S04 Episode 5: Pre-Sense

in many cultures. In ancient Rome, for example, it was often the task of children to perform the drawing of lots, a process used to determine the will of the gods by the reading of small tablets, usually made of wood, that were thrown into water. Classicist Sarah Illis Johnston of Ohio University attributes this to the strongly held belief that children were simply able to see gods, demons, and ghosts that other people could not, a skill that they would

invariably lose once they grew up. Needless to say, such a notion is a popular one in the culture of the paranormal, and unexplained. For a start, there is something inherently unnerving about young children being privy to things that adults are not, But also this idea plays into the common narrative that adulthood somehow robs us of the innocence, imagination, and openness of the senses that are thought required to

see such things. I have explored this idea previously on the podcast with regards to the apparent UFO sightings in the Welsh town of broad Haven in nineteen seventy seven, and in the book in the chapter concerning the apparent UFO sighting at a school in rural Zimbabwe in nineteen ninety four. In both cases, a group of school children claim to have seen an unusual craft land at the

back of their playground. When later called on to draw pictures of what they had witnessed, many of their images contained striking similarities, despite the children having had little to no time to confer on what they had apparently seen. But by far the most unnerving of this trope are those of the sixth sense variety. In m night Shire Marlin's iconic nineteen ninety nine film of the same name, the young boy Cole Seer claimed to be able to

see dead people. Back in nineteen eighty nine, just outside the city of Columbus in Georgia. In the United States, another young child was claiming exactly the same thing you're listening to, unexplained and I'm Richard McClane Smith. Wolf, cried Heidi from the back door. The young girl scanned the yard again, now completely covered from three days of snow, but saw no sign of the dog anywhere. Mummy, she asked, turning to the twenty one year old Lisa, who was

busy making lunch in the kitchen. Where did Wolf go? He's probably in his kennel, she replied, Why don't you go and take a look. Heidi was almost four years old and loved nothing more than playing about in the snow with her puppy, a recent moving in present from her parents. This was the first time he hadn't come running to her when she called his name. After trying one more time but getting no response, she zipped up her jacket, grabbed her toboggin, and headed out into the

garden to find him. Lisa watched from the window with a smile as her daughter trudged out in the snow, pulling her empty sled behind her as she went back outside. Heidi, having now reached the kennel, peered inside to take a look, but there was no sign of her dog anywhere. Just then she noticed Wolf's footprints in the snow, heading back toward the house. Heidi followed them all the way to the edge of the porch, where they veered off to

the side and disappeared underneath it. Ducking her head under to get a better look, Heidi finally spotted him. Wolf, there you are coming out of there, But Wolf, who was backed in as far as he could go, refused to budge, as if he were too afraid to come out. Just then, Heidi felt a prey behind her back. In the kitchen, Lisa was putting lunch on the table when her daughter came rushing back inside. Can I go and play with mister Gordy, she asked. Lisa looked confused. Who

is mister Gordy? She said, The man with the shiny black shoes, said Heidi. Lisa, now suddenly concerned, asked her daughter to confirm again if a man had just approached her in the garden. Yes, mister Gordy, he wanted to push me on the swing, said Heidi. In a panic. Lisa ran to the window but saw no sign of anybody outside. Then, ordering Heidi to sit at the table, she hurriedly locked the front door and pulled down the

blinds before calling her husband Andy. Andy who was at work a short drive away, told Lisa to they put until he could get there. Lisa knew there was every chance she could be overreacting, but it was always better to play it safe than sorry under such circumstances. So who was this mister Gordy asked Lisa, nervously, looking out the window as Heidi sat nonchinantly eating her lunch in front of the TV. Well, he's quite old, with white hair, she said. He only wanted to push me on the swing.

Do you remember what he was wearing, asked Lisa. Heidi thought for a moment. He had a big hat and smart clothes, just like what the people wear at church. Lisa, taking the remote, turned down the TV and asked her daughter if she had ever seen this mister Gordi before. No,

said Heidi, but he said he would be back. When the twenty two year old Andy finally arrived home twenty minutes later, he made a quick scout of the area, looking for any sign of an old man in smart clothes with white hair, but found nobody resembling that description. When the Wirecks first moved to Harris County in the fall of nineteen eighty eight, they couldn't have been more ecstatic.

This quiet district in southwest Georgia had a reputation as one of the more sought after counties in the state. The young couple had never imagined they would ever be able to afford a house there until one day Lisa's parents, driving just outside the town of Ellerslie, noticed a property up for auction. The three and a half bedroom ranch house had come on to the market unexpectedly the previous

owners abandoned it without any explanation. Realizing they might have a steel on their hands, they convinced Lisa and Andy to take a look. Though the house would ordinarily have been out of their price range, the couple put in a bid of what they could afford and left it at that, assuming they wouldn't get it. A few weeks later, however, they were amazed to find they had won. It was a few months after they had moved in in February nineteen eighty nine, that Heidi had her first encounter with

mister Gordy. After the initial fear at the thought of someone trying to abduct her daughter, Lisa soon came to realize that mister Gordy was nothing but an imaginary friend. Over the weeks and months that followed, she would often overhear Heidi talking to someone in her room, only to find her sitting alone on the floor playing with her dolls. Whenever she asked who her daughter was talking to, each time,

without fail, came the inevitable reply, why mister Gordy. Of course, Oftentimes Lisa would watch her daughter having tea parties on the lawn, laughing and talking as if someone else was out there with her. Other times, she would head off to play on the big tree swing at the back of the garden, her arm held high in the air

as if she were holding someone's hand. Lisa marveled at the inventiveness of it all, just pleased that her daughter seemed happy, and soon she was even playing along herself, preparing lunch and snacks for Heidi to share with the enigmatic mister Gordy. Each time Lisa would come to clean up their plates, mister Gordy's food would remain untouched. Then one afternoon, as Lisa was tidying some clothes away, Heidi

came running into her parents' bedroom in a panic. Mummy, she said, there's a man at the door covered in blood. His hand is hurt. Lisa ran straight to the front of the house, only to find the front door completely open, but no sign of anyone outside, Shutting the door and locking it immediately, Lisa told Heidi to stay where she

could see her. Was this mister Gordie, she asked her daughter. Heidi, seeing the fear in her mother's eyes, withdrew slightly and turning her own eyes to the floor, shook her head. His name was con she said, And she really saw a man standing there. Yes, said Heidi, nodding nervously. Later that night, Lisa recounted the story to Andy. Both knew full well it was nothing but Heidie's imagination. But that was the thing, thought Lisa, whenever she spoke about it.

Be it the man with the blood on his shirt or mister Gordie, she seemed so convinced they were real. Just then, a distant scream punctured the quiet of the night, followed moments later by Heidie bursting into her parent's room. There's a man in my room, she cried. He's not like the other ones. Lisa grabbed her daughter, Miss Andy bolted from the bed and ran straight to Heidie's bedroom,

Switching on the lights. He looked everywhere for any sign of an intruder, but there was nothing, and the front door was still locked from the inside. As Heidie would later describe it, this new figure wasn't a man so much as just the sense of a body dressed in a hooded top. This was now the third figure she had reported seeing, but unlike the other two, this one had left her utterly terrified. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of others

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That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. Over the next few weeks, Heidi continued to report the sighting of a menacing figure in a hood moving about the house where Lisa and Andy had been happy to indulge her games with mister Gordy. This latest development had left their daughter too scared to sleep in her own room. Hoping it was all just a phase, they did their best to reassure her no one was really there, but secretly, Lisa had begun to wonder if there wasn't something more to

it all. Raised a strict Christian, she was no stranger to the notion of demons and ghosts. What if this wasn't just in Heidee's imagination, she thought? In desperation, Lisa turned to her older sister, Joyce Kathy for support, and when the house next door was put up for sale later in the year, she was overjoyed when Joyce Cathy agreed to buy it, having seen how worried her sister was becoming and keen to spend more time with her niece,

Joyce Cathy was happy to do it. It was shortly after moving in that she received a visit from the house's former owner, Katherine Leadford. Catherine had wanted to welcome Joyce Kathy to the neighborhood, but also to drop off some of the final papers from the sale. Going through them together that afternoon, Joyce Cathy was struck by a name written on one of the contracts, James S. Gordie. Realizing it was the same name as Heidee's apparent imaginary friend,

she asked Katherine if she knew who he was. As it turned out, Gordy was an old friend of Catherine's family who took care of all their legal matters. Feeling suddenly defensive, Joyce Cathy asked where this James Gordy lived. Is it possible her family might have seen him around? Well, thought Catherine for a moment. He used to live a few minutes drive away, But I'm afraid he's been dead

for twenty five years. Later, as Catherine gathered her things to leave, Joyce Cathy asked her if she could describe what Gordy looked like around the time when he died. I suppose he was quite old by then, she said, with a full head of white hair. But he was always smartly dressed in a nice dark suit. That evening, Joyce Cathy told Lisa and Andy about her conversation with Catherine, wondering if there was any way that Heidi could have

overheard or seen something about mister Gordy. But neither could think of anything. Perhaps it was all just a coincidence, they thought. Unable to let it go, however, the following day, Lisa made her way to the local library and requested to see the papers from nineteen seventy four. Sitting in front of the monitor, moments later, she scrolled through the

microfilm until she came across the man's obituary. Sure enough, there it was James Scarborough Gordy, caretaker of a number of local properties, who died aged eighty six in September nineteen seventy four. Back home, later, as Heidee was sat playing with her dolls, Lisa asked her again about where she got the name Gordi from. Heidi ignored her for a moment as she continued to play, then, without looking up, said simply that he had told it to her himself.

But mister Gordie isn't real, explained her mother. Heidi stopped playing. But he is real, she insisted, he's standing right next to you. Eager to get to the bottom of it all, and now increasingly more spooked by the day, Lisa hashed a plan after explaining to Catherine Leadford what had been going on, they arranged for Heidi to go to Catherine's home and take a look at some old family photographs

to see if she might recognize anyone. One by one, they flicked through the old black and white stills, stepping back years into the life of Katherine and her family. Arriving at the last few, Heide's eyes suddenly widened. There, she said, pointing to a young man standing at the back of the frame with a bandage wrapped all around his hand. That's con the man with the blood on his shirt. Lisa looked expectantly to Catherine, who couldn't believe

what she was hearing. Well, she said, taking the photo for a closer look, that there is my uncle, not con exactly, but Lon Lon Bachelor. Lon had been dead since nineteen fifty seven. As she went on to explain and back when he was twenty years old, he lost his hand in a cotton gin accident. Lisa gasped, that's him, she said, to Catherine's one of the people she's been seeing. Heading back to their home, Lisa was now convinced that this was more than just a game of make believe.

But worse than that, she thought, what if something sinister was at play. After the visit to Catherine, Lisa and Andy stayed up late discussing the permutations of what could possibly be taking place, when that scream rang out again from Heide's room. Moments later, the door burst open and Heidee raced onto the bed. She'd seen the faceless figure again and now her face was hurting. Lisa switched on

the light and cried out in shock. There raked across her daughter's cheek were three deep and bloody scratch marks. Having seen enough, the family gathered some things and drove immediately to Lisa's parents' house to spend the rest of the night. The following day, the family returned to their home, determined to confront their fears. Whatever they were dealing with, there was no use in panicking, and they certainly weren't free to move anytime soon. They would just have to

wait it out and hope that things improved. A few nights later, as the family slept, Andy tossed and turned in his sleep, suddenly bursting awake. After a moment of confusion, he realized he was just having a nightmare, but then he felt the searing pain running up his side. Rushing to the bathroom, he switched on the light and pulled up his t shirt. Turning his side toward the mirror, he gasped in horror at the sight of three fresh gashes up the side of his body. There was no

denying it any more. It was time to seek proper help. Unsure where to start, Lisa tried the library again, where it was suggested to her that she contact doctor William Rowell, a psychologist based at the University of West Georgia. Doctor Rowell also happened to be one of the country's leading authorities on apparent parapsychological phenomena. Growing up in Denmark, Roll who was born in Germany in nineteen twenty six, became

convinced he was having regular out of body experiences. This awakened an interest in parapsychology that took him first to Berkeley and later to Oxford University, where he became president of the university's Society of Psychical Research. Back when the study of parapsychology was still indulged by many leading academic institutions,

doctor Roll was a leading proponent of the subject. Though Roll kept an open mind with regards to the causes of paranormal phenomena, it was his ultimate belief that if there was anything of substance to them, they would prove to be of a rational, scientific nature, as opposed to supernatural. The Wireck's case, however, was unlike anything he had come

across before. After arriving at the Wireck's home one afternoon, the erudite role began by conducting a series of interviews with the family to ascertain the veracity of their story. Listening to Heidi speaking, in particular, he was struck by

the consistency and level of detail in her recollections. Furthermore, the manner in which she spoke about the various figures she had encountered seemed to suggest that she had no concept of them being apparitions or ghosts at all, but rather they were as real to her as anything else in her life. Afterwards, Doctor Rowell had a surprise for the family. He had managed to track down a photograph of the deceased James Gordi and asked Lisa if you might present it to Heidi to see if she might

recognize who it was. Eager to see the results herself, Lisa gladly let him proceed. Taking the pictures from his bag, He placed them on the table and asked Heidi to pick them up one by one and to take her time to study each of them before moving on to the next. Each photograph bore a portrait of a man in similar age and appearance to Gordi. Heidi picked up the first photo, gave it a long look, and then

moved it to the side. She repeated this process for the first nine pictures until finally she came to the last one. That's him. She said, that's mister Gordy. Doctor Roll turned the photo around and picked it up. It was the photograph of James Gordy. Staggered by Heide's story and the correct identification of James Gordy, Doctor Role began immediately to try and understand what was taking place, since he didn't believe it was possible to interact with conscious

apparitions of the now deceased. He theorized that unusual electromagnetic fluctuations in the area could be causing audio and visual hallucinations in Heidee's mind. After conducting a number of tests on the perty, however, though doctor Roll found some anomalous readings, he found little to confirm his hypothesis. A few years later, Lisa and Andy welcomed a second child, Jordan, into their family.

The pair had been worried about the effect of the hauntings on their baby, However, Thankfully, by then, though Heidi continued to claim that she saw apparitions in the house, their frequency and number had significantly declined over the years. By the time she was a teenager, all trace of mister Gordie had gone completely. Some years after Jordan was born, Lisa's niece Kelly Brown, was looking after her in the house alone when she heard the sound of someone's voice

coming from a back bedroom. Moving through to the end of the corridor, she found Jordan sitting on her own, seemingly deep in conversation with someone. Only there was nobody else there. Who are you talking to? Asked Kelly Brown. The little girl said Jordan. She was hurt really bad in a car accident. But Jordan said, Kelly Brown, there's nobody here, Yes, there is, she said, she's standing right

next to you. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help supporters, you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com Forward Slash Support. All donations, no matter how large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements have Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClane Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or idea. It's

regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained Now it's time to take care of yourself. To make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling

your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit telldoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained podcast Today to get started, that's t e l a eoc dot com slash Unexplained podcast