"Treetops" - Chilling Tales for Dark Nights
episode
Chilling Tales for Dark Nights — A Horror Fiction Anthology and Scary Stories Series Podcast
25 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 5 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why do missing‑child statistics matter for the Dorton Bluffs case?
Noni, Tiina haluaa vain fiilistellä. Timo haluaa äksyä ja Saara halua haimottelua. Miinköhän nämä vesis. No mutta hei, tulkaa meille! Voidaan yhdistää noin kaikki. Meillä Vaihmalan hovissa onnistuu kaikenlaiset juhlat ja kokoukset. Miten oli Sände Ratissöer kilpiravitolan illallinen, hemmottelu, shoppailu ja majoitus siihen päälle. Kaikki yhdestä osoitteesta vaihmalanhovi.fi.
Lähitapiolla tuntee kotien riskit ja osaa ennakoidan ne. Tutustu Suomen suosituimpaan kotivakuutukseen. Lähitapiola.fi. Palvelun tarjoajat, lähitapiolan alueyhtiöt. Lähitapiolla samalla puolella.
Nearly half a million children are reported missing each year in the United States. Averaged out across all of the cities, towns, and the like, that comes out to about four missing kids per populated area per year. Fortunately, all but a tiny handful, about twelve thousand, or one for every nine towns, turn up unharmed, and only a hundredth of a percent, or about one kid every two thousand one hundred sixty towns. is found murdered. Averages are great for breaking big statistics down into numbers that are easier to understand, but obviously nothing really works that way. More kids go missing in Texas than in the other states, for example. Almost none go missing in South Dakota. More children are found safely in New York than almost anywhere else.
And in the small town of Dorton Bluffs, not one missing child has ever been found alive. They lose their four per year pretty regularly. There's almost never been a year where at least two didn't disappear. Two thousand fifteen was particularly bad and ten kids went missing. The police records for the town only go back to nineteen ninety six when a fire burned down the station one night. But the memories of the families there go back a lot longer. Children who vanish in Dorton Bluffs are rarely seen again. Those who are discovered, for the most part, the families wish they hadn't been. Statistical improbabilities happen, of course. However, to the eyes of Felix Freeman, an investigator in the FBI's child abduction and serial killer unit, these disappearances had all of the hallmarks of an uncaught killer.
The victims were all teenagers or younger, with most being between twelve and sixteen. The town was in a remote geographic area with plenty of unoccupied land, and most interestingly, they seemed to happen around the same two times each year, right at the beginning of both spring and fall. Even in the years where more children went missing, they disappeared in two small clusters around those dates. This reeked of ritual to Felix. After months of badgering his superiors, he wrangled the funding for an exploratory trip to the region. To his mind, it was an open and shut case. The question was not whether the abductions were happening. That, he felt, was entirely certain. All he needed was proof of the culprit.
Whoever was behind this was responsible for hundreds of disappearances, making him the most prolific serial killer ever found. If, of course, Felix could find him. He was positive he could. Felix had had the profile built long before he had ever submitted his request for funding. He was looking for a man, likely in his seventies at this point. Someone born and raised in Dorton Bluffs, but who had not been popular as a teen. He was an only child or a significantly younger sibling, ten years or more. His mother had died when he was no more than five years old. He had probably never married and almost certainly never had any children. His schooling had stopped at high school.
How does FBI investigator Felix Freeman profile the unknown killer?
He did not travel, he was probably a farmer. Felix had requested funding for two weeks' worth of travel, but in all honesty he expected it to take only three days. One to search through the town's census and land records to determine his suspect, one to convince a local judge to issue a warrant, and one to unearth the trophies that the man had doubtless kept from each of his killings. If Dorton Bluffs had bothered to digitize any of their records, he could probably have found a name for his suspect and gotten a warrant before ever setting foot in the town.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do missing‑child statistics matter for the Dorton Bluffs case?
0:00–3:52
2
How does FBI investigator Felix Freeman profile the unknown killer?
3:52–6:57
3
What does the town’s denial reveal about the disappearances?
6:57–11:12
4
What is the “Treetops” playground rhyme and why does it matter?
11:12–13:56
5
How does Felix use land records and census data to narrow suspects?
13:56–16:43
6
Why do two local teens agree to lead Felix into the forest?
16:43–19:15
7
What terrifying creature does Felix encounter in the woods?
19:15–23:04
8
How does the “Treetops” cult’s gruesome ritual end the episode?
23:04–25:47
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Chilling Tales for Dark Nights — A Horror Fiction Anthology and Scary Stories Series Podcast
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"My Next Door Neighbor is a Monster" - Chilling Tales for Dark Nights
"They Feed at Night" - Chilling Tales for Dark Nights