True Crime This Week: Halloween Horrors

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Crime House Daily – "True Crime This Week: Halloween Horrors"

Host: Vanessa Richardson
Date: October 26, 2025
Episode Theme: Halloween Horrors – Two Fatal Cases, Two Controversial Investigations

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Overview

This week's True Crime This Week episode, hosted by Vanessa Richardson, traces two chilling Halloween murders—both occurring on October 31, decades apart. The first victim, Arpana Janaga, was a promising young engineer whose unsolved Seattle murder in 2008 led to questions around police bias and investigative missteps. The second case goes back to 1981, when Sister Tadea Benz, an elderly nun, was killed at her Texas convent, in a case mired in coerced confessions and possible wrongful conviction. Through these cases, Vanessa exposes the real horror lurking beneath Halloween: a flawed criminal justice system.

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Case 1: The Murder of Arpana Janaga (Redmond, WA, 2008)

The Night of the Crime

• [03:52]
  • Halloween night, 2008: Arpana Janaga, just shy of 24, held a themed party in her apartment complex.
  • The atmosphere: rooms decorated lavishly, guests coming and going all evening; Arpana herself donned a Little Red Riding Hood costume.
  • The party winds down around 3am. Arpana walks to her car with a friend, Rachel, and later returns upstairs—the last confirmed sighting.

Discovery and Crime Scene

• [07:00]
  • Arpana’s family becomes worried after she misses several days of communication, particularly her birthday.
  • A friend and neighbor enter her apartment to check; find Arpana deceased—naked, mouth taped, body covered in black motor oil, hands stained blue, clear attempts made to destroy evidence.

"Her mouth was sealed shut with duct tape... the lower half of her body was coated in a thick black substance which smelled like motor oil. Inexplicably, the skin of her hands was stained blue." – Vanessa Richardson [08:24]

The Investigation: Suspect Focus and Police Bias

• [12:13]
  • Police timeline: death likely between 3:30–8:00am after the party.
  • Neighbor, Kyle Rose, reports hearing "moaning" and then a "horrible growling sound" from Arpana’s apartment around 8am.

"...heard what he described as a quote, horrible growling sound followed by a thud on the floor." – Vanessa Richardson [12:44]

• Physical evidence: missing phone/camera, costume and bathrobe found in dumpsters, attempts made to clean bedding and destroy DNA.

Emmanuel Fair: Racial Profiling and Flawed Casework

• [13:55]
  • Suspicion falls on Emmanuel Fair, the only Black guest, largely due to his criminal history.
  • Previous sexual assault conviction (plea deal), though partygoers recall him being friendly.
  • His DNA, along with several unidentified male profiles, was found in the apartment—though the samples were degraded and not definitive.

"If you do it once, you'll do it again." – Det. Brian Coates on focusing on Fair [14:24]

• Emmanuel spends nearly nine years in jail due to inability to post $5M bail, ultimately acquitted in 2019 after a hung jury and then full acquittal. He files suit against Redmond PD for racial profiling.

Overlooked Suspects and Unanswered Questions

• [18:41]
  • Multiple other suspects or questionable behaviors disregarded:
    • Arpana’s neighbor, Cameron, had conflicting alibis, late-night phone calls to Arpana, and suspicious post-crime actions (attempted border crossing, searching pawn shops).
    • His DNA was found on key crime items, but police did not pursue him as a major suspect.
    • DNA from unidentified males and a suicide of another resident also went uninvestigated.

"Detectives ignored numerous suspicious people in Arpana's life... But the biggest suspect they overlooked was... her next door neighbor, Cameron..." – Vanessa Richardson [19:45]

The Lasting Mystery

• [21:45]
  • No one has been convicted.
  • The case emblematic of how racial bias and tunnel vision can hinder investigations.

"Justice for this ambitious, talented and outgoing young woman has been delayed and possibly denied because of an investigation that may have been tainted by racial prejudice." – Vanessa Richardson [21:59]

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Case 2: The Murder of Sister Tadea Benz (Amarillo, TX, 1981)

Morning Discovery and Mistaken Assumptions

• [23:25]
  • Halloween morning, nuns find 76-year-old Sister Tadea Benz missing during mass.
  • Her body is found soon after; initially believed to be a tragic accident.
  • The nuns clean the room—a mistake, as it destroys crucial evidence.

Crime Scene and Pattern of Attacks

• [25:15]
  • Autopsy reveals strangulation, sexual assault, and stabbing.
  • Similar local crimes: multiple attacks and murders of elderly women in Amarillo, with curly black hairs found at crime scenes.
  • First suspect, Fernando Flores, is cleared when hair evidence excludes him.

The Psychic Tip and the Arrest

• [27:50]
  • Police receive a tip from a local psychic, "Bubbles" Inez Patterson, who describes a "teenage boy with dark hair, an Abe Lincoln face." (She also claims to identify the suspect’s house.)
  • Police visit the home and arrest 17-year-old Johnny Frank Garrett, whose fingerprints are found at the scene.

"According to Bubbles, the killer was a teenage boy who lived close to the convent…with large ears and a prominent nose." – Vanessa Richardson [28:33]

The Confession, Recantation, and Flawed Defense

• [33:17]
  • Johnny allegedly confesses, then swiftly recants, claiming police refused him an attorney and coerced the statement.
  • His home life is revealed to be extremely abusive, with serious mental health impacts.
  • Key exculpatory evidence is omitted at trial: unidentified prints, hair evidence mismatch, and mismatched shoeprints.
  • A jailhouse informant is incentivized to testify against him; defense does not challenge this effectively, nor raise an insanity defense.

Conviction, Execution, and Lingering Doubt

• [36:31]
  • Found guilty and sentenced to death; appeals for clemency ignored despite worldwide advocacy (including by the Pope).
  • Executed February 11, 1992.

"His last words were, 'I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. The rest of the world can kiss me my ass.'" – Vanessa Richardson [41:20]

• In 2005, DNA evidence ties another man, Leonio Perez Rueda, to a similar murder in the same area; Rueda confesses to killing an Amarillo nun.
• Texas refuses to overturn Johnny’s conviction posthumously.

"Looking back…we can see that these murders aren't the only frightening thing about Halloween. A broken criminal justice system is just as horrifying." – Vanessa Richardson [41:55]

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Key Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "All we know for sure is this was the last time anybody saw Arpana Janaga alive." – Vanessa Richardson [05:50]
• "Emanuel Fair was the only black person at the Halloween party. In interviews, other guests almost exclusively referred to him as the black guy." – Vanessa Richardson [13:41]
• "Sixteen Catholic bishops, the other nuns from Sister Taddea's convent, Sister Taddea's family, and even Pope John Paul II all issued statements asking Texas Governor Ann Richards to grant Johnny clemency." – Vanessa Richardson [39:13]
• "Justice…has been delayed and possibly denied because of an investigation that may have been tainted by racial prejudice." – Vanessa Richardson [21:59]
• "A broken criminal justice system is just as horrifying." – Vanessa Richardson [41:55]

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Notable Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:52] – Setting the scene: Arpana Janaga's Halloween party and disappearance
• [08:24] – Discovery of Arpana's body and details of the crime scene
• [12:44] – Neighbor’s eyewitness testimony and establishing timeline
• [13:55] – Focus on Emmanuel Fair and examination of police bias
• [19:45] – Overlooked suspects and evidence in Arpana’s case
• [21:45] – Summary/reflection on the unsolved status and possible injustice
• [23:25] – Introduction to the Benz case: discovery of the murder
• [28:33] – Psychic's vision leads to Johnny Frank Garrett's arrest
• [33:17] – Johnny’s confession, recantation, and critique of legal process
• [39:13] – Clemency pleas and global advocacy before Garrett's execution
• [41:55] – Vanessa’s final reflection on justice and horror

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Conclusion

By weaving together the cases of Arpana Janaga and Sister Tadea Benz, Vanessa Richardson reveals how justice can be derailed by conscious or unconscious bias, investigative shortcuts, and systemic failures. "Halloween Horrors" reminds listeners that beneath the costume and candy, true horror often lurks in the failure to protect the innocent and pursue the truth.

Host's parting words:
"Looking back on this week in Crime history, we can see that these murders aren't the only frightening thing about Halloween. A broken criminal justice system is just as horrifying." – Vanessa Richardson [41:55]

Transcript

[Heidi Wong]

Crime House has the perfect new show for spooky season Twisted Tales. Hosted by Heidi Wong, each episode of Twisted Tales is perfect for late night scares and daytime frights, revealing the disturbing real life events that inspired the world's most terrifying blockbusters and the ones too twisted to make it to screen. Twisted Tales is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes out every Monday.

[Crime House Announcer]

This is Crime House.

[Vanessa Richardson]

This week in crime history, we're looking at two murders committed on the scariest night of the year. Halloween. In 2008, 23 year old Arpana Janaga decided disappeared during a Halloween party at her Seattle apartment complex and was found brutally murdered three days later. On Halloween morning 27 years earlier, a 76 year old nun named Tadeya Benz was murdered at a convent in Amarillo, Texas. Police would later arrest a local teenager for the crime, but to this day, locals wonder if they got the right person. Person welcome to True Crime. This week part of Crime House Daily, I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Sunday we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from the coming week in history. From serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders, every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week we'll cover two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present here at Crime House. We know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily wherever you get your podcasts and for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily. Plus exciting bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is Halloween Horrors. Today we'll start with the case of arpana Janaga, whose 2008 Seattle battle murder remains unsolved. Arpana was killed after hosting a large Halloween party, and with so many guests coming and going, there were plenty of suspects, but police fixated on one for all the wrong reasons. Then we'll jump back to October 31, 1981, when Sister Tadea Benz was murdered in Amarillo with the help of a psychic. Detectives honed in on a suspect, but in their rush to make an arrest, they may have let Tadea's real murderer walk free. Today's cases show that Halloween isn't always fun and games, and that sometimes the horrors are all too real. All that and more coming up.

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It was Halloween night 2008 and the Valley View Apartments in Redmond, Washington were the place to be. Several residents had banded together to throw a huge Halloween party. The common areas were were covered in decorative cobwebs and each host had transformed their apartment into a themed room for guests to hang out in. One looked like a pirate ship, another was a winter wonderland on the third floor. One of the hosts had decorated her apartment like a haunted forest. Her name was Arpana Janaga and she dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood to go with the fairy tale theme. Three days shy of her 24th birthday, Arpana was cheerful and outgoing with a vibrant social life. All night long, Arpana and dozens of guests flowed back and forth between different rooms of the apartment complex, drinking, eating pizza and making the most of the Halloween night. At around 3am, Arpana and a few stragglers were hanging out in a first floor apartment when she decided to call it a night. Still wearing her Little Red Riding Hood costume, Arpana got up and left. We know she made it back upstairs to her apartment, but but nobody knows what happened next. All we know for sure is this was the last time anybody saw Arpana Janaga alive. Arpana was born on November 3, 1984 in Hyderabad, India. Her father was a computer science professor at one of the city's universities and as a young girl, Arpana followed in his footsteps. She entered multiple electrical engineering competitions in her teen years and did so well that institutions all over the world took notice. One of those was Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 2007, 22 year old Arpana got a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering there. Not long after she graduated, she took a job at a major tech company called emc, headquartered in the Seattle suburb of Redmond. It's always scary to move to a new place, but Arpana was up to the challenge. She was charming, outgoing and eager to try new things things. So she made friends quickly. She volunteered at an animal shelter and the local fire department, took taekwondo classes, and joined a motorcycle club even though she barely knew how to ride. By October of 2008, Arpana had created a beautiful new life for herself with a versatile group of new friends. And she figured there was no better way to celebrate than with an epic Halloween party. Arpana and her neighbors spent weeks planning. They put up flyers all over the small three story apartment complex and invited everybody who lived there as well as all of their friends to come. Party. Arpana's friend Rachel showed up just before dusk as the first guests were beginning to arrive. As the party got underway, Rachel and the other guests shuttled between apartments drinking and mingling. Around midnight, Arpana and several others went up to her third floor apartment to hang out and eat pizza. Rachel was there as well as Arpana's next door neighbor Cameron. At this point, everybody was pretty drunk and things started to get out of hand. Two of the other guests got into a fight and someone in the downstairs apartment started acting up and was asked to leave. By then, Rachel was ready to call it a night. Arpana offered to walk her to her car and got emotional. As they headed to the parking lot, they were talking about her childhood in India and how happy she was to be in the US after she said goodbye to Rachel, Arpana reportedly returned to a first floor apartment to hang out with some of the remaining guests. At 3am Arpana decided to call it a night and returned to her apartment on the third floor. And that's when the mystery began. Arpana usually called her family back in Hyderabad every day, but but her parents didn't hear from her for days after the party, not even on her birthday three days later on November 3rd. At that point, her family started to panic. That day, her father reached out to a family friend named Jay who lived in the area and asked him to go check on Arpana. She lived alone, so her family wasn't sure how else to get in touch with her. When Jay got to the apartment complex, he ran into Cameron, Arpana's next door neighbor who'd been hanging out with her the night of the party. She Cameron also hadn't seen her since Halloween, so he and Jay went to her apartment together. When they knocked on the door, nobody answered. Eventually they tried the handle and that's when they realized there were loose screws everywhere. It seemed like someone had broken the door, then propped it back up so that it looked closed. Jay and Cameron nervously entered the unit. Right away they spotted Arpana lying on the floor at the foot foot of her bed. She was naked, partially covered by a towel. Her mouth was sealed shut with duct tape. The lower half of her body was coated in a thick black substance which smelled like motor oil. Inexplicably, the skin of her hands was stained blue. The two men could barely process these details before they noticed Arpana's injuries. Her face was bloodied and there were burns on her arm and the patch of carpet around it. Distraught, Jay and Cameron left the apartment and dialed 911. Soon the entire complex was swarming with police. As detectives examined the home, they found that Arpana's murderer had tried to set her body on fire using motor oil as an accelerant. The blue on her hands came from toilet bowl cleaner, which investigators believed the killer had used to destroy DNA evidence. Apparently, the attacker had also scrubbed under her fingernails to get rid of any physical evidence. When the medical examiner conducted an autopsy, they found that Arpana had been sexually assaulted. They also discovered ligature marks around her neck, which led the coroner to determine her cause of death had been strangulation. It was immediately clear that this was no ordinary homicide case. Arpana's killer was brutal and calculated. Everyone who'd shown up to the Halloween party was a suspect. Now it was up to detectives to figure out who'd turned the holiday into a nightmare.

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[Vanessa Richardson]

On October 31, 2008, 23 year old Arpana Janaga and her neighbors threw a Halloween party. Three days later, on November 3, her 24th birthday, Arpana was found brutally murdered on the floor of her apartment. Investigators determined her time of death was sometime between 3:30am and 8am on the morning of November 1, which would have been right after the Halloween party. This timeline matched up with what police learned from one of her next door neighbors, a man named Kyle Rose. Kyle hadn't attended the party, so he was in bed by the time the festivities ended around 3am his apartment shared a wall with Arpana's and around 8am he woke up to what sounded like moaning coming from Arpana's apartment. At first he assumed Arpana was having sex with someone she'd brought home from the party, but then he heard what he described as a quote, horrible growling sound followed by a thud on the floor. He figured she must have gotten sick from drinking too much, so he went back to sleep. Later that morning, Kyle heard the water running in her apartment, which he took as a sign that she was feeling better and getting cleaned up. After hearing Kyle's statement, detectives had a very different interpretation. They believed he'd heard Arpana being murdered, followed by her killer. Destroyed destroying evidence Detectives returned to Arpana's apartment to look for clues. The bed sheets were piled up in the corner of her room and lightly charred, and her comforter was soaking in the bathtub. Presumably her killer had tried to clean the blood off the sheets. With all of those items accounted for, the authorities focused on what they couldn't find, namely her cell phone and digital camera. They made a note of the missing items, then searched the rest of the premises. Outside in the dumpsters, they found the Little Red Riding Hood costume Arpana had been wearing when she was last seen. They also found a blood stained bathrobe that belonged to her, a bottle of motor oil that had been used to coat her body, and a pair of shoelaces they believed Arpana's killer had used to strangle her. Based on these clues, detectives believed Arpana's assailant had accessed her apartment either during or after party, then stuck around after her murder to destroy the evidence. Using fire water and bleach and after talking to several partygoers, police honed in on one guest who they found to be suspicious. One of the party guests was a 23 year old man named Emmanuel Fair. Arpana's friend Rachel had talked to him for a while that night. He'd been dressed as a construction worker and she remembered him being friendly. He was there that night because he was staying with his friend Leslie, who also lived at the complex. But he didn't know anybody else at the party. Police were less interested in those details and more interested in the fact that he was the only attendee with a criminal record. Four years earlier, Farah had been charged with third degree rape and spent three years behind bars because Arpana had been sexually assaulted before her death. This put Emanuel at the top of the suspect list. In the words of lead detective Brian Coates, if you do it once, you'll do it again. Three weeks after the murder, police brought Emanuel in for questioning. He told them he'd left the Halloween party after 2:30am and gone to sleep in Leslie's apartment. Then he said he Woke up around 9 or 10 in the morning. But according to police, the evidence told a different story. Phone records showed Emmanuel was still awake after 2:30 and made several calls between 3 and 4am not only that, but they were able to match Emmanuel's DNA to samples from Arpana's body, her blood stained bathrobe and the duct tape that was on her mouth. It took some time for the DNA testing to come through, but by late October 2010, the police were ready to act. That month, they arrested Emmanuel and charged him with first degree murder. The judge set his bail at $5 million. It looked like DNA evidence had solved the case, but in reality, the situation was much more complicated. Emanuel Fair was the only black person at the Halloween party. In interviews with police, other guests almost exclusively referred to him as the black guy. And Detective Coates said he only started investigating Emanuel because as the only black man at the party, he seemed like, quote, an outsider. And while Emanuel had spent time in jail for sexual assault four years earlier, he'd entered an Alford plea in that case. That means Emmanuel accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors while still maintaining his innocence. Alford pleas are sometimes used by people who can't afford to go through a lengthy criminal trial. People like Emanuel, who came from a low income neighborhood in central Seattle. None of this means he's innocent of the earlier sexual assault charges, but it raises doubts about whether he was really the hardened criminal. Detectives seemed to think he was. And when it came to Arpana's murder, Emmanuel's lawyers were determined to prove the police were wrong about him, starting with the DNA evidence that prosecutors claimed was so incriminating. Emmanuel had always acknowledged that he was in Arpana's apartment on the night of the murder. It was a party. As many as 50 people passed through her home on the night she was killed, and all of them left DNA samples on things in the apartment. Police found multiple other unidentified male DNA profiles on Arpana's body. And the DNA samples from Arpana that police did match with Emmanuel were considered degraded samples, meaning they could have been mixed with samples from other people. Because Emanuel couldn't afford his $5 million bail, he spent nearly nine years in the county jail while he fought his murder charges in court. His first trial, in 2017 ended with a hung jury, but in 2019, jurors agreed that the evidence against him was flimsy and unconvincing. Emmanuel was finally acquitted and released from jail in 2021. Emanuel filed a lawsuit against the Redmond police department and detective Coates, accusing them of racial profiling. As of this recording, it's still being processed. Police records made public during Emanuel's trial showed that detectives ignored numerous suspicious people in Arpa's life. Two members of her motorcycle club had also been convicted of sex crimes in the past, and one had been sexually harassing Arpana in the months before her murder. DNA matching another Valley View apartments resident was found on the shoelace that was used to strangle her. And a different resident of the complex committed suicide days after the murder. But police never compared his DNA to samples from the crime scene. But the biggest suspect they overlooked was one of the people closest to Arpana, her next door neighbor, Cameron, who also happened to be one of the people who discovered her body. Cameron and Arpana had been close, at least for a while. He told police they'd hung out regularly after she first moved to Redmond, but had drifted apart as she grew busier with work and volunteering. In interviews with investigators, Cameron Cameron admitted he was attracted to Arpana and had been hoping to hook up with her on the night of the party. Other guests who were hanging out with them in Arpana's apartment that night reported the two of them flirting. But Cameron told police he struck out. He went back to his apartment around midnight, fell asleep on the couch, and Woke up at 10am but the evidence contradicted these statements. Another resident told investigators that he saw a white man matching Cameron's description standing at Arpana's doorway at around 3am and phone records showed that Cameron called Arpana twice that night, once at 2:56am and again at 3:02. When police asked Cameron about these calls, he responded by saying oh crap. And then claimed not to remember what the calls had been about. Detectives also took a look at Cameron's Internet activity. They found that the morning after the murder, Cameron had printed out the driving directions to several local pawn shops. And later that same day, Cameron spontaneously drove to the northern border where he tried to cross into Canada. Border guards stopped his car, searched him and turned him away because he didn't have a passport. When police later asked him why he'd done this, Cameron claimed that he just wanted to explore beyond all this suspicious behavior. Police also found Cameron's DNA on the bottle of motor oil used to douse Arpana's body, as well as on her bloody robe. Apparently none of that was enough for police to charge Cameron with Arpana's murder or even consider him as a serious suspect. To this day, no one has been convicted of the murder of Arpana Janaga. Justice for this ambitious, talented and outgoing young woman has been delayed and possibly denied because of an investigation that may have been tainted by racial prejudice. And unless there's another break in this 17 year old case, we may never know the true identity of Arpana's killer that Halloween night. Up next, another Halloween murder that led to a controversial police investigation at Designer Shoe Warehouse.

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10-31-27 years before Arpana Janaga was murdered at her apartment building's Halloween Party. Another eerily similar murder took place on All Hollows Eve. This time, the victim wasn't a young professional at the beginning of her career, but an elderly nun who dedicated her life to serving God. On the morning of October 31, 1981, the nuns at the St. Francis Convent in Amarillo, Texas, headed to the chapel for morning mass as usual. But that day, something was different. Sister Tydea Benz was missing. And Sister Tydea never missed morning mass. The 76 year old was nothing if not dedicated to her faith. Born in Switzerland in 1905 as Martina Benz, she came to the United States in 1932 and began serving at the St. Francis Convent in 1944. Not long after, she was given the name Sister Taddea, meaning Gift of God in Latin. Over the next 37 years, Sister Taddea shared those gifts and became an integral part of the convent. So when she didn't show up to mass that Halloween Morning In 1981, her fellow sisters noticed. Immediately after the sermon finished, one nun went to Sister Taddea's room to check on her. When she stepped inside, the nun's heart shattered. Sister Taddeo was dead, lying naked on the floor beside her bed. Her face was bloodied and she had a black eye. The nun alerted the rest of the convent. They assumed Sister Taddeah's death had been a tragic accident. Her room was near a staircase, and the nuns reasoned she'd had a heart attack and fallen down the stairs, then crawled back into her room and died. Still in shock. Four of the nuns wrapped Sister Taddea in a sheet and carried her out of the room, cleaned up the blood and arranged for a funeral home to prepare her body for burial. While their intentions were good, these actions were a grave mistake. Later in the day, another nun noticed a broken window in the convent's community room. She suspected someone had tried to burglarize the property and called the police. When police arrived to investigate the break in, they heard about Sister Taddea's death. Unlike the sisters, the authorities immediately put the pieces together. Tada's body had already been taken to a funeral home, and investigators scrambled to stop the embalming process so they could perform an autopsy. It confirmed what detectives already suspected. Sister Taddeah had been murdered. Her cause of death was listed as strangulation, but she'd also been beaten, stabbed and sexually assaulted. Armed with this, this disturbing information, police returned to the convent and began investigating Sister Tadea's room as a crime scene. Although it had already been cleaned, detectives were still Able to find some evidence underneath Tadeya's bed, they found a partially bent butter knife, as well as a bloody T shirt and an athletic sock that didn't match the clothes issued at the convent. When they searched the convent grounds, police discovered footprints and a discarded kitchen knife, both of which they thought belonged to the murderer. Later, they found unknown fingerprints on today's mattress and headboard. These same prints showed up on the butter knife when it was tested. When they examined the mattress, crime scene experts also collected a number of thick, curly black hairs that didn't belong to the victim. Once detectives gathered all this evidence, they jumped into action. Because it turned out Sister Taddeo wasn't the first elderly woman who was attacked in Amarillo over the last few months. And if the authorities could find her killer, maybe they could solve those other murders, too. In the year leading up to Sister Taddeah's murder, as many as 10 women in the Amarillo area were attacked and sexually assaulted in their homes. Just four months earlier, a woman living near the convent was killed in a similar way. In July, an unknown intruder broke into the home of 77 year old Narni Box Bryson, sexually assaulted her, then strangled her with a telephone cord. Police found curly black hairs at the scene of Narni's murder as well, leading them to believe the same person had murdered Sister Tadeya. Based on this evidence and statements from the surviving women, police thought the suspect in all these cases was a Hispanic man. Some of the other nuns told police they'd seen a dark skinned man lingering near the convent the night Sister Tadeya died. And the same day her body was discovered, police arrested a man named Fernando Flores for attempting to sexually assault a woman just a few miles away from the convent. Away. Week later, a nun picked Flores out of a lineup as the man she'd seen hanging around the property. Investigators were certain they had their man. The district attorney even bragged to the local newspaper that the case was solved. But a few days later, he had to walk back his statement. It turned out Flores's hair didn't match samples from the crime scene. This was a major embarrassment for the Amarillo police. But they weren't giving up just yet because they had a secret weapon, and her name was Bubbles. Inez Patterson, better known by her nickname, Bubbles, was a local psychic. She'd supposedly already helped police with a previous murder investigation, though we don't know the details. And after the DA was forced to announce that Tadeya's case had not been solved, the Bubbles contacted a local Paper, she told a reporter that she'd had a vision of the real killer. According to Bubbles, the killer was a teenage boy who lived close to the convent. He was tall and slender with dark hair and what she called an Abe Lincoln face, with large ears and a prominent nose. But on the night of the murder, he wore a disguise which included a curly black aperture afro style wig. And that wasn't all Bubbles saw. According to her, the suspect lived in a white house with dirty hardwood floors. Before contacting the paper, Bubbles even drove around the neighborhood near the convent until she spotted a white house that matched the one she'd seen in her dream. In high profile cases, the authorities received lots of outlandish tips like these. But because Bubbles had helped them before, it seems like the Amarillo police department took her psychic vision very seriously. A few days after she called the paper, sometime in early November, detectives visited the white frame house Bubbles had identified. There they found 17 year old Johnny Frank Garrett. He was white and slender, 5ft 11 inches tall, with straight brown hair and a prominent nose and big ears like Abe Lincoln. He also matched the description of a boy who'd apparently been prowling the neighborhood on the night of the murder. That was enough for detectives to bring him in for questioning. During his initial interview, Johnny claimed he didn't know anything about Sister Tadeya's murder. According to him, he was at home on the night of her death. But detectives weren't convinced. Before Johnny left the station, they took his fingerprints. It turned out they matched some of the prints on the headboard and the butter knife found in Sister Taddeah's room. Not only that, but the kitchen knife they'd discovered on the convent grounds looked just like several other knives at his family home. On November 9, 1981, Johnny was arrested. While in custody, police claim he did something that completely altered the course of the investigation. He gave an oral confession. He claimed that he broke into the convent that night to steal. When Sister Tadeya caught him in the act, he said he seized the opportunity to assault and kill her. Just days after their near miss, the Amarillo police claimed they had Sister Taddea's murderer in custody. But in the years that followed, it became clear it was possible they still had the wrong man.

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Learn [e-mail] On November 9, 1981, 17 year old Johnny Frank Garrett was arrested for the murder of 76 year old sister Tadaya Benz in custody. Police claimed that Johnny gave a full oral confession. But what seemed like an open and shut case was about to become a lot more complicated. Two days later, on November 11th, Johnny was arraigned. Standing before a judge, he recanted his confession. He said he'd asked for an attorney during his interview, but police refused, which is illegal. Then he said detectives coerced him into making an oral confession, which the police wrote down and and Johnny had refused to sign it. According to Johnny, his fingerprints were found in Sister Taddeah's room because he'd broken into the convent on multiple occasions looking for things to steal. One of Johnny's friends later confirmed his account. As for the knife found on the convent grounds, Johnny said it was a coincidence that it happened to match the ones in his family's home. And Johnny's mother and 14 year old sister backed him up. They testified that he was home with them on the night of the crime. Despite all this, he was still charged with Sister Tadeya's murder. The Amarillo PD needed a fall guy and Johnny Frank Garrett's own family had turned him into an easy target. Johnny had a very difficult childhood. Born in 1963, he was sexually abused by his stepfather and his stepfather's friends. Starting at just three years old. This abuse included regular, frequent beatings. Johnny's stepfather subjected him to so much horror that a court appointed psychiatrist later described Johnny's childhood as, quote, relentless and intolerable torture. So it's not surprising that as a young boy he was looking for relief wherever he could find it. At 10 years old, Johnny started binge drinking, taking methamphetamines and huffing paint thinner. At least some of which was provided to him by family members. The combination of those substances at such an early age limited Johnny's mental and emotional development. His own Sister Janet said he had a low IQ and was a perpetual follower who behaved like a child even as a teenager. While he was in jail. Ahead of his trial, Johnny was diagnosed with a form of multiple personality disorder, which experts believe he developed as a result of his traumatic childhood. More than anything, Johnny needed an advocate if he was going to get out of this mess. Unfortunately, the only thing his family could afford was a local lawyer named Bill Coleus. During the eight months between Johnny's arrest and his trial, he was vilified in the press. The chief of police in Amarillo openly boasted to reporters that, quote, we feel there's no doubt we got our man. By the time his murder trial began In August of 1982, the people of Amarillo were already convinced that Johnny was a psychopathic murderer. Still, there was a lot of evidence to support Johnny's version of events. While his fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime, police found many other unidentified prints in Sister Diddea's room. And he wasn't a match for the curly black hairs. Detectives discovered the bloodied T shirt and sock found at the scene didn't belong to him. And the shoe prints that police found on convent grounds didn't match any of the shoes at Johnny's house. For some reason, Johnny's lawyer, Bill Kalias, failed to bring up most of this evidence in court. He also didn't tell the jury about the other plausible suspects in the case, including two men named Leoncio Perez Rueda and Fernando Flores. And despite Johnny's well documented mental health issues, Bill didn't push for an insanity plea either. Instead, Bill put Johnny on the witness stand to testify in his own defense. Johnny did his best to explain how his prince ended up in the convent. He said he had broken in earlier that day, but just to steal a few items, not to kill anyone. However, this opened him up to brutal cross examination from prosecutors, which Johnny had a hard time responding to. And the prosecution had another ace up its sleeve. They introduced a sworn statement from one of Johnny's cellmates at the county jail. He claimed that Johnny had bragged to the other inmates about killing Sister Tadea and described the crime in detail to all of them. What the prosecution didn't mention was that Johnny's cellmate was given a reduced sentence in exchange for this testimony. Johnny's lawyer didn't bring it up either. After a month long trial, the jury was sent to deliberate. In September 1982, it took them less than an hour to find 18 year old Johnny Frank Garrett guilty of Sister Tadeya's murder. When the verdict was read in court, Johnny shouted out, I didn't kill her, man. When the judge announced that he would be seeking the death penalty, Johnny's mother yelled, please don't kill him. Johnny spent the next 10 years on death row. Throughout his time in prison, he maintained his innocence. As the date of his execution approached, his family and other advocates begged the state to spare his life. Sixteen Catholic bishops, the other nuns from Sister Taddea's convent, Sister Taddea's family, and even Pope John Paul II all issued statements asking Texas Governor Ann Richards to grant Johnny clemency. In response, Governor Richards delayed his execution by 30 days so that the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole could review Johnny's case. Despite the flimsy case against him and the the pleas from the most powerful figures in the Catholic Church, the board voted 17 to 1 to let Johnny's execution go forward. The 28 year old was put to death on February 11, 1992. His last words were, I'd like to thank my family for loving me and taking care of me. The rest of the world can kiss me my ass. In the years since Johnny's execution, advancements in forensic technology have cast even more doubt on his guilt. In 2005, Leonio Perez Rueda was convicted of the 1981 murder of Narni Box Bryson. Thanks to DNA testing while in prison, Leonio confessed to multiple other attacks on elderly victims, including the murder of a nun in Amarillo on Halloween night. Because Leoncio's statement sounded like an admission of guilt in Sister Tadea's murder, Johnny's family has lobbied state officials to overturn his conviction posthumously. But so far, the state of Texas has refused to clear Johnny's name. In their eyes, Johnny Frank Garrett remains a murderer. Looking back on this week in Crime history, we can see that these murders aren't the only frightening thing about Halloween. A broken criminal justice system is just as horrifying. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is True Crime this Week part of Crime House Daily. Crime House Daily is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House Daily. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And for ad free and early access to Crime House Daily plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back tomorrow. True Crime this week is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and is a Crime House Original Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the True Crime this week Team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Laurie Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Beth Johnson and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.

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