Werewolf

***Werewolf*** is the fourth episode of the second season of the thriller horror docudrama found-footage television series Lost Tapes. It originally aired on Animal Planet on October 13th, 2009 and was directed by Douglas Segal.

## Plot

In Spring 2003, following the death of twenty-one people at the hands of a savage and animalistic serial killer nicknamed "The Beast Killer" which first occurred in Summer 2002, independent filmmaker Austin Pace arranged access to the investigation of the murders by Sergeants Clifford Warren and Javier Mendoza in order to make a documentary about the killings.

The victims bear little similarity to one another, save that they were all seen at the same bar before being found dead, and the way in which they were killed, which included teeth and claw marks, post-mortem trauma that was unrecognizable, and traces of both human and canine DNA at the scene, as well as fur. Mendoza returned from the bar, having been undercover to watch out for suspicious individuals that fit their profile, and noticed a man flirting with a woman. The suspect and the woman leave shortly thereafter, and the officers follow them to a residence.

It turns out that the man has been arrested before for assault, and the woman is acting strangely, as if drunk or drugged. At first, they think nothing of the man's criminal record, but he closes the blinds and they have no choice but to get closer to the house and try to establish visual contact again.

As they approach, they hear a yell and growling, and decide to enter the house. Mendoza tells Pace to stay in the van while he enters the house after Warren, but they lose contact. As Mendoza enters the dark house, he suddenly sees a reflection in a mirror and turns around with his gun drawn, only to see that it is Pace, who has entered the house against all advice. Warren contacts Mendoza over their radio and they meet in the kitchen, where they discover a window that has been broken from the inside. As they wonder why the suspect did not just open the window, they discover fur and bloody paw prints on the floor and counter.

The officers decide to clear the rest of the house, and Pace follows Mendoza into the basement. There, they find the woman, named Sophie Montero, who seems battered and bruised with a few cuts and scrapes, but is otherwise unhurt. She is barely able to speak, and Mendoza tells Pace to stay with her when he cannot raise Warren on the radio.

Mendoza walks upstairs to a bedroom and is checking under the bed when he sees someone enter the room. He jumps up, only to find that it is Warren. They come to a stairwell where they see their suspect dead, apparently a victim of the Beast Killer. Meanwhile, in the basement, Pace tries to calm Sophie down, but she begins acting strangely, looking up as if something is there.

She beckons him into a darker part of the basement, but then the officers run down the stairs and demand that he step away from her. Bewildered, Pace turns around only to see that Sophie, partially obscured by the darkness, has acquired a more beastly appearance and attacks and kills him as the officers open fire, killing her. The murders of Pace and the suspect were posthumously attributed to Sophie's actions, and Warren and Mendoza were separately given paid psychiatric leave before resigning from the force.

Because of the circumstances of each murder and questions left unanswered as to how Sophie was able to commit such grisly and gruesome crimes, the case remains open. The term "werewolf" was not used in any of the official files, though Pace's film raises many questions.