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Speaker 1: There's nothing better than feeling comfortable in your own shoes,

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Speaker 1: and that doesn't mean flopping down on the couch with

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Speaker 1: bunny slippers. Maybe you're a parent raising a little rock star,

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Speaker 1: their shoes are so stylish they go perfectly without wear

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Speaker 1: whatever I want attitude. Alberts is all about loving mother

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Speaker 1: nature too, because no one wants to leave a bad footprint.

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Speaker 1: Each shoe is carefully crafted from natural materials that tread

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Speaker 1: lightly on our planet, from ZQ certified Marino wool to

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Speaker 1: a bouncy midsole made from sweet Foam, the world's first

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Speaker 1: carbon negative EVA material made from sugarcane. So get comfortable

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Speaker 1: in your shoes. Get to know the wool runners, pipers

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Speaker 1: and loungers at Alberts dot com. That's alll BI RDS

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Speaker 1: dot com. The Newport Subdivision a suburban housing development in

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Speaker 1: the southeast of Texas in the southern United States, first

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Speaker 1: took route in the late nineteen seventies, extending outwards from

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Speaker 1: the town of Crosby and tucked in behind dense forest

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Speaker 1: on the edge of Lake Houston. By nineteen eighty, its

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Speaker 1: concrete tendrils twisting and curling ever deeper into the surrounding wilds,

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Speaker 1: had grown steadily to comprise one thousand homes. For many,

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Speaker 1: the green and leafy neighborhood, with its private security guards

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Speaker 1: and manicured lawns hidden under the canopy of hundred year

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Speaker 1: old trees, provided the perfect mix of suburban decorum and

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Speaker 1: rugged country. For those unfamiliar with the term, a subdivision

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Speaker 1: in this sense is a housing development that begins as

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Speaker 1: little more than individual plots of land serviced by a

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Speaker 1: system of roads that have been provided with plumbing and electricity.

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Speaker 1: Having purchased one of the plots, it would then be

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Speaker 1: down to the buyer to decide what house they would

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Speaker 1: like to have shipped in and assembled onto it. For

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Speaker 1: Jean and Ben Williams, it was a subtle, tan brick

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Speaker 1: Mediterranean style home that had taken their fancy, having been

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Speaker 1: encouraged to move to the new development by their eldest daughter,

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Speaker 1: Marcia Anne, who also lived in the neighborhood. The couple

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Speaker 1: finally took the plunge and relocated in the fall of

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, picking a plot at the far end of

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Speaker 1: the brand new Section eight on Poppet's Way. The couple,

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Speaker 1: who were both in their fifties, elected to have their

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Speaker 1: home built back to front, a special request of Genes,

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Speaker 1: so that their living room would look out over the

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Speaker 1: spacious garden toward the small patch of woodland stretched out

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Speaker 1: behind it. But there was one tree in particular that

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Speaker 1: Jean had fallen for, a sturdy oak, by then resplendent

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Speaker 1: in fiery autumnal color, that the developers at one stage

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Speaker 1: had suggested they cut down to make room for the

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Speaker 1: Williams's new home. Jean was adamant, however, that it should stay,

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Speaker 1: so rather than remove it, the aged oak instead was

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Speaker 1: incorporated into the design of the build, so much so

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Speaker 1: that it appeared almost to be holding up an entire

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Speaker 1: corner of the house. It was somewhere within the surrounding

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Speaker 1: woodland that remnants of the old McKinney plantation could still

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Speaker 1: be found. Either Ruth McKinney, the family's last living descendant,

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Speaker 1: was said to still be living in a property somewhere

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Speaker 1: behind it. Mercer McKinney, along with his wife Mary, and

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Speaker 1: their six children, moved to Harris County in eighteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, bring

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Speaker 1: five slaves with them, who were immediately put to forced

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Speaker 1: labor on the McKinney's plantation. By all accounts to the

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Speaker 1: local white community, at least, the Mercers were a highly

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Speaker 1: respected and well liked addition to the local area, to

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Speaker 1: whom the somewhat oxymoronic description of being masters that were

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Speaker 1: kind to their slaves was often applied. For those with

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Speaker 1: the luxury of choice when looking at a new property

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Speaker 1: to rent or buy, it is often the way that

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Speaker 1: so much of it speaks to you the first time

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Speaker 1: you see it. It is easy to miss some of

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Speaker 1: the finer details. In many cases, it isn't even until

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Speaker 1: the deal is done that you suddenly notice the way

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Speaker 1: a worktop doesn't quite run straight, or that small patch

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Speaker 1: of damp just peeking up over the skirting in the

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Speaker 1: master bedroom. For Jean and Ben, it was the peculiar

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Speaker 1: short rectangular depressions that pockmarked the grounds of around their

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Speaker 1: property that they had failed to notice those, and the

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Speaker 1: strange markings carved onto that large oak tree that Jeanne

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Speaker 1: had grown so fond of. Even from the first day,

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Speaker 1: it hadn't been a great fit. Perhaps it was down

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Speaker 1: to the fact that the builders hadn't quite finished up

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Speaker 1: before jean and Ben moved in, or perhaps because of

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Speaker 1: the lateness of the year. It was the fact that

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Speaker 1: Jeanne would have to wait a while before she could

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Speaker 1: really get a handle on the garden that made those

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Speaker 1: first few weeks a little strained and disjointed. Regardless, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't unusual for a couple moving in to a brand

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Speaker 1: new home and neighborhood to experience a few teething problems

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Speaker 1: as they adjusted to their new surroundings. Though their previous neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: Deer Park on the eastern fringes of Houston, had been

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Speaker 1: fairly quiet, it was clear that the almost complete stillness

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Speaker 1: of Newport would take a little getting used to. But

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Speaker 1: there was something else too, something a little different they

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Speaker 1: couldn't quite put their finger on, but could somehow sense, Nonetheless,

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Speaker 1: like a distant, silent alarm leaking out at a pitch,

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Speaker 1: at first too high to be audible, but was slowly

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Speaker 1: steadily dropping into range. Having finally settled in. One night

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Speaker 1: early in the new year, with Jeanne asleep in bed,

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Speaker 1: Ben returned home from a late shift at work to

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Speaker 1: find the house unusually cold. Conscious about waking jean, he

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Speaker 1: moved silently between the rooms and the dark as he

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Speaker 1: made his way to the bedroom when something outside drew

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Speaker 1: his attention. Standing in the dark, staring out the back window,

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Speaker 1: he was convinced for a moment that something or somebody

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Speaker 1: was approaching the house from the back of the garden.

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Speaker 1: As he narrowed his eyes to focus, he caught it again,

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Speaker 1: only now there were two strange, wispy patches of darkness,

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Speaker 1: at once a morpheus, but yet oddly reminiscent of the

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Speaker 1: human form, moving slowly side by side toward him. Gripped

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Speaker 1: by a sudden fear, Ben felt his chest tighten as

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Speaker 1: he stumbled back into the kitchen, struggling to breathe. When

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Speaker 1: he looked up again, the shapes had gone. Still struggling

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Speaker 1: for breath, Ben made his way to the bedroom, and,

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Speaker 1: being careful not to wait, jean was soon able to

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Speaker 1: breathe again. After explaining the episode to Jean, the following morning,

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Speaker 1: at his wife's insistence, Ben paid a visit to the doctor,

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Speaker 1: who diagnosed an asthma attack, something Ben had never experienced before.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't long after that the Jean was finally able

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Speaker 1: to put a finger on that strange sensation she'd been

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Speaker 1: feeling ever since they'd moved. It was the feeling that

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Speaker 1: she was being watched. Over the next six months or so,

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Speaker 1: a number of relatives came by to visit the couple,

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Speaker 1: from the daughters Marcia Anne, Jennifer, and youngest Tina, to

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Speaker 1: Jean's parents and her brother, all of whom couldn't help

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Speaker 1: but feel the same that there was something wrong with

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Speaker 1: that house. Not long after Ben's peculiar experience, the couple's oldest,

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Speaker 1: Marcia Anne, announced that she was leaving her husband. This

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Speaker 1: was followed a few weeks later by the shocking news

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Speaker 1: that Jean's mother had cancer. It was a few nights

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Speaker 1: later that Ben returned home again from a late shift.

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Speaker 1: As Jean slept soundly in the bedroom, resisting the urge

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Speaker 1: to turn on the lights so as not to wake her.

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Speaker 1: Ben headed to the kitchen, feeling hungry, he pulled open

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Speaker 1: the fridge door and stood for a moment bathed in

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Speaker 1: its soft yellow light as he scoured the shelves for

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Speaker 1: something to eat. Seeing nothing he wanted, he closed the door,

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Speaker 1: then turned toward the living room and froze in shock.

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Speaker 1: Those odd, whispy shapes that he'd seen before were now

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Speaker 1: hovering right in front of him. Rooted to the spot,

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Speaker 1: Ben could only look on in confusion as they drifted

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Speaker 1: out into the hallway, suddenly snapping out of it. Ben

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Speaker 1: gave chase as they moved down the corridor and seemed

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Speaker 1: to turn into the bedroom, where he then found them

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Speaker 1: hovering at the end of the bed as Jean slept

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Speaker 1: soundly under the covers. Without thinking, Ben ran straight for them,

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Speaker 1: only to pass right through and fall on top of Jean.

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Speaker 1: She woke in alarm to find a terrified looking coughing

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Speaker 1: and sputtering beside her as he looked frantically about the room,

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Speaker 1: but the shapes had gone. Having eventually calmed down, Ben

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Speaker 1: proceeded to explain what he'd seen and how he'd seen

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Speaker 1: something similar in the garden a few weeks before. He

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Speaker 1: could have sworn that the shapes were moving with the agency,

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Speaker 1: and yet saying it all out loud. He realized then

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Speaker 1: just how ridiculous it sounded. As a plant worker for

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Speaker 1: the Ethel Corporation, a chemical manufacturing company based out of Houston,

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Speaker 1: Ben was no stranger to toxic gas. Was it possible,

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Speaker 1: he thought, considering the recent asthma attack and coughing fit,

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Speaker 1: that the strange clouds was some kind of poisonous gas

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Speaker 1: that had seeped out of the ground. But nothing of

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Speaker 1: that nature was ever found. Though Jean and Ben continued

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Speaker 1: to sense something unusual about the place, they resolved to

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Speaker 1: ignore it as best they could and concentrate on enjoying

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Speaker 1: their new home. But as the green leaves of summer

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Speaker 1: began to turn a golden brown, the family were beset

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Speaker 1: by a series of terrible events that would test even

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Speaker 1: the strongest of resolves. Most pressing was their daughter, Jennifer's

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Speaker 1: ongoing domestic problems, which resulted eventually in Jean and Ben

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Speaker 1: offering to take in her daughter Carly to give Jennifer

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Speaker 1: some space. Not long after Carly moved in, Jean's brother Glenn,

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Speaker 1: was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and given no more than

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Speaker 1: twelve months to live. Mere days later, Glenn's granddaughter was

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Speaker 1: diagnosed with leukemia, all of which was then topped off

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Speaker 1: by the catastrophic news that Jean and Ben's twenty four

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Speaker 1: year old daughter, Tina had Hodgkins lymphoma. The next months

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Speaker 1: would prove uniquely testing for the family, as Jean devoted

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Speaker 1: what time she could between looking after Carly and ferrying

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Speaker 1: Tina back and forth from hospital as she underwent a

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Speaker 1: spleen removal and a heavy and debilitating course of chemotherapy

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Speaker 1: or the while Jean continued to supervise her mother's cancer

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Speaker 1: treatment too. That Christmas of nineteen eighty one, the family

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Speaker 1: rallied together as best they could under the circumstances, but

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Speaker 1: by then Jean was fairly convinced that something of the

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Speaker 1: house had cursed them. Are you always taking care of

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Speaker 1: your family? Do you often take care of others and

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Speaker 1: not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself,

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Speaker 1: to make time for you you deserve it. Teledoc gives

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Speaker 1: you access to a licensed therapist to help you get

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Speaker 1: back to feeling your best to feeling like yourself again.

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Speaker 1: a week from seven am to nine pm local time.

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Speaker 1: If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you feel stressed or anxious,

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Speaker 1: to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they make it easy

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Speaker 1: available through most insurance or employers. Download the app or

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Speaker 1: visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast today to

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Speaker 1: get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast. In

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Speaker 1: March the following year, Jean's brother Glenn died at the

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Speaker 1: age of fifty two. The family had been preparing for

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Speaker 1: it since his diagnosis, but nothing truly prepares you for

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Speaker 1: the finality of the moment when it eventually comes. However,

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Speaker 1: with Jean's mother, Tina, Jennifer, and Carly to worry about,

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Speaker 1: Jean and Ben had little choice but to pull themselves

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Speaker 1: up and dedicate their energy to the living. In fact,

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Speaker 1: with so much else to worry about, Jean and Ben

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Speaker 1: had all but forgotten about the peculiar events of the

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Speaker 1: previous year when one night they were startled by Carly

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Speaker 1: screaming out for jean from her bedroom. Rushing to her aid,

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Speaker 1: jean found her granddaughter huddled tightly under her bed covers,

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Speaker 1: trembling and crying with fright. As jean did her best

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Speaker 1: to calm her down, Carly explained that she'd heard footsteps

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Speaker 1: outside her door, and, thinking it was Jeanne, had called

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Speaker 1: out for her but got no reply. When they didn't

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Speaker 1: go away, she screamed out for help. But that wasn't all,

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Speaker 1: as Carly to explain to her concerned grandmother. Ever since

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Speaker 1: she'd moved in, she felt as though she was never

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Speaker 1: quite alone in her bedroom at times, although she couldn't

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Speaker 1: be sure. She thought she'd even seen shapes moving about

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Speaker 1: in the dark, and heard the sound of voices submerged

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Speaker 1: within the gurgle of water in the pipes whenever the

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Speaker 1: cistern flushed. Jeanne looked at her granddaughter in quiet alarm.

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Speaker 1: A few nights later, the phone rang, Hello, asked Jeanne,

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Speaker 1: holding the receiver to her ear. For a moment, there

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Speaker 1: was nothing but dead air as jean waited expectantly for

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Speaker 1: a reply, when suddenly a strange guttural noise began to

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Speaker 1: worm its way out of the speaker, followed by the

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Speaker 1: sound of someone coughing and gasping for air. Jeane slammed

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Speaker 1: down the phone and ran straight through to Ben in

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Speaker 1: the living room, her face completely drained of color. Who

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Speaker 1: was it, asked Ben. Only then did Jean realize, with

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Speaker 1: the sickening horror who it had sounded like. I think

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Speaker 1: it was Glenn, she said, her brother that had died

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Speaker 1: months before. With Tina's treatments intensifying, Jean and Ben decided

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Speaker 1: it was best that she move in with them. One evening,

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Speaker 1: while Ben was out at work, a terrific storm began

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Speaker 1: to batter the house from outside. Tina, Jean, and Carly

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Speaker 1: huddled together in Carly's bedroom as the thunder clattered all

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Speaker 1: around them. Streaks of lightning flashed and ripped through the sky,

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Speaker 1: while thick, ominous clouds swelled ever tighter over the house. Smokey,

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Speaker 1: a cat that had been bought for car shortly after

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Speaker 1: she moved in, had joined them on the bed too.

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Speaker 1: When the sound of the front door being slammed shut

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Speaker 1: was heard, followed by what sounded like soft falling footsteps.

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Speaker 1: Approaching from down the hallway, with the rain pelting down

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Speaker 1: against the window. Jean, assuming it was Ben, called out

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Speaker 1: to him, but there was no reply. Suddenly panicked, Jean

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Speaker 1: instructed the others to stay put, then slowly made her

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Speaker 1: way to the bedroom door and into the hallway. Beyond Hello,

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Speaker 1: she asked again, but still there was no reply, and

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Speaker 1: yet that sound of footsteps just kept on coming, moving

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Speaker 1: up the hallway toward her. With amusement, Jean backed into

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Speaker 1: the bedroom as the sound continued all the way to

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Speaker 1: the bedroom doorway and then into the room. Just then,

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Speaker 1: with a crack of thunder and flash of lightning, Smoky

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Speaker 1: leaped forward with a fierce screech towards something in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the room, then bolted into the hall. As

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Speaker 1: soon as he touched the ground, the sound of footsteps

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Speaker 1: had gone. Later, when Tina and Jean tried to account

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Speaker 1: for what had happened, Jean failed to mention the numerous

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Speaker 1: other events that had been plaguing her and Ben since

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Speaker 1: they moved in only eighteen months ago what seemed like

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Speaker 1: a lifetime. Though the events had been myriad and undoubtedly strange,

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Speaker 1: Jean and Ben had been loath to attach any potentially

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Speaker 1: supernatural explanation to them, preferring instead to seek rational answers.

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Speaker 1: By now, however, for Jean, at least, the possibility was

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Speaker 1: becoming harder to ignore. The couple had discussed just selling

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Speaker 1: up and moving out, but with so much going on

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Speaker 1: and all the medical bills stacking up, their only option

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Speaker 1: was to stick it out. That summer of nineteen eighty two,

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Speaker 1: Jean watched with quiet concern from her back window as

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Speaker 1: two more couples moved onto the street. Though it was

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Speaker 1: nice to finally have the neighboring plots occupied, she couldn't

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Speaker 1: help but wonder just what might be in store for

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Speaker 1: the new owners. The Haynes schoolteacher Judith and husband Sam,

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Speaker 1: who divided his time between working for an airline company

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Speaker 1: and running a small art store in nearby Crosby, had

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Speaker 1: been eagerly anticipating their move for months, waiting patiently as

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Speaker 1: their house was slowly assembled piece by piece. Having finally

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Speaker 1: moved in, Sam presented Judith with an early birthday and

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Speaker 1: moving in present plans to add a swimming pool to

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Speaker 1: sparkling new property. However, no sooner had Sam found a

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Speaker 1: contractor to begin the project. There was a knock at

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Speaker 1: the front door. When he opened it, he was greeted

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Speaker 1: by fifty seven year old Leicester Resler, a local woodcutter

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Speaker 1: who'd lived in the area for many years. Much to

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Speaker 1: Sam's surprise, Leicester had somehow gotten wind of the plans

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Speaker 1: to build a pool in the back garden and had

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Speaker 1: felt obliged to come and speak to the Haynes before

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Speaker 1: they went any further. Leicester then asked if Sam wouldn't

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Speaker 1: mind letting him through to the garden so he could

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Speaker 1: explain it all in better detail. Sensing an urgency in

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Speaker 1: the man's voice, Sam agreed to show him round. Moments later,

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Speaker 1: in the back garden, as the two men examined the

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Speaker 1: plans for the pool, Leicester drew Sam's attention toward a

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Speaker 1: small rectangular patch at the edge of the garden that

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Speaker 1: seemed to be sunk a little deeper than the rest

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Speaker 1: of it. There, said Leicester, that's where they're buried. What

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Speaker 1: do you mean, asked Sam, as Lester explained the sunken

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Speaker 1: land was a grave. Sam stood speechless for a moment

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Speaker 1: as he struggled to comprehend what he was being told.

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Speaker 1: Surely the housing company wouldn't have knowingly sold them a

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Speaker 1: property built over a grave, he thought. Seeing that Sam

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Speaker 1: was a little unconvinced, Leicester apologized for being the bearer

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Speaker 1: of such disturbing news and gave him the number of

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Speaker 1: another local resident who could verify the claim. As he

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Speaker 1: showed himself to the door, he suggested that Sam give

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Speaker 1: the number a call. Perhaps then he might find out

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Speaker 1: where all the others were buried too. The others, said

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Speaker 1: Sam with disbelief. Oh yes, replied Leicester, that whole area

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Speaker 1: more or had been built directly on top of a graveyard.

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Speaker 1: Although sickened by the prospect of living on top of

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Speaker 1: a grave site, Judith and Sam couldn't quite bring themselves

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Speaker 1: to believe it. After all, what are the chances that

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Speaker 1: the developers wouldn't have known of such a thing if

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Speaker 1: it was such common knowledge amongst the other local residents.

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Speaker 1: But rather than call the number that Leicester had given him,

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Speaker 1: Sam decided to investigate for himself. Pulling a spade from

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Speaker 1: the garage, he headed out to the spot that Leicester

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Speaker 1: had pointed out and rammed it into the earth. An

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Speaker 1: hour or so later, however, an exhausted Sam had only

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Speaker 1: made it three feet down before the ground had become

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Speaker 1: too tough. The following day, after hiring a digger, the

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Speaker 1: Hanes watched with concern as the operator steadily ripped the

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Speaker 1: large chunks of earth from the ground, until suddenly, at

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Speaker 1: roughly six feet deep, Sam yelled for him to stop.

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Speaker 1: Leaping into the large hole before him, Sam brushed away

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Speaker 1: at the dirt, revealing splinters of dark pine wood. As

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Speaker 1: he brushed more of the dirt away, he revealed what

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Speaker 1: was quite clearly the lid of a coffin. Prising it open,

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Speaker 1: he recoiled at the sight of the bones inside it. Later,

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Speaker 1: the stunned couple watch ensombly as a section of the

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Speaker 1: coffin and the bones are lifted from out of the

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Speaker 1: ground by the local coroner's office. With both the coffin

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Speaker 1: and bones being so deteriorated, it was agreed to leave

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Speaker 1: most of it in the ground while they waited for

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Speaker 1: test results to come back on the pieces they had.

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Speaker 1: That afternoon, Jean Williams watched with dread from her back

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Speaker 1: window as the long black hearse from the Inner's office

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Speaker 1: pulled away from the Haneys home, knowing full well that

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Speaker 1: her troubles were far from over. You've been listening to

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Speaker 1: part one of Unexplained Season four, episode twenty one. The Underweight.

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00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 1: Part two will be released next week, Friday, December twenty seventh. Unexplained.

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00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,600
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never

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00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,399
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to

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00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:38,399
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,

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00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including

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00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.

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00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,400
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,

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00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts

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00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,520
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.

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00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like

355
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Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us on fine at Unexplained

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00:25:01,200 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 1: podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook

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Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Podcast. Now, it's

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00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: time to take care of yourself. To make time for you,

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Speaker 1: teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help

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Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a

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Speaker 1: licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am

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Speaker 1: to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc

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Speaker 1: therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app,

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