Missing Persons board in Shepherd's Glen

Post by **19pack** » 29 Aug 2009

Does anyone recognise any names/faces or make out any of the text from the posters on the missing persons board in Shepherd's Glen?

The developers appear to have used low-res photographs of real people for some of the posters. Are they real missing persons? It would be kind of cool but creepy if they were. A nice touch. Or (and this may be more likely) could any of the people in the pictures be members of Double Helix? Or members of Team Silent posted as an in-joke that for some backfired in its irony?

The main one I can make out is one for a man called John Waterfall. His age is obscured but it could be something like 28, 30, 50, 53, 58 or 59 depending on how you look at it. The man in the corresponding picture looks to be about 30 though. His eyes are blue/green and he was last seen on 2pm Tuesday 22nd August 2006 (just over a year after Silent Hill Homecoming is set?) in perhaps South Bank, West Sussex? That sounds like England. It also looks like he was last seen on or with a bicycle judging by the picture.

Other people I can make out is a man (to the bottom left of Elle's position) wearing glasses with the initials JL and with some illegible text due to the low resolution.

To the right of that one is a wanted poster for what looks to be a man possibly called 'Seymour Shepp' and there's a $100'000 reward. There are two pictures of him, or maybe it's for two different people. There's a D.O.B. on there as well but I can't make it out from the angle.

Above them is another one for a Laura ______ with a highly pixellated set of 5 pictures of the woman. ...at a stretch, maybe Laura from Silent Hill 2?

There's another intriguing one on the floor to the bottom left of the board. It looks like it was hand-written and has a colour photograph affixed in the middle of two men side by side with a grey/blue back ground. The man on the left wears a beige jacket and the man on the right wears a white t-shirt. The man on the right has an arrow poiting to him and looks to maybe be younger than the man on the left. I thought for a second it may have been a picture of Alex and his Dad, or Alex and Josh. Possibly.

...They're all the ones I can make out for now...does anybody know more about these posters ie. their creation or if they can make out some more names dates etc etc? There may be some deliberate 'planting' of information/easter eggs in there for future Silent Hill games/characters!

EDIT: Oh Dear!

Post by **Chy-Fi** » 30 Aug 2009

hmm...interesting. im gonna have to play again(for, like, the millionth time:/)and look at the posters. i glanced at them once, but i didn't pay that much attention. good find!

Post by **The Adversary** » 30 Aug 2009

>at a stretch, maybe Laura from Silent Hill 2?
Maybe. She would be 21 at the time of Silent Hill: Homecoming.

Post by **Arachnid1** » 30 Aug 2009

MMY wrote:>at a stretch, maybe Laura from Silent Hill 2?
Maybe. She would be 21 at the time of Silent Hill: Homecoming.

I hope its not Laura. I dont want Laura dead.

Post by **Weyoun** » 30 Aug 2009

^I'm sure there are a lot of people here that disagree with you.

Post by **19pack** » 30 Aug 2009

Hmmm. I found this.

It makes me wonder - are games developers/film makers/anybody allowed to commandeer the details of someone's life or death for the purposes of entertainment? I know that journalists are allowed to write basically what they want about a deceased person as some libel laws don't apply anymore, but for entertainment purposes?
Another thing I discovered is that the poster for John Waterfall on the billboard in Shepherd's Glen is virtually identical to one of the original missing persons flyers for his disappearence (you can see it halfway down the page). The low resolution version of the poster used in the game has all the same layout and details including the small picture of a bike. The only difference is the photograph.
It seems a bit insensitive considering it happened less than 3 years ago and indeed, less than 2 years before Silent Hill Homecoming was originally released in the US.
So would DH have had to have sought some sort of permission to use the name and details of a real life missing person who also wound up dead? So relatively close to the release of the game? I wonder if John Waterfall's family are aware of this... I it can hardly be called a coincidence if it's the exact same details and only the picture is different. It makes me wonder of any of the other missing persons posters in Shepherd's Glen are based off real missing persons cases!!!

Post by **lain of the wired** » 03 Sep 2009

Arachnid1 wrote:I hope its not Laura. I dont want Laura dead.

Do keep in mind that missing ≠ dead. She ran away to find Mary, hence missing, but (depending on which ending you believe) may simply have gone off to live with James in the end.

Does someone have a clear(ish) picture of the board?

Post by **19pack** » 03 Sep 2009

It would be cool if somebody kind with access to the image files of the PC version could possibly post them. Then lots more people could have their say about what the text is and it would be a lot easier to identify the people in the photographs.

so, anyone....?

Post by **Skele** » 03 Sep 2009

not it.

interesting though

Post by **Klimat** » 03 Sep 2009

Post by **The Adversary** » 04 Sep 2009

[X X X]

Never mind. I found it.

http://someoneismissing.com/uk/fliers/j ... erfall.jpg
Different photograph, same details.

The middle photographâ€”from the aboveâ€”has the phone number 608-270-4390: Fitchburg, Wisconsin's Police Department.

I found the original poster, too: From the above link, click on "MIssing Person" in the left tab. Some of the details were slightly changed in this oneâ€”notably the photographs, "RACE: Caucasian" was added, the weight went from 130 to 135, and the details at the bottom were altered.

Post by **Miasma** » 04 Sep 2009

Klimat wrote:

Have they tried to censor the names? As you can see, John is perfectly visible, but Waterfall is very smudged.

That is quite cool. Though it is also kinda wrong.

Post by **The Adversary** » 04 Sep 2009

The names were deliberately blurred.

I'd like more pictures of the posters on this board if at all possible.

Post by **Klimat** » 04 Sep 2009

MMY
Here they are:

Post by **lain of the wired** » 06 Sep 2009

Nice shots, Klimat!

Funny, I could have sworn there were more pictures on that board... Some of those people look very out of place in Shepard's Glen. I'm guessing most of those pictures are programmers from Double Helix.

Post by **Vixx** » 09 Sep 2009

19pack wrote:Hmmm. I found this.

Fascinating. What a great (if disturbing) find. Can't believed they used John Waterfall's actual missing persons poster as the base for the one on SHH.

What do people think about the ethics of doing something such as this? Personally, it makes me really uncomfortable. I bet whoever did it didn't expect a bunch of Silent Hill dorks (I say that with love!) to find it ...

Post by **lain of the wired** » 09 Sep 2009

^Or maybe they did think we'd find it. After all, you're not going to recognize someone if you don't know about them, and the more people see those missing posters, the more likely it is the person will be found... it's a bit desperate to rely on gamers, though... so it's more likely they were just lazy and used the first poster they got when they googled.