The following
was emailed to Blueroadrunner:
Ms. Shirley Crick, a resident
of the Playas de San Felipe community, was eccentric and
an avowed atheist. She resided in the Red House, which
she had constructed for herself and a female friend. This
house became known as the White Elephant, which
is a phrase used by real estate brokers for something
big and good for nothing.
Shirley had a dog and a cat. She had a daily
habit of walking the dog, Penny. One day my husband mentioned
to me that he had not seen Shirley walking past our house
lately. He felt something was amiss, so he decided to
pay her a visit and see if everything was all right.
There was no answer in response to his knock.
He could hear Penny barking hysterically and he became
aware of a foul oder seeping from under the closed door.
As it turned out, Shirley Crick had expired ten days prior
to my husband's visit. The authorities were called in,
which in itself was a surreal story.
Shirley had been planning to sell her home
and move in with her brother, who lived in Alaska. She
had been worried about dying in her house and not being
found. As fate had it, her concerns became a reality.
Over the years since her death, numerous
strange and inexplicable incidents have occurred inside
the Red House.
The following events reportedly
happened at the Red House:
• The first person interested in leasing
the house after Shirley Crick's demise was an American
woman, who asked me not to divulge her name. On her first
visit to inspect the premises, she made a turnabout at
the front door entrance and said directly in a firm voice
to my husband and me, “Shirley Crick's soul is earthbound
here. I felt her presence when I entered the house.”
This woman, for unanticipated reasons, was later unable
to rent the place.
• When I entered the Red House a few
weeks later, I took notice that someone had previously
been in the house and placed Tarot Cards on each Royal
Step to the second floor and also placed them around a
chalk figure where Shirley Crick's body had been found.
• The following year, the Red House
was rented for the Baja 250 Race for four nights. On the
second night of their stay, the team knocked on my door.
They said they were vacating the premises, that someone
kept entering the house and eating their food. I believed
it was Shirley Crick's cat, which we had never found.
But they insisted it was a person because the kitchen
was tidied up after the food was eaten.
• My in-laws and brother-in-law arrived
for a familial visit some time later and I gave them permission
to spend a night in the Red House. I did not mention that
a person had died there. In the middle of the night my
brother-in-law rang my door bell and said a person had
entered the house and was rocking back and forth in the
rocking chair. But when he investigated the noise, no
one was there. They left shortly afterward, appearing
quite relieved to get out of San Felipe.
• The Red House was later leased to
a Mr. Paul Sanders, an Engineer from Anchorage, Alaska.
A month passed without incident. Then late one night he
knocked on my door and asked if my husband and I could
join him in a séance because Sthere was a spirit
roaming the house. I asked what he meant by that and he
said every evening the chandelier in the living room started
swinging back and forth. He said he was not afraid of
the spirit, he just wanted to get rid of the nuisance.
We decided not to join him and within a week he defaulted
on his lease and moved out.
• The second lease on the Red house
was to a couple from Canada, who had brought a young teenage
girl to live with them. My own teenage granddaughter became
acquainted with this girl. On one occasion they had a
pool party and made a pizza, which they left on the kitchen
counter to eat after their swim. When later my granddaughter
returned to my house, she announced that someone or something
had eaten the entire pizza. Cat or an earthbound spirit,
you be the judge.
• One woman, a previous resident of
San Felipe and once-owner of a local restaurant, claims
she once heard a noise coming from the garage. When she
went to investigate, she saw a old lady standing there,
the spitting image of Shirley Crick.
• My husband has been told by several
locals that to this day, while driving by the Red House,
they at times see an old lady dressed in a white flowing
night gown, her arm outstretched, standing at Shirley
Crick's bedroom window.
• For three years after Shirley's
departure, someone kept ringing my doorbell, but no one
was there when I opened it. I asked an electrician to
check it out. He had no explanation.
So that's the story of the Red House. At
least what I know of it. I suspect other people
have other equally mysterious stories about it.
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