This event happened in Vail, Colorado
in the early 70's, when Vail was only a young, 10-year old
town. My sister and I (9 and 16 at the time) lived
with our mother in a very small 2-bedroom 1-story house off
of Beaver Dam Road. The house was located in a low and
wet, almost"swampy" area next to Beaver Creek.
I came home late one evening, pulled out the foldout couch in the living room (my temporary bedroom), and went to bed. Within a few minutes, as I was starting to drift off to sleep, I felt a heavy thump directly beneath the bed. It felt like a person uncomfortably trying to flop over on the hard floor. As I lay there trying to come to grips, I heard the cat at the back door scratching to get in, so I knew it wasn't the cat. I flew out of bed and ran to the back door, flipping every light on as I went. Of course, there was nothing under the bed. There was also no crawlspace of any kind to check, as the house was built on a slab. The living room floor was not carpeted...it was tile or some other hard material. Eventually I calmed down enough to go to sleep.
The next morning, before I said anything about my experience, my sister said that she was having trouble sleeping. She sat up in bed, and as she sat up, she looked toward her open bedroom door which was clearly visible with the moonlight streaming in. She saw part of a man's body, from the waist down, who appeared to be in tattered clothing. She called out, "who's there?" and whoever/whatever it was backed away from the door. She thought she was seeing things and so she just tried to go back to sleep. I told her what happened to me and we were quite creeped out by the whole thing.
Several years passed and I had no other experiences, although my sister did on several occasions. Eventually we moved out and sometime later the house was razed.
Years later, my sister went to visit our mother who had moved to another location on Beaver Dam Road. It was early spring, and Beaver Creek was still mostly frozen over but there was some water and some ice chunks moving through it. As my sister drove by the spot where our house used to be, she looked past the empty lot and saw a man wading through the creek. His back was to her. It was the middle of the day and she could clearly see him. He was not a fisherman, as he had no gear or waders. His body was covered in nothing but rags...in icy weather and wading through icy waters! She said she got chills running up her spine, as she knew in that moment that it was the same thing she had seen years earlier.
My experience tells me that ghostly sightings are not necessarily limited to creaky old houses, nor are they limited only to the nighttime hours.
According to local legend, the house was a duplicate of another house on the other side of town that was built by the same man, one for his wife and one for his mistress. The man perished in a small airplane crash sometime before we moved into the house.
I have often wondered if the people who have lived in the house that was subsequently built on this lot have had any "weird" experiences, but I wouldn't want to invade their privacy by contacting them. If anyone wishes to contact me to share information about this Vail story, I can be reached at mandie.burns a t H o t m a i l.
I came home late one evening, pulled out the foldout couch in the living room (my temporary bedroom), and went to bed. Within a few minutes, as I was starting to drift off to sleep, I felt a heavy thump directly beneath the bed. It felt like a person uncomfortably trying to flop over on the hard floor. As I lay there trying to come to grips, I heard the cat at the back door scratching to get in, so I knew it wasn't the cat. I flew out of bed and ran to the back door, flipping every light on as I went. Of course, there was nothing under the bed. There was also no crawlspace of any kind to check, as the house was built on a slab. The living room floor was not carpeted...it was tile or some other hard material. Eventually I calmed down enough to go to sleep.
The next morning, before I said anything about my experience, my sister said that she was having trouble sleeping. She sat up in bed, and as she sat up, she looked toward her open bedroom door which was clearly visible with the moonlight streaming in. She saw part of a man's body, from the waist down, who appeared to be in tattered clothing. She called out, "who's there?" and whoever/whatever it was backed away from the door. She thought she was seeing things and so she just tried to go back to sleep. I told her what happened to me and we were quite creeped out by the whole thing.
Several years passed and I had no other experiences, although my sister did on several occasions. Eventually we moved out and sometime later the house was razed.
Years later, my sister went to visit our mother who had moved to another location on Beaver Dam Road. It was early spring, and Beaver Creek was still mostly frozen over but there was some water and some ice chunks moving through it. As my sister drove by the spot where our house used to be, she looked past the empty lot and saw a man wading through the creek. His back was to her. It was the middle of the day and she could clearly see him. He was not a fisherman, as he had no gear or waders. His body was covered in nothing but rags...in icy weather and wading through icy waters! She said she got chills running up her spine, as she knew in that moment that it was the same thing she had seen years earlier.
My experience tells me that ghostly sightings are not necessarily limited to creaky old houses, nor are they limited only to the nighttime hours.
According to local legend, the house was a duplicate of another house on the other side of town that was built by the same man, one for his wife and one for his mistress. The man perished in a small airplane crash sometime before we moved into the house.
I have often wondered if the people who have lived in the house that was subsequently built on this lot have had any "weird" experiences, but I wouldn't want to invade their privacy by contacting them. If anyone wishes to contact me to share information about this Vail story, I can be reached at mandie.burns a t H o t m a i l.
Ghost Killing Cat?