The Dead Files (2011–…): Season 3, Episode 25 - Tortured Souls - full transcript
In the season finale, Steve and Amy investigate a minister's home in Connecticut, who fears his crisis of faith has allowed an evil entity to torment his family.
Subs created by: David Coleman.
This dark thing was not a good person.
Our daughter, she was in sheer terror.
He will pitch a fit.
You got a lot of activity.
The women here, he wants to kill 'em.
He stands by the foot of my bed.
He's like a stalker.
Both of their children died.
It hurts, like, here.
We can't live like this any longer.
This person might have
been a serial killer.
They're being watched.
My name is Amy Allan.
This thing likes death.
I see dead people.
This thing is, like, a monster.
I speak to dead people.
And he's pissed off now.
And they speak to me.
His head was cracked.
But there's only one way to
know if my findings are real.
This guy was murdered.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi. I'm a retired
New York City homicide Detective.
I cannot help you unless
I know the whole story.
And I know every person,
every house has secrets.
You saw her? It's my job to reveal them.
Why would you stay here?
But Steve and I never speak...
We never communicate
during an investigation.
Until the very end.
Stop it.
We uncover if it's
safe for you to stay...
I want to know the truth. I
want to know what's happening.
Or time to get out.
I told you there were
ghosts in this house.
Amy and I never cross paths
during an investigation.
I interview living
witnesses and look for
dark secrets buried in
the property's past...
While Amy communicates with the dead.
I'm in Manchester, Connecticut,
just east of Hartford.
I received a call from a man named Tom.
He's an ordained minister, a man of God.
He doesn't want to believe
there's evil in his home,
but he says he can't
deny it at this point.
He says whatever's there
is ripping his family apart,
and that Amy and I are his last hope.
Before Amy arrives, I look for anything
that could influence her findings.
This home has a lot of family
photographs and children's toys,
so it's important that
I cover or remove them.
When I'm done, the location
will be ready for tonight's walk.
There is this little girl.
She's freaking out and crying
and panicking, and she's lost...
In the woods.
She's running from someone,
and she's very scared.
She knows that if he catches
her, he's gonna hurt her.
I mean, I know he gets her.
Is this how she died?
Definitely.
Tom, I'm glad I'm here,
because when we spoke,
you sounded pretty
stressed out on the phone.
Yeah, there's been a lot of pretty
intense things going on here.
Our daughter wakes up in the middle
of the night, screaming for us,
and my wife will go into her room
and sleep with her to comfort her.
As a father, that's
got to be pretty tough.
The look in her face,
just the sheer terror,
it's painful to watch her struggle.
What kind of things are
you experiencing here?
We hear footsteps. We've
seen shadow figures.
We've seen apparitions in the house.
We hear things moving on their own.
A whole variety of
things are going on here.
Now, I understand you're
an ordained minister.
Yes, I am, yeah.
So, have you done blessings
on the house yourself?
I've done numerous blessings, you
know, both prayers and holy water.
It just doesn't stop.
What are you hoping
we can do for you guys?
We've gone as far as we can on our own,
and we really need a solution to this.
We can't live like this any longer.
Uh, there's a guy down there.
He's angry, and he's really
trying to make me scared of him.
He's saying, "don't come down here".
"Get away from me".
He only comes down here when
they're trying to get rid of him.
Like, he wants to hide.
When he comes down here,
he will pitch a fit.
He's got kind of a dark side.
This is bad.
So, Tom, why'd you bring
me up into this room?
It just gives off a
very oppressive feeling.
We try not even to come down in
this part of the house at night.
Tom, I get that you have a feeling in this
place, but what about specific experiences?
I was painting my daughter's playroom,
and I was facing out into the room.
At that time, I saw a big, solid
black mass moving down the wall.
It was much taller than
I and broader than I.
It couldn't have been, like, a headlight
or any kind of reflection off anything?
It was snowing that particular day,
so there wasn't really a situation
to create a shadow like that.
I was stunned.
Are there any other experiences
in this part of the house?
At night, I've heard heavy objects
moving, it sounds like, across my desk.
So, I wait till the morning, I
come here and look at the desk to
see if anything had been moved,
actually, and nothing had moved.
Why don't you come in here
and see what's going on?
Whatever it is, I know that
it's not a physical thing.
It's something that I'm
not equipped to deal with.
This is wrong.
There's a lot of problems
here, specifically in this area.
The man I encountered in the basement
spends most of his time
upstairs in this area.
He hates living people in his space
and has disturbing ways of showing it.
There's a lot of bothering going on.
Can you talk about what he does
up here that might disturb people?
I'm hearing, like, stuff
sliding across the floor.
Like, hearing furniture moving.
He will really go nuts.
What's going on in here?
I got in bed, and when I
turned over facing this way,
there was two girls standing
on the side of my bed.
I was absolutely terrified.
So I kicked out with my leg, and
when I kicked out, they dissipated.
- Describe 'em for me.
- They were bluish.
They were wearing old-fashioned
dresses with lace collars.
There's so much stuff going on here
that I started keeping a ghost log on it.
Can I take a look at it?
- This is it?
- That's it.
You got a lot of activity.
Two months later, my daughter had a friend
sleep over, and she had a strange dream.
And she said in this dream...
Three girls came to her.
And they were wearing old-fashioned
dresses with lace collars.
And I was just stunned
because I didn't...
I didn't tell Allyson about that. I
absolutely didn't tell the friend about it.
And I called you guys the very next day.
And now, in your opinion,
you think this stuff,
whatever's here, could be
dangerous to your family?
It's quite possible.
I don't like it.
He makes me feel sick.
He's showing me himself as
this, like, creepy, sinister guy.
And that was to try to scare
me off so I wouldn't bother him.
Do you know if he can
do that to other people?
Yes, he can.
He can read their minds.
Joanna, I was talking to your husband,
and he was telling me you guys are
having a pretty rough time here.
And how are you handling all this?
I imagine for my child safe family,
safe home, where she can be happy.
She's having hard time
going upstairs by herself.
She doesn't go to bed by herself.
It is affecting how she grow.
And as a person with hard childhood...
I want to make sure that
my child will be safe.
One thing I've learned working with
Amy is that unexplained activity,
can also be caused by the
living, not just the dead.
So, when a witness tells me she's
had a hard life, I need more details.
Joanna, where are you actually
from? What country are you from?
- I'm from Poland.
- Okay.
My father worked with the government,
and he was involved with police.
Russians cooperating
with our government.
That's my father.
What did he do for the government?
He would be the part
of spying on people,
trying to get rid of
everybody who is in his way.
But my mom was opposite
side of the politics.
Which was people trying to be
free, fighting for democracy.
And my father, I think he
had anger issue or something,
because I saw him putting
gun against her head.
So, you watched your father threaten
your mother with a gun to her head?
Yes.
Now, do you talk to him at all?
They divorced when I was 18,
and after that, I really
didn't keep in touch with him.
I don't even know if
he's alive, to be honest.
There's this guy. He's kind of stocky.
He is some kind of, like, cop or...
Investigator.
Just a real tough, rough dude.
He's looking over things all the time.
He's constantly on patrol.
Do you know when he died?
In the last 20 years?
And I'm getting that he was some kind
of grandfather figure or father figure.
- To someone that's here now?
- Yes.
He loves them, but...
I think there's, like, times where he's
seeing things happening here in the house.
That he doesn't agree
with or doesn't like,
and that's when he'll
sometimes just snap.
Does he express that in any way?
He might influence you, like
to feel angry for no reason.
And then I just see, like, black
and yelling, which is his temper.
Why don't you tell me what you've
been experiencing in the house?
This four lights we have here...
Three of them, I unscrewed the bulbs
because it's too much
for us, for every day.
And we were sitting at the
table, and three of them went on.
I'm thinking, that's not
possible, and then they went off.
And those three were
still unscrewed after.
So, how far do you keep
them loose? A couple turns?
All the way loose. They're
not in at all, almost.
Okay.
But the most disturbing was
actually a couple weeks ago.
I went to bed with my
daughter, and at midnight,
somebody woke me up
touching my shoulder.
And I thought it was Tom,
but there was nobody there.
And if this is what wakes her
up in the middle of the night...
Then I understand why
she always makes sure,
"mommy, will you stay
with me all night?"
I see this, like, black thing.
In life, it was a young man.
Now he's, like, turning
into a stalky, shadowy thing.
He doesn't care um,
about personal boundaries.
He's like a stalker.
This weird, dark thing...
Is not good.
It was not a good person.
Okay.
Like, I think that this person
might have been a serial killer.
Allyson, mom and dad say you're
having a tough time in here.
Yeah.
Are you seeing things, they say?
In my dreams...
I see...
People.
First, I was afraid of the dark but...
Then I was afraid of the ghost.
A ghost? Like, a man?
Yes.
- Is he an older man? Older than me?
- No.
He's younger than me? Okay.
What does he do?
He just stands by the foot of my bed.
- Does he stare at you?
- Yeah.
Does he scare you?
We're gonna try to figure out
what's going on here, okay,
so this man doesn't
come visit you anymore.
Yes, I see the little girl, yes.
She's a living person.
And there's a dead
little girl here, as well.
I know she was murdered by
the dark thing, the stalker.
She's here to warn the living about him.
Do you know if the living girl has
had any experiences with the stalker?
I think so, yes.
I think she might have dreams.
I don't know if he's [Bleep] around
with her in her nightmares or if she's...
Woken up and seeing
something in her room.
He's really good at what
he does, which is watching.
But he's also dangerous?
Oh, yeah.
I think he killed the dead girl.
And I think he wants to kill this girl.
I'm at the local library
to see what else I can uncover
about my client's property.
Searching through old deeds,
I discovered the original owner
was a guy named James Lanfear.
But what really catches my eye
is an article about his wife...
Who died of a pulmonary
disease when she was only 25.
Now that I know a 25-year-old woman
died on the property I'm investigating,
I need to find out what happened.
So I reached out to a local
historian who told me her death
was just the beginning of a long,
tragic story for the Lanfear family.
Mary Lanfear lived on the
property that you're investigating.
She and her husband, James,
had two children, Ella and Cora.
Okay.
He was a farmer and a manufacturer,
and they were pretty well-to-do.
Okay. It sounds like she
died from a pulmonary disease.
Tuberculosis. It was a
very painful way to go.
So, now, what happens to James
after his wife dies with two kids?
Strangely enough, five months
later, James remarried...
A woman by the name of Harriet.
This is an announcement of the marriage.
- Five months later?
- Yes.
- He didn't waste much time, did he?
- Maybe he knew her. We don't know.
So, he had two kids
with his wife who passed.
Now he gets remarried. Does
he have any kids with her?
Unfortunately, both of their
children died, two little boys.
The first one died on
the day he was born.
And the next one was
stillborn, very sad.
You know, Susan, this guy didn't
have an easy go with things.
I mean, he loses his young wife.
Then he remarries and loses two kids it
looks like within a year of each other.
And then it gets worse.
The next year, in 1860...
James and Harriet were
charged with child abuse.
- Child abuse?
- Yes.
Do you know any details about that case?
All I know is that it was quite a scandal
in Manchester, and it did go to trial.
The stalker has, like,
an ease about him.
Do you have any idea about his life?
He's, like, really quiet,
and he's always watching.
He goes all over the house, so
I'm thinking that he lived here.
What does he want to do to the living?
Well, with the women
here, he wants to kill 'em.
Look, I'm no expert
on 19th-century law.
But for someone to get charged with
a child abuse case back in the 1860s,
it had to be pretty bad.
I'm on my way to meet with
a retired police sergeant
who's done a lot of
research on this case.
John, thanks for meeting me.
- James and Harriet Lanfear.
- Mm hmm.
They got brought up on charges of child
abuse, so what were you able to find out?
I was lucky enough to get one article
from a newspaper that mentioned it.
John, let me ask you a
question. This is 1860.
Were a lot of cases
even brought to trial?
This is unheard of.
It just doesn't happen.
And to make it even more interesting is
the people who's bringing the complaint.
It's his own family.
This is a very
well-respected family in town.
This is a time period where,
everybody's family business
was their own and no one else's.
So the abuse had to
have been horrendous.
All right, so...
She got a severe whipping and
application of a hot flatiron.
On one of the child's
limbs. That's pretty bad.
Do you think the fact that she
was a female and 10 years old
is the reason that the case
was brought against him?
I think it was the iron. That
is not common, to burn a child.
John, let me ask you.
What was their defense?
Well, their defense was they were trying
to raise their children not to be stubborn.
So, now, what wound up
happening at the trial?
In the trial, they were acquitted.
Whoa.
There are a lot of
issues with the stairs.
This sneaky, stalker guy...
Wants to hurt women and
push them down the stairs.
He wants to harm females here.
On two occasions, I felt that from him.
I kind of felt the urge to
throw myself down the stairs.
Like, kind of made me feel that way.
In my research, I also
came across another family
that lived on Tom and Joanna's
property, the Colemans.
What struck me odd was how many
family members died at a young age.
I managed to track down a descendent,
who says his family suffered
more than death in that house.
Dennis, thanks for meeting me,
but let me ask you a question.
Why here in this church?
Thomas Coleman's whole life
revolved around this church.
This church, okay. What's your
relationship to Thomas Coleman?
Thomas Coleman was the
uncle of my grandmother.
Okay. Now, what can
you tell me about him?
He was an immigrant that came
from Derry, Ireland, in 1881.
Okay.
And he was able to buy the land that
you're talking about from his father-in-law.
Okay. Now, Dennis, what I
found interesting was that um,
there was a lot of deaths associated
with Thomas Coleman's family.
There was. He had an infant
son in 1892 that died.
His wife died young of a heart attack.
Okay. You mentioned on the
phone there was more than death,
as far as tragedy for this family.
Yes.
Thomas' oldest son, Thomas...
Married his first cousin.
And it was a rule of the church that
you did not marry your first cousin.
So, Thomas Senior disowned his son.
Wow. That's pretty sad.
Yes.
But Thomas also had children
that were very devoted to him.
One of them was Edward.
Edward was the apple
of his father's eye.
They were very close.
They were both firemen.
He was the next oldest son.
But he also died at a
very young age of 43.
Wow. That's pretty tragic.
It says "kidney failure".
Kidney and heart failure.
He suffered over the last
couple years of his life.
Okay.
This guy in the basement...
He...
Felt very, very ill.
The angry guy from the
basement has come out of hiding,
and he wants me to feel his pain.
The pain he felt when he was dying.
And it hurt, and it hurts, like, here.
Really bad.
Like, this is... he's
like... he's even like that.
Can you tell anything about
who he was when he was alive?
I think he lived here.
He was a pretty private
guy, pretty introverted.
Seems pretty educated.
Got sick in his 40s.
His life was met with
darkness and tragedy.
Oh, this is bad.
I'm having a sketch artist
draw the two entities
who stood out the most from my walk.
First, the tough older man.
He's white, heavyset.
He had gray hair...
That was receding back.
Like a widow's peak.
Okay.
Next, I described the dark figure
I saw in the little girl's room.
She's probably like 5 or something.
And she's in the bed.
And then there's a little
girl here who's much younger.
She's wearing a little dress.
And there's, like, this
weird black thing behind her.
Is that what you saw?
Yes.
Now that Amy and I have
completed our investigations.
We're ready to reveal our findings to each
other and our clients for the first time.
Amy, I'd like you to
meet Tom and Joanna.
They've been living
here about eight years.
Tom is pretty anxious about
the stuff that's going on here.
Joanna gets absolutely no sleep.
The activity in this house is so
bad, it's actually tearing them apart.
But their biggest concern is
their 8-year-old daughter, Allyson.
Who's actually afraid to go
anywhere in this house alone.
So, with that being said, I'm going to ask
Amy to tell us a little bit about her walk.
When I walked into the
basement, I saw this entity.
He was very angry, depressed, and...
Apparently, he used to live here.
One of the things with him was the
pain I kept feeling in my stomach,
and it felt like an
illness, and I felt sick.
It took a long time before he died.
Any idea how old this
guy might have been?
- 45.
- Wow, okay.
One guy that comes to mind for me that
actually lived in this property here,
was a guy by the name of Edward Coleman.
He was a fireman.
I actually have a photo of him.
He died in his early 40s.
I got his death certificate here.
He basically died from
kidney and heart failure.
You mentioned pain in the stomach.
Mm-hmm.
One of the symptoms of kidney failure
is a swelling of the stomach and cramps.
You know, you mentioned
that he was depressed.
His older brother
married his first cousin.
And it tore the family apart.
What this person likes to
do is just be left alone.
When he's not left
alone, he'll get upset.
The main place where he hangs
out is actually upstairs,
by the bathroom and the office areas.
There's a lot of problems
here, specifically in this area.
I'm hearing, like, stuff sliding across
the floor, like hearing furniture moving.
He will really go nuts.
When we have to walk past what's
my office now, on two occasions,
it sounded like something
heavy sliding across the desk.
And I was too uncomfortable
with that room to begin with,
and I didn't want to open the door
and look, see what was going on.
And why do you not like
that room to begin with?
It's just a very heavy feeling,
very oppressive feeling in that room.
It just physically
makes you uncomfortable.
This house just has a
lot of sadness to it.
What else did you see?
I met this other man.
He was in his 60s.
Uh, he was, like, a stocky guy, and
he was, like, a tough guy, like a cop.
He was constantly on patrol,
and he had a short temper.
He is somebody who recently
died within the last 20 years.
I felt like he was a father, a
grandfather to somebody who lives here.
I don't know if he's alive or
not, but my father was a cop,
and he had a temper, and one time, he
will take gun and put to my mom's head.
And he would say that
"I teach you lesson".
Or something like that.
He didn't use it, but
I saw him being capable.
I tried looking into
Joanna's father's history,
but she hadn't spoken to
him in almost 30 years.
And KGB records are
pretty hard to come by.
So, unfortunately, I couldn't
confirm if he's alive or dead.
I didn't think I was gonna need it,
but I have the photo of your father.
That's Joanna, and that's
her father right there.
Could that be him?
I did do a sketch of him.
Wow.
Looks pretty good to me.
So, he's not the kind of guy
that we'd want to see around here.
Trying to protect.
Given their traumatic relationship,
I'm not surprised Joanna's dad is here.
The dead don't just form
attachments to locations
but to the people who are
the most important to them.
What is he protecting?
I mean, he never
protected me as a child.
I did feel a lot of
conflicting emotions from him.
Guilt?
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
But he's not happy with the
choices you made in life.
Also, I felt that he
could influence moods.
He has very strong emotions,
and you can feel them.
You will feel that anger for no reason,
or feel a sense of dissatisfaction
with your life for no reason.
Do you guys ever feel that way?
I used to be a much gentler soul.
Since we've lived here,
I'm much more explosive...
And moody and angry.
Now, was he like that in life?
Yeah, he never was
satisfied with anything...
Having enough, owning
enough, hurting enough.
And then, angry about it.
To me, to think that it would be someone
like him here makes me really angry.
There might be a definite
reason why he's here.
I saw an entity I...
Was afraid of.
He might have lived here.
I felt that this entity was
dangerous and all over this house.
The problem with him
is that he doesn't...
Have boundaries.
He also...
Hates women, uh...
When he was alive, he did harm them.
Both grown women and young women.
You know, you mentioned the
guy you saw liked to hurt girls.
Let me tell you about
this guy, James Lanfear.
He lived on the property here
back in 1850s into the 1860s.
He and his wife went on trial for severely
beating their 10-year-old daughter...
Which I have an article
here that talks about it.
Now, it was so bad that his own
family members turned them in.
I'm not making excuses for the
guy, but he did have a tough life.
He did lose two infant
kids at childbirth.
He lost his first wife.
She dies from Tuberculosis
at the age of 25.
Did you get anything
else on this guy at all?
He has extremely bad intentions.
I was watching through
the eyes of a little girl,
that he was stalking and then murdered.
I mean, I got no proof of any of that.
But don't forget,
mid-1800s, how hard is it to
chase somebody down, kill 'em, bury 'em?
This is a pretty isolated part of town.
Really isolated.
He was so filled with negativity
that he is turning into,
kind of like a dark mass.
And I think that's how people see him.
He's just evil.
Now, you saw the shadow figure in
your daughter's playroom, right?
Yeah, I was in the closet
painting, facing out to the room,
and I just looked up, and I saw
a black mass moving down the wall.
That was disturbing, I had
never seen that here before.
Do you think it's this guy?
More than likely.
I did do a sketch of something that I...
Saw upstairs.
Can you describe what's
going on in this sketch?
That's their daughter.
Okay, so, who's this kid?
This is the little
girl that he murdered.
So, the shadow he saw
is probably this guy?
Yeah, I think so.
I saw the exact same thing.
No arms, no limbs, just a shape.
With a pronounced area
where the head would be.
I didn't see it, but the night
that I slept with my daughter,
around midnight, somebody
just touch my shoulder.
Let me show you a picture
of the reason we're here.
This is Allyson.
- Mm.
- All right?
Mm-hmm.
She always had said that,
you know, something is standing at
the foot of her bed when she sleeps.
She's always been frightened up
there, and she had said that, you know,
"sometimes a man will come
stand at the foot of my bed,
sometimes a woman,
and sometimes a child".
Do me a favor. Just tell her about
the two kids when you were in the bed.
Tell her about that incident.
One night, I went to bed, and I
turned to my left towards the door,
and there's two apparitions of two
girls standing right next to the bed.
And they were wearing old-fashioned
dress, almost like calico and lace collars.
Wow.
So, why would they come
to me and my daughter?
His victims are coming to her
to try to warn her and you.
I am very nervous about this man.
He's very dark and
capable of very bad things.
He wants to continue doing
what he started doing in life.
His intentions are to kill.
Who's he looking to kill?
Your daughter.
I am very nervous about this man.
He's very dark, and he is very
capable of very bad things.
He wants to continue doing
what he started doing in life.
His intentions are to kill.
Who is he looking to kill?
Your daughter.
You have this person,
who is a sociopath.
And he is stalking his prey.
So, he is excited.
He's happy.
- Can it hurt Allyson or anybody else?
- Yes. I think so, yes.
So, you think it's just a matter
of time before something happens?
Yes, I do.
We got a problem here.
Well, I realize this was a
tough night for you guys and,
some upsetting news that
you weren't expecting.
But we still haven't answered
your most pressing question.
Is it safe for Allyson to grow up here?
So, for that, I'm gonna turn it over to my
partner, Amy, and see what she has to say.
One of the things that occurred to me
after the investigation
was the possibility that...
Allyson is a very strong medium.
She may have attracted...
This guy to her.
And because she's...
The type of person...
That he, in life, may have stalked...
He is now stalking her.
It's not her fault. It's
just something she has.
What's your religion?
I'm an ordained minister,
non-denominational.
One of the things that I
would like to see happen is...
For you and your daughter
to go to your church,
and to talk to your pastor.
Because you do need to have an
exorcist perform a ritual to remove him.
Because he is so evil and
because he is so strong.
Once that's done and he's kicked out.
It's very likely that all of the victims
will leave, because their job is done.
So, will the exorcism
get rid of the fireman?
No. So, here's what you would need
to do to get rid of the fireman.
Perform the real basic cleansing.
While you're doing the cleansing,
you're telling him to leave.
He's not welcomed. He's not wanted.
Through the entire house,
from the basement to the attic.
What about Joanna's dad?
One thing that I would ask you to do
is to write a letter to your father.
About everything, how you felt he treated
you, how you felt he treated your mother,
the things you saw,
how it made you feel.
Then one night, while you're
alone in the house, read it.
And then at the end, tell him
to now leave you alone in peace.
I just feel very helpless
through the whole thing, you know?
I feel that if my
faith was stronger that,
maybe some of this would
not be the way it is.
I just feel my way is lost a little bit.
In this situation, you
need to help your daughter.
And it sucks that you
feel the way you do, but...
As a man of this home and this
family, you have to buck up.
You got to be strong for your daughter.
You need to help her and
your wife get through this.
There is love here.
That's your faith.
That's your motivator.
Yeah.
I believe it.
I understand Tom and Joanna's fears.
When you're dealing with such a
dangerous entity, it's terrifying.
But I believe if they follow my advice,
they can protect Allyson and themselves
from the evil inside their home.
This dark thing was not a good person.
Our daughter, she was in sheer terror.
He will pitch a fit.
You got a lot of activity.
The women here, he wants to kill 'em.
He stands by the foot of my bed.
He's like a stalker.
Both of their children died.
It hurts, like, here.
We can't live like this any longer.
This person might have
been a serial killer.
They're being watched.
My name is Amy Allan.
This thing likes death.
I see dead people.
This thing is, like, a monster.
I speak to dead people.
And he's pissed off now.
And they speak to me.
His head was cracked.
But there's only one way to
know if my findings are real.
This guy was murdered.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi. I'm a retired
New York City homicide Detective.
I cannot help you unless
I know the whole story.
And I know every person,
every house has secrets.
You saw her? It's my job to reveal them.
Why would you stay here?
But Steve and I never speak...
We never communicate
during an investigation.
Until the very end.
Stop it.
We uncover if it's
safe for you to stay...
I want to know the truth. I
want to know what's happening.
Or time to get out.
I told you there were
ghosts in this house.
Amy and I never cross paths
during an investigation.
I interview living
witnesses and look for
dark secrets buried in
the property's past...
While Amy communicates with the dead.
I'm in Manchester, Connecticut,
just east of Hartford.
I received a call from a man named Tom.
He's an ordained minister, a man of God.
He doesn't want to believe
there's evil in his home,
but he says he can't
deny it at this point.
He says whatever's there
is ripping his family apart,
and that Amy and I are his last hope.
Before Amy arrives, I look for anything
that could influence her findings.
This home has a lot of family
photographs and children's toys,
so it's important that
I cover or remove them.
When I'm done, the location
will be ready for tonight's walk.
There is this little girl.
She's freaking out and crying
and panicking, and she's lost...
In the woods.
She's running from someone,
and she's very scared.
She knows that if he catches
her, he's gonna hurt her.
I mean, I know he gets her.
Is this how she died?
Definitely.
Tom, I'm glad I'm here,
because when we spoke,
you sounded pretty
stressed out on the phone.
Yeah, there's been a lot of pretty
intense things going on here.
Our daughter wakes up in the middle
of the night, screaming for us,
and my wife will go into her room
and sleep with her to comfort her.
As a father, that's
got to be pretty tough.
The look in her face,
just the sheer terror,
it's painful to watch her struggle.
What kind of things are
you experiencing here?
We hear footsteps. We've
seen shadow figures.
We've seen apparitions in the house.
We hear things moving on their own.
A whole variety of
things are going on here.
Now, I understand you're
an ordained minister.
Yes, I am, yeah.
So, have you done blessings
on the house yourself?
I've done numerous blessings, you
know, both prayers and holy water.
It just doesn't stop.
What are you hoping
we can do for you guys?
We've gone as far as we can on our own,
and we really need a solution to this.
We can't live like this any longer.
Uh, there's a guy down there.
He's angry, and he's really
trying to make me scared of him.
He's saying, "don't come down here".
"Get away from me".
He only comes down here when
they're trying to get rid of him.
Like, he wants to hide.
When he comes down here,
he will pitch a fit.
He's got kind of a dark side.
This is bad.
So, Tom, why'd you bring
me up into this room?
It just gives off a
very oppressive feeling.
We try not even to come down in
this part of the house at night.
Tom, I get that you have a feeling in this
place, but what about specific experiences?
I was painting my daughter's playroom,
and I was facing out into the room.
At that time, I saw a big, solid
black mass moving down the wall.
It was much taller than
I and broader than I.
It couldn't have been, like, a headlight
or any kind of reflection off anything?
It was snowing that particular day,
so there wasn't really a situation
to create a shadow like that.
I was stunned.
Are there any other experiences
in this part of the house?
At night, I've heard heavy objects
moving, it sounds like, across my desk.
So, I wait till the morning, I
come here and look at the desk to
see if anything had been moved,
actually, and nothing had moved.
Why don't you come in here
and see what's going on?
Whatever it is, I know that
it's not a physical thing.
It's something that I'm
not equipped to deal with.
This is wrong.
There's a lot of problems
here, specifically in this area.
The man I encountered in the basement
spends most of his time
upstairs in this area.
He hates living people in his space
and has disturbing ways of showing it.
There's a lot of bothering going on.
Can you talk about what he does
up here that might disturb people?
I'm hearing, like, stuff
sliding across the floor.
Like, hearing furniture moving.
He will really go nuts.
What's going on in here?
I got in bed, and when I
turned over facing this way,
there was two girls standing
on the side of my bed.
I was absolutely terrified.
So I kicked out with my leg, and
when I kicked out, they dissipated.
- Describe 'em for me.
- They were bluish.
They were wearing old-fashioned
dresses with lace collars.
There's so much stuff going on here
that I started keeping a ghost log on it.
Can I take a look at it?
- This is it?
- That's it.
You got a lot of activity.
Two months later, my daughter had a friend
sleep over, and she had a strange dream.
And she said in this dream...
Three girls came to her.
And they were wearing old-fashioned
dresses with lace collars.
And I was just stunned
because I didn't...
I didn't tell Allyson about that. I
absolutely didn't tell the friend about it.
And I called you guys the very next day.
And now, in your opinion,
you think this stuff,
whatever's here, could be
dangerous to your family?
It's quite possible.
I don't like it.
He makes me feel sick.
He's showing me himself as
this, like, creepy, sinister guy.
And that was to try to scare
me off so I wouldn't bother him.
Do you know if he can
do that to other people?
Yes, he can.
He can read their minds.
Joanna, I was talking to your husband,
and he was telling me you guys are
having a pretty rough time here.
And how are you handling all this?
I imagine for my child safe family,
safe home, where she can be happy.
She's having hard time
going upstairs by herself.
She doesn't go to bed by herself.
It is affecting how she grow.
And as a person with hard childhood...
I want to make sure that
my child will be safe.
One thing I've learned working with
Amy is that unexplained activity,
can also be caused by the
living, not just the dead.
So, when a witness tells me she's
had a hard life, I need more details.
Joanna, where are you actually
from? What country are you from?
- I'm from Poland.
- Okay.
My father worked with the government,
and he was involved with police.
Russians cooperating
with our government.
That's my father.
What did he do for the government?
He would be the part
of spying on people,
trying to get rid of
everybody who is in his way.
But my mom was opposite
side of the politics.
Which was people trying to be
free, fighting for democracy.
And my father, I think he
had anger issue or something,
because I saw him putting
gun against her head.
So, you watched your father threaten
your mother with a gun to her head?
Yes.
Now, do you talk to him at all?
They divorced when I was 18,
and after that, I really
didn't keep in touch with him.
I don't even know if
he's alive, to be honest.
There's this guy. He's kind of stocky.
He is some kind of, like, cop or...
Investigator.
Just a real tough, rough dude.
He's looking over things all the time.
He's constantly on patrol.
Do you know when he died?
In the last 20 years?
And I'm getting that he was some kind
of grandfather figure or father figure.
- To someone that's here now?
- Yes.
He loves them, but...
I think there's, like, times where he's
seeing things happening here in the house.
That he doesn't agree
with or doesn't like,
and that's when he'll
sometimes just snap.
Does he express that in any way?
He might influence you, like
to feel angry for no reason.
And then I just see, like, black
and yelling, which is his temper.
Why don't you tell me what you've
been experiencing in the house?
This four lights we have here...
Three of them, I unscrewed the bulbs
because it's too much
for us, for every day.
And we were sitting at the
table, and three of them went on.
I'm thinking, that's not
possible, and then they went off.
And those three were
still unscrewed after.
So, how far do you keep
them loose? A couple turns?
All the way loose. They're
not in at all, almost.
Okay.
But the most disturbing was
actually a couple weeks ago.
I went to bed with my
daughter, and at midnight,
somebody woke me up
touching my shoulder.
And I thought it was Tom,
but there was nobody there.
And if this is what wakes her
up in the middle of the night...
Then I understand why
she always makes sure,
"mommy, will you stay
with me all night?"
I see this, like, black thing.
In life, it was a young man.
Now he's, like, turning
into a stalky, shadowy thing.
He doesn't care um,
about personal boundaries.
He's like a stalker.
This weird, dark thing...
Is not good.
It was not a good person.
Okay.
Like, I think that this person
might have been a serial killer.
Allyson, mom and dad say you're
having a tough time in here.
Yeah.
Are you seeing things, they say?
In my dreams...
I see...
People.
First, I was afraid of the dark but...
Then I was afraid of the ghost.
A ghost? Like, a man?
Yes.
- Is he an older man? Older than me?
- No.
He's younger than me? Okay.
What does he do?
He just stands by the foot of my bed.
- Does he stare at you?
- Yeah.
Does he scare you?
We're gonna try to figure out
what's going on here, okay,
so this man doesn't
come visit you anymore.
Yes, I see the little girl, yes.
She's a living person.
And there's a dead
little girl here, as well.
I know she was murdered by
the dark thing, the stalker.
She's here to warn the living about him.
Do you know if the living girl has
had any experiences with the stalker?
I think so, yes.
I think she might have dreams.
I don't know if he's [Bleep] around
with her in her nightmares or if she's...
Woken up and seeing
something in her room.
He's really good at what
he does, which is watching.
But he's also dangerous?
Oh, yeah.
I think he killed the dead girl.
And I think he wants to kill this girl.
I'm at the local library
to see what else I can uncover
about my client's property.
Searching through old deeds,
I discovered the original owner
was a guy named James Lanfear.
But what really catches my eye
is an article about his wife...
Who died of a pulmonary
disease when she was only 25.
Now that I know a 25-year-old woman
died on the property I'm investigating,
I need to find out what happened.
So I reached out to a local
historian who told me her death
was just the beginning of a long,
tragic story for the Lanfear family.
Mary Lanfear lived on the
property that you're investigating.
She and her husband, James,
had two children, Ella and Cora.
Okay.
He was a farmer and a manufacturer,
and they were pretty well-to-do.
Okay. It sounds like she
died from a pulmonary disease.
Tuberculosis. It was a
very painful way to go.
So, now, what happens to James
after his wife dies with two kids?
Strangely enough, five months
later, James remarried...
A woman by the name of Harriet.
This is an announcement of the marriage.
- Five months later?
- Yes.
- He didn't waste much time, did he?
- Maybe he knew her. We don't know.
So, he had two kids
with his wife who passed.
Now he gets remarried. Does
he have any kids with her?
Unfortunately, both of their
children died, two little boys.
The first one died on
the day he was born.
And the next one was
stillborn, very sad.
You know, Susan, this guy didn't
have an easy go with things.
I mean, he loses his young wife.
Then he remarries and loses two kids it
looks like within a year of each other.
And then it gets worse.
The next year, in 1860...
James and Harriet were
charged with child abuse.
- Child abuse?
- Yes.
Do you know any details about that case?
All I know is that it was quite a scandal
in Manchester, and it did go to trial.
The stalker has, like,
an ease about him.
Do you have any idea about his life?
He's, like, really quiet,
and he's always watching.
He goes all over the house, so
I'm thinking that he lived here.
What does he want to do to the living?
Well, with the women
here, he wants to kill 'em.
Look, I'm no expert
on 19th-century law.
But for someone to get charged with
a child abuse case back in the 1860s,
it had to be pretty bad.
I'm on my way to meet with
a retired police sergeant
who's done a lot of
research on this case.
John, thanks for meeting me.
- James and Harriet Lanfear.
- Mm hmm.
They got brought up on charges of child
abuse, so what were you able to find out?
I was lucky enough to get one article
from a newspaper that mentioned it.
John, let me ask you a
question. This is 1860.
Were a lot of cases
even brought to trial?
This is unheard of.
It just doesn't happen.
And to make it even more interesting is
the people who's bringing the complaint.
It's his own family.
This is a very
well-respected family in town.
This is a time period where,
everybody's family business
was their own and no one else's.
So the abuse had to
have been horrendous.
All right, so...
She got a severe whipping and
application of a hot flatiron.
On one of the child's
limbs. That's pretty bad.
Do you think the fact that she
was a female and 10 years old
is the reason that the case
was brought against him?
I think it was the iron. That
is not common, to burn a child.
John, let me ask you.
What was their defense?
Well, their defense was they were trying
to raise their children not to be stubborn.
So, now, what wound up
happening at the trial?
In the trial, they were acquitted.
Whoa.
There are a lot of
issues with the stairs.
This sneaky, stalker guy...
Wants to hurt women and
push them down the stairs.
He wants to harm females here.
On two occasions, I felt that from him.
I kind of felt the urge to
throw myself down the stairs.
Like, kind of made me feel that way.
In my research, I also
came across another family
that lived on Tom and Joanna's
property, the Colemans.
What struck me odd was how many
family members died at a young age.
I managed to track down a descendent,
who says his family suffered
more than death in that house.
Dennis, thanks for meeting me,
but let me ask you a question.
Why here in this church?
Thomas Coleman's whole life
revolved around this church.
This church, okay. What's your
relationship to Thomas Coleman?
Thomas Coleman was the
uncle of my grandmother.
Okay. Now, what can
you tell me about him?
He was an immigrant that came
from Derry, Ireland, in 1881.
Okay.
And he was able to buy the land that
you're talking about from his father-in-law.
Okay. Now, Dennis, what I
found interesting was that um,
there was a lot of deaths associated
with Thomas Coleman's family.
There was. He had an infant
son in 1892 that died.
His wife died young of a heart attack.
Okay. You mentioned on the
phone there was more than death,
as far as tragedy for this family.
Yes.
Thomas' oldest son, Thomas...
Married his first cousin.
And it was a rule of the church that
you did not marry your first cousin.
So, Thomas Senior disowned his son.
Wow. That's pretty sad.
Yes.
But Thomas also had children
that were very devoted to him.
One of them was Edward.
Edward was the apple
of his father's eye.
They were very close.
They were both firemen.
He was the next oldest son.
But he also died at a
very young age of 43.
Wow. That's pretty tragic.
It says "kidney failure".
Kidney and heart failure.
He suffered over the last
couple years of his life.
Okay.
This guy in the basement...
He...
Felt very, very ill.
The angry guy from the
basement has come out of hiding,
and he wants me to feel his pain.
The pain he felt when he was dying.
And it hurt, and it hurts, like, here.
Really bad.
Like, this is... he's
like... he's even like that.
Can you tell anything about
who he was when he was alive?
I think he lived here.
He was a pretty private
guy, pretty introverted.
Seems pretty educated.
Got sick in his 40s.
His life was met with
darkness and tragedy.
Oh, this is bad.
I'm having a sketch artist
draw the two entities
who stood out the most from my walk.
First, the tough older man.
He's white, heavyset.
He had gray hair...
That was receding back.
Like a widow's peak.
Okay.
Next, I described the dark figure
I saw in the little girl's room.
She's probably like 5 or something.
And she's in the bed.
And then there's a little
girl here who's much younger.
She's wearing a little dress.
And there's, like, this
weird black thing behind her.
Is that what you saw?
Yes.
Now that Amy and I have
completed our investigations.
We're ready to reveal our findings to each
other and our clients for the first time.
Amy, I'd like you to
meet Tom and Joanna.
They've been living
here about eight years.
Tom is pretty anxious about
the stuff that's going on here.
Joanna gets absolutely no sleep.
The activity in this house is so
bad, it's actually tearing them apart.
But their biggest concern is
their 8-year-old daughter, Allyson.
Who's actually afraid to go
anywhere in this house alone.
So, with that being said, I'm going to ask
Amy to tell us a little bit about her walk.
When I walked into the
basement, I saw this entity.
He was very angry, depressed, and...
Apparently, he used to live here.
One of the things with him was the
pain I kept feeling in my stomach,
and it felt like an
illness, and I felt sick.
It took a long time before he died.
Any idea how old this
guy might have been?
- 45.
- Wow, okay.
One guy that comes to mind for me that
actually lived in this property here,
was a guy by the name of Edward Coleman.
He was a fireman.
I actually have a photo of him.
He died in his early 40s.
I got his death certificate here.
He basically died from
kidney and heart failure.
You mentioned pain in the stomach.
Mm-hmm.
One of the symptoms of kidney failure
is a swelling of the stomach and cramps.
You know, you mentioned
that he was depressed.
His older brother
married his first cousin.
And it tore the family apart.
What this person likes to
do is just be left alone.
When he's not left
alone, he'll get upset.
The main place where he hangs
out is actually upstairs,
by the bathroom and the office areas.
There's a lot of problems
here, specifically in this area.
I'm hearing, like, stuff sliding across
the floor, like hearing furniture moving.
He will really go nuts.
When we have to walk past what's
my office now, on two occasions,
it sounded like something
heavy sliding across the desk.
And I was too uncomfortable
with that room to begin with,
and I didn't want to open the door
and look, see what was going on.
And why do you not like
that room to begin with?
It's just a very heavy feeling,
very oppressive feeling in that room.
It just physically
makes you uncomfortable.
This house just has a
lot of sadness to it.
What else did you see?
I met this other man.
He was in his 60s.
Uh, he was, like, a stocky guy, and
he was, like, a tough guy, like a cop.
He was constantly on patrol,
and he had a short temper.
He is somebody who recently
died within the last 20 years.
I felt like he was a father, a
grandfather to somebody who lives here.
I don't know if he's alive or
not, but my father was a cop,
and he had a temper, and one time, he
will take gun and put to my mom's head.
And he would say that
"I teach you lesson".
Or something like that.
He didn't use it, but
I saw him being capable.
I tried looking into
Joanna's father's history,
but she hadn't spoken to
him in almost 30 years.
And KGB records are
pretty hard to come by.
So, unfortunately, I couldn't
confirm if he's alive or dead.
I didn't think I was gonna need it,
but I have the photo of your father.
That's Joanna, and that's
her father right there.
Could that be him?
I did do a sketch of him.
Wow.
Looks pretty good to me.
So, he's not the kind of guy
that we'd want to see around here.
Trying to protect.
Given their traumatic relationship,
I'm not surprised Joanna's dad is here.
The dead don't just form
attachments to locations
but to the people who are
the most important to them.
What is he protecting?
I mean, he never
protected me as a child.
I did feel a lot of
conflicting emotions from him.
Guilt?
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
But he's not happy with the
choices you made in life.
Also, I felt that he
could influence moods.
He has very strong emotions,
and you can feel them.
You will feel that anger for no reason,
or feel a sense of dissatisfaction
with your life for no reason.
Do you guys ever feel that way?
I used to be a much gentler soul.
Since we've lived here,
I'm much more explosive...
And moody and angry.
Now, was he like that in life?
Yeah, he never was
satisfied with anything...
Having enough, owning
enough, hurting enough.
And then, angry about it.
To me, to think that it would be someone
like him here makes me really angry.
There might be a definite
reason why he's here.
I saw an entity I...
Was afraid of.
He might have lived here.
I felt that this entity was
dangerous and all over this house.
The problem with him
is that he doesn't...
Have boundaries.
He also...
Hates women, uh...
When he was alive, he did harm them.
Both grown women and young women.
You know, you mentioned the
guy you saw liked to hurt girls.
Let me tell you about
this guy, James Lanfear.
He lived on the property here
back in 1850s into the 1860s.
He and his wife went on trial for severely
beating their 10-year-old daughter...
Which I have an article
here that talks about it.
Now, it was so bad that his own
family members turned them in.
I'm not making excuses for the
guy, but he did have a tough life.
He did lose two infant
kids at childbirth.
He lost his first wife.
She dies from Tuberculosis
at the age of 25.
Did you get anything
else on this guy at all?
He has extremely bad intentions.
I was watching through
the eyes of a little girl,
that he was stalking and then murdered.
I mean, I got no proof of any of that.
But don't forget,
mid-1800s, how hard is it to
chase somebody down, kill 'em, bury 'em?
This is a pretty isolated part of town.
Really isolated.
He was so filled with negativity
that he is turning into,
kind of like a dark mass.
And I think that's how people see him.
He's just evil.
Now, you saw the shadow figure in
your daughter's playroom, right?
Yeah, I was in the closet
painting, facing out to the room,
and I just looked up, and I saw
a black mass moving down the wall.
That was disturbing, I had
never seen that here before.
Do you think it's this guy?
More than likely.
I did do a sketch of something that I...
Saw upstairs.
Can you describe what's
going on in this sketch?
That's their daughter.
Okay, so, who's this kid?
This is the little
girl that he murdered.
So, the shadow he saw
is probably this guy?
Yeah, I think so.
I saw the exact same thing.
No arms, no limbs, just a shape.
With a pronounced area
where the head would be.
I didn't see it, but the night
that I slept with my daughter,
around midnight, somebody
just touch my shoulder.
Let me show you a picture
of the reason we're here.
This is Allyson.
- Mm.
- All right?
Mm-hmm.
She always had said that,
you know, something is standing at
the foot of her bed when she sleeps.
She's always been frightened up
there, and she had said that, you know,
"sometimes a man will come
stand at the foot of my bed,
sometimes a woman,
and sometimes a child".
Do me a favor. Just tell her about
the two kids when you were in the bed.
Tell her about that incident.
One night, I went to bed, and I
turned to my left towards the door,
and there's two apparitions of two
girls standing right next to the bed.
And they were wearing old-fashioned
dress, almost like calico and lace collars.
Wow.
So, why would they come
to me and my daughter?
His victims are coming to her
to try to warn her and you.
I am very nervous about this man.
He's very dark and
capable of very bad things.
He wants to continue doing
what he started doing in life.
His intentions are to kill.
Who's he looking to kill?
Your daughter.
I am very nervous about this man.
He's very dark, and he is very
capable of very bad things.
He wants to continue doing
what he started doing in life.
His intentions are to kill.
Who is he looking to kill?
Your daughter.
You have this person,
who is a sociopath.
And he is stalking his prey.
So, he is excited.
He's happy.
- Can it hurt Allyson or anybody else?
- Yes. I think so, yes.
So, you think it's just a matter
of time before something happens?
Yes, I do.
We got a problem here.
Well, I realize this was a
tough night for you guys and,
some upsetting news that
you weren't expecting.
But we still haven't answered
your most pressing question.
Is it safe for Allyson to grow up here?
So, for that, I'm gonna turn it over to my
partner, Amy, and see what she has to say.
One of the things that occurred to me
after the investigation
was the possibility that...
Allyson is a very strong medium.
She may have attracted...
This guy to her.
And because she's...
The type of person...
That he, in life, may have stalked...
He is now stalking her.
It's not her fault. It's
just something she has.
What's your religion?
I'm an ordained minister,
non-denominational.
One of the things that I
would like to see happen is...
For you and your daughter
to go to your church,
and to talk to your pastor.
Because you do need to have an
exorcist perform a ritual to remove him.
Because he is so evil and
because he is so strong.
Once that's done and he's kicked out.
It's very likely that all of the victims
will leave, because their job is done.
So, will the exorcism
get rid of the fireman?
No. So, here's what you would need
to do to get rid of the fireman.
Perform the real basic cleansing.
While you're doing the cleansing,
you're telling him to leave.
He's not welcomed. He's not wanted.
Through the entire house,
from the basement to the attic.
What about Joanna's dad?
One thing that I would ask you to do
is to write a letter to your father.
About everything, how you felt he treated
you, how you felt he treated your mother,
the things you saw,
how it made you feel.
Then one night, while you're
alone in the house, read it.
And then at the end, tell him
to now leave you alone in peace.
I just feel very helpless
through the whole thing, you know?
I feel that if my
faith was stronger that,
maybe some of this would
not be the way it is.
I just feel my way is lost a little bit.
In this situation, you
need to help your daughter.
And it sucks that you
feel the way you do, but...
As a man of this home and this
family, you have to buck up.
You got to be strong for your daughter.
You need to help her and
your wife get through this.
There is love here.
That's your faith.
That's your motivator.
Yeah.
I believe it.
I understand Tom and Joanna's fears.
When you're dealing with such a
dangerous entity, it's terrifying.
But I believe if they follow my advice,
they can protect Allyson and themselves
from the evil inside their home.