Murder Coordinates

Submission 38,631

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About

Murder Coordinates refers to a series of memes including image macros that share the alleged locations of bodies of victims of violent crimes. The trend was started with users referencing Severed Head In Applebee's Toilet and Headless Body At 44.542094, -94.305717. The severed head in the toilet has no known connection to any real events or news story. The headless body is possibly inspired by a viral video of two TikTokers finding a body in a suitcase because of the app Randonautica, but this is unconfirmed. The coordinates lead to a house in Minnesota.

Origin

There Is A Severed Head In A Toilet In The Restroom At Applebee's At 9364 WI-16, Onalaska, WI

On November 17th, 2020, iFunny^[1] user FreeGuy posted a demotivational poster of a fish character from SpongeBob SquarePants looking into the toilet and photoshopped to say, "oh that's a severed head. There is a severed head in a toilet in the restroom at Applebee's at 9364 WI-16, Onalaska, WI." The image gained 152 smiles in 10 months. On November 24th, 2020, Tumblr^[2] user petits-pois-carotide shared the image, gaining over 31,000 notes in 10 months (shown below).

It is unknown where this reference comes from, and is not connected with any known news stories or events.

Hey Squidward Did You Know You'll Find A Headless Body At 44.542094, -94.305717

On January 15th, 2021, iFunny^[3] user azerbaijanlawngnome posted a similar demotivational poster of SpongeBob bothering Squidward to tell him that he'll find a headless body at the coordinates 44.542094, -94.305717. The Google Map^[8] coordinates lead to a lone house in Winthrop, Minnesota. There has never been a decapitation recorded at this location. The meme was reposted across social media numerous times over the following months.

Spread

The severed head at Applebee's post inspired numerous memes referencing it on iFunny, many giving as little context as possible. On November 19th, 2020, iFunny^[4] user Warsaw posted a POV meme referencing the original, gaining over 2,100 smiles in 10 months (shown below).

As a result of the meme, the Google Maps^[5] reviews for the Applebee's at 9364 WI-16, Onalaska, WI have been spammed with jokes about finding a head in the toilet. As of September 20th, 2021, there are over 1,100 reviews for the restaurant. It holds a 3.8/5 star rating (examples shown below).

On September 14th, 2021, Redditor u/LazarusisGay posted to /r/AskReddit,^[7] "What is the deal with 'Hey Squidward, did you know you'll find a decapitated body at 44.542094, -94.305717'?" linking directly to the meme, gaining over 1,600 upvotes in six days. On that day, u/AWitchBetwixt speculated the origins of the meme in a comment:

I think its a reference to an app that was popular not that long ago. I don't remember the name of it, but allegedly it measured quantum energy and used that information to give people random coordinates to go to and explore. This allegedly resulted in weird instances such as people finding bodies.

Redditor u/andy2233 replied to her comment on the same day, writing:

"The app was called Randonautica. It was some sort of game. There was a viral video of some teenagers playing with the app. They found a suitcase with a dead body inside on a beach."

The story of the video of the girls finding the suitcase with the body is real. It has since been deleted, but was described by TikToker^[6] @makingatruecrimerer on a TikTok uploaded on June 6th, 2021 (shown below). However, it is unconfirmed if this has anything to do with the demotivational poster.

39 Buried, 0 Found

On February 10th, 2022, iFunny^[9] user ZaynKhan2002 posted a Murder Coordinates version of You're Pointless meme in which the circle replied 39 Buried, 0 Found. The post received over 13,900 smiles in three months (shown below, left).

The image received viral spread online in the following weeks. On March 19th, 2022, voice actor Luke Correia posted a voiced version of the meme to Twitter^[10] and YouTube,^[11] where it gained over 22,000 views and 1.5 million views in two months, respectively (shown below, right).

In the following months, the phrase saw further spread as a Murder Coordinates meme.