Encounters x340 - The Creepiest Babysitting Paranormal Stories

Summary

Two Girls One Ghost – Episode Summary
Podcast: Two Girls One Ghost (Sony Music Entertainment)
Episode: Encounters x340 – The Creepiest Babysitting Paranormal Stories
Release Date: July 16, 2026
Hosts: Corinne Vien & Sabrina Deana-Roga

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Episode Overview

This episode's central theme is the chilling intersection of babysitting and the paranormal. Corinne and Sabrina, best friends and hosts, share listener-submitted stories of eerie experiences while babysitting and with creepy kids. Throughout, they blend authentic horror with their signature humor and empathy, providing commentary, support, and practical advice for those who find their lives touched by the supernatural.

From haunted smoke alarms and ghostly games of hide-and-seek to real-life brushes with serial killers, the episode covers a wide range of true events that will both unsettle and entertain. Key topics include kids as conduits for the paranormal, haunted houses, sleepwalking episodes, Ouija mishaps, and unsettling tales of notorious babysitters.

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Key Discussion Points & Notable Stories

1. Setting the Scene and Announcements

• [01:44 - 03:51]
  • Corinne and Sabrina discuss personal updates (Corinne’s due date) and the episode’s special theme: the creepiest babysitting and creepy kid paranormal stories.
  • Patreon bonus content is mentioned for those seeking extra chills.

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2. Listener Story #1 – “Haunted Babysitting Experience” by Amina

• [04:33 - 13:23]
  • Summary: Amina recounts a series of strange events after babysitting for a family that moved into a new house. Experiences include closet noises, unexplained smoke alarms, heavy footsteps, and the sound of bouncing balls in the basement. The activity intensifies only at night, leading Amina to only babysit during daylight hours.
  • Key Moments:
    • Closet becomes a recurring source of fear for the oldest child.
    • The kids’ reactions add credibility to the haunting.
    • Amina finds white sage in the house, suggesting the parents may also be experiencing the paranormal.
    • Hosts advise discussing the haunting openly with the parents.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “I was way too scared of the house while being there alone when the kids are sleeping.” – Amina (12:56)

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3. Hosts’ Campfire Story Recall – Tragedy and Paranormal Fallout

• [13:52 - 14:53]
  • Sabrina recounts a previous listener’s story involving a haunted house with a tragic history—a murder-suicide and ongoing hauntings involving children’s spirits.
  • Quote: “It was so bad that her realtor was like, do you want me to get you out of this?” – Corinne (14:44)

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4. Listener Story #2 – “Dream Visitation, Creepy Sleepwalking Kid, and Maybe a Medium in the Wild” by Tori

• [15:08 - 22:19]
  • Summary: Tori details paranormal experiences surrounding the death of a friend, Blue, including a dream visitation, her young son’s sleepwalking episodes, and strange events that convinced an outside observer her son might be gifted.
  • Key Moments:
    • A protective visitation from her deceased friend, Blue.
    • Son sleepwalks, says “ghost, ghost” (20:04), and exhibits “medium” abilities witnessed by a stranger at a pool.
    • Ongoing validation of children as sensitive to paranormal.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “He turns his head toward the bathroom... just stares there for a few seconds before laying back down.” – Tori (17:32)
    • “Does he see stuff that’s not there? I just wanted to say that if he does, it’s real.” – Stranger at pool, relayed by Tori (21:19)

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5. Paranormal Sleep Disorders – Night Terrors and Sleepwalking

• [22:31 - 24:15]
  • Hosts discuss the unnerving nature of sleepwalking and night terrors, personal family stories, and speculate on the paranormal’s connection to these phenomena.
  • Quote: “I'm scared of sleepwalking because I don't sleepwalk often, but I have and I'm very high functioning, which is what scares me.” – Corinne (22:54)

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6. Listener Story #3 – “Is My Kid Haunted?” by Spooky Mama

• [27:09 - 32:23]
  • Summary: A mother faces her daughter’s disturbing night terrors and physical manifestations (legs being pulled in bed, monitor cutting out). Professional counsel and sleep aids fail. Spiritual cleansing and setting boundaries become her focus.
  • Key Moments:
    • Daughter’s “aggressive” demeanor as an infant.
    • Child appears to be physically attacked during night terrors (legs lifted by unseen force, [29:42]).
    • Hosts advise intention, spiritual cleansing (rosemary, bells), and positive affirmations.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “I watched her thrashing... both her legs lifted up to hip level like she was being pulled. And then the monitor cut out.” – Spooky Mama (29:42)
    • “I absolutely think there’s something supernatural happening here.” – Sabrina (30:52)

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7. Listener Story #4 – “My Neighbor’s Haunted House / Ouija Board Experience” by Chip

• [33:07 - 38:48]
  • Summary: A family moves from a seriously haunted house to the protagonist’s neighborhood, but spirits appear to follow—most notably “David,” a presence originally conversing with their child. During a Ouija session, the flashlight dies as the planchette hits “yes,” and the name “David” is spelled out.
  • Key Moments:
    • Synchronized paranormal and electronic disturbances.
    • Question if the spirit attached to the family or the house.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “The volume on the TV suddenly turned up to max... just as one of the characters yelled, you get the fuck out of my house.” – Chip (34:37)
    • “But, yeah, who is David?” – Corinne (38:43)

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8. True Crime Tangent: Babysitting a Serial Killer – Story from Paula

• [41:46 - 49:09]
  • Summary: Paula remembers her family’s proximity to Carrie Stainer (the Yosemite killer), who worked with her parents and babysat her as a child. Details include her mother’s near-encounter with murder scenes that became crucial testimony, and chilling reminders after the fact.
  • Key Moments:
    • Paula’s aunt accidentally photographs the ghost of a murder victim.
    • Reflection on innocence, trauma, and the dark resurfacing of memory.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “He had created a hit list of all the women he believed acted immorally. On the list were my mom’s co workers, friends, young nieces who were teenagers.” – Paula (47:06)
    • “I had no idea that I even remembered his voice. But it sh me to my core.” – Paula (48:39)

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9. Listener Story #5 – “Ghosts Like to Play Hide and Seek, Too” by Julia

• [50:34 - 54:25]
  • Summary: After moving into a home near a Revolutionary War-era graveyard, family games of hide-and-seek are repeatedly interrupted by spectral participants—unseen presences in closets, mysterious figures caught in the dark, and visual encounters by multiple family members.
  • Key Moments:
    • Julia hears someone moving in a pitch-black closet—alone.
    • Her mother sees a figure peering around a corner that vanishes ([52:35]).
    • Babysitting session: Both brothers confirm they are elsewhere as Julia and her friend see a shadowy person in the living room.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “I literally hear someone moving around in the clothes that are hanging... I'm alone. Nobody was in the closet and there’s no way someone could have snuck out.” – Julia (52:35)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “You have to pretend you're not terrified.” – Sabrina, on creepy kid encounters ([06:55])
• “At least they respect your boundaries.” – Sabrina, after a ghost stops making noise on request ([12:30])
• “Does he see stuff that’s not there? ... it’s real.” – Stranger to Tori, validating her son’s psychic abilities ([21:19])
• “Like, she's being tugged. Like she's being attacked.” – Corinne, on Spooky Mama’s daughter's night terrors ([30:50])
• “The flashlight on my phone shut off and we were surrounded by pitch black darkness.” – Chip ([36:45])
• “He believed my mom was a wonderful human. And mother, maybe he was kind of obsessed with her.” – Paula, reflecting on the Yosemite killer’s fixation ([47:21])
• “We look at the figure in the living room. We scream. And we scramble up the stairs...” – Julia ([54:12])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:44] Theme introduction, paranormal babysitting experiences
• [04:33] Amina’s haunted babysitting story
• [13:52] Haunted house with murder-suicide, impact on kids
• [15:08] Tori’s dream visitation, sleepwalking child
• [27:09] Spooky Mama’s haunted daughter and protective advice
• [33:07] Chip’s haunted neighbor, Ouija board incident
• [41:46] Paula’s serial killer babysitter, Carrie Stainer
• [50:34] Julia’s ghostly hide-and-seek experiences

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Themes, Tone, and Closing Thoughts

Corinne and Sabrina consistently balance deeply unsettling tales with reassurance and camaraderie, offering both levity and sincerity. They foster a supportive community for listeners navigating their own brushes with the unexplained, and they encourage sharing, protection, and self-care.

They close by inviting more submissions, particularly stories featuring haunted kids and creepy babysitting gigs, and remind listeners of the bonus content hosted on Patreon.

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For more listener encounters and exclusive paranormal content, join Two Girls One Ghost on Patreon. And as always: “We will see you on the other side.”

Transcript

[Narrator/Ad Host]

There are a lot of true crime podcasts out there, and I have 30 seconds to convince you why. You should check out Crimelines. Crimelines is one of those shows that just lays it all out there. The backstory, the legal context and details of cases you haven't heard before. If you hear about a true crime case and want to know what happened and why, you're my kind of listener. You can check out Crimelines wherever you get your podcasts. That's Crimelines. One word and get ready to dive deep.

[Corinne]

He finally got her.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God, he got her.

[Rachel Brown]

For years, a deranged man in Wichita known as the Poet stalked Ruth Findlay. He sent her letters, gifts, and poems. The Wichita police put everything they had into Ruth's case, but got nowhere.

[Corinne]

The Poet was always two steps in front of us, and we just didn't know why.

[Rachel Brown]

And the city was already living in fear under the watch of another monster who called himself btk. And he also had a thing for poetry.

[Corinne]

Could we really have two different people?

[Rachel Brown]

But no one could have guessed how this would end.

[Corinne]

That's one of those Hitchcock endings that we did not expect.

[Rachel Brown]

From Sony Music Entertainment and New Metric Media. This is the Poet. I'm Rachel Brown. The Poet is available now on the binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today, subscribers to the binge can listen to all episodes all at once, ad free.

[Corinne]

Very spooky. Howdy.

[Sabrina]

Happy almost due date.

[Corinne]

Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

[Sabrina]

Or also happy you're a mom times two?

[Corinne]

I have no idea.

[Sabrina]

This episode comes out July, what, 14th. And your due date's the 15th. And we're recording this in May.

[Corinne]

So, yeah, genuinely, we're trying to predict the future.

[Sabrina]

My prediction is baby boy is here much sooner than your due date.

[Corinne]

Yeah, I would agree with that. Although I just asked the OB yesterday or two days ago, whenever I was in with the appointment, I was like, so if my first kid came 12 days early, naturally will the next one come early, too? And she was like, it's a total crapshoot.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, it doesn't.

[Corinne]

It's like, ugh.

[Sabrina]

So my sister came early, I came on my due date, and I think my brother came late.

[Corinne]

Okay, that's literally what she said. She was like, I was early. My sister was late, and my brother was on time. And she was like, and now I'm always early, My sister's always late, and my brother is always on time.

[Sabrina]

Maybe it's true. Maybe there's a correlation. But anyway, we're here because We're a podcast.

[Corinne]

That's exactly why we are here. And that is maybe why you are too. But we've come together.

[Sabrina]

I thought you were going to say who we are.

[Corinne]

We're two girls, one ghost. I thought we did that already.

[Sabrina]

Two girls, one ghost.

[Corinne]

This is the third episode we're recording in a row.

[Sabrina]

This is Corinne. Hi, I'm Sabrina. We were a ghost. This is.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

How do you.

[Sabrina]

Who. And in honor of Baby. I keep saying Baby Vien. Baby Menduke.

[Corinne]

Technically there is a father.

[Sabrina]

Legally, there is. Legally, the name is not Vien. In honor of the due date.

[Corinne]

Well. And all of the creepy kids out there.

[Sabrina]

True. We decided to do a theme about terrifying babysitting experiences. Nannies, creepy kids in general. So. Yeah. And you have a lot of those stories.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

So it was easy to pick, but also hard to pick because there are so many.

[Corinne]

We have a lot to read. We picked a lot for this episode.

[Sabrina]

And there's also an extra one on Patreon.

[Corinne]

There is. So if you are a Patreon member or if you want to be a Patreon member, every other week we read an additional Encounters email.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Yep.

[Sabrina]

And it's available for the only Phantoms tier. Um, so if you are confused, if you were watching this episode on Patreon and you're like, wait, where's the bonus story? It's a separate post because everyone on Patreon gets access to episodes one week early and ad free. But the bonus story is for the only Phantoms tier. So that is a separate little video post posted at 3:30am because why would

[Corinne]

we not do that?

[Sabrina]

Right? Do you wanna go first?

[Corinne]

Yes.

[Sabrina]

Okay.

[Corinne]

This is called Haunted Babysitting Experience.

[Sabrina]

Woo hoo. Woo hoo.

[Corinne]

Hi lovely ladies. My name is Amina. E M I N A Amina. Sorry if I mispronounced that. I just recently started listening to your podcast and I wanna start off by saying that I've had ghost related experiences my whole life, but I wouldn't say that I'm fully in tune. I like to say that I haven't fully unlocked that part of myself yet. Whether that's because my mind isn't ready or maybe I'm blocking myself off, I have no idea. But there is one particular story that I wanted to share with you guys. I have been a babysitter for many years and I have never experienced something like this. I have been babysitting for this family for the past three years. They have three children, one younger girl and two boys, ages 4 and 7. Now this isn't a family I babysit for very often. More like a when they need me type of job.

[Sabrina]

Okay.

[Corinne]

So I was only there maybe twice a month. I never had any bad experiences with this family until a little over a year ago when they moved into a new house.

[Sabrina]

So it's the house, not the family?

[Corinne]

Yeah. The first day babysitting at this house, it was early morning, and although nothing happened, I realized that the house is very creaky. Things like creaky floors, creaky doors. It sounded like everything was cracking when you opened it.

[Sabrina]

Why is the first thing I thought of, like, cracking bones?

[Corinne]

Oh, the bones of the house.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

The next time I babysat there is when things started to get weird. The parents were going to a concert, so I knew I was going to be staying late into the night, meaning I would put the kids to sleep around 7:30 or 8 and then usually spend the rest of the evening raiding their pantry and watching tv. So that is what I did. I read the kids multiple bedtime stories until all three of them were knocked out. And then I went downstairs to enjoy some TV time. And then five minutes into me sitting down, the oldest boy, age 7, comes running down the stairs crying, telling me that he hears weird noises coming from the closet in his bedroom.

[Narrator/Ad Host]

Oh, no.

[Corinne]

And now I'll admit I was fully freaked out. I know kids have big imaginations, but this boy was very much in his macho I'm a man phase. He's also a very smart kid. He always gave me the least amount of trouble. So something like this coming out of him, I could see that he was fully serious and he was scared. But I'm the adult in the room, so I have to get up and check.

[Sabrina]

That's the hardest thing about creepy kids.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Like, you have to pretend you're not terrified.

[Corinne]

There's no. Like, part of his nightly routine is when I take his clothes off. Like, in the bathroom. He takes them and brings them into the laundry room and puts them in the hamper. And he used to just do it solo, but over the past couple weeks, he wants me to go with him. He goes like, halfway, and then he stands there and gets a little freaked out, then asks me to go. And I'm like, man, I miss when he would just walk into dark rooms.

[Rachel Brown]

Yeah. By yourself

[Corinne]

now. He's like.

[Sabrina]

He's like, no, we're gonna be scared together.

[Corinne]

He's like, you're coming too.

[Sabrina]

Okay.

[Corinne]

I went up to go check. Thankfully, when I slowly opened the door, there was nothing. But he was still Very freaked out. So I told him, okay, well, I'll sit with you until you fall asleep. About 10 minutes pass and he's back to being fully asleep. And then I hear something from the closet. It almost sounded like something was moving the clothes and the hangers. And then as soon as I stood up to go check, the sound stopped. So then I went back to go sit in the reading chair just to see if I could hear it again. And a few minutes pass, no further noises. And then all of the sudden the smoke detector started blaring loudly.

[Sabrina]

What the heck?

[Corinne]

The smoke detector is in the other boy's room. So I jump up and run in there to see what's going on. And I enter the little boy's room and he's crying from being woken up from this loud noise. But there's absolutely nothing in the room to cause this to go off so quickly. I ran to go get the chair to be able to climb up to the alarm, turn it off. And at this point the older boy has also woken up. So now I take both boys to their parents bedroom. I consoled them until they both fell asleep again in their parents bed. Luckily the youngest girl, she just slept through it all.

[Sabrina]

I immediately texted, oh, she was probably born late.

[Corinne]

She's like, yeah, she's a. Well she's the youngest. She's two boys to have to ignore to get some sleep. I immediately texted the parents that the alarm went off and they told me that they were five minutes away, they'd be home soon. When they got home, I only informed them of the smoke alarm and not the closet noise because I didn't want to come off as crazy. And believing that something was in there, they chalked it up to maybe the batteries just needing to be replaced on the alarm and that's why it went off.

[Sabrina]

Which is probably what I would do too.

[Corinne]

Yeah. One is like, you just came into this new house, you're like, maybe there's faulty wiring, maybe the smoke alarm doesn't match the wiring of the house. Sure that has happened to me. But I've had issues before and usually when the batteries need to be replaced, the smoke alarm will have a loud beep every 30 seconds, not a full blaring noise that will not shut off. That's true.

[Sabrina]

There's like a beep system where like 1 beep means something, 3 beeps means a different thing.

[Corinne]

Yeah. There's carbon monoxide. Yeah. Faulty wiring or just a dead and dying system.

[Sabrina]

Right. Whereas like it going off is like a fire.

[Corinne]

There's something Something is wrong. When we had our carbon monoxide, it went off a couple times. But then a lady's voice came over and was like, evacuate. Carbon monoxide detected. Evacuate. So I'm like, robotic. She's telling me to evacuate. Okay. Alas, I chose to believe them. I convinced myself that I've just been watching way too many scary things. I need to stop overthinking everything. Then about two weeks later, I get asked to babysit again. For this family, it was a similar time setting. So I get there at 5pm I would put the kids to bed around 7:30. Then I would just hang out. So I decided, okay, I'm going to play some games with the kids in the basement before bed in hopes of tiring them out. The two boys are building a fort while I'm playing Barbies with the youngest, when all of a sudden I hear heavy footsteps coming from upstairs. The oldest boy hears it too. He looks to me and says, is someone upstairs? The footsteps sound like a person with heavy boots slowly walking. So I tell the kids, stay in the basement. I'm going to go up and check.

[Sabrina]

Which is so brave.

[Corinne]

There is absolutely no one. I check the entire first and second floor. I check both the doors that enter the home. They're still locked. Nothing is out of place. Everything looks normal. So I'm trying to make sense of it and not freak myself out. So I just convinced myself, okay, maybe one of the parents forgot something. They came in and grabbed it really quickly. I will say that if one of them did come back, it would be normal for them to not alert themselves because the youngest girl typically has a very hard time leaving them.

[Sabrina]

But wouldn't they send you a text like, hey, just FYI, if they left

[Corinne]

five minutes before and come back, like, I wouldn't say anything. But if I was coming back 15 minutes later, I would definitely say, hey, I'm going to just. I'm sneaking in really quick, right?

[Sabrina]

Because then it would also be like if you wanted to make sure the kids didn't see you, you'd want to make sure you knew where they were, right? So that you didn't run into them.

[Corinne]

I don't know. I go back downstairs into the basement and continue playing with the kids. The next few hours go by. Nothing occurs. I put the kids to bed with ease and then I go into the living room to hang out. About an hour passes, when all of a sudden I hear what sounds like multiple basketballs bouncing in the basement. I immediately get scared. I go upstairs to the second level, which is where the bedrooms are to check to see if maybe one of the boys has snuck out of bed and is in the basement trying to play. But all three kids are fast asleep. Okay. So I start to get spooked. I go down to the living room, I'm trying to figure out what I should do. And at this point, the bouncing noises stopped. So I just convinced myself, oh, I was just hearing things. I go back to watching tv, when all of a sudden I hear the same noise of bouncing balls again. And I'm not gonna lie, I was way too scared to go check. So I slowly walk to the top of the basement stairs and I yell out, can you please be quiet? The kids are sleeping. I don't want to wake them. And then it stops. So I go back to the living room, I put on my comfort show, which is how I met your mother. And I proceed to try to not freak out until the parents get back.

[Sabrina]

At least they respect your boundaries.

[Corinne]

Yeah, right. It's like, hey, playtime's over. I sat on the couch for the next three hours, Jumping at any little noise that I heard. But I did not hear any bouncing basketballs for the rest of the night. When the parents got home, I said the kids were great. And then I dashed to my car to go home. I was way too nervous to bring up any of the noises that I heard, Thinking that the parents would fully believe that I'm crazy.

[Sabrina]

Although they probably are experiencing it too. I mean, they just moved into this house.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

And the son, the oldest son, has like, complained multiple times. Yeah.

[Corinne]

After that night, I told myself that I would agree to babysit for this family only if it was during daylight hours. I was way too scared of the house while being there alone when kids are sleeping. And to top it off, the next time I went over, I found half used white sage and an ashtray in the living room. Was this because the parents were also experiencing? Did they simply like the smell?

[Sabrina]

Nope.

[Corinne]

I haven't babysat them at night since. And I don't plan to.

[Narrator/Ad Host]

Love.

[Corinne]

Amina.

[Sabrina]

Amina, you gotta talk to the parents about it.

[Corinne]

I'm so curious.

[Sabrina]

Give me their cell phone number and

[Corinne]

I will reach out for like, during the daytime. I feel like that's know it's a casual setting. Just being like, hey, I noticed the white sage. Dick, this is a new house.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

There were some weird things that I just kind of like wrote off when I babysat at night.

[Sabrina]

But like, let's just chat.

[Corinne]

What's going on?

[Sabrina]

This reminds me of the story our Listener told us on Campfire Stories yesterday. So it was on the May 5th campfire stories our listener came up to share. They had, like, recently moved into a house.

[Corinne]

Oh, my God.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Her.

[Sabrina]

Her husband and two kids.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Yep.

[Sabrina]

And almost immediately, they started experiencing things like the. The dad keeps getting locked in the basement, and they're, like, hearing things, seeing things, think they're, like, little kids playing. And they looked up the history of the house, and there was, like, a horrible, horrible murder suicide.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Where, like, the father of the family killed the entire family.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

In that house.

[Corinne]

And one of her children has a, like, speaking device, and it's being used, but it doesn't.

[Sabrina]

It's, like, pressing play in bubbles a lot. So, like, the kid spirits are trying to play. Like, that's what it reminds me of. Granted.

[Corinne]

Yeah. Go back and listen to that. Campfire Stories if you're. If you're curious about all the details. May 5, it was so bad that her realtor was like, do you want me to get you out of this?

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

This is wild.

[Sabrina]

Okay. I have a story from our listener to Tori, and it is called Dream Visitation. Creepy sleepwalking kid. And maybe a medium in the wild. And I specifically was trying to look for sleepwalking stories.

[Corinne]

Oh, hell yeah. Sleepwalking's so creepy.

[Sabrina]

Okay. Hey, girly pops. My name is Tori, and I've been listening since the very beginning. So it's crazy to see how far you two have come, and I love being part of the journey. I think it's time I write in. I just got an email about next week's Campfire Stories where you're doing a theme about dreams and nighttime visitations, which made me feel inspired to write this email because I'm a little too nervous to join Campfire Stories. Okay. But a little bit of backstory. I had a friend who I will call Blue. It's not their real name, but we'll call Blue for the story. I met Blue through dating apps years ago, and we ended up becoming friends. No benefits, just friends. We would share paranormal stories, and he would always help me when I had trouble with any techy stuff. He was into Ouija boards, and I say fuck no to those things. He tried to bring one into my apartment once, and I did not let that happen. But he also had his own. Fuck no. He did not mess around with frequencies. Oh, that's interesting. So Blue would hate gateway tapes. Anyway, time passes, and we text each other on and off, send each other messages on Instagram, and his last message to me was a reply to my story and I replied back to him. But he never opened the message content warning, this involves death. As often many of our stories do. Later that night, he was murdered. I did not find this out until I was scrolling through Facebook days later and seeing tagged posts about his passing.

[Corinne]

Oh no.

[Sabrina]

But to the spooky story. And this is a couple weeks after my friend's death. One night I'm going to bed with my four year old beside me. We quickly fell into a deep sleep. And then I started to dream that my son woke up to go to the bathroom. And my bathroom was in my bedroom at the time. And when he would go, he would never close the bathroom door all the way. So I could hear him in my dream going to the bathroom. And I could also hear him tugging on the shower curtain, which is very strange because if you're sitting on the toilet, you can't reach the shower curtain. So again, in my dream, I get up and I go to check on my son. As I walk over to check on him, I try to crack open the door, but someone slams it shut. I open it again, and again someone slams the door shut. I keep seeing the arm of someone who's not my son shutting the door. And then I recognize this arm. Darker skin and a blue shirt. And I know it's my friend Blue. Every time I try to open the door, it shuts in my face. Then the door closes in my face one more time and it wakes me up from the dream, but it also wakes my son up.

[Narrator/Ad Host]

Ooh. Ooh.

[Sabrina]

Now, my son at that age was a sleepwalker, so it wasn't unusual for him to wake up in the middle of the night, but both of us at the exact same time while in a deep sleep. So my son wakes up beside me. He sits straight up and I call his name. Jace. Jace. And then I realize he's not awake. He's sleepwalking. He turns his head toward the bathroom. In this sleepwalking state where it had all happened in my dream, he just stares there for a few seconds before laying back down.

[Corinne]

Why do I feel like it's Blue? Like, possessing him for a moment?

[Sabrina]

Or Blue's in the bathroom and wants everyone to, like, see him, Right?

[Corinne]

The slamming the door is so interesting too. It's like, acknowledge me, right? But also, I'm shutting you out.

[Sabrina]

But it's also like maybe Blue doesn't want her to see what he looks like fully like. I don't know if how he presents might be reminiscent of how he died, but anyway, my son Stares towards the bathroom for a few seconds before laying back down. I turn my light on and stay awake for most of the night. I know that Blue came to visit me, but it definitely creeped me out. I have a few other stories involving my kid when he was a creepy kid. This one, myself and my son were living alone in our very first apartment by ourselves. I think he was around 2 or 3 at the time. And this is the apartment in the story from Above. It had weird vibes. I had heard knocking on the bedroom wall where I had no neighbor and I lived on the second floor. I got into a bad depression in this apartment where it led to some unfortunate events. And my son had another experience in this apartment. Okay, this is that experience again. We're in bed in the pitch dark, but I was awake this time. When I hear my son get out of bed. I can't see, but I can hear him walking around the room. And at the time, my son was wearing diapers, so I heard his little diapey walks. Aww, so cute. I call his name but he doesn't answer. Then I hear a consistent banging on the wall. I turn on my phone flashlight and my son is holding onto the bottom of my round hill mirror. And this is a creepy ass mirror up against the wall, which can swivel around a bit, but the wall was stopping it from being able to swivel. My son was trying to turn it over and over and over, which is why I kept hearing the banging. I walked to my son and I realize he's sleepwalking. So I turn on the light and I pick him up when he starts crying saying ghost, ghost, are you kidding? And I'm like nope, nope, nope, nope. How does my 2 year old son know what a ghost is? Like, I've never talked about it, what is happening, but I absolutely believe this was legit. I turn on the light, I facetime my brother's girlfriend because we talked about creepy stuff that happened in the apartment before. Like one time I found unexplainable handprints on the walls and I passed those off because I was like, maybe I touched the wall with greasy hands. But this was like, oh, there's for sure a ghost. And here's the picture of the mirror.

[Corinne]

It's such an unassuming mirror.

[Sabrina]

I know, but it's a mirror portal.

[Corinne]

It's cute. Like I saw it on Facebook marketing. Oh, maybe I'll get that.

[Sabrina]

Okay, so my last story, I always told my son's dad that our son definitely sees some shit, but his dad was never one to believe in that stuff. I, of course, believe in it. I've seen ghosts of my own. And anyway, so my one time, my son, myself and his dad were going swimming and in our apartment complex, and this guy and either his brother or son also came to the pool when we were getting ready to leave. And this guy keeps looking at my son, and I'm like, hello. Why are you looking at my child? And of course, my first thought is, let's get away from this man. This is creepy. But as we're leaving the pool, the guy stops me and asks, is your son special? And I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Cause I needed some elaboration. Cause it's such a weird question.

[Corinne]

Yeah, like, special how?

[Sabrina]

And the guy asks, like, does he see stuff that's not there? I just wanted to say that if he does, it's real, so, like, he could pick up on the fact that her son is seeing things on the other side.

[Corinne]

But that also makes me very curious if someone or multiple things were around the son and that guy was seeing these two things, like trying to talk to and communicate with her. So I don't know.

[Sabrina]

At that moment, I was just excited that someone else was verifying that my child saw things. And I turned to my son's dad and said, I told you so. My son is now 8 and will be 9 the next month. But that was April of last year, so we'll be 10 this year. And has not had any other experiences since he was younger. Unless you count the time he was sleepwalking and thought my room was the bathroom and my bed was the toilet. Yay for me.

[Corinne]

They're gonna do that again when they're 21 and drunk.

[Sabrina]

I know, but sometimes it's the closet.

[Corinne]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Anyway, I love you guys so much. You make my 10 hour shifts manageable. See you on the other side, Tori.

[Corinne]

Well, honestly, that is a really nice thing to get the validation. Even though it's very freaky and uncomfortable to know that your child is.

[Sabrina]

I mean, it's like, how do you help him? Well, he's sleepwalking and he's saying ghost crying. Like, it almost feels like he was trying to turn the mirror away so that he couldn't see the ghost in the mirror.

[Corinne]

And he's, like, trapped in this. Sleepwalking in between. It's like. And you're not supposed to wake a sleepwalker.

[Sabrina]

I know. Sleepwalking is so interesting.

[Corinne]

I don't really get it.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, it's so strange.

[Corinne]

I'M scared of sleepwalking because I don't sleepwalk often, but I have and I'm very high functioning which is what scares me so scary. Either there's witnesses or just a small amount of clues. Enough clues to know that I slept walk. But most of the time like I could be sleepwalking way more and have no idea.

[Sabrina]

That's so scary.

[Corinne]

Yeah, my dad's also a high functioning sleepwalker.

[Sabrina]

I would like low key love to witness someone sleepwalk once because I've never experienced anyone sleepwalk king but I just a one time.

[Corinne]

It's confusing. I only. It happened to me once.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Where? In college, over the summer. I was renting a room of like one of the girls in my sorority that was a little bit older and it was a house of like five girls or whatever that lived there. And one of the girls boyfriends was spending the night at like 2am I woke up to the sound. I told you this to the sound of water. And he had filled up the bathtub. And then I came out and was like are you okay? And he was just standing there in his boxers like looking super confused. Like why would I be talking to him? Like who am I? I'm a scary ghost. And then I was like do you need to go back to bed? And then he just like looked weird and I was like oh, he's sleepwalking. And then he went back to bed. I turned off the bathtub. And then the next morning I was like haha, you were sleepwalking like and he had no clue. And his girlfriend had never seen him sleepwalk or realized that he slept walked before.

[Sabrina]

Well that's what's so scary is like your eyes are open. And why are so many sleepwalking experiences like related to the bathroom? Like either going well, he came to

[Corinne]

the downstairs bathroom too. Like he was in the upstairs bedroom, came downstairs, ran the tub where I used to wash the puppy that lived in this.

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[Sabrina]

And you know what?

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[Sabrina]

It's the middle of summer and I feel like so many of us are sleeping worse than ever, tossing and turning, unable to turn our brains off, turn our bodies off. Which is why I have added Magnesium BR Breakthrough Bye bye Optimizers into my routine. It's on my nightstand all summer long. Because magnesium is one of the key nutrients your body relies on for relaxation, recovery and healthy sleep.

[Corinne]

And most people just simply are not getting enough. And what makes Magnesium Breakthrough different is that it packs multiple bioavailable forms of magnesium into one capsule. So instead of having to take multiple pills or only getting the benefits of one magnesium, it's like an all in one supplement.

[Sabrina]

And it really has made such a difference in my sleep. I feel like I'm just able to shut my brain down a little bit more.

[Corinne]

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[Sabrina]

You can't get it in stores. This offer exists in one place. Our link, our code. That's it. Buy Optimizers. Breakthrough science results. You can feel.

[Corinne]

There's an email that was sent to us by someone going by Spooky Mama and they wrote, is my kid haunted? Hello, Spooky Pooches. I'm writing this email. I never thought I would, but here I am actually.

[Sabrina]

This makes me think like, we have like the creepy kid merch. We should have Spooky Mama.

[Corinne]

Spooky Mama. We should.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Most of the paranormal, things that I've experienced haven't felt freaky. Some of them even are comforting. But now I find myself questioning everything that I've dealt with because of what happened with my daughter, who is now five. She was a long awaited IVF baby. My very last chance to be a mom again. If the pregnancy hadn't been viable, we would have been done and we would have been content with our two other beautiful girls. One adopted and one sweet surprise. So with her, I was over the moon excited when we became pregnant. But from the beginning, she was very needy at night. She still doesn't sleep well. She's had horrible night terrors since about 18 months old.

[Sabrina]

Night terrors is another thing I don't understand.

[Corinne]

Me neither. But that's what I feel worst about people whose kids have night terrors. Because there's nothing you can do to like wake them and get them out of it.

[Sabrina]

It's literally the movie Insidious.

[Corinne]

Even as a baby, when she would wake for normal feedings, she would be intense, almost aggressive, yelling boob in a deep, forceful voice when she wanted to nurse.

[Sabrina]

I was supposed to sounds funny. Boob.

[Corinne]

Now.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Boob.

[Sabrina]

Dream.

[Corinne]

Booby. I've spoken to doctors, psychologists, and other professionals. She has been labeled everything from sensitive to strong willed. And after being handed yet another parenting book and feeling like I was to blame. Oh.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Which also.

[Sabrina]

So I can't even imagine the toll that she's bearing right.

[Corinne]

I just felt so defeated. She's always been so scared of sleeping, but she says she doesn't remember anything. We're talking screaming, crying, hitting in her sleep, refusing comfort. Before her, I was the kind of person who could handle babysitting four to nine kids at the same time without any stress.

[Sabrina]

Okay, that is spooky, mama.

[Corinne]

Yeah, I was easygoing. I was happy. I was Mary Poppins. But this child can bring me to my knees. Recently, I put a camera in her room to monitor her sleep, along with a baby monitor downstairs. One night, while talking with my husband and his friend, we heard a loud bang against the wall. And knowing I'd likely have to go help her, I looked at the monitor and what I saw still shakes me.

[Sabrina]

Oh no.

[Corinne]

I watched her thrashing like she was trying to get something off of her. And then while she's lying on her side, both of her legs lifted up to hip level like she was being pulled. And then the monitor cut out. The.

[Sabrina]

The sprinting that I would sprung sprunt you. How terrifying.

[Corinne]

I what? Like what? That I don't even know I felt the air leave my body. I got sick to my stomach. I ran upstairs. Her blankets were wrapped around her face.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

I woke her up. She didn't remember anything, but she said she was really scared.

[Sabrina]

At least she was able to wake her up.

[Corinne]

Yeah. Since then, I've been praying in my home, asking for protection over her. I don't really know what else to do. My husband doesn't want to acknowledge anything going on, but I feel like I need to keep protecting and cleansing our space. I set boundaries in her room. I do it every night. But I can't help but wonder, are her sleep issues connected to something more? I'd love your advice on what to do. I don't want to stir anything up, but I also can't ignore what's affecting her.

[Sabrina]

No. And also, like, her body physically being pulled up.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Like, she's not doing that.

[Corinne]

She's being tugged. Like she's being attacked.

[Sabrina]

I absolutely think there's something supernatural happening here. And I would say do a little cleansing.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Intentions, boundaries.

[Corinne]

The prayer is great, but. Yeah, add the intentions.

[Sabrina]

Teach.

[Corinne]

Add some cleansing.

[Sabrina]

How to. Also, if she's scared, say no, no, no.

[Corinne]

Right. It's like when people do the. What is it? The white. My brain is absolute mush. If this child doesn't come early, maybe

[Sabrina]

your kid's gonna be really, really smart because he is stealing your brain, everything.

[Corinne]

For me, it's when you, like, look in the mirror and you give yourself the peptide. Oh, what do you do?

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Like, what is it?

[Corinne]

The. I keep wanting to say words of affirmation. And that's not motivational, like self. What is it?

[Sabrina]

Well, I don't know. Is there specific terms?

[Corinne]

Yes.

[Sabrina]

Pump yourself up.

[Corinne]

No, no, no. Someone comment.

[Sabrina]

Is there like a phrase?

[Corinne]

Yeah, there's a word for it.

[Sabrina]

I just would call it a pump up.

[Corinne]

Self affirmations. Is that it? I was thinking of, like, having her do that, but, like, walking herself through things. Yeah. And then, you know, oftentimes people think of sage when they think of cleansing. But whatever feels right to you is a part of, like, you'll. Your culture, your practice.

[Sabrina]

You can use rosemary.

[Corinne]

Rosemary Bells. If you have bells.

[Sabrina]

White candles.

[Corinne]

There you go.

[Sabrina]

Literally, you could use a broom. Sweep out any negative energy.

[Corinne]

Yeah. I also feel like intention is just really so strong.

[Sabrina]

All of it. Yeah. Right.

[Corinne]

Like, if you just believed that, like, blowing your own breath in spaces, cleansed it, I think you could go around going and it would work just as well.

[Sabrina]

Now I want to try that. Please keep us updated. Spooky mama. We're thinking of you. Okay. This email was sent to us back in 2018. And like back in the days where we would respond to every single email and not always read them. The things that we have done, like the phases of podcasting in this business, like where we used to edit every single episode.

[Corinne]

Mm.

[Sabrina]

We also had full time jobs. Yeah, it's crazy to me, but that's

[Corinne]

the difference of the energy that your early 20s brings versus your early 30s.

[Sabrina]

And you have an excuse of a child growing inside of you, stealing all gear.

[Corinne]

Okay. But also our podcast is at a very different spot. Like, it was different when we had 200 listeners and we responded to every

[Sabrina]

email when we were like one a

[Corinne]

month, which was like three emails a week.

[Sabrina]

Okay, well, this is from that era of our podcast, 2018 from our listener, Chip. And I hope you're still listening, Chip. Okay. They wrote, my neighbor's haunted house slash scary Ouija board experience. Hello. I recently found the podcast and I'm obsessed. I love listening when I walk my dog at night, which I always end up regretting when it's time to go to sleep. But I love when you share listener stories, so here's mine. Our current neighbors, who we've known for a very long time through school, used to live in a super haunted house. I believe it was known that the previous owner had died there, but I'm not 100% sure. Regardless, there was something there. When the daughter, who we'll call Sophia, was little, her parents would always hear Sophia having conversations with someone in the baby monitor, which isn't super abnormal for a little kid. But when they would ask Sophia who she was talking to, she'd always say, David.

[Corinne]

Very specific name. Always the same.

[Sabrina]

Other weird things would happen, like doors slamming, glasses falling over, lights being turned on after they'd left a room and turned the lights off. But then there's two things that happened that the parents swear by, and I honestly can't think of any other explanation. One night, they were up watching tv. It was late at night, and there was a bottle of wine on the table across the room. I'm not sure what they were watching, but at one point, the volume on the TV suddenly turned up to max. Volume by itself, just as one of the characters yelled, you get the fuck out of my house.

[Corinne]

Well, that seems like a clear message.

[Sabrina]

Right after that, the bottle of wine tipped over. And this was in the middle of the table. Nothing was near it. There was no animals, there was no vibration. It literally just was knocked over. Apparently that was not enough to send them packing though, and they lived there for some time more. Another time, their grandma was downstairs in the basement. When she saw the sliding glass door open by itself. She ran to hide in the bathroom. And as she was hiding, she heard footsteps walking around. And then she heard the door close again. Nothing was stolen, nothing was out of place. She never saw anyone. It was just creepy. So fast forward a few years. The family now lives just one house away from us. And so I babysat the kids while our parents were at an auction or something. My sister was there too, and she and Sophia are friends, so they were old enough to take care of themselves. So I was more just hanging out with the younger boy, who we'll call Lucas. He wasn't super young either, maybe nine or ten at the time. And let it be known that the kids were and are obsessed with all things scary. And they had just gotten a Ouija board classic. Lucas, nine years old, really wanted to play with me. And even though inside I was like, um, I don't really want to deal with demons, I did reluctantly agree. I love that Chip is the older one. But this nine year old boy is like, yeah, we're going to do what we do.

[Corinne]

I'm going to influence you.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. We decide to go down to their basement and turn all of the lights off. Why did we do this? I don't know. But we couldn't find a candle to use as a light source. So we decided to use the flashlight on my phone to set ambiance. And the very first question I asked was, are there any spirits here? The planchette immediately started to move toward yes, but it was slow, like very slow. Like it was taking its time gathering energy. The second that the planchette touched the word yes, the flashlight on my phone shut off and we were surrounded by pitch black darkness. We both screamed and I flailed around trying to turn the lights back on. I eventually found the switch and we were like, okay, let's just keep playing with the switch with the lights on. Which also the fact that they kept

[Corinne]

playing, I mean, it also just feels like this spirit of whoever is living in the neighbors house, whether it's like David or someone else is so powerful,

[Sabrina]

but this is a new house. So it's like. Did it travel with them?

[Corinne]

Oh, I don't know.

[Sabrina]

Like the, the stories. The first couple were from the house they lived in before they lived next to Chip.

[Corinne]

I guess it must have.

[Sabrina]

Or is it a spirit that like is attached to one of the kids?

[Corinne]

Well, it'd be weird if it. If it traveled with them after saying, get out of my house.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Right.

[Sabrina]

Unless it was, like, a good pushing, trying to get another spirit out. I don't know. Anyway, we keep playing with the lights on. I still don't know why my phone turned off right as the planchette hit. Yes. But that wasn't the scariest part. So after that, I asked, what is your name? Can you guess what name it's spelled? David. We asked a few questions and weren't getting any real significant answers, but that's when it hit me. And I remembered the stories that their parents had told me about Sophia having conversations with someone named David in their old house. I told Lucas, and we both agreed we needed to stop playing and went upstairs. But, yeah, that's the creepiest thing that's ever happened to me. Chip.

[Corinne]

This feels very like Babadook, where it's like, battle the parents, but then befriend the children. Well, come with me, little kid.

[Sabrina]

Chip said, I definitely believe that there were multiple spirits, and David was good, but regardless, it was very terrifying.

[Corinne]

I don't know either, but that's messed up. And that's, like, very aggressive. The amount of energy and activity that's happening. Like, it is full force paranormal haunting.

[Sabrina]

And I, like, I want to give some spirits, like, the benefit of the doubt in the sense that maybe they can't control the way their energy is working and, like, they're trying to use the planchette to respond, and they're moving slowly, but they're trying to channel all their energy to the response that accidentally, that energy, like, goes out in a burst, and it accidentally turned the light off, making it feel really creepy.

[Corinne]

Right. Like, it wasn't intentional. It was just, like, a byproduct of its energy being in the space.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

But, yeah. Who is David?

[Sabrina]

Who's David?

[Corinne]

Clearly someone going with them from house to house.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Wild. I am obsessed with my new Whisker litter robot. It has changed my life in so many ways. One, it helps because I don't have to scoop Leia's litter every day. It automatically cycles after every single use. You're not handling waste or scooping daily. Also, Leia's gotten a little bit older. She started to lose weight, and I'm in tandem with my vet tracking her weight to make sure she's still healthy. And Whisker litter robot tracks her weight, which is incredible. And they have a full lineup of automatic litter boxes with models for every feline. So if you are a family with one cat if you're a one cat household or if you have up to five cats, they have models for you

[Corinne]

and there's no more lingering odor because the litter robot eliminates the chore for everyone by doing it daily.

[Sabrina]

And they have a great app which gives you real time insights and lets you know when cycles have been completed or when you need to change out the drawer or if the unit needs attention.

[Corinne]

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[Guest/Additional Voice]

Listen, I have not been shy about how much I have depended on therapy in my life.

[Sabrina]

And I also know that a lot

[Guest/Additional Voice]

of times the cost and finding a therapist that takes your insurance has been

[Sabrina]

a barrier of entry for me and so many people in my life.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

But that is why we love Rula. Rula partners with over 100 insurance plans, making the average copay just $15 per session. So it's real therapy from licensed professionals at a price that actually makes sense. And Rula isn't just affordable. The experience is tailored around you. Rula considers your goals, your preferences, your background to provide a curated list of licensed in network therapists who actually are aligned with what you need. Also, one of my favorite parts of RULA is that it supports every aspect of your mental health journey from therapy to medication management. Rula's therapists and psychiatrists make it easy for you to get the care you need. And that's important to me because I have therapy, but I also am on medication.

[Sabrina]

And so having a psychiatrist and a

[Guest/Additional Voice]

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[Sabrina]

Visit rula.com TGOG to get started.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

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[Corinne]

Okay, so last time I was on maternity leave, you had some of our friends pop into campfire stories and co host with you. And at one point Ash and Elena from Morbid came on and Paula came on and shared a story. And so she sent this to us and was like, hey, here's a story I shared.

[Sabrina]

Oh, you've never heard it?

[Corinne]

I've never heard it, but you have.

[Sabrina]

Okay, amazing. Well, I. I'll see if I remember. Let's see.

[Corinne]

Imagine a hot summer Night full of swimming, running and impromptu singing slash dancing from the hyper weird kids making their way up to the employee housing complex of the hotel that they call home. Before they make it to the door, a man comes out. He's dripping from the hot summer's heat. He holds in his left hand a black duffel bag. Remember this bag for later? Out of nowhere.

[Sabrina]

Is this a real man?

[Corinne]

I'm like, I. I think so. Okay. Out of nowhere comes a four year old little Hispanic girl, her favorite black dress, running up to the man to pick her up. That little girl, that was me. And the man was none other than the Yosemite killer, Carrie Stainer, who I lovingly nicknamed Cherry. Do you remember this?

[Sabrina]

This is not ringing a bell, but

[Corinne]

maybe this was like her. It's her run in with a babysitting serial killer.

[Sabrina]

Okay, maybe I do remember this, but we'll have to get more into more details. Her babysitter was a serial killer. Why is that a common theme? Wasn't it Ed Gein too, who like, loved and was like the.

[Corinne]

He was a boss. He was like a regular town babysitter.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Cause he got along so well with the kids.

[Corinne]

Carrie was a maintenance worker at Yosemite Cedar Lodge in El Portal, California, about seven miles from the entrance of Yosemite National Park. He had worked with my parents at the lodge and would often watch my sister, but my sweaty head of lettuce bio brother and me, sweaty lettuce head. My parents took turns working days and night shifts and Carrie would go on to tell my parents that he really respected them, especially my mom, for how hard they worked, but also for how wonderful they were as parents to us kids.

[Sabrina]

Okay, this is. Okay. It's coming back.

[Corinne]

It's coming back.

[Sabrina]

But it's one of those things where, like, if you hadn't told me the

[Corinne]

where you heard it, I would have

[Sabrina]

been like, oh, I think I've heard this on another podcast. Or you know, something like that.

[Corinne]

She told it to you? Ashen.

[Sabrina]

Yeah.

[Corinne]

Flash forward. It's checkout day for Carol Sund, Julie Sund, and the exchange student, Sylvina Peloso. And who happens to be the house cleaner assigned to clean their rooms, my mother. It's past 11am checkout time and my mom did her usual route, knocking on doors of rooms that still hadn't checked out. And while pushing her cleaning cart down the hall, she notices a red pickup truck, the only car in the parking lot. And this pickup truck is parked in front of rooms 509 and 510. She gets to room 509. She knocks on the door. There's no answer. She knocks again. Housekeeping. Still no answer. She took her key and opened the door immediately. She felt like something was off. Oh, no. She could see the suitcases left open and other items in the room, as if the occupants were expecting to return. Assuming that they were checking out late, she quickly shut the door and went to her next assigned room. She entered vacant room 510 to inspect its cleanliness for that day's arrival. This room was supposed to already have been cleaned, but it seemed used. She felt that odd feeling again, and so she shut the door. My mom decided that she would come back to those rooms later, and by the time she came back, the truck was gone. When she entered the rooms, they both had been emptied and cleaned. This detail played a big role in his trial later on.

[Sabrina]

But she didn't clean them.

[Corinne]

Only being four years old, there isn't too much that I actually remember about the atmosphere of the hotel after Carol Sund, Julie Sund, and Sylvina Peloso were declared missing. But fast forward to after the murder of El Portal local Joey Armstrong. We know now that she had been decapitated. And Stayner later confessed to keeping her head in a black duffel bag. Now, what he did with the head, I do not know. But after that night, when I ran up to him for him to pick me up, various brown spots started to appear on the walls of the hallway that joined the employee apartments.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

What?

[Corinne]

His apartment was number four, right across the hall from ours. During the investigation, a bunch of us littles were told to stay out of the hallways as to not disturb the FBI. Once the FBI had cleared the area and the investigation was being wrapped up, we kids went back to innocently playing games out in the hall. One of our favorite games was Truth or Dare.

[Sabrina]

Well, I'm very glad that the kids were able to, like, not really know and understand what's going on because, like, there's another.

[Corinne]

Maybe some of them did. Like, she was very young. Yeah, yeah, she was what, four or five?

[Sabrina]

Four. Yeah.

[Corinne]

One of our favorite games was Truth or Dare. And let me be the one to tell you that up until 12 or some years ago, those brown spots were still on those hallway walls. My nasty little kid ass dared my good friend to go lick one of the brown spots. Later on as we grew up and all of this started clicking in my head, I threw up and immediately apologized to my friend.

[Sabrina]

Oh, it's not your fault. You were a kid.

[Corinne]

Yeah, you guys didn't know. These childhood memories all became so much darker as we grew and started to learn what had actually gone on around us.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

My sister and I still have vivid memories of our trip up to San Jose, California, when my parents got called to testify as witnesses. It turns out the family of three never checked out. He had gone back to remove their belongings and clean the rooms himself at the trial.

[Sabrina]

And mom was like witness to the room being left in disarray, basically, at the trial.

[Corinne]

My poor mom was so shaken up after she realized that he had created a hit list of all of the women he believed acted immorally. On the list were my mom's co workers, friends, young nieces who were teenagers.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

My mom was told she was not on the list. And in fact, he believed my mom was a wonderful human. And mother, maybe he was kind of obsessed with her. In recent years, my sister and I have been able to gather more information on these events by talking to our parents, our aunts, our uncles, everyone who lived in the hotel and in that area at the time. And we have learned more details, like the fact that the knife used in the crimes was actually stolen from my uncle's, who was a cook at the restaurant at the Cedar Lodge at the time he took it one night when Carrie went to go look at plumbing in his apartment. Or that he confessed to asking a Hispanic boy to spit in a cup so that he could use it to seal the envelope that he sent to police to throw them off of his trail. Now, again, I'm not sure of all of the events that occurred.

[Sabrina]

Oh, my God.

[Corinne]

But it's my theory that he decided to confess when the FBI began to look at my dad as a suspect. Carrie had thrown off the investigation by dropping the IDs out of town.

[Narrator/Ad Host]

And.

[Corinne]

And thanks to Saliva and FBI, they were looking for a Hispanic male. For my sister and I. It never made sense that he went through so much trouble to throw the investigation off of himself, only to then suddenly confess.

[Sabrina]

Right.

[Corinne]

In recent years, while watching a murder documentary on Hulu, I had a complete meltdown when I heard his voice being played before they introduced the case.

[Sabrina]

Ugh.

[Corinne]

I had no idea that I even remembered his voice. But it sh me to my core.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Right?

[Sabrina]

Because also, like, even though you were so young, like, that for sure is a formative memory, and memory is kept in different ways. Yeah. So, like, a voice would be triggering.

[Corinne]

I quickly turned off the TV before they could show the image of his face. And to end the tragic take on a Spooky note. One of my aunts was cleaning the room in which Carol had been murdered and caught a photo of her leaning up against the refrigerator in the kitchen area. I saw the photo myself, and I was shocked at the spirit's resemblance to Carol.

[Narrator/Ad Host]

Wow.

[Corinne]

Anyway, thank you for walking down this traumatic memory lane with me.

[Sabrina]

Seriously.

[Corinne]

And this is from Paula.

[Sabrina]

Damn Paula.

[Corinne]

She shared it with you, Ash and Elena.

[Sabrina]

Well, now I remember, but, like, I don't remember all the details, obviously, because it's not something I experienced.

[Corinne]

It was also a few years ago.

[Sabrina]

Yeah, it was years ago, but damn, like, the specifics of all those details running up to him while he's carrying that black duffel bag.

[Corinne]

Yeah. And him, like, picking her up, like, oh, hi. I also wonder if he was in the rooms, because we don't know the details of the actual crime case, but I am curious if when her mom was walking in and got the bad feeling, if he was hiding in there somewhere at the time and, like, realized

[Sabrina]

because his truck was there, his truck

[Corinne]

was there, the truck was there.

[Sabrina]

And then later on, she came back, everything was cleaned.

[Corinne]

Right. And he loved that family. He loved the parents. He doesn't want to be seen, because then that implicates her. And then maybe he'd have to do something bad to someone who he really respected and admired.

[Sabrina]

Oh, so she was knocking for a while before. So, like, he knew. It's not like she just, like, walked in. She was knocking, saying, housekeeping. No one was answering. And then she came in. And then she came in, which gave him the warning that she was coming in. And he could have simply hid, Right?

[Corinne]

Because, like, if he was in the next room over, that looked like it was used, too. Like, he would have heard it and then had ample amount of time to hide.

[Sabrina]

Ugh. Disturbing. I have another. So this one is called Ghosts like to play hide and seek, too. This reminds me of your experience.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Hey, ladies. My name is Julia. I've been listening to your podcast for a couple years now, and I've been meaning to send you this story, basically since I started listening and pat on my back for finally typing it up for some background. I've had spooky experiences since I was little. My mom is also one spooky lady. A spooky mama.

[Corinne]

Spooky mamas.

[Sabrina]

We have tons of stories that I would love to share. From my mom being able to predict a death in the family before it happened to. To my dad being possessed, to my two brothers constantly hearing our names being called. You know, the stories Are endless. But I'll start with this one. So when I was in about seventh grade, my parents bought a house in a fairly new neighborhood. There had only been one previous owner and they lived there for maybe a year. The house also backed up to an old church, camp and graveyard. The graveyard has graves dating back to the Revolutionary war, so it's super old. We could literally see the tombstones from our back windows, which were a little too close for comfort for me. Also, that sounds kind of peaceful. I'm thinking about the Marblehead cemetery. One night while I was in high school, our area of North Carolina got way more snow than we usually do and the power went out. It was dark outside when it went out. So we all gathered in the living room and lit some candles. And that is when we came up with the brilliant idea that we should play hide and seek. We played a couple of rounds and everything seemed great until it was my turn to find my two brothers and parents. While I was searching in my parents bathroom, I heard a sound from their attached closet. So I was like, ooh, I found my first person. I walked into the closet and I confidently said, found you in my most cheerful voice. But nobody answered. I said hello. And so I start feeling my way around the dark closet and I literally hear someone moving around in the clothes that are hanging. And at this point I'm getting freaked out because I couldn't feel them and see them cause it was so dark. Finally I'm able to like open the door to get some light into the closet and I realize I'm alone. Nobody was in the closet and there's no way someone could have snuck out.

[Corinne]

That is so freaky because you're like trapped in all of the hanging clothes and you're like, ew, what could still kind of be lurking in here?

[Sabrina]

100%. So I soon found everyone and had a debrief telling my family what I experienced to make sure nobody was trying to mess with me. When I was originally in the closet, no one had been hiding in the closet. My mom said that during the same round when she was waiting for me to find her, someone peeked around the corner of the doorway to the room that she was hiding in, looked right at her, and then disappeared. She thought it was me, but I told her it wasn't and everyone else confirmed it wasn't them either. So at this point we were all freaked out and we decided, let's stop playing Wait.

[Corinne]

This is reminding me of the story that we read semi recently where a bunch of people were in the Basement. And they were playing a version of hide and seek where they, like, couldn't see, but they were reaching out and trying to touch and grab someone. And there was a little ghost girl that was, like, playing with them.

[Sabrina]

Oh, yeah. Like, it does sound like someone's playing with them.

[Corinne]

Yeah.

[Sabrina]

Yeah. Fast forward a year later, and my best friend and I at the time were babysitting my brothers while my parents were out for dinner. We decided, let's play hide and seek the first round. My friend and I are trying to find my brothers. And as we walk downstairs to the pitch black living room, we see someone standing in the corner of the room. So my friend calls out, found you. To which both of my brothers from upstairs call out, we're up here. We look at the figure in the living room. We scream. And we scramble up the stairs, shoving one another, screaming, run faster. Run faster. We hid in my bedroom until my parents got home. Safe to say my house has that reputation of being the haunted house and very few friends want to spend the night.

[Corinne]

Yeah, I feel that I relate to that.

[Sabrina]

But it does really seem like a ghost just wants to play hide and seek with them.

[Corinne]

I mean, their mom. Their mom saw someone too.

[Sabrina]

I have so many other stories. That's for another time. See you on the other side, Julia.

[Corinne]

Dang, Julia. That's a very cool story. You got to. Again, I keep saying we're collecting really cool two truths and a lie. So many different hauntings.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Please email us.

[Corinne]

Haunted kids, creepy babysitters, creepy babysitting jobs.

[Sabrina]

You might come back from maternity leave with more ghost stories and hauntings.

[Corinne]

Last time I had Noah, I had a lot of stuff going on.

[Sabrina]

So please email us all of your encounters to2girlsmongostpodcastml.com and if you're like, oh, I love these stories, I want more.

[Guest/Additional Voice]

Great.

[Sabrina]

You're in luck. There's one more on Patreon, so join us over there. There's also lots of other cool, fun bonuses on Patreon, but until then, we

[Corinne]

will see you on the other side. Very spooky.