RECONSTRUCTION: Dashcam-style reconstruction of Route 11 near Mile 46, Bell County, Washington, October 14, 2019. Image based on James Holloway’s account and surviving vehicle footage. The white cargo van shown reflects the vehicle repeatedly documented during the incident. This image is an Archive reconstruction and is not photographic evidence.
CLASSIFICATION: Spatial Anomaly / Repeating Road Event
STATUS: Active
THREAT LEVEL: High
FIRST RECORDED: October 14, 2019
LOCATION: Route 11, Bell County, Washington
PRIMARY WITNESS: James Holloway
AGE AT TIME OF INCIDENT: 31
KNOWN DISAPPEARANCES: 1
CONFIRMED SURVIVORS: 1
CURRENT PHENOMENON STATUS: Unresolved / Intermittent
CURRENT RECOMMENDATION: If Mile Marker 46 repeats while traveling Route 11, do not stop. Do not approach any white cargo van. If more than one identical vehicle becomes visible, continue driving and avoid looking inside open side doors.
CASE SUMMARY
James Holloway was driving north on Route 11 when he passed a white cargo van parked beside Mile Marker 46.
A man stood beside it.
He appeared to be waving for help.
James did not stop.
Approximately eight minutes later, James passed Mile Marker 46 again.
The same van was parked beside it.
The same man was waving.
James had not turned around.
He had not taken an exit.
His navigation system still showed him traveling north.
On the third pass, there were two vans.
On the fourth, there were four.
By the final recorded pass, dashcam footage showed at least fourteen identical white cargo vans positioned along both sides of the highway.
Several contained people.
All appeared to be the same man.
One did not.
James recognized himself sitting inside.
INCIDENT 01 — THE FIRST VAN
DATE: October 14, 2019
TIME: Approximately 10:21 p.m.
PRIMARY PHENOMENON: Repeating Road Segment
OUTCOME: Survivor
James was traveling north on Route 11 after visiting a friend in southern Bell County.
Weather was clear.
Road conditions were dry.
Traffic was light.
At approximately 10:21 p.m., James approached Mile Marker 46.
A white cargo van was parked on the gravel shoulder.
No company markings were visible.
No license plate could be recalled.
The rear doors were closed.
A man stood several feet from the vehicle.
James described him as:
Male.
Average height.
Thin.
Dark pants.
Light-colored shirt.
No jacket.
The man raised one arm as James approached.
James assumed he needed assistance.
James slowed.
Then reconsidered.
The section of highway was poorly lit.
There was no visible damage to the van.
No hazard lights.
No hood raised.
No obvious emergency.
James continued driving.
He watched the man disappear in his rearview mirror.
Approximately eight minutes later, he saw another reflective highway marker ahead.
MILE 46
James initially assumed he had misread the first one.
Then he saw the van.
Same position.
Same shoulder.
Same man.
Same raised arm.
James checked his navigation system.
It showed him traveling north on Route 11.
He had traveled approximately seven miles since the previous marker.
There was no loop indicated.
James passed the van again.
He did not slow down.
Sensible.
THE THIRD PASS
At 10:39 p.m., James reached Mile Marker 46 for the third time.
There were now two vans.
One remained on the right shoulder.
A second was parked on the left.
Both were identical.
Both men were waving.
James increased speed.
Neither vehicle followed.
Approximately six minutes later:
MILE 46
Four vans.
Two on each side.
Four men.
All waving.
James later stated that the movement bothered him more than the vehicles.
They did not wave naturally.
Each man raised and lowered his arm at exactly the same speed.
Together.
As though one movement had been copied four times.
James stopped looking directly at them.
He called his friend, Eli Mercer.
THE PHONE CALL
TIME: Approximately 10:48 p.m.
PRIMARY PHENOMENON: Ongoing Spatial Repetition
SECONDARY WITNESS: Eli Mercer
James called Eli using his vehicle’s hands-free system.
The call lasted twenty-seven minutes.
Portions were later recovered from James’s phone.
James told Eli that he kept passing the same mile marker.
Eli initially laughed.
Then James described the vans.
Eli asked whether James had accidentally turned around.
James said no.
Eli told him to pull over and check his map.
James refused.
Good.
During the call, James passed Mile Marker 46 twice more.
The number of vans continued increasing.
Eli could hear James counting them.
Six.
Then eight.
On the eighth pass, James stopped speaking.
Eli asked what was wrong.
James said:
“One of the doors is open.”
It was the side door of the nearest van.
The interior should have been visible as James passed.
It was not.
There was no cargo area.
No seats.
No opposite wall.
James described the opening as completely black.
Not dark.
Black.
His headlights did not illuminate any part of the interior.
As he passed, James heard something from inside.
He initially thought it was someone speaking.
Eli asked what it said.
James answered:
“I think it said my name.”
COUNTY ROAD 8
At approximately 11:02 p.m., James reached the junction for County Road 8.
It was the first exit he had seen since the repetition began.
James immediately took it.
The road curved east through wooded terrain.
His navigation system recalculated.
For approximately three minutes, everything appeared normal.
Then James saw a reflective sign ahead.
He expected a county route marker.
Instead:
MILE 46
The pavement beneath him was Route 11 again.
James could not identify the point where the road changed.
He had made no turn.
There were now ten white vans.
Eli stopped joking.
THE OPEN DOORS
During the next pass, several side doors were open.
James refused to look directly inside.
His dashcam did not.
The footage shows three open vans on the western shoulder.
Their interiors are not visible.
Image enhancement produces no additional detail.
The openings remain uniformly black regardless of headlight exposure.
Figures stand beside the remaining vehicles.
Ten are clearly visible.
Several appear to be smiling.
James did not report seeing this at the time.
Then the figures stopped waving.
All at once.
They turned toward the road.
Toward James.
James accelerated to approximately eighty-three miles per hour.
The vans remained stationary.
The road repeated again.
ELI MERCER
At 11:15 p.m., the phone call disconnected.
James immediately called Eli back.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
James assumed the signal had failed.
The following morning, Eli did not report for work.
His apartment was locked.
His vehicle remained parked outside.
His wallet and keys were found inside.
His phone was recovered from the living room floor.
No sign of forced entry was found.
Eli Mercer has not been seen since October 14, 2019.
His final known communication was the call with James.
During forensic review of Eli’s phone, investigators recovered the final eleven seconds before the connection ended.
James can be heard breathing heavily.
Eli says:
“James?”
Then:
“Hold on.”
James asks what is wrong.
Eli does not answer immediately.
His final recorded words are:
“There’s a van outside.”
The call ends.
THE FINAL PASS
TIME: Approximately 11:19 p.m.
PRIMARY PHENOMENON: Human Duplication
OUTCOME: Witness escapes repeating segment
James passed Mile Marker 46 again.
Dashcam review identified fourteen white vans.
Seven on each side of the highway.
None had been present elsewhere along Route 11 earlier that evening.
Most side doors were now open.
Figures stood beside several vehicles.
Others were seated inside.
James kept his eyes on the center line.
Then he looked left.
One of the vans had its driver-side window open.
Someone was sitting behind the wheel.
James recognized the shirt first.
Gray.
Small tear near the left shoulder.
He was wearing the same shirt.
Then the man turned his head.
James saw his own face.
The other James smiled.
The actual James did not.
He accelerated.
The figure inside the van continued watching him until it disappeared behind the vehicle.
James did not remember what happened immediately afterward.
His next clear memory was seeing flashing lights.
RECOVERY
At 11:52 p.m., a Bell County deputy located James’s vehicle parked at a gravel turnout approximately three miles north of Mile Marker 46.
The engine was running.
The headlights were on.
James was sitting behind the wheel.
Both hands were gripping it.
He initially refused to open the door.
When the deputy identified himself, James asked one question:
“How many vans are behind me?”
There were none.
James was transported for medical evaluation.
No drugs or alcohol were identified.
He showed signs of dehydration and acute stress but had no significant physical injuries.
There was one mechanical inconsistency.
James estimated he had driven approximately forty miles between the beginning of the incident and his recovery.
His odometer recorded an additional:
63 miles.
No corresponding route could be reconstructed.
THE DASHCAM
James’s vehicle contained a consumer dashcam mounted behind the rearview mirror.
The footage remained intact.
It confirmed several elements of his account.
Mile Marker 46 appears repeatedly.
The vehicle continues traveling forward between each appearance.
No turn is visible.
No U-turn occurs.
No intersection capable of returning James to the same location is shown.
The number of white vans increases between repetitions.
One.
Two.
Four.
Six.
Eight.
Ten.
Then more.
The final clear pass shows fourteen.
Analysis of roadside vegetation produced another inconsistency.
Individual trees, road damage, reflectors, and utility poles are identical during each repetition.
They are not merely similar.
They are the same.
One crushed aluminum can remains on the shoulder in exactly the same orientation through every pass.
James never traveled through several similar stretches of road.
He traveled through the same one.
Repeatedly.
THE FIGURE IN THE VAN
The final dashcam pass contains the vehicle James described.
White cargo van.
Driver-side window open.
A person is seated behind the wheel.
The face is partially obscured by motion blur.
James identified the figure immediately.
Himself.
Comparison software found strong similarities in facial proportions.
Not enough for confirmation.
The figure appears to turn toward James’s vehicle as it passes.
The final frame containing the face shows the mouth beginning to open.
There is no corresponding audio.
James asked us to stop the footage there.
We did.
FOLLOW-UP INCIDENTS
Ravenwood identified three later reports potentially associated with Mile 46.
APRIL 2020
A delivery driver reported passing three identical white cargo vans parked within approximately half a mile of Mile Marker 46.
All were empty.
The driver continued without stopping.
No repetition occurred.
NOVEMBER 2021
A couple traveling south reported passing Mile Marker 46 twice within approximately four minutes.
Their navigation history showed uninterrupted movement south.
No vans were reported.
They turned around and left the area.
JANUARY 2024
A highway maintenance employee reported a white cargo van parked near Mile Marker 46 at 5:12 a.m.
Its side door was open.
The employee did not stop.
When he returned with another vehicle twelve minutes later, the van was gone.
No registration, plate, or tire impressions were recovered.
No current owner matching the vehicle description has been identified.
RAVENWOOD INVOLVEMENT
Ravenwood conducted controlled drives through the area beginning in November 2019.
Forty-three documented passes were completed.
No full repetition occurred.
Several minor anomalies were recorded.
Navigation systems temporarily losing position.
Vehicle clocks differing by one to three minutes after passing Mile 46.
A white van visible at long distance but absent when approached.
One investigator reported seeing a man standing beside the road.
No other personnel saw him.
Investigation teams were instructed not to stop.
That instruction remains in effect.
No controlled attempt has been made to deliberately trigger the repetition.
There are methods of investigation that produce useful information.
Repeatedly driving into a road that has already demonstrated an ability to remove people from ordinary geography is not currently among them.
ARCHIVIST’S NOTES
James asked me why I believed him.
I told him I did not.
Not at first.
That answer surprised him.
It should not have.
Witnesses can be wrong.
Fear changes memory.
Roads at night look alike.
People miss exits.
Navigation systems fail.
Exhaustion does strange things.
Then we watched the dashcam.
The first repetition is easy to dismiss.
The second is uncomfortable.
By the fourth, there is very little room left for ordinary explanations.
The vans bother me less than the road.
Vehicles can be placed.
People can coordinate.
Video can be manipulated.
A highway should not be able to return you to the same mile marker while allowing your odometer to continue forward.
James survived because he never stopped.
I believe that matters.
Every disappearance associated with the event may involve someone approaching a van.
We cannot prove that.
Eli never reached Route 11.
At least not by any route we understand.
His final words remain difficult to dismiss.
“There’s a van outside.”
James still drives.
He avoids Route 11.
Reasonable.
There is one part of the dashcam record I have not discussed with him.
During the initial 2019 review, the final footage contained the figure inside the van.
Nothing else unusual was identified inside James’s vehicle.
The footage was digitized again in 2024.
Three frames are different.
I checked the original cassette storage copy.
Then the first digital transfer.
Then the backup.
The same three frames now appear in all of them.
At 11:19:14 p.m., James is visible in the driver’s seat.
Both hands on the wheel.
Looking forward.
For three frames, someone is sitting in the passenger seat.
Same gray shirt.
Same hair.
Same face.
James.
The second James is looking directly at the camera.
In the final frame, he smiles.
Then the passenger seat is empty.
Nobody reviewing the footage in 2019 recorded this.
Neither did I.
There are several possible explanations.
I dislike all of them.
James has not been shown those frames.
For now, I see no benefit in changing that.
CURRENT RECOMMENDATION
Route 11 remains open to ordinary traffic.
No anomaly is consistently present at Mile Marker 46.
If the marker repeats despite uninterrupted travel:
Do not stop.
Do not reverse direction.
Do not leave the vehicle.
Do not approach parked vehicles.
If a white cargo van is present:
Continue driving.
If multiple identical vans are visible:
Do not look inside them.
If an open side door is observed, avoid direct visual inspection of the interior.
Do not respond to voices coming from inside a vehicle.
If a person matching your own appearance is observed:
Continue driving.
Do not attempt communication.
Do not stop to determine whether the resemblance is exact.
If possible, maintain contact with Ravenwood or emergency services until ordinary road geography resumes.
If someone you are speaking with reports a white van appearing at their location during an active repetition:
Tell them to remain inside.
Lock the doors.
Do not approach the vehicle.
CASE STATUS
ACTIVE — UNRESOLVED
James Holloway survived the October 14, 2019 event.
Eli Mercer remains missing.
The repeating road segment has not been reproduced under controlled observation, though subsequent incidents near Mile Marker 46 suggest the phenomenon remains active.
The white cargo vans have never been traced to an owner, manufacturer record, registration, or storage location.
James has reported no recurrence.
He has not driven Route 11 since 2019.
Neither have we asked him to.
RAVENWOOD ORIGINAL
This case is a work of fiction created for Ravenwood Archive. Names, characters, locations, events, and accompanying evidence are fictional or presented as part of the story.
FILE REMAINS OPEN