1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 I had a home that was everything to me. 2 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:24,000 We really had no idea of the things that we would discover in the house. 3 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,000 We had never seen anything that violent. 4 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000 It was like someone were saying, I'm here. 5 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:34,000 I'm here. I'm here. 6 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,000 There's somebody there. 7 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:46,000 As much as I wanted her to not be there, she was there. 8 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,000 There's nothing here. 9 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:06,000 No, I mean, come on. 10 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,000 This would be a huge move for me. 11 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000 In 2005, I was given the opportunity to interview for the Dean's Ship of the School of Arts and Humanities 12 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,000 at the University of Arkansas in Washington, New York. 13 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:25,000 In 2005, I was given the opportunity to interview for the Dean's Ship of the School of Arts and Humanities 14 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000 at the University of Arkansas in Monticello. 15 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Let me just hear them out. 16 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,000 My wife, Rebecca, was wary of moving away from Oklahoma. 17 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:41,000 When Mark first started applying for jobs, I told him I would move anywhere but Alaska or Arkansas. 18 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,000 And so he puts me in the car to go to Arkansas. 19 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,000 I'm a city girl. 20 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Rebecca and I turned down North Main Street, and immediately we were impressed by this beautiful, 21 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:59,000 circa 1900 Victorian mansions. 22 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 When we came to one in particular that caused us to stop the car. 23 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,000 It was love at first sight. 24 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:20,000 I just said, Mark, I will only move to this town if you buy me that house. 25 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:31,000 I knew that I would only be happy in such an isolated location if I had a home that was everything to me. 26 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:39,000 We really had no idea of the things that we would discover in the house. 27 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:52,000 We moved to Monticello in the summer of 2005. 28 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000 We really were fulfilling our desires. 29 00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Thanks. 30 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:00,000 Let's go, let's go. 31 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,000 And now we have the house of our dreams. 32 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,000 That wasn't the fairy tale image that I took from it. 33 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000 I didn't feel so much like a princess as I did a scared little kid. 34 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 The house is enormous and you feel very vulnerable to it. 35 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:32,000 I felt mesmerized, I felt very spellbound. 36 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:40,000 I just laid down on the floor on my back and just had that moment for myself of, wow, I own it. 37 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,000 I'm going to take these and move over. 38 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,000 They are, just rearrange them how you want, okay? 39 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:09,000 A little after we had just moved in, we had decided to sort of rearrange the house. 40 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:48,000 Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the record spinning. 41 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:56,000 And it was going faster and faster. 42 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 I mean, just as fast as it could go. 43 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:04,000 I hadn't cranked the record player, Rebecca hadn't cranked it. 44 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:13,000 There was no explanation for why the record could possibly be spinning. 45 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:31,000 It just stopped spinning instantly. 46 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,000 That was very, very strange. 47 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 It didn't make any sense. 48 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:47,000 Seeing something like this really set in my uneasy feeling about the house. 49 00:05:48,000 --> 00:06:13,000 One of the things that the kids and I have always done for recreation or in the weekends is to get out our metal detector. 50 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,000 Okay, hey, slow down now. 51 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:23,000 And to go around and see whether we could find anything in the ground. 52 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:30,000 I was out by the front sidewalk. I was listening to music. 53 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000 Josh, where are you? Back there? 54 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:37,000 As I approached one of the big old rose bushes. 55 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,000 Oh, wait. Hey, over here, guys. Tell us something. 56 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 The metal detector started making its high pitched beeping sound. 57 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,000 Come here. Go ahead, doc. 58 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,000 Sit down there with your... There you go. 59 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,000 The music just all of a sudden stopped. 60 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Oh, what is that? 61 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:04,000 As we broke apart the soil, we discovered an old penny from 1948. 62 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Let's see if there's something else in there. 63 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:12,000 And we found a little pill box. 64 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,000 Wow, this is something else. 65 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,000 Oh, look at that. 66 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,000 Wow. 67 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000 And we found an old lipstick case. 68 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,000 Rebecca! 69 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:34,000 I heard someone, a woman's voice, say, Rebecca. 70 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:38,000 I felt this strong sense that someone was watching me, 71 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,000 and I turned and looked up at the house. 72 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:50,000 I thought I saw something in the shape of a woman in the window. 73 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 And then the music started again. 74 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:10,000 I felt that the house itself had its own presence, I guess. 75 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:25,000 We had been in the house maybe a month, and we decided to have a yard sale. 76 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:29,000 And my friend Desi said she had some things she wanted to get rid of, too. 77 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,000 I was just walking up the stairs. 78 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:37,000 As I got closer and closer to the house, I looked out, 79 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,000 and in the bedroom window, I saw Rebecca. 80 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,000 Hey, Destiny. 81 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:51,000 There was no way that she could have made it from upstairs in the bedroom to the door, 82 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,000 and, you know, a matter of just a few seconds. 83 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,000 I just saw you in the window. 84 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,000 No, it's just me in the house right now. 85 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000 And I said, well, I wasn't upstairs. 86 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,000 I've been at the back of the house pricing these items for a yard sale. 87 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,000 There was no doubt in my mind that I knew what I saw. 88 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:16,000 I started taking my boxes into the foyer. 89 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000 I saw Rebecca. 90 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,000 Hey, Rebecca, could you use your help getting some of that stuff? 91 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,000 It's not a whole lot, but could you use some help with some big boxes and everything? 92 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:28,000 And then so I just walked out. 93 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:30,000 I expected her to follow me. 94 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,000 She wasn't there. 95 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,000 I was like, well, I guess she maybe didn't hear me. 96 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,000 I walked back into the house with my second little boxes. 97 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:44,000 Rebecca was still just standing there. 98 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,000 Can you use some help, please? 99 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:47,000 I'm like, hey, did you not hear me? 100 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,000 Rebecca? 101 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:49,000 No. 102 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,000 You know, I spoke to her, but she never spoke back to me. 103 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:56,000 And I was like, OK, whatever, you know. 104 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,000 Rebecca comes in from the back of the house. 105 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,000 I mean, I was so confused. 106 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Then I'm very upset. 107 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,000 Rebecca, why have you been ignoring me? 108 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:21,000 I was practically begging for you to help me come get some of this stuff out. 109 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,000 Desi, when did you ask me for help? 110 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,000 I don't know who you're talking to. 111 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,000 At this time, I was just like, uh, you know, what's going on? 112 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,000 I'm just wondering if I'm losing my mind. 113 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:37,000 I believed her. 114 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:42,000 I believed that she saw me somewhere in the house, and I wasn't really there. 115 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,000 I'm just wondering if I'm losing my mind. 116 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,000 Something odd occurred. 117 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,000 There was a broken glass in the kitchen counter. 118 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,000 It wasn't on the floor. It wasn't in the sink. 119 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:32,000 I thought that maybe one of the kids had broken the glass. 120 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,000 Didn't any of you break a glass this morning, last night? 121 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:36,000 No. 122 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000 But the kids said they had broken a glass. 123 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000 And I really didn't have any reason not to believe them. 124 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:50,000 The glass seemed to have broken overnight when everybody was sleeping. 125 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:54,000 And then every day that week, when I went down to the kitchen, 126 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,000 there was a broken glass on the counter. 127 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000 It was strange that it kept repeating itself. 128 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:02,000 Just every day. 129 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,000 But each day it was the same thing. 130 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,000 One night, I was just walking down the hallway. 131 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,000 I heard footsteps coming from the attic. 132 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:23,000 I heard footsteps coming from the attic. 133 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,000 I heard footsteps coming from the attic. 134 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:29,000 I heard footsteps coming from the attic. 135 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,000 I heard footsteps coming from the attic. 136 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,000 Everyone was asleep but me. 137 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:47,000 I did not dare look up into the attic. 138 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:54,000 I went back into my bedroom and closed the door. 139 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:01,000 I was just standing there. 140 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,000 I was just standing there. 141 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,000 I was just standing there. 142 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,000 I heard ice cubes clinking against glass. 143 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:23,000 As if someone were walking down the hallway and had just gotten a drink from the kitchen. 144 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 There was no way that it was my little brothers, my dad or my stepmom. 145 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,000 They were just across the hall asleep in their beds. 146 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Then I felt there was company in the room. 147 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000 And the fan turns off. 148 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,000 And then it turns back on again. 149 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,000 I was petrified. 150 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:20,000 I could see the buttons being pushed in as if someone were pushing them. 151 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,000 But there was no one there. 152 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:28,000 Click. Click. Click. 153 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:33,000 It was like someone were saying, I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. 154 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000 I was terrified. 155 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,000 I knew for a fact that there was something in the house. 156 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,000 Ronte didn't want to be in the house. 157 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,000 So we decided to go on vacation. 158 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:06,000 She told me on more than one occasion about things that were happening in her room. 159 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000 I have to go to the house. 160 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,000 I have to go to the house. 161 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,000 I have to go to the house in her room. 162 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:22,000 I have to admit that I wasn't terribly worried about it. 163 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,000 You know, she's a 11-year-old girl. 164 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000 And I thought that it was probably just her imagination working overtime. 165 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:36,000 We never leave the house alone, so we invited one of Mark's students, 166 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,000 Reagan, to come and house it for us and watch the animals while we were gone. 167 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:44,000 The Spencer's are a very lovely family and I'd grown quite close to them. 168 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:47,000 And I was approached to house it for them that summer. 169 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,000 I wanted her to feel comfortable to come in the house and stay in the house as much as possible. 170 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:01,000 I didn't tell Reagan specifically anything that had happened in the house. 171 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:18,000 I was trying to figure out why would they put this picture in there and then... 172 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:27,000 Rebecca calls me and she asked me if I wouldn't mind going upstairs to the attic 173 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:31,000 to make sure that the roof wasn't leaking, make sure the buckets weren't overflowing. 174 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,000 Okay, yeah, sure. Okay, bye. 175 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,000 So I thought to myself, I really don't want to go up there. 176 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:40,000 Sorry, Javi. 177 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,000 But I would do anything for the Spencer's. 178 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,000 I grabbed a chair and propped it up against the door. 179 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,000 It helped to leave that door open to get more illumination. 180 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,000 As I walked up the stairs, I could hear that the rain was hitting pretty hard. 181 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:50,000 There were some buckets that were about to overflow. 182 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:23,000 I was too nervous to look too far because it was just a spooky old Victorian attic. 183 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:42,000 Howdy. 184 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,000 Howdy. 185 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000 Howdy. Howdy. 186 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:50,000 Come on, boy. 187 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:53,000 Howdy, where are you? 188 00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:59,000 This door slammed shut. 189 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000 It made me and the dog in total darkness. 190 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:13,000 Come on, boy. 191 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:15,000 Howdy, where are you? 192 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000 I just felt this overwhelming sense of panic. 193 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,000 I feel like I got to run down, you know, try to get out of the attic, 194 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,000 but at the same time, I've still got this dog up here. 195 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:44,000 Howdy. 196 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,000 Come on. 197 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,000 Come on. Howdy. 198 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:04,000 Howdy. 199 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:07,000 Howdy. 200 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:08,000 Howdy. 201 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:09,000 Come on. 202 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:14,000 Howdy. 203 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:18,000 Please, howdy. 204 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,000 I grabbed the dog and I just ran for the stairs. 205 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,000 I slipped over. I was terrified. 206 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,000 I needed to get out of the attic immediately. 207 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,000 The chair had moved. 208 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000 I see this person going to the doorway of Mark's study. 209 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:14,000 Mark. 210 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,000 There's somebody there. 211 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000 As much as I wanted her to not be there, she was there. 212 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:56,000 I ran to my car for dear life. 213 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:10,000 I threw the door open and got out of there as fast as I could. 214 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:15,000 I was scared. 215 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:22,000 Reagan called me and said that she'd had a really weird, strange experience in the house. 216 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,000 Someone else in the house having another strange experience 217 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,000 makes you feel like maybe it's not all in your head. 218 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,000 I decided to go and do historical research about the original homeowners. 219 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:47,000 The Allens were a particularly prominent family. 220 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,000 Jolie Allen was the president of a bank. 221 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:55,000 And they had three daughters, Lani, Ladelle, and Louis. 222 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,000 And he really built the house for them. 223 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:03,000 Ladelle was the middle daughter. 224 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:09,000 Ladelle quickly emerged as a particularly interesting figure in the Allen family. 225 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:20,000 Ladelle was a woman who had a lot of heartache, a lot of tragedy surrounding her life. 226 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,000 She found herself in a bad marriage. 227 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,000 She got divorced in 1927. 228 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:34,000 And then her only child died of pneumonia in his 20s. 229 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:40,000 And then we discovered that Ladelle died in the house. 230 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:50,000 There was the mystery as to why she had died, because it seemed that nobody knew why. 231 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,000 So I decided to go ahead and order her death certificate. 232 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:02,000 With all of the strange and unusual things that were happening, I wanted to see if I could link them to Ladelle. 233 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:11,000 We were both skeptics. 234 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:12,000 Hey. 235 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:19,000 But I was beginning to embrace the idea that there might be something more to it than we knew or we could explain. 236 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,000 I'm beginning to wonder about these things. 237 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:28,000 And she actually broached the subject of bringing in paranormal investigators. 238 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:32,000 And I was a little flabbergasted that she even mentioned this. 239 00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,000 I felt that I had a professional reputation to protect. 240 00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,000 I was the dean of the largest school at a university. 241 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,000 Rebecca, there's nothing going on in this house. 242 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:49,000 I mean, I was all about rational explanations of everything. 243 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,000 You can never underestimate the power of denial. 244 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:03,000 Okay. 245 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:06,000 I didn't want them to come in and tell me that what I was seeing was real. 246 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,000 I wanted them to come in and say it wasn't haunted. 247 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:13,000 I'm sorry. 248 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,000 A lot of people we work with kind of want to prove their house is haunted. 249 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:21,000 But Mark and Rebecca did not. 250 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:24,000 They didn't want this stuff to be going on. 251 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:25,000 Wow. 252 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000 We take a great deal of equipment with us. 253 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:36,000 Digital tape recorders, electromagnetic field meters, infrared cameras. 254 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,000 Up in the corner there, one there. 255 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,000 We run those cameras in the dark. 256 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,000 Oh. 257 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,000 We sent the children to friends' houses for the night. 258 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,000 We decided that we were just sort of in the way. 259 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,000 And I said, we're going to go see a movie. 260 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,000 And they said, that's great. 261 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:04,000 I honestly didn't expect them to find any evidence whatsoever of paranormal activity. 262 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,000 Bye. 263 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:07,000 The house is all yours. 264 00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:08,000 Good luck. 265 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,000 Bye. 266 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,000 We get ready to turn all the lights out because these are infrared cameras. 267 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,000 But they see better in the dark. 268 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,000 I said, has everybody got their stuff? 269 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:33,000 Everybody ready? 270 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,000 About two minutes. 271 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,000 One minute. 272 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,000 At one point, we smelled a very distinct odor of cigar smoke. 273 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:57,000 Peter? 274 00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,000 Yeah. 275 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:05,000 And we actually smelled the furniture to see if the cigar smoke was in the fabric. 276 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,000 Couldn't really smell anything. 277 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,000 And it was gone very quickly. 278 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:15,000 Right. 279 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000 On my cue, turn the lights out. 280 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,000 Five, four, three. 281 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,000 And the light went out. 282 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:32,000 And we didn't turn it out. 283 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,000 What was that? 284 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:37,000 There was this horrible sound in the backyard. 285 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,000 We just see these blue sparks flying everywhere. 286 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,000 We could see absolutely nothing out the window. 287 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,000 It was pitch black. 288 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Y'all got our flashlights. 289 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,000 We all went out the door to find out what's going on. 290 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,000 Oh my God. 291 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,000 We're barely down the street when the phone rang. 292 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:28,000 Hello? 293 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,000 And Rebecca said, all right, we're coming back. 294 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:52,000 There's this huge tree limb that had violently ripped one end of the power line out of the transformer. 295 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:58,000 And this was a big leafy limb from a completely healthy tree. 296 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,000 It wasn't dead. 297 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:02,000 It hadn't been cut or sawn. 298 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,000 It was pulled off. 299 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:09,000 The way you would see a tree limb pulled off in a storm, although there wasn't any storm. 300 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,000 Something started happening to me. 301 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000 I started to doubt what I believed. 302 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:21,000 I started to think, well, maybe there's something here. 303 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000 Something in that house was a little bit of a mess. 304 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:33,000 Something in that house made that happen to stop that investigation. 305 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,000 We had never seen anything that violent. 306 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:44,000 I mean, ripping a limb off a tree, that takes an awful lot of power and energy. 307 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:50,000 If it can do that, what else can it do? 308 00:29:55,000 --> 00:30:07,000 It was the middle of the day, and I was in the master dressing room. 309 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:24,000 I just heard these very heavy, distinct footsteps above me in the attic. 310 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:30,000 I didn't think that it was a ghost. 311 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:37,000 For me, I was very clear in my mind, I knew absolutely that there was a man in the attic. 312 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,000 I'm in my office. I pick up the phone and Rebecca says, 313 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:50,000 There's a man in the attic. 314 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,000 And I said, what do you mean there's somebody in the attic? Who's in the attic? 315 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,000 I heard the son's police come home. 316 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:01,000 I was thinking that it was maybe a squirrel. 317 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:06,000 No, I know what I heard. There it is again. 318 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 At the same time, though, I am concerned because Rebecca seems so convinced. 319 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,000 Quick, hurry. 320 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,000 And Rebecca's not somebody to get scared off of. 321 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:31,000 I thought that if I could possibly lock the person in the attic, 322 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,000 that they would still be there when Mark got back, 323 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,000 and we could confront the person about why they were in the house. 324 00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:01,000 If there was a man up there, the only way he would have gotten out of the attic was through the door. 325 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,000 Because you can't just shimmy down this house. 326 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,000 Mark! 327 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,000 Shhh! 328 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,000 Shhh! 329 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:18,000 Shhh! 330 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,000 Shhh! 331 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:22,000 Shhh! 332 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,000 Shhh! 333 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,000 She was agitated. 334 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:32,000 I wasn't used to seeing her like that because Rebecca's a very strong, secure woman. 335 00:32:52,000 --> 00:33:02,000 I went up the attic stairs with some weariness. I was, you know, some caution. 336 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:12,000 I went up the attic stairs with some weariness. I was, you know, some caution. 337 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,000 Hello? 338 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,000 Hello? 339 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:20,000 Hello? 340 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,000 Anybody here? 341 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:44,000 There was absolutely no sign of a break-in. 342 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:50,000 I found nothing. There's nothing in the attic. 343 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:27,000 I smelled cigar smoke, and I could smell it very strong. 344 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:33,000 I'm just thinking, I know no one in the house smokes anything, much less cigars. 345 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:49,000 I couldn't figure out why part of what I was looking at wasn't there. It was just blacked out. 346 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:58,000 I realized that what I was looking at was a dark figure in the shape of a man. 347 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:03,000 And he had a cowboy hat on the top of his head. 348 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:10,000 And it was very scary. I mean, I was frozen with shock. 349 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:17,000 Suddenly I noticed the shadow of a person, and I was the only person in the attic. 350 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:23,000 I couldn't believe it. 351 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:30,000 It was as though somebody was leading me. 352 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:35,000 I see a brown piece of paper. 353 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:57,000 It was gone. 354 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,000 Both Reagan and Desi has seen a woman in the house. 355 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:08,000 I thought it was very odd that I wasn't seeing a woman, I was seeing a man. 356 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:12,000 I wanted to know who this man was. 357 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:17,000 They're scattered are all these letters. 358 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:22,000 And these letters are addressed to Lutdell. 359 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:31,000 These were letters from a man named Prentice Savage in 1948. 360 00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:40,000 I realized that this is a love letter written to Lutdell a couple of months before she died. 361 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:51,000 I thought that these letters that I held in my hands were possibly the answer to that mystery, that question. 362 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:57,000 Why did Lutdell die? 363 00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:03,000 In March 1948, Prentice is visiting Monticello. 364 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:08,000 He and Lutdell had known each other, and they had even dated. 365 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000 But they ended up marrying other people. 366 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,000 And then they don't see each other for 35 years. 367 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:21,000 And he writes in one of his letters about what he's thinking. 368 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:32,000 He's wondering whether she's as beautiful as she was when she was younger. 369 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:38,000 And he writes that he wasn't disappointed. 370 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:47,000 So in March 1948, Lutdell and Prentice rekindle their romance. 371 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:52,000 His letters become truly passionate. 372 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:58,000 These last five days were living my memory always. 373 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,000 As the happiest ones in my entire life. 374 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:08,000 I love you. Don't ever forget, I'm thinking of you all my life. 375 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,000 He insists in his letters that he's going to divorce his wife. 376 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:22,000 When I got to October of 1948, I noticed a shift in the tone. 377 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:31,000 He was frustrated with Lutdell pressuring him to make progress. 378 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:37,000 Then he wrote that last letter. 379 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:47,000 And he said that he didn't know when, if ever, he was going to be able to free himself of his marriage. 380 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,000 No! 381 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,000 And there was silence. 382 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:09,000 Lutdell's death certificate arrived. 383 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000 The word suicide seemed so large on the page. 384 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:22,000 The feeling that I had when I read that on the death certificate was just incredible. 385 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:27,000 It was just incredibly sad. 386 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,000 Well, I was in the attic by myself. 387 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:37,000 I looked up and I saw a woman coming toward me. 388 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,000 She was looking right at me. 389 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:53,000 I was startled. 390 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,000 I look again. 391 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:02,000 And it's Rebecca. 392 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:06,000 You need to take a look at this. 393 00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:10,000 Rebecca showed me Lutdell's death certificate. 394 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,000 My immediate reaction was horror. 395 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:20,000 The death certificate stated that she died by mercury cyanide poisoning. 396 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:27,000 I noticed that it was right at Christmas. 397 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:32,000 From doing my research, I knew her mother always threw a Christmas party. 398 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:36,000 I was so surprised. 399 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:43,000 On Christmas night, 1948, Lutdell attended her mother's Christmas party. 400 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:52,000 Princess promised in more than one of his letters that they would be together at Christmas. 401 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,000 I was so surprised. 402 00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:00,000 I was so surprised. 403 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:08,000 Christmas game and Princess didn't show up. 404 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:15,000 And I believe that that was the thing that pushed her over the edge. 405 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000 Christmas is coming. 406 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,000 Christmas is coming. 407 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:30,000 Christmas is coming. 408 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:35,000 Late in the evening, she prepared herself a glass of punch. 409 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:52,000 She used the punch to mask the taste of the mercury cyanide tablets. 410 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000 I felt sad for her. 411 00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:02,000 I felt someone should have reached out to her and done something. 412 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:07,000 I felt sad for her. 413 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:12,000 I felt someone should have reached out to her and done something. 414 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000 I felt sad for her. 415 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:22,000 I felt someone should have reached out to her and done something. 416 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:31,000 I have personally gone from not believing in spirits at all to being completely convinced. 417 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,000 I think Lutdell wanted me to find those letters. 418 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:40,000 I think Lutdell, in essence, showed me where they were. 419 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:47,000 I think she was ready for her story to be told. 420 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:54,000 I would like to hope that by sharing her story, she can finally feel at peace.