Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents.

If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center.

For suggested phone numbers for confidential support

and for a more detailed list of content warnings,

please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves

crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners. Over the Memorial Day weekend in late March 2004, seven-year-old Emily Higgs left her bright pink bicycle outside her home in

Greyball, Indiana.

When she went to retrieve it, she noticed someone had left a ziploc plastic bag in the bike's front basket.

Inside the bag was an anonymous note written in pencil on lined yellow paper.

It read, Hi honey, I've been watching you. I am the same person that

kidnapped and raped and killed April Tinsley. You are my next victim.

If you don't report this to police, or I don't see this in the paper tomorrow or on the local news,

I will blow up your house, killing everyone but you.

You will be mine.

The plastic bag also contained a used condom.

Emily took the items to her mother, Crystal.

While Crystal was unsettled, she was convinced it was a sick joke,

possibly the handiwork of one of her teenage son's

friends. The author's handwriting was messy and childlike. It was also riddled with grammatical punctuation and spelling errors, with simple words like

Will misspelled as W-E-L.

The name April Tinsley didn't ring any bells for Crystal Higgs, whose family had only been living in the area for a couple of years.

But when she told a long-time community member about the disturbing message, they were visibly

...