Simon, is there a build-a-factboy website that you run on the dark web with which you market yourself behind deepfakes spreading truth from behind a facade? Are you Hsrry Houdini?
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out!
Hello Fresh requires you to give your credit card number before you can even look at what meals/plans/options are available. They also cagey with cost as they say “per meal” when it is really “per serving”.
My parents hammered home the "don't accept a ride from anyone you don't know" message so hard that one time, my dad (a lawyer) sent an actual cop to pick me up from the school bus stop because my dad was stuck in court. Because I didn't know this man, I refused to get in the car with him and instead walked to my dad's office with the cop tailing me the whole way. It's a story that my family laughs about, but I still think I did the right thing!
I have a similar story, but my siblings sent friends of theirs, whom i didnt know. In the end, i ran away from them, hid outside for a few hours and came home just around dusk... and, of course, no phone. It was a shitstorm at home, had to dodge a shoe or 2 before even thinking about explaining the whole thing😂
My parents gave us a code word so that if someone else was picking us up they would know it. Didn't need it, but it did help when my FB account got hacked and I had to prove to my mom that the new one was the real me.
Okay.... It's even creepier when Simon's voice goes out and only music and graphics are on the screen. That just shows how wonderful the editors are for his team.
I love how Simon went from "I don't think the death penalty is very moral or humane" to "Does this country have the death penalty? Because if they do, kill those fuckers" over the years
I am fully for the death penalty in principle. Like, there are some crimes that can be committed for which the punishment should be permanent removal from society. The thing I can't square that with is that the justice system fucks up. Like, constantly. Innocent people get put to death all the time. In the US, 190 people on death row have been exonerated just in the last 50 years. And those were just the people who we found out were innocent BEFORE they were executed, who knows how many innocent people were killed that we'll never know about because we killed them already.
Ikr. Simon 1.0: "Im against the death penalty, its just statesponsered murder. Too many innocents are executed, every study says, it has no deterrent effect, its much more expensive than just locking them up forever. There is just no good argument for the death penalty." Simon 2.0: "Fry 'em. FRY 'EM ALL!"
I thought something happened to TH-cam or my audio output at first. Freaked me out until I found this comment. Thought I was the only one it happened to.
I was a teenager in Pretoria during these years. I was too naive to fully comprehend the horror these girls might have faced. But their faces were everywhere. Their names and faces are burned into my memory forever. As soon as I had my own children though, the world changed and when I think about what they must have gone through it takes my breath away. PS Gordon Harris the photographer that took Gert’s photos was a well known Pretoria photographer who also used to take our school photos
Good god. In EL we took this so seriously. We watched every car that past us on the way home, wrote down makes models colour plates, if they passed us more than twice. If we kept seeing that same car, we handed it to the principal. Who then handed it to police. 2 peodos were caught. One had been scoping our school and 2 other schools , following girls on the way home. I had to write a statement for police about him trying to follow me again and again until I rode my bike like hell into my friends parents yard because it was closer than my own. The other peodo I just heard about. But 2 were caught and convicted
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out! ❤
Did they ever inform the makers of MacGyver that they indirectly saved the girls life with the tricks they conveyed in their series (enabling her to get out of her captivity)? Probably a more gratifying reward for most creators of entertainment that they have contributed to saving a person's actual life than winning an Emmy or Grammy etc. that, down the line, is just a little statue, that you will just dump on a shelf or in a cabinet after the ceremony is over, where it will gather dust and do nothing of consequence.
I'm sure that show saved more than one life. My grandfather watched that show and it made always think outside the box. But yeah I remember another story like this where the victim thought of macgyver
I can’t imagine how the young man towards the start must have felt carrying a strange, drugged, and barefoot teenage girl to her home and having to look at her frantic parents like, “I swear I can explain this.”
tbh I was just waiting for that guy to be the scapegoat of all the missing girls and that being this episode's reason why the murderers could continue for several more years.
@@epicrisalo1237 Boy howdy, me too. And Simon hasn't said a THING about him, like why he isn't doing scripts anymore. Thing is, it's not like Callum is just "one of the people who has written for Casual Criminalist". He was THE sole writer of all episodes for the first (year? more?) of the show.
Hearing about these sorts of crimes when you were raised in the 2000s is always weird because _everyone_ on my dad's side of the family constantly talked about how it used to be safer in the past when it very clearly wasn't. It reminds me of the thing with planes and bullet holes in WW2, where they would reinforce the parts riddled with bullet holes when really they should have been reinforcing the parts of the planes that didn't come back.
The only difference between the past and now is that now we have a world wide connection and easy access to news from basically anywhere and any time. I'd bet good money that the number of crimes being commited hasnt changed, the difference is that we hear about more of them and more of them get solved as a result of better technology.
@@marcusreading3783 bud you have google why say “i bet they havent changed” when you can in a few seconds google it and find your incorrect Altho maybe not in the way you expected. Crime has in basically all categories dropped from the 90s
@@marcusreading3783 the available data agrees with you. There is also a bias we typically have called the availability heuristic. If we encounter something a lot we tend to believe it's more common than it actually is. This is why many North Americans think that pitbulls are very dangerous dogs (and my province bans them...😡) and that shark attacks are very common. Neither are true. Pitbulls (staffordshire bull terriers) consistently have much better temperament scores than many other breeds considered to be good family dogs and are responsible for fewer injuries. But it's sensationalist so the news picks it up and it gets treated as fact. Most sharks want nothing to do with us, even great whites. Really. The problems usually happen when either we look like their prey or they're a territorial species and we accidentally invade their home. There are two species of shark that love their food and aren't picky eaters, and the great white isn't one of them. Tiger sharks and bull sharks aren't picky eaters, but even so shark attacks in N. America are incredibly rare. They're just sensational so when they happen it gets reported on a lot. When I'm in the ocean I worry about rip currents and jellyfish. They're more likely to hurt or kill me than sharks ever were. When I'm around a pitbull I'm more worried about getting slobbered on and kissed and laid on than bitten. Small terriers are the ones I worry about biting me out of the blue.
I know you've been using them for a bit but the addition of the ai animated pictures is just *chefs kiss*. It adds a layer of horror to the story. Jen, we love you.
Here is an advice you should give your children : Normal adults don’t ask anything from children they don’t know. They don’t ask them for directions, they don’t ask them to do odd jobs, they don’t ask them for help doing anything. If an adult approaches a random child to ask them something, just assume they have bad intentions.
Oh I like this!! It's true. With regards to her offering the child a ride to school, what I'd say to a child is, "are you okay getting to school on your own?" But I'd only say this if the child was obviously having difficulties. Otherwise I'd assume the kid was okay and not offer unneeded help.
It's terrifying to know you can run screaming to a stranger, begging for help, and their only concern will be if the police might say that it was a waste of time.
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out!
The first night I spent at my fiance's house, he to pick up our food order and I was alone at his place. A freaked out man pounded on the door and tried to break in. He even went to the back door and the windows. I was terrified and called the police. It turned out to be my new boyfriend not yet fiance's roommate. He'd been beaten up and mugged and chased through the snow home with no shoes. He climbed on the roof and came down when the police (and my boyfriend) got there. So of course he seemed deranged. I felt so awful for locking him out. He said he understood. He was just scared they were still chasing him. Plus he didn't know me. So that freaked him out. Mine was a happy ending but I wonder how often it isn't.
@ Jenn, you should check out Russell Howard's show to pull some reaction clips! he's a British comedian, maybe Simon knows of him but specifically the segment Playground Politics where he interviews kids are comedy GOLD
Only concern? Of course not but they are being thrown into a situation that's probably fine. Its why you should teach kids to yell "you're not my ____" rather than just yelling. It gives strangers more information to know something is actually wrong
What is really scary is that picture of the couple together .. they look like normal elderly couple .. if you saw them anywhere no alarm would go in your head .. really scary how normal and nice they look in this picture.
I was born in SA during the 80's. The Van Rooyen case was EVERYWHERE in the media and even though we lived an 12hr drive away from Pretoria, parents still kept their daughters inside after dark. FYI the emergency number for SA is 10111 🙂
3:00 LOL you didn't need a boombox for music on the go; there were Walkmans. Boomboxes were for when you wanted to make everyone else listen to your music on the go.
I come for true crime and stay for Jenn’s FANTASTIC editing. And of course fact boys tangents and the spectacular writing of the writers, but Jenn brings it all together is such a beautiful way
I’ve gotten used to getting episodes that go more than an hour long, that when they’re less than an hour long, I go… awww. 😂😂 I’m sorry I just want it to last longer (don’t we all? 😆) I mean, remember days when we get short and long episodes? 😂 feels like forever ago.
Thank you Simon and team for covering this, I have requested it a few times... I grew up in Johannesburg (down the road from where several of Moses Sithole`s victims were found in Boksburg), this case is still very much on the minds of many South Africans, the fact that the bodies still haven`t been found and laid to rest still sits very heavy on many of us that lived through this era in that very troubled land... A few points to mention though : -Apartheid, apart from a few small laws had all but been abolished by the mid 1980`s. -The streets were about as safe as they were anywhere else in the world, we were just raised to be more aware of our surroundings and the people that were in them. -Since the end of Apartheid, South Africa has a higher murder rate than Afghanistan had at the height of the war on terror. (From June 2022 until November 2022 7000 people were murdered) compared to now, yes, it was a whole lot safer, the police back in the 80`s would crush you, white or black, if you commited a crime, there was actual rule of law there then -The reason why the police fumbled so badly was during this period of time in SA the police were doing everything in their power to keep two African political parties (IFP and ANC) from murdering each other in daily and nightly battles in the townships over who would rule the country when so called "Free and Fair Elections" were to be held, so their attentions were drawn into the brutal and savage war that was raging in the townships...
@@Sniperboy5551 yup...I remember when most of the houses on our suburban East Rand street didn`t have perimeter walls, just 4 foot chain link fences between the houses and no wall or fence at the front...I also remember in late 94 early 95 the walls with barbed wire on top starting to go up as the murder rate also started to go up...horror stories of home invasions that almost always involved rap* and torture also became "The Norm" at around that time...
I really needed to hear that the monsters had been slain, way more than I needed to hear that the poor innocent victims are still separated from their mourning family's love.
I listen to this as a podcast. Was very confused by the editing of Simon's voice stopping and the music starting until I had the chance to stop and rewind it.
At 26:45 where he says people in movies put down those below them in front of friends and family, that’s me and my upbringing with an asshole Stepfather Bert Cromwell. The entire step family treated me like that including his sister Gail Quitoni her husband Charles and their two kids Richard and Danielle… I had psyche issues growing up related to how I was treated and now it’s impossible to find a job anywhere because of a violent felony for theft… doesn’t matter it’s 12 years ago, it’s there
I've been waiting for this one!! Thanks Emma! As a South African 80's baby my mom use to tell this story to us. And we followed the artcles through the years. Especially in Huisgenoot!
Dear Simon or writers , I have been a long time listener an love the show. I wanted to suggest Jeffery Allen Manchester “ the rooftop robber “ who robbed a string of McDonald’s later escaping a correctional facility to live hidden in a toy store for several years. Either way thank you for providing such a great podcast to listen to while working.
Thank you Simon and team for the best true crime stories told in a manner that doesn't dwell on the gory details, especially where children were involved, or elevate the status of the criminals. The specs look great. Indeed very dapper today. GWS 🙏
I am from South Africa and was in school when this happened. I now live in Malherbe street, 1 block away from his now demolished house. There is still a sign with a flower for each victim
I still live in Capital Park, 1 street down from Malherbe street. I was born the year this case happened, and years later this was my first introduction into true crime when I found some old magazines. I was fascinated, so naturally I went to the library so I can find out more. Back then the police museum also had a Gert van Rooyen section. Btw Simon, love the horrible pronunciations 🤣 I kept correcting you until my husband said "you know he can't hear you right?" 🤣
I can't even tell if it is AI moving the pictures anymore. The one of him smiling with the girls overlayed is unbelievably well done. The visual work in these videos is getting better and better.
to me, there is nothing inherently scarier than the phrase "never seen again" or "never heard from again." because, no matter what somebody's fate was, their life *did* have a story: beginning, middle, & end. and it's just eerie beyond measure that there's some people out there who've been deprived of having their entire story known to those who loved them & cared for them. and especially like Simon said, it's simply worse when it's children. to vanish without a trace by itself is ghoulish. but to disappear & these girls were still all MINORS, I'm devastated to even imagine what they saw towards the end of their lives 💔💔 the only solace to be found in this case is in knowing that they're not still in pain; rest easy girls, you deserved so much better than what you were given
My cousin was kidnapped at 12 years old and was missing just a few days before his body was found. Those were the longest days of my life. Hours seems like days when someone you love is missing. Even though my cousin was brutally murdered.. it's still better than never knowing what happened to him. At least in my opinion.. I can't speak for his mom tho.
@@jrmckim my condolences for all of you, that's awful & I'm sorry you all were exposed to such a tragedy. if it helps any, at least your memories with your cousin continue in your story as it presses onward. because it's the most treasured moments that make our stories so valuable to us as they progress. I know it's not the same, but I like to imagine that those who've passed away aren't gone for forever. it's just bye for now :)
The absolute gall of someone who took the lives of innocents and prevented their loved ones from ever having closure, from finally finding their bodies, to list *their* demands on how they want to be buried? Hell isn't hot enough for these two.
animating the photos makes them even more unsettling and creepy, because there's an unnatural feeling caused by the process. it really makes it super disturbing
Are they animated with AI? It almost looks like video camera footage, which wouldn’t surprise me. It was the 90s and the creep wanted pictures of himself to send to women, so it wouldn’t be far fetched to think he wanted video too
For anyone wondering, I listened to the podcast of this episode to see if there was anything of note missing from the cut out section. There was not, it was mainly just citations for the quotes themselves. The TH-cam version did it better. Well done Jen!
This was the most scary time in my live. I grew in Pretoria. Was the same age as some of those girls. We were not allowed to go the mall or shops without at least a parent accompanying us, or as a group of girls. I was petrified at a point, as I had to make use of municipal busses to and from school and to where my parents worked on Church square. And then there were the series of bombings in city center. The one on 20 May was the most horrific, as my family were to celebrate a family members birthday in the restaurant. The bimb went off in front of the window where we were to be seated. Thank GOD I had a very bad bout of flue that Friday.
Grew up in Pietermaritzburg and my grandfather was the station commander of the police's Dog Unit in that city. I remember watching the TV footage of the Casspirs (armoured vehicles) leaving the station. My grandparents used that as a teachable moment about stranger danger. Can't imagine being in the shoes of the parents who lost their children.
Oohhh I love the South African content. Can't wait to get into this one. Downloading now to listen while I work tomorrow. There is a whole generation of us who where raised under the threat of this guy. It was the 80's, I grew up in a small town 2 hours drive away from where he lived, we were not allowed to walk anywhere alone. Today my daughter is the same age and I'll be damned if she walks to the bathroom alone in a mall in this country now. Funny thing is, just after I got married long before the kids, we lived in THE MALHERBE STREET in Capital Park. Did not know it until my dad made somekind of offhanded comment about that fact after we moved.
My dad had a story like this, about how everyone knew that they shouldn't go to this one old mans house. It was hammered in by parents. One of the poor kids from school was basically picked up by the old man every day from school. He became disheveled, disconnected, killed himself in high school Everyone knew he was being raped to hell and back every day but nobody did shit because those things were just hushed up back then.
12:00 "The woman agreed and said she'll meet them back at the house" That's when you know that's not her actual mom. No parent is going to let a random stranger walk their kid back home and meet them there.
Simon at the beginning of the series: "I don't know how I feel about the death penalty." Simon now: "I think (insert state/country name) has the death penalty, I hope they do."
As a girl with a similar name to Yolanda, of a similar age I was often confused for the missing girl. I can tell you it was a very very big deal during that time. It was constantly in the news, on milk cartons and in newspapers. Those poor girls were never found, so sad.
It is really sad that you were confused once for this girl because you had a similar name. The fact that it happened often is very troubling. The people around you seem easily confused, damaging any chance of finding the girl. Very sad
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out! ❤😊❤
I remember the missing girls posters at school. One night I came home late from a friends house only to find the police with my mom, they thought I was kidnapped by the Van Rooyens. I matched the MO and we lived In Kempton Park. I got the biggest hiding and grounded (probably because my mom was to scared to let me out on the streets)
So true. Life wasn't safer at all, it just had less information available about it, especially regarding crimes like sexual molestation, fraud, corruption, etc. In South Africa's case people erroneously think it was safer because it was literally a military dictatorship, so street crimes like pick pockets, mugging etc. were less in town centers, suburbia etc. but not anywhere else. The net overall crime rate in SA is literally the same today as it was in the 70s.
I love going back and forth between this guy's videos and Shrouded Hand's videos. That way I have a nice balance between fast and bombastic and slow and soothing.
And yes - our justice system is fucked. People get more jail time for theft than murder and rape. Furthermore, our police force is severely under resourced and very often, even if someone is murdered, they do not investigate as you would expect in such cases. More often than not, criminal case files get "lost" in the system.
Simon, those douches are very real. I work with a vile woman who’s old enough to be my mom, and she talks negative about me to my coworkers within ear shot of me everyday. Those people get off on being hateful to others. It’s a shame.
Also as this episode proves, it’s not always that the middle aged woman is going to be the predator, it’s the fear that’s she’s MARRIED to one and will let him do whatever he likes
Hey Simon - Shane from Kansas City, Missouri, USA here. I just realized that I don't think you've ever done an episode on Bob Berdella. I would like to hear your writers take and your thoughts on that particular case. Keep doing what you do my friend!
at 16:50, my guess, since he was a deacon, is that he was talking of his taste for little kids at gatherings of the "let the little ones come to me (and meke me come)" church
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Simon we need DTU March 8 1994 Michigan Please make it happen
Simon, have you heard of the Bloody Benders? America’s first serial killer FAMILY? Or….were they really the Benders?
Simon, is there a build-a-factboy website that you run on the dark web with which you market yourself behind deepfakes spreading truth from behind a facade?
Are you Hsrry Houdini?
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out!
Hello Fresh requires you to give your credit card number before you can even look at what meals/plans/options are available. They also cagey with cost as they say “per meal” when it is really “per serving”.
My parents hammered home the "don't accept a ride from anyone you don't know" message so hard that one time, my dad (a lawyer) sent an actual cop to pick me up from the school bus stop because my dad was stuck in court. Because I didn't know this man, I refused to get in the car with him and instead walked to my dad's office with the cop tailing me the whole way. It's a story that my family laughs about, but I still think I did the right thing!
I have a similar story, but my siblings sent friends of theirs, whom i didnt know.
In the end, i ran away from them, hid outside for a few hours and came home just around dusk... and, of course, no phone.
It was a shitstorm at home, had to dodge a shoe or 2 before even thinking about explaining the whole thing😂
Sure! Anyone can get a uniform at a costume store and those could be very convincing to a kid.
In my opinion you've done right 👍🏾
My parents gave us a code word so that if someone else was picking us up they would know it. Didn't need it, but it did help when my FB account got hacked and I had to prove to my mom that the new one was the real me.
Okay.... It's even creepier when Simon's voice goes out and only music and graphics are on the screen. That just shows how wonderful the editors are for his team.
I thought I was going crazy 😂
@@joshsoriano2875 haha same here. More fitting for his Decoding channel😅
@@DCHasso right 😂 I legit had to rewind to make sure I wasn't missing something
except for the part where we missed all of the words Simon said for almost 2 minutes
It wasn't like that when uploaded. They probably had to bleep what he said out because of TH-cam guidelines or something
I love how Simon went from "I don't think the death penalty is very moral or humane" to "Does this country have the death penalty? Because if they do, kill those fuckers" over the years
I am fully for the death penalty in principle. Like, there are some crimes that can be committed for which the punishment should be permanent removal from society. The thing I can't square that with is that the justice system fucks up. Like, constantly. Innocent people get put to death all the time. In the US, 190 people on death row have been exonerated just in the last 50 years. And those were just the people who we found out were innocent BEFORE they were executed, who knows how many innocent people were killed that we'll never know about because we killed them already.
Ikr.
Simon 1.0: "Im against the death penalty, its just statesponsered murder. Too many innocents are executed, every study says, it has no deterrent effect, its much more expensive than just locking them up forever. There is just no good argument for the death penalty."
Simon 2.0: "Fry 'em. FRY 'EM ALL!"
It's so funny seeing the development of it!!
Have to say, I went with him on that particular journey!
In the start i thought that maybe, but now i am definitely against the death penalty
why is no one talking about the ominous music playing while Simon’s audio is cut starting at 35:22 for a few minutes?
Yes! I’ve been looking for these comments too!
Same I was like do I have another tab open.
@@wikidclownchris been looking for an explanation to
I thought something happened to TH-cam or my audio output at first. Freaked me out until I found this comment. Thought I was the only one it happened to.
Yeah, that was creepy
I was a teenager in Pretoria during these years. I was too naive to fully comprehend the horror these girls might have faced. But their faces were everywhere. Their names and faces are burned into my memory forever. As soon as I had my own children though, the world changed and when I think about what they must have gone through it takes my breath away. PS Gordon Harris the photographer that took Gert’s photos was a well known Pretoria photographer who also used to take our school photos
Good god. In EL we took this so seriously. We watched every car that past us on the way home, wrote down makes models colour plates, if they passed us more than twice. If we kept seeing that same car, we handed it to the principal. Who then handed it to police. 2 peodos were caught. One had been scoping our school and 2 other schools , following girls on the way home. I had to write a statement for police about him trying to follow me again and again until I rode my bike like hell into my friends parents yard because it was closer than my own. The other peodo I just heard about. But 2 were caught and convicted
@@carmenburton4918 good for you 👍👍👍👍. So scary
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out! ❤
Did they ever inform the makers of MacGyver that they indirectly saved the girls life with the tricks they conveyed in their series (enabling her to get out of her captivity)? Probably a more gratifying reward for most creators of entertainment that they have contributed to saving a person's actual life than winning an Emmy or Grammy etc. that, down the line, is just a little statue, that you will just dump on a shelf or in a cabinet after the ceremony is over, where it will gather dust and do nothing of consequence.
I agree! Loved Macgyver
@@TheUnamedPerson so true!
@@TheUnamedPerson It inspired a generation to build a trap out of a piece of gum, a paper clip, and a hair tie! 😆
To acknowledge the sheer number of lives saved by MacGyver is far too large a task.
I'm sure that show saved more than one life. My grandfather watched that show and it made always think outside the box. But yeah I remember another story like this where the victim thought of macgyver
The ones where the victims are never found are always so sad, those who love the victims can't mourn, it's devastating on so many levels.
I can’t imagine how the young man towards the start must have felt carrying a strange, drugged, and barefoot teenage girl to her home and having to look at her frantic parents like, “I swear I can explain this.”
Who was also covered in bruises and blood, yikes.
tbh I was just waiting for that guy to be the scapegoat of all the missing girls and that being this episode's reason why the murderers could continue for several more years.
@@ChJuHu93 Thankfully Joan was the last victim and the one who got away.
What a good boy at the beginning; she could have just run straight into the jaws of another predator, but fortune smiled and she caught a good one.
That guy is a fucking legend.
No Simon, Not tobacco smoke. I was IRL lighting my bong as you smelled that! Brilliant timing... My eyes are watering I laughed so much.
Wow! That must be some good stuff if he smelled it through time and space. ❤️
YAY, an Emma script!!!!!
In this comment section we STAN emma!
@@khilorn Indeed we do.
Yeah verily, we do!
I miss Cullums scripts
@@epicrisalo1237 Boy howdy, me too. And Simon hasn't said a THING about him, like why he isn't doing scripts anymore. Thing is, it's not like Callum is just "one of the people who has written for Casual Criminalist". He was THE sole writer of all episodes for the first (year? more?) of the show.
Simon's pronunciation of South African words/names are always comedy gold :)
Comedy gold but weirdly- not distracting..
@@StrawberryNinjah19 I don't know... some of them make me go back and listen to those frames again
Simon's pronunciations of any non-British English words/names are comedy gold. If it can be butchered, count on Simon to do it thoroughly 🤣🤣
Washington state (USA) cities also. Granted, those get mispronounced by anyone not living here.
He did get 'bakkie' right though to be fair 🙃
Hearing about these sorts of crimes when you were raised in the 2000s is always weird because _everyone_ on my dad's side of the family constantly talked about how it used to be safer in the past when it very clearly wasn't. It reminds me of the thing with planes and bullet holes in WW2, where they would reinforce the parts riddled with bullet holes when really they should have been reinforcing the parts of the planes that didn't come back.
Yea crime was actually significantly worse in the 80s and 90s
We had a estimated 10x as many serial killers active in the us in the 80s vs now
The only difference between the past and now is that now we have a world wide connection and easy access to news from basically anywhere and any time. I'd bet good money that the number of crimes being commited hasnt changed, the difference is that we hear about more of them and more of them get solved as a result of better technology.
@@marcusreading3783 bud you have google why say “i bet they havent changed” when you can in a few seconds google it and find your incorrect
Altho maybe not in the way you expected. Crime has in basically all categories dropped from the 90s
@@thatdamncrow9197 That despite increased surveillance and more constant communication, things that make crimes going unreported less common.
@@marcusreading3783 the available data agrees with you.
There is also a bias we typically have called the availability heuristic. If we encounter something a lot we tend to believe it's more common than it actually is.
This is why many North Americans think that pitbulls are very dangerous dogs (and my province bans them...😡) and that shark attacks are very common. Neither are true.
Pitbulls (staffordshire bull terriers) consistently have much better temperament scores than many other breeds considered to be good family dogs and are responsible for fewer injuries. But it's sensationalist so the news picks it up and it gets treated as fact.
Most sharks want nothing to do with us, even great whites. Really. The problems usually happen when either we look like their prey or they're a territorial species and we accidentally invade their home.
There are two species of shark that love their food and aren't picky eaters, and the great white isn't one of them. Tiger sharks and bull sharks aren't picky eaters, but even so shark attacks in N. America are incredibly rare. They're just sensational so when they happen it gets reported on a lot.
When I'm in the ocean I worry about rip currents and jellyfish. They're more likely to hurt or kill me than sharks ever were.
When I'm around a pitbull I'm more worried about getting slobbered on and kissed and laid on than bitten. Small terriers are the ones I worry about biting me out of the blue.
I know you've been using them for a bit but the addition of the ai animated pictures is just *chefs kiss*. It adds a layer of horror to the story. Jen, we love you.
I was wondering what was with that! makes sense
Here is an advice you should give your children : Normal adults don’t ask anything from children they don’t know. They don’t ask them for directions, they don’t ask them to do odd jobs, they don’t ask them for help doing anything. If an adult approaches a random child to ask them something, just assume they have bad intentions.
Oh I like this!! It's true.
With regards to her offering the child a ride to school, what I'd say to a child is, "are you okay getting to school on your own?" But I'd only say this if the child was obviously having difficulties. Otherwise I'd assume the kid was okay and not offer unneeded help.
Yup, that was the advice I was given: "Adults don't need children's help."
"the older woman fell for this? *giggles*" dude
you
you fell for it
😁
It's terrifying to know you can run screaming to a stranger, begging for help, and their only concern will be if the police might say that it was a waste of time.
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out!
The first night I spent at my fiance's house, he to pick up our food order and I was alone at his place. A freaked out man pounded on the door and tried to break in. He even went to the back door and the windows.
I was terrified and called the police.
It turned out to be my new boyfriend not yet fiance's roommate. He'd been beaten up and mugged and chased through the snow home with no shoes. He climbed on the roof and came down when the police (and my boyfriend) got there.
So of course he seemed deranged. I felt so awful for locking him out.
He said he understood. He was just scared they were still chasing him. Plus he didn't know me. So that freaked him out.
Mine was a happy ending but I wonder how often it isn't.
@ Jenn, you should check out Russell Howard's show to pull some reaction clips! he's a British comedian, maybe Simon knows of him but specifically the segment Playground Politics where he interviews kids are comedy GOLD
Well, if the police say it's a waste of time, they will be bringing the victim back to her tormentors. That's something to be concerned about.
Only concern? Of course not but they are being thrown into a situation that's probably fine. Its why you should teach kids to yell "you're not my ____" rather than just yelling. It gives strangers more information to know something is actually wrong
What is really scary is that picture of the couple together .. they look like normal elderly couple .. if you saw them anywhere no alarm would go in your head .. really scary how normal and nice they look in this picture.
As a South African I absolutely LOVE how Simon is doing more South African cases. Keep it up please!!
I was born in SA during the 80's. The Van Rooyen case was EVERYWHERE in the media and even though we lived an 12hr drive away from Pretoria, parents still kept their daughters inside after dark. FYI the emergency number for SA is 10111 🙂
Don't you love the pronunciations, its brilliant 😅
10111? Good luck dialling that, unless you got the patrol cars cell number you are fked 😂🤣
Malherbe and Van Rooyen :-)
@@jankekleynhans3142 even gert😅
@@jankekleynhans3142 don't forget advocate Barbie 🤣
The voice cutting out and creepy music absolutely got me. Scared to look at the screen to see what was going on! 😅
3:00 LOL you didn't need a boombox for music on the go; there were Walkmans. Boomboxes were for when you wanted to make everyone else listen to your music on the go.
I come for true crime and stay for Jenn’s FANTASTIC editing. And of course fact boys tangents and the spectacular writing of the writers, but Jenn brings it all together is such a beautiful way
Emma's writing is lovely as well.
Is it me or is there a soundtrack problem starting at 35:21 to 36:30? Dear Casual Criminalist thank you for all the content you have created!
Jen has elevated her game so far that she singlehandedly keeps these episodes from sinking into grimness.
yeah right? 0:55 I'm not even a minute in and Jen is already carrying the entire mood
Simon trying to say Hartebeespoort and other names of places is something I never get tired of listening to.
The grin and "what's up, America" was maybe the most enjoyable side-line any episode Simon has done.
I’ve gotten used to getting episodes that go more than an hour long, that when they’re less than an hour long, I go… awww. 😂😂 I’m sorry I just want it to last longer (don’t we all? 😆)
I mean, remember days when we get short and long episodes? 😂 feels like forever ago.
What's with the music at 35:21? Did TH-cam clamp down on this and demand the audio be removed?
Thank you Simon and team for covering this, I have requested it a few times...
I grew up in Johannesburg (down the road from where several of Moses Sithole`s victims were found in Boksburg), this case is still very much on the minds of many South Africans, the fact that the bodies still haven`t been found and laid to rest still sits very heavy on many of us that lived through this era in that very troubled land...
A few points to mention though :
-Apartheid, apart from a few small laws had all but been abolished by the mid 1980`s.
-The streets were about as safe as they were anywhere else in the world, we were just raised to be more aware of our surroundings and the people that were in them.
-Since the end of Apartheid, South Africa has a higher murder rate than Afghanistan had at the height of the war on terror. (From June 2022 until November 2022 7000 people were murdered) compared to now, yes, it was a whole lot safer, the police back in the 80`s would crush you, white or black, if you commited a crime, there was actual rule of law there then
-The reason why the police fumbled so badly was during this period of time in SA the police were doing everything in their power to keep two African political parties (IFP and ANC) from murdering each other in daily and nightly battles in the townships over who would rule the country when so called "Free and Fair Elections" were to be held, so their attentions were drawn into the brutal and savage war that was raging in the townships...
You didn’t need bars covering every window back then.
@@Sniperboy5551 yup...I remember when most of the houses on our suburban East Rand street didn`t have perimeter walls, just 4 foot chain link fences between the houses and no wall or fence at the front...I also remember in late 94 early 95 the walls with barbed wire on top starting to go up as the murder rate also started to go up...horror stories of home invasions that almost always involved rap* and torture also became "The Norm" at around that time...
Love that you are reading this stories out loud. Best crime stories that I rarely read or heard about.
I really needed to hear that the monsters had been slain, way more than I needed to hear that the poor innocent victims are still separated from their mourning family's love.
I listen to this as a podcast. Was very confused by the editing of Simon's voice stopping and the music starting until I had the chance to stop and rewind it.
2:30 - Chapter 1 - The end of innocence
13:25 - Chapter 2 - The monster of malherbe street
20:10 - Mid roll ads
22:15 - Chapter 3 - The fiancée
28:35 - Chapter 4 - The missing six
32:00 - Chapter 5 - The chase
37:55 - Chapter 6 - Investigations & theories
43:05 - Dismembered appendices
At 26:45 where he says people in movies put down those below them in front of friends and family, that’s me and my upbringing with an asshole Stepfather Bert Cromwell. The entire step family treated me like that including his sister Gail Quitoni her husband Charles and their two kids Richard and Danielle… I had psyche issues growing up related to how I was treated and now it’s impossible to find a job anywhere because of a violent felony for theft… doesn’t matter it’s 12 years ago, it’s there
Thank you for posting these time stamped chapters. Always helpful 💛
I love the little film clips that are shown while Simon is narrating. excellent!
Jen's sense of humour with the clips is just perfect.
The way you say "Haarties" is the best.. 🤣🤣🤣
Yes!!!! I love the SA episodes. He always mispronounces the names and then I shout the correct pronunciations at my screen.
I've been waiting for this one!! Thanks Emma! As a South African 80's baby my mom use to tell this story to us. And we followed the artcles through the years. Especially in Huisgenoot!
Jy's welkom!
Jy's welkom!
Dear Simon or writers , I have been a long time listener an love the show. I wanted to suggest Jeffery Allen Manchester “ the rooftop robber “ who robbed a string of McDonald’s later escaping a correctional facility to live hidden in a toy store for several years. Either way thank you for providing such a great podcast to listen to while working.
Hey, you got your wish.
Thank you Simon and team for the best true crime stories told in a manner that doesn't dwell on the gory details, especially where children were involved, or elevate the status of the criminals.
The specs look great. Indeed very dapper today. GWS 🙏
I am from South Africa and was in school when this happened. I now live in Malherbe street, 1 block away from his now demolished house. There is still a sign with a flower for each victim
I checked on Google Earth and see the lot is empty now.
With such prevalence of crime in South Africa, the Casual Criminalist episodes based here helps break the mundanity, Thanks Emma and Factboi
Bakkie!!! Wow... love some SA slang coming out here!!! Go Emma✨️
I still live in Capital Park, 1 street down from Malherbe street.
I was born the year this case happened, and years later this was my first introduction into true crime when I found some old magazines.
I was fascinated, so naturally I went to the library so I can find out more. Back then the police museum also had a Gert van Rooyen section.
Btw Simon, love the horrible pronunciations 🤣 I kept correcting you until my husband said "you know he can't hear you right?" 🤣
🤣
Emma coming in clutch with the scripts about cases that us Muricans have never heard about.
And us Canucks! This was wild. I have friends in (and visited) SA, never heard of this.
I can't even tell if it is AI moving the pictures anymore. The one of him smiling with the girls overlayed is unbelievably well done. The visual work in these videos is getting better and better.
...they still creep me out!
I remember this case growing up in Jo'burg but had no idea of the scope. Thank God for MacGyver! Cheers Simon and Emma.
Is there a reason for the musical interlude at 35:20?
well i think that the only "podcast" i hear and that i watch most of the time within an hour of release, thank you fact boy and mainly his team
At 35:30 about, what happens to the audio for about a min?
to me, there is nothing inherently scarier than the phrase "never seen again" or "never heard from again." because, no matter what somebody's fate was, their life *did* have a story: beginning, middle, & end. and it's just eerie beyond measure that there's some people out there who've been deprived of having their entire story known to those who loved them & cared for them. and especially like Simon said, it's simply worse when it's children. to vanish without a trace by itself is ghoulish. but to disappear & these girls were still all MINORS, I'm devastated to even imagine what they saw towards the end of their lives 💔💔 the only solace to be found in this case is in knowing that they're not still in pain; rest easy girls, you deserved so much better than what you were given
My cousin was kidnapped at 12 years old and was missing just a few days before his body was found. Those were the longest days of my life. Hours seems like days when someone you love is missing. Even though my cousin was brutally murdered.. it's still better than never knowing what happened to him. At least in my opinion.. I can't speak for his mom tho.
@@jrmckim my condolences for all of you, that's awful & I'm sorry you all were exposed to such a tragedy. if it helps any, at least your memories with your cousin continue in your story as it presses onward. because it's the most treasured moments that make our stories so valuable to us as they progress. I know it's not the same, but I like to imagine that those who've passed away aren't gone for forever. it's just bye for now :)
What a jump from 1990 to 1900! 😄
What the hell happened from 35:20 to 36:30?! 😲
Well written, love this channel! Thanks for being you, Simon.
The absolute gall of someone who took the lives of innocents and prevented their loved ones from ever having closure, from finally finding their bodies, to list *their* demands on how they want to be buried? Hell isn't hot enough for these two.
animating the photos makes them even more unsettling and creepy, because there's an unnatural feeling caused by the process. it really makes it super disturbing
Agreed. That was creepy AF, especially as someone who had those faces permanently burned into my brain as a youngster.
For sure! There's another true crime channel that does that to all their photos. Can't watch it at all. Creepy as heck!
Are they animated with AI? It almost looks like video camera footage, which wouldn’t surprise me. It was the 90s and the creep wanted pictures of himself to send to women, so it wouldn’t be far fetched to think he wanted video too
The uncanny valley
For anyone wondering, I listened to the podcast of this episode to see if there was anything of note missing from the cut out section. There was not, it was mainly just citations for the quotes themselves. The TH-cam version did it better. Well done Jen!
I don't think Siri has worked in a single one of Simon's videos so far
What happened to the audio between 35:21 - 36:31?? The most crucial bit and it was cut off!
This was the most scary time in my live. I grew in Pretoria. Was the same age as some of those girls. We were not allowed to go the mall or shops without at least a parent accompanying us, or as a group of girls. I was petrified at a point, as I had to make use of municipal busses to and from school and to where my parents worked on Church square. And then there were the series of bombings in city center. The one on 20 May was the most horrific, as my family were to celebrate a family members birthday in the restaurant. The bimb went off in front of the window where we were to be seated. Thank GOD I had a very bad bout of flue that Friday.
Grew up in Pietermaritzburg and my grandfather was the station commander of the police's Dog Unit in that city. I remember watching the TV footage of the Casspirs (armoured vehicles) leaving the station. My grandparents used that as a teachable moment about stranger danger.
Can't imagine being in the shoes of the parents who lost their children.
Audio error at 35:00 ?
Oohhh I love the South African content. Can't wait to get into this one. Downloading now to listen while I work tomorrow.
There is a whole generation of us who where raised under the threat of this guy. It was the 80's, I grew up in a small town 2 hours drive away from where he lived, we were not allowed to walk anywhere alone.
Today my daughter is the same age and I'll be damned if she walks to the bathroom alone in a mall in this country now. Funny thing is, just after I got married long before the kids, we lived in THE MALHERBE STREET in Capital Park. Did not know it until my dad made somekind of offhanded comment about that fact after we moved.
The haunting living photos have returned!
Is this ai? So weird and creepy.
We rarely get an Emma Episode! Thank you Emma! 😊 this was a good one!
Thank you Factboi and Jen!
I'm catching up with the others - promise 🙂
Someone please give the man a simple robbery or theft to read. I can see his soul shatter 😲
He could always read about "Stander" 🤣
He did Stander a year ago
@@daduzadude1547 then he should know that Stander was a bank Robber not a serial killer
Maybe the coupon queens case. Or MLM scams. Bernie Madoff.
Something.
My dad had a story like this, about how everyone knew that they shouldn't go to this one old mans house. It was hammered in by parents. One of the poor kids from school was basically picked up by the old man every day from school. He became disheveled, disconnected, killed himself in high school
Everyone knew he was being raped to hell and back every day but nobody did shit because those things were just hushed up back then.
😭😭😭😭
12:00
"The woman agreed and said she'll meet them back at the house"
That's when you know that's not her actual mom. No parent is going to let a random stranger walk their kid back home and meet them there.
The handcuffs probably gave it away first.
Simon at the beginning of the series: "I don't know how I feel about the death penalty."
Simon now: "I think (insert state/country name) has the death penalty, I hope they do."
Simon, a classic line ......"Is that smoking in my hallway? , Lets get back to the child molesters".....
😂😂😂😂
Why is there no narration from 35:27 to 33:28? It was clearly supposed to be there. Please explain what happened.
That creepy-assed soundtrack from 35:21 to 36:32.
What the hell was the deal with the dramatic music break???
As a girl with a similar name to Yolanda, of a similar age I was often confused for the missing girl. I can tell you it was a very very big deal during that time. It was constantly in the news, on milk cartons and in newspapers. Those poor girls were never found, so sad.
😢Being mistaken for her must have been very difficult for you.
It is really sad that you were confused once for this girl because you had a similar name. The fact that it happened often is very troubling. The people around you seem easily confused, damaging any chance of finding the girl.
Very sad
@@sonnieaaron why would it have been difficult for her?
@@richardtherichard26 Partially because the reminder of the heinous crime might be unsettling, if not frightening for a young girl.
Bella Monsoon is from South Africa & covers true crime cases from her home here on TH-cam. It’s a new little channel & very good. If you’re interested in cases that you might not have heard before, check her out! ❤😊❤
I remember the missing girls posters at school. One night I came home late from a friends house only to find the police with my mom, they thought I was kidnapped by the Van Rooyens. I matched the MO and we lived In Kempton Park. I got the biggest hiding and grounded (probably because my mom was to scared to let me out on the streets)
Omg I’m glad you were safe!
How scary.
WTF happened to the audio from 35:20 to 36:30???
Why does the sound cut out at 35:00?
And what's with the music -
Come for the crimes, stay for the Power Ranger clips!
My heart hurts on this one. 💔
What happened at 35:24? A dark menacing sound track completely takes over for about a minute.
Yes. Didn't like it at all.
So true. Life wasn't safer at all, it just had less information available about it, especially regarding crimes like sexual molestation, fraud, corruption, etc.
In South Africa's case people erroneously think it was safer because it was literally a military dictatorship, so street crimes like pick pockets, mugging etc. were less in town centers, suburbia etc. but not anywhere else.
The net overall crime rate in SA is literally the same today as it was in the 70s.
I’m interested in more information. We’re the rates the same through all categories or are there different types of crimes? What about 80s and 90s?
Did simons’s narration disappear for anyone else from 35:22-36:32?
I was also wondering what the hell happened there... [35:20 to 36:30]
Did anyone else miss several minutes because it was just music but Simon was talking?
What's going on at 35:21? I hear no words just some creepy music, for a good bit actually..
I love going back and forth between this guy's videos and Shrouded Hand's videos. That way I have a nice balance between fast and bombastic and slow and soothing.
You need to cover the Lululemon murders. It is mental.
I am from South Africa and loved the way you told this very familiar story! Butchering our language actually added a lighter side to it! 🤣👌
And yes - our justice system is fucked. People get more jail time for theft than murder and rape. Furthermore, our police force is severely under resourced and very often, even if someone is murdered, they do not investigate as you would expect in such cases. More often than not, criminal case files get "lost" in the system.
What the heckin' heck happened from 35:22 to 36:34...suddenly got the ominous music but no voice
Loving the south African flavor. Please do a show on the farm murders "phenomenon ". Love your work guys and girls❤️
What’s up with 35:32?
Did u forget to overlay simons voice?
Why does the audio cut out for a full minute just before the 36 min mark?
The fact that they used a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie clip is amazing!
Simon, those douches are very real. I work with a vile woman who’s old enough to be my mom, and she talks negative about me to my coworkers within ear shot of me everyday. Those people get off on being hateful to others. It’s a shame.
Also as this episode proves, it’s not always that the middle aged woman is going to be the predator, it’s the fear that’s she’s MARRIED to one and will let him do whatever he likes
Hey Simon - Shane from Kansas City, Missouri, USA here. I just realized that I don't think you've ever done an episode on Bob Berdella. I would like to hear your writers take and your thoughts on that particular case. Keep doing what you do my friend!
Whoa, what's with the sound @35:21-36:31?? 😱 that was spooky! Lol
I can't sleep after that
Fantastic editing as always!
at 16:50, my guess, since he was a deacon, is that he was talking of his taste for little kids at gatherings of the "let the little ones come to me (and meke me come)" church
35:27 what happened to the audio?
A husband isolating his wife from her friends and family is a sure sign of abuse.