SPOOKS 4: TAKEN AT MIDNIGHT

Back in 1983, Pavagada taluk in Karnataka was shaken by a horrifying series of child abductions. Children sleeping right next to their parents were taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Their remains would later be found at the edge of town. Who took these children? And why? What really happened? Let’s dive into the unsolved mystery of Pavagada’s missing girls.

One strange story. One disturbed place. Many unsolved questions. This is Spooks, a new miniseries in the world of ‘Rumors’. 

Just like Rumors, Bound helps brands and storytellers create high-quality, knowledgeable, and stellar podcasts with our end-to-end podcast and video production services. Reach out to our producer, Aishwarya Javalgekar, at aishwarya@boundindia.com to get started on your podcasting journey or analyze if a podcast is right for you.

‘Rumors’ shines a light on the darkest corners of India, where fact and fiction combine into magical and haunting stories.

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms.

Written and voiced by Chandrima Das, a best-selling author, storyteller and an avid collector of dark tales. Follow her @hackiechan on all social media platforms.

Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar
Sound design by Aditya Arya
Artwork by Artisto Designz

Disclaimer: This show is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to outrage, insult, defame, or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs, feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition, black magic and/ or witchcraft. While every effort has been made in research, we do not make any representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability or completeness of the content.

Transcript

00:00

This show was made for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to outrage insult, defame or hurt any religion or religious sentiments, beliefs feelings of any person, entity, class or community and does not encourage or propagate any superstition black magic and or witchcraft. listeners should exercise their discretion.

00:25

Summer closes in on an Indian village. Driven by sweat and discomfort, a family of four drag their carts outside. Tonight, they sleep in the open.

00:38

The woman of the house wakes up in the middle of the night, her throat parched with thirst.

00:45

Driven by a mother's instincts, she sleepily reaches out to check on her children.

00:51

The older one is fast asleep. Her hand grasps for the younger child and finds nothing.

01:00

A sickening realisation blooms in the pit of her stomach. Her screams break the silence of the night. waking her husband,

01:10

their four year old daughter is missing.

01:15

Soon the couple rouses the other villagers, there is chaos, confusion, and tears.

01:24

A desperate search for the missing child begins.

01:29

This heartbreaking scene is not from a movie. This real life tragedy affected not one but several families of power Garda Taluk in Karnataka back in 1983,

01:43

who took their children in the middle of the night. What happened to these girls?

01:48

Let's dive into the unsolved mystery of power goddess missing girls.

02:15

One strange story,

02:19

one disturbed bliss

02:24

and many unanswered questions.

02:32

This is spokes,

02:35

a miniseries From the world of romance.

02:54

On April 29 1983, a quiet village in Karnataka was shaken by a strange and gruesome event.

03:05

While sleeping next to her parents, a five year old girl had been snatched in the middle of the night.

03:12

A frantic search had led the distraught parents and villagers to a gruesome sight at the edge of the village. On the ground, layer severed limb and torn, bloodied fragments of the child's clothes.

03:26

The child's body was never found.

03:29

The signs of violence told them clearly that she couldn't have survived.

03:36

But little did the villagers know that the carnage had only begun.

03:43

A few days later, a three year old girl from pavagada town went missing. Under eerily similar circumstances.

03:52

The police had taken the time with the first case, but now, two girls were dead. Time was of the essence if they were to prevent a third, the cops swung into action.

04:05

witness interviews indicated that the two cases might be connected. After inspecting both crime scenes, the police became sure that they were

04:17

in both cases, a child had been taken in the middle of the night, and the next morning, her disjointed body parts were found.

04:26

But there was one more connection and especially strange one.

04:32

The presence of paw prints at the crime scenes.

04:37

This couldn't be the work of a human being

04:40

a monster was on the hunt.

04:47

The police had the theory, but didn't have enough hard evidence to point a finger at anyone or anything.

04:55

So they chose the path of elimination one by one

05:00

They slowly closed other possibilities and leads. But the clock was ticking. Within weeks, five more girls had been taken, sometimes just as apart from each other. Each of these cases followed the same pattern as the first two bodies were piling up. The models were on a spree.

05:24

Distraught villagers began demanding answers, putting the police under tremendous pressure.

05:31

To placate the families, the police finally made their hypotheses public.

05:38

The limbs don't close. The small size of the victims and paw prints at the scene could only mean one thing.

05:48

The killers have to be man eating goals from neighboring forests.

06:01

The villagers now had a villain to focus on.

06:05

Niels reached the local forest department. They couldn't believe the IRS.

06:12

For several reasons, it was impossible for wolves to be involved. And they tried to debunk this theory with the villagers and the police refused to listen.

06:24

A mass hunt for wolves was launched.

06:27

Armed with sticks, stones and sharp weapons and supported by the police. The grieving villagers wreaked revenge upon the predatory animals. And right through six wolves were hunted down in just a few days. Soon, the hunt was extended to include hyenas. The result, the significant dip in the population of wolves and hyenas in the area.

06:55

For two months, the abductions and killings stopped.

07:01

It looked like the police were right. There was relief, even a muted celebration. They had identified the villain correctly. They had hunted it down and destroyed it.

07:16

But the villagers were in for a shock.

07:20

Soon, another child went missing. In the middle of the night.

07:26

The police were stumped. forest officials felt vindicated. The villagers questioned if wolves had indeed been behind the attacks, and two pieces of evidence further fueled their doubts.

07:41

While paw prints had indeed been found near each crime scene, there had been no drag marks from an animal carrying the victim away. And in one case, while escaping with a child, the so called wolves had thrown stones at the father who was giving chase.

07:59

A wolf throwing stones.

08:02

The police theory lay in tatters the culprit, had to be human.

08:09

The villagers were now in search of a new villain. The culprits were not wolves. But such gruesome crimes couldn't have been committed by any regular human being.

08:21

something supernatural had to be at play.

08:26

Rumors began to surface

08:29

suspicion turn to fear some Tantrics from the nearby Modaks Shira region. Yes, that had to be it. They had taken the little girls and offered them to Goddess Kali as part of ritual sacrifices.

08:45

For the second time in a year, mass panic spread through the region. Unable to handle the villagers, the police became desperate to find answers.

08:57

The most recent killing had been of a three year old in pavagada.

09:02

If they could just focus all their resources and solve this case, they might be able to solve the entire sequence and end the madness.

09:18

The police had a few things going for them. For one, the evidence was still fresh.

09:25

Locals had found the child's skull, only a few 100 feet outside of town.

09:30

They had also found for prints all around the site.

09:35

So the police called in a dog squad.

09:38

To their relief. The sniffer dogs picked up a scent from the skull.

09:43

They traced it straight to a nearby cave.

09:47

But when the police searched the sky for evidence of wolves or humans, they found nothing.

09:55

Thankfully, though, for the police and the villagers

10:00

This was the last of the killings

10:07

in a span of two years 11 People had lost their lives most with children.

10:16

It's not like there's no credibility to the theory of the culprits being wolves. Wolves snatching away sleeping human children in the middle of the night is not an unheard of phenomenon. In 1997, several cases of this predatory behavior were documented in the distant state of Uttar Pradesh.

10:37

Chill Bella is one of many settlements along the riverbanks and ravines southeast of Lucknow. Throughout the summer of 1997. Several reports of wolves dragging away children by the throat while they slept in the open emerged.

10:54

Like the pavagada cases, all the victims were children under the age of six. And just like pavagada, the wolves would drop the mutilated bodies in nearby cornfields, and riverbeds.

11:08

But unlike pavagada, some children in chill Bella survived the horrific injuries and live to tell the tale.

11:18

The scrawny and ferocious Indian gray wolf resembles an Alsatian dog. They tend to eat their prey in one go. And if they can't finish the job, they leave the RESTful hyenas and jackals. In such cases, mutilated half eaten bodies are always found.

11:38

But in pavagada, only a few isolated body parts skulls and fragments of clothing had been left behind. It is this key difference that caused forest officials to doubt if the abductions were indeed the work of wolves.

11:55

Other patterns cast more doubt.

11:58

All the murdered children were little girls.

12:02

Wolves are not known to be gender selective about their prey.

12:07

Then there was the confusing physical evidence.

12:12

While paw prints were found, there were no drag marks from the wolf carrying away its victim by the throat, as they had seen in Shell Billa. Since all the victims were younger than six years, perhaps a large wolf could carry children of that size without dragging them along the ground. It is possible

12:32

but is it probable?

12:36

witness accounts also very. Most witnesses couldn't give any visual descriptions of the abductors.

12:44

But some claim to have seen a large dog like figure, while others claim the wolves actually threw stones.

12:53

So who did this? What caused the killings to suddenly stop after two years?

13:00

These questions were never answered. Because this real life story of serial killings and mass panic came to a highly unexpected, but understandable dead end.

13:14

After the final killing, the police continued the investigation for some time. The things soon turned difficult. In the villagers minds, suspicion had firmly shifted from wolves to Tantrics and Tantrics were not to be trifled with.

13:32

Moose came from the realm of the natural but Tantrics they came from the realm of the supernatural.

13:43

Consumed by a fear of the unknown, the villagers refused to cooperate with the police.

13:49

In the meantime, the case had garnered tremendous publicity. It reached the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for discussion.

13:58

Wills were mentioned and dismissed, much to the relief of the forest department. But no one mentioned Tantrics or any other suspects. mass panic was already at a peak, and the government probably didn't want to fuel it further. As with many issues that suddenly flare up in the public eye. This case too, was forgotten with the passage of time.

14:31

40 years later, scattered information and unreliable witnesses leave behind a baffling mystery.

14:40

The story is unresolved, but lives on as a chilling reminder that death doesn't need to knock on the door to enter. Especially when we're sleeping outdoors. And when death enters our lives in an especially gruesome fashion. We refuse to believe that it could be

15:00

The work of an ordinary human being.

15:04

People need monsters, whether they have four legs, or two. We need extraordinary villains to blame for the extraordinary tragedies and misfortunes in our lives. And when necessary, we will create them from the recesses of our minds

15:34

Thank you for listening to spooks, a miniseries From the world of rumors.

15:41

I'm Chandra Madonna's collector and Teller of dark tales, and the creator of this podcast in collaboration with bound a company that helps you grow through stories

15:54

produced by Ashari as our maker and sound designed by other care area.

16:01

Join me every Friday on this quest into the lesser known side of the subcontinent. Subscribe rate and review for new episodes every week.

16:13

Sleep safe tonight.

16:15

Who knows what awaits in the dark?