† These are the recordings of Joel D. Braunagh. Patient #19-374222. Case #9119 Det. Milton # 617
Discussions encase “the box”, admittance of guilt to victims: Brother -Michael Braunagh, Wife – Celeste Braunagh, Daughter – Zappy Braunagh
Date/Time – May 11th, 2009, 8:00 p.m. –
Pt. #19-374222 J.D.Braunagh
Discussion 1
-+-Good evening Mr. Braunagh, I know you’ve met me before but just for the record I am Detective Rachel Milton the time is currently 8:01 p.m. on May the 11th 2009. Now Joel Braunagh, we will be going over all the details you can give to us about, well about what happened and why it keeps happening. The department as well as the attorney general are wanting a detailed recollection of everything that happened so when you’re ready and comfortable let’s start from the top or when things developed into what we’ve been cleaning up after. Is that okay?
-+-Before we start can I offer you a drink? We’ve got coffee and water, I think we still have some Pepsi too in the break room.
— No. Sorry, no, thank you.
‡Shuffling, papers rustling, a heavy sigh, Braunagh flicks at a zippo. **static**
— I can’t believe this is f****** happening.
-+-Mr. Braunagh, if we could start with what happened. How did your brother die, what was it that had both your wife and daughter parish and why is the coroner reporting that it’s an unknown for cause of death.
— It was the box.
-+-Excuse me? Can you repeat that, it sounded like you said the box did it.
— And it did.
-+-Explain that to me Braunagh, where’s this box? What is the box? And please do tell me what a box could do to make you kill your wife, daughter and brother? I have it hard to believe that line of shit, that a box is capable of that, especially when it’s not in our evidence documented, we have nothing of substance with this so called box nor is it mentioned in the hundreds of manifesto-like writings we found in your basement. But the assumption is the forget me…forgive me not, was the box? Right?
— It’s Forget-Me-Naught.
-+-Okay, thank you, ‘the forget-me-naught’. Would you at the least, tell us what drove you to create this box.
‡Silence, he shifts, stares at the floor lifting his shoes, self-soothing by continuously rubbing legs, and hands, alternating from legs to hands with each inquiry.
— Let me start with this question Detective, does it show that my wife and I had a child before our little girl?
‡shuffling, rifling through papers, heavy sigh, tapping of shoes.
-+-Yes, Mr. Braunagh. His name was Luke right?
— Hmm, right.
-+-Truly, I’m sorry for your loss Mr. Braunagh, how old was Luke?
— Luca. Luca Ronaldo Braunagh, he was nine. I’m betting you knew this though yeah? Is this just you trying to build up a rapport detective? How many times do you think I’ve gone over this? Let alone how long it took? Years!!! It took years before I wasn’t considered the pariah for all that happened. Child Killer is what they called me. Did you know that? They’d shout it, especially when the news had just come out about him and those flashing lights shrouding our house for days on end. He died on the mountain, up on Beulah. But the whole town did a great job in making it feel that he died everywhere we were seen. Even your department. You couldn’t wait to throw me down, making me out to be a wretched dad, an abusive parent to the two, and Zappy being in utero at the time didn’t make anything easier for my wife. We were lucky just to have had Zappy, but none of you let that be a celebration. Did you? What was it the headlines said detective?
— Baby Two? Will He Do IT Again?
–Right? What the f*** do you think is going to happen? What do you think happened to my wife? What the hell do you think happened to us after all of that? None of the department, you, the fire department, anybody at either of the hospitals in town, you looked at my wife like she was the fool and me like the villain, it couldn’t possibly be a f****** accident could it?
-+-Okay Mr. Braunagh
— Just call me Joel, jesus I’m not a father anymore remember? Just Joel. Honest, just keep it with the first name or you’re not going to get s*** from me.
-+-Okay…absolutely Joel, you’ve got it. Now that we’ve got that on the table, will you tell me what happened how did the passing of Luca, and what the city did, which I’m not forgiving anybody’s behavior but how did that affect everything after? We need to know. Bad enough we’re beaten back reporters and as many journalists as I’ve ever seen flooding the police department. You definitely f****** put our town on the map Joel. So how about you give us the benefit of the doubt and you tell us, tell me what happened.
— Fine detective Milton, do you mind if I smoke?
-+-As long as you’re willing to continue to discuss in detail what happened and how, I don’t see why not.
‡Braunagh removes pack of Djarum Black – 12 count cigars, removes one cigar, lights up with Zippo conversation cont.
— It was those f****** shoes, his mom got him these goofy designed shoes, they had uh…what’s, what’s it’s name, that yellow guy with the, the star friend, umm SpongeBob, and Pat or something. Anyway, he had boots and I swore I thought I asked him to put em on before we had gone on the hike, I didn’t think to look down and double check before we left and it…well it’s shale up there you know? It’s Beulah, shale everywhere, the entire god-damned towns bottom shelf is, god! Everything is f****** shale.
-We had been hiking up for about three hours and finally stopped for a snack. It was right next to what was kind of a cliff-off area on the mountain where it dropped a good couple hundred feet and below you can see the the stream that ran through the mountain. Luca, was, well Luca was looking down at the water and trying to get me to come over and look, I took forever getting up and while that was happening he just kind of kept shifting, hoppin in that same area. I kept telling him to wait and quit jumping like a rabbit, that he was too close to the edge and I, I…I moved over to him, I could hear something but I didn’t know where it was coming from, I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking and the ground from under him just moved it just dropped and him with it. I lunged my arms out but he was already gone. I panicked, scaled down more so, kind of rolled down breaking my leg and arm from where the shale pieces and him had fallen but finally got to him.
–He…*gulp*he…it was so quiet, I called out to him go bling to him and I saw his hand, it was the only part of him not bloodied and maimed by the rock and fell to move the rock as quickly as I could but…f***…he wasn’t stirring, and there was so much blood. I knew then…I’d lost him, my baby died and I was too f****** slow to catch him, to lazy to be up with him to keep him far enough away from the edge…*sniff* *sniff*f****** crap how many times do I have to relive this, like I’ve told every single person, investigator and journalist, reporter, and dick it was a f****** accident. And it’s a weight and a burden! I have to carry every f****** day. Every minute through my core and it burns inside like a smoldering iron so thanks for that Rachel.
— I need a f****** minute.
-+-Joel, I really do apologize I wasn’t trying to rehash that, I can’t imagine what that’s…
— It’s darkness. It’s a complete void of nothing, do you have kids Rachel? You don’t mind me calling you Rachel do you? Or do you need me to call you detective? The question remains, do you have kids?
-+-I don’t think that matters to the discussion Joel we need to figure out what happened I’m sorry for rehashing Lucas passing and having to go over that again but I need the details. I need to be able to tell my Captain that there was a justified reason for convicting you of one death and not three, the coroner has no idea how your wife and daughter died, there’s no sign of malicious intent unless self-inflicted, other than that there’s no sign that you killed them and I need to find out what happened joel, you need to tell me or else I’m not going to be able to help you and I’m the only one on your side right now unless you want to call in a lawyer.
— Then answer the question Rachel. Do you have kids?
-+-Yes. Yes, I have a boy, a little boy he’s five and my girl is 13. I’m not giving you the other names so don’t ask or we can stop the conversation right now.
— Thank you. That’s all I needed to know. You have kids at least, so you can likely imagine what it would be like to have one of those kids just be erased gone to never grow, to never learn anything new, to never fall in love with whomever they choose to, find songs that they had never heard before that rattles their bones and shakes their heart, books to never be read and journeyed through knowing the authors, and the art, all they can’t ever be given to them ever ever again. I’ll never be able to show my son favorite films, my wife and I will never be able to show our son the places where we fell in love, where we found his name, there’s so many things that were halted the moment all of that happened to Luca. And there’s nothing that can be done to get that back so what do you think happened to my wife? If it wasn’t for Zappy being born the year before Luca died guaranteed our relationship would have completely eradicated itself through his loss. But we did have Zappy, and for a time it kept us tethered, but only for a time.
— I started investigating as much as I can, I got my hands in as many volumes of popular mechanics, American scientific, a myriad of other Science and tech magazines that I used to create something. But what I didn’t know, I’m a toy maker, I make things that spin for about a minute or two, little cars that wind up and can go up walls, puppies that can jump in your pocket I make toys, so I tinkered and tailored and tinkered and tailored and and just kept going and going while this is happening not realizing that Celeste above, all the projects I was doing right now at the time I was in the basement, and I’d be down there for days sometimes, completely absolved in creating something that could help us. Maybe like a memory box was the thought, something to put everything we could think of about him into to keep it and keep it safe was the idea but again I wasn’t focusing on her I was focusing on just stopping the pain. And I try to tell myself that that was enough in focusing on her, but f*** f*** f*** f***. I’m sorry, this is just, I, I haven’t even had an opportunity to say goodbye to them!!! I said goodbye to my brother, and we’ll cross that road when we get to it,but I never had a goddamn opportunity to kiss my wife goodbye or my child. Can I have that at least. You’re having me talk about everything that happened and I haven’t had the time to process half of it but even a f****** quarter, let me say goodbye to my babies. And I will tell you everything. But right quick your sorry ass needs to understand that I never had any intention on harming any of them, not one. It was the f****** box.
-+-Okay, after talking with the Captain and D.A., we have agreed to your request, we will continue the discussion tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Thank you, they’ll take you to your quarters now.
–Mm hmm…
–Detective Milton, before they usher me out, you’re telling me, seriously, in evidence, the box isn’t there? I mean it, I need to know, it needs to be demolished, immediately. Please Detective, I promise I will tell you everything I just need you to do that for me please.
-+-Sure Joel, I’ll look into it, Captain’s not going to like it but I’ll take a look see what I can get, to info though give and I’ll make sure you know tomorrow. Have a good night Joel.
Scribed May 11th, 2009 -9:13 p.m. signed: R. T. Milton
End of Discussion 1 Time – 9:13 p.m. 05/11/2009
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