October 17, 2025 • 45 mins
In today’s special episode, Karen and Georgia are joined by host and award-winning journalist Becky Milligan to discuss her brand-new investigative series, Hell in Heaven. Brought to you by Exactly Right Media and iHeartPodcasts, produced by Blanchard House, this is the unmissable story of John and Ann Bender—and their true tale of wealth, isolation, and obsession. Young, brilliant, and impossibly rich, they set out to build a vast mansion and wildlife sanctuary in the Costa Rican rainforest. But not everything in paradise is what it seems.
After the interview, you’ll hear the premiere episode of Hell in Heaven, “The House of Secrets.” Then, head to Hell in Heaven’s feed to follow the show and find additional episodes. New episodes drop every Thursday.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Nay.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We are very excited today because we just released our
newest limited series from our partners over at Blantard House,
and it's called Hell in Heaven.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
It's a true crime story about a rich American couple
who escaped to the Costa Rican jungle to build their
dream home, complete with armed guards and a bedroom lit
by four hundred Tiffany lamps.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
But their dream turns into a nightmare as isolation and
paranoia leads to a mysterious death.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And we're lucky to be talking to the award winning
investigated journalists who tracked this story down.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You know her from her twenty twenty four podcast right
here on exactly right, The Butterfly King. It is Becky Milligan.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Hello, Becky, hye hie Hi, Georgia, Hi Karen.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Really nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Great to see you again. Have seen you since The
Butterfly King premiere.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
I know a bit of time away, but you know,
been working away, being off to Costa Rica and doing
this story. Amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
How did you find this story originally?
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Well, it was actually a while back and I was
sort of reading through a few stories and then a
friend actually said, did you hear about this story? I
read it and I thought you might be interested, and
then we found much more detailed about it, and then
we found a book and we just thought, oh, this
is just incredible. It just has everything, and we thought
(01:34):
we'd pursue it then and just see what we could
do with it.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, it's so dramatic when you make the trek to
the actual compound essentially in Costa Rica and there are
security guards and they're filming you. Was there ever a
point where you were afraid for your lives?
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, i'mill was a bit of a scaredy cat. You know,
when I see guns, I just think, let's get out
of here. But I was obviously with Poppy Dave and
the producer and our sound records Dan, and they were
really busy sort of chatting and just seeing what was
going on. And I was the one who was suddenly say, listen, guys,
(02:12):
there's a guy with a gun. It's actually pointed towards
We've got to get out of here. So yeah, there
were times when I get a bit frightened. I don't
think it was actually threatening, but it is a bit
scary when you see that.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, that's so intense. I love that you're saying you're
a bit of a scaredy cat. Except for that you're
an investigative journalist.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
A contradiction, Well not really. I never want to go
to really scary places, but I just did of end
up being there. But anyway, I try and avoid it.
But this was an amazing jungle. I mean, you know,
our couple wanted to escape all the sort of people
and sounds of the city and set up a sort
of utopia of paradise with wildlife. But I tell you what,
(02:52):
being there in the jungle, it is so noisy and
you have the you'll hear it in the show these
how the monkey is. I'm sure you know them, but
they were new to me, and it's like through the
jungle howling like a dinosaur. It was just so incredible
to be there and see their incredible house.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
How much do you think that the either the house,
the compound, or the jungle itself. How much of a
role do you think that played in the story. Do
you think their story would have played out the way
it did had they not, you know, had the circumstances
that they did.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
I think the house is really important because it's kind
of central to the story. When we got there and
we got through the jungle and you know, eventually found
this hilltop with what looked like a spaceship on top
of it, you know. Four stories. It just felt so
symbolic and symbolic of the story and the way they
built it, the way that they wanted the animals to
(03:46):
interact with the house and the jungle around it and
bring it back to its natural state. It feels as
though nature sort of played its part, as did the
house almost how they was almost in conflict, but not so.
I think the fact that the house was isolated on
a hill. There were these wonderful couple in lots of
ways who wanted to create something beautiful. I think the
(04:10):
house really played a part in it. It was sort
of just both beautiful but also isolated a bit of
a threat.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, there's so many good interviews in this podcast. I
really love that there's people really bringing color to the
story and real perspective, like people that were there trying
to explain this kind of outrageous and outlandish true crime story.
How do you find people like that? Is that just
you tracking people down? Do you ever do it in
the moment, like when you're on scene?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Oh, all the time, you know, What was really special
about this is you can set up interviews and read
loads and all of that and write something and do
a few interviews online or whatever. But when you go
somewhere and you're actually sitting down with people, they tell
you about, Hey, have you spoken to Joe there or
(05:01):
so and so over there? They have a story to tell.
And we found that all the time. It just whatever
you fix up, serendipity steps in. When you're on the ground,
you and it's great because you feel like you're doing
the proper job because you're actually just knocking on doors
and saying, hey, what about this? What about that? And
we did with the characters were just so much fun
(05:24):
to meet. And obviously there were gaps that people had
in the knowledge of the story, and so they filled
it with gossip and with their own theories, and it
kind of almost drifts on the air as you're going
through the jungle. So yes, absolutely, and you do you
just stop people in the street pay to sort of
know the story, so you quickly chat to them and
see whether they know enough to be able to add
(05:46):
to the story. It's amazing, really yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Wow. Ultimately, this is a true crime story. It's a
mysterious death. What do you think it is about those
stories like the Butterfly King as well, that draws you
becky to those stories.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Well, for me personally, it's the idea that maybe a
little mystery, the idea that there are people who are
involved in it who are able to tell you what
really happened, and underneath it all the real story, that
there's a human story. And there's this sort of bigger
theme that when you think about John and Ann it
(06:22):
was their desire to find peace, to find a utopia,
and they did this together to get away from people
and searching for a place where they could exist with nature.
And so I think it just makes you think about
we all want that. You know, we're all there with them,
and it turned into a dreadful tragedy, but there's something
(06:44):
that we can all connect with with every single person
we speak to, I hope, but also just to what
really brought it down to earth. I don't want to
say exactly who we spoke to, but not to give
too much away, but we did meet the parents of
one of the couple and what it did, it just
brings you straight down to earth at that point because
it is terrible terrible grief and a grief that isn't
(07:06):
over and it never will be. And I think that,
you know, seeing that couple hold their hands, reach for
each other's hands under the table to grip on for
dear life when they're talking about the story, it makes
you really realize that this is a very human story
and I hope told with sensitivity and respect for all
(07:27):
their family and friends.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, I'm sure it is because Becky, you're the best
in the business. I mean, it's such an honor to
be able to work with you and to be able to,
you know, show everybody your work because you're incredible. And
this podcast is so good. Everybody at the network that
has to listen to it for whatever department, whatever reason,
everyone is blown away. You did an amazing job. Can
(07:51):
we just ask you one final question, which is, what's
the scariest thing you saw in the jungle? Did you
see a snake? Did you see a giant spider? Did
you ever get far into quicksand anything, anything at all?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I think I think the scariest thing was we did
stop off at this waterfall and we were sitting there
and I was I don't know why, but I always
felt I was sort of mother of everyone there, and
they were all climbing up and Poppy was beginning to
sort of strip off and whatever. It was very hot.
And then I looked over and I saw this shadow,
(08:26):
black shadow, and I started to go, oh my god,
it's a lion. It's I mean, not a lion. I
didn't know what it was anyway, it was well, I
was really scared, and I turned to Poppy. She'd seen it,
and she said, don't worry. It's just like a cat,
and it's like the cat that John had as a pet.
It's fine. And then it disappeared, slithered away. So I
didn't see a snake. I didn't. I mean, there were
(08:48):
really terrible thing, you know, things that could kill you
with one bike, but I just I stayed on the
on the paths.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Sounds like the smart way to well.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, but thank you very much. I'm so glad you
enjoyed it, and you know, it was an absolute privilege
to do.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Thank you so much, Becky, thanks for talking to us today,
and we're so excited to share the podcast with everyone.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Yeah, thank you so much. It's great to see you
guys again.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Great to see you all.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Right, now it's time to listen to the first episode
of Hell in Heaven. When you're done, episode two is
waiting for you over at the Hell in Heaven feed And.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
While you're there, please don't forget to like and subscribe
and give it a five star review, because of course
it really helps.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
New episodes of Hell and Heaven drop every Thursday on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Now. Please enjoy episode one of Hell in Heaven.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Goodbye. January the seventh, twenty ten, We're outside the house
of John and Anne Bender, a young American couple who've
built an extravagant home and wildlife refuge in the middle
(10:02):
of the Costa Rican rainforest. John made a multi million
dollar fortune on Wall Street and is his bright and
glamorous wife. It's now one in the morning. The emergency
call came in an hour ago, a shooting and a casualty.
(10:33):
That's the voice of Carlos Morra. He was the ambulance
driver who was on the scene that night. I've tracked
him down Ell Now, he's attended hundreds of violent incidents
over the years, but this one stands out. He's never
experienced anything like it before or since, and he's not alone.
(10:54):
All the people I've found while reporting on this story,
remember it in vivid detail. I'm Becky Milligan Eyebroke Stories
for the BBC for almost thirty years, and I've reported
on some pretty strange events, but this one is the
strangest of all. So back to that night. Carlos enters
(11:18):
the Bender's house and he gets in the elevator, and
just like everything else in this house, this is no
ordinary elevator. It's a round, open platform that rises up
through the building. Carlos grips onto the handrail. He sees
(11:39):
each floor as it passes. The house is incredible, he says,
He's never seen a place like it. It's like an
enormous spaceship. Inside it's all stainless steel and shiny black
floors like pools of water. There's a lot of money here.
(12:05):
Who could own such a house, he asks himself. Paula's
quiety is a drug trafficker? Like I said, Carlos is anxious.
Guards and security are everywhere, armed with heavy caliber weapons.
They're speaking to each other in hushed voices. He's been
(12:26):
told he has to go up to the fourth floor,
the master bedroom. He passes the first floor, the second
floor a vast kitchen, the third floor, the fourth floor,
(12:46):
the bedroom, and on the bed a body curled up
as if asleep. But as Carlos gets closer, he takes
in the horror of it all. The gunshot wound at
the back of the head, the victim's left arm dangling
off the bed, blood dripping from it, forming a pool
(13:10):
on the highly polished marble floor, and near it on
the floor. The gun a semi automatic. At first, the
police will assume this is a suicide, but not for long.
And here's why. The gun seems to have dropped from
(13:33):
the victim's left hand, yet the entry wound is on
the right side of the head. Not only that the
bullet was fired from behind from exactly right. Media and
(13:57):
iHeart podcasts produced by House. This is Helen Heaven. I'm
Becky Milligan. Chapter one, The House of Secrets. Our story
(14:34):
begins and ends with a house built and owned by
Anne and John Bender. This place is their dream home.
When they first move here, they're both in their thirties.
He's made his millions, and now he wants to put
them to good use, to enjoy them by creating a
wildlife sanctuary. So our couple are young, and they're in love, complete,
(15:00):
in love, devoted. It seems they live only for each
other and all the beloved animals they've rescued. John also
has his rare orchids, and Anne has her collection of
tiffany lamps, hundreds of them. So Anne and John have
everything they need right here in their house in the
(15:21):
middle of the jungle, a house unlike any other and
which will in time be the scene of a terrible
tragedy and a mystery. So I land in Costa Rica
to investigate this story, and by coincidence, my eighteen year
old daughter is already here, working on a conservation project
(15:44):
elsewhere in the country. She's been messaging me, telling me
all about protecting turtle eggs on pristine beeches, relaxing in
camp as monkeys play in the trees, and about how
she showers in the open air as hummingbirds hover close
by paradise. But as I arrive in the country and
discover more about this story about the dark side of
(16:08):
life in Costa Rica, the more I start to worry
about my daughter and worry about myself turning into some
sort of internet meme. A hysterical, over protective mother convinced
her daughter is about to die. Not only that, I'm
not coping too well with the climate either. Gosh, it's
(16:28):
quite diring, isn't in this he doo woo. Scotland in
autumn is more my thing. And that's a lot cooler
than it is here. My producer Poppy and I have
driven four hours from the capital San Jose, a hair
raising drive around hairpin bends with sheer drops on either side.
(16:49):
But we're now deep in the rainforest searching for John
and Anne Bender's house. First, through a slight clearing, we
come upon the dear Monte Waterfall, which gives this valley
its name. Oh wow, that's it, nice, kidna is that it?
(17:09):
It's so high up in the water, tumbles from a
high ridge down the cliff face and is swallowed up
by the forest below. Blue, green and yellow birds flutter
above our heads, and the noise is intense and strange.
Raws echo in the distance like dinosaurs. Sounds enchanting, But
(17:35):
the truth is we're already on edge. We've been spooked
by a phone call we made just before we set out.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
It's like warm in the daytime, kind of cool, at night,
crystal clear spring water blowing out of the mountains. Fruits
and vegetables grow real easily, nice vegetables, tomatoes, bananas. We
never thought we were coming back.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
That's John Corvick, who knows the area and used to
be the bender's name. And John had a warning.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There was my wife and I and that was about it.
So you're alone on this giant farm in the deep
jungle most of the time. It's a strange thing. It
sounds morbid, but a lot of people die off there,
and a lot of people go kind of crazy. They
lose it. They actually lose it. Struggling with anything in
(18:26):
the jungle. You're gonna face your inner demons.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
John's words really unsettle us.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
There's folklore about the Diamonte waterfall. I'd be damned if
all the people that move in and out of there
don't go bad shit. You know, the hippies has some
very the vortex of energy that spins off the waterfall.
The Indians say it's a curse because they will run
off their land any way you cut it. The families
go nuts, they fall apart, people die. I don't know
(18:53):
anyone who's lives facing that waterfall that just set up
shop and enjoyed this majestic view and just soaked it
in long term, I really don't. Sometimes I think it's
from isolation. You have cabin fever. They go Dutch. You
could have cabin fever. My wife asked me. She says,
are you ever going to put clothes on again? I
(19:14):
would go three or four days in my rubber boots.
You know, I didn't see anyone.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
It sounds like an exaggeration that people go mad and
lose it, But by the end of our story, you
won't think.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
So shit that plates is the darkest jungle you've ever
seen in your life. You have no clue.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
We leave the waterfall behind and walk even deeper into
the jungle in search of John and Anne Bender's house,
which they called Ura Cayenne. Okay, I'm seeing some barbed
wife fence.
Speaker 7 (19:51):
I think we're getting close.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
That even looks like cut laws.
Speaker 8 (19:55):
It does.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Right up the slope dest we see the slopes of
the gardens first, and then through the trees and foliage.
Oh my god, that's really it. It's just enormous. It's
like a spaceship's landed on the top of a hill
in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica. It's
(20:17):
like four stories with this dome at the top. It's
constructed from huge concrete slabs and columns and fifty thousand
square feet around the same size as a soccer pitch,
and it's round. Imagine that on a jungle hilltop, rising
way above the tops of the trees, and you get
(20:39):
an idea of what it looks like and how out
of place it is. The views are incredible. In the evening,
John and Anne would sit and look out across the jungle,
enjoying the glorious sunsets, enjoying each other's company. In the daytime,
they'd zoom around on their five thousand acres of land
on a quad bike, busying them with their wildlife refuge,
(21:02):
caring for all the animals. They'd saved a great black hawk,
a jaguar urundi, which is a wild cat on the
verge of extinction, and Anne also had her dog, a
German shepherd called Millie. It really is an astonishing place,
but being here now there's a sinister edge to it all.
(21:24):
I can see why they loved it. It's completely isolated,
but their gates here, a couple of guards, and there's
no entry. There's just no way we can get in.
And even at the top I can see a guard
sort of walking the perimeter.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
I think he is coming.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
In fact, he was filming us. They're getting a bit tense,
all the guards. Oh goodness. We'd ask permission to go
inside weeks before and hadn't received a response. But just
as we're leaving, a man turns up in fatigues.
Speaker 9 (22:05):
Hey, Orlando, are you Orlando with making a documentary about
Anne and John?
Speaker 7 (22:11):
But it's not possible to go inside, isn't.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
He puts his hand up and shakes his head.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
Thanks, have a good day.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Good as we go.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
The house is up for sale, empty, and there's a
sadness about it, almost like the structure holds memories of
what took place here.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Hey, I mean nu.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
In Barlaudes twenty years ago, as Voldo Rochas had been
preparing to meet his new boss. He knew nothing about
him apart from his name, John Bender and that he'd
brought up some land in dear Monte Valley. He ended
up working for the Benders for ten years. Persilon as
Voda was grateful for the job, and grateful too to
(22:58):
his former boss. Also an American.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Jim had sold his farm to the new arrivals, John
and Anne, but made sure his young maintenance man wouldn't
lose his well paid job, which were pretty hard to
come by in Paris.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
All okay, Gandole. I understand there was a close in
the contract where Jim, the previous owner, specified that I
had to continue working on the property when this cell
was made. Why I stayed to take care of the
property until John Bender arrived.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Back then, everyone in town was gossiping about the new
gringos moving to the valley. Gringos is what Costa Ricans
call Americans. Most foreigners are gringos. The locals are called ticos.
What was clear was that they were rich gringos. Nobody
knew how rich, But then nobody really knew who this
couple were at all, least of all as Valdo. He
(23:52):
remembers the day they arrived very clearly because he was
a bit nervous and wasn't sure what to expect. Before
the house was built, the new couple were staying at
a place in town.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I remember being surprised when they show up in the
little car. They were mostly reserved people, especially young He
didn't like to interact much with daughters. He would prefer
the mountains, and he said something like, I hate this property.
I've been deceived. He never realized that the house was
so close to the center of town until they arrived.
(24:28):
We didn't realize how young they were. We expected to
see an older couple. He was a big man. She
was thin and pretty.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Benita. That was the word everyone used to describe An
and John, at six foot five, was built like an
American footballer, a guy who clearly worked.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
Out, hugely muscular, gorgeous, blue eyes, dark hair.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Carol Vaughan, an ex pattern author who moved to the
town a few years later, he was taken by how
glamorous the couple were.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
Just handsome, movie story handsome. She was petitete, delicate, moved
like a ballerina. She reminded me a lot of Audrey Hepburn.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Despite his physique, John was a gentle soul. He was
kind to all animals, even the tiniest insect. Back home
in the US, he'd taken in dozens of stray cats,
and he was incredibly smart, good with numbers. Anne, meanwhile,
had been the most popular kid at school. No doubt
(25:38):
they were a striking couple. There's a photo of them
taken on their new property. John is standing behind Anne
in shorts and a T shirt, one arm wrapped around
her chest, the other around her waist in a protective way.
He towers above her, and Anne in jeans, is holding
onto his arms and leaning back slightly against him. Their
(26:01):
dream is taking shape around them. They look happy and relaxed,
the perfect couple. It's hard to look at that photo now,
knowing everything that would happen. John and Anne arrived in
(26:28):
Costa Rica with a reported six hundred million dollars, an
eyewatering fortune which would in time be bitterly fought over,
but that comes later in our story. All anyone knew
at this time was that they wanted land and they
had the money to pay for it, author Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
And when the word got out, people were desperate to
make a killing off Americans because it happens a lot,
and their vendors found their mailbox just stuck with people's deeds,
saying here it is bamy, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
They were so desperate. They just wanted the money.
Speaker 9 (27:08):
They wanted the money, yeah, and they didn't want to
be the only one in the neighborhood who didn't make
a fortune off the gringoes. I mean, if Raoul is
making one hundred thousand dollars, I should make one hundred
thousand dollars. I haven't got a deed here, Bamy.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
In total, the Benders brought up five thousand acres from
expats like gym locals and small farmers, some of whom
had grown coffee on their land for generations. It was
in a perfect position. From the top of their hill.
They had great views of the jungle, the Dea Monte waterfall,
and the sea beyond, a romantic setting to watch the
(27:48):
famous Costa Rican sunsets turn the sky to a burning red,
orange and yellow. This was where they would build their
enormous house, which they would christen Bora Cayenne. You're probably
wondering what that means. We wondered too. Apparently it's the
name of a local plant. Construction work began. John Bender
(28:11):
had a vision for his new property, to create a
new way of living, unconstrained by normal rules. Building a
house on this scale in the middle of the jungle, well,
it was a huge undertaking and massively ambitious. But then
John was like that Hi Hello, Thank you so much.
(28:39):
I met John's parents in Phoenix, Arizona. We'd already talk
quite a bit online before I met them in person.
You know what's amazing is seeing you on zoom and
now being here. John's mum is a teacher. John's dad
is an eminent law professor and worked in the Clinton administration.
This was the first time that invited journalists to their
(29:03):
home to talk about their son. Their love for John
is playing to see. They hold hands under the table
as they talk about him. But they couldn't really relate
to John's life making millions on Wall Street. Money isn't
important to them, and they worried about the path he'd chosen.
So when John decided to set up the wildlife Sanctuary,
(29:26):
I get the feeling they were relieved he was leaving
the world of high finance behind.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Though.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
When John told his dad about the plans for their
enormous house, Paul was pretty surprised.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
Well, he was going to build this high tech fime
in the middle of the jungle, basically, and it seemed
to me impossible to do that. And the way he
did it was to decide where he wanted to put it.
And they have the people come there and builders that
he had, like an army of people building this thing.
And what you've seen what turned out. It has nothing
(30:01):
to do with the jungle, but it was. It was
exactly what they wanted. I have a lot of pictures
that we took down there.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
Paul fired up his computer and scrolled through, showing us
photos of the house being built. In the photos, the
structure was up, but not much else. It was an
empty concrete shell.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
That's the house.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Oh gosh, is that sounds of construction. Oh my goodness.
Paul showed us more photos. When the new floors have
been put in that granite, it is like almost like
a mirror, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (30:36):
She really liked that.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
It's obvious that Margie and Paul are so proud of
what John achieved. He had a dream and he made
it real.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I don't think John ever thought there were limitations to things.
If he wanted it to be round, it could be round.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
What they really wanted to do was what they did
was find the place that was away from most of
the world, in a beautiful place which had a lot
of animals, a lot of green area. They really wanted
to be away from from the world.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
The house took a total of four years to build.
The vendors moved in before it was finished as well,
though the head staffer stayed at the couple's house in
town and watched the jungle retreat take shape.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
No, justted we were there from the beginning. It was
a huge building site. We could see the workers on
the street, like one hundred and fifty workers spread all
over it. We saw the house going up little by little.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
One of his jobs was to clean the house, and
so he can tell us precisely what it was like inside.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Quite a piece of practical men. The fourth floor was
all the bedroom, with the bed in the middle and
some rustic furniture made to order. He didn't like anything lavish.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
The third floor was empty. John had planned to put
in a greenhouse for his orchids, but never got round
to it.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
On the second floor was the kitchen, which was enormous.
Four kitchens could fit inside it.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
It was like no other house in the whole valley,
standing on top of the hill, a four story round home.
It came with huge pools of water, road gutters to
prevent flooding, and there was one feature in particular that
said this couple had serious money, because when John and
Ann came here, they didn't make that four hour car journey.
(32:30):
They would fly in and out, landing on a helipad
below the main entrance. Locals came to call the house
the dome because of the shape of the roof, which
could be seen for miles around.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
And you could not make this shit up.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
There's one other detail about the house which people never
fail to mention, including expat Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 9 (32:53):
The house has no walls.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yes, the house has no walls.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
There are screens that pulled down from the ceiling at
night that he bugs and animals at, but during the
day it was wide open. Designed by John with Anne's
decorating touch, the house is magnificent.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
It was open on all sides and you felt that
you were really in the jungle. The bathrooms had was
I think there was a concession that he made to
the inside was just open space. What are you going
to do with all the space? I never got the
answer to that. I don't think I ever did anything
with all that space.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Some describe it as looking like an anniversary clock, a
shopping mall, or a car park. Not very flattering. But
whether you like the design or not. It was an
amazing feat. Hundreds of people were employed to build it
and paid well, and it changed as well as hometown
for good.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
To come in case, as we say, Jong came to
put the town on the map. This was an abandoned
place in two thousand. There was not even electricity. When
John arrived. He brought life to the place. He brought jobs,
and foreigners became interested in buying land, so the economy
began to move after being practically abandoned like many other
(34:11):
places here in Costa Rica.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
When the house was complete, John and Anne threw a
party for all the workers and their families, but as
Vardo says, it was the only party the Benders ever had.
The house would never see so much life and light again,
as John and Anne retreated from the world and their
lives became shrouded in darkness. The house wasn't just a
(34:51):
sanctuary for John and Anne, but for animals too.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Of course, the Commissaire we had two large parods, and
a parrod with a roaking wing, some monkeys this love,
of course, and a baby, a.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Black creature from the weasel family, which John loved and
called Leo. He lived alongside two injured Persian cats, which
John had adopted. There was the duck, and the falcons
and the snakes. That's only the beginning. And Anne had
Peter the sloth.
Speaker 8 (35:23):
Oh yeah, but it slept all the time. So three
toad saw.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The name has come from this proclivity to sleep all
the time.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
And and John loved all animals ever since they were children.
As adults, they both said they got on better with
animals than with people.
Speaker 8 (35:43):
John also had a good feeling animals, just the magician
of animals. So we always had a lot of animals,
and I think both kids really enjoyed them.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
It was a menagerie. One reason for the absence of
wolves was to be at one with the jungle. The
animals could come and go as they please. Sometimes when
Anne and John had a bath, parrots would perch beside
them and keep them company. They wanted to turn back
the clock, restoring the land to its wild state before
(36:13):
it was farmed.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
He was feeding, and he was bringing back the food
that the land had had when it was natural and
grew its own weeds if you want to call them that,
and other things. He was trying to get that back
into the soil.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Is Then after three or four years, we did start
to see more animals around.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
As the years went by, John and Anne would become
increasingly isolated, hold up alone in their house with no walls.
They had few visitors, but early on, before their home
was completed, they made an exception for Zach Schweger and
his dad, Jack, whom John had invited to come and
see the house. Jack and John were friends.
Speaker 10 (36:55):
He said, Hey, you know, I should come down sometime.
So when my son graduated in high school and he
wanted to take a farther suntrip, that sounded like a
little bit of an adventure, So, hey, you want to
go to Costa Rica to John and am Bender's compound.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Zach Schweger was just nineteen, My.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
First time kind of like out of the country, people
speaking different languages.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
They were picked up by a land cruiser and we're.
Speaker 7 (37:21):
Driving for what I remember was ours. It's hard to
describe this part of what it was like to get
there because it was like truly out of a video
game or a movie. You can't really see much because,
like you pull in, it's a dirt road, but it
kind of leads up and up and up the roads.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
You could lose a jeep in the bottles, and.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
Then everything around you is rainforest, just like large thick,
lush trees. I had no idea like this is what
it was, like I had like my dad had undersold
this by a million percent, like we were we were in.
Speaker 6 (38:02):
A movie set.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
Then he met their host, who'd taken up the traditional
way to cut through the jungle.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
It's just like this big brute of a guy kind
of like had a good, good, healthy beard and a
machete on his waist.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Straight off. He loved John, who took them on a
tour of his property.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
He might almost had like a skip, but a stump
to his step, you know what I mean. Like he
walks like that jungle very confidently.
Speaker 11 (38:29):
He was proud of what he was doing. He loved
the rainforest, you know, so I think a good deal
of self satisfaction that he was protecting this land.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
And Johnanann seemed uniquely matched.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
A couple that doesn't need to ask twice for things.
A couple like where John sits down like she knows
he's thirsty type of thing, but like she willingly wants
to make sure Jonathan is not a thirsty person. There's
a lot of just like warmth and care that came
from hand. So we're special, and I'm like, man, this
person is just such a sweetheart.
Speaker 10 (38:59):
He and Ann were very much in love as far
as I could tell.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
Zach remembers the trip vividly, and one conversation in particular
illustrated John's fierce intellect.
Speaker 7 (39:09):
One evening which just three dudes kind of like hanging out,
shooting and shit and and this is maybe like where
I felt a little out of my elevent but Jonathan
super intelligent and my father super intelligent.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
And then John turned to Zach and said, I.
Speaker 7 (39:28):
Don't mean to ask like such a random question, but
are you familiar with quantum superposition?
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Yes, quantum superposition.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
So John like took my dad deeply through quantum superposition,
basically this idea that based on you know, waveforms, that
electrons can exist in two places at once. He was
walking through several experiments like one where like electrons were
shot at like a gold leaf. But that like kind
(39:57):
of changed my life in the sense that I was
been up to this whole world of like reality or
not reality, and like Jonathan had kind of brought me
into this place of where for the first time, like
I questioned, like what's real and what's not real, and
nobody had ever done that.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
For Zach, still in his teens, who'd never been to
a foreign country, meeting John on his jungle reserve made
a lifelong impression on him.
Speaker 7 (40:24):
It was like this very weird time where everything was perfect,
Like the wind was perfect, the temperature was perfect, like
the seats weren't uncomfortable, the beer was still cold, and
the sky was just this like perfect orange, and you know,
everything was super green. John was like somehow on center
stage without like detracting from like this perfection. It was
(40:47):
like just one of those moments where like the second
that it was happening, you're like, please, God, like do
not let this end, Like, don't whatever you do, just like,
do not have this moment stop.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
But everything would change and the vendors would find themselves
becoming further and further divorced from reality. Even then, the
signs were there. This might have been a piece of paradise.
But in this paradise, Zach noticed one thing that seemed strange,
a puncture on the otherwise perfect scene, and all of a.
Speaker 7 (41:24):
Sudden, there's guys with guns and def least, something my
father never said to me, is like, there's going to
be men with guns, like and lots of men with guns.
They weren't friendly. They didn't say hi, they weren't like hey, like,
I know, I'm a random dude with a gun that
doesn't speak the same language as you. Don't be frightened.
They were just kind of they were kind of there.
Speaker 11 (41:44):
Those guys were assault rifles, you know, the gate and
like you would imagine if it was a drug cocktail, right,
the arn't people he had working for them would do
these patrols, you know, like round the clock and stuff.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Why did they have guns?
Speaker 7 (41:56):
Yeah, that was my very first question and it was
quickly answered with were concerned about poachers.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
Poaching might explain all those guns up to a point.
Remember John Corvick from earlier who used to live in
the valley. He told us about the poachers and their
dogs who would come at night and cause havoc.
Speaker 6 (42:15):
Oh, there's poachers everywhere. I used to hunt the poachers.
There's poachures and sons of bitches. You can never find them,
but you'll find their dogs. And I used to go
out with my bulldogs. At first we try to find them.
The poachers would drop me nuts. My dogs would start
for barking. I could hear them barking up in the hills.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
If this was just about poaching, John and Anne went
to extreme lengths. They put up a barbed wire perimeter
fence around their property and had guards wearing fatigues patrolling.
Twenty four to seven signs reading keep out private property
were erected everywhere. To the people in the valley costa
Rican's expats hips in search of a piece of heaven.
(42:53):
The message was clear, and the couple were rarely seen.
Occasionally people would look up and see their helicopter leaving
and returning to the hilltop reserve. So rumors and conspiracies
germinated and began to grow, carried swiftly along the grapevine,
whispers about those wealthy Americans who flew in by helicopter
(43:16):
and bought up all the land, And were all those
guards really there to scare off poachers? Jesse, their neighbor, asked,
all those questions, we.
Speaker 8 (43:26):
Don't know, and we can imagine, but we don't know.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
What do you imagine?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Well, I personally thought he was probably somebody very big
in the drugs personally, and obviously they were doing something secret.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Boracayerne was the perfect place to live in splendid isolation,
and that, in the end, was at the root of
everything that was to follow. And Jesse is right. The
house with no walls was full of secrets. Where did
they get their fortune? Why were they so help bent
(44:04):
on protecting their privacy? Why all those guns? And why
would one of them end up dead? You've been listening
to Helen Heaven from Exactly Right Media and iHeart podcasts
(44:28):
produced by Blanchard House, hosted, written and produced by me
Becky Milligan. The producer and co writer is Poppy Damon.
Music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis nank Manell and
Toby Mattamoon. The sound recordistant head of Sound and Music
is Daniel Lloyd Evans. The lead sound designer is Vulcan Kiseltoog.
(44:50):
The artwork is by Vanessa Lilac for Exactly Right Media.
The executive producers are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and d
Nemiel Kramer, with consulting producer Lilly Ladderwig and associate producer
Jay Elias. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye.
(45:11):
The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House
is Lawrence Griselle. Listen to Helen Heaven on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Nay.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
We are very excited today because we just released our
newest limited series from our partners over at Blantard House,
and it's called Hell in Heaven.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
It's a true crime story about a rich American couple
who escaped to the Costa Rican jungle to build their
dream home, complete with armed guards and a bedroom lit
by four hundred Tiffany lamps.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
But their dream turns into a nightmare as isolation and
paranoia leads to a mysterious death.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And we're lucky to be talking to the award winning
investigated journalists who tracked this story down.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You know her from her twenty twenty four podcast right
here on exactly right, The Butterfly King. It is Becky Milligan.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
Hello, Becky, hye hie Hi, Georgia, Hi Karen.
Speaker 5 (00:57):
Really nice to be here.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Great to see you again. Have seen you since The
Butterfly King premiere.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
I know a bit of time away, but you know,
been working away, being off to Costa Rica and doing
this story. Amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
How did you find this story originally?
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Well, it was actually a while back and I was
sort of reading through a few stories and then a
friend actually said, did you hear about this story? I
read it and I thought you might be interested, and
then we found much more detailed about it, and then
we found a book and we just thought, oh, this
is just incredible. It just has everything, and we thought
(01:34):
we'd pursue it then and just see what we could
do with it.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Yeah, it's so dramatic when you make the trek to
the actual compound essentially in Costa Rica and there are
security guards and they're filming you. Was there ever a
point where you were afraid for your lives?
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, i'mill was a bit of a scaredy cat. You know,
when I see guns, I just think, let's get out
of here. But I was obviously with Poppy Dave and
the producer and our sound records Dan, and they were
really busy sort of chatting and just seeing what was
going on. And I was the one who was suddenly say, listen, guys,
(02:12):
there's a guy with a gun. It's actually pointed towards
We've got to get out of here. So yeah, there
were times when I get a bit frightened. I don't
think it was actually threatening, but it is a bit
scary when you see that.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, that's so intense. I love that you're saying you're
a bit of a scaredy cat. Except for that you're
an investigative journalist.
Speaker 5 (02:30):
A contradiction, Well not really. I never want to go
to really scary places, but I just did of end
up being there. But anyway, I try and avoid it.
But this was an amazing jungle. I mean, you know,
our couple wanted to escape all the sort of people
and sounds of the city and set up a sort
of utopia of paradise with wildlife. But I tell you what,
(02:52):
being there in the jungle, it is so noisy and
you have the you'll hear it in the show these
how the monkey is. I'm sure you know them, but
they were new to me, and it's like through the
jungle howling like a dinosaur. It was just so incredible
to be there and see their incredible house.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
How much do you think that the either the house,
the compound, or the jungle itself. How much of a
role do you think that played in the story. Do
you think their story would have played out the way
it did had they not, you know, had the circumstances
that they did.
Speaker 5 (03:25):
I think the house is really important because it's kind
of central to the story. When we got there and
we got through the jungle and you know, eventually found
this hilltop with what looked like a spaceship on top
of it, you know. Four stories. It just felt so
symbolic and symbolic of the story and the way they
built it, the way that they wanted the animals to
(03:46):
interact with the house and the jungle around it and
bring it back to its natural state. It feels as
though nature sort of played its part, as did the
house almost how they was almost in conflict, but not so.
I think the fact that the house was isolated on
a hill. There were these wonderful couple in lots of
ways who wanted to create something beautiful. I think the
(04:10):
house really played a part in it. It was sort
of just both beautiful but also isolated a bit of
a threat.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, there's so many good interviews in this podcast. I
really love that there's people really bringing color to the
story and real perspective, like people that were there trying
to explain this kind of outrageous and outlandish true crime story.
How do you find people like that? Is that just
you tracking people down? Do you ever do it in
the moment, like when you're on scene?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Oh, all the time, you know, What was really special
about this is you can set up interviews and read
loads and all of that and write something and do
a few interviews online or whatever. But when you go
somewhere and you're actually sitting down with people, they tell
you about, Hey, have you spoken to Joe there or
(05:01):
so and so over there? They have a story to tell.
And we found that all the time. It just whatever
you fix up, serendipity steps in. When you're on the ground,
you and it's great because you feel like you're doing
the proper job because you're actually just knocking on doors
and saying, hey, what about this? What about that? And
we did with the characters were just so much fun
(05:24):
to meet. And obviously there were gaps that people had
in the knowledge of the story, and so they filled
it with gossip and with their own theories, and it
kind of almost drifts on the air as you're going
through the jungle. So yes, absolutely, and you do you
just stop people in the street pay to sort of
know the story, so you quickly chat to them and
see whether they know enough to be able to add
(05:46):
to the story. It's amazing, really yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Wow. Ultimately, this is a true crime story. It's a
mysterious death. What do you think it is about those
stories like the Butterfly King as well, that draws you
becky to those stories.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Well, for me personally, it's the idea that maybe a
little mystery, the idea that there are people who are
involved in it who are able to tell you what
really happened, and underneath it all the real story, that
there's a human story. And there's this sort of bigger
theme that when you think about John and Ann it
(06:22):
was their desire to find peace, to find a utopia,
and they did this together to get away from people
and searching for a place where they could exist with nature.
And so I think it just makes you think about
we all want that. You know, we're all there with them,
and it turned into a dreadful tragedy, but there's something
(06:44):
that we can all connect with with every single person
we speak to, I hope, but also just to what
really brought it down to earth. I don't want to
say exactly who we spoke to, but not to give
too much away, but we did meet the parents of
one of the couple and what it did, it just
brings you straight down to earth at that point because
it is terrible terrible grief and a grief that isn't
(07:06):
over and it never will be. And I think that,
you know, seeing that couple hold their hands, reach for
each other's hands under the table to grip on for
dear life when they're talking about the story, it makes
you really realize that this is a very human story
and I hope told with sensitivity and respect for all
(07:27):
their family and friends.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Well, I'm sure it is because Becky, you're the best
in the business. I mean, it's such an honor to
be able to work with you and to be able to,
you know, show everybody your work because you're incredible. And
this podcast is so good. Everybody at the network that
has to listen to it for whatever department, whatever reason,
everyone is blown away. You did an amazing job. Can
(07:51):
we just ask you one final question, which is, what's
the scariest thing you saw in the jungle? Did you
see a snake? Did you see a giant spider? Did
you ever get far into quicksand anything, anything at all?
Speaker 5 (08:04):
I think I think the scariest thing was we did
stop off at this waterfall and we were sitting there
and I was I don't know why, but I always
felt I was sort of mother of everyone there, and
they were all climbing up and Poppy was beginning to
sort of strip off and whatever. It was very hot.
And then I looked over and I saw this shadow,
(08:26):
black shadow, and I started to go, oh my god,
it's a lion. It's I mean, not a lion. I
didn't know what it was anyway, it was well, I
was really scared, and I turned to Poppy. She'd seen it,
and she said, don't worry. It's just like a cat,
and it's like the cat that John had as a pet.
It's fine. And then it disappeared, slithered away. So I
didn't see a snake. I didn't. I mean, there were
(08:48):
really terrible thing, you know, things that could kill you
with one bike, but I just I stayed on the
on the paths.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Sounds like the smart way to well.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, but thank you very much. I'm so glad you
enjoyed it, and you know, it was an absolute privilege
to do.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Thank you so much, Becky, thanks for talking to us today,
and we're so excited to share the podcast with everyone.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
Yeah, thank you so much. It's great to see you
guys again.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Great to see you all.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Right, now it's time to listen to the first episode
of Hell in Heaven. When you're done, episode two is
waiting for you over at the Hell in Heaven feed And.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
While you're there, please don't forget to like and subscribe
and give it a five star review, because of course
it really helps.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
New episodes of Hell and Heaven drop every Thursday on
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Now. Please enjoy episode one of Hell in Heaven.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Goodbye. January the seventh, twenty ten, We're outside the house
of John and Anne Bender, a young American couple who've
built an extravagant home and wildlife refuge in the middle
(10:02):
of the Costa Rican rainforest. John made a multi million
dollar fortune on Wall Street and is his bright and
glamorous wife. It's now one in the morning. The emergency
call came in an hour ago, a shooting and a casualty.
(10:33):
That's the voice of Carlos Morra. He was the ambulance
driver who was on the scene that night. I've tracked
him down Ell Now, he's attended hundreds of violent incidents
over the years, but this one stands out. He's never
experienced anything like it before or since, and he's not alone.
(10:54):
All the people I've found while reporting on this story,
remember it in vivid detail. I'm Becky Milligan Eyebroke Stories
for the BBC for almost thirty years, and I've reported
on some pretty strange events, but this one is the
strangest of all. So back to that night. Carlos enters
(11:18):
the Bender's house and he gets in the elevator, and
just like everything else in this house, this is no
ordinary elevator. It's a round, open platform that rises up
through the building. Carlos grips onto the handrail. He sees
(11:39):
each floor as it passes. The house is incredible, he says,
He's never seen a place like it. It's like an
enormous spaceship. Inside it's all stainless steel and shiny black
floors like pools of water. There's a lot of money here.
(12:05):
Who could own such a house, he asks himself. Paula's
quiety is a drug trafficker? Like I said, Carlos is anxious.
Guards and security are everywhere, armed with heavy caliber weapons.
They're speaking to each other in hushed voices. He's been
(12:26):
told he has to go up to the fourth floor,
the master bedroom. He passes the first floor, the second
floor a vast kitchen, the third floor, the fourth floor,
(12:46):
the bedroom, and on the bed a body curled up
as if asleep. But as Carlos gets closer, he takes
in the horror of it all. The gunshot wound at
the back of the head, the victim's left arm dangling
off the bed, blood dripping from it, forming a pool
(13:10):
on the highly polished marble floor, and near it on
the floor. The gun a semi automatic. At first, the
police will assume this is a suicide, but not for long.
And here's why. The gun seems to have dropped from
(13:33):
the victim's left hand, yet the entry wound is on
the right side of the head. Not only that the
bullet was fired from behind from exactly right. Media and
(13:57):
iHeart podcasts produced by House. This is Helen Heaven. I'm
Becky Milligan. Chapter one, The House of Secrets. Our story
(14:34):
begins and ends with a house built and owned by
Anne and John Bender. This place is their dream home.
When they first move here, they're both in their thirties.
He's made his millions, and now he wants to put
them to good use, to enjoy them by creating a
wildlife sanctuary. So our couple are young, and they're in love, complete,
(15:00):
in love, devoted. It seems they live only for each
other and all the beloved animals they've rescued. John also
has his rare orchids, and Anne has her collection of
tiffany lamps, hundreds of them. So Anne and John have
everything they need right here in their house in the
(15:21):
middle of the jungle, a house unlike any other and
which will in time be the scene of a terrible
tragedy and a mystery. So I land in Costa Rica
to investigate this story, and by coincidence, my eighteen year
old daughter is already here, working on a conservation project
(15:44):
elsewhere in the country. She's been messaging me, telling me
all about protecting turtle eggs on pristine beeches, relaxing in
camp as monkeys play in the trees, and about how
she showers in the open air as hummingbirds hover close
by paradise. But as I arrive in the country and
discover more about this story about the dark side of
(16:08):
life in Costa Rica, the more I start to worry
about my daughter and worry about myself turning into some
sort of internet meme. A hysterical, over protective mother convinced
her daughter is about to die. Not only that, I'm
not coping too well with the climate either. Gosh, it's
(16:28):
quite diring, isn't in this he doo woo. Scotland in
autumn is more my thing. And that's a lot cooler
than it is here. My producer Poppy and I have
driven four hours from the capital San Jose, a hair
raising drive around hairpin bends with sheer drops on either side.
(16:49):
But we're now deep in the rainforest searching for John
and Anne Bender's house. First, through a slight clearing, we
come upon the dear Monte Waterfall, which gives this valley
its name. Oh wow, that's it, nice, kidna is that it?
(17:09):
It's so high up in the water, tumbles from a
high ridge down the cliff face and is swallowed up
by the forest below. Blue, green and yellow birds flutter
above our heads, and the noise is intense and strange.
Raws echo in the distance like dinosaurs. Sounds enchanting, But
(17:35):
the truth is we're already on edge. We've been spooked
by a phone call we made just before we set out.
Speaker 6 (17:44):
It's like warm in the daytime, kind of cool, at night,
crystal clear spring water blowing out of the mountains. Fruits
and vegetables grow real easily, nice vegetables, tomatoes, bananas. We
never thought we were coming back.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
That's John Corvick, who knows the area and used to
be the bender's name. And John had a warning.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
There was my wife and I and that was about it.
So you're alone on this giant farm in the deep
jungle most of the time. It's a strange thing. It
sounds morbid, but a lot of people die off there,
and a lot of people go kind of crazy. They
lose it. They actually lose it. Struggling with anything in
(18:26):
the jungle. You're gonna face your inner demons.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
John's words really unsettle us.
Speaker 6 (18:31):
There's folklore about the Diamonte waterfall. I'd be damned if
all the people that move in and out of there
don't go bad shit. You know, the hippies has some
very the vortex of energy that spins off the waterfall.
The Indians say it's a curse because they will run
off their land any way you cut it. The families
go nuts, they fall apart, people die. I don't know
(18:53):
anyone who's lives facing that waterfall that just set up
shop and enjoyed this majestic view and just soaked it
in long term, I really don't. Sometimes I think it's
from isolation. You have cabin fever. They go Dutch. You
could have cabin fever. My wife asked me. She says,
are you ever going to put clothes on again? I
(19:14):
would go three or four days in my rubber boots.
You know, I didn't see anyone.
Speaker 5 (19:18):
It sounds like an exaggeration that people go mad and
lose it, But by the end of our story, you
won't think.
Speaker 6 (19:26):
So shit that plates is the darkest jungle you've ever
seen in your life. You have no clue.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
We leave the waterfall behind and walk even deeper into
the jungle in search of John and Anne Bender's house,
which they called Ura Cayenne. Okay, I'm seeing some barbed
wife fence.
Speaker 7 (19:51):
I think we're getting close.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
That even looks like cut laws.
Speaker 8 (19:55):
It does.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Right up the slope dest we see the slopes of
the gardens first, and then through the trees and foliage.
Oh my god, that's really it. It's just enormous. It's
like a spaceship's landed on the top of a hill
in the middle of the jungle in Costa Rica. It's
(20:17):
like four stories with this dome at the top. It's
constructed from huge concrete slabs and columns and fifty thousand
square feet around the same size as a soccer pitch,
and it's round. Imagine that on a jungle hilltop, rising
way above the tops of the trees, and you get
(20:39):
an idea of what it looks like and how out
of place it is. The views are incredible. In the evening,
John and Anne would sit and look out across the jungle,
enjoying the glorious sunsets, enjoying each other's company. In the daytime,
they'd zoom around on their five thousand acres of land
on a quad bike, busying them with their wildlife refuge,
(21:02):
caring for all the animals. They'd saved a great black hawk,
a jaguar urundi, which is a wild cat on the
verge of extinction, and Anne also had her dog, a
German shepherd called Millie. It really is an astonishing place,
but being here now there's a sinister edge to it all.
(21:24):
I can see why they loved it. It's completely isolated,
but their gates here, a couple of guards, and there's
no entry. There's just no way we can get in.
And even at the top I can see a guard
sort of walking the perimeter.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
I think he is coming.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
In fact, he was filming us. They're getting a bit tense,
all the guards. Oh goodness. We'd ask permission to go
inside weeks before and hadn't received a response. But just
as we're leaving, a man turns up in fatigues.
Speaker 9 (22:05):
Hey, Orlando, are you Orlando with making a documentary about
Anne and John?
Speaker 7 (22:11):
But it's not possible to go inside, isn't.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
He puts his hand up and shakes his head.
Speaker 7 (22:17):
Thanks, have a good day.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Good as we go.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
The house is up for sale, empty, and there's a
sadness about it, almost like the structure holds memories of
what took place here.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Hey, I mean nu.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
In Barlaudes twenty years ago, as Voldo Rochas had been
preparing to meet his new boss. He knew nothing about
him apart from his name, John Bender and that he'd
brought up some land in dear Monte Valley. He ended
up working for the Benders for ten years. Persilon as
Voda was grateful for the job, and grateful too to
(22:58):
his former boss. Also an American.
Speaker 8 (23:02):
Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
Jim had sold his farm to the new arrivals, John
and Anne, but made sure his young maintenance man wouldn't
lose his well paid job, which were pretty hard to
come by in Paris.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
All okay, Gandole. I understand there was a close in
the contract where Jim, the previous owner, specified that I
had to continue working on the property when this cell
was made. Why I stayed to take care of the
property until John Bender arrived.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Back then, everyone in town was gossiping about the new
gringos moving to the valley. Gringos is what Costa Ricans
call Americans. Most foreigners are gringos. The locals are called ticos.
What was clear was that they were rich gringos. Nobody
knew how rich, But then nobody really knew who this
couple were at all, least of all as Valdo. He
(23:52):
remembers the day they arrived very clearly because he was
a bit nervous and wasn't sure what to expect. Before
the house was built, the new couple were staying at
a place in town.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I remember being surprised when they show up in the
little car. They were mostly reserved people, especially young He
didn't like to interact much with daughters. He would prefer
the mountains, and he said something like, I hate this property.
I've been deceived. He never realized that the house was
so close to the center of town until they arrived.
(24:28):
We didn't realize how young they were. We expected to
see an older couple. He was a big man. She
was thin and pretty.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Benita. That was the word everyone used to describe An
and John, at six foot five, was built like an
American footballer, a guy who clearly worked.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
Out, hugely muscular, gorgeous, blue eyes, dark hair.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Carol Vaughan, an ex pattern author who moved to the
town a few years later, he was taken by how
glamorous the couple were.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
Just handsome, movie story handsome. She was petitete, delicate, moved
like a ballerina. She reminded me a lot of Audrey Hepburn.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
Despite his physique, John was a gentle soul. He was
kind to all animals, even the tiniest insect. Back home
in the US, he'd taken in dozens of stray cats,
and he was incredibly smart, good with numbers. Anne, meanwhile,
had been the most popular kid at school. No doubt
(25:38):
they were a striking couple. There's a photo of them
taken on their new property. John is standing behind Anne
in shorts and a T shirt, one arm wrapped around
her chest, the other around her waist in a protective way.
He towers above her, and Anne in jeans, is holding
onto his arms and leaning back slightly against him. Their
(26:01):
dream is taking shape around them. They look happy and relaxed,
the perfect couple. It's hard to look at that photo now,
knowing everything that would happen. John and Anne arrived in
(26:28):
Costa Rica with a reported six hundred million dollars, an
eyewatering fortune which would in time be bitterly fought over,
but that comes later in our story. All anyone knew
at this time was that they wanted land and they
had the money to pay for it, author Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 9 (26:49):
And when the word got out, people were desperate to
make a killing off Americans because it happens a lot,
and their vendors found their mailbox just stuck with people's deeds,
saying here it is bamy, Is that right?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
They were so desperate. They just wanted the money.
Speaker 9 (27:08):
They wanted the money, yeah, and they didn't want to
be the only one in the neighborhood who didn't make
a fortune off the gringoes. I mean, if Raoul is
making one hundred thousand dollars, I should make one hundred
thousand dollars. I haven't got a deed here, Bamy.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
In total, the Benders brought up five thousand acres from
expats like gym locals and small farmers, some of whom
had grown coffee on their land for generations. It was
in a perfect position. From the top of their hill.
They had great views of the jungle, the Dea Monte waterfall,
and the sea beyond, a romantic setting to watch the
(27:48):
famous Costa Rican sunsets turn the sky to a burning red,
orange and yellow. This was where they would build their
enormous house, which they would christen Bora Cayenne. You're probably
wondering what that means. We wondered too. Apparently it's the
name of a local plant. Construction work began. John Bender
(28:11):
had a vision for his new property, to create a
new way of living, unconstrained by normal rules. Building a
house on this scale in the middle of the jungle, well,
it was a huge undertaking and massively ambitious. But then
John was like that Hi Hello, Thank you so much.
(28:39):
I met John's parents in Phoenix, Arizona. We'd already talk
quite a bit online before I met them in person.
You know what's amazing is seeing you on zoom and
now being here. John's mum is a teacher. John's dad
is an eminent law professor and worked in the Clinton administration.
This was the first time that invited journalists to their
(29:03):
home to talk about their son. Their love for John
is playing to see. They hold hands under the table
as they talk about him. But they couldn't really relate
to John's life making millions on Wall Street. Money isn't
important to them, and they worried about the path he'd chosen.
So when John decided to set up the wildlife Sanctuary,
(29:26):
I get the feeling they were relieved he was leaving
the world of high finance behind.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
Though.
Speaker 5 (29:31):
When John told his dad about the plans for their
enormous house, Paul was pretty surprised.
Speaker 8 (29:38):
Well, he was going to build this high tech fime
in the middle of the jungle, basically, and it seemed
to me impossible to do that. And the way he
did it was to decide where he wanted to put it.
And they have the people come there and builders that
he had, like an army of people building this thing.
And what you've seen what turned out. It has nothing
(30:01):
to do with the jungle, but it was. It was
exactly what they wanted. I have a lot of pictures
that we took down there.
Speaker 5 (30:10):
Paul fired up his computer and scrolled through, showing us
photos of the house being built. In the photos, the
structure was up, but not much else. It was an
empty concrete shell.
Speaker 8 (30:22):
That's the house.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
Oh gosh, is that sounds of construction. Oh my goodness.
Paul showed us more photos. When the new floors have
been put in that granite, it is like almost like
a mirror, isn't it.
Speaker 8 (30:36):
She really liked that.
Speaker 5 (30:38):
It's obvious that Margie and Paul are so proud of
what John achieved. He had a dream and he made
it real.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I don't think John ever thought there were limitations to things.
If he wanted it to be round, it could be round.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
What they really wanted to do was what they did
was find the place that was away from most of
the world, in a beautiful place which had a lot
of animals, a lot of green area. They really wanted
to be away from from the world.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
The house took a total of four years to build.
The vendors moved in before it was finished as well,
though the head staffer stayed at the couple's house in
town and watched the jungle retreat take shape.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
No, justted we were there from the beginning. It was
a huge building site. We could see the workers on
the street, like one hundred and fifty workers spread all
over it. We saw the house going up little by little.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
One of his jobs was to clean the house, and
so he can tell us precisely what it was like inside.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Quite a piece of practical men. The fourth floor was
all the bedroom, with the bed in the middle and
some rustic furniture made to order. He didn't like anything lavish.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
The third floor was empty. John had planned to put
in a greenhouse for his orchids, but never got round
to it.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
On the second floor was the kitchen, which was enormous.
Four kitchens could fit inside it.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
It was like no other house in the whole valley,
standing on top of the hill, a four story round home.
It came with huge pools of water, road gutters to
prevent flooding, and there was one feature in particular that
said this couple had serious money, because when John and
Ann came here, they didn't make that four hour car journey.
(32:30):
They would fly in and out, landing on a helipad
below the main entrance. Locals came to call the house
the dome because of the shape of the roof, which
could be seen for miles around.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
And you could not make this shit up.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
There's one other detail about the house which people never
fail to mention, including expat Carol Vaughan.
Speaker 9 (32:53):
The house has no walls.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Yes, the house has no walls.
Speaker 9 (32:59):
There are screens that pulled down from the ceiling at
night that he bugs and animals at, but during the
day it was wide open. Designed by John with Anne's
decorating touch, the house is magnificent.
Speaker 8 (33:12):
It was open on all sides and you felt that
you were really in the jungle. The bathrooms had was
I think there was a concession that he made to
the inside was just open space. What are you going
to do with all the space? I never got the
answer to that. I don't think I ever did anything
with all that space.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
Some describe it as looking like an anniversary clock, a
shopping mall, or a car park. Not very flattering. But
whether you like the design or not. It was an
amazing feat. Hundreds of people were employed to build it
and paid well, and it changed as well as hometown
for good.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
To come in case, as we say, Jong came to
put the town on the map. This was an abandoned
place in two thousand. There was not even electricity. When
John arrived. He brought life to the place. He brought jobs,
and foreigners became interested in buying land, so the economy
began to move after being practically abandoned like many other
(34:11):
places here in Costa Rica.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
When the house was complete, John and Anne threw a
party for all the workers and their families, but as
Vardo says, it was the only party the Benders ever had.
The house would never see so much life and light again,
as John and Anne retreated from the world and their
lives became shrouded in darkness. The house wasn't just a
(34:51):
sanctuary for John and Anne, but for animals too.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Of course, the Commissaire we had two large parods, and
a parrod with a roaking wing, some monkeys this love,
of course, and a baby, a.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Black creature from the weasel family, which John loved and
called Leo. He lived alongside two injured Persian cats, which
John had adopted. There was the duck, and the falcons
and the snakes. That's only the beginning. And Anne had
Peter the sloth.
Speaker 8 (35:23):
Oh yeah, but it slept all the time. So three
toad saw.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
The name has come from this proclivity to sleep all
the time.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
And and John loved all animals ever since they were children.
As adults, they both said they got on better with
animals than with people.
Speaker 8 (35:43):
John also had a good feeling animals, just the magician
of animals. So we always had a lot of animals,
and I think both kids really enjoyed them.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
It was a menagerie. One reason for the absence of
wolves was to be at one with the jungle. The
animals could come and go as they please. Sometimes when
Anne and John had a bath, parrots would perch beside
them and keep them company. They wanted to turn back
the clock, restoring the land to its wild state before
(36:13):
it was farmed.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
He was feeding, and he was bringing back the food
that the land had had when it was natural and
grew its own weeds if you want to call them that,
and other things. He was trying to get that back
into the soil.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Is Then after three or four years, we did start
to see more animals around.
Speaker 5 (36:33):
As the years went by, John and Anne would become
increasingly isolated, hold up alone in their house with no walls.
They had few visitors, but early on, before their home
was completed, they made an exception for Zach Schweger and
his dad, Jack, whom John had invited to come and
see the house. Jack and John were friends.
Speaker 10 (36:55):
He said, Hey, you know, I should come down sometime.
So when my son graduated in high school and he
wanted to take a farther suntrip, that sounded like a
little bit of an adventure, So, hey, you want to
go to Costa Rica to John and am Bender's compound.
Speaker 5 (37:11):
Zach Schweger was just nineteen, My.
Speaker 7 (37:14):
First time kind of like out of the country, people
speaking different languages.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
They were picked up by a land cruiser and we're.
Speaker 7 (37:21):
Driving for what I remember was ours. It's hard to
describe this part of what it was like to get
there because it was like truly out of a video
game or a movie. You can't really see much because,
like you pull in, it's a dirt road, but it
kind of leads up and up and up the roads.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
You could lose a jeep in the bottles, and.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
Then everything around you is rainforest, just like large thick,
lush trees. I had no idea like this is what
it was, like I had like my dad had undersold
this by a million percent, like we were we were in.
Speaker 6 (38:02):
A movie set.
Speaker 5 (38:04):
Then he met their host, who'd taken up the traditional
way to cut through the jungle.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
It's just like this big brute of a guy kind
of like had a good, good, healthy beard and a
machete on his waist.
Speaker 5 (38:17):
Straight off. He loved John, who took them on a
tour of his property.
Speaker 7 (38:21):
He might almost had like a skip, but a stump
to his step, you know what I mean. Like he
walks like that jungle very confidently.
Speaker 11 (38:29):
He was proud of what he was doing. He loved
the rainforest, you know, so I think a good deal
of self satisfaction that he was protecting this land.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
And Johnanann seemed uniquely matched.
Speaker 7 (38:41):
A couple that doesn't need to ask twice for things.
A couple like where John sits down like she knows
he's thirsty type of thing, but like she willingly wants
to make sure Jonathan is not a thirsty person. There's
a lot of just like warmth and care that came
from hand. So we're special, and I'm like, man, this
person is just such a sweetheart.
Speaker 10 (38:59):
He and Ann were very much in love as far
as I could tell.
Speaker 5 (39:02):
Zach remembers the trip vividly, and one conversation in particular
illustrated John's fierce intellect.
Speaker 7 (39:09):
One evening which just three dudes kind of like hanging out,
shooting and shit and and this is maybe like where
I felt a little out of my elevent but Jonathan
super intelligent and my father super intelligent.
Speaker 5 (39:25):
And then John turned to Zach and said, I.
Speaker 7 (39:28):
Don't mean to ask like such a random question, but
are you familiar with quantum superposition?
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Yes, quantum superposition.
Speaker 7 (39:36):
So John like took my dad deeply through quantum superposition,
basically this idea that based on you know, waveforms, that
electrons can exist in two places at once. He was
walking through several experiments like one where like electrons were
shot at like a gold leaf. But that like kind
(39:57):
of changed my life in the sense that I was
been up to this whole world of like reality or
not reality, and like Jonathan had kind of brought me
into this place of where for the first time, like
I questioned, like what's real and what's not real, and
nobody had ever done that.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
For Zach, still in his teens, who'd never been to
a foreign country, meeting John on his jungle reserve made
a lifelong impression on him.
Speaker 7 (40:24):
It was like this very weird time where everything was perfect,
Like the wind was perfect, the temperature was perfect, like
the seats weren't uncomfortable, the beer was still cold, and
the sky was just this like perfect orange, and you know,
everything was super green. John was like somehow on center
stage without like detracting from like this perfection. It was
(40:47):
like just one of those moments where like the second
that it was happening, you're like, please, God, like do
not let this end, Like, don't whatever you do, just like,
do not have this moment stop.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
But everything would change and the vendors would find themselves
becoming further and further divorced from reality. Even then, the
signs were there. This might have been a piece of paradise.
But in this paradise, Zach noticed one thing that seemed strange,
a puncture on the otherwise perfect scene, and all of a.
Speaker 7 (41:24):
Sudden, there's guys with guns and def least, something my
father never said to me, is like, there's going to
be men with guns, like and lots of men with guns.
They weren't friendly. They didn't say hi, they weren't like hey, like,
I know, I'm a random dude with a gun that
doesn't speak the same language as you. Don't be frightened.
They were just kind of they were kind of there.
Speaker 11 (41:44):
Those guys were assault rifles, you know, the gate and
like you would imagine if it was a drug cocktail, right,
the arn't people he had working for them would do
these patrols, you know, like round the clock and stuff.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Why did they have guns?
Speaker 7 (41:56):
Yeah, that was my very first question and it was
quickly answered with were concerned about poachers.
Speaker 5 (42:02):
Poaching might explain all those guns up to a point.
Remember John Corvick from earlier who used to live in
the valley. He told us about the poachers and their
dogs who would come at night and cause havoc.
Speaker 6 (42:15):
Oh, there's poachers everywhere. I used to hunt the poachers.
There's poachures and sons of bitches. You can never find them,
but you'll find their dogs. And I used to go
out with my bulldogs. At first we try to find them.
The poachers would drop me nuts. My dogs would start
for barking. I could hear them barking up in the hills.
Speaker 5 (42:30):
If this was just about poaching, John and Anne went
to extreme lengths. They put up a barbed wire perimeter
fence around their property and had guards wearing fatigues patrolling.
Twenty four to seven signs reading keep out private property
were erected everywhere. To the people in the valley costa
Rican's expats hips in search of a piece of heaven.
(42:53):
The message was clear, and the couple were rarely seen.
Occasionally people would look up and see their helicopter leaving
and returning to the hilltop reserve. So rumors and conspiracies
germinated and began to grow, carried swiftly along the grapevine,
whispers about those wealthy Americans who flew in by helicopter
(43:16):
and bought up all the land, And were all those
guards really there to scare off poachers? Jesse, their neighbor, asked,
all those questions, we.
Speaker 8 (43:26):
Don't know, and we can imagine, but we don't know.
Speaker 5 (43:29):
What do you imagine?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Well, I personally thought he was probably somebody very big
in the drugs personally, and obviously they were doing something secret.
Speaker 5 (43:42):
Boracayerne was the perfect place to live in splendid isolation,
and that, in the end, was at the root of
everything that was to follow. And Jesse is right. The
house with no walls was full of secrets. Where did
they get their fortune? Why were they so help bent
(44:04):
on protecting their privacy? Why all those guns? And why
would one of them end up dead? You've been listening
to Helen Heaven from Exactly Right Media and iHeart podcasts
(44:28):
produced by Blanchard House, hosted, written and produced by me
Becky Milligan. The producer and co writer is Poppy Damon.
Music is by Daniel Lloyd Evans, Louis nank Manell and
Toby Mattamoon. The sound recordistant head of Sound and Music
is Daniel Lloyd Evans. The lead sound designer is Vulcan Kiseltoog.
(44:50):
The artwork is by Vanessa Lilac for Exactly Right Media.
The executive producers are Karen Kilgareth Georgia Hardstark and d
Nemiel Kramer, with consulting producer Lilly Ladderwig and associate producer
Jay Elias. The creative director of Blanchard House is Rosie Pye.
(45:11):
The executive producer and head of content at Blanchard House
is Lawrence Griselle. Listen to Helen Heaven on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Georgia Hardstark
Karen Kilgariff
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.