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RYAN: this week on buzzfeed unsolved, we discuss the fascinating disappearance of Michael Afton, a missing persons case that has mostly flown under the radar, despite its infamous subjects
SHANE: yeah, gotta say, this isn’t exactly the case i think about when you say ‘Afton’-
RYAN: nah, that whole family’s fucked up
SHANE: really? Maybe we should just [ he mimes erasing a whiteboard] -
RYAN: [wheeze]
SHANE: -erase the whole family tree- get it- get it gone, save us the trouble
RYAN: if i’m being honest- this one, this case right now in front of us, is one of the must utterly- just- just confusing cases i’ve ever read- like, even the most believable theories have little to no evidence- and the one theory i actually have plenty of evidence for- i know you’re gonna hate this-
SHANE: don’t say it-
RYAN: is supernatural-
SHANE: no. just- just no. [he continues to shake his head and mouth ‘no’ even as the camera pans back to ryan]
RYAN: Micheal William Afton was born to Clara and William Afton on August 7th, 1969. He-
SHANE: Now wait just a minute here.
RYAN: [wheeze]
SHANE: William afton. Infamous serial child murderer. Named his son- after himself? [Ryan bursts out laughing, and Shane joins in] what? Like he thought, ‘i know, I’m not just gonna fuck my son over by murdering his little classmates, im ALSO gonna name him after myself! Real great for the ol’ self esteem!’
RYAN [laughing]: you know, apparently they looked really similar- like, uncannily similar. People would regularly mix them up when Micheal was older
SHANE: can you imagine, being little mikey boy here and knowing your dad’s a psycho, and going out in public-
RYAN: and people think that’s you? Gotta fuck a kid up
SHANE: oh, for sure
RYAN: though, people didn’t know it was Afton until- well- we’ll get there
RYAN: born and raised in the town of Hurricane, Utah, Michael had a normal upbringing, well, as normal as you can get when your father and godfather, Henry Emily, own an up-and-coming business that you viewers will likely have heard of: Fredbear’s Family Diner.
SHANE: I thought it was called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza?
RYAN: no, not this one. That one came later on, as far as we can tell- if I'm being honest their records are more than fuzzy. Anyway,
RYAN: Within a few years, his younger siblings, Elizabeth and Evan were born, in 1974 and 1977 respectively. Most people who knew Michael claimed that he was a rambunctious child, with a sharp sense of humour and fondness for teasing. However, with the fredbear’s company continuing to expand and his mother tragically passing away in 1977, not long after Evan’s birth, Michael quickly found himself the sole caretaker of his siblings the majority of the time- and his teasing soon became downright cruelty.
SHANE: I knew Afton was an asshole, but I didn't think I'd have to add child neglect to the list.
RYAN: yeah, well, it isn’t about to get better
SHANE [deadpan] : oh joy.
RYAN: in April of 1983, during the lead up to his younger brother’s birthday, his bullying of Evan reached new heights. According to the police statement taken from Michael himself, he would often ‘jump out from behind furniture, just to scare him’. Evan was reportedly deathly scared of his father’s animatronics, even going out of his way to run away from the diner when he and his siblings were dumped there after school, as they were most days until their father was off from work- sometimes hours after the diner closed. More than once he was hidden under tables, sobbing his eyes out. Michael seemed to know this, and would wear a foxy mask when teasing his brother to create even more fear, or even lock him in supply closets.
SHANE: I don’t… think I like michael.
RYAN: To be fair to the kid, he was only, what? 12? At this point? And he’d already been his sibling’s babysitter for years
SHANE: i guess that would be pretty rough
RYAN: That's not- like, an excuse, or whatever, but I do think it’s important to consider all the facts, when it comes to a case like this.
SHANE: ryan- this… this one’s just bumming me out, so far man.
RYAN: yeah- well- dude’s an Afton, son of the serial child murderer, it’s gonna be a fuckin’ bummer man
SHANE: Well, moral of the story, kids are assholes! And don’t have kids if you like murdering kids, surely that’s common sense
RYAN: [wheeze]
RYAN: But on Evan’s birthday, Michael and his friends decided to pull the ultimate prank: stuffing his head into the Fredbear animatronic’s mouth.
SHANE: huh? Did I hear that right? In the mouth?
RYAN: You’re right. Kids really are assholes
RYAN: Unsurprisingly, Evan’s frantic movement and tears set off the robotic mechanisms, causing the jaw to clamp around his skull. He died in hospital the next day.
SHANE: oh! I think I've heard about this, what was it, the bite? The bite of-
RYAN: nah, I think you’re probably thinking of ‘the bite of 87’, that one got a lot more press coverage.
SHANE: question.
RYAN: shoot.
SHANE: had- had william killed anyone yet? By this point?
RYAN: uh… no, I don't think so. Most people tend to look at this as the trigger event of all his bullshit-
SHANE [while clearly trying not to laugh] : so… that means. Michael was the first Afton to kill someone.
RYAN: oh my god-
SHANE: could you imagine, your dad going on a killing spree and telling you ‘this is because you pushed your brother off the swing set when you were 10!’
RYAN [laughing] : i think getting him killed is a little more serious than the swings, Shane
SHANE: not in the Madej household.
RYAN: oh, of course, falling off the swings, a fate worse than death by animatronic bear.
RYAN: Yet more tragedy would continue to befall Michael, with his father’s first known murder of Charlotte Emily, someone considered like a sister to him, and his actual sister ‘going missing’ in Circus Baby’s pizza world, Afton’s newest restaurant, shortly after in 1984.
SHANE: jesus. Kid cannot catch a break
RYAN: After what we all know as ‘the missing children’s incident’ in the summer of 1985, Afton was arrested for the first time. He was eventually released due to lack of evidence, despite the killer being on camera wearing his iconic golden bonnie suit. This is mainly due to an alibi provided by Michael himself , but as he later rescinded this statement, there is a good chance it was provided under duress. Making this idea all the more likely is that one of Henry Emily’s last complaints to the police before going off the grid entirely was one of suspected child abuse towards Michael. While we have no hard evidence, knowing Afton's character I'd say that it is all too likely he coerced the statement out of 16 year old Michael under threat of violence.
SHANE: what a- [he laughs, a little morbidly] what a horrible little life he is having! Just- not great, Ryan, I’ll tell you that. First your mom, then your brother, then your best friend, then your sister, then your dad starts being an even bigger abusive asshole and goes on a murder spree! What joy. What a great life! And being forced to lie under oath no less!
RYAN: yeah- it’s- it is not going all too well, is it.
RYAN: Michael would soon drop out of high school, creating a fake ID under the name ‘Mike Schmidt’- his mother’s maiden name- and moving across the state at barely 17 years old, using stolen money from his father before searching for other jobs. From here, he would mostly lie low, except to rescind his father’s alibi, until 1987. A newly 18 year old Michael would receive a letter from his father, containing some unknown details-
SHANE: when you say ‘unknown’-
RYAN: literally like, half the letter was torn to shreds, my dude, like, there is no figuring out what it said
SHANE: What, like, Mike did it? Or-
RYAN: I can imagine finding out your serial killer dad knew where you’ve been living for the past year would be pretty fucking stressful
SHANE: very true, very true- especially since he did just go on record to say his father 99% did do those murders
RYAN: oh shit, you’re right
RYAN: The letter also contained all the necessary paperwork to apply for the security guard/ technician job at Circus Baby’s entertainment and rental, something Afton had apparently sorted out for Mike. Shortly after, both men would vanish, Mike after only 4 days on the job and the older Afton likely within the same timeframe, though we can’t know for sure. One thing to note is that due to the damaged hand-unit system, Mike was only referred to as Eggs Benedict throughout his job, and thus his colleagues only knew him as ‘Eggs’. Honestly, I just found that part funny.
SHANE: [wheeze] Eggs Benedict? How hard to you have to fuck up typing to get ‘Michael Afton’ confused with Eggs fuckin’ Benedict.
RYAN: oh, that hand-unit thing was known for its fuck-ups, it reportedly also changed voice sporadically, mistook jazz for casual bongos and seemingly all on its own decided to send home employees baskets of exotic butters
SHANE; exotic butters?? Well we just need some of those right now! We need a hand-unit for the buzzfeed office please, let me be serenaded by the sweet sweet melodies of the casual bongos, let me chow down on my most exotic butters!
RYAN: [wheeze]
SHANE: [wheeze]
RYAN: The missing persons report was filed after two weeks by Henry Emily, as his final act before going into hiding.
Now, finally with all of that background out of the way, let’s get onto the theories.
RYAN: The first theory states that the circus baby’s job was just a cover for Afton to lure his son somewhere away from people so that he could kill him for exposing his murders.
SHANE: Yeah, sounds about right. Honestly, I don't feel like you need to go much further than that, sounds pretty cut and dry to me.
RYAN: yeah, well you’d think that, wouldn’t you.
SHANE: oh?
RYAN: The evidence to support this theory seems pretty insubstantial: with the exception of a motive, there is nothing to suggest that anyone else even entered the facility. In fact, two technicians from the night prior to Mike’s disappearance didn’t even leave the place. The only person the motion sensors detected entering or exiting within Mike’s 5th night there was the man himself.
SHANE: So what no one else entered? Maybe he was waiting outside, like a little kid waiting to jump out at you from behind a doorway or something
RYAN: What, just giggling to himself, twirling his knife between his fingers and waiting for his murder victim to turn up?
SHANE: [wheeze] even if he didn’t go in the building, it doesn’t mean he didn’t kill him
RYAN: Yeah, well, I guess that’s fair. But surely outside someone would see something, right? Wouldn’t the whole point of luring Mike out there into the underground bunker be so that no one would see the murder?
SHANE: It was an underground bunker?!
RYAN: fuck yeah, dude!
SHANE: that’s pretty sick, I’m not gonna lie
RYAN: The second theory is my personal favourite. You’re 100% gonna think it’s horseshit, because i thought it was horseshit until I started looking into it
SHANE: Well, I just can’t wait.
RYAN: this theory posits that Mike was killed and used by the animatronics as a skin suit to escape, and that he is now living on as a zombie.
SHANE: ryan… i-
RYAN: [wheeze]
SHANE: Are you alright? Do I need to get someone to examine your brain? Make sure you’re not having a mental break? What even is this?
RYAN: The evidence for this theory stacks up pretty high, all things considering
SHANE: Oh do go on.
RYAN: First of all, the blueprints for all of the funtime animatronics contain strange, lure/capture devices, such as storage tanks and voice mimics, as seen in the blueprints. The one for Circus Baby herself contains a large claw, designed to spring out after offering ice cream. Elizabeth went missing at Circus Baby’s after repeatedly begging her father to see the animatronic, which he refused, so there is reason enough to believe she fell victim to this trap.
SHANE: ryan… why bring this- why?
RYAN: This is relevant, because all of the animatronics endoskeletons- bear in mind, not the suits themselves, just the mechanics inside, went missing on the same day as Mike. furthermore, inside the Hand-unit found in the scooping room- more on that in a second- was a circus baby voice chp, only accessed by a code Mike should not have known, unless of course he was told by the spirit of his sister, possessing the animatronic.
SHANE: You are… unwell.
RYAN: we actually managed to secure a short interview with a previous Circus Baby’s employee, now a franchise manager, about anything weird he saw on the job, although he wished to not have it recorded, so here’s a short section of the transcript:
‘I still recall seeing it, clear as day, in the scooping room. That was where they take the animatronics to be ‘scooped’, you see, get their… insides ripped out. There was blood, far too much of it, and organs, too. Lungs, and a stomach, intestines, and the heart too. I am sure about the heart. And the eyes. It didn’t quite feel real, poor Mike’s organs all torn out.’
Yeah, so, quite conclusive, honestly.
SHANE: ryan. This is Fazbear entertainment, they make shit up. Half their job is just to make shit up.
RYAN: So you're saying you don’t believe that guy?
SHANE: Of course I don’t, what am I, an idiot? I’m struggling to even believe the scooping room exists, to be honest. Why get rid of all the animatronic’s insides? What’s the point? If there’s a malfunction just find the part that doesn’t work and change it! No need to destroy the whole damn thing
RYAN: On the zombie point, we have eyewitness accounts from Hurricane, where Mike apparently spontaneously turned up, claiming that he went back to the now abandoned Afton family house and walked up and down the street each day as his skin turned purple. After a week or so he then ejected the robot parts from his body before getting up again.
SHANE: Is it crack? Is it crack cocaine these people are all smoking? Or maybe some LSD? People don’t just turn purple Ryan, i don’t care what they think they saw, something was in the fuckin’ tap water if they think they saw him vomit up robot spaghetti.
RYAN: I have two more bits of evidence to support this theory.
SHANE: TWO more? This is already enough, Ryan, I want to go home.
RYAN: firstly, a phone call that turned up on the answerphone of the afton family home not long after this robo-zombie turned up reportedly claimed that it was Michael, and that he had ‘done it’, and ‘put her back together again, just like you asked me to’. It is assumed he is talking to his father, as soon he says ‘they didn’t recognise me at first, but then, they thought I was you ’. It is never stated who the ‘they’ are, however this theory suggests it is the animatronics, and the ‘she’ is his sister within one of them. There was more to the message, but it was heavily corrupted.
My final piece is more of a mini-theory than anything. It states that Michael went on to be the night security guard at all of the main Fazbear locations, even taking over at the location where the bite of 87 occurred, to track down his father.
This theory stems from the fact that Mike Schmidt and Fritz smith, the last guards of the two remaining locations were all fired for the same reasons: tampering with the animatronics and odour- which would be pretty hard to avoid as a rotting corpse. Not to mention, the reuse of the Mike Schmidt alias. The owner of the now burned down ‘Fazbear frights’ also claimed that the night guards ‘smelled hella weird dude’, though i’m not inclined to believe a word he said, as he was clearly high out of his mind.
SHANE: now… I might- emphasis on might - be willing to believe that Mike went on to be the night guards, searching for dear old dad all the while not wearing deodorant- but not as a purple guy. Just as a dude.
RYAN: Dude, this is literally, the biggest amount of evidence I’ve ever gotten for a theory, I swear, and you’re still not gonna believe it?
SHANE: nope.
RYAN: but-
SHANE: It's more likely that he found his way to buzzfeed and is now working here than it is that he’s a walking corpse out to avenge his siblings, yes.
RYAN: You are impossible .
SHANE [smirking] : thank you.
RYAN: my final theory suggest that mike was abducted by aliens-
SHANE [holding his head in his hands] : what?
RYAN: Just kidding, my last theory suggests that Mike faked his own death after the work week to escape from under his father’s nose, distracting him so that he could slip away, unnoticed and live the rest of his life in peace.
SHANE: what a- what a breath of fresh fucking air after that last toxic dumpster fire. I knew you weren’t totally out of your mind ryan.
RYAN: Though I find this one hard to believe, as if he was faking his death, where did he get the organs from to place in the scooping room?
SHANE: I take back what I said. We’re still going with the scooping room?
RYAN: no, that actually existed. I don’t know, maybe things worked differently in the 80s.
SHANE: clearly.
RYAN: All in all, Michael Afton’s life was one full of tragedy, and likely cut short by the man whose shadow he continues to live in. Whether you think he lives on as a zombie, or just in spirit, the case remains:
unsolved.