Pod Insights So Supernatural HAUNTED: The Gary, Indiana Demon House About this episode In 2011, the Ammons family moved into a new home in Gary, Indiana – but it wasn’t exactly vacant when they arrived. It was said to be haunted by hundreds of spirits that led to wild paranormal phenomena – like levitation, poltergeist activity and demonic possession. And it wasn’t just the Ammons who witnessed this activity first hand – nurses, doctors, child service workers and police officers experienced it too…
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:02 Speaker 00 Okay, so there's one movie I've never seen. Actually, there's a lot of movies I never saw in my kind of cultish way of growing up. And then you get to a certain age and you're like, ah, why bother? Anyways, there's one of those movies that when I tell people I haven't seen it, they like almost can't believe me. And it's The Exorcist. Now, maybe it's all folklore surrounding the movie, but I used to hear about people throwing up in the movie theater. And there was something about that I just couldn't stomach. But I also think that there was something about it that felt very, I don't know, possible? I mean, stories like this don't just appear out of thin air. Almost since the dawn of time, people have spoken about demonic possession, calling
0:47 Speaker 00 a priest to exorcise some malevolent spirit. And it always seems to be in a young woman or a kid, which makes it that much scarier for me. But these things weren't just a thing of the past, stories from our history. Apparently, it's still happening. As recently as 2011, the Ammons family claimed that their one-story house wasn't just regularly haunted. It was like full-on demonic possession haunted. I'm talking kids levitating out of their beds during sleepovers, people getting tossed across the room by unknown forces, social workers allegedly saw their son climb up a wall.
1:29 Speaker 00 And the most wild part of this story to me is that it happened not too far from where I am, right here in my home state of Indiana. Today, we're covering the Gary, Indiana demon house. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.
2:01 Yvette Gentile? Hey y'all, welcome back to So Supernatural. You know, when I was younger, I loved scary movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and especially watching them in the theaters. I mean, I enjoyed the thrill of being scared, like when something suddenly jumps out at you and spill my popcorn everywhere, or when I'm gripping my boyfriend's arm so tightly that he can't feel it anymore. I mean, those experiences feel like rites of passage as a teenager. However, what really terrifies me are movies and stories about possession. Like, how do you protect yourself from unseen forces?
2:45 Yvette Gentile? How do you protect your family or your children? I don't know, Russia, but you remember, like, or you know this, I should say, whenever I've moved from house or apartment, like, I'm always sage-ing, opening doors, like, praying, you know, blessing.
2:58 Rasha Pecoraro? Yes, yes.
2:59 Yvette Gentile? And even when we did Root of Evil, like, I was carrying around my sage, I was carrying my six grandfather scent, my caravan scent, like, just for protection, right?
3:11 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah, absolutely.
3:12 Yvette Gentile? So, when Ashley told us about this story, I immediately thought of movies like Amityville Horror, The Conjuring, The Exorcist. I mean, it's one thing to watch a movie like Poltergeist, but a real-life haunted house is a whole nother level of spooky.
3:32 Rasha Pecoraro? I couldn't agree with you more, and as you know, I'm a big scaredy cat and I cannot stomach horror movies, but I am fascinated with ghosts and spirits. This is the incredible story of the Almonds family. In 2011, they were horrified to discover that their new house in Gary, Indiana, was infested with spirits. For nearly a year, Latoya Almonds claims she and her family were mentally and physically attacked by demons. And when no one believed her, this mother did the unthinkable to save her family. She had to get not one, not two, but three major exorcisms.
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5:27 Rasha Pecoraro? So it's November 2011 and all Latoya Almonds wants to do is just relax like every other mother. She's a single mom around her 30s with three kids. A 12-year-old daughter, who we're gonna call Casey. A nine-year-old son, who we'll call Jackson. And a seven-year-old son, who we're going to call Noah.
5:45 Yvette Gentile? And just to be clear, these are fake names. The papers didn't report the kids' names at the time of the incident. So to protect their privacy, we want to do exactly the same thing.
5:56 Rasha Pecoraro? Latoya and the kids live with her mother, Rosa Campbell. All five of them have just spent the last few days moving into a new rental house at 3860 Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana, which isn't too far from where Ashley and the rest of the team at AudioChuck is.
6:12 Yvette Gentile? That's right.
6:13 Rasha Pecoraro? And look, we all know that moving is exhausting. I know. But moving with three kids? I can't even imagine. I only have one kid, so I don't even know what she was going through.
6:23 Yvette Gentile? I don't have none, and I'm already tired, so.
6:26 Rasha Pecoraro? I'm tired. I were just thinking about it. So the only thing Latoya can think about at the end of the day is she wants some me time. But of course, there's always something else to do. New house, new problems, am I right? So for most people, that means maybe the water pressure is too low or the front door squeaks, things that, you know, can be annoying but manageable. But in Latoya's new place, the issues are a little bit weirder than that. Like when the family tries to hang out on their new screened in porch, they keep getting swarmed by these big, black flies. Ew.
7:00 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, you know me and flies, like I can't stand flies. My little chihuahua can't stand flies, is terrified of flies. So I would be like, where the hell are all these coming from?
7:10 Rasha Pecoraro? Totally. And Rosa, Latoya's mother, keeps swearing she can hear footsteps in the basement. But when she goes to investigate, she doesn't see anything unusual. So over time, the incidents start getting more frequent and more strange. One night, Rosa wakes up and sees the shadowy figure of a man pacing around the house. Now, of course, Rosa's first instinct is that they're being robbed. But when she gets up to confront the burglar, she can't find him. She looks all over the house, but whoever the shadowy man is, he's nowhere to be found. But the next morning, Rosa finds a large muddy boot print in the damn house.
7:53 Rasha Pecoraro? It's way too big to come from any of the family's shoes. So then, of course, she starts to think maybe a burglar did break into the house last night, but he escaped before she could find him. Except the weird thing was, what kind of burglar doesn't steal anything?
8:08 Yvette Gentile? I mean, noises and shadowy figures are one thing, but they pale in comparison to what happens next. Because five months after the almonds move in, whatever it is in the house is starting to get physical. Like, that scares the bejesus out of me.
8:29 Rasha Pecoraro? Me too.
8:31 Yvette Gentile? It's 2 AM on March 10th, 2012, and the Ammons have had a long day. After a loved one died that morning, their house has become a hub for friends and family who've been mourning their loss long into the night. Latoya and her mother Rosa and some other adult friends are in the living room talking while the kids are winding down in the bedrooms with their cousins. The adults are finally starting to call it a night themselves when all of a sudden, they hear shouting coming from Rosa's bedroom. Rosa and Latoya rush to the room to find Latoya's 12-year-old daughter Casey completely unconscious and floating a foot above the bed.
9:14 Rasha Pecoraro? Oh, hell no.
9:15 Yvette Gentile? Like, I would be out of that house so fast, like, gone. Bye. See ya.
9:21 Rasha Pecoraro? Bye, Felicia.
9:23 Yvette Gentile? But we know that Latoya is a devout Christian, so her first instinct is to ask God for help. So, all the mourners gather in Rosa's room. They're reciting hymns and praying as if their lives depended on it, which honestly, Casey's might. And miraculously, it works. Slowly but surely, Casey lowers back onto the bed. She blinks her eyes open, and as she looks around at all the concerned faces, she asks, "What just happened?" She doesn't remember a thing.
9:59 Rasha Pecoraro? Can you even imagine?
10:00 Yvette Gentile? No.
10:02 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah, after the levitation incident, the cat, or I guess the poltergeist, is out of the bag. Because this is the first of a whole bunch of possession incidents for the Ammons family. And whatever's haunting the house is getting much, much more physical and more violent. At one point, it throws little nine-year-old Jackson across the room. Casey has incidents where it feels like invisible hands are holding her down and choking her. And Latoya keeps finding seven-year-old Noah hiding in a closet, talking to someone who isn't actually there. Latoya doesn't escape the strange attacks either. She wakes up some nights feeling feverish and lightheaded.
10:43 Rasha Pecoraro? It's like she's not in control of her body, like some entity is actually possessing her.
10:49 Yvette Gentile? Okay, I think it's time to call somebody, a pastor, a rabbi, Ghostbusters. I mean, y'all, these people need help.
10:58 Rasha Pecoraro? Yes, that's exactly what Latoya is thinking. But when she asks around, it feels like nobody wants to get involved. So Latoya calls church after church, but most of them dismiss her. Either they think she's lying, or they simply don't want anything to do with her haunted house. Latoya is at her wits' end when finally, someone recommends two psychics to her. This so reminds me of something that mom would do, right, Yvette?
11:23 Yvette Gentile? Totally, totally.
11:24 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah. But by this time, several months have passed and she's moved in. So it's early spring 2012, when Latoya finally gets these two psychics to come see the house. She's hoping there are rules to this thing, some way to control it. Like, if it's an angry spirit, maybe there's a way to cast that spirit out, or at least cleanse the house. Even if she could live alongside it, like a particularly spooky roommate, she'd be happy.
11:50 Yvette Gentile? Oh, no.
11:51 Rasha Pecoraro? I know, I know. She's just at her wits' end, basically. So she leads the psychics through the house, room to room. They aren't giving much away, but it's clear they're sensing something is very, very wrong. Because before Latoya even finishes the tour, they take her outside and they tell her that she needs to leave now. Because she's not just dealing with one spooky entity. The house is infested with over 200 demons.
12:22 Yvette Gentile? All I can say is, oh, hell, no. Like, one demon, two demon, now you're telling me 200 demons? I'm already gone, like, you know, never to return.
12:32 Rasha Pecoraro? Never, never, never, never to return. Because what's the first thing you scream at, at the TV when watching a horror film? Like, you're literally just telling them, move, get out of the way, leave, right?
12:43 Yvette Gentile? All the time.
12:44 Rasha Pecoraro? But for Latoya, it's not that simple. She just spent all of her money getting into this home. She doesn't have the cash to just up and leave and break her lease. So the psychics give her some advice. Try setting up an altar in the basement and bless the house. That very night, Latoya and Rosa followed these exact instructions. They set up a table in the basement and cover it with a white sheet, and then place statues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on it. She wasn't playing.
13:14 Yvette Gentile? Uh-uh.
13:14 Rasha Pecoraro? They burned sage and wafted through the house, making signs of the cross with the smoke. Around the same time, a church finally gets back to Latoya with a bit of advice on how to handle the situation. So she follows their directions, too. Latoya deep cleans the house and draws a cross in olive oil on all the doors and windows. She also anoints her children's hands and feet with oil. But all of this, the oil, the sage, the altar, they're not enough. In fact, it seems like all they've managed to do is piss off whatever is in the house.
13:50 Yvette Gentile? So Latoya changes her course of action on April 19, 2012. She figures if the church can't help her, maybe the family doctor can. Latoya believes this is more than a mental illness, but she's desperate for someone to do something. So a doctor probably seems like the next logical solution. And she gets to show them firsthand what they've been dealing with. Because right there in his office, Latoya's son Noah starts exhibiting strange behaviors. He starts thrashing and screaming and speaking in demonic voices and cursing. The doctor is terrified. It's like nothing he's ever seen before.
14:35 Yvette Gentile? But his world is logic and reason, not spirituality. So he immediately believes the issue here is psychiatric, not supernatural.
14:45 Rasha Pecoraro? I do not agree.
14:46 Yvette Gentile? Uh-uh. I do not either. But he notes that the whole family has delusions of ghosts in the home and are suffering from hallucinations.
14:56 Yvette Gentile? Then he does what he believes is best for Noah. He calls an ambulance. Latoya rides with Noah to the local hospital terrified that her son is sick. Only she's met in the ICU by the police and a caseworker from the Department of Child Services. I mean, Latoya's devastated. She's only doing what she believed would protect her children. Now her son is hospitalized and Child Services is involved? And when she tries to explain about the demons, it feels like no one will listen to her. In fact, it's only making things worse. Then something happens in the hospital that nobody can explain.
15:38 Yvette Gentile? Something so outrageous that it turns the caseworker and a police officer into true believers.
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16:56 Rasha Pecoraro? It's 2012 and Latoya Almonds is having the worst week, maybe even worst year of her life. Not only are demons attacking her family, but the authorities won't believe her. Now her son's in the hospital being examined by doctors and child services.
17:13 Yvette Gentile? Just picture this hospital room. I mean, it's utter chaos. Latoya, Rosa, and all three kids are there. Noah is screaming, he's growling, he's speaking in strange voices, and convulsing. And he's doing all of this in front of the caseworkers, the nurses, and the police. It takes five people to hold him down in the hospital bed. And worst of all, nobody can agree on what his problem is, whether it's medical, mental, or spiritual. But it's clear to everyone that something is very wrong.
17:50 Rasha Pecoraro? The caseworker assigned to the Almonds family is named Valerie Washington. So let's imagine your Valerie for a second. You're coming into this with reports of kids acting strangely. With your background, you're pretty primed to believe that they're acting out because of something going on at home. Now, I'm sure that she's seen her fair share of abuse, neglect, hunger, even mental illness. But the longer she spends with the Almonds family in the hospital, the more she starts to believe something else is going on here. Valerie watches as Noah starts growling and baring his teeth. His eyes roll back in his head, and before anyone can make a move, he springs at his brother Jackson, wrapping
18:34 Rasha Pecoraro? his hands around the older boy's throat. Noah's only seven years old, but he's showing such strength that Jackson can't even stop him. It takes several adults to pull Noah off of his brother. Now, that's not even what disturbs Valerie the most. Later that night, she interviews the boys with their grandmother Rosa and a nurse in the room. As Valerie is asking questions, Noah begins staring down Jackson and growling at him again. Then his voice drops into a strange, deep register, and he starts rasping threats, saying, quote, "It's time to die."
19:11 Rasha Pecoraro? But then something comes over Jackson. He turns on Rosa and starts headbutting his grandmother in the stomach. Next, the creepiest, most inexplicable thing happens right in front of Valerie's eyes. Rosa grabs Jackson's hands to pray with him. But instead of joining her, he reportedly looks up at Valerie and the nurse with a creepy grin on his face. He stands up. He walks slowly backwards to the wall and then walks straight up it. Backwards, are you listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth? He walked backwards all the way up to the ceiling.
19:53 Rasha Pecoraro? Valerie is so freaked out that she takes off running with the nurse hot on her heels. She cannot explain what she just saw, but she feels confident there's something evil fixating on the Almonds family. But here's the thing, it's her job to protect those children, right? So the next day, she tells Latoya what she's decided. To keep the kids safe, Child Services is taking emergency custody and moving her three kids to a foster home.
20:24 Yvette Gentile? Wow. Now, there's a bit of a difference between what Valerie Washington said she saw and what her notes say.
20:32 Rasha Pecoraro? I bet there were. How could she explain that on paper?
20:35 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, exactly. I know. But the thing is Valerie is a caseworker. She deals in family services, right?
20:42 Rasha Pecoraro? Right.
20:43 Yvette Gentile? She is a logical woman. I mean, she's spent years trying to get to the bottom of child welfare cases, which in her mind, always have a reasonable explanation. She's just gone through something utterly terrifying, unlike anything she's ever experienced. So she's dealing with it the only way she knows how, by finding a rational explanation. So one idea that she writes down is that perhaps all of this is stemming from Latoya herself, that the mother, Latoya, has some kind of mental illness or delusion that's making her think the house is haunted, wanting to please their mother, the children could
21:27 Yvette Gentile? be pretending to be possessed and attacked by spirits. So Valerie tells Latoya the kids will undergo psychiatric evaluations, and in a few weeks, child services will come to her the house. And if everything goes well, her children will be returned to her.
21:45 Rasha Pecoraro? So of course, Latoya is naturally distraught. Who wouldn't be? She's done everything she can to protect her kids, and now the state is investigating whether she's a fit mother? She knows her only chance to get her kids back is to prove to the authorities that the demons tormenting her family are real. Now, around this time, Latoya meets a Catholic priest named Father Magino who blesses the house. Latoya is relieved when she finds that Magino believes her. But that relief quickly turns to terror because the father is so disturbed by the house, he advises Latoya and Rosa to stay with a relative. It's too dangerous for them to continue living there.
22:26 Yvette Gentile? I mean, that's what I was saying in the beginning, like, hello, finally, someone is telling them to get the heck up out of that house.
22:33 Rasha Pecoraro? And thankfully, this time, they actually listen. They stay out of the house for most of the following week, but eventually, they have to go back for that child services visit. That day, Latoya and Rosa meet Valerie and three police officers outside the house on Carolina Street. Latoya herself is even too scared to go inside, so Rosa takes the group into the house. But from the moment they step inside, their equipment starts immediately malfunctioning. Two of the cops are using voice recorders. Only one of the voice recorders dies almost as soon as they step foot in the house, despite being fully charged. The other recorder does something totally different.
23:16 Rasha Pecoraro? When the police officer listens back to it later that day, he hears an unknown voice whisper, "Hey," on the recording.
23:25 Rasha Pecoraro? Another officer is taking photos of the screened-in front porch where he notices something very strange. A cloudy white smudge appears in the upper right-hand corner of the image. When it's enlarged later, it shows the clear outline of a floating human figure on the porch.
23:43 Yvette Gentile? All I can say is, "Get out, get out, get out."
23:48 Rasha Pecoraro? There's a movie called Get Out, and I'm sure there's a scene like that from that movie, even though I couldn't watch it because I was too much of a scaredy cat. But anyway. On another police visit about two weeks later, things start to get kinda sticky. This time, Latoya and Rosa are joined by Father Magino and several police officers. Valerie is too scared to go back in the house, so a different caseworker named Samantha joins the expedition. It only takes minutes for people to start fleeing the house. Samantha's pinky finger starts to tingle as if something is wrong with the nerve in her finger. Actually, she's so convinced her finger is broken that she ends up having a complete panic attack, and she also has to leave.
24:32 Rasha Pecoraro? Then Latoya complains of a pain in her head and shoulder, and she leaves. The remaining cops notice there's something oily dripping from the Venetian blinds in the living room. Father Magino declares that this is obviously demonic. And while he's dabbled in demon hunting before, he's never seen such clear evidence of an evil presence.
24:54 Yvette Gentile? Well, thank God for Father Magino, because now, somebody believes her.
25:00 Rasha Pecoraro? Seriously. The cops are a little less sure, which is to be expected. So they conduct an experiment. They completely clean off the Venetian blinds and then seal off the living room. For 25 minutes, no one goes in and no one comes out. And what do you think happens when they open the door?
25:19 Yvette Gentile? Let me guess, the blinds are oily again?
25:22 Rasha Pecoraro? Bingo. Demon juice all over them.
25:26 Yvette Gentile? Okay, so both the police and child services have seen a lot of spooky things in the Ammon's house at this point. One police officer walks away fully believing there's something evil in the house. And remember, the caseworker Valerie Washington saw Jackson walk up a wall, like literally saw him walk up a wall. And yet, it's still not enough to convince the state. I mean, I imagine it would take a lot. So they inform Latoya they're keeping her kids.
26:00 Rasha Pecoraro? That is so heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what she was going through.
26:03 Yvette Gentile? But as a mom, she's not going to stop fighting for her children. She realizes if she wants to get her kids back and get her house cleansed of spirits, she needs to see Father Magino again. He says he thinks he can still help her, but he's got a new theory now. Father Magino doesn't believe the problem lies with the house. He thinks it's with Latoya. Essentially, the demons aren't haunting a place, but a person. And listen, all the demonic attacks didn't stop once Latoya left her place.
26:44 Yvette Gentile? Remember, Latoya's children kept acting like they were possessed, even in the hospital. So it's not the cottage on Carolina Street he needs to exorcise. He says it's Latoya herself. Father Magino goes and he presents Latoya's story to his bishop. Now, in the 21 years that he's been at the diocese, this bishop has never authorized an exorcism. But after hearing everything that's happened to Latoya, he gives his blessing. And so it seems the entire power of the Catholic Church stands behind Father Magino and this exorcism, at least at the time.
27:26 Rasha Pecoraro? So let's fast forward to June 2012, about two months since her kids were removed from the home. Latoya Almonds is equal parts terrified and hopeful. She's bound in a chair in Father Magino's church in Maryville, Indiana, which is just outside of Gary. As Father Magino begins to pray, Latoya starts convulsing in her chair. Magino presses a crucifix to her forehead and repeatedly tells the demons he's casting them out. But when he draws back, he freezes in surprise. The little metal Christ figure that decorates his crucifix has disappeared without a trace.
28:08 Yvette Gentile? What? That's cuckoo.
28:10 Rasha Pecoraro? And try as he might, the one exorcism doesn't quite do the trick. As Latoya comes out of her trance in the chair, Father Magino informs her that the demons haunting her have been weakened, but they are far from gone. They will need to try again. Over the course of the month, he tries this two more times.
28:31 Yvette Gentile? I can't even imagine like this poor woman is going through this, but she's doing what she has to do because she wants to get rid of this.
28:38 Rasha Pecoraro? Exactly. Well, the final time seems like the most difficult for Latoya, or the demons hiding inside of her. As Father Magino prays in Latin and recites from the Bible, poor Latoya convulses again, fighting the straps that are keeping her in that chair. But still, Father Magino believes some stubborn demons are refusing to come out. Finally, just as Father Magino is about to call it quits, Latoya starts praying aloud, something she hasn't done in any of the earlier exorcisms. And it seems to make a huge difference because after that, the demons are gone, just like that.
29:22 Rasha Pecoraro? For Latoya, this is like the sun breaking through a never-ending thunderstorm. Not only is she free of demons, so is her house.
29:33 Yvette Gentile? As one last precaution, Latoya and Rosa get the resources needed to move away from the house on Carolina Street. And finally, six months after that fateful day when her son walked up a wall, she gets her kids back.
29:51 Rasha Pecoraro? Thank goodness. It's not every day we get to see a happy ending, especially in what feels like a real-life horror movie.
29:59 Yvette Gentile? Well, hang on. The credits haven't rolled quite yet, Rasha, because this story reaches the news two years later in 2014. And that's when people start to doubt whether there were ever any demons in the first place.
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30:52 Yvette Gentile? One of the strangest things about the Ammons haunting case is how well-documented it is. I mean, every terrifying incident is confirmed by multiple people.
31:04 Rasha Pecoraro? But even with all of this overwhelming evidence, there are some skeptics out there. So let's go back through the story step by step and see if the dark demons tormenting the Ammons family hold up in the harsh light of day. Our first stop is, you guessed it, the house on Carolina Street.
31:23 Yvette Gentile? So Charles Reed was the landlord at 3860 Carolina Street for 33 years. And as he told reporters, he's heard every excuse under the sun for late rent, house problems. I mean, you name it. But 200 demons? That's a new one. Charles apparently never had ghostly issues in this house, either before or after the Allmans family lived there. So he was surprised to hear about strange oily liquid seeping from the walls and unseen forces possessing her children. At first, he thought he knew where this was coming from. Latoya was behind on his rent and possibly looking for excuses to delay paying her bills.
32:08 Yvette Gentile? But that was only before the Catholic Church got involved. Once Charles heard that they had approved an exorcism, he was much more willing to believe Latoya.
32:19 Rasha Pecoraro? All of this seems like a whole lot of work to get a simple grace period on rent. And I mean, it goes without saying, this doesn't explain things like the oil literally seeping from the walls on their own, or one of Latoya's children walking up a wall. Based on everything we know, the demons seem to be attached to Latoya, not the rental house. So the landlord's opinion doesn't hold a ton of weight for me. But a clinical psychologist's opinion, now that I'm a little more interested in. So Latoya's kids, Noah, Jackson, and Casey, were in the custody of child services for about six months. During that time, they were evaluated by specially trained psychologists to get to the root of their bizarre behavior.
33:03 Rasha Pecoraro? The psychologist who examined the youngest son Noah noted that in normal conversation, he came across as calm and logical. But the second demons were mentioned, all of that went out the window. Noah would make claims about demons that didn't make any sense, or his stories would change with every retelling. The psychologist also noticed that whenever she asked Noah a question he didn't like, he'd literally start acting like he was possessed. He'd growl, he'd roll his eyes back in his head, just like he did at the hospital. Like, maybe it was sort of a defensive tactic? As for the other two kids, the psychologist who examined them noticed similar behavior. He saw that both kids really did believe something strange was happening in the home.
33:47 Rasha Pecoraro? But that didn't mean that the home was actually haunted by demons. In fact, both doctors concluded that the three kids weren't really possessed. Instead, they were acting this way because their mother encouraged it. The doctor believed Latoya was suffering from a demonic delusion.
34:07 Yvette Gentile? Now let's just break that down for a second. Yes, Latoya was a devout Christian and yes, some deeply religious people are primed to believe in things like demons. So perhaps something convinced Latoya there were demons in the house and her children followed suit. But what that doesn't account for is Latoya's own psychological evaluation. Latoya was so confident she was telling the truth that she released her own psych records to the newspaper. That's because when Latoya was evaluated, the doctor concluded she was not suffering from psychosis or any other disorder. After declaring Latoya was a stable guardian for her children,
34:51 Yvette Gentile? the Department of Child Services set several parameters for her to regain custody of her children. The family needed to avoid talking about demons and possessions and to go to therapy together. I mean, these are all good things. But the most interesting rule was the final one. Latoya would need to move to a new house. Hello, what have we been saying all along?
35:19 Rasha Pecoraro? I know.
35:20 Yvette Gentile? And why? Apparently, they felt there was proof that something so supernatural was happening at the house on Carolina Street. Right there in the official Child Services case file, it said, "This house was unfit to live in due to paranormal activity."
35:42 Rasha Pecoraro? Hello, that's what we've been saying this entire time.
35:44 Yvette Gentile? All along.
35:46 Rasha Pecoraro? So even with all the therapy and searching for mental or emotional reasons for the almonds problem, Child Services still thought the house was haunted. I mean, it makes so much sense to me and Yvette. Remember what happened at the hospital? Jackson slowly walking backwards up the wall with so many witnesses? You can't unsee that.
36:07 Yvette Gentile? No, you cannot unsee that.
36:10 Yvette Gentile? Now, some skeptics have argued this isn't as impossible a feat as it sounds. With the grandmother, Rosa, holding the boy's hand, she could have been bracing him on his journey up the wall?
36:23 Rasha Pecoraro? No.
36:24 Yvette Gentile? Like, what?
36:25 Rasha Pecoraro? There's no way. She's an elderly woman. He's an 11-year-old boy. That is not possible. There's this little thing we call gravity that comes into play here. Plus, there were two trained professionals that were so terrified of what they saw, they literally ran out of the room screaming. We also have to consider that there were people who saw terrifying things when the Ammons family wasn't even there. Like Police Captain Charles Austin. He was one of the officers present when they took the photo with the mysterious white figure on the front porch. Have to remember that.
36:58 Yvette Gentile? So let's talk about the photo for a second because, from what I read, it may not be totally credible. And here's the problem. According to the Indianapolis Star, "The photo of the front porch with this terrifying shadowy white figure was snapped by someone from the Hammond Police Department, which patrols the town of Hammond, which is right next to Gary." But on further investigation, the Hammond Police Chief claimed that the photo did not come from them. So we really have no idea where that photo came from. The figure pictured in it could be real. It could be a trick of light or even Photoshop for all that matters. But without knowing who snapped the photo,
37:42 Yvette Gentile? it's impossible to say if it really is a picture of a demon. On one hand, it's easy to believe that Latoya Ammons was a single mom dealing with a lot on her plate and possibly looking for someone or something to blame. But the huge stack of eyewitness accounts and hard evidence makes me think 100% that she was truly haunted by demons.
38:10 Rasha Pecoraro? And it looks like in the years since, things have gone pretty quiet at the Gary, Indiana demon house. Landlord Charles Reed rented it out for several more years with no incident. In 2014, he sold the house to Zach Baggins. You know, the host of the paranormal investigation show Ghost Adventures.
38:29 Yvette Gentile? We do know.
38:29 Rasha Pecoraro? And side note, our beautiful mother, Fana Hodel, was on Ghost Adventures on the Black Dahlia House episode in 2015. I don't know why Zach bought that damn house.
38:40 Yvette Gentile? Yeah.
38:40 Rasha Pecoraro? It must be crazy.
38:41 Yvette Gentile? He also shot a documentary in the house before tearing it down in 2016. And afterwards, this is what he told the Indy Star. He saw supernatural things inside that house that he had never seen before. And the words that he used, dark, intelligent, and powerful. And the house wasn't the only part of this story to receive the Hollywood treatment. So this year, director Lee Daniels just released his first ever horror film. And it's about Latoya Amon's story. You know, he changes some things, obviously, like it's not in Gary, Indiana. It's in Pittsburgh. It's called The Deliverance.
39:21 Yvette Gentile? But all the things that happened to her and her family are in this movie. And I literally had a pillow in front of my face the entire time. And I was watching it with my husband and Gina's like, wow, just put the pillow down. I'm like, no, I can't put the pillow down. Like, I can't.
39:41 Yvette Gentile? The message of the movie is the same as Latoya's story. Basically, nothing can compete with a mother's love. And she will do anything and everything to protect her children. And that's going to hell and back for them, y'all.
40:13 Rasha Pecoraro? This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod and on our website, sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all new episode.
40:32 Rasha Pecoraro? So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
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41:07 Speaker 03 I've been having a hard time trying to explain what Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot? Your podcast is amazing.
41:15 Rasha Pecoraro? It's such an amazing show altogether. You guys have actively ruined all other audio dramas for me.
41:20 Yvette Gentile? You can't get people to understand the humaning that happens in this damn show. Keep doing what you're doing, because it's awesome.
41:26 Speaker 03 You might not think it, but you are far more important than you realize. Thank you. At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app, or just go to weopenat6.com.
Previous ALIEN: The Phoenix Lights Next MYSTICAL: Crystal Skulls Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated