Decypher

During the spring of 2008, many emails circulated around southern United States about a strange phenomenon known as “The 4:00 am Killer”. These emails usually stated made-up incidents about teens getting murdered within 4:00 am and 4:12 am, usually with bad grammar, cheesy stories and threats stating if you don’t re-send this to 5 different people you will die the same way. This was all a load of shit, other than a specific email, that was never intended to be a chain email.

On April 4th, 2008 a man by the name of Thomas Welts received an email from an old friend named Richard “Richie” Samson whom he lost contact with years ago. He was surprised that he even knew his email, as the last time he had saw Richie was at his high school graduation in 1996. After that, Richie was never really heard from at all. Even to most people who knew Richie, claimed that he was the kind of guy that “disappeared from existence” every now and then.

Now, in high school Richie was quite the kid. He generally got obsessed with things he couldn’t figure out. The strange thing is that, most of the time he’d accidentally find out the answer, when he’d look back at his previous studies, as stated from his diary. He did keep a diary, and in it he wrote down what he knew about whatever it was that he was trying to figure out. And, almost always, he’d figure it out from looking at past studies. The reason why this is strange is because it must mean that subliminally he already knew the answer, and his brain told him by incorporating it in his writings.

Truth is, Richie was fairly messed up. He had Social Anxiety Disorder, and rarely was seen conversing with people in high school. He spent his lunches in in a café down the street from their high school with his diary and notes, and just wrote down whatever he could figure out. A murder that happened in the area years ago, that went unsolved. He eventually found out who did it, how it was committed, and where it was committed. He always said that he was able to figure out the answer by looking at his notes, but when the authorities looked at the notes, they always seemed to find nothing.

Because of all his findings, his diary was quite valuable to the law. Murder cases that went unsolved were in fact solved, cases were closed, and justice was served. He even led the cops to a burial ground that contained $10 000 worth of stolen jewelry. It was later returned to the local jewelry shop, and the stolen goods made for a great tourist attraction. The town praised his diary, and it had almost 900 pages of writing.

Lying on the last few pages was the last mystery Richie ever solved. It was about the 4:00 am killer, and Richie tried to come to a conclusion. In his diary it stated he did, but he never wrote down the answer. It simply said “perceiving is reality, I cannot go on knowing everything.” Linking this to the email he sent to Thomas is more difficult. There was almost no record of him existing since 2001, as he never went anywhere or did anything. This made it difficult for Thomas to find him. The body of the email he sent to Thomas at 4:06 am on April 4th simply said:

“It’s been eght days since I last saw my family, and I am ore than afraid. I on’t know what to do, but I’ll find out soon, sadly. I last saw that thing… Christ its eys looking right at me… I have a feeling I wont be here long, just you hve to help me. Please, I nee your help.”

Not having an idea what it meant, Thomas replied numerous times. Never getting any sort of answer, he became frustrated. Thomas went on a trip to his old home town in Ponca City, Oklahoma and visit Richie’s old house. After that, Thomas wasn’t heard from in 4 days. After his wife began to worry, she decided to go look for him. When she arrived where Thomas said he’d be, at Richie’s house, she saw the door wide open. As soon as she walked in, lying on the dinner table was Thomas, with a single, but fatal stab wound right in his neck.

“KILL” was written numerous times on the wall with his blood, and there was absolutely no sign of struggle. But perhaps the strangest mystery was the finger prints that were used to write “KILL” on the wall were a complete match to Thomas’s. To this day, no one knows what that email meant. Or why Richie sent it. But when you think about it, Richie was able to figure out things by looking back at what he wrote, right? Perhaps that explains that the spelling errors in his email, “eght”, “ore”, “on’t”, “eys”, “hve” and “eed” which are missing letters I, M, D, E, A, D…

-W97