The Hauntings That Follow Us

Case 4: Private Abandoned Home in Leesville

This case could not be more stereotypical if you tried at first glance. A creepy old abandoned home that was the site of a violent death is the stuff of many local urban legends, and our town was no exception. However, as with many urban legends, details get exaggerated over time, and facts get lost. We, however, were determined to find out the truth.

The house, built in 1910, has been unoccupied since 1997, and has been largely falling apart since. If you go by urban legends, someone who lived in the house was once part of a Satanic cult who sacrificed several people in the home, including a woman from Leesville whose body was dumped in a creek behind the house in 1957. The house itself is therefore cursed, and anyone who tries to live in it will be forced out or die after a few years at most.

Of course, this so-called "Satanic cult" never actually existed, although there is some truth to the legends, and the truth is perhaps sadder. In 1957, a 17-year-old girl from Leesville, who happened to be the girlfriend of the 19-year-old son of the homeowners at the time, was beaten to death in the home while the homeowners were away and the only occupant was their son, after which her body was dumped by the creek. After it was found, he was arrested and put in jail awaiting trial, but he committed suicide just before it was to begin. An autopsy of the girl found that she was pregnant, and it is speculated he either intentionally killed her or accidentally killed her while trying to induce some kind of abortion, with the motive being to avoid a teenage pregnancy and not bring shame upon the family in either case.

The house passed through a few more people after that before being abandoned in 1997. Ever since, it has been trespassed on by many local youths looking to get a scare or two, with a few unfortunately vandalizing some parts of the house, although thankfully the problem is not massive and there are many rooms that are not totally ruined. Me and the others have heard plenty of stories from other kids in school, ranging from people just walking through and getting a bit creeped out to people alleging to have seen ghosts. We, however, were to be the first people to actually try to document what was going on inside.

...

On the night of March 10, me, Jared, and Marie entered the house by ourselves. Ashley was busy with an event for the school choir, and Yukiko was out with some of her other friends. The house was small enough that we could reasonably cover the entirety of it with three people, so it was no big deal. Aside from this, we also debuted a new tool we pooled money together to buy: An electromagnetic field meter, or EMF meter, which would be indispensable for our investigations going forward

For those who do not understand, ghosts and other supernatural entities can affect the electromagnetic fields around them, and this can be picked up with an EMF meter. Of course, the presence of other electronics will also set it off, but there are a few meters out there that can differentiate the source of readings or at least reduce the readings from normal everyday items. Tonight would be the first test of this new meter, and this would be the perfect place for it since all electricity and water was shut off to the house a while ago.

As we unpacked on the floor of what used to be the living room, we took note of the decrepit state of the house, in particular how many of the windows were boarded up and almost all the wallpaper was torn off. "Man," I remarked to the others as Jared began to record on a video camera. "You couldn't have a more perfect setting for a haunt."

"You got that right," Marie replied as she pulled out the EMF meter. "This place already gives me the creeps, and I don't even sense any spirits here yet."

I then pulled out two DVRs from our bag, telling Marie and Jared, "I'm gonna leave one running in the fireplace down here, and I'll carry the other one with me so we can do sessions elsewhere in the house."