I want you to imagine that it's a pleasant Monday morning in April. The tar stained blinds do a poor job keeping out the Sun. Most everyone in the building is a man, greying hair, slightly grizzled, and white. It's a small miracle that no-one's choking on the clouds of cigarette smoke. You'd be forgiven for thinking that you'd stepped into a noir film.

At 1035 in the morning of April 22nd, 1985, Lola McGuire walks into the Panther Valley Police Office in downtown Linton (there is no downtown in downtown Linton, so the name's a bit of a mystery). The first person she meets is probably Sherry Hoffer, one of the few women at the site. She's a pleasant elderly woman who acts as a receptionist, though she's certainly capable of responding to often frightening situations (this according to interviews of her peers -- she passed away some time after these events took place).

She gave a brief, but harried explanation of her arrival to Sherry, who whisked her to a small interview room and offered her coffee and pastries. At about 1100, Officer Harold Rains sat down with her and began taking a statement.

The Chief of Police, Steven Confit, reviewed the statement that same hour and made the determination that Detective Blunt would handle the case.

Confit, by some accounts, was not proactive in the case and gave it to Blunt out of pity for the victim. Confit, needless to say, tells a different story. He often stated that he felt Blunt was the man to get to the bottom of things.

Blunt was off on a larceny call when McGuire arrived at the station that morning. He returned to the station at about 1300. He met Lola shortly thereafter. The way he told it, she was "disheveled in thought and appearance. [He] expected her to be on some combination of stimulants at the time." No drug tests were conducted. He described her as haggard and old. She was only twenty years old at the time. Sherry later told interviewers that she witnessed some of the interview behind the one-way mirror. She said that Blunt was terse with his questions. He brushed aside the victim's concerns and dismissed her references to J. Durham. Chief Confit contradicted this every chance he got. Regardless of who's story is closer to the truth, Det. Blunt was handed the case.

Lola's description of her ordeal at this time was something from a fever dream. Her statement contains references to multi-headed beasts tearing at her while various persons laughed at the spectacle. It contains references to chanting and singing and blood over all the furniture of a meeting room that is described as small in some parts and enormous in others. It describes in lurid detail an old man in a wheelchair holding her against him while he keened in her ear a high peircing sound and she watched another person being ripped apart.

Blunt himself stated that McGuire was calm by the end of his initial interview with her and the she even smiled and chit-chatted with the various people at the office.

At about 1600, Lola McGuire left to stay at a local half-way house for women.

Though no-one knew at the time, this was the first step toward taking down J. Durham.