we're back and ready for our next case. let's welcome it with this quote from german philosopher friedrich nietzsche. "the theory of reincarnation is the starting point in man's history." bring out the litigants. life hasn't been kind to me, but what's mine is mine. there's nothing to discuss. what god gave me can't be taken from me.
-good afternoon and welcome. -good afternoon. oslivia? yes. that's an unusual name. i've never heard it before. it is different. who's astri, why are you suing her, and what do you demand to resolve this case? i'm suing her so she'll return my father's inheritance, and i also want shared custody of her son
because that child is my father. here we go! how old is the child? around five. -he's six. -six. and you want shared custody. do you know her? are you related? no, i don't know her, but i know that child is my father. plus, you want her to return the inheritance money
your father left you. -she has it? -that's right. explain the facts because it's a little hard to understand. around three months ago, i began to receive messages through my face time, and i was astonished. those messages contained information that only my father or i could've known. i brought evidence of those messages.
bring it to me. continue. so... you started getting these. "hello, how's my sugarpop?" to which you respond, "fine, who are you?" see, ma'am? sugarpop. only my father called me that. it's clearly her profile picture.
this is facebook. "who do you think? your father. how's your blood pressure?" do you have high blood pressure? i do, which only my father knew. "fine, but i think you're mocking me," is how you responded. right. it then reads, "did you finally have gallbladder surgery?"
nobody knew that. but your father. only my father. so what does this mean? i became uneasy after getting these messages. i was born here. i'm a child of immigrant parents. they came many years ago, and my father bought a farm just outside the city.
he always told me not to worry because he'd leave me some money for when i went to school. i grew up on that farm, and my father worked very hard for my mother and me. i had a lovely childhood, but when i was 13, my mother died of a heart attack. i had to take care of... your father.
my life completely changed. i didn't go to school and had to take care of the chores around the house. my father became terribly depressed after my mother's passing. he wasn't the same person. he'd lock himself in his room and wouldn't want to talk. he was getting sick. i knew he'd made a will, leaving me $450,000.
and i knew where my father kept the money. where? in a box. my father's fishing tackle box. your old man didn't believe in banks. no. he wasn't a smart man. he was a little slow. and didn't believe in banks. he kept his cash under the mattress.
yes, that's right. he refused to deposit it in the bank. so my father's illness got worse, until he eventually passes. i never found out where he'd hidden the money. -he didn't tell you. -no. so i sell the house and buy an apartment and had to get a job in order to survive. like i said, three months ago, i got those messages.
how long ago did your father die? five or six years ago. okay. great. and you began receiving these mysterious texts three months ago. what did you do? after i saw the messages, i logged on to her profile and found her address. to my surprise, her address was my parents' house.
the farm on which you grew up. so i went to see her. i knocked on her door, she opened, and she let me in. when i was in the living room, to my surprise, you won't believe what i found. a picture of her and her son with the box where my father kept the money. you can see it right there.
so you found this picture. that's right. and you recognize the box. yes, my father's tackle box. i know that's where he kept his money. and this is your father. with the same box in this picture. then what happened? i had questions.
i asked her where she got the information and how she found my father's box. she said she didn't send me any texts, that it was possible it was her son. to which i responded that i wanted to meet her son. she then calls for her son. hold that thought. i thought i'd die on the spot. his gaze is my father's.
believe me, that child is my father. i couldn't contain myself. he looked at me in such a way that i got closer and asked him if he's sent me the messages, to which he said yes, remember? yes, that's true. so he sent you the facebook messages. okay. how did you find the money?
first of all, she's so crazy that she's saying my son is her father. but you have to admit how weird this all is. it is, but i gave birth to him. how did a six-year-old get her address? how does he know to call her sugarpop? how does he know about the gallbladder and blood pressure? you must question that. i do, but no matter what i think, he's my son.
i gave birth to him. he isn't her father. he is my son. i understand. i can't say he's her father. but we don't know how he obtained that information to send to her. i do admit that i found the money. how did you find it? my son is very close to me.
i was in the kitchen cooking... what were you doing there? renting it? you rented it from the person to whom she sold it. i don't know who she sold it to, how many owners there've been, i really don't understand. i met this woman one week ago, when she came to my house, telling me my son was her father. i still let her in, but i wanted to know
why she was saying he was her father. that's when she explained about the facebook messages, about how only she and her father could've known some of the details. we called my son, and he said that he had in fact sent those messages. but when i asked him, he said no. he said yes to her... and no to you.
he said no to me. that's what i'm questioning. when my son is with me, he's my son. he's not her father. but somebody sent these messages. how did you find the money? let's talk about that. my son was fixated on a tree behind the house. every day, he'd stand in front of the tree.
i was more than concerned. what would he say? i'd ask him what he was doing, and he'd go off on tangents. i didn't understand a thing. he'd speak, but what he said made no sense. i recorded a video with the intent of taking it to a professional so i could get a scientific opinion.
i brought the video for you to watch. let's take a look. sweetie, what are you doing? what are you looking at? something of mine is there. what? i know something of mine is there. "i know something of mine is there." that's what he said.
i'd had enough of this game, so i bought a shovel for myself and a play shovel for him. "sweetie, let's play and find the treasure you say is buried there." so we dug and dug and the shovel hit something that i knew wasn't dirt. i kept digging and found the box. i removed it, and it was wrapped in plastic or something.
we cleaned it, and when i opened it, i was surprised by how much money was in there. $450,000 can you imagine? it saved my life. i'm a single mother. i was renting that house, and they were threatening to take my son from me because i was too broke to even feed him.
they were going to take him. so that money saved us. the first thing i did was buy the house for my son. you bought it from the person from whom you were renting. i paid cash. that's my son's house now. witnesses? -i have one. -i have one. let's take a short break.
look at how calm she is. i believe she's more interested in custody of your son than in the money. that doesn't make sense. i've known her one week. custody of my child? listen, that's ridiculous, but i'm explaining what i feel is more important to her. she truly does feel an incredible connection
to your child. and based on what you've said, your child is special. good afternoon. your name? good afternoon. -your name? -barbara. you're here as the plaintiff's witness. she's my late boyfriend's daughter. her father... oh, your father was seeing someone
after your mother's death. he was a little older than me. i always told him to put that money in a bank because it'd be safer, but he refused. he would've saved everyone a lot of grief. did he ever tell you where he put the money? never. i knew it was in that tackle box, but i never knew... where the box was kept.
i never knew. i couldn't tell her. when he was very sick, she'd beg him for the box's whereabouts, but he wasn't himself anymore. he couldn't tell her. what's your son's name? tomas. is he here? do i have your permission to meet him?
of course. bring tomas out along with dr. geysha menendez. we have with us a specialist in ayurveda medicine, light miller. this is eastern medicine, etc. bring out lizette sierra as well. hi, tomas. hi. come say hi to me.
give me a kiss. sit here with me. how old are you? six. do you know this woman? you do? how? she's got a tattoo of my father, and she's my daughter. see, ma'am? i'm not lying. how could he know i have a tattoo of my grandpa's name?
how? how do you know all this, kid? she's your daughter? inconceivable, ma'am. how did you find the treasure? you're the one who found it. how? i knew something of mine was there. you knew something of yours was there. mm-hmm.
-you knew. -yes. thank you for your testimony, tomas. -okay? -okay. you may leave if you'd like. go with roberto. i'm not crazy, ma'am. no, no... of course not. very interesting, ma'am. something from beyond.
very interesting. believe it or not, there's a psychiatrist at the university of virginia who's studied this. he's found specific cases of children between two and six who report this type of experience. there are over 2,500 reported cases over the past 50 years. there's so much of our brain we don't use.
that we don't use and don't understand. we don't understand. okay, ms. miller. i've had lots of experiences with patients and students who've graduated from my program. reincarnation exists. i grew up with that understanding and like the doctor said, there are many cases of children growing up
with memories of the past. now let's you and me discuss the earthly aspect. this is very interesting. generally, what one finds on one's land becomes one's property. in this case, she had no right to it, the homeowner did. secondly, there are exceptions to that rule of thought. for example, if the property is abandoned or lost, then it becomes one's own.
but if that property is mislaid, that is not lost or abandoned but rather unintentionally lost and that can be proven, there are courts that have returned the property even though the actual homeowner found it. her attitude is fantastic. she presented her suit, but she's not emphasizing the money at all but rather the child.
she sees something of her father in that child. i believe that if you open your doors to her and give her a chance to be your friend, who knows, maybe you'll now have a mother here. -is your mother here in the us? -no. how about that? you'd be getting a mother, and the child a grandmother. maybe she can help you out. maybe you can keep her company
and allow her to spend time with that child. i think you should at least give her some of what you have remaining. at the very least. even if it's half of what remains. i think it's fair. that money was hers. it's in the will, there's the tackle box. as luck would have it, she didn't know where it was.
-you've spent it. -yes. you've got your home and your son is fine. give her half of what you have remaining. you've got $90,000, give her $45,000. and open the doors of your heart to her. give her a chance to spend time with your son and you. i think that'll make her happy, right? yes, ma'am. thank you very much. okay?
case resolved. it's final. case closed. be kind, be careful, get educated, give respect to get respect, and may god help us. see you next time and thanks for joining me. cc: telemundo network captioning@telemundo.com (305) 887-3060
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