The Dark Somnium - This is The Last Recording Before They Went Missing

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

This scary story was written by T.W Grim, make sure to check out the authors other works here: https://www.veloxbooks.com/book/a-different-kind-of-magic/Special thanks to  @RomNex   @DusklightRadio   @SpiritVoices  Reph and Kaitsu for joining me in this!Kaitsus website: https://kaitsuvo.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a reenactment based on a series of audio tape recordings, transcriptions of radio communications, and a copy of an uncensored police report I obtained from a source that, for reasons of personal safety, must remain anonymous. I've also included a few relevant excerpts from an interview with the widow of a man who witnessed the events in question. The existence of these recordings and transcripts has been officially and repeatedly denied by National Park Services, the FBI, local law enforcement, and a number of officials representing the U.S. military. However, despite their claims that the incident was an elaborate hoax, the audio recorded that night by Ranger Matthew Golding was leaked by an unidentified source in the fall of 2010, along with radio transcripts and the police report.

The files were uploaded to an infamous website that was known for hosting controversial material. The illicit materials disappeared from the site in short order, but they have periodically resurfaced on several popular file-sharing websites over the years. If one is persistent enough, it is possible to find them. But if you do, be prepared to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. People who seek to obtain these files have a tendency to disappear. In the interest of staying both alive and well, I've chosen to omit the name of the National Park, where the incident occurred.

I also took the liberty of altering both the names and the case. and exact ages of all parties involved, the location will be referred to as X National Park, and the witnesses shall be named as follows. Matthew Golding, 31, a National Park Service Forest Ranger and law enforcement officer. Jillian Bridgemore, 36. An NPS Ranger, law enforcement officer, and a respected authority in wildland fire suppression. Nicholas Fasio, 53. A trusted volunteer who was manning the radio at the...

base of operations that evening. Maria Fasio, 48, a laborer at a local manufacturing facility and the wife of Nicholas Fosio. And Louis de la Croix, 42, a volunteer fire lookout who was serving his 20th season in the watchtower. Three of these people went missing that night, never to be seen again, and a fourth was found dead in his home only a few days later. Maria Fasio discovered the body of her husband slumped over the kitchen table, his hands still wrapped around his coffee mug as his blood soaked into the morning newspaper.

He'd been shot in the back of the head with a 40-caliber firearm. A coroner initially stated that his death was a homicide, but the ruling was quickly changed to suicide by means of self-inflicted gunshot wound. Maria Fasio was adamant that her husband had never owned a shotgun. According to the uncensored police report, no weapon was found at the scene. So, who killed Nicholas Fasio? and why was there a concerted effort to cover up his murder? Lewis's last transmission to base.

Never seen anything like it. There. Instanced. I'll get out of here. But my compass was spinning in circles. I saw him floating over the treetops. Calm down, Lou. Listen, we're going to get you out of there.

Just, um, tell me again where. Holy God. Southeast. Do you see it? It's just gliding over the tree tops. Like, do you see it? Hey, what? Lewis, what is that?

I can see a, I can see there. Now it's changing colors. It's, I lost sign of it. What are you seeing your end? What's happening? They're coming after me, Mickey. You've got a shotgun in there. Use it if you have to, Lou.

Don't think twice about it. I don't care about no shotgun. They... Before they get me... Turn you right now. I'll blow my own goddamn head off. Phone interview with Maria Fasio. My husband didn't own a gun.

I would never allow one in the house. Even if he did have a gun, how could he shoot himself like that? Twice in the back of the head? They left that part out. He was shot twice, not one. once. He couldn't have done that himself. It didn't make any sense. After the ruling came out, I hounded them every damn day. Every day I would call them, no word of a lie. Every single day,

I would go down there in person sometimes, and I would demand for them to reopen the investigation. I even started calling the office of the governor. I wrote him letters. You know what they said to me? They said, stop calling. It isn't going to bring him back. I want everyone to know they said that to me. The office of the governor said that to a grieving widow. Make sure it gets in there. I will.

Maria, why do you think they changed the cause of death in the coroner's report? They were scared. Everyone I talked to, they sounded like they were afraid. I could hear it in their voices. So I stopped calling them. There was no point. No one was going to tell me the truth. If they did, they'd end up like Nick.

They'd be killed. Shortly after 9 p.m. on a clear night in August 2006, veteran fire lookout Louis de LaCroix radioed to the base of operations with a startling observation. He'd just witnessed an unidentified flying object dropped from the darkening skies and land in the woods roughly a mile north of the watchtower. Lewis de LaCroix's initial radio rebranded. to base. You didn't see it?

It touched down about three miles southeast of you, roughly a mile north of the tower. You're telling me you didn't see nothing at all? Negative. I didn't see anything unusual to the southeast. Was it a meteor? It shouldn't star? Something like that?

Nope. Wasn't no media. I've seen a few medias over the years, and it wasn't like that. It didn't streak across the sky. It wasn't fast. It came down on a slow, controlled descent, nice and steady. I watched the flight parallel to the treetops. It was cruising

along at, uh, I don't know, maybe 20 miles an hour, and then it dropped out of sight. It wasn't a flare and it wasn't a parachute. I don't know what to tell you. I couldn't identify it. Well, that's really weird. You're telling me. I've never seen anything like that before, and I've been watching these guys for about 20 years. You may be saying, someone out here? I'll get a hold of Matt and Jillian. I don't know, Nicky. I think we've got ourselves a UFO out here. Never seen anything like that before my entire life. What? You mean like a flying saucer or something? Come on. I saw what I saw. I don't know what to say. I'm a little freaked out, Nikki. Tell him to get here quick. Tell him it's an emergency. Nick didn't come home at night.

I tried to call him at least a dozen times, but he wouldn't answer the phone. I called the police and asked them to go check on him. And they told me, don't worry, everything's fine. I asked them, how do you know that? You didn't even go there yet. You didn't even go out there yet. They just kept saying that everything was fine at the base and I should just go to bed. He didn't get in until 2 o'clock the next afternoon.

I was worried sick. He looked so tired. And there was something else, too. Like, he had this blank look in his eyes. I think he was in shock. I asked him what happened, and the way he stared at me made goosebumps come up on my arms. He said, they told me not to tell anyone. Not even you.

Matt's audio recording. Is this thing recording, or do I have to... Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Uh, yeah, this is Officer Matthew Golding. It's shortly after 9 p.m. on August of 2006. I'm standing here with Gillian Bridgemore and Louis Delacroix. And, as I said, we're standing here outside the watchtower in National Park. Gillian and I were called out to investigate something,

uh, something very unusual that was reported by Mr. Delacroix. here. Lou? Can you tell us what you saw? Unusual? Yeah, you could say that. Mr. Delacroix has requested that we document this investigation with a tape recorder he found in the watchtower. Lewis, can you tell us what you saw this evening? Yes, ma'am, I can. I seen a ball of light fall from the sky. It came down about a mile from here. It was pretty big. I'd say at least 20 feet of across in diameter. It turned all kinds of different colors as it came down. One sort of just running into the next, you know. Sort of pulsing and, uh, I can't describe it really. The light was just sort of pulsing and going from green to blue, red, orange, all kinds of colors.

I'll go on record right now and tell you something. I've been a fire lookout for a real long time, and I've never seen nothing like it. Do you believe in that sort of thing, Mr. Delacroix? UFOs and things of that nature? I believe what I see with my own eyes. And I'm telling you, I've seen a ball of light come down from the sky. I flew over the trees in a straight, steady path for maybe 200 yards. And then it dropped out of sight.

I'm not saying it's aliens or something, but... Hell, I don't know. I can only tell you what I saw. Matt, no offense to Lewis here, but I don't think this was much of it. emergency. Hold on just a damn minute. I'm not a liar, ma'am. I'm telling you the truth. I know Lou well enough to say that it's at least worth a look, Jill. We might as well check it out. I'm not some crazy wing. I saw what I saw. I know you aren't, Lou. Believe me, if it was anyone but you, I'd already be heading back. It's been a long day. I want to come too. I want to see it.

I don't think that's a good idea. Absolutely not. Come on. I want to see it. I have a camera. Let me come with you. If you fell off the back of the quad or something, I think we could be held liable. No way. We can't do that. Please, I'm begging you over here. Come on. I want to see this thing. I want to take a hundred pictures and show the whole goddamn world. I promise, I won't be a pain in the ass. I won't do anything stupid.

Look, Lewis, I'll be honest here. I don't think we're going to find an actual physical object from outer space in those woods. We'll take you with us, show you that nothing's there, and then back to the watchtower you go. Okay? He's not supposed to abandon his post at the tower. This is... Okay, then, you know what? He's your responsibility, Matt.

He can ride with you. You're going to see that I ain't a liar. You're going to see that for yourself. Mark my words. Nick didn't say much when he got in. He laid on the couch and fell asleep. I was really worried about him. Right around 6 o'clock, I took a break from watching over him to go have a smoke.

I saw a vehicle parked a little ways down the street. I didn't recognize it. Like, I'd never seen one of those in the neighborhood before. It was a big black SUV with tinted windows. I felt like someone was watching me. It made me nervous. When I went back in, Nick was sitting up on the couch. He pointed to the window and whispered,

Are they out there? I knew right away what he was talking about. I told him about the SUV and his face got real pale. He started pacing around the house. He said, they don't want me to tell anyone. Well, at that point, I just about had enough of all the mystery. I sat down beside him and asked, tell anyone what, Nick? What happened out there last night?

He just shook his head and whispered in my ear. I can't say anything. They're listening. I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I took a notepad and wrote, Who's listening? He shook his head again and grabbed the pen out of my ear. hand. He wrote, They can see us. And then he ran the tap over the notepad in the kitchen sink.

He wotted it up in a ball and threw it in the garbage. Did you look for this notepad after your husband's murder? Yes. I searched for it after they took him away. It wasn't there. I dumped the bag out on the kitchen floor and looked through all the garbage, but it simply wasn't in there. It was gone. Maria, who do you believe was responsible for the death of your husband? You should have asked who order his execution because it was an execution. My husband knew something he wasn't supposed to know. They were worried he would tell someone. That's why he wouldn't say anything.

He was trying to protect me. What do you think would have happened if Nick had told you the truth? I think you know the answer. What's one more death to these people? Our lives don't matter. Our lives don't matter to people like that. Who are you referring to? Who are they?

And what are they trying to hide? I think you already know the answer to that one, too. Shortly after 9 p.m., Matthew Golding, Jillian Bridgemore, and Louis de LaCroix left the watchtower on two all-terrain vehicles, following a trail that meanders on a northwesterly path through the forest. Before they left, Lewis radioed the base, and he advised Nick. Fasio, the trio intended to venture out and locate the mysterious object which had descended from the sky. It was the second last transmission sent from the watchtower that evening. God damn. That's something, isn't it? That's really something. You guys be careful, Lou.

I just want to get some pictures, Nikki. I ain't going to walk up and touch the damn thing. We're not stupid. Listen, Lewis. Jokes aside, if you find what you're looking for out there, don't get too close, you know? Be cautious. You don't know anything about it. You don't know what it is or where it came from. It could be dangerous.

I already told you I'm not an idiot. Damn it, this is big, man. This is huge. We're going to be famous. TV, talk shows and all that jazz, reporters. Famous? If you take a clear picture, of some aliens up there, I bet we'll all freaking disappear. I mean it, Lou, be careful.

We'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Over and out, buddy. Talk soon. Matt's audio recording. The time is, uh, it's 9.24 p.m. We parked the quads on the side of the trail and entered the woods on foot. We're approximately one mile north of the tower. and we can see a light shining through the trees. It's... I really don't know what to make of this. Gillian? Uh, I think I should apologize to Lewis over here.

There's an object in the woods, um, about two or three hundred yards to the west of the trail. I can't make out any features from this distance, but it's a brightly lit object and it seems to be changing colors in a pattern. This thing is, um, it's pretty big. I don't know how Nick didn't see this thing come down from the sky. It's very bright. I told you, I ain't a liar.

No one ever called you a liar. We just didn't... Hey, what the hell is that? I can hear something. I can feel it. It's like it's... I can feel it too. Can you smell that?

There's a weird smell in the air, almost like ozone. I can taste it on my tongue. I'm not sure if getting close and taking pictures as such a great idea, Lou. We should keep our distance. Do you hear that? Something's coming. A massive search operation was quickly organized to locate the missing rangers and the fire lookout. But after nine days, heavy rain forced them to throw in the towel.

Every acre of the park was carefully combed for any clues that might be. might shed some light on their fate. In the end, all they could find was a small scrap of cloth that may have come from a ranger uniform, a single button, the tire tracks from their all-terrain vehicles, the tape recorder, and Matthew Golding's 9mm pistol. The scrap of cloth was discovered a few yards outside an area that was named the burn spot by the search team. It was snagged on a low-hanging branch, affirming that at least one of the rangers came very close to the landing site. The button was lying on the ground nearby, partially melted. It was impossible to determine which of the missing persons these items may have belonged to,

but it is almost certain they both came from a ranger's uniform. The tape recorder was lying in scorched vegetation near the edge of the eye, another small area located within the burn spot. The outer casing of the tape recorder was badly melted, but the cassette inside proved to be largely unscathed. The discovery of Golding's firearm occurred purely. by accident. A member of another search team happened to look up at the right time. She caught sight of the pistol dangling from a tree branch. The branch in question was almost 80 feet from the ground. Upon closer examination of the pistol, the searchers made a grisly discovery. There was a crust

of burnt organic material attached to the grip, which was identified as being a layer of human skin. Golding's weapon was torn from his grasp after being heated to searing temperatures. The firearm itself, however, appeared to have sustained only minor damage. This entire event is shrouded in mystery, but the strangest piece of the puzzle is the area known as the burn spot. The burn spot is a circular patch of land where all the vegetation was roasted to a crisp by an unknown source of heat. The trees along the border of the burn spot had been singed all the way up to the uppermost branches on one side, but they had sustained very little damage on the other side. In the middle of this 40-foot wide patch of devastation, there was a perfect circle of sterilized

soil that was dubbed the eye by the search team. The undergrowth located within the area hadn't been scorched. Instead, it had been uniformly crushed into the forest floor in a swirling pattern. The eye reached 12 inches deep beneath the surface, and it measures just under 20 feet in diameter. According to the police report, the ground inside the eye remained warm to the touch for over 72 hours. There was concern among the ranks of the search team that the area may have been irradiated, but no elevated levels of radiation were detected within the eye or the surrounding

burn spot. It has been reported that, even years later, nothing will grow within the burn spot. Wildlife is known to give it a very wide berth, including birds and flying insects, who will actively change their flight path to avoid crossing through the airspace above the affected area. Unknown persons were observed taking soil and vegetation samples from the burn spot on the day after the abduction. But the results of any analysis that may have been performed on these samples remains unknown. How could it be possible to scorch such a large area of dry undergrowth without sparking a raging wildfire? The entire region was in the grip of a heat wave, and there had been minimal rainfall in the weeks leading up to the incident. In those conditions, a stray ember from the campfire could easily start a devastating,

Inferno, one can only wonder about the nature of an energy field which could accomplish such a feat. How is it produced? And for what purpose? No one knows the true answer beyond a select few members of a powerful, faceless cabal, an unnamed organization that protects its secrets with money, intimidation, and cold-blooded murder. Okay, I don't know what time it is. My watch stopped working. Radio doesn't work either.

Nothing but static. As for Lou, well, he's gone. We lost him. There was, there was something coming at us, and we panicked. I could hear it approaching. I don't even know how to describe it, did. I could hear it, pushing through the undergrowth. My head started to hurt, and it was hard to breathe.

That was scary, like really freaking scary. I think it's time to go. Lou took off and we lost him. He's still out there somewhere. We have to find him, Jill. We can't... You can do whatever you want, but I'm leaving right now. There's no way I'm going back out there.

We can't leave without him, Jill. Do you know how much... We never should have brought him in the first place. Are you out of your goddamn mind? Whatever's out there... Yeah, not happening. It's beyond us. way beyond us.

I won't go out there again, Matt. I'm leaving. I suggest you do the same. I've known Lou for years. I can't do it. There's no choice. There is a choice. I choose to go home tonight, and so should you.

It doesn't matter if they're hostile or not. Sometimes I'll step on a bug by accident, and other times I might do it on purpose. Either way, that bug is dead. Dead. You get what I'm saying? We're still recording here, Jill. I don't give a shit. You can do whatever you want, but I'm out of here. No. Stop right there.

Hey, what the fuck are you doing? You're pointing your gun at me? Put your weapon on the ground. Bear spray, knife, radio. Put everything on the ground. Don't talk. Take six steps backward and turn around with your hands in the air. What are you doing? What the hell is going on here, Matt? If you speak again, I'll kill you. Do you understand? Keep your mouth shut and do as I say. Good.

Now start walking. Oh, I'm pretty much an expert by now. Sure. Ask whatever you want. Let's talk about Matthew Golding. Tell us what you know about him. Well, I guess people are going to think this is crazy. But I guess it's all pretty crazy.

So, Matthew Golding was born in 1975. He moved to with his family when he was a teenager, and he started working out of park in the fall of 1998. He disappeared almost eight years later on the night of the, of what happened. And that was the last anyone ever saw of him. Are you with me so far? Yes, ma'am. Please continue.

Okay, here we go. So, a couple of hikers found a human skull in a ravine back in 2011. Dental records identified it as belonging to Matthew Golding. He'd been shot in the back of the head. At first, they said he probably died sometime in 2002, but that got changed to 2006 in the report. So you're saying Matthew was murdered four years before the incident in August of 2006? How was that possible?

He never even disappeared. No. The man you hear in the recording wasn't the real Matthew Golding. He was dead long before then. Mr. Golding was murdered and replaced with a look-alike in 2002. The man on the tape is an imposter. I see. You have to admit, this is pretty hard to swallow, Maria.

Where would they find someone who could look and act so closely to the real person? It's been documented that Matthew always came home for the question. Christmas holidays every year, and his own family didn't notice anything different about him. I know it sounds like a load of shit, but just listen for a minute. There have been a lot of very strange sightings in that park over the years. Look it up for yourself. It's been going on for at least a hundred years, probably even longer. I think they've been aware of the situation for a very long time now, and they'll protect their secret any way they can. Now, Matthew wrote to his parents in March of 2001. He'd seen a strange light in the sky. He thought it was Venus at first,

but it fell from the sky and landed somewhere in the park. That's exactly what he says in the letter. He wrote, I watched it come down from the sky, and I thought to myself, Venus is falling. So he did see something unusual, and maybe it was more than once. Maybe he told someone about it, and they turned out to be the wrong person, you know? Maybe they were reading his mail. They can do that. They can do just about anything. They can make you disappear, and they can even replace you.

They have unlimited money and resources these people. They can do whatever they want. What is the secret they're trying to protect? Well, I know what people think when you say something like this. But I do believe there are other civilizations out there. Some of them are much more advanced than we are on Earth. To us, they're like gods. They've been coming to our planet for a very long time, and we know this.

We've seen them flying in our skies for many centuries. They've come here for reasons we don't understand, and there's nothing we can do to stop them. That's what they're trying to hide from the public. Do you get it? The real secret isn't their existence because we've known about them for a long time. The real secret is that we don't know. what they want and we're powerless to stop them. I have one more question.

Why do you think this undercover operative recorded himself committing a felony? You'd think someone in his position would want to get rid of the witnesses without leaving any evidence behind. You don't understand. He wasn't an undercover operative. He was a changeling.

That's what he was. They took one of their men and molded him into an exact replica. Every detail and feature was recreated. in a lab somewhere in the desert. You think that sounds crazy. It's not crazy when you consider just how much power they have. Normal folks like us.

Regular people, we can't even begin to imagine how much money and time and resources they have at their disposal. Do you think the government tells us about all their advances in discoveries? We don't know the half of it. No, he wasn't worried about the tape falling into the wrong hands. As far as he was concerned, his masters would never allow that to happen. But it did end up in the wrong hands, didn't it? Yes, it did. He probably knew it was going to happen if they got too close to that thing,

but I think he got confused and did it anyway. I've been told by people who've had, um, you know, had their own close encounters. I've been told that it's actually pretty common to be affected like that. You get confused and it feels like it's hard to breathe. Your eyesight gets distorted. Yeah, I think that's what happened. As far as I'm concerned, that murdering son of a bitch got what he deserved. The last few minutes of the tape are very upsetting. I've listened to it at least a dozen times, and it still makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. What do you think was going on during the final moments of the recording, Maria? They were taken, and now they're gone. Beyond that, I have no idea. I don't want to know. Even if I did, I honestly don't think I'd understand

it and neither would you. It's like Gillian said on the recording. Sometimes you step on a bug by accident and sometimes it's on purpose. But either way, that bug is dead. The poor little thing doesn't even see it coming because we're too big for them to understand. You know what I mean? We're too big for them to even understand that we're there. Lewis's last transmission to base.

It opened up. I mean, I think so. but I can't really changing all the time Like at first it's a circle And then it's a star shape or And it doesn't stop changing It's

Oh It just opened up What do you mean? Like a door or something? No, it's I don't know how to describe it But it's not like a door There's

Out of the opening It hurts my eyes To look at it, I don't What's that? Shit! What's going on? Talk to me, Louis. Tell what you're seeing? Something just came out. There's more. There's even more of them. Oh my God, sweet Jesus, Nikki, they're looking for me. They're looking for me.

Calm down and keep quiet, Lou. I just called the cops a few minutes ago. Help is on the way, buddy. I promise you, just lay low, okay? Just stay away from... They know I'm here. You know, I'm talking. to you. Get the hell down and stay away from the windows. Does they see you? They don't need to, Nikki. They don't need to see. Matthew Golden led Gillian Bridgemore through the woods for approximately 17 minutes. During that time, no audible communication between them was captured on the tape. The disquieting hum that can be heard earlier in the recording grows steadily louder as if Matthew

and his captive were inadvertently drifting closer and closer to the unidentified object, as they searched for Louis de la Croix. At one point, Lewis can be heard yelling their names in the background, suggesting he was in close enough proximity to the Rangers to be picked up by the microphone in the tape recorder. Although any conclusions that can be drawn from listening to the tape are largely speculation, they generate some very puzzling questions. Why didn't he kill Gillian and Nick when he had the chance to shoot them both? How did the imposter not realize he was wandering too close to the landing site, and why didn't he see Lewis when he was close enough to be heard calling for them on the tape? The first question has an obvious answer.

Three eyewitnesses are better than one. He would have to keep them alive for the purpose of interrogation. As for the other two questions, it can only be speculated that the object in the woods was exerting some kind of temporal disturbance in the area of the landing site, distorting time and space in a way that would confuse the senses. It's likely that Louis de LaCroix was walking almost right beside them at one. one point, but they were unable to see or perceive one another. I doubt the agent would ever knowingly come in close range to the object, as he probably would have been well aware of the

danger involved. I believe he simply became disoriented by the object's energy field and loss his bearings, with disastrous results. Although I mourn the loss of Jillian, Nick, and Lewis, I'm afraid I have to agree with Maria Fasio concerning the fate of the agent. The son of a bitch had it coming. I'm too close. Where are you in for me? Where's the sky? I can't.

Go away from me. I was in the shower when it happened. He was sitting at the table, drinking his coffee. He had the morning newspaper open in front of him. When I got out of the shower, he was slumped over the table. His... Oh, God. The blood.

The newspaper was... soaking up his blood. You didn't hear any gunshots. I thought maybe I heard something, but it wasn't loud. Not like the bang from a gunshot. Guns are very loud, especially indoors. There's no way I wouldn't hear two shots over the sound of the running water. Not unless the killer was using a suppressor.

I've read about those things, and it's not like in the movies. They don't silence the gun. They just change the sound of the gunshot. Tell me about the encounter you had after the funeral. Uh, this is, it's hard. Um, it was about a week after the funeral, and I was just sort of moping around the house. I was still pretty numb, you know, just trying to make some sense of it all. Anyway, this big guy with a crew cut came knocking on the door that morning.

He was wearing dark coveralls, and, you know, and, you know, this big guy with a crew cut came knocking on the door that morning. He was wearing dark coveralls and mirrored sunglasses. I thought he was with the power company at first, but then I saw he was holding a flower arrangement and a gift bag. He gave me this big smile when I opened the door, and he said, sorry to intrude like this, Maria, but they want to offer their condolences.

I just stared at him, like, what the hell is this? I said, pardon me, what's this, who are you? He handed me the flowers and the gift bag. I repeated, what's this, who are you? But he was already walking away. He got into a cargo van and drove off down the road. I just stood there and watched him go with my mouth hanging open. It was so weird, you know.

It was just really scary. I was shaking all over. What was in the bag? It was my hairbrush. I keep it in the vanity in my bedroom. I had just used it the night before, for Christ's sake. I didn't even know it was gone. They came into your bedroom that night as you slept and they took your hairbrush?

Why? Was it to send a message? Is that what you're saying? Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. It was a message. It... Look, this is how they do it all right. This is the kind of thing they do.

If I told you, they broke into my house and stole my brush, well, you'd think I was crazy, wouldn't you? And that's how they do it when they want to intimidate you. It was definitely a message. They wanted me to know they can let themselves in and get rid of me anytime they see fit. Locked doors mean nothing to them. If they even suspected I had some concrete evidence against them, they'd make me disappear in a heartbeat. They wouldn't even think twice. It is widely believed that Lewis de LaCroix witnessed the abduction of Jillian and the agent, who was holding her hostage. After seeing this dramatic event, he was somehow able to find his way back to the watchtower. The last transmission from the tower to the base makes for a very disturbing listening experience. Listener discretion has advised. Lewis's last transmission to base. Never seen anything like it.

They're... From my instance, I'll get out of here. But my compass was spinning in circles. I saw him floating over the treetops. Calm down, Lou. Listen, we're going to get you out of there. Just, um, tell me again where. Holy God, Southeast.

Do you see it? It's just gliding over the tree tops. Like, do you see it? Hey, what? Lewis, what is that? I can see a... I can see... There's...

Now's changing colors. It's... Ah, I lost sign of it. What are you seeing in your end? What's happening? They're coming after me. I'm scared, Mickey. You've got a shotgun in there.

Use it if you have to, Lou. Don't think twice about it. They don't care about no shotgun. They... They... Before they get me... me. Turn you right now.

I'll blow my own goddamn head off. It opened up. I mean, I think so. But I can't really... ...changing all the time. Like, at first it's a circle, and then it's a star shape, or... And it doesn't stop changing. It's... it just opened up.

What do you mean? Like, a door or something? No, it's... I don't know how to describe it, but it's not like a door. There's... Out of the opening, it hurts my eyes to look at it. I don't... What's that?

Shit! What's going on? Talk to me, Louis. Tell what you're seeing? Something just came out. There's more. There's even more of them. Oh, my God, sweet Jesus, Nikki, they're looking for me.

They're looking for me! Calm down, and keep quiet, Lou. I just called the cops a few minutes ago. Help is on the way, buddy. I promise you, just lay low, okay. Just stay away from the... They know I'm here. You know I'm talking to you.

Get the hell down and stay away from the windows. Does they see you? They don't need to, Nicky. They don't need to see. Stay on the radio with me, Lou. Don't do anything rash. Lou! Lewis!

What happened? Lou! Is... Is someone there? Who is this? this? Answer me. Who? Lewis, I call the cops and they're on the way.

So get the hell out. Step away from the radio, please. We need you to come with us right now. Turn off the... To date, this incident has never been acknowledged by any authorities at a regional, state, or federal level. Despite the danger she faces by doing so, Maria Fasio continues to strive to uncover the truth behind her husband's murder. The families of Matthew Golding, Julian Bridgmore, and Louis

De La Croy continue to seek closure in regards to the death of their loved ones, but this has been denied to them time and time again, by everyone from the chief of police to the Secretary of Defense. No one has ever put forth an official statement on the matter, and it is likely they never will. As far as the powers that be are concerned, the matter is closed to further investigation. The truth will probably never be revealed, but I believe that someone, somewhere, knows what happened on that night in August of 2006. It is my hope that they will eventually find the courage to come forward with the final piece of the puzzle. However, I don't think that will ever happen. Some secrets are far too dangerous to be exposed. I'd like to personally thank you,

the listeners, for joining me this evening. I would like to end with a blood-chilling anecdote of my own. Now, before I began working on this documentary, I will admit that I was largely skeptical of this story. To me, it sounded like a hybrid between a wild conspiracy theory and an urban legend. However, shortly before I began production on this documentary, I had an encounter that changed my mind entirely. A man came knocking at my door two weeks before filming was scheduled to begin. It was a large man with a crew cut, wearing dark coveralls and mirrored sunglasses.

When I answered the door, he shoved a cardboard box into my hands, gave me a cryptic smile, and walked away. I yelled for him to come back, but he didn't even turn around. He jumped into a white cargo van with darkly tinted windows and drove off. Here one moment, gone the next. If I wasn't left standing on my porch with the box in my hands, I would have been tempted to believe that it had never happened at all. The encounter was over in a matter of seconds.

I wasn't sure if I should even open the box, but I finally gathered. enough courage to take a look. There were two items inside. One was a copy of the script for this documentary. At this point, I still hadn't even printed a copy for myself. I was chilled to the bone by this discovery, but the other object in the box made it much, much worse. It was a bullet. I held it up to the light with shaking fingers, and I saw that my initials had been etched into the side of the casing.