Going West: True Crime - The Man Upstairs // 200

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

In 1950, a teenage girl was babysitting for a local Missouri family when she was brutally murdered before the nights end. She was able to phone police and briefly ask for help, but the call dropped and was unable to be traced. Within years of her terrifying murder, an urban legend developed that has inspired numerous horror stories and movies… This is the story of Janett Christman, and The Mans Upstairs. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.newspapers.com/image/204723643/?terms=Janett%20Christman&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/1836581/?terms=Janett%20Christman&match=1 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/52836495/janett-christman https://www.newspapers.com/search/?query=Janett%20Christman&p_province=us-mo&dr_year=1950-1950 https://swati-suman.medium.com/the-true-crime-story-behind-the-movie-when-a-stranger-calls-fdcfe1895254 https://openjurist.org/203/f2d/797/mueller-v-powell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to the 200th episode of Going West. Yes, it's true. We have officially done 200 episodes. Thank you so much to each and every one of you who has helped us get here. Now, to celebrate this exciting milestone, we have decided to do something a little bit different

for today's episode. As we've said before, it's still very much a true crime story, as you'll see. But with a little extra content after the story that relates to this, the man upstairs and the babysitter and the man upstairs concepts. And these concepts and urban legends came from a real 1950 murder case.

And they even inspired movies like Black Christmas and when a stranger calls as we're gonna get into. Yeah, so we will be talking about that very 1950 murder case and then kind of going into the legend itself. Also, we do have a Q&A that is coming out as well today, so it's out if you're listening to it and it's it's going to be after this episode, so don't forget to check in and listen to that if you want to know a little bit more about Heath and Eye and the show. It's going to be fun! Alright guys, without further ado, this is episode 200 of Going West, so let's get into it! In 1950, a teenage girl was babysitting for a local Missouri family when she was brutally murdered before the night's end.

She was able to phone police and briefly ask for help, but the call dropped and was unable to be traced. Within years of her terrifying murder, an urban legend developed that has inspired numerous horror stories and scary movies. This is the story of Janet Christman and the on March 21, 1936 to parents Lula May and Charles Christman in Columbia, Missouri, followed by her two younger sisters Rita and Cheryl. Columbia is a city in central Missouri, that is home to the University of Missouri, so it's a nice college town, and it is smack dab between the larger

cities of Kansas City, Missouri, to the west, and St. Louis, Missouri, to the east. Growing up, Janet's parents owned a restaurant in the North Village Arts District of Columbia that's actually still there to this day. It's called Ernie's Cafe and Steakhouse and has a very classic old-fashioned diner feel in an art deco building serving American comfort food. So I'm sure some of you have been. Yeah.

With this business, they made a pretty nice living and even resided above the restaurant. In early 1950, Janet was in eighth grade at Jefferson, Jr. high, now referred to as Jefferson Middle School, right there at Jefferson, Jr. High, now referred to as Jefferson Middle School, right there in Columbia, Missouri. At this school, Janet played piano and sang in the choir, which she loved, and she was known to be very intelligent. She was a kind, young teenager who went to church with her family, and when Janet wasn't helping out her family's diner, she would babysit local families to earn some money.

Since, you know, she was known to be very independent by, or not by her age before, her age, her young age of just 13. And by the way, she was not babysitting families. She was babysitting the children of families. Oh, that's absurd. So just babysitting parents. Baby sitting entire families. Sorry, I didn't even catch that myself.

Oh, that's okay. Baby sitting for local families. Right. So Janet typically babysat for the same two families in Columbia, the Mueller's and the Romacks. Well, in March of 1950, the Romacks had asked Janet to babysit on a Saturday night. The same Saturday night where a dance was being held at her school.

She was just a couple months away from graduating junior high and then she would be heading into high school with her classmates. And although she enjoyed spending time with her friends and many of them had asked her to go to the school dance with her, she declined. Janet instead wanted to help out the Romax family and make some money so that she could buy a burgundy suit that she wanted to wear to the upcoming Easter holiday, which is so sweet. Like, she's trying to save up money to buy an outfit for Easter.

I know. And it's so sad knowing what happens to, as you guys will see, that was such a big reason that she took this job was just so she could look nice for a family holiday. It's just, ah, God, it's so sad. And Easter was, you know, only three weeks away at this point. I'm sure she would have looked amazing. Right.

So on Saturday, March 18th, 1950, at 7.30 p.m., Janet headed to the home of Ed and Anne Romack so that she could watch after their darling, nearly three-year-old son named Gregory. That evening, she was just three days away from her 14th birthday, making this one of the last days of being 13 years old. The evening was rainy, windy, and bleak, almost setting a tone for the evening ahead. The Romax had just recently moved to the outskirts of Columbia, Missouri, and a kind of a more rural area, more specifically in a new home development located at 10-15 Stewart Road. But it was still only about a seven minute drive from Janet's home above the diner and just two miles away.

But the house itself was a hundred yards outside of the city limits. And obviously now it's a little bit more populated, so it's no longer considered a rural area. Yeah, much more so. The neighborhood expanded. There's so many houses over there now. This was 1950. Yeah. And we will say, though, that one newspaper stated that Janet, her sisters and her mother

did not live above the diner at this time. But in both of her parents' obituaries, it seemed that they stayed together throughout their lives. So it's possible they had another home and maybe he was partially living above the diner for work purposes. So it doesn't really matter, but I just wanted to mention it. Also from the few photos that we could find of the Romax House on Stewart Road, it definitely looks more rural in 1950 than it does now.

And actually since then, the house number has changed, so it's no longer 1015. And the house was completely remodeled after the story we're about to tell. So I thought that was kind of interesting. And of course, we did post photos on our socials so you guys can see what the house was completely remodeled after the story were about to tell. So I thought that was kind of interesting and of course we did post photos on our socials so you guys can see what the house looked like at the time. Also, despite the name of the man upstairs and the concept behind that title that is inspired by the story, the house Janet was babysitting was actually described as a single story home. Right. So many people had described this this murder as being the inspiration behind this urban legend, the man upstairs, but that's not actually true. But I will say to that some sources say that baby Gregory that night was upstairs. So

I'm thinking there might have been like an attic room because you can see in the photo of the roof, is it looks kind of higher than it maybe would be, but not enough to have an actual room up there. So I think to me, I'm like, there might be an attic there though. Yeah. So I just wanted to mention that because of the title of the story.

So Anne Romack was pregnant at this time and due to her pregnancy and caring for their young boy and moving to this new house, she and her husband Ed, who worked as a lawyer at the Columbia firm Romack and Williams, hadn't had any time recently to spend, you know, with friends or just have fun, which I'm sure a lot of our listeners understand as parents. So now that Janet would be watching Baby Gregory for the evening, the couple prepared to head out and play cards with their friends. When Janet arrived to the house amongst the gloomy winter weather, just two days away from spring, Anne explained that Gregory was asleep in his room with the radio on, and they expected him to sleep the rest of the evening, meaning Janet would have a pretty easy night at the house, or so they thought.

Even so, Ed placed his shotgun near the front door in case she would need to use it for any reason, and not that this was an unsafe area but it was likely just for good measure. So he did briefly teach her how to use it since she had never used a gun before. Yeah, so he taught her how to load it and Unload it and take the safety of and all that stuff. Yeah, which is I mean nice that he's like, you know I'm in case something happens. You're a gun. Well, yeah, this is role Missouri and the 1950s. It's like yeah, it totally makes sense I knew it does, but I mean it's nice that he kind of said Just so that you and the baby are safe in case it would come to this which why would it? totally makes sense. Right. So Ed told 13-year-old Janet to lock the front door, and if anyone were to come knocking

for whatever reason, to turn the light on to check who it was before answering. And despite these precautions, they all anticipated the night to go by smoothly without incident, and add an an left and good spirits. So as the evening progressed, the weather got worse and worse. As I mentioned, it was raining and it was windy, but the storm just got more intense throughout the night, producing sleet and temperatures in the mid-20s Fahrenheit

or around negative 4°C. And it must have made quite the eerie atmosphere while Janet sat in the home essentially alone, with the swaying trees and howling wind out the windows. The first couple of hours of Janet's babysitting job had likely gone fairly smoothly. That is, until a call came in to the Boone County Sheriff's Department since Columbia is in Boone County at 10.35 pm. So three hours into her babysitting. It was a slow night at the Sheriff's Department, but Panic struck them as soon as an officer named Ray McCalman

answered this call. Because as soon as he did, a woman on the other end was heard screaming and saying, come quick! But before he could ask any questions, the phone call ended, and all the officer could hear was a dial tone. Of course, for a brief moment, officer Ray McCalman pondered if this was a prank, but the sheer horror in her voice seemed too real to be a joke. As we know there was no caller ID in the 1950s, so the officer had no idea who placed

this call or where it came from, making it impossible to help unless another call was made. In these days, a telephone company could identify the calling party, but only by freezing the mechanical switches to keep the call open, run from cabinet to cabinet to follow the call, and as long as they didn't hang up the phone, they could then trace it back to the original caller. Which we have actually seen in various movies. Including 1974's Black Christmas. But the process took a while and you had to keep the person on the phone until the call

could be traced, which definitely isn't always easy. And you had to keep the person on the phone for a little while. I couldn't find exactly how many minutes, but it was at least, I'm sure, a couple. Yeah. Also for this particular story, it was essentially impossible because the telephone company's test board didn't have any staff since it was late at night

on a Saturday. So even if Janet had kept the line open, no one was there to trace the call, therefore police didn't know her identity. So all police could do was sit and wait and just hope that another call would come in soon so they could spring into action. And that has to be just a really hopeless feeling

for this officer because he's like, this sounds so real. This person, this woman sounds like she's in danger, but what can I do? There's nothing I can do. I don't know where it's coming from. This sounds so real this person this this woman sounds like she's in danger, but What can I do? Yeah, nothing I can do. I don't know where it's coming from just awful. Yeah So not long after this call came into the Sheriff's Department So shortly after 10 30 p.m. And Romack called her house in hopes of speaking to Janet to check in on her and Gregory And this wasn't because of the call made to police, she just happened

to call around this same time. She had been out at a bar called Moon Valley Villa with friends, but when Janet didn't answer the phone, she didn't really worry too much. Knowing it was nearly 11pm, she just figured that 13-year-old Janet had fallen asleep and that they were both fine. So with that, she continued having fun with friends and her husband Ed, and they didn't head home for another 3 hours until 1.30am, so nearly 6 hours after Janet had arrived. When they got to their house, the couple immediately felt unsettled, because the porch light was on.

The front windows blinds were open, and the side window was broken. So as they approached the house, they also noticed that the front door was unlocked, and so was the back door. They quickly ran into the living room, wondering what on earth was going on, and that's when they found Janet Christman laying on the shag carpet next to their grand piano. She was laying in a pool of blood and was clearly deceased. As they phoned police, one of them checked on three-year-old Gregory, terrified that he had been met with the same fate.

But not only was he found in a deep sleep, he was completely unharmed. When police arrived, they finally connected the dots and discovered that it must have been Janet who called them so many hours earlier looking for help, which helped develop a timeline of when her murder likely occurred. Although she had a head injury and multiple puncture wounds to her body, which seemed to have been made by a mechanical pencil, as well as fingernail scratch's door face, her cause of death was ruled as a fixation. It's thought that she was strangled with an electric iron cord from inside the house, because someone had clearly cut the cord from the iron and tied it around her neck tightly

as that's how she was found. A few feet away from Janet's body was the home telephone, which was off the hook and laying on the ground. So this kind of makes us wonder if the killer hung up the phone by like pressing their hand on the receiver, meaning she didn't hang up herself after all when she called police. But either way, it was determined that she had been murdered between 1030 when the call was made, and 1130pm. And it was clear that a massive struggle had ensued, and that Janet fought hard against her attacker. Around the kitchen, living room, etc. there were traces of blood and dragged finger marks, hinting that Janet had been running from whoever had entered the house.

But since there was no one else found inside the house and there was no trace of a killer, police just hope that someone would come forward with tips regarding maybe someone they knew who had scratches on them or someone they knew who was acting strangely. And to explain the house a bit, that we did post photos on our social as always, it kind of looks like a salt box house, but there's no upstairs windows if there even isn't upstairs, which again is unclear. The house sits almost on like a flat mound that is just slightly bigger than the house itself.

Like it looks like a couple feet high or so, and then it drops down to the rest of the yard. Does it make sense? Like a flat yard and then there's like a two foot or so slant of a mound and the house sits on that. Right. And then there's a mound and the house sits on that. And then there's a tree behind the house on the left side. On the same side of the house, on the left side of the house, there are just two windows and the one closest to the front is the window that was broken.

And they found a saw horse beneath the window, so it's believed that the killer broke the window climbed on the saw horse and then entered through the window and I don't know if the killer brought this which I doubt or if they still had it from the construction I couldn't figure that out. But inside this window is where the piano was and where Janet was found so it's right next to the same window. Which is, you know, kind of interesting the fact that the killer climbed through the window where the where the piano is and that's exactly where Janet's body was found yet they had evidence that shows that she was being chased all over the house yeah so it makes me wonder knowing that the two

doors were unlocked like the killer unlock them once they got into the house did the killer knock on the door make his way into the house that way. But then why was the window broken? Why were the doors unlocked? Did he unlock the doors when he left out the door instead of leaving out the window? True, yeah. That's possible. A lot of good questions there. Because we know that the doors were locked when they left because that's how the an and an ad had left them. Right. So did Janet try to maybe flee out the front door and unlocked it but she didn't quite make it there and

he maybe dragged her back in right or he did break in through the window and then it when he left he just went out the front door or the back door but it's weird that they were both unlocked I don't know but also the gun was not used so unfortunately she did have that gun right there, but she was probably so caught off guard and couldn't make it to the gun because it was in the same place. Yeah, so it goes without saying that the Romack family was extremely heartbroken over this, knowing that it was their house that this happened in, but originally they had no idea who could have been behind it. As police continued to look for suspects, they also began rounding up and questioning all

the registered sex offenders in this area, because not only was Janet murdered, but she was also raped by her killer. They had also collected various hair samples, fingerprints, blood samples, and scrapings from underneath Janet's fingernails, just hoping for some kind of break. But at being 1950, that evidence wouldn't help much at this time. One would wonder if the killer was a scorned business associate of sorts since Ed was a lawyer, but there was no evidence of this.

Interestingly enough, Ed's firm did have an office in Mexico, and Janet's father Charles had previously been a businessman in Mexico, but it doesn't seem that this is relevant at all or that their business dealings were connected. And as calls came in, it seemed more and more like a random attack, because various other people in Columbia, Missouri were calling police regarding prowlers and window people. Due to the fact that numerous calls were coming in regarding prowlers and window peepers in the area, police looked for possible connections and questioned several men, but no concrete suspects were uncovered.

And actually, four years before Janet's murder, another young woman was murdered in a similar fashion right there in Columbia, Missouri. Columbia is currently the fourth largest city in the state of Missouri with 125,000 people living there today, but back in 1950, it only hosted about 32,000 people. So for two brutal murders upon young women to happen within four years, was pretty concerning.

And seems like a possible connection. Right. That is how it seems right now. So on February 5th, 1946, a 19-year-old woman named Mary Lou Jenkins was murdered in her own family's living room, just two blocks away from the Romax house where Janet was murdered in 1950. Her killer, a man named Floyd Cochran, had seen her through the window before entering the home through her front door while she was home alone. Then he raped and strangled Mary Lou, just like Janet had died. But shortly after her murder, her killer Floyd Cochran was found attempting to commit suicide, and he was

brought into custody. And the next morning, they found his wife dead in their home from a shotgun wound fired by Floyd. So Mary lose killer was apprehended very quickly, meaning he was not a free man four years later when Janet was killed, and he was later executed for his crimes. The only way I would think there was a connection if Floyd was not actually her killer, you know? But there's weirdly not a ton of information

about her murder anywhere on the internet, so I couldn't figure out why exactly they thought he was the killer, but anyway. But on top of this gruesome murder, two other women were attacked and raped in Columbia, one of which was a student at Stevens College like Mary Lou, within six months of Mary Lou's murder, so clearly there was someone else out there in this area. And it's believed that the man behind these attacks, and Janet Christmas murder, is a man named Robert Mueller.

One of the rape victims had told police that, terrifyingly enough, her attacker had been wearing a theatrical mask, and Robert Mueller's hobby was making masks of this sort. So creepy. But this isn't even going to be the weirdest part of this story. No, it isn't. So Robert Mueller lived at 112 Park Hill Avenue in Columbia at the time of Janet's murder, which was just one mile straight down Stuart Road from the Romax House.

He was 27 years old in 1950 and had reportedly known Ed Romax, and they were about the same age and they also went to high school together. And Robert even allegedly mentioned that he liked Janet. Because Janet had baby sat for them before, but not only had Janet baby sat for the Romax, but remember when we had talked about her babysitting for two different families? Well Robert Mueller's family was one of the families that she babysat for. Crazy. Yeah, and Robert had also made comments to Ed about Janet's hips and breasts.

So creepy, Robert. Yes, she's a 13 year old child. Yeah, and he's 27, and she babysits for his kids and the Romax kids. And he's kind of like gossiping like, oh yeah, Janet, you know, like, this child that babysits our children. Oh, yeah. So creepy. Robert's a huge, huge piece of shit.

And just a few days before Janet's murder, Robert had actually groped and Romax breasts while he was helping her hemadress, who later explained that not really creeped her out because he was a tailor in Columbia. And she said that in general, he creeped her out. So obviously the groping thing was terrible, but in general, and was just really, just didn't have good feelings about Robert.

And another thing that she said about him was quote, he doesn't use words, he uses his hands. So both the christmen family and the romack family believe that Robert Mueller was behind this crime. So after attending high school with Ed, Robert served as an Army Air Corps captain in World War II. Then coincidentally, he oversaw his parents' restaurant because his parents also owned a restaurant in Columbia, but it was called Mueller's Virginia Cafe, and like Keith said, he worked as a tailor in his late 20s.

According to Ed, he remembered Robert talking about his interest in virgin women and his desire to defile someone very young. So he's literally just going around telling his friends that he wants to like, he wants to sexually assault a minor. I kind of question Ed on this a little bit for like, you're hearing this guy tell you this kind of creepy shit about young Girls this many times and you're just like oh oh Robert Yeah, and I don't even want to make the excuse of oh, it's that was just the times that was just 1950 no dude your your friend is literally sitting here being like I want to rape underage girls Yeah, I mean it's disgusting and horrible and all we know, Ed was really grossed out by these comments, but you're just gonna sit there

and remain friends with this creep. Yeah, I don't know. It's a cool. No, and get this. So on the morning of Saturday, March 18th, 1950, hours before she was set to babysit for the Romax, Robert Mueller called Janet asking if she would babysit his children instead, but she declined

and said that she'd already promised the Romacks. So he knew she was babysitting that night and she knew where he knew where she was. Yeah, exactly. And he even had shown up to the party that the Romacks were at that evening. At the Moonlight Villa, what was it called? The Moon Valley Villa. even had shown up to the party that the romax were at that evening at the the moonlight villa yeah the moon valley billy yeah but they they called it a party

so i don't know if they i think they probably just met a bunch of people there and we're just partying you know yeah but they did call it a party so he showed up to this that night but after just a couple hours, Robert said that he had to leave to meet a doctor who was going to tend to his son. He left for two hours and then returned to the party. And even more suspicious, police questioned Robert's doctor about this to confirm his alibi. But the doctor said that he wasn't called to the Mueller's home that evening and didn't go there at all. So we already know for a fact that Robert is lying here.

Yes. Hours after Janet's murder, the Romax headed to Ed's father's home to stay while the crime scene, you know, that was their house, was being examined. And Robert Mueller called the father's house and asked if they needed help cleaning up the blood in their home. So if Robert is responsible for this murder, which I think a lot of people believe he is, he's basically wanting to go back to the crime scene. Yeah, and like be a part of it.

Which we know happens in a lot of cases where the killer often likes to be close to the crime. Well, another really weird part of this is that how did Robert know a crime even occurred? Because this hadn't even made the news yet because it was too early. So by the time that Robert called called like the only way he would have known is if he had gone by the house and a police officer told him what happened but why would he have done that on an early morning you know what I mean so it's it's like what how did you know about this yeah which is even more weird a lot of flags going on here yeah so Ed also explained the police that after Janet's murder, Robert would bring it up and talk about his theory

about how the murder unfolded, which is so fucking weird. I just know what. He said that breaking a window would have been too loud, and it would bring too much attention to the house. So his thoughts were that it would be just better to knock on the door and tell Janet that they were there to pick up poker chips per Ed's request. Which is like oddly specific, you know?

Yeah, it's oddly specific and he's like, why are you coming up with scenarios for this murder? It's so weird. But also, it does make you think if he is behind it, you know, the whole thing about the window did the window break in another way, did it break in a struggle, and that's not how he entered or exited the house?

Interesting though. I don't know makes you think So it's very obvious here that there's a lot of circumstantial evidence against Robert Mueller So police compiled it all within two months of Janet's murder and headed to his house But they messed up to his house, but they messed up. They were supposed to arrest and question him in police custody, but instead they drove him out to a farmhouse outside of the Columbia City limits and held and interrogated him for the entire night. Which is pretty intense. I wonder what their thought process was. That's some 1950s shit right there. We're going to take you to the farmhouse and beat the

shit out of it. You you tell us what happened. Yeah. So he was then given a polygraph test and he passed. And because he passed, they had to let him go. Which is so interesting here because it's like they're just putting all their chips in one basket here or whatever,

putting all the eggs in one basket, I guess you would say, chips in one basket. Whatever. I know you mean. But yeah, they're like, oh, the eggs in one basket, I guess you'd say. Chips in one basket. Whatever, I don't even. But yeah, they're like, oh, since he passes polygraph, he must be innocent. But I think it's because they had no evidence that was a problem, it was all circumstantial,

but he passed a polygraph, it's like, what are we supposed to do? Yeah, totally. So he was never charged, but because of the way he was treated, he sued the sheriff, but actually lost. And unfortunately, because they didn't have any actual evidence against him, despite circumstantial evidence,

they just couldn't really indict him. Just so frustrating. So after Robert left the area, because he eventually did move, no similar rapes or murders occurred in this area, at least within a reasonable amount of time, again the amount of time where they would expect maybe something else to occur. He ended up moving his family to Tucson, Arizona, where he died at the age of 83 in 2006.

The Romacks also moved out of the area to start a new and just get away from the horrible memories of what happened at their home, but they headed to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Anne Romack passed away in 1980 at the age of just 54, so Ed eventually remarried but passed away himself in 2016. And I did read that Gregory went on to live. A good life and is likely still alive today. The Christmas, on the other hand, remained in Columbia running their business, but Janet's father Charles passed away 24 years later in 1974 at age 60.

After he passed his wife Lula May, moved to nearby Kansas City, Missouri, where she lived until she passed, sorry, in 2009. And now at this point, it has officially been 72 years since 13-year-old Janet Christmas murder, and her case remains unsolved. And you know, although it is highly thought that Robert Mueller was behind it all, we may never know for sure, but something I know we're all wondering is if evidence was tested later, which we will get into here in a minute.

The most recent update on this case took place in 2013, so 9 years ago. Former Columbia Police Chief Paul Shevans has always been haunted by the fact that Janet's case remains unsolved, and a team got together around 2013 to interview Janet's friends again and keep this case alive. Shevans himself wrote a column on the case, and due to this column, one of Janet's old friends named Lois Terry called in with a frightening story. One week before Janet's murder, Lois herself had been babysitting near the Romax house on West Boulevard, which is the road that crosses Stewart Road where the Romax lived. While she was babysitting, a man knocked on the door and gave her a horrifying feeling.

He didn't attack her, but he terrified her. And then a week later, when Janet was killed, she had a feeling that it was the same guy. But she didn't know who it was, though she had seen his face. What I wonder before we continue is if she had seen Robert Mueller at the time because we know she didn't work with a composite sketch artist, but I'd like to know if she was able to give a description, but I guess we'll kind of get into that now knowing that it wasn't Robert that she saw, but I wonder if she did see him and what she thought. So seven years later, you know, seven years after the

murder of Janet, Lois got married, and not long after that, she and her husband Bill moved to St. Louis, Missouri a couple hours away, like I said in the beginning of the episode. And there, this is crazy. She happened to meet this woman who was a handful of years older than her, Ben to meet this woman who was a handful of years older than her, and when she was then introduced to this woman's husband, she couldn't believe it. It was the same man who had come to the house she babysat in Columbia years earlier. She said she never forgot his face and felt absolutely certain that it was him and the man who killed Jynet. She felt like it had to have been connected because it was only a week apart. She was babysitting. He knocked on the door. He was being really creepy.

She didn't go into the exact details of what he did that creeped her out, but it was enough to carry. Yeah, it was enough to really stick with her. So she explained this. Also, I want to say she didn't come forward originally, maybe at a fear. Yeah. But so she explained this to her husband when she happened to meet this man in a different city, but he didn't believe her. He didn't think it was possible.

And since she didn't have any evidence, Lois just carried on. But she was often very scared being in St. Louis, knowing that this man was there and that maybe he would come after her. So she eventually, or her and her husband, sorry, eventually moved back to Columbia, Missouri, but still kept this information to herself. That is, until former police chief Chevin's wrote the column on Janet's case, hoping to revive the story in 2013. So now that she knew the man's name and kind of seeing this again at a later time, she gave the information to police, and it turns out that this unnamed man that she's talking about lived in the very same area as the how she babysat at, and the Romax house. Ugh, chills.

And, sorry. And they uncovered some more interesting information he's taken away. So the day that the police began searching for Janet's killer with an hours of her murder, they brought dogs along hoping to trace the scent of the killer. Well, the dogs headed in the direction of the house that this man, Lois's guy, lived in on West Warley,

less than a half a mile from the Romax house. And of course, at the time that they were doing this search, they didn't know what, you know, they didn't know about this guy at all, but then they connected the dots later, like, wait, that's where the dogs went. Yeah. And it's also worth mentioning that the area

that the dogs went towards wasn't towards Robert Mueller's house, which was one mile away. Right, so they did not go in that direction. Again, does it mean it's not Robert, but interesting. Yeah, I mean, it's just interesting that we have two possible, you know, viable suspects here. Yeah. But since this guy didn't have a criminal record at all, police looked for evidence in Janet's

case to potentially match his prints and DNA to the crime scene. But all of the evidence was gone. There was no record of any evidence. No footprints, fingerprints, blood samples, nothing. The courthouse had underwent renovation years prior, and all the evidence in her case had seemingly just disappeared. So frustrating. And apparently, the former sheriff had evidence as well, which was also not found.

And has not been found since, apparently. So I know some of us may be thinking this is suspicious, but I personally think it's probably just negligence, which really is so disappointing because if this guy that Lois is bringing up, again whose name has not been released, they could have gotten him with the evidence found at the scene, but they just don't have it. Sadly, we may never know who the real killer is. Was it Robert Mueller or this guy that Lois saw? We sincerely hope that the department will work to uncover these files and look into this new person of interest with what information they do have.

But now, we will go into the other part of this episode, which is to discuss stories based on the urban legend that came to be after Janet's murder, known as the babysitter and the man upstairs. The legend was created over 10 years after Janet's murder in the 1960s, and it's similar to her story and will probably sound very familiar to a lot of you. So here's how it goes. A married couple explains to the babysitter that their children are upstairs asleep already, so the night should be easy. They head out for the evening and what follows is the babysitter receiving numerous phone

calls that include silence, breathing, and finally, the the babysitter will need to keep him on the line, which she attempts to do time and time again. Finally, she she attempts to do time and time again. Finally, she's able to, only for the police to tell her, that the call is coming from inside the house. Now, this trope has been used in various horror movies, so both Janet's case and this legend inspired films like Black Christmas from 1974, when a stranger calls from 1979, then remade again in 2006 amongst others. But not every man upstairs story has to do with a babysitter or phone calls. So now let's get into some other real life man upstairs incidents. And I just do want to mention that, of course,

talking about the legend, this is not meant to disrespect what happened to Janet or her story at all, or kind of make it fun or anything. It's just very interesting that her story weirdly inspired this legend that only was inspired by parts of her story that then became movies. And it's just, it's interesting.

Yeah, when I, when I googled like the Man Up Stairs, the first thing that came up with Janet Christmas case. Yeah. And I was so interested because there almost doesn't seem to be a whole lot of like, connections between her case and the legend. And the legend. So it's, it's kind of interesting.

But yeah, no disrespect. Just want to say that. Sorry, go ahead. So it's kind of interesting. But no disrespect. Just want to say that. Sorry, go ahead. So one of our first stories comes to us from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A couple named Jerome and Ashley Kennedy, and their 10-month-old baby girl, became the victims of a nightmare-inducing scenario.

In July of 2017, the couple began to notice noises that sounded like footsteps coming from the ceiling above the couple's bed and the room that they shared with their infant child. This continued for a few days and eventually Jerome began to see lights flashing through a vent in the ceiling. He had the feeling that something or someone was up in the attic watching them. So he had the thought to install a security camera up there to see what was making all the noise, but he never expected to see what was later found on those tapes.

The house next door to the Kennedys was owned by a 69-year-old man named Robert Haveria, who had been renovating it for quite some time. Most people in the neighborhood described Robert as very reclusive, saying he mainly kept to himself and that he appeared to be harmless. But when Jerome Kennedy played back the footage that he had caught from the attic. He saw his neighbor, Robert, crawling around spying on him and his wife. Robert had created a removable wall in order to gain access to the attic, and he had also drilled peep holes in a common wall that the two houses shared. Lawman Wall that the two houses shared. Robert Heverea was arrested on July 17th, 2017,

and was charged with stalking and trespassing. But he claimed his innocence saying that he was only in the attic for maintenance reasons due to his renovations on his own house. Yeah, fucking right, Robert. He was sentenced to five years probation in order to pay over $2,000 in restitution. But we're just getting started here.

Our next strange story comes to us from New Hampshire, but the perpetrator is yet again from Pennsylvania. So in February of 2022, a woman living in Summer's Worth New Hampshire, who modeled for the online paid subscription site OnlyFans, had been observing some strange things occurring in and around her home. First, she noticed that her windows and doors were somehow left open when she was positive that she had closed them. Then, a set of her house keys went missing, and a few days later, they magically turned up in a random place. But then one morning, the woman woke up to find an unknown man standing in her hallway,

fucking staring at her. So once the man was spotted, he took off and hid somewhere inside the house. That's even scarier like he's still in the house. Yeah, now you just don't know where he is. Exactly. So she called the police right away and when they arrived to the scene, they found 20-year-old Mauricio Guerrero fleeing the home via the rooftop. He was subsequently caught by police in charge with burglary, but when police investigated the scene

They found photos of the woman sleeping on his phone in which he zoomed in on her private parts And they also discovered a tracking device in the woman's attic that Mauricio claims he was going to place in the woman's car I don't know why he admitted that but that's so creepy. Yeah, he was just trying to track her wherever she went. So scary. So Mauricio had driven over 400 miles to stalk this young woman. But here's the thing. The woman knew about Mauricio previously and had even given him her address because he claimed to her that he was going to send her a TV

and a new fireplace in the mail. I don't know how he would have her that he was going to send her a TV and a new fireplace in the mail. I don't know how he would have done that. So strange. So the woman said that she never wanted to meet him in person, but that Maricio had mentioned it on numerous occasions. So maybe this was a ploy to get her address and he made false claims to her. It absolutely was.

So you know, she shouldn't have given her address, but also she had no idea what was gonna happen and she's absolutely a victim in this story. And by the way, when we say the fireplace, I think what they're talking about is like one of those, like, portable ones. Yeah, when it was like little like ones you can get from like home depot or something. Right.

It just seems like such a random item. I don't know. But also in the attic, police found a pair of headphones, empty food wrappers, and bottles of hot piss. Yes, hot piss. So Mauricio's claim was that, quote, she wanted a man to be obsessed with her and stalk her. Yeah. I don't think she did. I don't think so, Mauricio. Mauricio was a, Mauricio was eventually charged with four counts of burglary in order to pay a total of $2,500,

but the biggest irony of all is that even though Mauricio had the plan to track the woman's every move, it would be him who would end up wearing a tracking device, which was court ordered. Yeah, so yeah, kind of ironic there, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, I'm glad they caught him because what a terrifying story and she's probably just so scared because what if he, you know, he's out and she's afraid he's gonna come after her again, like, how does that woman sleep?

I mean, if you go to that extent where you're gonna drive 400 miles to sleep in a woman's attic just so you can spy on her. Hmm. We have a, do you know if it's an attic in our closet? In our, wait, where? Ah, it's every time I go in our closet. In our closet? Yeah. Oh, that there's like a trap door or something up there?

Well, there's like a, in our walking closet, there is like a square on the ceiling. And every single time I open our closet door, I look up, that's the first thing to it. I just like, seal that fucking thing off. I don't know what's up there but I mean it's probably just I don't think you can go up there. It might just be like insulation or something for the house. I don't know I don't like it though it scares me. I'm gonna be more scared now after telling this story. But we have one more story for you guys. So this story takes place in the town of Rockhill, South Carolina.

In September of 2012, a woman named Tracy began to complain that she was hearing noises coming from upstairs in her attic, but her kids poked fun at her and just kept telling her that she was getting old and probably just hearing things. Poor mom. But Tracy was convinced and had come to believe that she potentially had a poltergeist or a ghost living upstairs. I don't blame her. I mean, very interesting that that was the first thought.

I mean, wouldn't it be? Your first thought doesn't go to, that is a real person of yours. Well, I mean, it could be an animal or something, right? I guess so. So then one night, Tracy laid in bed using her laptop when ceiling plaster began to fall on it and nails began to drop on her bed from the ceiling.

So it's like her ceiling is coming apart. Yes, she's under it. So Tracy thought that she was losing her mind because she really did feel that something strange was going on But she was too afraid to crawl into the attic to investigate herself So that night she went to bed and she was sleeping soundly through the night when she was abruptly awoken right around 2.30 a.m Tracy began to hear multiple bumps in the night and it scared her so much that she called her nephew and her oldest son to come over and investigate for her.

When they got to Tracy's house, the two men went upstairs to check for the strange sounds, only to find a gaunt looking man staring back at them with a creepy smile. Why was he smiling? I don't know, that's the part that ah, orifies me the most. There was a few seconds of pause before the man was able to quickly escape the scene without being apprehended. But as he ran down the stairs and out of the house, Tracy was able to get a glimpse of him, and the creepiest

part of all was that Tracy recognized this man. The police were called to the scene, and Tracy informed them that the man she had seen fleeing from her house was a man that she had briefly dated 12 years prior. 12 years. And get this. This man had been sending her letters periodically over the years, asking if the two of them could reconnect. Upstairs in the attic, police found numerous sonic cubs filled with shit and once again, hot piss. Oh my god.

But also they discovered that, I mean, it makes sense though, like you're, you're, you're living in an attic. You're living in a attic? What are you gonna do? Yeah. But also they discovered that the man had cut a hole in a heating vent, placing coats and jackets inside, and use this as a bed, which police estimated he slept in for about three weeks. So to give you guys kind of more of a visual, it's basically like one of those like large, I don't know what they're made out of, but large heating vents.

He basically just cut a piece out of it and then just stuffed like blankets inside of it. So much work. And then like kind of made this almost creepy homemade coffin-looking thing. Very strange. Oh God. Oh my God. Okay, so even more alarming, I don't know if more alarming than that. The man had recently been released from jail and had tried to steal the woman's truck

a few weeks prior, so that's just getting worse. There was also evidence that the man had manipulated the air vents and the ceiling so that he was able to watch Tracy as she slept. Now you're probably wondering what the heck happened to this total creep. And guess what? Nothing happened. And why is that? Because this dude was never caught. So watch out Salda Carolina. Oh, man.

And this guy hasn't been named, which is, you know, also still really dangerous. I'm so sorry. I, how does she sleep? You know, I was just talking about how this previous woman sleep. How does this woman sleep? Because this guy's on the loose. No idea. Sorry, go ahead.

I mean, so once again, as I was saying, this guy hasn't actually been named to the public, but maybe due to legalities, they can't release his name. I feel like that's kinda dangerous though. Yeah, it seems that way. If it's a legality thing, I get it, like you don't have a choice, but this guy needs to be caught. Yeah, and also for her privacy,

they haven't released Tracy's last name, and all they've released on him is that he's a black male, five foot, six foot inches, who weighs about six foot inches. Oh my God. Five foot six and weighs around 170 pounds. So now Tracy is left to forever wonder if this man will come back and stalk her once again. To this day, the man is still at large and Tracy will never forget the man upstairs who went bump in the night.

And neither will these other people. And neither will I. Thank you so much everybody for listening to episode 200 of Going West. Yes, thank you guys for listening to this episode of Going West slash the dark parts. Yeah, oh yeah, right. We have for those who don't know, we'll talk about in the Q&A. So you should go listen to that if you want to hear more about us, but we have another show called The Dark Parts that we desperately want to bring back

and we're always debating whether or not we should just because we record so much going west every week that it's like do we wanna keep going into the studio and adding all this work, but we love The Dark Parts because it's very similar to this episode. So please let us know if you want us to bring it back, actually. Yeah, go check it out because there are 17 episodes available

where we kinda go into more spooky stories, more real life stories, urban legends, urban check it out, because there are 17 episodes available, where we kind of go into more spooky stories, more real-life stories. Urban legends. Urban legends, paranormal, but also just these real stories from real people, like the last three that we told. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. This was a fun one to do, it's a little bit different. We like to change it up when we can, so I appreciate you guys listening for all 200 episodes. Yes, we love all of you guys, and for everybody out there in the world,

don't be a stranger! Thank you. you