(indistinct walkie-talkies)
(dramatic music) - [Narrator] What is up, EWU Crew? Today we will be covering
three unbelievable cases of people discovered in
extremely bizarre places that will leave you absolutely speechless. If you enjoy true crime,
mysteries, and true stories, be sure to hit the Like
button and subscribe. Now let's get into it. The first story we are going
to be covering today is that of Sandile Sibiya. It is never a particularly
fun experience to break or sprain a limb. Of course, the most painful
part of breaking an arm or a leg is the pain
from the break itself, but the second most painful
part is admittedly the trip to the hospital to get
the break taken care of. Waiting in sitting rooms
can feel like forever. Getting an x-ray can take far
longer than one would like, and the actual process
of having an injury put in a cast can be both
tedious and uncomfortable. These were likely the thoughts that Sandile Sibiya was
having on May 10th, 2019, when he accidentally hurt
his right leg and realized that a trip to the hospital was in order. Sandile, a construction worker and local of Durban, South
Africa ended up heading to Durbin's Mahatma
Gandhi Memorial Hospital in the early afternoon
in quite a bit of pain. When he arrived, he predictably waited his turn
in the hospital sitting room like any other prospective patient. After what felt like an
excessive waiting period, Sandile was finally seen by a
doctor and ultimately taken in for an x-ray. His x-ray came back showing
that he had a broken femur and that he would definitely
need further medical treatment. At the time, the staff at
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital had instructed Sandile to stay overnight for a few days until he
could be properly treated. In fact, Sandile was set to be transferred to another nearby facility,
Addington Hospital, to see a proper orthopedic
doctor for his cast application. That is if he made it that long. When the time came for Sandile's transfer, hospital staff approached
the injured man's room with his paperwork in tow,
but when they entered, Sandile Sibiya was nowhere to be found. Hospital staff immediately
set out in search across the facility for Sandile, assuming that he could
not have gotten very far with a severely injured leg. Sfter checking on every
floor of the building and looking into every
other patient's room, the staff was dumbfounded at the notion that Sandile seemed to
have vanished into thin air but how could a man with a very obviously broken
leg have made it all the way out of a secure hospital building? Sandile's disappearance
appeared to make no sense to anyone working in
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial, so staff were quick to report
the man officially missing to local authorities. The South African Police Department opened a missing person's case
immediately for Sandile and authorities across Durban set out on a small-scale search for him. Unfortunately, despite search efforts, not a single person could
locate any sign of Sandile. A variety of theories arose surrounding Sandile's
mysterious disappearance, but none sounded feasible and no one had any information
to work with to determine why Sandile would have gone
missing in the first place. Back at the Mahatma
Gandhi Memorial Hospital, staff could not help but be incredibly concerned
for Sandile's wellbeing. They were meant to help
treat his right femur and he somehow managed to
disappear right under their noses. And perhaps that is exactly
where they should have checked. Ultimately it was the
smell that gave it away. According to KZN Health
MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, on May 24th, 2019, just 10 days after Sandile had originally
come into the hospital, something was terribly wrong. Nomagugu stated, quote, "An
unbearable stench intensified at the hospital." And "Eventually it led to the
storeroom where fluid dropping from the ceiling provided
the telltale signs that something was amiss." As the stench began to spread throughout the entirety
of the hospital building, hospital staff decided to
investigate its source themselves. What they found completely shocked them. When hospital staff finally
stumbled upon the storeroom that the horrid smell was emanating from, they cautiously pushed up
against the ceiling tiles. When they lifted their
flashlights into the space to have a look around, they came face to face
with a decomposing body, the body of Sandile Sibiya. When the Gandhi Memorial Hospital staff reported the discovered
body to local police and positively identified him as the man who had mysteriously
disappeared from the hospital almost two weeks before, questions arose surrounding
the context of Sandile's death. Sandile, despite his broken femur, was an incredibly healthy 53-year-old man who was more than capable
of taking care of himself. So how did he end up dead
in a hospital ceiling? The hospital itself assured local citizens and police personnel
that their facility had impeccably tight security
measures in place, with security guards in every
unit of the hospital grounds. In fact, they even asserted that the only way runaway
patients would be able to slip past security within
the hospital grounds is if they were to change
into civilian clothing during the busiest parts of
the hospital's visiting hours. And yet Sandile was found
decomposing inside the ceiling of a room only accessible
to hospital staff. When the investigation into
Sandile's disappearance and subsequent death began,
many officials believed that Sandile had actually been one of the hospital's mentally ill patients. In fact, earlier reports of
Sandile's initial discovery even went so far as to report
that Sandile had actually been a mental patient before his disappearance, which was eventually proved
to be false by the hospital. Throughout the investigation,
officials were adamant that they would take the
strongest possible action should anyone be found guilty of any form of wrongdoing. Despite this, Sandile's death
still remains a mystery, and the way his body ended
up in the ceiling panels of the very same hospital
he came to for help, just days before his death is
also still completely unknown. The second bizarre case
we have for you today is that of Brian Egg. Brian Egg was born and
raised in San Francisco and spent the majority of
the later years of his life living in San Francisco,
south of Market Neighborhood. After having spent some of his
youth working as a bartender at the legendary gay bar, The
Stud, Brian's family resided just outside of the SoMa neighborhood and visited with Brian every so often when their respective
schedules lined up properly. When visiting each other was
not particularly feasible, Brian and his brother would
simply give each other a call on the phone to discuss the
recent events of their lives. One thing was certain
between Brian and his family: communication was a
crucial part of maintaining their strong familial relations. In late May or early June of 2018, Brian hadn't had time to
speak with his family, as it seemed as though
everyone's lives were pointing in different directions. In response, Brian decided
to help out his community more frequently during his own free time. Brian was known to clean
up some of the alleyways in his SoMa neighborhood
whenever he had the chance, and he was actually seen doing so over one particular weekend. After he had finished picking
up trash in his neighborhood, he had apparently gone
back into his house, according to his neighbors,
and that was the last time anyone ever saw Brian Egg alive. In late June or early
July of the same year, just around a month after Brian's neighbors
had reportedly seen the 65-year-old man tidying
up the neighborhood, Brian's brother Devin tried
to call Brian in order to catch up on their recent life events. When Devin called Brian's
home phone number, however, he was met with an
answering machine requesting he leave a message. There were two things strikingly wrong about the answering machine
picking up Devin's call. One, Brian almost always
answered his phone and had never used an
answering machine in his life, and two, the voice on the
machine was most definitely not that of his brother's. Devin checked the number
he had dialed to confirm that he had in fact
called the correct number. After noting that it belonged
to his brother's phone, Devin attempted to call once more. This time, Devin was
not met with the sound of an answering machine. This time someone picked up. According to Devin, a
man who gave his name as Nate allegedly answered Brian's phone and asked whom he was speaking to. Devin explained that
he was Brian's brother and was trying to reach
Brian at his phone number. Nate assured Devin that his brother would
call him back shortly, and that Brian was simply
outside taking his dog on a walk around the neighborhood. As strange as the situation sounded, Devin nonetheless found
himself waiting for his brother to give him a call back. Unfortunately, that call would never come. Devin was not entirely worried about his brother's odd behavior, as it was possible that
Brian was simply busy, or had made new friends who he hadn't met. But by late July of
2018, it became evident to Brian's neighbors that
the man seemed to be missing. You see, Brian was one of the few members of the SoMa neighborhood who was familiar with almost everyone else. When multiple neighbors realized that they had not seen
Brian for quite some time, word started to spread fast, and a variety of people became extremely
worried for the man's wellbeing. Police received multiple
calls from Brian's neighbors stating their concern regarding the fact that Brian may have been
missing or seriously injured inside his home. Officers decided to take the
time to check out Brian's home and see if the man was in
need of some assistance. However, every time the police came by, Brian was nowhere to be found. More so than that, no one
ever answered the door. For one reason or
another police determined that Brian must have gone out
of town without letting any of his neighbors know. Because of these assumptions,
the police appeared not too concerned about
Brian's apparent disappearance. The residents of the SoMa
neighborhood, however, felt far differently. One of Brian's long-time
neighbors, Scott Free, decided to take the social
media to spread word of Brian's possible disappearance, as he and his other
neighbors were concerned that the police were not
taking their claim seriously. After Scott's posts about
Brian started to circulate, many other neighbors who knew
Brian added fuel to the fire by stating that they were
also worried about the man. Collectively, the neighborhood
came to an agreement and vowed to keep an eye on Brian's home and stay on the lookout
for any suspicious activity or ultimately any sign of Brian. With all eyes on Brian's home,
it was only a matter of time before his SoMa neighborhood
noticed something particularly out of place. Neighbors claimed to see two strangers to the neighborhood
frequently coming and going from Brian's home. No one in the neighborhood had ever seen the two young men before
but they were positive that Brian had no relation
to them whatsoever. The residents of SoMa found
themselves once again trying to convince the local San
Francisco Police to look into Brian's disappearance. Though their efforts alone
seemed to be rather unsuccessful, Brian's sister also became
concerned about the fact that no one in their family
had heard from Brian in months. So after multiple calls from both SoMa neighbors
and Brian's own family, a few officers decided to stop
by Brian's house once more on August 4th. When police knocked on the front door, they were once again met with silence. According to Brian's neighbors, the two men they had seen
appeared to be homeless and seemed to be living
inside of Brian's house for quite some time which
partially explained the fact that no one in the neighborhood
had seen Brian recently. Though the two strangers
had not answered the door, nor spoke to police, neighbors
saw a significant difference in the state of Brian's home after the officer's third
attempt at checking in. Just hours after police left Brian's home, neighbors claim they
watched an obscene amount of soap suds leak out from under the door. In addition to the soap, neighbors said that when they
approached Brian's house, they could smell the
strong scent of bleach. After the end of what
they claim appeared to be an extremely deep home
cleaning session, the strangers from Brian's house were even
reportedly seen painting over a section of the front
of the home, including part of the front door as if
to cover something up. On August 7th, Brian's
sister officially reported Brian missing, and by August 14th, the SoMa residents ended up
calling police yet again, after reportedly seeing a private crime scene cleanup
company parked outside of Brian's home for an
extended period of time. This time police responded to the neighbors' claims right away and dispatched a variety of
officers to Brian's house. There, officers were able to
arrest one of the two strangers who the police reports
stated had been co-habitating in Brian's home for nearly two months. The police report stated that the man was 52-year-old Robert McCaffrey
who Brian's neighbors said had at least $1,000 in cash on hand that they alleged he
was going to use to pay the crime scene cleanup company. Just two days later,
police were able to locate who they said was the other
alleged person of interest in Brian's disappearance,
39-year-old Lance Silva, and subsequently arrested him
in a nearby residential hotel. Upon both men being
arrested and interviewed, police charged both men with
ID theft and financial crimes, as it was alleged that
Robert and Lance had used Brian's credit cards to
possibly purchase a car. One thing that was still
unclear to investigators at the time was Brian's whereabouts. In the hours after Robert
and Lance's initial arrests, police returned to Brian's
home to thoroughly search for clues regarding Brian's whereabouts, that is, if he was still alive. On August 17th, 2018, after
four days of searching the home, police discovered something
they never saw coming. Inside Brian's home was a
storage room located directly under a staircase. When police opened up the storage room, they were immediately met
with an unbearable stench. Inside was one singular fish
tank, hidden away out of sight. It was then that investigators noticed that there was something
peculiar stuffed inside of the fish tank. It was the torso of a body
that had been beheaded and had its hands removed. The gruesome body was all that
was the left of Brian Egg. Brian's death was
ultimately ruled a homicide by a San Francisco medical
examiner and both Robert and Lance were charged with
homicide, identity theft, elder abuse, and various financial crimes. Despite this, the San Francisco
District Attorney's office eventually ended up
dropping all of the charges against both men, pending
further investigation. Robert was ultimately freed
and Lance ended up being held in jail in Alameda County
for a parole violation, but ultimately Lance,
too, was freed from jail. To this day, no one has
been deemed guilty in court for Brian Egg's gruesome
death, and over a year after Brian's dismembered
body was found stuffed into a chemical-filled
fish tank in his own home, his killer or killers remain at large. Finally, the last case we
have for you today is one that involves a lot of secrecy and plenty of unanswered questions. In the ruins of Ruinerwold
in the Netherlands, day-to-day life has almost
always been extremely consistent. Ruinerwold is a place where
everyone knows everyone and rumors spread like
wildfire when gossip starts, at least the most interesting ones do. The residents of Ruinerwold
tend to keep to themselves for the most part, but
are nonetheless familiar with the different lives being lived in the areas around them, or at least they thought they were. In October of 2020, a local
Dutch cafe called De Kastelein welcomed a new customer for
the first time in a long time. As Ruinerwold was a
primarily rural farm town, cafes like De Kastelein
did not often see the likes of tourists, and when they
did, the tourists did not act as strange as the young
man who had come to visit on that fateful day in early October. The cafe staff described
the man as rather scrawny and said that he seemed almost incapable of making and keeping eye contact
with anyone he spoke with. At first, it was not clear
to anyone else in the cafe if the young man could
even speak their language, until he eventually spoke
up to place his order. When he did speak, the man
ordered five pints of beer that he intended to drink alone. When the cafe staff brought him his order, the young man downed all
five beers in one go, leaving everyone around him curious as to what had brought the man here and why he seemed to be
acting so very strange. The cafe closed shortly after the run-in with the thirsty young man, and the cafe staff assumed
they would never see him again. However, the very next evening,
the young man came back to the same cafe, acting just as strange as he had the night before. The staff eyed the young
man closely, as it appeared that there was something he
desperately wanted to say, though he remained silent. Until finally he cracked. The cafe staff continued
striking up conversations with the young man, as there
was something so peculiar about the way he acted. Everyone assumed something was off but they couldn't tell what it was. Prompted by the curiosity
and concern of the cafe staff and the beer in his belly, the
strange young man blurted out something he knew was
meant to be kept a secret. According to the De Kastelein cafe owner, Chris Westerbeek, the young man, quote, "said he had not been
outside for nine years. Later, he also said that he had
four brothers and one sister who lived on the farm. He was the oldest and wanted to put an end to the way they lived." At first, Chris and the other employees from the cafe did not know
how to handle the information they had gathered from
the strange young man. Some of the staff speculated that the man could just be out
of his mind or even alleged he could be on some kind of drug, but other saw the desperation
in the young man's face and believed that he was truly
scared for his own wellbeing, even if his claims
seemed wildly outlandish in their small village. Chris decided to stay cautious and called local Ruinerwold police to look into the young man's
strange and concerning claims. When he did so, he had no
idea what would come of it. When asked further questions
about his circumstances, the young man allegedly
claimed he had been inside for nine years because of some
kind of religion or a cult, but nothing more. The next day, following Chris
Westerbeek's concerned call to police, authorities
acted on the complaint and visited the house
on the Buitenhuizerweg. When they arrived on the plot of land, they were shocked to
discover what was going on just inside of a farmhouse
that local residents passed by every single day. The house was situated over
200 yards from the nearest road and 100 yards from the nearest building, which meant people passing
by couldn't easily see what was happening. Inside the farmhouse on the
ground floor was a small room that officers had initially
assumed to be empty. When they took a look inside, however, they were taken aback at what they found. Police said that inside the small room they found multiple
people, an entire family. Upon being questioned by police, every single member of the family claimed that they were all over
18 years old and adults, though none of them could give
police any straight answers as to why they were all
cramped into a single room. Police noted that there were
six people living in seclusion on the farm, in addition
to 25-year-old Jan, who had been the first and only
member of the hidden family to escape into town in
over nine whole years. Jan was the weary stranger
at De Kastelein Cafe who had been nervous and
uneasy to tell anyone the truth surrounding his circumstances. Upon their discovery,
police learned that all six of the people hidden away in
the farmhouse were actually between the ages of 12 and 15, not 18, as they had originally claimed. They appeared to have been
taught to lie about their age if they were ever discovered. Though some of them were
not very willing to leave the premises, police had all
six of the children taken into police care and ensured that they were all
immediately seen by a doctor to gauge their health. Police were initially
uncertain as to whether or not the family had been living
in the farmhouse voluntarily and more pressingly, how
they came to be there in the first place. Later into the investigation,
the police report stated that all six of the children
who had been hidden away in the farmhouse had never
actually been included in the official registers, meaning that they had
allegedly been born in secret and kept completely away
from the rest of society. Police were quick in tracking down who they believed was the
father of the six children. 67-year-old Gerrit Jan van D. Gerrit was taken into custody, but only after investigators alleged that he had not been alone
in purportedly keeping his children in isolation. Police said they tracked
down an Austrian man by the name of Josef
B, who locals had known as an odd jobs man who
had rented the farmhouse. It is alleged by investigators that the two men were
running what they referred to in the police report as
some kind of doomsday cult, with no connection to the outside world. The BBC reported that over
the years, Gerrit is believed to have allegedly mistreated
most of the children, though none of the children
ended up filing any kind of formal complaints against
their father or Josef. As the investigation went on, police learned that Gerrit actually had three older daughters who
had managed to leave the home before the family reportedly
withdrew from society. Upon the police's discovery
of his alleged cult formation, Gerrit was also reportedly
charged with money laundering, unlawful detention, and more. Josef B. was charged and
is suspected of kidnapping and money laundering. According to authorities, quote,
"Both Gerrit and Josef knew very well what they were
doing was punishable by law," and "Gerrit van D was the evil genius, but Josef B was his partner in crime." During the trial, it was revealed
that investigators claimed to have found evidence that
the children were mistreated while at the farm. The prosecution alleged that
the children were required to pray for weeks at a time,
and on occasion were reportedly only given water to
drink and nothing to eat. At trial, many of the children stated that they had been purportedly
physically punished by Gerrit in various
ways, which they described as being hit with sticks to being forced to sit in ice baths until
they lost consciousness. The prosecution also reported that the children were
allegedly punished in order to drive out bad spirits,
or when Gerrit believed that they had been unclean. Police said that they found
evidence of such claims also reported in Gerrit's
own diary entries, which were obtained
during the investigation. The investigation into the
strange circumstances surrounding the family's isolation is
still underway to this day. Both Josef and Gerrit
remain in police custody while investigators attempt
to have a better understanding of what exactly took place at the farm over the course of the last nine years. In the meantime, Jan and the children
are currently adjusting to the outside world, one step at a time. The three cases we have covered today are worth learning about, as
you never know what kind of horror stories might be
hidden just under your noses, literally.
