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in: Illinois, 1977, Murder,
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Teresita Basa

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Teresita basa

Teresita Basa

Real Name: Teresita Basa
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Date: February 21, 1977

Case

Details: Born in the Philippines in 1929, Teresita Basa had moved to the United States in the 1960s to study music. She later became a respiratory therapist at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. Quiet and unassuming, she was the last person one would expect to be victim of a violent crime. However, at 10pm on the night of February 21, 1977, the fire department was called to put out a fire in her apartment. In the blaze, they found her nude body under a burning mattress with a butcher knife buried in her chest. Investigators believed that the fire had been set to cover up the murder. There was evidence that she was the victim of a sexual crime. The autopsy, however, determined that she had not been raped. There seemed to be no apparent motive for the crime. Investigators could also find little physical evidence, as most had been destroyed by the fire. One piece of evidence that was found, however, was a memo that stated: "Get Theatre Tickets for A.S."
Suspects: The police pursued several leads, but they were all subsequently dismissed. They suspected that A.S. may have been involved in the crime, but they did not know what the initials stood for.
Her boyfriend, whom she allegedly argued with, was considered a possible suspect.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the April 25, 1990 episode.
  • This case was one of the few profiled that had been solved prior to the broadcast. It focused mainly on the supernatural aspects surrounding the murder.
  • It was also documented in the book, Houses of Horror, by Richard Winer, and the telemovie Voice from the Grave.
  • It served as inspiration for a "Fact" segment on Beyond Belief.
Teresita basa killer

Allan Showery

Results: Solved. More than five months after Teresita's murder, her coworker, Remibias "Remy" Chua, another native from the Philippines, and her husband, Joe, contacted detective Joe Stachula, claiming to have information about her murder. Remy told Joe that shortly after, she began having visions and dreams in which Teresita appeared to her, begging her to go to the police and tell what had happened to her. One night, Remy took a nap at home; according to Joe, she began speaking in another voice. It said that she was Teresita. She told Joe that her killer's name was Allan Showery. The voice claimed that he was an orderly that worked at the hospital. She urged Joe to go to the police. However, when she woke up, she claimed to have no memory of what had happened. Joe decided, at first, not to go to the police.
Then the voice possessed Remy a second time, asking Joe why he did not go to the police. He said that he had no evidence against Showery. The voice then told Joe that he had taken Teresita's jewelry after her murder and given it to his girlfriend.
Detective Stachula did not know if he could trust this information or not. He decided to do a background check on Showery. He found that Showery lived close to Teresita. Coworkers confirmed that he was planning to go to her apartment that night to repair her television.
Stachula brought Showery in for questioning. He confirmed that he went to her apartment to repair the television. He claimed that he did not have the tools to do so, so he went back home. Stachula did not believe this, so he contacted Showery's girlfriend. He asked if Showery had given her any jewelry recently, and she said that he had. She agreed to let Teresita's friends and family inspect it. They confirmed that some of it was Teresita's.
Confronted with the evidence, Showery confessed to Teresita's murder. He said that after he left her apartment, he made a plan to return and rob her. When he returned, he said that she let him back in. When she turned around to lock the door, he grabbed her from behind and attacked her. He disrobed her to make it look like a sexual crime. He then took her mattress, placed it over her body, and set it on fire.
Despite his confession, Showery pleaded not guilty to Teresita's murder. When a mistrial occurred, he decided to plead guilty on February 23, 1979, receiving only a fourteen-year sentence for his cold blooded crime. He was released on parole in 1983.
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