336: Influencer Found Dead, “Friends” Hold Friend Captive, Melodee Buzzard Update & News Anchor Stabs Mom

This week on Headline Highlights: Major updates emerge in the disappearance of Michael Vaughan as 33-year-old Stacey Wondra is charged with multiple offenses. The mother of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard has been arrested on charges unrelated to her daughter’s disappearance. In Kuala Lumpur, influencer Iris Hsieh was found dead in a bathtub. A former news anchor has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing her mother to death on Halloween. And in Austin, a woman was chained in a backyard for months by her so-called “friends.” You won’t want to miss this. If you’re new here, don’t forget to follow the show for weekly deep dives into the darkest true crime cases! To watch the video version of this episode, head over to youtube.com/@annieelise Lured, Drugged, and Killed? The Brutal Murder of Mary Collins | Charlotte NC | Full Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mckGn-yHnWoMissing 5 Year Old Boy: Neighbor Arrested and Charged One Year Later! | Michael Vaughan Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71tSMxOceSI&t=2924s🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to both of my weekly true crime series 10 to Life & Serialously with Annie Elise wherever you get your podcasts on the Annie Elise Channel!🍎 Apple Podcasts | Where you can also unlock access to 100+ and growing extra exclusive deep dives.💚 Spotify🔴 YouTube🎙️ All Other Platforms📸 Follow Annie on Socials Instagram: @_annieeliseTikTok: @_annieeliseSubstack: @annieeliseFacebook: @10toLife⭐SponsorsEveryday Dose: Get 45% off your first subscription order of 30-servings of Coffee+. You’ll also receive a starter kit with over $100 in free gifts by going to http://everydaydoes.com/AE or entering AE at checkout.👗 Shop Annie’s Must-Haves! ShopMY: bit.ly/AnnieElise_ShopMy Amazon: bit.ly/AnnieElise_Amazon🫵🏻 Get Involved or Recommend a CaseAbout Annie: www.annieelise.comFor Business Inquiries: [email protected]📚 Episode Sources AP News | Austin American-Statesman | Channel News Asia | Idaho News | KTVB | Law & Crime | MySanAntonio | NewsNation | New York Post | People | Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office | USA Today | WLOS••••••••••••••••••🚨Disclaimers1️⃣ 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. 2️⃣ 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. 3️⃣ 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:11Annie Elise?

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

• 1:34Annie Elise?

  Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all-new episode of Seriallessly. With me, your host, Annie Elise, your true crime bestie. Here to hopefully get you through the week. I don't know, this week has been kind of dragging in a way. I feel like the weather has finally turned. It's getting dark super early. I don't know, I'm excited. It's almost the weekend. But anyway, I have a lot of cases that we need to talk about. Not only new cases that are like insane and wild, but a couple of updates in some cases that one case we talked about recently, and then one that we haven't talked about for years, but there has been. Then some movement. And so I actually really want to start with that. And it's the case of Michael Vaughn. Now, we previously covered this case a couple of years ago.

• 2:18Annie Elise?

  Michael Vaughn was a five-year-old little boy. He vanished outside of his home in Fruitland, Idaho, back on July 27th, 2021. But now, as I said, there has been a major development. On October 31st, the county prosecutor announced that charges are finally officially being filed in connection with Michael's disappearance. Then, after that announcement was made, days later, it was revealed that 33-year-old Stacy Wondra, who was a boy, Stacy is a guy, he's being charged with first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping, and destruction of evidence. Now, here is where it gets really disgusting and very twisted. Stacy and his wife Sarah were first named as suspects way back in 2022

• 3:00Annie Elise?

  after police had received a tip from a roommate that ultimately led the investigators to excavate their backyard while they were searching for Michael's remains. But nothing has really happened since then. Now, both Stacy and Sarah are currently serving prison sentences for completely unrelated charges. However, newly released body cam footage shows Stacy on FaceTime with the investigators during that 2022 excavation and dig. And he was pointing out where he believes Michael's remains could be found. Yet, he continues to deny any sort of involvement in the burial itself. But he does claim that he saw his wife Sarah place Michael's body there.

• 3:41Annie Elise?

  And even worse than that, that little Michael was wrapped in a black or white trash bag. Now, I could go on and on about this case because it is one that has been highly covered, but also is just so disturbing because right when this all happened, it seemed like everyone in the public was blaming the parents. It kind of felt reminiscent a little bit of Summer Wells, if you had followed that case at all. But right away when Michael was reported as missing, people were kind of like, oh, what the parents are saying isn't really quite adding up. Nothing's making sense. And it was sad because there was a lot of just like public hatred directed towards the parents. And now, this has finally come out. People are kind of like, wow, I can't believe people went so hard at the parents. This is so sad.

• 4:25Annie Elise?

  And I think it's a good reminder that, and I'm guilty of this myself, I'll be honest, not to always jump to conclusions about things. I never thought Michael's parents were involved from the jump. I truly didn't. But I think that sometimes it's easy to get carried away with what seems to be the not necessarily obvious conclusion, but the more likely before there's any facts or evidence. And so I think this case is unfortunately just a very good reminder of that. But we still don't have a lot of details as to the why, the how, why it took so long to finally get these charges in place. So I'm sure more information is going to surface in the near future. But in the meantime, I will link the deep dive that we did on this case a couple

• 5:09Annie Elise?

  of years back. If you want to get familiar, or if you just want to know what was it that seemed shady that made people look at the parents? What really happened? How did he go missing? Because again, I could be here for hours and talk about it, but I will link that episode for you just so that you can get fully caught up. But please be warned, it is certainly not an easy case to hear about. Not that any of them are. And speaking of cases involving children, I want to pivot for a second and talk about updates in the Melody Buzzard case. This is a case we talked about here on headline highlights just a couple of weeks ago. She's the nine year old girl who has been reported missing. It's giving all sorts of, you know, Lori Vallow vibes, Casey Anthony vibes, because this mom and her nine year old daughter went

• 5:52Annie Elise?

  on this road trip from California to Nebraska. And then when her mom returned, her daughter wasn't with her. And not only was her daughter not with her, but when a welfare check was performed, she refused to cooperate. And so that's what I mean by it gives Lori Vallow because they said, hey, you have to produce your daughter. Where is she? And she was just unwilling to cooperate. She also was seen pulling down the missing posters flyers of her own daughter, just acting very, very strangely and obviously very shady. And any parent who has a missing child is that you're going to cooperate unless you have something to hide, right? It also reminded me a lot of the Madalena Kojakari case. And that's on my feed too. You can just search the name. She still unfortunately is missing. Her parents

• 6:36Annie Elise?

  were not cooperative. They didn't even report her missing for months. Then the mom said that she, I believe she said something alluding to the fact that she like tucked her away and sent her off to Romania to be with family because the stepfather was harming her. But then there was all of this drug stuff involved. I just a nightmare. But my point being, Because I'm kind of getting a little lost on the tracks here for a minute. My point being that anytime a parent is unwilling to cooperate with their own missing child, it's a freaking huge waving red flag. Now with that case, Melody Buzzard, there has been an update because her mom, Ashley Buzzard, the uncooperative monster mother, was arrested on November 7th. However, she was not arrested for anything involving Melody.

• 7:20Annie Elise?

  She was instead arrested for felony false imprisonment charges. Authorities have emphasized that these charges are not directly related to Melody's disappearance. However, they've declined to share any further details, saying that by releasing more information, it could hinder the ongoing investigation. It could affect that. So they're trying to just really keep those details close to themselves. But according to investigators, detectives recently learned that Ashley allegedly prevented a victim from leaving a location against their will, which that of course constitutes false imprisonment under California law. So while police maintain that this specific incident is completely separate from Melody's case, they have stated that they can't disclose the full context of it due to the sensitive

• 8:04Annie Elise?

  nature of the ongoing investigation. But it is at least one step forward into getting Ashley off the streets, hopefully getting her to cooperate because she's scared and feels like the walls are closing in and hopefully more answers. So more to come on that. And I think as more information comes out on this case, we may end up just doing a deep dive because like I said before, we did cover it briefly in headline highlights, but there is so much information involved in this case from the cross-country road trip to Melody potentially being seen on CCTV wearing a wig, then the school being the ones to call in the welfare check because she had gone so long without getting her assignments. There's just so many different nuances within it.

• 8:47Annie Elise?

  So let me know if you guys want that deep dive, but I think that we are going to do that now that I'm like talking about it out loud and thinking through it. I just think that it makes more sense to have that isolated as its own episode where we can really dig into it. Um, so that's it for updates. Now I want to get into new cases, but before we get into all of the new cases, have to make a special announcement. I am not alone here. I am joined by the Amy Colette. Oh, my gosh. Wow. I was going to do like a drum roll or something like that or like a song, but I know you don't like when I get sing-songy.

• 9:22Speaker 04

  I don't like theater.

• 9:24Annie Elise?

  You don't like theater?

• 9:25Speaker 04

  Unless it's Emmy and she just is the star of the show.

• 9:28Annie Elise?

  Her life is theater.

• 9:29Speaker 04

  Oh, she is the show.

• 9:30Annie Elise?

  She is the show. She is definitely the show. But no, we have Amy back and she's joining us. I see all of your comments. I was asking where she's at. So simmer down, my babies, as my dad would say.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  Well, thanks for having me.

• 9:43Annie Elise?

  Yeah, thanks for being here.

• 9:44Speaker 04

  I have a crazy one to share.

• 9:45Annie Elise?

  I, okay, I'm, well, I don't want to say I'm excited to hear it because obviously I'm not, but I'm curious to hear it. Because I feel like the ones that you'll find and you'll send either like you'll text them to me or you'll send them in the group Slack channel. I feel like the ones that you come across are not the ones that I come across. It's like we have two totally different algorithms.

• 10:05Speaker 04

  Well, and I, yeah, and I like, thank you for just letting me come and share because I feel like

• 10:09Annie Elise?

  You're welcome.

• 10:10Speaker 04

  Your peeps love you. And so I'm just trying to, you know, share some stories too.

• 10:15Annie Elise?

  Yeah, I, I'm number one shoe.

• 10:18Speaker 04

  I'm number, oh, the best.

• 10:20Annie Elise?

  Did you see, sorry, guys, that's a quote. We always quote it from Bride Wars, the movie. If you haven't watched it.

• 10:25Speaker 04

  Watch it.

• 10:25Annie Elise?

  Watch it. We've seen it so many times. But I was going to text you the other night and I forgot to. It's, I don't think it's been on Netflix before, but it is on Netflix now. And over the weekend, it was the number two movie on Netflix, but it's like so old.

• 10:37Speaker 04

  Welcome to the

• 10:38Annie Elise?

  Hello. I know, International Butter Club, like, say less.

• 10:41Speaker 04

  Well, I finally have a couch coming this weekend, so maybe you'll have to come over.

• 10:46Annie Elise?

  I would love to. I would love to. Um, okay, so let's talk about this next case because it's a wild one and it's about an influencer who was found dead in a bathtub. Okay? So this case has been everywhere across Asia this week. And honestly, it's giving David vibes, the singer. And I hate saying David because nobody ever knows what I'm saying, but it's like, I don't want to say D for V D, but like, it's giving David vibes. I know, it's, it's honestly so annoying. But this case is about Iris Shay and a Malaysian rapper named Name We. Now Iris was 31 years old and she wasn't just an influencer. She was actually a registered nurse and she built this super positive online platform around beauty, health, wellness, all of the good, you know, wholesome things. People also called her, quote,

• 11:32Annie Elise?

  The nurse goddess, which I get it. It sounds really dramatic, but she was known for being calm, kind, and just a person that everybody loved following, kind of like a comfort creator, where you just love everything they post, something about it feels very comforting, feels positive, you know, that kind of energy. So she had over half a million followers and truly seemed like she had it all together. But then, out of nowhere, on October 22nd, news broke that Iris was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Now, at first, police called it a quote "sudden death." There were no clear signs of foul play, no obvious injuries, nothing that screamed homicide.

• 12:14Annie Elise?

  But that label and thought did not stick for long, because when the investigators started digging into what happened and more so who she was with, things started to get very weird. It turns out that Iris had flown into Malaysia just two days before, on October 20th, and this was for what was supposed to be just this short little work trip, maybe a collab, maybe some sort of content creation thing, who really knows? But she wasn't there alone. She was staying at this super luxury hotel with name Wee, who is a 42-year-old rapper who's known for being super controversial and super provocative online. And, in a twist, he was the last person that was seen with her alive.

• 12:57Annie Elise?

  Now, when police went into the hotel room, they found a few things that immediately raised red flags, including small blue pills, which they believed were ecstasy. So of course, with that, they ordered drug tests and toxicology reports for both Iris and for name Wee. Name Wee still alive, but they ordered these reports, which, that's pretty standard whenever drugs are found in a suspicious death. And sure enough, when the results came back, they showed that name Wee tested positive for multiple substances: amphetamines, ketamine, and THC, which he totally denied using any of it, and he just said, you know, "These tests must be wrong, you must have misread them." But at that point, the police were like, "No, bro, the tests are right," and they detained him on drug-related charges, not for murder or anything

• 13:42Annie Elise?

  Related to Iris's death, yet, but for the drug charges and it certainly was not looking good. He was questioned and then he was released on bail while they kept investigating into Iris's death. But then, the story took a very sharp turn. On November 4th, Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister announced that Iris's death had officially been reclassified as a murder investigation. Which that is huge, because that doesn't just happen unless they find something significant, whether that's new evidence, new witness statements, something that just completely changes how they initially viewed the case, right? And they didn't say what the evidence was, but whatever it was, obviously it was very serious. So then, literally the next day, on

• 14:26Annie Elise?

  November 5th, Naim Wee actually turned himself in to the police in Malaysia. He wasn't on the run, he wasn't trying to hide or evade, he just walked in and said, "Hey, I'm here and I want to cooperate." So since then, he's been in custody, while the police are still waiting on one key thing, which that is Iris's full autopsy and tox reports. Now, those results are going to be key, because they are going to show exactly what was in her system and what caused her death. As of right now, they haven't been made public and Naim Wee hasn't been charged with murder or anything in relation to her death, but meanwhile, the internet is like in full meltdown mode. Obviously so. She had half a million followers, like people are wanting answers,

• 15:09Annie Elise?

  they're demanding answers. Some people think that the two of them were romantically involved, other people think that maybe she did go there just for some sort of work collab, but it went completely sideways and wrong, but police haven't confirmed anything. Meanwhile, Iris's family back in Taiwan has asked for privacy, but also has asked for answers. They want to know what happened to their daughter and what happened when she was so far from home. So, as we wait, the questions are, was this an accident? A bad mix of substances? Was it something much darker and deeper? We don't know. Right now, nobody knows for sure, but we do know that her death went from being labeled as a sudden death to a full-blown murder investigation. So even if they-

• 15:52Annie Elise?

  Had any sort of inkling that she had overdosed or that it was a bad mix of drugs together. You wouldn't then change that necessarily to a murder investigation. Unless it's because he supplied the drugs potentially. I don't know. Things can get tricky there. And I know the law is always very different in other countries and how they look at things. But we know that when things get changed from sudden death to murder investigation, it's never random. So I don't know, a lot to find out about this case.

• 16:22Speaker 04

  I always love when drugs are involved and it's like, they're a friend or I don't use them or.

• 16:27Annie Elise?

  I would never do drugs.

• 16:28Speaker 04

  I have no idea how all those drugs arrived there.

• 16:30Annie Elise?

  Yeah, you must be reading my drug test wrong. Like, bro, read the room. I don't think so. Like, you are not very reliable. So yeah, it's really sad and she obviously had a huge following. Not that it matters that she was an influencer. It matters if it happened to anybody, but because of that huge following, so many people are of course like, yeah, a lot of attention. They're up and there's uproar. They want to know what happened here and like, was something more nefarious going on? And was this intentional? What really happened? I know.

• 16:59Speaker 04

  So sad.

• 16:59Annie Elise?

  And she was so young too. It's just incredibly sad. Um, okay. I don't know if I'm a little nervous to ask, but what do you got for me?

• 17:07Speaker 04

  Well, this is another Halloween one, which I feel like this year, like, why was Halloween so wild?

• 17:12Annie Elise?

  No, why was Halloween so scary?

• 17:14Speaker 04

  I know.

• 17:15Annie Elise?

  No.

• 17:15Speaker 04

  It brought out the crazy.

• 17:16Annie Elise?

  And like, I still can't get over the ding dong ditch or not even the ding dong ditch, the ding dong.

• 17:20Speaker 04

  Well, you know, I have a fear of ding dong ditching.

• 17:24Annie Elise?

  Guys, hold on. We're going to table this for a second because there is a story you have to hear. Amy had a Ring camera at her whole apartment.

• 17:33Speaker 04

  I should post this.

• 17:34Annie Elise?

  You should. Like BTS this week, you should do that as soon as this episode goes live. She got ding dong ditched and on this Ring camera, it's a grown woman who ding dong ditched her. You see this woman just run down the hallway.

• 17:47Speaker 04

  Like, it was so weird. And then it started happening regularly, but that was after another weird situation at my place. So I was with the, no, with the FBI raid.

• 17:59Annie Elise?

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:00Speaker 04

  When I was on the phone with you.

• 18:01Annie Elise?

  Yeah. Oh, yeah. Amy had, there was a big FBI raid and like, she called me and was whispering. Well, so you know, Amy and I's like banter and joking. So she called me and I think I was at the airport and I answered him all, hello, is it me? You're like trying to joke with her, but like I wouldn't stop. She's like, Annie, Annie, like trying to get my attention. And like, I didn't know it was serious. And she's like, SWAT's here, SWAT's here. People are breaking down the door. I was like, what? Are you okay? Like, what's going on?

• 18:26Speaker 04

  Bottom line, anytime my doorbell is rung, I get

• 18:29Annie Elise?

  It's bad.

• 18:30Speaker 04

  I'm terrified.

• 18:31Annie Elise?

  No, but the Halloween thing is so scary. And the fact that it was family, like, can you freaking imagine?

• 18:35Speaker 04

  No.

• 18:36Annie Elise?

  That could have ended so, so bad. Sorry. I'm like derailing this whole thing.

• 18:40Speaker 04

  Well, this one has nothing to do with ding dong ditching.

• 18:42Annie Elise?

  Okay, good.

• 18:43Speaker 04

  But it does come out of Wichita, Kansas, and had a lot of people just stunned because this had nothing to do with a stranger or a neighbor, but it was actually a prior TV news anchor. And she was accused of doing something like we always say, totally crazy and unbelievable, which it was. So it was Halloween morning and Wichita police got a call around 7:50 a.m. to what was described as, quote, cutting. And when officers arrived at the home, they found an 80-year-old woman named Anita Avers, who was unresponsive in her bed. She had multiple stab wounds, so paramedics rushed her to the hospital. But unfortunately, Anita didn't survive. And outside that same home was her 47-year-old daughter named Angeline Mock,

• 19:27Speaker 04

  or as she went by Angie. She was covered in blood with cuts all over her hands and according to neighbors, appeared to be in shock. In fact, one neighbor told reporters that they saw her approach their car with her hands and clothes all bloody, asking them to call 911. And apparently that's when Angie took the neighbor's boyfriend's phone, went back into the house and then called the police. And what she reportedly told the dispatchers right after that is what actually shocked everyone. Angie said that she had, quote, stabbed her mother to save herself, which we've heard this before, right? Crazy. Now, if this name sounds familiar, it's because Angie Mock used to be a familiar face on TV. She worked as a morning news anchor and reported in St. Louis from the

• 20:09Speaker 04

  years 2011 to 2015, before eventually leaving the news industry and landing in software and data management, which is a huge leap. And by looking at these photos, you can see her appearance has changed quite a bit over the years. After being treated for her injuries, Angie was arrested and booked in the Sedgwick County Jail. She was charged with premeditated first-degree murder, and her bond was set for $1 million. And so far, investigators haven't released a motive, and it actually is still unclear. They haven't said what led up to the attack, or exactly what Angie meant when she claimed she had to, quote, "save herself." And what's strange is there is no indication of anyone else being in the home, any forced entry, or even any public record of any domestic calls to the

• 20:52Speaker 04

  address. And nobody really understands why this would have happened, because Anita was described by friends and neighbors as a kind and private woman who had previously worked as a marriage and family therapist before retiring. Friends and neighbors say she was devoted to her family. So it feels even stranger that her own daughter ended up being the one to kill her. So Angie's defense team hasn't commented publicly, but her next court appearance is actually going to be tomorrow, November 14. Prosecutors haven't said whether they plan to address the, quote, "self-defense" aspect directly in court, but for now, that's pretty much the piece that everyone's kind of waiting to hear more about and what story is there. And it's kind of crazy to think the person who used to be reporting on all of these types of stories is now the person being reported on. So kind

• 21:36Speaker 04

  of turning of the tables. So it should be interesting to see how that's all handled. But right now, investigators are still kind of piecing it all together, seeing what happened inside that house. And as the case moves forward, we'll see if this is really, truly self-defense, or if this was something else entirely. But to murder your mother, and I mean, that just feels very unhinged, and to describe it as cutting sounds very gruesome, and...

• 22:01Annie Elise?

  Yeah. I have a lot of questions. I feel like, first of all, self-defense, protecting yourself from an 80-year-old woman, maybe, maybe, but like...

• 22:11Annie Elise?

  Probably not. I don't know.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  And were they living together or did she show up and do that?

• 22:16Annie Elise?

  But part of me wonders too, like, and I'd be curious to see the court filings, like if they outright had said self-defense or if that is an interpretation from the media because of what she had said of trying to save herself. And if so, could that quote have been misconstrued and could she have been saying she was trying to save her, like her mom for some reason, not self-defense? You know what I mean?

• 22:39Speaker 04

  Or even save herself from like mental anguish?

• 22:42Annie Elise?

  Right, something like something else.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  Or something else? Like was it physically self-defense or something else?

• 22:47Annie Elise?

  Yeah, so I'd be curious to see what the prosecutors are saying, if they actually have used the term self-defense or if something with that quote is getting misinterpreted. But it is weird. It seems like snapped, right?

• 22:58Speaker 04

  Well, that's kind of what I was wondering because also you see, there's no previous record of any type of disputes within the home. The neighbors, I mean, which you always hear, the neighbors felt like everything was just fine and dandy.

• 23:10Annie Elise?

  Fine and dandy.

• 23:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, exactly. So.

• 23:11Annie Elise?

  Ugh, that's so sad.

• 23:13Speaker 04

  I know.

• 23:13Annie Elise?

  Oh, man.

• 23:20Annie Elise?

  All right. I feel like we need to just have an honest conversation here in the circle of trust. Can we talk about how literally everything seems to be getting more expensive? Groceries, gas, rent, you name it. And apparently, your wireless bill wants to join in on that party too. But here's the thing, it doesn't have to. Mint Mobile is making it so much easier to stop overpaying for wireless with plans starting at just 15 bucks a month. And you're not sacrificing quality either. All plans include high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and access to the nation's largest 5G network. You can also use your current phone and your current phone number. You just sign up online and you are good to go. Now, I changed carriers probably a

• 24:03Annie Elise?

  year and a half ago at this point to Mint Mobile. And when I tell you, not only was it the best decision of my life, I now have like service in places my husband doesn't even have service, but it was so easy. It took me 15 minutes, kept my phone, kept my phone number. It was the best. So for a new wireless plan starting at 15 bucks a month, go to mintmobile.com/ae. That's mintmobile.com/ae. $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This episode is sponsored by Chime. Get more of your money with Chime. With the Chime card, you get 5% cash back in a category of your choice with qualifying direct deposits. From gas to travel to dining.

• 24:47Annie Elise?

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• 25:39Annie Elise?

  Okay, now this next case that I want to talk about, I was actually debating if I wanted to cover it because it is just so deeply upsetting and disturbing and it reminds me a lot of a case we previously covered a couple of years ago and I'll fill you guys in on that case in the end. But this case is straight out of Austin, Texas, and it's one of those stories that truly makes your stomach not only drop, but just like turn. It like, it gives you a visceral reaction. So, police say that a woman was found chained up in a backyard, and the people who were accused of doing this to her weren't random intruders, or strangers, or abductors, they were her friends. So here's what happened. On the morning of October 30th, Austin police got a welfare check call for a house on Bitter

• 26:24Annie Elise?

  Creek Drive, and when they showed up, they found a woman who was handcuffed to a piece of metal exercise equipment, right there in the backyard. She was weak, half naked, covered in injuries, and just absolutely terrified. Now, in a very disturbing detail, but this kind of just paints how bad this really got, firefighters- Had to come in and cut the handcuffs off of her because they were literally rusted to her wrists. She told the police that she had been there for months. And when they asked her why, she said, quote, because they decided they didn't like me anymore. Now, that's really the part that gets me. It just like breaks my heart because all of this started as a group of friends.

• 27:06Annie Elise?

  She had been staying with them for a while, but then for whatever reason, at some point, something shifted. According to her, they began restraining her, forcing her to live outside, feeding her only once a day, and punishing her whenever she tried to speak up or leave the house. And when the investigators finally were able to look her over, she was malnourished. She had open wounds on her hands and feet, and she had been shot multiple times with a BB gun, including once in the eye. So the police ended up arresting five people who lived at that house. Fifty-one-year-old Michelle Garcia, twenty-one-year-old Crystal Garcia, thirty-two-year-old Michelle Carney, thirty-year-old Juan Pablo Castro, and twenty-one-year-old Maynard LaFeveres.

• 27:51Annie Elise?

  Now, looking through those age ranges, okay, we have two twenty-one-year-olds, a thirty-year-old, a thirty-two-year-old, and a fifty-one-year-old. What kind of evil do you have to be to be twenty-one years old and think that this is okay? Which, let's talk about the fifty-one-year-old for a minute. She certainly should have known better. And I don't know what the relation is. I'm trying to dig into it a little bit more, but the fifty-one-year-old is named Michelle Garcia, and one of the twenty-one-year-olds is Crystal Garcia. And I'm wondering if that is a daughter, a niece, some sort of relative, because I'm gonna get to all of this in a minute. But there were children found in the home. So it's just so deeply upsetting, but all five of these monsters are facing charges, including aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault,

• 28:37Annie Elise?

  injury to a disabled person, and unlawful restraint. Their bonds were each set at about $300,000, which personally, I do not believe that is nearly high enough. You know, you only need 10% to post, so $30,000, while that's, yeah, not easily, easily changed to get. It's like, this, for what they did, allegedly, this does not feel remotely high enough, in my opinion. And what's really disturbing is what some of these monsters said when the police started interviewing them. One of them told officers that they only restrained her because she was, quote, "causing problems." Another claimed that she agreed to being handcuffed. And then someone else described her as quote, "50/50 capable of making her own decisions."

• 29:21Annie Elise?

  Like that somehow justified it, which I want to go back to this really quick because one of the charges is injury to a disabled person. Now, the case I'm going to reference in a few minutes here, you may be familiar with it. If you're not, I will link it in the show notes, but I want to warn you. It is one of the more difficult cases we've covered. It's the case of Mary Collins. Now, she was a young woman who was developmentally delayed. And because of that, her friends took advantage of her and did some very cruel things to her, ultimately hiding her body in a mattress. It's unspeakable. But my point is that there have been a handful of cases that I have covered in the last few years where it involves friends and a friend group turning on their friend who is facing developmental delays or mental health issues.

• 30:06Annie Elise?

  And whether they agree to the handcuffs or not, a lot of the times, that's because they're trying to still be with their friends. They don't want to upset their friends. They want the friendship, so they're all, "Sure, go ahead and handcuff me." Like because they're not grasping the true evil of the situation. I mean, nothing about this was consensual, nothing. And according to the victim, every time she tried to move or resist, they punished her for it. One of the men even admitted that he bought that electric BB gun so that, quote, "He wouldn't have to touch her." And then he told the police, flat out, "I fucking hate her." And as if that wasn't bad enough, like I said, there were children living in this house the entire time. Those kids, I would imagine the underage ones, have been taken into custody by CPS. Thank goodness.

• 30:51Annie Elise?

  I don't know what they had to witness, if they were forced to have any sort of involvement. We know one of the adults who shared the same last name, Garcia. Again, I don't know if there's any relation, so I don't want to like, jump ahead, do your own research, but maybe that's why they were, there were charges because they were an adult versus the kids. I don't know. But here's what also pisses me the fuck off, okay? Neighbors later told the police that they had seen things that seemed off. They saw things like the woman outside and sometimes even restrained near the fence or acting confused. Yet, nobody intervened. It's because they said that nobody realized just how horrific it was until the welfare call came in, but still. I know it's cliche, but we all say, if you see something, say something. And if you see

• 31:32Annie Elise?

  a woman in your neighbor's yard chained to a fence, it's probably not fucking good. And you should probably make a call. Like, this is crazy to me. And it just really is one of those cases that reminds you that sometimes the worst things happen in the middle of a completely normal neighborhood. Beautiful suburban houses lined up, people driving by, kids playing out front, yet nobody really knowing what's going on behind those gates, behind the fences. And that I've talked about on here before, that's my personal intrusive thought that I have literally at least six times a year. Whenever I'm driving in a place that is, whether it's familiar or unfamiliar, driving by, I always think like, I wonder if any of these homes is somebody trapped in a shed in the back? Is somebody in the

• 32:17Annie Elise?

  backyard? Is somebody in one of those windows up there where there's like, the drapes are drawn? And it's, you know, that's my own personal issue I need to work through. Cause, and I know a lot of you actually, when I brought that up, said that you have the same thoughts. So I don't know if I'm glad that I'm not alone, or if I'm equally concerned for all of us. But it really does remind you that like, you never know what's happening in these neighborhoods. Yet, if you see something happening, you probably should call. So this woman was rushed to the hospital and luckily she did survive. But she's being treated for very serious injuries and for malnutrition. The investigators believe that she had been held captive for several months. The house has fully been processed now as a crime scene and prosecutors are already considering additional charges as more evidence has been

• 33:01Annie Elise?

  coming in. But honestly, this case sticks with you for a multitude of reasons, obviously. But for me, the one that makes me not even the most upset, but like, the most sad is the betrayal of it all, that this woman just wanted friends. She just wanted to fit in. She wanted to make them happy and do all that. And yet, they just like, turned on her because they thought she was annoying, or she was mean, they didn't want to touch her. So they started shooting her with the BB gun. And like, it's just sick. Cause it's not random. It's people she trusted. It's people that she knew. It's people that she wanted to be friends with and people who called themselves her friend at some point. So like I said, it reminds me a lot of the Mary Collins case. I don't know how to say

• 33:43Annie Elise?

  it strong enough. If you do, click the link in the show notes to listen to that episode. I want to give the biggest warning. It is one.

• 33:53Annie Elise?

  Do not eat before you listen to that episode. It is very, very troubling. So if there's one takeaway from all of this that at least is a little bit of a positive note, it's that it really does show how powerful one phone call can be when you notice something and you say something because without that welfare check, that woman might still be chained up in that backyard right now. She was there for months. So again, if something ever feels off or if someone in your neighborhood suddenly disappears or something's not right, don't just ignore it. A phone call literally can save somebody's life. And I just hope that these monsters are held to like the maximum punishment possible. It is so sick. It is so deranged, so twisted and like,

• 34:35Annie Elise?

  what's the expression? Like who needs enemies when you have friends like that?

• 34:39Speaker 04

  No, I mean, I was like tearing up when I was listening to you because

• 34:45Speaker 04

  like you said, it's her friend, it's betrayal and it's just, it's like bullying to the most extreme and

• 34:50Annie Elise?

  And someone who maybe isn't fully cognitively there to understand.

• 34:54Speaker 04

  And who knows if those two are related and the 21 year old was told this is in the person's best interest. Like there's obviously manipulation probably there and then those poor children in the home that now have this ingrained in their mind and just thinking like Austin, Texas gets very extreme weather. So that person was outside. I mean, it's just

• 35:14Annie Elise?

  Well, the handcuffs were rusted to her wrist.

• 35:17Speaker 04

  I know. And where was her family?

• 35:19Annie Elise?

  I know. Well, I don't know. I think more information is gonna come out.

• 35:22Speaker 04

  Because for somebody missing that long, I mean, this poor girl just didn't have anyone looking out for her except for thank God, the person that made that call finally.

• 35:30Annie Elise?

  I know.

• 35:30Speaker 04

  But oh my gosh.

• 35:32Annie Elise?

  It's so sad. I know. That feels like such not a great place to leave off for this episode because it's like such a downer and I just, I know I started this episode by telling you guys, I hope you're having a good week, but

• 35:43Speaker 04

  Maybe people will be more alert going into the weekend.

• 35:45Annie Elise?

  That's good. That's true.

• 35:47Speaker 04

  Trying to find something positive.

• 35:49Annie Elise?

  All the police departments get flooded with phone calls now because everybody's on a high alert.

• 35:52Speaker 04

  Like, my sister hasn't called me back.

• 35:54Annie Elise?

  Yeah, so can you go check on all of her neighbors' houses? Um, no, I know. Sorry to like dump all over you guys with that last one, but it's one that I feel it was really important to talk about and share because that is the motto that we always say, if you see something, say something. And it's just, it's so true in this case. So, thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode with me today. Thank you, Amy, for being here and joining.

• 36:16Speaker 04

  Thanks for having me.

• 36:17Annie Elise?

  Yeah, of course. And I'm going to be back with you guys on Monday with an all-new deep dive into a super-twisted case, but actually I want to give you guys a little PSA because I've seen some comments and some confusion. As a lot of you know, we recently launched our second true crime show, 10 to Life as a Podcast. Now, let me kind of break down not only the differences between the shows, because that's probably the question I get asked the most, but also where you can find everything, what the release dates are and everything. So basically, for the video versions of both series, Serialistically and 10 to Life, those series both live on YouTube on my main YouTube channel, Annie E. Lee's. Then, there's two separate podcasts on whatever podcast app you use. There's Serialistically and there's 10 to Life.

• 37:02Annie Elise?

  YouTube is a thorn in my side. They make me edit everything. They make me censor everything, which is so unbelievable because, and I have fought them tooth and nail because it's legal terms, it's medical terms, but whatever. So the uncensored version of these episodes will always live on the podcast because the podcast does not censor you. The censored versions unfortunately have to go up on YouTube, and that's the video version. But anyway, it's two totally separate shows. So Serialistically, new episodes every Monday. 10 to Life, new episodes every Tuesday. Serialistically, again, headline highlights version every single Thursday, and then both shows have bonus episodes every Friday, every other Friday, back and forth. So, if you're listening right now on a podcast app, I just confused myself, so I'm sure I confused you.

• 37:47Annie Elise?

  But if you're listening on a podcast app, search 10 to Life and follow it, because then... You will get the new episodes every Tuesday as well, so that you have, you know, things to binge Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Friday. And right now, we also have quite a few episodes that have already been uploaded on the Tendalife Podcast app and over on YouTube, so you can go back and binge those too. But that was really confusing. It felt confusing. I followed. Okay, good, good. I'm glad. At least you followed, because I feel like I didn't. But anyway, thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode. I will be back with you on Monday, like I said, with an all-new deep dive into a case, and then also Tuesday with an all-new deep dive into a case. But until then, be nice,

• 38:28Annie Elise?

  don't kill people, don't do drugs, don't betray your friends, and just be a good human. All right? All right. Bye.

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