The Dead Files (2011) s08e05 Episode Script
The Darkening - Wausau, WI
1 He's agitated.
He's not happy that I'm here.
It gives me crazy vibes up and down my spine.
He's making the living sick.
To think that whatever's here is actually picking on you pisses me off.
I have horrible nightmares.
He is an evil lunatic.
This is bad, bad stuff all around.
There's a dark presence.
My name is Amy Allan.
These things, they're freaking out.
They're from hell.
I see dead people.
They were being hunted.
I speak to dead people.
They were setting people on fire, burning them alive.
And they speak to me.
Her neck got broken.
But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.
I hear a gunshot.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi.
I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.
Something's not right here.
And I know every person, every house has secrets.
It's not safe here.
It's my job to reveal them.
Are any of them buried on the property? They're all buried here.
But Steve and I never speak We never communicate during an investigation.
Until the very end I can't do it no more.
When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay Holy [bleep.]
Look at this.
Or time to get out.
It does not have a happy ending.
Something kills people here.
I'm in Wausau, Wisconsin, about an hour and a half from Green Bay.
I didn't think long about taking on this case.
I received a call from a mother of four who just moved into a new townhouse and says the entire family's under attack.
Now, to make things worse, she has a degenerative eye disease and now is legally blind.
Her story really touched my heart, and I hope we can bring this woman some peace.
Before Amy arrives I clear the area of any leading information covering personal items and removing family photos that may influence her findings.
When I'm done, the location will be ready for tonight's walk.
There's a lot going on around here.
There's a lady she's got a really bad vibe to her.
She's claiming to be either Death or associated with Death.
Ahh, this is a disaster.
There's a jerk, and he's not happy that I'm here.
He said something about trying to stab me in the eye with, like, needles.
So, Beth, when I spoke to you on the phone, it was obvious that your problems here are pretty intense.
Before we even get to that, I want to talk about your medical condition.
You're going blind.
Yes, just been slowly going blind since I was like five.
Can you explain to me what you're seeing right now? Do you see me? The clothes you're wearing are dark, and I can't see detail.
Okay, and how much time do you have left? - Maybe a couple months.
- Wow.
I mean, it breaks my heart.
It's one of the main reasons I took this case.
How long have you guys been here? We've only been here for like four months.
The last two places we were at got really intense.
It's happened pretty much everywhere we've lived.
- But now you bought this place? - Yes.
We can't just up and leave like we did the last two houses.
Who exactly lives here in the house with you? It's me, my fiancé, Klay, our 4 kids - Jeanette, she's 16, Mitchell, he's 14.
- Okay.
Kayleigh's seven, and then Klayton is six.
Okay, so, why don't you take me through what's going on? You can hear stomping, you'll hear walking up and down the stairs, see a lot of dark shadows, and you'll hear voices.
You feel like you're being watched 24/7, everywhere you are.
And it's started getting physical now.
And I got to assume this is frightening the kids.
We all sleep in here.
This is where we all come.
We move the table, and we make a bed on the floor.
- All you guys? - Yeah.
Nobody wants to be in their room.
I'm scared to death of my bedroom.
When you guys are all sleeping down here, does that make things better for you guys? No, not really.
I've started getting a little bit drained, feeling more tired than usual.
The kids complain about stomachaches and headaches.
As the activity intensifies, so does, like, the health issues.
To think that whatever's here is actually picking on you pisses me off I mean, to the point where I want to strangle somebody.
I don't know how you're as composed as you are.
I just learned to keep my composure very well.
I have to.
I just don't really have a choice.
- I have to do it for the kids.
- Right.
'Cause they're my first concern.
You okay? I know, honey.
I'm sorry.
I know.
You know, you're allowed to break down once in awhile.
I just don't want my kids to have to rely on everybody else.
I should be the one that is able to take care of them and protect them and Yeah, but you can't do it all by yourself.
"Dire.
" "Dire.
" "Dire, dire.
" Ah, somebody keeps yelling that.
Okay, okay.
Somebody here is affected by the energy here, which is making them like, disoriented.
They can't function properly.
I think that it's making them feel sick, drained.
Mm.
Very bad.
You know, Beth, looking around, you guys obviously haven't really moved in yet.
We don't use this room, really.
'Cause you guys are downstairs.
Yeah.
Okay, so, what's happening up here that's scaring you guys off? You can hear walking around up here when everyone's sleeping.
Well, you got six people living in the house.
- Kids sleepwalk or anything like that? - No.
How often are you hearing that? Daily.
Okay.
Anything else up here? Shadows, lots of shadows.
I'm not trying to be mean, but you have this eye problem.
You're seeing shadows because of your eyes? No, I don't think so.
Everyone else has seen them.
Death Lady is happy.
She seems excited and enthusiastic.
She wants me to go upstairs.
Mm.
She tells me that she has a lot of business in this area.
I'm gonna assume that that means that a lot of people die around here very often.
Most people imagine Death looking like the Grim Reaper, but it can project itself any way it wants.
And for some reason, it's showing itself to me as a short woman with a wide hat.
Ugh.
Geez.
It's hard to breathe.
There's a lot of crying hyperventilating.
- The living, you're talking about? - Yeah, oh, yeah.
Like, freaking out.
This is bad, bad stuff all around.
So, Jeanette, I was talking to Mom.
She says she relies on you a lot.
I'm the oldest.
I'm like her second eyes.
- How old are you? - I'm 16.
That's a lot for a 16-year-old to have to take on.
Yeah.
So, what kind of things are happening to you? What's going on? I'm seeing a tall black figure that looks like a human, but just black shadow.
And would you say it was a male or a female? Male.
Anything face could you see any face, or it was all black? All black.
You blink, and then it's gone.
Okay, now, where are you seeing it? I always see it upstairs.
It just happened yesterday.
I was going to sleep, and I got this feeling of being watched.
And I turned around, and there's that black figure standing in front of my door.
So, what happens? I screamed, and I ran straight downstairs.
Okay, interesting.
Do you have anything else going on? Yes, there are times when I wake up in the morning, and I'll have these bruises.
They're usually always on my legs.
In fact, I woke up with one this morning.
Well, that could almost anything, sweetie.
You might have a deficiency in a vitamin or something.
- But you don't know how you've done it? - Yeah.
I don't remember hitting myself on anything.
Okay, so you're just waking up like that.
Yes.
How do you even sleep at night? It's hard to sleep.
And whenever I do fall asleep, I have horrible nightmares.
Mnh-mnh.
Death Lady a lot in here.
Well, she does come through the door in the closet.
A creepy guy comes in here, too the one who threatened me outside.
Do you have any idea if anybody's seen him? He's pretty [bleep.]
strong, so I would assume it's a possibility.
There is a girl a teenager, getting choked.
I think maybe he's the one who's choking her.
And he's influencing this girl, making bad thoughts in her head to do things to herself that are not good.
Death cannot intervene.
It can only watch, wait.
Why is he doing this? Because he is an evil lunatic.
I understand that you guys only lived here a few months and some things have been going on.
Okay.
So, Kayleigh, how old are you? - Seven.
- Seven.
- And, Klayton, how old are you, buddy? - Six.
Why don't you, Kayleigh, tell me one thing that's happened that you can remember? Upstairs in my bedroom, someone was looking through the window.
I think it was a man.
Do you know if he was a man like me? Was he an older man, white man? He was all black.
How about you, buddy? Did you ever see anything like that? I know I saw that down here in the window.
Which window? In here.
In the kitchen here? Can you tell me what he looked like? Black in color.
Okay, did he frighten you? He did.
- So, anything else happen to you? - Mm I remember when I was asleep, and then I was getting poked.
Show me how you got poked.
Let me feel it.
Like that? Okay, did it wake you up? You guys like living here? - Mnh-mnh.
- Not that much.
We only sleep downstairs 'cause we're scared a lot.
Oh, God.
You all right? I think I might have to leave soon.
What's going on? The guy What is he doing to you? He keeps, like, touching me and making me feel sick.
Is this something he does to the living, also? I think that's possible.
Yeah.
I was talking to Beth about what's going on, and I tell you, she breaks my heart.
- Strong woman, though.
- Very, very.
You got to be worried about her, I would think.
I worry about everyone.
I mean, I look at her, and I want to cry.
Okay.
You know, we bought it, and we want I want this to be our home.
Like, this is our final resting spot for Beth 'cause or I say it's gonna be gone.
I mean, I'm worried more about somebody getting hurt.
Right.
It gives me crazy vibes up and down my spine.
What about you? Have you experienced anything? Yeah.
Sitting down, just chilling, watching TV, and I'm just sitting in my chair, and something just came right past me.
You know, it was tall well, probably at least six foot kind of, like, dark-in-the-middle figure with a light glow around it.
So I got up out of my chair, and I walked in the kitchen, and nobody there.
I went into the garage.
And I looked, and nothing.
That was whacked.
It was shortly after my brother died.
And my mother passed, and then my brother died.
I lost like seven, eight, nine family members in like a matter of two years.
I asked the good Lord try to stay strong.
When you saw the shadow, you thought maybe it was somebody from the family.
The energy down here is almost like you can grab it.
It's so thick.
The creepy guy from upstairs likes it down here, too.
And he's being bad.
He's influencing living people here.
He's really good at making physical connections with living people.
Yeah, he's not doing good stuff.
He's making the living sick.
He's hurting them.
Mm.
Interesting.
He's He's very strong.
Very, actually very, very [bleep.]
very [bleep.]
strong.
You got a problem with people getting physically touched here, you know, and keeping you guys up at night.
You know, it's not good.
There's definitely something.
I'd really like to stay.
I love her to death, and I'm here for her.
I worry more about them than myself, 'cause they're the ones that are suffering more.
You know, that's what I'm here for.
We'll do the best we can.
Appreciate it.
Ah, no worries.
You're so welcome.
You'll be all right, trust me.
I started making some calls and found something surprising.
Beth and Klay's property used to be part of a large factory.
Apparently, they used to make fly swatters there.
I'm heading over to meet with a local author who said there was nothing funny about what happened to the owner of that business.
So, Shawn, you mentioned on the phone that factory sitting on my client's property at one time made fly swatters.
- Is that right? - Correct.
What's the story with that? Well, Arthur Hurd and George Wilson purchased your client's property around 1908, and by 1910, they had a factory built there.
I have a map here that kind of shows where the factory was.
It sat right where your client's house is right now.
This is actually what the factory looked like.
You said things went bad for these guys.
What happened? By 1911, Wilson left the company and left Mr.
Hurd by himself to try to run the place.
All right, so, how's it go for Hurd at this point? Well, it was a struggle for him.
He didn't have the expertise that his partner had, but he continued to work forward, and he put his heart and soul into running it.
And I think it became pretty stressful on him, and February 3rd of 1925, he actually suffered a heart attack at the site.
In the factory? Correct.
Here's actually his death certificate.
And he was pretty influential in the town because, right on the front page, they put in his obituary that day.
I saw a very different structure than this one.
The structure seemed large.
I think it had bricks.
There's a guy he's agitated.
He's very high-strung, and this is his territory, and he had to, I guess, fight really hard for it.
This guy is not dealing with his death very well.
I'm gonna say he died from, like, a stroke or a heart attack.
After finding out that a factory used to sit right on my client's property and that the owner basically worked himself to death, I hit the local library to see if there was anything else that could help my investigation.
Turns out, a massive insane asylum and poor farm operated for nearly 80 years right next to Beth and Klayton's property.
You know, from doing these investigations, I know a lot of these poor farms and mental asylums mistreated their patients.
So I reached out to a local newspaper reporter.
He said this place was filled with neglect, abuse, and death.
So, Keith, the asylum seemed like it was really close to my client's original property line.
- Is that right? - That's right.
And as a matter of fact, you can see it.
It's right over there across the river.
Were you able to find out when this place was built? Yeah, it was built in 1893.
It was in operation for about 78 years.
How many people did this house? It was big.
It would've housed up to about 300 people.
What kind of people would actually be treated at this place? There'd been schizophrenics.
There would've been manic-depressives.
There would've been the elderly.
Now, you mentioned on the phone how bad the conditions were.
What are we talking about? In the 1950s, the superintendents came under investigation by the Marathon County D.
A.
for overcrowded conditions, limited staffing.
There were hundreds of people there.
They only had four bathtubs.
So, when I first contacted you, I asked you to find out if there was any unusual deaths that might help my case.
Were you able to come up with anything? Yeah, I found five interesting deaths.
The first one was in 1895, when an inmate hung himself.
In 1899, three men were asphyxiated while working in a silo on the farm.
In 1903, a 37-year-old inmate was stabbed to death by an 85-year-old inmate.
What was it over? I guess it was over living quarters.
Couple more.
In 1920, a man named John Kyough told nurses that he was gonna go fishing down on the river.
He had a wooden leg.
He removed it, tied an anchor to his waist, threw himself in the river.
You said there was five.
What was the fifth? Yeah, there was one more inmate suicide.
This one happened in 1933.
He laid down on a stick of dynamite and blew himself up.
That's a lot of death.
These are the ones we know about.
There certainly would've had to been a lot more deaths.
Nurses reported that they didn't even bother keeping records, 'cause once people were brought in, they just expected them to be there forever till they died.
Okay.
I hear a male, and he said, "We are lost and need help out of here.
" And he said, "We can't see to find our way out.
" There's about 11 of them.
They can't even see each other.
I asked how did he die? He said, "A death camp.
" One other thing got my attention during my research.
There was a brutal murder about 1,200 feet from Beth's house.
The victim was a young woman heading home from church.
Now, look, it may be a long shot, but I'm heading over to meet with a Wausau detective who said it was one of the most notorious crimes in the city's history.
So, Greg, I came across this homicide that happened pretty close to my client's property.
What do you know about it? Murder happened on April 18, 1966.
This is our victim Mary Holzem, 26 years old.
This is the guy that killed her Eugene Schopf, 29 years old.
All right, so, how's the homicide go down? Mary, she was walking home from church.
Eugene Schopf here, he picks her up in a vehicle.
They go down to a bar, and they have a couple of drinks, and then they leave together in a vehicle.
And that's the last anybody sees of her.
So, what happens after that? He was somewhat infatuated with her and came on to her.
She resisted, and he stabbed her three times.
She screamed and then he cut her throat.
Oof.
This is a copy of Mary Holzem's death certificate.
"Male subject apparently seduced victim to a secluded spot for his act.
" So, Greg, the actual location of the homicide, how far is that from my client's location? That was about a quarter of a mile.
Okay, so, now, from the article, I understand he was caught.
How'd they wind up getting him? Police received a call at about 10:45 that night that there was screaming coming from an area just two blocks down from that bar.
Police officers go over to the bar, talk to the bartender.
Bartender tells them, "Yep, Mary was in here, and she was with a guy by the name of Gene Schopf.
So they knew the guy.
They knew the guy.
They go down to his house.
They look at the vehicle, they find blood in the trunk, they find bloody clothes in the back seat.
Gene confesses to killing her.
That's his booking photo from the 19th, - the day after she was killed.
- Okay.
He was charged with first-degree murder.
Wow.
Ah, there's a man and a woman, and the man is the creepy guy.
They're both dead, and It's bad.
It's so bad.
It's so bad.
They knew each other when they were alive.
And she's always trying to get away from him still.
Mm.
Mnh-mnh.
Her heart's racing, 'cause she's got to get away.
And she's very stressed-out.
I think that the woman died here.
I saw knives somebody messing with knives.
Okay, so, what happens at the trial? He goes to court and pleads "not guilty by reason of insanity.
" It's a pretty brutal crime.
Is there any indication he's done this before? It came out that, in 1954, he had asked military doctors for help because he had thoughts of slicing the throats of animals and he thought he might hurt a woman.
- He asked for help.
- He did.
Obviously, he didn't get it, 'cause this guy's got the markings of a serial killer especially with the animals.
Yeah.
In July of 1966, he was found "not guilty by reason of insanity.
" He was committed to a state mental institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.
In the early '70s, he was released.
That son of a [bleep.]
Can't believe they let this guy out.
What happened after he was released? Last information we have is he moves to Alabama and dies in 2002 at age 65.
This creepy guy, he didn't die a long time ago.
I don't think he's that old, maybe in his early 50s, and he does not like animals.
And children are pests.
Woman are pests bad, evil, evil creatures.
They're evil creatures.
He is very mentally ill.
Mm.
I see 5 and a 4, 54, so something like that.
He is evil, and he wants nothing good for anybody.
I saw several dead people during my walk, but two stood out the most first, the creepy man choking a living teenager in the house.
He has, like, a huge rope and he's strangling the kid with it.
Over on the side, in front of this big closet, is this woman who is really Death, and she's watching this situation happening.
Next, I describe how Death showed herself to me.
She had a hat on, and it was black.
She had very large eyes, and she was wearing, like, a fur-collar thing, and it was black.
Is this who you saw? Yes, that's who I saw.
Now that Amy and I have completed our investigations, we're ready to reveal our findings to each other and our clients for the first time.
So, Amy, when I decided that we should take on this case, I knew it was gonna be emotional, but I didn't realize how emotional.
This is Beth.
She's one of the strongest women I've ever met.
And this is her very supportive fiancé, Klay.
Now, on top of dealing with a really bad paranormal problem that they have here, Beth has a disease that's gonna leave her blind within the next three to four months.
She called us in because she's desperate to make sure that their four kids are okay before she goes completely blind.
So, now that Amy knows a little bit about your background, I'm gonna ask her to describe her walk for us.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to walking through the door, but I did, and as soon as I came in here, I was hearing somebody yelling, "Dire, dire, dire!" Somebody here is affected by the energy here, which is making them like, disoriented.
Then I went upstairs, and I was so sick up there.
I felt so drained and horrible.
I get a lot of headaches.
I'm just tired.
I don't want to do anything.
I just have, like, absolutely no "get up and go.
" Klay, don't the kids have stomachaches a lot? Oh, yeah, they get stomach, headache, and you can tell they're not themselves.
Now, one thing you should know about Beth is that she felt this way in her last place.
Yeah, the last place actually, the last two places.
It started out little things, and then it just intensifies to the point where it gets like, physical.
I just wish there was something I could do to stop it.
You okay, honey? - Sorry.
- No.
I don't give a [bleep.]
about the cameras, okay? If you need to take a break, you tell me.
I just have a hard time talking about those places.
It's okay.
That's why we're here.
In those houses, there was lots of shadows, and I would see them reach out for the kids.
I just feel like I'm going nuts or something.
It's crazy.
And had that kind of stuff happened throughout your life? Yeah.
I've had issues as long as I can remember.
There are two main entities that are in this house, and they're the ones that I'm most concerned about.
The first was the female.
She explained to me that she is Death.
The other interesting thing is that she interacts directly with the living.
She was very excited for me to go upstairs and see what was going on up there.
She was actually waiting at the top of the staircase, like, smiling.
And I think she causes a lot of the living stress.
People may see her as a silhouette.
She wears a hat, and people may see that.
But she did say, "I can project myself any which way I want.
" We see shadows, and, like, I've referred to them as silhouettes before.
You saw a shadow in the kitchen, right? Oh, yeah.
Right here, as we sit.
It just gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I'm like, "Wow, that was whacked.
" You know, Klay, I hate to bring it up I know you're in a bad spot right now but when you mentioned Death, you lost how many people in the last year or so? Brother.
Mother.
Aunt.
Uncle.
Cousin.
Sorry.
No, don't be.
He's had a lot of loss in a very short time.
Now, do you have any idea what the woman looked like? I had a sketch of her done.
Here, take a look at this.
Not what I'd expect her to look like, but her eyes look like Death.
I don't like her eyes.
Yeah, I do.
I didn't want to bring it up.
When I first saw the sketch, it did remind me of his mom a little bit.
Wow.
This is a picture of his mom.
Wow.
Ohh.
I do not think that it was done in a malicious manner.
I think that this is Death acknowledging what's happened by taking on a familiar guise.
So you didn't run into his mom.
No.
So this is Death projecting itself as Klay's mom.
Yeah.
I then encountered a male, and this guy is no good.
He was a very bad person when he was alive.
He's still a very bad person.
My opinion of this guy is that he's an evil lunatic.
I ran into him initially in the kitchen.
He was chasing a female.
This carried over from when they were alive.
She experienced her death in the heart or chest area.
I was shown knives.
He was very mentally ill when he was alive.
He's still extremely mentally ill.
The only clear thing that I got from him was that he hates animals and that women are evil creatures.
And then I did get two numbers five and four.
They were extremely important possibly 54.
Now, a lot of things you just said make me think of a murder that took place nearly 50 years ago, right here in the neighborhood.
On April 18, 1966, there was a girl walking home from church.
Her name was Mary Holzem.
She was 26 years old.
Now, it's raining.
This guy Eugene Schopf pulls up and says, "Let me give you a ride.
" I have his booking photo right here.
He made an advance on her.
She rejects it.
He flips out, stabs her several times in the chest and the stomach, slits her throat from ear to ear and then winds up taking her body, sticking it in the trunk, and driving her to a remote area about seven miles from here.
I got the death certificate here.
This will give you an idea of the damages on her.
You mention you picked up on a 5 and 4, or maybe a 54, which kind of blew me away a little bit.
In 1954, when he was in the army, he asked for psychiatric help.
He told them that he had slashed the throats of animals and that he thought he wanted to do that to a woman one day.
Instead of serving prison time, this sick bastard wound up going to a mental hospital for 10 years.
He gets released.
2002, he dies in Alabama at the age of 65.
Is it possible this is your guy? I mean, a lot of things match, for sure, for sure.
Is it possible that he's following Beth by any chance, since she's having these problems wherever she goes? I mean, it could be that he's, you know, attracted here because you have abilities.
If he was alive today, I'd kick him right in his friggin' [bleep.]
How is this [bleep.]
affecting everybody in the house? I do think that he can physically attack the living.
I think that people could see him.
He's just pure evil, and he just wants to torment people.
My oldest daughter, Jeanette, she'll wake up with brand-new bruises.
She woke up one morning with it looked almost like a burn above her eye.
So, I had a sketch done of what I saw a living female experiencing.
What a piece of [bleep.]
Mother Mary of God.
Here, baby, I can brighten it up.
That's crazy.
Well, it ain't funny.
- I'm sorry.
- No, don't be.
Mnh-mnh.
Amy, what do you think may be going on here? What I understand is going on is that this crazy, evil man is focused on your daughter.
He is trying to influence her, as well, her thoughts, and influencing her to do possibly bad things to herself.
I'm concerned because Death is there and is watching and waiting.
I mean, I think that his intentions are the same intentions he had when he was alive.
Do bodily harm.
Yes.
He likes to torture, you know? And obviously, he likes to kill people.
Well, Beth, Klay, at least now we know what's causing all the problems in your family.
And I know you two guys are fighters, but we need to find out how to kick this [bleep.]
out of the house so you can live here with your kids peacefully, the way you guys deserve.
I'll turn it over to Amy, and she'll have an idea of what we can do about this.
What I would like is to get a really big, bad, scary male medium to come in and basically kick his ass out and to then set up a very firm barrier around your property to keep the dead out of here.
Let's just block those suckers out.
So, I think I already know the answer to this question, but why such a big, burly, tough medium? This crazy lunatic tries to prey on the weak, and he is an abuser, and I think that he's quite afraid of men.
It'll be very intimidating and frightening for him.
Good.
So, now, what happens with Death? My perception is that, once that guy's out of here Death probably won't be hanging around anymore.
That's the first time I've seen you two smile the entire night.
Hmm.
I mean, this is good news, I think.
I'm hoping.
How you feeling, Beth? Still a little in shock, but what Amy found hopeful that, by doing what she's suggesting, that things will get better.
You guys got a lot of love going on here so that helps.
Thank you guys very much.
He's not happy that I'm here.
It gives me crazy vibes up and down my spine.
He's making the living sick.
To think that whatever's here is actually picking on you pisses me off.
I have horrible nightmares.
He is an evil lunatic.
This is bad, bad stuff all around.
There's a dark presence.
My name is Amy Allan.
These things, they're freaking out.
They're from hell.
I see dead people.
They were being hunted.
I speak to dead people.
They were setting people on fire, burning them alive.
And they speak to me.
Her neck got broken.
But there's only one way to know if my findings are real.
I hear a gunshot.
I rely on my partner.
I'm Steve Di Schiavi.
I'm a retired New York City homicide detective.
Something's not right here.
And I know every person, every house has secrets.
It's not safe here.
It's my job to reveal them.
Are any of them buried on the property? They're all buried here.
But Steve and I never speak We never communicate during an investigation.
Until the very end I can't do it no more.
When we uncover if it's safe for you to stay Holy [bleep.]
Look at this.
Or time to get out.
It does not have a happy ending.
Something kills people here.
I'm in Wausau, Wisconsin, about an hour and a half from Green Bay.
I didn't think long about taking on this case.
I received a call from a mother of four who just moved into a new townhouse and says the entire family's under attack.
Now, to make things worse, she has a degenerative eye disease and now is legally blind.
Her story really touched my heart, and I hope we can bring this woman some peace.
Before Amy arrives I clear the area of any leading information covering personal items and removing family photos that may influence her findings.
When I'm done, the location will be ready for tonight's walk.
There's a lot going on around here.
There's a lady she's got a really bad vibe to her.
She's claiming to be either Death or associated with Death.
Ahh, this is a disaster.
There's a jerk, and he's not happy that I'm here.
He said something about trying to stab me in the eye with, like, needles.
So, Beth, when I spoke to you on the phone, it was obvious that your problems here are pretty intense.
Before we even get to that, I want to talk about your medical condition.
You're going blind.
Yes, just been slowly going blind since I was like five.
Can you explain to me what you're seeing right now? Do you see me? The clothes you're wearing are dark, and I can't see detail.
Okay, and how much time do you have left? - Maybe a couple months.
- Wow.
I mean, it breaks my heart.
It's one of the main reasons I took this case.
How long have you guys been here? We've only been here for like four months.
The last two places we were at got really intense.
It's happened pretty much everywhere we've lived.
- But now you bought this place? - Yes.
We can't just up and leave like we did the last two houses.
Who exactly lives here in the house with you? It's me, my fiancé, Klay, our 4 kids - Jeanette, she's 16, Mitchell, he's 14.
- Okay.
Kayleigh's seven, and then Klayton is six.
Okay, so, why don't you take me through what's going on? You can hear stomping, you'll hear walking up and down the stairs, see a lot of dark shadows, and you'll hear voices.
You feel like you're being watched 24/7, everywhere you are.
And it's started getting physical now.
And I got to assume this is frightening the kids.
We all sleep in here.
This is where we all come.
We move the table, and we make a bed on the floor.
- All you guys? - Yeah.
Nobody wants to be in their room.
I'm scared to death of my bedroom.
When you guys are all sleeping down here, does that make things better for you guys? No, not really.
I've started getting a little bit drained, feeling more tired than usual.
The kids complain about stomachaches and headaches.
As the activity intensifies, so does, like, the health issues.
To think that whatever's here is actually picking on you pisses me off I mean, to the point where I want to strangle somebody.
I don't know how you're as composed as you are.
I just learned to keep my composure very well.
I have to.
I just don't really have a choice.
- I have to do it for the kids.
- Right.
'Cause they're my first concern.
You okay? I know, honey.
I'm sorry.
I know.
You know, you're allowed to break down once in awhile.
I just don't want my kids to have to rely on everybody else.
I should be the one that is able to take care of them and protect them and Yeah, but you can't do it all by yourself.
"Dire.
" "Dire.
" "Dire, dire.
" Ah, somebody keeps yelling that.
Okay, okay.
Somebody here is affected by the energy here, which is making them like, disoriented.
They can't function properly.
I think that it's making them feel sick, drained.
Mm.
Very bad.
You know, Beth, looking around, you guys obviously haven't really moved in yet.
We don't use this room, really.
'Cause you guys are downstairs.
Yeah.
Okay, so, what's happening up here that's scaring you guys off? You can hear walking around up here when everyone's sleeping.
Well, you got six people living in the house.
- Kids sleepwalk or anything like that? - No.
How often are you hearing that? Daily.
Okay.
Anything else up here? Shadows, lots of shadows.
I'm not trying to be mean, but you have this eye problem.
You're seeing shadows because of your eyes? No, I don't think so.
Everyone else has seen them.
Death Lady is happy.
She seems excited and enthusiastic.
She wants me to go upstairs.
Mm.
She tells me that she has a lot of business in this area.
I'm gonna assume that that means that a lot of people die around here very often.
Most people imagine Death looking like the Grim Reaper, but it can project itself any way it wants.
And for some reason, it's showing itself to me as a short woman with a wide hat.
Ugh.
Geez.
It's hard to breathe.
There's a lot of crying hyperventilating.
- The living, you're talking about? - Yeah, oh, yeah.
Like, freaking out.
This is bad, bad stuff all around.
So, Jeanette, I was talking to Mom.
She says she relies on you a lot.
I'm the oldest.
I'm like her second eyes.
- How old are you? - I'm 16.
That's a lot for a 16-year-old to have to take on.
Yeah.
So, what kind of things are happening to you? What's going on? I'm seeing a tall black figure that looks like a human, but just black shadow.
And would you say it was a male or a female? Male.
Anything face could you see any face, or it was all black? All black.
You blink, and then it's gone.
Okay, now, where are you seeing it? I always see it upstairs.
It just happened yesterday.
I was going to sleep, and I got this feeling of being watched.
And I turned around, and there's that black figure standing in front of my door.
So, what happens? I screamed, and I ran straight downstairs.
Okay, interesting.
Do you have anything else going on? Yes, there are times when I wake up in the morning, and I'll have these bruises.
They're usually always on my legs.
In fact, I woke up with one this morning.
Well, that could almost anything, sweetie.
You might have a deficiency in a vitamin or something.
- But you don't know how you've done it? - Yeah.
I don't remember hitting myself on anything.
Okay, so you're just waking up like that.
Yes.
How do you even sleep at night? It's hard to sleep.
And whenever I do fall asleep, I have horrible nightmares.
Mnh-mnh.
Death Lady a lot in here.
Well, she does come through the door in the closet.
A creepy guy comes in here, too the one who threatened me outside.
Do you have any idea if anybody's seen him? He's pretty [bleep.]
strong, so I would assume it's a possibility.
There is a girl a teenager, getting choked.
I think maybe he's the one who's choking her.
And he's influencing this girl, making bad thoughts in her head to do things to herself that are not good.
Death cannot intervene.
It can only watch, wait.
Why is he doing this? Because he is an evil lunatic.
I understand that you guys only lived here a few months and some things have been going on.
Okay.
So, Kayleigh, how old are you? - Seven.
- Seven.
- And, Klayton, how old are you, buddy? - Six.
Why don't you, Kayleigh, tell me one thing that's happened that you can remember? Upstairs in my bedroom, someone was looking through the window.
I think it was a man.
Do you know if he was a man like me? Was he an older man, white man? He was all black.
How about you, buddy? Did you ever see anything like that? I know I saw that down here in the window.
Which window? In here.
In the kitchen here? Can you tell me what he looked like? Black in color.
Okay, did he frighten you? He did.
- So, anything else happen to you? - Mm I remember when I was asleep, and then I was getting poked.
Show me how you got poked.
Let me feel it.
Like that? Okay, did it wake you up? You guys like living here? - Mnh-mnh.
- Not that much.
We only sleep downstairs 'cause we're scared a lot.
Oh, God.
You all right? I think I might have to leave soon.
What's going on? The guy What is he doing to you? He keeps, like, touching me and making me feel sick.
Is this something he does to the living, also? I think that's possible.
Yeah.
I was talking to Beth about what's going on, and I tell you, she breaks my heart.
- Strong woman, though.
- Very, very.
You got to be worried about her, I would think.
I worry about everyone.
I mean, I look at her, and I want to cry.
Okay.
You know, we bought it, and we want I want this to be our home.
Like, this is our final resting spot for Beth 'cause or I say it's gonna be gone.
I mean, I'm worried more about somebody getting hurt.
Right.
It gives me crazy vibes up and down my spine.
What about you? Have you experienced anything? Yeah.
Sitting down, just chilling, watching TV, and I'm just sitting in my chair, and something just came right past me.
You know, it was tall well, probably at least six foot kind of, like, dark-in-the-middle figure with a light glow around it.
So I got up out of my chair, and I walked in the kitchen, and nobody there.
I went into the garage.
And I looked, and nothing.
That was whacked.
It was shortly after my brother died.
And my mother passed, and then my brother died.
I lost like seven, eight, nine family members in like a matter of two years.
I asked the good Lord try to stay strong.
When you saw the shadow, you thought maybe it was somebody from the family.
The energy down here is almost like you can grab it.
It's so thick.
The creepy guy from upstairs likes it down here, too.
And he's being bad.
He's influencing living people here.
He's really good at making physical connections with living people.
Yeah, he's not doing good stuff.
He's making the living sick.
He's hurting them.
Mm.
Interesting.
He's He's very strong.
Very, actually very, very [bleep.]
very [bleep.]
strong.
You got a problem with people getting physically touched here, you know, and keeping you guys up at night.
You know, it's not good.
There's definitely something.
I'd really like to stay.
I love her to death, and I'm here for her.
I worry more about them than myself, 'cause they're the ones that are suffering more.
You know, that's what I'm here for.
We'll do the best we can.
Appreciate it.
Ah, no worries.
You're so welcome.
You'll be all right, trust me.
I started making some calls and found something surprising.
Beth and Klay's property used to be part of a large factory.
Apparently, they used to make fly swatters there.
I'm heading over to meet with a local author who said there was nothing funny about what happened to the owner of that business.
So, Shawn, you mentioned on the phone that factory sitting on my client's property at one time made fly swatters.
- Is that right? - Correct.
What's the story with that? Well, Arthur Hurd and George Wilson purchased your client's property around 1908, and by 1910, they had a factory built there.
I have a map here that kind of shows where the factory was.
It sat right where your client's house is right now.
This is actually what the factory looked like.
You said things went bad for these guys.
What happened? By 1911, Wilson left the company and left Mr.
Hurd by himself to try to run the place.
All right, so, how's it go for Hurd at this point? Well, it was a struggle for him.
He didn't have the expertise that his partner had, but he continued to work forward, and he put his heart and soul into running it.
And I think it became pretty stressful on him, and February 3rd of 1925, he actually suffered a heart attack at the site.
In the factory? Correct.
Here's actually his death certificate.
And he was pretty influential in the town because, right on the front page, they put in his obituary that day.
I saw a very different structure than this one.
The structure seemed large.
I think it had bricks.
There's a guy he's agitated.
He's very high-strung, and this is his territory, and he had to, I guess, fight really hard for it.
This guy is not dealing with his death very well.
I'm gonna say he died from, like, a stroke or a heart attack.
After finding out that a factory used to sit right on my client's property and that the owner basically worked himself to death, I hit the local library to see if there was anything else that could help my investigation.
Turns out, a massive insane asylum and poor farm operated for nearly 80 years right next to Beth and Klayton's property.
You know, from doing these investigations, I know a lot of these poor farms and mental asylums mistreated their patients.
So I reached out to a local newspaper reporter.
He said this place was filled with neglect, abuse, and death.
So, Keith, the asylum seemed like it was really close to my client's original property line.
- Is that right? - That's right.
And as a matter of fact, you can see it.
It's right over there across the river.
Were you able to find out when this place was built? Yeah, it was built in 1893.
It was in operation for about 78 years.
How many people did this house? It was big.
It would've housed up to about 300 people.
What kind of people would actually be treated at this place? There'd been schizophrenics.
There would've been manic-depressives.
There would've been the elderly.
Now, you mentioned on the phone how bad the conditions were.
What are we talking about? In the 1950s, the superintendents came under investigation by the Marathon County D.
A.
for overcrowded conditions, limited staffing.
There were hundreds of people there.
They only had four bathtubs.
So, when I first contacted you, I asked you to find out if there was any unusual deaths that might help my case.
Were you able to come up with anything? Yeah, I found five interesting deaths.
The first one was in 1895, when an inmate hung himself.
In 1899, three men were asphyxiated while working in a silo on the farm.
In 1903, a 37-year-old inmate was stabbed to death by an 85-year-old inmate.
What was it over? I guess it was over living quarters.
Couple more.
In 1920, a man named John Kyough told nurses that he was gonna go fishing down on the river.
He had a wooden leg.
He removed it, tied an anchor to his waist, threw himself in the river.
You said there was five.
What was the fifth? Yeah, there was one more inmate suicide.
This one happened in 1933.
He laid down on a stick of dynamite and blew himself up.
That's a lot of death.
These are the ones we know about.
There certainly would've had to been a lot more deaths.
Nurses reported that they didn't even bother keeping records, 'cause once people were brought in, they just expected them to be there forever till they died.
Okay.
I hear a male, and he said, "We are lost and need help out of here.
" And he said, "We can't see to find our way out.
" There's about 11 of them.
They can't even see each other.
I asked how did he die? He said, "A death camp.
" One other thing got my attention during my research.
There was a brutal murder about 1,200 feet from Beth's house.
The victim was a young woman heading home from church.
Now, look, it may be a long shot, but I'm heading over to meet with a Wausau detective who said it was one of the most notorious crimes in the city's history.
So, Greg, I came across this homicide that happened pretty close to my client's property.
What do you know about it? Murder happened on April 18, 1966.
This is our victim Mary Holzem, 26 years old.
This is the guy that killed her Eugene Schopf, 29 years old.
All right, so, how's the homicide go down? Mary, she was walking home from church.
Eugene Schopf here, he picks her up in a vehicle.
They go down to a bar, and they have a couple of drinks, and then they leave together in a vehicle.
And that's the last anybody sees of her.
So, what happens after that? He was somewhat infatuated with her and came on to her.
She resisted, and he stabbed her three times.
She screamed and then he cut her throat.
Oof.
This is a copy of Mary Holzem's death certificate.
"Male subject apparently seduced victim to a secluded spot for his act.
" So, Greg, the actual location of the homicide, how far is that from my client's location? That was about a quarter of a mile.
Okay, so, now, from the article, I understand he was caught.
How'd they wind up getting him? Police received a call at about 10:45 that night that there was screaming coming from an area just two blocks down from that bar.
Police officers go over to the bar, talk to the bartender.
Bartender tells them, "Yep, Mary was in here, and she was with a guy by the name of Gene Schopf.
So they knew the guy.
They knew the guy.
They go down to his house.
They look at the vehicle, they find blood in the trunk, they find bloody clothes in the back seat.
Gene confesses to killing her.
That's his booking photo from the 19th, - the day after she was killed.
- Okay.
He was charged with first-degree murder.
Wow.
Ah, there's a man and a woman, and the man is the creepy guy.
They're both dead, and It's bad.
It's so bad.
It's so bad.
They knew each other when they were alive.
And she's always trying to get away from him still.
Mm.
Mnh-mnh.
Her heart's racing, 'cause she's got to get away.
And she's very stressed-out.
I think that the woman died here.
I saw knives somebody messing with knives.
Okay, so, what happens at the trial? He goes to court and pleads "not guilty by reason of insanity.
" It's a pretty brutal crime.
Is there any indication he's done this before? It came out that, in 1954, he had asked military doctors for help because he had thoughts of slicing the throats of animals and he thought he might hurt a woman.
- He asked for help.
- He did.
Obviously, he didn't get it, 'cause this guy's got the markings of a serial killer especially with the animals.
Yeah.
In July of 1966, he was found "not guilty by reason of insanity.
" He was committed to a state mental institution in Waupun, Wisconsin.
In the early '70s, he was released.
That son of a [bleep.]
Can't believe they let this guy out.
What happened after he was released? Last information we have is he moves to Alabama and dies in 2002 at age 65.
This creepy guy, he didn't die a long time ago.
I don't think he's that old, maybe in his early 50s, and he does not like animals.
And children are pests.
Woman are pests bad, evil, evil creatures.
They're evil creatures.
He is very mentally ill.
Mm.
I see 5 and a 4, 54, so something like that.
He is evil, and he wants nothing good for anybody.
I saw several dead people during my walk, but two stood out the most first, the creepy man choking a living teenager in the house.
He has, like, a huge rope and he's strangling the kid with it.
Over on the side, in front of this big closet, is this woman who is really Death, and she's watching this situation happening.
Next, I describe how Death showed herself to me.
She had a hat on, and it was black.
She had very large eyes, and she was wearing, like, a fur-collar thing, and it was black.
Is this who you saw? Yes, that's who I saw.
Now that Amy and I have completed our investigations, we're ready to reveal our findings to each other and our clients for the first time.
So, Amy, when I decided that we should take on this case, I knew it was gonna be emotional, but I didn't realize how emotional.
This is Beth.
She's one of the strongest women I've ever met.
And this is her very supportive fiancé, Klay.
Now, on top of dealing with a really bad paranormal problem that they have here, Beth has a disease that's gonna leave her blind within the next three to four months.
She called us in because she's desperate to make sure that their four kids are okay before she goes completely blind.
So, now that Amy knows a little bit about your background, I'm gonna ask her to describe her walk for us.
Honestly, I was not looking forward to walking through the door, but I did, and as soon as I came in here, I was hearing somebody yelling, "Dire, dire, dire!" Somebody here is affected by the energy here, which is making them like, disoriented.
Then I went upstairs, and I was so sick up there.
I felt so drained and horrible.
I get a lot of headaches.
I'm just tired.
I don't want to do anything.
I just have, like, absolutely no "get up and go.
" Klay, don't the kids have stomachaches a lot? Oh, yeah, they get stomach, headache, and you can tell they're not themselves.
Now, one thing you should know about Beth is that she felt this way in her last place.
Yeah, the last place actually, the last two places.
It started out little things, and then it just intensifies to the point where it gets like, physical.
I just wish there was something I could do to stop it.
You okay, honey? - Sorry.
- No.
I don't give a [bleep.]
about the cameras, okay? If you need to take a break, you tell me.
I just have a hard time talking about those places.
It's okay.
That's why we're here.
In those houses, there was lots of shadows, and I would see them reach out for the kids.
I just feel like I'm going nuts or something.
It's crazy.
And had that kind of stuff happened throughout your life? Yeah.
I've had issues as long as I can remember.
There are two main entities that are in this house, and they're the ones that I'm most concerned about.
The first was the female.
She explained to me that she is Death.
The other interesting thing is that she interacts directly with the living.
She was very excited for me to go upstairs and see what was going on up there.
She was actually waiting at the top of the staircase, like, smiling.
And I think she causes a lot of the living stress.
People may see her as a silhouette.
She wears a hat, and people may see that.
But she did say, "I can project myself any which way I want.
" We see shadows, and, like, I've referred to them as silhouettes before.
You saw a shadow in the kitchen, right? Oh, yeah.
Right here, as we sit.
It just gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I'm like, "Wow, that was whacked.
" You know, Klay, I hate to bring it up I know you're in a bad spot right now but when you mentioned Death, you lost how many people in the last year or so? Brother.
Mother.
Aunt.
Uncle.
Cousin.
Sorry.
No, don't be.
He's had a lot of loss in a very short time.
Now, do you have any idea what the woman looked like? I had a sketch of her done.
Here, take a look at this.
Not what I'd expect her to look like, but her eyes look like Death.
I don't like her eyes.
Yeah, I do.
I didn't want to bring it up.
When I first saw the sketch, it did remind me of his mom a little bit.
Wow.
This is a picture of his mom.
Wow.
Ohh.
I do not think that it was done in a malicious manner.
I think that this is Death acknowledging what's happened by taking on a familiar guise.
So you didn't run into his mom.
No.
So this is Death projecting itself as Klay's mom.
Yeah.
I then encountered a male, and this guy is no good.
He was a very bad person when he was alive.
He's still a very bad person.
My opinion of this guy is that he's an evil lunatic.
I ran into him initially in the kitchen.
He was chasing a female.
This carried over from when they were alive.
She experienced her death in the heart or chest area.
I was shown knives.
He was very mentally ill when he was alive.
He's still extremely mentally ill.
The only clear thing that I got from him was that he hates animals and that women are evil creatures.
And then I did get two numbers five and four.
They were extremely important possibly 54.
Now, a lot of things you just said make me think of a murder that took place nearly 50 years ago, right here in the neighborhood.
On April 18, 1966, there was a girl walking home from church.
Her name was Mary Holzem.
She was 26 years old.
Now, it's raining.
This guy Eugene Schopf pulls up and says, "Let me give you a ride.
" I have his booking photo right here.
He made an advance on her.
She rejects it.
He flips out, stabs her several times in the chest and the stomach, slits her throat from ear to ear and then winds up taking her body, sticking it in the trunk, and driving her to a remote area about seven miles from here.
I got the death certificate here.
This will give you an idea of the damages on her.
You mention you picked up on a 5 and 4, or maybe a 54, which kind of blew me away a little bit.
In 1954, when he was in the army, he asked for psychiatric help.
He told them that he had slashed the throats of animals and that he thought he wanted to do that to a woman one day.
Instead of serving prison time, this sick bastard wound up going to a mental hospital for 10 years.
He gets released.
2002, he dies in Alabama at the age of 65.
Is it possible this is your guy? I mean, a lot of things match, for sure, for sure.
Is it possible that he's following Beth by any chance, since she's having these problems wherever she goes? I mean, it could be that he's, you know, attracted here because you have abilities.
If he was alive today, I'd kick him right in his friggin' [bleep.]
How is this [bleep.]
affecting everybody in the house? I do think that he can physically attack the living.
I think that people could see him.
He's just pure evil, and he just wants to torment people.
My oldest daughter, Jeanette, she'll wake up with brand-new bruises.
She woke up one morning with it looked almost like a burn above her eye.
So, I had a sketch done of what I saw a living female experiencing.
What a piece of [bleep.]
Mother Mary of God.
Here, baby, I can brighten it up.
That's crazy.
Well, it ain't funny.
- I'm sorry.
- No, don't be.
Mnh-mnh.
Amy, what do you think may be going on here? What I understand is going on is that this crazy, evil man is focused on your daughter.
He is trying to influence her, as well, her thoughts, and influencing her to do possibly bad things to herself.
I'm concerned because Death is there and is watching and waiting.
I mean, I think that his intentions are the same intentions he had when he was alive.
Do bodily harm.
Yes.
He likes to torture, you know? And obviously, he likes to kill people.
Well, Beth, Klay, at least now we know what's causing all the problems in your family.
And I know you two guys are fighters, but we need to find out how to kick this [bleep.]
out of the house so you can live here with your kids peacefully, the way you guys deserve.
I'll turn it over to Amy, and she'll have an idea of what we can do about this.
What I would like is to get a really big, bad, scary male medium to come in and basically kick his ass out and to then set up a very firm barrier around your property to keep the dead out of here.
Let's just block those suckers out.
So, I think I already know the answer to this question, but why such a big, burly, tough medium? This crazy lunatic tries to prey on the weak, and he is an abuser, and I think that he's quite afraid of men.
It'll be very intimidating and frightening for him.
Good.
So, now, what happens with Death? My perception is that, once that guy's out of here Death probably won't be hanging around anymore.
That's the first time I've seen you two smile the entire night.
Hmm.
I mean, this is good news, I think.
I'm hoping.
How you feeling, Beth? Still a little in shock, but what Amy found hopeful that, by doing what she's suggesting, that things will get better.
You guys got a lot of love going on here so that helps.
Thank you guys very much.