MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Dead Ringer

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Today’s podcast will feature 3 horror stories that will have even you questioning your own identity. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "Bamboozled" -- The odds of this ever happening again, are basically zero (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/vj_auGTlcLA?feature=shared)#2 -- "Lucky Shot" -- A shot in a famous episode of a hit TV show has massive ripple effects (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/M1D-WfCQ7Fs?feature=shared)#1 -- "Familiar Face" -- One selfie changed 2 girl's lives forever (Original YouTube link -- https://youtu.be/XxrnuiotrN0?feature=shared)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three horror stories that will have even you questioning your own identity. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

The first story you'll hear is called Bamboozled and the odds of this thing ever happening again are basically zero. The second story you'll hear is called Lucky Shot and it's about how a particular scene in a hit TV show had massive ripple effects after it was re-examined. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Familiar Face, and it's about how one selfie changed two girls' lives forever. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we

do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please give the Amazon Music Follow button a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle for their birthday, but before you hand it over, make sure you've secretly removed one of the pieces. Okay, let's get into our be honest. Andy. Number one. Colin. Number two, I take that. Judy. Judy three, I'm happy to be above Judy. I don't even put me above Judy. Judy's a better person than me. I don't think I'm putting you above Judy. I think you're in at number three, I was being polite. And I will, there are other Murrays out there, so I will absolutely take that. But number one on your list was Andy Murray, so saying as he was number one on your list, we'll scrap the idea of doing a

three-part podcast on me. And your sports career. Yeah, and instead we'll do it in Andy Murray, the hunt for the Holy Grail, which is of course his first Wimbledon. I'd quite like to do a three-part series on your sports career. Age 12, Belfast and Colin Murray can't find his boot bag. It would be awful. This one isn't though, it'll be great. Because Andy Murray winning Wimbledon

was one of those seismic moments in our lifetime in sport. Yeah, huge. And so much to talk about in this three-part series. So subscribe on Wondery Plus or wherever you get your podcasts. We are the hosts of Red Handed, a weekly true crime podcast. Every week on Red Handed, we get stuck into the most talked about cases. From the Idaho student killings, the Delphi murders and our recent rundown of the Murdock Saga. Last year, we also started a second weekly show, Shorthand, which is just an excuse for

us to talk about anything we find interesting because it's our show and we can do what we like. We've covered the death of Princess Diana, an unholy Quran written in Saddam Hussein's blood, the gruesome history of European witch hunting, and the very uncomfortable phenomenon of genetic sexual attraction. Whatever the case, we want to know what pushes people to the extremes of human behavior. Like, can someone give consent to be cannibalized? What drives a child to kill?

And what's the psychology of a terrorist? Listen to Red Handed wherever you get your podcasts and access our bonus shorthand episodes exclusively on Amazon Music or by subscribing to Wondry Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondry app. On a sunny afternoon in October of 2015, a 39-year-old man named Richard Jones walked along the perimeter of the yard inside of the state prison in Kansas, where Richard was serving time for a robbery. Up ahead, Richard could see there was a small basketball court with one hoop on it, and

on the blacktop were dozens of other inmates that were exercising and chatting and socializing, and Richard actually knew most of them because he had been in prison for 16 years now, and Richard was also a very likeable guy who was very outgoing and personable, and so he made friends really easily, even in prison. And so as Richard continued his walk in the direction of the basketball court, he saw one of the guys on the blacktop broke free from the group and began moving towards Richard. And Richard immediately recognized who it was. It was his good friend Steve.

And Richard was about to give him a friendly wave when he noticed Steve looked really mad. And so Richard actually just stopped and stared at Steve as he slowly approached him. And as he got closer, Richard could see Steve's fists were balled up and his face was in a scowl. I mean Steve looked like he was coming over to fight Richard and so when Steve got about 10 feet away from Richard, Richard actually spoke up before Steve could say anything and he said Steve what's going on why are you so upset? Steve was kind of a hothead and Richard knew that but a lot of times even when he got mad about things it would blow over really quickly and so was kind of routine, but Richard just couldn't think of a reason for why Steve would be mad at him. And so Steve walks right up to Richard and he goes, oh,

so now you want to talk to me. Richard was immediately confused and kind of turned his head sideways and was like, what? Steve stared at Richard kind of expecting Richard to eventually apologize or something, but eventually he noticed that Richard, kind of expecting Richard to eventually apologize or something, but eventually he noticed that Richard really was not sure what he was talking about, and so Steve was like, this morning I went up to you at the cafeteria line, I tried to talk to you, and you completely blew me off and walked away in front of a big group of people. That really embarrassed me and made me look bad. And Richard was like, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I didn't even see you this morning. I don't know where this is coming from. Steve was not buying it. And he was like, Richard, I know it was you. I saw you this morning. I spoke to you this morning. You did that. And Richard was like, no, really, Steve, I'm sorry. I have no idea what this is about. And so these two continued to go back and forth, back and forth on this, and then at some point they both kind of noticed that they were drawing lots of attention because they are in prison and any sort of confrontation immediately draws eyeballs. And so when they noticed other inmates were kind of beginning to walk over to see what was going on, and the guards were starting to notice, Steve just said, you know what,

Richard, fine, I guess I must have made a mistake, mistake no big deal and he turned and he ran back to the basketball court after Steve had left Richard continued his walk around the perimeter but that exchange with Steve had really weirded him out because this was actually not the first time something like this had happened it all started a month ago when an inmate that Richard didn't know came up to him like he definitely knew him and said to Richard, you know, hey, how's your grandmother? I heard she fell down, you know, is she okay? And at first Richard was like, wait a minute, is my grandmother okay? Did she fall? But then Richard eventually realized that this inmate thought Richard was

someone that he wasn't. Now, at first Richard thought this was just kind of like a weird one-off event but every few days after this first time something else would happen. Either an inmate who Richard didn't know would come up to him and be really friendly with him as if they knew Richard but Richard clearly didn't know them or someone Richard did know would come up to him and accuse him of odd behavior that Richard couldn't remember doing like like the interaction he had with Steve when Steve came up and said, you know, you stum me in the lunch line. And so after Richard's interaction with Steve, Richard began to think, you know, wait a minute, is someone screwing with me?

Is that what's been going on? The next morning during breakfast, Richard decided not to sit where he normally did. And instead he sat on the very far side in the corner of the cafeteria to basically just be able to people watch all the people inside the cafeteria. And then that afternoon, when Richard was outside, instead of walking around the perimeter like he liked to do, he just sat in a central location and just constantly scanned the whole yard. Now, Richard didn't really know what he was

actually looking for, he just figured you know maybe I'll see something suspicious, I'll see someone staring at me for too long, or I'll see someone I don't know talking to my friends, you know something will tip me off to what's been going on for the past couple of weeks. But despite all this careful people watching he was doing, Richard didn't see anything suspicious. Despite all this careful people watching he was doing, Richard didn't see anything suspicious. Until one week after the interaction Richard had with Steve about snubbing him in the lunch line, Richard was sitting in the cafeteria again when he noticed something very strange on the other side of the cafeteria. And when he saw it, he just stood up and stared, and he felt his heart starting to race faster,

and he felt his breath speeding up, and Steve actually was sitting next to him and said, Hey Richard, what's going on? And Richard couldn't even find the words. He just raised his arm up and pointed to the other side of the room. When Richard had originally been arrested 16 years earlier, it was for robbing someone in a Walmart parking lot. Richard had always claimed he did not do it, but multiple witnesses had pulled Richard

out of a lineup saying that's the guy. And the woman who actually got robbed told police she overheard the getaway driver yelling to Rick, the man who had robbed her, to get in the car so they could leave. And Rick is a nickname for Richard. Richard had insisted he was at a barbecue in another state at the time of this robbery and so it really couldn't have been him but the

evidence was just overwhelming and so eventually he was convicted. Richard had never been able to understand why so many people 16 years earlier had insisted that he was the one who committed that crime and more recently he couldn't understand why his friends like Steve were accusing him of doing things that he didn't remember doing. But that night in the jail cafeteria when Richard spotted something on the other side of the room suddenly everything over the last 16 years made perfect sense. Richard really was an innocent man. He did not rob that woman in the Walmart parking lot. His doppelganger had. A doppelganger is someone who looks exactly like you,

but they're not actually related to you. It's just genetic chance that somebody else on the planet looks just like you. And it just so happened that Richard's doppelganger, who was this man named Ricky Amos, so it just so happened as well that the doppelganger shared basically the same first name, Ricky and Richard, well this doppelganger, Ricky, just happened to be sent to the same prison that Richard was at for a totally unrelated crime. These two men have never met, there's no connection whatsoever, they just look the same. And when Richard looked across the cafeteria and saw Ricky, it was like looking at a clone of himself and it all clicked. All the people that were coming up to him saying, you were doing this and acting weird, well, those people, Steven included,

were actually interacting with his doppelganger Ricky. And 16 years earlier, Ricky was the one who committed that robbery in Walmart and the victim and the witnesses, they all confused Ricky for Richard. Once a judge was made aware of this situation and saw the two photos side by side, he knew the police had made a mistake. Even the prosecutor who had tried Richard in the robbery case supported his release. Richard was freed in 2017 and got a $1 million settlement from the state. As for the doppelganger Ricky Amos, he was never actually tried for the robbery 16 years earlier because by the time they figured out he was the robber,

the case was too old to try. Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily ever after. When I stepped into the kitchen I could see that chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say call 911. As writers we'd written our share of murder mysteries so when suspicion turned to Dan's wife Nancy we weren't that surprised. The first person they look at would be the spouse. We understand that's usually the way they do it.

But we began to wonder, had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels... There are murders in all of the books. ...that she was playing them out in real life? Follow Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

When the matriarch of a prominent Princeton family is found stabbed to death in her locked basement, investigators look from a serial attacker to her family, to Princeton University students. One hot-blooded investigator sees a conspiracy. Is he way off base or does privilege let you get away with murder? You can listen to In the Shadow of Princeton exclusively and ad-free with Wondery+. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. and Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple podcasts. Our next story is called Lucky Shot. There is a very popular TV show on HBO called Curb Your Enthusiasm and it's about the mega famous Larry David who created Seinfeld.

And so Curb Your Enthusiasm is totally a satire. It's a comedy, you know, it's about Larry David and in fact Larry David plays himself in the show, but Larry David in the show is a very exaggerated version of himself in real life. But the show is shot to look like it's almost biographical, but it's not. It's totally comedy. Apparently in real life, Larry is known for getting into kind of funny, awkward situations, often that he brings on himself.

And so on the show, basically every episode episode Larry David finds himself getting into totally absurd Situations that just get worse and worse and worse because Larry just makes all the wrong decisions And so it's it's a really funny show however There is one particular episode of curb your enthusiasm that will go down as the single episode virtually Everyone who has ever watched the show will remember and it's not because it was funny. It's because this particular episode had massive ripple effects that nobody from Larry David to writers to producers, anybody involved with this production could have predicted.

The episode in question is called The Carpool lane and in this episode Larry David the character is late to a baseball game at Dodger Stadium and so he's stuck in traffic and he's totally upset and then he has this idea that if he picks up the sex worker who's right outside his car that if she gets in the car with him he'll now have two passengers in his car and therefore will be eligible to use the carpool lane that currently nobody else was using in this traffic jam and so that would allow him to get to Dodger Stadium faster. And so he hires this sex worker, and she gets in the car, and Larry kind of awkwardly explains his plan, and then he hops in the carpool lane, he makes his way to Dodger Stadium,

the plan works great, and when he gets there, he actually ends up bringing the sex worker with him into the stadium just to enjoy the game with him. And so he goes up, they find their seats, and their seats are just so bad. But as they're sitting there and Larry's totally upset about how bad his seats are, Larry happens to see one of his friends who's also at this Dodgers game, and Larry can tell, you know, his friend has great seats. And so the rest of the episode is basically Larry going down and trying to convince his friend to give up his seats for Larry and his sex worker to watch the game and his friend just

continuously says no. And so really that's the gist of the episode and you can see how it kind of gets more and more ridiculous and it gets really funny but I mean it's pretty typical writing for this show. This was not like a special show in any way. It was just kind of par for the course, curb your enthusiasm. That is until a lawyer named Todd Melnick heard about it. In the fall of 2003, this lawyer, Todd Melnick, called HBO and said he needed to see the raw footage

from the episode they shot called A Carpool Lane. A producer at HBO named Tim Gibbons is the one who answered this call and his first reaction was you know we can't let you see this footage because this episode hasn't even aired yet and so you're gonna have to wait the couple of months until this episode comes out if you want to see this footage. But Tim quickly noticed that Todd Melnick the lawyer was not about to give up this footage. But Tim quickly noticed that Todd Melnick, the lawyer, was not about to give up this easily. He was adamant that he had to see this footage right now. And so eventually, Tim Gibbons actually would go and find Larry David, and he would ask Larry, hey, do you mind

if this random lawyer comes and watches this footage from this unaired episode and Larry was like okay. And so the next day Todd Melnick showed up at HBO and he was led into the small room with the TV and Tim the producer he spoke to as well as Larry David and a few other people from the Curb Your Enthusiasm production they all filed into this room and all them just sat down and then they began playing the footage, the raw footage from the Carpool Lane episode. And as they watched this footage, which was hours and hours and hours long, the lawyer Todd Melnick is watching the footage and just kind of slumping into his chair, just seeming like what he was watching was making him more and more unhappy. That clearly, you know, he was looking for something and he was not seeing it in this footage.

But finally when one of the producers put in the fifth and final tape of raw footage from this episode, Todd Melnick as he's sitting there watching the footage, which looks basically like Larry walking up and down the steps at Dodger Stadium over and over again, and him also walking in and out of his aisle, you know, they reshot the scene of him sitting down inside of his crappy seats. You know, Todd's watching this over and over again, and then suddenly he sits up and he points at the screen and goes right there. It would turn out Todd Melnick was investigating a murder case. The murder happened on May 12th, 2003. A 16-year-old girl named Martha Puebla was standing in front of her house in a neighborhood in Los Angeles when she was shot by gang members because apparently a rumor had gotten out

that Martha was snitching on gang members and so she was killed. And the police actually had already made an arrest in this murder. They had arrested a guy named Juan Catalin. Juan's brother, Mario, was on trial for a different murder and just two weeks before Martha's murder, Martha testified in Mario's case. And who was in the audience listening to Martha's damning testimony about Mario? Well, Mario's brother, Wan. And so prosecutors believed this was the motive for Wan to kill Martha.

Also, there was an eyewitness to Martha's murderer and the sketch artist who worked with this eyewitness came up with a composite sketch of Martha's killer that looked exactly like Juan. And so now Juan was potentially facing the death penalty if he was found guilty. But Juan was adamant that he did not kill Martha and on the night of her murder he said he was at the Dodgers game where they were filming a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. But nobody believed him except for his lawyer Todd Melnick who called HBO, got access to all that unseen footage from the episode and after watching for hours and hours and hours, finally that fifth tape goes in and sure enough, Todd Melnick watched as his client, Juan Catalin,

strolled right into frame and sat down with his daughter. It would turn out, Juan was telling the truth the whole time, he did not kill Martha, and Curb Your Enthusiasm proved it. Shortly after this discovery, Juan would be released from prison and he would receive a settlement of $320,000 from the City of Los Angeles and the police. As per Martha, the police were able to eventually track down four people who were involved in her murder and all four would be convicted and sent to jail for life. The next and final story of today's episode is called Familiar Face. On the morning of February 25th, 2015, in a little house in the city of Cape Town in

South Africa, a 17-year-old girl named Miche Solomon was packing up her homework in between bites of her breakfast. And as she did this, her mother, LaVonna, walked into the kitchen with a big smile on her face and she was holding up this beautiful red flowing dress and immediately Mische knew what it was. Her mom had been making this dress by hand over the past couple of days. It was for a big school dance that was coming up and she saw that it was now done. And so Mische, she put down her breakfast and her homework and she rushed over to her mom

and she admired this gorgeous dress and thanked her mom for all the hard work and said it's absolutely perfect. And then from somewhere behind Misha, her father, who was still sitting at the table, kind of grunted out, hey isn't that dress a little bit revealing? And Misha and her mom kind of just rolled their eyes because they knew Misha's dad just loved his daughter and was very, very protective of her and so basically anything she wore that wasn't full coverage was too revealing. And so Misha's dad just loved his daughter and was very, very protective of her, and so basically anything she wore that wasn't full coverage was too revealing. And so Misha, after rolling her eyes, walked over to her dad, she gave him a big hug and a kiss, and she said, dad, don't worry about it, it's just fine.

And so after that, Misha went back to her breakfast, she finished eating, she packed up her stuff, and then she gave her mom and her dad another hug and a kiss and said goodbye, and then she headed out the front door out to the road where her aunt was waiting in her car. As Misha's aunt drove her to school, like she did almost every single morning, Misha began to notice her aunt was acting kind of strange and constantly looking behind her and looking in her rearview mirror, and finally Misha said to her aunt, you know, what's going on? What are you looking at back there? And Misha's aunt would say, you know, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm pretty sure there's a white car that's following me. And in fact, over the past couple of days, I've seen what I think is the same white car following us anytime I'm driving you to school. And so Misha just turned

around in her seat and looked out the back window and she saw there were dozens of white cars on the road, so it was pretty difficult to tell which one her aunt was talking about, but as she's looking, you know, none of the cars seem suspicious, and so Misha turned back around and told her aunt, you know, I think you're just being paranoid, nobody's following us, there's no reason to follow us. paranoid, nobody's following us, there's no reason to follow us. A few minutes later, Misha's aunt pulled up alongside the front of the school, and Misha said goodbye to her aunt, she thanked her, she hopped outside, and she rushed into the school. And then Misha made her way up to the hallway where her first class was, and as she

was walking down the hallway, her best friend, Cassidy Nurse, was walking up the hallway in her direction. And so right away, Misha sees Cassidy and she waves and smiles and begins walking towards her, but Cassidy gave Misha this kind of weird lukewarm smile and then quickly looked away from Misha, and then Cassidy turned and bolted into the nearest classroom. And so Misha just came to a stop and just looked at the doorway where her best friend has disappeared and she starts thinking to herself, you know, what's going on? Why did she do that? That was so cold. And then Misha began to think about the fact that actually over the past couple of days, Cassidy had been acting really strange. It was

like she was trying to avoid Misha, but Misha had no idea why. It wasn't like they were fighting. was trying to avoid Misha, but Misha had no idea why. It wasn't like they were fighting. Normally, Misha and Cassidy were totally inseparable. They had met earlier that school year, and even though they were actually kind of far apart in age, Cassidy was in eighth grade, and Misha was in twelfth grade, it was like it didn't matter. It was like right away when they met each other, they had the special bond where they just had to be around each other all the time, they shared everything with each other, and certainly anytime they saw each other in the hallway, they would stop to chat or even go into a nearby bathroom and do each other's hair and makeup and share any gossip they had recently heard.

So for Cassidy to act like this was just totally uncharacteristic and it really upset Misha. But just then the bell rang in the school so Misha knew at this point she was now late for her class, and so she had to forget about whatever was going on with Cassidy, and Misha just hustled down the hallway and went into her classroom. And so Misha, she takes her seat at her desk, she puts her stuff down, and she's getting ready to listen to the teacher, when suddenly the principal comes in without even knocking and without even saying anything to Misha's teacher, the principal walks right up to Misha and says, I need you to come with me. And right away Misha's classmates, all who saw this, they begin oooing and oooing as if Misha is in huge trouble. But Misha's thinking to herself,

I didn't do anything. Like, I have no idea what this is about. And so she kind of smiled like it was no big deal, she picked up her stuff, and she followed the principal out into the hallway. But as Misha followed the principal down the hallway towards the principal's office, Misha's smile faded and she began to wonder, you know, what is this about? What's going on? And then finally, they got to the principal's office, the principal opened up the door, Misha went in first and the principal trailed behind her and shut the door behind them. When Misha looked into the principal's office, she saw there were already two people inside

who she didn't recognize. It was two women who were very serious looking who were sitting on the side of the room. And as soon as Misha walked in, the two women, without introducing themselves, just told Misha to come over and take a seat next to them. And Misha, instead of doing that, just paused and looked at the women and said, what's going on? And at this, the two women kind of looked at each other, and then one of the women piped up and said, Misha, we're here because the police sent us.

And they sent us because of a photo that you and your very close friend Cassidy took. But before Misha could ask any questions like what photo are you talking about and really what's going on here, these two women would explain the whole situation to Misha and basically what they did is they told her this long very convoluted story that involved Misha, it involved Cassidy, it involved this photo, and by the end of this story, this explainer story, Misha had taken a seat and put her hand over her mouth in utter disbelief. And then when the women were done explaining everything, Misha had a million questions, but it was like she was so overwhelmed with what she was just told that she just continued to sit there with her hand over her mouth, totally

silent. And then finally, Misha did break the silence by saying, can I please just call my parents? And at this, the social workers said, no, you can't. And in fact, the police are already at your parents' house. They're talking to your parents right now, and so you can't talk to them. you can't even go home, in fact you have to come with us for tonight." And then the two women got up and they made their way out of the principal's office and they said, come on Misha, you have to come with us. And so Misha stood up and she's totally flabbergasted. She really is like, how is this real life?

And the principal at this point walked over and gave Misha a hug. And it was like suddenly the flood gates opened and Misha just began sobbing hysterically. And as she did, the social workers just stood there waiting patiently. And then as soon as it seemed like Misha was done crying, they said, come on, you really need to come with us. And so Misha, she let go of the principal

and she followed the two women out of the school out to one of their cars. And once they got in the car, the two women out of the school out to one of their cars. And once they got in the car, the two women explained to Misha that they were going to take her to a safe house for the night. But before they went to the safe house, they would need to make a quick pit stop at a local medical clinic. And so Misha, who at this point is not even asking questions, just said, okay. And so the women they drove to the medical clinic, they were inside for just a matter

of minutes. When they came back out again, they drove the rest of the way to the safe house. And when they got to the safe house, it just looked like a normal house on the outside. But on the inside, when the two women were leading Misha through and showing her where everything was, the kitchen, the bathroom, her bedroom, all Misha saw was all these other kids who were staying there who were orphaned and abandoned. And it started to give Misha a panic attack and she asked the women again, can I please call my parents? And they said, no, you really can't. But one

of the two social workers could tell that Misha, you know, she's having a breakdown. This is the worst day of her life, very likely. And so one of the two women actually offered to Misha to come home with her and stay at her house instead of the safe house and Misha agreed. And so that social worker and Misha, they would leave together. They would get into that woman's car and they would drive to her house. And then the social worker told Misha that unfortunately now it was just a waiting game. They needed to wait for the police to get back in touch with them with more information. That night as Misha lay in this woman's guest bedroom looking up at the ceiling wondering how

the heck this had become her life, she began to think about the photo, the photo that her and Cassidy had took that had kind of started this whole horrible thing. And so Misha began to think about the day they took this picture, and all she remembered was that she and Cassidy were just kind of goofing around and smiling and making funny faces and just taking photos as they went. She certainly didn't think that one of those pictures they took would totally change her life. The following morning when Misha woke up, the social worker brought her to their office, the social worker's office, and there they met with the other woman who had first met Misha in the principal's office, and the three of them just sat in the office, not talking much, eating chicken wings and

other snacks, just literally waiting for police to call them. And finally, they would call. And when they did, one of the social workers answered the phone, and as she listened to what she was being told, she began to frown, and by the time she hung up, she was crying. The news from the police was the news Misha had been afraid of ever since sitting in the principal's office the day before and hearing this whole crazy story about her and Cassidy and this photo. The special pit stop that Misha and the social workers made

at the medical clinic the day before on the way to the safe house was so that Misha could get a DNA test and now the police were calling back with the results of the test and what the results showed was Misha Solomon was not actually Misha Solomon. Her real name was Zephanie Nurse. 17 years earlier Zephanie Nurse had been stolen out of her crib at the hospital in Cape Town and despite a massive manhunt for her, she was never found. And so this was a huge famous case in Cape Town and most people assumed it would never be solved.

But Misha's DNA had done just that. It proved that Misha's parents, who had loved her and raised her since she was a baby, were not actually her parents. Her mother, Lovana, was actually her kidnapper. And now she was under arrest. But even though this revelation was incredibly shocking and upsetting for Misha, it was not nearly as shocking as learning the identity of her real biological parents. The social workers took Misha from their office to the police station where they told Misha her real biological parents were waiting to meet her.

And so once they went inside the police station, Misha gripped onto the social workers arm tightly, she was incredibly nervous, and she was led down a hallway to a door that was shut, and then finally when Misha was ready, she pushed the door open, and her real parents, who were sitting right in front of her, they stood up and they ran towards her crying. But Misha just stood there stunned and silent, staring at them, because these people, they were not strangers to her. She knew them extremely well. They were the parents of her best friend in the world, Cassidy Nurse. Which meant, Misha, aka Zephyny Nurse, was Cassidy's sister.

Months earlier, when Misha and Cassidy first met each other, the reason they hit it off so quickly, and the reason they had similar senses of humor and liked the same things and looked so dramatically similar is because they were literally sisters. They just didn't know it. And then one day they took a series of selfie photos of themselves and Cassidy, she would go home and show one of those photos to her parents and say, hey, look, my best friend, Misha Solomon, look how similar we look. And when Cassidy's parents looked at Misha Solomon, they instinctively knew that is our daughter,

that is Zephanie Nurse. And so they would bring this photo to the police and the police would begin to investigate. And during this investigation, they began trailing Misha. So when Misha's trailing Misha. So when Misha's aunt told Misha that she thought a white car was following her, she wasn't just being paranoid. Those were investigators following Misha around, trying to get a feel for her schedule, because

they needed to approach her when she was alone in order to get a DNA sample. They were worried if they contacted Misha and tipped off what they were doing, she would tell her parents, who were actually her kidnappers, and then potentially they might take Misha and run away. So they couldn't risk that. They had to basically follow her around and wait for an opening to get this DNA test done. And so this was also the reason why Cassidy was acting so strangely towards Misha in the few days before the truth was revealed. It's because Cassidy knew about this investigation and the police told her, you can't tip Misha off. She will tell her parents, her kidnappers, and they might abscond with her.

And so Cassidy basically felt awkward and kind of just hid from Misha for a couple of days. The woman that Misha had grown up with and called her mom for her whole life, Lavonna Solomon, was ultimately convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 10 years in prison. There has never been any evidence to suggest that Lavonna's husband, so Misha's dad for her whole life, actually knew that the baby had been kidnapped because 17 years earlier, Lavonna had been pregnant with their child. But it's believed she miscarried and Lavonna did not share that with her husband. Instead, she told her husband that she had gone into labor while he was at work and delivered

their child and so that's how they had this baby, Zephanie. When in reality, after Lavonna had miscarried, she had at some point dressed up like a nurse, gone into the hospital, and stolen Zephanie. For her part, Zephanie, aka Misha, stayed in touch with both sets of parents, the fake ones and her biological ones, and she would say that, you know, she still loves the parents who kidnapped her because they raised her and they treated her well. And in fact, Zephanie would actually wear that beautiful flowing red dress that Levana had stitched for her to her high school dance well after the news came out about who Levana was. Misha also decided that she would just keep the name Misha because that was what she was used to instead of going back to her baby name, Zephany. out all of our studios podcasts. They are this one of course, Mr. Ballin Podcast, and we also have

Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, we have Bedtime Stories, and also Run Fool. To find those other podcasts, all you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you listen to your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like the ones you heard today, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's gonna do it, I really appreciate your support, until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Bollin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

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