THE FUNERAL HOME

Featured in the book, In A Dark Place, and the Discovery Channel Documentary, "A Haunting in Connecticut"
By John Zaffis

Are all funeral homes haunted ? No, but this particular one was and the case came in to Ed and Lorraine Warren. It was in late August of 1988, when Carmen Snedeker called the Warrens in for help. Carmen explained to Lorraine the array of supernatural things happening in the home to her son. He would see a man in a black pin stripe suit, hear voices and would see shadows in his room. The activity continued even after they diagnosed him with schizophrenia "or so they thought" and he was removed from the home. At this point Carmen and Tammy (a cousin) started to experience things in the home. The Warrens knew this family needed help, so the next day they went to the home to do an interview with the family. Little did we know this would become an investigation which entailed nine full weeks of being in the home. I would like to give you a little of the case history that is in a book called " IN A DARK PLACE " by the Snedekers and the Warrens.

Al and Carmen had been living in up state New York when their son was diagnosed with Hodgkin's. Carmen had been going back and forth to N.Y. and Ct. for some time and it was getting hard to do. The rest of the family was in N.Y. with Al, he was working full time and it was hard on him to help out with the three small ones and keep up with the home. The Snedekers decided to relocate to Ct., Carmen had some time to drive around the area of the hospital to look for a place to move. Carmen was going by a home that was being renovated and came inside to look around. She was on the main level and saw that it had three bedrooms and this was exactly what they needed. Carmen asked the builders at that time when it would be available and he said it would be finished in a couple of weeks, at that point Carmen decided to rent it.

Al had packed up all of the furniture and was preparing himself and the kids for the move to Ct. Two weeks later Al was unloading the things and was moving box's into the basement and he looked around and discovered that it was a former funeral home. Al came back up and looked at Carmen and asked her "did you know this was a old funeral home"? Carmen looked at Al and said "no, how do you know that"! He explained all the things he saw in the basement, Carmen looked at Al and they went down to the basement and looked all around. It was all there, the trappings of a former funeral home. The family unpacked and set up home and hoped for the best. Carmen's son immediately began seeing things and hearing voices and this would continue until he was removed from the home. After he left the rest of the family started to experience things, such as Carmen being attacked and Tammy being tormented by imaginary hands. As Carmen was trying to help Tammy, her rosary shattered.

All researchers that worked on this case were in some way affected by it, it had reached the point where the clergy finally had come in to bless the home. For three days all phenomenon stopped then it returned with a vengeance. The phenomenon escalated and the entire family was attacked at this point everyone was experiencing the things that Carmen and Tammy did. The clergy came back into the home and said a mass and for three days it was good again. Then once again all hell let loose in the home, it would get ice cold and then something would start to occur within a few moments. Someone would go under attack, it was to the point where you could not even go into the bathroom without somebody sitting outside the door. In the evening when we would all be preparing to go to sleep we would camp out in the living room. You would feel and hear fluttering all around on the floors and this escalated into every night.

This is the case where I had my first encounter with a full formed demon and it is something to this day that I will never forget. I was sitting at the dining room table when it started to get ice cold in the room, at this point I knew something was getting ready to happen. I tried to get the other researchers or family members to respond to me by calling out to them but they did not. I knew at this point this was meant for me to experience alone. I had gotten up and walked into the hallway and looked up at the top of the stairs, I began to smell something like rotting meat which was all over this area and it was unbearable. As I continued to look up the grand staircase, I started to see something begin to form, as it slowly descended down the staircase. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen, it had come to the last step on the staircase and it said to me "do you know what they did to us, do you know"? That was enough for me, I left the home and did not return for three days. I do not think I've ever encountered anything that has scared me as bad as that, I would not speak to anyone for days after the encounter, but I did go back to work on the case, he family needed our help.

The clergy had set up to perform an exorcism in the home and we all knew something was going to affect us in some way from the supernatural realm. I know all of us will never forget that day, as all three priests performed the exorcism and proceeded with the entire ritual, the dishes were rattling, pictures on the wall were rattling and anything within the house was shaking and banging's within the walls. After everything was complete the smell of roses came upon us, we all knew at that point that something absolutely divine was taking place and it was over.

Shortly after that the Snedekers moved out of the dwelling and would never go back into that home. Their new home was not far away and to this day the entire family is free of the supernatural powers from the old funeral home. God bless all of us that enter that gateway to hell.