- [Narrator] The following is a catalog of events
that occurred over the course of two weeks in the year 2011.
These strange and unnerving happenings took place
in Greene County, Illinois, a rural, sparsely-populated area
located on the southwestern part of the state.
The incidents have yet to be explained.
Many theories have circulated as to what may have ensued,
but at the time of this writing,
nothing has been corroborated.
The events in question are presented in chronological order.
Feel free to draw your own conclusions.
(somber music)
Monday, February 28th, 2:10 P.M.
The accident is the biggest anyone in the area
has seen in 27 years.
A school bus full of Greenfield Elementary third graders,
on its way back from a field trip to a local farm,
collides with a dump truck and loses control.
After impact, its wheels skid off the road.
That's when momentum takes over,
causing it to roll three times before coming to a stop
upside down in an irrigation ditch.
Six children and one teacher are killed,
14 others are injured.
When police arrive on the scene, alcohol is detected
on the breath of the dump truck driver, Ray Peck.
He is arrested on site and booked at the local jail
in Carrollton, Illinois.
Wednesday, March 2nd.
The only hotel in Carrollton, the Cat's Inn,
is booked to capacity.
Family and friends begin arriving in the town
to attend funerals and memorial services.
A brown van is spotted in the parking lot of the Inn.
Thursday, March 3rd, 10:00 A.M.
The funeral of Lily North, one of the girls
who died in the accident, occurs on this morning.
Lily's mother Candace does not attend.
Her husband, Jared, tells those who ask
that she's taken Lily's death very hard.
Thursday, March 3rd, 2:00 P.M.
A funeral for David Frost,
another casualty of the accident, happens.
It is a small service, only intimate friends
of the family are invited.
Alan Spencer, David's schoolmate and closest friend,
is said to look the worse for wear at the event,
even more so than the Frost family.
Spencer was in the bus during the accident
and even though he was sitting next to David,
he managed to escape with only a few bumps and scratches.
However, the tragedy has taken a psychological toll
on the young boy.
He has complained of nightmares as of late.
In these dreams, he mentions seeing his friend David,
head dangling from a loose, broken neck,
walking into his bedroom and whispering horrible things
to him in the night.
His parents have begun discussing taking him
to a child psychologist in order to help him cope
with his guilt and grief surrounding this accident.
(somber music)
Thursday, March 3rd, 4:00 P.M.
Mourners set up a road-side memorial at the spot
where the accident occurred as a way to commemorate those
who had tragically lost their lives.
About seven people visit the site between 4:00 and 7:00 P.M.
The mourners park their cars along the side of the road.
A brown van is seen amongst them.
There are songs and prayers.
Flowers, teddy bears and hand-written letters
are placed at the spot of the accident.
Candles are lit.
It is said to be a beautiful memorial.
Friday, March 4th, 11:00 A.M.
John Mayhew, the teacher who was killed in the accident,
is cremated, there is no service.
Lisa Mayhew, John's wife, takes the urn
containing her husband's ashes back home with her.
Friday, March 4th, 6:00 P.M.
The first death is reported that evening
when Jared North returns home from the grocery store
to find his wife, Candice, dead,
the top half of her skull removed with near-surgical
precision, her scalp is nowhere to be found.
In her hand, she is clenching her daughter's brush.
Police find no sign of forced entry
and hardly any evidence of scuffle.
A full investigation into the death of Candace North
is launched.
On the brush, Jared would later tell the papers...
- [Jared] She was holding Lily's brush,
it meant a lot to her.
Every night she would brush Lily's hair before bed.
I used to joke that Candace treated her
like one of those American Girl dolls, you know?
Now they're both gone.
- [Narrator] Saturday, March 5th, 3:00 P.M.
A memorial service is held on the football field
of North Greene High School that is attended
by over 700 people, including friends and family
of the deceased who had come in from out of town.
News of Candace North's murder
begins to spread throughout the event.
Sunday, March 6th, 10:10 A.M.
Alan Spencer's parents bring him to church,
but rather than forcing him to attend the service
where the accident would be discussed,
they let him use the playground at the park next door.
He is last seen climbing a tree at 10:30 A.M.,
when Janet Finch cuts through the parking lot
on her way into the church.
15 minutes later, the congregation hears the scream
of Margaret Peters, who had been walking her dog
down the sidewalk.
The churchgoers empty into the street and find Alan
lying on the ground, his head twisted a full 180 degrees.
At the time it is believed Alan had fallen from the tree
and landed face first onto the asphalt, snapping his neck.
Investigators on the scene found a note in his back pocket,
it reads: "If you yourself cannot release,
"then it will come to take a piece."
Alan Spencer's parents later confirm that the note
is not written in his handwriting.
Sunday, March 6th, 3:34 P.M.
Examiners discover that aside from a broken neck,
Alan Spencer's corpse is missing four incisors
and two molars from his mouth,
none of which were recovered.
Strangely enough, his injuries mirror those
of his good friend, David Frost,
right down to the missing teeth.
Monday, March 7th, 11:19 P.M.
Cartoonist Dan Colb's Chevy Tahoe
is found on the side of the road
after running head first into a telephone pole.
When paramedics arrive, they discover him unconscious
in the driver's seat but breathing.
Colb doesn't have any relation to anyone
who died in the bus accident on the 28th
but his wife passed on from breast cancer two years prior.
The widower, who lives alone in Carrollton, has attended
therapy twice a week since the death of his wife.
And those close to him later claim that he never took off
his wedding band.
His injuries include a separated shoulder,
a head contusion and a missing finger,
specifically the ring finger of his left hand.
His wedding band is also missing.
He was taken to Saint Mary's General
and treated for his injuries.
Tuesday, March 8th, 2:45 A.M.
Neighbors report screaming coming from
the house of Lisa Mayhew.
Police arrive to the home to find Mayhew in shock,
her speech is erratic and incoherent,
she is trembling uncontrollably
and she has an injury, deep cuts on her left arm
that appear to have been left by an animal.
Mayhew is given a sedative and treated,
but she does not answer any questions when asked
about where her injuries came from.
Police notice the urn that once contained
her husband's ashes in the bathroom, it is empty.
And it appears, by the look of things,
that she flushed them down the toilet.
Police find no evidence of forced entry into her home
but don't estimate the possibility of a break in
due to her bizarre babblings.
Some of the things she is quoted in saying
are outlined in the police report.
- [Lisa] I had to forget him or it would've killed me.
Its mouth was so wide.
So many teeth.
Its face,
a face like patches of skin.
John's gone now.
(tape recorder clicking)
(somber music)
- [Narrator] Lisa is taken to Saint Mary's where she's
treated for her injuries and kept under surveillance.
But police call her sister, Ava, who lives in Chicago
and inform her of the situation.
She agrees to catch a flight down the following day.
(somber music)
Tuesday, March 8th, 3:35 P.M.
Dan Colb awakes in the hospital,
he is lucid but unresponsive to questions.
In fact, he refuses to speak at all.
Doctors decide to keep him for an extra day
to monitor him for brain trauma before releasing him.
A nurse, Margo Johnson, gives him a pencil
and a pad of paper in case he might want to
write down his thoughts since he doesn't wish to talk.
Wednesday, March 9th, 8:55 P.M.
Police find Ray Peck dead in his cell,
he's been horribly maimed.
There was a hole in his side the size of a softball.
It was later discovered that his liver was removed
and taken by whoever had committed the heinous murder.
On the wall, written in Peck's own blood, is the phrase,
"If you yourself cannot release,
"then it will come to take a piece."
Police have no leads on who snuck into Peck's cell
and murdered him.
The security footage is of little use,
the camera pointed at his cell cuts to black
roughly between the times of 8:40 and 8:43 P.M.
It is believed that the murder occurred
during these three minutes,
but the speed in which it must've happened is astounding.
None of the other security cameras at the jail
show anything out of the ordinary.
Given the note found in his back pocket, with a phrase
matching the one written on the wall of Peck's cell,
a murder investigation is now opened up
into Alan Spencer's death.
Thursday, March 10th, 10:05 A.M.
Nurse Margaret Johnson enters Dan Colb's hospital room
to find that he is missing.
It appears, at some point during the morning,
he changed into his clothes and exited the hospital
without anyone noticing.
She finds the notebook that she gave him
had been left behind.
Johnson would later tell reporters.
- [Margaret] There were these weird pictures
that he had drawn in it.
The man, or thing, I don't know,
it wore a suit but it had like a big,
wide smile and these sharp teeth.
The drawings were really good but they
gave me the creeps.
And that smile was all there was to its face,
the rest of the thing's face was nonexistent.
He must've drawn it over a dozen times.
There were also pictures of a pocket watch with
like a kind of eye on it.
To tell you the truth, for some reason I can't explain,
that bothered me more than the man thing.
(tape recorder clicking)
- [Narrator] The only words that Colb had managed to write
was the familiar phrase, "If you yourself cannot release,
"then it will come to take a piece."
Colb would not be seen again for three months.
It is not known what he was doing during this time.
Margaret reported Colb's disappearance to the hospital staff
and left the notebook on the counter.
It would sit there for four hours until it was picked up
by Lisa Mayhew while she was being checked out
of Saint Mary's by her sister, Ava.
When Lisa saw the illustrations Colb had drawn,
they triggered a panic attack.
She screamed and began to throw a fit in the hospital lobby,
only calming down after being given a sedative.
Lisa would travel to Chicago
with her sister later that evening
and would never set foot in Greene County again.
Over the next four months, she would sell her home
then go back to her maiden name, Fitzroy.
To this day, she has refused to answer any emails or calls
regarding her husband, the accident, her injuries
or what happened the night police were called to her home.
(somber music)
Friday, March 11th, 4:00 P.M.
Police issue a statement that they believe Donnelson
was responsible for the deaths of at least three people,
Candace North, Alan Spencer and Ray Peck,
but that investigation is ongoing until they deduce
how the murders were committed.
The cryptic phrase found on the Donnelson
hotel room is the piece of evidence
that makes Donnelson the prime suspect.
Saturday, March 12th, 6:00 A.M.
The Greene County Gazette publishes the Sheriff's statement
regarding Donnelson, papers are distributed country wide.
Saturday, March 12th, 2:00 P.M.
Police are called to the spot where the February 28th
school bus accident occurred by Bell Parker,
a teacher at the Greenfield Elementary.
She shows them something strange that she's discovered
at the memorial, a ring of candles that had been set up
on the side of the road, a note that had been slipped
under one of the candles.
She had found it while paying her respects to the deceased,
then dialed 911 when she recognized that it had
the same thing that had been reported in the papers.
"If you yourself cannot release,
"then it will come to take a piece."
Saturday, March 12th, 3:30 P.M.
Margaret Johnson delivers the pad of paper
with Don Colb's drawings to the Sheriff's station,
pointing out that he had written dozens of times
the same cryptic message that had appeared
at the other crime scenes.
Colb becomes a person of interest
and when it is discovered that he has seemingly left town,
an APB is put out for his arrest.
Sunday, June 12th, 10:00 P.M.
Dan Colb is killed on Interstate 65 in Huntsville,
Alabama when he stepped out in the road
in front of a speeding semi truck.
The driver told police that he didn't see him
until it was too late.
He would say to reporters...
- [Truck Driver] The only thing I saw was a big, wide smile,
then a second later, I heard the thud
and I knew that I hit him.
His face wasn't right, his eyes were massive.
I know I only saw him for a second but I swear,
I could tell something weren't right in him.
Like there was,
like there was some kind of sickness,
pain behind them and he,
and he was happy.
Happy it was all about to end.
(tape recorder clicking)
- [Narrator] In the glove compartment of Colb's car,
police found a notebook with dozens of illustrations
of the same creature that he had drawn in the hospital room.
On nearly every page, the art was accompanied by the same
cryptic phrase that haunted Greene County investigators.
"If you yourself cannot release,
"then it will come to take a piece."
(ominous music)
- [Announcer] Watch new, scary vids every Tuesday,
Thursday and Friday.
(heavy electronic music)