WOT

Ask anyone to recall the story of the Deadswitch Five, and they'll mention Avery Mathis. Maybe Janet Warren. But most of those vaguely familiar with the case will fail to recall the names of the other three.

I spend the day at Glass Lake, a four-mile hike from the trailhead. It is Saturday, the lake as busy as it gets. A family shares lunch on the shore across from me. Two smitten teenagers dive from a rocky overhang into the inky water beneath, shrieking at the cold when they surface. A middle-aged woman in backpacking attire rounds a nearby trail as she heads for higher ground, accompanied only by a golden retriever.

I am also guilty of not giving Paige, Tasha, and Naomi the attention they deserve. Part of the reason is obvious; the internet is teeming with chatter of Avablade, but googling Paige Reeves or Tasha Gonzalez returns dozens, if not hundreds of unremarkable social media accounts.

Paige and Tasha were half-sisters, both having met Janet and Avery at San José State. Paige worked at a nonprofit for women's reproductive care and moonlit as a bartender. Tasha had just gotten into law school with the hopes of one day becoming an environmental lawyer.

I think about these women as I eat my lunch on the shore of Glass Lake. I think of their quiet legacies, which never came to fruition. And I think of Naomi, who often shared with her friends how much she despised her budding career as a software engineer.

I feel like a cog, she told a friend over text days before the Deadswitch trip. How am I going to survive another 30 years of this? I don't care about fintech or crypto or the millionaire silicon valley fuckboys. I want to quit and run away to the woods. I want to build a witchy cottage and never see another computer or another man again.

In a second text message, she wrote, Don't tell my bf I said this. He already thinks I'm a lesbian.

... are you? Her friend texted back, to which Naomi replied: Jury's out. Check back later.

I hope that whatever tragedy befell the five women didn't happen at the start of their trip, and that Naomi lived out her fantasy in peace, if only for a few days.

It is peaceful here. Almost achingly so.