SCP-5037

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Note recovered from SCP-5037-7

Item #: SCP-5037

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation elements embedded within police and emergency services are to maintain surveillance for and investigate potential SCP-5037 instances.

Upon formal identification of an SCP-5037 instance, the Foundation is to assume full situational control. Amnestics are to be administered as necessary, media coverage is to be preempted or suppressed, and a suitable cover story that describes alternate circumstances for the SCP-5037 instance is to be developed.

Social relations of and individuals proximate to the victims of the SCP-5037 instances are to be taken in for questioning and monitored thereafter. The properties in which SCP-5037 instances occur are to be purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation and kept under surveillance.

Foundation web crawler "ERIKA" is to scan for key words indicative of online discussion of the first three SCP-5037 instances, which is to be examined and intervened in as necessary to ensure informational security for the remainder of SCP-5037 instances and the Foundation.

Description: SCP-5037 is a series of 'locked room' murders committed via anomalous means, localized to residential properties within the city limits of Lubbock, Texas and occurring approximately once a month. All SCP-5037 instances have occurred within rooms that were locked or otherwise unable to be accessed from the outside, with no means or signs of entry or exit detectable by conventional means.

SCP-5037 instances have invariably occurred when there are no other persons within the residence, typically only discovered when social relations of the victims enter the residence and discern the person within the 'locked room' is unresponsive, followed by alerting authorities. No pattern or connection between the victims of SCP-5037 has been determined. They differ in age, gender, ethnicity, and occupation and have not been determined as ever having met or corresponded with each other.

The circumstances of SCP-5037 have proven identical across all instances. The victim is discovered lying in the approximate center of the 'locked room', facing upwards with their hands clasped over their chest, legs straightened, and their eyes closed with visible tear stains. They are always smiling.

The cause of death for all victims has been determined as identical to the effect of a fatal benzodiazepine1 overdose. The central nervous system was subject to severe depression, resulting in coma followed by death. However, forensic examination has consistently shown no traces of drugs within the body, and additional examination has determined the physiological alteration and ensuing death were near instantaneous to an extent not possible by conventional means.

All victims have had clasped within their hands a blue Post-It brand sticky note, with text identified as being written with a BIC Atlantis Comfort pen. A transcript is available below.

This is a suicide note
Please send a detective
We are sorry
We don't want to die

History:
The first known instance of SCP-5037 occurred on 1/9/20██, when a man named Charles Martin was found deceased within his locked windowless 'man cave'. As a result of the circumstances he was found in and his cause of death being insufficiently examined, foul play was not suspected and it was reported as a suicide.

The second known instance occurred on 2/7/20██, when the corpse of a woman named Debra Becker was discovered in the locked bedroom of her apartment by a neighbor. Though also reported as a suicide, the identical circumstances of the two deaths resulted in significant media coverage and speculation of a potential 'suicide cult', with some also theorizing the possibility of foul play.

The third instance, occurring on 3/3/20██ with a young child named Wayne Roberts found dead within his dedicated room for play, was deemed foul play and garnered national media coverage. The deaths were now regarded as part of the "Triple Locked Room Murder Mystery", prompting a large scale police investigation.

Foundation assets in Lubbock stepped in and assumed situational control. The anomalous nature of the deaths was discovered and they were retroactively declared instances of SCP-5037. Though it was no longer possible to prevent public knowledge of the first three murders and their similarity, targeted suppression and monitoring of coverage and discussion was put into place to maintain informational security.

Eleven further instances of SCP-5037 occurred over the next ten months and were successfully kept from public knowledge, with minimal new information gleaned. Due to the investigation stalling and in an attempt to satisfy the second line of the notes found with SCP-5037, which requested a 'detective', the personnel assigned to investigate SCP-5037 have become subject to regular rotation.

On, 1/3/20██, Investigator Isaac Acharya and Agent Audie Pallas of the Department of Analytics were assigned to the investigation of SCP-5037.

Addendum.5037.1:
On 1/9/20██, SCP-5037-15 occurred in a locked walk-in closet with a woman named Dorothy Walker. While all other circumstances remained identical to previous SCP-5037 instances, the contents of the note found with SCP-5037-15 had changed. A transcript follows.

This is a suicide note
Please solve us
Please don't solve us
We are sorry
We don't want to die

Addendum.5037.2
On 1/10/20██, Lubbock police chief Carson Grimes was induced by the Foundation to confess to the crime of falsifying police records in order to report the suicide of his 15-year old son Nelson Grimes via sleeping pill overdose as a 'locked room' murder. He was additionally made to confess that the first three instances of SCP-5037 were also suicides he falsely reported as 'locked room' murders, produced via fabricated evidence and coercion of witnesses.

After three months following this course of action without additional SCP-5037 instances, SCP-5037 is pending reclassification as Neutralized.

Addendum.5037.3
On 4/9/20██, former Lubbock police chief Carson Grimes committed suicide in his prison cell, having overdosed on sleeping pills he requested in order to deal with recurring nightmares featuring his son.

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