[ominous music playing]
[rattling]
[cart moving along track]
[whistling tune]
Three, two, one.
-[thuds loudly] -Hey!
[rumbles]
-Fu-- -[explodes]
[high-pitched ringing]
[brooding music plays]
[grunting, panting]
Please help.
Please. Mr. Croft?
Please help.
[mysterious music plays]
[whooshes]
My name is Wyatt, and I was haunted by the spirit of a man from the 1800s.
[sinister music playing]
[mysterious music plays]
I wanted to thank all of you for coming.
This was important for all of us to get around and talk about this.
It's important to me to tell this story, because I've been afraid to.
It's a subject we've all avoided…
-Yes. -…because it's uncomfortable.
And this is part of the catharsis, is all of us sitting around…
and talking about this.
As we all know, I'm from Crofton,
in British Columbia, on Vancouver Island in Canada.
The town was founded as a mining town.
[mysterious music plays]
Crofton was actually named from, uh, Mr. Henry Croft.
He owned the mining activities around the-- around the location.
[Jessica] He was the boss, and everybody did what he said.
And if you didn't,
you're disposable.
They didn't have a safety program.
They didn't have that kind of thing to watch over the workers.
And so, um, lots of people died in there.
My mom had found a good job there in Crofton.
And, um, so we all moved.
And I found out later that the house that we moved into was Henry Croft's home.
[ominous music plays]
-Creepy-looking house. -It was a huge home, almost a castle.
For lack of a better word, it looked like a haunted house.
-[clanging note plays] -[crow caws]
The day we moved in…
it was a really foreboding kind of feeling.
There was something… something off.
[ominous music playing]
[eerie music plays]
[music fades]
[ominous music playing]
-[dramatic music plays] -[gasping]
[gasps]
Seeing all these dolls
lined up on the chairs and on the couch…
and I remember they were the same size as me.
The first thing I think of every time with that house is those dolls.
Same.
And-- And that woodshed.
I had a hard time anyway with that house,
and so I just avoided the woodshed.
I never went out there.
I didn't want to clean it
-or have anything to do with it. -[Wyatt] Yeah, what I saw
in that woodshed, it, uh…
It affected me quite a lot.
[suspenseful music plays]
[wind whistling]
[ominous music playing]
-[gasps] -[eerie music playing]
There was a large stain there on the wall…
and I didn't know what it was.
It made me feel cold and…
…and unwelcome.
When I saw it, I looked directly at my mother and I said,
"There is absolutely no way I am living in this house."
And I had found a box of kittens, wild kittens under the porch,
and I was told that I could have a kitten if I would move into the house.
Yup, I remember that.
-So, I got my kitten and we moved in. -[Wyatt] That was too sneaky.
[eerie music playing]
[kitten meows]
[creaking]
[cigar sizzling]
[creaking continues]
I can remember smelling cigar smoke at the top of the stairs.
And the rocking chair.
I couldn't see anybody in the room.
No, it was like-- Almost like there was somebody in my room
just sitting there in the chair, smoking.
It was an overwhelmingly creepy moment.
Do you guys remember the storage-laundry shack off the back of the house?
Where our washer and dryer was?
-[ominous music playing] -[wind whistling]
[whooshing]
[faint wailing]
[box rasps open]
[intriguing music playing]
[sinister music playing]
[Jessica] I remember seeing the pictures. People in coffins, people in coffins.
I can remember some were just a coffin with a person,
and some had family members around.
And it was terrifying, because I could tell these were dead people,
you know, in where I'm living.
And there's formaldehyde and embalming fluid.
You know, and, I don't know, just a lot of questions
when I-- when I discovered that stuff on my own.
After we moved into that house, among the first few days,
I remember, uh, being awake, because I had a hard time sleeping.
[footsteps creaking]
[footstep creaks]
[Wyatt breathing heavily]
[footsteps continue]
[ominous music rising]
[music fades]
[toy siren blaring and buzzing]
[eerie music playing]
[turns off toy]
[ominous music rising]
[creaking]
[cigar sizzles]
[creaking continues]
[toy siren blaring and buzzing]
[eerie music playing]
[footsteps creaking]
That fire car turned on without any batteries in it.
And I clearly heard footsteps.
I was so scared,
and I remember just pulling the blankets up over my head.
And I remember quite often I would run into your room, Jessica.
And I would-- I would sleep in your bed, because I was too afraid to be by myself.
[footsteps creaking]
[cigar sizzles]
-[footsteps continue] -[both breathing heavily]
-[dramatic music playing] -[Jessica screams]
[echoing scream]
[ominous music plays]
I remember screaming.
I remember screaming that night.
I remember he was in the rocking chair,
and I remember seeing the--
the orange light come up, and then it would get brighter.
Then it would go back down, as if somebody was smoking a cigar.
I wouldn't sleep upstairs anymore, and I felt so bad leaving you up there,
but I couldn't stay.
That's when it started to get very hard for me,
because I didn't know what to think.
I-- I…
That's when ghosts started becoming something that's real
and not just in the cartoons.
And-- And the escalation…
just continued and-- and continued.
[eerie music playing]
[toy siren wailing]
[ominous music playing]
[toy siren getting louder]
[dramatic music plays]
[thudding loudly]
-[eerie music plays] -[cigar sizzles]
[Wyatt] I didn't tell you
-about the stairs. -I don't know why. Yeah.
-I didn't-- -It's awful. You were a little boy.
I didn't want to ruin your house for you, because I knew how much you loved it.
[suspenseful music playing]
Believe me, I knew things were going on, but…
but I didn't, um, take it as serious.
Things didn't happen to me like they did to you.
Every month we lived there, things would escalate a little bit.
And it got really extreme.
I'd go to bed every night and expect for something to happen.
[crickets chirping]
-[whooshing] -[gasps]
[breathing heavily]
-[dramatic note plays] -[toy siren wailing]
[sinister music playing]
-[buzzing] -[eerie music playing]
[music intensifies]
[thuds]
[toy continues moving]
-[music stops] -[siren continues]
[Wyatt breathing heavily]
[eerie music playing]
[cries out in pain, thuds]
-[siren continues] -[wincing]
-[tense music rising] -[grunts]
[continues wincing]
[music stops]
That was so much pain.
Took you straight to the hospital.
I had to have it surgically removed.
-Yeah. It was so in there. Yup. -Yup.
I took very good care of my tackle box, and of my fishing gear in general.
I was really proud of it.
It would have been inconceivable for one fish hook to be on my floor,
let alone the whole tackle box.
There's no doubt that was intended for me to step on those fish hooks, and-- and…
Was a horrible experience.
It was almost as if the spirit in the house was--
was upping the ante.
Just as things escalated in the house,
I was becoming more and more reserved,
and I wasn't the same with my friends.
I wasn't the same with my family.
I pulled away from everybody.
That's when I got interested in the history of Crofton
and of the house that we lived in.
And then I-- I went back into that woodshed…
[gentle piano music playing]
…to look through the archives of old boxes and newspapers.
[tense music slowly rising]
[eerie music plays]
A picture of Henry Croft came up as I was going through it.
And I recognized him like I'd recognize my own father.
I recognized him immediately. I knew that was him.
That was the spirit that-- that had taunted me and--
and did what he did in the house.
-[dramatic music plays] -[Jessica screams]
[Wyatt screams]
I knew that was him, and I felt…
I felt anger and I felt… rage.
And it was like, this is the fucker that did this to us.
You know, and…
and I was able to put a face to what was happening.
[eerie music playing]
And then I found out something else…
that terrified me.
[breathing heavily]
The previous tenant in the house had committed suicide.
[brooding music playing]
And, um,
the house was subsequently left vacant for four years before we moved in.
That's why the rent was so affordable.
That was a, uh… a surreal moment for me,
to realize that I was standing in that spot
where-- where that man took his life.
And, um…
I don't know what he went through and why he did what he did,
why he committed suicide…
what drove him to do it.
[sobbing quietly]
-[whooshes] -[gasps]
[continues sobbing]
[Wyatt] But if he went through what we did in that house…
there's a really good chance that he killed himself because of that,
because of the torment and because of the-- the haunting
that happened in that house.
Maybe he was pushed to it…
the way he was pushing us.
[suspenseful music rising]
The way Mr. Croft was pushing us.
[door creaks opens]
[cigar sizzles]
-[gunshot echoes] -[music fading]
The manifestations were reaching a crescendo, so to speak, and, um,
uh, I'll never forget the-- the night that, uh,
that we were all there.
That, you know, Max, you were there, and you were there.
-One of the worst nights of my life. -[Wyatt] Yeah, absolutely.
-[ominous music playing] -Jessica, you had your friend Diane over.
-[crickets chirping] -[rumbling]
-[objects rattling] -[crashing]
-Wyatt? -[glass rattling]
Wyatt!
[static crackling]
-[whooshes] -[screams]
[sounds fade]
[cigar sizzles]
-[breathing heavily] -[crickets chirping]
[creaks, slams]
-[clatters] -[gasps]
[breathing heavily]
-[metal creaks] -[all scream]
-[sinister music plays] -[screams]
-[whimpering] -[electricity crackles]
[metallic rattling]
[girl's scream echoes]
[music fades]
We all ran down the street, and we went to, uh, your friend's place.
And, uh… And we called Mom.
I went to the house, and when I walked in the door, it was quiet as quiet.
There was a few lights on, but nothing.
And, uh, I remember there was a plate,
and it was in the wall like it had been thrown like a Frisbee…
and it was stuck there.
I knew what had happened. Just to see it,
you're just in awe, you're speechless.
I just wanted to go get my kids.
So I think I went and picked you up from then--
-from there. -Yup.
I never took into consideration how dangerous that house really is.
I still have a hard time believing it, and I lived through it.
-[Cindy] Yeah. -I have a hard time believing
what I saw with my own eyes.
-Everything was smashed. -And the furniture was flipped over,
chairs were flipped over, table's on its side.
It was, well, sadly what happened to Diane that night…
-[Wyatt] Yeah. -…which broke our hearts.
Just half a mile from our house down the street.
Yup. Diane didn't want to come back to the house, so she went home.
And they were on their way down the hill…
-[radiator hissing] -[siren wailing]
[Wyatt] That night, Diane died in that car accident.
[eerie music playing]
[cigar sizzles]
[crickets chirping]
I had found that out, and I was at home,
and, uh, Mom's boyfriend was cleaning up the accident scene.
And he had picked up the car and came home for lunch.
And he had parked it right outside my window.
And you could still see hair in the broken glass.
I can remember Mom yelling at him, "You need to get that out of here."
That just destroyed me…
just seeing it.
[Wyatt sniffles]
Yeah, that was…
too much.
[sputters] I couldn't…
I think, for me, I feel everything's connected.
-I do. -[Wyatt] For sure.
[Cindy] I feel one didn't end before the other began.
I feel it is.
And I really, really hope that Diane didn't pay for that.
Is it my fault for bringing her there?
Like, I know it's not.
But if I hadn't have brought her there…
-I don't know what the word is. -Guilt?
-[click] -[Wyatt] Oh.
-[man 1] We lost a light. -What the hell.
[man 2] Keep rolling. We're working on the lights.
-Coming back. -[Wyatt] That is creepy.
-[Cindy] Oh. -[Jessica] That terrified me.
[man] Sorry, guys.
-[Wyatt] That's creepy. -[Cindy] Yeah.
[Jessica] Right when I said I felt guilty.
[Wyatt] That's weird.
[exhales deeply]
[Wyatt] Probably…
[Max] You know…
[sniffs] …when you take what happened out in the garage
with the previous tenant,
then you put us there.
-A lot of death surrounds that house. -Yeah, I feel the same way.
Of course, I trust the word of everyone here.
It's not something that I would have believed before, maybe.
But there's no question in my mind that… you guys experienced this.
So, it's an eye-opener,
and I don't think anybody should feel guilty for it.
Oh, I know. [sniffles]
It was-- It was time to go. It was time to go.
That was when you decided it was time to go as well.
-We left. -[Wyatt] We left the house.
It took too high a price out of all of us,
and we're paying for it to this day still.
You know, we carry this with us.
Nothing happened there that was natural, for sure.
[Wyatt] I personally think that Henry Croft himself,
there was a certain satisfaction he got out of scaring us.
He got something out of our fear.
He got something out of me crying.
He got something out of our screams when we were scared.
It was the hatred that I'd felt in the house.
[eerie music playing]
It couldn't be contained anymore.
And it just exploded.
[sinister music playing]
[sizzles]
[exhales deeply]
[sinister closing theme music plays]