A child's late-night phone call reporting their father's death
A caller who gives the name [name withheld], calling from Redmond, Washington, says their father was murdered in 1976, when they were nine. The caller reports that at about 11 p.m. on the night of his death they woke at their aunt's house, walked through the dark house, and answered a ringing telephone. A voice the caller did not recognize told them their father had been shot, and then the line went dead. The caller’s aunt, who had not heard the phone ring, called it a bad dream. The caller says the call came around the time he died, and that their mother, fifteen miles away, woke with a start at the same moment. The caller says their uncle can confirm the caller telephoned him, but no one can confirm the incoming call. Asked what they think it was, the caller says they do not know.
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 2000-1.mp3”, starting at 45:18). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller, who gives the name “[name withheld]” and says they are calling from Redmond, Washington, while listening to KOMO, says their father was the victim of a homicide in 1976, when they were nine years old: [quote withheld] The caller reports that on the evening of his death he drove them to their grandmother’s house, where they had planned to spend the night. At the last minute they stayed at their aunt’s house instead. The caller says that as they ran up the walkway something made them stop and look back at him, that everything [quote withheld] and that they thought it was probably the last time they would see him. The caller walked away without thinking much of it. The caller reports waking with a start around 11 p.m. at their aunt’s, feeling sick to their stomach, and walking through the dark house alone. As they passed the telephone, it rang. The caller says they picked it up and a voice said their father had been shot, then the line clicked off. The caller says they vomited and woke their aunt, who told them she had not heard the phone ring and that it had been a bad dream. The caller then telephoned their uncle, their mother’s brother, and asked him to tell their grandmother that something had happened to their father. He too told them to go back to sleep. Within an hour, the caller says, their grandmother came over after a friend telephoned to say their father had been in an accident. The family did not yet know he had been shot. The caller says the call came a little after 11, around the time he died, and that their mother, about 15 miles away, woke with a start at the same time, feeling sick. The caller says their uncle can confirm they telephoned him, but no one can confirm the phone rang, and no one has admitted calling them. Asked whether they recognized the voice, the caller says they did not. Asked what they think, the caller says they do not know. The caller says they will be 33 in March. The host argues that a ringing phone with a strange voice goes beyond what a living brain can do.
Reported events, in order
- 0:04
A caller identifies themselves as “[name withheld],” calling from Redmond, Washington, and says they are listening to KOMO.
- 0:15
The caller says their father was a homicide victim in 1976, when they were nine years old.
- 0:24
On the early evening of his death he drove them to their grandmother’s for an overnight stay. At the last minute the caller stayed at their aunt’s house instead.
- 0:45
The caller says something made them stop on the walkway and look back at him. Everything seemed to slow, and they thought it was probably the last time they would see him.
- 1:11
About 11 p.m. the caller woke with a start at their aunt’s house, feeling sick to their stomach and uncomfortable.
- 1:22
Walking through the dark house alone, the caller passed the telephone and it rang. The caller picked it up.
- 1:31
A voice told them their father had been shot, and the line clicked off.
- 1:35
The caller vomited and woke their aunt. The aunt said she had not heard the phone ring and told them it was a bad dream and to go back to sleep.
- 2:07
The caller telephoned their uncle (their mother’s brother) and asked him to tell their grandmother something had happened to their father. He likewise told them to go back to sleep.
- 2:28
Within an hour their grandmother arrived after a friend telephoned to say their father had been in an accident. The family did not yet know he had been shot.
- 2:48
The caller says the call came a little after 11, around the time their father died.
- 3:11
The caller says they did not recognize the voice, and it was not their father’s.
- 3:48
The caller reports their mother, about 15 miles away, woke with a start at the same time, feeling sick to her stomach.
- 5:04
The caller says only their uncle can back up their story, and that no one has admitted calling them or known they were at their aunt’s.
- 5:18
The caller says they will be 33 in March.
- 5:25
The host closes by arguing that a ringing phone with a strange voice goes beyond what a living brain can do.
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· 1:27
The telephone rang as the caller was walking past it in the dark house, and they picked it up.
- observation· 1:31
An unidentified voice on the line said their father had been shot, and then the line clicked off.
- observation· 1:13
The caller woke with a start around 11 p.m., feeling sick to their stomach and uncomfortable.
- observation· 0:53
The caller felt, when looking back at their father in the car, that it was probably the last time they would see him.
- interpretation· 2:48
The call came a little after 11 p.m., around the time their father died.
- hearsay· 3:48
The caller’s mother, about 15 miles away, woke with a start at the same time, feeling sick to her stomach, knowing something was wrong.
- interpretation· 2:55
The caller’s uncle can confirm the caller telephoned him before the news arrived, but no one can confirm the incoming call or has admitted making it.
- interpretation· 3:40
Asked what they think it was, the caller says they do not know.
- host statement· 5:40
The host says that a ringing phone with a strange voice delivering the news goes beyond what a living brain could do.
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.
A clear, specific, internally consistent firsthand story with some careful limits on what the caller claims ([quote withheld]). But the caller was a sleeping nine-year-old, the witness in the house did not hear the ring, and an ordinary explanation is available.
Evidence for and against
- [quote withheld]
- A concrete sequence with times and places: [quote withheld] The caller names their aunt’s house, their uncle’s telephone call, and their grandmother arriving within the hour.
- [quote withheld] He is a living person the caller says can confirm part of the sequence.
- The timing is consistent with the caller’s stated age: [quote withheld]
- The aunt, whose house it was, is reported to have said she did not hear the phone ring, and the caller was a child roused from sleep at night.
- The story rests on a 24-year-old childhood memory. The person telling the story says they cannot identify the caller.
- Reported family notification that night (a friend telephoned the grandmother about an accident) means contact between relatives that evening is not strange in itself.
- A garbled passage ([quote withheld]) leaves the exact content of the call unclear.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable in the later part of the call, so some quoted remarks may be the host’s.
- 0:15
- 1:27
- 1:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): Judged as testimony only. Closeness to events and coherence are strong. The dream or sleep explanation fits the reported details and keeps the score in the mid range rather than higher.
Only the caller’s word, plus claimed witnesses who do not speak and details that have not been verified. Under the scoring guide this sits in the 11 to 25 band, and no outside check was performed.
Evidence for and against
- Details that could be checked in principle: a 1976 homicide, Redmond, Washington, KOMO radio, a named uncle and mother.
- A claimed second witness to a simultaneous experience: the mother, 15 miles away.
- No physical evidence of any kind is claimed (no recording, no caller ID, no document).
- The one named witness who could back them up, the uncle, is said to confirm only that the caller telephoned him, not the incoming call.
- The caller says the key element cannot be confirmed: [quote withheld]
- It is unclear whether the caller who identifies as [name withheld] is the same speaker who tells the story.
- It is unclear whether any second witness speaks on air. The transcript shows only one caller telling the story.
- 2:55
- 3:48
What the model inferred (not said on air): Nothing in the transcript has been independently examined. The mother’s experience is relayed by the caller, not by the mother herself.
A child receiving a death announcement from an unknown voice at the moment of the death, in a dark, unfamiliar house, and then being told it was a bad dream, is truly unsettling even without menace.
Evidence for and against
- A nine-year-old alone in a dark house answers a phone to hear [quote withheld] and then the line goes dead.
- The setting is a child waking in the night, vomiting, and being disbelieved by adults.
- It ends unresolved: [quote withheld]
- No threat, violence to the living, or physical contact is reported. The only violence is the father’s death, which happened elsewhere.
- The host’s framing is analytical rather than disturbing.
- It is uncertain whether the aunt’s “bad dream” reply is accurately transcribed.
- The last part of the story is host commentary with uncertain attribution.
- 1:31
- 1:35
- 5:04
What the model inferred (not said on air): Creepiness is a judgment about the story’s effect, not its truth. The child as the one who receives the call and the unidentified voice drive the rating.
A familiar setup, a call announcing a death, carried by distinctive details: a child receiving it, a last-minute change of house, no known caller, and a mother waking at the same time.
Evidence for and against
- The one who receives the call is a nine-year-old staying at an unplanned address that the caller could not have known.
- A single sentence, then a click, with no recognized voice.
- A claimed matching waking by the mother at the same time, 15 miles away.
- A [quote withheld] is a familiar folklore pattern of a ghost or sign at a time of crisis.
- A waking in the night and an eerie telephone are common in the archive’s subject matter.
- It is uncertain whether the detail of the mother waking at the same time is accurately transcribed.
- Low confidence in the novelty weights, with a small archive in the pilot.
- 3:21
- 3:13
What the model inferred (not said on air): A provisional model estimate. Comparison with the rest of the archive is only lightly weighted in this pilot.
Scoring confidence 0.55 · analysis confidence 0.68 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand testimony about the phone call and the night waking; The caller’s own stated caveat that no one can confirm the phone rang and no one has admitted calling them; Claimed secondhand support: the uncle is said to have confirmed the caller telephoned him beforehand, and the mother is said to have had a simultaneous experience 15 miles away; No documents, recordings, or physical evidence claimed or examined. 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.
- A dream, or something seen while falling asleep or waking up, during a night waking, in which the telephone call and the voice were experienced as if real. · The caller reports waking from sleep feeling ill. The caller’s aunt, woken afterward, [quote withheld] and called it “a bad dream.” The episode is reported by a nine-year-old who had just been woken from sleep at night.
- A real caller, not identified, who was part of the chain of people being notified, telephoned the house. The caller reports that no one has admitted to calling and that no one knew they were staying at their aunt’s. But the transcript does not establish who made calls that evening. · The caller reports that within an hour a friend telephoned their grandmother about their father having been [quote withheld] So family members were being contacted that night.
What stands out
The strange part is not a sighting but a telephone call delivering the news at the moment of the death. It was received by a nine-year-old staying at a house where, the caller says, no one would have known to reach them. The caller also claims their mother, fifteen miles away, woke at the same moment. The caller also says plainly that the key element cannot be confirmed.
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