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00:05spring break is a huge deal at Ohio State University there are parties every night of
00:11the week 1994 was Stephanie's first spring break at Ohio State University she's by herself at 2 30
00:20in the morning that's when the nightmare really began there were no weapons found at the crime
00:26scene there are literally thousands of people in that campus area there's a multitude of potential
00:33suspects who want to murder armor let alone murder DNA is going to be the key to finding her killer
01:04Columbus Ohio is the capital of the Buckeye State and its biggest city in the heart of it is the
01:10Ohio State campus people here refer to it as the Ohio State University Ohio State is the place to
01:21go especially if you're an Ohioan it's also a sought-out university for students from other
01:27countries and states because Ohio State academics are second to none and of course the NCAA teams are
01:36amazing football team the baseball team the basketball team Ohio State has over 30,000 students on campus
01:46the campus has a very thriving nightlife during spring break it gets usually even busier
01:56classes are canceled during spring break but a lot of the other campus activities are open
02:03high street is the main thoroughfare through the campus area there are plenty of bars there are
02:11parties at some fraternity or sorority house every night of the week Stephanie Hummer's an 18 year old
02:20Ohio State University student back at our high school Stephanie played soccer she played tennis as well she was
02:30editor-in-chief of the yearbook strong smart driven athletic very successful in life Stephanie is so
02:40outgoing that she's impossible not to like Stephanie worked part-time as a golf caddy in high school she's
02:51here at Ohio State on an Evans scholarship which is a scholarship for golf caddies with high academics and
02:59extracurricular activities she's studying landscape architecture her dream is to design golf courses someday
03:09only one in three applicants actually received the scholarship it's a big deal
03:18spring break of 1994 is Stephanie Hummer's first spring break at the Ohio State University
03:29on Sunday March 6 1994 Stephanie kicks off her spring break celebration on campus
03:36that particular spring break Stephanie decided to stay in town so that a couple of her friends from high
03:43school Lila Knox and Nina Corwin could come and visit from Finneytown for somewhat of a small reunion
03:53Stephanie's new friend Tracy Goldie was at the dorm room of that night Stephanie and I were floor
04:01mates and good friends the night of March the 6th the girls wanted to go out to the bars to
04:08the parties I
04:09couldn't join them because I had to work early the next morning
04:19at some point in the evening Jace Merrick and Finn Calder showed up and they hung out
04:27Jace Merrick and Finn Calder are both 18 years old and both OSU students
04:34they all went to high school together at Finneytown so it was fun for them they
04:38were all in town at OSU for spring break the group decided to go to bars on High Street which
04:45was a popular place to go at that time in Columbus the legal drinking age being 21
04:51they're set up with fake IDs
05:00after the bar closed Stephanie and several of her high school friends decided to go back to the boys
05:05fraternity to continue an after party
05:12Lila and Nina changed their mind and decided they were going to bail on the party
05:18they had enough and wanted to go to bed for the night
05:23Stephanie wanted to keep partying with the boys but she wanted to make sure that Lila and Nina made it
05:30home and then told the boys that she would meet them at the party after she walked them home
05:36Stephanie is very thoughtful and always wants to put other people's feelings first
05:40once Stephanie got her guests back to the dorm safely she leaves around 2 30 AM to head to the
05:48frat to join up with the boys that were there
05:51the party was on 10th Street and Evans Scholar House is on 14th Avenue so it's just four blocks away
05:58during the day it's a safe 10 minute walk but Stephanie is by herself at 2 30 in the morning
06:16at 11 30 the next morning Lila and Nina wake up and realize Stephanie never made it home
06:25I came home from work a little after 11 AM the girls were concerned and they said Stephanie never made
06:33it home last night
06:33and they said she never showed up to the party
06:37so I started going to all her friends rooms and no one had seen her
06:42we really didn't know what we were going to do
06:45we couldn't call her we didn't have cell phones
06:49so I called my mom
06:51I asked her what she thought I should do
06:53she said we should probably call the hospitals to see if something happened to her
06:58the older Evans Scholar boys helping us
07:00one was in pre-med and he worked in the morgue
07:04so he even checked the morgues for us which is terrifying
07:07there was just no sign of her
07:12but two and a half miles from the university
07:14a railway worker finds a young woman's nude body near a remote stretch of tracks
07:19he runs to the nearest phone to call 911
07:24Columbus police officers are dispatched to that area
07:28and find the body of a young female in her late teens or early 20s
07:35the young woman was found lying face down as though she had fallen forward
07:41the body was found wearing only white socks and tennis shoes
07:46and there was a bra around her neck
07:51she had reddish blonde hair
07:54and it was fanned out above her head
07:57her jewelry was still on
07:59and her nails were found to be well manicured
08:05due to the fact that she's nude
08:08there is more than likely a sexual assault that has occurred
08:13there was nothing found in the area
08:16on that day that would indicate who she was or where she was from
08:21no ID, no purse
08:28news media have access to Columbus PD radio channels
08:32when they hear that the police are called to the scene of a deceased young woman
08:36TV crews appear at the crime scene
08:39word of the story and the tragedy spreads
08:42all across the Ohio State University community immediately
08:48another Evans scholar said you know I just heard that there was a body found
08:51and that's when we're like oh gosh
08:54so we called the police and then that's kind of when the nightmare really began
09:00back at the crime scene we got a call from the radio room that gave a description of a missing
09:07person from OSU area
09:13when Stephanie's friend reported her missing to the police
09:18she described Stephanie and described to the officer that she had reddish blonde hair and blue eyes
09:26and gave the officer a full description of what Stephanie had been wearing
09:30based upon the color of the tennis shoes along with the trim on those tennis shoes and her hair and
09:37eye color
09:38we were able to tentatively identify the victim as Stephanie Hummer
09:46police begin to process the crime scene to determine what happened to Stephanie Hummer
09:53there was what appeared to be damage to the back of her head
09:56there was blood spatter on her back as well as blood matted in her hair
10:02the blood indicates that obviously there was some type of injury there
10:07but the fact that there's blood spatter indicates to me that she was struck more than one time
10:15there was a bruise on her neck
10:18there was nothing else found evidence-wise near or in the area of her body
10:24there were no weapons found at the crime scene
10:27her body was found in a grassy area
10:29but very close to that grassy area
10:33there is a driveway and a parking lot
10:36not a lot of traffic in that particular area
10:40the area around the body
10:43the leaves and foliage appeared to have been pushed aside
10:46the disturbed grass and foliage indicated that Stephanie may have been chased to that area
10:54before she was struck down
10:57where the foliage had been crushed down and pushed aside seemed to indicate that there was a clear path
11:04to River Street about 60 feet away from where Stephanie was found
11:09the first question for police is how did Stephanie end up two and a half miles from where she started
11:14on her way to the frat party was she still on foot or had she caught a ride
11:21River Street runs to the east off of Souter Avenue in the area of McKinley Avenue and River Street being
11:27a dead-end street seems to have a lot of traffic
11:31but during that time of the day the businesses are usually closed so nobody would be around
11:38the area there on the west side of Columbus is known to police
11:44there are a lot of prostitutes that take their appointments to that area of town
11:51somewhat of an industrial area at night there's not a whole lot of lighting in the area
11:58to the north of where the body was located there is a WBNS TV tower very lit up it's been
12:04there forever
12:05that is one of the things that can be seen from that area very easily the crime scene
12:11has now been processed and now investigators send the Stephanie's remains to the coroner's office
12:17to complete an autopsy but before that happens Columbus detectives make the grim call to Stephanie's
12:24parents a hundred miles away Mr. and Mrs. Hummer had to drive from Finneytown up to Columbus
12:30and I know they had to identify Stephanie's body
12:36we questioned the Hummers about any knowledge of anybody that might want to harm
12:41Stephanie according to the Hummers Stephanie was well liked she had no boyfriend and they
12:49couldn't think of anybody that would want to hurt her harm her and let alone murder
12:53you know she was just their little girl she was their only girl and now she was deceased
13:01who did this who murdered Stephanie
13:15the coroner's office processed the body for DNA and any other evidence that might exist to further
13:23the investigation during the autopsy they found semen on the body confirming the police suspicions
13:32that there was a sexual assault that had occurred the bruise found on Stephanie's neck was determined
13:39to have been a hickey they did find a liquid they determined to be saliva around the hickey and
13:45it was swabbed for evidence medical examiner's office sent the swabs and so forth that was obtained
13:52during the autopsy to the lab to determine if the semen and the swabs from her neck were from the
14:00same individual the back of Stephanie's head was examined and an attempt was made to determine what
14:07type of weapon could have been used to create the injury the medical examiner's office was unable to
14:14determine if it was a rock or some other type of object but the cause of Stephanie's death was
14:20determined to be blunt force trauma to the back of her head one of the injuries appeared to have
14:26been u-shaped as though it could have been from a flashlight or possibly a tire iron but it appeared
14:33as though she had been struck at least two times the time of death was determined to be narrowed down
14:41between three a.m and six a.m with only a three-hour window for the murder police need to
14:48confirm with
14:48Stephanie's friends the last time she left her dorm and where she went from there
14:54detectives began their investigation by interviewing Stephanie's friends lila tracy and nina
15:02during the interview they confirmed that on march the 6th Stephanie had
15:07invited jace merrick and finn calder to gather with them as part of their high school reunion that night
15:19lila confirmed that she last saw Stephanie walking in a southwesterly direction toward the frat house at
15:28about 2 30 a.m
15:34detectives surmised that Stephanie may have taken a shortcut down pearl alley because it pretty much is
15:40a straight route to the frat house we used to cut through pearl alley all the time but that's usually
15:47during the day it wasn't really somewhere you'd want to be walking alone at night detectives need to
15:53determine whether or not Stephanie actually met jason finn at the frat house or possibly elsewhere
16:02we bring in the boys for questioning
16:07jace and finn were interviewed separately as a standard police procedure so we can check if there
16:14was any inconsistencies in their stories both boys claimed that Stephanie never made it to the house where
16:21the party was they stayed up partying for a little while but she didn't make it to the frat house
16:30the next day on sunday morning they called evans scholar house looking for her no one answered
16:38their call and they assumed that she had stayed with friends rather than attend the party
16:45jason finn did not have any romantic relationship with stephanie hummer we did notice during the
16:53interview that jace mary had an injured hand as he had a bandage on his hand jace explained that he
17:01had
17:01injured his hand trying to climb a chain link fence taking a shortcut back to his house the cut is
17:09suspicious because he could have cut his hand during an assault of stephanie he could have cut his hand
17:16while chasing stephanie maybe having fallen down cut his hand on something on the ground
17:23but both boys were adamant that they had nothing to do with stephanie's death
17:32jace and finn both voluntarily provided samples of their dna so it could be compared to samples taken
17:40from stephanie at the moment there was nothing we could hold them for so we let them go
17:54while the boys dna is compared to the unknown suspects detectives still need to determine
17:59where along stephanie's likely path she was abducted and assaulted
18:07we had patrol officers working the areas of pearl alley and so forth between evans hall and the frat house
18:14to see if they could locate any clothing that might have been stephanie's finding clothes would provide
18:21an indication as to where she was actually abducted from and there might also be evidence on the clothing
18:27itself the clothes were never found
18:34in the area where we know stephanie was detectives canvassed to see if they could locate any witnesses
18:42to stephanie's abduction there were no witnesses located and businesses in the area were checked to
18:50see if they may have had any security cameras around their establishments nothing was located
18:56because it had already been past closing time for the bars and most of the security cameras for
19:02those establishments are inside and not outside where we were trying to locate activity
19:10with the local canvas netting no new leads detectives circle back to the results from jace merrick and
19:15finn calder's dna tests
19:19the saliva dna from around the hickey found on stephanie's neck did not match her friend finn calder
19:26however the saliva did match the dna to jace merrick jace had lied about his relationship with stephanie
19:39we felt that it was true that he did have some type of romantic relationship with her based on that
19:46we wondered if he was also lying about how he got the cut on his hand we began to think
19:52that perhaps
19:53jace merrick wanted more out of the relationship with stephanie and she rebuffed him and that was
19:59ultimately the reason he could have murdered her
20:12detectives know jace merrick lied when he said he was never romantically involved with stephanie hummer
20:17the question now is did he also lie about having sex with her on the night she was killed
20:22to find out they compare his dna to the semen sample found on her remains there wasn't a match
20:30to the semen with jace or his friend finn there wasn't a match on either student even though the
20:38semen found on stephanie's body did not match jace merrick his lying to us did raise a red flag
20:47so we bring in jace merrick again for interrogation when detectives interviewed jace and asked him
20:57about his relationship with stephanie he was adamant that the relationship was strictly platonic
21:05but then when asked again jace merrick admitted that he had a small relationship with stephanie
21:13they fooled around but never had gone all the way their most recent time was in stephanie's dorm room
21:20on march the 6th where he gave her the hickey before the group of friends decided to go to
21:26some of the bars on high street when detectives asked jace again about a cut that they could see on
21:34his hand he told them that he cut it on a fence and he stuck to that story we weren't
21:40sure exactly
21:41why he had lied to us so we could not fully clear him from the investigation
21:49detectives look into jace merrick's whereabouts at the time when stephanie disappeared
21:56jace claims he walked with finn back to their frat house where they both stayed the rest of the night
22:02finn confirms it so jace is eliminated as a suspect detectives are able to clear the boys that stephanie
22:09was supposed to meet with that night and they now turn to the public for their assistance
22:16notification was made through the news media that there was a special number for people to call
22:23that might possibly have information regarding the murder of stephanie homer
22:29meanwhile the atmosphere on campus is tense everyone is scared it doesn't make sense that it could just
22:37happen like that she's here one night and the next morning she's gone no one saw anything no one has
22:44any
22:44details it's quite unbelievable i feel like there was just no way to pinpoint who did this
22:54once the media bullets reaches the public several people call in and report the same lead
22:59from a tip line we received reports of a white van being seen in the area of pearl alley during
23:07the
23:07time of stephanie's disappearance with only the information being a white van no further descriptors of
23:16year or any kind of business logo it was next to impossible to follow up and find this particular van
23:25however that information could potentially become useful down the road simply because if a suspect were
23:31located we might be able to find what kind of a vehicle that that person had and match it to
23:38that information
23:45just weeks after stephanie's murder we had received another tip
23:50noah trang a cincinnati resident called police saying that he knew who killed stephanie
23:57noah explained that his friend luca ferretti was visiting in cincinnati a few days after stephanie's
24:04murder luca ferretti was a student at josefinium college about 10 miles north of the osu campus area
24:14noah tells investigators that he and luca were drinking together at noah's house and catching up
24:18luca told noah that he wanted to get something off his chest that's when luca confided to noah that
24:25he was the one that killed stephanie and he swore him to secrecy
24:32initially trank didn't believe his story and just figured it was the drinks doctor
24:37but the next morning ferretti again repeats the confession luca even provided details of the crime scene
24:45stating that he could see the wbns tower from the crime scene the detail had not been released to
24:52the news media the only way luca could have known the wbns tower was visible from the crime scene was
24:59as if he had been there himself luca ferretti's confession was a strong lead and something we
25:05definitely wanted to follow up on we went to noah we provided him with a recording device instructed him
25:16on how to use it and encouraged him to contact luca in an attempt to secure a confession on tape
25:26if luca fails to repeat the murder claim to noah police suspicion would turn towards noah with
25:32possibility of obstruction of justice charges noah called him on the telephone using the recording
25:40device and was able to record luca confessing to the crime it is a clear confession that he murdered stephanie
25:55on her luca ferretti was picked up and brought in for questioning
26:03initially ferretti denied having the conversation with his friend during that interview he cracked
26:10and admitted that he was just joking and that he had lied to his friend noah about having committed the
26:18murder when asked how he knew so much about the crime scene he explained that he had studied news
26:25articles and was familiar with the area he also explained that he had gone to the area so he was
26:34fully aware about the tv tower light he now recanted his story about doing the murder but we wanted to
26:44make certain that his dna was or was not a match to the semen found on stephanie
26:53the dna came back as a negative match luca ferretti was cleared as a possible suspect
27:03at that point we felt that we had reached a dead end in this investigation
27:1020 months went by without a change or a lead in stephanie's murder i felt helpless especially for
27:20her parents and we just kept waiting for news about who her killer was meanwhile stephanie's parents
27:28started the process of developing a soccer park in stephanie's name the park gave us all something
27:36positive to focus on without having any change in her case
27:46and suddenly in november of 1995 we got a call from malik navarro a prisoner at pickaway correctional
27:54prison very close to osu he told us that a fellow prisoner gideon voss admitted to the murder of stephanie
28:03hummer we ran a background check on gideon voss and his rap sheet is along
28:11gideon voss had a violent history gideon voss has a rap sheet that includes armed robbery aggravated
28:19assault and attempted rape at the time of stephanie hummer's murder gideon voss was out on parole for
28:27two months and was found to be in the columbus area we jump on the new lead and contact gideon
28:34voss's
28:35parole officer the parole officer confirmed that voss was taking court-ordered substance abuse counseling
28:42at a location on pearl alley near where it was believed stephanie was abducted from
28:50it was believed that gideon voss did have the opportunity to abduct stephanie on that night
28:59could gideon voss be responsible for the murder of stephanie hummer
29:09we reached out to malik navarro the prisoner that called in the tip navarro tells us that he heard
29:18a confession from gideon voss as evidence for the case malik navarro allowed us to mic him up so that
29:28he could have contact with voss and possibly obtain a confession hoping that this might lead to a
29:35reduction in the sentence that he was serving police listened to navarro's recording of gideon voss's
29:42confession voss explains that he was cruising around the campus area and saw stephanie and determined that
29:50she was an easy target when he offered her a ride and she refused he became enraged and pulled her
29:59into
30:00his vehicle after nearly two years since the prior fake confession detectives are more hopeful that
30:09voss's admission is truthful they pay gideon voss a visit to find out
30:15voss we'd meet with voss at the prison and interrogate him about his confession
30:25at first voss denied all knowledge of the case but when we told him about the confession that we had
30:32his demeanor totally changed we conducted a dna test between voss and the dna found during the
30:41collection of evidence from stephanie it comes back as a negative ultimately he admitted that the
30:48entire confession was fake and it was a setup between him and navarro this turned out to be a
30:56giant scam these two convicted felons put this together thinking they could make money off of a
31:01movie deal and capitalize on the notoriety of the murder of stephanie hummer
31:10investigators eliminate voss as a suspect and send them back to his prison zone
31:17it's now been two years since stephanie was murdered and there is a lot of pressure on the local police
31:24to find this murder the parents the local politicians they're just demanding answers people became
31:30frustrated people became angry they certainly made me angry because you want justice quickly when
31:36something like this happens very tough situation for her family and everyone else involved we broadened
31:42our investigation and began looking at other suspects who had been involved in similar crimes before
31:52sterling knox is an auto mechanic that was brought forward as a suspect he had a long history of
31:59assaults including a conviction for rape and kidnapping in the osu campus area
32:07knox works at a transportation company that is very close to where stephanie's body was found
32:14that company had a fleet of white vans just like the ones tipsters had described seeing the night that
32:21stephanie disappeared we started off by interviewing sterling knox's co-workers and acquaintances
32:31one of the co-workers stated that sterling knox had admitted using the company van to play a sick
32:39game with young girls in the campus area sterling knox would pull over present young girls with a fake
32:48police badge and indicate that he had to pat them down and ultimately molest them during this pat down
32:55search it was also learned that sterling knox would use the company vans to solicit prostitutes on the
33:03west side of columbus where stephanie's body was found knox's co-workers also tell columbus detectives
33:09that in 1994 knox had been dating an ohio state student named celeste marrow
33:16police suspicion against sterling knox was growing
33:20so we contacted his ex-girlfriend celeste marrow
33:26in a surprising coincidence it was learned that his ex-girlfriend lived in the same building where
33:32stephanie hummer had lived that being evans scholar house celeste marrow stated that she broke
33:40off her relationship with sterling knox after she found out about his police record it was an indication
33:47that sterling knox had several opportunities and may have targeted stephanie as their paths may have
33:55crossed on more than one occasion him being in that area based on the information that we had developed
34:04it was enough to obtain a search warrant to search the van that he used from the company that he
34:09worked at
34:16during that search we found a police style flashlight a set of police style handcuffs
34:21and a stolen firearm under the front seat
34:24we also obtained fingerprints and swabs for processing
34:36as well as carpet fibers from the van
34:44at that point in time we ultimately bring sterling knox in for an interview
34:49hoping that the pressure will make him crack
34:54during the interrogation sterling knox maintains his innocence
35:00but he refuses a polygraph test and obtains defense counsel based on his actions we believed he was
35:10trying to cover up his involvement in the murder of stephanie hummer
35:29we did obtain a search warrant to take a sample from sterling knox
35:35so that we could compare his dna to stephanie hummer's samples that were collected
35:41and that was taken to the lab for comparison the dna came back from the lab and it was not
35:47a match
35:48and on top of that all the evidence collected from the white van yielded no ties to stephanie hummer
35:57we could only conclude that stephanie had never been inside knox's van
36:02based on that we had to let knox go
36:10months go by with no new news from the police
36:15and we're all just giving up hope that they will ever find stephanie's murderer
36:21despite the disappointments and the setbacks in this investigation columbus police never stopped
36:27looking for stephanie's killer we knew that the semen dna was the most crucial evidence found
36:35during the investigation and that was going to be the key to finding stephanie's killer
36:41as the dna sciences advanced we submitted samples to all the new databases that had been created
36:49including codis the codis is a national dna data bank which records the known dna of convicted
36:58offenders it allows law enforcement to compare dna electronically and identify suspects
37:05no hits were generated from the evidence submitted ultimately the columbus police department marked
37:14stephanie hummer's murder as a cold case as no new leads had come forward it's very frustrating
37:21when you're trying your best to come up with something to follow up on and there's just nothing there
37:33four years after stephanie's disappearance on friday july 31st 1998 the stephanie hummer memorial park
37:42was opened there are children's play sets where parents can bring their kids picnic tables several
37:56soccer fields at the entrance to the park there's engraving with a picture of stephanie and the poem
38:04she wrote called when i'm gone the poem is about how stephanie wanted to be remembered for being kind
38:12for being happy the family hopes the park will keep the memory of stephanie alive but also keep it in
38:20the public's eyes to hopefully someday find stephanie's killer unfortunately the publicity generated
38:28no new leads the case has remained unsolved for 12 years
38:40during the 12 years that elapsed between stephanie's murder in 1994 and 2006 ohio law enforcement
38:46dramatically advances how it collects and shares criminal dna data the state of ohio legislature
38:53changed and required all non-violent felons to submit dna samples in january of 2006 a lead was
39:03generated from the codis database 36 year old jonathan gravely a columbus resident his entire life
39:10had a dna sample taken by his probation officer jonathan gravely was behind in his child support payments
39:20he fell into the felony level of non-support then was required to submit dna samples
39:29on january 17 2006 the columbus police department got notified that a dna match had been made from dna
39:38the case submitted to codis the database matched the semen found on stephanie hummer to jonathan
39:45gravely stephanie hummer's case was reopened before locating and interrogating jonathan gravely investigators
39:54dig up his background information jonathan gravely grew up near the ohio state university campus he was
40:03a former football player and a track and field star at the time of stephanie's murder he was a 24
40:11year old
40:11father of two he worked at that time at a location where he did have access to a white van
40:20on january 18 2006 we paid jonathan gravely a visit at his place of work
40:28jonathan gravely was driven to columbus police headquarters
40:35we knew we had to confirm that dna sample and used a search warrant to obtain the dna sample
40:43he did not admit that killing her but it was obvious that jonathan gravely knew he was going
40:49to be charged with the murder but based upon the fact that he stated that they were having consensual
40:56sex he did not want to be charged with a rape his new dna sample matched the semen on stephanie's
41:05body
41:05police charged him with her murder what we believe happened is that on march the 6 1994 jonathan gravely
41:15saw stephanie hummer walking in pearl alley alone and so he snatched her off of the road
41:34he drove her then to the area on the west side and raped her
41:40stephanie was able to get out of his vehicle and she tried to run from him
41:47based upon his athletic ability he was able to easily chase stephanie down and he ended up striking
41:54her in the back of the head with a flashlight that killed her
41:59so when the detective told me that they got their guy i was just stunned i was not expecting it
42:12to
42:12ever happen in september of 2006 gravely took a plea deal of murder and kidnapping in order to avoid a
42:20death
42:23penalty jonathan gravely got a life sentence with the possibility of parole
42:31i was happy for her family that you know maybe they could put a little bit of it behind them
42:39it took 12 years but finally stephanie got justice
42:44stephanie hummer did absolutely nothing wrong
42:47most people believe that that can't happen to them but it can we have to look out for ourselves
42:57our loved ones and each other to keep that from happening again
43:19so
43:22so
43:36you
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