The Richland County Coroner's Office set out to find a deceased Shelby woman's next of kin.
In the process, investigators uncovered a chilling story of purported supernatural mayhem dating back to the 1970s.
The experiences of Marsha Godin and her family are chronicled in a book, "The World's Most Haunted House: The True Story of the Bridgeport Poltergeist on Lindley Street."
The book's author, William J. Hall, who helped local investigators track down Godin's family, compared her case with the horror novel "Carrie."
"It was probably the most witnessed and well-documented hauntings in history, as far as the type, the amount, of credible witnesses," Hall said, adding that the November 1974 incidents at the Goodin family's home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, had more than 77 credible witnesses.
Marsha Godin — then known as Marcia Goodin — was at the center of it all.
Godin, 51, was pronounced dead of apparent natural causes Feb. 10 at OhioHealth MedCentral Shelby Hospital.
In an effort to give the woman a proper burial, coroner's investigator Bob Ball exhausted all traditional means of searching for relatives, including the Mansfield/Richland County Health Department, now known as Richland Public Health.
It appears that Godin hadn't lived in Shelby long and there was no record of employment. Her neighbors knew very little about her. Her landlord knew she had a stepmother in Connecticut and a brother in Canada.
"I even sent a letter to Canada, but came back with zip," Ball said.
In March, the coroner's office requested media assistance to help locate Godin's family.
A reader sent the text of a March 21 News Journal article about the search to Hall, a resident of Plainville, Connecticut, through his website, www.williamjhallauthor.com. Hall was able to provide the name of one of Godin's cousins to the coroner's office.
"I was looking for her during the writing of the book," Hall said Monday during a telephone interview. "I would've liked to know what happened with her and her parents afterward. She left the home mad at them. I don't know if that was a regular teenaged reaction or something more, that was more of the dysfunction that started the poltergeist invasion."
The book, published in August, recounts the story of Jerry and Laura Goodin, who adopted Marcie, a 4-year-old, full-blooded Five Nations Indian girl from Canada, after losing a 7-year-old son to a tragic illness.
"Due to her olive skin color ... Marcie was picked on relentlessly at school," Hall said in an article provided by email. "The bullying peaked when she was beaten up by another child and, as a result, found herself in a body brace. This incident only fueled her mother's destructive, if well-meaning, overprotective instincts. The little girl's frustration and loneliness boiled within her as she struggled to quietly hold it all inside."
Strange things started happening in the family's home; things that were attributed to a poltergeist.
Hall said he believes the site of the family home was conducive to poltergeist activity — "an underground spring, and oils and high water tables, things that conduct electro-magnetic energy."
"The match was the dysfunction in the family," he said. "Poltergeists normally come into play with a young girl, a teenager or young teen."
Marcia Goodin was 10 when events reached their peak.
"One aspect that distinguished this phenomenon from other similar situations was that it morphed into a very public matter," Hall said. "During November of 1974, the bizarre antics of the little house leaked to the public and attracted crowds that swelled to over 2,000 onlookers. Lindley Street was barricaded and traffic was backed up for a mile or more in all directions.
"Newspapers, radio and television stations throughout the U.S. and as far away as Australia and Israel told of the strange things happening there: Police officers reported seeing a 300-pound refrigerator float up off the floor and rotate; objects flying off walls; an amorphous, misty figure appearing to a house full of people; a talking cat; and even little Marcie being forced through the air until she hit the wall behind her," according to Hall's article.
According to several published reports, law enforcement officials eventually decided the case was a hoax, perpetrated by the girl.
Godin was last seen by family members in Bridgeport when she was in her teens or early 20s, Hall said. At some point, she changed the spelling of her name from Marcia Goodin to Marsha Godin, Hall said.
"Goodin was a misspelling of the family name of the adoptive father on his birth certificate and he just never changed it. So she changed it back to the actual family name of Godin," Hall said.
Hall said Godin, after leaving Connecticut, went at some point to Ontario, Canada, in search of her real family, since she was adopted. Her whereabouts were sketchy, he said.
He said he figured she wouldn't want to be interviewed, but when he was working on his book, he wanted to give her the opportunity. Godin had dealt with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy over the years; if possible, he wanted to tell readers if she was OK, without giving out private details.
The author was born and raised in Bridgeport, where the events took place. He watched the news coverage of the Lindley Street haunting on TV when he was 10 years old.
"Anybody who has lived in that tri-state area as well as people interested in the paranormal around the world got wind of that story," said Hall, who has more than 25 years experience as a performing magician. "It literally spread around the world."
Barkdull Funeral Home in Shelby will assist the coroner's office with Godin, who has yet to be cremated.
A relative has told Hall she is not sure she wants Godin's ashes, considering the history.
Hall said if her relative doesn't want the ashes, he will take them.
"They've got to be somewhere," he said.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment