Safe for Now (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00Today, we have two stories about people who have near-death experiences. And then after the initial trauma of the experience has passed, they're like, OK, I'm good now, I'm safe, everything's fine. But no, they were not OK, as they would soon learn. 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 place because that's all we do, and we upload two, three, even four times every week. So, if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Button's house and on their bathroom mirror, write, I'm watching you in red lipstick.

0:37Okay, let's get into our first story, which is called Crisis Averted, Crisis Created.

1:00For the military and their families, change is a constant. That's why USAA makes it easy to keep all your coverages in one place. Bundle your USAA auto and renter's insurance together and save big. Visit usaa.com slash bundle auto property to see how much you could save. Multiple product savings do not apply in all states or to all situations. Savings subject to change. Restrictions apply. Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates, San Antonio, Texas. Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video editing for today's creative process.

1:41Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. Because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, oh yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. On the morning of April 29th, 1963, a woman named Sofia Perez was riding in the passenger seat of her car, her husband Julian was driving, and they were traveling down a narrow city street in Sevilla, Spain. It was a Monday, but Julian, who was the primary breadwinner, he didn't have work that day.

2:22And so the couple had decided, since it was such a beautiful spring day as well, that they would get out and go on a nice drive and just spend some time together. And for Sophia, I mean, this was like a perfect day. She adored her husband, and she really loved the city of Sevilla. You know, all the people there were so nice and friendly, and it was such a beautiful place that, like, this was shaping up to be really a tremendous day. And so Sophia and her husband, they are all smiles as they continue driving down this road. You know, Sophia, she's looking out, taking in the sights and the sounds, And then at some point, she just has this inclination to pull out her lipstick and, you know, apply her lipstick.

2:57And so she reaches down and she grabs her purse, which she brought with her everywhere. She was a very organized person. And she opened it up and she's rifling through it and she finds her lipstick. And then she grabs the rearview mirror and she turns it and she uses it to apply the lipstick. And as she's doing this, she begins asking Julian, like, hey, you know, what should we do for the rest of the day? Like, beyond this drive, what else should we do? And as she's sort of half looking at the mirror and half looking at Julian, she sees a blur of motion out in front of the car. And then she turns and she realizes there's someone in the intersection that they're going to hit.

3:31It's a guy on a motorcycle. And before she could say anything, Julian is swerving hard to the right to try to avoid this guy. It's like absolute madness. And then the motorcyclist, he tips over and he goes into a slide. And then Julian and Sophia, they ram off the road onto the sidewalk and smash into this huge pole. And pretty much right away, Sophia, after the car had come to a stop in front of this huge, you know, metal pole, Sophia began like patting herself down to sort of assess the damage to make sure she was okay. And then she looked over at her husband, Julian, who was sort of doing the same thing.

4:04And they realized that, you know, obviously, despite the horribleness of this crash, that they were okay. But then their attention turned to the motorcyclist, because even though Julian didn't hit him, they narrowly missed him. You know, he swerved away and they crashed into this pole. Despite that, one of the last things Sophia saw before they swerved is the motorcyclist had tipped over and gone into a skid. So they had no idea if he was okay or not. And so Sophia and Julian, they carefully climbed out of their pretty wrecked vehicle. And again, they stood and kind of checked to make sure they really were okay because now they're standing for the first time, but, you know, they're okay.

4:40And they walked a little ways, you know, across the street to this other sort of side street where the motorcyclist had skidded off to. And right over there, he was standing. The man who was on the motorcycle, he was standing next to his bike. And, you know, obviously his bike had had some damage done to it, but the man, the motorcyclist, he looked unheard as well. So this was like an enormous, in some ways, stroke of luck. Obviously, it was bad to get into the accident, but all three of them appeared to be okay. And so Sophia and Julian, they walk over to the motorcyclist and, you know, the three of them were really amicable.

5:14I mean, the motorcyclist understood that, you know, accidents happen, you know, thank goodness nobody was hurt. And just for a few minutes, the three of them just, you know, just chatted and sort of just talked about how lucky they really were here. And they exchanged information, you know, so they could cover the damages if they needed to of the respective vehicles. And as they're just sitting there having this, you know, relatively calm and just normal conversation here, Sophia looks over at Julian and she realizes, you know, he was basically unhurt. but not entirely unhurt. He had this scratch on his face that was bleeding a fair amount that very likely was from the crash.

5:53And even though by no means is this like life-threatening or anything like that, Sophia was not at the moment talking to the motorcyclist. And so she figured she would just go back over to the car and grab her purse because she's very organized and she has something in that purse for every situation. She figured she very likely had like a bandage or something she could use to clean up her husband's cut. And so she told her husband and the motorcyclist she was going to, you know, go get a purse and go grab a bandage or something. She goes over to the car, which is still, you know, smashed up on the side of the road, of course.

6:26And there's a little bit of a crowd of people sort of, you know, relatively nearby, kind of assessing the scene. She makes her way around towards the passenger side because her purse was still in the car in the passenger seat. And as she was coming around, getting ready to reach through the open door to grab her purse, which was sitting right there on the seat, something happened. Like she got close enough to the car where like suddenly she felt this intense pain all through her body. And then it was like, she couldn't even move. And she found herself falling towards the ground, looking up at the sky and like her muscles are beginning to spasm.

6:59And the last thing she saw was her husband and the motorcyclist running over to her. And then to her horror, as she's laying there looking up at them, they too began to sort of seize up and spasm and fall to the ground right next to her. It would turn out that when Julian swerved to avoid that motorcyclist and crashed into that pole, neither he nor Sophia realized that that pole was actually connected to a power line that held up electrical lines carrying a huge amount of electrical voltage. And during the crash, a few of those lines from the pole had been knocked down to the ground, and they fell around Sophia and Julian's car.

7:37When the couple first got out of the vehicle, they sort of miraculously avoided stepping on those lines. And if they had just stayed over there, you know, with the motorcyclist and just hadn't gone back to the vehicle, they would have been fine. But Sophia, whose purse always had exactly what she needed, was in the car and she wanted to get it and get that bandage. And so when she went back, she stepped on one of those lines and she was electrocuted. And so she's on the ground, she can't move, and her husband and the motorcyclist, they see this happening, they hear it happening, and they run over unaware of the danger, and they too are hit by those electrical lines, they fall to the ground, and all three were electrocuted to death.

8:27You can predict the Summer Soccer Showcase action all the way to the final match with FanDuel Predicts. All you have to do is sign up to get your$25 bonus. I didn't expect FanDuel Predicts to change how I watch these matches, but it really does. It's easy to use, and once you've made your predictions, you start paying a lot more attention to big moments throughout the tournament. Instead of just, you know, kind of casually checking scores along the way, you find yourself following along the entire time to see how everything plays out, which just This makes watching way more fun. Sign up now for your$25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts.

9:04Go to fanduel.com slash predicts to sign up. That's fanduel.com slash predicts to get your$25 bonus. Offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets, LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 +, bonus is non-withdrawable and expires 7 days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with their consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com slash predicts slash bonus dash offer dash terms. There's a lot of ways to feel alive. One way is to forget everything and be in the moment of excitement. And that's the idea behind the Genesis GV70.

9:44It's built to thrill. A thrilling yet elegant design always makes driving the Genesis GV70 an exciting adventure. Its powerful athletic stance screams performance and turns heads. Command the road and experience a class-leading standard 300 horsepower. Plus, discover the different dynamic drive modes for all different terrains. Choose between the different terrain modes for whatever road conditions you may encounter. The Genesis GV70's award-winning technology and performance lets you drive with comfort and drive with confidence. It's an exciting SUV with intuitive tech that can make your ride smooth even where the road is not.

10:20And its blind spot cameras allow you to see what's next to you. Its performance is measured not only in power, but also in how it makes you feel. The Genesis GV70. Learn more at Genesis.com and feel the GV70. Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video editing for today's creative process. Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, oh yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life.

11:02Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. Our second and final story today is called Rock Bottom.

11:16On January 11th, 2018, around 10 a.m., 55-year-old Ray Wright sawed through a wooden board inside of his workshop, which was located about 20 minutes outside of Rockland, California. Now, Ray had only just begun his workday, but he was already covered in sawdust. However, he barely noticed, because this was just a normal part of his job as a carpenter, something he absolutely loved. He loved his career. In fact, Ray really just sort of loved everything about his life and sort of how it was going these days. And that had not always been the case. So about six years earlier, Ray was in a very different and much worse place in his life.

11:55He'd been recently divorced and had started drinking a lot and he'd spiraled, you know, further and further out of control until one night he'd gotten really drunk and then hopped behind the wheel and he caused a terrible accident when he crashed head on into another vehicle. Now, Ray was more or less okay after that crash, but he'd actually severely injured the people in the car that he had hit. And so Ray had been arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison, and he was ordered to pay a huge monetary settlement to the victims of this crash. And so really, this had been like the true rock bottom moment of Ray's life.

12:34But by the time Ray actually got out of jail, he was determined to really turn his life around and become a better person. He'd stopped drinking and he had joined Alcoholics Anonymous, which is a very well-known support group that helps keep people sober. He'd started spending way more time with his three kids and also his brother Dean. And he'd been renting this particular workshop that he was in right now to revamp his carpentry business, Ray Wright Design. And then also, like, in addition to these specific behavioral changes, overall, Ray had made this huge effort to really shift his thinking about, like, the way he approached life.

13:09He decided he was going to really try hard to just have a much more positive attitude in general and just try to be happier. Like, he believed it was more of a mindset, and he really was trying hard to stay in that positive, happy mindset. However, despite these wholesale changes in Ray's behavior and his mindset, which were definitely all good, the one thing he was up against that was very difficult to change since coming out of prison was his financial situation. I mean, he really just didn't make a whole lot of money. Despite working really hard as a carpenter now, he just didn't make a lot of money.

13:46And this really didn't just affect his life. It affected other people's lives as well. because, you know, he needed to make those huge settlement payments to the victims of the crash, which he intended to do. But so far, you know, he had not made enough money to make those payments and it was definitely stressing him out. You know, he knew he needed to make those payments, but Ray was sort of determined that he would just continue to work really hard, continue to build up his business, continue to stay positive, stay happy, you know, be a good person. And eventually he was sure to make these payments and everything would be okay.

14:19So in essence, Ray still had problems, but he was working really hard to just stay on the straight and narrow and do the right thing. Now, Ray blew some of the sawdust off the board that he had just cut and he set it aside. And then as he was about to start on the next thing, he realized one of the tools that he needed was out in his truck. So he walked through the shop's big warehouse style doors that opened out onto a dirt driveway. So the workshop where Ray worked was in a fairly rural area with only one immediate neighbor who lived in a trailer right next door on the same property. And the person who owned the trailer was a woman named Katie.

14:54But, you know, despite there only being Katie next door, there was still a fair amount of people just sort of coming and going around the place like Katie's friends and Ray's clients. So the area was actually usually pretty lively. But this morning, as he stepped outside onto the driveway, it was pretty quiet. So Ray just made his way out to his truck and grabbed what he needed from inside, and then he turned and began walking back towards the shop. However, before he actually got to the shop, he heard footsteps on the driveway right behind him. Two days later, Ray's brother Dean drove his car through some back roads as he made his way towards Ray's house in Rockland, California.

15:35Dean had just been to Ray's workshop, and now he was making the 20-minute drive back to Ray's home yet again. And the reason he was doing that is because Dean was really worried. He hadn't heard from his brother in two days, and neither had Ray's kids or any of Ray's friends. And this was, like, very unusual. Dean, you know, himself, talked to Ray every single day. And he also knew that Ray was a very involved and responsive dad who would definitely not just disappear on his kids, and he was also definitely in touch with other friends. I mean, this was just very unusual for Ray. So over the past 48 hours, Dean had been increasingly getting more and more worried about Ray.

16:15He had been talking to anyone he could to try to figure out, like, why his brother was just suddenly gone. He'd already gone to Ray's workshop and his house repeatedly, and he hadn't found Ray or any sign of Ray or any sign of where he might have gone. And also Ray's truck was nowhere to be found either. And that was actually particularly concerning. Because, you know, deep down, Dean was worried that, you know, despite the changes Ray had made in his life to be a better person and to do right by people, he was worried that, you know, maybe Ray had fallen off the wagon and was drinking again. Like, maybe that's why he's gone.

16:50He's on a bender somewhere. Now, Dean really didn't want to face that reality. That would be like devastating for so many reasons, not to mention, you know, if Ray was off drinking somewhere, who knows what trouble he could be in? Like he could be in a lot of trouble or hurt or something. And so Dean, by this point, 48 hours into his brother's disappearance, he's just doing his best to kind of push down this growing concern that maybe that's what happened. And in fact, it was actually that sort of nagging fear that Dean had that had kept him from going to the police and reporting Ray missing. There was just this fear that if he did that, it would sort of expose Ray if he was, you know, not doing what he was supposed to be doing.

17:29And so by this point, you know, Dean had held off. Now, Dean parked his car outside of Ray's house again, and he got out and, you know, Ray's truck was not back yet. But Dean was determined that he would just go back inside and take another look around to see if maybe he had missed something. Maybe there was some clue as to where Ray went or what he was up to. So Dean walked up to his brother's front door and he let himself inside. And immediately, Dean stopped because he smelled something. It smelled like marijuana smoke inside the house, which was really, really odd. I mean, one, because the last time he was here, he definitely did not smell marijuana smoke.

18:07But more than that, Ray, his brother, had definitely once been a very heavy drinker. That was true. But he had always hated marijuana. Like he did not smoke marijuana. And so Dean's standing in the doorway trying to make sense of this, when from the other side of the room, he hears somebody shouting at him to leave. And he sees on the other side of the room, this man has suddenly popped up, who Dean did not know, who was looking right at him, basically gesturing for Dean to get out of the house. But Dean, he's sort of like, what's going on here? He looks at this guy and he's like, who are you?

18:43What are you doing in here? And the guy went very quickly from being sort of demanding to Dean to very spooked, turning and sprinting out the door out of sight. Within the hour, a police officer with the Rockland Police Department pulled his cruiser up outside of a small one-story home in Rockland and parked. He saw a man waiting outside the garage, and as the officer got out of his car, the man rushed up and introduced himself as Dean, the person who had called 911. Dean explained to the officer that he had just seen an intruder here inside of his brother's home and that his brother was also missing.

19:18And so the officer took down some notes both about the intruder and also about, you know, Dean's brother's absence and why him being gone for two days was really out of character. And so after the officer finished speaking to Dean, he went inside of Ray's house to take a look around and see if, you know, there was any evidence left behind by the intruder to indicate who they were or if there was any evidence about, you know, where Ray was and maybe that this intruder had something to do with Ray's absence. But once inside the home, the officer saw there was no sign of forced entry or any kind of mess or violence, so it didn't immediately seem like the intruder had robbed the place or gotten into some kind of physical fight with its owner.

20:01But still, the officer left the property and went back to his cruiser and called it in. And so over the next few days, the Rockland Police Department sort of led two parallel investigations. There was the investigation into this intruder inside of Ray's home, which really wasn't going very far. They had very little evidence. There was barely a description of this guy from Dean who did not get a good look at him. And then the other investigation was into Ray's disappearance. And there was definitely some thinking that the intruder and Ray's disappearance could be connected, but as of right now, they didn't know.

20:33But with regards to Ray's disappearance, after the police had spoken to Ray's family and friends, they determined that no one had seen or spoken to him since January 11th. That was like the first sort of hard date and hard fact that they had. They also checked into Ray's bank account and phone activity, and they learned he hadn't used them since January 11th, when apparently he went missing. But beyond those details, like as the weeks went on, really nothing else came in, not about the intruder or about Ray. Then on January 21st, so 10 days after Ray went missing, the Rockland Police Department got their first, you know, big new lead.

21:12And that was Ray's truck had been found. He was not in it. It had been found totally abandoned in this apartment complex that was not far from his workshop.

21:30There's a lot of ways to feel alive. One way is to forget everything and be in the moment of excitement. And that's the idea behind the Genesis GV70. It's built to thrill. A thrilling yet elegant design always makes driving the Genesis GV70 an exciting adventure. Its powerful athletic stance screams performance and turns heads. Command the road and experience a class-leading standard 300 horsepower. Plus, discover the different dynamic drive modes for all different terrains. Choose between the different terrain modes for whatever road conditions you may encounter. The Genesis GV70's award-winning technology and performance lets you drive with comfort and drive with confidence.

22:12It's an exciting SUV with intuitive tech that can make your ride smooth even where the road is not. And its blind spot cameras allow you to see what's next to you. Its performance is measured not only in power, but also in how it makes you feel. The Genesis GV70. Learn more at Genesis.com and feel the GV70. Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video editing for today's creative process. Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, oh yeah, still tight.

22:52With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. A couple of months later, on an afternoon in late March, Rockland Police Sergeant Zach Lewis sat at his desk at the station going over Ray's case file for what he felt like was the millionth time. So since finding Ray's truck, basically no new leads had come in. And even that, the finding of Ray's truck really had not been the break that the police had really hoped it would be. The truck was basically in decent working condition. The only thing that really stood out was the plates had been taken off of it.

23:33But after they searched the truck extensively, they basically didn't find anything. Nothing that gave away what happened to Ray or where he was or, you know, whether or not this intruder had something to do with Ray. like it just really didn't go anywhere. So Sergeant Lewis was feeling pretty stuck when it came to this case. And so right now he was just looking through the information they already had on this case to see if maybe he had missed something. However, as he began doing this, another officer ran through the station towards his desk, waving around some sheets of paper. And this officer ran right up to Lewis and he slammed the papers down on his desk and explained that the California Highway Patrol had just sent a report over because they thought it might contain a lead in Ray's case.