CBCF Christians Breaking Chain Forwards Smash chain letters, don't bash God!

The Carmen Winstead and Jessica Smith Sewer Hoax

As David Emery's two-part article and Snopes explain, Carmen Winstead, Jessica Smith - were never pushed down a sewer.

No accompanying picture makes the story true. At least one mutation of this chain letter contains a picture that is supposed to be scary, but actually comes from that awful "The Ring" movie.

Videos like this retelling are just that, play-acting with a good deal of camera tricks and editing thrown in. They are not real.

They don't have open sewers/manholes on schoolgrounds. That would be extremely unsafe, for obvious reasons.

The Pushed Down A Sewer hoax started in 2006 but continues to circulate and mutate. A version from early 2010, added a lot more detail.

Years after this pile of lies was first originated, it continues to frighten young people and circulate and circulate as this question on Dirk Bradshaw's page, this Youtube video, and so many of these pages from Yahoo Answers show.

I expect the links to keep coming because this hoax just keeps going around, and these examples will be put here:

Dec. 22, 2011.

--

Unbelievably, Carmen Winstead and Jessica Smith hit the big time once again according to the abs-cbnnews.com news article, Urban Legend Carmen Winstead Tops Ph Newsmakers List around Halloween 2011!

However, this doesn't make it any less of a fake.

Here's a wonderful smash via Youtube.

Now, a smash of this chain letter in its various mutations, brought to you by CBCF. We start with Carmen/Jessica's original story from 2006, then Carmen's more extensive retelling in 2010, followed by the bogus "It happened to them for not reposting" examples found in both versions of the hoax..

* * *

Capri's and Beth's smashes:

Beth: Hahahah! *smile* Heh! Look out, undead chain brats!

* * *

Chains: She was pushed

Beth: Uh, pushed to what? Pushed to stupidity?

Miss Capri: Pushed to do what? Forward a dumb chain letter?

Well, I've been pushed to smash 'em!

Chains: They pushed her down a sewer

Miss Capri: No, they didn't, at least, not in real life. However, this is fiction.

Carmen's chain: Carmen Winstead who was pushed down the sewer by 5 girls in her school, trying to embarrass her in front of her school during a fire drill.

Beth: H'm! That's not embarrassment, that's assault! Or something, but either way, it's bad juju!

Miss Capri: I see in the some of the more recent version, the references to "Indiana" and "about six years ago" were omitted, but the rewritten 2010 mutation adds Indiana back in, along with a lot more detail in general, probably trying to make the story look less like a chain letter and more like a professionally written article.

The Carmen Winstead and Jessica Smith chains originally started out like this.

Chains: About 6 years ago in Indiana,

Miss Capri: Considering this chain started back in 2006, that would make "6 years ago" back then, going WAY back to 2000…

Beth: So, if this thing is from 2006, that means...2000, huh? Well, some people have been chain-denizens longer.

Carmen: Carmen Winstead
Jessica: Jessica Smith
Chains: was pushed down a sewer opening by 5 girls in her school, trying to embarrass her in front of her school during a fire drill.

Miss Capri: Okay, a fire drill, and these airheads are playing around a sewer? This story just coesn't fly. They just don't have open sewers in close proximity to a scoolground. Safety concerns, you know... I wouldn't call pushing anyone down a sewer "embarrassment" it would be all out abuse, torture, aggravated assault and battery, but no matter. It never happened…

Beth: What, so they were playing around a sewer during a fire drill? And they thought, oh, this'll be a laugh, let's chuck a girl in the sewer? Wow, what a load of winners! *scowl*

Chains: When she didn't submerge then the police were called.

Miss Capri: Oh I see, so if Jessicarmen did submerge, they wouldn't have called the cops? right… Such upstanding citizens...

Beth: Uh, so, she's just floatin' around in the sewer, so people figure, huh, she didn't sink, let's call the cops? Right...maybe you meant 'emerge'.

Chains: They went down and brought up 17 year old
Carmen: Carmen Winstead's body,
Jessica: Jessica Smith's body,

Miss Capri: Um, Carmen/Jessica, what is it with you two, did you have a race to the sewer or something? I mean, really?

Beth: What, can't make up your mind? Oh! Wait! I got it, you're on of those people who have multiple personalities, so you can get away with stuff. You're really one person, but this Carmen and Jessica business is just so you look all tragic, and can be more manipulative. What's your real name, huh? I'll have to think of one for you...how about, Dorcas?

Carmen: the neck broke hitting the ladder, then side concrete at the bottom.
Jessica: she broke her neck hitting the ladder, then hit her side on concrete at the bottom.

Beth: Well, Dorcas, does it matter a terrible much if you hit your side? You were already dead by the time you hit the bottom. Or, you would have been dead, if you were real...

Miss Capri: Hmmm okay, so with Carmen, it's "the neck" as if you're talking about carving a turkey or something, but Jessica's chain gives "her neck" a little more respect. And what's with the concrete side thing? Carmen falls on a side of the concrete at the bottom, but Jessica hits her side on the concrete at the bottom? Right…

Chains: The girls told everyone she fell... They believed them.

Miss Capri: How stupid is that. Right, it's so totally normal for 17 year old girls to hang out at a sewer, and falling into one is just like nothing? What sort of cops or school administration would believe a set of bullies? Clued out or what?

Beth: Right, since it's just SO normal for girls to hang around sewers! I bet those lackwits who chucked her in were just SO broken up, too. *rolls eyes* Yeesh.

--

Before going into the remainder of the 2006 hoax, which shares the same bogus David Gregory and Ron anderson tales as does the revised 2010 version, let's look at the 2010 Carmen Winstead story re-write..

* * *

Part 1

Chain2010: Carmen Winstead was a young girl who died when she was pushed down the sewer by five girls she thought were her friends.

Miss Capri: I don't know how anybody could possibly mistake such pooheads for friends.

Chain2010: Carmen was 17 years old when her parents decided to move to Indiana. Her father had lost his job and the only way he could find new employment was by moving to a new state.

Miss Capri: Yeah, tough times…

Chain2010: The relocation caused a lot of problems for Carmen. She had to leave her friends behind and attend a whole new school in Indiana.

Miss Capri: Why does this make me think of "I've Been Waiting For You?"

Chain2010: Carmen had a hard time making friends when she changed schools. It was the middle of the school year and most of the students had no interest in befriending the new girl.

Miss Capri: no kidding, that definitely sounds like a write-up about a movie. Teen gets uprooted and gets shunned or picked on by all the kids at new school. Bleck.

Chain2010: Initially, she spent many days alone, walking from class to class without speaking to anyone, but she eventually started hanging around with a group of five other girls.

Miss Capri: Why not just make friends with Jessica Smith, who was in the exact same predicament? Oh, right, both Carmen and Jessica were too shy, so it was probably up to the five in-girls to make the first move, and I'm sure their motives were anything but real friendship.

Chain2010: Carmen thought these girls were her friends, but it wasn’t long before she discovered that they had been talking about her behind her back and spreading vile rumors.

Miss Capri: Thought as much. This is your typical in group that wouldn't know the first thing about humanity and are so full of themselves and sick in the head they'd get a huge high taking candy from toddlers just to make them cry. Stupid girls.

Chain2010: When she confronted them, the girls turned on her and began bullying her every day, making her life a misery.

Miss Capri: Began? The bullying started the moment they let her into their dumb little clique so they could win her trust in order to amuse themselves at her expense. Spreading nasty rumors is bullying.

Chain2010: They started out calling her names, but then the bullying got much worse.

Miss Capri: I would've thought the names came before the rumors? Or wait, maybe not. These stupid girls probably got mad when carmen wouldn't roll over, play dead and be a voluntary whipping girl for them, so they regressed to the mentality of kindergarteners. Wait, that's not right either - they didn't regress since they were already there.

Chain2010: One day, she left her school books in the classroom at break time. When she returned, she found someone had taken a sharpie and written dirty words all over her books.

Miss Capri: Break time? Don't you mean lunch time, or a spare? And why leave her books there? They could've been stolen. You'd think she would've put them in her locker, considering what absolute pigs these girls are.

Chain2010: Another day, she opened her bag and discovered someone had poured yoghurt all over the insides.

Miss Capri: Sheesh, what are these, over-grown two-year-olds? Anyway, how did they manage to get away with that? Seems to me Carmen doesn't gard her stuff too well. And where are the teachers?

Chain2010: Sometimes, she would come to school and find her locker had been vandalized.

Miss Capri: Oh, you should've explained that and saved me asking all these questions. Because vandalism is the only way this makes any sense. But that leaves one question still, where are the teachers?

Chain2010: The final straw came when she put on her coat at recess

Miss Capri: Hel-lo! This is a 17-year-old high school student. High school, people, they don't have recess any more!

Chain2010: and found that someone had stuffed dog poop in her pockets.

Miss Capri: EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW! Though if they did that, it wasn't at recess. I wouldn't put it past these disgusting little sorority debutant type girlies, though how they could've managed without getting their own hands dirty and smelly, I don't know. Disgusting girls! They'd actually deserve to catch something from that filth.

Chain2010: There and then, Carmen decided that she couldn’t take the bullying any longer. She planned to stay behind, that evening, after school, and tell her teacher what had been happening.

Miss Capri: Only one teacher? Usually in high school you have several, one per different type of class. It would make more sense for Carmen to go right to the principal and guidance counsellor.

Chain2010: Unfortunately, her decision came too late to save her life.

Miss Capri: Where's the scary Halloween type music when you need it?

Chain2010: After lunch, her teacher announced that the school was holding a fire drill.

Miss Capri: Hold up!

If there was going to be an announcement about the whole school, it would be given by the principal over the intercom.

More to the point, they don't announce fire drills. The whole point of having them is that the students not know ahead of time so they can learn to respond appropriately. Real emergencies are not announced before hand, they just happen, and that's how it is for fire drills too.

Chain2010: When the alarm sounded, Carmen and the other students filed out of the classroom and assembled in the yard outside.

Miss Capri: And?

Chain2010: As the teachers read out the roll call,

Miss Capri: Huh? Roll call happens at the beginning of class, not during a fire drill.

Chain2010: the gang of five girls decided that this was a great opportunity to embarrass Carmen in front of the whole school during the fire drill.

Miss Capri: Seriously, these girls are bloodthirsty and stupid.

Chain2010: They moved over to where Carmen was standing, near a sewer drain,

Miss Capri: Why did she leave the school grounds to go find an open sewer? Because she would have to leave school for that. You see how this just isn't adding up, right?

Chain2010: and began crowding the poor girl, getting in her face and nudging her towards the open manhole.

Miss Capri: Again, I wouldn't put it past that lot of disgusting maggots, but this whole open sewer drain thing so near a school and right on the property just doesn't ring true any more than sea-apes.

Chain2010: They pushed her and she tripped over and fell head-first down the manhole. When they saw her falling, the girls started giggling and when Carmen’s name was called out, they shouted "She’s down in the sewer!"

Miss Capri: At this point, I'm not even sure these girls could be classified as human. They are the types who would've cheerfully done the dirty work for Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Nero etc.

Chain2010: All of the other students began laughing.

Miss Capri: What kind of school is this anyway, Demon high? They all laughed? You expect me to buy that?

Chain2010: But when the teachers looked down the manhole and saw Carmen’s body lying at the bottom in the muck and the poop, the laughter abruptly stopped.

Miss Capri: EWWWWW! Again, just, ewwww! But I'm sure the laughter only stopped because these demon students were sure they were going to catch it.

Chain2010: Her head was twisted around at an odd angle and her face was covered in blood. Worse still, she wasn’t moving.

Miss Capri: I wouldn't call that worse. If you're going to fall down a manhole to your death, then a quick death would be better than struggling down there drowning in… *Wince*

Chain2010: There was nothing any of the teachers could do for her. Carmen was dead.

Miss Capri: So, the 5 pooheads learned how to kill somebody, wow. It was sure worth everybody's time and money sending THEM to school.

Chain2010: When the police arrived and went down into the sewer, they determined that she had broken her neck. Her face had been torn off when she hit the ladder on the way down and her neck snapped when she landed on her head on the concrete at the bottom.

Miss Capri: Yeah, makes for a gruesome story, but it really didn't happen.

Chain2010: The police hauled Carmen’s body out of the sewer and sent her to the mortuary.

Miss Capri: Okay.

Chain2010: Everyone had to stay behind after school while the police questioned all of Carmen’s classmates.

Miss Capri: Wouldn't the police conduct an ongoing investigation, talking with various people one at a time down at the station instead?

Chain2010: The five girls lied to the police, saying they had witnessed Carmen falling down the sewer. The police believed the girls and Carmen Winstead’s death was ruled an accident and the case was closed.

Miss Capri: Well that was stupid of the police, wasn't it? Oh, and entirely typical of those five cowardly girls.

Chain2010: Everyone thought that was the last they would hear of Carmen Winstead, but they were wrong.

Miss Capri: Yeah right…

--

Part 2

Chain2010: Months later, Carmen’s classmates began receiving strange e-mails on their MySpaces. The e-mails were titled "They Pushed Her" and claimed that Carmen hadn’t really fallen down the sewer, she had been pushed. The e-mails also warned that the guilty people should own up and take responsibility for their crime. If they didn’t there would be horrible consequences.

Miss Capri: Oh, now we get the "scaaaaaaaarrrrrrreeeeeeeee eeeeeee-maaaaaaaaaaails" Well obviously there was some witness there who saw it all and was more than a little upset about it.

Chain2010: Most people dismissed the e-mails as a hoax, but others were not so sure.

Miss Capri: *Beginning to nod off*

--

Now, here's where the chains are more or less the same but with some slight differences in wording. The 2010 extended version contains a summary of what happens to a schoolmate of Carmen's, as well as a warning that the same thing will befall anyone else who disbelieves the tale. In addition, it contains the same thing over again in the form of the David Gregory/Ron Anderson examples found in the 2006 version of the hoax.

Some reworking was done to cut out the repitition yet show the differences in each version.

* * *

Chains: FACT:

Beth: Hah! What do you know of such things?

Miss Capri: Please! Don't use words and concepts you know nothing about and certainly didn't include here. Facts? Bull!

Chains: 2 months ago,
Chain2010: A few days later,

Miss Capri: Well that could be any time. Considering this hoax started in October 2006, you must be stuck back in that time.

Beth: Wow, so, two months ago in 2000? Well, that's going back something far, i'nt it?

Chains: 16 year old

Miss Capri: Heh, so, this 16 year old has been 16 years old since October 2006…?

Beth: What, this kid is also perma-aged?

Carmen: David Gregory
Jessica: Ron Anderson

Miss Capri: So, Carmen likes David, and Jessica likes Ron, I see. Heeheehee. :P Either that or nobody can decide who the guy's name is. for that matter - aw, skip it. Carmen and Jessica have the same problem with their own identities. :P What are the odds of two sewer girl deaths, same age, same state, same time, and haunting two guys who are both 16 and die in the same way? Oh, right, the odds are GET THIS - NONE!

Beth: Aha! So, Dorcas has a creepy matching boyfriend! What's his name, m'm? How about Bueford?

Chain2010: one of the girls who pushed Carmen down the sewer

Miss Capri: Why doesn't she get named? When it comes to outing bullies, you stink.

Chains: read this post and didn't repost it.

Miss Capri: Smart move Davron.

Chains: When he went to take a shower he heard laughter from his shower,

Miss Capri: His shower was laughing? Okay, that's just laughably weird.

Chain2010: was at home taking a shower, when she heard a strange cackling laugh.

Miss Capri: Nothing strange about it, probably her own cackle. Stupid girl's probably still lulzing over what she and her deranged pack of demons did to Carmen/Jessica.

Chain2010: It seemed to be coming from the drain.

Miss Capri: Seemed to be doesn't mean it actually did. Drains don't laugh. Not unless you fit it with a speaker and some mechanism, electronic gismo, something like what you get in funhouses.

But assuming it's nothing like that, this girl was probably high.

Chains: he started freaking out and ran to his computer to repost it,

Beth: Heheheheheh! So, um, this guy hears his shower laughing and flips out? Hey, Bueford, you're losin' it.

Miss Capri: Uh, so this David ron Gregory Anderson freaks and thinks running to his computer to post stupid chain letters will keep the boogy shower sewer girl away? Hahahahahahahahahaha! Hey Davron Gregorson, the laughter you're hearing ain't Jessicarmen, it's me!

Chain2010: The girl started to freak out and ran out of the bathroom.

Miss Capri: Yep, she's high as a kite.

Chain2010: That night, the girl
Chains: He
Chains: said goodnight to
Chains: his
Chain2010: her
Chains: mom and went to sleep,

Miss Capri: Notice the very same template applies to all bogus examples here. He and she/the girl are interchangeable.

Chains: 5
Chain2010: Five
Chains: hours later,

Miss Capri: Yep, it's always five hours later, isn't it? No variation in this part of the story whether it comes in the 2000 or the 2010 version and supposedly happens to different people...

Chains: his
Chain2010: her
Chains: mom woke up
Chain2010: was awoken
Chains: in the middle of the night cause of
Chain2010: by a loud noise,
Chain2010: that resounded throughout the house.

Miss Capri: Ah, that can happen if a car backfires or an alarm goes off when it shouldn't, something gets dropped, yeah, you're not scaring me…

Beth: Ooooh, I'm shakin' in my boots. *flat expression*

Chain2010: She ran into her daughter’s room, only to find it empty. There was no trace of the girl.

Miss Capri: So the girl's out joyriding and it's her luxury car backfiring.

Carmen: David
Jessica: Ron Anderson
Chain2010: the girl
Chains: was gone,

Miss Capri: Yeah right, probably out somewhere.

Chain2010: The worried mother called the police and when they arrived, they conducted a search of the area. Eventually, they discovered the girl’s grisly remains.

Miss Capri: Okay, then it was probably somebody else's car backfiring. Either way, Party Girl's dead, gotcha. Still not scared.

Chain2010: Her corpse was lying in the sewer, covered in muck and poop. Her neck was broken and her face missing. It had been completely torn off.

Miss Capri: My gosh this girl had problems. Drug addiction is bad enough, and considerably easier to understand. But this girl was into sewers, right along with her four poohead friends. It was they who were into stuffing dog poo into people's pockets, it was they who thought it would be a hilarious hoot pushing somebody into a manhole. And now this girl still didn't have enough of a crap fix so she wandered off in the middle of the night to get more of it at the sewer where she helped kill somebody. that's just repulsive, and eventually her disgusting obsession killed her.

Chains: that morning a few hours later the police found him in the sewer, his neck broke and his face skin peeled off

Beth: One: Eeeew! That's disgusting! Creeps send these things to kids, you know, and you're goin' on about kids getting killed and skinned! Well, Dorcas and Bueford, you win the award for worst couple ever! Two: What, so magic booms teleport people to sewers and kill them? Ooooh, watch out! The dreaded ouch-boom!

Miss Capri: So let me get this straight, we never find out what the loud noise was and are somehow supposed to get scared into thinking Davron got stolen by Carmessica and dragged into a sewer via some sort of sonic booming crash?

Chain2010: One by one, all of the girls who pushed Carmen that day were found dead. They had all been killed in exactly the same way and were all found at exactly the same spot. In the sewer at the bottom of the same uncovered manhole where Carmen had met her doom.

Miss Capri: No, wrong. Some of these freaks met their fate elsewhere.

Chain2010: But the killing didn’t stop there. More and more of Carmen’s former classmates were found dead. It seemed that anyone who didn’t believe that Carmen had been pushed, was eventually found down in the sewer with their necks broken and their faces torn off.

Miss Capri: Now look here, pal. I never have, still don't, and never will believe this story, and I have seen it many times without reposting it, and no such disgusting end has or will happen to me because of it. Besides, if there was even one such real event, it would've been worldwide news because of the horror, and it would be remembered as a true event, not just spread around in silly internet chain letter posts.

Chain2010: They say that Carmen’s ghost is still on the rampage, hunting down anyone who doesn’t believe her story. According to the legend,
Chains: Carmen
Jessica: Jessica
Chains: will get you,

Miss Capri: Get me what? An Iphone? An Ipod touch? A mixer for making recordings? I'll tell you what, so far, they got me laughing.

Beth: Get me a present? Ooh, is it a big ole, go-die-in-a-hole?

Chains: either
Chain2010: whether it’s
Chains: from a sewer, a toilet, a shower,
Chain2010: a sink or a drain.

Miss Capri: Ewww! Carmen, Jessica, if you're going to get me stuff, I want it brand-new, unopened, unused, uncontaminated, clean and dry. So don't get me some Ipod touch that somehow got dropped and broken down some stinky toilet or sewer, or even ruined in a shower…

Beth: *snorts* Well, uh, so you're gonna go die in the sewer? Well, you supposedly already did that, and since the toilet leads to the sewer, that would be a bit repetitive, don't you think? Which leaves the shower. As long as you don't die in mine, I'm fine.

Chains: or when you go to sleep you'll wake up in the sewer, in the dark,
Chain2010: complete darkness, paralyzed, unable to move, hearing cackling laughter all around you.

Chains: then

Miss Capri: Then you'll maybe wake up from dreaming that and realize that I'm still here to smash your chain and kick your butt back into 2006!

Beth: Then Dorcas and Bueford will try to be scary, blah, blah, blah, and I'll give 'em both a good thwacking and then, I'll wake up.

Chain2010: as you scream in horror,

Miss Capri: You never said anything about Carmen or Jessica screaming in horror. I understood their deaths were instantaneous. Besides, when around stinky places, I tend to keep my mouth tightly shut unless I must open it to gag or puke.

Chain2010: Carmen will come and tear your face off.

Miss Capri: Rubbish.

Chain2010: So be careful who you bully,

Miss Capri: 1. I don't bully. I hate bullying, which is why I smash chain letters.

2. You assume everyone reading this is a bully, and that is wrong and insulting.

3. Forget the "be careful" stuff. The real sound advice is simply this: Don't bully, period...

4. Any real bully is not going to pay any mind to advice that discourages bullying. Your fiction won't make them grow a conscience, and attempting to scare them out of bullying doesn't actually fix what's wrong with these people.

Chain2010: because you just might find yourself on the receiving end of the curse of Carmen Winstead.

Miss Capri: No, actually, Carmen Winstead is on the end of a smashing by those of us at CBCf.

Chain2010: Even Google her name - you'll find this to be true.

Miss Capri: Wrong. if you Google her name, you'll find articles on hoax-busting sites, debunking this story, as well as a lot of discussions elsewhere with people expressing fright, curiosity, disbelief, and laughing at the implausible tale.

Carmen: If you don’t repost this saying They hurt her
Chains: If you don't repost this saying "
She was pushed"
or "They Pushed her down a sewer"

Beth: What, Dorcas and Bueford will possess my shower and make boom noises?

Miss Capri: Then maybe the hoax originator will jump in a sewer… I'll live, smash this chain, and whoever originated it can kick themselves for making up such a dumb hoax and getting laughed at!

Carmen: Carmen
Jessica: Jessica
Chains: will come and kill you.…

Miss Capri! Hah! I really don't think they'd want to try that…

Beth: Please! I can handle you, Dorcas. You're just a blob of pixels. At any rate, I do beleive YOU are the one thoroughly destroyed, not me. So, deal with it.

Miss Capri: Yeah, Carmen Winstead and Jessica Smith, just wait until I put you in one of my writings. Heh, heh, heh! *diabolical grin*