By Isairo Palantes, Monteddorian Correspondent

1/11/282- A group of fisherman off the coast of Julianos Territory in Monteddor received a shocking surprise on Friday morning when their nets pulled in not only fish, but a man dressed in a tattered prison jumpsuit.

Captain Enricies Saldazar described the scene.

“It was complete chaos. One minute, the men are doing what they always do, pulling in nets, grousing about their jobs and pay. Probably planning a mutiny. Next thing I know they are running around, shouting at the top of their lungs about a mermaid.”

It wasn’t a mermaid they pulled onto the deck of their ship, however. It was one Hjavern Newstead, of Toring. Newstead was arrested two years ago after he used his landlord’s cat to feed his family during the winter freeze of 280.

Newstead was sent to Toring Penitentiary, where he, along with several others, were reported missing several months ago. So, how did he wind up floating in the Pyros Ocean, still wearing his prison jumpsuit?

“The jumpsuit mister Newstead was wearing is not one issued at Toring Pen,” a Triumvirate Authority representative told us. “Nor is it one issued by any of the major Monteddorian institutions. Mister Newstead in fact claims that he never escaped prison, but was transferred to another. He claims he was incarcerated on a ship.”

This statement by the TA has sent rumor mongers and conspiracy theorists across the Triumvirate into a frenzy.

“I knew this was happening!” said Oculus, creator of the popular underground rag The Ex-Humanor. “I told you all this would happen! The moment Where, No One Knows (a popular colloquialism for the ship officially known as Leviathan) left port and prisoners started vanishing into the ether!”

Leviathan has been the source of much scrutiny in the Triumvirate since it set underway a year ago, under the cover of night. The official line provided by the privately funded venture’s backers is that Leviathan is a place for the most dangerous criminals in the Triumvirate to be held without possibility of escape. Some have speculated, however, that the ship is being used to make ‘problems’, such as political dissidents or business rivals, disappear.

More on this story as it develops.