The Murder of Teresita Basa | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this right here what you're listening to in your [ __ ] ear meat is
morbid [Music] it is morbid I'm unhinged Ash is on a space level but like I'm not fizzy fizzy
[ __ ] up I'm just fizzy fizzy [ __ ] up on life on life unhappiness on Vibes on
Vibes honestly on hydration yeah being Elena Elena and I um are drinking a lot of water yeah
we're trying to hydrate more we're manifesting our health and wellness yeah we drink a lot of coffee so we gotta
balance it out yeah I know I didn't even [ __ ] finish my coffee today whoa I didn't either and I ate a
scary I know I don't know what to say about that it was good no I mean I put a lot of dressing on it so it really
wasn't even a salad anymore but but you know what still got the nutrients in there ate the greens whether they were
soaked in Parmesan peppercorn or not that's the thing yeah if you want to eat a salad you know but you want a lot of
dressing I see a lot of girlies on Tick Tock being like no don't put the dressing on it because that will ruin
the purpose of eating satinum it doesn't ruin the purpose Greens in your belly yeah exactly and no
we're not nutritionists and no we're not any of those things and I realize that some of you are
woo I don't think it's fine to eat whatever you want everybody what you want you'll be fun we're not giving
Health advice don't worry we're not giving medical advice I'm not getting nutritional advice no I just like my
salads with a [ __ ] ton of dressing on them and I think if that makes you happy
you should do it too my my people I am a life coach I am that I just wanted to make sure
like we are not giving them that's not medical advice that's just like happiness
on your salad it's great but do it you have to do it if you want to live long [Laughter]
it's Friday it's Friday it's not when you're listening to this I think it's probably [ __ ] Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday you could it'll be like me four or five weeks in the future if you told me I'm gonna push you off a
cliff if you don't answer that correctly when this is coming out I could not answer you can I tell you
whoa can I tell you why I thought of you the other day why I saw do you ever see
those things on Instagram and it's like um like like if you invite this person to a party and they're late you win like
several million dollars who do you invite every single time it's like gun to your head and like you have to call
this person and they can't answer yeah or like anything like that I'm like oh Elena yeah me absolutely
yeah yes but honestly I am the answer to that question too yes like you're the answer to the first question and the
second I don't you well I feel like you're way better at answering I I wouldn't I don't think I would feel
comfortable calling you if it was they can't answer I feel like I don't know she might answer well it's just I'm like
a team you'd be like she will absolutely not answer no way she screens her [ __ ] calls when you do answer
my phone call it's jarring yeah I think it's jarring for everybody involved but I don't like phone calls so yeah but
you're reliable in a weird way I appreciate that I didn't want anyone to think that I was like full-blown
insulting you that's cool yeah it's what we do here it's what we do we just insult each other [ __ ] you [ __ ] I hate
you everybody's like what the [ __ ] is going on that's all right leave it all in yeah
we'll leave it in this is the truth mention it all I don't you know what it is we are you know
we're ahead of ourselves here so we're we're recording recording recording we're claiming our power back and we're
feeling all like whoa right now I have a unicorn ponytail she does so where else
where we are we are the scariest thing about this is I'm not kidding we are full-blown sober as a yes as a judge
shoes actually that's honestly shoes are always sold I was gonna say there's never a time where I have can say I've
seen or heard of a drunk shoe you have Mikey have you heard of a drunk shoe your shoe when you went to that oh my
God that she wasn't drunk she was just a [ __ ] yeah but she was broke she was yeah she was a broke [ __ ]
no honestly I was gonna say you could fix that shoe but no one could fix it no no one could we tried all over the place
I was gonna say it was like at an event where we had to like walk out on stage yeah but Elena had long pants on and I
was like just walk out yeah Barefoot and then just don't cross your legs when we
get out there and if I do I just feel like this is who I am I don't wear shoes but no she walked out there with a
broken heel it's true but going back to the point yeah what was it I've never seen a drunk shoe shoes are always
pretty sober yeah but judges I don't know they like them to be yeah they should be worse you know lay down the
law but but even when they go there yeah and even when they go out to dinner or like to a birthday party they're
they're a judge but like still they're but they're not just like they're getting crazy at birthday
parties no one knows what it means but it's provocative you ever been to a birthday party with a judge I have where
are we I don't know but we're gonna find our way back we're gonna go from here where we go from here is a pretty wild
tale it's also it's a sad tale because it involves like a really really cool lady who lost her life in a terrible way
but then she ends up solving her own murder oh [ __ ] from Beyond Beyond Beyond beyond beyond beyond this
is beyond so oh okay all right let me get a little so now we're gonna settle into this tale because this is a wild
one and I think this is what Dave like loved this one too we were this is just such a good like the in the end when it
all comes together you're like hell yeah because she like solved her own [ __ ] you
know that song that's on Tick Tock right now where it's like yes exactly it's gonna be like that
that's what it is it's happy in the end okay thank you for setting us up to know
that no problem just so you can like roll with me here because there's some really sad parts I'll roll with you but
this is the case of Teresita basa The Voice from beyond the grave and again like I said this is a case where a ghost
possibly pointed to her own murderer now let's talk about teracita because Teresita lived a pretty cool life she
seemed like a really cool lady very kind like just somebody who he wanted to be around Terracita Bassa was born on March
13 1929 in dumaget city Philippines and she was the only child of Pedro and Socorro Basa
so Teresita right off the bat was a very passionate child when she liked something she dove headfirst into it and
she took a lot of different interests a lot of different likings to different things like she was really well-rounded
but she really loved music and she loved gardening especially and her mother had
this beautiful and Lush Garden in the back of their home and she showed her everything she knew about taking care of
it and teresita's family was actually one of the wealthier on the island at the time Swanky and this afforded her
the tools at her disposal to learn the skills that she was interested in she was able to dive into music she was able
to take time to learn gardening and she wanted to learn piano at one point I really want to learn how to play piano I
love the piano yeah I want to dive back into the piano really bad so her family of course wanting to like nourish
whatever it is she was interested in they had imported a Steinway grand piano from Manila and she would sit around
this piano know and just play for hours and she would learn all the classical music like she was amazing at it and
when she wasn't learning to play classical music on the piano she would be sitting in front of their victrola
with a pile of 78 records absorbing all the latest songs that had made their way
to the Philippines I love picturing this right now right yes like it's just she sounds like a cool chick she really does
right from the get-go too she was just like music she was into [ __ ] yeah she sounds just like a fun time yeah just
sitting there listening to records and I'm sure it took a little while for certain songs to get to the Philippines
so like she was discovering them on a whole different wavelength like I didn't even think of that yeah that's cool that
is cool now when the Japanese Army invaded the Philippines in 1941 dumaget was used as a critical strategic point
and at this time her parents were kind of agonizing over whether they should leave all together or in flea into the
mountain regions to just avoid everything because many other people had done so and ultimately Pedro her father
was persuaded by those in authority to stay um because the local government was like
kind of on the verge of collapse and quote his counsel would be needed more than ever so he was a very influential
guy in the government okay wow um and the invasion was a profound influence on Teresita who was a teenager at the time
she had grown up and she was very used to learning English in the class classroom but was now against her
decision being learned and forced to learn Japanese in its place oh wow and she was comfortable learning English she
was now like thrown over to this other thing that she didn't choose right and at the same time this island paradise
that she had enjoyed as a child where you know she knew everybody it was like they were in this nice little routine
and you know like it was just easy easy living yeah thing it was now dramatically transformed and a lot of
Filipinos were forced into service work for the soldiers it was really bad there
was like a lot of bad stuff happening so very drastically different from when she
had grown up right she's a teenager yeah that's such an in like important time in
your life yeah and for like your home to be changed so dratically like that yeah
and that's I mean like everything is changing everything you like as a human every apartment now everything around
you is changing I can't imagine having to adapt to that so by 1947 the island had more or less kind of returned to
normal luckily but for Teresita it was a lot of like trauma and a lot of memories there was a lot of violence
there that had happened a lot of Oppression that had happened in ctsd going on yeah so she was like it just
wasn't the same so she made the decision to move to Manila and once there she studied music at Saint sclerosis I'm
going to try to say this I'm sorry at Saint scholastica's College I feel like you
did that right and eventually she became a very accomplished pianist and after her graduation she ended up
moving to London oh [ __ ] and continued her studies in music at the time at the
Royal College of Music in London nice now London was very different than where she had grown up she had grown up in a
tropical climate a very tight-knit Community sunlight do you like that she was very used to all that and it was
like a whole new world for Teresita London but she loved it she loved it and whenever she could get away from school
work she would love just exploring the city and she loved all the outdoor concerts that would happen and all the
different things that she could go to the museums all that fun stuff that is fun so after two years at the Royal
College of Music Teresita graduated with a certificate in piano Forte oh yeah and
she loved being in London she loved her time away she had a good time she met some people she did some things but she
was missing her friends and family in her home okay as we all do so she had hoped to return back home
just for a visit but instead she actually was convinced by her friends to go on a tour of Europe with them oh [ __ ]
and she did she ended up yeah she ended up visiting Vienna Salzburg Paris other places like all kinds of cool places
that's a dream of mine and it was in Paris that Teresita meant a rushing composer by the name of Alexander
cherepnan I looked up how to say that uh he definitely took a liking to Teresita but a liking in like a mentor
way oh okay yeah I was like am I going to regret my past statement and he was very impressed by how dedicated she was
to music her skills like just how varied she was in her musical talents and he really believed that she could become a
great composer if she continued her studies wow what a [ __ ] compliment I know right so cherepnan and his wife
actually both taught at DePaul University in Chicago oh funny that they met them in Paris I know and invited
Teresita to visit them anytime she was in Chicago so it sounds like this was like meant to be yeah so in the summer
of 1957 she was 28 years old and she ended up flying from the Philippines to Honolulu Hawaii
and from there she traveled a pretty short distance relatively I suppose to Bloomington Indiana yeah it's only like
a six hour flight yeah there you go Insider Insider uh and there is where she enrolled in the foreign exchange
exchange visitors program at an Indiana University during her time there she made a lot of
friends she really did well academically she had a good time but she didn't end up finishing her credits completely she
was actually just a handful of credits shy of completing her Graduate Studies and she ended up relocating to
Washington DC like out of nowhere all right and I think she was just like bebopping you know like she was just
hitting everything bebop-a-lupa baby so she relocated to Washington DC and that's where she took a job as a typist
with a family friend this family friend was working in the government because remember oh her parents are very
influential like they are doing stuff in the um in the Philippines and so this was
like a connection right and so she could do this typing job while also continuing
to study music at the Library of Congress oh yeah she's doing everything paraceta so
while she's working and studying in Washington DC she attended a diplomatic reception like fancy and there is where
she met Edward O'Meara who was a Chicago lobbyist and he took an immediate liking
to Teresita but in the Romantic sense and remember she's like a grown adult at this point yeah she's like and soon
after this first meeting they started dating and they started spending a ton of time together and then unfortunately
just as the relationship was kind of like taking off her visa was set to expire no and she was required to return
to the Philippines before she could apply for U.S citizenship oh God damn so in 1965 she was 36 at this point and she
returned home to her parents um and Edward actually came to visit a ton it came to the Philippines romance
but during his final trip to dumaget Pedro Bassa her father found something out about Edward Edward O'Meara of
course he did he works in the government of course he did cannot get anything past Pedro Pedro found out that Edward
had been frequenting one of the city's brothels oh [ __ ] and that ended Teresita and Edward's relationship
Mighty fast good and Pedro was essentially like uh I think it's time for you to leave bye and go home hit you
on the way out or actually maybe you should yeah so Teresita was devastated Yeah by this because one it's like she's
been duped and then now she can also never see him again yeah it's like not only has her relationship ended in this
awful way but now her dreams of returning to the US are kind of put on hold yeah and instead now she decided
she was just going to continue pursuing her passion for music she started teaching piano at silemon University and
she was trying to find happiness where she was in the Philippines and but no matter how hard she she tried she really
couldn't feel comfortable there I think she had dealt with a lot of the trauma that was still kind of like soaking into
the ground there with growing up and being a teenager through all that and so on top of that that uncomfortability
that she was feeling a little bit she just could never feel at home again it makes sense she was also feeling
humiliated because she had been basically duped by this slick American guy and like that was a that was the
talk around town she had been duped by this stupid American and even so she was excited because her
visa ended up being approved and she was like you know what I'm gonna shake this
up I don't need him no I don't need him to go to the United States so she was she was able to return to the United
States without that [ __ ] I was gonna say because there's plenty more for her in the United States of course that
loser so on December 7th 1971 42 year old Teresa Teresita basa returned to the United States okay and she had less than
400 in her pocket and a small amount of luggage and that's all she had to start a new life damn so with help from the
Philippines Consul Consulate in Chicago she was able to find an apartment on Mozart Street in the city's Northwest
side how fitting yeah right Mozart Street yeah and she decided she was going to complete her Graduate Studies
at Indiana University and in the meantime she would find more work as a typist during this time so she just went
back to what she knew now Edward O'Meara had really traumatized Teresita and she
was reluctant to even make new friends yeah because she didn't trust anyone exactly and she spent a lot of her time
just reading kind of exploring the city alone and she decided she loved the city
of Chicago and this is where she wanted to make her home now although she had hoped she'd be able
to continue her studies and find work as a piano teacher it didn't take long for her to figure
out that the job market for musicians was kind of small a little tough at the time the competition was fierce
and the schedule really wasn't great for her and she wasn't going to be able to make enough money to support herself in
the meantime so she enrolled as a student in the respiratory therapy program at the
central YMCA Community College in September of 1972 And in the late spring of 1974 she graduated from that that
program and she quickly found work as a therapist at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago good first so she's working as
like a respiratory therapist she's just like rolling with the punches she's a badass like she's like oh this won't
work I can just excel at this other thing and I'll just get a job here like she's just killing it yeah like nothing
can deter her yeah she's just like an independent lady she doesn't need anybody and she's going to figure out
how to make it work I love it so she working at Edgewater kind of opened up a whole new world of experiences for
Teresita her new salary meant that she could find a new apartment a little larger and this one could accommodate a
piano oh so in September of 1974 she moved into a big apartment and this was in the Pine Grove Apartments which was a
new apartment building across from Lincoln Park and she immediately began looking for a small piano
and now with her success in you know school and the new job and moving into this bigger
place she had some new confidence and she started kind of opening up to new friends yeah and she was like you know
what I'm working with some cool people I can hang out with these people not everybody sucks like Edward yeah it
started making her see that like I can be I can live my normal life so she became very close with Ruth Loeb who was
one of the hospital administrators she became one of her best friends and not long after moving into the apartment she
found a very a small but like very reasonably priced electric organ at a music shop nearby oh that's cool and she
had it put in her apartment now she she would play all the time and then she ended up forming a small music
group with her cousin and a few co-workers oh that must have been so much fun yeah like it's so cute and they
would cut and they called themselves the mahogany five plus one and they had five
Filipino members it was her cousin and a few co-workers and then a drummer who was like the only white guy that's why
they called themselves the mahogany five plus one that's incredible it's mahogany
five plus plus one so the name was like a funny play on that yeah and the band played like parties and events like
basically whenever they had time outside of work they would play at different things oh you yeah Teresita yeah and
with the new job an apartment and a really cool small group of friends the the likes the band's happening she
finally felt like her new life was like coming together she was feeling comfortable
but she still had a lot of feelings from that heartbreak oh yeah I mean of course
yeah she was still not ready to totally like give in to anybody romantically she
was not feeling dating yeah didn't want to get out there romantically yeah and um in the fall of 1975 she got a letter
from a former pen pal of hers Robert who was saying that he would be in Chicago for a convention and would like to take
her to dinner okay his name was Robert Kraus I believe uh Kraus had intended to take her on a date that was his
intention with this it wasn't like I want to take you to dinner as friends he was like I like you yeah and I want to
take you to dinner I kind of got that fight so he showed up at her apartment to pick her up and she had invited two
of her co-workers with her and the two co-workers said we kind of look out for her
so he was like all right it's like okie dokie dokie so unfortunately the fear of
getting romantically or emotionally involved with men especially would be something that you kind of have to deal
with her whole life she wasn't ready to move on from that yeah but fortunately Teresita never let it get to her and
never let it take away anything from her life good she was happy and she was fulfilled regardless so truly with the
exception of like the small amount of like introvert kind of like hiding awareness that she had when she first
arrived in Chicago she ended up loving spending time with friends she like loved any opportunity to throw a party
she was like a social gal my kind of girly so she really got over it I also love that she was like
you gotta go with my co-workers you know so you gotta get with my band so after what would be her eventual death because
obviously we know how this ends I know many people would say that although she was what they referred to as a straight
person meaning she didn't drink or use drugs yeah straight edge she always kept beer in good scotch whiskey on hand for
whenever she was entertaining for everyone else what if I can she's so cool like my girl now one of the biggest
and most memorable parties that Teresita ever threw was in the summer of 1976. her mother had come to Chicago for a
visit and Teresita was so excited to take her mom around the city show her all the things that had caused her to
just fall in love with that City and she also wanted her mom to meet all of her friends that she made you know and
especially her co-workers like Ruth Loeb and another new friend who she had been
spending time with at work named Alan showery so it was like a great time that's and I
love how close she was to her mom yeah like that her mom like taught her how to garden right they had that Bond and then
it's like she just couldn't wait to show her mom like the new city that she loved
that's really special now at about 3 P.M the evening the afternoon of February 21st 1977. Teresita Was preparing to
leave the hospital after a long day of work and she was putting on her coat getting ready to leave when her friend
Alan who I just mentioned Ellen showery I didn't like your face when you said Alan yeah he came into the room and they
just kind of chatted and they left together they were going to catch the bus together they would do that often
because the bus went by both their Apartments so they would just get on the bus together right now on the ride home
Teresita had mentioned to Alan that she was her television was all [ __ ] up and he was like oh I can come by tonight
and take a look at it and see if I can try to fix it I'm kind of Handy and she was like oh that's great and then they
kind of discussed the mahogany five plus ones upcoming show that they had and Teresita said that they might be losing
their drummer soon and so Alan was like I can play the drums like if you need someone to sit in like I can do that
minus one plus one exactly so Teresita was like oh you know what you can buy a ticket to see us at the show and then
you can decide if you really want to like be a part of it yeah and at the time Alan was like I can't really like I
don't have a lot of extra money so I can't really do it and before getting off at her stop she was like listen I'm
gonna set a ticket aside for you and you can come pick it up later what a sweetheart yeah
so once she'd settled in at home that that evening she called her friend who was also her bandmate Dr John Abella and
a little after 7 PM they were just chatting on the phone they discussed the upcoming show you know they talked about
ticket sales and how they were gonna Market it and Teresita had also said that her friend Alan who he also knew
yup might be taking could take over the drumming seat and he was like and she was like oh it
might be you know a good opportunity for you to hear him play if we can get you guys all together they talked for about
10 minutes and then Teresita apparently excused herself and said someone's knocking at the door and she told she
did tell him I was she was expecting company and she said someone who might buy a ticket to the concert okay so at
about 7 30 p.m she was Teresita got another call and she answered okay um and it was her friend and co-worker
Ruth Loeb and they just kind of chatted for about 20 minutes very casual chat just best friends you know besties
besties being besties yeah and Teresita mentioned that she quote had a male visitor and Ruth did hear a male in the
background just kind of chatting with nothing crazy but she didn't give Loeb a name and before ending the call okay
that was the last time that Loeb or anyone else would speak to Teresita Bassa oh so a little after 8 30 P.M
Catherine and Mario Nazi I believe it's how you say it they were cleaning up after dinner they lived on the 15th
floor in the Pine Grove Apartments where Teresita lived I know that's high up they were just cleaning up and they'd
you know not long after turning off the television they just kind of like settled in for the evening and Mario was
like what is that smell and he suddenly smelled burning oh no so they were like what the [ __ ] so they all they ran
around their apartment being like did anything burn or something left on right they couldn't find anything and Mario
opened the door in the hallway and was immediately overwhelmed with smoke that was like filling up the floor so he
screamed for his wife to run out with him and they started running down the hallway yelling fire and banging on
their neighbor's doors to try to get everybody out right and as they made their way to the elevator Mario got um
he got out of the elevator on the seventh floor to let the buildings janitor know his name was Pedro lulusa
okay he was like I'm sending my wife to the lobby but like there's a fire we gotta get everyone out yeah which like
badass you also shouldn't use the elevator in a fire right probably not no uh but Chicago firefighters had actually
made their way into the hallway at this point because the fire alarms started going off and they told the men please
leave immediately yeah and they had to crawl on their hands and knees like under the smoke it was really thick at
this point and this they were going through trying to make sure everybody was out of all the different rooms and
they entered Teresita boss's apartment and noticed that whatever the smoke was coming from it was coming from inside
this apartment her apartment and not only that but it was coming from the middle of her bedroom floor like right
next to the bed that's where it seems to be originating that's weird and it was still burning so they used axes and they
smashed all the windows the balcony door in her bedroom and they just were trying
to vent out all the smoke and they were able to put the fire out and I think they had to use like the fire hose into
handheld extinguishers so it was pretty big and once they had cleared it all the
fire Lieutenant Warren Wellen began investigating trying to figure out what the [ __ ] was going on here and he said
it looked like somebody had attempted to burn the mattress in that bedroom and there was a pile of clothes on the floor
and it looked like the mattress had been put on the pile of clothes and then lit
on fire weird but so he like kicked the smoldering pile and was like what the [ __ ] is under
here like what's going on and that's when he discovered the nude body of Teresita basa and he found a butcher
knife embedded to the wooden handle in the exact center of her chest oh my God yeah
it was Mayhem teresita's apartment appeared to have been completely ransacked they immediately thought that
this was a rape murder or perhaps a robbery gone wrong and they thought it was a rape because she was found nude
right of course um and with the clothing and mattresses piled on the body they thought it was basically
set Ablaze to get rid of any evidence the fire caused a ton of damage to teresita's body
she had burns on both sides of her body and head and little left of her jet black hair was found
now fortunately though the fire hadn't made its way through the heaviest part of the clothing pile so a lot of her
face torso and upper legs were spared from being burned that's good now fire Lieutenant Whalen radioed the police
because now they had found a body and it was clearly a murdered body right and so
they called in the body and detectives arrived at the scene pretty quickly now to the more seasoned detectives the
crime scene particularly especially the pile of clothes in the center of the floor
it made them think of William hirons who is the lipstick killer we haven't covered him yet that's actually on my
list to cover he murdered several women in the mid-1940s and he would leave piles of items at the crime scene as
like his signature Oh weird so immediately they were like whoa this is wild but hirons had been in prison
for decades I was just gonna say it was no longer the 40s so they were like but they were like is this a copycat like
what this just is a weird thing to do yeah so but they were like I don't know what this is but it's not good so from a
quick search of the apartment detectives were able to identify the victim from photos and you know personal papers and
stuff and they noted that there were three locks on the door and not one of them had been damaged or broken at all
like whoever the killer was it was likely that they were led into the apartment by Teresita there was no
struggle in that sense the bedroom though really looked like a robbery had occurred jewelry boxes were open and
flung on the floor they were overturned drawers were pulled out the contents of everything was strewn around the room it
was a mess and the living room was kind of in a similar state of disarray like plants
vases tables were flipped over two televisions were side by side in front of the sofa and next to them was her
organ I'm also like does she have a downstairs neighbor I know that's like what happened did somebody hear anything
now outside the bedroom they didn't really get a lot of evidence just like aside from the chaos out there the fire
but they did find a note it was on a memo pad by the phone and on it was written in teresita's handwriting get
tickets for as right Alan showery right so officers and they they saw that and where they were like we should collect
that I don't know who that is so officers started going door to door interviewing residents on each floor
just trying to learn something about her I haven't heard anything yeah about the
about anyone she knew and what they found was that she was very private yeah she was a private person she kind of
kept to herself when it came to her neighbors right um but the neighbor said she was very
pleasant I just don't know a lot about her and the best lead they could find came from the janitor Pedro
and he told detectives that he had seen Teresita arguing with someone in the lobby a few weeks earlier he said he was
a white guy about 50 years old and he seemed like he'd been drinking that's weird and he said unfortunately he
couldn't really hear what they were arguing about because he's like I really shouldn't be listening to people's
conversations like I wasn't trying to we're in the city here yeah like I'm gonna leave that alone but he said he
hadn't seen the man before this and he hadn't seen him since teresita's neighbor across the hall
Bruce Campbell which I was like Wow Bruce Campbell Evil Dead um you're like not picking up what you're
putting down um so Bruce Campbell her you know neighbor from across the hall yeah he
said he had seen her with a man as well and she never told him the man's name and she didn't hear it she never
introduced him or anything but Campbell was like fairly certain that the man was
a sheet metal worker she he remembers her saying something about that okay now Catherine Nazi who was the one who had
helped alert everybody about the fire she gave investigators another lead she said she didn't know too much about
Teresita personally but she did recall hearing from another neighbor a few weeks earlier that Teresita had been
attacked or raped or something like that what according to Catherine Teresita apparently had been standing at the door
trying to get her key into the lock and a man in a ski mask grabbed her and attacked her
what but she didn't have any more information about that so they asked the building manager Joyce kaltman and Joyce
kaltzman remembered another incident in September of 1974 where they had to have
the locks changed after someone broke into teresita's apartment and stole some things what yeah what are you telling me
right now I'm not sure that's the thing like no one had any real information and
that was what they told them but all that's so Sinister so two separate instances where somebody broke in and um
one of those instances she was raped well they said she the way she said it was that she had been attacked or raped
or something like that what we learned is she was not raped okay she might have been attacked though yeah I mean Jesus
yeah now the case was assigned to 40 year old homicide detective Joseph stahula he was on the force for like a decade or
more definitely had already made a name for himself as like the guy who gets [ __ ] done like he's not gonna quit
stahula he's not gonna go anywhere and so initially he like everyone else believed this was a rape murder arson
robbery kind of thing making it very high profile you would say so once the scene had been secured stahula and his
partner Lee Burley eplin obsessed uh they headed to the apartments to kind of look over the scene
it was basically how they had been told it would be like very little leads to go
on right off the bat but in the kitchen stahula found a cutting board out on the
counter and there was some lettuce and half a tomato and next to that was a small piece of meat still wrapped in
butcher's paper okay and now the only thing that was very absent from this scene in the kitchen was a knife that
had been used to cut the vegetables and he assumed and was correct that it was the knife that was found protruding from
teresita's chest so she had been cooking with it earlier yeah now other than that
the detectives discovered some you know personal papers they found her dress book with a lot of names and thirty
dollars in cash um and that that address book had the names and numbers for like everyone she
knew so they were like jackpot now as stahula and Aplin made their way through this address book they were calling
people trying to get anything they could they finally came across the numbers of
Rey King and Richard pizzodi okay they were two men who had accompanied Teresita out to dinner with Robert
Krauss a few years earlier they were the two co-workers that were like we kind of
look out for her oh [ __ ] they were the ones that she brought to dinner with the
guy who wanted to take her out so these are good guys yeah and these two men confirmed they they came like and were
there for this they they confirmed that Teresita didn't have a boyfriend not to their knowledge
um but that she like hung out with men like I think they said she liked men for their company yeah but you they would
like no she wasn't romantically involved with anyone right um and they did say in the months before
her Murder She had like seen off and on this man named Robert Knudsen who was a construction worker in his early 50s who
knows if that was the guy that they had seen that the neighbors had seen her in the janitor and seen her arguing with um
they kind of a white guy in his 50s yeah right now the detective's next call was
to Ruth Loeb that was teresita's co-worker and closest friend yeah Ruth confirmed that she had spoken to
Teresita on the night of the murder and that the two had made plans to have lunch the following day I can't imagine
having that knowledge like that your friend you got off the phone who yeah and then they got murdered yeah like oh
my God and she had told her like I have someone like someone knocked out the door she's like I heard that person come
in right like oh and she told detectives that while she was on the phone with her she heard a
male voice that in the background and she said she couldn't make out what he was saying just that it was a male voice
and the best she could tell was that Teresita was you know in good spirits didn't seem to be in this man's company
against her will didn't seem to be like stressed out or anything very very normal conversation very normal attitude
and the information from Lou from Ruth confirmed the earlier suspicion that teresita's killer was likely known to
her and was let in voluntarily now going to the autopsy on the morning of February 22nd at the
morgue pathologist Dr Tai Anne began his autopsy of teresita's body uh while he was doing the autopsy
stahula and eplin Burley Upland there they were waiting in the corner just watching yep which Pathologists loved
that and among the more significant findings was that beneath the skin of her neck
which was totally charred the doctor did find bruising on her throat and a fractured larynx which indicated that at
some point before she died and was lit on fire strangled she'd been choked how did they find out if there's bruising if
it's charred skin because they're able to see like the where there's some like Gathering like pooled okay okay yeah
like underneath exactly oh I see um like because in the different layers yeah now
they determined that the cause of death was a stab wound lacerating the heart and strangulation
they also noted that teresita's body showed that she had not been sexually assaulted okay so the findings of the
autopsy pretty much completely undermined the theory that the detectives had been building since they
first got there I know she hadn't been raped she'd simply been undressed and made to look like she was raped to throw
the investigation off yeah so while stahula and eplin discuss the autopsy results with the Pathologists to other
detectives went to the home of Robert Knudsen the guy that she had gone to she had been seeing Austin on a little bit
um and the man he confirmed that he did know Teresita and that they've been on a
few dates but he said on the night of the murder he hadn't left his house except for a short trip to the grocery
store and they scheduled a polygraph test for him that day but apparently the officers let him take
a Valium before the test is that which would make the results inconclusive right but still his prints did not match
the second set that was found at the scene that they ended up finding I'm just picturing him like do you guys mind
if I take this Valium and they're like yeah that probably won't mess that up at all I think what so for months the
detectives poured over teresita's life that address book they talked to everyone she knew they chased down every
single little pulling thread that they could unfortunately while they initially would have these like promising leads
they would all fall apart they'd all get ruled out with an interview or a polygraph exam and by the spring all the
leads had dried up and they were running out of people to interview at this point
and in the summer after teresita's murder things at Edgewater hospital had kind of just returned to normalcy at
that point you know all the employees just had in the respiratory unit just had to go about their their lives that's
really sad because they all loved her a lot and yeah in a 39 year old inhalation
therapist at Edgewater named Remy Chua um she was working there she had hardly known Teresita they had literally I
think met each other at orientation when Remy was at orientation they had worked
different shifts like they did not hang out they didn't know each other very well they knew of each other okay
um I think they called each other a nodding acquaintanceship at best yeah and that I say this because it's strange
because Remy's husband and co-workers said that she became kind of preoccupied with teresita's life
overnight like out of nowhere one day in July Remy was sitting alone in the hospital's break room just all
alone and her co-workers are in the hallway and they see her almost jump out of her chair and tear out of the room
like something scared the [ __ ] out of her and when they looked to see what she
had run from there was nothing there yeah there was and so whatever it was it scared the [ __ ] out of her so badly that
she went home she wouldn't finish her shift okay and so Remy didn't say anything at the time but later she told
her husband Dr Jose Chua that she said she was sitting alone in the break room and she just kind of briefly closed her
eyes like kind of just like resting a little bit and then she opened them and looked up and saw Teresita basa standing
in front of her not moving or speaking just staring at her what the [ __ ] and she said she jumped up and ran the [ __ ]
out of there and she had become obsessed with her life before this happened yes okay like she kind of become like very
into what had happened and very into like her and asking people like you know like did you and it wasn't like she was
asking people like what did she like what was she into kind of thing she was almost telling people facts about her
that people were like how do you know that oh that's like why do you know that like
you don't know her yeah and she was like yeah I'm not really sure because I don't
know her so it sounds like she's an empath now in the days that followed teresita's appearance to Remy co-workers
remembered that Remy's personality shifted a lot after this they started noticing that she was very chatty when
she wasn't very chatty before and she would just quote chatter on about the piano about classical music playing or
partying like throwing parties all the things that Teresita was into so she was possessed and teresita's co-workers were
like this is disturbing like they had all been very close to Teresita probably like pissed them off well and it seemed
like this woman was doing a strange impression of her almost yeah so they all actually ended up reporting it to
Remy supervisor Ted Ellis and being like she's being weird and but now Remy was feeling ganged up on and kind of
harassed by her co-workers and who were like what the [ __ ] dude stop pretending
to be Teresita so she ended up reporting to Alice that she believed that had become her own hostile work environment
when Ellis tried to de-escalate this whole situation they're just like what is going on he's like what but he was
just making Remy angrier when he was trying to de-escalate it she was like I'm not doing anything like I don't
understand she ended up being terminated that day for gross insubordination oh man so
it was it was rough like obviously getting terminated out of nowhere but it was kind of a relief for Remy because
she said she was very confused and anxious at work like something was different and she wasn't feeling
comfortable there and she said you know like people making comments about the Teresita thing and like claiming that
she was impersonating this woman that she hardly knew like it was just getting weird there so she said like she was
kind of relieved that she was like out of there because she felt like something some weird energy okay and I'm sitting
here like what the [ __ ] is going on that evening as she and her husband Dr Jose
uh Chua were relaxing in their living room and she's just kind of like [ __ ] I got fired Remy kind of drifted off to
sleep in a chair and then a few minutes later she stood up very abruptly didn't say anything to her husband and just
walked into the bedroom that wasn't like her yeah and when she didn't come back a
few minutes later like just stayed in the bedroom Jose was like okay I'm gonna check on her so he went in there and
checked and she was lying on the bed with her eyes wide open and so he was like hey what's wrong you
okay but she wouldn't say anything so he was like what the [ __ ] like are you okay
and then she started speaking in toggle Tagalog I believe is how you say it which is um like their native language
and she was saying Mama Mama are you there mama what and Jose was very confused and he
was like what the [ __ ] because the chew is also they came from the Philippines
and they spoke to gallagh at home when you just said that they also came through the Philippi from the
Philippines my whole body did the wall yeah like they're like oh I have I'm covered in chills because this is the
language they spoke at home yeah and this is the language that Teresita would also know uh-huh and he said the voice
coming from his wife was not like her normal speaking voice so he said she was speaking a language I
understood that we speak at home but not in her this was not her voice and then he said to Jose's ear it sounded like
there was a slight Spanish accent here and then he said Remy had her eyes fixed on the ceiling and she said I am
Teresita basa holy [ __ ] and Dr chuo was like oh [ __ ] and he was like I was very
alarmed and she kept rambling on in this language about the dead woman whom she barely knew and he tried to get her to
snap out of it and just explain what the [ __ ] was going on and then she looked at
him and said Dr Chua I would like to ask for your help and he was like why are you calling me doctor like I am your
husband and he said so he was like what kind of help yeah and she responded to stop the person who killed me
and he was like what stops stop now stop in this moment holy [ __ ] [ __ ] Jose was like okay this has
been a tough week for Remy my wife she's having she's gone through some [ __ ] she
saw who she thought was Terracita Bossa in the break room people have been shitty to her she kind of got ganged up
on she was like fired from work maybe she's just really stressed and under a lot of anxiety and this is like some
kind of hallucination or like she's having a bad dream she's like maybe having a night terror right now so he
started walking towards the bathroom because he was gonna get something like a cool cloth to like calm her yeah and
like he sounds so sweet he does sound like a sweetie yeah Drew would be like I have to leave a meeting right and this
is and Jose Dr Chu is like I'm gonna take care of you like I'm gonna get you something to calm you down I promise you
drew would be running down the [ __ ] Street at this point and he said as he was walking towards the bathroom she
lifted her arm and gestured to the telephone and said call the the police please doctor call the police and tell
them who killed me I cannot rest until they know and Jose was kind of starting to panic
at this point because he's like I can't call the police right now and he was like I don't know what to tell them I
don't know what you're saying like I don't know what's happening right now and then Remy suddenly abruptly came to
and was very confused why she was in bed and what the [ __ ] was wrong with her husband why he was so alarmed this is
real this happened this happened and he explained to her what happened he was like um this is what just happened
and she was like what like I have no idea what you're talking about oh my God she must have been so scared and he must
have been so scared and they're like what like they had not nothing like this had happened to them before and usually
it doesn't in your life it's not like these people are people that are like trying to do this all the time like this
was a very random thing in the next day Jose had driven his wife to Edgewater to
get her belongings from work and they you know they came back they were in the living room and Remy was talking on the
phone and suddenly she hands him the phone abruptly and says Teresita wants to come back nope nope nope oh my God
what and then she walked out of the room in the middle of a phone call she literally stopped handed him the phone
said Teresita wants to come back and walked into the bedroom and so Jose was like I'm sorry my wife
has to call you back and ended the phone call and followed her into the bedroom and she was laying just as she was the
day before on the bed interesting that like she kept going back to her bedroom to lay in the middle of her bed yep what
and again she said I am Teresita basa I feel like I believe you and she said she
was murdered by a man named Alan showery yeah I already knew that and she said and she spouted this to him she said he
came to fix my television he stabbed me he choked me and he stole some of my jewelry
and she said and then she just urgently requested him please go to the police please go to the police with this and
she was he was so confused and he was like I can't go to the police I don't have any proof of this like I can't call
them and say that you are just like telling me this ghost of this woman yeah he's like I can't tell them that you're
telling me this beyond the grave like they will think he was like the whole thing I'm losing it right I will get in
trouble right and the voice just kept pleading for him to help and insisting that they could provide proof
and then they provided proof tell me right now they explained every piece of jewelry that he had stolen
and they said there was a ring that my mother had given me it was like another piece of uh and I'll explain those in a
little bit but that ring that her mother had given her a year before also sorry didn't he work at the
hospital with her yeah so this [ __ ] like do Remy and um doctor and they know him yeah what yep now as they provided
this proof of this is what he took from me Remy came too and was again completely confused what just happened
and this happened again the following day the exact same thing over and over with the voice saying I know like please
call please provide this proof please tell them that this is what's happening so Remy was like when she came to and he
told her again that this is you keep doing this this is the third day yeah Remy was like we gotta do something it's
just gonna keep happening otherwise Remy called a friend and told the friend the
story and this friend who I guess was collect connected to the consulate they placed a call to the Evanston Police and
using their connections were like this is what I've heard is happening right they didn't give him the full rundown I
guess but they didn't give them the rundown from the great the whole thing so the tip about the chuas was assigned
to detective Floyd McKinney at the Evanston Police okay um and he drove to the chew his home to
interview them this is absolutely wild so they were worried that the detective was not going to take the story of
teresita's spirit possessing Remy's body and telling them I feel like most people
really well that way now remember if they were looking to get something out of this and they were looking to like
get attention they would have just said it yeah they would have been like wow she got possessed like this would have
been like that thing no they didn't know they just told McKinney that Remy had received a threatening phone call from a
former co-worker Alan showery and that she believed that he could have played part in teresita's Murder because of how
aggressive he was and that he had mentioned something that made her think guys this is wild so they were like we
have to get Alan's name out there because Teresita is telling us yeah but we can't tell that Teresita told us this
because then they so they made up a story right which it's like why would they have done that no they would have
just said it if they were trying to get attention oh my God I like losing it so there's no actual evidence to support
this at the moment and McKinney the detective just kind of took the statement left the house like I'll write
it down I guess yeah he was like wow that's wild and back at the station he reported it to his supervisor like you
know they have this name they got a threatening phone call they think it could be connected so his supervisor was
like and pass this on to Chicago where the jurisdiction is so you know they would have to be the ones to conduct
this so they did so detective McKinney and Evanston was the one who received the tip okay and they hadn't had any
leads in the case since the end of April so he was like awesome like well we'll just go with this and he was not aware
of all the specifics obviously he got that he got that story from it yeah but he explained to the people in Chicago
that he had received a tip from this couple in Evanston about a man named Alan showery being involved possibly in
the basa murder and it was stahula obviously who heard this tip and he got the tip and he placed a call to the
chuas the next day okay so now this is tahula in Chicago who's now having the contact the chuas where did sorry where
did the chiwas live they lived in Evanston oh which is just another jurisdiction that's why they had to like
I see um and apparently they had lived about a half a half hour outside of Chicago so
stahula had to go you know to their address he had to go sit down and talk to them and he was like what do you guys
know right now at first they stayed with the story they heard they received a harassing phone call from a man that
Remy believed was Alan showery yeah and she explained that showery worked as what she thought was an orderly at
Edgewater she was like I'm not really sure what he does there's different reports that he was an orderly or he was
in a like a respiratory therapist okay but she said he likes to pretend he's a doctor
he even gets mail addressed to Dr showery that's something something about the story seemed a little strange to
stahula he just had like his revealing yeah his radar but he senses are tingling yeah yeah and he said the
chewers were being a little cagey and they seemed a little reluctant to talk uh-huh which he thought was weird right
and he was like this seems kind of just like a prank phone call like I don't know about this and he said every time
that showery's name was brought up he could see Jose tense up and become uncomfortable really so he was like
what's going on and he kind of pressed on them a little bit and was like what what do you know like what's happening
here and finally Jose leaned towards him and said tell me Mr detective do you believe in the occult or an exorcism
and so he was like I'm open-minded okay and so I think she was explained the events of the previous week the real
events they told the detective Jose had asked the Voice who killed Teresita and she
had said Alan showery and he said she kept repeating his name over and over and over and Joseph said or excuse me
Jose said he said he killed me he killed me he killed me over and over and over then he added credibility to the story
because Jose explained that the voice had said that showery had taken her jewelry and so shua said okay and he was
like so he didn't even give him the specifics of that yet he was like he took his her jewelry and he was like all
right we don't know that yet because people said they didn't think anything was missing from the scene right but he
then he was like I'm going to test this so he goes did the voice indicate to you
that her killer raped her and Jose said oh no no she did not she only said that she had been stabbed oh
wow and Jose also then right after this went into the description of the jewelry
and said that it was a pendant from the Philippines that was taken a cocktail ring with a pearl inlay given to
Teresita by her mother a couple of years earlier and also that the I guess that the voice insisted that this was going
to be how they would know the truth like I guess the voice was literally like you
tell the police this they are going to find these things in showery's possession yeah I promise you this
so he was like [ __ ] this is pretty wild but like how are we gonna get a search
warrant that's the thing like this this this whatever and he was like okay it's weird because in the Press they had said
this was possibly a rape murder robbery it was not in the press that she had not
been sexually assaulted so that was a a strange one and when he went back to the
stations tahula considered the whole thing he didn't know what to make of it and like I said no one had reported that
any jewelry was missing from teresita's apartment and he said they had interviewed most but not all of the
co-workers that she worked with and Nev no one ever really talked about a man named Alan showery
and then he's flipping through the case File and he comes across the memo pad next to the to the tele that was next to
the um telephone Yelp and it said on that memo pad get tickets for as and he was like huh Alan showery the fact that
she was gonna get him get him free tickets and this is what he [ __ ] did to her yeah now fortunately it turned
out that whoever received the call from the Evanston Police earlier in the day like to take that tip and pass it on to
the detectives they had already run shower's name for them which I was like badass yeah like ahead of things so they
had already pulled his full report his full case file for stahula so he was like yeah you're an MVP you're the real
one Alan showery was 30 years old when he started working at the edgewaters hospital yeah he was born and raised in
New York City he'd studied sociology and psychology at New York University and Utah State wow before settling in
Chicago around 1969. so like I said there's varying reports whether what his job at the hospital was
but he did work with Teresita yeah alongside her right um they didn't seem like they would be
likely friends because on paper they are very different yeah he had an arrest record that was like very long but she
probably didn't know that um that included arrests for burglary in 1967 stolen mail in 1966 theft in 1971.
two arrests for rape in 1972. what was he doing working at a hospital yep and both of those rapes were done on
Chicago's north side where Teresita lived all right now they were but they were both friendly with each other they
had very outgoing personalities the two of them they bonded together they both loved music he was about to be in her
band I guess they really got along like the two of them were like friends yeah it sounded like it they used to ride the
bus together in the mid-1970s he had been living with his german-born girlfriend Janka kalmak
um she he they lived on the city's north side which was opposite the Chicago Transit Authority okay so investigators
were like he was not outwardly obviously a guy that would have rape or murder on
his rap sheet they said he was the sort of person that like you could easily come to like he had a face that
projected I want to be your friend that's scary and it took some time to actually track him down
but once they got him at his apartment and knocked on the door he seemed perfectly fine with going down to these
stations and talking to the detectives and before they'd even arrived at the station he asked if whatever they wanted
to talk about had to do with Teresita Basa they didn't respond they just brought
him into the interrogation room and immediately read him his rights and the detectives explained that they'd been
speaking with a lot of his co-workers at the hospital and there were some things
that were said that kind of LED them to want to talk to Alan that's what they let out yeah they didn't say that
Teresita told us you did it I hope he did find that out eventually Terrace is so showery claimed that he and teresito
were very good friends but he said it was platonic he explained they would talk during work they would ride the bus
home together they ate lunch together it was a very normal co-worker friendship wow now initially he said that he hadn't
seen Teresita outside of work for about six months but the detectives decided to Bluff a
little and they told them that they'd found his fingerprints at the apartment they had not yeah and he said there was
no way that those were six months old so he was like okay and then he revised his story uh oh
and that's when he told the detectives that not only had he not not seen her in six months out of sight of work he had
ridden the bus home with Teresita on the day that she was murdered right like that's gonna look a little weird dude
yeah and he told them he'd promise to go to her apartment later that night to fix
her television but he said he'd forgotten and instead had gone home and he had fixed wiring in his own apartment
and he assured them that his girlfriend would verify this all by I bet she would
now they were like huh okay and they were like you have a girlfriend I wonder if she has new jewelry
so they said I wouldn't have even thought of that yep and now that they have brought him in for questioning they
could now search his apartment so they went and Janko was there so they could question
her and when they told her about The Alibi she was very confused and said we don't have any problems with the wiring
in here he never did any work on it she was just like [ __ ] that no he didn't and so they were like can we look in
your jewelry box and she was like absolutely you can good for her and they didn't really know what they were like
looking for quite yet but they you know they were just like I don't know at this
point they were like maybe you can hear me it's not and they eventually they were able to find someone like one of
her friends who could actually look in the jewelry box too and point to see if anything was recognizable one of
teresita's friends exactly and so they found um who they found was Richard pizzodi
who was one of the two men that went on and uh he said he didn't see anything that he believed belonged to Teresita
and they had him come down where Yanko was and look into this thing and he was like yeah I don't see anything that's
hers and then he was leaving the room and he looked over at Yanka and he said that ring on her finger is teresitas
yeah Yanka told detectives that Allen had given her the ring as a belated Christmas gift sometime around the end
of February sorry what the actual thought so she said here you go take it and it was later identified by
teresita's cousin to be the cocktail ring given to her by her mother oh my God that's disgusting but he gave that
to his girlfriend as a late Christmas gift yep and the cousin also looked and was able
to look in the box and identified a jade pendant that was teresita's and I remember her
Remy had said there's a jade pen there's a pendant she said she said a pendant a
ring and a cocktail ring that belongs to in a cocktail ring that belongs to my mother yeah that was my mother right
right right and he said the cousin said there was also two other items in there that he believed belonged to Teresita as
well this is so horrific now after he heard about the jewelry and about his girlfriend denying The Alibi showery
tried to spin a story about how he bought that jewelry from some guy on the street
detectives just kind of looked at him and were like really is that really the [ __ ] story you want to go with he
immediately dropped it and he said I murdered her just confess why like boom according to Alan he said he
did go to teresitas that evening to look at the television set to fix it for her
but he realized it he needed to get his Tools in order to fix it so he went back
to his apartment a few hours later around 7 30 P.M that's when he was going back to her
apartment and he said he just decided he was going to rob her so he said the reason was he said he had
been helping Teresita obtain citizenship papers and it had on several occasions driven her to the Naturalization office
and after he would do this she would always give him a cash tip of five or ten dollars for just for helping her out
so he decided to rob her so he assumed that she had money in her apartment this is why you shouldn't be kind to people
no you shouldn't because also she didn't she had thirty dollars right she didn't
like she was just doing that out of the girl she just did that to help you and yeah he broke so he said at the time of
the murder he was very broke he was behind on all his bills he was very desperate well got another job [ __ ]
and as soon as Teresita closed the door after letting him in he grabbed her from
behind and gave her a choke hold she lost Consciousness very quickly and he said he laid her down on the
floor and just started ransacking the place for money all he found was thirty dollars in cash
and what he thought was expensive looking jewelry so once he'd ransacked the place he went
back to the living room he picked her up off the floor carried her into the bedroom and he said he didn't know what
to do so he decided to make it look like rape so he took her clothing off went to the
kitchen and got that knife off the counter that she'd used to cut up the lettuce and the the tomato
and he stabbed her into her sternum holy [ __ ] according to Alan he described Teresita as being subconscious at the
time which I was like nope incorrect you work at a [ __ ] hospital and he said she didn't feel anything who the [ __ ]
are you to say that yeah like you don't even know she wasn't dead unconscious and subconscious after so he said he
piled some clothes on top of her body dragged the mattress over to her and set fire to a paper bag that he put on top
of the clothing and once that was all on fire he fled the apartment and went back to his what
a piece of human garbage now during this questioning stahula put in a bunch of control questions to see if he was
telling the truth or if he was just repeating things he had heard in the media yeah because he wanted to be sure
this was an accurate confession and not somebody gonna claim that they were forced into it smart guy so
Allen accurately described the scene in the apartment which wasn't released to the Press he described what Teresita was
wearing he said what he'd stolen none of that was in the newspapers and he also said that he wanted to quote make it
look like a sex crime and that he had not sexually assaulted her and none of that had been released to the media wow
so the confession was very genuine and you know just to be sure they had him go through it a second time and they said
he never wavered from that confession and so they took him out of the room and they said as he went by Yonka who was
standing out there he told her that he probably wouldn't be seeing her again for a long time I can't even imagine
what she said to him yeah now everything had worked out it seemed and the detectives were really confident that
they had enough to give the district attorney for prosecution I mean they had everything stuff the only issue is that
they weren't sure how to explain how they'd even made their way Talent showery right but there was no way
around it they had to tell the judge and the jury that the ghost of Teresita basa
spoke through Remy Chua and led them to their killer I mean and the thing is they may not have been able to explain
what happened but they were right about every detail right so it's like this is gonna sound kind of kooky but everything
is right what happened and it led us here so the case was assigned to Thomas organ of the Cook County District
Attorney's Office who would be representing the state yeah and at first Oregon was a skeptical of the voice from
the grave story I think so and he had no idea how he was going to present this case to a jury he said in my five years
as a prosecutor handling 70 or so felony cases I've never run into anything like
this also sorry is his last name Oregon yeah wow yeah right but he he dove into it and he researched it investigated it
and he said they're telling the truth everything in this case just like lines up and like it
does like spiritually physically and he said he was like I believe the chew is how can I not yeah because they didn't
even know what it tells us to begin with that's the thing like that and I feel like that gives more credibility yeah
they didn't run out to tell this to anyone right exactly so a pre-trial hearing was held in the Circuit Court of
Cook County on September 7th 1978 and this is when Allen's defense attorney William swanno
he tried to have the charges dismissed because of the unusual circumstances that preceded his arrest it's like yeah
sure but like why does your client have everything and know everything about her
well he's claiming that Remy Chua had faked the episodes because she'd been fired she was stressed out she was
trying to get attention Okay and prosecutor Thomas organ argued that the detectives had pursued a viable lead and
found probable cause to arrest Alan showery so the paranormal thing that preceded it
was unusual but ultimately irrelevant because it led to the truth and the judge agreed wow and Allen yeah and Alan
showery was ordered to stand trial for the first degree murder of Teresita Basa yeah because he had planned the whole
thing Alan showery went on trial January 8 1979 and the media went nuts about this Thomas organ knew he was fighting a
very uphill battle with this you know a lot of his case was resting on a tip from a ghost so you know that'll be a
little bit difficult but he he fought through he was undeterred in the months since the case had come to him he had
interviewed that she was again and again and he said it was Mo you know I was trying to get I knew they were going to
be on the stand and he said also I was looking for holes in the story right and he found nothing
and he said in front of the jury Oregon tried to minimize the supernatural claims and just kind of focus on the
facts of the case which was a case of murder and robbery and not ghosts in possession so he was like the reality of
the case is that there is evidence in his possession to say he murdered her yeah and he was like I don't want the
jury to forget that that there's facts here regardless of how we got here we got here so for the most part his
argument remained much as it had during the pre-trial hearing with Alan showery had been confronted with undeniable
proof of his involvement and with the jewelry yeah and on that he had given an oral and written confession to murdering
her so that is the facts yo and the defense argued that showery had been arrested on nothing more than the chua's
unbelievable story of possession and that Alan had only confessed to spare his girlfriend from being arrested along
with him and giving birth to their children in jail because apparently she was pregnant oh my God that's horrific
now Remy Chua was in the process they said was in the process of being fired from her job she had personal problems
they didn't release what those personal problems were because they probably didn't exist but they told the story The
Jury that he she had just made up this possession thing this whole act to get attention
and sure anybody hearing that would be like under normal circumstances sure yeah tell me that she's stressed out she
lost her job there was all this weird [ __ ] going on maybe she wants attention sure why not
except that from the start that she was didn't want to report the whole thing even they were reluctant reporters and
reluctant Witnesses they didn't want to talk about any of it they were stressed out talking about it they were very
reluctant and also like cool she got fired from her job she has all these personal problems she made this up uh
why was the jewelry the girlfriend's projection why did it pan out and why did he know the apartment scene if he
hadn't been there and how did he know that she hadn't been raped if he wasn't the one to not rape her exactly and at
no time had the Jewish tried to make money off of or capitalize on this story no time right never like they had
nothing to gain here in fact everyone who knew them and anytime anyone talked to them they were like we really just
want to go away like we don't want to be part of this story anymore we don't want
to we don't want to be in the spotlight we just want to leave leave this for you
to fix and that's it because realistically I just said they have nothing to gain really they have
everything to lose they've at least I mean he's like a doctor or like yeah like people will doubt him if he like
made this up and yeah and she's a respiratory therapist like they have like you know do they have good jobs
they have reputations like this wouldn't be a good thing they're not trying to be
like you know they're not running around to all the media let's be like let me tell you my story of possession they're
like please don't talk to me right exactly and so in their closing arguments both sides tried to hammer
home those arguments that they've been making the whole time the defense kind of focused on the Paranormal part being
like this is crazy trying to put in the jury's mind this is wild also propping up showers claim that he had been
coerced into confessing by because the detectives had threatened to arrest his girlfriend as an accessory okay now
Thomas organ dismissed any claims of coercion saying to the jury that his story might be believable if it came
from a 16 year old boy who might be easily intimidated yeah exactly but they said Alan showery is an adult educated
man with an extensive criminal history that's the other thing he's literally done she's driven this before and as for
the Supernatural part about the chuas he told them it doesn't matter as to guilt
or innocence what does matter is that the information furnace to police checked out and after 13 hours of
deliberation the jury sent a note to the judge on the afternoon of Friday 20th January 26th saying that they were
hopelessly deadlocked I would think because can you imagine like 13 hours in there going back and forth and the judge
dismissed the jury and a new trial was set for February 14th oh they needed Ronald
so February 14th came and went and the judge had to order a continuance which got the defense really feeling good
because they started getting confident that they could get an acquittal the second time around
but on the evening of February 21st only a few days later Alan showery called his
lawyer and asked him to arrange a meeting with the judge and the district attorney
the next day showery and lawyers from both sides stood in front of the judge and Alan showery against the advice of
his attorney pleaded guilty to the murder of Teresita basa do you think Teresita was like appearing to him at
this I wonder if she was like you [ __ ] I'm gonna haunt your ass right and he was like I'm just gonna admit this yeah
the District Attorney's office confirmed that they had no plea deal they had not
offered a deal for this wow I feel like he had to have been being haunted and honestly I hope that even after he pled
guilty he continued to be haunted that's what I think and showery would not give
an explanation for why he decided to do this that's what makes me think we already know yep and his lawyer asked
the judge for leniency so that's all they could do and the judge considered everything and the request for leniency
and sentence Alan showery to concurrent terms of 4 to 12 years on armed robbery and arson charges
what about the murder he was never convicted of the murder from what I can tell he was convicted of armed Rob of robbery
and arson that's why he got that sentence what so I wonder if there was some kind of plea
deal that happens because it's very confusing that doesn't make any [ __ ] sense that they were just like yeah I
guess we'll just throw the murder off the table for no [ __ ] reason no big deal but he admitted to it
which is so wild I wonder if he had information on like another I wonder something like something is out there
that we don't know about that doesn't make any sense and also that pisses me the [ __ ] off because he served the
minimum four years of his sentence and was paroled in 1983. what the actual [ __ ] are you kidding me yep he oh my God
Terracita baby if you didn't haunt him and that is the story of Teresita basa four years he sir four years he served
for that I know tarzi does the baddest [ __ ] alive and the baddest [ __ ] afterlife also and good for the chuas
yeah for listening to her and for like being brave really brave enough to tell a detective when they didn't want to
that this is what had happened that and good for Yanka for just being like sure come on in and like no I'm not
telling you his Alibi is correct like no he did not work on wiring that's like good for Yanka
but like damn but what do we not know because that doesn't make any sense that like in my opinion it really sucks
because Justice wasn't served no it really wasn't our years is not a sentence for that and she like nobody
ever went to prison for her murder yeah I'm so angry right I was too I was very angry [ __ ] there's something that
happened in that trial that we that is not public that we don't know about that definitely is hidden somewhere in the
annals of that record I I just had like a gut feeling that he had information on
another there had no thing something like that because that's nothing like because he had to have helped them in
some big way yeah and that's and Dave said the same thing he was like there had to have been some kind of deal that
happened that we don't know off the books yeah that is infuriating yeah we only got the arson and robbery charge
honestly I not only hope that he gets haunted for the rest of his life I hope everybody in that deal right involved in
that deal also got them Terracita Teresita you know what but no you know what if that's what you want to do go
ahead but like live your afterlife yeah cause you know what she said I can't move on until they know that he did it
they hopefully she just got him to admit it yeah and then was like now I can move
on exactly I hope she is like playing piano shows in the afterlife strumming on her organ yeah I hope that like men
treated her better in the afterlife I was hanging out with her parents I know she's just like having fun best I hope
she's she's going to London sometimes yes to hang out and have some fun I hope she like quickly dropped by Edward's
house just to be like just to scare the [ __ ] out of him I hope so too I would do
that yeah hell yeah wow Terracita what a wild story yeah what an infuriating story truly because the fact that she
invited him into her home and was in invited him into her band like thought he was a friend and that's what he did
that's how much of a friend she considered him she was gonna have him be in the band she was getting trusted him
coming into her house to fix this TV she was going to come from tickets like she
tipped him every time he drove her somewhere and she didn't actually really have that much money and telling like
her friends in the band that like oh I have this friend you know Alan is going to be in the band yeah like right like
like a word of recommendation yeah wow I'm so angry right now me too great story though wild story wild story
um and with that being said we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not as weird as the beginning
of the show because we were like wild and yeah keep it as weird as paraceto keep it as weird as Teresita for sure
and maybe do keep it so weird that you're just like wilding out in a fun [Music]

On the evening of February 21, 1977, Chicago firefighters responded to a call at the Pine Grove apartment complex. Once they’d extinguished the fire, they discovered the nude body of forty-eight-year-old Teresita Basa with a kitchen knife protruding from her chest. The apartment looked as though it had been ransacked during the commission of what they assumed was a sexual assault or robbery gone wrong. With little evidence or leads to work from, Teresita’s murder investigation quickly went cold.

But then five months later, it seemed like it was Teresita herself who led investigators to discover the man who murdered her. What followed was a truly sensational investigation and trial where not only murder, but belief was up for debate.

References

Boston Globe. 1978. "Did Voice of the Dead Name Murderer?" Boston Globe, March 6: 2.

Decatur Herald. 1979. "Man Pleads Guilty; Named by 'Voice From the Grave'." Decatur Herald, February 23: 9.

O'Brien , John, and Edward Baumann. 1978. "Accused of Murder By a Voice From The Grave." Ebony, June 01: 56-63.

O'Brien, John. 1979. "'Voice From Grave' Case a Mistrial." Chicago Tribune, Janaury 27: 3.

O'Brien, John, and Edward Baumann. 1992. Teresita: The Voice from the Grave. Los Angeles, CA: Bonus Books.

Toledo Blade. 1978. "'Voice From Grave' Suspect Ordered to Trial for Murder." Toledo Blade, September 7: 38.

Warden, Rob. 1978. "'Voice From the Grave' Evokes a Murder Trial." Washington Post, September 17.

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Brief Summary

Teresita Basa's spirit allegedly helped solve her own murder by identifying her killer, Alan Showery, leading to a controversial trial.

Key points

The Salad Dressing Debate. A light-hearted discussion about salad dressing and happiness.
Teresita Basa's Journey. A captivating tale of Teresita Basa, who faced adversity and ultimately solved her own murder.
A New Life in the U.S.. Teresita returns to the U.S. to start anew after a tumultuous past.
Teresita's New Life. Teresita finds joy in music and friendship, forming a band called the Mahogany Five Plus One.
Discovery of the Body. Firefighters find Teresita's body in her apartment, leading to a murder investigation.
The Autopsy Findings. The autopsy reveals Teresita was strangled and stabbed, contradicting earlier theories.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She ended up solving her own [ __ ] murder.

A shocking twist in Teresita's story.

7:08WatchJul 18, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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