“Paranormal Witness” knows the stories that are the creepiest and those old run down houses college kids rent to save money are always the best ones to get your skin crawling. In They Are Mind, these spirits aren’t playing.
Animation majors Kristin, Lindsay and Stacie had one more year before their college graduation and were looking for a place to live. The house they found was perfect, even though it was located in a rough part of Savannah, GA, and they moved in quickly.
On the first night in their new home, they were startled by a knock at the door, revealed to be a neighborhood woman who questioned whether the girls should be in the house. When they tell her that they just moved in, the woman, who calls herself Mama, explains that there have been problems with squatters and homeless people in the house. (And ghosts, but we’ll get to that in a bit.)
The next morning, Stacie finds a chair stacked on top of another on the dining room table (kind of like that classic scene in Poltergeist), which soon fall over seemingly by themselves. Stacie calls out her roommates for such a dumb prank, but both Kristin and Lindsay deny any responsibility. That would prove to be the first of many strange goings-on in the house: hooded figures that vanish into thin air, dolls and figurines turned around to face the wall, white sheets taking on human shapes in the laundry room … and a ghostly woman, who will soon become the star of the show …
When spring break arrives, Lindsay and Stacie both go home to North Carolina, leaving Kristin alone in the house for the week. That first night, Kristin goes into Lindsay’s room and finds a ghostly woman staring at her! Kristin screams, though when she looks again she sees it’s actually Lindsay’s graduation gown, hanging from the ceiling.
The next evening, Kristin hears strange female singing coming from Stacie’s room. Kristin calls her dad, who tells her to lock her door and call her brother Kyle, who lives only five minutes away. Kyle arrives, thinking he’s going to have to get rid of some crazy lady who’s wandered into the house. The doorknob to Stacie’s room was ice cold, though as soon as Kyle turned the knob, the singing stopped. Upon opening the door, Kyle and Kristin found Stacie’s room empty.
The next day, Kristin and Lindsay are enjoying a little FaceTime. When Lindsay excuses herself momentarily to answer the doorbell, the ghostly woman emerges from Lindsay’s room … and approaches an oblivious Kristin, who has her back to it. The woman disappears behind Kristin just as Lindsay returns … though Lindsay notices that the door to her room is now open. Upon investigating, Kristin finds Lindsay’s room in shambles. Lindsay tells her to get out of the house, though Kristin is stopped at the front door by her father, who’s just arrived from New York. He searches the house, finding no one … although the next morning when getting out of the shower, he finds the words THEY ARE MINE written in the steam on the bathroom mirror.
After spring break, Lindsay and Stacie return to the house, happy that graduation is approaching. The girls had actually started packing months earlier as they’re so anxious to get out of the house. One evening, Kristin enters the living room to find whom she believes to be Stacie going through the boxes … though a closer look reveals that it’s actually the ghostly woman! From there, the three roommates make a rule that no one is allowed to be alone in the house.
One morning as the girls are walking to class together, they come across Mama and her daughter. They ask Mama about the history of the house, after which Mama’s daughter informs them that one of the previous tenants was a “junkie girl” who died in the house either of overdose or suicide. Could this be the ghostly woman?
The girls start researching how they can protect themselves, finding that a circle of salt is supposed to provide spiritual protection. They move their mattresses into the living room so they can all sleep together, surrounded by a big salt circle. It seems to work, as the girls enjoy several days of no incidents. After a week, they feel safe enough to sleep in their own bedrooms.
Big mistake, as that night Kristin woke up to the sight of the ghostly woman at the foot of her bed, hanging from the ceiling by a rope. The woman then suddenly dropped to the floor, after which Kristin found bloody, filthy syringes covering her bed … even though the mirror on the wall reflected a seemingly normal-looking room!
The woman then reappeared, slowly crawling into Kristin’s bed, sharp pieces of glass in hand. Kristin screamed, prompting Lindsay and Stacie to rush to her aid. When they finally got the bedroom door open, they found Kristin covered in blood and slash marks, surrounded by pieces of the shattered mirror all over the bed.
The girls immediately fled from the house … and never went back.
Paranormal Witness They Are Mine: Whatever Happened to Kristin Haglund
Sure, it was in something of a rough neighborhood in Savannah, Georgia, but the house seemed perfect for three college students with only a year to go before graduation.
And then bad things started happening.
We spoke with Kristin Haglund about the terrifying events depicted in Season 5, Episode 2: “They Are Mine.”
Before all this started happening, had any of you ever had a supernatural or paranormal experience?
Before this experience, Stacie and I had not had anything paranormal happen to us. However, Lindsay grew up seeing a man watching her at night. I personally think that Lindsay reacted to all of this much better than me and Stacie purely because this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened to her.
When these things started happening in the house, did you have explanations?
Yes, in the beginning we blamed each other and other people. We thought it was bad jokes early on but quickly realized that wasn’t the case.
The moment when all the dolls and figurines were turned to face the wall, can you describe the feeling you had?
Walking into that room, we immediately turned and left. We didn’t know if someone was in the house considering we had just been outside with the front door wide open moments ago. We weren’t sure if someone had slipped past us into the house. Going through the house with just a small light and a bat was incredibly horrifying. We all thought that we were going to have to fight off an intruder and even checked over the house several times in every nook and cranny before we could go to sleep.
Can you describe what it was like to spend time in the house alone?
When we spent time alone in the house in the beginning, it was nerve-racking. After things took a turn for the worse, we set up rules that no one was allowed in the house alone. If two of us had to go to class the other would have to go somewhere for the few hours we were gone. We even set up a bedtime for everyone when we were sleeping in the same room so that no one was alone in any part of the house. We were on full lock-down for a while.
The image of the woman that began haunting you all individually, can you describe what she looked like?
I can remember every detail of the woman after seeing her … early to mid 30s, extremely tall even sitting down, pants and a blouse-type shirt, blonde hair matted on the right side of her head, black irises, a huge smile across her face as she stared at me with a missing tooth in the front. I will never forget her face.
When you started to make the salt circle around your mattresses, what else did you find in your research about protecting yourselves?
Honestly, there were several people who gave us advice that helped us greatly during this time. Ryan and Kim Dunn from Afterlife Tours showed us what kind of herbs to apply to the doorways, how to smudge the house, and how to use holy water. We are so incredibly grateful for everything that they helped us with.
Has anyone ever expressed skepticism in the story? What do you tell them?
Many people have been skeptical. It’s rough knowing that they do not believe you because they are essentially calling you a liar. But most, when shown the proof, have quickly changed their minds and said they could not explain it.
How did you feel when you left the house?
Leaving the house was literally one of the happiest moments of my life. It felt like a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
Has this experience changed how you feel about the supernatural?
Yes, prior to these events I was 100% a skeptic. After everything that happened, I have no choice but to believe in the paranormal. Honestly, I would much rather have stayed ignorant to the paranormal than experience everything we did.
What kind of advice would you give someone whose house is haunted?
I would advise them to stick together and know that they are not alone. We three felt very isolated during the experience and did not know who to trust. One of the things you don’t realize when you are experiencing this is the amount of people that will believe you, even when you feel like you’re crazy. So many people showed us support during this time that even though we were going through hell, we were able to make it through together.
Did you ever experience any kind of paranormal activity after all of this happened? How is everyone doing now?
The night before we finished moving out we had several incidents happen with me and my sisters, Jen and JoAnn. We were in the house late and something ran at the door and slammed into it after we closed it. We heard scratching and growling for several moments and then ran to the car to stay at the hotel with my family. That was the last time I was in the house; Stacie and Lindsay left the next day.
Lindsay and her family, as well as Stacie, had several things happen to them since we left the house. Lindsay has had electronics go on without being plugged in, voices talk to her while she was out alone running, people standing over her bed, and things thrown at her family members. Stacie was seeing the woman lurking outside her bedroom door a couple of nights.
I didn’t have anything happen after we left the house until the night we started doing the preliminary interviews for Paranormal Witness. I woke up several times during the night because I kept dreaming about the woman from the house clawing at Stacie’s bedroom window. Stacie was sleeping in my dream but I could see her tossing and turning. The next day when Stacie and I spoke, she told me that she kept having dreams of a woman at her window. I was able to describe Stacie’s bedroom layout and what she was wearing the night before in detail, even though I had never seen her parents’ house before. That continued until we stopped doing the interviews.
Several months ago my mom died suddenly and since then none of us have had anything paranormal happen to us. It is our belief that she is watching over us and making sure that nothing comes after us again.