Jym Pagel: In June of 2020 teens
looking out to get out and explore.
We're using an app called
Randonautica, which generated
random coordinates that led them
to Alki beach in Washington state.
What they stumbled upon sent
ripples across social media, and
made headlines around the world...
-- News Reporter: A call to police about a
smelly suitcase and a now viral tick tock
showing the teams who said they found it.
Inside a body, according to police.
Jym Pagel: ...as they happen to stumble
across a mysterious suitcase, that
upon further inspection, contained
the remains of 27-year-old Austin,
Wenner, and his girlfriend, 35-year-old,
Jessica Lewis, a mother of four.
Viewed over 22 million times, this video
of their discovery made headlines around
the world with hardly anyone making an
attempt to just look a little bit deeper.
Although we will definitely be diving
into the Randonautica app itself, what's
been lost in the hysteria around an
app that led someone to human remains
and a subsequent murder investigation,
is that an actual pair of human beings
tragically lost their lives, who have
been exploited for cheap entertainment
by some taking no thought for the
actual victims that were found.
We're going to be making an attempt
to correct that today, you and I, by
speaking with the actual family of
the two victims, whose loved ones have
felt like the memory of their family
members have been turned into someone
else's cheap forgettable entertainment.
Welcome to NightDocs...
And today we're going to be telling "The
REAL Story Behind the Viral TikTok Video."
[Title Sequence]
Imagine this -- it's a
quiet evening at home.
You've been working your regular
job, and you decide to relax
on the couch after a long day.
And he decided to flip on the news.
It turns out a video has gone viral
where kids have found something
that looks like it will become the
subject of murder investigation.
Wait a minute.
That's right here.
You don't really think too
much of it, at first...
Somewhere in the back of your
mind, there's someone you haven't
seen in your family or heard
from in about a week and a half.
You don't really think too much about
it because -- hey, they're adults.
Sometimes you just don't talk every day.
It doesn't mean you're not close.
It's just, you know, you've got
your lives and you both get busy.
It doesn't even come across your
mind that the remains found could be
somebody, you know, someone very close
to you and then you get the call.
Can you just start off by
stating your first and last
name and spelling it please?
Gina Jaschke: Gina  G I N
A Jaschke J A S C H K E.
Jym Pagel: And,, what is your
relation to, the victims in this case?
Gina Jaschke: I'm Jessica Lewis's Aunt,
They were inseparable.
I mean they had each
other's back to the fullest.
I've had other people tell me how
they admired them as a couple like
that, because they were completely,
I mean, if you had, if you got one,
you got the other and they were just
like, so in tune with each other, it
was just like talking to one person
and nothing was out of the ordinary.
Either.
I've talked to people,
I've talked to her father.
It was, everything was
just as normal as could be.
I learned of it, watching other,
you know, news stories about it.
News Reporter: It appears a group of young
people made a video of that discovery.
In a blog post on Friday, Seattle police
wrote detectives are investigating
several bags, containing human remains.
The tick tock video indicates the young
people were led here using the game
app, Randonautica, which sends GPS
coordinates of places for users to visit.
Gina Jaschke: When we were
notified, they called my mom.
She was just like, Jesse's Jesse's gone,
Jesse got killed and I'm like, what?
You know?
And she's like, yeah, I
just got the call, you know?
And she's just hysterical.
She's like, you know, they're,
they're shot, they're shot.
And they're found in a park and I'm
like, well, how do you know it's them?
She's like, I didn't believe him either.
And I started talking to them and they
just started talking, telling me things.
And it's them Gina.
Cash's mom.
She was the one who told me that they were
found, cut up in suitcases on Alki Beach.
I couldn't believe it I was
like, "That was their story?
Never in a million years, I
thought that was their story.
My poor brother, he instantly
calls me and he was just like,
"Gina, they didn't have to...
They didn't have to cut them up."
My brother, I kind of explained it to him.
And he just didn't, he
didn't quite understand.
And I don't think he's
still quite understands.
cause he asked me, he's like, "Well,
they weren't playing the game were
they?", and I'm like "No, Rocky...
...they were playing it."
Jym Pagel: We're going to
come back to that in a bit.
But what about the
Randonautica app itself?
Can an app really read your thoughts?
I decided to check this out for myself.
So I hooked up with Nexpo and we
decided to do a bit of exploring.
So, what is it about this Randonautica app
that has so many people online spooked?
Is there really something to it that
it's possible that an app uses something
called quantum number generation to
actually generate coordinates that
people end up in locations where they
find the truly bizarre, or is this
simply runaway confirmation bias?
If you think about it, how often are
you going to see videos out there
that get any traction whatsoever where
they go out and they find nothing?
So what we're going to do is
we're going to do a little test.
And we're just going to show
you exactly what we find at
these particular locations.
So we we've arrived at the location
that it told us on the map, and
it's really nothing, at least
as far as I can tell so far.
What we've arrived at is what looks like a
water treatment facility in the middle of
just suburbia, nothing really potentially
spooky or macabre or interesting.
I'm not really seeing anything in here.
It really is exactly
what it says right here.
It's a water treatment
plant -- sewer plant.
obviously we're not going to trespass
on this, but even if we were to,
from what I'm seeing, there's really
nothing interesting in this location.
So maybe what we'll do is check out a
few more locations over the weekend, and
if anything turns up we'll include it.
I went back out the next night.
A storm came right in.
Perfect setting when looking
for something spooky.
It's time to see what
the fuss is all about.
We're going Randonauting.
[Music - "Let's Go Randonauting"]
First location of the night -- a
high-school football field.
All right.
So here we are.
We're at another location.
We're in the middle of basically
a high school parking lot.
the GPS pin is just right over there on
the other side of this goalpost here.
I'm not really seeing a whole
lot that's out of the ordinary.
We're here at night.
So obviously we can't see everything,
but there's really nothing here
that's going to tell me that there's
anything out of the ordinary.
We're still gonna keep looking and
see if we can find any evidence
to back up this, this a thought
experiment that your own thoughts can
influence a computer so far away in
terms of how it can generate random
coordinates to send you to something
that you feel like you want to see.
Next location put me literally 20
feet away from where I was already
standing, so I skipped that one.
I went to location after location.
Most locations were totally inaccessible
and / or someone's private property.
My good friend, John didn't seem
to have too much success either.
This
John O'Brien: is where
we're going to head out.
I'm going to check out
this location, Cleveland?
Unfortunately, it's going
to be on private property.
This seems like a bust.
There's not going to be a whole lot here.
Here it is.
Jym Pagel: I was just about
to call it a night and then...
of all the places it could have sent me.
I'm not even kidding.
It.
Put me like a hundred feet
away from Nexpo's house.
Well, it was a good opportunity
to meet up with the crew, share
a few drinks and some laughs.
I went out with a Nexpo and
MamaMax a few nights later.
And we filmed and went to even more
locations, but still -- nothing.
So why were there so many videos
online where people were finding
the craziest stuff imaginable, but
we were turning up with nothing.
Now you may be a firm believer
that Randonautica has some
kind of spooky side to it.
There's a lot of supposedly empirical
evidence out there in the form
of TikTok videos and posts on the
Randonautica, subreddit telling
spooky story after spooky story.
Let's go ahead and suspend our
disbelief for a second and just assume
that every single story is true.
What would that tell us exactly?
Well, it's been said before
in other videos, but if you'll
indulge me, let's look even deeper.
If you haven't been on this channel before
I did a documentary in March about an
ongoing mystery where over the course of
20 years, over 21 detached human feet have
washed up on the shores from Washington
state to British Columbia in Canada.
Although there have been numerous
theories put forward over the
years for an explanation of where
all these feet were coming from.
I proposed another theory that
I'd been hearing about during my
research that I personally put the
most weight behind as an explanation.
Well, I'd like to introduce
you to a concept called the
Baader Meinhof phenomenon, also
known as frequency illusion.
I'll give you a quick example.
Think of the last time you bought
a car, picture it in your mind.
Wasn't it weird how, after you bought that
car and started driving it around, all of
a sudden you started seeing it everywhere?
Did everybody start buying that car
at the same exact time that you did?
Or was it far more likely that
you only started noticing it more
because that particular make and
model had more significance to you?
If you get a moment after this video, be
sure to check out the whole documentary.
Despite it, having the
least amount of clicks.
I personally think it's one of the best
pieces of content I've ever made, and
it represents about 200 hours at least
of my life that went into making it.
As a side note, I often get told
in comments about how much they
appreciate the amount of work
that goes into these videos.
It really is a staggering amount of work.
I tend to obsess over
just about everything.
I put a lot of work into this content
that you can get and enjoy for free.
I'd really appreciate your support.
If you're able to contribute to
something I believe in so much
over at Patreon.com/NightDocs.
You'll get some really cool
benefits, including the extended
cut of the interview with Gina.
I hate asking for help, but I find
myself in a pretty scary situation
right now where I really have to
rely on the kindness of strangers,
such as yourself to make this work.
But I genuinely mean it
when I say thank you.
For even being here, whether you're a
supporter or a casual viewer, you've
given something that I've put my passion,
creativity and energy into just a chance.
And it really means the world to me.
Thank you for being here at all.
Back to the topic at hand -- in
short,  here's how frequency
illusion relates to Randonautica.
When you focus on your intent of what you
would like to discover your intent can be
something pretty general or very specific.
I've seen videos where people focused
on a particular thing went out and
when they reported back reported
things that could be theoretically
related to what their intent was,
but seemed pretty mundane to me.
For example, if I were to focus my intent
on wildlife and picture seeing a herd of
deer, for example, I may end up seeing
something like a flock of birds and
then tell myself, "I saw a wildlife!"
There are videos where people focused
on death and then spoke about how
creepy it was that they simply passed
by a cemetery or a roadkill on their
way to wherever they were going.
By the way, the footage that I just
showed you of the dog --  that was
found during my Randonauting trip.
As sad as it is and possibly creepy I'll
have, you know, Nexpo and I stumbled on
that when we pulled over to film the intro
to the Randonauting section of this video,
and hadn't even selected an intent yet.
It was by far the most disturbing
thing we found, but it wasn't
even part of our exploration.
The point is that every Randonauting
trip puts each user in a state of
hypervigilance to their surroundings,
looking for every opportunity to confirm
their hopes, that it could be true,
that an app can read your thoughts.
It's also worth noting that the
Randonautica app at this time has been
downloaded almost 11 million times.
Assuming everyone who downloaded
the app, went out and explored.
Someone is bound to find something
TikTok User: That was the most
terrifying experience ever.
We started out, we were like,
okay, let's manifest water.
We want to see water.
It gives us a location.
One minute away to a
water hydrant that is.
On a water hydrant.
[Unintelligable nonsense].
[Nonsense] [More nonsense]
Jym Pagel: But just like you only
hear the news stories about the
most horrific current events.
News Talking Head: We cannot accept this!
I can't do it, Wolf I'm sorry!
Jym Pagel: The only Randonauting  stories
worth talking about are the very
small number of intense encounters...
..that people claim to have had.
When there are bombs going off somewhere.
The news, isn't going to read the
minutes from the Litchfield New
Hampshire mosquito control district
meeting that nobody showed up to
John Oliver: It's run by two men
who as you will see from an amazing
YouTube video of one of their public
meetings are almost heartbreakingly
conscientious, regardless of the fact
that there is no one else in the room,
Man: Let's all stand for
the pledge of allegiance,
Any members of the
public wishing to speak?
Jym Pagel: So let's talk about
quantum random number generation.
Because it has the word quantum
in it as described it adds an
air of mystery and intrigue.
If you ask the average person what
their understanding of quantum
mechanics or quantum computing is, you
may often find their eyes glaze over,
not really entirely sure what to say.
Diving into the origins of this app
may reveal some less than magical
and revolutionary foundations.
Human thought influencing
number generation without any
direct input is not scientific.
And it really begs the question,
"If your thoughts could really
influence random number generation
are the numbers truly random?"
It masquerades itself as science by
shielding itself behind sciency sounding
words like quantum and entropy, when it
has nothing to do with either of them.
In order to be scientific,
it needs to be replicatable.
So at the foundation, any app -- any
piece of software does simply
only what it is told nothing more.
So thinking of it from a
programming standpoint, we have
to ask ourselves some questions.
"What, in the app's programming is
receiving human thought as an input?
What is the mechanism by which
it receives a human thought?
If you simply say that quantum random
number generation is somehow taking
place without an input and that it's not
currently understood, okay -- fair enough.
But if it's not understood,
how is it programmed to
receive it in the first place?
And how would the programmers of the app
know that they've implemented it properly?
When asked about the scientific validity
of human thought having an influence on
random number generation, the 29 year old
non-scientist former circus performer,
Joshua Lengfelder points to the work
of Dean Radin, a vocal proponent of the
pseudo scientific study of parapsychology.
Dean Radin: We can use the tools of
science, which are very powerful to
study psychic and mystical experiences
and we've learned a few things about it
Jym Pagel: Closely related
to hunting ghosts and other
non replicatable pursuits.
The organization he leads called
PEAR -- Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research published their study that
Randonaut's founder cites as evidence
of the app's possible efficacy in 1998.
Just one problem.
Well, actually many, but here's a few.
The journal this study was published
in called the Journal of Scientific
Exploration  also gleefully publishes
works delving into everything from demonic
possession, poltergeists, and one study I
found exploring the concept of influencing
the weather by simply wishing for it.
But even if the journal it was published
and had a credible and clean record, the
study itself was inconclusive whether
or not human thought could actually
influence random generation of numbers!
In the 1800's, when farmers had a
difficult time finding water that would
use something called a divining rod.
At the end of the day, it was a
wooden stick, but they believed it
worked because when it, by chance,
led them to water, it confirmed the
biased assumption that they already
had, that it actually did anything.
Karen: Information goes into your
chakra system in the dowsing...
Jym Pagel: A more nefarious example
is this despicable human being.
Jim McCormick who conned the Iraqi
government and many other governments
around the world, out of millions by
selling a device called the ADE 651...
Rachel Maddow: They're WORTHLESS
Jym Pagel: ...for as
high as $60,000 per unit.
He told the fragile new Iraqi
government that it could use a metal
rod that would detect the presence
of explosives at checkpoints.
It didn't work.
And he knew it.
Selling them for tens
of thousands of dollars.
People died when checkpoints comprised
of magic devices that were supposed to
work to find explosives, and didn't.
News Reporter: He admits his
original device was basically
the same as the gopher, a novelty
product for finding golf balls.
Rachel Maddow: The company that sells
these contraptions says they can find
guns, ammunition, drugs, truffles,
the human bodies, and even contraband
ivory at distances up to a kilometer
underground through walls underwater,
or even from airplanes three miles high!
One retired Air Force Colonel tells
at times the device works on the
same principle as a Ouija Board.
Jym Pagel: Randonautica is
probably at its surface about
as dangerous AS a Ouija board.
The danger I see in apps like this is not
an its use, but the miseducation of the
public into being misinformed about what
is actually scientific and what is true.
There's nothing wrong with suspending
your disbelief in ghosts or an
app that can read your thoughts.
The believability of it
adds to the immersion.
Just don't let it go so far into clouding
your judgment to the point where all you
seek for are the stories that confirm
your bias and you just toss out the rest.
It's how we end up with bad science,
a dumb public and reality show
failed steak salesman as a president.
Bill Murray: Well that's what I heard!
News Reporter: I hear he
wanted that meeting with you--
Trump: He we wanted it.
But we called and called
and called and called...
they can't make a meeting with him.
Yeah, please.
News Reporter: Thank you, mr.
President, going back to
the Russia investigation.
Jym Pagel: So here we are.
Again, the family is grieving, looking
for answers and looking for peace.
What's life been like
without, Jesse and Cash?
Gina Jaschke: It's just been kind of...
...sad.
It's it's like a, it's a raw hurt.
Like you could never imagine they
were, sunshine, you know, they
had lots of love in their hearts.
They truly did.
I mean, they, they loved each other.
Obviously they loved
their children, you know?
They did have a lot of love
in their hearts, you know?
No, nobody is perfect.
Nobody's perfect.
They had their ups and downs,
but through their ups and downs,
they still remained together.
You know, he's a country boy
and she's a country girl.
And, they both knew of God and, you know,
were, raised in, you know, had that belief
in [God]  and, I'm thankful for that.
That I'm comforted knowing that yeah.
Jym Pagel: You've made some pretty
significant pushes to have the original
video that was found on TikTok taken down
Gina Jaschke: Enough is enough, you know,
I understand at first maybe it could
be helpful originally the police
had hoped that it would generate
like leads or something, you know?
So I understand that part.
What purpose do you have it up still for?
Can you tell me that?
What is the reason why you
still continue to keep it up?
Cause if it's, to help the police,
you know what been there done that.
Jym Pagel: I'd like to call
on TikTok and user UghHenry
to remove the original video.
Now let's be honest.
We all know, and most importantly,
the family understands that nothing's
ever truly gone from the internet...
Gina Jaschke: It's on the internet.
I get that part.
You know, it w you know, in 10
days, 20 million people saw it.
I can't change that.
Jym Pagel: But at this point, the only
reason that the video is still up in the
original location is greed and pride.
Gina Jaschke: It goes against their
own policy at TikTok in regards to
homicide and graphic and violent nature.
Yeah.
I mean, there's a violation of their
own policy for crying out loud.
The fact though that they
make profit off of it.
That's what bothers me, but,
you know, it's, it's, it's
free advertisement for them!
Getting your TikTok celebrity status is
more important to, to them then basic
human decency for one another, you know?
And it's like, "is that
what we've become??"
Jym Pagel: As Jesse and
Cash is laid to rest.
So too should that video.
Gina Jaschke: We're going to
be laying her to rest soon, you
know, and I, I really want that
video to be, laid to rest as well.
Jym Pagel: Now, if it's within your
means, I would encourage you to visit
Gina's GoFundMe page that she's put
together, trying to pull together a
reward for the arrest and capture the one
that took the lives of Jesse and Cash.
One of the things I wanted to ask
you about what the GoFundMe page is.
first of all, it's it's, it was
a little disheartening for me.
When I looked at it, how long
it's been up and, you know,
know $10,000 in reward money.
It doesn't seem like a very
tall ask from the community.
And considering that the video that
went viral, when I checked earlier
today, it was at 22 million views.
22 million chances for somebody to
just dig a little deeper, find out
a little bit more about the human
beings that were involved in this,
and only about -- what was it?
26, $2,700 so far out of the $10,000
that you need, to put together
a, a reward pool for anybody
that could have some information
that could give you some closure.
The people who have donated there's
been lots of them -- and whether it's,
you know, $5, $10, I appreciate that,
you know, because, I just do, you know,
and, Yeah, it'll, it'll get there.
I did see on the, the GoFundMe page
that there was a, there was a pretty
significant donation from, what
claims to be the Randonautica team.
Have they reached out to you or
they've been in contact with you?
Gina Jaschke: Yeah, quite, soon after
they sent their condolences and, I
thought that was very thoughtful.
And, it was very nice of
them to reach out like that.
Jym Pagel: It's such a small
amount of money that they're asking
for and the disappointing amount
of support that they've gotten
is -- quite frankly -- heartbreaking.
Gosh, what you were talking about,
having to deal with that knowledge
that you were just talking about.
I can't, I can't even imagine.
Gina Jaschke: I never thought in a
million years that I was their story.
Jym Pagel: No, and you know what, that's
only a very small part of their story.
They had an entire life before
that and they're not defined
by the closing [moments].
Gina Jaschke: And that's
exactly why I'm talking to you.
I don't want their legacies to be of them
in plastic bags down on, on the beach.
I refuse to let that happen.
These are real people, you know,
they're real people with real friends
and real lives with real kids.
And, they're not just, you
know, smelly bags on a beach.
I want their children to know that
for every bad story they read, I
want them to see a good one, that
they were real people, you know?
Hello.
I just wanted to say thank you so
very much for donating to help find,
whoever did this to Austin and Jesse.
they'll be caught soon
enough promise you that.
Jym Pagel: Now, if you have information
that's relevant to this case, I'd like
to encourage you to call CrimeStoppers
at 1-800-222-TIPS, or the Seattle Police
Violent Crimes Unit at 206-233-5000.
Gina Jaschke: And, God bless you for your
support and, always tell the ones you
love that you love them, cause you never
know when you're going to see them again.
Jym Pagel: Thank you for watching,
and just remember that out of the
darkness, we can all find light, but
for now, this is NightDocs signing off.
[Follow the White Rabbit]
