Late Night Intruder

Witness: Donna Smit
Location: Wayne, New Jersey
Date of Encounter: June 1976

We had moved into our new house in August of 1972 and I had just turned 12. I was the oldest of four kids and although my sisters and brother took to the move easily, I did not. I don't know if it was moving from the area where I was comfortable or if it was the uneasy feeling that I had in this new house. 

The house was a 7-year old, 4 bedroom colonial which was in a cul-de-sac with 4 other houses. The house that sat at the top of the hill outside of the cul-de-sac was much older and was the original farmhouse built 200 years earlier. Wayne was named after General Anthony Wayne who fought during the Revolutionary War. The area itself is rich in history from this time period.

The first indications of a presence was our dog — his hair stood on end and he barked at the walls constantly. We thought he was bred too close and he was crazy, only to find out later it wasn't him at all. My mother was in the kitchen baking one day and a decorative plate on the wall went flying across the room and broke into pieces. It seemed to be my room that had the most activity. It was the center room of the front of the house and one night when friends of mine were waiting out on our front porch, they heard someone walking around upstairs and the light in my bedroom went on and off. No one was in the house since we all just returned home. My friends thought we had a maid or a house guest. At times we would hear music playing, but not music from that time. It sounded like a harpsichord. All of us heard it and I even had friends who slept over and heard this music coming from above us. My father slept with a bat next to his bed thinking that someone was playing an awful joke. Many nights in my room my light did go on and off and I thought it was me not turning the knob all of the way. I would always feel a presence with me, in fact it would sit next to me on my bed. I used to actually feel it get up and see the imprint it made. At times my bed would actually "breathe."

This went on for a while and in August of 1976, my air conditioner broke and I went downstairs to sleep on the couch in the living room. I had my cocker spaniel "Muffin" with me and something woke me up around 3 AM. Muffin was shaking and I tried to calm him down, but he just buried his whole body next to me. The next thing I hear is a loud bang, like a door slamming and then another door slamming. But I don't know where these sounds were coming from, because there weren't any doors. Then I could hear heavy footsteps walking toward me and then it stopped. I heard them going through papers on my father's desk and then continue again toward me. I can't tell you the feeling of fear! There was a lamp behind my head and I couldn't lift my arm up to turn it on. The footsteps continued toward me and a man turned the corner into the living room and saw me. I thought it was an intruder at first, but what I saw I will always believe this was a spirit from another time. The moonlight was pretty bright that night and I could make out his features. He was tall and thin (about 6'4"), I know this because my dad was that tall. He had reddish brown hair with a beard and mustache. He had a white shirt under high wasted pants with suspenders. He just looked at me as if to say, I have been here all along and it's okay. I thought Muffin was going to have a heart attack, but as soon as I saw this man, incredibly he calmed down. The man stood there for a couple of minutes and then turned and walked back with heavy footsteps again and back through the two doors that weren't there. 

I waited until the sun started rising and ran to my parents' bedroom totally freaked out. I told them someone was in the house last night and my mom immediately agreed and said she heard it too. I gave my parents a description of the man and they called the police. Now mind you, the police had been there on several occasions because of these disturbances. After this last incident, they themselves did some research and found that there were 2 men who lived on the property the house was built on who were murdered. This was during the 1700's and the cops showed us a picture of the 2 men. One of them was the man that I saw, which confirmed my belief of a spirit encounter. We moved from this house within a few months.