El Chonchon, More Cryptids and the case of Julie Ann Gonzalez

Hi. This is Christina and Carmen and this is another episode of a Spooky Tells, a podcast for all things spooky, true crime hunter places not American related, and that's what we're doing today. We have some cryptids and then a true crime case that somehow doctor Phil has evolved. I don't like that already. Yeah, yeah, that man no for real? Because did you see that he was at Ice Raids? I did. I did see that, and I'm like, who the fuck do you think you are? Yeah? I was like, wow, how weird that he came up when I was researching and then he comes up today and I'm like, can you just please go away? One of the only things I want in life is for him to go away. Nothing else matters, no, because same, well besides some other people that I want to go away. But you know, all right, before we get into our topic, we do have a listener story and if you want to submit a story to us for us to read, email at spookitos at gmail dot com. You can submit it on Discord, you can set it to me on Instagram. All those things are linked in the show notes. You can also call these spooky hotline. It's been a hot midut since we've had a phone call, feel free to do that. It has Yeah and all right, this story is from Discord. You want to read it? Yes, it comes from use your named Geeka. Hi everyone, I have a kind of creepy story from my childhood. I remember small parts of it, but most of it is my family's version since I was four years old. Apologies and advanced for end years as English is not my first language and I don't practice writing in English as much as I should. First of all, English doesn't matter. Don't ever apologize for that. Never, not here in this house, in this podcast. No, So here we go. When I was very little, I had an imaginary friend who I called Uncle Leo. At first, my mother didn't think much about it, since imagining friends are a normal thing, but normally children don't have an imaginary uncle. But okay, true, true, okay, mom? Why did that not always any red flags? Like, you're just kidding. We don't blame him anyway, And I would talk and play with Uncle Leo all the time, terrorizing the cleaning lady. Anyway, One day my mother caught me talking to Uncle Leo in a way that made me seem very upset and she asked what was happening. I replied that Uncle Leo said he needed to leave, but I didn't want him to go, and then I added that he looked beautiful, shining, full of light. Oh my god, he was saying mine. Oh. My Mom was like okay, and didn't pressure me too much about it, just comforted me. A long time passed without me mentioning Uncle Leo again, until one day my mother was organizing the photo albums and I was playing around her. When she opened an album from her teenage years. She showed me what everyone was like at the time, and I didn't pay much attention until I suddenly pointed to one of the photographs and said, look at Uncle Leo. Oh my god. I just got chills. I know. I know. My mother says her blood around cold, because I was pointing out one of our teenage friends who had died in a motorcycle accident long before. Cry don't cry yet, the tears are Kobe hold it in dark, Okay. So long before I was born. His name was Leonardo to his friends, Leo. Oh my god, he came back to visit. He just wanted to meet his nibbling. Oh my god, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard is it's so beautiful, like he came from beyond the grate that al I have escalofrios right now. I literally got chills when I was reading it. Oh my god, And you're trying to stop your tears, I am. I don't you know while you're doing that. I just want to let these spookies know that Carmen got me a new brush for Christmas. Oh my god, my hair looks amazing. I got a new hair dryer, and I have to say the combo hair immaculus. Never Yeah, I've never been this happy with my curls. The curls Sky Kravin, for give to me the gift of my curls. Welcome, You're welcome. Plus the hairdryer is also my recommendation, so so really was also welcome for that of course. In fact, I implore everyone to go to our YouTube to look at my hair. Yeah yeah, yeah, you'll notice how much better it looks from other episodes. You really will, you really will. Yeah, Okay, I'm done. What a tear drinker. That was razing story. I really loved it. I love a fell ghost story, you know what I mean? Like those aren't the best. Remind me of the one we've already mentioned so many times in the podcast about our great grandpa visiting us. Yes, yeah, and it was the same, like we didn't know it was him on to where our mama was showing us pictures and we're like, he visited us and she's like what what? Yeah? What? Yeah? And those are the best and only ghost stories that you want to experience. Yeah, yeah, personally, I agree. And it has to be when you're little so you're not scared, you know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay. Should we get onto some cryptid stories. Let's do it, all right. Our first cryptid is El chon Choon. First love the name me too. I really had a ring to it. So. El Tronchon is a myth that first began among them Mapucha people, who are native to the region of south central Chile and southwestern Argentina. El Tronchon is said to be a powerful sorcerer who undergoes a transformation. The creature is highly feared, and only the most powerful sorcerers can transform into El Tronchon. It's giving Yes, oh my god, what are they called? I know what you're going to say. I also forgot what it's called, but I know you're talking about as possible. I'm you know what my MEAs are wearing now? But you know the shape shifting creature, not the white Chivo, but the other one. Christina, we have the same brain because I was like, not the wit TiVo and I was literally just gonna say that are we twins or what we must be? Wow? No way, it wouldn't be funny, Like a new listener and they're like, they don't know that we're twins. Okay, shout out Fred. I love him on Patreon. He's always commenting, but he was like, wait, you guys are twins. And our episode with Mommy, what my gosh. She's like He's like, I suspected, but I didn't want to be dumb and ask, and I was like, you should always be dumb. Yeah that's our motto. Yeah, there are no dumb questions here. Spooky telles no, no, no. I still can't remember the shape shous creature in Mexico that I am talking about, but you all know what I'm talking about. Man, Why can't we remember? We have had them in many stories? Wow? This is sad. Yeah, yeah, it's not going to not coming to me either. No, okay, so where was I before beginning its transformation. It's said, either it be a male or fear locks themselves in their rooms and make sure no one will stop while they're not in their bodies. So they they want their privacy, and they need their privacy, and we respect that. Yeah, this reminds me of this other story also that we read. I think it was one of the myths or legends from Yes if it's somewhere else, something about a cave, Yes, like that would turn into a snake and they were like terrorizing. Yes, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, so they need their privacy. Then they apply a magical cream to their throat. Oh my god, yes, wow, we should have known that. Yeah, so the throat. I won't know if you heard that because you were you know, no no startovers. Okay, so a sentence well before that, since you know you were preoccupied with the naway. It's fine because we all wanted to know the answer, as it means we did. Yeah, but anyway, I was saying that the tranzone needs this privacy while transforming. Right, So then they locked themselves in the room and make sure no one goes into the room while they're not in their bodies, and then they apply a magical cream to their throat, and the cream then initiates the transformation by allowing the head to smoothly remove itself from the body without a drop of blood being spilled, and it's said to resemble a bat. Okay interesting. In nineteen twenty nine, a Chilen historian named Tomas Gevarra set the ears and then stretch out and turn into very large wings that allow the head to fly around. The head is then adorned with feathers and talons. I'm picturing it, I am, I can see it, and she's a cutie. I'm pretty sing like an owl, even though they say it remembers it resembles a bat. Yeah. The powerful creature then flies at night and uses its news shape to engage in malevolent activities, such as flying to caves where other sorcerers and Satan gets together at night to perform rituals. And are they joining or internality. I'm not sure yet. I wonder. I don't know if they're just a casual observer or they're participant in these satanic rituals. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. In addition to performing rituals, Elronchon is also able to drink the blood of the sick or sleeping. Don't expect to see Elronjon anytime soon, as legend says that only other sorcerers or powerful people can see them. Oh, but normal individuals can still hear their cries in the dark, which sound like a loud And how do you think this is pronounced? It's t u e Oh, that's a little too close to tua, not toua tua in Spanish. This is the o g hawk tua. Yeah and better better Yeah. Yeah, if you hear a outside your house, it's best you, says Camino respectfully. I love it. Yeah. I love when there's like a phrase you can say to avoid, you know, like the trouble. Yeah, if you don't say it, it said an old lady or handsome man will appear at your door asking for salt. Well, those are very different. I don't know if it's like gender base or how it decides to present itself. Yeah, so either an old lady or a handsome man will appear at your door asking for salt, and if you don't give it to them, they'll take it as an insult and will avenge themselves doing what. I don't know what the avenge in tels Son. Please clarify. Hopefully it's not like murder. Maybe just like like a little beating, like the other lady who beat up the You remember that la. I don't remember anything, okay first all, but remember the like I remember the concepts of things, but I don't remember the name of anything. Yeah, and do you remember the legend of the lady. She was like an eventual spirit and you think she was the one that's turned No, she's not the one that turned into a firewall. That's a different one. Anyway, this lady was like an old lady and then like old lady spirit and then you would light candles for her, but you had to light it on. It might be ye. At first I thought it wasn't, but then I was like, maybe it is. And then the lady didn't she like forgot one night and then she needs to beat her ass. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure I think it was. I think yeah, I think yeah. Others say that hearing in the woods is a bad omen I imagine it would be. Yeah, because someone will avenge themselves to you to give them salts and what if you don't realize it, you know what I mean? Yeah? Okay, so that was It's sill a cute name but kind of scary. Yeah, okay, So next up we have the vampire vine. This sounds cool. Yeah, this is a botanical cryptid. A what botanical cryptid? What does that mean? Like? Oh my god? Like a like a natural? Yeah, she's just a natural, girly Yes, I understand now I was I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know where my brain was. In other words, the vampire vine is a plant rumored to be a katawan that survives by draining the blood of living creatures. So it's okay, like a plant vampire hybrid. This will probably be people to think of plants like venus fly traps and picture plants, but these plants only eat insects or lizards, not humans or large animals. The story was first discussed by the famous mystic Helena Blovotsky, who in nineteen not nineteen eighty one, who in eighteen ninety one published a story in Lucifer magazine where she discussed and experience a young explorer named Leroy Dunstan. Sorry, so we're starting in eighteen ninety one explorer I think Evan colonizer and in Central America. Yeah yeah, yeah, so Leroy Dunstan some experience he had a while he was researching botanical specimens in Central America. According to Blovotsky, Dunstan was exploring a swamp in i Karawa with the help of natives when he heard his dog crying out loud. Dunstan a rushed to his dog's aid, only to find him wrapped in roots and vines. Oh. Dunctan tried to save his dog from this plant that was oozing a sticky black substance from its pores, but as he tried to cut the vines with a knife, the plant also tried to trap Dunstan. Oh. Dunstan was then shocked to see that the part of his skin that was touched by the plant was turning red and blistering, and the dog's skin was covered in puncher marks and blood. Oh no, what a gory scene. Yeah. Miraculously the dogs survived, but natives then warned Dunstan of the plant they called the Devil's snare. Oh does this not remind you Harry Potter? Yeah it does, and so did the other story because for some reason, even though I know it's on an owl, I kept thinking of the owl. Okay, even though I know it's not an owl. That's too far, too far, okay, sorry, sorry, I'm pulling the plug. I just kept picturing an owl. Yeah, isn't that what the plants call in the first movie? Isn't it? I think? I think so. I can only think of fucking TikTok. They took this chess scene, yeah, admitted into like a dancing and then they're like voky Harry No. I loved those. To sacrifice myself my favorite. I'm still freaking dumb. I had to sacrifice myself and then he's like on the floor. I don't know what that move is called, but you know the way i'men. They're like down and then up like yeah, yeah, I haven't come across one in a while. I gotta find either. Yeah. I love those. So, according to the local several others were not lucky enough to escape the vampire vine. Dunstan brought a route back with him to Europe to study, but it died on the way and had to be thrown out after it began to smell. The British journalist William Thomas Stead also published a story in his magazine Review of Reviews. Okay, wow, you know what. Okay, but this is what I would name a magazine that was reviewing things, review of reviews. Yeah. So he published a story review of Reviews of Dunstan Discovery and Instead said he was able to discover very little about the nature of the plant owing to the difficulty of handling it, for its grasp can only be torn away with the loss of skin and even of flesh. Yeah no thanks, yeah, Instead said. Dunstan describes how the plant drew blood from people or animals by using a number of infinite, infinite, infinite, infinitesimal infinite. Okay, I think it's like infinitimal. I'm not sure. Okay, infinity, amount of mosane, amount of mouths, yes, numerous, extra numerous, too many, too many mouths count which ordinarily closed open for the reception of food. If the substance is animal, that's the mouth and sorry it was a substance is animal. The blood is drawn off and the carcass or refuse then dropped. I wouldn't want to mess or come across this plant. Nope, nope. So then next we have the Abagucci. Okay, fun name. We're just getting fun names today. Yeah. So L Labauci, believe it or not, is a crypto that not only has a connection to Costatica, but also to West Virginia. Well, I'm surprised, and shock color be shocked. No, I am surprised. Labagucci was first spotted in Costatica, where many locals referred to it as dry land Banya. Well, that's terrifying. Yeah, that is surviving, Like paranas are like one of the scariest things about the ocean, and then they're gonna be on dry land like they actually don't like attack people like that. Oh, it's just like very very rare. Oh oh, I'm just picturing like all the movies, you know. Yeah, it's just the thing in the movies, like if you're in Amazon you fall in, They're not gonna Yeah, maybe something else will, but that's terrifying. I can't even think about that. No, you will never catch me there, no, no, no, no no. The strange creature is said to eat anything, no matter how big the animal might be, including animals as big as horses and cows. Wow, and good like catching one because it's said the creature will do anything to escape capture. But in nineteen ny nine, the West Virginia State Division of Natural Resources imported thirteen Abagucis to help the state combat growing predator populations. Jim Wilson said in an article he wrote for the Webster Echo in two thousand and one, the plan backfired when Abaguci population When the Abagucci population exploded and got out of control and began to attack livestock. Wow. In the article, Wilson described the creature as a carnivore that would be anything big or small, which freaked out the residents of West Virginia, who became terrified to go outside. Soon. Many residents also reported their own Abagucci sidings, which it led to reports of residents carrying around shotguns and others walking their kids to schools. Resident even claimed to have run over in ab Gucci. Wow, but it was all a hoax. The writer of the article later convinced, what the fuck I was eating this ship up? But yeah, yeah, okay, okay. The signings did not stop, and many continue to report Abgucci till this day. Okay, Well, let us know if you've seen Wow what else? Wild ride? Yeah, fir us I was like wait no, oh yes, no, oh yes, okay, hold on wait a minute, hold on true okay, and I think that's yourn of your Yeah, that's right, that was it. Okay, wow, well you know what. That was fun three fun little cryptids, and you know we needed it after this week that just finished this week. Oh yes, yeah. So with that, we'll take a little ad break and then we'll come back with my portion again, a true crime case, a tragic loss of a mother, but also like somehow doctor Phil is involved. I don't like that. No, no, okay, and we're back all right. So there is an episode of Killer Relationship. It's season two, Killer Relationships. Oh I can't remember that, militihow. It's either relationship or relationship show or podcast. Yeah, it's a show Killer Relationships. That sounds more normal. Okay, So it's a show called Killer Relationships. This is from season two, episode five. So that in combination with one really detailed article or my sources. So let's just start in the beginning. Twenty one year old Julie and Gonzalez loved her daughter. She would do anything for her. One day, her family could not get a hold of her, and her ex husband had told them while she was acting weird, and she told me she was taken off to Colorado, something they refused to believe. Gratefully, yes, of course they dug deep. This is the case of Julie and Gonzales. Julie Anne was born in nineteen eighty eight in Dripping Springs, Texas. Her mom was young when she had her, just nineteen years old, but she loved her daughter more than anything. She was part of a very tight knit family. Her sisters and brothers all lived in the same house, her grandparents. They all supported her as a young mom at nineteen, so her fifteen year old Tia, Julie's fifteen year old da was now her babysitter, so that Julie's mom could go continue her education. Her grandparents were always around. Everyone was around. And then her parents opened a general store in Dripping Springs, and I think that's just what it was called, the general store, and everyone knew the family. Everyone in town saw Julie growing up, and everyone describes her as so smart, so wise, kind beautiful, stubborn, and someone who just wanted to live life to the fullest, but also kind of like too fast, like she just wanted to be an adult. And you know when that's to me a red flag when someone says that about it. Not always, but yeah, so they did say that about her, that she she wanted to be an adult. So at sixteen, one of the employees of the grandparents' store started to get very close to Julie, and Julie's mom noticed that these two were passing notes back and forth. So Julie's mom confronted her and asked her straight up, are you in a relationship with Aaron? This is the employee. Julie then admitted, yes, we're together. But Aaron was twenty three years old and Julie was sixteen, so her mom was like, this is not okay. You're not allowed to see him anymore. When Julie went and listened, the grandparents fired Aarin from the store. They chased him off and he came around, so they were just like, no, they put an end to it. It was forbidden, not allowed, and you know, as you showed as a parent, yeah, yeah, try and protect the daughter, your kids, right, But again, very normal reaction that a sixteen year old would do. But Julie was so mad at her family for this, she resented them. She started to hate her mom for this. So a year went by where Julie was just not forgiving of her mom again. One of the things people described her as was like again kind, stubborn. Okay, So that's and she was. And so she was still mad at her mamma your whole year later. So at seventeen, Julie told not she didn't ask, She told her mom she was moving out to live with her Tia Laura in Austin, Texas, and trying to establage the relationship, trying to not make her more mad. And also because she was very close with her sister, she knew Julie would be in good hands. She agreed. She was like, okay, fine, you can move there. So Julie moved with her Dora to Austin, Texas. She enrolled into Crockett High School and this is her senior year now, and this is where she met George Dela Cruz, her boyfriend or the guy who would become her boyfriend the family, you know, met him right away because she was also very responsible, so she you know, she was doing her school work, she was involved in I don't know if things at school too light clubs, and she brought him home right away to meet the FI and the family noticed right away he's very quiet, he's very shy. They'd be like, are you sure you like him? Like he doesn't seem to be doing anything saying anything, like he's just there, what are you seeing him? And Julie would defend him, and of course it's her boyfriend. She would defend him and say, you know, you guys just need to know one better. He's very intelligent, he's so kind. And by the end of their senior year in two thousand and seven, things were very serious between the two. You know, they went to Prompt together. Then it was graduation and Julie received a scholarship from Saint Edward's University. So the two moved out together to be closer to the university so she could attend and it was a full riote scholarship. You know, they were young, but they were serious about their future. They did this so she could, you know, go to the school easier. And before her first year of school was even over, Julie was pregnant and when she told her mom, her mom remembers crying, but she wasn't mad. She was happy for her daughter that like, okay, you're gonna get to experience this too. Now, we know you're going to be a good mom because she's so responsible. And yeah, she can put her education on pause. Now that doesn't mean us forever. So everyone was accepting be for her, accepting, Yes, thank you, you're always here with the better words. So on September twenty seven, two thousand and seven, Julie's daughter, Layla was born, and Julie knew she couldn't attend university anymore, you know, she had a baby defeat. Now, she enrolled herself in a very you know, short career type thing and became a pharmacy technician at Walgreens. And I mean, honestly, when you're looking for a quick career that pays okay, where you can live, like, that's a good one to choose, Like, yeah, that's not a bad move at all. And that's what she did. But their living situation, her George and little Layla, it was not as easy. They relocated a few times. They were barely making the ends meet. George lost his most recent job, and unlike Julie, George just didn't have it together. He was not motivated. He wasn't like stepping up to the plate. Like Julie did, where Julie's like, I can't finish my degree, but I am going to get a career, something dependable, something I can do every day. He wasn't like that. Sometimes he worked, sometimes he didn't. He was in and out of jobs in construction in what was the other one I saw? Construction was one of them, random jobs, random jobs, and he didn't ever stay at one for too long. Eventually they moved in with George's mom, Victoria, and his three younger sisters to save money, because they just couldn't afford it if he wasn't also working. And so since Julie was the one going to work every day, they decided he would stay and take care of Laila. But then when Julie was coming back from work, their room in this house a complete mess. Wow, Laila was. She would find their daughter in dirty diapers that had been dirty for hours. Oh wow, And you can tell because of that gets heavy, of course, yeah, And it looks it's just gross. It's so bad. Like the rashes can get like first it's like a normal small rash. Okay, fine, that's not a big deal, but they can get bad. I have seen horrible rashes of course you have. Yes, Yes, of course you have that. They get it like basically equated to like like second degree burns. Yes, yes, And with him doing this every day, that's a problem. That's a straight up problem. So George was doing nothing all day. He just sat playing his Xbox for eighteen hours a day. Yeah, like, get it together. You have a child. Now, that's not to say you can't play games. I love one game Started Valleys, because you know, some people will be like, oh, you have a kidnap, you can't game anymore? You can, I mean everything in moderation, honestly, Yeah, even if he didn't have a kid, like you have other stuff to do. I'm sure everyone does. But I love to sit around and do nothing all day. Yes, did I do that? Sometimes? Not when I have other stuff to do, you know. Now, when I have a job to go to, yeah, or a child to take care of. I can't ignore them and play Started Value all day. It's not possible. Yeah, I'm picturing that meme with the sims the person throwing the character that. But there's like one where she's sitting on the computer and then all fired. Yes, Okay, that's George. That's George. But what does Xbox not a computer? Yes? Which is worse to me? Yeah? Yeah, well, I mean they're both there, both bad. But when is a SIMS mean? Yeah, one is not real, right, one is pretend? Yes, And this went on. They did not get better, but Julie thought he could change, and she really wanted to make it work. She didn't want to grow up. She didn't want Leyla to grow up like she did with a single mom. You know, you know, this is the problem. What I tell people all the time, all the time. There's nothing wrong. No, there's nothing wrong with going up with divorced parents in a single parent household, especially of the other parent is neglectful and harmful, you know what I mean? Like, yes, And I was gonna say this is the problem with society, yeah, not like emphasizing only caring about the what is it like the typical two parent women, two parent household? Yeah, because like regardless of Julie having grown up with a single mom, all her family was around taking care of her like everyone everyone, She had the support, even if a father was not present, Her grandparents were there her all her family like everyone. So I think when you don't do like self work or an insane amount of therapy, like almost too much. You don't realize, like you don't need to be comparing where you are in life to where other people were. You don't need to be like, oh the greener, the grass is greener on this side, where oh I need to stay in this marriage because two parents is always better and blah blah blah blah. There's all this like societal messaging about that, and yes, stigmug and single moms and yeah, and when you have the resources you can break away from those sticks. You have the power to do that. And not everyone is there, Yeah, and that's unfortunately. I wish people were there because yeah, like oftentimes, like it's more harmful to the children to be like in this case, and yeah, sometimes to the other parent, you know, honestly, Like it's always usually worse to stay in a bad one hundred relationship marriage, you know, yeah, unless it really does get better, I don't then okay, fine, but no, Yeah, George didn't change at all. But she wanted this to She wanted this two parent households so bad for Layla. So they got married in secret because her family was not going to approve. She knew they weren't gonna proof. They would tell her he's not a good dad, he's not a good partner, he needs to step up. He's not doing he's not doing what a man is supposed to do. But you know that part, to me, it's like if he had been taken care of Laila, this want to be a problem. Yeah. And also like sometimes when you tell people again and again and again that their partner is trash, they fucking suck Like it just pushes the other person away, causes them to be creative, secretive, and to no longer go to you for some part, which seems that like was the case here. That's true because yeah, when Layla was almost two, they got married in secret because Julie didn't want to tell her family, Yeah, because of all the things that had been saying about her, and she wanted that about him, yes, and then and she really wanted that to parent household for Laila. But seven months after the marriage, Julie confided to her mom that she wanted to leave George. Wow. She realized that he was never going to change, So she took Leayla and moved in with her grandparents back to Springs Something Springs depressed and Springs Now that wasn't the name straying up, Dripping Spring, Dripping Oh, my goodness, it's suppressing. My bad. I don't it's probably a fine town. I don't know. That just came out accidentally. Anyway. She moved back to Dripping Springs with her grandparents and took Layla with her. She was over it, she was ready to leave him. But for the next six months, George was dragging his feet, refusing to sign the vorce papers. Of course he was they always do this shit. No, of course, she called the lawyer, she drafted up the papers, she sent them to him. The last thing he just needed to sign. That's it. Wow. And during these six months of her trying to co parent, trying to be keep the peace, to try and get him to sign those papers, they were still going to split custody fifty fifty. Like she was trying to just not be with him anymore, but amicably. Yeah. So during these six months, she was, you know, back in her hometown now, and she was at the store one day and she ran into her long lost love from her teenage years, which was inappropriate back then but not so much today. Their adults now erin And so she was grocery shopping when they ran into each other at the store, and apparently they she didn't even buy whatever she was going grocery shopping for. She just got so distracted running into Erin that we spent two hours talking that day at the grocery store d and she was so excited. She went home. She called her mom and she's like, oh my god, you won't believe what I ran into. And they started seeing each other after that. They called their relationship official in November two thousand and nine, and they were both very similar, hard working, driven. Julianne could see right away. Erin was responsible, reliable, He had his own apartment, he had steady work as an electrician. Basically everything in George was not. And they were adults now. She was twenty one, he was twenty eight, so it wasn't like the first time where it was illegal and wrong. So you know, they're like, okay, we can, we can do this now. Like they were happy, but there was still one obstacle. Julie was still married to George because his aus was refusing to sign the force papers like a little bitch. Yeah, So Julie made sure to keep her relationship with Aaron tight. She didn't want to upset George because he still was reason to sign the papers. They still had to Copare and Leila together. She wanted to make sure everything was still good, that he was like, not upset George so near Lailah. When Layla was around, she never used Aaron's name so that she couldn't say, Mommy met Aaron, Yeah, Mommy Brian Aaron over. Yeah. She also made her my Space page private so not only friends could see it. That way, George couldn't see it because she deleted his ass as soon as she moved out. No longer in my top eight. You know, I can't picture being married if you didn't put your spouse on the top eight like you know back then. So she deleted him right away when she moved out. But she didn't think to remove George's cousin Addie from her friends. She man, there's always one nitch cousin or simply for real, for real, and I see everything. So he showed George a picture Julie uploaded with Aarin that they were at the Austin Zoo together on a day she had Leilah. They were there together. The picture was just them too, though it wasn't them too when Leila looking like a family, which probably would have upset him more. But that was still upsetting to him because he again was refusing to sign the papers right. So after he saw this picture, George started acting erratic and desperate. He faked amnesia on a weekend to get Julie and back amnesia. Amnesia, yes, And then he admitted to faking the amnesia. And she's like, I already knew, bitch. Wow. He also tried to kill himself. She had picked up Leila from her George, and George told her after she was already gone, like, hey, there's a note in Nail's diaper bag. Like he told her this later and and when she finally read it and she was in her car to read the note, it was a suicide letter. Wow. So she rushed back to his house called nine one one, and he had taken some pills at the emergency services did arrive and saved him. But again, if he was really going to do way, he would have just done it. There was no need. This was manipulative, This wasn't well, it's a control tactic. But people like him, you know, the yes, taking forever to sign the divorce papers, trying to reel her back in with faking the illnesses. Yeah, and now this like it's too real, her back in and to maintain control. Yeah, and threatening suicide when someone's trying to leave you is abuse. It's to control. Yeah, yeah, it is abuse. So he was doing these things, but he was also showing up her work at the Walgreens pharmacy unannounced of course, stalking her. Yes, yeah, this is very I don't want to sound like I'm minimizing, making it sound like an everyday thing, but this is like textbook like abusive behavior. Yeah, yeah, I know. These are the clear signs, the controlling, the stocking. Well, those aren't even signs. Those are like abusive control. My bad. Yeah, that's what I mean by signs. They are the things that abusive people are doing that you can say, you can clearly say this is abuse. Yes, yeah, okay. So he would call the pharmacy frequently and just hang up, like again, controlling. Julie's boss had to kick him out of the store multiple times. There was another night where Julie freaked out called her boss after work, telling her that George was following her in his car, and during that call Julianne told her boss, if something ever happens to me it was him, Oh my god. But she didn't want to cause any trouble by reporting him to the police because again, she just wanted the divorce to be peaceful. She's just trying to keep the peace. Yeah, that makes sense, and sometimes things don't improve by going to the police or by filing or straining order. I saw a while ago on TikTok a video and it was there was like sources and stuff, so it was like legitimate, but I don't remember the mau like the percentage. But the video talked about how when women or victims of like talking or violence garistraating order, their chance of being like physically harmed by their abuse or like spikes significantly. I'm not surprised how many stories, like not stories, like real accounts of pieces have we seen that this exact thing is happening. So, yeah, that's the statistic is not surprising at all. On days that they had to exchange Leyla George would have blocked the front door to preventually from leaving again abuse. Yeah, and it's it's scary too. This is the kind of situation where I know I know that she wanted to do the piece, and it makes sense that she wanted to keep the peace, but he was not cooperating regardless of her trying to keep the peace, and it would have been a situation where she maybe could have like qualify from like soul custody or having some kind of supervised person like a lot of times, like some people when they're in a situation like this with an abusive co parent, then you can get somebody else to like coordinate others to do the pick up and drop off. But like those things take time and effort to look up money. Sometimes you have to pay for others to supervise a visit and all of that. So, yeah, it's a lot. It's hard. It's hard. Julie Dish start having family members come with her for drop offs and pickups, and eventually the exchange was done between Julie and George's mother because she could do it with Georgia Brown and luckily her family was more than one yeah with her every time, and George's mother was willing to do it too, because sometimes the parents enable this kind of behavior and don't like offer to help out and stuff. Yeah, so this is how things were for a while, and then on March twenty fifth, twenty ten, Julie was talking to her mom. She was on the phone. She had just spent the night with Aaron. This was a Friday now, and it was her turn to go pick up Leila. For some reason that day, she I mean maybe because she was already nearby because she was at Aaron's. She just said, I don't need a family member to come with me. I'm already right here. She did ask Arin that day for him to not go to work so they could stay together and watch movies like, but he was like, no, I gotta work. I gotta go. Like I can't. I don't have like I have bills coming up, I don't have sick days. I have to go. They said bye to each other, and she was like all right. She called her mom and she was like, oh, no, you don't need to come with me. It's okay. I'm like right here. So she went and did the pickup, and then like later she Julie's mom was expecting her a phone call again, because she was always calling her on her days off, like repeatedly. It was very normal for them. The phone call never came. The next day, Julie's mom was calling again and again and Julie was not picking up. So right away, Julie's mom and her tias, everyone was worried. They reached out to Erin and he told them she broke up with him. He had received a text message saying she had to get away, and he was confused because he was like, things were perfectly fine. That doesn't make any sense. Yeah it doesn't, Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Julie's younger sister also started getting texts from Julie's phone, but it was in a way that she never texted it. It was like things were misspelled. It was slaying that Julie just didn't use even in her text messages. She was very proper the show. I was watching the episode on this. Her grandpa was like, she has sent a text that had the effort in it. She doesn't use this kind of language. Never, She's never like that. And he's like, and I know I'm a grandpa saying this, but no, I promise you she never used this language. She would never send it in a text message. But these texts all had all that kind of stuff, things she would never say. Then they all looked at Julie's MySpace page together and it had this post going away hate all this ps want to run away again in a way. She would never write things, just a one run on sentence, no spaces, no proper She was very proper. So the educators and she showed it. Yeah, they were like, this isn't her. There's no way. Then there was another post it said, I met a software engineer named James and I'm leaving with him for Colorado. I hope he's going to show me a good time again. They're like, no way, There's no way she would ever leave Layla. Layla, her daughter was a world to her. She wouldn't just up and leave her for some guy named James when she was also that she had never even mentioned to anybody else, and she was in a loving, happy relationship with Aaron. Like, that's ridiculous, exactly. It sounds like something someone dumb would make up, some dumb motherfucker. But playing spots and Lisa's kid in dirty diapers all day long, that's what that sounds like. No, because I thought the same thing right away. So Aaron then met up with Julie's mom and her tia, and he showed them a letter that Julie had left, and the letter just talks about how she was so happy she was looking forward to them having a little boy together. Honestly, the letter was the cute. It reminded me of something you write in middle school or in high school to a boyfriend where you're playing your features together, which honestly makes sense if they were together for a little bit when she was in high school. Yeah, like maybe she was still hot, like she was remembering those and she just wrote down. It was like written on you know, binder paper, and it had like, you know how you used to write bubbly letters like yeah, yeah, okay, So it had Aaron and Julie in bubble letters that were like shaded, and then she wrote, you know, the whole thing. And I'm like, first of all, was damn, who writes like that this much? Things these days? But this was in twenty ten, oh yeah yeah, and she wrote like she was She wrote, I can't wait for us to live our lives together. We're gonna have a little boy, We're gonna get married, live as a family with Leila here, and I'll like, you know, live together. It's gonna be so beautiful. It's everything we ever wanted, Like it was a beautiful letter. So the breakup text he received just didn't make any sense, yeah, because like how would she write this heartfelt letter and then hours later break up with him via text with no explome nation, right, Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. No, and the family agreed with him, so they all went out looking for her, also the normal response where they knew she would hang out, but no one had seen her. So then they filed the missing persons report and police did arrive at Julie's mom's house forty eight hours later after you know, she was picking up the calls or anything. They took statements, but then another officer was like, wait a minute, this sounds familiar. This name you're telling me Julie Ane Gonzalez. He's like, I'm pretty sure I took a statement about this earlier. And then the family mentioned like, well, the last one to see in her if it was an errand it had to be George de la Cruz, her ex, And then he was like, wait a minute, George la Cruz. Yeah, he called and gave a report, and he looked through his files and he's like, yeah, George de la Cruz called in a report or called into report that his wife abandoned their child. What the hell? Yes, And so now the family was freaking out because one, she would never abandon Leila, and then Austin PD were like, well, she's an adult, like and she's allowed to leave if that's what she's doing, Like, there's nothing to do here that. I hate when that like that. I say that because sure it's true, but also like, why can't you take into account like literally everyone that knows this person saying they would never do anything like that. Yeah, No, seriously, I wonder the same thing. Her family was to drop. They had no choice but to wait. The next morning, Julie'stia was on her way to work when she decided she would drive the route Julie took too from her house to her work. She passed by a Walgreens, not the Walgreens Julie worked at a different one, but she passed by and saw Julie's car parked in the parking lot. It was the only car in the parking lot that morning. She pulled in. She rushed in, ran to the car, and nothing was inside. She called Julie's mom and Aaron. She called both to them and they arrived a little bit earlier, but while she was waiting for them to arrive, she ran inside, thinking, oh my god, maybe she's just inside this store. But she wasn't there. She talked to the front desk person, not from desk. This is a Walgreens, it's not a clinic. She talked to the cashier, the cash person at the cash register, and they hadn't seen her. So by now Aaron and Julie's mom arrived and yeah, they were like, no, this is weird. She would never leave her car either, like, so they called the police, who did go to check it out because they could have easily ignored it. And while the police were checking the car out, Julie's mom begged them like look into George, like this might have been the last person to see her. Plus he lives around the corner from this Walgreens. Yeah, and her car is right here, Like this is two they can't be a coincidence exactly, And so yeah, police went over to George's house and when police arrived, George told them, well, Julianne was acting weird. She asked me to keep Lailah with me this weekend instead of taking her because she has something to do, and she just left, and she looked like she was under the influence of some drugs, even though she had no history of taking drugs at all. So he let police inspect the house. They they were like, all right, we're going to make sure she's not here. So they looked around. They made their way to the backyard, which had a playhouse and a storage shed in it. And the shed had a large square cut into the piewood floor and there was fresh sawdust around it. The officer noticed that the cut portion was loose. When he stepped on it, it almost fell in. It almost caved in when he stepped on it. So he lifted the piewood and there was a weird empty trench that was about five feet long, two feet wide, and one and a half feet deep. That's the size of a person. Wow. Yeah. George claimed that someone had dug the hole for plumbing purposes. Later way later, his mom would testify that when she asked about the hole, he acted as surprise and told her he had no idea how the hole got there. Oh my god, a human signed a hole for plumbing, and not even like a big human, right fight queen. Yes. And so even though this trench was very out of place. The police didn't consider anything to be suspicious. Come on, man, yeah they didn't. Yeah, so whatever. They were just like, all right, well, there's nothing here. She seemed to have disappeared voluntarily, and you know, as far as they could tell, Julianne was alive, not in any imminent danger. Wow. That's a hard word to say. Yeah, and she had voluntarily withdrawn from family and friends, so there was no crime. I just don't understand. I don't understand why they can't. Don't also, or didn't take into consideration that she was texting differently than she normally does. Wouldn't that be like a sign that that wasn't her? It should be Yeah, you would think, you would think, but no. Her family just was like, all right, it's up to us now. So they went back to where Julie's car was, and her mom and her Dyeah slept there like two days in a row, seeing if she would come back. She didn't come back, and again police were like, we're not going to do anything. Our hands are tied. So the family started putting up missing posters everywhere, no missing flyers everywhere. They paid for a missing poster billboard on the side of the freeway just have you seen me? And then it had her info and her information. They sent out hundreds and hundreds of emails. They were able to get local the local Fox seventh channel to cover her story, how she hadn't been seeing, how the police wasn't doing anything. They talked to anyone and everyone, and the community really came together searching for her. Even Aaron, who the family, was like, oh my god, what did he do it? He was one of the last ones to see her, even he was out there looking helping every day, and we're real George, yes, I was, you know who didn't do shit? Who? Even her Julianne's youngest sister was like, where is that motherfucker? No? Where do we seen? No? Where do we seen? Finally, on April sixth, Austin p d brought Georgian for questioning, and in his interview, George told the detective that he was worried someone took her or made her belief she had to run away. The detective was like, well, I had to ask did you kill her? And George was like, I would never. My daughter was with me, like I could never, And the detective noted George soundered nervous, but he was like, I mean, who wouldn't sound nervous, It's true, asked if you killed someone, So he was like, there's nothing suspicious about his behavior. And there that's where it ended, and the family was left wondering and desperate. The days turned into weeks. One month later, May twenty ten, the family got a call from the Doctor Phil Show. They let the family know that George had agreed to come onto the show and take a light detective test on camera. Was the family trying to get on the show and get George on the show or did George take it upon himself. Doctor Phil contacted George, Oh okay on the stories Yeah, oh my god. First of all, this is stupid to agree to. Yeah, George is stupid. You should never agree to take a polygraph test, even if they're not admissible to court. This is just dumb ass behavior. Yeah. Again, he's not very smart. Yeah. And the and the Doctor Phil Show wanted to let the family know and also give them a chance to see if they wanted to be on the show too, which they agree to. They were like, name out, yeah, wow, so let me send I'm shocked a video. Yeah, this is the family getting the results of the test. Okay, so, but they did show the whole thing him taking it as well. Oh wow, are you ready? Yeah? One two three, then play so one two three. He was asked, are you responsible for Julie's disappearance? He answered no. He was asked, did you cause Julie's disappearance during the month of March? He answered no. Those were not truthful answers. He failed the PolyGram. Test, and we we knew it. This was not a close call. This was not a close call at all. If if he scored a minus two or three, that would be conclusive. Minus three to either of those questions or minus four in concert is deceptive on this particular format, and his score was minus fourteen. Let's talk about this. Wow, So like again, fuck doctor Phil. Yeah, but he was doing more than the police at this point, not because he's a good person, because he's an opportunistic little bitch. Yeah. Yeah, it feels almost wrong watching this because polygraphs are not I don't want to be as Yeah, there's a reason they're in admissible in court. And yeah, this is just playing off, you know, exploiting their emotions, and I don't I don't know, but I understand that of course it would feel like they knew it all along. Yeah, and validating to them, Yeah, that will leave it there understandable. Yeah. So it was hard though seeing her react like that, like, yeah, she was like trying to hold it in and she couldn't anymore. I'm like, oh my god. Yeah. Again very parasitic of doctor philm but no, yeah, like the normal yeah yeah. Yeah. So another part that I couldn't find the clip of, but it is in an episode of Killer Relationships. They showed footage of George and his mom after the polygraph test and the mom is like what did you do? What did you do? Crying and like asking him and he's like nada, na his mommy, you know me, you know me? And she's like no, damn. Actually that's that's the right one that was on air on the episode, and Austin PD was watching. Wow, And so this kicked off the real investigation for Austin PD. Not only did they know this kid's stupid. Yes, of course they started getting bombarded with calls because they're like we saw this on Doctor Phil. They're like, hey, what are you doing about this? Why are you not looking into this, Why are you not investigating? Why is that your film investigating? Did your fucking job? So finally they were like, okay, let's open this up. This is no longer a missing case. This is a homicide case. Detectives wanted to bring him in now for proper questioning, but George lawyered up, and they gave him. They gave him a lot of times lawyer up. So but it's your right to have a lawyer. No, of course, it is your right. Yeah, it's always funny funny in shows when the person doesn't lawyer up and just like confesses, and it's like, this is not the way it works in real life, Like, yeah, Bones, that happened so much on Bones, detectives try searching for this supposer James. They had to follow up every lead, especially now that they couldn't get George. It just pissed me off that they could have been doing this all along. But okay, oh yeah, but they refused them to until it was on Doctor Phil. So in a way, the publicity that that garnered exactly not Doctor Phil is not to think for, but the publicity that came with it that finally got them to be like, that's funny looking they really kind of family checked this beforehand. Yeah, yeah, of course. So detectives tried to search for the supposed James to see if you existed. They looked into phone records, into social media. They also looked into Aaron because they had to search every avenue investigation now that they were finally investigating, So they brought Aaron back in questioning him. He was shocked about the text messages, confused, he didn't understand, he didn't believe it was her. But then he also told them he deleted the messages, he didn't have them anymore, and detectives were like, that's a red flag. Okay, now they're talking about red flags. Okay, I don't know if I would want to see the person I was with. I wouldn't want a reminder of these messages if I didn't even know where they were. Like, I understand the deletion, and I guess I understand them looking that looking suspicions. Understand both ways. Both yeah both. So then they were like, let's go over that Friday that you were together. So Aaron told him told the police that Julianne had asked him to skip work that day because she had the day off too, and they could like hang out watch movies, and he was like, no, I need to go to work, and so he left for work and that was the last time he saw her. Later, he came home and he found the letter that she had written for him, the one I mentioned earlier that was it was very cute. And they took that letter to compare it to other handwriting that the family had of things she had written out planning the planners, things like that, and the handwriting was a match. This was a genuine letter. This was really Julianne. They were really in a good, committed relationship. Finally, Aaron was ruled out, so this search for the alleged James went nowhere. Then finally they decided to focus on George again because he was the only other lead they had. They were looking at the evidence and it took them to George. Yes, the path went to George, back to George. Yeah, I went sin circle back to George. So they found out George had used Julie's debit card right before she went missing or right after, sorry, right after she went miss key uster. Yeah, after there was debit card. Like they looked at the bank records and they saw that it had been used at a store after her family said she was missing. So with this they were able to get a warrant to search his house. Yes, at the house they found various steps of ammunition, lake text gloves and knife, pieces of burn clothes from a pit in the backyard, a lot of cleaning products, digging tools near that trench that was there, and a big dirt pile behind the storage shed there was also it had been that big dirt pile had been covered with the mattress and other household items. Interesting. So weird things, but not like in need it on their own right. When they asked about the debit card usage, he said, oh, well, when she had left, she came back to put it in the mailbox for me so I could use it for our daughter. That makes zero sense. Why would she leave it in the mailbox when if she was still there she would be like, here's my debit card. Also, does he not have his own money? But whatever? Probably not. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. He just plays Xbox alting. Yes, so this was an immediate red flag. Yeah, still not enough to get an arrest warrant, but they had a warrant to search the house, So they took the Xbox to analyze, and they also took his phone and they already had Julie's phone and the phone records, but like, technology isn't where it was today, I don't know, So it took them a long ass time to get that information. Years went by. Her family kept putting up posters. When the ones that they had put up before started wiring out, they would put up new ones. They unfortunately had lost contact with their granddaughter Layla because George and his mom didn't let them see her. Well that just piss me off, Wow, it really does. Yeah, because like he Okay, at this point in time and the where we're at, he wasn't proven to be him yet, but like he took their daughter from them, and now he's taking their granddaughter right because he's not letting them see her. Yeah. Then in twenty thirteen, the data from George's Xbox was finally available to Austin PD. So George typically gamed eighteen fucking hours a day, every day, without a beat, without missing that the day Julie went missing, the Xbox had not been used for twenty hours. Okay, so they were like, okay, this is suspicious. Yeah, when the Xbox was back on and reconnected to the internet. It was at a friend's house in North Austin, Julie's phone also being there after she was already missing. It was from the same IP address as the xbox. So he was like taking his xbox around to places. Yeah, he took his xbox his house over to his friend's house. Okay, I see, I see yeah, and after it was not usually for twenty hours. Presumably George's Xbox and Julie's phone were in the same place after she was missing. Right, Julie was not there. She was missing before that. The Xbox hadn't been used for twenty hours. Twenty hours not for him exactly, like he was busy or something like he was doing something out of the ordinary that day. Yes, because again this without a beat was on eighteen hours a day. So then police were able to find video surveillance from a Walmart that caught George on camera texting. Those texts matched with time stabs on Julie's phone. He was the one who sent the breakup message to Aaron, of course, and he was the one texting the family nonsense and things that were grammarly incorrect and think she would never say. He also was the one who updated the MySpace page. Three years after she went missing, police finally had enough for an the rest warrant. They brought George Dela Cruz in. When Austin PD arrested George, they contacted Julie's family so they would know George has been arrested, he's admitted to killing her, but there was nobody still. Oh my god. They were devastated because they were still hoping she would return because all this time she was missing. Yeah, but now he's been arrested and he's admitted to killing her. So the trial began in the fall of twenty thirteen, but the DA was very concerned about the outcome because they did not have a body. These cases are the hardest, yeah, hardest to prove, so it took them two years to prepare the case. Finally, in twenty fifteen, they found a clear motive that just couldn't to them. It was like, this is solid. George had found out about her and erin because again his fucking cousin at Yette. I hope Marienne feels horrible about this. I really probably doesn't if he's related to George to yeah, I hope means white hope. But I don't know. It turns out George saved that picture. They found it out his phone, the one that I showed him. He had it on his phone. Dumb ass move my god. If he really not more than dumbass allegations, No he's not so. At the trial, in May testified that while in jail, because from twenty thirteen to twenty fifteen, George had been in jail waiting trial. So what sellmate testified that George had been venting that he and his estranged wife Julie got into an argument because another man, Aaron, was in her life and they were together. George told the inmate that the argument turned physical and that Julie Anne fell and hit her head and was rendered unconscious. And when George told this to the cellmate, he minimized the fight that they had, that it was an accident, of course, of course, but there was a fact that he dug that trench in his backyard before Julianne even arrived to pick up Leilam so premeditated. This was planned because he had also presented to be her on the phone when he was texting, and so there was it was clear that this fight and her missing. All this is in the same day, and the witnesses testimony like further corroborated all of this. Yeah, because now they had a definitive like there was a fight. Yeah, so they had all the information already about the trench being there or a doug he was impersonating her on the cell phone. And then they found out about the argument from that inmate. Mm hmmm. And then also so they well, do I have this in my news? Let me just double check. I don't, okay. So another thing that the state really tried to emphasize in their argument is that this was actually pre planned. It wasn't like even what George told that inmate, because he had asked to keep Layla an extra day and he had that. The day he kept Layla is when he dug the trench. The next day, she without a family friend to pick up. So that's another thing I think. So it was like an out of ordinary routine pickup. So then she was like others heids name, She's already has it arranged and scheduled with, Yeah, like her family to come with her to pick Leela. Yes, but then now we have a pickup date. That's on a different day, and she's like, oh, it's fine. Maybe it's not inconvenience anybody, maybe because she thought, you know, of course, nothing of it, because who would think like something like that would aim to them? Yes, exactly, So they were arguing this was planned, and I agree with them. He took an extra day exactly, like there's no way around it to me. Yeah. So the defense, you know, emphasized that George didn't have a criminal history, but the state called up Julianne's mom, her aunt. They all talked about how much they missed Julianne. You know. Victim impact statements I think is what they're called, where they come and you know, testify like what how this has affected them, and also that they're keeping Leila from them too. So and then the defense called Victoria, George's mother, to cecify that George had never been convicted of a felony, that he was a good son, good brother, he was raised by both his parents, like that means anything, that he was never physically or sexually abused. Again, people putting emphasis on this arbitrary structure or not structured what's the word, I know what you mean, socially constructed? Yes, expectation. Yes, yeah, so they emphasized or they She shared that he had ever been physically or sexually abused. Again, what is that? Don't I don't know what that would implicate on his character. I'm not sure. She said he graduated from high school, that when he was employeed, he contributed to household expenses. But she can't even say he's responsible because he wasn't always employed in contributing to household expenses. So yeah, and then she called them an angel. At first I thought I was like, oh, she she when you talked about the field doctor philla interview or whatever, not interview, what's it called? But then the state played that clip of doctor film. What do you think here? Huh? But on this date what he said this explain that I wish I don't think they did. No. I mean, that would be points that would sound like a sound argument. It's not, but it would be funny. It was right. So the trial lasted one week and after six hours, the jury found him guilty. George guilty of murder at the first degree. He was sentenced to life in prison. Once he was in trial or doing this trial, the family of Julie Anne also brought forth a civil suit over the custody of Layla. Oh wow, and they forced George's family into a fifty fifty split custody for her good, which, honestly, I love for them because it's so stupid that, like, first of all, not even stupid. It's wrong to keep her from her a family. Yeah, and that's what they were doing. Yeah, And I'm like you, obviously it's not always the parents fallow how children turn out. But you raise a murder you raised George. Yeah, so like you raised George de la Cruz. So what does that mean? Yeah, it has doing something right? I think so, I think so. I don't know, I feel like, Yeah, George remains in prison to this day. He maintains that he's innocent, and you can find clips of him his Doctor Phil appearance. He's on the show trying to blame another family member on Julie's side of the family for her disappearance. How does that make any sense? None of what he says makes sense when before it was oh yeah, James like a bunch of dumb lies that he can't even keep track of because he's dumb again, Yeah, dumb. But you know, at the end of the day, her family. One. The person who lost in all of this is Laila because now her stupid ass father is in prison because of the stupid thing he did, because he's a controlling piece of shit. Yeah right, and then he took Leayla's mom's life. She doesn't have her parents now, you know, her parents or her mom. Juliana's mom lost her daughter forever, her aunts, they all are missing her in her remains are still they don't know where they are. Fucking George won't say because he maintains he's innocent. They're holding out hope that he one day changes his mind and says, actually, this is so fucking sad, but this is what they're waiting for. This is what Julie and Mom said in the episode. She said, we're holding out hope that when Lena is old enough, she might ask her dad. We're not gonna make her because that's wrong, that's terrible. Yeah, but we're wondering if she will be old enough one day and she'll wonder and she'll ask him, and then finally he'll admit it. That's their hope. Now that's terrible, right, yeah, so that they can finally give her a proper funeral and put her to rest. Yeah, because they still don't know where she is. She's still missing. That's yeah, horrible, like there's no one else. No, there really isn't. And that was the case of Julianne Gonzalez. George, may you raw and hell and also your cousin Adiel for sharing that. And I guess. Yeah, that brings us to the end of the episode. Yeah, before we go, we'll take a little outbreak here and we're back for speaking recommendations. Do you have any actually, I do do. It's more like a crime thriller novel. I guess, okay, but I listened to start pulling it up. I finished quite a few books since the last time you recorded, because I wasn't here last time. That's right. Yeah, let's see, I talked about The Last Housewife in our book club. We're a book club with MJ. Reading with MJ. And that's right. Yeah, so yeah, let me know if anyone wants to join MJ's book club. She just runs it on discord. It's very in for but you can chat with her and all of us on the book that she has chosen, which is parable of well, you can say it parable of the Sower and I finished it already because I was listening to the audiobook, and I go through audibooks healthfast because I listen to it when I'm walking and driving, you know, and it was really good. I think most people probably know what it's about. Parable of the Sower is is a series. There's one other book, the earth Seed series. It's by Octavia Butler, and the description is when global climate change and economic crisis leads to social chaos in the early twenty twenties now now California, it becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen year old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with their preacher father, family and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy in society where any vulnerability is a risk. She suffers from hyper empathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' emotions. Precocious and clear eid, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters of her small community. Severally ignores, but what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more the birth of a new faith and a startling vision of human destiny. It was really good. I won't say it's much because you're still reading. Yeah, I'm on chapter two. This was blown up on TikTok because people were like, oh my gosh, she was predicting the future. But I just want to say she was looking at the world around her, using what is literally going on at the time, and like seeing where it's going. But it's not like not only that she was describing the past. Oh sorry, that too, the president in the past. For her, everything she mentioned has happened, right, but also people in the book. People keep pointing to Trump as being the figure in her book, but it was based on Reagan, right, because all of this has happened before. This is what I'm saying, Like, this is the same, This moment in time is nothing new, you know what I mean? Yeah, And sadly this is why people say like, oh, unpercenteded times and I'm like, no, they're very president. Everything has been precedented. COVID was precedented. That's not the first, you know, widespread worldwide infectious disease. It's like not even the second or the fifth. Right, Like, all of this has happened before. And yeah, a lot of people like when they're talking about this book, they they're like, oh, this is this is our president. These are horrible events. Blah blah blah blah. I read a I don't know if I saved it, but I read a post on read it about it, and they're like, I think what she wanted to take, what Octavia wanted readers to get out of it, is to like the way that Lauren and the people she comes across, their vibe is by trusting each other, by building community. Yes, yes, also a lot of people don't read the rest and the s Yeah, I'm gonna read. I'm yeah, listen to the second one soon. But also like also by not being in denial, you know. And because so you're in chapter two, I think you I don't think this is spoiler, because I think you probably already read about it, but everyone in her community it's like, oh, no, that's not going to happen to us, like about every little thing. And then you got to the part where she's trying to talk to her friend like about prepping. Yeah, and her friend goes and stitches and then she gets in trouble and it's like nothing she was saying was out outrageous, Like she was just like we should all have gobacks. Yeah, we all should have go backs. So I have one, No, I should probably get one ready soon. But like these are little things that we can all do, like every day to prepare ourselves for emergencies, whether whatever kind of emergency they are, you know what I mean. And so yeah, I think that was one thing that that Reddit post. It's like really like it stood out to me, like it's not about the horrible things that are happening in this book and yeah, they're horrible, it's about the people coming together, learning to trust each other in this high stress environment and learning how to prepare for Yeah, it's like the Walking Dead and actually yeah, I was financed can have reviews of it. And then people are like, this is very like giving me Walking Dead vibes. Yeah, where it's like, yeah, it's horrible, but you have to build a community, trust the people in that community, and survive together. And that's how you get You cannot get through the pandemic, the zombie apocalypse or right now by yourself. You need community. Also, why I wanted to announce that we and I've been forgetting to do this, but starting now, we are gonna do twenty percent of our patron funds are going to go to some charity. It's probably always going to be immigration or at least Latin or Latina related. Right now, it's all going to be immigration related. So I mean, if you have charity suggestions, let us know and we'll look into those. I already have several too, So yeah, because that's important, Like it's on your neighbors, even though I don't want to. I am gonna work on that. But but my neighborhood I don't know. No, yeah, you's you know, acting it anyway, all that to say that I highly recommend this book, but I think again, I think people are focusing too much on oh, she's predicting the future, blah blah blah, Like that's not what it's about. That's not what this book is about. Like, oh, she's a magician or a or a not a magician, what does that thing claroyan? Yeah, yeah, it's like, no, she's a black woman who knew how things were going, who knew how how things had gone. Yes, yes, so anyway, the only thing I didn't like, honestly, it's the orty stuff. Oh my god, it makes it the trilogy. Yes, yeah, it makes sense. It does make sense the way she's like working things out. But honestly, was too preachy for me. It's just not I'm just not a spiritual kind of person. It didn't it didn't fit my vibe, although it was funny though parts of it are funny, like when she's talking to the other people about it and they're like, oh my god, I guess that's all I'll say about it. But yeah, everyone should read it and listen to it, whatever content, and if you want to chat about it again, MJ has a discord yeah, where she we're doing like very informal discussions about it. Yeah. And then I listened to and read a few other thrillers and when was The Housemaid? Which I don't want to talk about Freedom mcfannon because I'm just kidding, because because I saw a TikTok that Ashley was reading, well, not reading, she just had the book. I'm sure she didn't read it. She was just holding it upside down. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was upside down. It was a Freedom mcfaannon book. She's like, oh, I'm gonna read Freedom mcfann and I heard she was good, and I saw my a book club about it. I'm like, you, guys, I'm sorry, I can't read. I can't read Free to her again. But they're just like, what do they call them? Popcorn thrillers. It's just entertaining. Its substance to it. It just catchy, entertains in a while, that's what you want, you know, honestly, most of the time, that's what I want to read. And I finished it in a weekend because it was very I couldn't put it down. Yeah, ridiculous, honestly, but nonetheless very entertaining. And you know, if you're into that kind of like entertaining thriller that you can't put down. Of course, I'm sure everyone has read it by now. Yeah. And then I listened to another one called The Last Housewife, and it reminded me of a true crime story I had heard and I cannot remember. I feel like they probably the author took inspiration from that true crime case, because the true crime case was a group of college girls who and there's like podcasts and documentaries about this, but I of course don't remember the case or anything about like the names of anything, but it was four. I don't know it was four. It was college girls who who became friends with one of their roommate's dad. But the dad turned out to be like control and abusive, and you know what I'm talking about. So I don't know the name of the case. Well, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, And he basically ends up having like a cult. He becomes the cult leader of these of those girls, college girls. Yeah, And that's kind of what the book is about. Let me see the and It's the Last Housewife by Ashley Winstead. Description. While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends and met a captivating man who said to stem but the web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now eight years later, she's built a new life in a Tony, Texas suburb, But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death, delivered always by her favorite to crime podcast Crusade Her, she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive and the prayer is more dangerous than error. Recruiting the help of the podcast host, who actually is like her childhood friends, so it's not just like a random podcast host that she was just at to because I feel like that would have been like far fetched, but it's her childhood friend who happens to have a podcast anyway. Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into the dark, seductive world where wealth and privileged shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shaye's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming, she can no longer separate her desire for justice from dark, darker desires. Nearly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But the world built for men to rule it, both inside the cult and outside of it, is just as even I possible, and is so how far will Shaye go to get it? It was good, Yeah, it was okay. It was kind of hard to listen to because there's like pretty glick graphic descriptions of like sexual abuse control well not like they're not describing the abuse, but what is going on is controlling an abusive like if that makes sense, that's what I meant, yeah, okay, And but they also describe like physical abuse like hitting okay, okay, like lashes like things like that. So I just hate descriptions of sexual abuse the most. They as you want to throw up. It's not like really describing that. But there is like coersion okay, and like manipulation involved this, so like I mean it kind of still is, but it's very of the time now, well even it's from twenty twenty two. I was like, when does this come out? What do you mean of the time, because it's like the cold is like a like a trad uh, like a group of men who wants to bring back like traditional values and you know what I mean, that kind of shit. So that's what I meant. Okay, But it was good. I recommend it. I read it for on five stars. Okay, And let's see what else. The one I recently finished and I really liked it was Where They Last Saw Her, And this one is about missing and murdered Indigenous women. Oh where they last saw her. Yeah by Marcy R. Randon. So here's that description. Quill has lived on the Red Pine Reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what happens to women who look like her, just a girl. When Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge and she ran for help, Quill realizes now that she's never stopped running. As she trains for the Boston Marathon. Early one morning, out in the woods, she hears a scream. When she returns to search the area, all she finds are tire tracks and a single beaded et ring. Things are different now for Quill than when she was a lonely girl. Her friend's Punk. The only thing that bothered me was a friend's name, Punk. I'm like, that's a dumbass nickname. But what I don't like a dumb name? I know, I don't I hate that. Yeah, you're right. Her friends Punk and Galen are two women who don't know what it means to quit her loving husband Crow, and they're beautiful and challenge her to be better every day. So when she hears the second woman has been stolen, she's determined to do something about it, starting with investigating the group of men working in the pipeline construction just north of their homes. As Quill closes in on the truth about the missing woman, someone else disappears in request to find justice for all of the women of the reservation, Oh my God, reservation. She's confronted with the hard truths of their home and the people who purport to serve them. When will she stop losing neighbors, friends, family, As Quill puts everything on the line to make a difference, The novel asks searing questions about Bisundric culture, the averbations of even one act of crime, and the long lasting trauma of being considered invisible. So I really liked it, But some reviews I saw, I said it was a little like have you heard what people say authors should show not tell? Yeah, And people were like, she was telling not showing. But I didn't mind it. I don't know if it's different reading it than listen to it, but I didn't mind it. And then people were complaining about the main character and making dumb ass choices. But she's stressed out, she's trying to figure out what's going on, Like she's not thinking straight, she's just thinking like she has justice on her mind, that's on her mind, So to me, it makes sense the way that she acted, you know what I mean? But people hate us main characters like make dumb choices that I'm like, people make dumb choices all the time, Like, have you never made a dumb choice? Do you think your perfect way? What? I will be the one making the dumb choice? Yeah? Yeah, ten out of ten times, it'll So it was really good. And I finished Hurricane Season. But you've already talked about that, right, I think it was recommendation, yeah, that she will leave you emptiest. I felt more dead inside than I've ever felt. I was not kidding when I said that, you weren't if you want to be, that's just going to fucking destroy you and leave you like a fucking hole and like you're just you've been consumed by a dark hole and there's just no hole. Bless for humanity and everyone's terrible, No one will ever be a good person ever again. Read that book? Yeah, Hurricane Season and then listen to it and finished, and apparently there's a movie too. I'm like, Okay, should I listen to the audiobook or should I watch a movie? But I don't know if I can watch a movie. I can't. I don't. I haven't checked it out. I might, I don't know. You know what's insane to me when people are like, wow, Heurocane Sea thing was mid When someone recommends it as like a really intense book and I'm like, you guys are just psychos. I'm like, what are they reading? What is going on in their mind that they think this was mid psychos? Yes? Yeah, the writing style is very different, like it's I'm getting used to It kind of annoyed me a little bit, but then the end, like I couldn't stop reading it and I waited it first, yeah, before reading it, and I didn't experienced that at all. I was just like whatever, five out of five. But it's hard to say. It's hard to say I enjoyed reading it. Did I enjoy it? It was a visceral type of fields. It was the reason I feel like I read it five at five is because it wasn't all consuming yeah feeling, That's exactly what I was say. Yeah, it's enjoyable. I feeled a lot of things, yes, yeah. Yeah. So I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. I think if you're wanting to everything yeah, if you want to if you want to feel despair, yeah exactly. Yeah, if you just want to feel something, if you've been feeling dead insided, you want to feel worse, yeah, this is the book to read, but worse in a good way where you're like, wow, I feel nothing but despair. No, no, but we talked about that book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, done. Oh wait, well might I have I'm so sorry, God, but I'm sorry, sorry, I have one more recogntion. I thought stump anyway. So it was in the Patron episode I mentioned that I found out that Grady Hendrix has a podcast about vampires, and so I listened to the first episode and it was very campy but very entertaining. Okay, that's what we love. It was like reading one of his books. Honestly, that's awesome. In case anyone's interested, it's super scary haunted homeschool. Okay, well I need to still listen to it, and that's it. I'm done. Okay, finally my turn. All right, this isn't a long episode. I'm sorry, no, no, no, it's like I meant it in a good way. I read the I listened to it. That's how I read. That's what I mean when I say I read, I listened to it. I read The Indifferent Stars above, the harrowing saga of a dinner party bride, because let me tell you, yeah, a woman in the door party. I didn't know a bride in the Donner Party, of course. Okay, I get it now, okay, okay. Well, I was reading a horror book that's like, uh, historical fiction horror on this Donnor Party. But the book I was like halfway through it, and I was like, and you know, I am not one to just not finish a book. I usually finish them mm hmm. But man, nothing was happening. I don't remember telling the book nothing was happening. It was fucking boring. I was like, does this go anywhere? Like what is happening? And I looked up reviews and everyone's like, this book is so boring. If you really want to feel like horrified, just read a true account, a nonfiction book about the Donner Party. And this is the best one, The Indifferent Stars above, And yeah, it's because the stars looking a buck about what's happening to you, Like, this book does not shy away from describing what the Donner Party went through, and that was fucking insane. Just listening to it. I was like, I was like, I'm gonna throw up. Let me read the synopsis. The different stars above traces the step of Sarah Graves, a young bride who left her home in Illinois in the spring of eighteen forty six banked for California. Along the way, she and her husband become members of the notorious and ill fated Donner Party and ran into a world of trouble. And a world of trouble isn't even like a proper description. They ran into like hell, like literally like oh hell. And the book literally is like then they all started dying one by one. They all had to started bantering each other. I mean, and I think we all know by now about the Donner Party, but they had to start eating each other to survive. Yeah, and the book is like they had to cook so and so was Infantelia. I was just like, oh my god, wow. And it's like it doesn't it just it tells. It tells you what happened. It tells you what happened, And that's more horrifying than any horror fiction on the Donner Party. The literal truth story. I think I know the book that you mentioned, because when I was looking through like what it's liking through, I think I was on one of the subreddits from one of the book subreddits, and then somebody was complaining about the book you were talking about, and then they recommended the one you listen to. Okay, And honestly, if you like, I think everyone has that experience with that book that you're talking about. Honestly, I think so, So don't read whatever. The first one I'm talking about is I don't know the name of it, but don't get ready forgot So that's why I'm saying the one you were talking about go straight to the indifferent stars above. Insane, horrifying but true but true. It really happened. And it's also just like written really well, because you know, some nonfiction books are like dry and you're like, I want to know this, but do I really want to know this? And this was written beautifully and it's such a horrifying story, but like there's so much I didn't know, Like there was two Indigenous people that were paid to leave the Darner Party and I learned that on the year Wrong About episode Yes, uh huh, and I actually wanted to look into it. And I'm just like, I feel like I can never do this justice if I wanted to cover it, and so I haven't. Yeah, but I wanted to look into these men because I think one of them was last night, like they were there Spanish. One of them had a Spanish name, but he's an indigenous person, right, And yeah, it's just there. It's a story and it follows Sarah Graves, which is one of the members. But man like harrowing heroin, I don't know how you pronounced that shit horrifying truly, So yeah, that was my speaking recommendation. We've reached the end of the episode finally. Sorry a long one. She was a long one. And again, just a reminder if you want to help us one helped me keep the lights on by helping me pay myself to do this job, but also help us gift to charity, then check out the Patreon we post bonus episodes. We just did as long as when talking about Vampire Media and Fred on Patreon was like, you guys didn't even mentioned Little Vampire God. I forgot about that. Yeah I did, Fred was right, I did. Yeah, that's probably what kicked off my love of vampires. I loved that movie and I loved that little Kid when we were the same age with me. I love watching I just some people, some people to get too far and they're like, oh my god, like when I'm watching the g or when I'm I'm on the digresses have Reddit and you're like, do you guys realized you're adults talking about children? And they're like, no, we're adults who were that age and these people are the same age, Like stop being weird. God. Yeah, anyway, yeah, little a Little Vmpire was great, and so yeah, we spent almost two hours talking about vampire media, all vampire media, books, shows, movies. We yapped for a long time about that. Yeah, and then we also sometimes read re read it stories to and react to them, and when we're together, vlogs. Our last one was a number of blog that was a while ago. And what else? What else? If you joined the Highest here you get a one time keychain and I love those key chains. They're huge and like soft, so those are cool. And then our current book club book we finished it, The Witches of Apasso. We sent out the discussion questions answer the answer you want. I like reading them, but you don't have to answer that it's fine, but again we like reading them and we will record that probably next week, honestly. Yeah, now this brings us to the end of the episode. Okay, I don't think we have any more new announcements. No, all right, stay at Spookie. We'll catch everyone next time. Buy My Book Tells is hosted by Christina and Carmen, produced and edited by Christina, researched by Christina Carmen, and with the help of Don shout out with Don. If you aren't joying the podcast considerably, going to say five star review, we would really appreciate it. If you don't want to the five star review, just don't leave a review. But don't leave anything lower than that, please, I'm just kidding. You can reach out to the podcast at a spooktees at gmail dot com. You can go to our website at bookitos dot com and fill out the contact form. 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