Case File: Smith House

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Date: 1972

Description: The Smith House is a residential family home. A full description of the location is unavailable.



History: In 1972, a newly married couple named "Joe and Mary Smith" moved into a new home in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. A few months later, while Mary was pregnant with her first child, she heard a commotion in the attic. Alone and scared, she called her father, a police officer. He went into the attic expecting a burglar, but found no person in the attic, which was a complete mess. Mary believed that it may have been a ghost.

As the months passed, the supernatural activity continued: doorknobs turned by themselves, and strange noises continued. Mary soon learned that a boy had disappeared in the house decades earlier. One day when her child was about the same age as the missing boy, he began screaming for no apparent reason. A few weeks later, he visited his grandmother and began screaming again. When she asked what was wrong, he pointed to a picture of the Devil. He later told his mother that he had seen the same figure in his bedroom.



However, Mary soon realized that the ghosts in her house were not always malevolent. After her second child was born, he suffered a severe case of jaundice which required surgery. Mary said while she was praying for her child, a bright white light came from her baby's room. When she went to the baby, she was shocked to find that all traces of jaundice was gone.

When Mary's third son was five, he encountered the ghost of a man walking down their staircase. Her son soon began having severe stomach pains. Doctors could not find a cause for the stomach problems. In 1993, Mary discovered that the "missing" boy had died under mysterious circumstances and was buried on the property. That night, when Mary tried to go to bed, random and strong electrical shocks went through her body; she felt that she was going to die. Downstairs, Mary's second son found that the dryer had been going on and off with no explanation. Fortunately, she was not injured.

Background: Mary Smith learned that the previous owners of the house had adopted a young boy in the 1940s. One day, the child mysteriously vanished and has never been found. Mary later learned from some sources that the boy had died under suspicious circumstances and was buried on the property of the home. It is unknown what truly happened to the boy.

Investigations: Dr. Andrew Nichols, a parapsychologist, investigated the ghosts at the Smith house. His team, which included Dr. William Roll, conducted a series of tests which included energy field tests to see if there were any unusual energy fields in the house. Dr. Nichols found that a dresser left behind by previous owners had a large electromagnetic field. He also found strong energy fields from a well in the basement that goes down into an underground lake. He believes that the energy fields from the well might be responsible for the strange activity in the house.

Extra Notes: The case was featured as a part of the April 4, 1997 episode.

Results: Unsolved

Links: None