Rotten Mango - #115: The Crime Show Copycat Killer (Case of Jason Bautista)

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

Jason was a straight A college student, with 2 jobs, and his favorite show was “The Sopranos.” He was a nice kid with a bright future ahead of him. One day police found Jason’s mom had gone missing. Jason was worried. He had thrown her headless body off a cliff - just like what he learned from his favorite show. But he had been so busy - that he hadn’t gotten around to burning her head and her hands. They were still sitting in the closet waiting for him. Book Rec: “Such Good Boys” by Tina Dirmann (best deep dive on this case and an amazing read) Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Peloton app available through free tier or pay subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Butterbing Butterboot. Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue, and let's just jump right into the case. Jason had been pulled out of class by the campus police. They wanted to talk to him,

some police officers came by We're looking for Jason, but he's dumb saying it wrong. I'm sorry But what could it be about? They were confused. Jason is not the type to get in trouble He was a straight-A student. He was here with financial aid He had two part-time jobs to support his family He was part of the chemistry club for crying out loud like that's what this kid did in his free time Why would the campus police or the local police department have anything to do with Jason? What's the matter officers?

Listen Jason, we're gonna be honest. We're worried about your mom someone called to report her missing What? My mom someone who's in one of her boyfriend's she's in corona with her other boyfriend right now I know it sounds a little bit weird, but she's a little bit boy crazy. And you know, as her son, I don't even blame her. She hasn't had the best suck with guys. My dad committed suicide when I was younger and she's still kind of recovering from that. Okay, Jason, that's fine, but we need to make sure that we cover all of our bases.

Why don't we go home, search the apartment, see if we can find any clues to see where your mom might have potentially gone? Yeah, yeah, I mean, of course, I'd be more than happy to help, like I already definitely don't want to see my mom missing or anything. Jason was calm, he was cool, he was collected on the outside, but on the inside, he was panicked. You see, Jason hadn't gotten rid of his mom's head, or her hands yet. And what if the police officers find them in the closet?

As always, full source notes are available at RottenMangoPotcast.com but yes, you guessed it! There's a really good book on this case. It's called Such Good Boys by Tina Dermann. Now, when I tell you that this is such a good read, I'm talking one of the best deep dives on this case out there. I think because this case has a lot of layers in terms of mental health. I think just reading this book was just a big wake up call to the things that we already know.

You know, the mental health then, and still now, the way that it's treated, it's not great. I mean, it's just asking for something to happen. It's causing a lot of suffering for everyone, the person dealing with the mental health obstacle, but also those around them, and this is like the exact situation of that. So let's get into who was Jason's mom.

Jane Petista, let's start with her childhood, because I think it's really enlightening. There's a lot of crazy stuff that happens. She was born in this incredibly small town in Illinois, to a very, very wealthy family, actually. Her dad's name is Dawn Osborne. He worked for a local voting company. He had a very modest job, but his parents, they were filthy rich. They were loaded. They had founded and run the company called

Thunderbark Builders. It's a really intense, fun name. Okay, it's a construction company that was doing so well in fact that real tears in the local area. They could charge, they could upsell a house just by labeling it Thunder Burke built Like they would put that on the front top line of the house description I mean it was one of those companies. It was making a lot of money Now Jane's mom Nelly was a stay-at-home mom and she was known to be a very no-nonsense type of person She was super involved with the kids' lives almost a little bit too involved She would also later but heads the most with Jane.

I mean, Jane was the type of kid that I really like to question things that like to talk back, she was stubborn, she was just really out there, and Nelly hated it. Nelly got along better with her other daughter, Deborah. This is Jane's older sister, and they grew up practically with anything that they could ever want. They had nice expensive clothes, they would go to nice private schools, they would go on these lavish vacations to Mexico with the family every single year. And in this small town that they're living in Illinois, Jane's family is really well-known.

And everyone would say about Jane's mom in particular that she just cared a lot. Nelly cared a lot about what other people thought of her and her family. She just wasn't the type. She's not the type that wants to relate to you. If you were to go to brunch with Nelly, she's not going to sit there and say, you know what, my daughter's been stressing me out too. You're right, Catherine. I feel upset with my husband too.

She's the type that would say, oh, no, we're all doing great. Thank you so much for asking. Just very, very private. It doesn't like to air out her dirty laundry about her kids. So Jane grows up, she's bright, she's outgoing, she has no trouble making friends, she's kind of considered the ringleader most of the time. She's a bit of a temper. So people just kind of let her take charge, like her friend group. When she got mad at you, she was the kind of person that could pull away real quick. Like she could detach in

.2 seconds, not even think twice about it. Like what does that mean? Like you know how when you're in a relationship you're like, oh, but this person I love them, I don't want to go, but she's the type of she's over it, she's like, goodbye. Like a friend, friend heard her feeling, she's like, okay, I'm done with you. Okay. She's not the type to be like, oh, but they texted me that they're sorry, what do I do? Yeah, that's sorry, she's like the opposite of you.

Yeah, I'm really sorry, okay? So she ends up in this super exclusive private school. The parents had to pay a big tuition to get you in, but you also had to pass two different exams. One was academic, that makes sense. The other one was religious. Like you had to prove that you were a devout Christian and Jane aced both of them.

She was actually really intelligent. She took a ton of advanced classes for her age. Everyone called her mother Jane. Because she loved to give out advice. She was mature for her age. She was always level-headed. She knew how to take control of a situation so everyone would come up to her. Jane, what should I do about my boyfriend? What should I do about this friend? And it happens so frequently that most of her days after school were just her on the phone giving her friend's boy advice. But her friends slowly started realizing. Okay, that's cool, but I have no idea about Jane.

I know nothing about this girl, that's weird. Now that I think about it, she knows my fights with my family, my parents, my friends, my boyfriend, and I know not one single thing about this girl. They didn't know if she had any dating problems. If she was dating and she was interested in someone, what was going on in her family, I mean Jane was super private. She was incredibly mysterious and I think that made her more popular because she was tall,

skinny, she had this wavy, long, naturally red hair, she had blue eyes, so she was conventionally very beautiful. And at on top of that, she comes from a very wealthy family, she's like the very secretive, it's like one of those movies on Netflix. I don't know what movie is gonna name one. Like, pretty little eyes, I thought. I thought like Queen's Gambit. Yeah, Queen's Gambit, but richer.

So after high school, she gets into university of Wisconsin and it's about an hour drive north of her house and her whole plan in life was to become a teacher, a language teacher perhaps. She loved languages, she was already fluent in Spanish. She has no like Spanish blood, you know? So she really went out of her way to learn it. She was very smart.

Then that's kind of where everything started to spiral, like just out of control. It was like things were just chipping away at Jane nonstop. She stopped going to her college courses. She would actually be enrolled in college for the next decade, for the next 10 years, and she would not graduate. So it was just on and off.

She started fighting more with her family, especially her mom, Nelly, who she was so mad at. I'm Okay. So she resented Nelly because Nelly always had a favorite and it was very clear. Debra was the favorite. Now, I don't know if you know this. I'm sure you do because we watch Netflix movies. It's because, you know, when rich families, they have a family, they have a favorite child. It gets a little more tense. Like, you know, I feel like Jane felt like Debra was going to get the inheritance. Debra was going to get a lot more land because their family was that well off, whereas Jane was going to get cold rice.

So she was upset by this. I mean, why? You have two kids. Why don't you just treat them the same? I mean, it doesn't make sense. But it did to Nelly because it got this. It's hard to blame Nelly. So there was this instance. Jane had asked to borrow Nelly's car. She's hard to blame Nelly. So there was this instance.

Jane had asked to borrow Nelly's car. She's like, Mom, can I please take your car? I gotta go on a date. Nelly normally is always like, Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Jane, no problem with it. borrow my car. But this particular night, Nelly is like, wait a minute. I already made plans with my friends. Like, I'm gonna go out and have a day not being a mom for once. No, can you get a ride or I can drop you off? Maybe your dad can drop you off, but I need the car today. Jane gets so mad. She looks at her mom and realizes that she had just been told no and she explodes.

She screamed so aggressively for so long that Nelly was terrified. She felt like Jane her own daughter was becoming unpredictable over a car. I mean, she's like, well, it's okay, Jane, calm down. Maybe we can figure something out. You know, it's not because I don't want to give you the car for the night, right?

It's that I already made plans. I can't cancel. Here, come on, Jane. I don't know. Maybe you're going through some things. Give me a hug. Nelly reaches in to hug Jane, and this sent Jane over the edge. She starts punching Nelly's head and stomach so severely that Nelly had to be escorted to

the hospital. She gets treated for multiple cuts and bruises and the police were never called. Because like I said, Nelly doesn't like to air out private family matters. So since that moment, I mean the relationship just never recovered. Debra was close with her mom, she's always been close, she's the type that's like, mom, okay, like what'd you eat for lunch, you know? Jane didn't want to be around Debra or her mom, felt like Debra was a traitor. Debra, you're a kid too, you're supposed to be my sister, you're supposed to be on my

side, it's us against the parents. Why are you taking mom's side? The only person that could somewhat calm down Jane was her grandma, Mei. So grandma Mei and Jane had this really close bond and Jane left going over to the grandparents else to just do the small chores because at the end of it, grandma Mei would slipper a bunch of cash.

She'd be like, here, take this. I wish I'm sure was quite a bit. She'd always say, this is for my girl and we'd just stuff cash in our pockets. The grandma and grandpa are the wealthy ones. Yeah. So while Jane's in college, she meets her future husband Armando Batista. Now they had some friends in common but Armando was actually not a college student. He was working as a local

handyman. He had recently immigrated from Belize. He had immigrated with his sister in order to find a better life. And he was broke, he had no college education, he couldn't even afford it, but he was really good at his job. And he was just trying to make ends meet. He was trying to be a part of the American dream. Now if you compare that with Jane's family, he really didn't have much, you know. I don't know if her family would have been content if she brought in home, but he felt so lucky that Jane was interested in

him. And it seemed like that's kind of exactly what she wanted. Her friends said that she always tended to date a lot of lower social class guys, which sounds horrendous. But I mean, who even cares about that thing when you're dating? It's not like when the 1800s nobody cares about social class, but people said it was strange because Jane didn't do it for love. It just felt like Jane did it because she could have the upper hand in the relationship She could feel superior or she felt like her partners were more likely to put up with her abuse if they were of a lower socioeconomic standing and She liked being the dominant one so after one year of dating Armando

They travel all the way to his home country believes and they get married Now Jane's only 19 years old not a single member of Jane's family was there, and honestly, I don't even know if they knew until after the fact. So you're thinking, okay, well maybe Armando's parents are over the moon. They're like, yay! Wow, American Dream! Like you fell in love, and she's beautiful, you know, all of these things. She's American. But they were not happy. They hated Jane. Armando's family did not care that she was upper class because she was brute. She was mean, she was despicable. So Armando's parents had offered

them to stay at the family house while they were in town. And I'm sure the house was not up to Jane's standards of being an upper-wetly class woman, but they just wanted to show their hospitality. So of course, you just go because these are your in-laws. You don't say no to your in-laws, are you kidding? But Jane demanded Armando get a hotel room for them in Belize, but I mean, this could have been fine if Jane was paying for it. Or if she knew that Armando could afford it, but he couldn't. So Armando had to ask his super-sad mom,

can I borrow money for the hotel room because my wife doesn't want to stay with you guys for meals, for taking her shopping around town. And it just left this really nasty tasting in his family's mouth. Like, just what's wrong with this girl? So the couple returned to America and they start their newly married life,

which was not spectacular. Jane's parents cut her off when they found out that she had gotten married. Now, they did not cut her off emotionally. It was just one of those situations where they were like, hey, I think it's time for you to be an adult. I don't think you're good at money management. I don't think that you're appreciating our generosity.

I think it's time for you to get a job and just have a taste of life, right? I really don't think it's like, Armando is not up to standard. I'm gonna cut you off of the inheritance because he's, you know, not rich. I don't think it's like Armando is not up to stand out I'm gonna cut you off of the inheritance because he's you know not rich. I don't think it was that So she went from being in this upper class family having the best of the best things the best expensive clothes to Essentially being in poverty with her new husband They moved into a low-income housing complex called Hickory Manor apartments

Which like I don't know the name is a little strange, okay? So because Armando was only working on jobs here and there there just wasn't a stable income called Hickory Manor Apartments, which like, I don't know, the name is a little strange, okay? So because Armando is only working on jobs here and there, there just wasn't a stable income. So Jane gets a job on an electrical plant. She's working in a clerical position at Cherry Electric, but their finances would only get worse. Because after eight months of being together, Jane gets pregnant.

And she gives birth to Jason. And she starts panicking. She calls her a pair of high school friend Joyce, and it's like, can you watch my child while I get to work? Now, it's kind of implied that this whole exchange was free. Like Joyce was like, sure, like I have kids of my own. So I guess, with some other one. So she's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But it only lasted a couple of days because Jason gets a diaper rash. You know, when you don't change their diaper enough, they get a rash on their butt. And Joyce is so confused because she said, anytime I change my kid's diaper, I change Jason's diaper. I mean, they're the same age. I change him as often as I do my own baby. And my baby is doing fine. I don't know. I'm so sorry. And James just looked at her in a very calm, scary voice said, it's okay, Joyce. I'm not upset with you at all. I just think it's better

that someone else watches him and leaves. Within a few months Jane is not liking this life. She's like really Armando like you couldn't all of a sudden make a million dollars because I have a baby. She was very upset so she takes the kid she takes Jason. She leaves get her own apartment, applies for government assistance and is trying to make it as a single mom. So Armando's coming home from work every day. She's gone, the child is gone, he's depressed. He's like, this is the love of my life. These two are the only things that matter in my life. Like, I gave up my family to be with this woman. They were so mad at me, they hated Jane. So he finds her and he's like, please, take me back. What did I do? I'll do anything. I'll do anything you want

I'll pick up after myself. I'll work harder. You don't even have to work anymore I will work 20 hours shifts like I I can do it But she kept pushing him away literally shoving him away shoving him out of her apartment shoving him through the hallway threatening to have him deported if he keeps this up Which wasn't true. I mean you can't just like threaten people here on green cards to deport them It's a very caring move and he was scared though. He didn't know He didn't know how much power she could have so he goes back home and for the next couple of days He can't stop thinking about it how much he wanted to be with her and his child have a happy family and in one last desperate attempt

He tried something. That day Jane had gone to work as usual. She after work she picks up Jason, runs a marines, and it's around 6 p.m. when she finally starts driving back home. Now wherever she was in the city at the time, she would actually drive past Cherry Electric, her workplace to get to her apartment. So as she's driving by, she hits her brick, slams them. Are you freaking kidding me? Armando came to my workplace?

Which one of them? This is so unprofessional. I'm not even out work. What if he goes inside asking to talk to me and my co-workers are like, what's wrong with her? Jane did not like that, you know? She didn't, she maybe she was like her mom. She didn't want her dirty laundry out there. So she pulls over, gets out the car and she's storming to our Mondo's car Just like stomping her feet in the parking lot. He better not have gone inside and then she gasped in horror There was blood all over the inside of his car He had taken his own life in the car

There was blood all over the car seats. Rigor Mortis had already set in. And she didn't know what to do. So she panicked. She did the right thing. She called the police. They found a suicide note, which was a two-page note talking about how he just couldn't live without Jane.

He said things like living without you in Jason is as good as being dead. I've come to terms with myself in the fact that I'll never be happy without you, and the note ended with, you're all I ever wanted. So the police come, they run a standard investigation, but they were very quick to rule it a suicide. I mean, it was officially ruled a suicide, but neighbors, on the other hand, family friends on the other hand, I mean, I think that this situation is really messed up, the fact that all these neighbors and these family friends did this, but they started whispering.

Jane has always been so private and weird, and sometimes she's very stoic. She doesn't show a lot of emotion expressions. They were having trouble, they were constantly finding, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't a suicide. This was like the town gossip, Which is really horrendous, you know, especially when the police ruled it a suicide. I'm sure if it was still an open investigation, I mean, yeah, you have your thoughts, but keep them to yourself, Karen. So Jane starts retreating away from her social circle, just not talking to anyone, not trying to connect with people. It was described that she had almost fallen off the face of the earth. People that knew her said, I have no idea where she went.

Like, she just disappeared. She starts getting by with her part-time job. She gets financial aid from the government and her grandma. And she would randomly get motivated and start attending college classes again. And then she would stop. And then she would start. The only person that kind of kept her around in her life

was Armando Sister, who's also living in Illinois. Now, Armando Sister really blamed Jane for her brother's death. She didn't think that Jane murdered him, but I mean, you know, with the suicide note, it seemed like because of their relationship, he was dead. But she wanted to be a part of her nephew's life, Jason's life. So she's like, I gotta just put up a Jane. I mean, this is his mom. I can't delete her off the face of the earth. If I want to be with my nephew, I gotta just put up a Jane. I mean, this is his mom. I can't delete her off the face of the earth.

If I want it to be with my nephew, I gotta talk to the mom. So she would invite the two of them over to forget together, his family gatherings, friendly gatherings, and at one of these get-togethers, a Jane sister-in-law is okay. She meets another man, named Jose, a 24-year-old who worked at a sheet metal factory yet immigrated from Belize with his mom.

And he was immediately taken by Jane. I mean, everyone. All of his friends kept telling him, you better watch it with this girl. And he did not pay attention to any of them. He didn't believe them. He was like, oh, you guys are obsessed with gossiping. Like, you guys, you guys just,

maybe you're jealous of a grown man. I do what I want, mom. Like, even his mom was telling him, you better watch out for this girl. But he was like, mom, I'm a grown man, I do what I want mom. Like even his mom was telling him you better watch out for this girl. But he was like mom, I'm a grown man. What? So he asked out Jane and they start dating. Now it's that they had a great time, they had fun. Jane was actually super happy during this time.

They would go on these cute dates at the beach and Jose treated Jason like he was his own son. Jane would even pay for all their dates. Because Jose wasn't making a lot of money. And Jose really, really, really likes her. He even cut out all the drinking in his life. He had been abusing alcohol for years, with the minute that he met Jane.

And the minute that he found out that Jane had a kid, he was like, ah, I can't drink. Because his dad growing up was a raging alcoholic who beat him when he was drunk. So he's like, no, if I'm going to be a good father figure for this kid, I'm not going to drink at all. So yeah, very admirable. For the first three months, I mean, it was straight out of a romance not bull. But just for those first three months, because then Jose moved in. And he finally saw what everyone was talking about. Her temper, oh my god, it was out of this world.

This is how he describes Jane. She could be two different people. She had a personality very nice, okay? Two seconds later, she was a bad out of hell and I couldn't please her. Then later, she would feel sorry and she would start crying. So it's just a lot. Jose thought, okay, it's not that alarming

because it's probably still PTSD from a Mando suicide. I mean, okay, it's not that alarming because it's probably still PTSD for Momando's suicide. I mean, think about it. She even forbade him from ever mentioning Armando's name. So in one of those weak moments when Jane is crying, you know, he thought, okay, maybe I can help her with the trauma. I can help her get over it. Hey, Jane, why don't you want me to ever mention Armando?

Is it because even the act of bringing up his name is too much pain? Is it the thought of it? It hurts you? Is that why? Is it because you're not over it? It's okay, you can open up to me. And in between Sub, she looked up and said, oh no, that's not why. It's because I hate that motherfucker.

Oh. So from that point on, Jane thought, well, if you brought it up, I'm gonna start bringing up Armando and she would accuse Jose of being just like Armando. She anything that he did that she didn't like, she would scream, just like, can Armando! And Jose noticed a pattern. Any time that he was showing affection or hanging out with Jason, Jane would get mad at him. Jane didn't just hate Armando, Jane hated his son, which happened to be her own son, Jason!

And he's like, he's just a baby, it's not his fault. Sometimes Jose would be playing with Jason and Jane would scream, what are you doing? He's not even your son. Sometimes Jose would spend what very little money that he had to buy Jason a toy or to pick up his favorite meal hamburgers Jane would freak out. Why are you doing that? Why are you spending money on him? Don't buy him anything. What's wrong with you? Jose could not report her because at the end of the day she was still considered a competent care caregiver She was not showering Jason in love and affection, but she wasn't technically neglecting him He was bathed. He was fed, properly dressed, he was clean. So technically, CPS is not going to do anything. Even if CPS

knows you're abusing kids, I mean, these days they're like, okay, bye, have a good one. I do think that's why Jose worked so hard to fill that emptiness for Jason, because he was just always super anxious, seemed vulnerable, he was always wetting his bed, and that's when the physical abuse started. When Jason would wake up to having wet his bed, I mean, they all knew that Jane was going to beat him up. She felt it was embarrassing. How dare you wet your bed at three years old? What if people find out?

And she was ruthless. She would beat him with anything that she could find. I'm talking what in spoons belts anything near her that she could grab. She would use it to beat him. Jose said that once when Jason was young, he was naturally curious about his body parts and he would kind of look or stare with his own private part or he would kind of like not play around with it but kind of like shake, you know, like just like what is that? And she had caught him in this very natural vulnerable state where you

should be telling your kid a very healthy explanation of what that is. Instead, she beat him so bad, tied up his hands in a corner, so that they were up in the air so that he couldn't use it to touch himself, and left him there for the rest of the day. And this just really messed with Jose, because this kept triggering all of that childhood trauma that he had when he was beat by his own dad, so he would confront Jane about it there would be a super nasty fight, she would scream at him It's none of your fucking business how I raise my son After months of witnessing this type of abusive behavior. I mean he just couldn't do it anymore. He had a leave and Then Jane tells him but she can't leave because I'm pregnant

So he stayed he tried to be excited for this kid that he was gonna have about him gonna be a dad He also felt like okay. Well maybe with the newborn James gonna be different Maybe it was hard for her because our Mondo left in a very very painful way when Jason was young But now now Jose's there Jose can help her. They can really be a family unit now And then Matthew Montejo was born July 4th now We're just gonna call him Matt for the rest of today's video. Now Jose prayed and prayed. This is what their relationship needs, right?

It's going to work. And for a while, it worked. Jane was so affectionate. She was a doding mom, but hard-breakingly, she only did this to Matt. She did not care about Jason still. He was still being beat for wedding the bed. He was still being ignored when he wasn't being beat. And Jane would just have these periods where everything seemed fine. She almost seemed happy almost, not at Jason, but at the world.

And Jose tried to use these times to get to the bottom of her temper. Are you sure it's not childhood trauma? Are you sure it's not the suicide of your late husband? Let's talk about it. But just like she was in high school, she was so secretive. She refused to tell him anything. He didn't even know anything about her family. He just knew that sometimes her grandma gave her money. He had no idea that the grandparents were filthy rich, nothing. All of her personal information was locked up in a filing cabinet that only she could open.

Why is she so secretive? I have no idea. She just doesn't want to open up at all. Yeah, but then it gets weirder later. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in them. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us? What a police.

It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does.

Listen to and follow the set an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy man but, but I love being that dirty mother s***er. The only thing that she does kind of open up about is Armando Suicide eventually. And this is Jane's version. Honestly, this is the remix, OK?

So she said, I was working late that afternoon, a cherry electric, and Armando had driven into the parking lot and tried to call me out to talk to me And I left the building I got into his passenger seat because I'm like, oh God I don't want to I don't want to create a scene for my co-workers So I'm sitting in the passenger seat of his car Jason's in the back and I talked to him for a few minutes and at some point While I'm sitting in the passenger seat, he takes out the gun and shoots himself. What? Jason was in the back and I was next to him.

There was blood everywhere. We saw the whole thing. I was hysterical, so I got out of the car. I pulled Jason out. I ran away with him. We drove home, but then I was like, wait a minute. I should probably call the police so we drove all the way back and called the police. But because I don't want to stress out the police and make it seem weird,

I just told them that I found him already dead. So she changed her story years later? Yeah, so the speculation is either this is what happened and maybe this was like one of those situations of like egging someone on to commit suicide. Maybe she had egged a man in the car or she's just lying. And so she claimed that's why she hates her mondo so much because he killed himself in front of me and for me that left me traumatized. Jane also spoke terribly of her own family. She said that she hated her parents because they only liked Debra. So for example, when Debra got married, her parents got Debra a car and a house and land.

As a gift. And she got what? A freaking stand mixer? A blender? Now to be honest, I do think that's unfair, but I'm sure there was a reason maybe they felt like Jane was irresponsible with money because she was, you know. But I don't know. I don't know why they did that.

I'm going to be real. That's kind of messed up. So she would say, I'm smarter than Deborah. I'm more deserving, but it's always Deborah, Deborah, Deborah. They always love her more. She would insinuate to Jose that it's because her parents were evil and they were racist and it is because she had married someone that was an immigrant. Now that's not really true. I will say that I put a lot of blame on her parents for not getting her the help that she needs,

but they hadn't really cut her off because she married someone of a lower social standing and definitely not because of their race. It just seemed like she wasn't, she wasn't being a responsible adult. Now, do I think that they should just cut her off cold turkey and not gotten her help? No, but that's, you know, that's a little weird. So Jane had gone to one of her very few visits with her family. Jose stayed home to watch the kids and when she gets back, she's in one of the worst moods that he had ever seen him and she's just screaming. I hate my fucking family. I hate them.

I'm never gonna see them again. I refuse. So Matthew, who's only 6 months old. He's crying. I mean he hears his mom screaming hysterically. He's confused. He's a 6 month old and she walks over, picks him up and she drops him. No.

Was it an accident? No. Hosey didn't care. He was like, I don't care, was it an accident? No, no, no. Jose didn't care. He was like, I don't care if that's an accident. Jane was abusing Jason and he was worried for all the past six months that Matthew would fall victim to her abuse too. So he gets up in Jane's face and tells her, the next time you do that, I'll kick your eyes.

And then he slapped her across the face. So she fought back. Jose grabbed her throat through threw her on the ground, and he retreated to the kitchen to cool down. Was that okay? No, but he goes to the kitchen. He's like, I feel like I'm gonna do something

if I don't calm down. Jane follows him, grabs a knife and starts screaming, you're not leaving me. I will kill you before you leave me. And she had tears just streaming down her face. Now, this caused a bit of a ruckus. The neighbors heard this.

This sounds alarming. Imagine you just hear through your walls. I will kill you before you leave me. Like you're gonna call the cops. So they call the cops. They show up and Jose admits to hitting Jane. And he gets sent to prison for battery. Okay, I guess he is leaving her.

Yeah, so Jane files a petition to drop the charges after he spends three months in prison and Jose was released and enough was just enough I mean this was good for no one. She was really bringing out the worst in him I'm not I'm not saying that was okay. I'm just saying, you know He's like, I know this is a bad situation and I got to get myself out of it So he packs up his things and he leaves and she's just begging please you can't go you can't go you have to stay I mean this is the opposite of her Mondo. And so for the next couple of months, he tried to move on, but the only problem was, in order to see his son, he had to talk to Jane.

And so the more that he talked to her, the more that he felt like, okay, she seems to be doing good now. Maybe she realized that was really bad. Maybe she wants the family to work too. For their son. So he gets a new job, offers to pay more bills. You know, Jane could stay home with the kids. Maybe the stress is causing her to be this, you know, wild. He worked as a technician,

repairing tires for large trucks. I mean, it's going to be good. So they move in again, and Jane convinces him, you got to give me all your checks. I'm just better at money, you know. My family is good at finances. Sure, you don't know who they are, but they're filthy rich. So Jose would say that he would work 16 hours a day, but he just never saw a penny in his pocket. Like, not just one. She always took the check and she just was gone. She would also say some odd things. Like, the only God I believe in

is the paper with the president's face on it. She's a very aggressive, very aggressive, that summer, Jose's ex-girlfriend Sylvia comes into the picture. Now I mean it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but Sylvia wanted Jose back. Sylvia was like, I want to date you again. I don't care that you have a kid. I don't care that you're dating someone else because we were good together. We had fun together. Remember all those good times? Jose, do you remember? And Jose thought, well, she's probably not gonna just, she's gonna leave us alone, right? But then one day,

Jane walks up to her car. She's like, what's that smell? Oh my god. Are those eggs? Her car had been egged. And it would be egged two more times. By the eggs? Yeah, by the eggs. Sorry. So, Jose felt like it was Sylvia? I mean, but he tells Jane, I don't think there's a point in telling her to stop because she's not gonna listen to me. So her car gets like three times. Then Jane goes out to her car to go to work and there's a freaking note from Sylvia and it said, hey, I'm gonna promise you one thing Jose's new girlfriend

and one thing only, I promise, do beat your ass. So, Jane's completely over it. She files a restraining order against Sylvia. She begs Jose to move with her to Florida. We need to go somewhere sunny. A piece of paper is not going to stop your crazy ex girlfriend. You don't want I want to move. Out of state, Florida's beautiful.

Have you been to Florida? It's great. Now obviously Jose was not excited about the idea. All of his friends, all of his family, they were in Illinois. His job was in Illinois, not Florida. He didn't know anyone in Florida. So Jane convinces him. Just take a two week vacation with me there.

It'll be great. And during this vacation, if you like it, yes, we'll make plans to move. If you hate it, we'll just come back to Illinois. So he agrees, they take the kids, they go to Florida. And during this Florida vacation, she was a different person. She was happy, she was affectionate, she was fun.

She loved the ocean so much that she was like a kid. Like when Jose would be like, okay, we gotta go to dinner now. She'd be like, no, like 10 more minutes, please. She did not want to go back to the hotel. And Jose fell in love with this side of Jane all over again. And he's like, this is who I fell in love with. Are you kidding? So they extend their vacation for another month and the whole time they had nice restaurants

and Jose was confused. He was stressed. He's like, when I get back, I mean, I lost my job. You know that, right? Because you just can't just take like a month vacation out of nowhere. You do know I lost my job, right? And she's like, yeah, yeah, fine. But we're here just spending a lot of my, I don't even know where you get this money. That's okay. I was a, don't stress. I have plenty to cover our expenses. What? Where is that coming from? I said, don't worry about it. It's handled. So he doesn't ask questions. They stay in Florida for another month. And she went, uh, they go back to Illinois and she goes back to being miserable. And this time she starts changing her tune. You know what?

I don't want to go to Florida. We need to move to San Diego. I want to start fresh. So where does she get the money for? Her grandma. Yeah, just a ton of money from her grandma. So the family packs up their bags for San Diego. Jason's six years old at this point and they drive all the way to San Diego from the

East Coast. They take turns driving. Everyone sleeps in the car because they can't afford motels at the time. And it was a rough ride. I mean the whole car ride Jane is taking her anger out on Jose, punching him, hitting him, scratching him. He said that he would try to talk to her, but then eventually they just straight up had a boxing match. Like they just straight up started boxing each other in the car while they're driving on the highway. When they get to San Diego, Jose finds a job almost immediately, and Jane finds them a two bedroom apartment. Now Jason starts going to school, but instead

of being happier like they were in Florida, Jane starts acting strange, like really strange. She threw out any meat and insisted that all of them only eat lettuce and vegetables. I mean, okay, that's fine. Super random, it's out of nowhere, but let's just do what she says. She also still favored Matthew over Jason, who as they started to suspect it was colorism and racism at play, because Jason was a lot darker in complexion, meanwhile Matthew was more pale like Jane. He just couldn't think of any other reason, especially because once they had moved to San Diego, Jane became a raging racist.

To practically every single race, okay? But specifically, Mexicans. Yeah, he was like, anyone who's Hispanic, she just didn't like, which is weird. She also said, Jewish people were horrendous. I mean, she was anti-Semitic, she was racist, she was xenophobic, she was everything, okay? Now, it's clear something is going on with Jane. I'm not trying to excuse it, but something's going on. Oh, they knew it too, but Jane refused to get help. Or maybe she was too secretive to let anyone know if something was going on. Experts would later believe that she was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and narcissistic personality disorder. So if that were the case, Jane is now in her 30s. She's not getting treatment. Things are only getting worse. Jose is getting sick of her

ways. And she starts doing some very alarming things. She starts accusing him of cheating on her, and she was so obsessed with this idea that she would go through his things, his wallet, she would make up these random phone numbers, write them down on pieces of paper, and run to Jose and say, where did you get this? Who gave you their number? Huh? Maybe she had gotten the whole idea from an incident that had taken place. When Jose was at work, he had befriended a male colleague who said, you know what, come over, let's watch the game. I don't know what guys say, okay. Let's play games, let's watch the game, something like that.

And he wrote down his number for Jose and Jane found it. Now she flipped out and she called that number and a woman picked up. It was a coworker's wife. And she was like, oh, okay Jose, I think, yeah, I think that's, uh, he works with my husband, right? But Jane didn't care. Even when this whole thing was cleared up, Jane was still so upset she grabbed a knife and stabbed through all of Jose's clothes, shredded practically every piece of clothing that he owned. So he's near his tipping point, and he wants to leave, but she would scream at him if you leave.

I will march down to the Sheriff's Department and tell them that you're sexually abusing your son and you will never see him again and you will be deported. Okay, Karen. So with that, he said the same thing. He said okay, Karen, and he packed his bags and he left. Now, the next couple of months, it was going to be really rough for Jose. He would have to find a new job, a new apartment, and finally Jane would have him visit with the boys.

She would actually bring the boys to him to visit, and he was surprised that she allowed this. He thought for sure, no way, and hell is she going to let this happen. That is, until he realized, Jane was using every visit as a way to keep her eye on Jose. Make sure that he's not seeing anyone else. So one day he was working on his female neighbor's car and Jane popped in with the boys for a surprise visit. And she sees this woman, she sees the car and she looks at them back and forth in silence and then starts

screaming, who's this whore? Is this your new whore? I mean, he didn't know how to calm her down. He's like, what are you talking about? This is my neighbor. This is not a horror first of all and then you know the neighbor is probably like who you call in horror You know like he was like I don't know how to deescalate this situation So he's like get into the car so the neighbor gets into the car He gets into the car and they take off Okay, he's just thinking let's just put some distance between me and Jane But Jane follows them and a high speed chase ensues,

and it was only when the neighbor turned into the local police station did Jane drive away. A few weeks later, Jane stops by again, and this time she sees a woman leaving Jose's apartment and she was pissed. She said, you owe me child support. I want it right now. I'm calling the police and you'll never see the kids again.

I want it right now. He's like, what, this is so random. This is supposed to be a visit. You should have told me prior to this. So he gives her all the cash that he had on hand, but was she happy? Absolutely not. She storms inside and starts going through his things. Is someone sleeping here? The next person that sleeps on your bed, a killer! A killer! So she breaks his TV in his room, storms into the kitchen, and she noticed that Jose had been cooking dinner for two people. It was gonna be a dinner date, so Jane picks it all up, smashes it onto the ground, and

with that, Jose decided, this is horrible, he decided to punch her in the face twice. She ran off with the kids, four-year-old Matthew saw the whole thing happen and Jane rushes to the police and tells them, oh my god, my ex-boyfriend beat me because I wouldn't have sex with him. He tried to- Hosey gets called in for questioning. The police show him a picture of Jane. Now she had bruises everywhere, all over her body. Her entire body was black and blue.

Now, it's speculated that Jane had given herself more injuries, which honestly, still not okay that Hosey had punched her, but that's not okay either. She added a lot for the police. Jose pleads guilty to felony spousal abuse and he gets one year in jail in a hundred dollar fine, but he only spends three months in prison. When he gets out, he calls Jane to see if he could see the boys. Or see if she was okay, maybe he should apologize, probably, for what he did, but when he dialed, her number was disconnected.

He showed up in her apartment. All of his suspicions were right. She had vanished. She was gone. He had lost his baby boy. His entire family gone. He would never figure out where she had gone with her kid until he would later see them on the news.

But we know, we know that Jane not only moved a few miles away to a two-story house in a middle-class neighborhood, but she was living a huge upgrade from the apartment that she was formerly residing in. All thanks to her grandma. She was loving this new life. She dressed the part, she wore these short stylish skirts, she kept her long hair curly, she was always freshly done, the neighbors noticed that her house was always a revolving door of people. That's what the neighbors said, not me.

They said that she had so many guys coming in and out of that house. It was impossible to tell who was who. Okay Karen, a little judgey there. That part, the neighbors should mind their own business, but this part I totally understand. The neighbors also stated that Jane liked Matthew more, and it was completely obvious. She would constantly tell Jason loudly so everyone could hear. Jason, you're 11 years old now. You're the man of the house. You have to go and take care of your brother while I go out. You need to do the cooking. You need to clean the house. What are you doing?

He was straight up treating him like Cinderella. She also forced him to get straight A's, which he brought home for her. He got straight A's all the time and it's not because she cared about his future. It's because she could brag. Not even in the- oh my god I'm looking my sonny so smart type of way, but look did I teach him well? That type of way. One time when Jason brought home a B in algebra, Jane was so upset that she grabbed a large kitchen knife and screamed, you'll never be good enough.

Before threatening him, tying him up with 100 feet of electrical cord, 100 feet, she used all 100 feet. It's not like she just used three feet of it, and it was 100 foot rope. No, she used all 100 feet. How do you do that? She said it, it was like a mummy tied up. Left him tied up in 100 feet of electrical cord for four hours.

So she probably forced him to stand there while she just went round and round and round and round. Anytime Jane was frustrated she would lash out at Jason, Matthew was never really yelled at, rarely beaten. It was always Jason. One day a neighbor saw Jason sitting on the curb sobbing. Oh my god, what's wrong, sweetie? Are you okay? Yeah. Then why are you crying? I can't get inside. Is your mom not home? She is, but I was making her mad. Now tell me why this neighbor walks away. It's like, okay, we'll have a good time, sweetie.

Walks back to her house and realizes that it would be night time until he's let back into the house. There was always cuts and bruises on Jason's body. I don't know why people didn't get involved, but they didn't. And Jane, meanwhile, is living up her single single life not even thinking about CPS because nobody's calling them at this point, and she befriends a freshly divorced neighbor by the name of

Paola. Now Paola was like, let's go to the clubs. So these two, these two single people on the street, they start hitting up the clubs, they start shopping for clothes for the clubs, her uniform on these nights out were usually leather skirts and fishnet stockings. Now, this is a suburban neighborhood. That's the same as going out but naked to your mailbox. You know, they were really gossiping.

The carons were like, can you believe it? Can you believe it? Her skirt didn't touch her ankles. I mean, what could I have? What kind of life is this? The house prices, I feel, are gonna go down because for her, they were just really upset. She would endlessly, Jane would endlessly talk about Middle Eastern men. They were her new obsession. Her only dating requirement was,

they had to be Middle Eastern because all Middle Eastern men were rich, she felt. They were gonna treat her right. She even started taking Arabic classes so that she could meet a nice Middle Eastern man to shower her in gifts. Her favorite place to go on vacation with her new boyfriend was Las Vegas. She said that the thrill of gambling away boyfriend's money was the best thing for her. Well, that's crazy because I don't care who's money it is. I don't like gambling it away. Like even if it's someone I don't like,

I'm like, God, money's still money, bro. Yeah, but she was like, no, I love that feeling. I love dating someone and just robbing them blind. Love it, it's great. So it's around this time. I just love someone and just robbing them blind. Love it, it's great. So it's around this time. I love seeing their net worth go down the gal. Down, and that's very counterproductive, no. So it's around the time that Jason turns 13.

He felt like something was wrong with his mom. Up until this age, he had no idea. He just thought that all moms are like this. And it all happened when he started trying to buy a pack of cards, like Pokemon cards. They're a dollar a pack. And Jane was furious.

How did you buy that? How did you buy that? Are you, are you stretching money somewhere? Where do you have money? How are you hiding money from me? Where do you get the money? Are you stealing money from me? You're not supposed to have any money.

You don't deserve any money. Where did you get the money? He's like, what's wrong with you? She beat him so badly with a belt, it accidentally hit his eye which caused it to swell shut. This wasn't even the alarming incident. This was just another casual day for Jason. The alarming incident happened when they were driving for a family trip to Las Vegas. It was just Jane and the two boys and Jane was in a great mood most of the time. The boys were thankful. They were amazed. They loved Vegas. They had never seen anything like this. I mean, they grew up in a small town. They lived in San Diego. It's nowhere

near as crazy as Vegas. Right? It's beautiful, but not crazy as Vegas. They're just enjoying the strip. And on the last night of their trip, Jason is sitting in the motel room, turning on the TV, and a singer was performing a hit song called Barely Breathing. Jason was amazed. The vocals were there, the performance, wow, the vibes, the stage presence, but his mom pulls him aside and says, you know that guy singing? On the TV Jason. Yeah, I mean, I don't know him. She goes, well, let me let you in on a little secret. I know him. We met at a bar. We briefly dated, and you know all those songs that he's singing that you seem to love so much? Your mom wrote those.

I wrote those songs. He used to me, and now he's getting rich off of that. Okay, what is Jason going to do about that? Yes, yeah, what is the 13 year old going to do about that mom, right? So he's super confused. What? And that's not all Jason Jason now he's trying to kill me. He's trying to kill all of us Wait, what? So this kind of set her off for months

She was paranoid that music industry executives were spying on her like out of nowhere She stopped leaving the house. She stopped using phones refused to let the boys use the phones They were gonna trace them. Through the phone, that's what she said. Do you want your mommy dead? They're gonna trace us. They're gonna kill us. She spent hours holding up, researching this thing, buying his CDs, reading the cover sheets

inside and out. She found his management firm in Boston, and she said, I need to put an end to this boy's, I don't want your money, tell them. I get, tell them boys, tell the manager, I don't want his money. Just stop trying to kill me, tell them. She looked up the manager's number called nonstop. When she realized that Duncan, the singer, never wanted to talk to her, she told the boys

it's because he couldn't admit that he stole her work. And from that incident, her paranoia only got worse. She was convinced that everyone was out to get her. She felt every single, I mean, how do I even? She felt that every single Mexican on the face of the Earth wanted her dead. I just can't even begin to explain the generalization or the racism in that. I mean, we're laughing because of how ridiculous it is. As well as Jewish people, she said that Jewish people hated her and they wanted to kill her.

I mean, she was... she's not doing okay, but these are horrible, horrible things to say. She said that she spotted strange men in her backyards spying on her Should we get her neighbors involved police involved but nobody ever saw anything? So that's when Paula remember the single neighbor newly divorced We should gotten into another relationship with a coworker This was her very first boyfriend after the divorce and they had broken off recently She's like oh my god. What's happening to me? She's having like a midlife crisis,

I'm gonna be honest with you. So she decides to gather a ball of her friends and said, let's go skiing in Big Bear. It's gonna be great. It's gonna take my mind off the breakup, Jane, why don't you come? Why don't you bring your kids? It'll be a blast, I know you've been thinking

about a lot of things recently. You know, you've been stalked. It'll be fun. It'll be relaxing for once, but it wasn't. A ton of people went and they were all super depressed. Because the whole time Jane was just abusing Jason. The first night, everyone was like, okay, let's sleep early so that we can hit the slopes early in the morning.

We can go skiing early, Matthew the youngest. He wasn't sleepy. He's like, I want to stay up. We're on vacation. I want to play games, so he's trying to keep everybody awake, even the adults. I mean, that's what kids do. It's kind of cute.

But Jane heard the commotion, turned on the lights, which doesn't matter with you. You know better. Jason, you're the man of the house. You have to be responsible for him. Your brother's only nine years old. You're 13. You need to make sure he's not acting out.

Make sure he's in line! What's really heartbreaking is that even with all this favoritism, Matthew loved his brother and vice versa, and a lot of the times the only thing that kept Matthew from acting out and being a kid was knowing that his brother was going to be in trouble for his actions. So the next morning, when they hit the slopes, somehow, Matthew was not really good at it. I mean, kids are all the good at things, he's just zoom in. Jason, on the other hand, probably didn't have the confidence to ski well because it had been years.

His confidence was broken piece by piece chipped away at. So he kept falling around. I mean, it's his first time, can you blame him? But Jane would scold him every single time that he fell in front of everyone. She tore him apart, she would laugh at him, ridicule him. I mean, it's just uncomfortable, it was depressing, it was sad. And this is when everyone decided, yeah, after this trip, no one's gonna be friends with Jane anymore. We're all gonna distance ourselves. The last day rules around. Something shocking happens. Jane

announces to the group, hey sit down everyone, I have something to say. Paula. You know the guy that you broke up with just now? And that's the whole reason you wanted to come on this trip because you wanted to get over the breakup, your ex-boyfriend? Well I'm dating him now. Isn't that great? I hope you're happy for us and I hope you don't mind. So she's a sh**ty friend. Yeah, so Paula's like, what the fork?

I mean that's not okay. So they end up going back from the trip and she's trying to distance herself Paula ends up dating a new person You know just trying to get away from Jane, but the next couple of months Jane would frantically call Paula an all hours of the night screaming the illegals are here Mm-hmm. She's referring to anyone who looked remotely Hispanic She assumed that they were automatically Mexican and that they were here illegally. So yeah, I mean, disgusting. The couple would rush on over, which honestly,

I wouldn't, if you're like, the illegals are here, I'm like, okay, you racist, you deal with it then. Have fun. She's like, they're in the bush, and the bush, she's been living in the bush. He sleeps there at night, right there, do you not see him? They didn't see a thing. Police would get involved.

They never saw a thing. One night Jane knocks aggressively on her neighbor's door, Rosemary. Listen here Rosemary, it's all your fault. If you didn't hire those Mexicans to do your yard work, they wouldn't be living on my roof. What did you say? On my roof.

They're living on my roof because you hired them to do your yard work. Not under your roof? Do they live with you? On my roof, how can I not be clear? And she just strutted off. So Rosemary, I mean she's had a complete and utter loss for words. Jane calls the police to report that her neighbor Rosemary was hiring illegal immigrants.

The police did nothing because that's racist, ma'am. Jane also started standing in her yard in the middle of the night throwing tennis balls at her roof Trying to quote unquote hit the illegal's that we're living there And nobody's calling anyone for help or nobody's calling anyone to get her psychological help Like psychiatric help which honestly I mean if this was happening with my neighbor I would not think well first of all you need to call CPS because she has children Second of all she needs help Yeah,'s a racist, but she needs help. She called another neighbor at three in the morning, who happened to be a firefighter

at the neighbor. And she says, listen, I've got my broom and I'm banging on the ceiling, but it won't get off my roof. What do I do? How does she have everybody's phone number? Yeah, but I guess nobody was bothered enough to call CPS. Jason turns 15 years old and he seemed to be the only one calling out Jane. He would say things like, Mom, you're acting crazy, you're nuts, there's no one up there. And she would scream, they're coming after me, don't you understand, you're an idiot. She would kick him, shove him, you're against me, huh? If you're against me, then leave. Jane was so paranoid, she couldn't even keep up the maintenance of the lawn or the house.

Her entire lawn by the end of the year was completely dead and she was so worried that when she moved out She wouldn't get her security deposit back. So what does she do? She goes out and buys the most expensive soil lays it all over the lawn and it didn't work Because you can't just put dirt over a dead lawn You've to like wet it first I'm sure there's a lot of different things you got to do So the soil ended up dying too and she never watered her lawn. The strangest part of all of this was that the soil was more expensive than her security deposit. So she wanted

to soil it to get her security deposit back, but she spent more money on the soil. Soon after that, Jane leaves the neighborhood and she starts moving all up and down Southern California. She would just have weeks where she's completely normal. She would take care of the house or the apartment that they're renting. She would take care of the kids. Then out of nowhere, she would start getting paranoid. And it was, you know, when she's okay, she never mentioned anything about someone watching her, someone being in the bush, no mention at all.

And it wasn't just all of a sudden. It would start slowly. Jason would come home and she would say, so our neighbor, he's a legal. And he knew, the kids knew that was the beginning of the cycle. She would slowly get more and more paranoid. She would yell at them, she would scream at them if they ever questioned the fact that their neighbor was. A lot of the way an illegal immigrant, she would freak out, she would go berserk, she would threaten them,

and then eventually they would move, and the process would start over again, and these kids, they were miserable. They never really had a childhood. Jane never let them outside of the house when she was going through these periods because she felt like they were going to get snatched up. One of the neighbors was so concerned that she left a tape recorder outside Jane's window to record her own conversation. And I genuinely think that this is like a symptom of paranoid schizophrenia. So it also stated in the book that when you have paranoid schizophrenia, everyone's schizophrenia symptoms are a little bit different. And I think that's what's so hard about treating this.

But with this one, it seemed like she just was very paranoid that people were out to kill her, including famous people. So people she saw on TV, she was convinced that they were out to kill her. Obviously, she needed to be helped. She needed to be treated. There's a lot of people with schizophrenia that live very happy, healthy, productive lives,

and she just was not getting that help. So she's screaming inside of her house, and she's saying things like, oh God, he knows where I've been. Please, no, you don't have to do this to my children. And then she would turn around and say, idiot, you fat, lying weirdo. I'm sick of your fucking lies.

Oh, you're a big man. You're gonna go under because you're a liar and I'm gonna make sure of it. There's no life. This is my house. So just leave, I can't take it anymore. What's happening? What kind of conversation is she having?

I think she was hallucinating with people who are trying to take her kids, trying to bother her that have invaded her house essentially. And then you hear Jason on the tape screen, shut up. Just stay there, just stay away from here. I don't have any sons, they're losers. You ruin my son and you ruin me. I already have enough problems.

I don't need a fucking weirdo trying to kill my sons. You're stalking me. You're putting poison in my drink. You're just evil. You're a filthy son of a bitch. You're a crazy criminal. I mind my own business. I take care of my kids and I make sure that they don't cause trouble.

Jason screams, that's enough mom, shut up, that's enough. Look around, look what they've taken, the fucking front door, the fucking front of the fucking garage, the f-word is her favorite word by the way, I'm not throwing these in myself. And Jason screams, mom? Momma? Oh great, here come the cops. And she stops talking. Now it's unclear if the cops came or not, they did often stop by due to the neighbor's complaining, so I wouldn't be surprised, but I mean,

I think that just goes to show she was not okay. There was something going on there. Finally, someone call CPS, when the CPS worker gets there, before even getting to the door, Jane rushes outside, screams, get the f*** off my property and Oddly they listen to her and they never came back Freaking way they were like you know what she seems like a very fit parent. You're right. Let's go What do you want for lunch? You want to get Chipotle like what what do you mean?

Jane was terrified she threatened to kill her kids if they try to call the cops on her despite all of this Jason is doing really well in school He's almost an all-A student. He wants to grow up, be a lawyer, or a doctor one day. He is getting bullied. He has no friends because he's forced to sleep out in the garage. So in the summers, it's super hot,

in the winters, it's super cold. I mean, his life was rough, but he was just trying, trying his best to find the happiness and the small things. He loved going to Matthew for his hockey practices. Jason was never allowed to do these things, but because Matt was the favorite, he was allowed to join the hockey team. And that's where a lot of weird stuff happened again.

When the hockey team asked for Matthew's birth certificate, because they needed to file one, Jane refused. She said this is an invasion of privacy. She kept changing her numbers. So the hockey coach was like, I can't even get in contact with you. Like, that's dangerous. I mean, what is going on? Why do you keep doing that? And she would say, oh, nothing the wrong person got a hold of my number

The parents would have pizza parties after their hockey practices and or games and Jane would just sit on the side very Anointingly sipping her diet coke and when they would say, oh, do you want a piece of pizza? No, I can't afford it They were a little bit confused. Okay, that's weird. It's piece of pizza? No, I can't afford it. They were a little bit confused. Okay, that's weird. It's free, no? Yeah, so Brad and Nancy, they were a couple, right? They had their kid in the hockey team and they invited her to lunches with her kids

because they felt bad. They were like, oh, maybe she's struggling. Her hair was always messy. She was always showing up in these wrinkled clothes and her kids were so well-behaved. They were so kind. I mean, so there must be something. These are good people,

she's just under a lot of stress, I'm sure. So they keep talking to her, and she opens about our Mando's committing suicide, said that Jose was an uninterested father, deserted the whole family, she's a single mom now, but don't worry, guys, I'm super rich. I have all this money hidden away. Okay, okay, yeah, that's cool.

So Brad is talking to her normally and he's talking about how he wanted to buy a used Cadillac but the car was gonna cost him $4,000 and she's like, I can give that to you. And they were just kind of taken aback by this, you know? Like it's fine, but also just strange. So like, okay, this is really weird, but you know, they love the kids,

so they're like, let's keep trying a let's keep trying She would also tell the couple that these very powerful people in the entertainment industry are out to get me You don't even know what these people are capable of. They're always watching me. That's why I move around so much That's why I change my numbers. I can't even open my blinds at home. Can you believe it? Well, who are these people, Jane? Tell us who's doing this to you so maybe we can help? Well, let's just say you're wearing his clothes. Browd was so confused. He looked down at his clothes. I'm wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt. Exactly. So she was implying that Ralph Lauren himself was after her.

Yeah, it's sad, but also funny in that moment because he's like, wait, what? I'm just wearing a polo shirt like what's going on, right? It's a little confusing. Now, they weren't the only ones that dealt with this bizarre behavior from Jane. Jane had confronted another parent asking them, if someone came up in here and offered you $40,000, would you find them a way to give up Matthew, a pedophile, wants to give you $40,000, you would give up my son, wouldn't you?

You would, huh? What? What are you talking about? No, we wouldn't. Absolutely not. Safety is our priority. Are you? Which one with you?

No parent here would give up another child for money. What? The same mom saw Jane looking off into the distance later at practice. So she comes up behind her and puts her arm on Jane's shoulder and says, Hey Jane, you doing okay? Jane turns around and friends seen this woman said that she had never seen such a anger. You like to favor your son during practice, huh? You play favorites with the kids, huh? You're brown-nosing with the coach all the time. You're despicable. She's so taken aback like nothing had happened. So Nancy and Brad, they tried for months to get a hold of Jane, because she just ghosted hockey practice.

I mean, so did Matthew. They were nowhere to be seen out of the blue just gone. So they're worried. They keep calling Jane, no answer, nothing. Then they get a call, months later. It's Jane. It's so scary. I'm being followed all the time.

I have to move. They're hounding me. They're like, Jane, let us help you. Where are you right now? Oh no. They've gotten to move. They're hounding me. They're like, Jane, let us help you. Where are you right now? Oh no. They've gotten to you. They've turned you against me. They've turned you. And I think like we're laughing right now because it's not funny, but in the sense of like, how did no one get her help? Like if this happened to me, I would not just hang up and be like, no, that was a weird conversation. And just move on with my life. I'd be like, we got to get our help.

When did this happen? This is like in the 90s. Maybe it's just, you know, mental health is not as talkable. Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping that's why, and I'm, I, but I do feel like these things probably still happen to this day. Yeah, that's true. So Jason, he's about to turn 17 years old.

He had enough credits to skip junior year and just head right into senior year. That's one less year of high school, skipping a grade. He thought this is his chance. I have a 3.8 GPA I could apply to college. I could get a scholarship. I could get a computer science degree. I could do anything And he was so stoked But a lot of people had noticed a shift in his personality now that Jason was a senior at high school He started out changing. He didn't necessarily open up about what was going on at home, but he did complain all the time about his mom. And he also said that he was superior.

Like he just said a weird, he had a weird egotistical error about him. His yearbook quote was, I Jason Batista of unsound mind and lacking common sense wish goodwill to few people instead I wish bad luck, a lifetime of it and backed on a lot of people and I laugh at the stupidity of the rest. But going through that age. Yeah, he's like really just going through that phase, right? He's like feeling dark. Jane didn't care.

I mean, she was super busy with other things. She believed that the new male neighbor that they had that moved down the street was a pedophile and he was trying to snatch up Matthew. He couldn't be trusted. He would say things like Matthew, do you hear me? Even your friends can't be trusted. They're all being paid to keep an eye on you. You think your friends are on your side?

They're not. Jason would interrupt because he's like, you're freaking the kid out, okay? You're crazy. Nobody's out to get Matt. She's freaking nuts Matt. Don't listen to her. Who got to you, Jason? Who paid you off?

Who paid you? Answer me! At one point she even threatened Jason with a knife and grabbed a hockey stick. Hit Jason so hard on the head that he was rushed to the hospital. He had to get staples on his head, and he had about a three inch scar

that was left behind. Now years pass. Jason starts working, he gets into college, he's working part-time, he has his own car, and I think this is really important because it shows that Jason had the free will to leave. Now, am I saying he wasn't abused most of his life? Absolutely not, but I think in this situation, um, just keep this in mind for later. He had the will to leave. He had the means. He had the money. He was of age. He really could have lived a comfortable life. Like, the school was even offering him a dorm.

So he could have genuinely have just slept. Maybe it was his brother holding him back. I'm not really sure, because Jane really loved Matt. Jane was never that abusive with Matt. It was always Jason. So keep this in mind. They moved to a new apartment complex. And and now Jane has convinced that their private lives were being taped inside their house and being streamed on Mexican TV stations.

And when she was asked why, or like how, or what? She said yeah, I know this is happening because the Mexicans all know me and they always look at me anytime I go out, the Mexicans look at me and they laugh at me. So because of this fear of being live streamed I guess on Mexican television shows, she started moving the family from motel to motel, like very dingy ones, ones without even hot running water. The boys were struggling. I mean Matt pretty much didn't go to school because they were constantly on the move.

Jason could barely keep up with his school work. He was missing so many classes because they were always on the move. I mean, it was probably the worst time in their lives. So finally, the winter of 2001 rolls around, and Jane knew that she had to get a place for the family. It was too cold to sleep in the car. This winter. So they finally get a place, and at one point Jason did try to leave and get his own place,

and it didn't work, and the only thing that he gained out of that was him telling Matthew non-stop, I wish you were dead. And slowly he started asking Matt, don't you think it would be great if we got rid of Mom? I'm just saying, don't you think life would be much easier without her? Matt would say, I mean yeah, it wouldn't be great if she got killed or something, but yeah, like if she was gone, it would be great if that makes sense. Like, I don't want her dead, but life would be easier without her. Matt was not taking Jason seriously at all. Even when Jason started bringing Matt to his college campus to use the computers there,

Jason fell in love with this TV show called The Supranos. It's a very famous show. His favorite episode was titled Whoever Did This. The main character Tony Suprano would get into a fight with his henchmen. It's about like a mafia, it's about a mob. And he kills him, Tony kills him, drags his body into the bathtub where he cuts off his head, saws off his hands, dumps the body, and it's kind of a mob style killing because when you get rid of the face and you get rid of the hands, it's very hard for the police

to ID the victim. So Matthew, I mean he's spending his time smoking pot with his friends, avoiding his mom. His GPA was like a 1.7. Meanwhile, Jason is trying to study. He's joining the chemistry club. He's making friends like he's finally having a normal life. I think he's having a taste of what life would be like without Jane. And for a time, and for the time being, it goes really well. Until one day, Jane accuses Jason of molesting Matthew. So sometime in November of that year,

the spiral keeps going deeper. Jane keeps saying there's pedophiles everywhere. Anytime Jason tries to tell her, no, there is not, he gets accused of being a pedophile. So Jason pulls Madness out and says, listen, I can't do this anymore. Can't you see what's coming? Where about to be homeless again?

I can't move again. It's gonna mess up with my grades. It's too much stress. It's gonna ruin my life. We have to stop her this time. I think I'm just gonna do it. But I need your help. To reiterate, Jason was 22 years old, he had money of his own,

he had a support system of friends, he could leave. Yeah, his brother was there. Yeah, Jason was abused for a long time, but still, he could leave. So Matt patiently listened to his brother thinking he's just venting, there's no way he's gonna act on any of this. Who murders their own mom? Like, it just maybe it's just fantasy, right? He told him, I'm not getting involved. Listen, if you're gonna do something, I'm not gonna stand in your way, Jason, but I'm not getting involved. Like you're, you sound crazy right now.

J.A.N.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A.W.A all the time while he was reading his books, and they never really knew what he was singing, but it sounded upbeat. We later find out that Jason was singing. It really amazes me how I can kill a man and it doesn't faze me. So January 14th, Jason has a typical day, goes to study group, drives home around 7pm, sits down in front of the TV, and starts watching it. He had finally hooked it up to some cable, Jane's in the kitchen cooking pasta and then she broke the silence. The man upstairs is a pedophile. I saw his picture in the paper. I'll prove it. I'll get you the paper tomorrow. You never believe me, but I'll get you the paper tomorrow.

Jason said, yeah, just leave me alone. Mom, I don't want to hear it. No seriously, I can prove it. It doesn't matter what you do, mom. I'm not going to believe you. I don't want to hear it. No seriously, I can prove it. It doesn't matter what you do, mom. I'm not going to believe you. I don't want to believe anything you say. So stop. The man is just a man. He's not a pedophile. Do you understand? I don't believe you. Yeah, Jason.

Well, how do you think the man makes money then? They pay him. The entertainment industry people pay him. I've seen him ding through the trash all the time. Mom, just leave the man alone. He didn't do anything. Oh, I see now. It's you.

You're the one being paid. You're against me, huh? All along. You're watching us. The whole conspiracy has you in now, no. Doesn't it? Well, I'm not gonna stand for this. Get out of my house.

She's dormed into Jason's room, opened up a suitcase, started throwing all of his things in there, and he's screaming, fine. You want me out? That's fine. He starts helping her pack the suitcase. Matt on the outside is getting more and more nervous. Okay. He's like in the other room like what's going on? Right?

He starts petting the family dog to try to calm himself down. And then he hears a thump and he stays put. Jason comes out and says, I just strangled mom. I kicked her to the floor and I strangled her. I don't know what to do. We need to check her pulse. So Matt rushes over, checks her pulse, see if she's breathing, she's dead.

Well now what, Jason, what, what happens next? Well we're just gonna have to take care of it. Just like the sopranos. Matt knew exactly what that meant. And he's like, oh God, that's horrible. I can't do that. I know, Matt, I know, it's horrible. But there's nothing else I can do.

We have to get rid of this body. So Jason starts sobbing and he's like, dude, I just want to kill myself. And Matt's trying to calm him down. You can't do that. I need you. Please don't do that. So Jason ends up driving to grab some supplies. He gets gloves, trash bags, bleach, mountain dew, some gum. And he pulls out a butcher's knives and shearing scissors from the kitchen, picks up Jane's body, drags her into the bathroom, and he braces himself as he starts sawing at her neck. He ends up taking off her head, decapitating her, taking off her hands, and he rolls her decapitated naked body into a sleeping bag and places it in his trunk.

Now, he tells Matt we gotta get rid of the body, let's go. So they drive on the coast of a beach town that they used to live in And that's when Jason spots a giant jumpster dumpster in front of a house Like one of those houses that are being constructed renovated. So he's like, okay, this is where we do it This is it Matt. We got to dump her here. So they get out of the car They open up the trunk. They're literally taking out a sleeping bag with their mom's body in it When a security officer says hey, what are you guys doing at this hour? It's almost 2 a.m.

What are you guys doing? We're just dumping some trash. We can't dump trash here. You have to pick it up back up and leave. Oh, okay, sorry. Let's pick it up, Matt. Let's get it back in the car. Now the security guard had solid and picked up a rolled sleeping bag.

I mean, something fell off about the whole thing. So he says, hey, stop. Put the bag down. I want to see what's in there Jason didn't listen. He said no I'm not letting you and they place it back into the trunk They slam it shut the security guard grabs his gun points at them and it's like freeze and Jason's that's cute You're just a security guard. You can't do shit And he gets into the car and they drive off now the guard did not shoot

But he did take note of the license plate number and he called the police. So Jason knew that he was screwed. He was exhausted, so he thought the only place to dump the body was a nearby cliff, just throw her off the cliff. And that's exactly what he did. So the next day, they go on with life as normal. Matt goes to school, Jason spends the entire day cleaning up the apartment.

He still had no idea where to put the hands or the head. Jason starts slowly getting rid of all the things that Jane had, even her clothes moved into the master bedroom, hung up a poster from the soprano show, and it was just the phrase, Bada Bing! He starts inviting his friends over to his place to watch the game, he lets Matt have his friends over, but the investigation into Jane Batista was already on way. The security guard had given the police license plate, also the description of the two guys,

and the detectives show up to school to talk to Jason on campus. They had found a body at the bottom of the ravine, so they're like, okay, well, maybe this is Jane Batista. So they asked Jason, were concerned for your mom's safety. Do you know where she might be? Oh, I don't know. Maybe in Corona with her boyfriend,

she has a different boyfriend every week. She just tells us that she's gone for a while and makes sure to pay the bills and that's about it. Can you describe your mom for me? Oh yeah! She's a five foot four inches, maybe 120 pounds soaking wet. Now the police were confused because they thought they had the wrong body. The description was off. Jason was lying. Does she have any tattoos, Jason? Oh yeah, she's got a son on her back and some Chinese characters. Okay, yeah, one of her boyfriends is like a tattoo artist or whatever. The police knew Jason was lying. He was not a good liar. Well, when's the last time you saw your mom?

And he starts changing his story. No, it was the state. No, it was that day. One of the officers finally confronts him. Jason, I think you're lying to me. We know a lot more about what's going on than you think we know. We know quite a bit actually, so you're not under arrest, but we are going to take your car. We're going to search your apartment, get a warrant for it. Is that okay? Yeah, I mean, of course, I'd love to help. I want to find my mom too, she's missing. But Jason was panicked, because he had never gotten rid of his mom's head or hands. So he says, well, well, before we go, I actually actually,

can I just say something? Sure, Jason, go ahead. Well, when I was young, my dad committed suicide. And all I ever do is work hard to make something out of myself because my mom's crazy. She thought all these people were out to get her. She thought all of Mexico was out to get her. I mean, I always think about committing suicide. We're moving around all the time.

I was so depressed. And that day, she was getting paranoid again. And she had came at me with a knife accusing me. I thought I was gonna die. So I got her down. And I don't know. I'm a big guy. I used my strength and, well, she died. He came clean about the entire thing, except for the part where he said that murder was in self-defense. But that's not true. Because Jasonard actually told his brother Matt the way that he was going to kill his mom was to get her Matt. So that he could try to get a self-defense plea. He even told them that he cut off her head and her hands and they took him to jail.

The police also arrested Matt and questioned him and he just said, yeah, I hated her. I loved her, but I hated her and I think that she deserved it. So Jane's family, they were mortified when they found out, but Nelly, Jane's mom, flew out, hired the best attorneys money could buy, supported Jason and Matt through the whole ordeal, and it's honestly kind of her fault.

If I were to put the most blame on people, it would obviously be Jason, the killer, but it would also be Jane's parents because they had seen the warning signs from the get go before she even had children. But they're paying for the son? Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, I think maybe it's guilt because they should have done something and maybe the kids wouldn't have been pushed to this place where they felt that they had to do that. I'm not sure. I am not a Jason sympathizer. I know a lot of people might be, but he had no remorse afterwards. He actually bragged about it.

So people magazine had written an article about him. He was on the cover. This case was on the cover. And he was bragging about it to people. Yeah, in prison, he was like, oh, I'm the one on the cover of People magazine. I'm the one that killed my mom. Jose saw in the news what happened. And that's when he was like, oh, I'm the one on the cover of People magazine. I'm the one that killed my mom Jose saw in the news what happened and that's when he's like, oh my god, that's my kid Matt So he finds him and Matt was really upset. He visits Matt and Jill and Matt says, why didn't you find me sooner?

Why didn't you save me? You knew what she was like and you just let me live with her now Jose was the only consistent visitor for Matt Which was really good because he was getting wrecked pretty hard in jail Everyone called him the mommy killer because he was so young. So not the mom killer, but like the mommy killer. Like it's just meanwhile, when he met Jason, after weeks of Jason avoiding Jose, Jose said he was so shocked at how alike Jason was to his mom that he hated. They were both smart, secretive, private, and hard to get to know, and it just seemed like they both had different little motives under the surface.

So in 2003, they have their case, their trial. Matt was now 17, Jason is 22, and Matt agreed to testify against his brother so he could be tried as a minor, and he told the court that Jason had planned to kill Jane. And Jason was pissed about this, he actually started a rumor, letting everyone know in prison that his brother was a snitch. So putting his brother's life in danger in prison. During Jason's court hearing, he played up the self-defense card, saying that she came out with a knife. I had to tackle her to the ground, but it didn't matter, because Jason was found guilty

a first degree murder. And he was shook. He expected to get manslaughter. He was given 25 years to life, Matt was sentenced to time served, and he wrote to his defense attorney, thank you for giving me a second chance at life. When he was released, he went to live on with his dad Jose, who told him that you need to follow the rules, okay? These are the rules of the house, you need to do exactly as I say.

Matt got his GED, he started helping his dad run the family business, and it seemed like a lot of people in the system even like the judges, the police officers, the prosecutors, they were very happy to see Matt go. They did feel like he truly didn't know his brother was gonna murder his mom, he was so young, he had a whole life ahead of him. He didn't love his, like he loved his mom, he wanted to be free from his mom, but he didn't kill her. He also didn't wish death upon her, you know?

Jason, however, he lost his appeal mainly because he never showed any remorse. And he could have walked away prior to the murder. He had jobs, he had money, his school was offering him a dorm. So he's still in prison today. That is the story of Jane Patista and the Batista family. I don't know what to say. I mean this whole thing is so sad because I see, I mean I have sympathy for the kids. It's always hard for the kids to be in this situation. You know they're brought into this world and they're like

what the heck I got dealt these really crappy cards. But you know I really do blame Jane's family more than anything. It's not like they didn't have the resources. It's not like they didn't have the resources. It's not like they didn't have the time. Nelly was a stay-at-home mom. It's not like she didn't show these signs. She did. So, I think that that's really, I think,

Jane's family failed her first. And then she failed her kids. What are your thoughts on this? Oh, and also, the fact that Nelly is very, like, crazy about what other people think about her family, I don't know. Maybe that was the reason that she didn't want to get help for Jane. That's kind of my inkling. What are your thoughts?

Let me know, and I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you guys on Sunday for the mini soad. Bye!