454: Meghan Markle’s Dad CSAM Bust, Collin Gosselin Book Bombshells, & Horsch Horror House Updates

The autopsy reveal that Daniels died of natural causes with an estimated time of death about two and a half weeks before she was discovered. Colin Goslin says what millions of viewers saw each week was far different than what he says happened in his childhood off camera. The FBI and the Philadelphia Police homicide unit have now wrapped up their forensic search of the alleged house of powers in all. All quiet now after weeks of work. One says all signs point to Thomas Markle senior being a possible sex offender of the grossest kind. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an all new episode of serialously with me your host Annie Elise happy Thursday. I hope you're having a fantastic week so far. Halloween is coming up. I don't know if you are dressing up or if you have kids, I have parades I'm getting ready for so it's been a busy week doing all, you know, the last minute costume tweaks. And buying all the candy that I always wait last minute for, but hope you are having a fantastic week instead of just day probably about to ruin your week. There is a lot to go over today. A lot of new cases also things that have been on my radar and in my social media feed that I just have been super curious about. And I knew I wanted to like talk through it with all of you guys and I've seen some of your dams coming through as well. So there is definitely a lot to go through as a reminder to deep dives already available right now for you if you need something to binge on Monday. We released a deep dive on this feed on the serialously feed and then on Tuesday a deep dive in on the 10 to life feed, which is the second true crime podcast. I know we have a lot of new listeners this week so just giving you a little bit of a breakdown some housekeeping to I have two separate true crime podcasts this one is serialously which is more conversational a lot of cases that are in the news right now new episodes every Monday and Thursday Mondays the deep dive Thursday is headline highlights where we go through everything happening this week and true crime. And then on my second true crime podcast feed it is called 10 to life and there it's more deep dive storytelling all sorts of different cases older cases cold cases notorious cases the twists and turns and all of that so if you are new a new listener and you weren't sure about that there are two separate ones make sure you're following them because between the two you get new episodes every Monday Tuesday and Thursday. So today we're doing headline highlights and I'm actually really excited guys because today's a little bit different of a day where the guest who's going to be joining us. Flew in specifically for this episode from snatchville Pennsylvania please welcome to the show Amy Colette and her snatched teeny tiny waste in her crop top I know I got haste when I came in today it's because you look great so I'm just hiking up my pants now so it can't see it I'm definitely not showing or do it for all it's so nice to be here in studio I know you know what how is the flight. It was very quick yeah yeah it felt like it just flew by yeah and let me ask you this when you put on the crop top today was your bare skin touching the airplane seat. Absolutely not for those of you who don't know this is Amy she is a reoccurring a co-host here but I always like to welcome her in a fun and new way and she didn't fly here she lives down the street but yeah she walked into the office today. Looking great in her head to toe espresso outfit with her thank you I'm trying to fall I know just rocking it even that's like 90 degrees here I know but not 98 degrees I do cherish you know I'm just kidding yeah how are you ready for Halloween I keep forgetting it's Halloween and I'm just living to see the kids and what they are dressed up as because yeah your kids so don't have a really like. They can't go for a long time on Halloween I feel like they get over it very soon that's because I their bedtime is 7 p.m. sure they're exhausted they're like the sun's going down what not to mention your children grew up having Christmas decorations on Halloween so they don't really understand the whole day I don't think that is true he let me just walk you through this okay I don't decorate for Halloween that is true and I used to decorate for harvest like I hate that word. But I used to decorate for harvest but then it's like such a quick turnaround after Thanksgiving where then you put Christmas up and you don't get to enjoy Christmas decorations for very long so in my mind starting what was at like 5 years ago my logic became we're going to skip harvest we're just going to decorate for Christmas but then also since I don't decorate for Halloween let's just start Christmas early so to your point our Christmas trees up and she doesn't just decorate for Christmas she'll choose a theme so. One year I briefly lived with her during covid and she went gingerbread house which okay that's fine the entire house then there is a live not live size netcracker which I still stand by that was a great purchase although that netcracker doesn't really make it into the house anymore because it doesn't really match since I do have a new theme but no because my whole house is wallpaper and so it needs to be like golds and whites but yes I you know what I do it for the children okay I do it for them even though they're confused on. What holiday it is and when Santa comes and they're like Santa coming when we go from trick or treating exactly honestly are you doing anything for Halloween well I guess I was waiting for the invite to come trick or treating with you guys so no I'm not we're finding a new route this year because as you know our neighborhood is dead during Halloween it's like darkness so I think we're going to go with some school friends this year hit some areas in OC I'm not going to tell you guys right there her way of lightly telling me I'm not going no you can't I'll tell you offline where we're going while I was thinking to I think J's neighborhood could be fun because they probably take the golf card out totally it was when I was down there this weekend our brother lives in Constant Cometti and we went out on the golf cart every single house is like so excited for Halloween so they have like the big skeleton so fast I was like this probably like goes off during Halloween and yeah the golf carts are probably out and full swing with lights and like so much fun which got invited to a party on Balbo Island but it's underwater right now so I'm like I don't know if that's going to be happening which is wild if you had to dress up what would your costume be I am anti costumes so I know you're but like if you had to because you're going to a party princess okay are you any no you know what you could totally pull off and it would be such an easy costume this year Elizabeth Holmes I'm not quite sure how to take that you have the blonde hair you just get a black turtle neck do the crazy eyes like this and then red lipstick hello my husband sucks ass and I think literally I'm good I know but you could be that's what are you going to be nothing oh I don't dress up for Halloween either you don't have like a family costume going now I feel like I could definitely see a jerk getting into it he maybe he was going to be an inflatable Pikachu which I'm not trying to be Pokémon and then Emmy is going to be Taylor Swift which I did version okay so it's the big ball gown that's like of course it is like the huge ball count and the but dazzled Mike yeah so that's gonna be fun sorry guys I know you're bored to death and you're like shut up and get to it so before we get into the main core cases that we're going to be talking about today a couple things I do want to update you on one I heard just earlier this week that the Gonzales family of in the Idaho four case is passing out defamation suits like it's trick-or-treating candy to like so many different creators I think we're up to 15 right now and I say go for I was just good for them I know I like obviously you know we spoke with Kaylee's dad at crime con we've I've covered that case literally since inception since the moment that it happened and I don't know if inception's story word I was going to say well you're really branching out in your vocab I know I think it's story or whatever but I've had a lot of thoughts about that case from day one and I know a lot of people are divided on who knew what who really did what there's people who are pro burgers who think that Brian's innocent and he's been framed but at the core of it because it was such a polarizing case so many people were of course covering and I'm talking about it however there was this like sect of creators and podcasters who knew that it was so polarizing so they only wanted to do the click baity stuff and I am talking some of the most vile stuff out there that I've seen on the internet I know there's one creator I'm not going to say his name but you probably know who I'm referring to I don't but I'm interested to get them for after. Okay um but like slandering the family I just like making up so many crazy things that were never even true and so I'm happy that they're trying to set a precedent here and like absolutely and say this is unacceptable and we saw a little bit of that happen in this case already when the professor sued a tic-chalker who the tic-chalker accused the professor of being involved in all of this so I say go for it, go ham, I don't like the clickbait stuff. I just feel like it's using your platform for wrong, and this is not the time or the place to be doing that. - I agree, it's just super reckless. And it's like, this is somebody's, yeah, this is their life, the worst day of their lives, and even still now, especially now that Brian is now trying to flip his plea and uno-reversate, it's like this never-ending cycle for them. So we'll see what happens, but yeah, I say good for them. - Yeah. - Also the Sandra Birchmore trial is continuing to go on, and it's a federal trial, so it's not televised, but I do know a lot of people are putting recaps out there, so I posted something on Instagram earlier this week saying, hey, I've covered this case before it went to trial, I did the deep dive, I even did a updated deep dive last fall, but I basically put a question out there saying, do you want trial updates, or do you want a deep dive into the bombshells of the trial, or what are you guys looking for? And a lot of you said yes, even though there is some coverage out there. And for those of you who aren't familiar with that case, it's really horrible. This young woman, Sandra Birchmore basically had, she had joined this young explorer's program within the police department in Massachusetts as a 13-year-old girl, and these officers started grooming her and praying on her and exploiting her and having sexual relations with her. And one of them, she ended up in this, I don't want to call it a relationship 'cause she was too young to consent to a relationship, but this sexual dynamic for years, and he was married, he had a family, he even had children on the way, and she wanted to get pregnant, he promised her a baby, it I think kind of just to appease her and make her quiet and complacent with the situation, 'cause she had threatened to expose him at that point. So she ends up being pregnant, then she is found dead by apparent self-harm. Come to find out, it was a staged scene, she is on trial for her murder right now, but what, and she was pregnant at the time, it appeared that the motive was, he killed her because of the baby, and he didn't want to get caught in everything, come to find out the baby actually wasn't even his, but it goes so much deeper than that, so many different cops involved, his brother involved, and like so many things, so anyway, that trial's happening right now, so let me know too, in the comments section here, if you want me to dive into that a little bit more, of just like pulling out what the need to know from the trial, because it's, of course, as I said, not televised, it's federal, and there is a lot there, like three of the mistresses are now testifying, the brother is being called to the stand, there's so much more that has come in, that corruption's been brought up before, from that department, so. Oh, multiple times, and one of the officers involved with the investigation was also looped in with the Karen Reed stuff, so it's just like a shit storm. There's definite, I remember during the Karen Reed case, people bringing up Sandra and saying, like, look at this and pay more attention, so I think there's definitely more public interest in this. Definitely, so yeah, let us know. Well, I have an update, ooh, an update. Yeah, this is an update on Destiny Daniels, so if you remember, she's the 24 year old woman that was found decomposing on her couch, in her apartment in Quincy, Illinois back on September 24th. That's right. So we did talk about this case a few weeks ago, and if you remember, there were still a ton of questions about what happened to her, especially after her friends and neighbors came forward, saying nobody had heard or seen her in nearly seven months. So just to quickly recap for those of you that may have not listened to that episode, Destiny was reportedly last seen back in February, arguing with her boyfriend, Colin, inside of their apartment building, and since then, she just seemingly vanished, and her friends and family actually feared that she had been dead that entire time. There were allegations going around that Colin had continued paying rent, using her bank cards in car, and possibly even staying at the apartment throughout all of those months in February. And to make matters even more suspicious, he reportedly went on this planned vacation, the same week Destiny's body was found, which then only, of course, added to that speculation about whether or not he had something to do with her death. Well, Quincy police have now released the findings of their investigation and what they found has people asking even more questions than before, myself included. So on October 20th, the police chief released a statement saying that Destiny actually died of natural causes, just two and a half weeks before her body was found. And according to the autopsy, there were no signs of injury or trauma and toxicology testing came back negative for drugs and investigators even found digital evidence showing that Destiny was still alive as recently as September 5th. And apparently, that digital evidence also showed that Colin hadn't been to that apartment building since July, which that was interesting, considering all of those earlier allegations that he was using her card and had been paying the rent and utilities up until shortly before her body was found. Now, the statement itself was pretty brief, and at the end of it, Quincy police basically said that they're done talking about this case. They said that their investigation was based on witness interviews, forensic findings, and digital evidence, and that their responsibility is to follow the facts rather than speculation or these unverified claims that they're finding online. Then they also added that they won't be providing any additional statements, interviews, or comments moving forward, which is interesting 'cause if anything, now there's more questions here than answers because people are questioning how did this 24-year-old die of natural causes and she had seemingly not been seen in months. And to be clear, police haven't explained what those natural causes even were, so that's something people are also questioning and trying to wrap their heads around. But another thing that people keep bringing up is the condition of Destiny's body because when she was found, she was so badly decomposed that the coroner had to use dental records to identify her. So people are wondering how is even possible that if she was only dead for two and a half weeks, how was she so badly decomposed? And actually, I looked into this a bit because I was curious about that. And apparently, depending on the conditions where the body is, a body can decompose pretty significantly in just a couple of weeks, even indoors. There are things like heat, humidity, ventilation, and also whether or not the air conditioning was running that can all make a difference, but it completely depends on those things and how badly it was. And if you remember correctly, there are a lot of interviews with the neighbors inside that building that were complaining of the smell for weeks. They, even one neighbor, if I remember correctly, was quoted saying it was unbearable. So I think people just kind of dismiss this smell. And so it sounds like it might have not even been coming from that apartment specifically. That could have just kind of been contributing to it. And as for Destiny's family, they're still not buying this explanation that the police have been given. They've been very, very outspoken since the body was found, but especially since this last statement came out, saying they believe something went wrong with the investigation. They're also alleging that authorities are refusing to give them access to Destiny's body so that they can have a second independent autopsy performed. So that obviously has also gotten people talking because their family is here asking for more answers and wants more testing, but the police are shutting down the investigation and saying they have nothing further to say. So to be clear, everything that's coming from Destiny's family about Colin is speculation at this point and the official findings are that Destiny died of natural causes and that he has been cleared. But I can also understand, which I'm sure you could imagine why the family would have more questions and want more answers to why this all happened, but as far as we know now, the police aren't commenting any further. - I'm gonna raise my hand. - Comment, Annie Elise. - I have a thought. - First of all, it's weird that a 24-year-old would die of natural causes and they're not saying what those natural causes are. Could it be something like we've seen in cases where people either inject air into the vein properly to make somebody die or like, yeah, like it's a thing. I'm like, there's so many different things where it can make it look like it's natural causes, but it's not. Also, I have covered a handful of cases where you were talking about decomp and how to expedite that. And yes, people will either turn the AC on, get a window unit, point the vent, or the foil, coil, whatever it is, directly out of the body to like mate, so that then the goal with that is so that when they come in, they can't determine a correct time of death and sometimes cause of death. So if he was still paying for utilities and for that apartment was one of those utilities, the air conditioner, was that running? Was he trying to keep it there because he was trying to decompose her body? And I'm not trying to say he's guilty. Maybe he is innocent and natural cause, and your brain works in different ways. I'm not trying, I'm not trying to go full conspiracy here, but there's something still like this. Yes, like if it is natural causes, give us more information, give the family more information, allow them to do an independent autopsy. Why would you, like why wouldn't you allow that? And normally too, I would say, oh, maybe they're keeping it close to the vest because they are investigating and they don't want to spook him or have somebody know they have the jump on him. I don't think they would say that it was natural causes necessarily if that were the case. But the paying for the utilities and the place, even though he hadn't physically been there since July, then her decomple level being so severe, not in line with being dead two weeks, there's something going on. I know, my initial thought was just knowing how bad of condition this building was. I'm like, was there like a carbon monoxide leak or something like she's laying on the couch? It's only been two weeks, but it's hot. It's like gross conditions. like, I don't know, but then to your point, if this is someone's girlfriend, and it's like, you haven't talked to them in two weeks, and you're so close that you're paying utilities. Like, who knows? Maybe he just had access to your card and he like handled the bills or something, but regardless, you don't talk to someone for two weeks. That's questionable. - Yeah. - And then to go on a vacation right after, coincidentally, the same week they find her robbing. - So I mean, there are definitely some weird things. And I guess like, even that can be explained away, 'cause they're young and like, maybe he just couldn't cope or something, but then the police not allowing them to do a second autopsy, I don't understand that. Why? And can't, don't they have a right to do that? - Yeah, well, and play devil's advocate. I mean, I guess you could say, if she did die of natural causes. I mean, if it were carbon monoxide, I think they would say that. - They'd report it, yeah. - But if she did die of natural causes, maybe she did die on the couch watching TV or something and had the AC on, or had the heater on, or whatever it was, that then just kept running and expedite him possibly. Like, so I'm not trying to say this guy's guilty if there's no evidence that he is guilty, but there is something that just doesn't feel complete. - Like if I was her family, I would be like, I want more information. - Exactly, 100%. - Okay, so this next case that we're going to talk about, isn't necessarily like a case, but it kind of actually is, I guess you could say, but it's one that has been fascinating me for the last couple of weeks. I've seen a lot of you guys talk about it too. And I'm sure a lot of you remember John and Kate plus eight, the TV show on TLC back in the, what was it like, 2000s, I think it was. It was a reality show, one of the very first reality shows that followed John and Kate Goslin as they raised their eight kids. Well now, one of those kids, Colin Goslin, just released a memoir on October 13th, and it's called In the Shadow of Eight. And the things that he is coming forward with, and some of the allegations of things that went down in his childhood, they are absolutely insane, and also completely unexpected to a lot of people. Now to give you a little bit of backstory. Back in 2016, Kate had sent Colin to a psychiatric facility. She claimed that he had behavioral issues and also special needs, which she was only 11 years old at the time. He ended up spending about two years in treatment facilities before eventually moving in with his dad, John. But Colin has always said that his mother's version of events isn't true. So now he's finally telling his side of the story, including what he says was happening inside that home long before he was sent away. Back when they were filming the show, leading up to it, and just kind of the aftermath, too, once the show started tanking. And I want to start with one of the most disturbing allegations in the entire book, which is that Colin says that his mother kept him locked in an unfinished basement for two years. It's kind of giving like Jody Hilda Brandt and Ruby Frankie a little bit. He wasn't just sent to his room or grounded or things like that. He claims that he was literally sleeping on an air mattress in this particular section of the basement that had walls built around it, almost like it was a holding cell. And Kate allegedly had cameras set up that were there to monitor him. And it had a door that was locked from the outside so he could not leave on his own. Which, I have a lot of thoughts about this. And unfortunately, it is not the first time we've heard of a situation like this. As I just cited, Jody Hilda Brandt, Ruby Frankie, we know that they did that with Ruby's son. Also, there was a couple here. And was it here in San Diego or Jupiter? I can't remember, one of the two. And they had adopted a son and they made a makeshift holding cell for him. Which I'm like, why would you even adopt a child? If this is what you're going to do. And there have been a lot of cases where we've heard of that. Some of the parents say that the reason they did that is for the child's own perfection. If they were diagnosed with ODD, which is oppositional defiance disorder or something like that. But more times than not, it was ruled that that wasn't the case. And I think it was just the easy excuse for parents to make. And I'm not saying that's what Kate was saying in this situation, but I'm just saying like, it's obviously not new to us. We have heard things like this. Colin says that he spent about 70% of his time down there and that there were nights when he couldn't even get out to use the bathroom, that when he was allowed upstairs, he says that he was either cleaning, eating by himself or having to act like everything was perfectly fine whenever the cameras were on. Which can you imagine if this is true? And these are his allegations because it's being disputed on the other side. But if this is true, that means that Kate had, kind of like the, not, I don't wanna say courage, that's the wrong word, but like the audacity and the gall to do this while cameras were even rolling and put him down and like had the confidence that she could get away with it, even being on such a public platform, which is like, why don't you talk to her husband that way? I mean, she talked to everybody that way. She's the whole reason actually that, and I'm gonna, this is from any of my Gen Z listeners, the reason Karen's, the term Karen exists with not just Karen, but also the haircut. - I was just gonna swear there. - Well, that's where you could be from. - Oh my God. - With like, the spiky bangs and like the spiky back and how they're like, oh, this is the classic Karen haircut, is because that was the Kate Goslin haircut and she was the Karen. The Karen. - The ultimate Karen. - Yeah. So I think if you just think about that for a second, while everyone was at home watching this family on TV, for good, for bad, the ugly, all the things reality TV. Colin says, that's what his life actually looked like. Well, not what was being displayed on the television, but him being locked away in this cell down in the basement for years. And it wasn't just the basement either. Colin says that Kate would also grab him by the ear and drag him around the house, or that she would slap him hard enough to leave bruises. In fact, he remembers a teacher noticing an injury to his ear and getting the children and youth services involved in all of that. But when they came to the house, he says that he was so terrified of his mom Kate, and what she may do if he told them the truth, that he denied that anything was happening. Eventually, then when Colin was 11 years old, he says he got to the point where he couldn't take it anymore. So he actually tried running away from home. But he realized that he had nowhere to go. So he ended up coming back. And according to Colin, Kate was absolutely furious over this. He claims that she zip tied his wrists and his ankles through him onto the floor and started screaming at him that he was a burden to the family. And Colin believes that that was the moment that Kate decided that she was done dealing with him at home period. And he actually wrote, quote, "This was the last time that she ever put her hands on me." Explaining that he believes that his resistance convinced her to have him removed from the house entirely and sent away to that facility. So that's when he ended up being, as I just said, sent to that psychiatric facility where according to Colin, the mistreatment didn't stop. He says that staff members physically mistreated him, made fun of his weight, prescribed him more than 13 different medications, including anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, and anti-anxiety medications without even really understanding what he was already taking or what he was diagnosed with. Which, I'm sorry, but we're talking about an 11-year-old child here. How is he supposed to understand what any of those medications are, let alone why he's being given so many of them? So Colin eventually got out of the facility and then he went and lived with his father, John. But apparently, even years later, he says that his mother's allegations about his mental health were still affecting his life. And this is actually what he says finally pushed him to write this book. Back in 2023, Colin was pursuing his own dream of becoming a Marine. And he had already started training when apparently his mom Kate posted a statement online, claiming that he, quote, had multiple psychiatric diagnosis or diagnoses, I never remember how you're supposed to say that. And that he also had a history of violent behavior. According to Colin, those claims eventually reached a military doctor. So because of that, he was discharged from the program. Now, I don't know if that's because the doctor proved that there was validity with any of that or if they were just being, you know, like taking the precaution and airing on the side of caution because Kate had disclosed that and they were going along with that. And maybe he had things from the treatment facility where he was diagnosed by them, but maybe it wasn't accurate. I honestly don't know. But he has continuously denied everything that Kate has said about his mental health, even saying that he has had independent medical evaluations done most recently in October of 2023, which found no psychological issues. So from Colin's perspective, he had finally moved on from his life. He was leaving things behind, becoming an adult and growing into his own, working towards something that he really wanted for himself. But now he felt like these same allegations that he had been fighting since childhood had cost him that entire opportunity within the military that he was so passionate about. But he says, even though that got ruined for him at the time, he does plan to go back after graduating college and that he isn't looking for Kate's approval anymore. Kate has disputed some of the things you've said in the past. What would you want her to understand about how you experienced it and the way you're telling it through this book? I don't really look for her approval or understanding today. I've gotten multiple psychological evaluations and they've also the same thing. I don't have anything and it's crazy, even, 'cause I've gone in there with a list of diagnoses and I'm like evaluate against these. And that's even harder than just going without any. So they've evaluated against those and ruled out any further diagnoses. I've done that as an adult. and. It's unfortunate that I've had to do so much due diligence as an adult trying to clear my name, but I don't look for approval and I've done my homework and by the way I have receipts of so many things that are yet to come out and I got receipts, so more to come. Now as for Kate, she hasn't really come out and addressed these new allegations directly or head on, but she has been responding to people defending her own social media. Someone left her a comment about all of the sacrifices that she made as a mother and encouraged her to not let any of this criticism get to her, which Kate responded saying quote, "I know who I am and my kids know who I am and to me, that's all that matters." Meanwhile, Collins' father, John, has been standing behind Colin, saying that he couldn't be proud of his son for sharing his story. He also said that anyone who continues to falsely claim that Colin is mentally ill would quote "be held accountable." And obviously, these are Colin's allegations, as I said, and Kate has previously defended her decision to send him away. But now that Colin has put all of this out there in his memoir, I'm curious to see whether Kate is going to address any of these specific claims, if some sort of proof is going to come to light or if maybe she's going to continue just responding to people on social media who are kind of giving her like an echo chamber and leave it at that. But I do know, as Colin's book, made it on the New York Times bestseller, and a lot of people in the public are standing behind him. But it always does become a little bit of a dicey situation when mental health allegations are at play. But this is his truth. He's sharing it. I think we all witnessed this train wreck of a woman on the TV, which I get TV doesn't display everything. It's an edit, but also if even worse things were going on behind the scenes like, what is the truth? I don't know. I mean, I didn't ever watch the show. Obviously it was such a like phenomenon when we were growing up that I got bits and pieces. But my first thought is just, you're a mother. And like, why are you going on social media or in public at all and talking about your children like that? Regardless of if it's true or not, I mean, that's a good point. What's going on? Like, I can't imagine anything that like my niece and nephew could do that would make me go in public and have any sort of comment on anything about them personally. I agree. I kind of think they can she can rip a page out of the Beckham's book because obviously there's a huge feud between David and Victoria Beckham and their son right now and what's his name? Why can I not think of it? He's married to Nicole. I know. The billionaire's daughter. Brooklyn. Brooklyn Beckham. Yes. That's right. And it is Brooklyn. I don't know. I think whatever. I think you'd going on with them that has been pretty public mainly because he has spoken out on it. And anytime the parents make comments, they're like, we love our children. We stand by them and, you know, we're here when they're ready. And so that, in my opinion, is the position to take. It's not to continue to like sensationalize or respond to these picky, choosy comments where they're in your favor. So if you are a mother who truly does have unconditional love, so we'll see what comes of that. I don't know. It peaked my curiosity and it's fascinating and it does kind of remind me a lot of Ruby Frankie. That's what I was thinking a lot of, unfortunately. And that's the thing. I mean, back then, I don't think people thought that it was going to come to a head the way it did. And now, I mean, that was all documented. Yeah. Okay. Well, we also have some updates in the horse house of horse investigation out of Philadelphia. And after spending weeks of digging up the yard and practically taking apart the entire house, investigators have finally wrapped up their search of the property. So let's talk a little bit about what they found. So on October 15th, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office was called out to the house after investigators discovered bones buried in the backyard. And as a reminder, authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to at least seven women connected to RC Horses and his property. And they believed that at least some of those seven women, if not all of them, may have been dead. So obviously, finding bones buried in the backyard was a pretty big deal. Now, investigators were very clear right away that they didn't know whether these were human or animal bones. But given everything they were looking into, they weren't going to be taking any chances. They brought in the medical examiner to collect them for testing while detectives continued digging through the yard, literally sifting dirt layer by layer. And at that point, they were about three feet down. And they had also uncovered the remains of an old brick outhouse as well as seven possum carcasses near the property. And they weren't just finding things outside either. As investigators continued taking the house apart, they reportedly found a safe hidden inside one of the walls. They also used lumen all throughout the home and recovered human DNA in several locations, including the basement, which has since been sent off for further testing. So we'll see what that comes back as. Now, investigators reportedly believe that RC Horses may have used a process called alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of human remains, which is basically a chemical process that can break down a body. And according to law enforcement, RC actually wrote about how to do this in one of his books, where he described himself as, in quote, "empathetic serial killer," which is disgusting. I don't even know what to say about that when I read that. Like, who would ever describe themselves as that, an empathetic serial killer? It kind of reminds me of who's the person in the OC surrogacy case, how he said the reason he wanted to have so many children is because he's so wealthy. I forget the word he is, but wanted to give them all a better life, but it was like altarism or something like that. And it was like, why would you describe yourself as that, like, what are you talking about? I mean, that tells you a lot about that person. Yeah, exactly. But investigators did actually recover chemicals from inside the house. And those have also been sent to labs to determine exactly what they are. So I do believe that could have actually been something that he was doing. But then going back to those bones that were found in the yard, about a week after they were discovered, authorities confirmed that they were, in fact, animal bones, not human. But that didn't stop the search. At that point, investigators were more than halfway through excavating the backyard. And once they were finished there, they then moved on to the front yard. But by last Friday, though, the search was officially finished. Investigators finished up just before noon, and were essentially leaving empty-handed. And after weeks of digging through the property, tearing apart the house and searching for any side of the missing women, they did not find any human remains. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't find anything useful inside the home. Investigators did collect several other items that are still undergoing testing, including that human DNA samples that were found during that luminal testing. And now that they're finished searching the property itself, investigators are shifting their focus to all of that digital evidence they collected throughout the investigation. Because if you remember, there was like an enormous amount. Yeah, there was so much they had only gone through like 3% of what they had found. Yeah, which was. And they found like video evident. Yeah, like that. So I'm sure there's going to be more coming from that. Well, do you want to say what one of our producers said about the animal bones? No. When we remember in Slack, and I'm not going to put her on blast and say her name. But as we were talking about all of this, when she like, oh, she's all everybody, everybody knows that if you're trying to bury a body, you bury the animal bones on top so that they stop digging after that. That's right. I was all. It took me a part. I like. I'm like, whoa, okay. I was like, I didn't know that. I know, I know. So yeah, I mean, the physical search is over, but they're still waiting to find out what all that forensic testing reveals and to see if they can connect it to any of those missing women. Because that's a lot of missing women to be gone and connected to him and there's no evidence. And actually, very surprised, there was no physical evidence. What do you think? I don't know. He had the drums of chemicals. They have seemingly been at this for decades, so I think there's a way that they have been able to get away with it and hide things or transport things. Maybe things are buried deeper below the surface. I know they're excavating and like, continuing to do all of that. Well, and like, a safe inside of a wall? No. I know. And like, they found hidden compartments the first search, too, with like, all sorts of things. Sometimes somebody who very much believes Occam's razor, where they're smoke, there's fire, like, there's, I do not think we're at the end of this. I think there is going to be a massive discovery. And these people freak me the fuck out. RC and Eugene look straight out of, I know I've said it, hills have eyes. They like, if you looked up serial killer in the dictionary, that photo would be there. Like, they are so creepy. They fit the bill. And I know, don't judge a book by its cover. I mean, it truly is the house of horrors. I'm judging. That is scary. It's so scary. Speaking of judging. Okay. Okay. This is a hot topic right now. And I'm kind of surprised that there is so much division out there with people's opinions on whether or not this is truthful. And if there's actually any merit to it, I believe there is. And I'm going to explain why, but that's just my opinion. It is something that's ongoing. It is just allegations at this point. So like I always say, do your own research, form your own opinions, but we have to talk about it. And it's Megan Merkel's death. I was just going to say, I have no idea where you're going with this. Oh. It's Megan Merkel's. Let's hear it. So we have to talk about what's going on with her father, Thomas Merkel senior, because over the last week, some pretty serious allegations have come out. And he's currently being investigated over the alleged possession of CSAM material. And if you don't know the acronym of CSAM, look it up. But it's basically explicit child material. And what's really interesting about all of this is that maybe. Megan has also now come forward, saying that she was actually made aware of these allegations against her father years ago, and that these allegations were the reason that she decided to keep him away from her children. So according to reports, Megan's half-brother Thomas Markle, Jr., recently made a disturbing discovery while he was going through his father's belongings at his former home in the Philippines earlier this year. Thomas had lived in the Philippines for a while, I know he was having medical procedures and things like that. And so to my knowledge, Thomas Jr. went there to grab some paperwork or to get some things when he made this discovery. Thomas Jr. had also been helping hit care for his father, who's now 82 years old by the way, and like I said, has dealt with some serious health issues, including a stroke back in 2022 and a lay amputation in December of last year. And so Thomas Jr. claims that while he was going through some of the things that were left at the home, he found four large boxes containing hundreds, possibly even thousands of images and videos that he believed to be CSAM. He also allegedly discovered additional material on one of his father's old cell phones, along with pictures that he believed may have been taken at his father's former home in Mexico. And I'm going to play a clip for you in just a second here, but basically he said that in one of these visuals, he saw the background of the home and knew that his father had taken the material. But listen to this clip of Thomas Jr. describing. Yeah. So, you know, a little time goes by and it comes up my partner of one of her family members needed a cell phone. Now I remember when I was packing the stuff in Mexico, I did see several cell phones in a bag. And so I just said, wait, yeah, don't we don't have to buy one. I can get one of those old cell phones and on the phones and I pulled the phones and went back to my house. Once recharged up, I think three different phones. I started going through and basically the first one I grabbed, I turned it on and I'm looking at the contacts and yeah, there was like, I don't know, 10, 12 contacts on there and a little bit of a call log. So I said, that's not big of a deal. So I went to the photos and the videos and it said four images or four items. And so I clicked on them and I almost damn near dropped the phone and threw it away because I couldn't believe what I was looking at. So Thomas Jr. said that he was disgusted by what he allegedly found and that he felt betrayed by his father. He said that he knew that he needed to report it immediately. So on July 10th, he says he contacted the FBI hotline, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and also the state police in Pennsylvania. However, Thomas Sr. is denying all of it. On October 23rd, he made a statement saying that he was shocked and hurt by his son's accusations, calling them complete lies and questioning why his son would want to destroy him like this. Thomas Jr., however, is standing by his claims and says that he is confident that the evidence that he turned over will speak for itself. So now, the authorities and the Philippines are investigating. On October 24th, one of the Philippine ministers confirmed that the police had seized a laptop allegedly belonging to Thomas Sr. along with material suspected to be CSAM and according to new reports, they might have found way more than just a computer and a cell phone because the alleged list of what they found is actually very disturbing and kind of scary. With the help of an IT expert, Thomas Jr. spent one day going through the four boxes of his and he reportedly found at least one laptop, multiple cell phones, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, computer equipment, three or four hard drives, photographs, and also 35 millimeter film negatives. And according to the reports, three of those hard drives were examined and that is where the IT expert allegedly discovered hundreds, maybe even thousands of files suspected to contain the explicit material. The expert also reportedly found that the files they examined had been downloaded back in 2014 and also back in 2020 before Thomas Sr. and his son moved to the Philippines in 2025. But that's not all that they allegedly found because mixed in with everything else were several books containing some pretty controversial and graphic images, books with titles like Hollywood Lolitas, Lolita Angel, Lewis Carroll photographs of children. And when Thomas Sr. was questioned about these books, he claimed that they were simply part of his interest in Hollywood, history, and photography. But obviously it doesn't look good if you're being accused of having all sorts of CSAM material. And then you also have books on Lolitas and children. I mean, all of that goes hand in hand. Now one of the most serious accusations involves a 35 millimeter film negative that was allegedly found tucked inside an old photography book. According to reports, the image appears to show Thomas Sr. when he was in his late 40s or early 50s and he was engaged in sexual acts with a girl who appears to be underage. Now Thomas Sr. has specifically denied ever being photographed in that kind of situation. He claims that his son is trying to set him up. I've also seen Samantha Markle, the Megan's half-sister, come to her father's defense saying, "I don't know why my brother is doing this, but what son wants to make that up about their father?" Apparently according to them, financial motivations because Thomas had been helping him financially. He wasn't anymore, but also I give Samantha a grain of salt at the best when I believe what she has to say. But anyway, yeah, he's denied that he was ever in that kind of situation, but reports say that investigators have seen the material that appears to contradict to statements. Although the identity of the man in the girl and the girl's age in that film negative have not yet been confirmed. Apparently investigators though are just getting started. Sources familiar with the evidence have described what has been discovered so far as potentially being the tip of a huge iceberg. The Philippine minister said that investigators were conducting a forensic examination and they expected to have more definitive findings within about a week. He also acknowledged that there was a family dispute involved, so the authorities needed to consider all possibilities before coming to any conclusions. However, here's where things take another turn, because Megan Markle has now released another statement, and according to her, these allegations aren't exactly new. We know that she said that she was deeply distressed by the news and that her thoughts were with any of the children who may have been harmed, but she's also revealed that she was made aware of these allegations against her father several years ago after a letter was sent to London's Metropolitan Police. Now Megan initially said that the letter was sent back in 2018, but police have since confirmed that they received it in January of 2019. The letter was shared with Megan and Prince Harry, and Megan says that she was assured that the allegations were being investigated. According to the reports, the claims weren't substantiated at the time, and Megan was advised against speaking publicly about them out of concern that doing so could interfere with a potential investigation. But Megan says that this is why she ultimately decided to keep her father away from her children. In her statement, she explained that despite what the public perceived their relationship as over the years, her decision to distance herself from her father was all about protecting her children. And Megan had already made that decision very clear to him before these latest allegations became public. According to reports, Megan allegedly sent Thomas Sr. a letter back in December of 2025, while he was hospitalized in the Philippines after that leg amputation, and in the letter, she told him that he would never be allowed to meet her children, and that it would be the very last time he ever heard from her. Megan also confronted him about the allegations involving the sexual assault of minors, and she arranged for hospital staff to personally deliver the letter, have him sign a form saying he received it, and record the delivery, which I would imagine that was an effort to protect herself should ever ever anything come out, because she is famously quoted as saying, "Shoot, what is it? I want to make sure I get it right. It's like being complacent, means you're being complicit," or something like that. Let me look at this separately quick, because it's going to bug me, and I want to make sure I don't misquote it. And this was about something else unrelated. Oh yeah, she said, back in 2020 in a quote, "In people's complacency, they are complicit," saying, "If you are complicit, you are complicit," and then now people, of course, questioning her if she was silent or silenced and things like that. But so I would imagine if she wanted the letter recorded, him signing it, she probably knew, at one point or another, it was going to be exposed, and she was probably trying to cover her own house to be like, "I'm doing right by calling this out," and do not. Although it's all, I don't know, I get very protected and nuanced in a way. I don't understand why she hasn't publicly spoken out until now, and I get it that her advisors are probably telling her one thing or another. She doesn't want to interfere with an investigation, but she learned about this around the time that what, they got married in 2018, right? Well, that's, I'm thinking, 2008-2019, then this was reported back in July by the Sun, so I'm like, "Why are we just hearing about it?" Well, she said she knew about it, and with the letter back in 2019, yeah, like why haven't you spoken out about it, and I get it, maybe you don't want to interfere, but like, I don't know, there's something there. don't love. And let's go back to that letter, actually, that was sent to the police in 2019. Because according to reports, the letter was written by Thomas Senior's first wife, Rosalyn. In the seven-page letter, she made several allegations against Thomas, including a claim that he had told her that he traveled to the Philippines and also to Thailand because, quote, "12-year-olds were legal there," which is actually true. For context, the age of consent in the Philippines was 12 years old at the time, which I can't even fucking believe. The country has since raised the age of consent to 16 back in 2022. But she's saying, yeah, he wanted to go there because he said that 12-year-olds were legal. That's the whole reason he moved to the Philippines, which I'm going to talk about in a moment here, too. But again, this is all Rosalyn's account of an alleged conversation that the two of them had. It hasn't been confirmed that Thomas Senior actually said that, and he, of course, has denied the allegations. But here's where the Metro police are now facing some questions of their own. The department confirmed that it received Rosalyn's letter in January of 2019 and that they passed it along to Megan and Prince Harry, like I said, but they did not share the allegations with other law enforcement agencies. So now, seven years later, police are trying to figure out how this letter was handled, and if it was even actually ever investigated at all. So at this point, there's obviously a lot of alleged information going around, a lot of speculation, and a lot of, he said, she said. Thomas, Markle, Senior, is denying everything, denying he did anything wrong, and until investigators release their findings, the, you know, it all remains allegations. However, with the authorities expecting to have more information soon, they don't at the time of this recording, but maybe at the time the episode is published, they will. We're just going to have to wait and see what comes out of the investigation. But when I first heard about this, what makes me likely, or more likely to believe it, isn't because the IT experts that they found anything, everything, not because the sun said he found it, but because of the Philippines. That's what I thought. Philippines in Mexico are where these things are documented. Is that because it's looser rules and well, not necessarily looser rules. But if you remember, I did an episode with CRC not too long ago, and the Philippines is one of the main hotspots for child traffic, that makes sense. Right, it's like an impoverished area. There's different things like that Thailand as well, a little bit too. But in the Philippines, and the case we had covered was from the Philippines, it's so big there, I guess you could call it that it's not just children getting abducted or exploited or, you know, passed around and sold, but it's parents doing that to their own children and also making their own children participate in creating CCM material. The children in CCM material together in an incestual way, and then the parent is selling that or live streaming it. And that's the case that I had talked about with CRC a few months back. And so when I heard, oh, he not only wanted to travel to the Philippines a lot, which I know people travel there. It's beautiful. Hello, my husband's from the Philippines, but like, it's beautiful and there's like people love doing that. But then when his wife said in the letter that it was because 12 years old, it's the age of consent, then he moved to the Philippines. Then some of them material was found allegedly contained Filipino children. Like, there's so much where I'm like, this makes it feel more true to me than if it was something a different geography. That's why when you first said Philippines, my thought was like, although very shocking and disturbing to find this was it, in fact, illegal, if the consent age of consent was 12 back then, which is obviously startling. And I can't even imagine coming across that as someone's son. That would be awful. But yeah, I thought was that was it being there? Did that change things? But it sounds like he had a lot of that stuff and it had been going on for a very long time and had been documenting it. And who knows if there was an exchange of material as well? Like if he was creating it, selling it, sharing it, because you know how those networks work. And I highly encourage you guys, maybe I'll link it in the show notes, let yeah, the episode with CRC because on that we pull up the maps where it actually shows you the red dots of where people are exchanging this, the hot spots and like go through statistics. But I want you to know ahead of time that it is a very difficult lesson because it is a lot of information. And I think we only did that episode on YouTube. I don't think we did it audio. So maybe we'll release it as a bonus episode on audio actually just because I do think it's so important to educate people. And some of those of you who follow me on Instagram know too, I had posted something last week about the statistics of of just child sexual assault in general and what those statistics look like. And I do believe knowledge is power. So maybe we will do that as well. And we'll just release it audio as a bonus episode. But we'll link the YouTube in here for you as well. So yeah, a lot going on. I mean, I'm going to follow this one very closely. It's crazy that these people have these arsenals of it's disgusting. It really is. So yeah, I'll keep following this. I will let you know what we learn to your point Amy. It's like, imagine if all of this material was legal. I know the age of consent at the time, which makes it just infuriating. But then still, I wonder what the legal ramifications are once they changed that age to 16. And if he was still sharing that or participating in that after 2022, then like, is there at least something he would get caught for? And like, what was it specifically that prompted Megan to write that letter? Was it that? Or was it something else? And then the fact that he has these 35 millimeter film hidden books. I mean, the guy is up to no good. And books on lowly tests. And I mean, the writing is on the wall, I think. So yeah, more to come on that. As a side note, just as a reminder, merch is going to be closing soon. So grab your merch while you can. I have a couple samples here. I'll show you guys really quick. And a portion of merch goes to CRC to other organizations. We talked a little bit about our charitable contributions last week in the episode. But let me show you a couple of these real quick. This is obviously our best selling t-shirt. It comes in black and ivory. The I hope you're having a nice day because I'm about to ruin it. We are almost completely out of this one. And ahead of Christmas time, if you are a home-ark movie watcher or lifetime movie watcher, we have this in charcoal and also this green that says it's either true crime documentaries or Christmas movies. There is no in between. So this little comfy soft sweatshirt, little stay spooky sweatshirt, listen closely and lots of other items. But the merch shop will be closing soon. So grab that now. Annie Elisa.com. And yeah, anything else? No, I don't think so. All right guys. Well, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Headline Highlights. Can't wait to see who the guest is next week. Sam, who is she? Who's gonna fly in next week? So thank you for tuning in and until the next one, be nice. Don't kill people. And just don't be a freaking predator with children. Period. Agreed. All right. Bye. [Music]