The Addison Haunting

We're used to stories of spooky old houses. But what's up with a haunting in a brand new building?

The story begins simply enough. Sherry and her husband had saved for years to build their dream house, when finally in 1995 their dreams became a reality. Soon after the family moved in, however, their dream became a nightmare. There were full body apparitions, poltergeist activity and disturbingly enough, a demonic entity that seemed focused on Sherry's young daughter. The disruption to Sherry's family's lives was so overwhelming that she called in a priest and his wife to come in and try to quell the spirit activity. It worked for awhile, but soon it was business as usual.

So why haunt a new house? Or could it be true that whatever was in Sherry's place was haunting the people in the house? Decades of research have shown that poltergeists attach themselves to people and they're particularly fond of young children -- especially girls. There's no way of knowing whether these spirits are focused on the people or the place. But since Sherry's family has no intention of moving, we may never find out.

Here is a description of their haunting told by Sherry.

POLTERGEIST ACTIVITY

At first, I felt that it was just her fear of being alone upstairs. Then strange things started to happen, but only when my daughters and I were in the house. Doors would open or slam shut on their own, lights and televisions would switch on or off by themselves. These things usually occurred when we were sitting in the downstairs breakfast room.

My husband, who never seemed to be present for any of these activities, would always have a logical explanation for the occurrences. They were caused by drafts from the heating and cooling units, he told us, or power surges. Those logical explanations eased my mind and life went on... although odd things continued to happen.

ACTIVITY TURNS GHOST-LIKE

One night, a few years after we had moved in, after my husband and I had gone out with friends, we returned home for after-dinner coffee. While we were all sitting around the table chatting, we heard a noise from Brooke's room upstairs that sounded strangely like someone sneezing. All conversation stopped immediately. Every one of us had heard the noise. I called out to Brooke, but was reminded by the rest of the group that her car was gone from the driveway and she wasn't home. We ended up joking that it was just "our ghost" and continued our visit.

After our guests had gone for the evening, my husband insisted that I go upstairs and find out who was there. (Thanks, honey!) He even encouraged me to take a weapon. But I knew something he had not been able to accept for years: there was something not human living in our home. My search, as I expected, turned up nothing, but at least now my husband had experienced some of what we girls had been experiencing for some time!

My infant daughter would not sleep in her room, period! It wasn't that she wanted to be in our bed, she just didn't want to be in her room. Even if I got her to sleep in another part of the house and then put her back in her baby bed, she would wake soon after with terrifying screams. I tried every approach to solve this problem, from white noise machines, night lights, soft music, even leaving the TV on, but nothing soothed her fears.

When I purchased a queen-size bed for her room, so I could at least manage a few hours sleep, I discovered the reason for her anxiety. Noises from upstairs, sounding like footsteps, dragging sounds, even voices would continue all during the night. I was so freaked out that I would move us to the living room sofa most nights just to escape the sounds from above.

APPARITIONS OF "THE MAN"

Several years later, when Brooke returned home from college with her two-year-old daughter, Taylor, the activity really intensified. Toys would turn on by themselves and start moving across the floor of her upstairs room, radios would start blaring.... When Taylor started seeing "the man", however, we became totally convinced there was something that was definitely not normal in our dream house.

Her first experience was seeing this "man" on the stairs. Taylor had stayed up with me late one night while I was working on books, and when I had quit for the night, I carried her up to put her in the bed with her mom. Within minutes after lying down myself, I heard her heart-stopping screams! I ran upstairs to find her in the bed with her mom, both visibly shaken. After the reassurance from Brooke that they were all right, I went back to bed.

The next morning, after arriving on my job site for the day, Brooke came flying up in her car (a 40-minute drive) in terror. She explained to me that Taylor had seen a man on the stairs the night before who had talked to her. This entity had even kissed her on the cheek and told her that he loved her. But the two-year-old had been so distraught that she had trembled and talked about the man the entire night. Even though she kept repeating, "The man won't hurt you, mama. The man loves you," the poor baby was scared to death.

THE CLEANSING

The man appeared to Taylor on several more occasions. The last time she saw him, he offered her a toy truck. At that point I knew I needed help. I asked a local minister and his wife to come to my house. As soon as they entered, they said they could feel the spirit of something that was not friendly. They spent the entire morning going through my house with holy water, blessing each entryway and window, and placing prayer cloths under each bed.

Upon re-entering the house that afternoon, I could immediately feel a calmer atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was short-lived and I've had the minister back again to repeat the process.

ACTIVITY CONTINUES

The haunting has changed, though, in the past four years. One night at three in the morning, my husband and I both sat up straight in bed when something hit a key on our piano. It was as if just one key had been touched and held because the note vibrated through the house. My husband got out of bed, retrieved his pistol, and went to the parlor to investigate. Of course, no one was there, and at that point I feel that he was finally starting to believe that there was someone or something in our house that was not human.

The piano plays - just one key only - frequently, and I often hear what sounds like someone breathing heavily upstairs. There are also loud crashing sounds that are heard throughout the house, but no explanation can be found.

Strangely, most of these occurrences are in the daytime now instead of at night, which seems odd to me. Possibly the ghost has gotten braver? At least the daylight helps take the edge off of the fear factor.