A Collection of Philippine Short Horror Stories and Urban Legends (WIP)

Teresita Basa

On the night of February 21, 1977, firefighters responded to a call and arrived at a Chicago apartment to put out a fire. They responded that the fire was confined to the Room №15B of a certain Teresita Basa. When they went inside to the room and got the fire under control, they were welcomes by a terrifying discovery: the burned, unclothed body of Teresita Basa covered up by a mattress. Investigators who arrived at the scene suspected that it was a case of rape-murder. Other than a note that read "Get tickets for A.S." written by the victim herself, there were no other clues that would lead them to the culprit. To unravel the mystery of this crime, they had to dig deeper into the life of Basa and figure out who "A.S" was.
Teresita was a native of Dumaguete City in the Philippines where she is now buried. After graduating from Assumption College in Manila, she immigrated to the U.S. in the mid 1960s. Before her death, she worked as a respiratory therapist at the now closed Edgewater Hospital in Chicago.
As for the real identity of "A.S.", Detective Joe Stachula had to wait a couple of months before getting a lead. Finally, he was asked by the Evanston Police to contact a certain Dr. Jose Chua to get more information about Basa's case. Dr. Chua and his wife Remy, both Filipinos, were hesitant at first but later agreed to share their story after Detective Statchula assured them he's open to anything.
Dr. Chua claimed that his wife would go into a trance-like state and become possessed by a spirit. That spirit introduced herself as Teresita Basa and went as far as naming her murderer — Allan Showery as well as specific proof like the jewelry that was stolen from her and the names and phone numbers of relatives that could identify that proof.
All this led to the arrest of Allan Showery, an orderly working at the same hospital as the victim and Dr. Chua's wife. The jewelry that Allen gave to his girlfriend was also positively identified as belonging to Basa, prompting the suspect to give a full confession. Allen ended up pleading guilty, was sentenced to imprisonment but was eventually released in 1983 after less than 5 year of serving his sentence.

Source: https://medium.com/@AestheticDistance/here-are-two-of-my-favorite-filipino-horror-stories-since-its-halloween-7e9df398a3da