Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 42 | Child Serial Killers

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

In today's episode, we are going to dive in on the cases of the youngest serial killers recorded in history... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 In a remote village in India, a woman reported her baby missing. The police would arrive, and that's when a young boy would come forward smiling, and he would lead them right to the body. And this is not a work of fiction, as terrifying as it sounds. This is the true story of Amarjit Sada, a boy who by the age of eight had taken three lives. Born into poverty, raised in silence, and driven by something even his own parents couldn't understand. Amarjit would become known as the youngest serial killer in recorded history. But his case is only the beginning, which is horrifying.
Starting point is 00:00:38 Because in this video, we are going to uncover three of the most disturbing cases of juvenile killers the world has ever seen. Spanning rural India, suburban Canada, and the outskirts of Madrid. Children who killed without any remorse. And victims barely older than toddlers and some even younger. so trigger warning there. And crimes that challenge everything we thought we knew about psychology, justice, and innocence. From the cultural stigmas that hid warning signs to legal systems unequipped for murderers in grade school. This is not just a story about murder.
Starting point is 00:01:16 It's a story about what happens when childhoods turn deadly. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume. And I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually, mind and freak. And today we are doing just that. And my lord, it's these kids. I thought I was scared of kids already, but it's about to get wicked twisted up in here. So like I said, trigger warning there. We're going to be talking about kids. It's like psychopathic children and also, obviously, some of the deaths involve children as well. So just know that before going into this. But without
Starting point is 00:01:51 further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelt. Let's go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through this windshield into these three cruel. children together. So before Amarjit Seda ever took a life, before his name would unsettle headlines across the world, he was just a kid. He was just a child, born into a system that never saw him coming. Amarjit was born in 1998, in Bucharasaia, a rural district of Bihar, India. And at the time, the region was one of the most impoverished and neglected in the entire country. The infrastructure was very minimal. Electricity was very unreliable and education was a luxury, to say the least. And health care, especially mental health care, was practically non-existent.
Starting point is 00:02:57 So in these forgotten pockets of India's superstition often stood in place of science. And mental illness was just not understood at all. It was basically just feared or concealed completely or just blamed on other entities or spirits. So families struggling with psychological disorders just didn't seek therapy. They thought something was wrong with them and not that something very common was wrong with them, but something like was inside them and wrong with them, if that makes sense. So they would turn to local shamans or worse, they would just do nothing at all. So the fear of public shame meant that most of these cases were just buried quietly,
Starting point is 00:03:35 especially in a small, tightly woven community where reputations quite literally meant survival. In an Amarjit's village, poverty wasn't just a statistic. It was basically just a way of life. So his family lived in a very densely packed neighborhood, made of mud brick homes and open drains. His parents would work as laborers, earning barely enough to feed their children. But more dangerous than the poverty here was the silence.
Starting point is 00:04:02 Children with any sort of behavioral issues were rarely seen as mentally unwell. They were called troublesome, moody, or simply cursed, like actually thought they were cursed. And few recognized the warning signs, obviously, given the lack of care. And fewer still had the means to actually act on them. And so when Amarjit began exhibiting troublesome behavior, no one asked questions that should have come first.
Starting point is 00:04:28 You know, questions like, what the hell was going on inside Amarjit's mind? What's causing him to act out like this? But instead, like so many other children born into these margins, he was just left to his own world, one that was shaped by suffering, superstition, and silence. And in that silence, something very, very, very dark began to grow. So Amarjit entered the world as another child born into poverty. In a village where survival came way before any sort of psychology.
Starting point is 00:05:01 But long before Amarjit ever picked up a brick, which we'll get to, there were signs. First off, he was never liked by other children. He didn't really have any friends. Because in the village, boys his age played together and swam on the pond. And when other children asked him to play, he reportedly would sometimes lash out in sudden bursts of anger at them. So they were like, whoa, okay, shit dude.
Starting point is 00:05:24 You don't have to play Marco Polo with us. Like, I don't know. So villagers would later describe him as strange, but polite, which I find very hard to believe. But also notably withdrawn. He was very to himself. And looking back, these were the early indicators of detachment, and harmful potential.
Starting point is 00:05:41 And his mother, Parul, noticed the difference too. Amarjit just had this temper and an intensity that she just couldn't explain. She didn't know where it came from. And instead of turning to doctors, she would turn to tradition. She would smear black cajal beneath his eyes to ward off evil and placed an amulet of protection from the Hanuman temple around his arm. But no amulet could stop what was manifesting inside this evil little child. But obviously, she didn't know any better.
Starting point is 00:06:10 She just thought that maybe it was an evil spirit. Maybe that this will help, you know? So it's of no fault of her own. Amarjit would have no formal education as well. There was basically no access to structure, therapy, or any sort of guidance. Some reports even mention neglect from his parents. And it would be around this time that tragedy would first strike. Seemingly, out of nowhere, Amarjit's infant cousin would die under suspicious circumstances.
Starting point is 00:06:37 And his family would have to make a devastating choice. They would keep quiet. They would call it an accident and they would shield him. That they are responsible for, and I don't have an excuse for them for. So basically, they were rewarding the behavior of their murdering child. Not the best parent, probably worst parent award, I'd say. So with not punishing your child or not making them be held accountable, the darkness inside him would quickly unfold.
Starting point is 00:07:08 So like I said, his first victim was very close to home. It was his younger cousin. And there seems to be a bit of discrepancy from various sources of the age of the victim. But his cousin was an infant. So one day, the infant would seemingly vanish. And shortly thereafter, her body would be found. And it was clear that she had been beaten to death. And there would be no trial, no police reports.
Starting point is 00:07:31 Her family, basically Amarjit's family, just chose to. stay silent, even though they knew that Amarjit had done the crime. And then, not long after, his infant sister would be his next victim. And his sister would be just eight months old. And Amarjit would strangle her to death with his bare hands. Like, just horrifying. But again, the family did not report the crime. And whether out of shame, fear, or just pure disbelief, they buried not just their child, but the truth. So in 2007, the village was shaken when a third child would go missing. Six-month-old Kushbu, the daughter of a neighbor. Her mother had left her sleeping at the local school while she just stepped away. But when she returned, the child was completely missing. And no one was
Starting point is 00:08:22 prepared for the truth that had actually occurred. So the community gathered around and a search began to break out. But not long after that, Amarjit would step forward and he would confess. Very casually, even cheerfully. And officers just couldn't believe it. They thought naturally that it was a prank. I mean, this kid is eight years old. He's a small child. How could he have done this horrible crime? And if he was to do it, maybe it was an accident, but why would he be happy about it? They were just really confused. But that's when he would lead them to the body. Hidden away, her tiny body lay buried in a shallow grave. And the infant had been strangled and blood to death with a brick.
Starting point is 00:09:04 And when questioned by police, Almarjit reportedly smiled through his entire confession. And he even asked for biscuits at the beginning of it. And as investigators listened, just completely stunned, he described the murder
Starting point is 00:09:17 with chilling detachment. Just pure psychopathic behavior. He was quoted to say, she was sleeping in the school. I took her a little away, killed her with a brick, and buried her. Just like absolutely chilling.
Starting point is 00:09:32 There's just, something about a child with so much detachment that is next level horrifying. So forensic psychologists would be brought in and their official conclusion would be that Amarjit was a sadist, a child who found pleasure in inflicting pain. So this was not a prank gone wrong. It was not the product of a playground fight. This was something far, far darker and far rarer. And now the world would finally take notice. A little little too late if you ask me. So when the news broke that an eight-year-old had killed three infants, it sent shockwaves across India and the world. But once the horror of his confessions settled,
Starting point is 00:10:14 authorities were left with the difficult question. What do you do with a killer child? And at the time of Amarjit's arrest in 2007, India law was very clear. A child under the age of 18 could not be tried as an adult. And there would be no prison sentence, no criminal trial, no possible. of life imprisonment, and certainly no death penalty. So instead, Amarjit was placed in a juvenile detention facility, the only legal option available at the time. And there, he would spend the next 10 years, the maximum sentence allowed for a minor under Indian law.
Starting point is 00:10:47 And behind closed doors, rehabilitation efforts would begin. And reports suggested he received counseling, education, and behavioral therapy. But the truth is, almost nothing is known about what happened inside those walls. There were no updates, zero information. interviews and the file on Amarjit Seda slowly disappeared from public view. And then, in 2016, he would turn 18 years old.
Starting point is 00:11:10 And under Indian law, his record was completely sealed. So with his file closed, his identity was changed to protect his future and prevent vigilante retaliation, which I'm like, don't let that guy out. If he can do that at 8, what the fuck could he do at 18 years old? Now, what he's in his, he's in his mid 20s now? That's fucking terrifying. And today, his current location is completely. unknown to the public. Some say he relocated under government protection, but others believe he may have quietly
Starting point is 00:11:38 reintegrated into society under a new identity. And what remains is just his horrifically chilling legacy. So Amarjit Seda is still confirmed the youngest serial killer in modern history. And somewhere, perhaps walking among us, he just lives his life as a full-grown man who is a full-blown psychopathic sadist. with his past completely erased and his secrets completely buried. So the question still lingers. Can someone who kills before they learn to even write truly be free from who they were? To be honest, I don't think so. In this case, I feel like this is pure nature.
Starting point is 00:12:17 I feel like he was born with this in him. And I don't know if there's any way out of it. I mean, I hope that psychologists and professionals were able to get through to him. but I'm, that's very scary. Very, very scary. But that brings us to our next child. And that is Jasmine Richardson. So before the headlines,
Starting point is 00:12:48 before the world would recoil at the idea of a 12-year-old killer, Jasmine Richardson was just a girl. Born in 1993 in the city of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Jasmine Richardson grew up in what most would describe as a pretty ordnance. middle-class home. Her parents, Mark and Deborah Richardson, had met during recovery from substance abuse, actually. So they were two people who were dead set and committed to starting over, and raising a family far away from their past mistakes. And together, they would build a new life. Mark was a very hard-working man, he was strict, but very loving, and Deborah was known to be a very
Starting point is 00:13:25 soft-spoken and warm mom and partner, who stayed very involved in her children's lives. And Jasmine was their firstborn. Followed five. years later by her little brother, Jacob. And the family was very close, by all accounts. They spent a lot of time together and had a lot of family outings. And by all accounts, Jasmine was very bright. She made the honor roll in her Catholic school. She performed in fine arts programs. She laughed with friends, made crafts, went to sleepovers. She kept really busy with a lot of good things. She was a pretty normal child starting out until she wasn't. So around the age of 11, something changed in jazz.
Starting point is 00:14:03 She began gravitating toward goth subculture. And this isn't a hit on goth subculture, by the way. I know quite a few goths actually, very cool, very awesome. But this is just kind of what segwayed her into what she became. So not a hit on any goths at all, just her story. So after getting into the subculture, she was kind of drawn to dark fashion, heavy eyeliner, and online communities where she could shed the expectations of her quiet suburban. world. And her MySpace and VampireFreeks.com profiles painted a very new picture of Jasmine.
Starting point is 00:14:41 One where she was older, rebellious, fascinated with serial killers, nothing wrong with that, and just purely immersed in fantasy. So the 11-year-old at this point would tell people that she was 15. And she would post poetry about death and violence and just not great stuff. And somewhere in those digital shadows, she met him. Yes, there's a hymn. Jeremy Steinky. More like Jeremy Stinky, am I right? I'm about to be.
Starting point is 00:15:10 Because Jeremy was 23 years old. He was 23 years old, about to date a 15-year-old who was actually a almost 12-year-old. So just bad news bears. And he was reportedly beaten through his childhood by his biological father and two of his stepfathers. And his mother and her various partners, husbands and boyfriends, We're just all alcoholics, so he had a very bad upbringing. No excuse for dating a literal child though. He was a high school dropout who believed he was a 300 year old werewolf.
Starting point is 00:15:45 So wasn't, um, wasn't all right up there in the head. Wasn't all right. And allegedly, he would wear a vial of blood around his neck and enjoyed the taste of blood as well. So he was basically everything any girl's parents would fear, especially Jasmine's parents. If that guy walked into my door when I was 11 years old and you say, hey, dad, here's, here's, Jeremy, he's 23 years old. He's a, he's a 300 year old werewolf and he drinks blood. Jeremy would fly hundreds of feet in the air with the kick my dad would deliver to his ass. But anyway, I digress.
Starting point is 00:16:22 So obviously, when they discovered Jasmine and Jeremy's relationship, they forbade it immediately. Good Parent Award. But for Jasmine, that only fuel. the fire. So it began as a pure fascination turned into a complete obsession. And within months, the girl who once played dress-up in her childhood bedroom would be planning the murder of her entire family. So at just 12 years old, Jasmine Richardson fell in love. And this wasn't an innocent kind of love either. You know, the kind that blossoms between school dances and whispered secrets, little middle school drama. This was something much darker. As I was a lot of,
Starting point is 00:17:02 I said before, Jeremy was 23 years old, which is an obvious problem for too many reasons to kill. So they met in early 2006. A friend would introduce them and Jeremy would groom her into a relationship with him basically. And online, they would just build this entire fantasy world around them. They would use platforms like nexopia and vampire freaks.com and they would exchange cryptic and disturbing messages back and forth to each other. And as mentioned before, Jasmine said that she was 15 years old And Jeremy didn't ask any questions about that, and I honestly just don't think he cared. But their messages would grow increasingly more intense. They would be very romantic, violent, and even conspiratorial.
Starting point is 00:17:46 So again, after Jasmine's parents found out, they were like, fuck that shit. No, you cannot see that guy. And then she would be like, well, that just makes me want him more. So she would naturally rebel. She would start sneaking out, going to concerts, and she would continue to get in trouble from her parents. So when the barriers between Jasmine and Jeremy began to grow further and further because of her parents, they began to imagine a world without those barriers. Those barriers being her parents.
Starting point is 00:18:13 So I have this plan, Jasmine wrote in one online message. It begins with me killing them and ends with me living with you. And shortly before the murders, they watched the film Natural Born Killers. Natural Born Killers is a violent cult classic about a couple in love who go on a kid. killing spree, basically. They ruined this movie for me. And Jeremy idolized it, allegedly claiming it is, quote-unquote, the best love story of all time. And he didn't want to lose Jasmine. And he was willing to kill for her. So what followed was not just a crime of passion. It was the complete unraveling of reality itself, guided by fantasy, fueled by obsession, and executed by two people who believed
Starting point is 00:18:56 they were completely untouchable. One of them believed he was a fucking 300-year-old werewolf. for fricks sakes. So it was a quiet Sunday morning in a small Canadian town of Medicine Hat when police arrived at the Richardson family household. And inside, they would find a scene so gruesome and so unthinkable. It would haunt the country for years. Three members of the Richardson family. Mark, Deborah, and their eight-year-old son, Jacob was dead, completely slaughtered in their own home. And their 12-year-old daughter was completely missing. But this wasn't a kidnapping, this was the plan. Just hours earlier under the cover of night,
Starting point is 00:19:35 Jeremy had entered the Richardson home through a basement window. He was drunk and under the influence of cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy, but he was armed with knives and fueled by obsession. So Deborah Richardson would be in bed and hear the noise in the house and go to investigate. And this is when she would encounter Jeremy.
Starting point is 00:19:55 She would be startled by him in the dark, but before she could scream for help, he would attack. He would inflict multiple stab wounds on her and there would be multiple defensive injuries because she was just trying to fight for her life at that point. But unfortunately, she would die in the basement. But Mark would hear some sort of a struggle downstairs and go down to investigate himself. And he grabbed the first thing he could find, which was a screwdriver. But he too was completely outmatched and unprepared. And Jeremy would stab him repeatedly and just leave him to bleed out. And this is all happening while Jasmine is there participating. came the part that no one wants to believe. Jasmine's eight-year-old little brother. To this day,
Starting point is 00:20:36 both Jasmine and Jeremy blame each other for what happened next. So the truth is unconfirmed, but this is what we know. Jacob was stabbed multiple times, and his throat would also be slashed. And there are some reports that mention he attempted to defend himself with his toy lightsaber, which just, which is just painstakingly heartbreaking. And they supposed, supposedly did this because they didn't want him to live as an orphan or have the burden of living as an orphan. So they did it as some sort of fucked up courtesy, which is just beyond sickening. And a neighbor would later describe the scene as straight out of a horror movie. And then after all of the horrific damage that they had done in lives that they had taken, they just up and left.
Starting point is 00:21:33 And they would go to a friend's house to attend a party. And they would laugh, they would kiss, they bragged of the atrocities they had just committed. And they were, according to witnesses, celebrating. Just no words. And the next morning, Jasmine would be listed as a missing person because as far as the authorities know, she was kidnapped. And her family was brutally murdered by some sort of unknown assailant. But within 24 hours, the truth thankfully would come out. And it would come out after recovering evidence from her room and more evidence online.
Starting point is 00:22:07 It was very clear that she wasn't a victim. She was now a suspect. So Jasmine and Jeremy were tracked down and arrested in Leader Saskatchewan, which was about 80 miles away. So they were making a run for it at this point. And they were driven by Jeremy's friend, whose name was Casey Lancaster. And she was later charged with being an accessory for disposing of evidence. But the accessory charged was dropped, but she pleaded guilty to an obstruction charge.
Starting point is 00:22:32 and she would end up with a one-year house arrest. So Jeremy and Jasmine were now in custody. And in custody, neither would show any sort of emotion. Both were charged with three counts of first-degree murder, and in 2008, Jeremy was convicted and sentenced to three life sentences in prison served consecutively, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, which like, why? Why is it ever an option, you know? But Jasmine's trial was a little bit more complicated.
Starting point is 00:22:59 She was only 12 years old at the time of the murders after all. So this would make her the youngest person in Canadian history to be charged with multiple homicides. And psychologists testified that she was emotionally immature and likely under Jeremy's influence. And she lacked the full capacity to understand the consequences of her actions. But still, the jury found her guilty of all three counts. And under Canadian law, she could not be sentenced as an adult. So instead, Jasmine would receive the max sentencing for a minor, which was 10 years. made up of time in a psychiatric institution, followed by conditional supervision in the community. And her sentencing wasn't just about punishment, it was about rehabilitation.
Starting point is 00:23:39 But the country was completely split. Some viewed her as a child manipulated by a predator, and others saw her as just a cold-blooded killer. And there are some rumors suggesting the possibility of Jeremy actually being the victim due to fetal alcohol effects and his abuse during his own childhood, which potentially brings his intelligence and suggestibility into question, but there's no conclusive answer to this, just an interesting twist on this whole scenario. So the trial was over, but the debate had only just begun. I, I don't know. I personally think it takes a certain kind of child to not feel anything for being responsible for your entire family's death. Do I think a child can comprehend the
Starting point is 00:24:24 repercussions of killing their entire family? No, I think that you're in love is a really, young child and you're, you know, persuade by this older guy. I think you're willing to do anything, but I think there is a bit of nature in there and a lot of nurture as well, you know. I don't know. He's a 23-year-old guy. Maybe he's not the most intelligent, but he's still capable of killing and not
Starting point is 00:24:45 asking questions. So I think they're both equally at fault. But who am I to say? You know, but they're both guilty. So clearly, majority said what I said, basically. And today, you won't find Jasmine. There's no press conferences. There's no interviews, not a trace.
Starting point is 00:25:00 Because Jasmine Richardson, now in her 30s, walks completely free. She served her full 10-year sentence, and in May of 2016, that sentence ended. And her record was sealed and her name was protected. And she would be released from all court-ordered conditions. So during her rehabilitation, Jasmine reportedly enrolled in university classes at Mount Royal University in Calgary. And those who encountered her had no idea who she really was. She was just another student to them, just another face in the crowd. And now her exact whereabouts are completely undisclosed.
Starting point is 00:25:32 And by law, her identity cannot be revealed in Canadian media, shielded by the same system that once tried her as a child. So some believe she still lives near her old community, but the nation remains divided to this day. To some, Jasmine Richardson was a success story, proof that the system can rehabilitate even the most unlikely offenders. And to others, she's just a ghost walking free, a reminder of a crime too dark to forget.
Starting point is 00:25:56 But wherever she is now, she herself carries a surpassed that cannot be erased. And that brings us to our final child serial killer. Pieded Medez del Aguia. So in the winter of 1965, in the quiet city of Mercia, Spain would become home to one of the most chilling and least understood cases in European criminal history. And at the center of it all was a 12-year-old girl. And her name, Piededad Martinez del Aguia. Born in 1953, Pieded was the third of 10 children in a family struggling to survive. Her father was a bricklayer and her mother was a part-time kitchen worker and odd job worker. And they lived in El Carmen, a working class neighborhood defined by its poverty, overcrowding and hard labor. And before that, the family had lived in the slums,
Starting point is 00:26:51 basically one step above desperation. There was no semblance of luxury, no privacy, only noise, hunger, and the never-ending demands of survival. And while other children her age were, in school learning to read and write, Piedad was home. She cleaned and cooked and changed diapers. So at 12 years old, she was the default caretaker for her younger siblings. Jesus, who was 10, Christina, who was 8, Manuela, who was 6, Andres, who was 5, Juan Santa, who was 4, and Mariano, who was 2. And a baby, Maria del Carmen, who was only nine months old. A lot of kids. So her two older brothers worked full-time as panel beaders at the auto shop. They would sometimes bring their work home
Starting point is 00:27:37 and require her to help clean and polish metal parts. And they would provide her with some small bars of chemical substance in order to do this. Very important to note later. And her parents would be gone for most of the day because they two worked. So the weight of the household, the chaos of caring for seven younger siblings
Starting point is 00:27:55 fell squarely on her very small shoulders. And she carried it quietly and obediently. until something broke. And no one really noticed at first. After all, she was just a little girl. A girl who didn't go to school, a girl who couldn't really read, a girl whose entire world was confined to four crumbling walls, the wailing of babies and the suffocating pressure of poverty.
Starting point is 00:28:20 But inside her, something else was forming. Not resentment, not rebellion, intent. So it began with a fever. On December 4th, 1965, baby Marie, Maria Del Carmen, just nine months old, began convulsing violently. She would also develop a rash and her temperature would start to soar. And within half an hour, she would unfortunately pass away. And the family doctor arrived as soon as possible, but it was too late.
Starting point is 00:28:48 And the doctor would say it was most likely meningitis. The death itself was very sudden and this wasn't unheard of. So it was a tragedy, yes, but a very isolated one, or so they thought. Because five days later, it would happen again. Mariano, only two years old, died under nearly identical circumstances. Families in the neighborhood began distancing themselves to protect from whatever was occurring in the household, because everybody at this point just thought they were sick, and most likely contagious. And then five days later, once again, when Santa, just four years old, died just as quickly as her other siblings with the same symptoms.
Starting point is 00:29:26 So three children within 10 days all gone. And this time, the doctor refused to sign the death certificate. He did suspect something else but lacked any proof. So by the order of the local health council, the Martinez del Agua family brought their surviving children to Mercya General Hospital for evaluation. And they would stay for several days and receive many, many tests. But in 1965 Spain, diagnostic technology was extremely limited. So there was no immediate answers.
Starting point is 00:29:55 And the hospital would find no conclusive cause as to why those children died so suddenly. So the family would be sent home and all of the children in the neighborhood, including the family, would receive a prescription of multivitamin concentrates. Don't think that's going to help. But the hope was to make sure their immune systems were at peak shape, should there be any sort of infectious disease going on. But within days of the family's release, it would happen again. On January 4, 1966, 5-year-old Andres was dead after having been seemingly completely okay half an hour before.
Starting point is 00:30:28 And this time, there would be no assumptions, and they were more determined than ever to discover the cause. Samples of visceral tissue from Andres and Fuencenta were sent by pathologist to the Instituto Nacional del Salud in Madrid. And they completely ruled out the possibility of an infectious agent. So then they would send it over to the Instituto Nacional de toxicology or the National Institute of Toxicology, and it was there that they would find their answer. And the culprit would be potassium cyanide. and DDT. So back in Mercia, pathologists were taking a second look
Starting point is 00:31:04 at the first two deceased children. But they still didn't find anything. But they reportedly fed 21 guinea pigs and a dog with pieces of the children's organs, which is, I don't know what I feel about that, but okay. And all of the animals would die suddenly. So they would know that the children were poisoned. And when the police asked who was last seen with the victims,
Starting point is 00:31:28 One name came up again and again, Pieda. So by mid-January, 1966, the city of Mercia no longer whispered about the deaths in the Martinez Di Aguia household. They fucking shouted. Four dead children, no explanation and no arrests at this point. Only grief and suspicion. And on January 14th, both parents, Andres and Antonia, were arrested. Authorities would suspect that the murders were an act of filicide, which is the killings of
Starting point is 00:31:58 one's child. And Antonia, pregnant at the time, was confined to a maternity ward under supervision. And Andres was sent to a psychiatric facility for evaluation. And the surviving children were split. The boys housed with their father and the girls kept with their mother. A very controversial move, but one made with purpose. Detective's hope that their killer might slip up. So by now, the story had reached national headlines. And this was very out of the norm because in this period of time, the press was very tightly controlled. And journalists just descended on Mercia, eager to capture the story. And what they found would completely stun everyone.
Starting point is 00:32:35 The children, just weeks after burying four siblings, were laughing, playing, and smiling. And one photographer recalled six-year-old Manuela looking directly into his lens and saying something to the effect of, quote unquote, you want to take my picture because I'm going to die next. Absolutely chilling. Oh my God. And then, just like. that, she went back to her game like it was nothing. But behind those playful scenes, detectives were watching someone else, someone a lot quieter than the other children, someone a lot colder. And that was
Starting point is 00:33:10 Pia Dad. Her affect was flat, her gaze just completely unshaken. And she always seemed to be the last one with each of the dead. But they still had no proof at this point. Then on January 24th, a detective had an idea. He took 12-year-old Piaad to a local cafe, just the two of them. And he made small-talked and ordered her a glass of milk. And then, with a sleight of hand, he pretended to spike her drink with the same metal cleaning compound her brothers used at work. And she noticed immediately. And after she noticed, she would grab his wrist and she would say to him this. Don't do that. You could seriously harm someone with that stuff. The detective would answer, is it harmful? Is it like the stuff you gave
Starting point is 00:33:51 your little siblings? And at this point, per the detective's account, it was written all over. her face, but he just stared into her eyes in silence until she spoke again. Pia Dad would continue. It was me who killed the four of them, the first three by order of my mother. And the detective would say, and the last one? Pia dad would say back to him, I killed him myself alone. I acted on my own. 12. She's 12. Oh my god.
Starting point is 00:34:16 So this was the moment detectives had been waiting for. She explained her methods with chilling precision during an interrogation, how she turned potassium chloride, cyanide, and DDT-based insecticides into tiny lethal pellets, then mix them into milk and food. What the fuck? Dude, well, she's fucking 12. It's just horrifying. And each child suffered agonizing deaths, roughly taking 30 minutes. Only Funcanta had time to cry out saying, quick, come here, I'm dying. And Pia Dad heard her and then just walked away. So the 12-year-old girl who kept the house running while her parents worked, who changed diapers, fed bottles, put her siblings to sleep, murdered four of her own siblings. And these were not moments of rage. They weren't revenge. They
Starting point is 00:35:06 were planned, repeated, and refined murders. Basically, a child behaving like a trained assassin. So after all this, her parents were held for a little bit longer, especially after she said that her mom was involved in all of this. And then her story just kept changing. In one version, her mother ordered the killings, and in another, it was all her idea. So pathological liar as well. Just fucking cherry on top. But eventually, detectives concluded that was becoming more and more obvious, that Piedad just lied. So her surviving siblings were removed from both parents' custody and placed under child protective services.
Starting point is 00:35:43 And Andres, the father, was released in March, 1966. And Antonia, who gave birth actually in custody, was not released until May. And Pia Dad, she was brought before a juvenile court, and she would be sent to a psychiatric institution for observation before her trial. And there, she just thrived. She laughed with nurses and befriended the staff, and psychologists were just alarmed. Because she was found to have, you know, a sound mind. She wasn't just some crazy little kid. She was, she knew what she was doing.
Starting point is 00:36:15 She was very smart in the, in the scariest way. Very Ed Kemper-like, if you know who that. If not, I'm gonna be doing a deep dive on him next, because my god, but she reminds me of him a lot. Just extremely calculated. And they said that she was fully aware of right and wrong, but capable of ignoring morality when it suited her. And by the summer of 1966, Piedad was officially diagnosed as a psychopath, which... Yeah, no f***in shit. And in one of her many confessions, she summed up her motives simply. I was tired of taking care of them. Just cold. It's just a cold heart.
Starting point is 00:36:53 So sickening. But she could not be tried as an adult. Spanish law wouldn't allow it as she was only 12 years old and under the age of being criminally responsible. So instead, the judge ordered that Piedad be committed indefinitely to the Catholic institution called Las Obladas. Basically a covent, not a prison, which is what she should have been in, my God. And it was here behind these walls that one of the youngest serial killers in all of history would grow up. But she didn't rebel. She didn't lash out. In fact, the nuns described her as very social.
Starting point is 00:37:25 She even took up knitting, which she devoted a significant portion of her spare time to. So this wasn't the behavior of a child that was racked with guilt. It was something else entirely. She just did not care about anything other than herself. And as years passed, Pieda just settled into the life at the coven. And she often would speak about her future, the possibility of moving in with her aunt lowly, a quiet woman who lived alone and had no children of her own. Thank God. And in time, Piadad would be released. And there's no definitive answer of what happened after her time at Las Obeleras.
Starting point is 00:37:59 Some believe that she assumed a new identity. Others believe that she became a nun at Las Alas, but she seemingly just vanished. Leaving us to wonder what became of one of Spain's and the world's most juvenile offenders. So Amarjit, Jasmine, and Piadad, three names etched into the shadows of true crime history, All of which took the lives of others. It's just unimaginable and leaves questions behind that society still struggles to answer. What makes a child kill? Are these stories of nature or nurture?
Starting point is 00:38:33 Are children actually born different or broken or cold? Was the systems that they were raised in what failed them, what caused them to do what they did? Amarjit never knew stability. Jasmine grew up in safety, but fell under the spell of fantasy and obsession. And Piedad was crushed under the world. weight of adult responsibility long before she was old enough to read. So three children, three psychological profiles. One sadistic with no understanding of morality, one rebellious and emotionally stunted, and one highly intelligent but void of empathy, all of which society didn't know what to
Starting point is 00:39:10 do with. So the question remains when a child takes a life, who is held accountable? The child, the family, the society and circumstances that made them, or maybe we just don't have the right answer yet. I have no idea. I don't know. But I do know that this one was highly disturbing. And if you made it to the end, I appreciate you. I hope you're staying safe out there. Let me know what other cases you guys want me to go over down below. And until next time, I will see you a beautiful face. Okay, stay safe out there. Bye.

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