November 21, 2025 • 24 mins
After months of speculation, canceled auctions, and competing buyers, the mystery mortgage holder is finally revealed.
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#WeirdDarkness #ConjuringHouse #HauntedHouse #ParanormalInvestigation #EdAndLorraineWarren #TrueHaunting #GhostStories #SupernaturalMystery #HauntedHistory #ParanormalNews
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
After months of speculation, canceled auctions, and competing buyers, the
mystery mortgage holder of the Conjuring House has finally been revealed.
I'm Darren Marler and this is weird, dark news. We
finally know who bought the mortgage of the farmhouse that
inspired the Conjuring YouTuber. Elton Castille's name showed up on
(00:32):
land records filed in mid November twenty twenty five, solving
a mystery that had the paranormal community spinning theories for months.
The whole situation has been a wild ride of canceled auctions,
competing buyers, and a property owner who seems determined to
make everything as complicated as possible. Back in September twenty
twenty five, JJ Manning Auctioneers dropped an announcement that got
(00:55):
everyone's attention. They were auctioning off the Conjuring House at
eleven am on Halloween Day, not Halloween weekend, not late
October Halloween itself, October thirty first, how appropriate. The current owner,
Jacqueline Nuniez, had defaulted on her commercial loan with Needham Bank,
so the three thousand square foot farmhouse sitting on eight
(01:15):
and a half acres in Harrisville, Rhode Island would go
to whoever bid the highest. The timing felt deliberate rather
than coincidental, because of course it did. This wasn't just
any house facing foreclosure. The property at sixteen seventy seven
Round Top Road in Burleville had been at the center
of paranormal reports since seventeen thirty six. That's non typo.
(01:37):
We're talking about a building that predates the United States.
The Richardson and Arnold families who gave the house its
formal name, passed down stories through generations. Doors opening on
their own, objects, relocating themselves. That constant sensation of being
observed when you're alone in the room then came The parents,
(01:57):
Roger and Carolyn Perrin, moved into the fourteenth room farmhouse
in nineteen seventy one with their five daughters, thinking that
they had found their dream property. Within days, things got strange.
Brooms would vanish from where they'd been left. The smell
of rotting flesh would suddenly permeate a room, then disappear
just as quickly. Doors didn't just close, they slammed with
(02:20):
enough of violence to shape the entire structure. Over the
months and years had followed, the activity intensified. The daughters
reported seeing a woman dressed in gray wandering through the hallways.
Carolyn started waking up at exactly three seven am every
single night, discovering fresh bruises and scratches on her body
that had not been there when she went to sleep.
(02:41):
When they dug into the property's history, they found documentation
of multiple deaths over the centuries, several suicides, a rape
and murder, two drownings in the creek that runs through
the property. Carl Johnson investigated first. He's a paranormal researcher
who had looked into hundreds of cases by that point.
What he documented at the parent house concerned him enough
(03:03):
that he brought in Adam Lorraine Warren in nineteen seventy three.
The Warrens were Connecticut based demonologists who had investigated thousands
of reported hauntings by then. They conducted seances at the property.
During one of these sessions, Carol and Parin allegedly levitated
while sitting in her chair and began speaking in a
language no one recognized. Andrea Parin, the eldest daughter, later
(03:25):
described watching her mother's chair lift off the floor before
she was thrown across the room. Roger Parrin had seen enough.
He ordered the Warrens out and told them never to
come back. The Warrens identified what they believed was the
primary entity haunting the property. They said it was a
Bathsheba Sherman, a woman who lived there in the eighteen hundreds.
(03:46):
Local legend painted Sherman as a witch who had sacrificed
an infant to Satan. Historical records confirmed she did exist
and lived in the area, but the more sensational claims
remain on verified folklore. According to the Warrans, Sherman had
cursed anyone who would take her land, and her spirit
remained attached to the property, tormenting each family that moved in.
(04:08):
The parents stayed seven more years after that seance. Andrea
later explained that her mother finally told her father she
would not survive another winter in that house. She'd been
under attack for a decade. Years later, their experiences became
the twenty thirteen film that launched a billion dollar franchise.
The movie took creative liberties, as Hollywood does, but the
(04:31):
Corps remained a family terrorized by forces they couldn't comprehend
or escape. Jack Builin Nunez bought the property in May
twenty twenty two for one point five million dollars from
the previous owners, Corey and Jennifer Heinzen. Needham Bank issued
a one point two million dollar loan to bail Fire LLC,
the company owned by Nunyez. Her plan was to run
(04:53):
it as a paranormal tourist attraction. Guests get book over
night's days, pay hundreds of dollars, and tried to experience
yet something supernatural themselves. The business model worked initially, people
from around the world wanted to spend a night in
the house. From the Conjuring People magazine even sent Julie
Jordan for an overnight's day. She documented motion detectors triggering
(05:15):
with no one nearby, a ball of light that appeared
and vanished while witnesses watched books falling from shelves and
empty rooms, a heavy wooden chair that moved several inches
across the floor while she observed it. Then Nuniaz's ownership
spiraled into absolute chaos. She fired an employee she accused
of stealing money. That employee told Target twelve something remarkable.
(05:39):
Nuniez claimed that the spirit of John Arnold, who owned
the home with his wife, Abigail in the eighteen hundreds,
had warned her about the theft. She was apparently taking
business advice from ghosts. The fired employee sued for back pay.
Other former workers came forward with their own complaints about Nunez.
The Burrellville Town Council voted not to renew her entertainment
(06:01):
license in November twenty twenty four. They cited issues with
the property itself, problems with her application, and concerning interactions
she had had with local police officers. Nuniez lost her license,
but refused to cancel trips people had already booked. Visitors
who showed up found themselves scrambling to get refunds for
stays that couldn't happen. The Rhode Island Department of Labor
(06:24):
and Training issued a stop work order in October twenty
twenty four, after discovering the business had been operating without
workers' compensation insurance since May twenty twenty four. The situation
got messier. Jason Hawes, the star of sci Fi's Ghost Hunters,
accused Nuniez of harassing him and his family. Nuniez took
to social media and claimed Hawes had tried to assassinate her.
(06:48):
The whole thing had devolved into exactly the kind of
circus that would horrify anyone who cared about the property's history.
Justin Manning, president of JJ Manning Auctioneers, told reporters the
auction had generated more interest in one week than all
their previous famous property sales combined, and that included Susan B.
Anthony's birthplace and Miles Standish's childhood home. The response was unprecedented.
(07:12):
Manning expected bidders from multiple camps, real estate developers who
could calculate profit margins, paranormal enthusiasts who wanted to own
a piece of horror history, entertainment companies that might see
promotional value in controlling the property. The house came with
eight acres on a residential street, surrounded by neighbors who
had already endured years of tourist traffic, late nights, screaming
(07:35):
from overnight guests, and cars constantly crawling past taking photos.
The timing aligned with major developments in the Conjuring franchise.
The Conjuring Last Rites premiered September fifth, twenty twenty five,
closing out the main series. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga,
who had portrayed Adam Lorraine Warren throughout all the films,
(07:56):
expressed curiosity during promotional interviews about what would happen to
the real health house. Two months before the auction announcement
came news that caught everyone's attention. Comedian Matt Rife and
YouTube creator Elton Castille had purchased the actual war and
Home and Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. The purchase included guardianship
of the collection of supposedly haunted artifacts, including the Annabel Doll.
(08:19):
The duo now controlled access to seven hundred and fifty
allegedly haunted objects that had been investigated by the Warrens
over their careers. Castille had posted on x back in
September twenty twenty four that he and Rife were ready
and willing to buy the house if Nuniez wanted to sell.
They'd made their interest clear months before foreclosure became inevitable.
(08:39):
Ryth had purchased an eighty acre property in Rhode Island,
about twenty minutes from the conjuring house in twenty twenty four.
According to The Valley Breeze, he was already investing in
the area. Castille runs multiple YouTube channels focused on paranormal
content and travel. His main channel, to fil has over
four million subscribers and pledges to visit at every country
(09:00):
in the world. He also operates Overnight, which focuses specifically
on paranormal investigations, and hosts a podcast called Haunted Homies.
This wasn't some random celebrity jumping onto a trend. Castille
had built his entire platform around this exact subject matter. Wednesday,
October eighth, twenty twenty five, the paranormal community woke up
(09:24):
to shocking news. The Halloween auction wasn't happening. Needham Bank
had quietly sold the underlying mortgage loan on the property.
JJ Manning Auctioneers posted a brief statement on their website.
The mortgagee had concluded a sale of the underlying mortgage
loan earlier that month and no longer had any interest
in the conjuring house property. Needham Bank wouldn't say who
(09:47):
bought the loan. They explained that the buyer's identity would
become public through the town's land evidence records once the
mortgage got officially assigned to the new owner. Until then,
everyone could speculate The cancelation had Jason Hawes hard. He
had launched a gofund me campaign just days before this
announcement dropped. Despite spending years publicly stating he never wanted
(10:10):
to buy the conjuring house, he had changed his position
after receiving messages from former owners, employees, and residents begging
him to prevent the property from being exploited again. By
Tuesday evening, right before the cancelation news broke, Hawes had
raised just over sixty seven thousand dollars from supporters worldwide.
His video response captured the disappointment everyone felt. He explained
(10:34):
that Needham Bank had sold the mortgage, not the house itself.
Whoever bought that mortgage would need to go through the
entire foreclosure process again from the beginning. The GoFundMe went
back online the next day, still pushing toward the goal.
Hawes made it clear he was not the mystery buyer.
Elton Castie wasn't publicly claiming to be either. The paranormal
(10:56):
community started spinning theories. Was it a Hollywood studio, some
billionaire paranormal enthusiast, a descendant of one of the families
who had lived there. The speculation ran wild. The auction
announcement had prompted Andrea Parent to record an emotional video play.
Andrea is the eldest daughter of the Parent family, the
one who lived through everything that became the conjuring. She's
(11:19):
battling stage four metastatic breast cancer, and she was watching
this property that she'd grown up in become the center
of legal battles and exploitation. She specifically asked Jason Hawes
to step in and prevent the house from being turned
into something that dishonored its history. Despite her medical condition,
despite everything she was dealing with personally, she recorded this
(11:39):
message asking for help. She talked about the need to
salvage the barn on the property, restore the staff who
had treated the place with respect, and rebuild the reputation
that had been damaged during Nunyez's ownership. The house didn't
need to become a circus or just another money making scheme.
Her message carried real urgency. She told Han she knew
(12:00):
in her heart he was part of the property's destiny.
She asked him, actually pleaded with him to please consider
saving the farm. She ended by telling him that she
loved him with all her heart. The hashtag save the
Farm started spreading across social media platforms as people shared
her video. After the news broke about the mystery mortgage purchase,
(12:22):
Parron made one brief statement. She said she hoped this
wasn't going to be a disaster. That was it just
those few words that contained so much worry about what
might happen to her childhood home. Hawes set the GoFundMe
goal at one point five million dollars, matching what Nunia
has had paid in twenty twenty two. Any surplus beyond
(12:44):
the purchase price would fund restoration work, repairs, and ongoing maintenance.
The campaign explained his vision clearly. This was not about
making money, It was about preserving something important and making
it accessible. The local neighbors rallied behind him. Us explained
that every neighbor on that street had reached out to
support his efforts. They were standing behind him one hundred
(13:06):
percent because they had dealt with years of chaos. They
just wanted their lives back their normal. Quiet Street had
become a destination for paranormal tourists, and they had paid
the price in privacy and peace. The neighborhood had endured
cars creeping by at all hours, tourists stopping to take photos,
(13:26):
overnight guests who'd scream during the night, waking everyone nearby.
Patrick Wilson had mentioned during interviews that the Warrens lived
on a regular residential street in Connecticut. Their neighbors probably
never imagined their quiet road would become a paranormal pilgrimage site.
The exact same thing had happened to the people living
around the Conjuring House. Nick and Tessa Groff from Ghost Adventures,
(13:49):
who had initially expressed interest in bidding themselves, decided to
back pair in and support Haws instead. The puranormal community
was consolidating around one effort rather than fragment into competing bids.
Pause laid out his plan in detail. If he could
acquire their property, he'd fix it up properly. He'd opened
it to visitors enough to cover the costs of operation
(14:10):
and maintenance. The property would sustain itself financially without becoming
something designed to maximize profit. He emphasized this wasn't his
first experience with this type of project. He'd done it
before and could do it again. He told supporters this
was one hundred percent about answering and Reapparent's plea and
making the house accessible to everyone, paranormal believers, non believers, skeptics, debunkers, historians.
(14:36):
They all wanted to see this property and they should
have that opportunity. It shouldn't be restricted to people with
large bank accounts or massive YouTube followings who could afford
to outbid everyone else. Land records filed in November twenty
twenty five finally revealed the buyer's identity. The documents showed
a real estate holdings company controlled by Elton Casti Cassti,
(14:58):
who runs the tfil channel with over four million subscribers,
bought the one point two million dollar loan through Summit
and Stone LLC, a corporation formed in Rhode Island in September.
Needham Bank filed the discharge paperwork with the Burrollville Town
Clerk's office on Thursday, November thirteenth. Caste incorporated Summit and
Stone on September twelfth, twenty twenty five, before JJ Manning
(15:20):
announced to the Halloween auction, and well before Jason Hawes
started his GoFundMe campaign, Casti had been planning his move
for months, working quietly in the background while everyone else
was focused on the public auction. Castid declined to comment
when reporters reached out. Matt Rife didn't respond to requests
for comment either. The silence from both of them was conspicuous,
(15:43):
especially given how vocal they had been about wanting to
purchase the property earlier in the year. Casti does not
hold the deed for the property. That deed remains with
Jaquil and Nuniez. Owning the mortgage is not the same
as owning the house. When reporters asked Anuniez for comman
she responded with a text message. She claimed she has
(16:03):
the rightful entitlement to the vast John Arnold the state
as the underlying leasehold. She then added several insults and explatives,
which probably tells you everything you need to know about
how cooperative she is planning to be with this whole situation.
To gain ownership of the property itself, Castille needs Nuniez
to sign over the deed in what's called a deed
in lieu of foreclosure. This is essentially a negotiated transfer
(16:27):
that avoids the auction process. If Nuniez refuses to sign,
and based on her response, that seems entirely possible, the
property could end up going to auction again. Rhode Island
law requires public notice of any foreclosure auction, so we
would see it coming. If that happens. The property's fate
hangs in legal limbo right now. Castille controls the debt
(16:49):
but not the asset. Nuniez owns the deed but has
no way to satisfy the loan she defaulted on. The
two of them need to reach some kind of agreement
or this goes back to where one with another public auction.
Jeson Hawes told reporters he is not deterred. He expressed
confidence that he'd still be able to purchase the property,
pointing out that his campaign has raised more than three
(17:11):
hundred thousand dollars. He stated they are still exactly where
they want to be in this process and they have
a path forward. The news about Castille buying the mortgage
doesn't change their strategy. Hawes posted on Facebook that owning
a banknote does not mean someone owns the property. Emphasized
they understand their position clearly and remain confident about moving forward.
(17:34):
He's not wrong. There is still a scenario where Hawes
could end up owning the house depending on what Nuniez
decides to do and whether Castille can negotiate a transfer.
The competition between these two potential buyers has split the
paranormal community. Some people support Hawes because he's responding to
andre a parent's direct plea and has promised to make
(17:54):
the property accessible without exploiting it for maximum profit. Others
see Castille and Life as the natural successors, given that
they already own the Warren House and museum. They've demonstrated
they are serious about preserving paranormal history. They are the
legal guardians of the Annabel Dull and seven hundred and
fifty other artifacts, after all. Castille and Rife stated in
(18:15):
August twenty twenty five they plan to open the Warren
House for overnight stays and museum tours so people can
experience and learn about the haunted history surrounding the property.
Whether they have similar plans for the Conjuring House remains unknown.
Neither has made any public statement about their intentions since
the mortgage purchase became public knowledge. Castille created a legal
(18:38):
entity specifically for real estate holdings and used it to
acquire this particular mortgage. That suggests planning and intention beyond
a spontaneous decision Carl Johnson, the paranormal researcher who originally
investigated the house and brought in the Warrens back in
nineteen seventy three, still works as a self described demonologist.
(18:58):
He said that he hopes whoever ends up owning the
property will preserve its history without exploiting it. He considers
the house of one of New England's prime haunted sites,
a place where some visitors report peaceful experiences, while others
claim they couldn't last a single night. The neighbors caught
in the middle of all of it just want resolution.
They've endured years of disruption. They've watched their quiet residential
(19:20):
street transform into a tourist attraction. They've dealt with the noise,
the traffic, the constant stream of strangers. The property sitting
in legal limbo doesn't help them. They need an owner
who will either respect the neighborhood's peace or decisively commit
to running a legitimate business with proper oversight. The three
hundred year old farmhouse keeps whatever secrets it holds behind
(19:42):
those centuries old walls. Someone now controls the mortgage to
a piece of American paranormal history that refuses to cooperate
with anyone's plans. The building where five young girls saw
a woman in gray who shouldn't have been there, Where
Carol and Perrin woke up night after night with injuries
she could and explain, where ed Lorraine Warren conducted one
(20:02):
of their most famous investigations, where Andrea Paren learned about
life and death and whatever exists beyond. As her mother
once said, Andrea Paren watches from Georgia as the property's
future remains undecided. She's battling cancer while worrying about whether
her childhood home will be honored or exploited. The house
that shaped her understanding of the world, the place where
(20:25):
her family endured a decade of experiences that still defy explanation,
continues generating new mysteries. Almost half a century after the
Paren's left, the mortgage has changed hands, the deed is not.
Somewhere in that gap between debt and ownership lies the
answer to what happens next. Castid controls the financial instrument,
(20:46):
Nunez controls the legal title. Hawes controls three hundred thousand
dollars in donations from people who believe in his vision.
The three of them form a triangle of competing interests.
Around the property that has defied easy answers since seven,
nineteen thirty six. The foreclosure process will move forward. Negotiations
will happen behind closed doors. Eventually someone will own both
(21:09):
the mortgage and the deed. They'll inherit not just a house,
but everything that comes with it, the history, the reputation,
the responsibility to all the families who lived there and
left with stories they couldn't forget, the expectations of a
paranormal community that sees this property is sacred ground, the
hopes of neighbors who just want their street back. They'll
(21:29):
also inherit whatever still resides within those walls, if anything
truly does. Former residents, investigators, and visitors have reported consistent
phenomena across decades. Cold spots that move through rooms like
something passing by, voices and hallways that should be empty,
the overwhelming sense that something watches from corners and shadows.
(21:50):
Scientific explanations exists for many reported hauntings. Carbon monoxide poisoning
that causes hallucinations in for sound vibrations that create feelings
of ease, electromagnetic fields that affect perception. The conjuring house
has resisted simple explanations for two hundred eighty nine years.
But by the time you hear this, negotiations may have progressed.
(22:13):
Agreements may have been reached or fallen apart. The property
may have found its way back to auction or Castie
and Nunez may have worked out a transfer. Jason Hawes
may have secured his path to ownership, or his gofund
me may have refunded donations to supporters who believed in
his mission. Whatever happens, the stories persist of the Parns
(22:34):
and their decade of terror, of Bethsheba Sherman and her
supposed curse, of all the families who lived in that
farmhouse over two hundred eighty nine years and left with
experiences they couldn't explain to people who didn't believe them.
The building will outlast this dispute the same way it's
outlasted everything else. It was standing before America existed as
(22:54):
a country. It'll probably still be standing long after everyone
involved in this current drama is gone. The woman in
gray will still wander the halls, if she ever did.
The doors will still slam on windless nights, if they
ever really did, And at three oh seven am, perhaps
something will still move through those rooms, touching the living
with cold hands, and leaving marks that fade by morning.
(23:18):
If any of it was ever more than imagination and
folklore and the power of suggestion, the next owner will
discover the truth for themselves, whatever that truth turns out
to be. If you'd like to read this story for
yourself or share the article with a friend, you can
read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've placed a
link to it in the episode description, and you can
(23:39):
find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange, and more,
including numerous stories that never make it to the podcast,
in my Weird Darknews blog at Weird Darkness dot com
slash news
After months of speculation, canceled auctions, and competing buyers, the
mystery mortgage holder of the Conjuring House has finally been revealed.
I'm Darren Marler and this is weird, dark news. We
finally know who bought the mortgage of the farmhouse that
inspired the Conjuring YouTuber. Elton Castille's name showed up on
(00:32):
land records filed in mid November twenty twenty five, solving
a mystery that had the paranormal community spinning theories for months.
The whole situation has been a wild ride of canceled auctions,
competing buyers, and a property owner who seems determined to
make everything as complicated as possible. Back in September twenty
twenty five, JJ Manning Auctioneers dropped an announcement that got
(00:55):
everyone's attention. They were auctioning off the Conjuring House at
eleven am on Halloween Day, not Halloween weekend, not late
October Halloween itself, October thirty first, how appropriate. The current owner,
Jacqueline Nuniez, had defaulted on her commercial loan with Needham Bank,
so the three thousand square foot farmhouse sitting on eight
(01:15):
and a half acres in Harrisville, Rhode Island would go
to whoever bid the highest. The timing felt deliberate rather
than coincidental, because of course it did. This wasn't just
any house facing foreclosure. The property at sixteen seventy seven
Round Top Road in Burleville had been at the center
of paranormal reports since seventeen thirty six. That's non typo.
(01:37):
We're talking about a building that predates the United States.
The Richardson and Arnold families who gave the house its
formal name, passed down stories through generations. Doors opening on
their own, objects, relocating themselves. That constant sensation of being
observed when you're alone in the room then came The parents,
(01:57):
Roger and Carolyn Perrin, moved into the fourteenth room farmhouse
in nineteen seventy one with their five daughters, thinking that
they had found their dream property. Within days, things got strange.
Brooms would vanish from where they'd been left. The smell
of rotting flesh would suddenly permeate a room, then disappear
just as quickly. Doors didn't just close, they slammed with
(02:20):
enough of violence to shape the entire structure. Over the
months and years had followed, the activity intensified. The daughters
reported seeing a woman dressed in gray wandering through the hallways.
Carolyn started waking up at exactly three seven am every
single night, discovering fresh bruises and scratches on her body
that had not been there when she went to sleep.
(02:41):
When they dug into the property's history, they found documentation
of multiple deaths over the centuries, several suicides, a rape
and murder, two drownings in the creek that runs through
the property. Carl Johnson investigated first. He's a paranormal researcher
who had looked into hundreds of cases by that point.
What he documented at the parent house concerned him enough
(03:03):
that he brought in Adam Lorraine Warren in nineteen seventy three.
The Warrens were Connecticut based demonologists who had investigated thousands
of reported hauntings by then. They conducted seances at the property.
During one of these sessions, Carol and Parin allegedly levitated
while sitting in her chair and began speaking in a
language no one recognized. Andrea Parin, the eldest daughter, later
(03:25):
described watching her mother's chair lift off the floor before
she was thrown across the room. Roger Parrin had seen enough.
He ordered the Warrens out and told them never to
come back. The Warrens identified what they believed was the
primary entity haunting the property. They said it was a
Bathsheba Sherman, a woman who lived there in the eighteen hundreds.
(03:46):
Local legend painted Sherman as a witch who had sacrificed
an infant to Satan. Historical records confirmed she did exist
and lived in the area, but the more sensational claims
remain on verified folklore. According to the Warrans, Sherman had
cursed anyone who would take her land, and her spirit
remained attached to the property, tormenting each family that moved in.
(04:08):
The parents stayed seven more years after that seance. Andrea
later explained that her mother finally told her father she
would not survive another winter in that house. She'd been
under attack for a decade. Years later, their experiences became
the twenty thirteen film that launched a billion dollar franchise.
The movie took creative liberties, as Hollywood does, but the
(04:31):
Corps remained a family terrorized by forces they couldn't comprehend
or escape. Jack Builin Nunez bought the property in May
twenty twenty two for one point five million dollars from
the previous owners, Corey and Jennifer Heinzen. Needham Bank issued
a one point two million dollar loan to bail Fire LLC,
the company owned by Nunyez. Her plan was to run
(04:53):
it as a paranormal tourist attraction. Guests get book over
night's days, pay hundreds of dollars, and tried to experience
yet something supernatural themselves. The business model worked initially, people
from around the world wanted to spend a night in
the house. From the Conjuring People magazine even sent Julie
Jordan for an overnight's day. She documented motion detectors triggering
(05:15):
with no one nearby, a ball of light that appeared
and vanished while witnesses watched books falling from shelves and
empty rooms, a heavy wooden chair that moved several inches
across the floor while she observed it. Then Nuniaz's ownership
spiraled into absolute chaos. She fired an employee she accused
of stealing money. That employee told Target twelve something remarkable.
(05:39):
Nuniez claimed that the spirit of John Arnold, who owned
the home with his wife, Abigail in the eighteen hundreds,
had warned her about the theft. She was apparently taking
business advice from ghosts. The fired employee sued for back pay.
Other former workers came forward with their own complaints about Nunez.
The Burrellville Town Council voted not to renew her entertainment
(06:01):
license in November twenty twenty four. They cited issues with
the property itself, problems with her application, and concerning interactions
she had had with local police officers. Nuniez lost her license,
but refused to cancel trips people had already booked. Visitors
who showed up found themselves scrambling to get refunds for
stays that couldn't happen. The Rhode Island Department of Labor
(06:24):
and Training issued a stop work order in October twenty
twenty four, after discovering the business had been operating without
workers' compensation insurance since May twenty twenty four. The situation
got messier. Jason Hawes, the star of sci Fi's Ghost Hunters,
accused Nuniez of harassing him and his family. Nuniez took
to social media and claimed Hawes had tried to assassinate her.
(06:48):
The whole thing had devolved into exactly the kind of
circus that would horrify anyone who cared about the property's history.
Justin Manning, president of JJ Manning Auctioneers, told reporters the
auction had generated more interest in one week than all
their previous famous property sales combined, and that included Susan B.
Anthony's birthplace and Miles Standish's childhood home. The response was unprecedented.
(07:12):
Manning expected bidders from multiple camps, real estate developers who
could calculate profit margins, paranormal enthusiasts who wanted to own
a piece of horror history, entertainment companies that might see
promotional value in controlling the property. The house came with
eight acres on a residential street, surrounded by neighbors who
had already endured years of tourist traffic, late nights, screaming
(07:35):
from overnight guests, and cars constantly crawling past taking photos.
The timing aligned with major developments in the Conjuring franchise.
The Conjuring Last Rites premiered September fifth, twenty twenty five,
closing out the main series. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga,
who had portrayed Adam Lorraine Warren throughout all the films,
(07:56):
expressed curiosity during promotional interviews about what would happen to
the real health house. Two months before the auction announcement
came news that caught everyone's attention. Comedian Matt Rife and
YouTube creator Elton Castille had purchased the actual war and
Home and Museum in Monroe, Connecticut. The purchase included guardianship
of the collection of supposedly haunted artifacts, including the Annabel Doll.
(08:19):
The duo now controlled access to seven hundred and fifty
allegedly haunted objects that had been investigated by the Warrens
over their careers. Castille had posted on x back in
September twenty twenty four that he and Rife were ready
and willing to buy the house if Nuniez wanted to sell.
They'd made their interest clear months before foreclosure became inevitable.
(08:39):
Ryth had purchased an eighty acre property in Rhode Island,
about twenty minutes from the conjuring house in twenty twenty four.
According to The Valley Breeze, he was already investing in
the area. Castille runs multiple YouTube channels focused on paranormal
content and travel. His main channel, to fil has over
four million subscribers and pledges to visit at every country
(09:00):
in the world. He also operates Overnight, which focuses specifically
on paranormal investigations, and hosts a podcast called Haunted Homies.
This wasn't some random celebrity jumping onto a trend. Castille
had built his entire platform around this exact subject matter. Wednesday,
October eighth, twenty twenty five, the paranormal community woke up
(09:24):
to shocking news. The Halloween auction wasn't happening. Needham Bank
had quietly sold the underlying mortgage loan on the property.
JJ Manning Auctioneers posted a brief statement on their website.
The mortgagee had concluded a sale of the underlying mortgage
loan earlier that month and no longer had any interest
in the conjuring house property. Needham Bank wouldn't say who
(09:47):
bought the loan. They explained that the buyer's identity would
become public through the town's land evidence records once the
mortgage got officially assigned to the new owner. Until then,
everyone could speculate The cancelation had Jason Hawes hard. He
had launched a gofund me campaign just days before this
announcement dropped. Despite spending years publicly stating he never wanted
(10:10):
to buy the conjuring house, he had changed his position
after receiving messages from former owners, employees, and residents begging
him to prevent the property from being exploited again. By
Tuesday evening, right before the cancelation news broke, Hawes had
raised just over sixty seven thousand dollars from supporters worldwide.
His video response captured the disappointment everyone felt. He explained
(10:34):
that Needham Bank had sold the mortgage, not the house itself.
Whoever bought that mortgage would need to go through the
entire foreclosure process again from the beginning. The GoFundMe went
back online the next day, still pushing toward the goal.
Hawes made it clear he was not the mystery buyer.
Elton Castie wasn't publicly claiming to be either. The paranormal
(10:56):
community started spinning theories. Was it a Hollywood studio, some
billionaire paranormal enthusiast, a descendant of one of the families
who had lived there. The speculation ran wild. The auction
announcement had prompted Andrea Parent to record an emotional video play.
Andrea is the eldest daughter of the Parent family, the
one who lived through everything that became the conjuring. She's
(11:19):
battling stage four metastatic breast cancer, and she was watching
this property that she'd grown up in become the center
of legal battles and exploitation. She specifically asked Jason Hawes
to step in and prevent the house from being turned
into something that dishonored its history. Despite her medical condition,
despite everything she was dealing with personally, she recorded this
(11:39):
message asking for help. She talked about the need to
salvage the barn on the property, restore the staff who
had treated the place with respect, and rebuild the reputation
that had been damaged during Nunyez's ownership. The house didn't
need to become a circus or just another money making scheme.
Her message carried real urgency. She told Han she knew
(12:00):
in her heart he was part of the property's destiny.
She asked him, actually pleaded with him to please consider
saving the farm. She ended by telling him that she
loved him with all her heart. The hashtag save the
Farm started spreading across social media platforms as people shared
her video. After the news broke about the mystery mortgage purchase,
(12:22):
Parron made one brief statement. She said she hoped this
wasn't going to be a disaster. That was it just
those few words that contained so much worry about what
might happen to her childhood home. Hawes set the GoFundMe
goal at one point five million dollars, matching what Nunia
has had paid in twenty twenty two. Any surplus beyond
(12:44):
the purchase price would fund restoration work, repairs, and ongoing maintenance.
The campaign explained his vision clearly. This was not about
making money, It was about preserving something important and making
it accessible. The local neighbors rallied behind him. Us explained
that every neighbor on that street had reached out to
support his efforts. They were standing behind him one hundred
(13:06):
percent because they had dealt with years of chaos. They
just wanted their lives back their normal. Quiet Street had
become a destination for paranormal tourists, and they had paid
the price in privacy and peace. The neighborhood had endured
cars creeping by at all hours, tourists stopping to take photos,
(13:26):
overnight guests who'd scream during the night, waking everyone nearby.
Patrick Wilson had mentioned during interviews that the Warrens lived
on a regular residential street in Connecticut. Their neighbors probably
never imagined their quiet road would become a paranormal pilgrimage site.
The exact same thing had happened to the people living
around the Conjuring House. Nick and Tessa Groff from Ghost Adventures,
(13:49):
who had initially expressed interest in bidding themselves, decided to
back pair in and support Haws instead. The puranormal community
was consolidating around one effort rather than fragment into competing bids.
Pause laid out his plan in detail. If he could
acquire their property, he'd fix it up properly. He'd opened
it to visitors enough to cover the costs of operation
(14:10):
and maintenance. The property would sustain itself financially without becoming
something designed to maximize profit. He emphasized this wasn't his
first experience with this type of project. He'd done it
before and could do it again. He told supporters this
was one hundred percent about answering and Reapparent's plea and
making the house accessible to everyone, paranormal believers, non believers, skeptics, debunkers, historians.
(14:36):
They all wanted to see this property and they should
have that opportunity. It shouldn't be restricted to people with
large bank accounts or massive YouTube followings who could afford
to outbid everyone else. Land records filed in November twenty
twenty five finally revealed the buyer's identity. The documents showed
a real estate holdings company controlled by Elton Casti Cassti,
(14:58):
who runs the tfil channel with over four million subscribers,
bought the one point two million dollar loan through Summit
and Stone LLC, a corporation formed in Rhode Island in September.
Needham Bank filed the discharge paperwork with the Burrollville Town
Clerk's office on Thursday, November thirteenth. Caste incorporated Summit and
Stone on September twelfth, twenty twenty five, before JJ Manning
(15:20):
announced to the Halloween auction, and well before Jason Hawes
started his GoFundMe campaign, Casti had been planning his move
for months, working quietly in the background while everyone else
was focused on the public auction. Castid declined to comment
when reporters reached out. Matt Rife didn't respond to requests
for comment either. The silence from both of them was conspicuous,
(15:43):
especially given how vocal they had been about wanting to
purchase the property earlier in the year. Casti does not
hold the deed for the property. That deed remains with
Jaquil and Nuniez. Owning the mortgage is not the same
as owning the house. When reporters asked Anuniez for comman
she responded with a text message. She claimed she has
(16:03):
the rightful entitlement to the vast John Arnold the state
as the underlying leasehold. She then added several insults and explatives,
which probably tells you everything you need to know about
how cooperative she is planning to be with this whole situation.
To gain ownership of the property itself, Castille needs Nuniez
to sign over the deed in what's called a deed
in lieu of foreclosure. This is essentially a negotiated transfer
(16:27):
that avoids the auction process. If Nuniez refuses to sign,
and based on her response, that seems entirely possible, the
property could end up going to auction again. Rhode Island
law requires public notice of any foreclosure auction, so we
would see it coming. If that happens. The property's fate
hangs in legal limbo right now. Castille controls the debt
(16:49):
but not the asset. Nuniez owns the deed but has
no way to satisfy the loan she defaulted on. The
two of them need to reach some kind of agreement
or this goes back to where one with another public auction.
Jeson Hawes told reporters he is not deterred. He expressed
confidence that he'd still be able to purchase the property,
pointing out that his campaign has raised more than three
(17:11):
hundred thousand dollars. He stated they are still exactly where
they want to be in this process and they have
a path forward. The news about Castille buying the mortgage
doesn't change their strategy. Hawes posted on Facebook that owning
a banknote does not mean someone owns the property. Emphasized
they understand their position clearly and remain confident about moving forward.
(17:34):
He's not wrong. There is still a scenario where Hawes
could end up owning the house depending on what Nuniez
decides to do and whether Castille can negotiate a transfer.
The competition between these two potential buyers has split the
paranormal community. Some people support Hawes because he's responding to
andre a parent's direct plea and has promised to make
(17:54):
the property accessible without exploiting it for maximum profit. Others
see Castille and Life as the natural successors, given that
they already own the Warren House and museum. They've demonstrated
they are serious about preserving paranormal history. They are the
legal guardians of the Annabel Dull and seven hundred and
fifty other artifacts, after all. Castille and Rife stated in
(18:15):
August twenty twenty five they plan to open the Warren
House for overnight stays and museum tours so people can
experience and learn about the haunted history surrounding the property.
Whether they have similar plans for the Conjuring House remains unknown.
Neither has made any public statement about their intentions since
the mortgage purchase became public knowledge. Castille created a legal
(18:38):
entity specifically for real estate holdings and used it to
acquire this particular mortgage. That suggests planning and intention beyond
a spontaneous decision Carl Johnson, the paranormal researcher who originally
investigated the house and brought in the Warrens back in
nineteen seventy three, still works as a self described demonologist.
(18:58):
He said that he hopes whoever ends up owning the
property will preserve its history without exploiting it. He considers
the house of one of New England's prime haunted sites,
a place where some visitors report peaceful experiences, while others
claim they couldn't last a single night. The neighbors caught
in the middle of all of it just want resolution.
They've endured years of disruption. They've watched their quiet residential
(19:20):
street transform into a tourist attraction. They've dealt with the noise,
the traffic, the constant stream of strangers. The property sitting
in legal limbo doesn't help them. They need an owner
who will either respect the neighborhood's peace or decisively commit
to running a legitimate business with proper oversight. The three
hundred year old farmhouse keeps whatever secrets it holds behind
(19:42):
those centuries old walls. Someone now controls the mortgage to
a piece of American paranormal history that refuses to cooperate
with anyone's plans. The building where five young girls saw
a woman in gray who shouldn't have been there, Where
Carol and Perrin woke up night after night with injuries
she could and explain, where ed Lorraine Warren conducted one
(20:02):
of their most famous investigations, where Andrea Paren learned about
life and death and whatever exists beyond. As her mother
once said, Andrea Paren watches from Georgia as the property's
future remains undecided. She's battling cancer while worrying about whether
her childhood home will be honored or exploited. The house
that shaped her understanding of the world, the place where
(20:25):
her family endured a decade of experiences that still defy explanation,
continues generating new mysteries. Almost half a century after the
Paren's left, the mortgage has changed hands, the deed is not.
Somewhere in that gap between debt and ownership lies the
answer to what happens next. Castid controls the financial instrument,
(20:46):
Nunez controls the legal title. Hawes controls three hundred thousand
dollars in donations from people who believe in his vision.
The three of them form a triangle of competing interests.
Around the property that has defied easy answers since seven,
nineteen thirty six. The foreclosure process will move forward. Negotiations
will happen behind closed doors. Eventually someone will own both
(21:09):
the mortgage and the deed. They'll inherit not just a house,
but everything that comes with it, the history, the reputation,
the responsibility to all the families who lived there and
left with stories they couldn't forget, the expectations of a
paranormal community that sees this property is sacred ground, the
hopes of neighbors who just want their street back. They'll
(21:29):
also inherit whatever still resides within those walls, if anything
truly does. Former residents, investigators, and visitors have reported consistent
phenomena across decades. Cold spots that move through rooms like
something passing by, voices and hallways that should be empty,
the overwhelming sense that something watches from corners and shadows.
(21:50):
Scientific explanations exists for many reported hauntings. Carbon monoxide poisoning
that causes hallucinations in for sound vibrations that create feelings
of ease, electromagnetic fields that affect perception. The conjuring house
has resisted simple explanations for two hundred eighty nine years.
But by the time you hear this, negotiations may have progressed.
(22:13):
Agreements may have been reached or fallen apart. The property
may have found its way back to auction or Castie
and Nunez may have worked out a transfer. Jason Hawes
may have secured his path to ownership, or his gofund
me may have refunded donations to supporters who believed in
his mission. Whatever happens, the stories persist of the Parns
(22:34):
and their decade of terror, of Bethsheba Sherman and her
supposed curse, of all the families who lived in that
farmhouse over two hundred eighty nine years and left with
experiences they couldn't explain to people who didn't believe them.
The building will outlast this dispute the same way it's
outlasted everything else. It was standing before America existed as
(22:54):
a country. It'll probably still be standing long after everyone
involved in this current drama is gone. The woman in
gray will still wander the halls, if she ever did.
The doors will still slam on windless nights, if they
ever really did, And at three oh seven am, perhaps
something will still move through those rooms, touching the living
with cold hands, and leaving marks that fade by morning.
(23:18):
If any of it was ever more than imagination and
folklore and the power of suggestion, the next owner will
discover the truth for themselves, whatever that truth turns out
to be. If you'd like to read this story for
yourself or share the article with a friend, you can
read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've placed a
link to it in the episode description, and you can
(23:39):
find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange, and more,
including numerous stories that never make it to the podcast,
in my Weird Darknews blog at Weird Darkness dot com
slash news
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