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Thank you. The Minds of Madness podcast. Listener discretion is advised. It was early morning on January 1st, 2015, and the temperature in Granville, North Carolina, hovered around 23 degrees. Most of the rural community along Highway 96 was still sleeping off the celebrations from the night before.

But at 7 a.m., Cindy Royster was already at work, beginning her shift as a 911 dispatcher,

hoping for a quiet New Year's Day morning.

And then, the call came in.

We received a call that gentlemen had seen smoke, a house fire, did not know the exact address.

Help us locate where he was and pinpointed with that address.

Told us what he saw.

I believe he turned around, went back to the house, knocked on the door, tried to get someone to the door.

Beat on the doors, windows, figuring someone might be asleep, trying to see if I'd get a reaction.

I peeked in the garage. It didn't appear to be a vehicle. But I said, you know, someone needs help.

We need to get a fire department here. I waited until a first responder came and talked to him.

By this time, the house had started bellowing pretty good, the fire had really kicked off,

and I could hear the fire truss coming, and I told him I was just going to get out of the

...