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When a young woman named Patty vanishes without a trace, her best friend launches a desperate search.
The trail leads to Kat Torres, a charismatic influencer with millions of followers. Her social media presence showcases a picture-perfect life, and she promises her followers a spiritual awakening. All they have to do is follow her lead. But behind the glamorous posts and inspirational quotes, a sinister truth unravels. From Wondery, Don't Cross Kat is a chilling investigation that asks the question if an influencer promised you a dream life,
what would you sacrifice to get it? Based on the Brazilian true crime saga that captivated a nation, Don't Cross Cat is a story of ambition, control, and the lives destroyed by empty promises. What starts as an investigation into a missing person case explodes into a story of manipulation, coercion, and human trafficking, all orchestrated behind a curated social media facade. When influence turns into control, how far would you go to get everything you always wanted?
You're about to hear a clip from Don't Cross Cat. Follow Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Excuse me, how are you doing? Doing well. We're journalists from Brazil and we're writing a story about your former neighbor. The biggest news that's ever hit this neighborhood. Probably the only one that will.
I'm not the first Brazilian to set foot in Leander, Texas. And the Brazilian women who came and lived here before me made quite the impression on their neighbors. Wayne Murray lived across the street from them. They said that you might know something, you might have spoken to them. Wayne says that in Leander, people do two things. Wave to each other and then mind their business. At least Wayne did.
Then, in 2022, that's when these new neighbors moved there, right across the street. They were not terribly friendly. We had this traffic circle, right? So I'd come in, I'd wave to them, they'd never wave back. And there was something else about his new neighbors. Very pretty young woman. They looked like supermodels. Very attractive blonde and a pretty attractive brunette.
Tall, thin, gorgeous, right out of the latest Victoria's Secret fashion show. I mean, I'm super gay, and even I can see it. And it wasn't just having a house full of gorgeous Brazilian women in a nondescript American suburb that was unusual. One day, he just stopped seeing them. The house was empty. The women were gone.
Eventually, a rental company came to clear the house. They put out the girl stuff in the front yard for anyone to take, which was interesting. We got quite a bit of this stuff. We just took the bags. We looked later. I did keep the voodoo dolls. Voodoo dolls? Voodoo dolls. I got three voodoo dolls. May I ask to take a look at them? Sure. Well, come on in.
One of the women was a social media influencer famous in Brazil with more than a million followers. I was there because, well, I'm kind of an influencer myself, but that was basically an accident. I'm a journalist first, and I've made a name for myself investigating stories in Brazil where things aren't quite what they seem. And that's what brought me to Texas, because the woman who lived there, Cat Torres, is
seemed like she had a picture-perfect life online. Wayne told me the more he looked through the stuff the women left behind, the more questions he had about them. They had an altar in their yard, not a Christian altar. Because she had, I can never pronounce the name of the drug,
Ayahuasca. That's it. That Brazilian drug. They had packages of dried herbs. And it has what they're good for. Good for romance. Good for this. Good for that. Three of them were also good for exorcisms. And that was in all. One thing I found, I still have it. It's a leather collar and like a leather plate and these chains. And there's a handle on it. When I finally buckled it up,
Wayne started to wonder if he had been getting a little carried away. But soon he would see reports of what was really going on in that house, and he would realize that maybe he was right to have been suspicious. Because there was something troubling going on. Something dark. Dangerous, even.
It's a little scary, to be honest.
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Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. And if you have a tip about a story that you think we should investigate, please write to us at wondery.com slash tips.