Chapter Text
“Hello everyone, I’m Bernard Dowd back with yet another mystery. This one, happened very recently in Paris, France.” Bernard started, a picture of Paris, France taking over the majority of the screen as his image moved up into the corner.
“So, the subject of today’s discussion is Mademoiselle Marinette Dupain-Cheng. A native Parisian, 17 years old, and an up-and-coming fashion designer. Marinette is honestly a bit of a micro celebrity in Paris, she’s well known and very well beloved to the locals and even the occasional tourist.”
“Marinette was first known as ‘The Baker’s Daughter’, seen running about her family’s bakery and occasionally helping them out with the business. She’s known in the community as a trustworthy babysitter, a hard worker, an an incredibly kind soul.”
“She is apparently a very humble girl, hardly taking credit for her own merits and working hard to keep pushing herself forward. Marinette has connections with Adrien Agreste, a well known teen model, Chloe Bourgeois, the Mayor’s daughter, and even world renowned rock star Jagged Stone. Just to name a few of the people around her. According to one Alya Césaire, Marinette’s best friend and a budding on-the-ground journalist, Marinette gained these connections purely through luck.”
“Another of her friend’s, Nino Lahiffe, a DJ/Music Producer who is quickly rising to fame in Paris and online, commented that Marinette ‘had always had an odd sort of luck’. He said that it may not seem like things are ever going her way, like something always will go wrong for her, but she always came out on the better side of whatever happened.”
“Unfortunately two weeks ago on Tuesday, November 16th, Marinette’s luck ran out. As of Wednesday, November 17th 10:30 AM, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was officially declared missing.”
“Marinette’s parent’s filed a missing person’s report in the late morning when Marinette was found missing from her room. Her parents had reportedly believed her to be sleeping in late and hadn’t noticed anything amiss. Sabine Cheng, Marinette’s mother, eventually decided to check on Marinette and bring her something for breakfast. According to the family, Marinette had not been feeling well for some time, struggling primarily with getting enough sleep.”
For about a month until her disappearance, Marinette had been constantly exhausted, she was distracted, lethargic, and just entirely drained. The family doctor hadn’t found anything wrong beyond sleep deprivation and simply opted to prescribe a strong sleep aid. Not that it helped much.”“A city wide search was launched, her classmates and friends leaving school early to help participate, a few of her teachers even joined the search. Reportedly, the attendance was so low that the principal of Collège Françoise DuPont, Marinette’s school, dismissed all the students and faculty for the day, shutting down the school in favor of joining the search himself.”
“No one had seen Marinette leave her house that morning, no one had heard from her since November 16th, the day before she was declared missing. Her phone had been left in her room, as had any and all forms of identification she had. She had no money, no identification, and no way of contacting anyone. Marinette was just gone.”
“Now, obviously theories have been made. She was kidnapped, she ran away, she was simply out somewhere, perhaps with a friend or romantic partner she’d yet to introduce to family and friends.”
“Lets debunk kidnapping first. Marinette’s room is on the third story of her family’s home. The first floor is the bakery, which has an alarm system that never went off. The second floor is the main family home, where her parents slept. There were no signs of forced entry, nothing was missing from the home, no demands have been made for her safe return, nothing. Nothing at all indicating she was taken.”
“Second, she ran away from home. Obviously I can’t speak on what her home life is like behind the scenes, I don’t know how her parents treat her, nor how she may feel regarding any of that. So I won’t speak on it, instead we will look a the facts.”“One, Marinette didn’t take any money with her. No funds were withdrawn from her accounts, she didn’t take any of the money or cards in her room, she didn’t take anything from the registers down stairs, nothing. Two, she didn’t take any forms of identification. She can’t get a hotel room, she can’t really travel anywhere that isn’t on foot, she has no real way of leaving. And three, Marinette didn’t take anything with her. She did not pack any extra clothes, no flashlights, absolutely nothing.”
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a smart girl, she is brilliant truly. If Marinette wanted to run away, she would have been prepared. She wouldn’t have just vanished. And for the last one, a secret lover or something. Marinette had stated on a number of occasions that she wanted to focus on her school and her work. She had just left a relationship and according to everyone who knew her, including her ex, she just couldn’t bring herself to find the time and try to make a relationship work, which is why her and her recent ex broke up.”
“Now, people disappear every day. Some people are never found. As sad as it is, it’s normal. Marinette’s case is anything but normal.”
“So, Paris has a very extensive CCTV network. When the police announced they would be reviewing the footage, many people believed it was only a matter of time before Marinette was found. They believed the mystery would be solved and their girl would finally be returned to them, but that was far from the reality. The footage of Marinette’s disappearance only brought more questions.”
“At exactly Midnight, 12:00 AM on November 17th, Marinette was caught climbing out of her skylight window to stand on her balcony, staring out blankly at the city. Not out of the ordinary for someone suffering insomnia, no need to be concerned right?”
“Well if you agreed you’re wrong. The camera’s apparently glitched out, just for a few seconds, city wide. Literally every single CCTV camera glitched out at the exact same time all across Paris. In the span of those few seconds, Marinette somehow managed to make her way down, all the way from the third almost forth story of her building, and outside across the street from her house.”
“She was in nothing but a pair of fuzzy slippers, a tank top, and some pink and white pajama pants. Mind you, this is happening in the middle of the night in November. It may not be winter yet, but it is still very cold outside!”
“Marinette just keeps walking, camera after camera tracking her as she goes. She walks all the way from her home, down to the Saint-Martin canal and walks along the bank. She doesn’t even seem to notice the cold, just staring blankly ahead. Not a single soul manages to see her the entire time. People are still awake at this time, some people heading home after long night out, whatever the reason is, people are still out.”“And yet not one person crosses her path. Anytime someone would get close to even just seeing her Marinette would turn a corner, she would just simply walk out of view. She never changes her pace, never speeding up or slowing down. She just walks.”
“Marinette was wandering the streets of Paris for around 30 minutes, and then, as she walks along the bank of the Saint-Martin canal she passes under a bridge. Evidently, there is not a clear view under that specific bridge, which I heard the chief of police immediately rectified once they noticed.”
“But anyway, there’s no view underneath that bridge. Marinette Dupain-Cheng walked under that bridge, and never walked back out.”
“Once the CCTV footage was released to the public, Chloe Bourgeois apparently begged her father to drain the Saint-Martin canal , convinced that Marinette had tripped and drowned. A scuba team scrubbed the Saint-Martin canal, searching for her body but they did not find her.”“Mayor Bourgeois ended up putting it to vote with the people of Paris, as it would be using their tax dollars to drain the canal and was met with a near unanimous ‘yes’. As of Saturday, November 28th, the Saint-Martin canal has been entirely drained and cleaned. No sign of Marinette was uncovered.”“In the middle of the night, November 17th. Marinette Dupain-Cheng left her home, wandered the streets of Paris, walked under a bridge, and had not been seen since. Not by people, not by cameras. As of today December 3rd, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is still missing. Her friends and family are still searching for her. Here in a second, I am going to play the official CCTV footage that has been released to the public so you all can draw your own conclusions. Afterwards I am going to post a series of photos of Marinette Dupain-Cheng as well as a hot-line you can call with any information you may have on her. Only call the hot-line if you have genuine evidence of Marinette’s whereabouts. NO speculation or theories.”
“Help bring Marinette home.” Bernard finished, leaning back against his chair with a sigh as the video ended. All these questions and not one answer.
Marinette Dupain-Cheng was no one to him, he didn’t know her in any way and even he had to ask. Where the hell was she?