Who done it? Mysterious posters appear in Boswell

Was it the senior administrative assistant with the tape roll in the hallway? Or a teacher from the communication and fine arts division in the staff office with the printer? Whatever the case, an assistant professor of music at NIC said he plans to find out.

Bryan Hannaford, assistant professor of music, has been teaching at NIC for three years. Hannaford holds a Master of Music Education from Case Western Reserve University along with a Master of Music in Saxophone Performance from Cleveland State University.

For the past two weeks, Bryan Hannaford has been receiving extra attention from Share Bear, a purple Care Bear character, who has popped up mysteriously in posters throughout Boswell Hall, usually holding a slip of paper with Hannaford’s name.

The first poster, sporting a picture of Hannaford’s nameplate, showed up around Sept. 17 on the bulletin board outside of Hannaford’s office.

Poster one was found on Bryan Hannaford’s bulletin board around Sept 17. Photo courtesy of Bryan Hannaford.

“I was like, ‘Why did someone take a photo of this,’” Hannaford said. “It doesn’t make any sense. And then I noticed the Care Bear.”

Hannaford said the picture had already been out there for a few days, but he didn’t pay attention because he was so busy.

On Monday, a second poster appeared in the communication and fine arts staff office in Hannaford’s mail slot near the copy machine. Hannaford knew at this point that the suspect had to be a staff member. All faculty or staff members on campus have access to the staff room as long as Amber Hasz, senior administrative assistant, has the doors unlocked, but Hasz said she has not seen any suspicious activity.

“I don’t pay enough attention to people as they come in and out,” Hasz said.

Poster four was found on Tuesday taped to the outside of a window in room 128. Photo courtesy of Bryan Hannaford.

Tuesday came with three more posters. The third poster showed up under the door of Hannaford’s office.

A music student, Cassidy Swensen, said she witnessed one of the scenes happen but won’t give away the secret because she thinks it’s fun.

“I looked at the person doing the act and I think they saw me, and I was like, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell,’” Swensen said. “And then they just continued on with their day.”

Later Tuesday, Hannaford went to teach a class in room 128 and found a fourth poster taped to the outside of the window facing in.

The fifth poster showed up an hour and a half later on the computer in room 102. With each poster, Hannaford said more people wanted to know what was happening.

“I can’t wait to see if he figures it out or till the person reveals themselves,” Swensen said.

At first, Hannaford thought there was only one Care Bear appearing in all the photos until he noticed a change in the arm position of the bear on the fifth poster.

“Once I started talking about ‘Wow, it’s a different one completely’ then they put all five out,” Hannaford said.

Wednesday morning, Hannaford found a sixth poster featuring five Care Bear characters inside the enclosed bulletin board across from the Corner Gallery.

Thursday afternoon, Hannaford found a seventh poster lying on the floor of the hallway as he left orchestra practice in room 102.

“I’ve been questioning a lot of people,” Hannaford said. “I have some major suspects, I think.”

Hannaford said his top suspect is Sherry Simkins from the communication and fine arts division.

In a faculty assembly meeting over Zoom, Hannaford said he was joking with Simkins and asked her if anyone ever called her Share Bear.

“That’s why (she’s) suspect number one,” Hannaford said.

The posters only showed up after the meeting, although Hannaford said it was a while ago.

“I don’t have any comments,” Simkins said. “I think maybe it’s just Bryan being goofy.”

Hannaford also questioned the custodians and asked them to keep a watch out for anyone putting up posters.

“The hard thing is, the investigation is a little trickier masked up,” Hannaford said, “because you can’t see if they’re smiling and trying to tell you, ‘Oh, it’s me.’ They’ll just deny, deny, deny.”

Bryan Hannaford made a map to track where posters had appeared as well as to feature his list of suspects, from left to right: Sherry Simkins, Amber Hasz, Audry Bourne, Max Mendez, Faith Valente, Dwyane Huff and President Rick MacLennan. “When Faith saw her suspect photo she sent me a better photo to be on the board,” Hannaford said. Photo courtesy of Bryan Hannaford.

Hannaford put together a map to pinpoint the scenes of interest as well as pictures of his suspects including Hasz, senior administrative assistant.

“Amber came by and says, ‘Hey, did you look everywhere?’” Hannaford said Thursday. “So maybe she knows there’s something I’m not seeing in the room.”

Three of Hannaford’s prime suspects, Simkins, Hasz and Audry Bourne share conjoining offices in Boswell Hall.

“Who knows?” Hannaford said. “I think they’re all in on it together at this point.”

Boswell Hall houses 24 surveillance cameras on both the interior and exterior of the building which record off of motion. However, security would not allow sharing the video footage due to privacy concerns.

Bryan Hannaford received a friend request from Carrie Bear on Friday.

Alex Harris, director of Title IX, conduct and security, responded that he could not comment whether there was an individual on video with the poster.

Around noon Friday, Hannaford received a Facebook friend request from Carrie Bear.

Hannaford said he plans to keep investigating.

“I think I’ve gone so far that they don’t want it to come out,” Hannaford said. “But I just said, ‘What do you think I was going to do? Not go this far?’”