Listener Tales 28 | Morbid

Hey weirdos, before we dive into today's twisted tale, let me tell you about a place where the darkness never ends.

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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.

She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.

And let me tell you, it did. I've been listening to it while I walk and I am absolutely loving it.

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Visit audible.com slash morbid.

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I really am obsessed with the strawberry flavor right now.

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Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. And I am Ash. And this is... morbid morbid in the morning but it's morbid for you Thank you.

Thank you. listener tales brought to you by you for you and all about you there you go I don't think you did that the last few times and it Yeah, I haven't done it in a while.

It left a hole in my soul. I don't even know if I just said it right.

It felt wrong. Brought to you by you for you.

And all about you. I feel like there's another thing.

I don't know. But I like it either way. Thank you.

It makes me feel better. Yeah, so we have had a crazy week.

We hope you guys enjoyed. the extra episode with Heather Bish because that was Amazing to do.

Oh, my God. So good to talk to Heather. She was amazing.

I mean, you guys, if you've listened to it, you heard she, she's just so eloquent the way she's able to talk about the case.

You know? Yeah. She's also so easy to talk to.

She is. It was really, really eye-opening conversation.

It was awesome. It was such an easy conversation.

We, you know, she's welcome back anytime she wants to come back and hopefully.

Eventually, we will have updates that she can come back and we can...

I'll be like, yay. And you know who can help us with that is all of you.

All of you guys. So definitely listen to the episode.

We put all the links and everything that you need in the show notes where the description of the episode is. because i know sometimes people are like what are show notes and i understand because when i first started listening to podcasts i was like what's a show note But then you'll find it.

Yeah, it's just where the description is of the podcast, wherever you're listening to it.

Exactly. We put the links there, so... make sure you do that because I think what she had to say was important and what she's doing is important. and let's support the bishes and families like them absolutely right so but uh But yeah, today we're going to do a listener tale because we love listener tales.

We are. We do have a little bit of business first that I literally remembered as you hit record.

So you're looking at me like, what's our fucking business?

I'm like, what is this business? The Summer Solstice Show.

Oh, yes. The big business. If you do not have an Instagram or a Twitter or you live under a rock, I guess.

No, I'm kidding. kidding. I love you. We are going to do another virtual live show just because we can't get enough of you.

We can't. And we're going to do one on the actual summer solstice.

It's also Father's Day, so it's for you dads.

Yes, it is. Or dad-like figures. Or dad-like figures.

So it's going to be June 20th at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

It's gonna get weird. It's gonna get kooky.

It's gonna be awesome. We have an idea for, like, costumes.

Yeah, we're excited. Are we gonna do... I think we're excited.

Yes. Okay, so if you want to get tickets, you can go to onlocationlive.com slash category slash morbid.

Now, there also is a t-shirt bundle, and I've seen a lot of confusion on the interwebs.

So there is a T-shirt bundle where you can decide to get a T-shirt with your ticket. and there's no prompt that's like, hey, what size do you want?

You're supposed to get an email later on.

Check your spam folder if you don't see it right away. and you can pick your size.

Sizes should go from small to XXXL. If you only received an email that was up to Excel, you're going to get another email and we'll fix everything for you.

It was like a weird thing and like the coding of the website.

Weird little glitch. Weird little glitch there.

But promise, it's completely, you'll get it.

You'll get a t-shirt. And if you don't, we'll mail one specifically to your house.

Yeah, if you don't, we'll fix it ourselves for you.

Exactly. I don't really know what that was.

She suddenly became like a geriatric old man.

Old man Jenkins over here. From SpongeBob.

You know that that's a thing now, geriatric.

I think I'm a geriatric. You are? That's fun.

I didn't want to tell you myself. With my youngest, I was almost considered a geriatric pregnancy.

I was like right on the cusp. That's really funny.

What a term. It's also pretty rude because it's like, I'm not like... It's a rude way to describe it.

I'm not like... You know? It just... Come on.

It's a pregnancy. Or it's like, hey. I'm just a millennial, okay?

I'll take older millennial. Actually, to be honest, I kind of love geriatric millennials.

I was going to say, I would rather be a geriatric millennial than a zillennial, which I am.

Listen, Gen Z, thanks for listening. I bet you guys are cool as hell that are listening.

I want to keep my skinny jeans. I will never wear, oh wait, I do wear a middle part.

I was like, I will never wear a side part, but that's actually your jam.

So it makes sense, I guess. So you know what?

I think she doth protest too much. No, no, no.

I'm full millennial and that's fine. But either way, let's get into...

Let's get into listener tales. All right.

Well, should I start us off? Would you like you to start?

All right, my first tale is called Does the Dead Guy in the Backyard Come with the House?

I sure hope so. Well, I'll let you know.

That's a great, great title. So it says, I will save us all the ooey gooey stuff.

I love y'all and all of y'all's shenanigans.

As I'm sure just from the opening line, I must be a nice southern lady.

Yeah, well, that's teetotal baby back bullshit.

Yeah. I'm Claire and I'm from the good old swamps of Louisiana.

Oh, Claire. You were my kind of person. Where the food is soulful and there's all kinds of weird shit around every corner.

Oh, I love you, Claire. So hold on to your backsides because your girl here has partaken in some high class oregano.

And I finally have the courage to send y'all this event that is 15 or that 15 years later gives me nightmares.

You can use names. I already changed them.

Oh, claire i love claire and then you're gonna love her even more from this next part i'm so excited okay in sofia's voice picture it But crack of America, I mean Louisiana, circa 2007.

Oh, man. My bestie girl, Andrea Melanson, and I, being the little mud crickets we are at a whopping 10 years old. are in her backyard just fucking around throwing creek mud at each other in the far backside of her family's land.

While in normal Louisiana fashion... I had just gone to go exploring to see if her shit bread Shit bread.

Shit bread. Shithead brother Jamie had his shithead best friend Blake were just messing with us when they said that there was a gator in the pond on the far back side of the land.

So in mud cricket river roach fashion, we ran to investigate.

I love this. Open our little excursion, which wasn't that much of an excursion since we were all of a football field away from her house.

Anyway, I walked from the pond because was not shit back there except an old rusty Volkswagen van and a beaver dam.

What I discovered was not at all what I expected.

You know when one of our beloved family pets die, we cremate them or bury them in the backyard or whatever?

Okay, so when I stumble upon tiny headstones saying shit like, Jack, beloved friend who caught the car. okay, cool, no big deal, still kind of weird, but to each their own.

But... Tell me why I see a full-size headstone like these people got money to blow on a bougie-ass headstone for the family dog.

So I waddle over to go full Nancy Drew on this odd discovery.

Okay, ready? Here's what the headstone says. quote, Kurt MacLennan, beloved husband, father, and NASCAR fan.

Okay, what the fuck? Here comes Andrea and she's just like, oh yeah, that's my dad.

And just leads me back to the house like, that didn't just happened, but that's just my dad.

That's just my dad. It's just my dad, but whatever. we had a sick night planned of playing those old school video games that you plugged into the AV cables on the TV and let SpongeBob go apeshit around Bikini Boy. lot of.

That's funny that I just talked about SpongeBob.

But, of course, that changed when Jamie and Blake had the bright idea to watch a scary movie.

No lie, Blake was a total hottie. Like, think young Justin Bieber, but in Wranglers and NASCAR hats.

So, of course, be obliged. Okay, don't worry.

We're getting to the end. Admit what you need, but this is a shit show.

We're not taking away anything. Nothing.

I have a bladder the size of a grape. So all that sugar gasoline, the OG monster drink with the purple scratches, that's shit slapped, ran right through me.

I just walked over to the potty room which has deer antlers over every possible service and a camouflage shower curtain.

See picture nine on the listing because...

She sent like the listing of the house. I love it.

Oh, yeah. What a taste in decor we have in the South.

So, whatever, do my business, stand up, wash my hands, and I kid you not, The shower curtain swings open faster than my cats when they hear the food can pop.

That's really fast. I screamed but I thought, oh it's just Blake.

Oh no, it was definitely not Blake. There was nothing there.

I go to open the door and get the fuck out of that situation, but guess what?

The door was locked. Okay, that door didn't have a lock.

So, like, again, what the fuck? I just shut the fuck up and I think, okay, well, there's a demon in here about to drag me to hell.

Yeah, it's fine. But then the lights go off like, OK, sister, you don't want me in your bathroom. but I only drank like three energy drinks and I had to go.

Well, as I'm lying there thinking about how pissed my mom is going to be when I call her, As I get out of that tacky, possessed bathroom to come get my ass, Andrea opens the door and asks me if I fell in or something.

Like, bitch, inserts Bianca Del Rio rolling her eyes.

Did you not just hear all that nonsense?

She said, no, Blake and Jamie are asleep, so we're going to bed.

I reluctantly followed and curled up in my fabulous Kim Possible fleece PJ pants because you know, bad bitch. hell yeah call me if you want to reach me if you want to page me it's okay anyways there you go You know those photos sitting in your phone, the ones that make you smile every time you scroll past them?

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The next morning, I tell Andrea what happened, and this whole bag is just like, oh, yeah, that's just Auntie Annie.

She's a joker. I'm sorry, but where in the actual fuck would that be considered a joke?

Andrea's the chillest. She's like, oh yeah, that's dad.

Oh yeah, she's my auntie. She loves a good laugh.

I just gathered my shit in my sparkly Hannah Montana duffel bag and called my mother to come get me.

She asked if I had fun, to which I replied, no, mother, I did not have fun.

I almost got murdered by my best friend's dead aunt who likes to mess with people.

At their most vulnerable, she was quiet and just said something like, I hope it was a really good time.

Really, mom? Really? Yeah. Anyway, I digress.

I'm sorry for the lengthy nonsense, but I've been wanting to tell this story for a long time.

So when I saw the creepy ass house was for sale, I thought this was the perfect time to share.

So I attached the real estate listing. And when you look in the backyard, just remember through all that book, Brush.

And greenery that has grown up this whole bag's dad is just chilling six feet under with the dogs.

The house just has creepy vibes. But anywho, I hope y'all keep it weird, but not so weird that you and your best friend turn into a mud cricket. river roach queens at 10 years old and go exploring on the family land and stumble upon dead daddy buried next to the dog and then go back to the house and watch a shitty scary movie and get fucked with Okay, love you, bye.

Shouldn't say I love you. I don't know why I did that.

Claire. Also, Ash, my cat is named Frankie, but we regularly refer to her as Frank Franken. frankenfurt franklin and francesca that's her legal name and my personal favorite cunt Here's the listing.

Page nine is the creepy bathroom or whatever is left of it.

This family fell off the map. On the last picture, the long skinny part in the back area is where all the dead things are.

I guess we can post this. It's like public record.

Where all the dead things are. Right. I love that so much.

That's phenomenal. So funny. Alright, so mine is titled Teen Murderers in My Boyfriend's High School.

Fun. Wow. Except not at all. Let's do this.

Hey, ladies, I'm a huge fan of your podcast.

I just started listening a few months ago and I've listened to every episode you guys really brighten up my day and I love the way you guys do so much research it shows how much you enjoy it thank you so much thank you i do enjoy it i do anyways i've always wanted to send you a listener tale but i haven't had anything too crazy happen that close to me i guess you're lucky I was gonna say.

Yesterday, my boyfriend sent me an article and I realized it's finally my chance.

It is your time to shine. you have the golden ticket feel free to use my name and my boyfriends if you use this for the podcast This isn't a super personal story, but it happened pretty close to me, so I thought I would send it in.

So here we go. My name is Aurora. I love that name.

Princess. Princess Aurora. One of my daughters would love you.

Yeah, seriously. Also, that's apparently becoming one of the most common names now. yeah for like babies this year it's it has a resurgence everyone was at home watching Sleeping Beauty this year.

Yeah, I think it's because of you, Aurora.

I think so, too. I think it is. It's a pretty name.

It is. Aurora Borealis. Hey, Aurora. We love your name.

Aurora. My name is Aurora and I'm a junior in high school.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes, scary shit happens here all the time, but this one is especially crazy.

My boyfriend had a friend group last year, pre-COVID and all that stuff.

And there was one kid that was always a little weird.

Yesterday, that kid was arrested for murdering his girlfriend's dad.

The murderer was Aaron Guerrero, an 18 year old junior in high school.

Apparently his 16 year old girlfriend's dad was not very approving of their relationship.

I always hate these i know because you know where it's going hate these so much every time So they decided to murder him.

You might think, oh, they probably just shot him.

That's what I thought at first, too. But no, they did something much, much worse.

Not all the details are out yet because this happened so recently, but from what we know now, they stabbed him to death first, then tried to dismember his body with a chainsaw, a circular saw, and a hand saw.

Why so many saws? Now this must have not been as easy as they thought, because they then set the whole house on fire, most likely trying to burn away evidence.

Yikes. Evidently, they weren't very smart because the same The same day, a few hours earlier, surveillance footage at Winco showed the daughter Buying two gallons of bleach and a gallon of orange juice.

His own daughter. that's so fucked up and also do you guys not know that surveillance exists that's We are all on TV all the motherfucking time.

And these are the youngs. These are the youths.

They have only known a world that has cameras everywhere, yet they still do this shit.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I recently found out that like Instagram was having problems where like people found out that Like when you were scrolling through Instagram, they were watching you through your camera.

So Instagram has seen me on the can like far too many times.

That's so fucked. So fucked. Like, why do they do that?

And no matter what. Like even when you're on Instagram, if you like close out the app, the little camera button that like says your camera was in use is.

Ew. It freaks me the fuck out. Ew, I don't like that at all.

I just, you know what? Whenever like the olds make this mistake.

I'm like, OK, like I can kind of understand that because it's like you've lived in a world that didn't have cameras everywhere.

So like I get that. Yeah. But when the youths do it.

It's like, I mean, I'm glad they make the mistake.

Don't get me wrong. I'm so glad they make this mistake, but I'm like, what an idiot.

Dang guy. Oi. Ding guy. Ding guy. The plural of dingus.

This is another lesson with Ashkel. thank you for being here today the more you know so the other footage showed Aaron leaving Home Depot buying multiple saws and gloves.

My God, guys. Also... I think I don't really go to Home Depot, so I don't know if it has self-checkout.

But imagine being the person that... And you're just that person out and you're like, what are you doing with all these sauce?

Are you a lumber man? And literally they all try to have a conversation with you to be like, Oh, planting a garden on you.

What are we building today? And you're like, sure am.

And they're like, good luck. You working on a tree house?

But they're like, Something like that. Cutting something with these saws.

Cutting everything up in here. All the bleach.

Fun. I wouldn't know what to do. I'd literally be like, are you murdering someone later?

Are you doing that? That would be the first thing that would pop in my head.

I'd be like, oh, have fun with your murder, I suppose.

All I want is like a listener tale of somebody who knows like a cashier that stopped a murderer dead in his tracks by being like, are you murdering someone today?

So like, You're not murdering someone, right?

I can't sell you this if you're going to do that.

You're not stupid enough to just go through my line with all this shit, right?

And then go murder someone. See that over there?

Right? They call that... security no you can't security cameras you can't be that right right over there look look yeah your face right there boom we got you She just runs out of there like, never mind.

Never mind, I didn't do it. What? I need that to be a lesson.

I just have a lot of laundry. So unfortunately, they stole the victim's car and ran away to Utah.

They weren't found till five days later when they were catching a train ride and a police officer asked to see Aaron's ticket.

He admitted he didn't have one, they asked for his ID, and did a quick search to find they both had warrants out for their arrest. goodbye they were brought back to las vegas and arrested as for the girlfriend not a lot of information is told about her because she's a minor but she was definitely 100% involved and helped throughout the process.

That, like, hurts my soul. Yeah, her father.

Her father. And for some 16 year old little dingus, like you ruin your entire lives and take the life of someone else because of some 16

16-year-old little dingus. Like, guess what?

I feel like you guys probably weren't going to make it out that much.

Yeah, I don't think this was going to be endgame.

Statistically, not so much. No, I think it was going to end pretty soon.

I'm sure we'll find out much more once their trial begins.

My boyfriend was so shocked that someone that he had been friends with could have done something this awful.

More is still unraveling, so I'll leave some links to articles and stuff, and you guys can follow along to see what else comes out.

Thank you so much, ladies, for making my day so much more morbid.

If you read this on the show, shout out my boyfriend Keo for me, please.

Hey, Keo! Keo! I promise we'll keep it weird, but not so weird that you do this.

It's so weird that you're rolling through the frickin' Home Depot with eight saws.

What is that about? So you know what? Thank you, Rory.

And thank you, Pio, for this. I didn't even know that your name was Rory.

I love that. Love it so much. Actually, no, your name's not Rory.

It's Aurora. Oh, Rory. Wow. Wow. Wow. That was a me moment.

Guys, it's been a long week. I don't know if we told you already.

My brain has short-circuited quite a bit this week.

Yeah, yeah. Rory is a great nickname for a roar.

It is. Well, moving along here. Seriously, thank you so much for that story because that was crazy.

That one was bananas. And once more. Hi, Keo.

Hi, Keo. My next one is called Listener Tale, Childhood Fun in the Witch's Cemetery.

I'm obsessed. And it comes with a description, a spooky tale of a local witch haunted cemetery with a heavy metal band twist.

You won't want to miss out. It's about a 10 minute read if that helps.

Love you guys. And are you speaking directly to my soul?

Not only did it come with a description, a time of how long it would take me to read it.

It also came with a PDF, if you will. Put a foot.

I love a put a foot. I hate that. That kind of sounds like pedophile.

If you say it. It does. And that was a little troublesome.

Anyways. But I'm very excited for this one.

Everyone settle in with me. I also want to know if this person timed themselves to like, like write it out loud and time themselves to see how long the read would be.

I'm going to time it. Do it. Let's see.

All right. I'm a little bit stressed, though, because what if I mess up?

And don't try to, like, speed through it.

Well, I just read pretty fast. Do your thing.

Okay. Just feel it. Are we allotting time for comments?

Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. So 10 minutes and change.

Exactly. Okay. Tell me when to go. go. Hello, ladies of Morbid.

My name is JC. Feel free to use my name.

I hope it's JC and not JC and I'm saying it all correct.

I'm going to go with JC. Anyways, yeah, see you already time.

I of course have to start off by saying how awesome I think the both of you are.

Every time I get a notification of a new episode dropping, it feels like Christmas.

You are easily my favorite true crime podcast and impress me every episode with how much time and effort you put into your research.

Thank you. That was really nice. I know.

I live for your content and your energetic and hilarious personality.

Seriously, you weirdos are amazing. You're amazing. amazing.

Today, I have for you a spooky local legend about a witch that might still haunt her cemetery grounds.

Oh, bring it. That's everything I've ever needed in my life.

I grew up and still live in Jackson County, Minnesota.

This is a small rural community. Damn it, it's a county.

On the southern border of Minnesota. Community to another.

It is, yeah. I bet it's a community on the southern border of Minnesota.

Basically Iowa, but I don't want to talk about it.

Why do we want to talk about it? I love it.

I don't know anything about Iowa other than nothing.

Why don't you want to talk about it? What happens in Iowa?

Now I want to talk about it. That's all I want to talk about.

Oh, I guess it explains it in the next sentence.

We Minnesotans are proud. Oh. Yeah. As a family, we loved to go camping in the local county campgrounds, and it was a big part of my childhood.

We didn't go real camping, you know, sleeping in tents with a cooler full of hot dogs for survival.

We cheated and had a camper and it was simply just a place to hang out with other families by the lake.

Get it. That's real camping as far as I'm concerned.

That's the most camping. Drew's family loves camping and they have like a gorgeous camper.

And I'm like, nope. Sorry, can't come that weekend.

And they're like, please, will you just camp Ash?

And I'm like, someday. No. There's plenty to keep us kids busy at these campgrounds.

We entertained ourselves by swimming and fishing in the lake, getting splinters on the questionably built playground, and of course, riding our bikes wherever we could.

We often would ride our bikes to the rickety but awesome lookout towers scattered in the parks.

I'll attach a picture below. Very sweet home Alabama of you.

I love that. The campgrounds. Oh, that's exactly what I pictured them as too.

The picture is exactly what I pictured. I thought you meant sweet home Alabama.

That too, sure. Yes. The campgrounds were fairly large with many beautiful paved bike trails surrounding them, so we had no shortage of places to ride.

Knowing what I know now about child objections and other terrible things from all the true crime cases I've heard about, question our parents for letting us zoom around on our bikes wherever the wind took us but it was a simpler times back then it really was it was One of our favorite activities, of course, was to, quote, adventure.

Oh my god, my kids love to do adventure.

Like, that's what it's called. Mm-hmm. They literally ask to go on adventures.

Let's go adventure. Can we go on an adventure?

It's a verb, it's a noun, it's becoming everything.

It's adventure. It's the new, I don't know.

Adventure, so hot right now. Yeah, that's what I was going for.

Okay. Our adventures meant riding our bikes to new places, building forts, and all things we adults miss about childhood.

Yes. We had an adventure that I remember doing a few times, and now looking back, I wonder why the hell we were out there.

My memory these days isn't perfect. Same sister.

But I am also almost, I am almost certain that we were dared by someone's dumb ass dad to go out there.

The local legend surrounding this place was definitely something to be told around a smoldering campfire.

While we shoved our faces full of s'mores made with burnt marshmallows.

Oh my god, yes. We were told the legend of Mary Jane Terwilligar.

I'm already so obsessed with this. Terwilliger?

Is that how you say it? Terwilliger. Terwilliger.

I don't know. Yeah. T. Mary Jane T. The witch buried at Loon Lake Cemetery.

Hell yes. As? I feel like that's where I should be buried.

Loon Lake. Like... You know what's even more stressful than a packed calendar?

Realizing you're out of coffee right before a meeting.

That actually happened to me the other day.

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The sale ends 831. Don't miss it. As with all local legends, the story varies person to person, but this is how many remember it.

Mary Jane was a witch that was behaved...

Beheaded. She was beheaded. She was beheaded.

Beheaded in 1880. She just overtook your body.

I was beheaded. Oh. Fuck. I don't want to make fun of this because I'm scared.

No, it's scary. Mary Jane was a witch that was beheaded in 1880 by townspeople of Petersburg, Minnesota.

Side note, I actually live in Petersburg.

And I always say in order to live there, you have to be a weirdo.

And this only solidifies the theory. Hell yes.

It is said that Mary Jane was buried in Loon Lake Cemetery with the axe used to murder her.

Oh, that's rude. I don't know why you would give her a weapon in the afterlife.

That's also just really rude. It is. Many people say she was not the only witch in the area, but that she was the lead witch of a coven. badass motherfucking vibes mary jane let's get it i was gonna say of course mary jane wasn't alone she had a coven of course she did she's mary jane yeah At the time, the townspeople tolerated the witchery until it started to cause trouble.

These witches were buried in Loon Lake Cemetery because it was desolate and was a place to bury orphans and other outcast members of society.

Why does a place like that even exist? There is a desolate cemetery for orphans and witches.

Sir, what the fuck? That sounds like everything is gonna get real fucked up for them in the afterlife.

At Stephen King. Have you heard of this place?

We know you did Pet Sematary, but let's talk about Loon Lake Cemetery.

Talk about the witches and orphans buried in this desolate cemetery on a lake.

That would make such a good movie. I'm gonna...

Twitter Stephen King about this you go ahead and Twitter Stephen King It is said if you go out to the Loon Lake Cemetery and jump over Mary Jane's grave three times, you will have bad luck for the rest of your life.

That's pretty good too. It's easy to avoid.

Why the fuck would you ever do that then?

I feel like you can avoid that. The rest of your life?

Not just like seven years? No. Some say it only takes one jump and you will die an unnatural death within three days.

No, thank you. There are a lot of car accidents, suicides and other supernatural things that some locals attribute to Mary Jane's curse.

Doesn't this story sound like a perfect tale to tell a group of curious children?

Of course. Whether it was dare or childlike curiosity, we eventually all rode our bikes down to Loon Lake Cemetery.

Contrary to what you may be picturing in your heads, this was not a far adventure for us at all.

This haunted cemetery is conveniently located directly off the gravel road that goes right through the Family Fun Park.

We rode our bikes right down to the entrance of the path that led to the back of the cemetery.

From there, we had to walk up the path to the cemetery.

The path essentially is just one pass with the lawnmower through the tall prairie grass.

Thankfully, you can see the cemetery from the entrance of the path.

I feel like I've said path a lot of times.

Path. Say path again. It sits up on a knoll in the middle of the prairie land.

If you know anything about this part of the Midwest, you know that our land is mostly cornfields and flat as a pancake.

Oh, yeah. I'm so into this. I want to live there.

We walked back to the cemetery. commentary to find a sad excuse of a chain link fence surrounding what looked to be like a lot of nothing.

The only thing post-1800s about this place was the newer headstone right at the entrance of the cemetery, that displays the name of the known people resting in the cemetery.

Of course, we looked for the name that we had heard about around the campfire, Mary Jane T. We found her name out there and screeched in excitement to have bad luck for the rest of your life.

A few of my braver friends explored the desolate cemetery, while a few of us chickens never made it very far past the fence.

I kept thinking back to the legend of jumping over Mary Jane's grave and as you can imagine, back in the day, a bitch was not trying to jump over that shit.

Hell no. Mm-mm, you were smart. We visited the Loon Lake Cemetery quite often during our childhood camping days with all the adventures turning out pretty similar.

There aren't many headstones left in the cemetery, so we couldn't ever find Mary Jane's grave.

Nothing too wild happened to us, and luckily, none of us ended up with a curse of bad luck or worse.

Sometimes it pays to be a little bit of a chicken.

The legend of the witch Mary Jane is still alive in Jackson County, and it's a fun creepy tale to those who don't know anything about it.

As much as locals would all like it to be, unfortunately, it is not really the truth about Mary Jane.

Mary Jane T. was born on January 5, 1862, in Border Plains, Iowa.

She was the eighth and final child of John and Phoebe T. John and Phoebe resided in Minnesota, township in Jackson County.

They were pioneers who made their living as farmers until John's death at the extraordinary age of 101.

Damn, John. Let's cry. Holy shit. Phoebe also lived a long life, living to be about 92 years old.

Damn. and was finally buried in Loon Lake Cemetery next to her husband.

Mary Jane unfortunately did not live the long life that her parents had.

Mary Jane died on March 5th, 1880 at age 18.

She spent her final days in Cherokee, Iowa. where she was working as a domestic servant.

Official records say her cause of death was diphtheria, a respiratory disease with no known cure until the 1920s.

So she wasn't axed off. Damn. Like, no wax at all?

No wax? Come on. Diphtheria? That sucks.

Her remains were brought to Jackson County to be interrupted.

Wow. To be interrupted. To be interrupted.

To be interred. Corpse interrupted. Corpse interrupted.

To be interred by her mourning parents at Loon Lake Cemetery.

That's awful. By all accounts, Mary Jane's head was fully attached to her body.

No sign of a brutal murder. That's good for Mary Jane.

That is good for her. I wish she lived a longer life.

Me too. The origin of the legend of Mary Jane being a witch is unknown.

The director of the Jackson County Historical Society has a hunch that the story was fabricated in the 1880s, Okay.

Whenever something went wrong at the mill, he would blame witches.

Fuck yeah, he would. That makes sense. Yes, he would.

He's like Mr. Crocker in fairy tales. Fairly odd parrots where he's like, fairy god parrots!

He's like, motherfucking witches! local businesses like bait shops had customers coming from dry towns miles away to buy their beer.

The shopkeepers would tell the story to intrigue their customers and get them talking about the store.

These types of stories just spun on for years and years to where we are now today.

The same sort of beer drinking folks telling Mary Jane's alleged story just now around a campfire. well and her name is Mary which I feel like gets attributed to like witchery a lot oh absolutely All kinds of spooky legends, like Bloody Mary, all that.

I feel like the name just, some girl died at 18.

Her name was Mary. She was a witch. witch she was axed off buried with her axe meanwhile poor thing had diphtheria yeah Oy vey.

The Loon Lake Cemetery could truly have been such a beautiful and historical tribute to pioneers who settled the land years ago.

It's the final resting place for many who fought for rights and liberties, veterans of the Civil War and one veteran of the War of 1812.

In total, the cemetery likely is the final resting place of over a hundred people.

Unfortunately, desecration is all you see when you enter her gates.

That sucks. The church who once took care of the cemetery abandoned it long, long ago.

How do you just abandon a cemetery? I know, that bums me out.

Like, what? There were once around 70 headstones standing in the graveyard, and today less than 10 remain.

Damn. The only modern thing about the cemetery adorns is the memorial stone at her entrance.

The cemetery has not only fallen victim to abandonment and the elements, but also vandalization.

I was waiting for that i knew it was gonna happen local assholes knocked over headstones and even stole them from the cemetery i feel like that is the worst luck you could possibly bring upon yourself yourself what kind of dumb do you have to be a special kind of dumb to steal a headstone or knock one over not only what kind of dumb but what kind of asshole do you like That's so deep within you, that kind of asshole.

Wow. Literally. Wow. It's like, why would you ever do that?

That's really shitty. Yeah. These headstones would get recovered by the local police, thrown out in random yards and road ditches.

Oh, that's terrible. Mary Jane, obviously, was a huge target for these piles of garbage who vandalized graves.

Her headstone was stolen in the 1990s and eventually found abandoned in somebody's yard.

It was taken to the county courthouse where it sat until it was taken by the Jackson County Historical Society to where it now rests safely inside the museum.

I love that like Mary Jane just got to be in a museum.

She's got to be fancy. She's got to live it up for her.

Someone even attempted to dig up her grave at one point.

What? They dug a six foot wide hole and then got about a foot and a half down before stopping.

For what? That's all up to us. That's up to all our imaginations.

I love that they got a foot and a half down and were like, oh, that was a good try.

You do know that everyone is six feet under, right?

It's not just a joke. The story of most abandoned cemeteries is that the dead will harm the living who enter their graveyard, but the Loon Lake Cemetery is quite the opposite. the living have been bringing harm unto the undead.

In recent years, there's been some effort effort made to improve the cemetery.

The grass is regularly mowed and you can actually see all the headstones.

It looks much different now than I remember as a kid and things are improving thanks to some great local people.

I wish I had my own crazy spooky story of Loon Lake Cemetery, like hearing voices or even seeing the ghost of Mary Jane herself, but alas, I can only dream.

I do feel like stories of Mary Janes need to be shared because who knows what these women went through being labeled as witches during this time in history.

Loon Lake Cemetery is not home to any witches, just like there were no witches in Salem Village in 1692.

That is... Awesome. That's wicked cool.

Is it David Elfson? Yeah, I think so. David Elfson, the band's bassist, is from my hometown of Jackson, Minnesota.

He grew up familiar with the legend and co-wrote the song, which appeared on the album So Far So Good, So What, in 1989.

The lyrics tell the tale of being haunted by the Witch of the Wind around a bridge of the song.

Excuse me. And the bridge of the song matches the faded epitaph.

I can never say that. inscribed on Mary Jane's tombstone.

After ruining a perfectly good spooky witch story with a bunch of historical historical facts, I will leave you an intriguing piece of Mary Jane T's legacy that may make you question some of the facts in her favor.

Mary Jane's epitaph may be a permanent and ghostly reminder to those who pass her grave that maybe she does in fact have some supernatural power.

Here it is. Kind friends beware as you pass by.

As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be.

Prepare, therefore, to follow me. Girl, Mary Jane was a witch.

My whole body just like Mary Jane was a whole ass witch.

I just became a goose bump. I just became a witch again, all over again.

Like, what the fuck? Like, she's like, yeah, look at this tombstone.

She's like, someday you're going to die, too.

You're going to be right here. Damn. Like that's fucked.

And follow me? That's ominous. Follow you into the dark. damn i want that on my tombstone just to scare the shit out of everybody that makes a lot of Well, that's it.

You can end there for a super spooky effect if you made it this far.

Thank you so much for the read. Again, you guys are simply amazing.

And then they gave a couple of resources and some photos that we'll definitely have to post.

That is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

We'll have to post the epitaph because that's really cool.

Oh yeah, that's really cool. Thank you for your story.

Thank you for your service. And you know what?

I think... That was around 14 minutes, but because we stopped to chat.

Yes, that was like four minutes of comments.

Yeah, that was a pretty good, like, estimate of what it would be.

Good job, JC. Good for you. Good on ya. Alright, my next one is called Spoopy Beethoven.

This one is hilarious. And I'm very excited about this.

Hey, ladies. First, you women are amazing and hilarious.

Thank you for bringing me some relief to my crazy life.

I love that. I love you. I love you. I love you, lady, she said.

I love you, I said. And you were like...

I said. And you remind me of me and my best friend.

We both listen to you and have thought about starting our own podcast.

Do it. I was born and raised in Sunburst, Montana.

Yes, this bleepin' place exists. Sunburst?

I don't want to live there because I hate the sun.

I mean, I don't like the sun very much, but sunburst, I feel like I would make that my name and just go live on a commune.

You could just be sunburst. Yeah. But I am currently active duty in the Army at Fort Hood in Texas.

What a badass you are. Seriously. Thank you, by the way.

My job is 19K, which I think you should just look up for yourselves and see how badass I really am for yourselves.

On my way. Like, she's literally in my brain.

I haven't read this. I know, right? And me too.

We get it. I thank you for reading my story and hope it isn't too long.

You may use my name. My name is Nicole and I have a spoopy paranormal story for you.

Wait, you want me to tell you what she does?

Yeah, tell me. The U.S. Army M1 armor cruiser. crewman works as a part of the team to operate armored equipment and fire weapons to destroy enemy positions.

During combat, their role is to operate tanks.

Nicole? You're a superhero. Wow. That's insane.

Bananas. Wow. Look at you. All right, Nicole, I feel I feel I'm like, Whoa, I feel I feel like you're in my presence right now.

And I feel very like flustered. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.

But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.

The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.

His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.

Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.

I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to address you all.

Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption, Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mare exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondery+.

Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts Spotify or the Wondery app All right, it all begins with my friend's house, which from some of the stories she has told me seems to be the portal for the paranormal. but that's for another time my story begins when I came over her house one time to hang out she lived in Kevin Montana Kevin Where do you live?

I live in Kevin. Montana! I love... You know my kids named one of this...

Wait, wouldn't they need that? So there's this thing at the playground Oh, right, right, right.

And we don't know. There's like one piece of equipment that no one really knows how you play on.

It's like a weird piece of equipment. Yeah.

So we named it Kevin. Yes. And now they'll just be like, can we play on Kevin?

I love it. This is the funniest thing I've ever heard.

I love it so much. Everything is Kevin.

I've seen a dog named Kevin and it just...

Isn't the dog in... It made me fall over.

Oh, no, that bird in the movie Up is Kevin.

Oh, but it's Keevan. Damn it. We just had that whole ass talk.

She just gave me it right after the... So it says it's pronounced like the name, but with an emphasis on the E like even.

Kievan. So Kievan. kievan i'm still gonna call it i'm gonna call it kevin i'm from kievan all right so slide i said slide note Side note, pretty much every other home in this so-called town was a meth house because drugs suck, lol.

They do. She was a sophomore in high school and I was a freshman.

It was after school and we both got off at her bus stop and walked over to her house. we put our backpacks down and got some drinks and snacks.

Now I've never felt fully comfortable in this house.

Anytime I was ever there in the dark or even in the daytime, something just never felt right.

I felt as though I was always on guard. That's when you know.

You can always tell. The creepiest places were the closet in her bedroom, the actual portal to hell, Another story for another time.

And of course, the basement. The basement always creeped me out.

Even if her and I and all of our friends were down there, But this is the creepiest and one of the last times I ever went into that basement.

So we got back from school and we're having our snacks.

She asked me to go to the freezer in the basement to grab some ice cream sandwiches for us.

I would say no. I'd be like, this is your house.

Yeah, this is your house. Go get it. I hesitated, then said, yeah, of course I'll go down there.

The statement being lightly coated with sarcasm and bullshit.

And so I began my descent. I slowly made my way down the stairs.

The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end.

I've always felt I have a sixth sense when I can feel something else is present.

I make it to the bottom of the stairs and turn left.

My entire body is on high alert. My nerve endings tingling throughout my body.

I'm prepared to haul my skinny ass straight back up those stairs if some freaking ghost wants to pull some shit on me.

I make my way through the laundry portion of the basement and through the little hallway to the entertainment area.

The freezer is right ahead of me to my left.

I get in front of the freezer and all of a sudden above me I hear some old-ass classical-ass powdered wig have an ass music playing on what sounds like a radio Powdered wig has an ass.

I love that. seem odd that I didn't just take the fuck off then, but my friend listens to all types of music.

All types of different music, even weird old-ass Beethoven music.

I love classical music. So I chuckle to myself and think, this bitch is really listening to some fucking Beethoven right now.

This is me at your house. Yes. I turn to the freezer, grab the ice cream bars, and head back upstairs.

And it's quiet. No music. Me trying to rationalize this creepy-ass music situation thinks she might have just stopped the radio or turned it off because she didn't like what was playing.

So I find my friend and laugh at her and shake my head.

She says, what are you laughing about? I said, girl, didn't you just have the radio on listening to Beethoven or some old classical shit? this said no i didn't i've just been sitting here in the living room waiting for you What the actual fuck?

What? I exclaimed and just stood there staring at her, hoping she was lying.

She said, yeah, we're the only ones here and I didn't turn on any music.

I would have shouted. My heart sunk and a wave of supernatural tingly shot through my body.

I told her what happened and I explained to her what I heard She went downstairs and I showed her where I heard the music coming from above my head.

We went back upstairs and this crazy psycho of a friend says to me, yeah, that honestly doesn't surprise me.

I see my old dead cat down there sometimes too.

That's literally the entire reason I picked this story when the girl said, I see my dead cat down there too. if one of my friends yeah my old dead cat if one of my friends looked at me and was like oh yeah like remember that cat we used to have want to go check it out I'd be like well no it's And then she'd be like, well, it's in the basement.

And I'd be like, well, we're not friends anymore.

That's just like really casual. I gotta go.

Like I'm not surprised you just heard Beethoven playing above your head because sometimes I see my like geriatric denouement. cat downstairs this episode brought to you by geriatricacy Did you want to see, like, did you want to tell me that before you sent me down to the basement?

That's probably why she sent her down. Could you maybe be like, if you see a cat, it's my old dead one.

Don't worry about it. Try not to pet it.

Just give me that. Heads up. That's all I'm asking for.

So she says, I just stared at her, the supernatural tingly still rushing through my body.

We hung out for a little longer than when to hang out with a different friend. i was relieved to get out of there i never really wanted went back into that house house much after that time we've since grown apart but still talk here and there She's doing really well and we laugh about me being totally paralyzed by hearing ghostly Beethoven music in her basement.

Thank you ladies for reading my story. If you do, hope all is well with the kids and things.

Thank you. And lastly, keep it weird. Weird.

But that's the way that you hear weird-ass, old-ass, classical-ass, powdered-wig-haven-ass Beethoven music while you're just trying to get a snack.

Get a snacky snack, it says. Oh my god.

I like that haunting. I do too. I want a haunting like that where I just hear Beethoven music.

I want a Beethoven haunting. a Beethoven haunting.

I want a Beethoven haunting. I want a Beethoven haunting.

Like that one seems chill. It does. That was a good one.

I like that. And you know, like you get to see your cat.

He just like never leaves. exactly he's Zachary Binks I would like there you go you mean did you say I said Zach oh you did okay I did I was like don't you dare call him Zach I said Zach I said the.

Zachary Binks. I was like 20 years old when I finally realized that.

I think a lot of people were, so don't feel bad.

Yeah, I was sad as a child. I was like, oh my god, I thought his name was Zachary.

Oh my god. Oh my god. All right. My next one is called shout out to my mom for not getting murdered that one time so I could bless the world with my existence.

A listener tale. I love this already. And it came with a put-a-fa.

A put-a-fa. Put-a-fa. Hey, weirdos, my name is Madison.

I'm from a city in Ontario, Canada. I'm really good at reading.

This is actually my second time writing you this story, but I read the email I sent you guys a few months ago and I was like, yikes, this could have been way better.

I obviously want to start by saying how much I love you two.

Yours is the first and only podcast I have been able to listen to.

Trust me, I really tried to because I'm at the point where I'm completely caught up in re-listening to old episodes while waiting for new ones.

Just want to say thank you for helping me get through a year of being at home with a three year old. just casually have you talk about brutal crimes.

Oh, just casually having you talk about brutal crimes in my headphones while my offspring is watching whatever she isn't obsessed with currently.

I get this. We love you. No problem. You also helped me get through long car rides, cooking and cleaning.

Fun side note, a few weeks ago, I was woken up to the sounds of someone trying to open my apartment door at 2.30 a.m., After a few minutes, I heard them get on the elevator and I was fine, but I was not going back to bed.

So I listened to an episode of Morbid Decon.

Oh my god. I like that morbid calms your nerves.

I'm so stressed for you. You guys are definitely my kind of people, and I appreciate you feeding my true crime addiction.

I also had a blast at the Bleeding Hearts Ball.

You guys are the best. You're the best. Come to the summer solstice party then.

I love that I'm now just referring to these as parties.

As parties. That's basically what they are for us.

So on to the story. It isn't really about me, it's about my mom, but she gave me permission to tell the story.

To set the scene, it was the summer of 93 or 94.

Some of the details are a little hazy because it was so long ago and my mom's memory is not the best.

That's all right. We all get that. And they said, but she remembers the most important parts.

So that's all that matters. My mom and her best friend were about 17, 18 at the time.

It was around 3 AM and they were just Two dumbasses walking home alone from a party.

I said that, not, she said that, not me.

Now, already, this is a bad situation, but to make matters worse, they had to walk about two hours through a less than desirable area in the city. two hour walk seriously fuck that after being at a party too no thanks I mean, there's a whole lot of nope going on for me just walking at night. but as if my lazy ass would ever walk that far.

Same. As my mom likes to remind me, for them it was no big deal, and they walked literally everywhere, no matter how long it took.

Hats off for the motivation though. That could not be me.

Me either. Since it was summer, it was at least nice enough temperature, but the streets, they were walking on were dimly lit with barely any streetlights giving off major spooky vibes.

While they were walking, they noticed a car drive by a few times, but that for some reason did not raise any concerns.

They kept on their mission home and about halfway into the walk, they were passing by a shopping center.

There was a car in an otherwise empty lot with three men sitting in it.

The one dude starts waving at them and telling them to come over to the car.

See, if I were in this situation, I would just start running in any direction that's not in the car's direction.

But like I said, these two were a special kind of stupid and just kept walking towards the The closer they got, my mom noticed the car was a green Ford Escape.

She also noticed that this was the same car that they had seen drive by earlier.

No. Mm-mm. No. No, three guys in a green Ford Escape are not harmless.

No, they're not. Especially when they're driving by multiple times.

Definitely not. That's a no. The guys in the car start asking a bunch of questions like where they were going and why they were out so late.

I'd be like, are you my dad? Nope. This was raising some red flags, and then one of the guys explained that they were off duty police officers just concerned for their well-being nope show me your badge yeah how fucking convenient He told them that if they continued walking, he knows of an officer parked not far ahead who would stop and fine them for being out past curfew.

That's fine. Yeah, it's all good. They told them to get into the car and they would drive them because they were just such nice guys looking out for them.

At first, they kind of believed them and were worried that they could really get into trouble.

Then one the one guy that offered to take my mom to the dark phone booth. to call the station to prove who he was.

But she was like, nope, no thank you. Jesus.

My mom and her BFF did not know what to do, and all three men were still in the car at this point.

Then, Buddy in the backseat gets out, and this shady motherfucker is wearing a white t-shirt covered in blood splatter.

To which he explained as being the aftermath of being in a bar fight.

I'd be like, you just told me you're a cop and you're in a bar fight.

This dude is literally wearing a sticker that says, hello, my name is serial killer. hello i murdered someone just moments ago what he's wearing yikes However, my mom being into true crime herself was smart enough to know that the amount of blood on that shirt did not come from a bloody nose.

This is when all the warning alarms started going off.

Oh my god, I'm terrified for you. Right?

In 1993. Me too, retroactively. My mom politely told them that they were just going to take their chances and walk, and if they got arrested, then whatever.

Exactly. Naturally, like any nice worried guys, this pissed them off, and so she could hear the aggravation in their voices.

The red flags were really flying, so they slowly started to back away nonchalantly while insisting that they just want to walk.

This is when the man standing outside the car started to approach them.

Now my mom's brain was screaming, run now before you end up dismembered in the Yes.

Luckily, they had backed up enough that they were able to quickly turn and run across the street into a different parking lot, where they cut across and onto the next street.

The men followed them from the parking lot and started slowly driving next to them.

My mom thought for sure that she was going to end up a missing person, but because these super creeps were driving on the wrong side of the road to be close to the girls, What the fuck?

Thankfully, they made it home safe and sound and to no surprise, they did not see one police officer where the men had said that they should be waiting.

Now, fast forward to the next day or so when my mom got home from her friend's house, Her stepfather had told her he heard a story on the radio and he wanted her to be extra careful while walking at night.

Because only a week ago, there was an attempted kidnapping of a girl in a city only a few hours away. she fortunately was able to get away and report what happened.

Hold on to your butts for this next part, because she said her abductors were three men who drove a green Ford Escape.

Oh! Boom, full circle. They lured her into the car by saying they were police officers.

Holy shit! There's no way to know for sure if it was the same guys.

It is the same guys. Obviously. But that is just a little too coincidental if you ask me.

And either way, my mom knows she made the right choice not getting in that car.

Absolutely. I also tried very hard to find any information or articles about these men or the kidnapping, but I wasn't able to.

That's okay. Well, that is the story of how my mom almost became a stereotype for why girls don't walk alone at night.

I just wanted to end this by also adding that I am related through marriage.

My mom's stepdad's first cousin. to a guy who murdered a pregnant hitchhiker and her boyfriend.

Here's a link to an article I found about him.

Holy shit. Thank you. Your life. Seriously.

Well, that's all I got for you. I hope you enjoyed my story and keep it weird, but not so weird that you drive around with a bloodstained shirt and your buddies pretending to be cops kidnap women.

Holy. Golly. That was a crazy one. Yeah, that one was nanners.

Someone just stressed me out. Seriously.

To the fullest extent. To the core. Anytime a car drives by you multiple times, get the fuck out of there.

I've never had that experience. Get the fuck out of there.

Don't even question it. Just get out of there.

There's no reason a car should be driving by you more than once.

Oh my god, should I tell them my listener story of Target last week?

Oh yeah. To end this? Okay guys, this is a personal listener story.

Oh man. just really give you some time.

I was so freaked out at Target and I got extra freaked out because one time we got a listener story from somebody that was in a target and she was convinced these sex-trafficky people were following her, and I think they were.

So I was at Target last week. It was like the day before Mother's Day.

And, you know, I'm just like sitting there reading some cards, whatever.

I'm in the baking aisle. I'm going to make some key lime pies.

And I come out of the baking aisle and I swear I saw these two guys and I swear I heard one of them say that one.

I swear to God I heard them say. That's fucked.

And then they crashed into my car. Elena knows this entire story, but I'm still staring at her very intently.

I know. I'm like, yeah. They crashed into my car and I was like, ugh.

And they were like, oh, like, sorry. And I was like...

No worries. It's cool. And then the one was like, oh, you're really beautiful.

And I just kind of like nodded like, OK, and just kept on my way.

And then I'm going away and I'm just like, whatever, like shopping and I see them out of the corner of my eye.

They were going the opposite direction as me.

They whipped around and started to follow me.

And I was like, what the actual fuck? This is weird.

They also had nothing in their cart. Yeah, that's the part that really got me.

Nothing in their car and not shopping. They were like they were like dirty and like very big and like had they scooped me up i literally would never have gotten away So I go up to like the Mother's Day section to look at the cards again because I was like that's like closer to the front of the store like I'll be around like a lot of people like yeah so I'm I dip into that aisle and then I see these motherfuckers looking like in the main aisle, like flipping their heads back and forth, looking for someone who was probably me.

I hate this. Which is terrifying. And then the creepy one, the creepiest one, they were both pretty creepy. whipped around and went on the other side of the aisle and blocked his blocked my way out. of the aisle with his cart.

So I literally couldn't get out of the aisle.

Which is so aggressive. So aggressive. Still nothing in the cart.

Double checked. And he goes, Oh, you look really familiar.

Like, what's your name? Oh, no, excuse me.

He just said, What's your name? And I looked at him and I said, Why do I look familiar?

Which I think is so shit. Like, don't walk up to someone and say, what's your name?

Yeah. They have no obligation to tell you their fucking name.

I don't know who you are. If you want to know someone's name, you can say it much nicer than that.

Can I have your name? Or like start off with like my little slip and like be like, oh, hey, I think I recognize you.

Like, are you from here? Or say, hey, my name is this.

What's yours? Right. Being like, what's your name?

Fuck right off. I just felt so creeped out by the situation already that I was like...

Why do I look familiar? And he was like, yeah, I think I know you from somewhere.

And I was like, I really wanted to be like, well, do you go to Elena's house or my apartment? because those are the only two places that I go like other than Target.

So you probably haven't seen me. I don't think you know me.

And I was like, oh, weird. You don't look familiar.

And he was like, oh. And then I turned around and he was like, oh, so that's how it's going to be?

And I was like... Yes, you know and I just like didn't answer and they left but I could still hear them But I called drew and I made him pick me up from the stairs Which I'm so glad you did.

That was smart. I was scared. And then when I got out, there was a white SUV parked in front of Target, which like just seemed weird.

I mean how many white SUVs are there at Target?

I don't know. I don't know how many white SUVs there are.

It was very late at night and I swear there was like a bigger person driving and I was like, I don't know.

Like when you parked there to like throw me into.

I think I'm also just way too involved in true crime.

Because then Drew was like, I don't want you getting in your car.

So we drove to a different grocery store across town.

In his car. And then I finished my grocery shopping and he drove me back to my car.

He wouldn't let me get out of the car. So I hopped over into the driver's seat of his car.

And he drove my car to a corner store where we promptly looked to see if there was any tracking device.

But guess what, everybody? You could never be too careful.

It's true. You can't. Did I feel a little bit crazy afterwards?

Yes, because the man literally only asked me for my name.

But I swear I heard him say that one and I was freaked out and they did turn around and follow me.

That is really creepy. It was scary. Either way, it's creepy.

It's just not a good interaction. It's not a good interaction.

Even if he was even attempting to like flirt or like have it be a normal interaction, that was not the way, that wasn't it.

I also wanted to be like, I'm 17. I'm 17.

Go away. Like, no, please go away, sir.

So there's your bonus listener story. That's not at all.

I don't like it at all. But trust your gut.

And if you think that something's wrong, then call your mom. man's.

Yeah, call your man's. Man's or woman's or mama.

Somebody who makes you feel safe. If I didn't have a Drew, I'd call frickin' Elena.

Yeah, and I would come get you. You'd beat up those dudes for me.

That's right. For saying what's your name?

Come out with my softball bat. Oh my god.

Well, I think we actually, we have time to do one more.

One more? Yeah. So let's add another one.

Oh my goodness. Yes. So this is the next one that I found.

She just keeps going, it's crazy. crazy this was crazy that's all she keeps saying like but why and she's like just it's crazy It's crazy.

So trigger warning for this one. It's called How I Almost Got Eaten by a Cannibal.

And so it's got that right off the bat. It's a trigger warning. two have almost been eaten by a cannibal.

Yeah. This is just a lot of gnarliness. So if you want to like, if you're like not prepared and you want to end the episode here, like I won't blame you.

Love you so much. But everybody else, hello.

Come in. Hey, you crazies. All right. Hi, weirdos.

This is a fellow weirdo all the way from Sweden coming at you with a crazy listener tale i guess it was crazy that shook the whole country Be aware that English isn't my first language and I'll probably not make sense at times.

Ha ha ha. That's okay. But at least I've tried my best and you nailed it by the way, did great. but at least I've tried my best to write this whole ass mess down.

Apologies for the long story, but it's hard to make it shorter, and let me just warn... you that it contains cannibalism and may give you horrific pictures in your head so see they're letting you know too okay Let's just jump right into it and go all the way back to the gloomy and rainy early morning of March 30th, 2005. in a small town outside of Gaville.

I'm probably saying that wrong, and I apologize.

It's actually Gaville. Gaville. I'm just kidding.

I don't know. Gavel, I think. A man named Leonard Person woke up... Oh, I know this name.

I know this name. I know this. Is it a crazy name?

Yeah, it's crazy. A man named Leonard Person woke up after a long night filled with horrible dreams, or awesome if you like murdering people.

He took the bus to Gavel, the bigger city outside of his hometown, to meet his newborn nephew that is grown up fast. that his grown up foster sister had just given birth to.

To get there, he first had to take a bus into the city since the little town he and I are from is like the, quote, country.

And after that, he had to take another bus to the outskirts of the city to a place called satra i'm probably butchering these i apologize to our doing your best When he arrived at the apartment complex, his sister welcomes him at the door with only a nightgown and he follows her up to her apartment.

Although what she didn't know is that Leonard, at all times, Kept a knife in his pocket because of his social anxiety.

Makes no sense to me, though. He takes his shoes off and they walk into the kitchen to catch up since they haven't met in a long time.

But it doesn't take long until he just pulls out the goddamn knife and stabs her multiple times until she collapses onto the floor.

Her boyfriend and baby daddy, who's in the living room, comes running wondering what the actual fuck is going on in the kitchen. and sees a bleeding Anna on the floor with Lennart on top of her repeatedly stabbing her.

His fight or flight kicks in and he runs out of the apartment faster than a scared cat when the vacuum goes off.

With the baby? So to the police, Leonard later said, and I quote, quote, he should have done something to try to stop me.

But he's a coward. Also, I would have just killed him too.

Like, damn. What? As the boyfriend fled the scene, Leonard stopped stabbing Anna and just looked at her.

And then he did something horrible. Anna, who was still conscious but couldn't move, looked delicious to Lennart.

So he started to drink the blood that was gushing out of her.

He then took his knife and cut her nightgown open, sliced her chest up, and ate a few pieces of her.

As he was chewing on her body, he suddenly realized she was dying.

How weird, huh? So when Anna dies in his arms, he gets up and he suddenly remembers the newborn baby.

Don't worry, the baby's fine. Okay, I was like, nope, too crazy.

No, because when I saw it, I was like, nope, nope, not going there.

I mean, this is all crazy, but... His bloodthirst had not gone away yet, but luckily he can't find the baby and heads out of the apartment.

Oh my God. Imagine if he had like tried a little harder.

He goes to the bus and hops on with bloody hands and clothes onto the bus. arrives back home and heads straight into the town's library to clean himself up. when he takes another bus to his apartment and burns up his clothes, but before he did that, he cut out a small piece of clothing with blood on it so he could keep smelling it when he wanted to.

The first night he couldn't sleep, he said, because he was so worried police would show up any minute and arrest him.

But he was lucky, since he hadn't met his foster sister that much in the last few years, he hadn't met Anna's boyfriend.

And so when the boyfriend told police what had happened, they didn't believe his story. that to him the unknown man that had been let into the apartment was just let in by Anna.

The next day, police arrested the boyfriend, and Leonard could relax again and finally started planning his next attack.

No! Oh, this poor man and the poor baby.

Where'd the baby go? That's the other thing.

Why did this man run out of there without his baby?

I know. That's not cool. That's not cool at all.

In his handmade calendar, he drew a circle around the date he killed Anna. and the one year anniversary of her death.

He was going to go back to Satra in honor of her memory on that day.

He had also drawn a circle around October 30th, Halloween.

That's when he planned to drink the blood of his next victim.

Months go by and Lennart's bloodthirst has calmed a bit.

Police still have the boyfriend in custody, but keep looking at other possible killers.

And so they contact Leonard to talk about the murder of Anna.

When he was released again after the questioning and the demons in his... and the demons in his head, the nightmares and the bloodthirst all started coming back.

All this time, he had managed to keep this all away out of his head.

Hold on, I just lost my place. There we are.

Where he was close to hurting his family and other kids in the neighborhood.

But on October 25, 2005, he just couldn't stop himself anymore.

So he was going to all this time be wanting to do this again to like everyone around him, but was stopping for this specific day.

What the fuck? Because he wanted to do it on Halloween.

Yeah. He takes his bike and drives around in search for his next victim.

Yeah. He wanted to feel a human die again and of course he wanted to drink their blood.

He's driving around for a long time looking at kids.

Unfortunately, they were all accompanied by their parents and therefore not chosen.

My God, thank you, parents. And this is where I come into the picture.

Oh, girl, I forgot that you were almost a part of this.

At the time, I was seven years old and was in first grade.

I remember this day clear as crystal. School had just ended for the day, and I don't know if you have it in the U.S., but it's something called fritids.

We don't have fritids. Fritids. It's a central government organized school that just ends for the day.

And I don't know if you have it at... Wait, I just read the same thing.

It's a central government organized system for kids who need, quote, babysitting, babysitting after school. hours so it's like an after school program oh girl i was always up in those it's basically basically like an after-school daycare for the kids who aren't allowed to go home without someone picking them up.

It's all just playtime and basically the best part about school.

Yep. I used to love after school care. uh... me and my friend had a really fun day and so we decided to ask her mom camilla if I could follow them home so we could keep the fun all day.

Since her mom was studying to become a teacher, she would come pick her up before my mom was done at work, so we decided it would be fun to have a playdate at her house.

All excited for our plan, we sat down and waited for her mom.

Usually she would only have to stay at this after-school program for a short time every day, and so we knew it wouldn't be long until she showed up.

But time passes. And when she doesn't arrive, the teachers for the after school program, I don't know what to translate it to, lol.

Tries to call her. No answer. And half an hour later, still no answer.

And when hours have gone by, they call the police.

Since Camilla... whose sister had been brutally murdered and eaten in her apartment in March.

Yes, it is what you think it is. She was the sister of Anna. had little to no family left in life because she was a foster sister.

Right. The only option left was to call the police.

By this time, my mom had come to pick me up, and I was devastated because my friend couldn't come with me since no one could get a hold of her mom.

Your poor friend. This story is getting hella long.

I'm trying to make it short. It's okay. It's okay.

It's so good. The next day, my friend didn't show up and no other day after that because what police found in the apartment was Camilla. stabbed several times lying in a pool of her own blood on the kitchen floor.

Soon, police put the pieces together one by one and realized that Anna, who was stabbed and eaten back in March, was in fact Camilla's sister.

And soon they understand who had done it, their foster brother whom they had moved in with as kids.

What? Police drove to his little cabin he lived in, and as they pulled up, a weak and bloody Leonard stumbles out onto the lawn.

Both of his wrists had been cut up because he had tried to kill himself, and they arrest him immediately.

To the police he later told what happened.

As he was driving around looking for a victim, he remembered his other quote, sister still left in life and her daughter.

He wanted to kill them both. What? But when he arrived at Camilla's apartment, she was home alone doing dishes and very shocked to see him.

She said, are you coming to visit me now all of a sudden?

And then he just took the knife out of his pocket and stabbed her.

Several times, Camilla put her hands up trying to protect herself, But he only stopped for a little while to go wash his knife and hands.

He said the knife became too slippery. What the...

Oh my gosh. He told police and then he goes back out, stabs her until he killed her, drank her blood, and searched the apartment for her daughter.

Luckily she was in school with me. Thank goodness.

Okay. but he knows police will get him now.

So he drinks bleach and cut his wrists in hopes that he would die.

So... That was the crazy story about the cannibal who could have drank my blood as well if I wasn't as lucky as I was that day.

It's hella scary to think about, and I still can't even fathom what my friend had to go to.

Two kids lost their moms and aunt both to a cannibal in the same year.

It's disgusting and Leonard Person is an institution, hopefully rotting away.

Even though I feel bad he experienced those horrible, horrible demons...

This will forever stay in my memory, and my friend who I have not seen since that day will always be in my heart.

She had to move away since she had no other family left in life except her eight-month-old cousin.

I miss her and think about her often. This was a very long story but I hope you had some fun reading it.

Not that it's funny at all but you get what I'm saying.

P.S. I love your podcast so much. I've just recently found it and I'm obsessed.

I listen to you all day at work from 8 to 17, which I'm sure is a different way.

Listen to me until 24. Yeah. And just can't get it. enough.

Also, I just have to point out how much I laugh to myself every time you stumble on your words or tie your tongue up and almost every episode but always say stuff like, what's wrong with me today?

Why can't I talk properly? As if it never happened.

I think that was a little more directed at me and I'm glad I could be of entertainment.

You really make my days lighter, even though you talk about dark shit.

I really mean it when I say I found my cup of tea.

Hope you can come and have a show in Sweden one day.

That would be sick. when the virus finally has settled.

It would be awesome. Or I'll just have to come to a show in the U.S. yeah and last but not least keep it weird but not so weird that you stab and drink the blood of your two foster sisters and have to be locked up forever far away from society Yikes.

That was crazy. What blew my mind. Like, wow.

Blew my mind. That's really sad. I want to know more about like how that guy got out of prison.

Yeah, we're going to look that up, man. Maybe we should even just cover the whole last thing.

Maybe there'll be an episode about Leonard Person.

Why? Wow, that's just like very sad all around because obviously...

He had something going on that was not looked at.

Exactly. Like, there was obviously... you know what it is it's like he was in foster care so he also wasn't you know Yeah, like he clearly didn't have parents, it seems.

Yeah, and it seems like he just like... Didn't get the help he very clearly needed.

Yeah. Yeah, that's really terrible And then it had to end those two women's lives.

Like that's terrible. Thank God that the little girl wasn't there.

Oh my God. God, I'm so glad that she wasn't there.

I want to know that she's okay now. I know.

I hope she's doing all right. And that eight-month-old baby.

Yeah, I hope that dad became a better dad.

I know, I hope so too. Just like leave your kid in there while your wife is getting slapped.

I hope he got like a little more like, you know, instinct to protect.

Yeah, seriously. At first I was like, yeah, and then I was like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, you know what? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

So that was a good. Yeah, yeah. It was a good story to end on.

Yeah, wow. Thanks for that. I really just wanted to bring you all the way down.

That was insanity. It's always fun to get tales from people around the world, though, too.

I know, I like that. All the way from Sweden, that was interesting.

We need another Australian one soon. We haven't got a lot of Australian listener tales.

I hate to say it to you guys, but they tend to be the best.

They are. They're so good. That outback, man.

Australia just does it. But you guys killed it.

This episode was crazy. Like, your tales always amaze us and make us laugh and make us cry.

And all of the above. They absolutely do.

So we hope that you continue to listen to the Listener Tale episodes.

And we hope you keep it weak. But that's where you're at your friend's house, and there's a dead guy in the backyard.

At least he loves NASCAR, because that sounds like a cool quality.

I love it. And that's so weird that your boyfriend is friends with somebody who killed somebody's dad because you just really don't want to keep that company.

Not so weird that, like, you're not so sure still if Mary is a witch or not.

Mary Jane T., you know, you remember her, like, Did you hop over a grave?

You didn't. But like, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen to you.

Not so weird that you're in your friend's basement and Beethoven's just like, don't do that because like that will freak you out and that's so weird that your mom didn't get murdered so she could have you Maybe keep it that weird, actually.

Yeah. And just never, ever keep it as weird as the last story.

I think that goes without saying. Don't do that.

Ilyas M. Bye. If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

[Listener Tales: From Haunted Backyards to Dark Family Secrets]-[Listener Tales 28]

📋 Summary

The Unsettling Realities of Listener Tales

The Dead Guy in the Backyard

The Teenager Who Took Things Too Far

The Witch of Loon Lake

Paranormal Beethoven and Other Close Calls

A Mother's Narrow Escape

Final Reflections

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript