1990 Was a Popular Year for Ghosts Solving Their Own Murders

While producing the “Ghosts Who Solved Their Own Murders” episode of the Haunting American True Crimes series, a year popped out at me: 1990. It ended up factoring into two things I referenced.

The first was the movie Ghost. In fact, that’s how I begin the episode:

“Unfinished business where ghosts help solve their own murders make for great book and movie plots, don’t they? The first movie that comes to mind with such a storyline is one you may have heard of from 1990 –the appropriately named Ghost, starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopie Goldberg.”

Ghost was released on July 13, 1990, and was a whopping success. As Collider put it, “Ghost was basically the Titanic of 1990.” (Titanic as in the movie starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, not the ill-fated ocean liner.)

Is it any wonder then that when looking for examples of movies where ghosts solved their own murders, Ghost popped first to mind? Because essentially that’s what Patrick Swayze does —in addition to protecting Demi and letting her know he loves her.

However, even before Ghost was released in 1990, a case of a ghost helping to solve their own murder also appeared on the small screen. The April 25, 1990, episode of Unsolved Mysteries featured, among other things, the murder of Teresita Basa. The case had actually been solved 12 years earlier, in 1978. In 1990, Unsolved Mysteries highlighted the supernatural aspects of the case.

Which basically were that Teresita Basa temporarily possessed a former co-worker, Remi Chua, to identify the man who had killed her, Allan Showery. It all started one night when Remi’s husband, Dr. Jose Chua, noticed his wife suddenly get up and head into the bedroom. She was acting strange so he went to check on her. When he asked if she was alright, the voice that came out of her mouth wasn’t hers.

He asked if she could state her name in an effort to assess her. He wasn’t expecting any other answer than for her to say Remi Chua. Instead, she said her name was Teresita Basa, that she’d been killed, and then she identified her killer. She asked for Dr. Chua’s help in bringing him to justice.

When Teresita left and returned his wife to him, Remi had no clue what had transpired. They decided not to tell anyone because they were afraid no one would believe such a ridiculous story. And if they did, they might suspect the Chuas played some part in Teresita’s death. Their reluctance is understandable.

But Teresita persisted and returned to them a second time. This time Dr. Chua explained he’d need to give the police some kind of tangible information they could use. Teresita explained Allan had stolen some jewelry that they didn’t know was missing.

Yet, the Chuas still didn’t go to the police. It took a third visit before they said, “This is super creepy and if we want it to stop, we better go to the police.”

So they did.

They lived in Evanston, Illinois, though. Teresita had been murdered in Chicago.

Evanston PD contacted Chicago PD and connected the investigators working on Teresita’s murder with the Chuas. The jewelry tip was what helped them find their killer. That and a note they’d found at the murder scene in which Teresita had written the initials A.S. Allan Showery.

Up until that point, investigators had no clue who those initials had belonged to. Only that Teresita had left a note reminding herself to buy tickets for someone with the initials A.S.

Anyway, I just found it interesting that 1990 held two stories —one fictional, one real— in which ghosts helped solve their own murders.

And I also found it interesting that two of the murders I so far talked about in the first two episodes of the Haunting American True Crimes (HATC) series happened in 1977. Because Teresita was murdered on Tuesday, February 22, 1977. The first episode of the HATC series was “The Camp Scott Murders.” The Girl Scouts murders at the camp happened on June 13, 1977.

Now I’m keeping my eyes open for any other interesting —albeit admittedly unrelated— connections in the rest of the episodes I have planned for the HATC series. If I find any I’ll be sure to point them out.

Listen to “Ghosts Who Solved Their Own Murders”

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What do you remember about 1990?

If you’re old enough to remember it, that is. Seems like only yesterday to me in some respects…until I wake up and realize that was over 30 years ago!