Find_Me.jpg

In 2003 a photograph depicting a lost child began circulating on the internet. There was no detail on the child other than what was seen in the actual photo and could be found under the search parameters ‘find_me.jpg’.

The photo showed a smiling young girl about eight or nine years old. The girl is seen standing alone in front of a swing set, wearing a purple dress with a white flower in her hair. Her name or where she was seen last were never mentioned.

Circulating the internet through e-mails and pop-ups the girl was seen by millions but never found. One year to the day after the photo initially began its circulation the image returned to the internet. Text on the photo stated ‘Find Me’, but now the photo had changed.

The swing set was battered, the paint rusting and chipping away and the swing hanging by a single chain. The girl appeared older and her smile had faded into a look of indifference and the white flower in hair began to wilt.

The image reappeared the following year, to the date, with further alterations. The swing set was now broken in half, the chains and seat on the ground. The girl was again older and now crying, her flower now dead and her dress dirty and torn. ‘Find Me’ was written in red text across the bottom of the photo.

The third year the photo returned, the swing set was gone and a strange man was standing in the distance watching her. The girl was older, her sadness turned to anger and her dress was tattered rags. ‘Find Me’ was written in larger text on the photo.

The fourth year showed the same girl, now a teenager with the strange man standing directly behind her, a camera in his hand. The girl had been beaten severely, her face bloodied and battered. She is now glaring with hollow eyes, her dress nothing more than bits of torn fabric. The text below then read, ‘Please Find Me’.

The fifth year the photo returned but now the girl was dead. Her body posed upright with a white flower tucked in her hands. The text on the photo read, ‘Why Didn’t You Find Me?’

The sixth year the photo circulated again. There was no one in the photo, it showed only the strange field where the broken swing set had once sat. The text below read simply, ‘I Found You’.

Shortly thereafter strange deaths began occurring. Each death revolved around a theme. The victims were always men and each man had opened the file featuring the photo. The men were all found in the field with a white flower tucked in their hands. ‘I Found You’ was written across their faces in their own blood, after they had been beaten to death.