THE INTERROGATION
(FRAGMENT 5)
December 31, 2016, 8:42 p.m.
Case #: 124.678.21–001
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF POLICE INTERVIEW
—START PAGE 6—
| INVESTIGATOR: | Mr. Thorn, are you familiar with the term “catfish”? |
| THORN: | Oh, come on. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | It’s a yes-or-no question. |
| THORN: | Yes. I’m obviously familiar with the term. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Would you care to define it for us, for the record? |
| THORN: | No. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | No? |
| THORN: | It was a yes-or-no question, right? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s cute, Eric. What do you think, Terry? You think he’s getting cute with us? |
| THORN: | I’m not… I wasn’t trying to be cute. I’m just not in the mood for stupid questions. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | You know, Terry and I could do this all night. So if you just want to sit around and insult our intelligence— |
| THORN: | No, no, no. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just a little thrown right now. There are other things I would prefer to be doing. I’m sure you understand. So could we please just cut to the chase? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And what other things would you prefer to be doing, Eric? |
| THORN: | Well, I’d like to speak to Tessa, for one thing. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | You care about her. |
| THORN: | Of course. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And she cares about you? |
| THORN: | Yes. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s sweet. Isn’t that sweet, Terry? Really heartwarming. You ever write a song about her, Eric? |
| THORN: | What does that have to do with anything? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Oh, I’m just curious. I’ve got a niece. She’s about fifteen years old. Huge fan of yours. |
| THORN: | I’d be happy to sign an autograph for her. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Now that’s not necessary. Just answer the question, if you don’t mind. |
| THORN: | What was the question? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Did you ever write a song about Tessa Hart? |
| THORN: | Really? I have to answer that? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | You just put out a new single, right? What was that one called? |
| THORN: | “Snowflake.” |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s it. “Snowflake.” Pretty song. Did you write that song about Tessa? |
| THORN: | I really don’t talk about the meanings behind my song lyrics. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Don’t you? I got the sense that you and Tessa talked quite a bit about the meanings behind your song lyrics. |
| THORN: | That’s different. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | How so? |
| THORN: | I talked to her about things that I can’t tell other people. Personal things. She’s the only person I could talk to about a lot of stuff. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Because those conversations took place within the context of a private correspondence. A private relationship, you might say? |
| THORN: | Right. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And there was one other way it was different too. Wasn’t there? |
| THORN: | What do you mean? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | I mean, she didn’t know it was you, right? She thought she was talking about your song lyrics with somebody named Taylor. |
| THORN: | Right. Exactly. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | “To lure someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona.” |
| THORN: | Sorry, what? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That was a quote, actually. Let the record show that my previous statement was a quote from the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition. That was the second definition of the verb “catfish.” Did you know they put it in the dictionary? |
| THORN: | It wasn’t like that. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | OK, Eric. You want to cut to the chase? Let’s cut to the chase. Did you, or have you ever, lured someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona? |
| THORN: | That’s a crappy definition. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | The Oxford English Dictionary? |
| THORN: | It wasn’t catfishing. It wasn’t like on the MTV show. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s the defense you want to go with? It wasn’t like on the MTV show? |
| THORN: | Come on. You know what I mean. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | I’ll admit, I’m not totally up-to-date with MTV’s programming. |
| THORN: | Well, maybe you should ask your niece. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Maybe. But then again, my niece isn’t involved in a criminal investigation into false impersonation, fraud, unlawful surveillance, and stalking. |
| THORN: | Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa— |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So why don’t you just go ahead and spell it out for us, Eric? How would you define catfishing? |
| THORN: | I didn’t do anything illegal. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | But you did, in fact, lure Tessa Hart into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona, correct? |
| THORN: | You have to understand the position I was in. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | What position was that? |
| THORN: | She was my fan. She practically worshipped me. Catfishing is when you set up a fake profile to make yourself into someone more attractive. That’s the opposite of what I did. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So you set up a fake profile to make yourself less attractive? |
| THORN: | No. It wasn’t about being attractive. It was about being anonymous. It was the only way I could be myself. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | By pretending to be someone else? By willfully misleading someone about your true identity? |
| THORN: | Look, I’m not the villain here. I know how it must seem, but you have to understand that I started talking to Tessa in…What? August? It didn’t change all at once. It snuck up on me…on both of us. I didn’t even realize where it was heading until about a month ago. Almost Christmastime. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And what exactly changed for you a month ago? |
| THORN: | I never meant for it to go the way it did. I swear. I just wanted to talk to someone. I didn’t mean to fall in love. |