1 - Where’s Johnny?

Summary

Episode Summary: "Where’s Johnny?"

Podcast: The Man in the Black Mask
Host: Keith Morrison
Episode: 1 - Where’s Johnny?
Release Date: October 15, 2024

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Introduction to the Mysterious Encounter

The episode opens with a recount of a chilling encounter experienced by Marisa Grahini and her partner, Trevor Hossinger, in their neighborhood of Edmondson. On the evening of Friday, October 3, 2024, during their usual summer walk, the couple witnesses a disturbing scene that echoes the horror narratives of classic slasher films.

Marisa Grahini [00:59]: "I have never in my life felt fear like that."

They describe seeing a young man stumble out of an alley and collapse in front of them, followed by the sudden appearance of another man dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt and a hockey mask reminiscent of the infamous Jason from the Friday the 13th series.

Trevor Hossinger [01:22]: "To me, that didn't look real. Looked like it was staged."

Johnny Altinger's Disappearance

The incident takes a mysterious turn when Johnny Altinger, a 39-year-old oil field worker, goes missing shortly after Marisa and Trevor encounter the masked figure. Friends of Johnny report his disappearance to the police, noting that he hadn't been seen for a couple of weeks and his disappearance seemed uncharacteristic.

Introduction of Detective Bill Clark

Detective Bill Clark, a seasoned homicide investigator with a no-nonsense attitude, is assigned to the case. Initially skeptical about the gravity of the missing person report, Clark begins to delve into Johnny's background to uncover any signs of foul play.

Mark Twitchell [05:12]: "I really thought that the end of this thing, he just laughs his way all the way to the bank on it. At the end of the day, it's a big publicity thing for him."

Investigation Unfolds

Investigators compile a list of Johnny's friends and family, focusing on Deborah Tykrobe, a nurse who met Johnny through a dating website, Plenty of Fish. Their interviews reveal a close but non-romantic friendship between Deborah and Johnny. Despite their camaraderie, Deborah expresses uncertainty over Johnny's sudden disappearance.

Deborah Tykrobe [08:24]: "John was a very good friend. He was very warm and loving and kind."

Johnny's last communication suggests he was planning a trip to Costa Rica with a new acquaintance named Jen, adding layers of mystery to his vanishing.

Deborah Tykrobe [11:23]: "I've got a one way ticket to heaven and I'm never coming back."

Connection to Mark Twitchell and the Garage

A pivotal clue emerges when an email from Jen directs Johnny to a detached two-car garage owned by Mark Twitchell, an up-and-coming independent filmmaker. Twitchell, who uses the garage as a makeshift sound stage, becomes a person of interest as investigators search the location but find no trace of Johnny.

Mark Twitchell [17:12]: "Does the name Jen mean anything to you? No."

Suspicious Behavior and Red Flags

Detective Clark grows suspicious of Twitchell’s involvement, especially after learning that Twitchell attempted to sell him a red Mazda Coupe—Johnny’s missing car—for an unusually low price.

Mark Twitchell [25:09]: "Slipped my mind."

This inconsistency raises red flags, prompting further interrogation. Twitchell maintains his composure during questioning, but Clark remains unconvinced, suspecting deeper connections.

Trevor Hossinger [25:23]: "I'm working on a comedy right now which is a. It's actually a full blown feature that's actually going to have a decent budget in the neighborhood of about three and."

Cliffhanger and Ongoing Mystery

As the investigation intensifies, the episode concludes with unresolved tensions between the police and Twitchell. Detective Clark is left pondering the true nature of Johnny's disappearance and the possible involvement of those around him, including the enigmatic Jen and the seemingly innocent filmmaker.

Mark Twitchell [30:01]: "The game's on. It's me against him. I know it."

The stage is set for future episodes to uncover the tangled web of illusion, deception, and potential real-life horror surrounding Johnny Altinger's disappearance.

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Key Characters and Insights

• Marisa Grahini & Trevor Hossinger: The couple who first encounter the masked man, providing the initial catalyst for the investigation.

• Johnny Altinger: The missing oil field worker whose disappearance is at the heart of the mystery.

• Deborah Tykrobe: Johnny’s close friend from Plenty of Fish, whose interviews shed light on Johnny’s personal life and last known activities.

• Detective Bill Clark: The determined and old-school investigator leading the case, whose methods juxtapose the mysterious elements of the story.

• Mark Twitchell: An independent filmmaker whose studio becomes a key location in the investigation, raising suspicions with his interactions and behavior.

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Notable Quotes

• Marisa Grahini [00:59]: "I have never in my life felt fear like that."

• Trevor Hossinger [01:22]: "To me, that didn't look real. Looked like it was staged."

• Deborah Tykrobe [08:24]: "John was a very good friend. He was very warm and loving and kind."

• Mark Twitchell [17:12]: "Does the name Jen mean anything to you? No."

• Mark Twitchell [25:09]: "Slipped my mind."

• Mark Twitchell [30:01]: "The game's on. It's me against him. I know it."

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Conclusion

"Where’s Johnny?" masterfully intertwines elements of suspense and mystery, setting the stage for a gripping narrative that blurs the lines between fiction and reality. Through detailed storytelling and compelling character interviews, Keith Morrison draws listeners into a labyrinth of clues and red herrings, promising an enthralling exploration of illusion, fantasy, and the darkest corners of human nature in the episodes to come.

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Production Credits:
The Man in the Black Mask is a production of Dateline and NBC News, featuring the collaborative efforts of producers, audio editors, and field producers dedicated to bringing this intricate story to life.

Transcript

[Keith Morrison]

It was a happy habit, the evening walk. A summer habit, of course. Too soon now. That crisp bite in the air would turn bitter cold. But not yet. That day. Friday, October 3, had been uncommonly warm for Edmondson, and twilight seemed to linger as they ambled along the path that wound its way through their neighborhood. It was a good neighborhood, safe, established, not quite grand, but not modest either. So they wandered, the two of them, and listened to parents calling in kids from the park. Almost dark now. There, out of nowhere, there. It was sudden, shocking, terrifying.

[Marisa Grahini]

I have never in my life felt fear like that.

[Keith Morrison]

That is Marisa Grahini, remembering the young man who stumbled out of an alley and collapsed at their feet.

[Marisa Grahini]

Came right across our path. Just kind of fell in front of us, stumbling along.

[Keith Morrison]

Yes. Marissa's partner, Trevor Hossinger, was alarmed, too. But something about it seemed off somehow.

[Trevor Hossinger]

And to me, that didn't look real. Looked like it was staged.

[Keith Morrison]

And what. What was he doing or saying or how is he behaving?

[Trevor Hossinger]

He looked at me and said, I'm being robbed. Can you help me?

[Marisa Grahini]

And it was just an instant bad feeling. It was like everything in my body just tensed up. I felt bad. This is a bad situation. I knew right away something was wrong.

[Keith Morrison]

And then, as if on cue, another man appeared, seemingly in pursuit.

[Trevor Hossinger]

And then, as I looked up, the attacker almost actually ran into me.

[Keith Morrison]

Attacker looked that way, at least. Whoever it was was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and a hockey mask. Just like the serial killer Jason in all those Friday the 13th movies.

[Marisa Grahini]

It's like every nightmare you had as a child after watching a scary movie.

[Keith Morrison]

Sure.

[Marisa Grahini]

Every nightmare you've ever had, all of a sudden, it's right here. Like this masked guy is standing there.

[Keith Morrison]

And then said Mar, the masked man did something quite unexpected.

[Marisa Grahini]

Well, he. The guy in the mask was pretending that they were friends, that those two were friends.

[Keith Morrison]

Pretending maybe they really were friends.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Because the way that he fell to me looks staged.

[Marisa Grahini]

To get us to stop so that they could rob us.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Yeah, we thought it was a setup for us.

[Keith Morrison]

Now, convinced this was some sort of choreographed mugging, Marissa took off running.

[Marisa Grahini]

I was like, I'm getting out of here, right? I was so scared. I was so scared, and I just. I needed to get out of here.

[Keith Morrison]

But not Trevor. He stayed behind. Still not quite sure if the man lying at his feet begging for help was in need of saving or out to do him harm. So you didn't know whether he was going to assault you.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Exactly.

[Keith Morrison]

Or whether he was running from that guy for real?

[Trevor Hossinger]

Exactly.

[Marisa Grahini]

My Response was to run and get the hell out of here. His response was, what's going on here? I need to figure out what's going on.

[Trevor Hossinger]

She was down the block.

[Marisa Grahini]

I was freaking out on him. I was yelling at him, I was screaming at him and I was so mad at him. And I was screaming like high pitched, Trevor, Trevor. Because he kept trying to figure out what was going on. Trevor, what were you trying to do? Why are you trying to be a hero? You're trying to be a hero. And I was like, I just wanted to go.

[Keith Morrison]

Trevor said the man in the hockey mask then calmly walked away and disappeared back into the alley from which he came. But not the man lying on the path. He stayed right where he was. What in the world was going on? Trevor was done trying to solve this mystery and ran after Marisa, leaving the man on the path behind, still pleading for help, rather like a seasoned method actor, like it was an episode of the Twilight Zone. Trevor and Marisa got home quick as they could and called the police, telling them about the man in the mask and the guy begging for help.

[Marisa Grahini]

We said, well, we think we're getting robbed. Like that's how we had described it was. We thought we were going to be robbed. And so where could they go from that? It was a weird situation.

[Keith Morrison]

A report was taken. Squad cars prowled the streets and alleys nearby, though by then it was too dark to see much of anything.

[Trevor Hossinger]

They sniffed around and that was that.

[Keith Morrison]

Didn't find it.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Didn't find anything.

[Keith Morrison]

And no victim ever came forward. No one ever reported to police that they had been assaulted in a quiet neighborhood by a man in a hockey mask.

[Marisa Grahini]

I still have nightmares about that mask.

[Keith Morrison]

So was this some sort of staged robbery attempt or someone's idea of a sick prank?

[Mark Twitchell]

I really thought that the end of this thing, he just laughs his way all the way to the bank on it. At the end of the day, it's a big publicity thing for him.

[Keith Morrison]

Or was it something else altogether? Did you feel sometimes like you're in the middle of, you know, Alice in Wonderland or the Matrix or something?

[Mark Twitchell]

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

[Keith Morrison]

I'm Keith Morrison and this is Dateline's newest podcast, the man in the Black Mask. Episode 1. Where's Johnny? Edmonton, Alberta. Doesn't always get quite the attention it probably deserves. That generally goes to its flashier sibling, Calgary, a three hour drive south. Edmonton, on the other hand, is the provincial capital, home to a million people, birthplace of all kinds of famous types like Michael J. Fox, K.D. lang, Tommy Chong and booming on and off, courtesy of the massive oil sands a hundred or so miles to the north. Edmontonians are used to the roughnecks and roustabouts who blow through town on their way to and from the oil patch. Which is perhaps why a particular sort of case often sucks up the time of the Edmonton police service. Missing persons. Though typically such cases tend to solve themselves once the victim sobers up. So when veteran homicide detective Bill Clark got a missing person case dumped on.

[Mark Twitchell]

His desk, I'm not thinking much is going to come of this.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah, that is Bill Clark. Shaved head, thick mustache, built like a cannonball. And in that moment, Bill Clark was not happy to call out a veteran homicide cop like him on a missing missing person case. Well, that just wasn't done.

[Mark Twitchell]

We don't usually go to missing person. Like, we. We're very picky on what we go to. Like, basically. Unfortunately, for us to come out, you gotta be dead, and it better be criminal. Like, we don't even wanna come out. If you're just dead, we got enough to work on. And if the patrolman doesn't know it's criminal, don't bother calling us. Do we have a murder? Because if we don't, this isn't our file. I mean, we have no indication of foul play. Nothing.

[Keith Morrison]

Right. The missing person in this case was a guy who, no surprise, worked oil fields. Johnny Altinger was his name. The friends who called it in said he was 39 years old, tall, lanky, with short brown hair, a friendly open face and a lopsided grin. They said they hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks. Wasn't like him, they said. So with a grumble from Clark, they opened a file on Johnny Altener. No idea back at the beginning how important that name was going to be. Anyway, Clark and the other investigators put together a list of Altinger's known friends and family members and started making calls to see if the guy really was missing or just out on a bender. One of those friends was a woman named Deborah Tykrobe.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

John was a very good friend. He was very warm and loving and kind.

[Keith Morrison]

We talked to Deborah, too, and she told us she met Johnny Altinger on a dating website on plentyoffish.com. plentyoffish.com yes. Deborah looked to be in her early 30s, petite, with bobbed brown hair. She said nurses training had kept her far too busy to even think about dating. But now she was done and maybe ready for a man in her life.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

And I thought, okay, I'm gonna get out there. And because they certainly were not falling through my roof, so I thought I better get out there. And I also was very like, oh, you know, you have to be careful. I think when you put yourself out there, you have to have some sort of air of caution about yourself.

[Keith Morrison]

Deborah has, well, would it be fair to call it a nurse's personality? Smart, hard working and quite obviously compassionate. And she was looking for those same characteristics, maybe unrealistically, in a guy, but the ones she was meeting just weren't cutting it. And then she saw Johnny Altinger's upbeat dating profile and agreed to meet him for coffee.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

I was there early and then John came in after. And John's quite tall and so he came in and he was his bubbly self. He was just like, he looked like.

[Keith Morrison]

What you expected he'd look like.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Yeah, he did, yeah. Because I'd seen pictures too of him and we chatted about the same stuff we talked about on the phone. Of course we were both nervous and so it was a really nice visit.

[Keith Morrison]

There was a but, however. Well, Johnny certainly saw sparks. Deborah said she did not.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

I didn't feel that romantic chemistry with John.

[Keith Morrison]

But you liked him. Yeah, but he liked him more like you, like one of brothers, Like a buddy.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Yeah, like a friend.

[Keith Morrison]

And as friends do, they began to pal around together.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

I would say we spoke almost daily, go for coffee or lunch. I enjoyed spending time with him.

[Keith Morrison]

And so their friendship grew.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

In his emails, he never just emailed me, hi, Deborah. It was always hi, sunshine girl. Everything had a high. Sunshine girl, yeah, hi, sunshine. And I used to think, oh my gosh, but, but it's not so bad. But it made me feel special. So I was like, oh, that's really sweet. And I think, you know, that's part of what built our friendship. You lifted each other up as friends.

[Mark Twitchell]

He was perfectly happy to keep it.

[Keith Morrison]

Going as a friendship.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

A friendship so close that the two were comfortable talking about all the different women Johnny was meeting up with on that Plenty of Fish website when he.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Dated for about a month and then it didn't work out. And then there was one other girl he was somewhat interested in and I thought, okay, and that's great. And.

[Keith Morrison]

And when he told you about these women, he told you about them?

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Yeah, he did.

[Keith Morrison]

Then around the middle of October, Deborah got an email from Johnny saying, hi.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

There, I've met a wonderful girl named Jen. I'm going to Costa Rica and I will keep in touch and call you when I get back after the holidays. Johnny, what did you think about that? My first thought was like, oh, he's really trying to get me to see he's moved on. But I was concerned for him and I felt like, be careful, you know, you don't just get on a plane and go meet a girl in Costa Rica. You have to be careful. And then I think it was the following day I was on MSN messenger and Johnny popped online and in quotations beside his name it said, I've got a one way ticket to heaven and I'm never coming back.

[Keith Morrison]

Mind you, Johnny sent a message to a male friend or two as well. Detective Clark got hold of that one. It didn't mention heaven.

[Mark Twitchell]

He says if anything happens to me, you know where I'm at and you know, laugh out loud.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

Look around, you can find cars like these on autotrader. New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars. But as soon as they get invented, they'll be on autotrader. Just you wait. Auto Trader.

[Keith Morrison]

39 year old oil field worker Johnny Altinger was missing. Maybe friends hadn't seen him around since early October. And yet those same friends were getting email messages from him saying he was on vacation in Costa Rica with a new love in his life. One email seemed to explain everything. It said, I've met an extraordinary woman named Jen who has offered to take me on a nice long tropical vacation. We'll be staying in her winter home in Costa Rica. A phone number to follow soon. I won't be back in town until December 10th, but I'll be checking my email periodically. See you around the holidays, Johnny. Which to homicide detective Bill Clark seemed perfectly reasonable. Not hard to imagine that a love struck man might want to leave the snow and ice of Edmonton behind and skip off to the tropics.

[Mark Twitchell]

Who knows, maybe he did go to Costa Rica. I mean, stranger things have happened, right? You don't know.

[Keith Morrison]

Still, just to be thorough, investigators did a little tour of alting her condominium and it was messy for sure. Dishes in the sink, clothes strewn about, but it certainly did not look like a crime scene.

[Mark Twitchell]

Our crime scenes guys, they've reported back from Johnny's house that there's nothing here. There's no blood, no signs of a struggle. Yeah, the place is a little bit dirty. It's a bachelor pad. You know, he didn't clean his dishes, so that's where we're at.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, and his car was gone. His red Mazda Coupe.

[Mark Twitchell]

So let's find the car. Find the car. Hopefully we find him or have an idea where he is.

[Keith Morrison]

Since Johnny altering her Email said he'd taken off for Costa Rica. Officers went to the airport, of course, to look for that red Mazda of his. They searched in every parking lot. It wasn't there. They combed through airline passenger lists. He wasn't on any of them. And just as the police were contemplating that puzzle, one of Altinger's friends surfaced with yet another intriguing email. This email was sent to Johnny while he was still in Edmonton, and it was from Jen, that woman he'd apparently accompanied to Costa Rica. It was sent to him the evening of their first date, October 10th. It was driving directions to her home, and Johnny hadn't met her yet after all. So he forwarded the email to a friend, just in case.

[Mark Twitchell]

I can't remember the last word of the email, but he says, if anything happens to me, you know where I'm at.

[Keith Morrison]

There wasn't a phone number, not even an address, but there were detailed directions to replace. So two patrol officers drove the very route. And the directions led them to a quiet residential neighborhood and along a back alley to a detached two car garage. What an odd place to meet. The officers did some checking and found out the garage had been rented to a local celebrity of sorts. A guy named Mark Twitchell, who was making a name for himself as a scrappy young independent filmmaker, so they called him. And this Twitchell character readily agreed to leave his wife and daughter at bedtime and drive all the way across town and open up the garage. But when he got there, he took one look at the padlock on the door and realized somebody had changed it. He couldn't get in. So with Twitchell's permission, the cops broke in, had a quick look around and found nothing except for an empty work table, few tools and a trash drum. The place was empty just the same. Why would someone change the lock? And why did that woman, Jen, direct Johnny Altinger to that backyard garage the very day he disappeared? Don't know, said Mark Twitchell. But he'd be happy to tag along to the police station and help out any way he could.

[Trevor Hossinger]

The first thing that I noticed, the padlock didn't look familiar to me.

[Keith Morrison]

In fact, this is Mark Twitchell explaining to a detective named Mike Tabler that he'd been using the rented garage as a poor man's sound stage to shoot a short film. It was designed to drum up publicity buzz, if you will, and with any luck, investor money to allow him to produce a full length feature movie.

[Trevor Hossinger]

It's a suspense thriller. Actually, it's a short film. The total runtime's Only going to be about eight or nine minutes. So, yeah, suspense thriller. Right.

[Keith Morrison]

Of course he had a crew in and out of the place during filming, said Mark, and several actors. Maybe one of them was up to something, but it seemed unlikely and none of them had ever asked to borrow the set for anything.

[Trevor Hossinger]

So if there was anything like that, if somebody needed to borrow the place or whatever, then they would let me know.

[Keith Morrison]

They'll let you know.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Or they'd ask or something like that. So yeah, no, I don't know anything about that.

[Keith Morrison]

Anyway, he said he didn't need the garage anymore. He'd removed all his camera gear and props and this and that and moved on to a real film project he was shooting elsewhere.

[Trevor Hossinger]

I'm working on a comedy right now which is a. It's actually a full blown feature that's actually going to have a decent budget in the neighborhood of about three and.

[Keith Morrison]

A half million, which mattered not at all to Detective. Tabler point was where was Johnny Altinger? And who was that woman he'd been flirting with online? The one who gave him directions to the garage, told him she'd meet him there and spirit him off to Costa Rica? The woman who'd signed her emails, Jen.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Does the name Jen mean anything to you? No. The next will ask me about that too. And yeah, something out of Jen or anything like that. So the name Jen doesn't mean anything to you?

[Keith Morrison]

You don't know a Jen? You don't have an actress named Jen? Mystifying, said Mark Twitchell. He had a bad feeling about this. A man disappears after telling his friends he was going to the very place Mark's movie had been shooting to meet some actress Mark had never heard of. And now police were involved.

[Trevor Hossinger]

As soon as they called me on the phone, I get this weird chill.

[Keith Morrison]

And on top of that now he just discovered somebody changed the lock on his garage studio. That was all Mark Twitchell had to say. He didn't know a darn thing. Had nothing else to add. Unless this actress Jen was some sort of phantom. And a garden variety backyard garage was like a magic portal, like in some sci fi movie. Well, Detective Clark's thoughts were more practical at that moment and maybe urgent.

[Mark Twitchell]

So we're thinking our next step logically is the garage. We gotta check inside and have a close look.

[Keith Morrison]

What a strange coincidence it was. The rented backyard garage an independent Edmonton film crew was using as a studio was the very place the missing man, Johnny Altinger, was supposed to meet his mysterious blind date Jen. Odd. Especially since the movie's Producer director Mark Twitchell expressed exactly the same confusion as the police did. He didn't get it either. The dots didn't connect. Mark Twitchell said he didn't know Johnny from Adam. Didn't know this Gen woman either. And besides, there was no evidence Johnny ever made it to the garage at all.

[Mark Twitchell]

The close friends were the ones that had come to the police, and they basically had nothing other than these emails.

[Keith Morrison]

Detective Bill Clark wasn't in on the Mark Twitchell meeting, but he was curious. Was the guy truly on the up and up, like it seemed he was? So Clark pulled up the video recording of Twitchell's chat with Officer Tabler.

[Mark Twitchell]

You know, when I watch an interview, I'm not really. I listen to what the guy says, but I'm looking at body language. I'm looking for signs of deceit. And I remember coming out of the interview going, oh, this Mark Twitchell guy interviewed really well. There were no signs of deception. He's free flowing with the information. He's answering the questions logically. I don't see any, you know, looking away. I don't see any of the nervousness, nothing.

[Keith Morrison]

Oh, but now this case was under his skin. Bill Clark is, he doesn't mind admitting, an old school detective, the sort that seems to exist mostly in the movies these days. Kind of like a 50s film noir.

[Mark Twitchell]

I'm a pit bull. I consider myself a pit bull. You get a case and you get your teeth into it. It's. We're those a type personalities. We want to get the guy, you know, we want to get this guy and put him away.

[Keith Morrison]

But what guy or woman? Who was the bad guy to get in the Johnny Altinger case? Was there a bad guy? Was there even a crime? Well, who knew really? So Clark kept himself on a tight leash. He had yet to smell anything like blood. You must have come to some point where you thought, oh, this definitely foul play.

[Mark Twitchell]

No, not yet. Not at all.

[Keith Morrison]

All the cops had, after all, was a missing man who might just have run off somewhere with or without some mysterious woman. Woman named Jen. Which would certainly account for the fact that his red Mazda coupe was gone too. But really, aside from a few curious emails that might or might not make any sense, there wasn't much for investigators to go on. So being cops, Clark and his colleagues employed standard procedure. They doubled back for a second look at things like that garage Johnny was apparently headed for when he vanished. The first time the cops went there, it was very once over.

[Mark Twitchell]

So we're thinking our next step logically is the Garage. We gotta check inside and have a close look.

[Keith Morrison]

And so they applied for a search warrant to look more thoroughly, give the place a real forensic going over, and.

[Mark Twitchell]

It gets turned down because we're told we don't have a crime, we haven't proven there's a crime committed, and we're going, oh, man, this is no good. Yeah, it's like, now what? I said, well, we might as well phone Twitchell. He was cooperative with Mike Tabler. Let's phone him up. Maybe he'll come down, or we'll just get the key from him. So I just phoned him up, and he's all good, no problem. And then he says, well, I'm going to my mom's house. And I said, well, you know what? Why don't we meet you there and you give us the key and then we'll go in. He goes, yeah. I says, I'll need you to sign a consent form for us to search the garage. Yep, no problem.

[Keith Morrison]

Mr.

[Mark Twitchell]

Cooperative, just like he was in the interview the night before. Doesn't raise any red flags with me at all. So we sent a detective out to meet up with Mark Twitchell.

[Keith Morrison]

Clark expected the detective to return in an hour or so with the key in intent form. But no, the detective called Clark instead with news that just couldn't wait about a story Mark Twitchell had just told him.

[Mark Twitchell]

Detective says to me, says, bought a red mast off a.

[Keith Morrison]

And he didn't mention it at all.

[Mark Twitchell]

Never mentioned it before.

[Keith Morrison]

But had somebody asked him about such a car before?

[Mark Twitchell]

He'd been asked several times about the.

[Keith Morrison]

Car during that first interview.

[Mark Twitchell]

Yeah, and by the patrolman who first met him the first night at the garage. Not a mention. Now all of a sudden, he tells Murphy, yeah, I bought a red car off a guy for. Slipped my mind. Forgot to tell you about it.

[Keith Morrison]

Slipped my mind.

[Mark Twitchell]

Right away I thought, there's something fishy going on.

[Keith Morrison]

So Clark invited Twitchell to come back down to the station for a meeting at 10:30 on a Sunday night. And Twitchell agreed.

[Mark Twitchell]

Everything you do now, we're. We're analyzing. We call it the up arrow, down arrow scenario. Yeah, this is an up arrow. Mr. Cooperative will come down. We'll talk to us. At 10:30 on a Sunday night. That's an up arrow for Mark, right?

[Keith Morrison]

Right.

[Mark Twitchell]

He's being cooperative. It's all good. Red car. Mazda hasn't mentioned it. Big down arrow. Big down arrow. Big down arrow.

[Keith Morrison]

But two arrows. If that's all you had, it wouldn't buy you a cup of Coffee. In a weird investigation like this one.

[Mark Twitchell]

You know, we're flying by the seat of your pants. Don't know anything about Twitchell. We don't know anything about this guy. Our plan was, if he's going to tell us about the red car, he's going to have to tell us where it is. So our plan was, as soon as he tells us where it is, get someone in that room to go out and find a car. Maybe something comes up in the car. Let's get the trunk. Like, we're thinking there's a body in it maybe, right? We don't know. So Twitchell comes in, I shake his hand, you know, hey, Mark, thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. He's going, yeah, sorry all about that red car. And I'm going, you know, Mark, if anybody could forget that, you know, there's a lot going on, the police are involved, and the whole time I'm thinking, who would forget this red car? Like, you're an idiot, buddy. Like something's going on.

[Keith Morrison]

But as the interview proceeded, the young filmmaker was the very picture of cooperation.

[Trevor Hossinger]

I get this call from my co producer on the phone, this guy from LA that's helping me put together my big feature, the Day Players Comedy.

[Keith Morrison]

He volunteered information. He answered questions without hesitation or any apparent guile. Clark watched his body language, and it was open, comfortable. So they got to the story about the red Mazda and what a story that was, said Mark. He was sitting in his own car. He'd stopped for some reason just a few blocks from his rented garage.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Then this guy taps on my window.

[Keith Morrison]

And his knee jerk reaction was.

[Trevor Hossinger]

And at first I'm thinking, okay, he's gonna ask me for, like, loose change or, you know, something like that, as.

[Keith Morrison]

Can happen anywhere, Edmonton included.

[Trevor Hossinger]

But he didn't look like a transient. He seemed to be, you know, dressed like a normal person.

[Keith Morrison]

Except what he wanted to do was not even close to normal, said Mark. Man was desperate to get rid of his car. Offered to sell it right then and there to Mark for practically nothing. And the reason is crazy.

[Trevor Hossinger]

He knows, well, I have shacked up with this really rich lady. You know, it's like a sugar mama kind of situation. And she's gonna take care of me and she's gonna buy me a new car when we get back from a vacation that we're gonna take. So I'm just looking to unload mine and don't really care that much how much I get for it. How much do you have on you? And so I say, well, 40 bucks and with that toned and everything, I'm not expecting anything here. And he's like, yeah, sure, fair enough. I'm thinking, okay, what is there, like, you know, two tons of cocaine in the trunk? Like, I'm trying to figure out what the catch is here.

[Keith Morrison]

Apparently, said Mark, there was no catch and nothing wrong with the car except it had a standard transmission, which he didn't know how to drive. So he left it parked in a friend's driveway.

[Mark Twitchell]

Does he live close by or what?

[Trevor Hossinger]

Yeah, it was just a couple of blocks away.

[Keith Morrison]

A detective listening in from another room sent someone out to look for the red car. And meanwhile, Bill Clark left the interview room partly to regroup, but also to see how Mark would act when they left him alone. And if he was rattled, he certainly didn't show it. Instead, he calmly placed a call to his wife.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Hey, so what? Well, I tried to answer some more of their questions and fill them in and everything like that, and it turns out that the car is, in fact, belonging to this missing guy and that it's a huge deal. So that's what this whole thing's about.

[Keith Morrison]

What in heaven's name was going on? Bill Clark didn't have a clue beyond his suspicions. That is something about this guy. He was just too, too something. So Bill Clark, good cop, decided to become Bill Clark, bad cop. Right or wrong, he was about to lean in on Mark Twitchell.

[Mark Twitchell]

The game's on. It's me against him. I know it.

[Keith Morrison]

Coming up in future episodes of the man in the Black Mask.

[Marisa Grahini]

He told me that he just finished his House of Cards, which was about a serial killer, but he wanted to pursue more of that. And I said, well, why not a female serial killer? Why has it got to be a guy, you know? And I said, let's explore that in a story. Sure, in a story.

[Keith Morrison]

And then I turn around finally, and I see this guy, and he's wearing this mask. He's hitting me all over with this sun gun.

[Mark Twitchell]

It was probably the most spellbinding interview I've ever had with a witness.

[Keith Morrison]

The man in the Black Mask is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Vince Sterla is the producer. Brian Drew, Deb Brown, and Marshall Housefeld are audio editors. Justin Ratchford is field producer. Leslie Grossman is program coordinator. Adam Gorfin is co executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer. From NBC News, audio sound mixing by Katie Lau. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Every morning, we choose how to begin our day. I think about the people at home.

[Marisa Grahini]

They tune in because they are curious. They care about their world and they care about each other.

[Keith Morrison]

There's always something, something new to learn, whether a news event or a new recipe.

[Deborah Tykrobe]

And when we step through the morning.

[Trevor Hossinger]

Together, it makes the rest of the day better.

[Keith Morrison]

We come here to make the most of today.

[Marisa Grahini]

We are family.

[Keith Morrison]

We are today. Watch the Today show with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, weekdays at 7am on NBC.