We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!
Export Podcast Subscriptions
cover of episode EP. 43 Let's Talk! How We Started, ASTROWORLD & The Candyman Killer

EP. 43 Let's Talk! How We Started, ASTROWORLD & The Candyman Killer

2021/11/22
logo of podcast Murder In America

Murder In America

AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
C
Colin
Topics
@Colin @Courtney 讨论了播客节目的起源,以及他们对真实犯罪的热爱。他们还分享了在制作节目的过程中遇到的挑战和变化,例如YouTube对真实犯罪内容的严格审查以及节目规模的扩大带来的压力。他们宣布节目将每周一更新,并预告下一集内容极其令人不安。他们感谢听众的支持,并呼吁听众通过分享来帮助节目发展。他们还正在招聘播客经理和团队成员。 Colin和Courtney详细回顾了休斯顿“糖果人”(Dean Corll)案件的最新进展,警方再次挖掘其住所寻找更多受害者遗体。他们还讨论了Walker County Jane Doe案的最新进展,受害者身份已确认,但凶手仍未找到。他们讨论了未确认身份的受害者和DNA技术在破案中的作用,并以奥斯汀酸奶店谋杀案为例说明了DNA证据的利用困境。

Deep Dive

Chapters
Courtney and Colin discuss the origins of their podcast, MURDER IN AMERICA, and their decision to include non-scripted content.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

He's the most terrifying serial killer you've never heard of. Haddon Clark has confessed to several murders, but investigators say he could have over 100 victims. At the center of the mayhem, a cellmate of Haddon's that was able to get key evidence into Haddon's murder spree across America,

Because Haddon thought he was Jesus Christ. Born Evil, The Serial Killer and the Savior, an ID true crime event. Premieres Monday, September 2nd at 9. Watch on ID or stream on Max. Set your DVR.

Hey everybody, it's Colin here. And Courtney. Tonight we are going to be giving you guys a special edition of Murder in America. We're going to cover some recent true crime stories, some things that we would like to discuss with you guys. And if you all enjoy this episode the way that it's presented, you want to hear Courtney and I talk more, please let us know in the comments on our Instagram, DM us. Let us know because we want to talk

more with you guys instead of the scripted content that we usually produce. Courtney, you still wrote a script for this one, but we're not reading it verbatim. Yeah, well, we're still going to have our regular scheduled episodes every single Monday. But we do want to add like a non-scripted kind of chatting with you guys, updating you on true crime going on in the world and just release those like once a month just so you guys can get a little bit of something different from us.

Yeah, and I think it's cool because like we said in our podcast about our stories, you guys don't really know that much about us unless I guess you watch the paranormal files or something. Yeah, we've had some people message us and they thought like they were like, I had no idea y'all were engaged. I thought y'all were like brother and sister because they don't hear our banter. They don't know that we're engaged. But yes, we are engaged.

Yes, and we are not brother and sister, but without further ado, y'all, let's, uh, let's dig into this. All right, so, uh, first we're gonna give you guys just a little update about our lives. Paranormal Files, my YouTube channel, doing very well. A lot of you guys I know watch, and it's awesome to have everybody out there. Sadly, the Ed Gein video, if you guys aren't here, um...

haven't seen it yet. It's a great documentary about Ed Gein with Courtney and I both and my parents. That video is still demonetized on YouTube for some reason, because yeah, all these platforms, YouTube and, uh,

And, you know, just different media companies, they have a thing against true crime. Haven't you kind of noticed that? Yes, they don't like when we talk about, I mean, the gruesome stuff that we talk about. And that's the one thing that I really like about podcasting is that you kind of have more freedom to talk about this kind of stuff. But YouTube is so strict about it. Literally, like, all...

All I did was post a photo of Bernice Worden's body, but I blurred out everything graphic about it, and all I had included in the video was an image of Bernice Worden's ankles, and that was counted and flagged as a graphic depiction of a dead body, which it definitely not...

definitely wasn't. And so, yeah, that entire video, it's three and a half hours long, got demonetized. And I know true crime content creators that consistently have that stuff happen to them. It's crazy.

And our podcast, let's get into that real quick because this is coming out. We're changing our schedule, everybody. Officially, this week, we're starting to release all of our episodes on Mondays. So this week, this episode is going to be out this weekend. And Monday, we're going to be providing you guys with, in my opinion...

the most disturbing episode in the history of murder in America. It is not only disturbing, but it is shocking. It is vile. And I really want to warn everybody out there listening that if you have a weak stomach, you should not listen to Monday's episode.

It's it's so weird, too, because I mean, I know a lot of podcasters out there won't talk about this kind of stuff because it's too much for people to handle. And I understand that. But I feel like people that listen to us kind of know that we do cover the stuff that is a little too hard to handle in podcasting.

Monday's episode is definitely a rough one and we are not holding back. We're reading everything from the killer's perspective and it's very dark. So beware. Yeah, seriously. I thought I had a very high tolerance for true crime and stories and I was it's a male killer Albert Fish. I think we can announce that.

He's a very, very, very disturbed individual. And I had to actually be the one to read his confession letters and his letters that he wrote to the families of the victims.

And reading that stuff out loud just did not sit right with me. It's like you almost questioned, should we be putting this out because it's so dark? But I mean, it's the truth. It's what happened, you know? But I really do want to warn everybody, come Monday when we change our release schedule, we release that episode. If you don't feel like you can handle really extreme stuff, his descriptions of the crimes are really, really graphic. So...

And they involve children too. So that's a whole nother perspective, but we have been so hard at work on both the paranormal files and murder in America. We actually are, um, let's see, how many downloads do we have right now on murder in America?

We have, what is it, 1.6, 1.7 million downloads out there. 1.7 million people have listened to the show. We honestly cannot believe it. When we started in January of this year, we knew our podcast was going to do well, but we just didn't expect it to blow up the way it has. So thank you to everyone.

everyone out there that has listened we're really hoping by January we can hit two million that's been a huge goal of ours so make sure you listen to all the episodes so we can we can hit that goal

And yeah, also I want to reiterate to everyone online. We don't have a big company funding our show. We don't have a big team. We don't even have a team. It's Courtney and I, we're the only ones right now. Joe, my friend just helped us edit last week's episode. Thanks to Joe Pete's one of my best friends I've ever had, but it all depends on you guys. So if you want to see more of the show and you want to help us, the one thing that you guys can do that's totally free is just every time we post an episode, we're

screenshot the image of you listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts, wherever, put it on your story, make a post about it, tweet about it. We just need to get people talking. So if you guys love the show, please help us grow by just doing that one thing. And it's free, which is, uh, which is awesome.

And yeah, that also brings me to another point. We really need a podcast manager and a team to help us with the show because we've grown so big that it's just a lot of pressure, you know? Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, we write...

like we write all of our episodes, we don't we edit all of our episodes. And so we are currently looking for a manager to help us kind of organize everything and just help this podcast grow as much as it can. So if you have any managing experience with

podcasting or anything like that, please reach out and send your resume to murderinamericapodcast at gmail.com. And we're really looking forward to growing our team. And hopefully, if one of you are listening, you can be a part of this.

And thank you to everybody that's already submitted their applications and whatnot. I know we posted about this on social media. We're not discounting any of you guys out there. We just want to reach out and see how many people we can reach with this message and who can help us in what way, because we're not only specifically looking for a manager. We're looking for all sorts of people that can help us produce the show. But yeah, thank you all at the end of the day for listening because we're

Just a little background because I feel like a lot of you guys don't know how this podcast started. Courtney, you're obsessed with podcasts. Why don't you just tell people about your obsession? Yeah, it's kind of like a big problem. I mean, it's not a big problem. I love podcasting. I'm sure most of you that are listening are obsessed too. But like I listen to pod... I don't even listen to music anymore. I only listen to podcasts like Colin...

Every time I do anything, I have my headphones in. He's like, you listen to another true crime podcast? And I'm like, duh. Like, I listen to it when I drive, when I clean, when I sleep. Dude, it is fucking insane. I'm not even kidding you guys. I will be trying to go to bed. And I mean, some of the time, Courtney will play a podcast while I'm trying to sleep, but she'll at least keep it low, which is great because I have a hard time falling asleep. Other nights...

It'll be like 6 a.m., 5 a.m. Like I'm sound asleep, just dozing away in the bed, happy as can be in dream world. All of a sudden I wake up to the sound of someone and

And then he stuck the blade in her neck and sliced. And I'm like, what the fuck am I waking up to right now? Okay, but I've also gotten a lot of comments from people saying that they listen to our podcast while they sleep. And I honestly feel like some people just have a really soothing voice. And sometimes it's like someone's reading me a bedtime story, but it's just...

Yeah, well, that's the whole thing. Sometimes the bedtime story starts at like 5 a.m. randomly at full volume. I just wake up and I'm like, babe, the volume's at 100 right now. And you're like, oh, yeah, sorry, I'll turn it down.

Yeah, my bad. But I love podcasting. It's seriously my favorite. I just love it so much. I don't think I would ever be able to stop listening to podcasts for the rest of my life. Colin's not a huge podcast person. So we kind of got into this podcast because...

I listened to it so frequently and I loved true. I only listen to true crime. I don't listen to any other genre, but Colin, he would see me every day listening to it. And he was like, you should start one. We have all the equipment and, and we did. And now look at us. We're almost at 2 million downloads. Yeah. It's kind of crazy because like,

At the beginning, I told Courtney, like, babe, this is your passion. This is truly like what you should be doing because you're obsessed with this stuff. And I also love true crime. And that's like my YouTube is ghost hunting. And that's oftentimes intermixed with true crime. So I just suggested one day, I think at like dinner or even on a walk or something that we should do a podcast. We're like, OK, let's do it. And we thought by the end of this year, we'd have what, like 100,000 plays? Yeah.

Definitely. What was your goal at the beginning of this year? At the beginning of the year, I wanted to hit a million downloads. And I remember thinking like that is going to be so hard to hit, but I really, really want to hit it. And so that was just my goal from the beginning. I never pictured that we would be doubled that at this, at the one year anniversary mark. So I'm blown away at the response we've gotten. Seriously. You guys have been amazing online. Yeah.

And yeah, that's kind of the story of Murder in America. At the beginning, we were definitely trying to figure stuff out. At the beginning, it's crazy. We were pumping out two episodes a week, which is like nowadays, I don't know what the hell has happened with us, but it's like we can, the maximum would be one episode a week because it's like so taxing. Well, also at the beginning, we were doing like 20 minute long episodes. Now we're doing more of like hours long.

hour-long episodes, but it's also so funny because I always hear people say, like, if you don't cringe at your first episodes, then you haven't grown. And I seriously listened to our first episode about the yogurt shop murders, and I laugh so hard. Like, if y'all go back, I literally read, like,

And then they went to the store and then they got shot. And like, I did not know what I was doing at all. Yeah, that's rough. Definitely rough on me, too. I feel like I was more like and then the Austin yogurt, like yelling it. You know what I mean? And I was the complete opposite. I was like very monotone. Very. I just I feel like we've grown a lot. So good on us. Yeah. High five.

Okay, guys, with that, we're going to head to an ad break. We'll be back very soon with some news about the Houston Candyman. And then, did I just say Candyman? I said that really strangely. Well, this episode, we are going to be talking about updates in the true crime world. And then we're going to end the episode with an in-depth look at the Astroworld tragedy. So stick around for that. See you on the flip.

Hello, everyone. The holidays came early this year, not only for you, but also for your man here at Manscaped, the leading men's hygiene brand. Manscaped just launched new products that your man will actually use, including their all-new ultra-premium body wash and a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. It's time to give the man in your life the gift of beautiful skin and hair this holiday season.

Go to manscaped.com and use the code MIA for 20% off plus free shipping. It's so important to keep yourself groomed and to keep good hygiene in those areas. So the Manscaped Performance Package 4.0 is a perfect gift for your man.

Inside of the Performance Package 4.0, you will find the signature Lawn Mower 4.0. This electric trimmer has proprietary advanced skin-safe technology, so there won't be any cuts down there. It's also waterproof so he can use it in the shower.

The Manscaped Performance Package 4.0 also includes a crop preserver and crop reviver, an anti-chafing ball deodorant, moisturizer, and toner. Tis the season to load up on Manscaped products. Get 20% off plus free shipping with the code MIA at manscaped.com. Every guy has Manscaped on their wishlist, so get them a product that they'll actually use this holiday season. And with that, we'll take you back to our story.

Okay, before we get into Astroworld and all of that, there's so much to unpackage there. We've got some true crime updates to discuss. Courtney, you want to start us off? Yeah, so there are some, I don't know,

I don't know if I would say developments, but the Houston Candyman, if any of y'all know that case, I think you've talked about it a lot. Colin has a whole entire episode on his YouTube channel about it. But he was a serial killer in Houston, which is where I grew up. And he would kidnap, torture, rape, and murder young men in the Houston area. Young boys, really? Yeah, young boys. They were all...

Yeah, so I had an episode recently on the Paranormal Files, my YouTube channel, where we dug super deep into the story of Dean Corll, the Candyman. Courtney and I, once again, actually went to Dean Corll's house where he was murdered by one of his accomplices. We visited...

his body dumping site, the boat shed. We went to the beach where he had dumped bodies. Um, and we even went to his grave, which is interesting because most serial killers or killers in general are buried in prison cemeteries and Candyman was never actually tried for any of his crimes or anything. So he was allowed to be buried outside of the, uh, the prison cemetery because he was never like, you know, formally arrested and whatnot. Yeah.

Yeah, so Dean Corll was actually murdered before anyone ever knew he was a killer, which is really unfortunate. But his teenage accomplices, the boys that helped him kidnap these boys and kill them, they actually murdered Dean Corll before he was ever even suspected of being a killer. So unfortunately, he died with everyone thinking he was just a normal guy.

And yeah, that's the whole thing is that since he was never formally interviewed, investigated, sentenced to anything, he never really had the chance with police or authorities to

to reveal where all of his victims were buried. And that leads us to our new news. This is crazy. Like back in the day when Dean Corll was murdered, the candy man, his accomplices helped the police find a number of the bodies of Dean Corll's victims, but allegedly they didn't find them all. According to Elmer Wayne Henley, who was Dean's like right-hand man, he was a teenager when they first met and he ended up

like we said already helping kidnap and facilitate the rape, torture and murder of these boys. According to Elmer, there are more bodies out there and just, I think, what was it this week? Yeah. This week. Yeah. They, the police in Houston once again began digging up properties. They specifically dig, dig up. They specifically dug up Dean Coral's backyard at his house where Courtney and I were filming. Um,

in search of additional victims and bodies that may have been lost.

Yeah, there are still at least 20 victims that are unaccounted for. And it's crazy to me that they're just now digging up his property. Like this was 50 years ago and the police department was fully aware that he killed dozens of young boys. And so the fact that they're just now getting around to searching his property is just crazy to me. But hopefully they can find some and they can bring their families some closure. Yeah.

Yeah, and it was interesting digging into, we got a mic issue there. It's interesting digging into the case because there are these lost bodies and victims that were suspected, but there's no confirmation. It's a very open-ended story. There's no closure for a lot of these families who's

sons went missing during that time period. And when we filmed, I think it's called seven mile beach, right? Um, we went to the beach where a number of the bodies had been buried. And like, for example, one of the bodies that was claimed to have been buried there was never found. And a hurricane had swept in at one point and moved the shoreline further up. So online it's officially listed, uh, this victim's body as lost at sea.

Which is like, what happens then? Is the body like still under the sand or did they, did the remains float up? It's, it's like, it's the, the case is just confusion all around really.

Right. And it's just, it's really sad because, I mean, just to think that your son is lost at sea and then there's 20 other victims' families who still don't have answers. And so hopefully this week that they can, I hope that they find something so we can bring a little bit of closure to this case.

Yeah, we'll keep you guys updated on our Instagram if investigators find anything. Obviously, that's something we would post immediately. But another interesting thing that we came across, I actually found this one day just scrolling through the news because I had posted a TikTok about this case months ago. But...

If you guys don't know, the Walker County Jane Doe, a Jane Doe is a body that's discovered and it's never identified. Back in 1980, a young girl was found raped and strangled to death on the side of I-45, which is a highway in Texas. And investigators determined that

The girl was around 14 to 18 years old, but she didn't match any missing persons cases, so no one knew who she was. And for years, decades, she was only known as the Walker County Jane Doe.

Yeah, so they found her on the side of I-45 and they believe she was strangled with her pantyhose that were found near her body. But just this past week, they finally identified her after 40, I think it's 41 years. Is that right? Yeah. But she was finally identified as 14-year-old Sherry Ann Jarvis from Stillwater, Minnesota.

Investigators, interestingly enough, had been testing her DNA for years and they came up with nothing. But this past year, luckily enough, they were able to find six people, six people who shared Sherry Ann Jarvis's DNA. So eventually the authorities reached out to her family and they learned that 14 year old Sherry was removed from her home for habitual truancy. She was placed in a foster care system, but she ran away shortly after.

Yeah, so for 41 years, her family never even knew that she was dead. They just assumed she ran away. And somehow she ended up in Texas. No one really knows how. But on her last day of life, it was actually Halloween. She was seen near a truck stop and she was asking people for directions to the Huntsville prison.

Um, my grandpa actually used to work there. Um, but some, for some reason, I don't know if she was in contact with an inmate there, but somehow she made her way from Minnesota down to Texas. And the people that she was asking directions for, they were like, where are your parents? Cause they noticed she looked really young, but she kind of just dismissed it. And then the next thing they know, they find her on the side of I-45. And I just think that

genetic genealogy is a crazy thing in the true crime world. So many people are being brought to justice because of it. So many people are being identified and it's just really, it's such a great thing that we have this now to help bring people to justice, you know? Cause that's what happened with golden state killer, you know, the genealogy, um,

proved that he was like one of the worst killers in California history. And the guy's just staked out at his house, living his life normal as can be. Little does his or little do his neighbors know that this guy is, you know, serious, a serial rapist and murderer, like a hardcore criminal, very, very, very evil and violent man.

So it's interesting to think about like who they might find in the future with all this technology. But the sad thing is that they'll never probably find her killer. And that's going back to the Walker County Jane Doe. It's a great break in the case to identify her. But I mean, there's still no real lead on who may have done this to her. Well, the thing is, you can't solve a case without

It's very difficult to solve a case if you don't know who your victim is. So it's very, it's always the first priority anytime you find a body to find out who it is. Because if you don't know who it is, you can't trace who they were talking to, where they were, where they're from. There's kind of no leads to take in the case. And that's how it was for Sherry for 40 years on.

Um, but investigators now are saying, now that we know who she is, hopefully we can find who killed her. Um, apparently the, um, investigators in Huntsville, um, even sent her picture around to the prison and they were asking the inmates, like, do you know who this girl is?

but nobody came forward, but obviously no one would come forward, but none of them would have kept like, obviously no inmate killed her because they were in prison. And so a lot of people believe that, I mean, someone picked her up at a truck stop or somewhere in Houston and,

took advantage of her because she was vulnerable. She didn't have any family there. She, she was 14. She was a baby and she was all by herself. So someone clearly took advantage of that and killed her. So hopefully now that we know who she is, we can find out who killed her. And I mean, that just brings up something interesting to kind of discuss and consider. Um,

Jane does in general on, uh, one of our first, I believe it was actually our first Patreon bonus episode. We talked about a baby that had been found in Galveston with its throat slashed and it's called, or the grave says little darling or little darling. And it's like, I doing the paranormal have been to thousands of cemeteries and

And not only is there always like some sort of a potter's field where people who couldn't really afford to have headstones and whatnot were buried in the cemetery, but there are additionally lots and lots of graves around the United States and even, you know, globally buried.

that just say unidentified person, murder victims. There are gravestones that literally say like unidentified murder victim, victim of John Wayne Gacy is one. I know for a fact, one of John Wayne's victims remains are not identified to this day. And their, their gravestone just says something like that, like victim number 34 or something like that.

Yeah, and also Colin and I kind of went on a rabbit hole the other day because I came across an entire Facebook page about,

where they post pictures of unidentified bodies and there are hundreds like I'm not even exaggerating from all over the U.S. it's just hundreds and hundreds of pictures of these dead bodies where they're basically begging like please share this information this person's unidentified and we need to find who killed them some of the people that are on the Facebook page are

have been unidentified since 1990, 2000. So their bodies have just been sitting there unidentified forever. And the pictures of them are out on the internet for everyone to find them, which is actually something that we're going to bring up in the Astroworld case. But we'll get to that in a second. Yeah. And that's, I mean, that is just some really

tough stuff to think about and try to reconcile with as a human. I mean that, that page we were looking at, um, do you remember, was it from, I think Florida or yeah, Florida. But I mean, that's just, that's the morgue unit from one County in Florida, a County, uh,

And how many thousands of counties are there across the entire country? I mean, there are so many people that have not been identified. And that's why that technology that's coming out now is such a great step forward in just solving these cases, because not only can it help identify murderers,

murderers and these serial rapists and killers that terrorized places, but it can also help identify people who died from overdoses and just, you know, victims of different crimes and domestic abuse incidents like that. People that didn't really get justice. And not only did they not get justice, cause I mean, their killer was obviously never caught, but, uh,

They, they, their families didn't even know what happened to them. So that's, I think a very, very cool thing that they have finally started to implement. And what's crazy back to episode number one of murder in America. I don't know.

I mean, I know there's something with the FBI and how this all happens, but the yogurt shop murders, they have the DNA of the killers. But for some reason, like APD Austin police, they're not allowed to run tests on it, which is, I mean, some sort of technicality in the government. But it's like, I don't know why you would stop that from happening. Because I remember a news article coming out, I think this year, where they were talking about

The police here in Austin where we're recording this podcast, they want to test the DNA, but they're not allowed to. That's insane to me. And the four girls that were murdered in the yogurt shop, their families never got any justice. They had to go through entire trials where people were giving false confessions. And that in itself is just traumatic that the families had to go through all of that. But then the fact that they have the DNA and they can't test it for whatever reason is

is just horrible but hopefully we'll be getting answers on that soon but it is just such a great thing that we have dna now and i know a lot of killers that haven't been caught yet are probably freaking out that

Yeah, because they're coming up next and hopefully we will be able to catch a lot more killers here in the future. But I think it's time to talk about Astroworld. Yeah, guys, we're going to take a commercial break real quick. Stick with us through the ad once again.

You guys interacting with our sponsors is what helps keep the show afloat. So please, in the Christmas season, help us out, help your favorite show out and purchase one thing from one of our advertisers, advertisers or sponsors, because that is what truly helps bring you guys murder in America. So we're going to cut to that now and we'll be back with Travis Scott's Astroworld.

This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Now, everybody out there that's listening, is there something that's interfering with your pursuit of happiness? For myself, it's definitely my anxiety. It's something that I have to deal with every single day, but through BetterHelp, I've been able to control my anxiety. BetterHelp will assess your needs and match you with your very own licensed professional therapist, and you can start communicating with them in under 48 hours.

This is not a crisis line. It's not self-help. It is professional therapy done securely online. There are a number of different professionals that come from a broad range of expertise on BetterHelp, and it's totally confidential. It's online. It's you and your therapist. The service is available for clients worldwide. You can talk over the computer. You can do weekly video or phone sessions online.

And by doing that, you don't have to go into a clinic. You don't have to go in anywhere. You can get this help right from your couch, from your chair at home. It's really, really helpful. BetterHelp wants you to start living a happier life today. You can visit their website, read their testimonials that people post daily. There are lots of people that have found help with BetterHelp.

So visit BetterHelp.com slash MIA. That's BetterHelp.com slash MIA. And join the over 2 million people who have taken charge of their mental health with the help of an experienced professional. Once again, special offer for Murder in America listeners. Get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com slash MIA. Let's get back to the show.

So I woke up on Saturday, November 6th, and I saw the Astroworld tragedy on social media. And Colin was still asleep, so I immediately woke him up. And I was like, oh my God, did you know? Well, obviously you didn't know, but I was like, eight people died at Astroworld. And he didn't even believe me. He was like, no, they didn't. Like, he thought I was joking with him for some reason, but...

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was almost like to me, I wanted to believe it was a joke. Because strangely enough, my sister was there at Astroworld. So to give you guys some context, how weird that is. I'm from South Dakota, and my sister is also from South Dakota, obviously. But I moved to Austin almost six years ago. And then, you know, three years ago,

Two years, I don't know exactly. But my sister came down to Texas and moved to Denton, which is near Dallas, about a three and a half hour drive. But the night before Astroworld, I had actually driven up from Austin to Dallas area to Denton to spend my sister's 21st birthday with her. She invited me up. I met her boyfriend. It was a really fun night. And that next day, she and her boyfriend left Austin.

from Denton to go to Astroworld. And just real quickly, I'll tell you her story because it's crazy. Her boyfriend had lost his wristband to get into Astroworld and they actually got to Houston from Denton literally

later than they thought they would. So when they got there, it was already late and he lost his wristband. So they had to wait in like a 45 minute long line to replace it. And then when they got in there, they went to try get merch and it was all sold out. And so all these consequences led to them getting to the concert almost immediately.

immediately as Travis Scott started. So they weren't deep in the crowd, but some of their friends were actually at the barricade at the front of the concert and they were getting crushed. They were getting really mangled and, uh,

My sister and her boyfriend were sitting in the back and I just called her. Her name's Tessa. I just talked to her the other day. And at one point during the concert, they saw a group of people just start running from the crowd back towards them, screaming out that people are dying. People are dying. You need to leave. And apparently the entire crowd around my sister, Tessa and her boyfriend, just, they all took off running backwards. And so did my sister. So,

And she said she was crying. She was afraid for her life. She thought that it could have been like a shooter situation because it was so chaotic. And yeah, I woke up like thinking, you know, you got to be joking. Astral world, like something happened there. But then it kind of hit me like, oh, my God, my sister was was there. Yeah. And I mean, yeah.

It's not surprising to hear in this day and age that eight people died, but it's usually from like a shooting or something like that. And the fact that all of these people went to this concert to have a nice night and to have fun with their friends, um,

And then it ended in such a tragedy. It's just so horrible. It really is hard to believe. I mean, but then at the same time, like I have been in a Travis Scott crowd before. I mean, it was just at ACL. I can't even imagine what Astroworld was like, but I was... ACL is Austin City Limits for people who don't know that reference. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's the festival here in Austin. But he performed in Austin a few years back and I was...

really up there in the crowd, very close to the stage. And I remember I was, it was traumatic. I had to get a security guard to carry me over the side and,

And I'm sure it was not even close to the amount of chaos that was in the Astroworld crowd. So such a horrible tragedy. And our hearts go out to everyone that was there that night. I know that a lot of people from that night experienced a lot of PTSD. And it's just a horrible experience. But we are going to kind of dive into everything that we know that happened that night. And yeah, before we get into that real quick, I want to...

highlight one crowd crush story that I actually experienced in high school. Um,

I'm a huge metal head, love rock and roll music. I've used to, you know, playing metal bands and stuff. So I have a heavy relationship with heavier music. And I used to go see any metal show and every metal show near me. And Rob Zombie still is one of my favorite artists, my favorite film director. And I saw Rob Zombie in Sioux City, Iowa, totally random place to see Rob Zombie at the Tyson event center, like Tyson, like chicken nuggets. It's just funny to me, but yeah,

My dad and I went to see Rob Zombie together and this crowd was so tight that I couldn't breathe. I was close to the front. He and I were talking about like, dude, this is getting like sketchy being up here because I can barely breathe. My dad's right now almost, well, he is 60 now. He just turned 60, but he was with me. And while this crowd was like,

And you could barely breathe. This gigantic, like six, five guy from behind my dad reached up from the crowd crush and just grabbed him on the shoulder. And this guy had long black hair hanging over his eyes down past his shoulders. And he really looked like the grim Reaper, like the Reaper of death, uh,

And he's grabbed my dad. My dad will tell you the same story because he was freaked out by it. And the guy would not let go. My dad like kept shooing his hand away. And at the end of that concert, a woman ended up biting my dad on the back during this crowd crush thing. And it drew blood, which is like just insane to me. And that was just a Rob Zombie show that did not turn deadly.

I've also heard a lot of people say that a lot of metal shows are like the crowd is honestly nice. Like, yeah, people are raging and having mosh pits everywhere. But like you even told me, like, if you fall down, people pick you up. Yeah, that's basic code at a metal show. Any mosh pit. I was in a mosh pit at a Slayer show and I got dead.

just totally tanked, like almost slammed, body slammed to the ground and the entire mosh pit just stopped and waited until I was up to keep moshing. And that's the way to do it because you're all there to have fun, but no one actually wants to like, you know, hurt someone and obviously not kill someone. Yeah. It's just, it's so horrible that, that all of this happened this way, but let's go ahead and go through kind of the whole action.

Astroworld event. First of all, Travis Scott is a Houston native and anyone that grew up in Houston remembers Six Flags Astroworld. I literally used to go there all the time. It's an amusement. It was an amusement park in Houston. I went there all the time when I was younger. It was basically like the Disneyland of Texas and

And so many people have so many memories from there. But it ended up getting shut down and they tore it all down in 2006 because of financial issues.

And I remember I remember vividly when they tore it down and everyone was so sad. So many people had so many memories there, including Travis Scott. Yeah. Travis Scott's real name is not Travis Scott. It's Jock Webster.

And he really started rising to fame in 2012. But in 2018, the album Astroworld that Travis released, which contained songs like Sicko Mode. I know in the clubs, I used to totally like headbang Sicko Mode. Great song.

That was the album that really made him and really made him popular. And so Travis has this association with Astroworld. And that's, what's crazy about all of this is that that is his brand through and through. That is his like biggest album. That is his music festival. Like the literal entrance to the festival is on the album cover. So that forever, forever,

It's going to be, you know, marred with darkness because of this extremely tragic event that just happened. Yeah. So after he made his album, he wanted to kind of create Astroworld, not only because it was his album, but also to bring, it was almost like a nostalgic thing for Houstonians. Like it's Astroworld. Yeah.

But at the same time, it kind of brings back these old memories because the Astroworld Festival, it has music, it has rides, food. It was supposed to be like a nostalgic thing, but unfortunately it will forever be known as kind of what happened there, you know? And I personally don't think they're going to have Astroworld again. No. And I didn't realize that the...

Music Festival Astroworld is in the exact same place as the theme park Astroworld. I'm actually learning that right now for the first time. Yeah, it's in the exact same location that Astroworld was when it was running back in the early 2000s. And that kind of plays into the whole nostalgia of all of it. It's like a place where you can come back and have fun. But I mean, that clearly was not the case on November 5th.

So first Astroworld was in 2018, living in Texas. Everybody here saw news articles about Astroworld. I remember a lot of my friends from Houston said that they had gone and it reminded them of Astroworld, the theme park. And you got a lot of good press. I mean, they had rides, food, music once again. And they had the festival in 2018 and 2019.

In 2019, they had three reported injuries. Now, nobody died there. There was no fatal injury reported, but it was weren't they trampled? Weren't the people trampled at the beginning? Yeah. In 2019, three people were trampled. But in 2021, there were over 300 injuries. So we went from three in 2019 to 300. That's 100 times the injuries. That's crazy, actually. Yeah.

And they didn't have a festival in 2020, obviously because of Corona. So like, I don't know if people being cooped up in their homes made the crowd more rowdy or what, but so many people that went there said that the energy of the crowd this year was completely different than the energy of the first few years. So I don't know. It's just, it's weird that people were a lot more

They were raging a lot harder this year, you know? Well, I think also, I mean, coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, people are ready to express feelings and...

and ready to connect with people. And when it's an artist like Travis Scott, where it's like a gigantic show, because like even with metal shows, most of the time, it's not even like a fourth of that crowd. Like Travis Scott is a very popular artist. So if you get a shitload of people that are all for the most part ready to like just go crazy, that's I think also where part of the chaos line was like,

coming out of the pandemic people were just ready to truly let go and also travis scott's crowd is known to be like hardcore that's i mean everyone's known that from since since he got popular their crowd his crowd is a completely different breed than others

Okay, everybody, this is our last ad break. Once again, a reminder that these ads are what make the show possible. So please listen. And if you are so inclined, pick up something for Christmas for your loved ones. We'll be right back with the rundown of what happened at 2021's Astroworld.

Brushing your teeth. It's not the most exciting subject to talk about, but I want to introduce you guys to a new product and company that has really helped me improve my own hygiene habits. Quip. Good health starts with good habits and Quip makes it easy by delivering all the oral care essentials you need to care for your mouth.

The Quip electric toothbrush is loved by over 7 million people worldwide and has timed sonic vibrations with 30 second pulses to guide a dentist recommended two minute clean. It's lightweight, it's sleek, it's really, really a high quality toothbrush. And on top of your brushing, you can upgrade your Quip with a new smart motor to track and improve your brushing with the free Quip app.

Beyond the brush, Quip, the company has everything you need to build a complete routine. They have anti-cavity toothpaste in mint or watermelon flavor. They also have two ways to floss, floss string that expands to clean and reusable floss picks that replace over 180 disposable picks with every refill.

In addition to brush heads, Quip also delivers fresh floss, toothpaste, mouthwash, and gum refills every three months from $5. Shipping is free so you can save money and skip the hustle and bustle of in-store shopping. With electric brushes starting at just $25, you won't be paying through the teeth for better oral health.

If you go to getquip.com slash miamerica right now, you'll get your first refill free. That's your first refill free at getquip.com slash miamerica spelled G-E-T-Q-U-I-P dot com slash miamerica.

So the first issue with Astroworld was the fact that people ran in. They knocked down the gates and they stormed through. If you saw the videos on Twitter, there were literally hundreds of people running in. And this was the first big problem that they had because Astroworld

For one, the festival was sold out. And the fact that people were running in means that it was over capacity, which is a problem in and of itself. But also a reason that this was a big issue was because, I mean, we live in the era of mass shootings and shootings.

Anyone could have run in there and they could have had a gun and the crowd was so big that they could have done a lot of damage. So that in itself, they should have done something. Yeah. And the festival officials were very aware of all this. And the Houston police department was as well. In fact, the Houston police chief, Troy Finner actually went to Travis Scott's trailer hours before his concert started and told him he was concerned with the energy of the crowd. Obviously that was the wrong choice from the get go.

And I mean, when you look at it, the music festival itself had a lot of performers, but the people who at the end of the day were big Travis Scott fans, they stood at the front of the stage for hours trying to get as close as they could to Travis Scott. And from what we've gathered, what we've been able to tell from all of this, everyone said that at first thing, Travis

Well, at the beginning, I should say it was very comfortable. The concert had a great energy, a great vibe, but you had space to move around. You weren't touching the people around you. It seemed like the night was going to go very well. But as we all know now, it wasn't going to.

So the festival itself was actually promoted by Score More Shows and Live Nation, and they were to live stream the entire Travis Scott performance. And he was supposed to come on stage at 9 p.m. At about 8.30 p.m., all of the other performers of the festival had finished. So at this time, everyone started making their way over to the Travis Scott stage.

And according to everyone that was there, there was a countdown timer on the screen that was counting down the time for when Travis Scott was to come on stage. And everyone said that as soon as this timer came on, the crowd started to push forward.

They said that once the timer was going down, people started getting rowdy, getting really excited for the show. And this is the point where people started to get crushed. And what was once a lot of space where you could move around was now a space where you couldn't move at all.

An ICU nurse named Madeline Eskins. She was in the crowd that night and we're going to play you a clip now. This was her third Astroworld experience. And this is how she described the beginning of the concert. So at 830, he started to count down on the main screen, like a timer, until he performed what it was for. And when he started the timer, people started pushing. They pushed forward and then other people would push back and forward and back.

As the timer got closer to zero, it got really, really bad. I was trying, I couldn't even turn my head to tell my boyfriend anything. I mean, we were packed in there. So I had people shoving me from behind, shoving me from the front on both sides. It's getting really hard to breathe. Officials said that at this point in the night, there were about 50,000 people at the stage. That is a massive amount of people.

And at around 9 p.m. when Travis Scott came onto the stage, the crowd began to surge forward. And this immediately started causing injuries among the crowd. I was trying to jump up and lift my head up so I could get air. And whenever he started performing, I looked at my boyfriend. I tried to look at my boyfriend. I only got about this far. And I told him, I said, we have to get out. We have to get out. And he said, we can't.

Because we couldn't, we couldn't move. We could not, you couldn't go forward, backwards, inside. You couldn't do anything. The only way to go was up. Another person in the crowd that night was this girl named Sienna. I don't know her last name, but her Instagram handle is Sienna Faith. And she wrote a very detailed account on what she experienced that night saying, quote, within the first 30 seconds of the first song, people began to drown in other people, end quote.

She would go on to say, the rush of people became tighter and tighter. Breathing became something that only few were capable of. The rest were crushed or unable to breathe in the thick, hot air. My friend began to gasp for breath, and she told me we needed to get out. We tried, but there was nowhere to go. Incredibly powerful to hear stories from people who were there at Astroworld. Obviously, I've heard my sister's story, but from other people, it's just...

Hard to believe that this actually happened. It's important to note that at the concert itself, there were chest-high barriers that were blocking people from exiting the crowd. If you look at the diagrams of other concerts and how they're typically set up and the barricades, at Astroworld, it was almost like a cattle holding pen where people only had one way to enter and exit the crowd. And that created so many issues for everybody that was there.

And Travis Scott didn't even make it through the first song before people started losing consciousness and the crowd. And the most horrifying factor was that if you passed out, you didn't have any way to get out. And you kind of just fell to the ground while everyone around you just died.

continued to rage, essentially. Several people would come forward and say that they watched as unconscious people were literally laying on the ground, getting stomped all over their bodies. And they were completely unconscious, obviously getting very injured. And the people around them just kind of didn't really do anything about it. I remember I was about to tell my boyfriend to tell my son that I loved him because I

As it went on, it got to the point where I was like, I'm going to die. Like, I really, truly thought that I was going to get crushed to the point where my trachea was going to get crushed, my chest. I thought I was going to die. So I fainted. I think it was, I don't even, I don't remember what song was playing. I don't remember anything. I just know that he had just started. And I fainted. And her, my boyfriend, and a gentleman that reached out to me on Instagram and said he helped my boyfriend.

They basically crowd surfed my unconscious body four feet to the right to a security guard. 'Cause after trying to get the, from my boyfriend, he said that he tried to get your attention and you just couldn't 'cause they were carrying so many people over that finally him and a just good Samaritan that happened to be there lifted me up. And they just crowd surfed my unconscious body over to the security guard. - We found this video on YouTube called How Crowds Can Kill You on the channel Brain Stuff.

And basically in the video, he explains how a crowd crush happens. And it's pretty eye opening if you don't really understand the concept of a crowd crush. Excuse the happy music playing in the background. This is supposed to be an educational video and the music doesn't really match the tone of this story. But here's a clip of him kind of explaining the science behind what happened.

So there's a couple of ways that you can actually die in a high density crowd. The first one's called a crowd crush. Now, when you first start to get to about six people per square meter, the individuals lose their ability to move around. The next step is that you lose your ability to move your arms from your sides.

And as people pack in further and further, the pressure from all sides keeps your lungs from inflating and deflating, which means you lose your ability to breathe. What's amazing and horrific is that people suffocate in crowds because they're squeezed so tightly by the people pressing against them. And that is essentially what was happening to people the first few minutes of the show. And one of the craziest things to me is that we live in a world where everything is documented.

I mean, if you have seen the videos of people at Astroworld, I mean, the look on people's faces are horrifying. People are screaming for help. They're crying. And the look on everyone's face, you can tell that everyone is in a state of panic.

And it's horrible to hear these stories, but to actually see them in these videos and to see the chaos unfold, it genuinely makes me sick to my stomach when I would watch it. I mean, I felt like,

watching these videos of people, I felt claustrophobic myself. And to just see that you could tell that they were scared for their lives, which makes it so horrible. Yeah. At this point in the show, people are screaming for help, but the music at that, at that time was so loud that no one was getting the help that they needed.

While the music is just blasting through the speakers, people are passing out in the crowd. If you were lucky, you got passed over the barriers to a security guard, to the police, and to the EMS services. But if you weren't so lucky, you were one of the people that fell to the ground and got trampled. Now,

Now, in the next part of the crowd crush video we were just playing for you guys, the guy explains exactly what happens when people start to fall among the crowd. - Another way you can die in a crowd is what's called progressive crowd collapse. So say you have a bunch of people crowded together in a high density crowd and one of them falls down.

That creates a hole in this crowd, and the people who were formerly leaning against the person who just fell down start to fall over, and so on and so forth, and a domino effect is created. People start to pile up, and the ones on bottom are literally pressed to death by the humans who have piled up on top of them. Sienna describes this crowd collapse in her Instagram post, saying, quote, Once one fell, a hole opened in the ground. It was like watching a Jenga tower topple.

Person after person were sucked down. You could not guess from which direction the shove of hundreds of people would come next. You were at the mercy of the wave. End quote.

And if you saw pictures on Twitter, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. We will post some on our Instagram, but it's literally piles and piles of people on top of each other. Yeah, you can just see like three layers of people piled on top of each other. It's just it's hard to believe this happened in real life at a concert. And the look on their faces, the look on all of these people's faces is

is horrifying. And the worst part is that once you fell at the concert, it was almost impossible to get up. I read stories of people who literally had to bite other people because someone had fallen on top of them and that that person's leg was on their neck and that biting the person was the only way they could let them know that they needed to get up.

Yeah, it was genuinely a life or death type situation. And I can't even imagine the PTSD that all of these people had while they were fighting for their lives.

And an eerie part to me is that these people that were on the ground getting trampled, they came to the conclusion that they were going to die that night. They accepted death. And as they were on the ground and people were stomping at them, they looked around and they saw everyone else having a good time, jumping around, dancing, completely unaware that people were literally dying five feet in front of them.

Sienna also described in her post that she saw terror in the eyes of people around her, and even though the music was loud, she could hear the shriek of animals. At one point, she fell on the ground, and she saw piles of people beneath her, and she said she felt a primal fear rip through her body.

Being in this crowd was essentially every man for himself. I mean, people said that they literally felt the bodies of unconscious people beneath their feet, but they couldn't even do anything about it because they themselves were trying to stay upright. And a scene that Sienna described was one that I haven't been able to get out of my mind. She said that she saw a man lying face up and people were just stomping all over his body.

Now, luckily, Sienna was able to get out of the crowd. And if you've seen the viral videos, you've likely seen Sienna herself. She, along with a guy named Aiden Cruz, ran up to the cameraman that was filming the performance and they tried to inform him on what was happening in the crowd.

In the video, you can hear the desperation in their voices as they plead with the cameraman to stop the show. But as we all know now, the show was not stopped. Now, keep in mind, this was only the beginning of the concert. Travis Scott was only about three to four songs in and dozens upon dozens of people were unconscious and already needing medical help.

At this time, Madeline Eskins, the ICU nurse that we talked about before, she was coming to after her unconscious body was crowd surfed to safety. And when she was alert enough to see what was happening, she said this. I look and they're carrying this guy out and they're about to set him down. And I noticed he looked really bad. His eyes were rolled in the back of his head. He was completely limp. He did not look good. I asked the security guard, I said, have you checked the pulse on this man?

He said, I don't know how to do that. He's like, please help. So I checked a pulse. I did not feel a pulse. His eyes were rolled in the back of his head. His pupils weren't reacting. I shined my flashlight in there. I said, do not drop him off here to go get someone else. You need to go take this man to the medical tent. Take him somewhere. Go. I cleared the way. Another security guard overheard me say, because at first, before I told him that, let me rewind. I told him, I was like, I'm an ICU nurse. I've worked in the ED before. I have experience with this. Let me help instead of just trying to shove through me.

The other security guard had overheard me tell the man that, tell the security guard that. So I, he came to me, he said, hey, we need your help up here. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. Nothing. I mean, I work in ICU. I see people die every week. I, when I was working in the ER, that's, we get people coming to us that are, you know, have CPRs in progress all the time. I saw three people laid out on the ground.

and maybe four medics doing CPR on three people. One of them was blue, the guy that looked the worst. I ran over to the medic and I said, do you have an AED? Do you have an ambu bag? What do we have? How long have you been doing compressions? I just started asking the question. She said, I don't know. I said, has anybody relieved you from compressions? She's like, no.

There were other civilians trying to help do CPR that didn't know how. I mean, teenagers, 19 years old, I asked how old he was. 19 years old trying to do CPR at 18. I mean, I'm only 23 myself, but still. So I take over compressions. As I'm doing compressions, I'm asking the medics around me. I said, where do we have an AED? Do we have...

do we have an ambu bag, which is to give them breaths? Uh, I said, what do we have? Do we have an IV kit? So I could put an IV. Do we have meds like epinephrine to give them? They were like, we have one AD. We have nothing. We have one AD and it's over there. And I look and

there's a woman as i'm doing questions she's got pads on her the shock pads is the best way to explain it um they found the ambu bag they brought it to us and so someone started giving him breaths as i was doing compressions i told them the medic i don't know what they were i don't know if they were paramedics i'm not sure what they were some of them seem to have some experience some of them seem to have little to none experience with this situation

I looked at him, I said, "I need you to find a femoral pulse." Because the man was very heavy, it was hard to get a carotid pulse. There's a lot of adipose tissue, fat tissue. I said, "I need you to get a femoral pulse up by the groin." He said, "I can get a radial pulse. I don't know where that is." I said, "No, you need a femoral pulse or a carotid." And he's like, "I don't know how to do that." So since he knew how to give compressions, I had him take over compressions, felt for a pulse. Whenever we did pulse checks, there was no pulse checks going on. It was madness. It was madness.

They pulled someone over the rails. After I found some other nurses or medical staff that were in the crowd, they identified themselves as such, started jumping in to help with compressions so we could relieve the medics that had been doing it for, I don't even know how long, I have no idea how long these people had been pulseless. They started bringing more bodies over. They started trying to do CPR on someone. I said, "You have got to check a pulse book where you do CPR. If they have a pulse, you don't do CPR. You'll break ribs."

and just make the situation worse. Checked a pulse on a guy that they had been, they tried, they started doing CPR. I said, no, he has a pulse, get him out of here. There was only one stretcher. These were big people, weren't able to get people out. All we could do is just try and keep them awake and just keep them alive to the best of our abilities. We had someone else come over. I checked him, no pulse, started CPR on him.

I mean, it was madness. The people running the festival were alerted of this chaos at 9.11 p.m. And even though there were over 500 police officers at the festival, officials stated that, quote, there's not a lot we can do. Stand by for now. We'll just have to wait. But the concert management will let us know.

At around 9.21 p.m., officials stated, looks like folks are coming out of the crowd complaining of difficulty breathing, crushing type injuries. Seems like the crowd is compressing on itself, end quote.

By 9.38 p.m., Astroworld had been declared a mass casualty event. People said that there were unconscious bodies everywhere in the VIP section, and there are even videos of people doing CPR in the crowd while everyone around is videoing the concert and having a great time. At some point, the crowd was getting so dangerous that people even started to chant for Travis Scott to stop the show.

Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show! Stop the show!

But the show never stopped. People in the crowd were saying that they felt like they were dying, like they were in hell as Travis's songs played loudly through the crowd.

Travis at one point surprised the massive audience by bringing Drake, another rapper, on stage, and this only seemed to make matters worse. When Drake came out, the crowd went absolutely crazy. Here's another video of the crowd, or some audio from a video, where people are clearly in distress. Go! Go! Go!

*Demonstration*

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo,

There's also one video of a guy seizing in the crowd and the people around this poor guy start screaming, trying to get Travis Scott's attention. And Travis eventually does stop the show to get the man to safety. But, you know, that was only one small incident while all these other people were passing out and whatnot around him.

Now, at one point, they have ambulances driving through the crowd trying to get to people in need. And it's obvious when you see the videos that the ambulance is clearly having a hard time getting through to the people that they're trying to reach. And as they're going through the crowd, these idiots just jump on top and they just start dancing on them like there's not someone in need right up ahead. Crazy. I mean, that is deep.

messed up, very, very dark to actually jump on an emergency vehicle as it's responding to an emergency. And that guy actually posted on Instagram afterwards, identifying himself as the man in the video. I don't know exactly what quote he had with it, but it was something along the lines of cancel culture is going to come after me. But if you know me, you know that I rage. I'm not going to apologize, which is so insensitive, especially after all the deaths. And that was literally the next day after the concert when he posted that.

This guy knew that eight people died and apparently he didn't feel sorry about what he had done by jumping on the emergency response vehicles. He was actually like proud of it, which is just very dark. But a lot of people online were just totally enraged that he posted this and eventually he deleted his Instagram.

Yeah, it's so horrible. And it's even worse because Travis saw the ambulance going through the crowd. And at one point he says, what the fuck is that? And then he sits there for for a few minutes and then he just continues the concert saying, put your middle fingers up.

um and I just think that this is really upsetting because he if he saw that ambulance driving through the crowd trying to get to people in need he could have taken a few minutes to just say hey guys let's move aside let's let that ambulance through um but instead he just keeps going and I think that that was a huge flaw in his part on his part um

And I think if he would have just taken the two seconds to do that, I think that the crowd could have calmed down and a lot less people would have gotten hurt. Yeah, it's also upsetting because officials declared the concert as a mass casualty event at 9.38 p.m. So that was, you know,

After 40 minutes, basically after the show started, but the concert did not stop until 10, 10 p.m. So that's a whole 40 minutes after people, you know, started passing out and people were dying, which is crazy to me that they didn't stop it.

Yeah, that's unacceptable. And apparently of all the people that were in charge of the festival, only two had the authority to stop the show, the executive producer and the concert producer. And I want to know why they wouldn't have stopped it. They were clearly aware that people were dying and, you know,

People were saying that the Houston PD said that if they would have stopped the show, it could have caused riots. But I genuinely think that if someone were to have told Travis that people were dying in his crowd, that he could have handled the situation. Because at the end of the day, he's the only person that has control of the crowd. And if he were to tell everyone to stop, they could have handled this a lot better.

Yeah, I mean, just there was so many different things that went wrong about the show. When you really look at like the planning standpoint, the way that the actual concert was set up, the amount of people there, it just it was just a total symphony of errors that led to now 10 confirmed deaths. And when this came out in the news, Courtney and I were both like glued to our phones. We could not.

find enough information about this event because, A, it was in Texas. If you guys don't know, we live in Austin, Texas. B, my sister, like I said at the beginning, she was there at the show. And C, you really don't see this type of stuff happening in America really nowadays. I mean, there have been crowd crushes and incidents in the past, but not for like decades, you know?

Right. And it's also just, like I said earlier, it's crazy with social media nowadays. Everything is documented. And so immediately after it happened, there were so many people on social media posting videos of people unconscious, posting videos of people getting CPR. It was just crazy. And there were numerous videos floating around. Like we said, I saw this one picture on Twitter that

was horrifying. It's still up on Twitter. You can find it if you just look. And it's clearly, the boy in this picture is clearly dead. His face is blue. You can tell by the color of his face that he is not alive. And I ended up finding out he was one of the victims. So it's just sad that there are pictures of...

dead people in the crowd. And then if you look in the background, people are just smiling and having a good time. And it's just, it's horrifying to see it on Twitter. I can't even imagine what that was like to see it in person.

Yeah, I mean, you can go into a deep rabbit hole when you research this stuff. Just because it happened in 2021 and now everybody has a cell phone. Back in the day, like if you talk about the Rolling Stones concert where the Hells Angels stabbed and murdered somebody because they were the hired security, there were no cell phones. You know, I believe they were filming that concert. So they have like video footage of it. But a lot of these other crowd crushes and stuff and things that happen, it doesn't

the footage that emerged came from like one camera and one view. And with this entire event, everybody had a cell phone there. So you got to see too much of the, of the tragedy. If you're on social media, looking at everything, there's one video in specific that was just really sad and hard to handle for me where a girl was getting pulled out of the crowd on a gurney. And she,

I don't know what happened, but the... I believe it was the police, yeah, the cops who were pulling her out. And they literally dropped her right on her head, and she's unconscious. And the crowd gasps all around because they saw it happen right there. And she actually ended up being one of the victims who passed, you know, died. And...

And at the end of the day, after the festival ended, it was reported that over 300 people received medical attention and 25 people were brought to the hospital by ambulances. That's crazy. And eight of those 25 people would die by the end of the night. So by the following day, seven of the victims had been identified. And the New York Times published an article that really describes these victims well. So we are just going to read you what that article says about them.

One of the victims was 21-year-old Franco Patino. He was a senior at University of Dayton in Ohio, and the article says, quote, The university said in a campus-wide email on Saturday, quote,

Mr. Patino was a member of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Alpha Psi Lambda, a Hispanic interest fraternity, the university said. A brother, Julio Patino Jr., said that his younger brother was planning to pursue a career in biomedical engineering and had a particular interest in prosthetics.

Julio Patino Jr. said that his brother was active in volunteer work and regularly sought to help others. Quote, he was just that type of person. He was always there for people he cared about. He had a big heart, end quote. And tragically, one of Franco's best friends was also killed in the crowd. He was there at the concert as well. And his name was Jacob Jurenek.

And he was 20 years old. The article also that we were just quoting stated that Jacob's younger cousins called him Big Jake. The nickname suited Jacob E. Jurinek 20 well, his family said in a statement, because the young man with many friends and a larger than life personality was known for his contagious enthusiasm, his boundless energy and his unwavering positive attitude.

Mr. Jurinek was a junior at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he was studying art and media and was on the dean's list this semester. The chancellor of the school, Austin A. Lane, described him in a statement as a creative, intelligent young man with a promising career in journalism and advertising. Just heartbreaking to read all these details.

The youngest victim at the time was 14-year-old John Hilgert. The article states, quote,

Now, family members, friends, former coaches were left to make sense of his death. On social media, those who knew Mr. Hilgert told similar stories of a young, kind boy who was known for being a good student and an athlete who played baseball and football. The next victim, this list is shocking how long it is, was 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez.

Brianna Rodriguez, 16, was a student at Heights High School in Houston and was a drill dancer as part of the band program. Brianna was someone who performed with the band and was someone who could always make anyone smile, the band said. Although she's gone and she cannot perform with us anymore, we know she'd want to still enjoy our time in Heights.

The next victim was 23-year-old Rudy Pena. He was another one of the young victims that night at Astroworld that passed away. And the article says, quote, Rudy Pena, 23, was another one of the victims.

Yeah, Ben Taub. Yeah.

That I'm just it's really hard to sit here and just read through all these because, wow, what a just loss of life. The next victim was 27 year old Danish Bagg, who was another victim who attended the festival with his brother. And he was also with his fiance. The article states, quote, The brother of Danish Bagg described him in a Facebook post as a beautiful soul who put everyone before himself. I am scarred for life, said the brother, Basil Merzabagg.

So apparently, Dinesh's fiancée was really struggling in the crowd that night, and he died trying to save her, which...

I mean, I cannot even imagine going out like that. That is just so tragic. You're not only trapped in this horrible situation, but you're trying to save the life of the person who you love the most. And he actually did save her life, but that's just the biggest tragedy. I mean, in that situation, I think is that she was alive at the end of the day, but he in saving her life passed on, which is, yeah, just so sad.

I know. And it's so sad, too, because you have to imagine that all of these people died. They and they went with people that they loved and they most likely died close to their family members. I'm sure that there were some victims who their loved ones watched it happen. And I just I can't even imagine being in that situation.

And the seventh victim of the night was 23-year-old Madison Dubiski. My friend actually knew her. So that just shows you how small the world is and also how much of a reach that these people had. They touched so many lives. But the article says about Madison, Madison Dubiski, 23, attended the festival with her brother, Ty Dubiski, the Houston Chronicle reported.

When the two became separated during Mr. Scott's performance, it was the last time Mr. Dubiski saw his sister. Originally from Cypress, Texas, Ms. Dubiski, a Houston resident, graduated from Cypress Fair High School before attending the University of Mississippi, according to her Facebook page. She worked at a Houston-based advertising agency. So, yeah, those were the seven victims that were immediately identified in the Astroworld tragedy. But this...

Last story is, it's just really heartbreaking because the final victim that was identified night of, night of the concert, he was unidentified. No one knew who he was. And after just one day, the authorities in Houston released a close-up picture of his face, wanting to see if anybody could identify him. And the picture is just so sad. I don't recommend going and searching it up because it's...

You know, it's literally a picture of his body after death and everything. And they were just making pleas to the public to see if anybody knew who he was. Now, he ended up being identified later on as 21-year-old Axel Acosta. And sadly, he was identified because his brother just happened to come across the picture and noticed that...

that was his brother. Now, Axel was not immediately identified because he and his family actually lived in Washington, which is obviously a far length from Texas. Washington is like top of the United States. Uh,

And Texas is very south, like the south. And he had actually traveled all the way to Houston by himself to attend the concert, which is just one of those little twists in the story that you find out that is just...

So, so sad because he actually was looking forward to this night so much. He was flying. He flew there from Washington to Houston, which is like I just said, not a short hop. And the event that he spent all the money to come down for would end up killing him, which is just, yeah, once again, horrific.

But the article states that Axel Acosta, 21, was identified on Sunday by his brother, Joel Acosta, as the man in a photograph circulated by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Texas, which was seeking the public's help to identify the man.

Mr. Acosta was a junior at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, where he was majoring in computer science, his younger brother said on Sunday. Mr. Acosta was a fan of Mr. Scott but had never been to one of his concerts before, said Joel Acosta, 19, who recalled driving his brother to the airport in Bellingham last Wednesday.

From there, Axl Acosta rented a car and drove about 90 miles south to Seattle before flying to Houston for the music festival, his brother said. He finally had the money to go. He was excited to go. It goes on to say, when Joel Acosta did not hear from his brother on Friday night, he said he figured that his brother was having a fun time at the festival. He said that reception was spotty and that the internet was really bad.

During the concert, Axl got separated from the person that he had been rooming with at a local hotel, his brother said. The roommate had called me that he had not seen Axl come to sleep that night, said Joel. That's when Mr. Acosta said that he began to worry that his brother might have been among the people who died. His fears were confirmed, he said, when the authorities released a photo of his brother on Saturday. Joel Acosta said he stopped looking at TikTok

and other social media posts from the concert. Quote, now I can't look at the videos anymore. End quote. Yeah, that would be so hard because in the immediate days after Astroworld, there were just so many TikToks made and things circulating. And I can't imagine the trauma that even people that were there that didn't die have to feel seeing that stuff being brought up time and time again.

But another really sad part of the story is that Axel's family was concerned that he was among the victims at Astroworld. And they called the hospitals in Houston to see if Axel was a victim. And at first, the authorities said, no, you don't have anything to worry about. Axel is not here. But they come to find out he was there the whole time, which is just tragic.

And to hear that he wasn't there at the hospital, I'm sure that there was such a relief. I'm sure they felt such a weight lifted off their shoulders thinking, okay, yeah, we haven't heard from him, but at least he wasn't among the victims. And then to scroll through the media and see a picture of your deceased loved one after they just told you that, I'm sure that I just can't even put myself in those shoes. It's so horrific.

And, you know, the tragedy didn't end with those initial eight victims. Unfortunately, remember how we had just talked about that video of the woman getting dropped on her head on accident by the authorities? Well, she ended up becoming the next victim. Her name was Bharti Shahani. She was 22 years old, and she died almost a week later from her injuries. She was the girl in the video, like I just said, that, you know, survived.

suffered that sad blow to her head. And the article says, Barty Shahani, 22, died in a hospital on Wednesday nearly a week after becoming separated from her sister and cousin at the Astroworld or as the Astroworld Festival turned chaotic.

Both of Bharti's parents just broke down in tears while they were describing her. She was a computer science student at Texas A&M University who cared for her younger siblings and once dreamed of opening an online store for her father's business. Bharti played the role that first-generation oldest siblings play. Mohamed Nabulsi, a lawyer representing the Shahami family, said, "...they are the glue of the family. They are the liaisons, the mentors, the advisors, the interpreters."

Ms. Shahani was identified on Thursday as the young woman in a video shared on social media who was seen falling off a gurney while being transported by emergency workers. She had several heart attacks and was attached to a ventilator in the hospital's intensive care unit before she died. Karishma Shahani, her mother, described her as always giving, not taking. The first thing she asked me in her life, Mama, can I go to this concert? Her mother said, why didn't I say no to her?

That's like, yeah, it's hard to read. That's just so sad because, I mean, obviously you can't blame yourself in these situations, but I'm sure so many parents of both the deceased victims and the injured victims, I'm sure they're all just upset with themselves that their loved one went there, but there's no way you could have ever, ever prepared yourself for this, you know?

Well, yeah, people don't die at concerts. That's not a thing. Like Courtney and I went to Austin City Limits Music Festival in October. And I mean, it's a huge festival. I'm pretty sure there were more people at ACL than Astroworld, but don't quote me on that. But I mean, nobody dies in that crowd. There's plenty of really heavy music. There's all sorts of genres. But like this is obviously something that nobody could expect.

Exactly. And the same goes for our next victim. He was actually the youngest of the victims that would pass away. And it was nine-year-old Ezra Blount. The article says that, quote, he had been in a medically induced coma from injuries his family believed he sustained after being trampled at the festival.

Ezra spent the concert on the shoulders of his father, Treston Blount, who detailed the tragic event on a GoFundMe page. After passing out from lack of oxygen, Mr. Blount regained consciousness with no idea where his son was.

By the time that they were reunited, his son had swelling in the brain as well as trauma in nearly all organs. As Ezra spent the rest of his days in the hospital, his father documented his son's condition on the GoFundMe page, where thousands of people made donations. Quote, thank you to everyone for what you have done for my family, Mr. Blount wrote on November 11th. Please keep hope alive and never stop praying. And I've seen a lot of articles saying,

or even comments on different social media platforms with people saying, like, why would you bring a nine-year-old to a concert this big and stuff like that? But...

I just, I, that is so insensitive. And like we had just talked about when you go to a concert, you are expecting a fun night with your loved ones, your friends, your family, and the promoters and the people who put on the event, it's their job to ensure that nothing's going to go wrong. You know, that's why so many thousands of millions of shows happen every year and people don't die at them because they

they have safety practices and measures and a bunch of those different things were just obviously not followed here with Astroworld. And that's like, yeah, I think their biggest mistake was just the safety in general, you know, but I actually saw a video of Ezra, um, on his show on his dad's shoulders before the concert started. And they were pretty far back in the crowd. And there's no way that anyone that was there could have known what was about to happen because

And sadly enough, Ezra was a big Travis Scott fan, and his dad was trying to give him just a good experience, some father-son bonding time. But at the end of that show, 10 young people would be lost their lives. You can't get your life back. And that's the whole thing. That's why this story is just crazy. It's kind of mind-blowing. And then what we're about to get into real quick is

when you look at what Travis Scott and Drake did after the show, it's just so bizarre. You know, all of this.

Yeah, I mean, even Kylie Jenner posted, she posted on her Instagram the following day, like we had no idea that there were fatalities until after the event. But then at the same time, she, in her Instagram video the night before, she was showing the ambulance, or in her story, you could see the ambulance going through the crowd. It was said that Drake spent a million,

million dollars at a strip club afterwards and like I don't I'm not sure if they knew about the fatalities at that point I also heard that they went to like Dave and Buster's yeah they had a party there Travis and Drake and some other people that performed but

But I would think that they would have had to have known before the next day that all of these people died. And if they did, I mean, I don't know. We really don't know what they knew or what they didn't know. But it just, I feel like it's just not a good look that they were spending all of that money at strip clubs and parties when other people were fighting for their lives in the hospital. I mean, the news was breaking already. Like people were commenting on Travis Scott's Instagram and,

Obviously, there was a massive train of ambulances going in. So it's like, I don't know how you couldn't have known about what happened, even looking back at, you know, the police chief, like all those people issuing these like warnings to the promoters and like the calls that it's a mass casualty incident that was like established during the show. So...

And they had to have known, too, because they did they did stop the show earlier than it was supposed to be stopped. And I read somewhere it was supposed to go later. So they did stop the show early, 40 minutes after it was declared a mass casualty. But they stopped it early. So I feel like they had to have known that something happened. 100 percent. But once, like I said, we don't know exactly what all happened.

But also after Astroworld, there were reports, I believe the police chief actually stated that a security guard had been pricked in the neck by a needle and injected with something. But eventually that came out as being false. That never happened. And I mean,

I mean, Travis Scott himself, he has kind of fostered this rage culture where people just come to the shows and they want to let loose and especially coming out of the pandemic. I mean, not coming out of it, but, you know, getting to go to these big shows again, people are ready to really just get into it, you know? And in the past, he's like encouraged people to jump off of balconies. He, you know,

told a crowd to, um, like beat the shit out of somebody because they stole his shoe. Um, all this different behavior, um, that was violent, you know, he encouraged people to break down the barriers. He like loved that. So that's, I think there's just so many combinations of, are just, I think that it's a combination of so many different things that happened, um,

and things that led up to what happened, that there's really no way to place blame on like one person. It's so many different people.

Yeah, it doesn't look good, though, that Travis has had all of these past allegations of violence. Like you said, him screaming to get that motherfucker, and it was like this kid in the crowd, or he looked like a kid at least. And then at the last show, he told someone to jump from the balcony, and then someone ended up falling later, and they're paralyzed. So Travis had that lawsuit...

which... Yeah, and he actually, that guy, I believe...

Didn't want to jump but someone because they were being encouraged someone from behind him pushed him over the balcony and then yeah broke like his back and a bunch of different stuff. Yeah, so I mean and then even the fact that Travis Scott tweeted right before Astroworld started and said we're getting the rowdy ones in too and then immediately afterwards he deleted that that tweet because he knew that that's not a good look and

Um, and after a few days later, he came to Instagram with a very strange, um, not an apology video. I don't even know his, I mean, it's just his response to the tragedy. Um, if you've been invested in the case, you've seen it, he's rubbing his head and he has a black and white filter on it. And it's just, it's a very strange video, I think.

Yeah, I mean, there's we're not going to sit here and tell people how to process grief or stress because everybody does that in their own way. But a lot of people just took issue with with that video and said like they thought it felt inauthentic. I mean, that was a thing on social media. Tons of people were commenting about it. So.

At the end of the day, what has happened is there are a multitude of lawsuits being filed right now. There's a two, a potentially a $2 billion lawsuit that has been filed. Tons of people who are at the show are hopping onto these lawsuits. People that had minor injuries, even like emotional stress and trauma, you

Yeah. And that's, it's a, it's a huge lawsuit. It was filed by Thomas J. Henry. He's a very successful Texas lawyer who's handled, handled a lot of high profile cases, but

But the suit was actually filed on behalf of 282 victims who hired the attorney, Thomas J. Henry, to represent them following the festival. And this $2 billion lawsuit was filed against Travis Scott, Drake, Live Nation, and Apple Music.

So, yeah, I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to be paying a lot of money very soon. And what should have just been a fun night for a bunch of people coming together turned out to be this tragedy that will 100% be remembered in our culture. And also, it's just Astroworld. They were trying to... Travis was trying to bring Astroworld back, the old defunct theme park. And he was trying to, you know...

nostalgia back into Houston and bring that thing that he loved so much back to life. But in doing so, now Astroworld will forever be stained with that reputation.

Yeah, we're actually in Houston right now. Tomorrow we are going to go by the memorial and pay our respects. We will document some of that on our Instagram so you guys can see the memorial, what it looks like. And yeah, we'll keep you guys updated.

Well, everybody, we're going to make this outro real short because, yeah, we've already been talking for long enough. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Murder in America. We have an official TikTok now, too. Murder in America pod. I don't know. Yeah, just search Murder in America on TikTok and you'll see our TikTok. We're going to start posting on there soon. You can follow Courtney.

at Court Shan. And you can follow me at Colin Brown. As always, go check out the paranormal files on YouTube if you guys want to see what Courtney and I do when we're not doing the podcast. And yeah, everybody, thanks to all the patrons. Reminder, new episode is coming Monday of this week. So in about two days. So.

So be on the lookout for that. And I'm seriously going to warn you one more time. This is a disturbing, dark, and really, really graphic story. So if you don't have the stomach for it, I'm, I'm advising you in advance. Do not listen. Yeah. So listen to tomorrow's episode. We love you guys. Thank you so much for all of your support. Let us know what you think about these talking episodes that we'll do once a month. Um, we live to please you guys.

What? What was that? Are we going to include that? Sure. Okay. Well, we'll see you on Monday, I guess, everyone. Thanks for tuning in. Live to please.

We're sunsetting PodQuest on 2025-07-28. Thank you for your support!

Export Podcast Subscriptions