My fiance and I were living in Burnsville when we thought we found a deal of a lifetime for the cutest little house in the downtown area of Prior Lake. Built in the year 1919, it was all newly remodeled with new everything! I fell in love when I first stepped foot in the door but my fiance on the other hand was having second thoughts. With begging and pleading we started moving our things in that first of April 2008. We then had our son that fallowing December. He was asleep in the next room while I was awake waiting up for my fiance to get home from working the late shift when I heard this old man laughing in the baby monitor. I didn't think much of it but I did bring my son in my room and locked the door but mainly thought it was probably just interference until a couple days later when my fiance experienced the same thing. We knew something was a little off about the house then.
Not too long after that we had another experience that was unexplainable. Lying in our bed around 12:30 about to fall asleep, my fiance and I hear what we thought was the next door neighbor girl giggling. We both looked at the clock noticing it was very late and a school night. There was no possible way she would be outside playing and laughing so loud that we could hear it through our closed windows. Rethinking our housing decision and waiting for the next bizarre thing to happen, we didn't get much sleep that night.
I started getting really bad anxiety and really bad feelings when I would enter certain rooms. The basement was the worse, in one of the corners where we had a bar set up. We moved the bar to see if we could find a trace of anything out of the ordinary. We found nothing. Until that night when we walked outside to go to the store and we could see an old fire heater stove pipe that led from the ground to the roof of the house in that very same corner of the basement but the rest of it was most likely covered by the new sheet rock that was put in. We thought maybe the little girl and old man had something to do with that stove, that maybe she was murdered by him and her body was burned. But we really didn't have a clue, but we did know that getting out of that house was the best thing for us.
It was moving day that next April and I stayed behind to clean while my fiance was unpacking at the new place. It was the last night I was there and I was taking pictures of my clean house around 10:30. It was just me and my four month old son in that empty, very haunted house. I just got done taking my pictures when I went up the stairs to use the bathroom leaving my sleeping child downstairs by the front door; when I heard a whimpering cry that started out so soft and sad but then kept getting louder and louder to an ear piercing scream. I ran down the stairs to find my son still sleeping. I felt my face turn white and anxiety rise to a panic. I grabbed him, got on the phone immediately with my friend just in case something where to happen and ran leaving all the lights on and doors unlocked. I was so terrified that I couldn't even get the story out to my friend until the house was out of sight. I still think to this day that that little girl knew it was going to be my last time in the house meaning it was her last time to cry for help for a long time since the house is still sitting vacant today.
A couple weeks later I was going through the pictures that I took that night to see if anything was weird about any of them when I found the most bizarre, craziest thing. In the reflection of the dining room window in the glass door I see a little girl. Ghost white, smiling-clear as day! Crying, I called everyone I knew needing to talk to someone. My mom was very interested and had me send her the picture to her email. The next day she calls me and tells me that she had found a man in the top window panel standing above the little girl, wearing a top hat and a grin. I took a look and sure enough I could see him too.
The picture and memories sat in the computer for months until last night when my mom and I decided to pull the picture up again out of boredom. Looking at different angles and contrasts we discovered three other men and a baby and that was what triggered me to finally write about it.
I want to find out more information on that residence and the people that have lived there for the past ninety years or so. If you have any suggestions on how I can get that kind of information please contact me at lookatthatlady[at]yahoo.com it would be very much appreciated.
Local Historical Societies, Friendly Talkative Neighbors, and County Courthouse/Clerks Offices tend to be the most rewarding of sources for me. Best Wishes.
Http://www.diedinhouse.com/ (They charge for the search though. But saves time and energy)
Http://m.wikihow.com/Research-the-History-of-Your-House
Http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/76687