Scary Stories For A Rainy Night - Ep. 325 - Cornfields

Summary

---

Scary Stories and Rain — Ep. 325 — Cornfields

Hosted by Being Scared
Date: February 24, 2026

---

Episode Overview

Episode 325 of "Scary Stories and Rain" explores a collection of unsettling, true accounts that brush the edges of the paranormal and the all-too-real dangers lurking in everyday life. Told in the podcast’s signature calm, soothing tone and accompanied by rain ambience, the stories span childhood encounters with intruders, late-night stalkers, small-town disappearances, chilling home invasions, and the aftermath of organized crime. This episode leans deeply into rural anxiety—cornfields, empty roads, and lonely houses—with the most frightening moments often coming not from ghosts, but from real people and the unknown intentions they carry.

---

Key Stories and Discussion Points

1. The Basement Intruder (00:30–03:40)

• Setting: Rural Pennsylvania, 8- or 9-year-old narrator.
• Premise: The narrator, responsible for locking the house after their family leaves, repeatedly finds the basement light on and door open, despite locking up each morning.
• Climax: One afternoon, they see a “big shadowy figure standing at the bottom” of the basement stairs (01:52).
• Aftermath: Only months later do the family realize a real person—not a ghost—had been living under their home and sneaking in through a crawlspace.
• Memorable Reflection (02:56):

  “Recognizing I’d been alone in that house with him on at least one occasion was one of the worst, most terrifying realizations I’ve ever had in my life. Needless to say, I don’t believe in ghosts anymore.”

• Theme: The dangers we attribute to the supernatural are sometimes much more tangible.

---

2. The Game of "Mop" Gone Wrong (03:40–10:24)

• Setting: Suburban area, narrator and "Kit" (age 11).
• Premise: Kids play a game yelling "mop" at passersby. After a spell of boredom, they target a disheveled man, prompting a terrifying chase into the woods.
• Key Sequence (06:54–10:24):
  • The man reacts with fury after a hurtful slur is shouted, and the boys impulsively decide to follow him into the brush.
  • The man chases them, nearly catching the narrator; both escape, traumatized.
• Moment of Reflection (10:26):

  “My deepest apologies to that man who my friend and I mistreated... But I would say he got his revenge simply because of how scared we were.”

• Theme: Childhood dares can have real, frightening consequences.

---

3. Unwelcome Visitor at Grandma’s (10:24–18:30)

• Setting: Isolated farm in East Texas, late at night.
• Premise: The storyteller recounts a night at their grandmother’s, ending with a late encounter involving a strange man snooping around the property.
• Brother’s Account (15:15–18:28):
  • After the narrator leaves, the brother hears banging, sees a flashlight, and confronts a tall, silent man emerging from the boat shed at 3am.
  • After warnings go ignored, the brother fires a warning shot, causing the man to flee.
• Haunting Questions (18:01):

  “How many times has this happened after my grandma and brother went to bed and we just didn’t know? ... Was he watching me as I walked out to my car?”

• Theme: The vulnerability of isolation; sometimes, the scariest things lurking outside are people, not creatures.

---

4. The Discord Home Intruder Story (19:00–26:48)

• Setting: Urban apartment, 1990s, as retold from an online scary stories forum.
• Premise: As a child, the storyteller is left alone watching Yu-Gi-Oh!, hears a tap at the window, and sees a stranger’s face before the glass breaks. They escape to a neighbor’s.
• Major Revelation (24:12):
  • Police find a photograph in the attempted intruder’s belongings—it's of the narrator, asleep in bed.
  • The realization: the predator had been inside their home, taking photos, long before the break-in attempt.
• Chilling Reflection (26:07):

  “The idea that the intruder had taken this perverse liking to them, one that was strong enough ... for them to be unable to resist their urges...”

• Theme: The horrifying reality of targeted, predatory crime and its lifelong psychological residue.

---

5. Search and Rescue: The Wolf Whistle in the Woods (27:30–35:14)

• Setting: Dense forest in the northwest US, 1992, told from a sheriff’s deputy’s perspective.
• Premise: Deputies and volunteers search for a missing camper and his grandson. The search becomes eerie as scent trails jump illogically, and unexplained “wolf whistles” ring out from different directions.
• Creepiest Details:
  • At night, unnerving wolf whistles echo from the trees (31:47, 32:25). In the morning, two extremely tall silhouettes are spotted, but they don’t match the missing campers.
• Critical Dialogue (34:02):
  • Host: “We’re looking for two people and there they are.”
  • Partner: “Stop and think for a second. We are looking for one male adult and one male child. Unless this kid is the next Randy Brewer, there’s no way that he’s that tall at age 11.”
• Aftermath: The missing remain unfound. The unexplained whistles and uncanny figures haunt the storyteller years later.
• Theme: Not all mysteries in the wild are supernatural, but some remain impossible to explain.

---

6. From the Archives: The River Discovery (35:47–41:41)

• Setting: Post-Soviet town, 1990s, as recounted by a soon-to-be detective.
• Premise: Three boys fishing by the river hook not a fish, but a severed human head—later found to be the victim of the local mob.
• Distinct Moment (39:40):

  “Instead, as he was reeling, their faces went pale. There was no fish on the line. Instead, the fishing hook got stuck in flesh. Human flesh. The boy ... had caught a human head. Yes, a rotting human head.”

• Reflection on Trauma (41:41):

  “Some cases and witness statements who are crying their souls out ... gets me crying also. That just gives me ... strength to fight these horrible people.”

• Theme: Real horror is often found in human cruelty and its effect on the innocent.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On being alone with danger:

  “Recognizing I’d been alone in that house with him on at least one occasion was one of the worst, most terrifying realizations I’ve ever had...” [02:56]

• Facing real consequences from childish games:

  “He let out an angry growl. I turned and continued running...” [09:34]

• True horror in suburbia:

  “What was in that plastic bag was a photograph. A photograph of a young boy curled up in bed, sleeping soundly. And that boy was our storyteller.” [24:30]

• Wilderness unease:

  “Somewhere to my left, past the tree line, came a loud wolf whistle...” [31:47]

• From detective to empath:

  “Some cases ... get me to tears. How terrible it must have been for the boys to discover the head and for the man’s family to hear that their son had been discovered in pieces...” [41:41]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:30 – First Story: The Shadow in the Basement
• 03:40 – Second Story: The Game of Mop
• 10:24 – Third Story: Night Stalker at Grandma's
• 19:00 – Fourth Story: Home Invasion and the Chilling Photograph
• 27:30 – Fifth Story: Search and Rescue, Wolf Whistles
• 35:47 – Sixth Story: The Mob Head Discovery

---

Tone and Language

Throughout, the narration flows with a calm, almost hypnotic quality. The speakers recount these stories without embellishment or dramatic flourish, letting the terror of ordinary life—waking up to a stalker, hearing unexplained sounds in the woods, stumbling on crime—speak for itself. The overall effect is quiet, chilling, and deeply human.

---

Final Thoughts

This episode stands out for how it draws fear from both supernatural suggestion and painfully real, human threats. The recurring motif: what’s truly frightening often isn’t the ghost stories, but the moments when ordinary life is ruptured by something utterly, viscerally wrong. Whether alone in the basement, lost in cornfields, or fishing by the river, these are the tales that linger long after the rain sound fades.

---

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

Hey, welcome back to the podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode. And if you'd like to hear more stories like these with a different background sound, please check the description to check out my other two podcasts. And if you want to get rid of all of the ads, you can subscribe for just $2.99 a month. Last thing I really appreciate you being here and I'd really love if you would follow the podcast and come back again soon. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy.

[Storyteller]

Years ago now, back when I was about 8 or 9, my folks and I lived in this huge, weird old house that was like right on the edge of this small town in rural Pennsylvania. The local school districts also happened to be in the middle of this big restructuring. So even though me and my little brother were only a couple of grades apart, we went to different schools and took different buses. This meant I was the last person to leave the house every morning, but also the first person to get home every afternoon since my school was much closer than his. But this also meant that it was also my job to make sure all the lights were off and all the doors were locked when I left every morning to head off to school. So this one morning I became aware

[Podcast Host]

of the fact that that the light

[Storyteller]

was on in the basement and that the door was open. So before I left, I saw to it that the light was off and the door was locked. Then later when I got home that afternoon, I saw that the light was on and the door was open again. I remember thinking I was losing my mind or something, that I had totally just imagined locking it up. I mean, I was pretty tired most mornings after staying up late playing Overwatch, so it wasn't out of the question that I had just forgotten to do it. So I went over to turn off

[Podcast Host]

the light and close the door.

[Storyteller]

But when I got to the top of the basement staircase, I looked down to see that there was a big shadowy figure standing at the bottom. I freaked out, slammed the door and pushed a cabinet up against it and then bolted to hide upstairs in my room. For months I didn't tell my family because I was positive that what I had seen was a ghost. And I didn't think anyone would believe me. It was Halloween time. I was young and dumb and happened to have fostered a firm belief in the paranormal. Then about six months after that weird little incident, my mom and dad realized that things had been going missing around the house. They blamed me and my brother at first, but after we insisted that we were innocent, we all walked around the place with flashlights trying to figure out how anyone might have gotten inside without actually breaking in. It turns out the thing I had seen in the basement was an actual man and he had been climbing in through a small hole on the outside of the house, worming his way through a crawlspace, then coming up into the house through the basement. Recognizing I'd been alone in that house with him on at least one occasion was one of the worst, most terrifying realizations I've ever had in my life. Needless to say, I don't believe in ghosts anymore. This happened to me when I was 11 and I was staying at a friend's house who I will call Kit. Kit was one of those cool kids in school who was always up to trouble. Looking back, I don't understand how I managed to remain friends with him for so long as I was anything but cool and never did anything he did. One night I was staying over at his place on a Friday after school and we started playing touch football in the backyard one on one. After playing for about 20 minutes, he asked if I had heard of a game called Mop, which I had not. He explained to me that the way the game works is you hide by the road and when someone walks or drives past you shout the word mop, hoping to get some kind of reaction. I suppose the game can be known by any other name, but in my case he called it mop. I agreed, so we went down to his front yard and looked up and down the road to see if anyone was heading our way. I should note that Kit's house isn't actually on a main road, so the only reason you would drive down on the left is if you were going to a house further down. And there were only a few houses on this street past Kit's house, so I wasn't expecting many people to pass by. I hid behind the garage bins which were by the driveway fence and Kit was hiding in the opposite side in the garden. At this point it was about 4pm so it was still light out, which to me made the game less fun. About two minutes in, a car drives by and Kit shouts out mop. Nothing happened, which was no surprise. I knew someone driving by wouldn't be

[Podcast Host]

able to hear us.

[Storyteller]

Not long after, a man and woman were walking their dog and as they were walking by, Kit shouted Mop. At them. The man and woman stopped and Monster Energy.

[Sponsor Voice]

Everybody knows White Monster, Zero Ultra, that's the og. It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing. But Ultra is a whole lineup now you've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the monster energy punch. So if you've been living in the white can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is zero sugar. Tap the banner to learn more.

[Storyteller]

So good, so good, so good.

[Sponsor Voice]

New spring arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60% off rag and Bone, Marc Jacobs, Free People and more.

[Podcast Host]

How did I not know Rack has Adidas? Because there's always something new.

[Sponsor Voice]

Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack

on December 12, Disney invites you to go behind the scenes with Taylor Swift in an exclusive six episode docuseries.

I wanted to give something to the fans that they didn't expect. The only thing left is to close

the book the end of an era and don't miss Taylor Swift. The Eras Tour, the final show featuring for the first time the tortured poets department. Streaming December 12th only on Disney plus

[Storyteller]

looked around confused for about 5 seconds and then they started walking again. That was the exact reaction I was expecting. After about 10 or more disappointing reactions, I was starting to get bored, but Kit was having too much fun. Eventually I noticed a homeless looking man making his way over. Kit couldn't have seen him yet, so I gave him the signal that someone was near and he waited. As the man was getting closer I could see that he was talking to himself like he was arguing with someone. As he got closer I could see that he was at least in his 40s. I could see how dirty he looked. He had long greasy black hair and his face was covered in dirt. I was starting to get nervous. When the man was passing us I heard Kit shout out something that I cannot repeat. It was really really bad. The man looked right towards the house in an instant looking absolutely furious. I was freaking out as the man could have easily spotted me hiding behind the bins. The man started passing back and forth with his eyes flipping fixed on the house, looking around and muttering to himself. Eventually he started walking back the way he was heading and once he was out of my view, I got out from behind the bins and made my way over to Kit. I was about to yell at him and tell him how stupid it was what he said, but then he said let's follow him. I told him that was a terrible idea, but as a stupid 11 year old kid I eventually agreed. We kept at a distance and followed the man off the road and at the entrance to the brush. We hid behind a car and watched the man. I wish I could say we headed back right then, but Kit wanted to see where he was going, so we followed. Kit went first and I followed close behind. I was walking as quietly as possible, but the leaves were all so dry, so they crunched really loud as we walked over them. About five minutes into this, Kit stopped dead in his tracks and I heard him whisper, oh crap. I walked up next to him and just ahead, behind some rocks, there was the man crouching down, looking right at us. I didn't have time to react as the man stood up and started sprinting towards us. Kit and I turned and ran screaming. I could sense that the man was closing in on us and I feared that any second he would grab me and that would be the end. Lucky for us, we heard the man trip and fall. I remember just feeling the air move under the man's body just inches behind me. I was easily in arm's reach. Hearing the man fall, I slowed down and looked back and saw him lying flat on his stomach and he let out an angry growl. I turned and continued running. I couldn't see Kid at this point, but I could hear the crunching of the leaves and branches, so I knew he was still close. Eventually I got out of the brush and started running on the road back to the house. When I got there, Kit was already there, out of breath and sweating.

[Podcast Host]

I started to cry due to the

[Storyteller]

realization that we could have both just been seriously injured. I never spoke of this story to anyone and I don't think Kit has either. I haven't been to Kit's house since. My deepest apologies to that man who my friend and I mistreated. It was a very stupid thing to do and I have always felt bad about it. But I would say he got his revenge simply because of how scared we were. So this story is going to be partly from my perspective as well as my brother's perspective, and it's going to be a long one. This is a true story that happened last night while I was at my grandma's house. So before this all took place, I went to get McDonald's in the nearest city to us, which is about 20 minutes away. After that, I decided to go down to my grandma's house instead of going straight home. For context, she lives down a long farm road to which you also have to turn off down a half mile dirt driveway just to get to her house. I arrived there at around 9pm and I went in and visited with my grandmother and my brother who lives with her ever since my grandpa passed away so that she won't have to live down there all alone. My brother and I took out my grandma's dog to go pee at around 10.30pm and we just sat outside listening to music and talked for a while. At that point I was starting to get cold because this is East Texas and I am not yet used to it getting down into the low 40s at night, so I was about ready to head inside. I noticed something moving in the corner of my eye near the large metal shop that sits a few hundred yards from the house. I didn't really take too much notice though because it is not uncommon for deer or raccoons to come snooping around in the yard and plus my grandma's dog wasn't barking so I thought that it might have just been my eyes

[Podcast Host]

playing tricks on me.

[Storyteller]

We finally headed back inside and my grandma went to sleep around 11pm so me and my brother stayed up and played among us and watched YouTube for a while. At around 2:30am I was very tired and ready to go home so I asked my brother to walk with me to the door and make sure that I got out to my car because I am always paranoid, especially at night. He joked around and said that he would turn the light off on me and lock the door and I freaked out and begged him to walk me out to the car, to which he finally did. I got in my car and immediately locked the doors and I saw the porch lights turn off as I was driving off back down the dirt road. I got home within 10 minutes and fixed myself some ice cream before I sat down and enjoyed some creepy horror stories on YouTube. Another 15 or so minutes passed and I got a FaceTime call from my brother to which I picked up almost immediately. I could tell that he was freaked out about something, but he wasn't saying anything right away so I asked him what was wrong. The following is my best attempt to paraphrase what my brother told me. He said that after I left he went back outside to listen to some music and sit on the porch. He had the music on his phone up pretty loud, which would usually mask any noises of animals coming from the nearby woods. After a few minutes of listening to music, he said that he heard what he thought to be sounds of metal banging around, so he quickly paused the music and listened to see if he could hear the sound again. He stood up and looked towards the shop and the boat shed which are adjacent to each other and are a few hundred yards away from where he was standing. He saw a faint light shining around near the boat shed, but then it quickly flicked off. At this point he was freaking out so he quietly crept back inside the house and locked the door behind him. He said that he ran to his room in the back of the house, I guess not thinking to wake up our grandma, and he grabbed his weapon. He quickly ran back outside and saw the glow of the flashlight move around and then quickly shut off as soon as he noticed it. He walked out to the edge of the concrete carport and stared out towards the boat shed with his weapon down at his side. The only thing illuminating the boat shed was the faint light coming from the house. He said that he tried to muster up the most intimidating voice he could manage, instead said who is out there? To which there was no immediate reply except for a slight bumping sound which solidified the fact that someone was indeed there. Now keep in mind this is out in the middle of the country in a town with a population of just over 1,000 people and the nearest house is across the lake or miles down the farm road. So no well meaning person would just happen to stumble across my grandma's house this late at night. Also, my grandma has had problems with people snooping around the property in the past, so this is not something any of us take lightly and for the life of me I can't tell you why my brother didn't just call the police, but you also have to remember there is only a few cops in the entire town and it is 3am and so it would take at least 30 minutes for the cops to even show up.

[Podcast Host]

So my brother again called for the

[Storyteller]

person to show themselves and repeated his

[Podcast Host]

question and asked the person to identify themselves.

[Storyteller]

He said that he practically crapped his pants as a tall lanky figure slowly emerged from the boat shed with a flashlight in hand. Although my brother couldn't see any distinct features about the person, he could definitely tell that it was an older man and that it was no one that

[Podcast Host]

we knew it was, especially not anyone should be in our boat shed at

[Storyteller]

3am at this point he raised the

[Podcast Host]

weapon up to point at the man and again shouted who are you?

[Storyteller]

The man was still silent and began slowly walking towards him.

[Podcast Host]

My brother took a step forward and

[Storyteller]

gave one last verbal warning to the

[Podcast Host]

man and said I swear I'll use

[Storyteller]

this now who are you and why are you here? The man quickly raised his hands up

[Podcast Host]

and said whoa, whoa whoa, calm down man. In a taunting voice as he continued walking towards my brother.

[Storyteller]

My brother fired a single shot just

[Podcast Host]

above the man's head, to which he finally took that as his cue that my brother meant business.

[Storyteller]

The man hurriedly took off on foot back down the driveway and my brother screamed, don't come back. My brother then quickly ran inside to

[Podcast Host]

wake up my grandma who had somehow slept through the entire commotion.

[Storyteller]

She didn't seem worried enough to actually call the police, but of course after hearing this, all I could think about

[Podcast Host]

was what were the true intentions of that man? Was he just some druggie snooping around looking to steal some tools or money? Or were his intentions much more sinister? Another question that haunts me about this whole situation is how many times has

[Storyteller]

this happened after my grandma and brother

[Podcast Host]

went to bed and we just didn't know? And was he watching us from the shadows all night?

[Storyteller]

Was he watching me as I walked out to my car? What would have happened if my brother had actually turned out the lights and

[Podcast Host]

locked the door before I could get to my car? I have a pretty good imagination, but

[Storyteller]

I really don't like to use it

[Podcast Host]

thinking about the possibilities and to the

[Storyteller]

stranger who tried to rob us or

[Podcast Host]

do God knows what at 3 o' clock in the morning. I hope you learned your lesson.

[Storyteller]

A few years ago I was part of a True Scary Stories server on Discord. It was a place where people would share their own personal stories of scary or spooky things that had happened to them in their lives, and for a while it was honestly a lot of fun. Sure, a lot of the stories sounded made up and generally involved stuff like

[Podcast Host]

I saw a shadowy figure at the

[Storyteller]

end of my bed and other stuff that sounded like they were lifted straight out of a bad horror movie. But every so often someone would share a story that didn't have a hint of the supernatural in it, something that was actually believable. And occasionally these stories were genuinely terrifying. I read a lot of seriously spine chilling stuff on that server, but a lot of it I have forgotten over the years. Probably because although they were creepy, they just weren't disturbing enough to actually stick with me. But there was one story in particular that I have never forgotten because it genuinely made me shudder when I read it. I hope the user in question doesn't mind if I share their story and if they happen to hear this, I would like to think they would let me know in the comments and maybe correct anything I got wrong because I am telling this from memory.

[Podcast Host]

Here it goes.

[Storyteller]

The Poster began their story by assuring us that their story wasn't just some fabrication and that although they were pretty young when it happened, just thinking or writing about it as an adult was a pretty stressful experience for them. They went on to explain that their early years were marred by tragedy how their dad had died when they were really young from a drug overdose, so they were raised by a single mom living in a small apartment just down the street from their grandma's house. Mom did some dating though, obviously trying to do the right thing and find them a stepdad to give them some kind of father figure in their life. The incident in question happened while she was out on a date. Usually speaking, their grandma would babysit for them anytime mom needed to do anything that meant she couldn't bring them along. But on the night of her date, the grandma was working. So although it wasn't ideal, nine or ten year old storyteller was left unsupervised in their mom's ground floor apartment. Sounds kind of irresponsible at first, but the storyteller was quick to reassure the members of the server. That was back when Yu Gi oh was popular. As long as they had their cards and a box set of the cartoons to keep them occupied, being left alone for like an hour or two certainly wasn't an issue for them. It's not like they were going to wander out of the apartment or get up to any mischief while their precious Yu Gi oh was keeping them busy. But at some point during the evening they are sitting there playing with their cards and watching TV when they heard a tapping on the window. Remember, they lived in the ground floor apartment, so pretty much anyone could have just walked up and started tapping on the glass. No climbing or levitating or any of that stuff was involved, so there was nothing inherently worrying or creepy about sleep. Someone knocking on the glass. The storyteller then gets up, walking towards the window before drawing back the curtains, only to reveal the face of a complete stranger. Not their grandfather, not an uncle, but a complete and utter stranger. Surprised and confused, they back up from the window, letting the curtain slide back into place before this horrendous creature. Crash sounds. Broken glass tumbles onto the carpet at the foot of the curtains before another smash sends more glittering shards onto the floor in front of them. At that point, they said they just tossed their Yu Gi oh cards onto the floor and bailed, rushing out of the back door of the apartment and over to a neighbor's house, pounding on the door in a state of abject terror. As they looked over their shoulder every so often to ensure the mysterious predator wasn't hot in pursuit. But thankfully, the neighbor answers the door, lets our storyteller in before taking the time to calm them down to get the full story out of them. Naturally, they called the cops immediately, who rushed over since they were given the description of a home invasion in progress. The neighbor then gets in touch with storyteller's mom to let her know the awful news, who immediately rushes home to comfort their terrified son. Then after that, both the neighbor and the storyteller's mom accompany them back to the apartment, where the cops are still searching the property and surrounding area for any sign of the attempted intruder. Apparently, one of the cops approaches the mom at this point and shows her something in a clear plastic evidence bag. The mom stares at it, turns pale, then kneels down and hugs our storyteller tight, fighting to hold back tears as the neighbor says, oh my gosh. They both ended up staying at the grandma's place for like a week after while the window was repaired. And if that seems like a bizarre amount of time to fix a window and that something else might be behind them staying away from the apartment for a while, you would be right in thinking that our storyteller had their suspicions

[Podcast Host]

for a little while.

[Storyteller]

But they were too young to really understand the implications of what had happened. The kind of danger they had been in wasn't clear until many years later, when their mom explained to them just what had happened that evening. You see, it wasn't just the window that was being replaced. The entire apartment was being thin, fitted with new, incredibly sturdy locks, CCTV cameras, just about everything short of a panic room, all being paid for by grandma and grandpa. The whole family was absolutely terrified. And it was all down to the piece of evidence that the cop showed the mom that night. The little thing in the clear plastic evidence bag that made her turn ashen and squeeze our storyteller in a big, trembling bear hug. What was in that plastic bag was a photograph. A photograph of a young boy curled up in bed, sleeping soundly. And that boy was our storyteller. The mom told a much older storyteller that the photo couldn't have been taken long before the attempted break in. Something about the sheets on the bed being fairly new or something I can't quite remember. Or maybe it was a new haircut that the storyteller had gotten. But either way, it was some detail in there that made it clear that the attempted intruder had broken into the apartment somehow, maybe only a week prior. And had taken a photograph of our storyteller while they were sleeping. I can only imagine they had done so to several other children, too, making a little catalog of potential victims, pursuing them for hours on end before finally deciding the one they liked the most. I think that's what makes my blood run cold back when I read their

[Podcast Host]

story, the idea that the intruder had

[Storyteller]

taken this perverse liking to them, one that was strong enough for them to be unable to resist their urges or whatever kind of sick, twisted desires had them smashing that window that evening. The family only felt safe again when they heard news that a creeper whose MO was eerily similar to their own experiences was caught by police and jailed after being extradited to another state. But they kept the whole thing a secret from our storyteller until he was in his late teenage years. There was no more details after that. There wasn't any grand conclusion, just that

[Podcast Host]

it was something that had haunted him for years.

[Storyteller]

I never read anything as horrifying as that on that Discord server. It made everything else seem tame in comparison, and I stopped reading shortly afterward. It's weird how we seek out scary stories sometimes just to give ourselves a little thrill, but end up being genuinely traumatized not by the spoopy skeleton stories, but by things that we know could have easily happened for real. Quick Preface My uncle was a sheriff's

[Podcast Host]

deputy and search and rescue officer in the northwest United States back in the 1990s.

[Storyteller]

This experience is told from my uncle's

[Podcast Host]

view with a few explanations for myself.

[Storyteller]

He asked that I keep the location

[Podcast Host]

hidden for anonymity purposes. So it was the summer of 1992. It was a couple years into my job with the county sheriff's office. Summers were busy. A ton of people would go camping up here, so naturally people would occasionally get lost. S and R was something I was volun told to do as a rookie, but I learned to love it. Helping people, especially in life or death situations, was the reason I became a deputy. So S and R gave me that rush, as my normal law enforcement duties were almost always mundane in my small town. We received a call from a lady in Arizona one Tuesday morning. She claimed her husband and young grandson had driven up here on a Friday for a weekend camping trip. They hadn't returned Monday as scheduled, and she was worried that they were lost. So we geared up the S and R team, consisting of myself, four other deputies, 15 civilian volunteers, and two Bloodhound s and R dogs. We made it to their camping site around noon. Upon first inspection, everything in the Camp seemed relatively normal. We searched their tent and found all their belongings sitting inside. Truck keys, wallet, map, water, food, all sat in the tent undisturbed. A small pot filled with water and now extra soggy macaroni noodles sat above a long dead fire pit. It was obvious they had left in a hurry.

[Storyteller]

No tracks were visible to determine what

[Podcast Host]

directions they went, so we used a pair of socks we found in the tent as a base smell for the hounds. They caught the scent and started leading us north of the campsite. As we walked, I looked at my partner and we both shook and lowered our heads. North of their campsite was tens of thousands of acres of dense woods. We knew this was going to be a long search. As we searched, we used a grid pattern. A grid pattern is roughly an acre sized square on a map that S and R used to determine a more precise direction that someone might have gone. The weirdest part was that the hounds would pick up their scent in one square, but not in any of the squares directly next to that square. This happened multiple times. It was as if someone plucked these guys up from their campsite and placed them in random sections of the forest repeatedly. I began to get a very bad feeling after this. Something just didn't seem right about the situation. The team had covered roughly three miles of area as the day started to wind down. As dusk began to hit, it was just myself, my buddy Rob and his hound Russ that stayed behind.

[Storyteller]

The rest of the team made their

[Podcast Host]

way back home and we would be back out tomorrow morning. I always stayed out overnight when a child was lost. I had a feeling of guilt being in a warm, safe bed while a child was cold and scared out in the wilderness. We eventually found a small clearing to make camp. By the time night fell, we had a fire blazing and our sleeping bags laid out in the grass. Rob and I went over the next day's search plan for a bit, ate dinner, and eventually hunkered down for the evening. I laid on my sleeping bag and quickly dozed off. I woke up some time later. I sat up and looked around. As my eyes began to adjust to the darkness, I felt like someone was watching me. The urge to look around to ensure that no one was sneaking up on me was intense. I called out, hello? Sam?

[Storyteller]

Frank, is that you? We're looking for you. Are you there?

[Podcast Host]

I didn't hear any response, so I laid down and tried to fall back asleep. Just a few minutes later, I heard it. Somewhere to my left, past the tree line, came a loud wolf whistle. A wolf whistle is the Whistle you hear in movies or TV when a man sees a very attractive woman. I sprang up out of my sleeping bag and began frantically scanning the tree line. At this point, Russ was up too. His ears were peaked and he was whining in the direction of the whistle. I called out again, hello, I am

[Storyteller]

a deputy with the sheriff's office. Do you need help?

[Podcast Host]

Sam? Frank? I received no response. Rob was awake now, and as I was explaining the situation, the whistle came again, but this time to our right. I drew my sidearm and flicked on my flashlight as Rob took out his large buck knife and stood beside me. We scanned the tree line, but we didn't see anything. We continued scanning the treeline and calling out for another 10 minutes before we decided to get the fire going again and wait until dawn to search the area. We didn't hear another whistle for the remainder of the early morning. As dawn broke, Rob and I searched the area. We found two pairs of boot prints in the fresh mud. We decided to head back home, get some rest, and return later in the day. Continue searching. We were only about 200ft from the clearing when two simultaneous wolf whistles came from behind us. As I turned, I scanned the trees. I didn't see anything at first, but as I looked farther back towards the entrance to the clearing, I saw two silhouettes standing out in the open. We couldn't see any features or clothing. As the morning sun was blinding us, I called out and started making my way towards them. When they took off running, I was going to chase them. When Rob stopped me, I was puzzled. I said, rob.

[Storyteller]

What?

[Podcast Host]

We're looking for two people and there they are. Stop wasting time. He replied with stop and think for a second. We are looking for one male adult and one male child. Unless this kid is the next Randy Brewer, there's no way that he's that tall at age 11. That's when the realization hit me. He was right. Those two silhouettes obviously were not the two people that we were searching for. If I was alone or with another deputy, I would have chased them, but I wasn't willing to put a civilian volunteer in danger. We decided to just continue our way back to the trailhead and debrief the team and sheriff on the events that had transpired.

[Storyteller]

The rest of the hike back to

[Podcast Host]

the trailhead was uneventful. We met up with the search team and the sheriff when we arrived, as

[Storyteller]

they were getting geared up to head back out.

[Podcast Host]

We received a few scoffs and eye rolls when retelling the events that occurred. But the Sheriff surprisingly believed our claims. He even had one of the deputies carry an M16 for the remainder of the search.

[Storyteller]

We continued our search for 13 days,

[Podcast Host]

never finding the two missing individuals. A few people claimed they heard wolf whistles while out searching, but I never did again. This mission still haunts me. I have wondered all these years what happened to those two and if the two silhouettes that I saw had something to do with their disappearance.

[Storyteller]

Just to give you a bit of

[Podcast Host]

background, I live in a country that is classed as post Soviet as we

[Storyteller]

used to be part of a Soviet

[Podcast Host]

Union until it collapsed. Anyway, the story is not about that. Currently I am in my final year of police training me specifically training to become a detective in murder organized crime cases. Throughout my training I have seen a lot of gruesome things and cases, read a lot of past cases that are now solved. So to say that I am not breaking any law by talking about it. Back in the 1990s, right after the Soviet Union had collapsed, small countries that were now independent were trying to set up their governments and law enforcement systems. People were mostly poor and organized crime started to arise. And by that I mean a lot of mafia groups were forming in various bigger cities as there was no effective law enforcement to stop them from doing crimes and the units that were formed were mostly corrupted and afraid of the Mafia.

[Sponsor Voice]

This episode is brought to you by FX's Love Story. John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bassette join host Evan Ross Katz on the official podcast for FX's new series Love Story, John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bassette and go behind the scenes with cast and special guests featuring Sarah Pigeon, Paul Anthony Kelly, Grace Gummer and Naomi Watts. FX's love story John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bassette Wherever you listen to

[Podcast Host]

podcasts, lucky me, I was born in one of these cities that had one of the strongest and influential Mafia gang in the whole country. The time from 1990s until the early 2000s was like one big crime scene in whole of the country. Daily shootings, corpses and rivers, robberies, carjackings, you name it, it was there during

[Storyteller]

my early training years.

[Podcast Host]

In 2018 as part of my studies, I went to police archive and came across a few cases from the past that will stay in my mind for some time. I will tell about one of them in my story. So the case story goes like this. In 1992, early autumn when it was still warm, a young man went suddenly missing. Police knew that he had some ties with the local mob, but for a week they weren't able to find him. Or his body. Right then, when the search was going on, three teenage boys aged 12, 14 went fishing to a local river.

[Storyteller]

To give you a better idea of

[Podcast Host]

the location, there was a main road and by that main road there was a school. And there was a trail leading through the school's playground right to the riverbank. It was a three minute walk from the playground to the riverbank. So the boys took their fishing gear and as they were walking through the playground, they saw and waved hello to the school's principal as he was outside talking to a groundskeeper. Boys being known for their mischievous behavior in school and just wanted to taunt the principal by waving at him. He ignored them and the boys went to the river. It was a warm evening. The sun was still up. It was around 5pm the boys got ready to fish and cast their rods. 10 minutes passed, nothing. 15 minutes passed. Nothing. One of the boys got impatient and

[Storyteller]

decided to recast his rod. Just as he started to reel back,

[Podcast Host]

something heavy was on the line. He got excited and started to shout, I got something.

[Storyteller]

I got one.

[Podcast Host]

I got a bite. The other boys ran to him and excitedly waited for the huge fish to finally show. But instead, as he was reeling, their faces went pale. There was no fish on the line. Instead, the fishing hook got stuck in flesh. Human flesh. The boy who was holding the fishing rod threw up when he saw that he had caught a human head. Yes, a rotting human head. The boys panicked. They didn't know what to do as there were no cell phones and the closest building with an adult was the school. The boys dropped their fishing gear and ran back to the school hoping to find the principal who they saw earlier. He was nowhere to be seen outside, so the boys ran into the school,

[Storyteller]

straight into his office.

[Podcast Host]

They were panicking and screaming for the principal to come because there was something horrible by the river. The principal looked at them confused and refused to come as he thought this was one of their pranks. But when he noticed how greenish, pale and panicked they were, he said in a serious voice, this better not be one of your silly pranks. Now come on, show me what's going on.

[Storyteller]

They took him right where they dropped

[Podcast Host]

their fishing gear and showed him the head, which still had the fishhook in it. The principal stood in silence, but there was pure terror on his face. Quickly he took the boys back to his office and rang the police. The police came and of course the forensic team was called. Statements were taken from the boys and the principal. It was the missing man's head. The 22 year old man was killed by the mob because he owed them money, then cut into several pieces and thrown into the river. Only his head and torso were recovered. His family was gutted they couldn't even bury his body properly. Me now reading their statements after more than 20 years got me to tears. How terrible it must have been for the boys to discover the head and for the man's family to hear that their son had been discovered in pieces. I am not a faint hearted person or anything like that as I chose my career to be a murdered detective. But some cases and witness statements who are crying their souls out asking to find the people who did that to their loved ones sometimes gets me crying also. That just gives me the motivation and strength to find and fight these horrible people. Stay safe Everyone.

[Sponsor Voice]

Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fun, fast and breathe. Oh sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh sorry. Namaste.

Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Storyteller]

1-800-contacts.

[Sponsor Voice]

New year new me. Cute, but how about New Year New Money? With Experian, you can actually take control of your finances. Check your FICO score, find ways to save and get matched with credit card offers giving you time to power through those New Year's goals. You know you're going to crush start the year off right. Download the Experian app based on FICO's Score8 model offers an approval not guaranteed. Eligibility requirements and terms apply subject to credit check which may impact your credit scores. Offers not available in all states. See experian.com for details.

[Storyteller]

Experian Lifelock how can I help?

[Sponsor Voice]

The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't.

One in four tax paying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud.

What do I do? My refund though.

[Podcast Host]

I'm freaking out.

[Storyteller]

Don't worry, I can fix this status.

[Sponsor Voice]

LifeLock fixes identity theft guaranteed and gets your money back with up to $3 million in coverage.

I'm so relieved.

[Storyteller]

No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.

[Sponsor Voice]

One in four was a fraud Paying American. Not anymore. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply.