December 7, 2020 • 17 mins
A journalist returns to the Amish community she was excommunicated from twenty years ago to investigate the mysterious death of a teenage boy.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Solve Presents Penance Part one, Holding my breath hair Terrence. Well,
all I can taste here is your math, Rebecca. It's
clever jargon covering up naked stats. Sorry, if I couldn't
make city council holding fatigue sexy enough for you, give
(00:29):
me a bigger bite. I'll show you a better scoop.
Glad you said so, I've got here handwritten letter we
received this morning postmark from an Amish town. You may recognize.
I wonder where they got our address. A letter reads
a lot like you try anonymous in style or signature,
both dream source material. It tells of a young man
(00:51):
returning from his rum springer. That's like an army spring break, right,
a mild analogy. Rum springer is a year of no
consequences on the outside before baptism nails you down for good. Well, anyway,
one week later, the kid kicks the bucket, just shy
of eighteen. If we print an obituary, his family is
not likely to read it. It's not a no bit.
(01:11):
There's a story here, see for yourself. Letter writer says
the death is mysterious, no cause anyone can name. Yeah, Well,
with the Amish, there's no autopsy, no cause, no story,
at least not for me. This can only be your story.
I've lived in Pennsylvania my whole life. I've seen the
shunned return. I didn't come to my senses and leave Terence.
I was excommunicated. Do I need to spell out the
(01:33):
rude Latin for you? If you want a shot at
the big leagues, investigated pieces, verticals and undercover stint is
the best way in. And this would be the easiest
chamillion of your career. Sure, just crawl back to a
town that spit me out as a minor break two
decades of silence with my father. Easy? Yeah, thanks, but
no thanks. The funerals in two days. Sleep on it.
(01:59):
I'd drive you there, help with any additional research. Oh,
you'd really do that for me? Did this is Rebecca Ramer?
(02:34):
Shoot it or lose it? You have no new messages?
Fighting broke out overnight between rival factions along the Israeli
Syrian border. Screw it, morning, sunshine. Did you spotify Amish
(03:05):
hands for our drive? I thought it would pick you up.
Let's just go backt light. We've got more buttons than
bonnets these days, not much to pack. Hey, you can't
smoke in here. You deprived me of this one joy
(03:27):
before throwing me to the wolves are horridly wolves. You've
never met my father? What about your mother? I'll trained
midwife managed to climb me out before my mother passed. Jeez,
I'm sorry. So you and your dad lost your mom
and then each other. Funny thing. Much loyalty is rooted
fifty ft in the ground like no wider than haystraw.
(03:49):
You think cancel culture is bad, one misstep in Amish
country and you are cast off. Makes mean tweaks seemple point. Hey,
maybe this will be a good thing, reconnect with family.
I don't have a family. This is a job. So
where's your first stop? Well, I can't go to my
father's dressed like this, basic harlot. I'm not going to
find out who wrote that letter. First take the hard copy.
(04:14):
Handwriting might come in hand. Okay, this place hasn't changed,
almost like they condemned that kind of thing. I'm a
phone call away if you need anything, anything you hear, Yeah,
(04:37):
best I proceed on foot from here. Blessed day. Raber. Wrong,
we go wrong, we go pop out. We'll spin you
(05:01):
in his bag. Coming Rebecca Raper at my doorstop Sunday surprise.
Were you seen walking over here? I'd venture no, but
that likelihood on these texts higher the longer I stand
at your door and blue jeans. Of course, Come in,
Come in. I've prayed for this, me too, you know me,
(05:26):
big time prayer, fake some holiness for me. Kids. This
is mother's oldest and dearest friend, Rebecca. Hello, they're as
beautiful as you described in your letters. Speaking of letters,
I need to ask you about something um in private. Yes, certainly, come,
(05:47):
let's get you a change of clothes. All right, that's up?
What is this forbidden drop by all about? You want
the undergone answer always, I'm an assignment. We got an
anonymous letter into my paper about the boy who just passed.
(06:08):
It's beyond digestion. One of the shlock twins. Just kids, really,
he was a twin. Do you think there could have
been any foul play? You're asking if the boy could
have been murdered? Whoever wrote this certainly think so, honestly, Rebecca.
Not everything has to be a damn story. We'll get
the mouth on you do influence. I'll be it from
(06:30):
a distance. Can you think of anyone in town who
might have written this letter, I couldn't guess. But if
you want to have access to everyone in town all
in one place, the funeral, Yeah, I know, but I
can't come close to that church without repenting, Mary, more
like you can't come close to repenting without that church. Well,
(06:52):
in that case, how about those humbler threads. My closet
is all yours. You are an angel, and I brought
you a little something. What is it? Battery powered? Too
hard to find nowadays? You are trouble. I never learned
(07:21):
crowded procession, and you forget the comforts of community. Everyone
will be out today to support the Schlocks in their
time of Greek, including your father while he is the
town bishop. That would make sense, yes, but with a
few other additions. I dare not mention it in our
letters for a risk of upsetting you. But he remarried
(07:44):
after you left. Amity a widow from the town over. Oh,
she's quite amiable, biddingly I'll be the judge of that.
She has her own son. LEVI a bit of a brick.
What can you do? And also get your st last
horses out of my lane. Hey, Craig, is our funeral
procession making you laid for your pedicure, stupid dudgy. What's
(08:11):
with the asshole in the Pontiac? Not an isolated incident.
I'm afraid that Englishman has always been a problem. We're
almost there. You'll do well to start minding your language.
(08:41):
You should you doing here? Are you okay? Fina? Your father?
Good dog? Good Mariah ship? I think I changed my mind.
We've come this far. No, Rebecca, Hello, Father, Hello, Bishop,
we'll be inside. Come on, kids, it's you and you dressed. Yes.
(09:07):
Time has warmed me to tradition. I suppose what are
you doing here? I came here to repent, Father, repent
what I thought you'd be glad. I'll be glad when
I sniff out the truth behind this little stunt, said
Jesuster was followers, please excuse me, Bishop Thomas Schluck, A
(09:35):
beautiful boy taken too soon or perhaps right on time?
Are you a g standard? Now? They are? When it's
the Craper Preacher service, preacher King, we call him there.
He tends to form close bonds with the boys. Worse
hardships had stung our shores, and they are sure to again.
(09:56):
God asks us not to search for the div in
order in this but to trust that there is one,
especially when it tastes as tenuous as ever. Yes, he
(10:26):
was really just a boy. You didn't so sad so
one morning he was just found lying on the ground.
You'd have to ask Silas the twin. Yes, he's the
one who found on this There he is now talking
to the preacher. Well, the intros now are never Rebecca,
(10:49):
be delicate. You know me best not to concern, and
you went out of respect for your brother, understood, sir Silas.
My condolences. Thanks, Sorry, who I thought I spotted you
in the pews, Rebecca or nonrepenter? Hello, Silas, meet Matthew's
(11:13):
long lost daughter. The bishop has another daughter, another daughter.
I should go find my parents. Nice to meet you, Rebecca.
Peace out or with you or whatever. The boy's got
a curious grief in him. Some do it sounded like
(11:34):
you were close with his brother. You'd find none as
pure as pious? Was that still the case when he
came back from his rum? Springer never the most? So
what's this line of questioning? You didn't even know him? No,
certainly not like you did. Mm hmm. If you'll excuse me, Rebecca, Uh,
(12:02):
oh my, you are our Rebecca, aren't you? I'm Amity,
though I don't presume you've heard of me. She hasn't,
not until very recently. It's nice to meet you, Amity.
And this here's LEVI say hello, Hello, Matthew, Rebecca. This
(12:22):
is our daughter, Emma. What a pleasure it is to
meet you, sister. We've heard such things. I can only
imagine you've done more than just that from what I
can gather. Sorry, where are my manners? You'll come back
with us for lunch. I wouldn't impose, we insist. She
hasn't repented yet, Emity, she's still family girl. Come on,
(12:48):
my mamma, you know what? Sure I could eat m apologies.
The seller isn't a bit of a state as with
(13:10):
my father, your parents. Your father's in shock at warm.
Here take these cans? Wow? Is it possible? But I
actually missed can beats. The rest of us are thrilled
beyond our wits. Emma, though she's a bit boy crazed
as it is. So if you could just, you know,
keep an eye on your influence, that would be that
(13:31):
would be just peachy. Dear Lord, thank you for this food,
but thank you most of all for the fresh company
we keep in the eating of it. Our long lost
child of God returned to us, and am Rebecca. I
(13:52):
want to know all about so many things. What it
feels like to put contact lenses in It blows my
hair back, really, I mean when I bit doubt and
the sorcery that is a hair dryer. Rebecca doesn't want
to talk about the very world she just left behind forever, now,
does she? We They the English are just like you
(14:13):
and me, but with one eye on the devil at
all times. Matthew, I'm not hungry. I'm going to the barn. Oh,
don't mind your father. We'll have you squared away with
the preacher and all will be well in no time.
He seems up to his eyeballs already with grief. Thomas
(14:34):
sounded like a very special young man, him and all
the others. The others. Mother's talking about the curse. I'm sorry,
did you say curse? It started before I was born.
Even cow boys healthier than horses gone overnight in the
same way Thomas's death marks unlucky thirteen. Oh my god, gosh,
if you could, Rebecca. Um. Some believe that acknowledging the
(14:58):
curse at all just continu is the madness so Mom's
the word on a dozen dead teenagers. There's nothing to
be done. These boys dropped like flies. No one can
think of any good reason. Maybe it's nature telling us.
I don't know what. With Thomas gone, there hasn't been
one young man to reach his baptism in the past,
(15:20):
at least since I came to town. Obviously, with LEVI
were sensitive to it. Silas is alive and wrong the
one beacon you're saying, Silas is the only boy in
this town who has lived to see his eighteenth birthday
in two decades. Call it a curse if we must, though,
all that black magic talk does is rid us of
any responsibility to get to the bottom of it, which
(15:42):
we will because we must. Yeah. Rebecca Raber was played
(16:23):
by Alice Lovek, Terrence by Blaine Gray, Matthew Raber by
Jim Hannah, Amity Raber by Carrie Kawa, Silas Shrock by
Dmitri Todd, Preacher King by Bradley Fisher, Kenny by Devon
Matthew McKee, Emma Raber by Brady Ryder, Levi Raber by
(16:45):
Chad Roberts, Mary by a rouned Stores. This episode of
Solve was written by Shannon Riley, directed by Corey Serge
Executive produced by Corey Serge Executive produced by walp Omer
and Sterling Barnett. Casting by Daisy Laura. Audio production and
post production by Salt Audio Production manager Liz Lamay. Recording
(17:10):
engineers Hope Brush and John Schmidt. Original music and score
by Nathan Turchon, Editing and mixed by Zach Jurich, Assistant
editor Hope Brush. Sound designed by Eric Rachelson. Script supervisor
Marilyn Miller
Solve Presents Penance Part one, Holding my breath hair Terrence. Well,
all I can taste here is your math, Rebecca. It's
clever jargon covering up naked stats. Sorry, if I couldn't
make city council holding fatigue sexy enough for you, give
(00:29):
me a bigger bite. I'll show you a better scoop.
Glad you said so, I've got here handwritten letter we
received this morning postmark from an Amish town. You may recognize.
I wonder where they got our address. A letter reads
a lot like you try anonymous in style or signature,
both dream source material. It tells of a young man
(00:51):
returning from his rum springer. That's like an army spring break, right,
a mild analogy. Rum springer is a year of no
consequences on the outside before baptism nails you down for good. Well, anyway,
one week later, the kid kicks the bucket, just shy
of eighteen. If we print an obituary, his family is
not likely to read it. It's not a no bit.
(01:11):
There's a story here, see for yourself. Letter writer says
the death is mysterious, no cause anyone can name. Yeah, Well,
with the Amish, there's no autopsy, no cause, no story,
at least not for me. This can only be your story.
I've lived in Pennsylvania my whole life. I've seen the
shunned return. I didn't come to my senses and leave Terence.
I was excommunicated. Do I need to spell out the
(01:33):
rude Latin for you? If you want a shot at
the big leagues, investigated pieces, verticals and undercover stint is
the best way in. And this would be the easiest
chamillion of your career. Sure, just crawl back to a
town that spit me out as a minor break two
decades of silence with my father. Easy? Yeah, thanks, but
no thanks. The funerals in two days. Sleep on it.
(01:59):
I'd drive you there, help with any additional research. Oh,
you'd really do that for me? Did this is Rebecca Ramer?
(02:34):
Shoot it or lose it? You have no new messages?
Fighting broke out overnight between rival factions along the Israeli
Syrian border. Screw it, morning, sunshine. Did you spotify Amish
(03:05):
hands for our drive? I thought it would pick you up.
Let's just go backt light. We've got more buttons than
bonnets these days, not much to pack. Hey, you can't
smoke in here. You deprived me of this one joy
(03:27):
before throwing me to the wolves are horridly wolves. You've
never met my father? What about your mother? I'll trained
midwife managed to climb me out before my mother passed. Jeez,
I'm sorry. So you and your dad lost your mom
and then each other. Funny thing. Much loyalty is rooted
fifty ft in the ground like no wider than haystraw.
(03:49):
You think cancel culture is bad, one misstep in Amish
country and you are cast off. Makes mean tweaks seemple point. Hey,
maybe this will be a good thing, reconnect with family.
I don't have a family. This is a job. So
where's your first stop? Well, I can't go to my
father's dressed like this, basic harlot. I'm not going to
find out who wrote that letter. First take the hard copy.
(04:14):
Handwriting might come in hand. Okay, this place hasn't changed,
almost like they condemned that kind of thing. I'm a
phone call away if you need anything, anything you hear, Yeah,
(04:37):
best I proceed on foot from here. Blessed day. Raber. Wrong,
we go wrong, we go pop out. We'll spin you
(05:01):
in his bag. Coming Rebecca Raper at my doorstop Sunday surprise.
Were you seen walking over here? I'd venture no, but
that likelihood on these texts higher the longer I stand
at your door and blue jeans. Of course, Come in,
Come in. I've prayed for this, me too, you know me,
(05:26):
big time prayer, fake some holiness for me. Kids. This
is mother's oldest and dearest friend, Rebecca. Hello, they're as
beautiful as you described in your letters. Speaking of letters,
I need to ask you about something um in private. Yes, certainly, come,
(05:47):
let's get you a change of clothes. All right, that's up?
What is this forbidden drop by all about? You want
the undergone answer always, I'm an assignment. We got an
anonymous letter into my paper about the boy who just passed.
(06:08):
It's beyond digestion. One of the shlock twins. Just kids, really,
he was a twin. Do you think there could have
been any foul play? You're asking if the boy could
have been murdered? Whoever wrote this certainly think so, honestly, Rebecca.
Not everything has to be a damn story. We'll get
the mouth on you do influence. I'll be it from
(06:30):
a distance. Can you think of anyone in town who
might have written this letter, I couldn't guess. But if
you want to have access to everyone in town all
in one place, the funeral, Yeah, I know, but I
can't come close to that church without repenting, Mary, more
like you can't come close to repenting without that church. Well,
(06:52):
in that case, how about those humbler threads. My closet
is all yours. You are an angel, and I brought
you a little something. What is it? Battery powered? Too
hard to find nowadays? You are trouble. I never learned
(07:21):
crowded procession, and you forget the comforts of community. Everyone
will be out today to support the Schlocks in their
time of Greek, including your father while he is the
town bishop. That would make sense, yes, but with a
few other additions. I dare not mention it in our
letters for a risk of upsetting you. But he remarried
(07:44):
after you left. Amity a widow from the town over. Oh,
she's quite amiable, biddingly I'll be the judge of that.
She has her own son. LEVI a bit of a brick.
What can you do? And also get your st last
horses out of my lane. Hey, Craig, is our funeral
procession making you laid for your pedicure, stupid dudgy. What's
(08:11):
with the asshole in the Pontiac? Not an isolated incident.
I'm afraid that Englishman has always been a problem. We're
almost there. You'll do well to start minding your language.
(08:41):
You should you doing here? Are you okay? Fina? Your father?
Good dog? Good Mariah ship? I think I changed my mind.
We've come this far. No, Rebecca, Hello, Father, Hello, Bishop,
we'll be inside. Come on, kids, it's you and you dressed. Yes.
(09:07):
Time has warmed me to tradition. I suppose what are
you doing here? I came here to repent, Father, repent
what I thought you'd be glad. I'll be glad when
I sniff out the truth behind this little stunt, said
Jesuster was followers, please excuse me, Bishop Thomas Schluck, A
(09:35):
beautiful boy taken too soon or perhaps right on time?
Are you a g standard? Now? They are? When it's
the Craper Preacher service, preacher King, we call him there.
He tends to form close bonds with the boys. Worse
hardships had stung our shores, and they are sure to again.
(09:56):
God asks us not to search for the div in
order in this but to trust that there is one,
especially when it tastes as tenuous as ever. Yes, he
(10:26):
was really just a boy. You didn't so sad so
one morning he was just found lying on the ground.
You'd have to ask Silas the twin. Yes, he's the
one who found on this There he is now talking
to the preacher. Well, the intros now are never Rebecca,
(10:49):
be delicate. You know me best not to concern, and
you went out of respect for your brother, understood, sir Silas.
My condolences. Thanks, Sorry, who I thought I spotted you
in the pews, Rebecca or nonrepenter? Hello, Silas, meet Matthew's
(11:13):
long lost daughter. The bishop has another daughter, another daughter.
I should go find my parents. Nice to meet you, Rebecca.
Peace out or with you or whatever. The boy's got
a curious grief in him. Some do it sounded like
(11:34):
you were close with his brother. You'd find none as
pure as pious? Was that still the case when he
came back from his rum? Springer never the most? So
what's this line of questioning? You didn't even know him? No,
certainly not like you did. Mm hmm. If you'll excuse me, Rebecca, Uh,
(12:02):
oh my, you are our Rebecca, aren't you? I'm Amity,
though I don't presume you've heard of me. She hasn't,
not until very recently. It's nice to meet you, Amity.
And this here's LEVI say hello, Hello, Matthew, Rebecca. This
(12:22):
is our daughter, Emma. What a pleasure it is to
meet you, sister. We've heard such things. I can only
imagine you've done more than just that from what I
can gather. Sorry, where are my manners? You'll come back
with us for lunch. I wouldn't impose, we insist. She
hasn't repented yet, Emity, she's still family girl. Come on,
(12:48):
my mamma, you know what? Sure I could eat m apologies.
The seller isn't a bit of a state as with
(13:10):
my father, your parents. Your father's in shock at warm.
Here take these cans? Wow? Is it possible? But I
actually missed can beats. The rest of us are thrilled
beyond our wits. Emma, though she's a bit boy crazed
as it is. So if you could just, you know,
keep an eye on your influence, that would be that
(13:31):
would be just peachy. Dear Lord, thank you for this food,
but thank you most of all for the fresh company
we keep in the eating of it. Our long lost
child of God returned to us, and am Rebecca. I
(13:52):
want to know all about so many things. What it
feels like to put contact lenses in It blows my
hair back, really, I mean when I bit doubt and
the sorcery that is a hair dryer. Rebecca doesn't want
to talk about the very world she just left behind forever, now,
does she? We They the English are just like you
(14:13):
and me, but with one eye on the devil at
all times. Matthew, I'm not hungry. I'm going to the barn. Oh,
don't mind your father. We'll have you squared away with
the preacher and all will be well in no time.
He seems up to his eyeballs already with grief. Thomas
(14:34):
sounded like a very special young man, him and all
the others. The others. Mother's talking about the curse. I'm sorry,
did you say curse? It started before I was born.
Even cow boys healthier than horses gone overnight in the
same way Thomas's death marks unlucky thirteen. Oh my god, gosh,
if you could, Rebecca. Um. Some believe that acknowledging the
(14:58):
curse at all just continu is the madness so Mom's
the word on a dozen dead teenagers. There's nothing to
be done. These boys dropped like flies. No one can
think of any good reason. Maybe it's nature telling us.
I don't know what. With Thomas gone, there hasn't been
one young man to reach his baptism in the past,
(15:20):
at least since I came to town. Obviously, with LEVI
were sensitive to it. Silas is alive and wrong the
one beacon you're saying, Silas is the only boy in
this town who has lived to see his eighteenth birthday
in two decades. Call it a curse if we must, though,
all that black magic talk does is rid us of
any responsibility to get to the bottom of it, which
(15:42):
we will because we must. Yeah. Rebecca Raber was played
(16:23):
by Alice Lovek, Terrence by Blaine Gray, Matthew Raber by
Jim Hannah, Amity Raber by Carrie Kawa, Silas Shrock by
Dmitri Todd, Preacher King by Bradley Fisher, Kenny by Devon
Matthew McKee, Emma Raber by Brady Ryder, Levi Raber by
(16:45):
Chad Roberts, Mary by a rouned Stores. This episode of
Solve was written by Shannon Riley, directed by Corey Serge
Executive produced by Corey Serge Executive produced by walp Omer
and Sterling Barnett. Casting by Daisy Laura. Audio production and
post production by Salt Audio Production manager Liz Lamay. Recording
(17:10):
engineers Hope Brush and John Schmidt. Original music and score
by Nathan Turchon, Editing and mixed by Zach Jurich, Assistant
editor Hope Brush. Sound designed by Eric Rachelson. Script supervisor
Marilyn Miller
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