Speaker 1: When I was a teenager, I was living with my
mom and my little sister. She had me when she
was really young, and my dad didn't stick around after that,
so it was just us, which made ME want to
find a way to show how much we cared as
Mother's Day was coming up. The only problem was I
didn't have any money, so I couldn't exactly take her
out for a nice lunch or anything like that. All
I could think to do was spend the day at
a spot where the three of us could have fun together.
It was the San Joaquin River, which is close to
where we live in central California. I learned there was
a popular swimming area that only the locals really knew about,
so a few days before Mother's Day, we piled into
the car and drove out to the river, planning on
having a nice family day of swimming and sunbathing. When
we got there, I was expecting to see a lot
of other people, but it was actually pretty empty. I
thought it was weird since it was so close to
a holiday, but we had a large area of the
river to ourselves, so it turned out to be a
good thing. We all got changed. Then my mom set
up a chair to lounge on the river bank while
my sister and I got in to swim. We were
having a blast, splashing each other, racing, seeing who could
hold their breath underwater the longest, stuff like that. Eventually
I needed a great so I started swimming back to
the shore. My sister didn't come with me, though she
somehow still had energy to keep going while I was exhausted.
While I was climbing the rocks getting up to shore,
I could see my mom's sun bathing and basically passed
out on her lawn chair. It seemed like she was
relaxed and asleep. When I finally climbed up to the shore,
I went to dry myself off with the towel. I
was there for a few minutes when I heard something unusual.
It took me a second to realize that I was
hearing my little sister screaming for help. I stood up
and saw her in the middle of the river, way
farther downstream than earlier. The river had suddenly swelled up
and the current was racing now. She wasn't strong enough
to fight it. I knew I should have gotten off
that rock immediately and gone to help her, but I
just froze. I saw my mother sprint by in a blur,
but I didn't follow her. I just watched and did nothing.
My mother caught up to my sister on the river bank,
then jumped into the water after her. She swam so
fast and was at my sister within seconds, holding on
to her and trying to keep her head above the water.
She was able to, but I could tell she was
struggle and guess my sister was panicking. And I was
still one hundred feet away. When I saw them slowly
heading toward the shore. I finally kicked myself into action.
I ran as fast as I could to reach them,
but they were nearly at the shore when I caught up,
so I jumped into the shallow edge, holding my hands
out to help them out of the river. They reached
me in a few seconds, and my mother pushed my
sister off out of the water. Take her, got her,
You're okay now. I grabbed her and carried her over
to the land, But when I turned back, my mother
wasn't behind me. The current had quickened again in a
flash and dragged her out of the shallows and back
into the river. I jumped in after her, swimming as
fast as I could, but no matter how hard I tried,
I just couldn't catch up. The river was thrashing me around,
and I knew my mother had to already be exhausted.
The current had also picked up a ton of dirt,
making it impossible to see through the water, so before
I knew it, I couldn't even find her. Then I
realized I was in dail. I kept getting dragged under
as I was trying to catch my breath and ended
up swallowing water, almost inhaling it all into my lungs.
My instincts took over and I started swimming to shore
instead of towards my mother. I was barely able to
get out, but I managed to get to safety, collapsing
in the dirt. I dragged myself up and went back
to my sister. We caught our breath and looked out
over the water, but there was no sign of our mother.
When we weren't grasping for air anymore, we were sobbing.
Help came soon after, but by then she was long gone.
It started pouring rain as they started the search party,
making it even more difficult to find her. They had
to call off the search that night. It took until
the afternoon of the next day until she was found,
but it was far too late. Since then, nothing has
ever been the same for me and my sister. We're
living with our relatives now, but we can never sleep
like we used to. I wish I'd never even mentioned
that river. It should have been me who jumped into
the water to save my sister. This story was inspired
by a horrific Mother's Day incident. On May ninth, a
mother named Brenda Duran jumped into the San Joaquin River
in central California to rescue her drowning daughter. The mom
watched her children playing in the water of a popular beach,
but when her daughter could not keep her head above water,
Duran rushed into the river trying to save her, but
struggled to stay afloat due to the river's current swallowing
the mom. Her son then saw his mom in trouble
and jumped back into the river to try to grab her,
but he unfortunately could not get to her in time.
First responders, including rescue dive teams, spent hours in the water,
but visibility and safety concerns forced the search to be
paused around eleven pm. Police said Duran's remains were recovered
around five thirty pm on May eleventh. The river the
incident took place in is known for its teeming wildlife economy,
fuel tourism that includes paddling, swimming and fishing, and hydroelectric power.
Duran was just thirty years old.
Speaker 2: After I divorced my first wife, I met my current wife,
Hope in my thirties. We both already had children, so
I knew she would be an excellent mother to my kids.
I ended up adopting all her children as well, and
then we even had our own son together. That all
started when we were both still very young. But now
four decades have passed, all our kids have moved away,
and as we've gotten older, I've been burdened with declining health.
I'm always sick and can't move around for shit. However,
in what was clearly the final years of my life,
taking it upon herself to make me even more miserable,
she started distancing herself from me, basically ignoring me like
I didn't exist. During minor holidays like Mother's Day, she
would leave the house and disappear for hours. She admittedly
said that she was having an affair and that she
would rather have me out of her life. The feeling
was mutual, except I couldn't bring myself to divorce her
after being with her for so long, so I ended
up complacent and let her do whatever she wanted. But
recently something has been horribly disturbing. I can tell Hope
didn't want me alive. When I did simple things like
sit around watch TV or eight, she would stare daggers
at me from the corner. In fact, without any prompt
or context whatsoever, she would say, weird, disturbing shit like
I wish for Mother's Day you would go away forever.
She would then give me this evil smile, like she
was already making the preparations for a while. I've been
sleeping on the couch and the room. I never get
any privacy, and I'm often afraid to fall asleep as
our catch Hope staring at me in the darkness like
an evil witch.
Speaker 1: Go away.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to sleep, get out o here. I have
sleeping pills, but I'm trying to avoid taking them because
of her. I'm scared of not being alert to fend
for myself, just in case she tried to pull something.
When Mother's Day finally came, I expected hope to be
in a sour mood since I was still alive, But strangely,
it was quite the opposite. She had this giddy energy
about her all day. It was weird as hell. I
just went about my day like usual until it was
finally time to get back on the couch and try
to fall asleep. I didn't know I was in for
the most terrifying night of my life.
Speaker 1: Oh God, she's watching me sleep again.
Speaker 2: She's so creepy.
Speaker 1: What the hell is the man? If I pretend to
be asleep, maybe she'll go away. No, no, don't come
near me, you freak to leave me alone. Come on,
just go away. What do you want? Oh soety, it
looks like you're having trouble sleeping again. Sit up for
me so you can take your meds.
Speaker 3: I already took it.
Speaker 1: I'm fine.
Speaker 2: Back up, okay, fine, dear, comes the airplane.
Speaker 1: Coming in for a languid. Here you are, my dear.
Speaker 2: That's it to drink, drink and drink.
Speaker 1: God, what are you doing? Just take the glass already,
I'm tired.
Speaker 3: It was the night after Mother's Day. My mom called me,
crying hysterically. She told me through her tears that my
father had passed. I didn't know what to do, so
I just went over to the house, finding it sworn
by police.
Speaker 2: I didn't understand why.
Speaker 3: At first. All I wanted to do in that moment
was comfort my mother, grieve with my family, and bury
my father. Afterwards, I wanted to spend more time with
my mom, and that's when I noticed her strange behavior.
I asked her how it happened, but she just looked
right through me and said she couldn't tell me. Something
about it was just really off putting. Weeks later enough
people started saying the same thing that my mother was
all but admit taken out her husband. Not a person
who knew her hadn't had some weir encounter with her
basically admitting and saying what he did subliminally. Unfortunately, I
had to agree with everyone. I had to send my
own mother to prison.
Speaker 2: For this Mother's Day, we had to feature one of
the scariest mums to walk the face of the earth.
The moum we are talking about is a seventy one
year old woman named Hope Shriner. Hope was married to
our husband, Robert for over four three years. After making
it past the seven year reach surviving the empty nurse
syndrome and settling into retirement. It seemed as if the
couple had a long lasting, successful relationship, but their picture
book story ended the day Hope snapped and bludgeoned Robert
to his demise. Robert, who was hampered by mobility issues
from a near fatal car accident, battled numerous health problems
in his seventies. He lost a lung to cancer and
suffered chronic pneumonia and glaucoma, and it was during this
period Hope and Robert's relationship went downhill. Hope began an
affair with an the man named Donald Burrey seventy seven.
Hope dreamed of starting a new life with Beret, but
he would ultimately turn her down. On the afternoon of
the second of June two thousand and four, when Hope
called nine one one to say she had found her
husband bleeding in their driveway, emergency responders arrived and declared
Robert was a gonner. At the scene, the medical examiner
determined blunt force trauma was the cause of his passing.
It was also discovered that Robert had ingested a large
dose of sleeping aid in the days after her husband's passing,
Hope began saying disturbing things to her family and friends.
One friend expressed fear about the case being unsolved and
that a killer was running around their rural community, but
Hope whispered to her saying, don't worry, I did it.
When Hope's daughter asked how her adopted father passed, Hope said,
I can't tell you. Hope also told a neighbor, I
just snapped. I put sleeping pills in his coffee. Another
friend that volunteered with Hope at the library told investigators
that Hope told her I wanted to get rid of
my husband. Police later found evidence connecting to Robert's passing
in hope spasement. The day after Robert's funeral service, detectives
arrested Hope and charged her. Accordingly, Hope was eventually sentenced
to seventeen years to life in prison, becoming of a
month's oldest female inmate.
Speaker 1: This happened a few years ago on Mother's Day, and
it still haunts me till this day. I used to
live with my mom, who was a hard working woman.
She used to cook, clean and take care of me
and my siblings while working a part time job. When
I eventually got older and had a wife and kids
of my own, I moved out in a small bungalow house.
I didn't want to leave her to fend for herself,
so I ended up taking her in. My wife was
a bit hesitant at first, but eventually gave in to
the idea since the kids really liked her company. So
when it was eventually Mother's Day, I of course wanted
to celebrate not only my wife, but my mother as well.
We invited our cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, basically the
entire family. It was a perfect day, honestly. The kids
were outside playing in the front lawn while myself and
the other relatives did grown up stuff. It was around
the evening time when I got up to grab another
beer from the fridge. That's when I noticed an unfamiliar
car parked on the street in front of my house.
It was a dark sedan with tinted windows, just sitting
there idling. I then went out to the porch and
saw the kids playing on the lawn and my mom
at the edge of the yard facing the car. I
remember hearing her saying something like what do you won't
get the hell out of here. The car didn't move,
it just parked there. She then shouted again, saying, if
you don't get out of here, I'm calling the cops.
You got that. My mother was a very confrontation person
and didn't take shit from anyone and would call out
anyone on anything if she thought they were in the wrong.
That's just how she was. But something about yelling at
a random vehicle was alarming as hell. I didn't want
her causing any unnecessary drama in printing a target on
our house, so I called out to her, saying, Mom,
just ignore them and come inside. She ignored me and
continued me and mugging the vehicle. I figured it had
to either be some careen neighbors down the street that
were trying to file a noise complaint, or just a
group of teen troublemakers looking to get a kick out
of bothering an elderly lady. I tried to make out
who was inside the car, but it was hard to
see as the windows were tinted and it was getting
a bit late. I called out to my mom once
more to get inside and that the other adults were
waiting on her. Once again, she ignored me and continued
to have a stare down with the vehicle. I was
getting nervous as hell and got a bit closer so
I could see the plate number, just in case whoever
was in the car tried to pull something. As I
squinted my eyes to look at the front plate, I
realized that it was either removed or being covered. That's
when I knew something was horribly wrong. A million red
flags raced through my mind. I started freaking out and
yelled at my mom and the kids to immediately get
back in the house. The kids immediately started scrambling inside,
while my mom stood in the same spot, yelling at
the car and telling them she was going to call
the cops. I then started walking towards her, just so
I could pull her back into the house and away
from the vehicle. That's when the car suddenly rolled down,
their windows refilling two or three men wearing ski masks.
The one closest to the window then pulled out a
firearm and started waving it around.
Speaker 2: Happy Mothers Day, yelled fun, Today's gonna be your lucky day.
Speaker 1: He then smiled at me and my mom, and that's
when I yelled, saying, Mom, get inside. As I started
running back towards the house, and as I made it
to the porch, all I could hear was a loud
bang sound. All I could remember was ducking for cover
as my relatives inside the house started screaming in despair
and confusion, not knowing what the hell was going on.
The car then imediately drifted off. I then got up
and slowly turned my back to see where my mom was,
and there she was, laying lifelessly on the lawn. She
was still eerily still. I then ran to her, screaming mom, Mom, Mom,
over and over again, but there was no response. I
took off my shirt and used it to cover her wound.
As my relatives called the cops. An ambulance with a
few cruisers showed up, taking her to the hospital, but
it was too late. She was gone. The police went
searching for the suspects, but unfortunately they were unable to
be found. There wasn't much evidence that my family and
I could provide to the police. We had no camera footage,
no license plate, nothing other than just some males wearing
ski masks. After providing police with our testimonies, they concluded
that the whole thing was just a senseless motiveless crime,
just really some sickles in a car. The next few
months after that tragic Mother's Day weekend was a blur.
I couldn't sleep her eve, I was just numb. The
house felt empty, and the kids were understandably quiet and scared.
None of us wanted to step out of the house
and deal with the fact that we might see those
guys again. A few years after the incident, my family
and I moved out, but we couldn't deal with the
fact that those guys could still show up anytime, whether
it was a birthday, holiday, or Mother's Day again and
possibly target us for no apparent reason. This story was
inspired by a horrific incident regarding an Alabama grandmother who
was celebrating Mother's Day with her family when someone opened
fire on the outdoor party just after seven pm on Sunday,
May twelfth. Gloria Cruz, sixty four, was fatally struck issue
reportedly rushed children playing outside back into her house for safety.
She collapsed on her lawn cruise unfortunately did not make
it at the scene. Police are offering a one thousand
dollars cash reward to anyone who may have seen something
or know something and to come forward with any information
related to the suspect. Crew's daughter has set up a
GoFundMe to set up for funeral expenses. No arrests have
since been made, according to police, who say the case
is still under investigation.