Every story has a beginning, but not everyone has an ending.

In the shadows of headlines and buried police reports lay the voices of the missing, the murdered, and the forgotten, waiting to be heard and have their stories told.

This is the Book of the Dead, a true crime podcast where we remember forgotten victims of heinous crimes, reopen cold cases, re visit haunting disappearances, and uncover the truths buried beneath the years of silence.

I'm your host, Courtney Liso, and every week we turn to another chapter, one victim, one mystery, one step closer to justice.

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Each week, I'll be taking you through some of the creepiest cases true crime has to offer.

It won't only be true crime, I'll also be covering cryptids, haunted places, haunted things, and the true stories that inspired horror movies.

Listen every Monday and Friday for new episodes, and remember, if it's creepy and weird, you'll find it here.

Hello, Hello, Welcome to the next chapter in the Book of the Dead.

It's been a while since I've covered a case with very little information.

In fact, the last time I did was when I covered the disappearance of Teresa Beer, who disappeared in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Though at least in her case, I was able to find enough information to build a picture of what happened.

Today, I have two cases where the details are much harder to come by.

Two cases of young black women, one living in New York State, just across the state line from New Jersey, and the other living in Atlantic City, who were brutally murdered decades ago, and their cases are still unsolved years after the fact.

Their cases are not connected, killed miles and years apart, but both cases have an astonishing lack of information and so few people are talking about them.

These are the murders of Rosetta Jean Baptiste and Michelle Lynn Howard.

Rosetta Jean Baptiste was born on June twenty second, nineteen seventy five, in Haiti.

While I regrettably have no information on her family or what her life was like as she was growing up, I can tell you that she had two sisters, and her family emigrated to the US in nineteen ninety, when she was around fifteen or sixteen years old.

According to an article for Thecitytowner dot com, they were looking for better opportunities and to escape the turmoil occurring in Haiti through the nineteen eighties.

Political unrest, military regimes, the collapse of tourism, and the culling of the creole pig to eradicate swine fever were causing economic hardships and an uptick in violence, leading many Haitians to flee searching for asylum.

The Jean Baptiste family would ultimately make their way to New York State, settling on US Wing Avenue in Spring Valley, which is in the Rockland County area.

By December of nineteen ninety three, Rosetta was eighteen years old and an eleventh grader at Ramapo High School, and according to an interview in The Daily Voice with New Jersey State Police Detective Sergeant Fred Kurt, she was quote timid, quiet, and not known to be in a dating relationship.

As far as I can tell, she was leading a pretty average life.

She didn't seem to have known issues at school.

There's no record of her getting into any sort of legal trouble, and there seemed to be no issues at home.

Rosetta was also on beknownst to her family in her ninth month of pregnancy.

Since as far as anyone knew, Rosetta was not in a relationship with anyone, the identity of the father of her baby has remained a mystery.

The details of the last day of her life have evaded investigators for decades, but what is known is that on December ninth of nineteen ninety three, sometime around seven pm in the evening, Rosetta arrived at the Maple Shade Motel at four twenty five State Route seventeen South in Ramsey, New Jersey.

She was in the company of an older man.

If the name of this motel seems vaguely familiar to some of you, it was featured in an episode of The Sopranos.

Besides its brief moment of notoriety from the show, the Maple Shade Motel was also known for being a seedier place to stay if you were looking for a room to rent.

It was home to some more illicit activities and not exactly the cleanest motel in the area.

It did close down in twenty seventeen and is now the home of the Ramsey Inn if you were curious.

According to the front desk clerk that was working that night, Rosetta and the man checked in without incident.

Rosetta seems as if she was there willingly and was not under any duress, and they were assigned room number two.

While Rosetta was apparently at the motel of her own volition, her parents had no idea where she had gone that night and were extremely worried.

In fact, they were concerned enough that her father filed a missing person's report that very evening when Rosetta didn't return home.

The next morning, on December tenth, a motel employee entered room number two at around nine forty five am to find it seemingly empty.

There was no sign of the man or Rosetta.

However, when the employee entered the bathroom, perhaps to start cleaning, they found the half naked body of Rosetta in the shower.

Police recalled and found no immediate signs of forced entry, indicating that she either knew her killer or they were willingly let into the motel room.

The medical examiner.

According to the Berken County Prosecutor's Office Cold Case Task Force determined that Rosetta's cause of death was quote mechanical asphyxiation due to ligature compression to her neck.

The emmy also announced that her unborn child, who had died along with her, was a boy.

From the start of the investigation, police had very little to go on.

There was minimal physical evidence of the scene, and the motel at the time had no security cameras.

In speaking with the front desk clerk who was on duty the night before, as well as another patron at the motel, they described the man with Rosetta as being quote a light skinned blackmail thirty to forty years old, five eight to five nine, stocky, approximately two hundred to two hundred and twenty pounds, with the clean cut beard.

While police had a decent description of the man enough to make a composite sketch, they were unable to identify him.

Either Rosetta was the one to book the room, or if the man signed in at the front desk when they checked in, it's possible he used the fake name or at minimum was not asked to provide identification.

Police interviewed other potential witnesses in the area, but were unable to get any substantial leads, and upon speaking with her friends, they learned that Rosetta was not regularly in contact with them outside of school, so no one was able to tell investigators if the man with her that night was a potential boyfriend or the father of her child.

Over the years, a couple of theories have emerged about the circumstances of Rosetta's murder.

Some speculate that the man she was with was a stranger to her, someone she had maybe met that very day who took advantage of a young woman's trusting nature.

Others suggest that the man she was with really was the father of her child, and a possible confrontation that night during a secret meeting led to her death.

There are those that even explored the possibility that the man she was with had nothing to do with her murder at all, and that Rosetta was possibly attacked randomly by a person looking for someone vulnerable to pray on that night.

Regardless of possible theories, the fact remains that Rosetta, Jean Baptiste, and her baby were killed over thirty years ago, and the murder is still unsolved.

If anyone has any information about her murder.

You are urged to call the Bergen County Cold Case Unit A two zero one six four six two three zero zero or A two zero one six four two five nine six y two.

You can also email them a tip at Cold Case Unit at BCPO dot net.

As I said at the start of this episode, Rosetta Jean Baptiste is not the only unsolved murder I want to discuss today.

The murder of Michelle Howard is another case with a critical lack of information and so few people that talk about it, making it so necessary to cover.

Michelle Lynn Howard was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Michael Abdullah and n Odette Lynn Howard.

She had three brothers, Michael and Lamont Howard and James Abdullah.

Not too much as known about her early life, but she loved basketball and she was incredibly good at it.

She was an all star player for bow Chelsea Heights School and the Uptown School Complex.

Michael told the Press of Atlantic City quote basketball was her thing.

They still have her pictures up at both schools.

While Michelle had a budding athletic career, things changed for her when she was in the sixth grade.

While still a baby herself, she became a mother, giving birth to a daughter she named Don o'laine.

However, Michelle was an incredibly hard worker, finishing school and attending Atlantic City High School.

She would also go on to work as a blackjack dealer and a security guard at the Shobo Casino Hotel, thriving in the russh of casino life.

Don told NBC quote she was the life of the party.

She was fun and lively in how to go get her mentality, but she also wanted the best for me.

When Michelle was in her twenties, she left her home in Atlantic City and headed to Philadelphia, hoping to find better opportunities for herself and her daughter.

She worked for both ups and the post office for a time, and according to her brother Michael, had attempted on three different occasions to start a janitorial business.

After years of trying to build a better life, but struggling with tough times and falling in with the wrong crowds, Michelle made the decision to come back home.

Around the first week of November in two thousand and one, Michelle was thirty two years old, and she moved back to Atlantic City, opting to live with her grandmother, Orra Lee Jones, and started looking for jobs at the local hospital.

Her ultimate goal, though, was to move away from New Jersey altogether and build a new life for herself in Dawn, who was now nineteen on the West Coast.

Don said quote, it was her dream to move to California, and she wanted me to go with her.

That was the last conversation I had with my mom.

On November twenty second, the whole family gathered for Thanksgiving at Orr's home, and two days later, on the twenty fourth, Michelle was last seen at around ten PM leaving the home, but she never came back that Monday.

On November twenty six, two thousand and one, two horseback riders found the body of a woman wearing only a white bra, lying face up about six feet off of Estelle Avenue in Mitzpah, close to a quarter mile away from Route forty.

Using fingerprint comparisons, the body was positively identified as Michelle Howard.

Atlantic County Medical examiner doctor Hideau Park concluded that Michelle had been brutally bludgeoned, suffering significant trauma to her chest, neck, and scalp, though the official cause of death was ruled as aspiration of gastric contents.

Pursued the investigation as a homicide, and Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Splitz told the Press of Atlantic City that police believed, based on evidence, found that Michelle had died somewhere else and her body had been moved to Mitzbah.

Michael Howard also believed that this was likely, believing Michelle to have died somewhere in Atlantic City.

He said quote, I think it happened here and they took her and dumbed her body.

Dawn would go on to tell Dateline that Michelle did not have a car at the time of her death, and as far as anyone knew, she would have no reason to be in Mitzbah at all.

During the investigation, police were unable to find Michelle's clothing, and her grandmother believed that her killers may have buried them in order to hide blood evidence and make it seem as if she had died during an attempted rape.

While toxicology reports were never released, police were waiting to see if it would confirm a sexual assault.

If it did, they have never made that information public or told the media that the only thing she knew for sure about her granddaughter's death.

Was that Michelle fought back Orra said quote whoever it was, she fought them back pretty hard.

She was very strong.

A month after Michelle's body was found, police were no closer to figuring out the circumstances of her death or her killer, and the family was left waiting for information.

Michael said, quote, they haven't told us anything since the week after it happened.

They might not want us to have information.

I wish we could find out something soon, but I still have faith in the system.

I believe they're doing their job.

While Michael said he did forgive his sister's killer, he didn't know if he'd be ready to face them, but he hoped they would be found for the sake of his parents, especially his mother, who was struggling terribly with the loss of her daughter, and for Dawn.

He said that Don was coping with the death of Michelle, but he worried immensely for his mom.

In the years since Michelle's murder, there has been no progress in her case, but Don, all kept in the dark at the time, has started looking for answers.

She said, quote, I was there when the detectives first told us they had found her body, but after that nothing.

I'm her only child, but they wouldn't tell me anything.

Don started looking on her own, asking family members for information and took to social media to find what she could, bringing what she did find to the Atlantic City Prosecutor's office.

In twenty twenty, nineteen years after Michelle's murder, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's office made a new plea for information.

Prosecutor Damon G.

Teyner said at the press release, quote, even though miss Howard lost her life nineteen years ago, I am hopeful that there is someone out there who saw something or knows something that can assist us with solving this homicide.

Time is always the greatest equalizer, and circumstances sometimes changed that lead people to come forward now that prevented them from doing so at the time of the incident.

Since the loss of her mother, has built a good life for herself, getting married and living in Tennessee, but she is unable to be content until she gets justice for her mom.

She said, quote, I don't know what happened to her that night, but someone out there does.

Anyone with information about the murder of Michelle Howard is asked to call the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office at six zero nine nine zero nine seven eight zero zero, or you can submit a tip at their website www dot ACPO dot org backslash tips.

You can also call crime Stoppers at six zero nine sixty five two one two three four or one eight hundred six five eight eight four seven seven.

You can also go to their website www dot crimestoppers Atlantic dot com and the links and phone numbers for both cases will be in the source notes.

Rosetta Jean Baptiste and Michelle Howard were both senselessly killed decades ago, and not only has there been no semblance of justice for them or progress in their cases, but no one is talking about them at all.

They were both very loved, They're still loved, and it's been more than long enough for someone to come forward with information.

It's still possible that their cases can be solved if someone comes forward with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

As always, I thank you so much for listening.

These are two cases that I covered briefly in two very short TikTok videos well over a year ago.

Two minutes was not enough to talk about these women and their lives and how they died, and the fact that no one is willing to talk about them now, and the fact that their cases are still unsolved.

I hope you have a wonderful week and I will see you in the next chapter of the Book of the Dead.

Bye, guys, Another page closed.

But the story isn't over for the families left behind.

The pain doesn't end when the headline's fade.

And for the victims, we owe them more than silence for our on solved cases.

If you have any information, please reach out to local authorities or visit our show notes for links and resources.

Someone out there knows something, maybe it's you.

Thank you for listening to the Book of the Dead.

If this story moved or spoke to you in some way, talk about it, share it, keep their names alive.

Until next time.

I'm Courtney Liso.

Stay safe, stay curious, and stay vigilant, and remember the dead may be gone, but their stories will not be forgotten.

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