Some sounds are impossible to forget. From mysterious broadcasts to chilling real-life recordings, these five audio clips have fascinated and unsettled listeners for years. Watch until the end to hear the most haunting recording on the list.
#Disturbing #AudioRecordings #Mystery #UnsolvedMysteries #Creepy #TrueStories #Horror #Paranormal #DarkHistory #Scary #Top5 #Haunting #Documentary #Eerie #YouTube
#Disturbing #AudioRecordings #Mystery #UnsolvedMysteries #Creepy #TrueStories #Horror #Paranormal #DarkHistory #Scary #Top5 #Haunting #Documentary #Eerie #YouTube
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00:00On May 23rd, 1961, two brothers inside an abandoned German bunker in Italy sat down
00:05to listen to the empty static of space. Over the years, they had pulled all kinds of strange
00:10sounds from that static. By it, what came through their headphones on this particular night had the
00:15potential to change the entire history of space exploration. What they heard was the voice of a
00:19woman speaking in Russian. The full transmission lasted a little over two minutes. Throughout it,
00:33the woman repeatedly called for the person on the other end to answer her.
00:44As the transmission continued, she began mentioning her breathing and oxygen.
00:56By it, soon after this, her words became far more alarming. She claimed the temperature was
01:01rising and repeatedly said that she felt hot, like she was in some sort of immediate danger.
01:19Then, near the end of the recording, she said she could see a flame and asked whoever was on the
01:23other end to whether she was going to crash.
01:25The next mother was getting shot, what he says.
01:29This force was not a fire ritmatedink, but, in order to kill it, they would stop...
01:45in order to abrapping him as the length of his head of the side of the �ves.
01:50That was about the mansion.
01:54In years, the airport was coming out, which was easy to see theäşş who felt that the
01:55And with that, the transmission abruptly ends.
01:58The two men listening were Achille and Gian Battista,
02:01amateur radio operators who had built a tracking station using military surplus equipment,
02:06chicken wire, old pipes, and dishware.
02:08But despite its homemade construction, the brothers were far from inexperienced.
02:13Over the years, they had successfully tracked signals from the first artificial satellite,
02:17the first U.S. satellite, and even the heartbeat of the first dog sent into orbit.
02:31In other words, their station had become one of the most capable amateur space tracking operations
02:36anywhere on Earth, which is exactly what makes the recording of the woman speaking Russian
02:40so difficult to dismiss.
02:42The voice had appeared on a frequency the brothers associated with Soviet spacecraft.
02:46However, unlike the beeps and telemetry they normally intercepted,
02:49this was unmistakably a human being who appeared to be in serious trouble.
02:53From the translated words, the brothers claimed they were hearing a Soviet cosmonaut
02:56trying to contact ground control as a fire spread throughout her spacecraft
03:00and she began burning during the descent back to Earth.
03:02And they believed they had intercepted a transmission the Soviet Union
03:05never intended the rest of the world to hear.
03:07But as soon as they made the recording public,
03:09that explanation ran into several major problems.
03:12This transmission was supposedly captured only six weeks after Yuri Gagarin
03:16became the first officially recognized human being in space.
03:19If the brothers were right, the Soviets had launched another crude mission
03:22almost immediately afterward, only this time with a woman aboard.
03:25That would mean Valentina Tereshkova, who flew in 1963,
03:29wasn't actually the first woman in space.
03:31She was simply the first one who came back alive.
03:34And for that to be true, the Soviets would have had to launch and lose
03:37another female cosmonaut, then erase the entire mission from the public record.
03:41So, to many people, this story was simply too unrealistic,
03:44and they chose to believe in a much simpler explanation,
03:46that the Italian brothers had made up the entire thing.
03:49Their earlier recordings had already brought them considerable attention,
03:52and critics believed this mysterious woman was merely an attempt to keep that attention alive.
03:56And one of the first objections the experts raised
03:58was the physical impossibility of the transmission.
04:01You see, as the spacecraft tears back into the atmosphere,
04:04the air surrounding it becomes intensely heated and ionized,
04:07forming a layer of plasma that blocks or severely weakens radio signals.
04:10This is exactly why mission control can lose contact with returning spacecraft
04:14for several minutes during the most dangerous stage of their descent.
04:17So, if the woman in the recording was already burning through the atmosphere,
04:20the brothers should never have been able to catch the transmission in the first place.
04:24By it, if we listen closely to the exact words the woman says,
04:27it leaves room for another possibility.
04:29She mentioned heat and a visible flame while she was still asking clear questions
04:32and transmitting continuously.
04:34This could mean the capsule had not yet entered the full communications blackout.
04:38The rising temperature might have come from an electrical fire,
04:40or a failing temperature control system inside the spacecraft,
04:43rather than the atmosphere burning around it.
04:45That would also explain why she sounded more confused than terrified.
04:48She might still have been trying to understand what was going wrong,
04:51and the sudden end of the recording might have been the exact moment
04:54the plasma blackout finally cut her off.
04:56By it, the technical problem was not the only reason people doubted the tape.
05:00Over the years, many Russian speakers have argued that the woman
05:02doesn't sound like a native speaker at all.
05:04In fact, many have claimed that her voice carries an Italian cadence,
05:08which led many critics to believe that the brothers staged the recording
05:10with help from their sister, who was known to be learning Russian at the time.
05:13On top of this, a number of experts have also pointed out that the woman in the recording
05:17never used the formal call signs or communication language heard in genuine Soviet space transmissions.
05:22And digging through the official documents doesn't reveal a single mission record from that period
05:27that ever indicated that the Soviets were planning to send a woman into space in 1961.
05:31But strangely enough, this absence of documentation is exactly why this transmission may be real.
05:36As far-fetched as a secret dead cosmonaut sounds,
05:40the Soviet Union had a well-documented history of making inconvenient failures disappear from public history.
05:45There are cases going back to Stalin's era,
05:47where individuals were physically painted out of official photographs as if they never existed at all.
05:52Similarly, after the collapse of the USSR,
05:54declassified documents revealed multiple deadly accidents connected to the space program
05:58that had been kept hidden from the world for decades.
06:01These included the Nedalen catastrophe,
06:03where a launch pad explosion killed 78 people,
06:06and Valentin Bondalienko,
06:08a cosmonaut trainee who burned to death inside an oxygen-rich pressure chamber.
06:12Both these incidents occurred during the same period when the transmission of the woman was captured,
06:17and yet they remained completely hidden from the public until the 1980s.
06:21Now, none of this proves that the Soviets actually sent a woman into space who died and covered it up.
06:25But what it does tell us is that when something went wrong in their space program,
06:29they had both the means and the motive to make sure nobody ever found out.
06:32The Soviets were locked in a bitter race against the United States,
06:35and every successful mission was treated as proof that their system was superior.
06:39Admitting that they sent the woman into space only to burn her alive
06:42would have transformed a historical achievement into an international humiliation.
06:46With the press under state control,
06:48hiding the mission would have been far easier than admitting they had failed.
06:51So, if that is what happened,
06:53then this woman was the first female cosmonaut ever launched into space,
06:56and nobody was ever told.
06:59More than six decades later,
07:00the world still doesn't know her name.
07:02The only record she may have left behind
07:04is this two-minute recording of her calling for someone to answer
07:07as the spacecraft around her grew hotter
07:09and her voice slowly disappeared into the static.
07:15On the evening of June 29th, 2017,
07:18a woman named Tara Bullis quietly switched on a hidden microphone
07:21as she arrived at a benefit walk for a missing student.
07:24Before entering the crowd,
07:25she whispered the date and time into the recorder,
07:27then noted that the man walking beside her had brought alcohol
07:30and was clearly drinking.
07:52What she didn't know yet was that the hidden wire she was wearing
07:55would become the key piece of evidence
07:57in one of the most disturbing criminal cases Illinois had seen in years.
08:01Tara was secretly working with the FBI to find the missing student,
08:04and the man beside her was Brent Christensen.
08:07He was the prime suspect in the disappearance of the woman
08:10whose benefit they had come to attend.
08:12Tara had already agreed to record several conversations with him,
08:15but so far, none had given investigators the evidence they needed.
08:18Even as they moved through the crowd that evening,
08:20Brent initially said nothing that directly connected him to the case.
08:22By it, as he continued drinking,
08:25his attention slowly shifted toward the people gathered around them.
08:30It's so weird.
08:32I don't even know how this is.
08:35All these people are nice.
08:37I wonder how I'm safe.
08:40And what he began saying next
08:42suggested that investigators might be dealing with something
08:45far worse than a single disappearance.
09:11The woman Brent was talking about
09:13was 26-year-old Yingying Zhang,
09:15a visiting scholar from China
09:16who had arrived at the University of Illinois
09:18only two months earlier to research crop production.
09:21On June 9th,
09:22Yingying was traveling to an off-campus apartment complex
09:24where she planned to sign a new lease.
09:26After missing her connecting bus,
09:28surveillance cameras showed her walking several blocks
09:30to another stop and waiting for the next one.
09:32By it, shortly after 2 p.m.,
09:34a black Saturn Astra passed her,
09:36circled the block, and returned.
09:37The driver stopped beside Yingying
09:39and spoke with her through the passenger window
09:41for roughly one minute.
09:42She then entered the car,
09:44and that was the last time she was ever seen.
09:46When investigators looked through the surveillance footage,
09:48they couldn't make out the vehicle's license plate,
09:50so they began examining
09:51every black Saturn Astra registered in the surrounding area.
09:54One of them belonged to 27-year-old Brent Christensen,
09:58who had recently completed his master's
09:59at the University of Illinois
10:00and had worked as a teaching assistant.
10:02At first, nothing clearly separated his car from the others.
10:06By it, when agents reviewed the footage more closely,
10:08they noticed that the vehicle in surveillance footage
10:10had a similar sunroof and damaged hubcap as Brent's car.
10:13When agents first questioned him,
10:15Brent claimed he had spent the afternoon at home
10:17either sleeping or playing video games.
10:19Okay.
10:20Well, you originally told the agents
10:22that came to your apartment
10:23that you just played video games all day long.
10:25And you didn't leave the apartment.
10:26Yeah.
10:29But it's fair to say that we know
10:33that that's not true, correct?
10:39Why would I lie?
10:41However, once investigators confronted him
10:43with footage of his vehicle moving around the university,
10:45his story began to fall apart.
10:47Brent eventually admitted
10:48that he had picked up an Asian woman near the campus.
10:50But according to him,
10:52he only drove her a few blocks
10:53before making a wrong turn,
10:54causing her to panic and demand to be released.
11:18However, the investigators didn't believe him,
11:20as the location data from Ying Ying's phone
11:22didn't match his account of events.
11:24And I think I've demonstrated enough,
11:27I've shared enough with you,
11:29that you know, that I know,
11:34that you didn't drop her off in that neighborhood.
11:40You know that we can follow her phone.
11:45By it, since they had no direct evidence
11:47that could establish what happened
11:48after Ying Ying entered his vehicle,
11:50they allowed Brent to leave the station
11:52without being charged.
11:53The FBI immediately placed him under constant surveillance
11:56and approached Tara,
11:57who was in a polyamorous relationship with him.
11:59She agreed to wear the recording device,
12:01hoping her conversations with Brent
12:02would either clear his name
12:03or finally reveal what he was doing.
12:05Over the following days,
12:06Tara secretly recorded him nine times.
12:09By it, nothing he said in those recordings
12:11gave investigators anything solid enough to act on.
12:13Until the two of them attended Ying Ying's benefit walk.
12:16Surrounded by her family, friends,
12:18and hundreds of strangers,
12:19hoping she would still be found alive,
12:21Brent finally revealed why he had come to the event.
12:23I just wanted to see how many people were here for me.
12:26By it, during the vigil,
12:28Brent finally stopped speaking in vague hints.
12:30He took Tara's phone and typed four short messages,
12:33deleting each one after she had read it.
12:35It was me.
12:36She was number 13.
12:37She is gone.
12:38Forever.
12:39These four messages transformed Ying Ying's disappearance
12:42from a missing person mystery into a murder case.
12:45And as Tara managed to keep him talking,
12:48he began describing how fiercely Ying Ying had fought to survive.
12:51She was valley.
12:53She what?
12:53She what?
12:55Yeah.
12:55What?
12:56She's height.
12:58Why didn't anyone know?
12:59Really?
13:01A little Chinese girl?
13:04Why didn't anyone else?
13:05Did she really have work in English?
13:07Yeah.
13:09Why didn't she say anything to you?
13:13Yeah.
13:14She walked with me and you were all set up for me.
13:17Brent continued to go into very graphic detail.
13:20But Ying Ying's murder was not the only thing he confessed to.
13:23He claimed he had been killing since he was 19,
13:25that Ying Ying was his 13th victim,
13:27and that the previous 12 had left almost no evidence behind.
13:30More disturbingly, he said he still wanted to continue.
13:36Ying Ying was the only person
13:40that has produced evidence that he's dead.
13:54He proudly compared himself to other notorious serial killers.
13:58By edit, during these boastful statements,
14:00he made a claim that would go on to add another layer of mystery to the case.
14:03The family, you know, you heard a few times,
14:06that they won't leave until she's found,
14:07until they can return and they know you.
14:09They're going to leave them at the end.
14:11Because they don't know.
14:14No one will ever know where she is.
14:18The FBI, who had a GPS in the car,
14:23never knew.
14:26I was able to do this within hours or hours.
14:33The FBI arrested Brent the following days.
14:35When investigators searched his apartment,
14:37they found traces of Ying Ying's blood in his bedroom.
14:40His trial began on June 12th, 2019,
14:42at Federal Court in Peoria, Illinois.
14:44Twelve days later,
14:45the jury found him guilty of kidnapping resulting in death,
14:48and two counts of lying to FBI agents.
14:50On July 18th,
14:52Brent was sentenced to life in prison
14:53without any possibility of release.
14:55By it,
14:56the sentence could not undo the final part of Brent's plan.
14:59Unfortunately,
15:00his prediction about Ying Ying's family returning empty-handed came true.
15:03Her body has never been recovered.
15:05And if Brent was telling the truth about having 12 earlier victims,
15:09he may have been just as effective at making them disappear.
15:12By it,
15:12so far,
15:13investigators have never found evidence connecting him to another murder.
15:16His defense argued that he'd been drinking
15:18and was exaggerating to impress Tara.
15:20By it,
15:21Tara testified that while Brent had consumed alcohol,
15:23he did not appear drunk.
15:25She said he seemed proud and excited while discussing the murder,
15:28and in the days that followed,
15:29he never once contacted her to take back what he had said.
15:32Now,
15:32it is difficult to dismiss the claim entirely
15:35when you consider the tone Brent used to talk about his alleged victims.
15:38His voice never shifted into the dramatic,
15:41exaggerated tone of someone trying to sound dangerous.
15:43He stayed calm,
15:44as though he was discussing something he had done several times before.
15:48If anything,
15:49Ying Ying's case is proof that he was capable of doing exactly that.
15:51Without a damaged hubcap and a girlfriend willing to wear a wire and capture key,
15:56disturbing audio,
15:57investigators would have nothing more than footage of a woman getting into a car.
16:01Whether or not there were really 12 others will likely never be known.
16:08Every time I sit down to record,
16:10this happens.
16:15I wish I was exaggerating,
16:16but I probably get 6 to 8 spam calls every day.
16:19Lately,
16:20it's been the same debt consolidation robocall over and over and over again.
16:25Recently,
16:25I made the mistake of answering one of these calls
16:28and clicking 9 to be put on their do not call list,
16:30only for them to see that my phone line is active,
16:32and now call me even more than they already did.
16:34I finally got tired of dealing with it,
16:36so I started looking into why I was getting so many spam calls in the first place.
16:40That is when it actually led me to Aura,
16:42the sponsor of this video.
16:43To me,
16:44the most valuable feature Aura offers
16:46is automatically opting me out of data broker sites,
16:48which is what was causing me to get so many spam calls in the first place.
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17:03Aura is a US-based company
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17:10Aura also works 650 times faster than their competitors,
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17:16to finish placing a fraudulent order.
17:18Your data is literally being sold as I'm talking to you.
17:21Visit aura.com slash chilling scares,
17:23also linked in the description,
17:24for a 14-day free trial
17:26to keep yourself protected and reduce spam.
17:32On the morning of August 13th, 1997,
17:35the crew of the Howard Stern Show
17:36was taking calls from listeners as it usually did.
17:38Many of the people who made it onto the air
17:40were harmless pranksters or attention seekers
17:42willing to say almost anything
17:44just to hear their own voice on the radio.
17:45So, when a producer passed along a caller
17:48claiming to have killed several people,
17:50no one in the studio appeared to take him seriously.
17:52In hindsight,
17:53there were reasons to take him more seriously than they did.
17:55All right, I got a guy on the phone
17:57who claims he's been killing prostitutes
17:59and he's wondering why he's doing it.
18:00Oh, God.
18:01So, maybe he thinks I have an answer.
18:02Is this Ed?
18:04Ed.
18:04No, this isn't Ed.
18:05Oh.
18:06You haven't killed any prostitutes?
18:08No, I never said my name was Ed.
18:10Oh.
18:10Oh.
18:12Sorry.
18:13That's okay.
18:14What's your...
18:15What name do you use?
18:16You can call me Clay.
18:17Clay?
18:18Clay?
18:19Yes, Clay.
18:20When Howard asked him about his supposed victims,
18:23Clay's answer immediately caught everyone off guard.
18:26Okay, Clay, so what happened?
18:27How many prostitutes have you killed?
18:28Twelve.
18:30According to him,
18:31these victims were often women
18:32who worked the streets around New Orleans.
18:34And when the crew asked him about his pattern of murder,
18:37he described horrific methods.
18:39How most did you kill him?
18:43Well, a few times.
18:44Actually, most times with a hammer.
18:46Hmm.
18:47And where do you do this primarily?
18:50Uh, I've done it twice in a parking garage
18:53and then the rest of the time's on the side of the road.
18:56Dude, you gotta have a lot of anger at you.
18:59Clay later said that he had been doing it
19:01since he was a teenager.
19:02How old were you when you killed your first woman?
19:05Sixteen.
19:07And you must be a powerful kind of guy, big guy.
19:11Uh, I wasn't then.
19:13Right.
19:13Howard immediately began searching for a reason
19:15that could explain such depraved actions,
19:17asking Clay about his childhood.
19:19By it, Clay rejected every possibility.
19:23Did your mom beat you?
19:24Did your mom spank you?
19:25Did, uh...
19:25Why's your mom a prostitute?
19:26No.
19:28Actually, nothing like that.
19:29What is it then?
19:31I think I just do it for the sense of the power.
19:33Right.
19:34Yet, the most unsettling part of the call
19:36wasn't what Clay claimed to have done.
19:38It was how little emotion he showed while describing it.
19:41At no point during the entire call
19:43did Clay sound like a person
19:44who was publicly confessing to twelve vicious murders.
19:46He talked more like a person
19:48explaining a habit he had stopped questioning long ago.
19:51He didn't sound ashamed
19:52and showed no obvious fear
19:53that the police might be listening.
19:54Even when Howard directly called him a serial killer,
19:57Clay responded with the same casual tone
19:59he had used throughout the conversation.
20:01He went on to blame boredom
20:02as the reason to commit these inhumane acts.
20:05Dude, you're a serial killer.
20:07Yeah.
20:08Yeah.
20:08You just want to kill.
20:09Uh, I'm just bored.
20:10The entire call lasted roughly 17 minutes.
20:13Clay then hung up and was never heard from again.
20:15So, the obvious question
20:17is the same one listeners have been asking
20:19for almost 30 years.
20:20Was any of this actually real?
20:22And the most convenient answer is no.
20:25You see, by that time,
20:26the Howard Stern Show had built its reputation
20:28around taboo-breaking comedy,
20:30outrageous guests,
20:31and phony phone calls.
20:32So, a man confessing to murder
20:34was, sadly, not out of the ordinary.
20:37And if you listen closely,
20:39there are moments when Clay appeared to struggle
20:40with his own story.
20:41For instance,
20:42when Howard pressed him
20:43on why the killings had supposedly stopped,
20:45Clay's story became noticeably less certain.
20:47He first blamed a broken-down car,
20:49then admitted that this only accounted
20:51for one month of an almost year-long break,
20:53before vaguely putting the rest
20:54down to self-control.
20:55No, but in all seriousness,
20:57I mean, do you think that you can control this?
21:00I think I have been.
21:02Oh, you have been for the last couple of months?
21:03A year he hasn't killed.
21:04Oh, a year?
21:05Yeah.
21:05Almost.
21:07So, why do you think he stopped killing all of a sudden?
21:11I really don't know, Howard.
21:13I just...
21:14Part of it had to do with my car broke down.
21:16Oh, no transportation.
21:18Seriously?
21:19That's the reason?
21:20Well, that was the reason for a month,
21:21but after that,
21:22I guess it was all self-control.
21:24Wow.
21:24So you don't want to do this anymore?
21:26No, he wants to do it,
21:27but he's controlling himself.
21:29Like, you want to kill women, right?
21:32Sure.
21:33Yeah.
21:34Moments of hesitation like this
21:36made parts of the call sound like
21:37he was making up details as he went along.
21:39But, on the other hand,
21:40maybe it was simply Clay carefully deciding
21:42how much he could reveal
21:43without exposing his identity.
21:45Nonetheless, after the call was aired,
21:47federal agents turned up at the studio
21:48to collect copies of the audio recording,
21:50and immediately started looking
21:51into the possibility
21:52of a potential serial killer on the loose.
21:54However, I couldn't find
21:55a single reliable report
21:57or official statement
21:58revealing anything about the investigation.
22:00And, to this day,
22:01there has been no public record
22:02that identified the real person
22:03who called the show.
22:04So, the only real way to judge his story
22:06is to compare with the crimes
22:08he claimed to be describing.
22:09And, when his confession is placed
22:11beside what was happening
22:12in New Orleans at the time,
22:13some of the details line up
22:14uncomfortably well.
22:16By August 1995,
22:18authorities were investigating
22:1924 killings committed around the city
22:20over the previous four years.
22:22Most of the victims
22:23were vulnerable women
22:24who worked the streets,
22:25and many had been killed
22:26before their bodies
22:27were abandoned in isolated areas.
22:29Which means,
22:30Clay wasn't describing
22:30some imaginary pattern of violence.
22:33Both the victims
22:34and the scale of the killings
22:35all lined up
22:36with a real investigation
22:37that was still unresolved
22:38when he called the show.
22:39But, these killings
22:40had also been reported
22:41in the news
22:41before Clay called the show.
22:43So, a prankster
22:44following the case
22:44could have taken
22:45the publicly known details
22:46and built a convincing story
22:47around them.
22:48That said,
22:49there was a man
22:50whose real criminal history
22:51appeared to fit Clay's story
22:52far more closely.
22:53His name was Russell Elwood,
22:55a former taxi driver
22:56from New Orleans.
22:57Russell had been questioned
22:58by the Serial Crime Task Force
22:59and was eventually charged
23:00with murdering
23:01Cheryl Lewis
23:02and Dolores Mack,
23:03two of the women
23:04whose deaths
23:04had been examined
23:05as part of the wider
23:06New Orleans case.
23:07During the investigation,
23:08multiple women
23:09also came forward
23:10claiming that he had
23:10picked them up in his taxi,
23:12attacked them,
23:13and left them
23:13in isolated areas.
23:14And because the location,
23:16the victims,
23:16and the nature of the crimes
23:18all appeared to match
23:19Clay's confession,
23:20several people online
23:21came to believe
23:21that Russell was the man
23:22speaking on the recording.
23:23This theory fits well,
23:25except the timeline
23:26makes it almost impossible
23:27for Russell to be Clay.
23:28Russell was arrested
23:29in Florida
23:30on August 4th, 1997
23:31after purchasing drugs
23:33from an undercover officer.
23:34He remained incarcerated
23:35for the next 85 days.
23:37Clay's call aired
23:38nine days after that arrest,
23:40meaning Russell was already
23:40in a jail cell
23:41when the call was made.
23:42So, the voice in the recording
23:44almost certainly
23:44did not belong
23:45to Russell Elwood.
23:46However,
23:47ruling him out
23:47doesn't automatically
23:48prove that Clay was lying.
23:50Russell was convicted
23:50of only two murders,
23:52and no one was ever
23:53able to establish
23:53that a single person
23:54was responsible
23:55for every death
23:56being investigated
23:57around New Orleans.
23:58This leaves open
23:58the possibility
23:59that several killers
24:00were targeting
24:00similar women
24:01in the same area,
24:02and that Clay was
24:03describing victims
24:04who were never connected
24:05to Russell's case.
24:06But, unfortunately,
24:07this is as far
24:08as the evidence goes.
24:09No victim has ever
24:10been conclusively matched
24:11to the details
24:12Clay gave during the call,
24:13and no major breakthrough
24:14has revealed the identity
24:15of the man behind the voice.
24:16So, almost 30 years later,
24:18the recording still comes down
24:19to two possibilities.
24:21Either a prankster
24:22studied a real series
24:23of unsolved murders
24:24and used those details
24:25to create an unusually
24:26convincing confession,
24:28or a serial killer
24:29openly admitted
24:30to murdering 12 women
24:31on live radio,
24:32hung up the phone,
24:33and was never identified.
24:38On December 3rd, 2016,
24:41at 2.46 in the morning,
24:42police responded
24:43to a report
24:43of an abandoned car
24:44parked on the Route 35 bridge
24:46over the Shark River
24:47in Belmar, New Jersey.
24:48Nothing was wrong
24:49with the car.
24:50The keys were still inside,
24:51but there was no sign
24:52of the driver
24:52anywhere on the bridge
24:53or in the area below.
24:55Running the plate
24:56led officers to Lillian Stern.
24:57She was safe at home
24:59and explained
24:59that the vehicle
25:00was normally driven
25:00by her 19-year-old
25:01granddaughter, Sarah.
25:02Eventually,
25:03someone would come forward
25:04and explain exactly
25:05what happened to Sarah
25:06that night.
25:07But at this point
25:08in the investigation,
25:09that conversation
25:10hadn't happened yet.
25:11Sarah was a 19-year-old
25:12arts and TV production major
25:13at Brookdale Community College.
25:15The day before,
25:16she had spent the afternoon
25:17running errands
25:18with her childhood friend,
25:19Liam McAtasney,
25:20before stopping for lunch
25:21at Taco Bell.
25:22It was an ordinary day,
25:24except that it was
25:25the last time
25:26anyone saw her in public.
25:27The car had been left
25:28close to the edge
25:29of the bridge,
25:29and there were no obvious signs
25:30that anyone else
25:31had been inside.
25:32According to Liam,
25:33Sarah had previously
25:34talked about her life
25:35in a concerning manner.
25:36He also explained
25:37how she had an increasingly
25:38difficult relationship
25:39with her father.
25:40However,
25:41no one else who knew Sarah
25:42believed this explanation.
25:43One friend even told
25:44investigators that Sarah
25:45had made plans to see her
25:46that very day,
25:47which is hardly the behavior
25:48of someone planning
25:49to disappear.
25:50According to reports,
25:51Liam provided another
25:52possibility to investigators.
25:54He claimed that Sarah
25:55had talked about
25:55leaving New Jersey
25:56and starting over in Canada
25:57to get away from her father.
25:59The same friend Sarah
26:00had made plans with
26:01confirmed this theory.
26:02She told investigators
26:03Sarah had mentioned
26:04a Toronto trip
26:05and that she'd recently
26:05come into money
26:06that could finally
26:06make it happen.
26:07But when police
26:08searched her bedroom,
26:09they found her passport,
26:10social security card,
26:12and Canadian currency
26:13still there.
26:14If she had crossed
26:14the border voluntarily,
26:16she had left behind
26:16almost everything
26:17she would have needed
26:18to do it.
26:19The money her friend
26:19had mentioned
26:20came from a shoebox
26:21that Sarah had found
26:21inside a family property
26:23along with a note
26:24left by her mother
26:24before she died.
26:25Because much of it
26:26was old and damaged,
26:28Sarah placed a large portion
26:29inside a safe deposit box.
26:31On the day she vanished,
26:32surveillance footage
26:33showed Sarah visiting
26:34the bank with Liam
26:34to withdraw a portion
26:35of that money.
26:36When investigators later
26:37obtained the warrant
26:38to open the box,
26:39$25,250 was still inside.
26:42By it,
26:43a portion had been
26:43taken out that afternoon
26:44and Liam had been
26:45standing beside her
26:46when she collected it.
26:47And he was also
26:48one of the last people
26:49known to have seen her alive.
26:50Then,
26:51in January 2017,
26:52a man named Anthony Curry
26:54contacted authorities.
26:55Anthony was a young filmmaker
26:57who regularly discussed
26:58horror movie ideas
26:59with Liam.
27:00So,
27:00when Liam pitched
27:01a disturbing plot
27:02on Thanksgiving night
27:03about a week before
27:04Sarah's disappearance,
27:05Anthony initially thought
27:06nothing much of it.
27:07According to Anthony,
27:08the story involved
27:09a young woman
27:09who had discovered
27:10money left by
27:11her deceased mother.
27:12Her friend would then
27:13meet her to count it,
27:14take the cash,
27:15and throw her from a bridge
27:16before abandoning her car.
27:18One week later,
27:19Sarah disappeared
27:20under almost exactly
27:21those circumstances.
27:22Anthony still hesitated
27:24to accuse someone
27:24he considered a friend.
27:26By it,
27:26Liam began repeatedly
27:27asking to meet
27:28and eventually sent him
27:29a Snapchat message
27:30asking whether police
27:31had questioned him.
27:32That was enough
27:32to convince Anthony
27:33that the supposed movie idea
27:35may have been a real plan.
27:36In search of concrete evidence,
27:38police wired Anthony's car
27:39as he drove up
27:40to meet with Liam
27:40on the 31st of January 2017.
27:43Unaware that he was
27:44being recorded,
27:45right after the two of them met,
27:46Liam made a horrifying confession
27:47that put all of the other theories
27:49about Sarah's death to rest.
27:51Dude, you can't blame me
27:53for doing this, right?
27:54I gotta fill you up
27:55real quick, all right?
27:58You good?
27:59No disrespect.
28:00I'll show you.
28:01No disrespect, okay?
28:03Nothing.
28:04Yeah, I got the FBI
28:05on my ass, too.
28:07What, are they questioning?
28:08Oh, yeah.
28:09A lot.
28:10About what?
28:11About killing Sarah.
28:13All right, so,
28:15I'm hanging out with her.
28:17She has,
28:18we went to the bank,
28:20she took some money out,
28:20not all of her money.
28:21We're counting it out,
28:22and then,
28:25she goes
28:26to walk out
28:27the front door.
28:29My biggest problem
28:30was the dog,
28:30and her dog
28:32laid there
28:33and watched
28:33as I killed her.
28:35Didn't do anything.
28:37Liam went on
28:38to describe
28:38the graphic details
28:39of every step
28:40of his process
28:41in depth.
28:42Not only did he show
28:43no sign of remorse
28:43during this whole conversation,
28:45but he was also
28:46showing signs of irritation
28:47that the cash
28:47was less than he expected.
28:49What he actually found
28:50was only a fraction
28:51of what he had hoped,
28:51and the bills were so worn
28:53that he wasn't sure
28:53a bank would take them.
28:55So you've been laying low,
28:56I guess.
28:57Oh yeah.
28:58And not even,
28:59that's not even the worst part.
29:00The worst part of it is,
29:01I thought I was walking out
29:0250 grand,
29:04100 grand
29:04in my pocket.
29:06She had one safe,
29:08and she took money out,
29:10and she only had
29:1110 grand.
29:13And this money,
29:15I don't know if it was
29:16burnt or something,
29:18it's
29:19old money,
29:21terrible quality.
29:22I don't even know
29:23if I can put any of it
29:24in the bank.
29:25Police arrested Liam
29:26and his roommate
29:27Preston Taylor,
29:28who reportedly had
29:29assisted with getting
29:29rid of Sarah's body
29:30the very next day.
29:32Preston confessed
29:32almost immediately
29:33and led investigators
29:34to a locked safe
29:35at their residence,
29:36buried in the ground.
29:37It was opened
29:38using keys recovered
29:39from Liam's car.
29:40Inside the safe,
29:41police found around
29:41$9,000.
29:43At the trial,
29:44Liam's defense argued
29:45that the recording
29:45wasn't a confession,
29:46but instead an audition
29:48for a role in Anthony's films.
29:49But with all the evidence
29:51and witnesses present,
29:52the jury didn't buy
29:53the excuse.
29:53On the 26th of February 2019,
29:56Liam was convicted
29:57on all seven charges,
29:58including first-degree murder,
30:00robbery,
30:00felony murder,
30:01and desecrating human remains.
30:03Later, in June,
30:04he was sentenced
30:05to life in prison
30:06without the possibility
30:07of parole.
30:08Unfortunately,
30:09Sarah Stern's body
30:10has never been found.
30:14On April 10th, 2018,
30:17a 16-year-old boy
30:18made two 911 calls
30:19that were supposed
30:20to save his life.
30:21Instead,
30:22they became the recorded evidence
30:23of one of the most
30:24inexcusable failures
30:25a police department
30:26has ever been forced
30:27to answer for.
30:28The calls were made
30:28by Kyle Plush,
30:30who drove to
30:30Seven Hills High School
30:31in Cincinnati, Ohio
30:32to pick up some tennis equipment
30:33from the back
30:34of his family's minivan.
30:35The tennis gear
30:36was in the rear cargo,
30:37so Kyle had to put a knee
30:38on the third-row bench seat
30:40and lean over to reach it.
30:41Unfortunately,
30:42the seat flipped backward
30:43under his weight,
30:44trapping him instantly.
30:45His head was pinned
30:46to the rear wall
30:47while his legs were forced
30:48up against the van's back door.
30:49His arms were pinned down as well,
30:51which meant he couldn't
30:52reach his phone
30:52to call for help,
30:53so Kyle resorted
30:54to the only option left.
30:56He called out to Siri
30:57and asked to dial 911,
30:58and the call actually connected
31:00at 3.14 p.m.
31:02Hello?
31:03Cincinnati 9-1-1,
31:05that is the address
31:06of your emergency.
31:28He told the dispatcher
31:29he was trapped inside his van
31:31and gave them the name
31:31of the school
31:32he was parked at.
31:33Can you hear me?
31:35Yes.
31:36The dispatcher said
31:36I'm here to accept
31:38my van.
31:39I'm trapped in my van.
31:41It is the same thing.
31:43Hello?
31:45Where are you?
31:48I can't hear you.
31:50The problem was,
31:52Kyle couldn't hear
31:53the dispatcher speaking to him,
31:54so he couldn't answer
31:55her follow-up questions.
31:56And although he repeatedly
31:58mentioned Seven Hills,
31:59the call was entered
32:00into the dispatch system
32:01several minutes later
32:02as an unidentified female
32:03trapped in a van
32:04in unknown trouble.
32:06The entry did not include
32:07Kyle's name,
32:08the type of vehicle,
32:09or the fact that he was
32:10in a potentially fatal
32:11emergency situation.
32:12At 3.26 p.m.,
32:14two officers arrived
32:15near the school.
32:16Based on the information
32:17they had received,
32:17they were searching
32:18for an unidentified woman
32:19in an unknown van
32:20somewhere around
32:21several adjoining parking lots.
32:23They drove through the area
32:24for roughly 11 minutes
32:25and attempted to call
32:26Kyle's phone.
32:27By it,
32:27they never stepped out
32:28of their patrol car,
32:29and they did not check
32:30the northern lot
32:30where Kyle's gold
32:31Honda Odyssey was parked.
32:32While those officers
32:33were still nearby,
32:34Kyle managed to place
32:35a second call.
32:36This time,
32:37he gave the dispatcher
32:37almost everything needed
32:38to find him.
32:39He identified the vehicle
32:40he was trapped in
32:41as a gold 2004
32:42Honda Odyssey,
32:44said it was in the
32:44Seven Hills parking lot,
32:45and made the seriousness
32:46of his situation
32:47very clear.
33:03Kyle's breathing
33:04was becoming weaker,
33:05and knowing that
33:06he might not survive,
33:08he asked the dispatcher
33:09to deliver one final message.
33:11I probably don't have
33:14much time left
33:14to tell my mom
33:16that I love her
33:17if I die.
33:19But none of those details
33:21ever reached the officers.
33:22When the dispatcher
33:23initially heard silence,
33:24she activated
33:25a teletypewriter connection
33:26intended for callers
33:27who were deaf
33:28or hard of hearing.
33:29Anyone there?
33:37I can't hear
33:38what you're saying.
33:39You're saying?
33:49Instead of clarifying the call,
33:51the function drastically
33:52lowered the volume
33:53of Kyle's voice.
33:54The dispatcher
33:55did not switch back
33:55to the normal audio,
33:56replay the recording,
33:58or create a new entry
33:59in the dispatch system.
34:00So, even though Kyle
34:01had now provided
34:02the exact color,
34:03make, model,
34:04and location of the van,
34:05the officers searching nearby
34:06were never told any of it.
34:08Eventually,
34:08they soon closed
34:09the assignment and left.
34:10Nearly six hours later,
34:12when Kyle failed
34:12to return home,
34:13his family used
34:14a location sharing app
34:15that showed he was still
34:16at Seven Hills School.
34:17His father drove there
34:18and eventually found
34:19the Honda Odyssey
34:20in the same lot
34:20Kyle had described
34:21during the second call.
34:23Sadly,
34:23by then,
34:24Kyle had lost his life.
34:26Soon after Kyle was found,
34:27the focus shifted
34:28from how he became trapped
34:29to why no one
34:30had reached him in time.
34:31Across two separate calls,
34:32he had identified the school,
34:34explained that he was
34:34pinned inside a van,
34:35and eventually gave
34:36the vehicle's exact
34:37make and color.
34:38Yet, the police
34:39failed to save him.
34:40And that failure began
34:41with how the first call
34:42was entered into the system.
34:43It had been stripped
34:44of its urgency
34:45before officers were dispatched.
34:47Kyle had been
34:47incorrectly identified
34:48as a woman,
34:49his exact location
34:50remained unclear,
34:51and his repeated warnings
34:52that his life was in danger
34:53were reduced to the words,
34:55unknown trouble.
34:56As a result,
34:56the officers arrived
34:57without knowing
34:58who they were searching for,
34:59what vehicle they needed to find,
35:00or how little time remained.
35:01So, when they failed
35:03to find anyone
35:03in immediate distress,
35:04they began treating the call
35:05as though it might have been a prank.
35:07An off-duty sheriff's deputy
35:08working traffic nearby
35:09even suggested
35:10that the caller
35:11might have been a woman
35:11he had told to move her car
35:12earlier that day.
35:14But, that explanation
35:14makes no sense
35:15the moment you hear
35:16the recording of the call.
35:18Kyle's voice was very clearly
35:19strained and panicked,
35:20and a call carrying
35:21that level of fear
35:22should have never been treated
35:23with doubt
35:23until officers had personally
35:24ruled out the danger.
35:26And, even if the first call
35:27had been misunderstood,
35:28his second call
35:29should have erased
35:29any remaining doubt.
35:30Kyle gave the van's exact
35:32color, make, model, and location.
35:34Yet, none of that information
35:35reached responding officers
35:37because the dispatcher
35:38later claimed
35:38technical problems
35:39had prevented her
35:40from properly hearing
35:41and documenting the call.
35:42According to her,
35:43the computer screen had froze,
35:44while the teletypewriter function
35:46made Kyle's voice
35:46almost impossible to understand.
35:48On the surface,
35:49that was a believable justification.
35:51The city's 911 system
35:52had a history of technical glitches
35:54that disrupted
35:54incoming and outgoing calls.
35:56But, an internal investigation
35:58of the phone system
35:59for that call specifically
36:00found no trouble with it.
36:02The same review
36:02found that if the dispatcher
36:03genuinely couldn't hear him,
36:05procedure gave her
36:05a clear next move.
36:06She should have asked
36:07the caller
36:08to tap the phone twice,
36:09press a key,
36:10or switch to yes or no questions,
36:11all of which she never did.
36:13Which, leaves only one explanation
36:15for Kyle's death.
36:16It was caused by a series
36:17of irresponsible choices
36:19made by the officers
36:20present inside the system.
36:21The department later
36:22reviewed the second call
36:23and described the way
36:24it had been handled
36:24as unacceptable.
36:25Not only had the dispatcher
36:27skipped the due process
36:28to ensure the caller
36:29received help,
36:30but she also never documented
36:31the call,
36:32violating yet another guideline.
36:33The Plush family
36:34filed a wrongful death lawsuit
36:35against the city
36:36and the employees involved,
36:37which was settled
36:38for $6 million in 2021.
36:40The system responsible
36:41for saving Kyle's life
36:42had failed him,
36:44leaving behind
36:44some of the most
36:45haunting pieces of audio
36:46ever recorded.
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