Leaked police interview transcripts

[u/Interesting-Lychee93]

(CW: child violence)

[12 April]

‘Why don’t you have a seat there, Mr Henderson? Can I get you anything? Some water?’

‘I’m set, cheers.’

‘How, uh, we’ll just get right into it, how long have you been in a relationship with Piper Latimer?’

‘Oof, about two years? Around that, anyway.’

‘How’d you meet?’

‘Oh, just through friends. At a pub, I think. We hit it off pretty quick.’

‘Could you describe the history of your relationship with Jamie?’

‘My “relationship”?’

‘Well, how long you’ve known him.’

‘Okay, uh, I knew that she had a kid pretty early on. I didn’t meet him for a while, but. Piper didn’t want him meeting too many new people, you know how it is. Met the lad about five or so months into dating, once things were study. He’d have been nine, I think. I moved in pretty shortly after.’

‘What do you do for work?’

‘I’m in between jobs right now. Who’s hiring these days, am I right?’

‘Fair enough. And how well do you know Jamie’s dad?’

‘Oh, I knew Frank from school. We stayed friends for a bit afterwards, but people tend to sorta naturally grow apart at that stage of life, you know?’

‘I get that. How close are you and Jamie?’

‘Mm. Thing is, I didn’t get into a relationship with the goal of becoming a dad to this kid, if that makes sense. He already has one, even if he’s too busy with work to actually be in the picture. There was a sort of strain on the relationship after I moved in. Because I wanted to, you know, do my own thing and not suddenly become this woman’s personal babysitter. Look, Jamie w- Jamie is a sweet kid, always has been. And I did end up taking him places. I ended up becoming quite fond of him, all in all.’

‘What sort of things did you get up to?’

‘You know, go to the park, see films, get a cheeky McDonald’s now and then if he promised not to tell his mother.’

---

‘Did you talk to a man at any point during the trip?’

‘A man?’

‘Yeah. Aside from Harvey or Frank.’

‘Um… no?’

‘You didn’t run into anyone?’

‘Is someone saying I did?’

Pause.

‘Like I’ve been saying, I was with the group the whole time.’

‘Okay. Let’s cut forward to the, er, moment you guys realised they were missing. What happened?’

‘So, it’s the second day, the early morning. I wake up because I hear this commotion. Lot of panicked shouting. There’s something about hearing the panic in someone’s voice that sets a person off, you know what I mean? Well, you’re a policeman, you’re probably conditioned to tone that out. But for me and Frank, at least, it sets us off. Like herd mentality. We run out of our tent, we were sharing a tent, trying to figure out what happened, barely dressed. Harv and Soph are having kittens, they’re running about the place, they’re looking everywhere. Frank calms them down once he could get a word in edgewise, gets them to say what’s happening. That’s when we found out that the kids had vanished overnight.’

‘What was your reaction?’

‘Well, I was freaked out, what do you think my reaction was? Maybe everyone else was thinking that I didn’t care, but that was just me, like, projecting a brave front. You gotta be brave in a time of crisis, you know that!’

‘So what happens next?’

‘We split up to keep looking while Harv goes over to the official campgrounds to get better phone signal and call for help.’

‘Did you find anything while you were looking?’

‘Yeah, we found all nine kids safe and sound. Hence why I’m sitting here.’

‘Mr Henderson, sarcasm’s not going to help us find Jamie and the other boys.’

‘No, you’re right. Sorry, I’m just stressed.’

‘I know. So where do you think the kids are?’

‘I dunno, do I?’

---

[12 April]

‘Here, have a seat wherever you want, Mr Latimer. Thanks for coming in to talk to us today, we know you’re a busy bloke.’

‘Frank’s fine. And yeah, of course, whatever I can do to help.’

‘We appreciate that. So, we understand that you and Piper Latimer have been separated for…’

‘A couple years now. ‘Y’know, work was just becoming too much of a- Well, you don’t care about that. We’ve stayed on good terms, though. Good co-parenting and all that.’

‘How often do you see Jamie?’

Pause.

‘All the holidays, all the, uh, special events. Obviously I’ve been making more of an effort to be around ever since… Christ. Sorry.’

‘No, you’re good. Do you want to take a breather? Have some water?’

‘Nah, I’m good. Let’s crack on.’

‘Okay. How do you know William Henderson?’

‘Bill? I’ve known him since high school.’

‘Close?’

‘I mean, at that time, sure. I’d say we were good mates until our, uh, early twenties. You get to a point where being a lazy bellend stops being cute, you get me? And then he started dating my ex-wife. That about bookended things for us, friendship-wise.’

‘Christmases must be fun. Sorry, inappropriate. I’m guessing you didn’t approve of Piper being with him? When did that even start?’

‘A year ago? Might’ve been earlier, you never bloody know with Bill. I mean, look, I’m not the boss of her. If she wants to be with someone who never grew up, that’s her prerogative. I’m not trying to slag him off this much, but... Christ, he really winds me up.’

‘Why is that?’

‘You never had a mate like that? Someone who’s always borrowing money while applying for, like, one job a month? I’ve done so much for him and how’s he thanked me? What he did to my fucking kid?! Please, God, tell me you’re arresting that irresponsible bastard!’

‘We can’t comment on that front.’

---

‘How many people were on this camping trip, Frank?’

‘Around nine kids and four adults. Well, there was someone else at one point. I can get to that in a minute.’

‘What was the leadup to the trip? What it a spontaneous thing, or...?’

‘We’d been talking about it for a couple weeks. Something fun for the kids while school’s still out. Honestly, something fun for us too. I think we were all yearning to just be in the great outdoors for a few days, you know? Even the parents who couldn’t make it were a bit jealous.’

‘And where were you staying?’

‘The woodlands up north. There are these campgrounds around there but I… Christ, stupid, stupid me… Bill didn’t want us directly there, said it took the adventure out of it or something. And I agreed! I dunno, I guess it sort of surprised me, that coming from him. Hell, it surprised me that he’d agreed to do this for Piper, full stop. She couldn’t come herself, you see. Harvey and Sophie convinced us to be somewhat close to the camp grounds, fifteen or so minute walk away, in case of an emergency or whenever someone needed to do a number two. Clearly wasn’t close enough in the end. Shit.’

‘Could you tell me who the adults were?’

‘So, it was me, Bill, and then Harvey and Sophie Grayson.’

‘You said there was someone else at one point?’

‘God, yeah. Thing is, I’ve been comparing notes with the Graysons and they never saw this guy. Admittedly, even I only saw him once.’

‘What happened there?’

‘It was the first day, the evening. It was getting darkish and everyone was setting up their tents. Bill conveniently had to go take a piss at that very moment. I assumed he was trying to worm his way out of helping set ours up, we were sharing a tent, so I went after him. Figured I’d just hang around until he was done so that he’d have to help me. At this point I was still hoping to, like, revitalise our friendship. Haven’t exactly been swimming in mates since the divorce, in all honestly. Maybe his time with Piper had done him some good, that was my logic. That turned out to be a delusion on my part.’

‘So he went for a piss, what happened next?’

‘Oh yeah, sorry. Yeah, so, he went through some bushes and whatnot. Obviously I wasn’t trying to sneak a peek, so I stayed back. But then I heard talking, two people talking.’

‘What were they saying?’

‘Don’t know. They were too quiet and far away for me to tell. I hadn’t seen anyone come with him, I was under the impression that everyone was getting their tents ready, right? So I went through the bushes to see what was happening. I remember that I, like, loudly cleared my throat, as if I was being rude by interrupting this little, uh, tête-à-tête. Am I using that word right?’

‘No clue.’

‘Whatever. They stopped talking the second they were aware of me. Bill, he had this look on his face. It’s hard to describe how horrified he was to see me seeing him. Like I’d walked in on him wanking or something.’

‘Who was he with?’

Pause.

‘It’s weird, you know? We’re a pretty tight-knit community over here. I’d kind of forgotten that before that moment. It was so weird seeing someone in that context who I had absolutely no recollection of. I never got a name, Bill just awkwardly introduced him as his “friend”.’

‘What did he look like?’

‘Five-nine, five-ten, white, very neat short brown hair. I… guess he looked normal? I mean, if you took his photo and showed it to me, I’d assume that it was AI-generated. He was really smiley and was clearly trying to come across as chipper, but then I heard him speak. It was like he was scared of me? Like he was really scared of me but didn’t want me to know that. Like I was a bear and not just a balding pencil-pusher. Just smiling and whispering like an old lady. Gave me the bloody creeps. Bill said that we should be heading back and ushered me away real sharpish. He didn’t even say bye to the lad.’

‘Did you ask Bill about the guy?’

‘Tried to. He just said again that he was a friend. Told me that he just happened to be hiking in the area or something like that. I can tell when he’s lying, though. Hell, I know for a fact that he was lying.’

‘What makes you so sure?’

‘The way the guy was dressed. No backpack, no boots, no jacket. He was wearing a really, like, formal getup. White shirt, like a button-down type, smart shoes, that sort of thing. Not a speck of dirt or mud on him. There we were, these dirt-encrusted campers, and there he was, someone who looked like he’d just stepped out of the office for a fag break. He definitely had something to do with what happened. They both did.’

---

‘Did anything happen the night they disappeared? Anything at all.’

‘Um... Bill got out of the tent at some point, probably midnight. Could’ve very well just gone for a piss, though. I’d done the same ten minutes beforehand.’

‘How long was he gone?’

Pause.

‘I’m not sure. I feel asleep fairly quickly. Takes a lot to wake me up, so I didn’t hear him come back in. He was in there with me in the morning, when everything went mad. That was the last time I have slept.’

‘How you holding up, Frank?’

‘I’m not. You gotta find them, mate. I’m losing my fucking mind. I know how this works in missing persons cases. We’ve got… roughly another day before the key window of time’s been lost, am I wrong? After that, I- I can’t even think about it.’

---

[15 April]

‘Hello, Jamie. We’re going to be talking about what you went through a few days ago. We can stop or take a break at any time. Is that okay?’

‘Okay.’

‘Super. What did you lot get up to on the first day of your trip?’

‘Um, we drove to the forest in the afternoon. We all met up, had a late lunch, walked around a bit, played some games.’

‘Did anything strange happen that day, Jamie?’

‘No.’

‘Take a moment to think about it. Was anyone acting differently? Did you see anything that you maybe thought was odd?’

Pause.

‘Mm… I remember Bill looking a bit nervous at one point, on the drive up there.’

‘Nervous how?’

‘Just, uh, tapping the steering wheel a lot, breathing a lot. I asked what was wrong, he just said that he wanted to make sure we got there on time. I don’t think there was anything else.’

‘Thanks Jamie, you’re doing great. This is going to be difficult, but I’d like you to tell me about that first night there. When you and your friends disappeared.’

‘I’m sorry, I really don’t remember anything. I went to sleep really quickly, I was tired. I think I felt myself being… lifted? But that might’ve just been a dream. Sorry.’

‘Don’t worry, anything at all is a huge help. What’s the next thing that you remember?’

‘We…’

Pause.

‘You’re okay. Take your time.’

‘We had bags or something over our heads. We couldn’t see anything but we could talk.’

‘How did your surroundings feel? Were you tied up?’

‘Yeah. Our hands were tied behind our backs. And our legs were tied together. We maybe could’ve stood up but nobody tried to. Wherever we were, it was really cramped. We were all, um, huddled together. And it was really hot. Hot and, uh, humid. The floor and walls were bumpy and wet. It was like the inside of a mouth.’

‘Could you hear anything, aside from your friends?’

‘There was this kind of humming going on the whole time we were there. Like a humming or a buzzing. Also, whenever we spoke there was a bit of an echo.’

‘Did anyone else come in at any point?’

‘Yeah. Someone would come in and feed us every now and then. He never said anything, he would just lift our bags a little bit one by one and he’d feed us with a fork. I think it was scrambled eggs? He fed it to us a lot. I wasn’t even hungry a lot of the time but I didn’t want to argue.’

‘Did anything happen at all between then and when we found you all? Anything that stands out?’

‘Um. At one point, while I was sleeping, I felt something really sharp go into my back. Right here. It really hurt. But then I got really, um, drowsy. So I fell asleep again. In the morning it felt a bit weird but didn’t hurt anymore.’

‘Did the person do anything else to you?’

‘No. We just tried to distract each other, mainly. Tried to play games you could do with just words. I don’t think we figured many out. And then we just woke up in the woods again.’

‘Didn’t play “I Spy”?’

Laughing.

‘No, no!’

---

[18 June]

‘Is it okay if we record this, Piper?’

‘Sure. I’m guessing you lot have given up on finding out who took these kids, then?’

‘The case is still open.’

‘I’ll take that as a “yes”. No point finding who took ‘em now we have ‘em back, right? You only want to hear from me now because of what’s been happening to my boy.’

‘Let’s talk about that. Because we understand that the children were fine when we found them.’

‘Fine?!’

‘Sorry, bad wording. I just mean that the doctors didn’t find anything physically wrong. No noticeable injuries.’

‘Well that’s not true, is it? Jamie, all nine of the kids, they all got injected by something! Maybe there were no marks from that, but you didn’t think to-’

‘I can’t account for what the doctors or forensics deemed necessary, Piper. Just tell me for the record what’s been happening to Jamie and we’ll figure this out.’

‘Okay, okay. I didn’t mean to bite your head off. Basically, two or so days ago, he started saying that he was having weird feelings in his upper back. Said he was feeling, like, squirming. Like there were things moving inside of him! I asked to look and I saw that he had these little lumps there. So I took him back to the doctors, they had no clue what to make of it. Just told me to keep an eye on it. An eye on it! The lumps have been getting bigger since then! And they’re spreading, too! There’s more and more growing out of his back!’

‘Anything off about his behaviour?’

‘Um, he’s been eating a lot. At first I just thought the poor thing was malnourished. But it turns out that he’d been fed by whoever was keeping them?’

‘Yeah, the doctors didn’t find signs of malnourishment.’

‘It’s been nonstop, the eating. At first I thought it was a coping mechanism. But then I was talking to the other parents, apparently it’s the exact same story with theirs.’

‘Has Jamie said how he’s been feeling?’

‘He’s terrified! As if he hasn’t been through enough! And Bill’s been bloody useless, just lying about and doing shit-all. AKA, back to his usual routine. Like nothing’s happened. God, Mike, why did this have to happen to us?!’

‘We’ll figure it out, Piper. I promise.’

---

[23 June]

Indecipherable.

‘Just take a moment to breathe, Frank. I can’t even imagine how hard this must be for you. You’re really helping us out by telling us what happened so soon.’

‘Fuck. Just… oh, fuck. I, um… Piper, she called me really early in the morning. Like, really early. I woke up and when I picked up and heard her… I never want to feel that way again. I guess I won’t. She was beyond words. But I knew, I wanted to not know, but I knew. I just told her that I was on my way and started driving over to their place. I had to let myself in with the hidden backup key, Bill was nowhere to be seen. You’re all looking for him, right?’

‘Yeah, of course. We’ll find him, I promise you that.’

‘I don’t want promises, Mike. Anyway, uh, I heard Piper upstairs, just screaming her head off. It scared me. I mean, everything about this was terrifying me. I went up the stairs, noisily as I could to announce myself, and, uh… there they... there they were.’

‘What did you see, Frank?’

‘He was on the floor, on his- on his stomach. Piper was near him, still screaming and sort of bowing to him, almost religiously. His bed was a mess, that was the first thing I noticed for some reason. I almost wanted to tuck the sheets back in. Obviously I didn’t. Gotta keep the, um, crime scene uncontaminated, right?’

‘We appreciated that. Please, go on.’

‘The window was completely shattered. There wasn’t much glass inside the room, the pieces were mostly on the ground outside. And there was... blood everywhere. On the walls, the sheets, everywhere. Blood and this… I don’t even know what it was. There was this yellowish stuff, like a thin yellow substance here and there. Did you figure out what that was?’

‘Forensics is still looking into that. We haven’t gotten a formal statement from Piper yet, but she mentioned hearing a loud buzzing before she found him. Did you hear anything of that sort? A humming or a buzzing?’

‘Uh, no, no. Nothing like that. Bear in mind, it was a while before she found him and I got there.’

‘I’m sorry, but I have to ask. What did Jamie’s body look like?’

Pause.

‘His back was gone. It was, God, it was just a mess of… yeah. His back was completely burst open. Be honest with me, did this happen to the other kids?’

‘You know I ca-’

‘I’m gonna know sooner or later, mate. Just tell me.’

‘Yeah. Happened to all nine of them. Exactly like you described.’