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Hunting Warhead · CBC

Episode 2: Rude Awakening

November 4, 2019·44 min·4 clips
Håkon tells police he knows they're operating the largest child abuse website on the dark net.
The door opens on a raid. In a narrow driveway in the woods, black vehicles, police cars, and FBI vans have boxed everything in. Inside, dust hangs in the air. The light is bad. At the top of the stairs, a man is holding a large gun while the person waking up tries to make sense of what is happening. Then the story backs up to the mistake. Warhead has posted a screenshot while asking for help with code tied to the Gift Box Exchange. Investigators in Boston are already watching that exact problem. With an international team, they look for people asking about the same technical failure and find Faulkner's question. The trail leads to his IP address. By September 2016, police in Canada, Australia, and the United States are watching him. When he crosses the border, alerts go off. Gordon remembers Buffalo, the sunrise, and a road trip that still seemed normal. They listen to Barenaked Ladies and John Denver. The music makes the drive feel oddly everyday, even as the investigation tightens around Ben. At a diner in Pennsylvania, Ben tells Gordon no one has ever come this far with him on one of these trips. Gordon still does not know why they are going. Near Washington, Ben says he is meeting a friend named Patrick. The name arrives with no explanation, and suddenly Gordon is sitting beside a life he did not know was there.

As heard by us

A careful chapter where one forum clue becomes an international investigation.

The episode opens once the investigation turns physical, with a dust filled hallway and an armed officer at the top of the stairs. From there, it follows how a question posted on the Gift Box Exchange led investigators to Benjamin Faulkner, and how police in Canada, Australia,…

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Why you'd press play

You want the clue that turns one forum post into an international investigation.

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