EP. 175 : CALIFORNIA - The MURDER Of A CHILD STAR: The Tragic Tale of Judith Barsi
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IT was eight thirty A M on july twenty seven thousand and eighty eight when unis dolly walked out of her west tolls home in the summering san fernando valley, just on the outskirts of los Angeles. SHE began her day as he did every morning, watering her garden and her peaceful neighborhood, but that wednesday morning was everything but peaceful.

Unis heart that IT as an explosion rocked the queen suburban street before he knew IT smoke below ed out of the window of her next door neighbor's home in flames liked the edges of the beige term as he ran into her her home. The call nine, one, one, one thought rose IT wasn't just a passing thought. IT was an assertion.

He's done IT. He's killed them and set fire to the house just like he said he would. Tragically, uns was right for years.

The neighborhood watched in hour as josef bossy tone minute, his wife and daughter, ten year old actress, due dis bossy. And now their home was in a fire tomb. The violent morning did not come as a surprise to anyone that knew the family over the years.

They add, watched Judith transform from a bright, promising little girl scrubbin sunshine to a tormented soul would pluck her. I lashes out and shrunk at the site of her own father. So how had anyone let this happen?

How had this girl, who was already in the spotlight, staring as ducky in the for time, and and mary and all dogs go to heaven, not gotten the hope he deserved? So this is the story of Judith party, the talented little girl who brought joy to so many people's childhood. Ds, while SHE simultaneously lost her own. I'm corti bowen .

and i'm calling and you're .

listening to murder and america.

My is checking. Yes, that is what IT is. Yeah.

if you're a child of the nineties, like cordiner I, then you probably recognize the voice you just heard. The land before time was an animated movie about dinosaurs journey across the treats world in search of their families. Ducky, the big mouth dinosaur, was a fan favorite. The movie played almost constantly on TV in the nineties and early two thousands. And IT was hard not to mimic bucky's cheerful little yp up anytime SHE came on screen, but the voice actress who played ducky at a life that was anything but cheerful.

Judy eva bsi, was born in los Angeles, california on june six thousand nine hundred seventy eight. Tamra and josef bsi, her mom, had plans for her from the moment he was born. Growing up in war torn hungary, maria had often turned to the glitzy glamour of the far way hollywood for comfort, but living in hollywood as an adult wasn't enough to satisfy maria SHE wanted the life of stardom, luxury, an attention.

SHE had always dropped up, and SHE made IT her goal to have her daughter achieve just that, a family friend, Elizabeth london, told the los Angeles times. Quote, maria had in a obsession with having her child become a star that's all SHE ever really thought of. And quote.

from the moment Judith could talk, mario trained her to have what SHE described as a star quality. SHE was taught always to sit straight, to Carry herself with Grace and boys, and to speak clearly with a chair of light quality that would make her impossible forecasting agents to overlook Judith h. Uncle Joseph wilda describe marias training of Judith and his interview for the T. V movie fatal patients.

SHE is preparing this little girl when he was two years old. He told me she's going to make a start out of her. I said that you should not do that. I said, you don't know the arts. I said the arts of ten thousand to one.

but Judith was that one in ten thousand. From the time he was five years old, maria would take Judith to the iceland skating rink and vanities just outside of hollywood. As one of the only ice skating rinks in los Angeles county, IT was frequented by both film crew SE and casting directors. That's precisely why maria insisted that Judith goes frequently as possible, hoping to catch the attention of someone who could get duty and acting job.

Sometime in one thousand nine and eighty three, due maria's hard work paid off, a casting director at the ice rink noticed judy and immediately approached her mother to see if he would be interested in having judy audition for some roles.

The agent saw the stark quality that maria had tried to instill in her daughter from the moment he could walk her black hair, ever western energy and bright blue wise gave her the picture perfect appearance, and her precocious nature made her easy to work with things to that carefully crafted meeting at the ice rink. Judie landed her first commercial in a Donald c orange juice commercial. And from the get go, IT was clear that judy had something special .

ever since mom and dad found out that Normal duck is one hundred percent or orange juice, dave and asked him, kind funny. I mean, I know it's good, but really giant .

Green world drink at .

all in the commercial duty .

cod and cute little pictures eyes her parents suspiciously while the steel ships of her orange juice. She's undeniably precious. And it's easy to see why. Over the next five years, SHE went on a star and over seventy five commercials, more than ten a year before judie got .

a chance to experience a Normal childhood, he was swept into a business that was commercializing her youth and innocence. Her kindergarten year wasn't one of nap times, cake, ball and giggs with her classmates on the playground. IT was primarily spent on hollywood sets, working strange hours surrounded by adults who were essentially her only peers. Though SHE attended in a va avenue elementary school, SHE missed the most school days because of her shooting schedule, one of her friends, lisa, told the last Angeles times. After judy's death, SHE miss being in school because he missed her friends a .

lot whenever judie did have a rare chance to connect with other girls her age, john e set SHE left a lifelong impression on them when judy was filming one of her first roles in a TV movie called do you remember love, fellow child actress on ria recalls duty being the highlight of the filming experience. The two shared a trailer on set, and when they were meant to be resting in between takes, judy would pass Andrea secret note through the divider between their bedrooms. One such no red quote, I like you on dra.

at the right age of six, duty was already a bit of an old soul. Crew members recall her being wise for her age, but bubbly and full of personality. At the same time, IT was an energy the early set SHE was on needed because the first true productions SHE started in had some heavy subject matter in fatal vision.

Her first television part, judy, played the role of a real life child named kimberley mcDonald. It's a role that's truly chilling in retrospect, because kimberley y. McDonald was a girl who was brutal killed by her father, Jeffery mcDonald, in one thousand nine seventy nine. In a fit of rage, Geoffrey stabbed his daughter in the neck between eight and ten times. He bludger her head and body so severely that her cheap phone was pretty through her skin when law enforce arrived at the scene of the crime, even then went on to kill his wife and a three year old daughter, Christian, and a similar manner .

when judy was under the bright lights, pretending to be a girl struggling under the path of a violent, angry father. No one on said had any idea that for her, IT was like looking in a mirror. Judy's father, Joseph, was a wildly violent and volatile man throughout judy's childhood. He worked as a plummer in the san fernando valley, but when he wasn't working, he was drinking away the money his daughter had earned and getting into office.

He was known to regain his friends with embellish stories on multiple occasions. He told friends in los Angeles that he had last vision in one eye due to a vicious fight he got into. He confided in them that he had once killed a man with is in a bar fight.

And as he told the story, he was smiling at the time, however, the only mark on Joseph record was for three separate instances of drunk driving. It's hard to say whether he did kill a man in a bar and got away with IT, or if that was a tall tale he told to boost his ego. Either way, IT speaks to the pride he took in violence.

But we do know is that often Joseph s decisions and actions were rh, one friend told the los Angeles times he grabbed two by four. Not that he'd go after anyone who didn't deserve IT, but that wasn't true. Joseph win aftermarket ia and judy almost constantly.

Now it's hard to tell the story of duty, short, tragic. Without looking at the complicated relationship between her and her mother. Though maria clearly pushed duty to work hard and continue acting, the two shared a strong bond.

Maria and judie were described by everyone who knew them as best friends. They were glued at the hip and Young judy love spending time with her mom. Mario was also known to shower her daughter, and on one occasion a neighbor recalls maria buying judy a special kite, one that he had been begging for for months.

When her mom finally gave her the kite, judy was overjoyed and eager to take IT out to the skies. That day, SHE and her mom took the kite out into the yard. But upon hearing the joyce laughter and squelch that judie was making, her father stormed out of the house in a fury.

He snatched the kid out of judy's grasp, which sent her into history s. The Young girl started to plead and cry with her father, begging him not to break her kite. But in response, Joseph looked at the neighbor who was overhearing this interaction.

The next he looked at his wife, and in a cold, taunting voice, he said, quote, look at her. He is just a spoiled brat who doesn't wants to share her new toy. And well, then, just minutes after july, had gotten her new toy, Joseph broke her kite into as many pieces as he could in the bar sea household.

This was Normal. Joseph was possessive and abusive, terrify that his wife and child would find joy, love and stability anywhere other than him. Joseph behavior throughout judy's life was apparent, but to understand how a person could come to a place word felt so natural to do such horrible things, we have to look at where and how Joseph himself was raised.

Joseph bsi was born in hungary in thousand nine hundred and thirty two to a single mother who abandoned ed him at an incredibly Young age. He never knew who his father was, which Carried an alarming stigma in thousand and thirteen eastern europe, where family and tradition were pair amount. You're about to hear the voice of a gones barcy little judies older half sister will will visit her retelling of event soon. But for now, this is what he has to say about Joseph s. upbringing.

If you don't have a father, I mean that that's fact, the plague. And so when he would go to school, kids would make fun of them, always, always make fun of them. And my father had absolutely no self, the team, the only time my father really felt like he was a person. What money was drunk?

As you can see, Joseph was an outcast from the start. And unfortunately, this country was wearing towards total destruction. Hungry was wildly unstable following world war one, and the economy was in a detrimental place by the time Joseph was born in one thousand nine hundred and thirty two, nazi rule was starting to tighten its dangerous grasp around the struggling country.

IT was a time when hungry was struggling to fined its identity and footing in a rapidly changing world. There was the pressure of communism from the soviet union in the east and the pressure of the nazi party in the west, while hungry was Operating as the kingdom of hungary under a monarchy. By the time Joseph was a boy of ten, hungry was essentially a puppet state.

Under nazi germany, the citizens livelihood depended entirely on germany's economic state. In other words, the hungarian nationals were trapped. At the same time, violence was widespread.

People suspected of communism, jewish people, L, G, B, T, Q, plus individuals, and those who were deemed intellectuals were routinely sent to slave l. Away in labor camps as the war progressed. They were then sent to concentration camps.

Yet just a few years later, after world war two ended, hungry was under soviet control. Then he was the anti communist who were hunted down like animals. Their housing was confident, and they were imprisoned or killed by the end of one thousand and forty nine, when Joseph was seventeen, there was a disasters ous shortage of bread, sugar, flower and meat.

For an orphant like Joseph, already also sized by society, is what have been life threatening. The government erected what is called an iron curtain between hungry and austria to keep hungarians from fleeing soviet occupation. Watchtowers were erected along the border and a system of barbed wire, pences and land mines criss cross the countryside.

In other words, IT was a rapidly changing, unstable, in confusing place for anyone to grow up in, let alone in orfen. But in one thousand hundred and fifty six, when Joseph was twenty four years old, things went downhill at a frightening speed, an uprising in boot past cause soviet russia to crackdown and physically invade, hungry, arriving with tanks and weapons in the dead of night. Hungarians were desperate to escape, and the entire world was watching, as told by this one thousand nine hundred and fifty six new's clip from the united kingdom .

night on the astro o hungaria frontier. These refugees are crossing a fourteen foot channel that Marks the line haided by a red hungarian water guards under the clock of darkness, no paralo dance, the iron determination of their quest for freedom, while hungarian guards waved the mom. Russian troops tracked them with Green ted. Many refugees hit through the freezing night in these barter marches, waiting till done for their final days to the safety of austrian side.

Joseph was one of these refugees who had to fully under the cover of night to austria in november of one thousand nine hundred and fifty six. He was put on a train leaving a refugee camp in austria bound for france. IT was on that train that he met his first wife, clara, in france in one thousand nine hundred and fifty seven. The two welcomed their first child, a son named barna bi. Year later, they had their daughter a who went by agi.

Judd y's mom maria had endured a similar journey, though, with the added benefits of coming from a wealthy family. That being said, according to agi bi, things warn all butterflies and roses and marius, family of origin.

either muri, I came from an alcoholic family and abuse the family. Her father, her father physically abused her. And psychologically.

buster IT was this abusive family that maria of your vote, acs was born to in hungry in one nine hundred and forty. In one thousand nine hundred and fifty nine, as refugees poured out of hungry arrived in new york city via muni e. germany.

The first apartment in amErica still stands today at one forty nine medicine avenue, just two blocks from the empire stay, building with everything he had been through in a war torn youth. And her dreams is a little girl of being an actress in america, saying the spire of the empire state must have filter with hope. IT was the beginning of her american dream, but tragically, this would end more like an american nightmare.

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to the story across the country. In arizona, Joseph first wife was watching as her own dreams of freedom and happiness crumbled the does in thousand and sixty two, the two settled into a life outside of phoenician Josephs rage. A need for control showed its ugly face.

According to argue, Joseph would threaten his wife and two Young children in daily. He told them repeatedly that if they left him, he would burn the house down and kill them all. He, through cast iron pants, not only at his wife, but that his kids.

And on more than one occasion, aggie was convinced that her father was actually going to kill her. Joseph had a need for total control in possession over the people in his life. And at the mere thought that his children or wife would abandon him, you would launch into a fury. After years of experiencing this abuse, magi had a theory on why that was.

my father always thought that he'd be left alone, and he was great death to be left alone, just like he was only his little boy.

Now, our pasts don't excuse our behaviors, but they do inform them. Both Joseph and marries up bringing were volatile, leading to her renders coping mechanisms and poor decision making skills the reminder of why it's so vitally important that we protect our kids. Children like judy, who was handed down the generational trauma that both of her parents Carry.

By one thousand and seventy seven, Joseph had divorced clara, and maria had also divorced her first husband, sandbar. Joseph and maria moved to lost Angeles separately, but their paths crossed at a restaurant in the sfr nano valley. That restaurant in particular was catering to hungarian refugees.

Maria worked at the bar where her charm, boys and humor caught the attention of many men, but her sides were locked on Joseph bossy. He came into the bar often and always paid in one hundred dollar bills. Maria, who was in her late thirties, was ready to get married and start having children from the outside.

Joseph seemed like the perfect man to pursue that with. And on August twenty, nineteen seventy seven, Josie in maria got married. Ten months later, Judith eva bsi was born.

This was Joseph s. Second chance at having a healthy, happy marriage with a beautiful child to take care of. But sadly, he wasn't going to make any changes. Unfortunately, things were even worse with Julian maria. Then IT was with his first family, while maria encouraged duty and was fully supportive of her career. The only thing Joseph liked about duties acting was the money sharing in one thousand eighty eight, when judy was eight years old, he started enough T, V, commercials, movies in many series to earn a six figure income. IT was enough for her family to move out of their los Angeles apartment an end to a beautiful home.

the home they purchased at twenty two one zero zero michale street and west hills was just another piece of the puzzle to make their american dream come true. West hill is on the western and of the san fernando valley, surrounded by impressive hills and views of the mountains. It's an area known for its safety. And in the one thousand nine hundred and eighty they had a small towns eld compared to other regions of the valley.

IT should have been a happy time in the family's life, but IT was around this time that things took a turn for the worse. It's all too common for abusers to ramp up their abuse when they feel their power is being threatened. IT seemed like the more popular and successful judy got, the more desperate her father was to control her.

Your fear and violence IT took hardly anything for Joseph to fly off the handle, and things were far worse. When he drink, which was often almost daily, he would scream and judy emery's faces threatening to kill them. Sometimes he would threaten his entire family, saying he would have no problem killing them all.

All other times, he would tell maria that he was just going to kill himself and judy, leaving her, to quote, suffer. But IT wasn't just judy emeria that he told this to. According the friends of Joseph, he told anyone who would listen that he was going to kill his wife. One of these days.

he told bill genovese, a fellow plumber and close friend. One of these days she's going to drive me crazy enough to kill her. In reference to maria, another friend claimed he told me five hundred times he was going to kill his wife. I'd tried to call him down and tell them, if you kill her, what will happen to your little one? I gotto kill her too.

Joseph was a taking time bomb. His vetu offer, his wife and his cy multi eus sphere of being abandoned by her. And judy was a dangerous for tax that everyone who knew the family got sucked into. Joseph, screaming, became a norm on the one's peaceful street of west hills, and neighbors were fully aware of the vicious threats he made. Elizabeth.

thin, in a family friend, wasn't shy about tying the crew of the T. V. Movie fatal passions, exactly how Joseph and maria's relation ship was .

conducted the hatred was mutual between the two adult joe basti would come. And the first thing was to my husband, i'm going to kill that. Or one of these days I wanna kill her but .

IT wasn't just his words and threats that Joseph used to control maria and judy. On one occasion, maria received an urgent telegram about the death of a close relative and hungry, except IT wasn't maria who was the first to see IT. Joseph actually saw the telegram while maria was at an audition with duty.

And in a rage, he threw the telegram in the trash can. He was terrified that maria would take judy to hungry and return. So instead of letting his wife know that he had lost a relative, he hit the truth away in order to further control her.

But later on, maria would discover the truth when her brother called from new york to discuss the news with her. Rio was surprised and art broken. When he learned that the telegram had already been sent, SHE knew instantly what had happened to IT. SHE confronted Joseph, who denied hiding any telegram. However, eventually he came clean, fishing the telegram from the trash can and slapping IT into her hands.

Joseph would stop at nothing to stop mario from escaping. And because of maria is fear and her own background of abuse, SHE struggle to break free of him. Unfortunately, there was duty. We ended up suffering the most in december .

of one thousand and eighty six, after a very bad incident where Joseph threatened to kill her in duty, mario filed a police report against him. He told the enforcement that he had threatened to kill her hundreds of times over a five year period. In on top of that, his violence had been escalating.

Maria reported that recently Joseph had been choking her in, hitting her in the face. But the police claim that maria had no visible injuries, so they ended up dismissing her claims of abuse. Sadly, this was maria's first time reaching out for help, and I fell on deaf years. Mario declined to prosecute soon after SHE filed her claim. And from there the family returned their everyday chaotic life.

One thousand and eighty six was when things really started to pick up for nine year old duties career, when SHE wasn't riding her bike through her neighborhood and enjoying the innocence of childhood like every kid should be able to, SHE was in auditions or unset. The commercial career had rapidly evolved into a strong presence in films because of A. Stature, judy could play the roles of children much Younger, disappeared the studios because I meant they could cast someone older and more experienced to work with, even if the script called for a five or six years.

When you look at duties work, there's a deep bread and sadness that settles into your bones. Unlike her television roles where he played abused children in almost every mainstream movie, SHE had a role. SHE played the beloved daughter of an action hero, an eye of the tiger. He played the daughter of a vietnam war who stopped at nothing to protect her.

Her relationship with her father in the movie, played by gary busy, countered up lines like this that are heartbreaking and retrospect .

CT mommy 妈咪 咖。

This trend of playing deeply loved and protected daughters Carried on in her first theatrical role is thea, the granddaughter of the late Martin brody, and jaws. The revenge her father played by Lance guest works tirelessly to protect her from a shark terrorizing the community.

Though the cost crews that judy usually worked with knew something was wrong in her life. IT wasn't until the filming of jaws that the horse SHE was experiencing was unashamedly shared. And tragically, once more, nothing was done. The filming of jaws began in september of nineteen eighty six as judi y's first significant role in a popular franchise. IT should have been a thrilling time for her, but instead IT was one of the most terrible times of her life.

Shooting was scheduled to take place in the bahamas, offering judie and her mom a tropical escape from the abuse they were suffering, even if he was only for a few weeks, but they spent the entirety of those few weeks on set, terrified for their lives. While judie was packing her bags in preparation for the role, her father drunkenly stormed under her room with a kitchen knife in his hand. His little girl, who was undoubtedly over the moon and proud of herself, was instantly overcome with pure tera. Joseph then held the knife to judy's neck, pressing the cold metal against the nine year old soft can. And with the knife firmly in his grasp, he growled at her.

if you decide not to come back, I will cut your throat.

This poor child would just are in the role of a lifetime, didn't gain any acknowledged from her father for her achievements. Instead, he threatened her, delighted in the terror that he struck through her. And sadly, filming in the beams provided no relief either throughout the entire experience, that thread was running through judy's head.

Watching her scream at the shark in the movie is so burning when you consider the real terror that this innocent child was enduring every single day. And the abuse wasn't hidden either on, said her mother maria was very vocal with the women on the casting crew about what was happening at home. But once again, no one seemed to care Judith .

studios teacher lindy stone ister describe marries the meaner on the set and the cruise .

reaction to her SHE to constantly crying out about how concerns he was and how threaten SHE felt, almost to the point when nobody took us seriously. IT was like, oh, here goes mary again, just worried about going home to his crazy person.

And IT goes without saying that mario should have been taken seriously, if not for her own safety or her daughters. We had no choice in the matter. But even judi, studio teacher, who was meant to not only teacher on said, but serve as an advocate for her, was brushing off the horrible claims of abuse. And there is a reason for that, an incredibly sad one. You see.

there are laws in hollywood to protect child actors, but they're much less enforce than you would expect. Children under the age of sixteen are required to have a parent or guardian present on set at all times. They also required to have a studio teacher on set like judie did.

He was meant to be a neutral representative for the child actor's mental and physical well being. But there's a problem with that, according to former child star house and stoner in an interview, he told half post, in almost every case, none of these people are actually neutral third parties. Their livelihood is in a twin with affected by independent on the child's ability to perform and a productions ability to get the shot on time.

And she's right if judie studio teacher had demanded help for her, production may have been halted due to investigation. Yes, that sounds, calls and unsupportable when IT comes to someone's life. But hollywood is a multibillion dollar industry, and every day that doesn't go as planned on set can cost the production thousands, if not millions of dollars.

Studio teachers who are seen as preventing little kids from being on sad can, and are easily replaced by teachers who can ensure the child actors are focused on acting and meeting the demands required of them. On many productions, studio teachers and a protective adult onset are merely the bare minimums that the production must meet. Their interests aren't really in the safety of the child. Their interests are in meeting the requirements so that their child actors can perform and make them money.

So even as maria and judie were explaining the abuse they faced, the show went on when production wrapped in the beams. After two months, maria took judy to visit her brother Joseph on who lived in new york. Romania's family had immigrated all those years ago. There is no clear picture of what mario planned to do once he got to her brothers' home.

There are some claims that he was going to move in with her brother to escape her husband's abuse, but there were other claims that he was her only chance to enter duce duty to her brother, because Joseph had made IT impossible for maria to bring judy anywhere. Regardless of murray is reasoning. The jig was up only a few days after he and judy arrived in new york.

Somehow Joseph had managed to locate them, and he called maria and a fury. While on the phone, he demanded speak with judy. And when he did, he said IT chilling words.

remember what I told you when you left?

That's all IT took for judy, whose mental health was hanging by a thread to break down in tears, according to her uncle. The experience was hard to watch that .

before july dropped the phone and went to the bedroom and my little followers, and also they were trying, because he was so frantic in a resources thing, and mario picked up the four in the maria and was knowing, like going out of her mind, really, he was really scared.

Joseph threats garnered the exact reaction he was hoping for the very next day, less than twenty four hours after he called and threat to kill them, they were back on a flight to los Angeles. But that call was a breaking point for judy. When he returned home in early nineteen eighty eight, SHE began plucking out her own eyes lashes, and when he ran out of eyelashes to pull, SHE started pulling the whiskers of her five beloved cats. IT wasn't an intentional act of violence against the cats, but a desperate cry for help need that clearly wasn't being met.

Judie was engaging in what is now known as trick to romania. A compulsion to pull out hair, yours or someone else is trick to romania is part of a group of conditions known as body focused, repetitive behaviors, which are used to cope with emotional turmoil if a person does not have healthy means to handle intense feelings, they may begin to pull out their hair as a form of distraction. Initially it'll feel attention, but when they plug their hair from the following, there is a sense of control and relief.

This was the first time that judies in her turmoil was expressed outreach, and he was experiencing this at the very Young end of the age range for the development of time. Go to lemonia, and it's easy to see why an early one thousand and eighty eight judie was invited to a family friends house to have homemade hungarian sausages, her parents warned in attendance, which gave judy a rare opportunity to express herself.

Judy told these family friends verb on, quote, i'm afraid to go home. My daddy is miserable. My daddy's drunk every day, and I know he wants to kill my mother.

And quote, imagine a nine year old child saying that to you, and just hold on to that feeling for a moment. The family friends invited judy to stay with them, but judy declined, telling them that if he stayed, her daddy would find her and kill her. In judy's mind, there was no escape if he stayed with her father, the abuse would continue and SHE may be killed. But if he left her father, he knew he would certainly be killed. Sadly, these family friends did not contact the authorities on behalf of duty, but soon enough, someone did.

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The links are in the description of this show. And you can find IT on a podcast, spotify, or get your podcasts and out. Let's get back to our story. In may of thousand nine hundred and eighty eight, judy audition song from an animated feature is widely speculated that this song is soon you'll come home from the film all dogs go to heaven.

The song is sung by the character duty, ultimately voice named and mary in the movie, and mary and orphans whose desperate to fine a family that loves her IT seems that the lyrics of the song were too much for duty to handle in her fragile state during the audition should began to sob and could not continue on the first goes follows all I have is a picture of my mind how we would be if we were together. Let's pretend that you are far away. Let's say that you write to me and you promise in your letter that you'll come home.

Ruth hanson, judis agent, told the last Angeles times. Quote, that's when I realized how bad judy was. SHE was crying hysterically. SHE couldn't talk and quote, so ruth convinced Mariah to take duty to see a child psychologist.

Now remember, this was the nineteen eighties, a time when the idea of a child singer psychologist was still pretty taboo, especially if you came from a culture like maria and jobs. But regardless, maria took duty to the psychologist, and after the very first meeting, the psychologist called duties agent roof in a panic. There was a clear pain in her voice, and although he didn't give details, her ultimate decision was a potentially life changing one.

SHE told her, quote, roof, IT is extreme mental, verbal and emotional problems with this child. I have to report IT to children services equal. For the first time after years of abuse, judie was given a much needed lifeline. Someone officially recognized the pain and suffering that he was endorsing, and IT seemed like he was on her way to getting help. But sadly, that hope never came.

Soon after the case, in the duties while being began, maria had a closed. At the time, mario had gotten an apartment in panorama city on the opposite side of the valley, from where their home with Joseph was. He was calculating how exactly SHE was going to divorce him, and he had to go about IT carefully when a partners attempting to leave an abuser is statistically the most dangerous time of their relationship. After repeated threats, that sheer judy would be killed by Joseph if SHE ever left, maria surely was terrifying.

During the day, maria judy would escape to the panorama city apartment, moving bits of their belongings as they went at night, the two would go back to their shared home with Joseph and sleep there, trying to keep up appearances.

Mariah didn't want Joseph to know that he had an apartment because if he knew a plan to escape would be foiled and he knew he would likely kill her because maria had this apartment a safe place for her and judy ago, the agency felt comfortable closing her case in early june without investigating any further. They never once interview duty alone, never told their home and west hills, and never even spoke to Joseph. Essentially no investigation took place. The director of .

the los Angeles county department of children services, Robert chaffy, later claimed IT was satisfactory, resolved as far as the client was concerned, but Helen kin berg, a member of the countdown board of supervisors on children's issues, had a different opinion in late one thousand nine hundred eighty eight, he told the los Angeles times, from my point of view, the client was the child, not the mother.

Some blame maria for closing the case, some blame the department of children services, and some blame both according to duties agent. However, Mariah didn't close the case because he felt safe. SHE close the case because the department of children services refuse to do anything. We'll discuss the role that dhs played in this case a .

little bit later by june. Maria did have a plan to escape jose's abuse, but he was sitting to go through with that. Ruth would later say that he begged maria to leave, but he was clear maria was nervous.

SHE promised they would officially leave Joseph after judy's birthday in may, june. But in those few weeks things got drastically worse. Joseph repeatedly showed maria where he kept the gas cans in the home, and he reminded her that he intended to use them if SHE ever left. When aggie judy's half sister came to visit, SHE was shocked and horrified by what he saw.

The last time I went visited them, I was really hard because I saw her. We were the same person. IT was just incredible. At that time, I really saw how was frage SHE was, I mean, he used to thread us all the time to about burning the house down, killing us and burning the house down if we left them, or if my mother tried divorcing him that he would kill a soul. SHE told me over and over again that he was a friend.

despite judy fearing for her life, nothing was done. June came and went, and mario still hadn't move them into the apartment. Around that time, maria had stopped doing any housework in an attempt to drive Joseph away.

It's likely that he believed if Joseph was the one who left, not her, then SHE and judy would be safe. But around this time, Joseph would give anyone who visited sarcastic, bitter tours of the home, pointing out all the masses. Maria hadn't cleaned up just a few weeks before Joseph took Julian.

Mari's lives IT seem like marias plan was working. Joseph even started spending more time out of the house. He was infatuated with another woman who he showered and gifts.

but maria couldn't have been more delighted by her husband's infidelity or niece. He rights remembers mari's reaction to IT well.

really poke around Christmas time with my aunt on the toller phone, and he was very encouraged about the torn of event. SHE was very happy that her situation at home was improving because her husband had found another woman and he was running around with her, and this woman was very well loved.

On june twenty second, mario spoke with her neighbor unis daily, and he talked with unis about how abusive Joseph was. Unis encouraged maria to leave, but IT seem like mario had been scared out of divorcing Joseph. SHE told unus, quote, I can't leave.

He's threatened to come after us and kill us. He's threatened to burn down the house, which brings us to monday, july twenty fifth nineteen eighty eight. In the early morning, judie was spotted riding her bike through the neighborhood streets.

The sun was shining. The palm trees were crackling in the southern california heat. Neighbors waved her as he rode by from the outside looking in.

SHE was a Young girl full of life. Enjoy, but tragic. This was the last time anyone would see duty alive. However, there is some beauty in the fact that in the final images many people have of her, SHE is doing what he should have been doing all along being a free, happy kid. That afternoon, judie missed an appointment at hana barbera productions when her agent called josef to see where judy was.

He claimed SHE and maria had gotten to a cab in gone to c ago the next day when roof still hadn't heard from judy or maria, SHE spoke to Joseph again. Joseph told rule that he was leaving the home for good. All he wanted before he left was to say, goodby e this little girl, and then he would be gone.

This was the last time anyone spoke to Joseph bossy. On the morning of july seventh, unit di was the first person to see the flames exploding over the home. Terrified for the family, the neighbor bolted towards the flames and through open a back door, trying to extinguish the fire with a hole until firefighters arrive.

Unfortunately, the flames were already to intend to try and save juty or maria when the firefighters arrived and managed to put out the fire. The scene before them would prove to be one of the most greatly of their careers. The entire house had been double ced in gasoline before I was at a blaze, including the bodies of duty, and maria judie was found lying on her side and her cannot ppe bed. Her body was charged from the flames and SHE had a single gunshot wound just behind her ear.

This day it's unclear exactly when Julian maria were killed, though they're living. Family members suspect that they were likely killed on monday night. Same night, the judy mr. Appointment and hanborough a.

Joseph had gone into his ten year old daughter's room as he slept, and he plays the muscle of his gun against her. Sin judy usually fell sly with her television set on IT was a princess pink T. V.

That her father had bought her months earlier. As an apology for an incident, we had yanked her finger in a fit of rage, nearly breaking IT judie was just a child. The image of her lying peacefully in her canopy bed with her pink T.

V. Flicking ing is a haunting reminder of just how Young and innocent he was. SHE died the incident.

Her father fired the thirty two caliper pistol through her head that night after hearing the gunshot in our daughters' bedroom. Maria raced down the hole to try and protect judy, but Joseph was standing there waiting for her. Mario was shot as he ran down hall the see if I was okay.

Her death is also assumed to be instantaneous, but for several days after murdering his wife and daughter, Joseph stepped over their bodies as he floated through the home like a ghost. He even spoke to people on the phone as if maria and judie were still alive over the years. He had promised that he was going to kill them, and he made good on that horrible promise.

However, IT seems like from the twenty fifth to the 5 th， Joseph was panic about what to do next. And on the morning of the seventh, he poured gasoline all throughout the house that his own daughter had bought them. Joseph douse maria and judy's bodies in the gas and then lead a match from the government.

As the fire began the rage, Joseph closed the garage door and fired a single shot. He was head. The bullet exited. His school was so much force that IT actually broke the garage door.

When officers arrived, they discovered the kind of gas four feet from Joseph body, and the pistol was still in his hand. Soon enough, the news began to spread around the community, and many people were horrified, but sadly, most were not surprised. After all, many people in their own neighborhood, i'd heard the threats that Joseph made against his family.

And soon enough, a crowd began to gather around the burning home. There's a photo of corner David method, a Carrying judis dead body out of her home, the home that he was so proud of earning. In the photo there is a police officer standing off to the side.

IT was using an abdin to wipe his tears and is hard to ignore just how small judy's body was in the coroner's grasp at the time of her death. SHE was only three feet, eight inches toll. The corner is cradling judy like a father should have cradled and cared for his daughter, something that judy never got to experience while he was alive, except for when he was on camera.

On August nine, nine hundred eighty eight, Judith emery's funerals were held at forced mon's church of the hills in griffith park. K, if you're from the los Angeles area, you douteless know the church.

It's a stark White church with the tall, steep that pops out amongst ever blue skies of southern california and the rolling mountains that are the values backdrop that looks like IT belongs in new england rather than los Angeles, which is by design. The forest lawn memorial parks are known for being a popular final resting place for hollywood stars. When you look at where maria began her life in were torn, hungry, with dreams of going west, it's a fitting place for a journey to event IT.

Five people were in attendance at the funeral, including many of jud's friends. One of her Young friends was recorded as saying, I didn't know what dad could do such a thing to his wife and daughter. Joseph never should have been able to.

And as news of duties death spread across the city concerns a rose. As neighbors disclosed to newspapers that judie maria had been threatened by Joseph multiple times, the public began to ask why nothing had been done. On August sixteen thousand nine hundred and eighty eight, the commission for children services, an advisory body to the los Angeles county board of supervisors on children's issues, demanded that the department of children services open the case files regarding due dis parsi.

However, dcs denied this claim, saying that there were privacy issues regarding the files. In response, the commission, which was headed by a woman named Helen client berg, petition juvenile dependency court judge Katherine doy tod to open and review the files. The commission cited their concerns, stating that judas psychologist was not informed her case had been closed.

As this policy, the commission wanted to know why Judith s case was closed. My, her therapist wasn't informed whether or not the system needed to be improved to determine when a case could reasonably be closed. On August sixth, judge Catherine doy to determine that there was good cause for the commission to review dcs s handling of the case and ordered the files on sealed.

With the and ceiling of those files came evidence of just how unorganized and overwork dcs was at the time of jud's death. The social worker handling the barcy case was assigned sixty seven cases, twenty seven more cases than what was considered already a full case load. There were no guidelines determining when the case should be closed.

However, chaffy, the director, claimed that this was because you rely on the professional judgment of the staff, but how can you rely on the judgment when handling almost double the number of cases they should be? The commission began to fight to have rules put in place to protect children, including the formation of an independent review board that would be test with monitoring how the child welfare cases in l. County or handle chaffee, however, disagreed, stating, you had a man who was bound and determined to kill his family and that's what he did unless you had a police officer on the premises with the mother twenty four hours a day, that would have happened and to see how this agency could have stopped in D.

C, S, S. Job is to protect children. So traffic claim that the agency couldn't stopped Joseph from killing his family rubbed many people the wrong way, had more resources, checks and baLances been put in place.

It's likely the judy's case never would have been closed and that he may have escaped her father's rah. However, it's important to note just how underfunded D. C, S was and still is chav made IT that IT would have take several years for them to get the funding to hire new case workers. At the time of judy's death, the department was short nine million dollars. And although that is in an excuse, it's still a huge problem.

As you can see with judy's deaf came brand new discussions about child welfare and the ethics of child fame as well is a discussion that still taking place today. Nearly forty years after her death.

judie never got to see the premiere of her most famous roles, all dogs go to heaven, where he played. And mary was released in one thousand and eighty nine. SHE had actually recorded all of her lines before her death, but upon learning that he had passed or coastal, bert Ronalds requested to redo his lines. At the very end of the film, all dogs go to heaven ends with charlie, played by bert Randall, saying goodbye to annoy before he returns to heaven. It's a tear jerking scene, but knowing that bird was directly speaking, the duty when he recorded the liner about to hear makes the love and grief in them all the more.

helpful. yeah. and. You too quick. Now you you go to slight charly will I ever see you again?

Sure, sure. You will get you know goody's on forever. Then goodbye charly.

I love you. yeah. There are also reports that .

IT took him sixty plus times to get the recording right because he couldn't stop crime. The land before time was also released. Postume sly duty's famous line as ducket yp, yep, yep, is forever echt into our headstone at the hollywood hill. Simetco headstone reads, quote, and the memory of the lovely Judith aba, bossy or concrete Angel p yp yp.

beside her, her mother's had stone reads wind beneath J E B je to iva basses wings duties half sister aggie has away after a bottles with breast cancer in two thousand and eight despite twenty years passing agi. Never stop thinking about the loss of her sister, with whom SHE never got to grow old. Throughout her life, Maggie held onto the one thought that helped Carry her to the death of someone they loved so dearly.

I truly believe in my heart. This is what I think I can get through this. That duty now is really in a happy place.

No Price. But I do I believe she's in a really happy place right now and he always wanted to go somewhere where people were happy. And so I believe now that she's in her magic kingdom and she's topic SHE really is happy. He always wanted to be in life for her, got to be Better.

Now we will be making a donation to the national coalition against domestic violence, which helped remove people from domestic violence situations, teaches financial literacy and aims to educate youth on what healthy relationships look like so that they can prevent domestic violence from Carrying on to the next generation.

If you are loved, when are struggling with domestic violence, there are resources to help. Social services to assist people in need have greatly changed since the thousand nine hundred eighties. The national domestic violence support hotline can be reached at one eight hundred seven, nine, nine, seven, two, 3， three. Once again, that's one eight hundred seven, nine, nine, seven, two, three, three. Their website, the hot line dot org, can connect you with local resources that will provide you with safe, confidential assistance.

All right, everybody, thank you for .

listening to this week's episode of murder in america. Courtney are currently in new york city, so shot out to all of our listeners in the great empire state of new york. This is a crazy story. I'd never heard of this before. Courtine brought IT up to me.

But I mean, obviously, when you start getting into the ethics of child stars, I mean, not only do you deal with cases like this and parents that fell there, children that they're putting in the hollywood system, but then you have all the sexual predators and the criminals who specifically get into hollywood to get access to children. That's a whole different tangent. Are you guys kind of understand my thoughts on matter? I would say already anyways, if you want a bonus content from murder in america, if you love our show and you want to get bonus episodes, consider joining us on patron.

If you join us on patron, you can get access to, like I said, bonus pisos show. You can also get to every single episode early and ad free. So if you don't like the ads in the show, consider joining us on patron.

IT helps us grow and we have a great community on there. Hopefully you all and patron can all you know become best friends and maybe one day we can do big event. But that's a pipe dream and that would be cool. Don't forget to follow us at murder in amErica on instagram, join our facebook group and yeah, thank you to every single one of you people out there who listen every week cordiner couldn't be more thanks were truly blessed. And yeah, catch all on the next one.