Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown

by Stefan Petrucha

  As for Chip, ever since I’d become convinced production hadn’t given him that name, and that we were on a demonic case, I’d been more impressed with him. Now Lorraine, who I trusted, echoed a lot of what he’d said.

  “You have to be so careful,” she said. “The anger in this house . . . There’s a lot going on here. I’m surprised the roof doesn’t blow off the place.”

  Afterward the three of us sat down with Jodi. Lorraine confronted her with what she’d sensed about Nate. “His room is sad. He’s a very sad boy. Your son is a victim.”

  Hearing that, Jodi became very choked up. Between everything that had happened and our efforts, it seemed as if we blew open a door for her, exposing things, letting them air out. “I know he does not have a male figure in his life, and I tried so hard to be everything for him,” she said.

  She’d kept quiet about much more, revealing some things I vowed we would not repeat, including a violent assault from the entity which paralleled what was going on in Syracuse. Jodi was also, in her words, very angry with God for the problems in her life.

  “There are so many underlying causes here,” Lorraine said afterward. “Through the law of attraction, she’s brought a great deal of phenomena to this home that’s manifesting in all different types of ways.”

  Demons, I knew, feed on shame and secrecy. Their victims often believe they can’t talk about certain things because they feel inside that they’re bad people.

  Lorraine and I petitioned the diocese again, flexing what political influence we had, promising we wouldn’t stop calling. At last we got through. They heard us out and agreed to allow an exorcism, provided it would not be filmed. I was fine with that. “Please, just help these people,” I said.

  It’s possible the spirits of the children were present in addition to the demon, but after the exorcism, all the activity and the attacks stopped. As time passed, Jodi’s relationship with her boyfriend ended, but she was getting along better with Nate.

  The text at the end of the episode mentions Jodi miraculously surviving an accident in a fire. Months after our investigation, she had a barbecue and there was a flash fire. Her hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows were suddenly burning. She felt as if she might die. After having been so angry with God, now she prayed. “Please, help me. I don’t want Nate to go through life without a mom.”

  Scary as the fire was, she was saved. She believed it was because of the protective energy that the exorcism had evoked. She’d found her faith again, and a sense of peace.

  Looking back, even if in some crazy way it had still been production setting me up, at least it led to some good. Had that not happened, I might’ve left that case thinking it was a simple haunting. Had I not freaked out, maybe Jodi wouldn’t have opened up.

  Happy as I was for Jodi and Nate, though, I was not at peace when we left. As we made the drive back to State College, shame hit me. Even if it was for a short time, I’d lost my defenses and allowed my rational thinking to be replaced with fear and hysteria. I started thinking about the warning I was given two years ago. Why did the demonic show itself but not deliver an attack when we lost our footing? It didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t believe that the demonic popped in to Jodi’s case just because of Syracuse. Jodi, I believe, was suffering from a mild demonic attack for a year or so. Were we chosen then, set up by some intangible intelligence, to pick two demonic cases back-to-back? No longer fearing I’d been manipulated by production, I began to fear that I was being manipulated by an unseen, malevolent force.

  If that were true, it meant this consciousness had superior intelligence and cunning. I felt like I was a pawn on a chess board, maneuvered without even realizing it. Where was I going, and what would happen next week in Syracuse? For those who’ve never been in a truly demonic scenario, I know it sounds crazy. Trust me, there’ve been many nights when I think it is crazy. But ask yourself, what if it’s true? What if there are two opposing forces out there, in this world but not of this world, one of pure good and light, the other of hate and destruction, both conscious, both always watching? Despite thousands of years of theological study from every different form of religion, the duality of nature, light and dark, remains unfathomable.

  I decided I needed a break from the two cases, to get my bearings. If Syracuse was truly going to be a worse situation, then we needed to be ready.

  WHAT’S IN A NAME?

  Two years prior to the start of shooting Paranormal State, I’d been contacted by a Roman Catholic diocese to help on a demonic case. During that case, through intuition and other methods, a name came to us, M—. That name appears in the Old Testament and is associated with a pagan god that requires a costly sacrifice, often a child, involving fire.

  Within a few days, three of our investigators encountered that name in odd places: dreams, radio, newspapers, and television. It was then we started referring to demons as “bunnies,” to undermine their power by making fun of them.

  Once the name B— from the Syracuse case began popping up, it reminded me of that initial encounter. From what I could research, B— has an older history, translating as “without worth” or ”never to rise,” which could be a reference to a fallen angel. Interestingly, Edgar Cayce, a famed trance channeler from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, claimed this demon was worshipped in Atlantis.

  In “The Name,” a jumble of letters appears as a montage in which the name is fairly easy to pick out. I want to make it clear that I was against that. I felt it was inappropriate and disrespectful, but from a documentary standpoint, I understood. I respected the fact that they were trying to document things.

  My own concerns about the name at that time, at that moment, are captured on film. Things have changed for me since. The significance has lost all value to me. It doesn’t frighten me. If the names come up in other contexts, I say them freely and don’t believe that doing so will conjure them.

  At the same time, I’m not going to say demon names just to make fun of them. There are those who disrespect the power behind the names, and use them in a taunting fashion, daring themselves to say the names out loud. Because of that, whenever I’m discussing these cases, I do not use the full names.

  THE KREIDER FAMILY MURDERS*

  On July 7, 1893, Daniel Kreider and five members of his family were killed in what may have been North Dakota’s first recorded serial killing. The murderer was Albert F. Bromberger, a twenty-two-year-old farmhand. During a card game the night before, Bromberger had told Kreider of his interest in his elder daughter, Annie. In response, Kreider made it clear his advances were unwanted and told Bromberger he should leave the farm.

  The next morning Bromberger used a rifle and possibly a knife to kill Kreider, his wife, and four of their children: Bernice 15, Melby 12, Mary 9, and David 7. The other children, Aaron 13, Eva 5, and Henry 3, hid while Bromberger forced Annie to make him lunch. He stole what money he could find at the property, fifty dollars, raped the girl, and ran. Annie then had to walk into town for help.

  Bromberger was captured, sentenced, and executed. The surviving Kreider children were brought to the former family home in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where the victims were buried.

  At the time the murders hit a big chord in the country. There was a lot of press, sort of a media circus. I just have to mention a weird part of the headline in the article I was handed about the murders, since it seems so out of keeping with the tragedy: 15,000 AT BIGGEST FUNERAL ATE 400 PIES. Go figure.

  Chapter 14

  Bearing Witness

  This thing really was here, wasn’t it?

  After leaving “The Name” unfinished, I was convinced Syracuse would be the big one, the return demonic attack promised two years ago. Back then, I’d felt personally at risk, that my team was at risk, and I’d always known that if I kept working, something similar would happen. The resulting depression slowed me down and made me question whether I should continue my investigations, but it ultimately didn’t stop me.

>   But thinking something might happen and being convinced it was about to happen are two different things. I hoped I’d grown and that I was more confident, maybe even wiser, but I had no way of being sure.

  The episode documenting this case, “The Devil in Syracuse,” opens with a shot of me praying in church. I’d gone to mass on campus, but only from time to time. It was very crowded there, and, to me, impersonal. The church here is one I’d found about a mile from my new house. Anxious, I decided to go, register, and give confession. Afterward I met with a priest.

  “I know you might think I’m crazy,” I told him. “You may not believe in the personification of evil, but I do.” I described what I’d been going through.

  He listened, but didn’t say whether or not he believed in the demonic. You might think all Catholic priests believe in demons, but I’d read an anonymous survey saying that more than 50 percent of American priests don’t believe in the devil, let alone demons. Many think it’s entirely a metaphor. Regardless, the father didn’t reject or judge me; he respected me. When the producers asked to film in the church, he agreed, as long as we didn’t disturb the other parishioners.

  Before making a final decision about shooting this case, I also spoke with our client Teena’s husband, Raymond. His responses were short, and from the beginning, he seemed to be concealing something. At that point, though, I decided to take the risk.

  As we prepared, weird things happened to the production team. They heard knocking and rapping in their hotel rooms. As she researched the case, Autumn, the segment producer, had odd bouts of depression that were very unusual for her. When a production assistant looked up B— and said it aloud, she started having nightmares. She was told to let me know, but was afraid of looking unprofessional, so before we left I met with them all.

  “If anything happens, I need to know,” I said. “It could be part of what’s going on in this case. If you’re having experiences, don’t just tell each other and not tell me.” I gave them all blessed medals.

  As for the team, Heather asked to stay behind, but Katrina wanted to go. I agreed with the understanding that she wouldn’t be allowed in the home without supervision and couldn’t take part in Dead Time. I also asked Ryan Heiser along, because of his religious background. Eilfie and Serg came, too, but don’t appear much on-camera. It was a trailer home, so there wasn’t much to do in terms of tech and research. Serg was trying to find his voice at this point, and tended to hang back.

  In the briefing, as usual, I rattled off the details, some of which I’ve already mentioned. Jodi and Raymond claimed they heard growling and scratching. They saw black shadows. Objects moved. Teena said she felt cold presences and regularly saw a dark red figure in her doorway. She also believed that Raymond’s personality had changed, and that whatever this thing was had made him darker, more distant.

  Teena, Raymond, and Katie all claimed something had attacked them. Raymond, a three-hundred-pound man, said an unseen presence had thrashed and thrown him around. They’d provided a photo of scratches on his body, though these didn’t seem as dramatic as the clawing they’d described.

  In the episode, as we prepared to leave, you’ll see me pack an antique box. I used to bring it on any demonic cases, but these days I usually leave it in the office as a memento. It was a gift from a former investigator. By some coincidence, it happened to have my initials on it, RB, so they bought it and refitted it to hold a crucifix, Bible, holy medals, and holy water. Eilfie became a kind of “keeper” of that box. She hangs on to it until I need it, makes sure it’s taken care of, packed properly. So I feel her energy from it.

  The eight-hour drive to Syracuse, New York, was long, and colder and colder as we headed north. By the time we’d arrived at the trailer park, there’d been a huge snowstorm.

  Teena and Raymond’s home wasn’t particularly small, but it definitely wasn’t cared for. Raymond had been laid off from a factory some time ago and Teena was working at McDonald’s to pay the bills. Apparently, Raymond would sit around all day as the house fell apart around him.

  Teena said they’d tried cleaning before our arrival. I can’t imagine what it was like before she cleaned. In some locations, you can sense a presence or heaviness in the air, but this was such a mess, it wasn’t possible to sense anything. The smell was pretty overpowering, too.

  The front door led to a living room. To the left was a kitchen, a bathroom, a side section with washer and dryer, and then the master bedroom. To the right were two smaller bedrooms belonging to the children, Katie and Charlie, and a second bathroom. Debris was everywhere. In the master bedroom, where Teena claimed the bed had been lifted and dropped, there were so many clothes piled all over you couldn’t get to the dresser without crawling across the bed.

  Convinced the presence was demonic, Teena and Raymond had hung crosses all over, some of which were just two pieces of wood screwed together. These had been blessed, but the family wasn’t sure what denomination the pastor was. It may seem odd, but I’ve met a number of people who identify themselves as Christian, but don’t know the denomination of their church.

  As part of the walk-through, Teena took us to Katie’s bedroom, where she said the activity started. Apparently it had begun around the time of Charlie’s birth, intensifying after Ray lost his job. The hormones of childbirth can play havoc with the mother, which meant there were psychological concerns. To be clear, as things progressed, I thought there was hysteria, but couldn’t write it all off that way.

  “My daughter has been sleeping with us because she won’t sleep in her room anymore,” Teena told us. “Last night I think she was harassed because she woke up four times, screaming at us.”

  She asked Katie if she remembered what had happened.

  “It was a monster,” Katie said.

  Katie and her brother both seemed pretty happy. We played with them a lot, and Katie enjoyed the attention. They weren’t thrilled about their parents freaking out, but there didn’t seem to be anything abnormal about them.

  Unlike the house, the kids were clean and seemed healthy. They also claimed Charlie had some experiences, but he was only one and a half, so there was no way to validate that. All children read off of their parents, though. That’s a given anywhere.

  During the walk-through we also met Pat, a family friend who was present for a lot of the phenomena. Teena met her through Raymond—they’d worked together—and at one point she said she worried they’d had an affair. Even so, Teena said she saw Pat as a blessing. They could always go to Pat’s place if they had to flee. Pat, for her part, was there nonstop. Teena said she would come home from work to find Pat had been there all day with Raymond.

  Nearly everything Pat said seemed geared to increase Teena’s anxiety. For instance, when someone knocked at the front door Pat said, “Do not open it! It’s the demon!”

  Teena seemed to pick up on any cue from Pat. “Oh my God! Don’t open the door, Ryan!” she’d said.

  “You really don’t want me to open the door, Teena?”

  “Pat’s never been wrong.”

  “So, you just sit here and ignore it when someone knocks?”

  “It goes away if you ignore it.”

  “Well, that’s what happens if you don’t answer the door. The person will eventually leave.”

  When the knock came again, I said, “It’s probably someone from production.” And I swung the door open. Teena gasped. Sure enough, it was someone from production. I looked over at Pat and said, “See?”

  That sort of thing continued all day. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I’m not. Pat had Teena believing so many ridiculous things, I was beside myself. Clearly Pat was trouble, even if she was ultimately trying to help.

  I interviewed Teena and Raymond next. It was a small space, so Ray stood in the doorway.

  “What caused it all to start, I don’t know,” Teena said. “I want to know. I really do.”

  I asked about Katie’s monster complaints. “That’s the
night I woke up getting choked,” Teena explained. “I had handprints on my neck.” She explained that Raymond had seen the prints. Then they showed me the torn shirt he said he’d been attacked in.

  “I was in the middle of the living room,” Ray said. “I felt something really cold on my back, and it kept touching me on the neck. And I asked it, ‘Who do you think you are?’ That’s when I got spun around. It ripped my shirt. All the shades went down all at the same time. And that’s when it told me that it was B—.”

  We’d already cautioned Ray about saying the name, but he seemed intent on not listening.

  Afterward, I spoke to Teena alone about their marital problems. She became very emotional, near tears. “When I really needed someone to talk to I couldn’t go to him. He was withdrawn.”

  “What does he think when you tell him things like what happened with Katie last night?” I asked.

  “He said he was ready to move. He didn’t want to be in the house no more. Financially we can’t do it. I know this entity is putting a strain on our relationship. We almost divorced.”

  My sense was that the activity was only part of the problem and I tried to explain that. “You take away the demonic, and there’s still a lot of sadness, a lot of depression, and a lot of struggle. If the demons are here, they have a lot to feed off of. That’s what it does, it sort of finds people who are . . .”

  Teena finished the sentence, “ . . . weakened to begin with.”

  She seemed to feel they’d brought things on themselves. It’s hard to say what people bring upon themselves. While they may have contributed to the situation, I didn’t think they started it.

  Meanwhile, Ryan Heiser and another PRS member interviewed Ray, who was also convinced about the nature of the haunting. “This thing is demonic. I believe in God, you know, and if you believe in God, you’ve pretty much gotta believe in the devil,” Ray said.