3. Creepy Squatter Discovered in Crawlspace
In 2013, 73 year old Velma Kellen was shocked to find out that someone had been living under her house. Kellen had just purchased a new furnace and couldn’t figure out why she was unable to keep warm. She called a repairman who discovered that someone had been living in the crawlspace beneath her home. They had cut open her heating ducts so that the warm air would circulate under the house.
When the repairman told Kellen the disturbing news, she realized that their actually had been signs that she wasn’t alone for some time. The back gate was always open after she had closed it and she often smelt the pungent smell of marijuana smoke lingering throughout her house. Strangely, the unwanted visitor was quiet enough to have never alerted Kellen’s three dogs.
After the repairman, fixed Kellen’s heating, the mysterious squatter vanished and never returned.
2. The Man in The Attic
In 1913, 33 year old Walburga “Dolly” Oesterreich, wife of wealthy textile manufacturer Fred William Oesterreich, met a young man by the name of Otto Sanhuber. The two quickly became lovers and began meeting in secret at Sanhuber’s boarding room as well as a nearby hotel.
Sanhuber, who was 16 years Dolly’s junior would also sometimes visit her at her Milwaukee residence but when the neighbors grew suspicious, they alerted her husband.
To avoid further suspicion, Dolly suggested to Sanhuber that he should quit his job and move into her attic. Sanhuber agreed. As the hours of solitude would give him time to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.
By 1918, Sanhuber had been living in the Oesterrichs’ attic for five years. He was gaining work as a writer and had several stories published under a pen name. Fred however, was beginning to grow suspicious. He noticed that food and cigars were going missing and he often thought he saw strange shadows passing in the hallways at night.
Later that year Fred decided to move to Los Angeles. However, Dolly was strangely insistent that their new house had to have an attic. After much searching they eventually found a suitable house and Dolly quickly sent Sanhuber to settle in even before the couple arrived.
By 1922, Fred and Dolly’s relationship had deteriorated and on the 22nd August they got into a particularly nasty argument. Fearing that Fred may harm Dolly, Sanhuber rushed downstairs with two of Fred’s pistols and shot him in the chest, killing him instantly.
Dolly and Sanhuber quickly hatched a plot to make the murder look like a botched robbery. Sanhuber took Fred’s diamond watch, locked Dolly in a closet and tossed the key aside before returning to his refuge in the attic.
The police initially suspected that Dolly had shot her husband but with no knowledge of Sanhuber’s presence, they were at a loss to explain how she could have locked herself in the cupboard.
Dolly inherited her husband’s fortune and used it to buy a new house. One with an even more spacious attic. Sanhuber moved in but remained in the attic to avoid police suspicion.
During the investigation, Dolly had also begun dating her lawyer Herman Shapiro. On one occasion, she even gave him the very same diamond watch that she claimed had been stolen during the robbery. Shapiro recognized the watch but Dolly insisted that she had found it under a seat cushion.
In 1923, the police found out about the watch and arrested Dolly. During the hearings, Dolly instructed Shapiro to take groceries to her house saying that they were for her ‘attic-dwelling vagabond half-brother.’
Sanhuber had now been living in Dolly’s attic for more than 10 years. He welcomed the opportunity to talk with the lawyer. However, Shapiro suspected that something was afoot and kicked Sanhuber out of the house. Terrified and confused, Sanhuber fled to Canada where he changed his name to Walter Klein and eventually married another woman.
In 1930, Dolly and her Lawyer-turned lover Herman Shapiro had a falling out. Jaded, Shapiro went to the police and informed them about the mysterious man he had seen living in Dolly’s attic. The police quickly arrested Dolly and Sanhuber who, by coincidence had recently moved back to L.A.
On July 1st, 1930, Sanhuber was found guilty of manslaughter however the charges were dropped as the statute of limitations had expired. To avoid the ensuing media attention, Sanhuber fled Los Angeles and completely disappeared.
Dolly’s trial ended in a hung jury and in 1936 the indictment against her was dropped. She soon found a new lover and they stayed together for 30 years.
1. The Man Lurking Under The Bed
In 2006, Carlo Castellanos-Feria developed an obsession with a fellow employee named Michelle Fredenburg-Onion, Both worked at a hospital in Washington D.C. – Castellanos-Feria as a valet and Fredengurg-Onion as a director of physical therapy.
Fredenburg-Onion would often turn her keys over to the valet who one day decided to make a copy of her house key. He then used the key to break into her apartment. Once inside, Castellanos-Feria set up a camera on the desk in Fredenburg-Onion’s bedroom and hid under the bed.
He was discovered two days later when Fredenburg-Onion’s boyfriend noticed something moving on the floor. He looked under the bed and saw Castellanos-Feria starring back at him. He then beat the intruder with a flashlight and managed to subdue him before police arrived.
During their search, police found a bag under the bed belonging to Castellanos-Feria that contained condoms, gloves, a power cord and a video tape that showed him setting up the camera on the desk and then hiding under the bed. A search of Castellanos-Feria’s residence also uncovered six framed pictured of Fredenburg-Onion along with a video of her first wedding that Castellanos-Feria had obtained by breaking into her ex-husband’s house.
