“IS YOUR COLLEGE HAUNTED?” and More True Terrifying and Creepy Stories! #WeirdDarkness

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IN THIS EPISODE: Weird stories about Area 51 almost all stem from the belief that the government is most likely hiding UFO technology or aliens there. You probably know most of your Area 51 knowledge from movies like “Independence Day” or television programs such as “The X-Files”. But what about the real world? Are any of these stories based on truth? (Tales and Legends of Area 51) *** Weirdo family member Alex shares how fleeing an abusive father brought some comfort from an unexpected source. (Guardian Angel) *** Soon after her disappearance, Dorothy Jane Scott‘s family began receiving chilling calls from an unidentified caller. (A Killer Calls) *** Classes are now back in full-swing for college students, and many high school juniors and seniors are already in the process of choosing a college to attend in the future. But after hearing about some haunted college campuses, you might choose to change your mind about your chosen universities… or change your major to parapsychology. (Haunted Colleges)

SOURCES AND REFERENCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Haunted Colleges” by Erin McCann: http://bit.ly/2luLcxM
“Tales and Legends of Area 51” by Kellen Perry: http://bit.ly/2lyyGNG
“Guardian Angel” by Alex, submitted at https://weirddarkness.com/submit
“A Killer Calls” by Orrin Grey: http://bit.ly/2lvQ99B
Join the Weird Darkness Syndicate: https://weirddarkness.com//syndicate
Advertise in the Weird Darkness podcast or syndicated radio show: https://weirddarkness.com/advertise

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TRANSCRIPT:

DISCLAIMER: Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.

INTRODUCTION=====

Students have to consider a lot when they choose their college, from Princeton Review ratings to available degrees to the quality of the campus’s dining halls. Incoming students with a penchant for ghost stories should also check out their school’s reputation for supernatural happenings. Whether the stories stem from real events, explain strange things around campus, or simply serve to freak out the incoming freshmen, they are sometimes as scary as the most dreaded university rules.

I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness.

SHOW OPEN=====

Welcome, Weirdos – I’m Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you’ll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.

Coming up in this episode…

Weird stories about Area 51 almost all stem from the belief that the government is most likely hiding UFO technology or aliens there. You probably know most of your Area 51 knowledge from movies like “Independence Day” or television programs such as “The X-Files”. But what about the real world? Are any of these stories based on truth? (Tales and Legends of Area 51)

Weirdo family member Alex shares how fleeing an abusive father brought some comfort from an unexpected source. (Guardian Angel)

Soon after her disappearance, Dorothy Jane Scott’s family began receiving chilling calls from an unidentified caller. (A Killer Calls)

Many high school juniors and seniors are already in the process of choosing a college to attend in the future. But after hearing about some haunted college campuses, you might choose to change your mind about your chosen universities… or change your major to parapsychology. (Haunted Colleges)

If you’re new here, welcome to the show! While you’re listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media, plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you’re struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

Now.. bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness!

STORY: HAUNTED COLLEGES=====

Historic colleges are a great place to find ghost stories and encounter the paranormal. Some universities embrace their spooky reputation by sharing their best-known legends in archives and offering haunted campus tours. You may associate college with frat parties and term papers, but in the case of these schools, students could end up partying and studying with ghosts.

Renowned as a filming location for The Exorcist, Georgetown University is among Washington DC’s most haunted places. Founded in 1789, Georgetown is the oldest Catholic university in the US. Many claim apparitions roam the school’s flagship building Healy Hall. Ghosts allegedly appear throughout the building, such as a student rumored to have died by falling from the upper floors.

Though the building has five floors, only four are accessible. According to an urban legend, a student practicing the occult accidentally opened a portal to the underworld, forcing the school to block off the entire floor.

Others have said the sealed floor is either the result of a priest’s murder or a botched exorcism. At least one student has noted scratches on a door, pointing to those marks as proof of a past exorcism. Tunnels under the building supposedly feature ghostly inhabitants as well.

Akin to the namesake Civil War battle that claimed around 51,000 lives, Gettysburg College shares a connection with lots of ghosts. The school opened in 1832, which was 30 years before the war started. The military used the university’s Penn Hall as a hospital.

According to one security guard, he experienced a bizarre elevator ride in 2003. When the elevator doors opened, instead of seeing the basement, the guard witnessed a gruesome hospital scene with doctors frantically tending to bloody patients. The doors closed again – when they reopened, the normal basement had returned. Two campus administrators allegedly had a similar experience in the 1980s.

The residence halls are not exempt from paranormal incidents. Students reported hearing strange things, such as dragging noises, mysterious footsteps, and an unplugged, yet still-ringing alarm clock.

Stevens Hall allegedly has the most hauntings. One well-known legend involves the Blue Boy, an orphan saved from the harsh cold by a group of girls in their dormitory. When confronted by the dorm’s housemother, the girls hid him outside on a window ledge. Stories claim he disappeared; however, he continues to make his appearance known with odd noises and by pressing his blue face against windows.

In 1949, the Old Kenyon building of Ohio’s Kenyon College burned to the ground, taking the lives of nine students. Several burned while trapped inside; two died from jumping out windows to escape.

The school rebuilt the dorm; in the years since students claimed to hear knocks on their doors and voices warning them to leave. They also reported seeing apparitions appearing from the waist up or as feet emerging from the ceiling. A young man killed by a train during a fraternity pledging also allegedly haunts Old Kenyon, turning on lights and opening windows.

After a student fell down an elevator shaft in Caples Residence in 1979, stories abounded of showers and lights turning on and off independently, suggesting the former student may still roam the campus. On one occasion, campus security allegedly received a series of calls from three different dorm rooms – a woman screaming was the only audible sound on the phone. When officers entered the rooms, however, they found disconnected telephones.

Another ghostly rumor involves the school’s dance studio where an Air Force cadet allegedly drowned in a pool in the 1940s. Stories claimed he jumped too high on the diving board, broke his neck on the ceiling, and drowned.

Dancers have said they sometimes see wet footprints on the floor, self-powering lights, and the occasional noise of the diving board and splashes. A safety officer once claimed he heard footsteps, but turned around only to see a newly formed puddle.

The fraternities and sororities of Kansas State University involve many ghostly pledges. The members of Delta Sigma Phi live in a former hospital; they reported seeing a legless nurse rumored to have fallen down an elevator shaft.

Plus, frat brothers in the ’70s encountered George, a TV-loving patient who died after falling from his bed. According to stories, an ice storm in 1973 caused a town-wide power outage, but the electricity would return long enough to air Star Trek on television before shutting off again.

Another haunting involves a spirit named Polly who turns on lights and slams doors at the Pi Phi sorority. Brothers in Pi Kappa Phi claimed they repeatedly tried to paint over phantom bloodstains left by a former pledge.

However, the most famous ghost at Kansas State is a football player known as Nick; students have reported seeing at Memorial Stadium. The legend claims his parents were going to the game, but died in a car crash on the same day Nick suffered a fatal tackle on the field. Students describe being tapped on the shoulder by an invisible hand, hearing strange noises from pipes, and seeing chairs move by themselves.

Ohio University students allege Wilson Hall is the most haunted place on campus, especially room 428. According to legend, a student died in the room while practicing astral projection. Supernatural events followed, such as items flying around, which led the school to deem the room uninhabitable and seal the door permanently.

Other stories attribute the haunted room to a possessed student who committed suicide after touching a stain in a former hospital tuberculosis ward. In the now-demolished Ridges Building, there was allegedly a stain shaped like a cadaver. The discoloration would supposedly reappear despite the school’s many attempts to clean it.

Students living in Washington Hall claimed they heard mysterious typing noises and door knocks in the middle of the night and found drawers and doors ajar in their locked rooms. Residents of Jefferson Hall reportedly saw apparitions wearing 1950s clothing and heard marbles rolling on the floor above them. One girl in Crawford Hall said she saw a girl wearing an ankle bracelet in her roommate’s bed – however, her roommate wasn’t home.

According to reports, a few of the Jesuits who founded New York’s Fordham University in 1841 still roam the school.

One resident assistant noticed the mattress in a specific dorm room often sat upright; he moved it several times. He laughed it off as a practical joke until a Jesuit priest knocked on his door one night to apologize about how the mattress “normally stays at the other end of the hall;” he informed the RA that he “took care of it.” The mattress never moved again. When the RA described the priest to others, he learned the man passed away long ago.

There are rumors about a Jesuit graveyard beneath Collins Hall, which may explain the numerous reported supernatural encounters. The spookiest ghost story from Fordham, however, comes from Finlay Hall, a dorm once serving as the medical school. Many of the students’ rooms were once examination rooms with lofts used by med students to observe cadavers below.

Later on, residents of these rooms claimed people dressed in lab coats stared at them from the loft. Some said they felt as if someone applied a toe tag or grasped their neck. After hearing chairs moving and doors slamming in the basement, a security guard decided to quit his job a day later.

Wells College in Aurora, NY, is home to plentiful ghost stories; the school created a section in their archive for these eerie tales. Students visiting Morgan Hall might bump into Max, a security guard who perished in a building fire long ago. Some people have reported feeling shoved while walking down the stairs, presumably by Max trying to rescue them from the blaze.

The Main Building dorm features several less-than-popular rooms, thanks to rumors involving former residents having committed suicide or perished due to a fire. There are frequent reports of apparitions, moving objects, and strange noises. Another ghost story centers on the Glen Park Mansion’s basement, where a few students found their bikes melted into a single clump.

The school’s arguably most infamous ghost story takes place during a harsh winter. An influenza epidemic swept through the school, killing many students. Because of the hazardous weather preventing proper burials, the school allegedly had to store corpses in the Main Building, which also functioned as a hospital.

Nurses painted the hospital’s door red as a warning. When winter ended, they buried the bodies and repainted the door. According to legend, they couldn’t cover the red paint as it bled through any other color. After a renovation, however, the whereabouts of the building’s red door is unknown.

In 1908, a curfew alarm startled University of Montevallo student Condie Cunningham while she and her roommate were cooking. As they scrambled to clean up, alcohol spilled on the stove and started a fire which caught on Cunningham’s robe. She ran into the hallway screaming; she suffered fatal burns and died two days later.

Soon, other residents experienced strange occurrences in the building – a few witnessed a fiery apparition of Cunningham in the hallway. Students claimed to hear screams and moans; Cunningham’s burning face allegedly appeared on her former room’s door. The school would later remove the door.

The spirit of Edmund King occasionally visits Montevallo students as well. The building, known as King or Mansion House, previously functioned as his home, and some believe King returns on occasion to search for money he supposedly buried on the property. Spotted outside and inside the house, he regularly carries a lantern and sometimes a shovel.

The ghosts at the University of Georgia in Athens are plentiful; the school offers annual haunted tours on Halloween. One spooky incident took place in the Fine Arts Building. After James O’James’s name randomly appeared in several printed programs, people began to believe O’James’s spirit haunted the building.

Another creepy attraction is Joe Brown Hall, which features a stairway to nowhere, rumored to lead to the building’s sealed floor where a student committed suicide over Christmas break. There’s also the Lustrat House, where a Confederate veteran materialized in full uniform.

Additionally, the school’s sorority and fraternity houses have their share of ghost stories, including a rumor at Sigma Phi Epsilon about a previous owner murdering his daughter before killing himself. Residents say they sometimes heard crying. Another murder allegedly took place at the Phi Mu house, leaving a body buried under the front steps and an abandoned fiancée to haunt her lover’s final resting place.

A ghostly woman named Susie Carithers reportedly dwells in the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, trapped inside after hanging herself when her fiancé didn’t show up for their wedding. According to the story, he was only running late and arrived to find his wife-to-be dead.

On occasion, Pennsylvania State University students feel as if something is watching them – which is no surprise as the school is home to many rumored ghosts. According to stories, the Old Botany Building functions as the home base of Frances Atherton. Some claim they’ve seen Atherton in the upper windows glancing across the street; she supposedly keeps an eye on the grave of her husband, the school’s former president.

Nicknamed the “Ghost Walk,” the path from the botany building to the northern part of campus allegedly experiences eerie sounds and apparitions. As the story goes, a young man supposedly became lost on this route in the 1860s – he froze to death during a blizzard.

People have also heard voices and other weird noises in Schwab Auditorium, named after Charles M. Schwab, the founder of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Seats sometimes moved as if some unseen person was sitting. Students and faculty believe several different spirits haunt the space, including Schwab himself.

Some claim the ghost of Old Coaly, a mule that lived at the school in the 1800s, haunts the campus, which makes Penn State one of the few schools with a paranormal pack animal. Moreover, an unsolved 1969 murder in the library has inspired the school’s prevalent ghost stories. Objects reportedly move on their own, apparitions circulate among books, cold spots appear, and at least one student claimed to have felt a pair of invisible hands strangling her.

Founded in 1847, the University of Iowa in Iowa City is the state’s oldest college. The school built one of its first dorms, Currier Hall, in 1913; it has since become the source of several ghostly legends.

One story claims a group of three girls made a suicide pact after learning they all fell in love with the same student. Their spirits allegedly roam the halls – some residents reported hearing mysterious voices in the bathroom. One student’s phone froze when she tried to take a photo of an empty room on the fourth floor. It’s generally believed the ghost girls appear when residents encounter conflicts with roommates or friends.

According to rumors, a student jumped from a room on the ninth floor of Slater Hall; his apparition sometimes appears carrying an ax in the hallways. The neighborhoods around the university are likely haunted as well, considering several of the school’s baseball players experienced paranormal happenings in their off-campus house.

They noticed chairs moving, and heard running on the stairs and slamming doors. Moreover, several athletes’ girlfriends awoke wearing pants, but their underwear was missing. Later on, a former resident returned and informed them the house was a former funeral parlor.

Before moving its campus to Montgomery, AL, Huntingdon College was in Tuskegee as an all-women school. According to legend, several residents of the Sky Alley residence hall noticed a mysterious red glow under their doors during lights-out. When they glanced into the hallway, they saw a luminous woman dressed in red.

She wandered the halls holding a parasol, paying no attention to the residents. The woman’s identity remains a secret; she didn’t return after the school moved to their current location in 1910.

The new campus allegedly houses another Red Lady. Rumors circulated about a student named Martha, who reluctantly enrolled in the school; she was friendless and extremely shy. Eventually, she became severely depressed and further isolated. Martha allegedly committed suicide in her room while wearing red, her favorite color.

Stories claim her ghost haunts the fourth floor of Pratt Hall. Occasionally, some see her roaming the halls and emitting a red glow, usually around the anniversary of her death.

Before becoming part of Chicago’s Loyola University in 1991, Mundelein College was a private women’s Roman Catholic school. According to legend, a priest impregnated a nun at the school in the early 1900s. She allegedly hanged herself in the nuns’ residence on the 14th floor of the building. The school closed off this floor.

Security guards claimed they heard otherworldly noises and felt a sense of unease. Several students have trespassed on the closed floor; however, upon entering the room where the nun supposedly hanged, they heard humming, saw a hole in the ceiling, and snapped a picture containing glowing orbs.

One safety officer claimed the 14th-floor lights would repeatedly turn on after he had turned them off and exited the building. He never saw anyone when he returned to check for trespassers.

New Jersey’s Montclair State University began accepting students in 1908. Since the school’s inception, ghosts have wandered the campus. Reportedly constructed atop a Native American burial ground, the school encounters ghostly figures in the nearby woods. Many students and alumni believe the neighboring Hawks Crossings apartment complex is the most haunted place on campus.

At Hawks Crossings, lights flicker, doors slam, appliances power-up independently, cupboards mysteriously open, and cold spots form. There are also phantom noises; one student often noticed the sound of a young girl laughing. Residents claimed to feel ill whenever they talked about the strange occurrences. One female student awoke to see a man next to her bed; he wore clothing from the 1800s. When she spoke to him, he vanished.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign opened the Women’s Building in 1905. Created as a place for female students to convene and study, the building housed a pool, gym, and several domestic-oriented classrooms. The school renamed the structure the English Building in the 1950s. Historically, the building never served as a dorm, but there are legends of ghostly encounters.

Doors in the building were known to slam, lights flickered, and mysterious voices murmured. In the basement, there was a pool near the computer lab where students claimed to hear creaking floors and closing doors. According to stories, a woman died in the pool, and she haunts the area. Some have said she committed suicide; others believe someone murdered her.

BREAK=====

When Weird Darkness returns… I’ll share some of the creepiest true tales coming out of Edwards Air Force Base.

Weirdo family member Alex shares how fleeing an abusive father brought some comfort from an unexpected source.

Soon after her disappearance, Dorothy Jane Scott’s family began receiving chilling calls from an unidentified caller. These stories are up next!

STORY: GUARDIAN ANGEL=====

This next story came from Weirdo Family member, Alex.

Growing up as a kid I had an abusive father. My mother was an extraordinary woman who did everything for me and my 3 younger siblings. My memories as a child are cloudy at best except for a few memories. Some in particular still affect me today. It was one afternoon. Mom packed me and my brother at the time(the younger 2 siblings were not born yet) after a bad morning with my father. As we were driving, I remember crying. I know mom was trying to calm me down but it wasn’t working for me. I was gazing out the car window and looked up at the sky. I am not lying when I say I saw a very clear and detailed cloud formation of an angel. With the wings and halo! When I saw this cloud, I remember calming down and feeling safe. I told my mother to look up it’s an angel. My mother saw it too and said it was my guardian angel. Fast forward a few years, I’d say about 4 or 5 years. It was after my mother and father getting a divorce. When we moved out of the house we were living in at the time into the new home(which I grew up in) I remember sitting on the back porch. I remember feeling depressed about the whole situation with my parents and when I gazed up at the sky, I saw the same exact angel cloud formation again. I truly believe my guardian angel still watches over me.

STORY: AREA 51=====

Let’s get this out of the way: officially, “Area 51” is the common name given to a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base in Southern Nevada acquired by the government in 1955. The CIA pretended that the base – which is most likely a testing ground for experimental aircraft – didn’t even exist until July 2013. This, of course, has spawned a ton of Area 51 urban legends. The theory goes that because the site is heavily guarded and virtually impenetrable, there must be something to hide beyond just military secrets. Why all the fuss? Creepy stories and legends about Area 51 include theories about Nazi experiments, legends about alien abductions, and all-too-real accounts of deadly chemicals being used on-site.

This first one is likely just an elaborate hoax, but it’s creepy and entertaining nonetheless. In 1997, a guy called in to a radio show called Coast to Coast hosted by Art Bell and claimed that he used to work at Area 51. He said – sounding pretty terrified – that “extra-dimensional beings” have “infiltrated a lot of aspects of the military establishment” and they want to “wipe out” the “major population centers.” During the call, the satellite transmission carrying the show was legitimately interrupted, leading many to believe that the government was monitoring the call. The man called back several more times.

A former pilot for TWA (Trans World Airlines) known as “Michael D.” claims to have seen something eerie in the desert outside of Area 51 in 1988. Air traffic control re-routed his flight from St. Louis to San Francisco for some unknown reason at 1:00 a.m., telling him and his fellow pilot to head north and “await further instructions.”

The pilot looked down at the surface of the desert and saw a bizarre hologram appear out of nowhere. It was “blue and violet light crossing at 90-degree angles” to form what looked to him like a three-dimensional Instrument Landing System (ILS), something he had never seen before in all his years as a pilot. It was a column of light “at least five miles high and one-half mile wide across.” Then he saw “20-30 firefly type lights flitting around way up high in the sky” that soon began “making hard right-angle turns” and zooming down into the column.

The lights then suddenly disappeared and air traffic control told him to take a new course to San Francisco. He asked his fellow pilot, “Did we just see that?” He answered, “No sir, we did not.”

A security guard for a mine near Area 51 named Charlie Arrendale claims he was ordered to “shoot on sight” anything that came near the property for two nights in 1965. Charlie and some other security personnel were bussed to an airstrip and told to guard the perimeter. On the first night, the guards heard a “muted humming sound” for about a half an hour. When the sound stopped, they were bussed out. On the way out, they spotted a circular camouflage tent on a runway “encircled by troops that stood elbow-to-elbow with their backs to the tent.” The troops “were all carrying automatic weapons.” On night two, the guards heard the same humming sound, but when they left for the night, the tent was gone.

Pop-punk icon Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 has a little-known side project: alien hunter. In an interview with Paper in 2015, DeLonge says he spent a few nights camping near Area 51 to see what the fuss was all about. Here’s what happened: *****”I woke up right around three a.m. My whole body felt like it had static electricity, and I open my eyes and the fire is still going, and there’s a conversation going on outside the tent. It sounded like there were about 20 people there, talking. And instantly my mind goes, OK, they’re at our campsite, they’re not here to hurt us, they’re talking about sh*t, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. But they’re working on something. Then I close my eyes and wake up, and the fire is out and I have about three hours of lost time.” ***** Creepy. DeLonge says that such “chatter” is common in stories of abduction and “contact.”

The widows of civilian contractors Walter Kasza and Robert Frost sued the US Air Force and the EPA in 1994 after their husbands died after working at Area 51. Allegedly, the contractors were present when “unknown” chemicals were burned in open pits and trenches. This lead to skin, liver, and respiratory injuries in five other contractors and later killed Kasza and Frost.

The Washington Post reported that “biopsies showed that [Frost’s] tissues were filled with industrial toxins rarely seen in humans.” The widows lost the case, thanks in large part to President Clinton making Area 51 (or “The Air Force’s Operating Location Near Groom Lake, Nevada”) exempt from environmental disclosure laws. Since the government didn’t have to reveal the nature of the chemicals, there was insufficient evidence to try the case.

Former Canadian Minister of Defense Paul Hellyer says that an “unnamed former Canadian Chief of Emergency Measures” was flown to Area 51 to observe a UFO and “make notes.” Allegedly, this unnamed government chief didn’t even tell his wife about what he saw. He waited until he was dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease to spill the beans to Hellyer. For the record, Hellyer also believes that “80 different species of aliens” are in communication with world leaders, but governments are, of course, covering it all up.

A man known only as “Victor” says he smuggled video of an alien interrogation out of Area 51 in 1996. The video shows a “small, beige-skinned, black-eyed, bulbous headed creature” that appeared to be in a “distressed state.” Its head “looked purple and bruised, as if it had suffered severe contusions across the skull.” At the end of the tape, the “alien” appears to have a seizure and starts foaming at the mouth. “Ufologists” still debate the tape’s veracity. Why is it so dark? Why is there no audio? What does DNI stand for? Does my local Halloween store carry that mask?

Los Angeles Times journalist Annie Jacobson has a pretty creepy explanation for the “little gray men” of Area 51. Jacobson says a “firsthand witness” told her that the little gray alien-looking dudes that (allegedly) crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947 were actually “child-sized” Soviet pilots from a “human experimentation program” (possibly lead by Nazi fugitive doctor Josef Mengele) made to look like aliens “a la Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds.” Why would the Soviets dress up “human experiments” and crash them into the desert of the American Southwest? Jacobson says it was meant to be a “warning shot over President Truman’s bow” to show that a pre-nuclear Stalin “could compete in the world of black propaganda.” If that doesn’t make much sense to you, you’re not alone.

And finally… British children’s book author Mike Oram says he and his wife Fran were abducted by “sinister military-dressed beings” outside Area 51 in 2004 and were taken through a “portal to another dimension” to be experimented on. Fortunately, his “Space Brother” – an alien who watches over him – rescued them and “ordered their captors to return them to their vehicle.” The couple was pretty shaken up by the whole ordeal. “It was so bad Fran said she would never ever set foot in America again,” Oram said. He also claims that his Space Brother (from another Space Mother, presumably) took him onboard an alien spacecraft and put him through “detox” to cleanse him after his Area 51 experience. Space Bros!

STORY: A KILLER CALLS=====

When I get you alone, I will cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you,” the man’s voice said on the phone. It wasn’t the first such call that Dorothy Jane Scott had received from the unidentified caller—someone whose voice she seemed to recognize but couldn’t quite place—but it was perhaps the most unsettling and, tragically, among the most prophetic.

Since early in 1980, Scott, a single mother with a four-year-old son named Shawn, had been receiving the threatening calls at her aunt’s home in Stanton, California, where she and Shawn lived. At times, the caller was fawning, professing his love for Scott and making romantic overtures. Otherwise, he was vitriolic and threatening, saying that he was going to harm her in unspeakable ways. In both modes, the caller made it clear that he was watching Scott, recounting details of her day-to-day life and, in one instance, telling her to go outside because he had something for her. When she went to her car, she found a single dead rose placed on the windshield.

The calls unsettled Scott and her family, but no one was quite sure what to do about them, so they went unreported. Then, on the night of May 28, 1980. Scott dropped her son off with her parents in Anaheim so that she could attend a staff meeting where she worked. During the meeting, she noticed that one of her coworkers, Conrad Bostron, didn’t look well. She offered to take him to the hospital. He took her up on her offer, and another coworker, Pam Head, accompanied them. On the way, Scott stopped off at her parents’ house to check on her son and, while there, switched the black scarf she had been wearing for a red one.

At the hospital, it was determined that Bostron had been bitten by a black widow spider. He was treated while Scott and Head waited around until he was ready to go home. According to Head, Scott never left her side during the evening. When Bostron was released, Scott went out to the hospital parking lot to get her car while Head and Bostron waited to fill a prescription. When Scott didn’t return right away, her two coworkers walked out to the parking lot. There they saw Scott’s car speeding away, the headlights blinding them so that they couldn’t see who was behind the wheel.

Initially, Bostron and Head assumed that some emergency had come up involving Scott’s son, but when they still hadn’t heard from her a few hours later, they reported her missing. At around 4:30 the following morning, Scott’s car, a white Toyota station wagon, was found in an alley in Santa Ana, about 10 miles from the hospital. The car had been set ablaze, but no one was inside.

It was only about a week later that Scott’s mother, Vera, received the first call. “Are you related to Dorothy Scott?” the voice on the phone asked. When Vera said that she was, the caller simply added, “I’ve got her,” and then hung up.

It was the first such call that Scott’s parents received, but it wouldn’t be the last. Though police installed a voice recorder at their residence, they were never able to trace the calls, as the caller never stayed on the line for more than a short time.

Shortly after the mysterious calls began, Scott’s father approached the Santa Ana Register asking them to run a story about his missing daughter. The story ran on June 12, 1980, and that same day Pat Riley, the paper’s editor, received an anonymous phone call from someone claiming to be Dorothy Scott’s killer. “She was my love,” the caller said. “I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her.”

The caller provided details that hadn’t been included in the newspaper story, such as the color of Scott’s scarf, and the fact that her coworker had been treated for a black widow bite that evening. The caller also claimed that Scott had called him that night from the hospital, though Pam Head insisted that Scott had never left her side that evening. As far as anyone in her life was aware, Dorothy Scott had no serious boyfriend at the time of her death. Still, police believe that the man who called the Santa Ana Register was probably her killer.

During all of this time, Scott was still missing. It was nearly two months later, on August 6, 1984 that construction workers would discover charred bones near Santa Ana Canyon Road. The bones included human and dog remains side by side. Authorities believed that they had been there for some time, as a brushfire had swept through the area in 1982 and likely explained the charred condition of the bones. Though no cause of death was able to be established, a turquoise ring and watch were both found with the remains, and the bones were identified as Scott’s through dental records.

Though the strange phone calls to Scott’s family stopped in April of 1984, they resumed after Scott’s remains were found in August. In spite of the killer’s taunting calls, however, Scott’s murder remains unsolved to this day.

SHOW CLOSE=====

Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do! You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren@weirddarkness.com. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks I’ve narrated, visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases, and more merchandise, sign up for monthly contests, find other podcasts that I host like “Retro Radio – Old Time Radio in the Dark”, “Micro Terrors; Scary Stories for Kids”, “The Church of the Undead”, and more. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on TELL YOUR STORY. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.

All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true (unless stated otherwise) and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes.

“Haunted Colleges” by Erin McCann

“Tales and Legends of Area 51” by Kellen Perry

“Guardian Angel” by Weirdo family member, Alex

“A Killer Calls” by Orrin Grey

WeirdDarkness® – is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness.

Now that we’re coming out of the dark, I’ll leave you with a little light… “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:18-19

And a final thought… “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman

I’m Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.

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