Speaker 1: Hi. This is Christina and Carmen and this is another
episode of a Spooky Tells, a podcast for all things spooky,
true crime hunter places not American related, and that's what
we're doing today. We have some cryptids and then a
true crime case that somehow doctor Phil has evolved. I
don't like that already. Yeah, yeah, that man no for real?
Because did you see that he was at Ice Raids?
I did. I did see that, and I'm like, who
the fuck do you think you are? Yeah? I was like, wow,
how weird that he came up when I was researching
and then he comes up today and I'm like, can
you just please go away? One of the only things
I want in life is for him to go away.
Nothing else matters, no, because same, well besides some other
people that I want to go away. But you know,
all right, before we get into our topic, we do
have a listener story and if you want to submit
a story to us for us to read, email at
spookitos at gmail dot com. You can submit it on Discord,
you can set it to me on Instagram. All those
things are linked in the show notes. You can also
call these spooky hotline. It's been a hot midut since
we've had a phone call, feel free to do that.
It has Yeah and all right, this story is from Discord.
You want to read it? Yes, it comes from use
your named Geeka. Hi everyone, I have a kind of
creepy story from my childhood. I remember small parts of it,
but most of it is my family's version since I
was four years old. Apologies and advanced for end years
as English is not my first language and I don't
practice writing in English as much as I should. First
of all, English doesn't matter. Don't ever apologize for that. Never,
not here in this house, in this podcast. No, So
here we go. When I was very little, I had
an imaginary friend who I called Uncle Leo. At first,
my mother didn't think much about it, since imagining friends
are a normal thing, but normally children don't have an
imaginary uncle. But okay, true, true, okay, mom? Why did
that not always any red flags? Like, you're just kidding.
We don't blame him anyway, And I would talk and
play with Uncle Leo all the time, terrorizing the cleaning lady. Anyway,
One day my mother caught me talking to Uncle Leo
in a way that made me seem very upset and
she asked what was happening. I replied that Uncle Leo
said he needed to leave, but I didn't want him
to go, and then I added that he looked beautiful, shining,
full of light. Oh my god, he was saying mine. Oh.
My Mom was like okay, and didn't pressure me too
much about it, just comforted me. A long time passed
without me mentioning Uncle Leo again, until one day my
mother was organizing the photo albums and I was playing
around her. When she opened an album from her teenage years.
She showed me what everyone was like at the time,
and I didn't pay much attention until I suddenly pointed
to one of the photographs and said, look at Uncle Leo.
Oh my god. I just got chills. I know. I know.
My mother says her blood around cold, because I was
pointing out one of our teenage friends who had died
in a motorcycle accident long before. Cry don't cry yet,
the tears are Kobe hold it in dark, Okay. So
long before I was born. His name was Leonardo to
his friends, Leo. Oh my god, he came back to visit.
He just wanted to meet his nibbling. Oh my god,
that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard is it's
so beautiful, like he came from beyond the grate that
al I have escalofrios right now. I literally got chills
when I was reading it. Oh my god, And you're
trying to stop your tears, I am. I don't you
know while you're doing that. I just want to let
these spookies know that Carmen got me a new brush
for Christmas. Oh my god, my hair looks amazing. I
got a new hair dryer, and I have to say
the combo hair immaculus. Never Yeah, I've never been this
happy with my curls. The curls Sky Kravin, for give
to me the gift of my curls. Welcome, You're welcome.
Plus the hairdryer is also my recommendation, so so really
was also welcome for that of course. In fact, I
implore everyone to go to our YouTube to look at
my hair. Yeah yeah, yeah, you'll notice how much better
it looks from other episodes. You really will, you really will. Yeah, Okay,
I'm done. What a tear drinker. That was razing story.
I really loved it. I love a fell ghost story,
you know what I mean? Like those aren't the best.
Remind me of the one we've already mentioned so many
times in the podcast about our great grandpa visiting us. Yes, yeah,
and it was the same, like we didn't know it
was him on to where our mama was showing us
pictures and we're like, he visited us and she's like
what what? Yeah? What? Yeah? And those are the best
and only ghost stories that you want to experience. Yeah, yeah, personally,
I agree. And it has to be when you're little
so you're not scared, you know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay.
Should we get onto some cryptid stories. Let's do it,
all right. Our first cryptid is El chon Choon. First
love the name me too. I really had a ring
to it. So. El Tronchon is a myth that first
began among them Mapucha people, who are native to the
region of south central Chile and southwestern Argentina. El Tronchon
is said to be a powerful sorcerer who undergoes a transformation.
The creature is highly feared, and only the most powerful
sorcerers can transform into El Tronchon. It's giving Yes, oh
my god, what are they called? I know what you're
going to say. I also forgot what it's called, but
I know you're talking about as possible. I'm you know
what my MEAs are wearing now? But you know the
shape shifting creature, not the white Chivo, but the other one. Christina,
we have the same brain because I was like, not
the wit TiVo and I was literally just gonna say
that are we twins or what we must be? Wow?
No way, it wouldn't be funny, Like a new listener
and they're like, they don't know that we're twins. Okay,
shout out Fred. I love him on Patreon. He's always commenting,
but he was like, wait, you guys are twins. And
our episode with Mommy, what my gosh. She's like He's like,
I suspected, but I didn't want to be dumb and ask,
and I was like, you should always be dumb. Yeah
that's our motto. Yeah, there are no dumb questions here.
Spooky telles no, no, no. I still can't remember the
shape shous creature in Mexico that I am talking about,
but you all know what I'm talking about. Man, Why
can't we remember? We have had them in many stories? Wow?
This is sad. Yeah, yeah, it's not going to not
coming to me either. No, okay, so where was I
before beginning its transformation. It's said, either it be a
male or fear locks themselves in their rooms and make
sure no one will stop while they're not in their bodies.
So they they want their privacy, and they need their privacy,
and we respect that. Yeah, this reminds me of this
other story also that we read. I think it was
one of the myths or legends from Yes if it's
somewhere else, something about a cave, Yes, like that would
turn into a snake and they were like terrorizing. Yes, yeah, yeah, yes, yes,
so they need their privacy. Then they apply a magical
cream to their throat. Oh my god, yes, wow, we
should have known that. Yeah, so the throat. I won't
know if you heard that because you were you know,
no no startovers. Okay, so a sentence well before that,
since you know you were preoccupied with the naway. It's
fine because we all wanted to know the answer, as
it means we did. Yeah, but anyway, I was saying
that the tranzone needs this privacy while transforming. Right, So
then they locked themselves in the room and make sure
no one goes into the room while they're not in
their bodies, and then they apply a magical cream to
their throat, and the cream then initiates the transformation by
allowing the head to smoothly remove itself from the body
without a drop of blood being spilled, and it's said
to resemble a bat. Okay interesting. In nineteen twenty nine,
a Chilen historian named Tomas Gevarra set the ears and
then stretch out and turn into very large wings that
allow the head to fly around. The head is then
adorned with feathers and talons. I'm picturing it, I am,
I can see it, and she's a cutie. I'm pretty
sing like an owl, even though they say it remembers
it resembles a bat. Yeah. The powerful creature then flies
at night and uses its news shape to engage in
malevolent activities, such as flying to caves where other sorcerers
and Satan gets together at night to perform rituals. And
are they joining or internality. I'm not sure yet. I wonder.
I don't know if they're just a casual observer or
they're participant in these satanic rituals. I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know. In addition to performing rituals,
Elronchon is also able to drink the blood of the
sick or sleeping. Don't expect to see Elronjon anytime soon,
as legend says that only other sorcerers or powerful people
can see them. Oh, but normal individuals can still hear
their cries in the dark, which sound like a loud
And how do you think this is pronounced? It's t
u e Oh, that's a little too close to tua,
not toua tua in Spanish. This is the o g
hawk tua. Yeah and better better Yeah. Yeah, if you
hear a outside your house, it's best you, says Camino respectfully.
I love it. Yeah. I love when there's like a
phrase you can say to avoid, you know, like the trouble. Yeah,
if you don't say it, it said an old lady
or handsome man will appear at your door asking for salt. Well,
those are very different. I don't know if it's like
gender base or how it decides to present itself. Yeah,
so either an old lady or a handsome man will
appear at your door asking for salt, and if you
don't give it to them, they'll take it as an
insult and will avenge themselves doing what. I don't know
what the avenge in tels Son. Please clarify. Hopefully it's
not like murder. Maybe just like like a little beating,
like the other lady who beat up the You remember
that la. I don't remember anything, okay first all, but
remember the like I remember the concepts of things, but
I don't remember the name of anything. Yeah, and do
you remember the legend of the lady. She was like
an eventual spirit and you think she was the one
that's turned No, she's not the one that turned into
a firewall. That's a different one. Anyway, this lady was
like an old lady and then like old lady spirit
and then you would light candles for her, but you
had to light it on. It might be ye. At
first I thought it wasn't, but then I was like,
maybe it is. And then the lady didn't she like
forgot one night and then she needs to beat her ass. Yeah, yeah,
I'm pretty sure I think it was. I think yeah,
I think yeah. Others say that hearing in the woods
is a bad omen I imagine it would be. Yeah,
because someone will avenge themselves to you to give them
salts and what if you don't realize it, you know
what I mean? Yeah? Okay, so that was It's sill
a cute name but kind of scary. Yeah, okay, So
next up we have the vampire vine. This sounds cool. Yeah,
this is a botanical cryptid. A what botanical cryptid? What
does that mean?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Oh my god? Like a like a natural? Yeah, she's
just a natural, girly Yes, I understand now I was
I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know
where my brain was. In other words, the vampire vine
is a plant rumored to be a katawan that survives
by draining the blood of living creatures. So it's okay,
like a plant vampire hybrid. This will probably be people
to think of plants like venus fly traps and picture plants,
but these plants only eat insects or lizards, not humans
or large animals. The story was first discussed by the
famous mystic Helena Blovotsky, who in nineteen not nineteen eighty one,
who in eighteen ninety one published a story in Lucifer
magazine where she discussed and experience a young explorer named
Leroy Dunstan. Sorry, so we're starting in eighteen ninety one
explorer I think Evan colonizer and in Central America. Yeah yeah, yeah,
so Leroy Dunstan some experience he had a while he
was researching botanical specimens in Central America. According to Blovotsky,
Dunstan was exploring a swamp in i Karawa with the
help of natives when he heard his dog crying out loud.
Dunstan a rushed to his dog's aid, only to find
him wrapped in roots and vines. Oh. Dunctan tried to
save his dog from this plant that was oozing a
sticky black substance from its pores, but as he tried
to cut the vines with a knife, the plant also
tried to trap Dunstan. Oh. Dunstan was then shocked to
see that the part of his skin that was touched
by the plant was turning red and blistering, and the
dog's skin was covered in puncher marks and blood. Oh no,
what a gory scene. Yeah. Miraculously the dogs survived, but
natives then warned Dunstan of the plant they called the
Devil's snare. Oh does this not remind you Harry Potter?
Yeah it does, and so did the other story because
for some reason, even though I know it's on an owl,
I kept thinking of the owl. Okay, even though I
know it's not an owl. That's too far, too far, okay, sorry, sorry,
I'm pulling the plug. I just kept picturing an owl. Yeah,
isn't that what the plants call in the first movie?
Isn't it? I think? I think so. I can only
think of fucking TikTok. They took this chess scene, yeah,
admitted into like a dancing and then they're like voky
Harry No. I loved those. To sacrifice myself my favorite.
I'm still freaking dumb. I had to sacrifice myself and
then he's like on the floor. I don't know what
that move is called, but you know the way i'men.
They're like down and then up like yeah, yeah, I
haven't come across one in a while. I gotta find either. Yeah.
I love those. So, according to the local several others
were not lucky enough to escape the vampire vine. Dunstan
brought a route back with him to Europe to study,
but it died on the way and had to be
thrown out after it began to smell. The British journalist
William Thomas Stead also published a story in his magazine
Review of Reviews. Okay, wow, you know what. Okay, but
this is what I would name a magazine that was
reviewing things, review of reviews. Yeah. So he published a
story review of Reviews of Dunstan Discovery and Instead said
he was able to discover very little about the nature
of the plant owing to the difficulty of handling it,
for its grasp can only be torn away with the
loss of skin and even of flesh. Yeah no thanks, yeah,
Instead said. Dunstan describes how the plant drew blood from
people or animals by using a number of infinite, infinite, infinite,
infinitesimal infinite. Okay, I think it's like infinitimal. I'm not sure. Okay, infinity,
amount of mosane, amount of mouths, yes, numerous, extra numerous,
too many, too many mouths count which ordinarily closed open
for the reception of food. If the substance is animal,
that's the mouth and sorry it was a substance is animal.
The blood is drawn off and the carcass or refuse
then dropped. I wouldn't want to mess or come across
this plant. Nope, nope. So then next we have the Abagucci. Okay,
fun name. We're just getting fun names today. Yeah. So
L Labauci, believe it or not, is a crypto that
not only has a connection to Costatica, but also to
West Virginia. Well, I'm surprised, and shock color be shocked. No,
I am surprised. Labagucci was first spotted in Costatica, where
many locals referred to it as dry land Banya. Well,
that's terrifying. Yeah, that is surviving, Like paranas are like
one of the scariest things about the ocean, and then
they're gonna be on dry land like they actually don't
like attack people like that. Oh, it's just like very
very rare. Oh oh, I'm just picturing like all the movies,
you know. Yeah, it's just the thing in the movies,
like if you're in Amazon you fall in, They're not
gonna Yeah, maybe something else will, but that's terrifying. I
can't even think about that. No, you will never catch
me there, no, no, no, no no. The strange creature
is said to eat anything, no matter how big the
animal might be, including animals as big as horses and cows. Wow,
and good like catching one because it's said the creature
will do anything to escape capture. But in nineteen ny nine,
the West Virginia State Division of Natural Resources imported thirteen
Abagucis to help the state combat growing predator populations. Jim
Wilson said in an article he wrote for the Webster
Echo in two thousand and one, the plan backfired when
Abaguci population When the Abagucci population exploded and got out
of control and began to attack livestock. Wow. In the article,
Wilson described the creature as a carnivore that would be
anything big or small, which freaked out the residents of
West Virginia, who became terrified to go outside. Soon. Many
residents also reported their own Abagucci sidings, which it led
to reports of residents carrying around shotguns and others walking
their kids to schools. Resident even claimed to have run
over in ab Gucci. Wow, but it was all a hoax.
The writer of the article later convinced, what the fuck
I was eating this ship up? But yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
The signings did not stop, and many continue to report
Abgucci till this day. Okay, Well, let us know if
you've seen Wow what else? Wild ride? Yeah, fir us
I was like wait no, oh yes, no, oh yes, okay,
hold on wait a minute, hold on true okay, and
I think that's yourn of your Yeah, that's right, that
was it. Okay, wow, well you know what. That was
fun three fun little cryptids, and you know we needed
it after this week that just finished this week. Oh yes, yeah.
So with that, we'll take a little ad break and
then we'll come back with my portion again, a true
crime case, a tragic loss of a mother, but also
like somehow doctor Phil is involved. I don't like that. No, no, okay,
and we're back all right. So there is an episode
of Killer Relationship. It's season two, Killer Relationships. Oh I
can't remember that, militihow. It's either relationship or relationship show
or podcast. Yeah, it's a show Killer Relationships. That sounds
more normal. Okay, So it's a show called Killer Relationships.
This is from season two, episode five. So that in
combination with one really detailed article or my sources. So
let's just start in the beginning. Twenty one year old
Julie and Gonzalez loved her daughter. She would do anything
for her. One day, her family could not get a
hold of her, and her ex husband had told them
while she was acting weird, and she told me she
was taken off to Colorado, something they refused to believe. Gratefully, yes,
of course they dug deep. This is the case of
Julie and Gonzales. Julie Anne was born in nineteen eighty
eight in Dripping Springs, Texas. Her mom was young when
she had her, just nineteen years old, but she loved
her daughter more than anything. She was part of a
very tight knit family. Her sisters and brothers all lived
in the same house, her grandparents. They all supported her
as a young mom at nineteen, so her fifteen year
old Tia, Julie's fifteen year old da was now her babysitter,
so that Julie's mom could go continue her education. Her
grandparents were always around. Everyone was around. And then her
parents opened a general store in Dripping Springs, and I
think that's just what it was called, the general store,
and everyone knew the family. Everyone in town saw Julie
growing up, and everyone describes her as so smart, so wise,
kind beautiful, stubborn, and someone who just wanted to live
life to the fullest, but also kind of like too fast,
like she just wanted to be an adult. And you
know when that's to me a red flag when someone
says that about it. Not always, but yeah, so they
did say that about her, that she she wanted to
be an adult. So at sixteen, one of the employees
of the grandparents' store started to get very close to Julie,
and Julie's mom noticed that these two were passing notes
back and forth. So Julie's mom confronted her and asked
her straight up, are you in a relationship with Aaron?
This is the employee. Julie then admitted, yes, we're together.
But Aaron was twenty three years old and Julie was sixteen,
so her mom was like, this is not okay. You're
not allowed to see him anymore. When Julie went and listened,
the grandparents fired Aarin from the store. They chased him
off and he came around, so they were just like, no,
they put an end to it. It was forbidden, not allowed,
and you know, as you showed as a parent, yeah, yeah,
try and protect the daughter, your kids, right, But again,
very normal reaction that a sixteen year old would do.
But Julie was so mad at her family for this,
she resented them. She started to hate her mom for this.
So a year went by where Julie was just not
forgiving of her mom again. One of the things people
described her as was like again kind, stubborn. Okay, So
that's and she was. And so she was still mad
at her mamma your whole year later. So at seventeen,
Julie told not she didn't ask, She told her mom
she was moving out to live with her Tia Laura
in Austin, Texas, and trying to establage the relationship, trying
to not make her more mad. And also because she
was very close with her sister, she knew Julie would
be in good hands. She agreed. She was like, okay, fine,
you can move there. So Julie moved with her Dora
to Austin, Texas. She enrolled into Crockett High School and
this is her senior year now, and this is where
she met George Dela Cruz, her boyfriend or the guy
who would become her boyfriend the family, you know, met
him right away because she was also very responsible, so
she you know, she was doing her school work, she
was involved in I don't know if things at school
too light clubs, and she brought him home right away
to meet the FI and the family noticed right away
he's very quiet, he's very shy. They'd be like, are
you sure you like him? Like he doesn't seem to
be doing anything saying anything, like he's just there, what
are you seeing him? And Julie would defend him, and
of course it's her boyfriend. She would defend him and say,
you know, you guys just need to know one better.
He's very intelligent, he's so kind. And by the end
of their senior year in two thousand and seven, things
were very serious between the two. You know, they went
to Prompt together. Then it was graduation and Julie received
a scholarship from Saint Edward's University. So the two moved
out together to be closer to the university so she
could attend and it was a full riote scholarship. You know,
they were young, but they were serious about their future.
They did this so she could, you know, go to
the school easier. And before her first year of school
was even over, Julie was pregnant and when she told
her mom, her mom remembers crying, but she wasn't mad.
She was happy for her daughter that like, okay, you're
gonna get to experience this too. Now, we know you're
going to be a good mom because she's so responsible.
And yeah, she can put her education on pause. Now
that doesn't mean us forever. So everyone was accepting be
for her, accepting, Yes, thank you, you're always here with
the better words. So on September twenty seven, two thousand
and seven, Julie's daughter, Layla was born, and Julie knew
she couldn't attend university anymore, you know, she had a
baby defeat. Now, she enrolled herself in a very you know,
short career type thing and became a pharmacy technician at Walgreens.
And I mean, honestly, when you're looking for a quick
career that pays okay, where you can live, like, that's
a good one to choose, Like, yeah, that's not a
bad move at all. And that's what she did. But
their living situation, her George and little Layla, it was
not as easy. They relocated a few times. They were
barely making the ends meet. George lost his most recent job,
and unlike Julie, George just didn't have it together. He
was not motivated. He wasn't like stepping up to the plate.
Like Julie did, where Julie's like, I can't finish my degree,
but I am going to get a career, something dependable,
something I can do every day. He wasn't like that.
Sometimes he worked, sometimes he didn't. He was in and
out of jobs in construction in what was the other
one I saw? Construction was one of them, random jobs,
random jobs, and he didn't ever stay at one for
too long. Eventually they moved in with George's mom, Victoria,
and his three younger sisters to save money, because they
just couldn't afford it if he wasn't also working. And
so since Julie was the one going to work every day,
they decided he would stay and take care of Laila.
But then when Julie was coming back from work, their
room in this house a complete mess. Wow, Laila was.
She would find their daughter in dirty diapers that had
been dirty for hours. Oh wow, And you can tell
because of that gets heavy, of course, yeah, And it
looks it's just gross. It's so bad. Like the rashes
can get like first it's like a normal small rash. Okay, fine,
that's not a big deal, but they can get bad.
I have seen horrible rashes of course you have. Yes, Yes,
of course you have that. They get it like basically
equated to like like second degree burns. Yes, yes, And
with him doing this every day, that's a problem. That's
a straight up problem. So George was doing nothing all day.
He just sat playing his Xbox for eighteen hours a day. Yeah, like,
get it together. You have a child. Now, that's not
to say you can't play games. I love one game
Started Valleys, because you know, some people will be like, oh,
you have a kidnap, you can't game anymore? You can,
I mean everything in moderation, honestly, Yeah, even if he
didn't have a kid, like you have other stuff to do.
I'm sure everyone does. But I love to sit around
and do nothing all day. Yes, did I do that? Sometimes?
Not when I have other stuff to do, you know. Now,
when I have a job to go to, yeah, or
a child to take care of. I can't ignore them
and play Started Value all day. It's not possible. Yeah,
I'm picturing that meme with the sims the person throwing
the character that. But there's like one where she's sitting
on the computer and then all fired. Yes, Okay, that's George.
That's George. But what does Xbox not a computer? Yes?
Which is worse to me? Yeah? Yeah, well, I mean
they're both there, both bad. But when is a SIMS mean? Yeah,
one is not real, right, one is pretend? Yes, And
this went on. They did not get better, but Julie
thought he could change, and she really wanted to make
it work. She didn't want to grow up. She didn't
want Leyla to grow up like she did with a
single mom. You know, you know, this is the problem.
What I tell people all the time, all the time.
There's nothing wrong. No, there's nothing wrong with going up
with divorced parents in a single parent household, especially of
the other parent is neglectful and harmful, you know what
I mean? Like, yes, And I was gonna say this
is the problem with society, yeah, not like emphasizing only
caring about the what is it like the typical two
parent women, two parent household? Yeah, because like regardless of
Julie having grown up with a single mom, all her
family was around taking care of her like everyone everyone,
She had the support, even if a father was not present,
Her grandparents were there her all her family like everyone.
So I think when you don't do like self work
or an insane amount of therapy, like almost too much.
You don't realize, like you don't need to be comparing
where you are in life to where other people were.
You don't need to be like, oh the greener, the
grass is greener on this side, where oh I need
to stay in this marriage because two parents is always
better and blah blah blah blah. There's all this like
societal messaging about that, and yes, stigmug and single moms
and yeah, and when you have the resources you can
break away from those sticks. You have the power to
do that. And not everyone is there, Yeah, and that's unfortunately.
I wish people were there because yeah, like oftentimes, like
it's more harmful to the children to be like in
this case, and yeah, sometimes to the other parent, you know, honestly,
Like it's always usually worse to stay in a bad
one hundred relationship marriage, you know, yeah, unless it really
does get better, I don't then okay, fine, but no, Yeah,
George didn't change at all. But she wanted this to
She wanted this two parent households so bad for Layla.
So they got married in secret because her family was
not going to approve. She knew they weren't gonna proof.
They would tell her he's not a good dad, he's
not a good partner, he needs to step up. He's
not doing he's not doing what a man is supposed
to do. But you know that part, to me, it's
like if he had been taken care of Laila, this
want to be a problem. Yeah. And also like sometimes
when you tell people again and again and again that
their partner is trash, they fucking suck Like it just
pushes the other person away, causes them to be creative, secretive,
and to no longer go to you for some part,
which seems that like was the case here. That's true
because yeah, when Layla was almost two, they got married
in secret because Julie didn't want to tell her family, Yeah,
because of all the things that had been saying about her,
and she wanted that about him, yes, and then and
she really wanted that to parent household for Laila. But
seven months after the marriage, Julie confided to her mom
that she wanted to leave George. Wow. She realized that
he was never going to change, So she took Leayla
and moved in with her grandparents back to Springs Something
Springs depressed and Springs Now that wasn't the name straying up,
Dripping Spring, Dripping Oh, my goodness, it's suppressing. My bad.
I don't it's probably a fine town. I don't know.
That just came out accidentally. Anyway. She moved back to
Dripping Springs with her grandparents and took Layla with her.
She was over it, she was ready to leave him.
But for the next six months, George was dragging his feet,
refusing to sign the vorce papers. Of course he was
they always do this shit. No, of course, she called
the lawyer, she drafted up the papers, she sent them
to him. The last thing he just needed to sign.
That's it. Wow. And during these six months of her
trying to co parent, trying to be keep the peace,
to try and get him to sign those papers, they
were still going to split custody fifty fifty. Like she
was trying to just not be with him anymore, but amicably. Yeah.
So during these six months, she was, you know, back
in her hometown now, and she was at the store
one day and she ran into her long lost love
from her teenage years, which was inappropriate back then but
not so much today. Their adults now erin And so
she was grocery shopping when they ran into each other
at the store, and apparently they she didn't even buy
whatever she was going grocery shopping for. She just got
so distracted running into Erin that we spent two hours
talking that day at the grocery store d and she
was so excited. She went home. She called her mom
and she's like, oh my god, you won't believe what
I ran into. And they started seeing each other after that.
They called their relationship official in November two thousand and nine,
and they were both very similar, hard working, driven. Julianne
could see right away. Erin was responsible, reliable, He had
his own apartment, he had steady work as an electrician.
Basically everything in George was not. And they were adults now.
She was twenty one, he was twenty eight, so it
wasn't like the first time where it was illegal and wrong.
So you know, they're like, okay, we can, we can
do this now. Like they were happy, but there was
still one obstacle. Julie was still married to George because
his aus was refusing to sign the force papers like
a little bitch. Yeah, So Julie made sure to keep
her relationship with Aaron tight. She didn't want to upset
George because he still was reason to sign the papers.
They still had to Copare and Leila together. She wanted
to make sure everything was still good, that he was like,
not upset George so near Lailah. When Layla was around,
she never used Aaron's name so that she couldn't say,
Mommy met Aaron, Yeah, Mommy Brian Aaron over. Yeah. She
also made her my Space page private so not only
friends could see it. That way, George couldn't see it
because she deleted his ass as soon as she moved out.
No longer in my top eight. You know, I can't
picture being married if you didn't put your spouse on
the top eight like you know back then. So she
deleted him right away when she moved out. But she
didn't think to remove George's cousin Addie from her friends.
She man, there's always one nitch cousin or simply for real,
for real, and I see everything. So he showed George
a picture Julie uploaded with Aarin that they were at
the Austin Zoo together on a day she had Leilah.
They were there together. The picture was just them too,
though it wasn't them too when Leila looking like a family,
which probably would have upset him more. But that was
still upsetting to him because he again was refusing to
sign the papers right. So after he saw this picture,
George started acting erratic and desperate. He faked amnesia on
a weekend to get Julie and back amnesia. Amnesia, yes,
And then he admitted to faking the amnesia. And she's like,
I already knew, bitch. Wow. He also tried to kill himself.
She had picked up Leila from her George, and George
told her after she was already gone, like, hey, there's
a note in Nail's diaper bag. Like he told her
this later and and when she finally read it and
she was in her car to read the note, it
was a suicide letter. Wow. So she rushed back to
his house called nine one one, and he had taken
some pills at the emergency services did arrive and saved him.
But again, if he was really going to do way,
he would have just done it. There was no need.
This was manipulative, This wasn't well, it's a control tactic.
But people like him, you know, the yes, taking forever
to sign the divorce papers, trying to reel her back
in with faking the illnesses. Yeah, and now this like
it's too real, her back in and to maintain control. Yeah,
and threatening suicide when someone's trying to leave you is abuse.
It's to control. Yeah, yeah, it is abuse. So he
was doing these things, but he was also showing up
her work at the Walgreens pharmacy unannounced of course, stalking her. Yes, yeah,
this is very I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing,
making it sound like an everyday thing, but this is
like textbook like abusive behavior. Yeah, yeah, I know. These
are the clear signs, the controlling, the stocking. Well, those
aren't even signs. Those are like abusive control. My bad. Yeah,
that's what I mean by signs. They are the things
that abusive people are doing that you can say, you
can clearly say this is abuse. Yes, yeah, okay. So
he would call the pharmacy frequently and just hang up,
like again, controlling. Julie's boss had to kick him out
of the store multiple times. There was another night where
Julie freaked out called her boss after work, telling her
that George was following her in his car, and during
that call Julianne told her boss, if something ever happens
to me it was him, Oh my god. But she
didn't want to cause any trouble by reporting him to
the police because again, she just wanted the divorce to
be peaceful. She's just trying to keep the peace. Yeah,
that makes sense, and sometimes things don't improve by going
to the police or by filing or straining order. I
saw a while ago on TikTok a video and it
was there was like sources and stuff, so it was
like legitimate, but I don't remember the mau like the percentage.
But the video talked about how when women or victims
of like talking or violence garistraating order, their chance of
being like physically harmed by their abuse or like spikes significantly.
I'm not surprised how many stories, like not stories, like
real accounts of pieces have we seen that this exact
thing is happening. So, yeah, that's the statistic is not
surprising at all. On days that they had to exchange
Leyla George would have blocked the front door to preventually
from leaving again abuse. Yeah, and it's it's scary too.
This is the kind of situation where I know I
know that she wanted to do the piece, and it
makes sense that she wanted to keep the peace, but
he was not cooperating regardless of her trying to keep
the peace, and it would have been a situation where
she maybe could have like qualify from like soul custody
or having some kind of supervised person like a lot
of times, like some people when they're in a situation
like this with an abusive co parent, then you can
get somebody else to like coordinate others to do the
pick up and drop off. But like those things take
time and effort to look up money. Sometimes you have
to pay for others to supervise a visit and all
of that. So, yeah, it's a lot. It's hard. It's hard.
Julie Dish start having family members come with her for
drop offs and pickups, and eventually the exchange was done
between Julie and George's mother because she could do it
with Georgia Brown and luckily her family was more than
one yeah with her every time, and George's mother was
willing to do it too, because sometimes the parents enable
this kind of behavior and don't like offer to help
out and stuff. Yeah, so this is how things were
for a while, and then on March twenty fifth, twenty ten,
Julie was talking to her mom. She was on the phone.
She had just spent the night with Aaron. This was
a Friday now, and it was her turn to go
pick up Leila. For some reason that day, she I
mean maybe because she was already nearby because she was
at Aaron's. She just said, I don't need a family
member to come with me. I'm already right here. She
did ask Arin that day for him to not go
to work so they could stay together and watch movies like,
but he was like, no, I gotta work. I gotta go.
Like I can't. I don't have like I have bills
coming up, I don't have sick days. I have to go.
They said bye to each other, and she was like
all right. She called her mom and she was like, oh, no,
you don't need to come with me. It's okay. I'm
like right here. So she went and did the pickup,
and then like later she Julie's mom was expecting her
a phone call again, because she was always calling her
on her days off, like repeatedly. It was very normal
for them. The phone call never came. The next day,
Julie's mom was calling again and again and Julie was
not picking up. So right away, Julie's mom and her tias,
everyone was worried. They reached out to Erin and he
told them she broke up with him. He had received
a text message saying she had to get away, and
he was confused because he was like, things were perfectly fine.
That doesn't make any sense. Yeah it doesn't, Yeah, it
doesn't make any sense. Julie's younger sister also started getting
texts from Julie's phone, but it was in a way
that she never texted it. It was like things were misspelled.
It was slaying that Julie just didn't use even in
her text messages. She was very proper the show. I
was watching the episode on this. Her grandpa was like,
she has sent a text that had the effort in it.
She doesn't use this kind of language. Never, She's never
like that. And he's like, and I know I'm a
grandpa saying this, but no, I promise you she never
used this language. She would never send it in a
text message. But these texts all had all that kind
of stuff, things she would never say. Then they all
looked at Julie's MySpace page together and it had this
post going away hate all this ps want to run
away again in a way. She would never write things,
just a one run on sentence, no spaces, no proper
She was very proper. So the educators and she showed it. Yeah,
they were like, this isn't her. There's no way. Then
there was another post it said, I met a software
engineer named James and I'm leaving with him for Colorado.
I hope he's going to show me a good time again.
They're like, no way, There's no way she would ever
leave Layla. Layla, her daughter was a world to her.
She wouldn't just up and leave her for some guy
named James when she was also that she had never
even mentioned to anybody else, and she was in a loving,
happy relationship with Aaron. Like, that's ridiculous, exactly. It sounds
like something someone dumb would make up, some dumb motherfucker.
But playing spots and Lisa's kid in dirty diapers all
day long, that's what that sounds like. No, because I
thought the same thing right away. So Aaron then met
up with Julie's mom and her tia, and he showed
them a letter that Julie had left, and the letter
just talks about how she was so happy she was
looking forward to them having a little boy together. Honestly,
the letter was the cute. It reminded me of something
you write in middle school or in high school to
a boyfriend where you're playing your features together, which honestly
makes sense if they were together for a little bit
when she was in high school. Yeah, like maybe she
was still hot, like she was remembering those and she
just wrote down. It was like written on you know,
binder paper, and it had like, you know how you
used to write bubbly letters like yeah, yeah, okay, So
it had Aaron and Julie in bubble letters that were
like shaded, and then she wrote, you know, the whole thing.
And I'm like, first of all, was damn, who writes
like that this much? Things these days? But this was
in twenty ten, oh yeah yeah, and she wrote like
she was She wrote, I can't wait for us to
live our lives together. We're gonna have a little boy,
We're gonna get married, live as a family with Leila here,
and I'll like, you know, live together. It's gonna be
so beautiful. It's everything we ever wanted, Like it was
a beautiful letter. So the breakup text he received just
didn't make any sense, yeah, because like how would she
write this heartfelt letter and then hours later break up
with him via text with no explome nation, right, Yeah,
that doesn't make any sense. No, and the family agreed
with him, so they all went out looking for her,
also the normal response where they knew she would hang out,
but no one had seen her. So then they filed
the missing persons report and police did arrive at Julie's
mom's house forty eight hours later after you know, she
was picking up the calls or anything. They took statements,
but then another officer was like, wait a minute, this
sounds familiar. This name you're telling me Julie Ane Gonzalez.
He's like, I'm pretty sure I took a statement about
this earlier. And then the family mentioned like, well, the
last one to see in her if it was an
errand it had to be George de la Cruz, her ex,
And then he was like, wait a minute, George la Cruz. Yeah,
he called and gave a report, and he looked through
his files and he's like, yeah, George de la Cruz
called in a report or called into report that his
wife abandoned their child. What the hell? Yes, And so
now the family was freaking out because one, she would
never abandon Leila, and then Austin PD were like, well,
she's an adult, like and she's allowed to leave if
that's what she's doing, Like, there's nothing to do here that.
I hate when that like that. I say that because
sure it's true, but also like, why can't you take
into account like literally everyone that knows this person saying
they would never do anything like that. Yeah, No, seriously,
I wonder the same thing. Her family was to drop.
They had no choice but to wait. The next morning,
Julie'stia was on her way to work when she decided
she would drive the route Julie took too from her
house to her work. She passed by a Walgreens, not
the Walgreens Julie worked at a different one, but she
passed by and saw Julie's car parked in the parking lot.
It was the only car in the parking lot that morning.
She pulled in. She rushed in, ran to the car,
and nothing was inside. She called Julie's mom and Aaron.
She called both to them and they arrived a little
bit earlier, but while she was waiting for them to arrive,
she ran inside, thinking, oh my god, maybe she's just
inside this store. But she wasn't there. She talked to
the front desk person, not from desk. This is a Walgreens,
it's not a clinic. She talked to the cashier, the
cash person at the cash register, and they hadn't seen her.
So by now Aaron and Julie's mom arrived and yeah,
they were like, no, this is weird. She would never
leave her car either, like, so they called the police,
who did go to check it out because they could
have easily ignored it. And while the police were checking
the car out, Julie's mom begged them like look into George,
like this might have been the last person to see her.
Plus he lives around the corner from this Walgreens. Yeah,
and her car is right here, Like this is two
they can't be a coincidence exactly, And so yeah, police
went over to George's house and when police arrived, George
told them, well, Julianne was acting weird. She asked me
to keep Lailah with me this weekend instead of taking
her because she has something to do, and she just left,
and she looked like she was under the influence of
some drugs, even though she had no history of taking
drugs at all. So he let police inspect the house.
They they were like, all right, we're going to make
sure she's not here. So they looked around. They made
their way to the backyard, which had a playhouse and
a storage shed in it. And the shed had a
large square cut into the piewood floor and there was
fresh sawdust around it. The officer noticed that the cut
portion was loose. When he stepped on it, it almost fell in.
It almost caved in when he stepped on it. So
he lifted the piewood and there was a weird empty
trench that was about five feet long, two feet wide,
and one and a half feet deep. That's the size
of a person. Wow. Yeah. George claimed that someone had
dug the hole for plumbing purposes. Later way later, his
mom would testify that when she asked about the hole,
he acted as surprise and told her he had no
idea how the hole got there. Oh my god, a
human signed a hole for plumbing, and not even like
a big human, right fight queen. Yes. And so even
though this trench was very out of place. The police
didn't consider anything to be suspicious. Come on, man, yeah
they didn't. Yeah, so whatever. They were just like, all right, well,
there's nothing here. She seemed to have disappeared voluntarily, and
you know, as far as they could tell, Julianne was alive,
not in any imminent danger. Wow. That's a hard word
to say. Yeah, and she had voluntarily withdrawn from family
and friends, so there was no crime. I just don't understand.
I don't understand why they can't. Don't also, or didn't
take into consideration that she was texting differently than she
normally does. Wouldn't that be like a sign that that
wasn't her? It should be Yeah, you would think, you
would think, but no. Her family just was like, all right,
it's up to us now. So they went back to
where Julie's car was, and her mom and her Dyeah
slept there like two days in a row, seeing if
she would come back. She didn't come back, and again
police were like, we're not going to do anything. Our
hands are tied. So the family started putting up missing
posters everywhere, no missing flyers everywhere. They paid for a
missing poster billboard on the side of the freeway just
have you seen me? And then it had her info
and her information. They sent out hundreds and hundreds of emails.
They were able to get local the local Fox seventh
channel to cover her story, how she hadn't been seeing,
how the police wasn't doing anything. They talked to anyone
and everyone, and the community really came together searching for her.
Even Aaron, who the family, was like, oh my god,
what did he do it? He was one of the
last ones to see her, even he was out there
looking helping every day, and we're real George, yes, I was,
you know who didn't do shit? Who? Even her Julianne's
youngest sister was like, where is that motherfucker?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Where do we seen?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Where do we seen? Finally, on April sixth, Austin p
d brought Georgian for questioning, and in his interview, George
told the detective that he was worried someone took her
or made her belief she had to run away. The
detective was like, well, I had to ask did you
kill her? And George was like, I would never. My
daughter was with me, like I could never, And the
detective noted George soundered nervous, but he was like, I mean,
who wouldn't sound nervous, It's true, asked if you killed someone,
So he was like, there's nothing suspicious about his behavior.
And there that's where it ended, and the family was
left wondering and desperate. The days turned into weeks. One
month later, May twenty ten, the family got a call
from the Doctor Phil Show. They let the family know
that George had agreed to come onto the show and
take a light detective test on camera. Was the family
trying to get on the show and get George on
the show or did George take it upon himself. Doctor
Phil contacted George, Oh okay on the stories Yeah, oh
my god. First of all, this is stupid to agree to. Yeah,
George is stupid. You should never agree to take a
polygraph test, even if they're not admissible to court. This
is just dumb ass behavior. Yeah. Again, he's not very smart. Yeah.
And the and the Doctor Phil Show wanted to let
the family know and also give them a chance to
see if they wanted to be on the show too,
which they agree to. They were like, name out, yeah, wow,
so let me send I'm shocked a video. Yeah, this
is the family getting the results of the test. Okay, so,
but they did show the whole thing him taking it
as well. Oh wow, are you ready? Yeah? One two three,
then play so one two three.
Speaker 2: He was asked, are you responsible for Julie's disappearance? He
answered no. He was asked, did you cause Julie's disappearance
during the month of March? He answered no. Those were
not truthful answers. He failed the PolyGram.
Speaker 1: Test, and we we knew it.
Speaker 2: This was not a close call.
Speaker 1: This was not a close call at all.
Speaker 2: If if he scored a minus two or three, that
would be conclusive. Minus three to either of those questions
or minus four in concert is deceptive on this particular format,
and his score was minus fourteen. Let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: Wow, So like again, fuck doctor Phil. Yeah, but he
was doing more than the police at this point, not
because he's a good person, because he's an opportunistic little bitch. Yeah. Yeah,
it feels almost wrong watching this because polygraphs are not
I don't want to be as Yeah, there's a reason
they're in admissible in court. And yeah, this is just
playing off, you know, exploiting their emotions, and I don't
I don't know, but I understand that of course it
would feel like they knew it all along. Yeah, and
validating to them, Yeah, that will leave it there understandable. Yeah.
So it was hard though seeing her react like that, like, yeah,
she was like trying to hold it in and she
couldn't anymore. I'm like, oh my god. Yeah. Again very
parasitic of doctor philm but no, yeah, like the normal
yeah yeah. Yeah. So another part that I couldn't find
the clip of, but it is in an episode of
Killer Relationships. They showed footage of George and his mom
after the polygraph test and the mom is like what
did you do? What did you do? Crying and like
asking him and he's like nada, na his mommy, you
know me, you know me? And she's like no, damn.
Actually that's that's the right one that was on air
on the episode, and Austin PD was watching. Wow, And
so this kicked off the real investigation for Austin PD.
Not only did they know this kid's stupid. Yes, of
course they started getting bombarded with calls because they're like
we saw this on Doctor Phil. They're like, hey, what
are you doing about this? Why are you not looking
into this, Why are you not investigating? Why is that
your film investigating? Did your fucking job? So finally they
were like, okay, let's open this up. This is no
longer a missing case. This is a homicide case. Detectives
wanted to bring him in now for proper questioning, but
George lawyered up, and they gave him. They gave him
a lot of times lawyer up. So but it's your
right to have a lawyer. No, of course, it is
your right. Yeah, it's always funny funny in shows when
the person doesn't lawyer up and just like confesses, and
it's like, this is not the way it works in
real life, Like, yeah, Bones, that happened so much on Bones,
detectives try searching for this supposer James. They had to
follow up every lead, especially now that they couldn't get George.
It just pissed me off that they could have been
doing this all along. But okay, oh yeah, but they
refused them to until it was on Doctor Phil. So
in a way, the publicity that that garnered exactly not
Doctor Phil is not to think for, but the publicity
that came with it that finally got them to be like,
that's funny looking they really kind of family checked this beforehand. Yeah, yeah,
of course. So detectives tried to search for the supposed
James to see if you existed. They looked into phone records,
into social media. They also looked into Aaron because they
had to search every avenue investigation now that they were
finally investigating, So they brought Aaron back in questioning him.
He was shocked about the text messages, confused, he didn't understand,
he didn't believe it was her. But then he also
told them he deleted the messages, he didn't have them anymore,
and detectives were like, that's a red flag. Okay, now
they're talking about red flags. Okay, I don't know if
I would want to see the person I was with.
I wouldn't want a reminder of these messages if I
didn't even know where they were. Like, I understand the deletion,
and I guess I understand them looking that looking suspicions.
Understand both ways. Both yeah both. So then they were like,
let's go over that Friday that you were together. So
Aaron told him told the police that Julianne had asked
him to skip work that day because she had the
day off too, and they could like hang out watch movies,
and he was like, no, I need to go to work,
and so he left for work and that was the
last time he saw her. Later, he came home and
he found the letter that she had written for him,
the one I mentioned earlier that was it was very cute.
And they took that letter to compare it to other
handwriting that the family had of things she had written
out planning the planners, things like that, and the handwriting
was a match. This was a genuine letter. This was
really Julianne. They were really in a good, committed relationship. Finally,
Aaron was ruled out, so this search for the alleged
James went nowhere. Then finally they decided to focus on
George again because he was the only other lead they had.
They were looking at the evidence and it took them
to George. Yes, the path went to George, back to George. Yeah,
I went sin circle back to George. So they found
out George had used Julie's debit card right before she
went missing or right after, sorry, right after she went
miss key uster. Yeah, after there was debit card. Like
they looked at the bank records and they saw that
it had been used at a store after her family
said she was missing. So with this they were able
to get a warrant to search his house. Yes, at
the house they found various steps of ammunition, lake text
gloves and knife, pieces of burn clothes from a pit
in the backyard, a lot of cleaning products, digging tools
near that trench that was there, and a big dirt
pile behind the storage shed there was also it had
been that big dirt pile had been covered with the
mattress and other household items. Interesting. So weird things, but
not like in need it on their own right. When
they asked about the debit card usage, he said, oh, well,
when she had left, she came back to put it
in the mailbox for me so I could use it
for our daughter. That makes zero sense. Why would she
leave it in the mailbox when if she was still
there she would be like, here's my debit card. Also,
does he not have his own money? But whatever? Probably not.
It doesn't work. It doesn't work. He just plays Xbox alting. Yes,
so this was an immediate red flag. Yeah, still not
enough to get an arrest warrant, but they had a
warrant to search the house, So they took the Xbox
to analyze, and they also took his phone and they
already had Julie's phone and the phone records, but like,
technology isn't where it was today, I don't know, So
it took them a long ass time to get that information.
Years went by. Her family kept putting up posters. When
the ones that they had put up before started wiring out,
they would put up new ones. They unfortunately had lost
contact with their granddaughter Layla because George and his mom
didn't let them see her. Well that just piss me off, Wow,
it really does. Yeah, because like he Okay, at this
point in time and the where we're at, he wasn't
proven to be him yet, but like he took their
daughter from them, and now he's taking their granddaughter right
because he's not letting them see her. Yeah. Then in
twenty thirteen, the data from George's Xbox was finally available
to Austin PD. So George typically gamed eighteen fucking hours
a day, every day, without a beat, without missing that
the day Julie went missing, the Xbox had not been
used for twenty hours. Okay, so they were like, okay,
this is suspicious. Yeah, when the Xbox was back on
and reconnected to the internet. It was at a friend's
house in North Austin, Julie's phone also being there after
she was already missing. It was from the same IP
address as the xbox. So he was like taking his
xbox around to places. Yeah, he took his xbox his
house over to his friend's house. Okay, I see, I
see yeah, and after it was not usually for twenty hours.
Presumably George's Xbox and Julie's phone were in the same
place after she was missing. Right, Julie was not there.
She was missing before that. The Xbox hadn't been used
for twenty hours. Twenty hours not for him exactly, like
he was busy or something like he was doing something
out of the ordinary that day. Yes, because again this
without a beat was on eighteen hours a day. So
then police were able to find video surveillance from a
Walmart that caught George on camera texting. Those texts matched
with time stabs on Julie's phone. He was the one
who sent the breakup message to Aaron, of course, and
he was the one texting the family nonsense and things
that were grammarly incorrect and think she would never say.
He also was the one who updated the MySpace page.
Three years after she went missing, police finally had enough
for an the rest warrant. They brought George Dela Cruz in.
When Austin PD arrested George, they contacted Julie's family so
they would know George has been arrested, he's admitted to
killing her, but there was nobody still. Oh my god.
They were devastated because they were still hoping she would
return because all this time she was missing. Yeah, but
now he's been arrested and he's admitted to killing her.
So the trial began in the fall of twenty thirteen,
but the DA was very concerned about the outcome because
they did not have a body. These cases are the hardest, yeah,
hardest to prove, so it took them two years to
prepare the case. Finally, in twenty fifteen, they found a
clear motive that just couldn't to them. It was like,
this is solid. George had found out about her and
erin because again his fucking cousin at Yette. I hope
Marienne feels horrible about this. I really probably doesn't if
he's related to George to yeah, I hope means white hope.
But I don't know. It turns out George saved that picture.
They found it out his phone, the one that I
showed him. He had it on his phone. Dumb ass
move my god. If he really not more than dumbass allegations,
No he's not so. At the trial, in May testified
that while in jail, because from twenty thirteen to twenty fifteen,
George had been in jail waiting trial. So what sellmate
testified that George had been venting that he and his
estranged wife Julie got into an argument because another man, Aaron,
was in her life and they were together. George told
the inmate that the argument turned physical and that Julie
Anne fell and hit her head and was rendered unconscious.
And when George told this to the cellmate, he minimized
the fight that they had, that it was an accident,
of course, of course, but there was a fact that
he dug that trench in his backyard before Julianne even
arrived to pick up Leilam so premeditated. This was planned
because he had also presented to be her on the
phone when he was texting, and so there was it
was clear that this fight and her missing. All this
is in the same day, and the witnesses testimony like
further corroborated all of this. Yeah, because now they had
a definitive like there was a fight. Yeah, so they
had all the information already about the trench being there
or a doug he was impersonating her on the cell phone.
And then they found out about the argument from that inmate.
Mm hmmm. And then also so they well, do I
have this in my news? Let me just double check.
I don't, okay. So another thing that the state really
tried to emphasize in their argument is that this was
actually pre planned. It wasn't like even what George told
that inmate, because he had asked to keep Layla an
extra day and he had that. The day he kept
Layla is when he dug the trench. The next day,
she without a family friend to pick up. So that's
another thing I think. So it was like an out
of ordinary routine pickup. So then she was like others
heids name, She's already has it arranged and scheduled with, Yeah,
like her family to come with her to pick Leela. Yes,
but then now we have a pickup date. That's on
a different day, and she's like, oh, it's fine. Maybe
it's not inconvenience anybody, maybe because she thought, you know,
of course, nothing of it, because who would think like
something like that would aim to them? Yes, exactly, So
they were arguing this was planned, and I agree with them.
He took an extra day exactly, like there's no way
around it to me. Yeah. So the defense, you know,
emphasized that George didn't have a criminal history, but the
state called up Julianne's mom, her aunt. They all talked
about how much they missed Julianne. You know. Victim impact
statements I think is what they're called, where they come
and you know, testify like what how this has affected them,
and also that they're keeping Leila from them too. So
and then the defense called Victoria, George's mother, to cecify
that George had never been convicted of a felony, that
he was a good son, good brother, he was raised
by both his parents, like that means anything, that he
was never physically or sexually abused. Again, people putting emphasis
on this arbitrary structure or not structured what's the word,
I know what you mean, socially constructed? Yes, expectation. Yes, yeah,
so they emphasized or they She shared that he had
ever been physically or sexually abused. Again, what is that?
Don't I don't know what that would implicate on his character.
I'm not sure. She said he graduated from high school,
that when he was employeed, he contributed to household expenses.
But she can't even say he's responsible because he wasn't
always employed in contributing to household expenses. So yeah, and
then she called them an angel. At first I thought
I was like, oh, she she when you talked about
the field doctor philla interview or whatever, not interview, what's
it called? But then the state played that clip of
doctor film. What do you think here? Huh? But on
this date what he said this explain that I wish
I don't think they did.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I mean, that would be points that would sound like
a sound argument. It's not, but it would be funny.
It was right. So the trial lasted one week and
after six hours, the jury found him guilty. George guilty
of murder at the first degree. He was sentenced to
life in prison. Once he was in trial or doing
this trial, the family of Julie Anne also brought forth
a civil suit over the custody of Layla. Oh wow,
and they forced George's family into a fifty fifty split
custody for her good, which, honestly, I love for them
because it's so stupid that, like, first of all, not
even stupid. It's wrong to keep her from her a family. Yeah,
and that's what they were doing. Yeah, And I'm like you,
obviously it's not always the parents fallow how children turn out.
But you raise a murder you raised George. Yeah, so
like you raised George de la Cruz. So what does
that mean? Yeah, it has doing something right? I think so,
I think so. I don't know, I feel like, Yeah,
George remains in prison to this day. He maintains that
he's innocent, and you can find clips of him his
Doctor Phil appearance. He's on the show trying to blame
another family member on Julie's side of the family for
her disappearance. How does that make any sense? None of
what he says makes sense when before it was oh yeah,
James like a bunch of dumb lies that he can't
even keep track of because he's dumb again, Yeah, dumb.
But you know, at the end of the day, her family. One.
The person who lost in all of this is Laila
because now her stupid ass father is in prison because
of the stupid thing he did, because he's a controlling
piece of shit. Yeah right, and then he took Leayla's
mom's life. She doesn't have her parents now, you know,
her parents or her mom. Juliana's mom lost her daughter forever,
her aunts, they all are missing her in her remains
are still they don't know where they are. Fucking George
won't say because he maintains he's innocent. They're holding out
hope that he one day changes his mind and says, actually,
this is so fucking sad, but this is what they're
waiting for. This is what Julie and Mom said in
the episode. She said, we're holding out hope that when
Lena is old enough, she might ask her dad. We're
not gonna make her because that's wrong, that's terrible. Yeah,
but we're wondering if she will be old enough one
day and she'll wonder and she'll ask him, and then
finally he'll admit it. That's their hope. Now that's terrible, right, yeah,
so that they can finally give her a proper funeral
and put her to rest. Yeah, because they still don't
know where she is. She's still missing. That's yeah, horrible,
like there's no one else. No, there really isn't. And
that was the case of Julianne Gonzalez. George, may you
raw and hell and also your cousin Adiel for sharing that.
And I guess. Yeah, that brings us to the end
of the episode. Yeah, before we go, we'll take a
little outbreak here and we're back for speaking recommendations. Do
you have any actually, I do do. It's more like
a crime thriller novel. I guess, okay, but I listened
to start pulling it up. I finished quite a few
books since the last time you recorded, because I wasn't
here last time. That's right. Yeah, let's see, I talked
about The Last Housewife in our book club. We're a
book club with MJ. Reading with MJ. And that's right. Yeah,
so yeah, let me know if anyone wants to join
MJ's book club. She just runs it on discord. It's
very in for but you can chat with her and
all of us on the book that she has chosen,
which is parable of well, you can say it parable
of the Sower and I finished it already because I
was listening to the audiobook, and I go through audibooks
healthfast because I listen to it when I'm walking and driving,
you know, and it was really good. I think most
people probably know what it's about. Parable of the Sower
is is a series. There's one other book, the earth
Seed series. It's by Octavia Butler, and the description is
when global climate change and economic crisis leads to social
chaos in the early twenty twenties now now California, it
becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses
of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see
another day. Fifteen year old Lauren Olamina lives inside a
gated community with their preacher father, family and neighbors, sheltered
from the surrounding anarchy in society where any vulnerability is
a risk. She suffers from hyper empathy, a debilitating sensitivity
to others' emotions. Precocious and clear eid, Lauren must make
her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones
from the imminent disasters of her small community. Severally ignores,
but what begins as a fight for survival soon leads
to something much more the birth of a new faith
and a startling vision of human destiny. It was really good.
I won't say it's much because you're still reading. Yeah,
I'm on chapter two. This was blown up on TikTok
because people were like, oh my gosh, she was predicting
the future. But I just want to say she was
looking at the world around her, using what is literally
going on at the time, and like seeing where it's going.
But it's not like not only that she was describing
the past. Oh sorry, that too, the president in the past.
For her, everything she mentioned has happened, right, but also
people in the book. People keep pointing to Trump as
being the figure in her book, but it was based
on Reagan, right, because all of this has happened before.
This is what I'm saying, Like, this is the same,
This moment in time is nothing new, you know what
I mean? Yeah, And sadly this is why people say like, oh,
unpercenteded times and I'm like, no, they're very president. Everything
has been precedented. COVID was precedented. That's not the first,
you know, widespread worldwide infectious disease. It's like not even
the second or the fifth. Right, Like, all of this
has happened before. And yeah, a lot of people like
when they're talking about this book, they they're like, oh,
this is this is our president. These are horrible events.
Blah blah blah blah. I read a I don't know
if I saved it, but I read a post on
read it about it, and they're like, I think what
she wanted to take, what Octavia wanted readers to get
out of it, is to like the way that Lauren
and the people she comes across, their vibe is by
trusting each other, by building community. Yes, yes, also a
lot of people don't read the rest and the s Yeah,
I'm gonna read. I'm yeah, listen to the second one soon.
But also like also by not being in denial, you know.
And because so you're in chapter two, I think you
I don't think this is spoiler, because I think you
probably already read about it, but everyone in her community
it's like, oh, no, that's not going to happen to us,
like about every little thing. And then you got to
the part where she's trying to talk to her friend
like about prepping. Yeah, and her friend goes and stitches
and then she gets in trouble and it's like nothing
she was saying was out outrageous, Like she was just
like we should all have gobacks. Yeah, we all should
have go backs. So I have one, No, I should
probably get one ready soon. But like these are little
things that we can all do, like every day to
prepare ourselves for emergencies, whether whatever kind of emergency they are,
you know what I mean. And so yeah, I think
that was one thing that that Reddit post. It's like
really like it stood out to me, like it's not
about the horrible things that are happening in this book
and yeah, they're horrible, it's about the people coming together,
learning to trust each other in this high stress environment
and learning how to prepare for Yeah, it's like the
Walking Dead and actually yeah, I was financed can have
reviews of it. And then people are like, this is
very like giving me Walking Dead vibes. Yeah, where it's like, yeah,
it's horrible, but you have to build a community, trust
the people in that community, and survive together. And that's
how you get You cannot get through the pandemic, the
zombie apocalypse or right now by yourself. You need community. Also,
why I wanted to announce that we and I've been
forgetting to do this, but starting now, we are gonna
do twenty percent of our patron funds are going to
go to some charity. It's probably always going to be
immigration or at least Latin or Latina related. Right now,
it's all going to be immigration related. So I mean,
if you have charity suggestions, let us know and we'll
look into those. I already have several too, So yeah,
because that's important, Like it's on your neighbors, even though
I don't want to. I am gonna work on that.
But but my neighborhood I don't know. No, yeah, you's
you know, acting it anyway, all that to say that
I highly recommend this book, but I think again, I
think people are focusing too much on oh, she's predicting
the future, blah blah blah, Like that's not what it's about.
That's not what this book is about. Like, oh, she's
a magician or a or a not a magician, what
does that thing claroyan? Yeah, yeah, it's like, no, she's
a black woman who knew how things were going, who
knew how how things had gone. Yes, yes, so anyway,
the only thing I didn't like, honestly, it's the orty stuff.
Oh my god, it makes it the trilogy. Yes, yeah,
it makes sense. It does make sense the way she's
like working things out. But honestly, was too preachy for me.
It's just not I'm just not a spiritual kind of person.
It didn't it didn't fit my vibe, although it was
funny though parts of it are funny, like when she's
talking to the other people about it and they're like,
oh my god, I guess that's all I'll say about it.
But yeah, everyone should read it and listen to it,
whatever content, and if you want to chat about it again,
MJ has a discord yeah, where she we're doing like
very informal discussions about it. Yeah. And then I listened
to and read a few other thrillers and when was
The Housemaid? Which I don't want to talk about Freedom
mcfannon because I'm just kidding, because because I saw a
TikTok that Ashley was reading, well, not reading, she just
had the book. I'm sure she didn't read it. She
was just holding it upside down. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty
sure it was upside down. It was a Freedom mcfaannon book.
She's like, oh, I'm gonna read Freedom mcfann and I
heard she was good, and I saw my a book
club about it. I'm like, you, guys, I'm sorry, I
can't read. I can't read Free to her again. But
they're just like, what do they call them? Popcorn thrillers.
It's just entertaining. Its substance to it. It just catchy,
entertains in a while, that's what you want, you know, honestly,
most of the time, that's what I want to read.
And I finished it in a weekend because it was
very I couldn't put it down. Yeah, ridiculous, honestly, but
nonetheless very entertaining. And you know, if you're into that
kind of like entertaining thriller that you can't put down.
Of course, I'm sure everyone has read it by now. Yeah.
And then I listened to another one called The Last Housewife,
and it reminded me of a true crime story I
had heard and I cannot remember. I feel like they
probably the author took inspiration from that true crime case,
because the true crime case was a group of college
girls who and there's like podcasts and documentaries about this,
but I of course don't remember the case or anything
about like the names of anything, but it was four.
I don't know it was four. It was college girls
who who became friends with one of their roommate's dad.
But the dad turned out to be like control and abusive,
and you know what I'm talking about. So I don't
know the name of the case. Well, you know what
I'm talking about. Yeah, And he basically ends up having
like a cult. He becomes the cult leader of these
of those girls, college girls. Yeah, And that's kind of
what the book is about. Let me see the and
It's the Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead. Description. While in
college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best
friends and met a captivating man who said to stem
but the web of lies about the way the world works,
bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and
her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape.
Now eight years later, she's built a new life in
a Tony, Texas suburb, But when she hears the horrifying
news of Laurel's death, delivered always by her favorite to
crime podcast Crusade Her, she begins to suspect that the
past she thought she buried is still very much alive
and the prayer is more dangerous than error. Recruiting the
help of the podcast host, who actually is like her
childhood friends, so it's not just like a random podcast
host that she was just at to because I feel
like that would have been like far fetched, but it's
her childhood friend who happens to have a podcast anyway.
Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back
to the place she vowed never to return in search
of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life,
she's pulled into the dark, seductive world where wealth and
privileged shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When
Shaye's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming, she
can no longer separate her desire for justice from dark,
darker desires. Nearly reawakened, she must confront the depths of
her own complicity and conditioning. But the world built for
men to rule it, both inside the cult and outside
of it, is just as even I possible, and is
so how far will Shaye go to get it? It
was good, Yeah, it was okay. It was kind of
hard to listen to because there's like pretty glick graphic
descriptions of like sexual abuse control well not like they're
not describing the abuse, but what is going on is
controlling an abusive like if that makes sense, that's what
I meant, yeah, okay, And but they also describe like
physical abuse like hitting okay, okay, like lashes like things
like that. So I just hate descriptions of sexual abuse
the most. They as you want to throw up. It's
not like really describing that. But there is like coersion okay,
and like manipulation involved this, so like I mean it
kind of still is, but it's very of the time now,
well even it's from twenty twenty two. I was like,
when does this come out? What do you mean of
the time, because it's like the cold is like a
like a trad uh, like a group of men who
wants to bring back like traditional values and you know
what I mean, that kind of shit. So that's what
I meant. Okay, But it was good. I recommend it.
I read it for on five stars. Okay, And let's
see what else. The one I recently finished and I
really liked it was Where They Last Saw Her, And
this one is about missing and murdered Indigenous women. Oh
where they last saw her. Yeah by Marcy R. Randon.
So here's that description. Quill has lived on the Red
Pine Reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what
happens to women who look like her, just a girl.
When Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge and she
ran for help, Quill realizes now that she's never stopped running.
As she trains for the Boston Marathon. Early one morning,
out in the woods, she hears a scream. When she
returns to search the area, all she finds are tire
tracks and a single beaded et ring. Things are different
now for Quill than when she was a lonely girl.
Her friend's Punk. The only thing that bothered me was
a friend's name, Punk. I'm like, that's a dumbass nickname.
But what I don't like a dumb name? I know,
I don't I hate that. Yeah, you're right. Her friends
Punk and Galen are two women who don't know what
it means to quit her loving husband Crow, and they're
beautiful and challenge her to be better every day. So
when she hears the second woman has been stolen, she's
determined to do something about it, starting with investigating the
group of men working in the pipeline construction just north
of their homes. As Quill closes in on the truth
about the missing woman, someone else disappears in request to
find justice for all of the women of the reservation,
Oh my God, reservation. She's confronted with the hard truths
of their home and the people who purport to serve them.
When will she stop losing neighbors, friends, family, As Quill
puts everything on the line to make a difference, The
novel asks searing questions about Bisundric culture, the averbations of
even one act of crime, and the long lasting trauma
of being considered invisible. So I really liked it, But
some reviews I saw, I said it was a little
like have you heard what people say authors should show
not tell? Yeah, And people were like, she was telling
not showing. But I didn't mind it. I don't know
if it's different reading it than listen to it, but
I didn't mind it. And then people were complaining about
the main character and making dumb ass choices. But she's
stressed out, she's trying to figure out what's going on,
Like she's not thinking straight, she's just thinking like she
has justice on her mind, that's on her mind, So
to me, it makes sense the way that she acted,
you know what I mean? But people hate us main
characters like make dumb choices that I'm like, people make
dumb choices all the time, Like, have you never made
a dumb choice? Do you think your perfect way?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: I will be the one making the dumb choice? Yeah? Yeah,
ten out of ten times, it'll So it was really good.
And I finished Hurricane Season. But you've already talked about that, right,
I think it was recommendation, yeah, that she will leave
you emptiest. I felt more dead inside than I've ever felt.
I was not kidding when I said that, you weren't
if you want to be, that's just going to fucking
destroy you and leave you like a fucking hole and
like you're just you've been consumed by a dark hole
and there's just no hole. Bless for humanity and everyone's terrible,
No one will ever be a good person ever again.
Read that book? Yeah, Hurricane Season and then listen to
it and finished, and apparently there's a movie too. I'm like, Okay,
should I listen to the audiobook or should I watch
a movie? But I don't know if I can watch
a movie. I can't. I don't. I haven't checked it out.
I might, I don't know. You know what's insane to
me when people are like, wow, Heurocane Sea thing was
mid When someone recommends it as like a really intense
book and I'm like, you guys are just psychos. I'm like,
what are they reading? What is going on in their
mind that they think this was mid psychos? Yes? Yeah,
the writing style is very different, like it's I'm getting
used to It kind of annoyed me a little bit,
but then the end, like I couldn't stop reading it
and I waited it first, yeah, before reading it, and
I didn't experienced that at all. I was just like whatever,
five out of five. But it's hard to say. It's
hard to say I enjoyed reading it. Did I enjoy it?
It was a visceral type of fields. It was the
reason I feel like I read it five at five
is because it wasn't all consuming yeah feeling, That's exactly
what I was say. Yeah, it's enjoyable. I feeled a
lot of things, yes, yeah. Yeah. So I wouldn't recommend
it to just anyone. I think if you're wanting to
everything yeah, if you want to if you want to
feel despair, yeah exactly. Yeah, if you just want to
feel something, if you've been feeling dead insided, you want
to feel worse, yeah, this is the book to read,
but worse in a good way where you're like, wow,
I feel nothing but despair. No, no, but we talked
about that book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, done. Oh wait, well
might I have I'm so sorry, God, but I'm sorry, sorry,
I have one more recogntion. I thought stump anyway. So
it was in the Patron episode I mentioned that I
found out that Grady Hendrix has a podcast about vampires,
and so I listened to the first episode and it
was very campy but very entertaining. Okay, that's what we love.
It was like reading one of his books. Honestly, that's awesome.
In case anyone's interested, it's super scary haunted homeschool. Okay,
well I need to still listen to it, and that's it.
I'm done. Okay, finally my turn. All right, this isn't
a long episode. I'm sorry, no, no, no, it's like I
meant it in a good way. I read the I
listened to it. That's how I read. That's what I
mean when I say I read, I listened to it.
I read The Indifferent Stars above, the harrowing saga of
a dinner party bride, because let me tell you, yeah,
a woman in the door party. I didn't know a
bride in the Donner Party, of course. Okay, I get
it now, okay, okay. Well, I was reading a horror
book that's like, uh, historical fiction horror on this Donnor Party.
But the book I was like halfway through it, and
I was like, and you know, I am not one
to just not finish a book. I usually finish them
mm hmm. But man, nothing was happening. I don't remember
telling the book nothing was happening. It was fucking boring.
I was like, does this go anywhere? Like what is happening?
And I looked up reviews and everyone's like, this book
is so boring. If you really want to feel like horrified,
just read a true account, a nonfiction book about the
Donner Party. And this is the best one, The Indifferent
Stars above, And yeah, it's because the stars looking a
buck about what's happening to you, Like, this book does
not shy away from describing what the Donner Party went through,
and that was fucking insane. Just listening to it. I
was like, I was like, I'm gonna throw up. Let
me read the synopsis. The different stars above traces the
step of Sarah Graves, a young bride who left her
home in Illinois in the spring of eighteen forty six
banked for California. Along the way, she and her husband
become members of the notorious and ill fated Donner Party
and ran into a world of trouble. And a world
of trouble isn't even like a proper description. They ran
into like hell, like literally like oh hell. And the
book literally is like then they all started dying one
by one. They all had to started bantering each other.
I mean, and I think we all know by now
about the Donner Party, but they had to start eating
each other to survive. Yeah, and the book is like
they had to cook so and so was Infantelia. I
was just like, oh my god, wow. And it's like
it doesn't it just it tells. It tells you what happened.
It tells you what happened, And that's more horrifying than
any horror fiction on the Donner Party. The literal truth story.
I think I know the book that you mentioned, because
when I was looking through like what it's liking through,
I think I was on one of the subreddits from
one of the book subreddits, and then somebody was complaining
about the book you were talking about, and then they
recommended the one you listen to. Okay, And honestly, if
you like, I think everyone has that experience with that
book that you're talking about. Honestly, I think so, So
don't read whatever. The first one I'm talking about is
I don't know the name of it, but don't get
ready forgot So that's why I'm saying the one you
were talking about go straight to the indifferent stars above. Insane,
horrifying but true but true. It really happened. And it's
also just like written really well, because you know, some
nonfiction books are like dry and you're like, I want
to know this, but do I really want to know this?
And this was written beautifully and it's such a horrifying story,
but like there's so much I didn't know, Like there
was two Indigenous people that were paid to leave the
Darner Party and I learned that on the year Wrong
About episode Yes, uh huh, and I actually wanted to
look into it. And I'm just like, I feel like
I can never do this justice if I wanted to
cover it, and so I haven't. Yeah, but I wanted
to look into these men because I think one of
them was last night, like they were there Spanish. One
of them had a Spanish name, but he's an indigenous person, right,
And yeah, it's just there. It's a story and it
follows Sarah Graves, which is one of the members. But
man like harrowing heroin, I don't know how you pronounced
that shit horrifying truly, So yeah, that was my speaking recommendation.
We've reached the end of the episode finally. Sorry a
long one. She was a long one. And again, just
a reminder if you want to help us one helped
me keep the lights on by helping me pay myself
to do this job, but also help us gift to charity,
then check out the Patreon we post bonus episodes. We
just did as long as when talking about Vampire Media
and Fred on Patreon was like, you guys didn't even
mentioned Little Vampire God. I forgot about that. Yeah I did,
Fred was right, I did. Yeah, that's probably what kicked
off my love of vampires. I loved that movie and
I loved that little Kid when we were the same
age with me. I love watching I just some people,
some people to get too far and they're like, oh
my god, like when I'm watching the g or when
I'm I'm on the digresses have Reddit and you're like,
do you guys realized you're adults talking about children? And
they're like, no, we're adults who were that age and
these people are the same age, Like stop being weird.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, anyway, yeah, little a Little Vmpire was great, and
so yeah, we spent almost two hours talking about vampire media,
all vampire media, books, shows, movies. We yapped for a
long time about that. Yeah, and then we also sometimes
read re read it stories to and react to them,
and when we're together, vlogs. Our last one was a
number of blog that was a while ago. And what else?
What else? If you joined the Highest here you get
a one time keychain and I love those key chains.
They're huge and like soft, so those are cool. And
then our current book club book we finished it, The
Witches of Apasso. We sent out the discussion questions answer
the answer you want. I like reading them, but you
don't have to answer that it's fine, but again we
like reading them and we will record that probably next week, honestly. Yeah,
now this brings us to the end of the episode. Okay,
I don't think we have any more new announcements. No,
all right, stay at Spookie. We'll catch everyone next time.
Buy My Book Tells 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
you aren't joying the podcast considerably, going to say five
star review, we would really appreciate it. If you don't
want to the five star review, just don't leave a review.
But don't leave anything lower than that, please, I'm just kidding.
You can reach out to the podcast at a spooktees
at gmail dot com. You can go to our website
at bookitos dot com and fill out the contact form.
If you want to support the podcast, you can join
our Patreon, where we send exclusive stickers, have bonus episodes.
Eight dollar members get an exclusive key chain. It's super cool.
I got new ones and these ones are huge. And
if you want to support but you can or don't
want to join the patreon that's fine too. You can
also get some merch. You can find shurets to say
a spooky and old English letters. There's a beanie. I
love the beanie. There's also a hat. There's a no
Mamus shirt, which is a fan favorite. There's a lot
of options, crap tops, sweaters. It's almost swetter weather. We're
nearing a spookie season, so yeah, get your hoodies. You're
gonna need them. If you don't want to do all that,
that's fine too. You can just listen like you're listening now,
and that's the best support that you can give us.
Like I always say in our ad break and yeah,
if you like history, you can follow Estodia's Unknown Mining,
Carmen's other podcasts, and you can find as Spooky tails
on all of our socials at Spooky Tells All. This
is in the show notes and we appreciate every single listen.
Thank you so much. Stay as Spooky