03x11 - The Lynchville Secret

[bunniefuu]

I'm a logical thinker.

Paranormal's not something in my vocabulary.

Mom.

Did you say something?

No.

Is there somebody in my house?

[Stairs creaking]

We didn't know what it was.

[Screams]

There's a secret here. I'm scared.

My family is being att*cked now.

[Screams]

I have to do something.

Mom!

I wanted to protect my family.

Mom?

But I didn't know how.

Something was dragging her to the window.

[Train whistle blows]

I was a single mom with two daughters, KK and Hailey.

Honestly, I wasn't looking for a relationship.

It snuck up on me. I met Sergio.

We tease each other a lot.

They pick on me, and I pick on them.

It was the bear.

It made me feel really good to hang out with the kids and feel like a father figure to them.

So where... where are we going?

He's really funny.

He does the craziest things just to make you laugh.

I have fun with Sergio. He's kind of like my best friend.

Come on, Tonya, step on it.

Things were going really well, so we started looking to find a place to live.

Home sweet home.

And instantly fell in love with the house, instantly.

It was beautiful.

It couldn't have been any more perfect for our family.

One, two, three.

All: Happy family!

We had to redecorate the whole entire house.

We decided to start painting Hailey's room.

We bought this mannequin, and it's really nice, and I put different, like, clothes and stuff on it.

I was excited to make the room my own, and we painted it red and made it my style.

I love it. I love this color.

We got to do it together, and it was... it was a family.

That's good.

Girls, don't get all messy.

We finished one wall.

We decided it was a good time to break for lunch, because the paint needed to dry.

And we took the paint can, and we hammered the lid down with the hammer to make sure that everything was secure.

We were gone, I think, about 45 minutes.

There's paint everywhere.

It's all over the walls.

It's all over the carpet.

And I'm a little freaked out.

The lid was ripped off like somebody ripped it off and tossed it on the floor.

Did you do this?

She asked me, did you touch the paint?

And I said, no.

Both: No, mom.

The children hadn't been in the room.

We couldn't make any sense of it at all.

I had no logical answer for what happened.

So we went to get more paint.

Sergio had to go to work.

It's getting late, and the girls are tired.

I go to unlock the door.

I try to nudge it open, because it's an old house, and the door will stick sometimes.

I don't understand why it's not opening.

So I go and check the back door.

But it's not budging either.

And I call Sergio at work.

Hi, Sergio, the door's locked.

And he said, well, I'm not gonna be home for another three 1/2 hours.

You know, what are you gonna do?

Girls, get back, please.

I have to take drastic measures, and I kick, and I kick, and I kick.

But I finally got the door to open.

The bolt was locked from the inside.

I'm scared.

Is there somebody in my house?

And I thought about calling the police, but I just kicked the door in.

If there's somebody in the house, they're going to be aware I'm there.

Girls, wait here.

So I just decided to check it out myself.

[Door creaks]

I started in the kitchen, come through the door, I look around.

[Water dripping]

I grab the first thing I see, which is a pan.

[Clattering]

I felt very uneasy.

I felt just extremely afraid.

It's dark in the house.

I'm opening doors, looking around corners.

My heart is pounding out of my chest.

I'm just... I'm scared.

I go to the front door.

The bolt's locked there too.

I was sick to my stomach.

You can't lock it from the outside.

[Wood creaking]

And then I hear, behind me, somebody's coming down the steps.

I kind of freeze.

It sounds very lightweight.

It's like a child's footsteps.

I don't want to turn around.

But I know that I've got to look.

I slowly turn around.

But there's nobody. There's nothing.

I'm thinking, old homes make noises.

So I dismissed it.

Thank you.

A couple days later, Sergio and Hailey went out to get some drive-through.

Me and mommy were in the living room.

I was playing with my toys, and she was on the computer.

The TV's off.

It's very quiet in our neighborhood at that time of the day.

Mom.

I hear, "mom".

It didn't sound like my kid.

And I said, KK, did you...

Did you say something?

No.

I asked, did you hear that? And she said, what did you hear?

And I said, a little boy saying, "mom".

Right behind me.

It just gives me the chills.

I heard it clearly. It was scary.

We didn't know what it was.

It's okay.

We looked out the window.

No children... there was nothing.

I had no explanation for where this voice came from.

You scared us.

Her look on her face was... she was so startled.

Did you say, mom?

No.

Trying to explain something, that's unexplainable is a very difficult thing to do.

We heard a little boy say, "mom".

Me and Hailey looked at each other like, what are they talking about?

He just starts making little jokes about it.

Maybe it was your stomach grumbling.

We were just kind of like, that's crazy.

Boo.

[Gasps]

Hailey.

Even though KK had heard it too, I didn't know what to do at that point.

We just put it in the back of our heads and moved on.

One night, I was just taking out the trash.

I left the door open.

It was cold outside. It was dark.

I had kind of an uneasy feeling.

Something felt different.

[Music]

[Door slams]

I just looked at the door.

I was really scared.

[Knocks on window]

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Mom! Mom!

And Hailey screaming, mom, mom, let me in. Who...

Locked the door? Mom!

So I go to the door, and I try to open it.

Mom!

It won't open.

But then I realize the bolt is locked.

Let me in.

Where's KK?

KK couldn't have done it, because she's too short.

It's all the way up there.

I left the door wide open.

I didn't like that something locked me out of my own house.

I didn't like it at all.

It's okay. Come on.

I was trying to calm her down.

But deep down inside, I'm freaking out.

The footsteps, the child's voice, the paint, now the door.

There's only so much of a blind eye I can turn to these things.

It was the next day.

I was in my room.

I had this chest. It had black and white beads on it.

I noticed beads were missing.

I thought it was my sister, because she likes to prank people.

I didn't think too much about it.

Little pigs!

Little pigs...

Let me come in!

Not by the hair of my chin-y chin chin.

Then I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll...

I was watching a movie on my laptop.

[Clicking sound]

I heard something.

I thought it was weird.

[Creaking sound]

Underneath the bed, there's, like, a big old hole.

And I looked into the hole.

Ah! Mom! Mom!

I saw a little boy.

Mom! Mom!

She's out of breath, scared.

There's a... there's a boy under the bed.

She says, there was a boy under the bed.

KK has an imagination, definitely, but I can see in her face that she was very sure of what she's seen.

I see the springs. I don't see anything.

Then I looked down, and I saw something else.

One of Hailey's beads.

How did this bead get in this box spring?

[Windmill creaking]

I'm a light sleeper.

And one night I had fallen asleep on the couch.

And I hear a sigh, kind of like...

[Deep sigh]

I assumed it might be KK, because she gets up a lot, wanting to sleep with mom.

I open my eyes, expecting to see KK.

I see nobody.

There's this boy.

[Beads clattering]

And then he just vanished.

My heart felt like it went to my throat.

It just scared me so bad.

Sergio. Sergio, wake up.

Tonya had a terrified face on her.

I saw a ghost downstairs.

I'm like, I'm trying to sleep.

You sure you weren't dreaming?

And she said, no, honey, I was wide awake when I saw him.

Come back to bed.

But I kind of brushed it off at that point.

I'm a logical thinker.

Paranormal's not something in my vocabulary at this time.

But I couldn't deny it anymore.

There's a ghost of a boy in my home.

Why is he here?

If it was my child, I would want somebody to help my child.

So the next day, I contacted a local paranormal team.

Hi, this sounds kind of silly, but I've seen a ghost.

They recommended that I purchase some recording equipment...

Okay.

And try to communicate and ask questions.

Okay, thank you.

Tonya got really into it.

I didn't think anything would happen, but I was kind of curious on what was going on.

We turned everything off...

Fans, air conditioning...

Turned the lights out.

I turned the recorder on.

Okay, ready?

I felt really awkward being in there.

I'm a little nervous.

We were listening. It was really quiet.

[Clock ticking]

I couldn't believe it.

The microphone was pushed right off onto the floor.

And I ask, was that...

You that knocked the microphone over?

Who are you?

Why are you here?

How old are you?

What's your name?

We couldn't hear anything.

I think we should get some sleep.

We didn't think we got anything, to be honest.

I wasn't even sure I was recording.

Later that night, I play it back.

[Static crackling]

I couldn't hear anything.

[Static increases in volume]

[Static continues]

[Loud clattering]

I heard the microphone get knocked over.

Was that you that knocked the microphone over?

I heard my voice asking questions.

Who are you?

There's nothing.

And I was to the point to where I thought, I'm not gonna hear anything.

[Staggered static]

There is a boy going, mom, mom.

[Ghostly vocalizations]

Like he's trying to get my attention.

[Ghostly vocalizations]

I'm just in shock.

[Ghostly vocalizations]

[Music]

I felt all the hairs on my neck stand up.

Oh, my God, you scared me.

Sorry.

Here, listen to this.

Tonya said, well, babe, this is the same voice that I heard before...

Of that little boy saying mom.

Something weird's going on in this house.

I looked at her like, okay, Sweetie, I believe you.

Why are you here?

We continued listening.

How old are you?

And on the question when I asked...

What's your name?

I hear Joseph.

Once I had the name, I started researching and tried to find out who Joseph was.

At the library, I found old maps.

The city was divided up into block sections.

In the section that I lived in, the whole block was called Lynchville.

Then I discovered some old land records.

The man that owned my property, his name was J.W. Lynch.

And I wanted to find out who J.W. Lynch was.

I went as far as I could with the library...

But I wanted to know what connection he had to this little boy, Joseph.

I couldn't sleep.

All of a sudden, it just gets hot, hot, hot in the living room.

And I'm sweating.

I went and checked the A/C.

Maybe it got flipped to heat by accident.

It's on A/C.

The air conditioner's going.

Then it got worse.

It was so hot in there.

It felt like there was, like, a bonfire in the middle of the living room.

It was just excruciating hot.

I feel this pain on my side, and it b*rned horribly.

And I raised my shirt.

There's nothing there.

But it felt like something b*rned me.

[Indistinct speech]

And then I hear talking coming from upstairs.

[Indistinct whispering]

It sounds like men carrying on a conversation.

I hit record on the recorder.

I quietly sneak over to the end of the stairs.

[Indistinct whispering]

I have to go upstairs.

Everything's dark.

I'm scared half to death, but I have to check it.

[Indistinct muttering]

I don't know what I was thinking I would see.

But I don't see anything.

I play it back.

[Dull thuds]

I heard my footsteps.

The little girl's mom is looking.

Obviously, they're talking about me.

We can't see them, but they can see us.

And then horrible things started coming across the screen.

Letters over and over and over again.

I tried to stop it, but it wasn't stopping.

I'm hitting the button, hitting the button, hitting the button.

It's not stopping.

It just goes flying across the room.

[Music]

I just lose everything that I had saved to the computer, all these recordings that we had gotten, all these recordings I had saved.

[Alarm beeping]

Then the smoke detector starts to go off.

[Alarm beeping]

I'm looking around. There's no smoke, there's no fire.

And then the other smoke detector goes off.

[Beeping continues]

It's just going crazy.

[Beeping continues]

I'm like, why is the smoke alarm going off?

I looked around the house.

No fire, no smoke, no nothing was going on.

[Beeping continues]

So I pull the battery out.

[Beeping continues]

[Beeping stops]

[Sobbing]

Tonya was really upset. I was trying to calm her down.

Something threw my laptop.

I was kind of worried, too, because it was actually getting physical.

Somebody's gonna get hurt.

I just lay awake, and all these thoughts go through my head.

We have a little boy, Joseph.

And now with the growly recording and the male voice, who is this second ghost?

Is this man J.W. Lynch, maybe?

Why is he erasing my recordings?

Why is he shutting down my computer?

There's a secret here. I was determined to find more answers.

I found a local historian in the area.

I'm just interested in the city.

She gave me a lot of information.

Ponca City was founded in 1893.

It was a frontier town.

Ponca City back then was the Wild West.

J.W. Lynch was one of the Founding Fathers of Ponca City.

The man that had owned my property, J.W. Lynch, was a very rich and powerful man.

He was actually the Mayor.

He looked kind of mean in his pictures. He was not smiling.

He was quite a tough customer.

It was his way or the highway.

You didn't sway from J.W. Lynch's way.

That's the kind of man he was.

Did he have any children?

Yes, he did.

The historian told me J.W. Lynch had two sons.

The first son, we have a record of his life.

He grew up. He married. He was in the m*llitary.

The youngest son...

There's information that he was born. He's in the census.

But after 1910...

When he would have been roughly about five years old...

We don't have any information on him.

There's nothing.

He drops off the face of the Earth.

Then she told me something incredible.

One of his sons...

His name was Joseph.

Joseph.

Light bulbs just started to go off. I'm thinking, that's it.

That's the name I got on recording.

What happened to this boy? Did he die in my home?

It was late at night.

I was laying in my bed, and I was almost asleep.

The house felt different.

[Wood creaking]

And there was a creaky noise.

[Door creaking]

The door of the closet was slowly opening.

And I was just staring at it.

[Door creaking]

I could see fingers...

Opening it really slowly.

It was just staring at me.

[Screams] Mom!

Mom! Mom!

What's wrong? What's wrong?

She's just in shock.

[Sobbing]

And I'm trying to calm her down.

There's a man in the closet.

I think there's a man, you know, peeping in my daughter's room or something.

I look. There's nothing.

There's nothing here.

It's not cool when things like this happen in your own home.

It's really scary.

I'm not sleeping here.

Hailey, wait.

[Screams]

It's like someone picked up the water bottle and threw it.

It slams into the wall just right by her head.

I felt like something was trying to be intentionally vindictive. I didn't like it.

And I felt like...

I was unable to protect my daughter.

[Music]

[Wood creaking]

[Gasps]

All of a sudden, I woke up by a smack of my head. I'm like, ow.

Damn it, KK.

I'm thinking, you know, KK's smacking me in my head to wake me up.

And I saw a figure of a man.

I was frightened, felt really scared.

And he was gone.

If he can hurt me like that, he can hurt somebody else in the house.

[Haunting music box melody]

[Alarms beeping]

How in the world is this gonna go off?

It didn't make any sense to me at all.

None of them had batteries in it.

I got really aggravated with this.

[Beeping continues]

He gets angry, and he gets a broom handle, and he knocks it down.

[Beeping stops]

Ah! Mom, help!

What's wrong? What's wrong?

She was upset.

There was a boy.

And she says that the boy was there.

She said, mommy, he looked different.

He was what?

She said he was badly b*rned.

I held her. I rocked her.

I told her everything was gonna be okay.

I wanted to protect my family.

But I didn't know how at this point.

I was at the end of my rope.

I couldn't handle any more.

My family is being att*cked now.

This other spirit or whatever is taking away everything that we've worked for.

We didn't have the money to just up and move.

Everything we had was invested in this house.

There were no options. I have to do something.

[Knocking on door]

I contacted the historian...

Hi.

To see if I can get any more information to try to help.

She opened up and told me some things that I think she intentionally kept before.

J.W. Lynch wasn't all good.

He also had another side to him.

He had connections with Billy the Kid.

And he swindled people out of their money.

He was a horrible landlord.

He kicked people out just for no reason.

He would just make them move right then.

She said he even b*rned down a house for the insurance money.

Now I feel like I'm so close to solving this puzzle.

Things make more sense. Things are coming together.

The smoke detectors.

The heat.

The burning.

What if J.W. Lynch caused the death of Joseph?

[Screams]

Could this be the secret that J.W. Lynch is protecting?

Mom! Let me out!

All of a sudden, something cuts off my airway.

I'm being choked.

Mom?

I didn't know what was going on.

[Gasping]

Her legs were barely on the floor.

[Coughing]

I was dragged from the couch.

I'm being pulled.

[Coughing]

I can't do anything.

Mom?

I tried to stop myself and pull myself up, but I kept going.

Hailey!

Hailey!

I saw my mom being picked up and lifted and dragged across the room.

Mom!

It was kind of like someone was picking her up.

[Glass shatters]

We didn't know how to help her.

[Clattering]

The girls are screaming.

Mom!

Something was dragging her to the window.

She went face first into the window.

[Music]

Mom!

Whatever had me...

Was threatening me.

It's gonna let me know that it can hurt me.

I'm so terrified.

If it can do it to me, what can it do to my daughters?

But then I felt very angry.

This is something I've worked for. This is my home.

No matter what, I'm going to take my house back.

I realize that in J.W. Lynch's time, it was the Wild West.

This isn't the wild, Wild West anymore, and he's not welcome here.

I'm evicting him.

It's an awful thing to go through.

But once you're past it you feel stronger, you feel stronger, and you feel like you can handle things better than you did before.

I'm just glad nothing's bad anymore and things are good and we're...

Just a big old happy family again.

Careful, girls. Be careful.

I definitely think that I stumbled upon something that this man has hidden for the last hundred years.

And I think that he didn't like that at all.