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Season Five: Summer, All The Remains
285 Plays3 months ago
In today’s episode, we discuss some upcoming episodes of a staple of true crime enthusiasts and audiences worldwide for more than thirty years.
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Transcript
True Crime News Roundup
00:00:00
Speaker
This podcast may contain disturbing content for some listeners. It's intended for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised.
00:00:37
Speaker
So this is also one of those like news round up type episodes, but it's got a little bit different bent. Um, I do have two news items I wanted to bring up with you. The first one is this is kind of a strange case out of DC.
Fassil Tekklamarium's Murder Case
00:00:52
Speaker
Have you heard of, uh, Fassil Tekklamarium? Fassil was killed and his body was discovered April 5th in his apartment in DC. Have you heard anything about this? I don't think so. This is a brief one. The article I pulled is from Antonio Planas out of NBC News. And it just says, slain man's thumb sliced off and used to steal from his mobile payment app.
00:01:19
Speaker
So the thumb of a man in Washington, D.C., who authorities believe died violently in April, was cut off to access his mobile payment app and steal money from him. And they talk about how Facile's body, he was 53 years old. He was found in his his apartment's bedroom on April the 5th. And this is from an affidavit that NBC pulled related to the arrest of 19-year-old Audrey Denise Miller. Now that's who investigators believe killed Facile. Facile had several cuts to his legs. He had a cut on his right hand and his right thumb had been removed, according to this affidavit. According to the document, a witness told police that Audrey Miller and another woman that's now been identified as Tiffany Taylor Gray, 22, they had cut off Facile's thumb. He also had fractures ah to his head. He had been stabbed in the stomach.
00:02:14
Speaker
And authorities noted that there was broken glass on his body and on his bed. They believe that he was killed at the end of March, at least two, possibly as many as six days before his body was found. The cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force trauma and sharp force injuries. And Audrey Miller is charged with first degree murder. Police also mentioned that they found evidence that suggested cleaning products had been used at the crime scene. Over several days, security cameras at the building captured Audrey Miller and Tiffany Gray, with two men coming and going from the building where Facile lived.
00:02:55
Speaker
it alleged that they used his key fob to get into his apartment and took multiple items, including his electronics and watches.
Arrests and Investigation Insights
00:03:03
Speaker
Most of the attorneys didn't comment on this yet, but from what I can tell this article and another one state that Tiffany Gray was a sex worker and that she and Facil had some type of relationship going. A witness also told investigators that Audrey and ah Tiffany had used Facile's thumb to obtain money from his account. And Tiffany had used those funds to pay for an Uber, marijuana, and alcohol. There were multiple unnamed, unconfirmed co-conspirators kind of mentioned and redacted throughout the affidavit surrounding Facile's death. I could not tell if these people had been formally charged. NBC says they hadn't been formally charged or they couldn't confirm it.
00:03:52
Speaker
as of the time that we're recording this, but they did arrest Audrey Miller on June 21st, charged her with first degree murder and armed felony murder. She did not get a bond. And then ah Maryland police arrested Tiffany Gray on July 1st. They charged her with first degree murder and armed felony murder as well. I thought that was an interesting case. You don't hear a lot about people's appendages being taken to steal from them. That was because they needed a thumb to access his phone, right? Yeah, yeah they needed they needed it to be able to keep getting into his device. but So that's one piece of true crime news. There's going to be a lot of evidence for that. Yeah, especially if they've got like video of them coming and going. And also, if people don't know this, I'm going to tell you, New York, Atlanta, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, cameras that these cities are using now are so sophisticated.
00:04:51
Speaker
Like even if the apartment building doesn't have a camera, if they even get close to the timeframe, they will have you on at least 10 cameras in most of these cities coming and going from places. Well, not to mention wherever they had his phone with the thumb, yeah like all that stuff is tracked, right? So they nailed down how many times his phone was open with his thumb after around the time they think he died. They're going to find a lot of information.
Technology in Crime Solving
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, they are. And, you know, that's all happening right now. So those are those are pretty interesting ah uses of technology on both sides of that, the way they track these girls down and what they were doing with his thumb, with Facile's thumb. It's terrible. It's very tragic um that they were stealing from him.
00:05:44
Speaker
I had an older case I pulled up around the same time that I was going to use for true crime news. This comes out of Palm Beach County, Florida. The Palm Beach Post has this. Hannah Phillips wrote it up on July 9th, 2024. And it just says West Palm Beach. It says authorities have identified a murder victim whose body was found in ah in rural Palm Beach County 40 years ago. They hope to find his killer next. is that Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies
Jack the Ripper: Myth or Reality?
00:06:14
Speaker
say that Joseph W. Newman disappeared in the early 1980s after traveling from Toms River, New Jersey down to Florida.
00:06:24
Speaker
A man searching for aluminum cans along the New River Canal found his skeletal remains on February 3rd, 1984, and that's about 18 miles south of ah South Bay. Detective said the man was bound and his body had been abandoned about 30 feet off of US 27 between the guardrail and the canal. He was wearing slacks, underwear, and socks. And at the time, authorities said that it appeared his body had been there for about a year. Then Sheriff's Detective G.F. Radford said we're definitely looking at a homicide. Now, using the same technology that led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer in California, investigators took DNA out of those bones and they were able to match it to one of Joseph Newman's distant relatives.
00:07:15
Speaker
An investigative genealogist then built out the relative's family tree and they found a branch that ended with the man beside the canal. So Joseph Newman joins a growing list of people that are being identified through IGG. It's a pretty expensive technique right now. The cost will come down as more people get into being able to do it. But in Palm Beach County, they've used it on several high-profile cases recently, ah including the death of Baby June, who was an infant found in the the Boyton inlet down there, and they used it on the rape and murder of 78-year-old Mildred Nafini.
Upcoming Unsolved Mysteries
00:07:56
Speaker
Now, Palm Beach Sheriff's Office's cold case detectives are hoping to identify any and all associates known to ah Joseph Newman. Now,
00:08:07
Speaker
There's a man they're specifically looking for. At the time, he would have been in his mid-30s. And he was known to investigators only as, quote, Jamie. Jamie had often bragged about being a football player. He is believed to be one of the last people who saw Joseph Newman alive. And the last record for Joseph Newman being alive is sometime in the spring of 1983. He was said to have lived in Kendall and Ball Harbor, which are both in Miami-Dade County. And anyone with information about this case is urged to send a message to John Cogburn or Crimestoppers of Palm Beach County. John Cogburn can be reached at 561-688-4063. That's Detective John Cogburn, 561-688-4063. He can also be reached at Cogburn J,
00:08:59
Speaker
That's C-O-G-B-U-R-N-J at PBSO.org. Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County is a website that you can easily pull up. They're also at 1-800-458-TIPS, 8-4-7-7. So that's 1-800-458 and the word TIPS, which translates to 8-4-7-7. There is a reward offered in his case. That case is, ah I have family in New Jersey and That is the reason that I'm i'm throwing him in here. um It's a case that I feel like should be ah solved for Mr. Newman. He's a young guy when he goes missing. I ah cannot imagine what like people would go through missing a relative like that, even if it's somebody who's kind of on the fringes of the family. I agree. Hopefully, they'll be able to to figure something out there. that It's good he was identified, right?
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He got his name back and that's like the important first step. It's, it's sad that it's taken this long. That's a really long time. I mean, it'll be, it's 40 years now. Actually, I'd say I was keep forgetting we're in 2024 body was discovered in 1984. So it's already 40 years. They believe he probably died in 1983 sometime. I bring these cases up and and this stuff up is true crime news. But I also wanted to talk about something that was coming out here shortly. Now I've said we have a new series that we're gonna be working on coming after this episode, um either this episode or the next one. And another thing that is coming back is Unsolved Mysteries. And I think I have all of the cases
00:10:46
Speaker
that Unsolved Mysteries is covering. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'm pretty close. I wanted to talk about a couple of them. Now, I'm just gonna go ahead and throw out there that I believe one of the cases is Jack the Ripper. One of the cases is an update to the Mothman case out of Chicago. I don't know a lot about the Mothman case. I know a lot about Jack the Ripper. I'm not really gonna cover those here, but I was gonna ask you, did you ever get into like Jack the Ripper? Yeah, so my only knowledge of that is it was in a, hmm. Like Sherlock Holmes or something? No, it was like, my mind completely went blank. The FBI guy. Oh, you're talking about John Douglas.
00:11:36
Speaker
John Douglas, ah one of his books, i maybe like the 10, the Clients of Hontas. Okay, Cases of Hontas. That is probably my ah extent of any sort of in-depth information about the Jack the Ripper case, because I believe that's one of the cases that he covers in that book. If it's not that book, it's a different book of his, but I know it was him.
00:12:08
Speaker
So one of the authors that I follow is Patricia Cornwell. I follow her on social media. act I've actually met her. I don't know if she would remember me, but she follows me on social media. She follows through Crime Access on social media. She's one of my favorite authors. She puts out the Scarpetta novels. She had a 2002 book called Portrait of a Killer and Jack the Ripper Case Closed, where she put out a theory. And then I remember seeing this crazy, like, television panel where multiple people were on there, including John Douglas and Patricia Cornwell. And they were talking about like solving the Ripper case. Unfortunately for me, it's like one of those cases where in order for me to like look at it and go, Oh, it was any of these suspects that they have, you have to prove to me that Jack the Ripper exists.
00:13:05
Speaker
And i don't I think we're looking at multiple murders, potentially one or two of them are related, but realistically, this is terrible to say, I don't believe in Jack the Ripper. I think i think the case has been distorted by how the police interpreted things at the time in real time and how the media has interpreted it. I think that it is one of the very first concoctions of what we now know as true crime, right? Yeah. um I do think that it's, I think it's fascinating. I do think that it is, a lot of it's sort of strung together, right? Yeah. As far as, you know, where this were these just one-off murders? Definitely the perspective that I saw it from,
00:13:58
Speaker
it was, yeah I was definitely skeptical of, you know, the fact that like this one dude was just doing this, right? yeah um It didn't seem, it seemed almost two pointed, even to the extent that like we would have this much um information at this point from that period of time and that like sort of where they were socioeconomically, right? Because this was a really dire time. So I i have a tendency to i agree with you. I haven't, to be honest, I haven't researched it enough to really have any sort of opinion. I know that, I don't ever want to say like, it doesn't interest me to, because I don't want to be flippant, but like, I'm not really interested in looking into jack the jack of the river.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, I have no interest in the the quote, Jack the Ripper part of it. like What would be interesting to me in a way that I would get involved in that is if someone were to like cheek take me through Whitechapel in 1884 to 1890 and hand me all the murders they had in Whitechapel at the time that were unsolved still, I would have an interest in that part. I'd want to know about missing people and and and unsolved murders. But like for for you to like start at the end and go backwards like that is very confusing. And I know there's multiple suspects that the people who are really invested in the Zodiac or Jack the Ripper or whatever, like they have in mind. But I think if you look at the individual crimes first, you can potentially like make more headway than trying to prove who one of like those people are.-named killers are. I know he's got three names, Jack the Ripper, but you know what I mean. Well, and honestly, that's sort of one of the downfalls of those types of ah cases with multiple victims. It takes that, like, infamy or, like, it takes the several instances of it, right?
00:16:04
Speaker
where it looks similar, but you know, this type of crime is not extraordinary in any way, really. ah Think of the time and the place, right? And so for us, like now, it's like kind of crazy, but you know, is it for the time? I didn't, I don't really think so, but sometimes it takes this infamy that brings them all together. We we talked about it with the Jeff Davis eight, right? right um Some of the other cases, like it takes this sort of like, correlation to give it the strength it needs to be something, right? yeah And then it loses traction because it falls apart. It's not a serial case. It's individual murders that have now been associated with one another that will leave all of them unsolved forever because of
00:16:57
Speaker
the dynamic that that brings when it's not a true serial situation. I think that i think that is an answer to a lot of these like sort of age-old cases. They miss the forest for the trees, right? Yeah, they they really do. i mean I think that the current production crew on Unsolved Mysteries has a very high bar there attempting to meet. I will say that like putting something out there about Jack the Ripper is interesting. I personally believe it's sort of a waste of a resource with the audience that you get with Unsolved Mysteries coming out on ne Netflix like that. And I think this is volume four or volume five or something. I would you know i i think that
00:17:48
Speaker
Jack the Ripper is a bit of waste of space there for all the reasons you just described. I would rather see like some more. And and I don't want to say that about the victims either. Like I'm not saying. No. And but the the bottom line is like, yeah, it's unsolved as it will continue to be. And throwing they threw the Mothman in and I don't know a lot about the Mothman. I know that there were these Mothman sightings in Chicago. that have happened more recently. um I don't have a lot of interesting in crypto stuff until I see something that looks like real crypto. and and and like I hate to be that guy, but like when you're talking about cryptozoology or fictional type beings, I believe that they they can be rooted in some kind of like trick in the eyes or there could be something
00:18:46
Speaker
that you're seeing that that is sort of similar. but I don't get into those episodes. And I also don't get into the alien episodes. I believe we've discussed this at length. Okay. So I did notice, ah so one of the cases that popped up looked like they're doing, and this could they could be throwing us off with this, but it looked like they're doing something out of October of 2015. They have this overhead shot that's in the trailer. I have no idea what that case is, but it it looked like it was indicating something related to
00:19:18
Speaker
ah like a helicopter camera from ASU and they're showing like a crime scene down below.
Beaver County Jane Doe Case
00:19:23
Speaker
I didn't catch what that one was, but I did catch some of the others. It appears that they are covering the Beaver County Jane Doe case. And I feel like that's a little weird. do Do you know what the Beaver County Jane Doe case is? I know what it's presented as, yes. So in December of 2014, In Pennsylvania, rural Pennsylvania, I think it was in an economy, if I remember correctly. That's correct. um A teenager walking home, sort they say country road. I say road into trail with you know country around it or rural area around it. They stumbled across something very strange.
00:20:10
Speaker
About 25 to 40 feet off of a road in a wooded area, there was a severed human head laying on its side. And authorities came out. He reported it. Authorities came out. They estimated the head had been there somewhere between one and three weeks. I think at one point they had said maybe a month, but something knocked it down a little bit from that. ah This is a really small road. Now, there's a 911 call that gets played on a YouTube channel. I don't know if it's real or if it's a reconstruction or what, but it's a team basically calling into the dispatcher and just saying, hey, I found a human head. Officers come out, they look at it, it's laying on its side. There's nothing around that indicates it's fallen off of a body. the They basically collect it like they would
00:21:11
Speaker
any other human remains. The head appears to be that of a Caucasian woman who is thought to be in her 60s. Now, if you pull up the NamUs profile for this, it says, I think, 35 to 85 years old or something like that. I don't know if that's accurate or not. The head has some indications that it was being embalmed or prepared to be ah buried. Right. And that comes up because at least at the point in time we're talking about the embalming process had degraded the DNA to the point that they couldn't get a profile from it. Right. She has a very stylized hair.
00:21:55
Speaker
very stylized hairdo, I guess would be the right word. And her eye her eyes were being prepared as if the eyes were being removed and potentially they were gonna put back in something more appropriate for like an open casket. I have read online that other people think she was actually someone who had been a donor body. and that the body itself had somehow been separated from the head and where it landed was completely by happenstance. I don't know. That sounds weird to me for like a head to just bounce out of a ah cooler or ah a hearse or a transport van. It sounds like something that somebody would have looked into or never talked about again.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, if you thumb through like the different things on Beaver County Jane Doe, that's what this case is kind of known as. It looks like they looked for, you know, local funeral homes, cemeteries, grave sites. And I think they talked to a medical school nearby. None of them seem to have like a good bead on what had happened to this woman that her head ends up in this field. But she is, unidentified. At least she was the last time that I looked her up. She has a full set of teeth. She has a recognizable face. You know what I don't understand? I don't understand why they couldn't get DNA out of her teeth. That's a good question. The embalming would not have degraded that, I don't think. Hmm.
00:23:37
Speaker
and's ah that's ah That's a really good question. but But apparently this is going to be one of the unsolved mystery cases from what I can tell. It looks like one of the other overhead shots in the trailer is going to be this case and other people were speculating with me on Facebook that this is going to be one of the cases. That's interesting. um i It is a weird case, right? So this is a head that, like you said, it we're not even sure that it's not somebody that was already dead, right? but In fact, it sort of seems like it is somebody that's already dead. Right. Because of the embalming situation. I can see a lot of reasons why this would put it ah even an
00:24:18
Speaker
mostly innocent person in a precarious situation, right? Because her head was no question no longer attached to her body, right? Right. i There was a pretty graphic description of the way it was severed. Do you remember? um Yes. it It made it seem like it had been cut off, right? Yeah. I read two different versions of this and I was going to ask you if you had come to a conclusion the Beaver Jane Doe head, was it that they thought the person had anatomical knowledge or they did not have anatomical knowledge? Um, I think that, so I don't know about that. What I got out of what they were saying, uh, with the understanding I'm extraordinarily squeamish about all that kind of stuff, I got that yeah what it an accidental or
00:25:15
Speaker
Like it was a deliberate decapitation. It was not something that just happened accidentally or happened like from circumstance. It was a clear cut. Let me see if I can. I pulled up um the unidentified awareness fandom page on her. And here's what here's what it says yeah there. And they pull from NamUs, et cetera. They say Beaver County Jane Doe was a woman whose embalmed severed head was found in a wooded area in 2014. Her head likely had been severed by someone with anatomical knowledge. Her eyes had been replaced with red rubber balls, which is inconsistent with the funeral industry. However, the method in which she was embalmed suggests it was done in a funeral home rather than a medical school or somewhere else. Traces of medication used to treat heart failure
00:26:06
Speaker
was found in her system and she may have passed away from a heart condition, foul play is not suspected in her death. I'm only throwing this one out there because I think it's going to be on the Unsolved Mysteries cases. It's a head that was found randomly. Like road that's weird. Yeah. And look, i we have talked about a lot of weird body part industry type situations on here. So talking about her is not like that huge a deal. I'm mentioning her here because I think i do think she's in the episodes. And while the others don't interest me as much, like Jack the Ripper, I'll probably watch, Mothman, nah. This one is interesting to me. I wanna know if they dug into it and found out anything I don't know. Do you know what I mean?
00:26:56
Speaker
Sarah, please indicate the head was cleanly cut across the arteries, arteries and spinal cord, but a crude and jagged cut was made along the skin on the neck.
00:27:08
Speaker
That's what caught my attention, and um I'm very squeamish, so I didn't really think about that very ah deeply. but So it was a clean cut across the arteries and spinal cord, but a crude and jagged cut was made along the skin of the neck, which almost seems like the head was loose. Yeah, removed as an afterthought. yeah Like loosened in the process of something else, and then they just went ahead and cut it off. ah um Of course, you know my first question is, well, where's her body? right it also like and i don't know I know it seemed like they listed a lot of stuff that they had tried lead-wise, but I was curious if there had been any sort of noticed disruption or anomalies at any graveyards. They say they looked into that.
00:28:03
Speaker
Like having, like if somebody had dug up a grave. Yeah. They say they looked into it and like nobody, they didn't find anything. I don't know how hard they looked into it. I just know that that's mentioned in some of the news articles that I'm reading about this. Right. And so, you know, you think about how many ways can an embalmed head end up on the side of the road, right? seems like yes That seems like in endless possibilities to me. No, they're not. I don't think it has endless possibilities because first of all, who has embalmed heads? Not very many people. A pretty limited amount of people, yeah. Right, so you've either got to be, I guess, training or have... Now, okay, what do you make of the the but the red rubber balls that aren't quite what funeral homes use?
00:28:58
Speaker
i don't I don't know what to make of them. I don't even know what to make of the medication they found on her. Like they had medication indicating she may have been treated for some type of heart failure. Right, and don't you feel like, do you, and well, do you feel that it's strange they could trace that medicine but not her DNA? ah They just found that, well, that's a good point. I guess they, hmm. And her head full of hair, I mean, yeah There's a lot happening here that I mean, maybe that embalming process did affect her hair. I don't think it would and fact affect her teeth though.
00:29:37
Speaker
Because we do true crime, of course, I think about what somebody might want to do with a body, right? yeah Or a head. Now, it doesn't appear that there's any sort of um additional signs of any sort of other crimes having taken place with the head, except for the fact that there's a cut off head on the side of the road. It wasn't anything, right? No, it's just sitting there. i I don't really see it bouncing out of a vehicle. No. How how are heads transported, right? um They're in... On a body.
00:30:17
Speaker
Okay, well, in the event that the head has is no longer attached to the body, like it's not in a position where like it would have been in a cooler or something.
00:30:29
Speaker
That's what I think. In a bigger situation where this is needing to happen, right? ah Transport of this was needing to occur. um So then, I didn't do this before, but I feel like we need to look for headless bodies. I mean, I think that goes without saying. I found one thing I was going to read to you about this if if you had an interest. So on the medium, there's an article from April of last year. I found almost identical wording in this in a Reddit post. I don't know who's who here, but it's not got a name. The name on the profile is, quote, the unknown. It says embalmed head found in the woods who is Beaver County Jane Doe.
00:31:09
Speaker
It says, eight years ago in Economy, Pennsylvania, a teenage boy hops off the bus from school, starts towards his home on Mason Road. As he walks on, passing a nearby field, something catches his eye. Is that a dead animal? Curiosity gets the better of him. He decides to take a detour, wading his way through the thick, untamed brush. He approaches, taking a closer look, and is taken aback by what he's just seen. This wasn't a dead animal after all. It was the severed head of a woman. Who is this woman and where is the rest of her body? Around 12.30 p.m. on December 12, 2014, a 911 operator received a call from a teenage boy calmly stating, I found a human head. It was unlike anything the economy borough police department had ever seen.
00:31:54
Speaker
The head was fully embalmed. It was in good condition. Her skin was smooth with two moles still visible in her cheek. Her hair was whitish gray, fluffed and curled as if she had been prepped for reviewing. Because her head was embalmed, it had remained untouched by the hungry animals which inhabited the woods. Based on the condition of the head, police believed it couldn't have been there for more than a week. Due to the embalming fluid, the time of death was impossible to tell and DNA was impossible to extract.
Efforts to Identify Jane Doe
00:32:23
Speaker
The technique used to embalm the head revealed to investigators that it had been done professionally.
00:32:29
Speaker
reducing the likelihood that foul play was involved in her actual death. Instead, they believed that whoever did this had intercepted the body somewhere on its way from the funeral home to the cemetery. What's worse is that because the head was found way too far off the road to have fallen off a truck and the dirt on her head was revealed to have not been from the same area, it is likely that someone deliberately planted her head there as a sick joke. Investigators reached out to the North Texas University DNA lab, hoping to have her DNA analyzed, but as previously mentioned, the embalming process had destroyed it. A toxicology report, however, was performed, which indicated that Jane Doe had trace amounts of lidocaine and atropine in her system. Both drugs are used to treat cardiac distress, meaning it's possible she died of heart failure. Regardless of how she died, investigators don't seem to believe the foul play was involved. There have been many missing women
00:33:23
Speaker
thought to be possible matches, including Terry Berman out of Helmand Township, Pennsylvania, and Robihan Siders of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, but they've all been ruled out. What makes the search for her identity even more difficult is that she was likely never entered into a database as her family has no idea that she's missing. Her teeth and fillings were examined by Dr. Raymond Miller, Dr. Mary Bush, and research scientist Peter Bush of the University of Buffalo, and they determined that work had been done on every single tooth with one of them having been done as many as seven times. One of the teeth pulled by examiners revealed a filling compound that wasn't available to dentists until 2004. The work on her teeth is what Dr. Miller described as patchwork dentistry, meaning the problems were addressed only when absolutely necessary. Since most high quality insurance companies will cover crowns, cheaper plans might only cover fillings. This combined with the sheer amount of work done on her teeth
00:34:21
Speaker
makes examiners believe that Jane Doe was a lower income woman who grew up in a place where the water did not contain fluoride. Stable isotope oxygen testing was done using her hair and tooth enamel, which determined that during the last seven months of her life, she had traveled through parts of Beaver County, South and Central Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, Northern West Virginia, and Maryland, and Eastern New York extending North to Lake Ontario. According to a local newspaper, the Cranberry Eagle, Investigators believe she died somewhere in the region of the Allegheny Mountains. The mountains include Pennsylvania counties extending into Northwestern West Virginia and Northwestern Maryland. It's unlikely she lived in Beaver County due to the immense coverage of the case bin local news. Of the most shocking aspects of this case is that whoever did this had placed red bouncy balls akin to what you'd find in a vending machine in her orbital sockets.
00:35:16
Speaker
The balls were found to have been made in a Chinese factory, but all attempts to narrow down where they were sold were unsuccessful due to just how many were produced. On top of the rubber balls, inner socket set eye caps, which resembled those used by professional funeral directors and embalmers. Typically during the embalming process, the eyes remain inside the head unless they've been removed for organ donation purposes, whether it be an eye bank or organ procurement organization. According to the Deputy Press Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Wes Culp, if her death happened recently, it's likely that only her cornea would have been removed.
00:35:52
Speaker
In rare cases of total eye and nucleation, the funeral director fills the orbit with cotton that has been saturated in gel and a small amount of sealed powder placed inside and packed with the filler. It is only then that a textured eye cap is placed and the eyes are sealed shut. The juxtaposition of the crude uses of cheap rubber balls with the highly professional eye caps has stumped investigators and mortuary experts. If her eyes weren't donated, then perhaps something more nefarious happened to According to Michelle Vitale, an anatomy professor at Edinburgh University, who was called to examine the head, it is probable that whoever was involved with the cutting had anatomical knowledge and experience. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist and off autopsy veteran, examined photos of the crime scene and agreed with Vitale that it had to have been done by a professional. Both experts, along with law enforcement, believe this is part of the human body parts trade.
00:36:45
Speaker
While police don't want to release an actual photo of the woman's head out of respect to the woman and her family, there are sketches and a clay model that can be viewed. Police had initially hoped that releasing these to the public would crack the case, but despite them ruling resulting in around 30 leads, all potential matches have been ruled out due to the dental records. It's important to note that while police don't believe foul play was involved in her death, abuse of a corpse is illegal in Pennsylvania. Furthermore, the sale of organs is illegal in the United States. If you recognize the woman in the images, please call the Beaver County Police Department or send an email to police at economy b o r o pd ah.com.
00:37:26
Speaker
The police department, just so people have it, 724-869-7877 at 724-869-7877, or get in touch with Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers. They are 1-800-4PA tips. That's PA tips. I'm just throwing this one out there because I think it's going to be part of this. I don't find this one to be as much true crime as probably error. i mean I believe somebody could have bought a head. I think when something like this happens and you don't have an answer, it's because someone made a mistake. right because it this is like Have you ever heard the old adage about the the the funeral home suit being the wrong color?
00:38:14
Speaker
want I don't know. It's like a joke or an anecdote or a little kind of dark story, but basically a woman comes into the funeral home to see her husband for the last time and he's all prepped and he he's laid out and he's wearing this beautiful blue suit and the the woman looks at it and and she says he looks amazing. His face looks great. My only concern is like he's in a blue suit. He wasn't fond of the color blue. I would rather him like have a black suit and and The tech says, you know what? We'll take care of it. Don't worry about a thing. And she comes back and she sees the the open casket at his wake and he's in this black suit. He looks amazing. She goes up and she thinks the funeral home director and she thinks the tech and she says, thank you so much for doing that. What do I owe you? like at least i'm like you know I want to compensate you for for making that last minute change. And the tech says, don't worry about it. It's no problem at all. And she says, well, at least let me pay for the suit.
00:39:12
Speaker
And he says, no, no, no, it's not a problem. I'll tell you about it after the service if you need to know what happened there. But you don't have, you don't owe us anything. So the service is over and and the body's taken away. And the woman walks up to him again and she says, are you sure I can't compensate you for the suit? And she says, no. No, it's it's it's no problem. She said, well, how did you do that so quickly? ah and and And what happened? And he says, well, there was another man here. And his wife came in and said that she preferred that he would be buried in a blue suit. So I just switched the heads.
00:39:50
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. So my point is, if you were doing something like This is something I didn't look at in this area. You could probably look there. My guess is you have someone learning mortuary science. Right, exactly. who's Who is going to just never tell a soul. Right. And we're never going to know who this is or what happened because somewhere along the way, they figured out how to cover up whatever mistake they made in a way they would not be discovered.
00:40:25
Speaker
by switching the heads or by like, you know, but even if someone came in and said, hey, what happened to such and such? If it was a body that had been donated for those purposes and they simply said, I dispose of it and they weren't supposed to do something or they hadn't, they realized they had not disposed of it. I don't know why they would throw it out on the side of the road, but clearly it happened. And I think that it only happened to one person. because two people, one of them would have cracked. Oh, yeah, if ah right. Something this simple, they would have cracked. Well, right, because on it, I mean, because mistakes happen, whatever involved in that, in the mistake, right, they happen. Some things happen and you can't take them back, right?
00:41:19
Speaker
I don't know what would have led to this particular thing happening, but it's almost like, at this point, it's too late to say, like, oh, it was just a mistake, right? Because... Yeah, so this is like borderline true crime mystery for me. It's an unsolved mystery. um there it Because there's a head that is there, it's a little it's a little odd. um but It does seem legit though.
00:41:53
Speaker
And i I can't really put this together very well. So it does seem like a legit situation where it had to be on the way between yeah being prepared for burial and being buried, right? That's what I think. And then I wondered, like, I'm sure they look to see if anybody recently had family around where it was found. Like, because if it's a sick joke, it's geared towards somebody, right? Yeah. I mean, so this is okay. So you guys have ah an idea of why I'm going out on this path. This is on the path. Like if you were leaving Pittsburgh and you were coming to this location where this head was found 18 miles away,
00:42:43
Speaker
is the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. You're kidding. Nope. You're talking about on the path out of Pittsburgh, less than 20 minutes away, you've got the Pittsburgh Mortuary Science Academy right there. That's my guess where this head came from. It seems like they'd be able to figure that out. Would they? i Depends on who did it and who knows about it. Timing wise though, right? Yeah. I mean, they've got to have records, even like separate and apart from people handling the bodies, right? They would have records of ah what's happening. So yeah, but if those records are such and such came in, such and such was cremated, such and such came in and was embalmed and buried. You know what I mean?
00:43:34
Speaker
Well, right. and a But and for a limited period of time, I would feel like they would all have to be investigated. Again, it's just a certain... Well, and, you know, they wouldn't really even have to do anything except a kind of cursory comparison between the appearance of the person when they were alive and the head. No. I just am picturing, okay, maybe I'm totally wrong on this. I am picturing someplace like an Institute of Mortuary Science as having donors and the option to have a low cost burial. i don't i Well, that's exactly what I was, I don't even know about the low cost thing. that The way that they would learn is by doing it. Right. So i I think that that's where your answer is. And I don't think this is as big a mystery.
00:44:30
Speaker
Do I think this is a waste of time? No, I don't think it's a waste of time. but But wait, why haven't they like, I mean, you and I just put it together. Because whoever that person is, has decided they're not talking about it. That's it. That's the whole history. That's it. There's no I mean, like, they did something for whatever reason either by mistake or they went down some rabbit hole or they took the wrong drug and like just happened to be standing there when it kicked in they did something here that like caused them to do this thing that is terrible and out of embarrassment or whatever they cannot come forward they like listen if for some reason you did this and you come across this podcast episode before
00:45:19
Speaker
unsolved mysteries, which is is all highly unlikely. Just send an anonymous letter, go to Crime Stoppers and just say, I was a student at the mortuary science place. I did this. I'm sorry. I am not coming forward. This woman would have been there during, you know, December of whatever. So that's it. That's like, that's how you figure it out. Well, the other thing there would be if somebody had knowledge that that place was there and That would be, sort I'm going to have to go and drive around on Google with this one. Honestly, you could probably go through Pittsburgh's obituaries three weeks. Like in the, in the, yeah it's much easy already already done that certainly they did. They had. Well, then why is it on unsolved mysteries? And so my final question, is this a worthwhile case for a platform as big as unsolved histories? Well, it's 10 years, right? Yeah.
00:46:18
Speaker
So if you if I say no, then like I'm a heartless person, right? No, I don't think you're heartless. But like this is a case where it's not going to be a missing person. um It's really hard to... like Embalming is not going to happen outside of a normal... I mean, there's several ways you can end up embalmed. but It's not like a happenstance type of thing, right? No. The head coming off. I mean, I can only imagine that somebody was trying something that didn't work out. I don't know what that would have been. Like, I don't know. i i Look, man, I bring it up because I think it's going to be one of these cases based on what I saw in the trailer.
00:47:12
Speaker
and I think that it's going to be weird. I think it's worth the time. I don't particularly care for the new unsolved mysteries, but I certainly believe that this woman should be reunited with her. Well, her remains should be reunited. It would make a fascinating story if it's as benign as it seems like it would have to be. But, you know, if it's more sinister, I would be less fascinated with it. But like, it's one of those things that just, you know, it's like, wait, what? You found an embalmed head on, the you know. Well, I think it's going to be one of these things that it's more like the suit story. Like, and I think it's going to have a twist to it. The twist is going to be something weird where a student has their final exam because look at the timing on it. Okay. Yeah, I gotcha.
00:48:06
Speaker
It's right before you leave for the holidays. And their final exam, like they were supposed to do something that they did not do correctly. They swapped heads with something and made it look right. And then when they went to fix it, somebody said, oh, we already that's that's that ship is sailed, buddy. We buried that body. we We cremated those. Whatever they did that like crossed the line, like they couldn't go back. So they have to get rid of it. And all they can think of ah That's kind of weird to me, but like that's how I i get there. It's like if somebody has a series of unfortunate events that this head ends up in a field and I don't think it's anything sinister. I think it's more dumb than malevolent.
00:48:51
Speaker
I hope so. I hope that, um, I hope that that's the case because... Well, I have two more. You want to keep talking about this one? You want me to tell you about another one or two? I think we can move on from this one. I think I've just, I think I've said all I can. Okay. I, I think this is the next one. Um, have you ever heard of sacred as Stevenson?
Sigrid Stevenson's Cold Case
00:49:11
Speaker
Um, just researching this. I've never heard of it before. So this is a 1977 case out of New Jersey. It's actually from a college of New Jersey. And so I pulled an older article from New Jersey dot.com out of the Mercer section. This is from Brendan McGrath. He wrote it for Times of Trenton.
00:49:32
Speaker
September 4th, 2014. That would have been the anniversary of this case. It happened 37 years before this article that he wrote. It just says, Unsolved Mystery, 37-year-old TCNJ Cold Case, Intrigues Filmmaker Who Wants Answers. And then it's just out of Ewing. For nearly four decades, the gruesome unsolved murder of Sigrid Stevenson has hung over the campus at the College of New Jersey.
00:50:03
Speaker
spraying ghost stories and rumors about what led to her brutal death 37 years ago today. Stevenson was 25 at the time. She was found bludgeoned to death and naked on the main stage of Kendall Hall's theater at then Trenton State College on September 4th, 1977, just four days before classes were to begin. While a number of clues have surfaced in the meantime, her death is still a mystery that many are eager to see solved. One of them, a TCNJ graduate who made a film about the killing and is now pushing for a cold case group to look into her death. When Scott Napolitano arrived for his freshman year at the campus in 2002, he heard a number of different stories involving a murder at Kendall Hall. The first time I heard about it was around Halloween, in my freshman year, says Scott, who is now a high school film teacher.
00:50:55
Speaker
You hear it three or four times and the stories don't match up. Scott was intrigued, but it wasn't until his senior year that he really began digging into the story. Someone had died in Kindle Hall, but he wanted to know who and when and how. As a film student in the communications studies department, he worked with a group on a senior thesis that involved creating a short film and he chose to focus on a ghost story. He decided to find out what had happened in Kindle Hall so that he could use the occurrence as an inspiration for a fictionalized story. ah The sacred Stevenson was from Livermore, California, but earlier in her life had lived in the area where her father worked as a professor at Princeton University. She came to TSC for her master's degree in music and was staying with a professor earlier that summer. In the month before her death, she was said to have hitchhiked to Canada. She had attended a play in Kendall Hall the night before her death.
00:51:52
Speaker
The next night when a campus police officer was walking past the building, he saw her green bike chained to the fence. The building was locked and when he entered, he discovered her badly beaten body on the stage, covered in blood. Authorities later revealed that she died of a fractured skull and bleeding from cuts to her face and scalp. The building had a faulty door that could be opened if pulled hard enough, authorities said at the time. It's unclear if Stevenson was sleeping in a theater or if she was just there that night to play the piano as some of her acquaintances at the time had suggested. After learning this, the group completed their 20 minute film and saw some response from the campus. But Scott's curiosity has been Pete and Stevenson's case has become more personal. I was just interested in the actual story of who Sigrid was. He met with Ewing Police after he graduated in 2006
00:52:46
Speaker
And although they could not share much with him, he got a firmer grip at the basic facts of the crime. They gave me enough fuel to kind of keep looking into it. No one was ever officially named as a suspect than the case, he said. It leads you to think about what kind of people would have known and would have been interested in going to that building at night. In bits and pieces over the last decade, Scott has found new details about the case and learned about Sigurd's personality. Everyone who knew her said one thing. She loved and lived to play the piano. It was interesting hearing all of these warm recollections about her and seeing the haunted look of people who worked that case. They've all had that same look of sadness. 12 years after he first learned about it, the case still bothers Scott. Scott even has an email set up saveCigrid at gmail dot.com where he collects comments from people who knew Cigrid and can say something about her or what happened to her. He's been trying to encourage the Vidoc Society, a group of former detectives and law enforcement agents who work on cold cases,
00:53:46
Speaker
to help Ewing police solve the case. There is no information no new information from the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office. Kathleen Petrucci said there had been no new evidence and there is nothing that investigators can follow up on. Although TCNJ characterizes this as a cold case, they meet regularly with the county prosecutor's office and Ewing police to revisit it and see if there's anything new to the story. David Moha from the college said the college remains interested in seeing the perpetrator of this crime brought to justice. Ewing police said they have revisited the case a number of times over the years, but never caught the big break they need.
00:54:28
Speaker
I thought this was an interesting one. I did know about this story. And you're asking what kind of people go into the theater late at night. And that was me in college. I had so much trouble sneaking into those buildings. But we would go in there and study. We'd go in there and play on the stage. I mean, I was ah i was a drama kid in high school and in college. And we literally you know lived and breathed in those buildings back then. But I bet this guy shows up in the Unsolved Mysteries episode um So this is going to be a situation where whoever's responsible for her murder had to be in a certain position, right? I think so, yeah. They had to know because it's not like this was like, I mean, it is public access to an extent the students at the school could go in, right? But you're talking about the doors were locked, right? Yeah.
00:55:26
Speaker
and I believe, I don't know if you said it or if I read it, but ah they the security guard pushed the door really hard to get in. Yeah, he just jerked it and it came open. It didn't latch all the way, is what I read in the different news articles about this. Right. until um you know First of all, what was she doing in there? um which I think there was something about her playing the piano and are a variety of other reasons. um I think that a very close look at this case would would have revealed it when it happened. And I i don't mean to be like,
00:56:14
Speaker
i like, you know, who found her? Who was the last person who saw her? Yeah, um you know the campus security guard or police officer or whatever he was, like that's ah a good place to take a look. um The whole cast and the the their play they were doing that night was JB, which weirdly, I've been in JB three times. um I've done it in three different places and But she wasn't part of it, right? No, she had nothing to do with the play. She had gone to see the play the The night before I don't know if they mean so this would have been Labor Day weekend And that's the last that's gonna be the last performance of like summer theater So I don't know if they mean like She
00:56:59
Speaker
Goes to the play that evening and dies because September 4th is gonna be Sunday Not gonna be that many people Probably gonna be a matinee show So she's gonna see the play in the afternoon Then they're gonna lock up because if unless it's different than other plays and I'm going to bet that like she isn't I'm betting she's alone. They're not going to have an evening performance. so she couldve I don't know when she gets in there, but she could have been in there at any point in time.
00:57:35
Speaker
she was said to have known It was said that she was known to have gone in there to play the piano quite a bit. it had a ah There was a big ah piano right off in the wings of the stage, and it was better than the pianos that they had as practice pianos in the music building. That's why she went there. Right. So the campus police officer is a guy named Steven Coco Taggio. He sees her bike and he goes in. What was interesting was she's laying naked face down covered with the piano's dust cover.
00:58:11
Speaker
And she had been bludgeoned to death. So there's blood all over her sheet music. There's blood all over the stage and the piano. Her genes are found folded neatly nearby. The implication becomes that she was sitting there naked, playing the piano. She was so badly damaged and there was so much blood around her that the rumor was she was identified and identified by her hair.
00:58:43
Speaker
but they really, like that's it, that's all we know about her. Right, and Sarah, when you get into something like that, you've got a building that was locked up with limited access, right? Who, if anybody, would even know anybody would be in there, right? Right. I have never heard whether they said she was sexually assaulted or not. She was not raped, according to everything I've read. I think i think it could be that like we just don't know, but I think that i think it would've come out. Right. i um So that's weird. I kind of don't buy it, but at the same time, I have no reason to not buy what they're saying. This is an old case, right? um it One of the things I did notice was um the kid that was sort of sparking this, you know, fire to look back into it, you know, when they when they say like,
00:59:42
Speaker
You know, we can't reveal too much information. I'm like, well, what are you holding out on? You know, what are you holding out for? If that's the case, then they suspect it's the, the, the campus cop. If that's, if that's, if that's an accurate setup, the only other person that could be is somebody who lived in the theater wasn't supposed to. Honestly, um, well, or if she had been with somebody. If she had been there with somebody, right? She certainly wasn't going to be... I don't think she was sitting there playing naked unless she was a little bit... Unless there was some sort of prior documentation of her doing something like that.
01:00:23
Speaker
I thought it was an odd indication, but I found it multiple places online where people were talking. they They're saying that but because they felt like she would she had folded her... they were I think the point of it was that like she would have folded her jeans, somebody in the throes of this rage would not have. great um However, it seems a little bit odd to say that someone who would be playing the piano naked would have folded their jeans. Because it's not like she's at home playing the piano, right? This is the middle of a theater building. yeah It's a weird thing. It would be a weird thing for her to be there naked, right?
01:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, a little bit, yeah. Playing the piano. So, you know, again, so it if it's not just, you know, with was somebody upset at her playing the piano? Was it loud and bothering somebody? Because being bludgeoned to death is a rage-filled crime, right? Yeah. Um, so it's either a situation where, you know, somebody was, uh,
01:01:47
Speaker
made enraged. Maybe she, you know, buff rebuff their advances. Maybe, I don't know. And I always wonder, um, sometimes In the event she wasn't sexually assaulted, they take her clothes off. So like it'll be assumed she was. Maybe. I don't know. JB is a pretty big play, depending on how you put it on. It's a big cast. um the the It's the story of the book of Job. Yeah, I'm familiar with it. And it it's sort of told in a way that like God and the devil are are are sort of arguing over what to do with Job in the circus of life.
01:02:30
Speaker
it's This one, I would love to see the suspect list, and I'm sure there is one. And this guy's saying that, like, they don't, I don't know what they're waiting for. It's 46, 47 years ago. I'm like, whatever was gonna happen in this case is, we're past that point. Just go ahead and spill all the, and put the case file out there. It seems really unlikely that it's going to be anybody associated with having respect for the theater building. Unless, ah and unless there's someone who's,
01:03:02
Speaker
personally attacks to her. And like you said, they're rebuffed or something like that. Well, right. But yeah, that's true. It could be. But she was known to at least play the piano, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. And so that would be like separate and apart right from anything else happening, I guess. I don't really know. But it it does seem like this. I don't think there's a whole lot of information, right? It wasn't. It was a poorly investigated case. um I have a feeling that has to do with the fact that it's not great for a student to be bludgeoned to death in the theater, right? We don't know that this is a poorly investigated case. Well, it's not solved. Well, that doesn't make it poorly investigated because like if they don't want this to be like a problem and they've identified who it is and taken care of that problem in terms of like told them to get away or whatever, and they don't want to draw attention to the school,
01:04:00
Speaker
That's a poor investigation. That is a poor, that is a lack of prosecution. It does not mean that it's a poor investigation, in my opinion. Yeah, I disagree. I would have to say that that's not their call to make, but I do see why. No, I'm saying like if you all you have is campus police and then the local police and the administrators hide information from you, that is not because you were poorly investigating. It's because they wanted a specific outcome, which is sweep this under the rug. That's the administration of the college.
01:04:31
Speaker
Right, but a good investigation would root that out. There's only so many people that this can be, right? It's not going to be a random stranger that's you know walking through the college campus and happens upon an empty building where one girl is in there playing piano and they push hard enough on the door to get in, right? yeah That's not gonna happen. And so it's gotta be somebody who they had an ah inkling she might be there or they were there with her. um They had a reason to be there otherwise, and she was there, um you know, encroaching on their whatever they were doing, right? right right um Again, there would be no reason for her to end up naked in that situation unless they were trying to set it up to look like something it wasn't, right? right um
01:05:22
Speaker
and So I'm just saying, I feel like ah this isn't a situation where, unfortunately, I don't think there's going to be DNA. I mean, maybe they have kept some evidence. I don't know. um But it seems like the list of suspects would be fairly limited. Well, so this is my favorite one of the cases that seem to be coming. I've read a lot over the years about our case and a lot of conflicting information. Like you were you were asking the right questions, like was she sexually assaulted? And my answer stands as they said no.
01:06:03
Speaker
That doesn't mean she wasn't. I've read that she was bound. I've read that she was strangled. I've read that she was also beaten on top of being strangled. I've read that she was just beaten. I hope they do some justice to this particular case because I'm very interested to know if they tell us enough in this unsolved mysteries that we can look at it again and go, that sounds like something that can be solved. and It's out there on the internet, this case is, but this is the one of of all the ones we've talked about so far. This is the one that I look at and go, okay, that seems like a great use of the platform. You know what I mean? i thought Yeah, it's it's for sure a murder, right? Yep. And for sure, it's not solved. And it's very soluble. Yeah. Yeah, I like I'm looking forward to this particular one.
01:06:51
Speaker
I will say though, okay, it it is a good use of the platform. However, again, just like the list of suspects is very limited. I feel like the the list of people who have knowledge will be very limited as well, but maybe somebody knows something through somebody, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm with you on that. I just would, I would like to see this one get some justice. I have a feeling we're going to get a rehash, but I'm hoping they like clear up some of these questions. a little bit so that we can understand a little more about our case from the outside. Because like you said, like and as soon as I mentioned in that article that like the guy was saying you know they weren't giving me a lot of information, i ah why? Why not at this point? like i yeah what What do they stand to lose exactly? like They might actually solve it, right? yeah Because of I feel like the factors completely um eliminate
01:07:48
Speaker
Well, a it could have been a stranger to her, but it's not going to be a stranger to all the situation, right? I mean, best case, they're 68 years old now. You know what I mean? Well, right. But it's also going to be like a straight motive. it So if it's not a stranger, it's going to be love, money or revenge, right? Yeah. And it could be revenge for something as you know small as you're playing the piano and I'm sleeping here. Right? yeah Anything. But again, you know, I hope that they do expound upon it. um i I feel like something like that is probably the only way it's going to be expounded upon because the um and this student who took an entrance in it tried really hard to get more information, right?
01:08:36
Speaker
I think he did I mean I don't I think he I think he put a lot of effort into it because he wanted to try and advance his movie and he wanted to know what happened to her it does look like he he put a considerable amount of effort into it he's not the only one either I've seen multiple people on the internet that have tried to take a stab at this case. yeah And I feel like the the people that are holding if there's information that's being held hostage I feel like it's being I feel like they're looking at it the wrong way at this point Like I don't feel like there's anything to be gained by holding it back Yeah, I agree there I got one more you want to hear about one one more that I think it's gonna be an episode out there sure I pulled this from
01:09:19
Speaker
CBC Canada, it's an article from October 27th of 2015 and I think that I think this case is the one that they referenced as a body found in the basement It's one of those cases that kind of reads like a little bit like the Peterson case with someone having an accident or been murdered or ah somehow they get down a ah flight of stairs is the idea. Um, but that's not how it like started out. And I'll kind of tell you like where I get to on this case. I believe that this case, uh, is going to be Amanda and Tony. And so this headline reads, Amanda and Tony's death, very suspicious homicide investigating.
Amanda Antoni's Suspicious Death
01:10:09
Speaker
And then it says, Amanda and Tony,
01:10:10
Speaker
31, her husband and parents had just returned from a San Francisco trip. So this is in Calgary, ah up in Canada. And it says, there were signs of a violent crime at the Castle Ridge home where a Calgary woman was found dead by her husband on Monday, said the Calgary police. The body of Amanda and Tony 31 was found in the Castledale, in in her Castledale way home on Monday afternoon by her husband Lee, who called 911. First responders made the decision to call the police after assessing the situation as suspicious according to a Calgary Police Service release. ah Staff Sergeant Doug Andrews said that Antoni's husband has been cooperative and is not a suspect at this time. Lee Antoni was out of town over the weekend and last spoke with Amanda on Saturday night. Police didn't call the death a homicide until the medical ah examiner finishes the autopsy.
01:11:04
Speaker
which has been underway since Monday, but investigators believe the situation is very suspicious and the homicide unit is leading the investigation. There was no reported history of domestic conflict between the couple, according to police, and the police services, technological crimes, and cyber crimes units were looking into Antoni's social media account and forensically examining her electronic devices in an effort to determine whom she was in contact with prior to her death. The Antoni's had just taken a trip to San Francisco with the victim's mother and her husband. There were messages of condolence posted to the Facebook walls of Antoni's family members on Tuesday. So this is a woman who's found at the base of, or in the basement of her house. And I remember, I, did you remember this like when it happened or no? Cause it was kind of a weird one. And I think I need more. I don't think I did. What now it's, so is this in Canada?
01:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, this is Calgary. But they had been on a trip to San Francisco and they were back in Calgary. There was a scene that appeared to be a struggle, right? That's what they thought, yeah. other Otherwise, she's found at the bottom of the stairs, right? Correct. And I don't know that I have any idea, like, What happened to her? Well, so i had I had looked at her a couple of times over the years because she kept popping back up into the news and it was interesting when she was popping into the news because Like she was one of those people that At first they come out and they say it's suspicious About a year later they come back in 2016 and they flat out say it's an accident
01:12:53
Speaker
And then there were some spotted articles here and there like family wants to know what happened to her. I think just based on that timing, I think I had come to the conclusion and I don't have a lot of information on this case. I'm interested in this one as an unsolved mystery, but I do believe that like something about it made the police wrap it up as an accident at one point. They put a bunch of press releases together where they were piecing together her final hours. They were basically trying to figure out where she'd been and who she'd been with and what she'd done.
01:13:30
Speaker
ah She had a couple of things that made them believe she had stopped at some pharmacies and this herbal store. And I wondered if they didn't get the toxicology back and something she had gotten at the pharmacy or the herbal store was like something that could be innocuous, but certain people might have reactions to it. And it might, I don't know if you, I think you and I talked about this before. You ever known someone who just can't take certain medications? Yes, I have. um I also know people who look at their phone and fall down the stairs. Yeah, yeah that too. um and and so was her Was it actually ruled an accident? Yeah, it was finally ruled out. as an act It's been ruled as an accident. I don't know why it's in here, but I'm fascinated by the fact that it is in what I think is this pile of cases. Right.
01:14:26
Speaker
so um man I don't even want to say this out loud, but um I have some very steep stairs. And I can guarantee you if I end up at the bottom of them, it's because I fell. Oh, yeah, you have the basement stairs too. I totally, I was not thinking about that. I was thinking about Peterson case, but you're totally right. Like your stairs are dangerous. ah Yeah, they are. And I see the only stairs I've ever hit my head on, by the way.
01:14:57
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that's unfortunate. But um I feel like I don't know what her stares look like. Right. But I do know that um there's a there's a lot between like falling to your death um or to a position where your husband's out of town and you can't get help for yourself. Right. Yeah. um There's a lot between that and signs of an attack or struggle. I don't know, like if there were signs of a struggle, I guess they were thinking some sort of effect from something she picked up pharmacologically speaking. Yeah, and I mean, I'm not saying drugs either necessarily. I'm saying maybe some cold medicine.
01:15:45
Speaker
cold medicine and herb. I mean, who knows? It could be a variety of things that hit her the wrong way, right? Yeah. I think what they ran into was a lot of blood. I think they saw a lot of blood and that's what made them think that violence had taken place. But like, you know, you can hit your head on the tops there and go back down to the bottom. You can hit your head on the wall. You can trip and you can fling blood everywhere. If you get a little head wound, it can become a lot of blood real quick. Yeah, I know. Um, yeah, definitely. Yeah. So they come back and ultimately with this case, December of 2016, they flat out the police flat out say in an announcement that the investigation into her death was complete and they had consulted numerous experts and it was determined that her death was not suspicious. It was absolutely the result of a fall down the stairs.
01:16:44
Speaker
So I don't know how she ends up here. I have read people saying like that something else happened to her over the years in terms of news articles, but I don't i don't i don't know that that's enough. um The last thing I saw was, the last thing I saw that like ask a serious question was something to the effect of family looking for answers years after death. I think that um that that would actually kind of fit in with some of the stuff I've seen on Unsolved Mysteries and you know it's a really tough thing to lose somebody especially when there are wonky circumstances right. Yeah I mean you and I look at these cases all the time that's so
01:17:39
Speaker
What makes this interesting for me is what did Unsolved Mysteries have to think that this is an unsolved mystery? I think that it's a... I don't know that they're going to have had anything. We don't know for sure it's going to be covered, but I mean, assuming it is. um I think that they're giving the family an outlet. um I personally, I'm not sure that that's the way to go. It's you know clearly not my decision, but I feel like um I'm actually not entirely sure if her family accepted that. um but Did they accept that she was accidentally killed? I have never seen something contradicting it in what I've read about this case. Right, so you know i I don't know. I don't know what their answer is to this.
01:18:33
Speaker
um And you know if it was like three stairs and there's no way she died on the way down, that's different, right? i just All I can think about is my stairs and how I could totally die from falling down them. And um I would hope my husband wouldn't be suspect suspected. Also, there wouldn't they have like more information if they could follow her on social media and she was like totally fine up to a point?
01:19:04
Speaker
or whatever. She's a more recent case, so yeah, we should be able to learn quite a bit about her from this episode. If they follow their format of doing quite a deep dive into it, we should be able to know more, yes. Right, and it will definitely be the family at least talking about it, right? I would assume they would have the family and potentially some police folks talking about it. But i'm I'm interested in this one for sure. I don't have anything else on these cases. I really don't have much more on these cases. What's the unsolved mysteries coming out? You know? I think it's the end of July.
01:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, I gotta tell you, I have not watched it. Maybe ill I will, I did watch the very first season. I haven't watched the second. Of the reboot, you mean, right? Yeah. But we talked about some of it. Right, but that's what we're talking about now, right? You're talking about the new reboot season of Unsolved. I've watched every original Unsolved mystery, probably like double, if not triple digit times. I've watched a lot. And ah the reboots just, I don't know, there was something, I just didn't care for them. There's a whole lot more like content available now though than there was like in the 80s, right? Yeah.
Future Episode Hopes
01:20:18
Speaker
um When you know I originally was watching Unsolved Mysteries as it aired, right? so i um So maybe I'll go back and watch, it's on Netflix, right? Yeah, these are the Netflix ones. And I bet they're coming out like sometime soon.
01:20:36
Speaker
I think it's July 31st, because I saw the trailer, and I think it's around it's either August 1st or July 31st, something like that. But I thought I would try and guess who they were with and and throw out an episode ahead of them coming out and see if I'm right or not. And if you want to talk about them again, if there's something crazy on any of these stories, we can talk about them again. I doubt we're going to do Mothman or Jack the Ripper here, but maybe one of these other ones will have something cool. If I could find something definitive one way or the other on Jack the Ripper, like if it could be broken down that it's not one person or that it is one person, I might be interested in doing that, but it would I don't think that there's anything that exists. I'm never gonna talk about the Mothman ever. I will cover the Mothman right after we cover Sasquatch. Well, I'll put it on the calendar then.
Podcast Sponsors and Promotions
01:21:33
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening today. We'll see you next time.
01:22:04
Speaker
All right, so I'm gonna tell you guys a a few things about some of the folks who are helping sponsor our show. Now, Labrati Creations sponsors our show, and you can always use the the crime excess code there. um You can also just message them at Labrati Creations, and they will generally do something for the people who come from True Crime Excess. They were our very first sponsor. They've done a lot for the show, and that code is crimeexcess at labraticreations.com.
01:22:37
Speaker
The first new advertisers that we have, and i've I've selected all of these guys, I've selected all of these advertisers. So the very first one is Cure. Now I'm gonna tell you guys about this, about Cure as being one of our sponsors.
01:22:54
Speaker
If you're an athlete, you know that proper hydration is key to peak performance, but plain water can be boring and sports drinks can be filled with artificial ingredients and added sugars. That's why we love cure. It's a clean and effective way to stay hydrated and perform at your best. I use it late in the day when I switch out of caffeine mode, specifically when I hit the pool or I go play tennis with my wife. I use cure to help me stay hydrated. It helps me recover after a long day. Now you guys may not know this, but I built it. Right now I've been building several structures on our property out here. Among those is a new podcast studio space for myself. I do a lot of that work at night and into the wee hours. And I always have some cure with me to go into my aluminum water bottle. Hydration is not just about filling up my aluminum bottle with water.
01:23:49
Speaker
Cure hydration is an oral rehydration solution that contains the perfect balance of electrolytes and glucose to help your body absorb water and rehydrate quickly. Whether I'm building things or we're putting the podcast together or chasing these dogs that you sometimes hear in my studio up and down the trails to get them worn out. Cure hydration is the way that I choose to go. Cure hydration is an oral rehydration solution or an ORS that contains the perfect balance of electrolytes and glucose to help your body absorb water and to rehydrate quickly.
01:24:24
Speaker
The formula is made with all natural ingredients like coconut water, powder, and pink Himalayan salt. It's free from artificial flavors, from sweeteners, and preservatives. Pure hydration is vegan, gluten-free, and non-GMO, making it a great option for anyone with dietary restrictions or preferences. The packets are convenient and easy to use. ah You just mix them with your water, and you drink. They're perfect for on-the-go. They're perfect for travel. at Anytime you need a quick and effective hydration boost, ready to combat dehydration, then you try cure today and feel the difference for yourself. You can use code TRUECRIMEXS for 20% off your order. That's T-R-U-E-C-R-I-M-E-X-S. I have a link that I'm putting in the most recent episode show notes and TRUECRIMEXS will get you 20% off.
01:25:19
Speaker
Our second sponsor for the show today is Laird. Now, Laird has a list of things that they want me to tell you about. They have better ingredients with amazing taste and functional benefits. They have a superfood creamer crafted from the highest quality, all natural, real food ingredients. All Laird products are sustainably sourced and thoroughly tested to ensure that you're incorporating the cleanest, finest fuel into your routine. They have all natural whole food ingredients, and they contain naturally occurring MCTs made from coconut oil. There's no artificial flavors, there's no colors or additives, and there's no sugar from highly refined corn syrup. They want me to talk about my love of coffee, but the truth is I don't do much with coffee. But let me tell you someone who does. My wife has to have a cup of coffee every day.
01:26:09
Speaker
Now, I've fallen off recently, but one of the big things that I've done since the beginning of our relationship is she used to go and get a Starbucks every morning. I have substituted that out by always trying to make her coffee. It's not gonna be every single day of time from when I met her, but for the most part, almost every day, I make her coffee. I put her creamers together and I make sure that she has a good way to start her day. So with Laird, he started experimenting with his morning ritual almost two decades ago. He found that when he started adding fats to his morning cup, like coconut oil, he had amazing energy throughout the rest of his day. He gradually perfected this recipe for an epic cup of fuel. And he began sharing it with his friends in the surf community. I'm an ocean guy, so I saw this item and I was like, okay, we're gonna try this one out.
01:27:06
Speaker
Are you ready to feel more energized? more focused and supported. Go to layeredsuperfood.com and add nourishing plant-based foods to fuel you from sunrise to sunset. And you can use our promo code at checkout to save 15% off your purchase today. Our offer code for this for Laird is going to be truecrimexs. Pretty much everywhere except for Labardic Creations, if you use truecrimexs, that will get you
01:27:38
Speaker
At Laird, they'll get you 15% off. At some of the other places, they'll get you 20%. And the last sponsor I want to tell you about is Zencaster. We're part of Zencaster's creative network. We've been using Zencaster since about midway into our first season. Meg and I experimented with a lot of different ways to put the podcast together. And the truth is, Zencaster is an integral ingredient to us being able to bring you this show. It's so easy. It's now super easy. You can record a podcast with Zincaster. You can log in using your browser and you start recording a high quality podcast right away. You can record studio quality sound and up to 4k video with your guest.
01:28:24
Speaker
You get to feel a sense of zen, knowing that Zencaster's multi-layered backups ensure you will always have your recordings in the highest quality, even if the connection is unstable. You sound your best. I mean, if you've ever worried about what you sound like, Zencaster's post-production process makes you sound buttery smooth. It automatically removes those ums and ahs in your recordings. It removes those awkward pauses and conversation too. You can set the right podcast loudness and levels while reducing background noise with a click of a button. That's how you don't hear my dogs every ah second of every episode.
01:29:02
Speaker
ZenCaster is all in one. If you've thought about podcasting before and realized that you need a lot of different tools and services, those days are now over. With ZenCaster's all-in-one podcasting platform, You can create your podcast all in one place, and you can distribute to Spotify, Apple, and other major major destinations. Just go to zencaster.com slash pricing and use my code truecrimeaccess, and you're gonna get 30% off your first month of any Zencaster paid plan. You can also check out the other plans they have available. I want you to have the same easy experiences that I do for all my podcasting and content needs.
01:29:42
Speaker
So zincaster.com slash pricing, the offer code is truecrimexs, and it's time for you to share your story today.
01:29:59
Speaker
ah We are also adding New Era as a sponsor for the show. New Era Cap is a headwear and apparel brand founded in 1920 in Buffalo, New York. Now, I actually have some experience with New Era caps. My dad and I have been through multiple iterations of baseball caps through the years. We collect different styles, different eras, and then my teenager has started his own cap collection and has several new eras as the centerpieces. Our favorite teams may not be the same, but our outfits are all topped with the same new era ball caps. ah We love the quality and the ability to wear what the players are wearing, not to mention new era is the leading headwear manufacturer with quality licensed products. You can support your favorite college or pro team in style from
01:30:47
Speaker
The official headwear provider for the MLB, NFL, and NBA, you can get a stylus accessory for your everyday ensemble and support True Crime XS. Just shop the official headwear and get 15% off when you go to NewEraCap.com. That's N-E-W-E-R-A-C-A-P dot.com slash True Crime XS. You can also use the code TRUECRIMEXS at checkout. That's it. That's all you have to do. And that's 15% off your order using the promo code TRUECRIMEXS.