The Black Tapes · Pacific Northwest Stories

Episode 205 - Cheryl

May 9, 2016·41 min·3 clips
Strand admits he saw something as a child that wasn't on camera, shaking his skeptical foundation.
Alex opens on fractured tape. A line about a devil behind the door cuts to Richard Strand returning one of eleven calls, then shutting the conversation down. The form is shaky before the investigation even gets moving. Alex restarts the intro, tests her own emphasis, and leaves the production edges in. Then Maddie arrives in a dream. The details are blunt and nasty: a bathroom mirror, a hidden shower, walls going black, and a woman turning slowly on a noose. Two taps snap it apart. Alex wakes on the bathroom floor. Strand's new house is older than expected. He inherited the three-story place from his father, and it sits mostly empty, dusty, boxed up, with traces of yellow paint still around. SeaTac barely matters. When Alex asks about airplane noise, Strand says he has not noticed, which makes the moment feel colder, not calmer. The case still will not close. A photograph of Keith Dabich has location data, and Nick drops it into Google Maps. The answer comes back a little too neat. Alex reads it in shock: the photo lands in Glushka. Strand knows the place and gives it a name, the Demon Monk Seance Monastery. Alex signs off softly, thanking listeners for their patience, admitting she is still barely sleeping, and saying she feels more like herself again.

As heard by us

A patient return that turns small clues into a cold, credible unease.

Season two opens by following Alex Regan from studio chatter into a dream about Maddie, then on to Dr. Strand’s inherited house, where dust, boxes, and a sparse front room do the work of a slow-burning haunt.

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Why you'd press play

You want a slow-burn mystery that starts with a photo and ends in Glushka.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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