Listener Tales 34｜Morbid

Hey weirdos, before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about a place where the darkness never ends.

Wondery Plus. It's like stepping into a haunted mansion where the floorboards creak with ad free episodes and early access to new episodes lurks around every corner.

So come join us if you dare. Morbid is available one week early and ad-free only on Wondery+.

You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

You're listening to a morbid network podcast.

Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar.

Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities and new ways of thinking.

Listening can lead to positive changes in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being.

Audible has an incredible selection of over 1 million audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals all in one easy app. find the genres you love and discover new ones explore bestsellers like my sister's title new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals that members can listen to all they want with more added all the time.

I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.

She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.

And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.

I love all the different narrators. I love Audible.

There's more to imagine when you listen.

Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free.

Visit audible.com slash morbid. Thank you.

You know those photos sitting in your phone, the ones that make you smile every time you scroll past them?

Well, at smallwoodhome.com, they believe that you deserve better than that.

Smallwood Home transforms your favorite memories into stunning gallery quality artwork that All you have to do is upload your photo to smallwoodhome.com, choose your style from classic framed prints to elegant wrapped canvases. and they'll handle the rest.

With natural wood finishes like stained, almond, black or white, plus options for sleek acrylic fronts there is a perfect match for every home and the best part Every small wood home piece is handcrafted right here in the USA by real artisans who care about quality.

No assembly lines, no shortcuts, just beautiful, personalized art that is made to last.

I love a handcrafted thing. Over 3 million happy customers have already discovered why smallwoodhome.com is just different.

They deliver gallery quality at prices that make sense and ship in just days.

I have so many photos in my phone that I'm about to send over to them that I can finally hang up on my walls, and I'm really excited about it.

Right now, get 30% off when you use code MORBID at smallwoodhome.com.

That's promo code MORBID to get 30% off your first order at smallwoodhome.com.

Give your memories the showcase they deserve.

Hey weirdos, I am Ash. And I am Alayna. And this is Morbid.

It is, it's Morbid. Hey! Hello! And it's a special Morbid!

It is. Why? Because it's Listener Tales.

Listener Tales. And I'm sorry if you just heard like a... It was me moving my microphone.

It was not law and order. i was gonna say listener tales are brought to you by you for you from you and all about you they are i haven't said that in a while you haven't um i also just does this go back on it's magnetic okay cool I'm borrowing Elena's iPad because I forgot my computer at home like a dangus oh like a bag and i just like ripped off her cover and i was like well i broke well sorry about that sorry little sister vibes You're always borrowing my stuff.

Remember this? Have we talked about the sweater that I borrowed from you? before i feel like we probably have mentioned it but the sweater was my favorite sweater okay i did a mean thing Not intentionally.

But, like, you knew what you did. Yeah. Yeah.

Not intentionally in the way of like, I still don't actually know what happened to that sweater.

Like, I don't know. what happened basically she handed me back my favorite sweater and it was torn into shreds on the back Like torn into shreds.

She still wears it. And handed it to me like, here you go.

Thank you for letting me wear it. Well, because it was the back of it.

So I was like. What the actual hell did you do to this?

Maybe she won't. No, I did. I still to this day, I'm like, how did you even do that?

It's like when I crashed Papa's car and I was like, what?

What's that? I backed it into the driveway and he was like, what is on the other side of my vehicle?

And I was like, I don't know. Yeah, Ash was wild when she was young.

Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. But she's great now, so that's all that matters.

But she's great now. Wow. We all hated her back then.

She was the worst. We loved her even then.

I was chaotic energy. She was way more chaotic energy.

You know, it's going to be chaotic energy.

What? We're doing a shuh. A shuh. Oh, a show, baby.

A show, the business of show. It's going to be virtual though.

Yeah, we're doing a virtual show because there's a new fucking variant, of course.

Yeah, of course there is. Remember like, what, three and four? three years and 97 days ago when we were like, oh, this is going to be over.

We'll see you in Chicago. Yeah, we'll see you next month.

No, maybe next month. I haven't gone anywhere in years.

Nope. So this is going to be virtual. It's going to be virtual, but it's going to be a good time.

We picked a cool haunted location to do it at.

And we always, you know, we dress up. we dress up these are fun this one specifically is gonna be really cool it's cinema macabre So it's going to be like a three part virtual series.

And December 18th is going to be the first one.

Tickets are on sale now at the link through our Instagram bio, and we're also going to put the link to the tickets in our show notes.

And if you don't know what the show notes are because again, we've been through this, but I feel you.

Because I also didn't know what show notes was.

So this is not something that you'd need to be like, oh my God, why don't I know this?

In the description of this episode that you are listening to right now, like if you're listening on like, you know, Spotify right now.

And... You click on the episode and you see the little description that's like, hello, this is Listener Tales and here are the funny things that are in it.

That's the show notes. And sometimes it'll say, like, show more.

Yeah, sometimes it won't show the whole thing, just a little preview.

Click the show more and it'll give you all the links, all of our sponsors, all that stuff.

It'll be right in there. That's where we put our sources and stuff too, like good books and all that.

So yeah, it's a good little treasure trove of goodness.

It is. And then for the show, I've seen like a lot of people asking who have already gotten tickets or like. who are going to get tickets, and they're like, oh, I have something that night.

It's actually available to stream for up to 72 hours after the show.

Yeah. For some reason, if that time doesn't work for you or that specific night, you can still get it.

It just technically won't be live, but like we'll make it feel like it for you.

We will. We'll make sure. And it's going to be a lot of fun.

So if you want to get tickets, again, they are at the link in our Instagram bio or There also are pinned tweet on Twitter and the link will be in the notes of the show.

The notes of the show. Yeah, and I think that's all the business we had to attend to.

But there was something else we wanted to mention.

If you are on Twitter, you may have seen us and... a ton of other creators sharing tweets from Daniel Robinson's father.

He is looking for his son who is a geologist.

He has been missing in Arizona. they had found his car, his crashed car.

It's very bizarre, very frustrating. His family loves him so much and is doing everything they can to find him.

And they've been doing weekly searches, like huge searches.

And... They are not like they're such good people and they love their son so much.

And it's just devastating to see this not And I feel like it's not getting enough attention, like not enough media attention.

So we're going to try to get as many people to listen to this story as possible.

But I wanted to tell you guys that... you can go to pleasehelpfinddaniel.com.

That's 2Ds with FindDaniel.com. We'll also put that link in our show notes.

Yeah, we'll put it in our show notes. Go there, it has all the information, you can see all the updates, And they also post when they are doing searches.

And there happens to be a search coming up on December 4th.

I think that's Saturday. So that's coming up this Saturday.

Let me look. It's Saturday. Saturday morning.

I'm going to read right from the website what they said.

We will be meeting for our 17th weekly search for Daniel on Saturday 12-4-21 at 6 45 a.m.

The meeting location will be at Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road in Buckeye.

This is in Arizona. We will have a briefing to discuss safety and search techniques required for this weekend, and then begin searching at around 7 a.m.

We are planning on concluding the search by 11 a.m. of both foot searchers and those who have 4x4 vehicles, ATVs, off-road vehicles that can be used.

We will be searching the Haya Sampa River, washed south parallel and west of the location. where Daniel's vehicle was found, and about three miles south down the highest, sorry, Haseyampa River wash as well as further west.

Now if you have any questions, anything you need to know further about this, Go to that website, which we will link, but again, it's pleasehelpfinddaniel.com.

And you can see they've put a link in there where you can ask them questions.

You can either send in tips, you can ask questions.

They've even said you can send in your prayers, send in your good thoughts.

But if you are in the area or you are able to help, you have an ATV, you have 4x4, you have feet, then... do it if you can and we'll keep updating you as much as we can and sharing whatever we can about it but I really want to see Daniel come home.

Yeah let's come together. I really really want to see it.

Help this family. I want to see it have a happy ending like the Claire family had.

I know. So let's hope that it does. And I just wanted to put that out there.

But again, look into our show notes and we'll share it as much as we can.

For sure. but yeah so that always makes me so sad I know that's a specific case for the past like Yeah, it's been like there's we always say that there's certain cases that just like latch on to you.

And that's been one that. I just can't stop.

I'm like, I need this to have a happy ending.

I need this family to have peace. Like, you can feel his heartache.

I can't even. Oh, the love he has for his son.

That family deserves to have their son back.

Everybody deserves to be with their son, especially during the holidays.

I know. So let's bring them home for the holidays.

So hopefully we'll get some good news out of that.

I really hope so. we're gonna bring you into some listener tales kind of bring everybody up Dude, the listener tales, as always.

I have to say this every episode, but. You guys deliver, man, every freaking time.

We were... cackling on this couch literally cackling like I have a sore throat from loffing from loffing from lofter And I mean, there was one that wasn't even technically...

So I we never really go like we don't go into the email like a ton because like it can get a little scary in there.

So when we go into to get listener tales, we type in listener tales. we close our eyes like we just we like to because it helps us narrow it down too just so we can see them all in one spot yeah yeah So we will find Listener Tales.

And when I first opened the email, the first email that... It wasn't even the first email in the box.

It just... caught my eye. Yeah. And I had to read it.

It wasn't even a listener tale, but my God, am I glad I read it.

I'm so happy that. Because we are going to read it here because it is just too good not to share.

And I just want this person to know how they completely... made our week with this email it is so funny and it's just everything that's right in the world it truly is So I'm not going to say this person's name because they didn't specifically say I could.

So I don't want to. Yeah. I don't want to do anything like that.

Now, first of all, let me tell you what the subject line is because this is exactly why I opened it.

You owe a black chick some underwear and a Kinder Egg.

And we were like, we do? How do I not click on that?

I need to know more. I was like, okay. If you say so.

Who am I to say no? Let's find out where I direct that underwear in Kinder Egg.

So easy. We start off with, look, you damn weirdos.

Let's get the basic stuff out of the way.

I love you. You're fabulous. The podcast is legit fire.

I love how apparent your adoration for one another is.

That like means a lot. It does. I do adore her.

Thank you. I adore you. And they said, I love the exact...

Lee pronunciation. I love it all. Thank you.

Somebody sent me a video of their daughter saying it like me and I was like, oh, that's how I say it.

Because I'm always like, what? You're like, what?

I just say it. No, I love that. I love it all.

I only have a jackass brother and always wanted a sister when I was younger.

And now that I'm... Not younger. Listening to you makes me absolutely ache for Weirdo Sister or Bestie so much.

We are that Weirdo Sister or Bestie. I literally was going to say, guess what?

Now you have two. You got a bargain. Whether you want to Buy one, get one free.

Now let's unwrap this subject line. You beauties owe me some underwear.

I shall explain. Okay. I'm a realtor, city councilwoman, and I have a quilting business on the side, which I was like...

Like, okay, get it, boss babe. When I'm driving to properties locked in my craft room with fabric, or researching community issues, I have my earbuds and your podcast is on.

Yesterday I listened to two episodes, Black Eyed Kids and Slender Man.

No big deal. I'm a 200-pound, 5'7", tattooed black chick with a super short haircut and a nose ring, transplanted from Atlanta to bumfuck Iowa.

Ohio. All this to say I have that vibe that screams, don't mess with me.

I want that vibe. Right? Right. And I've been addicted to horror and the macabre since I was around six years old.

So your girl is no wimp. It doesn't sound like it.

We're made to be best friends. Like, immediately.

I was like, oh, you're my people. Like, here we are.

Did we just become best friends? Yup. But as I said, I listened to two episodes yesterday and then had a late afternoon meeting in a community far from where I live.

It was in a conference room of a Lutheran church in an area I didn't know very well.

By the time the meeting was over, it was dark.

Of course, the moment I stepped outside the church, I think of those damn black-eyed kids.

I was raised Southern Baptist, and I'm pretty sure that demonic kids wouldn't be allowed on the sacred ground of a Baptist church, and they would just poof into thin air.

But I don't know nothing about no Lutherans.

So I'm going to thigh rub and hustle to get to my car with my head on swivel. looking around the parking lot to make sure there's no demonic children present.

I get in my car, check the backseat, I'm no fool, no you're not, and turn around to to start the engine.

Here's where I should mention I always park right beside a light pole for safety.

Always. So when I turn around from checking my backseat, I see the light pole in my peripheral vision and nearly fainted, thinking that the pole was a tall child.

Photo attached. Honestly, I get that, though, because I will walk past a mirror in my home and be like, who the fuck is that?

Oh, I do it all the time. And it's me. Yes.

Of course, it was not a child and looked nothing like a child since it was a wooden pole.

But whatever. I start my car and my headlights come on to show me that there's a man walking across the parking lot.

I didn't panic because I figured it was just a guy dressed in dark clothing walking his dog.

But then I realized his hands were in his pockets and there was no dog and he was just strolling slowly.

Creepy. It's damn 30 degrees outside. Who casually strolls in the pitch black of night dressed in black?

I know who. Slenderman. Of course, that's who my brain said it was.

So I was ready to bounce. Drove out of the parking lot and made the turn onto the very busy street with no issues.

I didn't have to slow down or wait or anything.

I'm thinking that some divine force has created a break in traffic allowing me to get away.

So I'm like, Thank you, Lutherans. get more than a few yards before catching a red light.

I was starting to calm down and reached around in my passenger seat for my phone so I could plug it in and stream some Michael Buble.

I don't even like Michael Buble. Never hear of someone or see a movie where someone is murdered while jamming to Michael Buble.

I don't even like Michael Bublé. In the process of sliding my hand around the passenger seat, I fully depress the brake pedal.

I have one of those newer cars that shuts down the engine when you press the brake all the way down.

It's supposed to save the engine's performance or save emissions or some shit.

I don't know. I call it vehicular veganism because all I know is it's supposed to be healthy for the car. vehicular veganism permission to steal that right please Anyhow, as I plug in my phone, my engine shuts off.

So now my car is dark as hell, quiet as hell, and the engine shuts down.

My mind tells me that Slender Man and those damn demon kids have met up in the parking lot And someone used their powers to create a red traffic light and totally disabled my vehicle.

And at that very moment, my son texts me.

Here's where I tell you that my text message tone is that dun-dun sound from Law & Order.

Oh. And she wrote doink doink sound. Doink doink.

Because why would I have a normal person's text alert tone?

So all this happens. And then through my car speakers, I hear the dun dun.

That means a body has been found floating in the Hudson River that's missing all its teeth and has a questionable imprint on its back.

And shit is going down. That's exactly what that means.

I peed. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I screamed and I peed.

Not like I've been holding this gallon for the last 76 exits kind of pee, but it was enough to not ignore.

I immediately hopped on the gas. Light had not yet changed, but I would have rather gotten a ticket than be found dead in pee-soaked underwear in my car.

I made it home last night with no further issues and I have a mobile detailing service coming this morning to clean my car.

I survived the embarrassment of walking into the house and having all three dogs go directly to my crib. crotch and bolting upstairs to shower while my seven-year-old had a meltdown about why I didn't stop at the gas station on the way home to get her Oh my gosh.

So thank you for the very exciting evening.

Keep doing your thang and keep it weird.

But not so weird that your mind tells you there's some demon children in Slender Man chasing your black ass through a parking lot of a questionable Lutheran church in your doink doink text tone.

Makes you pee yourself in your vegan vehicle while you're just trying to listen to Michael Bublé.

Your vegan vehicle. I'm dead. You... are an absolute delight.

That just, it was what I needed to see this morning.

It really was. You know what's even more stressful than a packed calendar?

Realizing you're out of coffee right before a meeting.

That actually happened to me the other day.

And it's exactly why I stocked up during the Thrive Markets back to school sale.

Even if you're not going back to school, I'm not, it's the perfect time to reset.

Thrive makes it easy to shop for high-quality pantry staples, snacks, vitamins, even skincare. without the errands or the ingredient label deep dives. restocked with Aloha protein bars, Simple Mills crackers, and my favorite poppy drinks.

I love them so much. Everything is delivered super duper fast, and I saved up to 25% on all of that.

Their filters make shopping by diet or lifestyle a breeze, and their healthy swap tool actually helped me upgrade my usual buys with zero label stress.

I love the Lesser Evil popcorn. I got my chomp sticks from there.

I love Thrive and you will too. Now's the best time to try Thrive Market.

You'll get up to 25% off select items. and new members get 30 percent off their first order, plus a free gift.

Who doesn't love that? Go to thrivemarket.com slash morbid to start saving.

The sale ends 831. Don't miss it. A broken.

That was hilarious. Thank you so much for that.

You have no idea. It was just one of those things that you see and you read and you're like, Like I'm so happy we do this.

I love it. I'm so happy. So happy we do this.

That was just so funny. It was so random and it was so funny.

I love it. so thank you so much for that and hopefully you're listening and you hear this because you made our week Seriously.

All right. My next one is about squirrels.

Yeah, it is. It is. It says squirrels want to be heroes too.

And it says, attached is a puttafa because I love you.

And guess what? I love you too. Especially because of the puttafa.

Puttafa. It says, hello ghoulish goddesses, my name is Tesla.

Yes, like the car. No, I wasn't named after the car.

I came first. Suck it, Elon Musk. Just kidding, Elon.

I'll take my Model S in red. And yes, you can use my name.

Good. I did. Tesla. I fucking love you, bitches.

When I say listening to your podcast makes, uh, nope.

When I say listening to your podcast feels like true crime gossip with the girls, I mean it.

You two actually remind me a lot of my best friend, and me with your banter, humor, and potty mouths.

I listen to you guys daily while driving for work.

And even though I've been into true crime for a while, you guys are my favorite way to make my husband side-eye me when he hears what I'm listening to.

Yes. We get that a lot and I am currently finding it to be the ultimate compliment.

I'm very proud of that. I am too. With that being said, you'd think that I would be somewhat desensitized to unfortunate circumstances.

But I have recently learned that that is not at all true.

But first, the squirrel. A couple weeks ago, I was walking around my neighborhood when I started hearing this loud-ass animal hooting and hollering somewhere nearby.

I ignored it for a moment but it kept getting louder.

I turned around to find a squirrel. I know, boring. except this squirrel was white as snow.

I live in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Did I say that correctly?

Waukesha? I think so, yeah. Yeah, and this is not a common sight here.

In fact, they're rare enough that when I was looking this occurrence up, I found an article written a couple years ago about someone seeing one in my county, so apparently it's a big deal.

Yeah, I've never seen one. You have never seen a white squirrel?

No. Oh, they're in the Boston Common all the time. never see them there's like a straight up like one albino squirrel and he has like red eyes oh wow and i love him and i love you're so beautiful i've never seen him there yeah well i'll show you anyways to make things 10 times stranger this squirrel was sitting about six feet away from me looking straight into my soul just yelling.

It didn't really freak me out at all. Squirrels can be loud as fuck on a regular basis.

I didn't know that. never heard a squirrel yell oh we have loud squirrels in our backyard i have never heard a squirrel yell when they play with each other they're especially loud That's amazing.

Yeah. I kind of love that for them. It's very chaotic.

They do. They yell. But I just love when staring straight into their eyes.

Just yelling. Just screaming. It didn't really freak me out at all.

Squirrels can be loud as fuck on a regular basis.

I was just mesmerized because I've never seen a white squirrel before nor had a squirrel tried to spark up a conversation with me before.

I said farewell to the forest friend, and immediately when I got home, I started looking up the spiritual meanings of a white squirrel.

I love that you do that. yeah because anytime I see like some kind of animal or like have an experience I'm like let me look that up and see what that symbolizes like what does that symbolize what's happening like i saw a freaking eagle the other day and i was like what does that mean eagles are rare yeah they are you know it's cool to see one Yeah, so all that came up was that they are a sign of good luck and are pure creatures.

I accepted that as a good omen and I went about my life.

I'm not usually an overly spiritual person, but now I can't help but wonder if that squirrel with some sort of guardian trying to warn me.

Because an exact week after meeting that furry fella, my husband, my two-year-old daughter, and I went to the Waukesha Christmas parade.

Yup, that parade. the one where the human form of a shit stain, and that's being nice, decided to drive through the crowd.

I can't believe you guys were there. I'm so happy that you guys are okay.

My husband and I were enjoying hot chocolate and my daughter was eating a sucker that the very nice woman next to us gave her. because my daughter wasn't quick enough to grab the candy before the other kids got it when that happened.

It literally couldn't have been purer. I heard a gunshot and I turned to see what had happened.

That's when I saw the piece of shit, red SUV plowing through the crowd.

I'll spare the details of what my family saw. but for context, there was one person in particular only feet in front of us that got hit.

Oh, my God. I thought there might be more cars driving through the crowd and I, as well as others, thought there was an active shooter due to the shots fired, which we later learned were those of the police.

But at that time it was pure chaos. I have my like heart hurts.

Seriously. I have like goosebumps reading this.

I have a number of images burned into my mind, some of which are the faces of the other panicked and sobbing parade goers.

I was panicking and I'm so grateful that my husband got me and our daughters to safety to collect ourselves.

All of these events are incredibly summarized because I still can't talk about that day without trembling like a leaf.

My daughter was terrified and probably saw way too much for anyone, especially a two year old.

We avoid talking about it around her or watching the news when she's around, but she still brings it up and is still scared.

She's also scared of Christmas now. That breaks my heart.

Oh, that's the worst thing I've ever heard.

Because that fucking monster, like, that's exactly what he did this for.

Like, so terrible. Oh. Oh. incredibly angry because i'm sure like she probably feels the same way it's like whenever something bad like that happens when you're when you have a kid It's not you.

Like, you don't care about how you are feeling about it, you know what I mean?

Which is, like, probably why, like, a lot of parents get burnt out, but that's another story.

But the worst part of it is when it happens to your kid.

Like when your kid has to, at two years old, experience something like that. of humanity right like the absolute worst and you're like what the hell world did i bring them into You know what I mean?

Like, I think about it all the time. I'm like, God, like, whenever stuff happens, I'm like... what is going, like, this is supposed to be a good place.

Like, what are you doing? It's sad. It makes me so angry that someone, and someone takes the joy of Christmas away from a two-year-old who went to a parade.

It's just a holiday fest. the setting before that like a woman next to them gave her a lollipop because she couldn't get one like And just all the things that you hear about that parade, like the dancing grannies.

Oh, it's literally the best of humanity and the most pure of humanity. they tried to destroy it with the worst of humanity.

Yeah, it really is. But they can't do it.

They won't do it. They're not going to take it away.

Because that community is sticking together.

Hell yeah, they are. Now, there have been some things that bring me happiness, though, like all the parade goers that ran to people's aid the many nurses and doctors that have been and still are saving the many lives of those who were hit. the over $2 million that has been raised within days after the attack. by people all over the US and Canada.

The many flowers, candles, teddy bears, and loving signs that have been left at the memorial site. the booked out blood donation appointments, the local restaurants and businesses that have been donating their profits to the victim's family.

And I honestly could keep going on and on.

That makes me want to cry. Like, I literally feel like tearing up.

No, I don't blame you. Because it's just like, wow, like I'm really glad that everybody just like.

Because it's like you were just saying, it's like the purest of humanity and the worst.

And then again, the purest of humanity just comes together.

They always win. They always win out. That's the thing.

That's what we all have to remember. It always wins.

It's hard, but it always wins. It does. even though I won't be saying anything about the parade to oh excuse me I skipped a part I'm planning on taking my daughter to the memorial site tomorrow, which is a week after the parade.

Even though I won't be saying anything about the parade to her when we go, if she does remember any of this, I also want her to remember her community's response.

She had to see at a very young age how monstrous humans can be.

So I want her to see that there are wonderful people as well.

I want her to remember that through this traumatic experience, her community came together and helped one another.

Oh my goodness. You're a pure, beautiful, amazing human being and mother.

Yeah. We should all be so lucky. Two years old is a tough age to try to... work through something like this because they're at that age where they're talking.

They understand enough. They're starting to understand things, but they're not...

At the point of like a five-year-old where you can really sit down and have like a conversation about it and try to really relate to them.

Two is tough, and I feel for you, because that's a hard...

That's a hard age to try to navigate this, and you're doing a great job.

Because it's like, how do you even explain that in general? yeah like you really don't like you like you were just saying you could sit down to your five-year-olds and talk to them about that but like The fact that you even have to do that.

And like you just said, like that would be hard.

Can't imagine having a two year old in this situation.

But it reminds me of Christmas. It reminds me of Mr. Rogers when he said, look for the helpers.

Yes. Like when it's like, because there's like a, sorry, I was just watching Daniel Tiger after before this.

Same. Uh, but like there's a whole episode where like the community, there's a huge storm and things get broken and all that.

You remember Daniel Tiger. Yeah, obviously.

And they say like they use the Mr. Rogers line, like look for the helpers.

Right. Because people always come and help after a tragedy.

And like this person said, like all the helpers.

Yeah. Look for the helpers. I love it. As far as my family is concerned, my husband and I have been in contact with counselors and therapists for ourselves as well as our daughter.

Good for you. It may seem redundant, but I highly suggest that anyone who experiences trauma seek help even if it's just through the disaster or suicide hotlines.

Yes, yes, yes. As for the squirrel, was it a sign of good luck?

Nope, I don't think so. Maybe I'm crazy for saying it, but I can't help but wonder if something was trying to warn me in the form of something as eye-catching, yet non-threatening as a white squirrel.

Well, and he was like yelling at you. Yeah.

Like it was, you know. Yeah. And like, you've never seen anything like that before.

I take everything as a sign, to be honest.

Thank you ladies for having mentioned the parade in your podcast after it happened.

And thank you to any of the listeners that have donated.

Keep sending your prayers, good vibes, or whatever you believe in, Wakasha's direction.

We're all mourning, traumatized, or both.

Thank you ladies and keep it weird, but not so weird that you're the human form of a shit stain, but so weird that you're cute as fuck, but loud as fuck squirrel. that warns people when trouble is brewing.

Damn. I'm so happy that you guys were okay, like you and your family.

Tesla. Like, thank you for sending that in.

Seriously. Wow. And I'm so glad that you guys are like talking to counselors and you're doing everything, right?

Yeah. Please know that you're doing everything right.

Seriously. I feel so bad. I seriously want to wrap your family in a hug.

I know. I'm just like, man. And I hope that your little one can start to like... see christmas for what it is again yeah she will and she will she will i hope it happens soon All right.

Well, thank you for sending that in because people needed to hear that.

Yeah. All right. So let's go to the next one.

And the next one is called What Happened to Holly? what happened what happened ollie hi weirdos i've recently discovered your podcast and it's honestly been the highlight of this pandemic and the only thing keeping me going oh i've always been told that i'm creepy for my love of halloween bats and all things serial killer related But you make me feel like I'm not alone.

You're not. That's all we want. My name is Amanda and I live in Northern Virginia.

You can use my name. And I've changed the other names for you.

You're the best. I wanted to share this story with you beautiful ladies as I often think about it.

And listening to the Listener Tales episodes made me realize you might want to hear about it too.

We do. Hold onto your butts because this tale involves spying, a disappearance, and possible murder.

Legit men in black in strange trash cans.

We'll be ready for it. Strange trash cans?

Yes. I am ready for it. When my best friend Cindy and I were around 11 or 12 years old, we were obsessed with Harriet the Spy.

Same. And wanted to be spies ourselves. I know everybody.

Hello. Hi, olds. Did you have that VHS that was orange of Harriet the Spy?

Because I still have it in my attic somewhere.

Yep. Yeah. Not sure what we thought qualified us for this, but if Harriet could do it, so could we.

We lived on the same street with one house in between ours and lots of woods, so there wasn't much to spy on.

And our parents did not let us run around the neighborhood, so we were kind of stuck at home.

We did the same thing. I had a spy journal.

I had everything. You had to have a spy journal.

The house in between ours was built by our grandparents.

Oh, yeah. Cindy and I are also cousins. Forgot to mention that. but they had moved when we were much younger.

Several families had lived in the home since, and the current occupants were a middle-aged couple named Holly and Joe.

They were nice people and we would watch their dogs sometimes when they went out of town.

One day, Cindy and I decided it would be super fun to start spying on them.

And why not? We lived practically in the sticks and there was nothing else to do.

We put together our spy kit, which consisted of several notepads and pens, binoculars, and walkie-talkies.

Hell yeah. You know, real spy shit. That's that shit.

We would hang out in my parents' backyard as my house was closer and hide behind the fence real creepy-like.

I'm pretty sure Joe knew that we were spying on them, but he never said anything to us or our parents.

Come to think of it, I don't even think Cindy's mom knew we were doing this, because we only did it at my house.

Now, here comes the weird shit. Now as this was a long time ago, I may get the order of these events wrong, but I promise they all happened.

As we didn't spend much time with Holly and Joe, I cannot recall if they were happily married, but I don't think I ever heard them yelling or ever saw them fight.

Our house was close to theirs, so if we had been outside, we probably would have heard something.

I say this because if baseball or football games were on everyone in the One night, Cindy is sleeping over, and for some weird reason we're hanging out in my parents' bedroom in the dark.

You know, as one does. As one does. My brother Josh comes in to join us and we tell him that we've been spying on Tali and Joe for a while, but nothing much has happened.

We hang out for a little while and next thing you know we see Holly and Joe's front porch light turn on and then Holly runs out of the house.

Why? We all look at each other like, oh shit, and scramble for the spy kit and binoculars as if they had night vision or some shit and weren't cheap and plastic.

Of course they helped us see exactly jack shit, but we sat at the window and watched for a long time.

We never saw a car leave their driveway and never saw Holly go back in the house.

Weird. That is weird. I tell my mom the next day about this and she brushes it off and assures me there's nothing wrong.

I wasn't convinced. Cindy, Josh, and I decided we need to be extra vigilant as now we think something has happened to Holly.

Several days go by. Nothing happens. Maybe a week or so later, I'm out in the front yard with my mom and I just happen to notice that Joe is digging a large human-sized hole in his front flower bed.

For why though? Like what the fuck, Joe?

Yes. Trying not to panic, I pointed out to my mom, who again acts like nothing is wrong.

I'm totally flabbergasted at her lack of concern that our neighbor is digging a hole in his yard to bury his wife. who I'm assuming is dead at this point.

I would have made an excellent detective.

I tell Cindy about it and she comes over to sleep over either that night or the next night.

Again, we grab my brother Josh and stake out in my parents' bedroom.

This is so like of that time. I love it very much.

After. After a while of nothing happening but us coming up with crazy stories of what we think happened to Holly, we see Joe bringing the trash out.

Nothing abnormal there. But there's not just one trash can.

There's three. What kind of serial killer monster uses more than one trash can?

Side note, I'm an adult homeowner now. I do realize that it's totally 100% normal for people to have more than one trash can.

To put yard waste or whatever in them. But as a 12-year-old, to me, the only conceivable truth was that Holly's body was in those trash cans.

I digress. I love that. Isn't it funny how when you're little, you're like, three trash cans?

Obviously, he's a serial killer. And as an adult, you're like, oh, no, you need those.

You're like, I could get a four. Yes. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.

But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.

The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.

His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.

Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.

Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.

Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts Spotify or the Wondery app.

We again scrambled to try to see if anything else was, we again scrambled to try to see anything else with our shitty ass binoculars. but come up empty.

We want to go outside and look in the trash, but are terrified that we'll be next, so we stay put.

At this point, there's still been no sign of Holly returning.

If I remember correctly, things calmed down for a week or so. there was nothing out of the ordinary to report, other than Holly's unsolved disappearance.

Where is Holly? Which my mom still did not think was a big deal.

She also thought we were ridiculous about the trash cans.

And in hindsight, she was probably right at least about that.

Cindy and I were going to give up, as we felt there was nothing else we could do.

We were hanging out in my backyard again a week or so later with my brother Josh. when one of us happened to look over at Joe's house.

Now we weren't spying at that moment because Joe wasn't home.

So there wasn't a point. From our vantage point in my parents' backyard, we could see straight into Joe and Holly's kitchen, and there was sliding glass doors leading out to an open patio.

So we look over to Joe's house and suddenly we clearly see two men in the kitchen.

Neither of whom is Joe. I don't remember who grabbed who, but we shoved each other down and crouched behind the fence as quickly as we could. and promptly started to freak the fuck out.

Both men were tall and dressed like fucking Will Smith in men in black suits.

If that wasn't odd enough, these two men started opening and closing every cabinet and every drawer in the kitchen.

As if they were looking for something. One of them grabbed a notepad off the counter, wrote something down, crumpled up that paper, and threw it in the trash can.

What the fuck did he write down? Also, it's super rude to do that in someone else's house.

Our hearts were pounding. We didn't know what to do and we're afraid to move.

All we could do is watch these two men acting suspiciously in Joe's house.

Cue John Ralphio and Mona Lisa dancing in the cemetery singing. don't be suspicious don't be suspicious and please ash i'm begging you to sing that in mona lisa's voice i Don't be so special.

Don't be so special. Don't be so special.

The whole encounter lasted only a few minutes.

Really good. Thank you. The whole encounter lasted only a few minutes and then the men in black were gone.

We never saw their car leave the driveway.

Side note, side, side note. It's important to mention that the way our house were situated from my parents' house, parents' house and yard.

We see every car that drives up or down the street.

So if anyone was coming or going to Joe's house, we would have seen them.

The other end of the street is a dead end, so the only way out was to drive past my parents' house.

Back to the story. In our minds, there's no way that these two men aren't connected to Holly's disappearance.

A bit later that day, we decided to go for a walk down the street to see if we could see any cars in Joe's driveway, which is clearly visible from the road.

There was nothing. No cars. As we're walking past his house, Cindy notices something in the bank along Joe's driveway.

It's a white hair scrunchie. She goes to inspect it and it has hair attached to it, a red hair.

The only person who lived on our street with red hair?

You guessed it. Holly. To us, this was the smoking gun that something terrible happened to Holly and that this must have fallen out of her hair the night she disappeared.

Again, my mom dismisses all of this as just figments of our imagination. says that they must have gotten divorced and Holly must have moved out.

Okay, then why were there never any moving trucks, Mom?

Why didn't Holly ever return to get her shit, mom?

There's literally never been an answer. Joe still lives in the house with his new wife and keeps mostly to himself.

We've never found out what happened to Holly.

My family now considers this whole incident to be an inside joke.

And whenever Joe is mentioned, someone will casually say, oh, you mean the murderer?

I've tried to look Holly up online as well and have come up empty. always wonder about what happened to her and will never fully trust Joe as I still think he's shady as fuck."

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little unsolved mystery from my youth, and I hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that you take it away, Ash.

I honestly want you to keep it so weird that you watch Harriet the Spy and then you become obsessed and then you think that you're a spy and you and your cousin Cindy start spying on your neighbors and then you find out that maybe somebody actually disappeared and then you don't know if they disappeared and then you still don't know what happened to holly what happened to holly what happened to holly I'm actually concerned.

The fact that she said she looked her up online and can't find her.

That white scrunchie shit was creepy to me.

I'm sorry, that was the smoking white scrunchie.

And like were those people like the FBI?

Like were they like looking? Were they like undercover or some shit?

I don't know. Does the FBI wear a suit? Does the FBI wear a suit?

That's a different branch. Yeah, that's one we don't talk about now.

No, that's a weird story, and I myself am wondering what happened to Holly, and now I kind of want to look into it further.

Yeah, right? i'm gonna email you and be like can i have more details hey girl what's up i need to know what this is i need to know damn you and cindy need to like reconvene as spies and get back on the case.

Yeah, where are you guys? Let's get together.

Let's do this. Web sleuths. Let's be adult Harriet the Spice.

Oh, my God. A dream. Yeah, it really is.

It is a dream. Oh, thank you for that. That one was good.

All right, my next one is called My Husband Cheated on Me, an important listener tales.

Also, cat and squirrel photos. Put a pho attached.

Yeet others pity right out of here. You know.

You know. I also love that there's squirrels in both.

Oh, my God. Do you see that first photo?

I'm screaming. Wait, hold on. I'm on your iPad and it's like so hard.

What the fuck? Guys, we are posting this.

We're posting it like immediately. What is that squirrel doing?

We're going to post it. Your cats are so beautiful.

That squirrel. That squirrel. That squirrel is everything right in this world.

He looks like he's dancing. Yeah. He also looks like he's going to fight you.

He looks like he's like square up. He's like, Let's do Mambo number five.

He looks like, do you have any extra food in your kitchen?

He looks like a lot of different things.

Oh my god, that's an amazing photo. You know what that is?

That's art. You guys, man. you guys so you just thank you thank you thank you for these gifts just let you give up i feel like nancy in the crowd These are my gifts.

I truly feel that way. Thank you for blessing us.

For real. We'll post it, I promise. We'll post that one right after we finish recording.

Absolutely. Probably with no context. Now you know what it is.

I'm literally posting it to the feed with no context.

All right. My name is Kelly. You can use my name because I want others who have gone through similar experiences to the one that I'm about to tell you about to not feel like they have to hide hell yeah Kelly I love you already I want other men and women whose spouses have cheated on them and chose to stay in their relationship and repair the hurt that they've gone through to feel empowered supported and not alone i love you this is wonderful Thank you.

Thank you. I love hearing about your lives, your family, your pets, and the never-ending banter between the two of you.

I like many people in this day and age struggle with anxiety and depression and you guys have gotten me through a lot of difficult days.

Wow. I'm really happy that we can be there for you.

I'm going to keep this listener tale. It's not really a listener tale.

Maybe listener life experience would be a better term. as short and sweet as possible.

The details aren't important, but I feel like the takeaway is extremely important to the other weirdos of the morbid community, Because we really are a community.

I adore my fellow weirdos. Oh, me too, man.

I'm so happy that we have this just fucking... love fest going on love fest so over 2021 yeah right So over this past spring, my mental health took a sharp decline.

My husband and I had been having a very hard time communicating with each other.

It started as a gradual thing long before the spring of 2021, but came to a peak when my mental health became so bad that I couldn't force myself to say that there was something wrong and I couldn't bring myself to get out of bed on days that I didn't have to work.

I'm so sorry that you went through that.

My husband has always been my rock, always a beacon of light in the dark cloud of mental anguish that would wrap around me.

He had always been the happy-go-lucky one of the two of us, and when he started acting differently, I did what you should never do, I assumed.

I assumed that helping to shoulder my poor mental health had finally become the burden that I always feared it was.

I assumed that he was at his wit's end with trying to find a way to help me and needed some space.

I didn't question, honestly didn't even notice at first because of the black cloud I was living in, that we stopped talking about things.

We stopped going out to see friends. We stopped going out to dinner.

Everything just kind of stopped. What I didn't see is that he was drowning too."

Like I said before, my husband is a bright beacon of light.

He's social and happy and an amazing storyteller.

He's creative and goofy and silly. Honestly, looking back, I hate myself for not seeing that part of him was flickering out.

Over the summer he came to me and told me that he'd been having an affair.

I had never seen him cry until this moment.

He said that it had nothing to do with me, that I had done nothing wrong.

He told me about how over the past year, He felt like there was something wrong with him because he wasn't interested in anything anymore.

He was having panic attacks at work. He felt like he was causing my depression and anxiety and he didn't know how to fix it.

He felt like I was getting ready to leave him.

He told me that he had been afraid to bring these thoughts up to me, sure that if he did I would confirm his fears and end our marriage.

He started talking to a female coworker who was a good friend about the thoughts he was having and the feelings he was experiencing.

It turned into a full blown affair. It went on for about six weeks and then she asked him to leave me.

She said if he was so unhappy, he should just leave me and then they wouldn't have to feel bad about seeing each other anymore.

That was the moment he explained to me when the gravity of what he was doing hit him.

He knew in that moment he wanted to make our marriage work.

I had always imagined that finding out you've been cheated on would feel like a burning hot red rage, but for me, that's not how it felt.

It was drowning in ice water. That's literally exactly how it feels.

It's not anger at first. And obviously this is not John, but this is like my ex.

I know, I was like, please clarify. This is my ex.

Like I always thought that too, that you would immediately feel just anger.

And maybe it does for some people. I'm sure.

Yeah, I'm sure it's different for probably different for everybody.

But for me, she just explained it. perfectly yeah well i'm sure too like your reaction depends on your relationship oh for sure So it felt like my world was over.

Even though we were outside on our patio in the 95 degree New England summer heat, I felt like I had just fallen through a frozen pond.

Icy water was wrapping around my body, filling my lungs and running through my veins.

The water was dragging me down so deep it felt like I would never be warm again.

I would never feel the sun again. The ice was closing back over me. and I was going to be trapped here forever.

It felt like a century went by as he told me about everything that had happened. everything he had done everything he had felt he told me he wanted to make our marriage work but he understood if what he had done had been too unforgivable and he would leave if I asked him to.

The ball was in my court. I have always been a firm believer that if my husband ever cheated on me, I would end things swiftly and without question.

I wouldn't blame the other woman but the scumbag cheating husband.

But it turns out, that this is one of those situations where you have no idea how you'll react until it happens to you.

Even though I logically knew that the woman he had been seeing had minimal blame, although I still don't understand how she could feel like the best way to help her friend work through his marriage problems was to become romantically involved with him.

That's the only petty job I'll make, I promise.

You absolutely deserve to. Because I also don't understand that.

That was the wrong thing to do. Yeah. to say 100 on your side there same it was so much easier in the beginning to place the feelings of anger on her of course Eventually, I was able to work through those feelings and I can now fully accept that the only person I need to be mad at is my husband. we talked for a long time about what we each wanted the mental states we had excuse me the mental states we had each we had each been in for the past six months and we decided to try and make it work.

And I'm so glad that we made that choice.

Oh good. Good. I'm so glad. It hasn't been easy but we started going to therapy together.

We're working to rebuild trust. We're talking about how we're feeling so much more than we ever have.

Honestly, this is the best our relationship has ever been.

Of course, my husband regrets what he did more than anything and frequently says if he could just go back in time and change it, he would.

I know a lot of men who cheat say this, but my husband has not stopped working to prove that sentiment for a moment since he told me about what he had done.

That brings me to why I felt the need to share our story.

Inevitably in listening to true crime, going to hear stories about spouses who have cheated and the worst case outcomes you're going to hear podcast hosts talk about how these men are the scum of the earth and the ones who make it into true crime stories absolutely are.

As a woman who has been cheated on, It's been more difficult to listen to true crime stories and listen to hosts of various podcasts say, Once a cheater, always a cheater, or how do you ever stay with someone like that?

It brings feelings of shame, like I'm a fool for trying to make my marriage better. and for trying to heal with my husband from what he did a lot of the times if someone is cheating of course separating is on the table and is not a wrong option but I do feel that in certain cases, if both parties genuinely want to make things work, and are willing to change and both fight for each other in a healthy way, it can work and it's possible to come out stronger on the other side.

Absolutely. I've literally seen that happen.

Hell yeah. There are a few people in our lives who know what happened and it feels like they look down their noses at me. fuck them no that's it's nobody's business yeah exactly It feels like they see me as less than or that poor woman who they need to pity.

I'm none of these things. I'm choosing forgiveness.

I'm choosing not to be a victim or a statistic.

I'm choosing to fight for the person that I love and who I 100% still believe loves me with his whole heart, even though he chose to deal with his emotions in the absolute worst way possible.

When you talk about spouses who cheat on the show, please keep in mind that it doesn't always end the same way.

If your friend comes to you, and tells you that this is something they've been going through and they want to try and make it work, please don't make them feel alienated. or like they're making a horrible choice.

Be there. Listen. Support them. But if things go bad and they do need to leave, be there to help them get out.

Exactly. If you're going through this or you're trying to make your relationship work, I'm rooting for you to heal and find happiness.

If things don't work out, I hope you can move on and go back to living your best life. no matter which path you choose I hope you find happiness and don't let anyone make you feel like shit for doing what's best for you I'm like about to cry I know I'm like yes that was beautiful keep it weird but not so weird that you let the expectations of society be the influencing factor about how you want to process the trauma that happens in your life.

That is the most powerful statement I've read in my whole fucking life.

I fucking love you, Kelly. Kelly, thank you for sharing that.

I'm obsessed. She said, PS, here are some photos of my three cats and the best image I've ever caught In my trail camera to end on a light note.

And you know what? That's the squirrel. That is literally the greatest image on a trail of paper I've ever seen.

I also love that you're just like, yeah, this is my picture of a squirrel that I caught.

And you know what? We are wishing you and your husband like the best of luck and sending you the best vibes ever.

Oh yeah. I hope you live happily ever after forever and ever and always.

Yeah. because obviously you are both happy with your decision yeah and you know what we always say what other people think of me is none of my business what other people think of you is none of your business.

So let them say what they want. And if anybody's happy in your reality.

Nobody is better than anybody. Like people that look down their nose at you are just, they have skeletons in their closet too.

No. Anybody who is like that. pity them.

Yeah. Because if somebody's that angry and that unhappy, they just want to, people, misery loves company and they love to drag other people into their misery and if you're so concerned with my life what's going on in your life that you need to escape from exactly you need to You need to check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Love it. is what I'm saying. Amen. But seriously, Kelly, thank you for sharing that because sometimes it is hard. from the other side when you're looking in at a situation to be like, oh, fuck that.

I would leave. and you know what I am so guilty of that I will totally admit that and reading your story I'm never gonna say that again or have that thought Because it literally is one of those things.

And you do feel like, because again, I'm talking about like my ex-boyfriend.

So I wasn't married. I can't imagine. But you're together a long time.

Yeah, but it must be like a whole different set of emotions when you've committed to marriage with someone.

And you take vows and whatnot. Yeah, so like that I can't even fathom, but even like a boyfriend that you're with for a long time or a significant other.

Like, I always said, I was like, oh, I would never allow someone to cheat on me and then go back to them.

Like, that's easy. boom, bye. No, that's not the case.

And in my case, I should have walked away from that, but... Well, it was like...

That's a perfect example of how every single situation is different so you shouldn't judge it.

Exactly. But I felt shame. Like everyone feel, you feel shame that someone cheated on you, which is horrible.

Yeah, it really is like a societal thing.

That you're going back to them or like trying to make it work.

You feel shame. Because you feel like everyone thinks I'm stupid.

And nobody else is in your relationship and it doesn't affect them in any way.

No. But it's like, you build this love with somebody, like, why wouldn't you want to work on it?

You know, like I think a lot of times your first response is like, oh, like, why would you go back to him?

Well, because we've built so much together.

Well, and you just don't know. You don't know how you're going to react in that situation.

You might say fuck it and be happy with that decision and good for you.

And guess what? It's not for anybody else to understand.

They don't need to. No. Yeah. So that's that.

That's the thoughts on that. Thank you, Kelly. so all right what's our next one our next one is entitled The time my mom became friends with a murderer.

Oh, don't do that, mama. Yeah, don't do that.

All right, so this person has changed their name, so I'm not going to say who this is from.

Says, hi, Elena and Ash. You can call me Alice.

Hi, Alice. Hello, Alice. I've changed my name, so feel free to say it out loud if you ever decide to read this story.

Hey, we decided to read this story. I'd like to preface this by letting you know I love your podcast.

I have a one hour commute and you make me you make it fun every time.

I started listening this August after my coworker mentioned morbid was her favorite podcast.

I love that. My favorite episode is the one with Michael Malloy, the guy who just wouldn't die.

Loved that guy. Michael Malloy is a legend.

That's a great one. And the book by Simon Reed is really awesome.

And Simon's really cool. So go check it out.

I also love listener tales, but never had a weird experience to share until last week.

When a woman was found murdered in my neighborhood.

I won't share the exact location here, but I've attached the news reports in case you guys want to read it.

I do. On October 18th my mom received a notification from this annoying neighborhood app where all the people do is complain.

I know exactly which neighborhood app you're talking about because Drew just joined one.

Yep, you got to. I opened the app to see someone had made, you guessed it, a post complaining about possible break ins.

Basically, a neighbor shared a link about a woman who was found dead after someone broke into her home.

The article was very short and said the husband called the police asking for a welfare check on his wife.

Supposedly his wife had called him saying someone had tried to break in.

The police went to the home and found no signs of a break in.

As they left, the husband arrived from the gym.

He found his wife dead on the floor with a bag over her head and a gunshot wound to the head. my god.

It was shocking hearing this happen so close to my home.

I shared the story with my mom and said the husband did it.

My mom said real life isn't a true crime episode, which is absolutely true.

But I found it odd the wife had called the husband and not 911 after she noticed someone trafficking. trying to break in.

The police mentioned there was no signs of an intruder.

Also, why didn't the husband rush home after receiving the call from his wife?

See where I'm going with this? It's one of those cases where you just have a feeling.

We decided to wait and see what came of it.

I kid you not, I was checking the news a week later and read the headline, Man charged with murdering his wife, making it look like she was killed by an intruder.

Did you text your mom and say life is a true crime?

Life is a true crime episode. You can read the news report and get all the details there.

But man, this guy was a sicko. It seems the motive was money since they were having financial difficulties and the hostess... The hostess...

The husband had taken life insurance out on his wife two days before killing her.

No, no, no, no. Here is where I, but mostly my mom came in.

Later that night, I was reading other news reports on the case.

The husband and wife seemed to have a great marriage.

They didn't have kids but had many rescued pets.

They practice yoga together and led a healthy lifestyle based on their Instagram and TikTok stories.

In the article, they mentioned the husband.

I'm going to say his name is Tom, is originally from somewhere.

And him and his wife have a couple of rescued chickens in their backyard.

Right away, I remembered one of my mom's acquaintances.

His name was also Tom, originally from Badoop Boop.

From Saturn. And him and his wife had rescue chickens in their backyard.

I immediately opened up my mom's Facebook account and type in the husband's name.

And it was the same dude. Stop. My mom's first language isn't English.

So Tom had been her English teacher when he moved to the U.S.

When we moved to the U.S., excuse me. Tom was her favorite teacher because she also loves animals, so they talked about animals a lot.

They became Facebook friends when classes ended, but my mom still ran into him at Kroger's.

Tom was actually one of the reasons my mom and I moved into this neighborhood after Hurricane Harvey.

Tom told us this neighborhood and the surrounding areas didn't flood whenever it rained.

At one point, Tom offered to help set up a chicken coop in our backyard.

My mom gets these random ideas from time to time.

Me and your mom have that in common. Yeah, definitely do.

Anyways, it was 2am at this point. But I ran to my mom's room to wake her up and share the news.

I love this. Mama! You are friends with the murderer.

She couldn't believe it. I showed her the articles and the pictures to confirm it was the same guy.

She was speechless. But then I mentioned how the motive seemed to be financial issues.

My mom nodded and said, Whenever he came to class, he always combined his watch with the color of his shoes and his tie.

He cared a lot about how he looked. She also mentioned he was always dressed in a suit and tie in public.

I would just think that's someone who likes to look nice.

But I wonder if Tom was one of those people for whom appearances are everything.

Maybe he couldn't afford to be the guy who rescues animals, practices yoga, and travels anymore and decided life insurance money would bring it all back.

Wow, that's a really good theory. That's also very sad.

The police seems to be on top of the case and news articles are coming out every day with new information.

Tom's bond was set to $150,000 and he's in jail awaiting trial.

I'm mostly sorry his wife lost her life for such a petty reason.

She sounded like an incredible woman who just wanted to rescue animals and keep them safe. last i heard she was raising money because her cat needed surgery Tom always said he loved animals, but now he has abandoned them all.

I'm not sure where they've taken them. I hope the dogs and cats weren't inside the home during the incident.

By the way, I know I haven't mentioned the woman's name, but I'm doing this on purpose.

It doesn't feel right to involve her in this.

May she rest in peace. Fuck Tom, though.

P.S. Another weird coincidence in this story.

This couple had a dog who looks identical to mine.

Same pitbull mix, same floppy ears, same white spot, same hair color.

The color part is the craziest since I've never met another Merle.

What is it? Merle? Merle, I think. Merle Pitmix, I've shared pictures of our dogs side by side for comparison.

PPS, Tom murdered his wife on the 18th. On November 19th, he shared a GIF on Instagram of a cartoon posing for a mugshot.

Yikes. Anyway, I hope this was an interesting read.

I'm sorry for the lengths. There are more details I wish I could include but can't due to privacy.

I love you girls and I love the show. Promise to always keep it weird.

Wow. Your dogs really do look a lot like...

And the reason I didn't say his name was because you made it seem like you didn't really want to like... pinpoint your location.

So I didn't want to make that harder for you.

So that's why I didn't say his name. I'm not protecting him in any way.

No. But that was a crazy story. Seriously.

And I can't believe your mom was friends with a murderer.

Yeah, that's a lot. That must be a weird thing to find out.

Oh, that'd be so freaky. We were talking about that the other night.

Yeah. Weird. We were. We were talking about that at Thanksgiving actually.

Yeah, we sure were. You know, our family.

Yeah. That's how that works. But thank you, Alice.

For real. All right, my next one is my listener tale, our family's female witchy experiences from...

Good old Massachusetts. We have a lot of Massachusetts tales and it wasn't even on purpose.

Love that. This says, hi, weirdos. I have attached my listener tale to this email as a put-a-fo with its incredible lengthy title.

Please do not use my name. That sounds good, but I am crossing my fingers to be able to share this with some of, excuse me, but I am crossing my fingers to be able to share some of my family's witchy experiences with you all.

Thank you for the opportunity. You had Massachusetts and you had witchy family experiences.

All you have to say to me, Alina, is Massachusetts and witch.

Yeah. And I'm in. It's so funny because we were actually talking with Caleb the other day and Caleb was like, people from Massachusetts love Massachusetts shit.

And I'm like, yeah. I don't know. I don't know what it is.

We just do. I don't know. I was born here.

Well, I actually wasn't at all. I was. Yeah.

Ash loves Hawaii. I do. Who doesn't? Who doesn't?

Anyways. Hi, weirdos. I am a fellow Massachusetts native and weirdo.

I adore the both of you, feel like I'm just chatting with my old friends, especially on the way back and forth from the longish weekly commute to Connecticut For my occupational therapy program.

That is a long drive. That is a long, boring drive.

Oh, so boring. I find myself laughing along in the fast lane of 95 North to the best sense of humor one can have mixed into some truly grisly tales.

I love hearing you talk about Southern Mass as I'm from Sharon.

You've probably heard of this little town.

If not, it's right next to Patriots Place.

I have heard of Sharon. And my boyfriend lives in Rehoboth.

So basically, the Bridgewater Triangle episodes were super duper creepy as I drive through. those Rehoboth and Seekonk back roads on the regular.

And know always to keep my eye open for a grumpy, ghostly hitchhiker.

Redheaded hitchhiker. So let me tell you about my family.

My maternal grandmother's side has some very witchy experiences.

Even to keep one of... Oh my god, I'm like broken.

I was like, that's enough. You were like, can you read? enough to keep us on our toes if and if we have a vision of some sort it tends to be or become true It seems to only be the women in the family through generations who have this gift to some degree or another.

Our ancestors actually played a role in the Salem witch trial.

Hell yeah, they did. Yeah, that's amazing.

Which fuels the idea that this line of descendants is particularly witchy.

Where to begin? My mom has three sisters.

My mom remembered she woke up from a terrible dream one night where the house burned down right to the ground.

Over breakfast that morning, she told her sisters about the dream And all three said the same thing.

They had the exact same dream. Stop. And so did my Nana, and so did her sister across town.

Thankfully, the house did not burn down, but my grandparents still live there and sometimes that thought creeps into my mind as most of these visions feelings or premonitions tend to come true that's creepy that's super creepy Sticking on the topic of my mom, let's talk about the time my brother was a toddler. and my mom was in the bathroom several rooms away brushing her teeth in front of the bathroom mirror.

This bathroom had no windows and was a small modest room.

But despite this, my mom recalled looking into the mirror, and vividly seeing my little brother toddle onto the busy road outside of our home.

Oh my god. Oh, she dropped her toothbrush and ran outside to the living room to see my brother's chubby fist reaching for the sliding door lock that led directly to to that road.

Thank God for witchy visions. Yeah. Wow.

And that it just like astral projected into the bathroom mirror to show her.

Whoa. Speaking of my mom once again, let's flash forward to last year.

It was October time, dark and cold. A typically lovely New England night in my opinion.

Hell yeah. My mom loves her walks, either by herself or with our St.

Bernard. she plugs in her earbuds and could spend hours strolling through the neighborhood i love your mom i do too But this night, as she rounded the corner, the last corner until our house was visible, she encountered the most frightening event of her life.

She recalls a black mass of a human figure draped in a black cloak towering over the neighbor's front walkway. seemingly looking at the front door of the neighbor's house.

The size was towering, at least 12 feet, and it was faceless.

That's Slenderman. I hate this. I literally hate this.

No. The only thing she could equate it to is to being the Grim Reaper.

She said she stood frozen on the concrete staring at it in a mix of utter horror and shock.

This ghostly creature went to turn towards her, and as it did, dissipated into nothingness in the breeze, and it was gone.

Oh, I just got full chills. Same. Chilled, my mom went inside and woke up my dad insisting he go look down the street.

She was terrified. he did and saw nothing but to this day my mom is haunted by this memory to the point where we had to get rid of our alexa I need to know how those two things correlate.

I gotta know. I gotta know. Did Alexa like war like Grim Reaper in town?

Yeah. Like what? I gotta know the correlation.

Shortly after this event, my mom came home from her job as a school librarian around 4 p.m., At this time, I lived at home and received an anonymous phone call.

Is there a reason I left the TV on and music playing full blast?

I responded with, huh, that wasn't me. I left that morning for school, commuting life, you know?

And when I did leave, I did what I always did. checked all the electronics and lights to make sure they were all off and that the door was locked oh here it is she's gonna explain it she is okay thank you Weirded out, my mom had the brilliant idea to look at the Alexa's playback audio.

And when she did, a gravelly male, almost inhuman voice was found in the records when nobody was home.

No. Alexa, play music. It chilled us both to the bone and my mom threw out our Alexa that very day and echoed into our home that no spirits were ever welcome.

It did not happen again. I'm leaving. I have just a disembodied male voice being like Alexa.

Oh, play music. I hate it so much. What the fuck?

Ew, I have like tinglys. Oy. I have three girl cousins where two of us seem particularly witchy. and it just seems to be getting stronger the older we get.

That happens. For the sake of this story, I'm going to call my witchy cousin, Jane, and just touch upon the strongest of these visions, as there are quite a few.

The first recount is when I first linked smells to vision.

Sounds weird. I know. And this started way pre-COVID.

In my grade school days, excuse me, I very much just burped.

Like, I am not going to lie here. I'm just going to tell you what it was.

Silenced it. She hit the mute button on the bird.

In my grade school days, our family would move from place to place every few years.

This particular night, I was lying face up in my stark white bedroom in Switzerland, miles and miles away from my home of Massachusetts.

Yeah, that's far away. Pretty far, one might say.

I was sleeping soundly when all of a sudden I woke up and froze.

From the corner of my room, coming seemingly from my floor fan because heck yes for cold temperatures in the dead of winter, all for that lovely white noise.

I agree. Yep. My fan, my air purifier and my ruler all go at once.

Yes, I love that you are exactly us, because it doesn't matter what time of year it is, what the temperature is, I always have a fan on. retweet I also have a travel fan that I carry in my car in case I go anywhere yes of course anyways I smelled my great-grandmother's perfume.

It was strong and dense, if that makes sense.

It does. It began from that corner of the room and wafted toward me.

I just knew it was my great-grandmother.

I felt a little weirded out as this was my first smelling experience, but fell back to sleep sometime after as the scent ever so slowly dissipated.

The next morning, I woke up to my mom sitting grim-faced at our kitchen table only to tell me this wonderful woman, who interestingly enough worked with the Boston Strangler during his stint at the Bridgewater State Hospital, and had a dark presence in her home.

Another story for another day. Send that please.

Please send that. Had passed. Oh, wow. So like you smelled her perfume and she had passed.

So she was just being like, hey, hey, like.

I'm crossing over, just letting you know.

Wow. Throughout the years, this still happens.

Less significantly, though. I will be going throughout my day and get a strong whiff of somebody I know where shortly after I

I will either receive a call or text from them or later have to tell them something eventful that happened to them that particular time of day.

Weird, I know. I feel like my superpower is smells, lol.

I love that. Now let's get into one of my visual visions.

Haha. Please know I hate staying alone in my house.

Hate it. I mean, I don't blame you after the disembodied voice.

As a true crime obsessed individual, I often find myself thinking the worst, that yes, a group of robbers will come in the dead of night, Or a murderer will be waiting for me to put my laundry in the washing machine in our unfinished basement.

I was staying alone in the house for about a week and was absolutely exhausted as the slightest piper of our excuse me.

Slightest pipe or ice machine noise sent me into a full panic, especially at night.

The noises that refrigerators make should be illegal.

It's true. And especially when you're home alone.

And old houses make some crazy noises. Oh, yeah, they do.

One night I finally fell asleep, but woke up suddenly several hours later. as if involuntarily my eyes focused upwards and to the right on a bright glowing yellow orb above me.

I was creeped out but was able to restlessly fall back asleep.

The next morning I called my mom and gushed about the orb and how I actually felt much better that morning and how I actually got some good old REM.

I just said REM. Some Good old Aria. It's like nin but worse.

That was nin but the other side. How I actually got some good old rem.

That's amazing. It's like I was triggered from saying like Nim that I had to say like R-E-M.

You got some good old 90s, you know, alternative band.

I love R-E-M. I was sitting on our faded red couch in the corner of the back room at the time.

After a pause, my mom said she thought it was my Grammy.

Wow. I love that. At that exact time, a cold, chilly tingling went through my body and my dog got up from snoozing at the other end of the house. came over and sat at my feet staring at me.

My mom proceeded by telling me To pick a sign that my Grammy could communicate through to confirm it was her, helping out her true crime crazy great-granddaughter by sending her some good sleep vibes.

Okay, I said. and randomly picked out green stars.

Random, I know. It's better to do random.

It is. Later that day, I got ready for my shift at the nursing home I was working at as an activities aid.

You're fucking adorable. The minute I got on the unit, I went to the corner I always did to check out what activities were available that day.

And there it was, a row of green star stickers sitting right on the stool where I intended to sit.

I smiled. Hi Grammy. That is such a random thing to pick.

Like green stars. When do you see green stars?

Oh, I love that. That's like beautiful. Grammy always had a way of communicating with me and my cousin.

I will call Jane. Jane is very in tune with these things, and I'll give you an example.

She always feels like my Grammy is there in the backseat when she drives alone, more so at night.

One night several years ago, she was driving down a road lit by a single streetlight. and had a strong feeling that my Grammy was right there in the backseat.

All of a sudden, I know I kind of don't like that.

A little creepy. But at least it's Grammy.

All of a sudden, Jane said, Grammy, if that's you, make that streetlight go out.

The one streetlight on that road went out.

I would... shite i would i would shake my pants but i guess if it was grammy i'd be like oh my god it's great it's grammy Tonight in particular, I was listening to one of your listener tale episodes.

My friend texted me a message nobody wants to receive saying that one of her best friends had died. died oh i'm sorry without knowing anymore i knew who it was a man i had never personally met and how She later disclosed the who and how, confirming my assumptions.

My heart breaks for her. But this occurrence isn't too uncommon and why I wanted to share a handful of my family's experiences.

Well, there you have it. Some witchy experiences from some Massachusetts gals all connected by a family tree.

I hope you enjoyed my rambling tale and honestly, Keep it this weird because why the heck not?

I love that. That's amazing. You guys are like practical magic. it's amazing you're what I aspire to be I love it Wow.

All right. Well, that one was amazing. It really was.

And we love another family of witchiness.

Oh, family witch vibes. My next listener tale is one that immediately got my attention because it was titled There's a Meth Spell. smoking ghost in the New England jam shop.

There is. So as soon as you talked again, like I think we, we've said it a million times before, We love New England.

We love Massachusetts. If you have something from there, we're immediately going to be drawn to it.

We're like moths to a flame. But this one was actually even cooler.

It's hilarious, first of all. And second of all, this came attached.

So this person who sent it, her name is Maddie.

And she also attached that she has acted in a horror film that her and her friends have made.

Now, it's about an ASMR YouTuber who is blackmailed by one of her followers.

We started watching already. It's called Meridian.

Meridian. It is so well done. I'm going to be honest with you, I did not expect it to look as good as it looked.

No. Because you just... I didn't know what I was going to look at.

Well, because it was like a YouTube link too.

It's a YouTube link. So I thought it was going to be like a YouTube thing.

And it's called Meridian. Meridian. We are going to link it in the show notes because I very much encourage everybody to go watch it.

We have not even finished it completely yet.

And we're already like, when we're done with this, we're finishing.

I was like, what's going to happen? We were like, we, Maddie.

It's so good. First of all, Maddie is the main character.

So the person who wrote this listener tale we're going to read is the main character.

She might be a final girl we don't know yet she's phenomenal um and like the thing is like we were saying because we were watching and a lot of this relied on like her face acting Yes.

And I was like, wow. That was the thing because this is one of these really cool like modern horror movies.

Where they're using the internet and they're showing you the screen and you're kind of, like, involved.

But you also get those close-ups of the, you know, the main character... looking at their screen.

Almost like you're the webcam. Yeah. And so in this one, there's like Ash said, a lot of like close up of just Maddie's face having to have these horrified looks or like have a reaction about something.

So it relies a lot on her just acting with her face.

And Maddie... You did fucking phenomenal.

So good. I'm not kidding you. We're... sharing this on our show notes.

I'm going to share it on the socials because I want everybody to watch this because I think she said that they were trying to make their way around some film festivals with it.

Yep, she did. Let's get you there. Let's blow this shit out of the water.

Meridian is good, and I think it has a place in horror, so I want to...

I want to make sure people go watch it. Did you say we're going to put it in the show notes?

Yeah, we're going to put it in the show notes and we'll share it on our socials so people can find it.

Let's go. So good. It's so good. It drew me right in.

I really liked it. And again, I didn't know what I was going to see.

So I'm very excited. But let's go to her listener tale because she's also hilarious.

Yay. It's sincere. Hey, weirdos. It's not Southern, but my name is Maddie.

My good friends call me Mads. You can call me whichever you prefer.

I'm going to call you Mads because we're good friends now.

Feel free to use my name, Spiley Face. First of all, love, love, love your podcast.

My mom and I have bonded over it. I love that.

And y'all have provided much needed company on long commutes, trips, work. cooking, cleaning, etc., etc.

I went to college in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Worcester. And I'm originally from Vermont, so I very much appreciate the Boston humor y'all bring to cases.

I'm also about the same age as Ash and a Gemini.

Did we just become best friends? Yup. Anywho, in terms of work, I am primarily an actor.

I mostly do stage productions but have also been fortunate enough to do some indie films which have made their way around film festivals that's really cool like this one If I'm not acting, I'm also a self-taught special effects gore makeup artist.

Hello, Mads. Do you have a channel? And I love to design gore makeup for films and haunted houses.

When are we hanging out? I want to see this all.

Aside from that, I have... also worked as a mental health tech in crisis stabilization for adolescents experiencing mental health crises such as suicide.

Oh my God, you're an amazing human. I love helping folks.

Mental health is wicked important. Wicked.

Hell yeah, it is. Enough about me. You're here for the spooky tale.

Buckle up. I'm here for it all. I'm here for you.

I have always had an affinity for the supernatural and have been drawn to all things morbid and dark.

When I was a kid, I'd throw my beanie babies over the deck and tell my mom that if they landed on the gravel driveway instead of the grass, they would drown a terrible death in the ocean.

I'd also narrate their demise. My favorite movies were Godzilla, like the really, really old original one.

Hell yeah. And Titanic. I loved Titanic.

I choreographed dances where my siblings died to the Titanic soundtrack.

Wow. That's dark. I was like seven. My parents should have known I'd major in theater.

Anyways, always drawn to the weird. Hell yeah.

A fellow theater kid. After my own heart.

I love it. So I recently started working at a jam shop.

That's right, a store that sells jam entirely, aka the most New England thing ever.

Very New England. I had just unexpectedly quit a theater job because I was being harassed by a creepy director.

That was 50 plus years older than me asking me on dates, making comments on my body and randomly chilling in my driveway. which is a story for another day holy shit i'm sorry you went through that I wasn't really expecting to be working retail again, but hey, a girl's got student loans and I like looking at the cute little jam jars.

I was hired as a seasonal employee to put said cute little jam jars into cute little gift boxes.

It gets old after a few hours. So day one at the jam shop, I was being introduced to everyone.

The folks who make the jam, the folks who pack the jam, yada yada.

I gotta sneak in here. I didn't know that she meant jam the thing you eat.

I thought it was like a jam music shop. I have to leave.

I have to get up and I have to exit this building immediately.

Because you were like, it's so New England.

And I was like, oh my God, yeah, it is. And then in my head, I was like. other people listen to jam too oh my god i'm screaming at my own oh my god i thought it was like a jam shop like They play like jams.

What is a jam shop? Like jam. Like, I don't know.

Do those exist? I have no idea. I thought so.

I'm sure someone will tell me that they do.

I feel like they do. But no, I don't think they do.

Like a jam shop? No, I feel like they do.

A shop of just jamming? No, no, no. I don't think jam itself is like a genre of music, but like funky music.

You know what I mean? Because there's like jam bars and stuff like that.

So that's what I thought. But I guess we're just eating jams.

My favorite thing is that it was like, AKA the most New England thing ever.

And you were like, yeah. Totally. Yeah, because then I literally, I was like, yeah, totally.

And then I was like, wait. Like, why would a jam shop be a New England thing?

I don't know, because I started to question that.

This is my favorite thing. And then we got to the part where people made the jam.

Like, oh, this is for toast, not for vibes.

Well, maybe for vibes as well. This is the greatest thing I've ever heard.

I want you to know. sorry to interrupt your story Maddie wow okay So day one at the jam shop, the jam you eat, I was being introduced to everyone.

The folks who make the jam, the folks who pack the jam, yada yada.

I noticed a woman on the labeling line who kept looking and smiling at me, but like in an unsettling way, if that makes any sense.

So I started packaging away the jam into the gift boxes, which doesn't sound like much, but it's really a job for at least...

Five to six people. We have to package up 5,000 gift boxes full of jam daily during the holiday season.

And on day one, I was the only one making these adorable tiny boxes of jam.

I'm just picturing tiny music boxes. Tiny music jam boxes.

That is until Grace joined me. I changed Grace's name for this story on the off chance she's an actual living, breathing human being and not a ghost.

What? You might have guessed it. Grace was the only one who kept smiling at me from the labeling line.

She was asked to join me so I wasn't the only one packing up the absurd amount of jam.

I was honestly okay working alone. I'm an introvert who's very good at disassociating and daydreaming.

Same. When Grace joined my line, she frankly threw off my whole rhythm, but it was the first day and hey, what did I know about jam packaging?

Grace was wild for the first second. Girl could not stop talking.

You know when you're working retail and you ask a Karen about her day and she tells you about her entire divorce start to end?

Imagine that, but on steroids for hours.

Oh, no. 20 minutes of knowing Grace I knew her son had died by suicide six years prior among other dark tales from her past oh that's really sad Whilst unloading her entire lifetime of trauma on me, she was also throwing jam jars and boxes around absolutely willy-nilly.

Like literally. Absolutely willy nilly. Literally. throwing tiny glass jars of jam absolutely everywhere for me to attempt to catch them in my stupid little hands.

My boss is a sweet little British man who looks like Wallace from Love, Wallace and gromit and is very adamant that jams be quote treated with respect And that was not the case with Grace.

It didn't take long for me to feel very peeved as she kept switching up ways to organize the boxes and jams.

So you're probably asking, what's morbid about that, Mads?

We've all had weird ass coworkers. Doesn't make it a listener tale, doofus.

Hold on to your butts. I'm doing it. I worked with Grace literally all day and was growing more and more annoyed at how freaking unhinged she was.

There was something very strange about her, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

And I figured I was just tired and that she was just weird.

Anyways, I'm a Gemini. June 10th, Ash. Oh my god, two days after me.

And I have a Gemini sign tattooed on my middle right finger.

I Miss Grace asked me what the fuck was on my finger, which was a fine way to ask, to be honest.

When I worked on the psych ward, kids asked me point blank if I was in a cult.

You should have said yes. Yes. Yes. When I told her I was a Gemini, she stopped dead in her tracks, looked me in my eyes very seriously and asked, so you believe in astrology?

I do. You should have said no. No. No. No, I'm just a Gemini.

I do. I very much do, I told her. She got even more serious.

What about Wiccan? She kept asking me about spooky things and I kept saying, yes, those are things I believe in.

Her last question, can I tell you a crazy story?

I figured it couldn't be too crazy. It was just jam store grace.

Who boy was I wrong? Jam store grace. Grace started off her batshit tale by saying, so I was smoking meth with my daughter.

Like what? Send an ambulance. Like what?

Who just casually said this? Poor Mads here is like, yo, like, I...

No, I'm not ready. I've had a lot of crazy coworkers, but I've never had any of them tell me a story that says, so I was smoking meth with my daughter. like wow okay she's just very open two things you should not be doing Suddenly everything about her behavior made sense.

All of the sudden. all of a sudden at 4pm after being on my feet packaging jam all day, I was wide awake.

Say more right now, Grace. Tell me it all.

So Grace goes on to tell me about the time she was smoking, like breaking bad levels of meth with her daughter.

She asked me if I'd ever done meth, to which I said, absolutely not.

And she snickered and called me goody two shoes, question mark, question mark.

It's like one thing to say that. I don't think that's being a goody two shoes, but okay.

Anyways, they decided that was an excellent time to perform a seance to try to connect with her dead son.

Aww. According to Grace, her daughter immediately started, quote, flapping her arms around and screaming like when my son was in a bad mood.

Grace said she absolutely knew this was her dead son trying to communicate with her via possessing his sister.

Grace said her daughter floated off her chair.

She said she asked her daughter three questions only her son would know and she answered all of them accurately.

Now I 1 million percent believe in seances and all things supernatural, but may I remind you that Grace is literally on meth at this time.

Grace swears up and down to me that this was not a meth hallucination.

I told her I believed her while also screaming inside, and she promised to bring me rose quartz from her crystal collection the next day.

I went home from work exhausted and relayed the wild seance story to my mom.

I was like, if I have to listen to Grace at the Jam Shop every day, I don't know how long I'll last at this job the next day.

I go into work and Grace is nowhere to be seen.

I start doing my thing. packaging jam and daydreaming about Harry Styles writing a song about me when I realized over an hour had gone by with no sign of grace.

I asked my coworker Layla, name changed, where my friend was.

She looked at me funny. Grace? No one here is named Grace.

What? I must have gone completely pale because my coworker asked me if I needed water.

I stepped away from the gym and locked myself in the bathroom.

I'd spent the entire day with Grace yesterday.

What do you mean she doesn't work here? I was reeling and trying to put two and two together.

After a while, I came up with this. I've worked a lot at my mental health job with parents who have substance use disorders and teenagers who have attempted suicide.

I think that maybe Grace felt comfortable sharing her story about addiction and her son to me.

Maybe that's just me trying to make sense of things, but I really hope both Grace and her son are at peace.

Anyway, that's my story. I hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that a meth smoking ghost shows up at a random New England jam factory. to tell you about her son and kind of talked at you at six hours while throwing tiny jam jars around and then never showed up at work again and probably never existed as a human.

Okay, bye. Lots of love, Mads. P.S. The Jam Factory is completely haunted.

Let me know if you want to know more about ghost stories, such as my coworker letting a person who crawled out of a literal river into her apartment.

Jars of jam flying at me, among other things.

Okay, bye. I would love to know about your friend letting a person who crawled out of a literal river into her apartment.

I want all of it. I need to know, did anybody ever see you talking to Grace?

Were they like, who are you talking to? you?

Did they think you were cray cray? Or was it just like you listening to Grace the entire time because you weren't really talking so you were just letting her talk Right.

That's weird. That's crazy. I'm into it.

That freaks me out. Mads, I'm into it. I'm very into it.

I'm just like, what? What? But you know what?

Go watch her. movie meridian we're going to link it because it's really cool and it's fun no that's fucking awesome And it's like really creepy and really scary.

So we will definitely link that because let's blow it.

Out of the water. Out of the freaking water like a dolphin just cascading through the waves.

Exactly. You know what I mean? You know, good content deserves to be celebrated, so make sure you take a look at it. and also visit pleasehelpfinddaniel.com like we said in the beginning of the episode we will also link that uh but yeah so this has been an insane a very long listener tales episode but they were all so good can't stop i wish you could have seen ash's face and head movement when she did that I was dancing.

I was feeling it. She transported back to a time and place.

I did. I did. I actually transported back to the scene in Gatsby when they're dancing in the car on the bridge.

I fucking I love that scene. I literally knew exactly.

And it's like. I'm going to play that at my wedding.

Anyways. There you go. We hope that you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird. But that's so weird that you pee yourself in the middle of traffic because that's not good and you never want to pee yourself and you do want to save yourself the embarrassment of your three dogs sniffing your crotch.

Don't keep it so weird that you forget your kinder egg.

That really sucks, but it's our fault. It's not your fault.

Keep it so weird that you are Harriet the spy and you embody everything that she does.

Keep it so weird that you find Holly. keep it so weird honestly honestly do keep it as weird as all these people because i really hope that you do see a screaming squirrel one day and then take it as a message i think it's good for you maybe don't keep it so weird that your mom becomes friends with a murderer because that's just gonna be troublesome.

And you know, like that's a lot of stuff to sift through.

It's heavy. Don't keep it so weird that you judge people's marriages, because who are you, Helen?

I don't know. The name just came to me.

Do keep it so weird that you work at a jam shop, whether it be a music shop or an actual jam shop.

I don't know. A jam shop. And do keep it so weird that your family has generational witchy vibes.

Wow. Bye. Thank you. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

[기이한 이야기들: 유령, 살인 사건, 그리고 인간의 따뜻함]-[Listener Tales 34]

📋 Summary

청취자들의 기이한 경험과 따뜻한 유대감

1. 일상 속의 공포와 유머: '슬렌더맨'과의 조우

2. 고통을 넘어서는 연대: 와우케샤 퍼레이드 비극

3. 미스터리한 실종과 의문의 사람들

4. 용서와 회복: 배우자의 외도라는 현실적인 고통

5. 초자연적 유산: 마사추세츠의 마녀 가문

결론

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript