Help, I've fallen down a rabbit hole.
June 20, 2025
Everything was normal when I left for my trip, I know that for sure. I spent all day cleaning and organizing everything so that when I got back home and the post-visit sadness hit in full force, I could afford to spend time wallowing. My outbound flight was scheduled to leave from LAX right before midnight, so by mid-afternoon, everything was in its proper place. I even triple-checked that the door was locked when I left.Nothing about the trip went the way I expected it to. Some of the surprises were really nice - like Jeremy with the blue-green eyes and beautiful neck and hand (full sleeve?) tattoos who sat next to me on the flight from LAX to MSP on May 22. He was lovely and helped me with my carry-on, while I was awkward when I tried to talk to him because I am 5,000 kinds of not good at mornings, even without jetlag. I mean, who still offers a handshake to an attractive stranger in 2025?
(Apparently me. Oops. If you ever happen to see this, please say hi? Even if nothing else comes of it, I’d really like to ask you about your tattoos.)
Mostly, though, the whole trip was just stressful. So when I got home late at night a whole day earlier than I had originally planned, I was too tired to notice much. I really wish I had paid more attention, but all I wanted in the moment was to get some sleep.I passed out fast, but woke up super early because the neighbor’s dogs got to barking around 5:30-ish and the noise startled me. I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn’t work. The post-visit sadness was already kicking in hard, so I dragged myself out of bed to go for a walk. Usually that helps to clear my mind.
I found the box just inside the entryway.
It was sitting in the alcove next to the spot where I'd kicked off my shoes and dropped my duffel bag when I got home - almost like it belonged there somehow.
Aside from the fact that it had spontaneously appeared, it was mostly unremarkable: kind of beaten up in a way that told me it was reused from another delivery, all identifying markings blacked out with a marker. There was no return address anywhere on it. It didn't even have my address on it. It did have my unit number scribbled on it, though, which was weird.I guess it could have been intended for another street, but there’s no way to know for sure.The door had been locked when I went to bed. The door was still locked. I honestly have no idea if the box was already there when I got home, or if it was delivered during the night and I just didn’t hear anything because I was asleep.
I don't know what I expected to find when I opened it.
I'm not sure I even had any expectations, really. I definitely had a sense that it was a practical joke or something – a few of my friends have keys to my apartment in case of emergencies, and my brother has definitely left glitter bombs on my porch in the past – which at least lines up with not wanting to be bothered by a mysterious delivery right after an emotionally taxing
trip. But if I had any concrete suspicions about what the contents were, I don't remember them now.(Honestly, I almost threw it away, but it was too heavy to carry to the curb at that ungodly hour.)The contents of the box turned out to be a metric truckload of documents from a criminal investigation that, near as I can find, never actually went to trial.
WTF.
I'm not sure what it all means – maybe someone took a plea bargain, maybe there wasn't enough evidence to go to trial, maybe... I don't know, are there other options? – but I can't just put it aside and forget about it now. I'm invested. I need to talk about it. I've barely scratched the surface and I already have so many questions that need answers. I need other people to bounce ideas off of and try to solve this puzzle with – hence starting this blog.My friends don’t think this is a good idea, but I’ve done my homework. California has a strong shield law that protects even amateur journalists, and reporting on confidential information is protected journalistic activity under the First Amendment. Whoever dropped these files on my lap might be in sketchy territory for breaking confidentiality, but I had nothing to do with any violations that went into obtaining them. Now that I have the documents, I’m well within my rights to report what I know.I've debated for hours about the best way to share these files. They weren't in any clear order when I got them, or at least not one that made any sense to me. I think, though, that the best method is just to start where I started and go in the same order I went in so we're all on the same page. I'd rather retrace a bit to bring other people up to speed than plow ahead on my own, so that's what we’re going to do. And when I catch up to the point that I've already read to (which shouldn’t take long), then we'll start winging it, I guess. It’s going to take a while to get everything scanned and uploaded anyway.
Welcome to Wonderland. You can call me Alice, if you want.
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