Partial transcript from ‘After the Carver’ Episode 2
[Intro music fades in]
KENNEDY:
On our last episode, we told you about the first victim. My father.
FREYA:
Unfortunately, his abduction and murder was just the beginning.
KENNEDY:
Over the next four months, the Carver killed twelve more people. And today, we want to talk about them.
FREYA:
This won’t be a full breakdown of each case. Those are coming later in the season, when we can talk to friends and family.
KENNEDY:
This episode is more about giving them space. Saying their names out loud before we give you a brief rundown of their cases.
FREYA:
And if you’re expecting a pattern… don’t. That’s part of what makes the Carver case so disturbing.
KENNEDY:
Yup. Many serial killers target a certain ‘type’. Like Ted Bundy, for example. He generally went after young women with long, dark hair. And Jeffrey Dahmer targeted young men, often people of color, many of whom were gay.
FREYA:
The Carver’s victims were nothing alike. Different ages, races, genders. Some were rich, and some were living paycheck to paycheck. Some were strangers to each other, and others knew each other. That last one makes sense in a city as small as Corwin Bay.
KENNEDY:
For those unfamiliar with the city, its population is around fifty thousand people. So not everyone knows each other, but everyone knows someone who knows someone. But still, nothing really tied all thirteen of the Carver’s victims together.
FREYA:
Nothing... except the way they died.
KENNEDY:
The lack of a pattern in victims was really unsettling, and it terrified everyone in Corwin Bay. Because without a pattern, it meant no one was safe.
FREYA:
Yeah. If you can’t figure out why they were chosen, how do you even begin to figure out who might be next?
KENNEDY:
Exactly. So… let’s get into it. We’ll go in the order the victims disappeared, after my father.
FREYA :
The Carver’s second victim was Silas Boone, forty-two-year-old CEO of BooneTech Solutions and father of one.
He was at home preparing for a Christmas party on the day he was taken, packing gift bags with his seven-year-old son in the main living room while his wife and housekeeper were in the kitchen working on the food.
Someone rang the doorbell, and Silas answered.
His son later told police that he heard a scuffling noise at the door, but he didn’t see anything.
He thought it was probably a guest arriving early and taking their coat or shoes off.
KENNEDY:
I think most people would assume the same thing, given the circumstances.
FREYA :
Agreed. Anyway, he got curious and looked out the window a couple of minutes later, and he saw his father being shoved into the back of a black car. That was the last time Silas was ever seen.
KENNEDY:
The second riddle showed up at the police station later that day. As with the previous riddle, it was long, cryptic, and referenced local landmarks in disturbing ways. It took the police eight days to solve it.
By the time they arrived at the correct location in Corwin Bay National Park, nothing was left apart from some bloody scraps of clothing and a pair of shoes that Silas’s wife identified as his.
FREYA :
The third victim was Heather Voss, a forty-one-year-old stay at home mom and amateur writer.
She was on a late-night gas run at Capeside Pump-N-Ride in Northwest Corwin Bay while her husband was at home with their daughter.
The attendant inside saw a tall man in dark, hooded clothing dragging her away from the pump before shoving her in the back seat of a black car.
He called the police immediately, but it was too late.
The gas station surveillance footage was no help, because the plates on the black car were fake.
KENNEDY:
The Carver was seriously brazen in those early cases, wasn’t he? Almost like he wanted to be seen.
FREYA :
Yeah. And it doesn’t get much more brazen than the fourth case, where Brian Delgado, a forty-five-year-old lawyer at Henderson, Marks & Lowe, was snatched right in front of the downtown firm as multiple cars passed by.
KENNEDY:
He was working late that night, along with a paralegal identified only as ‘Teri’ by investigators, presumably to protect her privacy. Teri told the police that Brian left the office around half past eight. She stayed behind to finish some filing, and then she saw a strange flash of light.
She went to the window and looked, and on the street, five stories below, was Brian.
He was holding his cellphone and waving it around, clearly trying to attract attention from anyone in the surrounding buildings or passing cars.
A man in black had him by the shoulders, yanking him away from his parked car and attempting to drag him into the car behind.
FREYA :
A black sedan, of course.
KENNEDY:
Yup. Teri called the police immediately and watched the harrowing scene unfold as she waited for their arrival. But within seconds, the hooded man finally overpowered Brian. He stuffed him into the back of the black car and took off.
FREYA :
The fifth victim, Christopher Miles, was a thirty-six-year-old psychiatric nurse at Corwin Bay Regional Hospital.
He disappeared after a late shift. Hospital surveillance didn’t catch the abduction, because—as is the case with most hospitals on any given day or night—the parking lots were absolutely packed, so Christopher’s car was in the overflow staff parking across the road.
KENNEDY:
Where there were no cameras. No witnesses, either. But investigators can be confident that he was taken by the Carver, because—
FREYA :
—there was a huge blood trail leading away from his car, and then another riddle showed up the next morning at Corwin Bay’s main police precinct. It took the cops five days to solve it.
As with the previous four victims, that was far too long. By the time they correctly identified the right spot in the vast woods to the northwest of the city, nothing remained but Christopher’s blood and hair, due to wildlife predation.
KENNEDY:
After that, the police got better at solving the riddles. The next eight victims were found within one to two days of their disappearances. Unfortunately, they were already dead.
FREYA :
Cut into pieces and left in piles around the spots identified in each riddle.
KENNEDY:
Those victims were: Lila Granger, a nineteen-year-old arts student at Corwin Bay Community College. She loved tarot cards, indie films, and documenting dreams in a blog. She was last seen walking home from a classmate’s apartment.
FREYA :
Then there was Marcus Cheung, thirty-three. HVAC repairman. Quiet, reliable, worked long hours to support his parents. Last seen on a house call in a residential suburb.
KENNEDY :
That was the point where the city started to feel like a pressure cooker. Seven victims in nine weeks. All people from different walks of life.
FREYA :
Yeah, the general vibe in Corwin Bay was horrible back then. Everyone was on edge all the time. Home security companies probably quadrupled their usual profits.
KENNEDY:
After another month passed without incident, people finally started to think the Carver might’ve stopped, The general mood started to lighten, just a little.
But then, five weeks after Marcus Cheung’s death, Heather Doyle went missing.
She was twenty-seven. A tattoo artist. She was abducted from her studio in what initially looked like a break-in… but nothing was taken.
FREYA :
A week after that, there was Jenna Roth, a thirty-eight-year-old third-grade teacher. She always organized the school's canned food drive and knitted scarves for every kid in her class.
KENNEDY:
Then there was Oscar Raines, fifty. Local radio DJ who hosted a late-night show called Dark Frequencies . The last thing he ever said on-air was ‘ Stay safe out there, Corwin Bay’ after talking about the ongoing Carver case.
FREYA :
After that, there was Natalie Jagger, twenty-nine. Instagram fitness coach and former Miss Corwin Bay. Known for her pink boxing gloves and relentless positivity. Her followers noticed something was amiss when her usually-frequent posts suddenly stopped.
KENNEDY:
Sidenote: it still blows my mind how different all the victims were.
FREYA:
Yeah, me too.
KENNEDY:
After Natalie, there was Elliot Parr, sixty-one. Retired dock worker. His fishing boat was found adrift at dawn. He wasn’t on it.
FREYA :
And finally, there was Theresa Linwood, fifty-eight. Head librarian at Corwin Bay Library. She ran the city’s very popular book club for nearly twenty years. Her dog was found barking behind a locked front door. She never made it home to feed him.
KENNEDY:
[Long exhale] Twelve people. Twelve stories.
FREYA:
And just like Kennedy’s dad, they all deserved better.
KENNEDY:
In later episodes, we’re going to talk to the people who loved them. Who still miss them. Because maybe in those memories, we’ll find what the Carver saw in them.
FREYA:
That’s what this show is about. Trying to find the thread that ties everything together.
KENNEDY:
If that thread even exists. And we’re damn well hoping it does.
FREYA:
For now, we’re going to go over the connections that exist between the victims. As we said earlier, they’re generally considered to be coincidences, given the size of Corwin Bay.
But maybe someone out there will hear this and suddenly remember something. Something that turns one of those tiny, tenuous connections into something bigger. Something with teeth.
KENNEDY:
Yeah, that’s something we’re really hoping for. Because, in my opinion, thirteen people don’t get chosen for no reason. I think there is a reason. We just haven’t found it yet.
FREYA:
I agree. There’s something in the victimology. Something everyone has always missed. Even the FBI, once they were called in to take over the investigation.
KENNEDY: