THE CAGE: From Witch Trials to Paranormal Terror – Britain’s Answer To The Amityville Horror
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In the heart of St. Osseth, a quaint village in England steeped in legends and mysteries, stands an unassuming house known as The Cage.

What appears to be an ordinary home conceals a chilling past that dates back to the 16th century when it served as a jail for accused witches. Among its unfortunate inmates was Ursula Kemp, a woman whose alleged magical abilities led to her imprisonment and execution. Fast forward to the mid-2000s and Vanessa Mitchell, unaware of the house's eerie history, purchased the cage.

Her return to her childhood village quickly turned into a nightmare as she encountered a series of inexplicable and terrifying events that would forever change her life. From ghostly apparitions and poltergeist activity to unsettling sounds and mysterious bloodstains, Vanessa's experiences in the cage are the stuff of nightmares.

The house's sinister reputation only grew as paranormal investigators and curious onlookers reported their own spine-tingling encounters. Despite attempts to bless the house and rid it of its restless spirits, the cage remains one of Britain's most haunted locations, leaving its new owner to grapple with its dark legacy. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.

Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode: Some ghosts just seem worth rooting for, no matter how they died or what they do.

The Ghena brothers of Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood were some of the most notorious bootleggers and gangsters in the city - until they weren't. In 1981, 14-year-old Stacey Ann Arras vanished without a trace inside Yosemite National Park, her disappearance remaining one of the park's most eerie and unsolved mysteries.

Annie Lee, a brilliant Yale graduate student, vanished just days before her wedding in 2009. Her disappearance led to a shocking discovery that left everyone questioning who and why. Imagine waking up every 30 seconds, completely unaware of where you are or what just happened. This is the life of Clive Waring, who is unable to construct new memories at all.

We'll look at how the growing crypto-tourism industry offers a unique and interesting angle on exploring hidden corners of the globe, with searches for creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster among your travel choices. But first... In the heart of England's St. Ossith village lies The Cage, an unassuming house with a chilling past as a jail for accused witches.

When Vanessa Mitchell moved in, she unknowingly stepped into a nightmare of ghostly apparitions and terrifying events that forever altered her life. We begin there. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness.

In a small village in England, there is an old house that some people say is the most haunted house in all of Britain. The house is called The Cage and it has a very spooky history. A long time ago, it was a jail where people thought to be witches were locked up. One of these people was a woman named Ursula Kemp, who was put in jail there in 1582 before she was killed for being a witch.

In the mid-2000s, a woman named Vanessa Mitchell bought this house. She'd grown up in the village and came back after working in other countries. Vanessa didn't know it when she bought the house, but she was about to experience many strange and scary things there. These experiences would change her life forever. The cage is in a village called St. Osseth. The village has many old houses around a monastery that was built about 900 years ago.

The village has lots of spooky stories and mysteries of its own. One story says the village was named after a princess named Asif. The story goes that some bad guys cut off her head, but she picked it up and carried it to a place where nuns lived. Of course, this is just a made-up story, but it shows how the village likes spooky tales. Another story says a fire-breathing dragon burned down the whole village in 1171. This probably didn't really happen either.

It might have been a big fire that people thought looked like a dragon, or maybe even a UFO that people back then didn't understand. But the thing the village is most famous for is witches. In 1582, 13 women in the village were put on trial for being witches. Two of these women were killed by hanging. One of them was Ursula Kemp.

Ursula Kemp lived in St. Osseth and helped women have babies. She also knew how to make medicines that could help people feel better when they were sick. Some people even said she could remove curses from people. Today we know that Ursula probably just knew a lot about plants and how to use them as medicine. She might have also been good at making people feel better just by talking to them. But back then, people didn't understand these things. They thought she must be using magic.

Some people in the village started to say that Ursula was using her powers to hurt people instead of help them. They said she caused the deaths of a woman named Edna Stratton and two children, Joan Thurlow and Elizabeth Leatherdale. One woman, Grace Thurlow, said Ursula made her baby die because she couldn't pay for Ursula's help. Another woman, Alice Leatherdale, said Ursula hurt her daughter because she wouldn't sell her some sand.

Even Ursula's own son, who was only eight years old, said his mom kept spirits in the house and gave them beer and cake. The poor boy was probably just confused and scared. A man named Justice Brian Darcy said Ursula admitted to all of these things, but no one else heard her say it. It's possible that Ursula didn't really say these things at all. Ursula was put in jail, in the cage.

Then she was taken to another town called Chelmsford, where she was killed by hanging. The cage was used as a jail for a long time after that, until 1908. Many years later, in 2005, Vanessa Mitchell bought the cage. She knew it was an old jail, but she did not know about all the spooky things that had happened there. She had been away from the village for a long time, working in other places.

Vanessa felt like she was meant to buy this house. She didn't feel scared when she saw it, even though there was a sign outside that told about its history. What Vanessa didn't know was that many people who had lived in the house before her had seen and heard very strange things. One couple said they saw books flying off shelves by themselves.

Many people who rented the house were so scared that they moved out right away, even if they had to pay extra money to break their rental agreement. As soon as Vanessa moved into the house, weird things started to happen. She would see doorknobs moving, as if someone was trying to open the door. But no one was there. Things on shelves would move by themselves. Faucets would turn on when no one was near them.

Sometimes, she would even see spots of blood appear in the hallway. Even scarier, sometimes Vanessa felt like something was pulling her hair. Once, she even felt like something hit her in the back. One person who visited the house said it felt like something tried to push them down the stairs. Vanessa's friend, Nicole, moved in with her. Nicole worked at a local pub and had heard many stories about the house.

One story was about a family whose son started a fire in his room because he thought he was possessed by a ghost. On the day Nicole moved in, Vanessa saw something very strange. She was in the kitchen making tea when she heard footsteps behind her. When she turned around, instead of seeing Nicole, she saw a black fog floating through the door. Vanessa was so scared that she did not tell Nicole about it.

Vanessa and Nicole found other strange things in the house. When they were cleaning, they found thousands of maggots under an old rug. The house always felt very cold even when it was hot outside. Sometimes they could smell pipe smoke or freshly baked bread, even though no one was smoking or baking.

One day, a 12-year-old boy named Freddie Young knocked on their door. He said his grandmother, who was a white witch - somebody who uses magic to help people - told him that he had to knock three times whenever he walked past that house. This was to show respect to the witches and keep away evil spirits. Later, Freddie told them he had seen an old woman looking out one of the windows of the house. At first, Vanessa and Nicole weren't too worried about these strange things.

But soon, they started to get scared. The spooky events in the house started to get worse. Vanessa and Nicole would see tiny bright lights moving through the house. Their things would disappear and then show up in other rooms, as if someone had moved them as a joke. Sometimes, when they tried to walk into the house, it felt like they were trying to walk through jelly.

One Halloween, when Vanessa and Nicole were getting ready for a party, they heard a loud crash downstairs. But when they went to look, they couldn't see anything. But they both felt like something was there. Other weird things kept happening. The volume on the TV would go up and down by itself. An old chain on one of the doors would swing back and forth on its own.

They even heard the voices of children which they thought might be the ghosts of children who were in the jail with their mothers long ago. Vanessa and Nicole were so scared that they asked the local church leader, Reverend Martin Flowerdew, to come and bless the house. He told them that many people in St. Osset had asked him to bless their houses because of ghosts. While he was there, they all saw the faucets in the bathroom turn on by themselves. Vanessa's boyfriend, Jay, moved into the house.

One night, while they were watching TV in bed, a can of Coke suddenly flew off the bedside table and hit the wall. Jay and Vanessa were going to get married, but they broke up, and Jay moved out. Nicole's boyfriend also moved in. At first, he said that he didn't believe in ghosts. But after a few months, he was too scared to be alone in the house. When Nicole got pregnant, they decided to move out.

Vanessa started sleepwalking, which she had never done before. She would always wake up in the same place, right under where someone used to live in the house who would kill themselves. When she woke up, she would hear voices telling her to kill herself. She felt like the house was trying to make her do bad things. Vanessa started inviting more people to the house because she was scared to be alone,

Once, when her friend Kirstie and Kirstie's husband were there, they all saw drops of blood appear on the floor out of nowhere. In the summer of 2007, Vanessa found out she was pregnant. She was happy about the baby, but she did not want to raise a child in such a scary house. As her pregnancy went on, the strange things in the house got worse. Once, while Vanessa was looking in a mirror, she felt like two invisible hands pushed her so hard that she fell down.

Another time, a plumber who was fixing the bathroom ran out of the house because he heard heavy footsteps. Freddie Young, the boy who had knocked on the door before, came to visit again. He said his grandmother had put a spell on him to protect him from ghosts. Right after he had said this, he heard a voice near his ear saying, ''That won't work here.''

Another time, when Freddy stayed overnight, he woke up and saw an old woman kneeling by him, touching his face and hair. He was so scared he couldn't move or scream. One of the strangest things Vanessa saw was a man who looked like he was floating across the room. She could only see him from his waist up. He was wearing old-fashioned clothes, and Vanessa thought that he might be a ghost of one of the jailers who used to work at the cage.

Vanessa's son Jesse was born on Christmas Eve in 2007. Being a new mom and dealing with all the scary things in the house was very hard for Vanessa. She tried to stay in the newer part of the house as much as she could and did not take Jesse into the old jail part. Even so, she would often wake up hearing footsteps on the stairs and the sound of someone trying to open the doors.

She talked to her friends about what was happening, and they put her in touch with a police detective named Wendy who knew about ghosts. When Wendy visited the house, she got a bad headache as soon as she walked in. She said it felt like someone was trying to crush her head, and like someone was watching her. The scariest things that happened were the ones that involved Jesse. When Jesse was four months old, Vanessa saw a dark figure of a man looking into his crib while he slept.

Around the same time, she caught what she thought was a picture of a satanic goat on her security camera. Once, after she put Jesse on the bed, something pushed him onto the floor. Luckily, he wasn't hurt. But after that, Vanessa carried him with her everywhere she went. Vanessa decided to move out of the house and try to sell it. While she was waiting for someone to buy it, she tried to rent it out to other people. Even when she was moving out, strange things happened.

One of the men helping her move said he saw a strange woman in old clothes looking out one of the windows of the house. Vanessa did manage to rent the house to a few people, but they always moved out after just a few months. One person who rented the house tried to get a psychic to come and get rid of the ghosts. But when the psychic arrived, she was too scared to even go inside the house. She said there was something very evil there.

The person who rented the house moved out after only four months. After all of this, Vanessa got in touch with a man named John Fraser, who studied ghosts and haunted houses. She also started letting ghost-hunting groups come to the house to look for ghosts. John Fraser was one of many people who came to study the haunted house in St. Osipth.

He said it was as scary as the famous Amityville Horror House in New York. But unlike the Amityville house, many different people had seen strange things at the cage. Not just the family who lived there. When John first visited the house to talk to Vanessa, nothing strange happened. But he thought Vanessa was telling the truth about the things that she had seen and experienced. He came with another ghost hunter named Rosie O'Carroll.

John and Rosie not only did their own research, but they also looked at what other people had experienced in the house. One ghost hunter got strange red marks on her legs while in the house. A doctor looked at the marks and said they were burns. Vanessa was having money problems because of everything that had happened with the house. She decided to let companies use the house for ghost hunts where people could pay to come look for ghosts.

This made the house famous, and it was on TV and in newspapers. The more people who came to the house, the more ghost stories there were. A former police officer who came on one of the ghost tours said he took a picture of four ghosts carrying a dead witch. The ghost tours were very popular, and many people said they saw or felt strange things in the house. This made people believe Vanessa's stories even more.

But some people said Vanessa was making it all up to get money. John Fraser talked to more people who had been in the house, like Vanessa's friend Nicole. Nicole told him about more strange things she had seen, like her bedroom door opening by itself and things disappearing. Most of the ghosts people saw in the house weren't old women who might have been witches. Many were men, and there were also the sounds of children

This made John think that there might be many different ghosts in the house, not just the ghosts of witches. In January 2020, Vanessa finally sold the house. She said she actually lost money on the house and didn't make any profit. She said that she had learned about being terrified of something you can't do anything about. The person who bought the house knows all about the strange things that have happened there, but they say they don't believe in ghosts.

We don't know if they've seen or heard anything strange since they moved in. The cage is not just a normal haunted house with a scary history, it has many of the same things that happen in poltergeist cases. Some people think that the place where the cage is built might be special in some way. Maybe it's a place where ghosts or spirits can easily come into our world, like a door between our world and theirs.

Unlike some haunted places, the strange things only seem to happen in the house or very close to it. Once people leave the house, nothing strange happens to them. We don't know if the person living in the cage now has seen any ghosts or has had any scary experiences. We also don't know if people who are curious about ghosts will cause problems by trying to visit the house. Coming up,

Cryptids, elusive creatures like Nessie and Yaoi, have captivated human imagination for centuries, fueling festivals, films, and the niche field of cryptozoology. Despite scientific skepticism, the allure of these mysterious beings continues to draw travelers to remote and mysterious destinations worldwide.

We'll look at how crypto-tourism offers a unique and interesting angle on exploring hidden corners of the globe, blending folklore with adventure. Plus, in 1981, 14-year-old Stacey Ann Aris vanished without a trace inside Yosemite National Park, her disappearance remaining one of the park's most eerie and unsolved mysteries.

Despite an immediate and extensive search, only a camera lens was found, leaving behind more questions than answers. As speculation swirls around supernatural forces and scientific explanations, the mystery of Stacey Ann Arras continues to haunt those who explore the untamed wilderness of Yosemite. These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns.

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Pop yourself! Visit Funko.com! It is said that cryptids live in remote lakes, hide in the depths of forests, and even wander snowy peaks. Still, science has not yet managed to uncover definitive proof of these fantastic creatures, which may or may not exist, but have certainly instilled fear and wonder in humans for thousands of years. West Africans have the swamp creature Ninkinanka,

Japan has a giant octopus called the Akurukami, and Ireland has the carnivorous dog-otter hybrid known as Dobarchu.

However, the ones that seem to attract the most attention from travelers are the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland, the Yeti in the Himalayas, the Yowie from Australia, and Bigfoot, a Chewbacca-type man-ape who reportedly generates more than $140 million a year for the American economy, according to the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

These fantastic beasts have inspired festivals, films, podcasts and a niche field of study called cryptozoology. They are the focus of boat cruises and wilderness outings and have their names given to bars, hotels, eateries and even airlines. Just before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, one Scottish company spent nearly £2 million developing a new visitor centre closely linked to the legendary Loch Ness Monster.

This is how cryptotourism offers travelers an innovative angle on destinations often overlooked by mainstream tourism outlets. The world's most famous cryptid might well be Nessie, the enormous marine creature said to inhabit the 800-foot depth of Loch Ness. The Loch Ness monster has peddled controversy for 1,400 years since its first reported appearance. The mythical beast was first recorded by Irish missionary St. Columba in 565 A.D.,

It was said that this very animal hurt a woman wading in the stream, and when it crawled up out of the lock, Columba ordered it away. Thus, Nessie swam back into the lake, leaving behind a sparkling image of wrongdoing that fueled the legend. Nessie was seen now and again over the next few centuries, each time adding to the lore.

In 1934, this particular urban legend reached its peak when an English physician captured a photograph of what he claimed was Nessie, its long neck and bulbous head jutting out from the loch. The photograph set in motion events that transformed Loch Ness from an obscure place to one of Europe's most famous lakes.

Tour guides soon began advertising monster tours, and according to Gary Campbell, who maintains the official Loch Ness Monster Sightings record website, there have been 1,143 sightings in the past 26 years. Campbell states Loch Ness is worth $47 million annually to its tourism industry. Not even the pandemic could lessen Loch Ness' appeal.

A full 149,000 visitors made lake tours between Jacobite and Loch Ness in 2022 before September, says Freda Newton, managing director of the company. "Everybody wants to see Nessie. We see it every day in the expressions on visitors' faces," she says. "There's real excitement when people board our boats and realize that finally maybe they'll be able to see our most elusive friend."

Mr. Gordon Menzies, who runs Castle Cruises Loch Ness, believes that over 70% of his visitors come in search of Nessie. He's spent a lifetime contemplating this legend. "I think it's most unlikely that a prehistoric creature still survives in here," Menzies says. "However, with the dark, peaty Loch waters as they are, there's no reason to think something which we haven't yet identified might not exist there."

Although Nessie is now a bit stereotyped, the Yowie, Australia's best known cryptid, is woven deep into the lore of one of the world's oldest communities, the Australian Aboriginal people. After the British colonized the country in the late 1700s, the Aboriginal people gave them an eerie warning. The verdant forests they took over concealed these Sasquatch-sized beings, 10 feet tall, 800 pounds and walking on two legs.

"Yauwis are respected but also avoided by Aboriginal people because they can be dangerous," says Tony Healy, co-author of several books on Australian cryptids. "The Aboriginal elders I spoke to see Yauwis as something like a guardian spirit of the landscape." Perhaps the first rumoured Yauwi sighting occurred in 1830, when a European man fired his musket at one of these giant beasts near the southern Australian Kangaroo Island coast.

Australian cryptozoologist Gary Oput, who has researched the yaoi for 50 years, says there have been hundreds of supposed encounters since then. These mainly occur along the Great Divide, a 2,300-mile-long series of mountain ranges and highlands running from Victoria through New South Wales and Queensland. An environmental scientist, Oput leads yaoi tours into this wilderness.

About 90% of participants are foreign tourists eager to visit the out-of-the-way places where sightings like those at Mount Warning in northern New South Wales and Springbrook Mountain just nearby occur. Despite thousands of years of discussion, it is only in the past decade that interest in the yaoi has grown significantly. That is 5,000 miles from California in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The first crypto-tourists there flocked to see yetis in reserve areas throughout Nepal, where people have always said archaic creatures existed since the 1950s. The legendary yeti, up to six feet tall and similar in appearance to Bigfoot and the yaoi, supposedly wanders the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. Apart from appearing in stories widely told through Nepal, Bhutan, India and Tibet, the yeti has a long history.

"All 6,000 years of it," says Ram Kapoor Pandey, a publisher of multiple books on the Yeti. In modern times, the Yeti was only a regional folklore until British explorer Eric Shipton claimed to have photographed a "hominid-like 13-inch-long footprint in the snow of Nepal's Menlong Glacier west of Mount Everest," Pandey explains.

The photo appeared in newspapers and on television screens around the globe, sending hordes of explorers into the Himalayas on the Trail of Cryptids. As foreign visitors overwhelmed the country, the Nepal government introduced yeti hunting regulations: all those engaged in it must take only pictures and not harm any creatures encountered. Over the ensuing decades, the yeti became a powerful brand for Nepal's tourism industry.

The foot of this animal is the emblem of the flag carrier Yeti Airlines, while hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and travel companies all make money from its name. Early in 2019, the Nepal government made the Yeti the highlight of its tourism campaign, planting dozens of Yeti statues at major attractions. When people hear about Yetis in America or Europe, they think, "That's interesting. That will be challenging."

Now it's a part of their memories. Travelers hoping to see one of these beasts should visit Mahalangur Himal. This rugged Himalayan area, boasting several of the world's highest peaks such as Mount Everest, is key habitat for the Yeti and the site where most sightings occur, according to Pandey.

Visitors to this region will hear numerous Yeti stories from the locals. An old folktale in a Himalayan monastery relates how the Yeti was born to a Tibetan mother and a Mahalangur giant ape, Pandey says. Other Nepalese find the whole thing quite suspect. Sushil Nepal, a veteran tour guide from Kathmandu, says that when he was small, he regarded Yetis as hoaxes,

Now, if his customers ask about these creatures, he explains that they are widely believed in Nepal to be myths. Sushil Nepal admits that he is not a fan of crypto-tourism, which detracts from the country's mountainous architecture and ancient traditions.

"The Yeti is not going to help Nepal's tourism industry," he states. "We have numerous intangible cultural heritages as well as many sites that can actually be seen. We should highlight the rich diversity of Nepal's natural beauties and how feasible it is for outside investments." Many researchers are equally skeptical.

In 2017, DNA analysis of teeth, hair and wool said to be those of the Yeti, published by Proceedings of the Royal Society B, revealed that this mythical creature might well have been based on real animals - the brown and black bears of the Himalayas. Experts have also tried to explain Australian cryptids and the Loch Ness Monster using science, yet these legends persist.

"People have always been interested in those aspects of nature that go beyond our understanding," Hopet says, "and I don't think that's going to change any time soon." In 1981, 14-year-old Stacey Ann Arras vanished without a trace inside Yosemite National Park. Her disappearance remains unsolved to this day. Yosemite National Park has a strange history of people going missing and eerie occurrences,

But Arras' case is particularly noteworthy, given the complete lack of evidence. Many people attribute her disappearance to supernatural forces. While there is likely a scientific or logical explanation for what happened to Stacey Ann Arras on July 17, 1981, the truth about her going missing is as eerie as any supernatural mystery. Arras separated from the group she was traveling with, which included her father and six others.

They were on horseback and had reached Sunrise High Sierra Camp when Eris went off alone into the mountainside to snap pictures of a beautiful lake. The camp was a tourist attraction, and Eris would have been visible from the other side of the lake. As the group rested, Eris asked her father if she could hike down to the lake to take some pictures. Her father refused, but Eris left the group anyway. The tour guide later remembered seeing her standing on a rock about 50 yards south of the trail.

The trail to the lake was only 1.5 miles long. This was the last time anyone reported officially seeing Eris. When Eris wandered off that day, a 77-year-old man from her camp trail group accompanied her but soon sat down to rest. Eris moved ahead. When Eris didn't return, the man started looking for her and organized the rest of the party to conduct a more intensive search. He reported talking to a group of hikers but they said they had not seen her.

Although the search began only a few minutes after Eris vanished, no one could locate any trace of the 14-year-old girl other than the lens from her camera, found inside the grove of trees she had gone into before disappearing. Immediately prior to her vanishing, Eris had the following items on her person. She was wearing an ankle bracelet and possibly stud earrings, and she carried binoculars and a camera. None of these items have ever shown up again,

A seasoned mountaineer noted in an online forum that if Eris had lost her lens cap, it shouldn't necessarily be considered a sign of foul play. Lots of folks lose those caps. The search for the girl began immediately after she disappeared, involving roughly 150 people, including 67 Mountain Rescue Association volunteers, dogs and helicopters canvassing a 3-5 square mile area around Sunrise Lake.

Despite these efforts, the camera lens remains the only piece of evidence. According to a 1981 Fresno Bee news article, it was too dry in the area and the dust from civilization hung upon the hills. On a forum dedicated to solving mysteries, Redditor Hector Abella showed how the environment, including wind, trees, and canyons, can disrupt our understanding of hearing.

She left the group for a while in untrailed countryside, which is very dangerous if you don't have navigation tools and know how to use them. But she was also likely off guard, with the open air and sunshine leading to relaxation. The search was quite small in comparison to the overall area they had to comb, and it's very likely that once she knew she was lost, she kept moving. However, in almost every case, this is just about the worst thing to do.

Some search and rescue volunteers and outdoor enthusiasts who have researched Erez's case believe that some reports were possibly wrong in the first place.

On a forum about unsolved mysteries, Redditor Persimmon Plouaux, who claims to have grown up and worked in Yosemite, said, "The official description of where she went missing doesn't quite add up. Supposedly the group arrived at Sunrise HSC where they planned to spend the night in some of their cabins. Stacy left on her own to take pictures of the lake, which was visible from the cabins. No lake is within sight of our camp. It would have been a long hike to reach a lake. That discrepancy is strange."

Iris had many predecessors who vanished in a national park, though exactly how many people are not known. The National Park Service does not keep track of how many missing persons have disappeared from their parks. David Paulides, a Bigfoot enthusiast, investigator, author of books and documentary producer, believes that there is a pattern in these disappearances. Paulides says he spent 7,000 hours researching cases of people who vanished in the park system,

He estimates there are about 1,600 missing persons across 85 million acres of parkland in the United States. Paulides usually explores cases like this with theories that may involve paranormal elements, often dealing with Bigfoot. He classifies the disappearance cases he researches into clusters, similar instances with common circumstances. One of these clusters elements is a storm,

In Eris's case, search and rescue dogs had a hard time picking up her scent since weather conditions were rather dry and windy. According to a story in the Fresno Bee at the time of Eris's disappearance, park officials said Stacey was having some family or school troubles and she missed her teenage boyfriend. Maybe the kid ran away or just took a walk into the woods.

However, Linda Abbott, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, contradicted this, noting that Eris was last seen by her father, who advised her to change out of her flip-flops. There are more bears in Yosemite than anywhere else in the contiguous United States. Black bears account for approximately 300 to 500 of these inhabitants and are a common sight at the park. According to park policy, keep bears at least 50 yards away.

Therefore, if you see one while hiking on less developed terrain, be sure to maintain that distance. The chances of encountering a bear while in places such as Yosemite are small. No one has died from a black bear attack in 17 years. Thus, when people make statistical arguments against the possibility of a bear having killed heiress in Yosemite National Park, these are based on relevant information.

One of the common themes of David Paulides' cluster is drowning. State records show the top incident resulting in loss of life over the past 10 years in national parks is drowning. Although Aris disappeared during her trip near a mountain lake, it is possible she might have fallen in. The search and rescue team brought in divers and dogs around the lake but found nothing.

Although there's little evidence to suggest that Eris was a victim of murder, some still speculate she might have been. Investigators have not ruled out such a possibility. Redditor Quarantinia shared their thoughts on the Unsolved Mysteries forum.

Even if it's possible or probable that she got lost and didn't realize it and wandered away, once lost most people keep moving. This is the worst thing to do. It puts searchers even farther behind. A point which emerges now and then is that she was just a couple of meters away from the shouting range. The wilderness resolves sound. I've spent enormous pieces of time hiding from searchers as a training subject and even I'm sometimes surprised at the variability of sound.

Overall, the case of Stacey Ann Aris remains one of the most perplexing and haunting mysteries in the history of Yosemite National Park. Despite extensive search efforts and numerous theories, the young girl's fate continues to elude investigators, leaving behind only questions and a lingering sense of unease. When Weird Darkness returns, some ghosts just seem worth rooting for, no matter how they died or what they do.

Maybe they're murder victims, parents looking for their lost child, or witches who were killed long ago. Some ghosts are stuck in our world and could use a little pat on the back. We'll look at a few ghosts to sympathize with up next.

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Shhh.

Do you like my horror-able humor episodes called Mind of Marler? If so, and you'd like more, it now has its very own podcast. Comedic creeps, sarcastic scares, frivolous frights, macabre madness. Every week I dive into strange history, twisted true crime, and paranormal weirdness. All the stuff you'd expect from me on Weird Darkness, but delivered with dark comedy, satire, and just the right amount of absurdity.

Monsters, myths, mysteries, mirth and more every Monday with Mind of Marlar. I like alliteration, can you tell? You can find a list of where you can subscribe to the podcast at WeirdDarkness.com under the menu tab for podcasts. However they died, and regardless of what they were up to, there were simply some ghosts you have to root for. They are probably victims of murder or maybe parents who desperately searched for their child when alive.

Perhaps they were witches, killed in violent ways many years ago. Whatever the case, they're stuck in our world and need a little applause, a bit of good news. Some good ghosts are gentle and friendly, while others are angry and vengeful. No matter their nature, when they died, something changed for these ghosts, leaving them in an in-between state. Not people, but always around you.

Now and then they stick around, just to help get their own murders straightened out, which isn't such a bad thing. Ruth Blay was a schoolteacher who delivered a stillborn child. Because she wasn't married, she didn't want to tell anyone and buried the tiny body under some floorboards in her school. A student saw this, reported it to authorities, and Blay was arrested for murder.

After a hasty trial, she was hanged, dying just minutes before an amnesty arrived. She is said to haunt New Hampshire's Portsmouth Graveyard with her child. Many townspeople thought the death penalty was too harsh and tried to defend her but had no success. Sheriff Thomas Packer, who oversaw her hanging, is said to have moved up the execution time to go eat dinner. His entire family, including a daughter, died young after his death.

This wasn't his only hanging. He also executed two other women for the same crime, concealing a bastard child. Not very cool at all. Under the surface of her refined exterior, Delphine Lelore was a serial killer. She was an affluent and stylish woman who owned a mansion with her husband in New Orleans' French Quarter in the 1830s. A fire swept throughout her house, revealing a secret attic room filled with horrors

Evidence showed that slaves were chained and tortured there, some meeting their death in that chamber. The true horror was for those who survived, dying among human remains. These ghosts are angry, and with good reason. The LaLaurie Mansion is probably the most well-known haunted site in New Orleans and has been resold multiple times due to supernatural occurrences.

The Lelore family escaped unscathed, so these spirits are unlikely to find peace. After the fourth husband of Alice de Keideler died in Kilkenny, Ireland, she was accused of causing their deaths by the combined offspring from all those marriages. The bishop, wanting to regain ecclesiastical power in the town, declared there was a coven of witches and made de Keideler its head.

She fled town, but her maid was executed for witchcraft after being tortured into confessing. Some folks think the ghost is actually that of the servant, not de Keideler herself. Either way, it shows that whenever church and law mix, they can make an unholy brew. In 2002, Lisa Poslantz was working late at her office when she was violently raped and murdered. Janitor Rui Marquez was questioned, but a DNA test cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Nonetheless, his response was crucial to solving the case. On two different occasions, Pasolins' ghost appeared to him in a conference room setting, pointing out a black table. Marquez recalled that former janitorial worker Nelson DeJesus always wore black on the job. Police discovered that DeJesus had been harassing Pasolins for months. DeJesus' DNA matched the evidence found at the scene.

In the 1800s, when the daughter of an unnamed Rochester, New York woman went missing, the mother, thinking her daughter had been kidnapped and murdered, started searching miles around for her body. She searched tirelessly, but with no success. Finally, she threw herself off a cliff into Lake Ontario. Her ghost can occasionally be seen making its way across the park, and is said to chase any man it meets into the lake or out.

The prospect of not being able to find someone you love during your lifetime and after death must be awful. Here's hoping she will someday catch up with what she is after. Not all the ghosts at Disneyland are limited to the Haunted Mansion. The ghost of George is said to wander the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Florida theme park. It's said that he was a construction worker who helped build the ride and was crushed when either a beam fell on him or he fell from a high area.

Officially, Disney does not acknowledge the ghost's existence. But it is said that if employees do not say "good morning" and "good night" to him, the ride will not function properly. Having to hear mechanical pirates belt out yard-long ditties for eternity doesn't sound like the happiest place on earth to me. This guy deserves a little sympathy. The Myrtle Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana is home to Chloe, a young slave girl who was a governess for two children.

Chloe did not resist the advances of the plantation owner because she was afraid he might send her out to the fields to work. One day, he caught her eavesdropping through a keyhole and chopped off her ear. To make herself seem useful, she baked some oleander leaves into a cake, thinking it would make the family sick and she could nurse them back to health. The poisoned cake ended up killing several family members, and the other slaves hanged Chloe to avoid punishment themselves.

Chloe did not have a very happy life. All she really wanted was some freedom. Who among us hasn't made an innocuous error in the kitchen? It's said that the Green Lady once served in Stirling, Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots, nearly perished under the flames when her curtains caught fire in the room where she was sleeping. The Green Lady saved her from disaster at the cost of her own life. She is said to wander the castle. A worthy task. Giving one's life for another deserves at least a thumbs up.

In 1906, Grace Brown worked at the Gillette Skirt Factory and was having an affair with one of the owner's sons. When she got pregnant, she asked Chester to marry her rather than abort the baby because unmarried mothers were outcasts for life. The pair went to Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks and rented a rowboat. The next morning, the boat was found, and nearby lay Grace Brown's body with a bruised forehead.

Chester was tried and executed, but the ghost of Grace Brown still haunts the lake. People who have seen her ghost often feel a profound sorrow near her burial place. Her story was used as the storyline for the film A Place in the Sun, depicting her as an ugly shrew. One morning in 1912, Mary Peckham found her neighbor's home in Villisca, Iowa eerily quiet, with the doors locked from the inside.

When she did not get a reply, she called the neighbor's brother to investigate. He unlocked the door and was confronted with a horrible scene. The Moore family, along with two of the children's friends, had been murdered with an axe. The case was not pursued due to terrible police management. Neighbors, friends and townspeople came to see what had happened. The place was not properly sealed off by the police, who were unable to stop a mob from touching everything and taking souvenirs.

Although DNA testing wasn't possible in those days, this is surely unfair to the victims. The ghosts who linger here will likely never get justice. In 1994, a strange thing occurred not far outside of Sacramento, California. A woman who had snuggly fallen asleep woke up inexplicably convinced she must leave the house where she was living as soon as possible, despite the darkness of night.

She roused her husband and hopped into her car, driving downstate on Highway 50. At some point, she noticed something on the side of the road and pulled over. According to the Paranormal Witness program, she thought that she could see a nude woman lying near the edge of the road. The woman was bent over to one side, her legs together, with both arms behind her head. She looked ghastly pale and dead.

The woman called authorities, but when the sheriff's deputy arrived, there was no nude woman or sign of one anywhere. Earlier that week, a young woman named Christine Skubish had started down the road with her toddler-aged son. Since it was too early to contact friends and family, everyone assumed they would eventually return. However, Christine's aunt began having multiple strange dreams. One account had her dreaming of a woman's outline at the back of a car with a child at its front.

Since she had a history of prophetic dreams, she was worried and prompted investigators to search for her missing niece. While searching around Highway 50, they eventually found a child's shoe. At the bottom of an embankment, they found a naked three-year-old boy, alive but in a wrecked car. The mother's body, Christine's, was fully dressed but dead, and her son had survived with nothing to eat or drink for nearly a week.

The boy later recalled seeing a white glowing sphere over the car and a shadowy silhouette. Others believed the naked woman was the ghost of the boy's mother, drawing attention to the accident, ensuring her little boy was found alive. "I absolutely think that something very special happened out there," the deputy said to Paranormal Witness. "A mother's love can make a difference, even from the afterlife."

Zona Hester Shue was discovered dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, with her head at an unnatural angle in 1897. While the doctor was on his way, Shue's husband washed her body and changed her clothes, acting suspiciously by effectively hiding her neck from being thoroughly examined. Shue's mother had a dream in which Zona told her that she had been murdered,

This dream, coupled with Xu's husband's strange behavior, persuaded the district attorney to reopen the case. When they disinterred the body, an autopsy showed clear bruises on her neck, and it was determined she died by strangulation. At her husband's trial, it was found that Xu was his third wife, the second to die. You have to give it up for a ghost who comes back from the grave to help solve her own murder.

A famous ghost in England, Dorothy appears consistently at various locations at Raynham Hall, Norfolk, in a brown dress. Dorothy desired to marry Lord Charles Townsend, but her father would not allow it. Townsend married another woman, but after that wife passed away, he returned to Dorothy. Dorothy had an affair during Townsend's marriage, which angered him when he found out years later.

It is said he locked her in a room for the rest of her life and would not let her see her children. Dorothy's ghost still wanders Raynham Hall today, seeking the children she will never see again. The story of her death remains unanswered. Some say she was pushed down the stairs. Others believe her death was staged as punishment. And for some strange reason, she is stuck with a brown dress. That's a ghost who needs sympathy. Ford's Theatre

The White House, his tomb in Illinois, and Fort Monroe in Virginia have all known Abraham Lincoln in death. Even Winston Churchill is reputed to have had a run-in with Honest Abe. Although Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, a newly bathed and naked Churchill encountered him at the White House in the 1940s. Supposedly, they eyed each other with some embarrassment until Churchill said, "...Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at a disadvantage."

Then, Lincoln vanished. People who caught a glimpse of Winston Churchill naked deserve a lot more than a word of encouragement. Rhode Islander Dolly Cole has been described as a vampire, witch and cross-dressing prostitute. Whatever she was, people thought she was weird and were afraid of her. It is said that the townsfolk killed her child by burning down her house. But how she died is not clear. Either she drowned in a nearby river or was murdered.

"Being different is not a reason for arson and murder." When Weird Darkness returns, imagine waking up every 30 seconds completely unaware of where you are or what just happened. This is the life of Clive Waring, a brilliant musician whose rare brain infection left him with no ability to form new memories.

How do you navigate a world where every moment places you in constantly unfamiliar surroundings with no memory of how you got there or what you even did a few seconds before? But first, the Ghena brothers of Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood were some of the most notorious bootleggers and gangsters in the city.

They ruled the West Side through threats, extortion, violence, and bullets. However, their reign began to crumble on May 26, 1925, when Angelo Guena was gunned down by rival gangsters. That story is up next.

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Absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. So grab your free welcome bonus now at ChumpaCasino.com. Sponsored by Chumpa Casino. No purchase necessary. VGW group void where prohibited by law. 21 plus terms and conditions apply. They've been here for thousands of years, making their presence known in the shadows. They might be seen by a lonely motorist on a deserted road late at night or by a frightened and confused husband in the bedroom he's sharing with his wife.

Perhaps the most disconcerting part of this phenomenon boils down to this question: has the government been aware of their presence all along and is covertly working with them towards some secret end? In the audiobook, Runs of Disclosure, what once was fringe is now reality. While listening, you'll meet regular people just like you who have encountered something beyond their ability to explain.

You'll also hear from people of great faith and deep religious belief who continue to have these strange and deeply unsettling encounters. Author L.A. Marzulli explores these ongoing incidents to discover the answers to these questions: Who are they? What do they want? And why are they here? Can you handle the truth? Listen to this audiobook if you dare!

Rungs of Disclosure, Following the Trail of Extraterrestrials and the End Times, by L.A. Marzulli, narrated by Darren Marlar. Hear a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. Hold the kaleidoscope to your eye. Peer inside. One twist changes everything. A woman awakens in a grotesque, human-sized arcade game.

A mysterious cigar box purchased at a farmer's market releases an ancient jinn who demands a replacement prisoner. An elderly woman possesses the terrifying power to inflict pain through handmade dolls. An exclusive restaurant's sinister secret menu includes murder-for-hire and harvested organs.

With each turn through these 20 tales, Reddit NoSleep favorite AP Royal reshapes reality, creating dazzling patterns of horror that entrance as they terrify. The Kaleidoscope, 20 Terrifying Tales of Horror and the Supernatural by AP Royal, narrated by Darren Marlar. Hear a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. ♪

The Guine brothers of Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood were among the worst of the city's bootleggers and gangsters. They ruled the West Side by threats, extortion, violence, and bullets, but their grip on the territory fell apart on May 26, 1925, when Angelo Guine was gunned down by rival gangsters.

Angelo had long been considered the toughest and most brutal of the Genna brothers. It was Angelo who created the brothers' first black-hand extortion schemes and essentially launched them into a life of crime. When he married Lucille Spinola, a member of one of the city's wealthiest and most prominent Italian families, the Gennas achieved society status in the city. The wedding turned out to be one of the largest in Chicago history.

After the wedding, the newlyweds moved into the fashionable Hotel Belmont near the lake. They were hunting for houses but couldn't have been happier in a neighborhood that was then occupied by leading Chicagoans like former Mayor Thompson who lived just across the street. Like his brother Tony, Angelo loved the opera and loved to play host to local and visiting performers, all of whom were delighted to accept his hospitality.

In May 1925, Angelo and Lucille found a home in suburban Oak Park and began making preparations to move. On the morning of May 26th, Angelo set out in his Roadster Coupe to pay for the new house in cash. He drove south from Belmont Harbor on Sheridan Road and then turned southwest on Ogden Avenue, which at that time extended all the way to Lincoln Park.

As he approached Hudson Avenue, a large black touring car carrying four characteristically unknown assailants, as the Chicago Tribune described them, sped up next to Genna's car. The passengers fired a dozen shotgun blasts into Angelo Genna's car, causing him to lose control and crash into a lamppost. The gunmen sped off, leaving Angelo to die.

Genna was rushed to the hospital and as he lay on his deathbed, Police Sergeant Roy Hessler pleaded with him to name the men who attacked him. "You're going to die, Angelo," he said. "Tell us who bumped you off." But Genna just shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes. He died a short time later, never revealing the names of the men in the black touring car.

The police suspected members of the North Side gang, including George Moran, Jaime Weiss and Vincent Drussi, who were still seeking revenge for the murder of Dean O'Banion, which had occurred the previous fall. But as the newspaper said, you'll know who murdered Angelo when the next big guy in the neighborhood is murdered. The next big guys to be killed, though, weren't gangster rivals. They were members of the Genna family. Angelo's funeral, like his wedding, was one of the grandest in the city's history.

Cardinal Mundelein refused to allow him a church funeral and so he was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in unconsecrated ground, just steps away from the resting place of Dean O'Banion. Thousands of dollars were spent on flowers and Al Capone sent an eight-foot tall arrangement of lilies. At the graveside, which saw thousands in attendance, a quartet of police officers from the Guineas' local Maxwell Street station frisked everyone for weapons.

On June 13, less than three weeks later, Mike Genna joined his brother in death. The occasion of his murder turned out to be a complicated double-cross that was played out on the city's south side. The principals were four members of the Genna gang, Mike Genna, Samouts Amatuna, John Scalise, and Albert Anselme. And the same three men believed to have killed Angelo on May 25, Weiss, Moran, and Drusey.

A few days earlier, the North Side gang members had approached Amatuna and promised him a payoff if he would deliver Scalise and Anselme, believed to have killed O'Banion, into their hands. They wanted them brought to the corner of Sangamon and Congress Streets at 9 a.m. on June 13. Weiss, Moran, and Drussi would then drive past and gun them down. Amatuna pretended to accept the offer, then told Scalise and Anselme about it.

Angry, they told Mike Genna, who put together a double-cross. That morning, Moran and Druesey were waiting in their cars at the corner, confident that two of their sworn enemies would soon be dead. Suddenly, a large black car raced past them and shotguns were fired from the windows. Glass shattered and pellets pounded into Moran and Druesey's car. Both men were wounded but managed to return fire.

They roared off in pursuit of the black car, but their own vehicle was too badly damaged to give much of a chase. They abandoned it on Congress Street and then collapsed on the sidewalk in pools of blood. Both men ended up in the hospital, where they recuperated for weeks.

Meanwhile, the shooters in the other car were speeding south on Western Avenue. At 47th Street, they passed by a northbound detective squad car that was driven by Harold Olson. His commander, Michael Conway, was in the car, along with detectives William Sweeney and Charles Walsh. Recognizing Mike Genna at the wheel of the other car, Conway ordered Olson to turn around and go after the speeding sedan.

The detectives were in a foul mood. Three of their fellow officers had been murdered by gangsters the previous week, and it's likely they were looking for a little payback. The Gannas hadn't been involved in the police officers' murders, but at that point, any gangsters would do. With its siren clanging, the squad car spun around and chased after Ganna's car, reaching speeds of up to 70 miles per hour.

At 59th Street, a truck pulled out into the avenue, forcing Genna to slam on the brakes and swerve. He slammed into a telephone pole. Unhurt, the mobsters jumped out of the car with shotguns in hand. The squad car screeched to a halt a few feet away and the detectives scrambled out, their revolvers drawn. "Why didn't you stop?" Conway demanded. "Didn't you hear our gong?" The gangsters raised their weapons and fired.

Conway went down with a load of buckshot in the chest. Walsh and Olsen were also shot. Sweeney, the youngest officer, crouched behind the squad car and began firing over the hood. At that time, Southwestern Avenue was largely an industrial area, filled with factories. Soon, hundreds of workers began pouring out into the street. Factory whistles blew out a warning, and riot calls began coming into the switchboard of the local police station.

The gangsters fled, but Sweeney bravely followed, a revolver gripped in each hand. The gangsters ran across a vacant lot and Scalise and Anselme ducked into an alley. Genna ran on alone and then turned to face the advancing detective. He raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger, but both barrels were empty. He tossed the gun and ran toward a house beyond the empty lot. Sweeney fired.

Genna was hit in the upper leg, but he kept going. He fell near the house, smashed a basement window and dragged himself inside. When Sweeney and two other policemen found him, he was sitting on the basement floor, blood gushing from a severed artery. An ambulance was summoned and he was rushed to Bridewell Hospital. As they were traveling, a guard leaned over to adjust the stretcher and Genna kicked him in the face. "Take that, you son of a _____," he choked out.

He bled to death in the ambulance before they made it to the hospital. Scalise and Anselme managed to escape from the scene, but unbelievably decided to go into a dry goods store on 59th Street to replace the hats they had lost while running away. The police were still swarming all over the area, but the gangsters thought little of going into the store. The proprietor, though, Edward Isikson, was immediately suspicious of the pair. He had heard the gunshots and sirens and knew that something had happened nearby.

When the two bedraggled men came into the shop, their clothing torn and dirty, speaking in a foreign tongue, he refused to sell them anything. The two gangsters retreated from the shop and seeing a streetcar coming to a stop at the corner, they ran for it. At the same time, another police car came roaring down Western Avenue. Isigson hailed it and pointed at the two men which he was now convinced had something to do with the guns and excitement.

The streetcar was just starting to move when the police pulled Scalise and Anselme off the rear platform. They were taken to the Central Detective Bureau and grilled by Chief of Detectives William Shoemaker, who questioned them through an interpreter. They were charged with first-degree murder for the slaying of the detectives. In a radio broadcast, State's Attorney Crowe stated, "These men will go straight to the gallows." He assigned Assistant State's Attorney McSwiggan, the young, hanging prosecutor, to the case.

Capone shed no tears over the deaths of Angelo and Mike Genna. Although their role in the syndicate had been indispensable to Torrio's master plan, their greed, treachery and bloodlust had made them problematic allies. In addition, they also blocked Capone's control of Little Italy and the booming alcohol cooking industry there. The Gennas had also made too much of their prestige from the presidency of the Union Siciliani, which Angelo gained after Mike Merlo's death.

Since Capone was not a Sicilian, he could not even qualify for membership in the organization. But he did have plans to dominate it by installing his own officers in key positions. The Guenes had been in the way. Angelo had taken over the president's chair, but Capone wanted his consigliere, Tony Lombardo, in the top spot. For just this reason, he had no regrets over the destruction of the clan. In fact, he contributed to it.

According to an informer in Little Italy, Mike Genna was doomed that day, no matter how things turned out. The source told the police that Scalise and Anselmi had secretly defected to Capone and had accepted a contract from him to kill Genna. As Mike drove them down Western Avenue after the attempted hit on Moran and Drusci, he was actually being taken on a one-way ride by Scalise and Anselmi and Al Capone. Tony Genna was the next to die.

On July 8, a member of the Genna gang, Giuseppe Nerone, known as Il Cavaliere, telephoned Tony. Nerone had been unhappy with his position in the Genna organization for some time. He felt the brothers didn't appreciate his talents and was likely thinking that by killing off the rest of the Gennas, he could get a bigger piece of Little Italy for himself. Nerone told Genna that he had important information for him and wanted to meet him in front of Cattillo's grocery store on Grand Avenue at 10.30 a.m.

When Genna arrived, the two men greeted one another and then Tony was given a version of the Chicago handshake. As Nerone embraced Genna in greeting, an unknown associate stepped out of a doorway and fired five shots into Genna's back, dying in the county hospital. Genna whispered to his mistress, Gladys Bagwell, a name that sounded like Cavallaro.

The police searched for a non-existent Italian by that name instead of Nerone the Cavaliere and by the time they realized their mistake, Nerone had been shot to death in a Northside barbershop. Detectives believed that Nerone was coaxed into killing his boss and then taken out to get him out of the way. But who talked him into it? The cops were divided, some suspecting Vincent Drussi and others Al Capone. Tony was buried next to Angelo in Mount Carmel Cemetery.

One of the mourners, noting the proximity of Dean O'Banion's grave, quipped, "When Judgment Day comes and them three graves are opened, there'll be hell to pay in this cemetery." The surviving Guiness fled Chicago in panic. Jim went to his native Sicily and Sam and Pete went into hiding outside of the city. Jim was later arrested for theft and spent two years in prison.

All three brothers eventually returned to Chicago, but their power had been broken. They lived out the rest of their days in obscurity, importing cheese and olive oil. Imagine waking up every 30 seconds, unsure of where you are or what just happened. This is the daily reality for Clive Waring, often called the man with a 30-second memory.

His story is both fascinating and heartbreaking, highlighting the critical role memories play in our lives. Clive Waring wasn't always like this. He was a gifted musician and conductor in England, known for his remarkable talent and extensive musical knowledge. He played multiple instruments and led orchestras, earning admiration from peers and audiences alike. He had a fulfilling life, with a loving wife, children, and a job he cherished.

However, in 1985, when Clive was 47 years old, everything changed. He fell seriously ill with a rare brain infection called encephalitis. This illness, caused by a virus typically responsible for cold sores, reached Clive's brain, causing severe swelling. The inflammation damaged a critical part of his brain called the hippocampus, which is essential for creating and storing new memories.

Clive's condition was so severe that doctors doubted his survival, giving him only a 20% chance of making it through. His wife, Deborah, was beside herself with worry. Miraculously, after receiving intense medical treatment for several days, Clive began to recover physically. However, it soon became apparent that his brain had been profoundly affected.

Initially, Clive's behavior was erratic and alarming. He would dance around the hospital, jump out of closets, and once even tried to leap out of a moving car. Doctors had to administer medication to calm him down. As Clive gradually comprehended the extent of his condition, he became deeply distressed and his wife recalled that he cried for an entire month.

Clive was diagnosed with anterograde amnesia, which means he is unable to form new memories. Every 7 to 30 seconds his brain resets, causing him to forget what just occurred. It's as if he is perpetually waking up in a state of confusion, unaware of his surroundings or how he got there. This condition is so severe that he even forgets what he is eating while he is still eating it.

In addition to anterograde amnesia, Clive also suffers from retrograde amnesia, which has erased most of his memories from before he became ill. He knows he's married, but has no recollection of his wedding. He is aware that he has children from a previous marriage, but he cannot remember their names or faces. This condition is incredibly challenging for Clive. He understands that something is wrong with him, but he cannot remember what it is.

At one point, Clive attempted to keep a diary to help him remember things. However, he would forget that he had already written in it and ended up writing the same entries repeatedly. Instead of aiding his memory, the diary only highlighted the severity of his condition. Debra, Clive's wife, wrote a book titled "Forever Today," detailing their life together and Clive's struggle with his memory loss.

She explains that every time Clive blinks or looks away, it's like he's seeing everything for the first time when he looks back. He forgets everything he just saw, making his world a constantly shifting and bewildering place. Despite his severe memory loss, Clive retains some abilities.

He can still perform routine tasks like shaving and showering because these skills are stored in a different part of his brain that was not affected by the encephalitis. Remarkably, Clive can still play music beautifully. His fingers remember how to play instruments, even though his mind does not recall learning them. When he plays music, he seems more like his old self, demonstrating the unique and resilient nature of musical memory.

Now, 84 years old, Clive has lived with this condition for almost four decades. His story has been chronicled in books, documentaries and news reports, offering valuable insights into how our brains work and how memories are formed. Clive's story underscores the significance of memories in our lives. Memories shape our identity, connect us to our past and link us to the people we love.

Without them, like Clive, we would be adrift in a constantly changing world where everything seems unfamiliar. Despite the immense difficulties Clive faces, there is still love in his life. His wife Debra has stood by him all these years, visiting him regularly. Every time she enters the room, Clive is overjoyed to see her, as if it has been years since they last met, even if she only stepped out for a moment.

This enduring affection shows that while memories may fade, emotions can remain strong. Up next on Weird Darkness... Annie Lee, a brilliant Yale graduate student, vanished just days before her wedding in 2009. Her disappearance led to a shocking discovery that left everyone questioning who and why.

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According to security video footage, Annie Lee was seen entering the Amistad building shortly after 10 a.m. that day. By 9 p.m., her housemates contacted authorities when she did not return home.

Despite several attempts to contact her, she did not respond. Upon reviewing the security recordings, the police discovered that she had not left the Amistad building. Her phone, keys, wallet, and other personal items were all left in her office. With her wedding quickly approaching, some suspected that she might have been experiencing pre-wedding nerves. However, her disappearance was taken seriously.

The police promptly shut down the entire Amistad building for investigation. They conducted thorough searches, even checking the Hartford dump where Yale's waste is incinerated. Every possible lead was pursued. The FBI and Connecticut State Police soon joined the New Haven Police Department in the search efforts. It wasn't until her wedding day that her family received some answers.

Authorities discovered blood-stained clothing hidden above a ceiling tile in the building, which is monitored by over 70 security cameras. It was evident that she had been in the building, and they were aware that they were looking for a person who had access, as entry to the building and its rooms required Yale identification cards. While searching for Annie, investigators also delved into potential motives for wanting to cause her harm. They located her before uncovering the reasons behind the incident.

To this day, the true motive remains unknown. Yale President Richard Levin informed university staff and students in a letter that a female body was discovered in the Amistad Building's basement. The woman's identity was confirmed to be Annie Lee, and law enforcement continues to investigate actively in the hopes of a swift resolution.

Unspecified sources revealed that on her wedding day at 5 p.m., the woman's decomposing body was detected by police cadaver dogs concealed within a wall in a lab room. This room, previously used for animal experiments and research, had been the grisly location of her remains being forced into a cramped space, her bones fractured to ensure a fit.

Subsequent examination unveiled that her demise was attributed to traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression. With evidence of pre-death injuries including a broken jaw and collarbone, the somber discovery also revealed partial undress upon her, along with traces of semen on her body and undergarments.

The inquiry into whether this incident resulted from a botched sexual assault led investigators to focus on Raymond Clark, a 24-year-old lab technician with building access and a reason to enter that specific lab. On September 16, subsequent to obtaining a warrant for his DNA, Clark was apprehended the following day once his genetic material matched the semen discovered on the victim's body. Why did he commit the crime?

No motive was ever disclosed by him, but those familiar with him mentioned his tendency to get upset with students who he felt left the lab in a messy state after finishing their work. One of those students was Annie Lee, who had received complaints from Clark in an email about leaving dirty mice cages behind following one of her studies. However, if his motivation was solely based on anger towards the untidiness she left, does that justify his actions?

A former friend described Clark as, "He was a pretty nice kid. Very good with people who were older. He respected authority." Another schoolmate, Kelly Godfrey, who had conversed with him within the past year, attested to his character, "Ray was just the nicest kid. He wasn't judgmental. He was really quiet, but he was very friendly. He was easily one of the nicest guys in our class. This is a real shock."

However, insights into another aspect of his character were provided by Anna Marie Goodwin, a neighbor who highlighted his conduct towards his girlfriend, Jennifer Romadga, with whom he also worked at the Yale lab. She mentioned, "...he was very controlling of his girlfriend. He wouldn't let her talk to me or anyone." Initially maintaining his innocence, Clark eventually changed his plea in March 2011.

Without providing a reason for the murder, he entered a guilty plea in return for a 44-year prison sentence. Concerning the charge of attempted sexual assault, he submitted an Alford plea, an admission of the evidence's sufficiency without admitting guilt. He received his formal sentencing on June 3, 2011, where he expressed regret for his actions. However, he provided no explanation for the crime.

Currently, he is serving his term at the Cheshire Correctional Institution and is set for release on September 16, 2053. Annie Lee was adored by many, with memorials held in both California and New York. Her funeral was streamed live on the internet. According to the Yale Daily News, Professor John Lewis Gaddis referred to September 14 as the saddest day to start class since the day after the 9/11 attacks.

Thanks for listening! If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes! All stories used in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find links to the authors, stories and sources I used in the episode description, as well as on the website at WeirdDarkness.com. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Matthew 6:15:

As Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he reminded them, "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." And a final thought: When looking at faults, use a mirror, not a telescope. Yazeed Ibrahim, I'm Darren Marlar, thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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