True Crime: Five and Counting

Chapter 1: One, Two, Three, Four, Five...

*Everything you are about to read is based on a true story. This is not fiction, it is all fact. Some small details may be altered unintentionally, but these are events that actually happened, real people, and true crime. At the end, I will provide links to the real story. I call this one... Five and Counting*

        "Hello? Is anyone home?" Officer Mitchell knocked on the door again, this time a little harder. Mitchell had been dispatched to the house to see if everything was okay. The owner Jenna and her family hadn't been seen or heard from in a few days. A concerned friend had called in the odd absence.

        Mitchell knocked again. There was no answer. He gave up and simply tried to open the door, but it was locked.

        Maybe I'll have better luck at the back door.

        Officer Mitchell stepped down off the small concrete porch and looked over to the van in the driveway. It was filled with small boxes of different sizes. Each was marked with a different label such as "clothes" or "living room". It appeared that the owner, Jenna, was just finishing moving in or out.

        Mitchell started to make his way around to the backyard. As he did, he glanced inside the windows.

        The first window revealed that some lights were turned on. Officer Mitchell listened for any noises coming from inside, but heard none. He proceeded to the next window and looked in.

        "Ma'am?" Mitchell called out. A woman was lying in the middle of the floor. He knocked on the window and started to fear the worst when the woman gave no response to the loud banging.

        "MA'AM!" Mitchell yelled, but still didn't get an answer. He began prying the screen off the window.

        Please just be asleep. Please just be sleeping.

        In police work, you never want to assume the worst. You try so hard to come up with a different possibility until you have to face the truth.

        Mitchell was now climbing in the window. Luckily, it wasn't locked. He was quickly inside and knelt down next to the motionless girl. He slowly reached down and felt for a pulse.

        She was dead. Mitchell sighed heavily and briefly closed his eyes. He opened them and truly surveyed the room for the first time. He was horrified at what he saw.

        The first thing that caught his eye was a cat on top of a mantle. The cat was just as motionless as the woman in the floor. The animal was positioned in the middle of several used candles and religious decorations. The scene resembled an alter. Even more disturbing, it looked like the cat had been sacrificed.

        Other than that, the den looked completely normal. No signs of a struggle. No blood was anywhere. Mitchell continued to make his way through the house and continued to find horror. In one bedroom, a small child lay motionless in his bed. He found the same sight in another bedroom. In the bathroom, Mitchell found a young teen sprawled out on the floor. One more young teen was found face down in the hallway. A total of five bodies.

        Officer Mitchell felt sick. His stomach turned and his head pounded. He took slow breaths to hold back the vomit. He unlocked and exited the front of the house then pulled out his radio.

        "This is Mitchell.  I'm at 771 Rosemont Avenue.  We have a 187 over here. There are five victims."

        It wasn't long until the house was swarming with on lookers, police, and media.