The case had gone cold until the victim’s ghost started communicating with the living.
Born in the Philippines in 1929, Teresita Basa was obsessed with music from a young age. In her thirties, Teresita set her sights on Chicago, Illinois, intending to enrol in music classes at Indiana University, as she found it difficult to find work in the music industry while residing in the Philippines. After receiving her diploma, she left school and started working. Unfortunately, similar challenges prevailed and she found it difficult to find work so she began her career at Edgewater Hospital and advanced through the ranks to become a respiratory therapist.
She applied to pursue a PhD in music since she was still very much focused on her dream. She spent her days working at the hospital and her nights working on her PhD. She taught the neighbourhood kids the piano for free in addition to her job and studies. Teresita’s perseverance was apparent; she never stopped trying and remained resilient despite any knockbacks she faced.
February 21st 1977–10:30PM
A terrified neighbour saw dense black smoke billowing from Teresita’s apartment building and called the fire service. Upon breaking down the door, firefighters discovered that, fortunately, the fire was mostly contained in the living room and had not spread to any other rooms or apartments. When the fire subsided, they saw that it was a mattress that was burning with a hump underneath. When they raised it, they discovered a naked woman’s corpse with a butcher’s knife embedded in her chest.
The body was quickly identified as 48-year-old Teresita Basa. It was swiftly determined that the lone deep stab wound was the reason for her death. Upon sending her body for autopsy, no indication of rape or sexual assault was discovered. Who could have committed such a heinous murder? Police were led to believe that it was a burglary gone wrong because there were no obvious suspects.
Despite the apartment being ransacked, police searched it and found no evidence of theft. To kickstart the investigation, police attempted to collect evidence. The first potential lead was a note in Teresita’s handwriting “Get theatre tickets for AS” Her friends and relatives were contacted, but no one could identify “AS” or provide a lead. Second: Around 7:30 p.m. that day, Teresita was speaking with one of her friends when she mentioned that she had a male guest who the police suspected might be “AS” coming over.
Six months later
The police scrambled to uncover any leads or evidence but after a while, things went stagnant until…
Dr Jose Chua, a surgeon, called the police to report that he believed Teresita’s ghost had contacted his wife Remibusa Chua.
Mrs Chua was deeply affected by Teresita’s passing but felt this type of grief was weird beyond comprehension. Mrs Chua said she had been visited in her dreams by Teresita. She gave it little thought at first because it’s not unusual to dream about a deceased loved one. However, after six months, the dreams began to fully take over Mrs Chua’s body.
To obtain the whole truth, the police invited the pair to come to the station. When this first dream occurred, they told the authorities, that Mrs Chua was dozing off during the day on the couch when Dr Chua heard his wife stir in her sleep. He went to check on her and she appeared to be in a lot of distress, as though she was in a nightmare. Her first words were:
“Doctor, I need your help, the man who murdered me is still at large.”
She began mumbling in Tagalog, her native tongue, which she rarely spoke and did so in a tone that didn’t seem like her. Dr Chua begins to question her, asking, “Who are you?” To which she replies, “I am Teresita Basa.”
She claims the name of her killer is Allan Showery.
Mrs Chua did not remember anything when she awoke. The couple talked about how strange it was and dismissed it as a nightmare, but it kept happening and they felt like they were going insane. A few days later, there’s another encounter: “Doctor” asks Teresita, speaking via Mrs Chua, “why have you not gone to the police? I told you who my killer is.” Since Dr Chua had no proof and doesn’t know who Allan is, he felt unable to report the crime to the authorities. She provided information that Allan took all of the jewellery she was wearing at the time and gave it to his girlfriend. With this discovery, they dismissed their concerns and called the police.
Police, as you might guess, were not particularly interested in a ghost story; after all, they deal with facts and tangible proof, not ghost stories.
Joseph Stachula, lead detective, heard them out. He could feel their passion even if he was bewildered, and the police had no leads. They had already made the connection between Allan Showery and the note “AS” so why not look into it?
They ran his name in their database and discovered that he had prior robbery and sexual assault convictions. Furthermore, he was employed as a technician at the same hospital as Teresita in the respiratory department.
They begin by asking around to find out if anyone knew Allan or if Teresita and him were known to be friends. Some colleagues came forward and informed police Teresita wanted Allan to fix her TV, and other hospital staff members believed this was scheduled for that February evening. Even though this information comes from a dubious source, it all adds up.
Police questioned Allan who denied everything he said he had never been to her house and at the time of the murder he was home with his girlfriend Yanka Kamluk. Nonetheless, the police officers felt uneasy and asked to take Allan down to the police station for questioning.
They told him they knew he was going to fix her TV and suddenly the cracks began to show.
Allan admitted to going over to Teresita’s home in the evening to look at her TV but realised he didn’t have the capabilities to fix it. He claimed he left almost immediately and came straight home to his girlfriend to fix some electrical problems in their house. Police asked his girlfriend to confirm confirm this with confusion she told the police “What electrical problems?” Yikes!
The police believed that Allan’s girlfriend would be helpful in this investigation. They informed her of their suspicions of him and that cooperating with them would be beneficial. They inquired as to if Allan had given her any jewellery. She claimed that in February, the month of the murder, he had given her jewellery as a belated Christmas present.
To check whether her relatives could identify any of the three items that were taken the night Teresita was murdered, the police ordered her to bring all of her jewellery to the station. All the jewellery that was taken was there. With the evidence that he gave his girlfriend the stolen jewellery he broke down and admitted to killing Teresita.
Understandably, there will be sceptics who find it difficult to accept the possession story, but the evidence of the murder is undeniable and speaks for itself. Many people who reject the story speculate Mrs Chua knew more than she admitted and couldn’t figure out how to tell the police. Potentially, she might have fabricated the possession to provide the information to the authorities without implicating herself. Given that she did work with them both, it’s possible that she was aware of the intentions to fix the TV and inadvertently connected the dots. However, she knew he had taken the jewellery off her body and given it to his girlfriend, which is why it’s strange. Knowing this exact detail about a murder you were not present for is extremely bizarre.
According to Allan Showery’s account of events, he went over that night and knew that she had a lot of money, so he planned to rob her. He was having financial difficulties and had fallen behind on his rent, so he chose to take advantage of her request to have her TV fixed. Without even glancing at anything in the house, he immediately killed her and proceeded with the remainder of his plan. He did not touch her, but he arranged the attack to appear as though it was sexually motivated. He did this by ripping off her clothes. After he murdered her, he searched the flat for anything to take, leaving with the jewellery set and $30 in cash.
The case had to go to trial since he had initially entered a guilty plea but later changed it to not guilty despite confessing.
His defence lawyer, William Swano suggested Mrs Chua faked the trances because she had been fired from the hospital.
“Never in my knowledge has a man been arrested because of a vision”.
The first trial ended in a hung jury. The jury was divided — many of them in good faith failed to find Allan guilty beyond a reasonable doubt — as this is an elaborate and almost perfectly constructed way to frame someone for a crime. After all, solving a murder because a friend of the victim was possessed is quite out of the ordinary.
A second trial took place. Allan Showery was convicted and found guilty of murder on February 23, 1979, and his 14-year sentence was eventually reduced to 4 years for good behaviour.