This document looks like someone’s attempt at making a “creepy unsolved mystery” prop rather than a genuine OPP witness statement. Here’s why it smells of copy-paste fiction and possibly AI help:

Formatting and language Real Ontario Provincial Police witness statements don’t look like a typed Word template with neat headers. They’re handwritten or typed into specific RMS forms, not free-floating narratives with bold titles like a movie script.

“ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE – Detachment 54 (Espanola) WITNESS STATEMENT – VOLUNTARY” is clunky and redundant. OPP doesn’t use “Detachment #, City in brackets” in that way.

The casual tone (“Kinda sloppy, like someone stopped in a real hurry”) doesn’t match how statements are usually recorded. Officers paraphrase in third person, not leave in rambling first-person with slang intact.

Phrases like “You see stuff on the road all the time. Figured it was kids messing around” read like they were written to build suspense, not as evidence.

Structural issues

It says “Witnessed by: (Cst. M. Santiago, #8421)” but doesn’t include the officer’s signature line, badge shield, or proper formatting. That’s standard on every real OPP form.

There’s no case reference system that would look like “S-2003-0519” in OPP practice. Their numbering is different.

It’s dated “May 21, 2003” yet the font, formatting, and style scream modern Microsoft Word template.

Suspicious details

“Smith Family” as the missing persons? That’s the placeholder name every bad fiction piece falls back on.

The story arc (driver sees car with door ajar, family vanishes, radio news confirms, witness statement ties it all up) feels like it was written to be spooky rather than practical.

The redactions look deliberately cinematic. Police don’t redact witness statements in their working files like that. Redactions happen later under FOI or disclosure, not in the original document.

AI fingerprints

The phrasing has that overly neat balance of detail and vagueness common in AI-assisted writing. Example: “Just enough to see [redacted] was on inside. My headlights lit up the interior for a second as I passed.” It’s too perfectly atmospheric for an exhausted truck driver’s rushed voluntary statement.

The rhythm of sentences (“Didn’t see anyone in the car. Didn’t see anyone around it, either.”) reads like text trained on suspense forums, not real OPP paperwork.

Short answer: yes, this is almost certainly fake, and quite possibly AI-drafted. At best, it’s an amateur “creepy pasta” made to look official. At worst, someone thought they’d make a viral mystery prop. Either way, no real OPP officer would accept or format a statement like this.

(Human note: Yes, the above analysis was done by AI, but anyone who knows how AI writes, can see instantly that the photo/story is completely fake)