Episode 656: The Attempted Murder of Alison Botha

Hey weirdos, it's Ash here, ready to share a little secret. Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad-free episodes and one-week early access, it's like having an all-access pass to our light-hearted nightmare.
So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery Plus today. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast. with high-quality ingredients to help keep you physically and mentally fit.
IQ Bar is totally free from gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, and artificial sweeteners for a natural anytime snack. You can try any of their nine delicioso flavors, including mint chocolate chip, chocolate sea salt, banana nut, toasted coconut chip, lemon blueberry, and peanut butter chip.
And with over 20,000 five-star reviews and counting, more people than ever are starting their days on the right foot with IQ Bar's brain and body boosting bars, hydration mixes, and mushroom coffees. IQ Bar was nice enough to send all of us their ultimate sampler pack.
The flavor that immediately stood out to me that I literally just finished eating is the peanut butter chip. That was real good.
And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products. Plus, get free shipping.
To get your 20% off, text Morbid to 64000. Text Morbid to 64000.
That's Morbid to 64000. Message and data rates may apply.
See terms for details. IQ Bars are really yummy.
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.
I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan,

equivalent to $15 per month required.

Intro rate first three months only,

then full price plan options available.

Taxes and fees extra.

Default terms at mintmobile.com.

Hey, weirdos.

I'm Alina.

I'm Ash.

And this is Morbid. I wasn't ready for that.

I liked the pause.

I went to grab my coffee and I was like, oh.

So full of.

Hermish.

Hermish.

It's early.

Felt right.

I think we were listening to the affirmation song with your kids today. Yeah, we were like weird ass voices and that so i think i just became one it's true you know yeah today's gonna be an amazing day there's no one better to be than myself it's true my feelings matter yeah i get better every single day listen if your kids are having a bad day the affirmation song is great it is it gets them pumped up for the day it does and i dance silly to it and i think that's it's true the funnest part sometimes you know it's hard to go to school sometimes because when especially when your parents are so fucking awesome i know and your aunt you know like me and john so you don't want to leave them you just want to hang so they just didn't want to leave but we did the affirm laughing, and got them ready for the day.
And I did sick braids today on them. It's true.
Well, on one of them. Yeah.
I was pretty excited about that. Tis true.
Tis true. We have a cute little fam bam.
It gives full house vibes here in the morning. I'm just like Uncle Joey over here.
It's true. Like a combination, maybe a combination of Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey.
Yeah. You know, my Gemini nature.
that i don't know just ranting over here we did yoga this morning we really grounded ourselves we really did it was so nice i know we're getting back i think like spring is coming so i feel like we can get back into the swing of like i really fell out of my workout routine in the winter well it was so nice driving today and not having it be pitch black.

It was getting light. It was like 530 probably when I left the house and it was already light out.
Yeah. Which was sick.
And then on my way home today. See, I said to myself, this is why you got to wake up early because you just don't know what's going on around you.
You don't know what you're going to run into. You just don't know.
This morning I'm coming back for my yoga class and i passed a farm and there was cows that like escaped this farm and they were on the front lawn of the neighborhood i love this so much there's just a cop like standing on this guy's front lawn and i'm like what's a cop gonna do about yeah a cow he just he's been trained he's been trained in the matter is that he's been trained in bovine matters is that you know do they tell you what to do with a bovine escape maybe i don't know possibly that's crazy that's crazy it was so funny i was laughing so hard i was like cry laughing by myself i love it i think it's very small town uh vibes it really was i was like am I just i just in the midwest where am i where am i it was cute though cows are crossing the road just like three big ass cows just in somebody's front lawn hell yeah i'd be pissed if that was my front lawn yeah i feel like they'd fuck up your lawn real bad i would kind of love it though i would love it but then afterwards i feel like i'd be like yeah but

honestly their manure is some of the best soil that's true but contributes to it want to leave

that on my yard because that's true big stank stinky it's very true you know look at you looking

through the bright side you're all grounded and shit i am i'm very grounded i love that

i had a good coffee that's good i had a great there's cool things happening yes but um

Thank you. you know you're all grounded and shit i am i'm very grounded i love that i had a good coffee that's good i had a great there's cool things happening yes but um i think you'll know about them by now yeah i think i'm gonna stop teasing these things because um i'm so confused about what episodes come out when it'd be super dope if you could just like put them out when we wanted to i just like don't know where or when these come out and i apologize for that yeah um we won't be confused forever but it's right now i just don't know if what episode is coming out so if it are if the bonus episode already happened wasn't that fucking cool and if it hasn't happened exciting so there's that god christ almighty christ on a cracker christ on a biscuit jesus was a biscuit it was a biscuit yeah that's who said that on drag race i have no idea oh my god everyone's screaming at who's a drag race fan la la la la la la la la like he's not here today i know or mikey would be screaming the trees oh there you go you know when it's like right in the forefront of your face and you're like oh god yep all right well we we yogaed we cowed we jesus was a biscuited we did it all all the important things yeah we affirmated yeah and now we're going to talk about a wild survivor tale that i think is probably one of our most requested cases.

It is.

This is a doozy.

This is a doozy of a case.

And a doozy of a human.

I mean.

In the best way.

I don't think there's a single person more resilient.

Bionic woman.

Yeah, truly unbelievable tale.

Yeah, this is wild. Let's get into it.
we're going to be talking about alison botha today alison botha she was born september 22nd 1967 in port elizabeth south africa to brian and claire collier or collier according to alison her house growing up was a place of unconditional love which she got from both of her parents she said often as we were growing up i love this my mother would take us aside and tell us how special we were she would always add though that this did not mean that we were above or better than others but we had our own inner value oh my god i love that i'm gonna do that shit when i have kids like take your child aside just to be like i love that like you special. Yeah.
But like you're you're not above anybody you're not like more special than somebody else but you are so special. Like I love that.
That's great. Sadly despite the love and support and the happy household that they had 10 years after Allison was born Brian and Claire did end up divorcing.
It was about 1977 when the divorce was finalized and Allison and and her brother Neil continued living with their mom, but luckily they still saw their dad on a pretty regular schedule. Oh, good.
The divorce obviously created a pretty like less than ideal situation to raise two kids, but it sounds like Brian and Claire really made the best of it. They made sure that Allison and Neil always had what they needed and were always thriving.
Good for them. Yeah, very mature.
Allison led a pretty normal life in Port Elizabeth, where she went to collegiate high school. During her senior year in 1985, she was named Head Girl, which is an honor that kind of came as a shock for her.
She did not expect this at all. Damn, good for her.
I was always considered bright, but I knew I did not apply myself to the fullest in my last few years at school. I wasn't good at any sport and I didn't really shine in any one area.
So I guess I thought I wouldn't be good enough to be a head girl. Damn.
But whether she realized it or not, the teachers and the headmistress at Collegiate High School thought very highly of her. They described her as a mature young woman of the utmost integrity and sound moral values.
Like the term head girl, it makes me think of like Harry Potter. Yes.
And it just sounds so prestigious that I can't fully comprehend it. Like I want to be head girl.
Imagine being head per anything. Yeah.
In school. Like, wow.
That's like really, really impressive. Yeah, that shit did not happen for me.
I made you head bitch in charge at my wedding. You did? That's true.
Yeah. So I got to do that.
Instead of maid of honor, I said head bitch in charge. Hell yeah.
Well, when Allison graduated from high school, she felt that the honor she'd earned in her final year gave everybody this impression that she was a high achiever and would continue her education and pursue a very impressive career. But she said the truth was I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
Which I feel like a lot of people feel that way when high school is over. It's really not like that's not unheard of at all.
No, you're 18 years old. Like most of the time you have you're still a baby.
There's so many options at your fingertips. I feel like people are like expect you to have like exactly what you want to do figured out.
And for a lot of people, that's just not the case. Yeah, for sure.
When she was younger, Allison had always dreamed of becoming a writer or maybe a poet. But now that she was in a position to pursue whatever goal she wanted, she just couldn't figure out which direction to go in.
Well, because it really can feel like the whole world is your oyster. Yeah.
Like, you know what I mean? Like when you're that young and you're just like, start, you're like, I can choose anything. Which is awesome.
How do I narrow it down? That's the thing. Too many options.
It's awesome, but exactly. It's overwhelming.
It's a great problem to have. Yeah.
Well, as always, Claire supported her daughter, suggesting that she just take a secretarial course while she considered some of her options. And she said, if nothing else, you'll learn some new skills that will apply with whatever you do.
Yeah, for sure. And it turned out that that course was a really good decision for Allison's future career because when she finished it up, she took a job as an insurance broker, a job she enjoyed and was really good at.
Although she hadn't pursued a high-stress career as like a doctor or a lawyer, as several of her teachers and classmates thought that she might, by the time she reached her mid-20s, she was building a respectable career for herself, and she was really happy. Good for her.
So she was like living her best life. She was just going for it.
Yeah. Well, on the afternoon of December 18th, 1994, Allison met up with her friend Kim and Kim's son Devin and Jared for just an evening on the beach in Port Elizabeth, just like a nice little friend hangout.
They hung out at the beach for a little while and then they went back to Kim's apartment that night and they were joined by their mutual friends Phil and Richard who just stopped by unannounced. And Allison said it had been one of those wonderfully spontaneous evenings, which I love.
I love that. They chatted for a while, they enjoyed the nice weather, and then they decided to go to Allison's apartment where they ordered a pizza and played a board game.

Just like cute little night.

Friends being dudes.

Sounds like a fun night to me.

Yeah.

When the night finally came to an end a little after midnight, Phil and Richard left.

And Allison had promised Kim that she would drive her home that night.

So she was driving Kim back to her apartment.

And then she got back to her own house a little after or a little before, excuse me, one in the morning. She circled the block a few times looking for a place to park.
And the place where she usually parked wasn't open, which was like very close to the apartment. She finally spotted an open space just a few dozen feet from her front door.
Now, the neighborhood that she lived in wasn't like a rough area, but the spot was further from her apartment than she preferred. Yeah.
And it was in a dark part of the street. There was like a tree covering the lights.
I hate that you have to worry about this. Yeah, you shouldn't have to worry about that at all.
So she hesitated for a few seconds and was like, maybe I should find something better. But she was like, whatever.
She really wanted to go in and take a shower. Yeah, you just want to go to your house.
Yeah. So she pulled in the spot, put her car into park.
She said later, I had just turned off the engine and flicked off the headlights. It was so routine I did it all in one swift movement.
Before opening the driver's door, she reached over to the passenger seat to gather up a pile of clean laundry, and she suddenly felt a gust of warm air rush into the car as somebody opened the door. Holy shit.
She looked up just in time to see what she described as a scrawny,

tallish young man with light blonde hair just push his head into her car.

No.

She also noticed a long, thin knife in his hand.

I hate this.

He immediately put the blade up to her throat and said,

move over or I'll kill you.

And she said his voice was quiet and controlled. She'd never seen him before, but he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.
So she just, without thinking, slid over to the passenger seat and he got in behind the wheel. That's horrifying.
Which I feel like she did the best thing you could in that situation. You have to try to be as calm as possible.
What are you supposed to do? He's got a knife to your throat. I don't know what I would do.
I don't either. So as he drove, he kept the knife close on the seat next to him, close to the door.
He fumbled with the dashboard trying to find the control for the lights and then asked her how to turn them on and told her, don't worry, I don't want to hurt you. I just want to use your car for about an hour.
I'd be like, I'm not saying I would do this. I'm saying like, when he says something like that, you just want to want to be like then take the car yeah like why do i have to be like why do i have to be here you can just you just have it well she you can take it for more than an hour she basically said i was gonna say i'm sure she was just like you can take this yeah eventually she said that but when he said it she was so confused and also completely terrified this is a horrifying situation i can't even fathom so your brain working in.
No way. So she just didn't say anything.
She was just sitting there like stunned. And she contemplated opening the passenger door and jumping out.
But she said she felt strangely immobilized and just couldn't bring herself to do or say anything. Of course.
Now, they hadn't been driving long when he broke the silence and said, you live in number one, don't you? So he knew exactly where she lived where she lived the fuck and she said it was less of a question than a statement like he was clearly letting her know that he'd been watching her like oh i know you live here knew exactly that's horrifying he asked what her name was and thinking on her feet she told him her name was susan she didn't give him her real name even that i don't know that i would think to do that't think I would think to do that. No.
I really don't. Because you're just like.
Because I'm nervous just listening to this. I can't imagine being in it.
And to think on your toes like that already, I'm like, damn. Just smart survival skills, you know.
So he said his name was Clinton, which was not true. But hoping to appeal to his humanity, she started asking questions about him, figuring that if he could see her as an ordinary person and they

could just strike up a conversation, he would let her go without hurting her. Another smart tactic.

Very smart. That takes a lot of like, wherewithal control and like keeping yourself calm to do

because otherwise you're just going to freak out. I mean, my voice would be shaking.
I'd just be

crying. And I don't think I'd be able to.
Yeah, I would definitely be like that's just

Thank you. keeping yourself calm to do because otherwise you're just going to freak out i mean my voice would be shaking i'd just be crying and i don't think i'd be able to yeah i would definitely be like that's just out of fear and i wouldn't know what questions to even ask that's the thing well unfortunately that plan didn't quite pan out because in a harsh tone he answered her and said i'd rather not tell you anything about me just wouldn't say anything i.
So when that didn't work, she did what you were just saying and said, why don't you just take my car? I'll go. I'm not going to say anything to anybody.
Just take the car. Yeah.
But he told her no and said he just wanted company. I hate this so much.
Terrifying. He explained to her that he had a friend who stole his TV and he said he was driving to go find him and get some money that he owed him.
Which is just, that story is strange. Yeah.
So she grew increasingly fearful as they just drove further and further away from her apartment and further from the city proper until they ended up in a part of the city that she hadn't been to in several years and was almost entirely unfamiliar to her. they approached a large group of people on the sidewalk and quote unquote Clinton slowed down and started scanning the crowd, clearly getting more and more agitated and muttering under his breath like he was looking for somebody.
And obviously he hadn't found whoever he was looking for. So he jerked the car down a side street and did a loop around and then slowed down to scan this crowd a second time.
And then it appeared he found whoever he was looking for. So he slowed the car down a side street and did a loop around and then slowed down to scan this crowd a second time and then it appeared he found whoever he was looking for so he slowed the car to a stop and a short man dressed in all black approached the driver's side neither of them said anything to each other but clinton slid the driver's seat forward and the second man climbed into the back seat oh i would be so scared like oh my god i can't imagine because now there's two men in this car like your car i hate this and it's like 1 a it's after 1 a.m so clinton told the other man meet my friend susan and just started driving back to the main road fuck so he gestured to the man now riding along with them in the back seat and told allison this is tions and the the two men talked as Clinton drove but Allison was too nervous to even follow what they were saying she just caught a few words here and there yeah and instead she was trying to keep her attention focused on the landscape outside of the car and was also hoping at the same time that she might catch the attention of another driver yeah but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to what was happening outside their own vehicles.
And even if you saw this, you might not think anything's weird because it's just three people in a car driving. And a lot of people don't want to intervene with that stuff.
Oh, yeah. That comes up.
Which is really scary. It is scary.
So eventually it occurred to Allison that they had been driving for quite some time and they seemed to be headed along the beach towards Summer Strand, a suburb of Port Elizabeth, about five or so miles outside of city limits.

So they were kind of just like in the middle of nowhere. Yeah.

As they got further from the city, they stopped talking.

The two men just stopped talking completely.

And the car was filled with an unbearable silence.

In her head, Allison convinced herself that they were just taking the long way to visit this friend as clinton had indicated

earlier but the further and further they got from port elizabeth the less likely it was all seeming

so finally when they put the lights of port elizabeth behind them

clinton broke the silence and told allison Tian's doesn't speak good English. Okay.
Who doesn't love the good things in life? Even though I enjoy a little bit of luxury, it doesn't mean that I can always afford it, until I discovered Quince. Quince is my go-to for luxury essentials at affordable prices.
Quince offers a range of high-quality items at prices within reach, like 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50, washable silk tops and dresses, organic cotton sweaters, and 14-karat gold jewelry. The best part? All Quince items are priced 50-80% less than similar brands.
By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And my favorite part about Quince is that they only work with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes that I absolutely love.
I'm a big, big, big online shopping girly, and one of the first places that I always go is Quince. I absolutely love their stuff, specifically their sweaters.
Give yourself the luxury that you deserve with Quince. Go to quince.com slash morbid for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns.
That's q-u-i-n-c-e.com slash morbid to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince dot com slash morbid.
2025 was the year of the vision board for me. I'm all about my health and my wellness.
I've been doing my treadmill walk. I've been trying to, you know, get like at least seven hours of sleep every night.
And now that spring is on the way, it is time to refocus on those goals. I am all about keeping my wellness routine simple but effective, and Symbiotica helps me do just that.
I literally just pop a magnesium packet right before bed, and I wake up feeling refreshed, clear-headed, ready to tackle my day, actually rested. It's iconic.
Symbiotica actually simplifies your routine to keep up with healthy habits all year long. It doesn't matter what your goals are.
They have products that are going to support everything from your energy, digestion, that's a big one for me, immune system, and mood. Their liquid travel-sized packets are perfect for when you're on the go.
It is genuinely one of the easiest things you could do for your health. Symbiotica is also as clean as it gets.
No seed oils, preservatives, or artificial junk. Just high-quality, real ingredients that actually do something.
It feels very, very amazing knowing that I'm putting the right stuff in my body and that I actually get real energy that helps me show up throughout my day. Symbiotica.
Wellness made simple. Go to symbiotica.com slash morbid for 20% off plus free shipping.
That's symbiotica.com slash morbid for 20% off plus free shipping. Now, the sound of his voice jolted Allison out of a panicked state and brought her back into reality.
The statement seemed to come out of nowhere and wasn't followed by anything else, which she thought was very strange. Yeah.
But now, with her attention focused on what was happening in the car, it occurred to her that Clinton was starting to slow down as they were reaching a wooded area. Oh god.
Yeah. So as that happened, he made a U-turn and pulled the car onto a small path that led down to the beach, driving the car right up to the sand until they reached a dark, isolated spot among the trees about 300 feet away from the road.
The fear she must have felt. As this car is just slowing down, you're in the middle of nowhere.
Incomprehensible. Two strangers who are just being weird.
Like, obviously, they've abducted you at knife point, first of all. And they're just being weird and creepy and quiet.
And just as a woman, being alone with two men you don't know, is this regardless of whether they're being threatening or not, I'm sorry, it just automatically is very, very scary. Yeah.
For them to be this weird and threatening and to be driving you into an isolated area of a wooded area would be, I mean, like my nervous system is in orbit right now just thinking about it. Even just being like not even like completely alone with two strangers that are men, being like with friends and then two strangers that you don't know that are men is scary.
Like I've had that experience. Because you don't know what they're about.
Yeah, you don't know. Or what's going to happen.
Exactly. I just, I do want to, I mean, some, I think a lot of people know this story.
but if you don't, I do just want to forewarn you that there's going to be talk about a very intense sexual assault and rape.

Yeah.

It is extremely graphic.

Yeah, very graphic.

I did my best to make it a little less graphic, but it's kind of impossible to take it fully away.

So, and we got to tell the story for what it is.

So, Clinton brought the car to a stop under a cluster of trees and Tian's got out leaving allison completely alone now in the car with her abductor and clinton sexually assaulted allison at this point piece of shit and this was all while tans was just like sitting on the hood of the car oh my god just like got out of the car knew that this was gonna happen monsters and then when clinton was finished sexually assaulting allison he called tian's into the car and tian started to do the same thing also sexually assaulted her but moments later he shouted no i can't do this and he got out of the car and sat back down on the hood and just smoked a cigarette instead of like trying to stop this at all what the fuck he couldn't bring himself to continue assaulting but he wasn't gonna be he wasn't gonna be a good person and try to stop it no no so when he finished a cigarette he hopped down from the hood and looked back at the car and looking at clinton he yelled franz oops yeah not not his real name clinton franz is his real name very bright it was the first time that Allison had heard the name of her attacker, so she just started repeating it over and over again in her head, like silently. Determined not to forget his name.
But almost as if he knew what she was doing, Franz looked over at her and said, If we take you into town now, you're going to go to the police. It was almost like he could sense it.
She tried to assure him that she wasn't going to say anything to anybody but neither of them would be convinced and one of them then said to the other what do you think um nick would want us to do with her what the fuck um nick allison recognized as another name for satan what the fuck um is like a south african um word it basically it's it's akin to uncle for us. It's like a sign of respect.
So umnik, they were referring to Satan. Satan's also known as old Nick, which I didn't realize.
That is weird. But I was looking into it the other night.
Or like, I don't mean weird. I mean, that's different.
Yeah, it's different. So he looks at the other guy and he says...
What do you think Uncle Satan would want us to do with her? Yeah. He doesn't exist.
I don't think he's going to give you a... Yeah, exactly.
I don't think he's going to weigh in here. Well, and she's sitting there and she said she thought to herself, like, what does Satan have to do with this? Like, what the fuck? Like, what the fuck are you talking about? But she didn't know what to do.
So Tian's answered, I think he wants us to kill her. They're just having this conversation.
Yes. And they're just acting like this is all normal.
Like, they're not acting freaked out or anything like that like they're acting just like this is another casual conversation yeah so franz then instructed allison to get out of the car and remove all of her clothing which she did because at this point she's just i would what i would do the same thing i was gonna say i just don't know what else you remember he has a knife and them have just raped her. So when she'd taken off all her clothes, he gestured at the rings on her hand and told her to even take those off.
And Tians quickly grabbed them, like snatched them out of her hands. The next thing she knew, she was knocked to the ground and Franz was choking her.
They made her take off those rings so she couldn't be identified. Later, she said, I was surprised by how strong he had become become this man knew what he was doing and he was determined to do it and we will find out he knew what he was doing because this was not the first time they had attacked somebody allison managed to get a few words out while he was choking her just begging him not to kill her but all fron said was sorry while he continued violently choking her until she lost consciousness.
So he's standing, like, straddling over her, choking her into unconsciousness and apologizing. But still doing it.
But, like, that adds such a layer of just, like, of terror to this whole thing. Apologizing while you're doing this.
Yeah. And just continuing to do it.
But not stopping. It's horrifying horrifying so she regained consciousness just a short time later and realized she was still on the ground she's looking around and she sees that she's surrounded by trash and broken bottles one of the men was crouched over her and she couldn't see what he was doing all she saw was his arm swinging wildly back and forth in front of her face oh god but then it occurred to her and she thought my god he's slashing my throat holy shit she couldn't see really what was happening obviously because it's like she can't look down and see it and she didn't feel any pain in this moment but she quote could hear the flesh split oh my god yeah what this woman has and this isn't this is just the tip of the iceberg oh this is just just that going through that i don't know what you do after that but like oh my god it would later be determined that they had slit her throat 16 times and she was almost like she was nearly decapitated the fact that this woman is alive and what beasts it truly like just fucking wait but that's just unthinkable this entire crime is unthinkable and it only gets worse humans man sometimes it's like what happened and major these two just decided they wanted to do this one day they just decided that they wanted to do this together that's wildly fucked up just came up with the idea and for two people to get together to do this kind of shit always really it's scary enough throws me off it's scary enough when one person is able to do this kind of thing when they can get a team together that all because it's like i and we've said this before in other things like the hillside stranglers and all the other kind of teams that team up and do this like you know ian and myra hindley um where does that conversation start that's that's the thing that you have to start and where does it start in what has already happened the other person runs what has already happened to make you feel confident that they're going to be cool with you bringing up that? That's the thing, because you have to feel real confident to say to somebody, do you think you'd want to just like randomly kill someone for sport with me? Yeah.
Like you have to be very confident to do that. I would think.
And it's like, because otherwise, like, what are you going to say? Like, no, I was just kidding. Like, then the person's going to be like, you're, that's crazy.
Bye. Like, I just, I can't.
I can never get over these things. I don't know where you find one person who's capable of this.
Not that I'm looking. And then where do you find two? Yeah.
And how do they find each other? Like, what fucking evil has to happen in the world for these people to be guided to each other? Seriously. Like, what ancient tomb was opened up that released the kind of evil that allows this to happen? It's so true.
So she could hear her flesh being split open. And I don't know if I said this already, but it was determined later that they had slit her throat 16 times.
16 times. 16 times.
And that's not it. Suddenly the attack stopped and her attackers moved away.
And she could hear the two men muttering and pacing around near her and then she turned on her stomach stomach in an effort to protect herself and she said i tried to hold my breath but i realized i had no control over my breathing i moved my hand up to cover my neck my whole hand disappeared into it oh but it seemed to have worked the sound the sound was silenced oh my god i. I can't.
Like, this is so horrifying. It's insane.
This poor woman. These people are depraved.
This poor woman. So she lay on the ground now playing dead.
She's completely, she has the, this woman has, her throat has been slit 16 times to the point of near being decapitated. And she has the whereal to play dead that's the thing it's like this woman throughout this entire thing the the sharp fucking mind on allison is un-fucking-matched and just the will to survive like she's i can't say enough like i just i'm i'm astounded i.
She is. My flabbers have been gasted.
There's not a word to describe how incredible she is. My timbers have been shivered.
Yes. I'm just, I'm shook by her.
All of the above. Like, she is.
To have that kind of brain, I can't even. Every statement you think of, like, I was just going to say she's a force to be reckoned with that's not enough that's not enough it's not enough so she just lays there on the ground pretending to be dead she can hear the two of them talking over her and they're talking in afrikaans at this point and they're rummaging around through her car and one of them asked the other they're like do you think she's dead and the other one responded no one can survive that except allison wrong bitches motherfuckers now a few seconds later she heard the engine start and then rev a few times of course yeah you gotta of course you gotta as the car just reversed swinging around kids yeah swinging around the car reversed and drove back out onto the main road she was finally completely alone but she was obviously in very bad shape such bad shape she didn't even know that she was in at this point and she was almost sure she was going to die here so wanting to do anything she could to help the authorities catch her killers she started writing in the sand as she's laying there nearly decapitated and there's other stuff that i'm going to get into that happened that she hasn't even realized yet.
But she's laying there writing in the sand. She wrote Franz.
Then underneath she wrote teens because I don't know if she knew how to spell Teens or. Yeah.
I mean, she's in a state right now. Yeah.
And then just before losing consciousness, she wrote I love mom. Oh, my God.
And traced it in a square so that it would be like very obvious. Oh my God.
The strength that that must have taken. Her body is actively shutting down.
And you're trying and she's writing down valuable information for investigators so that they can't do this again to someone else. Exactly.
Like exactly. So later she said she would remember this moment with remarkable clarity.
She said it was as if i'd cut moorings feeling like her spirit had left her body just floating she said as i hovered there i recognized the person down below i knew it was me and i felt such a strong connection to that bleeding mangled girl lying on her stomach wow and in that moment she said it occurred to her that she'd only just started her life because she was 27 years old. Holy shit.
She hadn't achieved really any of the things that she hoped she would do. So as thoughts just raced through her head, she suddenly caught a glimmer of lights out of the corner of her eye.
During the attack, everything obviously seemed so far away, but it turned out that they actually weren't very far from the main road at all. she remembered the headlights were enough of an inspiration to try for me to try to reach a place where someone might at least find me even if I was dead.
Wow. So despite her absolutely profound injuries, she managed to push herself up onto her knees.
How? As soon as she did, something felt very wrong. She reached down to her stomach and felt something she described as something tepid wet and slimy looking down she could see that her intestines were exposed and hanging out of her stomach holy shit her intestines were literally falling out of her stomach.
said it was horrifying there was just so much of me on the outside i tried to scoop it all up with my hands but everything just slithered away again because you're litter how do you survive this how do you survive this oh i'm just like i'm own stomach just sitting here like, I... And how do you do that to somebody? Stab them to the point that their intestines are pouring out.
By the way, so in addition to her throat being slashed 16 times, they stabbed her in the abdomen over 50 times. To the point that her intestines were now spilling out of her.
How were they ever let out? And she's alive. How were they ever let out? Oh, yeah.
Because spoiler alert. Sorry, spoiler alert, but I think you should know right off the bat that they got let out.
They got let out. How were they let out? I'll get to it.
I think they served 17 years, maybe a little more, and got out. Because there was, it's similar to what happened here with the constitution where um life sentences became unconstitutional yeah it was it was i think it was literally the same year 2004 we'll get to it but yeah holy shit yeah so she's still crazy she must have just been in complete shock and there must have been like so much adrenaline coursing through her veins because of this like that's what your body does so she still wasn't experiencing any pain but the sight of her intestines and the considerable wound in her stomach unnerved her and for the first time the gravity of the situation struck her yeah so she starts groping around with one hand just trying to find something because she she had off clothes so she knew maybe they were right there.
They had left her shirt. Wow, that's lucky.
I know. So she found that lying in the sand and used it to tie around her abdomen just to keep her insides in place.
Literally tourniquets herself. Holy shit.
To keep her intestines in place. Oh my god.
And then she just started crawling toward the road. All the while, debris and bits of broken glass are cutting her knees and hands open as she's crawling.
And her intestines are still spilling out of her and she's having to like push them in place. Oh, and she's basically decapitated.
And don't forget. On top of that.
Yeah, exactly. In case you forgot.
She's also nearly decapitated. And that's that's not hyperbolic no like medically she's literally medically like like her half of her thyroid was sitting outside of her her neck i i swear to you the next time i have a fucking complaint oh some dumbass complaint punch me in the fucking face i probably won't do that because my god but i'll remind you of this story my god the the perspective that this will give you is beyond it's it's beyond i get to the point like i got to the point reading this i was telling drew about it when i was like putting it together i was like telling him about it and i just I just got to the point where I was like, I don't even have words left.
That's the thing. You really don't.
I don't even have words left to describe this story, describe this woman. Like, yeah, it's truly unthinkable.
I can't believe what she survived. And what she was able to walk away, like not walk away from.
But you know what I mean? Yeah. So badly injured and only having one free hand at this point because one of them is keeping keeping her neck together oh and realistically only she doesn't even have a free hand because she's keeping her intestines together and trying to keep her head together so her progress was slow and exhausting because again her body is shutting down but when she reached the clearing where the attack had first started she collapsed on a pile of rocks and felt like she couldn't go any further.
Because you can't imagine what this had to have taken. She's rapidly losing blood at the same time.
So then it occurred to her, though, she wasn't even thinking of herself in this moment. She said it occurred to her that if anybody found her there, like so far away from the scene, there would be a large trail of blood behind her and they would know that she struggled and suffered and she didn't want that for her friends and family allison are you a real are you a person she's a like a saint like what are you she is a goddess i'm so impressed with her mind to think like i'm just like what like that mind of hers and that like i don't know i don't know what what she is but like that that mind and soul is something that i i don't think you come across often no to have the capacity to think about the reaction of your friends and family yeah and like just that you wouldn't want them to be that heartbroken and know you had suffered.
And to know what you went through. Wow.
Insane. Like in a good way.
Yeah. Instacart is on a mission to have you not leave the couch this basketball season.
Because between the pregame rituals and the postgame interviews, it can be difficult to find time for everything else. So let Instacart take care of your game day snacks or weekly restocks and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes because we hear it's bad luck to be hungry on game day.
So download the Instacart app today and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply for three orders in 14 days.
Excludes restaurants. Everyone has that friend who seems kind of perfect.
For Patty, that friend was Desiree. Until one day...
I texted her and she was not getting the text. So I went to Instagram.
She has no Instagram anymore. And Facebook, no Facebook anymore.
Desiree was gone. And there was one person who knew the answer.
I am a spiritual person, a magical person, a witch. A gorgeous Brazilian influencer called Cat Torres, but who was hiding a secret.
From Wondery, based on my smash hit podcast from Brazil, comes a new series, Don't Cross Cat, about a search that led me to a mystery in a Texas suburb.

I'm calling to check on the two missing Brazilian girls.

Maybe get some undercover crew there.

The family are freaking out. They are lost.

I'm Chico Felitti. You can listen to Don't Cross Cat on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
So, the crawling at this point was taking too long, and she knew that if she was going to get to the road, she had to move faster. So it took some time, but eventually she did manage to get to her feet.
But as soon as she was upright, everything went black.

Of course. Now, this moment was deeply confusing because she hadn't lost consciousness.
She was still completely conscious. But for some reason, everything was completely wrong.
She said, my head, I realized, had flopped backwards and almost rested between my shoulder blades. Oh, my god.

So what most likely happened there, Elena and I was talking to Elena a little bit about the details of this.

Something had to have happened where the nerves that like help give you sight were so messed up in that moment that when she flopped backwards they weren't like maybe registering backwards like pinched the occipital or like you know any kind of nerve that makes it so you can see and the lights literally just went out because there was a kink in the line insane like that is and when she says her head is resting between her shoulder blades when you said i. When you said, I'm literally like, I keep grabbing my neck.

Same. I'm just like, oh God.

Same.

I can't.

That's like, like if you put your head back and look at this guy, hers was almost in between

her shoulder blades.

You couldn't physically do that because you're not decapitated.

I ask my kids to look up at the ceiling when I wash their hair in the bath and they act

like I am asking them.

I've seen that. To do just acrobatics the lords work in this what yeah oh so that's when she realized because that's so that's why she had one free hand at that point because she didn't realize how bad it was while she's crawling so when she was crawling she was crawling with one hand the other hand was keeping her intestines together now at this point she tries to stand and that's what happened so now she has no free hand now she's got to hold her head she's literally holding her head and her abdomen so yeah my god holding her head forward with one hand and pressing her intestines into her abdomen with the other if you could see i know a picture of us right now i am clasping my neck with one hand and i have the other hand on top of my head stabilizing my own head.
I'm holding my stomach. And Ash is holding her stomach in the top of her head.
Yes. And we are both just nodding at each other being like, wow.
Like, this is what she had to do, but with everything spilling out of her. And this is just listening to this.
I am holding all of my body together. So now she's got, that's the other thing.
Now she, like, she's lost all this blood. She's nearly decapitated.
Her intestines are spilling out. And now she's got that's the other thing now she like she's lost all this blood she's nearly decapitated her intestines are spilling out and now she's standing and has to have the balance to walk putting one foot in front of the other keep the lights on i could barely do that and i i'm fully here yeah so she very slowly swung one foot in front of the other just slowly moving in the direction of the the main road.
She said at various points she felt like she was just going to lose consciousness again. And after what felt like an hour, she considered giving up.
But when she raised her eyes forward, she realized she made it to the road. Allison.
But. Fuck yeah, Allison.
Now she realized she'd reached her destination, which was incredible. But what now? Remarkable, like beyond.
But now she needed to get somebody's attention every fiber of her being just wanted to lay down right there where she was on the pavement but she was on the side of the road at this point and she knew that by lying on the side of the road she might not be missed yeah exactly so instead she took even more steps and made it to the middle of the road and just lay horizontally down across the road ensuring that a driver coming in either direction would have to stop or intentionally drive around her but literally thought that was like i'm just gonna first of all laying in the middle of the road scary horrifying scary she didn't even think of that at that point all natural instincts she didn't even think of that she just said they'll have to swerve around me or they'll see me and they'll stop because she's also thinking like people are humans yeah they're not just gonna run me over luckily nobody runs her over but it's like people aren't humans but i'm surprised after what she has been through that she can still trust in humans enough to be like, honestly, it won't just run me over. Honestly.
You know? So at this point, she's just relieved to finally rest. This has taken everything and more out of her.
So she laid down for an indeterminate amount of time until finally she heard the hum of an engine from off in the distance. And the hum grew closer and closer until it finally stopped.
And she could see the headlights from the car bearing down on her. and it was just sitting idle in the distance and the hum grew closer and closer until it finally stopped and she could see the headlights from the car bearing down on her and it was just sitting idle in the road but the driver wasn't getting out she said i frantically waved as fast as i could i wanted whoever it was to see that i was alive and needed help but the driver didn't make any moves to get out of the vehicle and for a moment a terrible thought flashed through her mind what if this is them what if this is them returning to make sure i'm dead luckily it was not but what felt like 15 or maybe even 20 minutes later the engine revved slightly and the car just drove around her and continued down the road whoever that how do you live with yourself whoever that was i hope you stub your toe morning.
I hope you've never had a good coffee since. Truly.
I hope you have every shit-tastic thing happen to you every fucking day. I hope it's always raining on your side of the street.
I hope that you don't like rain. I'm without words.
I wish you the worst. Rarely am I speechless.
Person who just sat there for however long they did, because obviously she had no concept of time at this point. And obviously took a look at her.
I wish you the very worst, which is exactly what you deserve. All you have to do is call the police.
Or just get out and comfort the woman in the middle of the road. Like, hello? That's what police all you have to do is and wait all you have to do is uh be a fucking fellow human like holy shit and you did you just like go have dinner with your family after that who knows like what'd you do all the rest of your day who knows did you tell someone did you go somewhere and just be like oh yeah i saw this crazy thing you hope that that person called the police but it doesn't sound like they did jesus so her heart is just broken as she's watching her what she feels is like her only hope drive away but yet the more she thought about it she had the wherewithal to have compassion everybody the more she started to consider why a person might not get out under these circumstances she thought perhaps it was a woman on her own who was scared to get out of her car maybe the driver sensed danger and thought it was an ambush and thought i was some sort of decoy she still was able to have compassion for this person and come up with like like jet not that it's by no means okay that that person but valid to come up with valid reasons too to like excuse them just looks for the best.
I mean, I just don't have words anymore. I've lost vocabulary words for what she is.
This right here is an eternal optimist. True.
And just like, she's like, oh, you know what? I'll give you the excuses that I hope you needed. Yeah.
So as she just lay there in the middle of the road, nearly decapitated, intestines filling out, she just considered all the reasons why the driver had left. And then she started hearing the sounds of another approaching car.
And then she heard voices. When she opened her eyes, there was a woman standing over her who just started screaming when she saw Allison's injuries, which you honestly can't even blame this woman.
I think that was just like an instinctual response. I don't blame this woman in the least.
Because I know that was probably awful for Allison. Yeah.
But which like I feel awful about. But like, I mean.
You can't conjure this image in your mind. And to see a human, a fellow woman like that lying in the road, I can't.
That would destroy me. No, it's like like horrifying she said later it was the kind of scream you hear in a cheap in some cheap horror movie and then i realized how awful i must have looked so the woman's screams eventually stopped and allison started to hear other voices and then she saw the face of a young man who was a literal motherfucking hero meal beside her this man forever he looked her directly in the eyes and was talking but she couldn't really understand what he was saying because she's going in and out of consciousness at this point and she opened her mouth and tried to speak but obviously no sound came out and the young man responded telling her just to relax as best as she could and reassured her that help was on the way i love this man it was 2 45 a.m by the time she was discovered in the street meaning this entire course of events from her abduction to her discovery had taken no more than 90 minutes oh my god all of that happened abduction to this point 90 minutes minutes That is an hour and a half, everybody.

I cannot... 90 minutes that is an hour and a half everybody i cannot i can't conceive of that they were able to do that to her in 90 minutes that's how much her life changed frenzied that attack oh absolutely absolutely and even more badass of her you got all the way out there in that little time yes Which it probably which to her felt like hours oh i think it felt like days she was out there yeah yeah in this in this fucking economy yeah like in this in this situation she's just zooting out to the road yep holy shit yep no tian i didn't know that yeah wow incredible 90 minutes wow so tion different than tion tion this is a different person eilard had been out with friends at a bar that night and

was driving just driving home around 2 30 a.m when he came upon allison lying there in the street

he was a veterinary student oh thank you so he was familiar with anatomy and immediately started

checking her vital signs and he also recognized the severity of her wounds and did everything

Thank you. a veterinary student so he was familiar with anatomy and immediately started checking her vital signs and he also recognized the severity of her wounds and did everything he could to minimize any further risk he gently tucked an exposed piece of thyroid back into her throat and then using his own shirt he applied pressure to her neck to slow the bleeding by then other cars had stopped and there was a great deal of activity in the road other drivers were directing traffic around them somebody brought a flashlight to tion oh thank goodness people yeah people people got it in a good way now so there was only one people who peopled in the bad way yeah outside of the attackers and even allison was able to give them even allison gave them the excuse so somebody brought him a flashlight and he was able to get a good look at her wounds, seeing for the first time that her intestines were exposed.

He said later, I was utterly amazed that this person was still alive considering this second major injury.

Wow. So while they waited for an ambulance, Tian continued talking to Allison,

both to keep her calm and conscious until the ambulance arrived.

And meanwhile, one of the other drivers massaged her legs to keep the circulation going. Oh my God.
Yeah. Oh, I love this.
I love this part. Like this is, I'm like, okay.
This is where the humanity is at. Oh man, she saw the opposite ends of the spectrum that night.
Yep. So they could finally hear the siren of the ambulance wailing in the distance, but it still seemed so far away.
But finally, the EMTs were beside them, and they loaded Allison onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. And instinctually, Tian followed them in and climbed into the ambulance.
Oh, Tian. Under the circumstances, nobody bothered to ask what his relation was.
Come in, Tian. So he rode all the way to the hospital, holding her hand the entire way.
I hope Tian became a vet. Yes.
I hope he became something that cares for something because that is his nature. That is your soul, sir.
Yeah. It wasn't incredible.
I love him. Beautiful.
It wasn't until they arrived to the hospital and a doctor appeared that anybody even paid any attention to him and they just ushered him out of the way because she had to be brought to surgery he finally let go of allison's hand but not before he leaned in and assured her he was not going to leave her alone he would he would be there when she woke up oh my god yes i know i love i love this years later allison would credit her survival in large part to him who she described as her her lifeline that night. My God.
I know. So by the time the surgeon arrived at the hospital, the other doctors had managed really only to get Allison's name and her mother's phone number before she lost consciousness again.
Based on the extent of her trauma, the surgeon, Dr. Volodya Angelov, was stunned that she had even managed to stay alive.

Oh, yeah.

After checking her vital signs, he did his best not to reveal a surprise to the patient,

who was just slipping in and out of consciousness.

And according to Dr. Angelov, Allison looked like a, quote,

creature straight out of a Dickens novel.

She looked like a corpse.

Because you have to think, the amount of blood she lost.

She must be gray and just... Yeah.
Dead. Literally.
yeah dead literally like on the brink of death yeah once they cleaned her off and moved her into surgery they could see the extent of the wounds dr angelo said her neck had been split open almost from ear to ear i've seen many injuries as a doctor but the severe cruelty of the wounds really shocked me Wow. thyroid had been sliced nearly in half and had tian not thought to push it back into her throat she would have died tian if he hadn't done that she would have died this is teamwork her larynx had been separated from her trachea oh most of the muscles and tendons in the front and sides of her neck had been sliced and just retracted into the base of her skull.
Holy shit. And the wound to her abdomen was equally horrific.
Like we said, her intestines had been exposed and you probably weren't even thinking. Now they're covered in sand, dirt, and other debris.
I actually, as soon as you said she was crawling in the sand, my first was like oh my god her intestines are covered in

just holy shit but her intestines had also sustained several stab wounds her actual intestines which is so fucking so bad oh yeah you could go into um septic in a hot second it's incredible that she didn't i'm astounded she did yeah additionally the stab wounds to her stomach had caused her abdominal muscles to collapse around the area of that wound.

Wow.

But after three and a half hours of cleaning and stitching wounds, they finally had stabilized Allison and she was taken to the intensive care unit. While the surgeons worked to close Allison's wound, other hospital staff had contacted her poor mother, Claire.
Oh. I can't imagine getting that that phone call my god but claire started a kind of phone tree to inform everybody in allison's life of what had happened and finally when she was out of surgery the family was allowed to see her and claire rushed to the hospital to be right by her side and when she entered allison's room she said she was shocked by what she saw claire said she looked frightened she was filthy her face was swollen her eyes were filled with blood and bulged out of her head and she had tubes and pipes everywhere oh my god there was a cage over her lower body keeping blankets off of her and there was this massive bandage across her throat imagine seeing your baby no that like somebody did that to your baby.
There wouldn't be a safe motherfucking corner of this earth. In the galaxy.
No. It just, you can't even.
You could go light years away and I would travel there and find you. I don't have the atmosphere without me following.
Yep. That's, I feel immensely for her mother for having to see that.

So despite her injuries, Allison was awake and did her best to talk with her mom.

Because she's got to entertain her visitors.

Yeah.

Because she's a good hostess as well.

Yeah.

That's Allison.

Laying in the hospital under all of those circumstances and is like, hi, mom.

Hey.

The fact she could even fucking talk is...

Like her larynx was separated from her trachea. Yeah she's like hey mom hey so she tried to explain she tried to sit there and explain what had happened to her mom but her voice was too hoarse to say much gee i wonder why but she just insisted that the police needed to catch the men who had done this to her and it took more than a few minutes before she realized that in addition to her mother, there was another young man in the room.
It was Tian. Tian! It was Tian.
Ah! The man who stayed with her while they waited for the ambulance. So she just thanked him profusely and did her best to hug him.
Oh my god. Outside the room, the attending physician, Dr.
Coleman, detailed the extent of Allison's wounds to her family, explaining that her head, like I said, had almost been severed from her body. She had also, remember, been sexually assaulted.
Oh, yeah. He said, I fought in the Rhodesian Bush War, and I've never seen anyone with injuries like this survive.
Those wounds were gross beyond belief. My goodness.
In the early hours of December 4th, 2024, CEO Brian Thompson stepped out onto the streets of Midtown Manhattan. This assailant pulls out a weapon and starts firing at him.
We're talking about the CEO of the biggest private health insurance corporation in the world. And the suspect.
He has been identified as Luigi Nicholas Mangione. Became one of the most divisive figures in modern criminal history.
I was targeted, premeditated, and meant to sow terror. I'm Jesse Weber, host of Luigi, produced by Law & Crime and Twist.
This is more than a true crime investigation. We explore a uniquely American moment that could change the country forever.
He's awoken the people to a true issue. Finally, maybe this would lead rich and powerful people to acknowledge the barbaric nature of our healthcare system.
Listen to Law and Crime's Luigi exclusively on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus on the Wondery app, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
He explained that her outlook was not good because even if she survived the first few days, there was still an incredibly high risk of infection from all the debris found along her intestines and the injury to her throat was equally serious it was very possible for the wound to develop a thick scar tissue that could potentially choke her airway holy so even though they were able to get everything back i didn't even think of that scar tissue could have formed and like the inside and literally like pushed back into her airway yeah my god yep you didn't even think of that. Scar tissue could have formed and choked her.
On the inside and literally like pushed back into her airway. Yeah.
My god. Yep.
You don't even think of that. No.
Although the outlook was grim, Claire was confident that her daughter would survive. She said she was confident that God had not allowed her daughter to make it this far only to take her a few days later.
Wow. Within a few days, visitors started to show up to Allison's room every few hours, including, of course, her father, her brother, and a ton of friends and family.

And when she was finally stable, she was visited by two police officers.

Now that she was out of danger and she was able to speak more clearly,

she described her attackers to the police and told them that their names were Franz and Tians.

Fortunately, one of the officers, Nadia Swanpole,

thought that she actually might have had an interaction with these two men at a shopping mall a few days earlier which was confirmed the following day when allison identified them both in a photo lineup holy shit what are the odds because these are they're just out here being fucking menaces in every way you can think a few days later another police officer melvin humpel showed up at allison's bedside and he explained that he was now the lead detective on the case and wanted to inform her that they had arrested franz du toit and tions kruger and they'd found her car wow they were already out on bail pending a trial for another rape charge so humpel assured allison that neither man would be eligible for bail now so they attacked her when they were already out on bail for raping another woman so they're just fucking monsters monsters pure monsters monsters by that point allison had been in the hospital for almost two weeks and news about her attack had spread throughout the count of the country the press was obviously eager to talk to her and had been harassing claire which i'm like really like come on yeah day and night they're harassing her in most cases you would assume somebody in allison's position would probably just want to avoid talking about this ordeal at all and not want to be anywhere near strangers yeah you would totally understand that you would yeah you'd give her every grace in the world. But she felt compelled to tell her story.
She was still in such a fragile condition, though, that interviews had to wait, but she was willing to give them. Holy shit.
Just to make sure that, like, every word got out about this. That the story was told, yeah.
So she remained in the hospital, obviously, for several more weeks. And during that time, her attackers were arrested and prosecuted for her attempted murder, which honestly, they should have just been prosecuted for murder because that's what this would have been that's i hate it we've gone through that before but like this is murder yeah this is murder yep they walked away from somebody they thought was decapitating her and slashing her throat 16 times and stabbing her in the abdomen upwards of 50 times, exposing her intestines after raping her violently.
Yep. And choking her as well.
To the point of unconsciousness. If you tell me that is not murder, that's stupid as fuck.
No, that is. That is murder, but Allison's just stronger than they are.
She's just better than them. And she should not be punished for being stronger than they are exactly because it's like that's not that's not attempt that's not like oops i didn't do it right no they did it right yeah allison's just stronger she's just an anomaly it's like they did it they overdid it in fact they over killed her they did and for them to not consider that like there needed to be some kind of break from precedence.
Yeah. Where they sat there and said, this is murder.
Because this case itself is a break from precedence. Doesn't mean that this is not murder.
Yup. Let's be real here.
It drives me fucking nuts. It has always pissed me all the way off.
Attempted murder drives me nuts to begin with. But when it's this flagrant, it whole other it's like it i don't there needs to be a different precedent there just needs to be there absolutely does because this makes me so angry yeah fuck so she's in the hospital she's reading updates in the papers and she was surprised by how quote disheveled and terrified they both looked in the photographs because when they were around her they were acting completely normal but now they look like shit it's like you're not scared you're scared you got caught the press had dubbed the pair the nord oak nord oak rippers which is like don't give them a nickname and of course there was reports that they claimed to be satanists to allison the claims of satanism seemed like a ploy to lessen the severity of what they had done like they weren't acting of their own free will when they very much were i am 100 with her on that yeah 100 now if friends and tions had hoped to influence the court with their claims of satan you know satan's influence only the press seemed interested in their religious or spiritual beliefs the judge and the prosecutor could give less of it couldn't give less of a shit they had no interest in their beliefs and remained focused on the cruelty and the utter brutality of their crimes after multiple days the two finally went before the court where they pleaded guilty to eight charges including kidnapping rape and attempted murder during all of this she learned allison learned various things about her attackers from.
Franz, she learned, was the son of a police officer, which naturally came as a surprise to her. Wow.
The son of a police officer. She also learned that they had attacked another woman on December 4th, but according to Franz, the urge to kill her had passed once he raped her.
wow so he would have killed that woman it was just the urge passed when he was done

assaulting her. Wow.
From their statements in court, she learned that they had just been out drinking earlier in the day and decided to prowl the streets looking for a woman to attack. Tian said, we wanted a nice car and a nice woman.
Our goal was to find the woman, take her car, kidnap car kidnap her rape her and then kill her and he said this like he was just like rattling off items from a grocery list well like what we planned to do that like yeah i was just gonna go to the bar i was gonna run to the grocery store after i grabbed like apples bananas and oranges yeah but he's like we're gonna kidnap a woman rape her and then? Like, what? You just sat around and shot the shit about that? And we're like, you know what we should do tonight instead of literally anything else? What? I can't. I, I, yeah.
Not in my wildest, like, my brain just will not even attempt to comprehend that. No.
So both men seemed arrogant and cruel to Allison and me, but she was determined not to let them dominate her life going forward. The judge did sentence them both to life in prison without the possibility for parole, and Allison was released from the hospital with a new appreciation for life and a determination to tell her story of complete resilience.
In the years following her attack, she focused on recovery and on processing the trauma that she experienced. She said, the one thing I do have control over is choice.
I have the freedom to choose how I will respond to it. I have the choice to make of it what I must and learn from it.
Wow. She also recognized the role that she played in her own survival, focusing on her will to survive rather than the randomness of luck she was like nah i did that shit which i love yeah because that was not luck no that was that was 100 she is a strong anomaly of nature yes that i don't know if there's enough like how many allisons are there in the world one how many Allison both is are there not many truly so she told a reporter in 2006 believing that I could live the night of my attack and seeing the miraculous result of that belief is a great achievement for me yeah like that's an understatement you can do fucking anything when she had physically healed she started giving interviews and speaking publicly about her experience and the path to recovery.

She said, when I first started speaking publicly, I noticed that most people were interested in my amazing survival and physical recovery. But as the years have gone by, I have found more and more people have become interested in my mental and spiritual rejuvenation.
For sure. Which I could imagine.
In time, she became a symbol of hope and resilience to countless young women across South Africa who themselves had experienced sexual violence but were denied justice or were unable to tell their stories. And it's those women that Allison wanted to make a difference with.
And they became the central premise of her story. She said, you must know that you are special and value yourself.
It's what got me through my wow and that was in her she said she grew up being told you're special pulled into the other room and said like you're special that stayed with her that stuck that was a foundation that her mother laid wow yeah i love that that came back around yep we do love that yeah that's amazing now this i love 1997, her life changed dramatically for a second time in a good way. When she married Teenie Botha, they met years earlier and had lost touch, actually.
But they reconnected at a party one night where they ran into each other unexpectedly. Oh, I love it.
So they got married in 1997, February 1997. And despite being told that she would likely be unable to have children due to her abdominal injury she has since given birth to two children holy shit she said maybe i survived because i was meant to bring these two boys into the world for them to grow up and to become special people and what makes that even more amazing and special is that during the attack one of the men said to the other one while they were stabbing her almost 50 times in her intestines and abdomen, they said they were purposely trying to mutilate her reproductive organs and destroy them.
This is a two-pronged response. One, how fucking diabolically evil do you have to be to be purposely mutilating someone's reproductive organs while in the course of killing them? On another level.
Because that's the other thing they're trying they thought she was dead yeah so they were just doing that insult to injury like literally blatantly and then two for her to go on to have two beautiful kids despite every odd despite that fucking asshole being like i like trying to mutilate her reproductive system yep and then a doctor telling her like truthfully like with all the injuries that this may not happen for you that is a miracle what two miracles what is this story like this story is like unbelievable this story is straight up inspiration yeah yeah if you ever to do the most menial things literally like i'm like this story is inspiration to wake up and do my workout routine yeah to do anything to do anything wake up like it's literally like holy shit wild now despite her miraculous survival story and seemingly indomitable spirit alison alison spent years of emotional turmoil fighting to keep her attackers in prison, which is bullshit that she even had to do that. Bullshit.
Yeah, that's disgraceful. Because even though they were both sentenced to life in prison, I touched on this in the beginning, they had no possibility of parole.
As early as 2012, there was talk of one or both of them being released. And people were saying they had earned their release.
How? In 2012, a new legislation was enacted in South Africa that allowed for any prisoner who received a life sentence prior to 2004 to apply for parole after serving at least 13 years of their sentence. By that time, Franz and Teons had been in prison for 17 years, so they were eligible this the potential release of these fuck wads or really any potential killers came as a shock to allison of course she told a reporter in 2012 can you imagine if just 100 lifers are released into society who are not rehabilitated like what what do you what what do you do it is supposed to be all about.
If you have already sentenced somebody to life in prison without the possibility of parole. You've said they can't be rehabilitated.
You've said exactly. You've said exactly that.
And allowed back into society because you are literally saying they should never be allowed back into society. But now we're just like reneging that? But now we're being like, well, that wording makes me sad.
So like, let's change the wording. Like, nope.
What? That doesn't change what you did. Nope.
that doesn't change that you sentenced them to be in prison for life because you didn't believe they could come out what the fuck is that but now all of a sudden we're being like yeah yeah totally because yeah it's fine we decided that's unconstitutional when i said life i meant a handful of years when i said life i meant like less than a than a whole adolescent yeah the fuck like they can't even drive yet yeah so after hearing the news that they had both applied for parole now allison immediately spoke out against their release and used her platform to urge the government to keep them both in prison good for her her activism successfully kept them both in prison for another decade after the correctional services act passed in 2012 but in the summer of 2023 so recently she received yet another shock when without any notice to her both men were released on parole the fact that one they released them at all and two that they did not notify her is fucking shameful like what if she wanted to make plans to leave the country that's shame because I would want to leave the fucking country if those men had done what they did to her yes and we're now just out just bopping around you think they give a fuck about being on parole no they literally took her intestines out of her body and nearly decapitated her and intentionally tried to destroy her reproductive organs and you don't tell her that they're back out on the streets quote-unquote on parole that's the least you you could do. What does parole mean to them? Was inform her.
Are you fucking kidding me? In a message on social media, she addressed the news saying, the day I hoped and prayed for would never come. When I was asked how you feel if they ever get parole, my immediate answer was always, I'm hoping I'll never find out.
But today, I did. Wow.
Now, I'm sure them being released on parole caused this next thing I'm about to tell you. More tragedy struck when in September of 2024, Allison suffered a massive brain aneurysm and was rushed to a hospital in Cape Town.
The surgeons were able to stop the bleeding in her brain and they were able to relieve the pressure that was caused by a buildup of fluid. But she was expected to face yet another long road to recovery.
Oh my God. No stranger to adversity, she met the challenge head on.
Of course she did, because she's Alison Botha. And she's been exceeding her surgeon's expectations.
Alison Botha. But her mother, Claire, released a statement in October saying, I'm beside myself that my child, who was afflicted by a second death blow, has exceeded all expectations and has lived, talked, and remembered.
and i agree with you that the stress of having them out absolutely i guarantee you had

something to do absolutely whoever signed because that stress must have been immense immense whoever

the kind of stress i can't even quantify with words we'll never know thoughts or creative writing i

can't do it in any space no whoever signed the papers that let them out of prison should be ashamed is wrong with you i don't know how you lay your head on a pillow at night but yeah despite their positive outlook and determination the medical emergency put a huge financial burden on this small family allison doesn't have any medical insurance and has accrued a significant amount of debt since undergoing the surgery because that's how the medical system works. And as of now, both the family is relying on the generous support of public donations made to a trust account set up with her name in Nedbank in South Africa.
So there is a fundraiser that you guys can donate to and we're going to donate to as well.

I'm going to share the link, but it's backabuddy.coza slash campaign slash help dash Allison dash Botha dash in dash her dash time dash of dash need. And I will post that link in the show notes.
We'll post it on social media. you go to that and it might look like you can only donate in like a czar South African currency.
But if you scroll next to the amount, there's an option for US dollars. Yes.
So definitely consider donating. We're definitely donating.
She is halfway to the amount that they were trying to raise. And as of today, today march 4th the um it's it's back a buddy which is basically kind of like a gofundme it seems okay um and it's got 13 days left 13 days the fundraiser so well i mean by the time this comes out we'll post on social media before this episode comes out yes so that if you want to if you are able to and if you want to take part in that yes that you can so just in case the timing doesn't work out i don't want to yeah i don't want to miss our window to be able to help here exactly so we'll post it definitely consider donating because this woman is yeah beyond she has survived so much the fact that these two men were led out.
I don't even want to call them men. Monsters, pigs, fucking swines were let out of prison.
It's insane. I'm astounded by that.
She deserves the world for what she had to face. And now she must have.
And that's the thing. Like she probably had this brain aneurysm because she's sitting there every day looking over her shoulder, I bet.

Yeah.

Oh, I can't.

Yeah.

Who wouldn't?

How did they get let out? Yeah.

How did they get let out?

How did this happen?

And again, she's not the only – she's the woman that they attacked in such a brutal manner, but she's not even the only woman that they've ever attacked.

They attacked a pregnant woman.

A pregnant woman.

My God. Yeah.
They are – yeah they are horrific they are filthy truly it's insane it's it's unthinkable that they got let out so we will post those links for sure and because i mean like hearing this story and what she's been through it's unthinkable i mean damn and she just has such determination to live yeah and she has empathy yeah and she had empathy in some of her darkest moments and so i think this time for us all to get a call back to it for sure for sure yeah so with all that being said please consider donating please share the link if you're not able to. Obviously, not everybody will be able to.

And of course, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you keep it weird.

But not so weird that you lack the humanity of those two motherfucking trolls who are just walking the streets now.

Yeah.

Fuck that.

Take care of each other. Thank you.
I'm I'm I'm I'm Like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Hey, weirdos. I'm Mike Corey.
And like you, I'm drawn to true crime, creepy history, and all things spooky. If you particularly enjoyed Ash and Elena's coverage of the USS Indianapolis, where 900 sailors battled rough seas, sharks, dehydration, and madness in the open ocean, you need to check out my podcast, Against the Odds.
We dive deep into this survival story across four full episodes, revealing details you haven't heard yet. Each week on Against the Odds, we put you in the shoes of real survivors, from the Thai cave rescue to Somali pirate hostages to the

Donner Party. These aren't just headlines.
They're incredible stories of human endurance. Follow

Against the Odds on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Wondery Plus subscribers

can listen to both Against the Odds

and Morbid early and ad-free.

Start your free trial in the Wondery app,

Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today.