Case 114: The Francis House

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Welcome to Sleepless in Suburbia Podcast Case 114

Intro

Locked away in attics, basements, and dark corners across the world are stories of beings and beasts that hide in the night. 

These are those stories.

This is the Sleepless in Suburbia Podcast

I’m Brooke, case manager for our team, and this is our audio case recap for Case 114: The Francis House. This is a different case for us, a more sensitive one that touched us all to tears, even our stoic Lo. The Francis House is a private residence, so we won’t release the address; instead, we will just say that this investigation took place in a small suburb outside of Topeka.

We received the following voicemail from Rachel Francis (listen to the podcast episode for voicemail):

Daughter Ally

Um hi, my name is Rachel Francis. I live with my daughter Ally; she’s 12, {city redacted}, KS. I could…. We could really use your help. My husband passed away last month, and since then, we’ve had some strange stuff going on in the house. We’re haunted, or maybe she’s haunted. I don’t know if it’s William or if something else is here since Ally… um… can you help? Please. My number is 913-{number redacted}. Uh, thanks.

We were heading to Kansas.

Property Details

We found the Francis home in a sleepy middle-class neighborhood outside of Topeka. This neighborhood isn’t one with cookie-cutter homes that all look the same and mandated by an HOA controlling what shade of greige your exterior can be.

The Francis House is white with black trim and shutters. There are planter boxes at each of the three front windows, popping with purple and yellow pansies. A mat at the front door reads, “I hope you brought wine.” We did not bring wine.

Inside is an open floor plan with three bedrooms and two baths. The garage is now almost entirely empty, but Rachel parks outside.

Team Update

I cried, ugly cried “Leave Britney alone” style, for a solid 15 min after listening to Rachel’s voicemail. To say I was triggered would be the understatement of the decade.

Ally is 12, one year younger than I was when my father died of brain cancer. I have been that little girl, more often than I care to admit I am still that little girl. Father-Daughter dances at weddings I hide in the bathroom, a grown woman hiding, fingers in her ears humming. Father’s Day feels like everyone else is part of a club I don’t get to be part of anymore. The day of his death, I call it my dark day, I don’t even recognize myself.

This case forced me to get face to face with my younger self—both internally and in the eyes of Ally. Selfishly I thought about deleting the voicemail and moving onto another case, but my dad didn’t fight so I could be a coward. I reached out to Claire, she’d handle responding to Rachel and coordinating the investigation details.

Historical Research

Pru did some extensive research on the land and area around the Francis home. No indigenous people burial ground, pet cemeteries, battlefields, or anything that may cause a hotbed of paranormal activity. The town’s claim to fame is their annual Apple Fritter Festival, where the crown Little Miss Apple Seed and the Apple Queen.

Claire connected with Rachel to learn more about the family. Rachel and William were married 15 years before his untimely death. They bought the family home a year before Ally was born.

Rachel runs a successful online lifestyle and recipe website, getting thousands of views on her recipe videos. Most notably her award-winning apple fritter pie. I checked out the recipe; it looks incredible!

William owned and operated a plumbing company with his brother Michael. Six weeks ago, William texted Ally and Rachel to let them know he was working late on a leaky shower and not waiting on him for dinner. William never made it home.

Ten miles from home in his company van, William suffered a massive heart attack, losing control of the vehicle and wrecking into a cornfield. Several witnesses stopped to help William, who was rushed to the local hospital. A responding officer went straight to the Francis residents after leaving the scene to notify the family.

William died en route to the hospital; he was 42 years old.

Onsite Interview Recap

The house was inviting; I wish we had brought the wine referenced by the doormat because Rachel had lemon bars waiting for us.

Ally was quiet, her blonde hair up in a top not. She bustled around the kitchen, making us Cherry Limeades that quickly made me forget about the wine.

After the best lemon bars I’ve ever had and three cherry limeades, Rachel took us to the garage. This was William’s workshop. He loved creating and tinkering in his version of a man cave. The space was once filled with tools, power saws, drills, various paints and stains, and different woods for projects; it sounded like he had just about everything a guy could want in a workshop.

But now, it was empty.

The only tool on the workbench against a wall was a pink hammer and a plus screwdriver for those who didn’t grow up in my house that would be a Phillips screwdriver.

The space was completely empty except for a few boxes with Good Will, and Michael scrawled on the sides with black sharpie.

The items in William’s shop were donated to Habitat for Humanity or given to Micahel. That hammer and screwdriver were all that remained.

Apparently, the empty garage came to life at night. The first night it happened, Rachel thought Micahel had come over, unable to sleep, to wrap up some home repair projects. She heard power tools buzzing and the sound of a hammer striking a nail. The sound continued as she made her way through the house, through the kitchen, and turning the handle to enter the garage, everything stopped. The garage was empty.

No Michael.

No tools to explain the sound.

She was the only one awake.

She texted Michael, who didn’t respond until the next day, saying he’d been asleep and not at her house.

A couple of nights later. Ally awoke to the sound of the big table saw in the garage buzzing with the sound of cutting wood. She explained that for a second, still fuzzy with sleep, she wondered why her dad was working on her bookshelf in the middle of the night. It was then she remembered fully that her dad wouldn’t ever finish the bookshelf and that the table saw hadn’t been in the garage workshop for over a week.

As she made her way to the garage, turning on the light in the kitchen, the buzzing saw noise abruptly stopped.

This workshop noise of tools and productivity is now a regular nightly occurrence at the Francis House.

Leaving the garage, we made our way to Ally’s bedroom painted pink, with gold foil circles dotting one wall. Clear twinkle lights hung like a canopy above her bed, and gray gold and pink pillows piled on top of her bed. Against one wall was a gold-painted bookshelf about chair molding height crammed with books. Books were stacked all helter-skelter next to the bookshelf. That’s why she needed the bookshelf.

Ally’s bed’s placed in a way that she can look out her bedroom door down the hallway. On the day of her father’s funeral, Ally was lying sleepless on her bed. Tossing and turning, she remembers looking out into the hallway seeing a shadow on the wall. She sat up, proving to herself that she wasn’t dreaming and watched a tall shadow with distinguishable arms, legs, body, and head walk down the hall towards her room, pausing in her doorway. Then it walked back down the hall out of her line of sight. Then back towards her pausing again at her door, back and forth. She screamed for her mom, convinced someone had broken into the house, and she was seeing the shadow of them creeping around.

There was no one else in the house. Lights out, Rachel sat on Ally’s bed watching out the door. The shadow was gone.

The next night Ally woke up around 2 am sitting up to get a drink when movement caught her eye. The shadow man was pacing the hallways in front of her room again. She called for her mother; there was no one else in the house. In fact, they realized that the way the shadow was seen, there wasn’t a light source that could be blocked to cause a shadow on that wall. It didn’t make any sense. Rachel worried that the stress of losing her father was impacting Ally more than she’d thought.

On the third night, Rachel laid with Ally, and the two fell asleep watching Gilmore Girls. Rachel woke up, checked her phone, it was 2:27 am. She clicked the TV off, sitting up, considering heading back to her room to sleep, when she saw it. A shadow moved in the hall, but when it paused in the doorway, it stood still for several moments like it was watching her. Next to her, Ally whispered, “I told you he was there.” “Who?” Rachel asked. “Daddy.”

Ally sees this shadowy figure several nights a week in the hall outside of her room.

By all accounts, things seemed to point directly towards William wanting to stay close to his family in the afterlife. Until Rachel pressed her daughter to tell us about “That Night with Peyton.”

“I just wanted to talk to him and like have him respond.” Ally said.

“It wasn’t even like a big deal.” She said.

“Peyton used it like a million times, and nothing bad ever happens.” She continued.

I remember looking at Claire, color drained from her face. Lo shook her head at Ford.

“Please tell me you didn’t use a….” I said.

“Oh she did,” Rachel interrupted.

Ally had wrangled her friend into using the one thing people should never use, an ouija board.

Let me pause here just a moment for a public service announcement. I’m sure you’ve heard this before and if you haven’t listen really really well.

Don’t use freaking ouija boards. Ever. Never. Nope don’t use them. Don’t have them in your house. It’s not a fun sleepover game like when we were kids, and we’d watch the Craft and play light as a feather stiff as aboard. It’s not a game.

You never know who or what you are communicating with and possibly releasing into our side of the veil when you tinker with that board. I get that it sounds fun, you want to see if it really works, or like Ally, you just want to talk to your loved one, one more time.

Don’t, those spirit boards are dangerous.

Okay, I am stepping off my soapbox now and back to Ally.

After Rachel went to bed, Ally and Peyton snuck out into the garage. They set up candles, and both recited a kind of spell of sorts that Peyton had found on the internet. They poured some salt on the planchet dripping three drops of candle wax on the salt before beginning their communication. I’ve heard of this ritual before, being used on the internet. The spell and the offerings, absolutely don’t do this. Don’t even google it to see what it’s about.

At first little happened. Then the planchet Spelled out W-I-L-L-I-A-M. He was there. Ally was so excited telling her dad she loved him; he spelled L-O-V-E-U back to her. This encounter continued until the candles on one side of the board went out. Ally explained that about this time, both girls began smelling what they described as really old trash.

The planchet stopped moving. Ally asked if her dad was still there, the planchet moved to NO and then spelled A-N-D-R-A-S. Scared, the girls started putting the board away. Setting the planchet on top, both girls saw a red substance pool on the top of the planchet. They put the lid on the box, placing it in a drawer of the workbench.

I text Pru to look into Andras.

Since the ouija board experience, Ally has had intense mood swings that she claims she’s unable to control. According to Rachel, Ally was never angry before, but now it will go from zero to furious at the drop of a hat. She isn’t sure if it’s emotions as Ally works through losing her father or if there’s something else at play.

Haunted Happenings

Let’s run down the haunted happenings at the Francis House.

• • The family has reported the overpowering scent of cedar that comes and goes without an explained source.
  • The smell of rotten eggs
  • Sound of a four-legged animal running through the house – the Francis’s don’t have dogs
  • Cold spots in Ally’s room and the hallway leading to the bedrooms.
  • Lights will turn out without explanation 
  • Doors slam
  • Hooting of an owl that seems to come from the walls. 
  •  Growls – again no dog on the property

Investigation Recap

Pru sent me us an email with notes on her Andras findings:

• Looks like Peryton and Ally were chatting with a demon, which is why you don’t mess with spirit boards, my friends. 
• This demon, we’ve said his name before, so for safety reasons we aren’t going to say it additionally, appears in the form of a winged man with the head of an owl. Owl like maybe what’s causing the hooting walls.
• The demon is also known to ride a black wolf, which makes me wonder if that could be the running animal that the family is hearing.
• This investigation got more and more serious as the day went on.
• This demon likes to create subtle discourse when it surfaces. Even going as far as helping create ideas of how to use anger to commit murder.
• A murder creating owl demon on a black hell wolf… awesome. 

It was a perfect storm, strong emotions, and trauma like this are an ideal feeding ground for a negative entity or being. Then by using the ouija board, the girls gave all that negativity an open invitation into the Francis home. 

Setup took place on Saturday, late afternoon with myself, Claire, Lo, and Ford. Lark had a sorority BMOC philanthropy event, and Pru was hosting a baby shower for her sister-in-law, so they sat this investigation out. With a smaller location, four investigators on deck were plenty. 

Rachel and Ally left home after set up to stay the evening at Rachel’s sister’s house. 

HQ was in the third bedroom that the family uses as an Office. 

Lo setup video monitors in HQ as well as two stationary cameras in the home. 

• One shooting down the hall where the shadow figure was seen
• One in the garage workshop area.

Lo only setup one full research pack with us investigating a smaller area; fewer resources were needed. We did, however, add a few extra pieces to this investigation. We didn’t want to run the risk of cross-contaminating each other’s evidence. 

Our Research Pack supplies included:

• K2 EMF Meter
• SB11 Spirit BOx
• Digital Voice Recorder
• Digital Camera
• Full Spectrum Video Camera
• Bandaids 
• Protein Bars – we still get hungry even if we aren’t leaving the building
• 4 – cross necklaces
• Holy Water – thank you First Methodist Church
• 4- Black Tourmaline crystals, 4 -Fluorite crystals, and 4 – Staurolite crystals – A pocket full of crystals for all of us

Lo stuck to HQ monitoring the two cameras. Claire, Ford, and I decided to explore the house together as a single team. 

These are our Experiences 

• We were all in this together.
  • Very quickly, I noticed what smelled like old hot trash. Like what I imagine it would smell like if you left eggs and meat in a bucket on a midwestern summer day. It was such a thick smell I felt like I could choke on it. Ford and Claire experienced the smell too.
  • Ford was sitting in the dining room, conducting an EVP session when she noticed a commotion. She shushed us all, and we listened to the sound of tools going to work coming from the direction of the kitchen and likely the garage. 
    • Ford captured this on her digital recorder, give it a listen.
    • Please listen to the podcast episode for EVP
    • Did you hear the tools?
    • We checked the garage, it was empty, and the sound stopped before we made it through the kitchen.
  • Alone in the living room, Claire felt suddenly queasy and noted the air seemed heavy. She pulled out the bottle of holy water and dabbed some on her wrists and neck. Before she could even put the holy water lid on and back in her pocket, she felt a burning sensation on her back. Lifting her shirt, we found three scratches. 
    • You can visit the case files on Instagram or Facebook @SLEEPLESSSUBURBIAPOD to check out this picture and additional evidence. 
  • An EVP session in the garage captured this unsettling sound
    • Please listen to the podcast episode for EVP
    • Growling, again, the family doesn’t have pets. Could it be what’s coming and going through the ouija board? 
  • I was recording video as Ford and walked into the master bathroom; the double doors slammed shut behind us. We couldn’t recreate this, and Lo and Claire were in HQ. 
    • You can watch the video in this weeks case file on Instagram or Facebook 
  • Walking to the bathroom, Lo walked through a cold spot in the hallway by Ally’s room, this one area of chilly air registered 7 degrees cooler than the rest of the hallway.
  • Sitting in the office watching the monitors, Lo heard a low growling sound that she could not explain.
  • It felt to me that there were two different things at play in the Francis House. One felt warm and calming – giving me the dad vibe. The other felt uneasy and made our stomachs knot up. The entire investigation was rollercoastering between feeling safe and feeling dangerous.
  • Ford caught this EVP sitting on Ally’s bed, give it a listen and tell us what you hear.
    • Please listen to the podcast episode for EVP
    • What did you hear? We heard “here”.
    • Could this be William letting his daughter know he’s watching over her?

Wrap Up

Rachel said that Ally, out of the house, was her normal easy-going self. The lash out mood swings disappeared. We recommended the Francis women stay another couple nights with Rachel’s sister, and we’d handle some “housekeeping” items at the house to make it safe for them to return.

If at all possible, Rachel wanted to kick out whatever was coming and going through the spirit board (demon) while keeping her husband’s spirit if it was, in fact, him.

We handled the ouija board for the Francis’s. After swinging by Lowes for a shovel and First Methodist Church for holy water, we went to a remote area. Digging two holes, placing the board and the planchet in their separate holes. We doused both items with holy water, filled in the holes, and drenched the soil with holy water.

We then reached out to a professional to perform a cleansing and a blessing on the house. Advising them to take special care of what we believe is the spirit of William. A spiritual teacher will check the Francis House the following days to ensure nothing negative or harmful remains.

Last night I received an email from Rachel. The gross smells are gone, and Ally’s moodiness matches up with that of a teenager, not a budding murder fueled by an owl demon, she celebrated her 13th birthday over the weekend. The shadow figure is still strolling up and down the hallway, and about once a week, they hear phantom tools working in the garage. There hasn’t been a sense of negative energy in the house. We are comfortable closing case 114.

Closing

If you want to check out some of our pictures from Whitehurst Winery case file, listen to the EVP’s, and stay up to date with everything happening behind the scenes you can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram we are at @SLEEPLESSSUBURBIAPOD

We will be back next week with another case, until then thanks again for listening to Sleepless in Suburbia. If you enjoy our cases, please make sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcast, and make sure to subscribe, so you get our new case each week.

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