A Haunting at Black Star Canyon

Todd takes us through his decades-long journey of chilling and unexplained experiences, from eerie hikes in haunted forests, watching a recorded summoning of a demon, to unsettling events in his own home. 


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Editing and sound design by Sarah Vorhees Wendel from VW Sound

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I saw my wife. I thought she was like trying
to hide from me or something. And then I hear
my wife call me in the bedroom and I froze.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
From haunted cabins and possible demons to chilling sleep paralysis
episodes and encounters with creatures in the woods, we're gonna
hear about a life engulfed by the paranormal. My name
is Edwin, and here is taught true scary story.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Back in twenty fifteen, my friend and I were out
in Black Star Canyon, which is located in Orange County
of California. The history of Black Star Canyon there were
tribes that were massacred and tortured, and all that energy

(01:05):
remained Today it's a melting pot of energy. In Black
Spy Canyon, there is a trail that leads to a waterfall.
We decided to go hike that trail. It was summertime,

(01:33):
maybe three or four pm. We went there to take pictures.
My buddy's camera bag was getting messed with. I remember
the bag was getting zipped and unzipped. Occasionally you would
hear the shutter go off. He had the lens cap on,

(01:58):
so it wouldn't really be taking picture of anything. Just
dark black. We went all the way up to the trail,
saw the waterfall, came back. Nothing really happened. On our
way back home. We reviewed all the pictures that were

(02:22):
taken on accident. We noticed that it was black, but
then there's a darker focus, and some pictures even had
like streaks of white. My buddy Ed tried recapturing that

(02:43):
picture with the white streaks and all, but it wouldn't
really cut close to what was taken. We went back home.
My parents went to Mexico, and my brother was out

(03:04):
of the house, probably with his girlfriend. My friend slept over.
It was probably about one or two am. I woke up.
I felt just terrified. I felt hot and cold. I
felt like my gut dropped. I didn't even know why

(03:29):
I was feeling this. I remember I heard the sound
of bare feet on tile. I was shocked, and maybe
no more than five seconds of just pure quiet. The

(03:56):
doorknob started rattling and it started shaking, maybe a good
three seconds. That felt like eternity. By this point, Ed
woke up and he was telling me, was that you No,
that's not me. After that conversation, I heard the sound

(04:20):
of males scratching down a wall where I was at
I looked at ed and he immediately just said, we're
jumping through the window. We were shaking. We were terrified.

(04:40):
We slept in our own vehicles that night. Whatever that
thing was followed me or stuck around with me. That
would make the most sense. Growing up, I never really

(05:01):
experienced too many paranormal experiences. It wasn't until then where
things started happening. During this time I was living in Chino, California.
Things that would happen around that house. We would hear

(05:22):
dog footsteps occasionally, we would hear our names getting called
by our mom. We would confront my mom like, Oh,
we heard you call our name. No it wasn't me. No,
I didn't call your name. I would try to bring
it up to my mom. She's a very religious person.

(05:45):
She'd always just say, Oh, we just have to go
to church, or oh, we have to get closer to God.
My brother and I we would talk about it, but
after he moved out of the house, he just kind
of forgot about it and didn't really care much about it.

(06:08):
In October twenty twenty two, I went back to Blackstar
Canyon with another friend. We wanted to get our spooky
season on. We wanted to get scared, so I remember
all the events that happened in twenty fifteen. I just said,

(06:30):
you know what, let's go. Let's go do it. We're
probably a good half mile away from the trail that
leads to the waterfall. We were just parked on the
side of the road. There's just nothing but like dirt
and gravel. My friend was like, man, I just want

(06:51):
something to happen. I was like, you know what, let's
provoke it. That way we could have something happen to us.
I stepped out of my vehicle, I went out for
a smoke. I did what no one was supposed to do,
and I just started whistling out in the woods. That

(07:16):
was really, really dumb. We heard a whistle back my friend.
She was in the truck. She had her window down.
She heard the whistle. I walked over to her side
and I asked her, Oh, did you hear that? Yeah,
I heard that. We thought nothing of it. We thought

(07:39):
it was just somebody trying to play a joke on
us or something. So we just went about our evening.
Rocks started being thrown at my truck. We would hear
like small pebbles bouncing off of my truck. I want
to go check it out, and I remember it smelled

(08:04):
a lot like bad eggs or like sulfur, and it
smelled like death. Basically, I was like, you know, come on,
let's go check it out. Let's go see where these
rocks were being thrown. She didn't want to, so I
was like whatever. I remember me being alone, I felt

(08:29):
just terrified. I heard someone in some bushes nearby, probably
good like twenty feet just yelling out help. Help. Every
time they would yell, it was like a different voice

(08:50):
and like a different octave. After that, we drove off
with haste because it is scary. I remember when we
were driving away, my friend was like, dude, like that
didn't sound human. We want to say it was probably

(09:16):
like a skinwalker or something. Because you have native tribes
out there, you have a really really terrible massacre that
happened hundreds of years ago, lots of bad energy, and
it smelled like sulfur. We immediately just assumed, hey, you

(09:39):
know what, it's probably a skinwalker, so we probably shouldn't
I shouldn't ever go back. After October of twenty twenty two,
I definitely realized that, Okay, whatever came from there back
in twenty fifteen is with us in twenty twenty two
and has followed me during this time. Up until I

(10:03):
moved out in twenty twenty four, I would be going
to church and I would like be a little more
serious of my faith and pray, pray and pray. Once
I moved out June twenty twenty four, things started changing.
We lived next to a lake. It's a state park.

(10:25):
There's history at that lake. When we first moved in here,
not even two weeks someone like drowned at the lake.
Maybe it's just spirits coming from the lake, maybe because
there are like also tribes that were here settling around
the area, something, you know, But it could also be

(10:46):
something that followed us. In September, my wife and I
got married. We got married Friday the thirteenth, So September thirteenth.
We thought it was cute, but it really wasn't. That
whole week was literally torture. I was going through a

(11:08):
health scare. Literally that Monday I had blood in my
ear and like that's how bad it was, Like it
was scary for me. I would to say that whole
week of us before we get married, being very stressed out,
not really feeling it, being a little bit depressed. All

(11:30):
of that energy was just a huge amplification for like
things to happen at our house. Probably about a month later,

(12:00):
my wife started getting scratched parts on her back, and
it was always in threes. I don't like scratching hard,
or massaging hard, or like anything like that because I
get grossed out. Even the thought of, like my nails

(12:21):
touching a metal street signed, I get grossed out. So
it's definitely not me. I told my wife, maybe you
did it to yourself. When we were asleep. We would
hear our PlayStation turn on in the middle of the night,
or if my wife is in the other room, she'll

(12:43):
hear it turn on and I'm in the kitchen, or
I'm at work. I think this happened in August. It
was my day off. It was a Monday. I was
just hanging out at home. Myreen camera caught something. They're

(13:08):
doing construction across the street from us, in the same
A complex. I go and I check it out because
I always got freaked out because we're on the second story.
Who wants to come visit us? Hide an divide anybody over.
There was no movement, nothing from the heavy equipment, nothing
from people walking around, nothing in the playback that could

(13:28):
show that, you know, maybe that's what caught it. Literally
just nothing again, I'm just like doubting everything, like, okay,
it has to be nothing, which luckily, nothing really did
happen after we got married up until we got our dog.
We got a dog in September. Odie is a Beagle

(13:51):
Bassett houd mix. Very short, very sweet, very very friendly.
We put door bells hanging over our door so our
dog can get potty trained. So every time he hits
the bells that are hanging over our door, it means that, hey,
I have to go potty or I want to go outside.

(14:15):
Sometimes they'll get hit when I'm getting ready for work
and our dog, Odie, he's in his kennel, he's chilling,
he's not doing anything. He's not even hitting the bells.
The bells get hit by themselves. My wife has also
experienced this. I'll already be at work and she'll call

(14:38):
me when she's driving over to her job and tells me, hey, yeah,
I heard the bells get wrung or yeah, something hit
the bells. We don't know what it is. In October
at the beginning of the month, I got laid off

(14:59):
and I was at home with our dog. We were
both literally about to fall asleep, and he gets up
and he just starts barking at the door and he
growls at it, and I'm assuming that, oh, he probably
wants to go to the bathroom or something. But that's

(15:21):
weird because normally, like he'll just hit the bells. He's
scared of everything. Actually, Odie is terrified of everything. Like
we'd be walking around our apartment complex and he'd be
scared of like decorations that are posted like on people's patios.
He'll be scared of like the little kids that are

(15:43):
playing on their scooters and bikes. Like he wouldn't want
to move. And so, you know, thinking about it now,
it's kind of interesting that he was acting this way
because normally he's just scared of things that he doesn't recognize.
But all of a sudden, he's growling and barking. That's
interesting behavior. I remember I walked over to the door.

(16:07):
Right next to the door is our dining room table.
He didn't want to come close to me. Normally he
follows us. Again, he's scared. I was thinking maybe he
wants a snack or something. I go get him some
of his streets and he's very food driven. He didn't
want to come next to me. He didn't want to

(16:29):
come near me nothing. And I was like, okay, what
if I just opened the door. I opened the door.
This dog, our dog just is still on the couch.
He doesn't want to leave. He doesn't want to move Normally,
whenever you open the door, he jumps out, he runs out.
He's like, I'm outside, you know, he enjoys being outside,

(16:52):
but he just doesn't want to come close to me.
Whatever is at the door is bothering him. Right so Ever,
since I moved out, like I haven't really been going
to church, you know, I haven't really been like on
point with my faith or whatever. Even then, Like I'm
a practicing Catholic. I was raised in the Catholic household,

(17:13):
but you know, I'm not the type to like pick
up a Bible every night or like, you know, talk
about anything related to Catholicism unless it's like demons. I
like to research demonology and spirits because I just find
it fascinating. You know. For example, I find it funny
there's there's a demon that has the head of a

(17:35):
Chihuahuai thing or like just a really small dog. Like
I find that just interesting, Like who came up with that,
you know? And so I did a deep dive. Now
it's just like trying to find out, you know, what
kind of demons would actually be there. I ended up
listening to a YouTuber that was talking about uh solomonic magic.

(18:01):
I accidentally heard this YouTuber summon Astaroth. They were literally
just reading these summons. In order to summon this demon,
you have to find the biggest tree in the forest,
climb the biggest branch, say this that way, like a

(18:23):
bunch of green butterflies come out. Just a lot of things,
a lot of steps to it. But while they were
saying that, they were also reading the summons. It's like
a four hour video of them just summoning Astraoth. And
I was like, oh, I think I messed up here.

(18:44):
And so the events after that started getting heavy at
our apartment. I wanted to say, you know what, I'm
gonna be real with myself. I'm just scared. I'm just
terrified that, like I listen to this and I'm paranoid
that something's gonna happen. So I'm going to let myself

(19:06):
believe that everything is you know that demon. My wife
and Ivory we just finished watching TV in the living
room and we walk over to our bedroom. When you
open the door, it's the living room on your left,
the kitchen on the right. It's open concept. At the

(19:30):
very end, there's a doorway that leads into a very
small hallway, maybe about ten feet. On the left is
our bedroom. On the right is the bathroom. I hang
a right. I go to the bathroom. My wife's getting
ready for bed, and I come out. I walk over

(19:53):
to where the doorway is. Something catches my eye. I
look over at the kitchen counter because that's where I
saw something, and I saw my wife. I thought she
was like trying to hide from me or something. She's
goofy like that, so she likes to surprise me with things.

(20:17):
And then I hear my wife call me in the
bedroom and I froze. I was like, oh, I thought
you were in the kitchen. I closed the door. I
put the lock on it. That's how scared I was.
A couple days after that, it was lunchtime and my

(20:39):
wife calls me. We both take the same lunch shower,
and she calls me. She tells me, Hey, remember the
other day when you looked over at the kitchen counter
and you thought you saw something. Yeah, when we were
walking into the bedroom, I saw a shadow figure in
the kitchen and I was like, why didn't she tell

(21:02):
me right there then there? And she was like, no,
because I don't want to feed into their energy. That
gave me the confirmation of Okay, I'm not being paranoid.
This is real. She's had things happen to her. She
has experiences with santeria and paranormal you know, it's nothing

(21:26):
new to her. And with that being said, I believe
that something followed her from her old home and the
conversations with her. She doesn't want to talk about it
in our home. She'd much rather talk about it away
from our home. That way, like we're not feeding into
their energy, we can both agree that we have heard

(21:51):
like our dog out of his cage even though like
he's in his kennel. I even have this on video.
I tried to like spy out on Odie. He was
out of his kennel. He was eating food. You could
very very well hear him like walking up to me,

(22:12):
but like he's still eating food and he's I don't know,
like a good nine feet away from me, this dog.
He was still eating, but you could hear him walking
up to me. And so I was getting confused because
like every time I would hear him come up close
to me, like I would look down, I'd point the
phone down, and he wouldn't be there. He'd still be

(22:33):
over at the end of the table where his food
is and his water. Even though I was getting confused
because I was like, Okay, maybe my phone isn't capturing
this right. And like even I like tilted my head
out to see him, and I would hear like his
doggy paws and like the nails hitting the sound of
his nails hitting the floor of our apartment walking closer

(22:56):
to me. Just the other day as well, my wife
she heard that too, and she was like, yeah, but
Odie isn't over there, like Odi is eating food or
Odie is on the couch like playing with the stuffed animals.
But we're able to hear him. That's crazy, Like whatever
it is, it's mimicking her dog, and it's taking sheep

(23:18):
of my wife, maybe even me. I don't even know that.
I feel like I'm going crazy. Sometimes I play guitar.
I have one guitar that's always on my guitar stand.
It's on the floor when we first moved in, from

(23:42):
the moment we moved in until now. Like my wife
swears up and down that whenever I'm not home, the
guitar will strum by itself. Like you could hear the
guitar strum. I just thought, you know, like it could
be a number of things. Again the skeptic. I'm trying
to be strong. I'm trying to be the bigger person,
you know. But when my wife was out in Vegas,

(24:07):
I heard the guitar strum twice. It was a good
like someone's trying to play, like like metal. They were
strumming it hard, and I was like, oh, this isn't
supposed to happen. It was. It was terrible. It terrified
me bad. And the dog didn't do anything, which is surprising,

(24:29):
you know. I want to say, it's just all the
negative energy that has followed us from our households. I
came from a house where I was locked up in
my room. I had depression. I had a lot of anger.

(24:52):
My wife as well, you know, we look forward to
every time we would be out of the house, even
if it's just to pick up a case of water.
You know, all the negative energy that her and I
both have had, I feel like it just compiled into
this bigger mass and you know, moving in together, Like

(25:13):
we live a pretty happy life. I would say, probably
the most happy life that we would both have outside
of our family's house. I remember I talked to my
cousin one time. He's like pretty religious. He would like
bring up some really interesting things like do you smell
anything burning in the house, Do you feel like you

(25:35):
have another pair of eyes in the room with you?
Does it get hot? Does it get cold when the
temperatures like definitely not that hot or cold? Yeah it does,
it does. Yeah, you got to get like closer to God.
And I've been praying more to the archangel Michael. Archangel
Michael's artifacts are just really powerful and most of the time,

(25:58):
like those are the ones to get rid of, like
the stronger demons that like possess people. And so I've
been praying to Michael and man like, I feel like
a lot of things have calmed down here and there.
I would really really want to do kind of like
a nice little EVP session or like just a little

(26:21):
bit of ghost hunting at our apartment, mostly so that
I could get more information of whatever this being is.
Maybe the solution here is to get a blessing done
or get a cleansing. But I tried contacting a church
to like get a blessing or like a cleansing, but

(26:44):
I haven't heard back from anyone.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Have you ever experienced like this? I want to hear
your story. You can find us over at true scarystory
dot com. Head on over there and just fill out
the form. Editing and sound design for this story was
done by Sarah borghez Wendel a VW sound with scheduling
by Bianca Chaves. An additional production by me Edwin Kowarubias
and the Scary fmteam. Make sure you tap follow so

(27:21):
you get next week's story. Thank you very much for listening.
Keep it scary everyone, yea soon