SCP-5037 : Unsolved

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.

Preliminary Meeting Transcript
Date: 1/3/20██

[BEGIN LOG]

Investigator Acharya: I suppose I should start this audio log with an introduction, since there is something of a need to contextualize my presence. My name is Isaac Acharya, former private eye and a Foundation employee for… a number of years now. I hold the somewhat unique position within the Foundation as an investigator with… well, Level 0 security clearance. I promise that isn't a joke, though I'll admit I'll probably make a few since we're in the informal bit of things.

Agent Pallas: I've known him for around ten minutes, and I can already tell he's going to.

Investigator Acharya: The vote of confidence is appreciated, Agent Pallas. Now, I have Level 0 clearance since my primary role within the Foundation has nothing at all to do with the anomalous. It's my job to investigate crimes committed against or by Foundation employees via conventional means. I've run the gamut from theft and blackmail all the way to homicide. In practice though, I spend most of my time finding… lost items and pets.

Investigator Acharya pauses for around ten seconds, presumably for comedic effect

Investigator Acharya: Setting that awkward pause aside, I genuinely do enjoy my work. I'm the kind of guy satisfied by putting smiles on people's faces. Aside from that however, I'm occasionally called upon in another capacity.

Another, slightly longer pause

Investigator Acharya: There are particular anomalies that sometimes need a fresh eye from someone used to investigating but who knows nothing about anomalies, and thus has no preconceived notions. There are some anomalies that are so mundane in nature that it's best to hit them from that angle. And there are probably some anomalies that you just need someone who knows nothing about anomalies to tackle, like if they, I don't know, shapeshift into the worst thing you've ever seen or something. Though, I only know that secondhand.

A quiet laugh

Investigator Acharya: To maintain that handy dandy Level 0 clearance, I get hit up with amnestics after every time I work with anomalies. Until then though, I'm here assigned to SCP-5037, because it barely qualifies as anomalous and because this investigation's hit so much of a brick wall they might as well scrape the bottom of the barrel and give me a try.

Agent Pallas: clears throat And I am Agent Audie Pallas, of the Department of Analytics. I am to serve as Investigator Acharya's liaison with the greater Foundation due to his unusual clearance situation and provide him whatever classified information I am capable of giving him. I am also only somewhat begrudgingly to serve as his assistant and bodyguard for the duration of this investigation.

Investigator Acharya: It's much appreciated Agent Pallas. I don't expect this investigation to get dangerous, but my aptitude for combat is roughly equivalent to wet tissue paper, so please do save the sobbing mess I'll be if things get rough.

Agent Pallas pauses and sighs

Agent Pallas: Please do expect the investigation to get dangerous. It will make my life easier. Now then, fun first day of preschool introduction time is over. Investigator, what is your preliminary assessment of SCP-5037?

Investigator Acharya: That's the million dollar question, isn't it? What to make of suicide themed murders of people with no history of suicidal behavior and no connections to each other? Murders with no known ritualistic element, occurring seemingly painlessly behind closed doors and going out of their way to give any potential suspect alibis, continuing despite not being properly reported and getting notoriety?

Agent Pallas: The operating theory of the investigation thus far is that it's an anomalous entity that can phase through walls or teleport or some such but only under particular conditions, and that it derives either sustenance or pleasure simply from killing with no additional frills attached. In this scenario, the note is pure nonsense it leaves mockingly or a cryptic riddle of some sort.

Investigator Acharya: … What would your own personal theory be, Agent Pallas?

Agent Pallas: I am disinclined to share theories I'm uncertain of because of a certain traumatic incident involving a phone game, but… I think the note is pretty important.

Investigator Acharya: We're of one mind. The operating theory certainly ticks all the boxes… but that doesn't make it the answer. It's perhaps an attitude inappropriate for dealing with an anomaly, but I'm positive there's a higher purpose and logic to these murders, and the notes indicate it. The locked room and the method of death are important of course, but there's nothing in particular that can be deciphered about them just yet. The note is the key to this.

Agent Pallas: Well then mister brilliant detective, what have you parsed from the note?

Investigator Acharya: Let's begin with the assumption that the culprit is speaking for itself in the notes, considering it presumably wrote them. The culprit says this is its suicide note; it's announcing it's going to die by its own actions. Skipping the second line for now, it's apologetic. It says it doesn't want to die right afterwards… it can be read as it being apologetic that it doesn't want to die. This might mean the murders are necessary for it not to die, and it feels sorry for that. Of course, that it's written in first person plural might be of note. It might be the intent of multiple culprits, or multiple minds, or a collective.

Agent Pallas: Hell of a contradiction, isn't it? Saying it's going to commit suicide but that it doesn't want to die… though that might mean it's not committing suicide of its own will.

Investigator Acharya: That's certainly one interpretation, and likely correct, but as well it's true that people rarely commit suicide solely because they want to die. It's because they want to stop their own suffering. It certainly lines up with this entity demonstrating the capacity for remorse. It doesn't want to die, but it's suffering, and it regrets.

Agent Pallas: Empathizing a bit much with something that's killed over a dozen people, aren't you? I'm not gonna say you shouldn't because it's inhuman, but it's still a murderer.

Investigator Acharya: Maybe so, but perhaps that perspective might be just what's necessary to solve this mystery. If you're worried about my resolve, don't be. I may feel for it, but I'm not going to let it keep killing people.

Agent Pallas: As long as you get the picture.

Investigator Acharya: Picture gotten. Now, as for the second line, that's what's most intriguing. It's requesting a detective. If it was because it wanted to lure in and kill that which could jeopardize it, we would have Foundation casualties by now. No, it wants a detective because it wants to be solved. It wants to be found out. There's no other reason to request a detective to come to a crime scene. Isn't that something? An anomaly that wants to be solved… do you know of any?

Agent Pallas: You could probably count them on your hands. Generally anomalies abhor being solved, being made to conform to a single answer or framework. It's why they're anomalous. Each and every one of them are mysteries that refuse to be solved.

Investigator Acharya: And yet this one, for some reason, wants to be solved. If we consider the lines as connecting to each other, then perhaps a detective is a requisite component, necessary to it not wanting to die. Perhaps the detective is part of its suicide.

Agent Pallas: We've had over a dozen different investigators assigned to this case, and the contents of the note haven't changed once. Maybe its request won't ever be satisfied, or can't be satisfied. Anomalies don't operate on logic. You can't always answer them.

Investigator Acharya: And it's exactly that attitude I can't accept. That we haven't figured them out yet doesn't mean we never will. I'm sure there's some theoretical upper limit to human knowledge, but I don't give a toss. All I know and all I care about is that I have been presented with a mystery, that my presence as a detective has been requested, and that the lives of innocent people are at stake. I will find the truth. I've failed as a detective the moment I think I can't. I'm not going to stop until the mystery is solved.

Agent Pallas: … Well, here's hoping that attitude gets us somewhere.

Investigator Acharya: Again, appreciate the vote of confidence. Speaking of confidence, going back to the note, there is one last thing I noticed and am confident about.

Agent Pallas: Let's hear it.

Investigator Acharya: Between the blue sticky note and the kind of pen you'd get in the school supplies section of a store, the quality of the handwriting itself, and the lines themselves… I would say the note feels like it was written by someone in middle school, maybe in high school at latest. A teenager. A kid.
[END LOG]

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

Meeting Regarding SCP-5037-15
Date: 1/9//20██

[BEGIN LOG]

Investigator Acharya: We were too late. We couldn't figure it out in time to save her.

Agent Pallas: Investi-… Isaac, it isn't your fault. People a hell of a lot more qualified couldn't figure it out. It comes with the job. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do. But now something's changed, thanks to you, and because of her sacrifice we'll solve this.

Investigator Acharya: You don't get to call it a sacrifice. This woman didn't agree to be sacrificed. She didn't want to die.

Agent Pallas: … You're right. I'm sorry.

Investigator Acharya lets out a drawn out sigh

Investigator Acharya: No, I should apologize. That was too harsh of me. You're right that her death won't be in vain. We might not have been able to save her, but we're not going to let anyone else die. I've been recognized as the detective. I will solve this mystery.

Agent Pallas: And I'll be there to assist. I'm not about to give up, not when mister Level 0 here is refusing to.

Investigator Acharya: Heh. Honestly, you're a pretty damn inspiring liaison, assistant, and bodyguard yourself. With the two of us, I'm sure we can do this. Let's get to it.

Agent Pallas: The changed wording… again there's that contradiction. It wants to be solved, but it also doesn't want to be solved. Still a suicide note, but still not wanting to die.

Investigator Acharya: The order, I think, is important. It wants to be solved, but then it doesn't want to. That suggests a limit or threshold. It wants to keep being solved, but past a certain point it doesn't. It wants us to eat away at this mystery, but it doesn't want to be completely solved.

Agent Pallas: There's that plural being emphasized again as well. Solve us… it's an odd wording. You'd think the culprit would ask to be caught, or figured out. Normally I wouldn't think twice about odd wording with an anomaly, but it seems to think your detective style suits it, so.

Investigator Acharya: They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so much appreciated. As it happens, I agree. If we consider the wording to be important, it is odd that it'd ask us to 'solve us, the culprits'…

After around a minute's silence, Investigator Acharya audibly bolts up from his seat.

Investigator Acharya: That's it! Damn it, it all makes sense now! Agent, you're brilliant!

Agent Pallas: Compliment bashfully declined, but what do you mean?

Investigator Acharya: We've been operating under the assumption that the 'we' and the 'us' could only ever refer to some culprit, but a key component of some locked room murders is that there isn't always one. Someone accidentally sets off an elaborate trap, or indeed commits suicide that becomes mistaken for homicide. We're not being asked to solve a culprit or culprits that don't necessarily exist. We've been asked to solve a mystery, a mystery made up of…

Agent Pallas: … murders. That's why there's been a note attached to every murder. It's that absurdly literal. The mystery, speaking in plural because it's made up of multiple murders, requested a detective to solve it. The mystery is keeping itself from dying by adding to itself, and that means adding more deaths that are clearly part of the same mystery. It's a sapient abstract concept, a living mystery actualizing itself in reality.

Investigator Acharya: Can't say I fully understand what you just said, but I do get that the note is written from the viewpoint of a mystery, and that being investigated and speculated about is what gives a mystery its meaning as a mystery. To that end it wants to be solved, but once it's completely solved it ceases to be a mystery. That's why it wants to be solved but also doesn't want to be. It's killing itself in parts just to stay alive.

Agent Pallas: This is some fucking painful hindsight. Hell, the database page itself says 'SCP-5037 is a series of murders', and that's quite literally what it is in its entirety. But… knowing what it is won't stop it. There's nothing to stop it from continuing to add to itself.

Investigator Acharya: We haven't fully solved the mystery just yet. You said that the plural in the note was because it was made up of murders, yeah?

Agent Pallas: That would be the seeming conclusion, yes.

Investigator Acharya: Then why was it plural in the note found with the very first?

Agent Pallas: … Oh goddamn it, the hindsight just got even more painful. I can't believe we didn't catch this. No, I can. Of course the Foundation overlooked this.

Investigator Acharya: Now it's your turn to clue me in?

Agent Pallas: One month before the first instance of SCP-5037, there was a prominent locked room murder right here in Lubbock. The Foundation looked into it at the time, and looked into it again after SCP-5037 was designated, but dismissed it as unrelated. All the teens and pundits salivating on the Internet about the 'Triple Locked Room Murder Mystery' considered it related, and we encouraged that to get them farther from what we thought was the truth.

Investigator Acharya: Why was it dismissed as unrelated?

Agent Pallas: Because it wasn't anomalous at all fucking whatsoever… and because it wasn't a closed room murder like it was reported to be.

Agent Pallas pauses and sighs

Agent Pallas: It was a suicide.

[END LOG]

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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