In the year 1993 there was a contestant on the now defunct Nickelodeon show GUTS that gave what at the time seemed to be a peculiar interview. When asked about the events he had just participated in his eyes glazed over and he had trouble speaking. He remarked that he felt as though he was flying and his face seemed both euphoric and strangely empty.
Neighbors of the boy would later go on record stating he acted differently after returning home that day, becoming emotionally distant and unable to focus on anything but his experience on the show.
Three months later the police were called to investigate a noise complaint in a residential neighborhood just outside of San Fransisco. It was there they found the mutilated bodies of the boy’s mother, father, and baby sister strewn out on the front lawn. Police reports determined that the family members were likely pushed from the roof of their home, and then bludgeoned to death with a large object.
When police searched the house they found a poorly written note tucked underneath a rock shaped trophy stained with the victims’ blood. The note said simply, “I’m sorry. I just wanted them to feel what i felt.” The boy’s body was found unconscious face down on the floor of his parent’s bedroom and later declared dead en route to the hospital of presumably self inflicted trauma.
The official report lists the case as a murder suicide and as a precautionary measure (and perhaps to dissuade the surviving family from filing suit against the company) the minimum age limit for contestants on GUTS was raised from 11 to 13. In addition the contestants were no longer given a “piece of the krag” after winning the competition but rather a piece of paper certifying that they had in fact won. The boy’s episode did not air for sometime after, but recent reports have surfaced of its reintroduction into syndication.
