The events taking place in the Proston
Conspiracy are not based on actual events.
Did you ever wonder why things happened? The people of Proston, Iowa
did. Small town, fairly isolated from everything else. But when strange
things happen, people get curious. And when people get curious, they
investigate. They crave knowledge.
Proston was always a calm area where every day was the same until a harsh
winter evening when little Harriet Thomas didn't come home from school.
At her home, her parents waited in their living room and stared out the
bay window into the rapidly falling snow. But she never came. The police
were notified after all of her possible destinations had been moved out
of the picture. It was a night of great sorrow, hoping that she would
show up the next day. But she didn't.
The morning frightened her parents more than anything had ever scared
them before. Harriet's small snow boot was found on her front porch. It
appeared to come from no real destination, it was just there. Everyone
knew that it hadn't been there before that morning. How the boot had
gotten there was a mystery in itself.
What was more of a shock to them existed in the next morning, when the
other boot was found on their doorstep. The police got deeply involved
and it was turned quickly into the biggest investigation the town's law
enforcement had ever encountered.
Tracing the events since the last appearance of Harriet, they discovered
that a friend of hers from school had walked her home that day. Her name
was Dawn, a small, dark-skinned girl. Dawn was just as confused as
everyone else. She told the police and Harriet's parents that she walked
home with Harriet all the way to her door, waved goodbye, and she went
into the house.
But everyone knew that it wasn't the truth. Harriet didn't come home and
everyone was curious about Dawn's lie to everyone. The truth was
desperately trying to get sucked out of her, but she wouldn't comply.
Everyone thought that it would be easy to manipulate a seven year-old
girl into telling the truth. Because it failed, the only assumption can
be that Dawn was telling the truth.
She was an honest girl as it is, and no seven year-old has any reason to
lie about the disappearance of her friend. But it couldn't possibly be
the truth. Harriet didn't come home.
Dawn was asked about the boots that they found on the doorstep that
morning and the day before. She knew nothing about them and why they came
like a package in the mail. The night of mindless interrogation brought
the police even more trouble and even more complicated of a situation.
Dawn was free to go home, and she did But she didn't make it all the way.
Dawn left the police station at 10:22 PM and everyone saw her climb into
the back seat of her parents' car and drive away. As the story goes, her
mother went to let her out of the car and she wasn't there. Dawn had
disappeared from the back of the car. She never left, and her parents
both knew that. Had the door opened, they would've heard it, and
definitely would've seen their daughter exit the car no matter which
method she used to do so.
The next morning, Dawn's parents found a small boot on their front
doorstep, lying motionless in the snow. And yes, it did belong to their
daughter. Nearly in complete synchronization, Harriet's parents had also
found something on their doorstep. It wasn't a boot, because she never
had three feet. It was her long pink scarf that her grandmother had given
to Harriet for Christmas the year before.
More clouds blanketed the skies in Proston and the snow became even
worse, making the investigation more difficult. Now everyone in the town
knew about the disappearance of the children. Harriet's mother couldn't
sleep, but she had the courage to sit at the living room window and look
stare at the porch. She stared at the porch all night. Not one article of
clothing came to her doorstep as the snow piled on the ground.
Everyone involved woke up just after sunrise and Harriet's parents both
piled on the winter clothing to go to the police station. The snow was
blowing hard as they stepped out of their doorway.
The car wouldn't start, so Harriet's mother ran crying. She was literally
screaming in fear as she ran to the station, holding Harriet's left
mitten in her hand which had been buried in the snow on the doorstep.
She gave the police her incredibly honest explanation of what happened.
How she stayed awake all night and no mitten was on her doorstep, yet the
snow covered it only enough for her to feel it when she stepped on it.
But she couldn't see it. Harriet's mother was not lying. That much was
clear. Something was wrong.
A deeper investigation went into the night of Dawn's disappearance. There
wasn't much to say. She had merely disappeared from the back of the car.
They searched for any possible explanation as to how it could've
happened. They didn't find any. What had happened to Dawn was impossible.
For the first time, the police were the witnesses. They had all waved
goodbye as Dawn left the station in her parent's car. That was all they
saw, and that was their best link to the girl's disappearance.
Dawn, herself, had been their best link to Harriet's disappearance. It
made many people wonder if the police would all mysteriously disappear.
They didn't.
Whatever was happening, it was not a practical joke by a psychopath. The
isolated town had never been exposed to much crime at all. Maybe eleven
year-old, Danny White had stolen from the general store a couple of
times, but never kidnapping.
Every morning, both Harriet and Dawn's parents found more and more pieces
of winter clothing on their doorstep and they couldn't prevent. They
tried an alarm system and a motion sensor light and every other indicator
available in the town. But they still came without a trace as if they had
been on the doorstep forever.
One week down the road, after the jacket and after the winter hat, a
stranger thing had showed up on the doorstep. On Dawn's doorstep,
Harriet's other mitten was placed. On Harriet's doorstep, was Dawn's
other mitten. Before even touching them, they talked to each other over
the phone, not knowing what to do.
They considered consulting the police about it, but they hadn't been able
to help them at all in a week and a half of investigation. Standing over
Dawn's mitten at Harriet's house, they both looked down at it, scared at
what might be happening. If this was a mere error, the person who took
their children was capable of incompetence and obviously not a
professional.
But what if it wasn't an error? What if this was done on purpose? The two
parents talked in Harriet's living room about the mittens and had decided
on something. Dawn's mother followed Harriet's out on to the doorstep and
she bent over to pick it up. She grabbed it by the thumb end and
something fell out as she picked it up.
Both of them screamed as the severed hand of Dawn fell into the snow.
Both of the children's parents were placed under counseling of Proston's
psychiatrist when it was found that Dawn's hand was not in the mitten, or
anywhere else. The doctors and police assumed that it was a stress
hallucination. However, they still found it strange that both of them
experienced the same thing.
Harriet's mother left her house for quite some time and stayed in the
bizarre motel that lay just on the outskirts of the town. Dawn's mother
was always afraid when she returned home from her counseling and expected
to find more of her daughter's body on the doorstep. But she didn't.
The articles of winter clothing kept appearing and both of the parents
met up with each other to find out what to do when they ran out. And they
did. The amount of winter clothing that each of their daughters had been
wearing was no longer. All of their clothes had been dropped off at the
doorstep, and nothing was left to come next.
Dawn's mother feared more severed limbs would show up but the morning
after the clothing ran out, it was much different a situation. Harriet's
mother had opened the door to find her daughter standing on the step, in
full winter dress.
As the story goes, the same thing happened to Dawn's mother. Dawn had
showed up on the doorstep that same morning, in full winter dress. Or at
least that's the story that the townspeople heard and the story that the
police heard. That's how the story goes.
And as the story goes, Harriet and Dawn's family moved out of Proston.
They left to live in a warmer, safer place. Or so the story says.
Both of the families received monetary compensation from around the
nation when their story was released to the media world. Coming up with a
great sum of money, they were able to afford to leave Proston and move to
Florida. As the story goes, they never returned to Proston.
But what the story doesn't speak of, is why everything happened the way
it did. What caused the Proston Conspiracy. It could not have been a
kidnapper who felt sorry for the families and returned their daughters.
Which also doesn't explain why they came fully clothed in their winter
apparel.
Dawn and Harriet's families were known to be generous people and no one
had anything against them. But as the true story goes, they had something
against everyone else. Everyone in the town and even the town
itself.
Proston disgusted them. They didn't like where they lived or why they
lived there. They put on their happy mask and appeared friendly from the
false personalities. That was not the case. They were there for a reason.
A shameful reason.
As the story goes, the families both moved to Proston because of their
friendly people and liking to small towns. But the truth holds a
different story.
Dawn's mother, Gertrude Thomas, had been a good friend of Harriet's
mother, Wilhelmina Ferow, since before graduation and long before their
daughters were even a thought. Both of them came out of the University of
Nebraska with high grades and transformed them into prestigious jobs.
It was a late evening in the summer during one of their long weekends
that they had off of working. That night they were completely changed
people, and therefore caused a completely different life.
Driving home from a movie theatre that they had been to that evening, the
front of Gertrude's car came in the path of a pedestrian on an empty road
in the far reaches of the city. Scrambling out of the car, Gertrude raced
to check the man's pulse, but first discovered who the man was.
The President of the United States wasn't doing any harm to others by
visiting Nebraska, but he didn't know that he wouldn't have a pulse
because of the careless actions of the State residents. With the blow
from the car, they had just killed the most important man in the
world.
Unsure of what to do, they both fled in that same car. They just kept
driving North until they found an isolated place. They left everything
they had in their perfect lives and found the town of Proston. Nebraska
had a conspiracy of it's own with the disappearing women.
The disappearance in Nebraska was quickly no longer an issue after a year
or so. Harriet and Dawn's mothers had settled down in Proston and
remained that way for ten years. They each had their own children but
still lived with the guilt of having committed manslaughter to the
President.
For year they had planned to use the town's calmness to make their
escape. As much as they hated living there, it was the only place where
no one would come looking for them. They finally had constructed a way to
get out of the town. That way was to create a false town conspiracy.
So why did Harriet disappear?
Why did Dawn disappear?
Why did the piles of clothing appear day by day on their doorstep?
Why did the articles of winter clothing change from Harriet's on
Harriet's doorstep, to Dawn's on Harriet's doorstep?
Why did they show up again, fully clothed in the winter apparel they had
disappeared in?
The answer to the Proston Conspiracy is really quite simple, indeed. The
answer is: They didn't.
The events taking place in the Proston Conspiracy are not based on
actual events, or so the story says.
