MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Stranger Than Fiction Vol. III

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. And today’s podcast features 3 stories that demonstrate that. 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 -- "27 Years" -- A motion detector picks up something strange at a summer camp (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l74_VQPdxjU)#2 -- "Guardian Angel" -- A strange set of circumstances leads to a break in a case (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUXHUjsb6O4)#1 -- "The Missing Patients" -- Startling discoveries made in 2 hospitals in South Africa (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jGBKT2V-4)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. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction, and today's podcast features three stories that demonstrate that. 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 27 Years, and it involves

a motion detector picking up something very strange at a summer camp. The second story you'll hear is called Guardian Angel, and it's about a strange set of circumstances that led to a break in a case. And the third and final story you'll hear is called The Missing Patients, and it's about startling discoveries made in two hospitals in South Africa. 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 put Coyote Urine in the Amazon Music Follow Button's apple juice. Okay, let's get into our first story called 27 Years. I'm Peter Frankopan.

And I'm Afua Hirsch. And we're here to tell you about our new season of Legacy, covering the iconic, troubled musical genius that was Nina Simone. Full disclosure, this is a big one for me. Nina Simone, one of my favourite artists of all time, somebody who's had a huge impact on me, who I think objectively stands apart for the level of her talent, the audacity of her message. If I was a first year at university, the first time I sat down and really listened to her and engaged with her message it totally floored me and the truth and pain and messiness of her struggle that's all captured in unforgettable music that has stood the test of time. Think that's fair Peter? I mean the way in

which her music comes across is so powerful no matter what song it is. So join us on Legacy for Nina Simone. Hello, I'm Emily and I'm one of the hosts of Terribly Famous, the show that takes you inside the lives of our biggest celebrities. And they don't get much bigger than the man who made badminton sexy. OK, maybe that's a stretch, but if I say pop star and shuttlecocks, you know who I'm talking about. No?

Short shorts? Free cocktails? Careless whispers? Okay, last one. It's not Andrew Ridgely. Yep, that's right. It's stone-cold icon George Michael. From teen pop sensation to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet,

join us for our new series, George Michael's Fight for Freedom. From the outside, it looks like he has it all. But behind the trademark dark sunglasses is a man in turmoil. George is trapped in a lie of his own making with a secret he feels would ruin him if the truth ever came out.

Follow Terribly Famous wherever you listen to your podcasts or listen early and ad-free on Wanderie Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app. Just after midnight on April 4th, 2013, a man stepped out of his tent into the pitch-black woods of central Maine. He was wearing a wool hat, he had a nice brand new Columbia jacket on, some Land's End jeans, and some high quality boots. He was carrying a backpack as well as another bag that contained a screwdriver along with some other tools. He adjusted his glasses and then looked up into the sky and it was so dark he couldn't even see the moon. And he thought to himself, perfect.

He turned and began quickly walking away from his tent into this forest where the trees were so dense that if you weren't careful, you could actually get stuck in between two trees and scattered all over the ground were these huge slippery boulders covered in moss where one wrong step and you're breaking an ankle. But despite the rugged terrain and zero visibility, this man was able to easily navigate this area as if he had memorized every step. After an hour of silent hiking, he reached this huge pond called North Pond, and while staying hidden in the trees, he followed the shoreline until he reached the edge of the forest overlooking this clearing. And right in front of him were dozens of cabins overlooking this pond. This was Pine Tree Summer Camp. He waited in the tree line for a few minutes just listening to make sure nobody was out there even though he knew their schedule and knew no one was there. After

not hearing anything and feeling like the coast was clear, he stepped out of the woods and walked up to the top of the camp to the dining hall and he made his way around to the back door. There he pulled a screwdriver out of his bag and expertly popped open the lock and stepped inside. Once he was inside he pulled out his tiny flashlight and he made his way over to the pantry where he began stuffing his bag full of candy, chips, and coffee. Once his bag was almost completely full,

he walked over to the walk-in freezer. He went into his pocket and pulled out a key that he had stolen on a previous trip. He unlocked the lock, went inside, he grabbed some frozen hamburger patties and hot dogs, and then he left the freezer and locked it behind him. He did one more pass through the pantry and grabbed some more candy off the shelves and jammed them into his pockets and then after feeling satisfied that he had all he could take he decided

it was time to leave and so as he made his way to the door he thought to himself great another successful raid complete or so he thought a motion detector had recently been installed inside of the dining hall behind the ice machine. As soon as this man had pried open the back door, it had picked him up and remained silent, but sent an alarm to the nearby home of Sergeant Terry Hughes, who was a game warden that was investigating recent thefts in the area. Terry sped to the camp in under four minutes, and he parked his truck a ways away from the dining hall because he was worried he would scare off the perpetrator.

So he parked his car and ran on foot, staying in the tree line until he got right behind the dining hall. He ran up to the back door and looked in the window and he saw this tall, skinny man walking out of the walk-in freezer. And this guy did not look towards Terry. Instead, he turned and walked farther away from him over towards the pantry. This guy pulls a flashlight out. He shines it at one of the shelves and he takes some things off the shelf and puts them in his pockets. And then after standing there for a minute, the man turns off his flashlight, faces Terry, and begins walking towards the back door. At this point, Terry backs off the window and goes behind a tree that's overlooking the back door. He gets his flashlight in one hand, and he unholsters his pistol, and he waits. Terry watched

as this man barely opened the back door. He slinked out the crack, and then he began walking into the woods. And at that point, Terry left out, shined the light in his face, drew his pistol, and told him to get on the ground. The man didn't resist. He immediately got on the ground, and Terry called the state police, who were there only a couple minutes later. They arrested this guy and put him on a chair, and then they began interviewing him. They asked him what his name was, and the man just remained silent.

So they searched him, but they couldn't find any form of identification, and so they asked him again, what's your name? And the guy, again, didn't say anything. So the officers decided to remove his handcuffs and give him a bottle of water, and then see if he would talk. And sure enough, he did. His speech was slow and awkward and kind of abrupt, like he had not spoken in a really long time. He told them his name was Christopher Knight, and that he had been born on December 7th, 1965. He said he didn't have an address, he didn't have a vehicle, and he had never filed a tax return. He told them he lived in a tent in the woods nearby. They asked him how long he had been doing that for and he paused for a minute and then said, when was the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster? And the officers looked at each other and they

were like, 1986. And he's like, yeah, that's when I went looked at each other and they were like, 1986. And he's like, yeah, that's when I went in the woods. And they were like, that was 27 years ago. And Chris said, yeah. The officers asked him, you know, well, 27 years is a long time. You got to be out there with some other people. You know, is your family out here? You got a girlfriend? You got, you know, some sort of companion out there with you. And Chris said, no, I live out there alone. And in fact, the last time I had a conversation with another person, besides now, was in 1990 when I happened to walk past another hiker and we both just said hi to each other. Besides that, for 27 years, it's just been me. And it would turn out Chris wasn't kidding and he went to great lengths to ensure he stayed completely cut off from the rest of society. Despite winter temperatures dropping to negative 20 degrees,

he refused to light a fire in fear of giving away his camp. And so instead, when it got that cold, he would just stay up all night pacing around his camp trying to stay warm that way. He never even talked to himself or sang out loud because he was so worried someone might hear him. And he never left his campsite unless it was basically pitch black on an overcast night because he was afraid of being seen. When the officers asked him if he had access to the internet, at least, he said, hmm, I haven't seen the internet. Chris wound up confessing to over 1,000 burglaries over the 27 years he had been out in the woods. He said he was ashamed of it, but originally when he had moved out into the woods, he had tried to hunt for his own food and forage for his own food, but he was terrible at it, so he had to resort to theft.

He said he only robbed cabins and homes when he was certain no one was there, which meant sometimes going a long period of time between meals. And the food he did find made for a terrible diet. He mostly ate junk food and candy because it was stuff that was easy to find and kept fairly well. When asked why he had moved into the woods in the first place, he didn't really have an answer. Although in a later interview, he would say that growing up, human interaction had always been very difficult for him, and when he was in the woods, he just felt kind of content and at peace. When Chris's story broke, the residents around North Pond were shocked.

For decades, they had swapped stories about someone or something haunting the area. Propane tanks, food, batteries, clothes, books would all go missing. They were starting to get scared, especially when it was overcast at night because they knew that was when this thing, this person would come out. But despite staying up at night with their weapons out ready to confront whoever it was doing this, they never found him. And the police were repeatedly called to come in and try to solve this mystery, but they couldn't figure it out either. As the incidents mounted, the Phantom was given a name, the North Pond Hermit. When Chris was finally arrested and some of his life story was leaked to the media, residents of North Pond were torn on how to feel about him.

Some people thought he was purely a criminal, that he was a thief, and that not only had he stolen their physical property, he'd also stolen their peace of mind and their sanity. Others idolized him like he was some cult hero. He was a man that rejected what society says makes us happy, careers, relationships, material comforts, yet he was happy. But regardless of how residents felt about his lifestyle, the one thing they could all agree on was how incredible it was that he survived for as long as he did. Winters in Maine are notoriously brutal and cold. A week of winter camping would be considered a huge accomplishment, let alone an entire season. That was totally unheard of, and Chris did entire seasons 27 years in a row.

Ultimately, Chris was sentenced to seven months in prison. When he was released, he was given three years of probation, and part of the conditions for his release is that every week he would have to go physically check in with the judge, which meant he would not be able to just escape back into the woods again. When his probation did finally end, he did not go running back into the woods. He decided to remain in society. In an interview, Christopher was asked what he learned from these 27 years in total isolation. What have you learned about the human experience? What did you learn about yourself? Tell us, because you have knowledge that virtually none of us will ever have access to. And apparently he just paused, thought about it for a second, and then looked up at the interviewer and said, make sure you get enough sleep. And then he got up and walked away.

While we don't know exactly what Chris is up to these days, people that know him say he lives by himself in a small apartment, he has a regular job, and he values his privacy over everything else. Hello, I am Alice Levine and I am one of the hosts of Wondery's podcast, British Scandal. On our latest series, The Race to Ruin, we tell the story of a British man who took part in the first ever round-the-world sailing race. Good on him, I hear you say. But there is a problem, as there always is in this show. The man in question hadn't actually sailed before. Oh, and his boat wasn't seaworthy. Oh, and also tiny little detail almost didn't mention it. He bet his family home on making it to the finish line. What ensued was

one of the most complex cheating plots in British sporting history. To find out the full story, follow British Scandal wherever you listen to podcasts, or listen early Music ad-free, and you'll always be the first one to catch our new episodes. But that's not all. You get access to other amazing shows like Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Morbid, 48 Hours, and 2020, all ad-free too. And you know what that means. Uninterrupted listening, so no more cliffhangers.

Amazon Music is your home for all things true crime and offers the most ad-free top podcasts, so we definitely have something for you. And it's already included in your Prime membership. To listen now, all you need to do is go to amazon.com slash ballin. That's amazon.com slash ballin. Or download the free Amazon Music app. It's just that easy.

Our next story is called Guardian Angel. In the early morning hours of June 10th, 1994, Deborah Hoyt suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. She and her husband were staying with relatives in Sacramento, California, and they were supposed to be there for the next couple of days. But as she was sitting there, she had this overwhelming urge to want to leave right then and there and head back to their home in Lake Tahoe. Because she didn't really know what to make of this overwhelming feeling, she shook her husband awake and told him about it. She thought that maybe something was wrong. And he said, you know what, you probably just had a bad dream and you're kind of waking up still half in your dream. It's not a big deal. Just go back to bed. I'm sure

everything is totally fine. And in the morning, if you still want to, I'd be happy to leave. And so Deborah said, yeah, you're right. I'm totally overreacting. I'm sure it was just a dream. And she laid back down to try to go back to sleep. But as she laid there, that sense of dread that something was wrong and that she had to leave right now, it was just growing and growing and growing until she just jumped out of the bed. She's just standing in the room

and she says to her husband, honey, we gotta go right now. I don't know what's wrong, but we gotta go right now. And her husband did not wanna go. And he said, come on, Deborah, get back in bed. It's not a big deal. But she was adamant. She said, get out of bed. We're leaving right now. And so begrudgingly, her husband said, OK, we'll leave right now. And so the two of them hastily packed up and then went downstairs and left a note for their relatives explaining their absence and then they got in their car and they drove off. After a little while the couple reached a very dangerous section of their journey back home. It was called Bullion Bend and it was a very windy road up in the mountains where one wrong turn and you're going flying down the side of a mountain. After driving through this area for

about 15 minutes they rounded a particularly sharp turn, and as soon as they made the turn and could look down the road, Debra, who was in the passenger seat, she saw up ahead on the right, off the side of the road several feet, something that was just lying there on the side of the road. She didn't know what it was. She thought it was maybe a bag or some trash or maybe a dead animal. And at first, she was just going to dismiss it.

But as her husband drove closer and closer to it, the light light began to illuminate it and she looked at it and couldn't really discern what it was until they were right next to it and she looked out her window and she noticed it was a woman's body a woman who had no clothes on who was just lying there totally motionless and deborah immediately turns to her husband and says honey i just saw a dead woman on the side of the road and her husband immediately is kind of panicked and doesn't slow down. He just keeps driving and says, hey, you know, should we stop? Should we turn around? I mean, maybe she's not dead. Maybe we can help her. But Debra at this point is now terrified. And she's saying, no, keep going. Don't go back. I bet it's a trap. Someone probably put her there and they're going to lure us in and they're going

to attack us if we try to stop and help her. And so in this kind of chaotic, frenzied reaction that Debra and her husband are having, they decide that their best course of action is just to drive on and find the next payphone and call the police. And it just so happened that less than a quarter of a mile away was a ranger station with a phone.

And so they pull into the parking lot and Debra calls the police. The police tell her to wait inside of her car and they'll be out in a couple of minutes and they're gonna need her to bring them up to where she saw this body. So a couple of minutes goes by, the police show up, and they tell them to drive back up the road but stop about 200 yards short of where you believe this woman's body is. And so Debra and her husband, they get back in the car, they drive back up the

road where they came from, and right at this point where the road turned very sharply is where Debra knew on the other side of this turn would be this body. And so they pulled over on the side of the road, the police came up on their side, and they said, yep, right around the corner you're going to find her lying on the ground on the left side. And so Deborah and her husband are just sitting in the car watching as the police go up, they make that turn, and they kind of disappear out of sight, and then they see their spotlight moving around on the other side of this turn, and so they figure, okay, for the body but after several minutes the police came back down the road and they stopped next to Debra's car and they said you know what guys we didn't see anything up there there wasn't a body there wasn't anything out of the ordinary and Debra would say to police I'm not lying I know

what I saw it was a woman's body right there in front of me I know it it's right over there and they would tell her that we believe you but we can't do anything because there's nothing up there. And so they told Debra and her husband to just head home and they did. After Debra and her husband took off and were gone, the two responding officers drove back to their police station. And once they were inside, they began speculating about what Debra might have seen. And as they were inside, they began speculating about what Deborah might have seen. And as they were talking, another officer came into the station, a guy by the name of Rich Strasser. And he overhears them and he goes over. He's intrigued and he asked them, you know, what happened? What did you see?

And they explained to him that this woman, Deborah, had spotted a supposed dead woman's body up on Bullion Bend. And as soon as he heard Bullion Bend, Rich remembered that just a couple of days ago, And as soon as he heard Bully and Bend, Rich remembered that just a couple of days ago, they had received a missing person report of a young woman named Christine Skubish and her young son named Nick, who had gone missing and the last place they had been seen was up on Bully and Bend. And so Rich wondered if maybe there was a body up there and maybe it was Christine's. And so the next morning, Rich got up early and he headed out to Bully and Bend. And when he reached the exact spot where Debra had claimed to have seen this dead woman's body, he found a children's shoe.

And so he stopped his car, he got out, he picked the shoe up, and he's looking around and he's looking for anything else that's out of the ordinary. But there's nothing on the road, there's no skid marks, there's no other debris, there's no other clothes, there's nothing. And so he walks over to the guardrail that overlooks this very steep embankment and he looks down the other side and at first all he sees is just trees everywhere. But as he's looking he thinks he sees more clothing farther down the mountain. And so he climbs over the guardrail and he very carefully maneuvers his way down and after only a couple of seconds he reaches a clearing in the branches and the trees and he can see down to where the terrain kind of levels off and right down there is a smashed up red four-door sedan. It was the same type of car that Christine Skubish had been driving when she went missing. And so Rich ran down the mountain following Debris all the way to this wrecked car. He goes around to the driver's side and he looks inside

and there in the driver's seat is Christine Skubish and unfortunately she was deceased. side and there in the driver's seat is Christine Scubish and unfortunately she was deceased. And then on the passenger seat is her son, Nicky, and he is alive but barely. He had gone five days without food or water and doctors would say when Rich found him, he probably only had about one, maybe two hours before he would have died as well. Authorities believe Christine fell asleep at the wheel and she drove off that embankment. Initially, Rich believed Debra must have seen Christine when she was driving through the mountains and saw that woman on the side of the road. After her accident, Christine must have gotten out of her car and then climbed up that embankment and then laid on the road, hoping someone would see her. And then when no one stopped for her, she went back down to her car where she ultimately died.

and then when no one stopped for her, she went back down to her car where she ultimately died. But according to the coroner, that would have been impossible because when Christine crashed off the road, she died on impact five days before Deborah saw that woman on the side of the road. So it could not have been Christine. To this day, no one knows for sure who or what Debra saw on the side of the road. But it is objectively true that Rich only investigated Bully and Bend and found Nikki alive because of Debra's police report about this dead woman on the side of the road. because she'd had this totally weird middle-of-the-night urge to suddenly leave a relative's house and drive up into the mountains, something she had never felt before and didn't really know how to explain. So either this is an extremely strange set of circumstances,

or Nikki had a guardian angel. The next and final story of today's episode is called The Missing Patients. On October 4th, 2017, a 61-year-old father of six named Tatike Katsai arrived at a hospital in Stellenbosch, which is one of the richest towns in South Africa. Tatike, who lived in the area with his family, had been dealing with some stomach issues over the last several months, and so this day he was finally going in to have abdominal surgery to hopefully alleviate those issues. So after entering the building, Tatike was checked in, and then before long, he was transferred to the operating room, where surgeons got to work on him.

After the surgery was over, Tatike was transferred to a recovery room in the hospital, where he was scheduled to stay for at least a couple of days, so the doctors and nurses could watch over him while he recovered and make sure there was no complications from the procedure. And so, on the afternoon of October 4th, Tatike just kind of lounged around inside of his recovery room. He couldn't really do anything because of the incisions on his stomach, and so he mostly just laid in his bed, he watched TV, he relaxed, he ate, and then at some point, some of his family members came into the hospital and they visited with him as well. By the end of that day, the day of his surgery, Tatike was definitely sore from the incisions, but overall, he was in good spirits, and to the medical staff, it seemed very likely that his surgery was a success.

Early the next morning, at around 5.15 a.m., one of the nurses in the hospital went to Tatike's room to check on him. And when she went inside, Tatike was awake, he was alert, he seemed totally normal. And when she went inside, Tatike was awake. He was alert. He seemed totally normal. And so after a brief conversation, the nurse told Tatike that she was just going to get him some fresh linens to make up his bed. And so Tatike nodded a thank you to her. And then the nurse, she turned away from Tatike, who's in his bed.

She stepped out of the one door in the room into the hallway. She grabbed fresh linens off of a cart. And then she turned back around and went back into Tatike's room, except now Tatike was not in his bed. So the nurse immediately thought, okay, well then Tatike must have gone into his bathroom because the door was shut, he must be in the bathroom. And so just kind of reflexively, the nurse walked over to Tatike's now empty bed and replaced the linens. And then when she was done, she just looked at the bathroom door inside of his room, expecting Tatiki to come outside any minute. But after a couple of minutes passed and Tatiki had still not come out of the bathroom, the nurse decided to go over and just knock. And so she walked over, she knocked on the bathroom door and just kind of called out, hey, is everything okay in there? But there was no answer. And so the nurse eventually just tried

the handle. And when she saw it was open, she called out that she was coming inside. She opened up the bathroom door and it was empty. And so the nurse, she whipped her head around and looked back out at the room where Tatika should have been. And she saw, you know, he's not on the bed. He's not under the bed. He's not anywhere in this room. Where could he have possibly gone? And she's thinking to herself, the only door out of this room is into the hallway, the same door that she had used to go out and get the linens. And if somehow Tatiki had ran out of that door in the few seconds that her back was turned from Tatiki, she certainly would have heard him or seen him. Because again, she was right outside the door and only outside of his room for a couple of seconds.

Not to mention the fact, Tatiki has major incisions on his stomach and could barely stand, let alone walk or run. And so totally baffled, this nurse ultimately left the room and went and told her superiors. This hospital would immediately begin looking for Tatiki on the grounds of the hospital, but they would do it kind of quietly.

They wouldn't call Tatiki's family to tell them that, hey, we can, but they would do it kind of quietly. They wouldn't call to TK's family to tell them that, hey, we can't find him, nor would they call police. And some have speculated that either one, the hospital did not think this was an emergency and they would quickly find to TK and that everything would be fine. Or two, the hospital was just so embarrassed at the idea that they lost a patient, they didn't want anyone to know. And so that's why they didn't tell anyone. Regardless, the hospital would search for Tatike all day on the 5th, the day he went missing, and they wouldn't find him. And then the next day, the 6th, the hospital again would spend the entire day quietly searching everywhere in the hospital, but they wouldn't find him again. And so finally, on the next day, the 7th, so 48 hours after Tatike

had just kind of vanished inside of his room, the hospital would reach out to Tatike's family, and they would say to them, hey, is Tatike home with you guys? And the family was like, no, he's supposed to be with you. And so the hospital would say, well, you know, he left two days ago, so we don't know where he is. And so Tatike's family is horrified, not only that they were totally left in the dark, but they would find out over the course of this conversation that the hospital had not even contacted the police yet. And so the family, they reached out to the police, and then later that day, the family would meet the police at the Stellenbosch hospital, and then a very public search of the property would ensue to look for Tatike. However, again, no one could find him. Authorities would continue

to search both the hospital and also the neighboring area outside of the hospital over the next couple of days, but after they continued to find absolutely nothing, the search began to wind down, and so Tatike's devastated family was left with absolutely no idea what to think or what to do. Fast forward to October 20th, so 15 days after Tatike had gone missing. And on this day, the 20th, there was a construction crew at this hospital in Stellenbosch doing some renovations. And at some point on this day, one of the workers had to climb into the ceiling of one of the floors of this hospital. Now, the space above the ceiling is this tight, cramped space,

almost like an attic. It's very big and wide. It's like the whole length of that floor. And really the only people that would ever go into the ceiling are construction workers or other authorized personnel that needed to do work. It's not a place that the public would ever go into the ceiling are construction workers or other authorized personnel that needed to do work. It's not a place that the public would ever go into. But when one of these workers went up into the ceiling, he had a headlamp on and he's kind of looking around. He's looking for what he

needs to do up there. And at some point he turns his head and his light illuminates a person sitting in the corner far away from him, way up against the side in this tiny little attic space. And it would turn out it was Tatike and he was deceased. The hospital had absolutely no clue how Tatike could have gotten up there. Not only is it obviously not a publicly accessible area, but the actual way to get up into the ceiling, the door that leads up into the ceiling, is very difficult to find. And even if Tatiki found this entrance into the ceiling, it would have been nearly impossible for him to actually get into the ceiling. Because again,

this guy has serious incisions on his stomach from the surgery he got. He could barely sit up, he couldn't really walk. So the idea of him climbing and pulling himself up into the ceiling just seems impossible. Then there was the very strange autopsy results. Now, the full report has not been made public, but Tatike's family had a consultation with the hospital after the autopsy was complete, and they would go to reporters and talk about what the hospital told them. And apparently, the hospital told the family that Tatike did not die from complications from his surgery and they heavily insinuated that Tatike did not die from natural causes. Something happened to

him and the hospital had no idea what this something was and that's what killed him. And the hospital also told the family that Tatike likely was dead before he went up into the ceiling. Meaning someone or something killed Tatike, and then someone or something placed him in the ceiling. Again, this is just from the family going to reporters and talking about their discussion with the hospital. The hospital's only official statement has basically been that they have cooperated with the family

and they don't really know what happened to Tatike. Now, of course, this is a very strange story, but it gets even weirder. On May 10th, 2019, so about a year and a half after Tatike was found deceased in the Stellenbosch hospital ceiling, a 53-year-old father of four named Sandil Sabia arrived at another hospital in South Africa. It was in a city called Durban, which is considered to be one of the nicest and wealthiest places in South Africa, similar to Stellenbosch. Sandil was a builder, and he had been working on a house when he had fallen and broken his leg. Specifically, he broke his femur bone, the bone that runs from your hip down to your knee, the big single bone in your thigh. So just for reference, if you break your

femur, you can't walk. So with some assistance from friends and family, Sandil hobbled his way into this hospital in Durban and he began to receive care. Two days later, on May 17th, Sandeel was still in the hospital, still recovering from this broken femur, when his cousin came to visit him. The cousin said Sandeel seemed totally normal and that during this visit, Sandeel told the cousin that after the cousin left, Sandeel was going to be transported from this hospital to another hospital nearby, where he was going to get an x-ray of his leg, as well as talk to another orthopedic surgeon. But apparently, after this cousin left from this visit,

the doctors at the Durban hospital walked into Sandeel's room to take him and transport him to this other hospital, and Sandeel was not in his room. Now, this hospital in Durban was known for their very tight security, and so right away their reaction was very different than the Stellenbosch hospital's reaction. This hospital immediately contacted authorities and said we are missing a patient, and they began a very public search of their hospital for Sandil, but they couldn't find him. On May 18th, so six days after Sandeel disappeared, the hospital in Durban began to smell this horrible stench coming from

one wing of their hospital. And so hospital workers would track the stench to a janitor's closet and when they opened it up they saw this black liquid dripping out of the ceiling, and the liquid was coming from Sandil's decomposing body that was located in the ceiling. Sandil's autopsy would be carried out very quickly, however the results of that autopsy have never been made public, and Sandil's family has not commented on the results of this autopsy. As of today, all we know is that within a two-year period, two seemingly ordinary South African men, who both could either not walk at all or who could barely walk because of their physical injuries, somehow snuck out of their hospital rooms totally undetected by staff and then wound up dead in the hospital ceiling. Some say the men really did somehow sneak out of their own accord

and decided to go into the ceiling, and that's what happened. Others say both men were murdered and then placed into the ceiling. And still others think these two cases are the best examples of something called spontaneous teleportation, which is the hypothetical phenomenon where a human suddenly disappears and then almost instantaneously reappears in another location. But for now, there is no official explanation, so those are all just theories. And so it's up to you to decide what you believe.

Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin Podcast. If you enjoyed today's stories, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin, where we have hundreds more stories just like this one, but many of them are not available on this podcast. They're only on YouTube. Again, the YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballin. So, that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya.

Hey, Prime members. You can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin 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. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and he seemed really unwell. So she wound up taking him to the hospital right away so he could get treatment.

While Dorothy's friend waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car to pick him up at the exit. But she would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and so many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try and discover what really happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener.

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