Episode 53: Apartment 14
True crime and the paranormal are often two sides of the same coin.
Episode Transcript
I have a bit of an odd confession to make. By now you guys know all too well that I spend a great deal of time researching the paranormal.
And as intriguing and fulfilling as that work may be, well it goes without saying that it still weighs heavy on me. This is exactly why I spend most of my free time, away from work and writing, listening to podcasts about true crime and cold cases.
I know that seems counterproductive. I mean, listening to grim stories of untimely death could hardly be a distraction from, well other grim stories of untimely death.
Like I said, it’s an odd confession. But hey it’s the truth. And when you think about it, it’s not really odd at all. After all, both genres of true horror content appeal to our sense of humanity and fascinate us in a way that only an unsolved mystery can.
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It’s that very air of intrigue that brings us to this week’s topic. To a story that somehow connects the horrors of the living to the secrets of the dead.
And while you may already know the ins and outs of this harrowing tale, I’d still like to invite you down this enigmatic albeit disturbing rabbit hole. Because here we will see that crime and the paranormal are often two sides of the same coin.
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
To be honest, it’s hard to know where to begin with this particular episode. Because even to this day, the case that many of us know as the Girl in the Box is one of the most haunting stories I have ever heard.
So I guess the most appropriate place to begin is with the obligatory disclaimer warning you all that this episode won’t be for the faint of heart. But still, for the sake of the victims, it’s a story worth being told.
Yes, you heard that right. Victims, not victims. Though it was never proven in a court of law, nor was a body ever discovered, based on the testimony of Janice Hooker it seems that two women were targeted by these horrific crimes.
We’ll circle back to that later on in the episode. But first, let’s turn our attention to apartment number 14.
It was January of 2000 when Jodi Foster and her daughter moved from the frosty woods of Montana out to sunny California. At the time, money was tight for this mother-daughter duo, but to their pleasure, they did find a reasonably priced apartment in Chico just off Parmac Road.
When they first toured the complex, Jodi must have felt that the Walnut Grove apartments were modest but nice. There was a pool, well-manicured green spaces, and friendly neighbors.
It was the kind of place that really catered to young families. Which was good seeing how Jodi’s daughter, Hannah, was little more than 3 years old.
Yes, it all seemed like a good fit. But even still, Jodi couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off as she toured their would-be home: apartment number 14.
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"It’s probably nothing," she must have thought to herself as poked her head into the bedroom. "This move has been stressful on both of us." The internal monologue continued as she followed the leasing agent back to the front office.
Truthfully, Jodi didn’t think much of it as she signed her name on the application. And by the time she was driving away, the anxiety had all but passed. But little did she know, those would-be intrusive thoughts carried more than a bit of weight along with them.
It had been a week since Jodi and Hannah toured apartment 14 at Walnut Grove. And in spite of that initial twinge of anxiety, mom and daughter were set on moving into the apartment. So on January 31st, the pair drove down Parmac road with moving boxes in tow.
Okay, I’ll be honest with you. Immediately upon opening the door marked with the numeral 14, things inside the apartment felt completely off.
Sure, Jodi had been anxious during her initial walk-through of the unit. But that was nothing in comparison to the dark and foreboding atmosphere that was now emanating through the space.
To make matters worse, there was also a chemical smell encasing nearly every corner of apartment 14. It was as if the carpet had been drenched in a sharp, headache-inducing fragrance.
I guess that could have been dismissed at the overpowering scent of carpet cleaner. And in all fairness, most rental units do require a professional carpet cleaning prior to any new tenants moving in.
But what Jodi couldn’t simply write off as the "joys of renting," is the fact that she felt like she was being watched. She felt eyes on her as she unloaded the moving truck. She felt a presence as she unpacked boxes and filled cupboards. Oh and as the weeks slipped by it seemed that Jodi wasn't the only one experiencing this unnerving phenomenon.
Going off of Jodi's testimony, it's clear that those first few days were far from peaceful. While it would have been fine if these occurrences were happening to her alone, Jodi couldn't ignore the fact that Hannah had been affected by the odd environment they were living in.
On one occasion, for instance, Jodi had been searching for a pink pair of shoes that belonged to her daughter. Ordinarily, they were housed in a shoe organizer by the front door; but on this day in particular the shoes were nowhere to be found.
Jodi searched high and low for this pair of pink sneakers, and eventually, she tracked them down in Hannah's bedroom... lying neatly in the middle of the bed. Which was obviously an odd place for these shoes to be hiding.
So, Jodi asked Hannah directly, did you leave these shoes here? And of course, the girl said no. Likely just as confused by this discovery as Jodi was.
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Now as time passed, that confusion only became more pronounced. Day after day, Jodi and Hannah kept finding that specific pair of shoes sitting in the center of Hannah's bed instead of on the shoe organizer where they had left them the night before.
Not the mention that Hannah had developed what could really only be described as an imaginary friend. But not in a cute, childhood right-of-passage kind of way. It was more like a Danny Torrence sort of companion if you know what I mean.
She called this newfound playmate by the name Myliz. And at least from what it seems like, Hannah would interact with this so-called imaginary friend on a near-constant occasion.
She would talk out loud— Having full-blown conversations when no one else was around. And when Jodi asked who she was speaking to, Hannah simply replied, rather matter-of-factly, that she was talking to Myliz. On other occasions, Hannah would draw pictures of her imaginary friend—always depicting her with brown hair that curled out at the ends.
Now I’m sure that any doctor would probably diagnose Hannah’s new friend as a side effect of a sudden and somewhat stressful move. Just as Tony had been for little Doc Torrence.
Of course, from a skeptic’s perspective that theory makes a whole lot of sense. But from Jodi’s point of view, Myliz seemed to be something more. Especially considering the dreams that Jodi herself had been having.
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I should explain. Not long after the fosters moved to Walnut Grove, Jodi started having a recurring set of disturbing dreams. Night after night, Jodi would be haunted by visions of people whom she had never met.
On one occasion, she dreamt of a couple in 70s-era clothing who seemed to be searching for something or someone in what Jodi described as a predatory manner. Then a few nights later she had actually dreamt that this same couple abducted Hannah.
Of course, that would have been a distressing nightmare in and of itself. But what was even more disturbing was that, in this dream, Hannah turned into a woman who looked an awful lot like those drawings of Myliz.
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As you can imagine, these reoccurring visions had been deeply troubling for Jodi. So much so that they would wake her every single night around the exact same time: 3:37 am.
And what’s worse is that these dreams seemed prophetic in nature. It was like she was reliving a memory only she had no idea whose memory it was or what it meant.
Now coinciding with these dreams, poltergeist-like activity was wreaking havoc throughout the apartment. To the point where it was obvious that the space was haunted by something that refused to be ignored.
On one occasion, for instance, Jodi and Hannah returned to Walnut Grove after an evening out of the house. And when they opened the door to the apartment, they uncovered a chaotic scene.
The phone's receiver had been ripped out of the wall, and by all appearances, it seemed like it had been thrown across the apartment. Then over in Hannah’s room, Jodi discovered her daughter’s beloved talking Ernie doll with some sort of cord wrapped around it.
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Not long after this incident, Jodi awoke one evening to the sounds of static echoing through the apartment. And when she got up to investigate she discovered that the TV had been turned on in the living room.
Now this was especially trouble for Jodi because their TV was pretty old. And by that, I mean that it was a dial set that had to be manually turned on without a remote.
In other words, the only logical explanation was that the TV must have been turned on intentionally. Only Jodi knew that she hadn’t done it and it couldn’t be Hannah since she was still fast asleep in her bed.
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Almost immediately as that thought popped into her mind, Jodi’s attention was turned by the sound of slamming cabinet doors. Because evidently, at that exact moment, things in the kitchen were going absolutely haywire.
Doors were slamming, the stove burners had been turned onto high heat. It was truly something out of one of those paranormal activity movies. But before she could even process what was happening in the kitchen, Jodi heard yet another eerie noise coming from elsewhere in the apartment.
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Know if you have a phobia of dolls this next part might be a bit dicey. Apparently, that talking Ernie doll I mentioned earlier was repeating the phrase “I feel great” over and over—continuing to speak even after Jodi removed its batteries.
That’s when all the lights in the apartment started flicking at a rapid pace. And obviously, that’s all it took to send Jodi and Hannah running from Apartment 14.
After the events of that night, the Fosters found themselves at the door of Walnut Grove's property manager. Following a short visit back to the chaos inside the apartment, they decided it would be best to file a police report.
Now to be honest here, when the police arrived it seemed to Jodi that they weren’t taking the situation very seriously. And really who could blame them? I mean no crime had actually been committed, and from a third-party perspective, this story does seem a bit outlandish. But even still, this wasn’t the first time that apartment 14 had been brought to their attention.
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You see, as Jodi sat outside the complex that night, an older gentleman approached her. He introduced himself by explaining that he had lived at Walnut Grove for over 20 years and that during this time he had noticed somewhat of a pattern.
Evidently, at least from his point of view, apartment 14 is more or less a revolving door for tenants. Of course, property management never had trouble finding renters, but none of them ever seemed to last long inside this particular unit. And given Jodi and Hannah’s I think it’s obvious why that was the case.
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Okay, this is where the true crime element of this story comes back into play. Obviously, this conversation was already validating to Jodi as far as her personal experiences went, but there was something in the tone of her neighbor's voice that brought her pause.
So Jodi asked him why. Aside from the obvious what was wrong with apartment 14? To which he replied, that one of the previous tenants had disappeared a few years back and at the time of this incident still missing. In fact, she is still missing to this day.
As you can imagine this was a shocking discovery from Jodi Foster. Especially considering the dreams she had been having about a girl being abducted from the apartment.
We’ll circle back to this in a moment. But for now, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge an equally disturbing situation that occurred back in the 1970s. And that, of course, is the story of Colleen Stan.
Now if you follow true crime, you’ve probably already heard Colleen’s name and her story. You’d likely already know that she was abducted in 1977 by Cameron and Janice Hooker of Red Bluff, California. And you surely understand the severity of the crimes they committed against her.
Truthfully, Colleen’s story could be an entire episode in and of itself. This is why we’ll be covering it over on Studio Sinister in the coming weeks. So if you haven’t already make sure you go give us a follow over there. But in the meantime, at least for the sake of context, it’s worth mentioning that Colleen’s case runs parallel to that of apartment 14.
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You see, one of Colleen’s abductors, Janice Hooker, made quite the confession to her crimes back in 1984. During which she not only admitted to holding Colleen captive for nearly a decade, she also claimed to have abducted another—a young woman from Chico, California named Marie Elizabeth Spannhake.
Evidently, Spannhake’s case had been a hot topic in Chico throughout 1976. And for good reason too. I mean Marie was by all accounts a beautiful and talented aspiring actress who had only recently moved to the area with her boyfriend John. Not to mention that the couple was living in a nice area in an apartment off of Parmac Road when Marie mysteriously vanished without a trace.
Now Jodi never got a name from her neighbor. But suffice it to say, this conversation certainly didn’t sit right.
In fact, the very idea that her apartment had once been home to a now missing person haunted Jodi during her waking hours. And all the while her dreams were only becoming more consistent—always depicting a young woman being abducted by two ill-intended strangers.
Needless to say, these experiences were downright overwhelming for Jodi. So in the spring of that year, just three months into their lease, the fosters moved out of apartment 14. And just like that, this nightmare of a haunting was finally over.
Well, that is until Jodi came across a newspaper article covering Marie Spannhake’s case. And as she sat there pouring over the events that took place in an apartment she once called home, Jodi couldn’t help but draw a few eerie connections between her experiences at Walnut Grove and Marie‘s disappearance.
For starters, Hannah was insistent, that the girl photographed in the newspaper article, had been who she had seen in their old apartment. As far as she was concerned, this was Myliz—and you couldn’t convince her otherwise.
Not to mention, Marie Spannhake had disappeared from Chico, California on January 31, 1976. That’s twenty-four years to the day before the fosters took up residence at apartment 14.
I know, like I said, the similarities were eerie. But here’s the real kicker: To friends and family Marie Elizabeth Spannhake was known simply by the nickname, Marliz.
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Credits
https://unsolved.com/gallery/the-ghost-in-apartment-14/
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Apartment_14_Ghost
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/unsolved-mysteries-ghost-in-apartment-14
https://www.averyafterdark.com/79-haunting-apartment-14-the-lemp-mansion/