Listener Tales 93

Summary

Morbid Episode 633: Listener Tales 93 - Detailed Summary

Released on January 2, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 633 of Morbid, titled "Listener Tales 93," hosts Elena and Ash delve into a collection of eerie and heartfelt listener-submitted stories. This episode blends spine-chilling experiences with the hosts' signature humor, providing listeners with a compelling mix of true crime, spooky history, and personal hauntings.

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Listener Tale 1: Ash's Fondly Frightening Christmas Memory

Timestamp: [06:37]

Ash opens the episode with a personal Christmas tale from a listener named Leanne, who recounts a bizarre family experience on Christmas Eve 1991. Growing up in a haunted house previously used as a doctor's office, Leanne describes her great Grandma B's encounters with a ghostly presence referred to as "Sarah the Boogin."

Notable Quote:

Ash [06:37]: "The delivery driver did not follow instructions. Walked right past the first patrol car under the yellow tape and right up to my dad."

Leanne narrates how her father, a patrol officer, inadvertently involved his daughters in a peculiar task of delivering pizza to a crime scene, highlighting questionable parenting amidst a backdrop of a real-life tragedy.

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Listener Tale 2: Emma’s Hanukkah Hauntings

Timestamp: [26:26]

Emma shares her haunting experiences growing up in a Queen Anne Victorian home in San Francisco. Her story includes numerous ghostly encounters, particularly during Hanukkah celebrations. From hearing mysterious taps on a hefty cast iron door to witnessing a candle-lit ghostly dinner party, Emma's narrative intertwines personal loss with supernatural phenomena.

Notable Quote:

Elena [31:32]: "It's just never my dad. It's just never going to be my dad."

The tale culminates with a poignant Christmas miracle: a heart-shaped ornament bearing her late brother Kevin's name falls from the tree, providing the family with a sense of peace amidst their grief.

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Listener Tale 3: Nicole’s Fourth of July River Revelation

Timestamp: [43:33]

Nicole recounts a surreal experience during a family river float on the Makoketa River. Amidst the festivities and a buzz from holiday partying, Nicole and her group discover a human foot attached to a boot floating in the water. The incident leads to the discovery of a missing person's body, intertwining a typical family outing with a chilling true crime element.

Notable Quote:

Ash [45:04]: "Nothing lost on any of us the impact our discovery made. I only hope we brought this man's family a little justice."

Nicole emphasizes the gravity of the find and its impact on her family, blending horror with a sense of duty and closure.

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Listener Tale 4: Katie’s Memorial for Kevin

Timestamp: [51:03]

Katie delivers a heartfelt story about her fifth-grade brother Kevin, who passed away from glioblastoma. During a particularly tough Christmas, her father experiences unexplained disturbances while conversing with Kevin's spirit. The story reaches its emotional peak when a heart-shaped ornament falls from the tree, symbolizing Kevin's presence and bringing solace to the grieving family.

Notable Quote:

Elena [54:27]: "Believe what you will about this kind of spooky stuff, but in that moment, I think we all felt peace for the first time that year."

Katie's narrative underscores themes of loss, remembrance, and the comforting notion of a loved one's lingering presence.

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Hosts' Reflections and Interjections

Throughout the episode, Elena and Ash intersperse their reactions and humorous commentary, enhancing the storytelling experience. They provide background details, share personal anecdotes related to the tales, and engage with listener submissions with empathy and wit.

Notable Interaction:

Ash [49:08]: "Please do. Turns out I'm fairly sensitive."
Elena [49:08]: "Please do."

Their banter maintains a lighthearted tone amidst the eerie stories, making the content accessible and engaging for listeners.

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Conclusion

Episode 633 of Morbid masterfully combines listener-submitted paranormal experiences with the hosts' engaging dialogue. From haunted Christmases and ghostly Hanukkah gatherings to unexpected discoveries on a family river trip, the episode offers a diverse array of stories that captivate and chill. Elena and Ash's ability to balance humor with horror ensures that listeners are both entertained and enthralled.

Final Notable Quote:

Elena [56:45]: "Keep it weird, but not so weird that you find a severed foot while you're just trying to float and get a little buzz on on the 4th of July."

This closing remark encapsulates the episode's blend of the macabre and the mundane, leaving listeners eager for more tales in future episodes.

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Key Takeaways:

• Personal Hauntings: The episode emphasizes how personal experiences with the supernatural can intertwine with everyday life events, such as holidays and family gatherings.

• Questionable Parenting: Ash's story highlights unique and questionable parenting decisions amid stressful and tragic circumstances.

• Grief and Closure: Katie's and Emma's stories illustrate how lingering presences or signs can provide comfort and a sense of closure for grieving individuals.

• True Crime Intersection: Nicole's tale bridges the gap between family outings and true crime, showcasing the unexpected intersections of normalcy and horror.

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Morbid continues to deliver compelling listener tales, enriched by Elena and Ash's insightful and humorous interactions, making each episode a must-listen for enthusiasts of the spooky and unexplained.

Transcript

[Elena]

Hey, weirdos, It's Ash here. Ready to share a little secret. Have you heard of Wondery Plus? With ad free episodes and one week early access, it's like having an all access pass to our lighthearted nightmare. So come join us on the dark side and try Wondery plus today. You can join Wondery plus in the Wondery app or in Apple podcasts or Spotify. You're listening to a morbid network podcast. Hey, weirdos, I'm Elena.

[Ash]

And I'm Ash.

[Elena]

And this is D Ma. What would it be backwards?

[Ash]

Hold on.

[Elena]

M O R B I D. This is Dibrom. This is Dibrom.

[Ash]

Welcome to Dibrum Diprum.

[Elena]

This is.

[Ash]

This is different.

[Elena]

It's. We switch places.

[Ash]

You know, it's Manic Monday instead of Freaky Friday.

[Elena]

Yeah, it's Nuts Monday. It's nuts.

[Ash]

Oh, this is uncomfortable.

[Elena]

We hate it.

[Ash]

Everyone around us has different opinions.

[Elena]

Everyone around us hates it.

[Ash]

My daughter would not speak to us.

[Elena]

She would not. And I was like, you love us as each. As, like, who we are.

[Ash]

I walked downstairs and my dog and Sydney barked and growled at me and ran at me like, who are you, intruder walking into my house. Because I don't. Let's be honest.

[Elena]

You don't look like.

[Ash]

I don't look like Ash.

[Elena]

I look like you.

[Ash]

Various things right now.

[Elena]

You look like a lot of things. You sure do.

[Ash]

You look like you've caused a lot of issues.

[Elena]

You look like you stay causing issues.

[Ash]

I remain.

[Elena]

What'd you say?

[Ash]

I remain causing issues.

[Elena]

I don't know what I look like, but it's not you. You just look like.

[Ash]

You just look chill.

[Elena]

I mean, you're pretty chill in with a widow's feet. I drew this off.

[Ash]

Drawn on widow's feet.

[Elena]

The wig didn't come with one. I said, oh, wait, the missing piece.

[Ash]

We need a wid.

[Elena]

I have a ghost shirt.

[Ash]

A ghost shirt. So that goes.

[Elena]

And it's pink. Pink. So it has a little bit ash. A little sparkly ash. There's nothing of Elena in this get up.

[Ash]

Ash even put bronzer on me.

[Elena]

Yeah, of course.

[Ash]

For the first time. I've never worn bronzer.

[Elena]

I don't have any bronzer on right now. And I feel naked. I didn't overline my lips.

[Ash]

Nope, I did.

[Elena]

You did? You actually look great with an overlined lip.

[Ash]

Oh, my God. Thank you. You're welcome.

[Elena]

Oh, we forgot to put long nails on Elaine.

[Ash]

We did. I should have stuck, like, pieces of tape or something on there.

[Elena]

All right, we're back. We said if you're not wearing nails, then you're not doing drag. And we're doing drag today, honey. Although my nails have never looked like that. Thank you. And if they fall off, I go immediately to my boy heli. Nail ninja.

[Ash]

We're just gonna let it go today.

[Elena]

I'm just going to let it go today.

[Ash]

No, sometimes you gotta work through it.

[Elena]

All right, well, it's good.

[Ash]

Take time off to remove nails.

[Elena]

No, I never do.

[Ash]

No, you can't do it.

[Elena]

Only when I take my day off.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

Oh. Oh. I hate wigs. I know the hard. Okay. All right. Okay. It's lucid or tales. It's brought to you by you, for you, from you and all about you.

[Ash]

I probably should have said that, but I don't remember that. That's.

[Elena]

Okay.

[Ash]

So I can't do it. I can't be ash.

[Elena]

You know what few can.

[Ash]

Who can.

[Elena]

You know, just me. Yeah, but we have listener tales today. Just fixing. You are like me today. You're getting distracted.

[Ash]

Yeah, I'm getting. See, I'm like.

[Elena]

You have to find something to fiddle with.

[Ash]

Oh, I do. I will. Don't you worry.

[Elena]

So should I start, Ash, or should you?

[Ash]

Elena.

[Elena]

Go ahead. I hate it. I hate it. So start. All right, Start. Are you gonna do my hair flip? Hold on. No, don't reveal. Don't let them know.

[Ash]

Okay. Hold on.

[Elena]

Oh, the hair object is hair on the thing.

[Ash]

We do a little one.

[Elena]

Just a little one. Mine is not that dramatic. It's more dramatic.

[Ash]

I'm bringing it down a little bit.

[Elena]

All right.

[Ash]

We've never flipped your weave off, so I haven't ever. I'm crying. I'm literally crying. But that's because I'm an empath.

[Elena]

All right, all right. This one is. Oh, by the way, Mary Chrysler and Happy. Oh, wait, you wouldn't say that.

[Ash]

Merry Christmas.

[Elena]

Happy Yule.

[Ash]

Happy Yule. There you go.

[Elena]

Happy Yule is what Elena would say.

[Ash]

I hope your holidays have been so gorgeous. I hope you're all in. That's so gorgeous.

[Elena]

That really is amazing to say. What do I say? I feel like I would just say, fuck you. I'm crying. I'm literally crying. What other things did you say?

[Ash]

Oh, that's about it. It.

[Elena]

Oh, no, leave it. No, leave it in. That's it. I'm sorry.

[Ash]

I think we.

[Elena]

I'm literally crying. What other things do you say? You.

[Ash]

That's about it. I think you covered it. That ran the gamut.

[Elena]

Wait, wait, wait. Tobias, come on. The show.

[Ash]

Oh, that too.

[Elena]

Okay, okay. Okay.

[Ash]

I literally have tears in my eyes.

[Elena]

You. Oh.

[Ash]

Oh. This is an unhinged one, everybody. That's what it's supposed to be.

[Elena]

All right, so like we said, hope your holidays were gorgeous. You. So this one says Sarah, the boogan. The boogen, Something like that.

[Ash]

The bogan.

[Elena]

The bogan. No, it's boo.

[Ash]

Boogan.

[Elena]

Boogen. It's a en or in. It's both. Like, it's like boen. Boogen.

[Ash]

Bougain. Bougain.

[Elena]

Bug out.

[Ash]

It's lost all meaning. You never had one in the beginning.

[Elena]

I was gonna say I didn't know. Anyway, not another nail. You gotta go see Helly.

[Ash]

I know.

[Elena]

So to start off this story, I have to give some background on my great Grandma B. She was a very quiet person who kept to herself a lot. When she did talk, it was usually to ask a question, criticize something, or talk about what she called the boogens bougens. Well, however you spell it, that's what she called ghosts. Ah, I like that.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

She had a lot of encounters with ghosts in her lifetime. Most I can't remember because I was young and she rarely spoke. One encounter I do remember was when she was in the hospital. A man came to her bed and told her, it's not your time yet. Now, a little background of the ghost in question here, Sarah. I grew up in a haunted house. There were certain rooms that would just creep us out and we'd feel something in them. Same relatable.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

My house used to be a doctor's office where autopsies were performed and is over a hundred years old, so that may play a part in it. Maybe so Cool. Maybe I don't remember this too well, but when I was very little, my parents would find me in my room, seemingly by myself, and when asked what I was doing, I would say, day, I'm playing with Sarah. She seemed friendly and other family members had seen her on occasion as well. One of the most notable was when my mom came home when the house was empty and saw a little girl staring out the window of one of the rooms that gave us the creeps. My oldest brother saw her and may have used to play with her as well, but I don't quite remember. This happened on Christmas. When I was very little, I used to sleep in my brother's room for Christmas Eve. And this particular Christmas, Grandma B was to sleep on a cot in that room as well as she was staying over for the holiday. Now, I overheard my parents talking about Grandma B staying over and they had to use the phrase sleeps with her eyes open to indicate that she was a light sleeper.

[Ash]

Ah.

[Elena]

Little me had no idea what that meant. And in my mind, I was shocked, taking it very literally.

[Ash]

Like, she's just laying there.

[Elena]

Like, how could somebody sleep with their eyes open? So I decided that night, Christmas night, I was gonna see for myself. I stayed up in my brother's top bunk patiently and quietly waiting for Grandma B to fall asleep. Then I snuck down the ladder to have a peek. I stood over my grandma B to see if she really did sleep with her eyes open.

[Ash]

Grandma B.

[Elena]

My grandma be. Did I say that Intense?

[Ash]

No, but it just sounds like that.

[Elena]

Grandma B. Grandma B. Her eyes were closed as I was looking and then suddenly shot open. I absolutely booked it out of the room and into the bathroom to hide as I was frightened being caught standing over her. After a while, hiding in the bathroom, I went back to bed and fell asleep. The next morning, she told everyone that she had seen Sarah the boogin standing over her that night. Sarah the Boogin. I kept silent. But years after, she continued to tell that story. And I kept my secret until she passed away, probably almost 20 years later. I finally told my family, and everybody was shocked and very amused that I was the ghost my grandma had seen that night.

[Ash]

The boogin.

[Elena]

The boogen. I love it.

[Ash]

I like that.

[Elena]

I like that. Short, sweet, and to the point.

[Ash]

That is. And that's very. That's very Christmas.

[Elena]

That is so Christmasy.

[Ash]

Very Christmas ghost story where it's like, I'm the boogin.

[Elena]

It's Christmas tomfoolery.

[Ash]

I think I feel like boogen is a. Is a thing. Like, that's a thing that they do call spirits.

[Elena]

I think Boogens are brutish, hairy orc quag off crossbreeds sometimes known as spider killers.

[Ash]

You know what? I was about to say that. Huh. But then I didn't want to come off as a know it all, you.

[Elena]

Know, I know usually that's my job. The boogens is also a movie. It's enjoy. Oh, but they're, like, yucky.

[Ash]

And then in the trolls movie, there's bogans, there are bogans. That's why I thought you were talking about bogans.

[Elena]

I like the bogans.

[Ash]

The bogans.

[Elena]

The bogans. Well, your turn, Ash.

[Ash]

So Ash's turn. And it's gonna be listener. Hello, Listener tales, Christmas edition.

[Elena]

Christmas.

[Ash]

And it says attached, you will find a punifah of my Christmas edition listener tales. I hope you enjoy.

[Elena]

I will.

[Ash]

Who knows? All right. It says, hello, my spooky Obsessed friends. Love you and your podcast so much. I love you.

[Elena]

Thank you.

[Ash]

I don't know if I can say your name yet, so I'm not going to say it.

[Elena]

Don't say it yet.

[Ash]

All of the. Congratulations on all of the things. Marriages, new and old, kids, cats, books giving me nightmares for a week, etc. Thanks for all that. The last is not an easy thing to do, so truly, congrats. How, you may ask, was it that the John Wayne Gacy episode? How, you may ask, was it the John Wayne Gacy episodes? No. How about a Spooky Road? Also no. Dennis Raider? Hell no. The scariest thing about that ass hat is his hairline.

[Elena]

That's true. What, then?

[Ash]

That failed pirate, Carl Panzram?

[Elena]

No, he was creepy.

[Ash]

He was crazy.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Can't put my finger on why. He tripped the night terror switch. However, I did not sleep for several nights. Thank you. He was a wild one, so I get that. No, he really was.

[Elena]

That's. That's valid.

[Ash]

He's an underrated, scary one for sure. My name is Leanne. Go ahead and use it. See, there you go. Today I'm offering you an example of my dad's questionable parenting choices in the form of a listener tale Christmas edition. Let's get after it. This is the story of when my dad had my sister and I get pizza delivered to a murder scene. First, a bit of context of how my dad just is. He and our mom split when my sister and I were very young and my dad never remarried. So his gauge on all things child related can be far from standard at times. Not in an abusive way. More of a they are clean and alive, therefore. Therefore, they are just fine kind of way.

[Elena]

It's kind of like the guy, the dad, and overboard.

[Ash]

Exactly. Just like, you know, it's fine our mom moved to the Midwest and we spent our lives flying between the two. Dad in California, mom in Indiana, Michigan.

[Elena]

Oh, that must have been so interesting. I know you're seeing, like, totally different.

[Ash]

Areas and flying that much. It's Christmas Eve, 1991. I was 11 and my sister was about to turn 13. At this time in his 20 years with the sheriff's department as a patrol officer, that you buried the lead there.

[Elena]

You really did.

[Ash]

You really did. Because when you said to a murder scene, get pizza delivered to a murder scene, I was like, did your dad murder someone and then call you to bring pizza?

[Elena]

That's also why I explains it.

[Ash]

This explains it. My dad worked days, AKA the worst six months of his working life. Who works days it is the absolute worst thing ever. Both quotes My dad firmly stands by to this day.

[Elena]

I kind of get that.

[Ash]

I know, I get that. So it's around lunchtime and my older sister and I are sitting around the house most likely watching absolute trash tv. Because while there was never food in the house, we had all the cable channels. We were waiting for our dad to get off work to take us to our family's yearly Christmas party when the phone rings. It's our dad and he needs us to do him a favor. Now this is very odd because no matter his work shift hours, whenever he needed something from us, he would just swing by the house because we lived in his patrol area. Side note, this meant it was also okay to leave his two kids home alone while working graveyard. Shit. Because, quote, if anything happens, I will be the first to know we live in my patrol area.

[Elena]

I mean.

[Ash]

And then it says, questionable parenting.

[Elena]

Valid.

[Ash]

Valid.

[Elena]

Questionable. Yeah, valid. All at the same time. The start of the new year is the perfect time to get organized, set goals, and prioritize what matters most. For me, a top priority is my financial wellness, which feels more important now than ever. Thanks to Rocket Money.com, my goals feel achievable. They show me all my subscriptions right in one place, and they help me easily cancel the ones that I forgot about that I've still been paying for. Rocket Money also pulls together all my spending across all of my different accounts so that I can clearly track my spending habits and, you know, be a little more aware of what I can cut back and where I can budget a little more. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions. It monitors your spending and helps you lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. I love that you can see all your subscriptions in one place because you know exactly where your money is going. And for the ones that you don't want anymore, Rocket Money can help you cancel them. Rocket Money's dashboard gives you a clear view of your expenses across all your accounts. You can easily create a personalized budget with custom categories to help keep your spending on track. You see your monthly spending trends in each category to know where your money is going. Mine goes mostly to coffee. It's kind of a problem, but we're working on it. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions. SA members up to $740 a year. When using all of the app's premium features, I know they have saved me a ton of money. I'm a huge fan of Rocket Money. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.commorbid today. That's RocketMoney.commorbid RocketMoney.commorbid Masterclass is the only.

[Ash]

Streaming platform where you can learn and grow with over 200 plus of the world's best. That's why Wirecutter calls it an invaluable gift gift Unlimited learning. Learn from any Masterclass instructor anywhere on a smartphone, computer, smart TV or even in audio mode and the classes really do make a difference. 88% of members feel that Masterclass made a positive impact on their lives. I use this and you should too. I've been taking a class about the power of storytelling with Levar Burton. I'm talking Reading Rainbow ladies and gents, and also a creative writing class with Margaret at Wood. Yes, you heard that right. It has been such an amazing thing to hear from some of the best about what their process is and to get inspired by Honestly straight up icons. It really gets the creative juices flowing. I highly highly recommend it. Right now our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual [e-mail] morbid that's 15% [e-mail] morbid masterclass.com morbid so dad is on the phone and has a task for us to complete and we must follow his instructions exactly as they are given to us. These instructions were as follows. Call the Pizza Hut in Lakeside. Ask for the manager. Explain. We are the daughters of one of the officers that just hauled ass out of the restaurant. Requests for delivery to the following address. Don't actually remember it, so let's just say 1234 Crazy street in East County, San Diego. Stress the fact that whomever delivers the pizza is not to pass the first patrol car on the block under any circumstances. That part was extremely important.

[Elena]

I love that in all this time he called you guys to reiterate that information. He could have just called the pizza people himself.

[Ash]

Yep. Now at this point my sister and I are following these instructions to the very letter as this whole situation is freaking us out big time. Everything about it was just off and strange. An hour, maybe two go by and dad calls again pissed. He said he gave us specific instructions and they needed to be followed and they were not. Now he has a quote unquote mess to deal with and doesn't need this today. Now we're not only confused, but we're also scared. Our dad only Yelled at us if we broke something while fighting in the house. So getting chewed out by him was not standard operating procedure. We continue to wait for our dad to get home, all while trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Several more hours go by. Finally, our dad gets home from work and apologizes to us, saying he's sorry for yelling. That's good parenting.

[Elena]

That is good parenting.

[Ash]

That he stopped by the Pizza Hut prior to coming home and spoke with the manager and that she told him we did follow his exact instructions and that she is very sorry her dumbass employee can't simple follow simple instructions. All right, the specific instruction of not to go past the first patrol car. Why was this important, you might ask? Well, turns out the delivery address was a few doors down from a murder scene. So this is what went down on this Christmas Eve 1991. Also, this is the most early 90s parenting ever, truly. While sitting down for lunch, a call came out over the radio of shots fired. Man down. This is when my dad and his fellow patrol officers on duty ran out of the restaurant to get to the scene. Once they arrive, they find out that two tweaked out people had been fighting out front of one of the houses on Crazy Street. At some point, person A went into his house and left person B outside in the yard. Person B was not done fighting. He was. He was like.

[Elena]

He said, I'm ready to go.

[Ash]

He said, I still got energy and found something to stand on to look through a front window of person A's house, where he was met with a shotgun blast straight to the face.

[Elena]

Oh, my God.

[Ash]

Holy yikes. Fell straight back into the yard, missing most of his head and face. Human debris all over the front yard. Why the upset phone call, you may ask? Well, the delivery driver did not follow instructions. Walked right past the first patrol car under the yellow tape and right up to my dad. Oh, no. When my dad sees him, he asks in a very direct, forceful manner, what the do you think you're doing? Get behind the tape now. Stupid delivery kid makes some joke about how word is this is a crime scene and that someone might get shot, might have got shot. And my dad responded by saying, yeah, that guy right there, and pointed to the dead dude a few feet away. I mean, your dad is the most 90s.

[Elena]

Don't be an idiot. Don't make a joke of a crime scene unless you want to get scarred for life.

[Ash]

You just walked under yellow tape. Get out of here. Who do you think whatever you see is your own fault at this Point.

[Elena]

Like, where was anybody telling.

[Ash]

I know. No one's stopping you at this point. The delivery driver almost dropped the pizza, started screaming, throwing up, and basically having a massive panic attack, which is the thing our dad, quote, didn't have time for right now. In all fairness, dumbass should have followed directions. And what asshat thinks it's okay to cross under yellow crime scene tape because, quote, I want to see what's going on.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

My sister sat on the couch listening to this explanation of things, completely dumbfounded. We could not believe that our dad, a law enforcement officer, had his children get pizza delivered to a crime scene as if this is a 100% normal thing to do. I have no words other than highly questionable parenting. Keep it weird, my dudes, but not so weird you still want lunch while working a murder scene and therefore have your kids get you delivery. P.S. it was pizza for all the law enforcement officers on scene, not just our dad. They're a whole group of weirdos that I've known my whole entire life. Lord help us.

[Elena]

What a 90s.

[Ash]

That was an amazing 90s tale.

[Elena]

I've never heard of a more 90s father.

[Ash]

That was great. And I love your dad.

[Elena]

Oh, man, that's great.

[Ash]

I bet your dad is awesome. Yeah, I bet he, like, got. As he got older, he got awesome.

[Elena]

Yeah, definitely. All right, my next one is Listener Tale Holiday Hanukkah Ghosts. It's a miracle. Just kidding. It's a potiphar. A miracle. A miracle.

[Ash]

Truly a miracle.

[Elena]

I know. Puffers are a miracle.

[Ash]

They are.

[Elena]

All right, so it says, hi, lovely ladies. I initially sent this back in April when I was new to your show and had just heard last year's Holiday Listener Tales episode. Since then, I've become so much older and wiser, and I'm therefore resending this as a double spaced puffer and at the appropriate time of year. And I'm not going to apologize for the fact that it's really long.

[Ash]

Never.

[Elena]

See, I've learned so much from you.

[Ash]

You have?

[Elena]

When you said you hadn't heard many Hanukkah related ghost stories, I knew I had to chime in.

[Ash]

I said, this is my time to shine.

[Elena]

My time, baby. By the way, hi, my name is Emma and you can use it because it would be so thrilling to hear it. Your beautiful voices. Is that creepy?

[Ash]

No. Emma, Emma.

[Elena]

Emma. Emma. Emma.

[Ash]

Emma. Emma.

[Elena]

Emma, Emma, Emma. First, I have to say that since April, I have listened to every episode and have become a hardcore follower. Thank you. It's so nice to find such a Badass couple of women in this very male dominated genre.

[Ash]

Yes, thank you. I mean, oh my God, thanks.

[Elena]

Yes, I especially appreciate your sisterly relationship. It's really at its peak.

[Ash]

Oh, no, it's really on. On display.

[Elena]

It's on display every day. And it reminds me of my own relationship with my younger brother. As a historian, I really value all the research you do to bring your stories into life. And Dave. I was gonna say shout out to Dave as a histor. Oh, I was gonna read the same.

[Ash]

Thing as a historian. Yeah.

[Elena]

Just one more time. I have to give a special shout out to the Lake Shawnee amusement park episode.

[Ash]

I love that episode.

[Elena]

That was such a good episode. Whoa. I haven't been that terrified since. Well, my own ghostly experiences which I am going to share with you right now.

[Ash]

Hell yeah.

[Elena]

I am playing with my hair more than you ever would and I can't stop.

[Ash]

Should I be playing with mine?

[Elena]

Obviously.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

Starting at the beginning. I grew up in a. Oh, Queen Anne Victorian in San Francisco. I would wake up San Francisco when my parents bought the house in the early 90s. I was 8, my sister was 4 and my brother had just been born. From the beginning, my parents knew something was up. The realtor told them that the novelist who lived up the street, none other than Danielle Steele. Whoa. Shut up. Had just sent a ghost hunter slash paranormal investigator to every house on our street for research for her new book about ghosts.

[Ash]

That is wild.

[Elena]

I wonder which book in particular it was.

[Ash]

I don't know, but what, what a.

[Elena]

Like, what a Life to live.

[Ash]

What a flex.

[Elena]

That is a flex.

[Ash]

They're just knocking on doors, being like. So Ms. Steele down the road sent us to research your house.

[Elena]

She'd like to know if your house is haunted. Damn, that's great. The realtor was thrilled to inform my parents that ghosts had in fact been found in their new house.

[Ash]

Yippee.

[Elena]

One of the defining features of my parents house is that it has a super long creepy hallway. Love it. My room and my brother's nursery were on the opposite end of the long hallway from my parents room. Thanks, mom and dad. And we were quick to discover that was the more haunted end of the house. Thanks. Thanks again. Yikes. Many of the standards occurred in those early days. You know, lights flickering, doors opening. Elena, I know you can relate to all of the times as a teenager I literally said out loud, okay, ghosts, I need to sleep now. Please stop opening my door.

[Ash]

I literally have said that before. I was like, I really gotta get.

[Elena]

Sleep after having to get up Three times. Yep. As a child, the sound of someone walking up and down the creaky hallway was unmistakable. I would lie in bed and listen to. Listen to the sound of someone slowly approaching my room from the far end of the house. Yeah, that's like when. Because I moved into Elena's room after she moved out. And you could hear the footsteps all night, but going up the stairs. So you would have this moment where you were like, is it a burglar.

[Ash]

Or is it the ghost to be killed?

[Elena]

And you just never know.

[Ash]

No, she was always the ghost.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

And it sounded like work boots.

[Elena]

Yeah, it did.

[Ash]

Like heavy work boots.

[Elena]

Some days my mom's sister and I would remark about how the previous night had been particularly noisy to the effect of. Did you hear the hallway last night? Oh, yeah. You did, too.

[Ash]

Did you hear the hallway was bumping last night?

[Elena]

Went crazy. My dad was always the unbeliever. Don't worry. We'll circle back on that one. The most frightening thing I remember happening constantly as a young child, though, was when I was. When I would hear people putting dishes away in the kitchen. About halfway down the hallway, there was a banister to the staircase that used to be the maid staircase or the back stairs to the kitchen. I remember telling myself my parents must be unloading the dishwasher. Even though it was late. I would creep out of my room and peer over the banister down into the kitchen to see all the lights off. Oh, no, no, no. Parents.

[Ash]

Oh, and hearing the clanging of dishes while the lights are pitch black.

[Elena]

Yeah, that's horrifying. No.

[Ash]

Makes me think of a sixth sense. Yeah, that scene.

[Elena]

Oh, so freaky. Just some ghost dinner parties.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

When I went to college, my little brother took over my bedroom. It's hilarious because I was just saying.

[Ash]

Literally the same thing.

[Elena]

Many years later, he was already. When he was already in college himself. I mentioned the putting away the dishes noises. His face went completely pale. He said, what? I heard that all the time, too. I can't believe you never mentioned that to me.

[Ash]

You guys gotta talk more.

[Elena]

I know. Seriously, that was some serious confirmation that it wasn't just the fancies of Danielle Steele haunting me as a child. No, I'm sure you're dying to hear about the Hanukkah part by now. Let's go. As you have mentioned, Elena, our ghosts also like to join the party. We saw way more activity during and after big parties. And, of course, renovations.

[Ash]

Oh, yes.

[Elena]

You probably want to know what made my dad a believer.

[Ash]

I do, I do. I really do.

[Elena]

Yeah, we do. It wasn't the footsteps in the hallway or my door opening or the dishes or the secret door in the wall of the basement.

[Ash]

Excuse me.

[Elena]

Buried the lead there, girl. What? And then in parentheses. Yep.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Or finding whiskey bottles and newspapers from the early 1900s in the rafters during Guess, Guess what? Renovations.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

That must have been so cool. No, it wasn't those things. It was the Hanukkah party that went on after we all went to bed.

[Ash]

There was a Hanukkah party after you went to bed?

[Elena]

I kind of love that.

[Ash]

I love it.

[Elena]

While the end of the hallway where my bedroom was is still to this day for sure a hot spot, the dining room is the place that as children, we always avoided and held our breath whenever we had to switch on or off the lights.

[Ash]

Huh.

[Elena]

It had the most haunted look as it had all the original mahogany wall paneling from the 19th century.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

I just felt like more of a rose in that moment.

[Ash]

Oh, I love that.

[Elena]

I need to see it. Please send a picture.

[Ash]

I want to see.

[Elena]

It's the place also with the most ghostly vibes. I love it. It is obvi. Where my parents hosted company. So one Hanukkah night, I came into the city with some friends when I was in college at Berkeley and my mom made latkes.

[Ash]

Oh.

[Elena]

For a group of about 10 to 15 people, including some family friends. Something to know about my mom is that she's legally blind. So A, she would def. Not have been putting dishes away in the dark at any point in my childhood. And B, she has a very unique. Unique way of checking to make sure all the candles are out at the end of the night. My parents are very fire cautious.

[Ash]

Ours too.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

This is very weird.

[Elena]

We weren't allowed to have candles like.

[Ash]

Your grandmother.

[Elena]

My grandmother would let us. Yeah.

[Ash]

They would not let us ever.

[Elena]

Chi.

[Ash]

She.

[Elena]

Yeah. So when we would all go up to bed, if the menorah was not done burning yet, you don't blow out those candles? Nuh.

[Ash]

Oh, yeah.

[Elena]

My parents would put it in the sink to finish burning without, you know, burning the house down.

[Ash]

Oh, that's pretty smart.

[Elena]

Anyone else do this, fellow Jews?

[Ash]

Because that would scare me.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

Leaving a candle of any kind lit. Yeah, I never even thought of that.

[Elena]

Debbie was saying that her and Pat, her husband, used to bet on which candle would go out first, so they would. They wouldn't go to bed at all. They just wait for the candles to burn out.

[Ash]

That makes sense. I get that. I know that's smart, though. The sink trick.

[Elena]

Yeah, the sink trick is very smart. It's pretty safe because if it falls.

[Ash]

It'S in the same.

[Elena]

It's not going to light on fire. I mean, to my knowledge, you're like, nah, water's right there.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Anyway, point being, my parents were very fire conscious. And even after my dad checked, my mom would go around feeling the wicks of the candles on the table with her fingers to make sure they were not only out, but not even hot anymore.

[Ash]

That is some badass mom energy right there. She's like, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna palm the flame. Real if there is one.

[Elena]

The flame. Damn. Does she have fingertips anymore?

[Ash]

Seriously.

[C]

Behind the closed doors of government offices and military compounds, there are hidden stories and buried secrets from the darkest corners of history. From COVID experiments pushing the boundaries of science to operations so secretive they were barely whispered about. Each week on Declassified Mysteries, we pull back the curtain on These hidden histories, 100% true and verifiable stories that expose the shadowy underbelly of power. Consider Operation Paperclip, where former Nazi scientists were brought to America after World War II not as prisoners, but as assets to advance US intelligence during the Cold War. These aren't just old conspiracy theories. They're thoroughly investigated accounts that reveal the uncomfortable truths still shaping our world today. The stories are real. The secrets are shocking. Follow Declassified Mysteries with me, Luke Lamanna, on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts to listen ad free. Join Wondery plus in the Wondery app.

[Elena]

So this night, after celebrating the miracle of fried food, when my friends and I had gone back to college and my parents had long gone to bed, my dad, you know, the unbeliever, was woken up around 2 or 3 by a tapping on the front door.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

Also some fun news. Our front door is 500 pounds of 10 foot tall cast iron and glass. I need photos of this house.

[Ash]

Seriously, that house.

[Elena]

I need gorgeous photos. Photos, photos. I need them.

[Ash]

I need pictures.

[Elena]

I love it. My dad described the noise as somebody tapping a fingernail on the glass door repeatedly. One of these. One of these fingernails, you say? One of these got stuck to me. That was weird. It's literally just a post it. But I didn't like it anyway.

[Ash]

It's a nail.

[Elena]

I know it felt. It gave that.

[Ash]

Don't shatter the illusion.

[Elena]

It gave that vibe. Hi. Bye. No.

[Ash]

Yeah, that's how I feel.

[Elena]

He went down the front stairs and heard it again, then whipped his head around as he heard my mom's cell phone charging in the corner, suddenly power off.

[Ash]

Ooh.

[Elena]

As he turned his head to the open door of the living room, There was one candle in the middle of the dining room table, still lit and illuminating the ghost Hanukkah dinner party.

[Ash]

I'm obsessed.

[Elena]

Guess what my dad believes now. Around the same time he was scanning photos for my grandma's birthday slideshow. Yes. When scanning was a thing we did.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

It's so funny because I thought you meant, like, looking.

[Ash]

Oh, my God.

[Elena]

Like scanning a room and claims that a picture showed up on the screen that was not on the scanner bed. In fact, no one had ever seen it before. It was a picture of the dining room with someone we don't know sitting in the chairs from a time before we owned the house up.

[Ash]

I love that.

[Elena]

That is. I love that.

[Ash]

I love that. That was a literal ghost Hanukkah party in the middle of the night.

[Elena]

Yes.

[Ash]

Like, they were literally like, hey, hey, just.

[Elena]

Can I get a little party?

[Ash]

Just showing up.

[Elena]

That's incredible.

[Ash]

That's amazing.

[Elena]

Now, between then and my latest story, I met my husband while living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We moved in together into a rented gorgeous octagonal. Is that how you say octagonal octa. Octagonal Victorian? Because that's something you can do as a graduate student in Albuquerque. Cheap rent. We thought it was so cool that they were always shooting Breaking Bad right across the street. Am I dating myself? Yes, I am.

[Ash]

Hell yeah.

[Elena]

Yes. I'm 35. Hi, Alina. Hi.

[Ash]

What's up?

[Elena]

You're.

[Ash]

I mean, I'm so young. I'm so young. He's so old.

[Elena]

Shut up. Excuse me, You. I told my then boyfriend, now husband about my experiences growing up in a haunted house, and he was intrigued, but like many boyfriends before, thought it was more of a funny story than a scary one. Yeah, he had never had any scary, scary ghost encounters yet.

[Ash]

Oh, you were about to bring it to him.

[Elena]

Literally. The first night we slept in the bedroom, we were falling asleep when we were jolted out of bed to a truly horrifying sound. It was like the wall started cracking all around us, but, like in a clockwise circle like this. Cracking would sweep around the room in a circle from one side to the other, enveloping us in the bed.

[Ash]

What the.

[Elena]

Never figured out what that was. I love.

[Ash]

I'm obsessed.

[Elena]

That anticlimactic isn't even the right word. It's just like, nonchalant. As I love.

[Ash]

Just never figured out what that was.

[Elena]

No show.

[Ash]

So I guess we're gonna move on from that wow.

[Elena]

We would frequently see shadows moving in the dining room, which was a separate room with a swinging door on each end. And each of those little pass through windows into the middle of the kitchen. While standing in the kitchen, we would catch the shadows out of the corner of our eye through the little window. I think I remember you talking about dining rooms in particular in one spooky episode.

[Ash]

Probably. Probably.

[Elena]

I'm sure at some point the kitchen was the room where things would literally move. We would put our phones down in there, then it would be gone. We'd search the house for 20 minutes and then come back to find it in the same place where we left it. Things would move and fall on the floor when we were sitting in the living room with our backs turned to the kitchen. Once I actually saw a plastic bag come up and out of a drawer and fall onto the floor and thought, cool. That's what those noises are. Wow. Again, not a shalom to be found.

[Ash]

No.

[Elena]

Or actually the most shallots to be found, really. But the worst was the shared hallucination slash dreams my husband and I would have.

[Ash]

Let's get into it. Yeah.

[Elena]

That's love.

[Ash]

A shared hallucination slash dream.

[Elena]

We both have. You ever had one?

[Ash]

No, but I. I love the idea of them.

[Elena]

It's a great idea.

[Ash]

They're awesome.

[Elena]

We would both frequently wake up to a dark shadow with a sinister presence standing in the corner of our bedroom.

[Ash]

That sounds like it sucks.

[Elena]

I don't like it. We would both also see some sort of spinning plate above our heads in bed.

[Ash]

What?

[Elena]

After years of living in my parents house, I never felt a sinister present from those ghosties. I was comforted by the movie. The others thinking that ghosts didn't know that they were haunting us. Oh, that's kind of how I feel about papa's house.

[Ash]

Yeah. They're not trying to bum you out.

[Elena]

I always just think they lived here first.

[Ash]

They're just going about their business, you know?

[Elena]

Yeah. It's like res. I was gonna say residential. Haunted.

[Ash]

I thought you were gonna say resident evil. And I was like, what?

[Elena]

Interesting. I was gonna. I meant to say residual hauntings, but I said residential.

[Ash]

That makes more sense.

[Elena]

You just thought resident evil. You know, that kind of was an ashes first. You all right? You're pretty.

[Ash]

It's seeping into my.

[Elena]

It's the blonde soul. It's the blonde. We actually bleached Elena's hair.

[Ash]

This is my real hair.

[Elena]

Oh, my God. One time we did.

[Ash]

That's. No. You guys saw when I did my head flip. It almost went flooded.

[Elena]

All right, all right, all right. But that Albuquerque bedroom was dark. My husband shared the feeling. We could not wait to get out of there. So by the time we were staying at my parents house when I was pregnant with my son in 2019.

[Ash]

Congrats.

[Elena]

My husband had no longer thought the ghosts were some cool backstory. He had his own haunting experiences. And while he never had heard anything too out of the ordinary in my parents house, he believed my stories.

[Ash]

It's a good ma'am. Right? There it is.

[Elena]

He also said he never felt anything sinister like he did in Albuquerque until I was pregnant. Sinister Bible.

[Ash]

Oh. Then it became sinister.

[Elena]

Sinister bibey baby.

[Ash]

Literally sinister bibey.

[Elena]

Something changed at that point. I had started sleeping with noise canceling headphones on because hi pregnancy. AKA the time when you don't sleep before you have a baby and then you don't sleep some more.

[Ash]

Oh, it's a beautiful time.

[Elena]

The first time I slept at my parents house when I was pregnant, I was upstairs on the third floor which used to be the maid's quarters in the Victorian days. Place I started staying in there when I was in town when my brother took over my old room. As it tends to be less spooky up there. It's interesting that the third floor is the less. Less.

[Ash]

I know you would think it would be the most spooky.

[Elena]

Yeah, right.

[Ash]

I feel like the. And the. Oh no.

[Elena]

Oh girl. I feel like the extreme manicure correct.

[Ash]

Of the house are always the spookiest.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

The bottom and the top.

[Elena]

Yes.

[Ash]

Things in the middle are usually just what they are.

[Elena]

Yeah. You know, just like the meat of the meat.

[Ash]

The meat of the sand. The bread is.

[Elena]

The bread is the scariest. Yeah.

[Ash]

The hant hoagie. That's the meat in the middle that.

[Elena]

Your brain just did some. That was. I liked that. The haunted hoagie.

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

TM or putting it on a shirt. Someday.

[Ash]

Yeah, someday.

[Elena]

Anyway, I guess the ghosts weren't that thrilled with that development because I woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling of someone's hand squeezing my knee.

[Ash]

Nope.

[Elena]

I hate that. I told myself it was sleep paralysis and didn't move for a few minutes though. My thought was, oh, do ghosts like babies or something?

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

When I came back five months later for my baby shower, my husband was with me and I was much more pregnant. I could not get comfortable in the full size bed with him. So I woke him up and made him relocate to my old bedroom where my mom and dad had put a king Bed. Temporarily. Because of. Yup. Renovations.

[Ash]

Oh, my God. Sleeping pregnant, not sleeping pregnant is such an experience.

[Elena]

That must be a lot.

[Ash]

The more pregnant you get, the more you're just like, get the. Away from me, everybody.

[Elena]

It's kind of like it's just getting you ready when. For when the baby comes. Because then you're never gonna see.

[Ash]

Oh, yeah. It makes you real ready.

[Elena]

Yeah, it's. It's like conditioning.

[Ash]

It is.

[Elena]

Well, I put my headphones on and told myself I was too preggers for this.

[Ash]

You were.

[Elena]

But five minutes later, my husband woke me up. Take off your headphones. That feeling in my stomach. I knew what was going on. What'd you hear? I asked him.

[Ash]

Oh, no.

[Elena]

He said, my dad must be walking up and down the hallway. Never mind. I didn't really want to move. So preggers. So I said, okay. Five minutes later, okay, that's it. He shook me awake. I heard the shuffling sound in the hallway, and I could deal with it until I heard it come into the room.

[Ash]

I don't love that.

[Elena]

The shuffling steps came down the hall and straight into the room to the foot of our bed, despite the fact that the bedroom door was still closed. No, I knew exactly the sound he was talking about. All right, we're going back upstairs. I said, I know exactly what you're talking about. And it's never. And it's never my dad. No matter how many times I told myself that it was growing up. It's just never my dad.

[Ash]

I love that she's just telling her husband this. She's like, I'm gonna be real. I'm gonna be frank. I'm gon Francis with you right now.

[Elena]

That's not dad.

[Ash]

It's never my dad. It's never going to be my dad. Never was my dad.

[Elena]

It's just. I love. It's just never my dad.

[Ash]

Just never my dad.

[Elena]

Well, I hope you enjoyed my spooky Hanukkah tales I like so much. And keep it weird, but not so weird that you move from one haunted house to another one in New Mexico because they film Breaking Bad across the street. You know, where the scenes where Walter meets Lydia at the cafe and then you move out because there's somebody who's not doing well living in the backyard, stalking you. Yep, skipped that part. And also a shadowy presence in your bedroom and things move themselves in the kitchen with the little pass through window to the haunted dining room. And then get pregnant and have ghosts be way too into your unborn child. Okay, this took me three Hours to write. Hope you like it. Bye, Emma. If you can't tell, I'm an Elena Fane girl.

[Ash]

Oh, I love you.

[Elena]

P.S. since writing this to you, I was contacted by an old friend from middle school who told me she has vivid memories of hiding in the bathroom because she was too afraid to cross the haunted hallway to get back to my bedroom since she could sense that there was something lurking out there. More confirmation. PPS Also, since writing this, I bought a new house. Congratulations.

[Ash]

Yay.

[Elena]

I researched the owners for fun. There was one owner who was an Irish immigrant and a cop who died in a shootout in the 1940s. Whoa. And he lived there the longest. I definitely stood alone in the living room feeling the vibes, and shamelessly asked the real estate agent if they knew of any hauntings before we signed. Like a long time alone, feeling the vibes. And I said aloud, are you there, sergeant? Necessary and happy to report, only good vibes. I love picturing you in the middle of your living. I'm just going, are you there, sergeant? It's me, Margaret.

[Ash]

It's me, but it's me, Emma. Good vibes though. I like the good vibes.

[Elena]

I love that a lot. That was a great story.

[Ash]

I love it. Emma, you rule. And that was amazing. I'm trying to see. I'm gonna. I'm gonna move past Christmas to another holiday.

[Elena]

What's the holiday?

[Ash]

Just because this one involves a foot.

[Elena]

Foot.

[Ash]

So I feel like it's necessary.

[Elena]

Necessary. Question mark.

[Ash]

Listener tales. That time we found a foot on the fourth of July.

[Elena]

Oh, okay.

[Ash]

I mean, how can I not go to that one? All right, you know, well, let's go to this. Hey, weirdos. I'm Nicole and yes, you can use my name. Shout out to my cousin Kayla, who is a fellow listener. And also on the weirdest river trip of our lifetime. I mean, I really hope it doesn't get any weirder than this. Okay, first, a little background. Every year my family floats the river near my grandparents house for the fourth of July.

[Elena]

That's fun.

[Ash]

For those of you who aren't from the Midwest, me floating the river usually involves putting in upstream on a local river with some type of flotation device or small boat. You get to enjoy the beautiful scenery, typically hot weather, and at least for my friends and family, partying your way downstream until you reach your predetermined destination. All right, don't worry. We always designate a driver or have a pickup ready. Don't drive and drink and drive, my friends.

[Elena]

Yeah, great, great.

[Ash]

All right, great, great.

[Elena]

Great, great.

[Ash]

Don't. Our family usually uses a combination of canoes tied together, inflatable tubes and kayaks.

[Elena]

Oh, that sounds fun.

[Ash]

That does sound fun. This particular trip for normal paddlers would be three to four hours with short breaks. That sounds like a lot that my.

[Elena]

Arms hurt right now.

[Ash]

I. You would hate this.

[Elena]

Yeah, you would too.

[Ash]

You would hate this for sure.

[Elena]

We would hate this.

[Ash]

I think you would hate. I would hate this as well as Ash.

[Elena]

Yeah, yeah. You would hate that so much.

[Ash]

Oh, yeah. Okay. That's what I thought.

[Elena]

I would like the. I would like the partying part and the floating part earlier in my life. Yeah, I think these days I think I'd be like, I'm too tired.

[Ash]

Could you be just like a floater? And everyone else does.

[Elena]

No, because I can't. I couldn't float for like three to four hours. I feel like I would panic.

[Ash]

Me too. However, when 90% of the adults are highly intoxicated and you're stopping at every sandbar for pee breaks, we usually expect six to seven hour trip. No, no. We had roughly 20 people on this year's trip with kids seven kids under eight years old, one to two coolers in each canoe, stereo hooked up and old rock jams blasting. This is my happy place. Most of my favorite summer memories have been made in this section of the.

[Elena]

We're gonna Google it. We're gonna Google this. I don't want to ruin your. Your river. Yeah, hold up, hold up. We're gonna have Google say it to you. That's fun to say. Makoka.

[Ash]

So most of my favorite summer memories have been made in this section of the Makoketa River. Makoketa, quite honestly, this included. And I feel this is a safe space for me to say that, given what happens next.

[Elena]

Yeah, this is always a safe space.

[Ash]

It is. So back to the trip in question. About 45 minutes into our seven hour float, we all have a solid buzz on when my cousin, floating ahead of the group in his kayak, notices a boot floating just beneath the surface of the water. The water is muddy, but pretty clear this time of year. He tells my brother, who's slightly closer to what he assumes is just a stuck boot. Thinking he had just found a random shoe, my brother grabs the boot out of the water and I shit you not, there is an entire tibia fibula covered in a dirty sandy sock sticking straight out of the tied boot.

[Elena]

What? Hello. Blink blink. Hey, perfect job. Thank you back. What?

[Ash]

What?

[Elena]

Excuse. Wait, what? You would say what the. That's what you would say, I love.

[Ash]

Followed up with that's what you would say.

[Elena]

You were like, nailed it.

[Ash]

You did. You nailed it.

[Elena]

Nailed it, nailed it, nailed it.

[Ash]

So. Oh my God. That's. Oh my God. That's crazy.

[Elena]

What the fuck?

[Ash]

Shocked at the sight of a human fucking leg, my brother dropped the boot back into the water.

[Elena]

Not today.

[Ash]

And honestly, I can't believe him. We float. The two guys stared at each other for a minute and then yelled for our parents who were in a group of canoes tied together nearby. In all the commotion, the music gets turned down. They were like, turn down the table.

[Elena]

They were like, we need to see.

[Ash]

And my mom yells to me that they found a foot.

[Elena]

Hey, hey, found a foot.

[Ash]

We found a foot.

[Elena]

Imagine and you got a buzz on and somebody yells to you that they found a foot. Foot. How do you move past that?

[Ash]

You sober up real quick.

[Elena]

That's a sobering moment.

[Ash]

Now, at this point in time, I was in my own world, about 20ft behind the group, talking with my friend. When I finally figured out what she was saying, I was positive this was just my family playing a joke on me.

[Elena]

I would think so too.

[Ash]

Me too. Of course, I paddled over with my kayak to see what was going on. Because even if it was a joke, I needed to see what they were talking about. As I'm paddling downstream, I spot this dirty boot floating along near the canoes. After making sure my 5 year old wasn't in eyesight. Oh my God. I pulled the boot out of the water and sure enough, there is a human leg hanging out of this boot. That the thought of that image is just too much. I dropped it back in the water because, like, what do you do?

[Elena]

I don't know.

[Ash]

Now the group is yelling at me, half saying to leave it and the other half saying to call 91 1. I look over at my mom, who nods at me as if to say, do it. Being my morbid mom. Being my morbid self. Thanks, ladies.

[Elena]

You bet.

[Ash]

I pull the boot back out of the water and throw it on my kayak.

[Elena]

Stop. I'm proud of you.

[Ash]

So here I am 50 minutes into a 7 hour float with a right lower leg on my kayak.

[Elena]

Oh my God.

[Ash]

No one had cell service and to be honest, we were a little worried the DNR wouldn't be cool with our general lack of life jackets and planned alcohol consumption.

[Elena]

It's planned and you have a driver.

[Ash]

There you go. After talking with my uncle, who is an EMT and my mom a nurse, we Decided I would paddle back upstream to the nearby sandbar where we could easily reach later via gravel road. Again, I already have a buzz on and my ass had a now how to now paddle upstream?

[Elena]

Oh no.

[Ash]

I'm not an athletic girl, so this took a bit. Once I reached the beach, I set the foot down in a clearly visible place I could later identify for the police. The whole time I'm paddling, all I could see, all I could think was, oh my God, I can't wait to tell.

[Elena]

I'm obsessed.

[Ash]

Because even though we're not best friends in real life, we are in my head and we are in real life as morbid of a discovery we made. Our family still enjoyed a full day on the river and had a blast. You guys are reckless and I love it.

[Elena]

I love it. I would be so worried that the rest of the mans was somewhere under. Yeah.

[Ash]

After we got off the river at 6pm, my uncle called in our discovery. We sobered up a bit and went down to the scene to give our statements to the sheriff's deputies. Picture a fairly intoxicated, sunburnt mother of two with a morbid fascination for all things true crime. Trying to set the scene for the deputy. Like I'm on. I'm some type of professional who doesn't just listen to a lot of podcasts and watch too many murder documentaries. This is actually wild.

[Elena]

This is a. This is a story and I love it.

[Ash]

I would pay money to watch that body cam footage. The next morning, my brother went out, out to the scene and showed him best investigators specifically where we had pulled out the boot. While he was there, they dug into the sand and found pieces of denim. A few weeks later we found out they excavated the area and did recover a body.

[Elena]

So he was floating with you?

[Ash]

He was floating with you.

[Elena]

My. My fear confirmed.

[Ash]

Yes. After a few months, they confirmed the body was that of a missing man from the area who was last seen in November 2020. Even though this whole experience was wild in a story I will tell around the bonfire for years to come, it was not lost on any of us the impact our discovery made. I only hope we brought this man's family a little justice. At this point, there's never been. Yeah, a little piece. Sorry. At this point, there has never been an official cause of death release that I know of. And although there's lots of rumors for what may have happened, out of respect for his, this man's family, I won't speculate. Good on you. Sometime when I'm not running on fumes I will send in my best ghosty stories.

[Elena]

Please do.

[Ash]

Please do. Turns out I'm fairly fairly sensitive. And spirits good and bad. I almost said fairly. Turns out I'm fairly sensitive.

[Elena]

That's so me.

[Ash]

That's very you. In spirits good and bad. Really dig my vibes. Both my children are similar and keeping our home cleared and cleansed in a con is a constant battle. About two years ago, I saw several mediums and ended up needing to perform a ritual to remove a negative attachment from a past life.

[Elena]

We'll send over that information.

[Ash]

Yeah, things have gotten much easier since then and my life has transformed into something truly beautiful that I didn't know was possible.

[Elena]

Oh, that just made my heart so full.

[Ash]

Love you both and look forward to seeing a new episode every time they pop up. Thank you for all the time and energy you put in the podcast. It has gotten me through many long work days and house cleaning days. Stay weird, weirdos.

[Elena]

I feel like I could, like, feel her energy through the puddle and that I love you. You have great energy, Nicole.

[Ash]

That was great energy.

[Elena]

Yeah, it filled me with happiness.

[Ash]

I loved that.

[Elena]

Is this you on the river in your Gmail thing?

[Ash]

Is it?

[Elena]

I think. Oh, no, that's a pool.

[Ash]

Okay.

[Elena]

But I still love you floating in a pool. Wow. All right, so Listener tales, a light hearted sign from the afterlife. Not after lice. After life Christmas tale.

[Ash]

Life after life.

[Elena]

Do you believe in life after lies? I need to just move it into a thing I can see. We'll just keep that lies in your hair. I really don't think you're strong enough.

[Ash]

Oh, and I'm a hairdresser, so I know about lice.

[Elena]

I actually there was a lice scare at my salon once and I thought that we were gonna get to leave, but we couldn't.

[Ash]

You couldn't. You had to stay.

[Elena]

That was unfortunate.

[Ash]

You had to fight through the lice.

[Elena]

Anyways, Listener Tales, a light hearted sign from the afterlife. Christmas tale about life. Hey, weirdos. I'm Katie. You can use my real name.

[Ash]

Katie.

[Elena]

Katie, Katie. I am typing on my phone and can't figure out how to type, how to double space this shit. So I did my best.

[Ash]

You know what your best is all right.

[Elena]

It's great. It's great. It's short and sweet, so hopefully that makes it less strenuous on the eyeballs. Blind is about over here so I can feel the pain. I feel like all I do is listen to Morbid day in and day out. One could say I'm obsessed.

[Ash]

I'll obsess with you.

[Elena]

I'm obsessed with you. Where? Obsessed with you. Hell yeah. Lots of eye rolls for my husband when I shush him for trying to talk to me when he gets home from work and I'm deep in an episode. Priorities.

[Ash]

I'm triaged that.

[Elena]

Let's get in anyways. Let's get into it starts sad but don't worry, it gets better. Cool. When I was in fifth grade, my brother Kevin passed away from. Is it glioblastoma?

[Ash]

Yes.

[Elena]

Oh, I'm so sorry. It's the most aggressive type of brain cancer. I was one of six kids and it was a tough year for all of us, especially my parents having lost a child.

[Ash]

I can't imagine.

[Elena]

No. We knew the holidays could be would be particularly rough. When it comes to Christmas, my mom loves wrangling as many of us to help decorate the house as she can. As you can imagine with six kids, we have all sorts of Christmas ornaments. I know from school age, my favorite being my older. My older sister's preschool ornament that is literally just a piece of scotch tape on a string with a raisin hanging from it. Everything gets hung up. It's like the snl. The snl back of the Christmas tree skin.

[Ash]

Oh my God.

[Elena]

My mother in law sends that to us every Christmas. It's so funny.

[Ash]

I'm obsessed with just the pieces of scotch tape with a hanging and a raisin hanging.

[Elena]

Does that cause the back.

[Ash]

That is right. That is so right. Because if my kids made that, I'd.

[Elena]

Be like, let's tre. We have a lot of. We have a lot of ornaments with our names on them and we, we scour the box to find our respective ornaments and bring them up. So one morning right around Christmas time the year my brother passed away, my dad came to us and said, you'll never believe what happened last night. As a brief backstory, my brother absolutely loved the 90s karate movies. Bruce Lee vibes.

[Ash]

He sounds amazing.

[Elena]

Watch them constantly, especially when he was sick and home all the time. It was a running joke in our family that those karate movies were always on. My dad said he was laying on the couch in the family room watching tv. After we had all gone to bed and heard what he thought was the doorbell ring. He got up to check and no one was there. Before even making it to the couch. The TV in our living room. Yeah, late 19, 1990s, early 2000s, we had two gigantic 9,000pound box TVs living large clicked on and it was absolutely blasting A karate movie.

[Ash]

Oh, that was him.

[Elena]

Now. This TV had channels 1 through 10. So basic. So basic. Shocked it wasn't black and white and the movie was on a channel he saw on the main TV as being in the hundreds.

[Ash]

Yeah, like how? How?

[Elena]

Yeah. He shut it off quick so as not to wake the rest of us up. Halfway back to the family room, it clicks on again. Full volume, blasting the karate movie.

[Ash]

I love that. That. What a badass sign to send to your family too.

[Elena]

I love that. I love it. He shut it off again and finally made it back to the couch and decided to have a little chat with my brother at that moment. Oh, my God, my heart. He explained to him how hard it had been without him and how much everyone missed him. He asked my brother for a sign. Before he could even blink, something fell from the Christmas tree. My dad got up and sure enough, a heart shaped ornament. I'm gonna literally cry right now. A heart shaped ornament with my brother's name on it had fallen from the tree to the fence. Family room floor. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Believe what you will about this kind of spooky stuff, but in that moment, I think we all felt peace for the first time that year. No, I have actual goosebumps.

[Ash]

Bumps of the goose variety. Oh, like full.

[Elena]

I figured a happy little goose bumpy story would be a good palette cleanser, if you will. I seriously love you guys so much and we love you and your family. Please continue to keep it wicked weird.

[Ash]

Oh, yeah.

[Elena]

Picture of the ornament included, just for funsies.

[Ash]

Oh, my God, Katie. Oh, wow.

[Elena]

Oh, my. I just got chills all over it.

[Ash]

Seriously. Oh, and I wonder if they glued it back together.

[Elena]

I know it kind of looks like.

[Ash]

It looks like there might be a.

[Elena]

Little crack in it, but I can't tell if it's the light, but I think it is.

[Ash]

But that is. That's him.

[Elena]

The fact that you're. First the karate movie happened and then your dad was like, we miss you. And it's been hard. Like, can we have a sign?

[Ash]

And immediately his ornament. And like, like Katie just said, there was six kids in that family. Yeah. Billions of ornaments.

[Elena]

Yeah.

[Ash]

All of. I mean, our tree is three kids and it's like a billion ornaments. I can't imagine six throughout the years in that age, for that one to fall.

[Elena]

That's commercial. That's really, really special.

[Ash]

That's a Christmas miracle.

[Elena]

Oh, we love you guys. We love Christmas. We love Fourth of July. We love Floating.

[Ash]

And you know, we love flowing each.

[Elena]

Other clearly because we really dedicated ourselves to this.

[Ash]

I love nails.

[Elena]

You love nails.

[Ash]

I love a manicure. So this was amazing.

[Elena]

It was so much fun.

[Ash]

Loved it. Can't wait to get out of this.

[Elena]

Yes.

[Ash]

Love you.

[Elena]

Love you so much.

[Ash]

Can't wait to see you in something like this.

[Elena]

Back at you. Do you want this?

[Ash]

Yeah.

[Elena]

Okay, cool. Yeah.

[Ash]

Yeah. But yeah. So we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep. Keep it weird, but not so weird that you find a severed foot while you're just trying to float and get a little buzz on on the 4th of July. And also keep it a little weird that you get this light hearted ornament that's a sign from your brother. And also he's playing karate movies in the background because that's fun. And there's some good karate movies especially for ones from the 80s.

[Elena]

I love karate smoothies.

[Ash]

Karate smoothies forever. Also grandma being the boogan. Keep it that weird because boogens are weird and that's awesome. Send pizza to a crime scene, but only if someone requests you to do so and follow the instructions. Also ghostly Hanukkah parties. Sign me up. Let's go. Where's the lock Keys. I love it. Keep it that weird.

[Elena]

And we love you guys. Oh my God. I almost lit that on fire. Imagine. Oh my. If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.