3 - Catfishing

Summary

The Man in the Black Mask: Episode 3 - "Catfishing" Summary

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Introduction

In Episode 3 titled "Catfishing" of The Man in the Black Mask, hosted by NBC News' Keith Morrison, listeners are plunged deeper into the enigmatic disappearance of Johnny Altinger. The narrative intricately weaves the lines between fiction and reality, exploring the possible connections between a rising young director, Mark Twitchell, and the vanishing of Altinger near Twitchell's film set. This episode delves into themes of illusion, deception, and the complexities of modern storytelling, all while unraveling a real-life horror story.

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Background: Mark Twitchell and Johnny Altinger

Mark Twitchell, a passionate filmmaker from Edmonton, had been working on a horror movie featuring a serial killer donning a hockey mask. Twitchell's dedication to his craft is evident from the outset. As Morrison notes, "He was a movie maker, the storyteller. Someone who imagined he could turn his make believe into film and do it for a living" (01:30). Twitchell's ambition was not just to create fiction but to blur the lines between his creations and reality.

Johnny Altinger, a local individual, was last seen heading to meet a woman he met on a dating website near Twitchell's film set. His sudden disappearance raised suspicions, especially given Twitchell's creative endeavors and the emerging parallels between his fictional works and real-life events.

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The Investigation: SK Confessions and Detective Clark's Work

Detective Bill Clark spearheaded the investigation into Altinger's disappearance. The case took a pivotal turn when a deleted document titled "SK Confessions" was recovered from Twitchell's laptop. Described as a 32-page diary, it contained detailed accounts that eerily mirrored Twitchell's movie script, "House of Cards."

Clark recounted, "I think our total investigation, we had 112 officers involved" (12:22), highlighting the intensity and scale of the investigation. As the detectives delved into "SK Confessions," they found unsettling similarities:

• Emotional Detachment: The document featured a character devoid of empathy, pondering the nature vs. nurture debate, mirroring Twitchell's narratives (07:25).

• Catfishing Elements: A significant excerpt detailed the use of online dating platforms to lure victims, directly paralleling Altinger's last known activities (08:37).

• Murder Methods: Descriptions of killers using specific weapons, such as stun guns and knives, were mirrored in Twitchell's film scripts, raising questions about the authenticity of these accounts (10:08; 11:20).

Detective Clark was initially convinced of Twitchell's involvement, stating, "I'm thinking this guy's involved in this guy's disappearance wherever he may be. Somehow I know that." (20:23). However, inconsistencies began to surface, casting doubt on whether "SK Confessions" was a genuine diary or a fictional manuscript.

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Theories and the Publicity Stunt Hypothesis

As the investigation progressed, alternative theories emerged. A prevailing hypothesis suggested that Twitchell orchestrated Altinger's disappearance as a publicity stunt to promote his film. Morrison narrates, "Mark Twitchell might actually fool everybody, including those clever cops, get them all thinking he was an actual serial killer" (18:15). This theory posits that Twitchell aimed to generate buzz and attract funding through sensationalism.

Supporters of this theory, including John Pinsett, Twitchell's financial backer, found the idea plausible, stating, "A publicity stunt was the only explanation that made any sense to him." (19:16). The notion was that Twitchell's actions, while reckless, were a calculated move to thrust his work into the spotlight.

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The Role of the Man in the Hockey Mask

The mystery deepened with accounts from witnesses who reported encounters with a man in a distinctive hockey mask. One such interaction involved Marissa and Trevor, a local couple who encountered a masked individual on an evening stroll. Their description matched that of the killer in "SK Confessions":

"A hockey mask, black, with gold claw-like slashes across the right side" (27:22).

These sightings coincided with key events in the investigation, but no concrete evidence linked the masked individual to Altinger's disappearance or to Twitchell. The enigmatic presence of the masked figure kept detectives and listeners alike questioning the true nature of the events unfolding.

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Conclusion and Ongoing Mysteries

By the episode's end, the lines between Twitchell's fiction and the real-life mystery of Johnny Altinger's disappearance remain blurred. Detective Clark remains convinced of Twitchell's involvement, despite the lack of tangible evidence connecting him directly to the case (20:33). The recovery of "SK Confessions" and its eerie similarities to Twitchell's film work continue to fuel speculation and intrigue.

As Morrison concludes, the episode leaves listeners pondering the extent to which storytelling can influence reality and vice versa. The unresolved elements of Altinger's disappearance and the ambiguous nature of Twitchell's intentions ensure that the mystery remains unsolved, setting the stage for future episodes.

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Notable Quotes

• Mark Twitchell on Passion: "I love what I do." (02:45)

• Detective Bill Clark on Investigation Scale: "I think our total investigation, we had 112 officers involved." (12:22)

• SK Confessions Excerpt: "I feel no such emotions as empathy or sympathy towards others... genetics play a bigger role than I thought." (07:25)

• Catfishing Strategy: "I choose my victims based on age, body type, profession, status and living situation... I know I found my ideal target." (08:37)

• Detective on Evidence Correlation: "Everything turned out to be true. So we got no reason to disbelieve this." (14:19)

• Twitchell’s Fictional Tactics: "With my stun baton fully extended in the safety off." (11:20)

• Detective Clark on Twitchell’s Involvement: "I'm thinking this guy's involved in this guy's disappearance wherever he may be. Somehow I know that." (20:23)

• Publicity Stunt Theory: "Is this guy so bright that he's going to have himself arrested and do all of this?" (19:35)

• Financial Backer’s View: "A publicity stunt was the only explanation that made any sense to him." (19:27)

• Witness Description of Mask: "A hockey mask that I would cut the mouth out of and paint gold streaks into for dramatic effects." (27:32)

• Detective’s Continued Conviction: "I'm thinking this guy's involved in this guy's disappearance wherever he may be. Somehow I know that." (20:23)

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Production Credits

The Man in the Black Mask is produced by Dateline and NBC News, with Keith Morrison as the host. Key production members include Vince Sterle (Producer), Brian Drew, Deb Brown, and Marshall Housefeld (Audio Editors), Justin Ratchford (Field Producer), Leslie Grossman (Program Coordinator), Adam Gorfin (Co-Executive Producer), Paul Ryan (Executive Producer), and Liz Cole (Senior Executive Producer). Audio sound mixing is handled by Katie Lau Bryson Barnes, Head of Audio Production.

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Looking Ahead

As The Man in the Black Mask continues to explore the intertwining of fiction and reality, Episode 3 "Catfishing" sets the stage for deeper investigations and revelations. Listeners can anticipate uncovering more layers of this perplexing case in the subsequent episodes, where the truth behind Johnny Altinger's disappearance and Mark Twitchell's intentions may finally come to light.

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Timestamps Reference

1. 02:45 – Mark Twitchell’s passion for filmmaking
2. 12:22 – Detective Bill Clark on the scale of the investigation
3. 07:25 – Excerpt from SK Confessions
4. 08:37 – Details on Twitchell’s catfishing strategy
5. 14:19 – Detective Clark on evidence correlation
6. 11:20 – Twitchell’s fictional tactics in SK Confessions
7. 20:23 – Detective Clark’s conviction about Twitchell’s involvement
8. 18:15 – Publicity stunt theory introduction
9. 19:27 – Financial backer's perspective on Twitchell’s actions
10. 27:22 – Witness description of the hockey mask
11. 20:23 – Continued conviction by Detective Clark

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This detailed summary encapsulates the essence of Episode 3, "Catfishing," providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the key points, discussions, and unresolved mysteries that drive the narrative forward.

Transcript

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[Keith Morrison]

What a curious species we have become. Willing, no, no. Eager partners of devices that somehow control us as we scroll. Devices that spit out bits and bites of the world. Cute puppies, intimations of Armageddon, swirling conspiracies. Some bits true, some not. Some fact, some fantasy. And the bright, easy separating line of truth, once merely blurred, slips away. Mark Twitchell made his living in that fuzzy space where fantasy seems very real and reality. Well, who knows? But of course he did. He was a movie maker, the storyteller. Someone who imagined he could turn his make believe into film and do it for a living. Well, at least he hoped to make a living at it, as he rather excitedly told Detective Mike Tabler that first time the police came to call when they asked if he knew anything at all that might help them find the vanished Johnny Altinger. Not a thing, said Mark Twitchell. But if the detective wanted to talk movies, well, Mark was all in.

[T-Mobile Representative]

I love what I do.

[Voice Actor]

From the first day that I stepped.

[T-Mobile Representative]

On a set that was what I.

[Keith Morrison]

Knew and that I just like. Kind of like the show going back Anything else is crap.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Nothing else would make me feel fulfilled in what I was doing and really.

[Keith Morrison]

Love what I do. So I just chased it with everything I had. A true definition of passion. And it was a passion he happily shared in online chats with Renee Waring. That would be filmmaker way off in Ohio.

[Detective Bill Clark]

It was, wow, I could be a real writer this time. You know, I could really help somebody develop a character in stories and entertainment.

[Keith Morrison]

And by this time, you were embracing, entertaining the idea that you might actually be able to work with this director.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Yeah, he said something about setting up a dedicated server. I wouldn't have to go to Canada. We'd be able to pass ideas and script ideas back and forth like that. Never have to meet each other, you know.

[Keith Morrison]

But it could be a paid job. Yeah, that had to be pretty darned exciting.

[Detective Bill Clark]

You got it. Yeah.

[Keith Morrison]

Mark and Renee spent hours and hours together online, dreaming up some crazy dark stuff. It was a bit like a fan fiction writer's room in a way. Both loved the TV show Dexter. Both were fascinated by serial killers, everything about them. Renee never did write any of it down. She just reveled in the online creativity in the company of a like minded soul. It was Mark who went about trying to turn it into something, writing furiously, tap, tap, tapping on his computer, that he turned out a collection of, well, what were they? Episodes. Plot points for a horror movie. But nothing worth hanging on to, apparently, because at some point, Mark simply killed it all, consigned it to the discard file. But as we know, nothing on a computer has ever really gone forever. Fiction, fact, even those cute little puppy dogs live on as so many fragmented little ones and zeros, possibly to be found and reassembled someday by someone, whether you want them to or not. I'm Keith Morrison and this is the man in the Black Mask, a podcast from Dateline. Episode three, Catfishing. What a disruption it was. What a surprise. It was as if a giant vacuum cleaner suddenly and without any warning, started sucking up Mark Twitchell's treasured stuff. Edmonton police, convinced Mark knew more than he was saying about the disappearance of one Johnny Altinger, burst through the front door and went rummaging around in Mark's house in his car, garage. They took clothing, costumes, computers, and they sent the whole lot of it off to the lab, where who knew what might appear? DNA, suspicious fingerprints. But no, there was nothing like that to tie Mark Twitchell to Johnny Altinger. Instead, hidden among discarded bits of stuff on Mark's laptop, a diligent computer tech spotted and managed to resurrect that deleted document, the one with all those horror movie ideas. The whole thing was quite a surprise to Detective Bill Clark.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I mean, the big thing came. I don't even remember the day, but our computer guy, right, called up late in the afternoon and two of the detectives went upstairs and they come out. I believe it was at that time with a 32 page diary called the SK Confessions.

[Keith Morrison]

A big thing. Well, it certainly seemed like it once Clark had a chance to dive in.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I remember reading this the first day when they brought it down.

[Keith Morrison]

Clark called it a diary because SK Confessions seemed to lurch along from one scene to another without any particular structure or story arc or conclusion. In fact, it couldn't really be called a story at all. There was no beginning, no middle, no end. Some of the vignettes were extremely creepy and some less so, but all with a dark gothic take on the question of nature versus nurture. Here's that voice actor again. Reading from SK Confessions.

[Voice Actor]

I feel no such emotions as empathy or sympathy towards others. I watched an episode of Dexter where the flashback showed his father showing Dexter CAT scans of a human brain. He identified the difference between a serial killer's brain and a normal person's brain. Up until I saw that, I was convinced that what I was was my own decision, my own path. But now I truly wonder if I had little choice at all and if genetics play a bigger role than I thought.

[Keith Morrison]

This SK character dips into all the usual tropes of horror fiction. There's nothing really new in it, but two scenes left right out at Detective Bill Clark. The scenes portrayed an online dating service used to catfish victims who were met not by the woman they expected to see, but by the killer. Which was intriguing given Johnny Altinger was last heard from as he was heading off to see a woman he had met on a dating website. Here's that catfishing excerpt from SK Confessions.

[Voice Actor]

As soon as the profiles go up within 24 hours, the responses come in like a flood. I review the messages sent and choose my victims based on age, body type, profession, status and living situation. Obviously I'm not going to pursue a 64 athletic martial art instructor who's married with four kids. That's just got trouble written all over it. I mean, I'm ruthless, but I'm not an idiot. I have my own fight training background, but I don't have delusions of grandeur when I come across a single man in his late 30s too early 40s, who is self employed, lives alone and stands between 57 and 511 with an average body type weighing in between 150, 180 pounds. I know I found my ideal target.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, that thought Bill Clark. That target just had to be the real life Johnny Altinger. Obviously, the physical description was all over the place. But wasn't it possible Alting her was catfished too, just like the guys in SK Confessions?

[Detective Bill Clark]

And I go, holy mackerel. This tells us everything.

[Keith Morrison]

Except the guy is a professional storyteller who tells, you know, movies, they're not real. Weren't you a little bit afraid that you might be about to be drawn into a kind of a rabbit hole here? That you're, you know, dealing with something that might be true or might not be true? It might be a fantasy.

[Detective Bill Clark]

The little bit I knew at that time, I thought it was true.

[Keith Morrison]

Except Mark Twitchell wrote and filmed a movie script, remember, called House of Cards. And in that movie, a work of pure fiction, one scene after another read just like it came straight out of SK Confessions. Well, I'm off. Shouldn't be too long. Just a couple of hours. That's the actor who's being catfished in a scene from House of Cards. So maybe SK Confessions wasn't a diary at all and wasn't abandoned either, but was cannibalized for story points in that scary movie. In House of Cards, the killer uses a stun gun.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Okay, we're ready for the killer stuff.

[Keith Morrison]

Okay, we are rolling. Killers, take a slight step to the right there. There you go. And action. Frame zap. Cut. So did Twitchell lift that directly from this? In SK Confessions, I prepared to strike.

[Voice Actor]

With my stun baton fully extended in the safety off.

[Keith Morrison]

In House of Cards, the killer uses a sword. We're rolling in 5, 4, 3, 2, thrust. In SK Confessions, he uses a knife.

[Voice Actor]

I thrust it in his gut. His reaction was pure Hollywood. The lurch forward with the grunt was dead on tv Movie of the week.

[Keith Morrison]

So what was true, what was fake? Detectives went round and round on that. Some convinced Twitchell was a very bad guy. Others, that he was playing some sort of prankish game. So now Bill Clark and the other detectives dug deeper into that nether world where fact and fiction and truth and fantasy are all mixed up together. Did the incidents and SK Confessions actually happen? Or were they just scenes from a movie?

[Detective Bill Clark]

As we started to tear apart and every day, and we're working long hours, we're working 12 to 16 hours a day, going home for six, eight hours sleep, and we're back at work. I think our total investigation, we had 112 officers involved. In this thing at one time, the.

[Keith Morrison]

Group looking at SK Confessions went at it like a clutch of textual scholars. Word by word, line by line. And it seemed like they were actually getting somewhere.

[Detective Bill Clark]

And guys were coming in going, well, we proved this part of the diary is true.

[Keith Morrison]

Give me an example of proving something in the diary was true.

[Detective Bill Clark]

One of the big things that came out was he had mentioned in his diary about getting a speeding ticket.

[Keith Morrison]

The fictional serial killer, that is. But then, so did Mark Twitchell just about the time Johnny Altinger disappeared.

[Detective Bill Clark]

So we tracked that cop down, and that cop remembered it, and it came right back to me, knew the conversation he had with him. And it was basically word for word. What that diary told us was exactly what the sheriff told us.

[Keith Morrison]

Also, the killer in SK Confessions complains that after a murder, he was unable to drive the victim's car because it had a stick shift.

[Voice Actor]

I took the keys and got in a manual transmission. I never learned how to drive them. I probably stalled the damn thing a good 10 times.

[Detective Bill Clark]

It's like he doesn't know what to do. And he struggles driving the stick shift to this car to try, park it in the garage and realize after 10 tries, he's just no good at it.

[Keith Morrison]

And if you recall, Mark Twitchell told Detective Clark he was unable to drive the car he got from Johnny Altinger because it had a stick shift. Except that car was apparently a roadside purchase. No murder involved. But detectives picked out bits of SK Confessions and saw them as proof.

[Detective Bill Clark]

So far, every day I say we're proving different things are true. You know, we're going on and on, everything's turned out to be true. So we got no reason to disbelieve this.

[Keith Morrison]

Did you feel sometimes like you're in the middle of, you know, Alice in Wonderland or the Matrix or something?

[Detective Bill Clark]

My feeling was like, I can't believe the evidence were gay. I always believed that story to be true. Right from the start. I was thinking he had filmed whatever he had done to Johnny.

[Keith Morrison]

Foreign.

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[Keith Morrison]

It was late past midnight when they broke into the farmhouse.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Never in a million years would you think that you'd see your parents house taped off by that yellow tape and they said, you remember Dip being killed?

[Keith Morrison]

They left behind a wall of blood and a clue that took a case of double murder on a long, strange trip.

[Detective Bill Clark]

She looked at me and she said, I'm screwed.

[Keith Morrison]

Murder in the Moonlight, a new podcast from Dateline Listen to Murder in the moonlight for free starting Monday, February 17, or unlock new episodes right now by subscribing to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Dateline premium.com Mark Twitchell was enough of a somebody around Edmonton that when word got out that the cops had searched his home and makeshift studio in connection to this missing Altinger guy, it became a thing. And just about every one of those creative types who'd worked with Mark on his movies had an idea as to where this story was going. It was a MacGuffin. Do something crazy like get yourself arrested and what happens? You get buzz. People talk about you. Any publicity is good publicity, right? And pretty soon the funding will follow the crazy stunt. Yes, and irresponsible and without a doubt, decidedly risky. But it might work. Mark Twitchell might actually fool everybody, including those clever cops, get them all thinking he Twitchell was an actual serial killer. After which, in some big reveal of his own invention, he would in effect yell, surprise. That's what the actor thought. Actor Sean Storer, that is.

[T-Mobile Representative]

As soon as all this happened, I thought, you know what? This is a publicity stunt gone bad.

[Keith Morrison]

Sean Storer, you'll recall, got to know Mark Twitchell when he took a role in Twitchell's Star wars knockoff. And when he heard Twitchell was suspected of doing something terrible to a total stranger and that total stranger was missing, well, he just knew. Did Sean Twitchell wanted to get arrested? And why would he want a thing like. Well, that was simple. To get his name in the papers and his face on TV to have everyone in Edmonton talking about his new film project, House of Cards.

[T-Mobile Representative]

I thought he was just trying to hype this new movie that he's gonna do. And he'll be found not guilty. Found not guilty. And at the end of the day, he walks away not guilty. But he has all this publicity around him. And what better way to start a movie off than to have your name on the tip of everybody's tongue?

[Keith Morrison]

John Pinsett, the businessman who put money into Mark Twitchell's comedy day players, said a publicity stunt was the only explanation that made any sense to him.

[Voice Actor]

That was a sentiment that was tossed.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Around a lot here in this community.

[Voice Actor]

Is that, you know, is this guy.

[Detective Bill Clark]

So bright that he's going to have himself arrested and do all of this?

[Voice Actor]

That it had to be a master.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Plan from a very bright guy to create this great amount of hype for his movie project.

[Keith Morrison]

Johnny Aldinger's friend Deborah Tyra was hearing the same stories that it was just a big conspiracy, that Mark had paid John to go hide and come out. Just part of this loopy, nutty plan to make a splash that Edmonton would not forget. The other idea, Detective Bill Clark's suspicion that Mark Twitchell, mild mannered prankster, was secretly a killer. Well, maybe that was a stretch. Still, Clark seemed to have made up his mind.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I'm thinking this guy's involved in this guy's disappearance wherever he may be. Somehow I know that.

[Keith Morrison]

But there was no love triangle, no financial gain to be had from killing Johnny Altinger. Twitchell didn't even know the guy. When cyber detectives searched Twitchell's computers and phone, they found no mention of anybody named Johnny Altinger anywhere. No emails, no texts, no phone calls, nada. There was nothing whatever connecting Mark Twitchell to Johnny Aldinger. So why in the world would Mark Twitchell kill. Well, anybody really. But why a total stranger?

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[Keith Morrison]

To subscribe download Start today from the App Store on your Apple Device Now. Terms Apply Cancel anytime through Apple under Profile Settings. Rumors were swirling around Edmonds that Johnny Altinger's disappearance was a guerrilla style publicity stunt crafted by Mark Twitchell to promote his latest film. Detective Bill Clark also thought Johnny Alfinger's disappearance was connected to Twitchell's moviemaking business, but certainly not as a promotion.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I'm thinking he killed him and he had filmed the murder.

[Keith Morrison]

But if he did film the murder, where was the video? And if Twitchell did murder Johnny Altier on camera, to what end? You can never insert an actual murder into a feature film without incriminating himself and everybody else involved. Crew and actors and people who would doubtless talk. And as for SK Confessions, they couldn't even be sure who wrote all that. But it could have been Mark Twitchell. Probably was, but just as easily it could have been some random dark soul on the Internet. But it did seem to be a Match for the facts of the real life Johnny Altinger case. And that is what certainly got the detectives attention. But then they encountered stories that did not match any reality, like the one about the intended victim who got away. A tale full of wild details the police would surely have heard about if it had happened at all.

[Detective Bill Clark]

And, you know, that's a big part to prove. Is this true or not? It was a huge part of it.

[Keith Morrison]

And surely if somebody had been attacked that way, you would have heard about it.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Well, exactly. I mean, we would have expected someone to come forward, but we got nothing.

[Keith Morrison]

Yeah.

[Detective Bill Clark]

No call, no. Nothing that even matches similarity.

[Keith Morrison]

So this seemed to be one part of that story that just didn't.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Didn't make sense.

[Keith Morrison]

Well, one team of detectives pored over every line of SK Confessions. Another walked the sidewalks and pounded on the doors in that quiet suburban neighborhood where House of Cards was filmed. The same neighborhood where Johnny Altinger may have gone to see a woman he'd met online. Everybody who answered the door was shown a picture. Had anyone seen Johnny Altinger or his red Mazda or anything suspicious? And at one house, the answer to that last question. Question. Was yes. The police had stumbled on Marissa and Trevor, the couple who went out for a stroll and encountered that man who collapsed right in front of them. A man either terribly frightened or just acting. Anyway, the couple repeated the weird story to these investigators.

[Detective Bill Clark]

He was on the ground, and it was just a instant bad feeling. He looked at me and said, I'm being robbed.

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[Detective Bill Clark]

And then as I looked up, the.

[Keith Morrison]

Attacker almost actually ran into me. And that certainly rang a bell. The investigators found the passage in SK Confessions. Marissa and Trevor's story fit exactly.

[Voice Actor]

A couple on an evening stroll saw me coming after him, Sporting a deer in the headlight look that can only be described as a total lack of comprehension. I stared back at them through my mask for half a moment and then headed back for the COVID of my lair.

[Keith Morrison]

Marissa and Trevor told the investigators now at their door, that this was the second time they had talked to police about this incident. The first time being when it originally happened. Was it possible, the cops wondered, if the man who was being chased was in fact Johnny Altinger? A detective pulled up their report to police, and, well, it turned out their incident, or whatever it was, that happened exactly one week before Johnny Altinger disappeared. Then Marissa and Trevor told the police about the mask the alleged assailant was wearing.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I still have nightmares about that mask.

[Keith Morrison]

A hockey mask, black, with gold claw like slashes across the right side, which is exactly how it was described in SK Confessions.

[Voice Actor]

A hockey mask that I would cut the mouth out of and paint gold streaks into for dramatic effects.

[Keith Morrison]

But who was that man? That is the apparent victim of the man in the hockey goalie mask. Was it an actor, a real person? No idea. And no way to find out, really, except by going public.

[Detective Bill Clark]

So we thought, we'll put the goalie mask out to the media, and that'll tweak somebody's memory about. Yeah, that was me. And hopefully they'll come forward.

[Keith Morrison]

It was a long shot, really. Maybe that person, if he was a victim, didn't even exist. But they put it out there and waited. And the very next morning, in comes.

[Detective Bill Clark]

A guy off the street. He says, I think it's one of my employees.

[Keith Morrison]

The guy said his employee showed up for work with a bruised and battered face one Monday morning and told him a truly crazy story about being assaulted by a man in a goalie match. Ask.

[Detective Bill Clark]

I go, really? And I'm going like, I got to.

[Keith Morrison]

Speak to this guy. I got to find this guy.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Got to find this young fella. So he gives me his name and all that. I says, I'll tell you what. You're going back to work. Ask him to call me. Let's keep it low key. I won't approach him. I'll give you time to talk to him first. Well, it worked.

[Keith Morrison]

By that afternoon, Clark got a call from a man who said he was the one Trevor and Marissa saw that evening. He said his name was Jill's Tetro. And yes, he was a little nervous, but he'd tell his story. And so he went down to the station and settled himself into one of those cramped interview rooms. And with Detective Clark hanging on every word, he began.

[Detective Bill Clark]

Okay, beginning. I'm on the Plenty of Fish website. Plenty of fish.com in my career was probably the most spellbinding interview I've ever had with a witness. I was sitting there listening to Gilles Tetro tell me his story, and I had chills going up my spine as he's telling it to me.

[Keith Morrison]

In the next episode of the man in the Black Mask, you will hear the story firsthand, straight from the victim himself. And so I tried to make a run for it. And that's when he actually pulled out a. A gun. The man in the Black Mask is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Vince Sterle 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.

[T-Mobile Representative]

I think about the people at home.

[Voice Actor]

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

[Keith Morrison]

Care about each other. There's always something new to learn, whether.

[T-Mobile Representative]

A new news event or a new recipe. And when we step through the morning together, it makes the rest of the day better. We come here to make the most of today.

[Keith Morrison]

We are family. We are Today.

[T-Mobile Representative]

Watch the Today show with Savannah Guthrie.

[Keith Morrison]

And Craig melvin, weekdays at 7aM on NBC.