Family Values

0:00Hello fans of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious. I'm here today to tell you all about what it actually means now that we've moved over to the SiriusXM family. Big picture, it means we are going to make more content for you. Right now, you get one YouTube video a week on Saturday. Well, what we're going to do now is we're going to have the Saturday upload be the same, but then also the MrBallen podcast. Well, we've begun already filming those episodes like a YouTube video. So that's a second piece of content every week. Then there's two other shows that you guys don't even know about yet, which means on any given week, you could have up to four new video pieces of content on the Mr.

0:39Bolland channel. And also all these pieces of content will double as podcasts as well. This new content schedule is going to start early next year. Also, there's one other thing I want to clarify, which is the state of Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries and Redacted. Those shows were created in collaboration with Wondery, But now we're partnered with Sirius, and so we're not going to be making any new episodes of either of those shows. For now, if you want to hear my podcast episodes one week early and ad-free, make sure to subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, or visit SiriusXM.com slash podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice.

1:19Keep on the lookout for more announcements in the coming weeks. Thank you. In today's story, a family uncovers a secret on a laptop, and after that, everything spirals completely out of control. But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show because that's all we do. So if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow button lets you look through their prized 1970s family photo album, make sure you aggressively lick your finger and flip the pages each time so you smudge all the edges.

1:56Okay, let's get into today's story.

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3:39On the night of January 3rd, 2008, a 21-year-old man named Hart Engel had just poured himself a beer and sat down on the couch next to his girlfriend to watch some TV when he heard a knock at the front door of his apartment in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It was late, around 8pm, and Part was not expecting any company, and so before he got up, he looked over at his girlfriend to be like, are you expecting anybody? And she looked at him and kind of shrugged, and so Part just put his beer down and stood up and walked over to the front door to see who was there. And when Part opened up the front door, he was very surprised to see his mother standing there carrying a small duffel bag.

4:14So Part's mother lived in Middletown Township, which was located about an hour and a half away from Part's apartment. And while it was not unusual for Part's mom to stay over at Part's apartment, what was unusual is her just showing up unannounced. She never did that. And on top of that, as Part is looking at his mom, he could see clearly she had been crying because her eyeliner was smudged and her face was all puffy. And so Part knew clearly, you know, there must be a problem here. But when he asked his mother, you know, like, what's going on, mom? She wouldn't tell him. She would just say, I have to stay with you for the night, and then before he or Part's girlfriend could do or say anything, his mom just walked inside, walked down the hallway, went into the guest bedroom, and then shut and locked the door.

4:55And so Part and his girlfriend were left looking at each other like, what's going on here? Three hours later, at 11pm, Part was in bed next to his sleeping girlfriend, just staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Part was so anxious about whatever was going on with his mom, because where he was staying, his bedroom was right next door to the guest bedroom where his mom was staying, and so he already knows there's clearly some issue here with his mom, but all night he's been listening to her next door, just pacing and crying in this guest bedroom, and he has no idea what's going on. But deep down, Part knew that whatever was going on, it very likely had to do with his father, whose name was Arun Kumar.

5:34Part's parents had a complicated relationship. They had immigrated from India decades earlier and had settled in Pennsylvania, where they had two kids, Part and Part's sister. Part's father, Arun Kumar, worked as an engineer at Boeing, and Part's mother owned the 7-Eleven franchise. And basically, since arriving in America, the two of them had really come with nothing and had worked their way up to now to where they had a very comfortable life, kind of like the American dream, you know, the house, the white picket fence, the kids, you know, the whole thing. And so Part had always believed that, you know, his parents, as a result of getting through so much hardship together, that they must truly love each other now.

6:11I mean, to have gone through all that together, that would certainly make two people very close. And for the most part, that actually seemed to have been the case, that his parents just got along great and were a great couple. That is, until a couple of years earlier. Arun Kumar had started an affair and Part's mother had caught him. Now, Arun Kumar said that, you know, this affair meant nothing and he would stop right now. And Part's mother had forgiven him, you know, in order to keep the family together. But despite Part's mom forgiving Arun Kumar, deep down, she just knew she could never actually trust him again.

6:42And so she actually wound up enlisting Part's help to basically watch Arun Kumar's behavior. She had Arun Kumar set up the software that basically spied on Arun Kumar's computer. Through the software, Part's mom could basically watch Arun Kumar's email traffic and all of his internet activity. Now, Part had not felt good about setting up the spy software on his dad's computer. It just felt totally wrong to be getting in between his parents like this, but he just felt like this was the only way Part's mom was ever going to be able to actually move on. And so Part sort of felt like this was his responsibility.

7:16This is the way that the family was going to stay together. His mom really just needed that extra layer of transparency on her husband. Otherwise, the family was going to fall apart. But now, as Part lay in his bed, unable to sleep, listening to his mom pace back and forth in the room next door, he began to think to himself, you know, maybe my mom found something using the software on my dad's computer. Maybe Arun Kumar had started another affair, and that was why his mom was now so upset. But just then, Part heard a new noise coming out of his mother's room. At first, it kind of sounded like low murmuring, like his mom was saying something to herself, but then he realized his mom was having a real conversation with somebody on the phone.

7:55And since Part couldn't sleep, and he was pretty intrigued about what the heck was going on with his mom to begin with, he decided to basically spy on his mom. So he very quietly got out of his bed and he walked around to the wall that lined up against his mother's room and he put his ear to the wall and he began to listen. And what he heard was far worse than anything he could have imagined. What he heard his mom saying to whoever she was talking on the phone was that she had discovered that Arun Kumar had taken out$3.6 million in life insurance policies on Part, on his sister, and on his mother.

8:27And now Part's mom was saying to whoever she was talking to on the phone that she wasn't even worried about divorce at this point. She was worried about the physical safety of her and her kids. She was worried that her husband was going to kill her and her kids to get this payout. And so not long after saying this, Part's mom hung up the phone and went back to pacing and crying in the room. And Part, meanwhile, has just heard this horrifying news and he had no idea what to make of it. I mean, he knew his dad was not a good husband. But the idea that his dad would want to hurt his wife or him or his sister just seemed totally impossible.

9:04But then, as Part's standing there just kind of processing what he's heard, he began to think back to these recent behavioral changes he'd noticed in his father that at the time he had kind of chalked up to, you know, maybe my dad's stressed or something. But now, given the context of what his mom was talking about, Part began to wonder if these behavioral changes were a sign of something being terribly wrong with his father. The first change that Part had noticed happened a few weeks earlier. Now, Part's dad was normally a very mild-mannered and calm guy, but a few weeks earlier, he had gotten into this vicious dispute with their next-door neighbor over the property line that ran between their two properties.

9:43It was like he was picking a fight with the neighbor or something. And then, a few days after that, one of the bathroom sinks in their house had stopped working, and so Arun Kumar got out his tools and went to go break apart the sink and put it back together again, and because he was an engineer, this was something he did. This was typical behavior. But after breaking apart the sink, basically ripping it all apart and having all the parts on the ground, Part's dad didn't put it back together. He just left all the tools and all the parts just scattered across the bathroom floor. And considering that Arun Kumar was typically incredibly meticulous and organized, and he's this brilliant engineer, to Part, seeing his dad leave this sloppy mess and this unfinished sink, it just, it felt totally off.

10:24And so standing there in his bedroom, totally horrified about everything he's heard, and, you know, now kind of second-guessing everything he knew about his dad, who suddenly seemed like this combative, kind of disorganized guy, Part suddenly felt like, I have to learn more here. I have to figure out if my dad really is a threat. So Part quietly left his bedroom and made his way to the kitchen, where his laptop was, and he loaded up that software that spied on his dad's computer. And as he began logging into this program, Part was thinking, you know, Maybe I'm going to find something that will show that my mom is clearly just overreacting and misinterpreting what she's seeing.

11:00That my dad is not out to kill us for some insurance payout. But after loading up this program and kind of scanning through some recent activity, Part realized that actually the situation with his dad was way worse than his mom had made out on that call he overheard. He not only found all these multi-million dollar insurance policies taken out on him, his sister, and his mom, but also he discovered this stash of fraudulent-looking paperwork. There were all these passport photos of his father, but then connected to these photos was a passport application that was using somebody else's name, as if his father was trying to forge paperwork to create a phony passport for himself.

11:37And so at this point, Part felt like his mother was certainly not overreacting here, that in fact it really did seem like his father was, you know, preparing to kill his family and collect millions of dollars in insurance money, and then using this, you know, fake passport he was making, he'd be able to flee the country.

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15:22For the next several days, Part's mom stayed at Part's apartment, but she barely ever left the guest's bedroom. And then when she would leave the bedroom, Part would go up to her and try to ask her, you know, hey, what's going on, without giving away how much he knew already. But Part's mom was like, nope, I don't want to talk about it. And she would just go right back in the room, shut, and lock the door. And so finally, after several days of this, Part just went to his mom's bedroom door, he knocked on the door until she answered, and then before she could kind of shoo him away, he said, Mom, stop.

15:49I know what's going on. I read the emails, and we have to figure out what we're going to do because our lives literally depend on it. I agree with you. It looks like Dad is going to kill us and then flee the country. And so Part and his mom would talk through all the details of what was found on his computer, and ultimately they would decide that Part would be the one to go to police and tell them what was going on with Arun Kumar. And so the next day, Part went to the police station, you know, with a stack of evidence that he believed would implicate his father. And, you know, Part was so nervous about this, he was shaking.

16:20But when he talked to an actual police officer, they looked over his evidence and they heard the whole story. They told him, like, look, we really can't do anything about this. They told Part that, you know, it's not illegal to take out life insurance policies on your family. And then also the police officer pointed out that in addition to Arun Kumar taking out those policies on his kids and his wife, he had also taken out a policy on himself and made his wife and his kids the beneficiaries of that policy. And so the police officer said, look, this does not look like a murder plot to me. It just looks like your dad is doing something fairly responsible.

16:53And then as for the passport application paperwork, where his dad had used a phony name, the police officer said, look, he has not filed this paperwork. And so it's not illegal what he's doing. Anybody can get some paperwork out and fill it in with whatever they want. It becomes illegal if they attempt to actually pass it off and submit the paperwork, and as far as we know, he hasn't done that. So that's weird, but it's not illegal. And so Part had to leave the police station, and he went back to the apartment, and he told his mom what happened, and ultimately they decided that all they could do now was just wait and continue to watch that software that monitored Arun Kumar's computer and just hope Arun Kumar would do something that was incriminating that they could then bring to the police and say, see, he's trying to kill us and collect a payout and flee the country.

17:43But over the next few days that Part and his mother every day just constantly checked this software and watched what Arun Kumar was doing on his computer, all they saw was Arun Kumar was using his computer to do work emails and really basic stuff, absolutely nothing incriminating. And in fact, over these few days, Arun Kumar would actually call Part's mom to ask her when she was coming back home again, and she would tell him that basically she was going to stay at Part's place indefinitely, and Arun Kumar did not seem upset or annoyed by this at all. If anything, it just seemed like he was really distracted and wasn't actually listening to Part's mom as she was speaking.

18:17And while this did seem kind of suspicious to Part and his mom, that basically Arun Kumar didn't care that his wife wasn't coming home anytime soon, it still wasn't incriminating. And so, Part and his mom decided to just continue looking deeper and deeper into Arun Kumar's computer to see if there was anything that could begin to explain what was really going on here. And sure enough, Part dug deeper and deeper into Arun Kumar's computer, and he did discover something. Part began finding all these emails with people back in India that kind of vaguely indicated that Arun Kumar was involved in a very sketchy deal, like a business deal.

18:52Now, again, the emails were incredibly vague, but what was clear in these back and forths, in these emails, was that it seemed like Arun Kumar had gotten wrapped up with some really shady people, and they were having these really nasty exchanges in these emails about this, you know, deal that Arun Kumar seemed to be involved in. And so Park began to wonder if maybe he and his mom had this all backwards, that he, his mom, and his sister were not the ones actually in danger here, that in fact, it was Arun Kumar who was in danger. Maybe because this deal, you know, went south, and these people that he was doing this deal with, maybe they were mad at him.

19:26And so perhaps all these life insurance policies and this new fake identity were some sort of move by Arun Kumar to kind of flee the danger he was in. And so obviously, if this was true, this was still a horrible situation for their whole family, but it was markedly better than what Part and his mom had been operating on before, which was, you know, that Arun Kumar was going to kill his whole family. And so pretty quickly, as a result of kind of thinking about this in a new way, Part's mother started feeling a lot better about the whole situation and actually left Part's apartment and went back to the house to go live with Arun Kumar.

19:58And Part himself began to think that, you know, maybe this is not as big of a deal as we thought it was. You know, I'm sure my dad will figure out whatever he needs to figure out here to get out of whatever mess he's in. And over the coming days, you know, Part checked in with his mom every single day because now she's living with Arun Kumar and she said everything was fine. And Part, you know, he continued to check his dad's computer activity and nothing else really popped up. It was still just the same stuff they had originally found. And so it just kind of seemed like, you know, maybe this really is not as big of a deal as we thought it was.

20:26But on the morning of January 20th, 2008, so about two and a half weeks after Part's mom showed up at his apartment, everything changed.

20:40On that morning, Part logged into his computer to check on his dad's computer using that software because he was still checking it every single day. And the first thing he saw was his dad had sent this email to this woman who Part didn't know, and this woman was certainly not his mother. And in this email, his dad told this person that he had a big contract coming up and he was going to make a ton of money from it. And then also at the end of this email, he told this woman that he loved her. And so right away, Part's thinking, okay, my dad is obviously having another affair, because this is not my mom, and he's saying he loves her.

21:12And also, what's my dad talking about with this big contract coming up? Is he talking about the insurance policies? Does he expect those to pay out soon, indicating that I, my sister, or my mom might be dead? And then also, the other thing that Part noticed that morning as he's checking through his dad's computer activity is he found another message his dad had sent out recently where he communicated to somebody that his father had died. So Part's grandfather had died. And also in this message, Arun Kumar is telling this person that he's going to go to his dad's funeral alone, that his wife and two kids were not invited to this funeral.

21:48And so Part's reading this and he's totally devastated by the fact that his grandfather's dead and the fact that what, he's not being invited to the funeral. But again, he's thinking, oh my gosh, is that because my dad thinks I'm not going to be alive? Is this all connected, you know, between the big contract and the fact that we're not going to be at the funeral? Is this my dad thinking he's going to enact this murder plot soon? Part didn't know, but he felt like he and his mom and his sister were running out of time and he needed to act right now. And so Part got off his computer, he called his mom, and they made a plan.

22:21That evening at around 9.15 p.m., Part got in his car and began driving towards his parents' house to go confront his dad. This was the plan he and his mom had come up with. Basically, his mom would stay at Part's apartment and Part would go and tell his dad, you know, we know about what you're doing and you gotta stop. And even though Part was totally jacked up on adrenaline as he drove towards the house, he felt like he really had the upper hand going into whatever this confrontation was going to be. Because, number one, Part was showing up totally unannounced at night to his dad's place. I mean, his dad's going to be caught off guard when he sees him.