Josh: so I can make you feel better
Mandy: can't
Josh: sure I can
Mandy: mean, cant come ovr
Josh: why?
Mandy: dunno
Mandy is offline
June 6 th, 2010
Josh: do you love me, Mandy?
Mandy: no
Josh: why?
Mandy: jst…
Josh: why not, Mandy?
Mandy: dunno. Don't knw u
Josh: yes you do
Josh: I want to help you, but you have to let me
Mandy: my hair falling out
Josh: Can I be honest with you?
Mandy: ys
Josh: I've been lying to you
Mandy:?
Josh: I've never been to Urbana
Mandy: k
Josh: But I have met you
Mandy: whre?
Mandy: brb
Josh: My parents have both been dead for years, for longer than you've been alive, actually
Josh: The picture you saw on my profile that night was Sue. She sent it to me.
Josh: Sent me a bunch. Usually of her naked, but I couldn't put that one up
Josh: you'd have gotten really suspicious…lol
Mandy:?
Mandy:?
Mandy: wat?
Josh: Do you love me, Mandy?
Mandy: stop
Mandy: plz
Mandy: hurts
Josh: I was flirting over and back with her a long time before I started chatting with you.
Josh: She looked slutty every day I saw her, with those tight sweaters and skirts
Josh: so I chose her first. But she's thick as a tree stump and an ignorant little bitch
Josh: so I left her hanging in the wind.
Josh: So you know the "online boyfriend" who dumped her? That was me.
Mandy: wtf?
Josh: Only she knew me as Donny.
Mandy: I hve 2 go. Gng 2 b sick
Mandy is offline
June 7 th, 2011
Josh: hi!
Mandy: leve me alone Josh
Josh: My name isn't Josh
Josh: I'm going to tell you my real name, because I really do love you
Josh: But first you have to tell me you love me too.
Josh: Mandy?
Josh: Answer me.
Josh: I know you're there. Just tell me you love me.
Josh: Just once, and I promise I'll leave you alone.
Josh: And I swear on my life that I'll make your pain go away.
Josh: Mandy?
Josh: you have five seconds before I sign off. After that, you'll never know
Mandy: knw wat?
Josh: who killed you and your friends
Mandy: plz. plz stop. My skin…I'm brning. I'm so sick
Josh: do you love me?
Josh: Mandy?
Josh: Mandy? Do you love me?
Josh: Say you love me
Mandy: I lv u
Josh: that's my beautiful girl. I love you too. Do you know that?
Mandy: ys.
Mandy: I dunno
Mandy: Y r u doin this?
Josh: do you feel it past the pain? Do you feel it deep inside your heart where it matters most?
Mandy: stop
Josh: okay, my love.
Josh: My name is Kathleen Myer.
Josh: But you probably know me better as Fatty Kathy.
Mandy: no r not
Josh: Yes. I am. And the police will probably be here soon, so try not to interrupt me.
Mandy: this is cruel stop pretndng
Josh: I promise you, I'm not
Mandy: o god
Mandy: plz
Mandy: stop
Josh: and what's killing you is thallium nitrate,
Josh: introduced into your system via my homemade chicken soup.
Josh: Do you remember the soup, Mandy? Sue even had the gall to complain to me about it.
Mandy: why? o god y r u doinng this?
Josh: because they don't deserve to be beautiful.
Josh: They've never worked a day in their lives and they never will.
Josh: Everything they want will just fall into their laps.
Josh: Nobody ever gave me a goddamn THING, Mandy.
Josh: I had to WORK, to BEG, and sometimes worse, for anything I got.
Josh: And what do I have NOW? Nothing. Scars, moles, diabetes
Josh: And ugliness your friends exploit for laughs.
Josh: they were rotten on the inside, baby girl.
Josh: But I never saw YOU laugh at me, and join in their cruelty.
Josh: Knew you were beautiful and different. Knew you had to be mine. I wanted you.
Josh: Wanted to BE you.
Mandy: my parents r cllng the police
Mandy: so if ths a joke stop now
Josh: it's too late for that. Remember what I wrote?
Josh: You laughed and said I should be a romance writer?
Josh: "Take me away to a better place where we may be united in passion
Josh: the likes of which would set the very world aflame!"
Josh: Remember? Well, I do write romance stories. I have, for years.
Josh: Sitting here in this rotten little house with my clothes still stinking of grease
Josh: writing down my dreams for nobody but me to read.
Josh: Well this one isn't a dream. This is the REAL romance. You and me, my precious little girl.
Josh: We're going to be together very soon. I'm the angel that's taking you away from all of this.
Josh: Just us. Forever
Josh: I did this for both of us, to set us free and bring us to a place
Josh: where ugliness won't matter because our souls will be one and the same.
Josh: and we'll both be beautiful
Mandy is offline.
# # #
Shortly after the last exchange between Mandy Ruminek and "Josh", Mandy was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at the scene. Her sister later made a full recovery. In all, thirty-one students suffered thallium poisoning at the hands of cafeteria worker Kathleen "Fatty Kathy" Myer. Of those, seven died.
Investigators later confirmed that Kathleen Myer had been the author of the instant messages to Mandy Ruminek and Sue Patterson. Myer, 56, was described as morose and irritable, and had a history of mental problems for which she was still receiving treatment. Two hours after Mandy Ruminek was admitted to the emergency unit, local authorities received, via email, screenshots of the conversations she had had with Myers. They were accompanied by a message:
Come find my remains.
I don't envy you your search for answers.