Over the summer & fall of 2023, Ophelia starts acting ~strangely~. She's withdrawing from friends, taking weekend flights to places she won't talk abt, & spending hours on the phone w/ ppl she won't name.
Then, in November, Ophelia gets on another flight, & this time, cuts off all contact w/ her friends.
They won't know where she's gone until Jan. of 2025.
***
6 months after Ophelia's disappearance, Milo Youngblut's parents call the Seattle PD: Milo is also missing.
Both parents agree that, in recent months, xier behavior has undergone a change.
Xie’s been cutting ties w/ xier childhood friends, & xier parents have been concerned that xie seems to have started lying abt where xie’s going & whom xie is meeting.
In May of 2024, Milo moves out of xier family's home, purportedly to stay w/ a friend. Xie says goodbye to xier mother before xie leaves, then changes xier phone number.
Milo’s parents tell police they're worried xie could be in an abusive relationship.*
*While we can def see how this behavior could be concerning, it made us wonder: if Milo is queer, & by all accounts not out to xier family or friends… is this behavior really unusual? Not necessarily! Not for someone who’s navigating their identity in a situation where they feel they have to hide it.
Even the changing of the phone number— seemingly the biggest cause for concern— is not unheard of. Milo may have desired a clean break, may have feared being contacted or persuaded to return, or may have feared being outed & confronted before xie was ready. We say this bc, given soon-to-be-revealed events, all this will look mighty suspicious— but may in fact have been benign.
The police, tho, can do little abt this: Milo is, after all, an adult, & free to make xier own decisions. Investigators later determine there's no reasonable concern for Milo's safety, & no missing persons report is created. Milo, like Ophelia, will slip off all radars until Jan. 2025.
***
...In Jan. 2025, Milo & Ophelia ~catch the attention~ of hotel employees by 😑 showing up in the lobby wearing "all-black tactical-style clothing with protective equipment".
Milo, you look GREAT in this security cam footage! Who looks good in security cam footage?
One of them is carrying a holstered gun— which, to be fair, is legal in VT*!
*The hotel, btw, is not far from Jamie's old house in Coventry.
The cops show up to have a "consensual conversation" w/ Milo & Ophelia, who say they're looking at property in the area, but uh, don't address the outfits. The cops leave, and M & O check out of that hotel in a rush.
5 days later, the cops, who've had M & O under "periodic surveillance", spot them at Walmart buying 2 boxes of aluminum foil.
Before Milo drives away, Ophelia wraps 2 cell phones in the foil, then makes a call on a 3rd phone.
At this point, the cops believe that they've cracked the case: Ophelia must have let her visa expire (specifically, her 0-1A visa, which is given to immigrants w/ “extraordinary ability in the sciences, education, business, or athletics.")
To arms! They immediately call Border Patrol (BP), which sends 3 vehicles in pursuit of the pair.
BP makes Milo & Ophelia pull over, & here, we’re afraid, we may enter a teensy weensy 3rd black box.
Some recent news reports have suggested the pair was stopped for 3 hours or more! If this is the case (ITITC), this is quite unusual. ITITC, it might have been for totally uninteresting reasons:
• BP may have been waiting for immigration databases to return results.
• Ophelia may not have brought along her documentation.
On the other hand, this could imply that BP had additional suspicions. ITITC, BP may have been:
• Questioning Ophelia & also Milo
• Preparing to take Ophelia to a BP station for further questioning
• Calling higher authorities for guidance on the case
• Fixing to search Ophelia’s belongings
• Fixing to search the vehicle
• Fixing to arrest Ophelia— tho this is unlikely, since it will turn out that Ophelia’s visa is totally un-expired…
…But we felt that we should include ALL options, however improbable they may be, bc of the HIGHLY improbable thing which happens next:Milo takes out a glock, & open fires on BP, killing Agent David "Chris" Maland: an Air Force vet who'd worked security for the Pentagon, & who'd been w/ Border Patrol for 9 years, incl. at the Southern Border, where he was a K-9 handler.
I feel sorry for yr surviving gf, Chris: apparently you were about to propose to her; but all yr jobs are shit.
Ophelia moves to grab her gun, but is shot dead by the remaining agents 😭😭😭😭
Milo gets shot too, but survives & is taken to the hospital.
8 days later, journalists begin to piece together the pair’s Zizian connections (rats!)
One savvy reporter notes that, after Milo's court appearance, the prosecuting attorney recommended xie not be considered for bail*, due to xier "associations with other individuals suspected of violent acts.”
*At this point, Milo had been charged w/ pulling a gun on an agent & firing that gun- but hadn't been charged directly w/ Maland's killing.
This same attorney writes that *Jamie* is the one who bought Milo's & Ophelia's guns... & he finishes by writing that both Milo & Jamie are "acquainted with and have been in frequent contact with"... long-lost Ziz!
*****
Next: The Zizhunt Commences
***
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