Seattle NewsNet | Special Investigative Feature | July 9, 2097
By Cally Tran, Senior Crime Correspondent
With analytic support from Horizon Intelligence Unit Δ-3 (“Delphi”)
Redmond’s Hope Springs neighborhood is no stranger to death. But the name that once evoked faded memories of urban renewal has, in recent months, become synonymous with something else: the slow drip of corpses. Dismembered. Eyeless. Forgotten.
With eighteen confirmed victims and no arrests, public fear is mounting. Seattle NewsNet, in cooperation with Horizon Intelligence Unit Δ-3, has conducted a thorough review of both public crime databases and confidential municipal coroner logs. The findings are sobering—and suggest that the Hope Springs Killer may not be a singular entity at all.
A Long Shadow
Although the public first became aware of the “Hope Springs Killer” late last year, the earliest killings attributed to the same signature date back at least four years. Internal SPD documents and morgue records reference multiple instances of mutilation and eye removal as early as 2093. At the time, these deaths were classified as gang killings or simply “unresolved”—not uncommon in a zone where the boundary between enforcement and entropy grows blurrier by the day.
Delphi, the Horizon data synthesis platform contracted for this piece, analyzed nearly 600 unexplained deaths in the greater Redmond district from 2092–2097. Using pattern recognition and forensic clustering, it estimates between 45 and 80 likely victims tied to the same modus operandi.
“This is a statistical inevitability,” Delphi notes. “The concentration of confirmed killings is centered in areas with minimal reporting infrastructure. If eighteen have surfaced, there are likely dozens more lost to Redmond’s noise floor.”
Not One Monster, but Many?
The prevailing theory among public commenters has been that of a single, meticulous killer. But forensics experts consulted by Seattle NewsNet are not so sure.
“There are subtle deviations,” says Dr. Helena Quist, a freelance forensic analyst previously contracted by Knight Errant. “Cut patterns. Disposal methods. The rate of decay. We may be looking at a group of killers, or even a phenomenon—copycats or ritualistic subcultures forming around an urban myth.”
Sources within the SPD's Redmond Outreach Task Force quietly echo this sentiment. One internal memo from May refers to the “eye motif” as a “synthetic signature”—a stylized hallmark designed to distract or mislead.
Delphi concurs. “The removal of eyes is not consistent with most pathologically motivated dismemberments. It is performative.”
The Eyeless Dead
Of the eighteen confirmed victims, sixteen had organic eyes removed with surgical precision. Two others had cybernetic replacements—both forcibly extracted, leaving behind ruptured cranial tissue and fried implants.
While ghouls, organ-leggers, and even rogue medtech scavengers are known hazards in Redmond, the eye removals don’t match their typical methods. “This isn’t resale,” Quist emphasizes. “It’s messaging.”
But messaging what?
No group has claimed responsibility. No manifesto has emerged. Just the mounting pile of bodies.
The Black Hole in Hope Springs
There are no working traffic cams in Hope Springs. The district’s grid is dead more often than alive. Few in law enforcement are willing to risk more than a drone flyover. Even private bounty hunters have gone missing.
“This isn’t just the work of one maniac,” says an anonymous fixer operating in eastern Redmond. “Something’s moving out there—deep, old, and bad.”
Whether it's a cult, a cabal, or simply the collapse of order made flesh, one thing is certain: the Hope Springs killings are not over. And we are only just beginning to understand how deep this rabbit hole goes.
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