Episode 14 - The Stanley Hotel, Delimar Vera and Lady Eom (Kim Sum-ja)

Feb 29 2024 • 1 hr 2 mins

HELLO our little culties!!

This week we are talking about a famous hotel and some crazy women!

FIrst up is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO. The inspiration for the Stephen King movie, The Shining. It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-founder of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, and opened on July 4, 1909, as a resort for upper-class Easterners and a health retreat for sufferers of pulmonary tuberculosis. The hotel and its surrounding structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Stephen and Tabitha King spent one night there before the hotel closed for the season. One night and one dream later, he had the makings for a new book.

Morgan tells us about Delimar Vera. The daughter of Luz Cuevas and Pedro Vera, Delimar Vera was taken by Carolyn Correa a distant friend of Pedro's cousin. On December 15, 1997, Correa deliberately ignited a fire in Cuevas' house in Philadelphia to cover up the incident. After Correa took the girl, she raised her as her own daughter under the name of Aaliyah, while Delimar's disappearance was attributed to the intense fire in the room. Six years later, in January 2004, Cuevas attended a birthday party for an acquaintance and was surprised by her own resemblance to a 6-year-old girl. With the help of a state representative, Cuevas managed to get a series of DNA tests which resulted in a confirmation of Cuevas' maternity over Delimar. Correa was arrested in 2004, and taken to trial, and placed on $1 million bail.

Megan's story is about Kim Sun-ja, also known as Lady Eom. Kim Sun-ja (December 11, 1939 – December 30, 1997) was a South Korean serial killer. Between October 1986 and August 1988, she poisoned six people, five of them fatally, using beverages laced with potassium cyanide. She was amongst the last 23 people executed in the country prior to the executions moratorium enacted by then-president Kim Dae-jung. She is also known as the serial killer that actually never laid a hand on anyone! Be careful what you drink people!!