Earlytown – The Exodus

There have long been rumors among those of us looking for answers to the mystery of Earlytown that there was some sort of mass exodus that took place just before the city’s disappearance. The few opportunities I have had to view The Codex, I did read sections that indicate this was the case: almost half of the population seems to have pulled stakes and left the city with almost no explanation. Mr. Sotto recently sent me this clipping. Though I cannot verify it as a source, it offers insight into who, if not what, was behind the exodus of Earlytown.

Who IS Mercy Hawkins?

So who exactly IS Mercy Hawkins?

I have been looking for her for almost ten years. The few people who did know her (that I have been able to reach anyway) generally show a strange reluctance to talk about her. It’s not fear, exactly, though I think that’s part of it. It’s more like anger but not because they didn’t like her. It’s hard to explain. Bring up the name Mercy Hawkins to anyone who knew her and you might get tears or screamed at or doors slammed in your face or even in a few cases punched or worse.

Some of what I do know:

1.) Childhood – almost no information exists in the form of records. Internet searches (even multi-layered power searches) turn up nothing though there was someone of that name alive in the mid 1700’s. No idea if there is any relation.

2.) Teen years: Spent time in a ‘girl’s schools’ in Chicago, upstate New York, Philadelphia, and (possibly) Illinois and Iowa. (Chronic runaway and truancy). Released on her own recognizance at age 17. Settles in Chicago, earns bartenders’ license on 18th birthday. Begins bartending at ‘==>Blizzard Bar<==’, a tough, blue-collar bar known for being a bit rough on the South Side of Chicago (==>now demolished<==). Locals recall that ‘Hawkins never employed a bouncer on her shift because she hated to split the tips. And anyone who caused trouble found out quick she didn’t need one never mind that she was a pretty hot little number’. -Benjamin Price, local drinker and acquaintance of Mercy Hawkins.

3. Age 20(-ish) first meets Lily Burne in chance encounter. Burne is eight months pregnant, walking home from work on 90 degree day when she nearly passes out. She enters the first doorway available: the Blizzard Bar, where Mercy Hawkins is setting up at 4pm for after-work shift. Mercy gives Lily icewater, arranges ride for Lily to get home. The two become inseperable. Mercy moves in with Lily shortly after Audra is born. Records do not mention the father of Audra Burne by name at any point.

Anecdotal research at this time indicates Mercy is hard-working and very dedicated to Lily and Audra. Lily works a day shift as a school teacher, Mercy a night shift at Blizzard Lounge. Audra, now in 2nd grade, begins signing school papers as ‘Audra Hawkins’.

4. Age 23 Lily, Mercy, and Audra Burne disappear under ’stressed’ circumstances, possibly being pursued by individuals interested in Audra Burne. I believe at this point, they moved to Grimmvale first, then possibly Earlytown (don’t bother looking for either place on a map. Heavy sigh. We’ll come to that later).

5. At some time after this point, Mercy and the Burne family move to Earlytown, where they meet my brother, Officer Joseph Ethan Dao. Letters from Joe indicate he is romantically involved with Lily Burne.

6. Shortly after this, nearly all record of my brother, Lily and Audra Burne, and Mercy Hawkins disappear.

If you have any information on Lily and Audra Burne, Mercy Hawkins, or my brother Officer Joseph ‘Joe’ Ethan Dao, please contact me as soon as possible.

Mr. Sotto Finds Hidden Message – Cry For Help?

One of my contacts who we’ll call Mr. Sotto contacted me after he read a few posts I put up in various missing persons BBS sites (this is back in the days of 14.4baud folks so awhile back). We had no personal contact but he did help me with various aspects of my investigation even coming through with analysis of various items in search of any sort of forensic clues I might have had and not known it.

When I first contacted Mr. Sotto I was skeptical of him. He asked for the opportunity to examine anything I thought might be connected to Joe’s disappearance. I sent him photocopies of the poster, the letter, birth records, various items proving that my brother and Mercy Hawkins and the Burne family had existed. He zeroed in right away on Joe’s letter which I admit I had only sent because I wanted him to get the idea that this was my brother not some random person I was searching out. He asked to see the original document which I sent to him at a post office box with his promise I would get it back (I was very nervous to give up one of the only real pieces of my brother I had left).

What he sent me back caused me to be not only shocked, but angry at myself. Click here to WATCH VIDEO:

It was such a simple thing. Joe and I used to send messages to one another

that other people couldn’t read when we were in school. If the sender traced hard on a piece of paper with their fingernail or a pen tip they could make an indent in the paper which the receiver could then run a pencil over lightly to get the message. Joe did the same thing now. (Mr. Sotto told me this was also used in a code process called ‘thermal tracing’ which depended on heat being applied to a message source.) I should have known.

Joe put those extra names there to get my attention. He tried to tell me. He tried to send me the simplest of messages. He was my brother, and I let him down.

A Dangerous Cult Revealed – Blueprint Detail

Ok can I just say something? People are such sheep.  Cults are a haven for the weak-minded.  It’s all a bunch of people who need to follow, who have too much belief. And yes, you can have too much belief. <==== Click the link.

Every other year some group of dimwits follows a charismatic asshole out into the desert to await the end of the world. When it doesn’t happen, they sit there pouting (or freezing their asses off in a cave). Eventually, someone gets bored and comes up with a great idea to drink poisoned cool aid or shoot everyone. Cults are bad news.

Which leads me to the blueprint detail that was left for me (I think) in a stairwell in Los Angeles. Someone knows who I am and where I’m going before I get there. This scares me.

But I have finally gotten a chance to scan the blueprint in high resolution so you can take a look at it yourself:

I don’t have much time to write but you can look at the notes first hand. Its a pretty high resolution scan. Click the thumbnail to get a close-up look of the page. ============>

If this is a legitimate document, it presents some pretty frightening realities.

-Baphmet/Sofia is a possible reference to the atbash cypher, which is a fairly harebrained mathematical code. This could mean Kappa Lamda somehow identifies itself with Templar mythology. My experience with anyone interested in the Knights Templar has proven one thing: in almost every case, they’re looneys.

-The dual Caduceus (the snakes wrapped around a stick, facing each other) is not a symbol I have been able to find anywhere else. I am loosely interpreting this symbol to indicate that there is some sort of medical bent to this group of people. Combine that admitted assumption with the letter that appears here, and I’m scared: could Dr. Spellman have been looking for human beings to experiment on?

Many more questions remain: who gave me this page? What book was it ripped from? Is this information meant to help me? Or is it misleading?

I can only say this: if you are the person who sent me the envelope, you must have read my blog…which means you might be reading it now. I can only say send more and at least indicate who you are.

I am looking for my brother. I need more information.

He Tried To Tell Me

Looking back I should have known something was wrong.

Joe sent me a letter.

That was the first sign but it was one of those things that struck me only as a little odd not out of the ordinary. My brother was a good man and a good brother but you didn’t hear from him too often. Not unless you called. Plus he didn’t type except for police reports which made him loathe typewriters (he hated paperwork).

So when I got this letter in the mail, I was surprised. I took a few days to open it. Then I read it. Then I put it in a drawer. And yes I saw all the different signitures but I didn’t think anything of it. I figured maybe Joe had written the letter and maybe accidentally sent me the scratch version of it and thrown away the ‘good one’.

It wasn’t until years later when I decided to start looking for Joe that I started combing through my stuff for anything at all that might provide some clue as to what happened to him, might give me some sort of lead.

I am not the only one searching for information on Mercy Hawkins, Lily Burne, Audra Burne, and / or Earlytown. Not everyone is as public as I am and I have only recently decided to come out and turn my search over to anyone. In fact I think I’m the only one not afraid enough to keep my mouth shut.

Worse Than Death

I don’t know if you know what it’s like to lose someone close to you. It’s terrible. Death is bad. When someone dies, it rips your heart right out and you wonder if you’ll ever be happy again and you just want to not go to work or talk to your friends or eat or take a shower. It’s like it hurts to do everything. Everything. That’s what it was like when my parents died. Thank god I had my older brother, Joe, to get me through it. Joe always knew what to do.

I don’t want to sound heartless here, but it’s natural to feel that way. It’s what helps you say goodbye, what helps you move on. Death ruins your life worse than anything. Almost. There is something worse.

Not knowing.

I don’t know if my brother, Joseph Ethan Dao, is dead or alive. I don’t know if he walked away from his life on purpose. Or got sick in a foreign country. Or drove off a mountain road when his tire just popped. Or got ambushed and attacked by someone he put in jail (he was a cop). Or [fill in the blank] with your own ugly lonely terrible way to die. Imagine that going through your head every day, as it relates to someone YOU love.

While you’re trying to work. While you’re trying to eat. While you’re trying to read. Or watch a movie. Or sleep. That thought: where is he? What happened to her? What did I do wrong? If I had been more attentive that day. If I had called at a certain time. If I had invited him over more. If we were closer. Maybe he wouldn’t have been there. Maybe he would still be here. And we would still give each other a hard time and I would still roll my eyes whenever he acted too much like a big brother. But he would be HERE and I wouldn’t know what it feels like to obsess about his whereabouts.

I have been trying to figure it out for twenty years. Well that’s not really true. When he first disappeared, I didn’t really believe it. I didn’t believe a healthy cop law-enforcement guy like my brother could be there one minute and then just gone the next. Over the years you come up with lots of thoughts that help you get through it, that help you maintain a sense of optimism. You think, well I don’t know where he is. But he’s somewhere and he’s probably okay, just being a total jerk. These thoughts are crazy and illogical but they help get you through the day.

I’m sad to admit it but it’s true: for years I just left it to the cops. I would call from time to time. They would say sympathetically: no new developments, sorry. Then not long ago, something strange happened. Evidence of my brother’s case was gone.

And I don’t mean just gone. I mean like disappeared.

Here’s where you’re going to think I’m a crazy. And I don’t blame you. If it hadn’t happened to me first hand I wouldn’t believe it either.

Birth records. Police dossiers. Photographs. Credit card reciepts. Letters he had written me. Pictures from our family scrapbooks. They started to evaporate. To this day I don’t know how. Or who took them.

I thank my lucky stars I felt it happening. I recovered what I could and I will share with you what I can, the few pieces of evidence that exist that I ever had a brother. I’m not a detective or a college professor. I don’t always know what this stuff means or how it’s connected to Joe (or Mercy Hawkins or Lily and Audra Burne). I’ll be honest: once you start looking, it’s hard to know where to stop.

What I do know is this: once I started looking, once I started asking questions, that’s when bad things started to happen to me. I have been chased. Beaten up. People who help me have been threatened directly or indirectly.

Believe it or not, sometimes I don’t mind so much. As crazy as that sounds
(and I do know it sounds crazy. Frankly I thank God I can still tell the difference). I don’t mind the harassment because it means someone out there knows something that they don’t want me to know.

And that means someday, I might find the answer.

Dum Spiro Spero

Sorry for absence of posts. Have been running. Harassment particularly bad last few weeks. Recent development with delivery of document addressing symbol noted in letter (see previous post). have had almost no time to check it properly and no opportunity to scan it. Was literally chased to this location by several unknown individuals. I hate stairs forever. Once I reached this location those individuals chasing me immediately gave up pursuit. Enevelope appeared to be waiting for me.

Was able to grab a few photos of doc. You can see them here. Doc definitely merits close study as it offers conjecture to meaning of seal on earlier letter. There are differences, small ones, between this version of the seal; appears to be a variant design. Rendered study refers to ’sofia / baphmet’. No idea what that means. Have only moments in internet cafe’. Please look at the photos, read what you can of captions. I will scan high res version as soon as I can catch my breath or fined a safe loc. to examine data. If you see anything familiar or have insight into symbols or this doc or anything please send to me asap.

Dum spiro spero: from latin: while I breathe, I hope. Could this be someone who knows where my brother Joseph Ethan Dao is? Or how connected to Spellman? Cannot trust anyone…could be misdirect. But something about it feels right. Also note catalog-type entries on envelope. Appears to be coded entry at bottom similar to letter. Still no clue on code key.

Must go. Keep a light on for me. Don’t know how long I can keepthis up.

Location: Earlytown lat38.2122 / long-119.0111

Okay. It’s crazy time but I don’t have many options left. I am being followed, and I’m running out of safehouses. I don’t expect anyone to believe what I’m about to say, because sometimes I don’t believe it myself.

Earlytown was a place. A real place. With people. And roads. And electricity. And a pharmacist. A town square. And a butcher shop. A museum. A pool hall. A saloon. And a hotel. It was a real town, like any other.

I know. I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes. I walked its streets. I knew its people. They were friends. For a long time I haven’t been able to tell the truth, but now, I must: I was there.

And now it’s gone.

All of it. The whole place.

Replaced by a rustic lie.

If you travel to these coordinates, you will find the location of Earlytown. What you will see is a ghost town. And it’s a fake.

Enter these coordinates in Google Earth, or any other satellite search engine:

38.2122 / -119.0111

I promise you, what stands there on that ground, in the place I lost my brother, is not what it appears. What you see is not what I know to have been there, and I may be the only living person who can tell you: Earlytown was real.

What was actually there? Click the annotated photo below to see the large version. (This is all from memory. Obviously, there were far more structures there than are indicated on this rough map…but I believe my own memories of Earlytown have been damaged.)

A Doctor – Of What?

Click to the right to see a document. I believe this is a coded progress report possibly for field reconnaissance on the Hawkins family. This document if it can be verified would indicate that an organization or at least several individuals was interested in the the Burne family.

What can be learned from this document?

First off this is the first time I heard the name Dr. Elliot Spellman. (If you or any one you know has information on Dr. Spellman, please contact me at my email address.) I have visited many places, and his name is spoken with a sort of hush. I have reason to believe this man has torn families apart conducting ‘research’ which he believes to be scientific. First off, his credentials indicate a doctorate in parapsychology, a science which is under heavy debate as far as its legitimacy.

Moving on, the three elements beneath Spellman’s name are likely medical tests of some sort. Of the three, only the Apgar score has been verified as a legitimate test, which is usually performed on infants.

‘Observation Notes’ indicate the ’subject’ in question, Audra Burne, was possibly earmarked for abduction, though for what purpose no one knows.

The numbered code at the end of the page appears to be a cipher of some sort. To date, no one has broken this code, though it has been compared loosely to genome info. Could be numerical representation of helix information obtained by hair sample or saliva, at this point, there is too little info to consider this as viable lead.

The symbol in the upper right hand corner remains unexplained. Could be individual letter head, or symbol of organization. One reader who is an amateur symboligist has remarked that the two vertical lines within the medallion shape may be a unique version of the ‘caduceus‘ symbol.

The “Missing” Poster – Mercy Hawkins, Audra and Lily Burne (Hawkins?)

Click the link the ‘Missing’ thumbnail to the right to see a hi-res version of this ‘missing’ poster.

Look carefully at the information here.

This roughed up piece of paper was recovered at some great cost by an anonymous source, and passed over to me so that I could share it. Between you and me I think he/she was glad to be rid of it.

This document is important for many reasons. First of all read the information carefully. You will get a picture of not two individuals and a child but in my opinion a family who is maybe on the run. Second look carefully at the details. Whoever was circulating this document knew a certain amount about Lily and Audra and Mercy but not everything, essentially only visual descriptions.

What is missing? How about birth dates, weight, dental descriptions? These are generally included on official posters created by law enforcement. Also I have never been able to find record of any policeman or civil servant named Graham Kline in any public record database. Though many of the neighbors where this document was recovered remember the man: tall, short black hair, black trench coat, very pale skin, dark sunglasses you will not find him mentioned in police academy rosters for any California law enforcement schools (yes I’ve looked).

I believe that is that this is not a official missing poster but a flyer, handed out to help track Hawkins and the Burne family. This is also important because as far as I know, this is one of the few pieces of photographic evidence that exists showing the victims faces. If you have ever seen a document that includes the full face of Mercy Hawkins or have photos of her please send me them.