THE SNEDEKER HOUSE
DATE(S) VISITED: OCT 31, 2021
LOCATION: SOUTHINGTON, CT
Halloween 2021 saw us attend Paracon in Waterbury, CT. So, on the way home we decided to take a quick detour to Southington, CT and get a peek of the Snedeker house, whose hauntings inside it's walls inspired the book In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting and the 2009 film The Haunting in Connecticut.
This haunting is quite controversial with differing takes on the story. We will be offering both accounts which have been documented. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the individuals involved and do not necessarily represent those of Team H Adventures.
Carmen and Allen Snedeker moved into the property in 1986 along with their three sons, their daughter and two nieces. The eldest son was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma so the family made the the decision to move to this location to be closer to the doctor that was treating him and in the process save money. What they were not aware of prior to renting this simple white duplex was that it was once a funeral home.
On investigating the basement shortly after moving in they found various mortuary equipment, including a hoisting apparatus for coffins, a medical gurney, blood drains, and toe tags. It wasn't long after this grisly discovery when the strange happenings started. At first, Carmen noticed items around the house would go missing, innocent enough and nothing to really cause too much of a worry, after all it could have been the children moving them. That was until one day when she turned her back after setting the table for dinner, to turn back around and find all the dishes had been all put away. On another occasion whilst Carmen was mopping the floor she saw the water turn blood red right in front of her eyes and the smell of rotting flesh and decay was also reported at times. Both she and Allen also said that their bed would begin to vibrate inexplicably, feeling like it had a pulse or heartbeat.
The children started to talk about seeing strange people in the house, one being more prominent than the others, a man with long black hair. Then the eldest son took on a drastic personality change that included violent outbursts which involved attacking family members. One night the police had to be called when he attacked his cousin, to allegedly rape her. He was arrested and subsequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and was placed in a treatment facility. When they believed he was doing better, they let him return home. But the family was not convinced of his mental illness diagnosis and that his behavior was the result of a spirit within the environs of the house.
Carmen also reported an attack from an unseen assailant when she was in the shower. The shower curtain inexplicably wrapped itself around her and her face so that she was unable to breathe. She felt as if she was being pressed upon from all sides and thus could not escape. It was only until her niece intervened to help that she was able to free herself.
Lightbulbs in the home were said to give off an unnatural glow, even after Allen unscrewed them in frustration thinking that the children were leaving them on and claiming it was ghosts. But even that did not stop the glow.
If all these experiences that had happened so far were not terrifying enough things certainly got even worse. Carmen and her niece were sexually assaulted by unseen cold hands followed by a hideous laugh. Both Carmen and Allen began to have encounters in their bedroom at night. They described the feeling as an unearthly atmosphere in their bed which would be accompanied by ambient 1930’s mood music, and then an assault, sexually, on either Carmen or Allen.
In a TV interview, Carmen said that whilst running away from the home after such an encounter, her niece was hideously abused the entire way. When asked why they didn’t leave, Carmen explained that she didn’t think it would make a difference. “Everywhere we went, it followed us.”
One night, while in bed, Carmen finally saw the ghosts haunting her. One had long black hair with black eyes and the other had long white hair and white eyes wearing a pinstriped tuxedo. This was certainly a breaking point and that is when they asked paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to step in and help rid their home of the evil that had manifested inside of it.
The Warrens, together with their team, spent nine weeks in the Snedeker home, looking to get the full demonic experience. During that time they experienced all that the Snedeker’s reported, with team members being slapped, beaten, pushed, slammed into the floor, and much more. When research was conducted into the history of the property they discovered that one of the morticians practiced necromancy and had infused the home with a deep evil. Also he had participated in and had been found guilty of necrophilia. They declared the house to be infested with demons, and rated the entity within to be 9 on a scale of 1-10. They proceeded to carry out an exorcism to make it safe for the family to return, although the family moved out shortly afterwards.
CONTROVERSY
There were a lot of people that were skeptical about the Snedeker's claims. The first claim being that they did not know it used to be a funeral home. The owner at the time said that the Snedeker's were fully aware of the house's history before they moved in. Apparently there was a sign with the engraving Hallahan Funeral Home inside the entrance when they initially viewed the property, but according to the Snedeker's the sign had been covered with plywood and concealed from view. The owner went on to to say in a newspaper interview “It’s a fraud. It’s a joke. It’s a hoax. It’s Halloween.” He then went on to say that the height of the paranormal activity started when the family was getting behind on their rent, and they moved out just before eviction proceedings were complete.
Neighbors were calling out the family, one even went onto the television show, Sally Jessy Raphael, stating “They never had a problem until they got behind in the rent", whilst another neighbor claimed seeing the family outside the house in the middle of the night on more than one occasion, the Snedeker's would say they could not go back inside. However, they always came across as perfectly happy, never seemed to be afraid, “They were always out there laughing and joking.” The upstairs neighbor said she had never seen nor heard anything supernatural in the building, even whilst at the height of the Snedeker's hauntings. She was also apparently an employee of the real estate agency that the family used to find the home and stated that they “Were totally made aware that this was a funeral home" and also corroborated the claims that the Snedeker's had been falling behind on their rent.
The most controversial testimony of the whole event being a hoax comes from author Ray Garton. Garton was hired by the Warrens to document the Snedeker's experiences in his book titled In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting. During his time interviewing the family he claims that he had too many problems with their stories. He is quoted as saying "The family involved, which was going through some serious problems like alcoholism and drug addiction, could not keep their story straight, and I became very frustrated; it's hard writing a non-fiction book when all the people involved are telling you different stories". He then claims that Ed then told him to ignore those conflicts and sensationalize the story. "I used what I could, made up the rest, and tried to make it as scary as I could."
It's a shame that these conflicting reports exist and that since the Warrens passing they cannot give their defense on these corroborations. Whatever you believe, it is still a story/event worth reading, watching and investigating about.