"Paranormal Witness: Deliver Us From Evil" Episode Recap

The following events occurred in Kokomo, Indiana between 1980 and 1997.

The God-fearing Brock family recently moved into a new home in Kokomo, Indiana. The family consisted of husband and dad Roger, Brock, mother and wife Ann, twin sisters Lisa and Lana and brother James. The girls especially idolized their father for his happiness and compassion. “We understood God through watching our father,” the girls said. Roger felt a calling to relocate the family to Kokomo to commit to ministry at the local church. As they moved in, Roger’s project was to build a big bookshelf that ended up being too tall for the books he had from his seminary days. The books were very valuable to Roger but he was having trouble with the shelf. Roger began hammering the ceilings and walls, making sure that the bookshelf fit just right. It took all night, but he succeeded. The next day, Lana went to the kitchen to wash dishes when she heard a “very strange noise coming from the living room”. She went in the living room and saw that one of the books was hanging halfway off the bookshelf. Lana pushed it back in. This time, the book flew off the shelf, to Lana’s shock. Lana slowly bent down to pick up the book and place it back in the shelf. “There was no reason for that book to be off the shelf,” she said.

During summertime in Indiana, the summers were hot with temperatures in the hundred degree range. One night, when the girls were sleeping in their bunk beds, Lisa woke up on the top bunk and noticed that it began to get strangely cold in her room. She woke up her sister after she saw something on her wall. They both looked and saw swirls of frost and snowflakes on the wall. The girls were beyond startled as it was June. The girls brought in their mother for her to see…but by then, the snow and ice was gone.

The girls were studying one day when James came waltzing in with one of the girls’ pink and white rollerskates off. One of the girls demanded that he take the skates off and when she went to get the skates off a mischevious James, they all the sudden heard a “deathly moan”. It came from under the floor. The girls knew that it couldn’t be James. The moan grew and “vibrated the floor”. It felt like an earthquake. It stopped for a moment but started back up again…the shaking and the deathly moan and growl. The twins and James ran out of the house and refused to go back in until their parents came home. Ann knew something frightened them badly. Roger approached the house bravely as Ann, the girls and James stayed behind. Roger tried to logically explain that it may have been an animal or something else. The girls adamant in talking to her father about the suspicious…and evil activity…but he would dismiss her.

That same night, Lana tried to sleep but was awakened by a “scratching noise” coming from the glass of the window. Lana thought it was a bush rustling or cable wire hanging in the side of the house….

“I saw this hideous face like it was going to come through the glass,” Lana described. “I couldn’t say anything or breathe….”

When the parents heard Lisa’s screams, they rushed to their room and looked out the window. There was no one there. Terrified it was a predator, the predators called the cops. The cops came out, thinking it could’ve been a stalker or a peeping tom. They couldn’t find traces of footprints or fingerprints at the scene. Meanwhile, Lana felt she was still being haunted but couldn’t prove it…

On a brighter note, Lana and Lisa were baptized in the Baptist Church, symbolizing their lifetime of fellowship and faith. Both of the girls were dunked into the water as part of the baptism ritual.

Excited and happy at this milestone in the girls’ lives, the family returned home in a very good mood…until they couldn’t literally get in the house. Roger tried pushing the door in but had no success. The door was sealed shut. “Something large was blocking that door….” Roger asked James to go around the back of the house and to see if he could climb through the back window and then open the front door. James tried crawling through a pane of glass to get in. James climbed in the house successfully but was stopped by something….

James found the bookcase laying in front of the door and after his initial shock wore off, he moved the shelf aside and opened the door. The shelves and the books were scattered all over the floor, the pages ripped out. What was odd about the whole scenario was that only the bookcase was affected and thrown around. The whole family was in shock. These books were the foundation of the family’s faith and just like the books, their faith began shattering at this unknown, evil activity.

“Dad tried to act like nothing happened,” Lisa remembers. “Dad…whipped around and told us that it was a demon.” Lana remembers as well: “My protector finally acknowleged it was a demon…my dad couldn’t deny that something was going on anymore.” Ann actually felt a sense of some relief knowing that it validate what the girls were experiencing. Roger decided to have the house blessed by a preacher from their church. The preacher was going to go from room to room and recite blessings. As a family, they bowed their heads and prayed. The family was very hopeful that this will end.

The first couple of days after the blessing, everything seemed to have returned to normal. James was home one day, sick on the couch as the girls were at school. He then heard “footsteps walking in the attic”. James knew that no one was there. They were heavy footsteps. James got up from the couch and walked around, trying to figure out what it was. James got a flashlight and boldly climbed up the latter to the attic. As James looked around the attic, he couldn’t see anybody. But then…..

Ann was at work when she got a frantic call from James. Ann rushed home immediately to see what was wrong. “James was crying, he was scared,” Ann remembers when she first saw him. Ann and James were waiting for Roger to get home so he could investigate. Roger went up to the attic himself. He couldn’t find anything there.

 The family was growing more miserable at this unseen problem. Lana felt that the situation just escalated after the preacher came in. She would come home from school and would feel a sense of “heaviness” overcome her. James came out of his bedroom one morning and he heard a sound and looked up at the ceiling. They saw a pair of scissors stuck on the ceiling just above the area Roger would sit and read his Bible every day. The kids became terrified that they would be attacked. Roger continued reading his bible as Lisa looked on. She then heard a thumping noise. The ceiling above Roger crashed right on him. Lisa frantically rushed and cried out to her dad, thinking he was killed. Roger wasn’t moving. Lana rushed over to see what had happened. Roger began slowly moving but was bleeding profusely. “My dad was under an attack.” Not only was he under attack physically but also against his faith. Roger and his family sought the answers in their faith but couldn’t find the right answer. The family continued to pray to find answers.

One night, Roger prayed with the girls before they went to bed. That night, the girls went to sleep when they woke up at 3am and heard a knocking sound. Lana said it sounded like her father’s knock. So Lana opened the door, expecting to see her father but no one was there. The knocking happened again and once again, Lana opened the door but saw nothing. Lana walked around the house to see what was there. Everyone was asleep. But Lana became scared and believed that something was stringing her along. Since she found nothing, she went back to bed. But she was awakened again to the sound of footsteps against the carpet. Lisa heard it too and “felt Lana’s fear”. The girls began frantically praying as the footsteps grew closer…

“It’s teeth were like animal’s teeth…it suffocated me. I couldn’t scream.” Lana said.

“I wanted to jump down so bad to help her but I couldn’t jump out of her bed, I was frozen,” Lisa said.

Finally, Lana was out of it’s grasp and began screaming. The family dog came to rescue Lana. Both parents frantically walked in. Ann rushed to Lana’s comfort while Roger looked on. The family noticed that Sam was gone and out there. “Whatever was in the room had to have taken my dog and thrown him out the window,” Lana explained. Roger rushed out to find Sam in horrible pain and suffering. “He was shaking, trembling…something had terrified him badly,” Ann said. “This was the last straw, we wanted it out of the house,” Lana said. Lisa wanted out of the house. The only way they could get out of the house if they were to get married. Lana married her high-school sweetheart, with Roger’s blessing, and escaped the house. Lisa married within the same year for her “freedom” to get out of the house. Whatever was going on in the house had drastically changed Roger. “He wasn’t the same man…he used to be strong, a very charismatic man…he lost a big part of himself,” Lisa said about Roger. A frustrated Ann had enough. They all wanted to start over and make a new life.

Four years later, the house was burned to the ground. In 2005, Roger passed away. The family blames the evilness in the house for Roger’s deteriorating health.

Picture Credit: Syfy

Jane's Notes: Wow...um....this was definitely an episode that packed a lot of punch. But...this one seemed so mind-boggling. I don't really know what to conclude in this one but there's an interesting article about the home and how it could've been possible that a murder took place there. If a murder did happen, that could certainly explain a lot of the activity. Evil spirits? Maybe. Demonic? Dunno. But the ice, the roof, the book tossing....I still really can't wrap my head around it, to be honest. I wish they went more into the possibility of a murder though. It's a case that just seemed so out there, you know? What do you guys think? 

"Paranormal Witness: Curse of the Lonergan Farm" EP Recap

The following events occurred between 1989 and 1991 at Lonergan farm in Nebraska.

Winter of 1989, Dan Dale comes home from work one day to find out his brother Tim, his wife Sydney and his children would be moving into the farm. Tim Dale wasn’t fond of moving back into the farm but after losing his job, he didn’t want his family out in the streets. “I was very young when my parents moved in and it was a bit tight, lots of people living there!” Laura (Tim’s daughter) Dale remembers. Tim’s mother was suffering from lung cancer. Steve Dale was in high school at the time and had a more upbeat attitude. Regardless of the family situation, they stuck together. Vaunette, Dan’s girlfriend at the time, spent a lot of time at the house as well. The family would reminisce about old times and their family tree. “I was becoming more of a family member, so they were telling me more of these stories!” she recalls. They mentioned their Uncle Will and needless to say, Vaunette realized that he wasn’t very liked among the family.

Lonergan farm 

One night, Dan tucked in his mother good night and made sure everything was taken care of. But when he left the room, he felt that something didn’t feel right…but Dale shook the feeling off. The next day, the three brothers took a walk out in the woods, jumping over logs and going through the trees. Once they got in the back of the woods, they came across an old house…Uncle Will’s old house. “The place scared me since I was a kid,” Tim remembers. “There was something there.” Steve recalls all too well the ghost stories connected with the house. For old times’ sake, the brothers walked to the house and went inside. Tim then heard twigs breaking and felt something was there. The house was dark and dusty. One thing that was commonly heard were bells clinging but there were never any bells around. They were almost like spurs on someone’s boots. The brothers then come across the water well that was used for the water. It was about 70-80ft. deep. It took Dan back to the day he went down the well…

Years ago, Dan’s mom told him and his brothers to check the well because an animal was down there. Steve and Tim hooked up a rope to a tier and helped hook Dan up. Dan took a fishnet with him to pick up the animal and a flashlight to help him see. The boys carefully lowered Dan. Dan was especially scared because of how deep and dark the well was. He eventually reached the bottom and saw there was a dead raccoon. He scooped it up and then began to hear voices in his ear…a man’s voice. Dan thought the brothers were joking with him. “As I’m reaching down the net, I heard someone talk in my ear again and it sounded like it was right behind me,” Dan recalls; “I felt I wasn’t alone. I always felt someone was right behind me.” Dan yelled at the boys to pull him up repeatedly. The boys, realizing something felt off, pulled him up immediately.

 

Their mothers’ cancer worsened and Dan was in the room. The mother was in and out of consciousness the entire time. Something woke the mother up and she was pointing at the doorway, as if she had seen something. “She’s looking fully at someone and there was no one there. I was the only one at the room at the time. It was a very eerie moment,” Dan said. The mother had passed away. Vaunette recalls the tremendous grief the family felt. “My mom was an awesome person….I sure miss her sometimes,” Tim said. The brothers continued living on the farm.

Sticking into unseen territory 

One night in October, Dan took Vaunette out into the woods for a walk. He wanted to “initiate” her into the family by taking her on a spooky trip to Uncle Will’s farm. Vaunette laughed at her boyfriend’s attempt to scare her. “The more you walked in, the more light seemed to be sucked out of it. You didn’t hear anything,” Vaunette explained about walking in the woods. “There was all kinds of debris and you really had to be careful.” The couple finally arrived at the house. Vaunette admitted at being a bit scared by the house’s presence. But she decided to go down the basement with Dan, much to Dan’s teasing. Dan led her down the basement. Vaunette saw holes in the basement wall and asked Dan about it. Dan said that that’s where Uncle Will kept his treasures and anyone who put their hands in the holes will lose their hands. Vaunette picked up a stick and poked them into different holes. There was a hole that was a little bit higher. “For some reason, I can’t explain it….I knew I had to put my hand in that one,” she recalls. So she did. But then she felt a “seering hot pain” in her hand and it was spread up to her elbow. She yanked out her arm and discovered human bites on her arm. The couple ran out of the house.

A farm full of menace and evil 

One day, the boys and Vaunette were out hunting and walked through the woods. Tim remembers hearing footsteps and heard the “bells clinging” again. “It was like something was stalking us….” Dan then saw a figure behind a tree. Dan ran to that tree and nothing was there. The figure kept popping up behind the trees and no matter how fast Dan ran, he couldn’t catch up to it. “You had the feeling like someone was watching you but there wasn’t anybody there!” The boys and Vaunette continued back towards the house and were passing the haunted house. Vaunette, growing tired of the walk, stopped to take a drink as the boys walked ahead. She looked up as she took her drink and saw a man hanging by a noose. Vaunette did a double check. She just saw an apparition of a man being hung. “I told myself that I was just hallucinating,” she said.

Then the nightmares began….

A deadly apparition

“It was always in the barn and there was people,” Tim remembers.  They were just laughing at me. Like ‘you’re in trouble boy’. The old guy was deranged looking and I couldn’t get away from him. All the sudden, my mom showed up. She’s pulling at me and yelling at me to get the hell out of there. I woke up outside Uncle Will’s house in underwear, t-shirt, right outside of Uncle Will’s house in 6-8 inches of snow.”

“It felt clearly evil. There was something that wanted to get me. I’m completely terrified. But my mom is there, yelling ‘get out of here, now!’” Dan recalls.

The nightmares weren’t stopping. Tim continued to sleepwalk to the barn. He didn’t sleepwalk since he was a kid. Tim tells Dan about it and they both realize they are having the same dream. They realize that their deceased mother is trying to protect them. It recalled another memory of Dan’s...

Back in their high school days, Dan and Tim took their friends to Uncle Will’s to give them a good scare so they could understand where they lived at. “We saw the ‘no trespassing’ sign,” the brothers’ friend, Aaron recalled. “We can’t trespass if we’re with family, right? It reminded me almost like something you’d see in the Western film. I really wasn’t interested in finding out about spirits and ghosts.”  But the friends proceeded to go to the house. But then, terror began to set in. “We see something on one side of the porch start moving and you can start hearing the boards creaking, and we froze like deer,” Aaron recalls. The deranged old man appears. “A tall man, coming up the path, moving fast!” Tim recalls. “I was moving faster than I ever ran in my life…looked like a human locomotive!” Aaron remembers. “We’ve been chased away by a man that’s been dead for 35-40 years,” Dan said. The brothers are wondering why to this day, they are still being haunted.

Dan and Tim decided to visit their Aunt Mary, who was like a second mother to them. The boys open up about “the man in the moustache” that everyone keeps seeing. Aunt Mary pulled out a photo album to show them pictures of the family. There was a picture of the boys’ great-grandfather and his relatives. They recognize the picture of Uncle Will immediately. Aunt Mary told the men then about the terrible incident that happened on the farm;

A dark family history

Uncle Will was terribly racist and during the early 1900s, a black man working for Uncle Will was caught having a relationship with a white woman and it angered Uncle Will so badly, that him and his men got their hands on the worker and lynched him. No one was arrested or charged for the incident. Dan and the brothers were absolutely disgusted that such a rotten human being was a part of their family name. 

“Growing up at the farm was scary in the dark but for the most part, it was a good place,” Laura recalls. When she was seven-years-old, she shared a room with her sister. But Laura also began having bad dreams. Laura confided in Vaunette about her secrets and her fears and how Laura couldn’t tell if her dreams were really dreams. Vaunette advised Laura to pinch herself and if it was a dream, the pinching would wake her up.

One night, when little Laura was sleeping in her bed, the door creaked open very slowly and she saw someone coming into the room. She couldn’t tell who it was but she knew it wasn’t her parents. Is this a dream? But Laura felt too frozen in fear to pinch herself to see if it was a dream or not. “I had a feeling they were going to take her…I forced myself to pinch myself and I screamed,” she recalls of that horrible night.

“I didn’t know where my baby daughter was, I didn’t even know if she was kidnapped,” Tim recalled.

The police were called and arrived on the scene. The police immediately went to work and called for a search party on the baby. “There were people everyone calling, hollering out for the baby (Melissa) and it started to echo in the trees,” Vaunette recalls. Herman, Tim’s brother-in-law, joins in on the search party once he hears about his niece going missing. The search party closes in on Uncle Will’s area. But they find nothing so they continue on. But Vaunette was haunted by the sounds of bells she heard nearby. “I knew Melissa was out there with the ghost of Uncle Will.” Even more unusual, Herman felt a need to go on a certain trail and reach an area. At that point, Herman sees something….it was the baby. Herman yelled that he found her. The baby is alive. The police were thrilled and while the family were as well, they were still scared because they knew deep down, Uncle Will and his unseen forces were behind this.

In 1999, in an interesting turn of events, arsonists burned down Uncle Will’s house. Not surprisingly, the family wasn’t exactly grieving over the loss of the house, since it was filled with evil, menacing energy. All that was left was the basement. A couple years later, the family put the farm up for sale and to this day, they don’t know why they were being targeted by Uncle Will…

This was NOT how I predicted the show to turn. I assumed it was the ghost of an old man still sitting on his rocking chair outside the barn, equipped with a Remington and going "Get off my lawn, you pesky kids!" but obviously, it was more than that. What REALLY boggled my mind was the incident with the baby. I've heard many ghosts and poltergeist stories but a ghost possible kidnapping a child and leaving it out to the snow is just....why? Granted, with the first episode of Season 3, a demon was targeting two young girls. It is also a theory that "ghost children" are actually demons in disguise. So demon activity involving children isn't a foreign concept. But still. I'm trying to wrap my mind around it.

Because they didn't say the exact location, I had a pretty hard time doing some digging. However, this particular incident just nags at me and here is my own personal conclusion; 

Tim Dale mentioned that he began sleepwalking again. Both Vaunette and Herman mention in their own experiences about being "guided" by some unseen force. The family (from what I assume) didn't tell the police about the paranormal circumstances, obviously for fear or ridicule and being labeled as crazy. But could it be that Tim, possibly possessed by paranormal forces, sleepwalked his way to Laura's room, took the baby and placed her out there in the woods? And could he possibly have left her there and sleepwalk back to bed? But of course, you're not going to tell the cops you took your baby out in the snowy woods while sleepwalking because it won't get looked on to fondly. But was Tim in bed when Laura was screaming when the incident happened? She did mention briefly that when the mystery person came to her room, it wasn't her parents but if this theory were to be true, Tim wouldn't be himself in his awakened state. People do some crazy sh*t during a sleepwalking state. 

What do you guys think? 

Picture Credit: Syfy 

Follow me @janespringfield 

"Paranormal Witness: The Long-Island Terror" Season 3 Premiere Recap

Jeanette with a picture of her husband, Lt. Meyran

Jeanette Meyran is the proud wife of Lt. Curtis W. Meyran and together, they had two beautiful daughters, Angela and Danine. But on January 23, 2005, everything turned upside down when Lt. Meyran and two other firefighters were responding to a call. The firefighters were trying to rescue occupants in a four-story apartment building but the fire was two intense that the firefighters on scene had to jump from the four-story building. Lt. Meyran jumped to his death. The death rocked the Meyran family to the core. “How do I tell these children that they will never see their father again?” Jeanette recalls. The daughters remember the tremendous grief they experienced from that day.The media had a field day with the incident and “the paparazzi from hell” would hound the family for interviews and pictures. The family just wanted to be left alone to grieve in peace. Jeanette decided to move the girls out of the city to give them a new beginning. Jeanette was attracted to a big, old house with lots of land. Jeanette wanted to rebuild it and had the help of Curtis’ fellow firefighters. Tom, Curtis’ friend, was an anchor for the family. There was a sense of hope for the family. But while the house was being rebuilt, Jeanette was concerned about vandalism so she installed seven security cameras throughout the property.

On the first night of viewing the cameras from her laptop, Jeanette noticed that there was a mystery man standing in the middle of the lot. But then the man disappeared. Jeanette had no clue what she was looking at. Meanwhile, Angela was feeling restless one night in her new room. She began to hear knocking on the walls. “I remember hearing these sounds….they were coming from inside the walls, like thumps of knocking,” Angela recalls. Danine also heard it too and woke up. “Second time I heard it (the knock) was ‘notice me, notice me!’”. The girls continued to hear the knocking inside the walls. Little Danine hid under her covers. “I’d make a little fortress. It didn’t feel safe but it felt good enough to sleep, wake up and it wouldn’t be there,” she said. Angela asked her mom if she was walking around the house and made noise. Jeanette didn’t hear anything but convinced the girls it was just the new house. Jeanette walked around the house to check the heating, the plumbing and to learn “the sounds of the house”. She concluded she just needed to reassure them and not be afraid.

Just a glitch? 

Tony remembered working down on the basement and mentioned that it was a “unique basement with a lot of debris”. During this time, Angela and Danine were outside playing in their new big backyard. “To me, it was like a playground, my heaven!” Danine remembers. “I thought it was really cool we had a backyard back there with all these trees and symbols…we found bones in the backyard!” Angela remembers. The kids spent time playing in the backyard and making maps for their toys, using the marks on the trees as a guide. Meanwhile, in the basement, something caught Tony’s attention and he called Jeanette down. It was an upside-down star in a circle, a symbol for devil worship. Jeanette didn’t want the girls to see it and told Tony and the men to cover it up. The girls didn’t tell their mother about the symbolism in the woods because they didn’t think she would care.

Foul play? 

Angela was left alone in the house and her mom gave her a list of chores. Angela then felt that she wasn’t really alone. When she went to clean the fridge, Angela would look back behind her a few times. All the sudden, all the drawers and shelves burst open and silverware was strewed everywhere on the counter. Angela screamed and ran to her room. When Jeanette came home and saw the mess in the kitchen, she assumed Angela threw a huge tantrum. But when Jeanette saw how terrified she looked, Jeanette then knew that they weren’t alone in the house. Tony and the crew were still working on the basement but were uneasy. One of the men discovered a hole in the wall and found pieces of paper bound together and showed Jeanette. There was writing and drawings. “I saw 1927. The pages seemed to be written by a young girl who was the daughter of someone in this house. Her name was Christina,” she explained. “It was an incredibly dark story….how her father did sacrifices and how she would ‘bleed like they would bleed’”. Jeanette concluded that these were some sick individuals but they were now gone and it was her house. The firefighters finished up their work and left.

Ransacked kitchen 

One day, Jeanette was vacuuming when she heard what she thought was the oil burner backfiring. Jeanette heard the pressure and the thumps coming from the basement. She went in the basement to investigate but as she went down the basement with a flashlight, she felt an incredible sense of evil. She became so frightened that she ran out of the basement. She knew that it was then paranormal.

During a more frightening occurrence when Danine was taking a shower, Angela was in her room when she began to hear voices, like chanting. “I was trying really, really hard to listen…two people talking, almost secretive.” Angela walked down the hallway but didn’t see anything. Meanwhile, Danine heard the bathroom door open and thought it was her mom. But even Danine feels like she is being watched. Angela goes back in her room but still hears the voices and even heard Danine’s name. She listened more closely. With tears in her eyes, Angela remembers hearing what the voices wanted: “They started using my sister’s name. I heard them telling me that…..” but Angela is too shaken up to continue talking about it. Danine then sees a demonic shadow through the door. Danine screams and Angela rushes to the door, terrified that she wouldn’t be able to protect her sister. “He wanted to hurt me,” Danine remembers. As Danine curled up in a corner and screamed for her mom, Jeanette and Angela frantically tried opening the door but it was locked. Jeanette finally opened the door and the women rushed to Danine’s aid. Danine was very shaken up by the “man” that wanted to go after her. Once the three women left the bathroom, all the doors in the room slammed shut. “You can hear this chanting,” Jeanette said. “Sounded like a group of people performing a ritual.” The girls frantically rushed to Jeanette’s room and locked the door, the chanting still going on. Jeanette told the girls to just call their daddy. The girls called for their dad. “I needed him to be there and if he was just there, everything would be fine,” Danine said. “How do you protect your children and fight what you can’t see?” Jeanette said.

Not your average joe....

Jeanette called on Tony to confide in him and to show him the star, the journal and all that went on. Tony went down to the basement but Jeanette refused to go down. “I go down to see what’s down there, she was frightened by the basement. There were few things I fear, besides my father and the dentist!” Tony recalls. “But I remember this pressure, like I had to get out of there. As Tony investigated the basement, he noticed a door and that it was continuing to rattle. But when Tony opened the door, he saw nothing. However…the door slammed shut behind him. That was enough to scare a hardened Tony. The girls then begin to stand guard at the bathroom when one of them took a shower. Jeanette was so conflicted on what to do. She poured so much time, money and energy to build a new safe haven for her and the girls. So Jeanette called a priest. The priest came in, said a prayer and gave holy water to Jeanette.

A resentful cult ready to attack Angela 

Nightfall came and Jeanette filled up a bottle with the gallons of holy water she was given. But Angela wanted out of the house so she went outside the backyard and went on the swing. “It took me away from the house.” Jeanette noticed Angela became more reclusive. Jeanette watched her from the backyard cameras. All the sudden, as Jeanette was watching Angela swinging at a steady pace, a group of cloaked figures appeared behind Angela….Angela felt a really heavy push and flew out of the swing, landing hard with a crunch on the ground. Angela screamed for her mom. Jeanette rushed out and Angela kept crying “we have to leave, they keep hurting us!” A furious Angela sprayed holy water all over, cursing the figures that attacked her daughter. “The war was about to begin!” The attack left Angela with a severely broken ankle.

Jeanette ran errands during the day and left Angela by herself, assuming she would be safe during the day. Angela was okay during the day but she felt more uneasy at night. Angela was reading a book in her room and something knocked on her closet door. The door began to shake softly at first but then it almost was like “someone was in my closet, trying to get out. It was a trainwreck…I couldn’t look away…I saw a black figure that stepped out of my closet…I couldn’t run…..make it to the door….” Angela immediately hid under her bed and saw the figure slowly move. Angela said it smelled like “death”. Angela got the house phone and desperately cried to her mom to come home. Jeanette took off in a flash and rushed home to get home to her daughter, even though she was fourty minutes away. Jeanette told Angela to pray. “I felt like he was going to hurt me,” Angela remembers..

There was a monster-like growl before the phone went dead.

Jeanette rushed home and saw nothing. She kept calling for Angela. Jeanette was desperate to hear her. “I just pictured her ripped apart by this creature,” she remembers. But then Jeanette heard a weeping from under the bed. Jeanette pulled out Angela from the bed because Angela was so weak and begged her mom to make it go away. The priest and holy water were not cutting it. The family had enough tragedy in their lives. So Jeanette took the girls to their grandma’s and Jeanette went through the phonebook and called up Liz Milano, a paranormal investigator. It was around 3-4am in the morning. Liz spoke to Jeanette for about an hour and was more than willing to help the shaken family. Liz called up a psychic medium, Dawn Joly, to help assist her and the ladies were going to do a cleansing and blessing on the home. To two women drove up to the house and Dawn immediately sensed an ill-presence. “It was like a dark cloud over the house,” she remembers entering the house. Dawn sensed the satanic cult coming  from the basement and explained how the demolition in the basement disturbed the energy in that room and that the cult released a demon in retaliation.

A cleanse and blessing to rid the demon 

Liz and Dawn then gathered big boxes of salt and poured it all around the house outside to serve as a “psychic force field”. Dawn then began burning the sage. The three of them went down in the basement, Dawn leading them with the sage and a crucifix. The basement was the epicenter of the activity. The three women recall that it was very intense and frightening with each step they took. Dawn heard chanting and screaming and it was a constant battle. The door then began rattling violently. Dawn opened the door and a fiery demon appeared and burst into flames. But then it stopped and that was the part of the house where the demon was housed.

The blessing worked and the house was rid of the demon.

Jeanette and the girls still live in the house and they enjoy living there now. “it was a battle won,” Jeanette concluded. “WE’ve learned and we’ve grown. It changes you forever.”

No one has seen the demon ever since... 

Picture Credit: NY Times, SyFy

Janes Notes: First off, we all send our condolences to Jeanette, Angela and Danine for their tragic loss. I went to a cop's funeral not too long ago and let me tell you, there is nothing more chilling and heart-wrenching than the community saying "farewell" to one of their heroes. I recently came upon this recent picture of the family at an exhibit full of Lt. Meyran's belongings and honoring his life and legacy. I wish nothing but the best for this beautiful, strong family.

Danine, Angela and Jeanette honoring Lt. Meyran. Photo by Marc Fader

Now onto the haunting....well....Hearing the ghost of Joe Schmoe who used to live in the home knock on the door is eerie and creepy but not terrifying...but an actual demon summoned unleashed in a home? That's a WHOLE new level of paranormal! I actually did some reading on demonology, witchcraft and the occult. While there is some skepticism and logical/scientific explanations on witchcraft from the past, I do believe that there are those who practice satanic rituals for some reason or another and do conjure up evil, negative spirits. The "other side" is just like here on Earth. You got "good" ghosts (angels) and then you have "bad" ghosts (demons). I do sincerely believe that this story is legit. This is a crazy, scary story and was a great choice for the new season. If this episode is a representation of what season 3 has to offer, I might start considering watching these episodes with a light on. I'm SO glad that the show is back on so stay tuned for some more summer scares! 

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Personal Blog: Haunted Happenings 

"Paranormal Witness: The Tenants" Season Finale Recap Pt. 2

Edwin decides to talk to his neighbor Walter to see if he can find any information about the Verdere family. Walker remembers the family as acting “very strange” and that they never smiled or spoke to Walter.  The family had built the complex in the 1900s and was strictly family owned. The Verdere family had 3 sons and a daughter. Walter recalls the one son was named Ben and the daughter was Myra. Walter mentioned the youngest son had died. Ben was a dominant man in the house and controlled the house and everybody in it. He also mentioned that Ben Verdere passed out dead in the bathtub due to a massive coronary. That’s the only information that was given to Edwin at the time.

A distraught Edwin trying to hold on and solve the problem

One night, Marsha and Edwin lean up against the wall and hear thumps plus a woman’s chilling scream. She thought it was Dan and Diane downstairs but felt it was getting too violent. “I couldn’t understand it because they were a very loving couple,” Marsha said. It began to happen night after night; they thought it was occurring down the base of the stairs. But then Diane and Dan began to hear it as well and thought it was Marsha and Edwin. “We heard arguing, moaning and crying,” Dan said; “it sounded terrible”. Edwin stuck his head out around the staircase and it stopped. There was nothing to be seen. 

Edwin went back to Walter for more information and he told Edwin about Ben and his wife, whose marriage was in turmoil full of turmoil, fighting and hateful screaming. Walter said she should’ve never moved into that house. The wife felt she couldn’t escape the abuse until she took her own life so she went down to the basement, wrapped a noose around her neck and hung herself. When Edwin relayed this story to Marsha, Marsha felt it all come together. “I realized the ghost of this family, the Vedere family, was occupying our house. It was built by them and someone died there,” Marsha explained. Myra’s words and profanities at Edwin to get out of the house suddenly began to haunt him. 

While Edwin was at work, Marsha would be home but she was losing sleep, her mood was changing and he felt she went through a spell of depression. It all affected Diane as well. Diane had always been bubbly and laughing and now she looked troubled. Dan would see her just sit there and cry. Marsha was constantly on the move, wondering if things in the house were still in place and the fear almost became too much for her to bear. Both Marsha and Diane fell into deep states of depression, which was probably caused by the suicidal woman’s energy imprint that she left when she took her life. Diane decided to leave with the baby and left Dan. “When Diane left, I was devastated.” Marsha remembers. “I felt alone. During dinnertime one night, Edwin noticed Marsha was very quiet. He then noticed the door opening up. He goes up to close it. The door opens up again. Edwin got angry, got up and got a piece of heavy string and tied it around the doorknob and said “now open the door you pervert!” Edwin sat back down. The door kept opening and got more manic and worse. Edwin lost his temper and was tormenting Ben “I had no respect for him,” Edwin explained. “I fell in despair because there was nothing I can do. I cursed ben and the whole Vedere family. I felt they were ruining our life.” Marsha held out a glimmer of hope so she tried to find someone in the psychic research field. She contacted a psychic who then got in touch with NBC. NBC called back and wanted to perform an exorcist on TV. Edwin didn’t know what to do but they decided to do it because they were at their last rope.

A warm, inviting house....

The production team on NBC came and created chaos in the house. Among the NBC team was a priest and a psychic. “There were people all over the place, sound people, camera people and I lost track who everyone was,” Marsha said of the experience. Edwin helped the sound team close all the windows. Reverend Dale Davis tells the couple and the rest that they must hold a crucifix. Reverend Davis then tells the psychic would go in a “trance” and communicate with whatever spirit is present. The whole room fell quiet. As the priest prayed, they saw the psychic move. The sound man who was hooked up on electronics and headsets were getting very nervous since he could hear things that the others couldn’t. The priest had a crucifix with a mirror on his right hand. A gust of wind just blew through and the venetian blinds rattled. “Be gone, evil spirit in the name of Jesus Christ! Send your holy angels to watch over and protect us!” the priest prayed. All the sudden, they could hear screaming and gusts of wind. Thousands of birds flew around the house and the noise became louder and louder. The psychic began shaking. The birds caused more racket. Something banged the window and the birds flew away. The psychic opened his eyes and the priest claimed the house to be “pure”. Edwin and Marsha were dumbfounded and not sure what to do next. “I knew that they honestly tried their best. They really believed that they were doing what needed to be done,” Marsha concluded. Edwin said if the activity continued, they would leave for good. “This whole experience was tormenting my life. I had to get out of there. So I took off and never came back.” Dan said, disgruntled at how the residence tore his life apart. 

Meanwhile, Edwin’s sister April came over. She saw the footage and wanted to live on the 1^st floor but he didn’t think it was a good idea; she insisted that she had to live there. She insisted that she had to live there. April moved in and brought in an old piano of hers. She went in a room and saw the chandelier move on its own. She told Dan and Marsha that the chandelier moves frequently and a lot. She asked if it was the ghost. “She was too excited about it and to her, it was a ghost party,” Marsha said. And a ghost party it was when April and her friends decided to come up with a genius idea and use an Ouija board. Marsha spied in on them; 

April: “We want to know if there’s anyone here with us”

The planchette began moving.

“y-e-s”

“Whose here with us?” April asked.

“H-E-N-R-Y”

The planchette then moved on its own

“Whose Henry, what are you doing here?” April asked.

Marsha had seen enough and interrupted the ghost party. She told Edwin, who was less-than-pleased. “I was in a blind rage that I started ripping it, folding it and tearing it into pieces,” Edwin said. Edwin warned April never to bring a board or any other voodoo items in the house or she’d be kicked out. So Edwin went back to Walter to ask about Henry. Walter told him that Henry was the youngest son and that the family was ashamed of him because “he was evil”. His own family restricted his travel and kept him in the house. Walter saw him looking out the window of the second floor but that’s all he saw of him.One night, April was in her room when her piano began playing. There was no explanation for why it was playing by itself. She confided in this to Marsha. Marsha said she was worried about April because April felt she has established this connection with Henry and was excited about it. She began hearing voices from the basement. Edwin went to the basement and experienced feelings of “being watched”. Edwin worried about April because he saw a huge change come over her. All the sudden, the piano was becoming more of a torment…ding, ding, ding…like a cadence…notice me, I’m here….

April began telling Marsha that she felt she was being touched inappropriately. She also began hearing voices saying “kill yourself”. Edwin was in despair and having really terrible thoughts. So Edwin would go down in the basement to investigate. He discovered a hidden door in the back wall of the basement. He discovered a small room that was completely empty. It had a mattress, a water pan, plates and bottles. It looked like someone was locked in the room. It became a revelation that Henry was locked inside this room. “What happened to him?” Edwin thought. But then he thought back to the time he found bullets in the basement too and so Edwin couldn’t help but wonder if Henry was killed by his own family. 

A couple holding onto hope...

Horrified at this revelation, Edwin put the house up for sale. The family sold the building and property for a measly $10. Edwin and Marsha took off for good. Three weeks later, the police found April. The family lost all contact with April. “I should’ve never let her move into the apartment….” Edwin concluded, shadowing the words of his neighbor Walton when he told Edwin that Ben Verdere’s wife shouldn’t have moved in…..

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Jane's Notes: What a great episode to end a fantastic season of Paranormal Witness full of ghosts, ghouls, a UFO and alien abduction…and an evil Jewish wine box (I still get comments for that one!). Now let’s get to business here….first off….the video! No shocker, the first televised exorcism is on Youtube. Some made comments on the production but keep in mind, this was the 70s, a time where the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were probably building computers in their garages. Speaking of Youtube, I can't help but post this comment that made me laugh for 5 minutes straight;

I do believe that this case was sincere and genuine....as far as demonic activity goes, I am not too sure about that as I don't know quite enough about the subject of demonology to know. However, let's look at the house...full of violence, abuse, rage, suicide...and a possible murder...there is no doubt the energy imprints at the location were toxic and draining.

I also came across Edwin’s website and after looking over it, he has a book that he published about the haunting and went on to publish more ghost books and articles. He even took the time to answer some FAQ’s, which I liked. I also like that it included his biography and not only that but he also blogs about some thoughts concerning the field of society, culture and healthcare. He takes pride in his daughters and grandchildren, with a son-in-law serving in the law enforcement field. Personally, Edwin seems like the kind of man you can sit with at Starbucks over a good cup of coffee and talk to for hours.  Check out his site and see if there's anything there that sparks your interest...make sure to sign his guestbook too! 

Picture Credit: Syfy

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