The Missing children

The Missing Children Incident was an incident occurring at "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza", and is mentioned in both the first and second game.

In the first game, numerous newspaper clippings can occasionally be seen replacing the Rules for Safety sign, normally appearing in the East Hall Corner. These clippings explain that during late June of an unspecified year, a total of five children had gradually gone missing at the pizzeria. Police suspect that a man had dressed up in a costume resembling Freddy Fazbear (possibly even Golden Freddy) and lured the children to a back room where he presumably murdered them.

Soon after the incident, the company's animatronics had begun to leak blood and mucus around the facial areas, and had released a foul odor described by one customer as "reanimated carcasses". This has led to the popular belief that the murdered children were stuffed into the animatronic suits. This incident, along with other incidents and health violations, ultimately led to the closing of the pizzeria, and it was set to shut down by year's end.

The game doesn't confirm whether the man convicted for the incident was actually the murderer, or if kids were stuffed into the animatronics. Since the animatronics attempt to kill other people in a similar manner, some fans believe that the animatronics were the real murderers.

Others believe that it was a homicidal employee (as they would have access to the costumes and the animatronics' AI controls), though the newspaper says nothing as to whether the killer was an employee. Scott Cawthon's hinting of paranormal activity within the pizzeria gave rise to speculation that the ghosts of the five children (and the other victims) might have possessed the animatronics, which caused their macabre behavior. Most fan theories agree that the Purple Man from the Death Minigames is the true murderer involved in this incident, as he is usually present with the imagery of deceased children.

A variation of two certain theories speculates that the murderer may have been a previous night guard, which would explain why the animatronics are so determined to reach Mike Schmidt (and supposedly Phone Guy before him, as heard during Night 4's phone call). Since the killings may have occurred after-hours, this theory raises the possibility that the victims haunting the animatronics want revenge but can only remember for certain that their killer was a night guard (This is leading towards the other theory of where fans believe that the Phone Guy is stuffed into Golden Freddy).

Another theory speculates that the missing children were stuffed into the four animatronics. This would explain the animatronics' foul odor, the leaking blood and mucus, and the parents' comparisons to reanimated corpses. No one knows what happened to the fifth child, though it is theorized that the fifth child may have been stuffed into Golden Freddy. This could explain why Golden Freddy has a little girl's laugh. It is possible that all of the children were killed and disposed of in a more traditional way, though.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 hints that the previous day shift guard is the one who murdered the children. Phone Guy mentions on Night 5 of the second game that "no one is allowed in or out...especially concerning any...previous employees." This is also possible because Mike worked after both this incident and The Bite of '87 took place, and due to the fact that Jeremy Fitzgeraldis the only protagonist to not be fired from his job as a night guard.

Another candidate could be Fritz Smith, the security guard on the Custom Night that is fired the following day after he tampers with the animatronics (just as Mike was). However, "tampering with the animatronics" could simply allude to the Custom Night gameplay where the player adjusts the A.I. levels of the animatronics. Also, the fact that Fritz worked after previous employees were neither allowed in or out possibly disproves this accusation.

Another theory proposed by the fan base is that Phone Guy is one of the likely candidates who took the missing children. This theory was brought up by MatPat of the famous YouTube theorizing gaming channel, The Game Theorists. The possible connections between The Purple Man and Golden Freddy to the Phone Guy are described; The Purple Man might be a security guard, which Phone Guy was, and The Purple Man's glowing white eyes in the rare "You can't" version of the SAVE THEM death minigame are similar to the ones Golden Freddy has in Five Nights and Freddy's and the player can see "You can't" on the bottom left corner of the death screen from The Purple Man.

Phone Guy also mentions that Foxy was his favorite, giving fans a reason to believe that he was responsible, as in the Foxy Death Minigame, The Purple Man is seen outside Pirate Cove.

My Top Three Theories of FNAF

1.One very popular theory is that Jeremy Fitzgerald is the victim of the much-debated Bite of '87. On Night 6, Phone Guy says, "Uh, we have one more event scheduled for tomorrow, a birthday. You'll be on day shift, wear your uniform, stay close to the animatronics, make sure they don't hurt anyone, okay?" This leads people to believe that Jeremy did as he was told and, having stayed close to the animatronics, wound up being attacked and bitten by one of them. 

Supporting this theory is the fact that the animatronic characters had been acting strangely recently, having been possibly tampered with. "But the characters have been acting very unusual, almost aggressive towards the staff. They interact with the kids just fine, but when they encounter an adult, they just...stare," Phone Guy says, which may imply that Jeremy, being so close to the animatronics, could have easily made him a target.

2.Another very popular theory is that the night guard for Night 7 - Fritz Smith, according to his termination slip - is actually the Phone Guy himself. Supporters of this theory point out that Phone Guy offers to take Jeremy's shift at night, while Jeremy fills in for the newly-available day shift; Jeremy works on Night 6, so Night 7 theoretically would be the very next night.

On the other hand, Phone Guy states on Night 6's call that they have "one more event scheduled" before the restaurant is forced to close due to an incident, and that he himself would take over the night shift "when the place eventually opens again." This implies that Phone Guy did not begin working the night shift immediately, but rather would begin if and when the pizzeria reopened. It is even possible that there was no guard necessary for that night at all, if the pizzeria closed up that very day - especially if The Bite of '87 occurred during the birthday party, causing a premature shutdown of the establishment.

Furthermore, Fritz's notice of termination states, "First day on the job? Really?!?!" which likely rules out Phone Guy as he has obviously worked for much longer than just one day - unless management considered his first night shift as his first day as it would have been his first time working that particular task.

It is also possible that Night 7 is simply not considered canon, much like the Custom Night from the first game, rendering the identity of Fritz Smith irrelevant to the story at large.

3.

There have been reports of a "Night 8" option appearing on the main menu in rare cases when 

continuing from Night 5. This seems to be a glitch in which the text that normally should read "Night 5" inexplicably changes to "Night 8", and can be triggered by scrolling the mouse quickly over the main menu screen, as seen in this video (via Twitch). When the player manages to click the Night it will show the "1st Night" screen as there is no image for the "8th Night". Since there is no data for Night 8 all animatronics and the Puppet are off, except for Foxy due his broken AI. Once the Night is completed the game will hang on the "6 AM Screen" until you close the game. You can view Night 8 being played here to completion.

Another video that surfaced on YouTube shows the player selecting Night 8 and actually being able to load into it, only to be confronted with Golden Freddy already sitting in The Office, making survival virtually impossible. However, this video was made by a user who is known for fake, edited footage, and thus the video cannot be trusted.

While the Night itself is a programming error, the rumor of Night 8 having any sort of significance to the story is proven false. It is explained how the Night comes about by the Reddit useronevsamillion in his

 post. onevsamillion went into more detail on how this works on this post. This also can occur in FNaF 1 if you do the same actions.

Additionally, this glitch can be used to make the menu read other values, including negative numbers. However, it will not show "Night 0." When completing a night with a negative number, the game will not automatically return to the main menu. Instead, the animated confetti in the background will fall indefinitely.

Tell me what you think.