Welcome to Night Vale - 281 - Witnesses

Episode Date: February 1, 2026

A witness emerges in the murder of local angel and billionaire Marcus Vanston. Weather: "Cabaret" by Kid Romantic feat. Jessica Wells⁠⁠ Original episode art by Jessica Hayworth Episode transcripts UNLICENSED Season 3⁠⁠ is here! Only on Audible Pre-order the Welcome to Night Vale Roleplaying Game Get the Night Vale newsletter for news and stories Patreon is how we exist! Music: Disparition Logo: Rob Wilson Written by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor & Brie Williams Narrated by Cecil Baldwin Follow us on BlueSky, Facebook, TikTok, Tumblr, and Instagram A production of Night Vale Presents Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howdy y'all. It is Jeffrey Craneer. I'm not sure which episode of Welcome to Nightville you're listening to, but I am speaking to you from April of 2026. And I'm here to tell you we're going to be in Europe. If you want to see Nightville live and you're going to be in Europe, come check us out at the end of May. We're going to be in Edinburgh on May the 27th. We will be in Manchester on the 28th, London on the 29th, and Amsterdam on May the 30th. Just go to Welcome to Nightville.com slash live to see the show dates and to get your tickets. This is. our newest Nightville live show Murder Night in Blood Forest. It is so much fun. Please come check it out. Also, coming up this month here in April, it is the return of Alice Isn't Dead, brand new episodes of our other crazy hit podcast. This is written by Joseph Fink, produced and with music by Dysperition and starring Jacique and Nicole. So make sure you are still subscribed to Alice Isn't Dead and go get those on April the 13th as new episodes come out. Finally, speaking of other shows, do you want to hear us talk about other things? things. We have three other really great chat shows. First of all, there's Good Morning Nightvale

for all of your Nightvale needs. You can hear Hal, Meg, and Symphony talk about every single episode in order of Welcome to Nightvale. Also, we have Random Horror Number Nine. That is me and Nightville star Cecil Baldwin talking about horror movies one at a time in a random order. And then Joseph and Meg do best, worst, which is a really fun podcast where they look at hit TV shows and they review the best rated on IMDB, the worst rated on IMDB, and if you're a Patreon member, they will review the middleest rated on IMDB. So check out all of those at Nightvillepresents.com or just wherever you get your podcast. And hey, thanks. Have you tried unplugging it and then not plugging it back in? Welcome to Nightveal. We have some big developments in our townwide

murder mystery. A witness has been discovered in the killing of local angel and billionaire Marcus Vansden. The witness is a man named Ace of Base. No relation. Ace likes to sit in the corner booth at the Moonlight All Night Diner, watching the world through the smudged windows. He likes old hardware stores, how they smell, how idiosyncratic their organization is. He likes to go to an old hardware store with a specific item in mind, and then try to find it without asking anyone. It's a pleasant way to pass an afternoon. And he likes to take drives at night. When the streets are empty, when the world is the same but feels different.

It was during one of these drives that he saw what he saw. He reached out anonymously to our station, and we promised we would be very discreet about the information, which is why. Dana Cardinal in her role as unofficial investigator of this crime, went over to Aces' house at 1717 in Sectarium Lane to take his statement. Dana reports that Aza Base reluctantly let her into his kitchen, which she said smelled like orange peals and rat poison. What did you see? Dana asked him. Not much, he said unhappily. I saw Marcus through the window. was having an argument with someone. I think he was crying. Marcus Vansden crying, Dana said,

frowning. Marcus was well known to be an unfeeling guy, and so this was surprising. I didn't see anything else, Ace of Base said, only a glance through the window as I drove past. You don't see much while driving, or I try not to, anyway. Do you have any idea who killed him? God knows, Ace of Base muttered and escorted her back out onto his lawn, wishing her well with the sound of a slamming door. And now a word from our sponsors. Far down the coastline from any place where anyone lives is a village. Only a few people are left in this village. It is more a memory than a community now.

In the village, there is a house. house has seen generations of a family, but now there is only an old man. He is the last one who will live in this house, and once he dies, it will no longer be a house, but a kind of echo of a house, a thing that looks like a house, but will never again serve that function. Every morning, the old man walks down to the beach, and he looks around in the sand. He has never told anyone what he is looking for. Some mornings, even he can't remember.

But he knows it is there, and if only he could find it, then maybe this all could be different. But he can't find it, and none of this can be different. Samsung. We make phones. This has been a word from our sponsors.

Dana has located another witness in the murder of Marcus Vanston. Lakshmi Mahala had been shooting a student film on Marcus's front lawn at the time of the murder. She's enrolled at Nightvale Community College's prestigious film program after being raised with her parents running the VHS rental annex at the Ralph's. She found that Marcus's front lawn was an ideal place to film her work, as he often had armed security come and start chasing her actors, which elicited some really authentic and exciting emotional work out of them. Dana met Lakshmi at Grove Park, where she was shooting the climactic confrontation of her latest short film. The two actors were directed to run at each other from a

distance of about 30 feet. Try to get up some speed, Lakshmi told them, and no matter what, don't slow down or stop. Then she called action and the actors dutifully followed her instructions. As the actors were loaded into an ambulance, Dana interviewed Lakshmi. I remember seeing him pacing around his library, Lakshmi said. He seemed worried like there was something really important that he had forgotten or like he had a job interview and thought he might screw it up. Marcus Vansden was a billionaire, so never had a real job in his life, Dana said. That's true, said Lakshmi, who had worked at her parents' rental annex starting at age 10.

She continued, The next time I looked up at the window, he was gone. I figure he had left to call security on us, and I was setting up my camera to get some good shots of them beating up my actors. But the security never came. The day was kind of a bust. honestly. Dana wished Lakshmi well on her movie. Thank you, said Lakshmi. I endeavor to capture human pain, said Dana casually as she got up to leave. Long shot, but do you know who killed Marcus Vansden?

Lakshmi shrugged. God knows, she said, and frowned as she examined a playback of the bodies colliding. And now for the community calendar. Monday is the Junior Scientist Fair at the Rec Center. Some of the exhibits from the children will include simple machines, constructing a basic circuit, and using MRNA to cure cancer. It seems all other scientific organizations in the country have been defunded by people who like cancer, so it's up to some plucky kids to continue the research. As someone who, unpopular opinion, I know, doesn't like cancer, I disagree with the political party that is pro-cancer

and is trying to help cancer kill us. Tuesday is... No, hold on, I just... Can I just... Can I just say again that there is a political party in this country that is fighting the war on cancer on the side of cancer. That is the position they've staked out.

That's what they want their neighbors and friends to know them for. And we do. We know who you really are now. Anyway, Tuesday, there's a shoe sale at Big Five Shoes. Wednesday, there will be roadwork on every single road simultaneously. We thought it would be more efficient this way, so plan for every single road to be closed. We don't quite have enough workers to cover all of the roads,

so expect these closures to last no more than 8 to 15 years. Thursday is a fundraiser for the Merriam McDonald Memorial Fund. Fund President Leah Shapiro says to expect a raffle, a silent auction, and a ransom-based kidnapping situation. Leah added, I wish I could raise the money with normal stuff like big sales and extortion, but it's just not enough money to cover our costs. And so we will be kidnapping, no more than 80 people, 100 maximum,

and holding them for ransom. Don't worry, Leah continued, no one will be harmed as long as you pay up. If you don't pay up, buddy, people are going to be harmed. Friday is an open house at the Diego and Diego and Diego and Diego and Diego and Diego and Diego funeral home, the one owned by those nice quintuplets. Their saleswoman Amber Akini will be showing off some of the services of the funeral home, including the two chapels, the grief lounge, and a fun demonstration of what it's like to be buried. Only the first 15 customers can be buried, she said, so try to get there early.

Saturday and Sunday are taking the weekend off, so don't bother them. This has been the Community Calendar. A third witness has been discovered in the murder of Marcus Vansden, in what many are now calling maybe the most witnessed locked room mystery of all time. This witness is Reggie, who lives in a tent under the Route 900 Highway Bridge. He used to live in a house in the weary chambermaid gated community, but one day he saw something while on one of his brisk morning hikes. I was hitting mile five and feeling strong, he told Dana,

almost beating my personal best when I looked up and I saw the truth of the universe. There are dotted lines and arrows in the sky, you know, Dana told him that was interesting, but she was more interested in what he saw concerning the murder of Marcus Vansden. Oh, right, he said, that. His hands fiddled with some small device that's purpose was obscure, but that he held close to him as though it might be taken at any moment by malevolent forces. Yeah, yeah, I saw the murder. Dana leaned toward him. Now she was really getting somewhere, a witness that saw the murder.

moment when it happened. Tell me, she said. Yeah, I saw while sitting right here, he said. Here, she said, indicating the underpass, but we're miles from where the murder took place. Yes, it was in a dream, he told her as though explaining something to a small child. Ah, said Dana, starting to pack up her things. I saw Marcus Vanston. And I saw the sky open up for him. And a great voice spoke, and a thousand heads bowed. Interesting, Dana said, getting up and putting her bag on her shoulder. And then I looked down and realized I was naked in front of the thousand bowing people,

and I knew I was supposed to give a speech, but I didn't know what the speech was supposed to be about, and I hadn't prepared anything. And then I woke up, said Reggie. Anyway, that's what happened. Hopefully it's helpful to you. Mm-hmm, said Dana as she left. She did not ask him who killed Marcus Vansden because she didn't care to hear his answer.

One final witness has come forward. Dana is on the way to speak to him now, though this is the one person in town who she is truly afraid to talk to. While we wait for her to nervously drive across town, let's take a look at today's weather. Dana has arrived at the house of the final witness. It is her brother, Ethan Cardinal.

They don't talk much, Ethan and Dana. They live very different lives. She was always driven. The future was a constant horizon she was moving toward. In school, she followed the rules and did all the tricks you need to do to get the grades, to get the college, to get the jobs, to get some version of success. It's a game, and she was naturally good at playing it. Ethan was not naturally good at playing the game. He was smart, but had trouble for funneling his wits into the exact container his teachers wished him to. He too easily floated away onto other interests that drew him more. By 15, he was making little remote control cars from

scratch, the combination of electric work and the physics of making a car that not only could drive, but that was fun to drive, he could spend hours at that. And he did, sometimes when he was supposed to be in class. He got in trouble a lot. Dana never got into trouble. Until she did, and as a result, many years later, a grim visitor came from another universe to get her revenge on Dana, and mutilated their mother in front of Ethan. This terrifying visitor had the same face as Dana, and now Ethan can't look at his sister without seeing it. The pain. on his mother's face. The blood. Their mother is fine now. She has fully forgiven Dana, but Ethan hasn't forgiven Dana. For that matter, Dana hasn't forgiven Dana. They both resent

her for the disaster she brought on her family. So the siblings have that in common. Ethan lives in a small apartment complex on quicksand way out near the airport. When a plane lands the bones of the building shake, but fortunately, very few planes land in Nightvale. It is not a nice apartment, but it is an apartment that Ethan can afford. He works at the power plant. Despite his poor grades, he had a good understanding of electrical work, and so was able to get a job there. First, as a low-level operator, and now as a safety supervisor. He's proud of that. He's proud of work. He's proud of work. what he's managed to do despite his difficulties with the world.

His apartment still looks like he recently moved in. There is a placeholder nature to the furniture and the few decorations on the wall. A sense of, oh, this is only until my real possessions arrive. He has lived in this apartment for five years. Come in, he tells his sister, and she does. She sits in a chair at the kitchen table. It does not match any of the other chairs. What do you want? he asks.

You saw what happened to Marcus Vansden, she says. I don't know what I saw, he mutters. But he did. They both know that he did. I need you to set aside any bad feelings you have about me, Dana says. And Ethan shouts, I don't have any bad feelings about you. Then they're both silent for a few moments.

I was taking a run, he says. Oh, I didn't know you were running, says Dana. That's great. Why is it great? He asks. Was I lazy before? No, that's not what I. Dana starts, then waves the words away.

Never mind. Go ahead. I was taking a run. And I passed Marcus Vanson's house. Despite how nice it is, it's surprisingly near the airport. When a plane lands, it must be pretty loud there too. Do planes ever actually land here? Dana asks, and Ethan shrugs. He continues.

I saw Marcus Vansden. He looked angry. He was shouting. And then he looked scared. I saw a shadow move toward him. I saw his mouth open. I saw his mouth close. I saw him fall.

Dana leans forward. Did you see who murdered him? And please don't tell me who can say or God knows or anything like that. Just yes or no. Did you see? Ethan looks her in the eye for the first time since she arrived. Yes, he says. Okay.

Dana is excited now. The case is about to be closed. Who was it? I can't say. I am trying to catch a dangerous killer. And you need to tell me who it is, Dana says, standing from her chair. Ethan shakes his head sadly. No, I can't say. My mouth will not form the words. I can't even describe them. But Dana, Ethan stands too. They face each other across the table. But Dana, I do love you. You are my sister and I love you and I need you to be careful because this is not a mystery you should solve. I don't want you to be hurt.

Maybe you don't believe me, but I truly don't want that. He touches her hand. The first physical contact they've had. in years. Please, Dana, give this case up. Dana feels a thousand things at once.

She steps around the table and pulls him into a hug and he reluctantly allows it. As they hug, she whispers in his ear, I'm sorry, the building shakes as a plane comes in to land at the airport.

Good night, night veils. Good night. Welcome to Nightvale as a production of Nightvale Presents. It is written by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Craneer, and Bree Williams. Sound design and production by Dysperition. The voice of Night Vale is Cecil Baldwin. Original music by Dysperition. All of it can be found at Dysperition.net.

This episode's weather was Cabaret by Kid Romantic, featuring Jessica Wells. Find out more at the link in our show notes. Comments, questions, email, us at info at welcome to nightvale.com or follow us on blue sky at night veil radio or on instagram tumbler and ticot at night veil official or don't do that stuff i don't care but mainly check out welcome to night veil.com where we have a twice monthly mailing list that is the best way to keep up to date directly from us to you this is how we defeat the billionaires by connecting directly with each other today's proverb today is talk like a pirate day i'll go first

I was a fisherman, and then the collapse of local government made my work economically untenable, and so I had to resort to other means of supporting my family. Maity. Hi, I'm here to tell you about Good Morning Night Vale. Welcome to Night Vale's official recap show and unofficial best friend food podcast. Join me, Meg Bashwinner, and fellow tri-hosts, Hal Lublin and Symphony Sanders, as we dissect all of the cool, squishy and slimy bits of every episode of Welcome to Night Vale. Come for the insightful and hilarious commentary and stay for all of the weird and wild behind-the-scenes stories.

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