Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Boland podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature three unbelievable true stories.
The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode.
The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.
The first story you'll hear is called Third Eyewitness, and it's about a woman who makes a grim discovery in a remote canyon.
The second story you'll hear is called The Burning Question, and it's about a house fire that leaves a mother devastated.
And the third and final story you'll hear is called Who Said That?
And it's about a car crash rescue that has a wild ending.
But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.
So if that's of interest to you, the next time you're over at the Amazon Music Follow Buttons house, sneak into their closet and replace all of their shoe insoles with pudding skins.
Okay, let's get into our first story called Third Eyewitness.
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Service is not available in all states. On the morning of December 21st, 1980, a woman in her 40s walked into a jail cell in Los Angeles, California.
Now, in this jail cell already was another inmate.
Her name was Etta Louise Smith. She was 32 years old, and at the time, she was laying on one of the benches inside of this cell.
Etta had actually been in jail for four days leading up to this moment.
The police were sure Etta had something to do with the savage murder of a nurse in the area, but they really didn't understand what role she had played.
In fact, virtually everything about Etta was very confusing to police.
And Etta herself was not really doing herself any favors because she wasn't really explaining how she had the information that she had.
Now, Etta had already gone through a 10-hour long interrogation, which led police nowhere.
She had undergone a polygraph test, which didn't lead to any new answers.
And she had also undergone a thorough strip search.
She had been kept without food for 24 hours at one point.
She had been left in this cold jail cell without shoes for four days.
But she just wouldn't crack. She would not confess to playing a role in this murder.
And so this was why police on this day had decided to go another route to get information out of Etta.
That woman in her 40s who had just walked into Etta's jail cell was pretending to be an inmate, but in reality, she was an undercover cop.
And her job was to go into this jail cell, befriend Etta, win her trust, and see if maybe then Etta would begin revealing information about what she had done.
And so after this undercover cop walked into the jail cell, the jailer shut the door behind them, closing in the undercover cop and Etta.
And at this point, Etta was woken up by the noise and she sat up on her bench and she looked over at the undercover cop.
And the cop, you know, she was immediately struck by Etta's appearance.
Etta did not look like a murderer. She was this little, slight, totally unthreatening person who really just looked like a suburban mom who maybe had a white collar job.
But the undercover cop also knew that appearing to be totally harmless was a great cover for being a murderer, and so this could all totally be an act.
And also, to this undercover cop, it just seemed like Etta was way too calm and collected, given her circumstances.
She is effectively wanted for murder, and the police are putting so much pressure on her to get her to speak about it, and she's just laying down, sleeping in her cell, making no big deal about it.
But the undercover cop maintained a very neutral persona and she sat down and at some point she asked Etta, you know, hey, what are you in here for?
And Etta, you know, she kind of just looked down and smiled for a second.
And then when she looked back up at the undercover cop, she said, you know, you're never going to believe me.
The undercover cop at this said, oh, come on, how bad could it be?
You know, tell me, tell me what's going on here.
Why are you in here? And it was at this point that Etta would say something that nearly caused the cop to break character.
Because Etta, she would say, well, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a movie.
Now, the undercover police officer tried to be as neutral as possible as she's hearing this.
But in her mind, she's like, OK, well, I clearly just discovered Etta's motive for being involved in this murder.
Etta wants to be famous. She wants this made into a movie where she's the star.
At the same time this conversation was happening, in an office within the jailhouse, a police captain was listening in on the conversation between Etta and this undercover cop.
And when he listened to Etta talk about wanting to turn her story into a movie, he just shook his head in disgust.
Because Etta had just brought police to the location of the body of 31-year-old Melanie Uribe, a local nurse who was robbed and savagely beaten to death and then dumped in a canyon behind a bush.
And now here Etta was talking about how she could get publicity around this terrible, horrible crime.
It just did not sit right with the captain.
And so as the captain was sitting there kind of watching this conversation transpire between the undercover cop and Etta, the captain was beginning to form a theory of what actually happened to Melanie Uribe and how Etta played a role in her murder.
His theory went like this. Six days earlier, the victim, Melanie Uribe, had left for her shift at the hospital in Burbank, California, which is a suburb of Los Angeles, but she had never arrived for her shift.
And so when her colleagues had noticed her absence, eventually the police were called and a search was launched to find her.
But after 48 hours, the police had not found Melanie and there were no signs as to what happened to her.
She had just vanished. And it was at that point, two days after Melanie had gone missing, that Etta just showed up at the police station and said she knew where Melanie was.
And so the detective who was talking to Etta at the time when she came in and said this, he brought out a map and he said, okay, point to where she is.
And Etta had immediately pointed to this area on the map called Lopez Canyon, which was about 25 miles away from Los Angeles.
And she would tell the detective that, yeah, Melanie is somewhere right in there.
When the detective asked Etta, you know, how do you know this?
Etta would say she just knew. And then when the detective followed up and said, you know, Etta, this is pretty incriminating that you're telling me you know where someone's body is.
You know, what's motivating you to come and say this to me?
And Etta would say that her conscience was weighing on her terribly and she just had to go to police.
Now, the detective who talked to Etta when she first came into the police station really didn't know what to make of Etta because she looked so unthreatening and what she was saying, you know, she was saying with a lot of confidence and it seemed like she was really eager to help the investigation versus just clearing her conscience, which is kind of what she said she was doing.
And when the detective looked in to who Etta was, he discovered that she had a great job, she worked at an aerospace company in Burbank, California, and she even had governmental clearance.
And so this woman clearly has been vetted by the government and by high-level companies, and she's passed the tests.
But at the same time, the detective knew there was no good reason for why Etta would have this information, the location of a dead body.
I mean, either she's just wrong and there is no body there, or if the body's there, the most likely scenario is that Etta was involved in killing this person or disposing of their body, or maybe both.
So the detective said to Etta, you know, hey, come back tomorrow and we'll take a police helicopter.
We'll fly out over that canyon and we'll see if we can find Melanie's body together.
And so Etta said, okay, sounds good. She turned and she left.
But then just an hour later, Etta came back into the police station with her two young kids in the car.
And she would tell that detective that she actually just drove out with her kids to that canyon and had found Melanie's body.
In fact, she told the detective that her seven-year-old child, who was in the car right now, had been the one to actually find Melanie's body.
The detective could not believe this woman, one, had gone out by herself to do this, but two, had brought along her kids as well?
Like, what's going on with this person? But regardless of how weird this was, the detective immediately rounded up some backup and with Etta's help, they went out to a particular spot in this canyon.
And sure enough, when they got out there, right in the spot where Etta said it would be was Melanie's badly beaten body.
And so it was at this point that the police captain had grabbed Etta and said, you're under arrest.
I'm putting you in a cell because there's no way you could have known about this unless you were somehow involved.
The captain thought by putting Etta in jail for a couple of days, you know, she'd get scared and start talking.
But four days had gone by and Etta had not cracked.
She had not given up anything beyond telling the undercover police officer that she thought her story that was kind of still developing would likely be turned into a movie.
And so the captain really didn't know what to do, because at this point, you know, Etta had not actually committed a crime.
It was not a crime to find a dead person's body and report it to the police.
And there was no evidence that actually tied Etta to the murder.
All the police had was the fact that Etta came to them and told them that she knew where the body was, and then they actually found the body.
But that's all they had. But the police captain would catch a break on that fourth day because he would receive a phone call that would totally change everything about this case.
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Rules and restrictions apply. Hey listeners, Mr. Ballin here.
What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation?
You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there.
Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now. much like how another Ballin' Studios podcast, Redacted Declassified Mysteries, brings hidden government secrets to light.
And it's called Lawless Planet. Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, cover-ups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger. the systematic destruction of our planet.
From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment.
They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried.
Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+.
It would turn out on December 17th, 1983, so the same day that Etta would go into the police station to report that she knew where Melanie Uribe's body was, well, on that day, Etta was at work listening to the radio and filing some paperwork.
And as Etta listened to the radio, the local newscaster was talking about Melanie Uribe and how she was missing.
And the newscaster talked about how police had found her truck and it was parked on this dead end street and that police were searching nearby residences to see if maybe they knew what happened to Melanie.
But as of right now, there really was no new leads.
They did not know where Melanie was. And it was right around this point that Etta's listening to the news about Melanie that Etta heard a voice in the room she was in.
And the voice said very clearly to Etta, she's not in one of those houses.
And Etta immediately when she heard it, she turned around wondering who the heck was in here.
You know, who's talking to her? But there was nobody else in the room.
And then it was like immediately there were these flashes of images in Eda's brain that she had no idea what they meant, but it was a succession of a dirt road and then a bush and then something white, a nurse's shoe.
And Eda very clearly saw these three images.
And it was right then that Eda thought, I know where Melanie Uribe is.
And so she sat there wondering what to do and then finally thought, I have to go to police, as crazy as this sounds.
And so she hopped in the car and she drove to the police station and she said, I don't know how, but I do know Melanie Uribe is right there in that canyon.
But when the police had said, come back tomorrow and we'll go out and look for her, Etta just couldn't wait.
And so she had gone with her kids, driven out to the canyon that she had seen in her mind.
And sure enough, when she got out there, she found the dirt road that she had seen.
Then she found the bush that she had seen.
And then with the help of her kids, they found the white nurse's shoe.
And it was right near Melanie's body. Which meant that voice that Etta heard and the vision she had, had all been real.
The phone call that the police captain received on the fourth day that Etta was sitting in jail and talking to the undercover cop, you know, the phone call that changed the whole case, well, the phone call was from another police officer saying they had just arrested three men who were caught bragging about beating and killing Melanie Uribe, and they had confessed, and they were now being held in jail.
And so clearly, Etta did not commit this murder, and so even though it made no sense that she just knew where this body was, the police had to release Etta the same day so she was released, and then ultimately the three men who confessed to killing Melanie Uribe, they would be found guilty, and they would each be sentenced to life in prison.
Six years later, Etta would sue the police department and she would win the lawsuit because the jury on that case absolutely believed that Etta really did have a psychic vision that led to the discovery of Melanie's body.
Etta would never go on to make a movie about her story.
And in fact, when she was asked later on about why she said that during her conversations with that undercover cop, Etta would clarify that she didn't say that she wanted to make a movie, but rather she said to the undercover cop something to the effect of, you know, it feels like I'm living out a bad movie.
And so that was kind of misconstrued by police into her saying, I want to make a movie about this.
She didn't and has never made a movie and in no way has sought out any fame or recognition for what happened.
Our next story is called The Burning Question.
On the afternoon of December 15th, 1997, a brand new mother named Luz Cuevas sat on her couch in her little apartment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, cradling her beautiful 10-day-old baby girl who she had named Delamar Vera.
And in the room with Luz and her daughter were some members of Luz's extended family who had come over to meet the baby.
And so for about an hour, the family all took turns, you know, holding the baby and complimenting how cute her little dimples looked.
And then eventually the baby started to get fussy, at which point Luce said she was going to take her upstairs and put her to bed.
And so Luz brought Delamar upstairs to her nursery and she put the baby down in her crib and she stayed with her for a bit until Delamar finally had kind of dozed off to sleep.
And so after being sure that her daughter wasn't gonna stir, Luz got up and she began making her way towards the door.
And right before she left, she made sure to plug in the space heater for her daughter's room to make sure it would stay warm enough while her daughter slept.
And then after that, she left the room, shut the nursery door and went back downstairs to rejoin her family.
Luz's family didn't stick around much longer after Luz came downstairs.
And after they were all gone, Luz realized she was totally exhausted and her daughter was still fast asleep upstairs.
And so Luz decided she would also lie down and try to take a nap herself.
But as soon as she closed her eyes, she heard this loud thud sound coming from the second floor.
And it sounded like something really heavy had smashed into the ground.
And she's thinking, you know, her daughter's up there.
Could that be her daughter somehow falling out of the crib or something?
And so Luz jumped up, sprinted upstairs.
And as she looked down the hall, she could clearly see there was black smoke billowing out of her daughter's nursery.
And so Luz charges down the hall, she opens up the door and she looks into her daughter's room and it's completely engulfed in flames.
I mean, everything is on fire, but it's her baby girl in there.
And so without any hesitation, Luz charges into the inferno.
But when she gets up to the crib, like the crib is so completely on fire that when she looks in, she can't even see her daughter.
And so in a craze, she begins looking around the room thinking, maybe my daughter did fall out of the crib and she's somewhere else in the room, but everything is on fire.
She can't see anything. And so as Luce is like literally catching on fire and breathing in all the smoke, she's screaming for her daughter.
And then a couple of minutes later, firefighters burst into the door and they literally drag Luce out of the nursery.
She hasn't found her daughter. She's screaming, you know, where's my baby?
But but the firefighters, they bring her outside, and just a couple of minutes later, they were able to extinguish this blaze, and after they came out of the house again, they found Luz, who had all these terrible burns in her body, and she's totally messed up from this fire, and they tell her that, unfortunately, her daughter was dead.
After Delamar's death, Luz's life completely fell apart.
I mean, the grief was so immense. It was like she could no longer function in society.
I mean, she actually retracted from the world, stopped interacting with people, didn't see her family.
She wound up getting a divorce from her husband just over the grief and the sadness of losing this child.
I mean, it was like her life basically ended when her daughter's life ended.
But on top of that, Luz also felt this incredible sense of guilt because after the fire, the investigators told her that the cause of the fire, although not conclusive, was very likely from that space heater she had plugged in right before she had left the room.
And so of course, you know, Luz is feeling this incredible burden for having potentially killed her daughter, but also she just began to obsess over the details because again, it wasn't conclusive that it was the space heater.
That was their best guess as to what caused the fire.
And so Luz began to wonder, like, was it something else?
Was it preventable? You know, like, what was it?
Basically, Luz became completely obsessed with what happened to her daughter.
It was like the only thing she ever thought of for years.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show, Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode.
A Redacted Medical Mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.
Listen now on the Medical Mysteries or Redacted feeds, or search A Redacted Medical Mystery wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey, it's Mr. Balan. I'm excited to tell you about something special.
For the first time, my show, Mr. Balan's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted, Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles.
This special episode is called A Redacted Medical Mystery.
In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.
To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or Redacted show pages right now.
Or search for A Redacted Medical Mystery in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on Medical Mysteries.
Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body.
And if government conspiracies are more your style, Redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light of day.
Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondery+.
Fast forward to January 24th, 2004, so six years after the fire.
And on this day, Luce was invited to a family party.
There was a get-together and, you know, Luce basically never went to any family function or really left her house much at all.
But for some reason, on this day, she decided to go out.
And so she goes to this party, and when she gets there, you know, remember, Luz has basically been a recluse for the past six years, and so she's not gonna immediately start socializing.
And so instead, she just goes in the house and kind of finds a spot in the back, kind of away from everybody else who's chatting, and just stands there, kind of people-watching.
And as she's doing that, something catches her attention off to the side.
And when she turns to look at it and sees what it is, she immediately just freezes.
Three days later, Luce walked into the office of a local state legislator, and after saying hello, she sat down, reached into her purse, and pulled out a little plastic bag that contained a folded-up napkin.
And she slid it across the table to the legislator.
So he picked up the bag and stared at it inquisitively as Luce dove in to this wild explanation about what was in this bag and why she was here.
And at the end of this totally off the wall, insane sounding story, the legislator was left just kind of staring at Luz and looking back at the bag in total shock.
And then finally, after a couple of moments of silence, the legislator just said, okay, yeah, I'll see what I can do.
It would turn out the fire was not caused by the space heater that Luz had plugged in right before she left her daughter's room.
Instead, police believe after Luce came downstairs and tried to take a nap, somebody broke into her apartment, went into the nursery, and set the fire on purpose, but not before abducting the baby.
And that person was one of Luce's own family members who had been at her apartment that day celebrating the birth of Della Marvera.
It was Luce's husband's cousin, Carolyn Correa.
And in fact, on this same day, before the fire and before the abduction, Carolyn made a point to announce to the whole family that she was pregnant, even though she wasn't.
It was just going to be her cover story for why she suddenly had this brand new baby.
Six years later, when Luz was at that family party, well, the thing that caught her attention on the other side of the room was her daughter.
She literally saw her daughter, and even though she hadn't seen her in six years, she instantly knew it was her because of her distinctive dimples.
Now, Luz knew she couldn't just suddenly yell out like, that's my daughter.
So instead, she came up with this plan. She walked up to the girl and very discreetly said, hey, honey, I think you got some gum in your hair.
And so as she pretended to pull gum out of the child's hair, she carefully plucked a few strands and put them inside of a napkin and put it inside of her pocket.
And then three days later, she brought that hair inside of that plastic baggie and she gave it to the legislator and basically said, here's what I think happened.
I think she stole my kid. You know, can you test it for DNA to prove that girl is my daughter?
And the legislator was like, okay, I'll give it a shot.
And lo and behold, that hair would prove that girl at the party was her daughter.
She did not die in that fire. Carolyn Correa was sentenced to 9 to 30 years in prison for abduction.
She originally had an arson charge against her as well, but investigators could not actually prove how the fire started, and so they ultimately dropped those charges.
Officials also launched an inquiry into how the fire department had handled the original investigation, because Luce had tried to convince fire officials that, you know, maybe her daughter had not died in the blaze, maybe she was just missing, because when Luce went into the nursery, she claimed she couldn't even find her daughter, but investigators had told her that the fire had burned so hot that basically her daughter had been totally incinerated, and that's why she couldn't find her.
In the end, though, because of her refusal to ever give up, Luz was ultimately reunited with her daughter, Delamar.
The next and final story of today's episode is called Who Said That?
At 12.30 p.m. on March 7, 2015, a police officer named Tyler Beddos, along with his partner, were driving in his police cruiser near the Spanish Fork River in Utah when suddenly a police dispatcher came on over the radio.
And this dispatcher was speaking very urgently and said, hey, a fisherman has just called in to say that he spotted what looks like an upturned SUV partially submerged in the Spanish Fork River right underneath the bridge.
And whoever is closest to this bridge, get over there and see if there's anybody inside the vehicle that can be saved.
And so Officer Beddoes and his partner, they knew they were very near this bridge.
And so immediately they banged a U-turn, they drove to the bridge, but from the road, they looked down and couldn't see any SUV, but they saw there was some firefighters and paramedics that were also converging at the spot on the road and everybody's getting out and running down to the riverbank.
And so Beddoes and his partner did the same thing.
They got out and they ran down. And then finally, when they got to the riverbank and they saw underneath this bridge, sure enough, there was this red SUV upturned, partially submerged.
And he noticed right away that none of the doors had been opened in this SUV.
And so it meant whoever was driving this vehicle when it flipped over very likely was still inside.
And so Officer Beddoes and his partner and the other first responders just jumped into this icy cold river and began making their way closer and closer to this upturned SUV, which again, it's not fully submerged.
It's like a third of the way underwater.
So if you were sitting in the seat inside of this vehicle and you were an adult, your head would basically be in the water if you were still strapped into the seat.
And as they're making their way towards this SUV, when they got close enough, they began hearing a woman inside of the vehicle screaming, hey, we're in here.
Come over here. Help. But when Officer Beddoes and the rest of the first responders actually reached the SUV, the water was so murky and it basically completely covered up the windows that they weren't really able to look into the vehicle.
They could just hear this woman yelling, but that was it.
And then when they tried to open up the doors, they couldn't do it because the roof had begun to cave in and so the actual framing of the door wouldn't open.
And so all these first responders, it's like their adrenaline's pumping and they're like, come on, we gotta push this thing up onto its side so we can get in.
And so all these first responders are pushing and pushing and slowly but surely they began to raise the side of this vehicle up until the windows suddenly were clear and Officer Beddoes and the others were able to look into the car and they saw there was a woman in the driver's seat and there was a baby in a car seat dangling upside down in the back seat still strapped in.
And so Beddows began screaming, there's a baby in here, there's a baby in here.
And suddenly it was like everybody got extra strength and they pushed this vehicle all the way up onto its side.
And then one of the firefighters climbed up onto the side of the car, which now was the highest point of the car.
And he reached in and he clipped the straps holding the baby who had been upside down dangling there, cut the straps and pulled the baby out and handed the baby over to Officer Beddows.
And then the firefighter began doing the same thing to get the woman out.
But Officer Beddoes, at this point, he just took this baby, he turned away, he figured the first responders will handle this woman, and he's gonna take this baby to safety, because he couldn't even tell if the baby was alive or not.
And so he's cradling this baby, he's rushing back through the water, back to the riverbank, and then he hands the baby over to the paramedics, and right as he does, he sees this little baby begins to move its arms and flicker its eyes, and he wanted to weep out of relief that this child was okay.
They put the baby onto a stretcher, they put the baby in the ambulance, and they whisked the baby away to the hospital, where this baby would survive.
But after the baby had been taken away, Officer Beddoes turned his attention back to the SUV and back to the woman to see how she was doing, but he could tell right away from the way people were acting, all the other first responders that were still dealing with the crisis in the water, the way they were acting indicated that something is off here.
Well, it would turn out 14 hours earlier, so at around 10 p.m. the previous night, a 28-year-old woman named Jennifer Gorsbeck had just left her father's house in Salem, Utah, and in her car was her little 18-month-old baby, Lily, who was in the back seat.
And after Jennifer pulled away from her father's house and her father's on the porch waving to her, she began driving towards her home.
But something happened around 10.30 p.m. that night.
We don't know what, but something caused Jennifer to careen off the road on that bridge and flip over and land in the water.
Maybe she fell asleep at the wheel or an animal jumped out.
We don't know. But we know at 10.30, she careens off the bridge and she lands in that river.
And then for 14 hours, she and her baby remained upside down in that river.
Until finally, Officer Beddoes and the other first responders came rushing over to open it up and get them out of there.
And if you recall, all the first responders, Officer Beddoes included, heard Jennifer screaming that they were in the car, come save us, please.
But what they would find out is that could not have been Jennifer, because Jennifer was killed on impact when the car fell into the water.
Only Lily survived the crash, and then Lily, who's nearly hypothermic and she's upside down with water like two inches away from her head, for 14 hours she dangled there, and when she was pulled out, according to doctors, was like a couple of minutes before she would have died from hypothermia.
And so without that voice, Lily almost certainly would have died because it was the sound of that voice that really encouraged all these first responders to find the strength and get that car up on its side and then get the baby out of there.
We don't know whose voice that belonged to, but for sure, it saved Lily's life.
And again, baby Lily would make a full recovery.
And to this day, Officer Beddoes and the other first responders, they know what they heard and they do not have an explanation for it.
A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
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