The Unexpected

This episode of the MrBallen Podcast delivers three chilling, true crime-inspired stories with shocking, unexpected twists. The first, 'After the Riot,' recounts the harrowing tale of Carlos Herrera Sr., whose son vanished during a violent prison riot in Venezuela. The truth, revealed by a surviving inmate, is that his son was not killed in the chaos but was instead butchered and fed to starving prisoners by a gang leader named Dorangel Vargas—a grotesque act of cannibalism that the government denied. The second story, 'Falling Treasure,' centers on Malaysian politician Maslin Idris, who hires the famed shaman Mona Fandi to gain political power. The ritual, however, is a ruse: Mona murders Maslin during the ceremony, using his death to skyrocket her own fame and notoriety, turning her trial into a media spectacle she embraces as a personal red carpet. The final story, 'A Son's Nightmare,' follows Yang, a man in rural China who, due to a disability and social isolation, believes his five deceased aunts are still alive. After a farmer’s recurring nightmare about his mother leads police to Yang’s home, they discover Yang has been secretly caring for the corpses of the women who once showed him kindness—dug up and brought into his cave-like home. The episode closes with Yang being committed to a psychiatric hospital, while the farmer’s nightmares cease once his mother’s body is returned to her grave. Each story explores themes of grief, delusion, and the dark consequences of isolation and desperation.