MURDERED: Thomas Bearson & Geetha Angara

Hi, Crime Junkies. It's Ashley.
Six years ago, when we did our very first Crime Junkie tour, we told a story about a young girl who was murdered. Well, within that story, the killer had Googled Dana Ireland autopsy photos.
That small piece of the larger story set me on a years-long spiral picking apart the murder of a young woman on Christmas

Eve. Three men were convicted of her murder, but it was clear that the real killer had never been identified.
But how that happened is a wild story. One that we're telling you in the new season of three hosted by Amanda Knox.
Hear the full story in season two of three. You can listen to three now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Spring is all about renewal. So refresh your looks with incredible new must-haves from Nordstrom Rack.
Thousands of spring finds up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores right now, and that means thousands of reasons to rack. Save on Madewell, Vince, Kate Spade New York, Sam Edelman, Joe's, and more.
You never know what you'll find, but you know it's going to be so good. From fresh kicks to spring tops to new dresses, discover your new favorites at Nordstrom Rack.
Great brands, great prices.

That's why you rack. There's a lot to say when buying a new home or car, but only one thing to say that can help you protect them.
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And just like that,

a State Farm agent will be there to help you choose the coverage you need. No matter where

you are in life, when you need coverage options, your State Farm agent is there to help

on the phone or in person. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
This episode is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The all-new S25 Ultra is integrated with incredible AI features.
It's a true AI companion capable of handling multiple tasks with just one ask. You can tell it to find a restaurant nearby and text it to your friends or search for recipes and add them to your notes.
Plus, Now Brief with Galaxy AI gives you personalized daily briefings like your appointments, the weather, and your energy score. It's basically the rundown I used to get from my assistant every morning.
And don't worry, AI will never put her out of a job. She is amazing.
But the Now Brief with Galaxy AI makes it easy to plan and organize everything from where we're going to lunch to debrief an interview on a reporting trip to travel plans for the tour. You can even use it to help plan your trip to see the Crime Junkie Life Rule Number 10 tour.
Get your Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra now at samsung.com. Seamless actions across apps is compatible with select apps.
Requires Google Gemini account. Results may vary based on input.
Check responses for accuracy. Now Brief with Galaxy AI displays daily select information from select apps.
May require internet connection. Galaxy AI features by Samsung free through 2025 and require Samsung account login.
Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.
And I'm Britt. And today, I actually have two stories for you.
Two separate cases that both need one thing. People to talk.
Both cases are going to leave you with more questions than answers, but we're hoping by covering each of these stories, someone out there

will do the right thing and speak up. So the first story I have for 2014, Debbie and Greg Bearson are feeling anxious, but mostly in a good way.
Their son, Tom, is supposed to be arriving home any minute, one of his first trips home after starting college at North Dakota State University that fall. The campus is about two and a half, maybe three hours away, and they know that he had planned to catch a ride with a friend around noon.
But the clock ticks past 2.30, and then 3, and then 3.30, and there's no sign of him. Which, fine, maybe they got held up or left later than they planned.
College kids aren't exactly known for their punctuality, except he's not answering their texts, and he's not even answering their calls. They just keep getting his voicemail and that's not like Tom.
By now, Greg has a bad feeling about all of this and I think Debbie is right there with him. That kind of weight that just sits on your chest and tells you that something isn't right even while your brain tries to convince you otherwise.
So they start making phone calls. They call some of his friends.
They call his roommate Wyatt. And was Wyatt his ride home that day? No.
Well, or at least that's not what's reported in any of the coverage. To be honest, I'm not sure that they know even who was supposed to be his ride home.
It doesn't sound like it was him. But anyways, they call Wyatt and it's this call that really throws them for a loop because he says that he hasn't even seen Tom since around 10 o'clock the night before when Tom left to hang out at a friend's house about a half mile away.
And that's when Debbie and Greg decide it is time to panic because Tom has kind of given them extra reason to worry because just over a week ago he had gotten busted on a DUI charge. He blew like a 0.18.
Which could be the reason he planned on getting that ride. Yeah, totally.
But either way, I mean, this is what's in the back of their minds as all of this is unfolding. So I'm sure they're wondering, like, did he do it again? Is he sitting in a jail cell somewhere? Or worse, did he get in an accident? Maybe he's at a hospital.
So that night, they hit the road heading straight for Fargo where his college is. I mean, there's no way they can just sit around and wait by the phone hoping that it rings without it actually ringing.
Now, by the time they make it to Fargo, it's the middle of the night. They check into their hotel, but I mean, let's be honest, neither of them are getting any rest.
Instead, they just wait, wait and pace the room, wait and pace till daybreak, when they can start looking for Tom. And there's this moment that Jordan Brown describes in reporting for the St.
Cloud Times that it gave me full body chills because she writes, quote, Greg recalls pulling back the blinds of the hotel room that next morning and seeing bright, sunny skies, hoping it was a good sign. About five minutes later, he watched dark clouds roll in over it.
It felt very ominous to Greg. Now, I'm assuming they go to Tom's dorm that morning to see what they can figure out, because I know they try and find the location of his phone, like, using his computer, but they don't have any luck.
And then Greg even sets out on foot to look for Tom. Like, I mean, this poor dad, he's checking ditches on the side of the road, not just, like, places he would go.
Right. But eventually, they know that they can't do it on their own anymore.
So they finally make contact with authorities to report Tom missing. And this is when word starts getting out on campus.
It almost seems like the entire student body takes to Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag Find Tom suddenly trending. And it's actually a tweet that gives investigators their first real lead.
because it is a tweet from Tom's account. And this tweet is directed at the account of another NDSU student, this guy named Cody.
And it's weird. It's cryptic even.
And it's not like it just popped up. Like it's from 1.30 in the morning Saturday.
And it says, quote,

dude, it's Jake. Come pick us up.
We are so lost and we're going to die. Just get somebody.

Who's Jake? Well, so Jake is another NDSU student, but Tom also knows him from home.

They're like from the same town. It turns out that he shares a house with this guy,

Cody, like the guy that he's tweeting at. And is Jake missing too?

Well, I mean, according to this tweet, he's claiming to be lost. But if he's actually like missing, missing the same way Tom is, nobody's reported that.
And where is Cody? Well, they're about to find that out. And they obviously want to talk to Cody and Jake more than ever.
Because remember how Tom's roommate Wyatt said that the last time he saw Tom was when he left for a friend's house Friday night? That friend was Cody, wasn't it? Cody and Jake's house, right. It seems like there was some kind of gathering there that night, so that's where investigators start.
And they determined pretty quickly that Jake is alive and well, fully accounted for, but... But what does he say about the tweet? I mean, was it him? Was it like...
This is what's so weird

about the reporting on this case.

How absent Jake is.

It really isn't explained ever.

Like he's talked about

and I know Cody is interviewed,

but Jake is almost like this ghost

in this story.

Like he's there,

but I've never seen anything from him.

But he's not like quoted or anything like direct from him. Weird.
Yeah, he's there, but I've never seen anything from him. But he's not, like, quoted or anything, like, direct from him.
Weird. Yeah, it's really strange.
But I do know that separate reports in the Grand Forks Herald, one by Grace Lydon and another by Kim Hyatt, confirm that the message or the tweet or whatever was sent by Jake. Okay, but where were they? I wish I knew.
Dennis Dowman reports for the news leaders that, quote, at first, police and others were puzzled by that seemingly sinister message. But later, Cody told them Tom and Jake showed up at his residence after that 132 message was sent.
End quote. And just like an FYI, like I quoted that Cody, Tom and Jake, they're in the actual quote or referred to by their last names, but I just changed it to their first names.
Anyways, Grace Leiden reports for the St. Cloud Times that Cody said in an interview that around the time of Tom's disappearance, that the other two, quote unquote, found a ride back to his place.
So I can only assume Jake is saying the same thing, but like who gave them this ride? Where were they coming from? I have no idea. Again, we don't really hear from Jake himself.
And it doesn't seem like Cody went to pick them up. But like, that is...
If they found a ride, he wouldn't have said in an interview that they got a ride. He would have said, I went and picked them up.
But that's about as much as we know. And it seems like investigators think Cody is telling the truth about them making it back to his house safe and sound, especially once they talk to Tom's best friend, Patrick, who tells them that he and Tom had actually been video chatting on Snapchat after that tweet was sent, and Tom seemed fine.
Now, Patrick isn't at the university. He's not a student there, but he had headed for Fargo as soon as he heard that Tom was missing.
He, like, got together with other friends of Tom's and just started driving the streets of Fargo

looking for him.

So anyways, Cody says that Tom stayed

and hung out at the house

till like 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning

and then he left.

Like on his own or with a group?

Was everyone like closing out?

No, I think he's solo,

but I'm not, again,

not even super clear on that either.

Some of the reporting suggests

that maybe Jake left with him,

but like most of the reports I've seen

And it... I think he's so low, but I'm not, again, not even super clear on that either.
Some of the reporting suggests that maybe Jake left with him, but like most of the reports I've seen indicate that Tom left on his own, which would make more sense since Jake lived at the house that they were all at. Right, right.
Why would Jake leave? Right. And did Tom like catch another ride? Did he leave on foot? He walked.
He's only like, so Cody and Jake's house is only like six blocks away from his dorm, like a half mile or so. So definitely a walkable distance, especially in September before the winter cold hits.
And again, with his DUI the weekend before, I don't know if he's doing much driving at the time. But this is where investigators get stuck, because it seems that after Tom walked out their door in the early morning hours of Saturday, that was the last anyone saw of him.
Tired of the midday crash that comes with drinking regular coffee? Rise Mushroom Coffee gives you the energy and focus you need without the jitters or crash. Rise Mushroom Coffee is a unique blend of six functional mushrooms crafted to fuel your body and mind all day long.
It delivers steady energy without the jitters or the crashes, helps with sharper focus and mental clarity, and supports healthy digestion. It even boosts immune support to help you feel your best every day.
And with over 200,000 five-star reviews, people are loving it. I started using Rise because I was trying to cut out energy drinks.
I definitely need the morning boost because right now I am juggling a tour schedule and a CEO schedule, which means I have to wake up at 5 a.m. and your girl is tired.

I love a natural energy solution like Rise. Try Rise Mushroom Coffee with 15% off your first order at risesuperfoods.com slash crimejunkie.

That's R-Y-Z-E Superfoods.com

slash Crime Junkie.

Don't just wake up.

Awaken with Rise. I love their fast speed.
I love their fast speed. Try singing it.
T-Mobile has price lock.

They won't raise your rate on internet.

Just one chord. It's an easy set.
Oh! Easy set. Oh! Get T-Mobile home internet for just $35 a month with AutoPay and any postpaid voice line.
The next morning, which is Monday, investigators launch a ground search in the area between Tom's dorm and Cody and Jake's house. They've got scent tracking dogs and everything, but there is just no sign of Tom.
It is truly like he vanished into thin air. Grace Lydon reports for the St.
Cloud Times that by Monday afternoon, they've even got firefighters searching the Red River, which is just to the east of campus, and they're doing this by boat. But not for any real reason, other than they're just looking there because they don't know where else to look.
But all that is about to change. Because by Tuesday morning, Tom's parents are meeting with an investigator in their hotel room when the investigator's phone suddenly starts ringing.
And this guy excuses himself to take the call. And Greg says that even before he comes back in and tells them what the call was about, they know.
They'd found Tom and it wasn't good news. Greg is actually quoted in the reporting that I mentioned earlier by Jordan Brown saying, All I remember is walking over and sitting on the other end of the bed, and I was shaking violently, almost in shock.
I had never felt so empty or confused in my life. My soul was in the process of changing forever.
Where did they find Tom? Well, this is the really strange part. His body was found away from campus, past the river, and at this RV lot in Moorhead, Minnesota.

So a completely different state.

Where's Moorhead in all this?

Well, it's like, I mean, the river they were searching is like right on the border.

So it's not terribly far.

It's like five or six miles away, but just like across the river.

But it doesn't seem like he ended up there accidentally, like, or just by like wandering off because his left shoe is missing and his cell phone is missing.

Can they tell how he died? Well, not there at the park, but by that Thursday, which would have been September 25th, the ME rules his death as a homicide, concluding that it was the result of asphyxiation. Though, they don't really tell the public that yet.
They're, like, keeping that information close to the vest at first.

And it'll be a while before they get his toxicology results back.

Okay, did the tox results even matter, though?

I mean, if he was killed by asphyxiation?

I mean, maybe.

Some overdose deaths are a result of suppressed breathing, right?

So, like, technically speaking, those deaths sometimes involve asphyxiation.

But the fact that they've already ruled it a homicide without the tox result,

and what they're saying publicly is that was homicidal violence,

It makes me feel like I's not what they're looking for. I mean, it seems like he was intentionally killed by another person, but they've just got to do their due diligence.
Though what they're using to determine that he was killed by another person is a little TBD, because at the time they're not really sharing a lot of information with the public. I mean, again, they're not even telling the public asphyxiation.
Like, basically, all they'll say is homicidal violence. And know what else they're not telling anyone? How they decide to search the RV lot in the first place.
Now, what we know now, all these years later, is that it was a specific tip that led them there. Fargo PD Lieutenant Vettel says as much, but to this very day, we have no idea what the tip was, who the tip came from, or how it was even passed along to police in the first place.
So basically, all we know is that it wasn't random that they went to this RV place. Yeah, or it wasn't like somebody who just stumbled upon him and then like called in or something.
At least that's what it seems like. He says it was a tip.
Now, the news of Tom's death hits both his hometown of Sartell and NDSU hard. His old high school brings in grief counselors for the students because, I mean, again, Tom's only a freshman.
A lot of the current students at the high school probably knew him, especially because he was kind of a hometown star on the school's basketball team. The News Leaders reports that a moment of silence was held for Tom that Friday night at the football game, and some students even start a memorial fund in his honor.
Meanwhile, students at the university hold a candlelight vigil the night that Tom is found, and the hashtag FindTom quickly turns into hashtag RIPTom. And even students who never met him seem to take his death pretty personally.
So at this point, the Fargo PD hands the investigation off to the Moorhead Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Fargo and NDSU PD will still be involved in some way, but like in a more supporting role.
They're not going to be lead on the case. And over the next few weeks, investigators make pleas to the public to keep an eye out for Tom's missing shoe, for his cell phone, believing that those items could be crucial pieces of evidence that might lead them to whoever killed Tom.
But it turns out, what they should have focused on was the RV park for that, because it's possible that Tom's killer returned. You see, in mid-October, a call comes in from an employee of the RV lot reporting that someone was loitering on the premises.
And I don't think this was called in like, in a way like, I can't get this guy to leave kind of thing. I think the employee was like, hey, this person is hanging around where someone was killed and left.
Like, they might be returning to the scene kind of thing. More of like, I'm suspicious of this person thing.
Exactly, exactly. So police respond to the lot, but by the time they get there, the guy is gone.
And the employee says that he'd actually confronted the guy. And the guy had claimed that he was just looking around.
But looking around for what? At what? Like an RV? Missing evidence? A phone? A shoe? I don't know. I mean, that's the question, right? But whoever this guy is, they can't find him.
Now, they do put out a description, hoping that someone will recognize it and be able to give him a name. According to an October 15th report by WCCO CBS Minnesota, he was, quote, about 20 years old with a thin build.
He was wearing a black baseball style cap with green writing, a gray T-shirt and blue jeans. Which is like a description, but also just kind of sounds like a general college student.
Is that description from the witness or are there security cameras they were able to pull from? I'm not sure. They don't mention security footage in this specific part, but they do talk about security footage later.
So I can't say for sure. But what I know is that it could also be like a composite of those two things, to be honest, if they aren't going to like list it out.
Right. Right.
But it doesn't matter because nobody comes forward to identify whoever this guy is. And then not much else happens in the way of investigative breakthroughs the rest of the month, or November, or the months to follow.
In early February of 2015, investigators get the final autopsy results, which confirm that Tom didn't die from any kind of intoxication or overdose. Which we didn't know, but we also didn't like not know.
Right. I think they were just wanting to triple confirm.
And they also make this announcement kind of at the same time that was like in like reading about it feels a little out at left field, but you'll come to understand. But they say that like Tom wasn't working as a confidential informant for local police.
And they make the statement, though, because there was this rumor that had been gaining some traction ever since his death. And I think that's because there was another disappearance of another North Dakota college student just a few months before Tom's death.
This podcast is brought to you by Kleenex Ultrasoft Tissues. It's that time of year, the flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping, and also that time when allergies can test you and show up when you least expect.
But with Kleenex Ultrasoft Tissues, you can be ready to face them. Whether it's sneezes or watery eyes, you don't want to be caught without a tissue on hand to help.
Kleenex Ultra Soft tissues are gentle on eyes and noses. They're for all the moments at home and on the go that allergies can disrupt.
This allergy season, be better prepared with Kleenex Ultra Soft tissues, which is allergist approved so you can go on with your day. Life and allergies can both be unpredictable, but you can be prepared for that time of year by making sure you always got Kleenex ultra soft tissues ready.
For whatever happens next, grab Kleenex. In 1932, one man opened a two-room business school above a nondescript storefront in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire.
How did it become one of the largest universities in the country? Okay, this case isn't exactly a mystery. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 degrees you can earn from your couch.
And with low online tuition, Southern New Hampshire University makes earning your degree affordable, too. Buy your degree at snhu.edu slash crimejunkie.
That's snhu.edu slash crimejunkie. The other student that died was a kid by the name of Andrew Sadek.
Now he died in May of 2014. And like I said, this is just a few months before Tom.
So it was kind of at the forefront of everyone's mind. And Andrew was attending the North Dakota State College of Science at their campus in Wahpeton, which is about an hour away from NDSU in Fargo.
And when he got busted for selling small amounts of pot about six months before his death, police had basically pressured him into acting as a confidential informant for them. Now, he ended up going missing May 1st of 2014, and then his body was found in the Red River with a gunshot wound to the head and weighed down by a backpack full of rocks about two months later.
And what is wild is that at the time, authorities insisted that he had died by suicide. No, you don't load up your backpack with rocks, shoot yourself in the head, and then somehow mosey on down and find yourself in the river.
I'm sorry, no. His family and the public believe that he was killed when someone in the drug scene figured out that he was a CI.
So you have this like looming in the background and knowing that Tom just had a DUI arrest like a week before his death, you can see how a lot of people might feel like this is deja vu all over again. Well, and it would kind of make sense back when the search like originally started why they would search the river when they didn't have any reason to point to it.
That's a good thought. Yeah, I don't know if that's what they were looking for, but I mean, maybe even they were making the connection or maybe they were just hearing the rumors or whatever.
Though again, police say that Tom was not a CI. So they're saying that while these rumors are going around, like they're not connected at all and Tom wasn't, again, in any kind of the same stuff.
Now, around this time, they do confirm that they have their hands on some security footage from the RV lot. So this is the first time this pops up, like I was saying earlier.
And they say that this footage shows an unidentified car near where Tom was found. But what's frustrating is that there's no explanation of what area the cameras covered.
Like, in theory, shouldn't they have footage of Tom and or his killer killers, like, coming there, getting there, getting out of the car? Like, or did the camera... How near are we talking? Why is it, like, slightly out of range for, like, where he was actually found? Yeah.
Does it only cover a small space? Is it, like, whatever the answer is, investigators are not telling us. And when was this suspicious car sighting happening? I also don't know.
They won't say. I assume it was maybe the night of his death or maybe it was around the time that that mystery man was spotted in the lot.
But I don't know. But whenever it was, they find this car suspicious enough that they ask for the public's help identifying it and the driver.
And can they tell what the driver looks like? Does he look anything like the description of the mystery man who is poking around there? You know what I'm going to say. They do not tell us.
But honestly, it doesn't really matter, though, because just within a few days, they get the information that they need to determine that the car and whoever was driving it had nothing to do with Tom's death. And then after that, the investigation kind of loses steam.
The following summer, Tom's girlfriend, Erica, puts Cody and Jake on blast on Facebook. Grace Lydon reports in the Grand Forks Herald that she writes, quote, It is fact that the last individuals known to have seen Tom Bearson alive are unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement and unwilling to take a polygraph test.
Why? Just take the test and prove you had nothing to do with Tom's death and prove yourself innocent of any wrongdoing and then move on with your life. End quote.
And Tom's family agrees because the next day they put out their own statement, which is also published in the same paper.

They write, quote,

In light of the events yesterday on social media, the Beerson family encourages those people who were last seen with our beloved son Tom to cooperate with law enforcement and take the polygraph test.

It is hard for us to imagine how anyone claiming to be our son's friend would not be willing to do everything necessary to exonerate themselves from any involvement in his death by answering some simple questions and allow law enforcement to move forward and focus on other information. It is time for everyone to cooperate with law enforcement to the fullest and help bring justice to our son, the community of Sartell, and the Bearson family.
End quote. By September of 2016, WCCO CBS Minnesota reports that Moorhead police still consider Tom's case their quote-unquote highest priority.
And Tom's parents continue to have faith that they'll be able to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, they founded the Tom Beerson Foundation, which has already raised $80,000 for a local school gym and given out scholarships to basketball players.
And they also work to raise awareness among students about college safety. But year after year passes by with no new developments.
The Beersons have done their best to keep Tom's name front and center. And Greg regularly makes public pleas for people to come forward and clear their consciences.
In August of 2023, they announced that they were going to be closing the Tom Beerson Foundation for good. But that's not to say that they've moved on or abandoned their commitment to finding out what happened to their son.
I think Greg put it especially well in something he said in 2018. He said, quote, We haven't forgotten that he died.
We just want to remember that he lived. Jordan Schreier and Reed Gregory report for Valley News Live that in September of 2023, investigators say they are still actively pursuing the case.
But that's about it. I still have so many questions.
Did they ever test for DNA, maybe under Tom's fingernails or something? And whatever happened with his phone? I mean, if they did test for DNA, none of that's been reported. If it was collected, if it was found, if it was compared, I do know they never found his phone or his left shoe for that matter.
Okay, but with the phone, I mean, I'm sure they have records, right? Like, text calls, the pings from those texts and calls. I mean, this is 2014.
I know. I mean, but it's stuff they're being super tight lipped about.
Because I know they got some of that because there was, Grace Lydon had reported for Grand Forks Herald, let me pull it up. She says, quote, cell phone tracking tips and proximity to his last known location drew the search to the largely industrial area of South Moorhead, end quote.
Which like make of that what you will. I mean, that's the area where the RV lot is.
I mean, they had enough to lead them there in the first place. What I mean, and I go back to like, did they actually get a tip there? Was it the phone there? I don't know.
But what else that data told them, if anything, is never really expanded on. I do know that they tried

to get some stuff from Snapchat,

knowing that he had been communicating

with Patrick that way that night.

But Emily Welker reports for Inforum

that the Fargo PD subpoenaed Snapchat

on October 13th of 2014

for Tom's account info.

Also, like, messages and location history,

all that good stuff.

And Snapchat responded the next day

confirming Tom's account basics.

But they said they only released

the quote-unquote contents of an account

Thank you. messages and location history, all that good stuff.
And Snapchat responded the next day confirming Tom's account basics. But they said they only released the quote-unquote contents of an account upon receipt of a search warrant.
The Fargo PD didn't seek a search warrant until mid-February of 2015, and Snapchat only retains unread messages for 30 days before they'd be deleted. Current junkies put a pin in that in case you ever need that for Snapchat info.
Oh my goodness. That's not a search warrant.
Very different thing. I say those are and that's not a lot of time.
30 days is a blink of an eye in some of these investigations. So listen, some of that might be gone, but the mystery of what happened to Tom can be solved if people start talking.
And that's where you come in, crime junkies. If you know anything about the death of Tom Beerson or the location of his phone, for that matter, you can call the Moorhead Police tip line at 218-299-5120.
Now, don't forget, there is one more story that we have for you today that needs your attention. One that, like Tom's, could be solved if the right people speak up.
That's the story of Geetha Angara. That's coming up next.
For workers at the Passaic Valley Water Commission plant, February 8, 2005 started like any other Tuesday.

I mean, it's easy to get lost in the grind.

You clock in, you have meetings, you do your job, you take calls, you see your co-worker buddies.

But in an instant, that normal day can become abnormal.

And you don't even know that it's happening until it's too late.

The moment that slipped by that day in Totowa, New Jersey, happened at around 11 a.m. Someone was looking for 43-year-old Geetha Angara, one of the senior chemists there at the plant, but she was MIA.
And people had seen her earlier. She'd shown up for work that day for her 8 to 4 shift, just like usual, and she'd been spotted around that morning, even as recently as like 10, 10.30.
So her absence at 11 didn't seem to bring any concern. Maybe she's in a meeting.
Maybe I just keep missing her. Whatever.
So for hours, no one knew that things had changed. Their world had shifted, but they were completely unaware.
Until, that is, later that evening, sometime after 4 when Geetha's shift would have ended. That's when someone saw her purse at her workstation, which made them a little worried.
Even more so when they saw her car in the parking lot. So according to Tina Kelly's article for the New York Times, people started looking around for her.
They even called her home and spoke to her husband, Jaya. But, of course, he says she's not there, so they asked for her cell phone number to try and get a hold of her that way.
But eventually, they found her phone there with her purse. Which is not comforting at all.
Not at all. So they keep searching the area, high and low, looking everywhere they can think of.
And at some point, they hear from some employees that Getha had gone down to the water tanks in the basement to recalibrate some machines. So this is where they decide to focus their search.
And just setting the scene here is a little challenging because as far as I can tell, there aren't any like pictures or videos of the plant that kind of walk through this portion of it. But from what I can put together from the source material is they head down to this like deep, narrow hallway that is above these massive underground water tanks.
And in this part of the plant, the water's only accessible through these heavy four-foot square metal grates in the floor that are over the tanks themselves. And it's by one of these grates that one employee reported finding broken glass, which is a red flag because there's no reason for there to be broken glass just laying around down there.
But the position of the grate itself is also really concerning because it's not secured like it should be on top of the water tank. Some sources claim that it was positioned diagonally over the hole.
Others say it was just like completely off altogether. So it's about this point that the plant manager calls police.
Now, if you look this case up, you might see early articles mentioned that the co-workers called police at around 7.30 p.m., but that's wrong. That time comes from an interview that the county prosecutor did, and it later gets cleared up.
There was no 7.30 call. He just got it wrong.
According to a New York Post article by Gene McIntosh, the call actually came in at 11.22 p.m. Which means no one's had eyes on Geetha for 12 hours.
Even more than that. Which is why police don't mess around when they get this call.
They head down to the plant, then down to the tanks to take a look at this grate.

And they find that part of the grate is pulled back, exposing the water underneath.

And it looks like the opening is big enough for someone to have fallen through.

But they're not sure if that's how it was found by employees or if the employees had removed it during their own search.

And this position of the grate actually becomes important later on. So just keep it in mind.
Now, just before midnight, the responding officers call in backup from other local jurisdictions and they have divers in the tanks searching for Geetha. And when I say tanks, I don't know what you're picturing, but these things are big.
They're like 40 feet by 100 feet. They're 35 feet deep.
And the one under this particular grate holds 1 million gallons of water. I mean, the plant itself is reported to process anywhere from like 75 to 83 millions of gallons of water per day to purify for public use.
So again, just massive. But when you might have a person in them, you can't have water going out to the public.
So at around 2 a.m., plant officials shut operations down. They divert water from other plants to go out to the public.
And with the water supply to the public shut off, they begin working to drain these massive tanks. And this takes a long time.
I mean, hours and hours. But sometime between 5 p.m.
and 7 p.m., that next night, they see their first sign that they're on the right track. A sneaker in the tank.
Then a clipboard. Then a radio.
And then 100 feet from where anybody last saw Geetha, they find her body. And with this discovery, any idea that this may have been an accident vanishes.

Because when they pull her out of the tank, they see deep bruising on her neck that tells a completely different story.

This was a homicide.

There is no doubt in investigators' minds.

But no one else at the plant had seen Geetha in the tank. No one would know that she was strangled, except, of course, her killer.
So police make the choice to hide that fact initially, see if they can draw this person out. Maybe even make them feel at ease, like get them to put their guard down, because early reporting quotes the chief of police stating that her body didn't show any signs of trauma.

Now, meanwhile, Geetha's body is taken to the medical examiner's office for autopsy,

and this is where things get tricky.

The medical examiner finds that despite the evidence of strangulation

and additional bruising around her wrist and one of her elbows,

her cause of death was drowning.

Okay, what about the manner of death? They rule it a homicide. But the question now is, by who? I mean, it should be a short list, right? Like, it's basically her co-workers.
Right, and that's who Geetha's family becomes immediately suspicious of once they're notified of her death. Because, you see, they explain that there had definitely been some tension between Geetha and some of her co-workers.
Like, she'd worked at the plant for over a decade. She'd been super successful, even played a big role in switching the plant to an ozone-based purification system.
So according to an article from The Record by Douglas Krauss, there were some people who held a lot of resentment and jealousy toward her, which didn't quell the previous year when she got promoted over some other people who in turn might have felt like they were passed up. And there had also been an incident the week before Geetha was killed where there'd been this pink discoloration in the water and the employees who fixed it did so incorrectly.
So Geetha had to like retrain them. And it sounds like little stuff when I bundle it all together like that.
But for a woman in her field over 13 years, the tension was absolutely felt. And one of her colleagues suggests that there may have been a racial element too.
I mean, 98% of the plant employees were white and some people may not have liked seeing an Indian woman in a position of power over them. And listen, even all motive aside, what her family can't get past is the fact that no one found her sooner or even realized she was gone sooner, especially because the plant has relatively high security compared to like any other normal office.
However, a spokesperson for the Water Commission says that Geetha's job wasn't a stationary one. So she wasn't just working at a desk in the same place all day with the same people.
She was kind of walking around and working with different people at different times. So they're basically saying like it would be easier for people to not notice she was gone because she's not like just sitting at a desk.
You know what I mean? Yeah, but I guess my thing is like, this is a water plant. It's got to be pretty secure, right? Is she like going into locked rooms? Is there anybody tracking you of that? I don't know.
So that's the other thing. I don't know how high tech the security was.
Again, maybe more than a regular office. But I know that there are no surveillance cameras down where she died, down in that water tank area.
And they didn't use any key cards or anything to get from room to room or building to building. So there's no record of who went where and when.
So maybe you can write those things off. But there is this other thing that her husband tells police that is a little odd in my mind.
Did you know squirrels are nature's greatest investors? They bury over 10,000 acorns a year, forgetting most of them. Some of those forgotten acorns grow into oak trees, which produce even more acorns.
Suddenly, the squirrel looks like a genius. Squirrels prove anyone can be an investor.
Just let your acorns grow. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future.
You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that matches you and your money goals.
You don't need to be... Thank you.
saved, and invested over $22 billion with Acorns. Head to acorns.com slash crimejunkie or download the Acorns app to get started.
Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns.
Tier 2 compensation provided. Investing involves risk.
Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash crimejunkie.
Did you know Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the U.S. with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers? Fast Growing Trees has all the plants your yard needs, from fruit trees to shrubs.
Find the perfect fit for your climate and space, then order online for fast delivery. Their Alive and Thrive guarantee ensures healthy arrivals, and plant experts are available to help with planning, selection, and care.
I just placed an order from Fast-Growing Trees, and I'm so excited to get my plans. We recently moved, and the landscaping at our new place definitely needs a revamp, and we knew Fast-Growing Trees was the best place to start.
I was able to determine what our growing zone was, what plants would thrive in our soil, and truly design the landscape of our dreams. This spring, they have the best deals for your yard, up to half off on select plants and other deals.
And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase when using code CRIMEJUNKIE at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtre got that night.
He says that the plant officials called him at least two more times and told him not to call police and report her missing until after they had a chance to check the whole plant. So I think that again now in hindsight knowing what happened it's like why wouldn't you want her husband to be concerned sooner or act sooner? Right and isn't checking the whole plant also like stopping it draining everything? Wouldn't you need authorities help with that? Yeah.
And I don't know that they were planning on doing any of that themselves. Again, without seeing this plant, I don't know if they're like, hey, let us at least like check the basement before you call.
But again, he gets that call by the cell phone at nine and they do another two and a half hours basically of searching before they call police. It is just a long time.
Now, on February 14th, Geetha's death is publicly called a homicide, and the hunt for her killer is in full swing. There are about 85 people who work at the plant, 50 of whom were there that day that Geetha died, and investigators plan on interviewing all of them.
But they hit a wall pretty quickly. Not everyone at work are besties, but it doesn't seem like anyone at work

would have wanted her dead.

I mean, she didn't have any hiring or firing privileges,

so even though some of her coworkers

definitely weren't like her biggest fans,

it doesn't seem like they would have motive to kill her.

I mean, that seems pretty strong.

Now, keep in mind, interviewing 50 people, 85 people,

whatever, it doesn't happen in a day.

And in that time, employees at the plant are still coming into work and still doing their thing every single day. I mean, the water plant isn't just something you can shut down even during a murder investigation.
Right. So people are coming in every day knowing that one of their co-workers might be a murderer.
Spot on. And you can imagine, like, that creates this, like, constant sense of unease.
So for the time being, plant officials actually implement this buddy system where everyone has to work in pairs so that no one can be in a remote area of the plant alone. Not to poke holes in their system, but doesn't that mean one person is getting paired up with a killer and they don't know it.
Yes, basically.

I mean, it is a stressful time for everyone involved,

especially because by February 18th,

they're only about halfway done with the interviews.

But there's something that is standing out during all of their interviewing.

One guy, one of Geetha's subordinates.

Apparently, he was the one who told Geetha that a few of the machines down there in the basement needed recalibrating, which they did. He didn't lie.
But it just so happens that he was also the same one who found the glass on the floor when they went looking for her. Now, could it be a coincidence? Maybe.
Sure. I mean, again, if you're the one that sends her down there, maybe you're the one that goes to look down there.

Right. You know where she's going,

so you would know exactly where to look.

Yeah.

I mean, it's not a smoking gun by any means.

They're hoping that a smoking gun

will come from the physical evidence.

So according to more of Douglas Krause's reporting,

around this time, they start asking for DNA samples

from about 50 employees,

all of whom give oral swabs willingly. What are they testing these samples against? That I don't know.
I know that they didn't get anything from her body because chlorine is a corrosive agent that can destroy DNA. And apparently the water that she was in had a high enough chlorine content to destroy any DNA that might have been on her body.
And I know the glass on the floor didn't have any fingerprints or anything, so that was practically useless. And neither did the grate that was supposed to cover the water tank.
And as far as I can see, there's nothing found in her car or on her desk that could have pointed to her killer either. So I don't know if they have something else or if they were hoping that they might have something down the line or they're just like collecting just in case or if it's like a test, see who gives it up willingly, see who gets nervous.
But if anyone declines or if they get any hunches from this, they do not tell the press. Ergo, I don't know about it.
Now, by March 12th, all of the interviews are finally completed. And after putting together everything they learned from the employees at the plant, plus what they learned from Geetha's family, they're able to put together a sort of pseudo-profile of their killer.
They're confident that whoever killed Geetha probably acted alone. And while this person definitely didn't like her and maybe even held a grudge, they don't think the murder was planned.
Rather, they think that Gita and this other person

had some sort of confrontation, altercation in the tunnels,

and that ended up turning violent,

and this person just panicked and dropped her into the water tanks.

Now, they think this person definitely worked there at the plant, duh.

And, by the way, like you were saying, still works there.

So that takes their list of 50 people working that day to a group of about eight male co-workers. What makes these eight stand out? Well, so for these eight, either their stories weren't convincing or there were some gaps in their timelines that they couldn't account for.
And what those stories are or the gaps or whatever, that's never been released to the public. And as far as I can tell, neither have their names.
But I do know that one of them is the same person who tells her to recalibrate the machines, the same person who finds the glass. Exactly.
Okay. And as time continues to pass, the more restless both Gita's family and the employees at the plant become.
I mean, more than their own personal safety, no one likes the idea of a murderer having access to millions of gallons of water that's provided to 800,000 people. Not that they've come out and said that they think this person is going to do anything to the water, but it's like not unheard of.
I mean, according to that same article I read in the record by Douglas Krauss, so back in 1993, there were some pretty serious allegations

of sabotage against an unknown person who had been doing things like upping the chlorine in the water. So it was like 15 times higher than normal.
They were tampering with chemical settings, releasing propane and bleach into the water. Oh, that's terrifying.
Yeah. And in that incident, And one of the greats over the water tanks was moved, leaving the water open, just like in Geetha's case.
Now, it's not connected. Like, the perpetrator from 1993 was never caught.
And basically what happened is the tampering stopped because officials released a statement stating that the person would be arrested if they were ever found. And it, like, scared them off.
And I know Geeta had been working there for a while. Was she at the plant at the time? Like, could she have known who it was? Yeah, yeah.
So she had been working there. But I don't, I mean, I don't think she would have known who was doing it.
And listen, again, I can't, we can't say that they're not connected a thousand percent because we don't know who was doing it. You know, the grate was removed.
Like, did she catch someone doing it? There's like a zillion theories you could have. But ultimately, the officials say that they don't think that the two incidents are connected.
It's just a weird coincidence. But still, this is like in the back of everyone's minds.
Like, you know, we've already got a killer here. Like, what else could they do? This is a very sensitive job to have.
So the sooner the killer is identified and removed from such an important position, the better. And all of the high tensions result in the plant upping its security and placing things like fences and keycard entries around the plant.
Freaking finally. Yeah, I was going to say, I'm surprised they didn't do that back in, like, 93 when the tampering was happening.
You would think, right? It seemed like they'd want to keep a closer eye on things, lock down, especially where people can get into the water that's going out to the public. 800,000 people? I know.
And if they had done that back in 93, maybe Gita's case would have gone differently. Maybe it would have never happened at all.
But they didn't. So in 2005, weeks turn into months with no movement.
Her family cremates her body in a traditional Hindu ceremony. And by August, investigators are sort of at a dead end.
As the one-year anniversary of Geetha's death comes up, her family is becoming increasingly frustrated. Tina Kelly reported for the New York Times that they believe her killer had help, that this is the work of more than one person.
Geetha's husband, Jaya, also publicly questions plant officials on why sensors in the water tank didn't detect when Geetha was thrown in. Because there are sensors that are supposed to detect disturbances in the water.
So, I mean, if it was working properly, it should have gone off. But the county's chief assistant prosecutor claims that the sensors weren't tampered with.
They just weren't sensitive enough. What? A body was thrown in there.
Like, what are they supposed to be sensing? An elephant? I know. It definitely should have sensed that.
Like a whole human goes in. So maybe get some better sensors.
And listen, while it probably wouldn't have saved Geetha's life, they might have found her sooner or it actually might have saved her life because they found that she died of drowning. You know what I mean? So if something went off immediately, could they have gotten her? Probably.
And even if they didn't, could they have found her killer or more evidence or anything? Probably. Now around this time,

her... And even if they didn't, could they have found her killer or more evidence or anything? Probably.
Now, around this time, her family starts asking for state or federal investigators to help with the case. And local police aren't opposed.
They're like, yeah, we'd love the help. The only difference is, like, while the family believes more than one person is involved, the local authorities believe that whoever her killer was acted alone.

But they say, listen, we're open to other agencies coming in, helping with the investigation.

We're frustrated, too.

Plus, in a year that has passed, they have other crimes that are taking up their attention, other homicides that need to be solved.

So more help, more resources.

That's all the better for them.

But it doesn't seem like the state police jump in, at least at that point yet. Though detectives do open a new probe into the case around the one-year anniversary of Geetha's death.
Now by this point, they've narrowed down that list they had of eight men to just three, citing that none of them have very solid alibis and they all could have had access to where Geitha's body was found. And of course, that employee who told her to recalibrate the machines is still on that list too.
And do these three all still work there? As far as I can tell, yes. I can't find anything about any of them quitting.
I don't know if that would have gotten reported or not. Also, like, I feel like quitting makes you look bad.
More also if like everyone's like calling you a murderer, like I might quit. So again, you could go either way.
And I know all three of them know that they're kind of on the chopping block because they all lawyer up. And they're all also asked to take lie detector tests, which two agree to.
One passes. One's results are inconclusive.
Okay, I have a guess as to which one.

I have same guesses, but like police A won't say who's inconclusive and they won't say who refused to take one at all.

So just guesses, cool.

But get ready for a curveball because around this time, a few of the investigators start to believe that Geetha actually wasn't murdered, that her death was maybe just an accident. Now, there are a few things that these detectives point to to make this new case.
The biggest is actually the bruising on Geetha's neck. So they say that it's not a sign of strangulation at all.
Instead, they say that they've contacted a forensic expert on drowning. And apparently, these strangulation-like injuries can also be found in accidental cold water drownings.
And the water temperature that day that Geetha died in was about 36 degrees Fahrenheit. So, I mean, it was definitely a cold water drowning.
And basically what they say is that the tissue injuries to the throat can look the same in strangulation and in this cold water drowning. I've literally never heard of that.
Neither had I. So actually, I had our team reach out to Barbara Butcher, who, if you haven't listened to my last two episodes of Crime Junkie AF, her episodes are amazing.
I, like, stumbled into her. She's an amazing, beautiful genius.
Basically, she's an expert in medical legal death investigation and a consultant in forensic investigations. Trust me, this woman knows her stuff.
I highly recommend, yes, go listen to the episodes. Go read her book, What the Dead Know.
I'll link out to all of it in the show notes. But anyways, I asked her her thoughts on this cold water drowning theory.
Like, have you seen this? Have you heard of this? And ultimately, you know, she hasn't seen any pictures or anything. She can't like rule on this case specifically.
But she says as far as her thoughts on this theory, it's just that, a theory. She says she tends to agree with

the forensic pathologist who noted the strangulation bruising during the actual autopsy.

And that's mostly because the forensic expert who started this other theory about the drowning

never even saw Geetha's body and had nothing to do with the case. So in her mind, she's like,

how could he possibly have a say in this? Like, as Barbara put it, quote, the body seldom lies. So given that, she would believe that, again, like an expert looked at it, an expert like physically examined her body and ruled homicidal strangulation and drowning.
And so she said, again, without her doing her own examination, that's what she would lean towards.

And the prosecutor in this case and pretty much all the other investigators in this case agree.

They're still as convinced as ever that this was a homicide.

More of Jean McIntosh's reporting for The New York Post states that by this point,

apparently five medical examiners have taken a look at Geetha's case, and all five of them had ruled it homicide by drowning, stating that she was likely strangled to unconsciousness and then thrown into the tank. But the former lead investigator, Lieutenant Wood, is still driving the accident narrative.
He claims that employees at the plant mentioned that the grates would sometimes be left off the water tanks. And so if you're not looking where you're going, like you're, you know, holding your clipboard, which we found in the water, like your beaker, whatever, like you could just fall in.
So in his version of events, Geetha went down there to do some testing to recalibrate the machines. Maybe she just wasn't watching where she was going.
She fell into the water, breaking the beaker that she was carrying on the floor. And then she couldn't get out because there are no ladders in the tank.
And then since these tanks are in such a remote area of the plant, no one heard or saw her fall in. The water's super cold, so she quickly succumbed and drowned.
Now, her family isn't thrilled with the idea of this formerly investigator claiming that her death was accidental. It doesn't seem to sway anyone or hinder the investigation all that much, but to them it's still frustrating to hear, especially when there are no other leads.
So another year passes, and in 2007, the state police finally agreed to come in and review the investigation or the case. According to Mark Mueller's reporting for NJ.com, state investigators are going to take a lead role in the probe once they finish up working on another high-profile murder case, that of a woman named Melanie McGuire.
She was accused of killing and dismembering her husband a few years prior, and her case at the time was getting a lot of press, which, by the way, doozy of a story. I'll have to get into that one day, but like can attest it was one that was sucking up all the resources.
So after that's done, basically, the state investigators will have the bandwidth to finally investigate Geitha's case. But even when that time comes, the state investigators come in, they review the case, and then nothing happens.
There is only so much frustration that Geetha's family can handle before trying to take some form of action into their own hands. So in February of 2007, her family files a lawsuit against the Water Commission.
They claim that the working environment at the plant was dangerous, yet officials did nothing about it. And to give you kind of a brief rundown, they're claiming several things.
One, before Geitha disappeared, they'd had a buddy system for when employees went into remote parts of the plant, like the area where the tanks were located. But just shortly before she was killed, they had discontinued that, which in their, should not have been done.
They say that the lack of surveillance and monitoring was dangerous. Like, they should have put in additional surveillance cameras, especially after that 1993 sabotage incident.
They say that the 2A radios employees carried were unreliable. Those motion sensors that her husband talked about that weren't working, like what the heck was happening there.

The metal grate over the floor was loose. The screws that were supposed to hold it in place were either damaged or completely missing.
And the working conditions overall just weren't safe. They actually cited a 2001 investigation that found 55 violations at the plant.
And plant officials claim that they fixed all of them, but it's included in the lawsuit as evidence that the plant had this history of being unsafe.

And then finally, and surprisingly, one of the things that they cite is a Law & Order SVU episode that was filmed there at the plant in 2003 that they say may have played a part in Geetha's death. Whoa, I was not expecting Detective Benson to make an appearance here.

I know.

What?

Yeah, basically, like, I think they put it in there.

The episode itself involves a person being pushed into a tank of chlorinated water.

I actually looked it up.

The episode is called Brotherhood.

It aired in January of 2004.

Now, Geetha's story isn't exactly like this episode because it focuses on hazing. However, in the episode, they insinuate how the chlorinated water would destroy DNA evidence.
So the killer who likely works at the plant where Geitha was killed, where this episode was shot, may have been inspired by the episode. I mean, maybe.
Details about what exactly happened with that lawsuit are sparse. But from what I can tell, it seems like it got settled out of court.

And truthfully, that's kind of the last thing I can really find on Geitha's case.

I know that near the 10th anniversary of her death, her family was calling for the case to be reexamined.

And by that point, they'd actually gotten in touch with the state senator, Joe Kyrillos, who went to bat for them and said that he was going to ask the attorney general's office to take another look at the case.

But if anything happened, there's been no public mention of it.

Today, Geetha's case is still unsolved.

Her family is still waiting for answers, answers that might come if her case is given a fresh look with today's technology. But who knows when that could happen, if it's going to happen.
What could really solve this case sooner is if someone will speak up. There are potentially workers at the plant who might know more, and Geetha's family deserves for them to come forward if they do know more.
So if you have any information about the murder of Geetha Angara,

you can call the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office at 1-877-370-PCPO.

Or you can email them, and material for this episode on our website

crimejunkiepodcast.com and you can follow us on instagram at crimejunkiepodcast

we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production.
So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?

Top reasons advanced manufacturing pros want to move to Ohio.

So many advancement opportunities for technicians,

machinists, managers, operators, and more.

How about a powered up paycheck and an amped up career?

Plus the energy of big time sports and after work, plenty of ways to unplug the career you want and a life. You'll love have it all in the heart of it all.
Build your future at call Ohio home.com. Hey all, I'm Jamie Lynn Sigler, a mom, actor, and advocate.
I know how overwhelming it can be trying to decide which treatment is right for you.

I've been there.

But you should know you're not alone.

You can do this.

Start with some research, talk to the community,

and most importantly, don't be afraid to ask your doctor questions.

You might find results that speak for themselves.

That's how I landed on Kesimpta.

Ask your doctor if Kesimpta, Ofatumumab, could be right for you. You can check out I landed on Kesimpta.
Ask your doctor if Kesimpta,

ofatumumab, could be right for you. You can check out the details at kesimpta.com.