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The Curious Case of...

with Beth Karas

THE CURIOUS CASE OF...

Format

In this 6x60, self contained, potentially high volume series, Beth Karas will take us through a different bizarre story in the vein of a Black Mirror-style true crime show. In this series where Beth tackles a different splashy, loud, curious, and peculiar true crime mystery there is never a reliable narrator, never one version of the story, and never a story without a loud and shocking reveal in this twisty and turny series.

“JOYCE: The Texas Slave Ranch:

This is the story about Joyce and what happened on a ranch in Kerrville, Texas, where there are no reliable narrators and the lines between captured and captors were blurred. The lines between torturer and tortured, all but disappeared. The only thing left was a pile of burnt human remains, a torture tape, and a farm filled with liars, and Joyce the matriarch that went free while her husband, lover, and father-in-law all went to prison.  How did this happen? It depends on who you ask?  

Joyce Ellebracht is an enigma.  Who is she?  Is Joyce a meek victim of a villainous husband whose ongoing torture and intimidation tactics instilled so much fear in her that she was forced to participate in awful crimes, even murder? Why were her husband and cruel father-in-law tried and convicted for their barbaric crimes, but she was never prosecuted?  Or, like her depraved husband and father-in-law, is she a heartless, brutal killer, who willingly participated in at least one and possibly more murders that took place on her ranch estate in Texas.  Well now, that depends on who you ask. You will get a million different answers.  Unfortunately for them, the truth is easy to find because they recorded the entire thing. 

Paper Development

David Emerich and Bonnie Pellicer:

Either David Emerich, the famed sex sells tv producer, made the production of a lifetime or he and his girlfriend, Bonnie Pellicer are the most disregarded murder victims of all time. 

In 1980, Bonnie’s sister had not heard from her in a long time. When she went by Bonnie’s boyfriend David’s home, what she found was the bloodiest and most brutal of crime scenes imaginable. The blood tested from the crime scene seemed to indicate some of it was David and Bonnie’s. 

So how could the police decide that David and Bonnie faked their own disappearance? In fact, the police are so confident, David and Bonnie are not even listed as missing. 

Their family found bone fragments in the house and the court still refused to release their estate to the family.  Years later an FBI agent claimed to recognize David and this triggered a judge to issue a warrant for his arrest for violating his parole on a previous drug charge. 

So, what the hell is really going on here and why are the police so unwilling to discuss it?  

View on Reddit
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View The Evening Independent Article
View the Lakeland Ledger Article

Mary Louise Day:

Mary Day went missing and her father was the murder suspect.  Mary’s sister, Sherri reported her parents to the police and within weeks of brutal police questioning a woman appeared saying she was Mary Day.  She had never been Mary Day and only weeks before showed up at a DMV with Mary’s birth certificate and secured an ID.  The sisters met her and even though Mary left at age 16 the “Bizarro Mary” (now deceased from cancer) could not recall one detail of Mary’s life down to her dog’s name. Even a DNA match could not convince the sisters or the police that it was the true Mary. They all believed she was a “secret sister”.  There is the nicely wrapped up version that 48 Hours aired in 2020 where both sisters end on a high note that they believed “Bizarro Mary” was the actual Mary.  But that is not what they are telling us.  In fact, they both say they will never believe that “Bizarro Mary” was the actual Mary.  They felt pressured to “wrap it up” and ended up saying things they now regret and never believed. And if you ask them why, they will tell you something that was not on 48 Hours or any news report - they saw their father dispose of a body.  

We now have access to Mary Day’s sister, Sherri and she’s going to confront her mother and demand to know where Mary's body is and she will let us film that confrontation. She admitted to us that she caved to the pressure to lie on 48 Hours and say that she believed the impostor “Bizzarro Mary” was her sister. We have learned explosive new details that the impostor did not know the name of her own father when she filled out papers at the DMV.  

Together in the same loud and crazy manner as our other hit shows, we will deliver the answerto these looming questions about Mary Day in a fashion that inspires every armchair detective to join the conversation.

View Daily Mail Article

Ellen Greenberg:

Ellen began to change when she was dating her fiancé Sam.  Sam Goldberg hailed from an extremely wealthy family in Pennsylvania that is reminiscent of Succession.  Ellen, who was a very outgoing school teacher, began to seem fearful to leave the house and hang out with friends without Sam’s approval.  So, her friends and family began to suspect Sam was bullying his fiancé and presenting as someone different in public.  When Ellen was stabbed twenty two-times her death was ruled a suicide.  Her fiancé was allowed back into the crime scene to get his suit for her funeral and while he was there, he also was allowed to remove key items of evidence like her cell phone and computer.  The police, DA, and Attorney General will not look into the case as a homicide.  

The new evidence shows that many of the wounds did not hemorrhage and the reason this is important is that it means she was stabbed multiple times after her heart stopped beating.  How does something like this happen?

Trish Haynes:


Trish Haynes was a bubbly, beautiful, outgoing 26-year-old trying to overcome a difficult life. In 2017, Trish was living in New Hampshire with an abusive boyfriend. After one particularly nasty episode she left her boyfriend and filed a police report against him. Trish relocated to a very remote part of the state and Trish decided to reconnect with an old friend, Ashley, and her husband, Doug, These “friends,” had a checkered background. In fact, Ashley Smith had grown up in an abusive family and her grandmother, Betty Place had disappeared in 1978 under suspicious circumstances. Doug Smith was also a known criminal with a violent past. 

While Trish was staying with Ashley and Doug, her family tried repeatedly to get in touch with her and were unsuccessful, which caused a lot of concern and raised many red flags. When Trish’s dismembered body was pulled from a local lake in Grafton, NH many locals pointed to Ashley and Doug Smith as persons of interest because they had seen Ashley and Doug abuse Trish in public and at parties and there were rumors that Ashley and Doug were trafficking Trish. When Doug and Ashley were accused by the community no charges were filed, no arrests made.  Finally caving to public pressure Doug was  brought in for questioning by his Uncle was the Chief of Police and there are suspicions that he either bungled the investigation or helped to cover up Ashley and Doug’s involvement. 

To date no charges have been filed and Trish’s friend who have rallied for charges to be filed have dealt with retaliation like their cars being fire bombed.

View Murder She Told Article 
View Cold Case NE Article 

THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF ANGELA GREEN:

Oh, the burden that Ellie Green, 22, has to carry is like a two ton truck.  On a normal day in 2019 she had an abnormally huge blow out fight with her mother, Angela Green, 51. Ellie's mother ended up kicking her out of the house.

Did her mother mean it?  Would she have reached out to Ellie per usual to make things right and tell her to come home?  Ellie will never know because one month later, Ellie’s father, Geoff Green, 67 told Ellie that he had taken Angela to a psychiatric hospital after their argument and she ended up passing away from a stroke.

But, the normal tent poles of a loved one’s passing like a funeral, an obit, and memorial never happened.  It was like her mother disappeared without a trace. To make matters worse her father blew up at her at the mere mention of her mother. Then she learns there is no death certificate for her mother.

Finally, in 2020 Ellie decided to file her own missing person’s report. Her mother may not even be dead.  Did her father just help her mother disappear?  Is this Gone Girl or was her dad the cause of something much more sinister? Ellie is brave enough to get answers.

Gregory Johnson, Jr.:

Gregory Johnson was an African American member of the predominantly white, Sigma Chi fraternity at San Jose State University and on November 22, 2008 Gregory was found in the basement of his fraternity house hanging “in a seated position.” What’s troubling about this case is that Gregory’s death doesn’t appear to be a suicide. His body was found tied to a pipe that was 5’10” off the ground. Gregory was over 6 feet tall and there were no markings on his neck to indicate strangulation. In fact, the family discovered a crack on Gregory’s head with brain matter oozing out that was not indicated in his autopsy. Also, the crime scene and evidence were mishandled. A fraternity member did not turn over Gregory’s phone to the police and when a relative went to the house the day after Gregory’s death, not only was the basement immediately cleaned but Gregory’s phone was recognized and when it was handed over, Gregory’s pictures were deleted and his voicemail was accessed. The FBI were called in to investigate the death as a hate crime and only the first few pages of their 300-page report were provided to the family citing “matters of national security.”

Also, adding to the mystery is that two of the responding officers were later involved in the shooting deaths of two other black men under questionable circumstances. Was there a coverup between San Jose police, San Jose State University and the wealthy and influential families of the Sigma Chi fraternity members?

View on Justice for Gregory

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