Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her

2006creepypastaclassic

Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her is a 2006 chain letter creepypasta about a fictional Indiana teen who was supposedly shoved down a sewer by five classmates and killed. The story was debunked by Snopes the same month but kept spreading through MySpace, email and Facebook, then got a second life as a viral TikTok sound in February 2022.

creepypasta memeshoax memescopypasta memestiktok sound trends

Overview

Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her is a 2006 chain letter creepypasta about a fictional 17-year-old Indiana girl who was supposedly pushed down an open sewer by five classmates during a fire drill and killed on the ladder and concrete below1. The chain ends by ordering readers to share the story with the tagline "she was pushed" or "They pushed her down a sewer," and threatens that Carmen's ghost will kill anyone who ignores it via sewer, toilet, shower, or in their sleep1.

A supporting anecdote sits inside the letter about a 16-year-old boy named David Gregory (or Ron Anderson in some versions) who read it, dismissed it, then died the same night with his neck broken and his face skin peeled off1. The story is a hoax that Snopes debunked in October 2006, but the letter kept getting forwarded for years and picked up an audio version and a TikTok life along the way2.

How It Spread

The urban legend kept regenerating well past its email-forward era. A text-to-speech audio recording narrating the tale in the first person from Carmen's perspective was reuploaded to YouTube on October 9th, 2014, with a higher-quality version following in 20184. Around the same time, on May 11th, 2014, DeviantArt user SozaArt posted a piece of fan art based on the story, and in 2017 YouTuber Channel Zero posted an explainer video about the legend that hit over 60,700 views3.

The letter is still shared as a real news item on Facebook, especially among Spanish-speaking users; the Camtube page posted a long-form version with a supposed image of Winstead on April 16th, 2019, pulling over 32,000 reactions and 52,000 shares. On March 1st, 2020, YouTubers Jillian and Addie uploaded a horror skit based on the letter that hit 8.4 million views, and that July YouTuber "o p" mashed the Carmen audio with the 100 gecs song "Money Machine"3.

The audio got a full second life on TikTok in February 2022. On February 9th, TikToker @j6sse_ posted a 21st-Century Humor meme compilation built on the audio cut with loud distorted sound effects, pulling 71,000 views in six days. The sound, later titled "AUUUGHHHHH," inspired over 11,000 videos by February 15th, with clips from TikTokers @vicky.gee and @.ykiw pulling 2 million and 3.5 million views respectively in a few days3.

How to Use This Meme

The classic chain letter format is a copy-paste post that tells readers to share the story with the tagline "she was pushed" or "They Pushed her down a sewer" to avoid being killed by Carmen's ghost, backed by a fake anecdote about a boy who ignored the warning and died in his sewer1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her

2006creepypastaclassic

Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her is a 2006 chain letter creepypasta about a fictional Indiana teen who was supposedly shoved down a sewer by five classmates and killed. The story was debunked by Snopes the same month but kept spreading through MySpace, email and Facebook, then got a second life as a viral TikTok sound in February 2022.

creepypasta memes hoax memes copypasta memes tiktok sound trends

Overview

Carmen Winstead They Pushed Her is a 2006 chain letter creepypasta about a fictional 17-year-old Indiana girl who was supposedly pushed down an open sewer by five classmates during a fire drill and killed on the ladder and concrete below1. The chain ends by ordering readers to share the story with the tagline "she was pushed" or "They pushed her down a sewer," and threatens that Carmen's ghost will kill anyone who ignores it via sewer, toilet, shower, or in their sleep1.

A supporting anecdote sits inside the letter about a 16-year-old boy named David Gregory (or Ron Anderson in some versions) who read it, dismissed it, then died the same night with his neck broken and his face skin peeled off1. The story is a hoax that Snopes debunked in October 2006, but the letter kept getting forwarded for years and picked up an audio version and a TikTok life along the way2.

How It Spread

The urban legend kept regenerating well past its email-forward era. A text-to-speech audio recording narrating the tale in the first person from Carmen's perspective was reuploaded to YouTube on October 9th, 2014, with a higher-quality version following in 20184. Around the same time, on May 11th, 2014, DeviantArt user SozaArt posted a piece of fan art based on the story, and in 2017 YouTuber Channel Zero posted an explainer video about the legend that hit over 60,700 views3.

The letter is still shared as a real news item on Facebook, especially among Spanish-speaking users; the Camtube page posted a long-form version with a supposed image of Winstead on April 16th, 2019, pulling over 32,000 reactions and 52,000 shares. On March 1st, 2020, YouTubers Jillian and Addie uploaded a horror skit based on the letter that hit 8.4 million views, and that July YouTuber "o p" mashed the Carmen audio with the 100 gecs song "Money Machine"3.

The audio got a full second life on TikTok in February 2022. On February 9th, TikToker @j6sse_ posted a 21st-Century Humor meme compilation built on the audio cut with loud distorted sound effects, pulling 71,000 views in six days. The sound, later titled "AUUUGHHHHH," inspired over 11,000 videos by February 15th, with clips from TikTokers @vicky.gee and @.ykiw pulling 2 million and 3.5 million views respectively in a few days3.

How to Use This Meme

The classic chain letter format is a copy-paste post that tells readers to share the story with the tagline "she was pushed" or "They Pushed her down a sewer" to avoid being killed by Carmen's ghost, backed by a fake anecdote about a boy who ignored the warning and died in his sewer1.

Frequently Asked Questions