0:02

So I have something I want to get

0:04

off my chest. Because while I'm

0:06

a die-hard believer through and

0:09

through, there is one thing

0:11

that really gets me questioning

0:13

some supernatural phenomena. Particularly ghosts

0:15

in the digital age. Like

0:17

we have so many ways of

0:19

capturing things, cameras, social media,

0:22

ring door cameras, even our

0:24

private moments aren't really that

0:26

private anymore. Which if that's

0:28

the case, wouldn't you think

0:31

that we'd be catching ghostly

0:33

phenomena all the time? Like for the

0:35

whole world to see? Wouldn't we

0:37

have some concrete validation by now

0:40

on whether or not this stuff

0:42

really exists? Well, if you

0:44

ask reporter Adam Ellis, he'd

0:47

probably say, good point Ashley,

0:49

and lucky for you, I've got

0:51

it covered. Because on August

0:53

7th, 2017, Adam posted the tweet

0:55

of all tweets. back when they

0:58

were called tweets. It read, quote,

1:00

so my apartment is currently

1:02

being haunted by the ghost of

1:04

a dead child, and he's trying

1:06

to kill me, end quote. For weeks,

1:09

Adam kept the public updated

1:11

with every little detail about

1:14

his experience, including photos, audio

1:16

files, even videos of his

1:18

cats going nuts at the

1:21

door every night around midnight.

1:23

It made a lot of people wonder.

1:25

Did Adam just invent a

1:28

very ingenious method of

1:30

storytelling? A horror

1:32

story for the digital age?

1:34

Or was there something really

1:36

going on in that apartment? One

1:39

that the entire internet

1:41

had a front row seat for.

1:43

I'm Ashley Flowers and this

1:46

is so supernatural. Hello

1:58

and welcome back to so

2:00

Supernatural. I'm Yvette Genteelay and

2:02

I'm her sister Rasha Peccarero.

2:05

And like Ashley, I also

2:07

have a confession to make.

2:09

I am obsessed with all

2:11

things beetle juice. Even though

2:14

I'm a big scaredy cat,

2:16

I cannot get that demon

2:18

out of my head. I

2:20

love beetle juice. But regardless

2:23

of whether you've seen the

2:25

films or not, you probably

2:27

know one famous detail about

2:29

it. that if you say

2:32

Beetlejuice three times you summon

2:34

this chaotic demon. It is

2:36

comforting to know that these

2:38

movies that Tim Burton did

2:41

are a work of fiction

2:43

but when you hear about

2:45

things like this happening in

2:47

real life well that's a

2:50

whole other story because something

2:52

similar happened to a Buzz

2:54

Feed writer named Adam Ellis

2:56

in 2017. He seemed to

2:59

conjure a clingy little demon

3:01

of his own after asking

3:03

him three little questions. And

3:05

if you believe Adam's story,

3:08

it sounds like that ghost

3:10

wasn't going to stop tormenting

3:12

him until he was actually

3:14

dead. If you enjoy the

3:17

mysterious and eerie stories we

3:19

discuss here, then we've got

3:21

another show you need to

3:23

check out. Park Predators. Hosted

3:26

by our friend, Dilia di

3:28

Ambra. Park Predators dives into

3:30

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3:32

that have taken place in

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3:37

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3:39

cases range from stories of

3:41

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3:44

mysteries. Delia's storytelling will transport

3:46

you right into the heart

3:48

of these breathtaking landscapes. And

3:50

her dedication to finding the

3:53

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3:55

all the details of each

3:57

case. So if you're looking

3:59

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4:02

Park Predator... is for you.

4:04

Listen to Park Predators available

4:06

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at s-n-h-u-d-u-l slash supernatural. That's s-n-h-u-d-u

5:21

slash supernatural. As a kid I

5:23

was a brownie girl scout and

5:26

whenever we went on camping trips

5:28

I love sitting around the campfire

5:30

listening to ghost stories. That said

5:33

I do love the suspense and

5:35

thrill of a good creepy story.

5:37

I have never been and will

5:40

never be a camper, but surprisingly,

5:42

I've always loved stories about spirits

5:44

and hauntings. And I think that's

5:47

because mom believed in all of

5:49

that stuff, you know, in psychology.

5:51

gigs and mediums and everything supernatural.

5:54

In fact, I remember one particular

5:56

sleepover where mom was with me

5:59

and all of my friends and

6:01

we did the Ouija board and

6:03

we ended up conjuring the spirit

6:06

of George Hotel and of course

6:08

we freaked out. And if you

6:10

don't know who that is, small

6:13

plug, go check out the podcast

6:15

Yvette and I did a few

6:17

years back called Root of Evil.

6:20

But these days, instead of sleepovers

6:22

or camping trips, people seem to

6:24

be getting a lot of ghost

6:27

stories from online forums, social media,

6:29

and Tiktak. It all started on

6:32

what was known as Twitter back

6:34

on August 7th, 2017, when a

6:36

New York-based Buzzfeed writer and satirical

6:39

cartoonist named Adam Ellis put this

6:41

tweet out into the world. My

6:43

apartment is currently being haunted by

6:46

the ghost of a dead child

6:48

and he's trying to kill me.

6:50

That's a wild way to start

6:53

a thread. And it's especially weird

6:55

when you look at Adam's background

6:57

because Adam is a 31-year-old cartoonist.

7:00

His bread and butter is making

7:02

funny cartoons. He's never dabbled in

7:04

horror or anything like it. So

7:07

to those that know him or

7:09

follow his work... This post is

7:12

out of character for Adam. That's

7:14

probably why so many people take

7:16

this thread at face value when

7:19

they see it. As wild as

7:21

it sounds, they think there's no

7:23

reason for Adam to lie. So

7:26

Adam begins the thread by explaining

7:28

that at some point earlier that

7:30

year, he was sleeping in his

7:33

New York apartment when he had

7:35

a dream. Well, sort of had

7:37

a dream. He says he was

7:40

actually half awake at the time.

7:42

Adam gets sleep paralysis sometimes, so

7:45

this isn't totally out of the

7:47

norm for him. Sleep paralysis can

7:49

cause people to feel like they

7:52

are awake in bed, only they

7:54

can't move... or speak. It's a

7:56

creepy experience for sure and if

7:59

you haven't already you guys got

8:01

to check out Ashley's earlier episode

8:03

on sleep paralysis. It's so fascinating

8:06

and also it's so terrifying at

8:08

the same time. Adam claims that

8:10

night while he's having this episode

8:13

he looks over at this green

8:15

rocking chair that's next to his

8:17

bed only there's a young boy

8:20

sitting in the chair. He doesn't

8:22

offer up an age but from

8:25

what I can tell He's anywhere

8:27

from three to seven years old,

8:29

and there's something wrong with his

8:32

head. As in, there's a huge

8:34

chunk missing from it, almost like

8:36

his skull was smashed in. Adam

8:39

later draws a sketch of what

8:41

he sees and he includes it

8:43

in the Twitter thread. And y'all,

8:46

it is freaky. You should check

8:48

it out on our socials. Yeah,

8:50

even though it's just a drawing,

8:53

it is... Really creepy and really

8:55

disturbing. But things get even creepier

8:57

because Adam says the boy just

9:00

sits there staring at him. And

9:02

while Adam wants to scream and

9:05

run, all he can do is

9:07

stare back. Because of that half-dream,

9:09

half-awake sleep paralysis state he was

9:12

in. Then it gets worse. The

9:14

little boy gets up and starts

9:16

walking towards Adam's bed. He gets

9:19

closer and gets closer and gets

9:21

closer and gets closer and gets

9:23

closer and But no matter how

9:26

hard Adam tries, he can't just

9:28

snap himself out of the paralysis.

9:30

The boy is now almost close

9:33

enough to touch him. And that's

9:35

when Adam finally wakes up. He's

9:38

so scared he's screaming out loud.

9:40

But when he looks around the

9:42

room, the boy is gone. He

9:45

thinks, okay, it was just a

9:47

dream after all. He tells himself

9:49

there's nothing to worry about. All

9:52

of this is unfortunately common with

9:54

sleep paralysis. This confusion between being

9:56

awake and being asleep. He's convinced

9:59

It was just another episode. A

10:01

few days go by and I

10:03

don't know the exact date, but

10:06

according to his Twitter thread, Adam

10:08

has another dream. This time, the

10:10

little boy isn't actually there, but

10:13

the nightmare is still about him.

10:15

You see, Adam dreams that he

10:18

meets a girl in a library

10:20

and he doesn't recognize her, but

10:22

she walks right up to him

10:25

and asks. You've seen dear David,

10:27

haven't you? At first,

10:29

Adam has no idea what

10:31

she's talking about. But after

10:33

a little bit of back

10:35

and forth, he realizes dear

10:37

David is the boy with

10:39

the dented skull, the one

10:41

that he saw the other

10:43

night. And that's when the

10:45

girl adds that dear David

10:47

is a ghost. One who

10:49

visits people in their dreams

10:51

always at the stroke of

10:53

midnight. According to her, if

10:55

you see this spirit, if

10:57

you see this spirit, You

11:00

can ask him whatever you

11:02

want. Just start by saying,

11:04

dear David, and he'll answer

11:06

your question. But you only

11:08

get to do this twice.

11:10

If you ask dear David

11:12

a third question, he'll kill

11:14

you. As soon as the

11:16

girl finishes explaining all of

11:18

this, Adam wakes up again.

11:20

Once more he tells himself,

11:22

it's just a dream. I

11:24

don't have nightmares like this.

11:26

ones that are so specific

11:28

and so bone-chilling that you're

11:30

just still thinking about it

11:32

the next morning? I mean,

11:34

not to this extent. Russia,

11:36

I know that you do

11:38

suffer from nightmares, and I

11:40

know that it's terrifying to

11:42

you, because I get the

11:44

text messages in the morning

11:46

from you. I do, and

11:48

I have recurring nightmares a

11:50

lot, but they're always a

11:52

little different each time, and

11:54

that started happening after mom

11:56

died. It's hard. It's hard

11:58

to recover from nightmares that

12:00

shake you to your core.

12:02

imagine what Adam was going

12:04

through. And just like you're

12:06

saying, Adam wonders if his

12:08

latest dream, nightmare, premonition, whatever

12:10

you want to call it,

12:13

has meaning somehow. Maybe there's

12:15

even some truth to what

12:17

the girl said. Sure enough,

12:19

a few weeks later, dear

12:21

David appears to Adam in

12:23

another dream. As soon as

12:25

Adam sees the boy in

12:27

the rocking chair, he asks

12:29

a question. Dear David, how

12:31

did you die? Dear David

12:33

replies, an accident in a

12:35

store. Not the most detailed

12:37

answer, but it's something. So

12:39

Adam decides to ask a

12:41

follow-up for his second question.

12:43

He says, Dear David, what

12:45

happened in the store? And

12:47

again, the ghost answers. This

12:49

time he says, a shelf

12:51

was pushed on my head.

12:53

Now that phrasing really gets

12:55

Adam's attention, because dear David

12:57

doesn't say a shelf fell.

12:59

He says it was pushed.

13:01

Which shocks Adam so much,

13:03

he can't stop himself from

13:05

blurting out a third question.

13:07

Dear David, who pushed the

13:09

shelf? Dear David, doesn't answer.

13:11

In fact, right then and

13:13

there, Adam wakes up with

13:15

his heart racing and sweat

13:17

soaking the sheets. Immediately, Adam

13:19

knows he's made a huge

13:21

mistake. He just asked Dear

13:23

David, a third question. He's

13:26

basically doomed himself. That is,

13:28

assuming he really is talking

13:30

to the ghost of a

13:32

dead boy. Adam still isn't

13:34

sure. Maybe these are just

13:36

some really weird dreams and

13:38

nothing more. So he tries

13:40

not to worry about it

13:42

too much. He also doesn't

13:44

tell anyone about the dreams

13:46

yet. Remember, this is months

13:48

before his Twitter thread. And

13:50

at first, Adam does what any

13:53

reasonable person living in the 21st

13:55

century might do. He googles children's

13:57

deaths in New York department stores.

14:00

He's looking for a news article

14:02

and obituary, anything that can confirm

14:04

what dear David told him and

14:07

prove that he's real after all.

14:09

But he finds nothing. He even

14:11

tries searching other denames in case

14:14

he misunderstood the girl in his

14:16

dream. But there's no record of

14:18

a Devon or a Dylan or

14:21

anyone else dying in a department

14:23

store either. This reassures Adam that

14:25

these are just dreams. They're not

14:28

real. So he just tries to

14:30

go on about his life. Thankfully,

14:32

he's got plenty going on to

14:34

distract him. You see, he's moving

14:37

from the downstairs unit of his

14:39

duplex to the upstairs one. The

14:41

upstairs apartment is a little bit

14:44

bigger and it's nicer, and it

14:46

just became vacant, so Adam wants

14:48

to upgrade while he can. And

14:51

for the first few months in

14:53

his new place, Adam actually has

14:55

some peace and quiet. No more

14:58

dreams about dear David, nothing to

15:00

worry about. That is, until the

15:02

summer... of 2017. It's the first

15:05

week of August when Adam notices

15:07

his two cats are doing this

15:09

weird thing. At the stroke of

15:12

midnight, every night, they go sit

15:14

by the front door, like there's

15:16

something or someone out there, and

15:19

they're just waiting for them to

15:21

come in. Of course, there's no

15:23

reason for anybody to be outside

15:26

of Adam's apartment in the middle

15:28

of the night, especially if his

15:30

unit takes up the entire second

15:33

floor of the two-story building. There's

15:35

no through traffic or neighbors on

15:37

that floor. Well, Adam looks out

15:40

the pea-pole one night, just to

15:42

see if there's someone creeping upstairs

15:44

after all. And he sees some

15:47

kind of movement. Only, it's too

15:49

quick for him to know what

15:51

he's actually looking at. And that's

15:53

when he gets creeped out enough

15:56

to hop on Twitter and tell

15:58

his story. That day in August,

16:00

he posts a long thread covering

16:03

everything that we just told you

16:05

so far. and the next day

16:07

on August 8th. he posts an

16:10

update. He says the cats are

16:12

still staring at the door, so

16:14

he takes a photo through the

16:17

peephole to see if his camera

16:19

can capture something, anything. And it

16:21

does. He gets a picture of

16:24

a weird shadow by the stairs

16:26

leading up to his unit. It

16:28

looks like something might be lurking

16:31

just out of sight. Either way,

16:33

Adam is terrified. He double checks

16:35

that the door is locked and

16:38

bolted so nothing can get inside.

16:40

And he tries to go to

16:42

sleep. But how do you sleep

16:45

when you're scared out of your

16:47

damn mind? I mean, Rasha, you

16:49

know me. I would not be

16:52

sleeping at all. No. I would

16:54

be up and out of that

16:56

apartment so fast, calling all my

16:59

friends like, come and get me.

17:01

Especially because this continues. We're not

17:03

talking just one time. This is

17:06

like night after night. The moment

17:08

that midnight hits, his cats walk

17:10

over to the door sit there

17:12

and wait. And by the way,

17:15

this is completely new behavior for

17:17

his cats. They've never did anything

17:19

like this before at Adam's old

17:22

unit. As days pass, Adam tries

17:24

to get more pictures, but he

17:26

can never capture anything definitive. So

17:29

he changes his focus from trying

17:31

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17:33

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greenlight.com/supernatural. He downloads

19:32

an app that's supposed to

19:34

tape people talking in their sleep,

19:36

and he lets it run all

19:38

night long. In the morning, Adam

19:40

checks that sleep talking in

19:43

their sleep. And there are three

19:45

clips that make his hair stand

19:47

on in. spoiler alert, they're

19:50

not of him talking. One of

19:52

the clips is just 16

19:54

seconds of a weird staticky

19:56

buzz. He doesn't know what to

19:59

make of it. Especially because

20:01

that static isn't audible in

20:03

any other clip. It's almost

20:06

like something is interfering

20:08

with the app, but just for

20:10

those 16 seconds. The other two

20:13

videos are snapping or cracking

20:15

sounds as though something is

20:17

moving around inside his apartment.

20:20

Freaky as all this is. The cats,

20:22

the sounds, the nightmares. It

20:24

sort of just becomes Adam's

20:27

new normal. But on

20:29

the night of August 11th things take

20:31

a turn It's a Friday and

20:33

Adam can barely keep his eyes

20:36

open He's not sure why but

20:38

he's exhausted He goes to bed

20:40

early and then he has another

20:43

one of those nightmares about

20:45

dear David Except in this

20:47

one the boy is holding Adam

20:49

by his arm and dragging him

20:52

around Adam is much bigger than

20:54

this child and he should be

20:56

able to fight him off But he

20:58

can't make his body move. It's

21:00

like he's experiencing sleep paralysis

21:03

again, except this time

21:05

he's fully aware that

21:08

he's dreaming. When he wakes up,

21:10

Adam sort of shrugs it

21:12

off. Nightmears about dear David

21:15

are routine by now, but then

21:17

he steps into the shower. He

21:19

looks down, and that's when he

21:21

sees a bruise on his arm

21:23

right where dear David was holding

21:25

him in his dream. This

21:27

solidifies it for

21:30

Adam. Whatever is

21:32

haunting him is real.

21:34

It's physical, and

21:36

it can harm him. Since

21:38

early 2017 or so,

21:41

Adam Ellis has been

21:43

having nightmares about

21:45

a ghost named dear

21:47

David. Throughout August of

21:50

that year, he posts

21:52

almost daily updates on

21:55

Twitter. Adam even makes a

21:57

few changes to his apartment in

21:59

hopes of showing it all away.

22:01

He moves that green rocking chair

22:03

from his bedroom into the living

22:06

room and he ends up buying

22:08

a new Polaroid camera that he

22:10

plays around with for fun. He

22:12

walks all around his unit snapping

22:15

photos and the pictures inside his

22:17

apartment are all very normal and

22:19

boring looking. Until he tries to

22:22

snap a picture of the hallway

22:24

outside his unit. It comes out

22:26

pitch black, pitch black, pitch black,

22:28

pitch black, pitch black, pitch black.

22:31

Adam is sure that he didn't

22:33

cover the lens with his finger.

22:35

It's also not an issue with

22:37

the lighting in the hallway because

22:40

he tries taking pictures with his

22:42

phone and they all come out

22:44

normal. The problem is only with

22:47

the Polaroid and only when he's

22:49

trying to photograph the hall. So

22:51

he takes a few more pictures

22:53

from a bunch of different angles.

22:56

And each time when he presses

22:58

the shutter, the hallway is well

23:00

lit. But every photo shows this...

23:02

Inky blackness where the hallway should

23:05

be. I mean, it is wild.

23:07

By that September, Adam wants to

23:09

spend as little time in his

23:12

apartment as possible, which, can you

23:14

really blame him? I know, we'd

23:16

both be like, uh, get us

23:18

out of here, let's move. So

23:21

Adam plans a few different trips.

23:23

Some are long vacations, some are

23:25

brief sleepovers with friends. Every time

23:27

he's gone, Adam leaves a pet

23:30

cam on in the living room

23:32

so he can keep an eye

23:34

on the cats. This camera has

23:37

a motion detector in it. So

23:39

it only records when the cats

23:41

are actually in frame and moving.

23:43

And it pings Adam's phone each

23:46

time it's activated. One weekend when

23:48

Adam's gone, he keeps getting notifications.

23:50

Except when he checks the camera,

23:52

there's nothing in the living room.

23:55

His cats aren't in frame. So

23:57

he doesn't know what's setting off

23:59

the motion detectors until he notices

24:02

some impossible. The old green rocking

24:04

chair is swaying on its own.

24:06

He even tweets a video of

24:08

the empty chair, swaying back and

24:11

forth. Adam shares another video too.

24:13

It shows a turtle shell hanging

24:15

on the wall in the same

24:17

room. And later that same night,

24:20

the shell goes plummeting to the

24:22

ground. Nothing touched it, nothing bumped

24:24

it. There was no reason for

24:27

it to fall. But it did.

24:29

Even when Adam returns home, he

24:31

leaves the pet camera on. He

24:33

wants to know if there's anything

24:36

else going on while he's asleep.

24:38

Sure enough, he gets clip after

24:40

clip of his cats staring at

24:42

the same empty space. This always

24:45

happens late at night after he's

24:47

gone to bed. Sometimes they stare

24:49

for hours. Occasionally the cat swat

24:52

at something, only there's nothing there.

24:54

About two weeks go by before

24:56

Adam posts another update. He says

24:58

that since he's gotten back, the

25:01

electronics in his unit have been

25:03

acting up. In fact, weird things

25:05

are happening throughout the building. Remember

25:07

the hallway outside his door, the

25:10

one that always shows up black

25:12

on the Polaroid film? Well, the

25:14

light bulbs in it keep burning

25:17

out. They only last a few

25:19

days before they need to be

25:21

replaced. Then, one morning in October,

25:23

not too long after he wakes

25:26

up, Adam hears these scratching noises

25:28

at his door. It sounds like

25:30

something is trying to get in.

25:32

Hoping to catch whatever it is,

25:35

Adam puts what I think is

25:37

his cell phone camera up against

25:39

the people, and he snaps a

25:42

picture. When he looks at the

25:44

result, he sees what appears to

25:46

be a misshapen, dented human face

25:48

pressed right up against the door.

25:51

I had to stare at this

25:53

photo for quite a while to

25:55

see what Adam saw. But when

25:57

it finally clicked, I couldn't... on

26:00

see it. Needless to say, after

26:02

that, things quiet down for a

26:04

while. Adam tweets about bad dreams

26:07

he's been having, but he goes

26:09

a couple weeks without giving a

26:11

dear David update at all. Until

26:13

one night in late October, Adam

26:16

is home when he happens to

26:18

glance out his window. It's pretty

26:20

late. I mean, it's somewhere between

26:22

11 p.m. and midnight. The building

26:25

next to his is only one

26:27

story tall. So Adam's second floor

26:29

unit looks out over that building's

26:32

roof. And to be clear, this

26:34

isn't a roof with a deck

26:36

or anything. People don't usually hang

26:38

out or go up there. Except,

26:41

Adam sees someone standing there. It's

26:43

dark, so he can't make out

26:45

much. But he can tell that

26:47

they're watching him, staring right into

26:50

his home through his window. Adam

26:52

immediately freaks out, I mean rightfully

26:54

so, but he still thinks. I've

26:57

got to document this. So he

26:59

grabs a camera, and even though

27:01

he snaps two pictures, neither one

27:03

clearly shows the figure. The first

27:06

is blurry, so there could be

27:08

someone on the roof, but you

27:10

really can't tell. And the second

27:12

picture just shows an empty rooftop,

27:15

like that mysterious person just vanished.

27:17

And it gets worse. Because over

27:19

the next few nights, Adam begins

27:22

hearing noises from above his unit,

27:24

thumps and thuds, like someone is

27:26

walking around right over his head.

27:28

And remember, Adam's living in the

27:31

top apartment, he doesn't have upstairs

27:33

neighbors. From what I can tell,

27:35

he doesn't have a roof deck

27:37

either. But he feels like there

27:40

isn't much else to do besides

27:42

keep sharing his story. Then, on

27:44

the night of November 5, Adam

27:47

has another nightmare about dear David.

27:49

and it's just like the first

27:51

one. The ghost appears in a

27:53

chair and watches Adam lie there.

27:56

Now Adam has been obsessing about

27:58

this boy for... over three months

28:00

looking at pet cam footage, taking

28:03

pictures, recording sounds. It's second nature

28:05

for him to document everything that

28:07

happens to him. So the moment

28:09

dear David shows up, Adam picks

28:12

up his phone and takes a

28:14

picture of him. And to be

28:16

clear, this is all happening in

28:18

his dream. Then dear David gets

28:21

up out of his chair and

28:23

walks towards Adam's bed. Each time

28:25

he takes a step closer, Adam

28:28

gets another picture. It goes on

28:30

like that until dear David is

28:32

right at Adam's side, and then

28:34

Adam wakes up. But the next

28:37

day, when Adam is looking through

28:39

the photos on his phone, he

28:41

doesn't expect to see pictures from

28:43

the night before. After all, he

28:46

thinks that he didn't actually take

28:48

any photos, he just dreamed he

28:50

did. Except right at the top

28:53

of the gallery, with his most

28:55

recent images, he sees a bunch

28:57

of photos of his bedroom at

28:59

night. including one with a very

29:02

distinct human figure sitting in a

29:04

chair. It's hard to make out

29:06

much because the room is so

29:08

dark, but if you turn up

29:11

the brightness on whatever device you're

29:13

using, you can see it very

29:15

clearly. It looks like a boy

29:18

who's no taller than the back

29:20

of the chair. He seems to

29:22

be wearing a striped shirt, and

29:24

one side of his head is

29:27

completely caved in. Oh, hell no.

29:29

I mean, you know. You know

29:31

me so well. If I am

29:33

put into this scenario, it would

29:36

be, it's time to move. Thank

29:38

you landlord. I need to look

29:40

for another place, like get me

29:43

out of this apartment. But Adam?

29:45

No. Adam sees this is an

29:47

opportunity to double down and prove

29:49

this thing exists once and for

29:52

all. Beginning in mid-December, he sets

29:54

up a camera to photograph his

29:56

room every few seconds. So he's

29:58

not recording a video exactly more

30:01

like a time lapse. He ends

30:03

up with thousands of pictures. And

30:05

after one long, restless night of

30:08

time... tossing and turning, combing through

30:10

all the photos, sure enough, he

30:12

sees dear David a lot. The

30:14

first image shows him standing at

30:17

the foot of Adam's bed just

30:19

watching him sleep. There's a bunch

30:21

of pictures like that, like he's

30:23

just standing there for a while.

30:26

Another image shows dear David in

30:28

the chair, and then he vanishes.

30:30

Later that same night he reappears,

30:33

except this time, dear David is

30:35

right next to Adam's head. Then

30:37

he climbs onto the bed, stands

30:39

on Adam's chest, and he turns

30:42

his face to look right at

30:44

the camera lens. It's like dear

30:46

David knows he's being recorded. The

30:48

last picture shows dear David's dented

30:51

head in an extreme close-up. It

30:53

looks like he's charging toward the

30:55

camera to try and grab it

30:58

or stop it from filming. This

31:00

guy is very courageous for, again,

31:02

staying in this apartment because... I

31:04

could not handle this. This is

31:07

just too creepy for me, so...

31:09

Luckily for Adam, it's almost Christmas,

31:11

and he's planning to visit some

31:13

family out of state in Montana,

31:16

so he's putting some serious distance

31:18

between himself and dear David. Except,

31:20

when he gets to Montana, weird

31:23

things keep happening. Sometimes Adam wakes

31:25

up early in the morning to

31:27

find human footprints in the snow

31:29

outside of the house. Now, no

31:32

one else is awake yet, and

31:34

the prints weren't there the night

31:36

before. It makes him think someone

31:38

is walking around casing the house

31:41

while everyone is asleep. And worst

31:43

of all, these footprints are small,

31:45

like child-sized small. When Adam gets

31:48

back home to New York, he

31:50

keeps photographing himself in his sleep.

31:52

Even though most of the pictures

31:54

are of him alone in bed,

31:57

he still has the uneasy feeling

31:59

that he's being watched. He also

32:01

starts hearing things when he's awake,

32:03

like someone is... talking to him

32:06

when no one's there. Now for

32:08

context, Adam posted the first tweet

32:10

about Dear David in early August

32:13

2017, but he's still having bad

32:15

dreams and feels haunted by the

32:17

end of January 2018. So we're

32:19

talking about nearly six months of

32:22

escalating weirdness. And during that time,

32:24

it's worth noting Adam does everything

32:26

he could think of to get

32:28

rid of the spirit. He sprinkled

32:31

the line of salt across his

32:33

doorway, he burned sage, but none

32:35

of it worked. The haunting went

32:38

on. But it does sound like

32:40

he finds a solution somewhere along

32:42

the way. I wish I could

32:44

tell you what the solution is,

32:47

but Adam never specifies. All I

32:49

know is on February 2nd of

32:51

2018, he just tweets. Everything is

32:53

fine. The next update comes almost

32:56

two weeks later on February 13th.

32:58

Adam Post, please don't worry about

33:00

me. I'm okay, and everything will

33:03

be like it was before. He

33:05

ends the tweet with a smiley

33:07

face. And to be clear, I

33:09

don't mean a smiley face emoji.

33:12

He tweets an emoticon. You know,

33:14

a colon and a parentheses right

33:16

next to each other, which is

33:18

what people used in the days

33:21

before emogies. This is weird for

33:23

a few different reasons. First, Adam

33:25

has been so detailed in all

33:28

of his post up until now.

33:30

He's shared photos, clips from his

33:32

petcams, audio from the sleep tracking

33:34

app. The list goes on and

33:37

on. So for him to now

33:39

say that everything's fine and drop

33:41

it there, it's just weird. Almost

33:44

like, what changed? What are you

33:46

hiding? Well also, the tweet doesn't

33:48

sound like something Adam would write.

33:50

Most of his tweets before now

33:53

have been grammatically correct. with capitalization

33:55

at the beginning of each sentence

33:57

and a period at the end,

33:59

basic stuff. But the everything is

34:02

fine and I'm okay tweets both

34:04

have little errors in them. Sentences

34:06

that begin with lower-case letters, missing

34:09

punctuation, plus when he types everything

34:11

is fine, there's an extra space

34:13

between is and fine. Then there's

34:15

the Smiley Emoticon. According to his

34:18

followers, Adam doesn't use Emoticons. That's

34:20

completely out of character for him.

34:22

It's as if someone else has

34:24

gotten access to more than just

34:27

his Twitter account, like maybe his

34:29

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day returns, quince.com/supernatural. In February of

35:51

2018, Adam Ellis tweets that he's

35:53

fine after months of strange occurrences

35:55

and eerie encounters with the ghost

35:58

of a dead child. Except his

36:00

followers believe he's anything but fine.

36:02

There are wild rumors going around

36:04

that he's been possessed by the

36:07

spirit of dear David. Now look,

36:09

I have to say, this seems

36:11

a little far-fetched even for me.

36:14

We've covered cases about possessions on

36:16

this show before, and they are

36:18

devastating. You can't live a normal

36:20

life when something else has control

36:23

of your body like that. But

36:25

Adam seems to maintain this high-profile

36:27

job, writing and making cartoons for

36:30

Buzzfeed during this time. He still

36:32

sees his friends and co-workers regularly,

36:34

and nobody who knows him thinks

36:36

anything is wrong. People have been

36:39

taking Adam's tweets at face value,

36:41

as truth. But what if he

36:43

wasn't telling the full story? At

36:46

this point, many are starting to

36:48

wonder if the whole dear David

36:50

thread might be a giant hoax.

36:52

When Adam talks about his bad

36:55

dreams, hearing scratching noises at the

36:57

door or his lights flickering on

36:59

and off, he could be making

37:02

all of that up. As for

37:04

the photo and video evidence, it

37:06

could have been photoshopped. It's not

37:08

that hard to snap a picture

37:11

through a peep hole and edit

37:13

it to look like a face,

37:15

or to add a creepy little

37:18

boy to a photo of an

37:20

empty rocking chair, or to make

37:22

that boy stand on top of

37:24

you while you sleep. After all,

37:27

so many of the pictures Adam

37:29

tweeted were either blurry or very

37:31

dark. That makes them look more

37:34

mysterious and spooky, but... It could

37:36

hide the signs of photo manipulation

37:38

too. When it comes to motive,

37:40

consider this. Adam is a professional

37:43

writer. A viral Twitter thread could

37:45

help his career. It's evidence he's

37:47

a good storyteller. And that Twitter

37:49

thread for what it's worth didn't

37:52

only go viral. Professional ghost hunters

37:54

and mediums were calling Adam non-stop.

37:56

They all wanted to meet dear

37:59

David for themselves. Adam even sold

38:01

the rights for a dear David

38:03

movie. The horror film came out

38:05

in 2023 right around Halloween time.

38:08

And the title is, Logically Enough.

38:10

Dear David. Okay, but here's what

38:12

I found interesting. When Adam promoted

38:15

the movie, people kept asking him

38:17

in interviews, how much of what

38:19

you posted was real? And Adam

38:21

said, I've never been interested in

38:24

convincing anyone that ghost are real.

38:26

I just wanted to tell my

38:28

story. If it was fiction, I

38:31

probably would have updated more than

38:33

once every couple weeks. Which, I

38:35

gotta say, is a fair point.

38:37

It's not like he was tweeting

38:40

about dear David every day or

38:42

even every week. If this was

38:44

all made up, you'd think that

38:47

he'd be adding details on a

38:49

regular basis, right? I mean, keeping

38:51

the momentum going and keeping the

38:53

audience engaged. But according to Adam,

38:56

he only wrote about the haunting

38:58

when there was a new development

39:00

to share. So the fact that

39:03

the story played out so slowly

39:05

with so many gaps between posts,

39:07

well, some think that's evidence he's

39:09

telling the truth. And then there's

39:12

the fact that... Adam doesn't write

39:14

horror. He's a comic writer and

39:16

his specialty is satire. So if

39:19

he's going to make something up,

39:21

why would it be something so

39:23

horrific, so close to home? Of

39:25

course, there's always the possibility that

39:28

Adam was telling the truth. But

39:30

maybe he was mistaken about what

39:32

was really going on. Because, you

39:35

know, sometimes you hear a scary

39:37

story and that it gets into

39:39

your head. And then suddenly everything

39:41

seems dangerous and high stakes. So

39:44

picture this. Adam has... a creepy

39:46

dream about this little boy with

39:48

a dent in his head. Afterward,

39:50

he can't get it out of

39:53

his mind. And then he notices

39:55

little things like noises in the

39:57

wall or lights burning out. Instead

40:00

of talking it up to mice

40:02

or faulty electrical wiring, he assumes

40:04

these are all signs of a

40:06

ghost. Okay, but to play Devil's

40:09

Advocate, what about when he visited

40:11

his family in Montana? He found

40:13

child-sized footprints in the snow. That

40:16

wasn't all in his head. I

40:18

mean, he took pictures. Could some

40:20

of this stuff be photoshopped or

40:22

edited? Of course. But there's some

40:25

evidence Adam tweeted that would be

40:27

kind of hard to fake on

40:29

your own. Particularly the videos. Like

40:32

making his rocking chair move on

40:34

its own or knocking the turtle

40:36

shell off the wall without touching

40:38

it. Plus, are we supposed to

40:41

believe that he trained his cats

40:43

to stare into space and swat

40:45

at things we can't see? And

40:48

okay, I know that Adam couldn't

40:50

find evidence of a boy named

40:52

David dying in a department store

40:54

accident in New York. But who

40:57

knows? Maybe he passed decades before,

40:59

or even as much as a

41:01

century ago. After all, some of

41:04

the mythologies surrounding him turned out

41:06

to be inaccurate. For example, Adam

41:08

learned in a dream that dear

41:10

David would kill anyone who asked

41:13

him more than two questions. But

41:15

Adam is still alive. Dear David

41:17

scared him an awful lot. Maybe

41:20

gave him a bruise or two,

41:22

but he lived to tell the

41:24

tell. And we don't know why

41:26

that is. Frankly, we don't know

41:29

why any of this happened, or

41:31

why dear David appeared to Adam

41:33

in the first place. We don't

41:36

know what he was hoping to

41:38

accomplish the whole time he was

41:40

scaring Adam out of his skin,

41:42

or why he seemingly went away

41:45

just as quickly as he appeared.

41:47

All of which were problems for

41:49

the people who adopted Adam's Twitter

41:51

threat into a feature film. So

41:54

it should be... no surprise that

41:56

the writers of the dear David

41:58

movie changed up the story in

42:01

some major ways to give it

42:03

a full narrative. For example, they

42:05

added a whole backstory where dear

42:07

David hated bullies and in the

42:10

film Adam was a huge bully.

42:12

That's why dear David chose to

42:14

torment him. In the movie, Adam

42:17

also defeats dear David by burning

42:19

his own home to the ground.

42:21

But that's something that didn't happen

42:23

at all in real life. Except

42:26

while the dear David movie was

42:28

a work of fiction in a

42:30

lot of ways, there was one

42:33

eerie parallel between the film in

42:35

real life, or two if you

42:37

count the fact that Adam had

42:39

a brief cameo in the film.

42:42

Anyway, when they shot in an

42:44

empty house in Toronto, the set

42:46

was apparently haunted. On filming days,

42:49

the stars would get to her

42:51

and make up early, which means

42:53

that only a few members of

42:55

the crew were there. But they

42:58

said during that time, The lights

43:00

would turn themselves on and off.

43:02

They also had a prop rocking

43:05

chair on set, which was a

43:07

replica of Adams. And just like

43:09

with the real version, this one

43:11

would sway on its own too.

43:14

Which makes me wonder, was the

43:16

spirit on the set of dear

43:18

David actually the dear David? Did

43:21

he follow Adam all the way

43:23

to Toronto? After all, Adam never

43:25

publicly said that he got rid

43:27

of the little boy's ghost. Just

43:30

that everything was fine and he

43:32

was okay. Now he didn't offer

43:34

any more context for those weird

43:37

tweets or all their typos, but

43:39

maybe we can read between the

43:41

lines and speculate. Did he find

43:43

a way to get along with

43:46

the specter that was haunting him?

43:48

Or maybe he and dear David

43:50

just agreed on a way to

43:52

coexist? I don't know if that's

43:55

incredibly sweet or incredibly creepy. Maybe

43:57

both. Which is often the case

43:59

with these scary stories. We don't

44:02

always know what the supernatural wants

44:04

or why it chooses the people

44:06

it does. But that's part of

44:08

the intrigue. Maybe the message of

44:11

this dear David's story is to

44:13

stop letting our ignorance make us

44:15

afraid. Maybe when we encounter the

44:18

unknown we should respond with curiosity

44:20

and empathy and find a way

44:22

to make peace with the things

44:24

that truly terrify us. This

44:37

is So Supernatural, an audio

44:39

chuck original produced by Crime

44:41

House. You can connect with

44:43

us on Instagram at So

44:46

Supernatural Pod and visit our

44:48

website at So Supernatural podcast.com.

44:50

Join Rush and me next

44:53

Friday for an all-new episode.

44:55

So what do you think,

44:57

Chuck? Do you approve? This

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