Girl finds a deceased boy’s obituary on a classroom newspaper page after baking cookies
A caller, the parent of a 12-year-old daughter named [name withheld], tells Art Bell about a family Christmas cookie-baking session in memory of a boy named [name withheld] who had died the previous February. The next morning, the caller says, [name withheld] opened a page of newspaper in her classroom to cover her desk. She found [name withheld]’s obituary from that February, with his picture. The call ends with the host’s brief thanks. [name withheld]’s reported reading of the event as a message from [name withheld] is quoted.
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 1:49:05). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller says that a boy named [name withheld] died [quote withheld] and that the Christmas just past was a difficult time for the family. The caller’s sister, they say, invited them over to bake cookies on the Tuesday before Christmas. Their youngest daughter [name withheld], twelve, was there with the family’s youngest son, who is six. They made and painted angel cookies, [quote withheld] as the family calls [name withheld] now that he has passed away. They put the letter B on all the cookies, saying they all had to remember [name withheld] at Christmas.
The next morning, the caller says, [name withheld] went to school. In her classroom, the teacher announced a craft project that required the desks to be cleaned and covered with newspaper. [name withheld] went to the pile of newspaper in the classroom, opened a page, and spread it out. According to the caller, the page she opened was [name withheld]’s obituary from the February before, and his picture was in the paper. [name withheld] told the caller that she [quote withheld] when she first saw it. When she explained the situation, the teacher told her how special it was. [name withheld] later told the caller, [quote withheld] The host responds, [quote withheld] and the call ends with goodbyes.
Reported events, in order
- 0:00
The caller says [name withheld] died [quote withheld] and that this Christmas was a difficult time for the family.
- 0:00
The caller’s sister invited them over to bake cookies on the Tuesday before Christmas.
- 0:12
The caller’s daughter [name withheld], twelve, was there with the family’s youngest son, who is six.
- 0:20
They made and painted angel cookies, called [quote withheld] and put the letter B on all of them.
- 0:35
The next morning [name withheld] was in her classroom, and the teacher announced a craft project requiring desks to be covered with newspaper.
- 0:47
[name withheld] took a page from the pile of newspaper and spread it out.
- 0:53
The page she opened was [name withheld]’s obituary from the February before, with his picture in the paper.
- 1:01
[name withheld] said she got scared and started to cry when she first saw it.
- 1:12
She explained the situation to the teacher, who told her how special that was.
- 1:17
[name withheld] later told the caller it was [name withheld] sending her a smile because he knew they had made him cookies.
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· 0:00
A boy named [name withheld] died in February of the previous year.
- interpretation· 0:20
The family calls [name withheld] “Angel [name withheld]” now that he has passed away and named the cookies after him.
- hearsay· 0:53
The newspaper page [name withheld] opened in her classroom was [name withheld]’s obituary from the February before, with his picture.
- hearsay· 1:01
[name withheld] reported that she got scared and started to cry when she first saw the page.
- hearsay· 1:12
The teacher, on being told the situation, told [name withheld] how special it was.
- interpretation· 1:17
[name withheld]’s stated reading of the event: that it was [name withheld] sending her a smile because he knew they had made him cookies.
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 specific, coherent story, but it is told secondhand about the daughter’s experience. The central event has an easy ordinary fit (a local newspaper page among classroom newspaper stock).
Evidence for and against
- Concrete details: ages (twelve and six), the Tuesday before Christmas, cookies marked with the letter B, a craft project, a newspaper pile in a classroom.
- The sequence is coherent, and the interpretation is attributed to [name withheld] rather than asserted flatly by the caller.
- The caller distinguishes what happened (finding the page) from what it meant ([name withheld]’s stated reading of it).
- The central event is reported secondhand. The person who encountered it does not speak on air.
- No place names, school name, newspaper name, or dates beyond [quote withheld] are given.
- An obituary page from a local paper appearing in classroom newspaper stock is not in itself unusual.
- The caller’s exact relationship to [name withheld] is not spelled out in this story.
- The year of the events is not stated in the transcript.
- 0:00
- 0:12
- 0:53
- 1:01
What the model inferred (not said on air): The source-proximity and alternative-explanation components are my judgments. The caller relays their daughter’s story, and the newspaper-in-classroom setting supplies an ordinary way for the page to appear. The consistency and calibration components rest on the transcript’s own order of events and on the caller attributing the meaning to [name withheld].
Only the caller’s secondhand word is present, plus a claimed witness ([name withheld]) who does not speak on air. A few specifics could in principle be checked (a named boy, an obituary, a school), but none is named precisely enough to check.
Evidence for and against
- A second witness is claimed ([name withheld]), though she does not speak on air.
- A kind of document that could be checked is referenced: a printed obituary in a newspaper.
- No newspaper, school, town, or date is identified, so nothing can be looked up.
- No photograph, clipping, recording, or document is presented or described as examined on air.
- Whether the obituary page was kept or shown to anyone is not stated.
- The broadcast date is given in the metadata but not in the transcript, so the calendar year is inferred.
- 0:53
- 1:01
- 1:17
What the model inferred (not said on air): The scoring range follows the scoring guide’s 11 to 25 category ([quote withheld]), since the only support is a claimed secondhand witness and an unexamined printed item.
The story is framed as comforting rather than threatening: a memorial gesture followed by an apparent sign. The child’s reported fright at first seeing the page adds a brief unsettled note.
Evidence for and against
- A 12-year-old is said to have been frightened and to have cried on seeing the page.
- An obituary with a photograph appearing unexpectedly in a school setting is an eerie image.
- The caller’s and [name withheld]’s framing is warm (“Angel [name withheld],” [quote withheld]).
- No threat, harm, physical contact, or escalating activity is reported.
- The host’s closing remark is affectionate, and the call ends amiably.
- The child’s reaction is reported secondhand and described only briefly.
- 1:01
- 1:17
What the model inferred (not said on air): The low score reflects my reading of the story’s tone and stakes rather than any statement by the caller about how frightening they considered it.
A familiar [quote withheld] setup built around an everyday object, with one distinctive detail: the memorial cookies named for the boy, and the newspaper page used in a school craft project turning out to be his obituary.
Evidence for and against
- The specific device of cookies made and marked with a letter, called [quote withheld] and baked the night before.
- The sign arrives through classroom newspaper stock rather than a dream, a vision, or an object in the home.
- Coincidences after a death involving a photograph or a printed notice are a common ghost-story shape.
- The story is short and contains nothing strange beyond the coincidence itself.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be assessed from a single story. The published originality score may be adjusted later.
- 0:20
- 0:47
- 0:53
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score is my model estimate from content alone, weighted toward [quote withheld]
Scoring confidence 0.62 · analysis confidence 0.72 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s secondhand story of their daughter’s experience; No document, photograph, clipping, or recording presented or examined on air. The originality score blends the model's score (45) 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.
- Coincidence with an ordinary source: classroom newspaper stock commonly contains local papers, and an obituary from the previous February could plausibly be among the pages used for the craft project. · The teacher is said to have asked the class to [quote withheld] and [name withheld] is said to have taken a page from [quote withheld]
- Recognition and salience: because the family had just spent an evening making memorial cookies for [name withheld], a familiar face or name on a newspaper page could be noticed and remembered more readily than other pages. · The caller says the cookies were made the night before, [quote withheld] with [quote withheld] and that the family [quote withheld]
What stands out
The story turns on a printed object rather than a sighting or a sound: a newspaper page used for a school craft project, which the caller says was the obituary of the boy the family had just baked memorial cookies for. It is also told by a parent relaying their 12-year-old daughter’s experience rather than by the person who encountered it.
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