/random/ - random

Catherine Ledford’s family had owned the house next to the Wyricks. When Lisa got in touch with her, Catherine verified that James Gordy had died in 1974:

“I knew Mister Gordy when I was a small child. And Mister Gordy owned a real estate company in Columbus and for many, many years he was a Sunday school superintendent at our church up here, Ellison Methodist Church.”

Catherine Ledford had no photographs of Mr. Gordy, but she corroborated Heidi’s description. Mr. Gordy had gray hair, always wore a suit and tie, and shiny black shoes. She brought over photographs of her family. Heidi began looking through the photos:

“I had never seen any of those people. And when I got to the bottom, there was this little bitty picture.”

A headshot of Lon “Con” Batchelor.

Lon “Con” Batchelor

In the picture, Heidi recognized a man with a bandage on his arm and blood on his shirt. According to Catherine Ledford, Heidi had identified Catherine’s Uncle Lon:

“Lon lived here when he was a young man. He died in 1957 of cancer. And he lost his hand, I would say before he was 20-years-old in a cotton gin up here in Ellerslie.”

Heidi’s mother Lisa was now convinced that Heidi’s friends were not just figments of her imagination… they were actual dead people:

“When I found out… his name really wasn’t Con it was Lon, it scared me to death because I knew Heidi was really seeing something…”

For the next four years, Heidi continued to encounter the benevolent spirits of the two men—James Gordy and Lon Batchelor—both of whom had long been dead. Then in 1993, Heidi’s mother became pregnant. Not long after, an evil spirit came to visit. Lisa Wyrick remembered Heidi’s change in behavior:

“Heidi had never been scared of anything. She had never been scared of Con. She had never been scared of Mister Gordy. But when she saw the dark figure in our hallway, she was hysterical.”

According to Lisa, the new spirit became a frequent and sometimes violent guest:

“At first we had… talked about moving. But like I told him I said I don’t think it would be so good to move. Because wherever we go, she’s just got that gift… she’s going to see people from the past, or people that have been dead.”

On February 3, 1994, Heidi’s baby sister, Jordan, was born. Two weeks later, Lisa noticed that Heidi’s other-wordly visitations took a horrifying turn:

“She had just deep gashes down her face. And it terrified me. I didn’t know what it was. And I couldn’t imagine what could’ve scratched her that bad.”

Heidi’s father Andy never gave his daughter’s scratches much thought. He just assumed she inadvertently scratched herself during the night. Then, two nights later, he too woke up with a searing pain:

“I had three claw marks going around my side. The next night I went to sleep and I woke up and I had three claw marks down my back. And then it happened again the next night and I woke up and had three claw marks down my chest.”

The Wyrick’s called up a noted parapsychologist, Dr. William Roll, to investigate the unusual occurrences:

“She came up with physical descriptions and with names that she apparently could not have obtained in any ordinary way. So that immediately made me interested in the case. A couple of pictures had been found of Mister Gordy. The hope was that Heidi would be able to… identify… Mister Gordy’s picture if they were presented to her with a number of other photographs.”

Incredibly, Heidi had chosen the photograph of James Gordy. For the second time, Heidi Wyrick had correctly identified her spirits from a photo line-up. Dr. Roll was now certain that Heidi’s experiences were genuine:

“Having spoken to… Heidi and… her parents I’m even more convinced that we are dealing with genuine para-psychological experiences. Then the question comes up, why are these things happening to this little girl?”

Why indeed? Was it all just coincidence? Did Heidi simply make two lucky guesses? Or does Heidi Wyrick possess some mysterious power to communicate with the dead?

Heidi is now a young woman and no longer lives in the old family home. She reports that she has not seen Mr. Gordy for years. However, she continues to see the mysterious dark figure, as well as numerous other spirits. The sightings are so frequent that Heidi now takes them in stride. Not even the dark figure can scare her.

Catherine Ledford’s family had owned the house next to the Wyricks. When Lisa got in touch with her, Catherine verified that James Gordy had died in 1974:

“I knew Mister Gordy when I was a small child. And Mister Gordy owned a real estate company in Columbus and for many, many years he was a Sunday school superintendent at our church up here, Ellison Methodist Church.”

Catherine Ledford had no photographs of Mr. Gordy, but she corroborated Heidi’s description. Mr. Gordy had gray hair, always wore a suit and tie, and shiny black shoes. She brought over photographs of her family. Heidi began looking through the photos:

“I had never seen any of those people. And when I got to the bottom, there was this little bitty picture.”

A headshot of Lon “Con” Batchelor.

Lon “Con” Batchelor

In the picture, Heidi recognized a man with a bandage on his arm and blood on his shirt. According to Catherine Ledford, Heidi had identified Catherine’s Uncle Lon:

“Lon lived here when he was a young man. He died in 1957 of cancer. And he lost his hand, I would say before he was 20-years-old in a cotton gin up here in Ellerslie.”

Heidi’s mother Lisa was now convinced that Heidi’s friends were not just figments of her imagination… they were actual dead people:

“When I found out… his name really wasn’t Con it was Lon, it scared me to death because I knew Heidi was really seeing something…”

For the next four years, Heidi continued to encounter the benevolent spirits of the two men—James Gordy and Lon Batchelor—both of whom had long been dead. Then in 1993, Heidi’s mother became pregnant. Not long after, an evil spirit came to visit. Lisa Wyrick remembered Heidi’s change in behavior:

“Heidi had never been scared of anything. She had never been scared of Con. She had never been scared of Mister Gordy. But when she saw the dark figure in our hallway, she was hysterical.”

According to Lisa, the new spirit became a frequent and sometimes violent guest:

“At first we had… talked about moving. But like I told him I said I don’t think it would be so good to move. Because wherever we go, she’s just got that gift… she’s going to see people from the past, or people that have been dead.”

On February 3, 1994, Heidi’s baby sister, Jordan, was born. Two weeks later, Lisa noticed that Heidi’s other-wordly visitations took a horrifying turn:

“She had just deep gashes down her face. And it terrified me. I didn’t know what it was. And I couldn’t imagine what could’ve scratched her that bad.”

Heidi’s father Andy never gave his daughter’s scratches much thought. He just assumed she inadvertently scratched herself during the night. Then, two nights later, he too woke up with a searing pain:

“I had three claw marks going around my side. The next night I went to sleep and I woke up and I had three claw marks down my back. And then it happened again the next night and I woke up and had three claw marks down my chest.”