A family learn that their newConnecticut home was once a funeral parlor, and strange incidents occur in thewalls
The year was 1987. CarmenSnedeker was living the American Dream in a small town in Upstate New York: shehad a husband named Allen and together, they had four children Brad, Jennifer,AJ, and Phillip, the oldest of the four. “Phillip was idolized, he was theirbig brother,” Carmen said. “They all played baseball, rode bikes…it was a niceslow paced life. There was nothing that I thought could destroy our lives.” Butthat was all about to change dramatically. After Carmen discovered a lump onPhillip’s neck, she took him to the doctors for test. The lump tested positivefor Hodgkins Lymphoma cancer. Even worse, no childhood treatment centers werenearby. The closest one was in Hartford, Connecticut which offered “veryradical, intense” new treatment so for five times a week, Carmen would make around trip to the treatment center. The treatment left Phillip’s skin scarredand black and the trips were becoming too much as Phillip would constantlysuffered from nausea and headaches. Worried that the trips would literally killhim, Carmen and her husband decide to move to Connecticut to be closer toPhillip’s treatment center.
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| The actual home in Connecticut (picture credit: NY Daily) |
Meanwhile, the kids were excitedbecause of the size of the house and thought it was like a palace. Phillip, whowas still very ill from treatments, stayed in a room connected to thebasement. On the first night at thehouse, Philip went downstairs to bed. Carmen was on the phone with Allenexplaining about the day and talking about Phillip. Meanwhile, Phillip issleeping and wakes up to someone calling his name and so he tells his mom.Carmen explains she probably heard her say his name over the phone and thesound travelled through the house. He warned “no, we have to leave this placeand never come back, its evil”…..
Brad and Phillip explored thehome as Phillip showed Brad the “funeral basement”. Phillip puts Brad on theembalming table as a prank and spun him around. Brad told Phillip to stop; “Hewas really trying to creep me out!” The next day, Phillip tells Brad and AJabout the counters that go all around the room. Phillip opened a hole under thecounter and AJ explained how they all proceeded; “ Phil was in front, then itwas me, naturally me being the youngest one, I was in the rear…it was like along dark cave…” AJ then noticed a stain on the ground. AJ touched it anddescribed it as a “dark, sticky substance”. Phil took his flashlight, pointedit to the wall, and it showed deep, dark red stains on the wall, like the colorof blood. All the boys frantically crawled out, scared out of their mind.Meanwhile, Carmen is wondering what all the fuss is about. “They’re white as ghosts and said there wasblood coming out of my wall,” she described. “I thought it was paint runningdown the wall that was dried. I started laughing at them and said, ‘scared yourselves,didn’t ya? You had no business of being down there anyways!’” When a crucifixon the entranceway went missing, she once again assumed it was boys just beingboys and they were trying to scare her. Despite the shenanigans she thought herboys were up to, Phillip’s health was her main priority; “He was so ill and…hewas going through probably more than I can imagine,” she recalled.
Phillip went to sleep one nightand heard his name called again. He was hearing it every night now and beganseeing things. Carmen assumed it was maybe the side effects of treatment andmedication. Carmen was afraid that he was telling the kids these stories andthey were going to believe it. They had been living in the house for about sixmonths when Phillip wakes up and sees four cloaked men in the corner of theroom. Brad, who was sharing the room with Phillip, wakes up and both boys lookover at the men. “My (toy) robot wasgoing crazy and there were four guys standing around it. All I saw were darkcloaks,” Brad explains “All the sudden, all four of them turned over... Myheart’s in my throat, scared, about to pee my pants!” Brad and Phillip ran toCarmen to tell them about the four men in the basement “I was more angry thenfrightened!” Carmen said. “If somebody is in my house with my babies, I get angry!I was going down to rip them a new one!” Carmen went downstairs, the boys nextto her, scared to death. Carmen explores the basement with a flashlight. Thenext way of going into the basement was going through the back half of therooms. Carmen went from room to room looking. She looked in every possible roomand every possible place and there was nobody there. Carmen calls the police toreport a possible burglary. But in conclusion, once again, she thought it wasthe boys story-telling and taking the crucifixes. “I told Phillip that he needed to act hisage!” Carmen said. She then held a family meeting for the boys and explainedthat they needed to stop with the ghost stories.
It had been a year since thefamily moved in the house when Brad came home from school and saw that Philliphad moved his bed from his bedroom to the next room over, the embalming room,which Carmen felt was very strange. “Puberty was kicking in, he moved to a strange city, he had cancer,”Carmen explained “He was hearing voices and he was seeing things. His doctorswere telling him it wasn’t the medication”. Meanwhile, Phillip became morewithdrawn. That summer, the family cousins, Kim and Tammy came over to visit.Tammy was especially excited to see Phillip. “Me and Phillip had a deepconnection, we were like brother and sister,” Tammy said. “Everyone greeted meat the door except Phillip. I was kind of hurt. I wanted to hug him and havehim be excited with me…he just wasn’t…”
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| The Snedeker family's case went onto the big screen (pic credit: People) |
Meanwhile, cousin Tammy becamemore spooked at Phillip’s behavior. “This was not his nature at all,” Tammysaid. “Now he was different. Tammy explained how Phillip would just leanaround, looking out at you. As time went on, Phillip became more aggressive andbegan throwing punches at his brothers where playful wrestling turned into UFCbrawls. On one occasion, Phillip was being very physical with Brad when Tammyjumped in to defend Brad. Phillip retaliated by going into Tammy’s room anddestroying it. On a second occasion whenTammy and Philip were fighting , out ofnowhere, Phillip used an unusual amount of enormous strength and threw heracross the room. “It put the fear of Godin me!” Tammy explained. Carmen herself was stunned: “He was a sick boy! Therewas no way he could throw me across the room like that. He justcouldn’t”.
Tammy woke up one night and felthands were grabbing the covers. She felt like something was coming after her.Her shirt is being lifted up. She was very frightened because she didn’t seewhat it was. Tammy felt very violated and confided in her Aunt Carmen about it.Carmen didn’t believe it was ghosts and that it was her son. “I didn’t knowwhat to feel or what to think. I felt more like a robot running on batterypower,” Carmen explained. Allen was inNew York at the time and Carmen was left alone deciding what to do. She calledPhillip’s doctor and said what was going on. The doctor said that she wasdescribing symptoms of schizophrenia and Phillip needed to be committed. Carmenfelt completely numb as she was about to face making a heartbreaking decision.Come 6 o’clock on evening and she’s acting like nothing is wrong. She made hisfavorite dinner for the family. The doctors all the sudden came in the housewithout a word being said. They took Phillip away but not without a fight.
“MOM, what is going on??” Phillipscreamed. “What are they doing to me?” “I am so sorry, Phillip….I am sosorry…” both Carmen and Tammy answered.
“I wanted to believe him butevery time they had told me that there was something going on, I went in thereand looked and never found anything so I couldn’t prove that there was anythingthere,” Carmen cried when remembering that dark event. “I had to make sure theother children were safe!” They doctors strapped Phillip ina straight-jacket. They wouldn’t let Carmen in. But Phillip continued screamingand yelled out a haunting warning;
“Mom, don’t leave me! Now thatI’m gone, they are going to come after you!”
Carmen cried the entire way home.She was angry, frustrated, sad and conflicted. Everything he said preyed on hermind. Finally, Carmen had enough and wanted to get to the truth. Carmen went tothe back stairs and yelled “You son of a bitch, you want to play? You play withme!” She sat at the stairs for a few hours to “quiet, eerie silence”. Nothingever appeared. Meanwhile, Tammy once again, woke up to see a shadow above her.Her covers were pulled off completely. Tammy ran terrified to Carmen’s room.Carmen then noticed on her way out of the bedroom, she noticed her crucifix wasgone. There were no more crucifixes in the house. Carmen returned to Tammy’sroom and began to read the Bible to Tammy. Tammy then said, “it’s coming, it’scoming!” Tammy felt a hand rise up under her clothes. Carmen saw the wrist, thehand, the knuckles crawl over Tammy and violate her. Carmen immediately scoopedher up and ran her to the dining room. Tammy was trying to calm down when shesaw it was coming again. Carmen couldn’t sense it but Tammy did. “The coldness,the growling, the motion of the room, the coldness,” Tammy explained. “ I feelit and I couldn’t see it or fight it back. My rosary began levitating around myneck!” The rosary then dropped and shattered to pieces .
Carmen knew in her heart at thispoint that committing Phillip was the wrong decision.
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| Happier Times: The Snedeker family. (picture credit: Hubpages) |
After 24 years, Phillip’s cancerappeared. He died in January 2012 at the age of 38. Carmen remembers his final moments; “he came to me aweek before he died and came into the kitchen and asked “mom am I evil?” “No,you’re not evil, you’re a sweet boy and I’m proud of you…”
Shortly before he died, herecorded this audio interview;
“…Canyou hear me? I told my mom someday, one, that the house was evil. My parentsweren’t believing me and yeah, I guess I became more fascinated then frightenedof the things that were in the basement. My mom was trying to be strong and onone hand, was trying to do what was right but on the other hand, I felt a senseof betrayal. It’s hard to describe the way the (inaudible) can find its wayinto the little nooks and crannies in your life and begin to manipulate youlike that.”
Janes Notes: Oy vey, where theheck to begin? This was a loaded case and what was even more interesting thanthe episode was a little bit of net searching for more information about thiscase. This real life case was the inspiration for the movie “The Haunting InConnecticut”. Ed and Lorraine Warren, paranormal investigators, were soon called upon the house and an exorcism was performed. The Snedeker family have gone on nation-wide talk shows,interviews and their story…and its legitimacy…is still a paranormal debatebetween believers and skeptics. Anyways, I tried going to Carmen's site, carmenreed.com but it just takes me to Go Daddy's! website. I tried looking up Syfy but even they don't have the episode featured. I started by coming across thisarticle hereabout the case in People Magazine but that wasn’t enough for me. It ismentioned that the entity that haunted Phillip was a “long haired” spirit. Italso mentions 3 kids and two nieces. Didn’t she say 4 kids? She said she had 3boys, AJ, Brad and Phillip and then a daughter. I also couldn’t find anythingin the Hartford Courant about the case. Anyways, I found a lot of this researchwas conflicting, accusations that Carmen was involved in an illegal state lottery scam (couldn't find anything on that) and made my head spin but bear with me as I post the followingon what I found on the important characters involved in this story: Carmen Snedeker, Ray Garton (author of the book “In A Dark Place” about thecase...and was also interviewed in regards to how the stories the Snedekers seemed to have not added up), Joe Nickell (paranormal investigator/publisher), and Susan Trotta-Smith, the owner of the now famous townhouse. All quotes from articles/interviews are in orange.
CARMEN SNEDEKER/REED I did a search of Carmen Reed after learning she changed her name fromSnedeker to “protect her children” (source for that quote: here).I did a google search on Carmen Reed and this page came up on the first page.Click herefor the full page but some of the content contains on how she has a “gift” andalways knew it:
At an early age, Carmen found a friend, Jaco, who became and remains herspiritual guide. No, no one else can see or hear Jaco, but his ability to helpCarmen see into others spirits is well documented. Jaco was not only herspiritual guide and friend, but her advisor, as he knew the "normal"world would not approve of Carmen voicing all her concerns about upcomingevents. In spite of Jaco's insistence, Carmen told her uncle of his impendingdeath, and he never forgave her in this life. Thus she learned to"jam" her gift; another way of saying withhold the information. Shestifled her abilities for many years.
This has got me confused because she said over and over on the TV showthat there were no such things as ghosts. She did an interview for CNN that can be found here.
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RAY GARTONGarton was hired to write a story based off the case and was invited to spend time with the Snedeker family. According to his accounts, the family "was going through some serious problems like alcoholism and drug addiction, could not keep their story straight, and I became very frustrated; it’s hard writing a non-fiction book when all the people involved are telling you different stories”. He also noted in regards to Phillip;
Since writing the book, I’ve talked to a couple of people who knew the Snedekers when they lived in the house in question, and it seems no one in the neighborhood was aware of the boy having cancer. I’ve been told he was a trouble-maker who had some difficulties with drugs and mental illness, but nothing like the health problems the Snedekers claim. The Snedekers’ story involves an incident in which some young female relatives were fondled and groped in the house by demonic hands, but the boy confessed that he had done the fondling and groping, and that’s why he was removed from the house......Personally, I have no solid evidence that the boy did not have cancer, and I’ve never said that he didn’t. But the evidence that he did is pretty flimsy, and when you combine that with the other holes in this story and some of the disreputable details about the Snedekers and the Warrens, it’s difficult not to question it. As I said, I’m not claiming the boy did not have cancer. But there are reasons to doubt the claim, and all those reasons are related to the wobbly and ever-changing story told by Carmen Reed.
The full interview can be found here.
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JOE NICKELLJoe Nickell has 40 years experience under his belt from a magician, to paranormal investigator to a private investigator. He is the publisher for "CSI: The Committee For Skeptic Inquiry" whose "mission... is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." (Here's the link to the site). Nickell had his own encounter with the Snedekers and includes even more disturbing claims;
"Other revealing information came to light in Southington—about Philip Snedeker’s drug use, vandalism, and other misbehavior. There was even an explanation for the sexual touching that Carmen’s niece had felt “from an unseen hand.” The boy was actually caught fondling his nieces while they slept. “Steven” (as he is called in the book) “was taken away by the police that afternoon. He was questioned, at which time he confessed that he’d been fondling the girls while they slept at night, and that he’d attempted unsuccessfully to have sex with his twelve-year-old cousin.” He was later taken to the juvenile detention center, where a psychiatrist diagnosed him as schizophrenic (Warren et al. 1992, 145–147)."
Full article can be found here.
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SUSAN TROTTA-SMITH
Susan and her husband are current owners of the house and aren't exactly thrilled with the Snedeker family and their exploits of the story. An article in The New York Daily News interviewed Susan about the house and the media fenzy that surrounded it in light of the movie. "It's got beautiful woodwork and there is a nice warm feeling to the house," Trotta-Smith said. She further explains that the curiosity surrounding the house has caused a lot of headaches. Article can be found here.
My take on it all? After reading all this conflicting information, it's a good case of "he said, she said'. There will always be a dose of skepticism in the paranormal community when encountering the paranormal but when it comes to this case? It's not looking really good for the Snedekers as far as their credibility goes. Too many questions about it, not enough answers. Phillip played such an important, vital role in this case but to think that he was so quiet about it while his mom went and took this case to a media frenzy level? If that was my child and he was that scarred from it, I would respect that and not tell the story and try to live as much of a normal life as possible but that's just my opinion. This pic pretty much sums up my reaction to this;
Follow me on Twitter @janedoemessage
For more ghost adventures, check out my personal site at Message In A Bottle
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