Exorcist Week: The Gary Indiana Demon House
In November of 2011, something strange and evil was happening in Gary, Indiana. Latoya Ammons and her 3 children because the center of a case of demonic possession so intense and so terrifying that it was documented by everyone from policy to social workers to doctors. Almost all of them were on the Ammons family’s side.
When the Ammons family moved into their new home that fateful November, their story began not unlike the Amityville Horror. The porch was beset by big black flies. This may not have been strange in some places, but Indiana has very cold winters. Flies are virtually dead in late November. No matter how many they killed, they always came back. This was the family’s first clue something was wrong, but it didn’t stop there. They heard footsteps late at night, and the kitchen door opened and closed, even after locking it. Activity escalated quickly until Ammons saw a shadow figure that left wet footprints in her room. Then things got worse.
In March of 2012, Ammons’ mother, Rosa Campbell was staying over with some of Ammons’ other friends. They were awakened by Ammons daughter screaming. What happened next is straight out of a horror movie: Ammons and Campbell ran in, only to find Ammons’ 12 year old daughter levitating above her bed. They prayed, and she had no memory of the event after it ended. This was the tipping point for Ammons and her family.
Ammons and Campbell sought help from local churches, but most were not interested in her story. Two psychics told her her home was besieged by over 200 demons. Ammons attempted to cleanse the home with bleach and olive oil. She made a holy altar in the basement and prayed, as well as smoke cleansed the house with sage and sulfur. It seemed to work.
Then it didn’t seem to work anymore. The demons moved from obsession to possession within 3 days, in a gross play on the Ressurection. The children became victims of possessions. They exhibited classic symptoms. They spoke in bizarre and impossible voices, the experienced facial distortion, and generally assumed a threatening manner. Ammons said she felt lightheaded and not in control of things she did or said. Most disturbingly, one of the children described what it was like to be killed. The children were physically assaulted as well. One was thrown from a room, another was choked, and one was hit with a flying object that caused a wound that required stitches. They knew they needed outside help.
Desperate, they went to their family doctor. Initially, he did not believe them. He was soon to change his mind. The children began cursing him, the nurses, and a Department of Child Services worker in guttural voices. The middle child was thrown into a wall in front of the nurses and DCS worker. An ambulance was called after the two boys passed out and would not wake up. Several police officers showed up. Upon arrival at the hospital, one son raged so violently it took five men to hold him down. He was 7 years old.
The police, of course, investigated Ammons and Campbell for child abuse. The children were declared free of signs of abuse and Ammons was declared mentally stable, adding to the confusion of police and DCS. That’s when the possession got really, really ugly.
One night, a DCS worker interviewed the family at the hospital. The youngest child’s eyes rolled back completely and he began growling. Later that night, a nurse and the case’s DCS worker were interviewing Ammons’ two boys when something truly frightening, impossible, and utterly supernatural happened. While holding his grandmother’s hand, the 9 year old smiled evilly, then walked backwards up the wall and flipped back down to the floor onto his feet from the ceiling. This is in the official DCS report, and the worker refuted claims of mere acrobatics, saying the boy had almost slid up the wall. It was too fluid and he did not run. It was not possible.
The children were separated from their mother and did not return home with Ammons. However, they were not taken for conventional reasons. They were taken because DCS believed these kids were experiencing emotional and spiritual distress. Finally, the family found some help.
The hospital chaplain agreed to bless their home after double checking that it was not anything of natural cause affecting them. When he ascertained it was not, he blessed the home with holy water.
DCS and officers from two police departments came to investigate the home with Ammons and Campbell. So much activity happened while they were there, that official police records indicate the presence of ghostly figures and faces in photos, the front seat of a car moving on its own, and electrical malfunction of the polices equipment. When a larger group of police returned, oil was found on the blinds, and would reappear with no human cause. People felt sick. Veteran officers who had been involved in shootouts and murder trials wouldn’t stay past dark. The fear was evident.
Finally, a priest performed a minor exorcism on Ammons and did an intense blessing of the house. There was a DCS worker present, as well as two police officers. The social worker experience a string of horrible luck and several injuries after attending the ritual. The final exorcisms, the last one being done in Latin, were performed in June 2012, with approval from the Catholic church.These exorcisms ended the terror for the family.
Ammons children have since been returned to her, and DCS confirmed that everything is well within the family. The family is in a new home now. The home where the activity took place was bought by none other than Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures, who filmed a documentary in the house. Upon completion of the film, he had the home demolished to ride the world of the evil inside.
I am particularly partial to this case. As an Indiana resident, it hits close to home in a state where nothing ever happens. Indiana news is fairly run of the mill, so a real life possession backed by police and hospital documents is an incredible thing. I do hope, however, to not have to hear anything like this on the news again.
