Arguably the most haunted location in all of Conecuh County is a one-story, brick house that’s less than 40 years old. Located south of Evergreen on U.S. Highway 31, near the Alabama Department of Transportation office, the house has been abandoned for over two years, ever since the owners decided that they couldn’t stand to live there any longer.
The owners, who spoke to The Courant on condition of anonymity, said the house was built in 1975, and they bought the house in September 2008. The husband and wife couple said they “loved” the spacious home and everything was fine until strange things started happening in July 2010.
“The first unusual thing that happened involved our German shepherd dog,” the wife said. “It was at night, and I let him out the back door. When he went out, I stepped down on the first step and looked up and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
The wife saw a “beautiful ball of light” that she initially thought was a falling star, she said.
“Weird thing was, it seemed so close that it was like I could have reached up and touched it,” she said. “Then it just disappeared.”
Not wanting to sound crazy, the wife didn’t tell anyone about the experience until a short time later when her husband asked her had she noticed anything out of the ordinary happening in the house. They began to share stories of their experiences, but couldn’t imagine what was in store for them.
From July 2010 through August 2011, when the owners finally abandoned the house, they lived through a wide variety of unexplained experiences, including the opening and shutting of kitchen cabinets, the overpowering sensation that they were being watched, the sound of footsteps in the attic, the sounds of people arguing, missing objects that would reappear later, TVs and radios turning themselves on and off, pets behaving strangely, the refrigerator door opening and closing on its own, ceiling fans moving for no apparent reason, knocking on walls, the sound of a baby crying, window blinds opening and closing on their own, and having the backs of their shirts tugged by unseen hands. They also began seeing ghostly figures, shadows and “ghost orbs” in photos and videos taken inside the house and caught the disembodied voice of a woman saying “sorry” in an audio recording, the wife said.
Things at the house grew so bad that the family of four began sleeping in the same bedroom together, and they decided to get out of the house for good after an incident that happened late one night.
“We were all in the bed together, trying to go to sleep,” the wife said. “When something large and black, like a shadow, crossed in front of the bedroom door and went into a bathroom. We thought someone was in the house, and my husband got out of the bed, got his gun and went to check it out. We were scared to death, but when he looked, no one was in the bathroom or anywhere else in the house. We moved out five days later.”
Reports of the unusual activity at the house eventually reached paranormal investigators in Mobile, who first visited the house about seven months after the owners moved out. Since then, they’ve been back to the house six or seven times and have deemed the house haunted.
In a seven-page report prepared by Jason Lawton, a lead investigator with the Delta Paranormal Project’s Alabama Chapter, he and five other investigators encountered some unexpected results when they investigated the home in January. As part of their experiments, investigators poured flour on the kitchen floor and hung up signs that said, among other things, “Please walk through the flour,” “Please open the cabinet door” and “Please knock.” Investigators then left the house and returned 18 minutes later.
“No footprints or handprints were found, but a trail of flour was found leading away from the experiment site,” Lawton said. Investigators also found an upper cabinet door open and heard a distinct “knock” when they listened to an audio recorder that had been left in the house during the experiment. Other recorders left on in the house also caught disembodied voices saying the words “help,” “sorry… sorry” and “Oh my God.” When asked how many spirits were present, recorders caught a disembodied voice that said the word “ten,” Lawton said.
Investigators also set up a laser grid to try and detect “shadow figures” moving in the hallway.
“Approximately three minutes into the experiment, the laser grid experienced complete and sudden battery drain,” Lawton said. “The batteries were fresh at the start of the experiment, and the laser grid was functioning correctly. The batteries were replaced and the experiment continued without anything further to report.”
Using digital cameras, investigators also took a number of photographs inside the house with a few surprising results.
“In approximately the same location as where the laser grid experienced battery drain, two high-quality digital cameras operated by different investigators experienced malfunctions at the same time,” Lawton said. “In order to resolve the malfunctions, the cameras were moved to another location within the house and rebooted. The cameras were then inspected and found to be back in excellent working condition.”
Between 7:40 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., investigators tried to find evidence of paranormal activity in the home’s den and were not disappointed.
“During this session, the vertical blinds on the sliding door would start on command,” Lawton said. “Not all of the blind slats would move, only certain ones. We asked for it to move one slat, then two slats, then three slats. The slats moved as asked. I checked the door for drafts or other things that could make the blinds move, but none were found. In my opinion, moving air could not make the blinds move in the manner that they did.”
The owners of the home told The Courant that, based on their experiences, they believe the house contains the sprits of an old white man, a black woman, a young white man, young children and a baby. Lawton and the other investigators reported that they believe the house is haunted by at least one spirit and maybe as many as three.
“Given the evidence collected during the investigation, this location does contain at least one spirit,” Lawton said. “But due to voice variants on the EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recordings, it could have as many as three spirits. I believe that at least one of the spirits has enough intelligence that it can follow both written and voice commands. It can also leave physical evidence to prove its existence.
“The client claims to have seen shadow figures at the location, and even though we did not find any evidence of this during our investigation, I believe this spirit does have the knowledge and ability to consume energy and manifest itself as a shadow figure. I find no evidence that the spirits present are evil or intend to do any harm to the clients or the investigators.”
Creepy, old houses in long-established neighborhoods are often called haunted, but how do ghosts come to haunt a ranch-style home that was built in the 1970s? The owners aren’t sure, but they have some ideas and have been working with local historians and researchers to find some answers.
“We think it’s very possible that the house was built on top of a place where there was a house in the past,” the wife said. “Who knows what was here a long time ago? Maybe the spirits are attached to the land in some way.”
The owners have also considered the idea that the ghosts might have followed them home.
“All of this got started not long after my husband and I helped clean up an old cemetery,” the wife said. “We spent a lot of time there, and we wonder if maybe they became attached to us in some way and followed us home somehow. Once they got here, they’ve been here ever since.”
The home’s owners live elsewhere in Evergreen today and hope to eventually sell their old house, the wife said.
“Before all of this, the house was great,” she said. “We loved that house, but we just couldn’t live there any more. Before all of this, I wouldn’t have believed any of this either, but I’ll never make fun of anyone again who says they think they’ve seen a ghost.”
This was very interesting. I went in search of information online after hearing about the house today.My husband and I drove by and parked across the street to get a good look. Stupidly I told my husband, " I bet it's looking out that hole in the shades at us right now." We had not reached I-65 on 84 before my right arm started burning. A red Mark appeared and lasted about 45 min. I took a picture as it faded. Won't do that again.
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