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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Ballen Studios

Identifying and Catching the Killer

From Fan Favorite - "Sick Day"Jul 3, 2026

Excerpt from MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories

Fan Favorite - "Sick Day"Jul 3, 2026 — starts at 0:00

Tod's episode is a fan favorite. The audio in the story has been remastered for today's episode On a morning in two thousand two, a man in Indianapolis, Indiana woke up in a cold sweat His hands shook as he tried to block out the images he'd just seen in his sleep. But he knew these horrific images would not just go away on their own They would keep haunting him until he did something about it So he got out of bed, walked to his phone. dialed nine hundred eleven and the operator picked up. He said he needed to speak to a detective because he was having dreams that showed him details of a horrific murder that happened back in nineteen eighty nine. The dreams this man claimed to have would help reopen an unsolved murder case that had shocked Indianapolis thirteen years earlier However, these dreams would not answer the questions police have been wrestling with for years It would take them another decade to finally track down their killer Before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the strange Dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week Once on Monday and once on Thursday So if that's of interest to you Please invite the follow button to come trick or treating at your house However, when they do On give them pennies and dental floss Okay, let's get into today's story. For the military and their families, change is a constant. That's why USAA makes it easy to keep all your coverages in one place. 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Now, normally, she would have supped a bit longer before getting up and getting ready for school, but she just kept on coughing, so she knew she was not going to be able to fall back asleep And she knew she needed to stay home sick today Amy heard a knock on her bedroom door, and her mother, Gloria, walked inside, holding a two year old little girl in her arms Her mother said she'd heard Amy coughing and she wanted to check on her. But Amy barely even heard what her mother was saying Instead, she was smiling at the little girl In a big animated voice, Amy said, Good morning, and the little girl smiled back, reached out her arms and said, Mamy. which was her name for Amy This little two year old girl was Amy's daughter The girl's father was a friend of Amy's who was a couple years older than her but he had never really played a role in the baby's life When Amy's daughter was born, Amy had loved her immediately but she'd also been terrified She had no idea how she was going to raise a child on her own And she thought her life as a normal teenager was basically over. But Amy's mother, Gloria, had done everything in her power to make sure that didn't happen. Gloria had played a huge part in raising this little girl In fact, Amy's daughter often called Gloria Mom And Gloria's help, along with the help from some of Amy's teachers, had allowed Amy to not only stay in high school, but to thrive Amy got good grades. She was a cheerleader. She played clarinet in the high school band And she even tutored other students in French, a language she absolutely loved. She had dreams of going to college someday And most people who knew her just assumed she would grow up to be a really cool French teacher someday Back in the bedroom, Amy told her mother there was just no way she could go to school today with her cough Her mother agreed and told her that she could still take her baby to the babysitter like she usually did during the week But Amy said to Li her at home It'd be nice to spend the day with her little girl Gloria said Okay the little girl on the bed next to Amy And then she walked out to get ready for work As tired and sick as Amy felt, She couldn't stop smiling She loved that her mother had made it possible for her to still just be a teenager most of the time However, she missed her daughter a lot when she was at school. And so a day like today to be alone with her daughter was really special. While Amy sat and talked to her daughter on the bed Her older brother, JP walked in The siblings were only a year apart and they were extremely close. They drove to school together every day and ran in the same circle of friends. And this close knit group of high schoolers spent almost all of their free time together JP told his sister to get well and said he'd see her when he got home from school The house remained loud and full of energy for the next couple of hours, while Amy's mom got ready for work and her brother and two younger sisters got ready for school. But eventually, everybody cleared out and the house became quiet Amy continued to sit in her bed and just play with her daughter in a house with four school aged kids and a baby Silence was very rare So this morning felt extra special However, that feeling quickly disappeared when Amy heard a door open downstairs She figured one of her younger sisters must have just forgotten their backpack or something So Amy cleared her throat and coughed a little then called out to see who would come home A little before noon, a few hours after Amy and the baby had been left alone Amy's mother, Gloria, pulled her car up to the front of the house She hadd called Amy several times from work But she hadn't gotten an answer She worried that since Amy was sick, she might have fallen asleep And she just wanted to make sure Amy and the baby were okay. Gloria got out of her car, rushed up the walkway, unlocked the front door, and walked inside She called out for Amy, but she didn't hear anything thenen as she walked through the front room and reached the bottom of the stairs, she froze. Amy's little girl was sitting on the landing at the top of the stairs all by herself And she was crying and she had blood on her pajamas Gloria instantly ran up the stairs and picked up the baby and held on to her tight. and then she ran through the upstairs hallway and called out for her daughter again but still didn't get any answer Lloria reached Aammy's bedroom and opened the door. over at the bed and immediately began to scream. When you're refreshing your space, choosing a paint color can feel weirdly high stakes. 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Stated cashback for Chime Prime only, no minimum balance required Checking account ranking based on a JD Power sururvey published october twentieth, twenty twenty five. For more information on travel perks, go to chime d. com slash disclosures. That afternoon Not long after Gloria had gotten home Detective Norman Matthews of the Indianapolis Police Department parked in front of Amy's house and stepped outside Police had already taped off the property, and Detective Matthews saw forensics officers scouring the front yard for evidence Matthews also saw a woman standing with several uniformed police officers. The woman was crying But at the same time, she was gently bouncing a little girl in her arms, doing everything she could to make sure the girl wasn't scared or upset Matthews put on gloves, ducked under the crime scene tape, and walked into the house through the front door More forensics officers were busy searching both floors of the house, and one of them pointed Matthews upstairs Matthews walked up the steps, went down the hall, and into Amy's bedroom The camera flashed as a forensic photographer took pictures of the scene in the bedroom Matthews just stood there inside the doorway, staring at the bed There he saw Amy Widener's lifeless body Her face and her red hair were bloody She was naked blood all over the sheets and on the wall above her Matthew stepped closer to the body And he could see cuts and a deep gash on Amy's forehead And there was bruising on her throat, arms and legs The attack on this young woman looked vicious and uncontrolled which was horrific enough in and of itself But when Detective Matthews had gotten the call to come to this house, He'd been informed that this attack had taken place while the victim's two year old daughter was present And that information made this crime scene much, much worse Detective Matthews met with a forensics officer who was working the bedroom The officer told him that amidst the blood on the wall, they had found what looked like a pretty clear palm print The officer said the forensics team would carve out that section of the wall to make sure the print was preserved in its entirety in hopes they could eventually find a match in their databases For reference, in nineteen eighty nine, DNA testing was still very much in its early stages, and so it was not being used as an investigative tool by the Indianapolis Police Department Matthew stepped out of Amy's bedroom, and along with several other police officers, started a full search of the house The front door had apparently been locked when Gloria had come home to check on Amy and the baby And there was no sign of forced entry But Matthews and his team found that the sliding glass door on the back patio was unlocked He also found that Amy's brother's bedroom looked like it had been ransacked. The dresser drawers were open, and it appeared that some pieces of stereo equipment had been pulled out of the wall and stolen. And so on the surface, this murder now looked like it could have been the result of a burglary gone wrong Maybe someone had shown up to rob the place and heard Amy or the baby upstairs, and then just attacked and killed Amy like a target of opportunity But as Matthews and his team combed through the rest of the house, something hit him No other rooms looked like Amy's brother's room. There were no signs of robbery anywhere else If this was a robbery gone wrong, Matthews figured that whoever did it must have been familiar with the house They must have known exactly where that stereo equipment was and had come there specifically to get it Matthews knew he did have a witness that might be able to identify the intruder. Eespecially if the intruder was someone who had been to the house before There was a big problem with this Because that witness was just two years old After Matthews and his team had completed their initial search of the house, he met with Amy's mother, Gloria, outside Gloria was able to confirm that stereo equipment was missing from her son's room She also said JP usually kept about fifty dollars in cash in a dresser drawer That was gone too. Matthews told Gloria that this information was extremely helpful there was something more important that he needed from her He needed her permission for police to question her granddaughter. The idea of putting her granddaughter through any more stress after what that little girl had been through that day made Gloria feel very uneasy But her daughter had just been brutally murdered, and so she needed the killer to be found and brought to justice So she agreed to Matthew's request Gloria and Amy's two year old daughter took a seat on the front porch, along with Detective Matthews and a police officer who specialized in working with young kids And that officer introduced herself to Amy's little girl and then handed her some finger puppets And then she asked the little girl to use these finger puppets to tell everybody what had happened that morning. And then that officer and the others watched and listened as the little girl used the finger puppets to act out a scene She made it look like two of the puppets were fighting for a little while, and then she said later on, Maimie was laying on the bed The little girl had said she'd tried to lift Mami up then said Mimi was just too heavy When Gloria heard her granddaughter say this, she just broke down And Matthews and the other officer tried not to show how much this affected them The fact that this little girl had clearly seen her mother get murdered It's not something they could just shake off Eventually, the officer who specialized in working with young kids, asked the little girl one more question Did she know the person who had come into Mamimie's room all the little girl could remember was that the person was strong. Detective Matthews told the little girl what a great job she done And then he asked Gloria if he could speak to her alone for a minute. Gloria told her granddaughter to stay with the police officer, and she'd be right back Then she followed Matthews off the porch. Matthews told her that the fact her son's room was the only room that had been robbed led him to believe that the killer was very likely another young person who her kids knew And very likely they knew in advance that the stereo equipment and the fifty dollars would be in JP's room. So, Matthews asked Gloria to come up with a list of names of people who were closest to Amy and JP Gloria said that Amy and her brother JP hung out with a small group of friends But she said there was someone outside that group that Matthew should definitely talk to before anybody else. father of Amy's child, a young man named Tony Abercrombie And sureure enough, the day after the murder Detective Matews brought Tony into the station for an interview Tony was eighteen years old tall with long wavy brown hair, and he wore jeans and a t shirt. He looked to Matthews like almost every other teenager in the area. The night before, Matthews had seen Tony giving an impromptu interview about Amy's murder on a local news show. And Matthews didn't know what to think about that The reporter had most likely shown up at Tony's house unannounced, and it could be difficult for a young man like Tony to tell a reporter to leave him alone There was also the possibility that Tony craved the attention. There were plenty of homicide cases throughout history where the killer went out of their way to get their name in the news However, Matthews was not ready to jump to any conclusions like that And now, looking at Tony across the table, he could tell this kid seemed very upset and maybe even a bit scared Matthews told Tony he was not in any kind of trouble police just needed to know some things about his relationship with Amy Tony nodded and told Matthews he'd been good friends with Amy's brother JP. That's how he had met Amy He said they'd gone out a few times and then ended up sleeping together and Amy got pregnant Tony admitted that the idea of becoming a father at his age scared him and he was not looking forward to the birth of the baby However, when the baby was born, Amy and Gloria had basically raised her without him. So Tony said he hadn't talked much to Amy since then or had anything to do with his child. told Matthews he'd gotten a phone call from Amy's friend that Amy had been killed on the morning it happened Tony said he'd felt completely torn up when she had told him, and in fact, he had to leave work because he was so upset Tony said he might not have seen Amy very much lately, but he still cared about her And on top of that, she was one of the sweetest people he'd ever met. It didn't make sense that somebody would want to hurt her Shortly after that, Matthews got Tony's work details and then told him police would follow up if they needed more information And then he let him go Matthews needed to see if Tony really had been at work on the morning Amy had been killed based on this one interview he had just done Tony did not seem like the type of person who had done that TV interview to draw attention to himself Instead, he just seemed like a kid who was very upset that a girl he'd been with and fathered a child with was's now gone In the days immediately following the murder The investigative team started to look into a range of Amy's friends and classmates, believing the person who broke in and killed her was most likely someone Amy knew Based on what he'd seen at Amy's house, Detective Matthews had also developed a new theory Maybe there hadn't been a break in at all Maybe Amy's brother JP had killed her and then ransacked his own room to try to throw off the police And so, Detective Matthews met with JP multiple times In every meeting, JP made it very clear how angry and upset he was that police would even think he could do something like this to his sister. He said he loved Amy, maybe more than anybody else in the whole world They had been so close ever since they were little kids But despite these multiple interviews and Detective Matthews' continued interest in JP, the detective did not find anything linking him directly to the crime His fingerprints were all over the house, including inside of Amy's room That was expected He lived there So it really didn't mean anything. And there was nothing JP did in the aftermath of the murder that added more suspicion to him In fact, JP just seemed devastated by the loss of his sister And then on november seventeenth, so four days after Amy's murder, when Amy's friends and family all gathered together for her funeral JP shared countless stories about some of the best times he'd spent with his sister He said, because they were so close in age, it was like they weren't just siblings. They were more like really good friends At the funeral, JP, along with JP and Amy's mutual friend Rodney, and some of Amy's girlfriends, did their best to try to console Amy's younger siblings and her mother Gloria. But it felt like an impossible task because none of them could accept that this had really happened. Following the funeral Detective Matthews and his team collected the guest book and made a note of everybody at the service who'd signed the book Many of the guests have been Amy's classmates and her teachers And so Matthews and his team first met with some of the high school students on the list that they had not already spoken to But none of these interviews really led anywhere All of them just sort of ended with the students talking about how much they were going to miss their friends And at the same time, Matthews still didn't have any real concrete evidence, like any information on the bloody palm print that had been found in Amy's room So one afternoon, in the week following the murder Matthews walked down a long hallway lined with lockers at Amy's highchool Sool was already out So there were only a handful of students who were still there Matthews turned down a different hallway with classroom doors on either side and found the French classroom He walked in and saw Amy's French teacher, Jodody George, waiting for him Matthews had heard from several people that Jodie was Amy's favorite teacher And so he told Jodie this, and this immediately made Jodody break down into tears. She told the detective that Amy had always been a great student The real reason that she and Amy had connected is actually because they both had been raising babies at the same time Jodie's child was born not too long after Amy's daughter had been born, and so, Amy and the teacher shared parenting tips with each other and bonded over being new mothers Matthew's hope was that in meeting with Jodie, that perhaps she could point him towards other students who were maybe Amy's friends, but who didn't attend the funeral. Detective Matthews ended up getting a list of students that Amy had tutored in French And he asked Jodie if any of these kids might have had a problem with Amy Jodie said no, notot that she knew of. And then over the next several days, as Matthews went down this new list of students, it didn't really go anywhere Because once again, all these students could say was just that they really liked Amy. and they couldn't believe she was gone There's a lot of ways to feel alive. 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Once again, that's eight hundred five eight three six four two nine. tax relief advocates, real solutions for real people By the end of November, about two weeks after the murder Matthews felt like he had spoken to every high school kid in town. and he still wasn't any closer to finding Amy's killer Tony Abercrombie, the father of Amy's daughter looked like he had a solid alibi, as did her brother JP, who was seen in class by multiple people at the time his sister was killed And when Matthews finally got the results on that bloody palm print that had been on the wall in Amy's room didn't match Tony or JP's prrintince. It also did not match any of Amy's friends that police had interviewed. or any prints in any criminal database. So Matthews felt like he basically had nothing And now he wondered if he'd just been plain wrong the whole time. Maybe Amy didn't know her killer And it was just some random stranger that had broken into the house and killed her. And if that was the case, it meant the suspect pool could basically include almost anyone Matthews and his team continued to follow any potential leads, and they returned to the crime scene to see if there was anything they might have missed. But as nineteen ninety began and several more months passed It became clear the police had no real suspects. Amy's family still got together with Amy's friends and that French teacher Jodie to share stories and keep Amy's memory alive But most of them came to believe that her murder would never be solved And as even more time went by with no new leads, some members of the investigative team started to feel the same way And eventually, Detective Matthews and the rest of the investigative team had to focus on new cases And so Amy's murder case went cold. And it would stay that way for a long, long time Fast forward to two thousand two. So thirteen years after Amy's murder. Detective Roger Spurgeon, the lead cold case detective at the Indianapolis Police Department, Howt to call it his desk And when he answered, he heard a man's voice And this man sounded totally afraid The man told the detective that the previous night he had had these horrible dreams Dreams about the murder of Amy Wider takaking place back in nineteen eighty nine The man said he worked at the school where Amy had gone, so he had known her, but not very well But now he was having these visceral dreams about her death And so he felt like he just needed to pass on what he was seeing in these dreams becausecause he believed maybe you could help police solve the murder which in turn, could make these terrible dreams go away Detective Spurgeon just sat at his desk, stunned by what he was hearing Getting bizarre phone calls about old homicide cases was not totally unheard of Usually they didn't lead to anything This man sounded genuinely upset. And so operating on a hunch, Spurgeon took down notes on these dreams the caller was having And after the call was over, Spurgeon pulled Amy's case file Caller's supposed dreams did give a lot of details about Amy's murder But for the most part, these details had all been covered in the press at the time of Amy's death or in the years following Spurgeon figured this callar was not the most dependable source. But he couldn't just let this go After all This man could have details about the murder, not because he was dreaming it, but because he was involved And so the detective dug into this man's background and he discovered that he did in fact work at Amy's Highchool like he had said So Spurgeon went to the school and met with several teachers and administrators who knew the caller. And many of them had actually worked at the school when Amy was killed as well Now during these initial few conversations, nothing really stood out to Spurgeon But then the school's guidance counselor told Spurgeon something that was really strange. They told him that they knew who the man was who claimed to have these dreams about Amy, and they said this man could not have killed her because on the morning of Amy's murder That man, the caller, had been working at the school And the guidance counselor said on the day of the murder, this person, this man, Kind of out of nowhere had this violent episode where he just started screaming and kicking things In fact, his episode had gotten so bad that eventually the counselor had to help the man out of the school and drive him home. This was definitely a new one for Detective Spurgeon He'd gotten some strange calls before, but this man's dreams and now his episode on The Morning of the Murder were something else. Spurgeon followed up with the man who had called him about his dreams And he even reinttervutes several people who'd been connected to the initial murder case just like during the initial investigation, nothing came out of these interviews After several months of looking into the case again The detective had nothing new And so Amy's killer remained unknown and free And soon her case went cold again And it would stay that way for almost another decade On a morning in twenty eleven, so twenty two years after Amy's murder Sergeant Bill Carter, a nuisance and abatement officer with the Indianapolis pololice, sat in his small office scrolling through Facebook. A nuisance an abatement officer is a cop who works directly with the fire inspector. T check on venues like restaurants and clubs that might be breaking fire code And so Sergeant Carter spent a lot of his time looking at Facebook. to see if any events or big parties were being talked about that would potentially violate fire code laws Just then, Carter heard a knock on his door He said to come on in to see a homicide detective standing there This was definitely weird because Carter had very little interaction with the homicide department. The homicide detective said he was heading up cold cases now, and recently, he'd found a Facebook page dedicated to the victim of one of the coldest cases they had The Amy Wider Murder from nineteen eighty nine Carter said he knew about the case. It had been in the news off and on over the years since it happened. And he'd also grown up in the same part of town as Amy But none of this explained why a homicide detective would be coming to see him about this case The homicide detective said he wanted to print off everything from this Facebook page dedicated to Amy to add it to the case files, and to cross check some of the people on the page with people mentioned in the original investigation The problem was that he and the other homicide detectives didn't know how to print things off of Facebook. So he was hoping Carter could help them. Carter stifled a laugh and said he'd take care of it The homicide detective walked off, and then Carter quickly found the Facebook page called Remembering Amy Widener Even though Carter was familiar with the case, seeing photos of Amy as a happy teenager really hit him And as he read through the comments on the page, he saw how many people were still deeply affected by this murder. It just seems so wrong that our friends and family had gone this long without any kind of closure And so Carter printed out everything from the Facebook page for the homicide detective, but before he did, he sort of read through it all And as he did, he started to feel like he really needed to do something to help Over the next several weeks in his free time Sergeant Carter started to look through the old case files for Amy's murder Normally, homicide detectives would not have wanted an officer from another department anywhere near their files, especially an officer who only dealt with fire codes Amy's case had remained unsolved for so long they figured whatever Carter was doing couldn't hurt Sergeant Carter regularly checked the Facebook page dedicated to Amy He made notes in the pages he'd printed and tried to see if he could connect anything to something in the original case files He even reached out to several of Amy's friends and family members who'd been interviewed in the past to see if they had any new information to offer For months, Carter's efforts weren't much different from the detectives who'd worked the case in the past No new leads, no new evidence Her stuck with it continuing to work Amy's case whenever he had the time And on a day in June of twenty twelve, now closing in on twenty three years after Amy's murder Sergeant Carter caught something in the case files that seemed to have gone overlooked for decades At first, Carter thought he had to be wrong Maybe he'd been spending so much time with the case looking at countless pieces of paper and file folders that he'd just gotten confused or he was delirious or something But when he looked at what he'd found in the case file again and checked it with the Facebook page and the notes he'd taken from the interviews he'd conducted He was sure he had found something huge. somethingomet that apparently no other investigator had noticed Sergeant Carter looked through the files one more time. Found a phone number grabbed the cell phone and made a call And he told the person who answered that he needed to speak to them as soon as possible. about Amy's murder. On june twenty seventh, Carter headed over to this person's house to meet them But when he got there, the person was gone and nobody seemed to know where they went Soon, Carter found this person had emptied all their bank accounts, quit their job, and just disappeared without a word to anybody. Sergeant Carter couldn't believe it. For the first time in over twenty years, Indianapolis police thought they might be getting closer to solving Amy's murder But now the person they needed to talk to had fled. And for all Carter knew, this fugitive could be halfway around the world already A little over a week later in early July Carter was at the station with other officers from several departments A team of Indianapolis police had been working with different agencies to try to track down the fugitive that they believed might be connected to Amy's murder And now they were waiting to hear something, anything. that might help with their investigation And luckily for Carter, it didn't take long for him to get what he wanted And that day, a very excited officer approached Carter and the others And he said, using credit card data, investigators had discovered that the fugitive had rented a car in town and using that rented car's on star security service, they now knew exactly where that car was parked Carter asked where it was half expecting it to be on the other side of the country or somewhere across the border The officer said that was not the case at all. The rental car was at a house right here in Indianapolis. Minutes later, police cruisers roared down a residential street and pulled up to a house Carter and the other officers got out of their cars and quickly approached the front door there in the driveway was the fuitive's rental car As Carter prepared to knock on the door, several other officers around them put their hands on their holsters, ready to draw their weapons They didn't know if the fugitive was even inside, but they had to be prepared for anything Once they were ready, Carter knocked on the door Moments later, a man answered Carter told the man who they were looking for And as soon as he did, suddenly there was a scream coming from inside the house Carter and several other officers bolted inside and they found the fugitive standing there in the kitchen And there was blood running down from the slash on their wrist, and they were holding a knife to their own throat, threatening to kill themselves if the cops came any closer. Carter and the other officers took a breath and tried to keep everybody calm. Several officers talked to the fugitive, urging them to put the knife down and to get medical help. And slowly, the tension in the room eased a bit, and the fugitive did drop the knife At that point, officers rushed the fugitive, trying to stop the bleeding from their wrist, while making sure the fugitive couldn't hurt themselves or any of the officers, or try to make a run for it An ambulance soon arrived and paramedics sped the fugitive to the hospital, with police following closely behind And luckily, the fugitive got medical help just in time. And later that day, after Carter and other investigators got to meet with the fugitive in the hospital They finally figured out after more than twenty years who had killed Amy Weidner Based on information from the fugitive statements, evidence found at the murder scene, and interviews conducted over the course of multiple investigations The following is what police believe happened to Amy Widner on the morning of november thirteenth, nineteen eighty nine. On that day, just after seven thirty AM. The killer walked through the first floor of Amy's house They moved slowly, and in their hand they gripped a metal pipe. The killer stopped at the bottom of the stairs and listened. They thought they heard someone coughing and maybe some laughter coming from the second floor. The killer walked up the stairs as slowly and quietly as they could and then crept down a hallway towards Amy's bedroom where they heard the noises Once they reached the door, they threw it open and they saw Amy sitting up in bed with her little girl Amy screamed and put her baby down on the floor. Then she climbed out of bed and leap at the killer. Amy threw her fist at the killer and fought back as hard as she could as the little girl ran out of the bedroom The killer wrapped their arms around Amy and shoved her back onto the bed Amy kept fighting, but the killer raised the metal pipe and struck Amy on the arms and chest, stunning her And the killer took off Amy's clothes and sexually assaulted her. But through it all, Amy continued to fight back constantly slashing at the killer until the killer was bloodied

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