Some psychopath is trying to become TikTok famous at the expense of my daughter
Some psychopath is trying to become TikTok famous at the expense of my daughter
The world of TikTok and Snapchat and whatever other emerging social media platforms, that my 11 year old daughter watches has always been something, I found as being childish and didn’t interest me much.
However, when online news media outlets, like Yahoo and MSN would derive their stories from TikTok, then I said why not and at least give TikTok a try.
I was pleasantly surprised by TikTok on its numerous topics people post about everything from cats, to military, to true crime video posts.
Some of the posts on TikTok, I do find childish, but eventually TikTok has filtered them out and honed in on the things a 38 year old guy likes, like true crime mysteries. I love watching videos on people who have mysteriously vanished or grainy footage of unknown suspects, who have never been caught.
So given that my daughter has just left a few hours ago for a weekend retreat at a Girls Scout camp, I decided to indulge on TikTok.
The old Girl Scout leader, Macy had gotten diagnosed with cancer, so she had to regrettably step down, but thankfully another mother has volunteered to step in as the new leader.
With my now separated wife, Sheila, who is still “trying to find herself,” I am just happy that my daughter, Grace has something to do this weekend, rather than just mope around the house feeling depressed.
The new leader, Carol was nice enough to pick up Grace, along with her own daughter, Raquel and another girl named Amanda, as well and drive them to a campground in the Poconos.
Carol sold me on her years of being involved with the Girl Scouts, so I’m going to do nothing more than relax this weekend.
I start to swipe through TikTok videos and find mostly crime related posts that I have seen already, so I decide to expand beyond the people I’m following to see what’s new on TikTok.
A post came up that caught my attention, because it said “Girl Scout tragic camping trip” that was posted by @serialkillerblossoms. I really didn’t want to watch the video because I didn’t want to get paranoid and draw parallels to the possibility that something similar could happen to Grace on her current trip.
But whoever coined the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” probably was thinking of some numbskull like me.
I clicked on Part 1 of the video that was posted five days ago, which showed the outside of a small yellow unmarked school bus. The creator of the video then showed the interior of the bus, which looked like your typical smaller bus with about six rows of seats. The camera person pointed to various video cameras installed throughout the bus. I wasn’t sure the intent of this Part 1 video. I didn’t know if this bus was part of a crime that had happened in the past or just some type of converted recreational RV.
My interest was weaning, but I decided to click on Part 2 anyways.
This time the bus was moving and I could make out kids on the back of the bus. The video camera was by the driver and I couldn’t make out much more than there was about three kids sitting on the bus. Then with just a few seconds left on the TikTok post, a different camera angle is shown.
As I’m sitting on my living room couch, I start to make out the faces of the kids. They appear to be middle school aged girls and something inside me tells me to look at when the video was posted, which was three hours ago.
When I see girls that are around my daughter’s age, I typically get a sense of empathy because whatever is going to happen in this series of TikTok posts, isn’t going to be good and I never want anything bad to happen to my daughter or anyone else’s kids.
But this time, my brain couldn’t get over a hump, because one of the girls looked spot on to Grace, however I didn’t want to commit to this theory, so I played Part 2 again.
Unfortunately, I can’t fast forward the video, so I have to wait again for the last few seconds. As I’m waiting, my mind is going through the what if’s. Most importantly what if that girl is actually my daughter?
As the video nears to its end and zooms in on the girls, my worst nightmare comes true as I take a screenshot of the video. My daughter left wearing a Niagara Falls souvenir sweatshirt that she bought a few months ago. Also, the two other girls look like Amanda and Raquel.
My thoughts instantaneously go to, why is my daughter sitting on a bus and not Carol’s car? And why is someone videotaping the girls?
I quickly click on Part 3 of the video series which was posted two hours ago.
This video shows the three girls still sitting on the bus, where each of the two other girls are sitting on the isle ends of the back seats and my daughter is sitting right in front of them. I could tell right away by my daughter’s facial expressions that something isn’t right. Grace isn’t crying, but I could tell that she looks like she is confused and scared, where Raquel and Amanda have the same frightened facial expressions.
I really start to panic as I reach for my phone and attempt to call Carol.
“I’m sorry this phone number your trying to reach is no longer in service, goodbye.”
“What the hell!” I say out loud in a confused tone.
Then, I try to call Grace’s phone which goes straight to voicemail.
I fall deeper into this nightmare as I frantically try to find the phone number for Amanda’s mother. Grace’s mother, Sheila used to deal with all the Girl Scout issues, so I’m limited with contact information. Luckily, I am able to get into Sheila’s email account, where I look for Girl Scout names and phone numbers. I find Amanda’s name with her mother, Joy’s phone number, so I quickly dial the number.
“Hello, Joy! Listen this is Grace’s father, Ted. Are you aware of Carol taking the girls on a little yellow bus to the camping trip?”
“No, Carol picked up Amanda in a blue Mercury Sable! Why do you think there on a bus?”
“Listen, your on your cell phone right now, Right?”
“Yes!”
“I’m going to send you a TikTok video, please watch the video and call me right back.”
“Sure, send the video!”
As I sent the video, I didn’t know what my next step should be, but calling 911 was definitely going to happen in the near future.
Within a couple of minutes, I get a return phone call from Joy.
“Ted what’s going on? Why is someone filming our daughters?” Joy said in a hurried frantic voice.
“I have no idea, but I don’t have a good feeling about this!”
“Did you try calling your sister Carol?”
“My sister? She ain’t my sister! She’s Raquel’s mother!”
“Ted, that woman Carol told me that she’s your sister, when I met her before the camping trip!”
“Well, She told me that she’s Raquel’s mother!”
“Oh my God! That woman isn’t Raquel’s mother!” Joy said in a perplexed tone.
“Oh God! Who is that psychopath? You know that Grace’s mother, Sheila used to go to all of the Girl Scout meetings, so I’m not familiar with all of the parents!”
“What do we do?”
“Im going to call the police!” I said.
“Okay and I’ll call Raquel’s mother!”
I’ve never called 911 before and I’m nervous to begin with, so calling 911 makes me even more nervous.
“911 - What’s your emergency?”
“My daughter went on a Girl Scout camping trip with two other girls and a woman ‘Carol’ who has seemed to have lied about her identity!”
“Okay so what’s the emergency?”
“I came across a TikTok video of someone posting the three girls on a little yellow bus and not the blue Mercury Sable that Carol picked them up with!”
“Okay, so what are the girls ages and what are they doing in the TikTok posts?”
“There around 11 years old and they all look nervous and scared!”
“Okay, so could they just be nervous from being away from home?”
“I suppose, but this woman ‘Carol’ lied to me and said that she is the mother of one of the girl’s, but she’s not! She told one of the other mother’s that she is my sister which obviously isn’t true!”
“Okay, sir I’m going to send an officer over to your house because there’s kids involved, but we have a really busy night with a lot of things going on, so it might take a while for the police to show up to your house!”
“Wait! What? Why?” I responded.
“Listen sir, you haven’t told me anything that sounded like your daughter or the other girls are being harmed, so we have to prioritize our available police officers.”
“Listen, i didn’t give that woman permission to videotape my kid and I’m certain these girls have been kidnapped and I have no idea where they’re going!” I say in an angered tone.
“Well sir, I have a daughter that’s in the Girl Scouts and I have personally experienced when the leader’s are dealing with multiple parents, that sometimes things get lost in translation, so I wouldn’t rush to judgement yet! All you have is your daughter on a TikTok video sitting on a bus going on a Girl Scout camping trip where she would understandably be nervous!”
“Listen, my house address is 664 Mockingbird lane! Hurry up and send someone over!” I said in an angered tone as I hung up the phone.
The video cameras on the bus are pointed in a direction so the viewers can’t see the outside of the bus, so I don’t even know if they’re heading to the Poconos.
it’s pretty much dark outside now which worries me even more. It’s such a sinking feeling seeing that my daughter is in danger.
I look to see if Part 4 has been posted and it has, so I click on it.
Again the girls are being videotaped as they’re just sitting on the bus. The unnerving thing is that none of the girls are talking to each other. The three of them look like there completely petrified doing nothing more than just looking straight ahead. The girls remind me of the war videos, I watch of D-day in how my daughter specifically had that same doomed look as the soldiers had, while they sat on the transport boats waiting to storm the heavily entrenched beaches.
The video was posted less than an hour ago and this video is darker than the others, so I could tell that the video was actually taken about an hour ago.
My phone starts to vibrate as I see that it’s Joy calling.
“Hey Joy Listen, I called 911 and they’re sending someone over but apparently they have more pressing issues!”
“More pressing issues! What the hell is more important than three girls being kidnapped?”
“The 911 operator thinks that a crime hasn’t necessarily been committed or that this isn’t an emergency situation. She thinks the girls could just be looking nervous because their scared about going on a camping trip and being away from their parents!”
“Well who the hell gave that ‘Carol’ permission to videotape my daughter and post the video on TikTok and who the hell is ‘Carol’? And why is she using @serialkillerblossoms as a username?”
“You know, I was so frustrated with the 911 operator that I didn’t even mention her username, but I doubt that wouldn’t of made a difference. @serialkillerblossoms is a new account and only had the four videos posted. There’s not too many people, who have viewed the videos so far, which is good because I don’t want them to be taken down for violating a TikTok policy!”
“Ted, I really don’t have a good feeling about this! Should I drive to the Poconos to the Red Squirrel campground?”
“The thing is, you can but I’m not sure If the bus is even going to that campground or even to the Poconos! The campground is less than two hours away, so they should of been there already!”
“So what should we do?” Joy asks me, while I can hear her crying over the phone.
“Who is this ‘Carol’ person?” I ask.
“I really have no idea! When Macy got diagnosed with cancer, her story was plastered everywhere on Facebook and the fire company even had a fund raising dinner for her to cover her medical expenses! So she could just be some random psychopath that came across Macy’s story and figured ‘hey this is my opportunity to kidnap some kids!’”
“What is her motivation? Is she trying to get TikTok famous?”
“Getting TikTok famous for kidnapping girls and taking them on a camping trip?” Joy said while still crying.
That’s when it dawned on me the naive mindset that Joy was having. I’m guessing she hasn’t seen the countless videos of the horrible-ness this world has to offer, like the idea that there’s people who kill just for some type of sick fun, like that eerie picture of the notorious serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, who is dressed up as a clown for a kids performance. Joy hasn’t paid attention to the fact the hashtags #serialkiller and #crimevideo were used in the video posts, hence why they came to my video feed.
If I thought that this ‘Carol’ person was just videotaping them going camping, I probably would be a little mad, however nothing about her actions or the videos point to her future actions as being harmless.
While I’m on the phone with Joy, I see Part 5 has been posted.
“Listen Joy, Part 5 has been posted, so I’m going to hang up and watch it. I pray the girls are alright. Try to find any possible information about that ‘Carol’ woman, Bye!”
I really didn’t want to play Doctor Phil with Joy as I know my daughter’s faith rests in the hands of these video posts.
I click on Part 5 and besides the light from the video camera, I could tell that it’s pitch black outside. The video camera pans the surroundings area, as I see a thick Forrest with nothing more than trees. I haven’t seen the girls yet, so my heart is beating double time.
The camera eventually shows a makeshift campsite with a small fire burning. Based on the remoteness of the surroundings, I’m certain that the video is not of the Red Squirrel campground and is probably in some very remote area, based on the thickness of the forest.
The camera turns it’s attention to the small fire pit and then to a small two person tent. I can hear the camera person breathing heavy as she walks towards the tent.
Every single inch of me is experiencing absolute terror as I don’t know what’s inside the tent, because so far I’ve seen no signs of Grace or the other two girls.
The tent slowly opens up and I start breathing to the point where I could go into convulsions at any moment.
As the tent is opened, I let out a sigh of relief, as I see the three girls are partially sitting up in the cramped tent, but then my heart sinks to my feet as I see there helpless facial expressions.
I focus in on Grace, as I see that her eyes are watery. She looks like she had seen the inner belly of hell and is too terrified to move. The camera moves from left to right as I notice the two other girls have the same petrified face as Grace.
Not a single word is said in the video and I feel angry and completely helpless as I scream out “don’t you fucking harm my daughter you son of a bitch!” Then the video ends.