Child goes bump in the night.
The Charles Hunsinger family says they have no explanation for the strange pounding noises in their home that follow their 14-year-old daughter, Beth. Police have been unable to explain the noises, which can be heard by neighbours several houses away from the Hunsinger home in suburban Blendon Township.
Blendon Township police and Franklin County sheriff’s deputies checked the house late Wednesday and early Thursday. Sgt. Sonny Yinger of the Franklin County sheriff’s department said he heard the strange noises. “I don’t know what to think,” said Yinger. “I’ve never believed in the supernatural, but at this point, I don’t know what to believe. “
“We checked the plumbing, wires and even removed insulation in the attic,” said Hunsinger.
Blendon Township Police Chief Tom Heichel said two of his men were with Yinger in the Hunsinger home Thursday. “Everywhere this girl would go in the house the noise would follow,” said Heichel. “It was just a pounding, a knocking noise on the walls of the house, that’s about the only way I can describe it.”
“We can’t explain it,” he said. “We don’t choose to believe it is anything more at this time than just some kids playing games. However, we don’t really have an answer.”
The family said the pounding had been going on for several weeks.
Napa Valley Register, 25th February 1977.
Strange, noisy phenomena keep neighborhood awake.
It’s a little quieter around a residential neighbourhood here after strange pounding noises from a house kept neighbours awake for several days. One of them, Don Elkins, said he hasn’t heard the sounds for three or four days. The noises, which he described Tuesday as “a wood-to-wood knock,” began Jan. 31 in the frame house of the Charles Hunsingers. They occurred only between 1 and 4 am, according to Mrs Hunsinger. “The last three or four days they haven’t heard anything,” Elkins said.
Mrs Hunsinger insists the house isn’t haunted, but others aren’t so sure. That includes the 41-year-old Elkins and sheriff’s Sgt. Sonny Yinger. “I don’t know what to think,” Yinger said. “I’ve never believed in the supernatural, but at this point I don’t know what to believe.” The Hunsingers have been unavailable for comment and Elkins said he thinks they want to remain that way.
“The noises were light up until last Wednesday or Thursday, when they started getting louder and louder until they got me out of bed about 1.15 in the morning,” Elkins said. Yinger said officers checked the house to make sure no stranger was near. Tape recordings were made and the plumbing, wires and insulation were checked.
George Pettit of the Psychic Science Institute here said the report is similar to dozens psychic researchers receive every year, but the institute has not been asked to investigate the Hunsingers’. “There are generally a couple of different causes that are thought to attribute to this type of phenomena,” Pettit said. “One is the spirit phenomena. Most of the researchers don’t think that is the cauase of most of this phenomena. The other explanation is that it is energy that is emanated and caused by some member of the family.”
Daily Kent Stater, 3rd March 1977.
Boom, rattle, crash – ghost moves in. By Cliff Treyens.
The script couldn’t be better. In a typical middle class, suburban neighbourhood there’s an unpretentious split-level house. Its occupants – a father, mother, daughter and son – live a peaceful existence. Nights are quiet in this neighbourhood, interrupted only by a passing car or a barking dog. Then suddenly, the house begins to emit strange pounding sounds. It’s as if a spirit inhabited the walls since there’s no explanation for the reckless hammering.
Police investigate but end up empty handed. The house’s wiring, plumbing and attic are in order. Even a neighbourhood stake out fails to trap any pranksters. What might prove a fitting sequel to “The Exorcist” is, in fact, a living nightmare for the Hunsinger family of Blendon Township (south of Westerville). For the last three weeks the family has been haunted by a horrible pounding within the walls of their house.
Newspaper stories have latched on to the mythical poltergeist. Paging through the encyclopedia I discovered the poltergeist is a ghost responsible for strange noises and irratic movements or breaking of household items. Victims of a poltergeist are usually adolescents – in this case a quiet 14 year old, Beth Hunsinger.
Unfortunately, the horror of this ordeal has just begun for the Hunsingers. Hundreds of onlookers flocked to the neighbourhood following the initial media coverage last week. Like vultures ready for the feast, the hordes gathered to hear the eerie sounds first hand – audible in the area surrounding the house.
This strange story intrigued me, too, but I soon found that the intruding throngs had become so bothersome Charles Hunsinger, his wife, Ruth, Beth and 12-year-old Hank have barricaded themselves in the house. They have since disconnected their telephone and no longer answer the door. Neighbours are also tense, jittery and angry at the unfeeling public that’s disrupted their lives. One neighbour, however, spoke freely about the noises and crowds that have turned this once peaceful neighbourhood upside down. “We’re trying (the neighbours) to live normal lives but it’s hard,” says Mrs Richard Gardner, next-door neighbour to the Hunsingers. “The crowds were so bad Friday I had to take a nerve pill. I don’t know how the Hunsingers are sleeping.”
Mrs Gardner, 23 and petite, crouched in the corner of her sofa and spoke in an open but concerned manner. “What gets us upset most is people saying Beth is bewitched. That will be a lot of strain on her.” Shaking her head, Mrs Gardner lamented the end of spring vacation next week. “You know what the kids will be going through in school. Kids are usually sociable and friendly, but sometimes kids can be so cruel.” As she spoke two sons, who go to a local elementary school, scampered into the living room craving attention. “We told the youngest, ‘When you go back to school you don’t know anything, you don’t say anything.'” But Mrs Gardner conceded that none of the neighbours really know what to say. Most believe someone is playing a cruel prank on the Hunsinger family. The trouble is no one – including the police – have been able to catch pranksters despite a stake out.
“None of us are great believers in witchcraft,” she said cautiously, “But it’s scary – I don’t care if you’re a cop. One cop knocked on the wall and it knocked back. Then he said, ‘I’m a believer.'” Mrs Gardner chain-smoked cigarettes, seemingly frustrated at being unable to discover the cause of the mysterious pounding. The last time the Hunsingers heard pounding was late Thursday but neighbours are still tense and edgy. “Two days ago I was scared to death. My legs were shaking and I was holding a baseball bat,” she said excitedly.
But nearly as bad as the strange noises is the media converging on an otherwise quiet lifestyle. “Sometimes I could wring those reporters’ necks,” she uttered disgustedly, as I wriggled uncomfortably in an overstuffed chair. I became increasingly uncomfortable since the media coverage, in turn, was responsible for the huge crowds that turned out last week. “By Thursday there were police stationed on each end of the street.” The police only let residents of the street paass.
The Hunsingers have also been barraged by numerous cures for poltergeists and some prank telephone calls. “Some reverend called me and said to put some kind of oil on my walls and window sills to keep ‘it’ away. Somebody else called about burning incense.” She seemed more angry than bitter and said the problem is “curiosity more than anything else. You can be nice for so long to those reporters. But someday one’s going to come to the door and I’m going to blow up,” she sparked, as I edged sheepishly toward the door. Before I left Mrs Gardner surprised me by saying she didn’t want the noises to stop. “We (the neighbours) want to find out what it really is.”
Then she reached for a pile of newspaper clippings and held them in the air. “Someday I’d like to pull out these newspaper articles and be able to laugh at them because it (the noises) was something small.” But right now nobody’s laughing in the Hunsinger neighbourhood.
The Lantern, 2nd March 1977.