The Curious Case of...

Some of the people in Wyalusing would prefer

not to talk about Jean Stevens.

Those neighbors knew. Nobody ever came forward.

People didn't call the police.

They would handle things on their own.

But there was always local rumors around.

People would say, "Ah-ha, Jean's wandering the graveyard."

We had rumblings that an old lady was digging up bodies.

My brother Cecil, he's seen her digging again.

What is going on here in Wyalusing?

Everybody has dark secrets.

Wyalusing, Pennsylvania is part of the Endless Mountains.

It's very rural.

Living in this rural community of Wyalusing,

you can accomplish things

that you couldn't do in the big city.

The rural area of Bradford County is beautiful.

It's wide open.

You don't have many neighbors around.

A lot of activities go on up here

that you would never know existed.

We were hearing these things periodically.

Naturally, we just thought,

"Eh, welcome to Bradford County."

But the truth is, it was true.

And the truth is, there were people in Wyalusing that knew.

They knew about this.

And nobody came forward.

I would love a piece of your pumpkin cheesecake.

It looks fabulous.

Good, yeah. I'm full of .

But, yeah, it's going, yeah, you know,

it's going great.

My name's Tom Carman,

and I was a former Bradford County coroner.

Jean Stevens and the friendship that we developed.

View her how you want, but Jean Stevens,

I'm telling you, was witty, creative,

manipulative, crafty, charming.

It was very-- thank you so much.

I really appreciate it. That looks delicious.

Thank you.

Jean had a twin sister, June.

Jean had this sweet grandma persona.

She was more reserved.

June, she was more classy.

So they're very different people,

but they were very close, as twins are.

Jean had made a promise to her sister

that she would never, ever leave her.

Jean and June, they married brothers.

Jean and Jimmy were very young sweethearts.

Two twins marrying brothers,

none of which could have children.

There was this bond.

"Last of the Mohicans," so to speak.

This is the old Stevens family farmhouse

What a happy place this was for the family.

They had many happy memories there.

Let me give you the layout of the property

that Jean and June had in Wyalusing.

Jean lived in a more humble home than June's summer home,

which was less than a mile down the street.

And 120 acres of property.

From the outside, these two sisters appear to be

as normal as can be.

But it seems that Jean was a bit peculiar.

Jean was weird.

Jean and her husband, Jimmy, were going on vacation.

But before she would go to Florida,

she wanted to see her mother.

Sounds good, right?

Only one problem. Her mother's dead.

In the ground, buried.

Jean told me they actually dug up and saw her mother.

So then, after literally seeing her mother in the grave,

they take off for Florida, and they go on their vacation.

We had rumblings through the grapevine

and the rumor mills that there was an old lady

that was digging up bodies up in the Wyalusing Township area.

My name's David Pelachick.

I was a criminal investigator

with the Pennsylvania State Police in Towanda.

No one came forward to give us any additional information.

People didn't call the police.

They would handle things on their own,

or things went unnoticed.

About a year before the case actually broke open,

we thought it was just someone making up stories at that time.

And sure enough, we get the call.

It says, "There's someone by the name of Jean Stevens.

Check on her."

So I got in the car and came up to her house.

A little old lady came to the door

and asked if she could help us.

I said, "Mrs. Stevens, I'm Trooper Pelachick.

We're just here to check on you, say, make sure things are OK."

And she said, "Well, sure they're OK."

Offered us something to eat and drink, and we're like,

"Well, I think we're gonna pass on that, no offense--"

"Well, I know why."

I'm like, "OK."

I said, "Does anyone live here with you?"

And she goes, "Live here? No."

All right, here comes the follow up.

"Is anyone staying with you?"

She goes, "Oh, yes, my sister

"is, uh, in the living room right now.

She's on the couch."

Um, sure enough, there was a couch, and her sister, June,

was laying on the couch, looked like she had a wig on.

I remember lipstick being on her.

I said, "Can you tell me why she's here?"

And she goes, "Well, listen, I like talking to her.

"She's my twin sister.

I've been with her my entire life."

And I said, "OK, I can kind of understand this."

There's a reason he's asking a lot of questions.

At first glance, it may not seem odd that Jean is

entertaining her sister, until you realize

that her sister has been dead for several months.

When we went back to the car, we called back the station,

said that we were gonna need the coroner,

and the crime supervisor, Corporal Ogden, to come up,

that we had a situation that needs to be addressed.

I had always heard, truth is stranger than fiction.

And here was the case

that truth is stranger than fiction.

I don't think we ever had an incident like this.

My name is Al Ogden.

I'm a retired Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigator.

Working in this area,

there's some crazy stories

and conspiracy theories,

you know, running around locally.

Ah-ha, Jean, somebody saw her with a shovel.

It had been years that we'd been hearing rumors like that.

Yeah, this was-- this was the bizarre one.

Tom Carman, who was the coroner at the time,

and I went down to Jean's house.

The interior of the house was immaculate.

It was spotless.

It was like it got to the '50s and stopped.

You know, the ceramic top tables and the counters

and the old appliances, and then, like I said,

the way she was dressed and everything.

She says, "Hi, guys, how you doing? Come on in."

Just as friendly as anything.

And there's a plate of fresh-baked

chocolate chip cookies on the counter.

"Help yourself to some cookies, come over, have a seat."

When I went out there, I'm thinking,

"This poor lady, she is crazy."

Within two minutes, I knew this lady was just sharp,

if not sharper than me.

Jean, there wasn't anything else she was exhibiting

that showed she was slipping mentally.

Al, he poses the question,

"And Jean, is it true that your sister is-- is here?"

And Jean says,

"Well, yes. Would you like to meet her?"

Al says-- I'll never forget it.

Classic Al. I'll never forget it, he says,

"As a matter of fact, I would."

She jumped up from the table,

led us back through the house,

and there was her sister laying on the couch.

"Here she is."

Just, matter of fact.

And the reality is...

she got a dead body in the house.

I mean, who the hell keeps a dead body in their house?

Holy !

We ain't in Kansas no more, buddy.

June's a hot mess. June passed away in 2009.

You're talking a body that would recently been embalmed.

She's leaking embalming fluid.

The aroma alone, you know, I don't give a crap

how much perfume you put on that thing.

I mean, I'm around bodies all the time,

but, you know, I'm almost gagged.

I gotta tell you, I know we're talking about death,

but this pie is delicious.

Primo, Primo.

We've got June there,

and we're back at the table talking.

I said, "Jean..." I said,

"I've been hearing for years that Jimmy's here."

"Oh, yeah, he's here, too."

You know, knock you over with a feather.

"Oh, is he here in the house?"

"Oh, no, he's across the road in the garage."

I said, "Well, can we go see him too?"

She's like, "Yeah, come on!"

And she grabbed a remote for the garage door opener,

and out we went across the street.

Jean's garage is just on the opposite side

of the dirt township road that kind of splits

her property there.

We go out of the garage. Jean lifts the garage door.