The Man in the Black Mask - Ep. 1: Where's Johnny?

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Dateline Originals 31 min 8 speakers 8 chapters transcribed
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What happened during the evening walk?

Narrator 0:10
It was a happy habit, their evening walk. A summer habit, of course. Too soon now that crisp bite in the air would turn bitter cold. But not yet. That day, Friday, October 3rd, had been uncommonly warm for Edmonton, and twilight seemed to linger as they ambled along the path that wound its way through their neighborhood. It was a good neighborhood, safe, established, not quite grand, but not modest either. So they wandered, the two of them, and listened to parents calling in kids from the park. Almost dark now. There, out of nowhere, there it was, sudden, shocking, terrifying.
Marissa Guarini 0:59
I have never in my life felt fear like that.
Narrator 1:03
That is Marissa Guarini, remembering the young man who stumbled out of an alley and collapsed at their feet.
Marissa Guarini 1:09
Came right across our path, just kind of fell in front of us.
Narrator 1:13
So stumbling along, yes. Marissa's partner, Trevor Hossinger, was alarmed too, but something about it seemed off somehow.
Unnamed Witness 1:22
And to me, that didn't look real. It looked like it was staged. And what was he doing or saying or how was he behaving? He looked at me and said, I'm being robbed. Can you help me?
Marissa Guarini 1:31
And it was just an instant bad feeling. It was like everything in my body just tensed up. I felt bad. This is a bad situation. I knew right away something was wrong.
Narrator 1:43
And then, as if on cue, another man appeared, seemingly in pursuit.
Unnamed Witness 1:49
And then as I looked up, the attacker almost actually ran into me.
Narrator 1:54
Attacker? Looked that way, at least. Whoever it was was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and a hockey mask. Just like the serial killer Jason in all those Friday the 13th movies.
Marissa Guarini 2:08
It's like every nightmare you had as a child after watching a scary movie.
Narrator 2:13
Sure.
Marissa Guarini 2:14
Every nightmare you've ever had, all of a sudden it's right here. Like this masked guy is standing there.

Who was the man in the hockey mask?

Narrator 2:19
And then, said Marissa, the masked man did something quite unexpected.
Marissa Guarini 2:24
Well, he, the guy in the mask, was pretending that they were friends. That those two were friends.
Narrator 2:30
Pretending? Maybe they really were friends.
Unnamed Witness 2:34
Because the way that he fell... To me, looks staged.
Marissa Guarini 2:39
To get us to stop so that they could rob us.
Unnamed Witness 2:42
Yeah, we thought it was a setup for us.
Narrator 2:44
Now convinced this was some sort of choreographed mugging, Marissa took off running.

What was the reaction to the staged robbery?

Marissa Guarini 2:50
I was like, I'm getting out of here right now. I was so scared. I was so scared. And I just, I needed to get out of here.
Narrator 2:58
but not Trevor. He stayed behind, still not quite sure if the man lying at his feet begging for help was in need of saving or out to do him harm.
Trevor Hossinger 3:09
So you didn't know whether he was going to assault you. Exactly. Or whether he was running from that guy for real. Exactly. Exactly.
Marissa Guarini 3:18
My response was to run and get the hell out of here. His response was, what's going on here? I need to figure out what's going on.
Unnamed Witness 3:26
She was down the block.
Marissa Guarini 3:27
I was freaking out on him. I was yelling at him. I was screaming at him. And I was so mad at him. And I was screaming, like, high-pitched, Trevor! Trevor! Like, because he kept trying to figure out what was going on. Trevor, what were you trying to do? Why are you trying to be a hero? You're trying to be a hero. And I was like, I just wanted to go. Yeah.
Narrator 3:45
Trevor said the man in the hockey mask then calmly walked away and disappeared back into the alley from which he came. But not the man lying on the path. He stayed right where he was. What in the world was going on? Trevor was done trying to solve this mystery and ran after Marissa, leaving the man on the path behind, still pleading for help. Rather like a seasoned method actor, like it was an episode of The Twilight Zone. Trevor and Marissa got home quick as they could and called the police, telling them about the man in the mask and the guy begging for help.
Marissa Guarini 4:24
We said, well, we think we're getting robbed. Like, that's how we had described it, was we thought we were going to be robbed. So where could they go from that? It was a weird situation.
Narrator 4:34
A report was taken. Squad cars prowled the streets and alleys nearby, though by then it was too dark to see much of anything.
Unnamed Witness 4:46
And then they sniffed around and that was that. Didn't find anything? Didn't find anything.

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