My spouse and I watched episode 7 of Confession Tapes on Netflix last night. It was about Larry DeLisle who drove his wife and four small children into the Detroit River in 1989. DeLisle and his wife survived but all four children died. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to four life terms in prison. He’s still in prison serving his sentence.
As we watched the documentary, I remarked that I didn’t remember Mr. DeLisle being in the car, much less driving the vehicle. My memory was that it was his wife who drove their children, tightly belted into their seats, into the deep waters where she abandoned them. She was convicted of murder and sent to jail. I have no memory of Mr. DeLisle making the news coverage in any significant way that stuck with me.
My husband teased me, immediately claiming that it must be the Mandela Effect. He doesn’t buy into the entire Mandela Effect concept and has grown tired of me bringing it up. So he likes to tease me about it.
It didn’t occur to me that it might have been an instance of the Mandela Effect. I assumed there must have been a similar incident that I was confusing with the DeLisle case. So, I did a quick search online but only got hits for the DeLisle drowning. Not expecting to find the incident listed on a Mandela Effect web site, I brought the subject up with my sister who has most of the same Mandela Effect memories that I have.
I asked her if she remembered the kids who drowned in the family car when their parent drove it into the Detroit River in 1989. (I tried to phrase my questions carefully because I didn’t want to influence her recollections.) She said she remembered the incident vividly. It was two years after she graduated high school.
I asked her if she remembered who drove the vehicle. “The mother.” I asked her if she remembered the father being in the vehicle. “No. It was just the mom and the kids. There were three young kids.” Did she know of any other similar incidents in the area? “No.” She added that she remembered seeing the mother at a local mall a few years after the incident and feeling surprised that she was out of jail so soon.
Obviously, my sister’s corroboration is not proof of the Mandela Effect but it helps me validate my memory which definitely doesn’t match the event as described in the documentary and numerous news stories. Such weirdness.
life in jello 