Paranormal Witness: "Man In The Attic" Ep. 201 Recap

Chiara and Mob Mistress have asked me to post about a TV show of my choice. Having that I have a variety of shows on my DVR and since they are covering MW with Carmela covering “Big Ang”, I decided to branch out a bit and cover SyFy's“Paranormal Witness” since I’m a fan of paranormal shows and PW just started it’s second season this past Wednesday. I’m very glad to be part of the M.O.B Wives Team! - Jane Doe

PARANORMAL WITNESS: The Man In The Attic (EP. 201)

"A young mother rents a California bungalow with strange noises coming from overhead, unseen hands moving objects, glowing lights, phantom blood and a reoccurring apparition of an old man."

Jackie Hernandez, an expecting mother, has recently separated from her husband, Al Hernandez due to marital troubles and decides to rent a bungalow house in San Pedro, CA. Jackie fell in love with the bungalow house right away and felt it was the perfect place to start a new life with her 2-year-old son Jamie and expecting daughter, Samantha. Jackie went to school to earn a degree so she could provide for her family. She felt that all was going to be well in her new humble abode. But it wasn’t until about a month later when Jackie began hearing strange noises in the house. One night when she was watching TV, she heard a sound  that sounded like “someone dropped a handful of pebble form the top of the wall and fell to the bottom”. It was a distinct sound that sent shivers up her spine. On another night, she heard a particularly strange, high-pitched sound where she described it as almost hurting your ears. She walked around the house and discovered it came from above the house. She went to the attic door and saw the trap door was wide open. She had never been up the attic. She closed the trap door and realized that she wasn’t alone in the house. 

Picture of the infamous haunted house

The source of what would become Jackie's living nightmare

During these nightly ordeals, Jackie began inviting her friend Susan over to stay the house. Jackie confides to Susan what’s been going on in the house when suddenly, they both here a big “bang” coming from the kitchen. They walk in the kitchen and notice a picture that was hanging on the wall was propped up against the sink; the nails holding the picture were on the table, standing up perfectly on the head. Jackie knew that it wasn’t normal and someone or something had done that.

The paranormal phenomena continued when one of the neighbors, a 16-year-old named Tina, would come over and babysit little Jamie. Tina and Jackie bonded and would spend time talking even when Tina wasn’t babysitting. One night when Jackie was out, Tina was watching TV when she decided to check on Jamie in his bedroom. As Tina walked down the hallway to the bedroom, she noticed the door to the bedroom opened immediately. She pushed the door closed behind her and checked on Jamie. When she went to walk out, the door once again latched open by itself. Tina thought maybe it was the house and the floor was uneven and when she stepped on a certain part of the floor, the door would open. But the incident didn’t leave Tina’s mind.  One day, Tina and Jackie were in the kitchen making food when they turned around and see “glowing lights” in the upper corner of the kitchen floating in front of them. Bewildered at this sight, Jackie grabs the camera and while she’s taking pictures, the camera stops working. Jackie gives the camera to Tina and suggests she takes a random picture facing the kitchen window and away from the lights. When Tina looks through the lens, Tina claims to have seen the face of an old man, describing it as “skeleton-like”. Tina screams, drops the camera and both her and Jackie run out of the house, stricken with fear.

Jackie capturing the "floating lights"

One afternoon, ex-husband Al was over to visit Jamie. Jackie was telling Al what was happening in the house. Al dismisses her claims and thought she was exaggerating and making it all up for attention because she was alone in the house. So Al suggests that Jackie challenge the mysterious entity. Jackie refused to challenge it and was horrified when Al began challenging it, demanding that whatever it was, it would show himself. Nothing happened. When AL left, Jackie walks to the closet, opens the door and sees the word “AL” was written multiple times across the closet wall, the “A” in blue and the “L” in red. Once again, Jackie was terrified and knew that whatever it was, it responded to Al’s challenge. 

A frustrated and scared Jackie couldn’t afford to relocate so once again, she consoled Susan. Susan suggests to Jackie that she tells the landlords about these incidents because it was their house.  Jackie was hesitant to tell the landlords because she didn’t want the landlords to think she was crazy. A few weeks later, Susan and Jackie are out on a walk when coincidentally, they bump into the landlord and his wife. Susan then talks to the landlord about what’s been going on with Jackie and the activity in the house. The landlord looks concerned so Jackie figured if he looked concerned, she would be taken seriously. The landlord suggests bringing in a priest. 

Two priests arrived at Jackie’s house one night and upon their arrival, Jackie immediately felt uncomfortable. She says they seemed very cynical and judgmental. They investigate the house and point out of a couple things in the house that caught their attention: Al’s horror movie collection, a skull decoration in the fish aquarium and a doll from Jackie’s doll collection that the priests claimed was a voodoo doll. The priests told Jackie that she was bringing death into the house and she was initiating the activity; Jackie was stunned. She then heard Jamie cry from his bedroom so she went to get him. Jamie would not stop crying and screaming. The priests then said Jamie’s behavior wasn’t “normal” and claimed that Jamie was possessed. So the priests then blessed Jamie and Jackie’s unborn son. The whole ordeal shook up Jackie but it wasn’t over. The next morning, someone rang the doorbell and Jackie answered to see a woman in a business suit: social services were called out in response the priests’ reports of what had happened. In a shocking turn, the priests reported that Jackie was on hallucinogenic drugs and pregnant. Jackie then swore that things were better left unsaid and she would never tell anyone about what was going on in the house. 

Jackie explaining the unknown terror that plagued her home

Shortly after, Jackie gave birth to her daughter Samantha. Time went by and one day, Jackie came home from grocery shopping and had bags in her arms when she walked in the kitchen. She was horror-stricken to find that the refrigerator alphabet magnets she had on there read “GET THE HELL OUT”. Jackie ran out of the room. Jackie was also losing more and more sleep and wanted to stay up and watch her children. Jackie was sleeping on a daybed, with Jamie sleeping in another daybed and Samantha sleeping in a bassinet next to Jackie. One night, Jackie was resting when she heard distinct, loud breathing. Jackie gets up to investigate and walks down the hallway. She goes to peek into Jamie’s room and sees an old man sitting on the bed. Jackie ran out to the living room and immediately, every window shade in the house opened up. Jackie couldn’t describe how scared she felt when all of this occurred. 

Actual photographic evidence from the investigation of the mysterious "Phantom Blood". Internet research pulls up multiple articles on how the investigators sent a sample of the blood to a lab in UCLA and the blood tested back as having amounts of human plasma blood.

One night, Susan talks to Jackie and tells her she can’t go on like that and begs her to get help. She gave her the number of a parapsychologist. Jackie, still traumatized by the last time she asked for help, refused but Susan insisted she take the number and call when she’s ready. Jackie puts the number in the drawer. Later on, she was watching dishes with dish gloves and noticed the gloves had been covered in blood; thinking she cut herself, she took her gloves off and saw no cuts but instead, saw that blood was pouring out of the walls of the kitchen and on the kitchen table. She immediately rushes to the telephone, gets out the number to the parapsychologist and calls him. The night the team arrived, Jackie was bewildered because she expected it to just be the parapsychologist coming over. Barry, lead investigator and cameraman, sets up an interview with Jackie. The crew came in with a game plan without consulting Jackie. Jackie didn’t want to document anything, she just wanted whatever was haunting her out of the house. However, Jackie was interviewed and when she was explaining on camera what was happening, the lights went off. She immediately knew it was the entity and she had sense whatever it was felt angry that the crew was there. The lights turned back on. She explains to the team about the noises in the attic. Barry asked his friend, Jeff, a still photographer, to take photos and goes to the attic to take photos. Before going up to the attic, Jeff said it'd be a cold day in hell before he'd see a ghost and bravely proceeds up to the attic.

The team and Jackie trying to make sense of what is going on in the bungalow home

Meanwhile, Al came over to visit Jamie and was occupying the kids while the team investigated and was listening to what was going on. All the sudden, he heard a distinct whisper in his ear clearly say “Tell them to get the hell out of there.” All of the sudden, Al hears a yell in the attic. Jeff comes down screaming and claims that something grabbed his camera. Realizing his livelihood depends his camera, Jeff  bravely goes back in and the crew follows him. Barry follows with his camera and only shot a minute of footage before the camera neutralized. Barry changed the battery and used his camera again, but it wouldn’t work. But fortunately, they found the body of the missing camera in a little crate; the lens was found behind the trap door. The team goes downstairs when they hear sounds of someone walking above the attic. No one was up there. The team proceeds to do a quick interview with Jackie before the team run out of the house. Jackie was shocked and outraged at them leaving. Meanwhile, the team goes over footage of evidence and Barry caught the sound of footsteps coming from the attic on his camera. 

Actual video still of Jackie Hernandez keeping an ear out as team members investigate the attic

One night, Jackie heard noises coming from the bedroom and it sounded to her like someone was playing with the kids’ toys. She then sees the kids’ beach ball come from out of the bedroom like it was thrown out. Jackie decides she won’t sleep for the rest of the night but does close her eyes to rest. When she woke up, she felt someone holding her down and she couldn’t breathe. She tried to get up but couldn’t and began fearing for her life and for her kids. All the sudden, it let go. Enraged by this entity, Jackie finally snapped and grabbed a nearby baseball bat, yelling that she had enough. She turned around each corner, expecting to see the old man but saw nothing. She then goes up to the attic and challenges the entity; she wanted to reclaim her home and her life. Jackie acknowledges it wasn't a smart move but she was driven by anger at the fact that she was terrorized daily in her own home. She was pushed out of the attic and immediately, grabbed her kids, and ran out of the house with the phone. She called Barry immediately and Barry knew something went terribly wrong; but the phone call is cut in the middle of the conversation. A concerned Barry and his team immediately rush to the house with their equipment. When they couldn’t find anything in the house, the two investigators Gary and Jeff went up to the attic with a flashlight and a camera; Barry, Jackie and the rest of the team waited. All the sudden, the team and Jackie heard a “snapping” sound. Panicked, Jackie and the team yelled at the two team members in the attic to come down. The two team members look down at the team to ask what’s wrong. All the sudden, Jeff gets thrown back. Gary, only having a camera as a source of light, takes pictures of what’s going on. There was a picture taken where Jeff was standing strangely, his head lopsided, his arm supporting a board and his legs barely off the ground. He yells at the team to help him.  Gary goes up to him and notices his eyes are blank and that there’s what looks like a noose around his neck. He unloosens the noose and they both ran out of the house screaming. When they came down the attic, a petrified Jeff was struggling for air. Everyone saw the red marks on his neck and the noose. Jackie and the team immediately ran out of the house. 

Jeff and the noose that nearly strangled him

That was the last night that Jackie and her kids spent at the house. Jackie took action and moved away from the nightmare. The bungalow was rented to other tenants, but very few have stayed longer than a couple months. To this day, everyone involved in this case is still haunted by what was in that bungalow. 

JANES NOTES: I did some searching around to see if I could find any articles about it and came across this 3-page article in the Los Angeles Times that dates back to March 23, 1993.The article goes into much more depth about how Jackie was terrorized by not one, but TWO entities and even though “Paranormal Witness” stated that Jackie never experienced the paranormal phenomena again, many articles have shown different and have shown that Jackie continued to 

be haunted. Here is the link to the article: "Tangled Tales From The Crypt" L.A. Times

Tune into SyFy's "Paranormal Witness" every Wednesday @ 10/9c

Picture Credit: SyFy.com and "Phantoms & Monsters" @naturalplane.blogspot.com

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