Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 37 - Corruption in the Death Industry
15 Plays19 days ago
Nym goes to a truly dark side of death - corruption within the death industry. She explores heinous crimes uncovered in the industry, but also offers some solace.
Enter the Nightmare for show notes, sources, transcripts, and more!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we explore history, mysteries, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
00:00:48
Speaker
Autumn
00:00:55
Speaker
bottomut will always be my favorite, like the changing leaves, but I love the dead trees. Yeah, for me, it's like, it's around this time where it actually starts to feel, i don't know, I guess. Wintry for us? Yes, because where we are, yeah. Right, right, right. It actually starts to feel cold and I love it because it's Getting closer to spring so there's still that really bright really bright sun that like barely warms your skin. yeah Yeah. I don't know. Paired with mostly gloomy days.
00:01:27
Speaker
yeah It is mostly gloomy and I love that. That's my favorite kind of day. Yes. It's cold. That's why it's nice to have one really bright day every once in a Yeah. Especially when it's cold. Indeed. will agree with that.
00:01:39
Speaker
I don't know. It's just kind of a permanent dreary, though. i It's just, it's my vibe. How do you sleep? What do you mean? Be more specific. You know, bet. I sleep.
00:01:50
Speaker
I have to have a fan on. yeah And I like the room to be really, really, really cold. Like as cold as I can get it. Like preferably I wouldn't be able to just be normal in it. And then like with like three or four blankets on top of me and the fan running.
00:02:04
Speaker
Yeah, I can agree with all of that. Oh, yes. Like that is my favorite. And I also like driving around with the the windows down. When it's really cold. Yeah. And the heater on my feet.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Don't kill me, mom. I'm sorry. She's going be like, that's how you get a stroke. but This would be when your mom starts listening. Exactly. Exactly. When she starts listening and she's going to text me be like, this is exactly what I would say. so so things that are Graham.
00:02:37
Speaker
Sir. Hello.
Edgar Allan Poe's Influence
00:02:40
Speaker
Grimm, who was named Grimm for Grimm's Fairy Tales, but I was vetoed on Edgar for Edgar Allan Poe. As my shitty segue.
00:02:50
Speaker
oh So today, the day that this launches and... That it releases? on The day it releases is January 18th. Okay. that is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday.
00:03:00
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. So that's my fun fact of the day. Yeah, no. and I think... think I think Sebastian has an Edgar Allan Poe book. It's the the one with the raven. Yeah, I am. Nevermore.
00:03:13
Speaker
Pretty sure I gave him that. Were you the one that gave that? I'm pretty sure. bet I can find it in the purchase history. Yeah, he loves that book. And Ace reads it so good. Like, I love when Ace does the readings for him and he's actually โ have to, like โ push him to be in the right mood because sometimes you're just like, ah. And I'm like, dude, do the voices. You're good at doing voices. I'm so sorry that you delight our child with your shenanigans. You have to put forth the effort. No, you started this. You proved that you could do it. You set the standard. Now you have to keep it up. Sorry. It's your bad luck. Yeah.
00:03:45
Speaker
Sorry. Anyways, the point was, yeah, he really likes that book. And I think it's, is it called Nevermore? oh here it is Little poet, Edgar Allan Poe, Nevermore. lid. baby lid Oh, yeah, that was it. He loves that book.
00:03:59
Speaker
That makes me so happy. you can put that on our ah spooky ah book. Reading. The nightmare fuel. Okay. Just kidding. Please don't do that.
Death Industry Practices Discussion
00:04:17
Speaker
Before I get into it, i am going to give a heads up that this episode is very, very directly about death. and not in an abstract way. It's about current death industry practices.
00:04:29
Speaker
So if that's not great for you right now, i just wanted to give you that heads up. but and And I know a lot of people are not comfortable talking about death, and I kind of wish i kind of hope to make it easier, yeah more normalized, that kind of thing. I agree. It comes for all of us, unfortunately. i know that sounds like a really horrible thing to say. Remember that you die. and That's what it is.
00:04:53
Speaker
Without further ado, maybe a little further ado. I'm going to be specifically talking about corruption in the death industry. Well, in a couple of different types of ways. How familiar are you with any of that, of the corruption? of the I mean, I've always found it hard to say corruption specifically because I think it's just like a lot of, well, it started with a lot of really small businesses, but okay. Yes. All right. So it it has become very corrupt, but i wouldn't say like the small businesses are doing these horrible things. I feel like most of them are big conglomerates that are like basically being turning the industry into Walmart.
00:05:28
Speaker
And unfortunately, it's gotten very cold and expensive for a lot of people to just bury a loved one or, you know, not bury them. So you're talking about more or less legal corruption that's happening. Correct. Got it. Yeah, that is definitely a...
00:05:44
Speaker
And then I'm sure there's the ones on the side where they're selling body parts and stuff like that. Stuff on the black market. I don't know how deep you're getting here. You might get to hear some of that. Oh, fun. Oh, this stuff has always interested me. I'm sorry, guys. But yes. Yeah, is it's it's going to get pretty horrific. But first, and I already kind of gave the first warning, but if you're still here. For anybody who's experiencing death anxiety for themselves or a loved one, I recommend checking out the website orderofthegooddeath.com. It'll be listed in the show notes.
00:06:12
Speaker
It's a nonprofit organization founded by Caitlin Doty that provides education about death and the death industry and has resources for everything from funeral planning to explanations of your rights and death guides for facing death anxiety and talking about death with loved ones. I mean, it's got a lot of great resources.
00:06:27
Speaker
The work at the order of the good death is amazing. And Caitlin's body of work and educating the masses on death in general is excellent. And I recommend checking it out. The website is just full of practical, useful information and also really fascinating information about death.
00:06:40
Speaker
Nice. The topic of the death industry, as with most things, is complex. so So there's a lot of topics that can be had about the death industry. There's a lot of good things and interesting things and positivity within the death industry.
00:06:52
Speaker
But today we're going to focus on the actual specific corruption, but like really, really horrific, horrible, horrible things. This is a nightmare. Proceed with caution. and So unfortunately, even in many legit funeral homes, the the general business is predatory. They're selling expensive receptacles, elaborate services, and even like experiences that but Yeah. Like creating like a golf course scenario. Yeah. I've seen one and I'm sorry if you're going to get into it, but I've seen one, I think it was on death, a death tourism thing. And it was where they basically will pose your loved one in a scene. Let's say ah grandma really liked tea um and she really liked going to the tea parlor. So they would, you know, dress her up in what she would normally wear and make sure she looked presentable and sit her up and have her holding a,
00:07:42
Speaker
cup of tea and you can sit with grandma and have a drink of tea and then let the next person do the same. And it would be like that for a few days for for people to to be able to come and visit.
00:07:55
Speaker
Did I just take one of your things? No, i just like I think that's beautiful if it's not exorbitant. Like yeah ah that's the thing. mean, now I've seen it done in believe in countries where. Well, yeah, yeah, where it's just part of the death tradition there. Yeah. And that's obviously less. Yes, but we live in the United States where everything is very exorbitant.
00:08:15
Speaker
In some cases, people have a chunk of money set aside for this kind of situation, but very few are prepared for the financial burden of traditional burial or cremation, let alone extra bells and whistles. Yeah.
00:08:27
Speaker
But most of that is legal and just part of the capitalist and free market societies. While much of it feels morally criminal, most of their operations are quite legal. There's plenty of story to be had looking at shady seeming practices of the industry. But what I'm going to dive into are some of the darkest nightmares of the death industry that have cropped up.
International Funeral Industry Corruption
00:08:44
Speaker
So quick question. And and I'm sorry if you're going to go over this a little more later. But the corruption that you're about to mention, is it because of lack of oversight? or is Largely so. Okay. so largely Well, it it is made possible in part by lack of oversight and viewers like you. Okay.
00:09:02
Speaker
And some of these stories are actually pretty recent too. So it's kind of concerning, but we are going to start with the Wojci score or skin hunters of Wojci Poland.
00:09:14
Speaker
Oh, Wojci Poland is, Wojci is the second largest city in Poland next to Warsaw. Okay. Wow. ah In 1990, the Balsarewicz plan was enacted in Poland, which rapidly switched the market from state owned to a free market. Okay.
00:09:28
Speaker
There was little to no regulation at this time, and people were trying to make things work the best they could. Unfortunately, this caused some really fierce competition in industries that really didn't need it, including the funeral industry. The government provided subsidy to families for death, and funeral homes were getting to the point where they were bribing paramedics and hospital emergency staff to let them know first if someone passed so they could swoop in and get the business. Oh my gosh. I mean, there was there was guaranteed money yeah because everybody got a ah chunk once they died to for burial or whatever.
00:09:59
Speaker
It was stiff competition to the point where the bribes to the paramedics and hospital staff were becoming ginormous. Each tip-off could get these people easily double their monthly wages and frequently quite a bit more.
00:10:10
Speaker
Unfortunately, between greed and extreme pressure from slimy funeral home directors, some paramedics started manufacturing deaths. Oh no. In some critical borderline cases, they may not do everything possible to save a patient's life.
00:10:25
Speaker
And in some other cases, excess muscle relaxers were administered so they could inevitably cause the death of someone who probably would have been just fine. These started to build up in quantity, so investigative journalists dove in to sniff out the bullshit. They uncovered quite a bit of shit.
00:10:41
Speaker
Mortuary worker Jacek Tomalski had been pressured by the upstanding reputable funeral director Wittold Skrdlewski let him know when people were dying, but Tomalski wasn't about it. He continuously refused, but the pressure and threats kept mounting.
00:10:55
Speaker
Skrdlewski was well-respected and seemed pretty untouchable to someone like Tomalski. so when he was approached by someone who offered to take out a hit on Skrdlewski, he felt it was his only option. Oh, because he wasn't giving him the body, so he's like, I'll just take yours.
00:11:11
Speaker
No, the guy the mortuary worker who didn't want to like fold to the pressure, he was getting tons and tons of shit from this guy lots of pressure to do it, like threats on his life and his family's life. And to make it stop, somebody offered to take him out.
00:11:28
Speaker
Well, okay, I'll pay somebody to take him out. Okay. How much? Okay. I do not recall. um I believe the figure for that, though, is available in Necro Business, which is a documentary on YouTube.
00:11:45
Speaker
it It was a BBC documentary, but you can get it. You can see the whole thing on on YouTube. And it's that sounds so cool. It's actually a pretty decently made documentary. So recommend. Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:58
Speaker
So the plan was to pay half before and half after. After Tomalski paid the first half, it was revealed that the hitman was an undercover police officer. Ah, no. Are we rooting for the murder? no It sucks. It just sucks. I know. i know. isn't that entrapment though? will I mean. This is in Poland and there's different rules and I don't know. true. And there feels this, there's a lot of, and especially at this time, because they're going from being, they're coming out of communist rule basically. They're going from state owned to free market. Yeah. so And nobody knows how it. rules are the air. Exactly. The rules are different.
00:12:34
Speaker
He's an undercover cop. He's an undercover cop. In this case, he's a cop. You know what's going to be? When you die, I'm just coming in here and just snatching that off like the the fridge. Just snatching it.
00:12:53
Speaker
Then I'm leaving. When I die? Yes. I could leave it to you on the will. No, I want to snatch it. Oh, okay. I will make that the stipulation. You have to snatch it off the fridge. It has to be. They're going to sit there be like, oh, got to do it again. That wasn't hard enough. That wasn't snatch.
00:13:09
Speaker
On the off chance I leave this fridge. We're talking about a piece of art that is Drew when he worked for me 11 billion years ago. It is the best. we Can we post that picture on the thing on your blog?
00:13:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think we can. Yeah, it's it's the cutest picture ever. Yep. And I'll ah i'll include all of the context on the in the blog post so it'll have some anyways. Yeah.
00:13:33
Speaker
The rules are different. Okay, so when it was revealed that this guy was an undercover police officer, Tomalski faked a heart attack in an attempt to evade more trouble. oh my gosh. But the ambulance that arrived to pick him up was green rather than white, which which meant he wasn't going to the hospital he was going to jail.
00:13:50
Speaker
Ugh.
00:13:52
Speaker
Skrtleski definitely comes across as a slippery, charismatic, getaway with murder type. If you were watching a mafia movie and he showed up, he would not be out of place. ah She left because I showed her a picture. Now this is from a particular photo shoot. The rest of them in this photo shoot, he's on like a motorcycle. He looks like a tornado hunter. Well, that's because there's like storm clouds. He looks like he's from Oklahoma and there's going to be a tornado. Okay. Well, anyways, he also looks like he could be on The Sopranos. so So in that BBC documentary, Necro Business, they got him, they got Skrtleski to the point where he just kind of felt comfortable with the cameras and he was showing off his manipulative ways. Yeah, he didn't get convicted for any of this stuff, any of this entire situation, even though it seems now, granted, he was not convicted like they went through the legal system, whatever, but documentary is pretty skating.
00:14:47
Speaker
So the only convictions that would come from the whole scheme would be these. Ambulance worker Andre Nowashian, he got life imprisonment from multiple murders.
00:14:57
Speaker
Ambulance worker Carol Banas, 25 years for a particularly cruel murder and aiding others. um I could not find the details of that. The the court records were not in English. That's picious.
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah. wonder if I could translate them though. Yeah. I, I was running into a volume of translation because I had already translated several things and ran out of free. So let's see. yeah There was Dr. Janusz Kalinski got six years and ah six years in prison and a 10 year medical ban. But after 10 years, they can practice again. Same thing with Dr. Puel Willisky, five years and a 10 year medical ban.
00:15:40
Speaker
Does that suck, though? you have to rebuild your practice after that long. You shouldn't even be allowed to have it. Yeah, no, I agree. Yeah. In 1997, the Polish Penal Code was reworked to adjust for the extreme differences between their former state-run existences and to a capitalist one. And more protections have been put in place to avoid this horrific situation in the future. yeah, it was basically...
00:16:02
Speaker
them tipping off the funeral directors so they would know yeah who to approach and that was commonplace but it was just these ones that were killing them ahead of time yeah they didn't get mad until that happened so they probably should have been mad before but anyways um so let's go back a bit further to 1988 jacksonville florida Morning Glory Funeral Home had been known for having issues with expired licenses, bad equipment, and just unsanitary conditions in general, and had been cited for these things in 1982 and 1987 in state inspections.
00:16:38
Speaker
Despite this, they continued operations. They even had a contract with the city to handle unclaimed or unfunded bodies for $450 per body. oh gosh So when the state inspector came in June of 1988, they uncovered something very chilling.
00:16:55
Speaker
a body was found decomposing in a hearse parked on the side of the building. Inside, another eight bodies were discovered stacked and unchilled. Oh, no. bodies inside were discovered inside a closet that the inspector technically was not supposed to look into. So at that point, they reported their findings and pissed off. This was now up to law enforcement.
00:17:14
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Law enforcement discovered 36 additional bodies being properly sorry being improperly stored in the facility, the oldest of which was a woman who had passed away in 1978 an entire decade earlier. Oh my god, the smell.
00:17:30
Speaker
Louis J. Howell, the director of Morning Glory Funeral Home, took to the airwaves in an interview with local radio station WOKV. He said, quote, if We tried to get rid of them, end quote.
00:17:43
Speaker
His wife, Margaret, who was also present for the interview, explained that people would bring them bodies but not pay. Ah, then what are you supposed to do She said, quote, you can't bury people on promises. And he got stuck with those bodies because people never came back.
00:17:58
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. Neither had answers for why they didn't do something to dispose of the bodies. But like, what are they supposed to do? Report it? To Law enforcement. Like, I've got bodies and it would be illegal for me to keep them. What should I do? oh I thought you said that they had a thing with the city. Well, they do. They did like they they contracted to poor or unclaimed bodies would be processed by this funeral home and the city would give them $450 per body to do that.
00:18:27
Speaker
They just weren't doing that. They were just stacking them up. Allegedly. Allegedly. He claimed, quote, all the city cases were buried, end quote, but they were still operating at a loss for $450 per body. The medical examiner identified at least four bodies that were issued to the funeral home by the city. So that was at least partially a lie.
00:18:49
Speaker
He also claimed that he didn't start stashing the body until the early 80s, despite the fact that other one from the 78 from 1978 was there. oh my God. That's still so long. Yeah. That's so long.
00:19:00
Speaker
They cited issues with paying back their SBA loan and that they didn't have any money to operate the the funeral home. Margaret said Lewis took a part-time job to keep things running, but also began drinking heavily to cope with the stress of it all. yeah She also said she had no idea any of this was going on and that it, quote, almost shocked me to death. I didn't know anything about it. Okay. End quote. So, hold on.
00:19:24
Speaker
No, ma'am. Like, first of all, no, ma'am. I've seen Breaking Bad. I know how this works. There's no way you cannot smell that in near vicinity of your house. Well, funeral home. Funeral homes smell like death.
00:19:38
Speaker
Not โ I know. I agree. agree with you, but I'm just โ But at the same time, like, I hate to be that guy, but, like, you can't teach common sense. And, like, I feel like with some people it's, like,
00:19:53
Speaker
well what am i supposed to do you know what i mean like they they like legit like don't know what the fuck they're supposed to do oh sorry he did lewis j howell lost his funeral operator's license he was convicted to a year and a day though he only served a few months for these heinous crimes oh my gosh here he is in court smug right oh my gosh So next up, we have some more fucked up repugnant
Funeral Home Scandals
00:20:21
Speaker
shit. Okay. The Sunset Mesa Funeral Home was owned and operated by Megan Hess.
00:20:26
Speaker
She employed her mother, Shirley, for embalming and body preparations. And her father, Alan, helped with cremations. Okay, family-run business. Sunset Mesa provided the option of donating your loved ones to scientific research endeavors. Okay.
00:20:40
Speaker
Megan also created a non-profit body brokerage that would facilitate obtaining body parts from donors. Okay. And yes, it does seem very blatantly obvious that these two businesses should not be allowed to operate by the same entity.
00:20:52
Speaker
There's really specific rules about stupid shit. That should be a rule. I guess it's sad that there has to be a rule for Anyways. I mean, I get it, but also, i don't know.
00:21:05
Speaker
yeah we'll We'll get there. According to the clients of the funeral home, Megan's mom, Shirley, was creepy as hell. One family reported that she kept going on and on about the but embalming process and how good their dad's veins were to the bereaved.
00:21:20
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Oh, that's horrible. ye And I mean, spoiler alert, obviously they're doing some really fucked up shit. I didn't put it in here, but apparently she was also the one who would like dissect the bodies for the organs. And she like to like super delight and pleasure in the whole process of learning how to dissect and like people apart. Like she sounds like she could be either a really cool, wacky old lady. So I would be kind of excited to learn how to dissect because that's what I wanted to do.
00:21:48
Speaker
But like, it's just creepy to like walk up someone and be like, My husband's veins, they're just so, they're so good. I mean, can't wait to embalm him. You know, they may have actually gone. I mean, i the vast a great vascular system that could go for a lot on the. but Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself.
00:22:05
Speaker
Is that? but i'm Sorry. Enough people with sideways experiences began to come forward. People reported their loved ones being embalmed without permission.
00:22:16
Speaker
ah There were weird stipulations about waiving fees for a closed casket, most likely to hide that there was either not a body at all or it had been cut up for parts. Did they not check? I would check. I don't care if it's closed casket. I would check. They were waiving fees, making it cheaper if they would abide by their weird ass rules, which is, I think, kind of how this got uncovered. Yeah.
00:22:39
Speaker
Apparently, Megan had sold hundreds of body parts, including several that had infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis. Like, like, you can't put transplants like that. Yeah.
00:22:50
Speaker
But they were also certified disease free to the buyers, by the way. So my when this originally was uncovered in 2018, it seemed Megan would be more. ah it seemed what Megan would be more or less let off with warning. She had to sign an agreement that she wouldn't do that shit anymore and that she wouldn't run another funeral home. But that was it at the time. She had several other businesses in operation and it really pissed off people in town ah that knew who she was.
00:23:17
Speaker
However, it was just a matter of time. The FBI conducted a criminal investigation and ultimately sentenced Megan Hess to 20 years in prison and her mom, Shirley, to 15. that's That's it? Yeah, that's her.
00:23:29
Speaker
oh my gosh. We're going to finish it off with a recently broken and still ongoing story. In September of 2025, Philip M. Pietras of Connecticut was exposed for having embezzled the funds of over 100 victims who prepaid for funeral services and grave plots. Oh.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah. So basically they paid for stuff. Their savings. Put their savings into taking care of their deaths for their loved ones. And we're we're about to find out. Pietras had funeral homes in four towns in Connecticut and people in each town were starting to notice things were not right.
00:24:02
Speaker
They were checking the trust and escrow accounts their funds should be chilling in, and there wasn't a dollar to be found. Oh, It was, of course, discovered that Pietras used the funds for personal use. Fancy trips, nice stuff, and apparently some steep losses at various casinos. Oh,
00:24:17
Speaker
Arrest warrants poured in from each city, and Pietras was arrested and stripped of his embalming license. That's as of it? As of late November of 2025, at least 110 victims have been revealed and the investigation is ongoing.
00:24:32
Speaker
Pietras' most recent court date was December 12th, 2025, and the next will, as of the time of this current recording, will be in late February of 2026. And I will update as it goes. So there's shockingly several more instances of similar situations that have happened with corrupt funeral professionals.
00:24:50
Speaker
Regulations are continuing to be adjusted to help with oversight. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and loved ones is to know your rights. There are a couple of links in the show notes that will list general death rights in the United States and also state-specific rules and guidelines.
00:25:04
Speaker
Funeral homes are required by the Federal Trade Commission to disclose all costs, item by item, prior to finalizing any agreements. Many funeral homes are very transparent about their processes from beginning to end, and there are resources to help you identify those again A few of which are included in the show notes.
Consumer Rights in Funeral Planning
00:25:21
Speaker
I don't mean to provide anxiety about. no And I mean, at least you're providing like a solution, like, Hey, like try looking at these places and they might, well, like these sites and they might provide a little better guidance on how to avoid being stuck in this situation. Yeah. This is a situation where knowledge is power for real. I mean, arm yourself with info.
00:25:49
Speaker
Did you bring me Nightmare Fuel? So I do. I think I told you there was that show. said you'd seen it. It was about the the family that owned the funeral home. Six Feet Under? Six Feet Under. Yes. Have you seen that? I have seen that. That show is excellent. Yes. That is excellent Nightmare Fuel. Yes.
00:26:05
Speaker
It is such a good show. I should rewatch that. That's good stuff. It tear your heart out at the end. but And a little bit along the way. Yeah. A lot along the way. Yeah. But it's... and It gives you, I feel like a lot of the stuff that you talked about, it does give you like a glimpse into like what they experience as people who run a big part of the death industry and the struggles they face, you know, in their survival and the decisions they have to make. Yes. And all that stuff.
00:26:32
Speaker
So i just think that would be a really interesting one to like toss in the ring here. Yeah, I agree completely. i also have nightmare fuel. I'm going to, I mentioned Caitlin Doty at the beginning with order of the good death. the first book of hers I read was called the smoke gets in your eyes. And it's just about her kind of her journey of like from the beginning of wanting to become a mortician to like the first several years of her being a mortician and like the things she went through both, you know, just situationally and emotionally. And know, it was really interesting and it's nonfiction and the, the audio is narrated by the author.
00:27:08
Speaker
Nice. How do you, how do you feel about organ donation? Oh, I don't. it's That's fine. No, like your own organs. Yeah, that's fine. Really? Yeah.
00:27:20
Speaker
Do you have it on your card? No. No, I'm afraid. I'm afraid to put it on my driver's license. And I know that like no medical professional... Is going to like, well, hopefully. No, that's not true. It's not that no medical professional, but it's the outliers. It's, yeah you know, less than a percent, you know, it's it's like nothing. it's it's It's not enough to worry about. But I get it. I understand. I understand people's hesitations. I mean, that's why I don't have the thing. I know that it's actually probably bad and stupid for me to not have it marked if I actually care to be a donor. But I, i you know, if somebody else can use it.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. No, i agree. If someone else can use it, good luck. but Yeah. Yeah, i know. I'm not exactly in the best shape.
Haunted Elsa Doll Tale
00:28:02
Speaker
I actually did want to share something for palate cleanser. There is this. It's so stupid and hilarious and perfect for our palate cleanser. Sorry, we have a giant monkey in our cottage running around chasing Grimm.
00:28:19
Speaker
so actually was looking at just weird news and there was this article published in January 8th on January 18th of 2020. Um, and it's these people that are like, like serious, like they're really serious. And they're like, I don't know what's going on, but this Elsa doll,
00:28:43
Speaker
like keeps coming back to our house. Like it keeps ending up back in our house. Have you seen this? I vaguely remember this. Yes. It's like some, a family in Houston or whatever. And so they basically,
00:28:56
Speaker
i I saw it was the husband. So basically like, I'm just going to like go through it. They bought it. And then like for two years they had it. It was like a little Elsa frozen doll and they had it for like two years. And then it,
00:29:09
Speaker
just suddenly started like speaking in Spanish as well as English. But like, they're like, there's no button that would make it speak Spanish. And I'm like, okay, well, that's just malfunctioning, whatever, you know, like electronics get old, whatever.
00:29:23
Speaker
But it's like the Teddy Rexman thing. Yeah. And so they had, they had the doll for like six years and they hadn't changed his battery. So they were like, yeah, mean maybe like there's something going on. um But they said it was just like randomly start speaking and singing, like even when it was off, which the Furbies used to do that. So if they're like electronics are weird. Yeah.
00:29:43
Speaker
They got, right they decided to get rid of it in like 2019. They tried to get rid of it. They threw it outside in the trash and then they found it in a bench in their living room a few weeks later, which I'm like in their living in their living room. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, like the husband had to have done this or something because the wife said she was the one that threw it out. The kids said they didn't do it and like they would have had a dig through the garbage. But like, I don't know, for a good joke, I think they would have. But either way, so then it stopped speaking English and only would speak in Spanish after this. Like they still had it.
00:30:17
Speaker
And then they attempted to throw it out again, double bagged it, put it at the bottom of the trash can and they forgot about it. And then they found it outside of their house again, their daughter, it says, but when they returned, so they, they went on a trip or whatever. And then when they came back, it was just like outside of their house.
00:30:37
Speaker
So like, okay, somebody took it out of your trash can and put it outside, but still it's like, okay, guys, like, what are you doing? Monkey called Ace and said, Hey, while we're out of town,
00:30:48
Speaker
Would you do something very hilarious? I mean. Yeah. No, I think he would. Okay. No, he definitely would. But yeah. So anyways, they did end up like posting it on a website and they were like, basically like help us get rid of this haunted doll because they're like, and I don't know what the fuck to do with this.
00:31:08
Speaker
So they actually ended up like someone ended up responding to like the post. They put it on social media, whatever, being like, help us get rid of this haunted doll. We're fucking done with it. Like, help us We can't throw it away. And that scares me because the Chucky movie that, you know. Yeah.
00:31:23
Speaker
So they ended up finding a family in Minnesota who contacted them and was like, hey yeah, yeah, mail it to me. So they mailed it to the family in Minnesota and they put it on top of their truck.
00:31:33
Speaker
Oh, wow. So it's just tied to their truck. it's just really funny. But they haven't gotten it back yet. But it was just a cute, silly, stupid thing where it's like this thing keeps appearing and this doll is haunted. on a modern day haunting. And it's like, no, dude, your neighbor is playing a joke on you. It's so great. They hate that your kid keeps keeping them up all night or something. Mm-hmm. Or your husband is a practical joker. Yes, correct. Or your kids.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, that's harder, though, have it show up than when they come back from vacation. Yeah. the The language thing is just, that's just electronics. Yeah.
00:32:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:13
Speaker
So, yeah, that's ah that's it. That is it for today. We will be back with, I think, some more possessing things. Yes. We're going to continue the story of David Glatzell. and his family and his haunting and what happens next.
00:32:29
Speaker
Awesome. Until then, sweet dreams. Bye-bye. If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com. Sweet dreams.
00:32:57
Speaker
Bye bye!
00:33:01
Speaker
by bye