We begin tonight with an environmental mystery.
...debris along the beach as far as the eye can see.
That's not what it is...
...on front lawns, on top of roofs...
...a large fish kill has struck along the shoreline of the Sebastian Inlet State Park...
Biologists say there were up to a million...
She captured reams of dead fish rolling on shore and piling up...
Fisheries staff are baffled at what caused these hundreds of dead fish...
...up to 5,000 blackbirds fell within a one-mile area.
Roughly 2 million of one particular species...
...dead fish on the shores of Rio de Janeiro...
- 2 million fish... - ...right here along Chesapeake Bay...
Thousands of birds started falling from the sky...
investigation is ongoing, to say the least.
They got me up at 4:00 in the morning, told me we had birds falling out of the sky.
...scientists don't know what killed them.
And you'll notice to your left, look over to your left.
Okay, that you can see, that's where the footage of...
Where you can address what that was about, okay?
Okay, sounds good.
Okay, why don't we start out, if you can just fill us in with basic details.
Okay.
My name is Donna Thompson.
I was a communications major at American University,
covering the July 4th festivities in Claridge, Maryland on July 4th, 2009.
No... Hey!
This is the first time I'm speaking publicly about the disaster that happened.
- I was there. - ...figure out what this is.
Let's follow it!
You okay, Donna?
Donna?
Yeah.
Okay? Are we gonna start?
Yeah, I'm sorry, I thought this was going to be a little easier to talk about.
Okay, tell me when you're ready and you can continue...
- Okay. - ...from the fast part. Go ahead.
My name is Donna Thompson.
For 3 years, I and a few others have been trying to speak out
about what happened in Claridge, Maryland on July 4th, 2009.
But sometimes words have no impact.
But now, with the help of a website called govleaks.org,
all of the digital information that was recorded that day has been obtained.
All of the digital information that was confiscated.
Now, don't know if anyone is going to be watching this,
I don't know if anything is going to happen to me
as a result of me putting this out there,
but I do know that I can't move on with my life
until this story is told.
You know, it's just...
It's hard to explain what this town used to be like.
Well it's 6:00 in the morning, with Mike in the Morning on this beautiful day,
this Day of Independence.
Good morning, Chesapeake, and good morning, America.
Listen, I'm your marathon man.
What does that mean? Well, hopefully you're going to be with me day and night,
as I am with you, and we can celebrate.
I can't think of a better way to celebrate than a little music from the heartland.
I mean, I used to come here every summer with my folks.
It's hard to explain what this town used to be like.
I mean, it was fun.
It was where I had my first crab dinner. My first summer kiss.
So that's the mayor right there, Mayor John Stockman.
He actually used to run a vacuum cleaner shop,
and then one day he just up and got everyone to vote for him for mayor.
Right there, that's Martin and Helen Wycoff.
They were both involved in a lot of community service programs.
And their whole family actually died that day.
3, 2, 1...
Good morning, Maryland!
Oh, wait. Sorry.
Honestly, why didn't anyone tell me my pants were too tight?
I'm sorry, it's just that every time I look at this footage, it's...
It's a little difficult, and I have this tendency to overcompensate a little bit, so...
If you want to use humor to hide those emotions, I understand.
Right.
I mean, maybe you should have gotten a voice actor or something to do this,
I don't know.
Okay, okay, I gotta stop this.
I've been getting too many phone calls, too many complaints.
For those of you who do care, it is Aaron Copland, that's a piece from Our Town.
What do you say we kick the energy up a little bit, huh?
I was just a summer intern. I was just so excited I was going to be
actually interviewing people.
I think it's every girl's dream to be Miss Crustacean.
I hope it's the beginning of something much, much bigger.
I want to thank my parents for their support,
and my sister Taylor for always being there for me.
Good morning, Maryland, this is Donna Thompson and I'm in Claridge, Maryland.
Claridge is the host of our annual Eastern Chesapeake July 4th party,
and I will be here all day to cover the events.
It is my great pleasure to announce the beginning
of the 57th annual Claridge Crab-Eating Spectacular.
Am I in frame?
So this is good old Claridge.
It was founded in 1903, supposedly by a fisherman who ran around here
and liked it so much that he started a crab restaurant.
- What's your name? - Tyler.
And have you been preparing for a while for this?
Not very.
It is, or was, a whole population of 6,200.
There's a pretty big chicken industry, a bunch of restaurants,
and a whole lot of money is made from summer tourism on the water here.
Next! Who's next?
- Me! Me! Me! - Me! Me! Me!
Oh, God, this is my first interview ever, with Mayor Stockman.
I think I made him do this interview, like, 4 different times.
I think I even told him his hair dried fast because he was bald.
Yep. Yeah, it does dry fast.
So I think we can show just about everybody that comes on down a really good time.
Yeah. Cool!
Of course, at the time I had no idea how culpable he was
for what was about to happen.
The first signs that something was very wrong
happened 6 weeks before July 4th.
It was on the news, but I don't think anybody really put the two and two together
and knew what was going on.
The bodies of 2 scientists were found in the Chesapeake Bay last night
after having been reported missing for more than 36 hours.
The cause of death was listed as unknown, although medical examiners
found numerous wounds on the body that might be consistent with shark bites.
The 2 scientists were oceanographers
working to measure pollution levels in the bay.
These were 2 oceanographers, one from the Cousteau Institute
and another from the University of Maryland.
They were keeping a video diary of their research
and sending it to the Chesapeake Environmental Council.
This is gonna be toxic. Red algae here and here does indicate bacterial growth.
Now, Natural Resources, they think it's feeding off the nutrients in the water
from the chicken run-off.
- That's a strange attack. - Yes, it is.
You don't hear about shark attacks in the bay.
Well I think most sharks can be aggressive.
It seems like I remember, what, a couple of attacks last year...
- Here and there. - ...maybe? Yeah.
It is brackish throughout the Chesapeake Bay,
and bull sharks have been known to come up in the bay occasionally, but...
Now, got to tell you, it makes me a little nervous,
because we have a boat, and we go out in the bay all the time.
They got the results on the water analysis.
- Oh, yeah? - Yeah.
What do you have?
Mercury levels way above standards.
Polysialic acids, OPs, PCBs that haven't been legal in 20 years,
endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals, Viagra, estrogen,
DDT, trace amounts of Giardia.
I mean, pretty much, you name it, you know, it's in there.
I mean, looky here.
This whole stream of toxins is following the current.
Following... The what's following the what? You have a very thick accent, so I can't...
Sam, this whole stream of toxins is following the current.
Look, it's going next to this little town, Claridge. Claridge.
There were people who were concerned about what was going on in the bay.
And with some of the townsfolk it did cause arguments.
Your chicken plants are putting chicken shit in my bay and they're killing it!
Jerry? The important thing to understand is that the EPA continues to test the bay...
- Yeah! - ...and it's really their responsibility.
It's their responsibility.
Each one of these sheds has approximately 32,000 chickens in it, each.
Those chickens eat about 10,000 pounds worth of food.
They do this all very mathematically.
You know, I don't care what people say about the bay.
I know it looks a little different, but all our kids have grown up in the water in the bay.
So I don't know what all the doom and gloom is all about.
There's 45 million pounds of chicken shit dumped into the bay each year.
I mean, look at that. That is entirely chicken shit.
And over here, look how close we are to the water. It's right there.
Chicken shit, water.
We gotta have improvement in the economy. We've got to develop.
- I say we develop the hell out of the bay... - Yeah!
- ...and then we can pay to clean it up. - Yeah!
You know, a lot of people,
a lot of people,
gave me a hard time when we put up the desalination plant.
With that desalination plant, we increased the capacity for poultry farming in the area.
Basically, the desalination plant filtered water from the bay
so that people could drink it and use it for the chicken industry.
And everyone just assumed that it would take anything harmful out of the water.
Your lawns benefit from that, we have pools that are in operation,
and last but not least, I don't know about you,
but I think this is the best darn water I've ever tasted.
- All right! - Yeah!
People were worried about the economy and the water,
but mostly that wasn't their focus.
They were just doing the American thing. You know, trying to make a living,
dealing with their children, enjoying their lives.
And everything seemed, really, pretty good.
What in the world's going on?
Oh, my God.
Call my husband! Do something!
Do it! Please!
- What's going on? - I don't know.
Mommy!
What's going on? What happened? What's going on?
0h. my God!
Has anyone seen my husband? What's happening to me? Please help me!
I need my husband! Please! Anybody!
I need to go to the hospital! Someone needs to get me to the hospital!
Almost done. We should have a report of who the winner is shortly.
I need to go to the hospital! Someone needs to get me to the hospital!
I've never seen anything like that.
Are you getting that? Are you getting that? He just vomited. Are you getting that?
Oh, my gosh! Oh, my God.
Right, some people are missing.
Cut the cameras! Cut the cameras!
Let's go. Here we go. You're gonna be all right.
Danny, where are you?
This is a lens cap?
Am I in frame?
This is Dr. Jack Abrams.
He was the head physician in the emergency waiting room at Atlantic Hospital.
He would actually end up treating over 350 patients over the course of that day.
And he would die later that night.
Could you take off your shirt, please?
Can you turn around a little bit more? I'm just going to point this out to the camera.
- CDC, is this an emergency? - Yes it is.
Are you a health professional?
- I'm a doctor. - Okay, hold, please.
Emergency operations.
Yeah, hi, this is Dr. Jack Abrams over at the Atlantic Hospital in Claridge, Maryland.
How can we help you today?
We're in the middle of some kind of bacterial outbreak.
This is Dr. Williams in Communicable Disease.
You believe you may have a bacterial case?
Not one, 30.
What?
I've got 30 people in the waiting room of my hospital right now.
What are the symptoms?
The entire group has broken out in blisters, boils, lesions.
Where?
Face, neck, legs, chest...
I've got a woman whose entire backside is covered in boils.
All right, when did this begin?
- This morning. Today. - What do you think it is?
I have no idea what it is.
All right. I'm going to walk you through a list of associated symptoms.
- Okay? - Okay
I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions.
You been around any livestock, agriculture...
- No. - ...farm animals?
You spend a lot of time in the sun?
No, not really.
- More than usual? Less than usual? Same? - Not really.
You know, it hurts, just, in my bones.
What concerns me is we've had a lot of people in today
who have had similar symptoms to that.
Which, actually, frankly, that's why we're doing this.
So if you wouldn't mind just looking right into the lens and saying your name.
My name is Loni Gisik...
- Great. - What am I supposed to say?
You're fine. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions.
I didn't know it was a big deal. I'm just asking you to go through a drive-through.
I'm just saying, you do this every day...
Okay, Grandma, okay. I'm sorry, I didn't...
Grab the food, you're out. That's why it's a drive-through.
It's not a big deal, just go through! Can you do it?
This is Officer Paul. He's the one on the left.
He was actually the best man at Officer Jimson's wedding.
What is that?
What is it?
They reported the first death in Claridge at 12:42 p.m.
Is he shot?
Check his pulse.
Oh, God, no, I don't want to do this.
He's dead.
I don't see any bullet holes, though.
All right. Central, this is SM-1012.
We've got a young white male laid out on the corner of Center and Hyde.
He's dead. Go ahead and dispatch EMS as soon as you can.
Is there anyone around?
- Hi! - Hey!
What do you think, Andrew?
You like that foot?
We're going to go to Claridge and see the fireworks. You know what fireworks are?
This is Alex and Stephanie Talbot.
He was a very young, very successful dentist from Townsend.
And Stephanie, she grew up in Claridge
before becoming a big-shot lawyer in Baltimore.
I called them and they're going to meet us there.
- That's their baby. - You sure? They're going to meet us?
They rented a boat in Wilmington to sail to Claridge for the fireworks.
- The best of life! - That's why they were headed this way.
All right, we're going to get this motorboat going. We ready for this?
Where are you, ma'am?
Oh, God, she's bleeding!
Ma'am ?
just got my camera. She just ran out to the yard and...
Can you tell me what your address is, ma'am?
I'm in my home! I'm in my home!
And what street is your home on?
She's bleeding! You got to send somebody! Please!
Where is she bleeding from?
Just send help! Send somebody now!
Send somebody quickly! 114 Maple Street!
on, God!
- Donna! - Donna.
Hey, Donna. Come here.
Did anyone tell you what this was? Do you know who's in there?
All right, let's go. Let's follow it!
Hey, we got a situation over at the 911 call center.
Yeah, the system's about to go down. We're just overloaded with calls.
Atlantic Hospital is overcrowded, 75 at St. Alban's Clinic,
the clinic on Dorsey, turns out there's people out on the corner.
Some sort of killer virus, they say now,
so wash your hands and keep your gloves on and whatnot.
I need you to respond from the west side.
Come up to Prince Street
and stop short of St. James and check back to the south side.
That's the way they're showing that the body was laying behind the yard.
- That address, 123 St. James. - Hey, Jimson.
Oh, God, look at that.
Marla Spatafora, she got it bad. I mean, somebody really tore into her.
Bill and I found her over on the lawn.
Her guts were tore out and her tongue cut off.
Her tongue was cut off?
Yeah. I imagine it's a domestic.
Do we know anything about the husband, a Jason Spatafora?
I am at the scene of the crime right now with a man named Jerry.
He's a fisherman in the town, and...
You knew Miss Sporafina, is that correct?
Spatafora.
I apologize. They...
They sent us the wrong name.
She was a wonderful woman. Very calm, very quiet.
Does this go on in the town a lot, domestic violence cases? It just seems...
I'm sorry, what?
- Try... Do that one more time. Just... - You know.
I thought I was following a murder story. I was just going through the motions.
Like, almost trying to imitate what I thought a reporter should sound like.
No!
Makes me cringe when I watch this now.
All right, just do an ending thing...
- God, I feel bad. - ...and we got it.
I didn't seem too pushy, did I?
No, no, no. No.
I don't know, it's weird, you have to, like,
pretend you don't feel anything about the situation when you're a reporter.
But it's... No, you did a good job. You didn't... You know,
you weren't overly emotional and you weren't too, you know,
too much of a reporter with him. It's good.
- It was a good conversation. - All right.
Hey. Hey! Are you excited?
We're gonna go and see Grandma and Grandpa.
Yeah! Very exciting.
You know what? We're not going to say anything about Grandma's hair.
Where did he go to?
There's Daddy.
Look at this. Awesome.
I need you to look at this, okay?
Okay.
Just look at this. It's like some kind of blister or something.
This girl Jennifer, she was using FaceTime with her phone
to show a rash that suddenly broke out on her body.
- This stuff on my arms... - Oh, my God. Jennifer, that's disgusting.
When we looked at her phone call list, it turns out
she was trying to stay in contact with her friend throughout the entire day.
- I can't get anyone on the phone. - Did you put something on it?
- Nobody's answering. - I know.
- It just goes straight to voice mail. - Service is sucking ass.
Every time I watch these FaceTime videos it makes me feel sad.
My parents left, like, an hour ago.
I don't even know where they were going. They didn't even tell me they were leaving.
They were just out the door, and they pulled out
before I had a chance to even say goodbye
or ask them where they were going.
- Does it hurt? - Yeah, it does really hurt.
- Is this gonna be okay for the audio? - Yeah.
- I think it's okay. - Rain on the... Okay. I'll speak very loudly.
Okay! Hello. We... That sounds very formal.
Okay. We have now seen one infected fish,
and we are going to be using this borescope,
hello,
to go inside the fish's mouth and see if it was an isolated incident or not.
Come with me.
Inside...
Okay, secure.
Clip.
And... Okay.
This, everyone, is parasite larvae.
Explain for them.
Well, parasite larvae, it's a creature
whose eggs are swallowed by fish, and then they hatch inside the belly.
It's fun stuff. I've never really seen larvae like this, though.
I don't know where the parasites are coming from.
What'd he say?
I just heard on the car radio that there's another murder.
- A second murder? - Yes.
...only 12 blocks from the murder of Marla Spatafora this afternoon,
and now authorities are telling us the body was found in a rather mutilated condition.
And I believe police believe that the husband could be involved in this.
That's what we're hearing.
Some reports, perhaps, of a history of abuse there,
or some allegations, at least, of abuse.
You can follow her throughout the day by going to www.wvbr33news.com.
Guys, you're pushing your luck. You are pushing your luck.
This could be a career-maker for her.
- Unbelievable. - What are the odds?
- Unbelievable. - And is she going to be able to handle this?
Just had to show you these off-air comments.
I mean, they' re wondering if I can handle this,
and they're right. I mean, I'm chasing a murder mystery.
Nothing happening, small town celebration,
- who would have thought? - Going to a parade...
I'm from American University...
- You're at the college? - That's it guys, off the property.
So I wasn't asking the right questions, and...
Now she's covering what's going to be the biggest story of the year.
Could be huge. Could be huge.
- Sir, we do have press passes. - You need press passes...
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
Looking back, just don't understand how I still thought it was a murder case.
Jim! Are you getting it?
I can only assume that whatever this is
is going to continue to eat away at the leg and at the knee,
and probably move to the upper body and into the gonads.
I think that what we' re talking about here
are two separate strains of some kind of parasite.
Something that is literally eating its way into the body from the outside.
There are lesions and there's boils,
and also there's something eating its way out from inside.
What! need you to do is figure out what the hell this is.
John, what is going on?
Man, you know...
We've never had murders reported here in the city.
You know, actually, I've been so busy with the re-election and July 4th,
I mean, the Sheriff Office is... I've made contact with them,
it's not even labeled murder yet.
- Yeah. - It isn't. I mean...
- Just an ongoing investigation? - Totally open investigation. Yeah.
All right, we're back, it's Radio On The Bay. George Khouri.
We've got our podcasts, 2417, all the updates. Khouriradio.com.
Right now we're just gonna get right to it. We've got our esteemed mayor,
John Stockman, he's got a very important announcement for the town,
so right now, we're just gonna turn it over to you, Your Honor.
Hey, Khouri, thanks so much.
- I really appreciate this opportunity. - Absolutely.
There's a lot of rumors being spread,
and rumors can get you into nothing but trouble, as we all know.
So let me give you a little more clarity as to what's going on.
We all know that during warm weather, bacteria levels can rise,
and because of that, sometimes there are those of us
who pick up some kind of digestive problems, and sometimes rashes.
It's unfortunate, but it's a fact of life here on the bay.
However, and I hope everyone is paying attention to this,
let's not go around scaring one another with crazy and outlandish stories
that serve no one's benefit.
So, and I can't stress this enough, if you have a sensitivity to that type of bacteria,
or if you just want to take special precautions,
you can limit your time in the water today.
The bacteria level here is much, much higher
than even the high level we see after a storm,
and the fertilizer from the farm...
You're rushing on the fertilizer stuff.
- Just slow down a little. - Okay.
And the fertilizer from the farm run into the water.
It's not good at all. It's very, very high.
Yeah, that ending is kind of sloppy on that.
And if I have any information,
and I do mean to stress this,
if I have any information that would alter those facts,
and I say facts,
I'll be right back here talking to you again.
And, Khouri, and everyone out there,
just want to wish you the happiest of 4th of July. Thanks again.
There he is.
There it is! Yeah!
Who's buying dinner now?
- Is that you? - That's me!
There he is!
That's so big I don't think he fits in this boat.
It looks like he started fishing.
- Hold him... There you go, huh? - Nice!
- That's not right, Danny. - Look at that, Brian.
- That thing's huge! - That's not right.
It is right! Look at that thing!
- Danny, you ever see anything like that? - What is that?
I've never seen nothing like that. What is it?
Son of a bitch! God...
Get it off of me! Emilio!
- Step back! - Keep away.
That thing bit me! Holy shit, that thing is mad!
All right, welcome back, Radio On The Bay. It's George Khouri.
We are live on the air, and of course, 2417 we got our podcasts,
you can grab them. RadioKhouri.com.
Now there's a lot of speculation, a lot of phone calls coming in.
People not quite sure what to make of this,
but theories do abound, my friends, it's true.
Maybe a satanic cult has invaded the town.
There's drugs loose in the air. We've got theories running wild.
I think it's Al-Qaeda, or whatever it's called.
It's a terrorist plot to poison the food supply.
I've been reading a lot of information
about the flu shots and the vaccines, and how they cause...
We've been warned about pesticides, they're spraying all the food with them these days.
I saw this strange cloud, it was hovering over the water down by the bay.
It was a very circular shape.
...biological warfare, Iran, and they're probably trying
to get people out of Guantenamo...
...they're going to say it's about this global warming and stuff.
I still can't get them. It's going to voice mail.
Well, we said we'd meet them at the pier,
that's what we'll do. We'll meet them at the pier.
That's the plan. We'll just do that.
Okay, we have some more dead tissue here, all mutilated.
- What? - All mutilated.
- Oh, "mutilated"! - We have...
Here, we have... The tongue is missing on these.
- No tongue? - And on these others,
the flesh looks almost like it's been bitten. It's very confusing.
Why is that?
I'm not sure what does this.
Fish don't bite fish.
- There she is. - I'm so tired of posing.
- Come on, let me film you. - No, no, no, no, no.
No, 'cause I don't wanna end up on the Internet.
Come on, it's not like I'm gonna post you naked on my Facebook page
and see what the comments are.
Well, I might, actually, now that I think about it.
Who knows? I could end up being a pretty big star.
Sure. A big star. Whatever.
This was Denise Button's digital camera.
She was a star pitcher for the softball team.
...your shirt off. Let me see this.
- I don't think so. - Oh, come on!
Why would you want me to do that?
'Cause I want to see how beautiful you are.
You already know.
Come on, you know my mom doesn't like us being together in the first place.
Why would I do something even worse?
Because you like me.
All right, but you better come in with me. You're coming in, no doubt about it.
Okay? You better come in after me.
How's it feel?
Awesome. Come on!
- No. - Come on, babe.
No, that's okay. I think you can just get stung by the jellyfish.
What?
Very funny.
No, there's seriously something...
You're not getting to me.
They're just jellyfish.
Are you okay?
Hang on!
That camera was apparently found a month later by a 12-year-old on the shore.
Their bodies were never discovered.
It's so pretty here.
Isn't it? Look at that.
Hey!
Hello.
Oh, my God, look behind you.
- What? - Behind you!
It's like a sign.
- Is it? - Yeah.
A sign you wanna make a little love?
Knock it off. It's not a sex sign.
Well, it is to me. It is a sex sign.
No. Everything is sex.
Hi!
Come on, it was...
- Why don't we just stop a little bit and... - No!
Sometimes when I watch this footage, this private footage,
I mean, here they are, they're being playful, they're loving one another,
and they have no idea
that something so much darker and sinister is about to happen.
You getting in the mood?
Oh, definitely.
- Oh, my God! Oh, my God, put me down! - Oh, God!
There we go. Let's just cool off a little bit.
Oh, my God! Alex! Alex, the camera. No, no, no. Put me down.
Asshole.
Serves you right.
- Oh, Jeez! - How does it feel in there?
Some went in my mouth!
Well, good.
You're coming in at some point. You know that, don't you?
Look at you up there on your high boat.
About 100 years ago, the sea floor was entirely grass bed
with enough oysters to self-clean about every 4 days.
Today the bay is 40 percent dead zone. There is nothing here.
Wait, I don't understand. Are you saying that 40 percent of the bay is a dead zone?
Is good? ls okay?
No, no, it's not clear that 40 percent is dead.
Dr. Abrams! The CDC is on the line.
They're on right now?
Can you get somebody to get an orderly to get that guy out of the hall?
Put him in 104.
Well? Well?
Yeah, you said that you have 30 of these cases?
I have about 60 people with some kind of blister and lesion outbreak,
some of whom went into anaphylactic shock. I have...
Excuse me. You said now you have 60 cases?
I saw 3 people with their tongues half gone.
Okay, that's a lot of information.
Did you administer methicillin to the lesion victims?
Yes, of course I gave them methicillin. It had no response.
What do you mean?
It kept spreading.
- In how many cases? - In all of the cases.
Okay, that's important.
Yeah, I know that's important, because they still have spreading lesions.
Do you have any new information for me?
Not at this time. This could be any number of things.
- It could be fungal or bacterial. - Fungal?
We had a tropical fungus outbreak last year in Vancouver.
Spread in about 3 hours, actually.
Vancouver? 3 hours?
Yeah, with about 30...
We lost about 30 people died, I think,
but it was just the fact that we hadn't seen it in the northern hemisphere before.
Now, I did want to ask you,
did you say that you had people with half their tongues gone?
Yeah, hold on. You didn't get the pictures? Did you send those pictures to the CDC?
You did?
You should have an attachment there with pictures that we sent you.
Do you have them?
Okay, we're coming to you from the Straits of Claridge,
where we think we've found
the culprit.
Let's go take a look inside the laboratory here, see what we got.
As you can see here, we have these parasites
that seem to have latched on to the gills.
Oh, my God, this is disgusting.
Right here. You get it?
There.
This is called an isopod.
Right here. It's one of the world's oldest creatures.
Dates back from the Carboniferous Period.
Here.
- Look at that. - What is that?
Look at that. It ate right through the fish's tongue.
This is enormous.
Do you think this is an anomaly?
Do I think it's... Amoly? What?
No, do you think it's normal?
Oh, "anomaly." I don't know. I think it must be some kind of mutated version.
Isopods shouldn't even be in the brackish water. This is a huge one.
Look at this.
All these isopods are eating this fish alive.
I don't understand this. It doesn't make any sense.
What is it?
It aches. There's
Pain.
There's something really wrong.
Help me.
What's happening?
I think you need to see the sick... Look how many people are here.
- Oh,my God! - Look at this.
What's wrong with everyone? That's Mr. Long!
Look at all these people. They need help.
Calm down!
Did you just hear that? Look at this. Look at this. Look.
Somebody help me!
Please, please, somebody.
They were just there for a car show. Within 24 hours, he got ill.
And they said with this parasite, that is what happens.
Only his feet touched the water, but a short time later, he became sick.
Doctors say he was infected by a bacteria called Vibrio vulnificus.
If he survived, he would have lost his arms and legs.
When walking through brackish water or at the beach,
if you get a cut, don't just think it's going to go away.
You have to seek medical attention immediately if it starts to turn red
or you start to feel really bad.
The Vibrio vulnificus bacteria can lead to heart failure, loss of limbs, or death.
All right, this is the leg of a man treated today at Atlantic Hospital in Maryland.
This is the IR slide of the same infection. Notice the bruising below the skin.
It looks like Vibrio vulnificus. Now, it's a bit different
than the normal symptoms ofaVibrio oraCryptosporidium outbreak,
and we got people up there with their tongues half gone.
So what do we got here, people?
Stephanie? Stephanie, where are you?
You're not answering your phone. I've been trying to reach you. I'm at the hospital.
Your dad is at the hospital.
They're taking him in, he has some kind of very bad infection,
and I think they're going to amputate his leg.
It's crazy here. I mean, really crazy here.
So the most important thing is to know that I do not want you to get off that boat.
Do you hear me, Stephanie? Don't get off the boat.
- Hey, Stephanie! - What?
Come up here for a minute, will you?
And there is something else I want you to know.
Look at this boat.
I think I need to tell you...
- Grab this camera. Grab the camera. - ...Ihave lesions,
and I think a lot of people here are not going to make it.
...and film it off the side. I'm gonna come... Here it comes.
But remember, I love you. And I will try to call again.
Nobody in it.
Can you see anyone in the water?
I don't think we can rule out a food-borne virus or anything airborne,
but this looks like a water vector.
Agreed. The blistering looks like echinococcosis.
The lesions could be Microbacterium marinum or schistosomiasis.
I mean, Jesus, there could be cholera in there.
Yeah, but I don't see it spreading this fast.
If the water's being polluted with anything chemical on top of the bacteria,
we could easily be looking at a new form evolve.
Maybe a fungal bacteria, maybe a mutated tapeworm. Who knows?
I need labs back in 2, I need labs back in 3!
Purelax, and I need morphine!
Somebody call Materials Management...
- Dr. Abrams! - ...l need 6-by-9, I need 4-by-8.
- Dr. Abrams. - What?
- It's the fellow you amputated. - What about him?
It's on the other leg.
- What? - It's on the other leg.
Christ. I need morphine in two, and I need labs back.
I have EPA on the line.
What the hell is going on at the Chesapeake Bay?
What are you talking about?
Is there anything in there that could cause disease, bacterial outbreak or mutations?
Well, the bay has been found to have pollutants,
algae, agricultural run-off, chicken excrement...
Go on.
There was a small leak from a nuclear reactor in 2002,
but we weren't expecting it to hit the bay until 2014,
but it is coming through the ground, so it could have hit earlier.
Are people drinking this water?
Of course not. The bay is brackish, you can't drink it.
But there is a level of seepage into local wells, and, of course,
the desalination plant in Claridge.
With that desalination plant,
we have increased the capacity for poultry farming in the area.
Those chickens drink about 2,000 gallons of water a day.
I think the NEF said it was 0.3 liters of dirty water,
so there could be radium or tritium in there.
...constructors, pharmaceuticals...
...algae, agricultural run-off, chicken excrement...
There was a small leak from a nuclear reactor in 2002...
And you don't warn anyone?
Well, it's not under our regulations to test for radioactivity levels in water,
but half the water in America probably has some leaks in it.
Yeah, but don't you regulate the water?
The filtered water has met all regulatory standards.
That dome over there has made a big difference for Claridge.
5 million pounds of chicken shit dumped into the bay each year.
This is the best dam water I've ever tasted.
What are you doing? Let's go back and film.
Just hold on a sec.
What are you doing?
I'm burning up. Let me just put some water on my face. Jesus.
That's my cameraman, Jim White.
Hey, Katie Couric, can you just chill the fuck out for 2 seconds?
I think that's the only time we actually ever see him.
That's not an insult. I mean...
He died that night, and a lot of this footage is thanks to him.
Where are you going?
Governor's office.
Yeah, hi, this is Dr. Jack Abrams, I'm at the Atlantic Hospital in Claridge.
I need to speak to the Governor.
Well, the Governor is away from his desk at the moment.
I don't understand how the nurses are just, like, hurrying by
and they're not even stopping. Look at that, she didn't even stop.
- Scoot up! - Look, I am!
They are, like, 20 feet in front of us!
For Pete's sakes! Dad!
Stop honking the horn!
Please stop texting. Please don't be YouTubing this. Please!
- Would you two calm down, please? - Oh, my God, she just said "YouTubing."
We're having an outbreak of some kind here, a medical outbreak, down here in Claridge.
People are dying here!
I have been speaking to the CDC, they are moving at a snail's pace...
Listen, I will pass the message on to the Governor as soon as he gets back.
What do you mean, you have it?
Well, go! Go. Go out there, and document everybody that you see.
Don't document me, don't waste the damn film.
Get back in, please.
Nobody ever got off that bridge. It was shut down for 3 days, actually.
I did a lot of research, there's no record of who ordered it shut down.
I got it on auto-pilot.
- Oh, good. - Yeah.
- GPS is amazing. - Oh, yeah?
- They've really mastered the technology. - Yeah, huh?
It said take the next right, though, and I don't know what they're referring to.
Just go around in circles.
That's fine by me.
You know we don't have to be here. They're not going to post any of this.
The FBl's not going to allow it.
Okay, well, there's a little something called the First Amendment.
- It is rolling? - Yeah, we're rolling.
Good evening. This is Donna Thompson reporting
from what used to be the fairgrounds of the July 4th party.
- Did you hear that? - Yeah. What was that?
What the fuck is that?
I'm sorry. Sorry.
You're saying that you were hearing these screams across the water, you could hear...
I'm sorry, the Skype broke up a little bit. What did you say?
Just echoing in the air? I mean, all different directions?
Oh, yeah! I mean, there...
It was very faint, but it was very
Prominent. I mean, I heard them coming from here, I heard them coming from there.
It was far away, but...
It was very ghost-like.
You know, I...
And the pain in the people's voices. I could hear them.
They were like cries, or... Like cries for help.
But you didn't know where anyone was?
No. I had no idea where anybody was.
Be advised. I need you to respond to the corner of St. James and High Market.
We just had a phone call in reference to hearing some screaming
or some type of loud verbal noises from across the street.
You think it's like a group, or one person?
- I don't know. - All right.
Maybe one of those cults, you know, like they were talking about on the radio?
I don't know.
All right, man. Stay here. Keep your eyes out, huh?
All right.
Police! Open up!
I'm gonna go in.
Hello?
This is Donna Thompson reporting
from what used to be the fairgrounds of the July 4th party.
At the moment, we are not quite sure what's going on...
Central! This is SM-1012. Be advised, shots fired.
Shots fired at 362 St. James Street. Send assistance immediately.
Central, advise. Did you copy?
Central, please advise! Do you copy?
Send backup! A shot has been fired at 362 St. James Street.
- Central, be advised! - Jim, are you in there?
I don't know if anyone's listening there! I'm going to enter the premises now.
SM-1018 is currently inside. Please send backup!
Jim!
Coming in! I'm coming in!
- Oh, my God! - Please!
What the hell? What are you doing?
No, they're not dying. They're not dying.
They're all dying! They're all dying! Look at them all!
No way! What have you done, Jim?
- I don't know! I don't know what they are! - What is on those people?
They're crawling out of their bodies!
- Please! Please! - Let's get out of here! Let's get out of here!
I don't know!
Please!
You can't do that! You can't do that!
Stand back!
Get it off! Get it off!
Wait! Wait! Wait!
Jim! Jim! No, no, no, it's me, Paul!
This is Cessna 157.
Go ahead, Cessna 157.
Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
I know they shut down all the roads going into Claridge,
but now I'm flying over the water here, and...
Well, there's just a shitload of dead fish everywhere.
Did you say dead fish?
I don't know how many, but it goes as far as I can see.
So you just got this?
Yeah, from a research professor at the University of Maryland.
And this Cymothoa exigua, do we have any information on this?
Yeah, the exigua is a crustaceous isopod normally found in the Pacific.
It's been making a number of appearances in the Atlantic.
Last year they found a two-and-a-half-foot one
trying to burrow its way into a submarine. The thing thought it was a dead whale.
Are you making this up? This looks photoshopped.
No, it's real.
So how's that getting into the water supply?
Well, at normal scale, they're quite common. The fishermen call them sea lice.
Yeah, but, I mean... You know, it's this big.
How's it going to get through a filtration system?
Well, what about the larvae?
All right, well, now we're bringing up more questions than we can answer.
We gotta find out what happened to those two divers. Yeah?
Let's go.
Okay, here we are. We've got a nice break in the weather,
so we're going to go catch the current out to Claridge,
and take an up-close, personal look at these parasites,
see what we're dealing with.
See, you take a look around,
it's beautiful, it's breathtaking,
one of the most beautiful estuaries in all of America.
You'd have no idea what's underneath.
How was that? Was that not very good at all?
- It's great. - What?
That was very good.
Okay. One more time, a little crisper.
I feel like I'm sitting very strangely. Do people sit like this? Okay.
Now bring the camera to me,
I'm going to get us some beauty shots here, get a sense of place here.
You see the vista here, and the sun.
Beautiful water.
Beautiful, placid water.
You have no sense of how the ecosystem is actually being affected.
You have no idea of the nightmare underneath here.
...take an up-close, personal look at these parasites,
see what we're actually dealing with.
We'll go take a look ourselves.
You can see in this footage
that the oceanographers dove right into a school of fully grown isopods.
This is not the sea lice variety, or the larvae.
This is what killed them, and what killed those young teenagers.
The question we continue to ask is, did the authorities not look at this footage,
or chose not to reveal it?
Jim? Jim?
Do you hear that?
I hear something.
Yeah, I hear it.
It's this way.
Do you fucking hear that?
It's some kind of moaning or something.
Can you come closer?
What's that?
Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
What do I need to do, Doctor? What do I need to do?
Well, I would suggest that you and your staff leave the hospital.
My staff left 20 minutes ago.
Well, good, that's wise.
Wise? That's... Why is that wise?
Well, because the bacteria, once it's entered the human body...
It's a miracle you aren't infected already, as a matter of fact.
- I'mfine. - Well, that's good,
but what I'm saying is that, at this point, it is too late, Doctor,
and I strongly suggest that you leave the hospital immediately.
I have people in pain here.
I'm amputating feet, I'm amputating legs, I'm amputating arms.
- You want me to get up and just leave? - Yes, I'm...
We're aware of that, Doctor, and we are sorry.
You need to get somewhere, get some help.
Don't come here, 'cause they're not going to help you.
And they're not helping me.
It looks like there are dead bodies up there.
- It's onlya rash. Howcanyou... - I'm serious. Dead people.
- How can people be dead? - They're not breathing, they just collapsed,
and no one's coming out to get them. Nothing.
- And no one's helping? - No. No one.
Jennifer, is your tongue hurting? Mine hurts so badly.
I don't know what to say. I'm just... I'm really scared. I don't know what to do.
I just don't want to hang up. I don't want to be by myself. I can't get anyone...
Can you see my parents? Are they here?
There's a bunch of dead shit in the water. What is that stuff?
That's weird.
Have you heard anything from the Governor yet?
Yes, I talked to him,
and the Governor wanted to know if we should call a state of emergency,
and I told him to give us a few more hours to get a handle on this.
Some of the folks have nothing wrong with them, for heaven's sake!
And the CDC doesn't even know if it's contagious.
Look, we've got the National Guard isolating the surrounding communities
as a preventative measure.
If we get people in here with those hazmat suits, all hell's gonna break loose.
Now, listen, right now we have no media on this
except that student running around with the camera.
The FBI shut down her blog, so let's keep it that way.
And Lee, you and your deputies have got to get on top of this.
I lost all contact with my deputies about 30 minutes ago.
What?
I'm not getting any response from my guys.
Well, we shut down all the towers to kill the cell phones,
but it shouldn't affect you guys.
Listen, Lee, why don't you swing by and pick me up right now?
wanna get a first-hand look at what's going on out there.
All right, I'll be by there in about 5 minutes.
You Okay?
I don't think I've ever been so scared in my whole life.
Is the blood off my face?
- What? - ls the blood off my face?
No, you've got a ton on your side.
What the...
- What? - What is that?
What is it?
Holy shit!
- Fuck! - What the fuck?
Oh, my God. Look at his face!
- Oh, my God! - Look at his face.
Oh, my God. Look at me. I was running in a circle.
I mean, if it wasn't...
I mean, if this wasn't a tragedy situation, it would actually be somewhat comedic.
I was just so fucking scared, I never reported another thing after that
until I made this film.
That was actually the last footage we shot.
I'll come and get the rest of this stuff when we figure out where we're going.
Where are you leading us, other than off of this dock?
Alex, where do you think? I have no idea. I can't get a hold of them.
This is quite a greeting, isn't it?
- Come on... - This is pretty nice.
- You know, would you please... It's... - All documented.
This is the quietest 4th of July I have ever seen.
We miss the fireworks? What the hell is going on?
Yeah, what's with that?
Is it really necessary for you to get video of this?
Yes, I am filming the lack of fireworks
so we can show your parents we were here for the non-festivities.
Oh, great. You know, they'll...
When Alex and Stephanie got to Claridge, more than 700 people had died.
...family moment, us being lost...
And here they were, coming in with a baby.
- ...the celebrations for 4th of July. - Would you please...
If you would turn the damn camera off and help me look for them,
that might be a little more useful.
You're doing great. You're doing just...
Yeah, this is fantastic. You know, I love it...
- This is ridiculous! - ...when you make me be the grown-up
and you don't do any of the work.
What the hell is that?
Oh, my God.
Oh, God!
- Alex, Alex... - Holy shit!
- Alex, do not take... - Hello?
- I want to get out of here. - Oh, my God, look at this.
- Would you... - Do not get any closer to her!
- I want to get out of here. - Where are we gonna go?
I don't want to be out here with a dead body and Andrew here.
Jesus!
- Stop! - No, just...
Get away! Don't touch her!
Yes, of course,
a toxic soup of chemicals could produce certain mutations.
What's also concerning is the level of chicken excrement in the bay.
I mean, if the numbers you gave me are correct,
the amount of steroids in that amount of manure
could be accelerating growth by 50, 60 times.
That's both in size and quantity.
This stuff has so much chemical steroid in it,
it will take a little birdy, turn it into a full-grown birdy in 42 days,
what Mother Nature would take 6 months.
They think it's feeding off the nutrients from the chicken run-off.
We've noticed a 5-to-1 female-to-male ratio among these fish here.
We could easily be looking at a new form evolving.
Son of a bitch!
It must be some kind of mutated version.
Isopods shouldn't even be in the brackish water.
Would like to give Buzz a big round of applause
forgetting these misters going.
Are people drinking this water?
Some went in my mouth!
How's it going to get through a filtration system?
What about the larvae?
...the desalinization plant in Claridge...
You're looking at a new form evolve.
- ...steroids... - ...so much chemical steroid in it...
...mutated version...
They found a two-and-a-half-foot one trying to burrow its way into a submarine.
Jane? Jane.
Get me...
Will you get me the White House?
0h. my God!
- Oh, my God! - Careful, please.
Are you kidding me? Holy shit!
- Oh, my God! - What the fuck?
Oh. my God!
Where the hell are we?
Apparently a lot of people came up to Main Street,
and they were just waiting for an EMS or an ambulance or someone to come by.
- Alex, I want to go. - Where do you wanna go?
They were just waiting and hoping.
Look around you. Are we gonna get back on the boat in the middle of the night
- without any gas? - I wanna call the police.
You just told me that there's no cell phone service. You just told me...
Well, can we go someplace where we have service and we can call the police?
- I don't want to be here when... - All right, look, look. This place is open.
- This place is open up here. Let's go in here. - Will you look inside...
Come on. Let's just go in here and regroup.
Come on. Are you okay?
- Yeah. Yeah. - Right.
- Oh, my God! - Oh, shit!
- Here, let's set this stuff down. - Okay.
- How is Andrew? - He's fine, he's sleeping.
Well, this couldn't be creepier.
Can you make sure there are no more dead people here?
Yes, I'll make sure.
Okay.
No, this is good. This is good. Let's stay here.
I'm going to see if I can find a land line. Maybe I can get one to work.
Okay. I'm going to go out and see if I see anyone on the street at all.
Cops, something.
- We'll find them. We'll find them. - We'll find them.
Nothing's happened. We just... We have some deputies off radio.
If I find these guys are playing a joke on me...
Well, they're fired.
I've never had this happen.
- There's got to be a reason. - I'm gonna make the next town meeting,
I can tell you that. We're gonna have to get some...
Come on, Lee. It's the last thing we need right now.
What's that?
Put your seatbelt on.
- Jesus. - You're riding in a police car.
Yeah, I'm worried about my seatbelt.
That's what I'm worried about. Right.
Whose car?
I think that's Jimson's car. Can't be sure...
Wait, is that him in the car?
I don't know whose house this is. I mean, this is...
What the hell is he doing, Lee?
Wait a minute, that's Jim.
- What's wrong... - What's wrong with him?
He looks like he's... Done something.
- Is he drunk? - He's got his gun out.
- Go away! - What's the matter, Jim?
Come here, buddy!
Come here.
Something's wrong with this guy.
Oh, God, he's got...
- Go away! - Jim!
- Go away! - Come on, Jim.
- Just chill out, buddy. - Just go!
Come on.
Come on and get in the back of the car.
Get in the back of the car, Jim. I'll take you to the hospital.
- Please come. - Just go!
We'll take you somewhere.
Come on, bud.
Don't let me lose you, Jim! Come on, now!
We're all gonna die.
- We're all gonna die. - Oh, God.
- We're all gonna die like... - it's okay, buddy,
- I'm coming to get you. - No, Lee. Lee, stay.
- No, no, no. - Let him go, Lee.
No, no, no. We got to get him somewhere.
- You stay here. - For God's sake...
- Jim! - They're eating my flesh.
Jim, buddy, let's get in the car, let's go somewhere. Come on.
- We're all gonna die. - Come on.
- Hey, what's the matter? - We shouldn't have to die like this.
No, you're not going to die. Nobody's going to die.
- Get in the car. I can't... - You don't have to die like this.
I can't touch you, but come on and get in the car.
Jim! Now, wait a minute! No! Deputy, put that gun down! Put...
Bill, just hang on for a second. I'm gonna go and get Alex, okay? Don't go away.
Alex. Alex!
got Bill on the Skype.
- Bill, can you hear me? - Yeah. What's going on?
Okay, we came to Claridge to meet up with my parents, and...
Where are you, in an antique store or something?
There are dead bodies everywhere, Bill, and...
What?
Bill, the entire town is covered in dead fucking bodies.
Oh, yeah. Okay, that's a good one. All right.
- Bill! Please! - What, are you guys serious?
Yeah, we're entirely fucking serious here, Bill.
Look, okay, call the cops, guys.
No, we called the cops, and we can't get through to them.
We can't get through to my parents. Our cell phones aren't working,
we can't get service.
We need for you to do something.
All right, where are you?
- Claridge! - Claridge?
Claridge! Maryland, for God's sake!
Call somebody, anybody, just get us some help here, please!
- Tell me what happened to you. - We don't know what happened!
I mean, what is that on your neck?
What's on my neck?
- Oh, my God. Alex... - What is it?
Holy shit!
My name is Dr. Jack Abrams.
I am a physician at the Atlantic Hospital in Maryland.
I'm making this video in the hope that I will be able to watch it
at some point in the future, and I'm going to show the world what happened here.
Coming out into the hall now.
Locked myself in the ICU for...
The CDC stopped taking my phone calls,
contacted FEMA, help hasn't arrived.
I think I now know what is killing people.
We were looking for some kind of virus, some kind of viral outbreak,
and when we called CDC, they needed to send a fucking army downhere
to put some goddamn minds together to find what! know now,
which is, this is not a virus, this is an organism.
It is an organism that has somehow infiltrated these people's bodies.
The blistering, that's a symptom, it is not...
That is what threw us off.
It is the isopod.
It's eating their organs. It's eating them,
it's eating them from the inside. it is eating their intestines,
it is eating their liver, it goes for kidneys, lungs, tissue.
This is a rapidly growing, accelerating organism.
How it's growing this fast, I have no idea.
I noticed this rash about 45 minutes ago,
and I'm going to continue to...
Take the camera, and I'm going to document everything that I see here.
If you find this tape, just, please, get it out.
Get it out.
- Alex! Jesus! Alex! - Help! Get it off!
Stephanie, would you please talk to me? What's happening?
Talk to me! What's wrong? Alex!
Something crawling! I just... I have...
Alex!
Will you please explain to me what's going on?
Okay...
They're coming. They're coming. They're gonna...
Help is here, okay?
- No... I'm not... - You're okay. I know, you're gonna be
- all right. - It hurts!
I know, darling. I know it hurts.
- But we got to get you outside, okay? - No!
Too much pain! I can't handle it!
- Alex... - Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it!
What's wrong with you? Come on!
Please. Please. It's... Come on.
- Just... - No!
- Alex... - Please. Help me. Finish it!
Oh, God, no.
Please! End it!
Alex died at 1:26 a.m.
The larva he swallowed in the bay
had grown into a full-sized parasite in 8 hours, from the toxic soup.
Hi, this is Steve Slattery over at Homeland Security.
just wanted to get back to you on that message about Chesapeake Bay.
Yeah? And?
Yeah...
Turns out we did hear something a few weeks back
about a couple divers' bodies being found in the water.
Natural Resources Police thought it was a bull shark bite,
and they were getting ready to pull people out of the water
and put up a shark alert,
but the medical examiner determined that it was not a shark or bite at all.
What was it?
They weren't sure, so they sent the reports over to us,
and then we sent them over to the Coast Guard,
and they said it didn't make any sense to them,
so then we sent it to FEMA and they never responded,
so figured we'd send it to you.
Yeah! That's... Good.
What did the report say?
Well, kind of strange stuff.
It said the cause of death was undetermined,
due to a multiplicity of parasites and a variety of infections.
Do you want a copy of this report?
Yeah, you know, funny enough, I would love to see a copy of that report.
Here we are, baby.
So let me get this straight. 2 divers are found with a bunch of holes in them,
and all that we know ls they're mysteriously being eaten
- by parasites and infections. - That's right.
Nobody knows what happened,
and it takes 16 days to get this information to us?
Listen, we set up an incident center without cause,
and we're in deep doo-doo here.
Really? Well, I've got a town full of dead bodies.
A small town. I think we need to keep this whole thing in perspectivehere.
What kind of perspective are you talking about?
- Help me! Help me! Help me! - Get off me! No! No! Get off me!
Listen, it's not that easy to pull the trigger on something like this.
We blow up a non-issue and shut down the entire Chesapeake Bay,
I mean, we're talking about beaches, restaurants, vacation fishing.
- Seatbelt. - The public panics if word gets out
that we're setting up an incident center about a spreading disease,
or for a spreading disease. You don't just shut down the Eastern Seaboard
without approval from a higher authority.
Great, I understand. Thank you very much, Officer Slattery.
That's it?
Okay. Thanks.
Then about 5:30 they came in the hazmat suits, and the National Guard came,
and then they quarantined the town for another 3 days,
and that was when they confiscated every single camera they could find.
You know, there were those who survived,
and for some reason they never became sick.
The town as a whole reached a financial agreement with the government.
I don't know how much money changed hands,
but I do know that silence was part of the agreement.
I tried to reach out to people like Stephanie,
but she didn't want to participate in this film.
Oh, and by the way, the official line from the government
was that the outbreak was due to unseasonably high water temperatures.
This is Donna Thompson, signing off.