The stench of death clung in the air around the entryway closet of Misti McKenzie’s rural home.
Misti’s parents built the house in 1968, about a mile east of Richmond, Mo., on the spot where the parent’s of Bob Ford, the assassin of outlaw Jesse James, once lived. Ford, murdered in Colorado 10 years after the assassination, is buried in the Richmond City Cemetery.
“Not too long after we moved in, there was a terrible smell that came from the entryway coat closet,” Misti said. “Mom was convinced we had a dead mouse in the wall and tore out drywall in the closet and the basement below in an attempt to find the source.”
Misti’s parents never found a source for the smell, but knew it wasn’t a natural smell, because it never went away.
“It was so bad we couldn't store our coats in there,” Misti said.
Eventually, Misti’s mother turned to someone to find where the smell was coming from. Not an exterminator, not a carpenter or a plumber, but a psychic.
“Mom always had an interest in spirituality, psychics and metaphysics,” Misti said. “She was a pretty darn good psychic herself but she never wanted that to get out too much.”
During a gathering hosted by Misti’s mother, two psychics discovered the origin of the odor of death.
“She met two little old ladies who were ‘ghost busters,’” Misti said. “They believed that there was the spirit of a Confederate soldier that had run away injured from the Battle at Lexington.”
Misti had doubts about the story. That battle, from Sept. 18 to 20, 1861, was approximately 12 miles away. The wounded soldier would have also had to cross the Missouri River, which wasn’t likely.
“They said he died there where Mom's house was built,” Misti said. “They helped his spirit make his crossing to the light – he apparently had great remorse for running away and left unfinished business and I guess that is why he got stuck in our closet.”
After the cleansing, the smell of death was gone.
“After nearly 15 years, we could finally hang coats in there. The smell never returned,” Misti said. “To this day, if I think about it, it can feel sorta creepy in that entry hall if I am there alone. My son is living in the house now and does his best to keep that story as far in the back of his mind as he can – understandably so.”
Misti’s son, Ray Smith, said research on the Ford house revealed it wasn’t a soldier from the Battle of Lexington who died in the home, it was Bob Ford’s brother Charles, who shot himself through the heart.
“Charlie Ford committed suicide in the house that was once out there,” Misti said. “The little old lady ghostbusters thought the ‘young man’ had died from a head wound and had taken up staying in the closet because he was confused. Could it be that Charlie Ford was hanging around in our closet, trying to find his way home?”
But, as with many places marred with tragedy, Charlie Ford wasn’t the only one to try to commit suicide there.
“One more creepy little sideline in this story is that my Mom's Uncle Sammy was one of the last people to live in that old (Ford) house before it was torn down,” Misti said. “He attempted suicide by shooting himself in the head but was unsuccessful. Obviously, Uncle Sammy was never quite the same again. I don't remember much about him except he scared me as a little girl. I do remember seeing blood on the wall upstairs bedroom.”
Misti also remembers bullet holes in the walls of the old Ford house and a trap door in the floor.
“I was told the trap door lead to a tunnel that came out down the hill from the house and was used as an escape tunnel,” she said, but like the original house, the Fords and the smell of death, “any evidence of that is gone.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
The Helpful Spirit of Seward, Nebraska
College student Micaela Daley’s family moved to an older, two-story home in Seward, Neb., in 1991 when Micaela was five. It didn’t take the house long to let them know it was watching them.
“My mom was pregnant with my brother and my sister was 15,” she said. “My sister had the typical ’90s big hair. The thing that was seen, my parents thought it was my sister.”
Micaela’s mother was home on a workday with morning sickness when she saw someone walking to the second floor.
“She went upstairs,” Micaela said. “She thought it was my sister. Then she remembered Wendy was in school. It was the middle of the day.”
As Micaela’s mother ascended the steps, she heard water dripping. When she got to the bathroom, she noticed someone hadn’t removed the plug from the bathroom sink.
“The sink was almost ready to overflow,” Micaela said. “My mom was really creeped out.”
But the family soon discovered it wasn’t just Mom who was seeing things.
“Friday and Saturday night my dad likes to stay up and watch movies on TV,” she said. “He was sitting in the living room. He thought he heard someone walking around in the kitchen so he got up. He thought he saw someone who looked like my sister walk through the door.”
But Wendy had already come home for the evening and was asleep in bed. Micaela’s father started to look for the figure he’d seen, but smelled something burning in the kitchen.
“There was a bag of hamburger buns sitting on a burner that had been left on and was about ready to burst into flames,” Micaela said. “It was probably my sister. She’s kind of careless.”
After he moved the buns and turned off the burner, Micaela’s father looked for someone in the house – but only his family was there.
But whatever was in the house wasn’t finished warning the Daleys when something was wrong.
“We were all sleeping and my mom has this ridiculously good sense of smell,” she said. Her mom smelled something burning. “Dad checked it out. He heard someone in the basement walking down the stairs. He went down there and he saw the furnace had caught fire. We stayed at a hotel that night.”
The Daleys were never really uneasy with the figure – who looked like Micaela’s sister – because it only showed up when something was wrong.
“The first couple of things were helpful,” Micaela said. “That all happened within the first year. Nothing happened to me until I was a little older.”
When the Daleys moved into the house, they didn’t have air conditioning. Young Micaela left her door open for the breeze. After air conditioning was installed, she started closing her door at night.
“I collected Beanie Babies,” she said. They were lined on a shelf high on her wall. “The first night I kept my door closed, I heard the bean sound. Thump, shunk.”
She tried to ignore the sound of Beanie Babies striking and sliding down her wall and eventually fell to sleep.
“When I woke up the next morning there were five Beanie Babies on the floor near my door,” she said. “But they were only the ones with wings. That happened three times.”
Micaela thinks whatever is in her house didn’t like her door shut.
Wendy and Micaela would oftentimes smell pipe tobacco in the house, although no one in the house smokes. The Daley family also occasionally saw figures move in their periphery.
“All of these things happened between the ages of five to eight,” she said. “My dad talked with the family that lived there before and the parents thought the kids were crazy because they didn’t experience things, but the kids did.”
Wendy is convinced there are two spirits in the house: the girl her parents have seen and a child that may have thrown Micaela’s Beanie Babies. But since something has saved the Daley’s house from fire and flood, they’re not eager to rid their home of its helping spirits.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“My mom was pregnant with my brother and my sister was 15,” she said. “My sister had the typical ’90s big hair. The thing that was seen, my parents thought it was my sister.”
Micaela’s mother was home on a workday with morning sickness when she saw someone walking to the second floor.
“She went upstairs,” Micaela said. “She thought it was my sister. Then she remembered Wendy was in school. It was the middle of the day.”
As Micaela’s mother ascended the steps, she heard water dripping. When she got to the bathroom, she noticed someone hadn’t removed the plug from the bathroom sink.
“The sink was almost ready to overflow,” Micaela said. “My mom was really creeped out.”
But the family soon discovered it wasn’t just Mom who was seeing things.
“Friday and Saturday night my dad likes to stay up and watch movies on TV,” she said. “He was sitting in the living room. He thought he heard someone walking around in the kitchen so he got up. He thought he saw someone who looked like my sister walk through the door.”
But Wendy had already come home for the evening and was asleep in bed. Micaela’s father started to look for the figure he’d seen, but smelled something burning in the kitchen.
“There was a bag of hamburger buns sitting on a burner that had been left on and was about ready to burst into flames,” Micaela said. “It was probably my sister. She’s kind of careless.”
After he moved the buns and turned off the burner, Micaela’s father looked for someone in the house – but only his family was there.
But whatever was in the house wasn’t finished warning the Daleys when something was wrong.
“We were all sleeping and my mom has this ridiculously good sense of smell,” she said. Her mom smelled something burning. “Dad checked it out. He heard someone in the basement walking down the stairs. He went down there and he saw the furnace had caught fire. We stayed at a hotel that night.”
The Daleys were never really uneasy with the figure – who looked like Micaela’s sister – because it only showed up when something was wrong.
“The first couple of things were helpful,” Micaela said. “That all happened within the first year. Nothing happened to me until I was a little older.”
When the Daleys moved into the house, they didn’t have air conditioning. Young Micaela left her door open for the breeze. After air conditioning was installed, she started closing her door at night.
“I collected Beanie Babies,” she said. They were lined on a shelf high on her wall. “The first night I kept my door closed, I heard the bean sound. Thump, shunk.”
She tried to ignore the sound of Beanie Babies striking and sliding down her wall and eventually fell to sleep.
“When I woke up the next morning there were five Beanie Babies on the floor near my door,” she said. “But they were only the ones with wings. That happened three times.”
Micaela thinks whatever is in her house didn’t like her door shut.
Wendy and Micaela would oftentimes smell pipe tobacco in the house, although no one in the house smokes. The Daley family also occasionally saw figures move in their periphery.
“All of these things happened between the ages of five to eight,” she said. “My dad talked with the family that lived there before and the parents thought the kids were crazy because they didn’t experience things, but the kids did.”
Wendy is convinced there are two spirits in the house: the girl her parents have seen and a child that may have thrown Micaela’s Beanie Babies. But since something has saved the Daley’s house from fire and flood, they’re not eager to rid their home of its helping spirits.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
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