284: Jersey Mike’s Secret Rescue, Mom Sells 6 Year Old & Man Finds Dead Body in Pool

This week on Headline Highlights, a New York man makes a grisly discovery floating in his backyard pool. A hidden note found in a Jersey Mike’s restroom leads to a chilling revelation. A Florida mom claims divine instructions to perform an exorcism on her six-year-old, and days later, the boy is found dead. A teen is arrested for the brutal murder of a Lyft driver. A South African mother sells her own daughter for drug money. And a man calls 911 to ask the dispatcher to choose where he should stab his father.🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎 Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164🚩Announcements🚩CrimeCon Giveaway WINNER 🎟️🕵️‍♀️Congratulations to Jennifer Beattie! You are the winner of the CrimeCon Giveaway. Keep an eye out for an email from [email protected] for instructions on how to claim your prize.🌸 SPRING MERCH IS OFFICIALLY HERE! 🌸Shop now at https://annieelise.com/collections/shop-allDon't miss out before your faves sell out! 🛒🌷Follow Annie on Socials 📸 🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise💜TikTok: @_annieelise🗞️ Substack: @annieelise💙Facebook: @10tolife⭐️Sponsors ⭐️ BetterHelp: Visit http://BetterHelp.com/ae today to get 10% off your first month. Ancient Nutrition: Ancient Nutrition is offering 25% off your first order when you go to http://AncientNutrition.com/AE. Shop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0RbShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieeliseAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_USDisclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me.🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qUAll Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-eliseGet Involved or Recommend the Case 💬 About Annie: https://annieelise.com/For Business Inquiries: [email protected] Sources 🔗ABC7 New YorkCBS NewsCGTN AfricaCourthouse NewsFOX 35 OrlandoKGAN CBS 2Law & CrimePeople.comSky NewsWEAR Channel 3 NewsWJHGWMBB News 13WPECWPTV*Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research. ••••••••••••••••••Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this video are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. Assumptions made in the analysis are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the creator(s). These views are subject to change, revision, and rethinking at any time and are not to be held in perpetuity. We make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this video and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis. It is the reader’s responsibility to verify their own facts.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:32Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serial Asleep.

• 1:55Annie Elise?

  Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly. With me, your true crime bestie, Annie Elise, and I am here to break down everything that's going on in the true crime world. Now, before we kick off everything that I'm going to be talking about in today's episode, we did choose the Crime Con winners. We were giving away two passes for the weekend to Crime Con. We partnered with Crime Con and we have selected the winner. So, go over to my community tab on YouTube. I've posted it there. I also will include the winner, their name, in the show notes here. We've already contacted them by email, so don't try and get all sneaky and like create a fake email with that name and claim to be them. No, no, no. We've already contacted the winner.

• 2:39Annie Elise?

  But we will be doing another one of these very, very soon. So, stay tuned for that. But let me talk to you about what's going on this week because we have got so much to talk about. We have cases about a man finding a dead body in his pool when he went to like, open the pool up for summer to just celebrate and you know, go swimming. We also have a woman who was rescued after leaving a note pleading for help inside a Jersey Mike's restaurant. And what unfolded after that is truly wild. We also have an exorcism gone wrong, which I didn't even think exorcisms were real. I'll just be honest. I've seen like Poltergeist. I've seen The Exorcist. I've seen all those things. I didn't know that people actually

• 3:22Annie Elise?

  do these at home. It's sick. So, we're going to talk about that one. We also are going to be talking about a teenager who killed someone for talking bad about their mom. Like, "Don't talk about my mom, otherwise I'm going to kill you", something crazy like that. We have more cases. Let me just jump right in because I'm getting ahead of myself. But there is a lot to talk about. And also, if you didn't listen to the Monday episode, After this, or even maybe you're gonna want to pause this, go listen and come back, but definitely after this episode, you're gonna want to go listen. Because Sherri Popini is not only speaking out, but she has got some truly unhinged behavior, just doubling down on the fact that she's the victim in all of this, how she was really abducted.

• 4:04Annie Elise?

  She's now blaming a new person for her abduction, not the two Hispanic women that she once blamed. She also has some very serious allegations against her husband Keith, things that she claims he did to her, against her ex-boyfriend, the one that she ended up, you know, canoodling with on her three weeks jaunt down to Southern California when she was, quote, abducted. We did a full deep dive into this new, like, interview, this new docu-series, and just Sherri Popini as a whole, so you're definitely gonna want to listen to that. But let me break down what's happening this week, and I want to start with the case about this man who found a dead body floating in his backyard pool. This first story comes out of Long Island, New York, and it is definitely a wild one.

• 4:47Annie Elise?

  It sounds almost more like the plot of an Agatha Christie novel than a real-life story. So a homeowner on Long Island made a horrifying discovery over Memorial Day weekend. With the warmer weather finally, like, kicking off and the holiday weekend in full swing, he decided, of course, that it was a good time to take the pool cover off of his pool, get ready for summer. And this is something that really happens more on East Coast than it does West Coast in terms of, like, the pool covers for a full season, because of course you want to cover away from the elements, the snow, all the gross stuff that could get in there. So traditionally on the East Coast, they will have it covered, sometimes with a tarp, sometimes even like with a hard turf-like cover. And then when it's warmer weather, you open it up and it's pool season. So that's what he's doing.

• 5:30Annie Elise?

  And he had one of those really heavy-duty pool covers that, like, locks and attaches to anchors all along the edge of the pool. It's intended to, of course, not only keep out the debris, like I said, but also keep people out. Nobody would fall in, nobody could, you know, get stuck in it during the winter season, things like that. So this man and his teenage son, they started to uncover the pool, and you won't believe what they found as they were pulling. This cover off. They found a dead body just floating there in the pool, which can you even imagine? I'd freak out if I saw like leaves or a dead bird or a duck or anything like that. How horrifying would it be to see a dead body floating in your pool? And of course, the next question would be, how the hell long has it been there? Has it been there this whole season?

• 6:15Annie Elise?

  We've been sleeping inside while this dead body's been in our backyard. I mean, beyond creepy. Now, aside from just like the hauntingness and the freakiness in all of this, you're probably wondering, well, who the hell was this guy floating face down in their pool? How does this even happen? Well, once the police arrived on the scene, they pulled the body out of the water. And right away, they knew who this guy was. As it turns out, the police had been searching for this man for months. His name was Matthew Zoll, and he was a 23-year-old guy from a nearby town. Now, let's just rewind a little bit, okay? Back in November of 2024, Matthew allegedly stabbed and killed his father, Joseph, in a very brutal attack. And before his father, Joseph, had succumbed to his injuries,

• 7:00Annie Elise?

  he managed to call 911 and tell them that his own son, Matthew, was the one who stabbed him. So, police quickly made their way over to the home, only to discover that Matthew, the son, had completely fled. It didn't take police long to track him down, though. They ended up spotting him fleeing in an SUV. So, in an attempt to try and lose the police, he was driving very, very erratically. And it didn't take long before he lost control of the vehicle and then crashed into a tree. But then, he took off by foot into a nearby forest and just fully disappeared. Just like that, he was gone. There was no trace, no sighting, nothing. It was like he literally vanished into thin air. So, law enforcement spent months trying to track this guy down.

• 7:42Annie Elise?

  They brought in K-9 units, drones, US Marshals, I mean, the works. But still, nothing, absolutely nothing. So, police and the surrounding community all started speculating, you know, he must have skipped town, maybe even international. Did he jump on a bus? Did he hitch a ride out of state? Did he go overseas? None of it made any sense. They just could not figure out how he managed to evade all of the authorities and all of these different agencies. Now, cut to May 25. When this body that is believed to be Matthew was found inside this residential pool. So what the police believe is that while Matthew was running on foot after he got into that crash, that he unlatched one of the corners of the pool cover, trying

• 8:23Annie Elise?

  to like get inside, hide, go underneath it, figuring I'll be here for an hour or two and then I'll like sneak back out. But then accidentally got himself trapped and because of that, most likely drowned. Take a listen to this press conference.

• 8:38Speaker 05

  We're currently waiting for a DNA analysis to confirm that. But, you know, based again on all of the ancillary evidence that we're able to uncover, we are investigating that strong possibility.

• 8:55Speaker 06

  Police say it appears the body had been in the water for some time. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

• 9:02Annie Elise?

  Now get this, as though this could not get any more, I don't know if you would call it crazy, but like serendipitous maybe, it turns out that the homeowner of the pool was actually one of the detectives on the task force that was searching for Matthew. How ironic is that? That's pretty crazy, right? And I gotta just say, I love to see divine intervention at work, right? And regardless what you believe, if you're spiritual, if you're not, the fact that this creep stabbed and killed his father and then took a, made a run for it, took off and seemingly got away, was successful getting away, only to then hide and get trapped and drown. I gotta say, that is karma working overtime. And round of applause, we love to see it karma. So but now with finding out too, that the

• 9:46Annie Elise?

  homeowner was the detective, one of the detectives on the case, like that's full circle, if it ever has been. I mean, how ironic, right? I mean, here, this whole team, including the US Marshals and this very homeowner desperately trying to track this fugitive down. And the whole time, it looks like he was right under their nose in this detective's backyard in his pool. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. The irony is just off the charts. So I thought this was a wild one. I wanted to mention it because it's just one of those crazy cases that feel like they're out of a Lifetime movie, right? Now let's move gears or shift gears, I should say, to Jersey Mike's. Love Jersey Mike's. I am like a sucker for their wraps, their turkey wraps with provolone with. Oil vinegar, they're just great. They're great. I'm the sandwich girl. I always say that

• 10:31Annie Elise?

  my death row meal and my last meal would be a turkey club. It's just to me, that and a Diet Coke and like old school Lay's potato chips, chef's kiss. But obviously, we're not going to Jersey Mike's right now for good things. We're going there for a taste. So, an employee that works at Jersey Mike's in Florida allegedly found a note inside the bathroom and on this note, there was a desperate plea for help written on it. Apparently, the employee found this note just crumpled up, kind of wadded up, inside the toilet paper dispenser inside the women's restroom. In this note, the woman claimed that she had been kidnapped and that she was being abused by her boyfriend. She went on to say that she was being held against her will at a nearby residence and that she feared

• 11:12Annie Elise?

  for her life because of this. The note reads, and I quote, "Please help me get home. Help. Get me home before May 30th." Then, on the note, she left a phone number and the address of the home.

• 11:23Speaker 07

  Sandwich artist Eleanor Coffey expected Tuesday to be a normal day at the sandwich shop. That was until she noticed something suspicious in the bathroom.

• 11:32Speaker 08

  There was this little piece of crumpled up paper that was shoved next to our toilet paper dispenser, and it looked like a piece of trash.

• 11:38Speaker 07

  Coffey opened up the paper and was alarmed by the message inside.

• 11:42Speaker 08

  She was like, "Please help me. I'm at this address in Navarre. I need you to call the police and do a wellness check."

• 11:47Annie Elise?

  I mean, first and foremost, okay, thank God, this employee not only saw this note in this bathroom, because I don't know how common it is to just like go rifling through the toilet paper dispenser. I'm sure he was changing the toilet paper, but still, like, it could have fallen out. They could have thought it was just trash. Maybe they thought it was the paper wrapping that is around the toilet paper when you're unsealing a new roll. Roll, who knows? But thank God, they saw the note. And then, thank God that this employee took it seriously. Because, let's be honest, I think a lot of people who may have found a note like this might have assumed that it was either some sort of prank, maybe some kids just messing around, who knows? This employee could have very easily seen the note and done nothing about it. Thankfully, though, that's not what she

• 12:29Annie Elise?

  did. She followed her gut and she called 911. So, the police got there and they started reviewing the security camera footage. And right away, the Jersey Mike employees were able to identify the couple to the police. The footage showed them crystal clear, walking into Jersey Mike's together, and then you see the woman just beelining it toward the restroom. Now coincidentally, police also recognized this couple because as it turns out, they had been called to their home a few times in the past. And what do you think they've been called to the home for? Domestic violence calls. Big shocker, right? So the police ID'd the man as 34-year-old Jordan Williams. And I guess this guy is like a pro wrestler in the indie circuit and also goes by the name Jaden Steele,

• 13:12Annie Elise?

  which I gotta say is kind of cringe, kind of gives me the ick. But I don't know, I'm not really in that world, so I don't know how big of a deal this guy truly is. But regardless, this professional wrestler was allegedly beating the shit out of his girlfriend. So in my book, I don't care if you're a pro wrestler, I don't care who you are. You are a douchebag, twerpy loser. If you need to put hands on a woman, if you need to put hands on anyone, you are a coward and just like a piece of filth that belongs in the sewage drain with mold, with gnats, I mean, you're sick. Now, police haven't released the name of this woman yet. But according to this woman's mom who was interviewed, she claimed that Jordan was extremely controlling. And she also told the police that her daughter suffers from bipolar disorder. And supposedly she has a brain tumor as well.

• 13:57Annie Elise?

  Now, I'm not sure how credible all of that is. I mean, hopefully she doesn't have a brain tumor, but that is what this woman's mom said. I also can't help but wonder, and I'm just spitballing here, and we'll find out more as more of this information comes to light. But if she is bipolar and if she does have a brain tumor, is there any world in which his defense strategy will try to lean on that to say that she was impaired, that she was having an episode, that she wasn't thinking clearly? And that being said, I mean, the argument could be, is there any truth to that? Was she in a manic episode and thinking that things were true that really weren't the reality? I don't know, it's still unfolding. So like I like to say, everything is alleged at this point. Form your own opinions, do your own research.

• 14:41Annie Elise?

  But I will say, police obtained a search warrant for the home. And when they arrived, they did find this woman inside with a black eye, possibly even a broken arm too. The woman went on to give the police a very detailed account of the horrific abuse that she had endured at the hands of Jordan. She was even able to provide photographic evidence of her injuries. Now, as for Jordan, he was arrested. And he, of course, also denied ever hitting his girlfriend, which- It seems like the evidence was there. Again, though, has not been convicted. Police weren't buying his story, though, and they booked Jordan into the Santa Rosa County Jail, where he was charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor. So he's currently being held at the jail with no bond, and he is due to appear in court on June 19th.

• 15:20Annie Elise?

  Now, I think that this is amazing because not only by her having the courage to leave this note behind, risking being caught and him knowing that she left a note, that is remarkable, and her having the courage to do that very well may have saved her life. But also, again, the employee finding this and taking it seriously, she very well could have saved her life, too. It's just very intense and a huge miracle that she has been rescued and she is alive and that she is away from that alleged monster. Now, let's talk about this exorcism, okay? Like I said, I didn't even know that these things still exist. I thought that this was like old-school stuff, people who are like into the radical religious-type things.

• 16:03Annie Elise?

  I didn't know that people still do exorcisms, or even like really do at-home exorcisms. But they do, and the proof is right here in this next story, because it is really disturbing and extremely senseless. Just last week, a Florida woman was charged with the death of her six-year-old son. And she told the police that she was told by God to exorcise the demons out of her six-year-old son's body. Now, let me just tell you, okay? When you see the pictures of this adorable little boy, your heart will shatter. It is so sad. He had the sweetest smile. It lit up his whole face. And the fact that somebody could even think that an innocent little cherub six-year-old

• 16:46Annie Elise?

  has demons to exorcise out of their body, it's just, it's unbelievable, right? It truly is unbelievable. So deputies had responded to the home of Rhonda Paulinus for a welfare check back on May 30th. Apparently, the little boy's school had called the police, reporting that little six-year-old Ramil Pierre hadn't attended school in over two weeks. And because of that, something just seemed incredibly off to them. So on May 30th, the police show up to Rhonda's home and conduct this welfare check. And upon their arrival, they found Rhonda just standing in the driveway. So they inform her that they're there to perform a wellness check on her six-year-old son and check on him. But then, like no big deal, just super casually, just very calm and collected,

• 17:29Annie Elise?

  Rhonda just willingly leads the police to her son's room. And sadly, when they entered the room, that's where police discovered his dead body, just lying on his bed. Sheriff Richard Del Toro explained that Rhonda told the detectives that she had attempted an exorcism on her six-year-old son.

• 17:46Speaker 09

  She believed she was being told by God to basically exorcise demons out of the child's body. And when the child had stopped moving and basically passed away, at that point, she felt the child had been released of those demons.

• 18:05Annie Elise?

  Detectives believe that he was killed much earlier on May 18th, so 12 days before this wellness check. And they say that Rhonda was now, quote, "basically waiting for him to come back from the dead." As though she exorcised all of the demons and now he was going to come back to life, this angelic, reborn little boy. It's just, you've got to be, there's got to be mental illness at play. Because if there's not, I don't even know what you would, how you would describe this. I don't even want to say justify, but how do you explain this, right? So thankfully, Rhonda was arrested and she was booked into jail, where she has now been charged with second-degree murder. But this story is just beyond upsetting. My heart breaks for this poor little boy.

• 18:46Annie Elise?

  And we talk about it in a lot of the cases when the perpetrator is somebody you know, you trust, you love. What those moments must feel like for these victims. For him, a six-year-old little boy who only should know unconditional love, just looking up at his mom while she's trying to exorcise the demons out of him and killing him, and just grappling with that and thinking to himself, like, why is my mom doing this to me? What's happening? And not understanding it, it's just... It's so, so upsetting. Now, in a little bit of a role reversal here, I want to talk about a teen who killed his rideshare driver, his Lyft driver, because they spoke disrespectfully about his mother. Now, it's the child protecting the mother.

• 19:31Annie Elise?

  And I'm not really quite sure what's been going on in Florida this past week, okay? But this case is, yet again, from Florida. So 17-year-old Braden Gomez from Panama City, Florida, was arrested for allegedly killing his Lyft driver, 64-year-old William MacArthur. Police received a 911 call around 2:24 a.m. reporting a shooting. When they arrived on scene, they found the victim lying on the ground in a pool of blood. It was obvious to them that the victim, William, had been shot directly point-blank in the head. But what was really odd was that the victim's car was about 100 yards away from where his body was found. And inside the car, they noticed a bullet hole right there through the front of the windshield, as well as the driver's side mirror. But that's not all they noticed.

• 20:14Annie Elise?

  They also saw a Lyft sign in William's car. You know how they have those little neon lit-up signs that go right there on the front dash in the corner? It's so that when cars are pulling up to pick you up, if you're at a busy area like a bar, a restaurant, an airport, you can easily identify if they are an Uber or a Lyft. Then you can check the plates, make sure that it's the one you ordered, that it matches, and then you get inside. So the investigators called Lyft to try and get information about whoever his last passenger was, because clearly it seemed as though he had been on a ride or been performing a ride, right? So Lyft gave them the name and address of Braden Gomez. And when officers arrived to Braden's house to look for him, Braden's mom came to the door. She told the officers that her son wasn't there, but she also gave them permission to search the home.

• 20:57Annie Elise?

  And although they didn't find Braden there, they did find evidence of clothing with human blood on it. So they definitely knew that they were on the right track with their investigation. And as luck would have it, we just were talking about how karma sweeps in and things are serendipitous. Well, right as the officers were about ready to leave the home, guess who showed up? Brayden. So the officers took Brayden into custody for questioning and as they were driving to the jail, Brayden just kind of opened up and admitted to everything. Not only that, but he even offered to show these officers where he disposed of the weapon. So as the police are questioning him, they're like, okay, well, what happened? Why did you shoot and kill your Lyft driver? And when I tell you, you are not ready for Brayden's

• 21:41Annie Elise?

  story, it is unbelievable. Because according to Brayden, his Lyft driver, William, 64 year old William, he started making comments to him about how he could tell that Brayden was intoxicated. Apparently, William went on to kind of like lecture him, telling him that he shouldn't be drinking underage, kind of alluding to the idea that Brayden was going to amount to nothing if he continued making choices like that, just kind of like, you know, live a better life. If you keep drinking at a young age, you're going to be a deadbeat, things like that. And I'm obviously paraphrasing. But then William apparently made a comment about Brayden's mom, inferring that his mom was a bad mom and quote, "a sorry mom for allowing her son to behave like that." Well, apparently that little dig at his mom, it

• 22:22Annie Elise?

  sent Brayden over the edge. He told the officers that he snapped and that he just took his gun out of his pants, pointed it at the back of William's head and shot him. Which if you're going to have that kind of reaction over somebody saying, you know, I can't believe your mom lets you behave like that, that is a clear overreaction. I mean, come on. So I'd have to imagine if he was very intoxicated, that must have been at play as well because, I don't know, this just seems like a drastic overreaction. Now although he just so flippantly and carelessly pulled this gun out and shot him in the back of the head, Brayden also went on to say that he immediately pulled William out of this moving car so that he could try and perform life-saving measures on him. But that once he was able to pull

• 23:05Annie Elise?

  him out, he got spooked when he saw another car approaching. So he took off and he fled the scene.

• 23:10Speaker 10

  The statements that the victim may have made, none of that is confirmed at this time. This is just coming from what Gomez told us happened. I just want to make that clear.

• 23:19Speaker 11

  But if there was an argument, there could be a recording. Lyft has an audio recording policy that allows drivers and riders to record inside the vehicle.

• 23:27Speaker 10

  We're going to try to recover that because we want to be able to look, you know, Mr. MacArthur's family and say, this is exactly what happened and give them, so they know what the last... You know, few minutes on this earth of their loved one, what that looked like, what transpired so that we can help them with closure.

• 23:45Annie Elise?

  Prosecutors waived his juvenile status and Brayden will be charged as an adult. And once again, like, how senseless is this entire crime? A retired 64-year-old man lost his life because he was trying to educate this 17-year-old kid on underage drinking and maybe, I don't know, maybe he was being harsh and brash. I don't know. I wasn't there. I don't know exactly what he said, but maybe just trying to be helpful and be like, I hope, like, why does your mom let you behave like this? There's so much more to life. Or maybe he was being an asshole. Who knows? It still does not excuse murder, right? Now, this 17-year-old kid has just thrown his life away for absolutely no reason. And look, not to say that William was 100% right, but he was kind of right.

• 24:27Annie Elise?

  If he hadn't been drinking that night, he probably wouldn't have thrown his whole life away. I don't know. Just a thought. Now, we have even more to cover. A mom sold her daughter to a healer. A man makes a 911 dispatcher choose where he should stab his father. We've got some more intense cases to cover, but first, we are going to take a quick break.

• 24:52Speaker 01

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• 25:13Speaker 02

  Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.

• 25:29Annie Elise?

  Okay, so this next story is one of those stories that I literally cannot wrap my mind around. A mom in South Africa by the name of Raquel Kelly Smith sold her six-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, to a, quote, "traditional healer." She sold her six-year-old daughter to her for $1,100. $1,100. That is it. And she admitted to selling her daughter, straight up. And she said that the girl was wanted because she had light eyes and skin, as though that makes it okay. As though it's like, yeah, I sold her, but they wanted her because she had light eyes and skin. I mean, get a grip. I mean, what mother would ever do this? And I hope that there is a special corner reserved in hell for this woman, like on a triple bunk bed,

• 26:13Annie Elise?

  stacked right in the middle, super dark, super fiery, super hot, with like waterboarding torture. I don't know. I just, people like this deserve the absolute worst, in my opinion. Now, let me tell you about this case and kind of what brought it all to a head. Her daughter, Jocelyn, went missing back in February of 2024, and still technically remains missing to this day. Now, according to witnesses, Raquel admitted to them that she had, according to her, quote, "did something silly and sold my child to a sengoma." And let me just explain to you exactly what a sengoma is. Sangomas are essentially healers. And in South Africa, sangomas are very popular, and they're commonly used to diagnose and treat a wide variety of physical, mental, emotional,

• 26:56Annie Elise?

  and spiritual ailments. It's reported that nearly 60% of South Africans use sangomas for their healthcare. So, this is a very big thing there. And I'm all for alternative medicine. I think in a world now where like there's biohacking, there's this, there's that, do you, all the live long day, do whatever it is you want. But sangomas are a whole other level of alternative, because they basically use supernatural powers to heal patients. They also use herbal medicine, rituals, and contacting deceased ancestors for healing purposes. However, there's a small percentage of sangomas that use other, very non-traditional methods in their practices. And some of these non-traditional methods include harvesting human body parts

• 27:41Annie Elise?

  and bringing these removed parts to a so-called witch doctor. And there, they use these body parts to produce potions, or to make amulets or charms from them. Like, what? I'm sorry, is this some sort of episode of like Charmed, or like Spirits Gone Wild? This is crazy. These charms are thought to like bring good luck and wealth to the person who receives it, but... That is pretty terrifying, if I'm being honest. And if you're listening and you practice this, I'm not meaning any shame, and please feel free to educate me and email me, but I can't get on board with anybody paying for a little girl and potentially doing that to harvest their human body parts to then create charms or potions. Not on board with

• 28:26Annie Elise?

  that, personally. And you know what? Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, that is mine. Now, in particular, these witch doctors, they're known for targeting albinos or people with light eyes and skin, which, as we heard directly from her mother, that exactly aligns with little Jocelyn. Jocelyn had these beautiful, light-green eyes and this flawless, light skin, just truly gorgeous. So it's believed that the mother, Raquel, along with her boyfriend and another accomplice, sold Jocelyn to this Sangoma, all in exchange for drug money. $1,100. And it's widely known that Raquel and her boyfriend were drug addicts. It's also reported that Raquel had planned on selling her two other children in exchange

• 29:10Annie Elise?

  for money as well. Just sick. I mean, what a horrendous story, and how diabolical and sick and selfish and like, just disgusting is this mother, truly. So thank God this woman, along with her two accomplices, were all found guilty of human trafficking, and they were sentenced to life in prison just this past Thursday. And the verdict drew in this huge applause, this massive cheers in the courtroom.

• 29:34Speaker 12

  On the human trafficking charge, you are sentenced to life in prison.

• 29:39Annie Elise?

  Just sick. And the fact that she just said it so casually, like, I sold our, like, don't have children. If you are planning to hurt your children, sell your children, exploit your children, don't have children. Make a dollar another way. Get a job at Burger King, selfbeat pics on OnlyFans. Do not have children and bring an innocent soul into the world just so that you could profit off of them. It is so foul and disgusting. Which, speaking of foul and disgusting, Let's talk about this next case because just when I thought I had heard it all, a crazy-ass story like this comes along and it just proves me all wrong. Now, there's not a ton of information out there yet,

• 30:19Annie Elise?

  but apparently, a man in Oklahoma by the name of Eric called 911 last week to report his father being stabbed. However, it turns out that Eric was the one stabbing his father. And not only that, but he was trying to get this 911 dispatcher to help him decide where he should stab his father next. He reportedly said, quote, "You want the left or the right foot? Which one you want dispatcher, whoever you are?" And then he continued to pressure this very confused and scared dispatcher by saying, "Say left or right, and this will be on you." Now, this was all while his dad can be heard in the background screaming for his life, just truly terrified.

• 30:59Annie Elise?

  He then went on to say, quote, "If you don't answer in three seconds, then I'm gonna assume that you said left, okay?" To which the dispatcher responded, "What is happening?" I mean, this poor dispatcher must have been so freaked out, I can't even imagine. And despite the dispatcher being utterly confused and scared, she managed to keep Eric on the phone for six entire minutes in order to give the police time to arrive at the scene. So the police arrived, they started banging on the door while the dad was inside still screaming, and Eric refused to open the door. He shouted, "If you want it open, you're gonna have to kick it in." Which, spoiler alert, they did. So it was a pretty chaotic scene, to say the least.

• 31:39Annie Elise?

  Once they made their way inside the home, they found the dad lying there on the kitchen floor, just fully covered in blood. He had been stabbed over a dozen times, and he even had a knife embedded in his back. Thankfully though, miraculously, he was somehow still alive. They found Eric in a nearby room, already on his knees with his hands behind his back, surrendering. According to the police, Eric was just out of his mind delusional. He was making all kinds of crazy statements like he was 120 years old, that these officers were plotting to kill his mother. He then threatened to stab the officers, but also stated that he could, quote, "Get lions and tigers to commit the crime for him." I don't know if this was like some drug-induced state,

• 32:23Annie Elise?

  just fueled by drugs, or if maybe mental health was at play. Details are still coming in, so stay tuned for more. It hasn't been released whether or not they found any drugs in his system, but... I don't know. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that this guy was probably like high on meth or something like it, or maybe he's just deranged. Who, who knows? It's just unbelievable, super scary and like,

• 32:46Annie Elise?

  just unsettling, right? So that's it for this week's headlines. Like I said, after this episode, go take a listen to Sherry Popini if you haven't yet, because I really wanna know your thoughts on her. And if you believe any of these new allegations that she's trying to peddle. And I also will have a brand new episode for you at midnight tonight. So first thing tomorrow morning about a wild case. It's a messy love triangle, an affair, some stalking, some creepy letters, an insane amount of tracking devices involved. It is just very, very wild. So you can get that tomorrow over on Patreon, patreon.com/annieelise. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in, whether you listen on the podcast

• 33:27Annie Elise?

  or you're watching on YouTube. I appreciate you guys supporting me and hearing these stories week to week. I know they are not easy to hear, so thank you for that. And other than that, don't forget, we have listed in the show notes and on my community page, who the winner is of the crime con passes. We also have emailed them and we'll do something like this again very soon. So thank you guys again. Don't forget to comment with what you think about these cases and let me know your thoughts. All right. Until the next one, be nice, don't kill people, check toilet roll dispensers at Jersey Mike's. Maybe you'll find notes too. Maybe you'll save a life. Don't sell any children and just be a good human. All right, guys. Thanks so much. Take care. Bye.

• 34:20Speaker 13

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