Dear Daisy, My Childhood Nightmare is Following Me
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Good old Dear Daisies. Hello, Dear Daisy. Daisy's sitting down here wondering why we keep saying her name, but she's here. She's ready to hear your guys' stories. If you don't know, Dear Daisies are listener-submitted stories about anything crazy, dark, spooky, true crime, anything. And you guys, if you have one of these and you have not submitted, visit the link in...

Any of our social media bios, it's literally right here in the episode description. And submit a story. We love these Dear Daisy stories. Should we get into it? Let's get into it. This first one is titled, I Was Attacked in the Middle of the Night. It's by Maria. Dear Daisy, my name... Sorry, I just want to say real quick. I'm glad that everyone writing these is alive.

I know what I'm saying, because it's important. I don't know how to say it, but that's how I'm going to say it. My name is Maria and I'm 35 years old. I'm originally from Ukraine, specifically Crimea. I've been a loyal listener of your podcast for about two years now. I absolutely adore Peyton's storytelling and Garrett's enthusiastic. No way. Always brings a smile to my husband's face.

In my opinion, you two make the best true crime podcast duo on YouTube. We'll stop there. Okay, Maria. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye-bye. So she said, I've decided to share one of my own stories with you. Maria, that was very, actually very sweet. She said,

Before I share my story, there are a few things you should know about me. I have an older brother who is seven years my senior. Growing up, he and his friends were my protectors, and I never felt afraid. Whether it was day or night, I walked confidently throughout our neighborhood. Everyone knew me as the little sister of my brother, and since they respected him, I had the same treatment.

At the age of eight, I joined judo classes and by the time I turned 21, I had earned a collection of medals. I even played counter-strike with my brother's friends and overall, I had what you might call guts.

I've always been sociable, confident, and known for my sense of humor. So it was February 2014, a Saturday at 2 a.m. My best friend and I were heading to her place after a night of clubbing. However, we got into an argument by the time we reached her apartment and I decided I wanted to go home and not linger any longer. So we said our good nights and I started walking toward the bus stop. The road from her place to the bus stop was about 1.5 kilometers. And yes, our public transport runs 24-7, especially on weekends. So I was like,

The path I took led through a large park, along the seaside, and past apartment buildings. Honestly, it was always a bit sketchy. As I walked, still feeling mad and tired, I stepped into a cornering spot on the road. This corner was quite long and was covered with knee-high bushes on both sides.

Just as I got behind the corner, which seemed endless, I saw a figure standing by the roadside. The location was such that you couldn't see where the corner began or ended. It felt odd, almost like I was trapped.

My gut instinct screamed at me to run, but exhaustion held me back. Turning around and fleeing would have made me look crazy, though now I'd gladly choose that option. So against my better judgment, I convinced myself it was probably nothing and continued walking. Now this might be the time when Garrett says, no way, I might be wrong. Haven't yet.

I'm listening. Very intrigued. As soon as I walked past him, I felt a hand cover my mouth and I was immediately pinned to the ground. Oh, geez. He leaped on top of me and grabbed both of my hands. I didn't scream. I didn't fight. My expression wasn't one of fear. It was pure rage. It said, how dare you? I looked him dead in the eyes and said, you don't want to do that.

He stumbled, clearly caught off guard by my unexpected response, but I didn't let up. Seven of my friends are coming right behind me, I continued, and they will literally tear you apart if you don't let me go right now. Holy shiz. His confusion was palpable. He stumbled. Why are you walking alone then? Because we got into a fight, I lied. There are a bunch of a-holes, so I stormed ahead.

Of course, there were no friends trailing behind me, just the empty night and the distant glow of streetlights. That's so scary because what if it doesn't work? God knows if he hadn't hesitated, he could have done whatever he pleased with me and there wouldn't have been a soul to intervene. He got up and extended his hand to help me up. Let me escort you to the bus stop, he said, as if offering a friendly gesture and added, so nobody else will attack you. I don't know if I need to elaborate how crazy this sentence is. That's freaking nuts. She says...

I took him by his elbow and we walked pretty fast to the bus stop. I asked him, why would you do that? What did you want to do? Sex, he answered. There's other ways, I told him, with realization how unhinged this situation is. He mumbled something and that was it. Bus stop with 10 to 15 people on it. He said, take care and left. I don't remember feeling relief until I got home.

Mm-hmm.

And then I read about another girl who was assaulted and murdered in that very same park during her morning run a week after my attack. Many times I wondered, was I just lucky? Was I his first attempt? Could I have prevented a terrible tragedy? But honestly, looking back, I don't think I could have done anything differently. No. I kept that horrifying experience bottled up inside. And a year later, I found myself refusing to leave the house, battling anxiety and avoiding dressing up or wearing makeup.

Every time someone walked behind me, adrenaline surged and chills ran down my spine. Baggy clothing replaced low-cut shirts in my closet. It's hard because when something like this happens, and it happens quite frequently, which is really sad, but like when, like how she wasn't, I guess you could say physically hurt.

People don't understand the emotional and mental damage that any type of trauma can do to someone. It's so much bigger than meets the eye than you can see. And I'm just sad that like she's changing her life to be safe in her head when in reality like none of it was your fault. None of it was your fault. There was nothing you did to make this happen. Yeah.

She said, Yeah.

Now at 35, I'm an artist creating games. I have a husband and two cats. I faced far worse experiences in my life since that night, including fleeing war zones twice. Two years of therapy have been profoundly healing, but I'll never wear heels again. And I'll always listen to my gut feeling.

Thank you for reading my story. Sharing it is therapeutic and please keep doing what you're doing. You're exceptionally good at it. Best regards, Maria. Well, there was nowhere for me to say no way. Maria, I'm so, so happy that you are doing better and I know that that doesn't mean that life doesn't come with its struggles, but...

You are proof that there's always light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. And I mean, who as well knows what would have happened if she didn't react how she reacted. Peyton and I talk about it sometimes because naturally I'm stronger than her. And Peyton's talked about how it's just it's scary. Like not that I'm stronger than her, but how men in general who I mean, a man doesn't need to be working out 24, 47 or extremely buff to be stronger than a woman naturally, usually.

And so it's just scary how men can overpower women. And, you know, I know sometimes we'll be like play, play wrestling. And I always went, of course. No, I'll be like, why don't you go a hundred? Cause like, I know you're not. Yeah. And I'll just, I'll say like, pin me and see how, and it's just like, I can't even budge. Yeah. And that's so terrifying. Or I'm just really strong, you know? But no, exactly. It's kind of scary.

The next one is, my childhood nightmare has been following me and I'm starting to see it as an omen. This is from Georgia.

All right, Georgia. Let's see. Hi, Peyton Garrett and of course, Daisy. I've been prompted to share my story after listening to your episode about the ghost in Gettysburg. I'm a longtime lover and listener of your show and first started listening back in September of 2020. That was pretty early on. And I have my own paranormal story to tell. I grew up in a rural village in the southeast of England, raised by a mom who is a firm believer in anything spiritual or paranormal.

normal. Gotta love those moms. While I personally haven't deep dived into the world of ghosts and spirits, there simply is no other explanation for the story I'm about to tell you. During my earlier childhood, my mom had to take a second job to support us and she would work evening shifts a few nights a week, usually ending around 1030 to 11 PM. Although I would be looked after by a relative bed and tucked into a bed, I would make my mom promise to come into my room at night when she got home to say goodnight to me.

Years later, she still swears she would come in every night, even though I was always passed out by that time, no matter how late I tried to stay up.

I was around seven when this story starts and would have been described as a kid with a very overactive imagination. It was late November and my mom was doing her usual evening shift. Once again, I was very determined to stay up to greet her when she came home. I laid awake in bed for hours till I eventually dozed off only to be suddenly awoken by the sound of my bedroom door opening and closing.

Excitedly, I shot up from the top bunk of my bunk bed and began to climb down, thinking I'd actually get to see her to say goodnight, not paying attention to my mom who had entered my room. Upon getting down from my bed, I finally look up to see a dark figure standing just away from the doorway against my wall. My bunk bed was on the opposite side to the wall this figure was facing, and I remember freezing mid-step across my bedroom floor. The person in front of me was a man.

Completely black against the darkness of my room and taller than my six foot wardrobe just across from him. I always wonder if I'm the only one that would scream in these situations because there's no way I'm quiet. If I'm seeing that, I'm like, what the? Like, I'm freaking out. There's no way I'm just looking. Oh, I wonder what this guy looks like. Yeah. She says he had no distinguishable features except for a very tall top hat.

All right, Hat Man. Yeah.

until I fell asleep. Very shaken up the next morning, I told my mom what I'd seen and I was brushed off saying it was just a nightmare, no need to worry. From that day on, I would consistently have dreams about Hat Man for around two years. My mom tried on a few occasions to cleanse the house of any energy using sage and putting salt on all the windowsills and door frames. For a long time, around six years after the nightmare stopped, the whole thing had slipped my mind and was completely forgotten. That was until a few months ago.

Around the start of Christmas last year, I awoke in the night, which is very out of character for me as I'm an extremely sound sleeper, to see Hat Man in the same place as I'd seen him all those years ago. Being older now, the most logical thing to do was to grab my phone and turn on the flashlight, to which he disappeared.

After staring at the spot he appeared for a few minutes, I went back to sleep and thought nothing of it. However, in the few days after this experience, my dad was involved in what could have been a very serious accident when he fell from the roof of our front porch while hanging Christmas lights. You know how many people pass away and die from falling off of roofs too? It's scary. There was no explanation to the fall as he seemed to just topple backwards off the porch roof. For context, my dad is still very active and healthy for his age with no health issues whatsoever. After

After a trip to A&E, it was concluded he only had some severe bruising and a gash on his leg, but no serious injuries.

This brings my story to now. Even writing this out has made my heart start thumping in my chest. Around a week ago, I was home alone doing some much-needed tidying and cleaning, singing along with my AirPods in. I was in the hallway attached to the kitchen. The wall of the hallway has a large mirror that reflects back some of the kitchen. I'm tidying the shelf below when I look up to see a very tall, completely dark figure, even in the light. This man was in complete darkness.

Just a silhouette against the lit up kitchen. I spin around, my fight or flight kicking in as I go to run towards this figure, but there's nothing and nobody there. I'm alone in the kitchen.

Okay.

Out of nowhere, a delivery van came up behind us going full speed and crashed into the back of our car, pushing us forward into the path of oncoming vehicles. Luckily, no other cars were involved as my mom managed to get us out of the way onto the side of the road.

Unfortunately, the rear end of our car was severely damaged. Everything had been crushed by the impact. Nobody was severely injured, although my mom got quite a bad concussion and I have a decent case of whiplash. The topic of Hat Man came up after everything was sorted after the accident and my whole immediate family seemed to think the appearance of Hat Man could be an omen of something in the near future for me. I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on what this could be.

Much love to you both and Daisy. I find myself looking forward to Mondays. You both talk about cases with such respect for victims and victims' families, and the Dear Daisy episodes show you guys are connected to your fans. I love listening in. Keep doing what you're doing. From Georgia. Man, it's so hard for me because... No, I'm not saying I don't believe you. I believe you. I believe a lot of people. It's probably a bad thing. But...

This, something crazy haunting like this has never really happened to me. Honestly, Georgia, I 100% believe that if you see Hat Man...

You need to put on football pads. You need to tell them to F off if you see hot man. No, I just think that maybe, you know, the first time you, the first time after being a kid that you saw hot man, your dad fell off the roof. This time you get in a car crash. I think you need to get one of those big hamster balls and just live in it. If it happens a third time, you need to try to talk to hot man. You need to move out of the UK. That's kind of crazy.

It is pretty nuts. If it was physical like that, it's not just like hauntings, that would freak me out. You know, because things are physically happening in the real world now. Also, some spirit or something has followed her as she's grown up. That's kind of weird. Like, why? You should try talking to it and record it and then let us know how it goes or send it to us. Well, she's probably hoping she doesn't see Hat Man again because bad omen. But you might need some SimpliSafe.

True. Code husband. This last one is The Time I Was Followed Home, and it's by Izzy. Hi, guys. I'm a huge fan, and when listening to a recent case, I remembered something that happened to me back when I was a teenager. I was a senior in high school in a small rural Illinois town. It was maybe 2016, 2017. I had lived there my whole life, and it was very much the kind of town where you could leave your doors unlocked if you wanted to. You knew almost everyone, and if you didn't know someone, someone you knew did. Right.

the city that Peyton grew up in as well she always talks about how I always has left my door a lot growing up I'm just like what I don't care how safe you are in your city always lock your doors it was to the point my parents would leave the back door open in the summer while we slept because they wanted the air in freaks me out man yeah that's so crazy my

My family lived about a 7 to 10 minute drive from town where the houses were further apart and everyone lived on about an acre of land. Our backyard was genuinely miles of cornfields. I was driving home one Saturday night from a friend's house who lived in town and it was pretty late. I'd say somewhere between 2 or 3 a.m.

This was pretty normal for me and my dad knew where I was. So I'm getting to the edge of town where I'm about five minutes from home and I notice a car behind me. It wasn't super weird. There weren't many cars out, but it was Saturday, so no alarm bells went off. That was until I started taking the turns that would take me to my more secluded neighborhood farther and farther from town and the cars still behind me.

I was starting to get a bit paranoid, but trying not to get paranoid, I told myself they had to just be some of my neighbors that were coming home from a late night out. As a 17-year-old girl, however, I had a natural paranoia when it came to things like this. I still do.

I go to turn down my street, which wasn't very regularly traveled anyways, let alone that late at night, and the car was still behind me. I tried to see who it is in my rearview mirror, but there were no street lights and it was just too dark to see. As I get closer to my driveway and begin slowing down to turn, I'm in a full-blown panic. The car behind me slows to a stop at the front of my driveway as I pull into my spot outside of the garage.

The outside garage light was on since my dad was expecting me late so I could look over and see figures in the car that was currently less than 20 feet away just sitting there literally followed her home. It looked like it was three maybe four guys. The only one I could actually see was the one in the passenger seat and it was a white man no older than 30 and I had never seen him before.

At this point, my stomach completely dropped. I immediately turned off the car, racking my brain for what I was supposed to do next. My first instinct was to turn off the overhead light that came on automatically and lean my seat all the way back to hide myself. I go looking for my phone, but I was so terrified to have it light up the car that I couldn't use it.

My heart was racing. I had no clue what to do. They say you have fight, flight, but I was frozen. I feel like frozen is probably the most popular one to be honest. It's so funny that we just call it fight or flight. For at least 15 minutes, but what felt like an hour, this car sat at the end of my driveway. And anytime I poked my head up to see if they were still there, they were. This is so something I would have done. Yeah. I would have just laid back in that car going, I'm just going to wait here until I leave. Oh, well. Yeah. That's so something I would do.

She said, I was just praying they would eventually think I had already gone inside and that they had missed me. Maybe as long as I stayed still enough and showed no signs that anyone was in my car, they'd leave. I don't think I had ever been so genuinely scared in my life. At one point, I heard a car door slam and I thought that maybe they were walking up to my car, but nothing happened. I didn't dare look. Totally something I would have done as well.

At this point, I tell myself I have to dial 911. But just as I'm going to dial, a light inside the house gets flipped on, meaning someone was awake. I hear the car door open and close again. And within two minutes, the car was gone. But I didn't move for another 10.

Oh my gosh.

When I told him what had happened, he immediately called the police to report it. We then sat near the window while my dad asked me questions about the car, the men, any information I could remember. Shortly later, the car drove slowly by the house and stopped in our driveway again. My dad immediately raced outside, which sent the car speeding away.

I didn't sleep that night. That's insane. I told myself I was being silly. Nothing had actually happened to me. But it was the news we found out after that that left me thinking whatever force kept me safe that night. The next day, my dad got a follow-up call about the report we had placed. And it turns out the same car had been seen leaving a crime scene in a neighboring town where someone was beaten with a bat.

After hours, hours after my dad had made that call, they had survived. Thank God. But we weren't given any further details. The cops were still looking for the car and the men responsible. I don't know if any arrest was ever made and I still can't find any online reports about the incident. The rumor was they weren't from around there and were just passing through.

I can't be sure, but if I would have gotten out of the car when I first pulled in or kept the lights on in my car or had my dad not woken up or had the garage door been locked, it could have been me.

I don't know why I got lucky. I still don't know what my best option was in the moment. I'm okay. My life went on. I'm just extra careful now that I live alone. Thank you guys for providing such amazing coverage for stories of victims that deserve to be remembered and for taking the time to hear about us and our stories as well. Much love to you too, Izzy. Thanks, Izzy. That's actually like terrifying. I mean, thank goodness I never...

have been like a crazy situation like that because i assume i my reaction would be fight i don't know yeah i don't think you i don't fight a bat i don't think you actually know until you're in the situation i think everyone assumes what they would do but no one knows until they're there until they're in that situation you know what i know you know why i know what i do i think i'd fight don't you yeah probably

Yes. One time it was like 2 a.m. I was reading my book in bed. My bed faced the door. So I'm sitting with my book. I can't see my door. My book's in front of my face, right? But the door is behind my book. 2 a.m. All of a sudden, my door handle turns. My door opens like three-fourths of the way. Oh, yeah. I remember this story.

Do you think I put my book down and looked? No, you just hid your face with your book. I sat there with my book in front of my face for a solid 45 seconds, working up the nerve to move my book. And who was it? I move my book down. My brother is standing there, hand on the doorknob, staring at me. Didn't say anything for 45 seconds as I sat behind my book. Oh my gosh. The story actually gets weirder because I looked at him and I was like,

Jeez, you scared me so bad. I was so mad at him. I was like, you scared me so bad. What are you doing? It's 2 a.m. Why are you doing this? He just closed my door. Doesn't say anything. Closed my door. Goes back to his bedroom. This is typical brother stuff. I think he might have been sleepwalking. It could have been. I actually ran after him to try to find him and he was asleep in bed. So the whole thing was very confusing to me. I don't know if I imagined it. That's funny. But...

I sat there behind my book. I didn't even look because I was so scared. All right, everyone. That was our Dear Daisies. And we will see you with a regular episode. Please don't forget to submit your stories. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.