The Girl In The Bunker

June 24, 2024

In this episode, Payton digs deep into the case of Katie Beers, a girl who faced abuse from everyone in her family, only to be captured by a malevolent man.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast. Hey, everybody! Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm PaytonMoreland, and Garrett Moreland is not here. He's the husband to this podcast.

We announced that we had some family emergencies last week, so Garrett is out handling those. Life happens, but we wanted to make sure we still got an episode out for you. We've been here before and done this before,so you just have me today. I hope that's okay.

Thank you for being here, for listening, and for alwayssupporting us. We are good over here—no worries. We're just taking everythingone step at a time. We are going to jump right into the episode because Garrettis not here to share his 10 seconds. If he was, it would probably be somethingabout cars, golf, pickleball, or the US.

Let's get into the episode.

Our sources for this episode are Buried Memories byKatie Beers and Carolyn Gusoff, AllThat'sInteresting.com, ABC News, USA Today,NYTimes.com, Goldcast, Distractify.com, CBS News, CNN.com, TimesColonist.com,PennLive.com, Newsday.com, InTouchWeekly.com, Forbes.com, and Wikipedia.

I want to give a trigger warning: this episode featuresdiscussions of sexual assault and abuse of a minor, so please listen with care.

Everyone listening and watching, there is a uniquephenomenon that happens sometimes in true crime. We see it every now and thenbetween victims and their captors. It's called trauma bonding, or more commonlyreferenced as Stockholm syndrome. It's an involuntary coping mechanismdeveloped by the victim, leading to a psychological connection to their abuser,almost brainwashing them into offering feelings of sympathy, understanding, andsometimes even admiration for their captor.

But today's case is one that sort of turns this concept onits head. Not only did the victim in today's story outsmart her captor, but shewas so brave and intelligent that she actually convinced him to come cleanabout his crime. The most incredible part is she was only 10 years old when ithappened. This is an episode you are not going to want to miss.

It's December 30, 1982. In a hospital in Bay Shore, LongIsland, a woman named Marilyn Beers is giving birth to her second child allalone. It's a little girl named Catherine, or Katie, as she was called. Katienever knew her father, neither did her older half-brother, John. But as theysay, raising a child takes a village, and that was something that Marilyn, themother, didn't quite have access to in the early years of her children's lives.To make ends meet, she worked 12-hour shifts daily, driving a taxi cab aroundLong Island, oftentimes with young Katie or John tagging along in the frontseat, as child care wasn't exactly in her budget.

That changed one day when Marilyn gained a new customernamed Linda Inary. Over the next several months, Marilyn got to know Linda asshe became a regular passenger in her taxi cab.

The two actually became so close that Linda offered to helpwatch Marilyn's children for free when she needed to work driving taxi. Soon,Linda became Aunt Linda to John and Katie. But she didn't just babysit them fora few hours in the afternoon here and there. As time went on, Marilyn wouldleave the children with Linda and her husband, a car mechanic named S, fordays, even sometimes weeks on end.

Which is how things got a little weird between Linda andMarilyn. There would be times when Marilyn would come to get the children andLinda and S would refuse to hand them back over to her because, I mean, at thispoint they are kind of taking care of her kids. And it actually got to thepoint where the cops had been called over the situation more than once.

But here's the thing though, it wasn't like Linda and S werethese Good Samaritans saving Katie and John from some terrible parenting. Itwas quite the opposite actually. Not only was S verbally abusive of Linda, hewas actually physically abusive as well. So the couple that is watching thesekids, babysitting these kids even for weeks at a time, is having domesticviolence in the house. And oftentimes this was in front of the two kids.

Linda wasn't much better, as she would then take herfrustrations out on Katie, treating her more like a servant than a child. NowKatie, at only four years old, was kept out of school and instead forced toclean Linda and S's bathrooms, vacuum their house, do their laundry, cook themdinner. Linda even sent Katie down to a small strip mall once to buy hercigarettes with a handwritten note of permission.

And it was at this point that a lot of the store ownersactually took notice of the young Katie, who usually would come in withoutshoes or a coat, rain or shine. One even remembered asking her once,"Katie, why aren't you out playing with your friends?" to which shereplied, "Oh, I don't have any friends."

Katie actually recalled that one time when she tried tostick up for herself once at Linda and S's, she was stuffed into a pantrycloset after screaming and banging to get out. Linda and S told her they weregoing to leave the house and go see a movie, and they didn't return for severalhours. But that wasn't even the half of it. I mean, Linda would put cigarettesout on Katie's arm; she even tried to burn a mole off her face once.

Meanwhile, many people who knew the kids and their abusivesituation they were in simply turned a blind eye. No one ever reported the badbehavior they saw to the police, including their own mother Marilyn, who keptbringing Katie to Linda and S because she said she had no other choice when itcame to child care. If she wanted to make a living and put a roof over thekids' heads, Linda and S were the only ones who would watch Katie and her olderbrother John for free.

What Marilyn didn't seem to know at the time however wasthat her daughter Katie wasn't just being physically abused at this house, shewas also being sexually assaulted by her uncle. This is something her motherwould remain unaware of for the next few years.

But when Katie was around 8 or 9 years old, someone newactually showed up in their life. This was someone that Marilyn, the mom, atfirst felt would be a positive influence—someone who made the kids smile in away that Marilyn had never seen before.

One afternoon, Marilyn was out working another 12-hour daydriving her taxi when she picked up a woman named Rose Espacito. During thatride, Rose and Marilyn started chatting. Rose told her that she had a son inhis 40s who worked with the Big Brothers organization, which, if you don'tknow, is a mentorship program where adult volunteers are thoroughly vetted andthen paired with a minor who might need some additional support in their lives.

So, when Marilyn tells Rose that her son John doesn'texactly have a good male role model in his life, Rose suggests that little Johnshould meet her son, the "Big John." This was how John Espacito cameinto the Beers' lives. Every week, Big John would come over to hang out withlittle John as part of the Big Brothers program. They'd watch movies, playvideo games, he'd bring them toys, or take Jon and sometimes even Katie todifferent outings like the batting cages or the arcade. It was a completechange of pace for the kids, who loved spending time with the 40-year-old John.

But this was just at first. It was a man who seemed polite,considerate, a gentleman. On some occasions, Katie and little John would evengo to Big John's house, where he still lived with his parents. John hadactually converted the family garage into his own little apartment with a fullkitchen, an office, and a dining area. But most importantly, it was filled witheverything from board games to Nintendos to giant arcade games. This space wasa dream for kids and, I guess, grown men alike.

Now, you might be thinking, "How does Marilyn keepsending her kids over to Linda and Sal's when it's very obvious these kids aregetting hurt over there?" So, you're like, "Okay, maybe Big John isgoing to be better," but Marilyn didn't exactly do her due diligence whenit came to Big John. Instead of checking with the Big Brother organization,Marilyn just trusted that John was a part of it because his mother said so inthe cab. Well, he wasn't. In fact, the truth was a lot more disturbing.

John had been falsely advertising himself around theBayshore area of Long Island as a Big Brother, putting up posters and offeringhis mentorship when, in reality, he was a predator. He had been arrested morethan 15 years earlier for trying to lure a 12-year-old boy into his car at ashopping mall. Sure, he'd applied to the Big Brother program, but when it cametime for their rigorous screening check, John withdrew his application whenthey found out about those previous charges. A predator cannot work at anorganization that helps kids and is alone with kids.

This was all information that Marilyn uncovered after her10-year-old son little John confessed to her that Big John had touched himinappropriately.

And after that, Marilyn did put her foot down—there was nomore hanging out with Big John, period. But when Little John and Katie were atLinda and Sal's, the rules were very different because, remember, they werestill going there for childcare at Linda and Sal's, and Linda and Sal did notgo along with any of the boundaries around Big JN that mother Marilyn had set.

So, after all, they'd taken a liking to Jon, and they werehappy to pawn the kids off on him with or without Marilyn's permission. Whichwas why, years later, he was still hanging around the Beers' kids. ComeDecember 1992, he was happily invited to Katie's 10th birthday party. Now,Linda had told Katie to keep Jon's invitation a secret from her mother, andKatie thought the secret paid off that day.

Jon arrived with a giant Barbie Dreamhouse as her birthdaygift, but John had another surprise for Katie. Thanks to permission from Linda,he was going to take her to Space Plex the following afternoon. This is a giantarcade space about 15 minutes down the road. Now, Katie knew Marilyn, hermother, would not approve of this. I mean, she's only 10 years old, and hermother was like, "You cannot be around Big John after what he has done toyour brother."

She already didn't want him hanging around the house in thecompany of other adults, but the two of them alone? That was definitely offlimits. But when Katie mentioned this to Linda, Linda told Katie, "It'sgoing to be fine. It'll just be a few hours, and then you can come home."So, the following afternoon, December 28th, 2 days before Katie's 10thbirthday, John shows up at the house to pick her up.

Katie hops in his pickup truck, and they go to Space Plex.John says Katie plays some games, and then at around 4:30 p.m., she asks himfor some more tokens. So, he gives her five bucks to fetch them while hefinishes playing his pinball game. But when he turns back around, Katie isgone. He can't find her anywhere. John, still holding her coat and hat, startsto panic, and that's when he goes to the Space Plex staff.

He starts asking if they've seen a 4ft tall girl in a skirt,black boots, and a white shirt with a black Scotty dog printed on the front.But after multiple intercom pages and a frantic search by Space Plex staff,it's clear that Katie is no longer in the arcade. That's when they call thepolice.

When the police arrive, this is what they come to learn:just minutes before John went to the Space Plex staff searching for Katie (thiswas a little after 5:00 p.m.), someone made a call from a pay phone across thestreet. It was 10-year-old Katie. She had phoned Linda and Sal's next doorneighbor because she knew that Linda and Sal didn't have a phone.

Luckily for the police, the neighbors didn't answer, so theyhave a recording of Katie on the answering machine. Her message goes like this:"Aunt Linda, a man kidnapped me, and he has a knife. Oh no, here he comes.I've gotta go."

So, by that afternoon, a team of detectives has filledMarilyn's kitchen, and after playing the recording for her, she confirmed,"That is her daughter's voice, all right."

I cannot imagine how scary it was to listen to a 10-year-oldgirl call for her aunt's help—her aunt who abused her, saying that this man hasa knife and has kidnapped her. So, the police promised to pull out all of thestops to find Katie Beers, as they know the window of opportunity for a missingchild to be found alive is just devastatingly small.

And with John having been the one to call the police, theydon't actually suspect that he had any role in the crime at first, which I knowis not where you thought this was going. This is despite his sorted past. So,they zoom in on someone else—someone who also has a questionable past and hasbeen a strong presence in Katie's life.

Because remember, about 50% of kidnappings are done bysomeone the child knows, and that person is Linda's husband, Uncle Sal, who hadbeen sexually abusing Katie. So, turns out, just before her disappearance,Marilyn had found out that Sal was abusing Katie. She finally filed a reportwith the police, and now he was facing first-degree charges and was due toappear in court the following February.

The thing was, during the time of Katie's kidnapping, Salhad a pretty good alibi. He was at Marilyn's house answering questions forpolice just hours after Katie was reported missing. Plus, there's somethingabout that message that Katie left—she didn't call Aunt Linda and say Salkidnapped me; she said a man. This was indicating that it was probably someoneshe didn't know, which is why detectives felt like they were going to have aharder time solving this case than they first thought.

Still, there's one other person that they need to eliminatebefore they take the stranger route, and that is obviously Big John, the known predator.I mean, Katie just has predators all over her life.

John had willingly gone down to the police station thatafternoon to offer his statement, and he gave them a play-by-play of whathappened with Katie that day.

Here's what he said: He picked Katie up from Linda and Sal'sat around 1:00 p.m. They went to a toy store first, where he bought Katie atroll doll and a Home Alone video game before stopping at 7-Eleven for aSlurpee. He then says he and Katie went to his house to try out the video game,but when they got bored, they ventured over to Space Plex as planned. Somewherearound 3:00 p.m. later that afternoon, Katie asked him for more tokens at thearcade. He passed her a $5 bill, and he says that was the last time he saw her.

After he searched high and low for Katie, he asked a managerif they would page her over the intercom, but there was still no sign of her. Iwant to include that Jon delivers all of this through a face full of tears, sopolice are kind of—they're believing him. Plus, when they question some of thestaff back at Space Plex, they confirm parts of John's story. They say he wasthere, he did go to a manager and say he couldn't find the girl he was with, sothey started paging her, but no one saw a little girl fitting Katie'sdescription leave with anyone in distress.

So the investigation continues, and then 24 hours turns into48. Katie's 10th birthday on December 30th comes and goes, and before they knowit, a week has passed with no sign of Katie Beers. Now, cops and canine unitshad scanned the woods and the dumpsters surrounding Space Plex. Police hadfilled and dismissed dozens of unconfirmed sightings of Katie.

After 10 days with no movement on the case, police aren'teven sure whether they're dealing with a kidnapping or homicide. It didn't helpthat Katie's home life was so volatile and complicated. The police commissioneron the case told the press, "We have a girl who was torn between twoapparently dysfunctional family groups. The situation produces so many leads totrack down, and it's what makes this one more unique than most."

So police are literally just like, there are so manysuspects in this girl's life, and we have no idea where to look because none ofthem are really making sense. And then, complicating the investigation evenfurther was Aunt Linda, who at one point produced a seemingly fake letter thatshe claimed was written by Katie to her.

The letter stated that Katie loved Linda, she was herfavorite person in the world, and she felt torn between living with her motherMarilyn and living with her and Sal. Marilyn told police she was certain theletter hadn't been written by Katie, but that begged a different question: Whatwas Linda trying to compensate for? Like, why even come forward with this fakeletter?

Well, by January 12th, 16 days after Katie's disappearance,the Suffolk County Police Department had hit nothing but dead ends. This casewas just bizarre. The search for Katie Beers was stalling out, and officerswere preparing to just let her case run cold.

But the following afternoon, on January 13th, the unexpectedhappened: John Espacito had gathered his entire family together, along with hislawyer. He sat them down and said, "There's something I need to tell you.I know where Katie is." And when they were like, "Okay, is she stillalive?" He said the answer was yes.

So let's go back once more to the day that Katie wentmissing to December 28th actually 2 days before her actual birthday. Nowapparently this wasn't the first time John had attempted to get Katie alone.There had been several times over the last few months where he would sneak overto Linda's house and try to lure Katie away by offering to take her to lunch,maybe go buy her a new toy. Katie, sensing the danger, almost always made upsome new excuse as to why she couldn't go. But that December afternoon wasdifferent. Linda practically pressured Katie into going off with John for theday, despite her mother and her gut telling her not to. Katie, who's terrifiedof Aunt Linda who has been physically abusing and mentally abusing her, shedidn't resist; she went with Big John.

Now the first half of what John Esposito told police wasactually factual. He picked Katie up in his pickup truck. He drove her to a toystore. He then drove her for a Slurpee. And then, if you recall, he said hedrove her back to his place to play the video game before going to Space Plex.Well, it turns out Katie never even made it to Space Plex that day. Johninvited her into his apartment to play that Home Alone video game. And then heleft for a few minutes. But when he returned, according to him, something hadswitched inside of him. Katie noticed that his baseball cap, the one he wasnever seen without, was gone. And John was no longer exuding that childlikeenergy that he always carried. Instead, he had a darkness behind his eyes. AndKatie immediately felt like a sitting duck. She knew nobody else was in thehouse, so even if she screamed, it wasn't likely that anyone would come helpher.

But that's when things took a turn for the worst. Johnpicked Katie up and carried her into the office space of his apartment. Hedropped her on the floor, slammed the door shut, and went over to a closetinside. He began peeling the carpet from the floor, exposing a trap doorunderneath. And it was a concrete slab that led to some sort of secret bunker,one even John's family did not know existed.

Now as John was doing this, Katie only had a few seconds toreact. So in the moments John wasn't watching, she rushed to the phone and shedialed 911. She gets the operator. She tells them in the quietest voice thatshe can muster that she's uncertain of the house number but she's somewhere onSaxon Avenue. But that's all she has time to say because John comes over andrips the phone from her hands. He then orders her to start climbing down thesemakeshift steps into that underground bunker.

And I'm heartbroken for Katie. I mean, to go through whatshe has gone through up to this point in her life and then be with someone whohas been so consistent in her life and have him shoving her into this bunker,it is evil. And so when she gets inside and looks around, she realizes this issomething that Big John must have been working on for a while. This waspremeditated. This was planned because it's not just a little concrete hole. Hehas soundproofed the walls with material.

There's a little camping mattress with pillows and blanketsand a set of 101 Dalmatian pajamas sitting on the bed. There's even a workingtelevision in there. So Katie asks John if he made this space specifically forher, and he tells her, "Yeah, he'd been planning to kidnap her for sometime." Then John disappears for a few minutes, and when he comes back, hegives Katie all of this candy, this soda, and a small tape recorder. He says heneeds her to record a message, something he makes her practice over and overagain until she gets it right. The message is the one that we heard before:"Aunt Linda, a man kidnapped me, and he has a knife and oh no, here hecomes. I've got to go." A recording that John will later play into thephone outside of Space Plex.

But after making that recording, John had another request.He wanted Katie to pretend like she was sleeping so he could take a picture ofher. And when Katie asked him why, he said, "So the police won't look foryou because they'll think you're dead." Well, Katie refuses. She startsthrowing a fit, and John relents. He says, "Oh, Katie, we'll just do itanother day." And then he shuts the top of the bunker and he drills thetop closed. So with no windows or light from the outside world, Katie wouldhave had no idea how much time had passed had it not been for the little TV inthe bunker that was constantly playing MTV.

Aside from that, John came down once a day to check on her,to ask if there was anything he could get her to make her more comfortable,bring her some junk food. It was in that cold, dark little room that Katiespent her 10th birthday while the rest of the world was out searching for her.But Katie used that time wisely. She began devising ways to outsmart hercaptor.

On day two, John asked her to help him with a sound test. Hetold Katie to scream at the top of her lungs as he closed the top of thebunker. But Katie knew better. She didn't scream at all. Although when Johnopened the lid, she told him she had. She figured it would pay off the day thatsomeone came searching for her. But even a good set of lungs couldn't helpKatie on day three.

That afternoon, the police came by the Esposito house tocheck up on Big John, and Katie could hear them walking around just above herhead. She screamed and she banged while she could hear conversations aboutSpace Plex. But turns out the bunker was soundproof after all. That afternoon,police came and went not knowing that the little girl they were looking for wasright beneath their feet.

Now, as more days passed, Katie did her best to stay awakeas much as possible. She didn't want to give John the opportunity to photographher or take advantage of her while she was sleeping. Eventually, she stoppedeating what he was giving her as well, fearful that he was maybe going to slipsome poison into her food or drink. And instead of music videos, Katie begantuning into the news to catch updates on her own disappearance.

And as she sat there in her own thoughts, the 10-year-oldcame up with a plan. She decided she was going to figure out how to manipulateJohn to get him to cast doubt on his own diabolical decisions.

Little by little, Katie started engaging more and more withJohn when he came into the bunker, asking him questions about the future—herfuture. John told her he wanted to keep her forever, that as soon as she turned18, he wanted to marry her, have kids with her. But Katie started plantinglittle seeds that made John second-guess how his long-term plan was going towork out. She wanted to know how she would get an education, what would happenwith school, where was she going to work, how would she contribute to theirfuture, their family.

Katie told John that if he kept her down there in thatbunker, she would never be a normal person, let alone a wife. That if he lether go, she would remain loyal to him, she would protect him. She even pitchedhim a solution—at 10 years old. He could let her out in the middle of thenight, she'd sneak out into the woods, into the highway, never telling a soulwhere she had been. She would blame the entire thing on Uncle Sal, would sayshe ran away from him. And if John was ever questioned, she would say he helpedkeep her safe.

As these conversations went on, Katie became more and moreconvincing. She even told John that she loved him, that she would do anythingfor him. A few times, she even had to talk John out of some suicidal thoughts,and several times he had told Katie that suicide felt like the only way to gethim out of this mess he created. But Katie knew that his death probably alsomeant her own. That if he took this secret with him to the grave, no one wouldprobably ever find her down there. So on top of convincing John to let her go,she also had to convince him to stay alive, something Katie persisted at for 17days.

And then on January 13th, 1993, it paid off. Katie hadsuccessfully gotten John to come clean to his lawyer, his family, and thenfinally the police. That afternoon, Katie heard John's footsteps above her likeusual, but this time they were accompanied by several other heavy strides. Johnhad led a team of officers back to the home with him, and when he lifted thelid to her bunker, the light came pouring in to reveal several new faces. Andrealizing they were all in uniform, Katie sighed a breath of relief. She wasfree.

The police lifted Katie from the chamber, led her into theliving room where John Esposito was sitting in shame. And now we're going totalk about something that is so hard to hear in these cases, because instead ofgetting Katie out of there and off to a hospital for examination, they sat herdown right next to John and questioned her alongside him, which at the time I'msure Katie was just relieved to be in the company of the police. But if youthink about it, this must have only added to the trauma that she had toexperience—having to sit there and answer questions about your experience withyour captor, staring you down from right next to you.

And yet that's where Katie stayed for the next hour, untilpolice finally placed her in one of the squad cars and pulled off the property,while navigating a sea of photographers and reporters all trying to get theshot of Katie Beers, the 10-year-old girl who was found alive 17 days after herkidnapping.

The FBI said they had seen a lot of rooms in abduction cases like this, but neverone built as meticulously as the one John Esposito had created for Katie. Johnadmitted that he had built the location a year and a half prior to abductingKatie, and he had spent over $5,000 constructing it. The FBI also suspectedthat he might have used it with other victims before.

As for Katie, she did not go back to Linda or Marilyn's homeafter the abduction. By this point, police were well aware that neither placewas safe for Katie to continue living. Instead, Katie was relocated to a fosterhome where, for the first time in her life, she actually did gain somestability. As her foster family did their best to shield her from the media,Katie began attending school. She started making friends, joined the volleyballteam, acted in school productions, and eventually she grew up and went tocollege in Pennsylvania, where she met her future husband and now the father ofher two children. She even went on to co-write a book about her experience.

John Esposito's story, however, does not have a happyending. On June 16th, 1994, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping but was sentencedto only 15 years in prison, probably because in exchange for that plea, Jon hadover 10 pending charges dropped, including sexual assault and endangerment ofthe life of a child. During a later parole hearing, John told the board that heonly planned to whisk Katie away from her terrible home life for a better onein Mexico or Australia. When asked if he had sexually abused Katie during hertime in captivity, John claimed no, he was asexual and that he only kissed heron the lips, which is a blatant lie. Katie knows it's a lie. Thankfully, Johnwas continually denied parole during his sentence.

However, Sal, who was involved, did pay the price forassaulting Katie. Two weeks after John was sentenced, Sal was found guilty oftwo counts of assault and he was given 12 years in prison, where he actuallydied in 2009. Four years later, in September of 2013, John was back in courtfor another parole hearing and this time, he finally admitted that yes, he did sexuallyassault Katie. This was a statement that Katie had been waiting for him toadmit since she was set free back in 1993.

After being denied parole once again that afternoon, Johnreturned to his cell where a few hours later he died of natural causes. Yeah,you heard that right. Natural causes after being denied parole. While theexperience undoubtedly changed the course of Katie's life, she believed it mayhave been for the best. It ultimately saved her from a life of perpetualdistress. She's been quoted saying, "I try not to be sad about whathappened because ultimately it made me who I am today and I'm very satisfiedand happy with my life."

Researching this and learning about Katie, what a terrible,terrible thing to go through. But it always astounds me how young kids andpeople alike can fight for their life and come out on top, come out with ahappy life with a husband and children after going through this. So let's taketoday to think about Katie, to think about all the victims, her brother John aswell, and remember, you guys, be a good person, be good people. Look out forkids, look out for signs that things like this are happening. Katie's distressdid not start in the bunker with Big John; she had been distressed far earlier.

Alright, you guys, I love it and Garrett hates it, and wewill see you next week. Goodbye.

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