There's the story of a man by the name
of Jeremy Silk. Aged forty-one, no wife, no children, Jeremy lived on
the eleventh floor of an apartment building which had recently been
renovated due to a particularly flammable insulation material
discovered in its walls.
One summer, just as the nights became
too humid to to sleep through without the help of an air-conditioning
unit, neighbors began complaining of music which had started coming
from Jeremy's apartment every night at roughly twelve-thirty. When
first asked about the music, Jeremy was witnessed as behaving
erratic, explaining that lately he needed the distraction in order to
help him fall sleep. His neighbors were gracious in their
understanding, and kindly requested that he turn the volume down or
use headphones, as the quality of their own sleep shouldn't have to
suffer. He generally agreed with this, though was evasive when asked
what steps he would take.
That night, at roughly twelve
forty-five, neighbors were disappointed to hear the same, loud music
coming through their walls and ceilings. Four of said neighbors
convened at Jeremy's door, knocked, and asked him to turn the
music off, as most of them had work in the morning. Jeremy, who
according to reports looked “excessively disheveled”, nodded once
and shut the door. The music was heard to shut off soon thereafter,
and the neighbors, satisfied, dispersed.
The next morning, Jeremy failed to show
up at his job as warehouse manager for a local food distributor.
Management placed several calls to the two phone numbers they had on
file for Jeremy, but received no call back. On the second day when
once again he failed to appear, they placed a call to Jeremy's
emergency contact, his estranged father currently living on Lake
Michigan. They found the man to be distant and uninterested but
managed to ascertain that he hadn't spoken to Jeremy.
On the third day, being concerned for
Jeremy's well-being, management sent an employee to the apartment
building to speak with his landlord. Several neighbors heard their
conversation and joined in, agreeing that none of them had seen
Jeremy since the night they'd gone to see him.
When Jeremy failed to answer either his
phone or his door, one of the neighbors placed a call to the police
in order to report possible foul-play. Before the authorities could
arrive several of them noticed a faint odor which seemed to be coming
from Jeremy's apartment, prompting the landlord to use his keys to
open the locked door.
Reports of what they discovered inside
varies from witness to witness, though all include the deceased body
of one Jeremy Silk, aged forty-one, still lying in his bed since
three nights prior. Wads of paper were noticed as being stuffed
inside his ear canals. The official coroner's report states that the
paper was inserted with such force that it it damaged Jeremy's
tympanic membranes, forcing them into the adjoining cavities.
Police entered into evidence several
personal effects of Jeremy Silk, including the small stereo he kept by
his bedside responsible for the music which had bothered his
neighbors, as well as his private journal which he had written in
more or less daily. In the journal, detectives discovered several
entries in which Jeremy complains of a noise coming from the walls in
his bedroom, particularly the west wall, opposite the window. In
initial entries Jeremy describes the noise as low and indiscernible,
only slightly bothersome to his sleep, but in subsequent mentions the
noise is described as increasing in volume and attaining the tone and
timbre of a human voice. Then, in the last week, as growing in
clarity and level of agitation.
When comparing the date of the entries
to transcripts from witness interviews, as well as invoices and
receipts submitted by the apartment building's landlord, a
correlation has been noted between the onset of the noise heard by
Jeremy in the wall of his bedroom and the renovations which had been
performed in the building. In fact, when compared in greater detail,
the first entry comes just one day
after work had been completed on the eleventh floor, the same as
Jeremy's apartment.
All files have since been sealed.
