THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE

***THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE*** is the fourth episode of the second season of *Dead Man's Phone*.

## Synopsis

*Misinformation abounds, clouding your case. Time is running out to catch the killer.*

## Plot

Upon learning Gemma Dream may be alive, DCI Sutherland says Gemma has agreed to come into the station and Sophie finds her phone location is leaving Shropshire, which adds up to her geoblocked areas. Sara shares a new missing persons match - it’s Carly Willis who had been reported missing 2 days ago. Sutherland and Sara head to her house and you call Craig Earl to ask where she is but he doesn’t know either.

Sutherland video calls you at Carly’s house. When the police enter, they find a dead cat on the kitchen floor. They find bleach, and blood splattered in the bathroom. You and Sara start interviewing her neighbours. One neighbour, Jian Hu, says he heard some loud noises like shouting and hadn’t seen her for a few days. Another neighbour, Dawn, says she saw Carly had kicked her new boyfriend out, hearing a screaming match and seeing him coming in and out of the house with bags at 2am. Vikram confirms the blood in the bathroom and hair on the hairbrush matches the body, it’s Carly.

You and Sutherland break the news to Carly’s mum, Linda. She is inconsolable but Sutherland helps calm her down. After breaking up with Craig, Carly said she would take a break from relationships for while and got time off work, and one-night-stands weren’t her thing so it’s unlikely she would’ve got a new boyfriend. When she failed to turn up to work, everyone realised she hadn’t been heard from for 5 days.

Sophie takes Craig’s PornBox and Facepage accounts down, finding messages from Carly pleading for him to take the video down. Sara is sent to talk to Carly’s colleagues. Someone leaked Carly’s name to the news, and you see body cam footage of Craig at the police station shouting for Sutherland, as he has now been publicly implicated in the murder as Carly's abusive ex-boyfriend. You either put Craig in a cell to cool down, charge him or put him into counselling. Then Sara calls you to say Gemma arrived, and Vikram measured her feet too.

Gemma won’t reveal her real name but reveals the whole story. When her content and address were leaked, she went offline for a while and went to her family in Shropshire and stayed in bed for 5 days. Her family didn’t know what she did for a living, and when Sara posted on the local news asking for information, her mum caught on and told her about it. When she went back online, she had to tell people she was alive. When you mention you spoke to her ex-boyfriend Matthew, she is confused, as her ex-boyfriend is called Michael. You show her a picture of him and she is shocked, urgently saying he is a subscriber that she blocked. She’d reported him to the police and they told her to block him. He had paid for the girlfriend experience, paying for his messages to be answered, and when he started asking to see her face and meet up, she refused. He sent her angry threatening messages for months. Sutherland ends the interview and starts arranging for him to be arrested.

Sophie finds Matthew’s messages, which fluctuate between apologetic, pleading and aggressive. He vowed to find her. Sutherland briefly video calls you to show the police bursting into his house. Matthew is gone. A team is sent to his workplace and Sophie tracks his phone, but it’s turned off. Sara reports he hasn’t been seen at work since Gemma tweeted ‘I am alive’. When you remember Gemma said they called a few times, you decide to try and get her to talk to Matthew.

Back in the interviewing room, you try to convince Gemma to call Matthew, but she adamantly refuses. Eventually, she gives in with the assurance that he won’t know where she is and won’t be seen. She’ll give him an address to meet up and the police will meet him instead. It cuts to Gemma on the phone talking to him, but he isn’t convinced it’s her and says if she sends a video, he’ll meet her.

## BBO News headlines

* PM announces snap General Election for October

## Daily Shout headlines

* Mystery victim revealed - It’s NOT Gemma Dream