Episode 201: Sleepless in Seattle
(Intro and theme song)
Alex: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's season two of The Black Tapes Podcast. I'm Alex Reagan. We're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
0:02:46.2
Alex: On the last episode of The Black Tapes Podcast we ended with two major revelations. Revelation one: Coralee Strand might still be alive, and perhaps living somewhere around Lake Tahoe. And revelation two: the mysterious stranger who approached me in the cafe, the man previously known as sexy James Bond, is actually a man named Thomas Warren. Who he is and how he might be connected to the black tapes or Dr. Strand, well, that's where we're going to begin to try and fit some or all of these pieces together.
A lot has happened at Pacific Northwest Stories since the end of season one, so I'm going to need Nic's help to try and catch you up. First, a bit of audio from my Black Tapes season one exit interview.
Alex: It's been three months since Nic and I had that conversation. A lot has happened in that time. What hasn't happened is any development in the whereabouts of Amalia or Keith Dabic. But we have a lot of good people looking for us. We've also received a bunch of calls and emails from listeners who'd like to help. We're definitely looking into all of your tips, so thank you so much for taking the time to get in touch.
Now, an update from Dr. Strand.
Alex: I haven't spoken with Dr. Strand since that conversation. Strand left his assistant, Ruby Carver, in charge of the Institute in his absence. She told me he'd taken an unofficial and temporary leave. When I asked her how long he'd been gone, she told me "an indeterminate amount of time."
As I mentioned earlier, during the break between seasons, we received a lot of listener emails and messages. Generally a mix of encouragement, tips, and reports of the paranormal. I've only had time to read and listen to a few of them myself, but Nic gets to everything eventually. One afternoon, right around the time I last spoke with Dr. Strand, I ran into a woman who'd been waiting for me outside the Pacific Northwest Stories studio. Her name is Rebecca Yi. She had apparently left us about half a dozen voice messages.
Alex: Rebecca Yi is a single mother with a daughter named Katie, who's six. Rebecca is tall and willowy, with an air of something ... something that reminded me of Maria Torres. A certain kind of weariness around the eyes. She invited me to her apartment in Rainier Valley, just south of downtown Seattle.
Alex: The nanny cam video Rebecca showed me was disturbing. It's just the living room. At that moment it's peaceful, quiet. It feels almost like a still photograph. And then... out of nowhere the crow comes smashing through the glass and lands in the middle of the floor, broken like a tiny black umbrella of blood of feathers. It slowly dies.
0:22:38.1
Alex: She rewound the footage and played it again, pausing it just before the bird comes crashing through the window.
Alex: She pointed at a dark spot in the middle of the floor. The spot where the crow would eventually land. It was like a dark smudge or shadow just about the size of a basketball. It appears a split second before the crow enters the frame.
Alex: So, on the video you can see Katie sitting in profile at the coffee table, drawing in a large sketchbook. Rebecca has just passed by, walking toward the bathroom.
Alex: She's right. Katie just stood there staring into the camera, her head tilted at an unnatural angle. It reminded me of those people who are double-jointed. Something about it just looked ...off. She stands there throughout the knocking and banging, just staring into the camera as if nothing was happening. But then on the video, you can see Rebecca come rushing into the living room wrapped in a towel, her hair wet from the shower, and she looks absolutely terrified. She grabs Katie by the shoulders.
Alex: Very slowly, Katie turns and looks directly into the nanny cam. She raises her arm and points right into it. It's really creepy. You can see Rebecca walk over and carefully inspect the camera.
Alex: That was definitely unsettling. I was trying to make sense of all this stuff when Rebecca played the rest of the video.
Alex: On the video, Rebecca exits into the kitchen and Katie returns to her drawing. But then ...from the bottom right corner of the nanny cam, something moves into the frame. It looks like the top of someone's head, right in front of the camera.
Alex: It was a photograph she'd taken of the floor beneath Katie's bed. On the hardwood someone had carved some very familiar signs. Numbers, pentagrams, symbols.
Alex: She queued up the video of the nanny cam again. And just before that thing moved into the frame, she paused it.
Alex: She zoomed in on Katie, and then zoomed in even further on her daughter's sketchbook.
Alex: It wasn't the sharpest image, blurry and pixelated, but it was clear enough to make out the basics. The drawing in Katie's book looked a lot like the drawing under her bed. And a lot like the symbols connected to Sebastian Torres and Simon Reese.
Alex: I told Rebecca that I was concerned, and that I wanted to introduce her to a friend of mine: a clinical psychologist and family counselor. Fortunately, she agreed. That was two weeks ago. Since Katie started her sessions with her friend, there have been no more reports of strange drawings or sounds.
Alex: When last season ended, Amalia, an old friend of mine ... and Nic's, who'd been looking into Percival Black and Keith Dabic for us in Russia, was missing. Or, according to her mother, on some kind of free-spirited adventure from which she'd eventually return per usual. I've known Amalia for a long time and, although when she was younger she did have a tendency toward impulsive behavior at times, this just wasn't like her. At all. She would never abandon any investigation before exhausting every possible avenue of exploration. I had the feeling that something was wrong, very wrong.
Alex: We remained very concerned about Amalia and continued to spend a lot of time and energy trying to find her, to find out what happened. And, well, there was ... there is, something else. Something I've never really experienced before. Initially I didn't want to include this in the show, but, Nic persisted. So in the interest of full disclosure surrounding the black tapes and their affect on my personal life, I have recently been experiencing insomnia. It's been pretty bad, actually. I started seeing my friend, the psychologist I sent Rebecca and her daughter to. She eventually referred me to a psychiatrist who prescribed Ambien. It hasn't helped. It's actually made things worse. I'd begun experiencing sporadic sleep disruption early in season one, but I chalked that up to overwork and the other stresses in my life. General anxiety, worry over things that happened in the past, that sort of thing. But it's gotten progressively worse. At this point, I'm lucky if I get one or two hours of uninterrupted sleep at night.
I'm not sure how much of this is of interest to the listener, but Nic has asked me to share my situation on the podcast with the hopes that addressing it publicly might help me get past it. I hope he's right. I really could use some sleep.
Alex: Elizabeth Sawyer was Rebecca Yi's nanny. She's since moved down to Pullman, Washington for school. But she agreed to speak with me on a break between classes.
Alex: Rebecca claims everything happened before she'd started listening to our podcast. But maybe she's... what if she's reimagining? Or recontextualizing everything after hearing The Black Tapes? Or worse: what if she's making it all up? Putting her daughter through this just to get on the show. Yeah, I know. It's times like these I really miss Strand. I prefer taking a more open point of view and leaving the cynical side to him. He's much better at it than I am.
Alex: Ruby Carver is Strand's assistant. I've met her a few times in the past, but she's previously been unwilling to allow us to record her voice for the podcast. She was in the middle of cataloging a bunch of Strand Institute website inquiries when I knocked on the door.
Alex: Ruby Carver is in her mid-to-late twenties, shoulder length brunette hair hangs like a half-moon over one of her eyes. Today she was wearing ripped jeans, black and white checkered vans, a Red Dwarf t-shirt, and a look that revealed a marked lack of patience. I was eventually able to get her to sign a release form.
Alex: Ruby caught me a few minutes after I'd opened the door to Strand's office. It was ...intense. Strand had gone full conspiracy nut. Like, Carrie Mathison on Homeland, thread and pins on the wall crazy. There were documents, post it notes, fragments and bits of pages taped to magazine articles and maps. There were a few old computers with different types of disk and tape drives. It was clear, Strand had stepped off into the deep end. Way off. After seeing the state of his office, I was really worried. I was about to demand that Ruby put me in touch with Strand immediately, when:
Alex: So just like that, Strand was back. Next week, we'll be digging into Thomas Warren and the mystery of Coralee Strand. Plus, I get a break in the mystery Amalia was investigating in Russia. And Strand takes a look at the uncanny nanny cam footage. It's The Black Tapes Podcast, I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production. Recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced by Nic Silver. Mixed and engineered by Nic Silver and Alan Williams. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles.
Alex: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's season two of The Black Tapes Podcast. I'm Alex Reagan. We're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.
0:02:46.2
Alex: On the last episode of The Black Tapes Podcast we ended with two major revelations. Revelation one: Coralee Strand might still be alive, and perhaps living somewhere around Lake Tahoe. And revelation two: the mysterious stranger who approached me in the cafe, the man previously known as sexy James Bond, is actually a man named Thomas Warren. Who he is and how he might be connected to the black tapes or Dr. Strand, well, that's where we're going to begin to try and fit some or all of these pieces together.
A lot has happened at Pacific Northwest Stories since the end of season one, so I'm going to need Nic's help to try and catch you up. First, a bit of audio from my Black Tapes season one exit interview.
- Nic: Okay, let's dive right in, shall we?
- Alex: Sounds good to me.
- Nic: Okay, I'm gonna ask for updates on a few things I'm sure our listeners will be interested in hearing about. Cool?
- Alex: Cool.
- Nic: So first of all, any idea where Keith Dabic is currently?
- Alex: Uh, somewhere in Russia as far as we know. We're still looking for more information.
- Nic: Okay and, what about the composer Percival Black?
- Alex: Well, we're not sure if or how he fits into everything, but we're definitely still looking into Mr. Black.
- Nic: And um, brother Edward Lewis, the monks in Washington, the Brothers of the Mount?
- Alex: Yeah, um, we're looking into how they tie into everything, including the Order of the Cenophus and the mysterious advocate.
- Nic: Right, the advocate. That was something that Edward Lewis mentioned.
- Alex: Yeah.
- Nic: Okay well, as you know, we have updates on Coralee Strand and Amalia Chenkova coming up later in this episode. So, for now, an update on Thomas Warren.
- Alex: Okay.
- Nic: Turns out Thomas Warren is a bit of an enigma.
- Alex: He can't be all that mysterious, he was on the news.
- Nic: Thomas Warren is the CEO of Deva Corp.
- Alex: That's a pretty big company.
- Nic: Huge. They have their hands in drilling, food processing, wealth management, even aerospace technology. You name it, they probably own more than a bit of it.
- Alex: Huh.
- Nic: Energy appears to be their biggest focus over the past decade or so.
- Alex: Yeah, right. Deva Corporation. Okay, so what is the head of a major international energy company doing crashing my coffee date, posing as someone else?
- Nic: (laughs) I have no idea, sadly. But I'm working on it.
- Alex: Good.
- Nic: I'm currently trying to track down some people who can track down some other people who might be able to eventually track down Thomas Warren for me.
- Alex: Oh, so you and Warren aren't connected on LinkedIn?
- Alex & Nic: (laughing)
- Nic: Well, like a lot of these Fortune 500 guys, Thomas Warren has virtually no online presence. Aside from a few press conferences and news articles, he's almost non-existent.
- Alex: Wow.
- Nic: Yeah. I've emailed you everything, but there's not much there I'm afraid. All we know is that he's the boss at Deva Corp and that he used to be a lawyer.
- Alex: Maybe he's the advocate Edward Lewis mentioned?
- Nic: Yeah, it's possible. So you're positive Thomas Warren is the guy on TV, sexy JB?
- Alex: Positive.
- Nic: Alright. Well then, I'll keep digging.
- Alex: Please do.
Alex: It's been three months since Nic and I had that conversation. A lot has happened in that time. What hasn't happened is any development in the whereabouts of Amalia or Keith Dabic. But we have a lot of good people looking for us. We've also received a bunch of calls and emails from listeners who'd like to help. We're definitely looking into all of your tips, so thank you so much for taking the time to get in touch.
Now, an update from Dr. Strand.
- Strand: I feel like you're misrepresenting me and everything I stand for.
- Alex: What do you mean?
- Strand: I mean you've taken liberties with the things I've said.
- Alex: We're presenting these interviews as they were recorded.
- Strand: ...You're serious?
- Alex: Listen. If there are any specific moments you could point to that you feel misrepresented your intent, I can forward those instances to Nic, and we could...
- Strand: Specific moments. I don't have time to go through your ...material and list all the places you've chalked up my works to place up the paranormal angle, Alex.
- Alex: Okay well, I am going to need some specifics here because you're starting to sound quite accusatory.
- Strand: Specifics? How about the cabin? You made it sound as if I said sunlight formed a cross on the wall.
- Alex: You did.
- Strand: No, you edited out the part where I revised my statement and indicated that upon further inspection it didn't look like it was intentional, and that to the uninformed believer of sacred geometry it might look like a cross.
- Alex: Exactly like a cross.
- Strand: That's your opinion.
- Alex: Well in some cases, I had to make judgement calls.
- Strand: Judgement calls?
- Alex: Yes. For example, when I felt like you were being didactic, leading the listener to skepticism, disregarding any evidence to the contrary.
- Strand: (laughs bitterly) "Evidence." There was no evidence to the contrary.
- Alex: Dr. Strand, if...
- Strand: What about our visit with Simon Reese? You neglected to include all of my rational explanations for what could be behind everything.
- Alex: Well let's be fair. Most of your "explanations" were as far-fetched as the paranormal claims. You leave a lot of room for coincidence.
- Strand: Is that so?
- Alex: Most of your explanations, in that particular case, were along the lines of "This isn't scientifically possible so it's fake." You have to admit, that's not particularly convincing.
- Strand: Yes, well. I'm not the one who has to do the convincing. Remember, we have something called the scientific method.
- Alex: I understand.
- Strand: I'm not sure you do.
- Alex: I feel like my reporting struck a balance between...
- Strand: (snickering) Your reporting? You mean your blatant sensationalism.
- Alex: That's not fair.
- Strand: And I'd say it's extremely accurate.
- Alex: Could you provide an example?
- Strand: In the last episode, you claimed that the Anasazi disappeared without a trace.
- Alex: Yeah?
- Strand: But they didn't. They're still here. The Puebloan people are their descendants.
- Alex: Our research indicated some controversy over those ancestors from that specific region.
- Strand: "Your research." A cursory search of the Puebloans would reveal that they merely dispersed. But you make it sound like some crazy apocalyptic mystery, dressed up to titillate your audience! Play it up like some kind of Hollywood horror film.
- Alex: ...Look. I understand you're upset about the Coralee sighting. But we didn't intend...
- Strand: I don't want you investigating my wife. Not anymore.
- Alex: What!?
- Strand: That is no longer any of your business.
- Alex: You agreed to let me investigate you and your black tapes cases.
- Strand: Only the black tapes.
- Alex: But everything's connected!
- Strand: My wife's disappearance has nothing to do with any of this.
- Alex: How can you be sure? This Thomas Warren guy could be the Warren on Coralee's audiotape. We need to explore every possible avenue.
- Strand: This isn't some kind of game, Alex.
- Alex: What!?
- Strand: A game; a whodunnit. Some salacious mystery to draw in your listeners, to attract downloads or whatever it is.
- Alex: If Coralee's alive... that changes everything.
- Strand: Does it?
- Alex: Yes!
- Strand: For who? Exactly whose life changes if she's alive? Yours? Your producer Nic's? Whose life changes?
- Alex: Well, I'm not sure it's as simple as that.
- (long pause)
- Alex: Richard?
- (long pause)
- Strand: Goodbye, Alex.
- (phone dialing)
- Strand's voice: You've reached the Strand Institute. Please leave a message. (voicemail beep)
Alex: I haven't spoken with Dr. Strand since that conversation. Strand left his assistant, Ruby Carver, in charge of the Institute in his absence. She told me he'd taken an unofficial and temporary leave. When I asked her how long he'd been gone, she told me "an indeterminate amount of time."
As I mentioned earlier, during the break between seasons, we received a lot of listener emails and messages. Generally a mix of encouragement, tips, and reports of the paranormal. I've only had time to read and listen to a few of them myself, but Nic gets to everything eventually. One afternoon, right around the time I last spoke with Dr. Strand, I ran into a woman who'd been waiting for me outside the Pacific Northwest Stories studio. Her name is Rebecca Yi. She had apparently left us about half a dozen voice messages.
- Yi: Hi, this is a message for Alex Reagan. My name is Rebecca Yi, I live in Seattle. I sent your office an email last week about my daughter Katie. I know you're probably flooded with calls and everything, but well, I really think you'll be interested in my case. Um. I-if you read what's, um, in my email, it has the report and screenshot. Okay, goodbye.
Alex: Rebecca Yi is a single mother with a daughter named Katie, who's six. Rebecca is tall and willowy, with an air of something ... something that reminded me of Maria Torres. A certain kind of weariness around the eyes. She invited me to her apartment in Rainier Valley, just south of downtown Seattle.
- Alex: Could you please repeat what you said to me outside our office?
- Yi: (laughs) When I accosted you?
- Alex: (laughing) No, it's fine. But, if you could repeat what you told me? For our listeners?
- Yi: Of course. From the beginning?
- Alex: Please.
- Yi: Sure. Um. (clears throat) It started two years ago. Katie was four then.
- Alex: Katie's an only child?
- Yi: Yes. Her father died when she was three, a drunk driver on the I-5.
- Alex: I'm sorry.
- Yi: Thanks. We made it through. Anyway, it's when she started preschool that things started happening, like I told you.
- Alex: Could you please describe the first incident?
- Yi: Yes. Well, I'd just picked Katie up at preschool and came home to work on a client's file, I do some bookkeeping from home.
- Alex: Right.
- Yi: Well, I was sitting at the dining table when I hear um, a sound. It came from Katie's room.
- Alex: What kind of sound?
- Yi: Like... someone was moving a heavy desk across the floor. I rushed in there to check on my daughter, but she was fine. There was nothing. Aside from her sleigh bed which took four huge men to move in, she doesn't have any furniture capable of making that sound so I was worried, you know?
- Alex: Of course.
- Yi: But I assumed the sound had come from the neighbors upstairs. That night around one in the morning, I heard the sound again. Coming from Katie's room. I went to check on her and there she was, sound asleep. But... well.
- Alex: What is it?
- Yi: (sighs) Well. The bed had been moved. About a foot away from the wall.
- Alex: Huh. May I see the room?
- Yi: Of course.
- (rustling and sound of movement on floorboards)
- Yi: This is Katie's. You can see the marks on the floor where her bed was moved away from the wall.
- Alex: You're sure it wasn't Katie?
- Yi: Like I said, it took four men to lift that thing. It's extremely heavy.
- Alex: Right.
- Yi: The strange thing is, she was still sleeping.
- Alex: Right. So, what else happened?
- Yi: After that first night, I started hearing weird scraping sounds.
- Alex: From Katie's room?
- Yi: Yes. And they were loud, like, someone filing down a piece of wood. Of course I'd rush in and check, but, there'd be nothing. Just Katie sleeping.
- Alex: Did these ...things happen often?
- Yi: No, not really. Maybe once every couple of weeks? But the sounds just stopped a month or so after they started, I thought everything was fine.
- Alex: But it wasn't fine?
- Yi: No. That's when I started hearing Katie talking to someone in the middle of the night.
- Alex: Like, she was having a dream?
- Yi: No, not like a dream. It was like she was having a conversation. The first time woke me up, and I thought I was dreaming. I could hear her giggling and I remember her saying "Do it again." I walked to her room and she was standing on her bed facing the wall. She turned to me and she had this huge smile on her face. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was talking to her friend.
- Alex: Her friend?
- Yi: I asked her what friend she was talking about and she said "I can't tell you." I asked her why not and she told me that his name is really hard to say.
- Alex: And this kind of thing kept happening?
- Yi: Yes.
- Alex: ALways the same way? At night, standing on her bed?
- Yi: No, not in that way. It happened again but at different times in different parts of the house. Sometimes in the morning during breakfast she'd break out laughing and I'd ask what's so funny, and she'd say "He made me laugh." She'd be pointing over my shoulder behind me. I looked back, and of course there was nothing there. But even though it was imaginary, seeing my daughter interacting with ...whatever it was, it (sighs) it was unsettling.
- Alex: Of course. And during all this, did you think of taking her to see a psychologist? Or some other professional?
- Yi: Yes. There was a child psychologist at her school. But he just chalked it up to an active imagination and suggested I try to provide her with more stimulating activities at home.
- Alex: What'd you think of that?
- Yi: Well. It made sense. She's obviously imagining some ...one. She always liked coloring books, so I bought her some sketch pads. She took to it and it seemed to work. For a while.
- Alex: And then?
- Yi: And then, well, by this point she was in Kindergarten and I'd hired a nanny, I had to work a lot more during that time.
- Alex: Right.
- Yi: I came home one afternoon and ...well. All the living room furniture had been rearranged.
- Alex: The nanny?
- Yi: She said she didn't touch a thing.
- (footsteps and rustling)
- Yi: That sofa and table were moved to the window. And that chair was pushed to the wall. It was as if someone needed to make more space in the middle of the floor. The nanny, Elizabeth, said she was in the kitchen washing dishes while Katie drew at the table. She was just as surprised as me when I brought her into the living room.
- Alex: Did you believe her? The nanny?
- Yi: I wanted to, but I was unsure. So I installed a nanny cam, right here on this shelf. About a month later, I came home earlier than usual and I ... found something.
- Alex: What was it?
- Yi: I'll play you the recording.
- Alex: From the nanny cam?
- Yi: Right.
- (button clicks)
- Yi: Watch.
- (sound of glass shattering loudly)
- Alex: Oh my god!
- Yi: It was on the floor when I got home.
- Alex: Could you describe what happened for our listeners?
- Yi: Okay. Well. I walked in and found a dead crow in the middle of the living room. There was glass everywhere. Katie was still at school and Elizabeth was on her way to pick her up, so I reviewed the footage. (takes a deep breath) It had flown right through that window.
Alex: The nanny cam video Rebecca showed me was disturbing. It's just the living room. At that moment it's peaceful, quiet. It feels almost like a still photograph. And then... out of nowhere the crow comes smashing through the glass and lands in the middle of the floor, broken like a tiny black umbrella of blood of feathers. It slowly dies.
0:22:38.1
- Alex: Oh that poor bird. That was horrible.
- Yi: Yes. And look at this.
Alex: She rewound the footage and played it again, pausing it just before the bird comes crashing through the window.
- Yi: Look right ...(long pause) here.
- Alex: What is that?
- Yi: I don't know.
Alex: She pointed at a dark spot in the middle of the floor. The spot where the crow would eventually land. It was like a dark smudge or shadow just about the size of a basketball. It appears a split second before the crow enters the frame.
- (phone dialing)
- Strand's voice: You've reached the Strand Institute. Please leave a message. (voicemail beeps)
- Alex: It was probably the shadow of the crow before it hit the window.
- Yi: That's what I thought. But this was just after lunch and the sun was on the other side of the building which means the shadow wouldn't fall there.
- Alex: But... the light was coming from outside regardless of the sun's position. The shadow would still end up here I think. Wouldn't it?
- Yi: I don't know. But (sighs) I was a bit hysterical when I saw it. I went to meet Elizabeth at Katie's school, I didn't want my daughter in the house.
- Alex: And what did Elizabeth have to say about the crow?
- Yi: She wasn't there.
- Alex: Wait, so you had the nanny cam on when the nanny wasn't there?
- Yi: It's motion and voice activated.
- Alex: Okay. What did you do next?
- Yi: This ...might sound silly, but I rented a hotel room. I couldn't spend the night here. I told Katie we were taking a little mommy-daughter adventure.
- Alex: And how long did you stay at the hotel?
- Yi: Two nights. I spoke with a neighbor who told me that birds often flew into her windows. Something about our building being taller than the one across the street. Apparently to the birds, the reflection looks just like a clear sky.
- Alex: So, you return home and ...when was the next incident?
- Yi: A week later. Katie was sitting at the coffee table sketching in her book. The nanny cam was right up there. I was in the bathroom and had just started running a shower. After I'd been in there for a few minutes, I heard a knocking on the bathroom door. Of course I thought it was Katie, so I told her to come in. But she didn't respond. Instead she just knocked louder. I told her, "Honey, the door's unlocked just come in." But she didn't respond. I was about to call for Katie again when all of a sudden someone started banging on the bathroom door so hard and loud the door was almost coming off its hinges. It scared the hell out of me. I was frightened because there was no way Katie could hit a door that hard. I stopped the shower, wrapped myself in a towel. I could see that the door was unlocked. And as my adrenaline was starting to kick in, I remember thinking "If there was an intruder, why didn't they just come in?" I shoved open the door, worried about my daughter, but there was noone there. I called out to Katie, and there was no answer. So I ran into the living room and (sighs), there she was. I asked Katie why she'd knocked on the bathroom door and she just stared and smiled. I asked her if she'd been banging on anything and she looked around for a moment and then slowly shook her head... no. I told her not to lie to me, and she said "It wasn't me. It was him." And she pointed over there, toward the shelf where the nanny cam was.
- Alex: But there was nothing there?
- Yi: Nothing at all. Just what you see now.
- Alex: What did you do next?
- Yi: I reviewed the nanny cam footage.
- Alex: Could you show me that footage?
- Yi: Yes.
- (button clicking, tape rewinding)
- Yi: This is where I leave to go into the bathroom.
Alex: So, on the video you can see Katie sitting in profile at the coffee table, drawing in a large sketchbook. Rebecca has just passed by, walking toward the bathroom.
- Yi: I'll fast forward this part.
- Alex: Could you turn up the sound?
- Yi: Sure. (sighs) Ask you can see, Katie has moved.
- Alex: ...Oh.
- Yi: She ...gets up and walks over to the camera, and just. Stares into it. She keeps her head tilted like that, like a dog. But the ...angle is so much sharper. It's ... I'm sorry, I can't watch this.
Alex: She's right. Katie just stood there staring into the camera, her head tilted at an unnatural angle. It reminded me of those people who are double-jointed. Something about it just looked ...off. She stands there throughout the knocking and banging, just staring into the camera as if nothing was happening. But then on the video, you can see Rebecca come rushing into the living room wrapped in a towel, her hair wet from the shower, and she looks absolutely terrified. She grabs Katie by the shoulders.
- Yi: This is when I'm asking her if she heard anything.
Alex: Very slowly, Katie turns and looks directly into the nanny cam. She raises her arm and points right into it. It's really creepy. You can see Rebecca walk over and carefully inspect the camera.
- Yi: There's something else I didn't mention.
- Alex: Oh?
- Yi: I never told Katie about the nanny cam. It's not much bigger than a pinhole, and hidden in the spine of a book.
- Alex: So how did Katie know it was there?
- Yi: Katie had no idea there was a camera, let alone where it was located.
Alex: That was definitely unsettling. I was trying to make sense of all this stuff when Rebecca played the rest of the video.
- Alex: Maybe the sound came from the upstairs apartment?
- Yi: Keep watching.
- Alex: Okay.
- Yi: There.
- Alex: ...Jesus.
Alex: On the video, Rebecca exits into the kitchen and Katie returns to her drawing. But then ...from the bottom right corner of the nanny cam, something moves into the frame. It looks like the top of someone's head, right in front of the camera.
- Alex: What is that?
- Yi: ...I don't know.
- Alex: Was the nanny there?
- Yi: There was noone in this apartment except me and Katie.
- Alex: Did you call the police?
- Yi: Yes. I showed them the video, but they said that shadow could be created by anything. There was nothing they could do. (sighs) I think they thought I was crazy.
- Alex: What did you do next?
- Yi: I emailed the Strand Institute.
- Alex: D-did you get a response?
- Yi: Yes.
- Alex: Well, what did he say?
- Yi: What do you think he said?
- Alex: (breathes in) That this was nothing but a technical glitch, or a hoax, or you're after the million dollars.
- Yi: Pretty much, yeah.
- Alex: (cynical laugh) I'm not surprised.
- Yi: I felt embarrassed ...ashamed about the whole thing.
- Alex: So that's when you contacted me?
- Yi: Yes. I wanted to show you something in Katie's room. I took a photo of it.
- (keyboard keys clicking)
- Yi: This was under Katie's bed.
- Alex: ...Oh.
Alex: It was a photograph she'd taken of the floor beneath Katie's bed. On the hardwood someone had carved some very familiar signs. Numbers, pentagrams, symbols.
- Alex: Did ...Katie do that?
- Yi: Those symbols are carved pretty deep, but. I don't know. I suppose maybe she could've, but ... I just don't know why. Or at least I didn't know why, until I heard your podcast. It looks like that sacred geometry you talked about. The whole thing with Simon Reese, and Sebastian? Does it look the same to you?
- Alex: It's ...certainly similar.
- Yi: How similar.
- Alex: Pretty similar actually, but not identical. How can you be sure your nanny didn't do it?
- Yi: I can't be 100% sure, I guess. She quit. Right after she saw this on the floor. She was scared. She apologized, but she was unwilling to re enter the house. I had to mail her final check.
- Alex: Did you ask her? About the carvings?
- Yi: Of course. She said she had no idea.
- Alex: The nanny makes the most sense.
- Yi: I suppose. But I just can't see Elizabeth doing something like that.
- Alex: Right.
- Yi: And there's one more thing I have to show you.
- (button clicks)
Alex: She queued up the video of the nanny cam again. And just before that thing moved into the frame, she paused it.
- Yi: Look.
Alex: She zoomed in on Katie, and then zoomed in even further on her daughter's sketchbook.
- Yi: There.
- Alex: Oh my god, is that...?
- Yi: That's what she drew.
Alex: It wasn't the sharpest image, blurry and pixelated, but it was clear enough to make out the basics. The drawing in Katie's book looked a lot like the drawing under her bed. And a lot like the symbols connected to Sebastian Torres and Simon Reese.
- Yi: Can you help me?
- Alex: Well. I can try, I can put you in touch with Dr. Strand, but... to be honest, he's been kind of hard to reach lately.
- Yi: I don't need to see Strand. I just want to know ...is she one of them?
- Alex: W-what do you mean, "one of them"?
- Yi: Simon or Sebastian, is she like them?
- Alex: I'm not sure what you're asking, exactly.
- Yi: Is-is someone going to come for Katie the way someone came for Sebastian? Or (sighs) does she have something in her? (long pause) Should I be scared?
Alex: I told Rebecca that I was concerned, and that I wanted to introduce her to a friend of mine: a clinical psychologist and family counselor. Fortunately, she agreed. That was two weeks ago. Since Katie started her sessions with her friend, there have been no more reports of strange drawings or sounds.
- (phone dialing)
- Strand's voice: You've reached the Strand Institute. Please leave a message. (voicemail beeps)
Alex: When last season ended, Amalia, an old friend of mine ... and Nic's, who'd been looking into Percival Black and Keith Dabic for us in Russia, was missing. Or, according to her mother, on some kind of free-spirited adventure from which she'd eventually return per usual. I've known Amalia for a long time and, although when she was younger she did have a tendency toward impulsive behavior at times, this just wasn't like her. At all. She would never abandon any investigation before exhausting every possible avenue of exploration. I had the feeling that something was wrong, very wrong.
Alex: We remained very concerned about Amalia and continued to spend a lot of time and energy trying to find her, to find out what happened. And, well, there was ... there is, something else. Something I've never really experienced before. Initially I didn't want to include this in the show, but, Nic persisted. So in the interest of full disclosure surrounding the black tapes and their affect on my personal life, I have recently been experiencing insomnia. It's been pretty bad, actually. I started seeing my friend, the psychologist I sent Rebecca and her daughter to. She eventually referred me to a psychiatrist who prescribed Ambien. It hasn't helped. It's actually made things worse. I'd begun experiencing sporadic sleep disruption early in season one, but I chalked that up to overwork and the other stresses in my life. General anxiety, worry over things that happened in the past, that sort of thing. But it's gotten progressively worse. At this point, I'm lucky if I get one or two hours of uninterrupted sleep at night.
I'm not sure how much of this is of interest to the listener, but Nic has asked me to share my situation on the podcast with the hopes that addressing it publicly might help me get past it. I hope he's right. I really could use some sleep.
- Woman's voice: Hello?
- Alex: Hi, is this Elizabeth Sawyer?
- Elizabeth: Hi, this is Alex right?
Alex: Elizabeth Sawyer was Rebecca Yi's nanny. She's since moved down to Pullman, Washington for school. But she agreed to speak with me on a break between classes.
- Alex: Can you tell me about your time working for Rebecca?
- Elizabeth: There's nothing much to tell I'm afraid. I think I did a good job taking care of Katie, despite her mother's condition.
- Alex: Condition? Uh, could you elaborate?
- Elizabeth: Well, you've spoken with her right?
- Alex: Yes?
- Elizabeth: She didn't seem ...off or strange to you you?
- Alex: Well, the experiences she described could definitely be considered ...strange.
- Elizabeth: And you believe her? That she experienced those things?
- Alex: You don't?
- Elizabeth: Have you met Katie?
- Alex: No. She was at school when I visited.
- Elizabeth: Well she's a smart kid. Real smart. Like, scary smart. And, well, some weird things started happening all at once. Like that bird breaking through the window?
- Alex: The crow.
- Elizabeth: Yeah. I saw that video. Birds fly into windows every day in Seattle.
- Alex: Did you see the video with the banging? And that strange shadow that comes into the screen?
- Elizabeth: I was working there that day.
- Alex: You were?
- Elizabeth: Yeah. I don't remember that exact moment, but I was definitely cleaning up the place that day around that time. The banging could've been me, and that shape could have been my head. I used to dust those shelves once a week.
- Alex: Rebecca said you weren't there.
- Elizabeth: That's cause she doesn't want to believe it. She really wants to believe something else is going on.
- Alex: Like what?
- Elizabeth: You know, she doesn't sleep.
- Alex: Rebecca?
- Elizabeth: Yeah! She's an insomniac. And she apparently has these waking dreams. I was helping her pack lunch for Katie one time and she just stared at me like I was a ghost. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she saw something behind me. Freaked the living sh(bleeped) out of me. I almost quit that time, but that's when she explained her trouble sleeping. She gets it bad. Did she tell you what she did to Katie?
- Alex: What did she do to Katie?
- Elizabeth: I was sweeping the rooms and one day I found Katie's bed moved away from the wall. There's no way I'm moving it back, it's extremely heavy. But I looked under the bed, and that's where I saw these weird scratches. Like symbols. They were round, about the size of a very large frisbee, and right beside the symbols, a butter knife covered in dust and wood shavings.
- Alex: You think Rebecca did that, not Katie?
- Elizabeth: Katie could never move that bed.
- Alex: Couldn't she fit under it?
- Elizabeth: It wasn't Katie.
- Alex: Why would Rebecca carve symbols under Katie's bed?
- Elizabeth: Because she's nuts! She needs to see someone.
- Alex: This doesn't make any sense.
- Elizabeth: Maybe she's sick, or wants attention, or maybe she has that Baron Von Munchausen thing.
- Alex: Munchausen by proxy?
- Elizabeth: Yeah, that thing. Or maybe you're willing to believe that their apartment is haunted by a ghost that likes carving numbers and knocking on doors.
- Alex: Okay, so what makes you think Rebecca is responsible for all of this?
- Elizabeth: Well, I'm not sure if Rebecca mentioned this, but she is a fan of your show. A super fan, really. She listened all the time, tried to get me to listen. I'm sorry, but podcasts just aren't my thing.
- Alex: You think she's been manipulating her experiences? To line them up with what's been happening on The Black Tapes?
- Elizabeth: Maybe. It's possible. It seems a lot more plausible than her house being haunted by some carving ghost, doesn't it?
Alex: Rebecca claims everything happened before she'd started listening to our podcast. But maybe she's... what if she's reimagining? Or recontextualizing everything after hearing The Black Tapes? Or worse: what if she's making it all up? Putting her daughter through this just to get on the show. Yeah, I know. It's times like these I really miss Strand. I prefer taking a more open point of view and leaving the cynical side to him. He's much better at it than I am.
- Nic: I spoke with Ruby at the Strand Institute again. She says she hasn't heard anything from the good doctor, but I'm...
- Alex: You don't believe her (laughs).
- Nic: No, it's not that, I. It's just, she's a hard one to read.
- Alex: I think I'm gonna have to go to Chicago.
- Nic: Okay, but before you go, there's something else.
- Alex: What?
- Nic: So I looked into the company that paid for Strand's residency at the university?
- Alex: And?
- Nic: And I couldn't find anything aside from the fact that it was a not for profit company that wished to remain anonymous.
- Alex: Oh. That doesn't sound good.
- Nic: No, but I've picked up some research tips recently and I was able to track down the name of the company, which lead me through an umbrella of corporations until I got to...
- Alex: Deva Corporation?
- Nic: Not that easy, I'm afraid. But I was able to find a physical address for them here in Seattle.
- Alex: Ah! Okay. Well I'll stop by that address when I get back from Chicago.
- Nic: Sounds good.
- Alex: Good.
Alex: Ruby Carver is Strand's assistant. I've met her a few times in the past, but she's previously been unwilling to allow us to record her voice for the podcast. She was in the middle of cataloging a bunch of Strand Institute website inquiries when I knocked on the door.
- (door opening)
- Alex: Hi, Ruby.
- Ruby: Hey.
Alex: Ruby Carver is in her mid-to-late twenties, shoulder length brunette hair hangs like a half-moon over one of her eyes. Today she was wearing ripped jeans, black and white checkered vans, a Red Dwarf t-shirt, and a look that revealed a marked lack of patience. I was eventually able to get her to sign a release form.
- Alex: So any word from Dr. Strand?
- Ruby: No.
- Alex: Any idea where I can find him?
- Ruby: Sorry, no.
- Alex: (long pause) What are you working on?
- Ruby: Collecting all the reports, putting them into various folders. Ghosts, demons, apparitions, and shakers.
- Alex: What's the difference between ghosts and apparitions?
- Ruby: I don't have time to explain that, but I can send you some links if you like.
- Alex: Okay.
- Ruby: Great. Well, I have to uh, run this stuff downstairs? I'll be right back.
- Alex: Okay.
- (footsteps)
- (door opening)
- Alex: Oh.
- Ruby: You can't be in here!
Alex: Ruby caught me a few minutes after I'd opened the door to Strand's office. It was ...intense. Strand had gone full conspiracy nut. Like, Carrie Mathison on Homeland, thread and pins on the wall crazy. There were documents, post it notes, fragments and bits of pages taped to magazine articles and maps. There were a few old computers with different types of disk and tape drives. It was clear, Strand had stepped off into the deep end. Way off. After seeing the state of his office, I was really worried. I was about to demand that Ruby put me in touch with Strand immediately, when:
- Ruby: You can't be in here!
- Strand: It's okay, Ruby.
- Alex: (long pause) ...Hi.
- Strand: Please. Sit down. (long pause) I need your help.
Alex: So just like that, Strand was back. Next week, we'll be digging into Thomas Warren and the mystery of Coralee Strand. Plus, I get a break in the mystery Amalia was investigating in Russia. And Strand takes a look at the uncanny nanny cam footage. It's The Black Tapes Podcast, I'm Alex Reagan. We'll be back again in two weeks.
The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production. Recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced by Nic Silver. Mixed and engineered by Nic Silver and Alan Williams. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles.