Buying a home is a big step in anyone’s life. It allows you to establish a sense of stability for you and your family. But what happens when the house you bought has a mind of its own when the very bricks and mortar of the building harbor an ancient evil? Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into the true story behind the Demon House of Indiana.
In November 2011, Latoya Ammons, Rosa Campbell, her mother, and Latoya’s three children moved into a house in Gary, Indiana. Located at 3869 Carolina Street, the family’s new house seemed like a normal home in a working-class neighborhood.
Latoya’s children, ages 7, 9, and 12, were initially very excited about the move. Being in a new house would be a change of pace. And it would be nice to have new surroundings. However, as soon as they moved into the house, disturbing things began to happen.
After only a few nights of living in the house, one of the children walked onto the porch to discover a swarm of black flies. Latoya heard the child cry out for help. When she rushed into the room, she discovered the flies swarming over the child’s face.
The next day, the Ammons put out fly traps hoping that would be the end of it, and returned to unpacking and settling into their new home. However, it wasn’t the end of the flies. For the next week, the flies returned everyday swarming over anyone who went out on the porch of the house. More fly traps were placed outside to no effect. Finally, the flies left seemingly of their own collective will.
A few days later, Rosa Campbell was in the kitchen when she heard footsteps in the basement. She went to inspect and discovered that none of her grandchildren or anyone for that matter was down there. She called out. The only response she got was the sound of a door creaking closed. But there were no doors in the basement. Rosa was shaken.
While the other members of the family slept, she stayed up unable to sleep. Later that night, Rosa had another highly disturbing brush with the unexplainable. She saw a shadowy figure of a man pacing in the living room. When she moved closer to inspect, she realized there was no one there.
There was no evidence that someone had broken into the home either. And when questioned about it later, she recalled that she thought she’d imagined the whole encounter until she looked down and saw a boot print on the floor. And then things went from bad to worse. Cold fingers wrapped themselves around her neck. Before she knew it, she was pinned against the wall and being choked by some unseen force. Right before she was about to blackout, the otherworldly attack stopped.
In a normal tale of paranormal adventures, that would have been enough for the family question to move out of the house, not the Ammons. They were determined to stay. And so one night when Latoya Ammons‘ 12-year-old daughter while sleeping, levitated from her bed. Rosa Campbell happened to be walking down the hall at the time who spotted the young girl floating in mid-air. She screamed alerting the other members of the family. Everyone ran to the child’s room. When they saw what was going on, they tried to pull the young child back to the ground to no avail.
In a state of pure desperation, Latoya instructed everyone in her family to start praying. At first, nothing happened. Then slowly as the family prayed aloud, the demonic hold over her young daughter relented. And the girl’s body returned to her bed. Latoya’s daughter was not the only family member affected by these demonic forces.
A few nights later over dinner, the youngest son began convulsing at the dinner table. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. And he spoke in a deep gravelly voice saying, it’s time to die. And I will kill you.
Fearing the impact of these other wordily forces on their young children, Latoya Ammons and Rosa Campbell reached out to a local physician, Geoffrey Onyeukwu, on April 19, 2012.
They arranged for him to come to the house and check on her children. The doctor refused to believe the women and their claims of apparitions and possessions. He reported the family’s behavior was distinctly delusional. He thought the family was suffering from some type of collective mental breakdown, Someone from the doctor’s office called the police who arrived at the Ammons‘ residence to investigate.
The police thoroughly evaluated the home and its occupants. They concluded that the children were not being cared for properly and took the three Ammons‘ children to a local hospital for observation.
Next, the Department of Child Services was made aware of the goings-on in the Ammons‘ household.
On August 20, 2012, a caseworker arrived and investigated. The DCS representatives determined that the children were performing for their mother and that she was someone who had severe mental issues.
They alerted the police again and were summoned to the house. By this time, the police officers of the Gary Indianapolis Department were getting fed up with Latoya Ammons. They thought she was either someone who wanted attention or someone who was mentally incapable of distinguishing fact from fiction.
However, the police would see something that night that would change their minds. In the middle of questioning the family, the younger boy started grinning and chuckling. The officers then observed the boy being thrown against the wall as if by an unseen force. With a maniacal smile stretched across his face, Latoya Ammons‘ son proceeded to walk up a wall and flipped over backward.
The cops were terrified. They drew their weapons and began barking orders. Everyone exited the house immediately. As the officers were attempting to get everyone into a squad car, so they could be taken to the local precinct, they looked back and were shocked to see something unlike any of them had ever seen before. When asked about it later, Gary, Indiana Police Captain Charles Austin said, quote,
Every one of us who was there that day in the basement, and who saw what we saw, we all think the same. We all call it the same. That bit of dirt is portal to hell.
Captain Austin looked back at the house and saw someone standing on the porch looking out at him, a shadowy figure of a man. This was the final straw for the family.
The Ammons hired father Michael Maginot to perform an exorcism. He discussed the matter with Latoya and then interviewed the entire family. Father Maginot was convinced that there was potential for otherworldly or demonic presences officially accepted the case.
As he inspected the house, he became more and more convinced that they were being tormented by demons. Father Maginot then set about performing three exorcisms of Latoya Ammons. He was very thorough in his approach.
He performed his exorcisms in both English and in Latin. At this point, the Ammons family agreed that they’d had enough and that no house was worth this amount of pain and suffering. They decided to move to Indianapolis. Thankfully after they left the home, the Ammons was not plagued by otherworldly events.
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If you’re unfamiliar, Zak Bagansis a television personality and professional paranormal investigator. He claims to be one of the world’s leading experts in demonology and the occult. He first rose to prominence off the back of his feature film documentary Ghost Adventures. The film was quite successful. It gained so much acclaim that it launched Bagans and his crew of misfit ghost hunters into a highly successful television show on the Travel Channel.
The show has had 18 seasons of bone-chilling and terrifying episodes. Eventually, news of the demon House of Indiana made its way to Bagans. The noted paranormal investigator and TV ghost hunter bought it sight unseen for $35,000. You might be wondering how Bagans has the money to just buy a house outright without ever going there.
Well, aside from the 18seasons of his TV show, Bagans also runs an attraction in Las Vegas called Zak Bagans Haunted Mansion where he displays objects such as Ed Gein’s Cauldron and Jack Kevorkian’s van. After the sale was completed, Bagans then spent the next two years making a documentary about the paranormal happenings in the house and the events that he witnessed there.
The documentary was titled Demon House. And it was released on March 16, 2018. The film stars Bagans, Billy Tolley, and Jay Wasley as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the Demon House of Indiana.
Unfortunately, they were highly restricted in what areas of the Demon House history they were allowed to discuss and depict. At one point, a Hollywood producer called Zak Bagans and told him he needed to be very careful what he does in that documentary. He informed Bagan that he didn’t have the right to make a narrative film.
The Hollywood producer forcefully reminded Bagans that he can literally only make a documentary. This presented an interesting challenge for Bagans and his crew. But, ultimately, they rose to it. The film showcases their struggle to contact the great beyond. They filmed themselves at length attempting to contact any kind of apparition with very little success initially.
However, toward the end of their investigation, one of Bagans’ compatriots claims a spirit touched his hand. The encounter drove him to act wildly erratic and to quit the production. He later would tattoo 666 on his hand where he was touched by the otherworldly spirit.
On their last day of shooting, they saw some very interesting things, namely, they heard a disembodied voice. Heard unexplainable noises. And Zak Bahana himself claims to have seen a shadowy form come out of a wall and attempt to touch him. After witnessing this apparition, his eyes began to sear with uncontrollable pain.
And after getting them inspected by medical professionals, it was discovered that he had become afflicted by a medical condition known as diplopia, which required him to wear prism glasses and to eventually have surgery on his eyes in an attempt to correct his double vision.
Was the house at 3869 Carolina Street a portal to hell as some have claimed?
We may never know because after the Demon House documentary’s completed. Zak Bagans and his crew demolished the home. They raised it to the ground to protect anyone who might unknowingly live there in the future.
What do you think? Do you believe the Ammons? Would have lasted as long as they did in that house? We’d be showing up for the seemingly inevitable Blum house film, the Demon House of Indiana. Let us know in the comments below if you have the courage.
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