Mystery: The Old Woman in the Crawl Space

Our story today is one that I can’t find much on beyond an article on the ObscUrban Legend Wiki, However, I like it enough that I want to cover it since it’s delightfully creepy and I haven’t covered enough paranormal stuff on this blog. So here’s the story of what’s known as the Old Woman in the Crawl Space.

The Story

According to the Wiki, the story took place in Ogden, Utah and was covered in the book “Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places” by Brad Steiger. It was written in 2003 and given that there’s no information where this event specifically took place or when, it can be assumed it was either in or prior to that year. If you want to check the book out more—or potentially buy it—here’s a link to the Amazon page.

Onto the story itself. Steiger’s book isn’t the only place where it’s told. There’s a page dedicated to it on the website Ghosttoghost.com. According to the man—who opted to remain anonymous (I have no idea if Steiger’s book gives his name)—he was assisting a friend with a new home, specifically on the heating and air conditioning. As it turned out, the home’s furnace had a shoddy transformer and he’d left to go get a new one.

In the meantime, the man opted to work on the ductwork when he was overcome by what he described as an “eerie feeling”. He looked over his shoulder and noticed an elderly lady at the base of the stairs. Figuring she was the homeowner, he gave a simple “Hi” and inquired if she was in need of anything. The woman simply shook her head “No” and smiled. Feeling that this was an adequate response to such a worldchanging question, the man returned to work.

Shortly thereafter, the man was once against wracked by the same eerie feeling. Once more, he looked over his shoulder and noticed the woman. She was now closer—the man estimates that he was about five feet from her. Getting off of his ladder, he asked if there was anything he could assist her with. Once more, the woman shook her head “No” and gave another smile.

The man went back to work, only to then hear his coworker pull up to the house. It was then that the man turned his head and noticed that the woman had made her way to the base of the stairs. He asked her one more time if she was in need of anything, but the woman simply beckoned for the man to follow her. Like a rational adult, he responded with a resounding no.

Undeterred by this, the woman once more beckoned for the man to follow her—in spite of the fact that his coworker had now entered the home. She had also started to crawl towards a crawl space that was underneath the stairs.

The man briefly took his eyes off to see where exactly his coworker was. However, upon looking back, he saw that the woman had transformed into a grotesque and terrifying figure. She beckoned him to follow with a bony, leather figure and for the first time spoke, simply stating:

Get over here!

Then, she simply disappeared into the crawl space.

Once again, like any rational adult, the man fled the scene, rushing to the entrance and into his coworker. Immediately, he conveyed what had happened to him. His coworker merely laughed, but stated that if it’d make him feel better, he could stay outside. The man happily accepted this and later did some research into the area, which resulted in him discovering that the area had served as a Native American burial ground. Because of this terrifying experience, the man concludes his encounter by stating he’s never returned to the site.

With that, this story comes to an end. It’s a personal tale of one’s encounter with the paranormal and little else. As for why that is, I can answer that very easily: there are no specifics. No names are given, the specific location of where this is given is never mentioned (I’ll get to why this may be in a bit), and there’s not even so much as a timeframe given to narrow down when this took place. As such, I believe it’s safe to simply move onto the theories.

Theories

1. It was made up

Our first theory is that the entire thing was made up. This is an exceedingly common theory when it comes to paranormal stories, though it also happens with stories of UFOs and other topics. However, when it comes to paranormal tales, it’s a lot easier to make up. Anyone can craft a good ghost story, though it’s not every day that they take off like, say, the Amityville Horror. In this case, it didn’t take off at all, but it caught the eye of an author and at least one person who posted it to a Wiki.

There’s no real evidence to back this particular theory up, but there’s also no evidence to debunk it. While a lot of skeptics will shoot down stories of ghosts in a heartbeat (and believers will work to resuscitate those stories tirelessly), it’s difficult to really pin anything on this particular story—at least in my eyes—due to the extremely lackluster level of detail to it. I could say that I saw a figure in the corner of my room and it was scary. All you have is my word and my word alone. Working to debunk or prove would be exceedingly difficult because there’s no detail, all you can really do is speculate. Now if we had the history of the house, you could come to something else. If someone died there, a believer could say that it was the spirit of that person. Meanwhile, if we had a better description of where I was, like say near a window, a skeptic could say that I saw my shadow and was caught off guard.

Alas, there’s none of that here, so I find it hard to pin it on this particular theory. It’s very plausible this was made up by the man, be it for fun or in hopes of making money off of it. However, this is merely from my own observation of how some ghost stories are made up in the name of money. Ultimately, I leave it up to you to decide. We aren’t done though, we have the other side of the coin to cover.

2. It was ghost

For our second and final theory, we have the idea that it was a spooky ghost. Given that the location was built on a Native American burial ground, it stands to reason that the location likely had some creepy stuff going on. After all, Native American burial grounds are hotbeds for ghostly activity. So why not this location?

Well, that’s easy to answer. Given the lack of information beyond what I gave when telling the story, I can’t find anything else on this. It’s possible that I somehow overlooked something, but there’s absolutely nothing other than this one man’s account. Now, I can think of some reasons as to why this is the case. It’s possible that the man who experienced this didn’t want to give out that information since it could lead to the harrassing of the homeowner[s]. It’s also possible that he gave more information in the book that Steiger wrote, but given the current economic circumstances, I don’t want to drop money on a book for one single story.

Because of this lack of information though, and given how paranormal stories hinge on being able to go to the location to try and experience the activity for yourself, the ball is in the court of this theory. Alas, the ball vanished like Jimmy Hoffa and now we’re left to wonder about where it went.

My Take

I’m a firm believer in the paranormal and to be quite honest, I don’t think this story is that hard to believe. Paranormal activity on Native American burial grounds is nothing abnormal—quite the opposite really. There are a plethora of stories about houses and other buildings being built on them, only to endure near constant paranormal activity that drives homeowner after homeowner away until the location is either torn down, the bodies are buried elsewhere, or the place is blessed with a super soaker blessed by the Pope.

With that said, the lack of specific details makes it difficult to verify if this story has any truth to it. Sure, it may fit the bill of what I would call a haunting from a Native American spirit, but I could also likely write an account similar to it if I did any level of research, be it online or by reading some books. At the same time, I can understand wanting to not. However, while I think it realistically could go either way, I’m once again a believer in this kind of stuff. So that’s merely me; I won’t speak for anyone else other than myself.

Conclusion

Ghost stories are a dime a dozen; you can Google them and find countless stories that you’re unlikely to find elsewhere since they’re personal accounts that someone experienced, but found to be uninteresting and brushed off. This could very well be one case, albeit it faded into obscurity thanks to the insurmountable number of other stories from much more famous locations. However, that is just me. What do you think? Do you believe that this was a real encounter with something paranormal? Or do you think it was made up by someone who wanted to conjure up a creepy ghost story? Let me know in the comments below.