Haunted House And Pool

I can't believe I'm writing this but I need to get this story out! It has bothered me for years and only close family and friends know of what I'm ready to share publicly. When I was about 12 years old my Mom began searching for our first home, we lived in west Los Angeles area and she decided she really wanted a house for us and began looking at different homes in various suburbs in and around LA county. As she narrowed down her search she would take me along to view the homes with her.

The criteria was pretty simple, 3 rooms, bathrooms, nice neighborhood, nice schools and if at all possible a swimming pool (much to me and my brother's delight). I remember she narrowed it down to 3 houses and I grew excited as the prospect of having a home and no longer having to share a room with my older brother began to shift more towards a reality. One of the 3 homes my Mom narrowed it down to was a very nice home in Lakewood Ca, a growing suburb of great schools, nice manicured lawns just outside of Long Beach and neighboring Paramount and Bellflower Ca. The home fit the criteria, 3 bedroom, and even a pool!

Immediately upon viewing the home I had a very bad feeling and did not like it. The home seemed very dark, closed in, and jut plain negative. The home was originally a 2 bedroom but the previous owners had build a 3rd bedroom off the back of the house rght next to the pool and it even had it's own outside entrance. This room was connected to house through the bathroom. The garage had been converted to a "rec room" for entertaining which my Mom absolutely loved. The couple who was selling and living in the house at the time had an infant baby girl, we viewwed the home several times before my Mom put the offer in and every time we went to view the house we were greeted by the couple and their infant daughter. The back bedroom was decorated for a small boy however I thought it strange that all the times we went to the house we never saw a boy?

Upon entering this back "rec room" I would get very bad feelings, felt like I was being watched, like there was a presence and it was ALWAYS unusually cold. In addition this was made even more creepy by the fact that the house/rec room backs up to an empty dark dirt lot that is still there to this day.

My Mom purchased the house and we moved in, in the summer of 1986. Much to me and my brother's surprise we were soon joined by my Mom's boyfriend whom we'd never met. Within months my Mom and he married and we began our "all American" lives in our new home as a new family, complete with a new dog and fish!

While painting the back rec room one day I literally had my breath sucked out of my body and felt like I was being suffocated, I ran out and upon exiting I was able to breath again, when I told my Mom she said it was the pain fumes...OK! Immediately my parents' relationship came under attack and horible arguments plagued us. Each argument begame more and more violent between them, lots of yelling, screaming, threats of violence, breaking of dishes & furniture. Strangely no one ever called the cops. My brother and I would hide out in our rooms and just wait for the smoke to clear, I often shut myself in my room, balled up on the bed and cried. Life was downright miserable.

I soon began to see shadows in my room and would try to dismiss it as my imagination. I had a hard time sleeping and hated being home alone and avoided it at all costs. I began telling my Mom about my bad feelings and she too dismissed it as childhood paranoia. I began asking her if anyone had ever died in the home and she said NO explaining that the realtor who sold her the house would have had to disclose this by California Law! I asked her "what if they just didn't"? And why did we never see the little boy who's room was now my brother's room and my Mom really had no answer.

As the months moved forward we enjoyed much time in the pool with and without company, my parents frequently hosted pool parties. One afternoon I decided to take a swim, my grandmother was over visiting and it was just she and I at home. While swimming in the pool when I found myself in the deep end, I distinctly felt a hand on my back left shoulder gently push my shoulder downward into the water. I distinctly felt each individual finger curl over my shoulder. I quickly made it to the side of the pool and pulled myself out, ran into the house crying and told my grandmother what had happened. She consoled me and basically told me to not go swimming alone anymore. After that incident I NEVER swam in the pool again even when my parents hosted pool parties. My mother would eventually sell the house to her best friend 2 years later, and even then when she had parties I never swam in the pool again. More on that later!

As the arguing got worse the shadows, cold rooms, nightmares and strange sightings/noises grew in intensity! I then began hearing a deep male voice almost like it was directly in my ear. One morning I was taking a shower before school and my Mom was also in the bathroom blowdrying her hair. All of a sudden the deep male voice in my ear said "EARTHQUAKE!", I jumped, hurredly shut off the water and literally jumped out of the shower to Mom's dismay, she immediately said what's wrong with you? To which I replied "someone said EARTHQUAKE!", "you're silly" she replied as she walked out of the bathroom shutting the door behind her. Seconds later the house began to shake violently. It was indeed and earthquake (the 7.1 whittier quake), I opened the door and braced myself in the doorway still wearing only my towel waiting for the shaking to stop. As soon as the shaking stopped my Mother stood staring at me with astonishment and she had NO words to what she had witnessed.

After about a year my stepfather and mom were still arguing really bad, he had developed a drinking problem and at times even seemed depressed. Little by little we began to see less and less of family and friends visiting and the pool parties pretty much stopped. One night my godfather was visiting and he and my stepdad got into and argument that turned into a really bad fight in which my godfather beat my stepfather with a small pushbroom breaking his leg. This was the unhappiest I had ever been as it was the last time I would ever see my godfather whom my Mom had known since she was a teenager.

A few months later our dog, a purebread cocker spaniel, was bred and had puppies, 3 adorable boys and 1 girl. Family and friends quickly requested the puppies upon being born and we kept them until they were old enough to go with their new families, the girl was to go to my Mom's best friend Jody whom we were also in the process of selling our house to, as my parents had decided to move to a new home way out in Moreno Valley about 1 hour away.

One late evening my dog was barking uncontrollably, I kept going to the back door in the kitchen yelling at him to shut up! He just would not quiet down, after maybe the third time of me going to the door I noticed him barking very intentionally at me and then looking back over his shoulder as if to tell me something. He kept barking at me and then looking towards the pool, barking and then looking, finally I realized he was alerting me to something.

I opened the back door and stepped out noticing that my dog and all of the puppies were staring at the pool. When I got near the edge, speaking out loud I asked my dog what, what's wrong? As soon as I glanced down I saw the girl puppy was dead laying on the step ledge inside the pool under water. Devastated I ran to tell my Mom and stepdad who retrieved the puppy, sadly mom Mom broke the news to her best friend that she would not be getting the puppy after all. I told my Mom there is something wrong with this place and finally she told me felt the same and was looking forward to moving as well.

We moved away from the house however, I still didn't feel safe and felt like something had followed my family. We sold the house like I said to my Mom's best friend Jody whom she'd known since childhood. Just a short 3 years later on June 26th 1992, Jody never showed up to work, where it happened that my Mom's other best friend, my aunt Yolanda, worked as well. After numerous failed attempts to reach her, Yolanda summoned Jody's Mom to check on her as this was very unusual.

This next part is VERY verifiable through public records, Jody was found drowned at the bottom of the pool, alone in her house. She lived alone and had no children, but was a VERY good swimmer, was a black belt on jiujitsu and a very "strong" woman. She was in her night gown, lights were on in the house from the night before and there were clothes in the washer and dryer inside the home where it was apparent that she was in the middle of doing her laundry, some unfolded clothes remained on the kitchen table where she was in the process of folding.

Upon examination of her body she was found to have no head trauma including bumps, bruises or scrapes, she had no broken finger nails or signs that she fought with anyone at all. Heart attack and brain annurism were also quickly ruled out, for all intensive purposes Jody was completely healthy. There was no sign of a break in or any theft of valuable jewelry or personal property. Many questions exist to this day as to why she drowned, what would she have been doing outside in her night gown? What made her even go outside to the back yard at night? Her family put the home up for sale within a month or so and for months it sat on the market with not a single offer, despite having dropped the asking price by more than $30k, in a premium neighborhood and with the pool!

Before finding this site and sharing my story I found myself curiously searching the internet for any information regarding this property and didn't find much at all, no stories about strange activities or even so much a newspaper archive about Jody's death that summer. What is interesting is that when I found the house on google maps I notice that the address on the curb is blurred out for some strange reason making it more difficult to verify that this is in fact my old home, it still looks exctly the same, and from the area view you clearly see the pool and the dirt lot. All of the other homes next to it you can clearly see the addresses on the curb in front of the house and on the houses itself, but not my old home! When I zoom in I see a man who's back is turned what appears to be watering his driveway so it is occupied, but for years I have wondered if the new owners or any after us have experienced similar events?

That place creeps me and if I had the opportunity to this day I would NOT even so much as set foot inside that place.

So in short my experiences:

Bad feelings

Absence of male child whom I believe may have died in the pool

Seeing shadow figures moving about the house

Hearing the deep male voice

Negative change in attitudes and relationships

Felt presence in pool

Puppy drowned in pool

Next owner died mysteriously in pool