Speaker 1: School of humans. There are many unsolved mysteries circling the
Speaker 1: Holy City of Rishakesh, Foreigners who vanish, unforeseen spiritual awakenings,
Speaker 1: the healing powers of the Ganges, a river where both
Speaker 1: salvation and death flow, and the unexplainable energy that draws
Speaker 1: seekers who believe the holy city is a fast track
Speaker 1: to enlightenment. One of those seekers was Russell, a Sri
Speaker 1: Lankan living in Melbourne who had his sights set on
Speaker 1: visiting Rishikesh. It's November twenty eighteen. Russell, a Sri Lankan
Speaker 1: living in Melbourne, is at the airport in Melbourne waiting
Speaker 1: for his flight to board. Though he's eventually going to
Speaker 1: meet up with his family in Sri Lanka for his
Speaker 1: cousin's wedding, he's traveling light materials. Things aren't important to
Speaker 1: Russell these days. He lives minimally and stopped buying stuff
Speaker 1: for the sake of buying it for a while now.
Speaker 1: But as he's gotten more dedicated to his spiritual journey,
Speaker 1: his family has noticed that he's detaching from the things
Speaker 1: that used to meet a lot to him, like cricket.
Speaker 1: One day, he gave his bats away and stopped playing
Speaker 1: a sport he used to love. Not long ago, he
Speaker 1: had a breakdown after he was scammed by a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: It left him financially ruined and tested his faith in humanity.
Speaker 1: He couldn't believe that someone he had loved, dated and
Speaker 1: lived with for a handful of years could be so deceitful.
Speaker 1: After hitting this breaking point, Russell's family noticed his deeper
Speaker 1: commitment to spiritual growth. But Russell was born a seeker,
Speaker 1: driven by curiosity, an interested in human connection. He spent
Speaker 1: nine months in Peru with Shaman's, studied multiple religions, and
Speaker 1: experimented with ayahuasca, and though he was raised Catholic, he's
Speaker 1: drawn Hinduism, which is why his sister Rosita is not
Speaker 1: surprised he's decided to take a quick detour to India
Speaker 1: before meeting up with his family at the wedding. Unlike Rosita,
Speaker 1: Russell isn't married and doesn't have kids, so he's thrown
Speaker 1: himself into self discovery and his quest for the next
Speaker 1: level of spirituality. This is what drew Russell to Rishikesh,
Speaker 1: a seeker with one intention for traveling there, but that
Speaker 1: is what might have killed him. An announcement echoes through
Speaker 1: the airport. The flight to Derroduna, India is boarding. When
Speaker 1: Russell lands in Derradun, he'll hop either a bus or
Speaker 1: taxi that will take him to his final destination, Rishikesh.
Speaker 1: As Russell steps into the line of passengers, he overhears
Speaker 1: someone talking about Vicisht Goufa, a cave carved into a
Speaker 1: steep cliff on the banks of the Ganges an hour
Speaker 1: from shiksh It's also known as the Jesus Cave, a
Speaker 1: name derived from lore that Jesus spent some of his
Speaker 1: lost years in India. The lost years refer to an
Speaker 1: eighteen year period of Jesus's life from ages twelve to
Speaker 1: twenty nine that are not documented in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: Various Swamis, male Hindu spiritual teachers in India claim that
Speaker 1: during these lost years, Jesus sought solitude and the cavern
Speaker 1: of Vishisht Gufa, and in the last century, two swamis
Speaker 1: with no knowledge of Jesus's connection to the cave said
Speaker 1: when visiting they had visions of Jesus meditating there. Russell
Speaker 1: plans to visit the sacred cave and cleanse himself in
Speaker 1: the river Ganges flowing through the center of Rishikesh. Ever
Speaker 1: since he's been practicing Hinduism, he's felt called to Mother Ganga.
Speaker 1: Like the Hindus, he believes she will wash away bad
Speaker 1: karma and evil spirits and provide a clean saying that
Speaker 1: will reawaken him. His phone vibrates. It's a WhatsApp message
Speaker 1: from his sister, Rosita, checking in on him. He lets
Speaker 1: her know he's boarding and he'll text her when he lands.
Speaker 1: He shuts off his phone in preparation for the thirteen
Speaker 1: hour flight, hands his ticket to the flight attendant, who
Speaker 1: scans it, then enters the dimly lit jet bridge, boarding
Speaker 1: a plane that will take him to a city he'll
Speaker 1: never return from. Unlike Jonathan and Ryan's stories, which were
Speaker 1: publicized by the media, this is the first time Russell's
Speaker 1: story has ever been told. I try to go through
Speaker 1: the emails, and it was just too hard, just emotionally.
Speaker 1: So I'll just tell you the story. That's how how
Speaker 1: I recall it, because I have blocked some of it out.
Speaker 1: This is Rosita, Russell's older sister. She's asked that I
Speaker 1: not use their surnames to keep anonymity. This is a
Speaker 1: deeply personal story to Rosita, but She also has controversial
Speaker 1: views about Rishi Cash and what happened to her brother there,
Speaker 1: so there is a security in remaining unknown. Rosita describes
Speaker 1: what Russell was seeking at that time. He was more
Speaker 1: interested in seeking for the next level of spirituality, basically
Speaker 1: not being born into a human form again, learning all
Speaker 1: the lessons you have to in these human form so
Speaker 1: you can move on to the next realm, move on
Speaker 1: to the next level. That's what I think Russell was doing.
Speaker 1: Rosita had a deep bond with her younger brother. I
Speaker 1: recognize this bond because I have it with my siblings.
Speaker 1: She's protective, devoted, and today, nearly two years after the
Speaker 1: loss of her brother, she's still heartbroken. As soon as
Speaker 1: he landed, he sent a message saying, hey, I arrived
Speaker 1: in Rishikesh. I'll see you guys in four days. This
Speaker 1: is the text Rosie I've been waiting for from her brother.
Speaker 1: But when she didn't hear from Russell on November twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: the night he was supposed to land and tree lunk,
Speaker 1: she started to worry, and when there was still no
Speaker 1: word on the morning of November thirty if, she called
Speaker 1: the front desk of his hotel to see if he
Speaker 1: had checked in, and I said, can you please put
Speaker 1: me for the root Russell was staying. They put me
Speaker 1: on hold and they come back and said he never
Speaker 1: checked in. Straight away I knew something was wrong. Her
Speaker 1: husband and cousins told her she was being paranoid. He
Speaker 1: must have dismissed his flight. But when it was confirmed
Speaker 1: by the airline that Russell never boarded his flight to
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka, Rosita's older brother Trevor, who didn't attend the
Speaker 1: wedding and was still in Australia, went to the local
Speaker 1: police station to file a missing person's report and was
Speaker 1: directed to the Australian Embassy in India, but the embassy
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly helpful. They kept dismissing Trevor, saying a lot
Speaker 1: of people decide to stay in India. They just decided
Speaker 1: to hang around and they decide not to contact family.
Speaker 1: And we're like, you don't understand. We don't do that.
Speaker 1: No matter where we go, we know exactly you know
Speaker 1: where our family may bizarre, but Rosita didn't know where
Speaker 1: Russell was, so paperwork was filed with the Australian Embassy
Speaker 1: in India and on December first, Russell was declared a
Speaker 1: missing person. It was official, which sent Rosita and her
Speaker 1: family down a rabbit hole of what fs Did he
Speaker 1: get beaten up? Has he been robbed? Is he lying
Speaker 1: in the hosspital? You know, all these horrible thoughts go through,
Speaker 1: but there's always hope that he's alive. And there was
Speaker 1: a huge thought that went through our mind. Has he
Speaker 1: decided to go into an Ushran? And only after he
Speaker 1: went missing we started doing some research on Rishikesh and
Speaker 1: then we just found out, oh gosh, we did not
Speaker 1: know about Rishikesh, the background, how there's so many people
Speaker 1: gone missing and have people decide just to let go
Speaker 1: of everything and you know, go into an USh Ran
Speaker 1: for thirty days or sixty days and just live this lifestyle.
Speaker 1: So that was a hope. This was twenty eighteen, so
Speaker 1: if Rosita googled Rishikesh, she'd obviously seen headlines for the
Speaker 1: disappearances of Ryan Chambers in two thousand and five and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Spallen in two thousand and twelve. Her hope that
Speaker 1: Russell hadn't met the same feat but would be found
Speaker 1: meditating in an ash room somewhere in Rishikesh was the
Speaker 1: preferable outcome, but what happened on December fifteenth, fourteen days
Speaker 1: after Russell was declared missing, made for a bleaker reality.
Speaker 1: Trevor got an email from the embassy's It stated that
Speaker 1: his suitcase and his belongings were found and they named
Speaker 1: the place and it was sort of for me, googled it.
Speaker 1: It was sort of under this bridge, and you know,
Speaker 1: horrible thoughts come in, like why under a bitch? You know,
Speaker 1: why he's suitcase and why his belonging said where is he?
Speaker 1: And that particular night, Trevor called me and said, Rasia,
Speaker 1: it's fifty to fifty fifty percent he's alive, fifty percent
Speaker 1: he's gone. And I sort of like refused to believe it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, don't say that. But things got weirder. The
Speaker 1: embassy was able to track the simcard that Russell purchased
Speaker 1: for his phone when he landed in India. They emailed
Speaker 1: the simcard information to Russell's family and there was only
Speaker 1: one thing left to do. Trevor found a friend who
Speaker 1: spoke Hendie and they dialed Indian person answered the phone
Speaker 1: and said, I knew someone was going to call. I
Speaker 1: found his wallet and the phone, but I actually handed
Speaker 1: the wallet into the Australian Embassy in India, but I
Speaker 1: kept the phone because I knew someone would call for
Speaker 1: him a clue, someone who might lead them to Russell.
Speaker 1: But when they contacted the embassy, no wallet had been
Speaker 1: turned in, which means there was no additional information about
Speaker 1: this unidentified source they had just spoken to. So they
Speaker 1: tried russell sim number again. The second phone call was
Speaker 1: made to that same number and the person picked up
Speaker 1: the phone again, and when the question was asked, where
Speaker 1: exactly did you find it? The person got very nervous
Speaker 1: and start hesitating to talk and was not comfortable at
Speaker 1: all too even as a way he found it, and
Speaker 1: then he hung up the phone and several other attempts
Speaker 1: were made to contact him, but that phone was switched off.
Speaker 1: Rosita said something was off. Either this guy was spooked
Speaker 1: and thought he might get into some sort of trouble
Speaker 1: speaking to them, or he had something to do with
Speaker 1: her brother's disappearance. Either way, it was another dead end
Speaker 1: until Rosita and her husband got the call they've been
Speaker 1: waiting for. Trevor called my husband and said, I'm going
Speaker 1: to send you a link. I want you to have
Speaker 1: a look at it, I think I found Russell. Trevor
Speaker 1: had found Russell, but not in the way anyone, especially
Speaker 1: his family, could ever have imagined. Like Crying Chambers and
Speaker 1: Jonathan's Ballen Russell was another missing Westerner in Rashia Cash
Speaker 1: and Tell. Rosita's husband, Sean, clicked on that link her
Speaker 1: brother Trevor sent Sean had a look at the link,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, it was a picture of Russell's dead
Speaker 1: body on that website. The website is a database that's
Speaker 1: run by the Indian Police called Unidentified Dead Bodies. It
Speaker 1: consists of close to ninety thousand bodies. It's disturbing to
Speaker 1: look through. But for Rosita, the database gave her access
Speaker 1: to her brother. So even though her husband and older
Speaker 1: brother persuaded her not to, she knew. In order to
Speaker 1: believe Russell was really gone, she had to identify her
Speaker 1: brother's dead body. He was just sort of lying on
Speaker 1: the ground. He's either washed up or pulled out. You
Speaker 1: could see he's bloated, you know. He was just wearing
Speaker 1: a white T shirt which looked turned into like a
Speaker 1: muddy color obviously from the dirty border. And it was
Speaker 1: in Depans, So for him to be in his underpans,
Speaker 1: that he was wearing a sarong, which he does when
Speaker 1: he goes to ritual you know, and like spiritual retreats
Speaker 1: or if he goes to Sri Lanka. And I could
Speaker 1: definitely picture him in India just wearing underpans and a
Speaker 1: sarong and a T shirt and his thongs or whatever,
Speaker 1: just walking around. You know, I don't know what you
Speaker 1: call it, but on his wrist, you know, in Hinduism
Speaker 1: or Buddhism, like they wear these cotton threads. It's spiritual.
Speaker 1: So he had some of that, but that was all.
Speaker 1: In Southeast Asia, locals and many visiting Westerners like Russell,
Speaker 1: wears ranks, which is a fabric draped around the body
Speaker 1: and tugged at the waist or under the arms. The
Speaker 1: cotton thread or threads on his wrist could have been
Speaker 1: a katuk, usually read it's a ritual protection thread tied
Speaker 1: by a priest or guru on the wrist of a devotee.
Speaker 1: Russell's body was dragged from the Ganges on December third,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, five days after he was supposed to fly
Speaker 1: to Sri Lanka. The Unidentified dead Body's database did not
Speaker 1: mention a cause of death. But before the family could
Speaker 1: even think of investigating, there was something they had to
Speaker 1: do first. My mom and I would you said, oh
Speaker 1: my god, we need to bring him home. They found
Speaker 1: him on the third of December. Now we're on the nineteenth.
Speaker 1: Russell's body had most likely been in the Ganges for
Speaker 1: those five days he was missing, which is why he
Speaker 1: was bloated when he was pulled from the river, and
Speaker 1: for the past seventeen days his body had been sitting
Speaker 1: in a morgue in India, but his family wanted him
Speaker 1: home so they could say their goodbyes properly with a
Speaker 1: Catholic funeral. When Trevor called the police station listed on
Speaker 1: Russell's profile to claim his body, they ran for another shock.
Speaker 1: Police told him that within three days of the body
Speaker 1: being found, that they cremated Russell and threw the ashes
Speaker 1: into the Gangi River. And we were absolutely devastated, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's where you used to burying our death. That's
Speaker 1: the way we say a goodbye. Now this is just
Speaker 1: heartbreaking to imagine. They had found Russell's body and all
Speaker 1: they wanted to do was bring him home and mourn
Speaker 1: him in the way they were accustomed to. With an
Speaker 1: open casket and burial, but he was cremated and in
Speaker 1: a way taken from them again. Additionally, because Russell's body
Speaker 1: had been cremated, there was no evidence to determine his
Speaker 1: cause of death until they received the coroner's report. So
Speaker 1: on the coroner's report, number one cause of death for
Speaker 1: Russell is death by drowning. Number two cause of death
Speaker 1: is blunt trauma to the head. Hearing about this blunt
Speaker 1: force trauma made Rosita think back to the first time
Speaker 1: she had seen Russell's picture on the database. Now, when
Speaker 1: I saw the picture of Russell, I could see this
Speaker 1: big bump on his forehead. Could be a possibility that
Speaker 1: someone hit him on the ahead and then he fell
Speaker 1: into the river or was pushed into the river. There
Speaker 1: are so many scenarios. But one scenario she wasn't expecting
Speaker 1: was how invested the Indian police suddenly were now that
Speaker 1: Russell's body had been identified on the database as an
Speaker 1: Australian citizen. She was also surprised by the new information
Speaker 1: they shared. Indian police sent the email saying that his
Speaker 1: suitcase and his passport was found in the hotel. Now
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a genius to work out
Speaker 1: that hold on the stories that you guys are sending us,
Speaker 1: it is not matching up. First, you said, when Russell
Speaker 1: was still missing, you said the suitcase and his belongings
Speaker 1: were found under a bridge. Well no, now that Russell
Speaker 1: has been found on the internet, now you're saying his
Speaker 1: suitcase and his passport and belonging in the hotel. And
Speaker 1: also there was another email stating that Russell was very
Speaker 1: aggressive and abusive towards the hotel's staff. So this is
Speaker 1: the hotel and Risha Cash where Russell stayed and where
Speaker 1: police were now saying they had found his suitcase and belongings,
Speaker 1: and according to the police, it's also where Russell was
Speaker 1: publicly aggressive to hotel staff, which was captured on hotel
Speaker 1: cameras November twenty eighth, two days before he was supposed
Speaker 1: to leave Risha Cash. So we requested for the video
Speaker 1: because now you know, now they're saying he was aggressive
Speaker 1: and abusive, chose the hotel staff and the guests, So
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the video to see what's going on.
Speaker 1: My thing was that's not Russell. If he was, then
Speaker 1: something's not right. The police never sent that footage to
Speaker 1: Rosie and her family. So you can imagine receiving this new,
Speaker 1: unsubstantiated information from the Indian police led to their suspicions
Speaker 1: towards not only the police, but institutions like the Australian
Speaker 1: Embassy in India that are supposed to advocate for their
Speaker 1: country citizens and protect them. But I've also learned from
Speaker 1: this experience that they Astralian Embassy in India have no
Speaker 1: power over what happens in India. This is something we
Speaker 1: followed up on. We'll get into that in a bed
Speaker 1: But first, if Russell's aggression was out of character, and
Speaker 1: his outburst at the hotel wasn't something fabricated by the
Speaker 1: police or embassy, then what happened. There is a huge
Speaker 1: possibility that Russell would have whatever they drink, that the
Speaker 1: Sadu's drink. You know, if there was an opportunity and
Speaker 1: it was presented to him, he could yet he would
Speaker 1: have taken it. This drink Rosida is talking about, that
Speaker 1: Sadu's or holy Men drink is infused with bang and
Speaker 1: intoxicant made from the leaves of the female cannabis plant.
Speaker 1: Bang is used by Hindus for spiritual purposes. They drink
Speaker 1: it to honor Shiva, the god of destruction, who is
Speaker 1: believed to have used the intoxicant to focus inward and
Speaker 1: harness his divine powers for the good of the world.
Speaker 1: Many Westerners who travel through India seek this extreme high
Speaker 1: that some say brings them closer to this elusive idea
Speaker 1: of enlightenment and can result in either a happy haze, paranoia,
Speaker 1: or just getting racked like one Western I read about
Speaker 1: who after drinking bang was bound to his bad and
Speaker 1: toilet viciously vomiting for three days strade. So it's pretty
Speaker 1: powerful stuff, which might explain Russell's behavior. Well, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: If he'd taken it, maybe then he would have had
Speaker 1: some sort of an episode, and maybe that's why he
Speaker 1: was aggressive or abusive if that email is correct. Rosita
Speaker 1: also has speculations about the Sadus, who, in her opinion,
Speaker 1: tempt foreigners with these intoxicants. So, having spoken to Indian
Speaker 1: born Australians, you know, one person mentioned that it's common
Speaker 1: knowledge that there's a lot of Sadus that are not
Speaker 1: doing the right thing. You know, they're just scammers who
Speaker 1: encourage the Westerners. You know, they think they're better off
Speaker 1: moving on to the next journey of spiritualism, meaning leaving
Speaker 1: the body that you know we're in. Apparently they encourage
Speaker 1: them to walk into the into the river. One person
Speaker 1: mentioned that it's common knowledge around Rishikesh for those people
Speaker 1: who live there that the Westerners come there to die.
Speaker 1: Like Rosita said, these theories were shared with her by
Speaker 1: Indian born Australians, So I don't know how much of
Speaker 1: this is true. It's just was told to me. We've
Speaker 1: dug into the veracity of these claims before and will again,
Speaker 1: but right now I want to focus on the effect
Speaker 1: these stories had on Rosita. When considering what happened to Russell,
Speaker 1: a seeker who traveled to Rishikesh specifically for a spiritual awakening,
Speaker 1: but was then found drowned and the same river he
Speaker 1: came to cleanse himself in, you can see how for
Speaker 1: Rosita these theories could start to feel more like truth.
Speaker 1: There was one theory that haunted her, and it's not
Speaker 1: about how Russell died, but what happened to him after
Speaker 1: he was found. This was something she felt she needed
Speaker 1: to share with another Australian family who would also experienced tragedy.
Speaker 1: In Rasha Cash, I don't know for what reason during
Speaker 1: that traumatic time that his name just came into my head.
Speaker 1: I just thought of him, and I just thought of
Speaker 1: Dyan Jock. She's speaking about Ryan Chambers, whose story we
Speaker 1: told in episode one and two, and whose disappearance she
Speaker 1: read about while researching Risha Cash after Russell went missing.
Speaker 1: There the Ryan's family deny his seeking anything spiritual in India,
Speaker 1: Rosita recognized her brother's language and Ryan's last journal entry,
Speaker 1: if I'm not gone, don't worry, I'm not dead. I'm
Speaker 1: just freeing minds. And to do that, I had to
Speaker 1: free my own. Ryan went missing in two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: and ten years later, there's my brother, who's you know,
Speaker 1: and he's full of breath Higgs saying the same words.
Speaker 1: So I thought that was quite interesting. Two people of
Speaker 1: two different generations, you know, two different backgrounds, talk in
Speaker 1: the same language. This and some darts. She'd started to
Speaker 1: connect around what happened to her brother in India compelled
Speaker 1: her to reach out to Ryan's parents, Jack and Diane.
Speaker 1: I wanted to reach out, but it took me a
Speaker 1: long time because you know, I was very traumatized, like
Speaker 1: the whole thing. So when I finally did reach out.
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell them my story, and she did.
Speaker 1: That's why I met Rosita. I was introduced to her
Speaker 1: by Jack after our interview as someone else who had
Speaker 1: lost a loved one and reach the cash. But what
Speaker 1: I didn't know is why she initially contacted Jack and Diane.
Speaker 1: You know, it was very hard for me to tell them,
Speaker 1: and obviously it's not very easy for them to hear it.
Speaker 1: But I did tell them. You know, I'm so sorry
Speaker 1: to tell you, but Ry Ryan's gone. They would have
Speaker 1: done exactly what they would have done to Russell. They
Speaker 1: would have cremated his body, got rid of the ash.
Speaker 1: Because there's no evidence, Rosita believes that what happened to
Speaker 1: Russell most likely happened to Ryan. The only difference is
Speaker 1: Russell's photo was taken and posted on the Unidentified Dead
Speaker 1: Bodies database, but Rosita thinks that was a mistake. He
Speaker 1: looked like a local where Trlanken born. So of course
Speaker 1: our skin color is dark and we do look like Indians.
Speaker 1: You know, people would mistake us. There was nothing that
Speaker 1: anyone would think, oh he's a Westerner or he's a foreigner,
Speaker 1: you know, And this is why Rosita believes Russell's body
Speaker 1: was posted under the Unidentified Dead Body's database, and other
Speaker 1: foreigners who blatantly stand out as Westerners are not featured
Speaker 1: on the site. I truly feel this is just my
Speaker 1: opinion that there is something going on there. We were
Speaker 1: just lucky that we found Russell's picture on the Internet
Speaker 1: and they made a mistake in uploading an Australian citizen
Speaker 1: onto that website. To my knowledge, haven't looked at it.
Speaker 1: I asked my brother because I'm not willing to go
Speaker 1: on that website. There is no white people's dead bodies
Speaker 1: on that Unidentified Dead Bodies in India website. I think
Speaker 1: it's just local Indians that they're upload So when you know,
Speaker 1: they find the foreigner's body, they're not going to upload
Speaker 1: that onto that Internet. I think they've done exactly what
Speaker 1: they've done to Russell. They've promated the body, got rid
Speaker 1: of the evidence, so the person is missing. It's better
Speaker 1: to have missing people so that the foreigners still come
Speaker 1: to retrication and spend their money and you know, do
Speaker 1: their journey there, than to have them are dead, dead
Speaker 1: foreigners and that's not good for business. This is an
Speaker 1: extreme theory, but if you consider the ordeal Rosita and
Speaker 1: her family went through with the Indian authorities. Her reaction
Speaker 1: makes sense to me. I asked in Kite if she
Speaker 1: thought Rosida's reaction was justified and if others experienced this
Speaker 1: kind of mismanagement with authorities. Yes, it's uncommon to be
Speaker 1: frustrated with administrative processes in India. It's quite common. So
Speaker 1: when I hear Rosita talk about how tough it was
Speaker 1: for her to get information about her brother from the authorities,
Speaker 1: it is not hard for me to imagine. Even the
Speaker 1: part about not admitting the truth for fear of bad
Speaker 1: press is relatable. Every now and then we see some
Speaker 1: journalistic report with solid facts and evidence that gets dismissed
Speaker 1: by the government because they say it is some sort
Speaker 1: of conspiracy to defame the country. So that obviously creates
Speaker 1: mistrust in Indians and foreigners alike about the integrity of
Speaker 1: these official procedures. So this helps explain some of law
Speaker 1: enforcements mismanagement around Russell's case. But what about Rosia's contentious
Speaker 1: theory about what happens to missing foreigners in India. It's
Speaker 1: a question we've been investigating head on in this podcast.
Speaker 1: So this theory around a cover up is when we
Speaker 1: need to examine, which we'll do after the break. I
Speaker 1: want to examine Rosida's theory about some sort of cover
Speaker 1: up around missing foreigners in India. So I'm bringing am
Speaker 1: I producing team Gabby Anquita, who have been researching the
Speaker 1: topic and have their own thoughts. So just pulling up
Speaker 1: this Unidentified Dead Bodies database that Gabby's done a lot
Speaker 1: of research on. So, Gabby, since you're familiar with the site,
Speaker 1: could you tell us a little bit about it. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: the Unidentified Dead Bodies Database was started in two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, and it was started as a collaboration between
Speaker 1: police departments across the country, and it was mostly started
Speaker 1: as a something or like public interest. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: about twenty nine thousand pages total, and then there's about
Speaker 1: ninety entries in the database. And I mean, the one
Speaker 1: thing that is kind of unhelpful about it is that
Speaker 1: more than half of the entries don't have photographs. I
Speaker 1: went through some of the latest entries in the database,
Speaker 1: and Gabby's right, there are quite a few without photos,
Speaker 1: but nearly every entry lists approximate age, sex, height, weight, complexion,
Speaker 1: face shape, what they're wearing, and any other identifiers in
Speaker 1: the body, like scars or tattoos. I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: latest entry in the database. It's listed just a few
Speaker 1: days ago. He's a fifty year old male. They give
Speaker 1: him an ID number and the district that he was
Speaker 1: found in, which was Delhi. The crime was on a
Speaker 1: railway in that district. The image below that profile is
Speaker 1: harder to look at. The sex is stated as male,
Speaker 1: but his face is mangled so it's hard to tell,
Speaker 1: and he's laying down in a pool of his own blood. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is hard to look at. So if we go
Speaker 1: to the next page, there's a man laying in some
Speaker 1: dirt and fallen leaves. He looks almost malnourished. His collarbones
Speaker 1: and wristbones are sticking out, and his beard and eyes
Speaker 1: seemed to be half open. Profile says he's around thirty five,
Speaker 1: and they identify his religion as Hindu. And Keita looked
Speaker 1: at the entry with me. It also says reward amount
Speaker 1: of zero, which is a little bit sad when I
Speaker 1: think of the reward amount that families of missing people
Speaker 1: put when they want their family members back. It's almost
Speaker 1: just as if a person is just a serial number
Speaker 1: and date and so on, And I mean, I understand
Speaker 1: that it's really important, but the process can also really
Speaker 1: dehumanize someone. That could be really a shock for any
Speaker 1: family member or a loved one to look at this picture.
Speaker 1: Looking at bodies like this becomes desensitizing, which is disturbing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand the purpose of the site, but
Speaker 1: skimming through it feels just wrong. But we're not looking
Speaker 1: at this database for no reason. So Rosita has a
Speaker 1: theory that foreigners dead body, specifically white foreigners are not
Speaker 1: listed on this database. And the only reason Russell was
Speaker 1: was because he was a schu Lankan descent and so
Speaker 1: he had a darker complexion and was mistaken for a local.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I mean, what are your guys
Speaker 1: thoughts on this? So, yeah, I've gone through I guess
Speaker 1: now at this point, I've gone through about two hundred
Speaker 1: pages of the database, and I think, you know, that
Speaker 1: assessment could be correct in that all of the entries
Speaker 1: that I've seen either they have a very apparent complexion
Speaker 1: or their complexion is listed. And I haven't really seen
Speaker 1: as many lighter complexioned people. I did see one person
Speaker 1: who did have a lighter complexion and they identified this
Speaker 1: person with they had some tattoos in English, which I
Speaker 1: mean that doesn't necessarily mean they are you know, they
Speaker 1: aren't from like a western country, you know, like Australia, US,
Speaker 1: England or whatever. And I mean that doesn't necessarily like
Speaker 1: I don't really know if there is a correlation between
Speaker 1: Rosida's theories and the fact that there aren't more white
Speaker 1: people showing up in the database. As Gaby said, a
Speaker 1: very small fraction of these entries is listed as having
Speaker 1: a light complexion, but it's hard to know for sure
Speaker 1: because of the status some of the bodies. And while
Speaker 1: just through observation we can't legitimately substantiate Rosida's theory that
Speaker 1: white foreigners aren't listed on this database, I think it's
Speaker 1: important to remember that the database features dead body entries
Speaker 1: from a country with a population of over one billion,
Speaker 1: so it makes sense that a majority of these entries
Speaker 1: are Indian. And Keita did some research about crimes against
Speaker 1: westerners in India and found that in twenty nineteen, only
Speaker 1: four hundred and nine crimes against foreigners were reported. That's
Speaker 1: a relatively small number. And Keita, what are your thoughts
Speaker 1: in Rosida's theory and this idea that there's some sort
Speaker 1: of cover up around dead foreigners in India. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I won't want to speculate without any kind of investigation
Speaker 1: into this, but because we live in India but have
Speaker 1: experienced corruption, and we have experienced things where facts are
Speaker 1: hidden or action is not taken on time, so it
Speaker 1: feels like one cannot entirely doole out the possibility. And
Speaker 1: also we keep hearing about either if people come out
Speaker 1: and critique of something that is happening in society or
Speaker 1: at the government level, then the fact that it is
Speaker 1: dismissed as being anti national. So these things to create
Speaker 1: suspicion in you and stop you from completely trusting the
Speaker 1: organizations that have been put in place to take care
Speaker 1: of these things. Gary, I know you've done more research
Speaker 1: around the Australian embassy and this idea of some sort
Speaker 1: of embassy cover up. Do you think there's truth in that? Unclear.
Speaker 1: I reached out to the Australian Embassy and never heard
Speaker 1: back from them, and of course that wouldn't mean that
Speaker 1: they would have talked to me and be like, yes,
Speaker 1: we're involved in lots of cover ups or anything. But
Speaker 1: there have been some other cases that are similar where
Speaker 1: there have been, you know, parents of foreigners who had
Speaker 1: died who were also frustrated with their embassies and with
Speaker 1: the police departments. If you are trying to like identify
Speaker 1: a cover up, you do google that. The thing that
Speaker 1: comes up first is if there was almost a proven,
Speaker 1: substantiated cover up that was going on in Goa. Goa
Speaker 1: is hundreds of miles away from Racia, Cash and the
Speaker 1: other areas we've covered so far. It's by the coast
Speaker 1: in the southwestern part of the country. It's a vacation
Speaker 1: destination for foreigners who want to lounge on the beach
Speaker 1: by day and hit up the clubs at night. But
Speaker 1: since two thousand and five, there have been two hundred
Speaker 1: and forty five foreigner deaths the local police determined as natural,
Speaker 1: but over the years, parents of some of these tourists
Speaker 1: managed to get second autopsies which reclassified the deaths as homicides.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, fifteen year old British citizen
Speaker 1: Scarlet Keeling died in Goa. Her body was found in
Speaker 1: a pool of shallow water, bruised and semi naked. Authorities
Speaker 1: said it was an accidental death, but the second autopsy
Speaker 1: found that she was sexually assaulted and had suffered more
Speaker 1: than fifty injuries. There was another case of twenty two
Speaker 1: year old Felix Doll and again the police said it
Speaker 1: was an accidental death, but the second autopsy, done in
Speaker 1: Doll's home country of Finland, revealed that there were fatal
Speaker 1: injuries inflicted to his skull from a high impact weapon.
Speaker 1: Parents of ten of the foreigners who were killed wrote
Speaker 1: a letter to India's Prime Minister Modi in twenty seventeen
Speaker 1: to demand an unbiased and independent investigation into their children's deaths.
Speaker 1: The letter reads, the quality of the work of the
Speaker 1: police and GOA should be investigated. Instead of investigating the
Speaker 1: murders and killings, the local police want to cover up
Speaker 1: the truth. The investigation is needed to reveal the connections
Speaker 1: between the locals, the police and GOA, drug mafia and
Speaker 1: politicians and their involvement and the deaths of tourists and
Speaker 1: locals and GOA. In one interview, Felix Dahl's mother said
Speaker 1: that all the facts provided by the police were imaginary
Speaker 1: and followed that up by saying something similar to Rosita.
Speaker 1: She suspects these deaths were covered up so they don't
Speaker 1: affect tourism in the area. The cause of Russell's death
Speaker 1: is still unknown, but I'm grateful that Rosita shared his
Speaker 1: story because it's one that could potentially shed light on
Speaker 1: what happened to others who have gone missing in Raishikesh.
Speaker 1: Russell went to Rashikesh specifically seeking this next level of
Speaker 1: spirituality and maybe he found what he was looking for.
Speaker 1: As a believer in the Hindu faith, Russell revered the
Speaker 1: sacred Ganges were Hindu's embraced death as death defines life,
Speaker 1: her waters, offering them hope that one day they will
Speaker 1: be liberated from an endless cycle of birth and death
Speaker 1: and attain nirvana. He was on a spiritual journey, so
Speaker 1: we believe that he did die in the Ganges. So
Speaker 1: with the spiritual journey that he's when, it's a very
Speaker 1: auspicious way to die. So it's a very good blessing
Speaker 1: to die in that rivers. So I think we have
Speaker 1: to take comfort in that his beliefs and his journey.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know that when it's my time, I
Speaker 1: will see him again. We've dug into many theories in
Speaker 1: this podcast, which happens when you investigate cases where people
Speaker 1: have gone missing. There are too many unknowns, which leads
Speaker 1: to even more speculations. But next week well unfold the
Speaker 1: story of Charlie Marinelli, whose experience in India is similar
Speaker 1: to the others we've shared, But unlike Ryan, Jonathan or Justin,
Speaker 1: Charlie's story is not swarming with theories. It provides answers.
Speaker 1: He pushed the edges in other ways in the past
Speaker 1: before and never went to this edge. I think he's
Speaker 1: in trouble because he was definitely looking at somebody in
Speaker 1: that dark room. Somebody was standing over him, watching him.
Speaker 1: Astray as a production of School of Humans and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Today's episode of Astray Russell and Risha Cash was produced, written,
Speaker 1: and narrated by Me, Caroline Slaughter and Kita anand is
Speaker 1: my co producer and Gavie Watts as our supervising producer.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Rosita for telling Russell's story. Astray was
Speaker 1: sound produced by Tune Welders, with score and sound design
Speaker 1: by Jason Shannon and mix by Harper Harris. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Brandon Barr, Brian Lavin, and Elsie Crowley. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: School of Humans