When Ghosts Attack: Ghost Stalker

I watched my first episode of Destination America’s When Ghosts Attack a few weeks ago, and even though it scared the crap out of me, it was the best of all the paranormal shows I’ve watched lately, so I decided to watch another episode.  This episode is called “Ghost Stalker” and aired in November 2013.

The episode begins with Crystal Sipe saying, “I never thought that I’d have to fight with a spirit over my husband, but I did, and I almost lost my life.”  (Ooh, I’m interested…tell me more!)  In Weston, West Virginia, Robert Sipe proposed two weeks after he met Crystal, and Crystal and her 6-year-old son Tucker moved in with Robert and his 9-year-old daughter Whitney in April 2006.  Crystal thought the house seemed “off-kilter,” and her things would often go missing; she also noticed lights flickering and the TV turning on and off by itself.  One morning, Crystal went into the kitchen to make Robert’s lunch, then went back to bed; she awoke when the blankets were pulled off of her.  She thought her son had done it, but when she went to check on him, he was fast asleep, and no one else was there with them.  Crystal got back into bed and held onto the blankets, but they were pulled off of her again.  She told Robert what happened, and he confessed that there was a spirit in the house.  (Shouldn’t he have mentioned that before she moved in?!)  He said he was shocked by the encounter because the spirit had always been nice to him.  (Of course she was, she wants you to let your guard down, so she can have her way with you while you’re sleeping.)  One night, Crystal woke up when a female voice whispered “You need to leave” in her ear.  She thought/hoped she had imagined it, but when she walked out of the room, she saw the spirit down the hall, staring at her.  Crystal realized that the ghost felt threatened by her and wanted her out of the house.

A few months later, Crystal was home alone when she heard voices, the radio started changing stations by itself, and the TV came on.  Something pushed Crystal on the floor and began attacking her; a neighbor heard Crystal’s screams and rushed into the house, and the attack ended.  When Robert got home, he put bandages on Crystal’s wounds and told her everything would be okay, then they heard the crash of something hitting the floor; it was a picture frame displaying a photo of Robert, Crystal, Whitney, and Tucker, and it was now shattered.  (This ghost is such a jealous bitch!)  Crystal and Robert got married a few weeks later (yeah, that won’t make things worse…), and one day Crystal entered Tucker’s room to find him talking to nothing and drawing frowny faces on the carpet with permanent marker.  He said he didn’t do it, and Crystal told him that he shouldn’t lie because “God doesn’t like it because it’s against his rules,” to which Tucker replied, “But God’s a woman” and said that she visits him.  Two months later, Crystal and Robert, who had rarely argued before, began arguing about everything; Crystal thought it was the spirit trying to get between them.  One night, the alarm went off at midnight for no reason, and Crystal turned to Robert with a strange look on her face and asked, “Do you really love her?”  Robert knew that it was not Crystal saying this, and Crystal did not remember the incident at all.  Three months later, Crystal was in front of the mirror getting ready for work when she felt like she was being watched, then something shoved her into the bathtub.  Robert finally decided that it was time to move, and people who have rented the house have reported that paranormal activity still goes on there.

In Glenn Burnie, Maryland in September 2002, Terri Torrence was going through a divorce and had just found a new house to live in with her four daughters: Victoria (11), Christine (8), Charlene (6), and Jennifer (4).   Terri, who has been in a wheelchair since childhood as a result of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, was looking for a house that was wheelchair-accessible, and this house was perfect…or so she thought.  Terri found out from some neighbors that her property used to be a Confederate soldier camp, and a lot of people died there; one neighbor said to stay out of the woods because they were haunted.  Things were great at first, but soon doors would open and close by themselves, it would get really cold inside, and they would hear knocking sounds on the windows.  One night, Terri heard Christine talking in her room after all of her sisters had gone to bed; Terri asked her daughter who she was talking to, and Christine said that she was talking to her friends.  When Terri pointed out that there was no one else in the room, Christine said, “They’re sitting right there.”  Christine thought her new friends were girls who lived in the neighborhood, but realized they weren’t real when her mother couldn’t see them.  The girls were there to protect Christine from “the Man in Black…who had killed them in the woods.”

A few months later, Christine saw a black figure in her room; when Terri heard her scream, she went to see what was wrong, but the door would not open.  When she finally got in, a terrified Christine said that the Man in Black wanted to hurt her sisters.  Terri switched rooms with Christine, so Christine would feel safer, and after a week in there, Terri noticed a horrible smell and heard a male voice say, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”  The room started turning black, and Terri realized that they were not safe in the house.  Terri knew she couldn’t fight whatever was in the house, so her mother (Sarah) moved in to help them out.  The Man in Black kept returning and telling Christine to be mean to her mom and sisters and to hurt herself, and she would do whatever he said because she was afraid of what he would do if she didn’t.  Sarah decided she’d had enough and called the Man in Black a coward and challenged him to show her what he was capable of; suddenly she felt hands squeezing her chest until she could hardly breathe.  She managed to run out of the room, and when she turned around and saw the Man in Black, it was the most terrifying she’d ever seen and is sure he would’ve killed her if she had not gotten out of the house.  The Man in Black later started focusing on Jennifer, dragging her out of her chair at the dining room table one day.  Sarah says, “You could see her being dragged, but you couldn’t see what was dragging her.”  (If that happened to me, I have a feeling I’d need therapy for the rest of my life.)  Even though it wouldn’t be easy to find another wheelchair-accessible house, Terri decided that it was time to leave.  Everything returned to normal for the family after they moved, and the home’s new residents have not experienced any paranormal activity.

This episode of When Ghosts Attack was just as terrifying as the last episode I watched…that’s why I don’t watch this show at night.  The stories of the Sipes and the Torrences had me looking over my shoulder every few minutes, and I also learned a valuable lesson: Always be suspicious of a guy who proposes two weeks after he meets you…he’s probably just afraid to sleep by himself in his haunted house.  ; )

My rating: 9/10