Did Teresita Basa Solve Her Own Murder?
Chicago detectives claimed they arrested her killer with a little help from her ghost.
Teresita Basa was born and raised in the Philippines, the only child of a prominent and wealthy couple. She graduated from Assumption College in Manila, then moved to the United States and earned a master’s degree in music from Indiana University. Although music would always play a large part in her life, she eventually decided that she wanted to work in the medical field and became a respiratory therapist.
In 1977, Teresita was 47 years old and seemed very happy with the way her life was going. She was living in Chicago and employed at Edgewater Hospital. She had also decided to go back to school and was working on her doctoral thesis in music at Loyola University. In what little free time she had, she gave piano lessons out of her apartment.
Monday, February 21, 1977. had been a routine day for Teresita. She worked her normal shift at the hospital, then returned to her apartment building at 2740 North Pine Grove Avenue. Around 7:30 pm she received a phone call from her friend Ruth Loeb; the two of them talked for about 20 minutes before Teresita told Ruth she had to get off the phone because she was expecting a male visitor. Ruth didn’t ask for the man’s name or any other details.