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Demon House (2018)
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[skateboard rolling] [spare piano music] I'm Zak Bagans, paranormal investigator. For the past 13 years, I've investigated over 1,000 hauntings. I have a series on The Travel Channel in the U.S. called "Ghost Adventures." I'm one of the world's leading researchers on ghosts and demonology. And this is the case that really fucked me up. The story was huge. It was the next Amityville. And I went all out. I had plenty of resources, equipment, a great crew. I thought I was gonna crush this story. But in the end, nothing was as it seemed. I fell ill and couldn't leave my room for eight days. I didn't feel like myself. Crew members quit on the spot or had to get fired. Witnesses and experts ended up in the hospital. And at the heart of it all was a little screwed-up house. It took me three years to finish this film. I had everything I needed. But the truth is, this film is cursed. [ominous music] [wind whistling] In 2014, I had a nightmare where I'm a spirit hanging out with other spirits. And I show them this trick I can do, moving an object on a table without touching it, like what I try to get spirits to do during my investigations. Then, I'm suddenly in front of a door, and I can't control my body. And the door opens, and a 12-foot-tall goat figure is standing there, and dark black smoke comes out of its mouth, and I'm forced to inhale it. [growling] When I woke up, my lungs hurt, and I knew this was some serious shit that meant something. A week later, a story about a demon possession in Gary, Indiana, makes international news. And a look at one of the most documented cases of demon possession and exorcism in recent history. While this news is breaking, I'm filming a show in California when I start getting calls about it. The next day, over the phone, I buy the house, sight unseen. Now, "Inside Edition" with Deborah Norville. That "Portal to Hell" house that we've been telling you about in Gary, Indiana, where so many eerie things are said to have happened, has just been sold. And wait till you see who's moving in. The new owner is Zak Bagans. What on Earth were you thinking, buying this house? A week later, I arrive with a film crew. A woman named Latoya Ammons, along with her young children and her mother, are the family at the center of this haunting. Unfortunately, they've since moved out, and some squatters have moved in. It takes some convincing to get them to leave. Hello? Hey, Charles, it's Zak, did you call? Okay, thanks, Charles. Hey, how you doing, man? Leon Steadman. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, how are you? - How you doing? - I'm all right. I'm all right. Your friends? Who's your friends? Oh, man. This is my first steps right now inside the home. And... wow, this is it, huh? Then, psychic medium Chris Fleming sends me a text. He's heard I bought the house. He sends me a warning that I'll never forget. He tells me there's a 12-foot-tall demon guardian, just like the one from my dream, at that house. And I better stay the hell away from it. I should have taken his advice. [eerie music] But I didn't. I just got the keys to the Demon House. So I have the house, but I don't have Latoya Ammons and her family, who were allegedly possessed in the house. They've moved away to Indianapolis, so we go searching for them. This is it. This is what it all comes down to, after numerous conversations with Latoya and her mother about them debating on whether or not they want to talk or do an interview with me. They always said they'd return our phone calls, and they never did. So, we were able to find their address. I have to go try and talk to them. We're in Indianapolis. Latoya did a news story, like, a year ago or something. And we were able to find this news story that wasn't related to her exorcisms, about a mold problem here in these apartments. And you could see her standing there with the address on the right-hand side. And that's how we were able to be led here. This whole story started in 2011, when the Ammons family moved into that old rental house in Gary, Indiana. They started hearing footsteps going up and down their basement stairs, saw shadowy figures in the living room, and flies swarmed their screened-in porch in the dead of winter. The local Catholic church told them their house was haunted by spirits, and a couple clairvoyants claimed that the house was home to 200 demons. Then it started affecting their young children more. They started having dark conversations about death with people who weren't there. A family doctor wrote it off as delusions. Then, on April 27, 2012, everything blew up. [eerie music] Now I'm outside their new home 150 miles away, hoping they'll talk to me. Someone in there. [knocking] Is Latoya or Rosa here? How are you? I'm Matt. We talked on the phone a couple weeks ago. - This is Zak. - What's up, man? How you doing? Good. I wanted to see if Latoya or Rosa would want to talk to us. Okay. Okay, yeah. See what happens. [tape fast-forwarding] - It's bullshit. - I knew it. Oh, she won't? Okay. Kevin explains they won't speak to me because I've spent time in the house, and they fear things have attached themselves to me. Luckily, Kevin is willing to talk. What did you notice first? I was told not to even go in the house. It was really affecting the kids and my sister the most, you know. And really the youngest, my nephew. It was really, really letting him have it. It was hurting him, you know, things of that nature. Then, when they came to see me and stay with me those few days and nights, it was attacking them in my home. I heard it. I was upstairs in my bedroom, and I heard, "Whoom!" [distorted shouting] They were all sitting in my living room, and they started this little, weird, evil little chant out of nowhere. And it started with... my youngest nephew started. [video game music] He stopped. My oldest nephew picked it up. He stopped. My niece picks it up. Are you okay? [eerie music] [wheezing gutturally] [distorted groaning] [eerie music] [distorted roaring] We were taking them to the car, and then all of a sudden, my one nephew started attacking the other one. And then, my niece just starting attacking. They just kept attacking each other. [kids shouting] Stop it. [kids screaming] [distorted screaming] And my nephew looks up at my mom, said, "Get your hands off me, you old bitch." I said that's enough. [deep voice] Get your fucking hands off me, bitch. [deep voice] Fuck your old-ass car, bitch. Had they ever talked to your mom like that? No, they would never do that. - Ever? - Ever, ever. I had my oldest nephew, and she had him. And he looks at him, he's like, he says, "Are you ready to go, my brother?" "Yes, my brother, I'm ready to go." All of a sudden, it just started grabbing my oldest nephew, just slamming him, slamming him, slamming him in the back. Then he just kept throwing him. I don't know exactly why it chose my family. I don't know if it was... Do you think it was in the house? I'm thinking it's a presence that was in the house before they moved there. Do you think it's dangerous for me to be in that house? I wouldn't be there. No way I would be there. [eerie atmospheric music] After meeting with me, the Ammons won't let their brother back in their home, because I've been inside the house, and the spirits could have transferred over to him. Next, I track down Father Michael Maginot, the priest who performed multiple exorcisms on the Ammons family, to fill me in on the next part of the story. They called 911? They called 911. Ambulances came. They took the boys to the emergency room. When they got to the hospital, were there still strange things being reported by the emergency room staff? Yeah, there was one boy, was very violent. Could you mention about the hospital again? Tell Lieutenant Gruszka what happened? And my granddaughter start, "I can't take it anymore, Grandma. Make them stop. I can't look in their eyes. I can't look in their eyes." His head is doing this. "I've been here long enough. I came to kill. I'm going to kill now." This is how he started talking. What happens next is witnessed by hospital staff and Child Protective Services case manager Valerie Washington. [whispering, screaming] So I have the intake officer's report. And this is by Valerie Washington, the family case manager, dated April 23, 2012. Okay. And this was Valerie Washington that did say, "Later that evening, he began to growl. He charged at the grandmother's stomach and head butted her several times." Help him, please! Jesus, help him! [indistinct shouting] [eerie music] He went up the wall real fast. Standing like this, facing the wall this way, and went up the wall, and then came back around and stood back in front of us. What did you do when that happened? I left the room. She walked out. I saw her. I ran out the room. I saw you, girl. So there's the CPS worker, right there, admitting to the police that's filming this, that she did witness this boy walking backwards up the wall. Who else was in the room when that happened? The psychologist. The psychologist was there too? He was there. He had just examined. What did the psychologist say? He left the room too. You haven't been here since the last time? I haven't been here since the day after he came here. This home video was shot by police doing a wellness check on the Ammonses one week after the incident at the hospital. This is the first time the Ammonses have been back to their home since then. Is everything pretty much intact, the way you guys left it? Yes, yes. Okay, so this is... Who's room is this? My room. Oh, so you had the front room... nice. I had to stay in there. One of the officers that was there that day was Captain Charles Austin, who had been there a month earlier on a Child Protective Services call. Why did you come here March 2012? I'm the watch commander for the police department. One of the sergeants stated that he was dispatched to this location to assist Child Protective Service and remove two or three children who had not been attending school. Upon walking in, he saw several crucifixes, candles which had been burnt, and Bibles. And he stated that he had an eerie feeling within inside the residence. In my 37 years of police investigation, I've never run into anything like that before. [zapping sound effects] So we stayed up here for approximately 45 minutes, and I was in disbelief. What time do the things in this usually start? You said in the evening? They don't have a special time. So I'm saying, yeah, okay, right. This is really occurring. The officers then went down into the basement. And it was a table with a crucifix, a Bible, and a candle which had been lit. We stayed down here for about 15 minutes. And he was videotaping. I was taking my iPhone and I was taking pictures and whatever. And I said, "It's time for me to leave. I've had enough." I immediately started walking. And as I walked, I say... "That's weird." I don't know that much about construction. But why would somebody concrete a whole basement and leave dirt under the stairs? I said, "That don't make sense." And as I look closer, I saw floor pan with a candle on it. Don't make sense. Don't make common sense. At this stage of the police investigation, what Captain Austin perceives as odd may be something much graver. Is it possible this discovery is the remnants of a ritual, one capable of conjuring something terrifying? Then, in fact, things start occurring. What do you mean things? What kind of things? [eerie creaking] We noticed when we went in the basement, there's actually two doors. The one on the left that actually goes to the room, at various times we were in the basement, it was in a different position, and neither one of us had went into the room. I had an audio recording that I was walking around the house, just making notes or commenting on things. There was an unusual, unidentifiable voice that appeared on that audio. They're burning stuff all over the place here. That's where... [indistinct background chatter] I'm surprised the fire department hasn't been here. It sounds like "heys" to me. [indistinct whooshing] [camera shutter clicks] I'm surprised the... [tape rewinding] [indistinct whooshing] Did you hear that with your own ears? When that happened that day, I did not hear any voice. I only heard it on the recording. [indistinct whooshing] And I walked out of here and got in my unit, squad car, and I drove approximately a mile and a half away. You pulled over, no? Right, I'm in a gas station parking lot. And all of a sudden, the AM/FM radio in my car changed and went to static. And it said, "Who in there?" [crickets chirping] The home's previous owner told me that other police officers had experienced things in the house that had caused them to quit their jobs and move away from the area. I have come to the conclusion, because of everything that had transpired and all the things that I had witnessed and heard about, that it affected women and children physically and the stronger men electronically. We set up another meeting to come to this house. Who did? Myself, the other officers, Child Protective Services. The same CPS worker from before? No, she wouldn't come back. Why? She was terrified. Something was coming from underneath those stairs that was causing the whole house... To turn. [eerie music] In light of these developments, Reverend Maginot gets approval to perform a minor rite on the mother, Latoya Ammons. You basically want to try to either aggravate the demon or abate it. But if it's consistent, okay, you're not really affecting the demon, and you may be endangering the person. Behold the cross of the Lord. Flee bands of enemies. May you be snatched away and driven from the church of God and from the souls redeemed by the precious blood of the Divine Lamb. I saw she had an aversion to holy objects. I put the crucifix on her head. She began convulsing. I took it off; she stopped convulsing. And then I did it a second time. Again, watching, it's consistent. And did it a third time. Father Maginot sat on the couch with a Bible, some holy water, and some salt. And he was reading the Bible. He was just intense. He was really reading. While Reverend Maginot tends to Latoya, the three police officers who are present begin digging in the basement, under the stairs. We were digging, whatever. He had dug about 4 feet. The officer? Right. And he found a nail, a finger nail, a clip-on nail. I think it was pink in color. A nail? Right, right, a finger nail, a clip-on nail. And he found some panties. Panties? Women's panties, women's underwear. Also dug up that day: a comb, two children's socks, a heavy bar, and a red tin. So who buried these objects under the stairs? And why? Do you believe that that house was haunted before Latoya and her family moved in? If those items were there from that original family, it could be. Now, I think it would be what you would call "necromancy," which is trying to communicate with the dead. We only assumed, because we had no expertise, that this was a portal to Hell. Upstairs, something begins to happen in the center bedroom. We went in the center bedroom on the first floor, and the blinds were dripping oil. In fact, they weren't dripping from the top, as you would expect. They were dripping from the middle of the blinds. There was some liquid material that had appeared on some blinds in there, and we had no source for that material. We left the room. First, we photographed it and documented it. And then I wiped down the blinds. And then we sealed the room, and I thought, if the grandmother had went in there and introduced the oil, I wanted to make sure that she didn't go in the second time. So we stuck a Q-tip in the door, at the bottom of the door, and then we came back about 40 minutes later, after Father Maginot had blessed the house. And the Q-tip was still in the door. We went in, and the blinds were dripping oil again. Lieutenant Gruszka went outside, and we shined flashlights on the outside of the window to see if it was coming in from the outside or from the ceiling, and we could never determine the source of that. This CPS worker would be the next to fall victim to the malevolent energy in this home. The CPS opened the cabinet, and she took her left hand, I remember. She may be left-handed. And she touched the dripping. - The fluid... - The fluid. - That you'd been seeing. - Right, right. And when she touched the fluid, a whole half of her hand changed like all the blood had been drawn out of it. It went white? White. It was just completely white. And she had to leave the house. She had complained of pain in that, and it did turn white. I went on the investigation, like I said, at the very beginning, thinking that it was a hoax. The more investigation we did, I believe that there's something there. There's just too many people that I know are truthful people that saw things, some of them which I saw, to discount everything. I was talking to the Child Protective Services worker. Her hand was starting to come back to life. Okay. And Father Maginot came to the front porch stairs outside, and he stood there, and he looked. I say, "Father, what's wrong?" And he looked exactly like the CPS worker's hand. He was flush as a sheet of paper. And it was like... I said, "What's wrong?" And he said, "The blinds are dripping." With so many unrelated people finding themselves entangled in this demonic web, Father Maginot is compelled to help the Ammons. Evidence in hand, he requests permission from Bishop Dale J. Melczek to conduct an official exorcism on Latoya Ammons. His request is granted immediately. I adjure you, ancient serpent, by the judge of the living and the dead, by your creator, by Him who has the power to consign you to Hell. Latoya would later recount, this was the moment she felt the spirit lift from her. [atmospheric vocal music] The stories I had heard about this haunting were compelling, but as I began my own investigation, there was just one nagging question. Was the whole thing a hoax? In early 2014, I get a call from the producer of a very big horror film from a few years ago. He's threatening me because he wants the film rights to the Ammons story. Due to privacy laws, his identity is disguised here. [on phone] Don't bully me around. Do not call me and threaten me. Don't call me and tell me that Mr. [bleep] is this big-wig attorney and I better listen to what he's saying, because you're being documented right now by myself, listening to what appears to be threats. And I didn't want to go this route. [voiceover] So Hollywood wants the rights, which means there's money in it for the major players, from the Ammons family to Father Maginot. And now the Ammons, who originated this story, won't talk to me, and they're apparently talking about a movie deal. Oh, she won't? Okay. Are they doing something else with another movie producer? Mm-hmm. They are? Charles Reed, the home's original landlord who I bought the house from and who had owned it for roughly a decade, told local media that he was skeptical. "I thought I heard it all. This was a new one to me. My belief system has a hard time jumping over that bridge." And the people who were squatting in the house when I bought it originally told me they didn't experience anything there. You think it's all about money? Yeah, you want to know the truth, yeah. They had all these reporters out in front of my house, and I refuse to entertain something that I'm not seeing. Mm-hmm. So it's like, it's a lie. To me, I've been here for two years, and I hear the occasional creaks and this and that, but I'm thinking the house is just old. Whether the claims are real or false, I'd like to find out whether they're real or false. I'm not here to fabricate nothing or sensationalize on anything. If people are making this up, I'm gonna catch them. Well, I'm telling you, I haven't seen it. You haven't seen any ghosts? But as soon as I slipped her fianc some money to leave, suddenly he had all kinds of crazy stories. Your friends? Who's your friends? Oh, man... When they... "Inside Edition," it really came, because they was at the story. Mm-hmm. And if I was able to... man, I had it in the bag. What you're offering is peanuts, man. They came out here, Deborah Norville, the other little lady, they was out there. The producer... the producer, man. Oh, man, when this first broke, Zak, you should have seen it, man. You just getting the ass end of it. Like I told them, and by me not being on a lease, I was done. I couldn't do nothing. Yeah, have you seen things in here? Have you seen ghosts in here? I'm not gonna tell you that until we sit down and we sit down and make an agreement. You know, it's a market for it. And I've seen the market, with the people... But your fiance said that there's nothing in here. Well, that's her story. "Inside Edition" also wanted to talk to me. But instead, I went to meet with the home's original owners. There, I learned that other members of the Ammons family also took issue with the claims they were making. Charles has got me an article here, and this was published February 5, 2014. It says the grandmother of the possessed kids insists none of this went on. Could this be the other grandmother? I don't know. I read that... So Latoya Ammons, her mother is the one that lived in the house, that witnessed all that stuff and did all the interviews stating that she saw the kids being lifted up and tons of other stuff. So now Latoya Ammons's step-mother, which is a different woman: "My children, Latoya's brother and sisters, are outraged," the step-mother told me. They know the true story, and they're upset about the family's name being dragged through the mud. "My family hoped this would all blow over. It has not." Wow. Wow. Also, a photo leaked online of a ghostly figure in one of the house's windows. But this was almost definitely faked using a cell phone app. On top of this, I had the house inspected, and the inspector found mold and other things that could have had a psychological effect on the residents. So what does the house contain? Asbestos, black mold, everything? Can that make you feel dizzy or euphoric? And then you have to think about, too, if any of those elements would affect the human mind or the body to perceive those side effects as paranormal-induced type euphoria and spirit energy. So it's something to take into consideration. I was starting to think this may be an overblown case of mass hysteria or that there was some other normal explanation that was now being turned into a money grab. But then, with my own investigation, shit got crazy. One day, when we're filming at the house, a woman drives by and says she used to live there in the '90s. You got my audio, Jay? Check, check, you got it? Did you used to live in here? So you used to live here, how many years? Just stayed, like, four or five years. Did you all hear about what's been going on in here? Yes. You guys have all heard about it? Has your mom been telling you about it? I saw on Facebook. Yeah, a lot of stuff happened here. If the claims are true about the demons being in here, I just want to make sure it's okay for them to be in here, because the other family did have three kids also. Oh, for real? Yeah, except they were two boys and one girl. What? Mom, are you giving them permission to go inside? Yeah, y'all just have to be careful, because like I said, I ain't been here in a couple years. [keys jingling] My mama's landlord used to own this house. You ready? I am ready. This was my room. The skeleton... the skeleton key doors? Used to be skeleton keys. Really? Not all the doors were skeletons. These are the latch doors. This was your room, right here? My bed was right here. How old were you then? I was, like, 10. Teenagers? Yeah, something like that. What does it feel like to be back in here? Oh, my God, I'm shocked. - Yeah? - I'm shocked. Mika, do you ever, ever remember anything happening to you or your friends or your family that was strange? Well, my friend Kaneshia, we used to leave my friend Kaneshia here, and when we would come back, she used to be saying stuff like she heard noises. Did she ever say what kind of noises? Like footsteps going. She did hear people walking around? That's the basement. I never went to the basement. Did you never like to go in the basement? No. Do you want to go in the basement now? Yeah, if you go first. [eerie music] You okay? You need a hand? You good? Why did you never want to come down here? Did you just feel something bad down here? I didn't come in the basement. This is actually my first time being in the basement. I've never came into the basement. (mumbles) Ooh, Danny, you kicked me. I didn't kick you. Yes, you did. Don't kick me. Shit. Excuse my French, sorry. No, you can say whatever. You can say whatever you want. Oh, no. What's wrong? Upon reviewing the video with greater brightness, you can see her leg buckle, but nobody kicked her. I never came into the basement. (mumbles) Ooh, Danny, you kicked me. I didn't kick you. Yes, you did. Don't kick me. Do you not like it down here? No, I never really liked the basement. No? Why not? Just didn't. No? My brother stayed in the basement. Is your mom okay? I don't know. I guess she's scared. That's why she wants to leave. Yeah? She all creeped out. I want to do that little, turn off the lights, and then the green stuff so you can see and hear everything. - The night vision camera? - Yeah. It's scarier than watching it on TV. They can get inside of you and stuff and do all kinds of weird stuff. They can make you sick, and that ain't fun. It's happened to me. Who helped you, like, get that stuff out of you? A priest. And that's when you started wanting to do ghost hunting? Well, yeah. More or less, investigating. That's what brought me here. [eerie music] Is the demon still in the house, or have they moved on? I don't know. That's what I'm here to find out. Will the ghost come to our house, since she lived here? Are you worried about that? Yep. - You are? - Yep. A real worry? Yeah, 'cause I'm afraid. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Mika's microphone has just picked up a mysterious electronic voice phenomena. It sounds like, "Run, Latoya." Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Latoya, of course, is the name of the mother in the Ammons family. It's funny, her son was asking me with a serious look on his face if the ghosts were gonna follow him home. I don't know what's wrong with this boy. [exhales] Cold, with these demons. After Mika and her kids leave, we set up this religious altar in the living room. Moments later, something I can't explain overcomes me. [eerie music] This moment is only captured on the surveillance camera. - Billy? - Yeah? What in the fuck just happened? Well, you attacked Jay. You told him, "Get the fuck out." You said, "Get out, get out!" Then you, like, rushed him. You basically slammed me against the wall. Give me the keys. Come outside for a bit. I don't want to. I know you don't. You need to, though. All right, just hold on. [eerie music] We leave and drive around for an hour. Then, the man living next-door calls me. He tells me there's someone on my porch trying to break in. Are they turning my house? Yeah, go over there. Go over there. Right now, we are just around my house, and we see three police cars turning down the street to my house. Yeah, pull up over there. Go, go, go. Hang on. Slow down, Matt. Jeez, god. The police won't go near my house. What I've witnessed is, yeah. I saw the video that Chief Miller filmed. Yeah. No. If you want to wait, I'll take you guys in there. Chief says he refuses to ever do it, because stuff follows you. Yes, that shit'll follow you. I won't tell him that. It's a different kind of haunting. Yeah. No, we get answer. We could get answers. We can get answers. The next day, we tracked down Valerie Washington, the original CPS case manager who quit and moved away. Now, you were in the video that was shot by Chief Brian Miller. Yes. I'ma get ready to leave you guys. Okay. - I got another case. - Okay. Do you still feel what you witnessed that day was beyond the capabilities of a 9-year-old boy? I'm positive in regards to that matter. Sometimes, even thinking about it again, it kind of just throws me back into a series where I don't want to go back to. It's taken me a while to move past that. When he did walk up the wall before my eyes, he could not remember doing it five minutes afterwards, after he was questioned about it, after they asked him questions about it. Child couldn't remember. He looked at us like, what are we talking about? He didn't even understand the question that we were asking him. And the fact that myself and the psychiatrist witnessed this, along with the family. We had no words to explain it, because we didn't understand it either. And the child couldn't even explain it. He didn't even believe he did anything. Do you believe that this family was possessed by these demons? I believe that it was something going on there that was out of the realm of a normal living person. Something was going on I can't even explain at that house. Have you sustained any emotional or mental trauma from what you witnessed? Yes. Is this a factor in you leaving here in Indiana? It played into it, because after that, a lot had changed as far as me trying to do my daily routine work. I worked as a child fatality worker. I investigated children dying. I've seen children in various situations... burned, beaten. But after that, it was just... It was traumatic. And I also talked with a psychiatrist in regards to that, and she stated also, it was a very traumatic experience for me and that I did need to go and seek some help. I have witnessed that anyone that has ever went to that home, the effects that they had after they continuously went to that home, the things that happened to them... [growling] I do not like talking about it, because, to me, if you feed it as if you're scared, it will bother you. The day before Father Maginot was going to perform the second exorcism on Latoya, he experienced what he describes as an attack while on a bike ride. As I was riding through the neighborhood, anyone who looks up to me is staring at me with a puzzled look, like, "What in the world is riding by?" And so that was happening all the way to the end of the path. And all of a sudden, I'm on the side of the path, thrown down. How did that happen? Then I looked at my bicycle seat, and it was 45 degrees off. Captain Austin was also affected. Just two days after I interviewed him in the house, he found himself in the emergency room. I exited a restaurant. I was in full uniform. And when I exited the restaurant, I had the dinners in my right hand, I was walking towards my squad car. I walked down the sidewalk, and as I walked down the sidewalk, both feet slid on the ice and went up about 3 feet in the air. I did a somersault and fell on my head. I was unconscious for approximately a month... a minute, a minute. And I was bleeding from my head. Everybody came out the restaurant. They was hollering and screaming. And they called the ambulance, and they transported me to Methodist South... or Methodist Northlake Hospital. Captain Austin would also end up being shot during a home invasion, but he survived. As I make my way back to the hotel, I receive a phone call from a distressed Mika. [phone ringing] Something is terribly wrong. We were out at my daughter's pageant. I don't know. My mama came back. When did this happen, just now? Will you call us back after the police leave? Yes. On February 20, 2014, just two days after visiting us at my house, Mika's daughter attempted suicide by overdosing on medication and stabbing herself. After this incident, one of my crew members quits immediately. [dogs barking] Father Maginot. Okay, hi there. - How you doing? - Pretty good. This is Mika. - Hi, Mika, Father Mike. - Hello. It's been three weeks since I got the phone call about Erica. This is Erica. And Erica, pleased to meet you. Father Mike. Do you mind if I talk with her real quick? Okay. For, like, five minutes? - Okay. - Okay. Erica, do you want to... Do you remember going in that house? Remember when you went in with me and your mom? Like, a month ago? Do you remember when you went inside the house with me? Three weeks. That's how long it's been since Erica spent time with me in the house. Is the demon still in the house, or have they moved on? Do you remember a couple days later, things that were going on with you and your mom? Partially. That day was, like, in and out. Okay. Do you remember what caused you to get angry? No? No. Okay, did it feel like you, or did it feel like just someone else out of nowhere? Not when I threatened my mother. Have you ever threatened her like that? No. Okay, what did you tell her? That I was gonna kill her, mostly. Okay, in her sleep? - Mm-hmm. - Okay. Do you remember hurting yourself that day? Um... Do you remember stabbing yourself? No, I just... no. She had holes in her wrists. Her eyes were, like, red. How did she have holes? In both her wrists? In both her wrists, just little cuts, like she had stabbed her wrists. - With... - A pen. And my sister is an RN. - In both, you said? - Yes. Like when Jesus would have been crucified. Yes, yes. It was scary, because, like I said, I never seen that. Something was wrong with her. She wasn't Erica. - She wasn't her? - She was not Erica. [atmospheric vocal music] "The influence sometimes surrounds a young girl or woman. When life is void to her, the influence whispers that it is her own fault and that she is worthless and should commit suicide. Dear Sister, do not believe it. Satan was a liar from the beginning." Okay, then we'll just have Erica and you come sit right here, okay? [ominous music] Oh, water, creature of God, I exorcise you in the name of God the Father Almighty, the name of Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord... My daughter was screaming at me. Talking about, "I can't stand you! I can't stand you!" Is this typical of your daughter's behavior? No. I mean, it was strange. You've never seen the rage like this before ever? No, it was strange. It was like everybody was trying to calm her down, and she was just snapping off. Look down in pity on this, your servant Erica, now in the toils of the unclean spirit, now caught up in the fearsome threats of man's ancient enemy, sworn full of our race. Another weird thing that happened when we was at the hospital... and I'm not making this up, on everything I love... my daughter was laying in the bed. And where Erica got up, there was a "6," like, engraved in her back. So my daughter was like... Wait, what? A "6," like a number "6." Was engraved in whose back? It was in Erica's back. "Mommy, Mommy, Erica got a 6 on her back." Do you remember seeing this 6 that was carved in her back? Yeah. She was being all calm and weird. How was she being weird? Because it wasn't her. Like it was somebody else in her stomach or something. Do you know how this 6 got carved in her? Mm-mm. It was a number six. Let us pray. God, creator and defender of the human race, Who made man in your own image, Look down in pity on this, your servant Erica... [echoing] now in the toils of the unclean spirit... So it seemed like that might have been the moment. Of what? The moment that it might have... - Left her? - Left her. So it seemed like it... you know... So I don't know if that's what she does. She doesn't remember that. After news of Erica's attempted suicide hit the media, my dear friend Debby Constantino, who'd been on my show numerous times with her husband, Mark, saw the headlines and began to try to make contact with the demon remotely. After her attempt, she called me and told me that she believed they had made contact with a demon at the house. The voice she captured is deep and difficult to understand. [garbled speech] It almost sounds like it's saying, "Something's wrong." [garbled speech] [tape rewinds] Tragically, just a few months after this recording was made, Debby and her roommate were murdered in a double murder-suicide at the hands of her husband. This hit me hard. I couldn't accept it. I felt like I had lost a member of my family. I believe that certain environments can make demonic activity more likely. Poverty, high crime rates, murders can all contribute. Gary, Indiana, unfortunately fits the bill, with over a third of its population living below the poverty line and one of the highest murder rates in the country. You guys ever heard gunshots around your neighborhood, around your house? - Yes. - Yes. We live down there. Do you know where the house is, where the drive-by was? Yes, it's, like, right... That green house right there. A lot of the elderly are getting robbed here, and houses are getting broken into. We need to bring jobs back. We need to get the schools back open in Gary. It hurts me to my heart. The Ammons' old neighbor told me that a total of five people died while living in the house, and one of those was a little boy that died in the back bedroom downstairs in the basement. It's the same bedroom that Mika's murdered brother had lived in. I also had to consider that someone close to the Ammonses may have cursed the house and invited the activity on purpose. Latoya Ammons's former neighbor also told me that her ex-boyfriend may have been abusive. Was he the one who had put the altar under the stairs, possibly trying to curse her? I decided I would try to confront him to get some answers. How far are we? 2.7 miles. Oh, my God, my nerves are just fuckin'... Our secret informant who's been on surveillance over there just called and said that he's there. And right now, I'm really tense for this, but happy. So we'll see what happens. I want to talk to him and ask him if he had anything to do with putting a curse on that family. Even if he won't tell me, I can still just get a good sense of his personality. I'll get a sense of his energy, to see if he would be the type of person that would be into the occult. This is gonna be him? Yeah, that's gonna be him. - Yeah, that's him? - Yep. [tape fast-forwarding] [unintelligible chatter] I told him what this was all about. Man, he just dropped his head. He was like, "Man, I don't want nothing to do with that. I don't want to talk about it." He keeps repeating that he wants nothing to do with us. Thank you. It appears to be a dead end. I invite Dr. Barry Taff, who holds a doctorate in psychophysiology, a minor in biomedical engineering, and who's conducted over 4,500 investigations, including the famed "Entity" case in 1974, to help me try to decide if high levels of man-made electromagnetic or earth-made geomagnetic energy could be causing false positive paranormal events inside the house. This is the frequency counter here. And we plugged it in, and it showed 60 hertz fields throughout the whole house, higher than I would want. But it wasn't that bad. Then we come to this. Dr. Taff, what is the geomagnetometer? What are we gonna measure for here? Are these natural geomagnetic levels? It measures the earth's magnetic field, primarily. Okay, so this, we're not looking so much as the house... Right. But what's under the house in the ground. Right, and coming up from it. Right. High levels of geomagnetic energy could trick the brain into thinking there was paranormal activity when there wasn't any. This is very normal. We're getting low 500s. This is what I would expect. You start getting over 600, 700, then you have a problem, because it means something is creating this low-frequency magnetic field. And what is it? What are your readings? About normal. Everything is normal here. Took out the 60 hertz calibrated field meter. Then, a few feet away from the wall, about halfway up my body, I started seeing, like, a 1-hertz oscillation. Look, look. Yeah. Why is it spiking here like this? Why is it doing that? Don't know. Huh. We tested the walls. It's not the wall, look. Yeah. Why is it... I don't know. Floating right there? That's weird. Now it's, like, gone. So it's transient. And what was odd is the transient nature. It's not against the wall. It's not on the floor. It's not up above. It's a couple feet forward. It's a couple feet, middle of the room. Half my height up, and it's... - Pulsing. - Pulsing. Whoa. I'm getting a... Hang on. What's the matter? Ooh. [eerie music] Hmm. [eerie music] Then, shortly after is when I felt - the pain in my temples, - The rush of energy, yeah. and then I had to leave that room. And when I left that room, I started getting emotional a second time, like I was just gonna cry. And then I would get aggressive. My eyes begin hurting for no reason, and I don't realize it's a warning sign for what's to come. That's what happens. It comes in, and it'll hit... Ah. Slap your hand together like that again. [hand smacks] Just as you did that, we got a spike on the instrument. That's what happens. It comes in, and it'll hit me... Ah. Why would that happen? Your body is, in some way... it's not... well, it's in some way affecting the electromagnetic field here. Your body is a capacitor. It's being charged up by this environment, and you discharged it. Let me see if I'm getting it off him, then. Let's try that back. I'm getting real aggravated. Look, look, look, look, look. It's magnetic, look. We didn't get that before, did we? No. 20 milligauss coming off you. That's a little high. Why would your body be emitting... now, remember, biomagnetic fields are really weak. You need a superconducting sensor. And what was I giving off? 20 milligauss? About maybe 8 million to 12 million times normal. What? 8 million to 12 million times normal. - 8 to... - To 12 million. The average human body's magnetic field... we generate a magnetic... is measured in millionths of a gauss. It's a 1-hertz... look at it. It's like a... yeah, not a 1-hertz. You see that? Wow, interesting. And yet, when I... move away from here to see if the space is affected. It stopped moving because he moved. All of a sudden, something causes me to lunge at Dr. Taff, and as I force myself to walk away, realizing I may attack him, my cameraman captures the device spiking again... at the same exact time as my hostile movement. That thing just spiked when I did that. That a dog? What happened? Do they have a dog next to us here? - A what? - A dog. - Is there a dog? - No, there's no dogs. Then I just heard a, "Grough!" You heard it here before. Like a, "Ough!" From over there... "Rowf." Assume it's a dog. Where did you hear it? Come from over here. Just here. "Ough." I thought, well, there's a dog. I heard dogs. We have no animals. Something starts to happen to Dr. Taff after he and my camera operator hear the growl. And now I'm noticing a pattern of how people act when the house is starting to have an effect on them. - Oh, no. - What's wrong? They appear lost in thought and confused. [eerie music] Do you want to get out of here for a minute? Are you okay? Yeah. 'Cause you're... Actually, I need something to drink, like water. Yeah, I just feel very... yeah, I'm feeling dizzy or... I'm noticing that you keep shutting your eyes and swaying. Yeah, because I feel like I'm gonna fall backwards. I feel like I'm gonna pass out. Let me see, if I move... Are you okay? As we head upstairs, I go outside to clear my mind from the house. And at that time, I don't notice Dr. Taff becoming affected again. Weeks after this investigation, we discover something disturbing captured on this camera while he walks in a state of confusion towards the back hallway. [eerie music] The black anomaly appears in seven frames, shooting at 24 frames per second. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Which means that when played at regular speed, the anomaly manifests in a fraction of a second. As Dr. Taff walks back, he places his hand in the exact spot where the black mass just manifested off the wall, at which time he immediately becomes affected again. Oh, it's really bad in there. That same sense of nausea, like you're gonna throw up. Reverse peristaltic action, very strong in there. I take the footage to Ed Wiebe, who was a video engineer for NASA for 32 years. Really increased the luminosity just a little bit, just to see some of the other detail on the object. Prior to that, we can see that it's different intensities. There's not the same intensity. So we thought it was a hand or something like that from someone else, say the cameraman, perhaps, his hand wouldn't be broken up into different intensities. It would all be one hand. I'm 100% sure that is not the cameraman's hand. You've got the regular shadow of the cameraman back here. It's like a gray, very light gray. But then, as the anomaly's happening, there's this real dark band of shadow all down in here. We don't see it retract back into the wall. It's quite possible it could have entered the cameraman. I don't know if that cameraman had any problems after this shoot. As a matter of fact, that cameraman did have problems. A little while later, he suddenly had to lie down. He then begins acting very strange, like he's confused. No one sees him wander off into the basement alone. [ominous music] Later, we find the cameraman, Adam, lying on his back in the back bedroom, where Mika's murdered brother lived. As we return to the hotel, that same cameraman, Adam, starts vomiting blood in my bathroom. He then leaves my room and begins screaming my name in a strange voice. We start rolling with our cameras. - What's wrong with him? - Where'd he go? Film. - Wait. - Shh. He's calling security. [elevator door opens] [whispering] Where did he go? [ominous music] Come here, you fucker! Bitch! Whatever is affecting him, he's taunting it to do more. I'm right near that fucker! [ominous music] [shouting indistinctly] [banging] Dude, what's wrong? Fuck that shit, fuck that shit. Adam, what's... Not gonna fuck with me like that. What's in the elevator? Nothing, nothing. It's a bitch. If there's anything here, it's a bitch. You hear, fucker? Huh? What is wrong with him? Have you ever seen him like that before, Jay? No, never. How long have you known him? Years. That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. [elevator door opens] [whispering] Crazy. - Security's coming. - Yeah, I know. [elevator door opens] Adam, let's go, before security comes. At this same moment, two floors above us, Dr. Taff is also experiencing something strange. Got back to the hotel, and I had a strange sense of anxiety, irritability. I'm sleeping, and suddenly, not in the room, in my left ear, I hear, like, a really loud bell. Jump out of bed. "What was that?" I suddenly fell over, and I wake up, and I'm on the ground. When Dr. Taff gets up, he realizes he has blood in both of his ears. Meanwhile, back in the room with Adam... What's happening? What do you feel? You're fine in here. Just, all of a sudden, like, felt like something was stabbing me in my stomach. Do you think that shit's making you puke and all that? No, I don't. Just, guys, can you just cut the cameras, man? Seriously, fuckin'... Little shit like that, it's not gonna fuckin'... You understand how this thing works, though. It's trying to draw you in, piss you off, and... Like, that's been happening the whole time we come here, is these little pokes at us, these little things. Honestly, I know, but it's like, why the fuck would it fuck with me? God, dude, I thought you saw a dead body in the fuckin'... I thought I was gonna open it up and see a mutilated... What'd you say? There was a face. Could you get any details or anything? I think you know what I saw, bro. I had never told my crew or anyone else about the nightmare I had a week before I bought the house, where I saw the face of a goat man exhaling black smoke into my mouth. Like, I shouldn't be really amped up right now. I need to calm down. I'm sorry. Scared the shit out of me. That scared the fucking shit... I'm not gonna lie to you right now. When that fucking door opened... For a second, I fucking screamed like a little girl. Did you hear me call for Zak? I was like, fuck, dude, this guy... Yo, it doesn't want me. It wants him? Yeah, it wants you. That shit scared me like... it wasn't just, like... it was like... the thing... the first thing that I thought was, this is real. Because I have to be honest. Like, up until that moment, right there, I didn't believe any of this, like, 100%. There's something, like, touching my hand right now. What's it feel like? It's cold. You got... Whoa, whoa. He has a field around him. Come over here. I felt it on my arm here. You're a fucking bitch. Do something better. Do something better than that, you fucking bitch. Feel around him. That just made my arm hair fucking stand up. Do something better than that! I'm sorry. These arm hairs just crawled up, like, backed up off of him. Like a towel out of the dryer, it's all staticky. [creepy music] I'm gonna find you. A short time after returning home, Dr. Taff's organs begin to shut down one by one. Being in overall good health, the doctors cannot explain the cause of this. So they started telling me my organs are shutting down and failing. All my organs started shutting down. My prostate, massive infection. My kidneys, my liver, my bladder was infected. My whole body was failing. But, I mean, it was collectively. It wasn't, like, a little here. Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom. It was like a cascade. Boom-boom-boom-boom. Boof. I felt nauseous and dizzy. Went back to the hotel later on, and I fell, and then I passed out. I started to shake really bad. And that's atypical. "Did you ever go back to the house?" No? I said the man who hired me went back. He got sick. The cameraman was there, and he got really sick, and I saw it right in front of me. And he got sicker than I did. Started shaking, nauseous, kept throwing up. It's all happening... the problem is, it's all happening at the same time. That's what makes it weird. So, you know, the problem is, why are my organs all starting to shut down simultaneously? This place might have had a more dynamic and dramatic effect on me, but in a way I didn't understand until it all slammed me together. If my theory is correct that my body shutting down is a result of being in the demon house just for several hours, that's long-term effects. I was only there for a few hours. If I'd stayed there overnight, given what's going on with me now, I'd probably be dead by now. Who knows what's going on there? You know, beside the paranormal phenomena, there may be other elements that are tied into it that explain this in ways we don't yet understand. And what happened with you at the house, what happened with the cameraman at the house, this is the tip of the iceberg. So this may provide incredible new definition for what is going on in these cases. This is a life-changing experience, because I never thought this would happen to me. After the night of Adam's meltdown, his behavior continues to be disturbing. The very next day, he tells me to go into the bathroom of the house, to smash the mirror, and to slit my throat with the broken glass. He's no longer himself. And after a couple days of this... Come here, you fucker! I have no choice but to remove him from my crew. Jay, my other camera guy, tries to get Adam some help, but he refuses. [drill whirring] With the effects of the house seeming to take down members of my crew now, I decide to accelerate the situation by boarding myself up in the house... sealed up, alone, overnight... and let whatever may be haunting it take its best shot at me. I know this sounds stupid, but the investigator inside of me wants to experience it. Been a long time. I'm okay. I want to seal myself inside here. I'm gonna start in about 15 minutes. Yeah. The last piece of plywood goes on that front door. And that last piece of plywood is gonna get screwed in with me inside. - No. - Okay, all right. That's fine. [creepy atmospheric music] [beeping sounds] [beeping sounds] [exhales] I have a phone. My crew, so I can talk to them, text them. [beeping sounds] Pretty weird feeling, just knowing that you're completely... sealed inside a house, let alone this house. And I'm really afraid to turn that light out. That's, like, my safety chain right there, that light. Man, I don't want to. [distant indistinct speech] I just heard a... [exhales] I heard a female voice... in the kitchen. [tape rewinding] [distant indistinct speech] [exhales] [soft clattering] [low groan] [low groan] Get away from me. Get away. Back the fuck up. [intense creepy music] [thrown object clatters] Oh, my God, my eyes. [groaning] Ow, fuck. Fuck. [clattering] Get me the fuck out of here! [voice echoing, wind whistling] The following day, my eyes begin to cross, resulting in double vision. I develop a serious eye condition called diplopia. After multiple neurological tests conducted in Las Vegas and California, doctors are unable to determine the cause for this sudden affliction. I am now forced to wear prism glasses, as my condition is now permanent. Corrective surgery done in both my eyes runs the risk of total blindness. [atmospheric music] Shortly after his interview, Kevin Ammons was kicked out of his family's apartment. They claim something dark transferred from me to him. Ever since his meltdown, Adam refuses to speak with me or about the house. It appears that the time he spent in the house is still having an effect on him. He even got the numbers "666" tattooed on both his hands, the same place he'd felt the dark energy touch him in the hotel room. There's something touching my hand right now. Dr. Barry Taff continues to have health problems. Doctors are still searching for the cause of his mysterious organ failure. I'm reminded of the toll the house has taken on nearly everyone who's visited there. Valerie Washington moving away and seeking therapy; the other CPS case manager who suffered motorcycle burns and a broken hand, ankles, and ribs shortly after being in the house; the home inspector who was diagnosed with cancer; Father Mike's bike accident; Captain Austin's fall and rush to the ER; Erica's suicide attempt; Adam's meltdown and the aftermath in his life; even Chief Miller claimed that something may have followed him home from the house one night. Something came back with him. I don't know if it was that demon, but something came, and I don't want it back. And finally, the permanent damage to my eyes. So I decide it's time for the house to go away. [crystalline vocal music] This was a portal to Hell. I was told not to even go in the house. [eerie atmospheric music] Most of the house was hauled away to be buried in a landfill. I wanted to make sure the house never harmed anyone else again. But as an investigator and a collector, I couldn't just let it all go. [creepy music] So I kept some of it, including the basement stairs and some of the dirt. Even though the house is gone, a police officer told me that people keep showing up and doing Satanic rituals on the empty lot. Like I said at the beginning, this story is cursed. [spare piano music] [eerie rumbling] |
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