We here at The Spooked Chicken offer up a competition for our readers. The person who shares the best scary story or experience will have an article featuring them and what they had to share, lets see what they had to say!
Congratulations !!!! Stephanie Hertz, the Burton, Michigan native! Stephanie is a mother of three, who not only has to deal with the hectic life of raising her children but between the bedtime stories and the changing of diapers. She must also deal with the paranormal that plagues her home every night.
Stephanie and I have been in contact over the weeks discussing exactly who we at The Spooked Chicken are, where we are located, and why we started doing this. She was kind enough to submit her story through our website after subscribing to our newsletter.
Stephanie, because of her occupation and the fact that she still is renting this Burton Michigan home, she did not want her identity disclosed. The names of the family in the following article have been altered.
'We here at The Spooked Chicken are dedicated to not only helping the families that come to us, but also dedicated in finding the identities to the voices that plague these families.'
'It just is something that is very grotesque. It is something that likes to hide and is not really pleased when we have get together's at the house." Stephanie writes. Stephanie has been living in her Burton Michigan home for almost eight years, with her husband Dave and their three children Joshua (16) , Isabelle (9) and Martin (4 years).
They moved into their Burton, Michigan home in March of 2011. After the couple met online in 2007. Dave lived in Danville, Kentucky and Stephanie lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan
"A lot of Skyping, a lot of Facebook messenger, and a whole lot of texting. It was really about when we could see each other, about making the most of it. We would meet usually twice every month for a three day weekend in Dayton, Ohio. My work would take me down there so we would do what we had to do. Holidays were the best during these times because we could spend almost 3 weeks together uninterrupted. I knew I loved him the moment I saw him." Stephanie wrote in reply to the question, how does a relationship work from such far distances.
After sometime of this routine, Stephanie called Dave with some news. "He was so happy to be a father, it was an amazing feeling, seeing his face light up on Face time when I told him. I already had a son from my previous marriage so, I was a little anxious, but Dave has been nothing but a loving father to my son, and we welcomed Isabelle in February of 2010."
What Stephanie did not know was after hearing the news her soon to be husband left his trucking company, to move up here with to be with her.
"It was the best decision I have ever made. After finding out she was pregnant with our little Isabelle, I could not help myself. I already planned on making a proposal, ideally I would of liked to settle down in Dayton but when I found out the news, I put in my two weeks at my job and headed right to her." Dave wrote via Email.
The lovely couple married in January of 2010. They welcomed their daughter Isabelle the following month.
"My friend was moving out of her home, because she received a job offer in Utah. The job offer came with a better salary and better benefits. Martha also seemed as if she was ready to leave Michigan." Stephanie wrote.
"Her husband recently passed and she wanted a fresh start" Stephanie added.
Stephanie and her husband David, along with their children Josh and Isabelle needed a place, a true home. This seemed to David and Stephanie as a good opportunity to get a home.
"Martha and I have been friends since kindergarten. As Martha was putting her home on the market we didn't know if we our selves were going to stay in Michigan, but because I was still working and not far from moving what I did online, we decided to stay in Michigan a while longer." Stephanie added.
"David's family is from Kentucky and mine is from Ann Arbor. So when we talked to Martha she understood we might not stay in Michigan long. Martha told us that because she wasn't sure when the home would sell. She had no problem renting the home to us on land contract. We would take over the mortgage and land taxes and she didn't have to pay two mortgages. It was a win-win" Stephanie wrote.
Stephanie went on to say that her friend Martha always would complain about shadow people in her yard. Stephanie being a skeptic did not believe it was anything more than shadows from the trees on the street casting along the house because of the street lamps behind them. "There where times where she would come to work looking completely drained. She would go on and tell me that the shadow people seem to be getting closer and closer to the house." Stephanie wrote.
The history behind this house was lost to Martha. Apparently, according to Stephanie, Martha had enough of the shadow people when they got into the house. "That is when things really started getting funky for Martha, and she wouldn't tell me exactly what happened." Stephanie wrote.
"When she got that job offer, I knew she would take any chance to leave that house."
Dave and Stephanie said that they understood that Martha saw something when she lived there but it really wasn't something they believed in and those experiences did not have any effect on whether they moved in the home or not.
The Ghostly Experiences
"It really started happening, right after we had our house warming party. We were so happy to throw one because we really didn't have anything for the home. I lived with my parents taking care of my dad with my mom. So I didn't have anything for decor for the home." Stephanie wrote.
*fun fact: House warming parties, actually come from a tradition to bring people firewood as their house warming gifts. For the new homes fireplaces. It was literally 'warming the house'. It was also popular because it was viewed to push out all spirits who might of went into the empty homes when they where sitting uninhabited*
Stephanie wrote "After that party when we where waving goodbye to our friends who stayed (way later then we thought this party would go to) and as we where waving my husband Dave walked back inside and thats when I noticed this strange man. The man I saw at around 2 am across the street. Just watching us, from the neighbors front yard."
"The house the man was standing in front of was empty it was on the market before Martha put our home on the market." Stephanie wrote.
*Stephanie and Dave have had a lot activity such as things moving, kids waking up with nightmares, and toys going off unexpectedly. So for the sake of the article I have asked them to share their most scary, un-explainable and frightening encounter. They both decided on this one*
2015 (Whats in Josh's room?)
"It began again when Dave was out of town. He just got hired into a new trucking company and I was busy with my job. Which by the time he got hired, I was mostly online now." Stephanie wrote.
"We have had everything from things moving and being thrown to voices in the hallway when I and Martin are the only one's home. So five years after moving in these things didn't really phase us anymore." wrote Stephanie
She continued "We knew we had activity but nothing like this night. It started when my son was getting home from his dads. Josh's father Tom, was very active in the later parts of Josh's school life. When he got home Josh kept telling me that he gets to sleep at dads, and he is tired of not get any sleep here. It was because of this he wanted to go live with Tom. It was real hard on all of us sometimes because, it was like it did not like you to have full energy. It was like it was just trying to keep you down."
"The craziest part of all of it was when me and my husband finally sat down because we had enough, and trust me we both had enough so did Josh and Isabelle. We finally just said lets investigate it. Our goal was to see whats keeping Josh up in the middle of the night. So we decided to (not knowing what to exactly do) watch Ghost Hunters on the Syfy channel. I think at that time it was TAPS and they came on on every Wednesday night. So me and my husband watched an episode and we took note of what equipment they had. We saw a camcorder and a simple voice recorder. Nothing to expensive, and luckily I had a voice recorder that I use to take my notes with, and I knew a colleague from work who had a camcorder."
"So about a week later my son Josh was staying with his dad and we had my mom watch Martin and Isabelle. Me and my husband decided to start with the kitchen and we moved around the whole house from 8 at night to 12 in the morning not one thing happened out of the ordinary. We heard voices and stuff but once we tried to play it back on the recorder there was nothing. Absolutely nothing, no voices. That was not the creepy part. We decided to sleep in our son Josh's room. We decided we were going to sleep in there and see if something wakes us up and hopefully we can see it and know what was happening to our son. That was a mistake"
Around 3:30 in the morning was when the tapping began. It was pretty loud. It was like a finger banging on the window. I woke up and for a second I didn't know where I was. It was strange. I walked to the window and just looked out the window and felt just shocked. I didn't see anything and then all I remember was my husband grabbing me and yelling my name." Stephanie wrote.
What her husband remembers
Here at The Spooked Chicken, we wanted to get the accounts of the story. So we asked for them to send us a email with their story of that night. This is what the husband remembers.
"So when we laid down in Josh's room it was hard to go to sleep for me it was like laying down in a fun house. It felt like I was sick, I just figured that I was just overly tired. After investigating the whole house Josh's room felt the most different, but Stephanie was set to find out what was waking our son. So I agreed. When I woke up from sleeping, I could hear a tapping coming from my sons window. It was strange, I really didn't want to roll over and and look. I came to believe this stuff after living here for five years, but personally, I didn't have the experiences my kids and wife were having. I would hear stuff but nothing would ever be directed at me. I don't know if it was because I wasn't home all the time, I traveled a lot. I didn't know. That night I found out."
"So the tapping coming from the window I finally rolled over. My wife was at the window touching the glass with her index finger just mumbling. 'hello john, hello john' over and over again. I looked at her and said. 'Steph do you see something, come back to bed babe.' She just looked at me got this crooked smile over her face and then in a blink of an eye was turned facing me yelling. 'Hello John, Hello John' waving at me just screaming that at me. So I went and grabbed her and then ran down the hall holding her. We got into the car and drove over to my in-laws house. As we pulled out of the drive way my head lights happen to go past Josh's room's window. and there in the window was a man waving at me." Dave wrote.
We then asked if they recognized the man. Days later I got a response from David through email.
"I recognized the man" Said David "The man was Frank, Martha's late husband."
David and Stephanie still live in their Burton, Michigan home as of this publication date. However, they do plan on moving to Kentucky after David launched his own trucking company with his brothers. Stephanie's father sadly passed in 2012. Her mother lives in South Carolina.
"We just have learned to deal with it. We haven't had anything like that since. We have had multiple blessings done on the house and it seems that it has worked. No voices, no shadows and more importantly no waving man" Stephanie wrote in reply to our question on if these things are still happening.
"We are ready to move on to Kentucky so that way we can see his family. Mine no longer live in the state. One thing is for sure, no matter how far we go. This story will always come with us." Stephanie wrote.
Here at The Spooked Chicken we share everything we find knowing that 100% of our investigation, evidence and research are all real. We do not at all change or alter our recordings in any way. We edit the length of the recording for video purposes of sharing the EVP's we find with you guys. These stories are not from us and we have no backing to these claims of haunting's.
This is what we here at The Spooked Chicken have to say about Stephanie and Davids story....
With speaking with them they seemed honest, everything I know about them (again we altered the names for their purposes. They wanted to share their experiences, only knowing someone could not find out who they are and where they live.) To me that adds credibility. They seem like great people and we here at The Spooked Chicken are happy to have them as readers.
Conclusion...
We will leave it up to you readers to determine if you believe the Hertz family. Let us know in the comment section below! These articles we share every month are stories submitted to us, by you, our readers. So you decide.
If you would like your story to be featured by us here at The Spooked Chicken. The way to do it is to comment your story on one of our Instagram or Facebook post. You can also submit your paranormal encounter directly using our website.
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