Case Number: 99-3817-BLACK
Date Opened: October 8, 1999
Primary Investigator: Det. Harold R. Mercer
Division: Strickland County Sheriff’s Department – Missing Persons Unit
Classification: Level 3 Containment until Internal Review Approval
Name: Walter Black
Status: Presumed deceased; body never recovered as of this filing
Last Confirmed Sighting: September 29, 1999 – Thomas’s Pizza Railway (time-stamped register receipt 19:42)
On October 7, 1999, emergency services were contacted by a staff member of Thomas’s Pizza Railway reporting smoke and an unrecognized odor emanating from the rear storage bay. Officers arriving on the scene detected signs of forced entry near the boiler maintenance corridor. A search was performed. No remains or living subjects were located.
Additional review of on-site security tapes for the dates of September 27 through October 1 show significant interference, timestamp skipping, and periods of complete audiovisual obstruction. Forensic technicians concluded the footage had not been manually tampered with, suggesting environmental or structural interference.
Primary POI
Bertram Topham Hat
Status: Currently held in police custody pending further questioning
Notes: Former employee of Thomas’s Pizza Railway, terminated in 1997 following health and safety citation involving mascot locomotion systems. Displays fixation on railway-themed mascots and mechanical mascot “lines”. Records indicate purchase of industrial-grade cleaning agents and insulated storage drums, source pending confirmation.
Secondary POI
Thomas Avery (Owner / Proprietor)
Status: Released
Notes: Provided documentation indicating no knowledge of current whereabouts of Black. Cooperation level moderate; non-disclosure request filed re: mascot animatronics operation and internal furnace infrastructure. Legal counsel present during all interviews.
Date: October 8–10, 1999
Location: 1209 Rail Yard Drive, Strickland County
Sample 03-B: Mechanical grease containing trace elements of calcium and carbon indicative of prolonged thermal exposure. Material suggests contact with organic tissue at high temperature.
Sample 10-D: Recovered fabric fragment identified as matching jacket owned by Walter Black (photographic confirmation pending family approval)
Sample 14-F: Mascot chassis wiring displays unauthorized modifications. Wiring patterns consistent with custom automation systems not sold commercially in 1999.
10/12/99 – Employee H.D.
“I heard something behind the tracks. It sounded like metal scraping, like the old train mascots moving on their own. I told Thomas, and he told me not to go back there anymore.”
10/14/99 – Customer R.K.
“I saw a man in a conductor’s outfit in the window when we parked. When we came in, nobody was there. I thought it was just a mascot at first, but it walked like a real person.”
Subject Hat maintains no involvement and claims the animatronics run themselves when the furnace is lit, citing “legacy code” left by original fabricators. Claims cannot be substantiated. Records of original fabrication contractors unavailable; company dissolved in 1983 after workplace accident involving locomotive mascot “Percy.”
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