Crime Junkie - CAPTURED: Allan Showery

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

This year’s Halloween’s special is the story of a woman whose tragic murder almost went unsolved… until a tip came in from the last person police expected.  For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/captured-allan-showery/

Hi Crime Junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Britt. And the story I have for you today is about a woman who was murdered inside her Chicago high-rides. There were no witnesses, and her killer left behind no trace. The case seemed destined to remain unsolved, until a tip came in from a source that, still, over 40 years later, is almost possible to believe, but also impossible not to. This is the story of Teresita Bassa. It's just before 9 p.m. on the night of February 21, 1977, and firefighters are racing to the

scene of a fire in a high-rise building on Chicago's north side, not far from Lincoln Park. The building's janitor, who called in the fire, had said that one of the building's 15th floor residents had reported smelling smoke, so when they arrived to the scene, the janitor takes them straight up to 15. And there's smoke all right. According to John O'Brien's reporting for the Chicago Tribune, the entire hallway is full of heavy smoke.

It doesn't take long to identify where exactly the fire is coming from. They can see the smoke billowing out from around the door of apartment 15B. The door to that unit is locked, but thankfully, the janitor is right there with a key to let them in. Two firefighters crawl along the floor to the bedroom where they find the source of the blaze, a mattress, and not on the bed, but on the floor at the foot of the bed. Well they can't hear anyone, and based on their initial pass through the apartment, they don't think there's anyone home, so they're focusing all their energy on getting

the fire under control. According to Colin Wilson's book, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved, it only takes firefighters a few minutes to put out the blaze and start opening the windows to try and clear the smoke from the air so they can try and figure out what exactly happened here. And once the smoke does start to clear and they can actually see what they're doing, they see that the mattress is laying perfectly flat on the floor. So they lift up the corner to start to move it, and they see a pile of women's clothing underneath, which they start to kick aside before they realize, holy crap, it's not

just clothing, there is a body under the mattress. Lying flat, eyes pointed at the ceiling is the body of a woman. She's naked with her arms bent up at the elbows, her hands on either side of her head and her legs spread apart. The fire had burned most of her hair and even the skin on her face, so it's not super obvious who she is or even how old she is. What's more obvious is how she died, and not from the fire, but from the wooden-handled butcher's knife still embedded in the exact center of her chest.

They blast a few still smoldering pieces of clothing with a fire extinguisher and slowly back away from the scene, because this is more than just a residential fire, this is now a crime scene, so they call in homicide detectives who arrive not long after and pretty quickly identify their victim as the resident of that apartment, 47-year-old Teresita Bassa. Just based on their initial gut read of the crime scene, the detectives suspect that Teresita had been the victim of a sexual assault in addition to her murder. The fact that she is found naked, and I think a lot just because of the position that I describe that she was found in, is what makes it look like sexual assault.

And interestingly, while the apartment looked as though it had been ransacked, when detectives actually start looking around, they don't find anything missing, which kind of makes robbery an unlikely motive. So the fire was more of like a destroy all the evidence sort of thing then? Yeah, that's what police are thinking. But despite their best efforts to find fingerprints or other evidence that might help lead them to the killer, the fire worked. Any prints that might have been there were totally destroyed.

The only piece of possible evidence that police find at the scene is this note, it's one that Teresita had written to herself. According to an Ebony Magazine article by John O'Brien and Edward Bauman, police found it in her diary, which I think refers to more of one of those like daily agendas that used to find in kind of like the olden days. Okay, not everyone uses Google Calendar all the time. And that's true. My sister still uses those, but I guess I just meant like it's not one of those ones

even lock on where she's like journaling like about her feelings like a deer diary kind of situation. It's more like a planner. Exactly. So in this planner diary, whatever, they find this note that just says, quote, get concert tickets for AS, end quote. And who is AS and why do investigators think that this is like incredibly significant? Well, so they don't have an idea who AS is.

And truthfully, they don't even know if this is significant. But literally at this point, this is the only thing that they have. So they're just trying to like go on something here. Right. Like they don't even know what is and isn't evidence at this point. And I mean, they still have like an autopsy to go through and like, hopefully that tells them something. So when I was looking, I couldn't find anything out there about what the autopsy results

actually told them, except for one thing that stood out. And it's something that throws detectives for a loop. Because when the autopsy comes back, it shows that Teresita had in fact not been sexually assaulted that night. In fact, the autopsy report showed that she had never had sex before ever. Oh, so the motive wasn't sexual assault, then what happened? That's exactly what police want to know. So their next move is to track down and talk to the people who knew Teresita, you know,

friends, former boyfriends, coworkers, acquaintances, and try to start piecing together a profile of who she was and her last movements. Police learn that Teresita had moved to the U.S. from the Philippines in the mid sixties, like a little over a decade ago at this point. And according to a piece by Margaret Roberts in the Chicago Tribune, she was actually a member of the Philippine aristocracy. Oh, that's interesting. Like, would that have made her a target, do they think?

Not that I can tell. And in fact, the more conversations detectives have, the more they realize that this woman didn't have any enemies, like at all. She worked at a local hospital as like a respiratory therapist and had a great reputation. Her colleagues there told police that Teresita was extremely dedicated and cared deeply about her patients. And outside of work hours, she liked to entertain and have friends over to her place frequently, like enough that she would keep beer and like a nice bottle of scotch on hand for guests,

even though she herself didn't drink. But most of her time was spent either studying or teaching piano lessons. Apparently, the respiratory therapy was kind of like a side hustle for her. She was actually working toward a doctorate in music, and this girl was writing a book. Oh, so she's like really accomplished. Oh, yeah. Really caring and giving and like a person you want to be friends with, it sounds like. Yeah.

Is there anyone that she was seeing at the time that she was murdered that the police could talk to? Maybe? No. So I mentioned they talked to like ex-boyfriends, stuff like that, but I couldn't find any mention of a current boyfriend, but she did have guy friends. And so police wonder if maybe one of them had visited her on the night that she was murdered. And they really start to think this because as they talk to more and more people, police

learn that Teresita had spoken to a couple of friends on the phone the very night she was killed. And the first was Dr. John Abela, who says that he called Teresita at about 10 after 7 to talk about the tickets that they were selling to this upcoming concert. And he tells police that while they're on the phone, Teresita actually excused herself long enough to go answer the door. And she didn't tell him who was at the door, but he says that Teresita mentioned it was someone there to buy tickets.

And the other person Teresita spoke with on the phone that night was this woman named Ruth, who worked with Teresita at the hospital. Ruth tells detectives that she talked to Teresita for like 20 minutes between 7.30 and 7.50. And during that conversation, Teresita mentioned having a male visitor over that night. But again, she doesn't say who. So you mean this visitor was there with Teresita at the apartment when Ruth had called? I don't know. So the source material doesn't say one way or another, but this does raise a few questions

for me because either that visitor who came earlier when she was talking to the doctor was there just like hanging around on her couch while she had this 20 minute conversation, or she had a second visitor who had come and gone or was coming after the call ended. Either way, we know Teresita was alive at 7.50 and the fire was reported at 8.40, which leaves a pretty narrow window for the murder to happen. Right, and did any of her neighbors see anyone come and go that night? If anyone does see another person come or go from Teresita's apartment, I don't think police hear about it.

Despite weeks of investigation, dozens of interviews, police don't uncover a single viable lead. With no fingerprints, no physical evidence to test, no security footage to watch, and no leads to follow, by the end of April, their case is pretty much at a standstill. May comes and goes, and June and July, and investigators are starting to worry that they might never find their killer. But then, in early August, one of the detectives investigating the case comes into work to find a note on his desk, and the note asks him to call an officer from another Illinois

police department about the Teresita Bossa case. And he's surprised, but not like mad about it, at least this is something. Right, like a lead or a tip is something, like it's not nothing. He'll take anything at this point. So he calls this other officer who says, you need to reach out to this guy, Dr. Jose Chua. He told us that he has information on this case that you're working. So the detective's like, okay, cool, what information? But the officer on the other end of the line is like super cagey, like you won't provide

any details, won't share anything, just you need to call this guy about your case. Okay, that sounds super sketchy, like is he suggesting to talk to this guy as a suspect or something? Nope, that's not even the thing. He's not even saying enough for the officer to note that. He's like just talk to him like end of story. And is this Jose Chua a name that we've heard before in this case at least? Nope, nope, they have no idea who he is.

They find out he's a surgeon and he lives in Skokie, which is like a Chicago suburb. But vague or not, again, this is the first potential lead they've had in months. So they decide to check it out. So on August 5th, five months after the murder, one of the detectives heads out to Skokie to see this guy. There he meets Jose and his wife, Remy, both of whom it turns out are also from the Philippines. According to more of John O'Brien's reporting for the Tribune, at first the Chua's are really quiet, kind of cagey, just like that cop from before.

Almost like they don't want to talk, even though they were the ones who reached out to police in the first place. And the read that this cop is getting on them is almost like they seem embarrassed. The detective just tries to make conversation, tries to make them feel more comfortable, and eventually Jose says, listen, I'm a doctor, I'm trained to accept things that I can't explain. But he says that the story he's about to tell is so bizarre and so off the wall that he almost didn't say anything in the first place.

And listen, this is a lot of build up for the detective, but the detective's like, I've been doing this job a long time. In Chicago, where weird stuff happens all the time, like day in, day out, try me. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine there's much he hasn't seen or heard before. Well, he may have thought he'd heard it all before, but then Jose starts talking. Jose tells the detective about this one night several weeks ago when his wife, Remy, had been feeling kind of under the weather. She went to their bedroom to lie down, and after a little while, he went in to check

on her. He says that something about her seemed off. And she was lying there in bed, kind of like staring blankly off into space. So he said he asked his wife what was wrong, but the voice that answered wasn't her voice. Like it was coming from her mouth and everything, it just wasn't her. He tells detectives that his wife, or this voice, spoke to him in Tagalog, which at the time was the official language of the Philippines. But it had this really bizarre Spanish accent.

But Remy, his wife, is Filipino too, right? Did she not speak Tagalog? She totally did. They both did. But Jose said that Remy always spoke English to him, and that when she did speak in their native language, it was never with a Spanish accent. Okay, but what did she say? It's not clear what exactly she's saying at first.

Apparently, Remy seemed kind of incoherent. And so he asked her, what's your name? And he was shocked when Remy spoke again in that same strange accent as before. And the voice said, I am Teresita Bassa. Now at the time, Jose says that he didn't have a clue who Teresita Bassa was. He had never heard that name before in his life. But the voice persisted. She kept saying her name was Teresita Bassa and that she'd been murdered and that she

needed help. Help with what? Capturing the killer. Now, the source material differs on how this part of the story unfolds. But the version Colin Wilson provides in his book says that this episode was over pretty quickly. And when she like snapped out of it, Remy had no knowledge of what had just happened. And so Jose kind of tried to just like brush it off as something just strange, like a one

off delirium, kind of like a fever dream if you've ever had one of those. But Jose tells the detective that then two days later, it happened again. Only this time, he says, the voice of Teresita Bassa told him that a man had come into her apartment and stabbed her. Okay, like we kind of already know that, but who? Well this time he has a name, Alan Showery. Alan Showery, like A-S? A-S, what was written in her diary.

Jose tells the detective that this so-called voice of Teresita said that Alan was a friend of hers. He'd come to her door that night and she'd let him in herself. And had police spoken to anyone named Alan during their investigation so far? They hadn't, which I have to think would be fueling the detective's skepticism about Jose's whole story. So the detective like actually tries poking some holes in this, like he knows the detail of the crime that the public doesn't.

So he asks Jose, did the voice like mention anything about sexual assault? But Jose says no, she didn't mention any sexual assault, just that she'd been stabbed. Okay, but that's like a 50-50 chance of him getting it right or wrong. It doesn't really prove anything. No, no, of course not. But if he'd answered yes to that question and said that she talked about sexual assault, the detective would have known like this is BS and he could have just called it. But listen, the discussion isn't over here because Jose tells the detective that the

voice came back again a third time. But this time she was even more insistent about Jose telling police that Alan Chowrey was her killer. She was pleading for help by this time. But Jose says, again, he was like, I can't go to the police with this, like they're gonna need proof. And so he says that the voice gave him proof. He says Teresita told him, again, through his wife, that while Alan was at her apartment

that night, he stole some jewelry. Wait, did police even know that? I thought they went to the apartment and hadn't found that anything was missing. No, you're right. They hadn't found that anything was missing. But Jose tells them that the voice of Teresita actually described the jewelry in detail. It's kind of like small pieces. So unless the police knew what they were looking for, I don't know, they would have noticed

that they were gone. It's not like all the jewelry was gone. It was like one or two specific pieces. Exactly. That she used to wear. So the voice says that the killer had stolen a pearl cocktail ring and a jade pendant and that he had given both of those things to his girlfriend. The voice went on to say that one of those pieces had been a gift between her parents.

So Jose tells the detective that he again tried to challenge the voice saying, okay, well, like, how do we know that it's your jewelry, even if I find something like this? And the story as it appears in Colin Wilson's unsolved book is that Teresita's voice said, quote, my cousins, Ron Samara and Ken Bassa could identify it. So could my friends, Richard Pisodi and Ray King, end quote. And then apparently the voice even provided Ron's phone number. Before this voice left his wife's body for the last time, she said, quote, Al came to fix my television and he killed me and burned me.

Tell the police, end quote. At this point, the detective's head is spinning. Jose's story is completely bonkers, but also what if it's true? Yeah, I mean, I know you said that Jose didn't know Teresita, but is there any chance that his wife, Remy, did? Well, Remy at least knew of Teresita, though the two weren't close friends or anything. Apparently Remy had worked at the same hospital as Teresita for a while, doing the same job actually.

But John O'Brien reported that the only time Remy recalled meeting Teresita was at an orientation session two years earlier in 75, and after that they worked different shifts and by the time these possessions, if that's what you want to call them, started happening, Remy was no longer even working there. But there's something about the Chewis and their story that makes the detective think that the lead is at least worth pursuing and it might just be the fact that they've had nothing else up to this point. So they run a background check on this Alan guy and what they discover is that he and

Teresita did know one another. They actually worked together at the hospital. While sources differ on his actual job, some describe him as like an orderly, others say respiratory technician, they agree that they had in fact worked together. And Alan also lived just four blocks from Teresita's building. The police's background check also brings up a criminal record. No convictions, but several arrests over the last 10 plus years for things like burglary, theft, and sexual assault.

Two sexual assaults, actually, both of which were alleged to have happened inside the victim's apartments. Okay, but Teresita wasn't sexually assaulted. She wasn't, you're right, but her murder had been staged as a sexual assault. Well listen, his prior arrests are just part of the story. According to a 1990 episode of Unsolved Mysteries called Voice from the Grave, police also learned from speaking to some of Teresita's colleagues that he was supposed to go to her apartment the night of her murder to fix her TV.

So detectives decide that, you know what, maybe we should just set aside the way this lead came in and we should go see Alan. They arrive at his apartment late in the evening on August 11th. Alan is home with his girlfriend at the time and according to a Chicago Today article by Ray Johnson, they say, we think you might be able to help us with this murder investigation we're working on. Would you mind coming down to the station to answer a few questions? Once they get down there, Alan tells detectives that yes, he did know Teresita and it's true,

he made plans to go to her apartment to repair TV, but he said, I actually never made it. In fact, I'd never even been to her apartment before ever. And does he have an alibi? Yeah, Alan says that he was home that night for dinner and then around 7.30 he and his girlfriend ended up at a neighbor's place for the evening, like drinking and playing darts and he says, actually, that's why he didn't end up going. He just like totally forgot that he'd agreed to go to her house to fix her TV. So detectives are like, okay, cool.

And so they ask him like, hey, do you mind giving us some fingerprints to compare to some that we found at the scene? That way we can like rule you out fair and square and you can be on your way. Now, of course they don't have fingerprints, but like Alan doesn't know that. So he immediately changes his story. He says, well, you know, actually, I lied before I have in fact been to Teresita's house, but it was so long ago, like at least several months ago. That seems convenient.

Yeah. And then his story changes again and he says, actually, you know, I did go to Teresita's house that night to repair the TV, just like that coworker at the hospital had told you. But I was only there for like a few minutes and he says that he didn't end up repairing the TV because he hadn't brought whatever tools or plans or whatever he needed to actually do it. Okay. So we've gone from, I've never been to her apartment to I was there, but it's been

months to yeah, I was actually there that night she was murdered. That seems like a lot of different versions of something called truth. Too many versions. So police decide to just pause the questioning and see if maybe his girlfriend whose name is Yanka might be able to help shed a little light on the situation. So they call her up and she tells them that she does remember the night of the murder because she very distinctly remembers hearing the fire trucks scream past the apartment window on their way to put the fire out.

She tells them that she was out doing some shopping and Alan was at home and she remembers that he'd actually come home early that day, but she doesn't know anything about him going to fix someone's TV or you know, she didn't even know that he knew how to fix the TV. So they decide to ask Yanka if Alan happened to give her any jewelry lately. And she says, huh, funny, you should ask. He had given her a couple of pieces of jewelry back in February. What he says was a late Christmas present.

So immediately they ask her to gather up all of her jewelry, everything she owns and meet them at the police station. Then they call two of Teresita's family members, the ones that Jose had mentioned would be able to identify the jewelry and they asked them to come down to the station too. The first thing detectives notice when Yanka walks through the door is the ring on her finger, an antique pearl cocktail ring, exactly like the one Jose had described, exactly like the one Teresita described to him.

And when her relatives arrived, they quickly confirmed that both a jade pendant necklace and the cocktail ring both belonged to Teresita 100%. When police confront Alan with this information, he insists they've got it all wrong that he just bought the ring and the necklace at a pawn shop and he'd forgot to get a receipt of course, but he doesn't push that defense for very long. And within a few minutes, he's asking police if he can please speak to his girlfriend. And Brent, I'm going to get you to read from a Chicago Tribune story about what Alan says to Yanka.

He said, quote, honey, I am very sorry, but our relationship is over. We've had a great seven years, but I am responsible for Miss Bassa's death. I don't want you to wait for me because I am not coming back. I want you to sell the furniture and make a good life for our child, end quote. So he confesses, yeah, Alan tells police that the whole television thing was bang on. He had gone over that evening to fix Teresita's TV, but for whatever reason, whether he didn't have the right tools or couldn't do it or whatever, he ended up leaving pretty soon after.

He says that he was on his way back to his apartment when he came up with a plan to rob and kill her just because he felt like it. He tells police that he needed the money that he was like behind on bills, like rent and utilities. And in the past, when he'd done things to help Teresita out, she'd given him pretty generous tips. So he just like assumed she had money. So Alan tells police that he went back to Teresita's place that night.

She let him in and when she turned her back to lock the door, he quickly wrapped his arm around her neck from behind and held it there until she passed out and stopped struggling. Then he undressed her and staged the scene to make it look like a sexual assault, grabbed a knife from the kitchen to stab her in the chest and then pulled the mattress from the bed and set it on fire in an effort to cover the whole thing up. Okay, but what else did he take besides those two pieces of jewelry? $30. Brett.

What? $30. That's it. He didn't even walk away with enough for police to notice that anything was missing, that the place had been robbed. Yeah, I was just about to say like, how could he have taken anything because they basically said nothing was taken? Because you wouldn't know if $30 was gone.

That's not even enough to pay his rent and utilities. At this point, Alan signs a written confession at which point, I mean, I kind of picture these two detectives like thanking their lucky stars that this truly bonkers case is closed and no one has to hear about what started them down this road to Alan in the first place. But then when it comes time for the real show in court, Alan pleads not guilty to murder. What? He confessed. He says the confession was coerced that first of all, he didn't agree to be questioned

that night at all. He says that he was given no choice in the matter. And second, the only reason he confessed to killing Teresita was because police said that if he didn't, they were going to put his girlfriend in prison as an accessory to the crime and she was eight months pregnant at the time. I mean, there's a pretty decent amount of circumstantial evidence against this guy, even without the confession. Yeah, but there wasn't any physical evidence, which is the other thing Alan's team says

before they even get to trial when they're trying to convince the judge to drop the charges. They say that the entirety of the case against him is based on this ridiculous story about a ghost, but the prosecution says that the so-called voice, the ghost, whatever you want to call it, that initial tip was just that it was an initial tip, but everything that followed all of the evidence, circumstantial or not, that they collected against Alan was done independently and had nothing to do with the supernatural. And ultimately, the court agrees. Rob Warden quoted the judge in a Washington Post article saying, quote, I see no reason

to restrict the investigatory power of the police. Whether they believed the voices or not, they had to check it out, end quote. But when Alan's case goes to trial, the jury, frankly, the jury doesn't know what to make of it, which is why, after hearing from 33 witnesses over the course of eight days, they can't come to a conclusion. Half of them think Alan is guilty, and the other half feel there's enough reasonable doubt not to convict him of murder, so the judge declares a mistrial and orders a second murder trial.

But before that could even begin, and against the advice of his lawyers, Alan makes the surprising decision to this time plead guilty. The judge sentences him to 14 years for the murder and four years each for armed robbery and arson. According to John O'Brien's trial coverage in the Tribune, those sentences will run concurrently, and under Illinois law, that makes him eligible for parole after serving just over half the sentence. I can feel this guy's guilty conscience, like, from here.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's why he plead guilty the second time. He was just like, just make it stop. Right. So has anyone ever proved the whole voice from the grave thing wrong? Like, is there any other explanation for that whole thing? Well, I mean, no one's ever proved it wrong, but there are definitely skeptics out there. Alan's attorney brought up a bunch of stuff at his trial about Remi in particular and about how she may have had an axe to grind with Alan.

Or what? Well, there may have been some bad blood between Remi and Alan. Coverage in the Kenosha News says that Remi and Alan worked together against same hospital, same small, tight-knit department for over a year, and their colleagues said that Alan and Remi would have known each other from working, quote, hand-in-hand, day-in and day-out, end quote. There were reports from other hospital colleagues that Alan had complained about the quality of Remi's work, which ultimately led to her being fired from her job for disobedience

and absenteeism. And apparently this first episode of Teresita's voice speaking through Remi happened the day after she got a crank call that she blamed Alan for, and just hours after she found out about being fired. I mean, that might explain the why, but it doesn't explain where the actual information came from. It's an explanation for how she could have known about the jewelry and, like, even who might be able to identify it.

Well, the truth is no one really knows. Skeptics tend to think that Remi actually came by the details of the crime and Alan's involvement, like through mutual friends or coworkers or whatever. I mean, she definitely had the time to do that. It was, like, what, like six months after the murder that she claimed these episodes started? Right, yeah. Okay, but then why bother with the whole ghost of Teresita story at all?

Like, why not just take the information to the authorities anonymously? Well, I mean, one theory, and it kind of came up during trial, is that Remi was scared of Alan, though, like, it's not super clear why. Like, it might have just been, like, a vibe or something. But if that is the case, then maybe this whole thing about Teresita speaking through her could have been a way for her to say that she knew something without, like, her actually saying what she knew. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me, but, like, it makes her feel like a little bit removed

from it, potentially in her mind, I don't know. Right, right. And I'm going to say something that is probably an unpopular opinion, but were the Chewis ever investigated for Teresita's murder? Well, the defense certainly tried to suggest that, and even went so far as to say that Remi actually sold Teresita's jewelry to Alan, unknowingly on his end, I presume, as part of this whole, like, witch hunt that she was on. It's not spelled out in the source material for this case, so I can't say with certainty

that they were truly investigated, but authorities did say that they were confident that the Chewis had no involvement whatsoever in Teresita's murder. So I don't know what they did to clear them, but they were completely ruled out. Okay. So this case has been bonkers, actually. Like, where do people land on it today? Like, do people believe that Teresita came back from the dead to name her killer, or what?

There's skeptics, and there are believers, and then there are skeptical believers. And actually, one of the detectives who investigated the murder, the one who actually spoke to the Chewis that day and heard their story firsthand, he kind of falls into the latter category. He says that he isn't sure he believes the Chewis story, but that the evidence collected as a result, that doesn't lie. On the list of believers are people who claim that they, too, have been visited by the ghost of Teresita Bassa.

Carol Mercado published a book on the case in 1979, and she told reporter Elaine Graybill from the Sunday Pentagraph about a couple of truly weird happenings during the course of her work. Like how an editor who had been making notes on the manuscript walked into her office one day to find those pages spinning around on her desk. And Carol herself said that while she was working on the book, she'd get these strange phone calls where there would just be silence on the other end, and she thought that was the spirit of Teresita.

And listen, who knows if it's true or not, but what if it is true? I actually have one more Teresita ghost story to tell you guys. Now this is just a post I found on the Reddit Paranormal forum, so take it with a grain of salt, of course, but Britt, I'm going to get you to read this for us. Okay, so in August 2020, a user named ZuluMonkey wrote, quote, I have kept this to myself for quite some time, but I guess I'm ready to share this creepy story. A few months ago, I dreamed I was in a big city, somewhere in the American Midwest. I was walking around the downtown area when I met this middle-aged woman.

She looked Asian to me. We'd chit chat a bit as if we both know each other. After a day or two, I've read a news headline about the mysterious death of, quote, Teresita Bassa, end quote. The same woman whom I've met in the earlier part of my dream. And then I woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in cold sweat. I thought it was just a random bad dream and I shrugged it off. I went back to sleep and had a different dream, thank God.

When I woke up the following day, I can still remember the details of my dream, even the name of the victim. I googled it and I got goosebumps. How is this even possible? Just a few notes. One, I am not related to this person. Two, I have never read her story online until after I dreamt about her. Three, I've never been to the USA.

The closest I've been to the US was at the Niagara Falls Canada horseshoe side. Four, I'm currently residing in Manila, Philippines. Obviously, I live on the other side of the planet, end quote. That is so creepy. And again, you can write whatever you want online, but if it's true, that's a long time after she was murdered and it almost seems like Teresita still has something to say. But Teresita's body is buried in the Philippines, on Negroes Island in her hometown of Dumaghet.

And listen, at the end of the day, with this story, frankly, I don't know what to believe. Are there alternative explanations for how Remi came to suspect Alan for the murder? Other ways she could have gotten information that ultimately led police to him, sure. But could the ghost of Teresita Bassa have come back to tell the world what really happened? I mean, you better believe that if I was ever murdered and police couldn't find my killer, I would be trying to find a way back from the grave to make sure they knew who did it. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram, at CrimeJunkie Podcast.

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode, but stick around for prepped of the month. CrimeJunkie is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think Chuck, do you approve? Okay Ashley, would you like to tell our listeners your specific request for this month's prepped of the month? I did, I said is there any way you could find a Halloween themed prepped of the month? You also specifically said, can you find a prepped who has returned as a ghost? Oh yeah, that sounds like me too.

So I couldn't find any ghost dogs, couple dogs named ghost, but I did find a prepped whose gotcha story is still on theme. So this is the story of how our listener Carrie met her prepped Jasper. So it was the night of Halloween in 2018, and Carrie and her husband went to her sister in law's house to trick or treat with all the kids of the family and hang out for the holiday. And when they were getting ready to head out, you know, to all the candy fun, this scraggly little dog showed up.

And he seemed really skittish around all the adults, but he also was super interested and comfortable around all the littles who were all decked out, you know, in their little costumes and everything, which is honestly the best part of Halloween in my opinion. It was just kind of this random stray, and every time they tried to catch him, he would run away. And they eventually lost sight of him and the family had, you know, big plans to rake in some candy that night. So they went about their merry way.

Now when they came back from their trick or treating, that same little scrappy dog was waiting on the front porch for them a treat. I know. And as the kids went in for like, I don't know how you guys did it growing up, Ashley, but like the candy swap where like you dump everything out and like, I'll take the twizzlers if you take my like Skittles type thing. So we did candy swap, but like you and I weren't allowed to trick or treat. Don't fool people.

I wasn't going to say it out loud, but like we definitely still did the candy swap from like our very, very tame Christian harvest party situation. Church event. The candy swap. We're all familiar with it. Okay. We're all on board. And while the kids did that, the adults, which sounds like so much fun, watched a scary

movie outside on a projector altogether. And when they did that, this little scrappy little mutt sidled up to Carrie and her husband on a blanket and stayed there the entire movie, which is just like so adorable. So Carrie's sister-in-law was like, I'll keep him for a couple of days, you know, hit up the Facebook, lost and found pets things like I'll try to find his, his family. And after a couple of days, there was just nothing. And she couldn't keep him anymore. So Carrie is like, well, we'll take him for a couple of days.

Sure, Carrie. Yeah. So Carrie takes him to the vet too, just to see if he has a chip, no chip. And when the vet is checking him out, he's like, what's the dog's name? And Carrie is like, oh, his name's Jasper. Oh, okay. Completely like randomly, she's like, I felt like his name started with a J. Felt in her soul.

And when the vet asked, I just said Jasper. And then Jasper was ours. And so the vet did a whole work up and he wasn't in good shape. He was very underweight. He had hookworms, he had heartworm, and he was like devoured by fleas. And so they got him in treatment. And as of November, 2020, he is completely heartworm free. He has no more hookworms, no more fleas, and he's gained a healthy eight pounds.

Now you're Chuck, eight pounds is nothing. I was just going to say, how big is this dog? Because Chuck literally has gained like 20 pounds and I can't tell. So Jasper is a Chihuahua pug mix. So eight pounds is like life giving. Oh. Yeah. So he is living his best life.

And actually, I'm going to send you a picture right now that will be on theme and will be on our website because it is just so cute and he is the happiest pup in the world right now. He's in a little pumpkin hat. He is in a little pumpkin hat. So he is their little Halloween miracle. He has had some behavioral issues. He was super afraid of the ocean and they live in a sea town, which was kind of an issue,

but he recently made a visit and loved it and ran up and down the beach like the free spirit he is. And I just love Jasper and like the fact that his little personality is coming out now. And you know, he's been with Carrie and her husband now for three years. And I just think it's an adorable story. He's really become the light of their lives, Carrie said. And again, there's this super festive pic that's going to be on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com, as well as a link to the foresight humane society, which is local to Jasper and his

family and a rescue that Carrie wanted us to shout out. So be sure to check that out. And Ashley, you look like you want to say something. Well, yeah, I also want to say before we leave that if anyone has been visited by the ghost of their dog, I would love to hear about it. I was going to say, as soon as I said that we don't have any ghosty dog stories, I feel like we're going to get like 500 ghost dog stories. I hope they come flooding it.

I need to know that when Charlie moves out one day, he will come back and visit. So give me hope, you guys. I feel like he'll come back and visit you in a good way. And when I stay at your house, he'll come back and visit me and be like, why are you sleeping in my bed? Why are you still sleeping in my bed?