July 4, 2025 • 13 mins
In this bone-chilling episode of Nightland Frights, we’re diving into the eerie and unexplained. These aren’t campfire tales or urban legends—these are real horror stories that happened to real people.
🕵️♂️ Featured Stories:
👣 The Enfield Monster – In 1973 rural Illinois, a strange creature with three legs, flashlight-sized eyes, and a slimy gray body terrorized a small town. One man fired shots at the beast—but it vanished into the night. Was it mass hysteria… or something otherworldly?
🎤 Haunted Elsa Doll – A Houston family tries everything to get rid of a possessed Elsa doll that sings on its own—even with no batteries. But every time they throw it away, it comes back. Is it a prank… or a cursed toy that doesn’t want to let go?
🧱 Dead Animals in the Walls – A Pennsylvania family discovers their house is insulated with animal carcasses linked to Pennsylvania Dutch “pow-wow” folk magic. Could these occult rituals still be active today?
🔥 Florida Devil Worshipping Ritual – A respected teacher in St. Petersburg shocks the community with a bizarre fire ritual involving her former students. She claimed it was to “burn out demons”—but what was really possessing her?
🔮 You’ll hear about:
-
Unsettling eyewitness reports
-
Occult connections to historical traditions
-
Cursed objects that refuse to die
-
Disturbing rituals hidden behind suburban smiles
🎧 Whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in between, these stories will rattle your nerves and test your courage.
References:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a39179/five-real-life-horror-stories/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker A (00:12):
Welcome to Nightland Frights, the scary sister podcast of Dairyland Frights.
This episode is true terror Real life horrorstories that will haunt you.
In this bone chilling episode of NightlandFrights, we're diving into the eerie and
unexplained.
These aren't campfire tales or urban legends.
These are real horror stories that happened to
real people.
We have three featured stories that will chill
(00:34):
you to the bone.
The first story is about the enfield monster.
In 1973 rural Illinois, a strange creaturewith three legs, flashlight sized eyes and a
slimy gray body terrorized a small town.
One man fired shots at the beast, but it
vanished into the night.
Was it mass hysteria or somethingotherworldly?
The next story is about a haunted Elsa doll.
(00:55):
A Houston family tries everything to get rid
of a possessed Elsa doll that sings on its owneven with no batteries.
But every time they throw it away, it Is it aprank or a cursed toy that doesn't want to let
go?Dead Animals in the Walls A Pennsylvania
family discovers their house is insulated withanimal carcasses linked to Pennsylvania Dutch
Pow wow folk magic.
(01:16):
Could these occult rituals still be activetoday?
The last story involves Florida devilworshipping ritual.
A respected teacher in St. Petersburg shocksthe community with a bizarre fire ritual
involving her former students.
She claimed it was to burn out demons, but
what was possessing her?
Whether you're a believer, a skeptic orsomewhere in between, these stories will
rattle your nerves and test your courage.
(01:38):
Make sure to subscribe and review.
Don't forget to follow Nightland Frightswherever you get your podcasts.
Leave a five star review.
If you want more real life paranormal
episodes,
connect with us, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
Patreon Support the show and get bonuscontent.
Email us@dairylandfrightsmail.com with yourparanormal stories.
Stay spooky, stay skeptical and remember thenight holds more than just shadows.
(02:02):
The Enfield Monster.
Speaker B (02:05):
April 25, 1973 One of the strangest events ever chronicled in Enfield, Illinois.
The night started with a boy named GregGarrett who had been playing in the backyard
around 9pm catching fireflies and looking atsea of stars while attempting to catch the
next firefly.
His pursuits were soon cut off quickly by whatis now known as the enfield Horror.
(02:26):
While Mr. And Mrs. Garrett had been watchingTV, young Greg burst through the back door
crying and acting hysterically.
He began to relive what had just happened.
A monster about four or five feet tall, tiny
arms with claws, a slimy gray epidermis, threelegs with accompanying claws and big red eyes
the size of flashlights attacked him.
(02:47):
Greg's tennis shoes were torn to shreds,claiming it occurred when the monster ran past
him and stepped on his feet.
Mr. And Mrs. Garrett were extremely concerned
as Greg was not known for making things up.
They just couldn't wrap their head around whathe was telling them.
At the exact moment this situation was goingon, the Garrett's neighbor, Henry McDaniel and
his wife were returning home.
(03:08):
They found their two children in an absolutepanic.
The children claimed the thing had tried tobreak into the house through the door and a
window mounted air conditioner.
Moments earlier, as Mr.
McDaniel was listening in disbelief, he heardsomething, an unusual scratching sound at the
front door.
McDaniel assumed it was a stray animal and
opened the front door.
(03:28):
It was at that moment he came face to face
with the Enfield Horror.
He stumbled backwards, slamming the door.
Grabbing a flashlight and a.22 pistol, he
threw the door back open and got anotherglimpse of the demon.
His description of the grotesque creature wasidentical to that of Greg Garrett, the later
telling police.
It had three legs on it, a short body, twolittle short arms coming out of its breast
(03:51):
area, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights.
It stood four and a half feet tall and was
grayish colored.
It was trying to get into the house.
McDaniel opened fire on the monster, but while
he was positive he hit the Horror, the bulletsdid not cause any mortal damage.
He stated it hissed like a wildcat and jumpedaway, covering 75ft in approximately three
(04:12):
hops,
disappearing past the railroad tracks.
McDaniel immediately called the local police,
but the Illinois state troopers showed up onthe scene instead.
The troopers searched through the area butfound no sign of the Enfield Horror.
They did, however, find scratch marks againstthe siding, which appeared to be fresh.
And scarily enough, they found footprints,Three of them with long claw markings.
(04:35):
Two of the footprints were about 4 incheswide, with the third one being slightly
smaller.
The troopers were puzzled as nothing they hadseen could have made those footprints.
On May6, McDaniel was startled awake in thedead of the night by the howling of some
neighborhood dogs.
He pulled himself out of bed, grabbed the gunand yanked open front door.
Upon opening, he said he got a better look atthe monster from some distance, Negotiating
(05:00):
the trestles of the railroad tracks.
This time it wasn't in a hurry.
It just moved down the tracks.
In the days following the odd story, McDanielfelt compelled to tell everyone he could about
what he had seen.
Before long, droves of monster huntersarrived, floods of news trucks, scientists and
Curiosity seekers descended onto the town.
(05:20):
At one point, the town was becoming such a
circus of media frenzy and tourists.
The White county sheriff threatened to arrestMcDaniel if he didn't stop talking about his
experience.
At least five hunters were arrested andcharged after being a threat to public safety.
After opening fire on a hairy gray thing.
The judge claimed they were simply out toraise hell.
Speaker C (05:41):
One man, Rick Rainbow, who was a news director for WWK1 in Kokomo, Indiana,
claimed to have seen the Enfield horror aswell.
He and three other men witnessed the horroraround an abandoned house not much further
from the McDaniel house.
Rainbow could not get a clear description ofthe monster because it was in the shadows and
had its back towards the men.
He did describe it as being gray, 5ft tall and
(06:03):
stooped over.
Rainbow did manage to record the ungodlyscreams of the Enfield Horror, but that
recording was not released to the generalpublic.
Those cries were heard by others over the nextseveral days near the railroad tracks close to
the McDaniels house.
After that night, the creature jumped over thetracks, this time for good.
Just as quickly as the monster arrived, itdisappeared, never to be discovered again.
Speaker B (06:25):
In 1978, a case study was opened by a group of researchers who tried to make sense
of the situation.
The researchers found that no more than threefirst hand witnesses claimed they saw the
actual monster.
But since then, their stories have beenexaggerated by local news stories and local
gossip.
It became a bizarre game of telephone where
(06:45):
each additional story snowballed intosomething bigger and more animated.
Now, if all these reports are real, why didnobody take any photos of the evidence?
The aluminum siding scratches, the footprints,the torn up tennis shoes?
Or attempt to get any sort of real proof fromthe monster?
Could this be considered a crime scene?People who think it was an elaborate hoax to
(07:05):
bring tourists into the town could not explainhow two separate neighbors who told the police
the same description without conversing witheach other first.
The marks on the ground also didn't suggestfoul play.
While the case remains largely forgottentoday, it is still one of the most curious
cases and makes you wonder what took placedown in Enfield.
It has not been reported on for almost 40years,
(07:27):
but that's not to say it isn't still out therewaiting to terrorize another town.
Haunted doll On Christmas of 2013, a Houstonarea girl was gifted an Elsa dollar and all
was well.
Until it wasn't.
The doll recited phrases from the movie Frozenand sang let it go when a button on its
necklace was pressed.
Speaker C (07:46):
For two years it did that in English mother Emily Madonia said in 2015, it
started doing it alternating between Spanishand English.
There wasn't a button that changed these.
It was just random.
The family has owned the doll for more thansix years and never changed its batteries.
The mother says the doll would randomly beginto speak and sing, even with its switch turned
off.
In December 2019, the family decided to getrid of the doll.
(08:09):
However, Elsa wasn't going to let this familygo, despite throwing it out in the trash.
The family found the doll inside a bench intheir living room.
Speaker B (08:17):
Weeks later, the kids insisted they didn't put it there, and I believed them
because they wouldn't have dug through thegarbage outside.
Madonia said.
Speaker C (08:25):
Elsa completely stopped operating in English and began to speak and sing in
Spanish.
Once again, the family attempted to throw out
the Elsa dollar.
Madonia's husband double bagged the doll and
placed it at the bottom of the garbage can tobe taken away on trash day.
Speaker B (08:38):
The family traveled and forgot about it, but when they returned, their
daughter found her old friend outside theirhouse.
Okay, guys, seriously, we need help.
To recap for those of you who have not been
following our Elsa doll saga, Matt threw itaway weeks ago, and then we found it inside a
wooden bench,
Midonia wrote on Facebook.
Okay, so we were weirded out and tightly
(08:59):
wrapped it in its garbage bag and put thatgarbage bag inside another garbage bag filled
with other garbage and put it in the bottom ofour garbage can underneath a bunch of other
bags of garbage and wheeled it to the curb andit was collected on garbage day.
Great, right?We went out of town, forgot about it.
Today, Aurelia says, mom, I saw the Elsa dollagain in the backyard.
(09:21):
Help us get rid of this haunted doll.
When asked if she believed a prank was beingpulled,
the doll has some marker on her from mydaughter coloring over the years, so I know
the doll that reappeared was the original andnot a replacement.
Most logical thinkers believe it's a prank,but I don't understand how or when it was
done, especially because the garbage truck hadtaken it away.
(09:42):
He family has made a final attempt to get ridof their daughter's old toy, but this time,
Elsa isn't going into the unknown.
The doll is was mailed without a return
address to a family friend in Minnesota.
If the doll comes back, I might have to openmy mind to some of the more supernatural
solutions, medonia said.
Luckily for Midonia, the doll was received by
her Minnesotan friend Chris Hogan, who shareda final update on his Facebook.
(10:06):
And now for the rest of the story.
She made it to Minnesota and is taped to the
brush guard of my jeep.
If anything weird happens, I'm welding her
into a steel pipe and sinking it in Lake ofthe woods, hogan wrote.
Speaker A (10:18):
Dead animals in the Walls when the.
Speaker D (10:20):
Bretzewi family decided to insulate their home in Auburn, Pennsylvania in 2015,
they discovered that it had already been withscores of dead animal carcasses.
The expert attributed the rotting animals intheir walls to powwow or Dutch magic, a ritual
originating in the culture of the PennsylvaniaDutch to treat ailments and gain physical and
(10:44):
spiritual protection.
The Pennsylvania Dutch were a group of Germanspeaking settlers to Pennsylvania in the 1600s
and 1700s and are often of Lutheran, Mennoniteor Amish faiths.
The Washington Post notes on the magic Onenotable ritual in their tradition is this hex
to create loyalty in a dog, to attach a dog toa person,
(11:07):
provided nothing else was used before toaffect it.
Try to draw some of your blood and let the dogeat it along with his food and he will stay
with you.
The mold found on the rotting carcasses in theBret Suis home has caused illness among the
family members and they say that the odorhasn't gone away.
Speaker B (11:26):
Florida devil worshiping friends noticed that Danielle Harkins, a 35 year old
schoolteacher near St. Petersburg, Florida,started acting strangely in June of 2012,
developing an interest in demonic rituals.
Soon after, she was arrested for abuse ofseven of her former students.
As the Tampa Bay Times reported,
Danielle Harkins told the kids they needed torid their bodies of demons.
(11:49):
As the group gathered before dusk Saturdayaround a small fire near the St. Petersburg
pier.
They should cut their skin to let the evil
spirits out, police said.
She told the children then they needed to burnthe wounds to ensure that those spirits would
not return.
When Harkins held a lighter to one teen's
hand,
wind blew the flame out, police said.
(12:09):
That prompted her to douse his hand in perfume
before setting it on fire.
The boy suffered second degree burns, police
said.
Another teen was cut on the neck with a broken
bottle.
Police said Harkins used a flame to heat asmall key, which he then used to cauterize the
wound.
The police were notified because a friend of
one of the students who participated in theritual raised alarms.
(12:31):
However, none of the students themselves toldtheir parents about the event or did they
comment following the arrest of Harkins foraggravated batter and child abuse, NBC
reported.
The investigators said they've spoken to
Harkins, but she didn't spell out what type ofreligion would require such drastic measures.
She hasn't informed us exactly what she wastrying to accomplish with this.
(12:51):
Pewds of the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Speaker A (12:54):
Said, you've heard the stories.
The monster with three legs that vanished into
the night.
The doll that refused to die.
The walls whisper with the stench of the dead.
And the teacher who thought she could burn out
demons but only lit a fire inside herself.
These weren't tales from ancient times.
These weren't fiction.
These were real.
And if the darkness can find them, it can findyou.
(13:14):
So tonight, lock your doors, check yourwindows, and if something knocks, don't open
it.
This has been Nightland. Frights.
We'll see you next time.
Unless the night gets to you first.
Welcome to Nightland Frights, the scary sister podcast of Dairyland Frights.
This episode is true terror Real life horrorstories that will haunt you.
In this bone chilling episode of NightlandFrights, we're diving into the eerie and
unexplained.
These aren't campfire tales or urban legends.
These are real horror stories that happened to
real people.
We have three featured stories that will chill
(00:34):
you to the bone.
The first story is about the enfield monster.
In 1973 rural Illinois, a strange creaturewith three legs, flashlight sized eyes and a
slimy gray body terrorized a small town.
One man fired shots at the beast, but it
vanished into the night.
Was it mass hysteria or somethingotherworldly?
The next story is about a haunted Elsa doll.
(00:55):
A Houston family tries everything to get rid
of a possessed Elsa doll that sings on its owneven with no batteries.
But every time they throw it away, it Is it aprank or a cursed toy that doesn't want to let
go?Dead Animals in the Walls A Pennsylvania
family discovers their house is insulated withanimal carcasses linked to Pennsylvania Dutch
Pow wow folk magic.
(01:16):
Could these occult rituals still be activetoday?
The last story involves Florida devilworshipping ritual.
A respected teacher in St. Petersburg shocksthe community with a bizarre fire ritual
involving her former students.
She claimed it was to burn out demons, but
what was possessing her?
Whether you're a believer, a skeptic orsomewhere in between, these stories will
rattle your nerves and test your courage.
(01:38):
Make sure to subscribe and review.
Don't forget to follow Nightland Frightswherever you get your podcasts.
Leave a five star review.
If you want more real life paranormal
episodes,
connect with us, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
Patreon Support the show and get bonuscontent.
Email us@dairylandfrightsmail.com with yourparanormal stories.
Stay spooky, stay skeptical and remember thenight holds more than just shadows.
(02:02):
The Enfield Monster.
Speaker B (02:05):
April 25, 1973 One of the strangest events ever chronicled in Enfield, Illinois.
The night started with a boy named GregGarrett who had been playing in the backyard
around 9pm catching fireflies and looking atsea of stars while attempting to catch the
next firefly.
His pursuits were soon cut off quickly by whatis now known as the enfield Horror.
(02:26):
While Mr. And Mrs. Garrett had been watchingTV, young Greg burst through the back door
crying and acting hysterically.
He began to relive what had just happened.
A monster about four or five feet tall, tiny
arms with claws, a slimy gray epidermis, threelegs with accompanying claws and big red eyes
the size of flashlights attacked him.
(02:47):
Greg's tennis shoes were torn to shreds,claiming it occurred when the monster ran past
him and stepped on his feet.
Mr. And Mrs. Garrett were extremely concerned
as Greg was not known for making things up.
They just couldn't wrap their head around whathe was telling them.
At the exact moment this situation was goingon, the Garrett's neighbor, Henry McDaniel and
his wife were returning home.
(03:08):
They found their two children in an absolutepanic.
The children claimed the thing had tried tobreak into the house through the door and a
window mounted air conditioner.
Moments earlier, as Mr.
McDaniel was listening in disbelief, he heardsomething, an unusual scratching sound at the
front door.
McDaniel assumed it was a stray animal and
opened the front door.
(03:28):
It was at that moment he came face to face
with the Enfield Horror.
He stumbled backwards, slamming the door.
Grabbing a flashlight and a.22 pistol, he
threw the door back open and got anotherglimpse of the demon.
His description of the grotesque creature wasidentical to that of Greg Garrett, the later
telling police.
It had three legs on it, a short body, twolittle short arms coming out of its breast
(03:51):
area, and two pink eyes as big as flashlights.
It stood four and a half feet tall and was
grayish colored.
It was trying to get into the house.
McDaniel opened fire on the monster, but while
he was positive he hit the Horror, the bulletsdid not cause any mortal damage.
He stated it hissed like a wildcat and jumpedaway, covering 75ft in approximately three
(04:12):
hops,
disappearing past the railroad tracks.
McDaniel immediately called the local police,
but the Illinois state troopers showed up onthe scene instead.
The troopers searched through the area butfound no sign of the Enfield Horror.
They did, however, find scratch marks againstthe siding, which appeared to be fresh.
And scarily enough, they found footprints,Three of them with long claw markings.
(04:35):
Two of the footprints were about 4 incheswide, with the third one being slightly
smaller.
The troopers were puzzled as nothing they hadseen could have made those footprints.
On May6, McDaniel was startled awake in thedead of the night by the howling of some
neighborhood dogs.
He pulled himself out of bed, grabbed the gunand yanked open front door.
Upon opening, he said he got a better look atthe monster from some distance, Negotiating
(05:00):
the trestles of the railroad tracks.
This time it wasn't in a hurry.
It just moved down the tracks.
In the days following the odd story, McDanielfelt compelled to tell everyone he could about
what he had seen.
Before long, droves of monster huntersarrived, floods of news trucks, scientists and
Curiosity seekers descended onto the town.
(05:20):
At one point, the town was becoming such a
circus of media frenzy and tourists.
The White county sheriff threatened to arrestMcDaniel if he didn't stop talking about his
experience.
At least five hunters were arrested andcharged after being a threat to public safety.
After opening fire on a hairy gray thing.
The judge claimed they were simply out toraise hell.
Speaker C (05:41):
One man, Rick Rainbow, who was a news director for WWK1 in Kokomo, Indiana,
claimed to have seen the Enfield horror aswell.
He and three other men witnessed the horroraround an abandoned house not much further
from the McDaniel house.
Rainbow could not get a clear description ofthe monster because it was in the shadows and
had its back towards the men.
He did describe it as being gray, 5ft tall and
(06:03):
stooped over.
Rainbow did manage to record the ungodlyscreams of the Enfield Horror, but that
recording was not released to the generalpublic.
Those cries were heard by others over the nextseveral days near the railroad tracks close to
the McDaniels house.
After that night, the creature jumped over thetracks, this time for good.
Just as quickly as the monster arrived, itdisappeared, never to be discovered again.
Speaker B (06:25):
In 1978, a case study was opened by a group of researchers who tried to make sense
of the situation.
The researchers found that no more than threefirst hand witnesses claimed they saw the
actual monster.
But since then, their stories have beenexaggerated by local news stories and local
gossip.
It became a bizarre game of telephone where
(06:45):
each additional story snowballed intosomething bigger and more animated.
Now, if all these reports are real, why didnobody take any photos of the evidence?
The aluminum siding scratches, the footprints,the torn up tennis shoes?
Or attempt to get any sort of real proof fromthe monster?
Could this be considered a crime scene?People who think it was an elaborate hoax to
(07:05):
bring tourists into the town could not explainhow two separate neighbors who told the police
the same description without conversing witheach other first.
The marks on the ground also didn't suggestfoul play.
While the case remains largely forgottentoday, it is still one of the most curious
cases and makes you wonder what took placedown in Enfield.
It has not been reported on for almost 40years,
(07:27):
but that's not to say it isn't still out therewaiting to terrorize another town.
Haunted doll On Christmas of 2013, a Houstonarea girl was gifted an Elsa dollar and all
was well.
Until it wasn't.
The doll recited phrases from the movie Frozenand sang let it go when a button on its
necklace was pressed.
Speaker C (07:46):
For two years it did that in English mother Emily Madonia said in 2015, it
started doing it alternating between Spanishand English.
There wasn't a button that changed these.
It was just random.
The family has owned the doll for more thansix years and never changed its batteries.
The mother says the doll would randomly beginto speak and sing, even with its switch turned
off.
In December 2019, the family decided to getrid of the doll.
(08:09):
However, Elsa wasn't going to let this familygo, despite throwing it out in the trash.
The family found the doll inside a bench intheir living room.
Speaker B (08:17):
Weeks later, the kids insisted they didn't put it there, and I believed them
because they wouldn't have dug through thegarbage outside.
Madonia said.
Speaker C (08:25):
Elsa completely stopped operating in English and began to speak and sing in
Spanish.
Once again, the family attempted to throw out
the Elsa dollar.
Madonia's husband double bagged the doll and
placed it at the bottom of the garbage can tobe taken away on trash day.
Speaker B (08:38):
The family traveled and forgot about it, but when they returned, their
daughter found her old friend outside theirhouse.
Okay, guys, seriously, we need help.
To recap for those of you who have not been
following our Elsa doll saga, Matt threw itaway weeks ago, and then we found it inside a
wooden bench,
Midonia wrote on Facebook.
Okay, so we were weirded out and tightly
(08:59):
wrapped it in its garbage bag and put thatgarbage bag inside another garbage bag filled
with other garbage and put it in the bottom ofour garbage can underneath a bunch of other
bags of garbage and wheeled it to the curb andit was collected on garbage day.
Great, right?We went out of town, forgot about it.
Today, Aurelia says, mom, I saw the Elsa dollagain in the backyard.
(09:21):
Help us get rid of this haunted doll.
When asked if she believed a prank was beingpulled,
the doll has some marker on her from mydaughter coloring over the years, so I know
the doll that reappeared was the original andnot a replacement.
Most logical thinkers believe it's a prank,but I don't understand how or when it was
done, especially because the garbage truck hadtaken it away.
(09:42):
He family has made a final attempt to get ridof their daughter's old toy, but this time,
Elsa isn't going into the unknown.
The doll is was mailed without a return
address to a family friend in Minnesota.
If the doll comes back, I might have to openmy mind to some of the more supernatural
solutions, medonia said.
Luckily for Midonia, the doll was received by
her Minnesotan friend Chris Hogan, who shareda final update on his Facebook.
(10:06):
And now for the rest of the story.
She made it to Minnesota and is taped to the
brush guard of my jeep.
If anything weird happens, I'm welding her
into a steel pipe and sinking it in Lake ofthe woods, hogan wrote.
Speaker A (10:18):
Dead animals in the Walls when the.
Speaker D (10:20):
Bretzewi family decided to insulate their home in Auburn, Pennsylvania in 2015,
they discovered that it had already been withscores of dead animal carcasses.
The expert attributed the rotting animals intheir walls to powwow or Dutch magic, a ritual
originating in the culture of the PennsylvaniaDutch to treat ailments and gain physical and
(10:44):
spiritual protection.
The Pennsylvania Dutch were a group of Germanspeaking settlers to Pennsylvania in the 1600s
and 1700s and are often of Lutheran, Mennoniteor Amish faiths.
The Washington Post notes on the magic Onenotable ritual in their tradition is this hex
to create loyalty in a dog, to attach a dog toa person,
(11:07):
provided nothing else was used before toaffect it.
Try to draw some of your blood and let the dogeat it along with his food and he will stay
with you.
The mold found on the rotting carcasses in theBret Suis home has caused illness among the
family members and they say that the odorhasn't gone away.
Speaker B (11:26):
Florida devil worshiping friends noticed that Danielle Harkins, a 35 year old
schoolteacher near St. Petersburg, Florida,started acting strangely in June of 2012,
developing an interest in demonic rituals.
Soon after, she was arrested for abuse ofseven of her former students.
As the Tampa Bay Times reported,
Danielle Harkins told the kids they needed torid their bodies of demons.
(11:49):
As the group gathered before dusk Saturdayaround a small fire near the St. Petersburg
pier.
They should cut their skin to let the evil
spirits out, police said.
She told the children then they needed to burnthe wounds to ensure that those spirits would
not return.
When Harkins held a lighter to one teen's
hand,
wind blew the flame out, police said.
(12:09):
That prompted her to douse his hand in perfume
before setting it on fire.
The boy suffered second degree burns, police
said.
Another teen was cut on the neck with a broken
bottle.
Police said Harkins used a flame to heat asmall key, which he then used to cauterize the
wound.
The police were notified because a friend of
one of the students who participated in theritual raised alarms.
(12:31):
However, none of the students themselves toldtheir parents about the event or did they
comment following the arrest of Harkins foraggravated batter and child abuse, NBC
reported.
The investigators said they've spoken to
Harkins, but she didn't spell out what type ofreligion would require such drastic measures.
She hasn't informed us exactly what she wastrying to accomplish with this.
(12:51):
Pewds of the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Speaker A (12:54):
Said, you've heard the stories.
The monster with three legs that vanished into
the night.
The doll that refused to die.
The walls whisper with the stench of the dead.
And the teacher who thought she could burn out
demons but only lit a fire inside herself.
These weren't tales from ancient times.
These weren't fiction.
These were real.
And if the darkness can find them, it can findyou.
(13:14):
So tonight, lock your doors, check yourwindows, and if something knocks, don't open
it.
This has been Nightland. Frights.
We'll see you next time.
Unless the night gets to you first.
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