We're Having Trouble Finding Buyers

When you sell a house in Pennsylvania, the law requires you to disclose everything about the house to any potential buyers - damage, history, changes, etc. If you’re not upfront, you’re committing fraud. This works wonders when it comes to protecting people from purchasing bad houses, but it also works against houses that are good homes with odd elements or spotty histories. My mother’s house has both, and it's really making it difficult for us to sell it.

It all started a couple of months ago when my sister and I approached my mother about selling the house. Honestly, we were more worried about the shape that the house was in than the notoriety - we figured we’d cross any bridges when we got to them with any potential buyers. After all, it’s not like it had been a problem for our family, and we learned about it after we had moved into the place. My mother was on board, so we began work immediately. We were going to do everything in our power to get the house into shape. We’d make it look so good, no one would care that it was the site of a gruesome murder.

It's a good house, really. It was built back in the 70s by a plastic magnate as a first home - or maybe he was a Bell Labs guy, I can’t remember. But their last name was Clocked, as in the whole place was over-clocked. How could a split- level house be so thoroughly upgraded? Well, it had an intercom & radio in every room, an in-wall vacuum system, rotisserie above the fireplace, immense bar, Jacuzzi tub... I could go on, but the number of amenities these people managed to pack into the house was incredible. But the really interesting touches were the things you’d only find out about if you read the plans or looked closely. Like the fact that every single shelf in the house had laser cut plastic over it to make cleaning easier, and every fuse in the box had a double. Or the incredibly unnecessary foundation that could have supported a ten story building. Or the fact that there were originally 5 entrances instead of 4. And because PA housing

laws have changed, we didn’t even learn about the murder that took place here until after we had moved in.

We had to hear about it from a neighbor. After a storm came through that knocked out everyone’s power, a couple of families on the block (a very heavily wooded, narrow road, the last in the township) gathered for an impromptu bbq breakfast. I remember a couple of dads rolling their BBQ’s to the curb, feeding everyone before the food in the fridges went bad. It was the first time we met our neighbors, a polite and very Christian family with three boys around my age. When we met, they immediately asked if I had seen ghosts there, or blood. One even asked if there was a chalk outline in my dining room, an absurd picture considering it had sea foam green carpeting (a really 70s house). I was at a loss, so the eldest of the three clued me in. The house had been owned by the Bell Labs guy, his wife, and their son. The kid had some issues, and one night while his parents were out he invited his girlfriend over and beat her to death with a golf club. He hid the body in the woods behind the house, and hid the weapon somewhere. But when she didn’t show up at home, he was an obvious first suspect. They came and arrested him, found the body in the woods but never the weapon, nor any of the murder's evidence in the house. Though, since I first heard this story, I’ve heard other versions. And I’ve heard a version where all three participate - Mr., Mrs., and Jr. Clocked all taking whacks. I was 11 when this happened, so of course I told my parents immediately. A family meeting was called, the matter was discussed, and we all decided to stick it out. No point being afraid of old news. The house was nice, a major upgrade from our first place. So we stayed, and we didn't think much about it. Flash forward to a month ago.

We’re really trying to get the house to look like it’s not limping its way out of the 70s. We rip up all the carpet - even the nice sea foam one in the dining room that turns the room into an aquarium in the summer. We do hundreds of man-hours to get the yard and grounds ready. We repaint all the bathrooms. Polish all the

floors. Finally fix the hole in the wall I made playing lacrosse. The whole nine yards. We work frantically, because summer’s the time to sell a house apparently. And then we start taking down the tacky wallpaper in the upstairs hallway when we find the door.

It wasn’t that surprising considering how inaccessible the attic is (a false back to a closet), or how weird the rest of the house is, but it wasn’t something I was expecting. Then again, I had always wondered what was in that space between my room and my parent’s bedroom. About three feet of wall space that just sounded hollow when you bumped it. But I never would have guessed there’d be a door behind the wallpaper - a sliding piece of drywall. A sliding piece of drywall about three feet tall. Under PA law, we had to know what was inside so we could tell any new buyers about it. But therein lies my current problem.

You see, I opened the little door we uncovered. It’s in the upstairs hallway, so it’s a little hard to maneuver already, but I made sure to have my sister close by in case it was infested with spiders or I needed a hand. I crawled into the opening with a flashlight. There weren’t any spider webs and there was a little bit of a floor I could balance on, though it was just a couple pieces of wood. Once I was balanced, I found the space between the walls to be tall enough for me to stand, so I did. It wasn’t too exciting, it’s the space between walls, but when I looked between the slats I stood upon, I could see down into the bowels of the rest of the house. I could see down to the foundation. And that’s where it got strange. Because the deed states the house’s lowest floor is the basement, but shining my flashlight between those walls I definitely counted at least one other floor beneath that. It was hard to make out, but there’s definitely something down there. I even turned my flashlight off for a second and looked. I'm positive I saw a light far beneath me.

I got out of that space between the walls and I told my sister and my mother only. We had another family meeting right there in the hallway. Maybe it was nothing,

but there's more to this house. Even if we only tell a potential buyer about the murder, they're already purchasing the house knowing more about it than we did. So now we’re faced with a dilemma. Do we try to find that light, and go deeper into the this space between the walls, or do we forget this ever happened and try to let the next owners figure this one out? After all, it went up on the market two weeks ago and we’re already having trouble finding a buyer.