Villisca Ax Murder House

We lost most of the pictures, videos, and EVP files after our house fire that were stored on our computers in the house. This is all that we could recover from the hard drives of those computers.

We were the first ones to ever investigate the Villisca ax murderer house back in April 1999 when we were known as Paranormal Investigations. During that year we made the 118 mile trip to Villisca every other weekend. We would arrive just before sundown and stay until around 1 AM before heading home. There has been a lot of talk, rumors, and speculation about the murders that occurred in the Villisca house, and now we are going to state the facts.

Scariest Places on Earth

We were contacted by a TV show called the Scariest Places on Earth and asked if they could join us during one of our investigations, and I agreed. If you watch the video, you will see the full episode from the Most Scariest Places on Earth, and then you will understand what I'm about to say.

The pictures they showed you of the victims are not the actual victims, the old woman they spoke to was an actress and not a resident of Villisca.

When we approached Darwin Lyn and requested permission to investigate the Villisca house, he told us no one has ever witnessed any strange occurrences, nor has he ever witnessed any strange occurrences, or anything unusual about the house.

The so-called historian, Ed Epperly, said that the two Stillinger girls had their heads chopped off. That statement Ed made was inaccurate and we have no idea why he made that up.

The two video clips of so-called orbs were not orbs, and I told them that they weren't. The two anomalies you see in the video clips were actually bugs. If you pay close attention to them, you can actually see their wings.

Then there was a picture of an old man with two kids. I have no idea where they came up with that picture, but that was not taken the day before the murders. Then the one thing that got my attention the most was the fact they claimed no one was ever charged the murders. That's not true, William Mansfield was charged with the murders, but I will get into that later.

Ed Epperly claimed the ax was picked up from outside and brought into the house to commit the murders. That wasn't true either; the ax was always kept in the pantry off the kitchen.

Now that we got that over with; let's go into facts and reality.

Crime Scene Investigation and Court Records

The murders took place on Tuesday, July 9th, 1912. Eight people were brutally murdered two adults and six children. Reports say they were all asleep at the time of the murders. The victims were Joel and Sarah Moore, there 11-year-old son Herman, their daughter Catherine age 10, and the two youngest boys, Boyd and Paul ages 7 and 5. There were also two neighbor girls that were murdered, Lena Stillinger age 12 and her little sister Ina age 9. The two girls were close friends with Catherine and they were asked to spend the night at the Moore's house the night of the murders.

Doctors estimated time of death shortly after midnight. All the curtains were drawn in the house except for two, which did not have curtains. Those windows were covered with clothing belonging to the Moore's. All the victims' faces were covered with bedding after they were killed.

A kerosene lamp was found in the parent's room on the floor at the foot of the bed, the chimney was off, and the wick had been turned back. They later found the chimney under the dresser.

A similar lamp was found at the foot of the bed in the room where the Stillinger girls were found. The chimney from that lantern was also removed and the wick was turned back, and the ax was also found in the bedroom with the girls. Normally, the ax was kept in the kitchen pantry.

The ceiling and the parents' bedroom, and in the children's bedroom showed gouge marks apparently made by the upswing of the ax. From the angle of the marks, it appeared the killer was left-handed. A pan of bloody water was discovered on the kitchen table, as well as a plate of uneaten food.

All the doors and windows were locked. The bodies of Lena and Ina were found in the downstairs bedroom off the parlor. Ina was sleeping closest to the wall with Lena on her right side; she had a gray coat covering her face.

According to the inquest testimony of Dr. Williams, "Lena had kicked 1 foot out of her bed sideways, and one hand was up under her pillow on her right side. Apparently she had been struck in the head and squirmed down in the bed, perhaps one third of the way." Lena's nightgown slipped up and she was wearing no undergarments. There also appeared to be a defensive wounds on her right forearm.

From what we learn during our investigation from Lena, she heard the killer and jumped out of bed to hide in the closet. The killer heard her movement and went into the bedroom and found Ina lying in bed and he killed her. He heard Lena in the closet whimpering, so he went to the closet and pulled her out, and threw her on the bed. He swung the ax at her; she put her right arm up and blocked the first blow from striking her head to hard. When the killer walked out of the room, she tried to slide off the bed to hide again but he heard her, and returned to the bedroom where he hit her again finally killing her.

EVP Recordings

NOTE: In the videos below; we took the EVP recordings and converted them from MP3 format into MP4 videos, and placed a text describing the responses from the spirits so you can read them, and posted them on YouTube. If you would like to read the text responses from the spirits, you can watch the videos shown below in full screen mode or on YouTube.

Headphones highly recommended.

Slideshows & Investigation Videos