The Dead Files (2011) s06e10 Episode Script
Bound Ft. Barnwell
"This is the room, the room of death.
" I can't have that in my home.
I can't have that going on.
It scared me to death.
It's coming after this kid.
I love my family.
I will fight for it.
This is dark and bloody ground here.
It could hurt her.
I'm worried for the safety of his kid.
He says, "They broke my bones.
" This is a mess.
This is so messed up.
"You're mine.
You can't escape.
" My name is Amy Allan.
What's happening? I see dead people.
It seems like a devil.
I speak to dead people.
He's pissed off.
And they speak to me.
I felt real fear.
But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.
I think she's being murdered.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi.
I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.
Serial killer pops in my head.
And I know every person, every house has secrets.
Nobody believes me.
It's my job to reveal them.
- Do you think there's still bodies there? - I do.
But Steve and I never speak We never communicate during an investigation.
Until the very end.
You got problems.
I got news for you.
When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay This is our house whether they like it or not.
Or time to get out.
This is their house, the house of the dead.
I'm in Fort Barnwell, North Carolina.
It's a very small town about two hours outside of Raleigh.
Amy and I were called in by a woman named Laura.
She says things are so bad in the house, she's ready to pack her bags, grab her 2-year-old, and leave.
The problem is, her husband wants to stay and fight.
She told me she's running out of options and we're her last hope.
Before Amy arrives, I look for any leading information.
This house has a lot of artwork and family photos that need to be covered or removed.
When I'm done, the location will be ready for tonight's walk.
Oh, boy.
There's a big problem in one of rooms here.
There's a lot of dead people there.
And they can't see each other, but they can see the living.
So, whenever they see living people, they all jump on them.
They want out of there.
It's like a way station for the dead or something.
Whatever it is, it's a problem.
Well, Laura, you sounded like you were ready to pack up and leave when we spoke.
So, what's going on? Pretty much as soon as we moved in, we noticed small things started happening.
And it's gotten to the point where it started to get a little bit more aggressive.
And as a parent to a 2-year-old, I can't have that in my home.
I can't have that going on.
Why don't you just move? I don't want to be here.
But my husband's grandfather built this home, so he will not leave.
- He's refusing.
- Refusing.
I want to protect my daughter, but I love my husband as well, and I don't You know? - I can't just leave.
- Okay.
So, what are some of the things that are happening? Electronics do crazy things.
Things have moved on their own across the room.
People physically touched.
People feel like they're being watched sometimes, and there's things my 2-year-old has said that has been very shocking.
She's been in her room and been talking to someone, and my husband's gone in there and just, "Who are you talking to?" "The man.
" - Really? - Yeah.
How'd you feel when she said that? I was petrified.
For her to just come up with that out of nowhere was very strange to us.
It seems to be drawn to her.
What the hell? They're thinking that they're seeing, like, a shadow person.
Who's "they"? The living people here.
And there's a kid, definitely a kid.
And it's very aware of the kid.
And it's, like, the way it's moving is very like this To, like, grab the kid.
And, uh, there's, like, stuff coming off of it.
Like, it has all this stuff dripping off of its body.
What do you mean? It almost looks like, like, um, tar, or you know, some kind of liquid.
What the [bleep.]
It's coming after this kid.
This is where I kind of had my final breaking point, and why I wanted to call you guys in.
Okay.
I was actually sitting in the living room, and I heard a very very odd noise.
And when I walked around the corner, I came through here, and this playroom door had opened.
And it was shoving all of this out of the way so that this door was completely opened against this wall.
Okay.
So, you hear Mm-hmm.
I mean, I can't even really do it without pushing it.
Yeah.
So, you got dogs? Yes.
They were going bananas.
But were they the ones that caused the door to open? No, they were all sitting on my lap.
We were just watching TV.
And you're sure nobody broke into the house and then split? I got a gun out and did a whole walk-through of the house.
Now, do you get anything else in this room? Sometimes people have felt watched in this area of the house.
What areas are we talking about? Well, that bathroom.
I won't go in.
Geez.
I just don't like it at all.
- So, it's uncomfortable.
- It's very uncomfortable.
Creepy, yeah.
All right.
There's also a male here.
He likes the bathroom.
It makes him very happy.
It doesn't make any of the living people happy, but he likes it in here.
Why? I think most of them feel, like, a presence.
Everything they do, they're being watched, and it makes them feel uncomfortable, like somebody's somebody's standing behind them.
For some reason, the dead men I'm seeing are projecting themselves as shadow people but they're not.
They're just conscious entities.
There's a female who definitely sees this guy.
She has dark hair.
It's fairly long.
Like, say she's washing her hands, he'll, like, suddenly be behind her.
It just is constant, and she hates it.
So, what's going on in here? There's one time where I was here by myself, sleeping right here.
And I just kind of felt and heard, you know, someone kind of smoothing out the comforter and, you know, tugging on the edge.
Really? Did you see the blanket being tugged? No, but I definitely have heard it, and I felt it.
I probably would've been swinging at the air if I would've heard something like that.
No, I think, um, at this point, there was so many little things that had been going on, where we had just started to almost, in a sense, ignore it.
- So, you got numb to everything that's been happening.
- Mm-hmm.
After we had our daughter, we kind of couldn't turn a blind eye to things anymore.
Well, picking on an adult is one thing.
Mm-hmm.
Picking on a baby is another story.
And even with all this, moving's not an option for your husband? He just feels, you know, "This is my home, and I'm staying.
" Ah [bleep.]
What? This room is the way station for the dead, and all of the activity is tormenting a woman who lives here.
If the dead are around, this woman gets horrible pain in her head.
It's because of her ability.
I think she can hear people talking to her, whispering to her.
They're coming out of the bed.
Touching, touching, touching.
It's, like, messing with her mind.
You know, "Hey!" You know, "Hey, I'm here.
" If she's around this room all the [bleep.]
time, it could hurt her in the long run, you know? How? Feeling, like, defeated.
Defeated.
There's no hope.
There's no hope.
So, Chris, I was talking to your wife, and she says there's no way you're leaving.
Correct.
I love my family, but this is our place.
I will fight for it.
She told me that you may not be so serious about what's going on here.
I mean, is she accurate about that? In a way, yes, and in a way, no.
I do write things off.
Okay, what are we talking about? Me and my wife were in our bedroom, asleep, and it was after TV just came on.
I mean, it had to scare the hell out of you.
Absolutely.
Okay.
- And there was nobody here? - No, no one here.
Anything else? I've been touched, physically.
I stood up out of the recliner one night, and just plain as day, felt someone touch my shoulder and felt like they shook it a little bit.
It wasn't a muscle spasm, it wasn't drinking or anything like that.
It happened.
- You got a 2-year-old here.
- Yes.
A baby girl.
Yes.
And can you imagine her being touched like you were touched? No.
I take it seriously, because I take my daughter's welfare seriously.
If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be talking.
Okay.
Uh, well, that being said, what do you know about any history on the property? My grandfather built this house in '74.
His great-grandfather purchased this property.
Wow.
Okay.
- So, your family's been here a long time.
- A long time.
And there was a very major Indian war fought here.
These supposedly have been repurposed from Fort Barnwell from the Tuscarora Indian War.
Wow.
This is my family's legacy.
I'm gonna fight for my house.
I'm gonna fight for our legacy.
There's this old person.
It's a man.
This person, I believe, is a former owner.
He seems to know his way around here.
He's still very sick from whatever he died from, which was a long-term illness.
Like, he possibly has a little dementia.
And there's some kind of race thing going on here.
He's desperate to stop it, but he's not okay to do that.
He can't stop time enough to stop the things he did.
So, Amy, I was talking to Laura about the stuff going on here.
She says you guys have been friends since high school.
Right.
We've been friends for a really long time.
So, I assume you spent time here in the house.
Well, I used to.
Last time we were here, terrifying things happened, and we haven't been back since then.
Okay.
Tell me the first thing.
I woke up in the middle of the night, and those curtains over there were moving.
It was like someone was standing behind it.
What about the windows? Were they open? No, they were closed.
Did you have the fan or anything else on? No, there's nothing that could explain it.
So, what else has happened? Early that morning, my husband was going hunting, and I thought that he was sitting on the corner of the bed putting his boots on.
And this edge dipped down, and I looked over and there was no one in here.
Now, when you felt this thing on the bed, I mean, how much pressure are we talking about? I mean, it was like a grown man was sitting on it.
I don't know that I'll ever feel safe coming back - with a child.
- Really? Do you think Chris is taking it too lightly? I do.
I'm worried for the safety of his kid.
So am I.
That's why I'm here.
I think he should take it more seriously, before other things start happening.
Uh, there's been bad incidents in here.
Something lives in the closet.
I don't know what this is.
I don't know why it's here.
I just see something coming out of the closet, and, uh laying on someone so the person can't move or anything.
Someone says, "Well, this is the room, the room of death.
" Chris told me he thought his house was built on the site of some Indian wars.
I'm on my way to meet with a local author who says it's true, and those battles were some of the bloodiest in North Carolina history.
So, Doc, what you said on the phone, my client was right.
There were Native American wars on the property.
All around it very serious wars back in the early 1700s.
Okay.
So, what exactly happened? What started the whole damn thing? Settlers came in and took land.
That meant less land for Indians.
They're being abused by the settlers.
Indian women would be raped, and men murdered.
There's also a vibrant Indian slave trade by 1711.
They'd just grown fed up with what was happening.
And for a three-day rampage, they were attacking all these plantations, these farms, killing men, women and children, also killing black slaves, too.
Okay.
And this is all around the property I'm investigating? Yes.
So, how many did they wind up killing? Well, about 140 people are killed in the three days.
They are taken totally by surprise.
In fact, one settler who survived said, "It's people that we knew.
We see smiling faces, and then they attacked us.
" How brutal was it? A lot of them are hatcheted, knifed, and often, their bodies were put in, like, positions of prayer in some cases.
We also have stories of pregnant women having the babies ripped out.
Some of them are impaled.
I mean, this is pretty brutal right there.
What the [bleep.]
There's, like, people all lined up against the wall.
They're all fresh, like, fresh corpses.
They're all white.
Quite a few women.
All I can get is, like, they're running.
I don't see what the [bleep.]
they're running from.
I feel like it's unexpected.
I think it was a normal day to start out with, and then this sudden panic, and then running, running for your life.
And then they're here like this.
These are all people this happened to that day and probably didn't have a good burial.
I'm curious about the white settlers.
What happened with their bodies? They complained about, "We can't bury our dead "until the wolves are eating our dead and the vultures are eating our dead.
" People were too afraid to leave those fortified houses, and the Indians kind of go back to their villages to wait and see what's gonna happen.
They're expecting a response.
So, North Carolina calls on South Carolina for help.
They send Colonel John Barnwell.
He goes to this place called Core Town, and he turns it into Fort Barnwell.
My client believes the bricks from his fireplace came from Fort Barnwell.
Well, it's possible.
So, what happens next? John Barnwell, he's willing to sign a peace treaty.
And so the Indians said, "Great, we'll sign one.
" Over 400 Indians show up, men, women, and children.
They're expecting to sign a treaty.
And then, at a surprise moment, Barnwell and these militia attack.
About 50 Indians are just killed right off, and most women and children are then enslaved.
This is dark and bloody ground here.
I don't know why they're all stuck in the wall here like this.
How many? About 18.
They can't move.
They can't speak.
It feels like something bad happened, whatever.
They all die right They're all together like this, and why they're kind of, like, bound Like, this would be a binding on the dead is very [bleep.]
weird.
Someone put some sort of spell on these dead people.
They can think and see, but they are all stuck together, unable to move or communicate.
I want to say that they were put together even after death.
This is, uh terrible.
With hundreds killed during Native American wars in the 1700s, my client's land has seen more than its fair share of death and violence.
But something tells me the tragedy didn't end there.
Digging through the archives, I find a local farmhand burned to death in the 1940s.
Turns out he worked for my client's great-great-grandfather.
Fires are always suspicious, and I want to know more about the worker that died on Chris and Laura's property.
I'm heading over to meet with a history professor who's looking into it for me.
I found out during my research that my client's great-great-grandfather had a farmhand who burned to death right on the property.
What do you know about this guy and what happened? William Loften was a farmhand who lived on Hugh Lane's Farm in the 1940s.
He was a World War II veteran.
Okay.
And when he returned from the war, he went back to work on the farm.
So, what happened? March 14, 1949 Sometime in the night, he was asleep.
The house caught on fire.
His wife came home to see the house collapsing.
Geez.
I have a death certificate, and it says that he died from extreme burns.
Okay.
Do they know what might have caused the fire then? What the newspaper, the Sun Journal, says is that the fire was started by a stove that overheated.
Now, Kate, according to the article I came across, it said five black farmhands were killed within a week from burning.
It sounds suspicious to me, 'cause when you read the article, right away I'm thinking there's racial undertones to it.
Was the Klan active back in '49 in the Fort Barnwell area? Well, there were pockets of Klan activity, but there wasn't anything that indicates that it was suspicious.
So, Kate, looking at this case, as far as the victim goes, it's a fire that can be easily made to look accidental and be a crime, or just accidental.
I mean, I don't think we'll ever know.
It's something to think about.
Those corpses are still kind of in the wall.
Yeah, they're bound.
They're bound.
I don't think that any of these people deserve to be like this.
But that shadow, it thinks that they do deserve to be like this.
But this is the same person that the kid was seeing? Yes.
He's saying, "Oh, you know, 'cause they're white people, then that's why you're siding with them.
" He's crawling.
So, he can't stand up because it hurts too much.
He says, "They broke my bones.
" Do you know when he's from? It feels more recent to me.
It doesn't look like he died very well.
It was at night, but also warm.
This is uncomfortable.
This is a mess.
This is so messed up.
So, we've got brutal Indian wars and a worker who burned to death on my client's property.
But one other thing caught my attention while I was doing my research a murder-suicide that involved one of Chris' ancestors.
I'm heading over to meet a historian who says it's a case of obsessive love.
I came across this article during my research, and it looks like a distant cousin of my client was involved in a murder-suicide.
This guy Lonnie Lane.
Now, do you know anything about this guy? He was a young man.
He was born in 1879.
When he was 20 years old, he apparently began a relationship of some sort with a young girl named Glennie Sauls.
This was in the spring of 1899.
But she was only 14 years old.
Her parents objected to the relationship because of the age difference, so they basically forbid him to see her.
In March March 24, 1899, he apparently went to her house while her parents were out of town.
And they were seen leaving the house and going on a walk toward the woods.
Okay.
So, what happens next? They're not seen for the rest of the afternoon.
And when nightfall comes, people become concerned and they begin to search for them, and their bodies are found in the woods, both shot in the head.
So, here's one of the articles that appeared, and it gives the details of their relationship and what may have happened that afternoon.
There's been some speculation that he wanted to propose marriage to her and that she may have rejected him and then he just couldn't deal with that rejection.
And the speculation was that he had shot her and then turned the gun on himself.
This guy who's always in the bathroom, I think somehow he's related to the living here.
He had said that he died outside.
He has something that's, like, hanging off of him.
Like, if it's moss.
I don't think it was a good death.
During my walk, I saw a group of dead people trying to get the attention of the living in the master bedroom.
I'm meeting with an artist to describe this horrifying scene.
There's two people sleeping in the bed.
There's a bunch of dead people, like, holding their legs Four on one side and like three on the other.
Is this what you saw? Yes.
That's what I saw.
Now that Amy and I have finished our investigations, it's time to reveal our findings to our clients and each other for the first time.
Well, Amy, I'd like you to meet Chris and Laura.
The activity here is pretty bad, up to the point where Laura's ready to pack up her bags and leave.
Now, this property has been in Chris' family - for generations.
- Okay.
So, he does not want to leave, no matter what.
But one thing they both agree on, they're worried about their 2-year-old daughter, and that's why we're here.
Now that Amy knows a little bit about what's going on here, I'm gonna have her tell us about her walk.
There were a couple of individuals who initially showed themselves like shadow figures, but they're not.
One of them loves the bathroom because it's quiet.
It's like his sanctuary.
And there was a living woman that I saw that he keyed in on, and she had dark hair.
And he's standing right behind her.
And one of the things in the bathroom was this sense of always being watched.
When we first moved in, I hated the bathroom I hated it.
Like, the first two years we lived here, I wouldn't go in there.
Interesting.
And, uh, my daughter, she'll stay in that bathroom.
She's mentioned talking to a man before.
She has mentioned talking to a man before.
Wow.
Okay.
Now, do you know anything about this guy, who he was in life? Well, he was about 6 feet tall, thin.
He indicated that he died outside.
He had something kind of hanging off him, like a moss or a mold or something.
I got that this was not a good death.
I kind of think that he was murdered.
It does bring to mind one story that took place right near here, and it involves a distant relative of yours.
His name was Lonnie Lane.
He was 20 years old.
He got involved with a 14-year-old girl, this girl Glennie Sauls.
Now, her parents were not happy about them being together.
They didn't like the idea of the age difference, but one day in March of 1899, the parents were away.
Lonnie came to Glennie's house.
They both left and walked into the woods, never came out.
They were both found later, one shot to the head each.
Here's the article from it.
So, when she said the moss, the only thing I'm thinking was they were in the woods.
They did die outside.
I've heard of Lonnie Lane in our family.
- Really? - Yes.
I didn't know about this.
That's one of the people that's presenting themselves - kind of like a shadow person, but it's not.
- No.
Okay.
So, who's the second guy? I walked in, went into this area by that door in the hall, and he was, like, covered in, like, a black ooze, oil, tar substance.
And he was actually interacting with a child.
And the kid was freaked out.
And it's, like, the way it's moving is very like this To, like, grab the kid.
It's coming after this kid.
I did get that he was black, and he hates white people.
I also got that he died outside, and it was nighttime.
And one word that I was hearing was "warm.
" "Warm" All right, well, there was an incident where a guy got killed on this property back in 1949.
He was a black guy.
He was 35 years old.
His name was William Loften.
Now, Loften was a tenant farmer for your great-great-grandfather Hugh.
Now, you had mentioned that he died at night.
- You heard "warm?" - Yep.
On March 14, 1949, his house caught fire, and he was burned to death inside the house.
This is the guy's death certificate.
Now, the official cause listed is burns.
Police say it was a stove that caused the fire, but what I found odd, there was article that says "Fifth Negro Burns at Farm.
" The historian said there was Klan activity here at the time.
There was.
But a fire like that's easily done to make it look accidental.
Mm-hmm.
When I walked in the living room area, I look at the wall, and there was about 15 to All of these people were together, and for some reason, somebody bound them.
What does that mean? Someone at some point put a spell on them.
So, they can see everything that's going on, but they can't speak and they can't move.
Who would've been in the house that would've bound Well, that's the thing.
The other part of what I got was that most of these people were female.
They were all white.
All of them seemed to have died at the same time.
I saw it was, like, a nice day.
All of a sudden, everybody's running.
I know that they were running for their lives.
_ Something was done with their bodies.
Like, I don't know if it was a mass grave, desecration.
That sounds spot-on for something that happened here 300 years ago.
In 1711, the Tuscarora Indians went, basically, nuts and started attacking everybody and killing 'em, 'cause the white settlers that were here were stealing from them.
They were raping their women.
So, they decided to attack them in a three-day rampage.
They killed 140 men, women, and children.
They mutilated the bodies.
They ripped babies from pregnant women's stomachs.
Oh, my goodness.
So, now, they were so scared they couldn't even go and get their bodies to bury 'em.
So, after this attack happened, North Carolina decided to reach out to South Carolina for help.
They sent a guy named Colonel John Barnwell.
So, what Barnwell wound up doing is setting up a fort, Fort Barnwell, right near here.
So, what he did was try to sign a peace treaty and said, "All right, come to the fort and we'll sign this treaty, and everything will be nice.
" So, 400 Native Americans came, thinking it was gonna be a celebration.
So, they came with kids, women.
Barnwell attacked.
They weren't expecting it.
and the rest, they basically took into slavery and sent them down to South Carolina to be put in the slave trade.
Matter of fact, see this fireplace here? That was built from bricks that was from the fort that Barnwell built.
Oh, gosh.
My grandfather built this house.
- Your grandfather built this house? - In '74.
Wow.
Okay.
Well, I wasn't sure if he lived here or not, but I saw this elderly man in the living room.
He was very attached to this location, and I got that he died from a long-term illness.
The other thing was there were things that happened that he felt responsible for, that had possibly led to some deaths, and it involved racial issues.
And he was like, "It's all my fault.
" So, I don't know if the illness affected him or if he also had, like, a little bit of dementia or something like that, because he's very lost, very confused.
You're talking of my grandfather.
He had Parkinson's, and he had a lot of dementia.
Okay.
This was his dream home.
Take that.
This was his pride and joy.
Sorry.
But why would he blame himself for the racial tension, though? Yeah, I'd really rather not talk about it.
Some of these people that would be brought into this are still living, and I don't want to hurt feelings.
No, no, no.
It's totally understandable.
But you are talking about my grandfather.
This is crazy.
Anything else? I went into the master bedroom, and I saw a living woman there thin, dark hair.
And she looked defeated.
She was sitting on the side of the bed, like [bleep.]
I got that she's having a lot of pain, really bad headaches.
In that area, a whole bunch of dead people came out.
They can't really see anything, but they can see living people.
And I saw two people in the bed and the dead people surrounding them and touching them.
They were trying to, you know, get people's attention.
You were telling me about it happening in the master bedroom.
Mm-hmm.
I remember laying in bed, and it was just, like, fluttering over the end of the bed, like, maybe smoothing it out, pulling the corners down.
Okay.
But you've been grabbed.
Definitely.
It was just, like, you know? Like, "Hey, I'm here.
" Wow.
Well, I did do a sketch of what I saw.
That looks like you in the bed.
[Bleep.]
I don't like it.
_ You okay? I did do a sketch of what I saw.
That looks like you in the bed.
CHRIS: [Bleep.]
I don't like it.
You okay? I have countless times sat on that bed and cried on that bed and just been like.
"[bleep.]
" Like, "Why did I move out here? [bleep.]
But what do they want? What do they want? They don't want to be here anymore, because they're stuck.
And the female in particular has abilities.
And so the dead are very attracted to that.
And they want help, and they don't want to be here anymore.
I mean, did you have any idea? I knew it was me.
Deep I knew in the back of my head, it was me.
I knew it.
I didn't want to say it ever, out loud, but I knew it.
So, now, what's got me concerned is the baby.
The baby sees stuff and talks to stuff.
I'm 100% positive of that.
I'm 100% positive of that, and that's the only reason why y'all are here.
Well, when we spoke, you said you'd do anything, short of selling this house, - to protect your family.
- Correct.
Okay.
So, now we're gonna find out what it's gonna take.
So, I'm gonna turn it over to Amy and see what she's got for us.
So, there's a few steps, and it'll take a little while.
What needs to be done first is a male who's black who's also a medium needs to come in and make contact with the male that's in the living room area.
He needs to talk to him and listen to him and work with him to move him on.
Then, the second day, he needs to come back and deal with the master-bedroom situation, which he needs to seal.
When he's doing the sealing, the last thing I do want him to do is to use tar water at the end.
This is something that completely negates the space for the dead.
So, there will never be another dead person that comes in that room, ever.
After that, a shaman needs to be contacted from the tribe.
Tuscarora tribe.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So, they need to come and do a release for the people that are trapped in the wall 'cause they are the only ones who can undo what they did.
Once that's done, the elderly gentleman, your grandfather, will leave of his own accord 'cause he'll feel good.
So, now, what about her abilities and the baby? Her bedroom is going to be completely sealed forever from any dead coming in.
What happens if one day your daughter comes to you and says, you know, "All this stuff is happening.
" Would you want her to close up? Yeah.
You guys won't know until she's a little bit older if she's going to be open or if she's going to close down or repress.
So, it's kind of a waiting game right now to see which way she's gonna go.
So, I want to ask you straight out, are you guys gonna take Amy's advice? Absolutely.
Okay.
Okay, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, I want this house to be ours me, her, my daughter's.
I'm concerned for Laura and Chris, as the dead within their home pose a very serious danger.
But I believe if they follow my advice, they'll remain safe and live a peaceful life, keeping their home in the family for generations to come.
" I can't have that in my home.
I can't have that going on.
It scared me to death.
It's coming after this kid.
I love my family.
I will fight for it.
This is dark and bloody ground here.
It could hurt her.
I'm worried for the safety of his kid.
He says, "They broke my bones.
" This is a mess.
This is so messed up.
"You're mine.
You can't escape.
" My name is Amy Allan.
What's happening? I see dead people.
It seems like a devil.
I speak to dead people.
He's pissed off.
And they speak to me.
I felt real fear.
But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.
I think she's being murdered.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi.
I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.
Serial killer pops in my head.
And I know every person, every house has secrets.
Nobody believes me.
It's my job to reveal them.
- Do you think there's still bodies there? - I do.
But Steve and I never speak We never communicate during an investigation.
Until the very end.
You got problems.
I got news for you.
When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay This is our house whether they like it or not.
Or time to get out.
This is their house, the house of the dead.
I'm in Fort Barnwell, North Carolina.
It's a very small town about two hours outside of Raleigh.
Amy and I were called in by a woman named Laura.
She says things are so bad in the house, she's ready to pack her bags, grab her 2-year-old, and leave.
The problem is, her husband wants to stay and fight.
She told me she's running out of options and we're her last hope.
Before Amy arrives, I look for any leading information.
This house has a lot of artwork and family photos that need to be covered or removed.
When I'm done, the location will be ready for tonight's walk.
Oh, boy.
There's a big problem in one of rooms here.
There's a lot of dead people there.
And they can't see each other, but they can see the living.
So, whenever they see living people, they all jump on them.
They want out of there.
It's like a way station for the dead or something.
Whatever it is, it's a problem.
Well, Laura, you sounded like you were ready to pack up and leave when we spoke.
So, what's going on? Pretty much as soon as we moved in, we noticed small things started happening.
And it's gotten to the point where it started to get a little bit more aggressive.
And as a parent to a 2-year-old, I can't have that in my home.
I can't have that going on.
Why don't you just move? I don't want to be here.
But my husband's grandfather built this home, so he will not leave.
- He's refusing.
- Refusing.
I want to protect my daughter, but I love my husband as well, and I don't You know? - I can't just leave.
- Okay.
So, what are some of the things that are happening? Electronics do crazy things.
Things have moved on their own across the room.
People physically touched.
People feel like they're being watched sometimes, and there's things my 2-year-old has said that has been very shocking.
She's been in her room and been talking to someone, and my husband's gone in there and just, "Who are you talking to?" "The man.
" - Really? - Yeah.
How'd you feel when she said that? I was petrified.
For her to just come up with that out of nowhere was very strange to us.
It seems to be drawn to her.
What the hell? They're thinking that they're seeing, like, a shadow person.
Who's "they"? The living people here.
And there's a kid, definitely a kid.
And it's very aware of the kid.
And it's, like, the way it's moving is very like this To, like, grab the kid.
And, uh, there's, like, stuff coming off of it.
Like, it has all this stuff dripping off of its body.
What do you mean? It almost looks like, like, um, tar, or you know, some kind of liquid.
What the [bleep.]
It's coming after this kid.
This is where I kind of had my final breaking point, and why I wanted to call you guys in.
Okay.
I was actually sitting in the living room, and I heard a very very odd noise.
And when I walked around the corner, I came through here, and this playroom door had opened.
And it was shoving all of this out of the way so that this door was completely opened against this wall.
Okay.
So, you hear Mm-hmm.
I mean, I can't even really do it without pushing it.
Yeah.
So, you got dogs? Yes.
They were going bananas.
But were they the ones that caused the door to open? No, they were all sitting on my lap.
We were just watching TV.
And you're sure nobody broke into the house and then split? I got a gun out and did a whole walk-through of the house.
Now, do you get anything else in this room? Sometimes people have felt watched in this area of the house.
What areas are we talking about? Well, that bathroom.
I won't go in.
Geez.
I just don't like it at all.
- So, it's uncomfortable.
- It's very uncomfortable.
Creepy, yeah.
All right.
There's also a male here.
He likes the bathroom.
It makes him very happy.
It doesn't make any of the living people happy, but he likes it in here.
Why? I think most of them feel, like, a presence.
Everything they do, they're being watched, and it makes them feel uncomfortable, like somebody's somebody's standing behind them.
For some reason, the dead men I'm seeing are projecting themselves as shadow people but they're not.
They're just conscious entities.
There's a female who definitely sees this guy.
She has dark hair.
It's fairly long.
Like, say she's washing her hands, he'll, like, suddenly be behind her.
It just is constant, and she hates it.
So, what's going on in here? There's one time where I was here by myself, sleeping right here.
And I just kind of felt and heard, you know, someone kind of smoothing out the comforter and, you know, tugging on the edge.
Really? Did you see the blanket being tugged? No, but I definitely have heard it, and I felt it.
I probably would've been swinging at the air if I would've heard something like that.
No, I think, um, at this point, there was so many little things that had been going on, where we had just started to almost, in a sense, ignore it.
- So, you got numb to everything that's been happening.
- Mm-hmm.
After we had our daughter, we kind of couldn't turn a blind eye to things anymore.
Well, picking on an adult is one thing.
Mm-hmm.
Picking on a baby is another story.
And even with all this, moving's not an option for your husband? He just feels, you know, "This is my home, and I'm staying.
" Ah [bleep.]
What? This room is the way station for the dead, and all of the activity is tormenting a woman who lives here.
If the dead are around, this woman gets horrible pain in her head.
It's because of her ability.
I think she can hear people talking to her, whispering to her.
They're coming out of the bed.
Touching, touching, touching.
It's, like, messing with her mind.
You know, "Hey!" You know, "Hey, I'm here.
" If she's around this room all the [bleep.]
time, it could hurt her in the long run, you know? How? Feeling, like, defeated.
Defeated.
There's no hope.
There's no hope.
So, Chris, I was talking to your wife, and she says there's no way you're leaving.
Correct.
I love my family, but this is our place.
I will fight for it.
She told me that you may not be so serious about what's going on here.
I mean, is she accurate about that? In a way, yes, and in a way, no.
I do write things off.
Okay, what are we talking about? Me and my wife were in our bedroom, asleep, and it was after TV just came on.
I mean, it had to scare the hell out of you.
Absolutely.
Okay.
- And there was nobody here? - No, no one here.
Anything else? I've been touched, physically.
I stood up out of the recliner one night, and just plain as day, felt someone touch my shoulder and felt like they shook it a little bit.
It wasn't a muscle spasm, it wasn't drinking or anything like that.
It happened.
- You got a 2-year-old here.
- Yes.
A baby girl.
Yes.
And can you imagine her being touched like you were touched? No.
I take it seriously, because I take my daughter's welfare seriously.
If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be talking.
Okay.
Uh, well, that being said, what do you know about any history on the property? My grandfather built this house in '74.
His great-grandfather purchased this property.
Wow.
Okay.
- So, your family's been here a long time.
- A long time.
And there was a very major Indian war fought here.
These supposedly have been repurposed from Fort Barnwell from the Tuscarora Indian War.
Wow.
This is my family's legacy.
I'm gonna fight for my house.
I'm gonna fight for our legacy.
There's this old person.
It's a man.
This person, I believe, is a former owner.
He seems to know his way around here.
He's still very sick from whatever he died from, which was a long-term illness.
Like, he possibly has a little dementia.
And there's some kind of race thing going on here.
He's desperate to stop it, but he's not okay to do that.
He can't stop time enough to stop the things he did.
So, Amy, I was talking to Laura about the stuff going on here.
She says you guys have been friends since high school.
Right.
We've been friends for a really long time.
So, I assume you spent time here in the house.
Well, I used to.
Last time we were here, terrifying things happened, and we haven't been back since then.
Okay.
Tell me the first thing.
I woke up in the middle of the night, and those curtains over there were moving.
It was like someone was standing behind it.
What about the windows? Were they open? No, they were closed.
Did you have the fan or anything else on? No, there's nothing that could explain it.
So, what else has happened? Early that morning, my husband was going hunting, and I thought that he was sitting on the corner of the bed putting his boots on.
And this edge dipped down, and I looked over and there was no one in here.
Now, when you felt this thing on the bed, I mean, how much pressure are we talking about? I mean, it was like a grown man was sitting on it.
I don't know that I'll ever feel safe coming back - with a child.
- Really? Do you think Chris is taking it too lightly? I do.
I'm worried for the safety of his kid.
So am I.
That's why I'm here.
I think he should take it more seriously, before other things start happening.
Uh, there's been bad incidents in here.
Something lives in the closet.
I don't know what this is.
I don't know why it's here.
I just see something coming out of the closet, and, uh laying on someone so the person can't move or anything.
Someone says, "Well, this is the room, the room of death.
" Chris told me he thought his house was built on the site of some Indian wars.
I'm on my way to meet with a local author who says it's true, and those battles were some of the bloodiest in North Carolina history.
So, Doc, what you said on the phone, my client was right.
There were Native American wars on the property.
All around it very serious wars back in the early 1700s.
Okay.
So, what exactly happened? What started the whole damn thing? Settlers came in and took land.
That meant less land for Indians.
They're being abused by the settlers.
Indian women would be raped, and men murdered.
There's also a vibrant Indian slave trade by 1711.
They'd just grown fed up with what was happening.
And for a three-day rampage, they were attacking all these plantations, these farms, killing men, women and children, also killing black slaves, too.
Okay.
And this is all around the property I'm investigating? Yes.
So, how many did they wind up killing? Well, about 140 people are killed in the three days.
They are taken totally by surprise.
In fact, one settler who survived said, "It's people that we knew.
We see smiling faces, and then they attacked us.
" How brutal was it? A lot of them are hatcheted, knifed, and often, their bodies were put in, like, positions of prayer in some cases.
We also have stories of pregnant women having the babies ripped out.
Some of them are impaled.
I mean, this is pretty brutal right there.
What the [bleep.]
There's, like, people all lined up against the wall.
They're all fresh, like, fresh corpses.
They're all white.
Quite a few women.
All I can get is, like, they're running.
I don't see what the [bleep.]
they're running from.
I feel like it's unexpected.
I think it was a normal day to start out with, and then this sudden panic, and then running, running for your life.
And then they're here like this.
These are all people this happened to that day and probably didn't have a good burial.
I'm curious about the white settlers.
What happened with their bodies? They complained about, "We can't bury our dead "until the wolves are eating our dead and the vultures are eating our dead.
" People were too afraid to leave those fortified houses, and the Indians kind of go back to their villages to wait and see what's gonna happen.
They're expecting a response.
So, North Carolina calls on South Carolina for help.
They send Colonel John Barnwell.
He goes to this place called Core Town, and he turns it into Fort Barnwell.
My client believes the bricks from his fireplace came from Fort Barnwell.
Well, it's possible.
So, what happens next? John Barnwell, he's willing to sign a peace treaty.
And so the Indians said, "Great, we'll sign one.
" Over 400 Indians show up, men, women, and children.
They're expecting to sign a treaty.
And then, at a surprise moment, Barnwell and these militia attack.
About 50 Indians are just killed right off, and most women and children are then enslaved.
This is dark and bloody ground here.
I don't know why they're all stuck in the wall here like this.
How many? About 18.
They can't move.
They can't speak.
It feels like something bad happened, whatever.
They all die right They're all together like this, and why they're kind of, like, bound Like, this would be a binding on the dead is very [bleep.]
weird.
Someone put some sort of spell on these dead people.
They can think and see, but they are all stuck together, unable to move or communicate.
I want to say that they were put together even after death.
This is, uh terrible.
With hundreds killed during Native American wars in the 1700s, my client's land has seen more than its fair share of death and violence.
But something tells me the tragedy didn't end there.
Digging through the archives, I find a local farmhand burned to death in the 1940s.
Turns out he worked for my client's great-great-grandfather.
Fires are always suspicious, and I want to know more about the worker that died on Chris and Laura's property.
I'm heading over to meet with a history professor who's looking into it for me.
I found out during my research that my client's great-great-grandfather had a farmhand who burned to death right on the property.
What do you know about this guy and what happened? William Loften was a farmhand who lived on Hugh Lane's Farm in the 1940s.
He was a World War II veteran.
Okay.
And when he returned from the war, he went back to work on the farm.
So, what happened? March 14, 1949 Sometime in the night, he was asleep.
The house caught on fire.
His wife came home to see the house collapsing.
Geez.
I have a death certificate, and it says that he died from extreme burns.
Okay.
Do they know what might have caused the fire then? What the newspaper, the Sun Journal, says is that the fire was started by a stove that overheated.
Now, Kate, according to the article I came across, it said five black farmhands were killed within a week from burning.
It sounds suspicious to me, 'cause when you read the article, right away I'm thinking there's racial undertones to it.
Was the Klan active back in '49 in the Fort Barnwell area? Well, there were pockets of Klan activity, but there wasn't anything that indicates that it was suspicious.
So, Kate, looking at this case, as far as the victim goes, it's a fire that can be easily made to look accidental and be a crime, or just accidental.
I mean, I don't think we'll ever know.
It's something to think about.
Those corpses are still kind of in the wall.
Yeah, they're bound.
They're bound.
I don't think that any of these people deserve to be like this.
But that shadow, it thinks that they do deserve to be like this.
But this is the same person that the kid was seeing? Yes.
He's saying, "Oh, you know, 'cause they're white people, then that's why you're siding with them.
" He's crawling.
So, he can't stand up because it hurts too much.
He says, "They broke my bones.
" Do you know when he's from? It feels more recent to me.
It doesn't look like he died very well.
It was at night, but also warm.
This is uncomfortable.
This is a mess.
This is so messed up.
So, we've got brutal Indian wars and a worker who burned to death on my client's property.
But one other thing caught my attention while I was doing my research a murder-suicide that involved one of Chris' ancestors.
I'm heading over to meet a historian who says it's a case of obsessive love.
I came across this article during my research, and it looks like a distant cousin of my client was involved in a murder-suicide.
This guy Lonnie Lane.
Now, do you know anything about this guy? He was a young man.
He was born in 1879.
When he was 20 years old, he apparently began a relationship of some sort with a young girl named Glennie Sauls.
This was in the spring of 1899.
But she was only 14 years old.
Her parents objected to the relationship because of the age difference, so they basically forbid him to see her.
In March March 24, 1899, he apparently went to her house while her parents were out of town.
And they were seen leaving the house and going on a walk toward the woods.
Okay.
So, what happens next? They're not seen for the rest of the afternoon.
And when nightfall comes, people become concerned and they begin to search for them, and their bodies are found in the woods, both shot in the head.
So, here's one of the articles that appeared, and it gives the details of their relationship and what may have happened that afternoon.
There's been some speculation that he wanted to propose marriage to her and that she may have rejected him and then he just couldn't deal with that rejection.
And the speculation was that he had shot her and then turned the gun on himself.
This guy who's always in the bathroom, I think somehow he's related to the living here.
He had said that he died outside.
He has something that's, like, hanging off of him.
Like, if it's moss.
I don't think it was a good death.
During my walk, I saw a group of dead people trying to get the attention of the living in the master bedroom.
I'm meeting with an artist to describe this horrifying scene.
There's two people sleeping in the bed.
There's a bunch of dead people, like, holding their legs Four on one side and like three on the other.
Is this what you saw? Yes.
That's what I saw.
Now that Amy and I have finished our investigations, it's time to reveal our findings to our clients and each other for the first time.
Well, Amy, I'd like you to meet Chris and Laura.
The activity here is pretty bad, up to the point where Laura's ready to pack up her bags and leave.
Now, this property has been in Chris' family - for generations.
- Okay.
So, he does not want to leave, no matter what.
But one thing they both agree on, they're worried about their 2-year-old daughter, and that's why we're here.
Now that Amy knows a little bit about what's going on here, I'm gonna have her tell us about her walk.
There were a couple of individuals who initially showed themselves like shadow figures, but they're not.
One of them loves the bathroom because it's quiet.
It's like his sanctuary.
And there was a living woman that I saw that he keyed in on, and she had dark hair.
And he's standing right behind her.
And one of the things in the bathroom was this sense of always being watched.
When we first moved in, I hated the bathroom I hated it.
Like, the first two years we lived here, I wouldn't go in there.
Interesting.
And, uh, my daughter, she'll stay in that bathroom.
She's mentioned talking to a man before.
She has mentioned talking to a man before.
Wow.
Okay.
Now, do you know anything about this guy, who he was in life? Well, he was about 6 feet tall, thin.
He indicated that he died outside.
He had something kind of hanging off him, like a moss or a mold or something.
I got that this was not a good death.
I kind of think that he was murdered.
It does bring to mind one story that took place right near here, and it involves a distant relative of yours.
His name was Lonnie Lane.
He was 20 years old.
He got involved with a 14-year-old girl, this girl Glennie Sauls.
Now, her parents were not happy about them being together.
They didn't like the idea of the age difference, but one day in March of 1899, the parents were away.
Lonnie came to Glennie's house.
They both left and walked into the woods, never came out.
They were both found later, one shot to the head each.
Here's the article from it.
So, when she said the moss, the only thing I'm thinking was they were in the woods.
They did die outside.
I've heard of Lonnie Lane in our family.
- Really? - Yes.
I didn't know about this.
That's one of the people that's presenting themselves - kind of like a shadow person, but it's not.
- No.
Okay.
So, who's the second guy? I walked in, went into this area by that door in the hall, and he was, like, covered in, like, a black ooze, oil, tar substance.
And he was actually interacting with a child.
And the kid was freaked out.
And it's, like, the way it's moving is very like this To, like, grab the kid.
It's coming after this kid.
I did get that he was black, and he hates white people.
I also got that he died outside, and it was nighttime.
And one word that I was hearing was "warm.
" "Warm" All right, well, there was an incident where a guy got killed on this property back in 1949.
He was a black guy.
He was 35 years old.
His name was William Loften.
Now, Loften was a tenant farmer for your great-great-grandfather Hugh.
Now, you had mentioned that he died at night.
- You heard "warm?" - Yep.
On March 14, 1949, his house caught fire, and he was burned to death inside the house.
This is the guy's death certificate.
Now, the official cause listed is burns.
Police say it was a stove that caused the fire, but what I found odd, there was article that says "Fifth Negro Burns at Farm.
" The historian said there was Klan activity here at the time.
There was.
But a fire like that's easily done to make it look accidental.
Mm-hmm.
When I walked in the living room area, I look at the wall, and there was about 15 to All of these people were together, and for some reason, somebody bound them.
What does that mean? Someone at some point put a spell on them.
So, they can see everything that's going on, but they can't speak and they can't move.
Who would've been in the house that would've bound Well, that's the thing.
The other part of what I got was that most of these people were female.
They were all white.
All of them seemed to have died at the same time.
I saw it was, like, a nice day.
All of a sudden, everybody's running.
I know that they were running for their lives.
_ Something was done with their bodies.
Like, I don't know if it was a mass grave, desecration.
That sounds spot-on for something that happened here 300 years ago.
In 1711, the Tuscarora Indians went, basically, nuts and started attacking everybody and killing 'em, 'cause the white settlers that were here were stealing from them.
They were raping their women.
So, they decided to attack them in a three-day rampage.
They killed 140 men, women, and children.
They mutilated the bodies.
They ripped babies from pregnant women's stomachs.
Oh, my goodness.
So, now, they were so scared they couldn't even go and get their bodies to bury 'em.
So, after this attack happened, North Carolina decided to reach out to South Carolina for help.
They sent a guy named Colonel John Barnwell.
So, what Barnwell wound up doing is setting up a fort, Fort Barnwell, right near here.
So, what he did was try to sign a peace treaty and said, "All right, come to the fort and we'll sign this treaty, and everything will be nice.
" So, 400 Native Americans came, thinking it was gonna be a celebration.
So, they came with kids, women.
Barnwell attacked.
They weren't expecting it.
and the rest, they basically took into slavery and sent them down to South Carolina to be put in the slave trade.
Matter of fact, see this fireplace here? That was built from bricks that was from the fort that Barnwell built.
Oh, gosh.
My grandfather built this house.
- Your grandfather built this house? - In '74.
Wow.
Okay.
Well, I wasn't sure if he lived here or not, but I saw this elderly man in the living room.
He was very attached to this location, and I got that he died from a long-term illness.
The other thing was there were things that happened that he felt responsible for, that had possibly led to some deaths, and it involved racial issues.
And he was like, "It's all my fault.
" So, I don't know if the illness affected him or if he also had, like, a little bit of dementia or something like that, because he's very lost, very confused.
You're talking of my grandfather.
He had Parkinson's, and he had a lot of dementia.
Okay.
This was his dream home.
Take that.
This was his pride and joy.
Sorry.
But why would he blame himself for the racial tension, though? Yeah, I'd really rather not talk about it.
Some of these people that would be brought into this are still living, and I don't want to hurt feelings.
No, no, no.
It's totally understandable.
But you are talking about my grandfather.
This is crazy.
Anything else? I went into the master bedroom, and I saw a living woman there thin, dark hair.
And she looked defeated.
She was sitting on the side of the bed, like [bleep.]
I got that she's having a lot of pain, really bad headaches.
In that area, a whole bunch of dead people came out.
They can't really see anything, but they can see living people.
And I saw two people in the bed and the dead people surrounding them and touching them.
They were trying to, you know, get people's attention.
You were telling me about it happening in the master bedroom.
Mm-hmm.
I remember laying in bed, and it was just, like, fluttering over the end of the bed, like, maybe smoothing it out, pulling the corners down.
Okay.
But you've been grabbed.
Definitely.
It was just, like, you know? Like, "Hey, I'm here.
" Wow.
Well, I did do a sketch of what I saw.
That looks like you in the bed.
[Bleep.]
I don't like it.
_ You okay? I did do a sketch of what I saw.
That looks like you in the bed.
CHRIS: [Bleep.]
I don't like it.
You okay? I have countless times sat on that bed and cried on that bed and just been like.
"[bleep.]
" Like, "Why did I move out here? [bleep.]
But what do they want? What do they want? They don't want to be here anymore, because they're stuck.
And the female in particular has abilities.
And so the dead are very attracted to that.
And they want help, and they don't want to be here anymore.
I mean, did you have any idea? I knew it was me.
Deep I knew in the back of my head, it was me.
I knew it.
I didn't want to say it ever, out loud, but I knew it.
So, now, what's got me concerned is the baby.
The baby sees stuff and talks to stuff.
I'm 100% positive of that.
I'm 100% positive of that, and that's the only reason why y'all are here.
Well, when we spoke, you said you'd do anything, short of selling this house, - to protect your family.
- Correct.
Okay.
So, now we're gonna find out what it's gonna take.
So, I'm gonna turn it over to Amy and see what she's got for us.
So, there's a few steps, and it'll take a little while.
What needs to be done first is a male who's black who's also a medium needs to come in and make contact with the male that's in the living room area.
He needs to talk to him and listen to him and work with him to move him on.
Then, the second day, he needs to come back and deal with the master-bedroom situation, which he needs to seal.
When he's doing the sealing, the last thing I do want him to do is to use tar water at the end.
This is something that completely negates the space for the dead.
So, there will never be another dead person that comes in that room, ever.
After that, a shaman needs to be contacted from the tribe.
Tuscarora tribe.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
So, they need to come and do a release for the people that are trapped in the wall 'cause they are the only ones who can undo what they did.
Once that's done, the elderly gentleman, your grandfather, will leave of his own accord 'cause he'll feel good.
So, now, what about her abilities and the baby? Her bedroom is going to be completely sealed forever from any dead coming in.
What happens if one day your daughter comes to you and says, you know, "All this stuff is happening.
" Would you want her to close up? Yeah.
You guys won't know until she's a little bit older if she's going to be open or if she's going to close down or repress.
So, it's kind of a waiting game right now to see which way she's gonna go.
So, I want to ask you straight out, are you guys gonna take Amy's advice? Absolutely.
Okay.
Okay, good.
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, I want this house to be ours me, her, my daughter's.
I'm concerned for Laura and Chris, as the dead within their home pose a very serious danger.
But I believe if they follow my advice, they'll remain safe and live a peaceful life, keeping their home in the family for generations to come.