A horror movie come to life

[snopes]

Three families receive death threats via cell phone. Even when the phones are off. Even when they get new phones.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/c...ory/91460.html

[Artemis]

“They’re accusing my daughter of threatening her own family,” Heather Kuykendall said.

“Why would I do that?” Courtney said. “Why would I do that to people I care about? Why would I harass my own family?”

My first, initial thought is hoax involving the 16 year old kid.

Since most of it seems to be centering around the daughter, Courtney, and since they already did seem to suspect her, I sort of feel the same way.

She described one recent call: She was slicing limes in the kitchen. The stalkers left a message, saying they preferred lemons.

Again, seems like something you could do with your friends. The girl calls her friends, mentions her mom is slicing limes, someone calls. I'm just wondering why a "real" (i.e., not a kid) stalker would care enough to do this.

Plus, they're targeting Courtney, her family, her friends...my radar's up.

I'm leaning towards this being the daughter. It sounds absolutely terrifying for anyone out of the loop.

Mari Manley, 16, one of Courtney’s close friends, is another victim of the harassment. She tried to avoid the calls by ignoring her phone. Late one night, she heard the phone making an unfamiliar noise. Her ringtone had changed.

“Answer your phone,” a guttural voice said. Manley saved the ringtone, and played it during an interview Tuesday.

HT

For a joke it's a pretty sick one. But I'm wondering why they, oh I don't know, chage their freaking phone numbers! It was mentioned that they changed the physical phone but not the number. If they were really concerned they would change all the numbers for the family, cells and land lines, and have them be unlisted. And another shocker, they could stop using cell phones. I know we are addictted to them but we got on fine 15 years ago without them. And I don't believe the timer that said messages were sent from the daughters phone while it was off. SO's and my phone never agree at what time a message was sent and recieved.

[nancyfancypants]

My money is on the 16 year-old, looking for some extra attention.

[nancyfancypants]

In fact, now that I've listened to the audio snippets, I feel even more strongly that way. They all sound like a girl!

[Artemis]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who assumed it was the sixteen year old. After I posted that, I felt bad for jumping to conclusions. (I should go sit on the jump to conclusions mat.)

But some of these things just seem too outlandish to be true. The phone being off and sending messages, for one thing. And the ringtone changing--what proof do we have of that? The girl said she "saved" the ringtone and brought it in. Or...she downloaded a new ringtone and played it at the interview.

[guruwan2b]

McKay, a teacher in the Peninsula School District, said she and Taylor recently explained the threats to the principal at Gig Harbor High School, which Taylor attends. A Gig Harbor police officer sat in on the conversation, she said.
While the four people talked, Taylor’s and Andrea’s phones, which were switched off, sat on a table. While mother and daughter spoke, Taylor’s phone switched on and sent a text message to her mother’s phone, Andrea said.

So they had a meeting with a police officer present, the phone was on a table turned off, it switched itself on and sent a text message to the other phone on the table that was also turned off?

If this Courtney is doing all this, she must be pretty technologically savy. I mean, the FBI needs to be giving her a job or something....

[remarkgullabull]

Originally Posted by Duckie Queen

But I'm wondering why they, oh I don't know, chage their freaking phone numbers!

Or service providers for that matter.....

The whole thing sounds like an elaborate hoax to me.

[Artemis]

Phone records show many of the messages coming from Courtney’s phone, even when she’s not using it – even when it’s turned off.

Or...you know, when she claims she's not using it or it's off?

McKay, a teacher in the Peninsula School District, said she and Taylor recently explained the threats to the principal at Gig Harbor High School, which Taylor attends. A Gig Harbor police officer sat in on the conversation, she said.

While the four people talked, Taylor’s and Andrea’s phones, which were switched off, sat on a table. While mother and daughter spoke, Taylor’s phone switched on and sent a text message to her mother’s phone, Andrea said.

This is bizarre. I'd assume someone was lying, but apparently there was a policeman there.

“Why would I do that?” Courtney said. “Why would I do that to people I care about? Why would I harass my own family?”

Because you're a sick freak who needs help?

[hpnerd5692]

Thats prettty darn creepy. But I agree they can't harass you if you don't have a cell phone. They should just get rid of them.

[We'veBeenHad]

I don't think so Artemis, because there were four people in the room who say the phones were off and literally switched themselves on. On the table. She was there, so was a police officer and the principal. I agree with guruwan on this; if she's that amazing she needs a job with the CIA or FBI or as a spy or something.

I'd agree the daughter might be a perp except it's gone on so long. The investigator explanation of an extremely technically savvy local kid makes more sense to me.

ETA: I missed the whole middle part of your last post; yeah that's the part I mean.

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by We'veBeenHad

I don't think so Artemis, because there were four people in the room who say the phones were off and literally switched themselves on. On the table. She was there, so was a police officer and the principal. I agree with guruwan on this; if she's that amazing she needs a job with the CIA or FBI or as a spy or something.

I'd agree the daughter might be a perp except it's gone on so long. The investigator explanation of an extremely technically savvy local kid makes more sense to me.

ETA: I missed the whole middle part of your last post; yeah that's the part I mean.

No prob--yeah, that was what had me flummoxed. Why would the cop or principal lie?

My thought was maybe the girl was friends with the people doing it...initially, anyway. Would explain how the stalker knew the mother was slicing limes, etc.

[Ana Ng]

Did anyone see that episode of Unsolved Mysteries with the man who was being harassed via phone an unbelievable amount, and then was committed for his protection, and the calls kept coming to the institution? And the harassers kidnapped a friend's child briefly but returned him? I don't remember all the details, but it was insane.

This reminds me of that.

[We'veBeenHad]

I'd say the girl had an enemy or two that *really* hate her, artemis. Or maybe an unrequited "love." No matter who it turns out to be, they're messed up.

You know what doesn't make sense to me is why the heck they keep answering the phone when it comes up "restricted"? I don't answer for 800 numbers or anything I don't actually want to take. It wouldn't stop what I thought was very scary - people banging on the HOUSE in the middle of the night and disappearing before police can get there (and why don't they get a dog or a gun or something?) nor stop them from the electronic tricks, but it would stop the "I prefer lemons" type thing. There really are actually a lot of things they can do that will help, but I don't know what you can do about an electronic hijacker who has the ability to change your ringtone when you're not looking and turn on your phone when you want it off. (That part, and the part about the people banging on the house were things I'd find terrifying.)

Duckie, it did say they got new numbers somewhere, because I remember it also saying the person somehow got her new number. Could be she's just careless giving it out - if I were going through that I'd nix the cell phones myself, if they kept getting the numbers.

[We'veBeenHad]

Just to correct myself, Courtney wasn't in the room for that meeting. But based on re-reading the whole piece, I have to go with what the counterintelligence specialist said and vote for electronic hijacking. It fits a lot better than that she's able not only to do all this technical stuff, but with people outside her house screaming and banging on the walls, how these people are playing back snippets of conversations they've had with detectives, etc.

[Halfmad]

I love this story (in a sick way). So fascinating. And it's near where I live!

No matter what, this is an amazing story. And death threats? Good lord, when they find out who's doing it, that's gonna hurt. (And the phone messages sound like they threaten the officers, too.)

As far as the people banging on the house--I think I might hire a bodyguard or get very very bright motion sensor lights.

This all reminds me of a bizarre movie I saw years ago (made for TV) with Annie, um, can't remember her last name, from Designing Women. Some crazy woman starts stalking her and leaving messages etc and finally kills her, and when it's fully investigated, the police conclude she did it all herself, and that the stress from her husband moving them away from her hometown and being apart for awhile caused her to develop a split personality!

My gut feeling is also with the girl, or possibly a friend of hers who can be 'outside the loop'. However, the claims that the phones switched themselves on is interesting.

Of course, to make it look like a message came from one phone to the other, all you actually need to do is send a message from another phone that's spoofing the one apparently turned off. It's not something I can do, but apparently it's relatively simple to 'clone' phones.

As for them turning on automatically, although my first instinct is to suggest his is doubtful at best, I do recall reading somewhere that the police in the UK were looking into using technology to do this. The idea was that in a missing persons case they'd be able to activate their phone even if they (or their kidnapper) had turned it off, and could then triangulate it. Notwithstanding this, I'm pretty certain you could use Symbian/Java to program a phone to appear to be off and then reactivate at a specific time. Of course, this same program could also send a text.

It might be that the whole family is in on it. After all, newspapers will often pay some fairly hefty sums for interesting stories. It sounds a little staged to me that these phones behaved in this way just when the police were there with them sitting on table.

Jon

[We'veBeenHad]

Agreed, cobnut, but re-reading it the harassment is happening to far more than just this family - there seem to be quite a few people it's happening to, and it happened after Courtney's phone was first (presumably) interfered with, and then targeted people who were in her phone book and such. Since the counterintelligence guy said it wouldn't be all that hard to electronically hijack her phone this way, I'm leaning towards that. I'd like to believe most people wouldn't go quite to these lengths just to get a story out. So many of the messages are traced back to her phone even when she was supposedly elsewhere or didn't have her phone on - she would have to be very dedicated to this to keep pulling it off for months. You'd think someone would notice if she was making all those calls during school hours, too. I do hope they figure it out, since it IS a good story either way. The bit about the ringtone in the girl's room changing to a guttural voice is just classic, in a horror movie way.

By the way, a teen girl and a friend pulling it off for months at a time, and neither of them breaking down? As a former teen girl and the mother of one (well moving beyond teens now) I don't see it Keeping a secret like that for so long, not telling anyone and having it really get around? That's as farfetched as anything else, IMO

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by Artemis

This is bizarre. I'd assume someone was lying, but apparently there was a policeman there.

Yeah, policemen can't be tricked.