28 - The Twitter Crush

A Girl's Bedroom Secrets

Text Messages and Voice Notes
From: Rachel Goldstein, Goldstein Literary Management
To: Irina Sterling
July 25, 2017

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2:45 PM Rachel: Heading to studio now for your Oprah taping! See you there! 💪

3:30 PM Rachel: Hey, are you close? They’re asking about hair and makeup

3:45 PM Rachel: Irina, they’re getting concerned. This is LIVE taping. Where are you?

4:00 PM Rachel: CALL ME NOW

4:02 PM - Voice Note (0:47) [Rachel’s voice, controlled but tense] “Irina, I don’t know what’s happening, but you need to get here immediately. This is Oprah. OPRAH. This is not some morning show in Tulsa—this is SuperSoul Conversations. They’re holding the studio. Call me the second you get this.”

4:15 PM Rachel: They’re asking if you’re sick. I’m running out of excuses

4:20 PM Rachel: If you’re having an emergency, let me know and we can try to reschedule

4:33 PM - Voice Note (1:24) [Rachel’s voice, now angry] “Okay, they just released the studio. Do you understand what you’ve just done? Oprah’s team does not give second chances. Ever. This was your moment to go from bestseller to cultural phenomenon, and you just... didn’t show up? I’ve been representing authors for fifteen years and I have NEVER had someone no-show Oprah. I’m getting calls asking if you’re having a breakdown. Harper is furious. Call me immediately or I’m flying to wherever you are.”

5:45 PM - Voice Note (2:03) [Rachel’s voice, shifting from anger to worry] “Irina, I’m going to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me. Are you safe? This isn’t like you. If something happened after that internet drama with the ghostwriter, we need to call the police. Not... whatever it is you’re doing. Please, just let me know you’re okay. We can fix the Oprah thing—maybe—but I need to know you’re safe. Call me.”

8:45 PM Rachel: I’m calling your emergency contact if I don’t hear from you by morning

[No response]

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DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE
The Marcus Conlon Experience - Charlie Stine Investigation
Date: July 26, 2017
Location: Shady Grove Trailer Park, Memphis, TN
Cameras: Nancy Falzon (primary), Marcus Colton (secondary handheld)

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[TIMESTAMP: 00:00:00]

[EXT. SHADY GROVE TRAILER PARK - DAY]

[Wide shot: Deteriorating trailer park. Nancy’s camera captures peeling aluminum siding, overgrown weeds, abandoned toys in yards]

Marcus [voice-over]: July 26th. We’re looking for Dana Barnett, Crystal’s mother. All available records show she never moved from Crystal’s childhood home.

[Camera follows Marcus and Jackson walking toward a faded blue single-wide]

Jackson: [Quietly] That’s the one. 1247.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:01:34]

[Close-up on door: Colorful cards taped to screen door with doves and crosses on them]

Marcus: [To camera] There are... condolence cards here.

[Jackson knocks. Long pause. Door opens to reveal an African American woman, 40s, wearing scrubs and house slippers]

Marcus: We’re looking for Dana Barnett?

Tanya: [Sighs] You’re about two weeks too late. Cancer finally got her. July 10th.

[Jackson and Marcus exchange looks]

[TIMESTAMP: 00:03:22]

[INT. TRAILER - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS]

[Nancy’s camera adjusts to dim interior. Dated furniture, oxygen tank in corner, medical supplies on TV tray]

Marcus: I’m sorry, and you are?

Tanya: Tanya Morrison. I was Miss Dana’s home health aide. Last eight months.

Jackson: But you’re still... here?

Tanya: [Defensive] Somebody gotta clean out the place. Miss Dana ain’t got no kids. Well, none that are coming.

Marcus: Have you spoken to Crystal?

Tanya: Pshh. That girl done been gone. Miss Dana talked about her coming back one day but the way I seen it, that girl lit out at eighteen knowing good and hell well she ain’t coming back.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:05:45]

[Marcus sets up secondary camera on tripod]

Marcus: Would you mind if we asked you a few questions on camera? About Dana and Crystal?

Tanya: [Shrugs] I got nothing to hide. Y’all can look around too if you want. Ain’t nothing here but junk and memories.

[FORMAL INTERVIEW SETUP]

Marcus: So you never met Crystal. Did she ever call or email that you know of?

Tanya: Nope. [Uncomfortable] Probably better that way. From what Miss Dana said… I mean, that woman had demons. Drank herself stupid most nights. Said Crystal was “born wrong” once. Blamed her daddy. Or the guy she thought most likely was the daddy. Randall something or other.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:09:33]

Jackson: Do you know if anything bad happened to Crystal? Something to make her turn out wrong?

Tanya: Hell naw. I mean, I only got Miss Dana’s ramblings, but the way she told it, ain’t nothing happen to Crystal cuz it was known you’d have Miss Dana and her itchy trigger finger to deal with. “Aint no trifling man lay hands on my baby.” She said that all the time. Hell, wish my momma had been half that attentive.

[Uncomfortable silence]

Marcus: Is Crystal’s room still here?

Tanya: Down the hall. Haven’t touched it. Gives me the creeps, honestly. 15 years and you don’t throw nothing out? I know a shrine when I see one.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:11:17]

[INT. CRYSTAL’S CHILDHOOD BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS]

[Nancy’s camera enters small room. Sudden contrast: meticulously organized, unlike the chaos of the trailer]

Nancy [behind camera]: Jesus...

[Camera pans: Military precision in organization. Books alphabetized. Bed made with hospital corners. JROTC uniform hung perfectly]

Jackson: [Touching books] Jane Eyre. The Count of Monte Cristo. Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, To Kill a… what the fuck? The Anarchist’s Cookbook.

Marcus: She was seventeen with these books?

[Camera focuses on the dresser]

Nancy: Never seen a girl’s room with no mirror before.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:14:22]

[Jackson opens closet. Top shelf filled with shoe boxes, each labeled with dates]

Jackson: [Reading labels] “Science Project 2004.” “Science Project 2005.”

[He pulls down a box labeled “Science Project 2007”]

Marcus: That’s the year of the murders.

[Jackson opens box. Inside: small plastic bags, each containing what appears to be small bones]

Nancy: Are those...?

[TIMESTAMP: 00:15:58]

[Jackson finds ornate cigar box at back of closet]

Jackson: [Voice strained] Marcus. Nancy. Come here.

[Close-up: Jackson opens cigar box. Seven small bones, clearly human finger bones, each in a separate compartment]

Marcus: [Whispered] Seven. There are seven.

Jackson: Middle fingers. Wanna bet they’re all from the left hand?

Nancy [camera shaking]: Oh my god.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:17:44]

[Wide shot: All three standing frozen, staring at the contents]

Marcus: [To camera, professional voice cracking] We’ve just discovered what appears to be human remains in Crystal Barnett’s childhood bedroom. Seven finger bones. We know of two victims from 2006-2007, one from 2012. That leaves three unaccounted for.

Jackson: [Barely audible] She kept trophies. Who the fuck are the other three?

[Sound of Tanya calling from living room]

Tanya: Y’all find what you’re looking for?

[TIMESTAMP: 00:19:23]

[Marcus carefully photographs the evidence with his phone]

Marcus: We need to call Memphis PD. Now.

Jackson: [Still staring at bones] Seven. She killed seven people before she was eighteen.

Nancy: [Camera shaking] We need to get out of here.

Jackson: [Suddenly urgent] She spent a whole week with Victoria and she thinks they’re besties.

Marcus: Jackson—

Jackson: [Pulling out phone] And my sister won’t answer my calls because she thinks I’m the monster. I can’t even warn her

[TIMESTAMP: 00:20:51]

[Camera follows as they exit the room]

[INT. LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS]

Tanya: [Seeing their faces] What’d you find?

Marcus: Ma’am, we need you to step outside. Police are on their way.

Tanya: [Standing quickly] I don’t know nothing about nothing in that room.

[TIMESTAMP: 00:21:35]

[EXT. TRAILER - CONTINUOUS]

[Wide shot: Three investigators standing in yard as sirens approach]

Marcus [to camera]: Seven victims. Starting when Crystal was presumably a teenager. The woman the world knows as Irina Sterling has been killing for over a decade.

Jackson: [Off-camera] And she has direct access to my sister.

[Camera tilts up to gray sky as sirens grow louder]

[TIMESTAMP: 00:22:18]

[FOOTAGE ENDS]

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PRODUCTION NOTE: Original footage seized as evidence by Memphis PD. This copy provided under FOIA request 2018-1892. - M.C.