transcript

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Speaker 4:
[01:45] What is going on, True Crime fans? I'm your host Heath.

Speaker 5:
[01:49] And I'm your host Daphne.

Speaker 4:
[01:50] And you're listening to Going West.

Speaker 5:
[01:52] Hello, everybody. Welcome to the 600s. Thank you so much, everybody, who tuned in to our last episode, episode 600.

Speaker 4:
[02:01] Yeah, that was a really fun one.

Speaker 5:
[02:02] Yeah, you guys gave us some really nice feedback about that one, and it was nice to hear so many of you guys talking about the cases that we brought up throughout that episode and that you went back and listened to that, because we really wanted to just re-bring awareness to these stories that we still think about. So I'm glad you guys agreed with that.

Speaker 4:
[02:20] Yeah, we needed like a little bit of a refresher, I'd say.

Speaker 5:
[02:23] Yeah, I mean, there's so many cases where I'm like, God, I just wish we could recover that because it's been so many years. So there are a lot that we talk about in that episode. So tune in if you haven't yet. But anyway, to today's nuts case, thank you so much to Laura for recommending it alongside our friends, Andy and Jesse at the Love Murder Podcast. We actually almost covered this one on our tour last year because it's true crime, but it isn't devastating or gruesome, but instead it's just really bizarre. It's definitely one you'll tell a friend about.

Speaker 4:
[02:56] Yeah, and it was actually made known by the show Forensic Files, whose episode on this case came out in 1997. I mean, it is a very beloved Forensic Files episode because of just how downright strange this story is.

Speaker 5:
[03:09] I fully agree, cannot wait to dive in, honestly.

Speaker 4:
[03:12] Well, all right, guys, without further ado, this is episode 601 of Going West, so let's get into it.

Speaker 5:
[03:43] In 1993, a Pennsylvania teacher began receiving threatening and incriminating letters, which she believed were coming from another teacher at her elementary school. As the letters became more violent and personal and deranged, investigators began to unravel a chilling and confusing story that was nothing like it initially seemed. This is the story of JoAnne Chambers. JoAnne Chambers spent her entire life in Pennsylvania, having been born and raised in Carbondale, which is on the northeastern side of the state, near the border with New York. And then after attending Marywood College in Pennsylvania, and then pursuing her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, she took a job teaching in the Pocono Mountain School District and living with her husband Mark and their son Adair. She was described as a gifted mother and teacher who loved kids and had an affinity for creative hobbies, especially like gardening and cooking. Now, her husband's family were a mainstay in the area. They had owned and operated a Christmas tree farm there for over seven decades. In 1989, JoAnne accepted a job as a first grade teacher at the Koolbaa Learning Center, which was an elementary school located in the rural Pocono Mountain School District. She had a particular affinity for her endless patience in teaching young kids to read and was universally beloved by parents, students, and fellow teachers alike.

Speaker 4:
[05:35] Yeah, everybody really liked JoAnne.

Speaker 5:
[05:38] Yeah, we're going to go into more of her habits as a teacher and her methods, I guess is a better word for it, as well to show you what a fun teacher she was known to be. She also had this really relaxed approach in her classroom, like she often used tactics and tools like music and games to offer lessons to her students. So she liked to make learning fun. But in 1993, the principal of the school began receiving surprising accusations about JoAnne, who by then was one of the school's most longstanding educators. Now, two of these early letters read, Chambers brought pot into school and then showed it in the faculty room like it was a big joke. And the other one said, Look in Chambers' desk. She seems to like Jack Daniels. Well, sure enough, a bottle of Jack Daniels was found in a drawer inside JoAnne's desk, despite her shock and insistence that it didn't belong to her. You know, these aren't really things you want to bring to a school.

Speaker 4:
[06:41] Yeah, and at this point, the other faculty members, they all trust JoAnne because she's been in the school district for a long time. They trust her, so if she's telling them, hey, like, I don't know where this came from, they're kind of believing her, you know?

Speaker 5:
[06:55] Yeah, and then it's spooky and suspicious because this letter said that it was in her desk and it was, and she's like, I don't know how that got there. So you're like, is she lying or did somebody, is somebody trying to frame her?

Speaker 4:
[07:08] And I think what also makes this really interesting is the fact that this is an elementary school, so it's not her students pulling a prank.

Speaker 5:
[07:14] Right.

Speaker 4:
[07:15] Because they're little kids, they can't do that. So it's got to be somebody else within the school.

Speaker 5:
[07:20] Stealing some Jack Daniels from their parents' cabinet.

Speaker 4:
[07:23] Yeah. Just to frame JoAnne Chambers. It's crazy because copies of these letters were left scattered around the school and the schoolyard, like somebody was trying to taint her name. But when JoAnne was questioned about the accusations within the letters, she staunchly denied that there was any truth to them. But then, what initially reeked of this cruel hoax quickly turned more serious when JoAnne began receiving the letter herself. So now it's not just being spread around the schoolyard, but it's going directly to JoAnne. This shocking correspondence of constant mysterious letters to JoAnne would continue for over a year. The letters became so incredibly hateful, like they were profane, vulgar, and sometimes even sexual in nature, and were always dotted with poor grammar and punctuation. And soon enough, she began receiving threats, including one note that read, quote, It's not over, you die. Now, the severity gradually increased over time, and another letter read, quote, I could get you in one try, no one will ever prove it. They may not think so, but I'm smarter than all of you, you stupid bitch. And it continued, and it said, quote, you really are a clueless bitch. I had four chances to drug your coffee this week. Or did I drug your coffee? Bitch, you make me sick.

Speaker 5:
[08:51] Like so aggressive, but it also isn't describing why. Like bitch, you make me sick. Okay, why? What am I doing?

Speaker 4:
[08:59] Yeah, what's the reason for all this hostility? Like JoAnne's like, you know, she's probably thinking to herself at that point, well, I don't like what's going on here.

Speaker 5:
[09:07] And like threatening murder? Like it went from she's got pot in her desk.

Speaker 4:
[09:12] To I'm gonna kill you. That's crazy. It's super unhinged. Well, then another seemed to confirm that the passages were coming from a fellow teacher at Cool Bar, reading, quote, If I see you walk past my room again, I'll kill you. Again, just insane. JoAnne also fielded accusations within these letters that she was a lesbian and that she had been diagnosed with AIDS. And because these letters just seemed to, like, be gradually increasing in their severity, like, soon this was not an issue that could be handled between JoAnne and the principal anymore because parents at the school were beginning to receive letters and calls about her. JoAnne also claimed that things began to go missing from her desk. For example, she had a framed picture of herself with her son and a friend of hers that vanished inexplicably. Then JoAnne Stalker took things a step further. A photocopy of JoAnne's face in this picture turned up pasted on a pornographic photo of three nude women. And to make matters worse, copies of this explicit fake photo were posted around this K-12 school, as well as hung up at a local store and sent home to some of the parents of the children who attended Cool Boss. So, you know, it's like, first we started, like you were saying, Daphne, first it started with this pot stuff. Then it's moving on to these threats of I'm going to kill you. And now somebody is super imposing her face on nude photos of women. And not only putting them up in the school, but at a local store?

Speaker 5:
[10:49] Yeah, it's so embarrassing for her and also, I mean, it's just so inappropriate. So she is terrified. She's, like I said, embarrassed. This is her workplace. She's been working this job at this school for a while and across other schools. Like this is her career. And she feels like she can't even go to work in peace. And she has no idea who's behind this. It's absolutely horrifying. Right. It's really escalating.

Speaker 4:
[11:18] And it doesn't seem like there's any, like she has any enemies, you know, like she's not doing anything that would cause somebody to create this type of threat to her.

Speaker 5:
[11:29] Yeah, we're going to go into that too. But yeah, I mean, she she didn't. She was a great teacher. It's it's really, really bizarre. Well, based on how many of the references in the letters included specific references to things that only someone in the school would know, JoAnne and the principal had an eerie suspicion that the letters were coming from a fellow teacher.

Speaker 4:
[11:53] Yeah, I mean, who else could it really be?

Speaker 5:
[11:55] No, literally who else? But obviously, for a teacher, like we said, the letters were riddled with grammatical errors, though detectives felt that this was most likely a red herring to throw off the investigation and that all these errors were intentional.

Speaker 4:
[12:11] Yeah, done on purpose.

Speaker 5:
[12:12] Yeah, makes sense. Well, the harassment kept getting worse. Like at one point, JoAnne remembers reaching down to straighten out her dress and finding feces smeared on her school chair.

Speaker 4:
[12:27] Oh, nasty. Why do you got to go there?

Speaker 5:
[12:30] So disgusting. JoAnne actually later told Forensic Files, quote, I couldn't even tell you what that felt like. I felt sick to my stomach. I was like, this was not happening. I was like, this could not happen. The letters then started to follow her home and she would also receive frequent prank calls and hang up calls that made her feel as if someone was like, keeping tabs on her and her family or worse watching her everywhere she went. And soon these escalated to actual physical violence. One day as she was leaving school for the day, she cut her hand on a razor blade that was tucked into the door handle of her car and there was a note with it that read, quote, you're sliced.

Speaker 4:
[13:19] So now things are getting real, because it's not just like, you know, feces being smeared on her chair. It's like-

Speaker 5:
[13:25] Which is pretty bad.

Speaker 4:
[13:26] Which is pretty bad, but this is getting dangerous.

Speaker 5:
[13:28] Yeah, I mean, in such an inconspicuous place, like horrifying. And at one point, one of the letters referenced Colonel Wilhelm Klink. This is a character from the classic 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes. Now, JoAnne claimed that this had stuck out to her because it was a very specific reference. And she had actually heard a coworker of hers make the comparison between Wilhelm Klink and David Krauser, who was the superintendent of their school district. So the fact that this sitcom is coming up, she's like, wait, I just heard somebody talking about that sitcom. That's really random. And this is the 90s. This is 30 plus years after this sitcom came out.

Speaker 4:
[14:10] Right. So now she's kind of putting two and two together and she's like, okay, now we got to start looking at this specific other teacher.

Speaker 5:
[14:18] Yeah. So this coworker was fellow first grade teacher, Paula Narocchi. When JoAnne brought these suspicions of Paula and the whole Hogan's heroes thing to the principal, they poured over surveillance footage from inside JoAnne's classroom because she had a camera in there. And they found something odd. In one instance, Paula could be seen taking something from JoAnne's desk when JoAnne was not in the classroom. So they seemed to catch this teacher red handed.

Speaker 4:
[14:56] I mean, yeah, you would think, but there was some serious fuckery going on that no one would have imagined. Now at the time, although Paula couldn't be seen taking the framed photo from JoAnne's desk, it seemed too coincidental that she was spotted on the camera footage and moving something from JoAnne's desk another time. So the tide of suspicion shifted toward Paula, who shockingly was another lifelong educator and beloved family favorite. Now when the principal reviewed the surveillance footage from JoAnne's classroom, multiple people could be seen entering and exiting, but Paula was the only one to fetch something off of JoAnne's desk. So when Paula was asked about this, she maintained that moments prior, she could be seen walking out of the classroom with JoAnne. It was only after JoAnne forgot her coffee and asked Paula to go retrieve it for her, that Paula went back into the classroom alone. Now as far as Paula was concerned, she believed this to be a huge misunderstanding. But this was another in a few months of setbacks for Paula because she had recently lost her mom and she was going through menopause, which left her feeling ill much of the time. Well, get this. The FBI soon became involved due to the severity of the suspected stalking, and even tested the letters in hopes of gleaning fingerprints, but they weren't able to find anything. At this point though, the damage had already been done to Paula's reputation. So despite there being no discernible proof of her involvement, the other teachers became so convinced that they began shunning her around the school, and Paula became the workplace pariah. Now, out of an abundance of caution and honestly for her own protection, she was moved to another building on campus.

Speaker 5:
[16:49] Based on the footage of her taking the coffee cup from inside JoAnne's classroom and the obscure Hogan's Heroes reference, Paula became the prime person of interest. This grueling investigation continued for months, and just hoping that it would help, both women voluntarily underwent polygraph examinations in May of 1994. Well, interestingly, when Paula was met with the question, were you involved in the making or sending of the harassing letters, she failed. She showed deception. Obviously, these are not foolproof tests. It's possible that she was nervous and that's why she got it wrong, but pretty interesting and this was of course very interesting to investigators.

Speaker 4:
[17:36] It is, and of course, JoAnne passed hers.

Speaker 5:
[17:39] Yeah, passed that same question. And nobody seemed more shocked at the outcome of the exam than Paula herself. Even telling the officers, quote, If I am doing it, I don't know it.

Speaker 4:
[17:54] Which doesn't really make you look good saying something like that, because it's like, well, maybe I'm doing it, but am I sleepwalking? Like, I don't know that I'm doing these things.

Speaker 5:
[18:05] But it is interesting that she is really holding strong on, I'm not doing this. And if I'm, I am so much not doing it, that if I am doing it, then I don't know that I'm even doing it, which means I couldn't have done it.

Speaker 4:
[18:18] No, no, for sure. I just mean that statement doesn't really like make me think that you're not doing it. It kind of makes me go, what are you?

Speaker 5:
[18:26] I think it's a little creepy, though.

Speaker 4:
[18:28] Yeah.

Speaker 5:
[18:29] Well, the police then searched Paula's home, which she happily agreed to let them do. You know, again, she's saying that she has nothing to hide. But of course, at this point, they're knowing that JoAnne thinks that she's guilty. The references that I made before, the fact that she failed that part of the polygraph, they're like, sure thing, Paula.

Speaker 4:
[18:49] Yeah. And this is this whole thing is just blowing up. I mean, it's massive. Even having the FBI involved in this, it's just crazy.

Speaker 5:
[18:56] I know it's actually insane. So from Paula's house, the authorities removed many items, including a typewriter and dozens of papers, letters, envelopes and documents. However, neither the typewriter nor the envelopes match the ones used to send the letters to JoAnne Chambers. Now, in terms of a motive, the thought process behind whoever was sending the letters was really murky. Like you said earlier, Heath, JoAnne really didn't have any enemies. And Paula was more traditional and reserved as a teacher than JoAnne was. And she kind of liked to play things a little bit safer. So her being this depraved stalker just didn't seem to click for her personality. Especially when we think back to like, die bitch, that type of stuff that she's supposedly saying. And, you know, the feces, the razor.

Speaker 4:
[19:52] Yeah, it seems a little too unhinged for a teacher like Paula. Because you have two different personalities here. You've got Paula, who's more of like the strict disciplinarian teacher. She's a little bit more...

Speaker 5:
[20:04] Yeah, runs a tight ship in the classroom.

Speaker 4:
[20:06] Yeah, exactly. And then you have JoAnne, who's like, I'm the fun one. I'll use music to teach you. So it would be weird for Paula to be doing that, unless she just felt like maybe JoAnne's teaching methods were a little too out there.

Speaker 5:
[20:20] Well, that's what they started to think. Because JoAnne was so characteristically silly and lighthearted, you know, like you're saying, she uses music and games and laughter, the police are kind of wondering, well, maybe this kind of unconventional style of teaching of JoAnne's is like...

Speaker 4:
[20:39] Kind of pissed off Paula?

Speaker 5:
[20:41] Yeah, like rubbing some fellow teachers the wrong way, or maybe making them look bad, you know? And they're like, oh, JoAnne makes me look like an ass.

Speaker 4:
[20:49] Yeah, all the kids fucking hate me, they love JoAnne.

Speaker 5:
[20:51] Yeah, so maybe they're like, huh, maybe she's jealous of the love that JoAnne gets from the students, but...

Speaker 4:
[20:58] I mean, sure, that could be emotive.

Speaker 5:
[20:59] But again, then you also think about, like, pasting her face on this photo of these nude women. So it's like, is this really enough of a motive that she's just a jealous teacher and she's taken it that far? Well, at first glance, I'll say these teachers were very similar, JoAnne and Paula. They were both veteran teachers in their 40s. They were both married. They each had a son. But JoAnne truly felt that her methods may really have just been a bit over the top for Paula. And again, more likely that she was jealous of the connection that she had with her students and how much they seemed to look up to her. So JoAnne told the authorities that Paula may have a bit of an axe to grind. Throughout the investigation, letters continued to trickle in, including a set of letters with the most serious accusation yet, claiming that JoAnne molested her students. So this really is progressing. It's getting more and more serious. So for her safety, as the investigation continued, JoAnne was then transferred to Pocono Mountain Intermediate School away from Paula. But the trouble followed her there, too. Soon after she began her tenure there, a box covered in pink wrapping paper was found dropped outside the school. And inside was a Barbie doll with a razor sliced into its neck and fake blood drizzled across its body. And eerily, the dress was actually modeled after one that JoAnne owned, and the Barbie's hair had been cut short, just like JoAnne's.

Speaker 4:
[22:49] And I mean, at this point, you would be terrified as a human being. You're like-

Speaker 5:
[22:53] My god, yes.

Speaker 4:
[22:54] I already moved to a different school. We thought it was Paula, but now I'm at another school and this is still happening.

Speaker 5:
[23:01] Or is it still Paula and she knows that I went to this school and that's why it's coming in a box outside of school instead of in my class?

Speaker 4:
[23:11] Well, at this point, JoAnne was getting scared that more than just her reputation was in danger, even saying, quote, I said goodbye to my husband like I wanted him to remember me saying goodbye. I lived every day thinking that it was truly possible that it could be my last. And it seemed that she had a pretty good reason to be afraid because about a year after these creepy letters started coming in, she was run off the road while driving on I-380 on November 11th, 1994. As JoAnne sat shell shocked in the driver's seat, worried that her stalker was finally taking things to a darker level, she noticed a smug and familiar face staring back at her from the other car. And at that point, she knew that she had been right about the threats coming from a fellow teacher at Coolba. Because she claimed that she locked eyes with the perpetrator, and that it had clearly been an intentional threat. So rattled by this, she called 911 and accused Paula of driving her off the road. So with that, Paula was arrested in January of 1995, and a bevy of charges were brought against her. And she was actually charged with over a hundred counts of stalking over the eighteen months between the end of 1993 and early 1995, including harassment, making terroristic threats, stalking, simple assault, aggravated assault, and reckless endangerment. And each of these counts also carried a possible $10,000 fine. And just a day later, to the dismay of the Narakes, her arrest was splashed across the local papers. Now, Paula's husband Leonard recalled, quote, My first thought was, my God, how did the newspapers find out about this already? I mean, it was like less than 24 hours after she had been arrested. Paula was similarly despondent about this development, saying, quote, Now everybody knew. It wasn't something that was going to change real soon or anything. It seemed that both Paula's and JoAnne's worst nightmares were coming true. JoAnne was scared for her life, and Paula, on the other hand, was suspended from her dream job at her beloved school, as the public wondered why. With spring activities, sports, and busy schedules, it can be tough to keep academics front and center. IXL makes it simple to stay consistent and build momentum without adding stress.

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Speaker 5:
[31:02] Results may vary. Paula was facing five years in prison, as well as permanent damage to her reputation and the demise of her beloved career. Her husband, Leonard, explained, basically, we were isolated people. We felt like there wasn't a friend in the world. And of course, Leonard's so confused at this point, and Paula is telling him that she didn't do it, and everything was just a freaking mess. I mean, the couple recalls attending a basketball game together around this time before she was arrested, of course, and that they watched as a group of Paula's coworkers scattered as Paula and Leonard approached them to say hi. Like, nobody wanted anything to do with Paula.

Speaker 4:
[32:01] Yeah, nobody is fucking with the Narakis.

Speaker 5:
[32:03] And as you can imagine, I mean, this female teacher on female teacher drama was a media frenzy. So it's interesting that Leonard was like, yeah, the news got hold of it in less than 24 hours. Of course, they did. This story is insane.

Speaker 4:
[32:19] Yeah, it's making national headlines.

Speaker 5:
[32:20] And it's such a unique premise. Like, again, like you said, Heath, why is this happening? Nobody could understand it. It was such a major conundrum in this small town. Like, of course, people are talking about it. So also, Paula and Leonard were getting offers to make appearances on shows like Montel Williams and Jerry Springer.

Speaker 4:
[32:40] Jerry, Jerry, Jerry. Did you ever watch that show?

Speaker 5:
[32:43] No, I didn't.

Speaker 4:
[32:44] It was, oh, my God, it was like a 90s staple.

Speaker 5:
[32:47] Well, of course, yeah, of course. But, you know, they didn't want to go on Jerry Springer. They didn't want to go on Montel Williams.

Speaker 4:
[32:52] Yeah, they don't want to do any of this. They're like, we want to be left alone.

Speaker 5:
[32:56] Yeah, we want to disassociate from this. Like, they were not equipped to handle the attention, especially because it was so negative on both of them. And also because leading up to the trial, Paula's lawyer was really playing things pretty close to the vest. And most didn't even know about the inclusion of the DNA evidence. Paula explained, quote, If you have a criminal trial against you, you are backed in a corner. If you have a good lawyer, you're not going to say anything to the paper because you are shooting yourself in the foot for whatever you are going to bring out at trial. So you have a helpless kind of feeling. The other side can feed you guys whatever they want to, and that can be like a snowball effect. It just keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. Your lawyer simply says, we have no comment, and months and months and months go by. You just feel like you're down in the hole somewhere. Despondent, Paula hired both a defense attorney and a private investigator to look into these charges. But even her private investigator, James Anderson, admitted that at first glance, he thought that it was highly likely that she was guilty, though he gave her a chance to prove her innocence. Which is pretty crazy. He's like, yeah, I think you did this.

Speaker 4:
[34:11] Yeah, like who else is it going to be, Paula?

Speaker 5:
[34:13] So they decided to pursue an aggressive campaign for her innocence, which included DNA testing of the letters based on the saliva that could be, you know, gleaned from the stamps and the seal of the envelopes. This cost Paula $7,000 or about $15,000 today out of pocket. But she wants to get this testing done so bad because she's like, I know I didn't lick those stamps. I know I didn't lick those envelopes.

Speaker 4:
[34:42] Yeah, and this could completely exonerate her.

Speaker 5:
[34:45] Exactly. So James was Frank with Paula, that if her DNA was found on those envelopes, she would have no hope of retribution. So he's saying, sure, you want to do this because if we go here and it's your DNA-

Speaker 4:
[35:01] There's no turning back.

Speaker 5:
[35:03] You're screwed.

Speaker 4:
[35:04] Well, steam was actually utilized to remove the stamps from the envelopes and the trace amounts of saliva left behind were tested. Both Paula and her husband, Leonard, offered up blood samples for comparison to the sample. To her relief, it was found not to be a match, which of course was a step toward exonerating Paula as we mentioned, because you'd assume that if she had written Paula's letters, she would have licked those stamps. So that's when investigators were shocked to turn their efforts back toward the victim herself, JoAnne Chambers. Phil Lauer, who was the defense attorney that Paula retained, began a very stealthy investigation into JoAnne's past, and found that her history included reporting many different incidents of varying severity. So, according to the Carbondale Police Department, she had reported numerous burglaries and fires, but the circumstances were always strange and very hazy. They were never cut and dry cases. Like, basically, there were always suspicions within the police department as to whether or not the emergency had played out as JoAnne had reported it. Her lawyer and private investigator also discovered that she had reported finding feces on her chair at another school as well.

Speaker 5:
[36:31] Huh.

Speaker 4:
[36:32] Hmm, very interesting. And let's be honest, the odds of that happening twice in a person's lifetime are basically slim to none.

Speaker 5:
[36:40] Yeah, it's like a pretty specific thing to have done to you.

Speaker 4:
[36:43] And I will say, also, JoAnne had reported receiving threatening letters at another school as well, but the investigation just hadn't taken off like this one had. So, in hopes of matching her DNA to that of the envelope, investigators rooted through her trash and removed various items for comparison. And get this, people, when placed beside the DNA that was found on the envelopes and stamps, one of the sample profiles was a match, and the other was believed to have been her husband's. Now, surprisingly, JoAnne willingly offered up a DNA sample to clear this up, but that sample was also a match, the odds of which were 1 in 14,925. However, inexplicably, the DA's office refused to drop the possible charges against Paula, despite all of their evidence being circumstantial, and now, new evidence confirming the DNA belonged to the victim and her husband.

Speaker 5:
[37:47] Yeah, the fact that they didn't drop the, like, this circumstantial versus DNA evidence, like, you know, maybe they wanted to make sure that there wasn't another way around the rest of the harassing. And maybe they were like, oh, well, that just could help explain the letters, but not everything else. Let's just see this through. I don't know. Well, heading into the trial, Paula's husband, Leonard, chose to be as prepared as possible. So he read every article about the case, regardless of what it said about his wife. Paula did read some as well, but not all of them. Like, you know, some of them, I'm sure, were really hard for her to read. And she told friends, quote, I don't need this. It's like your worst dream coming true. Despite those new findings, the district attorney maintained their determination that there was enough evidence for her to stand trial. So, the trial began on January 15th, 1995. Now, teachers from a past school of JoAnne's were brought in to testify that she had been up to the same antics. But JoAnne and her prosecutors had a simple explanation for that DNA matching. So JoAnne alleged that at one point during the course of the investigation, she had been left alone with some of the evidence in a room while being questioned, and while handling these letters, a few of the stamps fell off. And rather than admit that she had mishandled the evidence, she just licked the stamps to adhere them to the envelope again.

Speaker 4:
[39:19] Yeah, uh, okay, JoAnne.

Speaker 5:
[39:21] She's like, oh shoot, these fell off, I gotta put them right back on, I'll lick them, no problem. And of course, when they wouldn't fully remain on the envelope, she claims that she pulled out a glue stick, which she always kept in her purse, and glued them back on. But the experts in the testing lab reported no glue stick residue on any of those stamps.

Speaker 4:
[39:45] Uh-oh, JoAnne, oh no.

Speaker 5:
[39:48] That ain't the right story there. So in front of JoAnne and the rest of the courtroom, Paula was asked whom she thought was responsible for the letters. Calm and poised, Paula alleged that she believed JoAnne had written them herself. She claimed that she had refused to pander to her like other teachers had, which was something that had clearly irked JoAnne, despite them having a cordial relationship, and that this was her way of seeking both attention and revenge. You know, she's like, if you think about the other allegations, and if you think of JoAnne as being somebody who wants attention and wants to create drama, and she's trying to do this at this new school, and she's like, who can I use? Oh, Paula, because Paula, I'm not really cool with Paula.

Speaker 4:
[40:41] Yeah, and Paula's not really gonna put up too much of a fight. I feel like I can manipulate the situation and kind of like pull her down while also getting this attention that I need. But what's kind of like crazy here is that JoAnne is kind of acting like she's the queen of the school. Like, if you don't bow to JoAnne Chambers, then you're automatically on my shit list.

Speaker 5:
[41:06] Literally.

Speaker 4:
[41:07] Yeah, literally, whoa! Well three teachers who taught alongside JoAnne in the early 1980s testified against JoAnne, claiming that JoAnne had accused teachers in another school district of saying that they were going to burn her house down.

Speaker 5:
[41:23] Three teachers saying this? It's like, damn.

Speaker 4:
[41:26] And this actually occurred at the Lackawanna Trail School District, and the superintendent who was working there at the time actually held a special meeting with the teachers at this school, gathering them together and accusing one of them of being the perpetrator behind the harassment and threats. Jane Pardue, one of the fellow teachers, remembered, quote, She carried tales that weren't true to the superintendent, and she tried to get us in trouble. Yikes. Yikes, JoAnne. She also once told a group of teachers that she had been studying to be a nun at Marywood College and when a fire broke out, she broke her leg leaping from a window. But another teacher at the school, Lois Renda, recalls her telling a very different version of this story, claiming that JoAnne alleged to have jumped from a window because the nuns were trying to force her to stay in the convent.

Speaker 5:
[42:20] Very different story.

Speaker 4:
[42:21] Yeah, it doesn't match up at all. And both teachers claim that JoAnne caused suspicion and chaos everywhere she went. Paula's defense attorney Phil Lauer said that he found at least 16 incidents where she reported receiving anonymous threats to the authorities. And Paula, by contrast, was described as honest, peaceful, and law-abiding, with nobody claiming otherwise. I mean, she was diplomatic to a fault, to the point where she was often considered the most trustworthy go-between for teachers and the administrators. Well, sadly, despite her 21 years of devoted teaching, she was placed on unpaid leave as the scandal mounted. But still, she maintained, quote, Someday, I'll be able to gloat when everyone finds out it's not me. Someday, I'll have my day. Now, in under two hours, the jury had decided Paula's fate. She was found not guilty and officially acquitted in January of 1996.

Speaker 5:
[43:26] What a freaking ordeal.

Speaker 4:
[43:28] Yeah. And I mean, many of the jurors actually hugged her afterward while JoAnne sulked and slinked out of the courtroom. One juror told her, quote, My heart is with you. Another maintained that the school district's investigation had been bungled from the very beginning. And that, quote, Obviously, she paid a very, very high price. But still, to the astonishment of her community, JoAnne continued to maintain her innocence. And she was actually interviewed on that, that episode of Forensic Files about her case. And this is exactly.

Speaker 9:
[44:04] I could never, ever do this stuff to myself. I don't think that I could be functioning in a world, as a parent, as a teacher, as a wife, if I were that sick to do that to myself.

Speaker 5:
[44:23] Especially when you remember the feces. Like, did girl really shit in a bag and put it on her own chair? But it really seems that way. The majority of people out there seem to believe that JoAnne did do this to herself. And I gotta agree.

Speaker 4:
[44:40] Yeah, and also, you know, when Paula was exonerated from all of this, it's not like the threats continued. They didn't continue to go on and keep happening. It's like, yeah, I think JoAnne Chambers really did shit on her own chair.

Speaker 5:
[44:55] But when you think as well, like, the Barbie doll, the razor under her car door handle, like, there's so many things that she would have done to herself. And, I mean, really thinking about her getting a Barbie and cutting its hair and putting it in a dress like her own, like, you know, it's creepy.

Speaker 4:
[45:14] It is really, really creepy. But some people really do these types of things for attention. It brings me back to that case. What's that case about the fake abduction? Oh, my gosh. What's her name?

Speaker 5:
[45:28] Did we cover it?

Speaker 4:
[45:29] Was it Sherry Papini?

Speaker 5:
[45:30] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. She, like, allegedly staged her own abduction. And, like, yeah, she would have had to brand herself and cut her hair and do all these horrible things to her own body, acting as though she was abducted. And most people don't think she was.

Speaker 4:
[45:46] But people...

Speaker 5:
[45:47] I think she was actually charged.

Speaker 4:
[45:49] I think she was, too. But, yeah, people have been known to do stuff like this just in order to get either revenge or attention or to manipulate a situation.

Speaker 5:
[45:58] Oh, true. It's very disturbing. Well, despite having been cleared in court, Hala was forced to go in front of the school board on charges of school code violation neglect and immorality. The charges against her were eventually dropped and her name was cleared, well, somewhat, because with such serious allegations, her name was definitely tainted. And of course, this affected her life so much. But luckily, she was reinstated by the Pocono Mountain School District and was allowed to continue teaching at the Pocono Mountain Elementary Center. Somehow, JoAnne was permitted to continue teaching as well, and worked as a reading specialist at Intermediate South. All together, Hala spent about $100,000 or $220,000 by today's standards, on her own defense and on that scientific testing, which is just devastating over something like a fake bullshit.

Speaker 4:
[46:59] Yeah, that sucks, because if it was all JoAnne, then JoAnne actually kind of did get the last laugh.

Speaker 5:
[47:05] Yeah, I mean, it's horrible.

Speaker 4:
[47:07] Because, you know, Paula didn't go to jail, but she did have to spend a grip of money to clear her name.

Speaker 5:
[47:13] So Paula planned to sue JoAnne, as well as the school district, the Pocono Police Department, and the chief of police. And she eventually received a $600,000 payout from the school district and $25,000 from JoAnne.

Speaker 4:
[47:28] Oh, okay. So it actually did kind of work out for Paula then. She got her money back plus some.

Speaker 5:
[47:33] Yeah, which is like the least that can be given to her.

Speaker 4:
[47:37] Yeah, I mean, your reputation was basically ruined.

Speaker 5:
[47:40] But she did lose her lawsuit against the police in 2002. And after that, she and her husband understandably stopped conducting interviews and preferred to just fly under the radar. Like, we're going to go back to our quiet Pennsylvania life. And we don't want to be associated with this anymore because I didn't do shit. But before she went away, despite her exoneration, Paula complained that her reputation had still been tarnished, saying, quote, There are some people who still avoid me. I feel that the harm is still there. Of course. I mean, as you can imagine, Paula and her husband really struggled to go back to their normal lives in the area because they kind of became like minor celebrities over something so scandalous. And of course, there were those who still looked at her as if she was guilty because really, clear answers didn't come to the case.

Speaker 4:
[48:34] Well, JoAnne finally saw some fallout from what she had likely done when in 2015, she was passed over for a job because of her sketchy history of false accusations. JoAnne was going before the school board in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, hoping to head up a reading program for dyslexic children, and she reportedly came highly recommended. However, multiple parents were actually spooked when a cursory search of her name brought up her checkered past.

Speaker 5:
[49:05] Yeah, they're like, we don't want anything to do with this lady.

Speaker 4:
[49:07] I think we're good. Well, one anonymous parent explained, we just Googled her name and all of this came up. The director of the program, Jared O'Donnell, expressed his grave concern about her involvement. So she was not offered the position. Even all these years later, no one can be sure what her motivation actually was, especially because she was never willing to admit what she had done. JoAnne and Mark stayed together until his death on September 3rd of 2023, and then JoAnne followed November 1st of 2024. Paula and Leonard stayed in the area until his death in 2024, but Paula keeps a very low profile, and she is still alive to this day.

Speaker 5:
[50:00] Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.

Speaker 4:
[50:04] Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this kind of different story that we brought for you guys today about one incredibly strange weirdo.

Speaker 5:
[50:13] Even though it's still a devastating story for so many reasons, you know, especially for Paula, whose name was completely smeared. You know, it is nice to have a break from the heavy true crime sometimes. So I am definitely on the lookout for more stories like this. If anybody knows of any, please send them in. GoingWestpodcast at gmail.com. Again, big shout out to Laura. And then of course, Andy and Jessie at Love Murder for recommending this case.

Speaker 4:
[50:39] And if you want to see photos of JoAnne and Paula and everybody associated with this case, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast. We're on Facebook and we're also on TikTok. Check it out, give us a follow. And yeah, thanks guys for listening.

Speaker 5:
[50:55] Yeah, go check out JoAnne's Bob. I wish we had a picture of the Barbie, but we don't, we don't. All right guys, thank you so much. We will see you on Friday.

Speaker 4:
[51:04] All right guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

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