
Episode 613: Latoya Ammons and the Demon house
In January 2014, a strange article appeared in the Indianapolis Star about Latoya Ammons, an Indiana single mother of three who claimed that for more than a year, she and her children were besieged by demons in their rented home. Ammons claimed, among other things, that the house was constantly infested with black flies, the children were levitated from their beds, and her nine-year-son became possessed and walked up a wall backwards. And that was only the beginning; by the end of just one year in the house, the Ammons family claim they were terrorized by all manner of supernatural assaults, from ghostly apparitions to demonic entities.
Latoya Ammons’ story might well have gone unnoticed, had it not been for the surprising number of witnesses to the paranormal events, from family and friends to police officers and social workers. Still, Latoya was not without her critics or skeptics—some accused her of fabricating the story to get out of her lease, while others assumed she was simply delusional. Regardless of the explanation for the cause of the events, there’s no denying that Latoya Ammons story is one of the most terrifying paranormal experiences heard in decades.
Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!
References
Biddle, Kenny. 2018. Demon House Deconstructed. May 21. Accessed September 30, 2024. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/demon-house-deconstructed/.
Dawn, Randee. 2024. Is 'The Deliverance' based on a true story? August 30. Accessed September 30, 2024. https://www.today.com/popculture/movies/the-deliverance-true-story-latoya-ammons-rcna167984.
Kwiatkowski, Marisa. 2014. "The exorcisms of Latoya Ammons." Indianapolis Star, January 26: A1.
Maginot, Mike. 2012. "Report seeking permission of bishop for exorcism." Indianapolis Star. May 21. Accessed September 27, 2024. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1005721-report-to-bishop.html.
Nickell, Joe. 2014. "The '200 demons' house: a skeptical demonologist's report." Skeptical Inquirer 20-24.
Washington, Valerie. 2012. Intake officer's report of preliminary inquiry and investigation. Intake report, Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Department of Children's Services.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Full Transcript
Hey, weirdos. Elena here.
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terms and conditions apply. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alina. And this is Morbid.
This is Morbid. It's Morbid at ash's house it's all different remix remix remix we have some construction happening at my house so luckily we have a second recording location yes i need to work on getting this like a little more soundproof, but all the soundproofy
things that I found, I don't like. Like they're ugly.
I don't like the aesthetic of that. The aesthetic.
So I have to, I'm going to work on it. Yeah.
I just got to get some like bookshelves. Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly.
There's actually going to be some construction going on at my house in like November. So hopefully they're done with your construction.
Yeah. We'll be switching back over to the other house.
All the construction. Mucho construction.
Guys, it's still spooky season.
It's still spooky season. We went to our first haunted house of the season.
Yes, Barrett. It's
always Barrett. You're wearing your sweatpants.
I am. I'm wearing my Barrett sweatpants.
They're
really comfy. Barrett.
They're so comfy. Barrett's in Abington.
It's in Abington, right? I think so,
yeah. It's like behind the Abington Ale House.
It is top notch. The best haunted house on the planet,
I believe. They tear the shit down every year and rebuild it to completely new.
Yeah. And they do
a fucking phenomenal job. This year, the theme is gameplay.
And there's all these rooms,
like little gaming areas. Yeah.
It's super. It's just so well done.
And I think they
Thank you. job this year the theme is gameplay oh and there's all these rooms like like little like gaming area yeah it's super it's just so well done they and i think they spend like months getting sets together and you can tell yeah and all the actors like the makeup they do it's all like top the process is just really impressive so if you're looking for a haunted house in the new england area that's your that's your guys man you gotta go yeah we're gonna do a couple more yeah you were a little lackadaisical this this year we were well we got like you know sidetracked with covid we got sidetracked with the book tour i know and uh now we gotta make up for it we only got a couple more weekends i know we only have i guess we have three technically i feel like we never go on halloween weekend yeah we really don't i feel like it's too crazy but maybe we will this year maybe we'll change it up if we're gonna go yeah i also went to a cat show this weekend you sure did i took the kids to the cat show me my cousin drew and all the kids i was like let's go to a fucking cat show yeah and i fought every single urge within my body to not bring home another cat because i mean yeah like if you have four cats go off i could go i can't live a four cat life and do it and my cats will not live a four cat life i know franklin would just eat another cat if we brought one home but they had those um those like scottish like smooshy ones oh those are so cute yeah they are they are really they have a lot of health problems oh no they're like an english bulldog yeah i think they're like interbreeded so they're like like it's not cool actually it's not cool you're like they're super cute but it's not but i'm like i want to save you i know yeah exactly i was waiting for you to pick that up i just scream in the cat's face that's ash energy do that today if you haven't pour one out for scottish cats and sing in your own cat's face i think the something corporate tour just ended actually i just saw that our friend connor posted and said we did it we love connor i said you did fucking do it you did fucking you did all of it yeah you made our lives hell yeah i know we need to like there's things to be done still yeah there's work there's work to be done there's work to be done there's guests to be had guests be booked.
But we don't want to tell you. No, shut up.
No, shut up. Imagine if I was serious.
That'd be so sad. I would never tell you guys to shut up.
I actually don't like the phrase shut up. You don't.
Rude. Yeah.
It's a little rude. Sorry if you heard my ice for a second.
We're all alive and we're drinking iced coffee. I made us.
It's actually really funny to see you drinking coffee out of a mason jar because it's not you. Aesthetically.
Aesthetic. Mason jars are kind of my vibe right now.
I love this is good iced coffee. Oh, you're welcome.
Oh, you're welcome. I do make a pretty good iced coffee.
You do? Except I realized this morning that literally all of my creamer was expired. That's true.
Luckily, I didn't realize it in the bad way i said oh check those dates and i checked and i said oh oh oh oh three out of four you gotta be in the trash yeah i know well i think it's still spooky season um i'm pretty sure it is we'll never really know for sure no when these publish we're never gonna know when episodes are coming yeah sometimes sometimes we look at mikey and say what what days is coming where what day is uh what's going on where am i hello but you know someday we'll know well hopefully it's still spooky because i put a spooky case hopefully it's still spooky i think it is me and dave davio worked on this davio davio exactly this is latoya Amens and the demon house the demon house the demon house this is um if it starts to sound familiar to you at all this is the case that the movie the deliverance was based off of it's Glenn Close yes it's that one scene that one that you're all thinking about right now and if you're not thinking about it go. And if you're not thinking about it, go Google it.
If you're not thinking about it, you can't have the internet. Yeah.
Like you don't have the internet. You don't have the internet.
But yeah. So it all started in January 2014 when a strange article appeared in the Indianapolis Star about Latoya Amons, an Indiana single mother of three who claimed that for more than a year,
she and her kids were absolutely besieged by demons in their rented house. about Latoya Amons, an Indiana single mother of three who claimed that for more than a year,
she and her kids were absolutely besieged by demons in their rented house.
Oh, damn.
She claimed, among other things, that the house was constantly infested with black flies.
So right off the bat, you're haunted.
Oh, yeah.
The kids were levitated from their beds.
Oh, shit. Her nine-year-old son became possessed and walked up a wall backwards.
Oh, my. Which, like, you might say, that's silly.
That didn't happen. Multiple people saw this happen that were like, I don't know how to explain what happened there.
What? And we'll get it. We'll get to that point.
And that was just the beginning. By the end of just one year in this house, the family claimed that they were terrorized by all manner of supernatural assaults from ghostly apparitions to straight up demonic entities.
Oh my. Yeah, things were popping off.
Get Rachel Stavis in here. Rachel.
Rachel, we need you. Rachel could have cleared this shit up in a minute.
100%. In a minute.
Yeah. That's our girl.
That's our girl, Rachel. So her story might have gone completely unnoticed if it wasn't for the surprising number of witnesses that actually saw these things.
That's what takes this apart. Yeah, like family, friends, police officers, social workers.
It kind of reminded me of the House of Flying Objects that you just did. Because like people were like, people that you wouldn't expect to sign off on this were signing off on it.
But still, Latoya obviously wasn't without skeptics or critics. People accused her of fabricating the story to get out of her lease, and others just assumed that she might have been straight up delusional.
Yeah. But who knows what the explanation was for the cause of events.
Either way, probably one of the most terrifying paranormal experiences I've ever read of. Damn.
Yeah. Let's go.
Let's get into it. So in November 2011, LaToya Amons, her mother, Rosa Campbell, and LaToya's three children, 13-year-old Nate, 12-year-old Shantae, and 7-year-old Andre, moved into their new rental house on this quiet little tree-lined residential street in Gary, Indiana.
And that wasn't their real names, right? No, I'm actually using the names from the movie based on the case, the deliverance like we were just saying because the kids names aren't public yeah but it would have gotten super confusing if i was like child a child b child c yeah and if they're not public it's like so i said yeah movie movie but so the thing was things hadn't really been like easy for latoya in recent years she was struggling to keep the kids on track in school but and among other things. But the new house was an opportunity to kind of start fresh.
And her main goal was to make good use of that opportunity. She was like, we got a new space.
We're in a new area. Let's go.
Fresh start. Unfortunately, things did not work out that way in any way, shape, or form.
Problems with the house started almost immediately. And it was early December when they started noticing swarms of these large black flies just gathering in the screened-in porch, which was unusual because house flies can't survive freezing temperatures.
I was like Amityville. Yeah, exactly, but real.
Yeah. And Rosa remembered thinking, this is not normal.
We killed them and killed them and killed them, but they just kept coming back, which is so gross. Yeah.
And then other strange experiences followed pretty quickly. A week or so after they noticed the flies, Latoya and Rosa started hearing just inexplicable noises in the house, always after midnight, well after the kids had gone to bed.
And it sounded like someone with heavy footsteps was walking up the stairs from the basement into the kitchen. Fuck that.
Which is what we heard our whole fucking lives. I was going to say that was my parents' house.
You always heard. And it sounded like work boots walking up the steps.
And sometimes it was like I would hear it in the basement like late at night. But then sometimes you would hear footsteps on like the main stairs too.
And you go over there and nothing was there literally nothing i wouldn't even go over there i was like way too scared but yeah some they were like is somebody breaking in the house like yeah because they would literally hear the door open and close but they would come out of their bedrooms to investigate like you're a brave ass there was no sign of anybody in the basement or the kitchen but they did notice that when they would turn the kitchen light on to get a better look, it would flicker, making a crackling sound for a time and then stop. Ooh.
Which is like so creepy. That's horror movie shit.
Literally. A few days later, they both decided that they were going to leave their bedroom doors open in the hope that they might catch a glimpse of whoever was climbing the stairs because they kept hearing it night after night.
So one night a little after 3 a.m. Of course.
Of course. Rosa was woken by the sound of footsteps just like all the previous nights and when she looked out into the living room she saw the shadowy figure of a man just pacing back and forth.
No. Yup.
Nope. Yup.
Just get rid of the whole house. Burn it down.
Burn it to the ground. Yeah.
So the next morning she went out to investigate and she went with Latoya and they found, quote, what looked like muddy footprints from a boot. I would assume someone broke in my house.
That's what they thought. Yeah.
They 100% thought that. Like completely concerned that someone might be breaking in.
They ended up putting a lock on the basement door. But on subsequent nights, they would hear the footsteps climbing the stairs.
They would also hear pounding on the door as if whatever it was was trying to get in the kitchen. What the fuck? Yeah, I literally have chills just talking about it.
Pounding on the door? Like, no. In the middle of the fucking night.
Ugh. So they're like dealing with all this.
Latoya's trying to keep the kids on track in school. And she's also trying to keep these incidents from the kids.
Not to scare the shit out of them? Yeah, they're young. But the speed at which things escalated made it impossible to hide the fact that something was obviously wrong with this house.
One day, about a month after moving in, Shantae got home from school school and she went to put her things in her bedroom. But when she tried to open her bedroom door, it wouldn't open.
She said it was like as if somebody was holding it shut from the other side. Oh no.
So after several tries to force the door, it finally popped open and there was nobody in the room. What the fuck? She probably assumed it was one of her younger siblings like fucking with her.
Yeah. And then no one and you're like you're like hello hello in my parents house we would have been like oh the door just swelled yeah exactly we all obviously the amount of times we blamed like weird shit on the swollen doors yeah just swelling doors or creaking or it's just the house settling it's fine don't worry the middle of winter we're like oh it's they're swollen.
Yeah, they're just swollen. But the family also noticed that there were indications of a problem seemingly all over the house.
It wasn't just the basement, the kitchen, just like one bedroom. Everywhere.
Their cell phones often failed to work despite full service. The picture on the television was constantly getting interrupted.
And Latoya and Rosa had constant mechanical problems with their cars. And the sticks to adjust the venetian blinds always seemed to sway back and forth on their own which something about yeah that's i just that's ew i don't like i don't like i don't like it for latoya the most disturbing experience was learning the extent of what the children had experienced in the house.
Because she's trying to keep this from them.
Just like Rosa had seen that shadowy figure in the living room, the kids also saw what they believed to be spirits in the house.
Both boys, this is one of the scariest things you'll ever hear in your life, so buckle up
buttercups.
Oh God.
Both of the boys reported seeing an elderly lady in the backyard who they described as looking like, quote, walking death with red eyes. I got that feeling that like, where it just like blooms out the chills from within.
Like the chill just came from the center of my stomach. That's a wom.
Yeah, but it didn't even feel like a wom because to me that feels more warm okay this was a it was cold yeah it was i'm gonna vomit yeah i don't like that at all i think i'm assuming that's probably what like who glenn close's character was but i haven't actually seen the deliver when you look at a picture of her character yes uh yeah she looks like walking death with red eyes yeah and the youngest son andre would
spend a lot of time with a what he said was a boy his own age who he would like play and talk with and according to andrea nate the boy would typically appear in their closet you know just the long yo just silence
it's just like
in the
when a ghost appears
in the closet
uh uh
they have bad intentions
a hundred Yo. Just silence.
It's just like, when a ghost appears in the closet, uh-uh, they have bad intentions. A hundred percent.
I'm not appearing in someone's closet in the afterlife unless I want to fuck their world up. You know who appeared in front of the closet for me in my life? She didn't have a body.
She was just made of bones. See? And I can still see her in my mind.'m here's the thing i'm horrified that you witnessed that as a child it hurts my soul but it's a cool story though would kill to have the image in my head that you have i wish i wish you could project it out yeah i'm not an artiste so maybe i could talk to sean for mostly horror oh my god describe her in vast detail yes i think i need to see her i think he could draw it i'm gonna text him after this yeah sean if you're listening sean we're coming for you she had like cotton candy hair like it was like white but it was like that texture it was scary yo you gotta write this down i don't know why i'm in a place of you right now but i need need to.
Have you been hanging out with Caleb? You need to. I know, right? You need to write all these details down so he can make this because we all need to see the actual vision of this woman.
It's so funny because I have so many memories of like nightmares from when I was little that when I was little I didn't think were nightmares. Like I thought they were real.
And then I'm like, were they real? They probably were. I have a lot of them.
That's scary. Yeah, it is.
But then I'm also like, is it like the trauma? I was going to say, is it trauma? Is it trauma or nightmare? I don't know. Could be a mix of both.
I know for a fact that she didn't have a body. She was just made of bones.
She was real. Oh, you said that from the time you were little yeah like that was that was a that's never changed i drive by that building and i look up at the window and i'm like you're like she's up there yeah she is i guarantee you interview if a fucking kid lived in that they'll see she didn't have a body she was just made of bones definitely yeah 100 but that's the thing i'm like a kid showing up and showing up in someone's closet means you mean business yeah because if i'm in the afterlife that i'm showing up there are some people in my pocket right now that i will show up in their closet oh and it will be me trying to fuck their whole world up absolutely so i wonder like how that works Like how do you decide where you get to go?
Like do you get to sign in for the day?
Yeah.
Like you're like today I will be showing up in this person's closet and you have to like
sign in.
I kind of like that idea.
So everybody knows where you are.
Yeah.
I have this person's closet covered.
It's like in Beetlejuice sort of.
Yeah.
Like when they're all like newly deceased.
Everyone's hanging out.
I think it's something like that.
I think so.
There's an office for sure.
And who?
I'm coming.
Scary.
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Back to the Eamon's haunting because it's so scary. For months, the activity just continued disrupting everybody's lives.
And before long, the paranormal activity started affecting the children physically. Oh no.
They were experiencing, this is like so sad. They were experiencing regular bouts of vomiting, fevers, diarrhea, things that kept them from going to school.
Oh no. Later, Latoya also reported that she would discover blood on their pillowcases frequently and she believed it was coming from their mouths.
Oh my God. Yeah.
Like something was up. Oh, this is so upsetting.
and just like so everybody knows i believe in this one like the we kind of like debunked the uh amityville yeah they're like it's already been debunked so we talked about it this one i believe this is scary it's scary and just the sheer number of people who witnessed some like the things that latoya was saying well That's what that's what's really taking me for a ride is like that this isn't you know like the house of flying objects where it's like there's one person in the room always yeah like you know you can at least somewhat be like maybe it's a mixture of things or it could just be one thing or the other who knows this seems like other people that are in higher positions that would go in as a skeptic because they have the best interest of like the children and everything in mind are seemingly witnessing this like you're saying so like have social workers and like police officers yeah so that's interesting like literally writing things in their reports of like yeah this is inexplicable. That's scary.
Yeah, it is. And
then Rosa, her health started like a noticeable decline. She had three different kidney ailments that struck her one right after the other.
Oh, geez. And like living in this house up until that point, like before then she had been fine.
And then she moves into this house and she starts having all these kidney problems. Kidneyship is bad.
Yeah. Whatever was happening in the house had already taken a serious toll on everybody's physical and emotional health, but things just continued to get worse and worse.
Oh my god, how? On March 10, 2012, the family was all up late into the early hours of the morning. They spent the day mourning the loss of a close family friend, unfortunately.
And from the living room, Rosa heard Latoya screaming, mama, mama. So she went running to her daughter's bedroom where she witnessed 12 year old shantae levitating several feet above her bed completely unconscious what the fuck she said i thought what's going on why is this happening and she immediately grabbed her bible and the family surrounded shantae praying over her until she descended back onto the surface of the bed.
What? Moments later, she woke up with no memory of what had happened. She had no idea that that had just all happened.
Holy shit. And people are like praying loudly around her and she didn't wake up.
And she's out cold. Until she like hit the bed and then like woke up a little bit after.
According to LaToya, the guests who were staying at the house that night left and refused to ever come back after the incident. Holy shit.
Yeah, so other people saw this. And are like, fuck that.
And are like, I'm literally never stepping foot in that house again. Oh my god.
It turned out that the levitation incident was just the beginning of the physical torment that the family was about to endure. That weekend, Shantae was sitting on the couch in the living room and she felt something grab her and yank her off the couch, throwing her to the floor.
A few hours later, so that same day, one of the boys was in the bathroom when he claimed something grabbed him and jerked him to the floor. And this is like awful.
Quote, pulling on his limbs and genitals. What the fuck? Yeah.
Like demon, demon activity. Holy shit.
According to Rosa and Latoya, when they entered the bathroom after hearing his screams they could see something pushing outward from the inside of his stomach what this is fucked up in every way imaginable it's unreal holy shit and then a few hours later so again same day shantae was targeted again this time she was lifted off the ground and thrown into the refrigerator my god insane it turned out that whatever i know and this poor parent like jesus just everybody witnessing this happening to their kids and it's sad like and this is not a family that can just like pack up and go to a hotel for like that's the thing it's not like that's not you know an option for for a lot of people yeah that's the thing like to just be like oh well fuck that i guess we'll just go right pay this rent and also pay for something else exactly and this is a bigger family too like this is five people that's a lot damn it turned out whatever was harming Rosa Latoya and the children also wasn't limiting it to just to the family later after family and friends left the memorial that they had at the house, several of them reported that something, quote, followed them home, giving them a heavy feeling or headache that took a couple weeks to finally disappear. What? And this is multiple people who said this, and we'll get there in a little bit, but a police officer also claimed this.
Holy shit. Yeah.
It's interesting. Again, this isn't just this family being like oh yeah when no one's here all this shit is happening then you're like yeah no people would come over and see shit and be like i'm never going back to that house and then they'd go and have their own shit follow them yeah crazy that's terrifying.
occurred on or around March 10th were much more aggressive than any of the ones before. My God, how? Rosa Campbell told her daughter, we need help.
We need to talk to somebody who knows how to deal with it. But neither woman knew precisely what it was.
They were pretty convinced, though, that it was supernatural in nature, so they went to the church to try to rid their lives of this. Yeah.
Which, honestly, I'm not even a believer, and I think if all of this was happening to me, I might find a church. I don't even know.
Like, that's – and especially if you're already religious. If you're already religious, yeah.
Of course. Like, that's going to be your – That's where you go.
Your outlet. Mm-hmm.
So they started with the leadership at the church they attended, but they were pretty disappointed to discover that while the clergy at their church were sympathetic, they didn't really take very seriously and that's fucked up it is it is fucked up and they said like sorry we don't know what we can do to help it's like these are members of your congregation that are coming to you and isn't that like the whole point of you yeah you're supposed to offer in times of need yeah you're supposed to offer your assistance you would think and aren't like demons your thing also you're passing that donation basket around yeah i'm sure like come on this poor family like this mother with three children that she's taking care of by herself with a mother living with her you're not going to try to help no just come in and do a blessing that's really just bless the house you don't need to do an exorcism you don't need to do anything anything crazy. Just come in and say, most churches, like, I think a house blessing is pretty standard.
I was going to say, I feel like every paranormal case that we, like, talk about where the church does get involved, they at least come down and do a blessing.
Yeah.
A lot of times they're like, yeah, I don't know what we can do, but we'll do the blessing.
Yeah.
It doesn't even sound like they did that.
For real.
That reminds me, if you guys haven't read The September House yet by carissa orlando read it nice especially this spooky season yeah read it okay it's a real fucking good book and this made me think about it a little bit oh okay yeah so they were even more disappointed to find out that this was the case with all the other churches in the area cool they went and talked to multiple officials at multiple churches and all were sorry to hear about what was going on but they said they weren't in a position to assist yeah we can't come and just bless your house no we make you feel better we can't we won't we can't we can't make you feel better sorry sorry like um and that's fucked you believe your whole life in something like yeah then they don't help you in your time of need they turn their back on you and this seems like a fucking demon and isn't that the whole thing like the whole thing is like demons suck let's get rid of them i think so isn't that the whole shebang so it's like i'm pretty sure you can't just come in and toss some holy water around at least to make maybe this will help make that family feel better yeah exactly like you don't even need to be like a you know an official ceremony come in. Bless the house.
It doesn't have to be anything crazy. Do anything.
Literally anything. But after failing to find literally any help within the churches in their area, Rosa called her mother, Ruth, and explained to her what was going on.
And it just so happened that Ruth had a neighbor who, quote, belonged to a church that dealt with deliverance more than Rosa and Latoya's Baptist church. So the neighbor offered to speak with the pastor at her own church to see what they could do to help.
Now, while she waited to hear back from Ruth's neighbor, Latoya and Rosa took the advice of one local church and they cleaned the house from top to bottom with ammonia. And then they used olive oil to make the sign of the cross on every door and window.
Okay. And they also performed a similar blessing on the children, pouring the olive oil on their hands and feet and making the sign of the cross on their foreheads.
So desperate for any kind of answer, Latoya also reached out to two local clairvoyants who informed her that, quote, the family's home was besieged by 200 demons and the best thing they could do was move 200 demons which when you hear that you're like what the fuck that's insane but also i feel like it kind of makes sense with the level that they're able to assault like it takes a lot of power like even we were talking about energy the house of flying objects and that sounded like a poltergeist. Like that takes a lot of energy to build up.
It takes like weeks and weeks. And it seems like this started happening to them like almost immediately.
200 demons. 200 demons.
And that these people are like the only thing you can do is get the fuck out of here. And like ultimately, yeah, pretty much.
The explanation of the demonic infestation made sense to Latoya and Rosa because they were both about Christians. But they were barely scraping by as it was.
So moving just wasn't financially feasible at that time. So instead, they set up several altars around the house, draping end tables in white fabric and adorning them with religious icons, statues, Bible passages.
And they also took the advice of the local clairvoyants
and they burned sage in each room of the house from top to bottom
until the smoke was so thick that it became difficult to breathe.
I mean, that's not good.
Like, they're desperate.
Like, that's not good, everybody.
Also, if you're saging, you're supposed to have the windows open.
I was going to say, it's not supposed to, like, build up in there.
No, because the whole thing is, like, you're saging something out.
So I'm pretty sure, like, the smoke carries it.
Thank you. If you're saging, you're supposed to have the windows open.
I was going to say, it's not supposed to like build up in there. No, because the whole thing is like you're saging something out.
So I'm pretty sure like the smoke carries it out.
Also like, and again, like I've always said it, like you practice whatever religion you feel.
Of course. I would never sway you against that or anything like that.
But as someone who doesn't practice that religion or a religion, the idea of this like demon infested home and now all these altars are set up piss them off well no it just it it is so chilling to think of i'm like this must have been the scariest setting of just this demonic chaos with all this religious paraphernalia around because like religious horror i was just going to say is the scariest like because it just the layers of yeah it just brings a different vibe to it i love it like it's i really like really brings it to a place yeah and this to me is like but to think that this is real life like because i'm like this is religious horror right here like setting up all the altars and shit then i'm like oh my god this was someone's existence yeah and like three children like that's so scary and imagine just like going to sleep for the night yeah just like wrapping up the day in that house in that house what's going on in that house it's all set up now and you're at your like most vulnerable and they're all just desperate as hell. And it's like, holy shit.
I would be living at my friend's houses at that point.
Yeah.
I'd be couch surfing.
Yeah, seriously.
But it's like, again.
But your friends have distanced themselves because they're scared that they're going to have things attached to them.
And there's five people here.
Like you can't just show up on somebody's doorstep with five people.
Like most people don't have friends that are like, yeah, all five of you can stay indefinitely.
So to Latoya's surprise, the rituals performed around the house actually seemed like they worked. For three days, things in the Amon's house were finally peaceful.
No incidents, no activity. But the peace they experienced in the wake of the cleansing did not last long.
After three days, the assault on the family worsened considerably. So I think it like pissed them off.
Yeah. The demons.
According to LaToya. The demons.
You're like, I'm speaking of the demons. The diamonds.
According to LaToya, she and each of her children experienced demonic possession. She said, the kids' eyes bulged, evil smiles crossed their faces, and their voices would deepen every time it happened.
No. Yeah.
And she said she felt weak, lightheaded, and warm whenever a demon overtook her body. She said you can tell it's something different, something supernatural.
I hate this. Soon after, Andre took to spending his afternoon sitting in the closet with the ghost boy, who often told him what it was like to be murdered.
Oh god i have chills that just will not evacuate i like literally i'm like what like the fuck yeah like my littlest had skeleton that you all know but skeleton was just sitting there being like i got a family yeah and i'm gonna go visit my family he said i'm gonna leave and he never came and he just left and that's great and he never he never scared anybody never said like no i was murdered he just hung out yeah you know this little boy if she told me like he was telling me what it's like to be murdered no i don't know what i do no like i say i'm like oh i would do no i don't know what i would do i think i just start crying yeah for a long time that is such an upsetting thing to think start crying and never stop yeah oh my god and eventually the entity started moving from one child to another so quickly that latoya and rosa wouldn't have time to react before it moved from one to the other like if she was trying to get three kids in the car she said one would run to the car and start kicking it one would be restraining the other would be and the other would be thrown to the grass then one would start cussing or saying it's time to kill do or doing some sort of demonic chant where one would stop and the other would pick up just where the other left off what the fuck like no and she's just trying to like get them in the car to go somewhere for the day no No. No.
No. No.
No. You know how hard it is to get three kids in the car sans possession? Yes.
Yes, I do. They essentially are possessed.
Like no matter what. And then you add demonic possession.
They're in a constant state of needing an exorcism trying to get them into the car. Yes.
And then to add actual possession into it? No. No.
No, thank you. Holy shit.
And then when the entity would leave them, they would just immediately fall asleep. Like they were exhausting.
Oh, that's so upsetting. It is sad.
Yeah. They say time waits for no one, but I think neither should payday.
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IQ bars are really yummy. So by early April, the kids are missing school on a regular basis, and the administrators actually became concerned about their well-being.
So out of options and with literally no help coming from the church, Latoya took the kids to their primary care physician in the hope that he might know what to do. Yeah.
Which I think to me proves how desperate she is. She's going to the kid's doctor.
The doctor, Dr. Jeffrey Onyaku, I believe it is, said 20 years and I've never heard anything like that in my life.
I was scared myself when I walked into the room. Wow.
So like it was visible what they were going through. A reporter for the Indianapolis
Star was given access to the doctor's clinical notes from the visit and he describes quote
delusions of ghosts in the home and quote hallucinations among the children and describes
all of them as delusional. I mean which he's looking at it from a point of view of like
I can't just sit here and be like, yeah, you have ghosts.
Yeah, they're possessed.
I'm sure that's what's happening.
He's seeing these kids going through it.
Yeah.
He's thinking child abuse.
Exactly.
And that's got to be his first concern.
It was.
Of course.
Unfortunately.
Like, you can understand, and I understand that this was probably fucking horrifying from both sides, you know?
But you can understand the doctor's point of view. That he's looking, he's thinking of these kids and, you know, he's not in the house.
And unfortunately, Child Protective Services had – they had a history with this family. They had been involved before.
So the doctor's notes are clear that he believed them to be a family experiencing a mental health crisis. The statements from medical staff – Oh, which is really sad.
But – so he thinks that. but the statements from the medical staff in the office that day actually painted a different picture really according to one member of the staff who was later interviewed by d i think they're dcs now department of children's services according to one of those workers during an interview latoya told the intake staff many stories quote regarding demons and spirits and that her home has various demons and evil spirits due to somebody dying in the home.
But regarding the children's behavior, staff reported that during the examination, Latoya's youngest son was, quote, lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him. Like medical staff saw this happen.
Medical staff who worked, I don't know if they they were all doctors or nurses but like the staff the staff working at this office like literally saw this with their own eyes and wrote it down whoa yeah and that's the thing that because those are the things that make me just go what because like you know there's some parts of this where you go like is is there severe mental health crisis happening here and like some like religious delusions and all that stuff like is that happening yep and then you see something like that and you go what the fuck is that right because how do you explain that how do you explain that because you if he like stumbled into the wall yeah i'd be like okay that's probably a mental health crisis yeah he was lifted and thrown into the wall and there's a crazier thing that happens later that's just inexplicable other medical staff reported that this the specific child was quote making growling noises and his eyes rolled into the back of his head which that i feel like you could kind of do on your own yeah but still yeah the situation finally ended when latoya wrapped her arms around him and he became limp and was placed on the bed, at which point the medical staff actually called 911. Yeah, because what the fuck is going on? Yeah, they requested emergency services.
So several minutes later, an ambulance arrived along with seven or eight police officers, and the children were taken to the Methodist Hospital in Gary. According to Rosa, when the boys came to in the hospital, Nate acted rationally, but Andre screamed and thrashed, like resisting the medical staff.
This is so sad. It is.
It's awful. At the same time, an anonymous call was placed to DCS and requested that the state open an investigation into the possible abuse of the Amon's children for possible child abuse or neglect.
The caller indicated their belief that Latoya was suffering from symptoms of mental illness and, quote, the children were performing for her and she was encouraging their behavior, which is awful, but you can understand why somebody might think that. Why somebody might have thought that.
If they're not seeing everything going on in this house, like all of this is behind closed doors, and then they're just hearing reports of this that's the thing i can understand their job is to keep children safe yeah and i can understand somebody calling worried about the kids 100 so dcs caseworker valerie washington met the family at the hospital that day and opened the official case into the alleged abuse and neglect at the same, all the children were physically examined and found to be free of any outward
signs of abuse, no bruises or anything like that.
Meanwhile, Latoya was examined by staff at the Methodist Hospital and determined to be
of sound mind.
See?
This is the stuff that makes me go, what the fuck is going on here?
It was only in her interviews with the children that Valerie Washington started to think something actually strange was happening within the family, if not the house itself. According to interview notes from a discussion with Shantae, the girl told Washington that, quote, at times she has weird thoughts and unnatural events take place in the home during the evening time.
She also reported being thrown across the room and grabbed by dark shadows a few nights ago. That's horrifying.
So scary. And for a child to be saying this is so disturbing.
And Shantae is older. I think I said at the top she's 12.
Yeah. So she's like not like a little, little kid just like making up a story.
You know what I mean? And also it's like for Latoya to be, you know you're going to be looked at as possibly abusing these children. Absolutely.
Or that you're going through a mental health crisis. So if this is really happening, you're going out of sheer desperation because like you know what you're going to face.
Absolutely. And she's already faced it.
But she was so desperate that she went for help. Right.
When she could have just kept it to herself if that was what was really happening. You know what I mean if the abuse was happening i completely agree so it does tell you something that she was so desperate that she opened herself up to this knowing because she had to know yeah you know this was going to be the the first thing they were going to think of she still opened up to it to be like help please like i don't know what to do which is so devastating and that's it is absolutely and that's what's so sad about the fact that she went to all the churches she did first yeah i think she was like can we please like find some help here so i don't have to go this other so i don't have to go somewhere else and get thought that i'm hurting my children yeah like that's awful i can't imagine how that would feel because you hope no parent would ever do something like this to their children no and knowingly sometimes dcf does invest or dcs they're like called a different thing yeah a lot um i think here it's dcf yeah i think so people call in cases to be assholes when like oh yeah abuse isn't happening absolutely people are investigating yeah for sure like you they have to yeah they're mandated reporters so it's like so she's going through it and she knew.
Exactly. So by far the most unusual event, and this is fucking crazy.
By far the most unusual event that day occurred while Andre was being interviewed by Valerie Washington. He told hospital staff that, quote, ghosts were attacking him and his brother.
But before he could finish his statement, he had a, quote, weird grin and walked backwards up a wall to the ceiling he then flipped over his grandmother landing on his feet there were multiple people in this room including the caseworker valerie washington who saw this happen okay i can't explain this to those in the room, he never let go of his grandmother's hand.
So he held her hand,
walked up the wall backwards onto the ceiling and flipped over her body.
I'm,
and it,
if this,
again,
if this is just the family saying that this happened and no one else was
there and you're like, I would be like, that is the dumbest thing i've ever like that would be akin to the amityville story where it's like too far you know kathy lutz got levitated up off the bed and then just levitated towards the closet yes for no reason like that's silly i'd be like no one else was there except for you know george lutz right why saying this? And y'all are trying to make money on this. Seeing that a social worker was in that room, witnessed it, and wrote it in the report.
Yes. Which puts their own job in danger because it makes them look a little kooky kooky.
And there was medical staff in the room who were like, what the fuck? Yeah, no one else. And people aren't going to be putting their whole fucking careers on the line here no to keep up with some hoax for no reason and even like police officers were involved at this point later in an interview with the police officers asked maybe if the boy had run up the wall or performed some kind of like acrobatic because you got it you're like yeah but everybody in the room insisted no he walked up the wall backwards and flipped over one of the nurses at the no, he walked up the wall backwards and flipped over.
One of the nurses at the hospital said he walked up the wall, flipped over, and stood there. There's no way he could have done that.
And when this happened, both Valerie Washington, the caseworker, and the nurse who was attending to these children, ran out of the room in fear. Like, ran out of the fucking hospital room.
Okay, something's's there's 200 demons in this house like i'm that's the thing there's a lot of demons like it's happening so when washington and the nurse they literally ran out of the room terrified and grabbed a doctor and was like i don't know what the fuck's going on just walked on the ceiling yes like let's can we backwards let's fix this so they reported to the attending physician what everybody had just seen and the doctor was like yeah fuck off that didn't happen because like how do you would say the same thing he's a man of science like this man is being like there's no fucking like i'm gonna fire both of you like how could you he's like he's like one of you doesn't even work here and you're fired he told the nurse okay so if andre walked up the wall backwards then he do it again. But he was not only unable to repeat the move, he had no memory of what even happened the first time.
He told the doctor, I didn't walk up a wall. I can't walk up a wall.
What the fuck? And when he tried, he was unable to get his foot, like, his footing or balance. Because, like, who can walk up a...
but it's one thing to like it would even be shocking if like he ran up the wall and onto the ceiling and down like that's an acrobatic move of like someone show me how to do that yeah show me to be rachel walk backwards slowly up the wall and onto the ceiling where gravity makes that impossible yeah like and He's nine years old. Yeah.
That's the thing. Like, I'm pretty sure I said at the beginning he was nine years old.
I'm trying to keep everybody's ages in check. Like, holy shit.
But he's like, he's a, he's a baby. He's a baby.
I'd be like one of the girls just walking up the fucking wall backwards. Yeah.
Like, that's just, let me know if they do that anytime soon. It's the ceiling that gets me.
The fact that he walked all the way up the wall and onto the ceiling and then flip back down yeah like gravity hello my friends yeah but despite having witnessed the wall walking and generally believing the story of demonic possession the nurse still admitted that the children's behavior was likely due at least in part to mental illness she was like something's afoot here yeah but i also think they might be driving into this them to that like whatever is happening in this house might be literally making them mad absolutely so that night latoya spent the night in the hospital with her youngest son while her mom returned home with the other children the next day was andre's birthday and he's in the hospital like going through this so rosa and the children came back to the hospital to celebrate, but the celebration was short-lived.
Oh, no.
Not long after they gathered in Andre's hospital room,
Latoya got a call from Valerie Washington informing her that DCS decided
it was in the best interest of the children to temporarily remove them from the home
until the situation was resolved and there was a plan for their safety moving forward.
And that's on his birthday.
On his fucking birthday, which I'm like, you couldn't have done it one fucking day later.
That's right. situation was resolved and there was a plan for their safety moving forward and that's on his birthday on his fucking birthday which i'm like you couldn't have done it one fucking day later that's the thing like what i get it i know there's a murder like i was involved in dcs as a kid like i get it but i don't know and it's just like and you can see why they came to that conclusion because obviously they might this might not even like be against LaToya you know what I mean they're saying that home is unsafe it's just yeah it's the safety of something happen in that home that we can't explain right they need to be out of that house and you can't remove them from the house right now so it's just such a it's such a sad situation it is and while the kids are like getting so sick in that house that they can't go to school.
Like this is affecting. Yeah.
Like something is going down. Yeah.
Right. But my goodness.
But to be separated as a family, like it's just so sad. And on your child's birthday.
On your younger, like your baby's birthday. And he's in the hospital.
One, has to spend his birthday in the hospital. And two, he gets moved to like a foster home on his birthday.
That fucked must have just been yeah it's awful so latoya later told a reporter it was obvious we were a team and we were beating it whatever it was we made it through together as a team and they separated us oh that like breaks my heart yeah she was like that like really that's a mom that's a mom that's a single mama right there being like this family is a fucking team yeah makes me want to cry oh like that like breaks my heart it really does anything hearing about like dcs and foster care and stuff and like it's traumatic families having to be separated just like it's such a sad yeah and obviously it has to happen it's necessary like that like some oh in many cases it's the best thing that can happen yeah but like when you hear about it, it's never, it's always devastating. No matter what.
No matter what, it's traumatic. Well, that's the thing.
Even if you're coming from this fucking awful environment, that's still devastating that one you had to live that. And now you have to live in the unknown.
Right. As a kid.
No. Who had no fucking business having to deal with that.
I know. I actually, like I just said, I was involved in DCF and luckily I never had to go to foster care because I had like you and Ma and Papa.
Yeah. But I think about fostering sometimes just to like give back.
Just to, and just to, that's like that. That's like.
Them Hoffers. Them Hoffers.
If you didn't hear in the other episode. Yes.
I'm on the Hoffer train this year. I fucking love the Hoffers.
They're just like, they're a perfect shining example of you know a lovely foster family and it takes like just a sidebar here it takes such a specific human to be able to do that because if you're a foster parent fucking kudos billions and billions of kudos because they will get like a newborn in the middle of the night and then you bond with that baby and then sometimes and you know what they're coming from and you know sometimes you have to give that baby back and obviously the the goal most of the time is to reen for dcf is to reunite oh yeah that's the main goal which in my opinion is not shouldn't always be the goal but oh but knowing many fights right that knowing as a foster parent that like that's the goal that you may have to like you got to be like what a selfless human being you have to be to just be like i want to make this child's life as loving and beautiful as i can for the time i have them yeah but then i'm just gonna have to put my own like devastation aside and sever that bond to give them back to like continue their life right like fuck you have to be such a selfless person and also but then there's assholes who completely use the foster and are just in it for the money yeah like we were talking about uh yeah cases ago they were foster parents and you're like hello you really got like the best and the worst yeah I think I would just end up with 45 million kids because I just feel like I'll adopt this one too yeah 18 kids let's go I couldn't even I don't even think I could foster an animal and it's just and it's because I just will end up with all of them like there's no way I couldn't no I know it's it's a it's an angel you're a special person. Truly.
It's a special kind of person if you do that.
I think Sabrina.
Yeah, Sabrina, two girls, one ghost.
Sabrina just fostered some kittens.
Yeah.
And she's an angel. She is a fucking angel.
Sabrina and Corinne are both angels.
Truly.
But yeah, sometimes I think about it.
Like I'm not at a point in my life right now where I would do it.
But maybe later.
Someday in the future I would think about it.
It's beautiful.
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In the formal paperwork, Valerie Washington noted, the children's physical or mental condition is seriously impaired and seriously endangered as a result of LaToya's inability to supply education or supervision. Oof.
Which is rough. In simple terms, the amount of school that the children had missed due to everything that was going on was seen as neglect.
Unfortunately, that does constitute neglect. And the home environment was not one that was promoting safety.
No, because shit's going down. But according to LaToya, she could not send the children to school sometimes because the spirits would make them sick or they would be up all night with no sleep, so they couldn't go to school.
That's horrifying. She's in between a rock and a hard place.
Yeah. But like I said earlier, this was not the first time that the DCS had been involved in the family.
In 2009, a caseworker was assigned for the same reason. But at that point, there was no mention of spirits or demons or anything.
It was just the kids not going to school. Not going to school and not having enough supervision, which also, she's a single mother.
I'm sure she's working multiple jobs. Yeah.
It's a tough position to be in, be yeah you know but anyway about a week after the children had been removed valerie washington conducted a home visit to latoya's house accompanied by three police officers two of whom just joined out of quote professional curiosity i honestly couldn't blame them on that because you're like what is going on here yeah i'm pretty sure this is like a smaller town yeah you know so people are hearing this and they're like i want to go so inside they discovered several makeshift altars around the first floor of the house as well as several circles of salt which latoya explained had been put in place to dissuade the demons which walking into that would be horrifying absolutely and i'm sure these officers, okay. Immediately I'm sure they thought she was mentally ill.
Like 100%. There's like some, you know, religious mania going on here.
Yes. That's exactly what they thought was happening.
So good call. That's what I would think.
So the officer officially tasked with accompanying Valerie Washington on the visit was Gary Police Captain Charles Austin. He was a veteran police officer with more than 35 years experience.
And he later told a reporter that prior to his involvement in this case, he always believed in ghosts, but he did not believe in demons. But after investigating the case, he changed his mind 100%.
Wow. Among other things, he claimed there were unusual and unidentifiable, excuse me,
silhouettes in the photos that officers took in the basement that day, which actually led them to believe Latoya's story of demonic possession. And like those who left the house after the family wake, Austin actually believed he was followed home by some sort of entity that day that caused tons of electrical problems in his house for several days what the fuck this is a policeman with 35 years on the force who didn't believe in anything like this god like he was like yeah i think there's ghosts but like no there's not demons yeah and then he left and he was like oh there's demons and one followed came to my house now not long after the children from her custody, LaToya was informed that they would remain in the temporary custody of the state until she could prove that she was responsible and stable enough for them.
So to her, that meant she would have to rid her house and herself of the demons that were plaguing the family for months. Fortunately, help was actually much easier to find this time around than it had been in previous months.
After hearing the story of what happened at the Methodist Hospital, the hospital chaplain, David Neville, reached out to one of his colleagues, Reverend Mike Magino, the pastor at a church in nearby Merrillville. Unlike many of the other clergy in the area, Magino was actually a true believer in demons and did have some knowledge of exorcism oh we found one we found we will always find one yeah you gotta find one but he informed neville that before he could do anything he would have to speak with the family and then if it was warranted he would have to get permission from the bishop to perform the right of the exorcism that's such an interesting that that interests me so much me too because i you i always thought exorcisms were one of those things where it was like a priest was like here i come i'm coming to do an exorcism and it was just like yep the fact that there's like i have to go through special permissions and like it's like a you have to be like approved to perform this right and everything it's very interesting yeah you have to like jump through hoops yeah and it's interesting that oh like i feel like a lot of the cases that we cover the priest is so insistent on getting the bishop's permission like they're like i'm not fucking around yeah without his permission exactly and then you have ed and lorraine who are always calling the archdiocese it's crazy always and always getting permission somehow he's getting permission but then the archdiocese they forget they're like you know no no permission they get quickly get one of those men in black like mind eraser yeah and they're like we didn't do that we didn't do that and then and lorraine are like they don't they did it they don't worry about it totally shut up they lie so in late april magino met with latoya and rosa at their new rental apartment in gary where they gave him the lowdown on everything that happened in the previous months.
Everything they told him was compelling, but he asked for permission to review any additional material, including any law enforcement or hospital footage or documentation, and they agreed to provide it. But it wasn't until he accompanied Latoya and two Gary officers back into the home that his belief in Latoya's case was absolutely cemented.
According to the Reverend, when Latoya entered the house for the first time since my interview
with her, oil seemed to condense and drip onto the steps from the crosses she made above.
It also appeared all over the blinds in her bedroom.
Yet, when he reviewed the police footage from the walkthrough later that afternoon,
there was no traces of oil or any other unexplained phenomena that actually occurred like when he was visiting. What? Strange.
Despite what he believed was compelling evidence of demonic possession, the bishop, Dale Melzczyk, I think, denied his initial request for permission to perform an exorcism. The archbishop said, Nah.
D-. He did, however, suggest that Maginot, Maginot, excuse me, contact other priests in the area and ask them for training in the rite of a minor exorcism.
Oh, bitch. I didn't know there was different levels of exorcism.
There are. And now I'm so interested.
I think it'd be fun to kind of talk about on an episode. Yes.
And like dive into the different levels. Because I didn't know all this.
I didn't either. So you can do a minor exorcism and that does not require the church's approval those are the ones i'm thinking about where they just run on in and perform an exorcism loophole in the case of a minor exorcism a clergy member will use prayer and religious symbols and other statements to drive out any negative entities that might be you know in the home or space so after making some phone calls, the Reverend did locate a priest who was willing to provide the information necessary.
And about a week later, Maginot was back at LaToya's former house, this time to drive out whatever had been tormenting the family. So in addition to himself and LaToya, the exorcism was attended by Virginia Washington.
The caseworker? The caseworker. And Officer Samantha Illick illick i think it is from the gary police department and another unnamed officer uh samantha had been at the previous walkthrough and was actually somewhat skeptical of latoya's claims but was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt she was like i want to see this i want to see this shit because and she's like you know my captain there has believer.
Maybe I will. After leaving the house that afternoon, she said she was fully convinced something evil was in that house.
Damn. She said, we felt like someone was in the room with you, like someone breathing down your neck.
Oh, I hate that. Yeah.
So as Maginot prayed throughout each room of the house, he instructed Latoya to look up the names of the demons that could possibly be inhabiting the house. But time she tried to do so the computer would shut down without explanation that's why you need an ancient tome of course no stop using technology nope you need ancient you need ancient dusty ass tome has anyone watched buffy you're flipping through yeah and it makes that sound and you find your spot.
And you find the daemon. It's true.
That's what it is.
But the deeper she dug for the right name, the sicker and more lightheaded she got, making the process so arduous and just completely unpleasant.
So finally, they discovered the demons inhabiting the home were Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.
Beelzebub?
Beelzebub, thank you.
The Lord of the Flies and, quote, other high-ranking daranking demons including lieutenants and sergeants that torture and hurt kids i didn't know those were things i did not know there were also didn't know they had sergeants rankings among the demons it's a whole community i had no idea yeah it's very militaristic it is i don't like that i'm not into it the fact that beelzebub is there like you damn don't say it too many times in my house please you're just like you got like the you you got the demon yeah i'm quite frankly palo santo-ing the room after this yeah as you should yeah with the windows open palo santo me too please before i leave oh i will whenever we talk about demons i think we should start palo santo-ing because i do think some weird energy is building up the pod lab. And we're in my house right now and that shit's not working.
Yeah, it's not happening. Thank you.
So the prayer and ritual went on for several hours, during which time Latoya was becoming more weak, more exhausting, or more exhausted, excuse me. She later said, I was hurting all over from the inside out.
I'm trying to do my best and be strong. But eventually she fell asleep, which she said was, quote, the demon's way of lessening the ritual's effect.
Like, knocked her out, essentially. Ultimately, Maginot performed a Maginot.
I keep going to say, like, making it fancier. I love it.
Maginot performed three exorcisms between May and June, during which time Latoya and Rosa actually had moved to Indianapolis, but they drove back to gary for each ritual because i think i i don't know if she was paying rent on this house and her next house but she's trying to get her kids back yeah you can tell but finally at the last exorcism in june magineau changed tactics and quote paraded the demons in latin than English, which he claimed was the key to
successfully driving them out. And at hearing the Latin words in scripture, Latoya started to convulse and then went slack and seemed to be asleep.
He said a prayer of thanks over her sleeping body. And when she woke up, she and Rosa went back to Indianapolis, where they claim they have not experienced any demonic activity since.
So in Cabin in the Woods, when he says, do not read the Latin. He's wrong.
Apparently you read the Latin. I think you can only read the Latin if you know the Latin and what you're saying.
Yeah, you don't want to just read willy-nilly Latin. Never.
If we tell you one thing, if you take one thing away from this episode, never read Latin willy-nilly. Yeah, don't just willy-nilly.
You got to know about the Latin. Yeah.
But in November 2012, roughly one year after this whole ordeal began, Latoya did regain custody of all three children. And her entire family started participating in in-home-based therapy services.
Good. According to one report filed with DCS, they, quote, have not experienced any issues with demonic presences or spirits in the home in indianapolis and are moving on from that point in their lives damn the report goes on to say the family continues to attend church regularly on sunday but the family is no longer fixated solely on religion to explain or cope with the children's behavior issues whoa so i think dcf definitely was like there's too too much reliance on religion going on here to a point where it's dangerous.
Yeah, it's bordering on religious mania. Yes, exactly.
In 2014, a long-form article in the Indianapolis Star about the family's experience generated an unexpectedly large amount of national attention and thrust the family right back into the spotlight. Latoya said, I figured that I'd get an uproar from my hometown, but I never imagined that it would go viral.
Just four days later, Zach Bagans of Ghost Adventures. Who? Zach Bagans.
Oh, a man named Zach Bagans? I don't know if you've heard of him. He bought the house from the owner for $35,000 and subsequently made a television documentary about the house, which I will be watching today.
I will be watching that later. Yep.
He referred to it as the next Amityville. Wow.
And I added, but real. I was just going to say, I don't know if you want to throw that one on there.
Yeah, I'm like, don't do that. Because you're like, the next hoax.
Exactly. That's not good.
I believe in this one a lot more. I definitely, like, I'll be honest.
I think there were probably parts of this that got dramatized. How do you say that? Dramatized? Yeah.
Dramatized. I would say dramatized.
I feel like that's okay. Can you say both? Is that a word too? Dramatized? Dramatized? You decide.
I'll take both. I think there were parts of this that got both of them, that did both of those things.
And I'm sure, you know, sometimes the kids were like, oh, I can't go to school. Yeah.
You know, demons. I think overall they did experience a lot of what they said.
There is something very unexplained in this situation. 100%.
There's something that does not, the fact that many people saw a kid walk backwards up a wall and onto the ceiling and then flip over his grandma while holding her hand. You're just never going to tell me that that wasn't a demon.
Yeah, that's the thing. So there's other things that for sure you can question.
Yes. Just at least be like, huh, okay.
Well, and then this next part to me, I'm like, huh. Because like we all know Zach Bagans has an entire fucking museum filled with the most haunted shit on the planet yeah when this documentary was finished he had the house demolished whoa yeah just after the release of the documentary in 2016 he told a reporter something was inside that house that had the ability to do things that i have never seen before things that others carrying the highest forms of credibility couldn't explain either.
There was something there that was very dark, yet highly intelligent and powerful. Whoa.
So Zach Bagans was like, I don't want to fuck with that. We're demolishing that house.
Holy shit. The man who will take like every haunted fucking thing into his museum.
To me, that's like. Was like, let's get rid like i have chills on my legs like to not be like we're gonna save this house and like continue investigating he was like nope nope we should just get rid of it completely got rid of it so interesting and several years later latoya's story was adapted into the deliverance this year yeah this year isn't that for some reason i thought that movie had been out for way longer you're probably thinking of deliver i was yeah that's exactly what i was thinking definitely different netflix released it and it was directed by lee daniels and it stars um andre day and queen glenn close oh and glenn i've never actually seen the movie i haven't seen the movie i.
Well, I've seen like the stills of like – I've seen the clips. Of Nana.
Nana Glenn there. Nana Glenn.
I want to watch it. And I want to watch the documentary.
I'm dying to watch the documentary. Yeah.
Because nothing is more fun than watching a – Zach Begans. Zach Begans.
Zach Begans is such a character. Or a Taps.
I love a ghost hunting show. Yes, yes ghost ghost adventures and ghost hunters ghost hunters i prefer ghost hunters personally yeah me too uh but there's something to be said about all of them isn't this an interesting case though that was a very interesting case like i'm 19 i would say i 98 believe most of what happened there it's funny because we went from like a straight up hoax.
We went from Tom Flory. From like just straight up shenanigans.
Yup. Nonsense.
And then we went to the House of Flying Objects where you could be like, all right, I think there's a little bit of something happening here, but who knows what? Yup. Is it, you know, the kid going through it and there's like this energy that's building it? What's going on? Right.
But you think there's like a little bit of each.
And then you go to this one and you go, a kid walked up a wall and onto the ceiling
and flipped over his grandma in front of a whole fucking room of people.
Like that's a different scenario.
And like DCS, DCF caseworkers were writing things in their reports where they were like,
yeah, some part of this are inexplicable.
Yeah.
Nurses were like, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
We didn't even mean to do that either.
Like put them in that order.
I know.
That's right. where they were like, yeah, some parts of this are inexplicable.
Yeah. Nurses were like, yeah, I'm pretty sure.
We didn't even mean to do that either, like put them in that order.
I know.
That they like went into like nonsense to like this might be real kind of thing.
It was a nice way to top off spooky season.
I don't know if this is the last spooky season episode or not.
I have no idea.
We have a fun guest coming up.
We do.
That's a little bit spooky. Yeah.
But he's also just like a fun guest. Yeah, he's just a wonderful human being.
He's lovely. We're going to be recording that tomorrow, so it might be the next episode after this.
Yeah, and then we have our fun Halloween episode. Oh, actually, that's the episode after this.
There you go. I don't really know, to be honest.
But you know what? Halloween. Oh.
The episode is fun. I'm so excited.
You're going to get a little nifty gifty along with it. Yeah.
So look out for that. Yeah.
And fun subsequent gifts to come. Yeah.
Because we're excited about this one thing. Not really gifts.
Yeah. I shouldn't say gift.
Like you're not going to hold a gift in your hand. No.
A fun thing that we never do. Yeah, yeah exactly but we might do more of soon yeah uh so
yeah look forward to that um and we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird but not so
weird that you walk up a wall backwards and flip over your camera after your grandma after walking
on the ceiling my grandma My grandma. My grandma.
Thank you. I'm I'm I'm If you like Morbid, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus
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