### JON This is a strange one. I have rarely come across a statement written with such conviction, yet where so many of the details are provably false. The [[Council of Northern Caving Clubs|CNCC]] have no record of [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]] getting a permit for this expedition, and the number of other permits they issued for [[2014-06-14|June 14th]] would indicate that they certainly weren’t the only ones in the cave that day. Beyond that, [[Death’s Head Hole]] and [[Lost Johns' Cave|Lost John’s Cave]] are, as [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]] pointed out, well-documented in layout, and according to [[James, Sasha|Sasha]]’s reckoning, the route she described is borderline nonsensical. What is true is that on [[2014-06-15|15th of June]], the [[Yorkshire Dales]] [[Cave Rescue Organisation]] was contacted by [[Popham, Alistair|Mr. Alistair Popham]], who told them his wife and sister-in-law had gone caving the day before, and had not returned. I sent [[Stoker, Timothy|Tim]] to check the details – [[Blackwood, Martin|Martin]] declined to help with this investigation as he’s “a bit claustrophobic” – and he found some more bizarre discrepancies. [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]] was not found aboveground, as she claimed. She was found a few yards from the bottom of [[Death’s Head Hole]], unresponsive and kneeling next to a small pile of burned out candles. [[Popham, Alistair|Alistair Popham]] claims not to have seen any such things being packed. She only came out of this stupor when brought above ground, at which point she started shouting about her sister [[Sanderson, Alena|Alena]], demanding they go and “save her”. There is also the matter of the recording. She does not mention it in her statement at all, but [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]] took a camera with her into the cave system. It was never claimed back from the [[Cave Rescue Organisation|CRO]] after her rescue, and [[Stoker, Timothy|Tim]] managed to gain enough access to copy the footage. Best not to ask how, I think. Most of it is mundane footage of [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]] and her sister cave climbing, which seemed to match her statement, but the last recording is… somewhat alarming. The timestamp puts it at just past two o’clock in the morning of [[2014-06-15|June 15th]]. It is completely black, though whether this is because it was in a pitch dark cave or simply because the lens cap was still on is unclear. The audio is what concerns me, and here I will play a sample: **\[Click]** ### LAURA POPHAM (RECORDING) **\[Increasing to crescendo, repeatedly]** Take her, not me. Take her, not me. Take her, not me. ### JON **\[Click]** The video is 2 hours and 43 minutes long, and the audio remains consistent throughout. No sign of [[Sanderson, Alena|Alena Sanderson]] has been found in the two years since her disappearance, and I have made the decision not to follow up our findings with [[Popham, Laura|Ms. Popham]]. Recording ends. **\[Click]** --- ### PAGE: [[Piecemeal - 01 - Statement|Last Episode]] - [[Lost Johns' Cave - 01 - Statement|01]] - \[[[Lost Johns' Cave - 02 - Follow-up|02]]] - [[Lost Johns' Cave - 99 - Postface|99]] - [[Arachnophobia - 01 - Statement|Next Episode]] ### PROPERTIES | Episode published on | [[2016-04-28]] | | -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Statement given on | [[2014-11-09]] | | Date of events | [[2014-06-14]] - [[2014-06-15]] | | Date of recording | N/A | | Recorded by | [[Person of interest/The Magnus Institute/The Magnus Archives/Archive staff/Sims, Jonathan\|Sims, Jonathan]] | | Recorded at | [[Magnus Institute]] | | Statement type | Written | | Case number | 0140911 | | Given by | [[Popham, Laura]] | | Voice | [[Person of interest/The Magnus Institute/The Magnus Archives/Archive staff/Sims, Jonathan\|Sims, Jonathan]] | | Magnus staff | [[Blackwood, Martin]] - [[Stoker, Timothy]] - [[James, Sasha]] | | Mentionned | [[Sanderson, Alena]] - [[Popham, Alistair]] | | Non-person | [[Cave Rescue Organisation]] - [[Council of Northern Caving Clubs]] | | Artefact | N/A | | Avatar | N/A | | Creature | N/A | | Ritual | N/A | | Entity | [[The Buried]] - [[The Dark]] | | Location | [[Yorkshire Dales]] - [[Lost Johns' Cave\|Lost John’s Cave]] - [[Death’s Head Hole]] | | Linked mention | N/A | | Other pages | [[Lost Johns' Cave - 01 - Statement\|01]] - [[Lost Johns' Cave - 02 - Follow-up\|02]] - [[Lost Johns' Cave - 99 - Postface\|99]] | | Transcript | [Lost Johns' Cave](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-6JYtgLaLjGd5UuOp4jqlSSYT9yGgf26/view?usp=drive_link) | | Tags | #Source/TMA/FollowUp #Warning/Death/Family/Sibling #Warning/Phobia/Environmental/Claustrophobia #Warning/Phobia/Body/Drowning #Warning/Mental_Health/Unhealthy_Relationships/Family #Warning/Phobia/Environmental/Claustrophobia/Caves #Warning/Mental_State/Trauma/Survivor_Guilt #Warning/Phobia/Darkness #Warning/Mental_State/Lost #Warning/Phobia/Environmental/Thalassophobia |