The ghost who solved her own murder:Teresita Basa

Teresita Basa was born in the Philippines in 1929, and moved to Illinois, Chicago to better her life and her career. She worked at Edgewater Hospital as a respiratory therapist, and was very dedicated to her job and her patients. She was very well liked.

On the night of February 21st, 1977, at around 9pm, firefighters responded to a report of a fire in a nearby building. As the police and fire crew arrived at the scene, they found the body of Teresita engulfed in flames with a kitchen knife sticking out of her chest and a mattress on top of her. The police had no suspects throughout their investigation, found no items missing that they knew of, and the autopsy indicated that she had not been violated. The only thing they did have was a note left by someone with the initials AS, who was supposed to give her some theatre tickets. With no other evidence or suspects, the case went cold.

6 months after teresita’s death, the police received an odd call from a Mr Chua. He told the police his wife, Mrs Jose Chua, had started to see the ghost of Teresita and appeared to be possessed by her. The Chua’s worked at the same hospital as Teresita but only knew her in passing. A strange occurrence happened one day when Mrs Chua entered a trance like state and began speaking in a different voice and tongue. She stated, “I am Teresita Basa.” Jose Chua thought she was dreaming when it first started, but this started happening to her periodically for a week, each time a little more information was given. By now the Chua’s were terrified by what was happening, but the voice still continued, revealing even more information stating, “The man responsible for my murder was a man named Allan Showery, and the proof can be found with his girlfriend.”

 

The police were somewhat apprehensive, but decided to investigate the information. The police found that Allan Showery worked at the same hospital and made a connection to the note initialed AS. The voice continued to provide the police with more information, “After he killed me, he took my jewellery and gave it to his girlfriend.” Teresita’s colleagues informed the police that Showery was supposed to go to her apartment to fix her television. The police decided to question Showery, and admitted that he went to her home to fix the TV, but left to go back home to collect his tools. Soon after, his girlfriend was questioned, she told the police that Showery did indeed give her some jewellery. The family looked at the pieces and identified them as belonging to Teresita. The police decided to confront Showery again, and this time he confessed to the murder.

In the confession, Showery said, “I decided to go to her apartment that night to rob her. When she let me in, and turned her back, I grabbed her and put her in a chokehold and stabbed her. I held her in that position until she stopped moving. When it appeared she was no longer breathing, I dragged her body into the livingroom where I snatched her clothes off. I then got the mattress from the bedroom, put it on top of her, and set it on fire.”

After searching Allan Showery’s home, they discovered a necklace also belonging to Teresita Basa. Showery was arrested and tried for murder. The first trial ended in a hung jury, the second time he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released from prison in 1990 after serving the full 14 years.