Latest / Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries / The Call Is Coming From Inside the House: The Babysitter Legend and a Real-Life Murder

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The Call Is Coming From Inside the House: The Babysitter Legend and a Real-Life Murder · Kat Has Questions: True Crime and Unsolved Mysteries

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Cat Has Questions. Curiosity, stories in the strange
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: corners of everyday life. Hi, and welcome back to Cat
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Has Questions. I am recording this and it's almost Friday,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: so feeling great that the weekend is near. With that,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: let's get into today's episode. All of the sources for
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: today's episode can be found in the show notes with links. Okay,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: so you know that creepy babysitter story, the one where
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the calls are coming from inside the house? What if
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I told you that it wasn't just a campfire story,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and the closest real case is even more unsettling? So
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: I need you to imagine, pretend you're babysitting, it's quiet,
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  Speaker 1: the kids are finally asleep, you're sitting on the couch,
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  Speaker 1: scrolling your phone, watching TV, whatever, and suddenly the landline rings.
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  Speaker 1: And you answer, because it's the 90s in this scenario,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: so landlines exist. And apparently babysitters answer strangers' phones. And
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  Speaker 1: you hear, have you checked the children? You hang up,
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  Speaker 1: but it keeps calling. And when the police finally trace
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the call, they tell you, the call is coming from
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  Speaker 1: inside the house. That one line, you know it, I
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  Speaker 1: know it, every babysitter knows it. But here's the thing,
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  Speaker 1: it is actually based on something real. So today, we're
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: going to look at the true story behind one of
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  Speaker 1: the most famous urban legends in American history. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it might be a little bit creepier of a version
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  Speaker 1: than you've heard, potentially. So let's start with the story itself.
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  Speaker 1: The caller inside the house is one of the oldest
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: modern urban legends. If you grew up with scary story books, sleepovers,
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  Speaker 1: or are you afraid of the dark, you've heard some
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: version of it. Basically, a babysitter keeps receiving disturbing phone calls.
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  Speaker 1: The caller asks about the kids or maybe they just
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: breathe into the phone or say something cryptic and horrifying. Eventually,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: she calls the police and the police trace the call.
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  Speaker 1: And the twist, which is basically the jump scare of
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  Speaker 1: the century, is the calls coming in from inside your home.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: And the killer is upstairs in the house with her.
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  Speaker 1: This legend spread so fast and so consistently that people
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  Speaker 1: swore it really happened. Like it was a thing that
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  Speaker 1: happened to a friend of a friend of a friend.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody would be like, oh no, that happened. I know
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  Speaker 1: who that happened to. So why did this story take
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  Speaker 1: over the world? Because babysitting is one of the weirdest,
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  Speaker 1: scariest gigs we can give children. Think about it. You're
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  Speaker 1: alone in a stranger's house. You're responsible for little humans.
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  Speaker 1: Every noise sounds suspicious. Every shadow looks like it's moving.
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  Speaker 1: And you're 14, so you can't drive. You can't fight.
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  Speaker 1: You barely know how to microwave popcorn without burning it.
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  Speaker 1: So this urban legend really taps into the fear of
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  Speaker 1: being watched, being unprotected, and having danger come from a
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: place that's supposed to feel safe inside the house. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: so let's get into the real story that most people
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: believe inspired this urban legend. And I'm going to warn you.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: not because of the gore or anything, but because of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the circumstances of this, are chilling. This is the story
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  Speaker 1: of 13-year-old Janet Chrisman, a straight-A student, popular at school, hardworking, responsible,
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  Speaker 1: all things parents loved in a babysitter. So the night
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  Speaker 1: of the crime, it's March 18th, 1950. Janet is babysitting
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  Speaker 1: for Ed and Ann Romack, a couple she already knew well.
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  Speaker 1: The Romacks trusted her, and they were attending a small
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: gathering with friends just a few miles away. At around 7.30 p.m.,
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  Speaker 1: the Romacks left the house. Their baby, three-year-old Gregory, was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: already asleep. Janet arrived with her homework and a plan
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  Speaker 1: to stay up late to finish it. So far, just
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  Speaker 1: a totally normal babysitting night. The Romack home was a
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  Speaker 1: one-story house on Stewart Road in Columbia, Missouri, which was
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  Speaker 1: pretty rural at the time. A few key details, the
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  Speaker 1: house had a large picture window in front of the
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  Speaker 1: living room left uncovered, so anyone outside could look directly
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  Speaker 1: inside and see whoever was home. Another detail, Ed Romack
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  Speaker 1: later admitted he had told Janet exactly where he kept
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  Speaker 1: his shotgun and how to use it in case anything happens.
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  Speaker 1: That seems like a throwaway comment maybe at the time,
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  Speaker 1: but Investigators later questioned why he would mention this to
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  Speaker 1: a 13-year-old, especially given what happens. So at 10.35, so
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  Speaker 1: parents left at 7.30, at 10.35, the Columbia Police Department
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  Speaker 1: received a call. It's a girl's voice, panicked and screaming.
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  Speaker 1: They could hear her, but she couldn't or didn't say
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  Speaker 1: any words. Before the operator could get more information, the
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  Speaker 1: call abruptly cut off. Police traced it. But in 1950,
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  Speaker 1: tracing was not instantaneous. It required a manual switchboard. So
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  Speaker 1: by the time they checked the origin, the call had
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  Speaker 1: already ended and could not be linked to a specific address.
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  Speaker 1: The operator later insisted it sounded like a young girl,
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  Speaker 1: possibly a babysitter. So at about 1.30, about three hours
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  Speaker 1: after that police phone call, the Romacks returned home. The
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  Speaker 1: front door was locked and the lights were all still on.
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  Speaker 1: but they noticed a broken window in the back bedroom.
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  Speaker 1: But oddly, the glass had fallen outward, indicating someone had
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  Speaker 1: broken the window from the inside of the house, likely
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to stage a break-in. And inside, they found Janet. She
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  Speaker 1: had been attacked violently, and the phone was off the hook. Gregory,
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  Speaker 1: the child that she was watching, was still asleep and unharmed.
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  Speaker 1: And the house was eerily quiet. So... There are a
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  Speaker 1: few different things that caused investigators to suspect that the
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  Speaker 1: killer was already inside the house. So this part kind
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  Speaker 1: of overlaps with the legend, the actual true story. So
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  Speaker 1: several things suggested the attacker wasn't someone who broke in
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  Speaker 1: from outside. The first being there was no footprints in
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  Speaker 1: the mud outside the broken window, despite recent rain. The
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  Speaker 1: window break pattern strongly suggested it was staged from inside,
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  Speaker 1: like I said. Janet seemed to have been caught completely
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  Speaker 1: off guard with no signs that she saw someone approaching
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  Speaker 1: from outside. There were no signs of forced entry at
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  Speaker 1: the door and the back door was found unlocked, even
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: though the Romacks stated they locked it before leaving. Police
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  Speaker 1: theorized the killer may have knocked and maybe she recognized
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  Speaker 1: him and let him in or was already inside the
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  Speaker 1: house when she arrived, hiding and waiting, which is terrifying.
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  Speaker 1: So this is one of the main reasons this case
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  Speaker 1: is so deeply linked to the urban legend. So there
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: was a suspect, the main suspect, named Robert Mueller, who
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: was a friend of the Romacks. Mueller was known in
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  Speaker 1: the community as intelligent, but also unsettling. Multiple women suspected
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: he had a, quote, thing for teenage girls, which just
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: means he's a pedophile. But one woman said he tried
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: to assault her years before. and Mueller knew the Romack
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  Speaker 1: home well, including its layout. The most upsetting detail, Mueller
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  Speaker 1: had allegedly made comments about being fond of Janet, and
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  Speaker 1: he also asked the Romacks earlier in the night whether
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: they had security measures and whether Janet would be safe alone.
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  Speaker 1: According to witnesses, he seemed very interested in whether the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Romacks were leaving the house and for how long. Police
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  Speaker 1: suspected him immediately, and he failed a lie detector test.
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  Speaker 1: But in 1950, lie detectors weren't admissible, and the physical
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  Speaker 1: evidence wasn't strong enough for a conviction. Mueller was never
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: charged with anything, and he has since died. So despite
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: heavy suspicion, no one was ever arrested. The murder weapon
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: was never found, and there were no fingerprints. No one
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: definitively connected the 10.35 p.m. phone call to the house,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: though the timing matches perfectly. The theory that haunts people
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: even today is that Janet made the phone call in
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  Speaker 1: a moment of terror while the killer was already inside
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  Speaker 1: the house with her. So why this case sparked the
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  Speaker 1: urban legend? You have a babysitter, a nighttime attack, a
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  Speaker 1: frantic phone call to police, an intruder who may have
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: already been inside, the child left unharmed, there was a
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: stage break-in, and a community terrified for years. And every
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  Speaker 1: babysitter in Missouri at the time heard the same whispered line.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: She called the police, but the killer was already inside.
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  Speaker 1: This is the story that, through decades of retelling, eventually
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  Speaker 1: morphed into the modern, the call is coming from inside
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  Speaker 1: the house. Even though no police dispatcher ever actually said
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  Speaker 1: those exact words, the fear in the circumstances behind the
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: legend comes straight from Janet's case. Now, Janet's case wasn't
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  Speaker 1: the only crime shaping public fear around teens and nighttime vulnerability.
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  Speaker 1: In 1956, the Grimes sisters, Barbara and Patricia, vanished after
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: going to an Elvis movie in Chicago. They were 15
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  Speaker 1: and 13, typical teens doing something totally normal. When they
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: didn't come home, police originally assumed they had run away,
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  Speaker 1: but then came a flood of reported sightings all over
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  Speaker 1: the city. Buses, diners, dance halls. No one knew what
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  Speaker 1: was real. Almost a month later, their bodies were found
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: frozen in a ditch. Their case also remains unsolved. and
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: investigators suspected foul play. The most chilling detail? It looked
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: like the girls had been held somewhere else for days
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: before being dumped. The Grimes case didn't create the babysitter legend,
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  Speaker 1: but it added to the atmosphere of panic. Parents became
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: terrified of letting teenage girls go anywhere at night, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: that fear seeped into stories, especially ones about vulnerable girls
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  Speaker 1: in houses answering phone calls in the dark. In the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: 60s and 70s, there was an especially large wave of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: media panic around babysitter dangers, prowlers, anonymous phone threats, prank callers.
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  Speaker 1: So even though the iconic story isn't a one-to-one recreation
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  Speaker 1: of any single crime, it's stitched together from several real
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: fears and real tragedies. And then Hollywood did what Hollywood does.
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  Speaker 1: In 1979, the movie When a Stranger Calls came out.
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  Speaker 1: The movie opens with, you guessed it, the babysitter being
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  Speaker 1: terrorized by phone calls in the line, we've traced the call,
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  Speaker 1: it's coming from inside the house. That movie cemented the
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  Speaker 1: legend into pop culture forever. Even if you've never seen it,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: you've heard that line. It became a universal warning and honestly,
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  Speaker 1: a core memory for anyone babysitting in the pre-cell phone era.
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  Speaker 1: They also did a recreation of that movie, had to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: have been like early 2000s because I remember there being
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  Speaker 1: A new version that came out in the early 2000s
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  Speaker 1: and seeing that in theaters and being terrified to be
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  Speaker 1: in any house by myself, including my own. So is
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the legend true? Not in the exact way it's told, no.
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  Speaker 1: There's no confirmed case where police literally said those words
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on the phone. But the fear behind the legend, that
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  Speaker 1: is absolutely based in reality. It's a story about being watched,
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  Speaker 1: being vulnerable, danger hiding where it shouldn't be, and the
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  Speaker 1: betrayal of a safe space. It's simple, terrifying, and it
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  Speaker 1: sticks in your brain, which is why over 70 years later,
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  Speaker 1: we're still talking about it. So what do you think?
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  Speaker 1: Was the real killer in Janet's case already inside the house?
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  Speaker 1: Did Hollywood exaggerate an urban legend? Or did the urban
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: legend exaggerate a real crime? Either way, next time you're
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: home alone and your phone rings, maybe just don't answer it.
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  Speaker 1: even though we don't really have landlines anymore. But you
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: know what? Same goes for spam calls on your cell phone, right?
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Cat Has Questions this week. If
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: you liked the episode, feel free to follow the show,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: leave a rating, or send me your favorite creepy urban
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: legend that you want me to dig into next. Shoot
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: me an email at cathasquestionspod at gmail.com. Thanks. I'll see
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: you next week. Thanks for listening to Cat Has Questions.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: If you liked this episode, follow the show and share
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: it with someone who loves a good spiral. See you
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: next week.