The Bothell Hell House

The Bothell Hell House, also known as the Washington State Poltergeist Case, or Demons in Seattle is an alleged haunting in Bothell, WA, in the United States from 2012 through 2016. Keith Linder and his girlfriend at the time claimed paranormal activity occurred in the residence. On October 30, 2014, the story was publicized and received international attention.
Background
On May 1, 2012, after obtaining a management position at a healthcare technology company, Keith Linder asked his then-girlfriend Tina Davis to move in with him - a new house they discovered on Craigslist. They claimed the day they went to sign the leasing papers was the day the activity started. Keith Linder and Tina Davis were sitting on the living room floor talking when suddenly they heard a 'kid cough.' The weirdness increased within days of them moving in. Things they owned were missing, footsteps coming from areas of the house they weren't currently occupying. Keith Linder claims he and Tina would go downstairs in the morning and find all their kitchen cupboards open. The biggest unexplained event was the appearance of items neither Keith nor Tina owned. Linder claims he and Tina would wake up and find female jewelry and kid toys spread throughout the house. Neither of them has kids. The waking up and discovering every kitchen cabinet door opened and appearance of items neither of them owned would continue after a home security system was installed. What makes the Bothell case of interest to researchers is that no adolescents were living in the home, the black-like tar substance that materialized multiple times on the wall in Keith Linder's office. According to Linder (See Poltergeist - The Night of Physics), the black oil, which was later determined to be Bone Black - Bone Char, materialized from the construct of the home itself. The attacks Keith, at times his friends, would experience away from home. Other claims by Keith and Tina include:
2012 - objects were thrown, e.g., pottery, ironing board, iron, barstool. Levitating plants, door slams, missing silverware, Tina's missing jewelry, phantom footsteps, equipment malfunction, missing car keys, popping sounds, lights turning off and on by themselves, lights turning on and off by themselves, television turning off and on by itself, female apparition "gray lady" sighting. Missing Bible.
2013 - Linder claims the activity started tapering off fall of 2012 and came to a complete stop in January 2013. Linder states he still felt uneasy about the house. A feeling of being watched never subsided. Linder notes that in the summer of 2013, he became a beta tester for the Xbox 360 console unit, which included the first-ever XBox Kinect. While monitoring Linder's gaming behavior onsite, Microsoft engineers picked up shadowy figures - softball-size floating black orbs on the Kinect prototype that they and developers at Microsoft Headquarters could not explain.
2014 - On January 2, 2014, Linder fell down the stairs, resulting in a right torn patellar-tendon. Linder claims the activity returned soon after that. Small, medium, large objects being thrown, e.g., pottery, ironing board, iron, barstool. Levitating plants, door slams, phantom footsteps, equipment malfunction, popping sounds, lights turning off and on by themselves, lights turning on and off by themselves, television turning off and on by itself, female apparition "white lady" sighting. Missing bible - returned on fire, 2nd bible went missing off the upstairs book stairs bookshelf - discovered minutes later in the kitchen badly scorched. 3rd bible badly scorched, spontaneous fires, including a 'Final Fantasy Advent Children' poster, two computer monitors in Linder's office, smoke, and smoldering, cigar-shaped burn marks began appearing on Linder's clothing while he was wearing. Linder claims he had no idea that his clothes were on fire until Tina frantically yanked off his shirt. Linder and Tina reached out to Seattle and Bothell Catholic Church for assistance. Assistance was given. Linder claims the activity would subside for several days after the church involvement, including blessing the home, holding communion, and prayer. Linder states the Catholic Church was reluctant to assist because Keith and Tina weren't Catholic. It was not until the poster caught fire that resulted in the local fire department coming to the house to extinguish a fire in Linder's office that the Church felt it was time to get involved. The fire department could not determine the root cause. That summer was when the wall-writings began to appear. From spring to late fall, Keith and Tina would arrive home from work and discover their house was ransacked. The home security was still in 'arm mode.' No sign of breaking and entering. The upside-down cross, 666, Upside Down Man wall writings began appearing during this time.
Controversy
Ghost Adventures involvement - Ghost Adventures came wind of Keith and Tina's ordeal after their chief researcher Dave Schrader was contacted by reporter Elisa Jaffe at Seattle KOMO news. Elisa, not Keith, and Tina wanted Dave Schrader's assistance after experiencing her own paranormal event at the Bothell house. Most people who report ghost activity are often viewed as attention seekers by skeptics. Linder has made it known during interviews that Ghost Adventures contacted him and Tina first. Not the other way around. The vetting process, if it can be called that, was a ten-minute conversation over the phone. The Ghost Adventures crew arrived in November 2014 to investigate. The investigation from start to finish was five hours. "Demons in Seattle," first aired on February 28, 2015, would become one of Ghost Adventure's most controversial episodes. The episode was one of the few episodes since the shows airing where the investigative team led by Zak Bagans left with no evidence. Linder claims the episode the way it was pieced together and edited makes it appear that he and Tina were exaggerating or hoaxing it all. Even though hoaxing was never uncovered. According to Linder. He and Tina were put in a hotel while the team conducted their investigation, something the show refer to as "the lockdown." House occupants are moved offsite while the team works inside the home alone. They make it appear as if they're locked inside. After reviewing the episode, several parapsychologists say removing Keith and Tina from the scene was not well thought out. 'Evidence from previous poltergeist investigations suggest the probability of capturing evidence is higher when the house occupants are present.' According to Linder, the only way the Ghost Adventures team could save face was by putting Keith and Tina in a negative light. When the show first aired on February 28, 2015, the reaction from fans and a portion of the paranormal community was adverse. Tina was called the 'demon lady' on multiple Ghost Adventure social media pages. According to Linder, you have to understand where Ghost Adventures was publically when the episode originally aired. An original founder of the group i.e. member of the team had just left the group - Nick Groff. The conversations at that time amongst paranormal researchers were Ghost Adventures was making paranormal investigations look too easy. If you watch any of their episodes prior to the "Demons in Seattle episode," you'd think every investigations yield results. Not so according to paranormal investigators. Vincent Amico who's been in the field fifteen years said Linder Ghost Adventures up until the time they encountered the Bothell house had been batting a thousand. Linder believes the show was losing credibility amongst its peers. Then came the Bothell house. To arrive at the house was a win-win for the team. Find something legit? Report it. Be branded as heroes. Don't find anything. Never mention to your audience the time you actually spent conducting an investigation. Which was five hours. Label the house occupants as hoaxers - or imply that they are. The team would revisit the case in May 2020, a new episode titled "Demons in Seattle Decoded." According to Linder Zak Bagans and his team did something very unusual. They doubled down on their original assessment that the house was not haunted. Inserted more innuendo that he and Tina were attention seekers or overexaggerated their claims. The team knows other paranormal organizations lived in the Bothell house for a period of weeks, not hours - other teams found evidence. Zak and crew during the episode admit jokingly they saw no reason to reach out to Nicole Novelles team nor Parapsychologists Steve Mera's team which includes the then president of the SSPR (The Scottish Society for Psychical Research). Nor previous tenants or neighbors in the neighborhood who Keith assembled to be contacted. Implying to their audience, 'no house can ever be declared haunted unless they verify it.'
2015 - Keith and Tina break up. Linders mentions in his book The Bothell Hell House - Poltergeist of Washington State three reasons for their breakup centered around infidelity accusations leveled at him from Tina. The way she was portrayed on the "Demons in Seattle" episode and the conjecture and supposition from paranormal teams and the Catholic Church as to what was causing the activity.
2016 - Keith Linder moved out of the Bothell home on May 8, 2016. Linder says had it not been for the way him and Tina were portrayed in Travel Channel "Demons in Seattle" episode he would not have stayed so long. Keith Linder and Tina Davis number one goal was to have the house thoroughly researched - by a reputable team or paranormal organization. Robb Tilley of the Australian Institute of Parapsychology Research says in " this case is right up there with the most frightening of poltergeist cases: the Enfield Poltergeist, the South Shields Poltergeist, the Bridgeport Connecticut case, and the Matthew Manning case; all well-researched and detailed in various books and documentaries over the years. The Bothell Hell House is a major work, a turning point in poltergeist research." The Bothell house was put back on the market and sold within three months of Keith Linder moving out. Minus replacing the old front door with a new blue front door there have been no reports of new activity. Keith Linder occasionally is haunted in his current place of residence e.g., apporting, asporting, poking, and prodding while sleeping, spontaneous fires, small objects thrown, sheet tugging, mattress indentations, pulsations coming from within mattress and pillow, nightmares, night terrors, phantom door knocks, equipment malfunction, disembodied voices, shoulder tap, electrical issues, and succubus visits.
Investigations
Spring 2015 - a paranormal team led by Nicole Novelle reached out to Linder with the hopes of finding out more information about the case. After conducting a series of interviews with Keith Linder, witnesses, and other paranormal teams local to the area, the teams ask Linder if it's ok to monitor the house using CCTV cameras. Something known as remote viewing. All the investigators are located primarily on the east coast. The investigative team was Nicole "Nikki" Novelle, Jenn Berman, Karissa Hartley, Dominick Valerio, and Vanessa Hogle. A comprehensive house-monitoring system was set up, which involved constant home surveillance for eight months. Each team member took turns monitoring the house. Linder says it was agreed at the beginning of the investigation that the team would then fly to Seattle and live in the home if enough evidence were found. 'No one would believe the house was haunted based on just video footage. Nikki and her team, through remote monitoring, captured loud bangs, phantom footsteps, equipment failure, equipment manipulation, screams, popping noises, apparition sighting, unexplained voices. The investigation had reached the next phase. Nicole Novelle and Karrissa Hartley arrived in late January 2016. Combined the team lived in the Bothell for a period of three and half weeks. The things they witnessed while living in the Bothell house for three and a half weeks include phantom footsteps, loud bangs, doors opening by themselves, disembodied heartbeat coming from within the mattress, mattress indentations, strange voices, equipment failure, equipment manipulation, shadow figure, and supporting.
Fall 2015 - The Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology led by parapsychologist Steve Mera who lived in the United Kingdom, learned of the Bothell house after receiving an email from Keith Linder. After putting Linder through a series of interviews, tests, evaluations, which last over four months. Mera felt the time was right for him and his assistant to visit Bothell, Washington. Parapsychologists Steve Mera and his chief assistant Don Phillips arrived in January 2016. The things they witnessed while living in the Bothell house for six days include phantom footsteps, doors opening by themselves, strange voices, equipment failure, equipment manipulation, and apporting. Linder asked The Scientific Establishment of Parapsychology team to return to the Bothell after the activity in the house showed signs of increasing. Mera felt it appropriate to bring back a neutral investigator, 'someone who could critique their work ethic, evaluate their findings through a conservative lens.' Nick Kyle, then president of The Scottish Society for Psychical Research, Steve Mera, and Don Phillips lived in the house for seven days - thirteen days total. Parapsychologists Steve Mera and his team, while there through listening devices, captured a total of 523 unexplained voices. A majority were contextual conversations of unknown origin.
Documentary
Demons in Seattle Uncovered (Full documentary)
Released on YouTube September 2019. The documentary is a comprehensive look at the investigation Steve, Don, and Nick conducted while living in the Bothell for a total of two weeks.
Previous Tenants
Rhonda Lee Jimenez - In the summer-fall of 2014, Linder was able to reach (see The Bothell Hell House, Attachments - Poltergeist of Washington State Part Two) a family that lived in the Bothell home 2008:2009. The wife, Rhonda, admitted her family had similar activity the short time they were living in the Bothell home. The activity they experienced included phantom footsteps, door slams, electronic malfunction, equipment malfunction, shadowy figure sightings, feeling of being watched, suicidal thoughts, waking up in the morning, and discovering every kitchen cabinet door open. Rhonda said her addiction to alcohol, depression, suicidal thoughts, and three suicidal attempts began when they moved into the house. According to her, "it was the beginning of the end in that place." Rhonda successfully committed suicide Tuesday, August 15, 2016, by walking in front of a moving train in Missoula, Montana.
Further reading
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