Transcript of Did childhood trauma create the most credible case of supernatural power?

Today's story is about a series of very bizarre events that took place in 1983 that if they had not been so well-documented, nobody would have believed this story. Nine people, including four police officers and one jail warden, officially testified that this stuff really happened. But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to the right place because that's all we do, and we upload once a week. So if that's If this is of interest to you, please invite the like button to come to a big fun costume party with you. But when they get into your car wearing their Buzz Light year outfit, don't bring them to a party, bring them to a funeral. Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so We don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's story. On February 24, 1983, a 21-year-old man named Dawn Decker walked into a funeral home in the tiny rural town of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where Dawn's grandfather's funeral was being held. And as soon as Don walked inside, he saw his grandfather's casket open for viewing at the front of the room.

And then he also saw lots of his family members and friends and friends of his grandfather kneeled around the casket and sitting in the front seats of this funeral home, and everybody is quietly crying and consoling each other. But Dawn, he walks in and he doesn't talk to anybody in his family, he doesn't talk to any of the friends, he doesn't go up to his grandfather's casket. Instead, Dawn sat down in the very last row of seats. He folded his arms and just scowled angrily as he looked around the room. Unlike everybody else inside of this funeral home, Dawn was not remotely sad. He was instead just totally angry. In fact, as he was sitting there, he clenching his fist so hard out of fury that his fingernails were practically cutting into his skin. Dawn had come to this funeral home directly from the Monroe County Correctional Facility, where he was serving a 4-12 month sentence for receiving stolen property. The jail had granted Dawn a furlough, which is a temporary leave of absence, so he could go to his grandfather's funeral. Dawn had jumped at the opportunity, mostly just to get out of jail for a minute.

But now that he was actually at the funeral, he regrett going. Eventually, the actual funeral began, and one by one, Dawn's family members would go up to the podium and say something nice about the grandfather and then sit back down. At first, Dawn, he put up with it. But after a couple of people had spoken, Dawn was just livid. He just couldn't hear anymore. So he tried to focus his attention just on his grandfather's casket, where he could literally see his grandfather's face as he was laying there. As he was staring at his grandfather's face, suddenly, Don saw something, and he He stood up really suddenly in his seat. In fact, when he stood up, it immediately caught the attention of the speaker, which was Dawn's cousin. The cousin just stopped and stared at Dawn. At that point, the rest of the people in the funeral also turned around and looked at Dawn. Dawn, he knew people were looking at him, but he didn't care anymore. He was now so focused on his grandfather because a second ago, he could have sworn he saw his grandfather's lips moving like he was still alive. But as Dawn continued to stare at his grandfather, expecting his lips to move again, they didn't.

And so finally, Dawn didn't say a word to all these people who were still staring at him, and he just turned and stalked out of the funeral home. Once Dawn was outside, he thought for a second about heading to the home where he knew his whole family would be going after the funeral, but Dawn just could not face being around that crowd again. And so instead, he headed to his friend's home. It was this couple named Bob and Jeanie Kiefer. And the reason Dawn wanted to see them is he knew they were just laid back people who would not ask him a lot of questions, and they would just let him have some peace and quiet. Really, all Dawn wanted between now and two days from now, when he had to go back to jail when his furlough ended, was just to have some peace and quiet. Dawn made his way to their house When he got there, Bob and Jeannie were so excited to see him. They called him inside and said, Hey, we're going to make dinner. Go wash up and relax, and we'll eat together. Dawn didn't say much, but he nodded a thank you.

He went inside, and right away, he went upstairs to the bathroom and splash some cold water on his face because still, Dawn just could not shake that anger he was feeling when he was inside the funeral home. For a second, the splashing of water on his face seemed to be working. He felt like his whole body was getting cooler. In fact, the whole bathroom seemed to have this coolness descend on it. But a weird thing started to happen. Dawn, as he's feeling this cool come over him, he realized it was actually getting so cold in the bathroom, literally, physically cold in the bathroom, that it was becoming uncomfortable, like he was cold. Then when Dawn just happened to look up at the mirror right in front of him, he could have sworn for a second he saw on the edge of the mirror the face of an old man wearing a gold crown. Immediately, Dawn, he flicked out and turned around, but there was nothing there. As he's shivering from the cold from being in this bathroom, he began looking all around him, trying to find this old man with a crown on his head, but obviously there was nothing in the bathroom with him.

Dawn felt totally unsettled by this. He didn't understand why it was so cold. He didn't know what he had just seen. Then Dawn happened to look down at his wrists, and he saw there were these deep scratches all over both of his wrists. So in a panic, Dawn just rolled his sleeves down to cover up whatever was on his wrists. He didn't want to think about it. He turned off the water and sprinted out of that freezing cold bathroom and just made his way downstairs where Bob and Jeanie were just sitting down for dinner. So Dawn, he took his seat, he got his food, and he didn't tell Bob or Jeanie about about anything that had just happened up in the bathroom. He just sat there and ate in silence. Now, Bob and Jeannie could clearly tell something was on Dawn's mind, but they'd known him for years, and they knew he was just not the type to come out and talk about anything personal. He basically completely kept to himself. Then when he spoke, he was broadly flat and monotone and emotionless. That was just who he was. But he didn't cause any problems.

He was a very nice guy. For this entire meal, Bob and Jeanie just looked at Dawn but didn't ask him any questions and just let him eat in peace. After the trio was done eating, Jeanie gathered up their dishes and headed to the kitchen to wash up, and Bob and Dawn headed to the living room where they sat down and Bob turned on the TV. For a few minutes, the two friends just watch TV. But at some point, Bob realized when he looked over at Dawn, that Dawn was not really looking at the TV. He was actually looking down at the ground. It was like he was just sitting there motionless, just staring off into space. Bob thought to himself, Wow, Dawn must be catatonic with grief here from losing his grandfather. But Bob, he felt really bad for Dawn, but he had no idea what to say to him. He knew Dawn was not about to launch into some deep story about how he was feeling. And so Bob just sat there and said nothing, hoping that just his physical presence next to Dawn was comforting in some way to Dawn during this really difficult time.

And so a few minutes goes by, and the two men are still silently sitting in their seats. When Bob begins to hear what sounds like running water. At first, he looked over at Dawn thinking maybe Dawn had spilled a drink on the ground, but Dawn didn't have a drink. Dawn was still just sitting there, catatonic, staring at the ground in front of him. Then Bobby turned and looked towards the kitchen thinking maybe Jeanie had spilled a drink, but She didn't appear to have done that. Then Bob felt a drop of water land on his head. He looked up and he saw water was coming through the ceiling. So right away, Bob stood up and he yelled to his wife that a pipe had burst. Then Bob, he grabbed his phone and he called his landlord who lived right nearby and said, You got to get over here. There's a pipe that's bursting your house. Just a couple of minutes later, the landlord and his wife arrived at the house. The landlord ran inside, and he and Bob rushed upstairs to try to find the origin of this leak. When they got up there, they looked everywhere, and there was no obvious sign of where water could be leaking from.

The toilet wasn't overflowing, neither was the sink. They couldn't hear the sound of running water anywhere. Then they also realized as they're walking around upstairs that where the leak was coming through the ceiling above the living room, they went to that rough area above the living room, and the landlord was like, There's no plumbing over this area. There should be absolutely no water anywhere near where the water was coming through. And so Bob and the landlord were very confused, and they began walking downstairs to try to figure out what else they could do. And when they walked downstairs, two things happened very quickly. The first was, as they came down the stairs, they were entering the living room where the leak had originally been noticed. Noticed. When they walked back into the living room, they saw right away that this leak had grown, and it was now not just coming out of the ceiling of the living room, but it was also now leaking out of the walls of the living room. Basically, all the different walls and surfaces in the living room were leaking water. Then the second thing they noticed was Dawn. Dawn was still sitting on the couch, still just totally catatonic, staring at the ground, not doing anything, which made no sense.

Everybody else in the house is running around trying to figure out this leak. And there's Dawn just staring at the ground. And so Bob, who at this point is pretty overwhelmed with what's happening here, but he thought, I got to make sure Dawn's okay. And so he just walked through the leaking living room right over to Dawn, and he said, Dawn, are you okay? And Dawn, he didn't say anything. He didn't move, but his mouth contorted into this weird smile with his lips pulling away from his teeth, and all the tendons on the top of his hands began to tense as he wiggled his fingers. And Bob, at this point, he realized there's something wrong with Dawn. And they needed to call the police.

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Two police officers named John Bosian and Richard Wolbert arrived at Bob and Jeanie's house. And so they came inside, and Bob quickly tried to explain what was going on. But John and Richard, they walked inside and immediately saw, Okay, something totally weird is happening here because they looked into the living room and they saw water coming down from the ceiling, coming out of the walls. It was even bubbling up all over the floor. And in the middle of all this chaos was one person, Dawn, who's just sitting there totally erect, not moving, wiggling his fingers with this weird expression on his face. The police very quickly said to Bob that, We don't know what this is. We don't even know how to help, so we're going to get our police chief. As soon as those officers left, it was like Bob, Jeannie, the landlord, the landlord's wife, they were now scared to be in this house. Before, it was just baffling. But now with Dawn sitting there tapping his fingers with that weird grimace on his face and water coming out of everywhere for no reason, it was terrifying. The four of them just huddled in the dining room staring at Dawn and the living room until finally the two officers came back with their police chief.

But once the chief came inside, things did not get any better because the chief walked inside and he saw how totally weird this was. But his reaction was, this is not a police problem. You clearly have some totally weird plumbing issue that seems very extensive, and your friend, he seems okay. He's just acting really weird. And so the chief told his two officers, John and Richard, to not talk about what they saw in this house and just leave. Don't report it. Get out of here. We're done with this. And just like that, John, Richard, the police chief, they said, Okay, guys, your problem, and they left. And then Bob and Jeanie's landlord was like, Okay, we're going to get a plumber over here right away. And you can deal with this. And then they left. And so Bob and Jeanie, at this point, are totally unsettled, and they just stood in the dining room staring over at the living room where Dawn was just sitting there tapping his fingers, water's leaking all around him. And then finally, a plumber came to the house, and they searched the whole house, and they could not find anywhere where there was a leak.

It literally didn't make sense that the living room was still leaking water. And so Bob, he contacted his landlord and said, What do you want me to do? And the landlord said, You know what? I don't know. We'll out more plumbers tomorrow. We'll figure it out. And so Bob and Jeannie, they just put out as many towels and blankets as they could all over the living room, doing their best to sop up the water. The whole time, they're glancing over at Dawn, who's still not moving, tapping his fingers, sitting on the couch. And then finally, after Bob and Jeannie had exhausted their towel and blanket supply, trying to sop up all this water, they're like, What can we even do? It's still leaking. We can't stop it. We don't know what's going on with Dawn. And so the couple just sat in the dining room staring into the living room, basically at Dawn, Dawn, just waiting for him to maybe break out of his trance. And eventually, Dawn would break out of his trance, instead of suddenly standing up and talking to Bob and Jeanie, he just eventually dozed off, still in the upright sitting position.

And so at this point, Bob walked over to Dawn just to check on him and make sure he was breathing and that he was okay. And so he checked, and he was. Dawn was okay. But Bob noticed that on Dawn's neck were all these dark red scratches and marks, someone had been strangling him. And then also on the inside of Dawn's collar was a little bit of blood. Bob, he calls over Jeanie, and he's like, What do you make of this? And she's like, I don't know this whole thing. I don't know what's going on here. And so the couple decided they would just go to bed. Dawn seems like he's okay. He's sleeping on the couch. We can't fix the water, so that's all we can do. The couple, they went upstairs, they went to bed. The next morning, when they came back down, the living room was still leaking, and Dawn was wide awake again, back in that sitting position, tapping his fingers with this bizarre grimace on his face. All day that day and all day the next day, that's where Dawn would stay, in that position, only stopping to fall asleep, still in that position.

Over those two days, all these plumbers and different people came over the house, and nobody could figure out where this leak was coming from. The water just continued to pool inside of the living room. Then finally, on February 26th, so two days after Dawn had arrived at Bob and Jeanie's house, Dawn suddenly stood up. He didn't say a word to Bob or Jeanie. He just walked out of the house. As soon as he did, all the water that was leaking out of the ceiling and the walls stopped. Dawn would go back to prison, and when he walked into a cell, his cellmate took one look at Dawn, and apparently, the look on Dawn's face was so unsettling that the cellmate immediately called over one of the guards and said, You got to get me out of the cell. I can't be in here with this guy. And so this cellmate and the guard, they both turned and looked at Dawn, and Dawn, he was at the back of the cell and he was facing both of them. And when they looked at Dawn, that totally weird grimace came across his face, the same one he had on as he sat in Bob and Jeanie's house for those two days.

It was the same expression. With that expression on his face in this totally creepy hollow voice, he says to the two men, I can make it rain. Now, the cellmate was terrified of Dawn and was practically screaming for the guard to let him leave the cell. But with the guard, who was definitely unsettled by Dawn and his behavior, he was less scared and more just intrigued with what Dawn had just said. He said, Okay, hey, Dawn, if you can make it rain, then why don't you make it rain in the warden's office? After the guard said this, Dawn's expression, that creepy, weird smile he had, it grew larger and larger until he had this totally bizarre smile on his face, exposing all of his teeth. At this point, the guard now felt totally terrified of Dawn and understood why the cellmate was so scared of him. And instinctively, the guard just turned and ran into the warden's office to tell the warden what was going on with this guy. But when he got into the warden's office, he looked at the warden, Dave Keenhold was his name, and he was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork.

And Dave looked up at the guard, and the guard realized on Dave's chest, his shirt, there was this wet spot that was growing slowly all over his chest. And it was almost like the warden didn't realize it was happening. And so Dave looks up at the guard and he's like, What? What's going on? The guard, he just points at Dave's chest and says, Look, look. The guard told the warden about what he had just witnessed in the jail cell and how he had jokingly told Dawn to make it rain in the warden's office, and now there's this wet patch on your shirt. What's going on here? The warden, he looked down and he was just as caught off guard by this wet spot on his shirt. He leapt up, and he and the guard ran back to Dawn's jail cell. When they got there, they couldn't believe what they saw. Water was pouring out the ceiling. It was coming out of the ground. Even the bars were leaking water. There was Dawn in the back of the cell standing there with that terrible smile on his face. His fingers were contorting, all the tendons were all tight in his hand.

His cellmate was practically crying huddled in the corner. And so right away, Warden Keenhold moved the cellmate out of that cell, put him in another cell, and then shut the cell where Dawn was. And then the warden called a plumber to come out here and stop this leak from wherever it was coming from. But the plumber came to the jail, and no matter where he looked, he could not find anything that would cause this leak inside of this jail cell. It just didn't make sense. And in fact, the plumber was so scared of Dawn, who the whole time this inspection is happening, he's standing in the back wiggling his fingers with this bizarre look on his face. The plumber was so scared of Dawn that after he told the warden that he couldn't find a leak, he just left without even being paid. He just had to get away from Dawn. Now, warden Keenhold had no idea what was happening with Dawn, but he could tell it was well beyond his own expertise. Frankly, he had no idea who he should call about what was going on. So he just called the jail's minister and asked him to come over and see what was going on.

But when the Reverend got there and saw Dawn and saw all the water in the cell, he, too, had no idea what to do. But when the Reverend walked up to the bars to get a closer look at Dawn, Dawn began to move in the cell as well towards the Reverend. Dawn, he would stop about halfway through the cell. And when he did, the Reverend stopped as well, and they were looking at each other. And then Dawn, he raised up his right arm into the air. And when he did, more and more water began pouring into the cell. And also this terrible rotting smell filled the entire jail. It smelled like death. And the Reverend, he was horrified by it. Dawn, he was just grinning with his arm up. And then he brought his arm down and began rubbing his hands together and just staring at the Reverend. At this point, the Reverend grabbed his Bible and began reading passages accusing Dawn of being possessed by Satan. And he was reading all these passages from the Bible to try to banish this evil spirit from Dawn. And then suddenly Dawn just let out this horrible guttural scream that was so loud.

The Reverend had to stop and cover his ears, and so did the warden and the guard and the cellmate. Then after he let out this horrible scream, it was like Dawn snapped back to reality and he just collapsed on the ground and began sobbing. It would take Dawn a long time to finally open up about what the heck had just happened to him, but he would eventually open up his friends Bob and Jeanie. While his explanation for what he went through did explain some aspects of what occurred between February 24th and 26th of 1983, it did not explain everything. Dawn and his grandfather had been very close. However, when Dawn was just seven years old, his grandfather began abusing him physically. Dawn had kept the violence a secret for his entire life, but he had come to view his grandfather as the human embodiment of evil. And so when his grandfather passed away, Dawn frankly was relieved to find out his grandfather was dead. But when he went to the funeral and he saw all of his loved ones talking about his grandfather as being this incredible person, so loving, so kind, it totally infuriated Dawn.

And as he felt this anger growing inside of him, Dawn could have sworn he saw his dead grandfather's lips move. And at the time, Dawn had no idea what to make of it, but he would later say that he believes that was the moment that his evil grandfather's spirit basically possessed him. And Dawn would say, When he got to Bob and Jeanie's house, he began to feel like there was something wrong with him, but he couldn't stop whatever it was. It was like there was somebody else in his brain making him do and say things that he didn't want to do, but he just couldn't stop it. And so he had gone upstairs to the bathroom in Bob and Jeanie's house, hoping to splash some water on his face and make himself feel better. And that was when he saw that old man's face. Well, that face was his grandfather's face. He was wearing that crown. And Dawn would say he thinks the reason he was wearing a crown is because it signified he had all the power over Dawn. And then also Dawn had those scratches on his wrists, which he thought was his grandfather as well.

He went downstairs and tried to tell himself that everything was okay. But after Dawn sat down on the couch, he said he just couldn't move anymore. It was like his grandfather had totally took over and he locked him on the couch with that bizarre contorted expression, and he kept moving Dawn's his hands around. Then obviously, the water began leaking in the room for no reason, which Dawn says was entirely his grandfather. He was just trying to scare all of Dawn's friends and Dawn himself. It was his way of tormenting Dawn a little bit more. Then Then at the jail, when the same scene unfolded, Dawn believed it was his evil grandfather inflicting just a little bit more pain and torment. For almost a decade after this happened, everybody involved in this didn't really talk about it publicly, especially the police and the jailers, they did not talk about what they witnessed because they were worried talking about it publicly would make them look like crazy people and they'd get fired. But eventually, in the '90s, nine people, including four police officers and the jail warden, would officially go on the record and testify to what they saw happening.

It would include Dawn seeming totally deranged and in a trance-like state as water just poured into these rooms that he was in. To this day, we do do not have an explanation for what happened to Dawn. The only explanation that seems to make sense is that Dawn really was possessed by his evil grandfather. Also, it should be noted that Dawn never made it rain again. The only times that happened were in Bob and Jeanie's house and in that jail cell from February 24th to February 26th, 1983. After that, Dawn lived a totally normal life.

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