The Manila Film Centre Tragedy and the Mysterious Case of Teresita Basa

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I am really trying to get to 3,000 followers on Instagram before the year ends, so please, please help me reach that. All the links that you need to help support the podcast can be found in our Instagram bio, so just look for @LugimPodcast on Instagram or check the links in the show notes. Also, you might have heard and seen that I have a second podcast, which I am producing, in partnership with Podcast Network Asia. It is called Asia in the Shadows, a true crime podcast, and it features crime stories from the Asian continent. Episode one and two are currently out now, so please make sure that you check the show notes for more details about my other podcasts. As always, please note that some details in today's episode might be disturbing, so please take care of yourself whilst listening. [MUSIC] The Philippines in the 1980s was full of contradictions. The country, like many countries at that time, found itself at the start of a three-year global recession. By 1981, a rich tycoon named Dewi D fled the Philippines leaving behind millions of dollars of debt. The World Bank was then quoted saying the financial system was shaken by the fleeing of a rich financial tycoon leaving millions of dollars in debt in various Philippine banks. This generated panic among money market investors and depositors and led to massive withdrawals. The financial panic eventually brought many investment houses off shore banking units and commercial banks into trouble, end of quote. In that year, Ferdinand Marcos got elected after he quote-unquote lifted martial law temporarily after nine years, only to make sure that he retained some democratic gravitas after essentially ruling as a dictator. Despite enjoying a somewhat good standing abroad, things within the Philippines would get progressively worse. In 1983, the Philippines requested a debt moratorium due to massive blunders within the Banco Central or the Filipino Central Bank. During the moratorium, the Philippines' usable reserves went below one million, barely enough to buy crude oil for the Filipinos. Sadly, in the same year, Benigno Ninoiakino, a beloved politician and staunch critic of the Marcos regime, was assassinated, plunging an already-country in turmoil into more uncertainty and a peevil that would culminate in the People's Power Revolution in 1986. This saw the outsting of Marcos and his family from Malakanyang in the country. But our story took place way before the Filipinos said enough in 1986. Our story takes place in 1981, when first Lady Inelda Marcos made it her mission to finally commission the building of the country's official National Film Archive to be named the Manila Film Center. According to records by Inesco, who consulted back then on the project, the idea of a National Film Archive had been lingering around four years. The idea and vision of the first Lady was to essentially make Manila the cultural center of Asia, a city that could compete with France and its Cannes Film Festival. The planning was led by Inelda herself, but she did pull other people into her building planning group to make sure that her vision was realized as perfectly and quickly as possible. She made sure Betty Benitez, wife of Minister Jose Benitez, and two other people who were responsible for the design and conceptualization of the center were pulled into the group as well. The other two were Ramon Ignacio and Freyland Hong. The inspiration for the building was the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, a temple to honor the goddess Athena, very ambitious indeed. And there was no time to waste. After all, what Inelda wanted, Inelda got, quickly. Case in point, the folks art theater that was built in 77 days just because Inelda wanted to host the Miss Universe pageant in a spectacular theater in the Philippines. Anyway, Inelda had big plans to host a film festival in January of 1982. And so the construction of the building had to be sped up as much as possible, less to first lady be embarrassed in front of all the festival's international guests. The Manila Film Center as a project was grand for lack of a better term. Even before it was built, it got the moniker, the film palace because the ambition alone behind it was nothing like anyone has ever seen or attempted before in Southeast Asia. So there were two main components in the building's design, the auditoria and the archives. There was also specifically a plan to build a 360 degree film theater or a space big enough to hold 100 million feet of film at one time. The plans to incorporate a library and a museum in the building because according to Yinesco, it just made sense that way. From a construction point of view, we would later learn that the foundation of the building was and is built on reclaimed land near the Manila Bay, something that may have made some engineers and architects very uncomfortable from a safety point of view. Furthermore, because Inelda wanted the building to be done by January the next year, the sheer amount of manual laborers and working hours were dizzying. The project required around 4,000 workers working in three shifts across 24 hours. Around 1,000 workers constructed the lobby alone within 72 hours, a job which would normally need at least six weeks to finish. But all that grandiose thinking and planning and eventual building hit a fatal problem by November 1981, less than two months from the center's planned opening in January of 1982. At around three o'clock in the morning on the 17th of November 1981, on the fourth floor of the film center building, scaffolding suddenly collapsed, causing workers to be trapped in the quick drying cement. However, this was not really the start of a problem that quickly became worse that very early morning. The truth is, quick drying cement was poured by the many workers on each floor without even waiting for the layers to dry, something I am told is a big no-no in construction practices. Not only were there wet cement layers, but also too much of it on each floor, causing the subsequent collapse. For more public relations officer of the experimental cinema of the Philippines and the Manila International Film Festival Nana Benigno saw the immediate aftermath of the accident. She would later say the following, quote, "From a distance, I could see people and stretchers being carried out frozen in cement. When I got there, they were still digging out people. The cement was not completely hard. And there was a guy that they were trying to keep from going into shock. Half of his body was buried. He was alive but half buried. I don't know what it was, but to keep him awake alert, not to go into a coma or a shock, they kept singing Christmas songs. I was watching this. And if quote. Here is another quote from Mila Jorin. She was the head of marketing at the Manila International Film Festival. Quote. I was told that they just cut up all of the ones that were exposed. Remove and build over, which is why the seats are very steep. It was a rushed job. So these people were just, you know, they had to finish it, period. End of quote. Since the Marcos regime had always been concerned about the people's perception of the government and rightfully so, it was deemed best to have a media blackout to avoid any further scandal. So no one knew what was happening immediately after the accident and even the hours afterwards. To make matters worse, first responders and medical services as well as the media were not allowed on site for nine hours after the accident. By the time medical services were ready to go in, around 168 workers had apparently died or were buried in the cement which had already dried up and hardened. Architect Freyland Huang debunked this figure and stated that only seven people had actually died in the accident and that all of them were retrieved and given the proper rights befitting the dead. Of course, a lot of people still doubt his statement. Going back to those critical hours on the 17th of November, the next logical step was to save as many buried laborers as possible by destroying the cement services, but jack hammers were not employed until some even more hours later with dire consequences. Witnesses would later recount how gruesome the site was of bodies sticking out of pavement, helpless and hopeless. They spoke of even more horrible actions by the people in charge. According to some witness accounts, the exposed parts of some of the workers were essentially tapered off, meaning entombed and built over unceremoniously because the construction had to continue and the deadline needed to be met. Reports from the media were scarce and still are, but one video shot by GMA cameraman Boy Sonza showed how the bodies of the buried workers kept turning up whilst the site was being dug. Sonza focused on one unnamed worker specifically who was seen buried in cement from the waist down for what Sonza would later learn were more than ten hours. According to what the video showed, the man was already dead when the rescuers managed to haul out his body from the cement. I'm not sure if this was the same man that Nana Benignor was talking about earlier, but the stories do sound very similar. Reports would later point at Betty Benitez as being the brains behind this inhumane decision of tapering off the bodies with cement, of course, because she knew that her boss, the first lady who gave her the orders to do everything in her power to continue the work works, would not tolerate any more delays in finishing the building. She apparently gave the orders to continue construction as if nothing had happened. Those familiar with the building said that the hauntings and strange events began that very same day. Despite the government's attitude of glossing over what had happened at the film center, to make sure deadlines were met, it did become worried about things being foretold about the first family specifically because of what happened to those who died or were injured during the Manila Film Center tragedy. Before the film festival opened on 18th of January 1982, a fortune teller allegedly told first daughter Amy Marcos that she would meet her untimely demise if she ever dared to step foot in the film center. Now these were and are just rumors, but apparently after this clairvoyant reading, no effort and expense were spared to rid the building of its supernatural and perhaps paranormal vibes. Allegedly there were exorcism rights, pagan rights, Catholic rights and Chinese rights performed in the building. Government officers and those who kept the first family safe were given hunting and things or amulets and talismans to ward off evil spirits. When the film festival finally opened, rituals were performed by Filipinos from the Cordillera region, better known as the Igorot. They sacrificed live animals who they said should then be consumed by those attending the ritual including young Amy Marcos. Now the weirdest anecdote I have heard of this already weird event is about how an anxious Amy Marcos unwilling to eat the sacrificial animals asked that a certain restaurant cater for the people at the ritual instead, which included her. She then proposed that the Igorot eat the sacrificial animals instead. Make of that what you want. When the festival finally officially opened to the world, welcoming films from 39 countries and also welcoming guests like Peter Ustenov, Priscilla Presley and Brooke Shields, those people who were working hard in the background to make sure the event went flawlessly shared with each other some strange experiences during that time. For example, usherettes who were pulled in from private girl schools started smelling something rather odd backstage. Most of them would later recount how they also felt a cold, draft blowing in, coupled with a strange tingling of their skin as if there was someone or something invisible in the midst of them. Other stories by both employees and guests tell of sightings of the ghosts of those who died during the November 17th tragedy. A few months after the film festival, stories of Betty Benitez's presence supposedly lingering around the building started to become more prominent as well. Now what I failed to tell you earlier is that Benitez died in a freak car accident shortly after the film festival opened. It was believed by many that the ghosts of her victims or some other vengeful supernatural force had caused her death. Her name would then be forever tied to what happened at the Manila Film Center and the role she allegedly played in the death of so many lives. Just to reiterate, Benitez did not die on the premises of the film's center, but many believe that her spirit lingers still in the building because even beyond death, Benitez feels bad for following Imelda Marcus's orders. Meanwhile, historians would look at the construction of this ostentatious building with critical eyes. The Manila Film Center became a symbol of greed and incompetence by the Marcus regime. For some of these historians, the collapse of the building in 1981 spelt the beginning of the end for the Marcus S. And this was somehow mirrored by the fate of the building before the festival even started and after it. Despite the success of Imelda Marcus's dream, the building would constantly and perpetually experience all sorts of setbacks. It felt to many like there was a strong curse on the building for very obvious reasons, of course. For example, before the festival, Imelda Marcus tried to obtain a 5 million dollar subsidy to fund the festival, but this was denied, so she sought alternative funding. But after the festival, the upkeep of the building needed to be financed as well. So naturally, the center needed to generate some revenue in the absence of any government help. But the first lady had a solution. She proceeded to create an agency that would later involve into what we now know as the MTRCB, or the movie and television review and classification board. A presidential decree in 1986, just before the Marcus S. were ousted, essentially greenlighted this agency to show films at the center that were very much close to soft porn in order to attract the public or at least a certain demographic within the public. However, despite this new and odd source of income, The center continued to struggle to keep the building running. The public would also learn later that part of the reason why the building was able to financially survive the first few years was because Imelda Marcos was able to borrow money. Those debts were now staring the Filipinos in the face. The film center was not generating enough money to answer to its own creditors and the burden was placed on the taxpayers. Now after the marcuses were ousted, the center's woes did not stop. Years later in 1990, a powerful earthquake hit the northern island of the zone, bringing with it a moment of magnitude of 7.8. The epicenter of the earthquake was a town near Rizal in Nueva Ecija, but the overall impact of this powerful earthquake was felt even in Manila. And the Manila Film Center, the allegedly cursed building, suffered structural damage and had to be abandoned. A little over a decade later in 2001, the film center was rehabilitated. The theater was then leased to a theater company called The Amazing Show. The company's lease expired and was not renewed after that and so the amazing show transferred to another facility in 2009. At that time, the Philippine Senate also considered moving into the film center which made more financial sense to them than to continue stating at the GSIS compound where the government was paying more in terms of rent. However, before the Senate could decide, the film center was again leased to the amazing show. This time, however, their residency at the film center would be very short lived because even after 30 years, the curse of the Manila Film Center lived on. In 2013, a three-hour fire engulfed the film center. Luckily, there were no casualties, but the damages were substantial and repairs could cost around 1.2 million pesos. The amazing show had to relocate. The Senate considered another refurbishment of the film center and maybe a move as well later on. As we now know, the Philippine Senate has not reconsidered their original plans of moving into the Manila Film Center so I can imagine that they are currently not thinking about this as a matter of priority. As of today, creepy stories about the center persist. A number of rituals have been carried out at the Manila Film Center over the years as an attempt to perhaps rid the building of the lost and trapped souls underneath all that cement, but many believe that these rituals are not effective. Several people in the past have claimed to have heard and felt many things. Some have said that they have heard cries and whaling. Some said that they have felt strange, mysterious winds blow against them. And some have heard, seen, and felt shadowy figures within the building. When the film center was used as a foreign affairs building at some point, the poor and unsuspecting civil servants were often creeped out and spooked, saying they had heard strange sounds when no one was around. Ghost hunters and the lovers of the paranormal still sometimes flocked Manila in order to see the film center and in the hope to capture something on camera that would maybe prove the existence of spirits and souls. In 2005, broadcast journalist Howie Severino did a bit of digging and concluded essentially that the stories about the many buried workers' ghost sightings were false. He could not find one surviving relative of any of those who apparently died. The witness as he talked to had conflicting opinions and accounts. And so Howie Severino concluded that the stories of the 168 dead laborers were false. As for me, I do have some thoughts about this case. And as a true crime podcaster, I think I might stick to that part of this job rather than competing with the horror story podcasters out there. I first thought about the families of those who died and of those who were injured. Whether there had been seven deaths or 168, I would like to know whether they had received any compensation or was there a settlement with a government at all. Or am I too naive in thinking that these were possible options knowing that the Marcos regime probably did not even care that those people had died. In a sense what happened to the whole project was one big red flag of negligence. The rush to finish it, the perhaps unstable structures that eventually collapsed, the allegedly inhumane treatment of the workers, I keep on thinking how are these not all separate civil court cases. And I think I will forever wonder what could have been if this had happened under any other regime or government. This tragedy added another item on that very long list of Marcos era crimes for which little justice if any was dispensed at the time or afterwards. Now whilst we love to remember and retell these stories in the spirit of Halloween or Undass or Galakalag, that does not forget that real lives were lost. And if the stories of the Manila Film Center ghosts are indeed true or untrue, what is certainly true however is that there are very real haunting and lasting ghosts left behind by a grossly criminal regime who moved with great impunity and with little consequences. Ghosts still haunt us this very day. 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As an affiliate for the Bamboo Company I will get part or a commission from any of the sales made with my link and that is always a good thing for an independent podcast like LaGame. So go ahead and use the link in the show notes to purchase some lovely eco-friendly products that coincidentally will make great birthday and Christmas gifts. Happy shopping! For a second story I am risking your way from Manila and taking you all the way to the United States specifically to Chicago Illinois to tell you the story of Teresa Bassa. The 1st of February 1977 around 840 in the evening a married couple in an apartment building at 2740 North Pine Grove Avenue noticed a smell of smoke but were unable to determine the source of the smell. The couple Mario and Catherine Canazi decided that it was time to call the building's janitor because something did not feel right. The janitor tried to ascertain where the source of the smell was. Even though he could not really say where the smell was coming from he definitely noticed how the hallway where Mario and Catherine's apartment was located was rapidly filling up with smoke. Now please note here that in one article for Medium the husband Mr. Canazi is called "Married M-A-R-I-D" and in another article he's called Mario. here on out. Anyway, the janitor immediately placed a call with the Chicago fire department. The fire fighters arrived quickly and determined that the source of the smoke was from apartment 15b. The fire fighters forced their way into the apartment and managed to extinguish the fire within minutes. They surveyed the apartment and saw a mattress on the floor. Something seemed off about the mattress. And so, they lifted the mattress and saw a body. It looked like the body was that of a naked woman who was not only partially burnt, but stabbed through the chest. At this point, the police were also called in. And having seen that the woman was missing all her clothes, the police assumed that she might have been raped as well. Although this would later be disproven by the medical examiner after the autopsy. The police investigators also turned their attention to the rest of the apartment and noticed that although some evidence had been destroyed by the fire, they could still see that the place had been ransacked and that a struggle took place. Of course, it was difficult, however, to determine what was missing from the apartment at this point because the woman the police were told by the neighbors lived alone. No one else they assumed would have been privy to the things the woman owned. So the police on-site combed through whatever was left in the apartment, looking for any clues that might generate leads. Initially, it looked like the killer had managed to commit their atrocities without leaving any evidence. However, the police did find a piece of paper presumably written by the dead woman, seemingly to remind herself to get theater tickets for someone called AS, the initials AS, but who was AS? When did the woman write the note? Needless to say, the police had their first clue, and so they wanted to make sure they found out who AS was. Meanwhile, the woman's identity was determined to be that of Teresa Bassa. Teresa was born in the Philippines and was the daughter of a prominent and wealthy couple. Teresa graduated from Assumption College in Manila and then decided to move to the US where she earned a master's degree in music from Indiana University. Now even though music played a big role in her life and she certainly maintained some music-related hobbies and work, she ultimately decided to work in the medical field. So she trained to become a respiratory therapist. By 1977, a 47-year-old Teresa seemed to be living her happy life. She lived in Chicago, worked at the Edge Water Hospital and even enrolled back into school to do a doctoral thesis in music at Loyola University. On the side, she gave piano lessons. So Teresa's life was full and busy, and it looked like she had a lot going on for her until that fateful day on the 21st of February 1977. At this point in the investigation, the police were trying to figure out the last 24 hours of Teresa's life, and they learned that she worked her normal shift at the hospital and returned to her apartment that same evening. She then received a phone call from her friend Ruth Loeb. According to Ruth, they spoke for around 20 minutes when Teresa told Ruth that she had to get off the phone as she was expecting a male visitor. Ruth did not ask who the visitor was and bid her friend goodbye instead. After this interaction with Ruth, the police noticed that the next point in their timeline was about Mario and Katherine Kanazi's complaint about the smoke in their apartment building. And so the next question would be who was AS and could ASB that male visitor, who Teresa was expecting? The police proceeded to contact that is he does family and friends to determine if they perhaps knew who AS was. They spent several weeks interviewing friends and family, as well as co-workers, neighbors and classmates at Loyola University. The police were beginning to get a fuller picture of who Teresa was. She was the quiet type. People told the police that she was a polite woman who was dedicated to her job and who was highly regarded by her patients. Friends told police that Teresa occasionally dated, but she never married. She seemed content with her work and her music studies. No people were not aware of any enemies that Teresa might have had and they were all equally shocked that someone had wanted to murder her. By all accounts, Teresa sounded like an upstanding citizen, a 70s migrant success story living the American dream. But she had now left behind a big hole in the hearts of those who had grown to love her. With all that being said, the police realized that while they have now a fuller picture of who Teresa was when she was still alive, they were still non-the wiser as to AS's identity and so they knew they needed to do more. They made several public pleas for assistance and they did receive some tips but none of them generated any realistic leads. A few months after Teresa's tragic death, the case went cold. By summer of 1977, Detective Joe Stacula arrived at work and found a note on his desk asking him to call the Evanston police in Evanston, Illinois. It was about Teresa's murder. Naturally, the detective was curious, so he called an A fellow officer from Evanston told him that they had recently received a call from someone claiming to know something about the murder. The detective was told to call a certain doctor José Chua who lived in Skokie, a suburb of Chicago. And so he did not waste any time. He called the doctor in Skokie and arranged an interview with him. He then took with him his partner detectively a plan on the day of the interview. When the three men finally sat down for this interview, things became weird really quickly. Dr. Chua told them quite the story. According to Dr. Chua, he believed that his wife, Remy Bias or Remy, had been possessed by the spirit of none other than Teresita Bassa. Remy was also from the Philippines and she started having strange dreams involving Teresita recently. Chua said that his wife tried to ignore these dreams at first, but one day, while asleep, Remy went into a trans-like state and started speaking in a voice that was not her own. Dr. Chua told the police that Remy seemed almost chromatose while she was talking to him in this strange voice. Remy told him, apparently, in this weird voice, that Teresita needed his help. She, as in Teresita, was murdered by someone called Alan Shawery, and that Dr. Chua needed to go to the police immediately with this information. The story of how she was murdered started with Shawery arriving at Teresita's apartment to fix her TV set, but this meeting turned deadly and Teresita was killed instead. The voice pleaded with Chua again before fading away. Remy then woke up from her trans and when asked if she remembered what had just happened, she said, no. She had no memory of the voice, and the information that was given to Chua by whoever was possessing her. When Dr. Chua told her what had happened, she stared at him blankly. He was not sure what had just transpired and so decided not to call the police. However, the same thing happened to Remy the following week. Remy was fast asleep when she suddenly started talking to her husband in the same strange voice. The voice sounded angry this time and demanded why Dr. Chua had not yet notified the police. Chua explained to his transfixed wife that he's a doctor and therefore a scientist. He could not bring himself to the police without any real and tangible evidence to back up what this voice was telling him. The voice responded and said that she could provide him with proof. She He said that Shaori had stolen it. some jewelry from her apartment. These were some unique pieces that her father had bought in France and had given her mother who then gave them to Terezita. According to the voice, after stealing the jewelry, Shaori gave them to his girlfriend. The voice even gave Chua the names and phone numbers of four people who would be able to identify the jewelry as Terezita's. The voice then faded away again. And Dr. Chua made the decision to call the police as soon as he could. He still did not quite believe what was going on, but he did not want Remy to be going through these episodes again. And this was when he called the Evanston Police Department. When the detectives from Chicago were finished listening to the doctor, they could not bring themselves to believe him just yet. But they could also not ignore the name Alan Shaori. This name matched the initials on the note that Terezita wrote to herself. And so the detectives started to entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe, there was something to the doctor's claim after all. Either way, this was the first solid lead they had had in months, and they thought, "Hey, it could not hurt to check out the doctor's story." And so the two detectives drove back to Chicago and ran a background check on Shaori, who, to their surprise, lived near Terezita and was also employed at Edgewater Hospital, albeit in a different department. They then decided to ask around the hospital about Shaori. They spoke to his colleagues and to their surprise. They learned that some co-workers recalled how Shaori had mentioned that he was going over to Terezita to fix her TV set. Finally, it was time to pay Alan Shaori a visit. On the 11th of August 1977, the two detectives stopped by unannounced at Alan Shaori's last known address. They found both him and his girlfriend, Yanke Kamlook. After introducing themselves, the detectives asked Shaori if he would be willing to go down to the police station with them. They told him they were investigating the murder of Terezita Bassa, and they were hoping he would be able to help them. Alan Shaori agreed. At the police station, the detectives asked him whether he was at Terezita's apartment at the time of the murder. He initially denied ever going to Terezita's home. When the detectives confronted him with the fact that other people, mostly his co-workers, had overheard him saying he was going there to fix her TV, Shaori suddenly changed his story. He finally admitted that he had gone to her apartment, but said once he arrived there, he realized he didn't have a certain tool that he needed to fix Terezita's TV set. He then left, telling Terezita that he would have to repair the TV some other time. Shaori then claimed that when he left Terezita's apartment, he immediately returned to his own apartment. He also claimed that he and his girlfriend, Yanke, had been having some electrical problems, so he went straight home to fix this issue. The detectives had a few things to work with from all the information they had just received from Alan Shaori, and although they could still not believe that they were actually following up a tip from a ghost, they were starting to feel confident that Shaori was their guy. They paused the interview at that point because they wanted to corroborate what Shaori said with what his girlfriend knew. So when they finally had the chance to speak with her, she said that she was unaware of any electrical problems in their apartment. She also told them that if there had been any electrical issues, she highly doubted her Alan could fix such issues anyway. This peaked the detectives' interest. They then asked her if she received any gifts from Shaori lately. Jewelry perhaps? Yanke said yes. Shaori had given her a couple of pieces of jewelry back in February as a belated Christmas gift. Yanke then told the detectives that she was wearing one of the pieces at that moment and pointed at a cocktail ring on one of her fingers. The detectives knew what they had to do next. They needed to get Yanke to the police station ASAP, so they asked her and she agreed. Before Yanke arrived at the police station, the two detectives contacted the four people who, according to Deadacita's ghost, could identify the jewelry that was stolen from her. They asked these people to meet them at the station. Once they had arrived and once Yanke had also arrived, wearing the jewelry of course she received from Shaori, the four people positively identified the jewelry as belonging to Deadacita. The detectives were getting near to the truth and they now needed to confront Alan Shaori with the evidence they had gathered so far. Once they did, Alan Shaori broke down and confessed to the murder of Deadacita Bassa. He stated that he had planned on robbing Deadacita because he needed rent money. Since Deadacita was expecting him to come to her place and fix her TV, she let him in and so there was no sign of forced entry when the police later responded to the crime scene. Shaori told the detectives that apparently Deadacita was going to thank him for his help by giving him theater tickets, hence the note. But as soon as Deadacita turned around, Shaori started attacking her. Alan Shaori went into more detail as to what happened that evening. He told the detectives that he had stripped Deadacita's clothes off of her to make it look like she was sexually assaulted. He then stabbed her in the chest and then proceeded to look for some money. There was not much in the apartment as it turned out and in the end, Shaori was only able to find a $30. He then grabbed some jewelry to make it worth his while and then started the fire to destroy any evidence of his crime. Obviously, following this confession, Shaori was arrested and charged with murder and arson. Almost two years after Deadacita was murdered, the case finally went to trial on 21 January 1979. The trial was given the name, the voice from the grave trial because it centered around Remy Chua's testimony of Deadacita speaking through her. The prosecution presented a total of 13 witnesses over a four-day period to a jury of four women and eight men. Interestingly enough, the Chua testified as witnesses for the defense. The prosecution obviously argued that the evidence gathered as a result of the ghost's information pointed to Shaori's guilt. The defense obviously pushed back on that and by day five of the trial, Shaori said that he'd only confessed to the crime two years earlier after the police had fed him details of the crime and threatened to arrest him and his girlfriend on murder charges. Shaori added that actually he had dinner with Yanka on the night of the murder before drinking and playing darts with a neighbor around 730 that very same evening. With this new testimony from Shaori, the prosecution had their work cut out for them. The trial went on with each side being able to present their case and after four weeks, the trial ended with a hung jury. A hung jury is a jury that despite honest attempts is not able to reach a verdict by the required voting margin. A hung jury will often lead to a retrial of the case. And so, a retrial needed to be scheduled in the Basa murder case. However, while still in prison and waiting for his retrial date, Shaori had a change of heart and surprisingly decided to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. And so the judge sentenced him ultimately to 14 years for murder, four years for robbery, and four years for arson. However, in the end, Shaori only served five years before he was released on parole. To this day, people still wonder why Shaori had a change of heart. and it had been rumored for the longest time that perhaps that has eaten ghost appeared to him in prison, essentially pushing him to plead guilty. Others, on the other hand, credited this change of heart to his lawyers, who rightfully advised him to plead guilty in order to get a reduced sentence. And somehow they were right. Not to ruin the paranormal theme of today's episode, but years after Showery was released, questions about his guilt and Remy's ghostly voice, linger, and for good reason. You see, Remy Chua and Showery were not strangers to each other. They were actually co-workers at the same department at Edgewater Hospital, where Deresita had also worked. You see, in the past, Remy suspected Alan Showery of making complaints about her quality of work. This was something that was actually presented in court by the defense. Furthermore, one day before Remy's first ghostly possession, she admitted that she believed Showery had made a prank phone call to her. A day later, Remy would lose her job and within hours, her first possession started. There had been numerous theories about what really happened. Some feel like Showery was set up, but why would he confess so close to a retrial where there was a good chance of getting an acquittal? Some say that Remy knew all along that Showery was responsible for Deresita's murder, probably overhearing it one day at the hospital, but she may not have known how to best share the information, so she faked this possession. That kind of information is a scary thing to know about after all and can be traumatic in and of itself. Whatever the truth is, it does make you think twice about this world and how it may interact with perhaps another world or another dimension that we cannot see. Whether you are a believer in the ghost of a murdered woman or the many angry spirits of trapped construction workers, one thing stays true. In both our cases today, justice was not quite served. And I think that is scarier than any ghost story during Halloween. Lagim fam, I hope you enjoyed this Halloween special. I'm not a horror storyteller obviously, so I hope I've done a good job nevertheless in highlighting the spooky parts of these two crime cases. I thank you very much for being patient with this episode that I had to release a little bit later. You've all been very nice about it and very supportive as well. Whether you celebrate Halloween, Undas or even Dia de Muertos, I wish you a good start in two November. Thank you again Marani Salamat at Mabuhay. Then, you'll save again at the till with our 5 of 25 grocery voucher. Shrink your bill with double savers new from DundStores. DundStores always better value. Terms and additions apply but you can be used on next in-store grocery shop of 25 euro or more.