Speaker 1: Hi, This is Christina and Carmen and this is another
episode of a Spooky Tales podcast for all things a
spooky true crime in Latin America. Today we have a
haunted story from Columbia and then we also have a
teue crime case from Central America. I was telling Carmen
before we hit record here though, that last episode was
our two hundred episode and we didn't even didn't announce it,
We didn't prepare anything. Yeah, that's a big milestone. Yeah,
two hundred episodes. So yeah, that happened. J Yeah, go us.
We're still been here the whole time. You have been
here the whole time. There was never a change in hosts. No, no,
we miss him jam Yeah. All right. Before the topics
that we have planned today, we do have a listener
story and if you have a story that you want
to send us to read on an episode, you can
email as Spookytails at gmail dot com. You can submit
it on Discord, you can send it to us on Instagram,
you can call it a spooky hotline. There's a lot
of ways. All that information is in the show notes.
We love receiving your stories. So yeah, this is from
someone their name it is not on here, So if
they wanted to share it, that's too bad. I forgot to.
Sorry there. Hopefully you recognize your story. Okay, so it goes. Hi,
I'm new to your podcast. I have been listening non
stop to catch up. I'm finally at twenty twenty two
with the Historic Women episodes. That was a while ago.
It was in twenty twenty two. Wow, like we were saying,
I forget how old this podcast is now. I wanted
to first say thank you for calling Booklet dictator. You're welcome.
So far, I've been the only other person who's been
like they're on their way to dictatorship, and everyone just
gives me the side. But the way they've been trying
to raise history is wild, down to wanting to remove
the headstones of former gang members. You can't erase history.
And at the end of the day, these are people.
A gay activity in the SATA came for so many
of the whares awful, very true. Yes, Yes, I also
have a spooky story. When I was sixteen, I lived
behind a church in North Hollywood. My mom was at
work and I was sitting on my bed when I
looked towards my door. If you went and left, you'd
go into the bathroom, and right you go into the
living room through a short hallway. Well. Crawling towards the
bathroom with the back legs straight and in a ripped
up and dirty white shirt was a girl with long
black hair, not Samara from the ring so it sounds like,
and her skin looked kind of yellow. It scares the
shit out of me. I begged my boyfriend to stay
on the phone until my mom came home. When she did,
she asked what was wrong, and I asked if anyone
was in the bathroom. She said no. Then I told
her what I saw, and she asked me if I
was high, and then yelled at me about why I
didn't crawl out the window and couldn't give her a
heads up because what if the thing attacked her? True?
Oh my god, I'm sorry, but I love your living action.
It was like first told me, wrong with you for
running away? And why didn't you tell me the thing
could still be here? Are you trying to come inside here?
Oh my god. So we're talking about Castillo Maroquin today
and it is located in Chia, Colombia, a city and
municipality in the department of gundin America, ten kilometers in
north of Boota because of how closer it to ba
Chia is now a suburb of the city. So before
the castle was ordered by Lorentzo Maroquin Ossolio, it was
in acienda called Acinda Eda Buena, owned by the Maruquin family.
Lorentzo Marouquin was a son of former Colombian President Jose
Manuel Marroquin, and this is where the name of the
castle comes from. Construction for the castle began in eighteen
ninety eight and was completed by nineteen hundred. Architect Gaston Lelaque.
Is that Spanish name not? I think it's European lilarge
yea Gueston Ghastan like Ghistan being the beast. Yeah. Anyway,
that guy designed the castle and was influenced by European
architecture and Renaissance art, which made it the only type
of a building of its kind in the region. This
time period in Columbia was full of turmoil, and we
won't get much into it because it's a lot and
this is not a history podcast or so DAEs Unknown,
which is our history podcast. Yes, but there was a
revolt after revolt, ultimately leading to a civil war. The
Marouquin family, or specifically Jose Manuel Maruquin, came into presidency
after a coup. I'm like, why did the names how familiar?
I guess maybe that's that's because you just did a
whole four part series on the Panama Canal. No wonder.
This is all happening when Banama was still part of Colombia,
and there were many reasons for the war, among them
being Banama wanting independence, which surprisingly the US is involved in.
Not surprisingly, It's like, you know, no, yeah, the surprise
surprise me mon TikTok where the guy is just like
sitting there and the songs it's a surprise surprise, something
that's not a surprise, and then he lives them and
he's like, surprise surprise. Okay, yeah, I think I have
seen that. That's all I say. I see and saying
it yeah, yeah, my bad, that was my bad. So yeah,
this was all happening while the castle was being built
on their ACNDM. Initially, the Marouquin family used the castle
as their home their primary residence, but over the years,
the castle has drawn several admirers and has also had
several owners, which include a writer, oil tycoon, and a
cartel boss diverse. Very Currently, the state owns a castle
and it is managed by the educational institution, the National
Pedagogic University. But the experiences of the Maroquin family until
the very last owners have made it my believe the
castle is a magnet for bad energy and that it
causes tragedy for its owners and employees. Jose Manuel Marroquin,
the former president, his own mom is said to have
been a victim of the castle's curse. His mom disappeared
while visiting the chapel located in the attenda, according to legend,
while the rest of the family was in the chapel
about to start praying at the rosary like they did
every day. I'm sorry, every day is too much, right,
it really is. Yeah, But back then everyone was even
more Catholic than now. Yeah. By everyone, I mean all
the Latinos. You know, they had just been converted, not
that long ago they had. I was just going to
say that next. Wow, it's like we're twins and we're matching, right,
Oh my god. The twining is like extra today. That's why.
It's because we're matching, not only physically, but when we match,
it's like the mental connection is the Okay, so that
excused herself from the rosi, which honestly, I would also do.
It was January sixth, a day that is infamous in
many areas. Oh god, it really is twenty places, in
many time periods and in many countries across time and space. Wow. Okay,
it was January sixth, eighteen twenty eight. She went to
grab a shawl because she was cold, but she never returned.
That's kind of crazy to just go get a shawl
and never returned. Yeah, it is a little bit out there. Yeah, okay.
After weeks of searching, the family found her shawl near
the Bogota River, but she was never seen again. Then
the rumor started. Campsinos believed she was taken by demons. Honestly,
that would have been my first thought to in eighteen
twenty eight. Yeah. Others say she fled with the Frenchman. Interesting.
I wonder what's going on there that they were like French.
It was a Frenchman she took off with him. Interesting. Indeed,
there was even a detO that began after she disappeared.
People would say this when they didn't know what was
going on. Imagine sucking dying and everyone starts saying this,
Imagine you're dying.
Speaker 2: Imagine her mom goes and missing because she likes to
get a shaw and then you don't know what happened
to her, but you find the shawl next to the
river and she never comes back. And then the compassinos
around town or everyone, I guess, whenever they don't know
what's going on, they all say, I love that it rhymes.
Everything is better in Spanish first of all, like than English,
but believe it also yeah, the fact that it rhymes. Yeah,
leave it to Latinos to take this tragedy of a
children losing their mother, a husband losing his wife, and
then they're gonna make it rhyme. They're gonna start saying
it after they don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. No one's saying no, it's a we're lost
in the sauce. No, Like I'm gonna try to remember
this to just adopt it. Also, yeah, to start saying it,
and so in English it would be but it isn't rhymes.
That's not as cool. No, And honestly, I had a
little trouble transcendent in so it'd be like if you're
talking about something and then you're like, well that and
also the thing with the Nida will be known in eternity, right,
Like they're not going to know any of this until
we die, and then it's not gonna happen. Yeah, like
we'll never know until yeah, yeah, very macabb. The family
later tried to calm these rumors down by putting out
a death certificate which had the date of January seventh,
eighteen twenty eight as her time of death. It stated
that her body was found in a body of water
between two buildings in Yea Babuena. Strangely enough, it was
almost exactly where the castle would end up being built. Weird.
The reports stated she had injuries on her head and
a dislocated shoulder. Instead of putting down rumors about her disappearance, though,
people just had more questions, something that remains a mystery today.
One thing is sure, though, Since her disappearance, strange things
started happening in the castle. A standal workers began to
hear this reams of a woman by the small lake.
They all believed that was crying because her son was
all alone without a mother. Oh, and then they said, esan,
oh my bad, that's not even wow. She said it
all wrong, not even how it goes, doesn't even rhyme
when I said it's wrong. When she died, her son
Jose Manuel Marukin would take charge of the assenda business.
So he took over the assenda business because sadly, his
father also died. It could be said her death marked
the start of the castle's curse. During one of the revolts,
one of the many rules of the time, the assenda
was burned down. It had to be rebuilt from the ruins.
Then tragi continued to affect the family. Five of the
eight Maruquine children all died mysteriously, all in a span
of a month. Still, the family persevered and things were
turning around. The country's rich were getting richer, and in
this turn of the century was when Lorentzo Maruquin had
the famous castle built. The castle became the presidential house
during Columbia Civil War. It was also where politicians gathered
to do political things like negotiating the cell of Panama
and the Panama Canal. And if you want to learn
more about that, checkout Studas Unknown Who are Carmen talked
about it for four episodes. Yes, for that reason, it
became a dangerous place and a target. Now we're in
the a thousand day War. At some point during all
of this, a Panamanian tried to bomb the castle with
the president in it, but he felt As years passed,
the Maroquin family began to leave their home for Spain
until it was completely abandoned. It fell into a period
of disarray, and the family eventually did away with the castle.
They sold it in nineteen fifty two to writer and
doctor Roberto Estrepo, who in return did not do much
to clean up the castle's reputation. He turned the castle
into a psychiatric hospital. Well, that will further fuel cursed allegations. Yes,
oh yeah, he's never beating the curst allegations by turning
this into a psychiatric hospital. But he died four years
after this endeavor, fueling the castle's curse. There it is
not bidding the curse allegations. During its time as a hospital,
there were many reports of patients dying by suicide. One
patient hung herself from the main balcony and another hung
herself from a nearby tree. And in nineteen seventy the
Venezuela oil tycoon Guillermo Villas mel purchased a property he remodeled.
It added a pool and additional bedrooms for guests. Gulledmo
decorated the home with beautiful and luxurious furniture he purchased
from all over Latin America. He put flamingos in the
property and had over two hundred horses. Flamingos horses very luxurious.
I mean two hundred horses. That's pricey, that's flamingos. Come on, right,
I didn't you think about the flamingos. I just think
about how expensive horses are. Sadly, he never got to
live in his dream home. On the day he was
set to move in and throw a party to show
off his new house, his plane crashed again for their
feeling the talk of the curse. Wow, never beating the
curse allegations, Nope. The castle's history took a more sinistter
turn in the eighties and nineties after it was purchased
by the cartel boss Juan Camilos and Patabasquez, who was
connected to Pablo Escobat and Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. His nickname
also happened to be El Brujo. Okay. He was accused
of being paranoid and killing anyone he believed to be
an informant. He allegedly practiced black magic in the castle
with the help of a local Bruja. He wanted to
use it against his enemies. They said he did satanic
rituals involving animal sacrifices in the gardens and midnight forest gatherings.
Midnight forest gatherings, I want to be invited to one
of those bright but not by El Brujo, who is
also a drug trafficker. No like someone else. He had
two white horses that mysteriously died. He was killed in
nineteen ninety three during a firefight with police. His death
was the end to all the Bruchhelia and the castle,
but not the end to the curse or the hauntings
don Dun Dun. After his death, it became a state
property and visitors could rent it out for events and parties,
But tragic events continue to happen on the estate once
in a while during a party or wedding. When something
goes wrong, like the electricity stops working, people believe it's
part of the curse. In July twenty twenty four, Brandon,
I'm sorry, Brandon. Stephen Rodriguez, who was twenty seven, died
while working on their property. In addition to Rodriguez's death,
two other workers were also injured when they were helping
to set up the music festival nexus Fest, which was
scheduled to start July sixth. Chias Mayor Leonardo Donoso took
to social media to announce that the death and injuries
were a result of a accident. Colleagues told Brandon Rodriguez's
mother that he was setting up a flag on a
flag when he was struck by an electric shock. The
mayor ended up canceling the festival that was supposed to
happen on the sixth, again not beating the curse allegations.
I mean, that's cursed. He was up on a flag
pole and then he was hit by lightning. Yeah, like
you know how rare that is. Only a curse would
explain that. Yeah. And so that's only one of the
issues right at the castle, because in addition to the curse,
there's also a haunting or haunting's plural Okay, more than
one visitors claimed to feel anxious, heavy, and sad. Even
when it's supposed to be a happy celebration. They hear footsteps,
only to turn around and see no one there. People
also see orbs around dawn. They have also seen the
spirit of a dog dragging chains. One security guard who
works the night shift, claims to have seen one of
the castle's most famous ghosts, a spirit nicknamed La s Angna.
He was making his rounds when he saw a woman
in the distance. When he tried to approach her, she vanished.
First of all, I love a spirit the cute nickname, Yeah,
me too. No one is sure at what point the
spirit of La Sancna visited the castle during her lifetime,
but she ended up there in her afterlife. Those who
have seen her all describe her in the same way.
She's a very tall dressed in all black and her
face is always covered. She roams the north side of
the castle crying and carrying a dead animal in her arms.
That's kind of weird. She roams around crying, and then
she sits on a rock near the back of the castle.
Because of the crying, some have compared her to La Na.
But when La san ConA makes a gesture of sitting
down bending her knees, they rise and her legs grow
so much that in the end she's not seen, remaining
hidden behind the enormous and lanky legs. I'm trying to
picture it, but I can't I picture like, I'm kind
of picturing it, like, Okay, she's like sitting down, but
her legs grow like so big to cover her, so
that all you see is a pair of legs. Are
her legs in front of her? Yeah, ok hmm. But
it says she sits down bending her knees. Oh okay, no,
I think she's I think I get it, like like yes,
but her knees. I get it. I get it. Now.
If you want a demonstration, you can watch this on YouTube. Yeah,
Carmenta demonstrated. Yeah, okay, where was I So that's where
her name Sancona comes from. I put this in parentheses
the Spanish translation because I'm like, I don't understand what
they're saying, like where legs go where? But okay, want
to mention it. Gando estavan elevandolnao calfinan no selave lasormes
e largiruchasuas Vietna's so her legs are too long, And
I guess that's what means maybe like linky like linky legs.
Oh maybe missus long legs, mother long leg in twenty fourteen,
a production crew visited the castle with the intent of
filming a documentary. None other equipment worked, and camera operators
kept hearing whispers and sounds from empty rooms. Don't like that. No,
not at all, No at all. While trying to film,
one camera person felt a cold hand touch their shoulder. No.
When they turned to see who was touching them, No,
one was nearby. Another crew member passed out and began convulsing.
They had to stop filming and quit the project. Some
workers claimed to see the figure of a woman hanging
from the bank from the main balcony, which is where
one of the patients died by suicide. Others have seen
Elina Vesa in the property and the headless horseman. Okay, oh, okay,
sleepy hollow. No, this is the Colombian one. Yeah, And
have we talked about I don't remember that. I honestly
don't remember. I don't Maybe we haven't. No, we've talked
about other headless figures and Dcinka Vesa, I remember that, Yeah,
and then other figures on horses, but not a headless horseman.
So he's seen that, a black horse with red eyes
and an ear piercing wine. Sightings of the horsemen date
back to before the castle's existence, from the ascianda days. Maybe. Yeah.
Workers of the castle today try to avoid staying past
seven thirty pm for some reason. Almost always from that
time until nine pm, the figure of a six foot
tall man dressed in black roams the garden at the entrance.
He's then seen walking away and vanishes into the surrounding forest. Okay,
what the hell? Why is there so many spars a law?
I think it's because there was an acnda before. And honestly, yeah,
aciendas are always terrible and they're always good. Happened there? No, no, Wow,
that's Castillo Marquin. Wow, it had been a while since
we had like one long haunted place. Yeah. I like
that was fun. Yeah, fun and scary and cursed. Yeah. Okay,
I guess we'll take a little outbreak here and come
back with my half of the episode. And we're back,
so we'll just hop right into my case. On January first,
twenty twenty two, a hundred family was enjoying their New
Year celebration in the island of Rotan, Induras. We have
actually talked about in another episode La Brujacleo. Is that
episode all taking place in Rotanas, but this is a
tourist location known for its beautiful beaches, and then, sadly,
what should have been a fun vacation turned into one nightmare.
This was the day that changed our lives forever, and
one with unexpected ties that are still not answered today.
Angie Penya, Lizzie Pena, and their mother, Michel Melgaries were
spending time together on the beautiful beaches of Ratan, and
they had a lot to celebrate. Angie had just graduated
with the bachelor's in business from Yuna tech U Nivesida
Technologica Central Americana in de Gusi, Galpas, where the family
lived together, also the capital of Onuras. She loved music, sports, life.
She wanted to start her own business. Everyone knew she
had a fright for sorry, everyone knew she had my
decx yaha, it's just like a Friday. They all knew
she had a bright future ahead of her. Sadly, all
of that changed. On the first of twenty twenty two,
around four pm, twenty two year old Angie and twenty
four year old Lizzie rented two jet skis together. They
went out onto the West Bay Beaches and while they
were out there, Lizzie lost sight of her sister Angie.
At first, stave like, oh, she'll reappear in a second. Here,
I just can't see here right now, but you know,
then ten minutes went by and there was still no
side of her anywhere, and now Lizzie was worried that
she couldn't find her sister. She called her mom, Michelle,
and told her, I can't find Angie. And so Michelle
ran from the hotel room down to the lobby begging
for the hotel's help, like find help find my daughter, please,
and they said no, we can't. We don't have anyone
to go search the hotel or the water. So then
she ran out to where the girls had rented the
jet skis, and this place also refused to help. They
said there wasn't enough gas for them to go out
and search. Michelle then offered to pay for gas, and
they were still like, nah, we can't help. Wow. Yeah,
she tried the lifeguards. They also refused to help it,
which is bodd honestly. Yeah, and sadly this marks how
the rest of the search and investigation into her daughter
would go. She found the same uncooperative attitude wasn't just
limited to the hotel, but the Roatan police officials too.
Michelle realized that she would have to work to figure
out what happened to her daughter herself because no one
else was helping. She left behind her life in Tegucigalpa
and moved to Rotan permanently to dedicate herself to finding Angie.
She paid for private air searches. She paid for hotel
employees to go out and search on jet ski's, paying
for their gas, which they were unwilling to do that day,
but later when she paid, they did it. It apparently
takes money to have some cooperation. Yeah, she followed every
tip she came across the Luckily, the Coast Guard of
Belize were cooperative. They started their search on the second
of January after a call from the Benyat family that
was like, our daughter was out there. She went missing,
so they started searching. They searched the k's and I
don't like, I'm not a tourist, I don't know what
this is, but apparently there's like kisks their gays in
Spanish c A. Yes, I guess it's just like a
type of area in the beach. I don't know, but
they have different names. Like there's skayet, buttonwood, hunting little
water jacks. They're all different like resorts, I think. Okay,
that was not very like you know when there's like
a like a long coast and then like it goes
like this and there's like a maybe is it like that? Okay,
So they're just like small, a small, low elevation sandy
island on the surface of a coral reef. And so
they searched case between Belize Dratan, these caves, hunting little
little water jacks and button wood, and they searched for
three three days. The Coast Guard did the Belize Coast Guard.
Michelle and Lizzie joined on several of these searches, almost
ever research they were out there with the coast Guard.
Local fishermen were also helping look for her. On the
third of January, the Ondura Air Force also joined the search,
and they did this like every day. They were flying
f hundred feet just trying to see what they could see,
and they were just like making sweeps of this area.
On the fourth, the family made a public statement begging
for the public's help to look for Angie, and they
were also calling out the Roatan government for not helping
and not being cooperative, and yeah, everyone found it extremely
odd that they hadn't found the jet ski at least,
because like find not being able to find someone, I
think you can explain away, like oh, they just didn't
they haven't resurfaced or something, but a whole jet ski,
Like they were like, why haven't we found that at least? Yeah,
it's weird. Yeah, And the Rotan authorities insisted that Angie
had drowned in some jet ski accidents, and they refused
to state like if there was any other explanation for
her disappearance. Michelle, on the other hand, began to believe
there was a possibility that Agie did not disappear out
in the sea like the Roatan officials were stating. She
believed that if she had disappeared out in the sea
in this jet ski accident, the jet ski would have
been found or she would have been found herself with
a resurfaced at some point, and so she was starting
to believe that's like not even what happened. Finally, on
the eighth of January, whole seven days after Angie disappeared,
around four forty of that day, the Belize Coastguard and
Belie fishermen came across an orange life fest and a
red cable. They turned these over to the Honduran authorities
on the tenth of January and they came to the
conclusion that this was Angie's life fest and a red
cable that was the kill switch for the jet ski
that she was using when she went missing. But when
they showed the vest to Lizzie, who you know, left
that day with her sister on the jet skis, Lizzie
insisted that this was not her vest. She was not
wearing this interesting and so she was like, that's not hers,
but they didn't listen. Then the Belize Coast Guard, the
Onduda's Coast Guard, and local fishermen. They were making two
rounds of searches every day. These searches covered thirty to
thirty five nautical miles. Each time they returned, they gave
the same update La Patria. The patrol concluded the search
and reports that they were unable to locate Miss Jipana.
This report changed on the eighteenth of January because just
after two thirty pm, local fishermen that were part of
the search team came across what seemed to be Angie's
jet ski. It was found in the mangroves, and those
are like these like watery trees almost the roots go
into the water and they're like just floating there, I guess.
So it was found in the mangroves on the eastern
side of Jack's K facing Buttonwood k areas that they
had already searched. If you recognize those names from a
little bit before. Yes, And also I was just gonna say,
like if somebody left it there, right, So this jesski
that was found was then towed to the tarpaulin k
and it was handed over to officials. The jet ski
was completely intact. It looked a little too new, especially
for having been found in the mangroves and having been
supposedly floating in the water for eighteen days, and for
having travel hundreds of kilometers between it floating in the
water them taking it back to that cave from the
other cavee like it should have looked worse than it did.
So Michelle then traveled to Placentia to take a look
at the ski, and she was like, why does this
ski look so intact and clean? Like this doesn't make sense.
She grew suspicious. She felt like they weren't even searching
the correct place anymore, and that Aggie had not gone
missing out in the sea like she was very suspicious now.
Also in the jet ski there was ear rings and
a necklace that also looked like new, like they should
have looked damaged if they had been out in the water.
According to Michelle. She was asked if these blanks and
Angie she wasn't sure, but also again they just looked
undamaged and they were out in the ocean for almost
twenty days on the eighteenth that these things were found,
the jet ski and the jewelie on the jet ski.
But Michelle wasn't the only one growing suspicious. Back in
on Duras Janelli das the girls Tia, she was also
starting to question things because she had been receiving pictures
from during the trip from the girls and Michelle, and
like according to her, nothing was liing up either. She
could not believe that in the numerous searches of the
area the jeske had not been found until the eighteenth
and then when I was founded, it looked clean and intact. Yeah,
if it had been in an accident like you would
think it would look like it. I don't know yeah, right,
I don't use Jeki's so I don't know neither, but
presumably it's been exposed to elements in eighteen what eighteen days, right,
you said it was yeah, yeah, so I mean it
wouldn't look back pegginy or yeah. Yeah. Then something new
came to light that cemented Michelle and Janelli's suspicions. A
new witness came forward and he stayed that he was
sure he had seen Angie on her jet ski near
West End, another tourist area in Roatan, northeast to the
area where the girls had gotten the jet skis. The
witness saw all the news reports that were it was
like all over the media, and so he was watching
the news and he was like, why that I saw her?
And he realized like it was the first of January
when he saw them from his hotel balcony. He saw
Angie on her jet ski with an Islander, so a
Roatan local, and he remembers her because her vacency was
very bright and it was a very bright pink. Okay,
you notice it right away, yes, But more than that,
she looked uncomfortable in her interaction with this local. Then
he saw another man approach the man and Angie, and
this other man looked like he gave the islander, the
Roatan local, some money. With this new information, Michelle went
to the authorities and begged them to take a look
at the cameras of this hotel that the man was
in and of nearby businesses. But it was too late
because when the police went over to ask for this
information to be handed over, the hotels and the businesses
had deleted everything from the first several days of January Wow,
which again further cemented Michelle's suspicions that something was going
on here, something was fishy, nothing was adding up. Then
it got worse when at the end of January, the
principal investigator assigned to the case, Carla Savalla, quit answering
the family's messages and she blocked Michelle's phone number. So
the family started to believe like there's more going on here.
They started to think that the government or the state
of Rotan was involved on its yeah, and they started
to feel like Angie's disappearance was a little too close
to a twenty seventeen cas or a twenty six year
old Marta Fabriola Males also went missing while on a
jet ski what what is going on? And she was
never found. To this day, Martha has not been found.
Martha's own mom. When the media was publicizing Angie's case,
Martha's own mom, Fanny, met with the media and said
that you know, her daughter disappeared in the same way,
in the same area as Angie, but she couldn't afford
to continue the search, like Michea's mom and like it's
crazy that they need money. He shouldn't need money for that. Yeah,
seven months went by with zero news and the family
decided to try and ask for the government's help. They
wrote a letter to Onduas, the government of Ondurdas, about
how things were adding up in the investigation, about how
the Rotan government, like local government, was unwilling to help them.
And on top of that, they had hands it over
Angie's phone two investigators in Ratan, and it seemed like
someone had been using Angie's phone. Her picture from her
WhatsApp profile was deleted, and Angie had been removed from
group chats, and she was showing up as online on
whatsapped because it tells you when someone is online. So
during those seven months, yeah, during those seven months, wow,
they had handed over the phone and someone deleted her
picture from WhatsApp, removed her from group chats, and just
once in a while it said she was online. And
they're like, obviously it shouldn't they shouldn't be seeing that. Yeah,
because they handed over the phone. It shouldn't be. There
should be no activity on it, right, And at the
end of the letter, they expressed their belief that she
had not gone missing out on the sea, but instead
she was taken somewhere closer to the hotel for the
purpose of sex trafficking. They believed the state was involved
in this trafficking ring, and after they sent this letter,
the government of Honduras did quickly get like working. They
assigned new investigators to her case. Wow, and by the
end of this new investigation, it seems that Michelle's suspicions
were validated. So authorities never it's just at least it's
not public. They've never disclosed what led them to this
next part of the investigation. But something was uncovered during
this new investigation that led them to a man named
Gary Lee Johnston. Gary Yeah, Gary Lee, Gary, what are
you doing there? Get out of there? An American that
had been living in Dratthaan for six years. Oh, they
rated his property looking for Angie. So something led them
to believe she was there. I don't know, I feel
like I'm not even saying words anymore. I was just
like just incoherent grunts. I heard Gary and I was like,
bitch starts crowling. Okay, So something led them to look
for her at his property, and sadly they didn't find her.
But they did find a twelve year old girl some
sources say seven but underage either way, a minor, a
barely clothed miner in his apartment that had been a
missing for a while. She had been trafficked to his apartment.
I think that they shouldn't allow older white men to
go to these kind of countries or just be banned
from it. And I know that sounds wrong, but I
think that we need to think about the what did
they call it? Pastro tourism? Oh? The past part, bros.
Is the I guess link term. Well, because sadly sex
tourism isn't even like it's it does involve trafficking. And yeah,
like it's called sex tourism, but it's involves trafficking and
exploitation of miners always, you know what I mean so yeah,
bad old white man from entering tourist areas. Please yes. Anyway,
So on top of the underage scroll, they found trafficked
in his property, they found the bay didn't say that
Angie had been wearing when she went missing. What Yeah?
And they also found ours of child sex abeest material.
Ooh what the fuck? On top of that, I knew
it the minu he said, Gary, I was like, but yeah,
what I mean, like your bells were ringing for a reason. Oh,
sixty three year old Gary Johnston owned the condemn Minium
building where he lived. So like, why is this man
able to go to another country, buy own condo building
and exploit girls? Yeah? For real? So he owned this
building where he lived, but nobody else really knew him.
He kept himself and he was arrested on August twenty ninth,
twenty twenty two, and Deputy Security Minister Julisa bien Weba
stated that they believed he was not working alone, that
he was never are Yeah, of course they never are,
and that he was part of an international network of
human trafficking that went by the name Delta Teams. What
and so? Then and in April twenty twenty four, two
Americans were arrested for abducting women to be part of
this trafficking ring. Oh my god. They were William James
Murdoch and Harold Green along with an undurant man named
Gustavo Treco. And there's another person authorities believe were involved
the disappearance of Angie. So these three they have connected
to Angie somehow. They haven't made this public, but that's
what They were arrested for trafficking and for being connected
to her disappearance. The fourth man is Anthony Frank Grayson,
but he has been like he like ran off. He's
missing somewhere like nobody can find him. They're unable to
locate him. But he was the owner of a hotel
boutique called The Dock in Ratan, and authorities believe that
this is where the trafficking ring worked out of. They
operated out of his hotel, the Dock, and they also
believe Angie Beenya was at the Dock for at least
three days. At some point, these men were all charged
and arrested. It seems that were awaiting trial. I can't
find any new information, but as of twenty twenty four,
they were arrested and their lawyers insist that their clients
were not involved with Angie Beanya's disappearance. Michelle's mom is
still holding out hope that her daughter is out there alive.
She maintains her belief that the same people helping her
search for her daughter were involved police judges. She's like,
they're having they have someone's help because yeah, their past,
yeah right, and with like the owner of this boutique
operating a sex ring, someone has to know and someone
is keeping it hidden to let them get away with
these things. Yeah. As of the end of twenty twenty four,
the case seems to be stuck. Angie is still missing
and Anthony Frank Grayson has not been found to bring
in for his arrest. So wow, I hope Angie is
found me too. And it's like it also begs the
question why we're the local authorities so insistent she went
missing and we're like refusing to help, Like it's it
really does seem like something more. It makes it it's
very fitchy behavior. That the fact that the first over
two weeks of when she first went missing, that they
were completely unhelpful, and then it took that letter for
more like something else to happen. Yeah, well, and then
the involvement of a yeah yeah, outside agencies to look
into it, Yeah, which makes the seem like there are
involved probably, yeah for sure. Yeah, that's that's the more
suspicious part. But yeah, I hope she's still I hope
she's found. And yeah, that was the case of Antipinia
that I think. It's like, it's an important story to
tell because it brings a lot of issues to mind adults,
Like we already talked about it's a whole passport bro
and sex tourism, which is predatory. And I agree with
you that old white men should be banned from Latin
America and the Philippines. Yeah, and wherever else they go,
the Global South, the Global South, anywhere that's not here, honestly,
because that's where they come from from here, you know
what I mean. And there's a whole well, I mean,
like we said that, Yeah, there's a whole movement of
men looking for women from the Global South because they
believe women from the Global South are more submissive and
also like desperate to lead their situations, so exploiting them. Yeah,
disgusting behavior. Oh no, go ahead, I was just gonna
say they believe that women from here United States are
to have become too not feminized, because that's the wrong
word masculine. I guess like they have like they're two
feminists for their liking. They stand up for the rights
too much, so that's why they look to the Global South,
which there's a large feminism movement in the Global South too.
Like this is into ridiculous. Yeah, they don't even know. Now,
have you seen on TikTok there was like a white,
old white guy who was yes his thing. Well, I
didn't see it on TikTok, but I watched the YouTube.
Do you watch Kat Black on YouTube? No? She has
been making content for the longest time. I think I
first discovered her like twenty fifteen probably, oh wow, and
she I don't remember how I found her, but she's
a trans black woman. She's been making videos about politics,
trans rites, feminism, current issues sometimes just like internet things
for a long time. And that's where I saw this
man that you're bringing up. I'm pretty sure it's the
same man, the guy with the wife from Vietnamese wife, yeah,
or my Filipino wife. I think it's I want to
say it's Filipina. Yeah, yeah, so he would he would
start every video my Filipino wife, blah blah blah blah,
my Filipino wife, like anyone who starts off like my
Latina wife, my Mexican wife, my Filipine Like, they don't
see you for you, they are fetishizing you. Yeah, there's
nothing I hate more. Did you see also that? I
think it's like a screenshot going around. If you're a
white man and you're starting off any tweet as mentioning Latina.
Has just stop something like that. I mean, go on.
I haven't seen it, but a while back he made
another TikTok where he was like, my Filipino wife has
become too americanized. She divorced me, Well, she was trying
to divorce him. They didn't actually getting divorced. I was
reading still together. You know why, because she found out
she was pregnant sow baby trapped her. My heart goes
out to her. Yeah, oh, I can't even say that anymore.
It's been just do it in Spanish, goes out to her.
They're so fucking dumb. We're not going to get into that.
But I just can't stand the videos of when that
first happened, where all the people were like my heart
goes out to you and then they're like doing it
with their hand up and then everyone says gense videos
and they're like, yeah, flip your hand around or do
like a wide shot. Like yeah, there's too many stupid
things going on right now. But I want to write
up another point about this about sex trafficking right and
I think I've been to countless trainings about you know,
in the social social work world. That's hard to say
all the once all the W words, you know, but anyway,
I've been to a lot of like sex trafficking and
c sex, which is child sexual ex wait sex commercially
sexually exploited child children. Okay, that's set. It's uh yeah,
so it's like a term for sexually exploited children basically,
they just you know, they say se SEC. So I've
been to a lot of trainings about that sex trafficking
sea SEC. There's a lot of organizations around that help
se SEC youth and whatever. But I think that there's
a huge miss in peace and a lot of these
kinds of trainings. One of those is that if sex
work wasn't so stigmatized, then victims of sex trafficking would
not feel a shame to come forward and leave those
worlds because sometimes they're they're right, it's forced, right, But
a lot of times children that are trafficked, they grow
up like this and then they stay in the world
of in the sex world is what they know because
it's what they know, but also because there's a stigma
to it and they're there's shame around around it, so
they they don't feel like they can ask for the
help that they need or whatever else do anything else
because of the shame tie to sex world, sex work.
I mean, this makes sense. Yeah, And so like I
feel like that's like always missing from these trainings and
that's why, like the discussions around feminism, around sex positivity
are so important, because if people are ashamed, they're never
going to come forward for help. Like shame is the
number one thing of you know, keeping these things like
secret and hidden. And yeah, so I just wanted to
mention that that's important. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up
and your perspective as a social worker. Latina TM. Yes, yeah,
you're welcome. La capital e capital L yes, yes, Indian
Old English. Yeah. Okay, Well with that, we'll take a
little outbreak here and come back with spooky recommendations and
we're back. Do you have any spooky recommendations? I started
listening to Thirst, which you recommended. Actually, I don't know
if you gave it as a speaker recommendation or we
just talked about it in one of our Patreon episodes.
It was a vampire media. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm
not done yet. Where am I at? I'm curious. I'm
still at the perspective or point of view of the past. Okay,
And honestly, that was so good to me. It is
so good so far. I loved just okay, her trying
to survive, going from house to house, the yellow fever. Yes,
so I guess you should say what it's about, right,
But Christina finished it. So it's Thirst by Marina. You.
I don't know how to say this. You skook you suok.
Maybe it's spelled y u s z c z uk.
She just shrugged for everyone not watching anyway. So it
is the nineteenth century, the twilight of Europe's bloody well,
I don't know how pronounces were backanles whatever, and the
vampire vampire must escape. She arrives to the coast of
Buenos Aidis and for the second time in her life
watches as villages transform into a cosmopolitan city. She adapts,
intermingles with humans, and attempts to be DISCREETE that's the
part that I'm at right now, and it's absolutely beautiful
the way it's written. Okay, then goes on in present
day Buenos Itis, a woman finds herself at an impasse
as she grapples with her mother's terminal illness and her
own relationship to motherhood. When she first encounters the vampire
and a cemetery, something ignites inside the two women, and
they cross a threshold from which there's no turning back.
But echoes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Thirst place with the
boundaries of the gothic genre while exploring the limits of
female agency, all consuming desire, and the fragile vitality of
even the most immortal of creatures. But Yeah, I'm really
liking it. I love the Yeah. When she finds herself
in the villa, I guess it would be the empty villa,
and she just kind of like chilling there until I
don't want to spoil it too much, but until she's
forced to leave the villa, I guess, yeah, And then
she ends up living in the cemetery, which is I mean,
that's in the summary, so that's not a not a spoiler. Yeah,
but yeah, there's just there's so much love, and it's
all kind of love straight love, lesbian love, because it
all yeah, and it's yeah, it's just it was very
interesting to see her in the past surviving. I love
reading like a like about the past, but like in
a gothic like type of novel, you know, like Isabel
that's like, that's what gotic and that's what this first
half I guess. I don't how is it like half
of it or more? Pretty much? Okay, pretty much half. Yeah,
that's what the first half is giving. And I was
again not a huge fan of the second half. If
I could have just read the first half, I called
it a day, but I was like, to finish. I know,
we need to do our book club episode. I felt
it also, we really do we need to do the
book club episode? To start those notes? I did start them,
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, I really want us to do
it so that we can pick our next book. I
know there's so many possibilities for the next book too,
And I think that we need to consider changing the
name of the book club because I actually read very
fast now that i'm again, but I don't, so we can't. Okay,
so I don't have speaking recogmindations. I honestly don't know
what I've been doing other than oh, sorry, I've been dying.
That's what happened. You were sick, Well, first I was sick, No,
but then I got my period again, and y'all, I'm dying.
When I have an extreme fatigue, I literally need to
sleep her off all over and just start sleeping anyway.
So then my life is wasted while I'm on my period.
I hate it. I'm seeking medical hope because, yeah, I
have plans to go to the gym, but I literally
can't wake up. I'm so fatigued. I'm in so much pain.
It's miserable. So i'n't been doing anything. Today I finally
feel normal again. Well like yesterday, I felt a little better.
But yeah, that's why I haven't been watching anything scary.
I did randomly start watching this show called Day Zero
on Netflix. It's a thriller. It's new, and I started
watching it because the cast was stabbed to Robert de Niro.
Angela Bassett is the president. Ok. Wow, I actually would
have watched her in anything. I love her. Yeah, so
she's the president in this show. You never watched Breaking Bad.
But what's his name? He's, for some reason one of
my other favorite white men. He's married to Christian Jesse guy.
Oh wait, his name is, isn't it Jesse Plemons? Yes, yeah,
I don't know why I know that, honestly, because I
don't really watch anything. Because he's married to Kristen Dunce.
Could be it could be. Okay, Well, for some reason,
I love that man. I don't watch anything that he's in.
He's a really good actor. I've seen him only, I
feel like, in a few other things, and I don't
remember most of them. But I watched he kills or
type movie. He's like a villain most of the time, too, right,
isn't he? Yeah? Yeah, So he's in this The Mean Girls.
You know the is her name Janet? She's Katie's friend
the Yeah, yeah, okay, Janet Janet from The Lebanese Girl. Yes, yeah,
she's too. Yeah. She is also really good in this role,
so she's in it. A lot of big names of
the favorite white man, Dan Stevens Quieter. I told you
he's in that vampire movie. Oh, he's also in Legion.
He's like a villain in the movie, right, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's in this show too. All your favorite white people,
all of my favorite white people, and Angela Bassett like, yeah,
you can't go wrong. So I don't know. I'm almost
done with it, and honestly, like, the actors are all
so good, and but I'm like, where's the story going? Interesting?
And I've seen criticus of the show where it's like
the cast were stacked, but the writers just I don't know,
it wasn't there like something they lost the pot. It's
that's what it seems like. So I don't know how
I feel about it yet. I'm almost done with it
because it's very short. It's like a six episode thing.
So but I'm kind of feeling like, yeah, the actors
are all really good in their roles. Each one is
killing it, but where is the story going? Yeah, That's
what I feel about it. So I don't know if
I recommend it. I just wanted to say I'm watching
it because I was impressed with the cast because sorry,
that made me laugh, because it was a top notch
cast and I'm like, all right, I have to check
this out. These are again my very white people, Robert
de Niro, Jesse Plemmons, Dan Stevens, and then Angela Bassett
was president. So I'm like, I gotta watch this, but
I guess the whole premise I guess of the show
is this event called Day zero is what they're calling
it after it happened. But somebody shuts off all the
electronics systems in the US for one minute on this
day that they're calling Day zero. And so because all
these things shut off at the same time, planes don't
planes don't know where they're going, they crash, Trains don't
know where they they can't. It's like, what's the thing
that was going to happen from ninety nine to why
two K? It's like why two K? Yeah, but for
twenty minute? Yeah. Then actually happened while in the show,
right right right, not not irl, but like three thousands
something people died from this. And then there's like the
whole countries on edge because it was an attack, and
first of course they're trying to be in Russia. Then
they're like, okay, who caused this? Meat answers, Yeah, a
little spoilery, But because this happened, they put together a
commission that's gonna like try and figure out what happened.
And they give this commission like all the power in
the world. They can violate people human rights right like
the Constitution because they're trying to figure out what happened.
And Robert de Niro is in charge of this commission
and he was former president. Interesting. It's a good premise.
It sounded so interesting. And again I'm on episode five,
but I'm like, all right, but like like things are happening,
but it's just not I don't know something's missing. But
I'm still going to finish it because I'm only what
episode away ye at this point and okay, yeah, I
mean at that point you might as well finish. Yeah. Yeah,
it's an interesting premise. And again the cast was sacked
and that's enough to hold me there. So yeah, but
I don't know if I recommended it, and yeah, that
is on my head and I guess shout out to
our newest patron member. I forgot to look at your
name of that out. I'm sorry, but thank you for joining.
Thank you for joining. If you want to help us
with mutual aid or looking for different organizations once a month,
don't need to, you know, join the Patreon because twenty
percent of that goes to that mutual aid help. But also,
you know, if you want to hear episodes where we
read scary stories to each other, it's usually me reading
them to Carmen. We just said one about mirrors and
it was very fun. It was a fun episode. It
was it really was very scary stories. Yeah. Also before that,
I talked about our favorite evm hire media. We're gonna
go to Mexico next month, and if we don't die
in the plane then yeah, if we make it to Mexico,
then we were planning on recording some content for Patreon
as well. So yeah, other than that, I don't know
anything else to add. No, I think that's it. Okay,
stay a SPOOKI and we'll catch a real on next time.
Bye bye. As Booktels is hosted by Christina and Carmen,
produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen, and
with the help of Don shout out with Don. If
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