When strange things began happening in her Michigan home, one mother was determined to get to the bottom of it. She kept hearing noises at night, and it wasn't long before something pushed her over the edge. She even began to blame her fiancé, but he denied everything. Now, she had the footage in her hand, all she needed to do was watch it. But she wasn't ready for what she found.
The Footage
She settled in to watch the video from the baby monitor that they had set up in their daughter’s room. She couldn’t believe that their daughter was scratching herself at night. She questioned Joshua, but he denied knowing what was going on. She sat down, ready to catch him in the act. But as she watched the clip, her skin began to crawl. She knew there and then that the person in the video was not her fiancé.
The Incident
Joshua Higgins and Heather Brough were living in a guesthouse that was owned by Joshua’s mother. They had been living in the Michigan home with their 1-year-old daughter, Lily, for just over a year now. Until one day, something made them want to get out of there as quickly as possible. It all started when Heather lifted Lily out of her crib and noticed some scratches on her face. At first, she didn’t think much of it. But one day, after the first scratches had healed, more marks appeared. She knew she had to approach him.
Living The Dream
Heather and her fiancé were living together and had a stable relationship. They lived a young couple’s life in the quiet town of Highland and all of their dreams were coming true. At that moment, they had it all: love, a cozy little home, and a beautiful baby girl. Until one day, everything changed. While she was sleeping, Heather began to hear strange noises in the house. It started with the squealing of a door, thumps on the floor, and even what she thought was footsteps in the kitchen. And now, the strange marks she had discovered on Lily’s face in the morning. She’d had enough.
Getting Tense
She approached her fiancé and asked him if he was the one who was getting up in the night. She went as far as asking if he had been in Lily’s room the night before and if he knew how the scratches came to be there. Would this be the end of their fairytale relationship? Things between them started getting tense. Joshua kept denying everything, so Heather had no other option than to catch him in the act. What she didn’t know was that what she saw would be a lot worse than what she could ever have suspected.
Suspicions
She knew she had to something; she couldn’t continue living like this. Her fiancé had denied everything. Was she was going crazy or imagining all of this? She thought it might be an animal that kept getting in. But Heather knew that she was always careful to close all the doors and windows before going to bed. It had to be someone -- or something -- that was already inside the house.
Getting Evidence
Knowing that this might end her loving relationship with Joshua, she needed to find answers. They both finally decided to purchase a baby monitor and set it up in Lily’s room -- up at an angle, focused on the baby’s crib. Joshua was sure that it was Lily who was making these marks at night – he pointed out that it wasn’t uncommon for babies to graze their faces with their nails while they slept. Heather had always been careful to keep Lily’s nails well-trimmed after that, but it was still happening. Heather was not ready for the truth.
The Truth
She was ready to find out the truth and had set everything up. They even went as far as purchasing a state-of-the-art Logitech Circle 2 baby monitor with night vision so they could finally get to the bottom of the mystery. And sure enough, Lily had scratches again in the morning. It was time to view the footage to see what was doing this. But when Heather had finished watching the recording, her own home had become her worst nightmare.
A Shadowy Figure
The blurry figure of a man appears in Lily’s bedroom. She knew it, she thought. Joshua had been walking around at night while she slept. But why hadn’t he told her and kept it a secret? Was this some sort of joke? Was Joshua sleepwalking? She had to keep watching to reveal the truth, but what he saw next shook her to the core.
Someone There
The grainy man-shaped shadow walks by Lily’s crib. Lily, aware that there’s someone in the room, sits bolt upright. Then, she slowly holds onto the side of the crib and pulls herself up into a standing position and looks around, curious. The man then turns towards the camera, and at this point, Heather knew. This man was not who she thought it was.
Chills
Heather’s scalp prickled and her breath stalled. Her heart thudded louder and louder at the realization that this man was a complete stranger. She still couldn’t take her eyes off the video and continued to watch the mysterious intruder. The stranger continued to roam around Lily’s room. Heather’s stomach knotted. Who was this man?
A Devastating Realization
Now she knew why she had heard strange sounds at night and where the marks had come from. She continued to replay the clip, over and over again. At one point in the video, the man becomes completely transparent as he moves past Lily. And then it dawned on her that this was no man. What she was witnessing was not human. An icy chill ran through her veins and she pulled Lily closer. She had to tell Joshua. They had to get out.
Revelations
After Joshua viewed the footage, he said: "It was chilling… It was literally a chill down your spine, like that 'what if' factor — Is this what I just saw?" “Seeing Lily’s face with the scratches was so bizarre and frightening,” Heather said. “I was crying, ‘What happened to you?’ I grabbed her jacket and ran over to my mother-in-law’s house. Nobody knew what happened. We wondered if she made the marks herself, but it did not match up.”
Calling The Police
After watching the video, a ball of terror formed in Joshua’s stomach and chills chased up his spine. He had to get his family out of there as soon as possible; he was completely terrified. Gasping, he ran out the door with Lily and Heather and immediately called the police, who referred him to the Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Michigan – and what they find rattles him even more.
Investigation
Mike Priest, co-owner of Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Michigan, immediately sent out a team to investigate the highland home. But what they discovered only made Heather and Joshua more determined than ever to leave. After reviewing the evidence, they concluded that the main house, and indeed the guest house attached to it, could really be haunted.
Other Activity
This wasn’t the first strange occurrence in that house. “I woke up to get ready for work one morning and it felt like someone was choking me,” Heather said in an interview. “It shook me to the point where I decided to buy our camera.” She hadn’t told Joshua about this incident because she knew he wouldn’t have believed her. "There have been times where me and my fiancé would wake up in the morning and I would hear an angry male voice — like someone had stubbed their toe," she added.
Something Going On
“I definitely believe there is something going on at this house,” said Mike Priest. “We are looking forward to checking out this one as well.” Mike says that after coming in at the request of Joshua, he and his team recorded some strange sounds in the house. “We heard something say, ‘Oh here we go. Oh yeah.’ I heard it as plain as day,” Mike said.
More Evidence
Mike Priest and his team are set to return to the house soon to continue with a full-blown paranormal investigation. He hopes to find exactly what it was that had been recorded in Lily’s room that night. He explains that their goal will be to see if they can replicate the recording or find a logical explanation for the video before chalking it down to paranormal activity. But Joshua’s mother, Kris, who has owned the house for 11 years, may be able to shed some light on who could be haunting the family.
Previous Inhabitants
“I was told when we bought the houses 11 years ago the lady who owned the property died in the main house," Kris said. "It’s an old farmhouse and according to her niece… she fell down the stairs, broke her hips and laid there for a very long time before she passed away. She said that the guesthouse was built for the lady’s brother who was schizophrenic.” But Joshua’s father, Jim, has another theory.
A Dark History
Jim is convinced that the man who is terrorizing Heather and Joshua is a previous tenant of the guesthouse: "The gentleman that lived here originally... (jumped) out this window, which is one story down," he explained to WXYZ-TV Detroit. Although Heather and Joshua are no closer to finding out who is stalking around their baby’s room at night, they know what to do about it.
Getting Out
“It scares us that it could do something else,” Heather said. “It’s not physically just going after her, it feels like it’s going after myself too… This has made us want to leave as soon as possible. As soon as possible we’re out of here. This is a spirit. I don’t know what its intentions are, but at this point it’s becoming physically harmful.”
Skeptics
Although the video, released by Heather and Joshua on social media, has become a viral sensation overnight and has chilled many viewers to the bone, there are also some skeptics. Some people do not believe that the figure in the video is an apparition at all and say that what was captured on film is far more likely to have a very simple explanation.
Digging Deeper
Kenny Biddle of the Skeptical Inquirer, wrote: “There’s something else I noticed right away – the ghost was casting a shadow, two actually. This tells me the figure is a solid, physical object able to reflect light. In the first milliseconds of the video, as the figure is moving to the left, you can see its shadow move across the ceiling right by the ceiling fan.”
A Possible Explanation
He continues: “I would surmise either (Heather) and/or (Joshua) had been watching television and had reason to get up out of bed, perhaps go down to the kitchen for a drink/food or a visit to the bathroom, paused the video and walked across the room not realizing they were being recorded. At a later, unspecified time, they reviewed the footage and due to a lack of understanding of video cameras, concluded the distorted figure was a ghost.” But how does he explain the scratches on Lily’s face?
The Scratches
“Aside from the technical issues, it is not uncommon for babies to scratch themselves. We know from her statements that (Heather) discovered the scratches after waking the baby up from a nap,” Kenny wrote, “… but there’s nothing to rule out the possibility Lily scratched herself while sleeping.” After digging a little deeper into the story, Kenny discovered something interesting.
True Motivations?
“I’m not sure exactly what the motivation behind these claims is, but I do have my suspicions,” He wrote. “I went to Heather Brough’s Facebook page earlier today and noticed that she posted her first public post since November of 2018; it was a link to a GoFundMe account she had created that day (March 26, 2019) with a goal of $5,000. She was asking for this amount to help her move out of the guest house, citing her daughter’s safety from all the paranormal activity as the main reason for the fundraising.” Then, Kenny reached out to Heather directly with a Facebook message.
Reaching Out
“Hello, my name is Kenny Biddle, and I’ve been investigating paranormal claims for the last 20+ years. Your video of what is believed to be a ghost walking in your house was brought to my attention by several paranormal groups. After taking a look at it, I was wondering if there was a longer clip – perhaps footage showing the few minutes leading up to (and including) the clip that was shared on ABC Action News. The clip that has been shared starts with the figure already in motion, and I was hoping to see where it originates,” Kenny explained.
Observations
“I noticed the TV was on, so being able to confirm it wasn’t someone (living) watching TV and perhaps got up to get something, would be beneficial. I’m not saying this was a hoax, I’m just trying to get as much information as possible to understand what the video is showing. I appreciate your time in reading this. I hope to hear back from you. Have a good day.” Kenny says that he is still waiting for Heather’s response.