Buzz
Every day, countless disturbing events occur unnoticed until they explode into public awareness through newspaper headlines or viral social media posts. Some of these eerie occurrences have been happening for decades, long before our time, yet retain the power to send shivers down our spines. Below are a few unnerving tales that will linger in your mind and haunt your dreams for years to come.
10. Woman Trapped in a Chair for Months
On February 16, 2017, a volunteer from an Ohio church dialed 911. He informed the operator that a 75-year-old woman, whom he had been assisting for more than ten years, was behaving unusually and appeared unwilling to leave a particular chair in her home.
However, the police were unprepared for the gruesome sight that greeted them at Barbara Foster’s residence in Springfield Township. Barbara, who weighed 550 pounds at the time, was found fused to her chair as her skin had started merging with the fabric. Evidence suggested she had been stuck in the chair for over a year, and as rescuers attempted to free her, her fragile bones began to break due to their extreme weakness.
The state of Barbara Foster’s home, both visually and olfactorily, revealed her struggle with hoarding. The odor was so overpowering that it permeated the sidewalk long before her eventual rescue.
Shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Barbara’s left leg had to be amputated. Tragically, despite a month of medical care, the former educator and animal enthusiast passed away in March 2017.
9. The Eerie Silence of the Suicide Forest
Aokigahara’s reputation as a hotspot for hikers and individuals seeking to end their lives is chilling in itself. It ranks as the second most frequented suicide site globally, trailing only behind the Golden Gate Bridge. However, the forest’s unsettling aura extends far beyond this grim statistic.
Many are convinced that Aokigahara is haunted by the spirits of those who never left. Legends also speak of a bird demon named Tengu that wanders the woods. Tengu and other spectral entities are often cited as the reason why all traces of human activity disappear roughly a mile into the forest.
However, the most unsettling aspect of the ‘suicide forest’ is its profound silence, despite the steady stream of hikers and despairing individuals seeking solace. This eerie quiet is often attributed to the dense foliage, towering trees, and the volcanic rock beneath the surface. To test this phenomenon, some visitors have let out loud screams, only to find the sound absorbed by the forest’s oppressive atmosphere.
8. A Nightmarish Infestation by the Thousands
In October 2007, Brian and Susan Trost purchased their ideal home in Weldon Spring, Missouri. Their joy quickly turned to horror as they discovered their home was overrun with brown recluse spiders. On one terrifying occasion, Susan was showering when a spider fell from the ceiling, narrowly missing her before disappearing down the drain.
The Trosts filed an insurance claim and sued the previous homeowner after their attempts to resolve the infestation failed. They hired exterminators to spray behind walls and apply pesticides in the attic, but nothing worked. By 2012, the house was infested with an estimated 5,000 spiders, forcing the couple to abandon their home, which eventually went into foreclosure.
By 2014, the house had stood empty for two years—empty of people, that is. The brown recluse spiders continued to thrive, completely overtaking the property.
7. The Voices That Never Cease
Children frequently create imaginary companions to cope with loneliness or to immerse themselves in a world of fantasy. They ‘see and hear’ these made-up friends with a level of excitement that most adults find difficult to comprehend.
However, the voices children associate with their imaginary friends can sometimes become alarmingly real. Studies suggest that roughly 1 in 12 children consistently hear voices in their heads. In 2018, 21-year-old Laura Moulding shared with the BBC that she had been hearing voices since the age of three. These voices, a mix of men, women, adults, and children, almost never leave her in peace.
As a young child, Laura heard a lion and bear from a favorite TV show repeatedly threatening, “I’m coming to get you.” The relentless repetition left her terrified. By the time she turned fifteen, the auditory hallucinations became unbearable, prompting her mother to seek medical help. At this stage, Laura was resorting to self-harm to drown out the voices that constantly berated her, calling her worthless, unloved, and a failure.
Laura Moulding was ultimately diagnosed with severe depression accompanied by psychotic symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, distressing thoughts, and a lack of self-awareness.
6. The Elusive Whereabouts of Pedro Alonso López
In 1980, Pedro Alonso López was arrested in Ecuador for attempting to abduct a 12-year-old girl from a market. This arrest came just days after the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of 53 young girls in the same region. Upon interrogation, López confessed to the murders of 300 girls. His method involved posing as a lost salesman seeking directions to his office, luring young girls away from their families, and then raping and killing them. He claimed his actions were meant to send the girls to heaven.
Despite his heinous crimes, López was sentenced to only 16 years in prison and was released in 1994 after serving 14 years. Within an hour of his release, he was arrested for illegal immigration and deported to Colombia, where he was convicted of a murder committed two decades earlier. Declared insane, he spent time in a mental institution before being freed once again in 1998.
As of 2020, López’s location remains unknown. There are fears he may still be committing murders unchecked somewhere in the world. Unverified rumors suggest he may have been killed in a vigilante attack, but no evidence has confirmed this.
5. The Case of the Stone Baby
In 1955, 26-year-old Zahra Aboutalib experienced labor pains for 48 hours before being rushed to a hospital in Morocco. Upon arrival, she witnessed another woman dying in agony during childbirth, which terrified her so much that she fled back home.
After her labor pains subsided, Zahra continued with her life. She never delivered a baby nor experienced a miscarriage. She adopted three children and later became a grandmother. Decades later, at the age of 75, Zahra felt severe pain again. Doctors performed an ultrasound and discovered a mass in her abdomen. Further MRI scans revealed the mass was her unborn child.
It was determined that Zahra’s pregnancy had been ectopic, with the fetus developing outside her uterus and growing into her abdominal cavity. Over time, the unborn baby calcified inside her body. The calcified fetus was removed during a four-hour surgery, earning Zahra the title of the woman who ‘gave birth’ to a stone baby in her seventies.
4. Starvation Drove Them to Cannibalism
In 2013, a chilling discovery emerged during ongoing research into the Jamestown Colony. While previous excavations uncovered animal remains from the harsh winter of 1609, newly found bones revealed a gruesome story of human dismemberment and cannibalism. The bones belonged to a 14-year-old English girl.
Analysis of the bones showed the girl had been struck on the head at least four times, splitting her skull. A knife wound to her left temple suggested her brain and facial flesh had been removed for consumption.
While experts agree the girl was butchered for food, it remains unclear whether multiple individuals participated in the act or if a single person carried out the gruesome deed.
3. The Lair of a Serial Killer
In March 2014, Catrina McGhaw rented a ranch house in North County from landlady Sandra Travis. Months later, while watching a documentary about serial killers with a friend, they were stunned to recognize their own home in crime scene photos displayed on the screen.
The house Catrina rented had once been owned by serial killer Maury Travis, the son of her landlady, Sandra Travis. Maury had constructed multiple torture chambers in the basement, where he stored the bodies of his victims.
Catrina confronted Sandra, demanding to be released from her lease. Sandra initially refused until the St. Louis Housing Authority stepped in, forcing her to cancel the agreement.
Maury Travis took his own life before he could face charges for the murders of at least 17 women.
2. What Lies Behind the Walls
In 2015, a family in Schuylkill County decided to insulate a room in their Auburn home. To their shock, they discovered several animal carcasses hidden behind the drywall, wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s.
Kajia Bretzuis admitted that while they had found a few animal remains since 2012, nothing compared to the recent discovery. The home inspection before they moved in had failed to uncover the horrors hidden behind the walls. Removing the carcasses, partially used spices, and other items drained the family’s savings, as their insurance did not cover any of the costs.
Seeking answers, the family sent some of the artifacts and animal remains to an expert in Kutztown. They were informed that the items had been placed inside the walls as part of a Dutch magical ritual intended to cure illnesses. The Bretzuis family has since launched a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money for further wall removal, ensuring no additional remains are concealed.
1. No Longer Working for Mickey
Numerous conspiracy theories and dark rumors surround Disney Enterprises Inc. These include claims of hidden sinister elements in Disney films, such as the idea that Frozen is a distraction from the alleged cryogenic preservation of Walt Disney’s head, said to be stored beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Searches for “frozen” or “Disney frozen” now primarily yield results about the movie, overshadowing the conspiracy theories about Walt’s supposed post-death freezing.
Occasionally, real-life disturbing events lend a sliver of credibility to these theories. For example, in 2010, two Disneyland Paris employees took their own lives. One was a 37-year-old restaurant manager with a wife and four children. After his suicide, a chilling note was found scrawled on a wall in his home: “I don’t want to work for Mickey anymore.”
A month prior, the second employee had tragically ended his life by jumping in front of a train.
These tragic events have been linked to a deteriorating work environment under new management, which has caused significant distress among employees.
