Strong - Anatomy of a haunting: the nightmare on Baxter Road

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

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Anatomy of a Haunting: The Nightmare on Baxter Road 2013 by Lee Strong.

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First e-book edition 2013

E-book ISBN: 9780738736037

Cover art: Clouds: iStockphoto.com/jkitan
Hell and fire: iStockphoto.com/Eva Serrabassa
House: iStockphoto.com/Shaun Lowe
Wolf eyes: iStockphoto.com/Joel Jensen

Cover design by Ellen Lawson

Editing by Andrea Neff

Interior photographs supplied by the author

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Woodbury, MN 55125

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Dedicated to the memory of two
of the most courageous women
I have ever known:

Mrs. Carlie Summers

September 1937July 1999

Mrs. Loretta Heinz

May 1924January 2000

Acknowledgments

Id like to express my sincerest appreciation to the following people, for if it werent for them, Carlies story would remain a fading memory, encased in wooden crates and a paper box packed full of notes and recorded conversations.

First, Id like to thank my editors, Amy Glaser and Andrea Neff, for understanding the nature and complexity of Carlies story, and taking the time to nurture my sows ear until it became a silk purse.

Last, but by far not least, I need to thank author Annie Wilder, for if it werent for her insistence and guidance, this story would never have seen the light of day.

Contents

: The Arrival

: The Haunting

: Nowhere to Run

Foreword

In order to tell the terrifying story of the McPherson house haunting, one has to tell Carlie Summers story. On a beautiful spring day in 1992, I met Carlie for the first time. Sitting across the kitchen table from me, she rolled up the sleeves of her flannel shirt to expose withered, disfigured arms covered in long, thin white scars and discolored patches from burns that had healed years earlier. Their cause is Carlies story.

The events behind the insanity and depravity that created the haunting in the first place, and ultimately culminated in Carlies story, encompassed a time span of over 150 years. Unfortunately, due to space constraints, many of the violent events that occurred during Carlies four-year nightmare have been left out, others condensed, and still others depicted as they were described in police, accident investigators, and coroners reports.

Many of the names and locations depicted in this book have been changed at the request of Carlie Summers out of respect for the privacy of the residents of the small Iowa town. To prevent the spirits of the McPherson house from drawing unwitting victims into their violent and demented history, the exact location of the house will remain unidentified.

Prologue

the mcpherson house

Two years earlier, as her bedroom filled with flames and dense, black smoke, Grace Baxter passed away, and she wasnt the first person to die under mysterious circumstances in the house on Baxter Road.

For nearly 150 years, the old house has sat isolated. From the top of a small knoll, it vigilantly protects and conceals the terrifying secrets of the restless souls that roam its halls.

The question is, Would Grace Baxter be the last to die?

The McPherson house, circa 1951. Photograph taken by William Baxter.

Book One

the arrival

the summer of 1981

It was July 14th, 1981, two years after the death of Grace Baxter, when Jonathon and Carlie Summers pulled into the drive of the silent and foreboding two-story house.

Carlie had inherited the house from her late aunt, and it had been more than twenty years since she had last set foot on the property. Carlie was amazed to find that, after so many years, not a lot about the old house had changed.

Jon, on the other hand, felt there was something very eerie about it. The old house appeared to be permanently under a deep shadow. The sun was out and there wasnt a cloud in the sky, yet the vacant house remained dark and ominous. He also couldnt shake the feeling that something inside was watching him.

The second-floor window stood in stark relief to the rest of the house. Scorched black and hastily boarded after the fire that had taken the life of Carlies aunt, the window drew Jons attention. He couldnt take his eyes off it.

The thought of what had happened behind that boarded-up window chilled his spine.

The fact that the house had been on the market for two years without a single interested party wasnt lost on Jon either.

Carlie didnt seem to notice any of this, not even the window. Something else about the house captivated her. It wasnt something tangible; it was more a feeling. To her, the house emanated a sense of desolation and abandonment, as if it were lonelyas if it were waiting for her.

When Carlie opened the front door and stepped inside, the passage of time simply melted away, leaving her with the feeling of returning hometo where she belonged.

Walking from room to room, she tenderly caressed every hand-sculpted, wood-and-stone-inlaid surface that the original owner had created nearly a century and a half earlier.

Walking through the enormous kitchen into the eat-in breakfast area, she remembered Grace telling her the story of the original owners designing and building each roomhow every board, nail, rock, stone, and ounce of mortar had gone into fulfilling their lifelong dream. As she stood in the center of the room, Carlie was reassured to find that, even after sitting vacant for two years, the house still carried the fragrant aroma of freshly baked bread and Aunt Graces sugar cookies.

Jon wandered three paces behind Carlie as she explored each room, describing not only its history but also the legends behind every little detail. As hard as he tried, Jon still could not summon the same euphoric feeling for the old house as Carlie had.

To him, the interior was dark and oppressive; the air was stagnant and heavy and reeked of burnt wood and electrical wiring. In the kitchen, a hole in the roof had allowed access for a family of raccoons or some other creatures into the rest of the house. Their musky urine scent permeated the raw wood surfaces of the floors, countertops, and cabinets.