I met my best friend Diane during our Freshman year in high school (1980). We both lived in Whittier. Diane lived on Mar Vista Street near Colima Road and if any of you know that area, then you know there is a lot of spooky stuff that goes on there. Just recently, you might have heard our local news about a woman's body being found in Whittier, well it was on Colima Road, next to Mar Vista in the canyon area. The woman worked for Coca Cola in Downey and was about to file for divorce when she disappeared for a few weeks. They finally found her body there, in the canyon just under 4 weeks ago. So far the murderer has not been caught but they think it's her husband because for some reason, the woman was going to ask for custody of his daughter from a previous relationship. Not only that but she was also about to testify in a sexual harassment case at her work...
Back to our original story... One day Diane and I skipped school and we went to her house. She had a very nice house since her parents had money and I was quite impressed - well until I got inside anyway. It was beautiful with a lot of great furniture and big rooms but something had me bothered or rather nervous. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I was scared. Diane had to use the bathroom and I asked her not to. She laughed and said what's wrong with you. Needless to say I went with her to the bathroom. We left afterwards to go hang out at the mall and she never said a word about her house. Well, even after high school we remained best friends and I was basically a member of her family now.
One night, I actually stayed there with her. This had to have been in 1986, I believe. The same spooky feeling was there but I got through the night with nothing happening to me or scaring me. Then, a few more years later, either in 1988 or 1989, I celebrated Christmas at her house. I saw her sister and husband in the other room talking, so I walked over to join them. They were laughing so I asked what was so funny and they told me they were laughing about the ghost in the house. I said "WHAT!"... They went on to tell me that all of them had felt a presence and finally ended up seeing the thing. Diane said that it got in bed with her one time. She felt someone get in bed with her and thought it was her sister Nancy coming home drunk. Diane says that she was laying on her side and that the person put their arm over her.. She looked down but could see no arm yet she is feeling it on her. So she jumps out of bed and ran to her parents room. They told her that they have often woken up in the middle of the night to find someone looking into their bedroom from the hall. They said it would never go into their room but they would see it's head looking in.
Her sister Nancy actually saw it one night. She woke up with the feeling that someone was behind her. She was facing the wall and said she did not want to turn over and look but was scared it might be a burglar. So she forced herself to turn over and said she saw a black, hooded figure standing there. She screamed, jumped out of bed and actually ran right past it into her parents room. She was to see it again but this time in broad daylight. She says she came home from school about 4:30pm one afternoon with her boyfriend and that she forgot her key inside. Well, they found an open window so he gave her a boost and she started to climb in through the window into a spare room, used for storage. She was almost all the way inside when she looked up and saw the black, hooded figure walk right by the room she was entering. She yelled at her boyfriend to pull her back fast and once outside, she told him what happened and waited for her mom to come home.
The "thing" eventually did come into their parents bedroom one night and the mother was the one who saw it and started screaming for her husband to wake up but he wouldn't. She even clawed his face with her nails and he still did not wake up. She managed to run and turn on the light and it disappeared. I was a bit angry at them for never having told me this from the beginning. Especially Diane, because she knew I was afraid that first day I went to her house but she said nothing. She said lots of people always got that same feeling when they would go there and she knew what it was, but didn't want to frighten anyone.
They all eventually moved out and their Cousins took over the house. The cousins did not take their ghost stories seriously but from what Diane told me, that family has been in major turmoil ever since moving there. There is a possible cause for all of this. A friend of Diane's father came over one day and asked them "what are you guys doing with that?"... It was a statue that was found in a Mexican cave and according to the friend, it is some kind of evil God that people would make sacrifices to. Diane's mom said they bought it at an antique store and liked it because it was different. Her parents didn't believe the statue could be haunted so they never gave it a second thought - and yes they did leave the statue there when they moved out.
One quick note about that area (Colima Road), one night when I was coming home from a friend's house in 1998, it was exactly midnight and just as I was reaching the top of the hill, a UFO flew right over the road. I thought at first it might be a reflection on my windshield but I had already reached the top of the hill where there are no streetlights, it's all dark there. The UFO looked like a tennis ball at arm's length and just streaked across my path over Colima Rd heading towards the La Habra area. UFO's, ghosts, murders, urban legends, all of those are well known around the Colima Rd canyon area...
If anyone knows that area, please share any interesting stories you might have.
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