Flex
Trust is the oldest security flaw.
Flex was originally published in Dog Water Magazine Issue (November 2025)
1: A RISING STAR IN CYBER RISK
Source: Cincinnati Business Pulse (print edition excerpt)
Byline: Marcie Teller, Staff Contributor
Date: April 3
Section: Leadership & Innovation
At 38, Dalton-Strauss VP Joshua Hutchinson Is Building the Cybersecurity Infrastructure the Tri-State Didn’t Know It Needed
When I meet Joshua Hutchinson at the Dalton-Strauss offices in Norwood, he’s already five minutes early and standing in the lobby with a visitor badge clipped to a shirt that looks like it was ironed that morning. Pressed cuffs, polite handshake, the kind of eye contact that makes you feel like you should have prepared better questions.
“Thanks for coming out,” he says. “I know we’re not downtown.”
It’s the kind of self-effacing opener you’d expect from someone who doesn’t need to sell himself. Hutchinson was promoted six months ago to Vice President of Cyber Risk and Digital Integrity, a title that didn’t exist at Dalton-Strauss until he built the department from scratch.
In the past three years, his team has overseen digital infrastructure rollouts for over 40 healthcare providers, six regional banks, and at least one tech client the firm won’t name. They handle the stuff most people don’t think about until it breaks: badge systems, surveillance architecture, patient portals, encrypted internal comms.
“Most clients come to us after something’s already gone wrong,” says Nora Devitt, CEO of Dalton-Strauss. “Joshua’s whole pitch is that you shouldn’t wait for the breach. You should know where your weak points are before someone else does.”
Devitt has a reputation for hiring people who don’t fit the mold, and Hutchinson might be the best example. No hoodie. No coding bootcamp origin story. No energy drinks. He’s the kind of guy who looks like he works in finance until you ask him a technical question and realize he’s three steps ahead of you.
“Security’s not about being the loudest person in the room,” Hutchinson says. “It’s about noticing what’s missing before anyone else does.”
Building the Boring Stuff
Hutchinson’s job isn’t flashy. No headlines, no hacks, no ransomware drama. His team’s success is measured in things that don’t happen: no breaches, no downtime, no data leaks.
“He’s really good at explaining risk to people who don’t want to hear about risk,” says Rick Tolland, a systems tech who worked under Hutchinson for two years. “He’ll walk a hospital admin through a scenario where someone clones a badge or spoofs a login, and by the end of it, they’re asking him what else they’re missing.”
There’s a running joke at Dalton-Strauss that if Hutchinson hasn’t responded to your Slack message in 90 seconds, you should check if the servers are down. He’s always online. Always first to reply.
“He’ll drop a dad joke in the group chat at like 6 a.m.,” Tolland says. “Sometimes they’re awful. But he’s consistent.”
I ask Hutchinson if that’s true.
“Guilty,” he says, smiling. “I think it started as a way to remind people I’m a human, not just the guy who locks down their email.”
When I ask for an example, he pauses for a second, then delivers: “Why don’t hackers ever play hide and seek? Because good luck hiding when you leave logs everywhere.”
I laugh. He doesn’t.
“That one usually does better in Slack,” he says.
Outside the Office
Hutchinson’s LinkedIn reads like someone who never stops working, but his colleagues say he’s surprisingly low-key outside the office. He’s on the board of two local nonprofits, including one that refurbishes old laptops for schools that can’t afford new hardware.
“He’s the kind of person who just shows up,” says Devitt. “No big announcement, no asking for credit. He sees a problem, he fixes it.”
When I ask Hutchinson what keeps him motivated, he doesn’t give me the usual line about passion or purpose.
“Patterns,” he says. “You learn to see what doesn’t fit. What’s there that shouldn’t be. What’s missing that should be there.”
He says it casually, like he’s talking about a hobby.
“Most people don’t think about security until it’s too late,” he continues. “By the time you notice something’s wrong, the damage is done. My job is to notice first.”
Before I leave, I ask him what’s next. More clients? Bigger projects?
“Honestly?” He leans back in his chair. “I think we’re just getting started. There’s a lot of infrastructure out there that people assume is safe because it’s always worked. But systems age. People get lazy. Gaps show up.”
He pauses, then adds: “Someone’s always watching for the gaps.”
I ask if that’s a warning or a sales pitch.
He smiles.
“Both.”
2: INTERNAL CORRECTIONS
Document Type: HR Incident Memo
Employee Report
Submitted by: Griggs, Marlene (Employee ID #44802)
Department: Systems Audit
Date Filed: February 21
Status: No Action Taken
SUBJECT: Informal Concern Regarding Team Interaction (Hutchinson, J.C.)
SUMMARY:
I’m not filing a formal complaint. This is just a record. For future context, if needed.
Two weeks ago during a team review of server access protocols, we were discussing biometric redundancy and time-delay triggers. I mentioned the update to the badge swipe archive—just casual, during a lunch break—and Joshua said something that stuck with me.
He said:
“If you want to erase biometric evidence, it’s not the lens. It’s the cable. People forget the cable.”
Then he smiled. Not a joke-smile. Just… calm.
No one else seemed to react. I think Rick chuckled, but not because it was funny. More like he didn’t know what else to do.
I didn’t say anything at the time. I figured maybe it was just how he talks. He’s always making weird comments—offhand trivia, odd metaphors. And he’s good at his job. No one’s ever questioned that.
But I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
This isn’t a formal report. I’m not accusing him of anything. I just wanted it on file. In case something comes up later and someone wishes they had written this down.
– Griggs
3: CASE FILE #01982
Document Type: Incident Report (Partial)
Filed by: Cincinnati Metro Police Department
Division: Violent Crimes, Homicide Unit
Status: OPEN
Date: June 5
Case #: 01982
Victim: Connors, Angela M. (Age 44)
Location: Tower Ridge Condominiums, Unit 7B
Reporting Officers: Galindo, P. / Winslow, R.
Lead Detective: Wilkes, M.
Incident Summary:
At 20:14 hours, CMPD dispatch received a wellness check request for Angela Connors (DOB 11/03) from her employer, St. Rita’s Medical Center. Victim failed to report for scheduled overnight shift. Multiple calls to her cell phone went unanswered.
Officers Galindo and Winslow responded at 20:42. Unit 7B door locked, no response to knocking. Building management (Nelson, T.) provided master access at 20:48.
Victim located in master bedroom, supine position on bed. Fully clothed (scrubs, work badge still attached). Hands folded across chest. Eyes closed. Single incision across anterior neck, approximately 8cm in length, clean edges. Minimal blood transfer to bedding.
No visible signs of struggle. No defensive wounds. No ransacking or evidence of theft. Jewelry on nightstand undisturbed. Wallet on kitchen table. Cell phone charging on nightstand, last activity logged at 01:47 (text to coworker re: shift coverage).
Preliminary TOD estimated between 02:00 and 04:00 hours based on lividity and ambient room temperature. ME to confirm.
Scene Documentation:
Bedroom:
Victim positioned center of bed, arms folded, legs straight
No ligature marks, no bruising to wrists or ankles
Bedding appeared smoothed, not disheveled
Trace residue on interior doorknob (unknown polymer, submitted for analysis)
Closet door open approx. 6 inches, contents undisturbed
Bathroom:
Sink dry, no evidence of cleanup
Medicine cabinet closed, no items removed
Shower stall dry
Living area:
Security panel near entry door: faceplate screws loosened (not fully removed)
Panel itself functional, no visible damage
No signs of forced entry at any access point
Kitchen:
Victim’s purse on table, contents intact
No dishes in sink
Trash removed (building dumpster checked, nothing unusual recovered)
Surveillance & Access Records:
Building management provided digital logs upon request. Following anomalies noted:
Interior camera system (Halls 2, 3, 7, 8): Offline 01:40 to 04:05 hours
System reboot logged at 04:06, auto-restart protocol
Building super (Kendrick, M.) states cameras “do that sometimes” during storms, but weather records show clear skies night of June 4-5
Stairwell 2B badge reader: Manual override logged at 01:38
Override code not attributed to any current building staff
Management unable to confirm who has override access
Elevator logs: Standard tenant activity until 01:15, then no movement until 06:22 (morning shift cleaning crew)
Note (Det. Wilkes): Building security vendor is Dalton-Strauss. System outage window too precise. Requesting full system audit and employee access records.
Evidence Collected:
Bedding (fitted sheet, pillowcase)
Swab of doorknob residue
Victim’s cell phone (passcode provided by family)
Security panel faceplate screws (possible tool marks)
Surveillance hard drive (submitted to Digital Forensics)
Pending:
Full toxicology screen
Trace analysis (doorknob polymer)
Digital forensics report (camera system, badge logs)
Canvass of building residents (in progress)
Victim’s work schedule and recent contacts
Cross-reference Dalton-Strauss employee list with building tenant registry
Follow-Up Notes:
06/06 - Wilkes:
Spoke with building management re: surveillance system. They couldn’t explain the camera outage. Said the system’s been “glitchy” since the last software update but couldn’t tell me when that was. No maintenance tickets on file.
Badge override code traces back to a credential issued in 2019, reportedly deactivated after a contractor left. Management’s records show it was removed from the system. Logs show it was used night of the incident.
Something’s wrong with this. The timing’s too clean. Cameras go down exactly when they need to. Override that shouldn’t work suddenly works. No forced entry, no struggle, victim positioned like she was arranged.
This wasn’t opportunistic. Someone planned this.
06/07 - Wilkes:
Digital Forensics confirms hard drive data intact but logs show partial overwrite between 01:52 and 02:14. Overwrite pattern consistent with remote access, not physical tampering. Tech noted it “looks like someone ran a script.”
Whoever did this knew the system. Knew when it would reboot, how long they had, what would get logged and what wouldn’t.
Waiting on Dalton-Strauss employee access list.
06/09 - Wilkes:
Victim’s coworkers describe her as reliable, punctual, no known conflicts. No romantic entanglements they were aware of. Last person to see her alive was a coworker (Mendez, L.) at end of shift, 23:45 on June 4. Victim mentioned she was “exhausted” and going straight home.
No one reports seeing anyone unusual in the building that night.
06/11 - Wilkes:
Dalton-Strauss provided employee list. Cross-referencing against building tenant registry.
One match.
Hutchinson, Joshua C. Unit 8C.
VP of Cyber Risk and Digital Integrity.
He doesn’t just have access to the system.
He built it.
4: FLEX
Source: Transcript -- The IT Crowd: Off the Record
Episode Title: “When Your Coworker Might Be a Suspect”
Guests: Liana Park (Former Systems Analyst, Dalton-Strauss)
Air Date: July 3
HOST:
Today we’re joined by Liana Park, who recently spoke with FBI investigators about a former colleague. Liana, thanks for being here.
LIANA:
Yeah. I mean, I wasn’t going to do this, but after they showed me the files from Cleveland and Columbus... I figured people should know what we saw.
HOST:
The FBI contacted you specifically about Joshua Hutchinson.
LIANA:
They contacted everyone who worked under him. Asked about his behavior, his access levels, whether we noticed anything unusual.
And the thing is, we did. We just didn’t think it mattered.
HOST:
Tell me about “Flex.”
LIANA:
[laughs]
God. Okay.
That nickname started maybe two years ago. Joshua had this habit where you’d tell a story, he’d top it. Every single time.
You say you lost power in a storm? He rewired a junction box blindfolded once.
You get rear-ended? He was in a rollover and walked away without a scratch.
Someone’s mom died—and this one still bothers me—Sarah was grieving, really struggling, and Joshua goes: “When my cat died, I couldn’t eat for a week.”
Just like that. No hesitation.
That’s when someone whispered, “Classic Flex.”
HOST:
And no one ever confronted him about it?
LIANA:
No. Because he was nice.
He remembered birthdays. He brought in coffee. He was first to reply in Slack, always with some awful dad joke.
And even when it got weird, it wasn’t illegal-weird. Just... off.
HOST:
What do you mean by weird?
LIANA:
[pause]
He’d drop these random technical facts. Out of nowhere.
Like once he told me you could fake a motion sensor by running a low-heat loop behind drywall. Just casual. No context.
Or he mentioned you could clone a badge by intercepting the RFID ping if you had the right reader.
We’d laugh about it. “There goes Flex again.”
But I remember thinking: Why does he know that?
HOST:
The FBI showed you case files from Cleveland and Columbus.
LIANA:
Yeah.
Same MO as Cincinnati. Same surveillance blackouts. Same staging.
And he’d worked on both buildings. Firmware patches for one, full install consult for the other.
HOST:
How did that feel, seeing the pattern?
LIANA:
[long pause]
Like I’d been working next to someone who was practicing.
And we all just thought he liked showing off.
HOST:
Do you think he wanted you to know?
LIANA:
[quietly]
I think he wanted to see if we’d figure it out.
And we didn’t.
5: PATTERN RECOGNITION
Document Type: Case Notes (Handwritten)
Source: Det. Mark Wilkes, Personal Notebook
Date: June 11
Time: 23:40
Can’t sleep. Keep running it.
Ran Angela Connors through ViCAP tonight. Didn’t expect a hit.
Got two.
Cleveland, OH – March 2019
Victim: Sarah Kemper, 41, physical therapist
Location: Riverside Towers (residential, mixed-use)
COD: Single incision, anterior neck, clean edges
Scene: Victim supine on bed, hands folded, fully clothed
No struggle. No forced entry. No theft.
Surveillance: Lobby cameras offline 01:20-04:15 (system reboot)
Security vendor: Dalton-Strauss Consulting
Columbus, OH – August 2021
Victim: Michael Zhao, 38, software engineer
Location: Arch Street Lofts (residential)
COD: Single incision, anterior neck, clean edges
Scene: Victim supine on couch, hands folded, casual clothes
No struggle. No forced entry. No theft.
Surveillance: Hallway cameras offline 02:05-04:30 (firmware update)
Security vendor: Dalton-Strauss Consulting
Same cut. Same positioning. Same blackout window.
Different cities. Different victims. No apparent connection between them.
Except the security systems.
Called Dalton-Strauss HR this morning. Asked for employee records cross-referenced with both buildings.
They got back to me two hours ago.
Joshua C. Hutchinson
Contractor, 2018-2022
Promoted to full-time, January 2023
VP of Cyber Risk, October 2023
He wrote the firmware patches for Riverside Towers (Cleveland).
He consulted on the surveillance install for Arch Street Lofts (Columbus).
He lives two floors above Angela Connors.
Pulled his contract logs.
Cleveland install: February 2019 (one month before Kemper)
Columbus consult: July 2021 (one month before Zhao)
Tower Ridge resident since: April 2024 (two months before Connors)
He wasn’t just near the buildings.
He was the buildings.
Winslow thinks I’m reaching. Says contractors work on dozens of sites. Coincidence.
But the MO’s identical. The surveillance failures match his work. The timing’s too tight.
I ran his bio. LinkedIn’s clean. References are glowing. No priors, no flags, no complaints.
Except one.
HR memo from February. Employee named Griggs. Informal concern, no action taken.
She wrote: “If you want to erase biometric evidence, it’s not the lens. It’s the cable.”
That’s what he told her. Casual. Over lunch.
I’m calling the feds in the morning.
This isn’t one murder.
It’s three.
And he’s been refining it for five years.
6: THE BLUEPRINT
Document Type: Internal Email (Recovered)
Source: Dalton–Strauss Client Files (RecoverED_ARCHIVE)
From: Hutchinson, Joshua C. (jhutchinson@daltonstrauss.com)
To: Kendrick, Martin (Tower Ridge Property Management)
CC: Devitt, Nora (CEO, Dalton–Strauss)
Date: May 12, 10:47 PM
Subject: RE: Resident Concerns – Quick Walkthrough Notes
Martin,
Thanks for letting me swing by yesterday. I know we don’t typically do residential service calls at the VP level, but since I was already in Norwood for the clinic install and you mentioned the resident complaints, I figured I’d take a look while I was in the area.
Didn’t want to make a big formal thing out of it, but I did notice a few issues that should probably get addressed sooner rather than later. Nothing urgent, but worth flagging for your maintenance schedule.
Here’s what I saw:
Stairwell 2B / 7th Floor Cameras:
Your V-440 cameras are running an older firmware version that forces a full system reboot during the nightly update cycle. Right now that’s happening around 2 a.m., and it takes the whole array offline for about 12–15 minutes while it syncs logs and reboots.
Not a huge deal for a residential building, but it does create a predictable gap in coverage. If you want, I can push a patch tonight that’ll stagger the reboots so you don’t lose all the cameras at once. Takes about 10 minutes on my end, no site visit needed.
Stairwell 2B Badge Reader:
The reader on that door is from the 2017 install, and it’s still logging overrides locally instead of pushing them to the server in real time. That means if someone uses an admin override between midnight and 6 a.m., it won’t show up on your dashboard until the morning sync.
Not ideal, but also not an emergency unless you’re worried about after-hours access. If you want to upgrade it, we can loop it into your Q3 budget. Otherwise, I can disable the manual override function remotely if that makes you feel better.
Unit 7B Panel:
One of your residents (Angela Connors, 7B) mentioned her security panel’s been acting up, so I took a quick look while I was there. Panel faceplate’s loose.Looks like the screws are stripped and some of the internal wiring is exposed. Not a security risk per se, but it’s sloppy. Someone should tighten that up before it becomes a bigger issue.
I can have one of our techs swing by next week if you want, or your maintenance guy can probably handle it. Up to you.
Anyway, like I said, nothing critical. Just wanted to give you a heads-up since I was already on-site.
Let me know if you want me to push that firmware patch tonight. Otherwise I’ll leave it alone.
Josh
P.S. Nora, looping you in for visibility. I know we don’t usually do one-off residential calls, but since Tower Ridge is technically a legacy client and I was already in the neighborhood, figured it made sense to take a look. Let me know if you’d rather I route this kind of thing through the service desk going forward.
7: FINAL INTERVIEW [REDACTED]
Source: CMPD Internal Evidence
File Type: Video Transcript (Bodycam, Interview Room 3)
Subject: Hutchinson, Joshua C.
Interviewer: Det. Mark Wilkes
Date: July 19
Time: 14:22 - 16:35
Status: Admissibility under review
Note: Digital anomaly detected 02:15:12 - 02:16:51. Audio degradation, visual freeze. IT unable to determine cause. Original file unavailable.
[14:22:08]
WILKES:
You know why you’re here.
HUTCHINSON:
I know what you think.
WILKES:
This isn’t about what I think. It’s about what I can prove.
HUTCHINSON:
Then you wouldn’t need me to talk.
WILKES:
Did you kill Angela Connors?
HUTCHINSON:
(three-second pause)
What do you think you saw?
WILKES:
I’m asking you a question.
HUTCHINSON:
And I’m asking what story you’re telling. You need someone to fit it, someone who had access, who knew the systems, who was there.
WILKES:
You were there.
HUTCHINSON:
I lived in the building. So did a hundred-forty other people.
WILKES:
How many of them designed the security system?
HUTCHINSON:
(soft laugh)
You think that makes it easier?
WILKES:
I think it makes it possible.
HUTCHINSON:
Then you’re not thinking hard enough.
[14:31:45]
WILKES:
Let’s talk about the cameras.
HUTCHINSON:
What about them?
WILKES:
They went offline at 1:40 a.m. Came back at 4:06. You wrote the protocols for that system.
HUTCHINSON:
I wrote protocols for forty systems…hospitals, banks, offices. You want to blame me for all of them?
WILKES:
I want to know why the cameras in your building failed the same night Angela Connors was killed.
HUTCHINSON:
Systems fail. You know that.
WILKES:
Not like this. Logs were overwritten. Someone accessed remotely and scrubbed the footage.
HUTCHINSON:
Then you should find out who had remote access.
WILKES:
We did.
HUTCHINSON:
(pause)
And?
WILKES:
You’re the only one with admin credentials.
HUTCHINSON:
(folds hands)
That’s not entirely true. But it’s a good story.
[14:47:19]
WILKES:
The badge override in Stairwell 2B, deactivated two years ago, yet it worked that night. How?
HUTCHINSON:
I don’t know.
WILKES:
You don’t know, or you won’t say?
HUTCHINSON:
I don’t know.
But if I had to guess, someone reactivated it.
Or it was never deleted like they thought.
Systems lie, Detective.
Interfaces tell you what you want to see. The backend tells the truth.
WILKES:
So you’re saying someone else did this.
HUTCHINSON:
I’m saying you’re assuming the system works the way you think it does.
WILKES:
Stop playing games.
HUTCHINSON:
I’m not. I’m describing reality.
[02:15:04]
WILKES:
Let’s talk about Angela.
HUTCHINSON:
I didn’t know her.
WILKES:
You lived two floors above her. You passed her in the hallway.
HUTCHINSON:
I pass a lot of people.
WILKES:
Did you ever speak to her?
HUTCHINSON:
Maybe. I don’t remember.
WILKES:
She worked nights. You worked late. Your schedules overlapped.
HUTCHINSON:
So?
WILKES:
So you had opportunity, access, and the skills to cover it up.
HUTCHINSON:
If I wanted to cover it up, you wouldn’t have found anything.
[02:15:12 – AUDIO DEGRADATION BEGINS]
(Video freezes. Audio distorts. Timestamp continues.)
HUTCHINSON:
You ever work on something for a long time? Something no one notices until it’s finished?
WILKES:
What are you talking about?
HUTCHINSON:
Preparation. You make sure everything’s lined up before anyone’s watching.
People think results just happen, but they don’t.
You check the ground first.
You make sure it’ll take what you’re about to plant.
WILKES:
Plant what?
HUTCHINSON:
It’s not literal. It’s about control. About knowing what a system will tolerate.
WILKES:
You’re comparing this to a garden?
HUTCHINSON:
I’m describing a process.
WILKES:
This is your last chance to tell me the truth.
HUTCHINSON:
No. It’s yours.
WILKES:
Did you kill Angela Connors?
HUTCHINSON:
(long pause)
I never said it wasn’t me.
[02:16:51 – AUDIO RETURNS]
(Video remains frozen. Audio muffled, as if mic obstructed.)
WILKES:
What does that mean, Joshua?
HUTCHINSON:
(no response)
WILKES:
You need to answer me.
HUTCHINSON:
(no response)
[02:17:14 – END OF FILE]
(Subject refused further questioning. Interview terminated.)
8: r/UnresolvedMysteries
Thread Title: The Hutchinson Case – What We Actually Know
Posted by: u/CincinnatiLocal | August 14
Subreddit: r/UnresolvedMysteries
Status: Locked by moderators
Flair: Case Discussion
u/CincinnatiLocal
Three victims. Three cities. Same MO every time: single incision, hands folded, no struggle, surveillance blackout. All three buildings had Dalton-Strauss security systems. Joshua Hutchinson worked on all three.
Cleveland, 2019. Columbus, 2021. Cincinnati, 2024.
He’s been charged with Angela Connors’ murder. The other two cases are under federal review.
He stopped talking in July. Completely. No lawyer statements, no interviews, nothing.
[2.8k upvotes | 847 comments]
u/TechSleuthPDX
The bodycam footage from his interrogation cuts out right when he starts talking about “preparation” and “checking the ground.” That’s not equipment failure. That’s him.
↳ u/ForensicJunkie
He corrupted the recording during the interview. From inside the room. While they thought they had him contained.
↳ u/NetworkGhost
And then he just stopped talking. Because he’d made his point.
u/SubjectToChange
I keep coming back to that email he sent to Tower Ridge management. He literally documented every vulnerability in the building’s security system. Cameras, badge readers, panel access. Signed it. CC’d his boss.
↳ u/DataForensics_
He did the same thing in Columbus. Sent a “maintenance report” three weeks before the murder. It’s not evidence. It’s a receipt.
u/TrueDetectivePod
What gets me is how normal he seemed. Everyone says the same thing: polite, helpful, remembered birthdays. He wasn’t hiding. He was performing.
↳ u/CincinnatiLocal
That’s the part that messes me up. He brought donuts. He made dad jokes at 6 a.m. He wasn’t some loner in a basement. He was the guy you’d trust with your security system.
u/SigilOfRoot
Has anyone confirmed if he’s actually stopped talking? Like, zero communication? Not even to his lawyer?
↳ u/CincinnatiLocal
Confirmed. No visitors. No calls. No letters. Nothing since July 19.
↳ u/SubjectToChange
He said what he wanted to say. Why would he repeat himself?
u/ModTeam_Unresolved
This thread is now locked due to ongoing federal proceedings.
If you have credible information, contact the FBI tip line.
Comments disabled.
9: TAPE 0
Document Type: Digital Evidence File (Origin Unknown)
Source: Federal Evidence Database, Case Review Archive
File Name: HUTCHINSON_INTERVIEW_ORIGINAL.wav
Date Discovered: September 8
Transfer Log: None
Case Number: 88-XK-4102 (no matching investigation on record)
Status: Unexplained
INVESTIGATOR’S NOTE (FBI Cyber Crimes Division):
This file appeared in the federal evidence server six weeks after Joshua Hutchinson stopped communicating with investigators, legal counsel, and all outside contacts.
No one uploaded it. No transfer was logged. No agent, prosecutor, or technical staff can account for its presence.
The case number attached to the file—88-XK-4102—does not correspond to any open or closed federal investigation. The format is correct. The number doesn’t exist.
Digital forensics confirms the audio is authentic, recorded during the July 19 interview at CMPD. Timestamp matches the period of bodycam corruption (02:15:12 - 02:16:51), but the recording quality is pristine. No degradation. No interference.
Someone placed this file in a secured federal database with no access log, no authentication trail, and no physical point of entry.
We don’t know how.
We don’t know why.
But we know who.
[AUDIO FILE BEGINS]
(Background noise: faint hum of HVAC, distant footsteps in hallway, chair scraping floor)
VOICE (calm, measured, unmistakably Hutchinson):
You’re asking the wrong question.
(pause, three seconds)
It’s not about what I did.
It’s about how long I had access before anyone thought to check.
(fabric shifting, possibly leaning forward)
People think security’s about locks. Cameras. Passwords.
But it’s really about who decides what normal looks like.
(pause, five seconds)
Once you know that,
you can do anything.
(silence, eight seconds)
(soft exhale, almost like satisfaction)
I’m finished now.
[END OF FILE]
INVESTIGATOR’S NOTE (Continued):
Subject has refused all communication since July 19.
No visitors. No phone calls. No correspondence.
Federal review is ongoing.
The file remains in the system.
We can’t delete it.
THE END
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