** WARNING: This book is based on real events. Names, locations and other sensitive details have been changed. Some material may be triggering. Explicit language and content, discretion is advised **
The last time I kissed my grandfather was in his casket at his funeral. He was cold, and pale, but looked like he was just sleeping. The child inside of me was hoping my kiss would be enough to wake him up. That was before I found out his secret. Now I’m glad he’s gone. In fact, I think he’s gone too soon because there’s some questions that need answering.
My grandfather died of a heart attack at 78. Until now, he was known for being a family man and a husband. He made characters for local attractions. His characters brought life to the environment around them. My grandfather, or Papa to me, was my hero. He was a former military man, he provided for his family, he was respectful to his wife (my “Grammy”). He was always playful with us, even if he had a long day at work. After my grandmother died, he was by himself in that old house. I was one of nine grandchildren, yet the only grandchild who stayed in touch and visited often. I would visit weekly to share meals and gossip. Sometimes we’d walk around the neighborhood or just play some rummy. He’d always win of course. My grandparents had five kids altogether. Two died as babies, two died in accidents later on. My mom ran off with her boyfriend (one of many), and never turned back. My siblings and cousins were just as detached and messy. That’s why when the funeral came, it was mostly left to me. A few family members came down to help me clear his house out. I couldn’t afford to keep and maintain it, so I had to clear it out and sell what I could, including the house.
The day finally arrived. My brother Joey, my cousin Dave and myself stood outside of the house. Memories of our childhood flooded in. The feeling of having to let all this go, left a lump in our throats and tears in our eyes. My papa’s house was a 70’s style raised ranch, single floor with a basement. Inside it was dark and musty, a slight smell of stale cigar smoke in the air. Grammy would've been so disappointed with papa smoking in the house, but once she passed, that’s how he coped. One of many ways I guess. Family photos hung on the brown clapboard walls, misted with dust and nicotine. Cobwebs lined the ceilings, antiques and knick knacks. We had no idea what we were going to do with most of this stuff, or where to start.
“Ok guys, you just start attacking the big stuff, I’ll start making piles”. I directed toward the furniture. The guys started wrapping up the furniture and hauling it to the trucks, both exchanging stories along the way. I wasn’t so productive. It was incredibly hard to detach from so many memories. Everything I touched gave me a flashback. The more I saw, the harder it got. At one point I pulled out an old picture of my grandfather and I had to go outside for a breath of air. The emotions were so overwhelming. As I was outside, I heard a thud and some commotion.
“Are you fucking serious bro? I told you to go that way!”
“How am I spose’ to know which way is that way, when there’s a big piece of furniture in my face?!”
“Look at the fucking hole you made!”
“So what? It can be patched…” I hear my cousin and brother arguing from outside. I roll my eyes and take a deep breath before I investigate. As I enter my grandparents bedroom, I see that someone has put my grandparents antique oak bed frame through the bedroom wall. Literally puncturing a hole through the wall.
“Way to go guys. You had one job to do!” I said out of frustration. “Forget arguing over who done it, let's just get this shit over with.” I grabbed a corner and started helping.
Just then Joey startled me “Holy fuck!” he yelled in surprise. I jumped, dropping the bed frame on Dave’s foot. Dave freaked out punching yet a second hole in the same wall.
“You guys, there’s a whole other room through there” Joey says curiously, peering through the holes. “Jess gimme your phone, put the flashlight on” Joey gestures to me.
I put the flashlight on on my phone and handed it to Joey. Joey shines the light through the hole and sure enough, there’s another room. I never remembered this house having any other rooms than the ones I grew up with. It looked like a little office area or something. There were some file boxes on the floor, a small table, but the room was dark and hard to see.
“Fuck the dumb shit” said Dave suddenly, then punched another hole through the wall. I stepped back in shock and surprise as the guys continued making holes in the wall till it was big enough to walk through. I wanted to stop it, but at the same time, I was curious too. What was behind there?
We finally got through, and surprisingly the electricity worked on that side of the house too. That’s right, it wasn’t just a room, there was a whole other addition to the house that no one seemingly knew, except my grandfather. There was an overwhelming stench of mold and something else that we just couldn’t quite put our fingers on. We covered our faces with dust masks and ventured in. Although the lights worked, it was still dim. What we thought was a room, broke off into chambers of rooms. Joey led the way, just beyond the entry of the first room. He was only a few feet in before he jumped and let out a scream.
“What the fucking fuck!” Joey jumped a mile high, creating a wave of jumps behind him. “Oh my god, I almost died. Look at what’s in the room” Joey gestured to the room.
I was reluctant at first, afraid of what I would see, or be unable to unsee. I peeked in with squinted eyes and jumped too. It was a 7ft tall pink elephant in overalls. I couldn’t help but erupt in laughter. Dave pushed passed me to see what the fuss was about. He jumped too, just before breaking out into a laughing fit. My grandfather made characters for amusement parks, theme parks, tourist spots etc. This must’ve been where he stored them all. It was creepy just as much as it was intriguing. You couldn’t help but look and touch all these crazy creatures knowing your grandfather created them. We took a few candid photos for the memories and decided to call it a day.
“Okay guys, I think today has been eventful enough. We can come back tomorrow to clean the main house out and meanwhile I’ll call around or put a post on social media so we can try to get rid of these characters, unless y'all wanna keep any?” I teased before saying goodbye.
The next day the guys and I finished cleaning out the rest of the house and waited til we had a buyer before we went back into the addition of the house. We found a collector on Facebook Marketplace, of all places, who wanted to buy the characters. They would pay for the characters and the shipping, if we could just help with moving them out of the house. These things are understandably heavy. We got a few dollies and other moving contraptions to get the characters out. I took inventory along the way and supervised to make sure nothing got damaged. Just as our luck would have it, as we were moving the last character out, a giant duck, one of his wings clipped a door jam, just hard enough to take a chunk off. We all cringed as a 1 ft x 1 ft chunk of this giant duck broke off. With it, was a tiny skeletonized foot. Joey jumped, dropping the giant bird.
“What the fuck Joey! What happened? Did it land on your foot or something? Was there a spider?” Dave confronted Joey. Joey was pale white and speechless. He ran to a corner where he started throwing up. Everyone was so distracted by the damaged character and Joey’s reaction that nobody noticed the body on the floor. This part gets a little fuzzy for me for obvious reasons. I remember looking back at the mess on the floor and although it was obvious it was a body, my mind just wouldn’t register. Once I realized it was definitely a body, I let out a blood curdling scream and fainted. I woke up on a stretcher with an IV in one arm and a blood pressure cuff on another arm. I had wires stuck everywhere and oxygen hoses coming out of my face. My eyes were a little fuzzy as I tried to focus on the paramedics.
“What happened?” I asked, feeling groggy.
“Ma’am you passed out” said one paramedic.
“What was the last thing you remember?” asked the other. I tried to think, but everything was foggy. “That’s okay just rest for now”
“I put my head back for a moment, while they did their tests. I looked around. I could see Dave and Joey talking to police officers. Police officers? I thought to myself, confused. It was only a fainting spell. Still trying to make sense of everything, I continued to glance around. There was now yellow tape around my grandfather’s house and people in hazmat suits carrying the characters. I glanced over and saw a giant black ‘Crime Scene Unit’ truck. Crime scene? We didn’t hurt anyone. I was still so confused.
“What happened?” I repeated.
“You passed out ma’am, remember?” said the first paramedic. He then turned to the second paramedic and whispered “She may have head trauma, have them check for amnesia at the hospital”
“That’s not what I mean,” I said weakly. “Why is there a Crime Scene Unit?”
“For the bodies y'all discovered”
“Bodies? There was only one I thought?”
The memory of why I fainted started coming back. There was a child’s body inside the bird. My heart started racing, as I repeated out loud “Bodies? How many bodies? What do you mean?” The beeping on the machines got louder as my blood pressure and heart rate increased.
“You guys found bodies of children in those things in the house.” The paramedic gestured toward the characters, as she loaded me in the ambulance.
“BODIES?! BODIES?!” I repeated louder and louder. “CHILDREN?!”
“Jess, calm down. You need to calm down Jess. Just breathe” the paramedic tried calming me down. Joey and Dave left the cop and ran over to the ambulance. I got a faint glimpse of them before passing out again.
“Is she okay? IS SHE GOING TO BE OKAY?!” Joey yelled toward the paramedics. A cop held him back as the paramedic replied “She’s in shock, we’re just taking her to the hospital for observation. You can meet her there when you’re done with the cops. She’s heavily medicated right now anyway.”
I was brought to the local hospital and put under observation like they said. I was heavily sedated, and probably needed to be. My eyes weren’t open yet, but I was starting to come to, when I heard the TV in my hospital room. A special bulletin came on the news: “This just in! New tonight on Channel 10 news, a gruesome discovery at a local home. Here is our very own Jason Camron with more.” “That’s right Angela, a gruesome discovery it was. Authorities say a family was cleaning out their recently deceased relatives home, when they discovered multiple bodies of children, ages 8-14, hidden inside giant sculptures of characters in a hidden room in this home behind me. We don’t know the numbers or the identities of the bodies, because it is an ongoing investigation, but we will keep you updated every step of the way.”
“Could this be the work of dare I say, a serial killer, Jason?”
“It very well could be and looks as though, however it is still too early to tell. There is no immediate threat to the public. This seems to be an old crime that’s just coming to the surface now. Back over to you-” The nurse saw me awake and changed the channel. “Thank you” I said weakly.
Turned out my grandfather was the now infamous Iowa Child Killer, or as we called him “ICK”. He was responsible for the murders of 31 missing children. He lured runaways with promises of money for simple house or yard work. My grandfather’s approachable persona and friendly characters made him seem harmless. He would strangle and kill the children and seal them in his characters. No one truly knows why or what made him pick these kids. No one knows if he did any other harm to these kids. My grandmother may have been aware of the extra room(s), but there’s no way she knew about his secret. But then again, I never suspected a thing about him, so what do I know? It’s hard to discover this about someone whom you adored. All you want to remember is what he was to you, not this monster. I don’t necessarily want to forget him or the good memories we did have, but it was all fake. It means nothing now. It’s like finding out the secrets of a magic trick. Not knowing was the fun part. Our family was and will never be the same. That house has since been rightfully demolished. Somewhere we still have pictures of me, Joey and Dave posing in front of the characters, not knowing the deadly truth behind us. We’ll probably never look at them again either. Luckily for my grandfather, death is a delightful hiding place.
