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[Music] imagine someone sending you a doll meant to look like you with a Cut Throat
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something literally out of a horror movie in this story you are going to hear and see it all vicious Relentless
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harassment that turned the lives of two women upside down I'm Olivia Lavo the Creator and host of the Bakersfield 3
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podcast I've teamed up with Casey from case File to bring you some of their most memorable cases in a visual format
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today's story is based on case number 189 it was a crisp Monday morning in 1994 as the school week was about to
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begin faculty at the cool ba Learning Center facility in Pennsylvania were expecting students to arrive any minute
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when suddenly a teacher noticed a handful of envelopes scattered on the floor near the front entrance they were
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addressed to the school PR principal shortly after faculty noticed more envelopes thrown haphazardly around the
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campus on the lawn the bushes and Pathways the letters had no stamp or return address and inside each envelope
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was a copy of the same typed letter it was littered with profanities and grammatical errors and it was
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essentially a scathing rant about one of the teachers going on about what a terrible educator she was it also
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claimed that this teacher brought cannabis to school and quote showed it in the faculty room just like it was a
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big joke the principal immediately called the teacher that the letters were about her name was Joanne Chambers
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Joanne had been a first grade teacher at the school for 4 years she had an Immaculate record and was generally
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known to be an incredible teacher which made the letters about her all the more surprising Joanne was stunned when she
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read the letter and given how it focused on her teaching skills she assumed it was another staff member or parent of a
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student but she couldn't imagine who it would be everyone at the school and all the parents seemed to love her Joanne
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was known for her unconventional methods of teaching which involved singing and dancing to make her lessons more
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interactive and fun for her young students other teachers at the school seem to really like this about her but
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clearly whoever wrote that letter did not Joanne tried to shrug it off and hoped
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it was just a cruel prank a one-off but it wasn't the letters kept coming over the next few weeks and one letter was
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shoved into the all faculty members mail slots that accused Joanne of being an alcoholic and drinking in her classroom
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shortly after Joanne opened her desk drawer one day to find an empty bottle of liquor and she noticed the framed
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photo she always kept in her drawer of her and her son was missing whoever had it out for Joanne was making her life at
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school pretty unpleasant but soon it was affecting her at home as well she started getting incessant hang-up phone
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calls and harassing letters delivered to her doorstep and the letters were escalating to threats one read quote I
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can get you in one try no one will ever prove it they may not think so but I'm smarter than all of you you stupid [ __ ]
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another letter threatened to poison Joanne saying quote you really are a clueless [ __ ] I had four chances to
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drug your coffee this week or did I drug your coffee [ __ ] you make me sick and
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then things got nasty Joanne sat down at her desk in her classroom one afternoon
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and when she got up she rubbed her hands on the back of her dress and soon found
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feces had been smeared all over her chair this prompted Joanne to go to the police she filled them in on all the
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letters and the apparent theft of the photo of her and her son she also told them that in addition to the letters
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sent to other faculty and some parents there had been a photo taped on a local storefront that was
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pornographic specifically it was three women in a bathtub together and Joanne's face had been cut out from the photo of
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her and her son and taped on one of the women's bodies written on top were the words it's not
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over you die the police chief agreed with Joanne that it was likely someone in the school
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system behind this a hidden camera was placed in her classroom to try to catch the culprit red-handed and some of the
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letters were sent to the FBI for analysis they were able to extract a partial print from a couple of the
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envelopes but not enough for a profile for comparison all the faculty at the school
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were called into a meeting and told about the investigation in hopes that if one of them were behind it they'd be
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scared into stopping now when the chief of police analyzed the footage from the hidden camera in Joanne's classroom he
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noticed something interesting one day Joanne was seen speaking with another teacher before class was about to begin
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the two of them then both left the classroom together and moments later the other teacher came
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back and grabbed something off of Joanne's desk and walked out with it it was another first grade teacher Paula
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naraki and she had taken Joanne's coffee cup Paula had been with the school district for 20 years she was well
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respected within the school but she and Joanne were quite different and this was
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something that faculty had noticed while Joanne liked to think outside the the box with her teaching style Paula was
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much more by the book and while both teachers seemed to be adored by their students and the parents a few staff
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members suspected that Paula might be jealous of Joann's reputation as a fun teacher as reported in the newspaper the
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Times Tribune there was another reason some felt Paula looked suspicious in one of the letters about Joanne there was a
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reference to the school superintendent to be clear not Joanne and his resemblance to a German commander on the
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TV show Hogan's Heroes an employee immediately remembered a conversation where Paula made this exact comparison
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but when questioned Paula was adamant she had nothing to do with any of it and with no direct evidence against her she
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was able to keep her job at the school but the damage was pretty much done most of the other teachers wanted Paula to
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stay far away from them and she was moved into a different building meanwhile Joanne was
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transferred to a new school entirely for her safety as law enforcement continued
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to investigate police's next order of business was to Ask Paula to do a polygraph test they also asked Joanne to
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do one just so they could rule out the possibility that Joanne had potentially exaggerated any of the reported
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incidents Joanne passed with flying colors but Paula did not when Flatout asked if she was involved in the making
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or sending any of the threatening letters Paula said no and to that the polygraph examiner said that answer was
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deceptive when told she failed Paula maintained her innocence but she did say something to the police chief apparently
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along the lines of I don't think I'm doing it if I am I don't know he told Paula she was the Prime
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Suspect and it was in her best interest to fess up to which she supposedly responded you'll never prove it was me
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of course none of this is recorded unfortunately anyhow the failed polygraph and the weird comments to the
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chief were not concrete enough to file charges but police did get a search warrant and seized numerous items of
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stationary and a typewriter from her home and again she was their Prime Suspect and then things in this case
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turned up a notch Joanne was leaving work after a particularly long school day when she reached her hand under the
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car door handle and she jumped back in searing pain a razor blade had been placed under the handle and cut her
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finger a few days later a letter was dropped off at her door that said quote you're
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sliced but the next incident is undoubtedly the most chilling this time around Joanne received a package at her
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school it was a small box wrapped in pink paper and inside was a Barbie wearing a Blue Dress similar to one that
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Joanne often wore the Barbie's hair was cut to look similar to Joann's and then lodged inside the
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doll's throat was a razor blade with red paint but there was a short time of relief for Joanne after this a few
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months went by without any new threats but then Joanne was traveling down the highway on her usual route when she
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noticed a car out of her rear viiew mirror that was rapidly speeding up behind her it pulled up next to her
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before rapidly swerving which caused Joanne to go off the road Joanne instantly recognized the driver as Paula
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Joanne later described this encounter in the series Medical detectives saying quote Paul is looking right at me I will
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never forget that look she's looking right at me I will never forget that look never I will
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never forget it she looked right at me after this the District Attorney's Office felt they had enough evidence to
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make a case against Paula she was arrested during a lesson in front of her first grade class and charged with
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reckless endangerment 78 counts of stocking 20 24 counts of making terroristic threats and two counts of
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assault Paula's husband immediately hired a private investigator to try to exonerate his wife and apparently it was
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Paula's idea to test the letters that were sent to Joanne and to the school for DNA which I think is pretty
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impressive because keep in mind it was only 1995 so DNA was something most people at that time either didn't know
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about yet or didn't really understand anyhow Paula also coughed up the $7,000 to do these tests she was very
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confident in them apparently a private lab got to work and lifted a profile from saliva that was used to close the
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letters and as it turned out the DNA was not a match to Paula now the Pi had to figure out who
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DNA was it on a hunch the pi named James Anderson went to Joanne ch B's home and
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noticed her trash can conveniently next to the curb Anderson pulled out a few tissues in an ear swab and went on his
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way the lab told the private investigator that they pulled a male DNA sample and a female sample from the
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letters the female sample was determined to be none other than Joanne Chambers the pi believed the male sample was most
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likely that of Joanne's husband or her son really wish we had conclusive answer on that but anyhow after this
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development Paula's defense attorney argued that the case against her should be dropped immediately but the judge
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denied that request when confronted about the DNA results Joanne chamers seemed unfazed she said she wasn't
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surprised given she had handled the letters she even voluntarily submitted more of her DNA for further testing to
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be done when it was explained to her that her saliva was found to be on one of the stamps on one of the letters
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Joanne said that was because she was handling one of the letters and a stamp fell off and without putting much
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thought into it she said she quickly tried to put it back on first using her spit Joanne explained that that didn't
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work though so she ended up using a glue stick to secure the stamp and that was that the trial against Paula nakaki went
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ahead as scheduled if Paula were to be found guilty she faced up to 5 years in jail and a $10,000 fine for each count
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that's quite a lot Paula ended up taking the stand in her own defense something fairly uncommon for defendants to do
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Paula told the jury that she believed Joanne was harassing herself and of course trying to frame her and that she
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was doing it all for attention when questioned about why Paula was seen on the hidden camera grabbing Joann's
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coffee cup Paula said it was Joanne who asked her to go back and grab it for her
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she also testified that her comments to the police chief the one along the lines
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of you'll never prove it was me had been taken way out of context furthermore it
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was determined during the trial that while Paula failed her polygraph test and Joanne passed hers Paula's test was
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apparently much more rigorous and considered pretty different from Joann's which I think is interesting what also
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pretty interesting is a chemist took the stand and discredited a seemingly small
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comment Joanne had made when confronted about the DNA see remember Joanne said At first she tried to get a stamp that
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fell off a letter back on by using her spit but then it didn't work so she used a glue stick well the chemist said had
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glue been used they'd be able to tell and when they looked for traces of it they found none so it heed that Joanne
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was lying about that which it's a weird thing to lie about right it's really in irrelevant detail but it is a lie
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nonetheless after that testimony it was Joanne's turn to get on the witness stand reporters from The Morning Call
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newspaper referred to her testimony as uneven and that it ranged from testy to sarcastic and then things got really
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interesting the principal at a school that Joanne had worked for many years earlier told the jury about a day when
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Joanne asked to go home because she said she had sat in feces remember this is something that
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Joanne's supposed harasser had recently done to her and then more faculty from Joanne's early career in education spoke
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up Paula's private investigator had found one witness in particular who described being called into a meeting at
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one point over a decade ago where she and several other teachers were told that Joanne had been receiving
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harassing phone calls and threats that her house would be burned down the witness said she believed Joanne was
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purposely trying to get her and the other teachers in trouble and that after that they stayed far away from her Pi
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James Anderson listed 16 incidents where Joan reported Anonymous threats against
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her to authorities every crime that she's been a victim of is has some weirdness attached to it prior to the
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incidents that Paula was now accused of being involved in Paula's defense team also told the jury that the only witness
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to Paula allegedly trying to run Joanne off the road was Joanne herself when it was time to deliberate the jury took
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less than 2 hours they acquitted Paula on all charges and jury members even hugged Paula after the verdict while
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Joanne reportedly quickly slipped out of the courtroom soon after though Paula had to undergo another hearing this time
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it was done by the school board and while in the end it was determined that Paula could keep her teaching job so
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could Joanne the two were to remain teaching within the same district November 2000 Paula received a
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$600,000 settlement from the school district she was also awarded a $25,000 settlement from Jo Chambers and
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a lawsuit seeking compensation for the money that Paula spent on her defense for the criminal trial in the end both
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Paula and Joanne remained teachers within the same district with lengthy and successful careers however Paula
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said she still did have to deal with some Fallout from the allegations against her with some people still
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thinking she probably really did do it now Joanne retired from her teaching career in 20 4 as a celebrated educator
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over the years she obtained the prestigious status of a national board certified teacher and helped hundreds of
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students with dyslexia learn how to read it was never proven that Joanne was behind the letters and the case
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technically remains unsolved I would really love to hear what you guys think about this one in the comments thank you
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all for watching until next time [Music]