It was 6:30pm and dusk was settling when Professor Viggo Rasmusen picked up Evelyn Hartley from a two story shingled home on 1533 Johnson Street where she lived with her parents and younger sister, Carolyn.
Once at the Rasmusen's one story home, Evelyn was told to put Janice to bed at 7:00pm and then at 7:15pm, cover her up with a blanket. With Evie at the doorway smiling, Mr. and Mrs. Rasmusen bundled up their seven year old daughter Rozalyn and left for the local high school Homecoming game at 6:45pm.
Little did anyone know, Evelyn's attacker was already parked two blocks away and casing the neighborhood.
Anyone could have seen inside of the Rasmusen house. As Detective William Sills said, "he knew what he was getting into" because he could see that the girl was alone from the open curtains in the living room. This was a picture window facing the back of the house, essentially an open field.
All of the windows in the house were locked. All of the windows but that one basement window the criminal used to get in. He pulled out the screen and slid through the very thin opening down to a steep drop in a dark unfinished basement. He then went up the stairs to the door that led to a hallway. One of those short hallways with doors for two bedrooms and the bath. On the right, he would walk directly into the open living room with the large standing radio on his left and next to it, the couch where Evie sat.
The man confronted her as she sat on the couch studying. She must have resisted because in the living room where he surprised her, detectives found the unfortunate evidence.
A neighbor nearby, Elvin Saterbak, recalled hearing a scream at around 7:00pm that night. He was on his porch when he suddenly heard two or three screams. He said he thought it was a child getting a beating and nothing more. Even his wife in the kitchen heard the screams and said that they did not sound like play. Both of them did not realize the seriousness of the situation until the next day when the whole town came together to search for the missing babysitter.
After looking throughout the house, the investigators allege that she was dragged down the basement by the attacker and then something bad happened. There was a large quantity of blood and Evie's shoe. There would have been no lights. She would have been down there with a strange man in complete darkness and without her glasses, which were found in the living room.
The attacker had to have a car because the trail went cold for the bloodhounds on Coulee Drive. They found evidence that she was pushed up through the basement window and taken away from the home. Blood was found dragged along the wall of a neighbor's shed a few meters away and with it, one bloody hand print. Evie and her kidnapper went past many homes that were, thanks to the big Homecoming game, empty.
Evie and her father had a system. At 8:30pm, Evie was supposed to call her father and let them know she was all right. In those days crime was so uncommon that when 8:30pm passed, her parents thought little of it. Her father did start to worry when his calls went unanswered. Finally, at 9:20pm, he decided to make the five minute drive to the Rasmusen's.
When he got there and no one answered the door he snooped around the front of the house. Through the living room window he saw her left shoe on the carpet. Only a few feet away were her now broken glasses.
Alarmed, Dr. Hartley looked around the dimly lit area on the sides and back of the home. There he found the screen from the basement window out and lying nearby. Pry marks were on other sills. Evie's father went through the opening only to find Evie's right shoe next to the bottom of the basement stairs. Without seeing much else, he ran up the steps and searched for his daughter. The toddler was still asleep in her crib. His daughter was nowhere to be found.
Though crowds and crowds of townspeople searched weeks for her down sewer lines and through forests she was never found.
On October 30th, a pair of men's shoes were found on the side of a nearby road shortly after they were discarded. They were tennis shoes with a suction pattern on the bottom matching the footprints in and around the Rasmusen home. The blood on them were also Type A, Evie's blood type. Not far from the shoes was a blue jean jacket. Type A blood stains were on the front and back of the sleeves.
The worst find came a few days after Evie was kidnapped. A bra and panties, thought by Evie's parents to be hers, were found stained with blood. Nearby were a pair of bloody blue jeans. There is no information about whether these items were tested to be Evie's blood type but her parents did confirm that the undergarments were her size.
Evelyn Hartley was never found. Her parents died knowing they would never find her, that she will never be buried next to them. Evie's body is out there somewhere in the earth, in a field. Somewhere in Wisconsin is a spot where beautiful things grow around her bones and birds fly over her.
The jeweled skeletons were originally found in catacombs beneath Rome in 1578, and distributed as replacements under the belief they were Christian martyrs to churches that had lost their saint relics in the Reformation. However, for most, their identities were not known. The receiving churches then spent years covering the revered skeletal strangers with jewels and golden clothing, even filling their eye sockets and sometimes adorning their teeth with finery. Yet when the Enlightenment came around they became a little embarrassing for the sheer amount of money and excess they represented, and many were hidden away or disappeared. Koudounaris tracked down the dead survivors (atlasobscura.com)
The living tell the dying, “Do not leave.” And they do not listen. The dying tell us not to be sad for them and we do not listen. The dialogue between the living and the dead is full of misunderstanding and silence.
The specimens of Alex CF feature an incredible collection of cryptozoology. His page features amazing stories behind his collection of beautifully horrifying creatures that include descriptions of demons, fairies, nymphs, and other assorted oddities he collects and sells.
My name is Alex CF, and I am the curator and custodian of the Merrylin Cryptid collection. The study and documentation of the evolution and biology of unclassified species and research pertaining to prehistoric human and non human civilization.
In 2006, a trust was set up to analyze and collate a huge number of wooden crates found sealed in the basement of a London townhouse that was due to be demolished. Seemingly untouched since the 1940′s, the crates contained over 5000 specimens of flora and fauna, collected, dissected, and preserved by many forgotten scientists, professors and explorers of obscure cultures and species. The collection also housed many artifacts of curious origin, fragments of civilizations that once ruled the earth, of ideas and belief systems better left in the past.
But the most curious aspect of this discovery was the man responsible for its existence – the enigmatic, mysterious gentlemen that had gathered together a wealth of relics that challenged our understanding of nature; of species that had never been witnessed by the modern world, of objects which defied physical laws: Lord and Professor Thomas Theodore Merrylin.
Born in 1782 to a rich aristocratic family, Thomas followed in his fathers footsteps of esoteric natural history, investing in profitable companies to fund his travels across the world, seeking out these illusive animals which hid in forgotten continents or darkened crevices, away from prying human eyes.
They traveled together until the death of his father turned Thomas into a recluse, seeking solace in his work and befriending no one. He tutored himself in the grand Library at Merrylin house, yet also studied at Gower street once the university had been established. Even then, he isolated himself from other students.
A bizarre quality of Merrylin was his apparent permanent youthfulness. Even in his 80′s, he still resembled a 40 year old, albeit of odd complexion, and his few bizarre forays into the eyes of the media only furthered his infamy. He was accused of practicing dark arts to prolong his life. Yet, he did befriend eminent scholars, who helped calm such rumors – scholars who encouraged him to share his collection with the world. In 1899, he took a small portion of his specimens on tour across America. Conservative attitudes of the time condemned these creatures, calling them blasphemous. His reaction was severe and the tour was canceled before it reached California. He returned to England and fell into obscurity, until 1942.
The Tunbridge Orphanage for boys was contacted by a man purporting to be Thomas Theodore Merrylin, in the spring of that year. He wished to donate a sizable London town house to the Orphanage for use once the war was over, and children returned. The only proviso was that the basement of the house never be opened and the house never sold. The Orphanage stood by this promise, until absolved in the 60′s and the existence of the cellar forgotten. Sealed behind two brick walls, the door was only found by chance when the foundations were checked prior to demolition. The Thomas Merrylin pictured in a local newspaper, handing over the documents for ownership to the new proprietor was in his fourties. By this time, Merrylin would have been over 160 years old. The name sparked interest from those who had followed Merrylins work, most assuming him long dead. But the man claiming to be Thomas promptly disappeared. Leaving no evidence of his existence. The Merrylin estate was also sold off and money given to charity.
What he left was the most incredible collection ever known, actual specimens of taxidermied dragons, the infant forms of werewolves, artifacts from ancient Vampyr nations and the trappings of nefarious scientists whose existence was presumed to be mere fiction. It was this, and the apparent immortality of Merrylin that drove me to become rather fanatical about understanding the life of this man, and his world changing collection. What had allowed him to live so long? Where had these specimens originated from, considering there are no other examples of these species to be found on the Earth? It is this that I find so thrilling and yet so terrifying..
areudirty
theartofmadeline
