The Case of Homero Gomez Gonzalez and Feel-Good but Sad Ghost Stories

Hi everyone. This is Christina and Carmen and this is another episode of his Spooky Tales, the podcast for all things this spooky, sometimes true crime. Today both and there's no MJ. He had to visit some family and just so we don't get more behind, and we have to record today again another contractual obligation. Yes, we both have contractual obligations. Actually, yeah, I did want to say though, before we read the listener's story or get into what today's topic is. Thank you everyone for all the messages. I got so many messages. Again, I guess if anyone doesn't follow us on social media, they probably don't know. But my dog passed away and I was too distraught to record for a while. I felt facility being so sad, but I'm like, no, he doesn't know. He was my little friend, you know, my little he was a little member of the family. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, so many listeners, so many spooky sent me messages. Some listeners had just gone through the same exact thing, like a day before me or you know, years ago, And I mean it doesn't matter when or you know what, like it still hurts. So thank you so much everyone who sent me messages and yeah, it just it meant a lot to me. So yeah, that's why we didn't record. And I'm much better now. I'm used to not having my little Kobe in the house. It took a while, though, yeah, because he followed me everywhere. That dog, he was like a what's the thing is spanished like a ompeg to the chicler or chicler like you tell someone like that's your gum because they don't leave you alone. And that was Kobe. He literally followed me everywhere from the moment we picked him up from the shelter, like he climbed into my little lap and or he was like this is my person. Yeah, and he just like I was the first person he went to, and he just followed me everywhere. So yeah, I picked up his ashes. They gave us this cute little poem and then a little piece of his first poem. Yeah, it's like the Rainbow Bridge poem basically like, oh, all dogs go to like this little piece of heaven. And they played together up there and then and I'm saying it all wrong, but right one day the dog pauses from it playtime and it turns over to look at the rainbow bridge and you're like walking across your little dog there. Yeah, I've heard of it. Yes, and I cried more when I got all that stuff. But yeah, but I'm doing now. I'm good now. Yeah. And then one more update before we get to the listener story. Last episode was on the nursery rhyme. I said mostly about Santa Sanaa and I did get a message from a listener that I wanted to share, so USU sent us an email. He said, Okay, So I don't know anything for fact, but I have a theory with regards to Santa sana A few years ago, I took a trip to Galicia to see where my colonizer side came from. Oh my god, Okay. While touring the town of Vigo, I came across a petro glyph with the placard on it. Near it, the placard stated, and I'm perfect here. That area is one of the oldest sites of the Gaelic Celtic people. So my theory is that Santa Santa came from the Gaelic Celtic cultures which existed in Spain and then made its way up to Ireland. Oh I didn't know that, which now kind of makes sense with the whole Someone said, how it came from Ireland. Oh if that's right, Yeah, if these groups of people were in both places, yeah that makes sense. Yeah, well we believe you one hundred percent. Oh yeah, theory confirmed us. Then he went on to say, I'm from Los Altos, Helisco, which was once part of a reno, the Nueva Galicia. But you and I are familiar with Carmen because we talked about we did on Estadias Unknown Godless and know there. Yes, that was a very fun episode, so I highly recommend it, if you know, just for that episode alone. It was about a colonizer who basically set up Nueva and Galicia. So yeah, but yeah, honestly this kind of supports both that it could have been from Ireland and Spain. So yeah, I like it. Thank you so much for sainetic and subscribing to this theory. Yeah yeah, and then he signed off, anyhow, I could be entirely wrong, but okay, Sabbath, thanks so swet Cain Saba anything I know? I don't you know, sannaa. So yeah, that was that was a fun story too, or fun email to read. And yeah, okay, listener story, I guess ST's just say today's topic. A listener sent a message on Instagram asking if we could cover the murder of Ometo Gomez Gonzales and him and his story and the butterflies itself. I had that topic say for your estoria as a known because I was like, this is historic. But then the documentary came out on Netflix, and since the listener asked, I was like, yeah, sure, Carmen will write up these notes because she has contractual obligations. Yeah. She actually, she's the one with Netflix. Also a Netflix subscription that I tried to get Christina on but don't work out ever since they did their w freak Netflix no Sharin account. Yeah blame. So yeah, that's what today's topic is. So yeah, it is a true crime episode. Some people don't like that, so you know, feel free to skip this one though it is a very like, you know, important case. So yeah, before we get to that, of course, I do have the listener's story, and I skip a bunch of other stories because this one. When I got the email, the subject line said feel good ghost stories, and I was so sad. Of course I'm over my dog who doesn't like it feel good. Yeah, so I was like, I'm immediate. I have to read these. So yeah, and if you have a story that you want us to read on the podcast, you can email Espookitos at gmail dot com. You can submit it on our discord. We actually got a couple submissions on discord. I was very excited, so you know, be reading those in the future. You can set it through Instagram. I have another really good one that was sent to me on Instagram, but I want MJ to be here to react to it. So yeah. I mean a bunch of stories coming in and I love it, so send them in. There's a number this pooky hotline in the show notes. There's a lot of options to get us stories. Okay, so here goes the story that we got from Chris, and thank you Chris for sending it in. He starts out, thought i'd share my stories with you and feel free to put them on the podcast. They're actually feel good stories, not scary ones. Thank you for doing your podcast. I look forward to my drive to work on Fridays. I'm really sorry for such long email, but once I started talking about it all, I just kept going. I don't like physically talking about it because my voice breaks. I get it. Oh my god, I'm the biggestrivay pa. Yes, I know. That's why I have a sweater that says Chiyona, because I am the same. Yeah. So yes, we understand that I get teary eyed. But now I have to hide here at work because I don't want people asking me why my eyes are watery. All right, so here we go. The first story. My dog passed away two years ago from cancer, not a dog story recipes. I know I'm gonna cry now. Oh God. When we moved into our new house, I built her a new doghouse because my little girl deserves one too. Oh oh my god. I made it into a farmhouse style with vinyl flooring and tng wood panels. This sounds hella fancy. Yeah, you could rent that out. I made a six feet long so she could have space for her warm bed and also could lay out on the vinyl flooring if she got too warm. I wanted to put a small AC unit in there, but my wife said I was sewey too much because our condos didn't have an AC. But I watered it for the dog. On the night that we had to put her down, it took me forever to go to sleep because I kept talking to her about how I missed her and how I will always appreciate how she would listen cuddle up with me when I would go out to her in the middle of the night to talk. I was so nervous and happy about becoming a father, but I was scared that I wouldn't do a good job. She would comfort me. Tearing up a little bit thinking about this, I'm gonna cry. I didn't know it. When I finally got to sleep, I woke up randomly because I heard the sound of her pause moving on the vinyl flooring and and get comfortable and cool, like I had heard her very often. But when I closed my eyes, I remembered that she had passed away a few hours prior to that. I sat up and still heard it. I wanted to go to her house and check, but I felt like she came to visit to comfort me, to let me know she was still there with me. I told my wife about that in the morning, and she looked so surprised because she told me she heard it too, but at a different time than night. Oh wow, that's so precious. Oh my god, I wing to cry. I know. Okay, let's take a moment to bring together as I'm worry. I know. Okay, that's beautiful. Oh my god. Yeah. Second story. Wow, okay, a lot of death here. I'm so sorry for all of your losses. Oh okay. Second story. My father passed away in August twenty twenty three. He lost his fight with alcoholism. He had been sober for five years. Oh, this is very hard to for me right now, I know, okay, all right. If he had been sober for five years or so, after going to a year long rehab and against our wishes and recommendations, he felt he was strong enough to handle a beer every now and then that happens. Yeah, but that quickly changed. When I was nineteen, we gave him the choice to stop drinking or leave the house. Within a few seconds, he said, well, I'm not going to stop drinking and walked out on all four of us. Oh my god. It was at that moment I promised myself that when I became a father, I will never make my child feel like I love a bottle more than them. Fast forward to twenty twenty, when my son was a toddler. My dad was back to his old ways. When I had called him because I needed to tell him how I felt that as a father, how could you possibly choose something over your child? And while screaming into the phone louder than I had ever yelled at any Marine Corps recruits. Okay, this is serious because marine uh dress, what are they called? Droll and st They're notat real sergeants like an army. You don't want a marine to come mail at you. Please don't yell correct say the wrong thing. Yes you know they are not yelling. Yeah, no, we know. So I understand this now. So how could he stop for those strangers in rehab not for his own damn family? That's hard, That's hard. I'm sure he quickly came to their defense and said they were there for him, not us. I was so mad I hung up the phone and went inside to be alone with my guitar. Against my wishes, my wife caused my best friend, who knows all about this, to take me out for some food and to talk. So glad she did because I needed it. I love her for being there for me, and my best friend for everything they've done. From that night on, I gave up on being mad at him because I poured my heart and sold that to him. With everything I had held in for years, trying to avoid hurting his feelings. I realized he was going to die soon, and I wanted my last years with him to not be on bad terms. The night he passed, we stayed at his house in Santa Barbara, California. Well everyone was downstairs. I went to his bedside and kneeled down holding his pillow, trying to talk to him and tell him I was sorry for all those years. I was so mad at him. I was so sorry for telling him that after he left us, he was not a father to me when he tried to tell me what to do one time. I was sorry for not texting or calling Moore. I was sorry for everything, and to please, please give me a sign that he could hear me. I got nothing in that moment. That night, I fell asleep tearing up listening to all his voicemails because I felt guilty. I had saved them because I knew one day this time would come and I wanted to still hear his voice. I was woken up that night by the feeling of someone sitting on the edge of the bed. I sat up and turned and looked to my left and still saw my wife laying on her side sleeping. I looked forward and didn't see anything, but I felt pressure around my arms, as if I was getting a strong, loving hug that lasted a few seconds. I couldn't see my dad, but I felt his presence. I woke up that morning and I felt like I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. And then my dad came to me to let me know everything was okay. Sorry, we're like Carmen's crying. That's why I'm laughing. Now I say he's up there walking my dog for me. I need Oh my god, I do not expect to cry this much. No, no, okay, now he say he's up there walking my dog for me, since he tried to say she liked him more, okay pause. My dad, whenever he visited, always try to walk my dog, but my dog was so picky. He would only let me walk him, and my dad would pick him up to try and take Kobe to walk. He would try to force his love on him. Oh my god, yeah, oh wow? Was that who made us cry like Kevin made us cry last? Oh my god, that's right, we did cry. And now then and now Chris, Chris, Chris is making us cry again. Oh my god, So let me scroll down. I just wanted to say it's so hard for people children and loved ones of people who suffer from addiction and substance use issues, Like it's so hard for them to feel like, oh they love this more than me. But you know, people with addictions and substance use issues, dependencies and all that, they you know, they don't want to choose the drugs over their loved ones and they feel a lot of shame around that. But and then likewise, their loved ones feel like, you know, all of this anger. And I'm just glad that you know, Chris was able to get that final hug from his dad to know like, oh I forgive you. I'm going to cry. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree completely, and that he let go of the anger too, yeah, because that's so difficult. Yeah. And I mean Kurma used to work in like the addiction space. Yeah. So oh man, Okay, okay, there's story not as long as a story. Sorry for these. I've wanted to stand these separately for a while, but it was holding off because I didn't want to tear up talking about them. My dad was a huge Carlo Santana fan, and he made me one of those so that we would bond over the music. I even chose the middle name Santana for my son. Oh, I love that. It's cool. Yeah, what a good middle name? Like I just I can't get over this, Okay. So I went to Vegas with my wife to see Carlos at the House of Blues this past January and wore my dad's belt and hand it off a picture of my parents at age seventeen in Tijuana and a picture of my son. I just missed giving it to Carlos on stage, but I gave it to one of his road crew members. He read it, hugged me and told me to wait here after the concert. He was going to give me one of Carlos's guitar picks that he used that night. I have it, and it's one of my favorite possessions. I left my Instagram phone number and email hoping he'd call, and I'm still hoping. We're hoping with fingers crossed. Yeah, let's tag Carlos Santana. Let's make this a clip and tag Carlos Santana. In the days leading up to the concert, I was relearning oh Yakomova on my guitar and while standing in the same spot, always stand in when I play and never smell my dad's instances that I got from his room. I smell them very strongly. When I was playing loudly and getting to the solo, I started to cry a bit because I felt like my dad was there telling me to play louder, to play louder, Miko, but I knew he was happy to hear me. I had made up a little instrumental song for him that I'm still working on because on his deathbed I had Samba Patti, Flora, Luna and El Ropa. I don't know these titles. I'm like, I will say, I only know the one song you just said, oh me too, and the other one about a girl or something like Maria. I don't remember. Yeah, I know the name you're talking about. I also don't remember the name okay so and Elba playing for him on my phone. It came to me one day because I was trying to make something up for him, but I was drawing a blank and was in frustrated. I went and grabbed my Carlos and Tana guitar pick, and within a few seconds, the main riff of the song just came out for me, came out to me, came out of me, came out of me. Sorry. I started jamming on it for a while and was tearing up, but this time it was happy tears because I know my dad would have loved to have me on FaceTime playing that for his family in Mexico like he loved to do because he was so proud of me. I would give anything to play my guitar for my dad just one more time. And here's does some pictures if we want to look at them. I emailed you sent you. Yeah. So the picture of his parents together. Oh, they're so cute. You the dog. Wow. Seriously, thank you so much for all these stories and for making us cry. And seriously, it's it's amazing to have been able to, you know, get one more hug, Like, what a what a gift? Uh wow, I I'm was gonna cry again. I know me too. Wow, beautiful stories. Thank you for sharing. Yes, Okay, let's take a little out break here and get ourselves together and we're back all right. So I think we're ready for your notes here. Yeah. So we are talking about Omelo Gomez Gonzales today. He is also known as the Guardian of the Monarchs, and that is also the name of the documentary on Netflix that I watched, and most of these notes are from but I did also use a few articles and all of that will be in the description whatever you call it. What is it? Show notesscription notes? And I knew there was a name. Yeah, well YouTube is description and show okay, podcast apps, Okay, well it'll be there. I will say I was watching the documentary and I didn't quite catch all of Ometo's family's names, so we'll be saying Ometo's son, Ometo's wife, Ometo's brother, all of that, because you know, it was really bad at catching all the names. And then all the articles that I read, and they tried looking up the relatives name after and I didn't find anything, so and I was like, I'm not gonna watch it just to see their names. So anyway, yeah, so the documentary is Guardian of the Monarchs. But yeah, before we talk about Ometo, let's talk about the monarch butterfly. Honestly, they're like the most beautiful butterflies, gorgeous, but I've been wanting the tattoo of them for a while because they represent so much and we're gonna talk a little bit about what they represent. I was gonna say, what do they represent to me? It brings images to myer Cary. Oh god, she has that you know, CD or album with the butterfly, and also the immigration movement. So so yeah, I mean so much so every year since the last I say, can you believe it? The ice age? Yeah? Wow. The monarch butterflies embark on a two thousand to three in male journey from their summer breeding grounds in Canada to the forests of Central Mexico, transcending man made borders, and because of this journey, they have become a symbol for immigrant rights, and they also have huge significance in many cultures. The arrival of the monarch who Mexico coincides with the Yells, Mortos and the Ottomi and Masawa. People believe that the butterflies carried the souls of their diseased love ones visiting them from the afterlife. Isn't that beautiful? That is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Oh my god, this episode is just full of beautiful things. So much to death, but like beautiful things about death. Yeah wow, that's yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, it's very it's very I don't know, like meant for today because I went to a very not that fucking wordingg in real you and today and then you had you know, Kobe just passed away. I don't know it just in our listeners stories. It's actually perfect for this episode. This is very an MJ would know the word like saying zed maybe something like that synchronosity. I don't know. Actually, I don't even know if I'm using that right, I don't know, but yeah, it's right that yeah, yeah. A Buddha bitcha legend teaches that the butterflies carry the spirits of warriors and that the flapping of their wings relays messages from the afterlife, and the monarchs are sacred to indigenous groups in the United States too. For the Hope People, monarch butterflies are painted on Hopee Kachina dolls and hopefully I'm pronouncing those right, which are given as gifts in Hope a feature abundance and health, and the Hopie also have a butterfly dance, which is danced for rain, good health, and long life. And the black Foot people associate butterflies with sleep and dreaming and would decorate cradles with butterflies to help babies sleep, or embroider a butterfly on a small piece of buckskin and tied in the baby's hair to help them sleep. Oh my god, that's that's so cute. Yeah. And then there is also let me see one of the articles. I don't know why I didn't write it down here, but there's an image of sitting bull and he had a monarch butterfly on his hat. Wow. That's just like such a powerful image. Mm hm wow. And that's on the saveur monarchs dot org link for anyone who wants to click on that. Okay, So, these beautiful butterflies hold widespread significance across many cultures, and they held great significance to one man. Ometo Gomez Gonsalez also Ometo, was an environmental activist, agricultural engineer, and politician who managed the Edosadio Monarch Butterfly Preserve, which is a part of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve located in western metrok Gan. Omeedo grew up in this area and was born into a logging family. Following his family's tradition, Ometo became a logger, as did most of the people from Dosadio. Logging maintained the local economy. Environmentalists soon began to logging in Rosadio since deforestation was negatively impacting the primary habitat of the butterflies. And at the time, the townspeople from Rosaidio, including Ometo, felt threatened by the environmentalists and they felt that their livelihoods were being threatened, which I mean they were. Yeah, And this is a problem with a lot of environmental activism that it ignores, you know, the economies that have been yeah, for standing and yeah, or forced upon people. We a long time ago did an episode only started as a known about gum. But gum is the same situation where it becomes this like huge booming economy. It gets sold everywhere else, and then the people mining it or gathering this resource, that's the job they depend on. They deplete the land because colonization has made it so that this is the only available industry in the in these regions. And then these industries are problematic, but then at the same time these people were forced to depend on it. It's this like terrible thing that you can blame on colonization. Yeah, and a lot of times too, when the environmental activism does not come from the community that relies on these sources, then they there's like no plan for them, an alternative plan for them to make money and all of that too. So yeah. But at the same time, Ometo grew up at marrying the monarch butterflies, as he had been told by his grandparents that the butterflies carried the souls of their ancestors. Eventually, Ometo went on to study agricultural engineering at the Chapingo Autonomous University. I wonder if that's right or if that was an autocrime, but whatever, this is what it is. Notes he changed his mind about logging and convinced like through his education and stuff and convinced other villagers who do the same. In order to protect the butterflies, Ometo realized that preserving the monarchs could bring in tourism tourosidio or replacing the revenue that would be lost from logging. So seeing sustaining oh my god, yeah, sustaining the communities tendency on the oh okay, amazing. And Ometo became the commissioner of Osado and I think if I got the timelines right, this is when he and the community codified the preservation of the monarchs by limiting logging and later outlining entirely. And I think it was when he was the commissioner, which is like another word for mayor, but because this is just such a small town, they call it commissioner. But anyway, I think it was when he was a commissioner that it was outlawed entirely and people were not happy with him. I bet. Yeah. So Ometo also started working alongside the World Wildlife Fund on conservation initiatives and to promote the sanctuary, and Ometo's son helped him film videos about the butterflies and to promote the sanctuary and with social media in general, and there's a lot of there's a popular video that's actually filmed either the day before the day that Ometo went missing that I'm sure a lot of people have seen by now, where Tim standing amongst the butterflies, and there's so many butterflies, like so many. Ometo's son described Ometo as loving and a joker. Some of his first memories were of them going to the forests together to see the butterflies. Yeah, so we talked about how logging affected the monarch butterfly population, like the deforestation, the lost their habitat and yeah, I had nowhere to go, nowhere to I don't know what they call it. Nest it's not nesting. Live, I don't know live. Yeah, habitat no, And yeah, like I had mentioned, not everyone in Metrokan cared about or were happy with these changes. And they cared about profit. That's what they saw when they sell the trees and money even when logging was outlawed. And this is where cartels come in. So as we know, Metra Khan is infamous for its cartels. There are at least fourteen criminal groups active and on record around Rosario and these include Los Correa at Los Viagras really yeah, Cartel Jalisco, Nova, he Neracies, Metrova Carts and Pajeros de la Sierra, among others. But these are the ones they mentioned in the documentary. So most of us know that cartels make their money from drugs, but in this region and I mean other areas in Mexico too, their business also expanded to illegal timber export extortion, providing protection for US timber companies operating in the area and also growing avocados. They would export the timber that they obtained from illegal logging, and then they would burn that area they cleared, they deforced it basically in order to grow avocados, rendering it useless. Like then no more trees could be planted there either, yeah, yeah, obliterating the home of the monarchy, yes, yeah. And then the cartels would also steal water from the communities for avocado cultivation. So at night, these cartels would illegally go into the forest and the sanctuary and a Metal along with other men for mental Stadio, including his family, like his brothers, they defended the sanctuary against the cartel. A Metal used to encourage the people to protect the trees by telling them they can't kill us. All. They would arm themselves with rifles, bats, macetas, whatever they could and throw hands and get into gunfights with the cartel. Oh my god. Yeah, And unfortunately, you make a lot of enemies when you go against the cartel. And I feel like we talked, I don't know a lot of kind of like we've you've had a lot of episodes about they come up in these true crime cases because they don't just sell drugs, like you were just saying, extortion, and part of the extortion is taking not just women, but a lot of the victims end up being women pulling them for ransom or just you know, because of how they are. They these women end up with like a cartel member. People join the cartel, Like we saw in the case of Ruby and her mom that the boyfriend ends up joining the cartel because she's not giving up on trying to get him arrested and they end up killing her. Like it's this. Yeah, it's just a huge, huge, violent problem, and it transcends into like all these other things that we've covered on the podcast. It's it's just crazy that they're like they just come up and everything. Yeah. Yeah. As a leader of the community, Ometo became a target. After catching the illegal loggers, o Metal press charges against them and raise awareness through the media and continue to campaign against illegal logging. Pretty soon, the cartels started to get mad at Ometal for calling attention to their enlisting activities, and he began getting death threats. Omto was even kidnapped when he first ran for office, but that didn't stop his fight against the cartels and their illegal logging. Man Yeah, Ometo even said that as long as he was alive, he wouldn't permit organized crime to take over the forest. Wow. Tensions were rising, and soon community members were abducted and found dead the next day. Oh my god, all to try and get him to stop and to let them do what they want to do. Yeah. At one point, the sanctuary even closed its doors to millions of tourists to demand help from the authorities and dealing with illegal logging. But per usual, the government was in cahoots with the cartel. Of course. In the Netflix documentary, they mentioned that four out of the last five mayors of mitchrok Ghan had connections with the cartels, and as a government official, Ometo mingled with the mayor of metrok Ghn and other like more local government government officials also, so it's possible that many of his peers were colluding with the same cartels that wanted Ometo dead. Wow. In the afternoon of January thirteenth, twenty twenty, Ometo went to a meeting in the village of Nsordado. Then on his way back home, he picked up his son and dropped him off at the bus stop. Little did Ometo San know that this was the last time he would see his father alive. After dropping his son off at the bus stop, Ometo went to the local horse races which were part of the fair, and it was kind of like a tradition or customary for the local government officials to attend the horse races and the fair, and there he mingled with his political peers and took pictures with many of them, including Elizabeth Guzman, Jorge Arroyo, Octavio Ocampo, and Karina Vrado. Ometo's family started to get worried around nine to ten PM because they were worried when it was well. They started to get worried around that time, nine to ten pm because he hadn't came home yet and normally he would be home by then, but they were even more worried when it was four am and he still hadn't come home. Ometo's wife and son weren't able to reach him by phone, so his son called law enforcement to report him missing, and law enforcement told the family. I don't know what time law enforcement went out, it was the next day or what. They told the family that they had no trace of a metal or his car. But the next day Ometal's sister went to the fairgrounds and it saw his car there, So I don't know, so no, they knew they knew, yeah, they knew something was wrong or they were part of it, part of the plan, like there's no way. So it seemed like right from the beginning that law enforcement was not too interested in finding O metal or and being diligent about their investigation or search for him. Omeedo's brother even went to the media to speak out against law enforcement for their handling of the case. But the community came together to do law forcement's job and scout, you know, the area. Three hundred of them came together to search the forest for a metal but they didn't find him. Nothing was found. So the next day, on January fourteenth, Ometo's son called Ometo's phone and someone answered saying that Ometo forgot his phone at the bar. And I don't remember how much time passed after this, but I don't think it was too long. Maybe some days, but I don't remember. I didn't like write it down. But Ometo's wife got a phone call for a ransom. They said they had a medal and they were demanding San mili PSOs, and they sent her a picture of a medal kneeling on the ground, surrounded by men dressed in military gear pointing their guns at him. So at this point the family was in communication with law enforcement and law enforcement adviser to not give them the money because they could be a hoax because a lot of that had been going on too. Despite law enforcement advising her against it, she agreed to obtain the money and drop it off at the location. She just wandered her husband back. Yeah, I mean, this was out of desperation. So she dropped the money off at the location that they told her to. But when the cops tracked where the phone calls were coming from, it was from a prison in tal Malipas, so it was just a scam. A couple of weeks later, the entire police forces of Ocampo and a Gangueo so like nearby because these are all villages. How villages, Yeah, so nearby pueblos. The entire police force were brought in for questioning and were being investigated for a Metal's disappearance because fifty three of the officers so the total force, was in charge of security at the horse race and the fair, so someone would have had to see him, so they were in charge of security where he was last seen. And there was also a pattern from even before Metal of police being involved with disappearances, but no arrests were made. All of the law enforcement officers that were questions said that either they left early, like before he was lasting, or that they didn't see anything. But still very fishy. Yeah, of course. On January twenty ninth, twenty twenty, Omedo's brother got a call from law enforcement letting him know to come to Ensordado, where Ometo was lasting, because a body was found. The body was found in a well, faced down six meters deep. Omedo's brother recognized the pants immediately, but confirmed his worst nightmare when the body was pulled out and he saw that it was Omedal. Ometo's brother called the family to inform them. In the documentary, Ometo's wife says that she was glad he was found because others go missing and are never found. And she said, can stand nivivoss And yeah, that just made me think of all the what for that to just come back because of all the things we've covered on our podcast. Oh yeah, I keep forgetting We're not uh this is to say we covered so many topics like this. Yeah, disappearances is something that these governments regimes use to control the people and suppress And you know, I'm trying to remember. I think it was when we talked about Atsusena when they questioned the it wasn't Argentina, right, yes, this was Argentina who was the dictator. I don't remember the prison right now, but it was a military junta. But yeah, yeah, you know, one person in charge. So I don't remember when they if they asked, like a top military person or the dictator about the bodies, but I am I think this was when he said can stan nib wasn't even what those they're just gone. Yeah, and like I mean every distatorship, because even Pinochet and Chile would say the same thing. Yeah, yeah, just very very I don't know, and you know what this is. I mean, this is something we're seeing. We saw it happened during the civil war, but it's happening right now. Oh yeah. And we've talked about this podcast but umo and it has a longer name. I'll put it in the show notes. But the way the podcast starts, it's like this is a true crime podcast, but it's so much more than that. Thana is the host, and it is talking about this case that was huge intrue crime media news like Reddit. It was on there about all these bodies that were found in this cops former cops home, but like, yeah, some of it was him. But I don't think people understand the like seriousness and the issue of disappearances done by both the government and the gangs who sometimes are working together in kahoots. Yeah, yes, And people praise book it right now because it's so safe, but like, and how many times have we said this safe for who certainly not that disappeared, who are sometimes never found. Yeah, And it's such a horrible thing to do to someone, and because their loved ones, Like there's so much ritual and I don't know ancestral like traditions in burying somebody, right, there's so much tied to that, so much emotion and so much like if like we need we need to bury this person, like to honor their life and to say goodbye to them and to let them rest in peace or however, people you know have different ways of doing that. But with nobody, they can't do that. It's taken away from them. Yeah, even that the person is taken away from them and then they're all this it's all taken from them, and it's just it's infuriating to like, you know, hear about, because yeah, it's something that is just so common in Latin America and we didn't translate it. But for anyone that doesn't speak Spanish, nibe wasn't even what it means. Neither alive nor dead, just gone, just disappeared. Yeah, So there were conflicting reports about the condition of Ometal's body and the cause of death. Her law enforcement, the cause of death was drowning and no external injuries were found. It was theorized by law enforcement that Ometal fell on his head, but the blow to its head was not the cause of death. The corner, though, disagreed with law enforcement and noted that the investigation was poorly conducted. The corner believes that something fishy was going on because he believed that even with the cold weather conditions of the season, Ometo's body should have been deteriorated and unrecognizable by that point, because it had been what three weeks at that point, so meaning he was kept somewhere else, right, That's what the corner believes, because if he was truly there. It also, mind you, three hundred people searched this area and for ready thing. Yeah, but if he had truly been there, the whole time in the elements for three weeks, his body would not have been recognizable. But law enforcement believes that Omato's body didn't decompose because of the cold weather. But again the corners like, no, it doesn't work like that, Like he still would have decomposed, and who would know better the fucking corner man. Yeah, oh my god. Uh, but law enforcement is adamant. Even in the fucking documentary. He's like, we did everything right. Maybe, man, I'm like, shut up, shut up. No. And of course they're saying now they're trying to get with their triumphs because they probably has something to do with this. I'm sure Ometo's family believes that the government officials Ometo spent his last hours with no more than they're letting on or were somehow involved in its disappearance and death. Yeah. I was gonna say, when you were reading those names, like, certainly these people probably were either knew this was gonna happen or help the planet. Yeah, yeah, because you know they're so they're tied with these cartels and with these with the silly logging all of this, and yeah, and I'm like Ometo was like these were his peers politically, but he was not, you know, on the same I don't know, mindset and level as them. Like he was from his community very much like grassroots, like with his people, very much about his activism going against what they wanted. Yeah. Yeah. And then there were a few other things told to the family by law enforcement that didn't sit right with them. For example, when Ometo's belongings were returned to his family, Ometo's keys were not among the belongings, and when law enforcement returned the keys days later, they told the family that the keys weren't found with the rest of his belongings because they had been buried. But when they returned the keys to the family, there was no dirt and no evidence. They were clean. Yeah, they were clean, Like somebody had these keys. Yeah. Out of the government officials that were lasting with Ometo, only Andlizabeth allowed herself to be interviewed by the police because Karina and Octavio each filed a writ of protection, meaning that they had legal protection against being interrogated or investigated about metals disappearance. So I guess this is a thing politicians can file to not be interviewed about something or investigative about something. I don't know. It sounds like that shouldn't be allowed. Yeah, and now it could come historically from like that's true, that's true. We talked about God, we had five or six episodes on Chile. That's right. Some of the people that were at fault who committed all these human rights crimes, it was very hard to charge them because later later, because of these rules that were set in place and laws about how you couldn't just arrest people because dictatorships and dictators to get into power were arresting people for no reason. So that's why later it's very hard to then actually pin something on someone that they did or maybe had a pardon. You can't even question them because of these others that have happened in the past. But it's very suspicious that they would do that, Like I mean, of course, everyone has a right to not talk to law enforcement. But it's fishy because I mean one of them did, Atlisabeth, And you know, she came out not as a person of interests or anything after her interview, so yeah, and even she thought it was weird that they would file that. Yeah, it's it's not a good look. No. An Another weird thing is that ometo had supposedly forgotten his phone and tablet at the bar, but at lastab It says Ometo had his phone in tablet the whole time, and his family says he never put his phone or tablet down anywhere, like he's always holding them. And in the pictures from that night that they show in the documentary, he's holding all the pictures, he's holding them, both of them. Yeah, so it seems like something somebody, you know, somebody took them, somebody had these in their possession after he was kidnapped. And then so Garina ended up with Ometo's phone and tablet and actually I couldn't see if it was both the phone and the tablet or just a tablet, but I think it was just a tablet. And sorry, Katina Kadina is one of the ones that did not want to be questioned. Yeah, she filed the rid of protection. Okay, what was she doing with those then? Yeah? So she and I want to say it was just a tablet, not the both the phone. So she said that she found them, found the tablet and then she gave the tablet to a photographer for what reason, who knows. The other suspicious thing is that Katina's photographer was killed shortly after she gave him Ometo's tablet, So like, what is going on? Oh my gosh, so he wouldn't say anything exactly. Jeezus fucking Christ, this is insane. Yeah. Ometo's family remained outspoken about their suspicion that the government was involved in Ometo's death, and a couple of years later, the Attorney General announced that they were going to investigate Amado's brothers because because why, because this is what they do. Why, this is what they do to force families to shut up. Oh yeah, yes, this is something else we have already seen in the true crime cases we've covered in the Spooky Taels. And I'm sorry because there's so many of these cases. But it was a femicide and the dad and brother was a medium, And no, I think it was a Merala, I don't. I think it was her that they were protesting, and because of all that, they were arrested for like eight months and then the charges were dropped. I think I think it was them. But again, like we have covered so many of these, but it's so common. Yes, exactly, It's also something they touch on umo on that podcast. Yes, anyone who starts speaking against these human right violations and against impunity. Yes, we'll get charged with something or we'll get disappeared. It's yeah again, And this is I don't know the not to bring up again, but and I won't because we've already talked about it, so so much on his story isn't known. But again, like question this supposed safety of a sudden safe diva country someone who is president, and it runs again, and then this term is the only supposed to last a certain amount of time, but suddenly their president again, question that ship against the constitution of the country. Seriously. Yeah. Also, not to get to side tracked, but I was listening to Alilos and well it was yes from what is a podcast, actual podcast called so they featured No, no, they featured it on alilo but that podcast it was a it was a separate podcast from I can't remember the name, but we didn't. We listened to it both, and it was a production of the same company. Elo I hear it is Bokele and Senor Central. Let's called Central Central. Yeah, and the series of Senor But yeah, they had an episode after Or this was and in that episode they talk about about how a lot of other politicians and President and President Elex are trying to copy to deal with their own their own violence and their own countries. And I think, as most of us has seen Mexico, the first woman won the President's Niclaudia something I forgot the last name shine Baum, shine Baum. I don't not to say it, but yeah, but anyway, in that episode of this, they talk about how she wants to implement the same militaristic techniques and this is never good. Yeah, And even in that episode, they're like, okay, but like it's quote unquote working in because it is so small, it's such a different country than Mexico. Miko's already tried that, right, like war against the cartels. Where has it gone. Yeah, So they talk about how she wants to Manolura, like she wants to do that, and I'm like, this is your woman, this is what you're celebrating. And again it's like, don't it was the identity politics, Like we can get into it, but we're not going to because I know we are talking about Mexico. But I think because it's all related, I mean, it's only going to if they do do it, it's going to be more of the same of what we're seeing that happen to Ometo. Where at the end, these businesses and these cartels and these governments that are working together are the ones getting what they want because they're so powerful, And like yeah, then you you ask, like what is the solution? And I don't know. I don't know, but I can say that Manadurda policies harm the people, and it's the people that are more marginalized, like o metal people from these pueblos, activists from these rural communities, Indigenous people, and there's already such a suppression of indigenous populations in Mexico. I mean, I could go on, but no, you go on, right, So it's just like all of this ties together, like a true crime crime case is not a true crime case in itself, Like thank you, I was gonna say, it's more than a true crime case. Yeah. So yeah, like we said, this isn't the first time the Attorney General turned against the families of victims of death and disappearances, and they have a history of investigating families in order to pressure them to stop speaking out against them the government. So the investigation of Ometo's death remains open with no suspects or persons of interest. Law enforcement continues to believe that Ometo's death was not violent and that all evidence points to drowning as the cause of death, but the family and many others believe someone intentionally hurt Ometo because we cannot ignore that his activism pose a threat to the cartels and the local government colluding with the cartels, and we also can't forget them he go has one of the highest death rates for environmental activists and high rates of impunity as well. And the documentary closed very beautifully also with Ometo's son saying he stepped in, you know, in his father's footsteps to keep working the butterfly. Yeah. And every year when the monarchs or Lasnovias, a soul as a Metal called them such a beautiful name. Huh. Oh, tell me why I couldn't imagine calling them that. I know, I know. So every year when the monarchs come to the forest to visit, o Metal son believes that his father a Metal, travels along with the butterflies and he visits the reserve. They're carrying his soul. Yeah. And then and he says he he spends time in the reserve. It's like spending time with his dad and he like just talks to his dad. I'm gonna cry again. Oh my god, he just sounds he was a beautiful person, you know, that cared about Yeah, these beautiful flying creatures just and yeah, I'm just such an unnecessary, violent like loss. Yeah, but I you know, it's like all of this and his death is tied to like the the demand from logging also is tied to capitalism, you know, and we know that capitalism is killing the earth. And the people that defend the earth the most, the people that live in these areas that amazon these kind of reserves, they are usually indigenous people and they face the most dangerous harm from violent, you know, people that are usually like capitalists trying to you know, exploit the resources, and usually behind that exploitation the people demanding this. Thank you. That's what I was gonna say. It's the United States like nine percent of the time. And then if you add in the other colonial powers, then there you have a complete picture of why this is happening. Yeah, and I hate it. And also the butterflies their path, their migration path is being disrupted by borders, by made borders. So I mean, I think everyone knows our stands on the border, and but that is another thing that is puts them in danger. I mean, there's a reason these but are flies have been represent the immigration movement because it's a right. I mean, yeah, yeah, oh. I did want to say though. There's a such an amazing immigrant owned company called Barrio Drive and you can see shirts. They have the butterfly on a lot of their shirts, and I mean they make everything you can. I am mutuals with them on TikTok, and their posts include their parents modeling the shirts, working helping them run this business. And so I will put a link in the show note to that for anyone that wants to check it out. These do look cute. Yeah there, It's just such an amazing company. And if, yeah, you want that butterfly on a shirt, I wouldn't go with anyone else but Barrio Drive. And yeah, I guess this brings us to the end of the episode. We're going to take a quick out break and we're back. Okay, did you have any speak recommendations. I don't, No, I have a book, I guess recommend It's not spooky, but it's very much tied into what we're talking about. Today like indigen eighty right, So I am reading a book. I'm almost done what they called The Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, and I didn't realize this when I checked it out from the library. Also shout out library support your local libraries. I love Libby. I love that they finally started using Libby. Now I can send it to my kindle. Libby's a basioned. It forces me to read faster because you know a day, you only have twenty one days to finish a book. So I didn't realize when I checked out that book that it's like sort of a sequel but also kind of a prequel to Uh, Tommy's first book called They're There, which I read like five years ago. There there had more characters, but it's like different point of views and stuff. But it's about Indigenous people in Oakland and Wandering Stars. Uh kind of picks up where they're They're left off, but it also talks about the ancestors, but it focuses kind of more on one family, Like it's a grandma who's liked the grandma, but she's an aunt great aunt to the kids. They're like teens except when younger. Anyway, three siblings and their Cheyenne. Then their grandma, their actual grandma, who for a long time was in had a problem with drinking. She comes back into their lives because the last book ends with like with the tragic kind of thing that they survive, but that's it brings them together. So anyway, it starts off kind of like a prequel because it talks about their ancestors, starting all the way from the Sand Creek Massacre. So it starts off with one of their ancestors who survived the Sand Creek Massacre as a boy, and that feels like such a long time ago, but it's like a great great grandparent at most, and a lot of what we talk about in Espoogitos, but also in itsn't known like this, you know, history of colonialism and surviving right as yes, yes, yeah we are. We're just twining. We're twining today, So yeah, I mean that's what it's about, like the ancestors, and then it moves on to the actual like the siblings and the grandma and the great aunt and everything they're going through. But it just it he taught me writes so beautifully, and each character has a very clearly different voice, and I'm like, how do you do this with so many different characters? That's wild to me, amazing. There's one chapter that I love the most because it's like, so one of the ancestors gives births and dies as she's giving birth, and it's ray and like as if she's writing a letter to her daughters, who are the great aunt and the grandma of the boys. Okay, and she's like in the in life, you will experience this and this, but it's so beautiful and I'm like that I'm gonna cry when it's the book is so emotional. Oh yeah, Okay, I need to readnew my library card so I can. Oh, you need to books. Thanks so much for sharing this book because it's not a speaker recommendation, but I'm sure our listeners will love it. Yeah, I think so. And I think this episode alone highlights how all these things are so related, how and how a true crime case is never really just a trend case. Certainly certainly not in Latin America. Oh no, oh no. And even like you know here with the missing and missing and murdered indigenous women, right that you know, like those are not just women that were killed and when missing, right, Like it's tied to a history of violence against Indigenous women, which is tied to colonialism. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I don't have any speaker recommendations. I haven't suffering from my hyperfixation of Degrassi. I'm almost the only season ten right now. How many seasons are there? There's fourteen that are Degrassi the Next Class, and then there's no sorry, Degrassi the Next General, which is the one we're familiar with, and then there's a Next Class. Yeah, and that only had one season, I believe, because it's suckedymically. Yeah, I think it was terrible from what I gather. I haven't watched it yet, so I'm like knee deep in this hyperfixation. I don't know when it's going to be over. When you're done, probably probably, although who knows. Sometimes I'm in the middle of a hyperfixation. It though like, wow, I'm not I don't care about this anymore, in the middle of it, and I will just drop it. I don't even care because I don't care about it anymore, hence the hyperfixation. But right now it's the grassy And if I'm not looking, if I'm not working on episodes, if i'm not writing notes. Then I'm either watching the grassy or de Grassy songs are just stuck in my head and it's the worst because some of these bands suck. So yeah, that's why I don't have any Speakure commendations. I haven't been watching anything but de Grassy. I even I needed to get it out of my brain, like how much I was kept thinking about it, and I have no one to talk to the grassy bout. I just started writing some degrassy notes that I'm like, I'm not doing anything with them. I'm not what are you doing? What are you writing? Like recappy exodse are just your thoughts? No, I'm writing the best and worst de grassy music slash bands right now. Oh wow, I would love for you to share those with me. Okay, when I've done all, show them with you. But like, I'm like, I can't handle trying to keep up with another thing that I post. So that's why I'm not doing anything with them. But I'll let you read them and anyone else that loves to grassy or is obsessed right now. But yeah, I needed to get out of my brain. So I'm like rating each music, all the music, the not the music that plays in us in the episodes, but like the characters yeah, yeah, yeah, have their songs and bands and that's what I'm writing right now. But yeah, that's I'm I feel like I've been taken hostage my brain right now and I cannot stop, like physically, I cannot. It's out of your control. Yeah, it completely is out of my control. And I miss horror stuff I do, but I can't. I can't stop. I will say though. I did listen to an episode of Other Worlds, which is just another type of thing where people call it and tell their stories, and they had an episode with this very famous like war photographer. His name is Sebastian something. I don't remember his law name right now, but it was like a after not after life. What is that thing called end of life experience? No? Oh, after death experience has a term. We've done an episode on it, and I cannot remember the term. But you know when someone you're saying, yeah, yeah, when someone passes away or is passes away for like a some seconds, a death experience, but it's not called that. It has a name. Oh near death, oh amy, almost death. Yeah, I mean that's like a sing with our brains together. We can think of something. We made it there whatever, it takes time kidding, Sorry, that's the Degrassi theme song. Yeah, where it takes Oh my god, I'm not gonna tak it anyway. That's a really good episode if anyone wants an actual speaking recommendation and not and for me to not talk about Degrassia forever anyway. Yeah, that brings us to the end of the episode. We and I, I mean me, I'm almost done with the Vampires of It Northen that's the current book club book I will be at the time of this episode. I probably already sent them out, but I'm going to be sending out the discussion questions so that you can write your responses in if you want us to hear them on the episode on the book Club episode, and I'll give everyone like two weeks and then we'll record the episode. But yeah, I'm almost done, and I've been loving it. I've been done. Yeah, I know, I know, since I couldn't put it down. Yeah, so yeah, we'll send those out and then also the show not or not in the show the link to the book club so you can get these discussion questions straight to your email if you want you can sign up. The link is in the show notes. It's the book club like Newslater newsletter basically, And all these questions I also post on Patreon for free the free members, so everyone can respond to them if they want, and we will read those responses on the episode. So yeah, okay, that's it for news I think. Oh sorry, no, one more thing. We will be in Colorado next month for me at crime. Yeah, it's coming up. I gotta rent the car better not for anyway, No, obviously, I'm gonna do it anyway. Yeah, we're gonna be at the True Crime Per Normal Podcast Festival in Denver, Colorado. It's July twelfth to July fourteenth. We have a little table, we have a little booth. We're not doing any like presentations. I there see Aiden from Susto has a presentation he's doing, so I will be seated. We will be seated because we love Sustal. And yeah, anyone that stops by, I'm gonna have stickers. I'm gonna have a little recording setup if you want to tell us a scary story while you're there. I'm not gonna have any fancy merchants merch with us because I'm broke, I can just go out and drop a thousand bucks on shirts and stuff. You know, stickers though, I can make, so, I'll have a bunch of stickers with me to hand out. Say hi, please, if you're in a spooky Denver or in the area, come saying hi to us. And Okay, that's it, that's it all right, yes, I don't know. Hug your pets, how your family members hugged your loved whats yeah, and say a spooky We'll catch everyone next time. Bye. Spooky Tales is hosted by Christina and MJ, produced and edited by Christina. Everything is written and researched by Christina MJ and with the help of Don Shout Out Don. Thank you so much for your help. If you love what you hear, consider leving us a five star review. If you don't, then do not leave us anything. Please. If you want short spooky stories, follow us on TikTok at spooky Tels. You can also find some of the same videos posted on Instagram and that is at Spooky Taels. Everything is linked in the show notes. If you want bonus episodes, stickers, exclusive stickers, might I add then consider joining our Patreon. Go over to patreon dot com slash Spooky Tails. There are over at least fifteen bonus episodes right now, and we do at least one a month, sometimes two, depending on how we are feeling. If you want to support the podcast and don't or can't or don't want to, that's fine, join the Patreon then consider getting some merch. We have an adorable beanie that I love. I absolutely adore it. It's so comfy, it's warm, it has a spooky in Old English letters. There's also a baseball hat in the same way as spooky and Old English letters, and that's what I wear in the summers. They're both awesome hats. And there's other things in there, like the no Mama's shirts, which is a very popular shirt. If you like history, check out my other podcast, Istodia is Unknown, hosted with the unofficial official guest co host of A Spooky Tails, Carmen, And if you like no VELAs, checkout Novelaskofuzito, which Carmen and I also host together. And yeah, we love every single listen every single a spooky Thank you so much, Stay a spook Ki