A woman’s head and shoulders emerging from an attic closet in an old converted home
A first-time caller named [name withheld], calling from Kansas City, says that in 1980 they were staying in the converted attic bedroom of a man they were dating. Knocking woke them, and they saw a woman’s head and shoulders come out of a long closet. They say the man, once woken, told them not to worry. He said he had seen the woman before and that she was “real nice.” [name withheld] ends by saying they ended the relationship.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1997.mp3”, starting at 3:44:44). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], calling from Kansas City on a first-time-caller line, says the events happened in 1980. They were dating a city councilman they call Ed, who had bought an older home and converted the large attic into a bedroom. One whole side of it was a long closet. [name withheld] states that up until then they had never believed “in this stuff.” [name withheld] reports that Ed was asleep one night, and that they fell asleep and were woken by a knocking, which did not stir him. [name withheld] says they opened their eyes, looked over at the closet, and a head came out of it down to the shoulders. The woman had short, brown, wavy hair and a flowery dress. [name withheld] says they froze and stared. The woman turned her head and looked at them, “eye to eye,” and then went back into the closet. [name withheld] says they woke Ed and told him they had just seen the strangest thing and that they knew they saw it. He asked what the woman looked like. When [name withheld] described her, he said, [quote withheld] He said he had seen her when he built the room and that she walked into the closet when he finished it. According to [name withheld], what “we figured out” was that the house had been built by the woman’s father when she married, that the man left her, and that she committed suicide in the attic. [name withheld] says the woman lived in the closet and liked Ed. [name withheld] closes by saying [quote withheld] and [quote withheld] Art replies that he dislikes open closets at night and that he would leave rather than sleep there.
Reported events, in order
- 0:07
[name withheld] says that in 1980 they were dating a city councilman who had bought an older home and converted the attic into a large bedroom with a long closet along one side.
- 0:44
[name withheld] says they fell asleep and were woken by a knocking that did not wake him.
- 0:51
[name withheld] says they opened their eyes, looked at the closet, and a head down to the shoulders came out of it.
- 1:05
[name withheld] describes the woman as having short, brown, wavy hair and a flowery dress.
- 1:13
[name withheld] says they froze and stared. The woman turned her head and looked at them, and then went back into the closet.
- 1:28
[name withheld] says they woke Ed and told him they had seen something strange and that they knew they saw it.
- 1:38
[name withheld] says Ed told them not to worry about the woman and called her “real nice.”
- 1:43
According to [name withheld], Ed said he had seen the woman when he built the room and that she walked into the closet when he finished it.
- 1:51
[name withheld] reports the explanation they arrived at: the house was built by the woman’s father when she married, the man left her, and she committed suicide in the attic.
- 2:09
[name withheld] says the woman lived in the closet and liked Ed, and that they ended the relationship.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:44
A knocking woke the caller while they were sleeping in the converted attic bedroom.
- observation· 0:51
The caller saw a woman’s head and shoulders come out of the closet in the bedroom.
- observation· 1:05
The figure had short, brown, wavy hair and a flowery dress.
- observation· 1:13
The figure turned, looked at the caller eye to eye, and then went back into the closet.
- hearsay· 1:38
Ed, once woken, said the woman was “real nice” and told the caller not to worry about her.
- hearsay· 1:43
Ed said he had seen the woman when he built the room and that she walked into the closet when he finished it.
- hearsay· 1:56
The house was built by the woman’s father when she married. The man left her, and she committed suicide in the attic.
- interpretation· 2:09
The woman [quote withheld] and liked Ed.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a plainly told firsthand story with a specific year, setting, and sequence, and consistent answers to Art’s questions. But it has no names or details that can be checked, and an easy explanation based on what people see on waking, which the caller does not address.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand witness: [quote withheld]
- Concrete specifics: the year “1980,” a converted attic bedroom with a long closet, and visible details of hair and dress.
- Consistent sequence: knocking, waking, sighting, waking Ed, his answer, the later explanation.
- The sighting comes right after waking from sleep: [quote withheld]; [quote withheld]
- The backstory of marriage, abandonment, and suicide is something “we figured out,” not something verified.
- No names, address, or other details that could be checked are given.
- The word “Haiti” near the start is unclear and may be a transcription error, so the location of the events is uncertain.
- Some words in the closing lines are marked as low confidence in the automatic transcript, which makes those lines uncertain.
- The speaker of one closing line is unclear, though it is likely the caller.
- 0:07
- 0:51
- 1:56
What the model inferred (not said on air): The component scores are my judgment. Closeness to the source is 22 (firsthand, a single event, fairly complete). Specificity is 14 (year, room layout, and appearance described, but no names or records). Internal consistency is 16 (the sequence and answers fit, with minor slips in the speaker labels). Alternative explanations are 7 (an image seen on waking fits the timing well and is not addressed). Calibration of claims is 8 (the caller asserts they know they saw it, and the death story is partly a conclusion, but they do not over-claim). The total is 67.
The story rests on the caller’s own word plus a claimed second witness. That witness is said to have seen the same figure but does not speak on air. No photograph, document, or other material that can be checked is offered.
Evidence for and against
- A second person is claimed to have seen the figure: [quote withheld]
- A specific year and a general setting are supplied.
- The second witness is reported only through the caller’s story and never speaks.
- No names, address, records, photographs, or physical traces are mentioned anywhere in the story.
- The claimed second witness cannot be assessed at all from the transcript.
- No outside check was done, so the cap of 50 applies and the score sits in the lowest range.
- 2:09
- 1:43
What the model inferred (not said on air): This falls in the range for the caller’s word plus other witnesses claimed (11 to 25). I place it conservatively because the claimed witness is neither named on air nor independently recorded.
A figure coming out of a closet in the room where the caller is sleeping and making eye contact is an unsettling image, and the suicide in the attic adds weight. But the telling is brief, the figure is described as harmless, and the story ends on a light, humorous note.
Evidence for and against
- A head and shoulders appearing out of a closet in the bedroom at night.
- Direct eye contact before the figure withdraws: [quote withheld]
- A reported suicide in the same attic.
- The figure is described as harmless: “she's real nice.”
- The story ends with a joke: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Only one sighting is described, with no escalation or threat.
- Whether the knocking and the sighting would feel frightening cannot be judged from the text, and the caller’s delivery is not considered.
- 0:51
- 1:41
What the model inferred (not said on air): This falls between “mildly eerie” (30) and “genuinely unsettling” (50). The imagery is strong, but the harmless framing and the funny ending lower it.
The setup is very familiar: an old house, a ghost in a bedroom at night, a suicide backstory, and a spirit that stays in the house. But the form of the sighting, only a head and shoulders projecting out of a closet and then withdrawing, is a less common detail.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive detail: a partial figure coming out of a closet and retreating into it.
- A second person who reports having already seen her walk into the closet.
- An old house with a previous occupant’s death is a stock element.
- A woman in old-fashioned dress seen in a bedroom at night is a common motif.
- With a small pilot archive, the published originality figure is provisional and largely driven by the model estimate.
- 1:05
- 1:43
What the model inferred (not said on air): The model estimate is 55: a familiar setup plus one distinctive detail. Comparison with the rest of the archive carries little weight at this archive size.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story (spoken call); Claimed second witness (Ed) reported by the caller, not speaking on air; No photographs, recordings, documents, or physical traces mentioned. The originality score blends the model's score (55) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- An image from a dream, or from the moment of waking up: the caller says they had just fallen asleep and were woken by a noise, and the sighting came the moment they opened their eyes in a dark room. · I hadn't been, but I fell asleep, and a knocking woke me up. So I kind of opened my eyes and was looking
- A real person or an ordinary sound in the house: the knocking is reported as an outside sound that woke them, and a long closet along one side of the room would be a place where a person or an animal could be. · that whole side was nothing but a big closet, huge long closet; a knocking woke me up
- Expectation and suggestion: the caller says they had not believed in such things before, and the man they were with had, by his own account, already seen and accepted the figure in the same room. · up until then, I'd never believed in this stuff; he said, when I built this room, she, I saw her
What stands out
The ghost is described as only a head and shoulders projecting out of a closet and then withdrawing. There is no full body, no movement through the room, and no repeat sighting reported by the caller. The story also includes a second person who is said to have seen the same figure before without treating it as a problem.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.