Episode Recap: The Apartment

Subject Names: Jodi Foster, Hannah Foster, Idie Herrera, Misty, Joel Wiley, Roger Aylworth, Meredith Graham
Subject Location: Chico, California
Paranormal Experience: Is a murdered girl seeking justice through another woman's dreams?

Single mom Jodi Foster and her daughter Hannah had relocated to Chico, California from Montana. Money was tight. Jodi was searching for a reasonably priced apartment when she discovered Walnut Gardens. It looked inviting, and the building was in a good neighborhood to raise a family. The only drawback was that the apartment wasn't on the ground floor. Jodi worried about Hannah falling off the balcony. The building manager agreed that as soon as a downstairs apartment became available, Jodi could move. Jodi took the apartment.

On her first night sleeping in the new place, Jodi dreamt of a young couple in 1970s clothing who were searching for somebody. There was something predatory about the dream. It felt as though she was a ghost to them. When she spoke of the dream to her friend Idie, Idie thought Jodi's subconscious was working out her irrational fear of something happening to Hannah.

The drems continued. The next one had the couple walking down the hallway toward Jodi's apartment. Suddenly, they were inside, and trying to take Hannah. As Jodi screamed for them to stop, dream Hannah became a young woman Jodi he never seen before. Jodi bolted awake, giving herself a panic attack. It was 3:37 a.m.

Finally, a ground floor apartment opened up. Jodi moved, thinking this would stop the dreams. Idie, however, had a really bad feeling about the new apartment. She had sense of coldness, and there was a palpable presence in the place. Not long after the move, strange things began happening. 

The dreams returned. It was the same couple driving a blue car. They drove up beside the very same girl that Jodi had seen in her earlier dreams. The woman offered a ride, and the girl got in the car. The couple drove, until Jodi was disturbed to see the car drive into her neighborhood and up to her apartment complex.

He asked to use the restroom. Jodi was terrified. Inexplicably, she again woke at 3:37 a.m. Jodi was chronically exhausted, and never felt as though she'd had any sleep. She thought she was beginning to lose her mind. Eventually, she was so anxious and afraid of the dreams that she didn't even want to sleep.

In one dream, Jodi watched the man chloroform the girl. After a minor struggle, the couple took the unconscious girl back out to the car.

Something was also moving things around in Jodi's apartment. If she or Hannah put something in its proper place, they would often find it either missing or elsewhere in the apartment. Jodi thought it was Hannah pulling a prank, but it wasn't.  Was something trying to get her attention?

The dreams continued, no matter how hard Jodi tried to stay awake. The girl woke in the back of the car, bound at the wrists. The girl tried to scream, but the man grabbed a metal torture helmet and put it over her head. Jodi had never seen anything like the fear in the girl's eyes. The couple took their prisoner into a brick basement. Jodi thought it was their home. In that basement were chains and torture devices. The girl's wrists were shackled over her head, and Jodi could only watch helpless as they made sexual advances. 

One morning, as Jodi was brushing Hannah's hair, Hannah said she saw her mother's friend in the mirror. Jodi saw nothing. That night, Jodi dreamt of the girl in the bathroom. The girl was pleading for her life. The man took a knife, pulled the girl's head back, and cut her neck. As the girl bled, she looked into the mirror and her eyes met Jodi's. She begged Jodi to help. Jodi again bolted awake. It was 3:37 a.m. The mini blinds shot up and down, and the lights in the apartment flashed. 

Afraid of being alone, Jodi asked Misty, a family friend, to babysit for Hannah. Jodi hoped if someone else was there, nothing would happen, and she could just chalk it all up to stress. Jodie couldn't have been more wrong.

Misty immediately felt as though something was watching her. Hannah's favorite Ernie doll simply repeated "I feel great!" over and over. Jodi followed the sound into the bedroom, and found a pile of things on the bed, with Ernie on top. There was a noose around Ernie's neck. Jodi finally decided to call the police, but they only mocked her and asked if Bert had had issues. Jodi lost her one chance the police might have taken the situation seriously.

Misty needed to be up early the next morning, so the trio set the alarm for 5:30 and headed for bed. No sooner did Jodi drift off than she bolted awake again. The apartment was shaking. Lights flashed on and off. Jodi saw the time on the clock. 6:00 a.m. The Ernie doll was on repeat once again. Things got increasingly chaotic. The trio ran out of the apartment, and Jodi stopped cold in her tracks when she saw a clock on the hallway wall. 3:37 a.m.

Jodi snapped. She began screaming into the apartment that the evil spirit needed to get out, that the apartment didn't belong to it anymore. The building owners offered her an apartment in a different building complex downtown, on the condition that she didn't talk about the haunted apartment. Jodi took the offer.

On leaving Walnut Grove, Jodi's life changed. She got a job. She also met Joel Wiley. Jodi was ready to put everything behind her, but the ghost wasn't. Hannah had dreams where the girl would visit. Hannah was comfortable talking with the ghost in the dreams. Hannah began drawing pictures of the girl, including one where she was hanging and the couple was abusing her. Everything came flooding back.

Joel encouraged Jodi to investigate. After hours in the library searching through microfiche, Joel found an article about the girl going missing, including the girl's address. It was Jodi's old apartment. There was a photo in the file. It was the girl Jodi and Hannah had seen. She finally had a name. Marie Spannake.

The dreams returned, and Jodi got more details. She took those details to Roger Aylworth, a local crime journalist. He told them about the details of the kidnapping of another young girl in Red Bluff by a couple. They'd kept the girl imprisoned for seven years before she'd broken free. When Roger showed Jodi a picture of the couple, it was the couple Jodi had seen in her dreams. The wife had testified against her husband, and mentioned something that had happened the year before they'd taken the imprisoned girl. The wife had given the girl's name: Marie Spannake. Her body had never been found.

In one dream, Jodi hears the numbers 35.76. She believes they are coordinates where Marie is buried. On Joel's suggestion, Jodi called the police. The detective was surprised by the call, as they were in the process of doing something on the case that very day. The lead detectives interviewed her for hours. She gave every detail she could. They couldn't confirm anything, as the case was still considered open.

Jodi needed some confirmation. She took her information to a local investigative reporter, Meredith Graham. Meredith was skeptical, but agreed to investigate. She was able to look through the Chico police's missing persons file. She got the tape of the wife's interrogation. There was the one piece of information both Meredith and Jodi needed. The wife talked about the husband cutting Marie's vocal chords, corroborating Jodi's dream.

The police dug at the site where Jodi believed Marie was buried, but Marie's remains have yet to be found. The husband is up for parole. The wife is living in Chico under a new identity. Jodi is convinced she's seen her.