Under the knife. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

Today we're talking about a very bizarre and tragic case, a case that's still technically going on.

I happened to put it during some research for work and thought,

wow, and then, uh, then I kind of went on with my day, but for whatever reason,

and I work with a lot of cases into a lot of research, most of which doesn't make it onto the pod.

This one really stuck with me. It's very current, feels very of a time and also underlines a new

threat to personal safety that honestly I never saw coming, but probably should have.

Today we're going to Encino, California to talk about the murder of Carissa Rajpal

and the Latia mystery.

Encino Spanish for Oak is in the San Fernando Valley.

To me, it feels more like Posh Brentwood or Studio City than its other valley neighbors,

Tarzana, Rosita, Belboa. Encino has been built up to be a relatively cost-effective place to live,

close to major studios like Warner Brothers, NBC Universal, and NBC Radford.

It's spacious, very hot, fairly cheap, but also some celebrities do live there to kind of stay

under the paparazzi radar. Big celebs like Selena Gomez, Channing Tatum, Dave Grohl.

I only say this to kind of set the scene. Encino is a place like many parts of LA that is under

a microscope. The pressure to look a certain way, be a certain way, and all of that, even in the

deep valley, can be pretty high. And I'm not just talking about the deep valley, I think

this is really everywhere. You know, any place that you put yourself out there for many

point in the world and people are looking at you and judging you is right for pressure,

aesthetic pressure, primarily. In 2016, when 28-year-old Marco Rajpal and his wife,

26-year-old Carissa Rajpal come to Southern California from South Africa, they are ready for a

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