Six nights in an abandoned rural house: Odors, Ouija board, and footsteps
A caller who says they are a county fraud investigator tells Art Bell they spent six nights with their girlfriend and her daughter in an unoccupied house about 25 miles up a dirt road in Northern California. Local people had told them it was haunted. They report a rotting-flesh smell, cold spots, a chair that flew back and injured the girlfriend’s knee, a door handle turning, footsteps and a slammed door upstairs, a child’s “help me” captured on a tape recorder, and orbs in several hundred photographs. The call ends with the host asking for the caller’s e-mail and website link.
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 1998.mp3”, starting at 2:31:38). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller says they are in Northern California and describes themselves as [quote withheld] a fraud investigator. They say they had to go about 25 miles up an old dirt road to a property with an unoccupied house. They say the people they spoke with there told them the house was haunted. The people told the caller stories, including of someone [quote withheld] which the caller says they first dismissed. They say they told their girlfriend about it the next day and she talked them into going. They spent six nights there.
According to the caller, everything seemed fine when they first went into the house. Then they smelled a strong rotting-flesh odor, and there were cold spots, mostly in the kitchen and hallway. They looked around and found nothing. The caller notes the house had not been lived in for ten years. Later, they say, their girlfriend and her daughter played with a Ouija board, probably around 11 p.m. to midnight, while the caller took photographs. A chair flew back and the girlfriend was hit or kicked in the knee, leaving a bruise. Right afterward, a door handle behind the caller turned. The caller says they were ready to leave but decided to stay the night because of how far back the property was.
Unable to sleep in the living room, the caller reports hearing footsteps upstairs “like children running” and a door slamming. The caller says the house was also supposed to have two ghost children. They set up a tape recorder. The next day they heard a small child say [quote withheld] twice, which they say they had not heard live. They report orbs “in motion” in photographs, about 400 taken over those six days. Some were posted on a site they call the Ghost Web, and they say they made their own website. The host asks them to e-mail their site address, and the call ends there.
Reported events, in order
- 0:08
The caller says they are in Northern California and work as a fraud investigator for the county.
- 0:13
They say they had to go about 25 miles up an old dirt road to a property where the house was unoccupied.
- 0:21
People they spoke with told them the house was haunted, including a story about someone being attacked by a male ghost. They say they dismissed it.
- 0:53
They told their girlfriend, who talked them into going. They spent six nights there.
- 1:11
On first entering, they say, they smelled a strong rotting-flesh odor and found cold spots, mostly in the kitchen and hallway. They found nothing, and the house had been unoccupied for ten years.
- 1:36
Their girlfriend and her daughter played with a Ouija board around 11 p.m. to midnight while the caller took photographs.
- 1:52
A chair flew back. They say the girlfriend was hit or kicked in the knee, leaving a bruise.
- 2:06
A door handle directly behind the caller turned.
- 2:13
They decided to stay the night rather than leave. They say they could not sleep.
- 2:31
Lying in the living room, they heard footsteps upstairs like children running, and a door slammed.
- 2:54
They set up a tape recorder and let it run.
- 2:59
Listening the next day, they say, they heard a small child say [quote withheld] twice, which they had not heard live.
- 3:11
They report orbs in motion in photographs, about 400 taken over the six days. Some were posted on a site they call the Ghost Web, and they made their own website.
- 3:29
The host asks them to e-mail their website address. They agree, and the call ends.
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).
- hearsay· 0:41
People at the property told the caller the house was haunted and told them stories about someone being attacked by a male ghost.
- hearsay· 2:35
They say the house was also said to contain two ghost children.
- observation· 1:11
They say they and their girlfriend smelled a strong rotting-flesh odor inside the house.
- observation· 1:20
They report numerous cold spots in the house, mostly in the kitchen and hallway.
- observation· 1:52
They say a chair flew back during the Ouija-board session and the girlfriend was hit or kicked in the knee, leaving a bruise.
- observation· 2:06
They say a door handle behind them turned with no one around.
- observation· 2:48
They say they heard footsteps upstairs like children running and a door slammed.
- observation· 3:02
They say a tape recording made overnight contained a small child’s voice saying [quote withheld] twice, which they had not heard at the time.
- observation· 3:11
They report orbs “in motion” in photographs, and say they took about 400 pictures over the six days.
- interpretation· 1:41
They link the start of the more dramatic activity to the Ouija-board session.
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 firsthand story with some concrete detail (six nights, a remote dirt-road property, a tape recording, about 400 photographs), told in a clear order in answer to the host’s questions. The score is lowered because the smell and cold spots fit easily in a house empty for years, and because the photographs and tape are not produced or examined.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand: the caller places themselves and their companions at the house over six nights ([quote withheld]).
- Specific detail: distance, terrain, time of night, and unoccupied status ([quote withheld]).
- The caller answers the host’s clarifying question about their job ([quote withheld]).
- A rotting smell in a house empty for years has an easy ordinary explanation, and they found nothing when they looked.
- The main physical claims (chair, door handle, footsteps) have no checkable specifics such as dates, addresses, or named witnesses who back them up.
- The caller admits their own earlier disbelief ([quote withheld]), which shows a change of view but is not independent support.
- No dates, address, or names are given, so nothing in the story can be checked without outside material.
- The girlfriend and daughter are only claimed as second witnesses. They do not speak.
- 0:56
- 1:28
- 1:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): The component scores (closeness to the events high, specificity moderate, consistency good, other explanations fit poorly, calibration moderate) are my judgment. The transcript supplies only the quoted content.
The caller claims substantial physical material, a tape recording and roughly 400 photographs, which could be checked. None of it is presented or examined on air, and no second witness speaks. This places the story in the [quote withheld] band.
Evidence for and against
- Claimed audio evidence: a tape recorder left running and a child’s voice heard on playback.
- Claimed photographic evidence: [quote withheld] taken over the six days.
- The host asks for the website address and offers to look and post a link, but no examination happens in this part of the broadcast.
- No recording or photograph is played, shown, or described by the host from direct viewing.
- No independent witness on air. The girlfriend and daughter are only claimed.
- Claimed second witnesses are named by relationship only, with no names or statements.
- Whether the recording and photographs exist cannot be checked from the transcript.
- The reference to a website and an earlier posting ([quote withheld]) is garbled and unclear.
- 3:02
- 3:18
- 3:30
What the model inferred (not said on air): The band follows the scoring guide’s range for physical evidence claimed to exist but not examined. The specific number 32 is my placement within that band.
The story is set at night in an isolated, long-empty house reached by 25 miles of dirt road. It includes a rotting-flesh smell, an unexplained injury that left a bruise, and a recorded child’s plea for help. The ending is unresolved, which sustains unease.
Evidence for and against
- Isolation and night setting: [quote withheld] and activity around 11 p.m. to midnight.
- Physical harm and intrusion: the chair flying back and the bruise on the girlfriend’s knee.
- Vivid child-related content: footsteps “like children running” upstairs and a child’s voice on tape.
- The caller’s tone is often upbeat ([quote withheld]), which lowers the dread for some listeners.
- No lasting threat to the caller beyond the single knee injury. They stay and keep taking pictures.
- How the bruise was caused is described unclearly ([quote withheld]).
- The transcribed wording around the recorded voice is short and could be wrong in places.
- 1:11
- 2:00
- 3:02
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is an editorial judgment about how unsettling the reported content would be to a listener, not a claim about the events.
The story uses a familiar haunted-house frame: an isolated old property, a Ouija board, orbs, and a child’s voice on tape. Mildly distinctive details are the caller’s county fraud-investigation work and the large number of claimed photographs.
Evidence for and against
- Familiar elements: a Ouija board session, orbs in photographs, and a child ghost.
- Distinctive detail: the visit is tied to official county work, [quote withheld]
- Unusual number claimed: about 400 photographs from six days.
- Rotting smells, cold spots, slamming doors, and footsteps are stock haunted-house motifs.
- A child’s voice caught on tape (EVP) is a common type of claim in this genre.
- Originality compared with the rest of the archive cannot be judged from a single transcript, so the published figure is provisional.
- Doubt about the transcription of the website reference limits comparison with other stories.
- 1:36
- 3:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): The estimate is my comparison of the story with common ghost-story motifs. Comparison with the rest of the archive cannot be done here.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: the caller’s firsthand story on air; claimed audio tape recording with a child’s voice, not played or examined; claimed photograph collection (about 400 images) and websites, not examined on air; no second witness speaks on air. The originality score blends the model's score (42) 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.
- A dead animal or other decaying material in a house left unoccupied for years could produce the reported rotting smell. · The caller says the odor was strong and that [quote withheld] and they found nothing when they looked.
- Cold spots in an unheated, neglected building could be drafts or uneven temperatures rather than anything else. · The caller puts the cold spots mainly in the kitchen and hallway, areas of a house they say nobody lived in.
- Sounds of running upstairs and a slamming door in a neglected building could be animals, wind, or the building settling. A faint recorded voice could be a flaw in the recording or misheard audio. · The caller describes the sounds as being “like children running” upstairs and says they did not hear the recorded “help me” at the time.
What stands out
The caller says the visit was part of their county fraud-investigation work and took them to a remote property 25 miles up a dirt road. The caller claims a large photographic record (about 400 pictures) and an audio tape, but none of it is presented or examined on air.
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