The family experienced an infestation of flies, footsteps in the basement, and a shadowy figure pacing the living room with wet boot prints.
Latoya's daughter Arian was found levitating above her bed, an event that left her unconscious and with no memory of what happened.
They reached out to local churches and clairvoyants, who suggested using bleach and ammonia, drawing crosses, and moving out, though the family couldn't afford to move.
The clairvoyants claimed the house was besieged by over 200 demons, which aligned with the family's Christian faith.
She built an altar in the basement with a white sheet, a white candle, a statue of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, and a Bible open to Psalm 91, while wearing white clothes and burning sage and sulfur.
The children's eyes would bulge, their voices would deepen, and they would speak with evil smiles. Latoya felt weak, lightheaded, and warm, with her body shaking uncontrollably.
They were skeptical, with some suggesting Latoya might be encouraging her children's behavior or suffering from a mental illness. However, they documented the strange events and conducted psychological evaluations.
He performed multiple exorcisms on Latoya and her children, initially conducting a minor exorcism without church approval and later performing three major exorcisms, two in English and one in Latin.
DCS required Latoya to stop discussing demons with her children, participate in therapy, get a job, and seek alternative housing. Reverend Maginot performed exorcisms, which the family believed resolved the demonic activity.
Clinical psychologist Stacey Wright suggested Latoya might have made her son believe he was demonically possessed, creating a situation where the child acted out as if he were possessed.
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Is demon possession real? Or is demon possession an archaic explanation for a biological or psychological phenomenon?
Is it just another example of how we, as human beings, seek to explain things that are difficult to explain in a manner that is a throwback to the days of superstition, untempered by science?
Welcome to Strange and Unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I've never been to Gary, Indiana, but I did sing the song from The Music Man about it once. And while the story of a grifter growing a conscience and miraculously teaching local kids to play instruments through positive thinking and osmosis is certainly strange, we are not here to explore that story. No, Gary, Indiana has another claim to fame besides Harold Hill. The House of 200 Demons.
This is the story of the Ammons family and their horrifying experiences in that house. It is a story filled with darkness, mysterious occurrences, and a whirlwind of skepticism. It is a story of tragedy, alleged demonic possession, and sensational media coverage that raises as many questions as it answers. And above all, it is the story of a family in distress. ♪
In late November of 2011, LaToya Ammons and her mother Rosa Campbell and LaToya's three children moved into a rental home in Gary, Indiana. The house, situated on a quiet street, had a screened-in front porch. Soon after they moved in, an infestation of flies swarmed the porch of their new house. Flies, especially in large numbers, were a super weird occurrence for that time of the year.
The family took all kinds of measures to get rid of the flies, but no matter what they did, the flies kept on flying. In an article from the Indianapolis Star, published in 2014, Latoya's mother Rosa recalled, quote, This is not normal. We killed them and killed them and killed them, but they kept coming back, end quote.
As gross and upsetting as it would be to move into a place filled with a creepy Amityville-style fly problem, that was apparently just the beginning. It seems like flies were maybe not the only unwelcome guests in the new house. Also, almost immediately after moving in, LaToya and her mother Rosa began to hear footsteps in the basement of the house, as well as footsteps that sounded like they were climbing up the basement stairs.
They heard the basement door creak open when no one was there. They locked the basement door, but the creaking noise continued. Then, one night, Rosa woke up in the early hours and saw, according to the article in the Indy Star, quote, a shadowy figure of a man pacing her living room. She leaped out of bed to investigate and found large, wet boot prints, end quote. ♪
Okay, if this was a movie, this would be the part where I shout, girl, get out of the house, and then I'd get kicked out of the movie theater. Seeing movies with me is super fun. Anyway, needless to say, they didn't get out of the house because if they had, that would be the end of the episode and I would be getting a lot of really angry listener emails. ♪
Things in the Ammons' house got worse than shadowy, pacing, wet-footed men. Rosa reported that she was choked by an unknown force. And if that horrific experience wasn't enough, on March 10, 2012, at around 2 in the morning, most of the family was still awake because they were together with friends mourning the loss of a loved one.
Latoya's daughter, Arian, was sleeping along with a friend in her bedroom, and Latoya stopped in the room to check on the kids when she suddenly screamed for Rosa. When Rosa rushed to the room, she saw the unthinkable. An unconscious Arian was floating above the bed. The family all gathered around the bed and the floating child and began to pray. Eventually, the girl returned to the bed. When she woke up, she had no memory of what had happened.
LaToya described the levitation in the Indy Star article, saying, quote, It was as though something was snatching her off the bed, end quote. This event changed the way LaToya and her family viewed the apparent haunting of the house on Carolina Street. From that moment on, a much more sinister force seemed to be at work. The family that was visiting the Ammons' household that night responded to the event by vowing never to return.
Who can blame them? I try to avoid visiting anyone ever, and as far as I know, none of my friends' homes are being haunted. I sure as hell wouldn't go back for another visit if people were floating out of their beds.
The Indy Star article said that things went downhill following the levitation incident. Quote, they reported that Andrew would be thrown across the room. Armani, the youngest, would have moments when his eyes would roll back into his head and say things like, I'll kill you or it's time to die. End quote. Woof. Not today, Bob. Woof.
The family felt like something needed to be done, so they reached out to local churches for help. They received little. The one church that did respond told Latoya to clean her house with bleach and ammonia, which was curious advice given that mixing bleach with ammonia causes noxious fumes that irritate skin, eyes, and lungs of the living, and likely wouldn't do anything to a demon. Maybe they'd inadvertently called the demon's number instead of the church?
They also said to draw crosses and oil on all the doors and windows. Latoya got out the olive oil and did as she was told. She also drew crosses on her kids' hands, feet, and foreheads, just to be safe, I guess.
Anyway, since the church response wasn't exactly overwhelming, according to the Indy star, Latoya and Rosa, quote, reached out to two clairvoyants who said the family's home was besieged by more than 200 demons. Their explanation made sense to Campbell and Ammons, they say, because it meshed with their Christian faith. The best thing you can do is move, Ammons remembers the clairvoyants telling her, but moving wasn't an option for the cash-strapped family, end quote.
So to recap, Latoya was like, hey, church leaders and spiritualists, I have some really unholy shit happening in my house. And to my children, please help. Our souls may be in danger. And their response was either poison yourself with ammonia and bleach or just move because you have 200 or more demons. OK, thanks for all your help.
When I ask myself what would Jesus do in a situation where one of his flock is in need, I don't really come up with, "Tell the whole family that just moved to move again at their own expense, and then peace out." Instead, LaToya decided to do something within her reach. She built an altar of protection in the basement. She covered a table with a white sheet, placed a white candle on it, and added a statue of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, and a Bible.
LaToya made sure the Bible was open to Psalm 91, a psalm for protection and safety. Then she put on white clothes and burned sage and sulfur throughout the house while reciting the psalm. Quote, You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. End quote. End quote.
Latoya sprinkled salt around the basement walls in case the 200-plus demons were coming from under the basement stairs, and sweet relief, there were no disturbances for about three days. Strangers, cornbread CBD gummies are back. I am into these gummies. Cornbread hemp gummies are USDA organic, with nothing synthetic and no harsh solvents like petrochemicals or industrial acids, unlike most hemp THC products.
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And then things got much, much worse. Latoya and Rosa said that all three children became possessed. They saw their eyes bulge and heard their voices deepen as they spoke through evil smiles.
Maybe it's puberty. Maybe it's demons. But then, LaToya too felt physical changes come over her. She too was possessed by demons, it would seem. The Indianapolis Star described her experience. Quote, "She felt weak, lightheaded, and warm when she was possessed. Her body shook, and she felt out of control. You can tell it's different, something supernatural." End quote. Maybe it's perimenopause. Maybe it's demons.
During these times, the children would do all the creepy, demonic things that possessed children in a movie would do. Latoya's then seven-year-old Armani was found in a closet talking to... someone. No one could see the other person, but supposedly Armani was speaking to another boy who was describing to him what it felt like to be killed. So I just want to pause and say, I don't understand.
I thought the psychics told the family they were being haunted by 200 or more demons, but this sounds like ghost stuff. I feel like at this point in making this podcast, I should be qualified to know the distinctions between ghosts and demons. There are distinctions, right? Anyway, Armani's grandmother reported that on one occasion he flew out of the bathroom, quote, as if he'd been thrown, end quote. And Arian, too, had some more harrowing experiences after her levitation.
In one instance, Arian was hit in the head with a headboard and needed stitches. I'm not sure what the circumstances around that incident were, but it was just one of a number of alarming experiences she described. The Indy Star article says of Arian in those days, quote, "...the 12-year-old would later tell mental health professionals that she sometimes felt as if she were being choked and held down so she couldn't speak or move."
She said she heard a voice say she'd never see her family again and wouldn't live another 20 minutes, end quote. So that's horrible and traumatic. The whole thing was traumatic for everyone. Latoya said she would sometimes take her family to a hotel just to get away from the house.
And the family weren't the only ones to talk about what was happening in the Ammons' house. Aside from the grieving friends who vowed never to return, there were neighbors who also noticed the unsettling atmosphere at the house. The house felt off, is what they said. Yes, that's one way to put it. Then, in a spectacular display of off, came the most bizarre incident of haunting and possession yet.
After consulting the church and clairvoyance and getting nowhere, LaToya visited the family physician, Dr. Jeffrey Oniyukwu. According to an article from the Des Moines Register from 2014, LaToya explained the situation, hoping the doctor might be able to help where others had failed.
Dr. Onyuku called the case bizarre. Quote, 20 years, and I've never heard anything like that in my life, he said. I was scared myself when I walked into the room. In his medical notes about the visit, Onyuku wrote delusions of ghost in home and hallucinations. He also wrote history of ghost at home and delusional, end quote.
So here was a man of science, unsurprisingly skeptical about what was happening in the Ammons' home. But even his seasoned skepticism was put to the test. At the visit to the doctor, Latoya's sons appeared to be possessed.
Rosa told the Indy Star that her grandson cursed Dr. Oniyukwu, quote, in demonic voices raging at him. Medical staff said the youngest boy was lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him, according to a DCS report, end quote.
I would imagine it's not every day that the Department of Child Services hears medical staff making claims like this. I'm sure there are abusive parents out there who might try to blame Satan for their children's scars and bruises, but medical professionals? Not likely.
After this display, both boys fell unconscious and could not be roused. The Des Moines Register reported that, quote, someone from the doctor's office called 911. Oniyuku said seven or eight police officers and multiple ambulances showed up. Everybody was, they couldn't figure out exactly what was happening, he recalled, end quote.
The unconscious boys were transported to Methodist Hospital's campus in Gary. When the boys came to, the nine-year-old was calm, but the seven-year-old boy screamed and thrashed, according to Rosa, who said, quote, "...it took five men to hold him down," end quote. The younger boy bared his teeth and growled and rolled his eyes to the back of his head. He wrapped his hands around his older brother's throat and choked him until attendants pried him loose.
Later, a DCS agent, a registered nurse named Willie Lee Walker, and Rosa were in an exam room with both boys when, again, LaToya's youngest child began to growl and told his older brother, it's time to die. And, in what the indie star described as a deep, unnatural voice, he said, I will kill you. While this was happening, the nine-year-old boy head-butted his grandmother in the stomach.
It was during all this chaos that someone made a call to DCS and requested that the agency investigate Latoya Ammons for, according to the Indy Star, quote, "...possible child abuse or neglect." The caller, who is not named in the DCS report, speculated that Ammons might have a mental illness.
The person believed that children were performing for Ammons, and she was encouraging their behavior. DCS family case manager Valerie Washington was asked to handle the initial investigation. She gave the following account to police and in her intake officer's report.
Hospital personnel examined Ammons and her children and found them to be healthy and free of marks or bruises. A hospital psychiatrist evaluated Ammons and determined she was of sound mind, end quote. This is why there is a DCS report documenting the strange happenings at the hospital and why DCS agent Washington was present to interview the family.
According to Washington's initial report, as reported by the Indy Star, quote, In an account corroborated by Walker the nurse, the nine-year-old had a weird grin and walked backward up a wall to the ceiling. He then flipped over Campbell, landing on his feet. He never let go of his grandmother's hand. He walked up the wall, flipped over her and stood there, Walker told the Star. There's no way he could have done that.
Later, police asked Washington whether the boy had run up the wall as though performing an acrobatic trick. No, Washington told them. She said the boy glided backward on the floor, wall and ceiling, according to a police report. End quote.
Um, okay. So according to multiple reports, these kids went full Linda Blair in a pediatrician's office in full view of cops, medical personnel and social workers. So either this possession business is real or everyone had a special brownie on the way into the doctor's office that day.
And thus began other problems for Latoya and her family. Latoya spent the night at the hospital with her youngest. The next day was the boy's eighth birthday.
According to the Indy Star article, quote, The family celebrated the boy's birthday by singing and eating a miniature cake. Then Ammons said Washington told them the children wouldn't be going home. DCS took the emergency step of taking custody of the children without a court order, end quote. The article quotes DCS's report, quote, All of the children were experiencing spiritual and emotional distress, end quote.
LaToya and her kids were devastated, naturally. None of them wished to be separated. Their family unit had already been challenged enough. LaToya said, quote, We'd already been through so much and fought so hard for our lives. It was obvious we were a team, and we were beating it, whatever we were fighting. We made it through together as a team, and they separated us, end quote.
During this separation, a hospital chaplain reached out to Reverend Michael Maginot, a priest at St. Stephen Martyr Parish in Maryville, to ask him to perform an exorcism on Latoya Ammon's nine-year-old son. The priest interviewed the family at their home on April 22nd.
He spent four hours witnessing all manner of paranormal activity, from flickering lights to swaying blinds to more wet footprints. Though, I guess, oddly enough, no levitating or wall-walking. He left with the belief that the family was, indeed, being tormented by demons, and that the house was haunted by ghosts.
He did some praying, read the Bible, and sprinkled holy water. And on his way out, Reverend Maginot told LaToya and Rosa it wasn't safe for them in the house. The two women finally took their leave of the house and moved in with a relative. The following week, while LaToya's children were still in DCS custody, family case manager Washington and a Lake County police officer were scheduled to check the condition of the home.
They brought with them two other officers who asked to join them, including Gary Police Captain Charles Austin. LaToya arrived for the visit, but she remained outside the house. Rosa agreed to go in with the case manager and three officers. During this visit, one of the officers recorded audio, and according to the Indy Star and police records, quote, when he played it back, heard an unknown voice whisper, hey, end quote. ♪
Lake County police records also have photos of the basement stairs where a cloudy white image can be seen in one picture. An enlarged version of the photo shows this cloudy part to resemble a face and reveals a second green image that, according to the Indy Star article, quote, police say looked like a female. Austin said photos he snapped with his iPhone also seemed to have strange silhouettes in them, end quote.
There is a lot of stuff after that about Captain Austin's radio not working and his garage door not opening and other weird car stuff. To me, it just sounds like Austin was having some technical difficulties or who knows, maybe Mercury was in retrograde. At any rate, Austin began to believe the Ammons' story.
But, says the Indy star, quote, the mental health professionals evaluating Ammons and her children remained skeptical. See, this was not the first time DCS had investigated the Ammons.
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Back in 2009, DCS found that Latoya was guilty of educational neglect. The children had missed too much school for their liking. Latoya told them the absences were because of pesky demons. She claimed the kids had to be asleep by 11 or the demons would keep them up all night by throwing and moving things around. So I guess there were too many nights when the kids were up past 11 and kept up by demons.
When DCS began evaluating the situation in 2012, they made the same finding again. By April 2012, DCS asked Lake Juvenile Court for temporary wardship of the three children, and their petition was granted. When questioned about this, LaToya told the case manager, Washington, that sometimes, quote, she could not send the kids to school because the spirits would make them sick or they would be up all night without sleep.
During DCS's 2012 investigation, LaToya's youngest was evaluated by a clinical psychologist named Stacey Wright. Wright's report said the child would act possessed if she challenged him or if it seemed like he did not want to answer the questions she was asking him.
The Indy Star reported, quote, In her evaluation, Wright wrote that he seemed coherent and logical, except when he talked about demons. It was then that the eight-year-old's stories became bizarre, fragmented, and illogical, Wright said. His stories changed each time he told them, end quote.
He would ask Wright non-sequitur questions about math or outer space. Quote, Can you die if you go to space? he asked. How do you get to space? Do you have to wear a helmet and suit? End quote.
Wright concluded that the boy did not suffer from a true psychotic disorder. Her report read, quote, Basically, Wright believed Latoya's son suffered from a case of supernatural Munchausen by proxy.
His mother made him believe not that he was sick, but that he was demonically possessed. And Wright was not alone. LaToya's other children were evaluated by another clinical psychologist named Joel Schwartz, who wrote in his report, quote, There also appears to be a need to assess the extent to which LaToya's daughter may have been unduly influenced by her mother's concerns that the family was exposed to paranormal experiences, end quote.
In her sessions, Arians said she saw shadowy figures in the Carolina street house, and Latoya's older son told Dr. Schwartz, quote, doors would slam and stuff started moving around, end quote. But nothing in the family's psychological evaluations was conclusive.
None of the psychologists who wrote reports seemed willing to make declarative statements about the mental health of the family or of their opinions about the validity of the hauntings. When Latoya was examined, psychological reports said she was, quote,
One psychologist recommended Ammons be assessed to determine whether her religiosity may be masking underlying delusional ideations or perceptual disturbances, end quote. But in spite of this suggestion, Latoya and her children continued to claim to have been possessed by demons, which, if you think about it, is a pretty bold flex, since claiming this literally pulled their family apart.
Like, if she were making it up, you'd think the threat of losing her children permanently would be enough to make her knock it off? Unless she really was experiencing a psychotic break.
Eventually, DCS agreed to a plan toward reconciling the family pending the accomplishment of certain goals. In the Indy Star article, it says that one such goal stipulated, quote, that the children not discuss demons and being possessed and take responsibility for their actions. They also needed to participate in therapy to address past behavior, end quote. I mean, the therapy part seems fair. Obviously, this was a traumatic experience for everyone involved.
But DCS went further. They recognized that LaToya had a very close bond with her children, but they also stated that they required her to, quote, use alternate forms of discipline not directly related to religion and demon possession, according to DCS's plan. Appropriate discipline included encouragement, rules, and withholding privileges. She could work on those goals during supervised visits with the children, end quote.
So, it sounds like LaToya would regularly warn her children that if they didn't behave, they would be possessed by demons? Perhaps this line of discipline spun out of control? In addition to the no demons rule, LaToya was now required to get a job and seek alternative housing. LaToya worked to meet the goals set for her by DCS, and police continued to investigate the demon house of Carolina Street.
On May 10, 2012, Rosa Campbell, Latoya Ammons, Captain Charles Austin, and the two other police officers from the earlier DCS visit returned to Carolina Street. This time, they brought Reverend Maginot and two additional Lake County officers with a police dog, as well as a new DCS family case manager, Samantha Illick.
Illich told the Indy Star that, quote, she volunteered to go in Washington's place because Washington didn't want to go back to the house, end quote. The priest investigated the dirt under the stairs that had been mentioned as a possible source for the demon activity in the house. He told the police he was looking for a pentagram which might indicate a, quote, demonic presence and possible portal to hell, end quote, according to a Lake County police report.
He also was interested in cursed objects. While in the basement, a police officer dug a four-foot-by-three-foot hole under the stairs. They did find some objects. Were they cursed, though? Who can say? According to police reports, the list of objects included, quote, a pink press-on fingernail, a white pair of panties, a political shirt pin, a lid for a small cooking pan, socks with the bottoms cut off below the ankles,
They presumably collected these possibly cursed objects and filled in the hole, sprinkling some salt on it to be safe.
Later, according to the Indy Star, the DCS representative Illick said, quote, her left pinky finger started to tingle and whiten. She complained it felt broken. Less than 10 minutes later, Illick said she felt as if she was having a panic attack. She couldn't breathe. So she walked outside to wait for the group, end quote. Latoya also left the house when she began to feel a headache coming on. I can't blame her. This whole story is starting to give me a headache.
Finally, Charles Austin left the house as well because he was not interested in hanging around after dark.
The other officers and the priest stayed. The Indy Star article tells us that police records state, quote, On the main floor, they noticed an oil-like substance dripping from the Venetian blinds in a bedroom, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. To make sure Campbell or Ammons hadn't poured oil on the blinds, two of the officers used paper towels to clean it off. The officers sealed the room for 25 minutes and stood nearby so no one could walk in.
When they went back in, the oil had reappeared, according to police records. Reverend Maginot said this was certainly a manifestation of a paranormal or demonic presence. And he wrote a report about it, along with a petition asking Bishop Dale Melchick to perform an exorcism on Latoya Ammons.
Melchak denied Maginot's request, so Maginot reached out to other priests to get the steps for a minor exorcism which does not require church approval. But as it turns out, the other priests were like, I'm too busy, look it up on the internet. Which makes me wonder if there are webpages out there where you have to read miles of boring backstory to get to the nitty-gritty of the exorcism ritual. ♪
I first learned about this exorcism when I was vacationing in the Carpathian Mountains in my 30s. Ugh. Maybe nowadays one can just go straight to exorcism TikTok? Fingers crossed?
Maginot figured it out, I guess. Honestly, at this point, there are dozens of movies one might watch to learn the basics of an exorcism, and performed a minor exorcism on Latoya using a ritual of prayers to cast out demons. Two police officers and Illich, the DCS case manager, were there. Quote, Illich said she left believing that something was going on, although she wouldn't go as far as saying it was demonic. She said she got chills during the nearly two-hour rite.
End quote.
After visiting Carolina Street, Illick claimed to suffer a series of misfortunes. She got third-degree burns from a motorcycle. She also broke three ribs jet skiing, broke a hand by hitting a table, and broke an ankle while running in flip-flops. None of this sounds like it has anything to do with demonic possession to me, stranger. I mean, riding motorcycles, jet skis, punching solid objects, running in flip-flops? These are some high-risk activities. It's
It stands to reason if you are a thrill-seeker doing these risky things, you might hurt yourself. It's why I rarely leave the house. Like, calm down, Lara Croft. Maginot ended up doing three major exorcisms on Latoya. Two in English and one in Latin.
In each one, he held a crucifix to Latoya's head and said, quote, I cast you out, unclean spirit, along with every satanic power of the enemy, every specter from hell, and all your fell companions, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, end quote.
The last exorcism, the one in Latin, happened at the end of June 2012. Maginot's brother stood guard as Latoya convulsed and he drove out the demons. That was the last time Latoya saw Maginot, and that was the last of the demon possession of the Ammons family. And according to the landlord of the house on Carolina Street, that was the last of the paranormal activity at that property.
Of the Ammons haunting, he had this to say, quote, You and me both, Bob. But who's to say? I admit I struggle with stories about demon possession where a priest comes in and talks in Latin and solves the problem.
Demons seem like cartoon characters to me, and their antics sound outrageous. I am much more afraid of things humans are capable of. I think the real scary thing in a story like the Ammons is not knowing. Latoya Ammons seems to be a loving mother. Her kids seem like normal kids. Rosa Campbell seems like a caring support for her family.
We have much more evidence and science to support the theory that this family was suffering from a group delusion, or that LaToya and her mother were psychologically manipulating the kids. But that is a depressing story.
Then you take the number of credible people working in fact-based fields who came to believe the family's story: nurses, doctors, police officers, the police captain, social services employees. And suddenly it all seems less far-fetched. You can brainwash someone all day long, but I don't think that's going to make them levitate or walk on walls.
The truth is, we don't know what happened to Latoya Ammons and her family in the house on Carolina Street, or, frankly, before that. Maybe Latoya was a troubled person who passed her troubles on to her children. Or maybe the Ammons were living in hell on earth for those years. Maybe they were living in the demon house. Or perhaps they were the demon house. I don't know how that stuff works.
You have to decide for yourself, stranger. This is something you just have to take on faith. Next time on Strange and Unexplained. In 1968, Donald Crowhurst entered a solo sailing race to circumnavigate the globe. With no sailing experience, a less than stellar boat, and a bunch of hubris, what could possibly go wrong? The Strange Adventure of Donald Crowhurst.
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