MFM Minisode 339

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Hello.

[2] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[3] The minisode.

[4] We read you your stories that you've so kindly written in to us.

[5] We really appreciate your kindnesses.

[6] Truly.

[7] They're abundant.

[8] And you're about to hear about it.

[9] You want to go first?

[10] Sure.

[11] All right.

[12] The subject line of this email is, stay out of the forest.

[13] Dot, dot, dot, dot, or don't.

[14] Hi, Karen, Georgia, and MFM crew.

[15] long -time listener, first -time writer.

[16] I found you guys right at the beginning of quarantine when my med school decided to switch online and I had way too much time on my hands.

[17] True Crime was the perfect distraction to training and working in a falling apart medical system during a global pandemic.

[18] But maybe I just enjoy being anxious.

[19] It is fun.

[20] Between working in health care and growing up in some rougher cities, I had a few different stories I consider telling you about, but today I'm going to tell you about the time, I was a dumb middle schooler who was probably in more danger than she realized.

[21] Perfect.

[22] Yeah, love it.

[23] It was 2007 in Brampton, Ontario.

[24] It says Canada in parentheses.

[25] We know where Ontario is.

[26] I mean, we don't know a lot of places, but we know.

[27] That one we know.

[28] Yeah.

[29] It's a heavily populated suburb of Toronto and I was 12.

[30] I got off my school bus and started my usual shortcut home, which included walking past a small plaza, then up an alley which ended directly at my front door.

[31] However, on this afternoon, as I walked by the plaza, a drunk man started cat calling me. Sadly, thanks to our society, by 12, I was already pretty used to this and just quickened my pace, not thinking much of it, until the man started following me. He was pretty drunk and couldn't walk very quickly, and by the time I hit the alley, I knew he wasn't going to catch up with me before I got home.

[32] And then I realized the next problem.

[33] As I said before, the alley ends directly facing my front door.

[34] So even if I made it home safely, this creep was going to know where I lived, and I couldn't have that.

[35] So I did what any murderino middle schooler would do.

[36] I walked right past my house without a second glance.

[37] A few houses down the street, we have a park that backs onto a small forest.

[38] And since he was still following and shouting gross things at me, I figured the smart thing to do would be to lose him in the woods.

[39] Oh, 12.

[40] Just a bone -chilling kickoff to a story.

[41] I knew this forest like the back of my hand.

[42] It would be easy, and it was.

[43] I quickly lost him, and I hightailed at home where I entered safely with no one stalking me. Later that night, I proudly told the story of my quick -wittedness to my horrified parents.

[44] Imagine my shock when instead of praise, I got yelled at for being dumb enough to go into the woods instead of just, I don't know, calling for help, And then it says, I did have a cell phone that I'd fully forgotten about.

[45] Going into a local store for an adult's protection, anything besides going into the woods where there would be no witnesses.

[46] I don't know who my parents called, but the next week there was a security guard at the plaza, and I luckily never had a repeat incident.

[47] Maybe going into the forest did save me that day, or maybe I got lucky.

[48] But next time, I'll just call 911.

[49] SSDGM, Sierra.

[50] Wow.

[51] Yeah.

[52] Like when you're panicked like that, you don't think straight.

[53] You know what I mean?

[54] Like it seems like a great idea to run into the forest.

[55] But saying it sounds terrible.

[56] You just want to fucking get away from a creep.

[57] Totally.

[58] A 12 -year -old having to make those decisions on their feet is bullshit.

[59] Yeah.

[60] That sucks.

[61] And at least I love the idea that Sierra was like, I knew the forest like the back of my hand.

[62] Totally.

[63] So it's like, okay, well, yeah, you're not going into like a complete.

[64] unknown.

[65] Yeah, yeah.

[66] But who fuck, man. That's how so many of our stories start, unfortunately.

[67] Yeah.

[68] Okay, this was called My Dad Was Questioned as a Unabomber suspect.

[69] Oh.

[70] Hi, Murderina Squad.

[71] Love You All and I've been binging the podcast from the beginning for the past two years after a good friend introduced me. Shout out to Laura to help me get through the anxieties of life, especially in a pandemic.

[72] With the recent news of the Unabomber's passing, and then it says, Sayanara, Satan.

[73] I knew I had a write in to share this story.

[74] In June of 1993, I was about to turn three years old, and my family was about to move across country from San Francisco to Washington, D .C. The Unabomber had been terrorizing the country for many years at this point, but his most recent victim had been Charles Epstein, a well -known geneticist and my dad's boss at the time.

[75] Dr. Epstein had been sitting in his kitchen opening his mail when a bomb went off.

[76] It blew off three of his fingers caused abdominal damage and damaged both of his eardrums causing partial hearing loss.

[77] This was terrifying for everyone who knew Charles.

[78] From what I've been told, he was a great man who spent his life doing groundbreaking research on Down syndrome and eventually became chairman of the Medical Genetics Division in the Pediatrics Department of UC San Francisco and did not have any known enemies.

[79] Given that my family was about to move across country when they attack happened, a coincidence of bad timing, red flag shot up regarding my dad.

[80] Oh, yeah.

[81] Right?

[82] Later.

[83] Yeah, got to go.

[84] From what I've been told, the FBI surveilled our house and brought my dad in for questioning.

[85] However, after taking essentially one look at my sweet, goofy dad whose doppelganger is Larry David, and then it says, seriously, people have asked him for signatures before.

[86] Signatures, not autographs.

[87] So it's like, hey, can you just, finish this document for me. Right.

[88] Can you sign this check?

[89] They immediately realized this could not be their guy.

[90] As we now know, the true Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, was turned in by his brother and eventually pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998.

[91] Thankfully, Dr. Epstein survived the brutal attack, and we moved across country without any problems.

[92] My dad and Dr. Epstein stayed in touch for many years until Dr. Epstein's passing in 2011.

[93] Stay sexy and don't move across the country after your dad's boss gets mailed a bomb.

[94] Corrine.

[95] Bad enough to be involved to know a victim to so close to something so awful and traumatizing.

[96] Yeah.

[97] But then to also be like and also maybe you have something to do with it.

[98] Totally.

[99] You're experiencing every part of that horrible thing.

[100] Yeah.

[101] I really love these stories and when people write in of like my dad was there was like a Ted Bundy one once remember of like my dad was brought in for questioning for this case or that case.

[102] I don't know why.

[103] I just, like, find those fascinating.

[104] Well, I know because they have to kind of comb through who's around.

[105] Yeah.

[106] You know, get those alibis.

[107] I'm not going to read you the subject line of this one.

[108] It says, Hello, Karen, Georgia, Katz, Dog, Stephen, and all the MFF team.

[109] On a previous minisode, you asked, who would volunteer to be a part of a police lineup?

[110] The answer is my non -murderino mother.

[111] In the 1980s, my mom was working in central London near Victoria Station where the transport police are based.

[112] Every so often the police would come into her office and ask for volunteers to be in a police lineup.

[113] I imagine with her 80s perm and glasses that she looked like the average woman of the time and since she apparently had nothing better to do on her lunch break, she would always volunteer.

[114] She would come to the station, be put in the room with other women.

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

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[134] Goodbye.

[135] A lawyer would come in and choose people to leave.

[136] Occasionally, this would be my mom.

[137] Then when they had enough people, she would have her picture taken and taken into a room and do the lineup.

[138] My mom said that she knew who the suspect was, but not the crime.

[139] Since it was the London Transport Police, they were probably pickpockets or drunken passengers.

[140] At the end, they would be paid five pounds.

[141] And then in parentheses, it says, about 20 pounds in today's money and never hear about it again.

[142] Then again, like I said, she's a non -murderino.

[143] She did this like five or six times while at that job.

[144] My mom first mentioned this when she was doing a two truths and one lie thing at her work and was trying to come up with ideas at home.

[145] Not wanting to be outdone, my dad chimed in, well, I made LSD for the police.

[146] While my mom was doing police lineups, my dad was a PhD chemistry student at Greenwich University.

[147] And then in parentheses, it says pronounced Greenwich.

[148] Thank you.

[149] He was asked by the Met Police to make pure LSD to be used and tested in different concentrations to help perfect its detection and street samples.

[150] He was apparently so good at making LSD, the police told him it was the best LSD they'd ever come across.

[151] My dad is very proud.

[152] Oh, and he also volunteered to be in a police lineup.

[153] I don't know whether it was drug -related.

[154] He and his friend were asked to come in wearing black boots.

[155] However, when the suspect came in, he was wearing sandals.

[156] My dad and his friend had to remove their boots, and my dad's friend was very embarrassed because there were several holes in his socks.

[157] You'll be pleased to hear my parents are both law -biting citizens with absolutely no interest in true crime.

[158] When I told my mom I was going to write in this story, her only response was, why would anybody be interested in that?

[159] We don't know.

[160] We don't know.

[161] We know.

[162] There's something wrong with us, okay?

[163] We wish we knew.

[164] But there's a lot of us.

[165] Yeah.

[166] Stay sexy and volunteer to help the police with new socks on Sophie.

[167] I guess it'd be okay to volunteer for a police lineup when it's like they know you and they know for a fact it wasn't you.

[168] So even if the victim picks you or whatever, they're like, you're wrong.

[169] Not like, oh, maybe Sue did do it, you know?

[170] Yes.

[171] I think that was the flaw in our thinking was that they would be pulling a bunch of random people where it's like, no, obviously they're going to pick people they know aren't criminals.

[172] Yeah, they don't go to a bar.

[173] Like, can we get five guys?

[174] Or maybe they do.

[175] It turns out we got a bunch of people that are guilty of things.

[176] Of something.

[177] Okay, this one's called Rowing Hometown Story.

[178] Hi, besties.

[179] I've been listening and a huge fan since I was 16 and haven't written this in.

[180] What can I say?

[181] I'm lazy.

[182] There's no way you've asked for it, but here we go.

[183] I just graduated from college as a Division I rower.

[184] Then it says brag.

[185] Big brag.

[186] Yeah.

[187] That's hard.

[188] Yeah.

[189] I rode all through high school in Camden, New Jersey, which is one of the nation's murder capitals, exclamation mark.

[190] Occasionally, we would find machetes or needles floating by during practice.

[191] We once found a trash bag of severed chicken heads.

[192] But this story is the most disturbing thing I encountered.

[193] A few other girls and I were out on the water one morning in singles, meaning we were each in our own boats.

[194] I spotted something sticking out of the water up ahead, and because rowing over a log can damage your boat, I yelled out to the girls following me. This is how our conversation went.

[195] Watch out for the log, as we broke closer.

[196] Holy shit, that's a huge log, and closer.

[197] Oh my God, that's a car.

[198] Some of us were giggling and yelling to our coach about how crazy it was to find a car submerged in the water until all the laughing stopped.

[199] You guys, there are people in there.

[200] No. Yep, it says yep.

[201] We had spent our early Saturday morning practice rowing right overbodies submerged in a car that had evidently driven into the river the night before.

[202] Oh, God.

[203] It wasn't a very deep river so we could see right through the windshield and the occupants in the car.

[204] That's like fucking lifelong trauma, I feel like.

[205] Entirely.

[206] And what a horrible way to die.

[207] That's like...

[208] Oh, my God.

[209] My worst nightmare.

[210] After that, we all high -tailed it back to the dock and watched us helicopters and police boats swarm the area.

[211] I couldn't find any articles about the incident, but I think it's safe.

[212] to assume no one walked out of there.

[213] Anyway, it couldn't have traumatized me that much because I went on to Rowe on the Ohio River in Louisville, which is arguably murderier.

[214] I love the podcast and the whole team.

[215] One day I hope to get enough information out of my dad about his time accidentally being an accountant for a huge pyramid scheme to write in.

[216] You'll be the first to know when I do.

[217] Stay sexy and go cards.

[218] Maddie.

[219] I'm assuming cards is a college reference.

[220] The Camden Cards, maybe.

[221] Oh, that makes sense.

[222] Maddie.

[223] Maddie, I'm sorry that happened to you.

[224] I'm sorry.

[225] I'm sorry that that happened to the people in the car.

[226] Totally.

[227] We used to drive home from college through, like, Valleo, and I don't know if you've ever driven that.

[228] I think it's the 37.

[229] I can't remember, but it's really desolate, right?

[230] Yes, and there's, like, basically kind of, I don't know what body of water it is, but you're just on a two -lane highway with water on either side.

[231] Yeah.

[232] And it's really dark.

[233] It's so dark.

[234] Basically, it's just the other car's lights.

[235] Yeah.

[236] And it goes on for maybe three miles.

[237] And I was just like, I would constantly go like, okay, well, if something happens and we go into this water, what do you do?

[238] Like, roll the window down, take your seatbelt off.

[239] Like, just the, I just think that's.

[240] I have a seatbelt cutting and glass breaking tool in my car for that very reason.

[241] For the very reason.

[242] Yeah.

[243] That is one of my, like, big fears.

[244] And I have this, like, feeling all these cold cases I'm obsessed with with people missing, I feel like at least a quarter of them have to be people who, you know, missed a turn in a rural area.

[245] And those dues on YouTube who are, like, doing sonar to find the cars that have submerged, you know, decades ago.

[246] I feel like that's an explanation for so many of them.

[247] Yeah, there are things that are just horrible freak accidents that, yeah.

[248] And then just suddenly you're just.

[249] Just one wrong turn, something happens, mechanical failure.

[250] Yeah.

[251] It's also fragile.

[252] I know.

[253] I have three close people in my life who died that way.

[254] It's just like...

[255] In cars and water?

[256] One of them was in a flash flood, yeah.

[257] But the other one drove off the road, and another one fell asleep at the wheel.

[258] Oh, horrible.

[259] Ship and drinking.

[260] Don't drink and drive, guys.

[261] Hoof.

[262] Okay.

[263] Dark.

[264] Okay.

[265] Let's get ourselves together for more bad stories.

[266] Okay.

[267] I have a miracle one to end.

[268] it so I think we're okay.

[269] Okay, perfect.

[270] A miracle story.

[271] Okay, this one is a little bit, if you're squeamish, you might not like this story.

[272] Is eyeball stuff happening?

[273] No, it's bone.

[274] It's bone.

[275] Okay, I can do bone.

[276] I'm speaking for everyone listening right now.

[277] We can do it.

[278] And if I can do bone, they're going to do bone.

[279] We can do bone.

[280] Bad parents and vindictive kids.

[281] And then in parentheses, it says, lighthearted, but there's an exposed bones.

[282] Good morning.

[283] Yep.

[284] Hey, my favorite murder ladies, greetings from Brazil.

[285] Oh, hey.

[286] We love your carnivals.

[287] Longtime listener, but first time writer, love to you all, but here's the story.

[288] In Minnesota 324, you wondered what it would take for parents in the 70s and 80s to intervene in their child's lives.

[289] Laughing around.

[290] Oh, my God.

[291] Well, this is.

[292] This is from the 90s, but I guess Brazil in the 90s was pretty much the U .S. in the 70s.

[293] To give you a picture of the Times, and of me, I used to go to the store and buy my mom's cigarettes when I was four or five.

[294] I was once chased by an armed guard when I decided to sneak into a closed school with my friends and my cat when I was 11.

[295] But the real story happened when I was about seven.

[296] After months of asking my mom for a video game, she gave me a bicycle.

[297] I was bummed, but I decided to make the best of it.

[298] it.

[299] I always found ways to make it a challenge and the perfect one came after some renovations to our backyard.

[300] For some reason, the contractors never got around to disposing of the sand and debris from the construction, so they left it on the very narrow sidewalk in front of our house.

[301] What was a nuisance to some was a new dare for me. I found a way to drive down the sidewalk at top speed, go around the pile of debris, and miss the large stone wall of my house.

[302] It was a risky move, but I practiced and perfected it.

[303] On this specific day, my mother was doing her nails with one of her friends in the front of the house and ignoring me as usual.

[304] Determined to impress them, I took my chance.

[305] Everything was going great.

[306] I had missed the debris and the wall until one of the tires slipped on the sand.

[307] I lost control of the bike and came down hard.

[308] When my mother saw me fall, her first instinct was not to help me, but instead, she started laughing.

[309] Oh, mortally embarrassed and angry.

[310] Imagine my surprise when I saw the blood pooling underneath me. One of the pedals on my bike was broken, and in the fall, it tore open my left knee, making a hole so deep you could see the bone.

[311] Yeah.

[312] My first thought was, now I got their attention.

[313] That's right.

[314] When my mom saw the blood, she ran over and started crying.

[315] I, on the other hand, laughed.

[316] I had gotten my revenge.

[317] No one laughs at my failure without suffering the consequences.

[318] She tried to take me to the hospital for stitches, but I wouldn't let her.

[319] Almost 30 years later, I still have the scar, and I tell the story whenever I want to piss off my mom.

[320] Stay sexy and don't laugh at your kids.

[321] They just might hurt themselves to get the final laugh.

[322] Mariana, she, her.

[323] How genius is that?

[324] Oh, the laugh.

[325] That's so good.

[326] I feel like we, this generation, our generation has a lot more humility than younger generations.

[327] We got laughed at when we got hurt.

[328] There was no, like, are you okay?

[329] No. You know?

[330] My mom, a registered nurse, would be like, oh, stop it.

[331] Oh, put some mice on it.

[332] Run it under cold water.

[333] It's like, my sister had a broken wrist one time.

[334] And she was like, run it under cold water.

[335] And it's like, it's just, it's not working.

[336] It's broken.

[337] You're going to have to get up from the table and stop smoking cigarettes for one second.

[338] Okay, my last one's called Turkey's Earthquake Miracle.

[339] Hey, Beautiful Hosts and MFFM fam.

[340] I'm a 17 -year -old Egyptian listener.

[341] What?

[342] But I live in Istanbul, Turkey.

[343] This is a person who has seen most of the wonders of the world.

[344] Yeah.

[345] Just that's in their neighborhood.

[346] Anyway, we all heard about the devastating earthquake that happened in southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6th.

[347] Over 50 ,000 people are dead and 100 ,000 injured.

[348] Some cities are completely destroyed.

[349] It's horrible.

[350] Yet in the first two weeks, we heard a lot of rescuing miracles from under the rubble, like a baby who got out alive after 200 hours under the rubble.

[351] But there's one story that made my chin drop.

[352] Rescue teams were leaving a destroyed building after thinking that there was nobody inside and started searching the next one.

[353] After a while, an old woman came and told the rescue team that she's sure that her daughters were under the building they had just left and they need to rescue them.

[354] The rescue team thought that they should look again and after a few hours, three girls got out alive from under that building.

[355] When one of the rescuers told the girls that their mother came and led them to their place, the girls looked at each other and one of them said, what are you talking about?

[356] Our mother died four years ago.

[357] Karen's about to cry.

[358] I am crying.

[359] Oh, my God.

[360] I know.

[361] Call it a ghost or an angel.

[362] It's definitely an amazing miracle.

[363] These are stories that keep us hopeful.

[364] Stay sexy and don't forget to prep that earthquake bag, Zara, she, her.

[365] That is unbelievable.

[366] I mean, that's just incredible.

[367] And here's what I love about it.

[368] It's the rescue workers who experienced whoever, whatever that was.

[369] that came, the mother.

[370] It's not the girls saying, we were told to walk over this way, and you could kind of write it all off as like you were in trauma, you were whatever.

[371] It's like the rescue workers dealing with.

[372] They had moved on and they came back and searched for hours after that.

[373] It's not like they just did a preliminary.

[374] I mean, these incredible rescue workers are just heroes.

[375] Amazing.

[376] Also, maybe I'm crying, maybe I was crying just because it's just a mother coming back from the dead, she shows so much concern for her daughters as opposed to the story I just told.

[377] It's kind of the polar opposite of the story.

[378] It's a little jealousy, maybe, a little like, wow, what must it be like?

[379] Do you have a story that's anything like the ones we just read or completely different, then please send it to my favorite murder at gmail .com?

[380] We appreciate all of your participation.

[381] The idea that we just read emails from listeners in Brazil and Western Egypt that lives now in Turkey, it's just international.

[382] Wild.

[383] So wild.

[384] Pit bull would be so proud of us.

[385] Where to go, guys.

[386] Okay.

[387] Stay sexy.

[388] And don't get murdered.

[389] Goodbye.

[390] Elvis, do you want a cookie?

[391] This has been an exactly right production.

[392] Our producer is Alejandra Keck.

[393] And this episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris.

[394] Stephen!

[395] Email your hometowns and fucking hooray's to my favorite murder at Gmail. com.

[396] Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at MyFave murder.

[397] Goodbye.

[398] Follow My Favorite Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen so you don't miss an episode.

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