The Scarecrow Murders

In the time frame of October 1988 to November 2002, police investigated the disappearances of several people in the small town of Moorefield, Nebraska. The victims were women, children, and a few men. Since Moorefield is quite a small town, everyone pretty much knew each other. Police would first question the families of the missing victims, but none of them ever had leads.
The Scarecrow Murders caused 65% of Moorefield's deaths in this time frame, and it caused 18% of the town's population to vanish. In September 1999, police arrested the local farmer, Joseph Banks. On his farm, they found several bodies hidden throughout it. All the bodies were near unrecognizable, but they were later confirmed to be the missing citizens. However, it wasn't all of them.
Banks admitted to everything and was sentenced to life in prison without bail. As Banks was being hauled off to prison for the rest of his life, he uttered something that made the citizens of Moorefield's heart skip a beat.
"Beware the fields. They watch it. They will finish my work."
This is where things got strange. People continued to disappear, but the police could not find another culprit, but they noticed something. Though Banks was in prison, more scarecrows were appearing in his field. Police decided to do one last raid on Banks' farm. What they found was traumatic.
The Moorefield police called in state officials and private investigators. They discovered that within the scarecrows, were the remaining victims. Why didn't the police ever check the fields? The scarecrows smelled of death and rotten flesh. They cleared out approximately 18 scarecrows from the 35 acres of corn field. However, one of the victims within the scarecrow was still alive...barely.
The victim was named Harold Barker. He was well known as the town's handyman. He was placed in critical condition for three days before he passed away. Before he died, he confessed that he continued Banks' work.
No one knows what exactly "Banks' work" was, but it was not good at all. This is all I've been able to decipher from the small information that was provided. I will never understand why this was kept under social media. This seemed like something that would be headline news. It almost seems like people wanted this to disappear, but why?
I ran to show my father the website article, but when I came back, the website was gone. It said, "Site Not Found". It was obvious someone didn't want this to get out, but I can't understand why.
I'm currently 22 years old and now living on my own. I'd saved up enough money to go to Nebraska to find Moorefield. No one had ever heard of it. I'm not giving up. Whatever happened at Moorefield, it's not the whole story. Something was going on there, something bigger. These were more than just "Scarecrow Murders". I don't know what's going on, but I'm going to find out. I'm going to find out. And until then, I'm not trusting another scarecrow.
== Author's Note ==
In the spirit of October, I'm going to be posting some Halloween related stories. I'll admit, this story isn't one of my favorites in my catalog, but people have different opinions of things. I will have more stories coming soon. Thanks. I also send my condolences to the families of the victims of the Las Vegas shooting.
Category:Disappearances
Category:History
Category:Crime