Case File 0002.1: The Cliffside Offering

Case File 0002.1: When sixteen-year-old Melanie Parker disappears from a church social in Ashford Hollow, Pennsylvania, no one expects what’s found six weeks later: her body, posed on a remote cliff, surrounded by symbols, animal bones, and the faint scent of lavender. As whispers spread through the town, strange clues emerge—wax under her fingernails, a missing hymnal page, a burned letter. The case is quietly shelved. But behind casseroles and condolences, something darker is buried. A silence the town won’t break. Not out loud. Not even now.