Anything that has been around for a century has a story to tell. An old house in the hills of Glassell Park is no different.
It's home to John Matkowski, John Huckert and perhaps something else?
"He (Huckert) would tell me that my house is definitely haunted and one day he's going to prove it," Matkowski said.
The two first noticed strange occurrences 20 years ago. A bathroom door in their house kept opening by itself.
"I shut the door again and when it opened again that's when I snapped (a Poloroid picture)," Huckert said. "First, I thought it must have been a joke because it looked so much like the stereotypical woo hoo hoo, scary ghost."
But that was just the beginning. Three months later, with a house full of witnesses, they decided to try to talk to it.
"I think the first question we asked was 'Are you here?'" Matkowski said.
Another Poloroid was taken. This time, an odd cloud formed the letters Y-E-S.
"That just changed everything. It's one thing to get weird light patterns and stuff like that. It's another thing to get communication," Huckert said.
Throughout the years, the two claim to have accumulated thousands of these communications.
A 1992 video walks viewers through the Poloroid process from start to finish. Huckert is seen placing fresh film into the camera, asking a question and waiting for the Poloroid to develop.
The answer? In Latin. The words roughly translate to "murder."
Scientists, experts, even representatives from photo companies have shown up with their own film and cameras to debunk the story, but haven't been able to.
In a recent gathering, they invited a house full of skeptics, as well as paranormal enthusiasts to their home to try it themselves.
There has been a long suspicion that someone is buried under the house, so the group, using their own film and cameras, asked if that were the case.
Again, in cloud-like formations, two Polaroids came up with the answer "dig" and "here."
Something else happened that night. Through the years, Huckert has always talked about seeing what he calls "shadow people."
"Something I've seen a lot and a few other people have seen are these shadow people," Huckert said. "They are like shadows, but they are in the middle of the room."
For the first time, they believe they captured one on film in a group picture taken that night.
"Amongst our group is another figure, but it's not a person, it's a shadow of a person. But there was nobody there," group member Bill Murphy said.
The dark figure stood right next to Huckert. Even the hardened skeptics present that night were perplexed.
"I'm like, 'Come on. How can people be falling for this? This is a simple parlor trick. It's got to be explainable.' And you know what? I don't have an explanation for this," Brian Patrick said.
"I didn't freak out. I just finally didn't have something to say or some way to discount it," Michael Henry said.
"It was very surreal to actually be present to see it," Deedee Henry said.
Whatever is happening at the home, Matkowski and Huckert have been living with it for more than 20 years and have no idea what is going to happen next.
"I'm not scared. I'm just in denial," Matkowski said. "It's like driving the freeway. It's terrifying, but you just keep going."
