MFM Minisode 380

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[2] The minisode.

[3] The minisode where if you're in the fancote, you can watch the crazy hand movements that are currently taking place.

[4] Oh, the gestures.

[5] I wish you could see all the gestures that we can do.

[6] Did you hear my shoulder just crack?

[7] That's how much I'm gesturing.

[8] Okay.

[9] So I'm not going to read you the subject line.

[10] It says, hello, MFMFM fam.

[11] Greetings from Terrible, Texas, and then in parentheses, it says, not a native here under duress.

[12] We were just in Texas, lovely people there.

[13] Lovely time, lovely people.

[14] Really good.

[15] But we're all having different experiences here.

[16] Yeah, change your policies.

[17] Okay.

[18] Please change your policies.

[19] Like all 12 to 14 -year -old girls in the mid -90s, I was obsessed with Devin Sawa, the boy that played Casper come to life at the end of the 1995 movie.

[20] Oh, my God.

[21] Yeah, right?

[22] I gobbled up all his films, namely, Now and Then, Little Giants, and Night of the Twisters.

[23] Night of the Twisters was of particular interest to me primarily because the weather event it was based on occurred in Grand Island, Nebraska, a town where I had family and close to where I grew up.

[24] On June 3, 1980, seven tornadoes, including three that rotated anti -cyclonically, and at least one that hit F -4 status, killed five people.

[25] and injured 183.

[26] A semi -fictionalized award -winning book written by Ivy Ruckman came out in 1984.

[27] She based the book on the real experiences her family had this disastrous night.

[28] The Made for TV movie starring My Dreamboat Crush Devin Sawa as the protagonist, Danny, came out in 1996.

[29] Given that Night of the Twisters was mandatory and thrilling reading for all young adult literature classes in Nebraska, which is so funny.

[30] It's like, it really would play the same way because we don't have any experience with tornadoes.

[31] No, I don't get it, except for The Wizard of Oz.

[32] That's about it.

[33] Right.

[34] Like Twister.

[35] Okay.

[36] So it says, I had a well -loved copy that I decided to send to Devin Sawa with a note and, of course, a very cringy photo of 14 -year -old me. Naturally, I didn't hear anything back until.

[37] Devin.

[38] This past September.

[39] What?

[40] This past September, I received a Facebook message from some random awesome girl asking if I was the Christine last name redacted from Norfolk, Nebraska, that wrote to Devin 30 years ago.

[41] I said, yes, why?

[42] And she proceeded to say that Devin Sawa had tweeted out trying to track me down because he finally came across my book and letter and wanted to finally send me the autographed copy back.

[43] What?

[44] Thanks to this angel, we were able to connect by Twitter DMs and chat a little bit before he all caps actually freaking mailed the book and a super sweet letter to my current home in Texas.

[45] Oh, my God.

[46] 41 -year -old Christine was just as giddy as 14 -year -old Christine would have been.

[47] Of course.

[48] Yeah.

[49] What a sweet guy.

[50] He totally went out of his way to make a fan's day 30 years later.

[51] That is fucking hilarious.

[52] You can't buy that kind of PR.

[53] Like, that is beautiful.

[54] It's genius.

[55] And also, you know his life itself was crazy.

[56] So he probably has some box of stuff somewhere that you finally went through.

[57] Oh, and he just got right on Twitter.

[58] It's like, guys, I need to.

[59] Oh, my God.

[60] It says then related.

[61] One of these days I might write about my me, Ma 'am, Glenda, who survived the Woodward tornado outbreak of 1947.

[62] That storm spawned up to 17 tornadoes and killed over a hundred people in several small Oklahoma towns.

[63] It ends, stay sexy and don't give up hope on your childhood crush, Christine, she, her.

[64] So you think Coria Feldman's going to come around next time I'm at the Hollywood Bowl and take a photo with me?

[65] Yes, of course he is.

[66] They're going to ask me for a lighter this time and walk away.

[67] Yes, I'm still hurt.

[68] It hurts.

[69] It hurts.

[70] That's amazing.

[71] Cheers to Devonsawa.

[72] What a mench.

[73] And also, here.

[74] He deserves it because that love is still real, 14 -year -old.

[75] Christine is still real.

[76] I love it.

[77] So cute.

[78] Okay, I'm not going to read you the title.

[79] It just starts, you guys.

[80] Been listening since 2019 when I needed something cool to listen to while painting a giant octopus mural on somebody's kitchen ceiling.

[81] Wow.

[82] It says, true story.

[83] I'm a science illustrator and I get to do cool, weird stuff.

[84] Love it.

[85] And somebody recommended you.

[86] I finished.

[87] the mural but have never stopped listening to your podcast.

[88] I feel like I came to the murderino party late, but the other day I asked my parents if living in Santa Cruz in the 70s was scary or if they had any stories.

[89] I mean.

[90] That's like the Pacific Northwest of California.

[91] Totally.

[92] Totally.

[93] They told me stories about how they knew our neighbor across the street, a police detective, had beers with Ed Kemper at the jury room, which I'm guessing is our local bar, right?

[94] That was the cop bar.

[95] Santa Cruz.

[96] He love cops.

[97] And then super casually mentioned, oh yeah, his last victim, his mom's best friend, actually lived at our home address.

[98] What?

[99] Suddenly I flashed back to being a little kid, obsessed with Nancy Drew Mysteries, desperately looking for some mystery to solve in my own neighborhood.

[100] Oh, man. The only weird thing that I could ever find was that sometimes we got mail for I would keep all these mysterious person's junk mailings in my top secret file and try to solve the case of who he was and why we got his mail.

[101] This is pre -internet, so my research was pretty much just trying to look him up in the phone book.

[102] Spoiler alert, he wasn't listed.

[103] Thank God.

[104] Anyway, after a while, I gave up on this mail, leaving to anything juicy until 30 years later when my mom dropped this fact.

[105] Wait, 30 years later is the Devon Sawah connection.

[106] Oh, my God.

[107] That's literally like what she wrote.

[108] And it's about mail.

[109] Oh, my God.

[110] She's a headache.

[111] What's happening?

[112] Kempra's last victim was So, was her son.

[113] I was receiving mail for the son of the last victim of the gnarliest serial killer in Santa Cruz.

[114] I can't believe my eight -year -old self was so close to that dot, dot, dot mystery, but I also feel so redeemed as an adult.

[115] I knew there was something more than just a male mix up there.

[116] Okay, thanks for letting me share.

[117] Keep doing what you do.

[118] You're in my ears for every mural and long art project I do, we've made a lot of art together.

[119] Tina.

[120] Wow.

[121] That is, it's almost like the blue velvet thing where it's like underneath regular suburbia, there's like horror waiting.

[122] Yeah.

[123] If it was a little bit later and that child had the gumption to get, like, go to the library even and look up that name, they would have been punched in the face with true crime.

[124] I mean, horror.

[125] Thinking they want to solve a mystery.

[126] Yeah, they're like, Oh, no. Now my childhood's ruined.

[127] Well, the mystery is that there's horrible people in this world.

[128] Hey.

[129] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[130] Absolutely.

[131] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash.

[132] Exactly.

[133] And if you're a small business owner, you might know Shopify is great for online sales.

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[135] That's right.

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[144] Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify .com slash murder.

[145] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

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[147] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[148] Goodbye.

[149] Okay, here's my next one.

[150] You'll know why I pick this one as I read it.

[151] It says, hi, Karen and Georgia.

[152] Let's not make it weird.

[153] Here we go.

[154] I grew up very Catholic, and this meant that every Christmas Eve, the entire extended family went to midnight Mass. My mother always called this our penance before presents the next morning.

[155] And then in parentheses, it says, is there anything more Catholic than needing to suffer to validate enjoying something?

[156] No, there's nothing more Catholic than that.

[157] So insane.

[158] Every year, the cousins would conspire to get out of mass. This typically consisted of funneling our parents' white Russians in the hopes that they would forget about.

[159] mass altogether.

[160] One year around the eighth white Russian, it became clear that plan A was not going to succeed.

[161] So my older cousin, let's call him Otis, informed us that he had a way to make midnight mass more bearable.

[162] He herded all the cousins into the attic and then proceeded to present us with a giant joint from his pocket.

[163] At the time I was 14 and had never been cool enough to be offered weed, so this was the first time I'd come face to face with the devil's lettuce.

[164] Now it is important to note that I'd earned a bit of a goody two -shoes reputation in my family to the point that all my cousins called me Sister Mary Rebecca to my face.

[165] I was desperate to shake this title, so there was zero percent chance that I was not smoking that joint.

[166] Forty minutes and a half a lung later, the six of us were at midnight mass experiencing it like we never had before.

[167] To this day, my mother says that she has never seen us be more spiritual or connect more with Jesus than at that Yeah.

[168] We're like Jesus's lettuce.

[169] I feel it.

[170] Yes.

[171] Loving it.

[172] The music is amazing.

[173] The truth, we were high as shit.

[174] As an adult, I still pop a weed gumming before every Christmas Eve, Midnight Mass. This ritual did backfire on me a year ago when a member of the choir died during the service and I was left without the faculties to appropriately react to the event.

[175] But that is a story for.

[176] another time.

[177] Oh, no. You're just hysterically laughing.

[178] Oh, no. Or just like blanked because other people are like freaking out.

[179] Like people would make like weird like, oh, and everything echoes in a fucking Catholic church.

[180] So it's, do something.

[181] I can't.

[182] Thank you for all you do.

[183] You've got me through many late nights in grad school.

[184] Stay sexy and don't get murdered.

[185] Rebecca.

[186] Oh, my God.

[187] That's hilarious.

[188] Midnight Mass is a thing in my town too, where.

[189] you basically go drunk and then you see a bunch of people from high school, that's kind of like either you're excited or you're like, oh, no, but it doesn't matter because you were just down at like Andresens for three hours beforehand.

[190] And that became like the tradition.

[191] I have a dumb question.

[192] Is it literally at midnight?

[193] Yeah.

[194] Wow.

[195] I thought you guys went to bed early.

[196] Well, it's essentially Christmas season, they have more masses than usual.

[197] So usually say if they normally have like a 9 a .m. and a noon mass or whatever.

[198] Because here come all the, what they call cafeteria Catholics being like, yeah, we're here for Christmas.

[199] We love Jesus.

[200] It's fine.

[201] But the midnight one is like they do extra stuff and there's like choirs and they make it a thing.

[202] And then the young people go to the midnight mass. It's like, okay.

[203] Got it.

[204] At least that's how it was in the 80s and 90s and today.

[205] I'm sure the Catholic services in church hasn't, you know.

[206] updated itself much.

[207] They don't love updating.

[208] I think the last one was around 1967, if I'm remembering correctly.

[209] Yeah, it sounds right.

[210] Ready for a deathbed confession?

[211] Hell yes.

[212] It says deathbed confession, probably not a family secret, but unclear.

[213] Thank you for that.

[214] Hi, ladies.

[215] After 10 years of being with my now husband and two years of being married, our parents finally met recently.

[216] It says, the benefit of eloping is saving money.

[217] The not benefit is your relatives have not.

[218] no reason to meet otherwise.

[219] Lots of wine was slowing, and my mother -in -law started talking about her childhood as the daughter of a spy.

[220] Oh.

[221] I'm going to just assume this all wasn't a secret since she told my dad and brother, basically strangers to her hours earlier, but as a true marturino, I will not ask before emailing, fact -check my work, and will assume that being pregnant with their grandchild means that they can't be mad at me if I wasn't supposed to share.

[222] That's right.

[223] Totally cleared on all counts.

[224] Yep.

[225] Her father worked for the government doing work.

[226] He was never able to fully disclose to the family.

[227] And as a young girl, they moved around quite a bit.

[228] I think the mother -in -law as a young girl.

[229] Okay.

[230] Yeah.

[231] They lived in Germany for some time, where one time he took his wife on a date for the first time in a while.

[232] And it turns out the date was really for him to tail someone because, you know, spying.

[233] Then I think Florida, again, not fact -checking.

[234] And then ended up in Northern Virginia after a brief stint in Roswell, New Mexico.

[235] As I mentioned, he wasn't allowed to say anything about the work he did as a spy, but on his deathbed, as family bombarded him with questions about his life's work, love this family so much.

[236] He left them with this one tidbit from his time in Roswell, quote, we are not alone.

[237] Oh, fuck you.

[238] the jaded part of me immediately said do you think he was just fucking with you as one funny thing to say before passing away?

[239] The answer was resounding no he was not that kind of guy and it says I guess being a spy means you don't get to have a sense of humor.

[240] Anyways, I'm not saying this was a groundbreaking confession but I do love the idea that after a career of secrets and solitude, that's the only answer he left the family with.

[241] Thank you for all you do.

[242] It's truly been enjoy listening to your voices every week since I discovered your podcast on the day the Golden State Killer was caught in 2018.

[243] I was just thinking about that day earlier today because we were just, I mean, I was just thinking about that.

[244] What it was an insane thing to live here.

[245] Yeah.

[246] Stay sexy and don't let your family die without spilling at least one trade secret.

[247] Am, she, her.

[248] And I'm sorry, I said fuck you to your grandparent, or great -grandparent, whichever one is correct.

[249] Great -grandparent -in -law.

[250] So not even.

[251] So it doesn't matter.

[252] Okay.

[253] Okay, they won't be offended.

[254] Emma won't be offended.

[255] But that's so bone -chilling.

[256] Yeah.

[257] We are not alone.

[258] Yeah.

[259] If he, I mean...

[260] It would be mean to do.

[261] Like, you wouldn't think he would want to say that to a family.

[262] It's just almost like, you maybe you need to know a little bit of this because it might come out one day.

[263] I don't know.

[264] Yeah.

[265] Not today.

[266] Let me go to Marshall's one more time to buy Korean skin care.

[267] Okay.

[268] Here's my last one.

[269] Okay.

[270] And it's a sinkhole story.

[271] And it's from Australia.

[272] That's the subject line.

[273] Hello, MFFM fam.

[274] I know Karen likes her sinkhole stories, so I'll get right into it.

[275] My parents' house was built in the early mid -60s and started on a septic system before moving over to main plumbing in the 1980s.

[276] The area my parents live in was on the edge of town at the time of being built up, and quite a few people actually built their own house rather than hiring someone to do it for.

[277] them.

[278] Also being 1960s rural Australia, it's very possible that there were a few instances of I'll buy you a case of beer if you help me for a few days and sharing said beer while on the job.

[279] Flash forward to 2016, my parents have been in the house for 20 years.

[280] There was a spot in the front yard where the ground dipped no matter what my dad did, it was always there.

[281] I was 19 or 20 years old at the time.

[282] I still lived with them and I had my own car.

[283] I parked under a tree very close to the house.

[284] I would drive over that dip in the ground almost daily and used it to gauge how close I was parked to the trailer my dad had stored in this space as well.

[285] For dad to get the trailer out, I would have to move my car.

[286] On this particular day, I moved my car so dad could get the trailer out.

[287] As he was reversing his car into my parking spot, it suddenly dropped down as one of the tires went into the ground.

[288] Confused, my dad called my grandpa to come help him, and between the three of us, we got the tire and car out of the hole.

[289] While standing near the hole and talking afterwards, my dad suddenly went down.

[290] The ground opened beneath him, and he went down into a now bigger hole about six feet.

[291] It also became obvious right away that there was a large concrete slab sliding down towards my dad's legs.

[292] We quickly get a neighbor to come help him out of the hole before anything else happened, and we rope off the yard.

[293] Dad and grandpa then used shovels to collapsed the ground over the hole and decided it looked to be a pit left over from a rusted out septic tank you know septic tanks that's just where all the shit gets held the hole for reference was bigger than a Toyota Yaris okay it's not big but it's not small it's real specific uh you could bury a hatchback car in this hole with room to spare that's big yeah later that day my dad had a friend come around who did water divining to see if the tank was still connected the friend decided that it wasn't and we could fill the hole in the next day a guy came with multiple truckloads of dirt to fill it all in and the rest became history the craziest part of the story is how close the pit was to the house in american terms i think it was about eight feet away from the side of the house oh and the fact that i drove over this spot daily and it turns out even parked on it and drove over it minutes before it opened up and tried to swallow my dad's car and then my dad.

[294] SSDGM and always checked with city planning before you buy a house with a sinkhole in the making, Ashley.

[295] Oh.

[296] Oh.

[297] That's what you're looking for when you go on like to realtor .com or whatever.

[298] You're like amenities.

[299] Sinkhole.

[300] Big divot in the driveway with possibilities.

[301] Also the idea, I think that is a really peak sinkhole experience.

[302] because they were there when it opened.

[303] A small thing went in, a big thing went in, a dad went in.

[304] Yeah, but everyone was okay, but we all got to witness it and even participate a little bit.

[305] Yeah, and pull a neighbor into it, get some rope.

[306] Yeah.

[307] Big time.

[308] Yeah.

[309] Okay, here's my last one.

[310] This story has everything.

[311] Oceans, grandparents, forgotten children.

[312] Hey, y 'all, long -time listener, first -time writer.

[313] Thanks to my chaotic ADHD brain, this email has been in the works for the past two years.

[314] I initially wrote it in a response to therapy stories, then bad parent stories, then vacation stories.

[315] But traumatic ocean experiences was the final push I needed, because we asked for those.

[316] To set the scene, it was the 90s.

[317] I'm six years old and on vacation with my family and grandparents in Aruba.

[318] At one of the resorts, they offer boat rides every 15 minutes or so to a private island 10 minutes away.

[319] So we head over to the island and are enjoying the day, snorkeling, sunbathing, Adults are drinking.

[320] It's great.

[321] I'm having the best day, looking at all the cool fish and coral, and eventually come up to the beach for a break.

[322] But I can't find my family anywhere.

[323] Panic washes over my young self, and they begin frantically walking around the island looking for them.

[324] I try to stay calm as I make my rounds, even as islanders come up to sell their jewelry or hair braiding skills, and eventually just go linger in the ocean close to where we were.

[325] I may have gone into shock and then shrugging emoji.

[326] me. Apparently, while I was completely oblivious snorkeling in the ocean, my grandparents had decided to leave on an earlier boat.

[327] My parents left soon after with my siblings and just to stume, since they couldn't find me that I went back with my grandparents' nightmare.

[328] How long do you think they looked?

[329] Probably eight seconds, maybe 11.

[330] One time this way, one time that way.

[331] Yeah.

[332] The end.

[333] Once back at the resort, they quickly discovered I was not with my grandparents.

[334] and then it says, oh, the joys of being a forgotten middle child.

[335] So my parents ran to the hotel dock and hopped on the next boat out, took the 10 -minute boat right over and found me sitting all alone on the beach, probably crying, where they had abandoned me 30 minutes prior.

[336] I'm sure I was rewarded with copious amounts of ice cream, but this is definitely where my abandonment issues began.

[337] Yeah.

[338] Stay sexy and always count your kids.

[339] Megan, she, her.

[340] That is rough.

[341] I'm sure we've talked about this, but I have, in kindergarten, that exact same thing happened to me. And I watched my mom's car drive away with the whole carpool in it.

[342] There was like eight kids and my mom, and they drove away without me. And I was like, what a, and like immediately start crying.

[343] And then apparently they got like halfway back to our house.

[344] We lived very close to it.

[345] And they got halfway.

[346] And my mom goes, Karen, you're being very quiet today.

[347] And they're all like, she's not here.

[348] That's how she knew you weren't there as you weren't.

[349] fucking hamming it up in the back seat.

[350] She's like, what's the matter?

[351] Are you sick?

[352] It's like, she's not here.

[353] Oh, my God.

[354] What did your mom do?

[355] She couldn't outright panic because she'd freak the kids out.

[356] Well, and also, we all got, it was like a tiny neighborhood school.

[357] So it's like the teacher stood out in front with us.

[358] Yeah.

[359] It's not like I was loose or anything.

[360] Totally.

[361] Everything was fine.

[362] It's just the idea of forgetting your kid.

[363] Yeah.

[364] Yeah.

[365] It's right.

[366] It's right.

[367] And also, here's what my mom would do.

[368] She would be in the wrong and then be like, oh, no. And then by the time I get it, she'd be like, you're fine.

[369] Because that's all she ever said.

[370] Get in the car.

[371] Come on.

[372] Don't be dramatic.

[373] It's like, no, no, this one.

[374] I think this one.

[375] I'm allowed this one.

[376] I'm going to talk about this one on a podcast in the future.

[377] I'm going to get you.

[378] Send us your abandonment stories.

[379] Check out the fan cult if you are so in the mood.

[380] If you've ever been near or around a single or your dad.

[381] dad has or your neighbor has, let us know.

[382] Mm -hmm.

[383] Neighbor stories.

[384] New neighbor stories.

[385] Who's your fucking crazy -ass neighbor?

[386] Who's your cool neighbor?

[387] What neighbor did you think was a piece of shit?

[388] And they saved the day.

[389] Yes.

[390] Ooh, who did you not talk to?

[391] And suddenly you realized and then became best friends with.

[392] Yeah.

[393] Like, okay, basically we're asking for home alone stories for the neighbor.

[394] The old man that you thought was, okay.

[395] Oh, I thought you meant like truly the movie Home Alone.

[396] Is that what you meant?

[397] Yeah.

[398] In the end, there's a spoiler alert.

[399] There's like a neighbor.

[400] old man who lives around the area and like he's the one who saves the day or whatever.

[401] Oh, that's right.

[402] Remember?

[403] Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.

[404] Spoiler alert for a movie from 90 fucking two.

[405] Yeah, this is a film that if you haven't seen it, please catch up.

[406] And then write to us.

[407] Everyone's waiting for you to be done.

[408] Anyway, stay sexy.

[409] And don't get murdered.

[410] Good night.

[411] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[412] This has been an exactly right production.

[413] Our senior producer is Alejandra Kemp.

[414] Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.

[415] This episode was mixed by Leanna Skolachi.

[416] Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail .com.

[417] And follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and on Twitter at My Fave Murder.

[418] Goodbye.