The following transcripts were obtained from the Cedar Rapids Plumbing HR department. The recordings were obtained as evidence and are now being shared with the public in an effort to aid in an ongoing investigation.

Transcript #1: Meeting between Jade Hollet (HR and Customer Relations) & Ellis Beckert (Senior Plumber) Recorded Monday, January 16th, 2023 6:00PM:

Jade: Evening, Ellis. Grab a seat.

Ellis: Hi, Jade.

Jade: Thanks again for agreeing to do this. I know you had a busy last week.

Ellis: Ahh, It’s been crazy. All of it.

Jade: I hope the weekend helped you process everything.

Ellis: It really didn’t. I feel the same. Things are just as murky as they’ve ever been.

Jade: Sorry to hear that, Ellis. I really am. I want to hear everything, so let's get into it. I just want to disclose first that I am recording this. Kind of an unusual situation we have here, so I just want to make sure I don’t miss any information when documenting and updating our records.

Ellis: Understood.

Jade: Normally I wouldn't be asking for this level of detail, but you understand the circumstances more than anyone. I’m picking at this post-mortem and everything.

Ellis: I totally get it.

Jade: Let’s dive in then and get you home to Shirley and the kids. Remind me again, how long have you worked for CR?

Ellis: Haha. Kind of sad to admit this, but it’s been nearly ten years.

Jade: And with Dave, specifically?

Ellis: All ten, for sure. Dave’s the most senior guy we got.

Jade: And how would you describe him as an employee, generally?

Ellis: Davey boy? Oh, an absolute rockstar. That’s why it’s just so hard, what went down.

Jade: Could you elaborate?

Ellis: Hard worker, man. Busts his ass every day. He would cover shifts for you at the drop of a hat. Always willing to lend a helping hand. I have an affinity for the guy, us being the old pups around the block here. The guy is a gem and a good friend, at that.

Jade: Thanks, Ellis. Okay. So let’s get into what happened on the thirteenth.

Ellis: Okay. Well, I get the call from dispatch last Friday at around 2:00 AM. It’s a house on Oakwood Lane that’s complaining about a leaky pipe in the basement. Real emergency by the sounds of it. Megan sends the two of us: Me and Dave. Dave picks me up in the van and we head over right away.

Jade: Did he seem fine?

Ellis: Who? Dave? Oh, yeah. A little cranky, but so was I. Nobody likes these early morning visits. Working on call sucks.

Jade: Haha. I won’t argue with you there. I’ll stay quiet in my cushy cubicle. Anyways, I hope you don’t mind, I’ll also be taking some quick notes. If I'm not looking at you, just know that I'm still listening.

Ellis: No problem.

Jade: Okay. Continue.

Ellis: We get to the house and there are no lights on. It’s a sixties bungalow-style home, pretty standard for that neighborhood. Massive trees in the front yard. To be honest, we’re not even sure it's the right place at first, so Dave calls dispatch to confirm. We’re twiddling our thumbs for fifteen minutes with no response. I’m cursing the whole time, telling Dave to turn the van around and head home. He wants to wait another five, just to be sure. So, we do. Just as he starts the engine to leave, the porch light turns on. A middle-aged couple walks out and waves for us to come in. We get to the porch, and the lady confirms they made the call, so I head in first, and Dave heads back to the van to grab some tools.

Jade: Can you describe the couple for me?

Ellis: I mean, normal looking. White suburban family. They were just dressed odd, like an episode of ‘Leave it to Beaver’. The wife’s got a flower print dress on and one of those beehive hairdos that is hair sprayed solid. The husbands got on these god-awful plaid slacks and a yellow polo shirt. I don’t normally notice this kind of thing, but it reminded me of what my parents used to wear when I was a kid. Total blast from the past.

Jade: Seems like strange attire given the hour of the day.

Ellis: No kidding. Try coming to my door at that hour. I’d be in nothing but my briefs. No one deserves to see that.

Jade: Haha. Okay. So what happens when you get inside?

Ellis: I take a few steps inside and you can tell right away that something is off. The place looks like a bomb went off. There are stacks and stacks of newspapers, books, clothing, records, tube TV’s. We’re talking towers of this stuff right to the ceiling, lining the avocado-painted walls, littering the dusty shag rugs. The chandelier is black with crud. Extreme hoarder's level of crap. The lady offers me a coffee, so we walk through the foyer to the kitchen. It smells like mildew and rot. I’m trying my best not to be rude, but it’s a challenge holding back my gag reflex. I just can’t understand how people live like this. Anyways, I think she notices because once we get there she apologizes. She says they are in the process of deep cleaning the house or something. I don’t buy it for one second, but it is what it is. That amount of clutter is collected for years and years. But they seem like nice enough people.

Jade: Where is Dave during all of this?

Ellis: I hear him enter a couple of minutes later. He gives me the eyes, like ‘Holy shit. We are in for a fun one’. He drops off my tool bag and leaves with the husband to inspect the basement. I tell him I’ll be down shortly.

Jade: You don’t go with him?

Ellis: Not right away. Mainly because their story has changed. The wife tells me she now thinks the leak is coming from the bathroom on the main floor. The husband is adamant the issue is in the basement. It shouldn’t be that hard to pinpoint. I know from both of our perspectives, we just want to get the job done and get back to our warm beds, so it made sense to divide and conquer.

Jade: Hmm…okay.

Ellis: So, I finish my drink and that’s when things take a sharp turn. The wife grabs my coffee cup and starts washing the dishes. She points me in the direction of the washroom and says she’ll be right with me. I head toward the hallway through the forest of teetering junk, and there's a flicker of something that crosses my path up ahead. A shadow. I hear this little pitter-patter of feet. I keep walking. I figure maybe a toy or something fell from one of the piles. But it happens again just before I get to the hall entrance. I look back, and behind a pile of bell-bottom pants, a tiny head pops out.

Jade: Who was it?

Ellis: It was a cat. Midnight black. Big piercing yellow eyes. It climbs the tower of wrinkled clothes and sits perched at the top like the king of the castle. It freaks me out. I turn back around to leave, but I hear it hiss. It’s scratching at something stuck between one of its claws. It’s frantically digging away, and then finally the object releases and it tumbles down the clothing pile, floating toward me.

Jade: What was it?

Ellis: It was a newspaper clipping from 1967. Faded, yellowed, crumpled at the edges. But I swear to God, it was a local news article about my softball team winning the city championship. I was just a boy in the photo.

Jade: Wow. Incredibly strange…

Ellis: Sorry—I went off on a tangent there. I guess I’m just saying that to show you that this wasn’t a normal job.

Jade: I totally get it. The more context here the better. So, go on.

Ellis: I’m shitting bricks at this point. I’m calling the woman’s name, Victoria I believe it was, but I don’t hear anything back. The cat scurries down the hall, and I don’t know what else to do but follow it. I figure just diagnose the leak as quickly as possible, find Dave, make the repair, and get the heck out. I get to the bathroom and have a look around.

Jade: And how bad was it?

Ellis: There was a small pool around the toilet. It’s not uncommon for a bathroom that dated to have an issue with the wax gasket. Nothing to write home about and definitely far from the major disaster alluded to by dispatch. Everything else looked solid. No other signs of dripping or corrosion. It was an easy fix.

Jade: How long does it take to fix?

Ellis: Not long at all. It’s pretty simple. It made me think Dave was probably dealing with the real shit show downstairs. No pun intended.

Jade: Haha. So after you fix it, what happens?

Ellis: I never fixed it.

Jade: What do you mean?

Ellis: After I was confident with my assessment, I went looking for Victoria just to give her a rundown before I make the repair. We typically need some sort of sign-off before we can complete the work.

Jade: And did she okay it?

Ellis: The short of it is, I never found her. I stumbled through the mess of junk back to the kitchen. I walked back toward the washroom and then further down the hallway past a couple of the bedrooms. The doors were closed and the lights were off, so I didn’t want to intrude.

Jade: Unbelievable. So she just left?

Ellis: Yeah…so I don’t really know what to do at that point. I’m lingering by the washroom, contemplating whether I should just complete the repairs or head to the basement to help Dave. My guess was she got bored and went down there with her husband anyways to check on them. I start walking until I hear something.

Jade: Something? Like what?

Ellis: It’s moaning coming from the washroom. I step back inside and place my ear near the toilet seat. Down the pipes, I swear I hear Dave.

Jade: Oh my God. Dave? What’s he saying?

Ellis: He’s crying for help in these deep howls. Like a wounded dog trapped in a well. Ahh…

Jade: Take your time.

Ellis: Thanks. Sorry. It still fucks with me, Jade. I’d never heard anyone sound like that before, let alone Dave.

Jade: Your sure it was him?

Ellis: One hundred percent positive. Without a doubt.

Jade: So I assume you went downstairs to help him?

Ellis: I grab my tools and start running. I wasn’t careful about it either. I storm through the mess, mountains of videos games and comic books topple to the floor. I hear things crashing, glass breaking. I didn’t care anymore. I needed to find him and get us the hell out.

Jade: And how was he?

Ellis: Oh my God, Jade. It took me forever to find him. It felt like hours. I keep passing heaps of sweatshirts and newspaper bundles that I could have sworn I’d seen before. So I run faster, my arms sore lugging the toolbag around in circles. The whole time, I don’t see the lady. I don’t see anyone for ages. Only the black cat I saw earlier, with its sharp eyes, and a couple of his friends. They keep hissing at me. Snarling. And new ones keep popping up out of the woodwork, behind piles of plastic containers filled to the brim containing God knows what. There were too many to count. All of them, hissing at me.

Jade: Jesus Christ, Ellis. Corey never mentioned any of this.

Ellis: Ha. I’m not surprised. When Corey’s mad, he just doesn’t want to hear any of it. There was a bloody good reason for what we did.

Jade: So, eventually you find him?

Ellis: I do. The stupid cats end up huddling by the door. I follow them, using the toolbag as a sort of weapon to shoo them away. I’m convinced one of them is going to claw me down and give me rabies.

Jade: Well, I’m glad they left you alone.

Ellis: Stupid excuse for pets. They want nothing to do with you unless you have food. Anyways, I digress. I find the door and it’s pitch black down the steep decline. I fumble through my bag and flick on my flashlight. All I hear are the creaks from my footsteps as I enter. It’s cold. The stairs are brittle, they look like they can barely support my weight. I get down there, and the whole place is unfinished. The wood framing is done, but the electrical wires are still strung up. There’s no drywall, no nothing. Just a furnace and a couple of hot water tanks and concrete. Dave is down there. He’s sitting with his back toward me, cross-legged by the drain hole. He’s not responding. It’s like he can't hear me.

Jade: Was he okay?

Ellis: He has this blank expression on his face. He’s muttering something under his breath, but I can’t understand any of it. His hand is pressed up against the mucky drain hole. I try to shake him out of it, but he’s lost man. He’s gone.

Jade: Did he look hurt?

Ellis: No, he looked physically fine. He just looked rattled.

Jade: And was the leak bad?

Ellis: That’s the most messed up thing about it. The basement was bone dry. The pipes, everything. No sign of a leak at all.

Jade: And they weren’t down there?

Ellis: The owners? Nowhere to be found. We would have saw them too. Like I said, it was a wide open space.

Jade: So, what did you guys do next?

Ellis: I grab Dave under his armpits and drag him toward the stairs. We trudge our way up, but he was listless through all of it. He just keeps muttering gibberish. It’s not until we make it to the car and start driving that he snaps out of it.

Jade: So he was okay?

Ellis: He still looked stunned, but at least he was responsive. I mean, responsive, but none of what he was saying made any sense.

Jade: What do you mean?

Ellis: He was adamant that he lived in that home. He kept begging me to turn back. He was pulling on my shoulder so hard that we damn near hit the median. I told him to get bent, there was no way I was heading back to that place. But he keeps persisting. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out this bundled-up wad of paper. I smooth it out and it’s a picture of a little boy in overalls. There are banners on the wall, and a cake on the table off in the distance. He claims that the photo is of him. He found it in one of the piles.

Jade: No way…

Ellis: You’re telling me. I look at the photo and I tell him it’s all wrong. The placement of the kitchen relative to the hallway. The wallpaper color. The height of the ceiling. He wasn’t hearing any of it.

Jade: So…do you guys turn back?

Ellis: Hell no. I think Dave is pissed at me, but I don’t care. I dropped him off at his place and told him to get some rest.

Jade: And you?

Ellis: I headed home too. I was exhausted. But you wanna know what the most messed up thing is about this whole situation?

Jade: What?

Ellis: I call Corey when I wake up and tell him everything. And you know what he says?

Jade: I think I do.

Ellis: Yeah, you’re smiling. I get it. But there ain’t nothing funny about it. He can label it whatever he wants—abandoning the job, no-showing—whatever. Put the red strike against my name. But I’ll quit before I ever go back to that house.

Jade: I hear you. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make light of it.

Ellis: Promise me you’ll talk to him? That house is not a safe work environment. It needs to be blacklisted.

Jade: I’ll do what I can. Thanks, Ellis.

Transcript #2: Meeting between Jade Hollet (HR and Customer Relations) & Mike Coswell (Journeyman Plumber) Recorded Weds Jan 18th, 2023 5:53PM:

Jade: Hi, Mike.

Mike: Jade. You look lovely this evening.

Jade: Oh, thanks. Thanks again for meeting with me.

Mike: No problem. Where is Corey?

Jade: He won’t be joining us after all. He got pulled away on another job.

Mike: You’re kidding, right?

Jade: I’m not. I’m sorry…

Mike: Look, I’m happy to shed some light on this situation, but this all feels like a waste of time if he’s not here to hear it.

Jade: Please, Mike. I know you’re upset. You have every right to be. You, Dave, Ellis—everyone involved. But I can’t help if I don't know the story. It is really unfortunate that he’s not here, but I promise that I’ll relay the information.

Mike: It’s not you I worry about here, Jade. He needs to listen. He needs to start taking this seriously.

Jade: I completely agree. And I promise I will do my best to catch him, sit him down, and get him to listen. But I need your side of the story, Mike, in order to do this.

Mike: Alright.

Jade: Thank you. Before we start, I just want to let you know that I am recording this. This file seems to be a contentious one, so I just want to make sure I document everything.

Mike: All fine by me.

Jade: Perfect. So, walk me through what happened yesterday at the house on Oakwood Lane.

Mike: Corey calls me, livid, right at the start of my shift. He says he needs me to make a repair right away and Tony will take the job I was previously scheduled for. It’s a simple job, he says, replacing the wax ring around a toilet. I tell him yes and I drive over.

Jade: Does he tell you that Ellis and Dave had already been on-site the day before?

Mike: He doesn’t. And now I know why.

Jade: Can you describe the house once you get there?

Mike: Yes. It’s a single-story home. Pitched roof. Older. It looks well-maintained from the outside. The inside, though, was a nightmare.

Jade: How bad was it?

Mike: Oh, you know, just charming. It looked like they had never thrown anything out before. Ever. Mountains of CD’s, cassette tapes, phonebooks, magazines, and bottles of spray paint. All this crap sat in piles and piles. The house had these brown stains along the walls and this awful yellow floral wallpaper, maroon sofas with velvet sweaters and parachute pants cast upon them. And the smell…that was something else. Like cat piss and shit.

Jade: Really? Are you sure about all of those details?

Mike: Oh yeah, positive. The whole place was like a fucked up time warp.

Jade: Okay. So what happens once you get there?

Mike: They lead me to the main floor bathroom, but they say that someone else has already fixed it for them. I check it out, and it looks like the seal is new. The rounder fellow with the beard, he says the problem is in the basement. The drainage hole is plugged.

Jade: Wait…hold on. There were two guys?

Mike: Yes. Young guys. Maybe in their twenties. I didn’t want to judge or anything, but it seemed like they were a couple. They were pretty handsy with each other, anyways. There was a bigger guy with a thick beard and a skinny, clean-shaven guy with a baseball cap. They were dressed in these matching bright neon jackets with blocks of color. Comically eighties.

Jade: Are you sure they were the owners?

Mike: There was no one else there, besides the stupid cats. And they seemed to know their way around the place. I guess I made the assumption.

Jade: Hmm…Okay.

Mike: Anyways, they lead me to basement. I take a couple of steps down, and I’m asking them about what they think caused the blockage. I don’t hear a response back, just the slamming of the door. The whole room goes black.

Jade: Oh my God, Mike.

Mike: Exactly. This is why I’m so bloody pissed at Corey. This was Ellis and Dave’s mess to clean up, not mine.

Jade: They came and got you right?

Mike: They leave me down there. The door is locked.

Jade: Holy crap, Mike. I’m sorry.

Mike: So, I’m panicking. The two guys never respond. Luckily, I find the flashlight in my toolbox. I try to batter down the door with no luck. The bastards must have moved one of the couches or something to block it.

Jade: So you can’t go back up. What do you do?

Mike: I head down. The basement looks like some kind of construction project. I spot the drain hole, and there’s a pile of things beside it. I walk over and it’s a bunch of old toys that look familiar. Some Care Bears, an Etch-A-Sketch, a Fisher Price tape recorder. I owned all of these as a kid. They’re all in a pile facing me in this weird sort of memorial.

Jade: Jesus. That is disturbing.

Mike: I know. Chills still run up my neck at the thought of it.

Jade: How bad was the clog?

Mike: That’s the craziest thing, there wasn’t one. I’m inspecting the toys and I hear something coming from the drain hole. I place my hand on the metal grate and it’s cold but dry. I place my ear to the metal and I definitely hear voices. It’s a lot of gasping and wheezing. It sounds far away. I think I hear a tired cry for help. I can hear water running too, surging. But I don’t see anything building, it’s just blackness behind the grate. It didn’t make any sense. And then I hear the scratching, the claws scraping at the door.

Jade: My God, Mike. I hope you got out of there.

Mike: Oh, I did. At this point, I was completely freaked out. I take one of my wrenches, smash the window, and climb out of that basement as quickly as possible.

Jade: I’m glad you're okay, Mike. That story is terrifying.

Mike: Thanks, Jade. Just so you know, I called the cops. I don’t know if anything will come of it, but that place wasn’t right.

Jade: I think that was smart. Keep me posted if you need anything. I’ve got a meeting scheduled with Corey this week. I’ll make sure to include all of this.

Mike: Don’t let him send another one of our guys down there.

Jade: Agreed. I’ll let him know. Thanks, Mike.

Transcript #3: Meeting between Jade Hollet (HR and Customer Relations) & Megan Rodriguez (Dispatcher) Recorded Mon Jan 23rd, 2023 7:42AM:

Jade: Hi, Megan.

Megan: Hi, Jade. How was your weekend?

Jade: Oh, you know, quiet, so good. Sorry to grab you so early here. This will be super quick, I just need to hear it from your lips.

Megan: No problem. I don’t start for another fifteen or so.

Jade: Perfect. This shouldn’t take long at all. Have a seat.

Megan: So, what’s up?

Jade: A lot of people are talking about the Oakwood house jobs lately. I spoke with Ellis and Mike already. I just need to know your perspective.

Megan: Mmmhmm. Okay.

Jade: Also, before I forget, I’m recording everything. Just so you know.

Megan: Um…okay.

Jade: Not to be used against you or anything. I know, it’s weird. This whole thing is weird. But I’m getting some conflicting stories here that I need to verify, and I just don’t want to forget any of the details.

Megan: I guess that’s okay.

Jade: Awesome. Thanks for understanding. So a couple of weeks ago, Friday January 13th to be exact, Ellis said he received a call that morning from dispatch. He said you made the call. Then he said Dave made a call back to confirm the address was correct. [REDACTED]. They waited fifteen minutes, but they claimed they never heard back from dispatch.

Megan: Ellis is wrong. You can check the records yourself, I already have. No call was made to him that morning. We did receive a call from Dave that we returned. I don’t know when it was sent exactly, but we were dealing with another issue at the time. I know for sure that the call went to his voicemail though.

Jade: You’re sure about that?

Megan: I’m positive. That job ticket # was also for a job completed last year, it’s a completely different address.

Jade: Okay. Can you check if we’ve ever completed work at [REDACTED] in the past?

Megan: I did check. That address isn’t in our records.

Jade: Hmm…okay. Thanks, Megan. One more thing—

*knock*

Jade: Shoot. It’s Corey. I need to speak with him. Thanks, Megan. You’ve been a big help. I’ll reach out if necessary.

Megan: No worries, Jade. Have a good day!

Transcript #4: Meeting between Jade Hollet (HR and Customer Relations) & Corey Nanton (Operations Manager) Recorded Mon Jan 23rd, 2023 7:51AM:

Jade: Hi, Corey.

Corey: Hey, Jade. How’s it going?

Jade: I’m doing okay. Can you close the door?

Corey: Definitely.

Jade: Any word yet?

Corey: Nothing yet. But I think it’s pretty clear that we need to do something. I’ve left voicemails. I’ve tried reaching out to his girlfriend. No one has seen or heard from him.

Jade: It’s more serious than that.

Corey: What do you mean?

Jade: No one has contacted you yet?

Corey: For what?

Jade: I was contacted by law enforcement this morning. I’m sure they will be speaking with you shortly. They’re looking for him too. Do you know if anyone has seen him since?

Corey: No. This whole situation has been such an utter pain in the ass. He’s been a no-show since that job. I spoke with the guys. No one has heard from him. It’s not like him.

Jade: You know, Corey, Mike and Ellis’s stories don’t line up at all. I have a really bad feeling about this.

Corey: What do you mean?

Jade: When they claimed that the homeowners weren’t the same, I looked up the house online. There’s no sales history at all since the house was built in 1961.

Corey: Okay?

Jade: I…I don’t know why, but I’ve gone down a rabbit hole with this one. I called in a favor with one of my friends at the city. He pulled everything he could on the house. There were permits in place to demolish it years ago. It keeps getting delayed and held up in court. But no one has lived in it for years. It was deemed a safety hazard by the community. Unliveable. Pull up your phone and search the address. Tell me the first story you see.

Corey: Hold on. Holy crap…

Jade: I told you. You see all the cats?

Corey: This place looks like absolute shit. The ceiling looks like it’s about to cave in.

Jade: And the poor cats. Look at them all. Starved, rolling around in their own filth.

Corey: You’re sure this is the same house?

Jade: I’ll play you back the tapes of what the guys said. The description matches perfectly.

Corey: No bloody way. This makes no sense!

Jade: I know. I told you, Corey. We should have spoken sooner! That’s not even the worst part. I…

Corey: It’s okay, Jade. Here.

Jade: Thanks, Corey. Ahh, my friggin’ makeup. Anyways, I…Just wait until they speak to you.

Corey: Jade. Just tell me now. Please.

Jade: I don’t even think I should be speaking about it…but…

Corey: I know this must be hard for you. With Dave and everything…

Jade: That was a long time ago, Mike. We’ve been with other people for years.

Corey: I know. It’s not my place. I’m sorry. I just know from my own experiences that you never stop caring for them. I guess that’s all I’m trying to say.

Jade: Corey. You don’t get it. They’re trying to say he went back to the property. They’re saying he broke in and burst one of the pipes. The house is completely flooded. They found bodies…

*knock* *knock*

Jade: Well, I guess you can hear it from them yourself.

***

If you or anyone you know has been in contact with David Weiss or has visited the property on Oakwood Lane, [REDACTED], we urge you to please call the local authorities.

​

A.P. Royal