Monsters Among Us Vol. IV

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1:10Start your free trial today at shopify.com slash mrballin. Again, that's shopify.com slash mrballin. Today's podcast will feature three stories that will make you wonder how many monsters you may have encountered in your life. The audio from all three of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called Mercy Road, and it's about a sinister secret that is hiding inside of a nightly news report. The second story you'll hear is called The Woman in a Wrinkled Dress, and it's about a Border Patrol officer who searches for a dangerous criminal at the Canadian border.

1:50And the third and final story you'll hear is called Striking a Discord, and it's about how the line between fantasy and reality is blurred for a group of online gamers. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please adjust the Amazon Music Follow button's power seats inside of their car to a very uncomfortable position and then rip out the fuse. Okay, let's get into our first story called Mercy Road.

2:53On the evening of December 29, 1986, a California highway patrol officer named Craig Pyre drove his cruiser down Interstate 15 in San Diego, California. With him was an NBC News reporter in the backseat, and there was a cameraman in the passenger seat. They were filming a segment about highway travel safety that was set to air on the evening news later that night. Officer Pyre was following his typical patrol route, but after a few minutes, they passed by a sign that said Mercy Road. It was an exit. And at that point, Officer Pyre turned to the news team, pointed at Mercy Road, and said, that's where they found the body.

3:29So a little more than 36 hours earlier, at around 4 a.m. the previous morning, a 20-year-old college student named Kara Knott had been found strangled to death in a creek right near the Mercy Road exit. Kara had been on her way home from her boyfriend's house when, for whatever reason, maybe car troubles or maybe she was trying to help someone, but she wound up in that cul-de-sac. And then while she was there, she clearly encountered someone dangerous who took her life. And so this was actually why the California Highway Patrol and NBC News were collaborating on this news segment, because Kara's killer was still not caught.

4:04And so the idea behind this segment was basically to tell drivers along this highway how to stay safe while they were out there, especially if for whatever reason they had to stop somewhere along the highway, like what to do in that situation. And so as Officer Pyre passed by the Mercy Road exit and continued down Interstate 15, he turned to the news crew and as they filmed, he began talking about the basics of highway travel safety. Specifically, he said, look, one of the most hazardous things that can happen to you beyond an accident on the highway is if you have some sort of car trouble that forces you to stop on the highway.

4:37Because once you stop, there's an inclination for a lot of people to want to leave their vehicle, but that's a very dangerous thing to do. Officer Pyre also warned people not to get into a stranger's car because there was a running theory at this point that perhaps Kara had gotten into her killer's car. As this particular segment was filmed, Officer Pyre was looking ahead and he noticed there was a car pulled over on the shoulder of the highway with its hazards on. So he turned to the news crew and basically said, look, here's a chance for us to actually show the people in real time what to do in case your car breaks down on the highway.

5:12So he pulled his cruiser over right behind the stalled car, he got out, and then gestured for the news crew to come with him. Officer Pyre walked over to the passenger side door of this car, and through the open window, he asked the driver to get out and talk to him. The driver did, and as the camera rolled, Officer Pyre asked him to explain, you know, what's going on here, what happened to your car? The driver said he had run out of gas and then gotten stranded on the side of the road. And then he had left his car and walked to a gas station to get a gas can, came all the way back, he put the gas into his car, but his car still wouldn't start.

5:46Now, at this point, Officer Pyre is realizing that this driver is doing basically exactly what he shouldn't be doing, according to the safety tips Officer Pyre had given. And so on camera, he basically says to this guy, do you understand how dangerous it is to have left your car like that and walked alone on this highway? You know, do you understand what a hazard that is? And the driver just kind of looked at him and shrugged like, yeah, I guess so. After that, Officer Pyre called the man a tow truck. His car was towed and the man was on his way. And Officer Pyre got back into the cruiser with the news crew and they carried on.

6:20After that, Officer Pyre and the news crew wrapped up filming. And then after he dropped them back off again, they told him what time to expect his segment to air on NBC that night. And sure enough, that evening, Officer Pyre was in front of a TV as the broadcast started. And when Officer Pyre's actual segment aired on TV, to him and to the California Highway Patrol, it went great. It was a minute and a half long. It sort of hit all the high points. It showed Officer Pyre, you know, talking about how to be safe on the highway and talking to the stranded motorist. You know, it kind of did exactly what they expected it to do.

6:52And when it was over, Officer Pyre clicked off the TV and didn't think much about it. Because it was not a big deal. It was just a basic safety video. And for the vast majority of other people who watched this clip live on TV, it really didn't stand out to them. Again, it was just kind of a routine police safety video. But there were a few people, when they watched this clip, that noticed something. Something very specific. And within an hour of this clip airing on TV, those few people were calling the police in droves to tell them, we know what happened to Karanat. And the police would follow up on these tips.

7:29And sure enough, just over two weeks later, they had gathered enough evidence that they were able to arrest Karanat's killer. It would turn out all the clues the police needed to solve the Karanat murder case were right there in that one and a half minute long video. Because what happened to Kara had almost happened to over two dozen other women in San Diego. And those young women were the ones who saw the news segment when it happened live, and they noticed this particular detail that clearly telegraphed who Kara's killer was. They were the ones who called police. On the night of Kara's murder, December 27, 1986, she pulled off Interstate 15 on the Mercy Road exit, and she came to a stop in that cul-de-sac.

8:13Now, we don't know exactly why she came to a stop in there, but either way, she was there, and that's where she encountered her killer. Now, the other two dozen women who encountered the same person, the killer, they were terrorized and kind of tortured and held hostage for a couple of hours, but eventually were let go. But Kara wasn't. During her encounter, at some point, the killer clubbed her over the head and then strangled her to death with a rope. Now, the killer, at first, had gotten away with this, until they were featured on that minute-and-a-half-long video. And some of those women who had survived their attack, they're watching this segment, and suddenly their attacker is on TV.

8:52Now, they had previously reported their attack to police, but to this point, nothing had been done. And now they're staring at, for sure, the person who attacked them, who's right on TV. And critically, as part of this segment, they're hearing about how this other young woman had been attacked and killed on this highway. And they're thinking, oh, this person did that to me. I barely got away. I bet they killed this girl. And on top of that, as they're watching the news, staring at their attacker, they can see there's a fresh cut over their eye. And so put that all together and they thought, boom, that's the person who killed Karen Otts.

9:27And sure enough, the police would follow up on these tips and they would confirm that the man in the video with the cut over his eyebrow was Kara's killer. And Kara's killer was none other than Officer Craig Pyre. Officer Pyre was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Since being incarcerated, he has gone up for parole two separate times and been rejected both times. However, he is up for parole again in 2027.

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12:42Our next story is called The Woman in a Wrinkled Dress.

12:56On a late winter afternoon in 1985, a Canadian border security guard stood at the border between New York State and Ontario, Canada. And as he looked out at the dozens of cars lined up at this checkpoint, he felt an enormous amount of responsibility. Because for him, working at border security was not just about checking people's passports. It was also about making sure dangerous criminals from the United States did not flee their country and enter Canada. And today, there was one particular dangerous criminal from the United States that this guard was on high alert for, a 30-year-old man named Alex Mangle.

13:32A few days earlier, Alex Mangle had been stopped by a police officer near New York City. And during this traffic stop, Alex had somehow taken the police officer's gun and shot the officer in the head, killing them. And then Alex had fled, and he was still on the run. And so now law enforcement was concerned that because New York was only six hours from the Canadian border, that it was very possible that Alex might try to flee into Canada to escape persecution. And so U.S. and Canadian law enforcement and border security were on the lookout for Alex Mangle. And he was this 30-year-old white man with thinning brown hair and a wispy mustache.

14:09And so all day long, that Canadian border security guard looked very closely at every person who came through his checkpoint to see if they were Alex Mangle. He would see a family on their way to visit relatives in Canada. He would see a couple on their honeymoon. He would see a man with a car full of camping supplies and a middle-aged woman traveling alone and all these different people from all walks of life. But none of them looked anything like Alex Mangle. And so by the end of his shift, after checking dozens and dozens of cars and looking at every person, he felt certain that Alex Mangle had not slipped through his checkpoint.

14:43And so he clocked out and he went home.

14:49A few days later, on March 2nd, a police officer was patrolling this parking lot right outside of a shopping mall in Ontario, Canada, which was located about an hour and a half away from the border. And during his patrol, at some point, he noticed there was this one car, a white Toyota, that had been loitering in the area for quite a while. And so he decided to drive over and see what was going on. And when he got there, he looked inside the vehicle and he saw someone sitting on the passenger seat. And he was a white man, probably in his 30s, with thinning brown hair and a wispy mustache. And this officer immediately recognized this guy as being the wanted criminal, Alex mangle.

15:28And so the officer immediately called for backup, and then he parked his car, got out, and approached the white Toyota where this guy was sitting with his gun drawn. And as the officer approached the passenger side door, the man inside turned, noticed the officer, jumped into the driver's seat, fired up the car, and the Toyota sped out of the parking lot. And so the officer, he jumps back in his cruiser, and he takes off after him. And before long, it was like the entirety of the police force in Toronto was a part of this high-speed chase to catch this guy. And eventually, they funneled the car into a dead-end street, and the white Toyota crashed into a stop sign, and then the man inside with the mustache and the thinning brown hair pops out, and immediately everybody sees, yep, that's Alex Mangle.

16:10He didn't put up a fight at that point. He was taken into custody. However, despite how relieved law enforcement was to have this cop killer in custody, they realized they didn't understand something. How was it that Alex Mengel got past border security and got into Canada? Everybody was on high alert looking for him. What happened? And so police were baffled until they searched that white Toyota Alex had been driving. On the night that Alex shot and killed that police officer near New York City, he immediately fled to this wooded area and hid out overnight. And then the next day when he got up, He was walking around and he happened to pass by this commercial building.

16:51And as he was looking at it, he saw this middle-aged woman, whose name was Beverly Capone, come out of the building and make her way towards her car. And she was all alone. And so Alex walked up to her and abducted her at gunpoint. And then he drove her to this cabin out in the woods that he knew would be totally isolated. No one was there. And once they got there, he murdered her. And then once she was dead, he stole her clothes and put it on and also cut off her face and her scalp. and put those on as well. He was literally wearing her skin and hair. And he hopped in that white Toyota and he drove up to the Canadian border.

17:26And amazingly, he got through the checkpoint into Canada without anybody noticing. It would turn out that Canadian border security guard, who all day was checking for Alex Mengel, did actually see Alex Mengel. He just didn't recognize him because Alex Mangle was wearing Beverly Capone's face, hair, and clothes. And so he thought he was just a middle-aged woman traveling alone, and he led him on through. And so police would figure this whole thing out when they searched that white Toyota, because they would find lying on the floorboard was Beverly's dress, scalp, and face. Alex was deported back to the U.S.

18:04However, before he could stand trial, he attempted to escape a prison transport and in the process got shot to death by police. However, that was not the end of Alex's story. Following his death, officers continued to investigate him and also his property, and at some point during a search of his property, they would discover all these photos of unidentified women along with these maps where these very isolated places in New York and Pennsylvania were circled, and nobody knows what they mean. Now, police have not conclusively linked Alex to any other murders, but he does remain a suspect in several cases, and in fact, many investigators believe Alex was actually a serial killer.

18:43However, we'll probably never know how many people Alex actually killed because he took all of his secrets to the grave.

18:59The next and final story of today's episode is called Striking a Discord.

19:14At 3.30 p.m. on July 27, 2019, a 22-year-old college student named Nicole logged onto her gaming computer in her bedroom in North Carolina. Nicole had spent the morning and the early part of the afternoon studying, but now she could finally kick back and relax and play her favorite video game, an online multiplayer combat game called Perfect World, where people battled each other as characters inspired by Chinese mythology. Perfect World was a pretty niche game, so not a whole lot of people played it or even knew about it. But Nicole loved it, and she played it basically every day for the past few years, was totally hooked on it, and in playing it, she had met about a dozen other people from all over the world who also were obsessed with this game.

19:56And together, they had formed a virtual community, and they used a messaging app called Discord to communicate with each other outside of the game. So on this particular day, after Nicole loaded up Perfect World, she also opened up her Discord chat, and she saw already that several of her friends were online, and they were all talking on the general chat inside of their server. And so Nicole began perusing the messages, and she saw the general theme of the messages being passed was about one of the other users on their server, somebody who went by the username Menhas. So as far as everyone knew on this Discord server, Menhas, they didn't know his real name, was a college student, and he was basically known to be a huge troll, which meant he said and did really offensive things, in particular on this Discord server, just to get people's reactions.

20:43Because of his trolling behavior, he had actually been previously kicked out of the server and also kicked out of the game Perfect World, like the game they're all connected on this Discord server through. He had been booted from both of those platforms in the past, but in previous occasions when that happened, Menhas would plead his case and say he's not going to do it anymore, he's going to behave, and eventually the moderators would just let him back in. And so currently, Menhas was back on the Discord server, and he was back to his trolling ways. But as Nicole scanned through the general chat and went back and actually saw what Menhas had been saying that day, that basically had stirred up everybody else on the server to say, look, he's back to his trolling ways, when she went back and actually saw what Menhas was saying, Nicole couldn't help but feel like today's trolling just felt different.

21:31Menhas was talking about this apparently brilliant four-step plan he had that was going to completely revolutionize his life and basically set him up for big success in his life going forward. However, this plan he was talking about, this four-step plan, was not only totally outrageous, but just seemed impossible. Like what he was saying he was going to do just didn't seem possible even by Menhas' standards. Like, within his trolling standards, this was a bridge too far. This isn't even trolling. This is just weird, what you're proposing. And so, basically, the chatter on the Discord server this day that Nicole was seeing was how nobody believed this four-step plan was a real thing.

22:10Like, this is just classic Menhas trolling. And Nicole, too. She also did not believe this plan was serious. She did not think for a second Menhas was going to do this. And so she just kind of rolled her eyes, ignored Menhas, minimized the Discord server, and just enjoyed playing the game. Perfect world. And after a while, after, you know, a couple of battles that she won and a couple of battles that she lost in this game, she paused for a second and noticed there was a whole bunch of new notifications on their Discord server. And so because Nicole was already taking a break from the game, she opened up the Discord server to see what was going on.

22:43And right away she saw the main topic of discussion was once again Menhas and his four-step plan, but specifically, Menhas had just sent a picture through the Discord server that apparently represented completing step one of this four-step plan. He basically said, look, I did it. I've done one. I'm on to step two now. And everybody's looking at this picture thinking, wait a minute, he's actually doing this? This can't be real. And Nicole, when she looked at this picture, she too thought like, no way, this is not possible. He did not do this. And in fact, our first thought was, okay, maybe this image was, you know, created by AI or something, or, you know, maybe he pulled this image off a website somewhere and is pretending it's authentic, but it can't possibly be something he actually took a picture of.

23:27He couldn't have done this. And so pretty quickly, Nicole, despite seeing this image, she agreed with the consensus that Menhas is still just trolling us. This picture is not proof that he's really doing this four-step plan. And so Nicole went back to playing Perfect World, and about an hour later, she noticed there were all sorts of new notifications on her Discord server. And so once again, she stopped her game, she opened up the Discord server, and once again, the entire chat was dominated about Menhas. Because Menhas had sent a second picture, apparently representing him completing the second step of his big four-step plan.