Dr. Karen Elmore
NOT
AVAILABLE]
Personnel Summary
Position: Project Linguist (1976-1977)
Clearance: Level 4
Background: PhD in Linguistics, MIT, 1969
Specialization: Pattern recognition, cryptolinguistics, theoretical xenolinguistics
Status: Unknown
Last confirmed sighting: Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2003
Background
Dr. Karen Elmore was recruited to The Listener Project in March 1976 after publishing a theoretical paper on recognizing linguistic structure in non-human communication patterns. The paper, titled "Structural Markers in Hypothetical Xenolinguistic Systems," was published in a limited-circulation academic journal and drew immediate attention from project leadership.
Within four months of joining the project, she identified repeating grammatical structures in the received signals — the first confirmation that the transmissions were not natural phenomena.
She produced the only successful full translation: Transmission 77-A.
Post-Project
Following the project's termination on August 17, 1977, Dr. Elmore was transferred to an administrative position at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Records indicate she was assigned to the Office of External Relations, a role that did not utilize her linguistic expertise.
She resigned in February 1979 without public explanation. Her resignation letter, obtained through FOIA request, contains only a single line: "I can no longer continue."
No forwarding address was provided. Former colleagues report she severed all professional and personal contacts.
Recovered Materials
Dr. Elmore's personal notebook, partially recovered in 2019, contains translation attempts, frequency analyses, and personal observations. Only pages 47-52 were found. The remaining pages were either removed or lost.
View recovered notebook pages (DOC-015)
Selected Excerpt (Page 51)
"The grammar is consistent but the syntax is wrong — or rather, it's right in a way we don't use. They structure sentences around the listener, not the speaker. Every message assumes you already know what they're going to say. As if time moves differently for them. Or as if they've sent this message before."
Final Entry (Page 52)
"If they heard our messages, they weren't the only ones listening. We opened a door. I don't think we can close it."
Last Known Sighting
In 2003, a former MIT colleague reported seeing Dr. Elmore at a cafe in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The sighting was brief and unconfirmed. Dr. Elmore, if it was her, did not acknowledge recognition and left shortly after.
No further sightings have been reported.
If you have information regarding Dr. Elmore's current whereabouts, contact: listenerarchive [at] proton [dot] me