folder with the crime scene photos inside and then led Zhao's brother into the office and closed the door behind them. Once they sat down at the small table inside the office, Sun asked the man when was the last time he had seen his sister.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Red Sandals (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said Zhao had dropped off his niece a couple of days ago before going to the clinic, but she never came back. So he'd brought his niece to his other sister's house and then spent a whole day walking everywhere and talking to everyone to see if they had heard from Zhao, but nobody had. Sun looked at the man with pity in his eyes.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
Hey, it's me, Mr. Ballin. Thank you so much for listening to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. Our studio, Ballin Studios, has another incredible brand new podcast for you to listen to, and it's hosted by none other than Nexpo, a YouTube creator with millions of subscribers on his channel.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
Nexpo is truly an incredible storyteller, and now he's launching his podcast with new and exclusive stories you can't find anywhere else. It's called Late Nights with Nexpo, and each week, Nexpo will bring you a terrifying story that will absolutely shake you to your core.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
From the most bizarre unsolved mysteries, to going down the internet's creepiest rabbit holes, to chilling true crime, Nexpo will explore the stories that actually keep him up at night. And if they're keeping him up, I'm pretty sure you'll want to listen with the lights on. or off, depending on how much you like to scare yourself. Either way, one thing's for sure, you'll be hooked.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
So now, I am proud to present you a full episode of Late Nights with Nexpo. It's called Madness on the Mountain, and in it, Nexpo dives into an eerie mystery of death and survival, which still stumps people today. In 1993, seven hikers set out into the Camar de Bon mountains, but only one returned alive. And the reason for their sudden, violent deaths has never been explained.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ballen Studios Presents: Late Nights with Nexpo
So what happened on that mountain? After you finish listening to the episode, please go follow Late Nights with Nexpo wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Late Nights with Nexpo will come out every Wednesday. Enjoy.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 73 through 80 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. On the afternoon of Saturday, October 30th, 1948, a teenage boy wearing an orange and black uniform ran across his high school's football field. He searched the sky for a pass from his quarterback, but a thick layer of fog had rolled in that made it impossible to see.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Dr. Roth realized he was all alone in his office. He held onto a desk and tried to steady himself, but he kept hacking until he felt nauseous. He managed to make it to the bathroom before he actually vomited. And then after that, he stumbled to the bathroom sink and splashed cold water on his face.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
His heart was racing and his whole body felt weak, but he knew he couldn't just stand there because he still felt faint. So he rushed towards the back room where drugs were stored and grabbed a vial of adrenaline and a clean syringe. With his hands shaking, Dr. Roth filled the syringe, poked the needle through his pant leg into his thigh and injected himself with adrenaline.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And after that, he just collapsed into his office chair. After a few moments, Dr. Roth took a big, deep breath. He sat there for several minutes, relishing how good it felt to breathe again. And as he slowly calmed back down, Dr. Roth tried to figure out what had just happened to him. Just like the patients he'd been visiting all day, he'd had what seemed like a sudden, very severe asthma attack.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
But why? He felt sure that something in the air, in the fog, was causing people all over town, including him, to nearly suffocate. But what? Fog was normal in Donora. So what was different about it this time? As he was thinking it over, Dr. Roth opened up a drawer in his desk, and out of pure habit, he grabbed a cigar. Without thinking, he struck a match with the cigar and took a puff.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And immediately, he launched into another uncontrollable coughing fit. Meanwhile, Helen was on her way back to work after her dinner break. She walked through the fog and passed a crowd of people gathered on McKean Avenue. There were adults and kids, all dressed up in festive costumes. Helen knew they were all waiting for the annual Halloween parade to begin.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
But she couldn't think about candy and costumes right now. She was too preoccupied with getting back to work and making sure her patients were okay. She soon made it to the brownstone and went upstairs to the doctor's office. And right when she opened the door, she heard the phone ring. But before she could answer it, she heard something else.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
There was a groaning sound coming from the back hallway. It made the hair on the back of Helen's neck stand up because Dr. Kohler and Dr. Roth were supposed to be at home on their dinner breaks. Helen should have been alone at the office. She followed the groaning sound back to Dr. Roth's private office, and she opened the door to find one of her bosses slumped in his chair.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
His face was bright red and drenched in sweat, he was wheezing, and his eyes were huge and terrified. But somehow, Dr. Roth spoke, and he told Helen he was okay. He just needed to catch his breath. Helen did not believe him. But she could still hear the phone ringing, and Dr. Roth told her to just go answer it.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And so perhaps against her better judgment, she turned and left, and when she got back into the waiting room to answer the phone, she now saw there were a few patients that had come inside. She gestured to let them know she'd be with them in a second, and then she answered the phone. But this time, Helen didn't hear a patient begging for help.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
She heard her other boss, Dr. Kohler, and his voice sounded strained. He said that ever since he had left the office earlier that afternoon, he'd been struggling to breathe too. and he said he didn't know when he'd be able to come back to work.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Helen said okay, but it really was not okay, because as she stood there holding the phone to her ear, the office door swung open and more coughing, wheezing patients tumbled inside. Helen felt so confused and helpless. Half the town was outside enjoying the Halloween parade, totally oblivious to what was happening.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Meanwhile, the phone wouldn't stop ringing and patients were flooding into the doctor's office one after another. And the doctors, Dr. Kohler and Dr. Roth, were both deathly ill and no one actually knew what was causing any of this. Helen felt like she had no choice but to close the office because there was nothing Dr. Kohler or Dr. Roth could do for anybody.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
So she hung up the phone and turned around and told the patients gathered in the waiting room that she was very sorry, but they would have to leave and go to a different doctor's office for help. About seven hours later, a man named Rudolf Schwerha was lying in bed with his wife. They were both fast asleep until the sound of the phone ringing jolted them awake.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Rudolph rolled over, looked at the clock on his bedside table and sighed. It was 2 a.m., which meant the call could not be good news. And that was because Rudolph was both a mortician and the county coroner. He lived right above the funeral home that he owned and operated, and he only got calls in the middle of the night if somebody had died.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Rudolph picked up the phone and said hello, and sure enough, the woman on the other end, a dispatcher at the local sheriff's office, said a 70-year-old man had passed away about half an hour earlier. She said he'd suddenly developed severe respiratory symptoms and stopped breathing. Rudolph did not ask any follow-up questions, because it was 2 a.m.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
and he wasn't really thinking straight, and also because he was totally unaware of the mysterious illness currently plaguing Donora. He just asked the woman for the address and then said he would send his hearse, pick up the man's remains. Rudolph then called his hearse driver and explained the situation and the driver said he was on it and would bring the remains back to the funeral home soon.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Rudolph hung up and while his wife went back to sleep, he laid there awake in bed and listened for the sound of the hearse pulling into his driveway. He figured the driver would show up within minutes because the address was only two blocks away. but half an hour passed by before Rudolph finally heard a car's engine rumbling outside.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Rudolph was about to get up to go greet the driver, but as soon as he threw back the covers, his phone rang again. And again, it's the middle of the night, and so these calls are not good news. Rudolph noticed his wife had just woken up and she sat up next to him looking confused. Rudolph picked up the phone and said hello, and he was surprised to hear that another person had passed away.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And like the first, they'd suddenly developed severe breathing problems and then just died. Two deaths within an hour of each other was unusual in a town as small as Donora. And it was even more strange for two people to just suddenly stop breathing. Rudolph didn't know what was going on, but now he felt uneasy, and he decided he should go with his driver to the next address.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
So Rudolph told his wife he'd be back soon, then he got dressed and hurried outside. A few minutes later, Rudolph rode in the passenger seat while his hearse driver inched down the street. It had taken the driver so long to get to the funeral home because the fog outside had somehow gotten even worse. It was like a solid gray wall.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
As the driver slowly inched forward, Rudolph stared intently out the windshield, desperately trying to somehow see through the fog. They were headed to a neighborhood on the opposite side of the Monongahela River. And to get there, they would have to drive across a very thin road right next to a cliff.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. So if you like today's story, please go to a store the follow button is currently shopping at and page them over the intercom to tell them their car is being towed.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And so Rudolph, naturally, was very concerned that they might accidentally drive right off of it. So when they neared the cliff, Rudolph told the driver to stop and said he wanted to drive, but he would still need the driver's help. While Rudolph got behind the wheel of the hearse, the driver got outside and stood in front of the car.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Then he used a flashlight to guide Rudolph through the fog and make sure the car didn't slip off the side of the cliff. And so Rudolph gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles and did his best to drive as carefully as he could. He knew they would only need to cover a very short distance, but every inch on that cliff felt like torture.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they made it past the cliff and into the neighborhood. They picked up the deceased person's body and then turned right back around and did the same process of slowly driving past the cliff. And then finally, once they were on the other side, they headed back to the funeral home. And by the time they finally got back there, it was almost sunrise.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And Rudolph's wife at this point was wide awake standing by the front door. And the totally overwhelmed look on her face made Rudolph's stomach drop. He didn't need to ask her what was wrong. He could tell by the bags under her eyes that she must have been up all night answering phone calls intended for him, meaning more people must have died.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
So, as soon as Rudolph and the driver had moved the second body into the funeral home, they got back in the car to go pick up another, and then another, and another. By 10 a.m., there were nine bodies waiting in the morgue, and the phone kept on ringing. Four hours later, at 2 p.m. on that Saturday afternoon, a man named August Shambone pulled into the driveway of a stately home in Donora.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
August was the town mayor, but he'd recently been away on business. So when he walked inside, he immediately went to the pile of messages his family had written down for him while he was gone. And as he worked his way down the stack of paper, his face went pale.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Like many people in Donora, August had had no idea that a mystery illness was suffocating people to death all over town, until he saw all these panicked messages from residents, doctors, and morticians begging him for help. August realized he had a very serious emergency on his hands.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Donora didn't have a single hospital, and several of the town's doctors were too sick themselves to work, so people who fell ill literally didn't have anywhere to turn. Meanwhile, bodies were piling up. Between Rudolph's funeral home and the others in town, the death toll was now at 11 people.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And based on the calls he'd received, August estimated that hundreds, maybe even thousands more people were sick. August spent the rest of the day doing whatever he could to help.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
He worked with local nurses to create emergency medical stations, he called in doctors from out of town to come help, he had extra oxygen and inhalers shipped into Donora, he even called the state health department for backup. But at the same time, August didn't make any emergency announcements. But in fairness, he didn't really have a way to.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Donora didn't have a local TV or radio news station, and the newspaper was only published on weekdays. And since this disaster had happened on a weekend, the only way for news to travel was by word of mouth. So while half the town did their best to deal with this mysterious outbreak, the other half was blissfully unaware, carrying on business as usual.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
When they run out to go deal with it, steal their shopping cart. This episode is called Darkness in Donora. On the morning of Friday, October 29th, 1948, a young woman named Helen Stack woke up inside her modest home in the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania. And as soon as Helen opened her eyes, she started coughing. Her throat had been sore for a few days, but this morning it felt even worse.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
The local high school even went ahead with their scheduled football game, even though their players literally couldn't see more than a few feet across the field. But finally, after what felt like one of the longest days of his life, August felt like he needed to call a town meeting. Everybody needed to know what was going on.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
However, he couldn't get everybody from the city council and the board of health together until the following morning. And so first thing the next morning, which was Sunday, October 31st, August made his way through the thick gray fog to a government building downtown. There, he met with a bunch of community leaders to discuss what was going on.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And they all agreed that the fog must have something to do with it. But there were a lot of questions that nobody could answer, like what made this fog different? And why was it making some people sick and even killing some people while others seemed totally unaffected by it? They couldn't make sense of it, let alone figure out how to stop it.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Then at some point during their conversation, August began to hear rain pattering down on the roof. He looked out the window and saw the drizzle turn into a full-on downpour, and he watched in amazement as the rain seemed to wash the fog away. The thick gray clouds that had hung over Denora for nearly a week disappeared in minutes. And with it, the mysterious illness disappeared too.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Just like that, the phones at Denora's doctor's offices stopped ringing. It would take years for public health researchers to understand what had happened during that October week in Donora, Pennsylvania. And that's because there was essentially a large-scale misinformation campaign to hide the truth. However, eventually, the truth came out.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
The so-called fog that blanketed Donora that week was not actually normal Donora fog. It was smog from Donora's many industrial mills. These mills manufactured steel, zinc, and sulfuric acid, and as part of that process, they pumped dangerous chemical byproducts directly into the air. Normally, the smog would float up towards the sky and dissipate quickly.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
But during October 1948, Denora was hit by a very rare weather event called a temperature inversion, which in short, kept these dangerous chemicals down at street level for days. It worked like this. Usually, air is warmest near the surface of the Earth and gets colder as it goes upward towards the sky. But during a temperature inversion, this gets flipped around.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Warm air moves into the space above cold air and traps the heavier cold air underneath it. And when this happened in Denora, which was situated inside a natural bowl in the earth, the warm air was almost like putting a lid on top of that bowl. And so the deadly chemical byproducts from the mills were trapped, turning the air in Denora into a concentrated poison.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
But because fog was so normal in the valley, most people didn't think anything of it. Plus, throughout that very consequential week, and for years afterwards, the owners of the mills insisted they were not to blame, putting out a blizzard of misleading information to defend themselves. They claimed the weather was the problem, not the chemical byproducts.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And many locals believed this, because they didn't want the mills to shut down. Two-thirds of the men in Donora worked there, and the majority of families in town depended on that income. All told, at least 70 people died as a result of what became known as the Denora smog, and over 4,000 people were sickened. Experts said that x-rays of survivors' lungs looked like victims of chemical warfare.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
The Denora smog incident was the worst air pollution disaster in United States history, but it also sparked a national conversation about air pollution and the need for better industrial safety regulations. Two years later, in 1950, the US held its first ever National Air Pollution Conference. After that, progress was slow but steady.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
The nation's first major air pollution law was passed in 1963, and the Environmental Protection Agency was formed in 1970. As of today, all of Donora's industrial mills have been shut down. There's now a museum in that town that commemorates those who lost their lives during Donora's smog and proudly displays the slogan, Clean Air Started Here.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Hey, Prime members, you can listen to new episodes of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. And also, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries ad-free. Join Wondery Plus today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at listenersurvey.com.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick note about our stories. They are all inspired by true events, but we do sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and also some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
She thought she might be coming down with a cold, but Helen was not the kind of person to let a minor illness slow her down. So she still got out of bed, got dressed, and then drank some coffee and ate breakfast before starting her walk to work. From where her house stood near the top of a hill, Helen could sometimes see the entire town.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Karis Allen Pash Cooper. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Ryan Patesta. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. And our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffen. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Bytack and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and also Nick Witters.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
For Wondery, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Moore. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Donora sat inside of a valley right on the banks of the Monongahela River, surrounded on three sides by 400-foot-tall cliffs. On the fourth side were rolling hills that stretched off into the distance. That morning, though, Helen couldn't see any of Donora's natural beauty because fog was blocking her view. In fact, low gray clouds had been hanging over the town for the past four days.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
But that was actually normal because Donora was inside of basically a natural bowl in the earth. The surrounding cliffs and hills blocked the wind, so the fog would accumulate and then get stuck in the valley. To Helen, this was just part of life in Donora. And while it was sort of frustrating at times, it was easy to ignore, because there were so many other good things about living there.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Everybody was friendly, there were plenty of jobs, and there were always fun events going on. As she walked to work, Helen could hardly see across the street, but she could see enough in front of her to say hello to the neighbors who passed her by on her side of the sidewalk, who all knew her by name.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And then at some point, she passed by a street next to a bunch of industrial mills that were also shrouded in fog, and she knew that somewhere in that fog, most of the men in Denora were working. And when she reached McKean Avenue, the main street in town, she could barely make out the workers who were hanging up decorations for that evening's annual Halloween parade.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Eventually, Helen came to a stop in front of a tall brownstone building on McKean Avenue. She went inside, walked up to the second floor, and unlocked the door of the doctor's office where she worked. Helen was the only employee working for the two doctors, Ralph Kohler and Edward Roth. To Helen, these two men seemed pretty similar.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
As the boy waved his arms, the ball bounced off his helmet and fell to the ground. But before he could even jog back to his teammates, the boy heard the school's announcer call his name over the loudspeakers. The announcer sounded urgent and told the boy to report to the sidelines right now. And when he got there, his coach told him he had to head home right away. His mother needed him.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Both were in their 40s, they were tall and heavyset, and they both had very kind and patient demeanors. The only obvious difference between them was that Dr. Roth smoked cigars like a chimney, and Dr. Kohler avoided cigars altogether because he had diabetes and a heart condition. As for Helen, she was a receptionist, a secretary, and a nurse, so she had a lot of responsibilities at the office.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And today, like most days, she was the first one to the office. She turned on the lights and opened up the blinds in the waiting room, then began sweeping up the thin layer of soot that had blown in through the air vents and settled on the floor overnight. Like the fog in Donora, the soot was also very annoying, but totally normal to Helen. She knew it came from the mills nearby.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
It was just a normal part of living in a factory town inside of a valley. After Helen was all done cleaning up the waiting room, she looked around and smiled, because she had just enough time to go smoke a cigarette before the doctors came in and patients began to arrive. Helen sat down behind the reception desk and lit her cigarette.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
She took a long drag, but immediately she noticed it had a strange, bittersweet taste to it. She tried again, and suddenly the tobacco tasted so awful that she doubled over coughing. She coughed until she had tears in her eyes, but she wasn't sure if it was from the cigarette, her sore throat, or maybe both.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Either way, Helen stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette into her ashtray, and then she heard the door open. She looked up to see Dr. Kohler walking inside, and so she knew her workday was about to begin. A few hours later, at 3 p.m., Dr. Kohler stood in the back of the doctor's office and pulled on his overcoat. Even though it was only mid-afternoon, he already felt exhausted.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
His diabetes and his heart condition left him chronically tired, and to deal with it, he kept to a very specific schedule. He went home every day at precisely 3 p.m. so he could lay down and rest before dinner. But right when he was about to leave, he heard quick footsteps coming down the hallway, and Helen rounded the corner.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
She looked concerned and said an older man had just come in, wheezing and complaining that he couldn't catch his breath. Dr. Kohler knew he needed to get home for his own sake, but his partner, Dr. Roth, had already gone on a break, and he couldn't just turn away a patient who needed help. So he took off his overcoat and told Helen to bring the patient back to an exam room.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Moments later, Dr. Kohler met that patient in the exam room, and he recognized him as one of his regulars. The man was one of many locals in town who Dr. Kohler treated for asthma, which is a chronic condition that causes a person's airways to swell and make it difficult to breathe. And so as a result, Dr. Kohler wasn't surprised that this patient was wheezing.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Whenever the fog in Donora got really thick, people's asthma tended to flare up. So Dr. Kohler gave his patient the usual asthma treatment for 1948, which was a shot of adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that can help open a person's airway when they're having trouble breathing. Once the adrenaline shot took effect and the man caught his breath again, Dr. Kohler sent him on his way.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Then the doctor put his overcoat back on and followed that patient out, anxious to go home and get in bed. 30 minutes later, Helen sat at the reception desk and flicked through the day's mail. Usually, the office got quiet in the afternoons, and then business would pick up again in the evenings. So she was using the lull to get some administrative work done.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
So the boy just took off his helmet and ran home through the fog. When he burst through the door, he saw his father lying on the couch with the doctor standing over him. And his mother was standing by, weeping. The doctor told the boy that he was very sorry, but his father had just died. The boy just stood there, stunned. His father had been fine that morning.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Helen pulled out the junk mail from the pile and then got up to throw it away. But as she was walking towards the trash can, she heard a loud crash from the hallway outside the office, followed by the sound of somebody yelling. Helen's first thought was somebody fell down the stairs, and so she rushed to check if they were okay, and what she saw in the hallway absolutely terrified her.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
A man she didn't recognize was clinging to the banister, and his knuckles were white and his face was turning blue. He was moaning in pain, kicking the wall and screaming, Help me! Help me! I'm dying! Helen was so confused and afraid that she just froze.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Luckily, another doctor who ran his own private practice across the hall from them soon showed up, and so did the other doctor that Helen worked for, Dr. Roth. While those two doctors began to help the man, Helen heard the sound of her phone ringing at her reception desk.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And so Helen kind of broke out of her trance, ran back inside the office and answered the phone, and immediately she heard the sound of a woman screaming on the other end of the line for help, just like the blue-faced man in the hall had been doing. The woman said her husband couldn't breathe and he needed help right now. Helen got the woman's address and promised that Dr. Roth would be there soon.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
However, before Helen could run across the hall and tell Dr. Roth that another patient needed his help, the phone rang again, and then again, and then again. And everyone Helen spoke to said the same thing. They couldn't breathe, they were coughing up blood, their heads hurt, their stomachs were killing them, and they all thought they were going to die.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And unfortunately, the town only had a single ambulance, and it was booked solid. And so one after another, Helen took down these people's names and addresses and added them to the growing list of patients the doctors needed to visit. Helen had no idea what was going on in Donora, but it certainly felt like all hell had broken loose inside of her normally quiet town.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
He didn't understand what could have happened. However, what this boy did not know was that his father was not the first person in town to die that day, and he would not be the last, because this community was in the middle of a medical disaster that would change the course of American history.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Two hours later at 6 p.m., Dr. Roth squinted as he very slowly drove down McKean Avenue after an afternoon of house calls. Because of the fog, which now had gotten so bad, he could hardly make out the lines on the road, and so he just gripped the steering wheel tightly and went really slow, keeping an eye out for the brownstone building where he worked.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
Dr. Roth had never been in a situation like this before. People all over town were struggling to breathe, regardless of whether they had asthma or not, and Dr. Roth really didn't know why. He figured it must be something in the air, literally. But even with fog this bad, he'd never seen it affect people this much before.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
By this point in the day, he'd already given so many patients adrenaline injections that he'd run through his entire supply. And he'd barely made a dent in the list of people who still needed help. And so now he needed to stop by the office and refill his supply of adrenaline before making more house calls. But it was literally too foggy to even find his own address.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And so Dr. Roth figured he'd have better luck if he just parked his car and walked. So he carefully pulled to the curb, turned off the engine, and got out. He went to the sidewalk, and when he saw the nearest building to him, he realized he'd actually driven past his office without knowing it.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
And so Dr. Roth doubled back towards the brownstone, threw open the door, and began running up the stairs. However, after only a few steps, he had to stop because he ran out of breath, and then he began to cough. His chest felt tight, like somebody was squeezing the air out of him.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
He managed to make it back to his office, but immediately when he got there, he doubled over in the entryway and coughed until tears were streaming down his face. Dr. Roth felt like he was choking. He started to panic and looked around for help, but his secretary, Helen, had left for dinner, and his colleague, Dr. Kohler, who had left to go take a nap, was still at home.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 73 through 80 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. One August morning in 2019, a widow in her 70s drove in silence with her two adult children to a hospital in New Brunswick, Canada. Although it was a beautiful summer morning, the mood in the car was somber.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
They wondered if the disease might have some genetic basis, and whether as a result, they were at risk of meeting the same fate as their father. But, since at this point nobody knew what the disease even was, there was no way to determine if they were in danger or not.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
That morning, Ted read that Dr. Marlowe, along with a variety of other experts, had been meeting at the Public Health Agency of Canada to discuss a new disease that had afflicted more than 40 people in the region, which meant Dr. Marlowe had discovered at least 20 new cases since Ted's dad got sick.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
These experts were referring to this disease by the name New Brunswick Neurological Syndrome of Unknown Etiology. Ted continued reading and he saw that patients with the syndrome spanned different ages, lifestyles, and backgrounds, but they all seemed to develop dementia in the exact same way his father had. And so far, six of these people had died.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Ted was relieved to read that the scientists did not see any genetic link in this disease. In fact, scientists found that these patients had only one thing in common. They all lived in the same geographical area. And this made scientists suspect that something in the environment might be to blame.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Some scientists had apparently drafted a memo to warn local doctors about this horrible, mysterious illness, while others feared it would cause panic and argued against sending it out. However, that disagreement no longer mattered because somebody had leaked the whole memo to the press. And so the mysterious disease now had global attention.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
With this mystery disease now out in the open, Ted hoped to connect with other families affected by the syndrome. And he would quickly discover that somebody had already set up a discussion group for New Brunswick Neurological Syndrome on Facebook.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And soon Ted would share to this group that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research had offered Dr. Marlowe's group 5 million Canadian dollars to fund a clinical investigation of New Brunswick disease.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
However, two months later, the New Brunswick provincial government announced it would be taking over this investigation, which meant Dr. Marlowe and his team of scientists would no longer be involved. Ted and the other members of this Facebook group could not understand why the government would exclude Dr. Marlowe.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He had done more than anybody else to identify the strange condition and its victims. Ted thought the government should be looking to include more scientists rather than leaving people out. It just made no sense to Ted or anybody else in this group. Unless something was going on behind the scenes that they weren't aware of.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Five months later, in October of 2021, Ted was driving to work on a crisp fall morning. He kept the windows cracked to enjoy the fresh air with the radio turned on low. Ted was doing his best to enjoy the morning, but his mind was preoccupied. His father, Louis, had been dead for over two years, but his cause of death was still unknown.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Ted and his Facebook friends had been anxious for more information, but ever since the provincial government had taken over the investigation, there had been zero updates on the issue. As Ted passed an 18-wheeler loaded with lumber, his ear happened to catch a snippet from the radio. He turned up the volume just in time to hear the announcer mention the New Brunswick disease.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The province had been studying a cluster of 48 cases, eight of which had been fatal so far. To conduct autopsies on those eight fatalities, they had turned to an independent doctor from the province of Ontario, Dr. Robert Hansen. And now Dr. Hansen had finished his investigation. and his preliminary conclusion was that there was no connection between the cases.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
They were all separate incidents, unrelated to each other. Dr. Hansen determined that each of these patients had contracted a well-known disease, such as cancer, Lewy body dementia, or Alzheimer's. There was no new disease here. Ted couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was certain there had to be a connection between all these cases. Also, Ted had seen his father's autopsy report.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He wasn't sure which disease Dr. Hansen thought had killed his father, but he knew that his dad had absolutely not died of CJD or any of those diseases listed in Dr. Hansen's report. It was something new, something that still was not recognized by the medical community. And so now, Ted wondered if maybe the Canadian government wanted to keep it that way.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Something just felt off about this whole situation, and so Ted decided he was going to do something about it. Over the next few months, Ted and his family communicated with dozens of families through that New Brunswick Disease Facebook group. And they all agreed that Dr. Hansen was wrong. There was a connection between all these cases.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And the cause had to be environmental since almost every patient lived in the same area of Canada. Working together, Ted and the others had come up with possible strategies to continue searching for an answer. One idea was just to crowdfund their own environmental testing.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Another idea was to invite famed environmental activist Erin Brockovich, whose life was actually made into a movie starring Julia Roberts, to have her lead an outside investigation. And at the same time, week after week, they campaigned relentlessly, hoping that Dr. Hansen's panel might change their conclusion that the condition was not real.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
They hoped they were having an effect, but Ted couldn't tell for sure. Then one day on February 24th of 2022, Ted picked up the newspaper from his front lawn and saw a headline about the case. He brought the paper inside and spread it out on the kitchen table and flipped to the article.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
There it was, in print, the Provincial Oversight Committee's final report on the so-called New Brunswick disease. After supposedly much consideration and debate, the committee ruled in agreement with Dr. Hansen's assessment. The cases were not connected. A new disease did not exist. Ted's heart sank. All of their efforts had been for nothing.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
It seemed like the truth behind his father's death would now stay unknown forever. Over eight months later, as the sun was beginning to set on an autumn afternoon in 2022, Dr. Marlow slumped into his chair behind his desk and sighed deeply. His last patient of the day had just left. Finally, he could take a moment for himself.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Even after the government shut down his research into the New Brunswick disease, Dr. Marlow's workload of patients who appeared to have the non-existent condition continued to grow. Eventually, it totaled 430, 111 of whom were under the age of 45, and 39 had died so far. And almost all of them suffered a similar pattern of sudden cognitive and physical decline.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Dr. Marlow could find little connection between the age or background of the patients themselves, but he did notice a striking pattern in when they got sick. Most of his new cases were clustered around late summer and early fall. he tried to think about what environmental factors might change at the end of the summer.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Glancing out the window, Dr. Marlow let his eyes settle on the line of trees at the horizon, a common sight across heavily forested Canada. But today, it sparked something in his mind. Dr. Marlow wondered if the late summer spike in cases had something to do with forestry schedules. Dr. Marlowe knew that most logging is done in the summer.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Once the trees are felled and hauled away, new seedlings are planted to regrow the area so it can be logged again in the future. But in order to keep weeds and shrubs from choking off the new trees, loggers spray herbicide. As with many chemicals, Dr. Marlowe knew that their effects on humans sometimes took generations to identify.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
If it was discovered that exposure to these herbicide chemicals was sickening people in this area, it would be a massive liability for the Canadian government. Was it possible that's what they were afraid of and why the government had closed the investigation? To keep a connection like this hidden?
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Logging was one of New Brunswick's oldest, biggest, and most profitable industries, and messing with an economic engine of that size was a dangerous business. If the forestry industry feared they might be tied to a public health epidemic, Dr. Marlowe had no doubt that calls would be made to top political leaders to put pressure on them to stop that information from getting out.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Too many people stood to lose too much money. Dr. Marlowe wanted to test this new chemical theory, but it would take weeks before he finally found a laboratory that was willing to discreetly run some tests for him. It was a six hour drive away in the province of Quebec, but Dr. Marlowe was thankful to have anyone willing to take on this work.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
In December of 2022, Dr. Marlowe collected blood samples from over 100 of his New Brunswick disease patients and he shipped them to this laboratory. His goal was to test as wide a spectrum of patients as possible to make sure his results were scientifically sound. Weeks later, Dr. Marlowe finally got word from the lab that the tests were complete.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He swiped open his tablet to check the results and what he saw astonished him. Dr. Marlowe's hunch had been correct. The results from the Quebec laboratory proved it. 90% of Dr. Marlowe's patients' blood samples contained elevated levels of glyphosate, which is a herbicide routinely used in forestry work. In one case, the levels were 15,000 times higher than the lowest detectable numbers.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The chemicals in glyphosate block an enzyme necessary for plant growth, so any weeds or grasses sprayed with it eventually die. Dr. Marlow was certain that this chemical was having a long-term, sometimes devastating effect on people's health. But despite his findings, not everyone agrees that glyphosate can be harmful.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The United States Environmental Protection Agency ruled in 2022 that glyphosate causes no health risk, even to children. But in Canada, the debate is beginning to tilt in Dr. Marlowe's favor. Eventually, the province of Quebec acknowledged a link between glyphosate and an increased risk for Parkinson's, a brain disorder that can cause stiffness and serious problems with movement.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Other recent studies have shown that glyphosate disrupts the naturally occurring bacteria in the gut that play a key role in overall health. When bacteria in the gut are imbalanced, it can cause inflammation throughout the body, including in the brain.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Some scientists believe this inflammation can lead to Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders, just like Lewis and the other patients experienced. Dr. Marlowe continues to hold out hope that the government will resume their research, and he may get his wish.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. So if you like today's story, whenever the follow button texts you, only reply with, who dis? This episode is called Sudden Insanity.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
On November 15, 2024, the newly elected premier of New Brunswick, basically the province's new governor, said she wants to reopen the investigation, which means, finally, the people affected by New Brunswick disease may get the answers they've been seeking. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to new episodes of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Download the app today. And also, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries ad-free. Join Wondery Plus today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at listenersurvey.com. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick note about our stories.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
They are all inspired by true events, but we do sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and also some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Britt Brown. Our editor is Heather Dundas.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Sound design is by Ryan Patesta. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. And our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffen. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Bytack and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and also Nick Witters. For Wondery, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Moore. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
A few days before New Year's Eve in 2018, a woman in her 70s named Jane Benchley stepped through the front door of her New Brunswick, Canada home after walking her terrier around the block. She called out for her 81-year-old husband, Louis, but the house was quiet. Jane checked their bedroom, then the bathrooms, and even looked in the backyard.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And just as she started to worry, she heard Louis' voice from down the hall. She opened the door to what used to be his office. Inside, her husband was hunched over his desk, looking at dusty old accounting logs and muttering to himself. Jane was surprised to find him there. Louis had retired years ago and hardly ever used the office anymore.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
When Jane asked him what he was doing, Louis slammed his fist down. Then he shoved the folders to the floor, leapt to his feet, and began shouting about how he'd been cheated. A supplier overcharged him for lumber on a contracting job, and he was furious about it. Jane tried to calm him down by reminding Louis that he'd sold his construction business years ago.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Any money conflicts from old projects were water under the bridge now. But Lewis was not having it. He just stood there angrily shaking his head and fell silent. Jane left the office to give her husband some space to sort through his anger on his own. But at dinner later that night, Lewis was still fuming. He barely spoke.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The previous winter, the woman's husband and the father of her children had suddenly lost his mind and died. It had been almost like he was in the grips of an extremely fast-moving case of Alzheimer's. His mind and body had declined so quickly, ravaged by this frightening and mysterious disease.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Jane couldn't understand why he was so fixated on financial matters from ages ago, but she just hoped a good night's sleep would clear his head. But the next day, Jane returned to the house after running some morning errands to find her husband acting totally frantic again. This time, it was about his appearance. He pointed to his head in a panic and asked why his hair was white.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Jane didn't know what to say. She told Lewis that nothing had changed and that his hair had been white for a long time, but he brushed her off and stormed out of the room. Jane had a bad feeling. Momentary confusion was one thing, but her husband's strange behavior the last couple of days seemed like something much more serious.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
So she went to the office where Lewis was and she asked him a simple question. What year was it? And his answer floored her. He said it was 1992, but it was not. That was 26 years earlier. And so now Jane was frightened. Despite his age, Lewis hadn't shown any signs of dementia before yesterday. But today, his grasp on reality seemed to be slipping by the hour.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Jane found herself wondering if this might be some extremely aggressive form of Alzheimer's. And so she grabbed her phone to book Lewis the next available appointment with his doctor. That night, Jane did her best to try to relax. She sat down in front of the TV with a cup of tea, but no matter what she did, she just couldn't stop worrying about her husband.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
As she got up to pour a new cup, she heard a loud crash from down the hall. Jane rushed towards the noise and swung open the office door. Inside, the floor was covered in shattered pieces of Louis' desk lamp. Behind the desk sat Louis, thrashing in his chair with his eyes rolled back in his head. Jane rushed to his side and tried to calm him down, but his body was spasming out of control.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
All she could do was hold his limbs and try to keep Louis from smashing anything else. Gradually, the seizure did subside, and once Lewis was breathing normally, Jane grabbed her phone, purse, and keys and guided her husband to the car. Her mind raced as she drove him to the hospital. What in the world was going on with her husband?
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Six months later, in May of 2019, Dr. Alan Marlow, a neurologist, looked across his office desk at Jane and her two adult children, Ted and Ellen. The mood in the room was tense and very emotional. Jane dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. Only days ago, Jane's husband, Louis, had died.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Dr. Marlowe first met Jane and Lewis back in January of 2019, when she had brought her husband to the hospital following that seizure. Initially, Dr. Marlowe thought Lewis must have a brain disorder, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, or ALS. Any of these could have explained his abrupt mental decline and loss of motor control.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
By the end of May that year, the woman's husband was dead, leaving her and her children both shattered and confused by what they had just witnessed. But the worst part of it was they didn't even know what disease had killed him. His doctor had a pretty good guess, but he wouldn't be sure until an autopsy was performed.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And so Dr. Marlowe had conducted various tests to confirm that Lewis had one of these conditions, but all of the tests were inconclusive. Yet, week by week, Lewis's symptoms only worsened. He began having daydreams that were like nightmares. They were pure hallucinations, but very real to Lewis. Also, Lewis began to lose control of his limbs.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He would have these muscle spasms that were super intense, to the point where basic movements would cause him severe pain. Eventually, Dr. Marlow suspected the worst, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and always fatal condition that is caused by abnormal proteins in the brain.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The symptoms of CJD, as it's also called, can seem like an unusually fast-moving case of Alzheimer's, but there are no treatments to slow its progress. Victims typically die within six months to a year. Now, unfortunately, CJD can only be diagnosed by doing an autopsy of the patient's brain after death.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And so even though Dr. Marlowe felt confident what Lewis had was CJD, he couldn't be sure so long as Lewis was alive. And so the doctor did everything in his power to ease Lewis's symptoms. However, his condition never improved and Lewis died within five months of his first meeting with the doctor.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Dr. Marlowe knew that being back in his office was hard for Jane, but he needed her to sign documents consenting to an autopsy of her husband's body. Learning the details of the condition that killed Lewis might help future CJD patients avoid a similar fate. Jane dried her eyes, took the pen, and signed the documents.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Three months later, in the late summer of 2019, Dr. Marlowe returned to his office to find an email informing him that Louis Benchley's post-mortem report was complete. Dr. Marlowe clicked it open and he was surprised at what he saw. Louis did not have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Louis' symptoms had been very consistent with CJD. Nothing else had made sense to the doctor.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
But if CJD didn't kill Louis, what did? Dr. Marlowe opened Lewis's old medical file to re-familiarize himself with the details. And as he did, something about Lewis's combination of symptoms rang a bell in Dr. Marlowe's memory. Dr. Marlow dug up the case files of some other patients he treated over the past few years.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Now, they were much younger than Lewis, in their 20s or 30s, so at first they did not seem connected to him, especially since CJD typically afflicted older or elderly people, but these younger patients had reported very similar symptoms to Lewis, sudden mental and physical decline with no warning or prior genetic condition.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
And so now, two months later and after an autopsy was done, the family was going to meet with that doctor about what he discovered. Once the woman and her children were settled in the doctor's office, he got straight to the point. Unfortunately, the autopsy had been inconclusive. Her husband had died from an unknown illness.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
The other similarity was that nearly all the patients, Lewis included, lived in the same two regions of Canada, the city of Moncton, which is the most populous city in New Brunswick, and the Acadian Peninsula, a strip of the northeast coast known for scenic fishing villages and blueberry farms.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
However, Dr. Marlow couldn't imagine why the people in these two specific areas of New Brunswick would be more vulnerable to this strange and deadly disease. Dr. Marlowe buzzed his secretary to schedule a meeting with Jane to share the results of her husband's examination. Dr. Marlowe wondered what to tell her after breaking the news that her husband had not in fact died of CJD.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He knew she'd want to know the same thing he did. What had killed Lewis? Dr. Marlowe just hoped he could eventually find the answer. Six months later, in the depths of winter, Dr. Marlowe poured himself another cup of coffee in the break room and looked out the window. It was barely 3 p.m., but it was already getting dark out. Dr. Marlowe felt spread thin by his workload recently.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Over the past six months, his medical practice had been filled with a string of complicated cases, all very similar to Louis Benchley's. Patient after patient had come to him after suffering an abrupt mental decline, followed by physical degeneration. As with Lewis, many of the patients exhibited symptoms similar to CJD, but something was always slightly off.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
No matter how many tests Dr. Marlowe ran, the results never quite aligned with CJD. The symptoms either developed too slowly or too rapidly, or they didn't respond to medications that they should have. But the strangest thing was how young most of these patients were. And this made Dr. Marlowe think.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
Ever since Lewis's post-mortem examination showed that he was negative for CJD, Dr. Marlowe had begun to have the sneaking suspicion. Maybe what happened to Lewis was something totally new, something other doctors hadn't recognized yet, something still unnamed. Dr. Marlowe admitted that that was a bit far-fetched, but it was the only working theory Dr. Marlowe had.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
However, despite his suspicion that perhaps he was looking at this brand new condition here, Dr. Marlowe still reported each of these new mysterious cases to the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance System, run by the Canadian government. He hoped that by keeping the government informed, it would help them spot larger trends that maybe Dr. Marlowe couldn't.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
He figured that if they did see a bigger trend, that healthcare providers like himself would be notified of any special actions they should take in response. In the meantime though, Dr. Marlowe decided to do a little investigating on his own.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
But before the widow could say a word, the doctor told her that wasn't all. In digging through the hospital's records, the doctor had discovered 20 other patients in just the past few years who were diagnosed with symptoms that were very similar to her husband's. So whatever this disease was, it was not isolated.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
But the strange thing was, beyond their geographic proximity, there was nothing connecting these patients, not age, not lifestyle, nothing, which left the doctor with a chilling but inescapable conclusion. Something where these people lived was responsible for making them sick, but the doctor had no idea what it could be.
MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries
Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
A little over a year later, on an early morning in 2021, Louis Benchley's son, Ted, opened his morning newspaper and saw that the mystery disease that had killed his father was finally getting some public attention. After meeting with Dr. Marlowe, Ted and his sister Ellen had been scared to death.
Small Town Murder
#583 - Charming Serial Killer - Kirkland, Washington
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#583 - Charming Serial Killer - Kirkland, Washington
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#583 - Charming Serial Killer - Kirkland, Washington
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Small Town Murder
#581 - Sexy Sunday School Teacher Slaughter - Enid, Oklahoma
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#581 - Sexy Sunday School Teacher Slaughter - Enid, Oklahoma
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#581 - Sexy Sunday School Teacher Slaughter - Enid, Oklahoma
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Small Town Murder
#585 - Serial Killer's Secret Graveyard - Kingston Township, Pennsylvania
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#585 - Serial Killer's Secret Graveyard - Kingston Township, Pennsylvania
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#585 - Serial Killer's Secret Graveyard - Kingston Township, Pennsylvania
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Small Town Murder
#584 - Killer Homecoming King - Powell, Wyoming
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#584 - Killer Homecoming King - Powell, Wyoming
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#584 - Killer Homecoming King - Powell, Wyoming
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Small Town Murder
#582 - Seven Murders & One Lie - Elkland, Missouri
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#582 - Seven Murders & One Lie - Elkland, Missouri
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#582 - Seven Murders & One Lie - Elkland, Missouri
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Small Town Murder
#580 - Beauty Shop Butcher - Roebuck, South Carolina
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Small Town Murder
#580 - Beauty Shop Butcher - Roebuck, South Carolina
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Small Town Murder
#580 - Beauty Shop Butcher - Roebuck, South Carolina
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E7: How Did We Get Here?
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E7: How Did We Get Here?
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E7: How Did We Get Here?
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E9: Bad Marriage
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E8: Life and Death
You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps? The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead in hospital rooms and doctor's offices? Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E8: Life and Death
And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened, and cases so baffling they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries should be your new go-to weekly show.
Something Was Wrong
S23 E8: Life and Death
Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Spotify or Apple podcasts.