On this page, we will feature stories sent to us by visitors to the Villisca Axe Murder House. If you'd like us to add yours, email it to us along with any photographs or video clips you'd like to share.

I received the following story from Terrie Esquivel. Terrie and her friends stayed in the house in July. You can see Terrie's photos in the Visitor's Photo Album. Here's her story.

"When we first came into town we all got an eerie feeling. I don't know why but we did see a hitchhiker right outside of town on 71 that had a long gray beard and it was just a feeling we got right after seeing him.

We ate at the restaurant (Coffee Shop) before we met John at the museum and when several of the patrons listening to our conversations learned that we were going to stay in the house, they all started telling us that there was nothing in the house and that Darwin was just out to make a buck. We still were not discouraged and kept an open mind.

John took us on a tour of the graves at the cemetery and then he took us to the house. We went on a tour inside the house and when I, myself entered I knew that something was there by just the way it made me feel. Directly after that John proceeded to tell us that he had been in the house that morning and when he walked through the kitchen door he got chills. He said he had been in the house many, many times and not very often did he get those chills.

After John left we looked around the place some more by ourselves and explored the attic and cellar. I still had an uneasy feeling and found out that some of my group did also. Some of my group went upstairs to the kids room and tried to get the spirits to play with the ball to no avail. The rest of us lingered out side by the barn talking.

Once it started to get dark is when the spirits came to play. We all sat in the Parlor in a circle and tried to get the ball to move but it stayed still. then one of our group thought of closing the blinds. After the blinds were closed the ball did the oddest things. It rolled into the blue room stopped completely and then started moving once again and came out past the wood stove in the parlor and then reversed and came behind the wood stove to me (I was in the chair in the corner of the room.) Then the ball rolled over by the piano and got stuck so we thought the spirit might be tired of playing but then all of a sudden it became unstuck and rolled into the middle of the room and did a 90 degree turn and rolled over to my sister. We had never seen anything like that before.

We all grouped together outside and decided to send only 2 -3 of our group into the house to occupy different rooms in the dark. I was in the blue room, my sister was in the parents bedroom and my oldest son was in the children's room.  I sat in the dark for about 5-6 minutes and noting was happening. Then all of a sudden I felt a sensation like someone was running a finger down my spine and I look toward the doorway into the parlor and saw a dark figure running by. I became spooked and got up and took off running out the back door. About 10 seconds after I ran out my sister and my son both came running out of the house. My sister was sitting on the bed in Sara and Josiah's room when she started to hear something breathing and then a low groaning sound. Something then grabbed her wrist and she took off running for the stairs with my son right behind her. When she arrived outside we looked at her wrist where she was grabbed and (not to scare anyone here) but her wrist was completely red like someone had held it very tightly. My sister is 67 yrs. old so she isn't some kid. The next morning she had a bruised wrist.

Anyway after that incident my youngest son who is 31 yrs. old went to the parents bedroom to see what he could experience and he also came running out after he heard heavy breathing. He didn't stay around for what could have happened next. All of us experienced a heaviness in the air at times and every time my youngest son went in the blue room his eyes would tear up like he was crying. At certain times some of us would experience a pain above our right eye. We couldn't figure out what association that would have except maybe someone was hit above the right eye with the axe???

Three of our group experienced the closet door in the kids room opening and suddenly closing. There was nothing in there moving it. Very eerie. We decided to bunk down about 3 am and about an hour and a half later we heard children laughing and it seemed to be coming from upstairs. I wanted to tell you that we had a very adventurous journey and that we plan on coming back next year for sure! I hope this helps you understand what we experienced while we were there.
Terrie Esquivel, Merrian Back, Josh Robinson, Paul Robinson, Stacy Main, Laura Johnson, Katie Johnson, Breanna, Shawn.

Real Iowa Haunting: Villisca Ax Murder House

Unsolved Murders, Poltergeist Activity, and Phantom Interaction!
By J. Coburn 05/20/2009
"June tenth, nineteen twelve, Villisca, Iowa, six members of the Josiah Moore family and two guests are deceased, murdered with an ax while deep in slumber. This grisly crime shook sleepy Villisca by storm. Doors were locked tight in a community that had not locked doors for a lifetime, a curfew was imposed, and children were kept indoors. Accusations and rumors spread like the plague, friends and families were torn apart by suspicion. Ninety seven years have passed and little has changed. The Moore Family murders are still unsolved and interest remains high in this case. Interest as to whether the deceased still inhabit their home is also elevated.

The Villisca Ax Murder House still stands today, a monument to death and the paranormal. A worthy piece of history that begs to be explored, the house seems to speak to its visitors. Of the eight murdered on that June night, only two were adults. The children of the house continue to run the halls, playing with toys left behind by guests, and hiding in closets and under beds. Many have entered this former home as skeptics and left as believers, I am no exception.

The tour begins at The Olson/Linn Museum. Old & dusty with various animals mounted on walls, large murals, antiques, and ax murder memorabilia, the museum is straight out of a horror movie. Here, owner & tour guide, Darwin, gives a history of the town, along with a timeline of the evening prior to the deaths of the Moore Family. The church the Moore's attended was part of the descriptive drive to the burial site of the family and their overnight guests. The cemetery was bright with blooming flowers on this warm summer day. Standing at the headstones of those passed away, the Moore Family suddenly seemed real for the first time. A brief tour of other notable graves also occurred before my Fiancé and I were led back to our vehicle. Across town the Ax Murder House calmly waited for us to arrive. The details of the murders, the events leading to the deaths, information about those charged with the crimes, along with a few personal paranormal experiences were exchanged before viewing a short documentary.

Following the short film, a walkthrough of the house was conducted. Darwin described the murder scene as if he was a carnival pitchman, yet he remained genuine in his passion. Darwin soon gave us permission to explore the area at our own discretion; this would prove fruitful in the ways of poltergeist activity and phantom interaction. No amount of preparation could have prepared the two of us for what were to experience that sun-drenched summer day.

Years of studying paranormal phenomena, U.F.O.s, cryptozoology, various forms of E.S. P., psychology, and other bases of knowledge considered out of the norm, supplied me with the information I needed for an adventure such as this. Seeking answers to the questions in the past yielded little in the way of proof. The Villisca Ax Murder house would be a whole different animal. Armed with dowsing rods, a digital camera, and our senses, we began our research in earnest.

Littered with toys from previous guests, the children's room seemed the most obvious place to start. "Show me you are here?" I spoke loudly and clearly "I want to communicate with you." No results were audible; lacking an electronic voice recorder this was typical. Movement noticed in my peripheral focused my attention on the closet door. Opening it with ease, I noticed nothing of note within. No rodents to cause the door to open, no windows near and none open within the home, no fans running, and no explanation at all.
While alone, I requested the open closet door to close. Upon my command the door gently shut itself. With great disbelief I called for my Fiancé, entering the room she noticed, as well as I, a very obvious cold breeze blowing in the room. Although lasting only a few moments the chilling breeze was extremely apparent. In hopes for another spectacular spook show I once again opened the closet door, ordering it closed. The door moved slightly to the right, then left, then swiftly shut itself. We looked at one another, pondering the feasibility of what was occurring. In order to prove to ourselves that we were not imagining the process, I opened the door once again. Positioning a small rubber ball, found in the room, on the floor next to the door, I asked again, "Please close the door if you can hear me." Once more, moving slightly to the left, then right, the closet door shut. In the process the rubber ball was consumed by the darkness of the closet. Twice more this progression of events transpired per my request.

Searching for a realistic solution, my companion and I checked all windows & doors within the home, all were tightly closed. No noticeable drafts, nothing out of the ordinary in or around the closet or closet door, no explanation and no way to disprove what had transpired. As a skeptic, I was in awe.

Walking the premises utilizing dowsing rods my cohort began to notice them presenting the most activity near the attic. The attic is the source of a theory that the killer had hidden here in noiseless repose waiting for the family to return to their hovel that fateful night. An abundance of photos were taken, to no avail. All other activity centered on the family room. Viewed through the large vent positioned in the upstairs floor, a soccer ball commenced movement in this room below. Rather than rolling from side to side, as if being nudged or kicked, the sphere simply rolled in a small circle.
We observed this activity for some time before deciding to investigate further. Locating the object after arriving in the area below the vent, we noticed it to be still. I attempted to request movement and to roll the ball to an unknown playmate, no result. Deducing that there could be a slight possibility of sloped or uneven floors being the cause to this effect, I made an effort to eliminate this as a possibility. Complete and utter failure was the outcome. I found it impossible to replicate the movement of the toy in a fashion identical to what was witnessed earlier. Once again, no result and no explanation for what we had seen.

Evidence of a haunting at The Villisca Ax Murder House is aplenty. There is quite a lot of video content available online, not to mention that the Moore Family home has been featured on national television, in books, and even had feature films produced on the grounds. Sadly, we came away from The Villisca Ax Murder House with no video, photos without orbs, plasma or apparitions, and no hard evidence at all. The proof came when we entered with minds filled with doubt & skepticism and left with what we deem to be personal paranormal experiences. There are options for occupying this chilling residence over night rather than just a tour. Plans are in place to further investigate The Villisca Ax Murder House in hopes of presenting hard evidence. Regardless of motive, whether it is to hunt ghosts, to hear about Villisca's small town history, or to investigate an unsolved crime, I recommend a trip to this historic Iowa landmark. You may discover more than you dreamed possible."

J. Coburn, author of cult favorite Selections from the Serial Killer Cookbook (The Handbook for America's Youth) and the popular Through the EYES of an Abstract Mind. J. Coburn is the founder of Provoke Productions & the Damn Straight advice column. Visit his webpage to read more of his articles here.

I have been meaning to e-mail you to tell you what happened on the overnight stay at the Villisca house on May 12th.

Only two of us stayed overnight...my friend Jamie and I. We had a couple of occurrences that caused our K-II Meter (EMF detector) to register high EMF readings...both of the readings happened in JB and Sarah Moore's bedroom.

The second experience was this... 
I was in the attic and on the far side of the attic...Jamie was standing about 12 inches or so from the attic door and also inside the attic holding a light so that I could see... I heard Jamie yell "Woa" and I looked up and he was loosing his balance...he said it felt like someone had yanked on his sweatshirt and pulled him backwards.

While in the living-room/parlor around 10:00 pm, Jamie decided to lay on the floor and shut his eyes to get a few minutes rest...we were at that point sitting around and listening for any activity...after a few moments, we heard giggling coming from the "Blue Room"...as if the children were laughing at Jamie on the floor.

The next thing that happened is the most amazing thing that I have seen since I have been doing paranormal investigations. I'll never forget it as long as I live!! 

At 3:00 am I was setting on the bed in the children's room on the second floor. Jamie was lying on the other bed to my left in the same room and was sleeping. We had set up the K-II meter on a table in the Moore's bedroom next to the staircase and my other EMF detector was placed on the floor of the landing at the top of the staircase in hopes that if anything passed by it would set off the detectors.

I was visually monitoring the EMF detectors from the children's room when all of a sudden I saw a green glowing light coming up the staircase...the light looked like the reflection of someone carrying a lamp or a torch...the light lit up the wall coming up the stair case...what was strange about this light was that when the light passed a spot "unlike when some one is carrying a lamp or torch and they pass a spot and it becomes dark again as they and the light move forward" this light acted almost like a fog every place the light passed it remained lighted.The light continued up to the top of the stairs, turned left at the top of the staircase and first lit up the ceiling in the Moore's bedroom then lit up the entire bedroom and lit up the hallway about 1/3 of the way to me... So the stairwell and the Moore's room were completely lit up in this Green light... the only light we had on was a battery operated lantern and it was in the living room downstairs...the upstairs was pitch black except for this strange light( The light was the strangest greenish color I have ever seen...it was a combination or cross between Neon green and the color of green when you look through night-vision goggles)

I yelled "Oh shit" and then yelled "Jamie wake up look at this"...by the time Jamie woke up and got to his feet and next to me the light vanished... I wonder if I hadn't yelled for Jamie to look, if the light would have kept coming towards me?

I will never forget what I saw as long as I live...I am still shook up!

I have about 15 hours or so of audio to go through... so far I have 3 EVP's...

One is a woman's voice saying "Go to heck...ya two timer" The second EVP is a mans voice that says "Rev" or "Ref". The third EVP is "a nervous whistling in the attic". I also have a couple more hours of video to go through.

The light was amazing to say the least...there is no logical explanation for it other that "Spirit activity" or something else paranormal. As far as you know has anyone else seen anything similar to the light that I saw? I plan to come back again...maybe we can meet up and swap stories.

~Larry Wilson, May 12, 2009

My husband and I visited the house in Villisca on Oct.23, 2008.  When we got there it was a nice fall day.  We took the tour with Darwin and there were three girls from the Des Moines area as well.  While going up the stairs I felt a heaviness in my breathing.  Not thinking much about it at the time, we looked around and then went back down stairs.  I took several pictures with my digital camera of everything and anything. 

The longer I was in the house, my breathing became heavier and heavier.  My husband and the girls were holding the crystal and it started moving in large circles and my husband got a distinct feeling we should leave the house.  Darwin had previously left because he had also gotten a sick feeling while holding the crystal. 

We all went out to the yard and I started snapping pictures of the outside front of the house.  My breathing was really becoming quite labored and we went to get into the car.  The moment I shut the car door my breathing became normal.  That quick.  Now that I felt better I started looking at the pictures I had taken and to my amazement I had snapped several orbs while in the house.  However, the wildest picture I took was of the front of the house I actually photographed what I believe is two people looking out the door at us.  One is taller than the other.  When I got home and put them on my computer I blew it up and as far as I am concerned I captured 2 beings looking right at me.  I also went through every picture I ever took and put on them my pc.  None, absolutely not one of the other pictures have orbs.  Only the pictures I took at the Moore house.  Several orbs were captured. 

My husband was a confirmed nonbeliever in the after life when we went for our visit that day.  However, today he truly believes what he felt and of course the pictures are real and he believes.  I have always believed in ghosts. As a matter of fact, I actually believe I lived in a haunted house when my children were young, which is exactly why I had to visit this house and find out for myself.  We have decided the visit was everything and more than we had hoped for.  It is truly an experience one likely will not forget soon.  It is definitely haunted.  

~Shirley Mcdaniel  Peterson, Oct. 2008

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We were at the house for a overnight visit and while sitting in the living room we had the bench from the piano in the middle of the room. I took a picture from across the room and at the bottom of the picture on the bench was a white spot so i took a second picturea nd it was there again and then in the third picture it was gone.  Our stay was a great experience. At one point during our visit we were headed outside when we heard a noise from the blue room. We turned around and walked into the room and the glass top for the lantern was knocked off and lying on the dresser. The rest of the lantern was still standing and had not moved, the abc block was also not in it's orginal place. There was no one in the room at the time. Hope to come back soon and stay at the house again!

~Justin Roche, July 2008

We enjoyed our experience at Villisca and are already planning a time to go again. A couple strange things happen while we were there...I heard tapping in the closet of the Stillinger room, twice. A toy we took with us went off by itself. We left when it was still pretty dark out, so my boyfriend and his brother & friend went upstairs to blow out the lanterns. His brother & Friend stayed by the stairs and he went into the children's room to blow out the candle. Then into the parent's bedroom. On the parent's bed there was a big clown that had a button on the hand that had to be pressed firmly to go off, and it made a screaming noise. My boyfriend said as soon as he blew out the last lantern, it went off. SCARY! I defintely felt a presence in the home, I felt like we shouldn't be there towards the smaller hours of the morning. We were all laying in the parlor, trying to stay awake for the 2 AM train. I dozed off what must have been minutes before the train came thru, and had a weird dream about a little girl running towards a light. It was strange, I woke up to the sound of the train and got a tremendous chill. I get chills just thinking about that night. Can't wait to come again! (Check out Jessica's picture in our photo album.)

 

~Jessica Monahan, March 2008

 A Haunted….Field Trip?

Fueled by reports of tours cut short by paranormal happenings, I led my group of readers into the unknown (the infamous Villisca Ax Murder House-said to be one of the ten most haunted places in America.) For the last couple of years, I have related the tragedy of the brutal killing of a family of six along with two young girls whom came to spend the night in the J.B.Moore home in Villisca, Iowa, in 1912. This is a famous tale, one that has been told over the last, almost century, without resolution.

Darwin Lynn, proprietor of the Olson Museum and the Axe Murder House, greeted us on this day and spun a tragic tale of lost lives and lost retribution. Our master storyteller first brings us into the kitchen. On crossing the threshold, one is immediately taken back, back to a time period when life was simpler. Just ahead, a wood burning cook-stove, to the right, an icebox that was just that-a box that held ice.  I am instantly reminded of the home of a beloved aunt whom lived in a house from the same time period. I am at ease.

The rooms are small, much smaller than they appear in pictures I have seen. People were physically smaller then, my astute travel partner tells me, and they didn’t need superfluous space; excessive space was wasteful.

As we crowd our group into the kitchen, I can now see Sarah Moore, baking at the wood-burning cook stove. Children running in and out as the screen door smacks shut; I marvel at the patience I imagine this woman must have had, raising four children in such small quarters. I live in a four bedroom, rambling farmhouse with three rambunctious boys, and often feel as if I am losing my mind!

Just off the kitchen is the parlor, also returned to 1912 with pieces from the period. The Moore family’s pictures adorn the walls, and I wonder if their souls are here, what must they think of this tribe of kids tromping through their home? If this troubles them, I see no signs of it yet.

Just off the parlor is the room where the Stillinger girls met their fate in what is referred to as “the blue room” because it is just that-blue. Such care has been taken in this room, that clothing from the time period lays on the bed, nightclothes I believe, as if waiting for someone to slip them on and snuggle under the covers. The mirror has been covered to discourage vanity on the part of the living just as the murderer covered it on that wretched night so long ago. Lingering in this room, I wonder if the parents took any solace in the fact that the girls were together, and according to the most widely believed account, asleep. Could they have ever found peace after this?

Darwin continues with details of the evening in the parlor, and then releases us to roam and explore the rest of the house. Anxious to go upstairs, the group begins to ascend the surprisingly short, narrow stairway. In an open bedroom at the top of the stairs, as was the fashion for homes during this time period, I am once again reminded of my much-loved aunt’s home as I spent many summer nights in an upstairs eerily similar to the one in the Moore home in my own youth.

The low ceilings and open hallway remind me of the times shared with cousins on warm summer nights, and once again I feel at ease and welcome in these surroundings. I quickly shook the warm fuzzies when my eye is drawn to a spot above the headboard of the Moore’s bed. Just above where the couple soundly slept were definite indentions in the plaster wall, and I realized much to my horror, that these are the ax marks Darwin told us about, left behind from that fateful night.
       
Just to the left of the bed is the attic door; it is here where the killer is thought to have hidden until the unsuspecting family fell asleep. Shuddering, I imagine a nameless, faceless, ruthless killer, watching, waiting, until the time was right to spring upon the sleeping family. He must have killed the father first; to subdue the family protector would ensure his success.

 

One early profiler felt that the children were killed in their beds, and this is the most widely believed version of the story. Darwin, however, reveals to us that there was evidence to the contrary at the time, and that most just prefer to believe that the truly innocent did not see or hear what was coming.

I think I prefer to believe that, too.

Next door to their parents slept the four Moore children, and a heartbreaking replica of an ancient crib, much like the one baby Paul must have slept in, is in view upon entering the room. A single bed rests by the bright, sunny windows for big sister, Katherine, and a cozy double for brothers Herman and Boyd.  Toys from the period are strewn about, reminding me of my own often unkempt and “lived in” home.

Sadness is definitely an emotion felt in this room.

Much to our dismay, after several “experiments”, no paranormal activity took place on this day, other than Darwin contacting Sarah Moore through a crystal. Sarah told him that only she and the Stillinger girls were present in the house that day. Maybe the others took off when I rolled up with my herd of twenty-seven?

We heard several stories, however, from Darwin whom, by the way is wonderful to listen to.  One visitor’s account in particular is quite spine tingling and really drew my listeners in. This visitor, particularly wrapped up in stories of the paranormal, especially stories surrounding the Moore house, visited Darwin and the home on several separate occasions.
After several visits of experiencing none of the sensations others with her had experienced, she had finally resigned herself to never having a paranormal episode of her very own. At the end of a visit alone in the house, she decided to leave, believing such an experience was never going to happen for her. On opening the back door,  it happened; she felt someone pat the top of her head! Frozen in her tracks,  she was absorbed in the moment, confident in the fact that finally she had had her first contact with a soul from the other side! Beaming, she paused in the kitchen momentarily reveling in her newfound experience!

Anxious to tell others of her experience, she left the house and turned to lock the door. Standing on the porch, still enjoying the moment, she reached up to touch the now sacred spot on her head, remembering the sensation that had previously ran through her body. Imagine her surprise when, reaching up she came into contact with a gangly grasshopper, hitching a ride outside atop her head.

Needless to say, she is still searching for her first paranormal experience. Whether you believe or not Villisca, Iowa, is a wonderful town to visit. Darwin was a humbling storyteller; his recall of details is remarkable, and Sarah Moore- a most hospitable hostess. I unquestionably recommend the trip!

~ Mrs. P, Mormon Trail CSD November 2007

 

Just wanted to say that the house opened up some new feelings for me, spiritually.  Here are a few pics that really gave me chills.  The one in the parlor pay close attention to the left side of the screen door.  Who is this?  One of the boys?  JB?  The murderer?  he was watching us.  the other is me in the cemetary.  I guess spirits must like me an awful lot.  they were all over me.  My husband took this photo and he could see these on the view finder.  Neat huh? Also a small orb was caught in the blue room.  We made contact with Katie.  And when we first arrived there, a small orange super ball rolled across the blue room floor, stopped, then rolled back.  Found this interesting also.  Overall, we enjoyed our stay.(i think enjoy is too much of a word)  It was very interesting and also frightening.  So many feelings of sadness in that house.  We did not sleep in there.  Just could not do it!  I thank you for the opportunity! 

 

 

 

 
We returned to the house after two years and got this picture which I find really interesting.  I took one picture right before and one right after and they don't have these anomolies.  We have a couple of good pics, but this is my fave.  I thought I would share!  Thank you! The picture was taken on the anniversary, June 10, 2007 at around 1:00 am.  I call it the "Devil Dog." 

~Stacy Dulin, June 2007

We had some things happen and I just got the pictures back and have some black shadows and orbs. The ball was the most fasinating, we brought our own ball and my son was talking to the children and started playing with the ball and rolled it and you would not believe how it took off. It rolled in the bedroom and back to him then it rolled in the kitchen around my neice around the heater and stopped at my nephew's feet. That was awsome! We had the camcorder going for some of it and you could see these reddish colored orbs flying around the ball.

~Jody R. March 2006

I went on a couple paranormal sites and happened upon the story of Villisca, on one of those sites. It was such a horrific crime. Since the home has had tours I decided that I would like to investigate it. Although I'm in my later years, I always believed that one just doesn't exist any longer after death. My grandaughter who has been doing this research with me since she was age 8, went with me on an overnight excursion there last July 29-30,2006.

Upon entering, I felt a sense of real overpowering sadness. Heavy air. My main feelings were mostly downstairs, especially in the girls bedroom, (Lena and Ena slept), the parlor, and the portion of the kitchen area. Here I had gotten a massive cold chill from my feet up past my waist. Upon entering the girls bedroom, I felt a tug on my sock,(had socks and sandals on). It actually felt as if it got pulled. I checked the spread, under the bed to see if anything couldve caught it by accident, and there wasnt any reason why it shouldve been pulled. Batteries to my video camcorder were depleted within 20minutes of starting. Same for my digital camera. Both had been fully charged before hand. However, I was able to charge my video battery from the  barn outside the home, which I used on the last 1/2 hour before leaving the home.

My grandaughter Angel who was with me (15yrs) also had gotten cold chills in the girls room downstairs. She had heard banging coming from upstairs when no one was there, when she went to go outside, she said she heard a man's voice, saying "come back". While writing in the Villisca journal, she heard movement in the parents bedroom area, again, everyone was outside. At one point, while a couple of the visitors were indoors, they heard footsteps walking out of the girls room, could hear the boards creak. This was around midnight or so after. After 3am, there was only myself, angel, and Steven left to do the rest of our research. While sitting in the parlor area, angel said, Gramma, there goes a white fog, passing in the kitchen. However, I was sitting in the cornor in a big chair and didnt see it myself, but it sort of scared her. 

We made one last tour of the house before blowing out all the kerosene lamps and making sure everything was locked up. While getting our things together I used my video camera to take a little video of the parlor area, as I was moving it around filming, I got a little shadow person, almost running past the wall by angel who was looking at a photo on the piano. Is this home haunted? I definately would say Yes! I would love to re-visit it again. Hopefully someday the spirits will rest.

~Dorothy Lasso, July 2006

 

As usual the house did not disappoint. We have EVPs of banging inside the house while we went to Casey's for pizza. We heard footsteps above us as we were bunked down in the living room to sleep around midnight. They sounded barefoot and that of a child. A ball came out of no where and hit my friend Coni. We found a rubber ball on the floor, but we don't know if that was the culprit. Then the most astonishing thing happened.

I recently bought a Tibetian Crystal. It's suppose to enhance your abilities. Well, as we were sitting there, I saw something just to my right move from the blue room. I turned and there stood Sara Moore! I thought I had lost my mind. But then she bent toward me and asked me if we were going to need anything. At first I ignored her, but then she asked me again. So I asked the others with me and Coni jumped right in to my rescue and told Sarah that we were just fine, thank you. They couldn't see her, but I did.

I'm still having a hard time dealing with that experience. I also saw glimpses of two men, one definately had an axe, whom I think were Harry Whipple and Levi Wood. (You know I don't think Blackie was there. He made the deal with FF Jones, but he put someone else up to the killing). Anyway, great night. I have yet to get through the entire 12+ hours of recording on the digitals. Thanks again, and I\'ll see you soon with more new comers.

~Traci, July 2006

We first went to the Villisca house in July of 2006, and again in August of 2006. We didn't spend the entire night there either time but took the evening tour both times. The first time we went it was me and my friend Richie Lee, of whom I play in a band with. We found out that we have this common interest in the paranormal and shared many ghost stories together. I told him that I heard about this house in Villisca that was reportedly haunted and he had heard about it too.

Things really got going when we were going to play a gig in Atlantic, IA, which is only about 33 miles north of Villisca. We expressed our desire to go there and possibly conduct our own investigation. Richie had the number of a friend of his who made a video documentary about the house back in 2004. He gave Richie Darwin's number for me to call and see if we could set up an evening tour. I called Darwin and set us up for a tour for us for this evening in July when we first went. I didn't know what to expect because I have never actually, or knowingly been in a reputed "haunted house" before. I took two of my video cameras, one which had night vision capability and both could take digital still photos. Darwin couldn't meet us there that first time we went but had a friend of his meet us in Villisca to give us the tour.

We asked him what kind of activity happens in the house and he told us that he's been pinched in the ankle while in the house one time and that on another occasion he's heard a closet door slam shut by itself. When he told us this I suddenly became uneasy about going to the house and nervously asked him if he would stay in the house with us for the tour. My friend Richie started to become amused at my fear and asked if I was scared. I basically told him I was nervous about going in the house, knowing about the paranormal like I do. We arrived at the house, probably around 8p.m. or so. It looked like a typical old house, nothing macabre about it.

We went in the house and my anxiety eased up a bit. When you first spend a little time on the first floor of the house, nothing seemed abnormal about it, it just seemed like a regular house. The difference was that I didn't want to be alone in any of the rooms of the house! I made sure during our tour that I was not left alone anywhere by myself in this house at any time! If Richie decided to venture off somewhere to another room in the house I told him not to go anywhere and leave me.

One thing's for sure; I will not under any circumstances spend any time in this house by myself, as I've read that some people have done. I might be stupid but I'm not crazy! Of course it's possible that nothing would've happened if I were in a room alone in that house, or would it? Richie admitted to me that he would not stay by himself down in the cellar of the house. I don't blame him. I've been down there and I know I wouldn't either. We didn't have much time to do our investigation since we only had till 11p.m. until our evening tour was up, but our guide told us that we could stay until 12 or a little after if we wanted since we had to detour which made us late getting there.

Our guide stayed in the house with us for awhile, but after we became comfortable being in the house, we asked him if we could go ahead and stay in the house by ourselves. We had already checked out the attic, which our guide said he would not go in, and the other bedrooms upstairs. Richie left his tape recorder in the attic to see if he would pick up any EVP. We went back downstairs and explored some more. After it became dark out, I told Richie that I wanted to leave my video camera in the attic to record by itself to see if it would pick up anything.

We left to go into the barn that was next to the house for awhile. We came back in the house and tried to contact any spirit that might want to communicate with us. I went back up to the attic to retrieve my video camera. After the evening tour was over, we left the house believing that we did not make contact with any spirits that might be in the house.

A day or so later, I reviewed my video camera footage at my friend Richie's house. We were shocked to find out that we definitely picked up some sort of activity on camera while it was recording upstairs in the attic while we were out of the house. We didn't see anything move, but we started to hear these little clapping type sounds, like someone, (or something) was clapping their hands next to the camera. It wasn't a series of several claps at a time, but would clap once. Five minutes would go by, then another clap, this time louder and more pronounced. This went on for about twenty minutes or so until we came back in the house and went upstairs to retreive the camera. We also picked up an orb float by my leg while we were downstairs in the parlor. The last video we took there before we left was up in the children's room. While we were filming in night vision with my camera, we picked up not one, but two shadow people go past our light from our flashlights. This got us very excited because we left the Villisca house thinking that our first evening there was a bust.

Needless to say, we wanted to go there again and made arrangements to go there for another evening tour the next month which was August. Richie's mom who is also into the paranormal wanted to come along with us this trip. This time I took all three of my video cameras. I had heard that the cellar had some activity so I set a video camera up down there to record by itself. I had set another camera up in the attic to record by itself, and I set up another camera to record in the blue room on the main floor. I also set up two cameras to record in the children's room, one of which I aimed at the closet door which is known to open and close by itself from time to time. We made sure that these cameras had plenty of time to record by themselves while there was no one in the house to make sure that we didn't pick up any noise that we ourselves made by tromping through the house.

Between these set ups, we would periodically spend time in the house trying in vain to see if we could make any contact with any spirits there. While nothing ever made itself known to us personally, I was confident that my video cameras would pick up something, and I was right. A day or so after we made our second trip to the Villisca house, I reviewed the footage from my video cameras. I have to admit, I was more than a bit nervous about seeing the footage from my cameras, especially the footage from the cellar. I began by watching the footage from the camera in the attic.

As before the attic camera picked up those clapping sounds, which was exciting as it was the first time. I went ahead then and reviewed the cellar camera. The cellar video camera picked up which I think to be the most activity of any camera in the house. I was watching it and suddenly these noises, like someone taking a stick and hitting it, or tapping it on something was heard. It would only be one tap or hit at a time, but it definitely made the hairs on the back of my head stand on end. Every ten or fifteen minutes you would hear this tap of a stick or whatever it was. After about forty minutes of this, we all of a sudden heard what sounded like something was knocked off a ledge and fall on the ground. This really freaked us out. I condensed this down to a 7 minute segment to be added to the other sounds we got from the house. The camera that was in the blue room also picked up what sounded like something was knocked to the floor by some unseen force. The camera that was left up in the children's room though was not the least of these cameras though to have picked up paranormal phenomena. I had to listen to it several times to be sure what it was that I heard.

Evidently, I picked up some EVP. It was hard to hear at first, then I did some editing with my computer video editing software to pick up the volume of these EVPs. There is what sounds like children's voices at first, then you hear a man's voice a couple of times, then what sounds like a woman's voice. It was very errie to hear these EVP. Even though we personally didn't see or hear anything and could've said the house is not haunted by our lack of seeing or hearing anything, we would've been proved wrong by the evidence that my cameras picked up, and this came from just short evening tours of the house, not overnight stays. I will be staying at the house with some friends for an overnight stay soon here and will be recording hopefully some paranormal phenomena from one of the most haunted places in the state; the house in Villisca, IA.

Mike L. August 2006

My name is Cameron Kosiske and i stayed in the house on 10/6/06. We got a lot of pictures with orbs and two pictures even have huge black unexplainable shadows in them.

One of the scariest experiences we had at the house that no one seems to believe when i tell them about it, was when we were sitting in the living room in a circle asking the crystal to give us a sign. One of our camera bags was sitting on the chair by the front door and as soon as we asked, "Is there any presence in this room" the camera bag came flying from the back of the chair and hit me and another visitor. I think that was one of the scariest and most unexplainable things that has ever happened to me. Many of us also felt things touch us when no one else was around.

One of our other major scares was while we were in the living room. I and another visitor were rolling a ball back and forth in a straight line from the kitchen to the living room and when he rolled it back to me it took a sharp turn into the blue room and rolled back by the sewing machine. That was pretty much the jist of went on in the house. We all had a great time. It was a great experience we will be back asap for another stay.

Cameron Kosiske, Oct. 2006

We had a wonderful investigation. We got the door to close for us again. At the end of the investigation, after we had the equipment packed away, BOTH doors upstairs slowly opened and closed for us. The one in the childs bedroom did it first then the attic door did it.    It was a little bit creepy to be honest! Two investigators were upstairs checking to see if we had gathered all our equipment when the doors did this.  Just prior to the doors doing this, the investigators heard what they described as a mechanical whirring. Like a camera rewinding. All of our equipment was in the van and there is no electricity in the house.

As we were sitting on the bed in JB and Sarahs room we heard the distinct sound of something dripping. Slowly dripping. It was a few minutes after 2 AM when we heard this. Four investigators heard the dripping. We heard 4 drips. I believe Miller Paranormal heard the same thing.  Right after we heard the dripping the room suddenly became lighter.  It had been so dark in the room you literally could not see your hand in front of your face.  We heard the dripping and  the room lightened up. 

One of the investigators watching the monitor downstairs then called up to us telling us the door in the children's room had just closed and asked if we heard the door close. We did not hear it.  What we think happened is this...the room was dark as night when the entity was in the room with us and was letting us hear the blood dripping.  When the room lightened the entity moved from JB and Sarah's room. This was when the door shut. Negative entities sometimes manifest as what we call shadow people.

Some shadow people are so dense they can literally block the light from a room. The shadow people at Waverly Hills Sanitorium are very dense like this. Four of our investigators were very uncomfortable all night any time we were upstairs.  I was one of them. I have been investigating for years and I have to say this house makes me uncomfortable like no place else.  Usually nothing rattles me but this house does. Two of our investigators became physically ill when they were upstairs at the beginning of the investigation and they had to go outside and recover.  I also felt nauseous and light headed.

Danny Wynn, our equipment specialist, was sitting on the bed in JB and Sarah's room when something sat down beside him. He was the only one on the bed.  Only one other investigator was in the room with him and the other investigator was across the room. The room was very dark at that time also.  Danny and Joe saw a large shadow come up the stairs into JB and Sarah's room before Danny felt someone sit down beside him on the bed.

We investigated the cemetery the night before we investigated the house.  We captured a picture of a face of a man with brown hair, a mustache and a beard on a digital camera.  We captured this same image on video at the house. We have not reviewed all the video yet but have managed to review 4 hours of the video so far.  In the portion of the video we have reviewed, we captured this same face. 

We are a part of the TAPS family and know about matrixing and how your mind can convince you there is a face where none exists, but this is a face.  It is very detailed. On our video we review it in real time.  If we catch what we think may be something we review that segment frame by frame. We had a white anomaly, not an orb, in one segment of the video and reviewed it frame by frame and that is when we found the face of the man. 

We reviewed the video again from the last trip and found the word ax in a frame.  I will send that to you as soon as we get it ripped. 

We haven't reviewed any of the audio yet but I am sure we got some EVPs.  I hope we were able to capture the sound of the blood dripping.  We had 4 bullet cameras and 2 camcorders going all night. Plus digital recorders.

We tried to debunk the door opening and shutting.  We went downstairs and opened and closed the door to see if it created a draft.  Nope. We made sure the opening to the ceiling in the closet was covered up. We cannot find an explanation for both doors opening up and closing. They will do it one after the other.  Not at the same time.  There is no common attic area between the two rooms where the doors are that open and shut so a draft can't be opening and closing both doors. They also do it on command.  You ask it to open or close and it does.

Danny had asked the spirits to hold his hand.  Within a minute his hand got very cold and a temperature difference of  8 degrees was noted on his hand. We got a bad smell in the liviing room downstairs. This is common in haunted locations.

Danny and Joe were upstairs investigating and the other 4 investigators, including myself, were sitting downstairs waiting for Joe and Danny to finish up upstairs so we could go to the barn and take a break. Joe and Danny  came down and asked about taking a break.  We thought they said they were going back upstairs and would be down shortly.  We waited a few minutes for them becasue we kept hearing scuffling around and movement upstairs. We would hear movement then deathly silence.  This happened several times.

After about 10 minutes I told the other investigators that we would go ahead and take a break and Danny and Joe could join us when they were ready. We walked out the kitchen door and Danny and Joe were in the barn. They had been there since they came down.  They had not gone back upstairs but went to the barn. The noises could not have been made by them as they were outside.  The last trip, one of our investigators heard loud stomping upstairs when she was downstairs alone in the house.

Three of our investigators heard children's voices while sitting in the living room.  The investigators heard them at different times. They seemed to be coming from the Stillinger girls bedroom.  This was between 3 AM and 5 AM. I hope we captured those on audio also.

We are planning another trip to the house.  We are going to stay 2 nights this time and leave our cameras recording the entire time.  Day and night. This house is one of the most active places we have ever investigated.  I have been investigating for  years and the Villisca house sets me on edge.  That house is haunted.  No doubt in my mind. Its like the house takes ahold of you and you can't help wanting to go back. Maybe its the mystery surrounding the house.  Maybe its the spirits in the house. Will Kentucky Shadow Chasers go back? Definately!

Unusual experiences in the house?  YES!!  It actually started before we went on the tour earlier that day.  My sister set up the tour, she had heard about it and no of us had been before.  I laid down for a nap since I knew we'd be out late and thought I woke up, but I was in a small blue bedroom, heard a noise turned around and a "thump" woke me up. I sat straight up in bed.   I was telling everyone about the dream, describing the room and anything I could remember as we were driving there.  When we got to the house and got into the downstairs bedroom, well you know what color it is!!  I honestly had never seen a picture of it, but had every detail of the room down to a T. In fact in the pictures I have of that room, there are alot of what I consider orbs, and a few energy rods. 

One picture the color is distorted by the dresser in the shape of an axe.  Also in the house, I could not bring myself to go into the upstairs children's room.  As I would go to take a step in there, deep sadness overcame me everytime.  Standing in the doorway between the children's room and the parent's I could swear to you I heard a child crying ever so faintly, but of course no one else heard it either, so ....  I dismissed it at the time even though I was sure of it.  The stairs felt 'heavy' going up but not as much coming down them.  I did have an issue with the door when I stepped outside it refused to open for me, but my friend reached over and he opened it just fine.  I would love to go back, but there is that part of me, that is worried about it.  As odd as it sounds, I felt like I wasn't suppose to leave. 

~Darcie Oct. 2006

After driving right past the exit the first time around, having to backtrack 16 miles, and then going on the detour from hell (which literally took us about 30 miles out of our way to get into the town), my friends and I arrived Saturday afternoon in Villisca, IA, to spend the night in the Villisca Axe Murder house -- the site of the semi-infamous 1912 murder in which the six members of the J.B. Moore family and two visiting guests, Lena and Ina Stillinger (ages 12 and 8), were bludgeoned to death in their sleep with an axe. While there were three people tried for the murder over the course of about six years, no one was convicted and it remains unsolved to this day.

We pulled into town at about 4:30 pm, and were to meet Darwin Linn (the organizer of the tours and owner of the House) at the Linn-Olson Museum at about 6:30. We wandered around town for a while (which we were able to do on foot since Villisca boasts a population of about 1300 people) and then had a bite to eat at the D and D Bar and Grill, a place where the waitress called everybody “honey” and everything was deep fried. It was on the same block as the museum, so we wandered back down to the other corner and I took pictures while we waited for Darwin to show.

At 6:30, Darwin arrived and gave us a tour of the museum, and then after Nikki, Joel, and I purchased our commemorative Villisca Axe Murder T-shirts, we were off to the cemetery to see the graves of the victims. The sun was setting and it was really a very beautiful cemetery. Darwin spun tales about the town at the time of the murder as well as the people involved, while we all wandered around and looked at the graves of the Moore family, Stillinger girls and their family, and various members of the Jones family.

We arrived at the house at approximately 7:30 pm, I believe. It was almost dark, and while we all unloaded the vehicles and made use of the bathroom in the small barn behind the house, Darwin went inside and lit the hurricane lamps. The house was restored back to the state it was in in 1912, so there was no electricity or running water in the house. We took our stuff inside after Darwin gave the go-ahead and we made camp in the living room.

From there Darwin took us through the house, and explained it room by room. The downstairs bedroom, or blue room, he said, was where the two Stillinger girls had been sleeping that night, and apparently this is one of the places known to have the most activity. Upstairs, the first room we came to was the parents’ room, and beyond that was the room where the four Moore children slept. In between these two rooms there was a closet, and behind the closet there was the attic crawl space. It was thought that the murderer slipped into the house while the family was at church on the night of the murders, and hid in this attic crawl space while waiting for the family to fall asleep. This is thought to be the most haunted place in the house.

On the drive to Villisca, Nikki told me about some recurring dreams she had been having in the weeks leading up to the trip. In the dream, she is in an unfamiliar place, frantically trying to save herself or someone she loves, and said that she felt as though she was fighting for her life in the dream. She mentioned having dreams in the past about places and then later actually showing up somewhere and recognizing the place from her dream. We chatted a bit more and I mentioned the closet in the upstairs bedroom where it's thought that one of the Moore children hid from the murderer. “Are you kidding me?” she asked, her face like a sheet. I said no, and then she said that in her dream, she remembers being in a closet, peering out through a cracked door and holding her breath so whatever is after her doesn’t hear. She had no prior knowledge of the theory about the child hiding in the closet. The closer we got to Villisca, the more nervous she got. She said as soon as we set foot in the house, she became nauseous and ill, and when she saw the closet leading to the attic crawl-space, she recognized it as the one from her dream. A few minutes later she became so upset in the children's room that she had to leave the house and got sick in the barn bathroom outside.

Darwin gave the final wrap-up speech and left us alone in the house at about 8:30. We sat outside and smoked for a while and then we decided to go back into the house. Within minutes of being back inside, Joel captured a moving orb on video in the blue room. He and I walked through the house with our video cameras, and he set his up in the children's room on a tripod to see if he could capture anything. We went back downstairs and goofed around in the living room for a while, trying to lighten the atmosphere for the long night ahead of us. After a while, Joel went back upstairs to check his video camera and came back down announcing that the battery had gone dead already after it had been fully charged. (Having fully charged batteries suddenly lose all their juice is commonly a sign of spiritual activity and had been reported in the house quite frequently.) By 9:30 pm, Nikki’s camera battery (also fully charged) had also died.

The six of us spent some time in the children's room rolling a plastic yellow ball around. Other visitors to the house had reported the ball stopping itself and rolling in a different direction as though someone/thing had given it a nudge. Nothing of that nature happened to us in the 10-15 minutes we rolled the ball around, so we decided to go back downstairs.

Since my Nikon camera wasn’t capturing anything, I decided to take my smaller digital camera around, and I was able to capture several orb photos in the blue room. They liked Josh for some reason and in each photo there are a few orbs surrounding him. Nikki, Aaron, Josh, and I went outside for a smoke break and when we came back inside (at around 11:50 pm), Joel and Meg - who had both been inside in the living room the whole time - reported hearing knocking noises from upstairs while we were all outside.

From about 12m till 1:30 am, Nikki, Meg, Joel, Aaron, and I napped in the living room. The most activity in the house is reported between 2 and 4 am, so we wanted to be alert. Nikki tried setting the alarm on her cell phone to wake us up at 1:30, but within minutes of doing so the battery went completely dead where it had been fully charged. While we were all sleeping, Josh sat upstairs in the children's room alone for about 40 minutes but reported nothing out of the ordinary.

Upon waking at approximately 1:45 am and spending a little time outside for a wake-up smoke break, the six of us went to the kids’ room upstairs because that was one of the places in the house to report the most spiritual activity. Nikki, Meg, and myself experienced feelings of great nervousness upon entering the room, and Nikki, Aaron, and myself all reported feeling a tightness in our chests. We sat in the children's room for a while when all of a sudden Nikki’s camera - with the dead battery, mind you - starts making noises in the next room. These sounds were recorded on video - it sounded like a clicking noise followed by a tape rewinding or something like that. No one was in the room and as I said, the battery was completely dead. None of us know how to explain that. After calming down after the camera went off, we all sat in a circle in the children's room and attempted to contact any presence with the crystal pendulum that was left in the house for such purposes. We received no indications that any sort of presence was trying to communicate with us through the crystal.

We all went about our business after this, some going outside, some roaming around in the house for a while. At about 3 am, we all went back to the children's room upstairs and sat quietly for about 10-15 minutes, but there was no activity then either. Prior to this, however, Nikki and Aaron reported some noise from the staircase. Josh and I were downstairs and announced that we were heading up to the second floor (as a precautionary measure to not freak Nik and Aaron out), and when we got there Nikki asked, “How long were you guys standing there?” We said that we hadn’t been, that we said we were coming upstairs and then went up. They both agreed that before Josh and I even called up to say we were on our way, they heard footsteps at the top of the stairs. Following this was more noise from the camera in the parents’ room (which was next to the children's room upstairs). The battery was still dead.

Between 3:30 and 4 am, Joel and I both noticed temperature changes in the blue room. We were in there filming and taking photos, and all of a sudden the area by the door (where I was standing) got very cold. We went into the living room for a few minutes and then went back to the blue room, and the temperature was normal.

Right around 4 am, people started falling asleep again. I thought I heard footsteps from upstairs and on the staircase, but it’s hard to say if they were real or if I imagined them in my hypnagogic state. Thank goodness for Meg’s comic relief: she was talking in her sleep and saying silly things like “The water is safe!” and “Hi, uh, Amy?” It was a nice little ice breaker to ease the tension into sleep. Nikki and I were eventually the only two awake, and neither of us wanted to be the last one up. I don’t know who won out on that one.

When I fell asleep, I had a very strange and vivid dream in which I heard two little girls’ voices but saw no one. The girls in the dream called each other Lena and Ina, which were the names of the visiting Stillinger girls. I remember detecting a very strong male presence in the dream, but again, I saw no males nor heard their voices. I did hear loud stomping from upstairs and on the stairs, as well as the back door in the kitchen opening and slamming shut several times. I awoke to a pounding heart and heavy breathing, as I didn’t realize I had been dreaming. A few minutes later, I calmed down and fell back asleep. I’m not sure what time this occurred.

Joel woke everybody up at about 7 am and was in a hurry to return home so he could review his footage. We left Villisca at about 8:30 after doing a final walk-through and gathered our belongings. Nikki was still overwhelmed and became emotional in the car a couple of times, but has since said that she’s feeling back to normal. We rolled into Iowa City at about 1:30 pm, gave hugs, and parted ways. I watched my video and fell asleep for three hours. There were no dreams.

Other random information:
--Meg, who was rather skeptical going into the whole thing, said she felt very nervous toward the blue room and would not go in there. She also said she didn’t like the upstairs and oftentimes opted to stay downstairs in the living room even when everyone else went up.

--Aaron and Joel both agreed that there was some sort of presence in the attic and that it could be felt immediately upon opening the door. Nikki also felt a very strong presence there, and said she nearly collapsed to the floor upon entering. I, too, had to actually force myself to set foot in there during Darwin’s tour of the house. Whatever ‘force’ was in there was definitely strong.

-- Several people, myself included, reported nervousness toward the blue room. It appeared as though most of the ‘activity’ took place in there, as several orbs were caught on film. I captured several still photos and Joel got four total moving orbs on film.

-- Nikki was very sensitive to the presence of the mother in the house and after we left, she said that she became convinced that the mother was aware of the danger facing her children on the night of the murder. She is the only one of us who is a mother herself, so her impressions made perfect sense to me.

My final conclusion is that there is definitely a presence in that house, if not more. Even though we did not witness physical evidence, the feeling of the house was enough to convince me. Add into that Joel’s orbs and Nikki’s possessed camera, and I think I can officially say that I spent the night in a haunted house.

And I would go back to do it all over again in a second.

~Dawn Frary, 2006

Nine women stayed in the Moore house Sat 9/24/05.  At 2:43:48 am, while sitting at the kitchen table, an unexpected downpour hit, startling all of us. I grabbed the camera and snapped this photo quickly.  I saw the orb and snapped the second photo immediately after at 2:43:58.  The chill in the air was eery and the sensation of not being alone all of a sudden was overwhelming.

 

~Cathy, Sept. 2005

A house, 8 murders, and things that go bump
By Bryan Swotek - The Daily Iowan
Daily Iowan - 80 Hours
Issue: 10/28/04

It came together so quickly. On a whim, we contacted the owner of the Olson-Linn Museum and Villisca Axe Murder House three hours away in Villisca, Iowa, to book an overnight visit to the house. Ten people got in on the trip, well aware of the history of the house. No matter how educated we were, nobody knew what was going to happen in this house.

After car breakdowns and stalling on the interstate, we finally reached the house at around midnight. All 10 of us stood in the living room of the house and listened to Darwin Linn's account of the murder. Approximately 15 minutes into the speech, I felt my backpack lift about an inch off of my back and fall back, instantly turning around to see which of the people on the trip needed my attention. I turned around and saw the wall. One of the guys on the trip asked me if I felt it and told me he felt a brush on his arm after he saw my backpack move. I was willing to brush it off as a twitch, assuming I was just cold and got a shiver. However, after other events in the night, it definitely was not a twitch. Because of our late arrival, Darwin Linn was not able to give us a tour of the house, but he told us who was murdered in each room, and we ventured off ourselves.

We went into separate rooms, snapping photos everywhere we went, many of which had small balls of light, which are commonly known as "orbs," a sign of paranormal activity. Most of the photos contained nothing, while a few photos captured the orbs in motion. While standing in the corner of the room where the four Moore children were killed, I felt three faint tugs on the back of my shirt. Knowing well that the children like to interact with visitors, I froze; I had to leave the room and go sit down in the living room where there were other people. We joined back in the living room around 1 a.m. and decided to introduce ourselves to anything that may be in the house. At that time we began recording our introductions; I went first. After not three words escaped my mouth, the same guy who felt the brush on his arm earlier said he saw an orb go behind me at an angle on his video camera, and he said he had caught a few on film earlier.

We got about halfway through the introductions and decided to explore the house again. We were told to stay off the stairs between 2 and 3 a.m. because many people have reported feeling a lot of pressure while being on the stairs at that time - the same time that the train went by and the residents were killed. At around 4 a.m., people started to fall asleep. Two by two, eyes closed, some reopened but only for short amounts of time, and then closed again. Eventually, there were only two of us awake, Sara Conrad and me. We spent our time answering questions from a book and talking about the night. Both of us kept having a strong urge to look in the kitchen, which was behind me, until we were so paranoid about it we made ourselves stop.

We kept talking about the night and the things that had happened, hearing noises from all over the house. We convinced each other that every noise was from outside - although we knew that it was all inside. Around 7 a.m., people started waking up, and we took a final tour of the house while we packed our things - all of us snapping more photos and having different feelings about the rooms. I noticed that the feelings I got from the attic were much stronger than the night before. The night before I went in and sat down on the floor to take photos. However, I couldn't do it the next morning. We all left with an amazing experience and something we would definitely recommend to our friends. I don't know about everyone else, but I gained a lot of information and understanding upon leaving the house. I can't wait to go back.

 In the fall of 2002, a reporter from the Omaha weekly magazine, "The Reader" decided to take Darwin up on his offer to disprove the story of the "Haunted House in Villisca." Diane Hayes was skeptical. A "prove it to me" person. To read her account of her overnight stay with the Moore Family and the spirits of the Axe Murder House, click below.

"Something Wicked"

A night in the Villisca Axe Murder House
by Diane Hayes

I was just writing on the experience me and four others had this past Friday night on the Candlelight tour. I went with my roommate, my sister-n-law and my 13 yr old niece.

Both the attic and closet door in the bedroom kept opening and closing the entire time we were there and we checked the Attic door and the inside door was shut. We later opened the inside door just to see what happens but each time we checked it the inside door was still open. I had brought 3 batteries for my video camera but only got about 35 minutes of tape because the batteries kept dying or the camera would just shut down, not off, just down. Today I found out before you enter the house you should ask them to please not run down the batteries. Oh well lesson learned. I did managed to capture on film some orbs, even a couple going by us as we were going back downstairs as we were leaving the camera on the Tripod alone as we all went downstairs.

While the four of us sat in the parlor, my niece and her mother sat on the couch by the piano while Ann and I sat across the room. I had the crystal as we were asking questions when I started to get a very cold sensation. I asked Ann if she felt cold and she did yet when I touched the door only a slight breeze was coming through the cracks not enough to make both of us cold. Finally my lower back got so cold that I reached back and my shirt had been lifted up, so I pulled it down.

We went back upstairs and I was video taping the closet door and my sister-n-law was asking me if I had stacked the blocks on the bed because they were moved. I was telling her that I had moved them earlier to sit down, the whole time I was answering her even though I was looking back at the bed, the camera was focused on the door. The door opens wider and then suddenly slams shut. I about dropped the camera as it had made me jump quite a bit.We also communicated a lot with the crystal. Some questions I found out if you really do not want the answer you should not ask it. I asked if the killer was in the house and they responded back yes.

The best part was towards the end when all four of us were in the blue room. My niece who is thirteen took the big blue ball and put it on the floor. The ball would go back and forth, in circles and then my niece would give it a gentle push and it would go to Ann, then Ann just barely touched it and it went rolling back to my niece. Sometimes it would go near my feet then back over to my niece. That went on for over 10 minutes. To see a ball move around with no one touching it was unbelievable.

We finally went back upstairs which by now was extremely hot and were just going back downstairs (my sister-n-law was already down) when suddenly I just did not feel good. My chest started to get heavy and I was having, really hard to explain when suddenly we heard what sounded like a double slam, even though part of me was curious to see if the inside attic door was open or closed, I just felt like I needed to get out of there as did my niece. When I told my sister-n-law about the double slam because she had not heard it she said she heard a man's voice, she said it sounded more like someone moaning or saying ohhhhh. We figured it had to happen the same time as the double door slamming. All in all it was a very good experience and we all want to come back again.

~R. Fader, Oct. 2004

We got to the museum at 8:15 and talked with Darwin for awhile and we watched a couple videos. Then we went to the house. When we got to the house I was alot more comfortable walking in this time than I was last year. A friend and I went upstairs and were walking around and all of a sudden the closet door came open in the kids room. I watched it for a minute or so and then turned my back and the door slammed!!! wow that about gave me a heartattack. It kept doing that for awhile and then some other people came upstairs and it stopped but when they would leave the room and I was in there it would open and close.it was a quite night.

After walking around and talking for awhile it got to be about 2-3 in the morning and I decided to lay on the floor and look at some of the taping I had already done. while lying there i heard a tap tap tap. I looked at a friend of mine and asked if they heard it and they did. we took the video camera outside and were looking around. Now this you are not going to believe.. i had to watch the tape about 3 times for this.. we were taping the attic windows from outside and there was a figure in the window of a little girl with straight hair. you could see her nose and everything, she was just looking out the window. then all of a sudden she turned and was gone.. there was no one upstairs at that time.. we did not notice this right away it was after we got back in the house and were watching the tape we saw her. I have got to make a copy of it for you to see.. it gave us the chills..there is no doubt that was a little girl and then for her to be gone..it was incredible. after talking about that for awhile we all settled down and slept for a couple hours.

I woke at 6 and not much had really happened through out the night. As I was lying there though you all of sudden heard the cry of a little child. One of the other girls I was with woke and was lying there and I asked if she heard that. For a minute or so there was nothing and then you heard it again. it was very faint but coming from the upstairs. we then went to look around and sat in the childrens room upstairs but nothing happened. about 7:15 or so we decided to pack up and head home..we got tons of pictures and several of us had video camera's so if I get anything good I will send it to you but you have to see the tape of he little girl in the window. Thanks for everything. we had a good time and I enjoyed coming back to the house again.

~Nykki, Oct. 2004

I heard about the Villisca house through a radio contest a few years ago so I talked my friends into checking out this "haunted" house with me. I have had a few paranormal experiences in the past but I was very unprepared for what was ahead of me. In the weeks prior to the visit we all read a lot about the Moore family and the Stillinger girls and we all thought we were ready for anything the house had to show us.

It was in the Fall of 2002 and we met Darwin for the lamplight tour (the overnights weren't available yet) at the museum. There was another small group there also so we all began joking around and wondering just how scary this house could be. The mood really changed with some of us when Darwin took us to the house. I think it hit home that this was the place where some gruesome murders happened many years ago. Darwin took us into the house and as we all stood in the kitchen, I kept feeling like someone was watching me. I had my back to the parlor door and kept turning around but never saw anything. I thought it was just my imagination.

Darwin told us a little about the house and some things that other visitors had reported and then told us to go ahead and explore the house while he stayed in the kitchen for a bit. A few of us went upstairs and I had a really uneasy feeling when I got to the childrens' room. I sat down on one of the beds and started to call them by name and when I got to Catherine I felt a tug on my pant leg like someone reaching out from under the bed. I jumped up and ran downstairs to tell Darwin what had happened to me. He just chuckled and said to "be glad the kids were playing with me". "They must have liked me because they have been known to kick or hit people." I was pretty freaked out! Darwin said his goodbyes and left us in the house. The other group that was at the museum with us left a little while later which left 8 of us in the house. Some of us decided to try the crystals that Darwin had mentioned.

As usual, I felt drawn to the children's room so 5 of us went up there while the others stayed downstairs. I sat on the bed again and put the loop of the string that holds the crystal over my finger and was very cautious of being still. No one else sat on the bed with me. I started calling the children by name and when I got to Katherine the string holding the crystal pulled straight out like someone had yanked on it. Shortly after that I kept telling my friends that it felt like little hands rubbing the back of my hair and hanging on to my neck just like little kids sometimes do. I then started feeling this incredible sadness so we decided to try other rooms and see if we could make any contact. When we went into the attic some of us had a panicked kind of feeling and had to leave the room immediately.Others it did not bother.

Most of us did not have any experiences in the parent's bedroom - we were just creeped out by the covered up mirror and the ax marks in the ceiling. We decided to try out the blue room. I personally didn't get any response from the crystal but my friend Betty really had activity when she called Lena Stillinger's name. Four of the people from our group decided to leave because not much was happening to them. The other four of us decided to stay a bit longer. Chris (my husband) decided to get some fresh air (he was a skeptic going into this but is definitely a believer now) and my two best friends Sheryl and Betty and myself were in the house. We were in the blue room for a long time with Betty asking Lena questions by using the crystal.

We decided to check out the upstairs one last time before we left and when we got halfway up the stairs the three of us were very nauseated by the smell of rotten meat or something horrid. We ran downstairs and were going to leave the house. Sheryl flung the kitchen door open and ran out and the door slammed shut right as Betty reached for it. I was behind Betty in the middle of thekitchen and Betty and I were like we were frozen and couldn't move. I started crying and had this horrible feeling of panic and dread (the only way to describe it is like something is very wrong with someone you deeply care about). I wanted to run to the children's room but it was like I couldn't move. I was crying so hard and Betty kept telling me "we had to leave" and then it was like the door just flung back open and we ran out.

Chris and Sheryl were not anywhere near the door. We briefly explained what had happened to us as I was still crying and Chris told us he thought he had seen a child's face peering out of the attic window on the north side of the house. We decided we had to go back in one last time....all 4 of us. We went upstairs and all 4 of us smelled the rotting meat or whatever it was. I felt the panic, cried and went downstairs. One last time we used the crystal in the blue room and when Betty asked Lena to swing the crystal one way for yes the other for no - she then asked if we should leave the house and it kept swinging yes yes yes - she asked if we were in danger - it kept swinging yes yes yes. We literally ran outside and waited by our car for any sign of Darwin. The whole time we all could swear that someone was peering out the attic windows and that we heard little laughter by the porch.

Darwin came back with another tour group. We must have been a sight! We briefly told them a little thanked Darwin and left. On the way home we were all pretty freaked out and we kept chatting about the events that had just happened.

We were probably 15 miles or so away from Villisca and Betty started screaming. Chris pulled over to see what was wrong and the cross from her necklace was in her closed fist and the chain was still clasped around her neck. The little clasp that holds the cross on the chain was not broken and I know for a fact that she did not take that necklace off because Sheryl was in the backseat with her and never saw Betty move and I had been turned around talking to both of them and never saw her move either. The rest of the trip home was pretty quiet and somber.

When Chris and I got home, we did not sleep well. I was jumpy at every sound. When other people found out about the 4 of us having some very strange things happen to us - we became quite the spokespeople for Villisca, encouraging others to go and see what experiences they might have to share. I don't know if any of them ever went but I do know that they at least became familiar with a family who tragically lost their lives. I guess it was my way of helping the family to never be forgotten. I don't know what happened to me that night. Maybe it was my imagination. Maybe not. All I know is that I felt things and had experiences that I had never had before. When asked if I would ever go back my answer was this................ "absolutely." :-)

~Leigh Ann, August 2004

We arrived at the house at 7:15pm, It was me, my mom, my aunt and my brother. My friend joined us shortly after, her name is Kris. She brought her son (Bill) his friend and girlfriend total there was 8 of us. It was hot and stuffy in there so we propped the kitchen door on the back of the house open with this iron weight. We knew there was a storm coming but we were excited none the less! I went to go upstairs to take a few pictures for my aunt with her digital camera. I got to the third step then felt terrified and couldn't go up by myself. I can't explain it since I have been in the house before and had no problem with the up upstairs except the attic of course.

About 9pm Bill went upstairs by himself and was taking some pictures and had caught some very obvious orbs. We all got real excited and went with him to take pictures and we as well caught orbs but only on the digital cameras.

Things were pretty quiet until about 10pm. We were upstairs and the wind was blowing the rain into the parents room. Bill decided to close the window due to the floor getting wet, when he went into the room to close the window the attic door began to close. We figured the wind did it, he pushed it open and it began closing again almost right away. He said it almost hit him in the head, freaked out anyway by the attic I asked him to just close it. My mom and I used the crystal that is in the house to try to communicate, I know sounds goofy, we had the thing swinging! LOL! We did say things that would tick off the "killer/bad guy" so we could have as much experience for the money. (I think it worked!!)

Mom and I had put a voice recorder to see what we would get. Thought it would be kinda cool. Her and I went upstairs to listen to the tape, we figured if there wasn't anything at all we'd rewind it and start again. It was raining and thundering and lightning which made it creepy but cool. For some odd reason we had our back to the hallway, I know stupid! I kept hearing a creaking and thought my brother was coming up the stairs (he likes to scare people!) By the third time I just stayed turned around and saw the attic door opening. I told mom "that damn door is opening!" She turned around and we just stood there watching, that stupid door opened about 2 inches on it's own then slowly closed flush with the door jam. That was it! Mom, in her ever loving way, took the flashlight and the recorder and said "OH F@$K!" and took off running leaving me up there by myself! I being the brave one that I am took off after her, I'm not that nuts! We ran into the living room and sat in our chairs and began to tell everyone why we freaked out.

No sooner did we sit the kitchen door slammed shut, my brother is a skeptic and figured it was the wind. That's fine and dandy but the weight we had in front of the door was shoved out of the way and almost in front of the stove. Wind my foot! I got up and looked to see if someone was there trying to scare us and there wasn't, I closed the door again then sat back down. Then, the living room door which was closed all the way flung open next to my aunt and my brother. My sarcastic mom said "come on in!" then the door slammed shut so hard it shook the glass and the floor. Mom was a little freaked about that so she locked the door.

Bill decided to go up stairs to get some pictures, it was about 1am (or so), my aunt who didn't want to move asked me to go with him and to leave her video camera up there. I went with him and he was shooting some video and taking pictures. I left mom's recorder up there and my aunts video camera as well, both camera's and both audio recorders still running. We spent the next 30 to 60 min sitting and waiting for anything, we saw some monster spiders which we enjoyed trying to kill! Also can't forget about the flying roach which made life interesting LOL!!

About 2am or 2:30am the train finally came. No one wanted to be up there during the train, I think it's because of the findings by the Miller's. Bill and I went up to check things out, since the train just passed. As we walked into the kids room I noticed my aunts camera was off, so was her voice recorder. I was about to pick up my mom's voice recorder and it shut off! I was a little disappointed that it didn't seem like there was anything happening. We went back downstairs and I gave mom and my aunt their stuff. Mom was listening to her tape then asked "what is that sound?" It was about 5 - 10 min after the train. It sounded like heavy water dripping, we figured it was the rain dripping off the house, it was so heavy sounding though. Who knows.

Mom gave me her recorder so I started listening. I heard a whisper and sat up and rewound the tape, I played it with the volume up so everyone could hear it. There is a man's voice then shortly after a little girls voice. I'm having a friend copy the tape and giving it to the Millers to authenticate it before saying what it says. Just put it this way, it is freaky and gave me the chills!!!

About a half hour or so later there was something that fell upstairs and a door slam shut. All the doors were closed so we didn't know what it was. Bill and I went upstairs (me now officially freaked out) and found nothing out of place and all doors shut. We stood there as he video taped and began seeing orbs all over the place, I was looking through his view screen (on the side of the camera) and saw them as well. I took pictures with my aunts camera so I don't know what's there. I decided to shut the parents window and when I turned around he was waving me back. There was orbs in every frame, then we saw one fly between the two of us.

As we stood there that stupid attic door opened again!! Then the closet door in the kids room began to shake kind of like if someone was in there holding a door handle and shaking the door violently. We were so upset when the camera went dead!!! He was going to go get the new battery or a different camera but I wouldn't let him. We yelled for another camera and told them what was going on, the ball we threw on the floor was moving around in front of us. (my aunt caught it on tape)

All was so quiet after that, it was so still and eerie. We decided to leave at about 5:45am since nothing was happening.

We got home and watched the home movie, there were orbs and a whisper (man's voice) and a flash of something! Looked like an axe so I am having that checked by the Miller's too. It flashed as fast as lightning!! Gave me the willies, when we left the camera in the kids room you can see that stupid attic door open and slowly close again. Did it a couple of times!!!

I loved it, I WANT to go again!!!! I recommend doing it when the moon is full, it was about 3/4 full when we went! I am trying to plan another trip!

~Lisa Neff, May, 2004

I just wanted to let you know we had a great time Saturday night at the house. We got some strange things on our video cameras and voice recorders. There is a couple of things on my sisters video like a mist going up the wall, a voice that sounds like it's telling us to go home (we can't make out the first word but the rest is go home), then there is a flash of a long stick. Lisa kept rewinding it and trying to stop it, and when she did, we were shocked. It came up from the bottom straight up and straight out. To all of us, it looked like an axe. At the one end it was wider and it got narrower towards the top (like a handle) and you can see something large on the end of it (like an axe).

I got a recording of at least 6-7 whispering voices, but the best one is of a little girl saying something to the effect of "come-on, get it get it, come on, get it". I may have left out a word, but it was clear. We closed the attic door because everyone was feeling un-easy about that room. Me and lisa was in the girls bedroom when we heard the door opening. We watched it and all of a sudden it closed. Freaked me out !!! We had all the doors and windows closed because of the storm. We watched a ball roll across the room, then go in small circles. Most of this happened around 2:00am. We can't figure out what the 2 loud bangs were. It sounded like something heavy was dropped on the floor twice. I said it sounded like the axe being thrown on the floor, it was that heavy. All in all it was very eventfull. I will do it all over again.

~Pat Rybin, 2004

We had a GREAT time and are planning on coming back at some point! We did get some VERY interesting pictures of orbs, orange flashes, and a DARK patch (NOT a shadow) in the Stillinger girls' room! We also got some interesting video, though we ran out of battery and didn't get any more before the end of the night. I haven't listened yet to all our audio, that will take me some time.

Also, the girls who slept had WEIRD dreams, and Jen and both experienced taps on the bottom of our shoes at 2 seperate times in separate rooms during the night while playing games.

Shannon I believe was the only one to experience physical touch. The crystal was pulled from Jen's hand at one point in the Stillinger girls' room. We didn't see anything unusal at 2:30am and didn't get any pics :( I was using our digital and Sherry's 35mm. Her camera though, took 1 pic that night and then never forwarded the film!!! I have a feeling something WEIRD went on with that. Also, almost all of use had probs getting our cameras to stay on! My digital kept shutting off whenever I got a feeling that something was around...ughhh...frustrating really!! :P

Also, Lenore is missing 2 gold coins from her money purse, Sherry is missing a shiny new puppy dog tag that she JUST had made the day before for her new puppy, and Jen actually had a ball in her front backpack that she didn't find until she got back to DSM---she had left all of them in the house for the kids---and apparently the kids wanted to share :P

~Heather Allen, Dan Allen, Nate McCormick, Jen Brown, Sherry Brown, Lenore, Shannan

Haunting Memories, A Night in the Villisca Axe Murder House

In every state of our great country you can find small towns and farming communities that seem to come from a forgotten time, a lost era. In these towns there are always stories to be told and secrets to be kept. The small town of Villisca, Iowa is no different from any other town in any other state when it comes to stories and secrets, with the exception of one house. It is the house formerly inhabited by the Moore Family, and now allegedly inhabited by… something else.

The story behind the Moore House is so bizarre that it could easily be a work of fiction or a made for T.V. movie, unfortunately the story is all too real. What happened was the execution of an entire family and then some; a riveting crime that claimed the lives of 2 adults and 6 children. I am no historian and as such I cannot tell you all the details about the murders, but if you travel to Villisca and visit the Olsen-Lynn Museum you will meet a man who can tell you everything you would like to know and more…

He can paint a picture of early 1900’s Villisca for you, the town, the people, the businesses. He can tell you about a trial steeped in corruption, contaminated evidence, insane preachers and government officials. Then he will tell you the most shocking revelation of all… that this heinous crime was never solved and that strange things sometimes happen in the house.

My interest in the Villisca House arose after I heard a radio contest in 2002 around Halloween. The contestants were pitted against one another and the house to see if they could stick around all night long, with the last person there winning tickets to the Grammy Awards. Naturally I was curious to know if this was a radio gimmick or if something strange really did happen at the house. Every Halloween about a dozen friends and I always end up paying good money to go to the less than spectacular “haunted houses” around town, where we are terrified by chainsaw wielding grocery clerks and axe brandishing students as well as the occasional undead volunteer worker. While these are enjoyable times, I have always been curious to know if there are such things as ghosts. I thought that the Villisca House might be able to confirm or disconfirm my suspicions, so I booked an overnight stay with 5 friends.

My first impression of the Villisca house from the outside is that it looks a bit like the famous Amityville house due to the eye-like attic windows. The house had been restored to it’s original 1900’s condition, including the absence of running water and electricity. When I first entered the kitchen and saw the living room lit by kerosene lanterns it very much reminded me of the haunted houses I visit on an annual basis. I was quite nervous but I attributed this to my subconscious wanting to be scared and the fact that I was looking for ghosts.

My group set up in the living room like most groups before us, and commenced to do our “research”. One of my friends, Andy, brought a high tech digital camera along. He had started taking pictures before we entered the house and was quite shocked to find that he had “orbs” in several of his pictures, beginning with a picture of the basement door. Needless to say this made everyone a bit tense. We couldn’t figure out what the orbs were but I was among the opinion that it was dust.

As the night went on, we explored the various areas of the house; sometimes alone and sometimes in groups. For my part, I felt that I didn’t want to be alone ANYWHERE in the house, I just got a really uneasy feeling like being scared of the dark or something of that nature. I had done lots of research on the house including reading the reports of paranormal investigators that had been there only 2 months before us, and I was looking for some of the things they spoke of. I saw nothing. What I did notice is that two of my friends whom are usually quite chatty were being incredibly quiet. Jeff and Jenny uttered probably a handful of sentences the entire night. I don’t know if they were scared, nervous or just tired, but I have never seen either of them like that. Alan played the piano beautifully 2 different times that night, once early on and once while I was trying to take a nap.

At approximately 1:30AM our entire group headed upstairs to see if the “Residual Haunting” I had read about would occur in the parents bedroom. The train went by at approximately 2AM , rattling the house and supposedly covering up the screams of 8 people being murdered while they slept peacefully. Andy and Alan claim that the lantern in the parents’ bedroom flared up when the train went by, but I wasn’t watching it and can’t verify this occurrence. We waited about 10 minutes and then headed downstairs, at which point Alan took a tape recorder upstairs and triggered what may have been the only paranormal event of the trip. He threw the recorder on the parents’ bed and headed back downstairs. As he stepped off the last stair, he turned around to see a duster falling onto the ground… The duster that had been sitting securely on a hook all night long. I am not a physicist, but I do know that we had all walked by that duster about a dozen times that night, and had it been hanging precariously I am sure one of us would have knocked it over a lot sooner.

Alan was quite shocked and had a bit of an adrenaline rush after this, which prompted Andy to run around the corner and join him. Close examination of the hook leads me to believe it is impossible for Alan to have knocked it off by accident while coming down the stairs, unless he made impact with the wall and the broom at the same time, since the duster was FLUSH with the wall. Also simply brushing it would not give it sufficient force to come UP off the hook. If anything running into it while going down the stairs would cause it to swing back and forth on the wall like a pendulum. Unfortunately I was outside at this time and missed the excitement by a few minutes. Alan also professes to have had a “feeling of someone watching him” all night long.

At about 3AM I pulled out my blanket and tried to catch some shut eye, at which point I was informed that Jenny had to work at 11AM and it might be nice of us to leave so she could get some sleep. I never once heard Jenny say this, but I can tell you that Andy said it A LOT, and it was his main excuse for wanting us to leave. Everyone but Andy was trying to take a little nap and he got quite worked up about wanting us to go, he kept asking me what time it was and saying we should take off soon. He tells me he was getting nervous that he would be the only one left awake and that something would happen that only he saw and nobody would believe him… Don’t forget Andy has been having to look at these “orb” pictures all night long. I feel I could have slept there if everyone else would have been more quiet, but we ended up leaving at 4AM after Andy’s incessant nagging.

My roommate Justin brought along a video camera with a high powered light and took a lot of video footage of the house for those that couldn’t come along. He made a solo initial sweep of the upstairs at about 11:15PM that included footage of some toy wooden bowling pins sitting on one of the dressers in an upstairs bedroom. Of note is that approximately one hour later he filmed the room again solo and noticed that a few of the pins were knocked down. He gets a bit frightened by this but quickly rationalizes that the train must have knocked them down on one of it’s hourly passes (it is quite loud and rattles the house). He sets the pins back up and is joined by Andy and Jenny, at which point he asks Andy “were these pins all standing up like this before” to which Andy replies “yup, they should all be standing up”. Justin does not tell any of us about this, but shows me on video the next day. Unfortunately this is not proof of the supernatural, but I do know that none of us knocked them over, and I do not believe the train knocked them over.

The highlight of the evening for me was when I was sitting in the kitchen reading the logbook of previous guests and starting my own story, I listened to Alan playing the piano and got a profound sense of how wrong what happened in the house was. You can read about a horrible murder like this and think it is tragic, but there is nothing like sitting in the house and living the way they might have 100 years ago, the only sound being the notes of the piano wafting through the house, writing by kerosene lamp at an antique countertop. The murder goes unsolved and the memories still remain. Ask me if the Villisca House is haunted and I will tell you that it is haunted by memories, if you go you will see for yourself. I would recommend a tour of the house for anyone who is open minded and anyone who is interested in history, it was a very entertaining experience. Are there ghosts in the house? I’m not sure. The “orbs” we caught in our photos turned out to be dust, but Alan will never look at dusters the same and Justin will continue to write off fallen bowling pins to noisy trains… Me, I just like to think some things can’t be explained. Maybe I will go back to Villisca again sometime and see what other memories get stirred up.

-Matt Ronco, November, 2003

A Night in Villisca

It is hard for some people to come to the conclusion that the supernatural exists. One might be swayed by a sound in the night, but for others it takes ocular proof to believe. You could halfway consider me a skeptic. I could easily believe either side of the argument, but the fact of the matter is this; when you spend a night in a house where the energy of a murder still lies, something is bound to affect your opinions.

I had heard from a friend of mine that he was going to stay in this house over the weekend. After I was told the rather intriguing story behind the murder, I became hooked. I would’ve done anything to go along with the party and stay overnight. When I found out that there was in fact an opening, I jumped at the opportunity.

I’d never experienced a brush with a spirit, or been contacted by a lost loved one, and in all reality I’d never even thought that most ghost stories I’d heard were true. Some provide for good listening, but seem too farfetched. On the same token, I could’ve been swayed easily. I was definitely swayed.

We arrived in Villisca at about 10:00PM, just in time for the last tour to be finished. We spent the next hour with Darwin, our tour guide, as he told us the history of the murder. I tried my hardest not to let the anxiety build up, for I was under the impression that something would happen that night. So as we got closer and closer to the house, I felt more and more awkward.

Darwin showed us around the house for about 20 minutes then left us there for the night. I admitted to feeling quite uneasy about the house, and I definitely didn’t want to be in any room alone. I just had this horrible feeling in my gut, which I’m sure was just my mind, but it started to settle as the time went by.

Our friend Andy was snapping pictures left and right, and commenting on all the orbs that we saw floating around in the air. We did later rule those orbs out, finding out that they were most likely dust particles in the air. The sight of the pictures was kind of frightening in itself, because we couldn’t explain why these were there. To calm myself down, I began to play the piano, which was remarkably in tune for its age. As soon as I tired of this, I was already feeling more courageous, and I wanted to see more of the house. So a few of us sauntered around for the next few hours, basically killing time until 2:00 AM came, which is thought to be the approximate time of the murders. At one point around 12:30AM, two members of our party were looking around upstairs, and the 5 of us were headed outside. I was the last to leave the house.

Approaching the back door, I had the feeling that there was another person walking behind me, even though I saw four in front of me, and heard two upstairs, accounting for all six of us. I halted before I came to the door, and I felt the same feeling, only I would describe it as someone running into me lightly, and then using my shoulder to regain their balance. I tried to rule out any possibility that anything even happened, and that maybe I had fabricated the whole situation. However it was too distinct of a sensation for me to have imagined. This was the first thing to sway me toward the idea of supernatural existence.

I told the others that I was scared at this point. We were coming up on 1:30 AM, so we were starting to prepare. We planned to all be in the room where the murder occurred at the same time that it happened. So I had left my handheld tape recorder in the little girls’ bedroom downstairs, to possibly document any activity that we might miss. We were in the parent’s room at 2:00AM, when the 2 o’clock train promptly went by. The sound of the train itself was extremely frightening. As the train got closer I noticed that the flame on the kerosene lantern started to grow. The lantern illuminated the entire room when the train seemed closest. The light looked like it stretched to each corner. Then as suddenly as it grew, it faded with the sound of the whistle. This marks the second time throughout the night that I began to think that paranormals are real.

Since nothing else had really happened after the train disappeared, we decided to go back downstairs. Someone brought up that I should move the tape recorder to the upstairs, since we were going to be downstairs for the rest of the night, most likely. This was the first time that I would go upstairs alone. I decided to venture around the two upstairs rooms, and the crawl space where it was thought that the killers hid from the family. Finding nothing, and becoming uneasy again, I tossed the tape recorder on the bed, and headed down the stairs.

As I stepped off the last stair, I heard a thud behind me, and I spun around in time to see the dust remover, which was hanging on the hooks by the stairs, had fallen. Not only had it fallen, but it also stood vertical for a split second before I witnessed it toppling over. I pondered for a moment how this could actually happen. Could it have been hanging barely on the hook, and could I have pushed it over the edge when I walked by it? Unlikely, but possible. The reason that it is unlikely is because people had been going up and down the stairs all night long. Why did I suddenly trigger it to fall? Another point I considered was this; Could I have brushed it and lifted it off the hook altogether? Absolutely not. Because even if I had roughly swiped it with my body (which I didn’t) it would have simply swung back and forth. Plus it fell perfectly on its end, and stood for a moment before actually falling down. After assessing these points, I became convinced. I believe that something, or someone else, that couldn’t be seen was the reason for that happening.

I told everyone what had happened when I got back to the living room. They all seemed about as shocked as I was. I played the piano some more before I laid down to rest. The last thing that happened, was when Matt was settling to get comfortable so he could rest, a book fell off a nearby end table. This table also had a crystal on a string hanging off of it. The book had fallen but the crystal stayed hanging, undisturbed. This leads me to believe that he didn’t nudge the table that the book had fallen with the help of something else. I must’ve dozed off soon after this, because I was awakened by the sound of Andy and Matt, talking about leaving. We packed up around 4:30 AM and headed out of the house.

As I further reflect on the events of the night, I become convinced that there is such thing as paranormal energy, and even ghosts. I wonder why I noticed these things, and that nothing happened to anyone else, like it did to me, but then again, maybe they were just keeping quiet. Maybe there are stories that haven’t been told yet. The trip has made me wonder even more now, what exists beyond the living. I will return soon to what has been considered one of the most haunted places in the nation. It will always be the first place that I had a run in with what could only have been, the supernatural.

-Alan Shinkunas, Oct. 2003

Our visit was great! I've been meaning to write you lately but I've been kind of busy. After developing our pictures, we found in four of them what can only be explained as orbs. We watched our video footage and saw some interesting things as well. At about 1:03 a.m. we set up our camera at the top of the stairs, pointing into the children"s bedroom and also at the attic doorway. It was sitting right up against the parents bed. Immediately after we went downstairs, two orbs came out of the attic doorway and went across the screen towards the parents bed.

Later on in the tape, we saw three more of these orbs, and we had tried to think of everything they could have been, but everything was ruled out. We blew out the lanterns in the upstairs bedrooms except for the attic, and our camera was set on night vision, so reflection from the lamps was also ruled out. At about 4 a.m. I was awakened by whistling coming from the upstairs. It seemed to be coming down from that vent above the parlor. I looked over and saw that my friend Evan was also awakened by this. After we watched the tape we heard the whistling on it as well.

During the course of the night, at some time or another, each one of us felt a strong presence other than our own....especially upstairs and in the Blue Room. When we first went upstairs, our legs felt like jello, we felt weak and even had a little trouble breathing. Myself and a couple of other's eyes started to water and our hearts instantly started racing. I realize that my friends and I knew alot about what went on in that house prior to staying there, but we all felt an intense feeling of sadness and tragedy up there. Other than the few brief times we went up there, we just sat up the camera and left...We didn't really see or hear anything while we were there, with the exception of the whistling, it was more of a feeling (and a strong feeling at that). All of the visual stuff was on tape and film.

My mom believes in spiritual things, and has a couple of close friends that have studied it for approximately 20 years, and have successfully communicated with spirits in the past. Ever since I told her that I enjoyed it, she was thinking about possibly booking a stay next spring sometime.

~Tyler - November 2003

We took out tour on 10-25-03 and since it was chilly out we weren't able to tell if there were any cold spots. The recorded tape that Darwin played for us before we went to the house gave us the chills and left us with the haunting sounds of the children screaming. I to this day can't stop thinking about it or hearing it! We got to the house itself at about 8pm and he walked us through like he does everyone. There were two young girls, about college age, who were already spooked about the house. I think it made them a little open to the experience myself. During the tour we took as many pictures as we could (just in case!)

After Darwin left, we were walking around the house. The two girls were in the living with my brother and I was in the bedroom with my mother. The one girl made a comment about needing to leave the room so my brother asked why. She said "something just pulled on my hair!" he said seriously? and she said "yes, there it goes again!" and left the room. Her friend was standing not far from her and experienced the same thing. Since this happened I tried to get a couple of pictures of them just in case I was able to capture something by them. Unfortunately there was nothing in the pictures of them after I developed them.

My mom was using the crystal that Darwin mentioned, we were in the blue room and the girls were with us. My brother went upstairs and was alone. I backed up towards the closet and jumped nearly 20 feet. Something poked me in the back as if there was someone with their hand out to stop you. I looked behind me originally thinking there was a board poking out of the curtain but didn't see anything. I then thought that damn brother of mine was in the pantry and poked me to be a smart a--. Much to my surprise when I pulled the curtain back there was no entrance in there to the pantry. It is a small closet under the stairs and there was nothing up high enough to poke me. All that was there was some paint cans on the floor and I think a step stool.

Upstairs one of the girls said something about going into the crawl space/attic. I said I would but as I started to go in I got a butterfly feeling and was uneasy. I went in anyway and was okay as long as someone was with me. As soon as the person was leaving that area I suddenly felt scared and uncomfortable and scrambled out of there so I wasn't alone. I wasn't scared in general just uneasy it's hard to explain.

My brother was disappointed, he felt chills go up his spine but a partial skeptic he dismissed it as being cold.He too felt uneasy about the crawl space/attic. He said he got the same eerie feelings I did.

When Darwin came back with the overnighters he began to tell some more of the story. We were all in kind of a circle around the kitchen. My mom stood my the stove and my brother and I were by the stairs and pantry. I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye but nothing was there so it was unexplainable. My mom suddenly started looking behind her and feeling for a draft. She said it got very cold on her legs as if we were in the dead of winter with sub zero temps and the door was open with and icy draft on her legs. She said it was very cold. She just laughed and went by my brother while I stood over to disprove her (of course). While she was over by him, she felt the cold on her legs again. She bent backup and told everyone about it. Next thing we knew she said it felt like a draft or feather feeling went across the side of her face. A feeling like someone's hair swept against her.

Before leaving we took a bunch of pictures to record the house and see if we saw anything. I went the next morning to developed them and got them one hour, I was excited and curious. I was flipping through them and got to the one of the kids bedroom windows. As I was flipping the picture and was about to look at the next one, there was something I saw in the window. I looked again and could clearly see a child's head with brown hair and a white bow a little off to the side (would be her right side). There were other things that I couldn't prove or disprove, there was also a dark shadow in one of the pics of the blue room. This shadow is on the chest in front of the bed and continues to go up. It covers the post of the bed so obviously something is in the way.

I plan on taking the tour again in the spring, more likely June or July. The weather is warm so if there is a cold spot from a spirit we can tell better then we could this time. I'd like to spend the night but not by myself. My mom said she would and so did my other brother.

~Lisa Neff, November 2003

I went to stay at the house with my husband and four of my co-workers on Nov. 19th. That was our group that the picture on the web was taken of with a finger supposedly over the lens and I have to agree that I don't believe that is a finger either... We started the night off with just looking around and taking pictures and getting our equipment in place. About an hour and a half after we placed a tape recorder in the attic, we heard a noise like something was being drug across the floor. We went upstairs to investigate, and upon entering the attic, it was discovered that the recorder was halfway across the room from where it was placed.

The lantern in the parents room and the attic flickered and danced which is unimaginable, because the air around it was still. The lanterns in the other rooms were still. Unexplainable. Another thing we experienced was we noticed a lot of residual haunting occur whenever the train whistled. We heard the floor creak in the kitchen as if there were two sets of feet walking across the floor, and that was at 1:50 am, and people felt tugging on their clothes and felt unnerved in the attic. My husband and three of my co-workers went in the celler. They found a bat there. We also had a kitten from next door came over around 2:30 am. At about 3:10, the temperature in the house dropped dramatically and we could see our breath in the air.

It was cold outside, too, but not quite as cold as it was inside. We all agreed we were all uneasy now, except for our group skeptic, who slept fearlessly on the couch. We also made many trips to the outhouse. At 4:15 we ended up leaving as I was the only one who felt "the panic" and a couple of us had decided it would be a more productive day if we left and slept in our own beds. My husband hallucinated of semi trucks that weren't there on the way home, and whether that was the impact of the house or how tired we were, I don't know. I got ill and missed my appt's that day. Again, I don't know if it was that impact of the house or how tired I was. We are waiting now to get our pictures back and we can review them as a group.

~Dani, Altoona, Iowa Nov. 2003

Me and 9 other people completed our stay at the house on fri. nov. 14th. it definitely was an amazing experience. although i didn't experience anything physically, i heard many things, and emotionally felt things in the house. when i walked into the house, i felt sad. my friend jason read a 200+ page book to ina stillinger in the blue room in a 2-3 hour period. we had good reactions with the crystal, especially in the parents room. we had some pretty unique experiences during the hourly trains. the 3:00 train was the one that put a little scare in all of us b/c it sorta caught us offguard. one of my friend's, blake, was in the crawlspace during the train, before the train was over, he got out of there and was tripped. he felt something grab onto his leg and trip him. the lantern in the parents room was flickering ALL night, while none of the other lanterns were. we discovered that ina likes the lantern in the blue room somewhat dim, she turned it down whenever someone turned it up.

i'm not sure if anyone else experienced this, but we had cats, all around the outside of the house. one even continuously jumped onto the door. we left around 6:30 b/c josh was really sick. he had managed to sleep almost all night on the little loveseat in the living room. overall, i had a great time and appreciate the wonderful hospitality. i definitely want to come back and stay another night in this house.

 ~Kate Webster, Nov. 2003

Jeanna had been to the house two other times, and so first she drove us around Villisca and to the house. We were turning this corner at the edge of town, and this heavy feeling just came over me. We'd been laughing at Jeanna, who'd driven over a rather loud sewer lid and jumped, but all of us fell silent as we turned the corner.

A fancy motor home was what we first saw, and later we discovered it was for the local radio station hosting an overnight competition in the house. An empty yard appeared around it, sloping up a small knoll to a small, white house with chipping paint. The house isn't "spooky", but an eery, heavy feeling came over me as I stared up at the darkened windows. Vines were creeping up around the porch poles, and two axes were leaning against the storm cellar door. A brick walk way wound up towards back porch and passed an old iron water pump.

We kept going, driving slowly and unable to talk. As soon as we were up the block, the heaviness vanished. Jeanna took us to F.F. Jones's house, which is a gorgeous, sprawling affair. Four stories complete with a ballroom. It's believed he hired Mansfield to murder Moore because Moore and Jones were rival hardware companies, and hardware was important to Villisca.

Casey was feeling a bit ill, but this was from her double burritoes at lunch. We got to the museum where the tour began, but it was locked. Apparently a tour was in session. So we drove around a bit more. Came back and were let in. The old guy (can't remember his name now) bought the house and basically owned the entire deal (tour, museum, house). He was nice and showed us a few videos. One had some paranormal study film, where you could see an orb come out of the downstairs guestroom where the Stillinger girls slept.

In the middle of the film, this couple came in with their two three-year-old sons. The boys looked horrified by the video. I was getting mad at the parents for their lack of good judgment, but then Casey was getting sicker and sicker.

By the time we got back to the house, we decided that we'd wait until the family went through the house, and let Casey's stomach calm down. Julie and I sat on the brick walk, feeling a bit queasy in the sunshine while Jeanna and Casey went to get some water from the store. Finally, the two boys came out of the house, crying and clinging to their parents.

Then it was our turn.

Julie grabbed my hand as we started up the walk. I was getting really queasy and dizzy the close we got. Stepping through the theshold, you're overcome by this tug and chill. It was freezing in the house! It's unheated, but it was even colder inside than out. Initially, it wasn't scary. You just felt eerie.

The inside looked like your typical historical house. It had been restored as it had been in 1912, but hardly anything inside truly belonged to the Moore family. The kitchen is the main room of the part of the house we were in. You can see directly into the parlor, and then there is the narrow, twisting stairs, and then the pantry. We first went into the parlor.

A grate was cut into the center of the ceiling from the upstairs children room where four of the children were murdered. Blood had dripped down through the grate. Jeanna said that last time she’d been there, she’d felt something drip down on her, but of course there had been nothing.

I felt a bit sicker in the parlor, but it wasn’t anything more severe than stomach nerves, I think. I stood under the grate, but felt nothing. Then we moved into the guestroom, which was painted blue. A lot of paranormal equipment was set up around the room, monitoring a particular spot where the staircase slanted over the ceiling. Apparently, the guide’s brother had been repainting the border, but couldn’t finish, because no matter how he tried, something would always happen to prevent him from climbing the ladder to finish the job.

I didn’t really feel anything in that room. I felt a bit calmer. I was only in the threshold because everyone else was in front of me. We went back into the parlor. I felt really cold. Then back into the kitchen to start upstairs.

Passing through the threshold was awful. I started to get really dizzy as we started up the stairs. It might have been the narrow steps and the sharp twist, but somehow, I don’t think so. At the very top of the stairs is the foot of the master bed. Julie was misting up, but I hadn’t had too bad a reaction yet. I looked at the backswing ax marks in the ceiling, remembering the things I’d learned in class four years ago.

Then he proceeded further. There’s a tiny little hall of sorts that leads to the back room, but there’s an annex. A small space like a cupboard of sorts sits between the hall and the crawl space over the kitchen. Apparently, this is where the murderer hid until everyone went to bed.

I wasn’t really concerned with it, but as I drew near, this horrible sense of foreboding came over me, and my heart started racing. My stomach somersaulted. Yet I started through to look in the annex.

I don’t know what happened. I stepped through. And just felt . . . crushed. I let out a cry and just started crying. I don’t know why. This heaviness crushed in on me, and I had to get out. I couldn’t breathe for a moment. Casey went through with no trouble. I tried again. I jumped through because I couldn’t take it. The annex was warm but I was comfortable. I was still crying when I came back into the cold.

My friends were giving me weird looks. I’m not the kind to freak out. I was calming down, but pressed myself against the wall away from the gaping annex. One step into the children’s bedroom, and everyone got a reaction. The room temperature plummeted. The muscles in my legs seized up. I felt incredibly sick, but I didn’t break down like in the annex.

Jeanna showed us where she’d caught activity on film on her last visit. On the biggest bed is a Pollyanna board game. It had been open when she’d been there, and then shifted as if someone had sat down on the bed. There had been impressions there as well. Today there wasn’t anything.

Our guide told us we were allowed to explore freely, and went downstairs again. A couple of us lingered, and eventually I started back down the stairs. Passing through the threshold again, I felt a sort of nauseating heaviness, a pull.

I went back into the parlor and touched the ice cold Bible. Then, alone, I moved into the Stillinger bedroom. Nothing really felt odd. I was both relieved and disappointed. My focus would land on certain spots, for no reason, but I didn’t feel pressured as I was upstairs. Julie dragged me out of the room, because I was looking unsteady.

Back in the kitchen, our guide was talking to the other couple that had arrived. The husband had a camera and a temperature gauge. The guide was showing us pictures from other tours. Orbs. There were two right in the corner I’d been staring at in the Stillinger room. Then he showed us this picture of two girls standing in the threshold to the stairs. “It’s a portal,” he told us. I about choked. One girl was wearing a tank top that goes over one shoulder. Half her chest and whole shoulder was exposed. What looked like a perfect heart shape was burned across her chest. The mother claimed that hadn’t been there.

Casey and Julie left the house. Jeanna and I looked through the pantry. I edged towards the portal and had the very strong pulling again. I jumped away, then edged back in. It was dizzying. I hadn’t imagined it the first time, and I was sure I was now.

Deciding to explore upstairs on my own, I started up, but could only reach the bend where I could just start to see the second floor. I hurried back down. I waited until I was no longer dizzy or nauseated, and then started back up. This time I managed to push past whatever was holding me back, but I still felt sick.

I stared at the foot of the master bed. And started shaking uncontrollably. It was fully hitting me. The murderer had been here. He had stood over this bed where these good people had been sleeping on a hot Sunday night. He’d killed J.B. Moore with the sharp edge of the ax, then turned it around and bashed Sara with the blunt. Then proceeded to kill 6 children.

I could hear the low murmur of the others downstairs. Pulling my eyes away from the bed draped in white, I’d barely taken a step towards the annex when I heard something in the children’s room. It sounded like the flap of a bedspread when you’re making it. I let out a little cry. I couldn’t breathe. Petrified.

I didn’t want to investigate. It’s stupid to do that. The idiot blonde hears the scream or noise and dumbly goes and investigates it, and then obviously meets a grisly end. Yet I had to know, and I felt pulled. I want to run by the annex, it was pulling me, but I resisted. I felt as if something would grab me, but nothing did.

I stood just outside the threshold, peering inside, afraid I would see something I didn’t want to. The mirror was covered by the lace, just as it had been that awful night. I felt a bit braver, but still very much afraid. I don’t think I breathed. My heart was racing, though. Leaning further in, I peered towards the bed. Nothing looked too disturbed. Still, I felt as if I should leave. Yet I felt as if I should stay, too.

I don’t know if I ran downstairs or not, but I made it down there. Jeanna frowned at me, I must have been shaking pretty bad. I kept close to her, but my attention kept getting diverted to the threshold where the portal was. I didn’t see anything unusual, but it was distracting me. I wanted to go and stand in there again, no matter how sick it made me feel.

The husband was talking about his temperature gauge. He said what rooms were extremely cold, and how when he went by the annex, it jumped erratically high. When he tried it again, however, nothing happened. His wife said she couldn’t sense anything, but one of her jean legs just clung to her, but it wasn’t exactly like static electricity.

During the conversation, I was constantly looking back at the threshold. I don’t know if it felt like I was being watched, I just felt something. A pull, a distraction. It was unnerving. Our guide told us that children are very susceptible to the activity of the house. Once he was downstairs and 5-6 people were upstairs. A twenty-year-old guy came running downstairs crying, “You have to see this!” Upstairs, a girl about twenty months old was standing by the big bed in the children’s room. Her mother asked, “Where are the girls?” and her daughter lifted up the flap on the bed and said into the darkness, “Come out and play with me! C’mon, don’t be afraid!”

It didn’t hit me until I was pulling up the drive-way three hours later that I’d heard the bedspread flap. I just sat in my car and cried.

Another time, a little boy came in while a paranormal study was going on. The parlor was completely dark, and the boy started towards the room saying, “Can I play with the kids?”

While the guy was talking about the psychics, witches, and others that had spent the night and been visited in their dreams, the strange pull towards the threshold grew a bit stronger. Then it faded, and I felt as if I was being silly.

And then I jerked. That’s the only way I know how to described it. Jerking like someone’s come up and startled you, but I felt no one touch me. Just this jerk and flash. Like when you have flashbacks in movies. My head just suddenly jerked towards the threshold, there was a flash, and then my body jerked.

Jeanna gave me an odd look, but I couldn’t say anything. I just stared at the crystal across the room, which was moving slightly in the air currents. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel pulled by that threshold to the stairs. I felt calm. I wasn’t dizzy or weak anymore. And I was warmer. I’d stopped shivering.

Our guide was telling us about one lady who got hypnotized and Sara Moore talked through her. Her face was behaving oddly. Contorting, as if being deformed. When the lady came out of it, her face was in incredible pain. All the people that had been visited in their dreams, and all their descriptions of the killer had matched. He went on to talk about discrepancies in the case and trials, but it was mostly everything I’d learned in class, and I was puzzling over what had just happened.

Then we were wrapping things up. As we started to go out the door, the husband voiced what I’d been feeling, “It’s like I don’t want to leave. I just want to stay.”

Outside, I felt a bit dizzy again and cold. Jeanna and I walked around the house, and I told her about what I'd been feeling and my jerk. When the couple left, we asked the guide about spending the night some time. He said once all the radio hoola was over, he’d be happy to have us back.

We’ll wait until the spring, because the house is unheated. I want to spend the night and yet I don’t. Mum’s warning me against it. No on has been hurt, and while I fear being visited in a dream, I feel compelled to go back. I never felt threatened or unwelcome, despite all of the sensations and that jerk. I think, perhaps, that I shouldn’t linger in the portal like I did.

~Oct 19 2002, 20:33 as posted on The SugarQuill