Episode Recap: The Saint of Death

Subject Names: Chris Garibay, Guillermo Rito Valles, Erika Garibay Rodriguez
Subject Location: Juarez, Mexico
Paranormal Experience: The spirits of executed drug cartel victims haunt a former safe house

Chris Garibay's marriage was falling apart. Deciding it was for the better, he decided to move out and get his own place. He answered a sign for apartments, even though the apartment in question was in notoriously unsafe downtown Juarez. 

When Chris met the 'real estate' guy, it was obvious that real estate wasn't his only business. The apartment was filthy, the door stuck, and the windows were painted black, but it was the only option that Chris had. He had to do it for his family. Chris could feel the negative energy in the apartment. With his brother's help, he moved in. Chris was convinced things could only get better.

Chris had his routines. His keys always went on the same hook when he got home. He always knew where everything was. He came home from work. He ate. He watched a little TV. He went to bed early. This was his life.

One night a ringing sound woke him. It was the little bell he kept on his keychain. Just as he awoke enough to figure out what was going on, it stopped. He dismissed it, and went back to sleep.  The next morning, he went through his normal routine.  When he reached for his keys, they weren't on the hook.  Chris began tearing the house apart looking for those keys.  He finally found them under the couch.  They were so far back, it could only have been done by throwing or kicking them back there.  How on earth did the keys get there?

On another evening, Chris came home and nothing in the fridge looked appetizing for dinner.  He decided to go back out to grab a bite.  As he was putting on his coat to go out, he heard the refrigerator door open.  Chris went to the kitchen, closed it, and checked to make sure it stayed closed.  No sooner had he turned around to go again, than the door re-opened.  The only light in the apartment was from the refrigerator.  Frightened, Chris reached around the wall to the kitchen light switch.  He jerked his hand back when something touched his hand, something that felt like another man's hand.  Now, Chris knew there was something strange happening.  Screwing up his courage, he reached around, flipped on the kitchen light, and walked in.  There was nobody there.

Chris' friend Guillermo moved in, and Chris was happy to no longer be alone in the apartment.  Chris told him everything that had happened, but Guillermo thought it was just stress.  Like Chris, Guillermo had his routines.  He always dropped his keys and wallet on the hallway table when he got home.  One day, Guillermo had come home and was making himself a bowl of cereal.  He went to get a spoon out of the drawer, and was shocked to find the wallet he'd just left on the hallway table buried in the drawer.

Guillermo walked out of the apartment, and saw black moths swarmed on the light over the door.  Black moths were a symbol of death to their culture, and they were only on the light nearest their apartment.

Chris came home one evening and fixed himself dinner.  He went into the living room to sit with the TV, but heard a sound from the kitchen.  There was no sign of Guillermo.  When Chris got back to the kitchen, every drawer and cabinet door in the room stood open, even doors Chris couldn't reach.  Chris knew something paranormal was happening.

Guillermo came home from work, but had forgotten his keys.  He heard the door unlock from the other side.  Thinking Chris was home, he walked into the apartment.  He saw a figure in the corner of his eye.  Thinking it's Chris, Guillermo headed to his room.  As he walked past Chris' bedroom, Guillermo saw his roommate fast asleep. He looked for the figure, but found nothing.  Whatever had opened that door, he knew it wasn't physical.

Chris' sister decided to drop by one day.  Erika was afraid to even park her car outside the building.  She knocked on the door, but there was no answer.  She called Chris, but he was still at work.  Nobody was home to greet her.  She headed back to her car, but couldn't shake the feeling someone was staring at her.  She turned back to the apartment, and saw someone standing in the window.  Thinking her brother was playing a joke, she called Chris again.  He confirmed that both he and Guillermo were at work.  Erika left, frightened.

Chris went to a family reunion, and finally admitted to his cousin that he was frightened about what was going on. She said she had a friend who might be able to help.  Her friend was a curandera, a Mexican faith healer. 

The curandera performed an egg cleansing, and informed him that someone could be performing witchcraft on him. She told him to look through the apartment for something out of place, something ritualistic. He'd be able to tell he'd found it when he could feel the darkness coming from it. Chris tore through the apartment, until he found a loose baseboard in the floor of the closet. Under that, he found a black box wrapped in cloth. Inside the box was a card of a Santa Muerte, "a renegade Catholic saint worshipped by murders and criminals."  He called the curandera, who told him to bring it to her. He did, and she performed the rituals to dispose of it.

One weekend, Chris had his son with him.  Things were going so well. After his son had fallen asleep, Chris went to the kitchen. The phone rang, it was Guillermo.  He and some friends were going for beers. Chris had to stay home, as he had his son for the weekend.  Chris fell asleep on the couch. He woke in the middle of the night, turned the TV off, but stopped when he heard a noise that sounded like someone trying to break into the apartment. When he looked through the peephole, there was nothing.  Suddenly, the TV turned back on.  Chris went back and turned it off.  The sound at the door started up again.  Then the TV turned back on.  Chris unplugged the TV and went back to the banging on the door.  The TV came back on.

Chris went to his son, who was still asleep. Chris heard a sound like claws across the floor.  When he turned, he saw a shadow dragging itself across the floor.  Chris' son woke, and told him to tell it to go away.  Chris was too terrified to move.  In a rush of energy, Chris grabbed his son and left the apartment for Chris' mom's house. He called Guillermo and told him not to come back to the apartment. 

Chris called his brother, who came to the conclusion that the apartment had been used as a drugs safe house.  Something really horrible had happened.  Chris and Guillermo went back to get their things, bringing a blacklight with them to detect any blood.  What they found looked like a bloodbath.  Chris and Guillermo left, and never returned.