Do Not Fear The Unknown

The Villisca Iowa Axe Murder House Investigation

June 10 th, 2008

Supplemental Report...Submitted by Erin

  After a long drive, a great meal at a local Villisca diner, the DD Bar and Grill, we arrived at the house of the famous Villisca Ax Murder. It’s one of those places that you just can’t help but get a strange feeling about immediately upon arrival. Even if you didn’t know any of the events that happened in the small white house, you’d feel it anyway. It was around 6:30 or so when we arrived.

Everyone grabbed something out of the van and took it into the barn area where we would set up our “command station” for the night. The window upstairs in the parent’s room of the house was open and the lace curtain seemed to waving a friendly hello. The owner of the home, Darwin Linn, soon arrived and he’s always a pleasure to chat with. I asked him if it was all right to plant some seeds for Love Lies Bleeding which is a plant that just happened to grow up in the yard shortly after the house was restored to it’s 1912 state. I had brought some seeds to plant thinking that Sarah Moore may appreciate having that again. Darwin said I could plant them in front of the barn so I found a plastic fork and fit a little gardening into this excursion!

Judy and I did a quick walk through of the house, and as soon as we went through the kitchen door, I felt it…this overwhelming feeling of dread that is really hard to explain. We checked out and decided which places would be the best to set up the cameras and just sort of took a quick look around. Then we got busy setting up cameras and running cables and etc, as there is no electricity in the house at all. We ran everything from the barn. I had brought a bouquet of fresh flowers cut from my garden for Sarah and Darwin said to just find a vase in the house and go ahead and use it and that Sarah likes it when folks bring her flowers. I found one and fixed up the bouquet, which made it through the drive really fairly well and set it out in the kitchen.

After everything was all set up and running, we wanted to make a trip to the cemetery and pay our respects to the Moore and Stillinger families. Tim volunteered to stay behind to watch the equipment and we were on our way. We took a long way around getting there in order to see some of the beautiful homes there. Some really nice restored Victorian Era homes are found in Villisca, and you can get the sense that the people living there during that time had high hopes of their city being much more than it ever actually turned out to be. The cemetery is at the end of the boulevard at the northernmost edge of the town. There is one main gate and two smaller entries done within a nice rock wall. It took us a while to locate the gravesites, but we did. Josh did rubbings of each of them. It felt very solemn there. Juli began describing one of the characters that may have been involved in the killings. I didn’t tell her that she was describing Reverend Kelly, who was a traveling minister suspected at the time for having something to do with the murders.

When we returned to the house Tim was telling us that he watched (on the monitor) one of the balloons we brought sort of dance around the living room and such and we explained to him that both of the front doors were open so it most likely was a breeze that had come in and blew it around. Josh had slept through our set up and we woke him up at the cemetery. He then told Juli and I that he had a very strange dream about actually being a young girl and running out into the back yard (which he hadn’t seen yet) wearing a night dress, feeling terrified. He wrote this down before he told us about it. So we walked with him out to the yard towards the side of the barn and he stated that yes, this was where he had run to in his dream. I felt strongly the presence of Lena Stillinger out here for some reason. Something inside of me leads me to believe that, as the attacks were going on, at some point in time, she ran out the back door. I think she got to a certain point and realized that her sister, Ina, was still inside so she ran back in to her death. I got the sense that she does not now enter the house whatsoever, and that if indeed her spirit is there, she stays in the yard outside. The feeling of pure sadness was overwhelming here.

We were called into the barn to work out a sort of action plan for the night. We talked of the balloons that were set up and how we would go about this investigation. What I liked the most was having the time and that this time; it was less crowded than when I was there during the winter. Being warmer weather was really a bonus as well.

Josh and I were assigned the downstairs areas and Juli and Judy went upstairs. We noticed a crystal hanging from a strand of yarn out in the parlor area and we tried to see if there was anyone there with us, maybe they could make the crystal move for us. It did seem to move a bit, but nothing dramatic so we ventured into the blue room, what they call the sewing room, where Lena and Ina were on that awful night. We settled in and noticed about five balls on the floor toward the center of the room. It was arranged differently than the way it was when I had been here previously, and I felt that the arrangement was closer to the way it should have been, more like how it was the night it happened. We thought we heard a little girl giggle! Thinking she may like to play with us, we started checking out the balls on the floor and Josh rolled one towards me. It rolled under the dresser, did a few loops as if it were being controlled by a magnet from below and rolled right between the other five balls on the floor and stopped abruptly without touching a single other ball. That, I thought, was a little strange. We then went back into the living room and attempted to see if we could coax anyone into making that crystal move again. Having no luck, we went into the kitchen area to check that out a bit. We noticed that the floorboards made the stove and dishes on it rattle if you walked near there. The mirror was also uncovered, which is usually covered up since that is how the mirrors in the house were found to be when the bodies were discovered. I really wasn’t feeling any presences in this area at all at this time. Just that I have felt since I first ventured to this house, that this, the kitchen, was where it all started. I cannot believe that this family and their friends were beaten to death while they were sleeping. I feel that Josiah Moore, not thinking that he and his family would be killed as a result of their visit, let in the persons who are responsible for this crime. I’m sure he knew it wasn’t going to be friendly however. Soon Judy and Juli came down the stairs and told us that they had been getting a good response on the EMF meter upstairs in the children’s room. Then we all went back out to the barn.

Juli and I sat and chatted out on the porch of the barn for a bit and had a snack. It was a beautiful evening even though it looked like a storm was approaching…it was a long ways off at that time however. Josh wanted to see the upstairs part of the barn so he and I went up there and signed the walls where many, many past visitors had signed.

Juli felt drawn to the area of the house on the side of the cellar and where the cistern used to be. She asked me what I thought about underground in the cistern…first I thought of a bowl, for some reason…then a necklace came to mind for some unknown reason. What would a necklace have to do with a cistern? Josh joined us and said he was thinking of little people! I asked him if that could mean a doll or dolls as we walked toward the actual well with the pump I could sense a doll. Like a baby doll, but not like those in modern days…more like the old style babies. Why these things popped into my head in these areas, I really have no idea.

Josh, Tim, Juli and I next explored the upstairs of the house. We looked into the attic and didn’t stay in there for very long. There was an incredibly creepy clown hanging out in there in a makeshift bed! I had to giggle at that one…the last time I saw him he was stuffed into the closet in the children’s room. We proceeded into the children’s room and got settled in for a short visit there. Juli had her rods and she and Tim began to ask if maybe Katy was there and could talk with us. They explained the rods like a game and she seemed willing to pay as the rods seemed to move across each other for yes answers. We then asked her to point to each area where each of the children were at that time, if indeed they were in there with us. They did point to various locations around the room. I felt that Boyd really loved to play with the balls that people had brought as gifts for the children, as well as the other toys that were there. One of the questions that Tim or Juli asked was if Katy always stayed right there in their room or if she played in other areas of the house. I got the impression that she sneaked down to the parlor often, even though she wasn’t supposed to! Josh gave the rods a try and he seemed to get responses as well.

Judy called on the walkie and said that she wanted someone to go into the parent’s room as she had thought she saw something in there so Juli and I went. We noticed that the top dresser drawer was open a bit, but it was determined that it had been that way. Juli asked me what Sarah’s injuries were because she instantly got a headache, and senses the presence of Sarah in the corner of the room. I felt that, this time, Josiah was there as well. I have no respect for this man and felt a seed of near hatred for him on my first visit to this house. I feel that everything that happened to him and his family are indirect results of his actions. I could feel him glaring at us, sitting on the bed with his arms folded…I could sense the injustice of all of it from Sarah. I think she knew they were in danger, and that Josiah ignored her feelings. He is the kind of guy who knows what’s right for his family…he impresses me as the kind of guy who lived in a time when abuse in the family was the norm and no one spoke of it. I think Sarah worked hard to maintain peace in her family and to be obedient to him. I got to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore and had to address him. I started to feel as if someone was shoving an apple down my throat trying to make me stop talking. I felt that he was so very indignant, stubborn, and really nothing I was saying made a difference to him, as I’m only a woman, which of course threw fuel into my fire on a personal level. Rumor has it that he was having an affair with a very powerful, wealthy businessman’s daughter in law at the time…and I honestly feel it was more than a rumor. I think he felt that it was just fine for him to have a wife and a mistress as well. I think Sarah knew about it and everyone just covered it over. I also think that this wealthy and powerful businessman’s son was angry when he found out about it, and that is one of the reasons this happened the way it did. Juli reassured Sarah that she has people to back her up if she needs, and she feels as if Sarah settles down and walks through her. Poor Juli looked so wiped out and by now I felt as if that apple had swollen to the size of a grapefruit, she and I had to leave and go back to the barn, leaving Josh and Tim behind.

Juli and I sat out on the barn porch sort of recovering from and discussing our time spent in the parent’s room. Had a snack and some water and just tried to settle down a bit. We had heard that the actual killing occurred right around the time of the 1:20 train. We talked about how trains at that time were different than how they are now…much louder and it would have taken them a lot longer to get past. There seemed to be a train rolling through at least every 15 minutes or so and from the house there they were very loud! We were thinking that if there were sounds coming from the Moore house that night, they were either ignored, or covered by the sound of the trains.

Around 1:15 Juli and I re-entered the house and got settled on the floor in the blue room downstairs. Shortly afterwards, Josh joined us. While sitting there I thought I heard something behind me and just then the curtain hanging over the small closet opening came down across my back. I jumped up and around so fast it made us all laugh! Anyway, we settled down again and sure enough at around 1:20 a train came by. First we thought we could hear footsteps coming through the kitchen…just a few, but no one was there…Tim and Judy were upstairs in the children’s room. We could all sense a feeling of panic and sheer terror, as the event seemed to replay in our minds. I cannot explain how this happened at all. It was just that it seemed to be happening even though we couldn’t see it. We did hear two distinct screams and it sounded as if someone was crying. All the dogs in the entire neighborhood started barking and this went on for probably 20 minutes. I hadn’t heard any of them during the time we were there previously to that time when they all decided to bark. We talked a bit about if there are both residual and intelligent haunting taking place somewhere…do the intelligent spirits involved realize that the events which resulted in their state of present being. Would they have to relive that moment forever? We told ourselves no….but do we really know that? I would like to hope not.

We tried to get Ina to play the game with the rods then. We seemed to get some sort of response. I got the feeling again, that Lena stays outside, that she does not and will not come into the house. Ina misses her. Ina likes to play with Katy. I felt a slight touch on my elbow, as if someone placed their finger there and let it linger for a while. She likes when visitors bring them things. Lena has a crush on Herman. We decided to play with the balls with Ina. Josh and I rolled the ball to each other and it rolled perfectly straight, then it seemed we had a playmate. Every time we tried to roll the ball to Juli, the ball would not go to her. It would roll around spin in some very odd ways, but not to Juli at all. It was as if she wasn’t allowed to play, In fact, once it rolled around under the bed, went around the bedpost on the floor and stopped abruptly. After that, we could indeed roll the ball to Juli and it would roll straight. We thought that maybe Ina was tired so we went upstairs to see how Tim and Judy were doing.

Katy seemed to be playing with Tim and Judy peeking out from behind the attic door. They said that they had heard the same screams that we had when we were downstairs in the blue room. The attic door did seem to open up slightly and then close. Tim felt a couple of times that something had passed right behind him. We all talked a bit about the dogs barking wildly while we were in the house and how it started just after the 1:20 train.

I went back out to the barn to see how Butch was doing with the monitors. He related that while he was there and at just about 1:20 there was a lot of activity on the monitors. He also heard all of the dogs barking and it seemed to him that all sorts of chaos was happening…strange noises in the barn including what sounded like someone sawing wood. He left the monitors briefly to see if there was indeed someone outside and saw no one. He then joined Tim and Judy in the house while Josh, Juli and I stayed and watched the monitors. While we were out there we could hear some odd sounds coming from up stairs…as if a chair was being slid across the floor, a cowbell was being hit and we heard footsteps.

It was an interesting investigation. The storms, which started far away, were not encroaching closer so we decided to pack it all up. I don’t know how correct any of my inner observations are on this case as it’s never been solved and never will be. But I’ll never forget this one!