Chapter 5 - THE THREE MEN
Jason, Tyler, and Chris were charged separately.
Jason remained silent after Margaret’s video.
Tyler negotiated.
Chris panicked.
Chris admitted Jason had invited him to the basement only twice. He claimed he thought the collar emitted harmless vibration.
The recording captured him shouting for another shock.
Ignorance was no defense.
Tyler admitted filming six women.
He described it as content.
Jason paid him to create edited videos showing the women as willing participants in “discipline therapy.”
The unedited footage told the truth.
One woman, Melissa Reed, was shown unconscious after being shocked.
Jason instructed Tyler to keep filming while Chris checked her pulse.
Melissa’s death certificate said she drowned.
Her body was never recovered.
Tyler stored the raw file on a private server.
Ortiz found Melissa alive inside a long-term care facility owned by Samuel Miller.
She had severe memory damage but recognized Jason’s voice.
Her survival turned an old murder story into kidnapping and unlawful confinement.
Chris then revealed something Tyler did not know.
Jason had a hidden partner in the police department.
Every time neighbors called about screaming, Officer Caleb Morris responded and closed the complaint.
Morris was Jason’s half brother.
Margaret placed one son inside medicine, one inside law enforcement, and one inside victims’ homes.
The network protected itself from three directions.
Ortiz confronted Morris.
He denied everything.
Then his body camera archive showed repeated visits to Jason’s house without reports.
One recording captured me behind him at the top of the basement stairs, silently mouthing help.
I did not remember doing it.
Morris saw.
Then turned the camera off.
He was arrested.
The same day, Margaret’s vehicle was found near the state line.
Empty.
Lily’s medication bag remained inside.
A child’s drawing lay on the back seat.
It showed a blue building with a red cross and four underground windows.
Dr. Reed recognized the place.
Saint Agnes Pediatric Center.
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Officially abandoned after a fire.
In reality, its basement still had power.
