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Ryan Seacrest here.
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It's when your heart starts pounding. Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of terrifying tales. I'm your host, Kaylin Moore. We're back after a short holiday break, which I hope was joyous and relaxing for you all. I actually heard from some of you over the break via email and some over Instagram. Some people had scary stories to share. Some just wanted to say, hey,
and I loved all of them. Thank you so much to everyone who rated and reviewed over the break as well. It really means a lot. If you haven't yet, please consider leaving a rating or review wherever you listen. It really helps small podcasts like this one. And a reminder that if you have a heart-pounding tale to share on the podcast, email heartstartspounding at gmail.com. But for now, let's dive in. There's something inherently unsettling about the woods.
Maybe that's why they're such a staple in horror movies. I remember the first time I watched The Blair Witch Project, in which three amateur filmmakers stumble around a forest that won't let them out. They're searching for the fabled witch that lives inside the woods. Every turn they take brings them to a spot they've already traversed. The thick branches become so tangled above them, it's hard to tell the direction they're heading by looking at the sun. It's like being in perpetual night.
I couldn't walk in the woods for months after watching. Maybe it's scary because we live in a world where every square inch seems to be tackled and domesticated for human use. And when we're in the woods, it feels like we no longer have the upper hand. I love camping, but I do find something disquieting about it. It always feels like there's something just beyond the horizon. Like if I focus my eyes hard enough in front of me, I'll catch whatever's lurking just beyond the tree line.
And when I'm zipped up in my tent at the end of the night, my imagination explodes with what could be waiting for me outside the zipper. It's like I'm at my most vulnerable out there. Today, I'm going to take you on a terrifying camping trip into the woods with me. We're going to hear two horrific tales of camping, including one from a listener that stopped me in my tracks. So, last year on my TikTok, I shared a creepypasta story that almost immediately got censored by the app.
I've had this happen before. There's been a few times where I'll accidentally share a photo that has a little bit of gore in it, and the app will hit me with one of those warnings that says, "Some people may find this content to be disturbing." Okay, I get it and that's my bad. But I was really careful with this one. I made sure each photo was clean and it still got the strike. It seems like it got a sensitive content warning just for being scary.
This is the tale of the solo traveler. Casey Rodriguez needed to clear her head. This past year had been really rough on her. It was May 2020, and she had been stuck in her apartment for nearly three months, with little hope of anything changing. And on top of that, she had just been dumped. Maybe the state of the world was to blame, she reassured herself. But she was not alone.
But most likely, it was the fact that Casey and David were already having problems before they were forced to spend every day locked inside together. There was never more than an arm's distance between them and their problems in their crammed one bedroom. It was the only apartment they could afford in D.C. David assured her she would be fine. He was going to move out so she didn't have to worry about finding a new place. Thanks, she thought.
He was really helping her by leaving her stranded in an apartment she could never afford alone. Every day after David left, the walls of her apartment felt closer, like they were caving in. She started feeling claustrophobic. It was as if she couldn't inhale all the way in. She spent countless hours googling symptoms. Surely she had caught the virus somehow. But no, she was just suffocating herself. Two weeks later, she called her father. "'I think I need to get out of town, Dad.'
"'I think that's a great idea,' he said. "'Why don't you visit your aunt in Chicago?' "'And get on a plane right now?' "'No.' "'Do you still have my camping gear from college?' He did, but he asked who she was going to go with. "'I think just me. I just want to be alone, have some space, look at a tree. I was thinking of driving out to West Virginia, maybe Fayetteville for a few days.' When she went to pick up her things from her father, he begged her to not go alone."
You just don't know what's out there. It's not smart for a young woman to be out in the woods alone. Everyone's at home, Dad. Crime's like never been lower because no one's outside. Before she left, he gave her his film camera. Well, you should at least be able to get some nice shots with this, he said. Just bring it back to me when you get back and I'll develop the film for you here. The next morning, she was off. An hour into her trip, she started feeling more like a person. It was nice to look at different scenery for a change.
The trees were lush and alive, and the rolling hills in the distance looked like a painting. Her eyes took time to adjust to the road. It was as if they hadn't seen more than 20 feet in front of them for the last few months, and she didn't think about her breathing once. But five hours into the drive, right as she was supposed to be getting into town, she stopped seeing any signs for Fayetteville.
Casey pulled over and reached for her phone, but it looked like it had stopped getting service miles ago and hadn't been doing much to lead her in the right direction since. She kept driving, hoping to find a sign that would indicate where she was, but all the signs were for towns she didn't recognize. Casey had never been to this part of Appalachia before. Eventually, the sun started its late afternoon descent and the rolling Allegheny Mountains to the west threatened to swallow up the daylight quickly.
Casey knew she had to find a place to set up camp and soon, but in her search for anything familiar, she came up empty. The back road she was traveling down became more rugged and less kept. The once lush trees now seemed dead and demented, their snarled branches twisting into a canopy above her, blotting out the sun, and she had abandoned any hope of finding a familiar sign about 20 miles back.
But then, like the Bates Motel materializing through Janet Leigh's drowned windshield, she saw a sign for a campground. The Rusty Nail Campground was a small clearing in the woods, about half the size of a football field. Casey saw a small store for necessities by the entrance gate, and when she pulled in, she could see that it was pretty much empty except for one other RV. It would have to do for tonight.
Casey could stay the evening and continue the search for her intended location the following day. She set up her campsite in the back corner, on the other side of the site from the only other camper. A man with a tangled beard and a trucker hat sat in a camping chair, sipping a beer outside of the RV. Casey waved at him between connecting the poles of her tent, but he just sat there, sipping his beer and staring at her.
his face unchanging. The first hour or so was spent walking around, taking photos with the last bit of sunlight. She hadn't used her dad's camera in years and honestly didn't know if she was doing it right. But as it got darker, the need for wood to start a fire became more apparent. And the only place to do that was the small store she had passed.
A store that was, come to find out, severely understocked and manned by a lanky kid with auburn hair who couldn't have been more than 16. Casey noticed a sign for firewood in the corner, but all the wood underneath it had been claimed. "'Do you have any more wood?' she asked, but the boy didn't acknowledge her question. Instead, he stood behind the counter, eyes glued to a small television in the corner that was playing a news story."
Another body has been found inside a mobile home, this time in Weston, said the newscaster. Police believe it was most likely done by the same person who killed the 45-year-old mother of three last week. It was only then that the boy realized Casey was standing on the other side of the counter. Oh, I'm sorry, how can I help you? He asked, frazzled. Uh, wood. I need wood for a fire. Are you all out? No, no one's bought any all day. He looked over to see the empty wood pile.
Oh, uh, here, I'll cut you some out back. The boy led her behind the store where he grabbed a few logs to chop. You might want to keep that burning all night. They still haven't caught that guy from the news, the boy said. Has someone been on the loose for a while? Casey asked, a little nervous. Yeah, at first they thought it was just home invasions, but some people think he stalks his victims for weeks before doing anything. Messing with them, like moving stuff around and hiding in their house while they're home. Then...
One night, he just kills whoever's home. Sometimes it's one person, sometimes it's a whole family. You just never know. Are you worried? She asked. No. I'd like to see him try me. I learned karate on TikTok. The boy swung the axe in the air. His arms were so thin, it looked like she could break them in half herself. Great. If anything were to happen, at least there was an easier target on the grounds, she thought. Walking back to her site with the wood, it was nearly pitch black.
The moon hung low, waning crescent in the sky, and only the kitchen light inside the camper lit the grounds. The man in the chair still sat outside with his beer, not even a fire lit in front of him, just sitting in the dark, sipping and watching Casey build her fire. Okay, Casey thought, all I need to do is keep this fire lit all night and then I'm gone the second the sun rises. She gave the fire another few logs and then climbed inside her tent and zipped it up.
There, she waited for a while, half expecting to hear some footsteps or something ominous, perhaps. But there was nothing. It was so quiet, it was like nothing existed beyond her tent. She didn't even realize she had fallen asleep until she was woken by the sun. Right then and there, she started to pack her stuff up. But as she was taking down her tent, she couldn't find the bag that it had been meant to be stuffed in. That was strange.
It must have been left out all night and it blew away. Casey clumsily grabbed everything up in her arms and shoved it back in her car. This trip was meant to be relaxing, a new beginning. And not only was it not that, but now she was missing some equipment. She decided to just pack up her car and head back home, retracing her steps as she wound out of the forest. A few weeks later, she was watching the news when a familiar location popped up on her TV.
Police are now investigating another death in the Weston area, this time a 16-year-old boy, the newscaster read. A picture of the boy who sold her the wood filled the screen. If anyone has any information on Seffi Hastings, please contact local authorities. They are currently looking for the owner of a camper van that was found on the premise. The owner has not been located. Just then her phone rang. Hi, Dad. Dad?
"Hey sweetheart, I developed your film, come over and get it whenever." "Oh, um, thanks, I will." "Hey, you didn't tell me you ended up going camping with someone," he said. "What did he mean by that?" "Uh, I didn't," she said. "No, you must have. I have pictures here that someone else must have taken of you in the tent. It looks like you're asleep in them."
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I'm now going to share with you a story a listener sent in about a camping trip she took a few years ago. It's about camping, but most importantly, it's about trusting your gut. In July of 2020, Julia and her husband, who we'll call Mike, decided to embark on a camping trip across Colorado. Their first two nights of the trip were spent in the same city, but the third night they wanted something more remote.
So they ventured outside the city towards a national forest in the area and set up camp near a deep canyon surrounded by giant pine trees. The first night, Julia writes, was amazing. They parked their car next to a small plot of land and set up a little campsite. Many other people populated the grounds, playing games and sitting around campfires they had made with their families. The weather was beautiful. The altitude meant that it didn't get too hot despite it being July,
and the nights were clear and starry. The next day, Julia and Mike explored the landscape and surrounding town. They didn't have anything specific planned for the trip, they just wanted to get away, so they mostly popped around the little shops in the area and ate at a local diner. But that night, they came back to a campground that was unrecognizable from the night before.
The sun had started setting when they made their way back to the grounds, and in the fading light, Julia could sense a stillness that wasn't there previously. The rabbits and deer that grazed by the tree line were gone, as was the low hum of music and families talking. It was like the quiet of a beach when there's a shark in the water. "There's a difference between a nice night in the woods and a quiet night in the woods," Julia wrote. "Quiet nights mean something is wrong, and it was a very quiet night."
And then there were the bugs. Ants and flies infested the grounds, to the point where Julia and Mike had to pack up their car and move it to another plot. They started cooking dinner when, all of a sudden, they heard a scream. A child, who they later learned had stuck his foot in a cactus while running to his parents and yelling, "We gotta go!" The family ended up packing their things and taking off. Later that night, Julia and Mike sat by the fire, eating their dinner. Still unsettled by the sudden change in atmosphere,
They knew they should put out the fire after they finished eating, but something inside them wanted it to keep going. So they let it burn for another hour or so. There they sat, scanning the tree lines and swatting away flies in silence. Finally, around 11 p.m., they were able to fall asleep. But then, at 2.30 in the morning, Mike shot up in a cold sweat.
"'We gotta go,' he said, lunging towards the blanket that covered the windshield. He had hardly sat all the way up in his seat before he turned the car on and started driving. "'What do you mean?' Julia asked, but Mike was in a full panic at that point. "'I don't know. I think I heard someone scream. There's something bad over there.' Julia didn't ask any more questions. She trusted Mike, and eventually they made it to a grocery store parking lot where they parked for the rest of the night. They decided that they'd get their stuff in the morning and just head out. The night felt like it lasted forever."
What could have scared Mike so badly that they had to leave immediately? Hearing strange noises in the night while camping was typical, and usually not something to worry about. And Julia hadn't even heard what it was. Was it just a nightmare? The next morning, in the safety of the rising sun, they headed back to the campground. But Mike was still on edge. Julia asked Mike if he could tell her a little more about what he thought he heard,
Maybe now that they had slept a little, Mike would realize it was probably just a bobcat attacking some prey and they would laugh. But Mike went pale. I thought I heard a scream. And then I felt like we were being watched. All my hair stood up and I just wanted to get out of there. I thought we were going to die. When they pulled up to the grounds, just to be safe, Julia phoned the rangers. She told them someone needed to check out the area. Everything seems to be fine, the ranger said after a preliminary search of the area.
Sometimes new campers just get freaked out by sounds in the woods. You'll both get used to it. Was he making fun of them? Julia and Mike were seasoned campers. They had seen it all, but they never felt anything like this. After being brushed off by the ranger, they just wanted to get out of there. But then, sometime later, Julia got another call. It was the same ranger. "'Uh, we found something.' "'The police will be giving you a call in a bit,' he said. "'They have some questions.'
The police called within the hour. A body had been found about 50 meters from their campsite, alone in a tent. They found tracks coming out of the woods towards the tent with the body in it, and then tracks coming towards where Julia and Mike were staying. But all the cops found there were tire tracks. The tire tracks must have been left by them leaving so quickly, but the cops had questions about that night. Had they been robbed? Had they seen anything, heard anything?
Julia and Mike had left all of their belongings, wallets included, outside the car when they took off. And all of it had been there when they arrived back. Whoever attacked the man in the tent must have only had one thing in mind. A few days later, they learned that a man had been stabbed to death that night in his tent by an unknown assailant. To this day, they have not caught the person that did it, and they have not identified the body. Did Julia and Mike just barely escape a disastrous fate?
Would you ever go camping again if it were you? The first story I told you was just a legend, but many legends exist to warn us. They teach us when to trust our gut, when to run. So, dear listeners, beware while camping. You never know what you'll find out there. Or even worse, what may find you. This has been Heart Starts Pounding. Written and produced by me, your host, Kaylin Moore. Music by Artlist.
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