The Disappearance of Garnell Moore S01E06

07/23/17 • 10 min

No one really knew Garnell Moore and no one knows what happened to him.

He was a six year old boy, who never attended school, had no medical or dental history, and had no mother or father. There is only one photo ever taken of him, age four. He was missing for three years before anyone had taken notice. This is the mystery of The Invisible Boy, the disappearance of Garnell Moore.

Garnell was born in Baltimore Maryland on May 18, 1995 to a career criminal mother, who spent most, if not all of her adult life behind bars on drug related offences. His father was a petty criminal who was transient and mostly homeless. Garnell spent the earliest of his years with his paternal relatives on the West side of Baltimore, a very poor, and rough neighbourhood.

Garnell found himself living at his aunt Belinda's rental house at age six. Belinda Cash never legally adopted Garnell or even attempted to make any effort to officially become the caretaker of young Garnell. Belinda never registered Garnell in any schooling and there are no medical or dental records available, suggesting that the young boy lived a life without any benefits of society.

One day, Garnell Moore, age 7, invisible to the world, vanished. And no one took notice. The last confirmed sighting of Garnell is by his great aunt, Trina Morton, who saw him playing outside of Belinda Cash's house in August of 2002. Trina Morton, who was the caretaker of Garnell's siblings, called upon Belinda to have him over for a weekend visit. Belinda said it was not a good time, that she was going into labour, and the visit never happened. Trina called to reschedule the visit, but was again told by Belinda it was not a good time because this following weekend she was moving to a different rental house.

Three years had passed and no one had heard from or seen Garnell Moore, who would have been 10 years old and in grade 5. Belinda Cash's address and phone number she forwarded to family members was fictitious and the family lost contact. Garnell's relatives did not realize he had disappeared until June 2005 when a chance meeting with Belinda occurred and she was questioned about Garnell. Belinda told them that he was away on a school field trip in Virginia.

However, school was not in session in June. Trina Morton, worried about the welfare of Garnell called schools throughout the area to check whether Garnell was enrolled. Employees told them privacy laws prevented the disclosure of any information. Employees at the Juvenile Services Center also said they were at a loss, since Morton had no legal guardianship of Garnell.

Troubled that Garnell was living with foster parents or strangers Trina Morton then called the city Department of Social Services for guidance, but they told her there was nothing they could do since he had not been deemed a child in need of assistance.

Garnell's family, now highly apprehensive and not getting any assistance contacted police. Police did a records check and found out Garnell was never enrolled in school, anywhere. This led them to question Belinda Cash and she admitted that she had no means of taking care of Garnell three years ago and so she left him on the steps of a social services building in the 500 block of north Hilton Street near Edmondson Avenue in West Baltimore.

Police were suspicious of aunt Belinda and asked to search her current residence. Police scoured the house to find no sign of Garnell, and absolutely no sign that he had ever lived there. A background check by police showed that Belinda had minor criminal activity on her police report and no known child abuse charges.

Police tracked down Garnell's father, who had no fixed address, but indicated he thought his son was with Belinda. He told police the last time he saw Garnell was with Belinda at Easter either in 2002 or 2003. His girlfriend at the time confirmed this statement to police, saying, she too, saw Garnell with Belinda during Easter. Both could not accurately say if it was 2002 or 2003.

The neighbourhood of where Belinda lived with Garnell before she had moved was canvassed by police and several witnesses claim to have seen the little boy playing outside on the street and in yards in 2001 with Belinda Cash identifying as the boy's mother.

The Police Department's missing persons unit got heavily involved with the disappearance and believed that no harm had come to Garnell but they felt that something was wrong. Detectives searched the old address on a chance that Garnell was somehow left behind. The abandoned house was in bad shape, with plaster dust leaking from the ceiling and moving boxes stacked up in every room. Police investigated and came up empty. They returned again, this time when the homeowner had finally cleared out the house. They searched every room and brought in Cadaver dogs in the event that something dreadful had happened to young Garnell. The police and the...

No one really knew Garnell Moore and no one knows what happened to him.

Previous Episode

The Falcon Lake UFO Incident S01E05

On the afternoon of May 20, 1967 an amateur geologist, Stephen Michalak stumbled down the highway toward the Falcon Motor Inn in great distress.

An RCMP highway patrol officer slowed down and observed Michalak hunched over and swaying but apparently trying to flag him down. After hearing Michalak tell a story and warning the officer to stay away from him because he had radiation poisoning, the officer determined he must have been drunk and drove off after Michalak declined help.

Michalak staggered into the Motel front office breathing heavily and asking to see a doctor. Having no doctor available, Michalak rested in his hotel room, calling his wife, and saying there had been an accident, but there was nothing to worry about. The next day his wife and son met him at the bus terminal in Winnepeg where he was promptly driven to the hospital. Michalak would be forever perplexed about his physical condition.

Something very strange happened to Steve Michalak in the spring of 1967 just north of Falcon Lake Manitoba for which no one is able to properly explain and today the incident, known as the Falcon Lake Incident is still unsolved.

Was it a real UFO encounter, a secret US aircraft, a hoax or something else?

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Next Episode

Old Hag Syndrome S01E07

You wake up unable to move, completely paralyzed. You feel something, something evil within the room. You are able to stare blankly at a horrible vision.

The Old Hag.

Legend tells us of a superstitious belief that a witch - or an old hag - sits or "rides" the chest of the victims, rendering them immobile.

The experience is so frightening because the victims, although paralyzed, seem to have full use of their senses.

In fact, it is often accompanied by strange smells, the sound of approaching footsteps, apparitions of weird shadows or glowing eyes, and the oppressive weight on the chest, making breathing difficult if not impossible.

All of the body's senses are telling the victims that something real and unusual is happening to them. The spell is broken when the victim is fully awake and well completely baffled by what just happened to them since now the room is entirely normal.

Confronted with such a bizarre and irrational experience, it's no wonder that many victims fear that they have been attacked in their beds by some malevolent spirit, demon or, perhaps, an alien visitor.

The phenomenon occurs to both men and women of various ages and seems to happen to about 15 percent of the population at least once in a lifetime. It usually is a reoccurring phenomenon in about 10% of that group. It can occur while the victim is sleeping during the day or night, and it is a worldwide phenomenon that has been documented since ancient times. It crosses many cultures and beliefs even for those with no contact between each.

The medical establishment is quite aware of this phenomenon, but has a less sensational name than "old hag syndrome" for it. They call it "sleep paralysis" or SP (sometimes ISP for "isolated sleep paralysis").

So what causes it? Dr. Max Hirshkowitz, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Houston, says that sleep paralysis occurs when the brain is in the transition state between deep, dreaming sleep (known as REM sleep for its rapid eye movement) and waking up.

During REM dreaming sleep, the brain has turned off most of the body's muscle function so we cannot act out our dreams - we are temporarily paralyzed.

"Sometimes your brain doesn't fully switch off those dreams - or the paralysis - when you wake up," Hirshkowitz told ABC News. "That would explain the 'frozen' feeling and hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis." According to his research, the effect only really lasts from a few seconds to as long as a minute, but in this half-dream half-awake state, to the victim it can seem much longer.

In her article, "Help! I Can't Move!,"Florence Cardinal writes: "Sleep paralysis is often accompanied by vivid hallucinations. There may be a sense someone is in the room, or even hovering over you. At other times, there seems to be pressure on the chest, as though someone or something perched there. There may even be sexual attacks associated with the hallucinations.

The sound of footsteps, doors opening and closing, voices, all can be a very frightening part of sleep paralysis. These are known as Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Experiences and they are what make people dread an episode of sleep paralysis."

For all their explanations, however, the sleep experts still do not know what causes the brain to screw up like this, or why some people experience it more than others.

And most interesting is the fact that the phenomenon has been documented in cultures that have not been in contact with one another – its as if the phenomenon has invaded the global consciousness.

In Scandinavian folklore, sleep paralysis is caused by a mare, a supernatural creature related to incubi and succubi. The mare is a damned woman, who is cursed and her body is carried mysteriously during sleep and without her noticing. In this state, she visits villagers to sit on their rib cages while they are asleep, causing them to experience nightmares. The Swedish film Marianne examines the folklore surrounding sleep paralysis.

In Fiji, the experience is interpreted as kana tevoro, being "eaten" by a demon. In many cases the demon can be the spirit of a recently dead relative who has come back for some unfinished business, or has come to communicate some important news to the living. Often persons sleeping near the afflicted person say kania, kania, "eat! eat!" in an attempt to prolong the possession for a chance to converse with the dead relative or spirit and seek answers as to why he or she has come back. The person waking up from the experience is often asked to immediately curse or chase the spirit of the dead relative, which sometimes involves literally speaking to the spirit and telling him or her to go away or using expletives.

In Nigeria, it appears to be far more common and recurrent among people of African ...