Daughters’ dreams of a “red lady” in a sublet house where a suicide occurred
A caller who gives their name as Nathan, from Sacramento, tells Art Bell that about fifteen years earlier, while their family sublet a house for a summer, both of their four-year-old daughters reported dreaming of a “red lady” in their room. Before moving out, the caller says, neighbors told the family that the previous owner’s wife had killed herself in that same children’s room. The caller explains the dreams as leftover energy from the death. The host adds his own view that suicides tend to remain behind, and the call ends with the host thanking the caller.
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 2001-2.mp3”, starting at 1:29:33). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Nathan, calling from Sacramento, tells Art Bell that about fifteen years before the call, by their reckoning roughly the mid-1980s, the caller and their then wife sublet a house for the summer. Their daughters were about four years old. Nathan says that shortly after the family moved in, the caller and their ex-wife argued a great deal and the daughters began having nightmares. According to Nathan, both girls reported the same dream on different nights. In it, a “red lady,” a woman dressed entirely in red, was in their room. The caller says this continued the whole time they stayed there. Shortly before the family moved out, the caller says, they and their ex-wife spoke with neighbors to try to understand what was going on, because it was clear to them there was [quote withheld] The caller reports that the neighbors told them the wife of the house’s original owners had killed herself in the children’s room by cutting her wrists. One of the children came home from school and found their mother in the bedroom covered in blood. Nathan says they and their ex-wife made the connection that leftover energy from that event was what the daughters had dreamed about, and that they were happy to move out. Art Bell then gives his own view that people who commit suicide “stick around” more than others, and he mentions a biblical prohibition on suicide. Nathan answers that the intensity of such events may imprint itself on a place, and the host says he prefers that explanation.
Reported events, in order
- 0:15
The caller says the events happened to their family about fifteen years earlier, when their daughters were about four years old.
- 0:23
The caller says they and their ex-wife sublet a house for the summer.
- 0:29
The caller reports that shortly after moving in, they and their ex-wife argued a great deal and the daughters began having nightmares.
- 0:39
According to the caller, both daughters reported the same dreams on different nights.
- 0:51
The daughters described “a red lady,” a woman dressed entirely in red, in their room.
- 1:01
The caller says this continued for the whole time the family stayed in the house.
- 1:03
Shortly before moving out, the caller and their ex-wife spoke with neighbors to try to understand what was happening.
- 1:14
The caller says they learned from the neighbors about the house’s original owners. The caller describes the house as not old, perhaps ten years old.
- 1:30
The neighbors reportedly said the wife had killed herself in the children’s room by cutting her wrists.
- 1:32
The neighbors reportedly said one of the children came home from school and found their mother in the bedroom covered in blood.
- 1:43
The caller says they and their ex-wife concluded the daughters had dreamed about leftover energy from that event, and that they were happy to move out.
- 2:03
The host states that investigators of ghosts almost universally agree people who commit suicide remain behind more than others.
- 2:37
The caller suggests instead that the intensity of such events imprints itself on a place. The host says he prefers that idea.
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· 0:47
The caller’s two daughters told the caller they saw a woman in red in their room in their dreams.
- hearsay· 0:51
The figure was described as a woman entirely dressed in red.
- hearsay· 1:25
Neighbors told the caller that the wife of the house’s original owners had killed herself in the children’s room.
- hearsay· 1:32
Neighbors said one of the original family’s children came home from school and found their mother in their bedroom covered in blood.
- interpretation· 1:43
The caller concludes that the daughters had been dreaming about leftover energy from the death.
- interpretation· 2:37
The caller suggests that intense and horrible events imprint themselves on a place for years.
- host statement· 2:03
The host asserts that people who commit suicide tend to remain behind far more often than others.
- host statement· 2:24
The host says there is a biblical prohibition against taking one’s own life.
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 clear but secondhand story. The caller passes along their young daughters’ reported dream images and unnamed neighbors’ account of a death, with modest detail and nothing checkable. It holds together well, and the caller presents the conclusion as an inference. But an everyday explanation (family stress, a new house, children sharing dream talk) is readily available.
Evidence for and against
- A concrete sequence: subletting for a summer, daughters about four, nightmares beginning after the move, and identical dream content on different nights.
- The story holds together with no evident self-contradictions. The caller’s account of how the interpretation arose matches the order of events given.
- The caller separates what their daughters reportedly saw from the caller’s own inference (“made the connection”) and offers a natural explanation: the imprinting of intense events on a place.
- The central sightings are secondhand. The caller did not see the figure personally, and the daughters do not speak on the air.
- No location, address, neighbor’s name, or date is given that could be checked, only [quote withheld]
- The caller notes household conflict around the time the nightmares began, which offers an easy ordinary explanation.
- The link to the house’s history rests on unnamed neighbors’ account of events the caller did not witness.
- There is no way to assess the daughters’ own reports, which the caller relays.
- The neighbors’ account of the suicide is itself unverified and unnamed.
- The timing ([quote withheld]) is approximate.
- 0:39
- 0:29
- 1:43
What the model inferred (not said on air): The component scores are my judgment, not transcript content. Closeness to the source is 12 of 25: close, but the sources, the daughters and neighbors, are secondhand and unnamed. Specificity is 9 of 20: a sequence and some detail, but no names, places, or dates. Internal consistency is 16 of 20. Alternative explanations are 8 of 20: childhood nightmares in a stressed household fit easily. Calibration is 11 of 15. The total is 56, below the secondhand cap of 60. The alternative-explanation score is not a claim about anyone’s honesty.
The evidence is the caller’s word, plus claimed witnesses who do not appear and an unnamed secondhand source. That puts it in the low range for claimed witnesses, nowhere near the hard cap of 50.
Evidence for and against
- The caller claims several people experienced the events (both daughters) and cites a claimed outside source for the house’s history (the neighbors).
- Nothing is examined, recorded, or documented in this part of the broadcast.
- No second witness speaks on the air. The daughters and neighbors are absent.
- No names or locations are given that would allow checking.
- It is not stated whether any record of the earlier death exists or was sought.
- 0:39
- 1:25
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is an editorial placement. Claimed witnesses do not count as backing from someone else under the scoring guide.
The story is unsettling rather than a sustained horror. Children’s nightmares, a red-dressed figure in their bedroom, and a revealed history of suicide and a child finding the body give it a grim charge. But there is no threat, contact, or escalation directed at the family.
Evidence for and against
- A figure intrudes into small children’s bedroom at night.
- The house is later linked to a suicide by wrist-cutting in that same children’s room.
- A child comes home from school to find a mother’s body “covered in blood.”
- The events are confined to dreams rather than waking sightings, and the story is told as a remembered family episode.
- The story ends with the family simply moving out and the caller offering a calm explanation.
- The transcript does not describe the daughters’ reactions beyond “nightmares.”
- 0:51
- 1:32
What the model inferred (not said on air): My judgment is of the story’s effect on a listener. The transcript contains no claim of harm to the caller’s family.
This is a familiar haunted-rental setup with a distinctive central image (the “red lady”) and a matching-dream element. This is a provisional estimate only, because a comparison with the rest of the archive is not available here.
Evidence for and against
- The distinctive detail is the specific figure: a woman entirely in red (“a red lady”) seen in the daughters’ dreams.
- Two children independently dreaming the same thing on different nights is a less common element.
- A figure seen by children in a bedroom and later tied to a death in the house is a familiar ghost-story frame.
- The [quote withheld] structure is a stock device.
- How new the story is compared with the rest of the archive cannot be worked out from this part of the broadcast alone.
- 0:51
- 0:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): The originality score is an estimate of how distinctive the story is compared with common motifs. The published value would be recalculated against the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand word about what their daughters told them and about conversations with neighbors; No second witness on the air; the daughters and neighbors do not speak; No documentation, photograph, recording, or other item claimed or examined; No names, address, or date given that could be checked. 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.
- Stress in the household and adjustment to a new home could plausibly show up as nightmares in four-year-old children. · The caller says they and their ex-wife argued a great deal shortly after moving in, and that the daughters then began having nightmares in a new, unfamiliar rented house.
- Children of the same age in the same household could arrive at shared dream images through ordinary conversation and suggestion rather than an outside presence. · The caller says both daughters reported the same dream on different nights and that the family discussed it while still in the house.
- The family may have matched vivid dream images to local history they learned later. The caller’s order of events would count against this for the dreams themselves, but that order is the caller’s own word and is not backed up by anyone else. · The link between the dreams and the house’s history was made only after the neighbors told the family about the earlier death. The caller says the dreams came before that conversation.
What stands out
The reported sightings happened only in the children’s dreams. Both daughters are said to have dreamed the same figure on different nights. The family connected the image to a death in the same room only after speaking with neighbors. The caller and the host also briefly debate whether the dead stay behind or whether intense events imprint themselves on a place.
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