Living With a Demon: The Haunting of Brownsville Road

Young Bob Koranmer used to walk around his block in Brentwood, Pennsylvania, and often wonder what it would be like to step into one of the most amazing houses he had seen up until that point in his life. Sure, he got to see many as he got older and ended up moving away to join the army, but his thoughts would always come back to this one. The place must have been built in the late eighteen hundreds. He thought the stories of kids from his neighborhood would share about it were something else, though. They were scared of it, but not Bob. Years passed and the dreams Bob had of the house had solidified as only that a long shot dream. Bob was married and had four children when he got the news that his brother passed away in a tragic accident, and Bob needed to go back home to Brentwood. Somebody needed to take care of his parents, so he decided to move his family back home, and as they were getting ready to move, he learned that his dream house was for sale thirty four zero six Brownsville Road. It was just like he remembered it years ago. He was determined to get it. His dream was about to come true, but Bob and his family didn't know it. A nightmare that would last for decades was just about to start. My name is Edwin, and here it's a horror story. Bob was working as an army intelligence officer when his brother died in a terrible car accident. His parents were devastated and he needed to be there for them, so he told Lisa and their four kids that they were leaving Kentucky and heading for his hometown. And that's when Bob learned his dream home was available. They called this real tour and scheduled the tour, and it was just like he remembered, a massive, magical turn of the century house who was the oldest house on Brownsville Road. Because the house was so old, it was subject to haunting stories, Bob always thought those were lies things could say to scare each other. He always wondered what it looked like, and the inside was everything he thought it would be. Ten foot ceilings, big rooms, old woodwork, a grand staircase, a giant pantry, a servant's staircase. It felt like walking into a historic place, and just standing inside made Bob feel very important. He was drawn to the house, but his wife, Lisa did not share these feelings. As a family toured the house, Lisa felt uneasy. The couple showing them the house seemed to be in a rush, kind of like they didn't want to be there. She didn't like the feelings she got when she set foot inside. The Cranmers and the couple were in the basement looking at a large gas furnace. Lisa and Bob noticed that three year old Bobby was nowhere to be seen, and no one saw him walk away, And that's when they heard a terrified scream coming from upstairs. It was Bobby. They ran out of the basement and found Bobby standing in the landing of the main staircase. His eyes were well ed up, full of tears, and he looked scared. The woman ran ahead of the Cranmers and hugged Bobby. She asked him, oh, honey, what's the matter. Did you see something? Lisa was stuck on her question what did the woman mean by that? What would he have seen? In some strange way, Lisa felt validated something was wrong with his house, but Bob ignored Lisa's concerns. He needed to live in this house. When he gave his lower than enlisted offer, He thought the couple would counter offer and ask for something higher, but they didn't. They took Bob's first amount and there was no negotiation the win. Bob thought the family was officially settled into their new home on December twelfth, nineteen eighty eight. The strange activity began almost immediately after they moved into thirty four zero six Brownsville Road. Bob noticed the walking closet underneath the staircase and the chain light was carefully wrapped around the light and he could never find it. He would walk in, struggle to find the light, finally turn it on and then off, and then leave. Five minutes later, the chain was wrapped around the light bulb again. Lights flickered on and off on their own. Bob kept finding faucets on, but no one would admit to leaving them on. The house radio turned itself on, that was banging on the walls. Doors closed on their own. Bob figured it was nothing. It was an old there was a draft or something. There was always an excuse for him. These were just things they had to learn to live with. But then Bob found his kids running to his bedroom every night. They were scared. Bob's daughters told him their door slammed close and something was turning the doorknob. They complained about scratching and knocking on the walls of their rooms. This time he had no excuse to explain it away. Two months after moving in, Bob called a priest to come check out the house. The priest walked to the house. While praying, he blessed each room with holy water. He went downstairs first, but then he got up to the second floor and he couldn't finish his blessing. When he got to little Bobby's room, Bobby stopped him. He closed his door, got in front of it and told the priest that he was not allowed to enter. He would not budge, no one could move him. Bob thought it was odd, but he put it out of his mind. That's just what Bob did. About a year after moving in, Bob was planting flowers in the backyard. As he was digging his garden shovel hit something was an old box. Inside was a Catholic scapular and other religious items. He called the couple who sold them the house to ask what it was, and the couple was very serious when they told Bob to rebury it and just leave it there. They refused to explain why it was there, and Bob again simply try to forget about it for a while. That's how things were for most of the family, little creepy occurrences here and there, except for little Bobby. Bobby's room became known as the Blue Room. His room had a very specific wallpaper, one that none of the other rooms in the house shared. It was deep midnight blue. Bobby's first memories are him being terrified of this room. As he got older, he remembers opening the door, scurrying along the wall and running into the closet and just staying there. That's where he slept, and he did this for years. He even set up a mattress in the closet. He would run in, close his closet and turn on the light. Bobby had no early memories of why he was so scared of the Blue Room, but soon he understood. He would hear scratching and tapping on the walls, like the rest of his siblings, but there was something else in there with him. At night, Bobby stayed home sick. He watched from his window as his mom took his brother and sisters to school. As soon as the minivan pulled out of the driveway, Bobby heard a noise from the hallway that sound like a distorted bagpipe, and it was getting closer. He stared at the door as the sound got louder, and suddenly a dark, hooded figure rushed past the door. They came back and just stood there at the doorway. Bobby pulled his covers and tried to hide underneath. His blankets were ripped off of him and he flew to his feet. They were folded at the foot of the bed. Bobby fell back and was now laying down staring at the ceiling, and there was another figure above him. It was shaped like a human, but it shone like a light bulb. Bobby closed his eyes in fear, and when he reopened them, the figures were gone. For a long time, Bobby didn't tell anyone about the figures, but he wasn't the only one seeing them. Bobby's younger brother saw a figure two. He was watching TV one afternoon. It was laying on the couch when a hooded figure floated past him and into the kitchen. David was startled and he ran after it. His mom, Lisa, was in the kitchen and David asked her who had just come in, as she said nobody. The haunting seemed to be getting worse as time went on. All four children suffered through sleep paralysis almost every night. They all had night terrors. They were losing friends who no longer wanted to go visit the house. At one point, Lisa was hospitalized after suffering a mental breakdown. The house became unbearable for her. There was a night that Bobby finally left his closet and tried to sleep in his bed. The moment he dozed off, he felt something grab his feet. He was yanked out of his bed and into the hallway, but he didn't see anything. The Cranmer suffered the haunting of the Brownsville home in silence. It was easier this way. They continued to try and lead normal lives. Bob became more involved in the local community, and in nineteen ninety one he was elected to the Brentwood City Council. In nineteen ninety six, he became a county commissioner. And all this time Bob kept pretending nothing was going on in his house. It was easy for him. He wasn't the one seeing things. Most of it was happening to the rest of the family, but they tried to pretend life was fine too. The family dog, Sandy, was the only one who couldn't do this. Sandy seemed to know where the hooded figure was. They would bark into seemingly empty hallways and would be caught staring at corners, looking at something no one else could see. There was one day that Bob saw Sandy staring at something, so he decided to take a picture. When he developed it, there was a smoky, skeleton like figure in front of the dog. Most people would have left the house at this point, but Bob refused. Maybe it was his arrogance, his pride, or just plain stubbornness. Everyone else wanted to leave. Bob had the final word, though, and his final words were, we are staying. These entities are not winning. To Bob, this was a worthy cause, but everyone else was suffering. By the two thousands, Bobby was at the point he didn't want to be in the house anymore. He stayed out as much as possible. As time went on, the activity worsened so much that it could no longer be ignored. The entity haunting the house seemed to be targeting Bobby. Bobby was in his room one night listening to music when a CD flew across the room and crashed into the opposite wall. It shattered, but it was so close to hitting Bobby and injuring him. And things like that kept happening to him, only him. Bob and Lisa decided it was time to seek help, and they contacted the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. The church believed the demonic entity was behind the activity in the home. Bob thought the church would show up, pray in the house, do some kind of ritual, and then this whole ordeal would be behind them, but it was wrong. The church would take at least a year to finish the exorcism of the house. Each week a priest would come to thirty four to zero six Brownsville Road to cleanse it. But everything the church did seemed to make matters worse. Jessica, the oldest of the Cranmer children, had a child of her own. By this time, she was living at home with the baby's father, and one night he was checking up on the baby after bedtime, and when he picked inside, the hooded figure was standing right next to the baby's cradle. They moved out and into their own apartment after that incident. The entity didn't hurt the child, but it didn't spare Bob or Bobby. They regularly woke up with markings on them. The markings appeared to be made with claws. They both had cuts on their stomachs and backs, always in threes. The church advised Bob and Bobby to wear crucifixes to bed, but both of them kept having to get new ones. They would wake up to the crucifixes being pulled off or they were broken or folded in half during the night. During the next year, the activity was getting worse. Bobby was taken over by the darkness of the entity. He started wearing only black. He became isolated and withdrawn. It was growing angrier as the days went on. This anger and darkness ended in an event that almost destroyed the family. The story continues right after this stay with Me. In September of two thousand and three, Bobby and Bob were arguing in the kitchen. The argument escalated into a fight. Bobby was standing in front of the kitchen and Bob plunged forward. Bobby punched Bob so hard that he flew through the dining room and through the foyer, Bob ended up by the front door. Bobby seemed to have had supernatural strength, as if he had been possessed by something evil. This scared the rest of the family, and Charles, Bobby's younger brother, dialed nine one one. When they arrived, Bobby was standing in the kitchen unresponsive. Bobby's arms were full of cuts and he was holding a kitchen knife. Bob told police that Bobby was attacking him with his fist and a kitchen knife, that he was prone to violence. Despite this, Bob was the one arrested. That wasn't enough. The following morning, the rest of the family found Bob's elderly aunt dead in her room. To this day, Bob thinks Bobby's possession and his aunt's death were related. Bob's life almost fell apart after this incident. The arrest was reported on the local news, and he was kicked out of the house for a few months. The presence in the house was doing whatever it could to get them to leave, and this became clear just a few days after Bob returned to the house, furniture and pictures moved. There was a strong stench like burning rubber. Bob believed it was the entity. Bob and Bobby continued to wake up with scratches all over them, still in threes. The weekly visit from the church was not enough, and the activity was just getting worse. The church decided it was time to bring on a Catholic psychic. Her name was Connie Valenti. Connie told them what would start happening to them. She said blood would start to ooze from the walls, and months later it did. Connie also had visions of the past, visions that explained why the house was so haunted. In seventeen ninety two, a battle between indigenous men and white men had taken place in the same land where thirty four zero six stood now. A mother and her three children were killed. They were buried in what became the front yard. There was death in the land, and not just from the battle. Connie saw more. During the nineteen twenties and thirties, the family who lived that thirty four zero six allowed the pediatrician to perform illegal abortions in their home. These procedures all took place in the same room, all in a bedroom with blue wallpaper. The blue room. Bob couldn't believe what Connie was telling him. He needed to be sure, and so he asked around the local community. But the answers he was received all confirmed Connie's visions. He even got details about the doctor. The doctor walked with a limb, he wore white gloves and a black bowler hat. Bob also found a document deep in the city's historical archives. It confirmed the battle in the death of the mother and her children. But the document wasn't enough for Bob. He hired a company with a ground penetrating radar. They scanned the ground and verified that there were indeed four bodies buried in the front yard. Bob now knew what was causing the activity, but still it wasn't enough for him. He needed to know where the source was, Where in the house was it all coming from. In two thousand and five, a psychic from Pittsburgh contacted Bob. He told him where to find the demon's den. She said there is a void, a space in the center of the house, and that's where it lives. The demon must have flushed out of his lair. When Bob heard her say a void in the house, one spot in the house came to mind. You see in the house. There was a small inaccessible area, the closet beneath the stairs, the one with a pool chain he could never find. There used to be a space in the back of the closet, but it was sealed off back in nineteen oh nine. Bob took a saw to the plaster wall. There was no other way into the space, and yet inside the space he found playing cards, a crumpled up piece of paper, the skeleton of a bird, and lego pieces. Bob could only imagine these lego pieces came from Bobby's room. Still, he wonders how the pieces could have gotten inside. Now that Bob discovered where the demon lived, he filled it up with blessed candles and a crucifix, but the activity worsened. But now Bob wasn't scared anymore. Bob attached rosary to the pole chain in the closet, and he started playing the Passion of the Christ on repeat in the blue room. He was willing to try everything. The Catholic Church even sent one of their most experienced exorcists to perform a three hour ritual, and after this, most of the activity in the house stopped, except in one place, the basement. The priest returned to perform another intense cleansing of the house, and this time with hopes of driving the demon out. The plan was to go to each floor one by one, starting with the third floor. They worked their way down, but as they moved to the second floor, something was wrong. Sandy, the family dog, started barking from the floor below them. He was standing in front of the basement. They followed Sandy into the basement and descended the stairs, and as soon as he set foot inside, there was a strong odor burning rubber, the same smell Bob recognized as the entity. They followed the scent and made sure to pray even more, and as the mass went on. When the priest arrived at the consecration, Bob heard knocking. When the mass was over, Bob asked, did anyone else hear the knocking? Sandy walked into another room where coal was once stored. Sandy stood at the entryway and he was staring at the entity. Bob and the priest had the demon cornered. They began to try and cast it out. They demanded that the entity leave the house, and this went on for a while until they were sure it was gone. Bob noticed the smell of burning rubber was replaced by a new scent, a better one of roses. Bob had won the war. He finally pushed out the demon that haunted his family for eighteen years. The nightmare was over. Bob and his family maintained their story even in the face of non believers. They told their story wherever they could, on an episode of The Exorcist, files, on paranormal witness and on a haunting. Bob even wrote a book with her story. It's terrifying, almost unbelievable. In fact, when you look beyond Cranmer's versions of events, some holes start popping up, specifically the experiences of previous residents of thirty four zero six Brownsville Road. Karen Dwyer lived in the house as a young child in the nineteen fifties and sixties with her mother and grandparents. She never experienced any hauntings, neither did her mother or grandparents. But Bob went on to say that Karen's mom told him before she died that her family's dog could sense a spiritual presence. That was refuted by Karen's family too. Karen's uncle says they never had a dog. He and Karen's brother also never experienced anything paranormal in the house. Michael Joyce, whose parents bought the house from Karen's family, purports a similar lack of supernatural experiences. It's possible Michael's parents knew something about the house that Michael didn't, but based on Bobby's stories of growing up at thirty four h six Brownsville Road, the entity wasn't afraid to make itself known to any children in the house. Even the house's dark history was questioned. The pediatrician from the house's past was a drunk, and Bob himself believes that his work of performing illegal abortions was immoral, but Dean, the pediatrician's grandson,