*SPOILER ALERT: The following article contains spoilers for Episodes 24 & 25. Before reading, be sure to listen to Origins - Part I & II. Afterward, feel free to check out this "Behind-the-Episode" blog for additional info and photos! And visit our Patreon page for more extras!
Below are a series of photographs of me, my childhood home, Sara's sketches from this case, and Alexis and my trip back to Pawnee.
This is a snapshot Thao took of me telling my personal ghost story you heard on Origins Part I.
This is me, approximately nine years old, the day the foundation was poured for our new house. This would have been around 1993.
The home took many months to finish
This is the front of our house, and facing it, the top right window is my old bedroom.
Here's a unique snapshot of my old bedroom and the window nook that would eventually have my drawing table installed upon completion.
When the home was finally finished, my parents and I were so excited to get the keys and do our first walk-thru.
Here we are in our living room room, set up and ready to be "lived" in.
This is a photo we took on the stairwell leading up to my room.
Here's a photo of the view I saw everyday of my childhood making my way up to my room alone.
Well, years passed and as you can see, I still spent time in my room. But if you'll take a close look at the room, do you see something missing?
Since I had stopped sleeping in my room since the incident, we sold my bed and kept a futon mattress downstairs for me to sleep on. Here, I'm seventeen, just graduated from High School and gearing up for college. But no bed in my bedroom.
Taking a step back, here I am around age five on my Grandparents' property. To my right, off camera was our trailer home. Behind me is my Grandparents' house, which still stands today, only it's no longer lived in. A new home has been built behind this old home. I spent so much of my childhood, even after moving to my new house, on this land. But if you look at that porch on the my grandparents' house, that is where I fell, blacked out from hitting my head, and broke my wrist and finger when I was somewhere around ten or eleven years old.
Jump ahead to just a few weeks ago, Alexis and I took a road trip back to Pawnee. Alexis and I have been friends since college, he grew up in another small South Texas town, and he's grown to know my family and hometown well. So when we had to go perform these rituals for the land and the girl in my room, we were both happy to escape the city and visit Pawnee. Alexis first performed an offering to the land on my Grandparents' property. Then we went home to perform a mediation and elevation ceremony in my old room.
To begin the ceremony in my room, Alexis had me sit in my window nook at my old drawing desk. We closed the blinds and allowed only a soft amount of light in the room. He spoke many prayers and addressed only the spirit I saw as a child.
He laid out an altar with six small glasses of water, on large glass of water, a white candle, palo santo, turkey feathers, a wooden comb I got for her, and some lemons from a tree on my Grandparents' property.
He then told me to close my eyes and sit in silence and give the spirit permission to come forward and communicate. It was then that I got a few messages. It was hard for me to tell if it was my imagination throwing things into my mind, but I did get some imagery and thoughts. I verbalized them aloud as per Alexis' instructions and you heard what I spouted out on the episode.
But it would be in the editing room where make most of my revelations on this case. Looking through new and archived audio, connecting the dots, and reviving memories I'd buried led me to all the conclusions you heard at the close of this case. In the end, by taking on this very personal case, I believe I closed a very pivotal chapter in my life. I don't believe this is the end of her story, but I do feel in my heart I finally heard what she was trying to tell me. I think me learning that she wasn't malicious and that she actually might be trying to protect me rather than hurt me was important. But I think the message I finally heard by piecing together all the clues she left behind for me was most important. She was worried about me, the amount of work I put on my plate, the amount of stress that causes me, and ultimately how it affects my health.
One thing I'm finding more and more as I dive deeper in this field, is that coincidences are rarely just that. If take the time to stop, analyze, and listen, you might just get that important message someone out there is trying to send you.
Below are a few pages of Sara's sketches from this case
Sara's sketches from our sit-down at the café.
Sara's sketches from our trip to Pawnee.
Sara's sketch of the girl from my room, whom we both now believe is named Sarah.
I hope you enjoyed this personal quest of mine. It was an important journey I needed to take and I'm excited for the future has in store for me, the show, and my amazing growing tribe of paranormal friends and family. Happy New Year Night Owls, we'll see you all in 2020!
Stay restless out there,
Stephen Belyeu