Episode 244
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ready for everything. Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Yeah, I'm up there right now. She's calling out to me. Okay, where's your stepdaughter at? Oh my goodness, there's blood coming through the door.

Hello and welcome! This is Season 10, Episode 244 of Sword and Scale. A show that reveals that the worst monsters are real.

Well, I guess some of you told me to talk less during this part. Like, you want me to not talk so much. So maybe I should just, you know, talk less right now. Like, maybe, like, say less things. Maybe, like, not communicate many things at all. Like, not say things that I feel or think. Because I'm just a podcaster and what do I know? Why do I even talk? Why should I even... What am I even... Why? What? What? What?

Bye.

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August 28th, 2013. Aurora, Colorado. On the south side of the town, in a Korean grocery store called H Mart, a teenage girl wandered into the bathroom. The girl was Asian, pretty, and thin, with a heart-shaped face and long wavy hair. She was dressed in shorts and a sports bra. She was barefoot, dirty, and covered in cuts.

Her hair was matted with twigs and blood. As the girl leaned over and began washing herself in the bathroom sink, a female employee walked in to clean the toilets and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of this bloody, scantily dressed teenager. The woman helped the girl wash her hands and hair and asked her what happened. The girl said,

that someone tried to rape and stab her in downtown Denver. She had escaped and fled here. The woman helped the teenager clean her wounds, then she got some extra clothes from the donation bin and gave them to her. The woman offered to call police, but the girl protested. The girl thanked the woman for her help and fled the store. Later that day, the teenage girl was stopped by police officers in a parking garage.

She appeared in distress. The girl was disheveled and acting distant. Something clearly traumatic had happened to her. She told the officers that her name was Samantha Gonzalez and that she was from Cincinnati. Her mother came after her with a pair of scissors, so she got a bus ticket and ran away. Samantha said that she was waiting to meet her boyfriend. She said she was 15 years old. Samantha

was far, far from home. Earlier that morning, an exhausted middle-aged man named Ryan Hoy was sitting in an interrogation room at the Aurora County Police Department. His wife, Yoon Mi Hoy, was dead. Ryan had arrived at the police station covered in dried blood. Now,

He wore hospital pants and a t-shirt that one of the detectives gave him. He spoke softly. Your wife comes home about 9:30. She has McDonald's for you. Right. And then what's the next thing that happens? And then she tells me, "I want to take a shower." Okay. Did you eat? I was eating while she was upstairs. Okay. Getting ready to take a shower. So you're in the, what part of the house then? I'm in the living room. Living room? And I'm just on the couch watching TV. Okay.

Ryan was sitting downstairs eating the McDonald's Yoon-Mi had bought for him. Yoon-Mi ran a photography studio called Bella's Photos and worked long hours. She had come home telling Ryan they should go for an evening walk in the sweet Colorado summer, but first she wanted to take a shower.

And then what's the next thing that happens? I hear some knocking around coming from upstairs. So I go upstairs and I'm like, what's going on up here? Because I hear all this knocking. Ryan could hear commotion upstairs in the bathroom. There was only one other person that shared the three-level house with Yoon-mi and Ryan. And that was Yoon-mi's 18-year-old daughter, Isabella Kim.

Isabella was a pretty, petite, yet rebellious girl. And Isabella was in the bathroom. Like I said, she was pushing against the door as I was trying to open it. So the bathroom door is closed? It's closed. Okay. And... The shower running or not? The shower was running. Yeah, the shower was running. Okay. So when you go up there, you hear knocking? Describe it. Aaron.

Yun-Mi was in the shower. Her daughter Isabella had wedged her way into the bathroom

And now all that Ryan could hear was the sound of a fist pounding on the walls. I tried to open the door. Is the door locked or no? No, at first it wasn't locked. I tried to open it and Isabella was pushing hard against it. Could you see Isabella at that point? I saw the back of her. How far open were you able to get the door? Not that far.

Ryan held up his hands about a foot apart for detectives. At that point, what could you see inside? Nothing. All I saw was Isabella's frame. Okay. And she had her back to the door? Yeah, she had her back to the door. And then the next thing I know, when I don't get the door open, the door closes and locks. The bathroom door clicked close. The pounding had stopped for the moment. Maybe Isabella and you and me were just talking.

Maybe this was a mother-daughter thing that he should just butt out of. But even though Ryan didn't want to believe it, he could tell that something was wrong. Then he heard pounding again. This time it was louder and more methodical. Ryan ran downstairs to get his phone and call 911.

Okay. Where's your emergency? Can I help you? Yes. My stepdaughter, 18 year old stepdaughter is beating my wife up. Okay. And it's a house? It's a house. And you said your daughter, your stepdaughter is 18?

She's 18. Okay. And it's physical? It's physical, yes. Has anybody been drinking or doing drugs? Not that I'm aware of. Any weapons involved? They're in the bathroom, so I can't tell. Okay. Does anybody need the paramedics? No.

Your wife said, Ryan, a couple times. Did you hear any more conversation or any more speaking coming from inside that room? I heard her say Jehovah.

You and me was a devoted Jehovah's Witness. She had been for decades. The pounding noises grew and grew. You and me called out to her savior while Ryan remained on the line waiting for another type of savior to arrive. So you get on the phone. I get on the phone. Come back upstairs. Come back upstairs. And then what?

And then I'm trying to tell the dispatcher what's going on. I'm saying, I think she's beating up my wife. Isabella was in a rage like I've never seen before. What do you mean? Well, I could just hear her just pummeling my wife. I thought she was just hitting her with her fists. So that thumping sound you were hearing? Thumping sound I thought was Yumi maybe hitting against the wall and Isabella just pounding her.

Ryan stood still in the hallway as blood seeped under the bathroom door. All the commotion had stopped. Time was frozen, and all he could hear was

was the white noise of the shower running. And then I didn't hear my wife say another word. It was totally quiet inside there. Just tell me if you're able to get the door open, okay? Okay. And you did say your front door was open, correct? You mean me? You mean me? No, I'm not able to get anything open. Are you able to call out to your stepdaughter to see if she'll answer you? Isabella? Isabella? Isabella? What's going on? Isabella?

Ask her who's bleeding. He's bleeding out the door. There's blood out the door. Isabella? What did she say? Nothing. She said nothing. Okay. I heard her say something when you called her name. Did she moan or what did she say? Isabella said, hold on.

Then, suddenly, Isabella swung open the door. The 18-year-old girl was glistening with a mix of condensation and her mother's blood.

Isabella flew down the stairs and out the sliding back door.

while Ryan lunged toward his wife on the bathroom floor. And I immediately saw my wife on the floor. Okay. All bloody everywhere. Okay. And I went for my wife to see if there was some way of bringing her back to life, resuscitating her. To me, she looked like she was dead. Check to see if your wife is breathing. Oh, my God, there's so much blood. Is she breathing? Can you hear me?

Where was your wife lying in the bathroom? Her head was toward the bathtub. Okay. And she was kind of all sprawled out. Was she lying on her back? She was lying on her back. On her back.

She wasn't wearing any clothing. Why didn't you do that? She had a chain. She had a chain on, and there was blood around her neck. Are you still on the phone with the dispatcher at that point? Yeah, I'm on the phone with the dispatcher. Okay. And the dispatcher's... She's telling me what to do, lift her head up. Okay. So I put my hand behind my wife's head, and I lift her head up to see if that would get her to breathe. Okay. And then I pushed. I did push on her chest. Okay. Like that, about...

I don't know. Three or four times. Okay. But I could tell it was no use. Okay, we're going to start compressions, okay? I don't think I can. I need you to try, okay? I need you to start trying compressions, okay? Okay.

You and me said nothing because she was gone. Isabella beat her with a baseball bat and then stabbed her mother 35 times in the face.

151 times in her neck. In total, Isabella had pummeled a knife into her mother's body all over her body. 151 times. But Ryan didn't know this as he clutched his naked, bloody wife. All he knew was that he had lost her.

and Isabella was nowhere to be found. Breaking news in Aurora this morning, police are now looking for this woman. They're calling her a suspect in a deadly stabbing overnight. Isabella Guzman, 18 years old. This is the woman police are looking for. They were searching for her everywhere last night. They even used the help of a Denver police chopper last night. Now,

Again, she is still on the loose. Police looking for her as we speak. She is named a suspect right now in this case. And of course, the investigation is still ongoing, still very active here. And of course, we're going to cover this from start to finish throughout the morning and I'll be here for it. Isabella Guzman had murdered her mother and then fled out the back door on foot. The city of Aurora was now on a manhunt for an 18-year-old killer. Do you remember what she was wearing?

She was wearing kind of like a top piece, maybe kind of pink top piece and then short. Kind of like a shirt, but more like a bra. Kind of a sports bra type athletic gear. What color? It's kind of pink. All right. And she had short shorts on and they might have been kind of turquoise. In her booty shorts and pink sports bra,

Isabella was the town's most wanted suspect. Pictures of the attractive girl were spread all over the news and her friends were all in shock. They had noticed her acting a bit strange, but this was unbelievable. But Ryan Hoy was not surprised. He said something had been brewing in his stepdaughter and the night before the murder, Yoon-mi was given a warning sign by Isabella.

However, last night my wife did want me to sleep with her in her room of the house. We sleep in separate rooms. It just is the way it is. So I was sleeping in her room, which is the upstairs bedroom that faces the street. Okay. And that's where I slept last night. Okay. She was afraid she'd come down to the basement. I don't want to go too fast. But she came down to the basement last night.

But this was just the tip of the iceberg. Yoon-mi had been very afraid of her only daughter for years. Yoon-mi's fears were not unwarranted, and on the morning of her murder,

Isabella had sent her mother a final warning. Today, this morning, she showed me an email that Isabella had written that was written to her or written to a Cecilia. So strange email, but it came to my wife. It came to my wife. I can't remember what the email said. It's on her phone. Okay. But it was very disturbing from Isabella. Something very just weird.

In the days leading up to the murder, Isabella had started calling her mother Cecilia, a name no one in the family recognized. The email that Isabella had written was addressed to Cecilia and simply read, You will pay.

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My watch says we've gone three miles. This app is like having a personal trainer. Yeah, but those apps collect a lot of your personal data. Aren't you worried? Really? That's creepy. How do I stop that? You should go to privacy.ca.gov to learn about your privacy rights and get on the best path to protect your privacy. You think they could help us get up this next hill? One step at a time. Californians have the strongest privacy protections in the country. Go the extra mile to protect your information. Learn more at privacy.ca.gov.

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Call 1-800-GRANGER, click granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. 18-year-old Isabella Guzman murdered her mother, Yunmi Hoy. She had beaten and stabbed Yunmi over 151 times while she was naked in the shower. Then, Isabella fled the family home. The city of Aurora was now looking for a dangerous killer.

Even though Isabella had threatened her mother before the murder, no one thought that this teenage girl was capable of such a brutal matricide. Isabella Guzman was Yoon Mi-Hoy's only child. Born on June 9, 1995, Isabella was the light of her mother's life. But her childhood had not been so easy.

Isabella's father, Robert Guzman, and Yoon-Mi had divorced when Isabella was a small child. Yeah, they got divorced like 14 years ago. Okay, how old was Isabella? She was about three years old. Three years old. Okay, were you and Yoon-Mi involved at that point with each other? After they divorced.

Yumi and I were involved with each other. So was Isabella living with you guys initially? She was living with us initially. Okay, then it got to be difficult. Then it got to be difficult because when she was about five years old, Yumi asked Bobby, Robert, to take over Isabella because she was just not a very obedient child and thought that Robert, her natural father, would be a better father.

would be better for her as a disciplinarian. How old was Isabel at the time? She was about five and she had difficulties in that family. She didn't get along with her stepmom at all. Okay, so at one point when this all happens and Isabel is now living with her mother, she's living with her father and his wife? Right. Okay, how long a period was that from the time she was five till... She moved back into our house. Well,

Isabella hated her stepmother.

She created havoc in her father's house until she finally couldn't take it anymore. She was not happy then either? No, she was very unhappy. Okay. Very upset with her stepmom. She had gotten into physical confrontations with her stepmom. Ryan and Yoon-mi thought that Isabella might be happier back at their house, but 14-year-old Isabella just continued to act out.

Mostly toward you and me. They've had a bad relationship. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Yeah, they've had a bad relationship for years. She resents her mom very much. Isabella had been tossed around like an unwanted dog. You know what they say. Treat your kid like she's trouble and she'll start acting that way. Isabella was no different. And then we noticed a pattern developing with Isabella. She got in trouble for shoplifting.

from King Soopers. And then she got in trouble for shoplifting from the Aurora Mall. Then she did a couple of trespassing, some underage drinking at school. She brought a knife to school one day. She had brought it to school and she was expelled from school for bringing a weapon. How long ago was this? That was maybe three years ago. Isabella was rebellious and angry.

Though she acted out toward her peers at school and walked around with a chip on her shoulder, most of her anger was directed at her mother. This animosity that Isabella had towards your wife when she was asked to leave or had to live with her father, when she moved back in at 14, how was the relationship between the two of them after that? Very rocky.

Okay. At best. Have they ever gotten in any physical confrontations, fights that you know of? Not physical, but verbal. Verbal? Yumi would go, "You're an effing B, you know, an effing B." Okay. "Go away." Okay. "Leave me alone." She would say these things all day. And here recently— That was you and me was telling Isabella that or Isabella? No, that was Isabella telling Yumi that. Okay. And Yumi would be like, "No, you go away."

You know, you would strike back at her and say, you know, don't treat your mother like that. You don't say those things to your mother. Okay. Did you ever get involved in this intervention or intervening at all? There was occasions when I did, but I realized the best course of action was to not get involved because Isabella and I really had no problems with each other because I just kind of stayed out of it. Okay. I just let her and her mom...

In case you couldn't tell from the clip, Ryan wasn't exactly a domineering stepfather. He let Isabella walk all over him. I was down in the basement with my fan on, and she came down to grab my fan.

And she took it out of the wall and I said, "Isabella, please, you can't do that." And so she punched me a couple of times in the face. She said something in Spanish and then punched me. She is very hot tempered. - Hot tempered, okay. - Very hot tempered person. And she runs her mouth like crazy. F you, F this, F that. She seems very depressed.

I would have to say. She seems horribly depressed about her life and blames her mom for her misery. Ryan and you and me were sick of Isabella's moods and abusive behavior. So they sent her to a doctor for some help. She went to a psychiatrist for maybe a month. And the psychiatrist said, no, she's fine. She's just a typical girl.

In many ways, Isabella was a typical girl, even if she was angry and rebellious. But the way she ran the house was a whole different story. When police arrived at Yoon-mi's house that night, they discovered a grisly scene. The bathroom where she'd been killed was a mess. Every square inch was covered in blood.

You and me's blood had seeped onto the floor in the hallway and made a trail down the stairs out the backsliding door where Isabella had allegedly left a palm print when she fled. The three-level suburban home was adorned with sentimental art, fake flowers, and dated wallpaper. There were baby gates everywhere because Isabella had four dogs.

Ryan slept downstairs. You and me had a small room on the top floor, and Isabella had the master bedroom, of course. Why on earth would a teenager get the master bedroom, you might ask? Her room is the master bedroom. Okay, so you go upstairs? You go upstairs, and you make a left. Okay. And she's got the whole master bedroom where she's got her bed and all her stuff.

And a lot of the dogs that we have there, Isabella brought in to the house. Isabella and her dogs dominated the home. Isabella's bedroom had a pink canopy and princess bed, piles of clothes and purses, a poster of Kurt Cobain on the wall. It was a messy teenage girl's room with

But in the bathroom, the police found bags and bags of weed trimmings, garden shears, and various scissors. Nuggets of pot were scattered all over the place, along with candles and incense to mask the smell. She likes to burn incense, and that's one of the things that makes my wife, made her very crazy, is the smell of that incense in the house.

And Isabella will burn it from her room and it fills the whole house up. And my wife has been getting on her case constantly about that. Ryan said he knew Isabella drank alcohol when she could, but he wasn't sure about other substances. What about drugs? Drugs? Can't prove it. Can't prove she did drugs. Okay. Do you suspect or did you suspect? Suspect. Maybe marijuana. Okay. Do you...

Is the picture starting to paint itself for you? Isabella, the teenage girl in the story, ran the whole show. Ryan and you and me were afraid of her, and they stayed out of her life, and clearly out of her bathroom also.

The amount of pot in there was quite astonishing. Even with Nag Champa burning 24/7, you would notice that dank smell of marijuana. It seems like Ryan and Yun-Mi turned a blind eye to a lot of strange things that went on in their house, mostly out of fear. Yun-Mi and Isabella's relationship had deteriorated to nothing but yelling and arguments.

Still, Isabella would occasionally work at the photography studio Yoon-mi owned and operated, called Bella's Photos, named after...

Her daughter, of course. And then she would go to work, you said, sometimes helping your wife and mom? She would sometimes help out on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Tuesday and Wednesday, excuse me. What did she do there at the portrait studio? She took some pictures. She would do some family pictures or passport pictures. Ryan and Yoon-mi didn't know much about Isabella's social life, but they did know her longtime boyfriend, Ilya.

Ilya and Isabella were glued to each other. If she had an argument or something, she would just close her door and just stay in her room. Or she would have the argument from her room. When she wasn't in her room, she was with Ilya. When she wasn't with him, she was in her room all her time with Ilya when they were together. They would spend all day sometimes in the house and in her room. And she would spend all her time with him.

But Isabella had dumped Ilya out of nowhere a few days before the murder. Ilya's last name was Abranov, Ilya Abranov.

Weird. So they were together for a couple of years? Right. Do you know what caused them to break up? No, I have no idea. How did you find out that they had broken up? My wife told me that she had a conversation with Isabella in the car. Okay. And Isabella told her that she's through with Ilya, she's done with him.

And she doesn't want him around. And then Isabella also said to me, she said, don't let him in the house if he comes to the house. Keep him from the house. Okay. He still kept coming to the house, even though she said the relationship was over. He, in fact, when I was watching TV tonight, he came in the house just real quick to go upstairs and grab something that he said he had left behind.

Police needed to talk to Ilya, but they were already suspicious of him and had been trying to track him down. But on the night of Yunmi's murder, Ilya had randomly showed up at the house when the police had arrived. The timing was quite weird. Detectives finally got Ilya down to the station for questioning.

He was extremely soft-spoken and reserved. Even getting Ilya's address and family history was like pulling teeth. But detectives pressed on and got down to business, asking about Isabella. What happened that caused you two to break up? She died. She didn't know who. Okay. And was there some type of discussion about that? Give me the details. What happened? She said she didn't know who the chap did it.

Ilya said that Isabella had dumped him out of nowhere. She accused him of cheating on her with a girl named Kathy. Ilya said Isabella kept texting him more accusations and threats.

When he tried to bring her back some of her things at the house, she attacked him. When detectives talked to Kathy, she said that she had never hooked up with Ilya.

However, she had been friends with Isabella on and off for a while. I didn't see her for a while because I met her at Overland in my sophomore year. And then after Overland, she was a dropout already. So by that time, she would be coming back and forth to Overland, so I'd see her. Then I wouldn't see her. Then after that, I didn't see her for a long period. And then my junior year...

Yeah, my junior, I think, is when I started seeing her again. She started going out with her boyfriend. Was she at school or did she ever come back to school after she left? No, I think she enrolled in some online school. Even though Isabella dropped out of school, Kathy still saw her occasionally because Ilya and Kathy's boyfriend were good friends. So the couples would, you know, hang out, smoke weed, and just chill. So you said there was a period of time when you...

When you kind of hung out with her and then there was a period of time where you didn't hang out with her. Then recently you said you started kind of seeing her again. Yeah, kind of. How far back would that be? That you kind of started seeing her more frequently? Well, I think she came by in August, but early, early August. Came by. Yeah. They just said hi and they...

staff for a while they came by your guys place yeah okay so did louise know her as well yeah but it's the same thing as me once in a while okay only time we would really see her is when she was with her boyfriend okay and who's her boyfriend um we call him tony tony do you know his real name i just know it's weird kathy is talking about ilia apparently he went by tony with his buddies

Kathy said that Isabella had started acting strange recently. This year, they were more quiet than the last two years. Yeah. Yeah, like after like May, she started getting quiet. I don't know. She was, she changed a lot when she got with Eli. Kathy said that Isabella had become more withdrawn, but

spiritual with Ilya. The couple existed in their own little world. Kathy hadn't really spoken with Isabella at all. Then right before the murder, Isabella started texting Kathy. I was taking a shower and I think that was Monday of that week. I think a few days before it happened. And she texted me, you fucking nasty slut. I know what you did.

Okay. And I texted her back like three times. And I told her, what the fuck? I just put a little weird face and I was like, huh? She never texted back. And then the night it happened, she texted me at 7 and 16. 7 and 16. Saying the astral being has awakened. Kathy was confused. What the hell is going on? Something weird was happening with Isabella and it seemed like Ilya...

was the one who had to deal with it. So since this incident took place on Wednesday, have you talked to Tony at all? Has he come by at all? Nothing, no. Okay. Had you ever seen Isabella act violent in any way or know her to be violent in any ways? That's why I found it weird because at first the cops told me that she just beat her mom really bad.

Even that sounded weird because I know she would have grudges against people but she would never be the type of person. Oh Fuck her. She stay quiet. Oh, no, just fuck her. Right? About it. Okay, besides that she wouldn't get home. I've never seen her crazy Never saw her violent. So you never saw her at crazy. She ever got mad at you? No, that's other than this

Detectives soon found out that Kathy wasn't Isabella's only friend who received some weird behavior before the murder. Police tracked down another guy named Darian, who was a good friend of Isabella. But before he got to the weird behavior, Darian confirmed how much Isabella hated her mother.

- She never said nothing too much about her stepdad, but usually like when we used to hang out, she'll be coming from her house and she'll be like very upset, you know? And it would always be about her mom. Like I heard they always fought constantly all the time, you know? Her and her mom would get in some scraps, like they would fist fight.

Not necessarily for what it was over, but you know what I mean? Like they got into some fist fight and like she's ran off and she's ran away before. - Yeah. She would say, you know, I don't like my mom for this reason or that reason.

- It's more of just bitching, complaining about everything she does, not going to school, obviously, at the time. We were ditching, you know? So it was like, I know a big part of it was that at that time, you know? - Oh. So she wasn't going to school? - Yeah, she wasn't going to school. - Your mom was pissed about it? - Yeah. - Okay. So that's normal. - Normal stuff. - That's tough. - But yeah, like it was mostly just them fighting about her not going to school. Obviously smoking weed, probably got caught doing drugs and stuff.

Isabella wasn't just smoking weed and drinking. Apparently, she was dabbling in much harder drugs. She was doing morphine for a little while. Okay. Were you ever around her when she was doing morphine? Yeah, one time. How'd she act? A little violent because, well, there was a confrontation between one of the friends I had at the time and her, and they ended up seeing each other at the park. Okay.

She was like, you know, flipped out and like whooped her ass. Isabella was flipped out? Yeah, Isabella flipped out and whooped her ass. Okay, so it was actually a physical fight? Yeah, physical fight. It was a confrontation. Okay. Isabella, she's weird. So like, I don't know, she was always, in the beginning when I first knew her, she was cool, you know, very talkative. Like, you know, it was like very outgoing. But like the recent times that I've met up with her, you know, like the two times, like she'll come up very, very quiet.

Darien admitted he lost touch with Isabella.

But they did talk on the phone right before the murder. And she seemed fine until Darian mentioned Ilya.

Then I brought up Tony and then she flipped out about him. What did she say about Tony? What was the conversation? She was like, fuck that dude. He's probably trying to set you up or something. Don't listen to him. He's fucking crazy. And I was like, all right, whatever. And I was like, um, but... You know, I was like, he just couldn't really say nothing. And she just kept rambling, you know. And she was like, fuck him. He's fucking crazy. I've been going out with a psychopath for two years. And I was like, fuck him.

I can't believe this. And she's just like, after that, she just hung up and just clicked the phone. Yeah. Okay. When she was rambling on, I did overhear something about like Tony doing black magic and like all kinds of stuff. I don't know. You know what I mean? Okay. Black magic's up and down. You can really believe it if you really believe

Darien said he didn't talk to Isabella or Ilya again until later that evening when he drove by Isabella's house.

on his way out of the neighborhood and saw swarms of police cars later that night i drove by the house i called tony asked him like do you know what's going on like there's all kinds of people in front of isabella's house you know like what's going on he was like i don't know what's going on and then he hung up and then drove over there and then called me again as soon as he got into that area and then he was like i'm gonna call you back and that's when another officer pulled him over and then called me or called him or called me off of his phone okay

Then the detective asked Darian what he thought about Ilya, a.k.a. Tony. The detectives had to talk to Ilya again.

And he was just as standoffish with them as he was with his so-called friends. Helio, let me ask you something. Did you have any idea that Isabella was capable of doing something like this? No. No? Obviously there was problems between her and her mom, right? Went back for a while? Yeah. Her and her mom didn't get along? No. Why did she dislike her mom so much, do you know? Her mom tried to poison her. What do you mean? She tried to poison her and the dogs.

Her mom tried to poison Isabella and the dogs. Tell me about that. How'd that happen? I got her the bull terrier dog to protect her from her stepdad. He tried to choke her. And she told me that she had something to drink from the fridge. And then she was throwing up. And then she smelled bleach in the dog's water bowl. Ilya said that you, me, and Ryan tried to poison Isabella and her dogs with bleach.

He also said that he would often buy food for Isabella because her parents tried to starve her. Ilya said that you and me would come into Isabella's room, the master bedroom, and tell her that her dogs had to go and that Ryan tried to assault Isabella. You said her stepfather tried to choke her? Yes. When was that? I don't remember when it was.

Probably a couple months ago. Did she tell you this or was this something you actually saw happen? She told me. She told you, okay. Her mom hated her. How come? Do you know? I don't know, but she said one time her mom started, she asked her to buy her something. I think it was food. And she started poking herself in the back of the head with scissors. She wanted them to die together.

Her mom started poking herself in the head with scissors? Yes. And wanted her and Isabella to die together? You didn't witness this. This is just something Isabella told you. Okay. Did she have any issues with her stepdad? She told me that he had schizophrenia and he thinks the government is after him. Okay. Did she personally have any issues with him? No. Just the time he choked her. Choked her that one time? Yeah.

The stories that Ilya believed from Isabella were crazy. There's no other way to say it. Even though he had watched his girlfriend's sanity dwindle down so thin that she accused him of cheating, dumped him, then tried to kill him with a golf club, he still repeated the stories of abuse Isabella allegedly suffered without a shred of doubt. After all, he's been trained properly, right? Yeah.

believe all women and all that surely they never lie of course so everything that isabella told you about her mother was some perception of isabella's right she wasn't buying her food she wasn't taking care of her um i mean all this stuff that she tells you that her mom did you don't actually you were never a witness to it's just stuff isabella tells you but does isabella ever lie to you don't know

Isabella and her mom fought, but you and me tried our hardest to get through to her daughter. In Isabella's room, detectives had found a note that read, "To my dear daughter, Isabella, even though we have some differences, I let you know I love you and will always love you. Mom." You and me had been trying to help her daughter to the best of her ability for a long, long time.

She had sent her two doctors who waved Isabella away, the so-called experts, the science. She tried to discipline, but Isabella walked all over her. On the day of her own murder, you and me made one final attempt to get her daughter some help, and it would be that loving, desperate gesture that would ultimately seal her fate. ♪

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Get tickets.

This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. Are you planning two or more trips in the next 365 days? An all-trips annual travel insurance plan can protect all your adventures for less. Get a quote at AllianzTravelInsurance.com. 18-year-old Isabella Guzman had attacked her mother in the shower and stabbed her 151 times before fleeing the family home on foot.

The Aurora City Police were now on the hunt for Isabella, but in the meantime, they had to start interviewing all of her friends and family. The police had unraveled the story of a troubled girl who had slowly gone insane right under everyone's nose. Isabella's mother, Yoon-Mi, had always been the target of Isabella's misery. She hated her mother and blamed her for all of her suffering.

Yoonmi may not have been the most observant, communicative mother, but she did try her best. She knew that something was deeply wrong with her daughter when doctors told her that Isabella was just a typical teen. In the morning before her murder, Yoonmi was at her breaking point. Isabella had sent her a crazy email calling her Cecilia and threatening her mother stating,

You will pay. Yoon-mi was simply out of options, so she called 911 for help. - 911, where is your emergency? - Yes, my daughter need help. - Do you need police, paramedics, or an ambulance? - I think she have to go to the mid-age because she hurt herself or she hurt somebody else in the house. - Okay, so she's suicidal and she wants to hurt herself?

Yoon-mi told the dispatcher that she was afraid of Isabella and that she might hurt her or someone else in the house.

A mother's intuition, you might say. So did she, did she threaten to hurt you or you're worried she might hurt you? She threatened to hurt me last night. Okay. And I think she snapped. Her mind is gone, I think. Did she do anything to herself or you yet? No.

While Yoon-mi was on the phone inside with 911,

Isabella was outside in the backyard on their swing set. Her biological father, Robert, had come over to talk with Isabella at Yoon-mi's request. So does she have any weapons on her right now? She has a bat and none of that was going home. Isabella had used not only a kitchen knife to murder her mother, but also her Louisville Slugger baseball bat that she kept in her bedroom.

the one Yoon-mi mentioned to the dispatcher. It's absolutely freaky just exactly how psychic Yoon-mi was about her own death. And what's your name? I hate to do this, I'm sorry. What's your name? My name? Yes. My name is Yoon-mi, Y-U-N, and I am her mother. Yoon-mi Hoi, H-O-I. Okay, what's your name? And I'm afraid tonight she's going to

Okay. Okay.

- Okay. - I'm gonna let you go, but if anything changes, I want you to call me back, okay? - We're gonna send an officer out to talk to her and then the officer can request an ambulance, okay?

Police soon arrived and Yoon-mi met them at the door. She explained that Isabella had broken into her room last night, screamed at her, and spit in her face. She mentioned the email and how Isabella had started calling her Cecilia. Yoon-mi

He said through tears that she just wanted her daughter to get some mental help today. She was terrified, didn't know what else to do. Then the cops walked into the backyard. Isabella was still sitting on the swing as her father stood beside her. According to the police report, Isabella seemed shocked that officers were at her house.

When they asked if she was okay and if she had threatened to hurt anyone, she laughed and said, "I know my mother called you. She's crazy." Isabella said that she was sorry that her mother had wasted their time. When the cops asked if she was suicidal, she chuckled and said, "Do you think someone this beautiful would hurt themselves?"

The police asked Isabella's father if she could stay with him for the night, and he said no. Isabella and his wife didn't get along, so that just wasn't an option. Isabella was respectful and level-headed in front of police. You know, she lied because not everyone tells the truth all the time. In fact, everyone lies. And the cops bought it.

They checked her record and saw no history of mental issues, so they packed it up and left. What else could they do? It's not like we have any safety systems in place in this country for mental illness. I mean, we all know that, don't we? And Isabella was just acting normal, cool as a cucumber. Until that evening, you and me would be murdered.

After she killed her mother, Isabella took off without nothing but her purse, the clothes on her back, and one shoe on her foot. Just over 24 hours later,

A parking garage attendant noticed a pair of women's legs in a car in his lot and called police. I parked my car down there at the basement, which I normally do. And I noticed the car that we have here storing, waiting for the customer to pick up. And I saw some stuff around it. So I came to check what's going on.

When the cops showed up, Isabella and her stuff had vanished. They searched the area and soon spotted her kneeling down in a patch of grass.

The police commanded her to get on the ground, but she acted like she couldn't hear them until they grabbed her, cuffed her, and held her down. She asked, what did I do? Isabella had medical bandages around her wrists and two plastic bags with her. One of them said, H Mart Korean Market. She told officers, my name is Samantha. My parents abused me.

She pointed to some red marks on her legs and said, "'This is where they burn me with cigarettes.'" Isabella had dirt and twigs in her hair. Her bare legs were speckled with bug bites and nicks. She was wearing the ill-fitting Bermuda shorts that the employee at H-Mart had given her in the bathroom when she washed up after the murder.

Isabella was taken to the hospital, where she continued to insist that her name was Samantha Gonzalez. My name is Samantha, she screamed at the nurses and detectives. I didn't fucking kill that lady. Isabella did, she said. When they brought in Isabella's father to see her, she said she didn't know who he was and recoiled when he tried to hug her, saying adamantly that

He wasn't her dad. As news of the horrific crime spread, experts in the media tried to make sense of what just happened. Something happened to this young lady in the past, and it was extraordinarily traumatic and stressful, and that she never got the help she needed. And so it just kind of all spilled out like a volcano all at that moment, and that rage was focused on her mother.

Isabella was damaged from her childhood. It was no secret. Isabella's rage against her mother had been brewing and bubbling for a decade. Now it was mixed with what appeared to be an unhinged manic-depressive episode. Yun-Mi calling the cops for help was the proverbial nail-biting.

in her very real coffin. So today, after the police come out and speak with her, what was her attitude or demeanor after that contact with the officers? She seemed okay. She was friendly. Her dad gave her a big hug and told her that he loved her very much and gave her a kiss on the cheek. And she said, I think she said, I love you too.

This was in the house when they had come back in the house before he was leaving the house. Okay. And, um, but I don't think she was very happy that her mom called the police.

Did her and her mom have words, confrontation? Was there anything? In front of the police officers, Yumi said that they did. Were you out there when that happened? I was not out there when that happened. I tried to stay out of it. And Yumi said that Isabella was throwing nonsense at her, and the police were saying, look, you can get a court order and have her kicked out whether she's got a job or not. And Isabella, according to Yumi, just got all tight-lipped.

So, it was no surprise when Isabella was booked for murder without bond and her lawyers decided to claim insanity. Isabella's arraignment video went viral in a big way. When she shuffled into the courtroom, Isabella glared back and forth at the news cameras and made strange hand gestures towards her eyes. She smirked and scrunched up her nose. People went nuts over this.

A viral TikTok trend emerged with kids all over the world making imitation videos of Isabella's creepy gestures while playing the Ava Max song, Sweet But Psycho, in the background. This case became viral on TikTok because this video was born.

So today's case is the story of Isabella Guzman who is now infamous after videos of her went viral on TikTok There was just this really weird trend where people would imitate Isabella's court appearance It was just... it's just weird

While the internet was busy obsessing over the beautiful Asian teenager who stabbed her mother 151 times, the fate of Isabella would be quietly resolved in a Colorado court. After many psychological evaluations, a doctor testified that Isabella was schizophrenic and had been suffering from paranoid delusions for years.

She thought Yoon Mi was a woman named Cecilia and she needed to kill her in order to save the world. Sound familiar? Isabella was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was put in a mental hospital where she's remained to this day. In 2020, CBS was granted an exclusive Zoom interview with Isabella.

I'm not sure how they pulled this off because we tried and the hospital told us that no interviews with her would be granted due to HIPAA violations. But Isabella did speak to the news a few years ago. She insisted that she is fine now, happily medicated, and would like to be free. She told CBS the following. I was not myself when they did that.

Isabella has not been granted her freedom.

She remains at the mental hospital under state care, as she probably should. A judge recently stated that she is now allowed to leave the facility to attend group therapy sessions. She must wear a GPS tracking device when doing so.

According to CBS, in 2015, Isabella also claimed that she was sexually assaulted in a closet by an employee at the mental hospital. The incident was reported to the police, but didn't reach the district attorney until 2021 for some reason. Too much time had passed and the outcome of the incident remains a mystery to the public.

The ACLU is helping Isabella with her case against the hospital, which may or may not be bullshit. Isabella Guzman was just a kid when she brutally slaughtered her own mother. But she was severely mentally ill. She had a father who was too busy with his own life to get deep into her troubles.

and a stepfather who was scared of her and scurried away because it wasn't his problem. She also had a mother who knew something was wrong but lacked the resources to get any help. Yoonmi tried everything she knew to save her daughter. She took her to doctors, gave her a job, and she called police for help on the day she was stabbed to death.

She knew her own daughter. She knew Isabella was going to do something drastic. She also knew that Isabella was capable of ending her life. Isabella claims she wants to be free, but how? Even if she is medicated and no longer suffering paranoid delusions, she's never lived alone in her life. She lacks basic life skills that would enable her to be successful.

as a everyday contributing member of society outside of the hospital? Who is going to make sure that she takes her medication and stays on track and doesn't slip back into madness? And she'd be trusted to mother herself now that she took away her own mother's life? Look, let's face it. Isabella will always be a potential danger to society.

Because without her little cocktail of medication, she is capable of the kind of chilling murder that some of us only see in our nightmares. Hey, did you know we have an app? If you're a big sasshole person, we call them sassholes, you're going to want to get the app. Just search the Apple Store or Google Store and download it for free today. Stay safe.

so

Okay, I didn't even start the episode yet. I'm the lowly $5 payer. But that message about the audio, I know that was directed at me. Listen, all I'm saying is a sarcastic little fucktard that said with love, of course.

that we know you're not in there recording them, but if we can't hear the audio, it's just as a jumbled mess. I would much rather hear your soothing voice. I actually do like your voice. Like an old friend I really don't want to talk to, but I have no problems listening to. So I'd rather hear you tell the story than try and put my ear up and tell my family to shut the fuck up. I'm trying to hear sort of feel really crappy audio to figure out the story.

Anyway, no more directed messages towards me. Love you guys. Bye. Okay, Grumpy Grandma again. I just listened to Plus 141. The audio is amazing. It's almost as if somebody was in the room with them. I cracked myself up. Anyway, I have a really cool storyline for you guys. Just kidding. All right, the audio was a lot better this time. Bye.

See how they're scoring on us? Shots left and right. I know. They know our next play before we even make it. We got to tighten up off the court, too. Businesses track and sell our personal information. They dunk on us all the time with that data. Wait, what do you mean? You have to exercise your privacy rights. If you don't opt out of the sale and sharing of your information, businesses will always have the upper hand. The ball is in your court. Get your digital privacy game plan at privacy.ca.gov.

This episode is brought to you by Allianz Travel Insurance. When you're far from home, anything can happen. That's why more than 70 million American travelers trust Allianz Travel Insurance to protect their adventures. With benefits for medical emergencies and evacuations, trip cancellations, travel delays, and baggage mishaps, you can travel with perfect peace of mind. Learn more and get a quote at AllianzTravelInsurance.com.