Urban Legends and Myths

Carmen Winstead

Chain-letter-style Internet postings tell the story of Carmen Winstead, a 17-year-old girl supposedly pushed down a sewer and killed by a gang of girls from her school.

Description: Ghost story / Internet chain letter

Circulating since: 2006

Example:

Text of MySpace.com post contributed by RedHot, Oct. 6, 2006:

------ Bulletin Message ------

They pushed her down a sewer

About 6 years ago in Indiana, Carmen Winstead was pushed down a sewer opening by 5 girls in her school, trying to embarrass her in front of her school during a fire drill. When she didn't submerge the police were called. They went down and brought up 17 year old Carmen Winstead's body, her neck broke hitting the ladder, then side concrete at the bottom. The girls told everyone she fell... They believed them.

FACT: 2 months ago, 16 year old David Gregory read this post and didn't repost it. When he went to take a shower he heard laughter from his shower, he started freaking out and ran to his computer to repost it, He said goodnight to his mom and went to sleep, 5 hours later his mom woke up in the middle of the night cause of a loud noise, David was gone, that morning a few hours later the police found him in the sewer, his neck broke and his face skin peeled off.

If you don't repost this saying "She was pushed" or "They pushed her down a sewer" Then Carmen will get you, either from a sewer, the toilet, the shower, or when you go to sleep you'll wake up in the sewer, in the dark, then Carmen will come and kill you.

Analysis: Don't panic! There's no public record I could find of a teenage girl named Carmen Winstead who perished after being pushed down a sewer drain by schoolmates — not in North America, at any rate, and certainly not during the past 50 years.

That doesn't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it never happened, but it's reason enough to classify the tale as folklore, a ghost story, an urban legend.

It's also a chain letter, albeit circulating in the form of forwarded emails and Facebook status updates. Like every other chain letter since time immemorial, its primary goal is replication. It's written to persuade you to pass the story along to your friends, so they'll pass it along to their friends, and they to their friends, etc., so the text keeps on circulating — hence the threat of a painful death for those who don't comply: "If you don't repost this saying 'They pushed her,' then Carmen will get you, either from the sewer, the toilet, the shower, or when you go to sleep you'll wake up in the sewer, in the dark, then Carmen will come and kill you."

Are you scared yet? If so, you probably shouldn't read any further specimens in the ghost-story-chain-letter genre, for example:

A Little Girl Called Clarissa

"On a Monday night at 12:00 she creeps into your room and kills you, but slowly and painfully, slowly cutting different parts of your body then watches you bleed to death. If you don't send this to 20 people by midnight she'll be coming to kill you!"

The Clown Statue

"The children and the babysitter got murdered by the clown. It turned out 2 be that the clown was a killer that escaped from jail. If you don't repost to 10 peeps within 5 minutes the clown will be standing next 2 your bed at 3:00 am with a knife in his hand."

The Ghost Under the Bed

"People in Laredo, Texas received this image and did not send it and were killed outside a bar; it looked as if this woman killed them. Send it to five people or the woman will look for you."

Humans Can Lick, Too

"If you delete this letter you will suffer the same fate as the girl in the story did, years after the dog was killed. She was raped and killed in the same town and same house as the dog. Do not dismiss this letter, because if you do, a horrible thing will become of you, everyone will soon know your name."