Morbid - Crime Countdown's One-Year Anniversary!

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

To celebrate this special anniversary, Ash and Alaina count down the haunting memories of post-wedding trips that will have everyone asking...accident or murder? You can listen to Crime Countdown FOR FREE on Spotify! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is like sort of morbid, but not really. It's morbid countdown. Oh, a mashup. A mashup, if you will. Cry more, cry morbid. No, cry, no morbid countdown. Where morbid? We're going to go with morbid countdown.

Well, realistically, we're just here because Crime Countdown is one year anniversary, which is absolutely bonkers. Crime Countdown is one. So, you know, we did for it. We got it a smash cake. We did a theme party. I took pictures. They wore a tutu, we did for it. We got it a smash cake, we did a theme party. I took pictures.

They wore a tutu. It did, yeah. It's growing up so fast. It is. It was great. We made everybody sit around while it opened gifts that it can't even comprehend. We think Happy Birthday to it.

It's been so much fun. We loved Happy Birthday to the Spotify app on our phone for Crime Countdown. We really did. But in all reality, Crime Countdown has been so much fun. We have had such a blast working with the podcast family on Spotify. We hope that we have many, many more years of Crime Countdown

to shove into your ear holes. Like forever, I'm hoping. Like literally forever to wear old clothes. Even after that. Yeah, even after, you know. Forever plus a day. It's only forever, not long at all. And you a world degree. Like even after that. Yeah, even after, you know. Forever plus a day. It's only forever, not long at all. And you know, and you're gonna say that.

But I think some, in case you haven't like jumped on the train yet, I just wanna tell you, you're missing out. There's room for you. There's room for, there's plenty of room. We, we got room. And if there, if there is a room, we'll make room. We'll make room for you.

You're welcome. Everybody's welcome here. Yeah. And some of my favorite episodes that we've done over the past year, because just to get you excited, give you a little inkling. We did one on Bermuda Triangles.

And it was fun. All the different like weird, like the Bridgewater Triangles on there. And you know how I feel about the Bridgewater Triangle since we're sitting in it right now. And the other one that really just like tickled me in the worst kind of way was horrifying home invasions because, oh boy, it features my favorite movie, The Strangers. It does. So go listen to those ones, they're good. I think if I had to pick over the past year, I would say one of my absolute favorites was Celeb Spies because we

know I love a good celeb. That was a good one. And there were some shocking ones on there. Yes. What? That's what's been cool is these countdowns all of a sudden, I'm like, wait, what? Yeah, I have no idea about that. I'll like learn something new every time. Every time. And then I'm trying to think of another one. I would say my other favorite was probably

faked deaths and double lives. Oh yeah, that was a good one. Because it's just like crazy that I never understand how people live two lives. Yeah. And then thinking your own death is like, I also don't understand that. Exactly. And to see the lengths that they go to. Seriously. And how thinking your own death is like, I also don't understand that. Exactly.

And to see the lengths that they go to. Seriously. And how they get caught with it or how they get away with it forever, it's insane. And also some more news for you is that it's kind of like changing up a little because we listened. We listened.

We're evolving because a lot of people were like, we love these countdowns. They're nice little bite-sized morsels. Peaces. But like every now and then, I get really into one and I'm like, I want to know a little more, like a little more details. Mm-hmm.

And so, the brain trust all got together. We heard you. The research gods figured it out. And what we did was we have a new format that's going to be a deeper dive into the number one on the countdown. The number one spot is gonna have a new format that's going to be a deeper dive into the number one on the countdown. The number one spot is going to have a big, long, detailed dive. So you know whatever the number one slot is, which is always the craziest, always the most interesting,

gnarliest. We're going to go hard into that one for the new season, season two, which, yay, season two. So we also gathered you here today because here is like a little tiny preview of Crime Countdown for you. It's the birthday preview. I love it. So enjoy. Here you go. Making memories that signify the beginning of a long life together, that's the basic idea

of why we honeymoon after getting married. But sadly, there are too many cases where the memories are haunting because they actually signify the end of not just the marriage, but someone's life. Honeymoon's can go bad in a lot of ways, but for the trips taken on this countdown, they went criminally bad. And just wait until we climb aboard number one. As we start a new season of Cram countdown, we will be giving you a lot more details with each number, but we're really going to dive headfirst into our number ones. And I've got a story this week that will have us all asking, accident, you weirdos. Welcome to Crime Countdown, a Spotify original from Parkast. I am Ash. And I'm Elena.

Every week we'll highlight 10 fascinating stories of history's most engaging and unsettling crimes, all picked by the Parkast Research Gods. This episode, we're counting down the top 10 Honey Moons Gone Wrong. All right, so now I'm excited I get to talk about my honeymoon for a second. Oh my god, I was going to talk about mine first, though. Mine first. I'm just kidding, I haven't my honeymoon for a second. Oh my god, I was gonna talk about mine first though.

Mine first. I'm just kidding, I haven't, I haven't wad. What a fun opportunity. Well my honeymoon was in Aruba and it was like nine years ago now, which is wild. You old. So old. And it was by, I'm serious, it was by far the greatest

vacation I have ever had. That's like what it's supposed to be. Stuff's far. The only thing that happened that could even like like, just be viewed even as, like, a little negative was that John lost his wedding band in the Caribbean ocean within 24 hours of me placing it on his finger on the wedding ceremony. He was so upset. Like, it was so, he was like, I remember him just standing up in the ocean and pointing

to his finger. Like, it's gone. Did you think he was playing a trick on me? No, because I was watching him because he was so excited to get into the ocean, like the Caribbean ocean, he couldn't wait. So he's such a fish. And now it's just a funny story, we tell.

I remember you coming home and telling me that story and I was like, is it okay to laugh? Like, can I laugh? But now I'm like funny. Now I'm still lulling at that. Even though I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time. But I feel like in general, people put so much pressure on their honeymoon, being like the best vacation ever.

Yeah, it's like just chill out. Like you're probably tired, you probably need a rest. Yeah, just what happened? Just don't put so much pressure on it. Exactly. And in fact, it was like even though it was kind of a bummer that he didn't have his original ring anymore We did laugh it off almost immediately because we just decided to enjoy the rest of it

Like just enjoy our time there for and material things are just that right? Just let it go, but yeah It should really just be about relaxing and enjoying being married like you just weddings are hard Weddings are like expensive they're stressful. They're just weddings are hard, weddings are like expensive, they're stressful, they're just like a lot of planning, so just relax and don't try to overplan it. Yeah it's too bad the people on this list didn't heed that warning because these honeymoon were anything but relaxing. Alina has five of those honeymoon that went terribly wrong and so do I but neither of us knows which the other one has. Let's start the countdown.

10. I'll start us off with number 10, the death of Christy Cádmon Jones. Christy and her husband Damien headed off on their honeymoon about six months after their wedding. They were traveling through Southeast Asia, including visiting Thailand and Vietnam before getting to Cambodia. But this is where the trip ended, when Christie mysteriously passed away in her sleep on

January 9, 2012. According to the Guardian, she died of morphine and codine toxicity, that was a result of taking heroin that she allegedly mistook for cocaine. Mistooker-like was misinformed, because I don't think that usually happens. Also, what a casual problem to have. Yeah. What a casual mistake to make. It's a wild, honeymoon. And if you Google pictures like at first,

it sounds like a little crazy, but there are forms of heroin that do look like cocaine. Oh, look at that. Yeah, exactly. So everybody Googled the more you know. But then her husband's statement started to seem a little bit suspicious. Oh, and the deputy corner was not buying the husband's answers to the questions at the inquest

and to her death back in the UK. The coroner said someone had contacted the couple's life insurance company, the day Christy died. Come on. But Damien said it wasn't him. So we got to believe that, you know? Come on, Damien. No.

The coordinator also questioned Damien's motives to have his wife and bombed, saying it was like to cover up toxicology evidence. Hey. Which, you know, that would make sense. You know what? This coroner seems like right on it. He does.

And Damien was not there for that. He claimed it was because he was told he needed to have an bombing done 48 hours after death. And he did it so that Christie's mother could say goodbye to her daughter, which I guess you could see that side of it too. And that's very fair. But now knowing that the two substances can look alike,

it is seeming a little like, was that an intention? Was that a setup? Yeah. Well, Damien also contradicted himself when at one point, he left out whether he and his wife had been offered drugs. But then later stated that a couple they met asked

if they wanted cocaine. Wow. Yeah, so it's like, what's the truth here, Damian? Will you offer some? Or teach us? Did you not get offered that? According to the BBC, Damian only named the couple

as Terrence and Jess and said they all went back to their hotel room together. Terrence and Jess had a bag of cocaine, but Damien said he refused it, quote, on behalf of himself and his wife. But I guess she still took it. Yeah, what? So if your wife dies because of someone else's drugs,

why not help track those people down? You would think that would be something you'd wanna do. I feel like I would wanna do that. Yeah, I feel like I would wanna do that too. Yeah. And I think the deputy coroner would want someone to do that because he found Amy and testimony not credible and declared the circumstances of her death

could not be clearly determined. Techia to the deputy coroner. And the coroner believes that he may have been able to get a charge of unlawful killing, but didn't believe he could prove the husband's involvement beyond reasonable doubt. Oh, that's a shady one. It's wicked shady, and then it's like,

so there's no justice here. Yeah, because everybody kind of knows, but they don't know. Damian definitely knows what's up, and he's gonna tell us someday. I mean, Damian knows some things. Tell us all. Everybody knows a couple of them, not saying what things, I mean, Damien knows some things. Tell us all. Everybody knows a couple of them.

I'm not saying what things. I'm just saying he knows some stuff. Yeah, that's all. That's fine. Yeah. Number nine on our countdown is Aurora Martine and Peter Ouvashmit. This Belgian couple was called the Diabolical Lovers by the media in their home country. That's because these two lovers were also murderous con artists who killed their newlywed spouses to collect the insurance money.

Whoa, yeah. Just really getting into it here. We're not bearing the lead at all. That's not fun. O'Rourke and Peter met in 1991, but they needed some cash. So they did what any logical human would do. Peter married someone else. Oh, okay.

That's what you do, right? That's always what I've done. And then, crazy story. About five months into the marriage, Peter and his new wife's car plunged off a ramp into a canal. Sounds totally accidental. Nuts. We're, this is even crazier.

What? Peter was unharmed. Yeah, nuts. So crazy. Wow, what luck. His wife's body washed up on shore three days later. And within no time, Peter collected nearly half a million bucks from her life insurance policy and headed off to Florida to be with Aurora.

A love story for the ages. I'm already so mad at this. Isn't this so precious? I hate Peter. I don't understand why. But years later, the money ran out, and it was Aurora's turn to financially support them. What's going to happen here?

Is she going to marry someone and drive somewhere else off of something? In May 1995, Aurora was on her honeymoon in Corsica with her new husband, Mark van Beers. Well, tragically, the car they were driving crashed over a cliff and into a deep ravine. You know, it's so crazy how that just like happens to the same people. There's a lot of coincidences here. And oh, you know, maybe they are meant to be together because there's a lot of the same stuff happening.

Yeah, or maybe they like shouldn't be. Or maybe they are evil. I don't know. Magically, Aurora survived after being thrown from the car at the last minute. So lucky. I'm also like, wow, because clearly this is not coincidental. How did you guys both manage to survive that?

Like, the planning here is really. Planning wasn't peckable, I guess. It's next level, I will say that, but it's terrible. It's evil. Next, a diabolical is a perfect way to describe it. It is. To describe these lovers. Love us.

Well, she wasted no time getting that $800,000 insurance payout and then requested her husband be cremated. Always sus. Weird. Thankfully, the van beer family was not buying it because once Mark's body was re-examined, it was determined that he'd been beaten to death with a baseball bat by men hired by Peter Schmitt before the car went off the cliff. There's how they do it. Oh, okay. There you go. According to the Guardian,

Mark van Beers' last words were, please don't hurt my wife. That's heartbreaking. Tell me that doesn't feel like just a life to the chest. That's terrible. Please don't hurt my wife. These people are beyond evil. Time magazine reported that Peter confessed to both crimes. And the couple was reportedly in search of their next victim when they were arrested. It's why. Thank goodness they were caught. Clearly they were doing this like for a lot more than the money, too.

Like I think they started to enjoy it, obviously. Absolutely. I'm so messed up. It's the diabolically evil. 8. 8. 8. Number 8 on our countdown of the top 10 Honeymoon's Gong Wrong is, convicted killer and Florida's

finest, Michael Escoto. Escoto and his wife Wendy had only been married for four days in 2002 when he bludgeoned her to death and an attempt to collect a million dollar life insurance payout. Sounds familiar. Instead, he ended up in jail for life. It's always the insurance money. It's like, come on!

All of them. As it turns out, Michael Escoto also had a girlfriend while married for those four days. Awesome. Classy man all around, you know? So great. Now his girlfriend, Yolanda, actually testified at the murder trial and said that Escoto's plan was to make his wife's death look like an accident. Cool that you know that. Yeah, it's like, you shouldn't have known that and let that happen. Very cool. He would drug her first and then let her drown in a jacuzzi while basically unconscious from the drugs. Wow. So sad. That's savage. And what a way to go. Geez. But the plan got

screwed up when Wendy woke up in the water and began to struggle. Yolanda, according to CBS, claimed that when Escodo drove his semi-conscious new bride to her house, and then to the warehouse district where he allegedly bludgeoned her with a tire iron and expixiated her. What? A tire iron? A tire iron? That's another level of humor.

And then it's expixiated her. Why did you have to do both of those things? My God. Yolanda admitted she did not witness the murder, but was waiting in her car while it happened. But did she see his scototoss the tire iron into the Piscayne Bay? Yolanda, what are you doing? Like when you hear about a murder plan, call the police.

When you hear about a murder plan, do not go to the person, to the murder plan. The number to the police is super duper easy. It's like three numbers. Yeah. You got this. Don't get mixed up in that. Well, 10 years later in 2012, for her testimony, Yolanda got immunity.

And Escota was found guilty of first-degree murder, thankfully. Good. The prosecutor on the case said at the sentencing, quote, Wendy's life was short, but her road to justice was long. It was also at this hearing that Escota was denied a retrial and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Good.

So, at least justice was served in this one. But also, Yolanda should have got some time here. It's always so frustrating when people get off of like a crazy sentencing just because they have information. I know, and it's like, I know you need the information, so you need it as a bargaining chip. It's unfortunately not scary. But that's the thing, it's always like, how do they just get to walk away when they sat in a car?

Well, somebody bludgeoned and asphyxiated their unconscious wife that they already drugged and tried to drown. You knew it was happening. Come on, you have some evil in there. Right. Seven. At number seven this week is Brian, Umphrey, and Cassandra Petri. Brian and Cassandra were honeymooning in Pigeon Forge Tennessee,

when Brian killed Cassandra in their hotel room. He then went on the run from police before being caught. But what's more unfortunate is this was the second time these two had been married, but not the first time Cassandra's family knew Brian was trouble. Uh oh, this is a wild one. Brian and Cassandra had been married once before, but he also had an extensive criminal record

of assaults, thefts, and forgeries, so Brian eventually ended up in prison. Wow, I'm shocked by that. Cassandra's family isn't clear on why Brian was locked up, but he allegedly stole Cassandra's car and drained her bank account. Seems pretty black and white. I feel like that might be why? I don't know. Usually those things will lead you to going to prison.

Yeah, those are bad things. So while Brian went to prison, Cassandra divorced him, but still visited him in prison, which like, oh no. And once he was out, they were right back together. People around the couple knew that domestic violence definitely was a factor, and Brian even once put Cassandra in the hospital. Which is so terrible. And that's what's so sad.

It is so hard to get out of a situation like this. No matter how many times you try, it's so hard. It is, and this is a perfect example, and this makes it even sadder. Cassandra did have children not with Brian. They knew how bad an abusive Brian was, and according to Cassandra's mother, they were also told to lie about the second wedding. Oh, so people weren't supposed to know that they got remarried. That's messed up.

Yeah, you can't do that to your kids. Yeah, you can't do that to your kids. Yeah, you can't do that to your kids. Yeah, you can't do that to your kids. Like for something you're doing, it's just don't do it. No. The two did remarry, obviously, and went to Pigeon Forge for their honeymoon, which is a classic honeymoon spot in that area. I didn't know that. But when Cassandra didn't return

calls, or arrived back at her friend's house to get her kids, police were calls. February 8, 2010, investigators arrived at the days in in Pigeon Forge and found Cassandra in the bed stabbed multiple times. Brian was immediately ID'd as a suspect and fled. He led the police on a car chase until he got stuck in the mud and was caught. I love that he got stuck in the mud. That was the Earth reclaiming you.

It was. Brian was charged with first degree murder. In 2011, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder. I wonder why it was second degree murder. Interesting. 6. 6. Lending at number 6 is newlywed Scott, Roast and in Karen Waltz. Scott and Karen were on their honeymoon cruise along the Mexican coastline back in February 1988, when at some point Karen mysteriously fell off the ship.

Scott first claimed his wife was blown off the boat by high winds. Oh, never heard of that happening. Wow. Then changed his story, saying that she was murdered by others to get revenge on him. But then Karen's body was recovered. When Scott first reported that his new bride had gone overboard, he continually changed his story. First to the ship's staff captain and then to the FBI agents, who you probably shouldn't lie to. Yeah, that's always a really good sign when the story changes like dramatically. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. It was always a variation of the

couple being on the ship's running track and strong winds pushing her over with him either grabbing her hands or not being able to grab her hands but unable to rescue her either way. What kind of tornado slash monsoon, slash typhoon slash hurricane was happening, that this woman was blown off a running track into the ocean and was nobody else outside. Like why didn't everybody else get blown off the boat? Well, it's like did it literally lift her in the air and then just throw her into the ocean? Right. Or did it make her like stomp,

like this doesn't make any sense. Well, and also there's like walls. Not one bit of sense is made here. No. And for that reason, Scott was arrested by the FBI with a warrant from the Bahamas who owned the ship for murder on high seas.

That's such a charge to murder on the high seas. That would also be a great like summer novel. It has to be already. I'm sure it is. Well, then he was early changed his story yet again to say that the Israeli government killed Karen and framed him for the crime. You know, as they do, of course.

So he went from one preposterous thing just to a totally different. He was like, she didn't actually get picked up by the winds. I know that was a crazy thing to say. I do have to tell you something crazy or though it was the Israeli government. It's either the Israeli government or it's Mother Nature who killed her.

It's one of the other. I just couldn't remember. I was so shocked. I confused them a lot. So yeah. Well, after a court appearance, his lawyer stated, quote, he feels that this murder is the result of a book he published last year

in New York City in which he exposed the numerous human rights abuses which he perceived in Israel. Huh. I just, I don't understand why those two things would correlate, but this would just be a lot. Yeah, truly what. But now Karen Waltz's body was found about 10 hours after going overboard, 30 miles from the coast of San Diego.

A medical examiner determined that she drowned, but there were signs of strangulation on her body. Yik. Which I feel like these really government didn't do that. I don't know. In a sworn affidavit from the FBI filed in federal court, it stated that Karen's body had a goose egg-type bump on her forehead.

Dark coloration around the eyes, marks of undetermined origin on her neck, indications of blunt force injuries and abrasions, and a tiny puncture wound below her left breast. What? So she was not picked up by the high winds. She was absolutely not blown overboard. There's wind.

No way. Wow. According to the LA Times, it also stated that medium brown hair was found embedded in the rubberized jogging track, along with a broken earring matching one Karen Rosston was wearing in a photograph taken at a shipboard dinner. And for the record, the Coast Guard reported that winds in the area when Karen went overboard were only four miles per hour or five miles per hour. Yeah, okay. The fact that her hair was embedded into the, that's horrifying.

That's terrifying because it's like, what happened on that track? What happened and on the track? Right, and how did nobody see anything? Yeah, no one was around. I mean, clearly she was beaten on that track. Yeah, it's terrible. Luckily though, Scott Rostin was found guilty

of second-degree murder on the high seas in March of 1989. Wow, that's horrifying. [♪ music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, Where do we go from here? I just don't understand on that last one how nobody saw anything. Yeah, I mean, that's wild. That's so crazy. Honestly, these are so sad because it's people who just got married. Why? Why are they murdering their spouse already?

That's insane. Yeah, you can't do that. Like, you should never do that. You just said you wouldn't do it right now, actually. Yeah. Like, I'm gonna protect you and stuff and stay with you. Like, don't do that. And like one of yours, it's like don't get married

and then we're decide that you don't want to be married and like you want to make a life of crime marrying other people and kill each other. Yes, that's so well, like just get jobs together. You can be married. Right, it's allowed. It's a thing, this is just so weird. And now it's, these are only the lower five.

I know it's kind of making me nervous for my own honeymoon. Wait, just honestly, wait until you hear number one. That's all I'm saying. 5. Alright, let's jump back in with number 5 on our countdown of Honeymoon's Gone Wrong. Starting off the second half of our list is Killers Claudius Gisic and Sam Corey. This story is a literal movie set in the mid-70s between Texas and New Orleans, where the plot is a powerful businessman Sam Corey and a low-life con man Claudius Gisic use a clueless,

desperate woman to try to make extra money from her death. Let's meet our characters. Sam Corey, a massage parlor owner who's expanding his business during a time when massage parlor's are considered illicit, and in some places illegal. It illicit massage parlor? No. He also decides to run for mayor of San Antonio. Partly for fun. And has some of his masseuses run for city council on the same ticket.

What? That's right. That's right, because who doesn't want an entire cabinet full of masseuses? They wouldn't get a lot done for the place. I feel like everybody would just be really relaxed. Yeah, nobody would have neck tension. That's what you're supposed to have if you work in an office. There you go. And he flaunts the fact that people think he and his businesses are gross. He's owning it. He's like, well, for me, I'm disgusting.

He's like Lisa Rinnon, the housewives of owning it. Own it. Just own it. He meets up with a con man, Claudius Gisic, who initially came into Corey's massage business under a fake name to sell him on a phony credit card scam. So, all right, this is just everybody's really on the up and out. I feel like he's gonna say, no, no, don't scam me, but let scam everybody else together.

You want to scam together? This was a good meat queue. This is a real good meat. Don't ever try to mess with me again. Don't scam me. Uh-uh, we'll scam everyone else. So this is just so two shady men meet under shady circumstances

and somehow form some kind of weird twisted toxic scammy shady friendship. Again, I love a good meat cut. It is a good meat cut. Now during his trial, Gisik testified what happened next was around November 1973, Sam Corey basically blackmailed him, which I'm shocked that this did not go swimming with.

Yeah, why wouldn't you expect that? So he was saying he should marry a woman and the two should kill her for insurance money. That took a very dark turn. Right? It escalated so quickly. I'd say I should not do that. And if Gisek didn't agree, Cory would turn him in, knowing he was wanted for a bad check charge. So Gisik agreed.

Again, that agreeing to murder instead of, you know, this is a whole thing of like, I'm gonna just agree to murder instead of just dealing with this like, I wrote a bad check. Well, I was just gonna say it's like bad check. You're gonna get in some trouble, but probably not as much trouble as murder. It's like, and you won't have that on your conscience.

So you're just willing to straight up murder an innocent woman rather than be like, yes, I signed that bad check. Right. Wilds. Truly wild. Well, he soon met Patricia Albanyowski. She was young, often described as confused,

desperate for love, and worked as a masseuse. Stop that. Already my heart aches. Barely a month after meeting her, he proposed. And despite many, many hesitations, Patricia agreed. Oh, no. At the time of their honeymoon, Gisik took out an enormous life insurance policy, shocked.

Crazy. And would disappear without warning, which these are all red flags that Patricia was noticing. Oh, I'm glad she noticed them. While for a walk near the bayou in New Orleans, Sam Corey was waiting in his car for the signal. Gisik flashed his flashlight and pushed Patricia in front of the car that Sam Corey was driving. No. Her skull and hips were crushed.

She died nine hours later despite medical treatment. The two were caught in the entire investigation revealed their plan. Gisik got a lesser sentence for turning on Sam Cory. They should both get the same sentence. That's what I'm saying. The entire case and trial raises the question, did Sam Cory, the powerful businessman, con the younger good-looking con man for cash grab? It makes you wonder whether Sam Cory would have eventually turned on Claudius Gisic once he got his money.

He definitely would have. Which I say, he definitely would have. Yeah, this whole setup was the worst thing ever. That's definitely what would have happened. Right. And that's so sad. So you take your new wife out for a nice walk on the by you in New Orleans, and then you shove her in front of a car.

I know, and what a way to do that. A way to do that. Murder is always bad, but that is insane. Yeah, that's just something about it. So sad. Four. 4. Landing at number 4 this week is the drowning death of Tina Watson. Tina was on her honeymoon 11 days after her wedding in 2003, scuba diving on the Great

Barrier Reef with her new husband Gabe. During their dive, something went wrong and Tina tragically drowned. What exactly went wrong is the question, because despite pleading guilty to manslaughter in an Australian court, Gabe continued to say he was innocent. On October 23rd, 2003, the honeymooners were on a 50-foot deep wreck dive

with a group to see a 350-foot steamer that sank in 1911, which that sounds like the best time I've ever seen. I was gonna say that sounds so cool. I love a good shipwreck. But cool. Not when it happens, but the aftermath of diving and looking at it.

Yeah. Now Gabe told ABC News, quote, I kind of figured we're on vacation. They're gonna be very easy, calm, nice, pretty dives. But it turns out there was a strong underwater current. So it was really a dive advanced diver should have done, and Tina was not experienced. I'm already terrified by this.

Yeah, and you hate water, so I feel like this is just going to... Yeah, this is like really giving me a lot of anxiety. It's going to make it 10 times worse. Well, to accomplish the dive, the divers pulled themselves down by an anchor line to the ship. They then would let go and free dive across the shipwreck and grab another line on the other end to pull themselves back up. But once they let go of their first anchor line, Gabe told ABC News that's where things went wrong. He stated, as soon as we let go, we were moving, moving quite a bit. It was definitely not what I was expecting, and neither was Tina.

And that's when something went wrong for Tina. Gabe says as he tried to help them both get to the anchor line, she hit his face mask and he let go of her. She was struggling and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Now this is where the suspicion of Gabe comes into play, because instead of going after her, he swam to the top to get help. Yeah, because see up into this point, you're like, yeah, that makes all of this sounds highly probable. Right, because swimming from one anchor line to another, that deep to me sounds super dangerous.

Absolutely horrifying. And if there's a strong undercurrent, yeah, you might drift and then freak out, right? Panic, and especially because she's not an advanced diver. Well, so the only thing that I can say though is that he didn't go swim down together as he was probably scared that he was gonna get caught in the undercurrent.

Yeah, if you're gonna play Devil's Advocate, which is very easy to do in this case, it's like that's the thing. But I feel, I mean, I feel like I would wanna go after my spouse. You might want to, but in this situation, you might not like react that way because when things like this happen,

your brain isn't like really operating. That's true. Like at a full, you might not like react that way because when things like this happen, your brain isn't like really operating. That's true. Like at a full, you're just like panicking. But I feel like this is one of those situations where it's like, you'll always go after your spouse. Yeah, I would always go straight to my spouse, regardless of like a train coming, whoops, it's gonna hit me and go on after him.

Instead of running the other way, you know? Well, Gabe told ABC News, I don't think I was making rational choices at that point. I don't know what I would have done had I stayed with her. I don't know that there's anything that I was actually capable of doing. A dive master did go down in recover Tina

and the crew worked to save her, but they couldn't. Gabe ended up pleading guilty in Australia to manslaughter for failing to save his drowning wife after determining that his extensive diving experience and an underwater camera showed he fully could have saved her. And there it is. And I didn't know that she had the diving experience when I first was doing this. And I was like, oh, okay.

And then the second time around, I was like, oh, well, you have to go. Yeah, I'm experienced. And he's like, I don't know what I could have done. Well, you're an experienced diver. Right. So you should know what you're supposed to do. So you could have dove and got her. Right, exactly. Now, he pleaded not guilty in America to murder

after serving prison time in Australia for over a year. American courts found that he had not committed murder and the charges were dismissed. Scuba experts in America determined that the conditions of the dive were challenging and that Tina was an inexperienced diver who drowned in a way that was not uncommon. But some people suspect that his US trial was driven by political motives because the Attorney General championed that case

and Justice for Tina Watson during his re-election season. This is really one of those that I don't think will ever have the real answer. No. For what happened here, because it is highly probable that this was an absolute accident. Yeah, exactly. But it's some shady things in here. Three. 3. Number 3 on our countdown of honeymoon's gone wrong.

Shrine Dewani. Dewani is a British millionaire whose wife Annie was murdered during a car jacking in Cape Town, South Africa, while the couple was on their honeymoon. It quickly became a high-profile case of a violent robbery gone wrong that actually points to conspiracy and still has one lingering question. Was Shrine D'Wani in on the plan? November 2010, Shrine and his wife Annie were being driven by taxi drivers, Zola Tango, when they were carjacked by two armed men. Tango was eventually let go by the gunman, and eventually

so was Shrine. The next day, Annie is found dead in the backseat of the stolen taxi having been shot in the head. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. Yeah. No matter how this spins out, it's terrible. According to the BBC, within days, the gunmen were found and arrested. And so was the taxi driver, Zola Tango, all charged with robbery, kidnapping, and murder. After being arrested, the taxi driver, Tango, pointed the finger at Shreen as the mastermind of the kidnapping plot to have his wife killed. What? Which is like, oh, so you're gonna hire these like bad people

and then it's gonna be shocking to you that they turn and point the finger at you and be like, that bad guy to us. And what, if it was just the taxi driver in these two like hitmen, why? What are they getting? Well, and then in that case, they would have killed the husband and the wife you were seeing.

Exactly. Why would you keep one of them alive? It just doesn't matter. Why? What are they getting? Well, and then in that case, they would have killed the husband and the wife you were seeing. Exactly. Why would you keep one of them alive? You didn't get anything. You didn't get anything. Like, they didn't try to get ransom. They didn't do anything.

They didn't steal anything. What's the reason for this? It doesn't make any sense. The only way that this makes any kind of like twisted sense is if the husband is involved, which he definitely is. I'm just saying. But Treen had already left the country and spent years fighting extradition to face charges

in South Africa. I don't like him. Shrine was finally brought back and tried in a case that made global headlines. The trial unearthed that he was cheating with people he met online, but his murder charges were ultimately dismissed. The driver was sentenced to jail for 18 years, finding that he had played a role in addition to the actual South African

men involved in the car-jacking. Two prolific forensic investigators and authors untangled the story of her murder, an assert that details of the case, show Shreen, had conversations with the driver prior to the day of a murder. And why would he have that? Yeah, like that's not normal. During the trial, there was also conflicting testimony that said Annie wanted to get pregnant or that she actually didn't want to go on the honeymoon trip because the two of them didn't mesh well as a couple.

Uh-oh. Shrine is still trying to rebuild his reputation. Well, I hope it fails if he actually did want to murder her. Good luck, Shrine is still trying to rebuild his reputation. Well, I hope it fails if he actually did want to murder her. Good luck, Shrine. That last one is just, I don't know what to say about it. Yeah, that one's weird stuff. Like, that one's fishy for sure. If the taxi driver is pointing a finger and saying,

like, this guy's the one who had like, God, us all to do this, it seems fishy. Cause what, like he has no good reason for saying that. That's the thing. He's got everything to lose and really nothing to gain. It's not like he's gonna get less time for that. So it doesn't make sense. And the number four, I had heard of the Tina Watson case

before, but hearing it again, it's confusing, but you're, I don't know. Yeah, and I've read like a counts of it that when I first read it, I was like, oh, he did something, right? This was on purpose. And then I've read something, I'm like, this looks like an hex, and I feel like it's one of those cases

that you'll just go back and forth all the time with. Yeah, it's another one of those that I don't think will ever have the answer. And that is hard to grasp. Yeah, it always is, but these next two are going to be good. Oh, just wait till number one. Two. We're down to the final two spots on our countdown of Honeymoon's Gone Wrong.

At number two is Ben and Catherine Malini. July 12, 2008, Ben and Catherine got married in South Wales surrounded by friends and family. Two days later, they flew to Antigua and the Caribbean for a two-week honeymoon. But a few weeks later, the newlyweds were laid to rest after being shot in their hotel room and Antigua faced major attention for the crime. The way the Guardian describes the police station near the Coco's hotel where Ben and Catherine state is, a ram shackle structure on the side of a hill.

It's crumbling roof popped up by wooden scaffolding. Sounds awesome. Sounds like exactly where I'd want a honeymoon. Sounds very comforting. Yeah, yeah. It's strong. And that's a cure. Yeah, right.

And that police station, by the way, has roughly a dozen officers. So that paints the picture of the remoteness of this area. Good. Despite this being a picturesque place with a shack for a police station, it's not without its crime problems. One of the commanding officers there stated, we've had killings before, but not like this,

not visitors. It's shocking. It's not a thing you want to see happen. Now, Ben and Catherine spent the first few nights of the honeymoon camping in an unknown location before checking into the hotel. On their last night around 5am, two men came into their cottage, shot the couple in the back of the heads, and stole their cell phones, a digital camera, and a small amount of money. It's so sad and just like, so sh- like they said, so shocking.

And it's like, if you- honestly, if you came in there, they probably would have just given you all those items. Yeah. So you just take it. Yeah, that's the other thing. Now, Catherine died instantly and Ben was taken to the hospital but unfortunately died a week later. So sad. Antigua scrambled to salvage its reputation as a tourist destination

as their murders made headlines globally. These kind of things demolish tourism in these places for a little while. It's such a hit. Yeah, it's sad, but honestly, like, you can't blame people for not wanting to go there. Because think about it with a Rubin, the Natalie Hollow.

I think that that was a big hit to them for a while. That's the major thing that I think of in the case like this. And you can't blame it all on the island or the country or anywhere. I'm not gonna say it everywhere. It's like, but it's hard not to think about it, right? A preacher who lives on the island told the Guardian, and let's be really do something about all this,

I don't know if we can consider ourselves a safe place. Which highlights the impact crime has on local economies, like we were just saying. We actually talked about this too a little bit, and our twisted spring break crimes episode. Exactly. Drugs, gang, and inequalities have been cited as a problem for the rising crime,

and for a small community that can be devastating. Oh yeah. The killers in this case, luckily, were found after they struck again and broke into a store to kill a shop owner. Oh my gosh. I calm down, stop doing this. Chill.

You don't need to rob people again, get a job. No, you. They were tried and convicted three years after the attack, and they never gave a motive. Wow. Isn't that so scary? Like not even, like there's not even a terrible motive. Like I just want money.

And I think that probably was the motive. But it sounds like there's no motive here. Like that's so scary and just ridiculous. Ben and Catherine's family launched the Malini Fund to support UK students with medical school ambitions like Catherine, and to keep the memory of their daughter alive. That's so sad.

At least something good came of this, but that's so sad. Oh my god, I know what you're thinking. The episode ended and you didn't hear number one. What was number one? Excuse me, how does the episode end without a number one? Well, it doesn't. To hear our deep dive for the number one Honeymoon Gone Wrong story, you have to head over to our Crime Countdown podcast feed.

So definitely do that and thank you so much for listening, guys. And remember, it's free. You can go listen to it for free on Spotify. Yes, even if you don't have Spotify Premium, you can still listen to it. remember, it's free. You can go listen to it for free on Spotify. Yes, even if you don't have Spotify premium, you can still listen to it. Free, free, free. It is free. Go listen to it on Spotify.

It's free. That means it doesn't cost money. Doesn't cost anything. Go listen to it. At least the number one is crazy. At least some. Bye. Hey, prime members.

You can listen to morbid, early and ad-free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud.

In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern, Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged,

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