...Who's There?

Speaker 1 You think you're safe when you're at home, but today's two stories prove you might not be.

Speaker 1 The audio from both of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description.

Speaker 1 The first story you'll hear is called Who's Out There, and it's about a woman's worst nightmare that unfolds at a cabin in the woods.

Speaker 1 And the second and final story you'll hear is called Denver Spider-Man, and it's about a very unsettling secret that was found inside of a locked house.

Speaker 1 But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the Strange, Dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the Right Podcast because that's all we do.

Speaker 1 So, if that's of interest to you, the next time the follow-button is looking to adopt a pet, tell them you just rescued a puppy and you'd love for them to take it.

Speaker 1 But don't tell them when you say puppy, you actually mean enormous saltwater crocodile. Okay, let's get into our first story called Who's Out There.

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Speaker 3 On the night of October 17th, 2019, a 47-year-old woman named Ada Quintal stepped out of her family's cabin in rural Michigan to take her dog for a walk and have a smoke. It was very late.

Speaker 3 It was about 1.30 in the morning. Now, this cabin where she was staying was very isolated.
It was about a half mile away from any neighbors, but Ada actually enjoyed the solitude.

Speaker 3 You know, she was surrounded on all sides by forest and swamps, and the wilderness actually made Ada feel a lot safer than when she was back home in the densely populated Detroit area where she lived full-time.

Speaker 3 And this was because, just a few months earlier, when she had been back home in Detroit, she had been the victim of an unprovoked attack.

Speaker 3 She had been out in the city around all these people in broad daylight, and this guy came up to her and just jumped her, broke her nose, gave her a concussion, and then ran off.

Speaker 3 But the scariest part of this attack was not the fact that she had been brutalized. It was that this guy did not appear to have any reason to attack her.

Speaker 3 He didn't know Ada, and Ada had not been robbed or anything. It was like he just randomly identified her and attacked her.
And the guy had never been caught.

Speaker 3 And so this ordeal had had such a profound impact on Ada that it really began to affect her health, both mentally and physically. She started to just kind of decline.

Speaker 3 And on top of that, she had been laid off from her engineering job. And so now she was unemployed and seriously depressed.

Speaker 3 And so recently, when Ada's uncle had called her and offered to pay her to come out and live in this two-story family cabin and fix it up for the winter, Ada had jumped at the chance.

Speaker 3 I mean, not only would this solve her unemployment issue, but also she loved this cabin. It had been in her family for 75 years, and some of her fondest childhood memories were in this cabin.

Speaker 3 And so she looked at this as a chance to kind of get away from the city and just be in her happy place and kind of reset and recover from the trauma of the attack.

Speaker 3 And so for the past week, Ada and her boyfriend had been staying in this cabin and doing small repairs and cleaning it up.

Speaker 3 But two days earlier, her boyfriend had had to leave and go back to the city, where they were actually fixing up another property, a condo, and so now it was just Ada and her dog.

Speaker 3 But that was totally fine with Ada. She liked being out here by herself, so this was no big deal.
But tonight, she was feeling frustrated because she couldn't sleep.

Speaker 3 About an hour earlier, she had taken a pill to help her sleep, but so far it hadn't worked, and so she was feeling kind of wired and anxious.

Speaker 3 And so she had decided to go on a walk with her dog in hopes that that would clear her mind and allow her to finally get some rest.

Speaker 3 Now, these roads that surrounded this cabin were kind of small and zigzaggy, and, you know, there weren't any street lights. I mean, this is not exactly a good place to go for a nighttime walk.

Speaker 3 But Ada knew this place like the back of her hand and she also carried a 9mm pistol in her pocket you know just for protection.

Speaker 3 And so after walking for a few minutes down one of these dark winding roads Ada's dog stopped to relieve himself on a bush. So as the dog was going to the bathroom Ada just casually smoked and waited.

Speaker 3 But at some point the dog just stopped going to the bathroom, turned slightly, and began growling and its ears perked up and it was looking off into the darkness right ahead of them.

Speaker 3 And so Ada instinctively took her flashlight and raised it up and aimed it in the direction her dog was looking. And right away, the cone of light illuminated these two eyes looking right back at Ada.

Speaker 3 And immediately Ada knew what she was staring at. It was a mountain lion.

Speaker 3 And so doing her best to stay calm, Ada slowly reached into her pocket to pull out her gun, but before pulling it out, the two eyes blinked shut, and then she heard it kind of turn and run off into the forest.

Speaker 3 It was gone.

Speaker 3 Once Ada was sure the mountain lion really was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief and then very quickly tugged on her dog's leash, they turned around, and she hustled back towards the cabin.

Speaker 3 When Ada reached her cabin, which was all lit up because she had left all the lights on before she had left, she jumped up the front steps, she opened up the door, she went inside with her dog, and after letting her dog off the leash, she shut and locked the door.

Speaker 3 Then she grabbed her phone and texted her boyfriend to tell him about this mountain lion.

Speaker 3 And then after hitting send, you know, Ada felt relieved to be back in her cabin, but at the same time, she still felt very on edge.

Speaker 3 I mean, she had been, you know, just a few feet away from a mountain lion in the middle of of the night in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 3 But as Ada was doing her best to calm herself down, she heard this noise coming from outside the living room window, almost like twig snapping, like somebody was walking past the window.

Speaker 3 And so the way this cabin was set up is when you first walked inside, you were in the kitchen, and then the back half of the cabin was a living room, and then there were also stairs leading up to a second floor.

Speaker 3 But from in the kitchen, you had a clear line of sight into the living room, and vice versa. It was kind of like one big room with two functions.

Speaker 3 And so from where Ada was standing in the kitchen, she could clearly see the window in the living room where this noise had kind of come through, but because the inside of the cabin was all lit up and the outside was dark, you know, from her perspective, all she could see was a reflection on that window.

Speaker 3 So to look outside that window to see what had made that noise, she would need to get right up next to the window.

Speaker 3 And so feeling pretty nervous at this point, she walked across the cabin, she made her way towards this window, and then she pressed her face right up against the glass to look outside.

Speaker 3 But all she saw outside was just darkness. I mean, there was nothing out there.

Speaker 3 And so Ada stepped back from the window and started to wonder if maybe the sound she had just heard was maybe that mountain lion. You know, maybe it followed her back here.

Speaker 3 You know, that was terrifying, but at least she was inside.

Speaker 3 But also she was thinking to herself, you know, mountain lions are not known for being aggressive towards humans, and they wouldn't come up to her cabin like this and prowl around outside.

Speaker 3 That's just not what mountain lions do. But Ada didn't really have any other explanation.
And so she told herself, you know, it's got to be nothing. You know, there's nothing out there.

Speaker 3 This is a safe place. And so she kind of forgot about the noise and she took off her coat and put her stuff down.

Speaker 3 And then she sat down on the couch in the living room, turned on the TV, and tried to relax.

Speaker 3 But only about 20 minutes later, when Ada had finally relaxed and was even thinking about getting into her bed and going to sleep, she heard another noise coming from that same window in the living room.

Speaker 3 And this time when she looked up and looked out that window, despite the reflections inside the cabin, she could clearly tell there was something moving outside of her cabin.

Speaker 3 And it was definitely not a mountain lion. It looked like a man.

Speaker 3 And so Ada had to stifle a scream, and then instinctively she lunged for her gun on the coffee table and then darted behind the couch and crouched down to make sure whoever was out there couldn't see her.

Speaker 3 And then, you know, with gun in hand, she began calling out to the person out there that, hey, I'm armed. If you come in here, I'm going to shoot you.
But it was just silence.

Speaker 3 And then Ada strained her ears to try to hear any sound that would give away where this person went. You know, were they still outside that window? Had they moved somewhere else?

Speaker 3 But all she could hear was the sound of the wind whipping outside and an owl hooting off in the distance. But then right as Ada was starting to wonder, you know, did I really see somebody out there?

Speaker 3 You know, is this all in my head? That's when she heard the distinct sound of footsteps on her front porch.

Speaker 3 And so again, Ada had to stifle a scream and she darted to the other side of the couch, you know, preventing the person from the front of the house to seeing her now.

Speaker 3 Then she grabbed her phone and she was dialing 911 and she was about to hit call when she stopped herself. And she began to wonder, am I just totally overreacting here?

Speaker 3 You know, I don't know if there's somebody out there. I could be hearing things or maybe it's just like an animal or something.

Speaker 3 And also deep down, Ada knew that ever since that attack in Detroit that summer, that basically everything scared her.

Speaker 3 And she was starting to wonder if maybe she was just being totally paranoid and there was nothing going on.

Speaker 3 And she didn't want to embarrass herself by calling 911 and having them come out here and finding nothing. And so Ada decided she would call her boyfriend.
And so she called her boyfriend.

Speaker 3 And as the phone is ringing, she's listening intently for any other footsteps outside, but she can't hear anything. And then her boyfriend, you know, he didn't pick up.

Speaker 3 It's also like 2.30 in the morning at this point, but her boyfriend doesn't answer. And so after that, she tries calling one of her friends and her friend does pick up.

Speaker 3 And right away, Ada just began telling this friend about all the things that had happened that night, you know, from going out and seeing the mountain lion and then coming back in, hearing the sound and now hearing the footsteps on the front porch.

Speaker 3 And, you know, she was worried that maybe she was just making it all up, but she was still really scared.

Speaker 3 And even though Ada was trying to be composed as she was telling her friend, her voice began to crack and she began to cry because she really was scared.

Speaker 3 And the friend just said, look, I'm going to call the police on your behalf. You know, it seems like it's worth having them come out just to make sure you're really okay.

Speaker 3 Give me the address and I'll tell them where to go. And so Ada would give her friend the address, but she told the friend, you know, thank you, but do not call right now.

Speaker 3 Just please stay on the phone for a minute and let me just do a quick investigation. Let me look out the windows, you know, and just really make sure that this is nothing before you call the police.

Speaker 3 And so the friend said, you know, okay, you know, look around, but then I'm calling the police.

Speaker 3 And so with her phone and her gun in hand, Ada very carefully crept out from behind the couch, keeping a low profile, you know, staying below the sight line of all the windows.

Speaker 3 And she crept from the living room into the kitchen towards the front of the house.

Speaker 3 And she walked over to the sink and she very slowly raised her head until she could just barely peek through the window right above the sink that overlooked the front porch.

Speaker 3 Because remember, that was the last place she had heard sounds from the front porch. And so she very carefully peeks and looks out the window and there's nothing there.
Nobody's on the porch.

Speaker 3 It's just empty, dark forest. She's safe.

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Speaker 3 Ada let out a relieved half cry, half laugh, and then stood all the way up and felt totally ridiculous.

Speaker 3 Because clearly she had just imagined, you know, all these people wandering around the outside of her house. And so she was about to tell her friend that, hey, sorry, you know, there is no issue here.

Speaker 3 Don't call the police. But before she could get the words out, Ada happened to turn around and was looking back towards the living room and she froze.

Speaker 3 Because there in that same window she had heard those sounds coming from in the living room was now the silhouettes of two men, clear as day, just looking in the window right at Ada.

Speaker 3 And so acting purely on instinct, Ada just raised her gun and aimed it at these two men. And to her horror, the two men also raised guns and aimed them right back at Ada.

Speaker 3 And so Ada just started firing her gun at the window, and these men began shooting back at her.

Speaker 3 And right before Ada leapt to the ground, she was pretty sure she hit one of the men in the head with one of her rounds. And so she lands on the ground.
It's absolute pandemonium at this point.

Speaker 3 Then her friend, who's still on the the phone, is screaming like, what's going on? What's going on? And all Ada could think to do was yell out, there's two men. They're shooting at me.

Speaker 3 I think I shot one of them. And the friend is screaming, I'm going to call the police.
And then the line goes dead.

Speaker 3 And Ada, who's crouched down behind the kitchen island at this point, she realizes all the shooting has stopped. It's now dead silent in the cabin.

Speaker 3 And so for a second, Ada was thinking to herself, maybe I managed to shoot both of them. And that's why it's quiet right now.

Speaker 3 But then another thought began to enter her head that maybe she had only shot one of them and the other survivor was moving into position to maybe ambush her.

Speaker 3 And so as she's running through what she's going to do, she hears this horrible loud thumping sound right above her in the second floor of the cabin.

Speaker 3 Now, Ada knew at this moment, she should just get her dog and run.

Speaker 3 Because if this second shooter has survived and has now come into her cabin and is upstairs, that means the forest is now clear and she can make a run for it.

Speaker 3 But as she sat there by the island, still clutching her gun, you know, in this beloved family cabin of hers, she began thinking about about the fact that ever since that attack in Detroit over the summer, you know, that had totally wrecked her life and made her scared of everything.

Speaker 3 And so as she heard the sound of whoever this was marching around in her second floor, she made a decision. She was going to stand her ground and fight.

Speaker 3 And so she took a deep breath, she stood up, and with gun in hand, she made her way to the stairs and began to go up.

Speaker 3 The police arrived at the cabin about 30 minutes later because Ada's friend did call the police and she warned them that as far as she knew, there could be at least two gunmen there, and maybe Ada had shot one of them.

Speaker 3 She wasn't sure. And so when the police arrived, they showed up, you know, guns drawn, and they walked up to the cabin, and they searched the outside, but there was nobody out there.
It was silent.

Speaker 3 And then when they made entry into the cabin, they saw clearly there had been a shootout. I mean, there were bullet holes all over the place, broken windows.

Speaker 3 But after searching the cabin top to bottom, they didn't find anybody. No Ada, no shooters.
However, they did find Ada's terrified dog inside of the cabin, and the dog would be just fine.

Speaker 3 Now, once the cabin was secured of any threats, the police would do another comprehensive search looking for any evidence that would kind of tell them, you know, where Ada or these shooters had gone.

Speaker 3 And during this secondary search, they would find Ada's shoes and her cell phone on the roof of the cabin, and they would also find her gun on the ground, not far from the roof, suggesting maybe she had fallen off the roof or jumped from the roof, but they were kind of located roughly in the same area.

Speaker 3 And during this secondary search, they wouldn't find Ada or the gunman, but they would find Ada's cell phone and her shoes on the roof of the cabin, and they would also find Ada's gun on the ground not far from where her shoes and cell phone had been found.

Speaker 3 But that was it.

Speaker 3 Police immediately launched a massive search in the forest surrounding the cabin, but despite looking all over the place, they could not find any signs of Ada or her attackers.

Speaker 3 Police checked local hospitals to see if maybe the man that Ada had shot had shown up seeking medical attention, but as far as they could tell, he hadn't.

Speaker 3 And so pretty quickly, the police theorized that maybe there were no gunmen.

Speaker 3 You know, maybe what really happened here is Ada's boyfriend attacked her and he was responsible for whatever happened to her.

Speaker 3 But when police checked on Ada's boyfriend, it would turn out he had a rock-solid alibi. He had been with Ada's adult son at the time Ada had gone missing.

Speaker 3 And Ada's own son said, yes, for sure, he was with me. He did not do this.

Speaker 3 But after that, the police thought, okay, well, maybe if Ada's boyfriend didn't do this, maybe he hired other people to hurt Ada.

Speaker 3 But there was no evidence of any strange financial transactions, and as far as they could tell, when they did some digging, there was no strife in Ada and her boyfriend's relationship.

Speaker 3 So there was no clear reason why he would want to hurt her. And so that lead also kind of fell flat.

Speaker 3 Police would confirm that Ada was attacked that previous summer by this random guy in Detroit, and so for a little while they speculated that, you know, maybe this guy, this attacker, who had never been caught, had maybe tracked Ada down to finish off the job.

Speaker 3 But that seemed so far-fetched and just unlikely that that basically was shut down as well. And as the days passed, the evidence that was coming in only made the case more confusing.

Speaker 3 For example, there were all these bullets fired during this big shootout in the cabin, and when they examined the actual bullets they extracted from the walls and the floor and the ceiling, they were all from Ada's gun.

Speaker 3 However, outside and inside the cabin, they found all these different shell casings, suggesting that those bullets had been fired from different weapons, i.e., you know, maybe the attacker's weapons.

Speaker 3 And so, as the weeks passed by, and Ada and her attackers were not found, people began to speculate that, you know, maybe this was all an elaborate setup by Ada just so she could disappear.

Speaker 3 Or other people thought maybe she was abducted by aliens. I mean, there were lots of theories surrounding this, but basically nobody knew what happened.

Speaker 3 And then pretty soon, the case just went completely cold.

Speaker 3 That is until December 21st, 2019, so about two months after Ada's disappearance. And on that day, Ada's family decided to drain a pond that was near that cabin in the woods.

Speaker 3 At this point, the family was so desperate for closure that they were prepared to do just about anything to find Ada and to figure out what happened to her.

Speaker 3 And so even though this pond had previously been searched by the police, they drain this pond, and sure enough, they find Ada.

Speaker 3 She was deceased, and her body was found about 300 yards away from the cabin, and she was covered in only about a foot of water.

Speaker 3 Now, initially, the speculation was, well, here you go, you know, she must have been chased out of her cabin by these attackers, and she was shot and killed, and this is where she fell.

Speaker 3 But after a quick examination of her body, it was clear she had no bullet wounds on her anywhere.

Speaker 3 In fact, she didn't even have any bruises on her or any major scrapes or cuts or anything, so it didn't even seem like she had been in any sort of physical struggle at all before she died.

Speaker 3 In fact, unless she had drowned, it really just seemed totally unclear how she had died. It was not until the medical examiner did Ada's autopsy that all this baffling evidence began to make sense.

Speaker 3 It would turn out in the wake of that horrible random attack that Ada had suffered over the summer that Ada was actually doing far worse than she let on to her family and friends.

Speaker 3 She had basically begun to cope with her trauma and anxiety with substance abuse.

Speaker 3 And so on the night that she had died, she was likely feeling totally stressed out and anxious, and she couldn't sleep as a a result.

Speaker 3 And so she had taken some Valium, which is a fairly strong sedative, and also some anti-anxiety medication. But after taking those pills, she still wasn't tired.

Speaker 3 And so that was when she decided to, you know, go out for a walk with her dog to clear her head and have a smoke. But it was not cigarettes that she was smoking.

Speaker 3 She was smoking methamphetamine, known simply as meth.

Speaker 3 And meth is a very strong stimulant that people like because it makes them feel very strong and confident and alert, which for Ada was a powerful antidote to the helplessness she was feeling all the time from the attack she had suffered that summer.

Speaker 3 But one of the many downsides of meth is that it can make you extremely paranoid. And so during her walk that night, as she's smoking meth, she sees a mountain lion, which terrifies her.

Speaker 3 And then after the mountain lion trots off, it was like that jolt of adrenaline and fear from seeing the mountain lion didn't subside because of smoking meth.

Speaker 3 It was like the meth sent her into this paranoia overdrive that she couldn't escape from. And so when Ada went back inside of her cabin, she very likely did see people in her windows.

Speaker 3 But almost certainly it was just her own reflection, but again, she's in this meth-induced paranoid state, and so instead of realizing it was her own reflection, she thought it was like intruders coming to get her.

Speaker 3 And before long, she'd raised her gun and thought the people outside were raising their gun back at her, but again, it's just her reflection.

Speaker 3 And so when she was shooting, she was basically having a shootout with herself.

Speaker 3 And then as for, you know, the strange noises she was hearing, like the footsteps on the second floor, very likely those were just natural sounds kind of happening outside.

Speaker 3 She's out in the middle of a forest. There's lots of noises that are totally natural at night.
But again, you know, she's in this paranoid state.

Speaker 3 And so she went upstairs to confront the person and then didn't see anybody. And then police theorized that she must have, you know, climbed out onto the roof to hide from these attackers.

Speaker 3 And then at some point, for reasons unknown, she leapt from the roof or climbed down or something, leaving behind her cell phone and shoes on the roof.

Speaker 3 She left her gun on the ground, and then she ran off into the forest where she ultimately collapsed, you know, 300 yards away in a foot of water, where she died not from drowning, but from a combination of hypothermia and also a toxic combination of drugs in her system.

Speaker 3 And so, in the end, the danger that Ada was trying to escape was in her own mind.

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Speaker 1 The next and final story of today's episode is called Denver Spider-Man.

Speaker 1 On October 17th, 1941, 73-year-old Philip Peters was supposed to join his friends for dinner, but he never showed up.

Speaker 1 His neighbors knew Phil was living alone at the time because his wife had recently fallen and broken her hip and was in the hospital. And so they were worried about Phil being on his own.

Speaker 1 And they thought, you know what, let's just be sure. Let's call the police and have them go over and check on him.

Speaker 1 When the police arrived at his house, they knocked on the door, no answer. They tried tried the door handle, it was locked, they tried the other door, that was locked too.

Speaker 1 They looked in the windows, it was all dark, and they had to get another neighbor who had a key to open the door for them.

Speaker 1 When they stepped inside, there was blood everywhere on the walls, on the ceiling, everywhere. And in the middle of the kitchen is Phil Peters face down.
He has been bludgeoned to death.

Speaker 1 The police immediately draw their weapons and they're looking around the house thinking someone could still be here. And they clear the whole house and there's no one there.

Speaker 1 And so a whole bunch of detectives converge on the house and they start investigating and they realize pretty quickly how strange the scene was.

Speaker 1 Nothing in the house was vandalized, nothing in the house was stolen, and Phil himself was just a very modest, retired auditor.

Speaker 1 He certainly didn't have any enemies and so the revenge angle didn't necessarily make much sense.

Speaker 1 But then you got to remember that when police first got there before they discovered his body, the house was shut and locked. and there was no sign of forced entry.

Speaker 1 And so whoever was in there with Phil at the time of his death must have known Phil enough to have a key of their own or have Phil open the door for them.

Speaker 1 So it made investigators wonder what would motivate some person that's in Phil's inner circle to commit such a heinous crime when the obvious angles such as theft, vandalism, revenge have basically been crossed off.

Speaker 1 Not to mention, there was virtually no evidence of who could have done this, with the exception of the murder weapon, which was this big piece of metal called a stove shaker.

Speaker 1 But the person who had used it to kill him had taken the time to meticulously wipe it off. So there was nothing on it, no fingerprints, no anything.

Speaker 1 So for months, detectives agonized over this case, but they got nowhere.

Speaker 1 Nine months later, a housekeeper was hired by Phil's widow to help around the house now that Phil was gone.

Speaker 1 And she said, as soon as she moved in, she started hearing strange tapping sounds all through the house, but didn't think anything of it.

Speaker 1 And so that day, the day she's calling police, she's alone in the Peters residence and she hears the tapping and it's coming from the kitchen.

Speaker 1 And she thinks, oh, it's got to be a woodpecker just outside the house, outside the window.

Speaker 1 And she said, as she looked into the kitchen, on the other side of the kitchen was a door that opened up to a flight of stairs that went to the second floor. And she said it was slowly opening.

Speaker 1 And out from behind comes this white hand that reaches to the side of the door and begins to pull it open. And she screams and the hand retracts back into the space.

Speaker 1 And then she hears it storm up the stairs and run around on the upstairs before going silent again. She ran out of the house and she ran to a neighbor's house to call the police.

Speaker 1 The police immediately go to the house and they go inside, guns drawn and they're looking for this person because they're thinking perhaps the murderer is back and they're looking all through the house and there's nothing.

Speaker 1 There's not even a sign of a break-in. And so the police go back to the housekeeper and to Miss Peters.

Speaker 1 They explain that we couldn't find anyone, but given the history of your house, we don't think it's safe for you to be in there. And so the housekeeper didn't go go back and Ms.

Speaker 1 Peters was moved back to the hospital where she could be looked after during the police investigation. At this point, the police decide we're going to permanently stake out this house.

Speaker 1 We're going to have two detectives that are outside this house watching it at all times.

Speaker 1 And so two detectives go and they're sitting outside and for a couple of days they're not seeing anything, they're not hearing anything. And they decide to just go inside and have a look around.

Speaker 1 They both walk into the house, they go upstairs, they look around, they don't see anything, they go back downstairs, and as they're standing on the first floor getting ready to leave, they hear what sounds like a doorknob turning upstairs.

Speaker 1 They both heard it, so they go upstairs and they start searching different rooms. And one of the detectives goes into the bedroom and opens up a closet.

Speaker 1 And past all the clothes, bottom left-hand corner, he sees a foot dart into a little space in the back corner of the closet.

Speaker 1 And without any hesitation, this guy jumps headfirst into the closet and grabs the foot of this mystery person who's crawling into a tiny little panel in the back of a closet.

Speaker 1 And he holds on to this person who's fighting with their life to get away. And he starts pulling them out and he's yelling for his partner to come over.
He comes charging in.

Speaker 1 They both grab this person and they yank this person out. And they would describe him as the strangest-looking person they had ever seen.

Speaker 1 He was super tall, but real thin, and his skin was so dirty, it appeared gray. His name was Theodore Conies, and he had been living in this house for a year.

Speaker 1 Before Conies moved moved in, he had fallen on hard times, he was sleeping in alleyways, and as it started to get colder in September of 1941, he decided he would approach his longtime friend, Phil Peters, and he would ask him for some money and maybe an opportunity to crash at his house for a couple of days.

Speaker 1 But as it happened, when he got to Phil's house, Phil wasn't there. Phil was at the hospital visiting his wife, who had a broken hip, and so the house was vacant.

Speaker 1 And Coney saw an opportunity and he broke in.

Speaker 1 And at first, his plan was just to steal food, get warmed warmed up a little bit, and then leave, but he noticed when he was looking through the house for things to take that in the back of one of these closets was a panel that led to this tiny little almost secret attic space that wasn't being used for anything because it was impossibly small.

Speaker 1 You'd have to be incredibly skinny just to get through the little square opening that would bring you into this little space.

Speaker 1 And then once you got in, you could only get in by slithering headfirst in. You couldn't stand up.
You had to be laying the entire time.

Speaker 1 You couldn't extend your legs all the way if you're a full-grown adult. So you're kind of tucked up in almost like a pseudo-fetal position.

Speaker 1 But Cony saw this as a huge upgrade from living in the streets and he decided that this is where he's going to live for the winter.

Speaker 1 And so he went around the house gathering supplies between blankets and food and water. And he filled his tiny little space.

Speaker 1 And then he went back downstairs and he locked the front door again, made sure everything looked the way it was when he showed up. And he went into his little space and shut the door behind him.

Speaker 1 And when Phil came home that night, he didn't notice anything. And for the next several weeks, Phil never noticed a thing.

Speaker 1 Every time Phil would leave, Conies would sneak out, go downstairs, make himself some coffee, get a bite to eat, then go back up to his little space.

Speaker 1 He even cut into the house's wiring system and stole one of Phil's radios, brought it into the cubby with him, attached it to the new wiring, and he got to listen to the news so he didn't feel so isolated from the outside world.

Speaker 1 But about a month later, Conies leaves his little spot to go downstairs because he thinks Phil is gone. He gets to the kitchen, he's going through the fridge.

Speaker 1 When he shuts the fridge, he looks over and there's Phil standing there looking at him like, what are you doing in my kitchen? In a panic, Conies grabs the stove shaker and beats Phil to death.

Speaker 1 Not knowing what else to do, he wipes off the murder weapon, leaves it where it is. He goes in the fridge, he gets more food and drink, and he goes right back up to where he lives.

Speaker 1 He would follow the investigation of Phil Peter's death on his radio curled up inside of Phil Peter's house.

Speaker 1 Conies was quickly found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. After hearing his sentence read to him, he says out loud, now I feel safe.
I'll have a better home than I've had in years.

Speaker 1 A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Speaker 1 The Mr. Ballin podcast, Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, is hosted and executive produced by me, Mr.
Ballin. Our head of writing is Evan Allen.

Speaker 1 Our head of production is Zach Levitt, produced by Jeremy Bone. Research and fact-checking by Shelly Shu, Samantha Van Hoos, Evan Beamer, Abigail Shumway, and Camille Callahan.

Speaker 1 Research and fact-checking supervision by Stephen Ear. Audio editing and post-produced by Witt Lacasio and Cole Lacasio.
Additional audio editing by Jordan Stiddam. Mixed and mastered by Brendan Kane.

Speaker 1 Production coordination by Samantha Collins. Production support by Antonio Minata and Delena Corley.
Artwork by Jessica Klogston Kiner. Theme song called Something Wicked by Ross Bugden.

Speaker 1 Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.
If you enjoyed today's story and you're looking for more bone-chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios podcasts.

Speaker 1 There's this one, the Mr. Bollin podcast, as well as Mr.
Bollin's Medical Mysteries, Bedtime Stories, Wartime Stories, Run Fool, Redacted, Late Nights with Nexpo, and A Twist of History.

Speaker 1 All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr.
Ballin.

Speaker 1 So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support.
Until next time, see ya.

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