Val looked at the victims and then back at the pictures attached to the file. This was them. No doubt. She glanced through the narrative.

Last Friday, January 24th, Gabrielle Morgan, age thirty-one, left her house in Amherst NY, a suburb northeast of Buffalo, at roughly 7:40am. This is the time she usually leaves to drop her eight-year-old son off at school, which is less than a half mile away from their home, before heading to work. This was confirmed by one of her neighbors, a Mrs. Jennifer Ballard who lives next door. Mrs. Ballard saw Gabrielle and waved. Gabrielle waved back. Adam kept his head down, opened the door and got inside the car. He did not wave to Mrs. Ballard, but that was not unusual as the boy often appeared preoccupied. Though Gabrielle seemed to be in a hurry, Mrs. Ballard stated Gabrielle did not look distraught. Gabrielle then got into the car and drove away. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. She did not report to work that morning and no one had seen or heard from her until the discovery of her body today.

On the day Gabrielle disappeared, Adam arrived at school by 8:15am, which was twenty minutes later than usual. Adam’s teacher took note of this because he was always seated at his desk by 7:55. Class started at 8am and Adam was never late. Adam gave no answer for his tardiness and his teacher did not press—everyone has an off-day.

At this moment, she was not aware that Gabrielle had left home at their usual time. No one could confirm that Gabrielle was the one who dropped Adam off. By 8:15, all students and teachers were in the building. Shortly thereafter, Adam started acting as if something was bothering him. He had trouble concentrating, made sharp remarks, lashing out at his teacher, which was uncharacteristic, and later, fell down twice. After about two hours he complained of stomach pain and went to the nurse’s office where he vomited. Multiple attempts were made to contact Gabrielle about her son but all were unsuccessful. The number she had given for an emergency contact, a Ms. Bethany Arias, was not in service.

The boy stayed with the nurse for several hours at which time he stated that he felt better and wanted to go back to class. At 3pm he left school and immediately started walking down the sidewalk.