Images of the unidentified are unsettling for two reasons. First is their purpose. The idea of a corpse being completely separated from the person’s identity is horrifying. For police sketches, the idea of an unknown criminal stalking the streets is pure paranoia fuel. The second is just that they look so strange. This is on purpose with the sketcher overemphasising certain aspects of the person to draw attention to certain stand-out features of the person. Whilst reconstructions of unidentified bodies and police sketches are obviously different they both share the deliberate exaggeration of features. These images are now being used in online horror which can be traced to one police sketch in particular which has started to gain particular prominence. A police sketch of serial killer Derrick Todd Lee shows a bizarrely wide-eyed depiction of the murderer.
Todd Lee’s sketch has been given three notable usages. First is that in the Selene Delgado online mystery very deep rabbit hole in itself but for its importance to the sketch in short it spawned from a Mexican tv station Channel 5. This channel used to show missing people on it and one of these individuals that routinely showed up was a woman called Selene Delgado. A video on the Youtube spook channel Florecita Dreams argues that Delgado was actually a reconstructed image of a person. To argue this point it contrasted Selene Delgado’s photograph with that of reconstructions and sketches including Derrick Todd Lee’s. Likely due to just how memorable the sketch is it eventually became associated with that of Selene Delgado with it now being recognised with Delgado instead of the one that appeared on Channel 5.
The second prominent usage of the sketch is in the Youtube series The Mandela Catalogue. The series takes place in the fictional Mandela county in which imposter-style humans with faces straight from the uncanny valley take people’s identities. One of the faces used is that of Todd Lee’s sketch and once again similar to Florecita Dreams it has become the most popular scary face associated with the series. This is despite the series having numerous original distorted faces throughout showing that the uncanny nature of police sketches and reconstructions can outshine intended attempts at horror. The Mandela Catalogue itself was one of the most successful Youtube horror series of 2021 and has garnered millions of views both on its own channel and on the numerous reaction and analysis channels that YouTube horror so often spawns.
The third and perhaps most interesting usage is from a meme. In the meme format ‘Mr Incredible becomes uncanny’ the animated hero’s face slowly becomes more distorted as he learns more about a certain topic. One of these distortions is the addition of Derrick Todd Lee’s face over Mr Incredible. As this meme is from late 2021 the appearance of Todd Lee’s face is certainly inspired by the Mandela Catalogue. Appearances in memes are definitely a sign of popularity and one which tends to bleed over into other memes. As a result, I can easily see police sketches enter the online zeitgeist even more in the coming year.
Whilst police sketches and Doe pictures are of course creepy for their backstory Todd Lee’s sketch shows that the most important aspect is just their uncanny look. The popularity of his sketch in all its mentioned usages stems strictly from its Lemur like eyes. Todd Lee’s sketch whilst freaky ass hell even for police sketch standards is by no means the only strange sketch or reconstruction out there. With over 40,000 John Doe cases in the US alone is filled with reconstructions for content makers to shift through and find other unsettling pictures. With the recent interest in true crime it makes sense that drawings and reconstructions of Does have entered people’s collective fear. Doe pictures have always been freaky ass hell and in the previous ages of screamers and jumpscare reaction videos, notably, Doe pictures were not used. It is also not like the usage of recycled images new in online horror with numerous creepypastas such as many SCP’s just using photographs available online. As a result, police sketches and facial reconstructions are definitely a new trend.
The usage of sketches of unidentified people will likely only increase in popularity. Horror as a genre tends to be incredibly derivative. Mandela Catalogue itself is inspired by other works of online horror such as Local 58. The usage of already created sketches also has essentially no barrier to entry aside from some photo editing software. This ease means that anyone can hop on the trend regardless of budget, experience or talent. As a result, the featuring of police sketches and Doe reconstructions in online horror will only be heating up in the foreseeable future.
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