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How The Sopranos Became A Blueprint For Murder

February 19, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the case involving Jane Bautista, a woman whose dismembered body was discovered along the highway.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murderwith My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland, and I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's thehusband. I'm the husband.

Well, guess what? We got merch. Oh my goodness, we've gotmerch! It will be launched, well, as you're listening to this, depending onwhat time you're listening to this, it'll be live. Yeah, ready to order, readyfor purchase. We're super excited. We haven't launched merch in like six monthsjust because of some issues we've had. But it's back.

We're really excited for this launch. Probably one of myfavorite launches, yeah. So check the links, check our Instagram, website,everywhere, everywhere that is officially through us. Don't just Google itbecause you might come across things that are not our merch or our officialmerch. But it's so cute. We made this subtle for those who want to wear it outin public but don't want something that says "murder" on it. But it'salso very trendy, very on brand, but you have that slight little nod to"Murder with My Husband." So it's very cute. It's probably myfavorite we've done so far. I wear it all the time.

Also, before we jump into your 10 seconds, I did just wantto remind everyone, streaming on Twitch on Thursdays 5:30 PM PST. Please comecheck it out. It is so fun. It's basically like live "Murder with MyHusband." We talk about true crime, we watch footage. It is such a ball.It's honestly one of my favorite days of the week now. So, watch us on Twitch,5:30 PM PST. Alright, for my 10 seconds this week, going to make it abouteverybody else, kind of, I guess.

I hope it's about me. What if there is one cold case in theworld that you could have solved, what would it be? Put it down in the commentsif you're on YouTube, go to our socials if you're on podcast, if you're onSpotify, I know there's a way to comment on Spotify, or you can go to oursocials. I'm curious what everyone would say. And on that note, we can getPeyton's answer and then jump into today's case.

So Payton, if you—she wasn't ready for this.

No. And I do get asked this question all the time. If youcould pick—if you can't pick one, it's okay. We'll see what everyone else saysand we'll come back next week. We'll give you a week to think about it. I thinkthe obvious answer, like that comes right to the top of my head, is just anycase where it's been an unexplainable disappearance. So not one that's like,"Oh, this is probably what happened." But, you know, we've covered acouple of them on the show. Typically it's just a person who starts actingweird and then disappears. But the disappearance takes a really long time andthere's a whole bunch of clues and trails and then it's like they just vanishedout of the blue, literally vanished and then are dead or just gone, are neverfound again. I think those are obviously just the ones that really get you in atailspin. I think we covered like Bryce on our podcast before, but there are abunch of them out there. But yeah, I think that would probably—it's notnecessarily a specific answer, but maybe just a genre, a type of case.

Okay, we'll come back next week. I'll make Peyton pick one.Not in a disrespectful way, I just, there's so many out there, I know, and I'mcurious, everyone is going to have their opinions on which one they would wantsolved. So, I'm kind of curious. That's my 10 seconds, switching it up a littlebit. So we'll see the answers.

Our sources for this episode are "Such Good Boys"by Tina Durman, CBS News, San Diego Union Tribune, LA Times, CNN, PsychologyToday, The New York Times, fhehealth.com, AlliedPsychiatry.com, andMurderpedia.

I do just want to give a trigger warning, this episodefeatures discussions of suicide and dismemberment.

Dismemberment, that's a tough trigger warning. That is not atrigger warning we get very often. So, one of the most complex issuesauthorities come across when dealing with the justice system is how to navigatecases involving psychiatric illness, particularly because mental health issomething that we as a society have only really just begun to understand. And Ithink you've probably seen this if you've listened to a lot of "Murderwith My Husband" cases, but talking about mental health and psychiatrywhen talking about true crime cases, they go hand in hand. Garrett and I havediscussed all the time, like where's the line? Where do you draw the line onthis?

So for example, did you know that every year about 100,000people are diagnosed with schizophrenia in the United States alone? And whilethat may sound like a lot, it's only a fraction of the real number becausethere's another 33% of cases out there that never get diagnosed, which meansthey also never get the proper treatment. And psychiatric illness doesn't justaffect the people living with it, it has a lot of collateral damage, oftentimes pushing loved ones and family members to a breaking point, especiallywhen they don't know where to turn to for help.

And today's case is a wildly unfortunate example of that, acautionary tale that while extreme, shows just how dire it is to understand thenuances of mental health.

So it's around 8:30 AM on January 15, 2003. Earlier thatmorning, a homicide investigator from Orange County, California named AndreSpencer received what, for him, would be a routine phone call. A body wasspotted in a ravine right off the Ortega Highway around mile marker number 79.Now Andre was scanning the area, a pair of binoculars in hand, looking forsigns that this tip wasn't just some sort of prank, zoning in on a pale whitefigure lying in the brush about 170 ft away.

And so that's when Andre realized this call wasn't a prank.There obviously was a dead body. And by the time he was standing over thefigure, he believed this might be the most gruesome thing that he'd seen in his13 years on the force.

Okay, it was the body of a female dressed only in herunderwear, but she was missing her head and her hands. My gosh. And her skinwas nearly translucent. So Andre realized whoever had killed the victim hadalso taken the time to drain her of all of her blood. It was a terrible fatethat no one deserved to suffer. Andre believed that without fingerprints or anyidentifying facial features, finding this Jane Doe was going to be animpossible challenge, which honestly might have been the point. But in anotherseven days, he already had found himself a name.

The victim was a 41-year-old woman named Jane Bautista. Imean, and this is pretty crazy, that just a week after finding this body offthe highway. They were able to identify her. Now, Jane was born into a prettywell-to-do family in a little area of Illinois called Wan. Her grandfather hada successful construction company that he kept within the family, which meantthere was little that Jane and her sister wanted and couldn't have. When theywere young, they were always dressed in the best clothes, sent to the mostexpensive private schools, and were often whisked away on family vacations toMexico, all of which Jane seemed deserving of. She got excellent grades in herhonors classes, was a member of the Girl Scouts, and seemed to be theringleader amongst her large social group. Plus, the boys in school always hadan eye on the 5'5" redhead with fair skin and blue eyes.

So on paper, Jane looked like the picture-perfect daughter,even graduating high school a year early with an acceptance to the Universityof Wisconsin Parkside. But like many teenagers, Jane wasn't always the Yes Manher parents expected her to be. So Jane was said to be incredibly stubborn,with a bit of a temper, whenever things weren't going as planned. Which, okay,yeah, me and every other teenager, in fact. There was one time in 1980 whenthings hit a boiling point between Jane and her mother, Nelly.

That year, the 19-year-old Jane told her mom Nelly sheneeded to borrow the family car for a social outing, and while Nelly was alwaysflexible with things like that, this time she told Jane no. She had somewhereto be that evening and needed the car. Well, hearing that one little word sentJane into a tailspin. She lashed out at her mother, screaming her head off tothe point that it actually scared Nelly. And when she tried to calm herdaughter down, Jane began punching Nelly in the head and the stomach. So thisis now a little bit more than your average teenage angst. It was so severe thatNelly ended up spending the night in the hospital at the hands of her daughter.Oh yeah, we've passed a line a long time ago. Yeah.

So Nelly refused to call the cops on her daughter, Jane,hell-bent on keeping up family appearances. But over time, that darkness inJane seemed to escalate. After beginning college, Jane's grades declined as shecontinually missed classes, and three months before getting her diploma, Janedropped out altogether. Around the same time, she also met someone who mighthave contributed to those distractions. And this is kind of a big deal. This iskind of a big deal considering that she was an honors student, she graduatedfrom high school early. Like, it seemed like she had everything in her lifethat would make it go a certain way, and it's just clearly not.

This person that might be a distraction to her was a localhandyman from Biz, who recently immigrated to the United States, and his namewas Armando Batista, which, if you're recognizing the last name, it's becauseJane and Armando are eventually going to share the same last name.

So now, those who knew Jane were kind of shocked by herchoice to date Armando. Yes, Jane was fluent in Spanish after many years ofvacationing in Mexico, but everyone imagined she would end up with someone alittle more white-collar. Although, at this point, Jane couldn't care lessabout the expectations others had set for her. She was in love with Armando,and less than a year later, the two traveled to Belize to tie the knot in frontof his family, while Jane's family was not invited. Now, unfortunately, thematrimony might have been a bit premature because right after the wedding, thecouple found themselves experiencing marital problems.

So none of her familycame, nope, and that was Jane's doing, I assume. Mhm. Okay, so the biggestpoint of contention was that Jane was now forced to live a more modestlifestyle. I was just going to say, her family was the one that had beenfunding everything. So, I'm sure this was a bit of a surprise for her, right?So after the altercation with her mother back when she was 19, she then, youknow, ran away and eloped with a man that they didn't approve of. Her parentscut her off emotionally and financially.

Now she and Armando were living on his meager income as ahandyman, while Jane was forced to take a job at an electrical plant in Wan.And things only got harder when Jane found herself pregnant with their firstchild just 8 months into marriage. Then, on August 25th, 1982, Jane gave birthto a little boy they named Jason Victor Bautista. But the mounting problemsbetween Jane and Armando got in the way of that new baby bliss. By the timeJason turned one, Jane was already packing her bags and looking for a newapartment. Armando begged her to come back to work things out with him, butJane remained steadfast in her decision, one that Armando could no longeraccept.

So were there certain issues they had, or it just wasn'tworking? I think they just weren't ready for real life when they got married.And then, as we've talked about, um, at the beginning, we're having some mentalissues start to arise at this time in our life, which is a very average timefor these issues to come about.

But around 6 p.m. on the night of April 7th, Jane wasdriving back to her apartment with baby Jason in the car. The route home ledher past her office at the electric company, which is where she noticedArmando's car was sitting in the parking lot. Frustrated that Armando would goto her place of work looking for her, Jane pulled into the parking lot toconfront him.

But when she peered into the driver's side window, shenoticed that Armando was motionless inside. Her estranged husband had shothimself through the chest. Okay. Now, Jane called the police who discovered heleft a note in the car. It was addressed to Jane, telling her repeatedly howlife was not worth living without her. That's... that's hard. Well, and worstof all the barely 2-year-old Jason was there to see the lifeless body of hisfather carted away on a stretcher.

Now it certainly didn't help that after word got out aboutArmando's suicide, whispers about Jane's involvement began, which sucked. After all, Wakan was a small town, andgossip was parasitic. Dodging glances in the grocery store became Jane's newnormal, despite the fact that she'd been cleared by the police of anywrongdoing. Still, it sparked a seed of paranoia with Jane, one that wouldprove lethal in the years to come.

But 2 years later, in 1986, Jane found herself falling for anew man, a 24-year-old friend of a friend, who also immigrated from Belize,named Jose Monjo. Three months into the relationship, Jose was already movinginto Jane's apartment. What state are we in again? Illinois? I'm wondering howshe happened to find two people from Belize. That's kind of funny. I'm assumingthat because it was a friend of a friend, she probably had just met thisperson, yeah, um, through her first husband, and then a friend introduced afriend.

So, Jose was adamant that he wanted to marry her and adoptJason, but that tune changed shortly after they settled into a domestic routinebecause Jose noticed that Jane kind of acted like two different people.Sometimes she would be sweet as pie and then turn on a dime, raging with aviolent temper, that same temper that landed her mom in the hospital. Okay.However, Jose gave her a pass. He believed it was a result of the unprocessedtrauma she had after Armando's suicide.

At first, there were little signs like Jane refusing to letanyone say Armando's name in her company, but then Jose noticed she'd take alot of her hate for Armando out on her son, Jason. So, when Jason wet the bedas a toddler, Jane lashed out, giving him a beating with whatever item was onhand. But Jose wasn't the kind of man who sat there and took Jane's abusivebehavior, so he kind of stepped in. He would scream back at her and sometimeseven met her violence with more violence. So eventually, Jose reached abreaking point and was ready to leave Jane for good, only to find out that shewas pregnant again, and Jose refused to walk out on his first child.

So, on July 4th, 1987, Jane gave birth to another little boyshe named Matthew Montejo, and this time things went a lot differently for Janeas a second-time mom. Moral of the story, don't have sex. She was openlyaffectionate with Matthew, doting over the newborn with constant attention. Itwas a very stark difference from how she remained with Jason, her first child,spanking and screaming over the smallest things, literally things as small as aglass of spilled milk.

But shortly after Matthew's birth, Jane opened up to Joseabout something that explained, although certainly didn't excuse, some of herbehavior. She admitted to him that when Armando died, she'd actually beenthere. He came to her office at the electrical plant that afternoon and askedher to come out to the car and talk. He'd been watching Jason, their kid, sothe toddler was in the car with him when he tried to convince Jane toreconcile. But when things didn't go the way he planned, he took out the gun andshot himself in the chest, and Jane and Jason were sitting right there.

So she was there, but before she said she wasn't there, andnow all of a sudden she was there when all of this happened. But that he shothimself in the chest, yes, which I'm not going to say she's involved right now,but that is a little weird. I don't feel like that is a normal place forsomeone to do that. I mean, you have to admit it's a bit strange, not only thelocation of the shot but also the fact that when it first happened, she claimedto stumble upon the scene and then called 911, right? And now all of a suddenshe's like, okay, I was there, and then there's all these rumors about herbeing involved, and she's like, no, it just made me so paranoid 'cause I wasn'tinvolved. But now years later she's changing her story. And then he shothimself in the chest. Things are starting not to add up. It just looks a littlesuspicious. Could it be true? Yes, but it's a little suspicious.

So not knowing what else to do in this new version ofevents, Jane claimed that she grabbed Jason, got into her car, and drove hometo clean up before returning later to call the police. So she claims that shegot Jason, drove home, cleaned up, then drove back, stumbled upon the car thatshe already knew was there, and then called the police. So not only did Janeand Jason see Armando's dead body, they'd witnessed the suicide firsthand.

So that's when Jane also admitted to Jose, her new guy, thatthe reason she was so hard on Jason was because he reminded her of Armandoconstantly. So he is asking, why do you treat the kids so differently? Like,why do you treat our kid different than you treat Jason, your first child? Andthis is her excuse. She says when I look at my first child that I had withArmando, mhm, I think of Armando, and it drives me crazy.

But by the following year, Jane was seeing those reminderseverywhere, and she was tired of life in Illinois. There were too many badmemories. She was eager for a fresh start. She told Jose she wanted to move toCalifornia where no one knew about them or their past. So at the end of 1988,they packed their car, and the family of four made the drive out to San Diego.So probably hoping that this new move would help, it actually didn't.

Out west, Jane's behavior did not improve. Instead, heractions became even more alarming. For instance, Jane put the family on astrict diet of lettuce and other raw vegetables. But Jose, who was alwayswalking on eggshells with Jane, had learned when to pick and choose hisbattles, and this just wasn't one of them.

Couldn't be me, could not be me, just eating lettuce andwhat vegetables? Nope. But then, out of the blue, Jane began to suspect Josewas cheating on her. She started rummaging through his pockets and drawers forphone numbers or other evidence. From there, the fighting escalated until itbecame a daily routine. The final straw came when Jane and Jose got into aviolent altercation, leading her to call the cops. So, I'm just leading this upto say that their relationship was not the best. And also, just her behaviorand treatment towards her children might have not been the best either. Well, Iassume you're giving this background information because you're trying to showthat she has some sort of schizophrenia or she's going to get diagnosed at somepoint with schizophrenia, bipolar, something has to do with mental health, Iassume. We'll get there.

Jose was charged with attempted rape and child endangermentand was sentenced to a year in jail. I was actually just thinking about thisthe other day. You know how we talk about milestones in True Crime, where thatmoment when you have to call the cops 'cause your kid is missing, and how bigof a decision that is and how impactful that is? I would think that it's a verysimilar thing to when you call the cops because of a domestic altercation.Like, finally calling the cops is such a step that you almost can't take back.Finally admitting, okay, domestic violence is a thing, we're involving theauthorities now, it's on the record. Like, that is just a really big thing. Ithink it just goes with anything that involves a big step of action. It's kindof hard to, yeah, do that first step right. So, they call the cops, right? AndJose was charged with attempted rape and child endangerment. So, we don'treally have the details of this domestic altercation, but this is what he'scharged with. Interesting because it's all, it's hard because it is all shesaid, he said right now, yeah? But I mean, because you were also talking abouthow she did x and x to her son, yeah? So, it sucks. You just don't really know.Yeah, I don't know. He was sentenced to a year in jail, and while he onlyserved three months of the sentence, Jose never went back to Jane. And becausehe leaves Jane, which is probably the appropriate thing to do, he actuallydoesn't get to see his son Matthew again until he was a teenager. So, this ishard because when he severs his relationship with Jane, he also severs hisrelationship with his child. Oh no.

What Jose didn't realize was that by the time of hisrelease, Jane had already left San Diego for a town about 40 minutes northcalled San Marcos. At this point, Jason was about 10 and Matthew was five.Still, Jane was happy to leave Jason home alone to take care of Matthew whileshe went out looking for the next date. So, it's common that a 10-year-old isbabysitting a 5-year-old, which probably not okay. And it didn't take long forneighbors to notice that Jane was always yelling at Jason, that this might havebeen signaling child abuse, that she was dragging him across the yard at just10 years old. Oh my gosh, and he's the one that went to jail, yeah? And she'spulling him into the house by his arm while Jason knew that his mother had ananger problem. It wasn't until he was about 13 that he started to suspect thatthere might be more to the issue.

In the summer of 1996, Jane took the boys to Las Vegas for alittle vacation. For the most part, it was a happy memory for them, getting togallivant around the themed hotels and neon lights. But at the end of the trip,Jason saw something that scared him just as much as the routine spankings hereceived. Jason flipped on the television in the hotel room to find musicianDuncan Chic singing his hit "Barely Breathing." Jane stood therehypnotized for a moment before turning to Jason and whispering to him, "Thatman stole my songs."

Now, 14-year-old Jason doesn't have a reason to doubt hismother, but what she says next really freaks him out. And this is just weirdaltogether. She claimed that the '90s alternative rock artist was now out tomurder her. And it didn't end there. Over the next few months, Jane dideverything she could to try and connect with Duncan to convince him not to killher. Oh no.

She also believed that music executives were coming to thehouse to spy on her. She stopped using her cell phone and refused to go outduring the day. She's not okay. She's not okay. In time, this paranoia becamenot just about Duncan wanting to kill Jane, but all different ethnic groupswere suddenly out to get her. It was a sign that Jane Bautista was experiencingthe early symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Also, something that no kid,teenager should have to. It's just unfortunate. That's hard. That's hard. AndJane, who really didn't have anyone to help her treat the problem, figured theonly way to deal with these issues was to pull the boys out of school and moveagain and again and again over the next several years.

So wait, was she diagnosed? Okay, not yet. I was going tosay if she was diagnosed, there's no way they'd let her continue to keep thekids under the situation she's in. Well, and this is she doesn't have the help,she doesn't know where to go, yeah? We're in the late 1990s, but she probablydidn't even recognize going right, so she's mostly living out of their car, um,maybe an occasional motel. So it's just not a very secure place for the boyseither. It's hard 'cause Jason's just taking the brunt of everything, and hedoes none of the kids deserve that. That's horrible.

So eventually in 1998, Jane and the boys settled into ahouse in Menifee, California, about an hour and 20 minutes north of San Diego.There, things seemed to stabilize for a bit. Jane was cooking the boys mealsand getting chores done. Although by now, her appearance was alarming. She wasrail thin, she was pale, her hair was always unkempt. But at least now the boysfelt some semblance of normalcy and could go from being homeschooled back topublic school.

Now, starting over in a new school is hard for most kids,but it was particularly hard for Jason. Despite being 6'2" and over 200lb, the 16-year-old Jason found himself being bullied by his classmates. He wasteased for the way he dressed, for being antisocial. Again, be nice to someonebecause you never know what they're going through at home. This wasn't exactlyby choice. Jane refused to go shopping for new clothes. She refused to let thekids hang out with other kids after school or have friends over. When Jasonmentioned to Jane that he had a crush on a girl, she laughed at him, called hima wuss, and told him he wasn't man enough to date someone. Which had to havebeen frustrating for 16-year-old Jason, who was just doing his best to be theperfect son, keep his mom happy. He's getting bullied at school. Dude, thisbreaks my heart. That is, that's horrible. It's awful being a teenager canalready be hard enough. Yeah, and that's horrible. You just don't have thisstability at home, you don't have this connection that you need. He has zerosupport at home, yeah, his mom hates him.

It's important, it's important for development that you havethese connections and this stability. Like other kids his age, he wasn'texperimenting with drugs and alcohol. In fact, he never even touched the stuff.And when Jane lashed out, he tried to keep his mouth shut and keep the peace,knowing how quickly things could escalate. But everyone has their breakingpoints. On one occasion when Jason did find himself snapping back at hismother, Jane's paranoia kicked in. She asked Jason who had gotten to him, whowas turning her son against her. And then, according to Jason, Jane grabbed anHK Rocky stick and struck him so hard in the head that he needed to be rushedto urgent care for staples. So, in the waiting room, Jane threatened under herbreath that he better not tell anyone the truth about what had happened. And ofcourse, when the doctor asked what had happened, Jason lied, keeping his motherout of the story. But the wound left a permanent 3-inch scar on Jason's head, aconstant reminder of just how serious his mother's condition was becoming.

Now, in all the years of this abuse happening in the home,there was only one known time where Child Protective Services were called tocheck in on them, and Jane scared the social worker away before she could evenassess the situation. Which is why, supposedly, there was never a single pieceof paper filed with CPS regarding Jason and Matthew's situation. How's thateven happened? Just should be the opposite. You scare someone away, they shouldfile like extra paperwork. It's just an underfunded and under supported systemat that point. That sucks.

So in 2000, Jason turns 18 years old, which meant he didn'thave to live under Jane's roof any longer if he didn't want to. Still, hemanaged to stick it out for another few years until another major fighthappened between them in 2003. By that point, the 20-year-old Jason had beguncollege at California State University San Bernardino, using financial aid andworking part-time jobs to cover his tuition. Good for him. But when thingsturned ugly once more between Jason and Jane at home, he threatened to move outfor good. And needless to say, Jane was not happy about this.

She followed Jason to the hotel he worked at and caused ascene in front of guests and other staff, saying things like, 'Your fatherwalked out on me, and I won't let you do it too.' So when Jason came home, hewas at his wits' end. And that's when he pitched an idea to his younger brotherMatthew: 'Wouldn't it be great if we just got rid of Mom?' He asked. Mattlaughed it off, saying sure, he wished she was out of their lives for good, notdead, just maybe gone. But Jason had already stopped listening. He was too busyconjuring up ideas, thinking surely no one else would even notice if his motherwas dead or alive.

And for the next several months, Jason stewed over thisidea, which hit a boiling point when Jane's paranoia and delusions escalatedthat November. Jane was prepared to leave their new home in the town ofRiverside and go back on the road to avoid the people who were out to get heronce more. But Jason refused to let him or his brother live that unhousedlifestyle again. Memories of sleeping in their car, showering only every fewdays when they stayed at a hotel, not having to go to school, it all came floodingback to Jason, who remembered those times as some of the worst of their lives. Theonly reason for it was Jane's psychiatric illness. One that was only assumed atthis point, seeing as she'd never officially sought the help of a doctor orbeen diagnosed with anything.

But the 20-year-old Jason and 15-year-old Matthew weren'tequipped to handle her illness either. So instead, Jason decided to take moredrastic measures.

In January 2014, he seized an opportunity after a long dayon campus. Jason returned home around 7:00 p.m. on the evening of January 14th.At first, it seemed like tonight might be a quiet one in the Bautista home asJane cooked the boys a pasta dinner. But that quickly changed when Jane beganranting to the boys that the man in the upstairs apartment was definitely apedophile. Jason was not in the mood to deal with Jane's illness that night, sohe yelled back, telling her to stop with the stories. And that's when Janethreatened to kick him out of the apartment. She went to his room and begangrabbing his clothes and stuffing them into a bag.

Meanwhile, Matthew just listened from the other room whilehe continued playing video games. For him, this was just another averageTuesday. But after another 15 more minutes of back and forth screaming, Matthewheard something break up the voices. It was a very loud thud, like somethinghad hit the ground hard.

Too terrified to step out of his room, Matthew just stayedhidden, instead of praying for the screaming to stop like he normally did, henow found himself begging God for it to start again. Oh no, and that's whenJason began calling his name. When Matthew stepped out into the hallway, he sawJason standing over the motionless body of their mother. Jason had knocked herto the floor, grabbed her by the neck, and applied pressure until the color inher face had drained completely. He upheld his promise. Matthew turned toJason, asking him what they were supposed to do next. And that's when Jasonlooked him dead in the eyes and said, "We're going to take care of it,just like they do on The Sopranos."

Matthew shuddered at the thought. He knew exactly what hisbrother meant. The Sopranos was their favorite show. It was their escape fromreality. And they'd recently watched the episode where Tony Soprano has to getrid of his associate, Ralphie, so he cuts off his head and his hands. So hecan't be identified. Jason figured if they were going to get away with this,they'd have to follow through with a similar plan.

So Jason grabbed his keys and set out for supplies. Thingslike trash bags, rubber gloves, bleach. I don't know how I feel. This is heavy.There's so much backstory to this. It's not as easy as Jason killed his mom.It's not as easy as that. Which is why we have courts and the justice systemand all that, even though I know it might not be the best. It's why we have it.I don't even know how I feel.

I'm so indifferent on this. And honestly, this is why Ifound it almost important to cover this case. Yeah, because a lot of timesthere's so many layers. There's so many layers to these cases, right? And thisis just a very obvious, drastic one, right? Yes. But you know how often all endin this? This is the less than 1%. The very rare, right? But there are caseslike this that do exist, where psychiatric illness is a really big part of thestory. But it's not just that. It's that part too. But I mean, then it'severything Jason's going through as well, though. That's the whole other 50 to70%. I don't know, man. I don't know.

So Matt actually refuses to help Jason, but it never crosseshis mind to call the police, because Jason was all he had now. This is his onlyfamily left. So he's like, I'm not going to help you with what you just did,but he's not going to turn his brother in. Like he also knew the reality ofwhat was going on at home and how this all came to be. There was no way hewould ever rat out his big brother. But there was also no way he was going tohelp his big brother with the rest of this plan. Which is hard too because Ibet if he would have called the police, said my mom was attacking me, thissituation would be so much different than what we're about to get to.

So Jason moved Jane's body on his own to the bathroom andrecreated what he'd seen on his favorite show. After draining all of her bloodout into the tub, Jason placed what remained of Jane in an old sleeping bag. Hestashed her in the back of his car and told Matthew to get in. They were goingto go for a ride.

Jason and Matthew drove South for the next hour, headedtowards their childhood home of San Diego. Eventually, Jason pulled off thefreeway in the town of Oceanside and drove towards a middle-class neighborhoodalong the ocean. When they came to a dumpster in front of a home that had beenundergoing renovations, Jason stopped the car. He got out and unloaded thesleeping bag from the trunk. What he didn't realize was he and Matthew weren'talone.

A security guard named Peter Martinez was shining aflashlight at the boys. So cornered, Jason and Matt told him they were justdumping some trash there. But Peter knew better. He'd served years as a marine,and whatever was in that sleeping bag was not just garbage, particularlybecause there was a human foot poking out from underneath it.

So Peter yelled for them to stop and to put the bag down.But Jason wasn't about to surrender to a neighborhood security guard. So theythrew the sleeping bag back into the trunk and told Peter to go f himself. Andthen they sped off. But Peter had already gotten their full license platenumber. It was only a matter of time before the police would be knocking ontheir door.

Still, a frantic Jason got back onto the five freeway,prepared to head home for the night and keep his mother's body in the trunkuntil the morning. But as he got on the Ortega Highway, he realized the steepcliffs along the side of the road were a solid alternative. It was around 2:00a.m. when Jason pulled over, yanked the sleeping bag out of the trunk onceagain, and left his mother along the highway. Then he got back in the car,later claiming it was the first time in his life that he finally felt free.

This was a sensation that wouldn't last long at all becauseonly a few hours later, Detective Andre Spencer and his team had alreadyrecovered the body, and now they were on the hunt for both the victim'sidentity and her killer—a threat Jason and Matthew were well aware of by thatafternoon when they were flipping through the news channels and spotted thestory of the dismembered Jane Doe. Matthew's biggest concern was, were theygoing to find her hands and head, and more importantly, what had Jason done withthem? But Jason assured them that shouldn't be an issue; they were safelysecured in his mother's closet, like the worst place you could keep them.

So the boys' plan was to say their mother had run off with anew boyfriend of hers. That last they heard, she was in Chicago, and theydidn't know when she'd be back. And for the next week, the boys did get thefreedom they'd always hoped for. They invited some friends over to the housefor a barbecue while her head was still upstairs. They went shopping. They evenpurchased cell phones—all things they were completely forbidden by Jane whenshe was alive.

But after 7 days of this new lifestyle, things came crashingdown for the brothers because that's when the Orange County Police learnedabout the security guard's eyewitness statement over in San Diego County with afull license plate. It wasn't hard for them to determine who the vehiclebelonged to. Two names came up in their system: Jason Bautista and his mother,Jane.

After pulling up their licenses, they confirmed that Janefit the bodily description of the deceased, and Peter Martinez confirmed, yeah,Jason was the one he saw offloading the sleeping bag that night.

So 10 days after Jane's death, police confronted Jason onhis college campus. And after only an hour of questioning, Jason told thepolice he was willing to come down to the station. And that's when he confessedto everything. He started at the beginning, listing all the ways Jane'sparanoia had affected him and Matthew over the years. He talked about theabuse, both emotional and physical, that he'd endured since he was a baby. Andthen he insisted that on the night she died, Jane was trying to attack him witha knife. He got her in a bear hug and tried to calm her down, but the nextthing he knew, he had choked her to death.

So Jason was arguing accidental self-defense. This was asmart move, considering the history that supported it. I hope he got anattorney right away. I assume no, but I hope so. But the thing is, wouldsomeone who acted in self-defense really go to such lengths to cover up a body,which is basically what you said? Yeah, I mean, how many people in thatsituation would actually dismember their own mother? Something that Jason lateradmitted to and was confirmed after a search of their apartment turned up therest of Jane Bautista's remains.

I would say obviously no, but these are such differentcircumstances. I mean, the way they were raised, like everything, taking intoaccount everything. I'm not trying to make an excuse for killing someone,obviously, and standing up for him, but it's not as easy as he was"quote-unquote" normal. Why is he hiding the body? It's like, no,it's not that easy. Again, there's so many layers to this.

Still, it was these thoughts that haunted investigators asthey arrested the 20-year-old Jason Bautista on January 24th, 2003, and laterthat afternoon, his 15-year-old brother Matthew also found himself in handcuffsbecause both were facing charges for first-degree murder. Yeah, as Matthew satin his cell waiting his day in court, his lawyers presented him with an option:his brother had ruined his life. If it weren't for Jason, Matthew would beentering his senior year of high school, thinking about college. He was closeto a life without his mother anyways. But now here he was facing 25 years tolife in prison, particularly because he was going to be tried as an adult inthis case.

I'm confused. I'm surprised. Okay, keep going. I'll share mythoughts after. And worst of all, he never laid a hand on his mother. He wasonly here because he was protecting Jason, because he had aided and abetted amurder. So they offered Matthew a deal: testify against your brother, provethat this was premeditated and not self-defense, and you'll face a much lightersentence.

So eventually realizing this was his best option, Matthewagreed. In January 2005, Matthew took the witness stand at Jason's trial. Hetold the jury how his brother had mentioned killing his mother multiple timesbefore this day. Even more damning was the testimony from the chief forensicpathologist who told the jury Jane wasn't just knocked down in self-defense.She was severely beaten. And as we've heard in other cases, they also mentionedthat strangulation doesn't just happen accidentally. Jason had to have hishands around Jane's neck for a good six minutes before she was completelydepleted of oxygen, meaning Jason put in the time to make sure his mother wasfinally gone.

Since Matthew had held up his end of the bargain and pleadedguilty to being an accessory to murder, he was only sentenced to 749 days injail, time he'd already served waiting for his trial. So he was immediatelyreleased. After which, Matthew reunited with his father, Jose Monjo, for thefirst time since childhood. Which is interesting because I would assume—I don'tknow, I don't know—you can tell me otherwise. I would assume Jose, though,thought that. I'm curious his thoughts on everything with Jason, I guess iswhat I'm trying to say.

I think he's kind of stayed out of it, but we have thesestories about, for a reason, basically. The way you were telling them, and Icould be wrong, I mean they leaned towards favoring Jason and Matthew and fromfriends and family and people who knew this family. So that's what's hard islike if you have all these people backing up these statements of, like, all theneighbors are saying yeah we saw her beating him all the time and even hersecond husband saying yeah she highly favored the second child over the first.

And oh, it gets so deep because is what he did then not someform of self-defense because he was well—that's what he's claiming—yeah, inthat moment. But I mean, I guess just like an overtime self-defense, like if Idon't do this now, I'm going to get beat again or I'm going to get yelled atagain or I'm going to be abused again, you know what I'm saying? And I know itgets tricky, but there you go, Garrett, you've now unwrapped a question thatcomes up time and time again in the True Crime community, which is, look atGypsy Rose Blanchard, her mother had been making her a victim and abusing herfor years. She killed her mother to try to escape. It's very similar. She wascharged for murder. She was charged and served time. So some people think Gypsyshould have went to prison, some people think they don't. It's not a black andwhite question.

I'm so curious. I assume the audience, I assume all you guysare, it's probably going to be 50/50 in some way. I don't know. I don't know ifI've made a decision on how I feel yet. This is interesting. It's just hard.True Crime is not as easy as we think it is. It's a lot more complex.

So Jason, however, obviously wasn't going to get off aseasily as his brother Matthew. On February 4th, the jury found Jason Bautistaguilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to 25 years to life inprison. During that hearing, the judge delivered a pretty blatant statement inJane's defense.

So she's talking to Jason and she says something in defenseof Jane. She says, "You sought no help from professionals. It'sinconceivable the defendant was unaware there were means for dealing with hismother's illness other than resorting to violence. And rather than explorethose options, he chose to dismember her body."

Oh, I agree he didn't need to dismember her body or killher. Agreement's in there. Disagree in the fact that he was a kid—I mean, Iguess he's 20, but it had been happening since he was a kid, he never lived onhis own, they didn't have money, it sounded like they were living in cars andhotels. Like, if you take everything he had and all the resources and supplies,I don't know if he was able to get professional help for her.

So this is exactly what I said. I said it's absolutely true,violence is never the answer, right? Like, that is the only black-and-whitething we have here, right? Killing someone in violence, no matter whatsituation, is wrong and is not the answer. But I do have to wonder, did Jasonand Matthew really have the resources they needed to deal with their mother'smental health? Exactly, like, do they—did they really?

Both claimed the police had been called to the home multipletimes in their youth and even after seeing the situation did nothing to try andhelp the family out. CPS came and got scared away. Like, did they think thatthere was anyone out there that really even cared for them? Ultimately, thoseshould have been their best resources, CPS and police, and both had donenothing to help them, even though they'd been there.

I look at the example when he's in the hospital, he just gothit in the head with a hockey stick, he has a scar, he has to get staples, buthe's too scared of his mom to even tell the police there what just happened.Which is so interesting because—I mean, that could have killed them.

Yeah, like, I—I don't know, that's—that was an attemptedmurder. She never got charged for any of that. Also, I mean, depending on whatstory you believe, Jason either watched his dad take his own life or watchedhis dad being taken out on a stretcher. It's hard because I know I am, itsounds like I'm standing up for him a lot and I guess in a way I—I kind of am,not for the killing, but for how he was raised and how it seemed like he almosthad no way out.

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I'm not saying he should have done it, but again, I don'tknow, man, this is just hard stuff. This is hard. So you have to wonder, didthe system fail Jason and Matthew, but also did it fail Jane in a major way?Could all of this have been prevented if only we as a society had maybe treatedmental health as more of a priority back then?

Like I said, mental health is definitely something that'sreally being talked about now, but even in the '90s, it wasn't something thatpeople commonly—you were just like, "Oh, that person's just weird, thatperson's just crazy," which is why I think the judge said what she said aswell because she probably was very uneducated with mental health as a whole.

Yeah, like it's not like you're saying you should have justgone and found a professional. How easy was that? Like now we know that itisn't. It's not as easy as saying that, right? So again, I just want toreiterate while this is by no means an excuse for Jason and Matthew's behavior,it may be an explanation, correct? Because how does one deal with somethingthey aren't equipped or even old enough to deal with?

Unfortunately, Jason Bautista only knew of one deadly anddrastic solution, leading to a gruesome crime that absolutely could have beenprevented. And that is the story of Jane Bautista.

I feel like there's a lot we could dissect, and um, I have alot of questions, and we could go on forever. Maybe we need to do like an extrabonus episode on all of this, but just no one wins. Nobody won. Everyone lost.It was just horrible for everybody, and I think that's how I feel at the end ofthe day about it, is sad, and yeah, nobody won it. And I think, you know,sometimes I want to stay away from cases like this because it's like, Idon't—it's too complex.

How do I cover this case and give justice to Jane, but alsojustice to Jason, but also justice to Matthew? Like, and they're hard to talkabout, and people get mad at you because everyone has their own opinion, whichis totally okay. Everyone can have their own opinion. Um, and it's a complexone. Like, in the end, like I said, it's not an excuse, but maybe anexplanation, which we don't always get an explanation in these cases. We don'talways understand. True Crime is way more complex than a lot of people think itis.

So thank you for tuning in. That is our episode for thisweek, and we will see you on the next one. Don't forget about our Twitch streamthis Thursday.

I love it.

I hate it. [Music]

Goodbye.

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