The Times-Picayune — Special Coverage

The Digital Diary Case

French Quarter, New Orleans — March 2011

Article 1 — March 4, 2011

Teen Reports Laptop Files Predict Fatalities; Police Seize Device

By Camille Robichaux, Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — Police are investigating a French Quarter teenager’s report that her laptop has been generating documents predicting fatal incidents before they occur.

According to an incident report filed Thursday, the family of Elise Landry, 15, contacted authorities after the student discovered multiple Microsoft Word files saved to her desktop between 3:07 a.m. and 3:15 a.m. on consecutive nights. Each file, written in plain text and lacking metadata beyond the timestamp, described a future death with a specific location and time.

One entry, dated Feb. 25 at 3:12 a.m., referenced “fall backward from ladder, skull fracture against exposed brick, 7:42 p.m., Bourbon Street. The following evening, ” A bar employee at a Royal-and-Bourbon venue suffered a fatal fall at 7:42 p.m.. Witness accounts and EMS logs corroborate the timing.

Landry denied authoring the documents. Her parents, Claire and Jean-Paul Landry, surrendered the laptop to officers from the 8th District. The device was transferred to the department’s Technical Services Unit.

A preliminary assessment states technicians found “no evidence of remote access, keylogging, or malware.” Router logs indicated no overnight network activity in the Landry residence.

Neighbors on St. Ann Street described the family as quiet. “Good people,” said Louis Arnaud, who lives across the courtyard. “But when I saw the girl last night, she looked pale. Like she hadn’t slept.”

Police will not confirm additional entries, but one source said a second file described a “waterfront mishap.”

The device remains under observation. Officers requested continuous video of the laptop’s overnight state. “If it writes again, we want to see how,” said a technician.

Capt. Renée Batiste urged the public to avoid spreading rumors. “We follow evidence. This is an investigation, not folklore.”

Still, late Friday, a chalk “X” appeared on the sidewalk outside the Landry home. Rain washed it away by dawn.

Article 2 — March 9, 2011

Second Death Matches “Digital Diary” File; Teen Placed Under Police Observation

By Camille Robichaux, Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — A second fatal incident has matched a document allegedly generated by a French Quarter teenager’s laptop, according to police and Port of New Orleans officials.

Port authorities confirmed Tuesday that a stevedore was crushed by a container lift at Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf at 5:19 a.m. on March 8. A document recovered from the Landry laptop—time-stamped March 7, 3:10 a.m.—described “hydraulic failure, crush to chest, five nineteen, Nicholls.”

The NOPD has placed Elise Landry under “non-custodial observation” at a relative’s residence outside the Quarter. A third file reportedly described the teen’s own death. Police will not release details.

Technical Services Unit personnel moved the laptop to a controlled environment. An internal memo notes the device has produced files even while disconnected from Wi-Fi, battery removed, and placed in a Faraday enclosure.

Rumors in the Quarter are spreading faster than clarifications. Shop owners say business slows in the evenings. Crowds gather outside NOPD HQ with signs: Tell Us the Names.

School officials confirmed Elise is not attending classes. Images purportedly showing the file list circulated online, but could not be authenticated.

The family has declined interviews. A relative answering the phone said, “She’s a child. Please stop.”

On Monday evening, an ambulance passed Jackson Square at 5:19 p.m. A tourist filmed it. On the audio, a woman asks, “What time is it?”

Article 3 — March 12, 2011

Laptop Files Name Officers Assigned to Case; Two Dead, One Missing

By Camille Robichaux, Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — An internal NOPD bulletin confirms three officers assigned to the Digital Diary case were listed by name in a file produced Friday morning. Two are dead. One is missing.

The file, time-stamped March 11, 3:12 a.m., named Sgt. Sheryl Plaisance (Technical Services Unit), Officer Joseph Alvarez (8th District), and Detective Daniel Ortego (Homicide).

Plaisance was found unresponsive at home at 6:28 a.m. Friday. Preliminary cause: intracranial hemorrhage. Alvarez died in a single-vehicle crash at 7:03 a.m. Ortego has not reported for duty.

Lab logs confirm the file was created while the laptop was sealed in a Faraday enclosure with its battery removed. Notes state: “Behavior inconsistent with known physics.”

Fear inside the department is mounting. The union called for the laptop’s transfer: “Our members are not lab rats in a superstition experiment.”

Parents of missing children gathered at HQ, pleading for access. “If it names who dies, maybe it can name who lives,” one mother said.

Saturday morning, another file appeared on the device. One word, in 36-point font:

REBIRTH.

Capt. Batiste dismissed questions. “Fonts are not part of this investigation.”

Article 4 — March 17, 2011

Quarter on Edge as Nightly Files Multiply; Businesses Close Early, Rumors Surge

By Camille Robichaux, Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — In the last four nights, the impounded laptop has produced twenty-three documents, each describing fatal incidents that occurred hours later.

Events include a balcony fall on Dumaine, a drowning in Marigny, and a car crash on Claiborne. Each time matched EMS logs within a minute. “It’s a list of clocks,” said one paramedic.

Businesses now close early. “You shouldn’t have to answer ‘what time is it?’ every ten minutes,” said bar owner Eliot Marchand.

Technical Services reports the laptop continues to write even in isolation. One file included French text: Il revient par la coupe de lumière (“He returns by the cut light”).

Residents mark intersections with chalk and hang mirrors by doors. “You can’t keep time out,” said one woman. “It’s already inside.”

Sources confirm a file with a diagram resembling a clockface and the phrase: “Born again in the thirteenth.”

At the newsroom, editors mapped file timestamps against EMS calls. The curve rises. A note reads: “What happens when it names this building?”

Late Thursday, a source texted: “It did.”

Article 5 — March 21, 2011

Digital Diary Case Reaches Breaking Point

By Camille Robichaux, Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — Police executed a raid at the Bywater residence where Elise Landry has been held under observation.

Her parents were found deceased in the parlor. Elise was not at the scene.

At 5:03 a.m., technicians at NOPD Headquarters reported that the impounded laptop generated live text describing the raid: “Door opens. Light cuts. Vessel walks.”

Body-cam footage shows a barefoot girl moving east along Press Street. She pauses, lips shaping a single word: “Listen.”

At that same moment, the newsroom’s publishing system logged in under profile ELISE_LANDRY. A draft of this article appeared. For one minute, the byline read: By Elise Landry.

Police will not comment further. Elise remains missing.

UPDATE — 5:12 a.m. (Technical Services log)

Technician [REDACTED] touched the laptop at 05:11:49.

05:11:50 — pupils dilated.

05:11:52 — convulsion. Attempted words: cut the power. Not power. Light.

05:11:54 — heartbeat ceased.

05:11:55 — cursor blinked twelve times.

UPDATE — 5:13 a.m. (newsroom draft overwritten)

Stop calling them officers. Stop calling them men.

They touched me. That is all they were.

Each file was not prediction. It was obituary.

You published them for me.

UPDATE — 5:15 a.m. (partial corruption)

Vessel absent.

Door left open.

Light cut.

UPDATE — 5:16 a.m. (street camera, French Quarter)

Witnesses report the girl walking down Press, turning onto Dauphine. Barefoot. No prints on the damp pavement.

Streetlamps behind her flickered and went out, one by one.

She turned the corner.

The lights across the Quarter died at once.