This is the second episode of Paranormal Witness this season to showcase a story that was made into a movie. The first, of course, was "The Dybbuk Box" that was made into the movie The Possession and now this episode.
For those who missed the movie, the Snedeker family of 6 lived in New York until around 1987. It was that year that their oldest son was diagnosed with cancer. The nearest treatment facility was 300 miles away in Connecticut. The almost daily round trips were more than the kid could handle so mom and dad decided to rent a place in Connecticut. Mom and the 4 kids would live there and dad would visit on weekends because he had to stay in New York to work.
Mrs. Snedeker had a hard time finding someone who would rent to someone with 4 kids, so when she finally found a place she rented it sight unseen. As the family pulled up to the house she begged her husband to check out the house first to make sure it was okay. He agreed and soon returned to have her come in and take a look.
There were crucifixes over every doorway and upon further investigation they learned that the house had been a funeral home. That's actually something of an understatement. The basement still has the preparation rooms complete with embalming tables and pumps! It's just the sort of place someone with a sick child should live. Not being superstitious, mom and dad moved a bookcase in front of the prep room doors and went to fetch the kids.
The family decided to make a bedroom for the sick child in the basement. Near the bookcase covering the prep room doors. This just keeps getting better and better. It should come as no surprise to anyone that this kid started hearing voices calling his name that very night. The kid told his mother that the house was evil. Not haunted or weird or strange; evil.
His mother didn't believe him. Apparently being the only person not to have seen The Amityville Horror, mom settles the family into the funeral parlor-turned-house. Then the crucifixes started vanishing from the walls and strange men were being seen by the kids in the house. Mom didn't believe any of that either. She assumed that her oldest had made up stories to scare his younger siblings. She was wrong.
The kid, Philip, began to grow dark, distant and violently aggressive. At one point he attacked his friend/cousin when she was attempting to keep him from harming his younger brother. It wasn't until after his mother found his journal and read it that she decided to call his doctor. His doctor suggested that Philip was Schizophrenic and it was on this advice that his mother had him committed. As he was screaming for her at the hospital she was able to make out that now that he wasn't in the house it would turn on her.
Almost immediately the house began to attack mom including an incident of near suffocation in the shower when mom was attacked by the shower curtain. At that point, mom decided that the house was evil and it was time to go. The house is exorcised but the Snedeker family leaves. They do manage to get Philip out of the hospital.
Carmen Snedeker, mom, says that it took a long time for Philip to learn to trust his family again, but eventually did. His cancer went into remission and he grew up, married and had 4 children. Sadly, his cancer returned and he passed away in January 2012 at the age of 38.
An interesting side note for those interested in more information on this story: The information given by Carmen Snedeker for Paranormal Witness can be checked against other interviews she has given by doing a Google search on the family or by checking out The Haunting in Connecticut: The True Story Behind the Movie.
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