I Was Featured On An Unaired Episode Of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’
Like the title says, I’m pretty sure I saw myself on an old episode of the original version of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’. So, I know I’m not the only who spends countless hours browsing YouTube. At this time YouTube had become essentially my only, favorite hobby. Anyway, one afternoon I was navigating YouTube for some rabbit hole to go down, or a video essay on some anime I was interested in. What I found was definitely not that, it was terrifying to say the least. Fun fact, did you know that, there’s a channel on YouTube that has the entire run of the old episodes of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’. The ones hosted by Robert Stack. You guys remember his voice, the scariest voice in a kid’s early life. Between that man’s voice and the unsettling eerie music, always gave me the chills. Hoping this would give me some nostalgic feeling, seeing that I grew up in the early ‘90s. I made my way through the first season and deep into the second season. I would usually binge a few episodes per day while I ate, or had nothing else to do. After a week or so of making my way through the series, I clicked on the next episode in the queue and started it up. The video glitched out and only played for a second or so. Perplexed, I refreshed the page, only for the same thing to happen. There was only one other thing to do. I hardly ever do this, but I felt like I had to, I clicked down and skimmed through the description of the video. I dunno about you guys, but in most cases, the description section of a YouTube video is often boring, and just begging for a sub and a like, while using a ton of hashtags for exposure. You get the idea right? Well, this one was not like that. It had a brief summary of that episode, but at the bottom there was a link that said, “for more info go to this link,” and it provided a URL of complete gibberish. The room was silent outside of the gentle hum of the laptop’s internal cooling fan, and the blinds closed tightly, making the room unnaturally dim for early afternoon. The web link was very odd looking, not following any of the usual HTML rules. It had a combination of letters and unidentifiable symbols, with some seemingly random numbers at the end. Confused after seeing that, I went back to visit the description section of previous videos, and there were no links, or anything outside of the same brief summary of that particular episode. Shrugging, I remember saying to myself, “Well I was looking for a rabbit hole to go down.” With that, I clicked the link. My heart rate started to race with anticipation, the tiny rotating circle working to load. The sparse page stared back at me. The site took a painstakingly long amount of time to load. It was as if each line had to load individually. The laptop’s cooling fan spun up to a higher speed while the mouse cursor spun in quick circles. Unexpectedly, the CMD prompt automatically opened on my laptop, and some scripts I couldn’t read in time loaded, then the CMD box closed just as quickly, all on its own. There was a black background, with some text reading, “This is the uncensored, original edit of this program – S2E31. Please do not share this video or any info of it’s contents. If you agree, click here.” So, like any other ELUA boxes, I clicked the check mark to proceed without even giving it a second thought. Before anyone comes at me, chill out, it’s not like we all haven’t made or used burned CDs or DVDs, I really didn’t think it was a big deal. Right from the start, something was off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Think about every piece of ancient media from that era, the audio at the beginning was very distorted, like the tape inside the cassette was stretching out. At first glance you could tell this wasn’t digitalized, it was more like viewing an old, worn out VHS tape on a CRT TV. The picture was grainy as all hell, and the colors hurt my eyes, so over saturated, and very bright. Slight wavy lines ran through the picture, and a low, barely auditory buzz sat just below the other sounds. The low hum was so off-putting, it kinda made my head hurt, like a drill slowly poking its way into your skull, y’know? But even more than the picture and sound, something else didn’t feel right. You all know that feeling, I can’t describe it, but you know. I promise, I’m in my right mind, but I kept having such intrusive thoughts, stressing myself out over a show that I put on for my entertainment. After doing a little research, I found out that the second season of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ began in September ’89. This individual episode was numbered S2E31 and it would have to been aired on September 19th 1990. I wanted a more throughout breakdown of this particular episode. While looking through the notes for the show that I found, there actually wasn’t a 31st episode. According to the Wikipedia page, season 2 ended the week earlier on September 12th. Was this the real unaired finale episode for the second season? The episode started like any other, creepy music and a preview of each story. The first segment was about a bank robbery in Oakland, CA. The suspects were masked and were determined to be recent escaped convicts of the local detention center. The escapees were being added to the FBI top 10 list. They were assumed to be armed and dangerous, with ties to several locations in Mexico. Nothing unusual here, after the story there was a phone number requesting tips. The second story was about a family looking for their long lost grandpa. More typical ‘Unsolved Mysteries’, nothing that exciting. The third segment was a short one about a military fighter jet that somehow mysteriously disappeared over an open warzone during Operation Desert Storm. The final story was about a kid, who was either switched at birth, or believed to be stolen from its family. From here the video becomes more scratchy, that ‘90s quality TV signal really showing its age. The audio went into mono, then came back to stereo only more quiet in volume and a low constant hum underneath. The narration began by describing the South Carolina town I was born in, the very hospital I was born in. Pictures and videos of places I recognize, then an old, weathered picture of a newborn being held by a guy in dark red nursing scrubs with a black symbol on the right chest. “Have you seen this baby?” Robert Stack asked. “The parents believe he was abducted at birth.” He continued, “Was this child, Dresden Draven (which isn’t my name now) taken from his parents? The doctor told them that he died directly after birth.” So, how do I know this baby is me, I’ll get to that, but I need to explain everything else first. Next, the show’s theme music hit as it went out for a commercial break. The show fades black and then cuts back to the program, the ad break had been edited out. The scene cuts to the ‘parents’ (which aren’t my parents) who are talking about the birth and the strange events surrounding the baby being stillborn. The mom, ‘Lilly’ described her pregnancy as a miracle, she was told as a teenager that she’d never have kids. The Father, ‘Dominic’ reminisced about how excited they were to get the news of ‘Lilly’s’ pregnancy. The screen slowly faded out, becoming completely filled with static, making the picture all electric snow, heavily glitching. The picture came back into focus, albeit still very static and scratchy, it displayed a dark, dimly lit room with a ritualistic alter in the center. The low hum became much more prominent and off-putting. The doctor in the red scrubs walks into the frame carrying the baby, laying him on the alter. Next several hooded figures then enter the scene and surround the oddly quiet baby. They all kneel as a figure wearing a black robe and a goat skull mask complete with horns enter the frame. The figure spoke in an undistinguishable language, his words becoming more sing-songy and chanting like. His voice kinda matched the frequency of the low rumbling hum that was buried in background. Then, the crowd of shadowed figures repeat the last line of the masked one’s song. The masked one then produced a long branding prod, the tip was red hot, smoking and sizzling. He slowly and deliberately stuck it to the newborn’s chest. If there was any question about the life status of the kid, it was certainly confirmed he was alive after that. The baby’s little screams were bloodchilling. You could hear the skin being burned, it grotesquely whistled as the brand mashed into the skin, as the little baby wailed at the top of his lungs. The uncomfortable sounds echoing, the masked figure slowly pulls the brand back. The circular design on the branding iron was the same as the one of the doctor’s scrub shirt. At this point, I started shaking, uncontrollably scared. I paused the video and while trembling, I lifted my shirt. I had a raised circular birthmark on my chest. I sat there rubbing my birthmark while trying to calm myself, allowing the revelation to sit there, haunting me. The air felt colder than before, each new intake of breath burned my lungs. Eventually, maybe a minute or so later, I went back and clicked play to finish the video. After the branding, the one in the mask called to two of the ones kneeling, instructing those two to stand. They did as told, and the masked one handed the baby to one of the figures. Everyone then bowed their heads and the masked one led them in what could only be assumed to be a prayer. The video began to fade again causing more glitches and multicolored static. The scratchy, distorted, over-used VHS quality video slowly returned to the slightly better quality TV broadcast, of the episode. The interview with ‘my parents’ continued. ‘Lilly’ was describing how she knew the baby wasn’t stillborn, she saw him breathe and heard his first cry after being born. The dad then agreed and added that the doctor rushed the baby into a separate room to preform an evaluation, before coming back later revealing that the baby had been stillborn. ‘Lilly’ explained, “I was still very out of it from the pain meds and epidural to help with the birth, but I know what I saw, and what I heard.” She broke into tears, “They took my baby, I just know he’s still out there. Somewhere.” They cut back to the dad, but you could still hear the woman sobbing uncontrollably, nearly hysterical. Up to this moment, none of this made sense to me, but I can’t say much not knowing how a regular hospital birthing is supposed to go, this is where the details get a little messy and difficult to understand. The typical ending to the segment was Stack asking if anyone knew anything, please contact so-and-so at this number to give your tips. This entire segment was nowhere near normal the way it was pasted together. Just then, as the ending credits started to roll, the screen froze but you still could still hear the theme song in the background. The ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ theme fades, and blends in to a local news broadcast. The voice over narrated, “Action News 7, Omaha’s number one place for news and weather.” The screen unfreezes and joins the newscast audio with the visual transmission. “Good afternoon everyone, this is your 5’clock news break. I’m Leslie Trainor, with your chief meteorologist Danny Torrance. Starting off with today’s top story, even more of the alleged names of the suspects, records, other documents, and victim identities have leaked regarding the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union scandal. That story originally broke yesterday after an audit of the credit union showed some missing money in the form of; mislabeled pay outs, improper allocation of funds, and sketchy tax write-offs. Amidst the added allegations of child trafficking, and a country wide prostitution ring with ties to Washington DC. We’ll have the latest updates on the late news tonight at 11.” Leslie continued, “Stay tuned with us, here on Action News 7. After the break we have sports and the weather. We’ll be right back!” This news report was straight out of the late ‘80s or early ‘90s. Leslie had the biggest, teased out blonde hair, dangling earrings, and oversized shoulder pads on her hideous, baby-blue turtle-necked sweater. Now, I’m not sure if this news broadcast was just the next scheduled program on that channel, or if it was edited to appear that way. It’s safe to say that certain parts of the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ episode was edited after seeing the incredibly poor video quality only happened when the ritual scenes occurred. In that scene alone, based on the camera angle and single microphone audio, the footage cuts, jittery camera work, and transitions to the terrible picture quality with the added sound issues really came across as homemade or filmed by an amateur to say the least. It also felt that the aspect ratio was changed during that part. After the news story fades out the video seemed to pause. Then slowly rotating pictures of documents, name lists, photos and other still images start flashing across in equally timed intervals. When the video ended, the CMD prompt appeared again, and a script ran that automatically saved two URLs to my favorites tab. As you can probably guess, I’m am beyond terrified. If I’m being honest here, I felt overwhelmed. It was getting late so I went to sleep, I don’t even remember closing laptop. I thought that I needed to take a few days away for me to chill out enough to even think about what was presented to me. Sadly, my break away from this only lasted around twelve hours. When I got up that next morning, I had an email from [—-Redacted—-], so no doubt, immediately I freaked out a little. Pushing back a mini panic attack, I took a deep breath or two, trying to calm myself. I hadn’t even went to those URLs that was added to my favorites list, yet. Now this email! I’m wondering what is going on here, and who is doing this to me? Am I being pranked, or is this real, and I’m being warned? Warned about what, am I some kinda infant escapee from a satanic cult? Are they looking to get me back? What kind of trouble might I be in? Right so, it was at this point that I decided that even if I took a break, this would be front and center in my mind, regardless. So I ended up opening the email, it said, “Don’t stop, you need to keep looking. And don’t forget D24.” Now, I’m confused, dumbfounded? Intrigued? Scared? I’ve been racking my mind ever since, D24, for the life of me, I can’t remember? Anyway, a day or so later, I had what I’d call an epiphany, “That’s probably not even you. Not even your name. When has anything interesting happened to you? Besides, you’ve never even been to Nebraska. You live in shitty, old, South Carolina.” I told myself. With that, it brings me here, with you there, today. I’ll leave it up to you, the readers. Should I keep going? What could this be? Is this interesting? Should I visit those URLs, I mean I don’t want it corrupt my laptop. So far there’s no viruses that can be detected. What could even be posted there? What the hell is D24? For clarity I was born in 1984. As far as I know, I’ve never been to Nebraska. None of my family says they know anything. I think I’ve reached my limit. Did you know? The ‘Satanic Panic’ is the name given to over 12000 reported cases of Satanic sacrifice rituals and other heinous crimes suspected to have been committed by alleged devil worshipers. These claims were predominantly rampant in the ‘80s. Many TV shows of this era took advantage of those fears, leaning heavy into every occult practice, and any mention of the devil. They used this agenda to attack and lay blame on everything from metal music, video games, and ultra-violent, overly sexualized movies. Y’know, all the good stuff. Daytime talk shows being the worst example of using fear and paranoia to get TV ratings. I bring this up as an attempt to bring more light and give a deeper dive into the occurrences from Part one. First off, a big thank you to everyone who read the previous entry. An even bigger thank you to those who offered help whether it be through the comment section, or those who reached out via DMs. After talking to some of you guys, I’ve decided that I can’t just give up on this. Taking all the given information, I thoroughly racked my brain, and the earliest memory I have is like my seventh or eighth Christmas, when I got an original NES console. Good times, right? See, right now I’m going through some health issues and I can’t work, I feel like I needed a project to keep my mind strong. Little did I know, having no idea of what I was walking into. Luckily, a computer guy who read Part one gave me steps on how to view the URLs without taking the risk of infecting my laptop. Apparently something to do with going into ‘safe mode with internet’, whatever that means. I got everything set up, and I reluctantly clicked on the first link, I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until I got a slight light-headed feeling. The link opened to a file share site, which immediately downloaded a ton of files directly to my hard drive. My breathing had slowly returned to normal when I saw the file types like, MPEG, JPEG, DOC, TXT, even a couple of other types that I’m not familiar with. The overwhelming feeling creeps back in, sending cold chills up and down my spine, when I go to that folder and see just how many files were transferred. Around 5 or so terabytes of data. For anyone unfamiliar with computer jargon, a gigabyte is around as much data as one feature length movie in 720p resolution. One terabyte is equal to 1024 gigabytes. In other words, it basically equals a few excruciatingly long days of research ahead of me. Luckily, I had a new 8TB external drive linked to my laptop that was big enough to hold everything. While I was corresponding with the computer guy, I had him analyze the mysterious email sent to me with hopes to identify the sender. One thing he recommended, right off the bat, was to download and use a VPN, at all times. So that’s exactly what I did. But unfortunately, waiting for the email information would take awhile to uncover. While waiting, I started the daunting task of going through the files downloaded to my laptop. The very first thing I clicked on was a document with so many names, I presumed they were all female names. The document had them listed as ‘Semen Demons’ as disgusting as that sounds. The next image, very similar to the photo shown on the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ episode. It depicted several doctors, nurses? I dunno, wearing the same dark red scrubs with the circular symbol on the chest. They’re all standing in a line, all holding what appeared to be new born babies, all with the brand mark on their chests. This wasn’t the worst image, but it was a rather shocking start. I had no idea of the horrors that had yet to come. There was a grainy photo of some uppity looking old guys in three-piece suits smiling, and laughing, while smoking cigars. I immediately figured these men were very important, but I had not a single clue who any of them were. I found a list of ‘In Network’ doctor’s offices, man that sounds sketchy as fuck when it’s used relating to this particular subject. The next couple of files, an elaborate spreadsheet with several names, locations, and what I can only guess was amounts of money, either owed, or a payment receipt. The only thing of interest on this file was one name that seemed familiar. Now obviously, I’ve never heard of, or met any of these people. However, this was the first connection between my hometown and Nebraska. Continuing on, one person did jump out at me, Dominic Draven with a beginning location of Spartanburg, South Carolina and ending location of Omaha, Nebraska. The line I assumed as a monetary amount was $23000. I know you guys remember that name, he played the dad in the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ episode. Another list popped up of prominent people, their affiliations, their working zones, and the assigned tasks for them. This was so much to go over, the most difficult thing to make out is what the assignments meant, everything else is written out. The assignments were all two random letters, there’s definitely a pattern to it, I just can’t figure it out yet. This list had connections to some of the largest banks in the world, as well as foreign contacts with ties to drug cartels, and human trafficking rings from Mexico, Japan, even China. Suddenly I was now dealing with a global conspiracy. The next document was just gibberish – maybe another pattern here, or a code of some sort, possibly short hand notes? Anyway, it was printed on official CIA letterhead and at the bottom it had a space for a signature, on that line there were two hastily, poorly, scribbled letters, JC. Another other odd thing was the letters, they were written by what I could only guess was done by a kid? The J almost looked like a U. The final thing about these two letters, they were oversized, dipping well past the signature line, and red in color, dark red. Basically a bronze-ish red. If I were one to speculate, I’d say the initials were written in blood. Maybe? Too over dramatic? I dunno, the shit was creepy. Next, there was an article from the New York Times, going over the breaking story about ‘The Finders’ scandal. Apparently that’s a whole different iceberg. A Google search of ‘The Finders’ reveals a supposed cult based in Virginia, pretty close to Washington DC, with several alleged members having ties to the CIA, and FBI. I think I’m getting in way above my pay grade here. Other news articles here seemed to link the Credit Union scandal from the TV news clip to this ‘Finders’ cult. It was alluded to, that there was a completely clandestine trafficking and prostitution scheme used solely by the tippy-top upper class going on that has documented members that further links the two stories. Then, there were pictures of men in all white robes slaughtering a goat with several malnourished looking kids watching on. I found a very short video clip of what I’d call a ritual, several hooded figures standing in a circle. A young looking naked female in the middle holding a quite elaborate chalice. The footage was in terrible shape, but I could make out that she had the brand on her right chest. She passed the chalice around, each hooded figure took a sip from the cup and then naked lady collected the cup, drinking the rest. Now this next part was definitely interesting, and in my mind, this was a direct link to me, maybe. I found a list of names from the Franklin scandal, that I cross referenced some of the same names from the ‘Finders’ leaks. But at the bottom of this third list there was an unnamed entry, it read, “male baby – born 9/16/1984 – location Greenville/Spartanburg SC”. See, this is very important considering that is my birthday and location. All of this information is quickly becoming more than I think I can deal with. I stayed away from my research for a few days while waiting for the computer guy to get back with me about that email, and the sender. I began to distance myself by looking at the other link, it was an few short videos, and a file with producers notes and names of the crew who worked on my episode of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’. Some names came complete with email addresses or other contact information. The video file turned out to be a company wide, internal only memo, regarding the reasoning behind why S2E31 was going to be canned. It played out as an interview, only not like a press release, more like an internal investigation type thing. At one point in the interview video, Robert Stack, himself is heard saying, “That kid deserves justice, they all do! That story is so relevant and it needs to be told.” With the show creator and lead producer responding, “We had to pull the entire episode solely for the one segment, but I’m confident we can take the other segments and slide them into other episodes. There were powers beyond my control at play here, it was the best I could do.” I knew there was no telling just how many connections there were to be made here. But, I’m just one person, I dunno if this is something I should pursue. What difference could I really make? We hear stories all the time about these whistle-blowers who wind up mysteriously dead after speaking out about any subject that goes against the government’s official word, or anything that implicates higher ups with wrong doing. I mean besides any of that, going through mountains of research was one reason why I dropped out of college. I know I’m kidding myself, I’m too intrigued to fully stop, but I am also very worried about what might happen to me. I decided the safest way to proceed would be to reach out to the TV show contacts, listed in that folder. I sent out a couple of feeler emails, asking some pretty easy questions first. I claimed that I was a freelance writer who was researching the series, and the conspiracies believed to be attached to the show. Was that the only time an episode or segment had to be pulled or altered? I asked his opinion of what happened to that baby? A few other, much easier questions, like, what was your particular role on the show? I wanted to wait to ask any harder questions until I felt like I could trust these contacts. Now that I’ve seem to have exhausted my other leads, I was procrastinating over going back to that 5TB of data from the file share. You guys, man, all I can say is I wish there would’ve been a content warning for me. Just know these next few pieces of media are really heavy to talk about. I took many breaks while going through these. The first example was a typed document breaking down the quality of the kids involved. Names, ages, and where they were abducted from. Dresden Draven from upstate South Carolina was taken at birth. The victims with high quality blood and DNA would be classed as breeders, the boys would be raised, indoctrinated, and taught that this was how life worked, the boys were told they were upper class, and treated as such. It wasn’t as easy for the female kids, the ones with good blood and DNA were marked for breeding, but were raised, indoctrinated, brain-washed and taught to do as they’re told, a much more harsh life for those girls. The kids with bad blood or DNA were marked for sacrifice, or for prostitution. It was all charted out, maybe hundreds of names. Some of those names had been marked as deceased, no cause of death given. If that wasn’t bad enough, here’s your trigger warning. There were files marked as ‘Blackmail’ which displayed the very despicable acts as mentioned above. Think of the sickest, most vile stuff you’ve ever witnessed, then multiply it by like a thousand. Very explicit, the quality of these videos was clear enough to recognize several celebrities, politicians, athletes, you get the idea, sometimes involving multiple victims, all who appeared to be under-aged. This is where I drew the line, I witnessed a baby, maybe a month or two old, being sacrificed during an apparent satanic ritual. A robed figure held the baby by its feet and slit his throat from ear to ear. The draining blood poured into a basin sitting on the alter. The other robed figures then stood and approached the alter. They all disrobed and the men stuck their hands into the blood basin. Then the men placed a bloody hand print on the stomach of one of the females. They all said some kinda prayer, in Latin I assume. The ending consisted of an all out orgy. I felt my stomach wretch, with that nauseous sick feeling, I was left dry heaving. I swear I’m going to need a shitload of therapy after this. I wouldn’t wish anyone a punishment like having to witness this content, much less having to actually go through any of it. Some of these victims already looked like they had the total shit beat out of them even before anything else started. Seeing these things take place was one thing, but the sounds have scarred me forever. The screams, cries, the taunting, the sex noises, and probably the the worse being the sounds of the beatings, so much violence. Was finding the truth worth this? This was without a doubt the absolute most fucked up shit I’ve ever saw. I still haven’t exactly figured out how I play into this, if I do at all. Y’know It just dawned on me that simply being in possession of this media would get me a lifetime in jail. I wiped my hard drives after taking everything of that nature and putting it into password protected folders on a hand full of flash drives, any ideas on what exactly to do with them? Continuing researching off the flash drives, I found a document listing assets of this group, This cult? Stuff like, vehicle info and VIN numbers, property addresses, the names of companies, even down to an exhaustive list of storage units all across the US. Possibly thousands of assets were listed. I noticed it was getting late, even though I know I won’t be getting much sleep, I put my laptop away and laid down. My mind did cartwheels for what felt like hours, but I finally knocked out at some point. Upon waking the next day, groggily, I grabbed my phone and it was at this exact moment that I knew I was fucked. I wiped the sleep from my eyes as I unlocked my phone, I had an encrypted text message. It was a simple but very effective message, telling me to, “Stop sticking your nose in things you’ll never understand. It’s in your best interest to drop all of this.” I was able to call my cell service provider and ask for any info regarding that text. The only thing they could give me was an area code – 202… after Googling, it’s an area code for Washington DC. Needless to say, I took this warning very seriously… well for a day or so at least. Now I constantly feel like I’m being followed, I definitely think they’re tracking my phone. I see things out of the corner of my eye that I can’t explain. Like earlier this morning, I KNOW I saw a face peeking into my bedroom window. I didn’t know how to feel, like I’ve never really ruffled and feathers before. I’m not exactly sure if I like this feeling, I 100% feel like I’m in real danger here. I’m very isolated, I don’t have a lot of friends or family to rely on, definitely none I can trust with this crazy shit. Are they keeping tabs on me, who’s they? Remember the other time I said I wanted to give up, now I dunno again. My hard headed side wants to push through regardless of what happens to me. Guys, I’m totally freaked the hell out, just a couple of minutes ago, there was an overly aggressive knock on my door, I waited about 10 minutes or so before I reluctantly went to check the door. There of course was nothing there, but I did notice a freshly graffitied eye ball on the power pole next to my driveway. Was this a warning, damn sure seems like one. I know I’ve made a handful of decent connections already, but still no confirmation if any of it includes me. Did I make a huge mistake with all of this? I’ve never really believed in coincidences but maybe part of me doesn’t want to know the truth. Maybe I need to get out of town for a few days, but I don’t think it’ll make much difference. These people will still know where I am. Sometimes I think I’m my own worst enemy, reading some conspiracy article it talks about the upper echelon employing an expertly trained group of individuals known as ‘Fixers’. I think the name speaks for itself, picture like every controversial suicide. You know the ones, famous people, or the political activist whistle-blowers. The ‘Fixers’ apparently carry out the job and make sure there’s no loose ends. My paranoia is at an all time high, I feel so much non-stop anxiety. So now my mind is fixated on this thought, do I have a ‘Fixer’ tracking me? What’s worse, every night as I try to lay down and relax all I can picture is the depravity of those videos. I have nightmares where, if it was me, I didn’t make it out and I’m being forced to do all those things. I wake myself up hearing their screams, or maybe it’s me screaming in my sleep. It’s about 2:25 am, and I just woke up with a start. I could very clearly hear people whispering outside my bedroom window. I couldn’t make out any words, but there were at least three distinct voices. It was all I could do to lay there and stay as still and quiet as possible. My heart was beating out of my chest. A cold sweat started to bead up on my forehead. I’ve been waiting for what feels like hours, and I can’t hear any voices or other noises outside. I got up and went stealthily around my house, in complete darkness, listening for any sounds from outside. After coming to the conclusion that they were gone, I pulled out my laptop and the flash drive. I came up with a dead man’s plan to release all the info if I didn’t manually stop it everyday with a randomly generated password. That made me feel a little better, knowing that if something happens to me, every police department and news outlet will get bombarded with these files. The program sent an encrypted text each day with the new password, and then I had 5 minutes to log onto the account and enter the password to stop the automated email program. This afternoon. I was coming home from picking up some groceries when I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed a dark, older model sedan possibly following me. At first it wasn’t very obvious, but after around 5 or so turns, the car was still there tucked in behind a second or third car after me. It was at this point that I started to panic a bit. I took a left, then a right, right, right, left every time the dark sedan kept pace. I remembered a trick to make absolutely sure that someone is following you, I took four right turns in a row, basically doing a circle. And yep, I was definitely being followed. My heart rate and anxiety was spiking, frantically, this carried on for a bit, I wasn’t sure how to get out of this, so I drove to the closest police department and just sat in the parking area. The dark sedan slowly passed by without stopping. I then pulled around to the back of the building next door, for some cover. It’s where I sat still for about 30 minutes or so. Having lived in this area for several years, I decided to take every back road, using the most obscure route to get home. So see, I knew I wasn’t crazy, was I? Now I’m trying to calm myself down by cooking dinner, something that I usually would enjoy if it were under different circumstances. I’m going to go radio silent for a while and let everything cool off for a week, maybe longer. I took a couple of weeks to lay low, but last night I had more people creeping around my house late at night, it caused me so much anxiety I couldn’t sleep for like 3 days, maybe 4? Then, I started to notice this guy was wherever went, I know I sound paranoid, but it was definitely the same guy. Not even necessarily following me, just everywhere I would go, this distinctive looking guy would be there too. It took me a while, maybe a week or two for me to remain inconspicuous enough to where I no longer felt that stress on me, I even stopped seeing him all over too. Maybe the guy trailing me just got more sneaky? Maybe my mental state was starting to slip, its highly possible. I was going to stay away for a little bit longer, but I finally heard back from the computer guy this morning. He narrowed the email sender’s IP address, to somewhere in Georgia. Apparently the email sender had his VPN set up to expert levels. His, her? Anyway, the IP was rerouted through multiple access points from all over the world. Filtering out all of the fake locations wasn’t what took so long, PC Guy called in a favor and got me a phone number for my contact. PC Guy didn’t offer an explanation into how he came across this Information. So I didn’t ask, and I just thanked him for his help. Like you probably guessed, I did not hesitate to call the number. And of course, no one answered, so I did what any smart phone carrying elder-millennial would, I sent a text. My text read, “Is [—-Redacted—-] your email address? We need to talk, call me”. About 3 or 4 minutes later, I got a call from a VOIP – buncha nerd stuff. Apparently, this person uses an app that allows them make phone calls using a secure internet connection, probably from a burner phone too. The call was uneventful, only lasting a minute at the most. It went like this, Me: “Are you the one who emailed me?” He replied, “Meet me at this address around 9 tonight, and dump your phone, so you cant be tracked.” As I was starting to say, “What, why?” this rude ass hangs up on me. I did as told, but I made a mental note to cuss this guy out when I got to meet him. When 9 o’clock rolled around, I walked into the lobby of this rather fancy hotel. My legs were starting to get the feeling back, after driving for over 3 hours to get to the meeting point. Considering I was dressed very casually, I felt my face getting red, hot with embarrassment. I’m sure I looked out of place and probably suspicious as fuck. I strolled over to the bar and sat there waiting nervously. I ordered a drink, and sipped on it while I waited, nervously. I then get an uneasy feeling, as I noticed a presence lurking up behind me. This guy takes the seat next to me, and before I go on… so call it a stereotype or whatever, but this dude looked like every shady computer hacker guy from any movie or TV show. This guy looked to be in his mid to late 50s, but still in decent shape, I’d call him skinny. He had the nerd glasses, anime haircut, a short-sleeved hoodie, camo cargo shorts, and some beat-the-hell up Chuck Taylors. Immediately, my mind says, “Why did he pick THIS place?” Alright, anyway, he sits down and we begin to make small talk. “What’s your name?” Shaking his head, “Nah, nah call me V.” Rolling my eyes, “OK V, what in the chicken fried fuck is going on here? Did you send me all that disgusting stuff?” Quietly, he says, “Yeah man, there’s so much you need to know.” Getting frustrated, I whisper-yelled, “Well, no time like the present, tell me? Was it me on that episode?” it was here for the second time today, that this asshole cut me off mid sentence, this time changing the subject. “You know why I picked this place?” he mumbled. I responded, “Actually, that I do wanna know, we both look completely out of place here.” “Of course we do. That’s the point. We need to establish strong alibis from this moment on. We don’t need anyone trying to pin stuff on us, cause once this info breaks, we are both going to be in some presumably deep shit.” V proclaimed. The obvious look of confusion was etched into my face as I said, “Uh, I don’t wanna be in deep shit, I just wanna know if it really was me that TV show, and what any of this has to do with me now.” I didn’t necessarily want the info to break, for the sole reason being, I don’t want to live life constantly looking over my shoulder, y’know, the stress and all. Like, of course I want justice to the ones who might have done those kind of things to me, but not enough to live with the paranoia and anxiety giving me a heart attack on the daily. After a lull in the conversation, V says, “Thanks to a computer error, we have rooms here booked for a week. Here’s your room key, we still have lots to talk about.” V gets up and we walk to the elevator. That deep pit in my stomach steadily growing, as we ride up to the 17th floor. His room, 1703, and my, room 1704. He opens his door and invites me in, immediately I ask, “How do you know this room isn’t bugged?” My paranoia is at an all time high. “I got here a while before you and did a scan earlier, no hidden microphones, recorders, or cameras”, V reassures me. “How much do you already know?” V asked, not wasting any time. While shrugging, I told him about the ‘Finders’ and the Franklin scandal, the connections, and how I saw records of a kid with my birth location and my birthday, but it wasn’t my name. Next, I tell him about my theory. He stopped me mid way through to say, “You’ve got a lot of it put together already, kid. But allow me to fill in the gaps.” For the next, I dunno, 5 or 10 minutes he tells me the beginning. I was astonished by the story I was told. Here is what happened according to him; V, apparently went to school with my mom, and back then was working as a private investigator, and they were decent friends he said. Sadly, my parents were indeed a victim of this trafficking ring. Directly after my birth, the doctor took me away, he then came back to tell my parents that I had died. V said that the picture from the show was me. Now the crazier part, my mom reached out to V to get his help in getting me back or at least find out what really happened to me. So over the next 22-26 months, V infiltrated the ‘Finders’. When he got the news I was alive, he pulled some strings and kissed some asses to become my handler. My DNA had came back as one of the strong ones, so V was assigned to raise me. “Whoa,” was all I could muster. I stopped mid sentence, because one question had been burning in the back of my brain since I got the files, “How did you even come across this shit? How did you find me the other day?” V was cryptic as hell, “I’ve kinda been keeping tabs on you since I brought you back. Those files I took directly from their headquarters the night I escaped with you. Other files, I hacked in and took directly from their servers. I’m what you’d call an internet pirate, I digitalized those files with the intention of exposing these fucking demented assholes.” He finished, “It was pretty ironic that you love ‘Unsolved Mysteries’, it made my job of getting you involved very easy. But seriously kid, use a VPN.” By this point it was getting very late, and I was painfully aware of that. I then made my way next door to my room. I laid down, my mind still racing but surprisingly it didn’t keep me awake too long. The next day we continued the conversation. I was informed that shortly after my abduction, several other babies along with myself was trafficked to Nebraska. After getting me in his custody, he played his role for a few months, establishing their trust. After a couple more months, V was deemed trustworthy enough to be left alone for him to raise me on a day to day, unmonitored basis. Almost immediately after gaining that freedom, V then fled with me in the middle of the night. He drove non-stop all the way from Omaha back to South Carolina to reunite me with my mom. V explained that I was chose seemingly by someone informing the higher ups of my impending birth, that the doctor at the hospital that night was one of the ‘in network’ doctors. It was apparently a very well worked out plot, basically wrong place at the wrong time. “So, what now, V?” I asked. A grim look was on his face, “We hafta kill you.” My jaw dropped, “What the fuck?” A devilish grin exploded from V’s face, “Just so we can get you a new identity, social security number, birthday, the whole nine yards. As of right now, the you as you know, is dead.” “Oh, uh, OK.” Was all I could come up with. V set up a meeting with a contact of his from the deep web, dark web, hell I dunno? We left the hotel, and drove a couple of hours to this deep web guy’s ‘off-grid, secured bunker’. This guy went by the name, Fenix. He looked so normal, like just some regular ass guy. He had on a pair of casual khakis, a solid color polo shirt, some small animal on the right chest, and a pair of clean lounge shoes. Nothing at all like what I had imagined. This ‘bunker’ was a trailer sitting on a clear spot in a very heavily wooded area. No mailbox, no address, no driveway, but it was much more than meets the eye. The trailer was just the living quarters. There was a custom built – addition to the trailer leading from the back door, and was completely finished, with the matching siding, gutter system, and 3 small windows. Inside of this addition included an office space, furnished with an elaborate desk with a filing and shelving setup. On the desk sat a curved monitor, with two matching regular flat screen style monitors positioned and affixed to the top. The computer tower wasn’t a tower, it was like built into the desk with LED lights illuminating the PC components encased in plexi-glass. I dunno the specs of the computer, but from just looking at it, it came off as ridiculously expensive, and ridiculously impressive. There was an overstuffed couch, y’know what I’m talking about, very plush, sturdy, comfortable, perfect for a nap type couch. A large screen wall-mounted TV on the opposite wall. Last, there was a door that led down a flight of stairs and into an even more custom built cement structure. I wouldn’t exactly call it a basement, more like a laboratory, or the BatCave? This area was more than twice the size of the trailer, starting only a foot or two below the ground. Even though this area was underground, it was no less tidy, clean, modern and top of the line. A small PC server rack sat in a closeted area, soundproofed with a self-controlled climate system. There were small rows of LED light fixtures on the ceiling. Several monitors mounted to the wall displayed a full of set of security camera images being tracked in real-time from all angles around the compound. More seemingly invisible PC towers powered another set of monitors on a different wall. These displayed news websites, stock market tracking sites, and 24-hour news channels running non-stop around the clock. A separate work station was in the corner, allowing access to the darker side of the internet, and a total suite of hacking software and gadgets. This is where we would spend most of our time. There was a private area walled off with a full-sized bathroom and walk-in shower, as well as a bright, sterile, emergency center styled treatment room, with a hospital bed, all the health monitoring equipment, tools, and a whole host of supplies. Outside was an iron reinforced cement walls standing at least 10 feet tall. Razor wire and electric shock fencing running the entire perimeter around the top of the walls. There were squared pillars every 10ish feet also going around the perimeter, and attached to each pillar was a 35 foot antenna and satellite arrangement disguised as a pine tree. On the sides of each antenna facing the inside of the trailer were large rain collecting apparatuses which fed a constant supply of water to the facility. Also using an ion-gathering reverse double osmosis generator mechanism, the water system that would turn water vapor in the air into clean water and was capable of storing large quantities for use during times of little rain. There were several smaller structures scattered across the sprawling acreage of land. On the roof of every building including the trailer, and security walls was a state-of-the-art solar panel system. The panels were fed into a highly efficient grid system running on an automatic cycle for the storage and consumption of energy. For plumbing necessities it had a series of pipes that sent reusable water back through the ingenious filtering system, and all waste water into an oversized, intelligent septic system that was programmed to separate solid from liquid waste, and efficiently mulching the solid waste with food waste into a nutrient rich fertilizer. I was blown-away from how self-sufficient and self-sustaining this was. This felt like light years ahead of its time. It was later explained to me that the entire area was a decommissioned maximum security surveillance outpost used by the US military. Fenix said the only things he did was bring in the trailer for a comfortable living space, and he replaced all the electronic components to get the facility in working order. We never discussed how Fenix got ahold of this expansive facility or the money to do all of this, in my opinion, another person’s money isn’t any of my concern, but based on how elaborate and technologically advanced everything was, it had to be multimillion dollar project. This place was as off the grid as it gets, being top-level classified, the bunker wouldn’t show on any map, and the air space above the bunker was listed as a no fly zone by the US Air Force. “As complex and complicated as it looks, with a simple flip of a few switches, this place basically runs itself.” Explained Fenix. After gawking and totally nerding out, we started to get to work with Fenix exclaiming, “This isn’t my first faked death. But to do it right, we hafta be as thorough and meticulous as possible.” The antenna and satellite system allowed us to have a very reliable internet connection running through a custom 5G relay router, and programmed with a military-grade encryption algorithm – whatever the hell any of that means. This was as secure and private as you could ever imagine to be. V and Fenix went over the situation and Fenix took the flash drives. The plan was to obviously fake my death, and to do it convincingly they needed about 4 to 5 pints of my blood. So it was scheduled that every third day or so, I’d give one half to one whole pint of blood. It was incredibly rough on my body, I was unbelievably tired, exhausted. I had to constantly eat and drink to maintain my strength, high protein, high electrolytes. It was the worse, but I knew it needed to be done. In fact, nutritional shakes became a side dish with every meal. I gave all of my current info to Fenix, my social security card, my ID, anything that linked me to my old name. Fenix made some very high quality forgeries, and hacked into every database he found my info and changed my status to deceased. Fenix took my blood and poured it all into the trunk of this beat up car, then drove it out to a heavily wooded nature park and trail system. Making sure to park in a prominent place, he set fire to the car. He left my wallet in back pocket of a pair of my pants, some of my other clothes, ID and other documents in the trunk, also covered in my blood. Using some deep fake voice technology, and a virtual cell network, Fenix called in the car fire to the local authorities, pretending to be an innocent hiker. Now that I was ‘dead’, Fenix had us stay with him for a while, allowing me to fully recuperate from all the blood donations. Next, I was given tips on how to alter my appearance, growing my hair and beard out, dying them darker. Fenix said for me wear my glasses at all times, and to get more tattoos to hide any identifying scars, including my branding scar. I kept a very low profile for the next two weeks, never leaving the bunker, while the investigation into my apparent death went on. The official report came out, saying that the heavy loss of blood meant there’s no way I was still alive, but the case was investigated as foul play. It was only after my faked death that I started to finally feel some of this anxiety beginning to ease. While in hiding, I received an email back from the ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ crew person. The email essentially said, that the network pulled that episode at the last minute due to some push back from some of the big advertising sponsors. At that time, the evidence into the cults and kidnappings were just unsubstantiated rumors and yet to be confirmed. The show as a whole would’ve been canceled, had they not scrapped that episode. The next evening, Fenix was digging deep, through the flash drives, and found some banking records from the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union showing large deposits to Deutsche Bank, with connecting wire transfers to accounts in the Cayman Islands belonging to unsubstantiated dummy corporations. He also found what looked like a promotional pamphlet, advertising their private island for booking a party, or vacation. The pamphlet bragged, “All inclusive, just give us your age and gender preferences, any kinks or fetishes, and we’ll handle the rest”. The island was located several nautical miles from the east coast of south Florida. There was a private jet that shuttled people to and from the island, and enough housing to easily accommodate 200-300 people at one time. The price to rent the island for one week started at 3 million dollars, with upcharges for optional things like having a traditional masquerade ball, or the setting up and staging of rituals and other things of the like including illicit substances referred to as, “party favors”. The ultimate boast was, “Located in international waters, no risk of unwanted attention”. There was also a pamphlet offering a similar set up in Sweden where the age of consent is only suggested and hardly enforced. Being much more lenient towards those things, and very blurry lines when it came to what’s legal and what’s not. It was absolutely sickening to see these people bragging about this depravity, and making boatloads of money off of it. V mentioned that he never saw that before in the huge box of evidence he took, but it didn’t surprise him that it was there. Even still we just couldn’t believe how blatant they were with this. We next did a little research on my birthmark -brand mark- for any possible cult ties or connections to the evidence files. There wasn’t really anything that we found that matched, the closest thing to it that we could find was the Uroboros. The Uroboros is like the snake or dragon thing eating itself, ya know? Mine is very simple, and not detailed, at all. Just one side of the circle bigger than the other, kinda “eating” the smaller end. From our research it’s a symbol that is commonly used to mean something is infinite – never dying – . After a lengthy discussion, Fenix and V decided to systematically leak all of the data to the community of hackers and investigators on the deep web to continue looking for survivors or signs of present day occult activity. To me, it’s unclear what they hope to accomplish, these are the richest, most protected people on the planet, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to actually catch, or arrest any of them. At this point, I felt like I was still in this mix, basically against my will. I wanted nothing more than to forget about all this, and have some kind of normal life, whatever that means. I didn’t sleep that night, but what’s new about that? The following morning I was having breakfast with V and Fenix, while trying to distract from all this recent craziness, V said, “I’m sorry to hear about your mom passing away, I know that was rough on you.” Nodding, I replied, “Yeah, up until just now, that day in June was the worst of my life.” Despite all this stuff going on, my mom’s passing was still pretty heavy on my heart. I had tried to make it a daily thing to remind myself of one lesson that my mom taught me. Being on the run and constantly overwhelmed made that difficult for me. V was shoveling a handful of bacon in his mouth, “Did you remember what D24 is?” Caught off guard and completely bewildered, “Uh, no, I had forgot all about that, considering I most likely had a hitman after me for who knows how long. What is it?” V looked at me with a disappointed frown and changed the subject, “What did you do with the things your mom left you?” Confusion plastered on my face, “Hell, I dunno, it’s a banker’s box full of old baby pictures and stuff, I was grieving too much to go through it at that time, and then I just forgot about in the back of my closet.” Using his expert counter surveillance techniques, V stealthily went and retrieved the box from my house, I couldn’t do it since I was ‘dead’ and they’d definitely be looking for me. When he got back, he told me that he didn’t notice anything suspicious at my house, but he couldn’t be 100% sure that they weren’t watching my place. He took the lid off the box and we started to go through it. The very first thing on top of everything else was a small key, which had a tag on it that said D24. It apparently went to a storage locker, that was in my mom’s name. The bill was prepaid for like a year in advance. The next night, I went and opened the locker. Surprisingly, this place was open 24 hours and I went pretty late, heavily disguised and making sure I was the only one there. See guys, my mom fought liver cancer and cirrhosis on and off for the better part of 8 years, she must have put all this together, knowing that her time was drawing close. The storage locker contained some stock information and banking records showing she had put her account in my name, an old, dusty photo album, and a short letter. There were photos of little baby me, my mom, dad (I’m assuming) and two other people. They were laughing, hanging out, having drinks, just living their best lives. I know you guys are probably dying to know what the letter said, I was too. By this time, I literally could feel my heart beating all throughout body as I opened the simple envelope. My palms were heavy, my knees were weak, and sweat was beading up on my forehead. I’m not going to transcribe the entire thing, because I want it’s full contents to be just for me. The big messages were this; before I was born, my mom had gotten very close with her best friend and long-time coworker, Lilly Draven. My mom stated that Lilly and Dominic used that friendship to take advantage of her. They ‘moved away’ right after I was taken. Lilly and Dom were the other two people in those old pictures from before I was born. They were real people and the ones who set up my kidnapping, with the ‘network’ doctor. According to V, Lilly and Dom were probably compensated very handsomely for what they did. The letter then speculated that, V discovered that after I went missing, those cult members who were considered responsible for me being taken back from the cult, then orchestrated the segment on ‘Unsolved Mysteries’ as an attempt to find me before it reached the upper echelon that the cult had be Infiltrated. They even filed a missing persons report. It would seem that it was Lilly and Dom’s job to look for ‘marks’ to target for trafficking and whatnot. Since Dom and Lilly were responsible for my kidnapping, they would be the ones to pose as my parents on the show. And at the 11th hour, the entire episode was pulled, ruining their attempt to get me back before the news about my escape got out. Mom said that’s probably one reason they never caught up to us. After getting me out, V went completely off the grid to hide, but he always monitored us, keeping us safe in the background. The next message was very hard to take, I never mentioned this before, because it didn’t seem relevant to the story, but my dad wasn’t in the picture anymore. I never even got to meet him. After I was ruled dead by the doctor, my dad grieved, then he started to move on, he went back to work, trying to have some kind of normalcy in his life. My mom on the other hand, just wouldn’t accept that I was dead. This caused irreparable cracks in their relationship, my dad trying to heal and move on, and my mom fixated on me being alive. They would drift apart, and soon they divorced. After several months, my dad, lost in a bottle of liquor, sank into a deep depression and it became too much for him to endure. He un-alived himself, before mom could contact V for help. My mom never told me, she didn’t want me to somehow feel guilty, blame myself, or be upset with dad. She never really said anything about my dad, if I asked she would tell me not to worry, “We’re all we need”. Over time, I just stopped asking, we had a decent life that I knew, I was obviously oblivious. Mom never really talked about anything negative. I didn’t even feel it at first, but oversized teardrops were streaming down my face, crashing into the paper in my hands. Mom’s last message was to trust V, and to not let what happen make me jaded. “Life’s too short to spend it angry”. I will remain in contact with V, and Fenix, but it was a unanimous decision that I never go back to my old house. So now, all that’s left is to start a new life, step one: giant sized chest tattoo. I’ve already died my hair darker, and got new glasses with frames. I gauged my ears to 17mm and got my lip pierced. I’ve always liked that kinda style, and with the look being so popular, I think I’d blend in just fine. In my opinion I don’t look anything like I used to, but I still have a way to go. I don’t honestly think I’ll ever be fully free of the anxiety and paranoia, but at least I know how to better protect myself. Mom left me enough money to move somewhere that I can truly start over, be anonymous, and once and for all, have that life that she wanted for me. However, I’m going to stay on the run for awhile, until I can more easily slip back into society. Where should I go to start over? I could’ve kept all this to myself, but I strongly feel like it needed to be told, to get as much info into the public as possible. Finally, to all of you incredible people who helped in any way, I am beyond grateful. I appreciate every comment, every DM, every ounce of love and understanding that you all showed me. And that, my friends, is all about the time I saw myself on an unaired episode of ‘Unsolved Mysteries’. **Disclaimer: some names, dates, and locations have been altered or redacted to protect the identities of the innocent ones involved. Also, I sent my hand written transcripts of these events to my friend to translate them into an easier story to follow, he’s a much better writer than I could ever be. That here is what you’ve been reading. He also posted these to his account to help me remain anonymous and to keep myself from having to make a throw-away profile. Thank you for understanding** Credit: xOutShineDx Reddit Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.