MrBallen
Appearances
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
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. Several years ago, prank videos were huge on YouTube.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Citi and Doan made their way right behind the third actor, and as he continued to punch the screen of the self-serve kiosk, the two women split up, just like they had rehearsed. Citi walked around the man and got on the backside of this kiosk, basically looking at the man who was looking down at the computer screen, and Doan stayed where she was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And then Doan looked up at Citi and nodded, which was the signal, at which point Citi rushed forward right in front of this guy who looked up and acted surprised. And then Doan ran up behind him and grabbed his face and rubbed her hands in that wet cloth all over his face. And then Citi, as soon as that was happening, sprayed the perfume on the guy's face as well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And then the two women kind of giggled and said, sorry, and then walked away in separate directions. As Citi walked to the bathroom to wash the perfume off her hands, she was very conscious of the fact that she was still very likely being filmed. And so she checked her hair a couple of times and made sure her clothes were just right.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And then she disappeared into the bathroom, she washed her hands, and then she looked up at the mirror and she smiled because she knew she had nailed this prank and she was going to be a star.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
After Citi had finished washing up, she left the bathroom and made her way over to the meetup point, kind of on the other side of the airport where Doan, James, and the other producers were going to meet up, but no one was there.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And she thought that was weird because they had totally planned to meet at this point after the prank, but after a little while, Citi told herself that, you know, maybe they had already headed down to the taxi waiting area, and that's where they are, and they're waiting for me.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
so city left the airport and went to the taxi waiting area but when she got there she found herself alone again and so city would stand there looking around waiting for about 15 minutes and when still she didn't see anybody she texted james and said you know where are you but she didn't get a response and so feeling kind of annoyed city finally just flagged down a taxi on her own hopped in and told the driver she just wanted to go back to her hotel
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And then on the drive to the hotel, Citi started to get carsick and kind of nauseous, and she figured it didn't help that she had drank a bunch the night before, so she was still a little bit hungover. And at some point, she actually had to tell the driver to pull over so she could vomit outside.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so finally, when Citi got back to her hotel and got back to her room, she felt so crappy and she was so upset with how everything was going that she didn't even bother to get undressed. She just jumped into her bed and fell asleep.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Citi would sleep for several hours, and when she woke up again, she still felt totally hungover and gross, and she rolled over and checked her phone, expecting to see a message from James explaining why they had ditched her after the prank, but there was no messages or phone calls from anyone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so Citi was totally annoyed and frustrated, but just couldn't deal with this right now, and so she put her phone down and fell asleep for the rest of the night. The next morning when Citi woke up, she felt like a brand new person. She was not hung over anymore. She rolled over and grabbed her phone, again expecting to see a message from James or someone. There wasn't anything.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so she called James. But as soon as she called him, she could tell his phone was now off. And so suddenly, Citi thought to herself, wait a minute, did the prank go badly? Did I do something wrong? Is that why they're ignoring me? And then also, Citi thought to herself, am I still going to get paid for this prank? I told my family I was sending them 100 US dollars.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
All day that day, Citi would sit on her bed in the hotel and call and text James, but James never got back to her. And Citi did not have the contact info for the other actors or the other producers, and so she was just totally stuck, not really sure what to do. And she just couldn't understand it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
I mean, even if it had gone really badly, if she had blown that prank for some reason, she had spent the past four weeks with these people, specifically James, flying all over the country with him, going to dinners with him. He had thrown her a birthday party. They had all these long conversations about life. What could she have possibly done that would warrant this kind of treatment?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so by the end of that day, when Still City had heard nothing, she just felt totally heartbroken and embarrassed and decided, you know what? I'm done with those people. Tomorrow, I'm going home to my family. And sure enough, the next day, Citi got up, she grabbed her things, she checked out of the hotel, she headed to the airport to fly back home.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
But as she was going through security, she heard all this commotion behind her and she turned and she saw six heavily armed police officers sprinting in her direction. And so instinctively, Citi tried to get out of the way to let them run past her. But instead of the men running past her, they ran right up to her, grabbed her, flipped her around and put her under arrest.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And immediately, Citi's like, oh my goodness, this is what's been going on. They've been ghosting me for two days here because they were setting me up for another prank. I'm part of the prank now. James must be nearby filming, and they've sent these fake police officers to arrest me, and so this is all gonna be on the show.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so feeling totally relieved, Citi began to laugh and said to one of the officers, oh, so this is a prank, huh? And the officer was like, no, this is real. You are under arrest. And when he told her what she was being arrested for, Citi nearly fainted. Here's what really happened during Citi's last big prank.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not, just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push, find your power, Peloton. Visit onepeloton.com.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
After Citi and Doan had run up on the third actor and Doan rubbed that towel on his face and then Citi sprayed him with perfume, the two women had then disappeared into the crowd and then the third actor just stood there staring blankly. And then he had kind of stumbled away from the kiosk over to a receptionist where he told her that he was feeling really dizzy.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
The receptionist could tell this guy definitely needed help. He was unsteady on his feet, his face was all wet, and he was speaking kind of frantically. And so she grabbed a few employees of the airport, and they clustered around him and began walking him to the medical clinic that was in the airport.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Basically, a prank YouTube channel would go out in public and they would do something crazy to some unsuspecting person and they'd film their reaction and that reaction video would get tons of views on YouTube.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And as they escorted him to this clinic, the man began saying he was in so much pain, and he kept walking slower and slower. And then finally, when they actually got him inside this clinic, just a couple of minutes later, he was on the ground having a seizure. Immediately, the medical staff rushed to the man's aid, and they injected him with a medicine to stop the seizure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And then with the help of airport staff, they lifted him up, put him on a stretcher, and then rushed him to an ambulance that was supposed to take him to the hospital. but he would die on the way there. Siti and Doan had no idea this had happened to the third actor after the prank. The two women had gone into separate bathrooms and then basically just missed each other.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
They came out staggered to the meeting point and they didn't see anyone. They both went down to the taxi waiting area thinking that's where everyone had gone. And again, Siti and Doan just didn't see each other and they both got in their own taxis and went back to their own hotels.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
As for James and the other producers, the reason they were absent after this prank had ended is because they planned to be absent after this prank. As soon as they saw Citi and Doan pulling off this prank successfully, they all got up from that restaurant and promptly rushed to board planes that would take them out of the country. because James and these other producers were not really producers.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
They didn't have a prank show. It was all a charade. In reality, they worked for the North Korean government, and James, whose real name was Ri Ji-woo, had been tasked by the North Korean government to recruit gullible women, aka Sidi and Do-won, to participate in a top-secret mission that could easily get them killed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
In fact, this mission was so sensitive and so dangerous that James and his other TV producers had to live undercover for weeks with Doan and Citi kind of slowly convincing them that this was all legitimate and that what they were going to do was just a prank, not a top secret mission. Citi and Doan had both been recruited by James because they both were vulnerable and poor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Citi was also known to be very naive and believed anything she was told, and Doan was very immature and childlike and overly trusting. All the prank videos that Citi and Doan had been independently filming with James and their crew in the weeks leading up to this big final prank had not been episodes of a prank show.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
They were actually doing pranks on actual unsuspecting people, but it was all rehearsals. James and his crew wanted to make sure that Citi and Doan, one, thought this really was a prank show, and two, that they were able to actually do the prank, that they wouldn't chicken out at the end.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And on the morning of February 12th, 2017, the day of the big prank, which in reality was the big secret mission, the perfume that Citi was given was not really perfume, and the oil that was rubbed on Doan's hands was not really oil. They were the ingredients for a deadly nerve gas called VX.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
On the night of February 12th, 2017, a young woman named Siti Aisha saw something coming over to her that surprised her so much that she gasped and she put her drink down on the bar. The bar she was at was called the Hard Rock Cafe in Kuala Lumpur, which is the capital city of Malaysia. This night for Citi had already been one of the best in recent memory, but now it was getting even better.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Now, separately, these ingredients would not have harmed either of these two women, but when you combine those ingredients, that's when it turns into a deadly poison. And so that was why Citi and Doan had been told to do this prank together, because James and his crew needed them to mix the VX gas on their target's face. And the target was not an actor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
His name was Kim Jong-nam, and he had no idea what was going on when Sidi Ndoan touched his face and sprayed him with perfume, but he was dead within 20 minutes, and his death would have been exceptionally painful. it would turn out Sidi and Dowon had been tricked into participating in one of the biggest political assassinations in recent history.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Because Kim Jong-nam, the target, was actually the exiled brother of the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un. And it's widely believed that Kim Jong-un is the one who actually authorized this assassination.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Both Siti and Doan were initially charged with murder in Malaysia, which comes with an automatic death sentence, but those charges were quickly dropped when it was discovered that these two women were clearly victims as well.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Surveillance video at the airport shows Citi and Doan handling the extremely deadly nerve agent ingredients so casually, and then after they pulled off their prank, which meant they now had VX gas on their hands, they casually were touching their hair and touching their clothes. It's obvious they have no idea what they're doing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
The sickness that Citi started to feel after the prank was not a hangover. Those were symptoms of VX gas poisoning. It just wasn't enough to kill her. Neither James nor any of the other TV producers has ever been arrested, and to this day, North Korea still says they had nothing to do with this assassination. A quick note about our stories.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
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 studios' podcasts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
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 Ingenues
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 Ingenues
Because a waitress was walking over to her carrying a birthday cake with a candle lit in the middle, and Citi knew it was for her. So she stepped forward kind of bashfully, and all of Citi's friends who were there with her kind of formed up around her. And as the waitress came over to Citi, the friends all immediately began singing happy birthday to Citi.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
It was Citi's 25th birthday, and she could not believe how far she had come. Here she was in this beautiful American-styled restaurant, surrounded by her friends, who were these big TV show producers, and tonight they were throwing a party for her. Something that did not happen often in Citi's life to this point.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
After Citi's friends finished singing Happy Birthday, Citi leaned forward and she blew out her candle, but she didn't even make a wish before she blew it out. Because to her, she felt like she had everything she had ever wanted. And so instead, as she blew that candle out, she just made a point to feel incredibly grateful for the life that she now had.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Because not long ago, Siti's life looked very different. Siti had grown up in a tiny town inside of a jungle in Indonesia. She was the youngest of three children, and her parents were very poor farmers that barely made enough money to provide shelter and food for their kids. In fact, Siti's parents were so poor that they couldn't afford to send her to high school.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Well, during this prank heyday on YouTube, there was one YouTube channel that pulled off a prank that really stood out amongst the thousands and thousands of other pranks that were getting pumped out around this time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
They needed her to stay home and go to work to help support the family. Citi would end up getting married and she would have a son with her husband, but her husband would divorce her and not provide any support for their kid. And so suddenly Citi was the single mother trying to look out for her son while also trying to provide for her parents and her other siblings.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And eventually it became so difficult to find enough work to provide for all these people that Siti was forced to go abroad and look for work elsewhere outside of Indonesia, which meant she had to leave behind not only her parents and siblings, but also her son. Her son had to stay with her parents. Siti would ultimately find work as a masseuse in a hotel in Malaysia called the Flamingo.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Now, Siti really did not like this work at all, but it paid well enough and she needed the money badly enough that she decided to just keep on doing it. Sometimes, Citi, like a lot of the other girls that she worked with at the hotel, would daydream about being discovered as a model or a singer or an actress and getting taken away from this life to a life of luxury and wealth and leisure.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
But Citi never really expected that to happen. Next to Citi at the bar was her producer, whose name was James. And James had his arm around her, and he suddenly flashed her his cell phone, and he kind of pointed to the screen. And Citi looked at it, and she saw there was a text message from someone, but it was in a language that she didn't recognize. And she asked James, you know, what is that?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And James grinned at her and said, this is my boss telling me that you are already a superstar in Korea. And when Citi heard this, she was totally embarrassed, but also really excited. City had met James about a month ago in January of 2017 when City and some of her friends from the hotel had decided to go out for the night. Now, City very rarely went out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And the reason this particular prank stood out so much was because one, it was masterfully planned, two, it was brilliantly executed, and three, most memorably, it had massive intended and unintended consequences. We're talking international scandal level consequences.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
She basically worked and slept and then sent home her money to her family. But for whatever reason, she had been convinced by her friends to go out and have a good time. And so she was all dolled up and she and her friends were standing in line to get into a bar when a very handsome man wearing a suit, James, walked up to City and said, have you done any acting?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And Citi, wearing her best clothes with her friends, she suddenly felt bold and she told this guy who she didn't know that, no, I haven't, but I'd like to try. And so James asked her if she'd come with him, and she said okay. And they went to this cafe, and they sat down, got coffees, and James explained to Citi who he was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And he told her he was a Japanese television producer who specialized in hidden camera prank videos. And he needed actresses to put on pretty clothes and pull pranks on unsuspecting people on camera. Citi had initially been very skeptical of James and this proposition, but at the same time, back then, prank videos were all the rage on YouTube, they were on mainstream TV, they were everywhere.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And Citi knew that, but she had never thought about being in one. She just sometimes liked to watch them. But James would tell her, this is really easy work and you'll get paid well for it. And so Citi had ultimately said, okay, yeah, I'll do it with you. And after she said yes, her life had been a whirlwind.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
No longer was she a masseuse at a hotel, but instead, she was like a celebrity, flying all over the country, filming all these prank videos, and James' bosses were so pumped, they kept messaging him, telling him how amazing she was, and how every video she was doing was outperforming anything they hoped it could do. I mean, everything was going perfectly.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Citi took a few more bites of her birthday cake, and then she checked her watch and saw it was almost 10 p.m., which for James and her other friends might be early, but for Citi, that was pretty late. Plus, she had already had a lot of alcohol that night, and so that was making her more tired.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so she told James and the others she was gonna leave, she thanked them for the party, and then she headed out and went to her hotel. As soon as Citi was in her room, she immediately called her mother. Citi and her mom talked all the time, sometimes multiple times a day. And this night, Citi just really missed her mom and she really missed her son.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And as soon as she called her mom, her mom picked up and they chatted for a bit. And Citi told her all about how she'd had this amazing birthday party and how excited she was about the next day because they were shooting a really big prank. It was going to be their biggest one yet, and it would have the biggest payout of any of the videos she had done so far.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
This one, tomorrow, was going to pay her 100 US dollars, and Citi told her mom, don't worry, I'm sending all of it back home to you all. Citi's mother was so thankful and so excited for her daughter, and she said, that's wonderful, get a good night's sleep, and I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And amazingly, this story has yet to be converted into a major motion picture, and so I would imagine that most of you have actually never heard of it. 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
The Ingenues
And after that, Citi talked to her son for a couple of seconds, and then they hung up, and Citi crawled into bed, she turned off the light, and she tried to sleep, but she couldn't. She was too excited about tomorrow's shoot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
She and James had been talking about this particular prank for the last week, and they'd been rehearsing it over and over again, and now here she was on the precipice of actually doing it in real life. The pranks that Citi did were all pretty similar and pretty simple.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
She and James would go to some train station or some hotel or some other public area and they would identify an unsuspecting older man and then Citi, all dressed up, would go up to this guy while she was being filmed at a distance and she would either kiss the man on the cheek or spray him with perfume or rub chili oil on his hand and then she would giggle and run away and then the camera crew would zoom in on the man's face
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
as he's kind of bewildered and trying to figure out why that had just happened. But tomorrow's prank, even though it was pretty similar to the one she had done, it would be the first time she'd be working with another actor. In fact, two other actors. One of the actors was a woman who would be doing the pranking with Citi, and then their target, the unsuspecting man, was also an actor.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
James and the Japanese television production company had insisted that for this prank to work, this guy really did need to be in on it. Citi had already met and rehearsed a couple of times with the other woman who she'd be doing this prank with, but she had not met the third actor, the unsuspecting man yet. She'd be meeting him the next day, actually during the prank.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Citi would eventually fall asleep that night, and then her alarm would go off fairly early the next morning, and when it did, Citi immediately got out of bed and she got dressed in a dark form-fitting outfit, she put on some red lipstick, and then she hustled out of her room downstairs and out of the hotel to meet James, the woman actress she'd be working with that day, and the other producers who were involved in the production.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Then, as a big group, they hopped in a cab and went to the international airport where this big prank was going to take place. And when they got there, they made their way to a restaurant in the departures area to wait for the third actor, the unsuspecting man, to show up so they could begin the shoot.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And while they waited, Siti and the other actress she'd be working with struck up a conversation. The other actress's name was Duan Thi Hoang, and she was a 28-year-old woman from Vietnam.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And just like Siti, she had come from a poor family, and she had gone abroad to find work to help support her family, and it was during this time that she was abroad that she was recruited to star in these prank videos. But unlike Citi, who daydreamed about maybe being a singer or a model or an actress or something someday, for Doan, acting was the only thing she ever thought of.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Her whole life, the only thing she ever wanted was to be an actress. In fact, Doan had left school to pursue a career in show business. She had been on a show called Vietnam Idol, but unfortunately did not make it past the first round. And she had actually done a few other prank videos with a different production company But neither of those two ventures had ever really panned out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
So if that's of interest to you, please go into the follow button cell phone and change their emergency contact to Papa John's. Okay, let's get into today's story. The show is brought to you by Progressive. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
It wasn't until she was recruited by James and his team to be a part of these videos that Doan finally felt like she was on the right track. And as they talked, Citi couldn't help but feel like Doan was just a little bit weird. She did like Doan, she had no issues with her, but Doan had chose to wear, for this big shoot today, a very childish outfit.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Instead of wearing something similar to what Citi had on, which Citi imagined she would be, Doan was wearing this weird childish looking t-shirt that just said LOL on it, and she was carrying around with her everywhere this huge oversized teddy bear. but Citi just chalked it up to, you know, maybe James and the other producers told Doan to dress this way, and that's why.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
The group took their time at breakfast inside of this restaurant, just waiting for this third actor to show up. And finally, at 9 a.m., so after an hour of just sitting there, one of the producers actually said, hey, there he is right there. And so Citi and Doan and James, they looked out into the very crowded area.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And sure enough, where the producer was pointing was this guy who looked exactly like all of their other victims. He was this middle-aged, stocky guy carrying a briefcase who totally blended in with the hundreds of other people out there. And the producers told Siddy and Doan that it looked like this actor had already begun the scene.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
He was already heading over to the self-check-in kiosk, which was like the start of this prank. And so they told Siddy and Doan, like, go, go, start the prank.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And so Citi grabbed the perfume that she was given to spray in this guy's face, and the producers rushed to rub this oil on Doan's hands along with give her a wet cloth, because that was what she was going to need for her side of this prank. And then Citi and Doan stood up and began making their way out into the very crowded terminal.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
And as she walked, Citi couldn't help but feel very nervous because she knew this was her big chance to show James and the other producers that she could work well with other actors and that she could do a fairly complex prank.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Can you name every single subscription that you have? I know I can't, and I'm not alone. I just learned that over 74% of people have subscriptions they've forgotten about. With Rocket Money, I don't have to remember every subscription or worry about forgetting any because I can see them all laid out right in front of me.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
I can't tell you how many times I've signed up for a free trial or something and then forgot to cancel, only to figure it out a year later after it's cost me hundreds of dollars. But now I don't have to worry about that anymore because Rocket Money has my back.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. They'll also try to negotiate lower bills for you. They automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save. Then you can ask them to negotiate for you. They'll even deal with customer service.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
The Ingenues
Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash ballin. That's rocketmoney.com slash ballin. rocketmoney.com slash ballin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (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 January of 2012, a police truck parked on a trail in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California. A member of the canine unit opened the door and a police dog named Indiana Bones jumped out.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
That's when Hervey had gone to Mexico. It was where he grew up and where he still had friends and family. Gabriel said that Hervey traveled internationally a lot, and sometimes he would go on these open-ended trips, so Gabriel was not always exactly sure when Hervey was going to come home again.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But Hervey had been calling pretty regularly just to check in, and then suddenly the call stopped, so Gabriel started to get really worried and then eventually filed the missing person report. Detective Sanchez asked Gabriel if he had called or texted Hervey after Hervey stopped calling, just to see if maybe he was staying in Mexico longer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Can you name every single subscription that you have? I know I can't, and I'm not alone.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel said he hadn't, but he explained that Hervey had actually left his cell phone behind at the apartment because he didn't get service in Mexico. Now, Gabriel knew there were ways around that, but he said discussing technology with Hervey was usually a losing cause. Hervey just preferred to use a landline and an international calling card whenever he was in Mexico.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sanchez asked if there was a record of these calls from Herbie, and Gabriel said yes, and he grabbed his phone and showed the detectives the calls he'd received from Herbie in January. The detectives saw that these calls were from an international calling card number, which meant they didn't actually know who placed those calls, but it did corroborate what Gabriel had told them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The detectives would talk to Gabriel for a bit longer, but the whole time they stuck to their original plan. They didn't reveal anything about Herbie's murder. Back at the station, Detective Knowles and Sanchez went over what they had so far. And they agreed it was not very much. And what little they did have didn't quite add up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And it really had to do with this trip to Mexico they had just learned about. Did Hervey really go to Mexico and then get murdered and dismembered there? And then what, his body parts were shipped back to L.A. and dumped in L.A. ? Or did Hervey come back from Mexico in one piece and then somehow get intercepted before he got home by somebody who then murdered, dismembered, and dumped him?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Both these theories just seemed like they were missing something. Like, did Hervey really even go to Mexico? They didn't know.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
I mean, regardless of what Hervey's roommate Gabriel had told them, the detectives thought it actually made a whole lot more sense that somebody would have killed and dismembered Hervey right there in his own apartment and disposed of him in nearby Griffith Park, which certainly made Gabriel seem very suspicious.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The following day, which is now three days after Hervey's head had been found, the detectives returned to Hervey's apartment, and this time they showed up with a search warrant, a team of police, and cadaver dogs. Once inside, they let the dogs loose, and the dogs began frantically sniffing around the floorboards, the furniture, and the corners of every room.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Meanwhile, Gabriel sat at the table and watched in silence as the investigators practically tore up the tiny one-bedroom apartment. The search team rifled through drawers and closets, they confiscated computers and phones, and they photographed every item inside the apartment. But at the end of the search, they realized they had found absolutely nothing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There was no blood, no hidden torso, no bone saws or other dismemberment tools. And so this apartment just didn't appear to be the place where the murder or dismemberment or both took place. As the search team began to leave the apartment, detectives Knowles and Sanchez sat down at the table with Gabriel.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And Gabriel didn't look angry or raise his voice, but he wanted to know like what had changed since they spoke a day earlier that made the detectives feel like they could come into his and Herbie's home and tear it apart like this. Sanchez whispered something to Knowles and then she finally broke the news to Gabriel.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
I just learned that over 74% of people have subscriptions they've forgotten about. With Rocket Money, I don't have to remember every subscription or worry about forgetting any because I can see them all laid out right in front of me.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Those body parts that were found in the canyon that were all over the news belonged to Hervey. Hervey was deceased and so now Hervey's death was being investigated as a homicide. Immediately, all the color drained from Gabriel's face. He said he couldn't believe it. This didn't seem real. Now, the detectives understood how upsetting this was for Gabriel, but they needed more information.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So they pressed Gabriel for more details about Hervey's trip to Mexico. And so, for the next half hour, Gabriel, despite being in shock, was cooperative and answered every question and tried to give detectives any information at all that could be useful. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, workouts, sleep, and even stress management. Your metabolism is like your body's engine. It's at the center of everything your body does. It's how your body turns the food you eat into fuel that keeps you going.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Optimal metabolic health translates to a bunch of benefits, including easier weight management, improved energy levels, better fitness results, and better sleep. Lumen gives you recommendations to improve your metabolic health.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It can also track your cycle as well as the onset of menopause and adjust your recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts so you can keep up your energy and stave off cravings. I really love how Lumen gives me a personalized nutrition plan for the day based on my breath measurements.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And if I can't figure out what I'd like to eat, Lumen suggests plenty of awesome recipe options to choose from. So if you want to stay on track with your health this holiday season, go to lumen.me slash ballin to get 15% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash ballin for 15% off your purchase. Lumen makes a great gift, too. Thank you, Lumen, for sponsoring this episode.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
I can't tell you how many times I've signed up for a free trial or something and then forgot to cancel, only to figure it out a year later after it's cost me hundreds of dollars. But now I don't have to worry about that anymore because Rocket Money has my back.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Later that day, the two detectives returned to the station and went into an evidence room where everything collected from Herbie's apartment was laid out on a table. One of the evidence technicians in the room told the detectives that he happened to look at the photos taken of the apartment and some of the victim's artwork hung on the walls was worth a ton of money.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The Diego Rivera painting alone was likely worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, this struck the detectives as being really odd. According to the information Gabriel had provided, and based on what the detectives had learned from their databases, Hervey was a retiree, living on a small pension in a small one-bedroom apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So how was he also a serious art collector able to acquire paintings that were potentially worth a small fortune? The following day, so now four days after Herbie's head was discovered, a call came through to Knowles' desk.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The man on the other end introduced himself as a retired LAPD narcotics detective, and this retired detective said he'd been reading the newspaper that morning and happened to see that the dismembered victim from Griffith Park had been identified. And when he saw the name, Hervey Medellin, it immediately rang a bell.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. They'll also try to negotiate lower bills for you. They automatically scan your bills to find opportunities to save. Then you can ask them to negotiate for you. They'll even deal with customer service.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said back in the early 1990s, when he was investigating a Mexican drug cartel, Hervey's name had come up in the investigation. And in fact, he had interviewed Hervey a couple of times. Knowles kept listening, but right away his mind began to race. A connection to Mexican cartels and drug trafficking could maybe explain how Hervey had enough cash to buy those famous paintings.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The retired detective explained that Hervey had worked as a ticket taker for Mexicana Airlines. At that time, that airline was believed to have been used for drug smuggling. And Hervey had become a kind of personal concierge for the wives and girlfriends of drug cartel members.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
When these women would visit LA, Hervey would book their hotel rooms, arrange shopping trips, and give them dining recommendations. Now, none of that was illegal, so the narcotics detective had no reason to pursue Hervey. He ultimately just kind of became a minor character in a much bigger investigation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But now that this former detective found out that Hervey had turned up dead and dismembered, he wondered if maybe Hervey's connection to the drug cartels had gone much deeper than he realized. As Knowles listened, he was having the same type of thoughts. Was Hervey a drug mule? Were those paintings a form of payment from the cartels?
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Did Hervey fail to repay a debt and did the cartel brutally murder him for it? After all, some Mexican cartels were known to behead and dismember some of their victims. Knowles thanked the retired detective for reaching out to him. He hung up and passed this new information along to his partner Sanchez. The detectives now realized they could be in over their heads.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Poking the hornet's nest with a Mexican drug cartel is the kind of thing that gets people killed, even cops. Over the next week, Knowles and Sanchez started to pursue this new lead, but they quickly discovered that a potential run-in with a violent Mexican drug cartel was actually not the biggest issue they were facing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Instead, the big issue that kept setting them back was just old-fashioned bureaucracy. Getting Mexican law enforcement agencies to cooperate in any investigation was never really easy, but when the investigation involved the cartels, it seemed almost impossible.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Mexican authorities weren't eager to anger the cartels or possibly jeopardize their own investigations into the drug trade just to assist LA cops on a homicide case. And when Knowles and Sanchez turned to federal law enforcement agencies in the United States, they ran into similar problems.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The DEA and the FBI were running multiple investigations involving the cartels and they could not put those at risk just because Hervey had been interviewed by a narcotics cop over 20 years ago. But the FBI did at least tell Knowles and Sanchez that they would dig into Hervey's financial records to see if he had a clear connection to the cartels before he was killed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
In the meantime, the feds told the LA detectives to go ahead and stay away from the cartel stuff and just let them handle that. They should just focus on leads that were in the United States. Now, Knowles and Sanchez understood why the feds reacted that way, but they still felt like a huge lead, i.e. going after the cartels, had just been yanked out from under them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash ballin. That's rocketmoney.com slash ballin. rocketmoney.com slash ballin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On top of that, the FBI had no reason to expedite finding these financial records because this was not their case, so there was no telling how long it would actually take the feds to provide them with any information. Feeling frustrated and a bit lost on what to do next, Knowles and Sanchez turned their focus back to the victim. The detectives reached out to Hervey's L.A.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
friends to learn more about who Hervey was. And the picture that began to emerge of Hervey was of a warm, friendly guy who had moved to L.A. from Mexico as a young man who had worked hard and was now enjoying his retirement and living the American dream that he had always believed in.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, Knowles and Sanchez didn't think any of this information really helped their case, and none of it seemed to make Hervey look like a guy who had deep ties to the drug trafficking world. The detectives would still need to hear back from the FBI, but if Hervey had been working with a cartel, he'd managed to keep it pretty secret.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So the detectives just kept pushing forward, talking to everyone they could who knew Hervey. And finally, just when they felt like they were running out of people to interview, the detectives did learn something very interesting. Hervey's roommate, Gabriel, was not just his roommate. Gabriel was Hervey's boyfriend.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Now, Gabriel had not told the detectives this and they couldn't believe that he had kept this a secret across the two interviews they had done with him. Having an intimate relationship with the victim immediately put Gabriel at the top of the suspect list and the fact that he had lied about the relationship made him look even more suspicious.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So, Knowles and Sanchez called Gabriel into the station for another interview. But when they confronted him, instead of him getting defensive or trying to deny it, Gabriel readily admitted that he and Hervey were indeed in a relationship. He told the detectives he was just a very private person and felt uncomfortable sharing those kinds of details.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Sanchez and Knowles did not believe Gabriel, and they told him that because he had hid this information, they felt like he could be hiding something else. But Gabriel insisted he wasn't hiding anything. And then without any further prompting, he opened up about his and Herbie's relationship.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel told them all about how he and Hervey had met, how at first they were good friends, and then they fell in love and moved in together. And after several minutes of this, when the detectives were finally able to steer the conversation back to the weeks leading up to the murder, Gabriel's story about Hervey's trip to Mexico and the phone calls he got didn't change at all.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By the end of the interview, Knowles and Sanchez really didn't know what to think. Gabriel had clearly held back information from them about the relationship with Hervey, but when confronted, he told them all about it and then hadn't changed or embellished his story at all from that point forward.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And also, they had already searched the apartment and there was no evidence that connected Gabriel to the crime. Not long after this meeting, things only seemed to get worse for the two detectives.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The FBI came back to them and told them that after doing some digging, they found that Herbie's financial records did not show any connection to any drug cartels or any other known criminals for that matter. Now, they still couldn't completely rule out the cartel's involvement in this murder, but for now at least, this lead felt like a dead end.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By mid-April, so three months after Hervey's head had been found, the LAPD finally released Hervey's remains to his family so they could have a proper funeral. Knowles and Sanchez couldn't help but feel like they had let Hervey and his family down. They were no closer to finding the killer or killers than they had been on day one of the investigation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And in the weeks following the funeral, Knowles and Sanchez started to get assigned new cases that required immediate action. Hervey's murder was slowly becoming a cold case. Until one day in June, so now five months after Hervey's head had been found, Detective Knowles' phone rang, and he had one of the most bizarre conversations he'd had in all his time working in homicide.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The caller introduced himself as an investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. For a second, Knowles thought somebody might be prank calling him, because it was not every day an L.A. detective gets a call from a Canadian Mountie. But the Mountie quickly told Knowles that he'd been made aware of the case from back in January with the severed head and limbs.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And the Mountie said they had actually just had a very similar case up in Quebec. A video had been uploaded to the internet that showed this naked man tied to a bed and another individual dressed all in black repeatedly stabbing him with an ice pick. And then once the man was dead, the killer dismembered the body before sexually abusing the body and cannibalizing some parts of it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On Christmas Day 2011, 67-year-old Hervey Medellin turned off the oven in his apartment in Hollywood, California, opened up the oven door, and pulled out a casserole dish covered with foil. Hervey looked up at the clock and smiled, because his friend, who was coming over for a holiday visit, would be there any minute, and the food he was making had finished cooking at exactly the right time.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And as if that wasn't brutal enough, the killer then sent other parts of the body to members of Canadian Parliament and several different elementary schools. Detective Knowles just sat there on the phone in silence. I mean, this was a totally brutal and horrible story, but he couldn't see any real connection to Hervey's murder, aside from both victims having been dismembered.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But the Mountie continued and said they had actually already arrested this internet killer. And this man, who was a Canadian citizen named Luca Magnata, was obsessed with Hollywood. He had recently lived in Los Angeles, not far from where Herbie lived, where he acted in porn movies and worked as a male escort before going back to Canada.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But the big thing, the real reason the Mountie had called Knowles in the first place, was that while Luca was living in Los Angeles, he kept a blog in which he wrote about his exploits. And one of the things he wrote about was the dismembered body found in Bronson Canyon, Hervey's body.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
After the call with the Mountie, Knowles quickly met with Sanchez, and the detectives decided the first thing they needed to do was figure out exactly when Luca had been in the United States to see if maybe he could have actually crossed paths with Hervey in late December or January, the time they believed Hervey was killed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They reached out to the agencies in the US and Canada that maintain customs data, and they were able to find out when Luca actually crossed the border into the US and when he went back into Canada.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Then they dug into Hervey's customs data to try to nail down the exact time he traveled to Mexico and if and when he came back to the States in order to see if he and Luca had been in LA at the same time. But while they were looking into this, they discovered something that totally shocked them and made them rethink everything about this investigation.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
They came to realize that the reason the case had stalled out was because they had been operating under a false assumption the whole time. And after making this huge discovery, Knowles and Sanchez believed they had finally cracked the case. Based on all the evidence gathered throughout the investigation, the following is a reconstruction of what police believe happened to Hervey Medellin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At around 3 a.m. on December 27, 2011, the killer crept through Hervey's apartment to the bedroom. The door was cracked open, and the killer looked in and saw Hervey sleeping inside. The killer threw the door open, rushed the bed, and jumped on top of him. Hervey immediately woke up and began yelling as the killer tried to cup their hands over Hervey's mouth to muffle his screams.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Hervey kept fighting back, but the killer wrapped their hands around his throat and began to squeeze. Hervey continued to yell so the killer squeezed harder and harder and after about five minutes of this, Hervey stopped struggling. His face was blue and his eyes were empty. He was dead.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The killer remained in Hervey's apartment and a bit later that morning, they opened up Gabriel's computer and did a search. They pulled up an article titled, Butchering the Human Carcass for Consumption. This article provided detailed instructions on how to dismember a human body for the purpose of cooking and consuming it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Once the killer felt like they had a clear understanding of what to do, they went back to Hervey's bedroom and used a saw they had recently purchased to separate Hervey's head and limbs from his body. The killer then refrigerated those body parts for three weeks, but for reasons no one fully understands, the killer never actually consumed any of it.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He turned down the radio playing Christmas music in the kitchen and called out to his roommate, Gabriel Martinez, and told him lunch was almost ready. Gabriel had his eyes glued to his laptop, totally engrossed in whatever it was he was doing, and so he just gave Hervey a sort of grunt of acknowledgement. Hervey responded with an irritated sigh.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Indy quickly thought a scent and led his handler to a mound of dirt just off the path. Indy pawed at the dirt and suddenly revealed the top of a plastic bag. The dog's handler reached into the dirt and pulled out the bag, and when she looked inside, she saw two dismembered human feet and a hand.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
There was no cannibalism, despite clearly there being some level of interest based on that search that was done on Gabriel's computer on the night of the murder. And so three weeks after the murder, the killer walked through Bronson Canyon in the dark with Hervey's body parts and dug shallow graves at various spots and buried them.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And soon after that, with Hervey now officially out of the picture, the killer was able to transfer all the money from Hervey's personal bank account into the joint bank account they had opened after they had moved in together. Gabriel Martinez murdered his boyfriend Hervey in the apartment they shared.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It turned out that before Christmas of 2011, Gabriel and Hervey's relationship had started to completely fall apart. In fact, things had gotten so bad that Hervey told Gabriel he wanted to end things and he said Gabriel should start looking for another place to live.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel knew he would not be able to afford a Los Angeles apartment or lead the life he'd grown accustomed to on his own because he didn't have a steady income. He had become financially dependent on Hervey and so, in his desperation, he had decided to kill Hervey and steal his money.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
On Christmas Day, when Hervey's friend Amelia came over, Gabriel sat on the couch with his laptop, googling what tools to use to cut up a human body. Being Hervey's significant other and failing to disclose their relationship to police had made Gabriel a leading suspect early on, but police had found no clear evidence pointing to Gabriel or anyone else, so the case had gone cold.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But it was the customs data that detectives obtained while following the lead on the Canadian internet killer, Luca Magnata, that helped lead them back to Gabriel. Customs data showed that Luca had been in Canada at the time Hervey went missing, which ruled Luca out as the killer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But more importantly, this customs data made it clear that Hervey had never actually traveled or even booked a flight to Mexico at any time in late December or January. Gabriel had crafted this intricate lie about Hervey's trip, even providing phone records showing all the times Hervey had called him from Mexico.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But once investigators knew Gabriel was lying, they dug deeper into his phone records and discovered the calls had actually come from Hervey's friend, who was calling Gabriel from Mexico, but they were doing so to find out why they had suddenly stopped hearing from Hervey.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
At this point, the detectives were sure Gabriel was the killer, but the final piece of evidence they would need to convince the district attorney would not be discovered until 2014, over two years after the murder. At that time, a city worker was digging in the ground not too far from where Hervey's head had been discovered, and he found a plastic bag containing pieces of decaying human flesh.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel, who was 30 years younger than Hervey, had been spending so much time online lately that he barely connected with the world around him. Hervey realized it was very likely a generational thing, but he didn't understand why anyone would want to spend so much time just staring at a computer screen. But Hervey refused to be bothered by Gabriel today.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
A DNA sample of this flesh matched Hervey's DNA, but it was actually the bag itself that sealed Hervey's case. Because this was a very specific type of bag, one that was used to protect and transport expensive paintings. And it matched those same types of bags that had been found in Hervey and Gabriel's apartment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Los Angeles detectives tracked Gabriel down in San Antonio, Texas, where he had married a wealthy woman who was supporting him, and with the help of local police, they arrested him. Gabriel was eventually found guilty of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. A quick note about our stories.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
This podcast, the Mr. Ballin Podcast, and also Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, 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.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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. And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was Christmas, and Christmas was a time for joy, friends, and good food. Hervey set down the hot casserole dish on the table in the small dining area, and he looked around with satisfaction at all the Christmas decorations he had spent hours hanging up. Hervey's entire one-bedroom apartment now looked like it had been decorated by a professional interior designer.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But perhaps the most impressive part of the decorations was not actually the Christmas stuff. It was the paintings that were hanging on the walls. These were not paintings that would be found in most small one-bedroom apartments. These were original works by famous artists. Just then, the doorbell rang, interrupting Hervey's thoughts, and Hervey removed his oven mitts and went to open the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And when he did, he saw his friend Amelia standing there, holding several wrapped presents. Hervey grinned and said Merry Christmas and gave Amelia a big hug. Then he let her inside and told her to put the presents down, because before they got to presents and to food, he had to show her something.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Amelia put down the presents, said hello to Gabriel, and then Hervey took her hand and led her across the front room. Then Hervey pointed to a painting hanging on the wall, and he could hear Amelia gasp. She turned to Hervey almost in disbelief and asked if it was an original. Hervey smiled and nodded.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He said the last time he'd gone down to Mexico, where he was originally from, he had acquired this painting, which was an original work of art by Diego Rivera, one of the most famous Mexican painters to have ever lived. After staring at this painting with his friend for several minutes, Hervey said it was time to go eat.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He told Gabriel to put his computer away for a while and join them, and then the three of them headed to the table and dug into the casserole Hervey had prepared. While they ate, Hervey told Amelia more about his latest trip to Mexico and also about the travel plans he was making to destinations all over the world. Hervey said sometimes he still couldn't believe this was actually his real life.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He'd worked so hard from the moment he came to the United States as a young man with the hope that one day he'd be able to do whatever he wanted. And now he felt like he'd accomplished that. He was retired and filling his days with adventure and art. Hervey, Amelia, and Gabriel spent the day eating, talking, laughing, and exchanging gifts.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Indy's discovery would launch an investigation that would lead two LA detectives into the most insane case they'd ever worked, a case that would involve everything from Mexican drug cartels to a Canadian cannibal.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
For Hervey, who had spent most of his life far away from his family, this really felt like the perfect holiday. And other than maybe traveling, he couldn't imagine a better way to spend his time than eating delicious food and catching up with friends. By late afternoon, Amelia said unfortunately she had to go home, so Hervey walked her to the door.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
He gave her another big hug, wished her Merry Christmas again, and said he couldn't wait to get together with her in the new year. More than three weeks later, on the morning of Tuesday, January 17th, a dog walker named Lauren Kornberg left her house with her mother and nine dogs. They headed toward their usual hiking path, which cut through an area called Bronson Canyon.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Bronson Canyon is located inside of Griffith Park, which is basically LA's equivalent to New York's Central Park, but it sits high above the city. It was the perfect winter morning in Los Angeles, which meant it was a crisp 50 degrees and the Hollywood Hills were bathed in soft orange sunlight. So Lauren and her mom took the dogs up a side path that branched out from the main hiking trail.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And once they were far enough away from other hikers, they let the dogs off leash. And as soon as that happened, the dogs instantly began playfully running around together. But one of them, a golden retriever, broke away from the pack and wandered over toward a bushy area next to a shallow ravine off the side of the path. And this golden retriever began digging in this one area of the brush.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Lauren watched as the retriever pulled out a plastic bag from the brush and then began sniffing it. And as the dog began to sort of vigorously paw at this bag, a large round object suddenly rolled out of it and began tumbling down into the ravine. Two other dogs from the group, a husky and a small terrier, ran down the ravine after this big round object.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And Lauren's mom asked what had just rolled out of the bag. Lauren said she didn't know, but it sort of looked like a movie prop. Which wouldn't actually be an unusual thing to find lying around, because there were Hollywood special effects and prop houses not too far from here, and many movies and TV shows were filmed in this area.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (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
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Lauren's mom walked over toward the ravine to try to get a better look at this movie prop, but as she got close to the edge, she looked down and saw that the dogs were no longer playing. In fact, the terrier was backing away from this object with its hair up like the dog was terrified. And so Lauren, she kind of leaned forward and looked as best as she could to see what this object was.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And suddenly, when one of the dogs stepped out of the way, she had a clear line of sight onto this object. And when she saw what it was, she began backing away too. Because the object was no prop. It was a real severed human head.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
About an hour later, helicopters loudly hovered over the canyon and police blocked access to the entire area as more than a dozen LAPD cruisers, CSI units, and news vans parked along the nearby scenic overlook. Detective Chuck Knowles and his partner, Detective Lisa Sanchez, walked up the trail and met with the uniformed officers who had cordoned off the area with police tape.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
By this point, crime scene investigators had retrieved the severed head from the ravine and brought it onto the trail. When Detective Sanchez walked over to them and saw the severed head, her stomach churned. She had investigated her fair share of murder cases, but this was the first time she'd dealt with any kind of dismemberment.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
As Sanchez began to study the head, one of the uniformed officers walked up to her and told her that the two women who actually found the head at first thought it was fake. They thought it was a movie prop. Detective Sanchez could understand why, because there was very little decomposition and the head was so fresh and pristine that it looked like it had just been removed.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
From the looks of it, Sanchez believed the head belonged to a man who could be in his 60s, but that was about all she could guess about the victim at this point. So police began fanning out and searching the area, hoping to find some more clues. More helicopters and search units began to pour into the area and the search expanded to a seven acre radius.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button goes camping, wait for them to go to bed for the night, at which point light and then throw a Yon Shakaduma firework onto their tent. Okay, let's get into today's story. The show is brought to you by Progressive. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Searchers began entering backyards of the homes in the area, and some of these homes were really expensive houses that belonged to famous movie stars, so the police knew this case was going to draw even more media attention. Around 4.30 p.m., the sun began to set, and despite an exhaustive search of the area, no further human remains turned up.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So the searchers left their equipment, kept the area cordoned off, and went home for the night. That evening, reports of the dismembered body found in Griffith Park were all over local news stations. And although violent crime in LA was far from rare, violent crime in this particular neighborhood in Bronson Canyon was almost unheard of.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The people who lived in the neighborhood, who were willing to talk on camera, were shocked that something like this could happen just beyond their backyards. People who had been hiking and walking their dogs in Bronson Canyon for years told reporters they were now afraid to step foot on the hiking paths until the killer or killers were apprehended.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The following day, LAPD returned to Bronson Canyon and performed a highly organized grid search, scouring the area where the head had turned up. The police were already feeling pressure from the media, city leaders, and local residents to find the people or person who had committed this horrific crime.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But detectives Knowles and Sanchez knew there was still so much physical area to cover and search, and they still had no idea who the victim even was. So this just didn't seem like a case they could just wrap up in a couple of days.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And by late morning, the searchers had still found nothing new when a police truck pulled up and a dog handler stepped out with her cadaver dog, a German shepherd named Indiana Bones, who was famous for being the first four-legged detective on L.A. County Coroner's team. After getting out of the car, Indy's handler began leading the dog up a nearby hill.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
And almost immediately as they began to walk, Indy pulled the handler in the direction of this nearby dirt mound. The handler walked over to the mound and, with a gloved hand, began pushing the dirt aside, revealing what looked like a shallow grave. And in this shallow grave was a plastic bag.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The handler reached her hands down and carefully cupped them beneath the bag and gently pulled it out of the ground. Then she took a pair of scissors out of her pocket, cut the bag open, and looked inside. And inside, she saw a pair of human feet and a hand. The next morning, Detective Knowles and Sanchez sat at their computers, sifting through recent missing person reports.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
The victim's torso, or any more of his body, still had not been found. But the detectives hoped that the feet and hand that were found also belonged to their victim and that with these new body parts, they might be able to connect their victim to somebody who went missing in the area. Just then, the sound of a fax machine broke their focus.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Knowles stood up, tore the paper off the machine, and saw that the medical examiner had completed his examination on the severed hand, feet, and head. Knowles scanned the whole report and then read aloud the important parts to Sanchez. The medical examiner had confirmed that all those body parts belonged to the same victim.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Also, they said that after the victim was dead, his killer carefully cut apart the man's body right at the joints in a very precise manner, so whoever cut the body up seemed to really know what they were doing. But what was even more intriguing was that the body parts had been refrigerated before they were dumped, which explained why the head had looked so fresh when it was found.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
But this made it difficult for the medical examiner to pin down exactly when the victim was killed. However, because the parts were so fresh, the examiner was able to lift very clear fingerprints from the man's fingers. And when he ran those prints through a system, he got a hit. The dismembered man was Hervey Medellin.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Knowles sat down at his computer and ran Hervey's name through every database he had access to. and he quickly learned that Hervey had been reported missing just a day before his head was found. The missing persons report had been filed by a man named Gabriel Martinez, who said he was Hervey's roommate.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
So Detective Knowles and Sanchez got into their car and began driving towards Hervey's apartment, which happened to be just two blocks away from the Hollywood police station. While they were in the car, Knowles and Sanchez discussed their game plan for when they talked to this roommate. And their plan was simple, reveal nothing.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Although news of the grisly discovery was already all over town, that victim's identity had not yet been released by the media. Only the police knew that information. And so they wanted to feel out what Herbie's roommate knew and didn't know. He was not a suspect yet, but he was definitely a person of interest. The detectives parked at the curb and walked up to Herbie's building.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
It was this elegantly plain, narrow building constructed in the 1920s that felt totally vintage and old Hollywood. The detectives walked up the stairs to the third floor, to apartment 319, and rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, the door opened and a dark-haired man in his 30s greeted the detectives. They introduced themselves and asked if he was Gabriel Martinez.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel said yes and then asked immediately if they had news about Hervey. Had they found him? Was he okay? The detectives exchanged a quick glance and then Sanchez said they were still investigating Hervey's disappearance. And for now, they just needed to speak to Gabriel to try to help with that case.
MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories
Head for the Hills (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
Gabriel suddenly went from being sort of hopeful to looking pretty concerned, but then told them he was glad to tell them anything they wanted, and he asked them to come inside. Once inside, they all sat down at the table in the small dining area. Detective Knowles asked Gabriel when he'd last seen Hervey, and Gabriel said, not since shortly after Christmas, on December 27th.