Interviewer: Did the girl say anything to you?

WS: No, she left. Didn’t speak. Maybe she lost tongue like patient, eh? [Laughter]

[End of statement]

107 3 hours before the incident

Diary of Kaitlyn Johnson

Tuesday, 1 February 2005, 10:21 pm

Attic, Green Sofa

Stay here, Dee. Stay safe.

Thank you for holding my truth.

108

Kaitlyn’s last entry is surprisingly neat, written in a slow, precise hand. Whatever happened between Ari’s confrontation and subsequent murder, and the next entry, seems to have calmed the storm in her mind.

Police reports indicate that the fire that destroyed Elmbridge High originated in the main common room and spread very quickly, indicating the use of an accelerant. The common room is where the charred remains of Ari Hait were discovered, though Kaitlyn’s journal suggests he perhaps died in the chapel. This means that Kaitlyn would have needed to carry his dead weight over 1,800 yards to the main building without being seen, a nearly impossible feat in her condition. How, then, did Ari end up in the common room? Speculation about whether Ari tried to reason with a delusional Kaitlyn and was killed in the common room itself, moments before the fire, abounded for several years, though this is unlikely, given the location near to the dorms and lack of witnesses. The location of Ari’s corpse is only one of the inexplicable elements of the Johnson Incident.

Two more bodies were found in the charred remains of the school. The first was Brenda LeRoy, discovered in her dorm room. She died from smoke inhalation, and toxicology reports of the time indicated she had slept through the fire alarm because of a dose of nitrazepam, which she took each night for insomnia and for which she had a GP prescription. The second was Haji Chounan-Dupre, brother of Naida Chounan-Dupre. The autopsy report indicated that he had died before the fire as the result of a blow to the head with a heavy, cylindrical object. According to Kaitlyn’s diary, Haji was killed by Ari Hait some time after Kaitlyn’s meeting with him. He was scheduled to return to Fair Island that evening but did not make his flight from Tingwall. Some speculate that Kaitlyn murdered Haji when he began to see that she was not under attack by a Shyan or Olen, but was rather quite severely mentally ill. No evidence exists for accusations against either Ari Hait or Kaitlyn Johnson.

The body of John Hutt was found buried in the chapel cemetery—what Kaitlyn referred to as the “Forgotten Garden.” Cause of death was a knife wound to the neck, piercing the jugular vein.

In an interview, Howard McKay, psychology expert and author of Self and Its Distortion, commented on the significance of Kaitlyn burying John’s body in the “Forgotten Garden.”

It really is fascinating. [Kaitlyn’s] reference to the garden somehow being her—“I wanted to show him me, which is what the garden is”—demonstrates something significant. Namely, that she was burying the body in herself. Quite literally concealing his murder, and the evidence of it, within her own being, where he would lie and decay and never really be forgotten.”

The records of Kaitlyn’s history in relation to the death of her parents remain sealed by order of the courts, but there is speculation about social services being involved in an investigation into allegations of possible sexual or physical abuse within the Johnson household prior to the accident. All social service records also remain sealed.

The discovery of Kaitlyn’s journal has renewed interest in the case and sparked online fan forums. Debate has raged about the true story. Earlier this year, amateur researcher and Johnson enthusiast Michael Mooring, aged seventeen, discovered a hidden panel in the wall of the Elmbridge High School attic, inside which lay the curled remains of Juliet McClarin. The cause of death is unknown, as is the identity of her killer, but heavy blood loss is evident from the brown stain on the attic carpet, as noted in Kaitlyn’s journal and videotaped by Naida Chounan-Dupre.

109

A police interview was conducted with Naida Chounan-Dupre on 26 September 2005. It was recorded on camera for the trial, which was to take place over the following months. Naida wrote out her replies, but these were then superimposed onto the screen for the jury viewing. The interview has been transcribed below.

Criminal Investigation Department, Portishead Headquarters

Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Portishead, Bristol

Monday, 26 September 2005, 15h22

VIDEO INTERVIEW: Detective Chief Inspector Floyd Homes and Naida Chounan-Dupre

“Tell me,” DCI Floyd Homes says, “why you helped Carly to escape from the hospital. Surely you must have known she was very ill.”

She wasn’t “ill.” She was possessed.

“Possessed. Surely you don’t believe that?”

To the core of my being. Carly was no longer within that form. Kaitlyn was there, and something else was there too. I don’t regret anything, except failing to help her better.

“And the fire? You have no thoughts on that?”

I don’t regret helping my friend.

“And the people who died? Your brother? Regret that?”

Naida folds her arms and looks away.

DCI Floyd Homes leans forward, resting his arms on the table. “Ari Hait is dead. Does that mean anything to you?”

Naida scribbles furiously with the pencil she has been given. He was evil—he was a Shyan! He’s the only one left, so it had to be him. She pushes the note across the table.

“He was an innocent boy,” Homes says, looking up. “An innocent boy who had the terrible misfortune to love Carly Johnson. And it cost him his life.” He sighs, shakes his head. “Do you even know how they found him? Do you know how Ari’s body was discovered?”

Naida hesitates, then shakes her head.

“His neck was broken. Snapped in two. Carly did that to him.”

No. It was an Olen. It was an angry spirit. Ari tried to control it, but you can’t control raw power. How could a tiny thing like Kaitlyn Johnson possibly have the strength to do that? Tell me! How?

“Do you believe he deserved to die?”

He confessed to her. You weren’t there.

“Were you?”

Naida hesitates, but then writes, her lips set firmly. No. But Kaitlyn told me. She came to see me in the hospital. We were friends. She didn’t lie—she told me.

His hand slams down on the metal tabletop. “And did—Kaitlyn—tell you that she killed her own parents? Did she tell you that? She grabbed the steering wheel and caused the car accident. Did she make you privy to that information?”

At these words, Naida shakes her head, then scribbles a hasty reply. That’s a lie. You’re trying to trick me.

“Naida, I think you have been tricked. But not by me. Juliet’s blood was found in the school attic—the only part of the school left untouched by the flames and where, as you know, Carly spent much of her time. When we find Juliet’s body, we’ll know.”