Latest / Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained / 2 Hours of the Most Disturbing Internet Mysteries

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2 Hours of the Most Disturbing Internet Mysteries · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On the 24th of April, 2022, at around 3 p.m.,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: 10-year-old Lily Peters left her home to visit her aunt
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on her own. The aunt's house was just a three-minute
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: bike ride from Lily's home in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: And since she lived with.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Just her father, Alexander, after her parents' divorce, Lily often
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: went to her aunt's house on the weekends to play around.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't unusual for her to make this journey
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: on her own. Unfortunately, what started off as an ordinary
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: weekend was about to end in a horrific tragedy. Things
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: took a turn for the worse when Alex noticed that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it was getting dark and Lily still hadn't come home.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like her to stay out late. He called
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: his sister, assuming Lily was still in her place. But,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to his surprise, she told him Lily had already left
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: over an hour ago. He then called the parents of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Lily's friends, hoping she might have stopped at one of
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: their houses on her way back. However, none of them
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: had seen her either. Fearing for the safety of his daughter,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Alex began searching the route Lily would have taken to
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and from her aunt's house. He also contacted the police
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and reported his daughter missing at around 9pm. While the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: authorities didn't issue an Amber Alert, they quickly formed a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: search party to help look for her in.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: The surrounding area.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And, after hours of searching, Alex finally discovered the first
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: clue to his daughter's whereabouts. Her bike, abandoned in a
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: nearby wooded area. By it, Lily herself was nowhere to
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: be found. Police deployed drones and rescue dogs to search
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the woods and investigate the hiking trail that ran through
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the area. Then, at around 8.45am, Alex received the news
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: he had been dreading all night.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Lily was deceased.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: A volunteer had discovered her body hidden under a pile
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of leaves just a few feet from the trail. After
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a brief examination, police ruled her death a homicide and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: began looking for the perpetrator. Unfortunately, they had nothing that
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: could lead them in the right direction. That is, until
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: someone made a post about Lily's case in the True
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Crime subreddit. While everyone else was speculating on what could
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: have happened to Lily, user homeslicenation4 came forward with a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: crucial piece of information in a now-deleted comment that read,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: What's scary is I was playing Pokemon Go in the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: park that day and walking along that very same trail.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: My stomach turns when I think that I saw that
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: girl in a pink-slash-purple hoodie on her bike with another
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: kid on my way out. I have a suspicion that
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it could be another kid that did it. Another user
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: called the police tip line to report Homeslice Nation for
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: his comment. And to everyone's surprise, this was the breakthrough
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: the investigators needed to solve the case. Because just a
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: few hours later, police arrested Carson Peters Berger, Lily's 14-year-old cousin,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: as the prime suspect in her murder. Not long after
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: he was taken into custody, Carson admitted to everything. However,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: just what happened to Lily that night was more horrifying
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: than anyone could have ever imagined. According to Carson, he
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: followed Lily as she was heading home and told her
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to follow him into the woods. He'd been planning this
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: for months. Once they were off the trail, he punched
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: her in the stomach, hit her several times with a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: large stick, and strangled her until she took her final breath.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: He then went back home as if nothing had happened.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: But when he heard about the search for Lily, he
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: panicked and went back into the woods to move her
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: body further from the crime scene and hid it under
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: a pile of leaves. Though, all thanks to one Reddit comment,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: he was thankfully caught. Given the severity of his crimes
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and the fact that it was all premeditated, prosecutors decided
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: to try Carson as an adult. He's still in custody
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: awaiting his trial set for some time in 2026. On
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: May 1st, 2013, Reddit user ShadyBusiness15 posted on the WhatIsThisThing subreddit,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: seeking answers for a strange device he found inside his
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: power strip. The post read, violently blew a fuse in
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: my extension cord, took it apart to see the damage.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And found this inside.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Alongside this, the OP shared pictures of two circuit boards
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: connected to each other with wires and what appeared to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: be a SIM card. He also cross-posted this in the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Reddit Bureau of Investigation subreddit where users noticed a microphone
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: on one of the circuit boards and figured this was
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: a spying device of some kind. with one comment providing
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: more details about how it worked, stating, Put simply, one
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of the circuit boards was a cut-down version of a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: phone that used the SIM to transfer audio from the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: built-in microphone. The second board was a power delivery module,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: allowing the device to run directly off of the wall
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: power without needing any batteries. However, this raised more questions
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: than it answered, especially about the OP's true identity, with
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: some users speculating if he was involved in some shady business.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: After all, why else would someone go through the effort
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: of planting a bug to listen in on his conversations? But,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: according to a later comment, he was just a normal
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: university student who was living in the university's dorms, and
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: that he took this extension cord from his home when
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: he moved. Bud also mentioned that there are other people
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: with access to his room who could have planted the
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: bug without his knowledge. With this, the focus shifted towards
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: finding out who planted this in the OP's power strip
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and why. Some users suggested putting the SIM in a
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: spare phone, but doing so only deepened the mystery further. Apparently,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: it had a 10-pound credit, suggesting that it was being
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: used at some point. However, it didn't have any contacts, voicemails,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: or call logs. And judging from the network messages, the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: device had been active since October 2012. This also helped
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the OP retrieve the SIM's number, but calling it returned
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: an automated message stating... The service is now closed, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: if you have voicemail, you can turn it on.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Nothing else.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The OP tried leaving it active in a spare phone
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: as well, but even after days of waiting, he didn't
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: receive any calls or messages. It's possible the person who
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: planted it had already gotten the information they needed, or
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: perhaps they found out the OP had discovered it and
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: decided to back off. In either case, the OP's only
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: remaining option was to contact the sim's carrier, O2. Unfortunately,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: they weren't much help either. He would have needed a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: police warrant to access the call logs, something he didn't
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: want to deal with. Without access to the call logs,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the only real suspects OP had were his own parents. However,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: he didn't find the spy sim's number in either of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: their phones when he checked later. This left a single
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: possibility that's also the most likely explanation for the whole thing.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Put simply, the spy device was never meant for the
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: OP in the first place. As many on Reddit hypothesized,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the bug was likely intended and used for corporate espionage
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: at some point. From there, it somehow found its way
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: into the OP's home. Maybe one of his parents brought
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: it home from work or purchased it in a corporate
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: clearance sale without realizing what it actually was. But by then,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: the device had already fulfilled.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Its purpose and wasn't being used.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, while Redditors were quick to identify and solve what
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the device was, they weren't able to find a concrete
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: answer for who planted it and why. The last update
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: from the OP was in May of 2013. Chances of
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: getting an answer now, over 12 years later, are practically zero.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: On the morning of August 9, 2018, 66-year-old Susan Rainwater
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: set out on her usual cycling route in Eatonville, Washington.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: But unlike the countless times she'd followed this routine, that
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: day she didn't come home on time. Worried, her husband
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: David Rainwater went out looking for her, only to come
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: face to face with the aftermath of a tragic accident.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Just off the side of the road, David discovered the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: mangled remains of his wife's bicycle. As he got closer,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: he saw an injured Susan lying on the ground not
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: far from the bike. Sadly, it was already too late.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Susan had succumbed to her injuries and passed away before
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: David could get to her. He eventually gathered himself enough
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to call the police, who after examining Susan and her surroundings,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: were able to piece together what had happened. And according
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to their investigation, this was a classic hit-and-run case. Susan
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: was likely struck from behind by a fast-moving car, resulting
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: in her getting severely injured. However, instead of stopping and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: helping Susan, the suspect decided to save himself and fled
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the scene. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses or nearby CCTV cameras,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: leading investigators with no leads to follow. The only clue
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: they found on the crime scene was this one piece
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: of black plastic that likely broke off the suspect's car
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: from the collision. Investigators tried their best, but they weren't
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: able to figure out what this was supposed to be,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: let alone what car it belonged to. With no other options,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: one of the troopers at the scene turned to the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: internet for help, stating, troopers and detectives are still looking
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: for a black vehicle believed to be involved in this
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: morning's tragic bicyclist fatality. If you know anything regarding this collision,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: please call the Washington State Patrol. While this post received
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: little attention on Twitter, someone reposted the query on the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: WhatIsThisThing subreddit where it went viral and received valuable input
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: from hundreds of users. And it didn't take long for
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: redditors to figure out that this piece came from the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: car's headlight bezel, as it had the notch used to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: access the headlight adjusting screws. However, figuring out what car
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: this belonged to was still going to be a tall order.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: After all, there are dozens of manufacturers with hundreds of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: different models. Not to mention aftermarket parts, which would have
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: been practically impossible to track down. But, just when it
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: seemed like all hope was lost, the post reached perhaps
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: the only person capable of identifying the suspect's car model
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: from that tiny broken piece. Two hours after the original
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: post was made, user JeffsNuts dropped a comment that single-handedly
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: brought the search to a close. As it turned out,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Jeff was a state inspector in Maryland, where his job
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: was to make sure vehicles were up to code before
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: issuing registration. So, he'd seen his fair share of Hemlay
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: bezels at work. And, according to him, the piece police
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: found belonged to a 1988 Chevy Silverado. After spotting the resemblance,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: users forwarded the information to the investigators, prompting a search
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: for a vehicle that matched this new description. Then, just
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: five days later, the state trooper announced what everyone was
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: waiting for. They had located the vehicle that struck Susan
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and arrested its owner. The man responsible for her death
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: was 37-year-old Jeremy Thomas Simon. He first claimed that he
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: had fallen asleep at the wheel and thought that he'd
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: hit a deer instead of a person. However, his story
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: later changed to where he knew he hit a person,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: but didn't get out to help because he, quote, did
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: not want to see a body. It was clear he
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: was just making excuses, since authorities also found a small
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: bag of hard drugs in his car, suggesting he may
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: have been under the influence at the time of the crash.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: In the end, he was sentenced to four and a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: half years in prison. Not exactly a harsh penalty for
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a deadly hit and run, but it is better than nothing.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Especially considering that if the Reddit user Jeff hadn't identified
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the make and model of Simon's vehicle and posted his
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: findings to Reddit, there's a good chance he would have
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: gotten away with it entirely. In October 2024, someone noticed
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: that one of their electrical outlets in their home looked
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: different from the others. It looked like it had a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: camera inside, but it wasn't super obvious. So, they turned
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to Reddit and posted photos of the outlet, hoping someone
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: would either confirm or deny their suspicions. They also explained
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: their situation further in a comment, reading, I've had a
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: stalker in my apartment broken into in the past. I
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: got a camera detector for peace of mind, not knowing
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: it would read anything, but it led me to this
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and detected radio waves and reflected back with the infrared.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: The bottom ground looks different than the other GFCI plugs
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in the rest of the complex. Right away, several people
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: agreed with the OP in that something was definitely off
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: about the outlet. Then, just 40 minutes after the post
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: went up, one user confirmed the OP 100% had a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: hidden camera in their home by tracking down the exact
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: model for sale online. And, according to its product page,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: it's a wireless camera that could transmit 4K video completely
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: over Wi-Fi. Given the OP's history with a stalker, the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: same person was likely behind installing the hidden camera as well.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: many strongly suggested the OP get out of the house
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: and call the police. Unfortunately, what happened next remains a mystery.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: The account that made the post was a throwaway the
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: OP created solely for this purpose, and after confirming their suspicions,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: they never posted any new updates. In July of 2012,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: user DelverOfSecrets' Reddit account made a post in r slash
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: askreddit looking for answers on a strange encounter they recently had.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: It stated, Today, a homeless looking man handed me $ 50
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and this note. Do any of you have any idea
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: what it means? Dear Reddit, I work in New York
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: City and was dragged into a very curious situation today.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I was taking the one train from Midtown to the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: financial district and as usual the train was pretty packed.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I bumped into a raggedy dressed man as we got
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: on and he shot me a quick smile. I thought
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: nothing of it until he went to get off at
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: 14th street and he handed me a $ 50 bill along
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: with a note. Before I could even open my mouth
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to ask him a question he was gone. Below you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: find pictures of both the front and back of the note.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I've been looking at the note all day and needless
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to say I have no idea what it means. It's
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: handwritten on a 3x3 square piece of paper with no
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: identifying marks and no watermarks. There's a hand-drawn grid and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: in a couple of spots the cells of the grid
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: are combined.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: The note has.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Random characters written throughout it and the bottom quarter is
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: filled with random shapes and numbers. Maybe I'm just reading
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: way too far into things and he was just another
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: crazy New Yorker, but I figured it would be neat
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to see if anyone has run into this similar situation.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Do any of you have any idea as to what
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the note says, if anything? After taking a good look
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: at both the note and the $ 50 bill, some users
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: figured out that the note was what's known as a
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: bifid cipher. And deciphering it revealed a message that read,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: There's plenty more money to make. Figure this out and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: prepare to meet July 19, 56 and 6 hot dog
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: stand outside Rue 57 Cafe. Ask for Mr. Input. However,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: before anyone had the time to figure out the true
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: meaning behind this note, Delver of Secrets received a coded
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: message on Reddit. It was likely from the same guy
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that handed him the note earlier that day. When decoded,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: this message read, You have managed to find the message
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: with the help of friends. You changed the rules, now
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: so will I. July 12, 4pm. Find the Blue Jay
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: at 6 1⁄2 and 56 and tell him you are
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the last. This was packed with clues pointing in multiple directions.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: For starters, 6 1⁄2 and 56.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Corresponded to 6 1⁄2 Avenue on 56th Street in New York.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: And at that location, there was a salon named Gotham
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Skin Care. This led many to believe that this whole
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: thing was a marketing stunt for something related to Batman.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Especially since the date given in the original note, July 19th,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: was one day short of the release date for The
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Dark Knight Rises. While this didn't lead to anything substantial,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Reddit users found the next clue hidden within the Reddit message.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: You see, the username that sent the message was 2220944379.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: One user converted this to an IP address and it
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: led to Fort Huachuca in Arizona, a military base that's
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: primarily focused on intelligence training. So, could it be that
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Delver of Secrets was being recruited as a spy or
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: something along those lines? For some, this was certainly a possibility. However,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: another user discovered that a spy exhibition was happening at
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the nearby Discovery Times Square Museum on July 12th. Maybe
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: this was a marketing stunt for that instead. But this
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: idea was also shot down by another user who claimed
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to work for the museum, stating that they had nothing
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to do with this.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: With no other leads, a.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Group of curious New York-based redditors decided to meet at
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the specified location on July 12th to see if anything
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: would actually happen. However, despite dozens of people showing up,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: including Delver of Secrets, no one noticed anything out of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the ordinary and had to go back in disappointment. Now,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: if this was some legitimate espionage-related matter, a large crowd
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: would have instantly scared off anyone planning to meet Delver
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: of Secrets at that location. So, the whole thing was
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: kind of pointless in that regard. But on the other hand,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the gathering all but confirmed that this wasn't some marketing stunt.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Because if it were, the media attention and large crowd
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: would have been the perfect moment for a big reveal
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that never happened. Then, something happened that no one saw coming.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: On July 13th, Delver of Secrets removed everything from his
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: post and replaced it with a single ominous passage reading...
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Received a phone call today threatening violence against me and
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: my family, going as far as to name members of
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: my family and their addresses unless I delete this post.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: The caller also told me not to show up on
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the 19th and to inform anyone planning to show up
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: on the 19th that nothing would happen. This will be
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: my last message from this account before I delete it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I'll also be changing my number later today. I am
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: sorry if a resolution to this never happens, but I'm
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: not willing to risk my family's safety for a few
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: extra dollars. With that, Delver of Secrets vanished from the internet.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: While Reddit did solve layers of coded messages and uncover
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: clues hidden within other clues, they were ultimately left with
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: nothing but speculation and an unsolved mystery. Vending Machine Killer
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: On April 30th, 1985, a 45-year-old truck driver stopped near
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: a vending machine in Fukuyama, Japan. He was exhausted from
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: work and was looking for an energy drink to help
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: him power through the rest of the day. When he
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: approached the vending machine, however, he noticed something surprising. A
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: bottle of Orinamin C energy drink was already in the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: pickup tray. Thinking he'd lucked out on a free drink,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the truck driver wasted no time chugging it down. What
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: he didn't know was that this would be the last
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: drink he would ever taste. Instead of the refreshing feeling
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: he was looking for, he felt something horribly wrong with
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: his body. A bitter, burning sensation quickly spread throughout his throat,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: followed by an intense wave of nausea. It wasn't long
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: before he was lying on the road in excruciating pain.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors discovered
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: a lethal amount of paraquat dichloride in his system. Paraquat
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: is an herbicide that was quite common in Japan at
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the time. More importantly, it's also highly toxic to humans.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: When ingested, it can lead to severe nausea, throat inflammation,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: internal chemical burns, and eventually death. This is also why
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: it's been banned completely from over 70 countries to date.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, despite knowing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: The reason for his illness, there was nothing the doctors
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: could do to save his life. There's no antidote for
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the deadly chemical today, let alone back then. So, after
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: hanging on to his life for a month, the truck
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: driver passed away on the 30th of May, 1985. At first,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: investigators assumed that given the nature of his work, he
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: might have accidentally encountered the toxic substance while on duty. However,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: after reviewing his hall records, they found no trace of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: this herbicide or anything remotely linked to it. This left
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: them with only one conclusion, the chemical was mixed into
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the drink he consumed just moments before collapsing in agony.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: But with no leads or concrete evidence, they couldn't determine
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: whether it was a murder or self-inflicted act, resulting in
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the case getting shelved for the time being. Now, while
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: this might sound absurd today, you have to understand that
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Paraquad was readily available in the country at the time.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: You didn't need any prescription or identification to purchase the chemical,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: leading to over 1,400 people using it as the poison
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: of their choice in 1984 alone. In other words, the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: possibility of it being self-inflicted was just as high. However,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: just as the investigators were about to give up on
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: this case completely, they received tragic news. Another person had
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: fallen victim to the same poison after consuming Oranumin C
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: on the 5th of September. Then another six days later,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and one more two weeks after that. By this point,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: it was clear that someone was deliberately poisoning vending machine
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: drinks across Japan. This was the work of a deranged
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: serial killer. Unfortunately, this supposed killer was also extremely thorough.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: He didn't leave any fingerprint or DNA evidence on the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: drinks he tampered with, and only targeted vending machines with
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: no CCTV cameras nearby. As for why his victims willingly
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: drank the unknowingly poisoned drinks he left behind, that had
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: to do with the buy-one-get-one free promotion or an immense
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: he was running around the time to entice younger consumers. However,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: since some people only wanted the one drink, they often
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: left the second free drink near the vending machine as
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a gift for the next person. This was common enough
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: that people didn't find the laced drinks suspicious and drank
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: them without a second thought. Sadly, this method was terribly effective.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: By the end of the year, this mysterious vending machine
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: killer had claimed the lives of 12 victims and had
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: severely injured 35 more. But as I mentioned earlier, this
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: killer was a master of hiding his tracks. He operated
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: all across western and central Japan, as well as Tokyo,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: making it near impossible for investigators to pinpoint his location.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: The lack of evidence also made it difficult to figure
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: out his motive. Some speculated that he was doing all
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: this to extort money from Otsuka Pharmaceutical, the company that
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: made Orinaminsi. This is because, in 1984, a group called
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the Mystery Men with 21 Faces threatened to poison food
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: products unless the companies paid them money. So, some believed
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that the vending machine killer was a copycat and wanted
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: something similar. However, this theory didn't last very long because
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Otsuka Pharmaceutical didn't receive any demands or extortion letters from
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the perpetrator. Additionally, the killer also began using other drinks,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: like the drink Real Gold and even Coca-Cola. Hiyoraki Iwao,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: a Tokyo professor of criminal sociology, proposed a more disturbing
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: theory regarding the killer's motives. He stated, is not uncommon
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: for Japanese who live under tremendous pressure, both on the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: job and in overcrowded communities, to let out their frustrations
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: by hurting someone else. The person responsible may even wait
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: around to see who buys the poison drink. He or
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: she may find this is a kind of exhilarating release
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: from the tensions of life in Japan. But even if
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: this was the truth, it still didn't bring investigators any
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: closer to catching the suspect. Left with no other options,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the authorities turned to the public and launched a nationwide
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: campaign on the 27th of September. They placed signs and
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: distributed leaflets telling people to avoid suspicious free drinks and
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: to properly inspect the capsules on their beverages before consumption.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: They also instructed vending machine owners to investigate their stock
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: for any anomalies and told chemical shops to monitor their
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: customers more closely. It's unclear how effective this campaign was,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: as the number of victims kept increasing even after its launch.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: But then something unexpected happened. On the 17th of November,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the murder spree stopped completely after the death of a
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: 17-year-old girl. She was the only female to have died
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: from the poisoning. It's possible that the person who committed
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: these atrocities had a moral code against harming women, though
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: that's nothing more than.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: A baseless speculation.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Due to the complete lack of evidence, the vending machine
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: killer was never identified, cementing this case as one of
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the most chilling, unsolved mysteries in Japanese history. Little Rock
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: Serial Stabber On April 11, 2021, the Little Rock Police
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Department received a distress call from South Pulaski Street regarding
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: a potential homicide. When they arrived at the scene, they
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: found a middle-aged woman lying on the street with stab
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: wounds all over her body. This woman turned out to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: be 41-year-old Deborah Walker. She was homeless at the time
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and was living on the streets when this incident happened.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: She was quickly taken to the hospital where medical staff
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: discovered that she had been stabbed at least 15 times.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Despite lying on the street, bleeding for what may have
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: been hours, she miraculously survived and managed to regain consciousness
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the same day. Investigators also visited her in the hospital
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: to gather any information she could provide about her attacker. Unfortunately,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: she was attacked somewhere between 1 and 4 a.m., It
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: was still dark outside, and all that she saw was
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that her attacker was a tall, African-American male with a
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: slender build. Now, in most other similar cases, such limited
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: information would hardly be enough to generate any leads. But
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: in this instance, the description Debra provided left the investigators
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: in disbelief. That's because her attacker's profile closely matched the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: perpetrator of another incident that took place about eight months
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: earlier in the surrounding area. The victim of that incident
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: was 64-year-old Larry Eugene McChrystin. He was living in Little
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Rock with his daughter, Sarah, who was on probation at
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: the time. On the 20th of August, 2020, he had
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a medical emergency and was taken to the hospital in
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: an ambulance. He was discharged from the hospital the next morning. However,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: when the hospital staff tried to contact Sarah so she
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: could pick him up, she wasn't answering her phone. So,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: they gave Larry the information about a nearby homeless shelter
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and a bus token to get there. Later that day,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Sarah came to the hospital looking for her father, only
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to learn that he'd been discharged hours ago. She then
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: reached out to the homeless facility Larry was told about,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: but they didn't know anything about his whereabouts either. The
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: only option she had was to file a missing persons
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: report and wait for the police to find Larry. Two
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: days later, on the 24th of August, Sarah received the
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: call she was waiting for. Tragically, it wasn't the news
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: she had hoped for. According to the official report, the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Little Rock Police Department found Larry's body on South Gaines
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Street at around 2am. They identified him by the hospital
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: discharge papers he had on him. More importantly, he had
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: multiple stab wounds on his body and was unfortunately already
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: dead by the time the police arrived. His death was
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: declared a homicide and the investigators began looking for clues
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: almost immediately. This proved quite impossible at first since there
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: were no witnesses and there wasn't anything that could be
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: used as evidence of the crime scene. However, after inspecting
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the surrounding houses, they had a major breakthrough. The CCTV
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: camera outside a nearby house had captured the suspect walking
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: down the street when suddenly he spots Larry and begins
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: walking towards him. After committing the crime, he tries leaving
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the area, only to stop, go back, and stab Larry
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: one last time before fleeing. As mentioned earlier, this man
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: matched the profile Debra gave to the police, leading investigators
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: to believe she was attacked by the same person. While
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: looking into older cases, they also connected the same killer
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to another murder that happened in the area on September 23rd, 2020.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: The victim of this incident was 62-year-old Jeff Welch, another
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: homeless man who was living in an abandoned home. On
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the morning of that day, Jeff's friend found him on
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the porch of his house with a stab wound on
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: his neck. By this point, the investigators knew they were
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: dealing with a deranged serial killer. However, just as they
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: uncovered the connection between the three attacks, another tragedy unfolded.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: On April 12, 2023, a day after the attack on
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Deborah Walker, another one of his victims was found on
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the Wright Avenue overpass. The only thing in common with
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: these four attacks was that they all involved homeless individuals,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: and they all happened between 1 and 4 a.m. There
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: seemed to be no clear pattern on how the perpetrator.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Selected his targets.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: This left the Little Rock community terrified to leave their homes,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: fearing they might become the next victim of the serial
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: killer on the loose. After realizing the potential danger of
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the situation, LRPD began spreading awareness about the man who
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: is now being referred to as the Little Rock Slasher.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: They also turned to the public to ask for any
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: information they could provide on the matter, and even announced
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a $ 20, 000 reward.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: We also need your help. If you have seen anything
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: suspicious or have surveillance cameras on your homes or businesses
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: in this area, please contact us at 501.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, despite having CCTV footage of the suspect, the Little
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Rock Slasher was never caught. The case remains a mystery
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: to this day, or at least that's what the official
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: reports say. While researching this case, I came across an
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Arkansas-based blog called the Snarky Media Report. The authors of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: this blog did their own investigation into the Slasher case,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and what they found was shocking to say the least.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Quite simply, they claim to have found the true identity
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: of the killer after talking to multiple locals and Debra, who,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: according to their blog, already knew the identity of her attacker.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: They also uncovered many details about this supposed killer, including
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: his criminal record, which reveals that he has already served
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: two prison terms in Arkansas for felony convictions of domestic violence. Also,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: his history with drug abuse and how it made him
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: very agitated and violent. The authors of this blog also
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: claim to have contacted the alleged killer's previous landlord, who
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: gave them this image of the perpetrator. Which begs the question,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: if they know so much about the slasher, including his
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: legal name, why didn't they give this info to the police?
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: That's where the case goes from creepy to bizarre, since,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: according to them, they've already given everything they had to
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the relevant authorities. Despite this, the Little Rock police didn't
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: make any progression in catching the serial killer. Snarky Media
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: also published a video of the Little Rock mayor and
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: police chief refusing to answer questions about the case. This
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: seems to hint at something incredibly shady going on behind
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the scenes. That said, there's no way for me to
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: confirm if the authors of the Snarky Media blog are
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: telling the truth. For all we know, their whole investigation
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: is made up, and this is just some random guy
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: who has nothing to do with the four attacks, and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: it's all a ploy to make the Little Rock Police
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Department look bad. Most of the information they've gathered seems
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: to check out with what's released publicly by the authorities.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: The only discrepancy in their investigation is the age.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: Of the suspect.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Officials believe the slasher to be young, possibly in his 20s,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: but the authors of this blog state that the person
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: they found was 46 years old. Unfortunately, this is where
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the leads end. Whether snarky media is telling the truth
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: or not remains uncertain. What is certain, however, is that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the case remains unsolved to this day. The Little Rock
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: slasher is likely still out there and can continue his
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: murder spree at any moment. On February 17, 1997, 21-year-old
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Patrick McNeil went out with his friends. He spent the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: evening out drinking with his friends in the Dapper Dog
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: Bar in Manhattan. During this time, he likely drank more
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: than he could handle, resulting in him throwing up in
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the bar's bathroom before leaving in a highly unstable and
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: disoriented state. Patrick was then seen turning left onto 90th Street,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: heading in the direction of the East River. This was
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the last time anyone would see Patrick alive. Following this
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: night out, Patrick vanished into thin air. Despite extensive efforts,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: authorities found.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: No leads or clues to his whereabouts.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: That is until April 7, 1997, when Patrick's lifeless body
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: was found in the East River 50 days.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: After his disappearance.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Duty Sergeant of the NYPD's Special Investigation Division, Kevin Gannon,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: was called to the scene to assist with the body's
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: recovery and examination. Kevin had been a seasoned detective for years,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and by this point, there was little that could surprise him. However,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the circumstances surrounding Patrick's death disturbed him to his core.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: The more he looked into it, the more strange the
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: situation became. For instance, Kevin noted that Patrick's body wasn't
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: decomposed enough to have been floating in the river for
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: a week, let alone.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: The past 50 days. He also found.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Burn marks on Patrick's body, hinting at the possibility of
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: him being restrained prior to his death. Kevin knew that
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: something wasn't right. Unfortunately, due to the complete lack of
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: evidence pointing to the contrary, Patrick's death was ruled as
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: an accident. Kevin kept thinking over this feeling for the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: next year before coming across a case that reinforced his
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: suspicions even further. On February 13, 1998, another body was
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: found in the same stretch of water. This body was
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: later identified as 22-year-old Lawrence R. Andrews, who had gone
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: missing on New Year's Eve after celebrating the event with
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: his friends in Times Square. After getting on the case,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: it didn't take long for Kevin to notice eerie similarities
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: between the two cases, as both bodies were found within
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: yards of each other. Both of them were also young
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Caucasian males and were on track to have successful careers.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: They both disappeared in one of the most crowded cities
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in the world without any trace as well. Most importantly,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Kevin also found similar oddities in both cases, where the
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: bodies were a lot less decomposed than they should have
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: been and there were burn marks indicating possible restraints before
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: their death. Lawrence's case prompted Kevin to look for other
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: similar cases across the U.S. He enlisted the help of
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: fellow detective Anthony Duarte and a criminal justice professor, Dr.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Lee Gilbertson.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Together, they began investigating these cases, and soon, a chilling
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: pattern began to emerge. In total, they found 45 different
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: instances of young men dying under shockingly similar circumstances as
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Patrick and Lawrence's. Most of them went out for a
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: night of drinking, became more intoxicated than usual, disappeared shortly after,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and were later found dead in some body of water.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Almost all of them were also Caucasian and on track
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to have a high-paying career like engineering after college. Most disturbingly, however,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: they also found graffiti of smiley faces near the bodies
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of at least a dozen different victims. This led to
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: the three investigators creating the smiley face murder theory. According
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to this theory, these 45 and possibly many other deaths
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: from the 1990s to 2010s weren't accidents in the slightest. Instead,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: they were murders committed by a single deranged person or
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: an organized group of serial killers. This is the only
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: logical explanation they could find to justify the many oddities
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and similarities in these incidents. That said, while this theory
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: makes complete sense to some people, others aren't convinced one bit.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Criminal profiler Pat Brown, for instance, called.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: This theory ludicrous. She believes that the idea.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Of connecting smiley faces, one of the most common graffiti symbols,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: with murders is just absurd, stating, it's not an unusual symbol.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: If you look in any area five miles square, I
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: bet you could find a smiley face. The FBI also
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: completely denied this theory in a statement, reading, the FBI
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: has reviewed the information about the victims provided by two
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: retired police detectives who have dubbed these incidents the smiley
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: face murders and interviewed an individual who provided information to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the detectives. To date, we have not developed any evidence
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: a serial killer or killers. The vast majority of these
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings. However, despite these setbacks,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the three men have stuck with their theory. They are
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: still working on finding evidence to back their observations. That said,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: if their hunch is correct, it would mean one of
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the most wicked serial killers in American history is still
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: at large today. I-70 Killer Robin Fuldauer was a 26-year-old
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Indiana University graduate who was working at an Indianapolis Payless
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Shoe Source store near I-70 in 1992.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: The 8th of.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: April was supposed to be her day off. However, just
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: as she was getting ready to relax at home, the
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: employee who was supposed to man the counter called in sick.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Left with no other options, her manager called Robin and
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: told her to cover the shift instead. Robin wasn't very
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: happy about this emergency shift change, but she reluctantly agreed,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: arriving at the store at 10 a.m.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: And starting her shift as usual.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, her day was about to get a whole lot worse.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Everything seemed normal until 2 p.m. when the manager called
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the store for a routine check. To her surprise, Robin
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't picking up the phone. She kept trying for a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: few minutes before giving up and calling the Speedway gas
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: station neighboring the shoe store. One of the gas station employees,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: a friend of Robin's, went to the Payless store to
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: see if she was doing okay. However, what she found
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: inside left her confused. The store was in slight disarray
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and some of the shoes were missing from the shelves.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: The cash register was also open and there was no
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: money in it. Most concerning of all, there were no
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: signs of Robin anywhere. Her friend called out Robin's name,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: hoping she was just in the back and would respond.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: But when she didn't hear anything from Robin after minutes
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: of standing in the store, she became worried and called
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the police at around 2.20pm. The cops arrived within minutes
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: and began searching the store for clues on Robin's whereabouts.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't long before they made a devastating discovery.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: They found Robin lying in the store's back office, covered
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: in blood. It was already too late. During questioning, an
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: employee from the store across the street claimed to have
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: seen a strange man loitering around the shoe store a
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: couple hours earlier. According to this employee, the man sat
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: on the curb for about a half hour, rifling through
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: his bag and staring at the Payless store. They then
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: saw the same man a few minutes later trying to
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: hitch a ride back to Interstate 465, which was about
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: a quarter mile from the store's location. Unfortunately, they were
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: too far away to get a good look at the
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: man's face. Given the money stolen from the register, and
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: without any other leads, investigators filed this as nothing more
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: than a robbery gone wrong. However, they couldn't have been
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: more wrong. Because just three days later, something similarly tragic
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: happened to 23-year-old Patricia Smith and 32-year-old Patricia Makers. The
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: two were working at a bridal shop in Wichita along I-70.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: The incident happened a little past their usual closing time
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: as they were waiting for a customer who had a pickup.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: When they saw a man approaching the store, they assumed
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that it was the customer. However, this man drew a
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: gun on the two after entering the store, took them
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to the back, and executed both with shots to the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: back of their heads. As the killer was leaving the store,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: he crossed paths with the actual customer the girls were
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: waiting for. Without hesitation, he aimed his gun at the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: man and ordered him to head to the back of
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the store. By the customer defied his command and ran,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: narrowly escaping with his life. He later helped the police
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: draw a sketch of the killer. Unfortunately, the sketch didn't
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: provide much of a breakthrough. By this point, the authorities
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: were certain they were dealing with a serial killer, but
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: despite their efforts, the killer's spree continued. By May 7th,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: he had taken three more victims in small, low-traffic stores
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: along the I-70 highway. By the time investigators managed to
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: compile a few more sketches, the I-70 killer stopped his
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: quest and went into hiding. That is, until 1993, when
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: he claimed three more victims along I-35 in Texas. He
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: tried to hide his identity by changing his weapon, but
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the investigators were quick to notice the similarities. One of
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: his victims, Vicky Webb, also managed to miraculously survive after
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: getting shot in the neck. If he were ever caught,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Vicky's testimony would have been crucial in bringing him to justice. Though,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: the I-70 killer was never found, and the case went
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: cold for nearly three decades. However, then, in 2021, investigators
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: released CCTV footage of a murder that happened in 2001.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: The suspect in this footage looks strikingly similar to the
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I-70 killer's sketches, potentially giving authorities the lead they need
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: to finally catch him. It's likely only a matter of
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: time before he runs out of places to hide and
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: is captured. By it for now, he's still out there,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: evading police and leaving the case unresolved. We can only
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: hope he doesn't take any more victims in the meantime.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: The Rake If you've been on the horror side of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the internet for even a short amount of time, there's
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: a good chance you've heard of The Rake. The story
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: of The Rake first emerged in the early 2000s on
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the online forum 4chan, Initially, it took the form of
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: a series of anonymous posts and accounts by individuals claiming
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to have encountered a mysterious creature in the woods.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: These narratives describe the.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Humanoid creature with pale, gaunt features, long limbs, and large,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: soul-piercing eyes. A being known as the Rake. And even
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: if you've never heard of the name before, there's a
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: high chance that you've seen this image. In it, we
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: can see some kind of creature lurking in the bottom
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: right-hand corner of a photograph taken somewhere in a forest
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: during the dead of night. The rake is shown with
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: glowing white eyes and a long, skinny body. It's an
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: image that has haunted those who have seen it. That's
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: really trying to figure out what exactly this terrifying entity is.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The image in question was reposted all over the internet,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: and its eerie, realistic look convinced people into thinking it
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: was a genuine photo taken by a trail cam or
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: something of the like. While doing research on the origins
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: of the photograph, it turns out it was actually part
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: of a large marketing campaign for the video game Resistance 3,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: which was released on September 6, 2011. In Resistance 3,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: there's a brief moment where players encounter a similar creature
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: known as the Grim. The design of the Grim, with
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: its pale and emaciated appearance, resonated with the collective imagination
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: of the online community, leading to the adoption of the
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: image as the visual representation of the creepypasta that is
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: the Rake. As is common with many creepypastas, the story
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: of the Rake quickly gained traction across various online platforms.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Writers and artists expanded on the original concepts, adding their
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: own twists and adaptations to the creature's mythology. The association
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: of the Rake with the image from Resistance 3 played
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a significant role in its widespread recognition and adoption within
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the online horror community. Even though the photo in question
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: caused many people on the internet to be creeped out,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it is worth noting how intriguing it is that this
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: image essentially helped to shed a light on more creepypastas.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: It's safe to assume that without the mass popularity of
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: the rake in its image, creepypastas wouldn't be as widely
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: well known.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Teletubbies.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: In the late 1990s, a British children's television show burst
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: onto the scene, captivating young viewers with its whimsical characters
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and vibrant world. The Teletubbies, created by Anne Wood and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Andrew Davenport, became an instant sensation, captivating children and adults
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: alike with their unique blend of educational content, imaginative storytelling,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: and infectious joy. Each Teletubby had its distinct appearance, personality,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: and color, making them easily recognizable and relatable to young viewers.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Although these characters are beloved by young children around the world,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: There is one specific photograph of the Teletubbies that has
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: been creeping people out, and it's not too hard to
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: see why. The photograph in question shows a young boy
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: sitting in some sort of hospital room surrounded by four
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: of the main Teletubbies. However, these aren't the ordinary Teletubbies
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: that we're used to. These ones have completely black, lifeless
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: eyes that are absolutely horrifying to look at as the
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: four of them stare at the camera. But what exactly
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: is this photograph, and what's going on here? Let's examine
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: the photo. A poster of the Dutch football star Dennis
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: Bergkamp can be seen on the wall in the background.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: In light of this, it's very conceivable that this picture
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: was taken in the Netherlands. It's also important to note
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: that the image in the corner is actually a snapshot
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: of another image. It looks to be a picture of
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: a picture. We cannot, of course, overlook the fact that
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: these outfits are meant to be spooky. These were designed
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: to be disturbing, and thus it appears that everything was
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: done on purpose. The first occurrence of this image on
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: the internet, according to what I was able to find,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: refers to this Reddit post from the r slash creepy
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: subreddit with the caption, As if being sick as a
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: kid wasn't scary enough. I saw this on the wall
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: in the children's ward of an English hospital under the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: name Celebrities Who Visited Us, wrote the uploader JF1984 in
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: a comment. The uploader hasn't made a post on Reddit
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in almost 7 years, indicating that he presumably no longer
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: uses that account. although he still is active on other
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: social networking sites where he goes by the name J.F.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Doodles.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: When Scare Theater, a YouTuber, messaged him about the Teletubbies image,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: he replied that he had seen the image on the
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: notice board in a children's hospital waiting area. Jay regrettably
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: replies that he didn't know any further details regarding the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: image when he was pressed. He said that owing to
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: the hospital's rigorous patient confidentiality policies, he wouldn't be able
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: to get in touch with them easily. Beyond this, it's
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: difficult to uncover any more information regarding this image. Given
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the circumstances, we can only infer that this was a
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: hospitalized child who was visited by these men in an
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: effort to lift his spirits. But it's definitely safe to
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: say that it didn't go over all that well, since
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: what type of youngster would find themselves in a better
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: frame of mind after seeing these four enter to surprise them?
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: SmileDog Those who have gone digging around for creepypastas and
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: creepy images on the internet in the past have surely
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: seen at least one of these three images. Like many
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: other things, SmileDog may be linked back to 4chan, in
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: this case the export. The image is more than 10
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: years old, and the earliest creepypasta article I could locate
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: was from 2010. Many individuals have been truly disturbed by
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: the well-known and unsettling site known as Smile.jpg. According to
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the legend, if someone sees the image, they will instantly
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: feel compelled to share it with everyone they know. This
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: is necessary because it's said he'll pay you a visit
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: if you don't. The legend states that the dog represents
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: a demonic creature or bad spirit that would purportedly torment
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the victim until it becomes its real form and kills them.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Unless they distribute the photo, of course. People who say
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: they saw Smile.jpg frequently faintly joke that they were too
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: busy to download a copy of the image on their computer.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: All supposed victims, however, provide the identical description of the image.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: The only background feature visible is a human hand extending
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: from the shadows on the left side of the picture,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: which is used to characterize the dog-like creature's appearance, which
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: is typically described as resembling a Siberian husky. But creepypasta aside,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: where does this image originate from? There are really three photographs,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: but alas, there isn't much, if any, information available for
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: two of them. There doesn't seem to be an explanation
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: behind the photos, they just sort of exist. The one
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: that appears to have been much overexposed is the one
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: for which I do have some information. Feel free to
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: post a comment below if you happen to know anything
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: about the other two pictures. However, I do know a
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: little bit about this one. Reddit user NotHurtingAnymore5678 wrote a
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: post titled, I think I found one of the images
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: used to make Smile Dog, with a picture of a husky.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: The facial features and eyes are identical when comparing the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: two pictures. I have to say, it is startlingly similar
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: to the Smile Dog picture. The only problem is that
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the dog in the image is obviously not in front
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: of a red curtain. A Reddit user named IceCreamGuy posted
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: a comment revealing that he had found the curtain background
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: used in the photo. As you can see, in the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: image the ears have also been clearly cropped off. They
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: would simply need to crop out the dog while only
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: going around its head, position it in front of a
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: crimson curtain background, and then apply the eerie effects to it.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: But that's pretty much all we know. We know nothing
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: about the image's creator and only have little information on
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: one of the three photos. In time, we'll hopefully find
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: more information regarding the other SmileDuck photos that, as of
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: right now, remain incredibly mysterious. Mickey Mouse Basement Mickey Mouse,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the iconic cartoon character created by Walt Disney, has captivated
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: the hearts of children around the world for decades. With
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: his infectious charm, playful nature, and timeless appeal, Mickey Mouse
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: has become a beloved figure in popular culture. Despite this, though,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: there is a particular image on the internet of this
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: iconic character portrayed in a rather distressing way The photograph
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: in question shows an old, dilapidated basement that has certainly
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: seen better days. And peering around a corner in the
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: distance is a man dressed up in an extremely frightening,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: eerie Mickey Mouse costume. The man's mask also seems to
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: be a bit squished in, which adds to the nightmare
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: fuel that's already heavily present. It looks to be something
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: you'd see out of a horror movie. It should be
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: mentioned that there was also a very similar photo that
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: circulated online, which showed someone pointing a gun at the
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: man dressed as Mickey. but it turned out this was
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: just a convincing photoshopped version of the original image. By
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: doing a bit of research on the internet relating to
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: this picture, you'll find that there really isn't a lot
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: of information out there regarding the backstory or origins of it,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: or even what exactly.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Is going on in it.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: However, there are some people online who have their theories
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: about what's going on. A reddit user by the name
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: of RealShow posted to the r slash out of the
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: loop subreddit asking his fellow redditors what exactly the photograph is,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: who took it, etc., Another Reddit user replied to the
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: post stating, It's just a cursed photo using creepypastas and memes,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: just like all cursed photos. Probably some dude's just kidding.
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: One encountered a dirty Mickey Mouse suit and decided to
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: take a photo of himself in it in an abandoned
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: looking place to make a scary photo. A lot of
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: the comments seem to echo that theory, which, if true,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: is a sigh of relief. If this is not the case, however,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: then what exactly is going on in this extremely weird
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and unexplainable image? Is this just some guy messing around
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: in a Mickey Mouse outfit in an attempt to scare
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: the internet? Or was this something far more sinister? We'll
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: likely never know. Stairs in the Woods Reddit user SearchAndRescueWoods
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: posted a tale on August 25th, 2015, which stated a
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: whole frenzy. Strange staircases seemed to be appearing everywhere in
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the woods. As soon as the article appeared on Reddit,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: additional people jumped in to comment and add their own tales,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: giving the phenomenon more credibility. But is it true or
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: is it a hoax? Numerous blogs and communities, including Reddit,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: have spread the tale, which has since grown to the
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: status of something of an online legend. The text of
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: the original post is as follows. Now, I don't know
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: if this is true in every SAR unit, but in
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: mine it's sort of an unspoken, regular thing we run into.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: You can try asking about it with other SAR officers,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: but even if they know what you're talking about, they
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: probably won't say anything about it. We've been told not
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: to talk about it by our superiors, and at this
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: point we've all gotten so used to it that it
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't even seem weird anymore. On just about every case
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: where we're really far off in the wilderness, I'm talking
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: 30 or 40 miles, at some point we'll find a
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: staircase in the middle of the woods. It's almost like
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: if you took the staircase in your house, cut them out,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: and put them in the forest. I asked about it
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: the first time I saw some, and the other officer
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: just told me not to worry about it, that it
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: was normal. Everyone I asked said the same thing. I
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to check them out, but I was told very
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: emphatically that I should never go near any of them.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I just sort of ignore them now when I run
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: into them because it happens so frequently. It's interesting to
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: note that this was not merely something that came from
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: a creepypasta. Broadcast two months before the initial creepypasta, a
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: WLOS News 13 film investigated the same idea. But let's
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: get into the actual origins of this photo. It turns
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: out that this was a massive art project by a
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: man named Bruce Allen who constructed this in 1988. Allen stated,
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed by the scale, energy, and presence of
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the trees, and spent several days tramping through Beech and Hurst,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: on and off the paths, looking at what was there,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: getting a feeling of the place, and wondering how my
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: own ideas might fit in. I took along with me
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: the knowledge that, globally, forests and jungles are being stripped,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: exploited for timber, and cleared for farming. However, despite the
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: historical exploitation that has happened in the Dean— mining of
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: iron ore and coal, felling trees for timber, shipbuilding and
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: charcoal— There exists in the forests an intimacy peculiar to
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: no other place that I know. Based on the design
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: of their earliest astronomical observations in India, Bruce Allen created
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: the observatory, a straightforward artwork that consists of a stairway
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: that leads nowhere. It was painted black to contrast with
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: the light and vibrancy of the forest, which was situated
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: near a protected pond in a region of trees bordered
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: by a thicker plantation. Visitors may halt and take in
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: the woodland from an observation platform at the top of
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: the staircase and a little alcove under the stairs. The
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: sculpture was just some innocent art project used by people
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: online as the face of a creepypasta. Nowadays, the sculpture
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: has since been decommissioned. There's no remaining trace of it
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: in the real world today. Fun Time Kids Care On
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: the 25th of January 2015, Reddit user DiscoGodfather6922 made a
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: post on the Salt Lake City subreddit that would start
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest conspiracies in the platform's history. The
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: post featured an image of a mysterious bright green building
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: with little to no context. Its only identifying features were
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: several signs that read, Fun Time Kids Care, suggesting that
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: the building might have once been a daycare center, or
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: at least pretending to be one. The title of the
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: post read, What's the deal with this place? Lived across
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: the street from it for five years, never seen a
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: kid there. At first glance, an abandoned daycare doesn't seem
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: all that interesting, but something about this building felt off.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: There were details that didn't quite add up. The mismatch
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: between the fresh-looking outside paint with old worn-out signs... and
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: the oddly placed windows that appeared to be boarded up
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: from the inside. These strange elements caught people's attention and
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: before long the post had gone viral across the internet.
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: Then things got even stranger. A few days later Disco
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: Godfather visited the building again and described what they saw
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: in a comment. So I just came back from the
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: place and found something in the back covered by a
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: camo tarp. I then saw a Mexican man come out,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: pick something up and go back inside. Earlier in the
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: day I went there and saw a pizza guy trying
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: to deliver a pizza to the place. He knocked and
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: knocked and nobody came to the door. He left and
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: I was about to as well until I noticed kids
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: walking up to the door and trying to get in.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Finally an old Mexican lady opened the door and let
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: them in. Five years of living here, never saw a
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: single person go in or out, then in one day I.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: See four people.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Weird. And while some people joked about the building being
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the base of operations for Walter White from the popular
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: TV show Breaking Bad, others took things more seriously. To them,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: this daycare looked like a money laundering front, or something
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: far sinister like an organ harvesting operation. One person also
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: pointed out the convenient timing of Disco Godfather seeing the
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: two kids after their post went viral, stating, Could still
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: be a drug front, but perhaps due to the additional
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: attention it's getting, they're bringing in some of their own
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: kids to make the place look more convincing. But before
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Disco Godfather and the rest of the internet could find
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: any concrete answers, a Reddit user by the name of
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: DeathShip advised them to stop looking into this place. Naturally,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: people wanted to know who this guy was. As Redditors
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: began looking further into DeathShip to understand their ominous warning,
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: they made some interesting revelations. DeathShip was a retired Air
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Force linguist who was fluent in 8 different languages and
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: was also stationed in Area 51 at some point. If
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: these credentials were true, it was possible that this mysterious
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: building was affiliated with one of the three-letter organizations like
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: the DOD, FBI, and CIA. And if Death Ship knew,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: that would explain his warnings telling Disco Godfather to back off.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: But things became even more terrifying when soon after Death
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: Ship's comment, Disco Godfather began receiving threats from other users.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Delete your posts and comments and stop making questions. First
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: and last warning, we know who you are. If you
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: must continue your search, try to uncover what you seek.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Do not say I didn't warn you. Things like this
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: are always run by dangerous people. Things got even more
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: alarming when people found a link between the daycare and
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: a shipping container from China. The bill listed 1,100 kilograms
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: of plastic jewelry and 6,825 kilograms of football and soccer balls.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: This led many to believe that this daycare might be
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: involved in human trafficking, pointing out that the weight didn't
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: match what you'd expect from lightweight plastic items. Fortunately, all
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: of these disturbing theories were discovered to be nothing more
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: than conspiracies. The Utah Department of Health has official childcare
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: licensing records indicating that fun time kids care is just
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a normal functioning daycare. A recent comment by Reddit user
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: BabyTears also confirmed this with a personal story which reads,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I know this post is old, but my dad actually
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: went there as a kid. It's ran by a nice
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: older lady. Apparently, my dad told me it's usually meant
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: for kids as kind of a safe haven daycare to
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: protect children who have a parent or family member that
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: isn't meant to be in contact with them that's deemed
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: as more dangerous or persistent. Hence why the windows are
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: semi-covered with curtains and drawings, also for safety. That's why
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: there are only a few kids in there. I live
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: right by it, and they actually just painted the building
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: a bright green with yellow windows. In the winter, there's
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: cute snowmen in the playground. Looking into the daycare's history,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: it turns out it was originally established in 1973, and
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: it used to be much more lively back in the day. However,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: after being purchased by a man named Richard Yocum, after 2006,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the daycare wasn't looked after properly, with multiple complaints of
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: issues like infants being left outside without any supervision, yelling
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: at children, and inappropriate sanitary facilities being common. Eventually, the
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: business started to fail. But Richard continued to operate the
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: daycare at a loss and handed it over to his
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: mother just so she would have something to do in
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: her elderly years. As for the ominous warnings from Death
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Ship and others, they were just trolls taking the chance
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: to harass Disco Godfather and turn this into something bigger
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: than just a creepy building. On May 15th, 2023, Richard
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: passed away at the age of 79. But the Funtime
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Kids Care building still stands today, its legacy now reduced
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: to a quirky internet footnote where fans of the mystery
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: even dress up as the daycare for Halloween, and ending
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: to what was, in hindsight, a completely overblown saga. 96.7
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: FM Strange Sounds On the 7th of January 2018, Reddit
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: user Batchian320 made a post on the Beaverton, Oregon subreddit
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: describing a bizarre phenomenon. The post read, tune in to 96.7
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: if you are near Progress Ridge. Some weird shit is
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: going on. Sitting in the car with friends, tuned to 96.7
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and I'm hearing weird repeating sounds and sometimes random people
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: talking or saying random things. The sounds get more bassy
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: and less bassy with some strange frequencies interrupting other ones.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: Someone please explain this.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: And while others.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Initially dismissed it as nothing more than two dominant radio
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: stations playing over each other, they quickly changed their minds
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: after listening to the eerie broadcast themselves.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: K Z R Y L P.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: Portland.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Around the same time, Redditor Jimmy Salts made a very
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: similar post in the Beaverton subreddit as well. This essentially
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: ruled out the possibility that the issue was related to
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: Batchian's car radio. And as time went on, more and
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: more reports of these strange noises started coming up, all
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: revolving around 96.7 FM. Now, if these strange noises were
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: just that, most people would have dismissed them as a
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: faulty broadcast system and moved on with their lives. However,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: the most haunting thing about these noises was that they
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: kept changing. They would cycle between white noise, something resembling
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: a very loud fan, and the most terrifying old speeches
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and the
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: Apollo 11 broadcasts.
• 57:17
  Speaker 5: I also found reports.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: Of these strange noises going as far back as 2017.
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: And one post made by a.
• 57:20
  Speaker 4: Now-deleted Reddit account really stood out. It stated, The radio
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: station is not officially listed.
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: It went on in this pattern for several minutes before
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: just playing some white noise type tone for hours and
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: hours on end, no station call. The station is a
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: defunct rock station I never heard of. The next day
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: they played MLK speeches and something that maybe could be
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: called ambient music, slow motion tones and whirring sounds. Nothing
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: it's played is recognizable by Shazam, any input is welcomed.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: The person who made this post also linked to a
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: video they recorded, and sure enough, the noises matched the
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: ones Batchy and 320.
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: Heard a year later.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: As far as I could tell, reports of these strange
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: noises persisted until June 2018, only to disappear as suddenly
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: as they emerged. This extended year and a half long
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: timeline of these noises does negate the possibility of this
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: being some troll hijacking the frequencies. Because over such a
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: long period, one of the people working for the 96.7
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: FM station must have noticed the hack and corrected the issue.
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: So if these noises.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Weren't caused by a malfunctioning broadcast or a hack, then
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: what were they? The only people who could prove these
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: answers were those who owned and operated the station. And
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: after going through one of the recordings of these noises,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: we can hear a distorted call sign of K-Z-R-Y-L-P. K-Z-R-Y...
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Looking up this column sign in FCC's public notice from
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: August of 2018 reveals that this station is licensed to
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: the Community Alliance of Tenants, which is a non-profit aimed
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: at helping tenants know their rights. However, this revelation introduced
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: more questions than it answered. What does a non-profit focused
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: on tenant advocacy have to do with eerie, unexplained noises
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: on the radio? Reaching out to the Community Alliance of
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: Tenants was met with an outright denial of having any
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: knowledge of interference with their station. This leaves only one
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: possibility on the table, that these noises were deliberately broadcast
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: by the Community Alliance of Tenants. As for why they
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: would do this, the answer is simple, for attention. Think
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: of it this way, you're driving down the highway and
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: you want to see what's on the radio. You shuffle
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: through the radio stations to find something you like, when
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: all of the sudden you hear a creepy noise. Wouldn't
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: you be curious to check out the station at a
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: later time to see what was going on? As the
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: explanation goes, they were likely broadcasting these noises on off-hours
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: to build curiosity around their station, which otherwise covered boring
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: talks about tenant rights. People were mentioning this possibility all
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: the way back in 2018 when these noises first became popular.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: And while the Community Alliance of Tenants hasn't come forward
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: with a confession, people on the internet are 100% convinced
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: that they deliberately created this hoax for attention. However, 96.7
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: FM has since been replaced by a rap station. The
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Evil Farming Game On the 1st of May 2016, Reddit
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: user Sparta213 asked for help in finding a game similar
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: to that of Harvest Moon, which is a cutesy farming game. However,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: this cuteness quickly turned into sheer horror as others read
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: through the specifics of what Sparta was looking for. The
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: post read, I know almost nothing about this game. All
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: I can remember is that it's kind of like Harvest
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: Moon but with a dark twist. The game starts out
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: with you and your wife. One night you get into
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: a fight and you end up stabbing her to death. Now,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: the game revolves around you farming to stay alive while
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: trying to keep the town from finding out about the
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: incident that happened. Every now and then the cops come
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: to search your house and you have to hide her corpse.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: People found the idea of a game that combined an
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: innocent premise like farming with such a twisted plot both
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: disturbing and highly intriguing. Given the storyline of this mystery game,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: most assumed it was some obscure flash-based browser game. However,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: despite countless users on the subreddit dedicating hours each day
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: to the search, they found no clues that could lead
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: to an answer. The search also garnered an entire subreddit
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: which quickly grew to over 10,000 members as the legend
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: of the game with such a dark premise traveled across
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: the internet. The search also resulted in some users posting
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: about having played the game a long time ago with
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: one such post reading, Hi all, first time posting here.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Today I found my old laptop but sadly it won't
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: boot up. But it brought back some great memories, particularly
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: a game I'm about to describe. So at the start
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: of the game you killed your wife, but after that
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: you just lived as normal managing your farm. However, it
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: had a twist. The police could come at any time
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: and find the body, so you had to constantly be
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: wary and move the body. The laptop was built in 2001,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: and I bought a new one in 2003, so it
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: would have been between that time. It wasn't a browser game,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: and I think I may have gotten it from uTorrent,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: but cannot remember to be honest. Hope this is enough info,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: and many thanks. However, all of these claims turned out
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: to be false. That is, until one user solved the
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: mystery five years after the original post. According to him,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Sparta likely saw this animation for a clip of YouTuber
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Varg Skelethor Joel, otherwise known as Vinesauce, and later misremembered
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: it as an actual game.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 2: You know what it sounds like?
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: It sounds like Harvest Moon, but with, like, corpses.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: It sounds like.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 5: That'd be a fun game, just playing as Harvest Moon,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: but throughout all of the gameplay, you gotta hide a
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 5: dead corpse.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: You know what?
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: You know what it is?
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 5: Harvest Moon... It's just regular Harvest Moon with your wife... And.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: Midway in the game.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 5: You have an argument with your wife.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: And you accidentally kill her.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 5: With like a.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: You kill her with like a... A barbecue... Kebab.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 5: Wreck.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: Like a.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: You impale her accidentally... And you're like.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: Oh shit.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: I didn't mean that.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 4: And.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 5: At the same time... As you gotta like... Manage your farm...
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: Raise your chickens... And milk the cows.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 5: You also gotta like.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: Hide the body.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: from the cops sometimes, from health security.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: Checks, and uh, yeah.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: Sparta would confirm this to be the case, stating, So guys,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: I just got around to looking at the Vinesauce animated
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: video that someone found, and as anticlimactic as it may be,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: I believe that this is likely the source of the game.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: It fits everything exactly.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: And I used to fall asleep all the time watching
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: Vinesauce videos. So, in the end, while finding the answer
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: was satisfying, it also left many feeling empty after spending
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: five long years searching for a game that ended up
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: not even existing. Kanye Quest 3030 On July 22nd, 2013,
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a game called Kanye Quest 3030 released online, sparking a
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: mystery that would haunt the internet for a decade. It
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: was a very odd Pokemon-like role-playing game in which the
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: player character, popular musician Kanye West, falls through a mysterious
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: portal and finds himself in the year 3030. In this future,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the United States is ruled by a clone of rapper
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Lil B, claiming himself to be a god. The world
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: is also filled with clones of other famous rappers, like Tupac, Jay-Z,
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: and Eminem. Your goal as the player is to put
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: together a party of rappers, defeat Lil B, and save America.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: It was an extremely strange concept, but one that made
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: it stand out among the sea of other indie games
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: from that era. It got popular enough to catch the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: attention of Video Game Dunkey, one of the most respected
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: video game reviewers on YouTube. But just like everything else,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: its popularity declined over the upcoming months. The game was fun,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: but it had zero replayability, so it faded into internet
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: obscurity as players moved on to whatever was trending next. However,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: what no one knew was that beneath its hip-hop inspired surface,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: the game was hiding a dark, unsettling secret. On January 28, 2015,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: an anonymous user made a post on Payspin detailing the
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: shocking discovery they had made while playing the game. The
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: post was titled, Kanye Quest, a front for ascensionism. At
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: one point in the game, an NPC asked the player, quote,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: what do you want to do? With a six-letter blank
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: space prompt to type your response. For fun, the user
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: decided to type in, Ascend. Doing this completely changed the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: scene and revealed a previously unknown section of the game
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: with the player character turning into a white butterfly. Immediately
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: after entering this new area, a text box appeared with
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: a creepy message reading, Congratulations, you have proven yourself to
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: be an open-minded and curious thinker. We must apologize for
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: deceiving you, but we can reveal that the game you
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: were playing up until this point was a front constructed
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: to protect what you are currently accessing. We must ask
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: that you do not reveal this area to the public.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: If you believe that you may be prone to revealing
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: information or do not wish to participate, please close this
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: program immediately by pressing Alt F4 or selecting the No
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: option when it appears. By selecting the Yes option, you
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: agree to participate and not reveal information. Would you like
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: to participate? Here, selecting No would just close out of
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: the game, but if you were to select Yes, the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: game would bring up an even creepier message, reading... The
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: following is a thought exercise designed to help teach you
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: something beneficial. By undertaking this exercise, you will hopefully be
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: affected in a positive way. Due to the nature of
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the exercise, this something cannot be revealed immediately. This exercise
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: may or may not be restricted to this software. It
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: is important to remember that the purpose of this exercise
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: is to benefit you. You will not be timed. We
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: cannot provide any more information except that we wish you
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: good luck. You may begin now. Welcome to your ascension.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: The game then presented you with a number of puzzles
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: where you had to enter the right password to proceed.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: If you managed to successfully complete these puzzles, the game
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: teleported you to a completely white room with a single computer.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: Clicking on that computer revealed the message, Congratulations, you have ascended.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you for playing. However, this wasn't the true ending
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: of the game, because after that, a final text box
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: appeared giving players yet another chance to type something. If
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: they entered the word Micropia, the game revealed a disturbing message.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: You have proven your worth once again.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: You have ascended.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: However, further ascension is always possible, and by selecting the
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: yes option, you agree to participate further and you grant
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: us permission to interact with your possessions. Would you like
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: to participate? If you choose yes, the message continued, stating,
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: Over the following two-week time period, we will interact with
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: you and your possessions in several ways. Keep an eye out,
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: as some of these ways may be subtle. Others may
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: not be. We may attempt to contact you directly. If
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: we do this, we will attempt to notify you of
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: our presence using a keyword. If you still consent to participation,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: please select the yes option above.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 2: Do you wish to participate?
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: If you choose yes, one last time, the game asks
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: for your personal details, including your first name, last name, country, city,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: zip code, and house number. Once you enter this information,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the game thanked you by name and told you to
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: wait for further instructions. The repeated mentions of Ascend throughout
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: this section were a clear reference to Ascensionism, which is
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: a cult based around the belief of reincarnation. So, was
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: this game a recruiting tool for a mysterious cult? The
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: only way to find out was to wait for the
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: promised two weeks. But when no one was contacted after
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: putting in their info, people on the internet began looking
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: for the developer of the game. However, all they had
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: to go on was a pseudonym, Phenix. Further investigation into
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: the game led to old posts on a now-defunct forum
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: called Unfiction, where users at once discussed an alternate reality game,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: or ARG, called Ascensionism. The creators of this ARG also
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: had a PayPal link in their bio, and donating to
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: it revealed the name of the creator, Nicholas Lyons. And
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: while searching this name online didn't bring up much, it
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: did reveal a Bandcamp account mentioning that Nick was signed
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: to the label Ascensionism Records. This label had its own
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: Bandcamp account which revealed another name, Valerie. It seemed the
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: hunt for the creator of Kanye West 3030 was finally
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: drawing to a close. However, things quickly went south when
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: MatPat from the Game Theory channel interviewed Valerie in 2021
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: and she had this to say.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: So, Kanye Quest. It's not actually related to me. For
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: a long time, I wanted to make music for games.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: Because of this, I spent hours and hours finding and
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: talking to folks in random game developer group chats on Skype, Discord, TeamSpeak, etc.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: I would say sometimes, hey, feel free to use my
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: work or even just my ideas in your stuff for free.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: Just make sure you credit me. And with Kanye Quest, it's...
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: I don't really know. I don't know who developed it.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know why.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: I guess they just liked my work and wanted to
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 4: incorporate it somehow while challenging themselves to implement some weird
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: mechanics into their game.
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: Instead of clarifying things, Valerie's statements only deepen the mystery.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe the game was actually developed by a cult after all.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: But just over a year after Valerie's interview, the truth
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: was finally revealed in a web series called Finding Yeezus.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: The hosts of this web series managed to find the
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: creator by tracking down one of the game testers for
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: Kanye Quest 3030. And the reality of this game turned
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: out to be a lot more mundane than anyone could
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: have imagined.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 5: I'm Clara Hope.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: I'm a musician and artist, and I created Kanye Quest 3030.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 2: So, um, where does it begin for you? For me, it, uh,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: began as, um....
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: The game contained nothing more than a hidden ARG. And
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: the original user who made the payspin on the ascensionism
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: findings turned out to be Clara Hope, the creator of
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: the game trying to bring attention to the ARG implementation.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: It was found that at no point was the game
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: connected to the internet, so when you entered your personal details,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't even going anywhere. It just goes to show
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: how the internet's imagination and wild theories can transform something
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: as ordinary as a high school final project into a
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: decade-long cult mystery. Yay, video games. On September 8, 2010,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: reddit user Iwishiwasamee made a post in r slash gaming
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: asking for mod recommendations for a game called Oblivion.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: The replies to the.
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: Post started off fairly normal with players of the game
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: listing out the best mods for a new player. That is,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: until a user by the name of yayvideogames joined in
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: on the conversation and posted a comment stating, The uninstall button.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: The game is great and all, but god is it
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: hard to fully remove all the junk it leaves behind
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: on your system. You really need to check out that
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: mod when the time comes.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: To get rid of it.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, I think Askyro's Oblivion Overhaul is a nice start.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: The first two sentences of this comment didn't make any sense.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: And when someone said, what, yayvideogames once again replied with
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: a similar comment stating, This somehow made even less sense
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: than his previous comment, leaving others confused about what he
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: was trying to say. What they didn't know was that
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: things were about to get a whole lot more confusing.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: After a few more back and forths, Yay! Video Games
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: started spamming the nonsensical phrase, Ubisoft goes Steamwork bye-bye always
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: on DRM over and over in the replies. However, what
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: turned this behavior from strange to disturbing was the fact
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: that most of these replies were formatted differently. They were bold, italic,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: all capital, in camel case, and in many other formats,
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: meaning this wasn't just copy-pasted. He also linked to some
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: extremely unsettling images with some of these comments that didn't
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: make much sense either. the creepiest of these images was
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: of a white surface with Yay! Video Games' odd phrase
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: written all over it. From there, he continued posting similar
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: comments nearly 4,000 times before finally getting banned from the subreddit.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: This left a lot of people questioning what they had
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: just witnessed. Many just assumed that he was either trolling
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: on some extreme level or that this was the work
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: of an advanced bot. But before they could get any
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: answers from Yay! Video Games, he deleted his account and
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: disappeared from reddit. And the mystery of this bizarre breakdown
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: remained unsolved. That is, until Reddit user SoLegitHS took it
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: upon himself to solve this case hoping to find an
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: interesting ARG or something along those lines. But what he
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: uncovered instead was far more tragic than anything he could
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: have imagined. After going through every post from the Yay!
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Video Games account and finding similar repetitive patterns in other
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: places across the platform, SoLegitHS narrowed down three more accounts
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: that belonged to Yay!
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: Video Games.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: These included No Substance Here, Vinyl Record, and Not Sure
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: How Big You Are. Among these, Not Sure How Big
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: You Are appeared to be Ye Video Game's main account.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: Here he shared many aspects of his life that were
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: crucial to figuring out his story. And contrary to what
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: many believed, he wasn't just some troll spamming bizarre posts
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: for attention. Those posts were his way of coping with
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: a deeply miserable life. According to his posts, Ye Video
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: Games was suffering from some extreme chronic illnesses that left
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: him in excruciating pain at all times. The constant medication
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: had also messed up his mental stability, resulting in manic
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: episodes like the one that made him popular in the
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: first place. Sadly, all of this became too much for
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: him to bear. In the beginning of 2015, he decided
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: to end his own life to escape the suffering. Dennis
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Martin On the afternoon of June 14, 1969, six-year-old Dennis
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: Martin was spending Father's Day weekend with his family in
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was there with his father, grandfather,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: and older brother near Spence Field, a remote high country
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: area along the Appalachian Trail. It was supposed to be
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: a simple family camping trip. Instead, it turned into one
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: of the most disturbing missing child cases in American history.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: Late that day, Dennis and a few other boys decided
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: to play a prank. The plan was to hide along
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: the trail, wait for the adults to come by, and
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: jump out.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: And scare them.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: To pull it off, the boys split up. Dennis went
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: one way, the others went another. A few moments later,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: the other boys came back, but Dennis didn't. His father,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: Bill Martin, started calling for him almost immediately and began
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: searching the area on foot. There was no answer. No
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: movement in the brush, and no sign of a little
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: boy in a bright red shirt. And this was not
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: easy terrain. Dennis had vanished in steep, heavily wooded mountain
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: country where a child could disappear from view in seconds.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: If he had wandered off the trail, fallen, or gotten confused,
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: the forest could have swallowed him almost instantly. As if
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: things weren't bad enough already, they only got worse. Not
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: long after Dennis disappeared, a hard rainstorm moved into the mountains.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: Heavy rain pounded the area, and whatever tracks or scent
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: Dennis may have left behind were being wiped away in
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: real time. By nightfall, the temperature had dropped too. For
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: a six-year-old dressed for a summer outing, not an unexpected
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: night alone in the wilderness, this was a serious danger
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: all by itself. Family members and rangers kept looking through
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: the darkness, trying to find them before the mountains and
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: weather made things even worse. By the next morning, the
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: search had grown into something enormous. What began as a
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: frantic family search turned into a full-scale operation involving rangers, volunteers,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: boy scouts, horse teams, helicopters, National Guard members, and even
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: Green Berets. Before it was over, thousands of people would
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: take part. At one point, around 1,400 searchers were involved
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: in a single day. More than 56 square miles were
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: eventually covered. And, after all that, they still found nothing
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: physical to indicate what happened to Dennis. There were leads,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: but none of them changed the case. For example, small
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: footprints were found in the area and appeared to belong
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: to a child. They seemed to head toward a stream
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: and then disappear. They were Oxford prints, and because Dennis
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: was wearing the same kind of shoe, the prints drew
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: immediate attention. But officials decided they were instead probably left
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: by a Boy Scout helping with the search. As the
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: days passed, darker theories started to take hold. The most
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: famous came from a man named Harold Key, who claimed
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: he heard a terrible scream not long after Dennis vanished.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: Soon after that, he said he saw a rough-looking man
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: moving quickly through the area with something red slung over
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: his shoulders. Dennis had been wearing a red shirt, so
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: the account naturally drew attention. but there seemed to be
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: a problem. The timeline and distance did not quite fit
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: well enough. Investigators believe the man Harold described was too
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: far from the place Dennis had last been seen, and
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: too little time had passed for the sighting to make sense.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: Both park rangers and the FBI ultimately concluded there was
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: not enough to connect the account to Dennis' disappearance. Still,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: the abduction theory never really died. Dennis' father believed his
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: son had been taken, and a lot of people understood why.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: A child vanishes in broad daylight and an enormous search follows,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: yet not one trace of him is ever found. Officials, however,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: lean toward a different explanation. They believe Dennis most likely
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: became lost and died somewhere in the wilderness soon after disappearing.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: It is the least dramatic theory, but it may also
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: be the most likely. An animal attack has also been
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: suggested over the years, usually involving a bear or feral hog,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: though that theory has always had its own problems. No
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: blood was found, no torn clothing, no obvious sign of
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: a violent encounter. By June 29, the active search was
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: called off. The volunteers were exhausted, leads had dried up,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: and the mountains had given up knowledge. Dennis Martin was
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: never found. Scott Lilly Scott Lilly was not the kind
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: of person most people would expect to see tackling the
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: Appalachian Trail. He was not some hardened outdoorsman or seasoned
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: long-distance hiker. But in the summer of 2011, the 30-year-old
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: from South Bend, Indiana decided to shoulder a backpack and
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: head south on one of the most famous footpaths in America.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: Part of the appeal was history.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: Scott had a strong interest in the Civil War, and
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: that helped draw him toward Virginia, a state dotted with battlefields.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: But this hike does not seem to have been just
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: about scenery or history. It appears to have been something
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: more personal, a way to clear his head and work
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: through whatever was weighing on him at the time. On
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: June 15, 2011, Scott set out on an ambitious journey.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: His plan was to hike the Appalachian Trail southbound, from
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: Maryland all the way to Springer Mountain in Georgia. For
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: someone who is still relatively new when it came to hiking,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: this was no small undertaking. But by the time he
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: reached Virginia, he seemed to be doing just fine. He
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: had made his way into the mountains of Nelson County
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: and taken on a stretch of trail near The Priest,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: a rugged area where the Appalachian Trail climbs above 4,000 feet.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: By then, he may have felt like he had found
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: his rhythm. Then, somewhere around July 31, things went quiet.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: That was the last point at which anyone is known
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: to have seen.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: Or heard from Scott.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: What investigators believe is that Scott may have been heading
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: toward Cow Camp Gap Shelter, a well-known community-used simple wooden
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: structure along the trail. That would have made sense. The
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: Cow Camp Gap was a logical next stop on his journey.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: From there, he may have planned to continue into Buena Vista,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: a small town along the trail with supplies. If that
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: was his plan, there was nothing unusual about it. That
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: is how life on the Appalachian Trail works. Hikers move
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: from one shelter area to the next. And sometimes, because
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: everyone is spread out and moving at their own pace,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: people disappear from each other's view for hours or even
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: days without it seeming alarming at first. It is a
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: very isolating place. So, for a while, Scott's absence may
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: not have looked like a crisis. But somewhere in that
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: ordinary gap, something went terribly wrong. On August 12, 2011,
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: nearly two weeks after Scott was last known to be
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: on that stretch of trail, a group of hikers made
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: a horrifying discovery near the side trail leading to Cow
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: Camp Gap Shelter. They found a body in a shallow grave.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: It was Scott Lilly. Right away, it was obvious this
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: was not a simple wilderness death. Someone had tried to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: hide what happened to him. Not very well, but enough
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: to delay discovery. Investigators believed Scott had likely been dead
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: for around 12 days by the time he was found.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: That meant he had probably died not long after the
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: last known stretch of his hike near the priest in
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: late July. And the location only made the case more unsettling.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: Cow Camp Gap was not some foreign corner of the mountains.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: It was part of a well-used recreation area. Hikers passed
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: through it. Campers even used it. It was secluded enough
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: for someone to hide a body, but not so remote
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: that no one would ever come across it. That meant
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: whoever put Scott there either took a major risk or
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: felt comfortable doing it. Months later, investigators released one of
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: the case's most disturbing details. In January 2012, the medical
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: examiner officially ruled Scott's death a homicide. His cause of
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: death was asphyxia by suffocation. Some of his belongings were
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: also missing and never recovered. Among them were his backpack,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: his relatively new trail shoes, a Nintendo game, and an
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: Appalachian Trail handbook. That immediately raised the obvious question. Was
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: Scott killed for his gear or were those items taken
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: for some other reason entirely? Investigators never publicly gave a
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: clear answer. Because the killing happened on federal land, the
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: FBI took charge of the case. They worked alongside National
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: Park Service Rangers, U.S. Forest Service officers, Virginia State Police,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: and local authorities. Agents and officers collected more than 100
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: pieces of evidence. They covered more than 270 miles of trail.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: They conducted 83 interviews of hikers in the area at
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: the time across multiple states and even in two foreign countries.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: One year after Scott's murder, the FBI even announced a $ 10, 000
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: his killer. But despite all of that, the case never
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: broke open. No suspect was publicly identified and no final
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: timeline was established. It was never found out exactly what
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: happened to Scott Lilly in his final hours on the trail,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: which sparked much speculation. Some seem to paint the area
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: around Cow Camp Gap as an area crawling with dangerous
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: mountain recluses or hidden predators waiting just off the trail.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: But that image does not really hold up. This was
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: a well-used area and not some lost world cut off
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: from everybody else. And that may be one of the
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: creepiest parts of all. He disappeared along a route hikers
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: used all the time. Then, somewhere in that stretch of
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: Virginia backcountry, he crossed paths with the wrong person. And
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: exactly what happened next has remained unknown to this day.
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: Before Derek Luking disappeared into the Great Smoky Mountains, a
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: section of the Appalachian Mountains in March 2012, the people
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: closest to him had already started to feel like something
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: was wrong. In the months leading up to his disappearance,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: his father noticed changes in his 24-year-old son. Derek had
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: started drinking and smoking, which his family considered unusual for him.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: He also seemed unhappy with where his life was heading.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: The mystery began on March 15, 2012, when Derek did
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: not show up for work. No one could reach him
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: as calls to his phone went unanswered. A mutual friend
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: eventually alerted his roommate, Ryan, and from there the concern
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: escalated fast. Ryan contacted Derek's family and the Lukings drove
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: through the night from Virginia to Tennessee. Once they arrived,
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: they started digging through anything that might explain where he
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: had gone. On Derek's computer, they found searches related to
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They also found a hotel reservation.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: That meant Derek had not just disappeared at random. He
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: had made some kind of plan. And for whatever reason,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: that plan had led him toward the North Carolina side
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: of the Smokies.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 2: But why?
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: That was the question hanging over everything from the beginning.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: Two days later, on March 17, surveillance footage captured Derek
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: leaving the Microtel Inn & Suites in Cherokee, North Carolina
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: at around 4 o'clock.
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: In the morning.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: He was carrying only a daypack. That was the last
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: confirmed sighting of him. After that, Derek effectively walked out
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: of view and never came back. Inside his hotel room
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: were details that only made the case stranger. His family
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: found a Bible on the bed and a liquor bottle
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: on the floor. It suggested he may have been wrestling
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: with something emotional, spiritual, or both. Later that same morning
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: around 8.30, Derek's white Ford Escape was found at Newfound
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: Gap high in the Smokies near the Tennessee-North Carolina line.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: His family came across it by sheer luck while searching
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: for him. Inside the vehicle was a note. Its message
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: was short but chilling. Do not follow me. But despite
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: this note, people did. Because by that point, the case
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: no longer looked like a man taking a private trip.
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: It looked like a disappearance headed towards something much worse.
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: And what investigators found inside the SUV only deepened the mystery.
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: Derek had bought a surprising amount of outdoor gear. There
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: were maps of the national park, a tent, a sleeping bag, food, cord,
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: cutting tools, lights, and other survival items. It looked like
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: the setup for a serious wilderness outing, but there was
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: one major problem. Derek had left most of it behind.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: His wallet and cash were still in the car too.
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: The scene made almost no sense. If he meant to
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: survive in the backcountry, why walk away from the very
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: gear that would have made that possible? This contradiction has
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: haunted the case ever since. Maybe Derek only planned to
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: take a short walk and return for the rest of
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: the stuff. Maybe he was trying to imitate the stripped-down
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: survival style of Man vs. Wild, a show his family
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: said he liked. Maybe he never had a coherent wilderness
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: plan at all. Or maybe someone else entered the picture
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: after he arrived at Newfound Gap. Search and rescue teams
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: soon moved into the area. About 60 people and three
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: dog teams took part, covering more than 70 miles of
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: trail around the parking area. They checked places where someone
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: could have left the trail, pushed into the brush, and disappeared.
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: Rangers asked if anyone had seen Derek, a young man
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: matching his description, or anything unusual around Newfound Gap that day.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: And this is where the case gets even stranger. It
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: was a sunny day, people were out hiking, picnicking, and
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: moving through the area, yet no dependable witnesses.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: Ever emerged to place Derek there.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: There was one possible sighting along Newfound Gap Road that
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: suggested he may have entered the woods from there, but
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: that lead led nowhere. Then, the case took an even
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: darker tone. Around the same time Derek vanished, another young
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: man disappeared in the same general area of the Smokies.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: His name was Michael Giovanni Cacchini. Friends last saw him
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: on March 18, 2012, just a day after Derek was
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: last captured on surveillance video. During the search for Derek,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: rangers found Michael's abandoned vehicle parked along a walkway off
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: Newfound Gap Road. It was an odd place to leave
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: a car overnight, and not the kind of spot where
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: someone on a normal hiking trip would be expected to
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: begin a backcountry trek. Like Derek, Michael was heavily searched
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: for and not found during the initial effort. Months later,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: a backpack and human remains were discovered in the park
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: near the area connected to his disappearance. The remains were
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: eventually identified as Michael's, giving one of the two disappearances
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: a grim ending, but not a clear explanation. The question
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: of if the cases were related began to arise. By it,
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: Derek's case continued to make no progress. Every theory seemed
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: to hit a wall. One possibility is that he went
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: into the wilderness on purpose and intended not to come back.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: whether to take his life or somehow start a new
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: one in the woods. The note in his car immediately
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: points people in that direction, but even that theory has problems.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: If Derek meant to disappear in the mountains and possibly
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: take his life, why buy so much survival gear first?
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Another theory is that he wanted some kind of survival challenge.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: But again, why even buy the gear then in the
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: first place? Then there is the possibility of foul play.
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: Maybe Derek meant to scout the area and return for
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: the rest of his gear, and during that window he
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: crossed paths with someone. Someone who had malicious intentions. Maybe
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: the note was genuine, or maybe he was meant to
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: mislead whoever found the car. But that theory has problems too.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: There is no body, blood, torn clothes, confirmed witnesses, or
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: any definitive sign of an attacker abduction. More than a
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: decade later, Derek Liu King is still missing. Louise Chaput
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: Louise Chaput was the kind of person people remembered fondly.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: She was 52 years old, a mother of two, and
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: by all accounts, deeply compassionate. She loved the outdoors, forests, mountains,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: and quiet places were where she found peace. So, when
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: plans for a hiking trip with friends fell through in
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: November 2001, Louise did not cancel the trip. Instead, she
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: decided to go alone. She packed up her Silver Ford
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Focus station wagon, left Quebec, and drove south toward New Hampshire.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: Her destination was Pinkham Notch Lodge in the White Mountains
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: section of the Appalachian Mountains. She planned to spend just
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: a few days there and be back home in time
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: for work on Monday, November 19. It sounded simple enough,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: but the place she was heading toward had a reputation
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: of its own. Mount Washington is beautiful, but it's also
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: notoriously dangerous. The area is known for brutal weather, lethal cold,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: and conditions that can turn deadly with almost no warning.
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: Louise knew that. She had climbed Mount Washington before and
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: had grown up hiking and skiing, She crossed into the
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: United States through the state of Vermont shortly before noon
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: on Thursday, November 15. By mid-afternoon, she reached the visitor's
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: center area. Louise stopped in and asked where she could
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: take a short walk to stretch her legs after the
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: long drive. She wanted something easy and brief to kick
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: off her multi-day trip, something she could finish before dark.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: The clerk directed her to Lost Pond Trail. It was
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: just across the road from the lodge, a major fact
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: that makes her case so unsettling. Louise had not set
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: out on some extreme backcountry adventure. This was just a
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: short walk. By somewhere between that simple plan and the
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: end of the day, Louise vanished. When she failed to
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: return to Quebec and did not show up for work
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: on Monday, alarm bells went off. Her boyfriend contacted authorities
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: in New Hampshire and the search began. Their immediate thinking
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: was the weather played a part. And at first, that
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: assumption made perfect sense. Louise had gone alone into a
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: mountain region famous for harsh weather, steep terrain, and sudden dangers.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: In late November, even a short walk can become serious
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: if someone slips, gets turned around, or spends too long
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: out in the cold. Everything about the setting pointed in
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: that direction. Lied as searchers would soon find one important clue.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: Luis's silver Ford Focus station wagon was still in the
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: visitor center parking lot. The search unfolded in exactly the
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: kind of conditions that make the White Mountains so feared.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: Dozens of people from the New Hampshire Fish and Game,
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: Mountain Rescue Services, Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, and the U.S.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: Forest Service headed into the area. They were met by
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: high winds, blowing snow, and bitter cold. Windchills dropped well
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: below zero. If a missing person is injured or exposed
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: in those kinds of conditions, every hour counts, but the
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: first day produced nothing. On the second day, the weather
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: improved somewhat, and a helicopter from the U.S. Army National
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: Guard joined the search from above.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 2: Still, nothing.
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: Louise seemed to have vanished into one of the best-known
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: mountain areas in New Hampshire without leaving behind any clear explanation.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: And because of where she disappeared, most people naturally assumed
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: the worst. She could have suffered a fall or succumb
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: to exposure. Maybe she got disoriented and was lost in
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: the wilderness. Anything was a possibility, which made the search
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: for her that much harder. Then, on the afternoon of Thursday,
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: November 22, Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., the search came
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: to an end. Members of the New Hampshire Fishing Game
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: found Louise's body, and the location only made things stranger.
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: She was not found far from where her car had
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: been parked, close to the trailhead and only a short
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: distance from a well-used area. At first, the public details
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: were limited, and in a place like that, most people
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: still assumed the mountain had claimed another life. But two
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: days later, that assumption collapsed. The medical examiner ruled Luis's
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: death a homicide. Luis had been stabbed multiple times. Everything
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: about it was set up to look like a wilderness tragedy.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: A solo hiker, a dangerous mountain range, bad weather. But
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: what looked like a missing hiker case turned out to
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: be a murder. and no suspect was ever identified. More
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: than two decades later, her case is still unsolved. Trenny
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: Gibson On October 8, 1976, 16-year-old Trenny Gibson went on
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: a school trip to the Great Smoky Mountains with about
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: 40 other students from Baradun High School in Knoxville, Tennessee.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: She was quiet, well-liked, and interested in plants. In school,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: she was taking horticulture and hoped to study landscape architecture.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: A trip into the mountains was exactly the kind of
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: thing she would have been excited about. The group was
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: headed to Andrews Bald and Kuohi. The weather, though, was
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: not great. It was damp, chilly, and poor enough that
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: the trip could have easily been cancelled. Trani was also underdressed.
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: She had left her coat behind in Knoxville and ended
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: up hiking in a blouse, sweater, jeans, and tennis shoes.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: Another student, Robert Simpson, loaned her his wool jacket. The
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: students were told to stay on the trail, not go
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: beyond Andrews Bald, and be back at the bus by 3.30
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: that afternoon. After they reached Andrews Bald and ate lunch,
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: Trenny separated from Robert at around 1.30pm. He later said
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: she wanted to head back towards the bus while he
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: stayed behind. As she made her way back, other students
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: saw her along the trail. One girl walked with her briefly.
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: Another group invited her to stop and sit down, but
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: Trenny kept going. One student later recalled that Trenny seemed
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: to be in a hurry. Then, at about 2.50 that afternoon,
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: witnesses saw her walk a little further ahead, stop, bend down,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: and step off the trail to the right by herself.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: This was the last confirmed sighting of Trenny Gibson. When
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: students got back to the bus around 3.30, it became
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: clear something was wrong. Trenny was not there. Her teacher,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: Wayne Dunlap, started looking for her almost immediately. Another student
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: searched too, but neither found anything. By around 4.30 p.m.,
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: rangers had been contacted and the case became an official
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: missing person search inside the Appalachian Mountains. And the timing
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: was awful. Evening was coming on and rain, fog, wind,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: and falling temperatures were moving in. The trails were slick
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: with wet leaves, and visibility was getting worse by the hour.
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: Even so, those looking for her would find evidence that
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: Trenny may not have been alone. Searchers found broken undergrowth
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: near the place where Trenny was last seen. Nearby were
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: three cigarette butts and a partially consumed can of beer,
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: suggesting that someone else may have been in that area.
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: The strongest lead came from the tracking dogs. After being
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: given Trenny's scent, they followed it past the Kuohi Tower
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: lookout point and toward a spot roughly a mile and
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: a half away, where the scent then disappeared. Some thought
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: Trenny may have moved toward the road rather than simply
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: wandering deeper into the wilderness. The search grew quickly. Over
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: the course of the broader search, roughly 756 people took part.
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: And despite all of that, nothing conclusive was ever found.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: The FBI opened an investigation and looked into possible sightings
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: that were reported. None of them led anywhere. The dead
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: ends didn't seem to make any sense. She was not
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: alone in the deep wilderness. She was on a school
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: trip on a marked trail in one of the most
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: visited parts of the mountains. Then she stepped off the
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: trail for just a moment and vanished. One theory is
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: that she made it to the road and encountered the
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: wrong person. Others believe someone around her that day knew
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: more than they ever admitted. But nearly 50 years later,
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: there is still no body, no proven crime scene, and
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: no clear answer as to what happened to her. Thelma
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: Melton On November 25, 1981, 58-year-old Thelma Melton known to
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: her friends as Polly, went for what should have been
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: an easy afternoon walk in the mountains. That day, Polly
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: set out on the Deep Creek Trail in the Appalachian
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: Mountains with two friends, Pauline Cannon and Trula Gutger. It
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: was one of her favorite hikes, a familiar trail that
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: was well used and easy to follow. The weather was warm,
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: the creek was shallow because of drought, and the trail
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: was busy enough that other hikers were often around. Nothing
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: about the setting screamed danger. At first, the walk seemed
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: normal and Polly was in good spirits. She had even
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: made homemade spaghetti sauce before leaving and expected to be
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: back later that day to finish the ordinary routines of
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: her life. About an hour into the hike, around 4pm,
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: the three women reached the turnaround point and started heading back.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: And that is where the case takes a strange turn. Polly,
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: who had been walking more slowly than usual earlier in
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: the day, suddenly picked up speed. One of her friends
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: even joked that they weren't going to race her. Polly turned, laughed,
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: and kept going. It was the last normal moment anyone
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: had with her. That sudden burst of pace stood out
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: because Polly was not young. She was a heavy smoker
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: and had high blood pressure. She was not the sort
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: of person anyone would expect to suddenly power away down
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: a trail for no clear reason. But that is exactly
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: what she seemed to do. She moved ahead of her friends,
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: went over a rise in the trail, and disappeared from sight.
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: At first, her friends were not alarmed. They assumed Polly
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: was joking around or hurrying back to check on her husband, Robert,
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: who was waiting back at the trailhead. but when they
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: came over the same rise themselves, she was gone. Her
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: friends still tried to make it fit an ordinary explanation,
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: but when they got back and Robert said Polly had
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: not returned yet, the situation changed immediately. By then, she
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: had been out of sight for close to an hour,
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: and one small detail would linger afterward. Just before she
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: disappeared over the hill, her friends said Polly had paused
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: and waved. It was such an ordinary gesture, the kind
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: that means nothing in the moment until it becomes the
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: last thing anyone remembers. Her friends and their husbands went
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: back out to retrace the route. They asked other hikers
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: if anyone.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 2: Had seen her.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: No one had. And that made the case even stranger.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: The Deep Creek Trail was popular and it was close
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: to a parking area. It was certainly busy enough that
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: someone should have noticed a woman like Polly if she
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: had simply kept walking. By about 6pm, park rangers were
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: contacted and about an hour later, a formal search was underway.
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: At first, searchers thought they had at least one useful detail.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: Polly's shoes had a distinctive line across the sole that
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: made her tracks easier to identify. but that clue went
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: nowhere almost immediately. The trail was too busy and too
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: many other people had passed through. Investigators couldn't even determine
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: where Polly had left the trail at all. Over the weekend,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: the search grew. Volunteers joined park rangers, bloodhounds were brought in,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: and the trail was closed. In the end, roughly 150
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: volunteers and 9 search dogs took part. And then came
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: one of the strangest details in the whole case. When
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: the dogs were taken to the point where Polly had
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: been last seen, they reacted strongly. They picked up her scent,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: but instead of carrying it down the trail or off
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: into the woods, they circled the area and howled. It
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: was as if the trail simply ended where she vanished.
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: Searchers found no clear path away from the point or
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: obvious sign that she had wandered into the forest. There
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: was no evidence of a struggle. No clothing, no dropped belongings, nothing.
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: Rangers also ruled out some of the more dramatic natural explanations.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: The temperatures were mild, so exposure was unlikely. Animals in
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: the area were also not considered large enough to drag
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: her out of sight. Later, once leaves began to fall
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: and visibility improved, a helicopter surveyed the area from above.
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 2: Still, nothing.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: The search continued for five days and officially ended on
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: October 2. But the mystery only deepened once investigators started
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: looking at Polly's life in the days before she disappeared.
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: A pastor who knew Polly said she had seemed somewhat
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: depressed after her mother's recent death. There was also an
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: issue with missing Valium, an anxiety medication. Robert told investigators
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: that his prescription bottle was gone, raising the possibility that
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: Polly had taken it. This opened the door to a
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: different theory. Maybe she had been more depressed than anyone
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: realized and she meant to harm herself. Or maybe she
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: took the medication, became disoriented, and somehow wandered off in
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: a way searchers never thought of. Some people wondered if
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: Polly had arranged to leave voluntarily, an idea that was
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: built around a few strange facts. She skipped a volunteer
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: shift she was expected to attend. She reportedly made unusual
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: phone calls preceding her disappearance. There was a parking area
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: and a road not far from where she disappeared, and
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: her sudden burst of speed on the trail could look
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: less random if she was hurrying to meet someone. Once later,
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: that theory picked up one more odd detail. A check
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: made out to Polly was cashed in Birmingham, Alabama, where
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: her family had roots. But even that lead went nowhere.
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: Investigators never established who cashed it. And if Polly really
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: had chosen to run off and start over, she did
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: it in a way that required abandoning her medication, identification, clothes,
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: and everyone who knew her. Her family believed that sounded
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: nothing like her. Then there's the possibility of foul play.
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: Her family seemed to lean toward this idea. Polly was
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: walking alone while wearing jewelry, and she disappeared near a
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: road and parking area. In theory, she could have been
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: lured away, forced into a car, or picked up by someone.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: But that theory has its own problem. Deep Creek Trail
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: was public and busy, open enough that an attack or
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: abduction should have drawn attention. And yet, no witness ever
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: came forward with a convincing story of seeing Polly attacked, robbed,
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: or taken. Polly Melton was declared legally dead in 1988,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: and her family eventually held a memorial for her. But
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: the National Park Service still lists her as missing. And
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: more than four decades later, the mystery has stayed the same.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: A woman on a familiar trail walked ahead of her friends,
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: waved once, disappeared over a rise, and was never seen again.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: Solway Firth Spaceman On May 23, 1964, a British fireman
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: named Jim Templeton took his wife Annie and his two
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: kids Elizabeth and Frances to Burg Marsh, an area of
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: grassland overlooking a famous estuary located off the southwest coast
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: of Scotland. According to Jim, the only two other people
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: in the marsh that day besides him and his family
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: were two older women sitting in their car at the
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: far end of the grassland. As an amateur photographer, Jim
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: loved taking pictures of his kids, and so he took
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: his camera on the day trip and photographed his five-year-old
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: daughter Elizabeth wearing her brand new dress. The family spent
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: the entire day enjoying the sunshine and taking family photographs,
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: after which Jim took the pictures to be developed. But
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: when he went to pick them up a week later,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: he noticed something had appeared on one of the pictures.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: Although most of the photographs seemed completely normal and featured
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: his daughter enjoying the sunshine in her flowery dress, the
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: chemist who developed the role mentioned to Jim that one
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: of the pictures had unfortunately been ruined by a strange
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: figure standing behind his daughter. When Jim himself analyzed the
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: photo in question, he was sort of disturbed. Standing right
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: behind his daughter in the grassland was the figure of
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: what appeared to be a man in a space suit.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: This was pretty shocking to Jim, as he was 100%
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: sure that there had been nobody else with him and
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: his family at.
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 2: The marsh that day.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: Suspecting that maybe the chemist had somehow altered the photograph,
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: he sent it to Konak for analysis, but a few
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: days later they got back to him with confirmation that
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: the photograph was genuine and hadn't been altered in any way.
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 1: For some reason, Jim's first reaction was to go to
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: the police, but understandably they weren't interested in the case
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: and immediately dismissed him. Determined to get the story out there,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: Jim then went to the owners of the local newspaper,
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: who were a lot more interested in the story than
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: the cops. The next day, the photograph of Jim's daughter
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: was in every newspaper in Cumbria. The mysterious, unexplained image
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: started gaining traction, and a few days later, the photograph
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: of the little girl was now being featured in pretty
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: much every newspaper in the world, with millions of people
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: wondering where the spaceman had come from. As the photograph
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: received more and more international attention, Kodak seized the opportunity
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: for free publicity by launching a prize for anyone who
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: could prove the photograph had been faked, but nobody could.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: While the photograph was being published by dozens of newspapers
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: all over the world, a similar incident in Australia made
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: the story explode even more. Just days after Jim took
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the now infamous photograph, a Blue Streak missile launch at
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: the Woomera Test Range in South Australia was aborted after
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: the missile technicians got spooked at the sight of two
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: large men standing in the firing range. In a BBC interview,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: Jim alleged that when the technicians saw his daughter's photograph
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: in an Australian newspaper, they claimed the figures they had
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: seen on the firing range were identical to the spaceman
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: in the photograph. Although this was never officially confirmed, Jim's
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: allegations brought even more attention to the story when it
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: was revealed that the Blue Streak missile whose launch had
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: been aborted in South Australia had been built at a
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: base very close to Solway Firth.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 2: As the story blew.
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: Up, Jim mentioned that a few days after the photograph
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: was published, two men in suits claiming to be UK
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: government agents arrived at his door. According to Jim, the
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: men refused to show him their ID, claiming that they
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: were only identified as number 9 and number 11 by
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: the government. Although he didn't buy this story, the men
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: were extremely insistent that Jim take them to the exact
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: spot where the photograph was taken. When they arrived, Jim
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: mentioned to the two mysterious men in suits that when
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: he took the photograph, he had not seen the spaceman
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: in the marsh. Allegedly, as soon as he said that,
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: the two men got back in their car and drove
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: away abruptly, leaving him to walk home alone. In a
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: later interview, Jim dismissed the men as frauds who were
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: probably just pulling his leg and were probably not involved
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: with the government. As you can imagine, while all of
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: this is happening, people started speculating and coming up with
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: all kinds of theories to explain the appearance of the
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: mysterious spaceman in Jim's picture. After all, this did happen
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: in 1964, at the very peak of the space race,
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people were incredibly suggestible to the
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: idea of life on other planets. For almost 50 years,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: people came up with all kinds of theories to explain
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the spaceman in the photograph, most of them relating to
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: extraterrestrial life or a possible staging. But it wasn't until
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: 48 years later in 2012 that a solid theory by
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: a credible source finally came to light. According to Dr.
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: David Clark, a social sciences professor at Sheffield Hallam University,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: the mysterious spaceman was really just Jim's wife, Annie Templeton,
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: who had probably walked into the photograph without Jim noticing
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: and turned her back to Jim at the exact moment
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: he took the picture. If you look at some of
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: the other photographs Jim took that day, you can see
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: Annie was wearing a blue dress and had her arms exposed,
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: which explains how she could end up looking like a spaceman.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 2: If the photograph was overexposed.
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: Because Jim's intention was to photograph his daughter and not
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: his wife, it's very possible that Annie was out of
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: focus in the picture, which made her dress and body
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: look very white after the role was developed, almost like
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: she was wearing a spacesuit. As for the dome-like helmet
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: on her head, this was probably just a cloud or
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: the moon, which is often visible during the daytime when
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: it's in its waxing gibbous phase, which it was on
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: that day.
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 2: Although this is the.
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: Most logical explanation, if you look up explanations for the
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: Solway Firth spaceman photo today, you'll still find literally thousands
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: of blogs and videos with all kinds of outlandish theories
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: about the image, with some of them even being pretty new.
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: Considering all the information available today, it's very safe to
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: say this image has been debunked. It doesn't show some
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: mystery spaceman the family just hadn't noticed in person or
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: some other kind of extraterrestrial life. However, the Solway Firth
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: spaceman photo will always be a classic in the bizarre
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: images genre. Raymond Robinson was born in 1910 in Beaver County,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania and lived pretty much as every normal kid did
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: at the time. He went to school, spent time with
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: his family, played with his friends, and did chores around
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: the house. But a few years later, a tragic incident
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: changed his life forever. One day in June 1919, when
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: Raymond was nine years old, he spent the morning with
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: his friends at a local swimming hole. On their way home,
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: they crossed the Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler, and Newcastle Railway Bridge,
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: where they spotted a bird's nest sitting on top of
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: a pole. After daring each other to climb on top
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: of the pole and count the birds inside the nest,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: Raymond stepped forward to take the dare and began climbing
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: the pole. This is where things get a little dark. Unfortunately,
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: the pole was connected to a live wire with over 25,000
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: volts of electricity. At some point during the climb, Raymond
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: accidentally touched the coil, and you can probably guess what
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: happened next.
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 2: A couple of.
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: Hours later, he woke up in the hospital, where the
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: doctors were shocked he'd even survived the incident. Sadly, Raymond's
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: eyes were literally burned out, and the rest of his face, arms,
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: and hands were also badly burned, leaving him looking, unfortunately,
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: less human. After an incident like that, a lot of
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: people would completely give up on life, but not Raymond.
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: As soon as he was discharged from the hospital, he
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: learned braille and started weaving doormats, wallets, and belts as
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: a way to make some extra cash. In his nephew's
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: own words, he never discussed his injuries or problems at all.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: It was all just a reality, and there was nothing
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: he could do about it, so he never spoke about it.
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: He never complained about anything. All throughout the rest of
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: his childhood and well into his adult years, Raymond loved
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: listening to the radio during the day and going on
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: long walks along Route 351 at night, sometimes for hours
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: at a time. When rumors started spreading in Beaver County
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: about a man without a face walking the streets of
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania in the dead of night, the locals did everything
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: they could to catch a glimpse of him. Even though
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: he mostly avoided contact with strangers out of fear of
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: scaring people, they always ended up finding him. Although most
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: of the locals were just curious to meet him and
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 1: make friends with him, others abused him pretty brutally for
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: no reason, sometimes offering him rides and dropping him off
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: far away from home, hitting him with their cars, and
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: even physically beating him. But even with all the abuse,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: Raymond refused to let it get to him and continued
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: going on his walks for several decades. Even though Raymond
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: was obviously a real person and a pretty nice guy
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: according to everyone who met him, an urban legend quickly
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: grew around him while he was still alive, which earned
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: him the nicknames Charlie No-Face and Green Man. According to
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: the legend, Charlie No-Face was a sort of ghoul or
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: boogeyman who walked the streets of Pennsylvania at night looking
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: to terrorize anyone who crossed paths with him. Though, a
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: lot of people didn't believe it and chalked it up
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: to another urban legend that didn't carry any truth whatsoever. However,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: some people who found him walking the streets took images
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: of him, which took the urban legend.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 2: To a whole new level.
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: But still, a lot of people thought the images were fake,
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: when in reality they were 100% real, only the legend
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: behind them wasn't. Even though the real Raymond Robinson died
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: in 1985, people have continued to carry the legend to
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: this day, spreading rumors about alleged sightings of a terrifying
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: monster with no face haunting the streets of Beaver County.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: As you can imagine, the locals have put their own
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: twist on the story through the decades, with some people
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: claiming Charlie No Face intentionally ripped off his own face
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: just to scare people at night, and others alleging he
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: fell into a vat of acid. Although the myth of
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: Charlie No Face checks pretty much all the boxes of
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: a traditional urban legend, this is one of those rare
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: cases where it actually carries some truth. You could really
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: find Raymond walking the streets at night looking like he
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: did in the images taken of him, only he wasn't
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: looking to scare or harm anybody, but rather simply go
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: on a walk. Despite all the crazy rumors and the
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: obviously fake stories people made up about him, Raymond Robinson's
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: story is a strong reminder to live life to the fullest,
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: no matter your circumstances. The Amityville Ghost Boy In December 1975,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: George and Kathy Lutz moved into their new home at
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York. Just 40 miles
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: from New York City, the five-bedroom Dutch colonial house was
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: George and Kathy's dream home, especially since they only had
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: to pay $ 80, 000 for it. If the price seems too
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: good to be true, that's because it was, and George
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: and Kathy were well aware that the house had been
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: vacant for a year after the last family who lived
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: at 112 Ocean Avenue had been violently murdered. In November 1974,
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: just over a year before the Lutzes moved in, 23-year-old
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: Ronald DeFeo Jr. brutally murdered his family in their sleep,
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: triggering a long, dark, and confusing court case that concluded
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: with more questions than answers. Despite the home's history, the
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: Lutzes were thrilled to be moving in. But their joy
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: was short-lived. For less than a month later, they abruptly
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: left the home with all their belongings inside and never returned,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: claiming that the house was haunted by evil spirits. When
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: asked about what happened at the house, George mentioned that
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: ever since they moved in, they had been consumed by
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: intense mood swings and dark emotional episodes where you would
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: start to feel an intense sense of hatred towards his family.
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 1: The family also alleged that they had seen a mysterious
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: green slime oozing down from some of the walls at
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: random times throughout the day, and had even been waking
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: up almost every night at exactly 3.15am, the same time
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: the previous family had been murdered before they moved in.
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: In one particularly disturbing incident, George claimed that one night
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: when he was standing on the front lawn, he saw
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: a half-man, half-pig creature with red eyes staring down at
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 1: him from one of the upstairs windows. According to the
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: priest who had blessed the house after the Lutzes moved in,
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: on the day of the blessing, he had allegedly heard
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: a male voice shouting at him to get out of
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: the house, and in the days following his visit to
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: the Lutzes' home, he claimed to have fallen ill with
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: blood seeping out of his hands. After leaving the home,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: the Lutzes wrote a book about their experience, which went
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: on to inspire countless horror movies, including the original 1979
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: The Amityville Horror, the 2005 remake of the same movie
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: featuring Ryan Reynolds, and The Conjuring 2, which revolved around
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: Ed and Lorraine Warren's investigation of the allegedly haunted house
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: at 112 Ocean Avenue. In 1952, Ed and Lorraine Warren
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: founded the New England Society for Psychic Research. For 50 years,
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: the couple ran a well-known paranormal investigations operation, with several
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: of the cases they investigated serving as the inspiration for
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: movies such as Annabelle and The Haunting in Connecticut. Five
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: months after the Lutz family left the house on Ocean Avenue,
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: the Warrens conducted an investigation of the house, during which
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: they alleged that all kinds of creepy things happened to them,
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: none of which were caught on cameras. Though, during the investigation,
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: Ed and Lorraine captured a photo of what appears to
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: be a child with creepy, glowing eyes poking his head
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: out of the basement door, which you've very likely seen
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: before as it's gone on to become one of recent
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: history's most infamously creepy photos since it was captured back
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: in 1976. Although the Warrens and their fans promoted the
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: theory that the boy in the image was the spirit
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: of John DeFeo, who was around the same age as
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: the boy in the creepy picture at the time his
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: brother murdered him, the reality is a lot less dark
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: and exciting. During their investigation, the Warrens were assisted by
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: Paul Bartz, another investigator, and if you look at some
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: of the pictures of Bartz from that night, you'll notice
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 1: he was wearing a plaid shirt, very similar to the
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: one worn by the supposed ghost boy. As it was
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: later discovered, despite the Warrens' claims, the boy in the
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: picture was not actually a boy at all, but Paul
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: Bartz kneeling on the floor and taking some measurements. The
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: creepy glare of his eyes was caused by the reflection
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: of his glasses, and not by some strange demonic force
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: as the Warrens claimed in later interviews. As of 2024, much,
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: if not all, of the alleged haunting that took place
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: at the house on Ocean Avenue in 1975 has been debunked.
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: In fact, in the public view, many people remember Ed
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: and Lorraine Warren as charlatans and scammers who did some
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: pretty messed up stuff at the height of their power. That,
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: along with the photo being proved as a setup, is
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: almost conclusive evidence that nothing was really going on here,
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: and everything claimed to have happened was a straight-up lie.
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: Since the Lutz is left in early 1976, the house
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: has been sold four times, and not a single one
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: of the new buyers has complained about any kind of
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: paranormal activity at 112 Ocean Avenue. Cooper Family Falling Body
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: This image of a happy family sitting around a dinner
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: table while a dark, creepy shadow in what appears to
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: be some sort of dress hanging upside down over the
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: centerpiece has been reposted all over the internet for the
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: past decade, often as part of collections like Top 10
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: Unexplained Disturbing Photos. The alleged backstory of this strange image
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: in question goes that at some point in the 1950s,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: the Cooper family bought an old house in Texas and
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: moved into it, On their first night there, Mr. Cooper
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: took a photo of his wife and mother posing with
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: his two kids at the dining room table, with everyone
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: smiling and an apparently good spirit. A few days later,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: after picking up the photograph from the chemist who developed it,
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: they were shocked to see what appeared to be the
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: shadow of a body hanging from the ceiling and over
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: the dining room table. According to the family, the strange
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: figure had not been present at the time the picture
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: was taken, otherwise they definitely would have noticed it. As
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: the story goes, they were never able to find out
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: who or what had invaded their beautiful family portrait. Some
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: sources claim that one of the chemists developing the film
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: threw a negative from a separate photo of the famous
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: ballerina Margot Fonteyn over the original and played with the
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: exposure to get a creepy effect and play a prank
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: on the family. At least, that's the story you'll find
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: in the videos that feature the infamous photo. However, through
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: my research, I was able to find that the entire
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: story is completely fake. Pretty much from start to finish,
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: the story of the Cooper family is completely made up,
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: and it's very likely that the image itself was digitally
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: altered in Photoshop or some other editing software. From what
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: I found, the first time the photograph was posted online
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: was back in 2009 when a user named Sam Cohen
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: uploaded it under the title Family Gathering to a site
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: called Laigati.net, a fan website for the famous horror writer
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: Thomas Laigati. Interestingly, Sam Cohen categorized the photograph as art,
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: which suggests the picture was digitally fabricated as part of
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: some sort of art project. Other details in the image
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: itself seem to back this up, including the symmetrical dark
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: spots in the corners of the image, which were probably
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: edited using Photoshop to make the photograph look authentic. It's
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: possible that the photograph of the family was taken back
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: in the 50s, and that someone digitally superimposed a shadow
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 1: on the image several decades later as a part of
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: an art project, but there's also a possibility that the
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: photograph of the family is fake as well. It's unknown
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: if Sam Cohen was the original creator of the image,
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: but a few months later, user Xavier Ortega posted it
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: to the site Ghost Theory as a part of a
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: gallery he titled Retro Creeps, Scary Portraits from the Past.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: After his post, some people reached out to Xavier to
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: ask him if he was the original creator of the image,
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: but he claimed he didn't know anything about its origin.
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: Over the next couple of years, the image started gaining
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: traction online and was reposted in every online forum you
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: can imagine. By 2013, Family Gathering had become one of
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: the most infamous unexplained creepy photos on the internet, which
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: led people to start coming up with stories to give
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: context to the disturbing image. After it was featured on
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: dozens of YouTube videos, most people assumed the story behind
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: it was real, but all the evidence suggests that the
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: image was digitally altered using Photoshop, and people just wrote
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: a credible story to go along with it. Still, for
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: all the information we have that points to the fact
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 1: that the image is totally fake, it's likely that family
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: gathering will continue to be a big hit in the
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: online horror community for many years to come.