7: A Second Chance
35 min
•Nov 13, 20255 months agoSummary
Episode 7 follows Anne Bender's conviction for murder in Costa Rica, her imprisonment in harsh conditions, and the mobilization of supporters including journalist Carol Vaughan and boyfriend Greg Fisher to fight for her release. The episode details Anne's second trial verdict, her survival in prison with help from fellow inmates, and the preparation for a third trial that could prove her innocence.
Insights
- Media coverage and public opinion can dramatically shift a criminal case narrative, transforming sympathy into suspicion based on sensationalism rather than evidence
- International expat communities face heightened scrutiny and prejudice in foreign legal systems, with individual cases becoming proxies for broader anti-foreigner sentiment
- Prison conditions in developing nations create unexpected human bonds and solidarity among inmates, with vulnerable prisoners receiving care from those with fewer resources
- Forensic evidence interpretation varies significantly between investigations, with expert re-examination revealing potential flaws in original police methodology
- Digital activism and social media campaigns (GoFundMe, Change.org, Twitter) have become critical tools for mobilizing legal defense resources in high-profile cases
Trends
Increasing role of investigative journalists as de facto legal advocates in high-profile international casesPublic perception of wealthy expats in developing countries shifting from positive investment figures to exploitative outsidersForensic science becoming subject of public scrutiny and re-examination through media-sponsored expert analysisSocial media and crowdfunding platforms enabling grassroots legal defense campaigns for contested convictionsInternational legal cases becoming entertainment narratives ('telenovelas') that shape public opinion independent of evidenceDiplomatic intervention through embassy channels in criminal justice outcomes for citizens abroadThird-trial retrials becoming viable legal strategy in jurisdictions allowing case review and retrialMedia access to criminal trials driving spectacle and public interest over judicial process integrity
Topics
Criminal Justice System in Costa RicaInternational Expat Legal RightsMurder Trial Evidence and ForensicsPrison Conditions in Central AmericaMedia Influence on Criminal TrialsSuicide vs. Homicide DeterminationMental Health and Bipolar Disorder in Legal DefenseCrowdfunding for Legal DefenseInvestigative Journalism and AdvocacyDiplomatic Intervention in Criminal CasesSocial Media Activism for Legal CasesForensic Evidence Re-examinationPassport Seizure and International TravelPsychiatric Expert TestimonyPublic Opinion and Jury Bias
Companies
iHeartRadio
Podcast distribution platform where Hell in Heaven and related shows are available
Apple Podcasts
Podcast distribution platform where Hell in Heaven and related shows are available
CBS
News organization that hired forensic experts to re-examine Anne Bender's crime scene evidence
Exactly Right Media
Production company credited as executive producer of Hell in Heaven podcast
Blanchard House
Creative production company involved in Hell in Heaven podcast production
The Tico Times
Local Costa Rican newspaper where Carol Vaughan worked as investigative reporter covering the Bender case
Change.org
Platform used to create 'Free Anne Bender' petition mobilizing supporters
GoFundMe
Crowdfunding platform used by Anne Bender's supporters to raise money for legal defense
New York Times
Media outlet that Anne's supporters attempted to contact via social media to cover her case
Fox News
Media outlet that Anne's supporters attempted to contact via social media to cover her case
People
Anne Bender
American woman convicted of murdering her husband John in Costa Rica; subject of the episode
John Bender
Anne's husband who died from a gunshot wound; central figure in the murder case
Carol Vaughan
Investigative journalist for The Tico Times who covered Anne's trials and became her advocate
Greg Fisher
Anne Bender's boyfriend who dedicated himself to fighting for her release before dying of asthma
Judge Adolfo Calderon
Costa Rican judge who presided over Anne's second trial and announced guilty verdict
Dr. Lozano
Psychiatrist who testified on Anne's behalf regarding her mental health and inability to commit murder
Ken Bender
Anne's brother who served as family spokesman during trials, speaking in Spanish to reporters
Kevin Serrano
Costa Rican TV cameraman who documented the trial proceedings for local news station
Selma Eichelamboom
Forensic expert hired by CBS who re-examined crime scene and testified at Anne's third trial
Richard Eichelamboom
Forensic expert (married to Selma) who re-examined crime scene and testified at Anne's third trial
Santiago
Manager of Hotel Zimmer where Anne and her legal team stayed during third trial in Perez Zeledon
Quotes
"My sister is not a killer. The second trial was a fallacy, a dark day for Perez Celedon. Very ugly."
Ken Bender (Anne's brother)
"I became possessed and obsessed with the story of the benders."
Carol Vaughan
"She reads as a wounded, wounded person. She was the birdie with a broken wing."
Carol Vaughan
"They just told me to get my stuff together and I left the prison. I'm really grateful that the appellate court made the right decision."
Anne Bender
"I feel he died way too young, and he had so much more to live for, and he was doing such great work on the reserve."
Carol Vaughan
Full Transcript
This is exactly right. of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all, I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On May the 27th, 2014, Anne Bender was in court, awaiting a verdict for the second time. She'd been retried for murder, which is allowable under Costa Rican law. The trial had lasted seven days. Anne was shaking. The judge, Adolfo Calderon, began. He told the court that John Bender could not have shot himself because he had a wound at the back of the head. The judge said other evidence at the crime scene also made suicide impossible. The blood, the bullets, the position of the body, it all pointed to only one conclusion. Anne had argued during the court case that John suffered from bipolar disorder and that he'd attempted to take his own life before. The judges weren't convinced by her defence. Finally, Judge Calderon announced the verdict. Without a doubt, he said, the court agrees that the death of John Felix Bender was homicide Anne had murdered him She was guilty The sentence was 22 years in prison from exactly right media and iheart podcasts produced by blanchard house this is hell in heaven i'm becky milligan Chapter 7, A Second Chance Anne was led away by guards. In total shock, she fainted. Do you remember her reaction? Stunned. Author Carol Vaughan witnessed the verdict. I think she and her legal team, neither one thought that that was going to happen. I think her legal team had done a very good job of defending her. And do you remember her walking out or what happened? I remember they tried to get her out as quickly as possible through a side door, which you're not supposed to use, things like a fire door. But she could barely walk. She was overcome. It was awful. and we were all looking at each other just in total disbelief. She was immediately remanded to a psychiatric hospital where she was held under guard and put on suicide watch. When she was over the shock and considered well enough, she was moved to the prison. And I didn't know how awful it was, where they were sending her and what they were doing to her and how ill-equipped she was for it. Had I known, I would have been flipping out also because it's just being in jail as a woman in Central America is just no day at the beach. The verdict horrified Anne's family and everyone who'd supported and believed in her. What worried them most was that Anne might not survive being in prison. The stress of the trial and the verdict had weakened her. She was frail and very thin. Ken, Anne's brother, was her spokesman throughout the trial and outside the court, speaking in perfect Spanish. He told reporters. My sister is not a killer. The second trial was a fallacy, a dark day for Perez Celedon. Very ugly. Friends and family had to move fast and make a lot of noise about what they believed was an appalling miscarriage of justice. They created a GoFundMe page and started a petition, free Anne Bender, on the popular Change.org platform to mobilize supporters. An actor reads what one of her friends wrote on their page. We family and close friends are doing everything in our power to end this nightmare. An innocent woman is dying and we can make this right. We can. Her lawyers also sprang into action, preparing an appeal. Anne had one other person fighting her corner a man named Greg Fisher Anne met Greg in San Jose where she'd been living around the time of her first trial Originally from New York Greg had lived in Florida, Arizona and then Costa Rica Just like John had been Greg was into bodybuilding and fitness and liked to ride motorbikes He was handsome and, according to friends, kind and compassionate. It was a second chance for Anne. They lived together in an apartment in a smart suburb of San Jose and even got a puppy. But then came the second trial. And just over a year after they'd started their relationship, Anne was found guilty and started her 22-year prison sentence. All hopes of that new life were taken away. Greg now dedicated all his time to fight for her release and visit her in prison. An actor read his Twitter bio at the time. Working every day to help save Ann Bender from the terrible injustice done to her by the people she trusted the most. He and some of Ann's friends and family contributed as much as they could to her campaign. Greg was always thinking of new ways to raise money to help Anne's cause. They also took to social media and tweeted everyone, from the New York Times to Fox News, hoping a journalist or campaigners or politicians would pick up her story. And someone did pick up the story, but closer to home. I'm at a cabin on the outskirts of Perez Zeladon in the shadow of those beautiful mountains. It's owned by Carol Vaughan. She lives here with her dog, Garbo. You'll have heard from Carol throughout the series. She's dressed in her hallmark loud Hawaiian shirt and red lipstick. In her younger days, back in America, she was a tap dancer. I was an avid tap dancer I don't tap anymore because of my age but had a tap dance studio, taught it continued to perform it in nightclubs both in New York and in Washington DC and I feel like in my heart I'll always be a tap dancer Carol even danced with Mickey Rooney a Hollywood star in the 40s and 50s she gave up the love of her life i.e tap and moved to costa rica in 2012 where she could have retired relaxing on her rocking chair on the veranda taking it nice and easy but she isn't the type to do that instead she dived right into a new career as an investigative reporter for a local newspaper the tico times before we can sit down to chat we're off for a walk with her dog garbo and she starts to tell me how one story took over her entire life and still dominates it. It's so embarrassing. I became possessed and obsessed with the story of the benders. It's raining, you guys. We're going to cross and go down just a bit and he should poop. OK. Inshallah. We'll wait for the poop. Back in the cabin, we start from the beginning. how she became possessed and obsessed with the Benders. One day, her editor gave her a new assignment covering Anne Benders' murder trials, starting with the second, the one in which she was convicted. Carol had no idea what she was about to get into. My Spanish was pretty good, but I wasn't great. And in court, you have to be quick and you have to pay attention and you have to understand legal things that I didn't understand. And so when he first said, this is your assignment, I want you to go do this. I was like, well, you know, I'll try, but I can't promise that it's going to be great. First day of trial, I thought, oh, I'm going to do this because this is to the reaction of the people in the courtroom and the looks on people's faces. And there are three judges in all court cases here, criminal court cases. and they would fight with each other and say nasty things to each other and things that would never happen in an American court So the drama was so intense I realized that it wasn just a writing assignment it was also my telenovela my soap opera of the day Did you know about the case already? I mean, did people talk about it? Was it just a big thing here? Everyone talked about it. It was in all the local papers, on all the local radio and TV. Anne was now in the only all-women's jail in Costa Rica, Originally a convent, it was now a fortress with... Gun turrets, guys walking around with guns. She was in an ambito with 20 women. That's a prison dormitory. There weren't enough mattresses for everyone, so they would share mattresses, or some people would just have to sleep directly on the floor. You have to wear your own clothes, but you're not allowed to replace your clothes, so people are in, like, Robinson Crusoe torn outfits. There are women there who are pregnant. There are women there who have their own children with them. Let's just stop here for a moment. Imagine what it must have been like for this privileged woman, an American, used to the comfort of Boracayán in the middle of the jungle, protected by armed guards, surrounded by staff, beautiful jewels, Tiffany lamps, watching the sunset every evening over their own private jungle. Now she was in jail, convicted of murder. The contrast couldn't have been more extreme. The food is inedible. I mean, there'd be maggots crawling out of the rice. I don't know how she survived. I really don't. And you went to visit her in prison. Can you recall the conversation you had? Well, she was in this dormitory with 20 people. I think they let me go with her outside. I was not allowed to tape, but I was allowed to take notes. She, in general, always wore black. And she wore skirts all the way down to the floor, usually, and then long sleeves because there's no climate control in jail. Right. What did she tell you? Well, I was very concerned with how she was, if she was being treated well. As well as a journalist, Carol was working as a volunteer for the American Embassy. In fact, her father had been a diplomat in Latin America. I said, you know, we'll get you soap. We'll get you toilet paper because there's no toilet paper in jail. Let us know what you want. We will get it to you. So that was the most of the conversation was, are you taking care of your health? She had a heart port and she couldn't keep it clean because she was only allowed to bathe once a week. What is a heart port? It was something that would allow them to inject medicine right into her heart because her heart was not strong. Gosh, so she was really seriously ill. Bad off. That sounds quite frightening for her if she can't actually, you know, keep it clean. So all of that stuff about just human to human, how are you holding up? It's a question lots of people were asking. How was she surviving day in, day out, especially as she was so frail? The answer Carol got to her question surprised her. she confessed to me that she was actually well accompanied that she felt very comfortable with the women that she was living with and that they were taking very good care of her and she felt kind of good about that it's amazing isn't it to go from a sort of house she was living in on top of a hill a mansion yes with just one other person and now she's thrown into a dirt bin with 20 and she's okay. How does that happen? Luckily, Anne had won the sympathy of the other inmates. They seemed to pity her. The women rallied around her, recognizing she was a wounded birdie. They saw her as a wounded bird. They brought her clothing to wear. Their families brought her food from home and Anne suffered a lot from the cold. So they would heat water for her to pour in her pail so that she could get a little comfort there and then they would take her out to the back so she could sit in the sun and try to regroup. They were very sweet to her. What was it about her, do you think, that made people sympathize? I think she reads as a wounded, wounded person. She was very sympathetic always to wounded animals where they lived. And I think it was because she was one. She was the birdie with a broken wing. It was hard for anyone to survive in there, let alone an American who was used to a certain lifestyle. But those women rallied around her, cared for her, helped her survive. And there was Greg. Anne's boyfriend would bring her food and then enough food to share among the other prisoners so that they would take better care of her. Carol also helped her. After the health issues of how are you, what can we do for you, the embassy's looking after you, we will visit you, here's a number to call if you get in trouble. Telephoning in jail is a huge problem because there's only one phone and you're allowed two minutes a month kind of thing. Carol felt like she and Anne were connected. Their fate had brought them together. Because here I am, I'm a single American woman here in Costa Rica with not very much knowledge of the country or the language or anything. And I felt a kindred spirit. She was a female. She was wrongly accused, I thought. and I wasn't 100% sure she was getting good legal help. Carol was also fascinated by Anne's story and she had an article to write, one which would eventually become a book titled Crazy Jungle Love. So she had to ask the harder, more probing questions. I said, well, Anne, you know, what happened? I didn't want to say, did you kill him? Just, you know, what happened? And she told me what she's told everyone, that she was awakened by his voice and that John always came to bed with a gun. And she roused herself after she heard him say something. She thinks it was, you'll now know what it's like to wake up next to your dead husband. And she saw that he had a gun pointed at his head and she tried to grab it and the gun went off and he died instantly. He was shot in the back of the right occipital and it never came out. The occipital is a particular part at the back of the head. What do you do make of that explanation? I think that's what she thinks happened. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict, a villain, a nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level if the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. he became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Please search warrant. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of he said, she said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. I have done nothing except get pregnant by the f***ing bachelor! Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Though it was 2014, four years after John's death, and with prison time ahead, Anne's story didn't change. But what had changed was public opinion. During the first trial, she'd won over many Costa Ricans. They were sympathetic. After she was convicted, that changed. What did people think about her in Costa Rica? I think I've never asked someone that. who has told me, especially a man, who has told me, Anne's innocent. I have never, ever heard anyone say Anne was innocent. They say she was a black widow. She was just gunning for him until he died so she could have all those jewels and property to herself They were both crooked but she took them out She wasn a well person I mean, neither of them were well-liked, frankly. But here the blame went to her. There were people convinced she killed them. I mean, that's not even a question. The story became bigger than Anne and John. It had a knock-on effect on all Americans who had come to Costa Rica to settle. All expats were now on trial. Americans are so self-entitled. They think they own the world. They think everything revolves around them. They think they can come into this developing country and just do whatever they want. And no one's going to put a stop to them. And you watch. We're going to put a stop to them. Someone else who was on the trial each day was Kevin Serrano, a cameraman for a Costa Rican TV news station. He was more used to recording sports events. But now he'd been put on the trial of the century. When a foreigner from any country comes to live in Costa Rica, people would normally think, this is good, because they might bring investment or aid and development to the communities or whatever. So at first the opinion was, these are good and nice people who came to support the community. But when all this starts to come out, people thought, hmm, maybe none of this was what they made it out to be. And unlike any other trial in Costa Rican history, the public could read and watch every twist and turn of the story. It became a soap opera, and everyone was talking about it. In most trials, it's requested not to be press or media present. As I understand, Anne's defense did not want the media in the courtroom. But since this was a case of public interest, all media could be at the trial. The speculation could be as fantastic as it was cruel. There was miles and miles of newsprint discussing every theory under the sun, including one which suggested Anne may not have pulled the trigger, but paid for the hit on John. So this was all swirling around while Anne's lawyers fought her conviction. Then, unbelievably, another tragedy was to strike Anne. Six months into her sentence, she got some news. Greg, her partner, who'd been dedicated to the campaign for her release, died. It was November the 16th, 2014. It's easy and tempting to assume Greg's death must be connected to everything else, but Greg died from an asthma attack. It was totally random and awful. Nevertheless, speculation and conspiracy theories once again flourished. Anne was devastated, grieving again this time for her boyfriend Greg, wondering if she would ever get out of prison. But then there was a major development. It was nine months into her sentence. Anne was in her cell. It was a regular day inside, as far as she was concerned. Until a guard appeared. Out of the blue, he told her that her case had been thrown out. there was going to be a third trial and she was to be released immediately. She was free to go. Her lawyers had been working round the clock to secure a retrial and they had succeeded. A judge had reviewed the case and made the decision. She said this to reporters. An actor is speaking Anne's words. They just told me to get my stuff together and I left the prison. I'm really grateful that the appellate court made the right decision. Even though the prospect of a further trial must have been terrible, it was another chance to prove her innocence and get out of the country. Carol again had a ringside seat. Then there was a third trial, which was longer than the first two and better attended than the first two. It was wall-to-wall people. I mean, you couldn't get into the courtroom. Anne was now not only fighting for her freedom, but her life. She knew what prison was like and probably knew that if she went back, she might not survive the terrible conditions. In 2023, a story gripped the UK, evoking horror and disbelief. The nurse who should have been in charge of caring for tiny babies is now the most prolific child killer in modern British history. Everyone thought they knew how it ended. A verdict? A villain? A nurse named Lucy Letby. Lucy Letby has been found guilty. But what if we didn't get the whole story? The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapses. I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we follow the evidence and hear from the people that lived it to ask what really happened when the world decided who Lucy Letby was. No voicing of any skepticism or doubt. It'll cause so much harm at every single level if the British establishment of this is wrong. Listen to Doubt, The Case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. This MSS officer has no idea the U.S. government is on to him. But the FBI has his chats, texts, emails, even his personal diary. Hear how they got it on the Sixth Bureau podcast. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question, of his life. And that's a unicorn. No one had ever seen anything like that. It was unbelievable. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd, and in 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. he became the first bachelor to ever have his final rose rejected. The internet turned on him. If I could press a button and rewind it all, I would. But what happened to Clayton after the show made even bigger headlines. It began as a one-night stand and ended in a courtroom, with Clayton at the center of a very strange paternity scandal. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. Police search warrant. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. This season, an epic battle of he said, she said, and the search for accountability in a sea of lies. I have done nothing except get pregnant by the f***ing bachelor! Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Shortly before the trial, the defence team, including Anne's family, moved to a local hotel in Perez Zeledon, Hotel Zimmer. My name is Santiago. I'm from Costa Rica. We live in San Isidro. That's Santiago, the laid-back manager of Hotel Zimmer, and next to him is his wife, Anna. We're sitting outside in the shade of a large tree. We have to stop our interview at times because the parrots are so loud. This is where Anne and her entourage stayed. It's tucked away in the back streets of the town, but also within walking distance of the court. I asked them to describe the moment that Anne Bender arrived at their hotel. Everybody wants to meet her or see her, you know, the first time. and we were waiting for her that she was coming and she was nice. She said, hello, how are you? She says the whole thing, but she was kind of tired. Along with Anne came her own personal protection. She got two guys, armed guys, in the main entrance. Yeah, well, you don't see their arms. It's like undercover, but they have big guns. Anne was supported by her family. her father, mother and her brother Kevin even Dr Lozano, her psychiatrist who we heard in an earlier chapter stayed at the hotel preparing to give evidence it was quite a spectacle for this quiet town taken over by the international media Santiago took me to the streets to show me where it all happened at the time roads were closed in order to cope with the huge level of interest in the trial This is the courthouse. Reporters were from that corner to here. Reporters all the way along? Uh-huh. And in that sidewalk too. From there to there. All the way along? All day long. Just sitting here? Yeah, just sitting there waiting for something. And there were cameras? Uh-huh. That one over there, it was close because it was a lot of people. So it was like a really big moment for the whole town. And there were guards all over the court over there. Yeah, the highway patrol were there, stopping the cars to go this way and the other way too. That must have been... That's quite a spectacle, isn't it? Mm-hm. And how long did that go on for? That was maybe one week. Every day they were waiting and waiting and waiting for results from the court. It's crazy, isn't it? The couple really felt for their guest. She looks devastated. Every day, you know, she was so sad. She was every day dressed in black. She was using the crutches. Using crutches to walk because she was physically weak. Santiago and Anna told us that Anna would come back from the trial to the hotel and cry. There was a bubble of sadness around her. but they felt helpless how could they make her feel better they couldn't the only relief for ann would be her freedom we were looking to set up the shelter to live a calm and peaceful life here It May 2014 inside the court Anne testified again this time in painstaking detail explaining how John was suicidal. She started with his physical health problems, the stroke that encouraged them to change their pace of life in 2000. Anne told her story in her own words. An actor reads her testimony. It just highlighted for us that moving here to stop hustling too hard was the best thing to do. John had never had a physical problem before. He could work 22 hours a day, but that summer he was at a breaking point. And then he really learned that it was best to continue with the plan we had decided. So we were looking to set up the shelter to live a calm and peaceful life in San Jose. She continued to detail their ever-worsening health problems, including her Lyme's disease. So there were about five or six years when we were trying to understand what was happening to me physically and in early 2009, my disease was quite advanced. John got some type of chickenpox and he was having trouble with terrible sores. We lost some animals from the shelter and it really affected my husband. Then there were those gemstones, which many suggested were a tax dodge. She explained them away as secure investments during a period of financial uncertainty. So John decided with the advice of this man to invest in gyms and this was something a lot of people were doing then. So there was an economic recession at the time. And she told the court about John's previous suicide attempts. I saw him when he tried to commit suicide twice. You know, I'm aware of two times. I saw that he tried to electrocute himself. That was at the end of 2008. And then in 2009, at the end of November, he tried to jump down the elevator. That's the elevator at the house, which wasn't enclosed. Just a platform that went up and down. We were dealing with so many things at the same time. My symptoms were getting worse, and we're getting information from the trustee that there were problems with the money. John decided on the advice of the trustee to invest in gems and jewels. And so he thought that because the trustee said that, that we were having cash flow problems. And John was really blaming himself for all of it. He felt that, and we talked about this every single day, he felt that it was his fault. John felt like a complete failure, not only when it came to investments, but also he was trying to look for a way to help me with my illness. She explained how her mental health declined too. You know, my type of bipolarity manifests in a more typical way. So there are times, sometimes years, where I might not have a single episode at all. And John and I were able to find that over the years, I could do certain things to stay in a good state of mind. like if I slept well and ate well. But John, his manifested in what's called rapid cycling, he was talking about suicide every single day. Carol Vaughan listened to all this with great sadness. Well, I feel he died way too young, and he had so much more to live for, and he was doing such great work on the reserve. he felt he was going to find a cure for Lyme disease from which she suffered. He was very much into natural medicine and thought the cure for Anne, both her mental problems and her physical problems was right there on the nature reserve. It was just a matter of time until he found it. And what do you think in the end affected him so deeply? What happened to him? I'm only guessing. I never met him. Carol has her own view on what happened, as we heard in the last episode, but she doesn't deny that John was in a very dark place. From what I read about his problems, he just couldn't, he couldn't hack it. He couldn't, it's so hard living in a foreign country, really. and he just couldn't keep it up. He was going into a financial tailspin, apparently. He was losing money. His investments weren't working out. And he just couldn't cope. And I feel very bad for him because it could be any of us. I mean, I don't have huge investments, but the little ones I've had, if I had problems, it'd be curtains. But the trial wasn't just about whether John had been depressed. That was never disputed. It was about that crime scene. Remember we told you about those who believe Anne is guilty always look at two pieces of evidence, the earplugs and the wound. Well, this trial was the first time the weaknesses in that evidence were properly scrutinised. After getting out of prison, facing money problems, and connected with a team from CBS, a news crew who had hired a married forensic duo, Selma and Richard Eichelamboom. In a glitzy broadcast, the forensic pair looked at the crime scene and then demonstrated that there could be another explanation to how John had died based on the forensics. They argued that if Anne had pulled John's arm back almost like a bow and arrow, the gun could have gone off at the back of his head and crucially on the right-hand side. It's all very US television crime show, but actually it gave Anne access to experts who ended up testifying at her third trial. They said the police messed up, that their investigation was sloppy. And the earplugs? They could be explained a million ways. He could have put them in to soften the noise of the jungle or never intended to actually go through with pulling the trigger. Dr Lozano, the psychiatrist, testified this time too, arguing Anne wouldn't have been able to carry out a murder. Anne's third trial would last for a week. Would all these testimonies be enough? Would Anne get the verdict she longed for? Her 97-year-old grandmother was among the family, praying that she would be freed. As the judges retired for the third time, she waited. One problem facing Anne was that her passport had been seized If she was freed, she wouldn't be able to leave This is where Carol stepped in to help But I knew that she didn't have a passport And you know, get out of Costa Rica without a passport So, talked to the embassy and the embassy said Relax, we're going to get her a replacement passport On the last hour of the last day of the trial Someone was deployed to ensure that Anne received her passport and secretly gave it to her. Anne kept touching her pocket to check it was there. It was her ticket to freedom. Then the judges walked in. Would Anne walk free or return to prison for 22 years? We recognized we were getting to the end of the third trial and no one had any idea whether she was going to be found guilty or innocent. No idea whatsoever. Louis Nankmanel and Toby Matamon. The sound recordist and head of sound and music is Daniel Lloyd-Evans. The lead sound designer is Volkan Kiseltug. The artwork is by Vanessa Lilac. For Exactly Right Media, the executive producers are Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer, with consulting producer Lily Ladowig and associate producer Jay Elias. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House is Lawrence Griselle Listen to Hell in Heaven on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts I'm Amanda Knox, and in the new podcast, Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby, we unpack the story of an unimaginable tragedy that gripped the UK in 2023. But what if we didn't get the whole story? I've just been made to fit. The moment you look at the whole picture, the case collapsed. What if the truth was disguised by a story we chose to believe? Oh my God, I think she might be innocent. Listen to Doubt, the case of Lucy Letby on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Special Agent Regal, Special Agent Bradley Hall. In 2018, the FBI took down a ring of spies working for China's Ministry of State Security, one of the most mysterious intelligence agencies in the world. The Sixth Bureau podcast is a story of the inner workings of the MSS and how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. Listen to The Sixth Bureau on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it, all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract. Agree to date me, but I'm also suing you. This is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I'm Stephanie Young. Listen to Love Trapped on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.