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NARRATOR: When a woman's hobby turns obsessive...

Look, aren't they beautiful?

They're kind of weird.

The masks definitely creep me out.

I didn't like them at all.

NARRATOR: Bizarre things begin happening.

MAN: The eyes were missing.

WOMAN: Straw was sticking out of its belly and out of its eyes.

NARRATOR: There is a spirit inside...

Waiting to come out.

WOMAN: Voodoo kept coming up.

Mom! It's the mask.

WOMAN: And I thought,

"Maybe there's something wrong with them."

I was terrified.

These masks... They're trying to kill me.

Help me!

NARRATOR: In America, there is real evil.

It lurks in the darkest shadows and in our most

ordinary tongues.

Between the worlds we see...

Someone is in my room.

...and the things we fear,

there are doors.

When they are opened...

Nightmares become reality.

In November 2007, Bob Griffith brings home

an important package for his wife.

[ ENGINE REVVING ]

[ TIRES SQUEALING ]

What just happened?

[ CELLPHONE RINGING ]

Hello?

Oh, hey, babe.

I was just almost in an accident.

WOMAN: Shortly after he started driving,

the gas pedal stuck on the car,

and he could not slow down.

So he had to jam on the emergency brake

to stop the vehicle.

No, I'm... I'm okay. I'll be fine.

Let me just see what's wrong with this.

Yeah, I got it.

I'll be home soon.

Love you, too.

JEANNETTE: We've had the car checked out

and there was nothing wrong with it.

When we found out the car was fine,

we just brushed it off, and forgot about it.

You know, we just thought it was one of those things.

In 2007, we moved into our dream home in desert Hot Springs,

just north of Palm Springs.

And it was a very nice home.

I lived there with my husband, Bob, and my 12-year-old son,

Grier.

Hello! Hey!

Oh, there it is! I'm so excited!

I wish you were as excited to see me

as you are to get this box.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Are you okay?

How's the car?

I'm okay, the car's okay. Okay.

As long as you have this, we're all okay.

I am just really excited.

Do you want to see?

Come on, I'll show you.

My husband had a sense of humor.

I've been waiting for this.

And he was a good father.

Mom, what did you buy now?

I will show you.

JEANNETTE: Grier is smart.

He's so intelligent.

He is a great kid.

I collect antiques, and as a house-warming gift for myself,

I bought these two Haitian masks that I found on the Internet.

They were solid mahogany

and the craftsmanship was just amazing.

One of them had the appearance of a gazelle,

the other one had human features.

Look, aren't they beautiful?

They're kind of weird.

GRIER: When I saw the masks, I kind of got

a very eerie feeling... Almost paranoid.

I remember when I told my mom that I didn't like them at all.

And she insisted that they're going to look great on the wall.

Oh, stop! I think they're amazing!

Hey, buddy, what do you say? Let's go get some takeout.

We'll use your mom's car.

All right, get me something good.

We'll be back soon.

JEANNETTE: I was very excited when the masks got there,

and I hung them on their own special wall.

NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks,

Jeannette and Grier settle in their home

while Bob is away on business.

JEANNETTE: My husband was an RV salesman.

Because of his job, he would be gone for two weeks...

Maybe a month... At a time for RV shows.

And he would go and sell at these shows.

So it was Grier and I alone in the house.

Hey, bud. Hey.

Brought you something to drink.

Thanks.

How's it going?

Not too well. Why?

I can't figure out this one question.

Okay, let's see here.

This one? Yeah.

Mmm, okay, so you're just going to multiply, right,

and then subtract.

So it's going to be "X" minus two.

I still don't get it.

Ah, you will.

When's dad going to be home?

I don't know, bud, tomorrow, maybe?

[ THUD ]

What was that?

Whoa! What is it?

Is that a bird?

Oh, man!

The bird that we saw was just a little black bird.

You know, it wasn't a raven.

It was smaller.

Poor guy.

When we saw the dead bird, we thought it just hit

the back door and had died.

Aww!

Oh, um, let's go inside the house.

It was a little weird, and it was sad,

but birds fly into windows.

We just dismissed it.

You know, we cleaned it up and dismissed it.

[ TAPPING ]

[ TAPPING CONTINUES ]

GRIER: One night, I was in room,

I had just started falling asleep,

and I heard tapping on my window.

[ CREAK ]

Who's there?

GRIER: I definitely had a sense of paranoia,

like somebody was watching me.

NARRATOR: 12-year-old Grier Griffith

has been getting an eerie feeling in his new house.

GRIER: When I was walking down the hall,

I heard the creaking and that same noise from outside.

[ CREAKING ]

[ GASPS ]

GRIER: I looked behind me and saw nothing.

After not seeing anything, I just...

I wanted to brush it off, so I just let go of it.

JEANNETTE: Grier and I were playing in the backyard,

and we came in and we shut the door.

You're just getting too fast. I know.

I can't keep up with you anymore.

What's that?

It's glass.

And there was glass all over the dining room.

What the heck?

What broke the glass?

Be careful. Okay.

It made a trail 25 feet.

It just made no sense at all.

GRIER: The trail of glass definitely seemed

to be placed in this line.

JEANNETTE: And then I notice that the glass went through

the dining room into the living room

and around the corner.

GRIER: I just knew something wasn't right.

Oh, god!

What was it?

I don't know.

What?

What is it?

Oh, gosh...

JEANNETTE: When I got down close to it,

I noticed that there was something really wrong

with this bird.

It's freaky.

Look at its eyes.

GRIER: It wasn't just the eyes were missing,

it was that there was actual, very large holes.

It was stuffed with straw coming out of it.

It was very disturbing.

JEANNETTE: The straw was sticking out of its belly.

That actually was pretty frightening

because something like that would have to be put there,

somehow... That's just not normal.

Is this your idea of some sick joke?

No, I would never do anything like this?

What is someone's messing with us?

Who would do something like that?

Who would...

GRIER: One of the many thoughts I had was

that somebody was messing with us.

I, at the time, didn't have a clue who that could be.

I don't know. It wasn't me.

I'll go get a bag or something to put it in.

JEANNETTE: I really didn't know what to think of

the stuffed bird, other than it had to have been put here,

but I couldn't figure out who would do that.

It just didn't make any sense.

I honestly didn't know what to think about it,

but that was the first time

that I started feeling uncomfortable in the house.

NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks,

with Jeannette's husband on the road again for work,

Jeannette and Grier make sure to keep the house

under lock and key.

[ WATER SPLASHING ]

Unh!

[ GROANS, SCREAMS ]

[ SCREAMING ]

NARRATOR: Strange things are happening

in Jeannette Osbourne's dream home.

[ CRICKETS CHIRPING ]

Ahh!

I had 10 or 15 crickets coming up out of my shower drain.

I was more than a little freaked out...

I don't like bugs.

Ahh!

I was terrified.

Ahh! Oh, gosh!

Mom!

What's wrong?

There were all these crickets in my bathroom.

They were coming out of the drain... they were all over me.

Oh, my god!

[ GLASS BREAKING ]

What happened?

I have n... I...

Did you do this?

No.

Well, was it like this when you came through here?

I don't think so.

What in the world?

It's food!

GRIER: I notice that

there was sort of like a trail of dry goods...

JEANNETTE: That went out of the kitchen

into the dining room, and stopped at the wall...

Stopped right below the masks.

Mom!

Mom!

It's the masks... the trail is leading to the masks!

Oh, honey, it's just a coincidence.

No, it's not!

What else can it be?

GRIER: The path from the dry goods cabinet to the masks

was about seven or eight feet.

And even if it had just fallen directly out of the cupboard,

there's no possible way that it could have made a trail.

I told you they were creepy from the day you got them.

You should get rid of them!

They are not creepy... They're beautiful!

I would try and explain to her, like,

"You do understand that all of this

is probably because of those masks, right".

And, of course, she would try to brush it off.

You're overreacting.

Why won't you listen to me?

JEANNETTE: They're beautiful, they're mine,

and I love them...

And they're going to stay right there on the wall.

NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks,

Jeannette often finds herself admiring the masks.

JEANNETTE: I know that they had a hold over me.

I have other masks and other antiques.

And, of course like any other collector,

I loved them... They make me happy.

These were different.

I wasn't willing to take them down.

NARRATOR: Jeannette's growing obsession takes a turn

and she buys even more masks.

Honey?

Jeannette?

Don't you think you're spending a little too much time

on this... hobby?

Too much time?

No, I like them.

You don't know what you're talking about.

Look, I've got to go.

I love you.

I'll be back soon.

JEANNETTE: I had an unnatural attachment to these things...

There was no explanation for it.

GRIER: My dad worked a lot, and during this time,

he was actually leaving for weeks

or maybe a month at at time.

With that happening, he couldn't be sort of

like a helping hand on my part

with persuading my mom to get rid of these masks.

When my mom wouldn't believe me about the masks,

it made me feel alone.

Aah!

NARRATOR: 12-year-old Grier

has just been attacked by an unseen entity.

Ahh!

It felt like somebody had hit me.

Mom! What!

Mom! Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Calm down, calm down.

What, what?

JEANNETTE: Grier came running into my room,

and he said that something was in his room.

I was sleeping in my room,

and something hit me in the forehead.

Let me see this.

He had fingerprints on his forehead... like this.

It was frightening.

Oh, my god!

Mom, it's the stupid masks!

The masks! Grier, that's ridiculous.

You aren't listening to me!

Look, I will figure this out, okay?

Okay.

Do you want to stay in here tonight?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Okay, in bed.

I definitely think it made things a lot more real

for both my mother and I.

NARRATOR: Jeannette can no longer deny the connection

between the haunting and the masks.

JEANNETTE: I started trying to research the masks.

I knew nothing about them, other than they came to me in a box

from Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

Voodoo kept coming up.

And I thought, I honestly don't know... is it possible?

Part of me was saying,

"Well, maybe there's something wrong with them...

Maybe they're causing this".

NARRATOR: Jeannette invites a voodoo priest into her home.

So over here is where we found the trail of food,

just lined up through the kitchen.

I'm bloody Mary, voodoo queen of New Orleans

and a voodoo historian.

On many occasions, I'm called in as an occult expert

when someone doesn't understand what's going on in their house.

And here are the masks.

MARY: The voodoo priest that Jeannette called

came over the house to assess the situation.

These two have a strong spirit within them.

They do?

Many people consider voodoo to be the oldest religion

that exists.

It's a nature-based religion.

So everything is about the spirit world.

In fact, the word "voodoo" translates to mean "spirit."

Transdance possession is a part of a voodoo ceremony.

It would start with offering to the spirits.

And eventually, to build energy, they're dancing...

You're wanting to become the spirits.

If you get possessed, you may go put on the clothing

that is attractive to that particular spirit...

You may put on a wig, you may put on a mask.

These masks were used during ritual ceremonies in my faith.

The more and more those things are used,

the more and more they're embedded with the spirit itself.

What kind of rituals?

It's hard to tell, but they are looking for their guide.

What do you mean?

The spirits, the masks...

They are hungry.

So what do we do?

I mean, I don't want to get rid of them,

but I want them to be at peace with my family.

You need to feed them... Leave out gifts for them.

MARY: In Jeannette's case, there were crickets

and there were birds as well as food

that were kind of brought to her.

That was a hint that they needed to be fed.

I can show you.

Are we in danger?

No...

I'll give you all the tools you need.

But first, let us perform a protection ceremony.

The spirits need to understand who is in control.

Okay.

After the protection ceremony, the house did feel better.

When we started putting food offerings

in a bowl under the masks,

I didn't know if it would work or not,

but I was willing to try anything.

Ahh!

[ SCREAMING, OBJECT BREAKING ]

Help me!

NARRATOR: Jeannette Osbourne is terrified for her life.

[ SCREAMING ]

Help me!

[ SCREAMING ]

JEANNETTE: It was a nightmare,

but I knew what I was experiencing was very real.

NARRATOR: But in spite of her fear,

her obsession with the masks defies logic.

JEANNETTE: I didn't want to get rid of them.

I was attached to them, but I kind of knew

that it had something to do with them.

It absolutely had to.

NARRATOR: That summer, Jeannette finds herself

alone in the house.

Grier leaves to visit his older brother in Kansas.

You got everything?

We are going to get this worked out, okay?

Everything's going to be fine.

I love you. I love you, too.

Here's your stuff.

Thanks.

Okay, buddy, you ready to go?

Yep. Okay, meet me in the car.

All right.

NARRATOR: What's more, Jeannette's husband

has no choice but to take a new job out of state.

In 2008, finances were bad for everyone.

A lot of the RV stores closed in Southern California,

and my husband had to find,

you know, work within his industry where he could.

It'll just be a few months and I'll be back.

Okay?

Love you.

The lowest moment was definitely leaving my mom

to deal with it on her own

because my dad was still working.

JEANNETTE: It got to the point

where I knew I had to do something.

I thought "I need to reach out to somebody... "

I need to get some help".

NARRATOR: Desperate, Jeannette contacts

a haunted objects specialist.

Hi, come on in.

My name is John Zaffis.

I've been a paranormal investigator for 43 years.

Would you like to have a seat?

Sure, that'd be fine, thank you.

Would you like some sugar or anything?

Black is fine, thank you.

Well, you've seen the masks.

Mm-hmm.

I've tried to get rid of them, but I want the activity to stop.

But I don't want them destroyed.

I just... I just can't let them go.

Well, I've been studying this,

and there's definitely some negative energy

with these masks.

Jeannette didn't want to hear that.

She didn't want to accept the fact

that it could have been something on a negative level.

Jeannette, can we remove them?

No! I don't want to take them down.

Can we at least cover them up then?

JEANNETTE: I was still so attached to them,

but he just felt, you know,

that it had to be them,

and that if I wasn't going to take them down,

I at least needed to cover them.

So I did.

ZAFFIS: A lot of times when these items are covered,

it can help to calm down a lot of the energy.

These two right here.

Okay, will these work?

They'll work just fine.

Just cover it up.

Jeannette, if the activity continues,

you're going to have to remove these masks.

I understand.

Can you show me the rest of the house?

ZAFFIS: Jeannette and I walked through the entire house,

and I was reciting several different prayers.

This helps to break negative energy.

JEANNETTE: I felt good about that.

I was hopeful this is going to help...

Things are going to get better.

NARRATOR: Over the next few weeks,

while Jeannette doesn't experience any activity,

she becomes further and further withdrawn.

JEANNETTE: I was alone.

It was maddening,

and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

I think it affected me psychologically.

[ BED SHAKING ]

[ GASPING, SCREAMING ]

It was just, like, my nightmare.

Oh, my god!

And I began hearing pops coming from under the floor,

but they were a deep tone.

In my mind, this was the foundation popping,

and I was absolutely terrified.

NARRATOR: Jeannette is out of options.

She must get rid of the masks.

The activity was building... It was chaos in the house,

and I knew they had to go.

John... he said that I could send them to him

because he could keep them safe, and he could study them,

and he would keep them

from destroying somebody else's lives,

wreaking havoc in them.

I took the masks, they were in the box,

and I put them in the backseat of my car.

And I got pinned against the steering wheel,

and my knees were all jammed up in front,

and I was out in the intersection...

It stuck against the steering wheel.

[ PANICKED BREATHING ]

I was terrified.

I absolutely thought these masks are going to get me

killed in my car...

They're trying to kill me.

NARRATOR: Jeannette Osbourne has been terrorized

by what she believes to be masks possessed by evil spirits.

[ CREAKING ]

JEANNETTE: The activity was escalating.

My dream house was absolutely becoming a nightmare...

I was afraid to be in it.

The masks had to go.

[ RUSTLING ]

I was stuck against the steering wheel out in the intersection.

[ SOBBING ]

I really thought I could be killed...

I was going to get hit.

No! Stop!

Aah!

And I almost got hit by another car

who was going 40 miles an hour on the big cross street.

Unh!

I got out... had to go out my passenger door to get out.

The box was gone.

It was just gone.

No... no...

No, no, no, no, no.

I was surprised... I just couldn't believe it.

NARRATOR: Fearing for her safety,

Jeannette refuses to go back into the house.

JEANNETTE: That was our dream house...

It was the nicest place we've ever lived.

But we lost everything in that house,

and it almost tore our family apart.

When we moved, financially, it was a huge loss,

but family... That's what was important.

You know, to get our family back together.

We were able to return to a normal life.

NARRATOR: The family eventually settles in Arizona.

JEANNETTE: My husband passed away last year.

And, you know, it's a horrible thing to lose your father,

to lose your husband.

But, in a way, it's brought us closer.

GRIER: But things are getting better...

Living with my mom...

We're just trying to do everything we can

to keep each other afloat.

We're definitely closer because of it.

NARRATOR: As for the masks...

JEANNETTE: My son was right,

you know, what he felt about these masks from day one...

From the minute he saw them... he was right.

GRIER: The masks definitely creeped me out.

I really just didn't want them in the house at all.

I definitely think it was weird that they just went missing.

As far as my beliefs, voodoo is one of those things

that I always felt like you shouldn't mess with,

unless you're experienced in that sort of religious practice.

I don't collect masks anymore.

In fact, I'm very careful about what I bring

into my house at all.

I absolutely think they're out there looking

for another family, another person,

and I think whoever comes across these things...

Mom! Mom!

...is going to feel that attraction to them...

Is going to be drawn to them.

ZAFFIS: Jeannette... She called me hysterical,

and she was saying, "John, the box is gone,

they just totally disappeared".

That told me right then and there,

whatever was attached with these two particular masks

was extremely powerful, and they did not want

Jeannette shipping them off to me.

Ahh!

ZAFFIS: It does bother me...

Am I concerned that they'll show up in another thrift store

or they might show up in a tag sale someplace,

and wreak havoc for somebody else?

Absolutely.

What's even more interesting

is where are they now,

and who will be calling next?