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Unexplained: Season 08 Episode 40: It's Inside the House · Spooky Season Podcasts 🎃

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: world of true crime and the paranormal four Nights in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Scared to Death and many more live shows, meet and greets,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Crimewavetsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your fan
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to see
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you on board. In the year eleven thirteen, the third
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Abbot of Saint Martin of Tournay documented something extraordinary in
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: christ Church, a small town on the south coast of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: England just east of Bournemouth. It was a five headed
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: dragon that, according to the abbot, emerged from the sea
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: before taking flight toward the town and destroying the church
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: along with the number of nearby houses. Nine centuries later,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the rebuilt priory still draws reports of phantom footsteps in
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: its ruins, and the supposed apparition of an old caretaker
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: nicknamed Old Joe, claimed by some to have been seen
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: wandering about its gardens. These are just a couple of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the strained sightings and hauntings that are said to have
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: accumulated around the town of christ Church over the years.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: But perhaps the most distressing is the story of Alma Rattenbury,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: whose ghostly figure has reportedly been seen sitting mournfully among
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the reeds on the banks of the River Stour, not
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: far from the priory. It was back in June nineteen
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: thirty five that Alma, her handbag gripped tightly in her hand,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: wandered forlornly through the meadows down to the water's edge,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: as buttercups swayed gently in the breeze and swallows warboard above.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: She pulled a knife from the bag and proceeded to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: stab herself in the chest six times. Having pierced her heart,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the bloody knife slipped from her grip and Alma fell
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: dead into the water. Almer's was a tragic and fascinating
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: story that gripped the nation at the time. A talented
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: musician born in Canada in eighteen ninety seven, the dark
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: haired Alma lost her first husband to the First World War,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: with her second marriage ending in an acrimonious divorce. She
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: eventually settled in Bournemouth, England, with a third husband, the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: architect Francis Rattenbury, who was forty years her senior. By
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: all accounts, the marriage was a stale one in which
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: the couples let in separate rooms. After the birth of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: their first child in nineteen twenty eight, they were said
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to have remained celibate. The couple often quarreled, with Francis Rattenbury,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: at times physically assaulting his wife. In nineteen thirty four,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: they took on a seventeen year old servant named George Stoner.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Within a year, Stoner and Alma began an affair, which
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: was known about and tolerated by Almer's husband. Nonetheless, clearly
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the situation was not to every one's liking. In March
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the following year, Francis Rattenbury was brutally battered in the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: head by a carpenter's mallet. He died five days later
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: from his wounds. Alma quickly confessed to the murder, and
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: both she and George Stoner were arrested for the crime.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: After a gripping court case covered by all the daily papers,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Alma Rattenbury was found not guilty for the murder of
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: her husband. George Stoner, on the other hand, was not
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: so lucky. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Alma
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: was devastated by the decision, and in the court of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: public opinion, was still very much a guilty party, having
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: been blamed for coercing the impressionable Stoner into doing the deed.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: In the days after the conviction, Alma struggled desperately with
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the guilt of what had happened to George. Feeling very
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: much the pariah the nation believed her to be, she
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: made her way to the banks of the Stour on
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the southern fringes of Christchurch and ended her life. As
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: it transpired. Not long after Alma's death, after a public outcry,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: George Stoner was oldultimately spared the death penalty. His sentence
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: was reduced to life imprisonment instead. Only seven years later,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: in return for signing up to fight in World War II,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: he had his conviction quashed entirely. He returned a free
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: man and eventually died in the year two thousand. But
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: why am I telling you all this, I suppose just
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: to demonstrate that no matter how quaint or small a
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: town may be, tragedy and emotional distress is never far away.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: The sort of things that some believe can linger as
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: dark and malicious energies, only to then manifest in invisible
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and terrifying ways, just as they are believed to have
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: done by one family who lived in christ Church back
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven. You're listening to Unexplained, and I'm
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Richard mc lean smith. Before we go any further, I
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: should explain that we're going to try something a little
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: different with this week's episode. Earlier this summer, one of
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: our writers, Diane Hope, spent some time in Bournemouth, hosted
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: by a family who once lived in christ Church. One evening,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: they began telling Diane of a strange series of events
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: that took place in their former christ Church home. Amazingly
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: for us, they agreed to share their story. However, we thought,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: rather than write it up for me to tell, why
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: not just let the couple speak for themselves. It was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen ninety six that Teresa and her husband
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Sean moved down to Bournemouth from the northeast of England,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: along with their young children, looking for a change of scene.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Eight months later, the landlord of the flat they were
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: renting decided to sell the property, forcing the fact family
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: to move again. The couple ran a used car business,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: buying cars from the north of England and bringing them
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: down south to sell, so they needed somewhere with a
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: good amount of space to park the cars. They settled
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: on the perfect place in the nearby town of christ Church,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: not far from the banks of the River Stour. Now,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I said the couple would tell us their story. However,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: in the end Diane decided only to interview one of them.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: A little more on that later, but for now, this
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: is Terresa.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: This property came up in christ Church and it had
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: a very long drive up to it, and we could
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: park a number of cars in the drive. It was
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: like the manor house at the back of the other properties,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: so it was an older house which had been built
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: before the properties around it. It was secluded, like a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: little forest at the back of it, so we thought
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: this is ideal.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Almost immediately, strange things began to.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Occur when we watched into the house. The first night
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: we moved in, I felt something touch my back. I
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: couldn't really explain what it was I felt. I just
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: thought it was strange, you know, like something was touching
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: my back. It was the first night we'd been in there,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and I'd never experienced anything like that previously.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Then it happened again the next day.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I was in the kid's bedroom and I felt it again,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: a touch, you know, just touching me back. I just
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: couldn't explain how it happened.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Theresa wasn't one to think it might be anything supernatural.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, the thought couldn't have been further from her mind.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I didn't even mention it to Sean because I didn't
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: think it was worth mentioning something like that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: But it wouldn't be long before Sean too became aware
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of strange goings on because the creepy of events began
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to escalate.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: We were in the living room one night, which faced
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: the garden. The window face the garden, and we're just
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: watching Telly and we heard somebody run past the window.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: You could literally hair running, maybe like they had big
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: boots on or something.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: The garden was equipped with motion Sense, a security lights
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: designed to be triggered if anyone was trying to break in.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Or trespass on the property.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: We looked out and the lights hadn't come on. So
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Shark got up and you know, went outside, and as
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: soon as he went outside, the lights lit up. It
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: seemed strange how you could hear something and then as
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: soon as he went outside, everything lit up. So that
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: was the first experience after what happened to me, which
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: we couldn't explain.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: There was no hiding it now. Theresa confessed to her
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: husband that she'd been sensing something strange going on in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the house for a while, and soon the couple began
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: hearing the supposed footsteps inside their home.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: They'd be sat in the living room on a night
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: and we could hear running up and down the hallway.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Because it was a bungalow, we all slept downstairs, big
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: kid's bedroom at the back. Our bedroom was opposite the lounge,
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the hallway was in between, and we could literally hear
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: somebody running up and down the hallway, and we'd open
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: the living room door and there was nobody there.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Perhaps, wandered Terresa, it was all just in their imaginations,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a combination of the stress of adapting to life in
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the new home and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings, but
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: she couldn't quite shake the sense that there was something
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: more going on, and that they might even be in
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: danger of somehow inviting it in.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: We kept trying to pass things off as if did
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: we hear it are I didn't really like to talk
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: about in the house. I was scared that something might progress.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Shan was start of thinking what's going to happen next,
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: and now thinking I hope nothing happens and.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: Eggs a few nights later to raise her and Sean
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: was sat in the lounge watching television when Sean started
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: hearing something, a peculiar squeaking sound that seemed to be
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: coming from the back of the room. It sounded like
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the lounge door handle.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: We thought we heard it creaking, so we turned Helly
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: down and Chan said I heard that handle. I said, yeah,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: I'm sure I heard it. We both sat there, face
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: in the door, looking straight at the handill. My eyes
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: were literalist into water. I was looking at it so closely,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden it just went I mean
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: the shock. Shan flew back on the chair. It were like,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: how did that just happen? And I jumped up and
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: I opened the door and the kids weren't there. Nobody
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: was there.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Suddenly it wasn't so easy to dismiss it all as
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: an overactive imagination, and before long others started to sense
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it too. It had been a while since the couple
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: last had some quality time together, so one night they
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: hired a babysitter and went out to dinner.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: This young girl baby sat one evening when we were
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: back in the house. She was in the living room
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: with the door open. The telly wasn't switched down. She
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: just sat there and I thought, eyes everything okay, because
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: obviously I hadn't mentioned anything, as she just went yeah,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: but with a really she looked scared.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: There was no doubt in Teresa's mind that the girl
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: had heard or seen something, but Teresa couldn't possibly say anything.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: For a start, she didn't want to scare the girl
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: unnecessary if she hadn't actually experienced anything untoward. But there
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: was little doubting the look on her face. The next
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: time the babysitter came round, she made sure to bring
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a companion.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: She came with her mom then the next time, but
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: then they didn't want to come back to the house again.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I never mentioned anything. They never mentioned anything. To me.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Then there was the time their friend Lee came down
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: to visit from London. By now, Theresa and Sean were
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: beginning to talk openly about the possibility that their house
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: was being haunted.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: We'd been friends with him from the previous house and
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: moved her and he was very confident and outgoing. We
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: came around and he was sort of laughing and joking like, oh,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: come on, then, where's this girls? It would just trying
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: to make a big joke of it. Shoun said, Oh,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: it doesn't like it when you turn the Telly up loud,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: that's when things start to happen.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Lee, who was planning to stay the night with the family,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: couldn't help but laugh. So Sean offered to give him
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: a demonstration, and so it was with everyone gathered in
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the living room. The skeptical Lee watched on with a
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: right smile as Sean took the remote and switched on
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the TV. Then he steadily increased the volume.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Sean just switched to Telly at full blast, and all
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: of a sudden we had this almighty bang. It went.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It felt as though the entire house were shaking.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: It sounded like something crashing down on us. I mean
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: we didn't have any big speakers. Where did this noise
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: come from?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: The message was clear.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: You were almost like, don't mess with me. I mean,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: that's how it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Felt as for Lee. He wasn't laughing anymore.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Lee were like shocked. He was absolutely petrified from it
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: being just one big joke all of a sudden.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: He was so scared that night, rather than stay with
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the family, he immediately left the house and drove away
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: as fast as he could, white faced and extremely shaken.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: As far as the family were concerned, there was no
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: denying it now. In such circumstances, the first question people
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: tend to ask is why didn't they just leave? But
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: the couple had paid six months rent in advance, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: not only had they only been there for six weeks,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: they didn't have nearly enough money to move again, so prematurely,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: appeals to the agent fell on deaf ears.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: They weren't even interested. They didn't come back to us
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: with any advice or anything, but didn't even ring us back.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: At first, the family stuck it out as best they could,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: only for things to get even more disturbing.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: It was a beautiful sunny day. We'd just come back
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: from being out and we'd come back in. The kids
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: ran into their bedroom and all of a sudden they
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: were screaming. We ran into the bedroom. There was literally
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: like black sand and grit mixed with water dripping down
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: the walls, and there were circles of it on each bed.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: The children claimed the sandy substance had been thrown at
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: them the moment they entered the room to raise Her
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: and Sean couldn't get their heads around it.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: It's not like they had bucket and spade and a
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: bit of sound in the bedroom and they'd been messing
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: with it.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: And as for the possibility that someone had thrown it
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: into the house from outside, we couldn't.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Even open the windows in their bedroom. They'd been painted shut.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: This is something now that couldn't explain. Before we could say, oh, well,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: we heard these noises. It might have been the radiator
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: of you could sort of try to explain your off
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: out of it. Whereas now this was something which we
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: couldn't explain.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: More than that, Theresa now had to face a new
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: horror that whatever this appeared to be turning its attention
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: on the children.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: That was really frightening. After that, I saw a big
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: spider in the kid's bedroom. It looked like a transler.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: It was huge. I had this tape recorder deck thing
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and it crawled into it. So I shut the tape
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: recorder and threw it in the bit and Shan would
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: why would you do that? I was so scared of
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: it coming back in because it was absolutely huge. I
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: didn't want to getting back out of that tape deck.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: That's how scared I was. First it was outside, then
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: it's in the hall. Then it's like the banging, then
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: the sand in the kid's bedroom, and then the spider.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I just felt everything was, you know, why is this happening?
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Thought of thing, and it was all drawn towards a
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: kid's bedroom as well.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: The spider was the final straw. The family needed help.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But where do you even turn to for that sort
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of thing.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: There wasn't the Internet in them days. We just didn't
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: know what to do. But that was really frightening.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: In the end, Theresa and Sean reached out to a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: friend from back home in Bradford.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: We ran a friend of ours who was a preacher
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: in Bradford called Bob's given us his Bible as a
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: leaving pression. We just tesked him if there's anything, if
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: what we could do, because it keeps happening and we
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: just don't know what to do. First, he said you
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: need to leave, and we said we're with pay six months.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: In our fans, there are only two months. Saying it's
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: cat hard to just upsticks.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Bob suggested he leave it with them. A short time later,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: he called them back.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: It's brought to the elders of his church, and he said,
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: you need to read in the Bible here though what
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: through the vallee of no able to our fear, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: read these verses and go with the children into every room,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: the garage, the call shed, everywhere. You need to recite
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: these verses.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: And so together the family gathered first in the living
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: room and did exactly as Bob told them to do,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: moving steadily from one room to the next, reciting Psalm
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: twenty three from the Bible. The last space to exercise
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: was the garage. When that was done, Theresa felt the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: change almost immediately.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: I said to Sean, do you feel like something is
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: just lifted off you? And he said, yeah, we actually
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: felt it lift off us. It's like you have this
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: heavy feeling overa which I didn't even realize. We had
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: it literally lifted away from us.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Not only did the negative feelings disappear, the couple's work
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: even began to pick up.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: For the last three or four months, it was just
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: a different feeling altogether. There were trading cars to the
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: main dealers at the time, and every time I rang something,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: it were almost like it turned to gold. We were
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: making more money than we'd ever made, even just trading cars,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: and before that we hadn't done half as much as
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: what we met in that house. So it's almost like
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: it was a good thing from a bad thing, which
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: I can't explain.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Although Theresa no longer felt the unwanted presence in her house,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: she often found herself wondering what on earth it was.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Perhaps she thought it had something to do with the
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: mysterious box they found in the attic shortly after they
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: moved in.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: There was an upstairs bedroom. There were ladders what you
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: had to pull down to get up there. There this
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: box there. It was probably three foot by two for something,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: but the weight of it you couldn't possibly lift it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: I don't even know how they got it up there,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: because you couldn't physically put it up there.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Though they couldn't get into it, they could tell it
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: had something inside it.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: They could hear something rattling around in it, but we
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: never found the key for it.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Whatever it was, the family never found out in any case.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: As the weeks went by, they soon forgot all about
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: those peculiar and terrifying first few months as their lives
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: moved on. But the terror wasn't over. When the sixth
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: month Lise was up, the time came to leave the property.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: After packing everything up inside, Teresa and Sean headed into
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the garden to gather all the toys that their kids
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: had left scattered about. Then Sean turned and looked up
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: at the attic.
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: Win though he just turned round to look at the windows,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: and Sean said he felt like somebody were looking at
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: him through that window. He just dropped the toys.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Sean hustled Theresa and the kids into the car and
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: drove off at speed, leaving the toys strewn on the lawn.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: He didn't see anybody, he knew there was somebody looking
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: at him, or something looking at him, which really scared him.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: It wasn't until years later that the family realized that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the attic was the one room where they hadn't recited
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Psalm twenty.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Three, we had prayed in that room. Bob said, make
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: sure you praying everywhere the garage outside, and we hadn't
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: physically gone up there with the kids. It was almost
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: like we trapped it.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: Upstairs, but that wasn't all.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Years and years later we're talking about it and my
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: son said, well, you never liked that lady who we
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: used to stand next to a car. She used to
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: be stood next to carry along black hair, carrying wood.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: My kids said, mum, musa ignoris used to be stood
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: next to the car. Obvious they hadn't seen anybody. They
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: could actually see something, which they never even said to
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: me until years later. Maybe because me and Sean never
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: said anything to them to scare them that they never
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: mentioned it to us.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Having had enough of old properties, the couple moved into
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: a newly built housing estate on the north side of Bournemouth. Thankfully,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: whatever they felt had stalked them in christ Church didn't
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: follow them into their new property.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Before that, I would have said absolutely that I didn't
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: believe in the paranormal or girl's share. Since that experience,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: there's definitely some form of activity. And also when we
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: did pray about it, it did go away or nearly
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: went away.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Recently, Theresa has watched a number of pro guns featuring
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: people who claim to have experienced poltergeist hauntings the way
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: events Onfold are only too familiar to her.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: I've seen programs on telling where mediums go in there
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and they do pray to lift the spirit away from
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: the house, and the owners do feel like this way
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: it's being lifted off the And I know exactly how
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: that feels, because I've experienced it. I understand, and if
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: people haven't experienced it, they can't relate to it until
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: you have to go through it.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Almost thirty years later, Theresa has never stopped wondering if
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: there was a reason for it all.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't know how previously lived there. I didn't know
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: any past history. Even now I've looked on the internet.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Maybe somebody will know. Somebody will know. Maybe it was
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: quite a not so pleasant ending for somebody. Maybe that's
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: what drew them. They say that manor houses and like
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: coach houses can be counted, and this was the manor house.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: You may remember. Back near the start of the episode,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I mentioned that Diane, who recorded this interview, decided only
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: to record Theresa's version of events. The reason is because
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: when Diane first spoke to Theresa and Sean about the story,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: it was clear that Sean found it uncomfortable. It seemed
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to Diane like he was reliving the whole traumatic experience
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: all over again. The couple had avoided speaking about it
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: for thirty years, worried that by doing so they might
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: somehow invite the darkness back into their lives, So Diane
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: decided it was probably best not to push Sean to
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: formally record his account. Just then, Sean said he felt
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: something in his back, as though someone had just prodded
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: him with a finger. They carried on talking, then Sean
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: felt the prod again, and that was enough to make
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: him stop. After all, it was exactly how things had
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: started all those years ago. If there's anyone out there
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: who's heard anything about possible strange goings on in an
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: old manor house in christ Church with a long driveway
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: alongside it, feel free to get in touch with us
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: at Unexplained pod at gmail dot com. We'd love to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: hear more. In the meantime, whatever it was that occurred
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: into Resa and Sean's home back in nineteen ninety seven
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: remains to this day unexplained. Thank you so much to
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Teresa and Sean for sharing their story with us, and
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: thank you to Diane for finding and recording it. The
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: rest of the episode was written and produced by me
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Richard mcleaye Smith. Diane is an audio producer and sound
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: records in her own right. You can find out more
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: about her work at Dianhope dot com and on Instagram
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: at in the Soundfield. Thank you as ever for listening.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: McLain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: are also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.
• 27:38
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• 27:40
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• 27:43
  Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can find
• 27:52
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• 27:56
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• 28:00
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