Girl says bones belong to ghost

A Russell County fifth-grader is convinced bones found in her home last weekend belong to a mysterious friend who told her about being chopped up years ago.

Investigators have few clues about how and when the bones got inside insulation under the living room floor of the mobile home on Jowers Road, near East Alabama Motor Speedway.

The 10-year-old, Stephanie Ogden, and her family have lived in the home since 1998. Her great-grandparents, John and Marion Stewart, own the home.

The bones were found Saturday as the Ogdens, who are renovating the home, pulled up boards in the living room floor. Russell County Sheriff's Lt. Heath Taylor said an initial analysis shows the bones are from the pelvis and leg of a child at least 10 years old, and the child has been dead at least 10 years.

Another bone was found Sunday, Marion Stewart said. The area where the bones were found had duct tape over the insulation, Stewart said.

The bones probably don't have enough marrow to do DNA tests, Taylor said. Because the trailer has been moved several times between Georgia and Alabama, investigators now are faced with the daunting task of trying to track down missing children from a wide area in two states.

Taylor said gnaw marks on the bones may indicate a rodent placed them inside the insulation. Dirt and plant material on the bones indicate they were outside at one time, Taylor said.

Stephanie said a black girl in a white dress started visiting her room when she was about 5 years old. The girl was friendly, but she told Stephanie a horrible story.

"She told me that somebody put her in the floor," Stephanie said. "She said he had a mask on, and that he chopped her up. She didn't know who the person was, because he had a mask on."

Stephanie, a fifth-grader at Dixie Elementary School, now thinks that the bones that were found in her home belong to her playmate.

"It's possible because that girl was a ghost," Stephanie said Monday. "Nobody knows about them."

Marion Stewart said Stephanie used to tell her family about the visitor, but the adults always dismissed the stories as being an imaginative child's fabrication based partly on horror movies. Stewart said Stephanie used to always ask for two glasses of soda when she would play outside -- one glass for her and one for her friend.

Stewart said the weekend's grisly discoveries have convinced her that her great-granddaughter's playmate is actually a tormented soul seeking peace.

"I'm not a psychic, and I don't believe in some of that stuff," Stewart said. "But I believe this is a soul who has not been put to rest."

Investigators are looking through databases of missing children to find any links to the trailer's location, but Taylor doesn't hold out much hope of solving the case.

Proof Positive had 3 stories that they study from a "scientific" standpoint. Apparently, one of the stories each week is proven "true" at the end of the show. This week's show included stories about "rods" which are seen in videos looking like long insects; a haunted lighthouse; and an Indiana Detective who said he can prove that he was reincarnated.

The first story, about rods, included all kinds of video. They had an expert specializing in video anaysis take a look at it. He determined that rods were nothing more than insects flying at high rates of speed making them look elongated. He said that the film used was to slow to capture them without the blur. He showed an example of how one shortened when it slowed down.

The next story was about a lighthouse that was reportedly haunted. The lighthouse was turned off in 1979 by the caretaker in cooperation with the Coast Guard. The caretaker (who's wife is still there living next door) died in Jan 92. A few months later, people started noticing that the lighthouse would light up from time to time without explanation. The light was filmed fairly often and they showed the film. This one got interesting pretty quick. They called in a man (I believe a Physicist) who specialized in light and optics. He set up some equipment and planned on making a spectral analysis, etc. When the lighthouse lit up, he just abandoned the equipment and took off to the lighthouse... saying that he wanted to get up there. When he got to the lighthouse, he couldn't open the door... it was locked and wasn't supposed to be. A technician climbed into a window using a ladder and went down to open the door from the inside. When he got to the bottom, he flew out of the door saying he saw something like a dark outline of a man and just went numb. The Physicist then went in with the crew. He went to the top and found after testing that the light was nothing more than a reflection. Funny thing is, they found that the lock had been broken and the amount of force used had to be pretty large.

The third was about a man who said that through past life regression hypnosis, he determined that he was a reincarnated artist. He provided 28 facts. After years of searching for the painting that he saw himself painting during hypnosis (a hunchbacked woman) he was able to determine who the artist was. He found that the artist had a diary which confirmed the facts he provided previously on audio tape through hypnosis. They ran a polygraph on him that was inconclusive. They then ran a second poly on him with a different examiner and this one showed no deception. They called it "proof positive" but I'm still very skeptical of this one.

The next show was Ghost Hunters. It was pretty good. A group of guys and a woman have formed a group called TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) that investigates hauntings. Two of the main guys are Plumbers from Roto Rooter. Anyway, they get a call from a distressed woman in Altoona, PA and they decide to go there. They go through a couple of the guys telling their wives that they have to go.... so there is a reality show element to this. Anyway, to shorten this a bit ... they go there and come up with about 4 or 5 examples of EVP which are pretty clear. It was pretty convincing, but I really won't fully trust EVP unless it is done in a controlled environment by professionals. Regardless, it was a good show. Here is their website with EVPs you can listen to: TAPS.

I have a pretty good ghost story of my own.
My mother grew up in an old house in Pennsylvania.
The house had originally been standing in England.
It was deconstructed and brought over for a sea captain's wife who was homesick for england and the sea.
Some 40 years later my mother's family bought it.
One day when I was just 4 years old I was at the house for a party, everyone was outside on the polo grounds for a party and I went inside to use the bathroom.
I didnt realise there was a bathroom on first floor and went upstairs to use one of the bathrooms. When I was walking back down the staircase, I reached the bottom and turned around for some reason.
I looked back up at landing. The landing had a window behind it. Half in front of the window and in front of the wall was a filmy slender form that basically looked like a soap bubble shaped human wearing a lacy dress.
I blinked and it was still there for about 5 more seconds. Finally it disappeared and I ran outside.
I didnt tell anyone at first what happened. Just told my mother I wanted to go home.
When we were driving home I told my mother and she almost hit a tree.
I didnt know why she was freaked but years later I found out that the aforementioned sea capatain's wife had killed herself by jumping over the stairwell after she found out her husband had been killed.
The information was verified in counties records.
One day years later the house suddenly caught on fire in the same spot I saw the ghost (no exact cause was ever found)
My family sold it to another family. The family moved in and moved out 30 days later saying it was haunted.
They never lived in it again and finally tore it down. Which seems fairly drastic since the house had 10 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. The lot stood vacant for 10 years and now finally a new house is being put up.
Ive never seen another ghost. No Thanks.

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Girl says bones belong to ghost

Investigators unsure how possible human remains got inside insulation