This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point of sale system you can trust or is it a real POS? You need Shopify for retail. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify POS has everything you need to sell in person. Go to Shopify.com/System, all lowercase, to take your retail business to the next level today. That's Shopify.com/System. The strange but true story featured on this podcast contains details some people may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised. I'm Chaya Samuel and things are about to get weird. Hi, hello, welcome to episode 62 of Things are About to Get Weird. I hope you're all well and are having a great week so far. I think I may be overcompensating slightly with my chipper tone in this intro because the story I have to tell you today is anything but, for the most part at least. It was suggested to me by one of our lovely listeners, Sarah, and although I'd not heard of it when Sarah mentioned it, it's stuck with me ever since. This episode is dedicated to the truly tragic and strange tale of Christine Scubich, a case which also involved her young son Nick. So right off the bat, I wanted to give a warning that this one is rough. There will be some very sad details, including those relating to a child in a very distressing situation. So please do bear that in mind before we start. There are also some incredibly compelling paranormal elements to this story. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it might be one of the most compelling paranormal tales I've come across to date. As always, I'll be sure to handle the story with the utmost care, but I do like to give you a heads up about these things. All of that said, let's begin. On 5 June 1994, in the US State of California, 23 year old Christine Scubich and her 3 year old son Nick set out on a mini road trip. Although their destination was Carson City, located in the neighbouring state of Nevada, origin point of Sacramento, California meant the journey would ordinarily take around three hours. Nothing too wild in the grand scheme of things, especially in the US where you can drive for many more hours than that and still be within the same state. From everything I've read, it seems that Christine was a very determined and hopeful person. Alongside raising her young son, she'd also just earned her paralegal certification. And although she and Nick's father weren't married, she hoped it's either not with him in the future. The mother and son left Sacramento in the late evening and their nighttime drive took them along Highway 50, a huge road which stretches from the east to the west coast of the country. The section of the highway, which formed part of their route, was very mountainous and generally rural. And it was along this road that a truly awful incident occurred. In the early morning hours of the 6th of June. For reasons unknown, though police theorised could have been due to tiredness, Christine suddenly lost control of her car. The vehicle swerved off the highway, plummeting around 40 feet down an embankment through trees and other obstacles before crashing to a stop at the bottom. From the road above, it would have been unclear to motorists who passed the spot afterwards that anything had taken place. As the car was completely concealed from view, but within the vehicle itself, a horrific scene had unfolded. The roof had been largely ripped off the car during the accident, and although Christine remained in the driver's seat, devastatingly, it's believed she died almost instantly following the crash. Her body was trapped in the car by part of a tree, and next to her in the passenger seat was a conscious and terrified Nick. The poor child wasn't able to comprehend what had just happened. He just knew that he couldn't wake up his mother, and that he couldn't open the door. It's a genuinely heart-shattering situation to even imagine let alone experience, and to make the nightmare even worse, it's not thought that there had been any food or water in the car. After all, their planned journey hadn't been that major, and it's likely they would have already eaten their evening meals before setting off. A scenario like this had simply been unthinkable. Now, when Christine and Nick failed to turn up in cars and city as expected, their loved ones started to worry. I don't know whether it was due to a lack of communication, or because I'm looking at it from a 2024 perspective, where we're all able to keep track of our loved ones at the tap of an app. But by the 8th of June, a couple of days after the incident, Christine's stepfather, Dave Stortzenbach, called the police to report that his stepdaughter and step grandson were missing. In their discussion with the sheriff's department, they expressed that they felt something was very wrong, and the police agreed that it was necessary to open an official investigation into the whereabouts of Christine and Nick. But despite their level of concern growing by the day when it came to the pair's well-being, the initial inquiries went nowhere. It seemed as though the mother and son had disappeared without a trace. And before long, five whole days had passed since they had last been seen. It was now the evening of Friday the 10th of June, and it's here that this story takes a bizarre, and some may say miraculous, turn. That night, a woman from South Lake Tahoe named Deborah Hoyt and her husband were driving down the same stretch of Highway 50 that Christine and Nick had travelled along five days prior. They were both tired and started singing in an attempt to keep themselves alert during their journey. But as they approached the spot where, unbeknownst to them, the missing pair had tragically veered off course, Deborah spotted something that felt instantly wrong to her. Their car moved closer and closer to what had caught Deborah's eye, and she soon realised what she was looking at. In her own words, quote, "I saw a naked lady lying on the side of the road. Her face was towards me on her side. Her knees were slightly bent, and she had one arm underneath her head and one arm on her head." Deborah actually spoke these words on camera whilst being interviewed for the legendary US television series Unsolved Mysteries. And you can tell from her demeanour that she is very sincere and level-headed. There's a matter of factness in how she speaks and she's incredibly clear about what she witnessed. However, despite this certainty, at the time the couple were more suspicious about why the woman was there. They wondered whether it could be a prank or a way to bait them into stopping their vehicle only to have it hijacked and stolen. But nevertheless, they knew it was something they had to report immediately. And they pulled over at the first phone booth they found to report the sighting to the authorities. It took just minutes for two police cruisers to turn up to near where Deborah reported seeing the woman. But when they arrived and started to search the area, they couldn't find anything or any one. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact spot where she'd seen the figure, and given that they were working by torchlight in the middle of the night, it was perhaps unsurprising that no clues were turned over. The next morning, as word got around about the strange incident, it was suggested that the sighting could be connected to the Christine and Nick Scubish disappearance. And after their family pressed officers investigating the case to take a closer look at this specific section of Highway 50, El Dorado County Deputy Rick Storzer decided he would reassess the scene in the daylight. Now on the highway, there's an area known as Bullion Bend, which has a reputation as being quite dangerous. And this happened to be very close to where Deborah had reported seeing the naked woman. Deputy Storzer drove out to the location, and whilst the mysterious woman was still nowhere to be found, he did spot something else that intrigued him enough that he pulled over to investigate further. A single child shoe lay on the side of the highway, described by Storzer as a black tennis shoe, and he noticed that near to the discarded footwear was a steep embankment. From where he stood, his view was obscured, so he began to walk further back down the hard shoulder of the highway, peering down into the embankment as he went, and was suddenly met with an awful sight. The mangled wreckage of a car lay at the foot of the slope, and as the deputy scrambled down the ravine and approached it, he strongly suspected that it belonged to Christine Scubich. Speaking afterwards, he described how he first spotted the young mother in the driver's seat, and though it was clear she was deceased, he checked her pulse point to confirm before looking over to the passenger side. There, the officer saw the body of a boy curled up in the fetal position, and those Storzer was certain that he had also passed away he needed to be sure, as he describes, quote, "When I reached to check for his pulse, initially I think I'm going to find that he's deceased, that I won't find any pulse, he'll have rigor mortis set in. When I touched him, it appeared to me that he took a breath. At that point, I realised that he had been down there for about five days by himself. The little boy who the deputy realised must be Nick Scubich was alive." And Storzer called for an ambulance to attend the scene right away. Nick was taken to UC Davis Medical Centre in Sacramento, and was found to be suffering from serious dehydration and effects from exposure to poison oak, as well as being covered in scratches. His condition was upgraded soon after he arrived at the hospital, after it became clear just how poorly he was. But Nick is a fighter. By the 14th of June, Dave Storzenbach gave the media an update in which he stated, quote, "He's going to make it. Right now, he's real weak, but he's eating. He's a super tough kid." Gosh, this story makes me so emotional, and it's only going to get more emotional from here on out, so do be prepared. In the Unsolved Mysteries episode, Christine's mother speaks out about what she believed those five days were like for Nick, saying that she thinks he likely spent a lot of time still talking to his mother, unable to understand that she was gone, and gradually began to drift in and out of consciousness. Deputy Storzen also revealed that the medics who attended the scene told him that, had Nick not been found precisely when he was, had it been just an hour or two later, that the story might have had a very different ending. The young boy was so close to not making it, and had Deborah Hoyt not seen the woman on the side of the road the night before and reported it to the police, it's certain that he would not have been found in time. Now, Deputy Storzen has been very clear that there is categorically no way that what Deborah saw could have been Christine's physical body. She had passed away long before the night of the 10th of June, likely on impact at the time of the accident, and she was still belted into the car and fully clothed when it was discovered, which leads on to our next point. The two theories about the child's shoe are one, that it was thrown from the car during the crash, or two, that Nick had been able to climb out of the car at one point to make it to the road, before losing one of his shoes. Some reports say that Nick was found without his clothing on, and also that he was suffering from hyperthermia. In my view, those two things go hand in hand, as we know that some experiencing the condition can sometimes do something called "paradoxical undressing", which I think I mentioned in our "Deatle of Pass" episode, it's where a person who's suffering from hyperthermia feels like they're burning up, when they're actually getting very cold. So even if we were to really stretch it and suggest that perhaps it was poor Nick lying at the side of the road that night, I think it would be ridiculous to suggest that Deborah could have mistaken the frame of a three-year-old child with that of a full grown woman, especially when she was able to describe the woman in such detail. So what was Deborah's take on what she had witnessed? She has made her stance very clear, saying, "I know I saw a naked woman on the side of the road, and I know it was Christine, or her angel, her spirit, so that it would save Nicky. She stayed around for that, and Deputy Strouser concurred, saying that he believes Christine had some hand in helping to lead the police to find her son just in time." Christine's mother also agreed. The consensus between everyone involved with, or linked to this case, seems to be that the young mother's spirit did everything possible to save Nick, and that it's the reason he's alive today, and it is so moving to hear them all speak about this. However, there is much more to this story, far more than I realised there would be when I first started researching it, and for me it truly takes this tale to a whole new level. And is why, at the start of this episode, I described it as so compelling from a paranormal perspective, because whilst the majority of the information available about this case was published back in the 90s in the years directly following the tragedy, there was a hugely significant update which was released in 2011. In an episode of the docuseries Paranormal Witness, there is a filmed interview with a now adult Nick Scoobish, and he reveals some fascinating and very moving new details about what he experienced during his terrible ordeal. He began by telling the interviewers, in a calm and level voice, quote, "I remember tumbling down the hill, it was just tree after tree after tree, we were just hitting them head on, I just remember waking up and being in the passenger seat next to my mother, I remember not knowing what to think, looking at my mom and just kind of thinking that she was asleep, I didn't think anything more than that, at least not that I remember." Then he starts to recall something that he encountered during the days that followed, and when I heard him speak, it gave me goosebumps. Nick said, "I remember seeing lights, I just remember that there was something there, there was something right next to the car the entire time, next to my mom. I have a very distinct and vivid picture of it in my head, I mean, it was just a light, it was a big light, and then through the back window of the car itself, I could also see the same thing next to the road, and it had a silhouette, there was no specific features, but I saw a lighted outline of a body. It was never something that scared me, and I didn't feel afraid when I saw it." Oh my gosh, does anyone else have chills? Every time I hear or read these words from Nick, especially when you think about the wider context of the story, and the reason he was found alive, it's just incredible, but that's not all. There was another element to this overall tale that came out in the episode, and it concerns one of Christine's a lady named Karen. Very shortly after the pair went missing, Karen began to have disturbing dreams where she saw Christine and Nick laying in their car, which was at the bottom of a ditch. Additionally, the number 16 kept popping up throughout the dream, and Karen felt strongly that she was being sent a vision. In the Paranormal Witness episode, we then hear from Christine's stepfather Dave. He spoke about how, a couple of weeks after his stepdaughter and grandson were found, he went to the side of the crash, to check whether there were any belongings of Christine's that had been left behind. Once he arrived, he recalls that, as he got out of his car, he saw a mile marker at the side of the road. Upon closer inspection, he was amazed to note the number printed clearly on it, 16, denoting the number of miles to a nearby city. He then states it was at that moment that he finally understood that, in his words, "I knew my sister didn't have a dream, it was a premonition," and it all started making sense as I started adding the pieces. This sentiment was then echoed by Nick himself, as well as Deputy Strawcer, who also made an appearance in the 2011 documentary, which was great to see. Strawcer said, "I absolutely think something special happened here. People have asked before, is this some kind of miracle?" Yeah, I think it is a miracle. It's a whole number of series of events that I can't explain, and I don't know. I've often thought about it, but I just don't have the answers, and in Nick's interview with Tears in His Eyes, which absolutely set me off too, I'm not ashamed to admit it, he said, "When you put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, you take the dream that my aunt had, the apparition sighting that Deborah Hoyt did see, and the light that I did see around the car, it had to have been an angel. Whether it was God's hand or just a mother looking after her son, I honestly don't know, but it was something. It was something greater than me, greater than anything that I've ever believed." Since 2011, there hasn't been any new information released about the story as far as I can find. In my opinion, all of those involved did such a great job speaking about their experiences across those two different TV programs, and although Nick's survival really was miraculous, the family were still left grieving for Christine, and I'm sure it's something they wanted to continue to do largely in private. I'm going to speak about my own thoughts on this story at the end, but before I do so, throughout the course of researching this case, I ended up stumbling across a few others in which it's believed a life was saved with the help of a spirit. I know that previously on the podcast, I've discussed a few stories where information seemingly sent from beyond the grave has helped to identify a person's killer. For example, in our episodes about Zona Hestershoe and also Terecy Tabassa, but this is an altogether different situation, and surprisingly, there were more reported instances of it than I had imagined. I'm going to briefly tell you about one that really struck me, due to some similarities with the Christine and Nick Scoobish case, and this was an incident that happened back in March of 2015, when police in Utah received a call reporting that there was an overturned, partially submerged car in an icy river, they were quick to respond to the scene. Upon their arrival, things quickly took a strange and devastating turn. When they were able to look into the car, they determined that the driver, 25-year-old Jennifer Lingrosberg, had tragically passed away several hours earlier, but to their astonishment, in the backseat of the vehicle was Jennifer's 18-month-old daughter, Lily, who was unconscious but alive. It was determined that the car had been in the water for around 14 hours, and despite the freezing temperatures, Lily had been positioned just far enough out of the water to have enough oxygen to breathe, even though the car was upside down. Lily had been wearing just a flannel onesie when she was found, with no hat or gloves, and obviously had no food or water for the duration of her ordeal, yet she was able to be cut from her car seat, rushed into an ambulance, given CPR, and transported to a nearby hospital. However, once more, this wasn't the only baffling part of this story. The police officers, who attended the scene, all recalled that when they arrived at the river, they distinctly heard a woman's voice begging for their help. Spanish Fork police officer Tyler Bedo's told CBS News, "Someone said 'Help me' inside that car." An officer, Jared Warner, added, "It wasn't just in our heads. To me, it was as plain as day. I remember hearing a voice that didn't sound like a child, just saying 'Help me.'" From the information I can find about the story, it seems that the case had a profound effect on the officers, particularly on Tyler Bedo's, who actually wrote a book about how saving baby Lily helped to pull him out of certain struggles he was experiencing in his own life. It seems that Lily suffered no long-term injuries from the crash and that she's doing well to this day. Again, in this situation, I believe that the officers would have known the difference between the voice of an 18-month-old and a grown woman. Not to mention the fact, poor Lily was unconscious when she was discovered in the car. Once more, it's just so odd. There are not only further details you can read about this case, but also several others, which feel similar that you can learn more about too. For example, the 2016 story of Jane Reynolds and her children, which took place closer to home here in the UK. I may actually include this tale in a future Weird Fix episode, so do stay tuned for that. But for now, I wanted to finish off with my own thoughts about the Christine and Nick Scubish story. The first thing to mention ties in with the Jennifer Lindgrove's case too, and that is the corroboration aspect. In the latter story, you have the shared experience of the police officers hearing the woman's voice. Though sadly, Jennifer had passed away hours before. And in Christine's case, there's not only the lights and silhouettes that Nick remembers seeing, but the entirely independent report from Deborah Hoyt too. Not to mention the vision Christine's and Karen had as well. I've said this many times before, but when a story involving the paranormal can be verified or backed up by another person or multiple people. It becomes so much harder to look at it through a skeptical lens. I've sat here and seriously tried to think of any rational explanations as to, say, Deborah's vision at the roadside, and I simply can't think of one. There's no way that she actually saw Nick rather than Christine as she was adamant it was an adult woman, but say, for argument's sake, that she had been mistaken and had seen something that wasn't really there. What are the chances that the sighting would have occurred in the exact same spot that the car was later found down the embankment? It's just so bizarre. When you hear Nick talking about his visions too, the sincerity and emotion in his voice is heartbreaking and I just believe him. As you know, I always try to approach every story I cover objectively, but I'm really struggling to try and see this one from a skeptical perspective. I personally do believe that Christine's spirit helped to save her son, and ultimately, I hope that Nick's own belief in this has helped him to come to terms with what must have been a deeply traumatic event in his early life, and I wish nothing but the best for him and the rest of his family. Whether you see this story as a true example of a paranormal miracle, believe it's a case of a guardian angel, or think it's more likely a series of coincidences with more rational explanations behind them. I do think that something we could all agree on is that Nick's survival was nothing short of extraordinary. This was, without a doubt, one of the most emotional stories I've covered on the podcast so far, and one I know will stick with me for a very long time to come. What do you make of this case? Are you a believer who is convinced there was something paranormal at play here? Are you a skeptic who thinks there's nothing much to it? Or on the other hand, has this made you question things a little? Have you ever encountered something that seemed like a sign from beyond the grave? Your comments and messages are always fascinating for me to read. I look forward to them so much, and I'll be sure to let you know about the many ways in which you can get in touch at the end of the show. But before we get to our proper outro, we must first take a trip over to the land of weird media. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you have a point of sales system you can trust, or is it a real POS? You need Shopify for retail. From accepting payments to managing inventory, Shopify POS has everything you need to sell in person. Go to Shopify.com/system, all lowercase, to take your retail business to the next level today. That's Shopify.com/system. After looking into such a tragic story for this episode, I wanted to feature something wholesome and light-hearted in weird media today, and with the weather getting colder and as we move into autumn, I found myself becoming re-obsessed with a certain TikTok page. It's one I followed for quite some time, but I've been going back and re-watching the content because to me, it just feels so cosy and comforting. The page in question is adventures in Ardera, run by a man named Jake, who is best known for being the creator of the series 'Roll for Sandwich'. And if you're wondering why on earth this is being featured in weird media, you'll understand if you're familiar with the videos, but I will do my best to explain. The premise of the series is inspired by the game Dungeons and Dragons, and Jake uses different sets of ornate dice that would ordinarily be used in D&D to decide at random what kind of sandwich he'll make for his lunch that day. For each element, including the bread, main filling, cheese and sauce, he rolls the dice and then has to use the corresponding ingredients from his pre-determined list to include in that day's sandwich. As you can imagine, the end results vary from strange, but oddly delicious, to just plain wrong. But this is absolutely not one of those wasteful food pages where it's all very excessive and half of what show ends up going in the bin. It's very low-key and mindful, and that's what makes this a joy to watch. The visual setup looks really fun, there are these potion bottles in the back of the shots and the background music really adds to the vibe too. Jake has a very calming demeanor, it's hard to explain, but he kind of makes you feel like you're watching or listening to an old friend, and in a social media landscape where it sometimes feels very loud, it's so lovely to find a page that's actually so relaxing to watch. Whether you're into Dungeons and Dragons or not, I think the adventures in audio pages for everyone, and Jake's intro, with good afternoon D&D TikTok and beyond, makes it feel welcoming from the get go. Have you come across a roll for sandwich before? Are you intrigued? Do check it out and let me know what you think. Okay, time now for our saw shout outs, and the first two to mention are of course the television episodes I cited throughout. The Unsolved Mysteries episode from Season 9, specifically the Highway 50 Phantom segment in episode 16, as well as the corresponding Unsolved Mysteries wiki fandom page. And then the Paranormal Witness episode, that segment was called Haunted Highway, and it was from Season 1, Episode 2. There was a news article from the LA Times archive that was published on the 14th of June 1994. We had another news piece from the archives of the Santa Cruz Sentinel that was from the 12th of June 1994. And finally, we had that CBS news story all about the amazing rescue of Lily Grossbeck. That was from the 10th of March 2015. I am so ready to hear all of your thoughts on today's story, so as usual here's a list of all the places you can find us. On Instagram and threads, just look up at Things Get Weird podcast. I don't do much on threads to be honest, but it's better than the alternative. On TikTok, we are at Things Are About to Get Weird, and on Facebook you can find us by searching for the podcast name. That's where you'll find our main page and our private discussion group, and we would love to have you join our community over there. Our email address is thingsgetweirdpodcast@gmail.com, and if you've enjoyed this episode, I would massively appreciate to quit rating or review wherever you're listening. If you're listening on Spotify, don't forget the comments function too. I am loving reading your notes on there. Thank you all once again for being here today, and for your continued support. I'll be back to chat to you all again next week, in a brand new instalment of our mini episode series, Weird Fix. So, until next time, take care of yourself and others, and keep it weird, but the good kind of weird. [MUSIC]
