Sightings - Phone Calls From The Dead: Illinois, 1998

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

When a grieving brother receives a phone call from someone who should be gone forever, he's pulled into a mystery that defies reason and crosses the line between life and death. Sightings is a REVERB and QCODE Original. Find us on instagram @sightingspod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey Skeptical Geckos and Believer Beavers, before the show begins, I want to recommend one of my favorite paranormal podcasts that I think you're going to love. Monsters Among Us brings you supernatural stories from real people. Everything from ghostly sightings to eerie encounters with strange creatures. But unlike here on sightings, these stories are told by the witnesses themselves in real audio recordings that get straight to the meat of every terrifying story. You'll hear from witnesses like Julie, who drove past a car accident only to realize a spirit joined her in the passenger seat. Or Mack from Mississippi, who broke his back when he fell out of a tree stand only to be nursed back to health by a

sympathetic Sasquatch. I know, I want to hear that story right now. But in all seriousness, I think you'll love the spooky and nostalgic vibe that host Derek Hayes has curated with Monsters Among Us. And if you want more shivers down your spine, listen to Monsters Among Us podcast now on Apple Podcasts, break, one world ending where another begins. But what if that line isn't as firm as we believe? What if, through static and wires, the departed find a way to speak again. And what if the voice on the other end isn't just a memory, but someone reaching back from beyond? Welcome to Sightings, the series that takes you inside the world's most mysterious supernatural

events. Each episode brings you a thrilling story that puts you at the center of the action, followed by a discussion that dives into the accounts that inspired this story and our takes on them. I'm McCloud. And I'm Brian. And before we dive into today's story, we wanted to start doing something we've been talking about for a while now, which is highlighting the reviews and comments that you guys have given us and made on Spotify and Apple podcasts that really resonated with us and we'd love to share them with everyone.

So, yeah, I don't know if you guys know, but you know, when you're making a podcast, it's just kind of more or less pretty alone with no feedback or anything. So, this is kind of like our one way of getting to connect with our audience and know that it's the works out there and being appreciated. And boy, have you guys shared some amazing love. Here's one of many that I found just very charming. I'll read it to you. The title is Beauty in a Messed Up Way by Rosie Nozzi P. Okay, first, you guys are like a breath of fresh air that I look forward to during my weekly binge of true crime.

Thank you for that. This last story that someone sent in with the owl perched outside of his window, OMG, I shrieked as I was handed my Starbucks drink. I love that detail. Back to the review, this podcast is great. It really has a bit of everything in it. At times I find myself

laughing out loud, shrieking, sitting in a suspenseful frozen state waiting for what comes next. I 100% recommend listening to these great guys if you haven't yet. PS, can you just once try a female voice just for my own entertainment? You are truly amazing at voices. Miranda, thank you for that, Miranda. Awesome. Well, if you would like your review to be highlighted on the show, be sure to leave us one on Apple Podcasts or leave us a comment on Spotify. But I want to talk about today's episode, Nicole, because I am really excited for this one because this story does seem very perfect for a podcast because we're exploring the

eerie phenomena where people receive phone calls from the dead. That's right. And it calls for a more intimate approach. So this one's going to be a little different than what we normally do. So pull up those covers, check your caller ID, and ask yourself, do you know who's actually calling you? Find out on this episode of Sightings. [♪ music playing, wind blowing, birds chirping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping, horses galloping This week's episode is sponsored by Together, the film that critics are called the best-reviewed horror movie of the year. That is absolutely right.

Critics are loving it, and we love it, not only because it stars Dave Franco and Alison Brie, two of the most charming people out there, but because it's hands down one of the creepiest movies I've seen in a long, long time. Oh, yeah. And what's really unique about Together, though, is that it had me laughing just as much as it had me screaming. I know we all know Dave Franco and Alison Brie from comedies mostly, but this movie really shows another side of them that I haven't seen before and I loved every minute of it.

We don't want to spoil the movie, but Dave and Allison play a couple at a crossroads in their relationship who move to the country only to have a mysterious, unnatural force corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh. Whoever came up with that line should come work for us. Absolutely. Seriously though, this movie gave me the chills and is one that you're going to want to see in theaters. So make a date night out of it.

It's scary, it's fun, and it's going to stick with you for a long time. Don't miss, together, the breakout horror movie event of the year, exclusively in theaters on July 30th. Hello. No one is available to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone. Hey Nate. Your call. Please leave a message after the tone. *** Hey Nate. It's me, Paul.

I'm calling your voicemail because I didn't know what else to do. God, this is stupid. Okay, so it's August 12th, 1998, and something's happened. Well, a lot's happened. I mean, you must know that, but I can't explain any of it, and I needed a way to record what happened, and here I am am still on the phone. So it's been almost 48 hours since I'm pretty sure you died. You were on the train and the train The train derailed and no survivors. The first three cars got it the worst and I know you were in the second car because you called me to complain about your seat

and that was the last time I talked to you. We ended up arguing about the Cubs games. Just a stupid thing to argue about. And I knew we'd make up after you finished work, but you never made it to work, did you? Um, I've been at Mom and Dad's since, just watching the news, same coverage over and over. just watching the news, same coverage over and over and states been in touch and they're super cagey with details other than to say that that no one in your car survived which is why what just happened is so insane. I came home, showered, and then saw the light blinking on my answering

machine. Three messages and I figured they were just, you know, from friends who'd heard about the crash, but then I looked at the caller ID. Brennan, Nathan, your cell number called at 6.47 p.m. today, which is impossible because the crash was two days ago. You died two days ago. So yeah, I clicked play on the answering machine and the first two messages were what I expected, you know, a co-worker, my friend Jake, but the third message, there was breathing. Just slow, steady breathing for maybe 15 seconds. Just, you know, just breathing.

That's all I heard. Slow and steady. Just calm. And I know this sounds crazy, but I know it was you, Nate. I mean, we shared a room for 18 years. I know... Oh, that sounds like a bad romance novel. I know how you breathe. Ha ha ha. But I do. So I called your cell and it rang four times before going to voicemail. You know that same douchey message you recorded last month where you said you were probably wriggly field and too busy to talk.

Oh God, hearing your voice like that. Oh, it got me, you know? Um... So I, I don't know, I left a rushed message asking you to call me back. And... I, I still want you to. I, I need you to because... I don't understand what's happening and, and if you're alive...

Or, or hurt or whatever, just call me and I will find someone to come get you. I must have said it 10 times before I finally hung up. Just call me. So yeah, that was six hours ago and I've just been sitting by the phone ever since but there's been nothing haven't heard from you. TV's on right now sounds down I'm just still been watching it they're showing I mean they're showing footage of the crash

site and you know they're picking through the wreckage and it's it just had me wondering if maybe somehow you're still alive in there and you know they're picking through the wreckage and it's it just had me wondering if maybe somehow you're still alive in there and you're somehow trapped in the wreckage trying to reach out but I I don't know I mean this crash was so violent besides I mean like where would you even get power for this phone I mean your battery would be dead by now and I'm rambling I'm sorry none of this makes sense. Anyway um I haven't told mom and dad about the call yet because I don't want to give them false hope. Not when I don't even know what's happening myself. But I heard you breathing. I know it was you, Nate.

And you called me almost 48 hours after you were supposed to be dead. So call me, Nate. Call me. Hey, it's me again. And it's been, I don't know, 17, 18 hours since my last message, but it doesn't matter because I don't understand how, but you called me and I talked to you, Nate. I hang on someone's calling.

No, it's not you. Okay. I'm backing up. I just, I want wanna get this on the record or something, so after my first voicemail, I couldn't sleep, and I just kept obsessing over that call to breathing, whether I should tell anyone or not,

and this morning I just couldn't take it anymore, so I had to do something. So I drove back out to the crash site, and I'd been there already, tried to get through to see if I could help and all the workers turned me away and since then all the families were you know told don't come back, avoid the site and interface with the people in charge at a command post in a nearby school gymnasium. But I went again anyway and the site looked basically like it did the first time I saw

it. It's just carnage, I mean, twisted metal. A bit less smoke and chaos, but still not great. And I saw one of the coordinators I'd met earlier, this guy named Morrison, and he was about to flag down people to cart me away, but I just begged him I needed to know if there was any chance you could be alive in there and oh He looked at me with this expression like like sympathy and exhaustion and and I realized he He'd probably had this exact same conversation with dozens of family members in it and he told me He told me they'd used thermal cameras, listening devices,

even dogs and there were just no signs of life, no survivors and the bodies were so damaged that they were using anything they could, teeth, bits of drivers licenses, cell phones, I mean grim, grim stuff, anything for identification. And when I heard him mention cell phones, I wanted to tell him about the call, your first call. But I mean, how could I? I think he'd think I was in denial. So I asked about phone signals, whether a survivor's phone could possibly be working,

possibly be making calls somehow. And apparently when he said cell phones, that they'd been finding cell phones, he meant pieces of cell phones, SIM cards and that was if they were lucky. Anyway, I drove home feeling like an idiot wondering if I'd just imagined the whole thing or misread the caller ID or something.

I guess grief does that to people, right? But when I got back to my apartment, my answering machine light was off, but I still checked my caller ID and there it was, Brennan Nathan, 2 17 p.m. You had called while I was at the crash site. Where are you? How did you call me, Nate? Anyway, I called you back as fast as I could, and against all odds, you answered. It was your voice, Nate. It was you, clear as ever. Just a whole, what's up, bro?

Just totally casual, like you hadn't been dead for three days. But finally I was able to say your name and there was this pause on the other end like you were thinking about something. And then you started talking about the lake, summer of 91, the trip we took to Minnesota with mom and dad. And I must've been 15, you 17 you 17 right and we went to that one

seafood place right on the dock and I got walleye and you got fried clams but we ended up sharing because yours were way better and you were saying all this and I wanted to stop you but you just kept talking about that day the best day you said us and mom and dad and I tried to get through to you I tried but you suddenly said you had to go and the line went dead. I've just been sitting here for an hour trying to make sense of it all. It was your voice a thousand percent but I don't know something felt off like not just the random memory but why were you talking like that Nate and why that memory why that day I mean you

know we've had hundreds of good times together but you picked that one so yeah I'm I'm gonna stay up again tonight and keep the phone close because if you call again, I want to be ready. Just come on, Nate. Tell me what's happening. Please. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca. Hello, no one is available to take your call. Please leave a message after the tone.

Hey, it's Paul. I'm at a phone booth in where am I? Brainerd. Brainerd, Minnesota. And I, yeah, I went to the lake. I know how that sounds, but I couldn't stop thinking about why you brought up that specific memory.

It felt like you were trying to tell me something, you know? Like maybe you were there somehow on some kind of dissociative trip or something. So when I finally got to the lake, it took me a while to find the right spot. Everything looks different than I remember. Smaller somehow.

But then I saw it, That seafood place by the dock. Except it's not a restaurant anymore. The windows are all boarded up and there's like this rotted, closed for the season sign half hanging from the door. But anyway, I just sat at the dock for like maybe an hour trying to feel, I don't know, anything. It was clear no one had been here for a while.

No tire tracks, no sign of life, no sign of you. Have you been here, Nate? That's impossible, isn't it? I don't know, still, I couldn't help thinking about that day from your memory. And I don't know if this sounds crazy, but sitting there staring at the water for just a second, I swear I could feel you there. Like when we were kids sharing a room

and I'd know you were awake in the dark, just like me. But I know you weren't there. Of course you weren't. And I was just some guy sitting alone on a rotten dock talking to ghosts But then then I heard it a phone ringing and it was coming from inside the abandoned restaurant And I don't know I just got all James Bond II I kicked in the side door I Mean the place was a mess. It's kind of it's surprising. It's a lot harder than you think it was it kind of hurt my foot but

anyway, I got in there and the place was a mess. And there on the wall by the old cash register was this faded rotary phone and it was ringing. So I picked it up and before I could even say hello, boom, there you were again. And you started talking about Halloween, 1990, that party at Jake Morrison's house where we TP'd the entire

block and got caught by his dad and he made us clean it all up and you laughed about it. You know that laugh you do when you know you did something stupid but don't regret it. You know the one. And yeah, I just, I don't know. I'm sorry. I lost it.

I yelled at you demanding to know where you were. I mean, were you alive? Were you hurt? What the hell was happening? I'm so sorry. I must have sounded crazy screaming into the phone at this abandoned restaurant. But you didn't answer me. You just hung up. I just stood there holding the phone, shaking, and real weird, that's when I noticed that

the cord wasn't even plugged into anything. The whole cable had been chewed through by mice or something, I don't know, years ago, and I'd just been talking to you on a phone that wasn't even connected. So I ran out of there and drove until I found this phone booth and, man, I don't know how much more of this I can take. I don't know, I'm gonna go back to Chicago now. Maybe I should, maybe I should just stop answering the phone for a while.

I just don't know what else to do. Hey, just calling you back. It's been what, 12 hours since Minnesota. I don't know, time's getting weird. When I got back to Chicago, the first thing I saw was the light blinking on my answering machine and, you know, kind of like our last call, part of me didn't even want to answer it. Didn't want to check it. I thought about just unplugging the whole thing and pretending none of this ever happened. But no, I looked at the caller ID and this time it wasn't your number.

It was Morrison, the coordinator guy from the crash site. He left the message, but when I played it back, it was completely garbled just static and crackling and Something about needing to speak to me. So I called him back thinking thinking um maybe there was news about you or recovery efforts or something, but it just rang and rang. No answer, no voicemail.

And since then I've been sitting here just thinking about the last real conversation we had, the one before the crash. That stupid fight about the Cubs pitching rotation and I called you an idiot and hung up on you. Thinking I'd, you know, thinking I'd call back and apologize for being such an ass after you got off the train. Except you never did get off. And then my phone rang again and I picked up without checking caller ID thinking it was Morrison. Uh, but it was Morrison, but it was you, Nate, and I don't know, you sounded more present

than you sounded in the other calls. Hey bro, call me if there's anything. And I didn't know what to say, so I just asked you straight up if you were dead, and there's this long pause, and you said, you thought so, but it was all right. Then you told me you were sorry about the stupid fight. You said I was the best brother you could have asked for and just wanted me to know that. Wanted me to know we'd both be okay.

And then the line went quiet. Could hear that slight hum of an open connection, but you were gone. I just sat there with the phone pressed in my ear for a while just listening to the ambiance of wherever you're hanging out now, I guess. Until the dial tone finally kicked back in. Yeah, Morrison called 20 minutes later.

They found your body. They were able to identify it using dental records I didn't say anything when he told me I just kind of listened and thanked him for calling and hung up cuz I think I already knew you were dead I think I'd known it since the moment I saw those images on TV. I mean, cause no one survives a crash like that. But I also think I got what I needed, what we both needed. God, I miss you, man.

See you again soon. Not too soon, all right? Yeah, love you. Sightings will be back just after this. And I saw this giant, like, eight-foot hairy creature just run across the road. She was claiming a man was talking to her through the sound machine. If there are any spirits in this room, please give us a sign that you are here. And as soon as he finished that sentence, the door to the bedroom slammed shut and the candle blew out and now the room is pitch black.

As it walked it walked like an ape but human though too also. But as they moved towards us they grew grew in height and slenderized and became distorted. We are the Holosky Podcast, and welcome to the Holocaust. Join us every Monday for tales of the strange and unusual, wherever you listen to podcasts. And remember, stay safe, stay weird. ["Sideways with Brian"] Ooh, boy. Welcome back to Sightings, everybody.

I don't know about you guys, but narrating that story, I just found it very moving. Great work, Brian. Oh, thank you. No, good work to you. That was a very different approach. You had to put your acting hat on a little bit more than your narrating hat on that one. What I loved about this one is it was so intimate and personal, which begs the question, were Nate and Paul real people?

Is this based on Nate and Paul? They were not real people. I made the very conscious decision Were Nate and Paul real people? Is this based on Nate and Paul? They were not real people. I made the very conscious decision to make this story content up because all of the real stories of this happening have that intimacy and feel very personal in a way that it would feel very intrusive

for me to try and dramatize it in a way. It's to me like talking about true crime, murder cases, things like that. It's just, I feel like that should just be set aside. It's a little different than talking about like UFOs or something like that. That is exceedingly thoughtful of you, Brian. Thank you.

I think you're giving me more credit than I deserve. Boy, I don't know. I don't wanna just, you guys all just listen to the story. I don't wanna talk about like the story you just listened to. But I think how want to just, you guys all just listen to the story. I don't want to talk about like the story you just listened to, but I think how could anybody not after losing a loved one, no matter how they lost them, whether it was to like a long battle with cancer or a horrible accident like was in this story or just time,

how both gratifying and incredible it would be to get to hear that person's voice again, but also kind of how torturous to like, hear them talk to you and to not really be able to have a real conversation with them. Like it seems like there's sort of a disjointedness of like, of the voice from beyond needing to kind of convey a very important message that is not necessarily in conversation with you in your moment, but it's just, this is something you need to hear from me.

This is something you need to know. Yeah. It's just kind of, it's heartbreaking and beautiful. And so that makes me wonder, you know, we didn't want to dramatize somebody else's story for the fiction piece of this, but could you walk us through, Brian, some for the fiction piece of this, but could you walk us through, Brian, some of the documented stories of this? Yeah.

The supposedly real ones? Absolutely. So this is obviously a relatively new phenomenon because phones haven't been around forever. You know, I guess before there were telephones, there were, you know, people were doing seances or necromancy and things like that to kind of commune with spirits. The dead couldn't be sliding into our DMs before. Exactly. But in 1979, there was a book that was aptly called Phone Calls from the Dead that was published. And it kind of brought to light a lot of these stories that are now

have been popularized in a sense. And before I dive into the actual stories themselves, it's worth knowing that they kind of found some patterns in how this works and what these phone calls look like, generally speaking. And granted, this was before cell phones and messaging and all that kind of stuff, but as we'll hear, there are some stories of stuff that happened in the cell phone era.

But generally speaking, usually there's just one voice of someone who calls. Very rarely there are multiple voices. Usually these calls happen in the first 24 hours of someone having passed, but there are reports of someone getting calls up to two years after it happened. Oh wow.

And then this is something that happened in the story, but callers generally seem a little bit confused or disoriented. They're talking about nonsensical things sometimes, aren't hearing what the live person is saying. It's just they make the call, they say their thing, and that's it. Oh, wow. That's fascinating,

like this idea that almost like it's a loose consciousness or like a prerecorded consciousness or something that's like fighting through the veil, through static. It's very interesting. So in the story that you wrote, sometimes there was conversation, sometimes there weren't. Is that what's happened in real life? Yeah. The authors of this book from 1979 kind of bifurcated stories into two big buckets, so

to speak, where generally speaking, if the caller knows the call is from a dead person, the dead person will not speak. So if they know that they're dead, the dead person won't speak. You'll see that the person called. Whereas there are a lot of accounts of people who get a call from a loved one, have a conversation with them.

Sometimes it's totally normal. Sometimes there's a lot of non-sequiturs or whatever, but they have this call from them. They hang up, and then an hour later, two hours later, the next day, find out that person died 24 hours ago or 48 hours ago or something like that. We had Heisenberg uncertainty principle of calling dead people.

Yeah, so they tend to be more conversational if you do not know they're dead. Because maybe they don't know they're dead, and the psychic energy of you knowing they're dead throws off their sort of... Oh, that's a really cool theory actually. I like that one. What I tried to do in the story was have Nate, the dead brother, kind of go through the process

of realizing that he's dead perhaps or admitting it by the end. And I don't know if that actually happens necessarily. Yeah. But again, I just have to comment. I don't know if you did this consciously, but like, it's kind of fitting that Paul originally assumes quite heavily that Nate is dead. So when he gets a call from Nate, it's just breathing. He's not able to speak.

That plants in Paul the seed of doubting himself, of saying maybe, and in fact thinking maybe Nate's alive. I'll bet how else could I get a call? Nate's probably alive. Therefore, the next call is Nate is more present. I'm so glad you're reading all of this. That was, yeah, a thousand percent intentional. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah, a thousand percent intentional. Right. Right.

But yeah, so like I said, this is not a new phenomenon. Like I said this in 1998, but these reports go back forever basically. I mean, the ones that are documented in the book are mostly in the 60s and 70s. There have been more since, but let's dive into a few of these that I think are kind of interesting. Please. So let's go to 1971 Arizona. There's a woman named Bonnie,

who was making dinner on a Sunday evening when her phone rang. Her husband answered, told her it was their old friend Enid calling. And Bonnie hadn't spoken to this woman in over a year, so she was thrilled to catch up. And they had a lengthy conversation. And Enid mentioned she'd recently moved to a nearby care facility and they made plans to meet up basically. And the next day Bonnie went to the care facility to see her friend. She went to the front desk, asked for the room number, and then the receptionist told her that Enid had died. Now of course Bonnie was confused because she just had a whole conversation with her the evening before. And the receptionist explained that she'd been discovered

dead in her room that previous morning. So Enid had been dead for less than 24 hours at the point that the phone call happened. So another incident happened in 1969 in New Jersey. This was a gentleman named Carl. He apparently rented a cottage for a weekend getaway. He saw that there was this antique telephone on the nightstand when he got there. On the first night, he was falling asleep.

His phone rang at 11.15 p.m. He answered and it was his father on the line. He was calling to tell Carl to call his mother. So Carl was as asking what was wrong, his father couldn't seem to hear him and just kept insisting, you need to call your mother immediately. You need to call your mother immediately. And I'm sure it was frustrating for Carl because it was like talking to a brick wall, basically, you know, where he had, the father had one thing to say and was only saying that. And then his father

said some cryptic final words. He mentioned he was in a beautiful place, and then the line went dead. I think we can see where this is going, but Carl tried calling back a whole bunch of times. He couldn't get an outgoing connection. He searched the cottage trying to figure out what was wrong. And then he went into town the next morning to use a payphone and call his parents.

And his relatives told him that his father had suffered a fatal heart attack the previous evening while lying in bed with Carl's mother. She was too distraught to come to the phone when Carl tried to call her. And when Carl asked for the details, he learned his father died at 11 15 p.m. the exact same time that that phone call happened. Whoa. Yeah. There's one more little kicker on this story though. Carl went back to the college to pack up

and he realized that the phone, that antique phone that was on the nightstand had never been connected to any phone line. Okay. And that's kind of like the detail in the fishing like restaurant. Mm-hmm. So that would leave me speechless

if that ever happened to me. I mean, I think you've got the double whammy there where you get the phone call at the exact time that your father died. Yeah. Wow. The simplicity and immediacy of like, you need to call your mom, you need to call your mom seems to fit this idea of just a powerful emotional message needing to be conveyed, shooting out from this soul across the, the fact that it comes through phone lines.

Was this a cell phone or was it a- This was the 1960s. So this would have been- Okay, definitely a landmine. Well, speaking of cell phones though, this next incident, which most directly inspired the story, happened in 2008 and did involve a cell phone.

So in California, there was a gentleman named Charles Peck. And on September 12, 2008, there was a train crash in California. There were 225 people on board, 25 died, and 135 people were injured. Among the passengers that day was this 49-year-old man named Charles Peck. So his family knew he was on the train, and of course they were all freaking out because they didn't know if he was alive or dead or not.

And as they were all at the train station trying to figure out what's going on, multiple members of his family started getting phone calls from his cell phone. His brother, his stepmother, his sister, his son from a previous relationship, and his fiance all got calls from his cell phone. His brother, his stepmother, his sister, his son from a previous relationship and his fiance all got calls from his cell phone over the next 11 hours. That's 35 calls in total, which is pretty wild. When these people answered the calls though, all they heard was static on the other end.

There was no breathing, no voice, no nothing basically. And they kept calling him back, and every call just kept going through to voicemail. And of course, this gave them hope that maybe he was alive in the wreckage, kind of like what was happening with Paul and Nate here. Because could he have just been unable to speak or something and just, he couldn't even see his phone maybe, it just was dialing and just calling whoever, or just running through autodial or something like that?

I don't know. But they told the rescue teams, dialing and just calling whoever, or just running through auto dial or something like that. I don't know. But they told the rescue teams, the rescue teams were using the signal to track the phone's location. So the phone was still working. They tracked the cell phone and found his body in the first car ultimately. Now here's the kicker though, the coroner ultimately determined that Charles died instantly

on impact. So he was not there to make those calls. So who made them? How were they made? What was going on? Aaron Ross Powell You know, it's funny, like, in terms of like theories, like, because these are such personal stories, I don't necessarily like feel the need to like poke at it. I am curious like the kind of provenance of these, some of these stories of this occurrence. Like is it just, I don't know, people call the local paper to talk about it? Like how do we know about these? You know, I'm going to have to do some digging on the Charles Pequon because there's lots of stories of it on the internet, but I can't figure out where it actually originated.

I assume that there is a provenance though, because there are news articles about it, and like photos of the man and the plane and the train crash and things like that. So I think he was a real person and this actually happened. The other ones and a lot of the other stories that we won't even go to here appeared in that book that I mentioned. And that book was written by parapsychologists who did a lot of research on this, had the discussion with people, vetted all of this.

Of course, can you prove that this phone call happened in 1965? Probably not, for instance, but I think we have to take people at their word on this one because in my mind, if you're gonna come up with some paranormal experience, you would pick something a little less personal if it were fake.

You know? I could probably come up with skeptical gecko takes on it, but I just don't why, you know? It's like, I don't think there's anybody like making a bunch of money off these stories, or like, it's just, they're just extremely personal stories like to the extent that they if they actually happened if which I'm willing to give it the benefit of it out and assume

that it did. Well I mean I think without going into straight up skeptical gecko territory and still honoring you know and respecting these people and their experiences you know is there a world in which in Charles Peck's case, for instance, there was some strange glitch or his phone was tapped just the right way that it started blitzing these calls out? Or there was some technical explanation for this that was ascribed a supernatural explanation, even though it might have been a very terrestrial kind of situation that just was badly timed. Right. Because we've all butt dialed people before, so. Yeah, exactly. And phones sometimes just do weird things. But I think what's interesting,

I'm trying to figure out how I would feel if I had been Charles Peck's family. I mean, of course I would be devastated at the loss of him. But would I feel better having received that call from him? How would that make you feel? I don't know. I mean, like, to some extent, it might feel like, especially if you didn't get to, like, talk with him, if it's just a kind of feels like a glitch, could be like a weird glitch almost,

like, it just kind of prolongs the acceptance period. Just like prolongs that kind of anxiety-ridden moment in which you were hoping. So I guess it's unwelcome in that respect. In that respect, yeah. If you did get to talk with someone, I think obviously I think I've already kind of walked through emotionally how that would resonate for me.

But personally, I want to believe that this is a possibility. Me too. So I guess this one was a little more somber than usual, but I still I think it was a really interesting story, really fascinating conversation. And we'd love to hear from you listeners if you have had any similar experiences or have any thoughts on what might be going on here. So hit us up on Spotify, leave us a comment on there,

or find us on Instagram at SightingsPod. Thank you, Brian. And thank you again for this lovely story. I think this one really typifies why we do this show and why we love these stories of the unknown because I think they can cut to the core of the sense of wonder at our own existence. Absolutely. So, which begs the question,

next week, what kind of story do we get to dive into? We're gonna go a little bit more crazy out there, big, less emotionally charged story. Cool, I'm here for it. You know I love a good adventure. It is the middle of summer. We're gonna take a little vacation. I'm not gonna say what the particular story is,

but I will say we're going off the coast of Florida, somewhere near Bermuda, perhaps. Okay. Okay, that might have been a little bit on the nose. I didn't say what it was. I'm going to triangulate how I feel about this. All right, listeners, well, we've got a really fun, really out-there story coming your way in two weeks.

So get the sunglasses, get that sunscreen, get ready to head somewhere a little bit tropical. All right, I'm here for it. All right, everybody. Stay cool, stay safe, and take care of one another out there. Sightings is hosted by McLeod, Andrews and Brian Sigley. Produced by Brian Sigley, Chase Kinzer, and McLeod Anders. Written by Brian Sigley. Music by Mitch Bain. Mixing and mastering by Pat Kickleiter of Sundial Media. Artwork by Nuno Cernanos. For a list of this episode's sources, check out our website at sightingspodcast.com. Sightings

is presented by Reverb and Q-Code. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you're first to hear new episodes every week. And if you know other Supernatural fans, tell them about us. We'd really appreciate it.