Friday 30 October 2015

Waverly Hills Sanatorium: The haunted hospital

(Photo found at Waverly Hills Historical Society website)

Used to house tuberculosis patients in the 1900’s, the now derelict Waverly Hills sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky, has all of the hallmarks of a haunted hospital.

Formerly Waverly school, the building was taken over at the turn of the century by the board of tuberculosis, and expanded over time to accommodate a rising number of patients due to an epidemic of the disease. It was built as a curved structure on top of a hill to allow the breeze to sweep through the wings and provide patients with the sunlight and fresh air they required as part of their recovery. By 1924 the hospital was able to house up to 400 patients, including the children of those in treatment, who would often play on the roof as part of their heliotherapy. 

Many claim to hear the sounds of children singing and playing on the roof to this very day.
Due to the lack of actual medicine to treat consumption at the time, experimental treatments, such as rib removal and the surgical inflation of lungs by inserting balloons, were practiced on patients in order to find an effective cure. 
Many patients died via these methods; however the actual death toll is unknown. Legends claim thousands met their demise within the walls of Waverly hill sanatorium.
In order to keep patient morale at a high, the bodies of patients that did not survive their stay were clandestinely transported on gurneys through a tunnel that connected from the hospital to a railway. Often called “The death shoot”, and the subject of many legends and paranormal investigations, the tunnel was also used to transport supplies into the building.

With the introduction Streptomycin, the first developed anti-biotic used to successfully treat tuberculosis, the number of beds occupied decreased, leading the large, gothic sanatorium to close its doors by the start of the sixties.

A year later Waverly Hills would be reopened under the name “Woodhaven medical services” as a mercy home to aid elderly patients suffering declines in mental ability and problems with general mobility due to age. The building remained this way for twenty years, eventually being shut down for the neglect of patients.

Having escaped plans to be turned into a prison and an apartment block, Waverly Hills is now owned by the Mattinglys, who purchased it in the early 2000’s. They hold annual Halloween tours and use the proceeds for restoration.
 The location has been the subject of paranormal shows such as the UK’s “Most haunted” and “Ghost adventures” and many visitors claim to see spirits wandering the halls.
In 2011 The “Ghost Hunters” team focused on local urban legends in their episode filmed at Waverly sanatorium. They focused on the investigation of room 502, the nurses’ station, where they claimed a pregnant nurse had committed suicide having found out that she was pregnant out of wedlock.
 Some say the nurse contracted the disease and became a patient.

(Photo found at missouriparanormalresearch.com)


A photograph was found on the hospital grounds of a young woman signed “Love, Mary Lee” on the reverse. The woman in the picture resembled the apparition captured in a photograph taken at Waverly, whom many believe is the spirit of the Mary Lee still wandering the wings.

Mary Lee is not the only soul still making her rounds; many spirits have been seen and heard since Waverly Hill closed for business.

The owners claim that the ghost of a little boy, who they named Timmy, is often seen darting through the hallways.

 If you don’t have a chance to experience a tour of the sanatorium for yourself, you can check out some videos online:

Travel Channel tour of Waverly [ X ]

Ghost hunters capture a short video of Timmy [ X ]


Sources: http://www.therealwaverlyhills.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium

Wednesday 28 October 2015

The disappearance of Teresa Bier and the cryptid culprit

(Image source: frame 352 of the Patterson–Gimlin footage)

On June 1st 1987 43 year old Russell Welch was arrested on charges of child stealing after he returned home alone from a Nevada mountain camping trip without his 16 year old companion, Teresa Bier, claiming that she was abducted by big foot. 

The nature of the relationship between the pair is unclear; however Welch had actively been hunting the cryptid at Shut eye peak. The Fresno county court freed Welch just days before his trial, with the intention of convicting the suspect on murder charges at a later date. 
On the advice of his public defender, Welch declined to accept the offer of a year long term and acceptance of the child stealing charge which included the option to sign a waiver, stating that he would be eligible for trail if Biers body was to be found at a future date. 

Welch was a self-proclaimed Sasquatch expert and appeared to sincerely believe in big-foot. He went as far as to say that he had even been in contact with a group of them.

Sources: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/bier_theresa.html
http://doenetwork.org/cases/217dfca.html

Monday 26 October 2015

The godfather of gore



Tom Savini, aka The Godfather of Gore, is most famously known for his role as a special effects and make-up artist on the set of George A. Romero’s early horror films, including titles such as “Dawn of the dead” “Day of the dead” and “Martin”.

                                                                                    (Savini's special effects from Romero's "Dawn of the dead" and Day of the dead")

He was responsible for the make-up and effects of “Friday the 13th” as well as in the movie “The Burning”, which was one of the first of its genre produced by Miramax films. Although often discredited for being a “Friday the 13th” knock off due to its plot similarities, The Burning was actually written before “Friday the 13th”, and was based off the urban legend of “Cropsey” about a New York based Boogeyman.

Inspired by old monster movies, Savini is a self-taught make-up artist, who practiced on himself in his bedroom as a kid. He eventually moved on to practicing on neighborhood children, who would return home to their unimpressed parents with fake suicide wounds and afflictions.
Savini’s talent didn’t end there; the sultan of splatter went on to be a director, actor, stuntman and teacher at his special effects course in Pennsylvania.

He admitted that his time spent in Vietnam heavily inspired his future work, and went on to say that having witnessed firsthand the dead and the wounded, that he aimed for his work to be as realistic as possible.
Originally enlisting in the army in the hopes of staying out of Vietnam, Savini chose to sign up with the intention of choosing the training of his preference in order to avoid fighting on the front line. Since he was already studying photography, he signed up to be trained as a combat photographer.
Despite his intentions, Tom received orders to be dispatched to Vietnam.

He honored the instructions and went to a training unit where he was prepared for combat; he was put through war scenarios and shown graphic videos of combat injuries in the field.
Savini stated in an interview that in order to cope with the death and destruction that he was ordered to document during his tour, that he imagined it was all special effects. He continued to practice his art and attempted to mentally detach himself from the horrific reality of the situation.

(Make up on the set of "Day of the dead")


Tom is currently working on a remake of “Nightmare City” as a director, the title is due to be released in 2016.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Savini
http://www.houseofhorrors.com/tsinterview.htm
http://www.slasherama.com/features/savini.HTML

Friday 23 October 2015

Wednesday 21 October 2015

On the road. The disappearance of Leah Toby Roberts:

In 1997, a year after losing her mother, Leah Toby Roberts was involved in a car accident that left her hospitalized. 

During her recovery she revealed to her older sister that having survived the collision, she felt born again.
A year later, her father succumbed to the lung disease that he had been battling throughout Leah’s childhood and died.

Feeling as though she had been given a second chance at life, Leah decided to experience the world, and take a break from her studies at North Carolina State University to travel to Costa Rica.

She would never complete her education and dropped out with only six months left until graduation.
Instead, she frequented coffee houses, scribbled philosophy and poetry in her journals, practiced guitar and developed an interest in photography.

Much like Chris McCandless before her, who walked into the Alaskan Wilderness in 1992, Roberts found herself mostly conversing with her room mates and new found friends on the topic of Jack Kerouac inspired road trips to the west.

Leah was last seen on March 9th 2000.
She was officially reported missing March 12th.

A search of her room found clothes missing as well as Leah’s kitten, Bea.

There was a note left on her dresser that said:

“I’m not suicidal. I’m the opposite.”

Along with more mentions of Kerouac, enough money to cover her rent and utilities for a month and a drawing of a Cheshire cat smile.

Checking her bank accounts turned up the following information:

-On the 9th of March, Leah withdrew several thousand dollars.
-She charged one night’s stay at a hotel in Tennessee to her debit card along with gas and food, suggesting that she ended up in California.
The activity on her bank account ended on the 13th of March in Oregon.

A tip off from one of Leah’s coffee shop frequenting friends revealed that they had conversed about “The Dharma bums” and that Leah had mentioned how she’d like to visit Desolation peak, in Washington, where the friend had previously worked and felt inspired by.

Her sister, feeling that she understood Leah’s intentions and believing that she would return, took a sigh of relief and returned to her usual schedule.

Days later, Leah’s white ’93 Jeep Cherokee was discovered in a remote area in Washington, however without her inside.
Early morning joggers found her clothing strewn by the side of the road, some garments wrapped around trees. Peering over the steep embankment they noticed the Jeep with a parting of trees leading down to it.
The vehicle looked as though it had flipped and rolled over, however there were no signs of human injury, such as blood. There was also seemingly no presence of a passenger, leading some to believe that it looked like a staged crash scene.

Although the Jeep appeared to have been lived in post-crash, valuable items such as $2,500 in cash, jewelry, documents such as Leah’s passport and bank book remained behind.
Evidence of her kitten being present on the journey was also in the vehicle, but the kitten itself was never found.
A box of road trip mementos lead investigators to a restaurant in a nearby town where two men claimed to remember Leah and one attested that she’d left with a man named “Barry” and that she had been telling the men about her plans and situation.

She hasn’t been seen since.


Sources: http://doenetwork.org/cases/3289dfnc.html
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Leah_Roberts
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/r/roberts_leah.html


The Cemetery suicide of the unknown woman

(Image: Google Earth)
On the 18th of December 1996 in Annandale, Fairfax County, Virginia, an unidentified woman was found dead by suicide in the infants section of a small cemetery in Pleasant valley memorial park.

She had premeditated her suicide, leaving a typed note saying:

“Deceased by own hand… Prefer no autopsy. Please order cremation with funds provided. Thank you, Jane Doe.”

She left $100 in the form of two $50 bills to be given to the coroner and the cemetery.

Jane Doe was found on a plastic sheet that she had laid out on the ground. There was a small, decorated 8” Christmas tree nearby.
She had ingested brandy and valium and her blood-alcohol level was 0.14.
She was wearing head phones and listening to a stand-up comedy cassette of “The 2000 year old man” routine by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks. There was a plastic bag over her head with masking tape making it air tight at the neck.

There were no clues to her identity on her person and no leads for investigators to follow, however the contents of her backpack included:

-A portable cassette player
-2X cassettes including “Monty Python and the holy grail” and “You might be a redneck” by Jeff Foxwirthy.
-2 empty juice bottles
-Roll of masking tape (the same one used to seal the plastic bag around her neck)

The unknown woman was estimated between 50 – 70 years old, Caucasian, around 5”0 tall with curly copper brown hair and a C-section scar.
Her nails were painted with red polish.

Who was the cemetery suicide Jane Doe?

As always guys, if you have any leads on this case, contact:
 Northern District Medical Examiner’s Office 703-530-2600 
Fairfax County Crime Solvers 800-411-TIPS or 703-691-8888

sources: http://doenetwork.org/cases/245ufva.html

Saturday 17 October 2015

One way ticket to nowhere:


 14 year old Andrew Gosden left for school at 8:05am on Friday September 14th 2007.
He returned not too soon after both his parents had left for work, took off his school uniform and put it in the laundry basket. As he would usually do when coming home from school, he hung his blazer over the back of the chair in his bedroom.

Later that day, when his parents returned home, they assumed that he was playing video games in the basement, but upon discovering he wasn’t there, began to call his friends locally, who informed them that Andrew hadn’t even attended school that day.

Police searched the local area over the weekend, but turned up nothing.

It was only the following Monday that Andrews bank records revealed a £250 withdrawal and the purchase of a one way ticket to London Kings Cross. A counter clerk at the train station recalled serving him and remembered having a conversation about Andrew purchasing a return ticket for only 50p more. Andrew declined, and bought a single ticket.

A passenger on the train confirmed that Andrew had made the journey, and had sat quietly playing with his PSP.

CCTV footage from Kings Cross station confirmed the story of the passenger, however the footage wasn’t found until 24 days later and by then the trail had gone cold.


On the CCTV footage, the teenager is shown with medium length brown hair and is clad in a Slipknot T-shirt, glasses and has a messenger bag over his shoulder. His parents didn’t believe that he had taken any extra clothing, however the messenger bag looked to have been fuller than it should have considering that he was thought to be carrying only a PSP and a wallet.

A search of the boy’s bedroom revealed that he had neglected to take an extra £100 in cash along with the charger for his PSP.

Despite a police investigation of the family’s PC and the school computers, nothing turned up. It is speculated that Andrew was intelligent enough to permanently erase his browser history and cover his tracks if he wanted to, and the thoroughness of the police search is unknown.
His parents noted that Andrew didn’t use his phone or computer much, however the PSP 1000 and PSP 2000 both had the ability to connect to the internet via WIFI, and so it is possible Andrew could have accessed the internet via his device. The police do retain the serial number and box for Andrews PSP in case it turns up as evidence at a later date.

Just under a month had passed by the time the last recorded images of Andrew had surfaced, meaning it was too late to follow the surveillance trail of bread crumbs as most footage is erased within a 28 day period.

Andrew came from a supportive middle class family, with whom he lived in his family home in Doncaster, UK. His parents had been described as Christians.
Both he and his older sister were intelligent with Andrew excelling in Mathematics and being something of a genius in the subject. Both siblings were into alternative sub-cultures and Andrew was into alternative music. In photographs he is shown wearing T-Shirts from bands such as Slipknot, HIM and Muse.

Other than photographs of Andrew pre-disappearance, and the age progressed generated images of what he may look like now, he also has the distinguishing feature of a double ridged ear, as portrayed in the “Still missing” photo.

Some speculate that Andrew wanted to and intended to disappear and start a new life, much like one of his favorite fictional character Reginald Perrin, from the series “The fall and rise of Reginald Perrin”.

Andrews family have suffered greatly since his dissaperence, with his father even attempting suicide.

What happened to Andrew Gosden?



If you have any information regarding his case, please contact:

South Yorks Police on 0114-220 2020
Missing People on 116 000
 NPIA Missing Persons Bureau on 0845 000 5481



sources: http://helpustofindandrew.weebly.com/blog
http://southyorks.police.uk/missing-people/andrew-gosden-missing-five-years-doncaster

Wednesday 14 October 2015

The man who has been without an identity for 11 years finally knows who he is:


Benjaman Kyle, the man who has been without an identity for 11 years finally knows who he is. Found behind a dumpster outside of a Burger King and hospitalized, Benjaman woke up with no memory of who he was, and was diagnosed with retrograde amenesia. 

Unable to work without I.D or a social security number Kyle was dependent on the support system that rallied around him in Jackson, Florida, where he’s lived for over a decade while searching for who he is. 

Thanks to the help of genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore, he was able to determine his identity using the same process used in finding biological parents in adoption cases. 

He made the following Facebook post:

 “MY IDENTITY HAS BEEN FOUND! It is now the start of the eleventh year since this began and I never thought this day would come. A little over two months ago I was informed by CeCe Moore that that they had established my Identity using DNA. Many people had shared their DNA profiles so that they could be compared with mine. Through a process of elimination they determined my ancestral bloodline and who my relatives were. A DNA test taken by a close relative has confirmed that we are related. I have been in contact with them and plan on visiting them next week. I will soon have a Social Security card and a new Florida ID card. I am reserving my new name for now until I have met my new found relatives.”

sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjaman_Kyle
https://www.facebook.com/benjaman.kyle.9/posts/10207885434472513

The Jefferson County cold case:



On the 27th January 1993 in Ina, Jefferson county, Illinois, the severed head of an unidentified woman was found in a brush in Wayne Fitzgerrell state park. 

The map below (from Google maps) gives us a general idea of the what the area looks like.

 Two little girls discovered the head while playing in the park, according to investigators the perpetrator made no effort to conceal the head on disposal.The general consensus is that it was probably thrown from a moving vehicle and is considered a murder.

 As you can tell by the reconstruction, the face was definitely recognizable with what looks like brown mahogany hair in a grown out bob haircut with bangs / a fringe. A small mole on her left ear was noted.
Although I agree with most that the image does look waxy and ghoulish it was probably rendered directly from the postmortem image and therefore holds the most likeness.

The dental analysis revealed a possible change in economic circumstances (or just a possible disregard for dental care) as there was costly previous work performed, coupled with a more recent state of decay. 

The victim was Caucasian and her age is estimated anywhere between 30 – 50. (The only news clipping I could find said she looked around 30)

Jane Doe had also suffered from Torticollis (more commonly know as wry neck syndrome) which meant she may have had difficulty turning her head certain ways and might have often spasmed involuntarily. It's thought that her head was likely often turned to the left.
The only other information about the Jane Doe is that her neck condition could have been linked to a past accident, as she had what is described on the isp.state site as a "healed traumatic lesion on the skull". I'm assuming that's a skull fracture or some sort injury sustained in her life previously. 

(image source)


Her identity remains unknown. 


If you have any information regarding this case, contact Stacie Speith at the Illinois state police on 618-529-6500quoting case number LE: C93-0159 

Sources: wikipedia
FB cold cases

Mr. Cruel:



Mr. Cruel aka “The Hampton rapist” is an unidentified murderer, rapist, kidnapper and burglar, active in Melbourne Australia between the 80’s and early 90’s. 

He’s known for breaking and entering the homes of children, tying up their parents and burgling the property before kidnapping the child and taking them to his home where he would abuse them, possibly on camera, before releasing them hours later. 

Although In one exception, the victim was found dead by 3 gunshot wounds to the chest.

He has never been convicted or even identified.

Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3mqall/mr_cruel/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Cruel




The Watcher:


The “polite burglar” is the nickname given to a man who breaks into peoples homes in the Winchester and Woburn area to watch them sleep, only to apologize and leave when they wake up.
 He is described as in his early 20’s, either Hispanic or African American with acne scars. He wears a grey hoody and is around 6ft.

If you have any information, call Woburn Police at 781-933-1212 or Winchester Police at (781) 729-1212

source: http://www.whdh.com/story/27323752/polite-burglar-strikes-again-in-winchester

Thursday 8 October 2015

The Tower of Silence:

(Image from Youtube)

The above images are photographs of “The tower of silence” in Bangalore. 

The purpose of the open air structure is to allow scavenger birds access to the corpses inside, so that the flesh may be stripped from the bodies true to the Zoroastrian belief that earth and fire is sacred and should not be contaminated by the dead.

sources: http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jan/26/death-city-lack-vultures-threatens-mumbai-towers-of-silence
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/death/page3.htm

Candy apples and razor blades:



We’ve all heard the urban legends about poisoned Halloween candy and razor blades in candy apples, but those are just stories, right?
...Right?

Ronald Clarke O’ Bryan, aka The Candy man, was a Texas born father of two, who worked as an optician in Houston.

He was active in his local church, where he was a Deacon and a choir singer.
On Halloween night in 1974, O’ Bryan spiked five 21” Pixy Stix and gave them to his children as part of their Trick-or-Treat Candy haul. He also handed out the deadly candy to a couple of neighborhood kids, in order to make it look less suspicious when he eventually claimed the money from his children’s life insurance policies following their premeditated deaths.
Or at least, that was his plan.

His son Timothy, who was eight years old at the time, was the only child to eat the Pixy Stix and ingest the cyanide laced sherbet. He died an hour after consuming it on his way to the hospital, after claiming he had an upset stomach and writing and vomiting in pain.

Although not originally a suspect, Timothy’s autopsy results indicated that the Pixy Stix he ate was laced with enough of the poison to kill two grown men.
Police investigated and found the spiked candy that O’Bryan had handed out to the kids. 
They found that the packaging had been tampered with and that someone had opened the confectionary, mixed potassium cyanide with the top level contents and stapled the plastic shut again.
O’Bryan claimed to have received the candy from a man in one of the two streets the kids had been trick or treating in, supervised by him and his neighbor.

He could give no description of the man, other than that he had a “hairy arm” that snaked out the slightly cracked door of an otherwise dark house, holding out a bunch of Pixy Stix which he then took and distributed to the kids who were trick or treating ahead of him.
The man who lived at the house in question was Courtney Melvin, an air traffic controller who was working at the time and thus ruled at as a suspect due to the high volumes of witness and alibies he was able to provide.

Parents in the neighborhood began to panic and throw away their Children’s candy.
An investigation uncovered information regarding O’Bryan’s financial problems.
He was over $100,000 in debt, about to be unemployed, his car had been repossessed and his house recently taken.


He had also taken out multiple life insurance policies on his two children, which his wife claimed to not be aware of. He called the companies one day after his son’s death and allegedly boasted of buying luxurious items and booking vacations while at the funeral of his child.
According to a local Chemist and a Chemical supplies salesman, O’Bryan had even made enquires about purchasing Cyanide and how much of it would take to kill a human.

He was executed by lethal injection on March 31st 1984.

sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Clark_O%27Bryan
http://murderpedia.org/male.O/o1/obryan-ronald-clark.htm
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Man-Who-Killed-Halloween-still-haunts-holiday-1971811.php

Thursday 1 October 2015

Bizarre and grotesque:

Hey everyone!
Do yourself a favor and go check out


They recently published the most recent REAL LIFE IS HORROR post on Ahmad Suradji, so go and show them some love!