Anneliese was a young German girl born to working class parents in Bavaria. Over a span of seven years from 16 to the time of her death at age 23, Anneliese experienced what started as a seizure, developed into night terrors, and crescendoed as full-blown possession ending in a months long exorcism that spanned from 1975-1976, ending with her death. What catapulted this case into the spotlight was that in addition to being a real-life exorcism that took place around the time the Exorcist movie came out, the German courts also found some question around whether or not her cause of death was from possession, or from malnutrition and dehydration that resulted in negligent homicide on the part of her parents and the clergy that oversaw the exorcism. Ultimately, her parents and the attending priests would stand trial, and ultimately were convicted of the charges, despite adamantly claiming that it wasn’t a physical ailment that had killed her, but a spiritual one.

It's episode 30 and our first Podcast and Chill episode. Podcast and Chill episodes are a lighter dive covering a broad topic instead of our deep dives on a single case within a topic. These episodes are meant to be palette cleansers in between our deeper dives and harder to discuss topics.

What's "light"er than spontaneous human combustion? Listen as Dani and Morgan discuss the ins and outs of the phenomenon as well as touch on some well known cases from history and recent times. 

Erik and Lyle were two rich kids from Beverly Hills that seemingly had it all. Both were enrolled at Ivy League schools, they were incredibly into tennis and they came from a very wealthy family. Their father worked as an entertainment executive and their mother stayed home. The family lived in an 8,000 square foot home and had just bought a condo in New Jersey for their oldest son who was attending Princeton. It wasn’t until you took a closer look that you saw the tension in the family dynamic. Their father Jose was controlling to a fault, forcing the boys up at 6 am to practice tennis even in the rain and when they were sick. They weren’t allowed to have friends or interests outside of what their father laid out for them. They found no refuge in their mother, who refused to intervene with anything their father did. When Kitty and Jose were brutally murdered in August of 1989, the first thought was that it was a mob hit, it wasn’t until months later that suspicions officially redirected to the Menendez brothers.

Primary Source:

The Menendez Murders by Robert Rand

Erik and Lyle were two rich kids from Beverly Hills that seemingly had it all. Both were enrolled at Ivy League schools, they were incredibly into tennis and they came from a very wealthy family. Their father worked as an entertainment executive and their mother stayed home. The family lived in an 8,000 square foot home and had just bought a condo in New Jersey for their oldest son who was attending Princeton. It wasn’t until you took a closer look that you saw the tension in the family dynamic. Their father Jose was controlling to a fault, forcing the boys up at 6 am to practice tennis even in the rain and when they were sick. They weren’t allowed to have friends or interests outside of what their father laid out for them. They found no refuge in their mother, who refused to intervene with anything their father did. When Kitty and Jose were brutally murdered in August of 1989, the first thought was that it was a mob hit, it wasn’t until months later that suspicions officially redirected to the Menendez brothers.

Primary Source:

The Menendez Murders by Robert Rand

Erik and Lyle were two rich kids from Beverly Hills that seemingly had it all. Both were enrolled at Ivy League schools, they were incredibly into tennis and they came from a very wealthy family. Their father worked as an entertainment executive and their mother stayed home. The family lived in an 8,000 square foot home and had just bought a condo in New Jersey for their oldest son who was attending Princeton. It wasn’t until you took a closer look that you saw the tension in the family dynamic. Their father Jose was controlling to a fault, forcing the boys up at 6 am to practice tennis even in the rain and when they were sick. They weren’t allowed to have friends or interests outside of what their father laid out for them. They found no refuge in their mother, who refused to intervene with anything their father did. When Kitty and Jose were brutally murdered in August of 1989, the first thought was that it was a mob hit, it wasn’t until months later that suspicions officially redirected to the Menendez brothers.

Primary Source:

The Menendez Murders by Robert Rand

This week the girls cover one of the most infamous cases of double jeopardy in the history of true crime.

In the late 80s, Mel Ignatow was known as the most hated man in Louisville after his much younger fiancee disappeared without a trace. Her car was found abandoned on an interstate near her home and Ignatow was the prime suspect. But, there was no evidence. Eventually they were able to bring him to trial after he was indicted by a grand jury. He was found not guilty.

Months after his initial trial, he found himself back in a court room, this time for perjury after his accomplice in Brenda's murder came forward and he gave the FBI and a judge a full confession. 

Primary Source:

Double Jeopardy: Obsession, Murder, and Justice Denied by Bob Hill

This week the girls cover one of the most infamous cases of double jeopardy in the history of true crime.

In the late 80s, Mel Ignatow was known as the most hated man in Louisville after his much younger fiancee disappeared without a trace. Her car was found abandoned on an interstate near her home and Ignatow was the prime suspect. But, there was no evidence. Eventually they were able to bring him to trial after he was indicted by a grand jury. He was found not guilty.

Months after his initial trial, he found himself back in a court room, this time for perjury after his accomplice in Brenda's murder came forward and he gave the FBI and a judge a full confession. 

Primary Source:

Double Jeopardy: Obsession, Murder, and Justice Denied by Bob Hill

Just outside of Houston, TX is Newport Subdivision. When the subdivision was still relatively new and construction had just begun, multiple families chose to build homes under contract along the streets. All was well in the seeming idyllic neighborhood for these new homeowners for quite sometime, until they began to notice strange rectangular indentations in their yards and odd things began to happen around some of their homes. There was no explanation, until a man appeared at a home in the neighborhood that was planning to build a swimming pool. He claimed that the neighborhood had not been built on vacant land, but had in fact been built on a cemetery.

Sources:

Terri Reid's Attic

Mysterious Universe

Unsolved Mysteries Fandom

Unsolved Mysteries

We're doing a lighter episode this week on EVERYONE'S favorite vacation spot! Throw on some sunscreen and let's get weird.

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, is the triangular part of the Atlantic Ocean from Miami, to Bermuda, to Puerto Rico. Countless ships and airplanes have disappeared in this area, on TOP of multiple aviators and mariners talking about weird encounters of lost time, strange fog, and odd sightings in the area.

Lots of Sources below:

History Channel

Vile Vortices

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bermudatri.html

The Independent

The Washington Post

Encyclopedia Britannica

Unmuseum

Bermuda's Website

Wikipedia

Monterey Boats

MSN

Phys.org

Wikipedia- Flight 19

Live Science

Jeffersonville, IN native Tammy Jo Blanton was found murdered in her bathtub with over 25 stab wounds to her body in September of 2014 after her estranged boyfriend answered the door with a bloody knife on him. As police investigated, they found that in addition to the stab wounds and blunt force trauma she endured, she was also missing portions of organs, organs they found in a frying pan and on a plate in her kitchen. After five years, a mistrial, a mass juror striking due to pretrial coverage, and multiple determinations of the accused murderer to be unfit for trial, Tammy Jo Blanton’s friends and family are still seeking closure in the case, and hope to get it within the next few months.

If you are a victim of domestic violence, you are not alone. Please reach out and get help, if you're strong enough to go through it, you're strong enough to get help. The national domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE. Help is a phone call away.

Links to all sources (in no particular order) below:

https://www.wlky.com/article/mistrial-declared-in-2014-murder-cannibalism-case-after-witness-slip-up/28787722

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/alleged-cannibalism-stuns-indiana-town-jeffersonville-n204956

https://www.wave3.com/story/26549807/vigil-planned-for-southern-in-woman-who-was-brutally-murdered/

https://www.newsandtribune.com/news/trial-starts-for-jeffersonville-man-accused-of-murder-cannibalism/article_134f13ea-c1c0-11e9-8e65-abb01165197e.html

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2019/08/21/cannibalism-trial-jeffersonville-opening-statements-gruesome/2074128001/

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/13/joseph-oberhansley-5-things-know-cannibalism-case/975092002/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/21/cannibalism-trial-indiana-begins/2071335001/

https://www.wave3.com/2019/07/02/death-penalty-dropped-jeffersonville-murder-cannibalism-case/

https://www.wave3.com/2019/08/26/second-trial-accused-killer-cannibal-begin-next-week/

https://www.wlky.com/article/jury-selection-to-begin-wednesday-for-indiana-murder-cannibalism-case-1567626526/28916531

https://www.foxnews.com/us/accused-cannibal-mistrial-ex-girlfriend-murder

https://fox59.com/2019/05/24/jury-for-trial-of-accused-southern-indiana-cannibal-to-come-from-hamilton-county/

https://www.facebook.com/events/jeffersonville-indiana/joseph-oberhansley-murder-trial-tammy-jo-blanton/313157675952158/

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/16/police-indiana-man-ate-ex-girlfriends-organs-jeffersonville-cannibalism-joseph-oberhansley/15706073/

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/16/police-indiana-man-ate-ex-girlfriends-organs-jeffersonville-cannibalism-joseph-oberhansley/15706073/

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2019/10/17/indiana-cannibalism-case-new-joseph-oberhansley-trial-set-february-2020-st-joseph-county/4006250002/

https://www.wave3.com/2019/09/04/joseph-oberhansley-new-trial-date-tbd-after-jury-selection-called-off/

https://www.wibc.com/news/local-news/mistrial-declared-murder-cannibalism-trial-jeffersonville

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2019/05/24/joseph-oberhansley-cannibalism-case-jury-come-central-indiana/1224516001/

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2019-08-19/jury-selection-begins-for-man-accused-of-murder-cannibalism

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/crime/alleged-cannibal-murder-case-declared-a-mistrial-in-clark-co/417-68e7fb0b-50a1-4a23-9a59-b784ea5a4b05

https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Man-allegedly-killed-ex-girlfriend-ate-part-of-her-body--557857571.html

https://www.wdrb.com/news/judge-orders-additional-mental-competency-evaluation-for-accused-killer-cannibal/article_64763334-0004-11ea-95f1-93abd5451d64.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-indiana-murder-cannibalism-20190819-rcf6mpwgnvb7fopxcikc3vuvsq-story.html

https://www.wdrb.com/news/lawyers-say-indiana-man-accused-of-killing-eating-parts-of/article_26137fd2-fbe7-11e9-b344-9f7ab6eed4e3.html

https://www.wdrb.com/news/judge-declares-mistrial-in-oberhansley-murder-case/article_04962a2c-c4eb-11e9-8fe9-bfbbda38322a.html

https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/joseph-oberhansley-accused-of-killing-eating-tammy-jo-blanton-granted-mistrial

https://www.wdrb.com/news/loved-ones-remember-jeffersonville-woman-and-reveal-graphic-details-of/article_a7d92b96-8546-5a18-ba52-e7cb761a1326.html

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2018/08/13/joseph-oberhansley-5-things-know-cannibalism-case/975092002/

https://www.wave3.com/story/26540148/friends-share-memories-of-slain-friend/

https://www.wave3.com/story/26825277/friends-fight-against-domestic-abuse-in-honor-of-tammy-jo-blanton/

http://www.cootsfuneralhome.com/obits/item/tammy-jo-harbin-blanton-age-46

https://www.newsandtribune.com/news/defense-attorneys-again-say-joseph-oberhansley-not-competent-for-trial/article_b3df0c7c-fa7b-11e9-b8d5-ef811da3da70.html

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/cannibal-killer-who-used-jigsaw-13640935

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/22/cannibalims-suspect-fell-legal-cracks/16062345/

https://www.businessinsider.com/brain-damage-can-turn-people-into-criminals-2018-2