SERIALously - 319: Casey Anthony 2.0, He Googled How to Kill, & 7-Year-Old Girl Faces Off With Her Monster

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. Hello, hello, hello, and happy Thursday. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial. with me, your true crime bestie, Annie Elise, here to tell you everything that has been going down this week in the true crime world. And once again, I feel like I always start these episodes the same way, guys. Once again, we have so much to talk about. I know that the last week has just been like jam packed with news, with cases, with updates and cases. And I want to try and break down a lot of what I have seen you guys DMing me about because there have been some very important and key updates in some cases we've covered in recent history. And there's also

Starting point is 00:01:08 some very new unsettling cases. Now before we get into all of that, for all my besties who are listening in Texas, we are hitting the road again tonight. We will be in Austin tonight. We will be in Dallas tomorrow night, Phoenix on Sunday. We were in Houston. last night, totally sold out crowd. It was, you know, everybody was so nice, so amazing. So tonight, for all my Austin friends, there are still a couple of tickets left. So snagum at Annie Elis.com. I think we also might have like, think less than like 10 for Dallas. Don't quote me on that. So if you want to go to Dallas, grab your bestie, come or come alone. A lot of people come alone and it's, you know, you're in good company. We're all there together. And then

Starting point is 00:01:52 Phoenix is completely sold out. But we are back out on the. road. So hopefully I will see some of you there. Now, I want to start by giving a couple of updates in some cases, because I've seen you guys sliding all up in my DMs asking me what's going on here, what's going on there. So let's start with the Brian Walsh of it all. For those of you watching on YouTube, you know that I compared this guy to like Quagmire from a family guy. He literally looks like him. He has the most rectangle-shaped head I've ever seen in my life. But Brian Walsh was accused, or is, I should say, accused of murdering his wife, Anna Walsh. And in a very disgusting way, he also had these horrific Google searches of how to dismember,

Starting point is 00:02:35 how to get away with murder, all of these things. And my point is, he was stabbed on Thursday, September 11th, in jail, where he's currently being held and awaiting trial that is set to begin on October 20th. The sheriff's office said that, quote, at approximately 9.55 p.m., an individual in custody at the Norfolk County Sheriff's Correctional Center in Dedham was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being assaulted inside one of the facility's housing units. Officers didn't identify the other individual involved, but apparently he was subdued by officers and in the process they recovered this like makeshift blunt instrument. Brian survived. He's expected to make a full recovery and a full

Starting point is 00:03:14 recovery in time for his trial, which is beginning towards the end of October. So we'll see what happens. Not that I necessarily condone vigilante justice, and this guy is technically, technically innocent until proven guilty, but I think he's guilty. And yeah, I mean, I'm going to link the deep dive to that episode, because like I said, this case is really awful. And this guy thought, I don't even know if he thought he was being stealth, but he was a fucking moron, okay? He Googled literally everything. So his digital footprint showed exactly what his mental state was at that point, trying to figure out best way to get rid of a body, how to dismember a body, how to do this, how to get away from her. Like, I'm talking a laundry list of Google searches. And of course it was also as she was getting prepared to leave him.

Starting point is 00:04:06 And I believe she also may have been seeing somebody else already. Don't quote me on that. I'd have to go back and refresh my memory. But one of these things where it's like, you know, if I can't have you, nobody can. And so he'll stand trial. We will follow that. It's in the Boston area, exactly actually where all the Karen Reed stuff went down in denim. So we'll see. And we'll follow that. Now, another update that we have. And this is in relation to a case that we first started covering, gosh, I think it was back in 2020, 2020 or 2021. And it's Megan Boswell, also known as Casey Anthony 2.0. Now, she was charged with first degree murder, child. abuse, neglect, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and several counts of making false police reports. And the reason that I kind of dubbed her as Casey Anthony 2.0 is because it literally was like she ripped a page out of Casey's playbook. Her daughter Evelyn, who was just a little

Starting point is 00:05:03 baby, went mysteriously missing. And if you're not watching right now, I'm using big, big, big, big-ass air quotes. And she was changing her story a bunch of times. She said that it was her boyfriend who had Evelyn last. Then she said it was her mom who had Evelyn last. Then she did all of these very weird interviews on the news where she was begging for her daughter safe return. But then at the next breath, she was saying, I know exactly who has her. I know exactly. And you know if the police don't step in and do their job, I'm going to go get her myself, which was kind of like a big blow. Everybody's like, wait, what? You know where she is? You've been saying she's abducted. like you know who took her. So it very much felt reminiscent of like the zanny the nanny story

Starting point is 00:05:43 when Casey was lying about all of the Disney World stuff. And it was just one lie after another, which is also why Megan caught all of the charges of making false police reports. Ultimately, she ended up being arrested. They unfortunately found little Evelyn's body inside this, like it was inside a shed. There was this trash can and not to be overly grotesque, but she truly threw her away like garbage, so much so that she stuffed her inside of there, and the back of her head, the back of Evelyn's little head, hit the back of her spine, like fully back bent style. It's so fucking foul and disgusting, and this girl is evil. Yet she still insists that she's innocent.

Starting point is 00:06:27 And just recently, she was sentenced to life in prison, plus an additional 33 years. And this was all again because of the death of her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn. She says that she is planning to file for an appeal because, again, she's innocent, which, I mean, nobody I don't think is buying that for a single second, but the sentence means that she will never be released from prison, which, amen. The judge also had added consecutive sentences after the life in prison term because of the brutality of the crime. As I said, Evelyn, you know the manner in which she was found. There are a lot of other details that go into this, too. So, you know, I actually, I think, I don't even, I don't know if I have a solo episode on this. I'm sure I do. I know I have several. So I will either link the playlist in the show notes or the single episode deep dive if there is one.

Starting point is 00:07:17 And if there isn't one, and if you want me to do a deep dive revisiting this case where it's all, you know, the information in one place start to finish, we certainly can. Just let me know that in the Spotify comments or in the Apple review section or shoot me a DM on Instagram. at underscore Annie Elyse. So that's what we've got for updates. Let's get into some of these new cases that are breaking because we need to talk about this next case because it's heartbreaking, it's infuriating, and honestly, it kind of leaves you shaking your head wondering,

Starting point is 00:07:48 you know, how could this ever even happen? So let me walk you through it. This is about Melissa Domingo, a 41-year-old mom from Evans, Georgia. Now, Melissa was doing everything that she could possibly do to protect herself, to protect her son, yet still, she ended up being failed in the most tragic way. Let me rewind a little bit. Back in 2021, Melissa was in a marriage with her then-husband, Hajir Talibzida.

Starting point is 00:08:14 Now, unfortunately, this marriage was a very abusive one. I am talking years of emotional turmoil, physical violence, possession, jealousy, all of the things that roll into a very toxic and dangerous marriage. And it got so bad that on New Year's Eve one year, there was an incident where she ended up shooting him, trying to protect herself. She was then charged with aggravated assault, firearm possession during a crime, and cruelty to children. I mean, really heavy stuff, right?

Starting point is 00:08:45 But here's the thing. Melissa fought all of those charges in court. And just 19 days before the tragedy that we're talking about today, a judge looked at all of this evidence, you know, the expert testimony, the medical reports that showed PTSD, battered woman syndrome, I mean, everything. And he's like, you know what? When she shot him, she acted in self-defense. She was literally trying to save her own life. So because of that, she was cleared. It was ruled self-defense. She finally had this huge weight lifted off her shoulders, too, because she protected herself. She did everything she could. She ended up having to, unfortunately, be in a situation where

Starting point is 00:09:23 she had no other option but to shoot him to protect herself. When she caught the charges, the judge looked at all the evidence and said, no, this is self-defense. So she finally was feeling like, okay, finally, a little bit of stability, a breath of fresh air, I can move forward, kind of thinking like, finally, somebody believed me, finally, the system is protecting me from this monster. But not so fast. Because fast forward to September 7, 2025, and Melissa had a court-ordered custody exchange with her ex-husband. Now, she didn't go alone. She knew that that would be risky, So she brought her mom Elizabeth because, as we know, those exchanges, especially when there is turmoil and a lot of custody disputes, they can be kind of tense and they can be incredibly scary and dangerous sometimes, especially if you're dealing with a very heightened situation like this one. So the exchange took place in a Best Buy parking lot in Augusta, Georgia, and this was in broad daylight, like the middle of the afternoon.

Starting point is 00:10:21 And they had their little boy right there as well, trying to do this seamless or hopefully. seamless custody exchange. Well, during that exchange, Hajir pulled out a gun, and he shot both Melissa and her mother, Elizabeth, right there in front of their son. And I just don't even have words for this.

Starting point is 00:10:40 I mean, that poor little boy witnessed everything. 9-1-1. What's the exact location of your emergency? That's five parking lot. That's five parking lot. Okay? Tell me exactly what happened. Please, stand an ambulance, police.

Starting point is 00:11:00 I had one of us. Please, sir. Free, free, free to help. Yes, sir. Tell me exactly what happened. I was in fear of my life. I fired one round. Uh, please send an ambulance and, uh, okay, sir,

Starting point is 00:11:27 Has anyone been shot? Uh, yes. My ex-wife, my ex-wife, open fire. Okay, but has anyone been shot? Yeah, yeah, I only fired back once. Her mom tried to stop her, and I just ducked. So, please help us. Please help us.

Starting point is 00:11:54 Please help us. line, okay? Yes, ma'am. Please help us, sir. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up, please hurry up. Okay, we're getting everybody in route. Hurry up. Okay, right, hurry up.

Starting point is 00:12:08 Now, obviously, that account from Hegear himself sounds different, right? He's saying she's the instigator, that this was provoked, that he was provoked. So when he called 911, he claimed, again, that Melissa had opened fire, and then he was, quote, in fear for his life, and that he only fired one round. So basically, he tried to say that he shot them in self-defense, which kind of makes me sick as we break this down even further. And maybe this is just me speculating a little bit, but it almost feels like he was kind of being petty in a way, right? I mean, first of all, he knew that Melissa's charges were dropped because the judge ruled that she had shot him in self-defense. Then, coincidentally, what? Not even three weeks later, he shoots her in self-defense?

Starting point is 00:12:52 And taking it even further than that, it almost seems like he was trying to set up. up his story from the very beginning of his 911 call, saying that he only fired one round when we now know he actually shot two people. So how do you shoot two people with one round? Make it make sense. I mean, I'm not a hunter. I'm not like a gunsman person, but like some, the math ain't really math in there for me. So the police arrived within minutes and they arrested him on the spot. And he's now being charged with two counts of murder and cruelty to a child all because of what his son had to witness. And I have to tell you, the cruelty to a child charge doesn't even scratch the surface of what this child is going to have

Starting point is 00:13:33 to carry for the rest of his life. And what makes this even harder to process is the timing of it all. Melissa was just vindicated by the justice system. Finally, people were believing her. They were realizing that this monster was dangerous. She had been living in fear, fighting for her freedom, fighting for her safety, and finally, finally a judge said, you were right to defend yourself. So she should have had that chance to move on, to heal, to raise her son in peace. But instead, she was killed by the very person that she had been trying to protect herself from all along. The system failed her, plain and simple. And we all know that custody exchanges can be very dangerous when there is a history of abuse. Some states even have neutral exchange centers

Starting point is 00:14:17 or require exchanges at police stations because they can get so tense, so heated and dangerous. But that's not what happened here. Melissa did exactly what the court asked of her, and she was still left vulnerable. And I think what makes this even more sad, too, is that her mother, Elizabeth, who was just there to support her daughter and try to be helpful in all of this, also tragically lost her life. So now there's this little boy without his mom, without his grandma, his father arguably going to be behind bars for the rest of his life, and then carrying the trauma that no child should ever have to carry. It's devastating. It really, really is. And we always say, just get a divorce. That is like the motto, one of the many mottos here on this podcast, is just get a divorce. Because here's the

Starting point is 00:15:08 thing, in a lot of, and I'm going to go off on a little bit of a tangent here, so I apologize ahead of time, but, you know, self-awareness is clicking in. So let me just warn you. But here's the thing, whether it's a custody exchange, whether it's a wife or a husband wanting to leave their spouse because they're no longer in love. Whatever the situation is, anytime there are children involved, it irks me to my core when the spouse makes the argument of, I just love my child so much and I can't imagine my life without them. That's what drove me to murder. Or if I can't have them, nobody can. And when there's children involved in this and they're trying to argue that the root of their

Starting point is 00:15:50 evilness is because of their love for their children or that they don't want shared custody so they are driven to kill over it, you're only doing a disservice for the very child that you claim to be loving so much that's forcing you to commit murder.

Starting point is 00:16:06 You know, not the child, but like the emotions. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, and now you're not going to ever have custody of your son. You're going to go to prison for the rest of your life. And you've ripped away your child's mother, their father, their father, their grandmother. So this very child that you arguably are saying is your whole world and you can't live without, and that's what's driving you and motivating you to kill,

Starting point is 00:16:28 you've now left them, orphaned in a way. So where, at what point do we realize that is just an excuse and it's a very selfish excuse, but it's like if you really truly are doing this because you are just so distraught and you love your kids so much and all that, you wouldn't be taking away not only their other parent, but you as their parent as well. You wouldn't even be risking that, you know? So it just, I know that was again a very sloppy tangent and hopefully you were able to follow me a little bit with that one. It's just I hear about these cases far too often and it never gets easier and it never gets easier to understand. It's like you didn't hurt anyone in this scenario except for your son, your young son. And it's like at what point

Starting point is 00:17:16 point do we have to just say like be a fucking adult have accountability go through the rough divorce go through the rough separation but do it because you want your child to have the best life possible to have the most balanced life possible now he's left with not only no parental figure but trauma trauma that he will never forget trauma that will be embedded in his life forever and shape how he grows up it's like I just I know I'm going off guys it just really angers me I don't know if I'm hormonal right now maybe I am I should check my calendar and see like when I'm about to start but like it just enrages me it enrages me and it is just making me like it's making me very very sad it really is so sorry I didn't mean to go off on that tangent and get super emotional but it's just one of those

Starting point is 00:18:09 things that really bothers me. Now, unfortunately, there is another case very similar to this that we are also going to talk about that happen. And it's kind of left me sitting there thinking, like, how is this even real? And this is the case of Yassena and Michael Rocha. And it's unfortunately another very heartbreaking domestic situation that escalated to the absolute worst outcome. And while we usually don't cover a lot of similar cases in headline highlights, I wanted to cover these back to back just to show how truly common this is and how awful it is. And just like it's coming down, it's boiling down again right down to the kids witnessing it. And it's just something that I think sometimes we try to shield ourselves from, but it is happening every single day.

Starting point is 00:18:59 And I think the more that we're aware of it, I'm hopeful, maybe it's just the optimist in me. But I'm hopeful that there's a way where it's like this awareness will lead to change. it will evoke change. It will make people more heightened. They're like, you know, their senses heightened to be on alert when they're involved in situations like this so that they go the extra mile or extra step to protect themselves. I don't know. But let me get into it. So Yassena was 43 years old living in Reedly, California. She had two adult children, a daughter named Kayla and a son named Jacob. Now, Yosena had been with her husband, Michael, also 43 years old, for about 25 years, which

Starting point is 00:19:38 that's an entire lifetime with someone. However, just a couple of months ago, they separated. For whatever reason, things weren't working out, and she finally decided to make the decision, a big decision, to create some distance between the two of them. Then, fast forward a couple months to September 6th, 2025. Yusena was with her children and some other family members, and Michael shows up.

Starting point is 00:20:01 And this is where things take a devastating turn, because in front of his kids, in front of their family, Michael just pulled out a gun and he shot Yassena, shooting her multiple times. And because of the multiple times, she, of course, did not survive. Now, Michael fled the scene immediately. He took off in his truck and the whole community was kind of reeling from this and on edge and wondering where he went, who would he attack next, what was going on, and there was a full-on manhunt. Police also knew that he was armed, dangerous, and now on the run. That makes things incredibly scary because that's a person who there's not going to be any sort of rationale with how you're dealing with him or what's going on in

Starting point is 00:20:42 his mind. He's a desperate man at this point who is feeling cornered and boxed in and that makes somebody unpredictable and very dangerous. So finally, the very next day, it took a full day, but the very next day on September 7th, the deputies located him in Woodlake, California. He had a rifle with him, and instead of surrendering, he fired at deputies during this pursuit. law enforcement, trying to protect themselves, returned fire. So Michael was killed right there in the middle of this shootout. So within less than 24 hours, both Yassania and Michael were gone. Their children had just lost their mother, now also had lost their father, into totally different yet very traumatic ways, all because they couldn't just have the separation, because there was anger brewing under the surface.

Starting point is 00:21:30 And here's where it gets even more layered. own mother Rita spoke to the media after all of this. And what she has said has sparked so much conversation. She claimed, of course, that Michael couldn't cope with the separation, that he saw Yusenia as his soulmate, his sweetheart, and that he just did not want to live without her. And while, yes, that might explain why he acted the way he did, it does not excuse it. Because instead of processing his grief, his anger, or seeking help, he made the decision to destroy not only Yaseña's life, but again, his children's lives in the process. Once again, not putting your children first and taking your own selfish emotions and letting that fuel your evilness.

Starting point is 00:22:17 My son was a world to me and their mom was the world to this. And now we're both families are destroyed. Michael's mother, Rita, didn't want her face on camera. She says the couple had been dating since middle school and married for 25 years, but separated for the last two months. He couldn't cope with her filing for a divorce. He didn't want to live without his sweetheart. He didn't want to live without his soulmate, the love of his life. He didn't want to live without her, and he didn't want her to live without him. So he chose the cowardly way out. Now, if you step back and take a look at the broader picture, this is unfortunately not an isolated story. Domestic violence and separations are some of the most high-risk situations.

Starting point is 00:23:06 I mean, we see it time and time again, right? And in this case, there's so much heartbreak because you have children who are left behind trying to pick up all of the pieces, you have family members reeling from the shock of it all, and you have this community now asking, what more could have been done here? She was the light of our world. She shined very bright. she was always there for me and my brother she was everything to us

Starting point is 00:23:34 I just wish I could see her one more time hold her one more time tell her I love her give her a hug one last time but that man took everything away from us Kayla Yaseña's daughter said it best she said her mom was everything to them

Starting point is 00:23:54 Jacob, her son, said that he just wishes that he could hug her one more time. And that's what's so gutting here and gutting in even the first case that I talked about. And in all of these cases, these kids, even though these two are two young adults, they're still kids or not, I guess it's not kids, but you know, you got what I mean. It's still the child who is now left without the person who anchored them, their safety net, who they have described as being their whole world. they are left to navigate life alone. And I know that sounds really dark and sounds really heavy, and they probably do have other family members who are stepping in. But it's tough because your parents are anchors for you.

Starting point is 00:24:36 And not every situation. Maybe it's grandparents. Maybe it's whoever raised you. But to lose both of them back to back in such a traumatic way, I don't even know what that does to somebody's psyche and how you navigate from there. I don't know. It's incredibly difficult and heartbreaking.

Starting point is 00:24:53 And this next case that we are going to talk about has, it's a shift in the complete opposite direction. But it is so brutal and so just barbaric, disgusting, and evil that it really makes me start to lose faith in humanity. And I feel like I'm getting really dark this week, guys. I'm sorry, I'm trying not to. It's just for some reason these cases this week, they are just especially heavy. We've talked about finances before and how sometimes it feels like it's difficult to get ahead, whether it's interest rates, overdraft fees, missed payments. I still, to this day, accidentally overdraw my account.

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Starting point is 00:26:57 Chime feels like progress. Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank. Bank. Bank, provided by the Bank or Stride Bank N.A. Members FDIC. Spot me eligibility requirements and overdraft limits apply. Timing depends on submission of payment file. Fees apply at out of network ATMs. Bank ranking and number of ATMs, according to U.S. News and World Report 2023. Chime checking account required. You guys can't even begin to imagine all the money that I have spent on skin care and beauty products over the years, especially to like battle my breaking blonde hair since I bleach it, which, spoiler alert, this isn't my natural hair color, or when I feel like my skin is feeling dry and I want to try something new. But I realized several months ago that the thing that I was completely overlooking was honestly the most fundamental step. And it was the water that I shower in. Now, I'll be honest, I first saw Jolie shower heads going viral all over TikTok. And I was kind of like,

Starting point is 00:27:44 is this all hype? What's really going on here? I know that it's important to filter the that we drink, but do we really need to filter the water that we shower in? But I'll be honest, after I did the deep dive into it, clean water is the first step to an effective beauty routine, and it's a step that I completely overlooked. And I got the showerhead. I've had it now for about a year, actually, and I have noticed a total difference. My hair is soft. My skin has been, like, very, very clear. I feel like I'm not having, like, weird water, like spots, if that makes sense to you, and it's the only lab-tested and clinically trialed filtering showerhead on the market. It's clinically proven to reduce hair shedding in 81% of people. It's also lab tested to reduce

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Starting point is 00:29:23 can't believe that this little girl survived what she went through. So this is the case of Joshua Hubert. And it takes us to Worcester, Massachusetts back in 2017. But the reason I'm talking about it today is because there's news with this. So picture this. It's a late August, and a seven-year-old girl is at her grandparents' house for a family cookout. And it's totally normal, right? She eats, she plays, then she goes inside, and she falls asleep on a chair inside the house, and everyone assumes that she's safe because she's surrounded by family at this family cookout, right? But at about 2.30 in the morning, a man named Joshua shows up at the house. Now, Joshua wasn't a stranger, okay? He was actually a family friend of the girl's father,

Starting point is 00:30:07 and that familiarity is actually what makes this next part even scarier. According to prosecutors, Joshua abducted this little girl while she was asleep on the chair. Just scooped her up and carried her out of the house without anybody realizing it. Then he put her inside his car and drove off. And for about an hour and a half, he just drove around, which to this day, we don't even have the full picture of where he went or what exactly happened in that window of time. However, the little girl later told investigators that during that drive,

Starting point is 00:30:40 he tried to strangle her. He also then stuffed her into the trunk of his car. And this isn't even the worst part, but this alone is quite honestly enough to make me sick. I mean, what a creep, what a scumbag. It's terrifying, right? Because I forget what the statistic is of how often when there are crimes involving children that it's someone who is close to the family or somebody that the family knows rather than a stranger. You know what? Let's actually ask, let's just go really quick here.

Starting point is 00:31:10 What is the statistic about crimes that happen to children and the percentage of when it's somebody close to the family or a family friend versus a complete stranger? Let's throw this in there because this is unnerving. Here we go. About 90% of child sex victims know their abuser. About 60% are hurt by someone the family knows and trusts, whether it's a family friend, a family member, a coach, a teacher, or a neighbor. 30% of them are her by a family member directly. And only about 10 cases involve a stranger. That is so scary to think about because it really makes you wonder who can you really trust around your children, right?

Starting point is 00:31:54 So sorry that I had like deviated a little bit, but this family friend abducted her and then was driving all around with her. And they, you know, at first I would imagine even when he picked her up and put her in the car, if he was a family friend, maybe she didn't think twice about it until, of course, he then. started unleashing his real motivation. So it gets even more chilling. After about an hour and a half of driving, he pulled off onto this like overpass that is right above this lake in the area. It's kind of like right between these two towns, the town that they were in and then this other town. And it's almost like a bridge, okay, this bridge overpass. And he wraps this seven-year-old little girl in a blanket, tied a rope around her neck, put a plastic bag over her head, and he threw her off the bridge. which that was a 40-foot drop into the water.

Starting point is 00:32:44 David, earlier this week, Joshua Hubert hid behind a door during his quarter-arrayment, but today, for the first time, he faced the cameras. Joshua Hubert couldn't hide this time. Now a new charge of trying to murder his close friend's seven-year-old daughter, who ended up in Lake Quinn-Sigman early Sunday morning with choke marks on her neck. Evidence in the form of surveillance video of him at approximately 3.30 in the morning. We have an eyewitness that places him on a bridge. Hubert, a 35-year-old with no criminal record who worked at a prestigious prep school,

Starting point is 00:33:26 is accused of kidnapping the sleeping child from her grandparents' home here in Worcester at around two Sunday morning. Police also said he choked her. Now, new court papers say he stopped his Saturn on the I-290. bridge, he picked up the victim who was then wrapped in a blanket and did throw the victim over the bridge. And here's the part that blows my mind. This seven-year-old little girl survived this. She swam by herself about 100 yards to shore in the dark, in shock, after being tied up, and she managed to find a house nearby. I mean, truly miraculous and beyond resilient. She ended up knocking on this door at around 4 a.m.

Starting point is 00:34:08 And when the residents answered, they saw this soaking wet little girl, terrified, just begging them for help. She had visible bruises, scratches, marks on her neck, all of these things yet somehow was still alive. So the police were called immediately. And when that happened, when they stepped into this, that's when the story really unraveled. So this little girl told the police that, quote, her friend Josh was the one who had done this. The investigators very quickly identified Joshua Huber as the suspect, and he was arrested and charged with kidnapping. But very quickly, the charges were upgraded. They were upgraded to attempted murder, strangulation and suffocation, and more. Now, as we all know by now, more often than not,

Starting point is 00:34:53 the legal side of these cases drags out, right? And this one, unfortunately, is no different. Joshua's case kept getting delayed. His trial was postponed multiple times. It was supposed to happen back in 2020, but then it got pushed back, pushed back again. All of these things, meanwhile, he was still being held on bail, which was originally set at $1 million. But he was then later released on a $50,000 cash bail with GPS monitoring. Then years later, in December of 2023, prosecutors added even more charges in connection to this incident. The new charges included aggravated rape with force, rape with an age difference factor, and allegations that this little girl was tied, bound, or gagged during the assault. Joshua pleaded not guilty to all of it,

Starting point is 00:35:45 and his defense attorneys have even pushed back saying that the DNA evidence that was found on this little girl's clothing did not match his. He has been brought on charges, and they have just that charges. That's his family. You need to leave his family alone. They have a right to their privacy. The man is facing his charges and he's going to defend those charges to the fullest. Why did you agree to the million dollars cash bill? Why did you agree? Because he also has a new charge out of Westbro. At this point, no judge is going to based on the charges alone. The man has no history with the court system. There is no reason to believe that he's going any place. However, the nature of the charges, no

Starting point is 00:36:23 judge is going to allow someone out on that. So that's why we agreed to it. We'll deal with it when all the charges and all the facts come do and then we'll deal with it in superior so he's a friend of the family he knew the seven-year-old is this all a big misunderstanding in his eyes i have no idea what actually happened and that's what we need to get to when's he can't say what he was doing this i don't have that answer there's surveillance video of him for two hours uh that the prosecutor mentioned what can you say there's not surveillance video for two hours they have him at one place at a gas station which he readily admitted to being at and there is no indication he's doing anything wrong at that gas station on the

Starting point is 00:36:59 The murder charge, was he trying to kill her? Was he trying to kill the girl? He wasn't even with the girl. Now, in fact, it has come out during his trial that is finally happening that the DNA found on the girl's underwear from the night of the incident didn't match Joshua's, but instead matched her father. They've also tried to question how reliable the identification and timeline are because this girl didn't tell anybody about the sexual assault until two years later.

Starting point is 00:37:26 although she was seven years old. I don't really blame her with the age and all of that, but I do understand where the question is now coming from. However, prosecutors are firm. They say that the little girl's statements and other evidence that they have point directly to Joshua. So like I said, as of now, this case has officially gone to trial, and we still don't have a verdict in this, but the trial is not expected to be very long. So at this time of this recording, we don't have the verdict, but I will have an update for you soon. But the girl who is now 15, years old, has had to live all of these years with the trauma of that night just hanging over her and the justice system that has just been moving, you know, at a glacial pace for years and years and years. So I know that was a lot of information. So just to recap, this seven-year-old girl is kidnapped out of her grandparents' house, driven around for over an hour, nearly strangled, thrown off a bridge, wrapped inside a blanket with a plastic bag over her head and a rope tied around her neck. And she swam to safety and survived. She is literally the definition of a miracle. So we will keep an eye out for the verdict on this one. And I'll update you when we do find out,

Starting point is 00:38:37 you know, what happens here. I do think it's interesting with the DNA of it all, that it's matching her fathers and that apparently the assault piece of all this wasn't reported until two years later. Was there ongoing abuse in the house? I gave you those statistics, right? Sometimes it is a family member more oftentimes than not. So even if the friend did abduct her and threw off the bridge, because they argue that there is CCTV footage that shows he's the one involved, if there was ongoing abuse inside the house and the dad was involved, not like in cahoots with the friend or anything, because remember Joshua was his friend, maybe in cahoots, I don't know, but let's just say for the sake of argument, not. Then that continued even after

Starting point is 00:39:19 she survived this incident. Could he then have manipulated her into saying, that it was him who the friend who did all of this to her not him I don't know and I'm not trying to like throw the dad under the bus here obviously if he's innocent and all this but I think it is weird if the DNA was tested and the DNA from inside her underwear and it matched the father which I would then want to go a step further and again it's tough because it's still in trial so we don't have all the details but like what type of DNA is it that they recovered is it bodily fluids or is it you know skin or like touch DNA because that then would make sense if it's the father I mean, how many times are, like, hello, he's probably helping her put her underwear on, get dressed for the morning.

Starting point is 00:40:00 That would make sense if it's bodily fluids. That's obviously a whole different story. So, again, I'm following this closely. I'm trying to figure out what's really going on here. Was this little girl failed by one person? Two people? Multiple people. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:40:13 And maybe you've heard about this case. And if so, let me know what you've heard. But I'm going to be following this one closely. So thank you very, very much for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly with me to today. Again, if you are in the Austin area, come tonight, Annieelis.com. There are still some tickets left. And you can also hit up Dallas tomorrow night if you are not able to come tonight. And we still then, after that, have Tampa, Orlando, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco. So grab all those tickets at Annieelis.com before they are gone. Thanks again for tuning in. And until the next one,

Starting point is 00:40:50 just get a divorce. Be nice. Don't kill people. Just be a good human. and don't be a creep. Don't be a freaking predator. Maybe that's the next tagline that we're going to add into the laundry list of them. Don't be a predator. Like, hello, it's so simple, right?

Starting point is 00:41:06 All right, guys, thanks so much and I'll be back with you on Monday with an all new deep dive into a case. All right, bye.

SERIALously - 319: Casey Anthony 2.0, He Googled How to Kill, & 7-Year-Old Girl Faces Off With Her Monster

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