Episode 218: The Ghost Who Solved a Murder & Deadly Victorian Beauty Trends

The girls are back, and this episode starts in full spooky mode before Monique makes a hard left into Victorian women eating arsenic wafers for a glow up. First, Amy tells the story of Ivy Sundarji, a hardcore skeptic, atheist and science-minded TV writer who starts hearing from her late fiancé Jahangir after he drowns in the exact surfing accident she had once seen in a vision. And then a little blonde girl shows up. She says “Daddy did it.” She shows Ivy images, names, places and details that later connect to the case of five-year-old Harmony Montgomery. Ivy, who very much does not want to be “some crazy lady in Los Angeles” calling a tip line about a dead child talking to her, does it anyway. Because looking dumb matters less than justice. Then Monique goes rogue (as she should) with a deeply upsetting Victorian death-and-beauty deep dive. We’re talking tuberculosis, the White Death, lead face enamel, mercury creams, belladonna eye drops, radium products and arsenic complexion wafers sold like they were cute little wellness snacks. This one is grief, ghosts, the horrors of beauty and two best friends asking, very correctly: what the fuck is wrong with people?

This week on Another Fucking Horror Podcast, Monique and Amy are going from evidential mediumship to Victorian death aesthetics, so buckle up babes, because the range on this one is aggressive.

First, Amy tells the story of Ivy Sundarji, a lifelong skeptic, atheist and science-minded writer who did not believe in ghosts, mediums or any of this spooky shit. Then her fiancé Jahangir drowned in a surfing accident, the exact kind of death Ivy had once seen in a vision years earlier, and suddenly her house starts acting haunted.

Then the story turns into true crime.

Ivy begins seeing a little blonde girl who says “Daddy did it.” She hears the name Kayla. She sees a missing-person style image. She gets flashes of New Hampshire, cold weather, a rundown car, a duffel bag, Stark Park, Elm Street and details she has no normal way of knowing. Later, those details connect to the murder case of five-year-old Harmony Montgomery. And the coincidences are off the fucking charts.

Then Monique takes us into the Victorian era, where tuberculosis somehow became aspirational. Consumption, also known as the White Death, turned people pale, thin, weak and almost translucent. Instead of saying “that is horrific,” Victorians said “ooh, a new beauty standard!”

We’re talking lead makeup, mercury creams, belladonna eye drops, arsenic wafers and radium products. Because apparently if the label says “safe,” everyone just says, “cool, let’s put rat poison in the body and see what happens.”

This episode has grief, ghosts, evidence, dead people with better communication skills than the living and the most horrific of them all: toxic beauty standards.