Footsteps and Falling Boxes

Witness: Judie Selseth
Location: C Street Needles, California
Date of Encounter: November 1986

In November of 1986 my (now former) husband and I moved into a very old rental home on a one-year lease. The floor plan of this house is odd since it is a very long, rectangular shape with the 3 bedrooms running along the north side (with the bathroom in-between 2 of the rooms), and the utility room, kitchen, and living room run along the south side of the house. The walls were even made out of chicken wire with cement type material plastered into it.

Shortly after moving in, unexplained things began to happen. The first incident occurred when I was alone in the house cooking dinner. All of a sudden there was a loud crashing sound coming from the northeast corner bedroom as if all the unpacked boxes I put on the shelves of the walk-in closet had fallen to the ground. I ran into the room and opened the closet door but everything was in order. I checked all over the house and in the yard, but could find nothing amiss. A week later I also heard banging coming from that same room but could never find anything wrong. One day I heard a noise in the room and the sound of footsteps coming from it toward me in the living room. I was terrified, needless to say, but the footsteps walked past me to the front door and stopped. Several minutes later the footsteps left the front door and returned to the back bedroom. The same sound of footsteps occurred intermittently after that, but always originated from the back bedroom to the front door, then back to the bedroom as if someone was looking for something or someone out the front door window.

Several times while in the northwest bedroom (our master bedroom) it would suddenly get very cold in there for no reason. The cold would be followed by the scent of flowery perfume that would fade after a few minutes. Once when the footsteps were returning from the front door, they paused at my bedroom door as if looking in for a minute before continuing on, and when I walked out by the usual path of the footsteps, I smelled the perfume. I told my husband after each occurrence and felt sure we were staying in a haunted house but he pretty much scoffed at what I told him.

There were times when I had to leave that house and could not stay there by myself while my husband was at work. The back bedroom where the footsteps originated from was intended for my young step-sons, but they never slept in there when they visited. In fact I put locks on the outside of both of the doors that enter into it (weird house set-up as I said). As I said, my husband never believed me until one day he encountered my ghost… I was at work when suddenly my husband showed up looking very pale and ill. He didn't say much at first and his hands were trembling when he lit his cigarette. He finally told me what had happened to him. He said he was lying in bed when all of a sudden he could hardly breathe and he felt a heavy pressure or weight on his chest. He said it felt like there was someone leaning over him and pressing their hands down on his chest as hard as they could. He tried repeatedly to sit up but was unable to move. Then just as suddenly as it started, the weight was released from his chest and the room got very cold. This was the scariest incident in the house by far but he was the only one touched by the ghost. I never felt as if I would be harmed in any way, it just frightened me. Later I learned he was having an affair and bringing the girl to our house so maybe the ghost didn't like that.