THE INTERROGATION
(FRAGMENT 9)
December 31, 2016 9:17 p.m.
Case #: 124.678.21–001
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT OF POLICE INTERROGATION
—START PAGE 9—
| INVESTIGATOR: | Tessa, I need you to stay as calm as you possibly can right now, so that I can take your complete statement. Let’s talk about Blair Duncan. |
| HART: | If you want me to tell you what happened last summer, I can’t. Anything but that. I can’t talk about that. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s all right, Tessa. We have a full account from the direct messages you sent over Twitter last night. I’ve just been reading through them. If you like, I can go ahead and read your messages into the record. All you have to do is listen and confirm whether you want to make them a part of your official statement. Can you manage that? |
| HART: | I think so. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Let the record show that I’m looking at a series of multiple direct messages sent from the Twitter account @TessaHeartsEric to the Twitter account @EricThornSucks. The first time stamp is December 30 at 11:56 p.m., and the messages continue without interruption until 12:17 a.m. The messages begin, and I quote: |
| “I’m not completely sure when it started. I think it might have been the first weekend of the program.” End of message. | |
| “It was a summer fine arts program sponsored by the university. Really hard to get into. People came from all around the region for different things. Creative writing, music, painting, filmmaking, photography…” End of message. | |
| “We were all staying in the empty dorms. I didn’t do a lot of sleeping…or creative writing either. It was pretty much partying every night.” End of message. | |
| “We went out a lot that first weekend, club-hopping different places. I think that’s where he first saw me. At one of those clubs.” End of message. | |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Tessa, I’m going to break here for a moment. The events you’re describing took place in New Orleans? |
| HART: | Yes. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Can you remember the name of the club where you first encountered this individual? |
| HART: | I don’t know. There was a bunch of places. I can visualize what it looked like inside, but I don’t know the name. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | To the best of your recollection, was it more of a dance club? Or would you describe it as more like a venue for a music concert? |
| HART: | More like a concert. A bar with a live band. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | OK, thank you. I’m going to continue now with the next message in the thread. The time stamp is 11:59 p.m. And I quote: |
| “It was super crowded, and I kept feeling this guy creeping up on me.” End of message. | |
| “I shrugged it off at the time, but I started having this weird sensation afterward. Like this nagging feeling that someone was following me.” End of message. | |
| “It went on for the next four weeks. I would walk down the street and feel sure there was someone behind me. But when I turned to look…nothing.” End of message. | |
| “I told myself I was just being paranoid, but it kept getting worse and worse. It started happening in my dorm room too.” End of message. | |
| “I would get this weird feeling like someone was watching me through the window. But when I went to look outside, I didn’t see anyone.” End of message. | |
| “So then I really started to lose it. I started keeping my blinds shut all the time, but it didn’t really help.” End of message. | |
| “I would go to bed and wake up with this feeling that someone had been watching me while I slept.” End of message. | |
| “I started having trouble sleeping. So that’s when I started drinking a lot more. Just to take the edge off.” End of message. | |
| “I guess that was a mistake. The drinking. I still don’t know for sure if it was just the alcohol that night or if he slipped something in my drink.” End of message. | |
| HART: | Stop. That’s enough. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | OK, Tessa. We’re almost done. Just a few more messages to go now. |
| HART: | Do you really have to read the rest out loud? We both know what it says. |