Murder by nature

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Christmas is a time for families and friends to gather around with holiday cheer. Most families have holiday parties with food, drinks, games, and music, while others have a sit-down dinner with a few selected friends. Christmas morning is filled with laughs and screams as children run to the tree to see what Santa brought them, and wrapping paper is laid across the room as they rip through all their gifts. It’s a time for family and happiness. But as you know, listening to this podcast, Christmas can also be filled with murder. As we dive into this case, I am not going to dive into the Reddit forms that make assumptions about the family or the motive for why this happened. We will focus on the facts and the facts alone. 

Christmas, 2008.  Joseph and Alice's Ortegas were celebrating Christmas as they did every year. Friends and family were coming over for the annual Christmas eve party. The house would soon be filled with their 5 grown children, grandchildren, and friends. The family played a game of poker that Christmas Eve and the party was in full swing. But the doorbell rang in the middle of their holiday celebration, and what unfolded next was incredibly gruesome. Shortly after the doorbell sounded, police received 911 calls from the Ortega’s neighbor. The caller cried, “Come immediately! They’re burning down someone’s house.”

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

References:

• https://awnaves.medium.com/florida-man-murders-wife-tries-to-hide-it-with-coronavirus-quarantine-5d91def8ae4e
• https://truecrimedaily.com/2021/01/19/florida-man-gets-38-years-in-prison-for-kidnapping-killing-wife
• https://www.insider.com/florida-man-charged-with-murder-after-wife-sent-suspicious-texts-2020-4
• https://heavy.com/news/remains-wife-found-husband-covid19-murder/
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gretchen-anthony-murder-husband-cover-up-covid-19/
• https://www.wptv.com/news/region-n-palm-beach-county/jupiter/jupiter-man-sentenced-to-38-years-behind-bars-for-wifes-kidnapping-murder
• https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/the-true-story-of-the-gretchen-anthony-murder-in-jupiter-florida-12053948
• https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2021/01/14/jupiter-man-says-mental-illness-led-him-kill-estranged-wife-gretchen-anthony/4162235001/
• https://people.com/crime/florida-woman-admits-killing-missing-wife-leads-police-body/
• https://nypost.com/2020/12/23/body-of-missing-jupiter-mom-found-as-husband-pleads-guilty-to-murder/
• https://thecinemaholic.com/what-happened-to-gretchen-anthony-is-she-found-or-missing/
• https://www.chillingcrimes.com/blogs/news/gretchen-anthony
• https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/florida-man-coronavirus-quarantine-rules-cover-wifes-murder-70143644
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/10/florida-murder-coronavirus/
• https://www.oxygen.com/killer-relationship-with-faith-jenkins/crime-news/david-anthony-used-covid-to-hide-murder-of-wife

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. 

References:

• https://conspiracytheories.in/what-really-happened-with-dorothy-scott/
• https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/dorothy-scott
• https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/169592.pdf
• https://www.stalkingawareness.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/SPARC_IPV_StalkingFactSheet_2018_FINAL2.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Dorothy_Jane_Scott
• https://www.crimetraveller.org/2020/10/the-tragic-death-of-dorothy-jane-scott/
• https://www.thetruecrimedatabase.com/case_file/dorothy-scott/
• https://thecinemaholic.com/dorothy-scott-murder-how-did-she-die-who-killed-her/
• https://kympasqualini.medium.com/taunted-by-an-anonymous-caller-the-murder-of-dorthy-jane-scott-4b77f0bc5069
• https://www.ranker.com/list/unsolved-dorothy-jane-scott/laura-allan
• https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/x63ugi/a_theory_regarding_the_disappearance_and/
• https://www.ocsheriff.gov/page/woman-who-vanished-hospital
• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10010932/dorothy-jane-scott/
• https://news.google.com/newspapers?dat=19840820&id=PuVLAAAAIBAJ&nid=1298&pg=3792%2C2107697
• https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9926681/the-los-angeles-times/

Stalking there are many different forms, from searching someone's social media profiles to watching them walk around the school. But some are more intense, making you look over your shoulder and lock your doors at night. The people you have had passed relationships with or who always watched you from afar. In the united states, more than 10% of our population is stalked at some point in their life. 89% of femicide victims who had been physically assaulted had also been stalked in the 12 months before their murder. 79% of abused femicide victims reported being stalked during the same period that they were abused. 54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers.

For months, Dorothy Jane Scott had received phone calls from the same mysterious admirer at her workplace.  The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but she just couldn’t place who it was.  Sometimes he expressed fawning adoration, and other times, resentment and violence.  He told her he was trailing her wherever she went, and he described details of her daily activities to prove it.

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Growing up, life gets hard; you must pay bills, take care of yourself, and feed yourself daily. Some will stay at home with family while they finish college, some will work and go to school, and some fortune enough will live in dorms on campus while finishing their degree. But some will move in with roommates to help split the cost to keep a roof over their heads to make it through college.

Loretta Saunders grew up in a Christian household; they did not own a television and would sit around the table reading scriptures from the bible every night. The girls weren't allowed to wear pants or cut their hair due to their religion. Loretta grew up with an indigenous ancestry and had strong ties to her culture, which led her to the path she found growing up. The Saunders were the family you would watch on tv, they were close knit and spent the summers on road trips, frog catching, and more. As the children got older, their parents would allow their friends to join them on the trips, and it wasn't long before the Saunders children discovered alcohol and drugs. From the outside looking in, the family seemed like the Brady brunch, one big happy family, but in the shadows, there was more than met the eye.

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Halloween is the only day in a year when people around the world dress up, knock on doors in their neighborhood for candy, and decorate their homes like crime scenes. It's the day that the communities come together to celebrate. 

Halloween night in 1984 turned out to be a genuinely nightmarish one for the Erbert family in San Jose, California, as a family was celebrating a holiday filled with fun and spooky events. One family would soon see why opening the door for trick-or-treaters is not always the best idea. 

Doreen Rae Hitchens was born in Santa Clara, California, in 1952. She grew up in a very loving family. She had a job as a physical therapist, and that’s how she met her first husband, Michael Dennis, also known as Mike. Michael Dennis worked at the Lockheed factory as a sprayer next door to Doreen’s job. Mike had suffered from hearing loss, which often caused him to stutter. His friend, Jim Patriott told Snapped on Oxygen that Mike was depressed and he didn’t socialize a lot. He didn’t often have girlfriends, so when he met Doreen, he said he had found the one. 

After only a few months of dating, the couple got married, and Doreen soon gave birth to a baby boy, Paul Dennis. While Mike relished his role as a father, the stress of being new parents was too much for the young couple to withstand. They divorced in 1977, and Doreen retained primary custody of their son, who visited Mike on weekends. Mike cherished the time with his son, but he remained bitter about the divorce. On the other hand, Doreen quickly bounced back and married local carpet store owner Charles Erbert. The two had a daughter, Deanna Erbert, in 1979, raising her and Paul together. The couple was quickly starting to become a family and moved into a beautiful home within the community.

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. 

References:

• https://www.oxygen.com/homicide-for-the-holidays/crime-news/bj-liske-kills-3-family-members-in-halloween-murders
• https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/article/13-horrifying-halloween-homicides
• https://crypticchroniclespodcast.com/horrifying-true-holloween-tales/
• https://crimeandcoffeecouple.com/2022/10/09/the-liske-griffin-family-halloween-murders/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsReadOfficial/comments/de99cr/halloween_story_3/
• https://sanduskyregister.com/news/40338/tragic-timeline-details-surface-on-halloween-family-killings/
• https://the-mystique.medium.com/a-murderous-halloween-the-liske-family-massacre-7253c5c45de
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ohio-triple-murder-teen-thought-it-was-halloween-prank/
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61058958/william-e-liske
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61058889/susan-m-liske
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61058862/derek-l-griffin

Halloween is a time of spooky nights and scary movies. The month that everyone wants to be scared and dress up as their favorite characters from movies, shows, or books. It's the time when the air is crisp and leaves start to change colors. Some might use this opportunity to blend in with the crowd of Halloween celebrators and seek out their victims for fun, while some take this as a chance to unleash terror on people who had the misfortune of crossing their path. 

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. 

References:

• https://www.grunge.com/417663/the-disturbing-true-story-of-the-killer-who-inspired-jeepers-creeper
• Box Office Mojo
• https://reallifevillains.miraheze.org/wiki/Dennis_DePue
• https://www.horror.land/is-jeepers-creepers-real-the-true-story-that-inspires-the-film/
• https://www.truecrimeedition.com/post/dennis-depue

Jeepers Creepers was a hit horror movie in 2001 that made over $59.2 million during its original release, per Box Office Mojo. Directed by Victor Salva, it told the story of a brother and sister being stalked by a demonic, flesh-eating creature nicknamed The Creeper who embarks upon an eating spree every 23 years. It's hard to imagine that such an outlandish premise could be at all inspired by real-life events.

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Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.” Derek and Maria Broaddus couldn’t have been more excited to move into their dream house at 657 Boulevard in the well-to-do town of Westfield, New Jersey. But as the couple was preparing to settle into the $1.3-million house with their three children, they received this disturbing note in the mail. Signed only “The Watcher,” the letter had no return address. But whoever wrote it seemed to have been watching the Broadduses carefully.

Before the family purchased “The Watcher House” in 2014, the Broadduses was a fairly average suburban family. Maria Broaddus had grown up in Westfield, New Jersey, just blocks away from the house at 657 Boulevard. On the other hand, Derek Broaddus had grown up in Maine in a working-class family. But from his humble beginnings, he had worked his way up to a position as a senior vice-president at a Manhattan insurance company.

One night in June 2014, Derek Broaddus had just finished an evening of painting at his new home in Westfield, New Jersey, when he went outside to check the mail. A white, card-shaped envelope was addressed in thick, clunky handwriting to “The New Owner,” and the typed note inside began warmly:

Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard, Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.

“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. 

Starting Oct 8th, we will be doing short videos on Youtube of our case! I am so excited to move this podcast to be on Youtube for the start of the spooky season. This month we will focus on the case that was inspired by crimes or that inspired the killers to do the crimes. Please stay tuned for our first Youtube video next Saturday!

As the new Netflix show is soon to be released, “The Watcher,” I thought we should jump into the case that sparked the show for the beginning of our spooky season. 

References:

• https://www.thecut.com/article/the-haunting-of-657-boulevard-in-westfield-new-jersey.html
• https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/12/us/the-watcher-house-stalker-trnd
• https://allthatsinteresting.com/the-watcher-house
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/the-watcher-netflix-stalker-new-jersey-b2175373.html
• https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/owner-n-j-watcher-house-admits-he-sent-some-menacing-n936661
• Redditt.com
• Twitter
• Zillow.com
• https://sites.psu.edu/passionknightly2/2021/03/11/the-watcher/

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. 

Today we will be talking about part two of the Murder of Hae Min Lee and the Investigation of Adnan Syed. We left off right when Adnan was arrested. I am doing this in two parts as I believe these are two different sides of this murder. 

References:

• HBO The case against Adnan Syed
• Serial Podcast Season 1
• allthatsinteresting.com/adnan-syed-murder-of-hae-min-lee
• https://www.patheos.com/blogs/splitthemoon/2014/10/serial-episodes-3-4-what-tangled-webs/
• https://www.adnansyedwiki.com/
• https://www.adnansyedwiki.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Serial-Podcast-Transcripts-of-All-Episodes-with-ToC.pdf
• https://www.rootclaim.com/claims/serial-who-killed-hae-min-lee-11513
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Hae_Min_Lee
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/adnan-syed-serial-podcast-vacate-murder-conviction-11663163015
• https://www.newsweek.com/adnan-syed-baltimore-prosecutors-move-vacate-conviction-1743065
• https://www.biography.com/news/adnan-syed-hae-min-lee-timeline-facts

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“Welcome to Murder By Nature, where we discuss True Crime, Mystery disappearances, and unsolved cases! I’m Jazmin Hernandez, your host!

Thank them for listening and being a part of this community. Today's case is gonna be a case that I've been researching and following for seven years now. I think there's too much in this case to cover all in one episode, but I'm going to do my best, so it's going to be a long one. This case had some breaking news come just in the last few days, and I got really emotional about that, but as I go through this case, I'm in the state just the facts and what we have through all the evidence that I've looked at the podcast of serial docu-series that they had made on it anything everything I was able to find to give you an unbiased opinion, and at the end, I'll state my opinion so stay tuned for the case of Hae min lee also known as the Adnan Syed case.

References:

• HBO The case against Adnan Syed
• Serial Podcast Season 1
• allthatsinteresting.com/adnan-syed-murder-of-hae-min-lee
• https://www.adnansyedwiki.com/
• https://www.adnansyedwiki.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Serial-Podcast-Transcripts-of-All-Episodes-with-ToC.pdf
• https://www.rootclaim.com/claims/serial-who-killed-hae-min-lee-11513
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Hae_Min_Lee
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/adnan-syed-serial-podcast-vacate-murder-conviction-11663163015
• https://www.newsweek.com/adnan-syed-baltimore-prosecutors-move-vacate-conviction-1743065
• https://www.biography.com/news/adnan-syed-hae-min-lee-timeline-facts

On Jan 13, 1999 Hae Min Lee disappeared. Hae was an 18 year old senior at woodlawn high school in Baltimore County. She was Korean. She was smart, beautiful, goofyl, and played field hockey and lacrosse. Hae was in the magent program at her school and had a great group of friends. On the day in question Hae was supposed to be leaving school to pick up her cousin from school and take her home. After she was going to go meet up with her boyfriend. 

Adnan and Hae started dating April 1, 1998 and kept it secret from their parents. As a Pakistani American and a Korean American, Adnan Syed and Hae Min Lee apparently feared negative reactions from their families due to multiple religious and cultural differences. Their relationship started as any other highschool couple does. By telling their mutual friends that they liked the other until finally Debbie told Adnan to just ask Hae to prom and he did. Adnan asked Hae and she said yes, on the day of prom Adnan picked Hae up from her house to go to Anisha house to take pictures and all ride together. Hae recalls that Adnan wasnt ready when he picked her up and she feared that he would make them late. At prom Adnan was surprisingly announced Prince and Stephanie was his princess. Due to tradition Adnan and Stephanie were supposed to dance together but Hae’s favortie song came on. Hae got a little jealous that he was her date and dancing with another girl to her favorite song but Adnan shocked her by coming and asking her to dance. 

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