My Horror Story

I wanted a home for my daughter.

When we pulled up, I fell in love immediately

when I saw the house.

She said, "mom, there's a man standing at the foot of my bed."

Mommy!

"let me in," this real loud blasted, "let me in."

electricity hits my chest, my arms, and my legs.

I'm thinking in my mind, "I'm dead."

lori. Hey, lori.

I was in the presence of pure evil.

It ripped my world apart.

It's an image that I live with every day of my life.

When I got to her,

her little body was cold.

Wo We walk into the house. It felt like home.

I met this really lovely girl.

Wo My daughter was going to share her birthday.

And there were a billion stars out, just gorgeous.

Wo The room got cold. Something's not right.

I know what waits for me in the dark.

Wo We weren't alone in this house.

I saw somebody staring right at me.

Wo Blood coming out of his eyes.

We're under the control of something.

Wo I felt like I was dying.

She wouldn't wake up, and she wouldn't respond to me,

and her little body was cold.

It was pure evil.

People need to know that they're never really alone in the dark.

My husband and I, we were young and struggling.

And we were living in downtown fort worth, texas.

The neighborhood was pretty bad.

Drugs, there was just all kinds of things

that could've gone down.

Me and my husband didn't have things handed to us.

We didn't come from money.

My husband was doing welding at that point,

and I was moving up the ranks in the pharmacy industry,

and we worked very hard to get to where we were at.

Cameron was my 3-year-old.

He was my easy child.

Skyler was born in may of '05.

We were ready for the little princess,

and, boy, is she that, but we adore.

When my children were born, my life changed.

I quit living for me. I was living for them.

It was my job to watch over them and make sure they were safe.

We had started looking for a home

in a good school district.

One night, my husband came home and let me know

that he had found a house

in a good school district that we could afford.

I was thrilled that he'd found a home for us,

absolutely thrilled.

it was about a 30-minute drive to the house.

We come off the main road, pass all these fields.

There was only four houses on that road.

We're pretty far separated from each other.

And when we pulled up, I fell in love immediately.

It was a single-story.

You had to step up on the porch to go in the front door.

My favorite room was the nursery.

It had lots of windows,

and it was very sunny and perfect for the baby.

Coming from the situation that we were in, it was huge.

This was going to be our permanent home for me

and the kids, you know, and our life.

we had only been there maybe a week,

and it was nighttime, and the kids were asleep in bed.

Children out there waving...

My husband and I were in the living room

watching the television.

...Exciting game up here

in the bottom of the fourth inning,

and it is heating up because, you know,

at the end of this ball game...

I noticed a shadow on the wall.

It looked like it was almost a liquid

that flowed up the wall.

It covered almost the whole ceiling.

It was that big.

Then it traveled down along the ceiling,

down the hallway, into the nursery.

My husband asked me if I saw that,

and I insisted that it had to be headlights from the outside.

The headlights had caused the shadow,

and everything was fine, you know?

And, of course, he argued the point

that it wasn't like a normal shadow.

We didn't argue for very long.

We ended up going to bed,

and we didn't want to talk about it any further.

We woke up the next morning

and resumed like as normal, you know?

In the perfect house and the perfect life,

and just moved forward.

two weeks after we see the shadow,

my husband and I were in bed.

suddenly, I hear music.

It's coming from the nursery.

it was one of the toys going off.

I took the batteries out of it.

And it stopped.

oddly enough, skyler was sleeping just fine.

So I went back to bed.

another two minutes later, the toy went off again.

Something's not right. Felt very wrong.

I was pretty freaked out.

Fayetteville, west virginia --

the coolest small town in america.

It is a one-red-light town with some of the best people.

Everybody knows everybody,

a wonderful place to raise your kids and a lot of fun.

I love my town.

I went to beauty school, graduated in 1992.

Soon after, I got pregnant with my daughter, kaitlyn.

I love my sweet baby girl, but the fact is,

I was a struggling single mom, and I was lonely.

Donny, oh.

Donny and I were the best of friends.

He was a character -- tattooed and pierced.

He's not a suit-and-tie guy.

Outgoing, and he would do anything for anyone.

The very first time he leaned in

and he actually kissed me was my birthday, actually.

It was...

It was instant.

We knew then what kind of love that we had for one another.

Donny is the love of my life.

Donny raised my daughter, kaitlyn, as if she was his.

He had a bond with her, really was amazing to watch.

We wanted to put our roots down.

I wanted a home for my daughter,

and I wanted to raise her in the proper way.

Donny, he was injured in the coal mines,

so he was disabled, so it was up to me

to kind of have the extra money so we could rent a house.

It wasn't easy.

One day, I was in the beauty shop doing hair,

and there was a lady that heard me talking about needing a place

but couldn't afford a whole lot.

We were just trying to get on our feet.

She said, "well, I have a house that's right beside of me.

If you want it, you can have it,"

so that's what happened.

We walk into the house.

it felt like home.

it was a dream come true.

That changed quickly.

we had only been in the house for three days.

We were laying down to go to bed that night,

and as soon as I kind of got comfortable...

...Kaitlyn comes back into my room, and she said,

"mom, there's a man standing at the foot of my bed."

donny, he went into her room to check on things.

Nobody there.

Said, "oh, baby, you're probably just dreaming.

Just go back to sleep."

went and tucked her back in.

I went back to bed.

A few minutes later...

Mommy!

...She's screaming, "he's back again."

she said she could hear his boots,

and he would lean over her while she was asleep,

and he'd just stare at her.

She said, "he looked mean, mommy, mean."

I just totally dismissed it.

She was just a 6-year-old little girl

that I thought had an active imagination.

I had went and bought a special nightlight.

I kind of talked it up to where this light will protect her,

to keep the bad things away.

I plugged it in, turned it on.

mommy!

The light bulb explodes.

Mommy!

I had to pick glass out of her hair.

I didn't want her to be afraid of her own house,

but I still didn't believe what was going on.

Kaitlyn became very frustrated because I wasn't listening.

Me being a nonbeliever, I'm like, "yeah, right."

even so, I was willing to do anything

to settle kaitlyn's fears.

even if it was celtic magic.

donny took it upon himself to go in her room,

and he would do these blessings,

burning incense and fruits and herbs,

and he would pour salt in her doorways and her window frames.

He thought that it would keep negative energies

out of the house.

She felt better that he did that for her.

Donny thought it was best that she get out of

the house more to kind of change the scenery.

Him and kaitlyn had went to the movies,

having a father-daughter day.

I was cleaning the house, doing dishes.

lori.

Hey, lori.

Lori.