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Speaker 1: dot com. The Newport Subdivision a suburban housing development in
Speaker 1: the southeast of Texas in the southern United States, first
Speaker 1: took route in the late nineteen seventies, extending outwards from
Speaker 1: the town of Crosby and tucked in behind dense forest
Speaker 1: on the edge of Lake Houston. By nineteen eighty, its
Speaker 1: concrete tendrils twisting and curling ever deeper into the surrounding wilds,
Speaker 1: had grown steadily to comprise one thousand homes. For many,
Speaker 1: the green and leafy neighborhood, with its private security guards
Speaker 1: and manicured lawns hidden under the canopy of hundred year
Speaker 1: old trees, provided the perfect mix of suburban decorum and
Speaker 1: rugged country. For those unfamiliar with the term, a subdivision
Speaker 1: in this sense is a housing development that begins as
Speaker 1: little more than individual plots of land serviced by a
Speaker 1: system of roads that have been provided with plumbing and electricity.
Speaker 1: Having purchased one of the plots, it would then be
Speaker 1: down to the buyer to decide what house they would
Speaker 1: like to have shipped in and assembled onto it. For
Speaker 1: Jean and Ben Williams, it was a subtle, tan brick
Speaker 1: Mediterranean style home that had taken their fancy, having been
Speaker 1: encouraged to move to the new development by their eldest daughter,
Speaker 1: Marcia Anne, who also lived in the neighborhood. The couple
Speaker 1: finally took the plunge and relocated in the fall of
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, picking a plot at the far end of
Speaker 1: the brand new Section eight on Poppet's Way. The couple,
Speaker 1: who were both in their fifties, elected to have their
Speaker 1: home built back to front, a special request of Genes,
Speaker 1: so that their living room would look out over the
Speaker 1: spacious garden toward the small patch of woodland stretched out
Speaker 1: behind it. But there was one tree in particular that
Speaker 1: Jean had fallen for, a sturdy oak, by then resplendent
Speaker 1: in fiery autumnal color, that the developers at one stage
Speaker 1: had suggested they cut down to make room for the
Speaker 1: Williams's new home. Jean was adamant, however, that it should stay,
Speaker 1: so rather than remove it, the aged oak instead was
Speaker 1: incorporated into the design of the build, so much so
Speaker 1: that it appeared almost to be holding up an entire
Speaker 1: corner of the house. It was somewhere within the surrounding
Speaker 1: woodland that remnants of the old McKinney plantation could still
Speaker 1: be found. Either Ruth McKinney, the family's last living descendant,
Speaker 1: was said to still be living in a property somewhere
Speaker 1: behind it. Mercer McKinney, along with his wife Mary, and
Speaker 1: their six children, moved to Harris County in eighteen fifty seven,
Speaker 1: shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, bring
Speaker 1: five slaves with them, who were immediately put to forced
Speaker 1: labor on the McKinney's plantation. By all accounts to the
Speaker 1: local white community, at least, the Mercers were a highly
Speaker 1: respected and well liked addition to the local area, to
Speaker 1: whom the somewhat oxymoronic description of being masters that were
Speaker 1: kind to their slaves was often applied. For those with
Speaker 1: the luxury of choice when looking at a new property
Speaker 1: to rent or buy, it is often the way that
Speaker 1: so much of it speaks to you the first time
Speaker 1: you see it. It is easy to miss some of
Speaker 1: the finer details. In many cases, it isn't even until
Speaker 1: the deal is done that you suddenly notice the way
Speaker 1: a worktop doesn't quite run straight, or that small patch
Speaker 1: of damp just peeking up over the skirting in the
Speaker 1: master bedroom. For Jean and Ben, it was the peculiar
Speaker 1: short rectangular depressions that pockmarked the grounds of around their
Speaker 1: property that they had failed to notice those, and the
Speaker 1: strange markings carved onto that large oak tree that Jeanne
Speaker 1: had grown so fond of. Even from the first day,
Speaker 1: it hadn't been a great fit. Perhaps it was down
Speaker 1: to the fact that the builders hadn't quite finished up
Speaker 1: before jean and Ben moved in, or perhaps because of
Speaker 1: the lateness of the year. It was the fact that
Speaker 1: Jeanne would have to wait a while before she could
Speaker 1: really get a handle on the garden that made those
Speaker 1: first few weeks a little strained and disjointed. Regardless, it
Speaker 1: wasn't unusual for a couple moving in to a brand
Speaker 1: new home and neighborhood to experience a few teething problems
Speaker 1: as they adjusted to their new surroundings. Though their previous neighborhood,
Speaker 1: Deer Park on the eastern fringes of Houston, had been
Speaker 1: fairly quiet, it was clear that the almost complete stillness
Speaker 1: of Newport would take a little getting used to. But
Speaker 1: there was something else too, something a little different they
Speaker 1: couldn't quite put their finger on, but could somehow sense, Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: like a distant, silent alarm leaking out at a pitch,
Speaker 1: at first too high to be audible, but was slowly
Speaker 1: steadily dropping into range. Having finally settled in. One night
Speaker 1: early in the new year, with Jeanne asleep in bed,
Speaker 1: Ben returned home from a late shift at work to
Speaker 1: find the house unusually cold. Conscious about waking jean, he
Speaker 1: moved silently between the rooms and the dark as he
Speaker 1: made his way to the bedroom when something outside drew
Speaker 1: his attention. Standing in the dark, staring out the back window,
Speaker 1: he was convinced for a moment that something or somebody
Speaker 1: was approaching the house from the back of the garden.
Speaker 1: As he narrowed his eyes to focus, he caught it again,
Speaker 1: only now there were two strange, wispy patches of darkness,
Speaker 1: at once a morpheus, but yet oddly reminiscent of the
Speaker 1: human form, moving slowly side by side toward him. Gripped
Speaker 1: by a sudden fear, Ben felt his chest tighten as
Speaker 1: he stumbled back into the kitchen, struggling to breathe. When
Speaker 1: he looked up again, the shapes had gone. Still struggling
Speaker 1: for breath, Ben made his way to the bedroom, and,
Speaker 1: being careful not to wait, jean was soon able to
Speaker 1: breathe again. After explaining the episode to Jean, the following morning,
Speaker 1: at his wife's insistence, Ben paid a visit to the doctor,
Speaker 1: who diagnosed an asthma attack, something Ben had never experienced before.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long after that the Jean was finally able
Speaker 1: to put a finger on that strange sensation she'd been
Speaker 1: feeling ever since they'd moved. It was the feeling that
Speaker 1: she was being watched. Over the next six months or so,
Speaker 1: a number of relatives came by to visit the couple,
Speaker 1: from the daughters Marcia Anne, Jennifer, and youngest Tina, to
Speaker 1: Jean's parents and her brother, all of whom couldn't help
Speaker 1: but feel the same that there was something wrong with
Speaker 1: that house. Not long after Ben's peculiar experience, the couple's oldest,
Speaker 1: Marcia Anne, announced that she was leaving her husband. This
Speaker 1: was followed a few weeks later by the shocking news
Speaker 1: that Jean's mother had cancer. It was a few nights
Speaker 1: later that Ben returned home again from a late shift.
Speaker 1: As Jean slept soundly in the bedroom, resisting the urge
Speaker 1: to turn on the lights so as not to wake her.
Speaker 1: Ben headed to the kitchen, feeling hungry, he pulled open
Speaker 1: the fridge door and stood for a moment bathed in
Speaker 1: its soft yellow light as he scoured the shelves for
Speaker 1: something to eat. Seeing nothing he wanted, he closed the door,
Speaker 1: then turned toward the living room and froze in shock.
Speaker 1: Those odd, whispy shapes that he'd seen before were now
Speaker 1: hovering right in front of him. Rooted to the spot,
Speaker 1: Ben could only look on in confusion as they drifted
Speaker 1: out into the hallway, suddenly snapping out of it. Ben
Speaker 1: gave chase as they moved down the corridor and seemed
Speaker 1: to turn into the bedroom, where he then found them
Speaker 1: hovering at the end of the bed as Jean slept
Speaker 1: soundly under the covers. Without thinking, Ben ran straight for them,
Speaker 1: only to pass right through and fall on top of Jean.
Speaker 1: She woke in alarm to find a terrified looking coughing
Speaker 1: and sputtering beside her as he looked frantically about the room,
Speaker 1: but the shapes had gone. Having eventually calmed down, Ben
Speaker 1: proceeded to explain what he'd seen and how he'd seen
Speaker 1: something similar in the garden a few weeks before. He
Speaker 1: could have sworn that the shapes were moving with the agency,
Speaker 1: and yet saying it all out loud. He realized then
Speaker 1: just how ridiculous it sounded. As a plant worker for
Speaker 1: the Ethel Corporation, a chemical manufacturing company based out of Houston,
Speaker 1: Ben was no stranger to toxic gas. Was it possible,
Speaker 1: he thought, considering the recent asthma attack and coughing fit,
Speaker 1: that the strange clouds was some kind of poisonous gas
Speaker 1: that had seeped out of the ground. But nothing of
Speaker 1: that nature was ever found. Though Jean and Ben continued
Speaker 1: to sense something unusual about the place, they resolved to
Speaker 1: ignore it as best they could and concentrate on enjoying
Speaker 1: their new home. But as the green leaves of summer
Speaker 1: began to turn a golden brown, the family were beset
Speaker 1: by a series of terrible events that would test even
Speaker 1: the strongest of resolves. Most pressing was their daughter, Jennifer's
Speaker 1: ongoing domestic problems, which resulted eventually in Jean and Ben
Speaker 1: offering to take in her daughter Carly to give Jennifer
Speaker 1: some space. Not long after Carly moved in, Jean's brother Glenn,
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with inoperable cancer and given no more than
Speaker 1: twelve months to live. Mere days later, Glenn's granddaughter was
Speaker 1: diagnosed with leukemia, all of which was then topped off
Speaker 1: by the catastrophic news that Jean and Ben's twenty four
Speaker 1: year old daughter, Tina had Hodgkins lymphoma. The next months
Speaker 1: would prove uniquely testing for the family, as Jean devoted
Speaker 1: what time she could between looking after Carly and ferrying
Speaker 1: Tina back and forth from hospital as she underwent a
Speaker 1: spleen removal and a heavy and debilitating course of chemotherapy
Speaker 1: or the while Jean continued to supervise her mother's cancer
Speaker 1: treatment too. That Christmas of nineteen eighty one, the family
Speaker 1: rallied together as best they could under the circumstances, but
Speaker 1: by then Jean was fairly convinced that something of the
Speaker 1: house had cursed them. Are you always taking care of
Speaker 1: your family? Do you often take care of others and
Speaker 1: not yourself? Now it's time to take care of yourself,
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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: March the following year, Jean's brother Glenn died at the
Speaker 1: age of fifty two. The family had been preparing for
Speaker 1: it since his diagnosis, but nothing truly prepares you for
Speaker 1: the finality of the moment when it eventually comes. However,
Speaker 1: with Jean's mother, Tina, Jennifer, and Carly to worry about,
Speaker 1: Jean and Ben had little choice but to pull themselves
Speaker 1: up and dedicate their energy to the living. In fact,
Speaker 1: with so much else to worry about, Jean and Ben
Speaker 1: had all but forgotten about the peculiar events of the
Speaker 1: previous year when one night they were startled by Carly
Speaker 1: screaming out for jean from her bedroom. Rushing to her aid,
Speaker 1: jean found her granddaughter huddled tightly under her bed covers,
Speaker 1: trembling and crying with fright. As jean did her best
Speaker 1: to calm her down, Carly explained that she'd heard footsteps
Speaker 1: outside her door, and, thinking it was Jeanne, had called
Speaker 1: out for her but got no reply. When they didn't
Speaker 1: go away, she screamed out for help. But that wasn't all,
Speaker 1: as Carly to explain to her concerned grandmother. Ever since
Speaker 1: she'd moved in, she felt as though she was never
Speaker 1: quite alone in her bedroom at times, although she couldn't
Speaker 1: be sure. She thought she'd even seen shapes moving about
Speaker 1: in the dark, and heard the sound of voices submerged
Speaker 1: within the gurgle of water in the pipes whenever the
Speaker 1: cistern flushed. Jeanne looked at her granddaughter in quiet alarm.
Speaker 1: A few nights later, the phone rang, Hello, asked Jeanne,
Speaker 1: holding the receiver to her ear. For a moment, there
Speaker 1: was nothing but dead air as jean waited expectantly for
Speaker 1: a reply, when suddenly a strange guttural noise began to
Speaker 1: worm its way out of the speaker, followed by the
Speaker 1: sound of someone coughing and gasping for air. Jeane slammed
Speaker 1: down the phone and ran straight through to Ben in
Speaker 1: the living room, her face completely drained of color. Who
Speaker 1: was it, asked Ben. Only then did Jean realize, with
Speaker 1: the sickening horror who it had sounded like. I think
Speaker 1: it was Glenn, she said, her brother that had died
Speaker 1: months before. With Tina's treatments intensifying, Jean and Ben decided
Speaker 1: it was best that she move in with them. One evening,
Speaker 1: while Ben was out at work, a terrific storm began
Speaker 1: to batter the house from outside. Tina, Jean, and Carly
Speaker 1: huddled together in Carly's bedroom as the thunder clattered all
Speaker 1: around them. Streaks of lightning flashed and ripped through the sky,
Speaker 1: while thick, ominous clouds swelled ever tighter over the house. Smokey,
Speaker 1: a cat that had been bought for car shortly after
Speaker 1: she moved in, had joined them on the bed too.
Speaker 1: When the sound of the front door being slammed shut
Speaker 1: was heard, followed by what sounded like soft falling footsteps.
Speaker 1: Approaching from down the hallway, with the rain pelting down
Speaker 1: against the window. Jean, assuming it was Ben, called out
Speaker 1: to him, but there was no reply. Suddenly panicked, Jean
Speaker 1: instructed the others to stay put, then slowly made her
Speaker 1: way to the bedroom door and into the hallway. Beyond Hello,
Speaker 1: she asked again, but still there was no reply, and
Speaker 1: yet that sound of footsteps just kept on coming, moving
Speaker 1: up the hallway toward her. With amusement, Jean backed into
Speaker 1: the bedroom as the sound continued all the way to
Speaker 1: the bedroom doorway and then into the room. Just then,
Speaker 1: with a crack of thunder and flash of lightning, Smoky
Speaker 1: leaped forward with a fierce screech towards something in the
Speaker 1: middle of the room, then bolted into the hall. As
Speaker 1: soon as he touched the ground, the sound of footsteps
Speaker 1: had gone. Later, when Tina and Jean tried to account
Speaker 1: for what had happened, Jean failed to mention the numerous
Speaker 1: other events that had been plaguing her and Ben since
Speaker 1: they moved in only eighteen months ago what seemed like
Speaker 1: a lifetime. Though the events had been myriad and undoubtedly strange,
Speaker 1: Jean and Ben had been loath to attach any potentially
Speaker 1: supernatural explanation to them, preferring instead to seek rational answers.
Speaker 1: By now, however, for Jean, at least, the possibility was
Speaker 1: becoming harder to ignore. The couple had discussed just selling
Speaker 1: up and moving out, but with so much going on
Speaker 1: and all the medical bills stacking up, their only option
Speaker 1: was to stick it out. That summer of nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 1: Jean watched with quiet concern from her back window as
Speaker 1: two more couples moved onto the street. Though it was
Speaker 1: nice to finally have the neighboring plots occupied, she couldn't
Speaker 1: help but wonder just what might be in store for
Speaker 1: the new owners. The Haynes schoolteacher Judith and husband Sam,
Speaker 1: who divided his time between working for an airline company
Speaker 1: and running a small art store in nearby Crosby, had
Speaker 1: been eagerly anticipating their move for months, waiting patiently as
Speaker 1: their house was slowly assembled piece by piece. Having finally
Speaker 1: moved in, Sam presented Judith with an early birthday and
Speaker 1: moving in present plans to add a swimming pool to
Speaker 1: sparkling new property. However, no sooner had Sam found a
Speaker 1: contractor to begin the project. There was a knock at
Speaker 1: the front door. When he opened it, he was greeted
Speaker 1: by fifty seven year old Leicester Resler, a local woodcutter
Speaker 1: who'd lived in the area for many years. Much to
Speaker 1: Sam's surprise, Leicester had somehow gotten wind of the plans
Speaker 1: to build a pool in the back garden and had
Speaker 1: felt obliged to come and speak to the Haynes before
Speaker 1: they went any further. Leicester then asked if Sam wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind letting him through to the garden so he could
Speaker 1: explain it all in better detail. Sensing an urgency in
Speaker 1: the man's voice, Sam agreed to show him round. Moments later,
Speaker 1: in the back garden, as the two men examined the
Speaker 1: plans for the pool, Leicester drew Sam's attention toward a
Speaker 1: small rectangular patch at the edge of the garden that
Speaker 1: seemed to be sunk a little deeper than the rest
Speaker 1: of it. There, said Leicester, that's where they're buried. What
Speaker 1: do you mean, asked Sam, as Lester explained the sunken
Speaker 1: land was a grave. Sam stood speechless for a moment
Speaker 1: as he struggled to comprehend what he was being told.
Speaker 1: Surely the housing company wouldn't have knowingly sold them a
Speaker 1: property built over a grave, he thought. Seeing that Sam
Speaker 1: was a little unconvinced, Leicester apologized for being the bearer
Speaker 1: of such disturbing news and gave him the number of
Speaker 1: another local resident who could verify the claim. As he
Speaker 1: showed himself to the door, he suggested that Sam give
Speaker 1: the number a call. Perhaps then he might find out
Speaker 1: where all the others were buried too. The others, said
Speaker 1: Sam with disbelief. Oh yes, replied Leicester, that whole area
Speaker 1: more or had been built directly on top of a graveyard.
Speaker 1: Although sickened by the prospect of living on top of
Speaker 1: a grave site, Judith and Sam couldn't quite bring themselves
Speaker 1: to believe it. After all, what are the chances that
Speaker 1: the developers wouldn't have known of such a thing if
Speaker 1: it was such common knowledge amongst the other local residents.
Speaker 1: But rather than call the number that Leicester had given him,
Speaker 1: Sam decided to investigate for himself. Pulling a spade from
Speaker 1: the garage, he headed out to the spot that Leicester
Speaker 1: had pointed out and rammed it into the earth. An
Speaker 1: hour or so later, however, an exhausted Sam had only
Speaker 1: made it three feet down before the ground had become
Speaker 1: too tough. The following day, after hiring a digger, the
Speaker 1: Hanes watched with concern as the operator steadily ripped the
Speaker 1: large chunks of earth from the ground, until suddenly, at
Speaker 1: roughly six feet deep, Sam yelled for him to stop.
Speaker 1: Leaping into the large hole before him, Sam brushed away
Speaker 1: at the dirt, revealing splinters of dark pine wood. As
Speaker 1: he brushed more of the dirt away, he revealed what
Speaker 1: was quite clearly the lid of a coffin. Prising it open,
Speaker 1: he recoiled at the sight of the bones inside it. Later,
Speaker 1: the stunned couple watch ensombly as a section of the
Speaker 1: coffin and the bones are lifted from out of the
Speaker 1: ground by the local coroner's office. With both the coffin
Speaker 1: and bones being so deteriorated, it was agreed to leave
Speaker 1: most of it in the ground while they waited for
Speaker 1: test results to come back on the pieces they had.
Speaker 1: That afternoon, Jean Williams watched with dread from her back
Speaker 1: window as the long black hearse from the Inner's office
Speaker 1: pulled away from the Haneys home, knowing full well that
Speaker 1: her troubles were far from over. You've been listening to
Speaker 1: part one of Unexplained Season four, episode twenty one. The Underweight.
Speaker 1: Part two will be released next week, Friday, December twenty seventh. Unexplained.
Speaker 1: The book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never
Speaker 1: before been covered on the show, is now available to
Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble,
Speaker 1: and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements have Unexplained, including
Speaker 1: the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can reach us on fine at Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook
Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Podcast. Now, it's
Speaker 1: time to take care of yourself. To make time for you,
Speaker 1: teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help
Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a
Speaker 1: licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am
Speaker 1: to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc
Speaker 1: therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app,
Speaker 1: or visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today
Speaker 1: to get started. That's T. E. Ladoc dot com slash
Speaker 1: Unexplained Podcast