25 Creepy True Stories From Reddit

Home “alone”

“Best friend’s parents were out of town one weekend and she had the house to herself. Went about her business having dinner, watching tv then decided to go to bed. She was lying in her bed with her back to her closet when she heard the door open. She somehow pretended to be asleep – the man who was hiding in the closet walked around her bed to the side she was laying/facing, gently stroked her hair and face then left. She immediately called her boyfriend to ask him to come over then called her parents and then the police. Long story short this man had been getting into their home via a doggy door (they didn’t have a dog and didn’t bother to secure it) and he’d been living in a tent in the foresty area behind their home for months to creep on her. They found a ton of surveillance footage of her sleeping and pieces of her clothes and stuff.

If I recall correctly this happened somewhere in Alabama, most likely mid-2000s.” — halfyellowhalfwhite

Party invite

“A guy I was good friends with had a party one night and called me to invite me over. It was me and my wife’s first day off together in a while and out daughter was two years old. I mentioned it to my wife and my daughter said “noooo, don’t go daddy!” Of course I can’t resist that so I stayed home and we had a good night.

My friend however, had the worst night of his life. His party was going good and everything was fine, even though there was a “friend of a friend” there who no one really knew. Turns out the stranger had been smoking PCP and decided to start killing people. He took a butcher knife and slashed three peoples throats. My friends wife threw their kids out of a two story window and jumped out herself, took them into the woods and called the police. All three people died.

The police found the guy walking down the side of the road covered in blood and incoherent. He had no idea what he just did.” — Thephilosopherkmh

The Wichita Massacre

“HG, the lone survivor of what would later be called the Wichita Massacre. She was a 25-year-old elementary school teacher at the time, and had gone to the triplex where her boyfriend, Jason Befort (a science teacher) lived with two roommates: Brad Heyka, a chemist, and Aaron Sander, who was studying to become a priest. HG settled in front of the TV and began grading papers when Heather Muller, a friend of Aaron Sander’s showed up. The five friends watched TV and eventually retired to their various bedrooms. HG was woken from her sleep shortly after by loud voices and the bedroom door being kicked open. The two perps eventually gathered all of the persons in the residence and herded them to the bedroom and ordered them (at gunpoint) to strip. Many atrocities occurred as hours went by, but in the end HG – after being shot in the head in a frozen soccer field – ran naked for almost a mile to find a house with Christmas lights (it was mid-December) to beg for assistance.” — Ouisch

Shasta Groene

“The murder of the Groene family. A deranged pedo named Joseph Edward Duncan was already on the run from the cops for a past sexual assault. He was incredibly charming and manipulative, and was truly pure evil. He camped outside a family’s rural home, unseen by them. He picked it out after driving past it and seeing children’s toys outside. He watched them from afar, got to know their routine with the intent of kidnapping the children, ten year old Dylan, eight year old Shasta.

Jed found the lock on the door was broken, entered the home in the middle of the night and tied up the mom, dad and teenage son. He put Shasta and Dylan in his car and killed the rest of the family with a hammer.

He travelled around various campsites and cabins with Shasta and Dylan captive, sexually abusing, torturing and raping them. He eventually shot Dylan but Shasta talked him out of killing her. Jed ended up telling her she “taught him how to love”

The scariest part is a cctv footage of Jed and Shasta at a gas station. Because you could easily believe they were just a normal dad and a grumpy daughter if you were an onlooker.

Eventually, he took her to a diner where he was finally apprehended when a waitress noticed something was up and Shasta was saved after 7 weeks in his clutches. As he was dragged away, he called to her “promise me you’ll visit me in prison” and she said she would. I don’t know if she ever did.

Jed was put on death row and found to be guilty of three previous child murders. He died a few months ago from cancer.

But the worst part of it all is how horrible Shasta’s life has been afterwards. Drug addiction, in and out of jail, losing her children etc. Just the most horrifying story ever.” — cheemsgyaru

Coming home to horror

“I remember reading ages ago about a guy who was in the military. He got back home after a tour of duty to find his wife and two kids dead. They lived in a remote location. Turned out the mom had a sudden heart attack or stroke or something and the two little kids had died of starvation or dehydration as they were too young to care for themselves.

Not exactly a ghost story, but as a parent that scares the shit out of me.” — barryriley

The worst visit to the eye doctor ever

“I’m an eye doctor and I had a patient come to me with an infected eyelid two other eye doctors tried to treat and failed. They were dumping all sorts of medicine into it and it wasn’t getting any better. At this point, it was swollen and painful for weeks with no improvement despite being on tons of meds. Apparently, neither of them thought to flip the lid upside down (you know that gross trick some kids do with their upper eyelids?). It was a painful maneuver for her very swollen eyelid, which might explain it. Anyhow, there appeared to be what looked like a visible abscess inside the tissue with thick gooey material, I thought I’d give it a nudge and saw it move.

This wasn’t an abscess, it was something else.

I managed to remove it quite easily in one whole piece. It was a fly larva. The patient told me that she had a bug hit her in the eye a few days before she got this “infection”. I removed the larva and within two days the wound closed and she was 100% recovered on basic antibiotic eye drops. Yes, I do have the photos from this case for those interested.” — sidatikl

Natural disasters

“The story of The Lake Nyos Disaster.

The lake periodically belches a cloud of invisible carbon dioxide gas that suffocates everything within a 16 mile radius. In 1986, over 1700 people and all their livestock died without even understanding what was happening to them.” — __Dawn__Amber__

The body in the barrel

“The Reyna Marroquin story.

A young lady had an affair with her boss in the 1960s, got pregnant. After threatening to tell her boss’ wife, she was killed by her boss who then put her body in an industrial barrel. He hid the barrel in his house for years and none of the various owners opened it due to the weight.

Finally one guy decided to dispose of it in the 90s and when he opened it he saw it contained something. An investigation traced the barrel and girl back to the man who then killed himself before police could come arrest him after confirming he was the father of the unborn baby via DNA. The lady’s mother was in her late 80s when she was told her missing daughter was finally found. She claims that she had been having dreams about her daughter being inside a metal container for years after she had gone missing.” — __Dawn__Amber__

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4gNNupOLOU

The smell

“When I was younger me and my twin brother would help our friend do his paper route . One summer we could smell something gross coming from one of the houses. We all didn’t think anything of it until three days later when the smell was reaching down the driveway. We went to the back door where he normally dropped the paper and noticed it was open. We went in and looked around the house and found the owner dead. He had died of a heart attack and his cats were eating him.” — DarthTrafford

My grandfather’s first family

“My maternal grandfather, in the days before hot water on tap, put a big pot on to boil before leaving for work for his wife and kids to bathe with. The pot boiled over and extinguished the flame, and he returned to find them dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. My mother was of his second marriage.” — motherofshadow

Tiger attack

“I’m not sure what the entire story is but there was a body discovered somewhere in Siberia. His cause of death was freezing, but something was off. Turns out, he had been attacked by a tiger. The tiger used his jaws and grabbed the guy by his backpack, picked him up over his head, and slammed him so hard that it snapped both of his femurs. Poor dude lived 3 days after the attack, crawling around in the snow.” — Scubas_throwaway

USS West Virginia

“The USS west Virginia was a ship damaged during the attack on pearl harbor, after the ship was attacked the people on board heard banging noises coming from inside the ship, turns out that these noises were people. They were trapped in a room to where they couldn’t be broken out of it because of the water that would seep in and drown them and they couldn’t be brought out from the top because of the gasses that lingered there that were extremely flammable, when the vessel was salvaged 6 months later the bodies of these 3 men were found, the other things that remained were empty cans of food and water and a calendar marked from December 7th to December 23rd. This means they were trapped in there for 16 days. They probably kept wondering if they were ever going to make it out and then had to come to the realization that they might not be saved, and they had the fear of drowning in the tight little compartment of the ship. They had to face the realization that you are going to die and the psychological torture that goes along with it.” — Yeetus_The_Feetus_69

A new life

“A woman I worked with a few years ago told me how her life had changed drastically she went from having a decent job to becoming an alcoholic and working as a cleaner. She had planned to move to Spain with her husband and young daughter and had a great job lined up out there. The plan was her husband and daughter would fly over first and she would fly over a week or two later due to finishing her old job a little later than planned. Her husband rang her on the day he arrived and said the house was lovely and the furniture had arrived by ferry ect. That was the last time she ever heard from him. Her husband and daughter was found dead by authorities a few days after she rang explaining she was concerned for their welfare as she had had no contact with them and she was extremely worried. It was carbon monoxide posioning. It is so scary to think how fast your life can change.” — Chlooeeeee

The creepy chair man

“There was a guy in my town who stalked women at the furniture store. He would watch women pick out new chairs and he would just linger there and drop these strange comments,” that chair would look nice in my den”.

Then one night he followed one of the women home. He sneaked into their living room and then wait for them to enter the room. He’d then jump out and surprise them. He’d yell,” I knew you took my chair!” And he’d scream and chase them.

This happened over the course of 5 years. The local police never did anything because he was brothers with the sheriff. Women couldn’t buy furniture by themselves. They had to start bringing chaperones.” — Chickens_Instrument

Candyman

“The story that inspired “Candyman” is pretty creepy. A woman in a Chicago apartment was murdered by some drug dealer who lived next-door. How did he get into her apartment? Through a hole behind her bathroom cabinet/mirror.” — [deleted]

The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs

“A group of 3 teenagers in Ukraine started out committing petty robbery. They moved on to torturing animals. Not long after that they just started murdering strangers.

They killed a bunch of people by bashing the shit out of them with household tools for no reason. Knowing there are people like that in the world is terrifying. People who will just murder complete strangers just for their own entertainment.” — PhreedomPhighter

Missing child found in her bed

“I read a story recently about Paulette Gerbera Ferah, a 4 year old child who went missing from her room in 2010.

Her parents immediately notified authorities, and started a social media campaign to find Paulette. Paulette’s room was searched multiple times and used by her parents to do media interviews.

Here’s the terrifying part: Paulette was found dead 10 days later… IN HER BED! She had wedged herself between the mattress and the footboard and suffocated. Here is her bed before they found her. It’s insane looking at that picture and knowing she is there and no one had found her.” — Byzantium42

Oceanic predators

“Marine biologists attached a tag to a 9-foot long Great White Shark. The device measured temperature and depth, to monitor the shark’s movements.

The tag was later found washed up on a beach.

Its data showed that four months after it was attached, the female great white abruptly dove to a depth of 1,903 feet (580 meters). The ambient temperature surrounding the tag spiked from 46°F to 78°F (8°C to 26°C). The data suggested an attack.

So this tracker, attached to a Great White, was pulled down rapidly, and measured higher temperatures consistent with some animal’s internal body temperature.” — AdvocateSaint

Clowns

“A few years ago, a dude dressed as a clown came to a camp I went to. Apparently he broke into the cabin I was staying in and stole stuff from some people in my Cabin. He took primarily cash and a phone that kids had on them. I saw him there but I was so young I didn’t think much of it. Apparently they couldn’t find him because of the gloves he wore and his full body costume. All of the kids had their stuff replaced but the craziest part is a few of us heard a scream that could not have come from a grown man that came from the road. That dude was weird and it was terrifying as an 11 year old.” — Smoky_Cave

The Nutty Putty Cave Incident

“The Nutty Putty Cave Incident.

A spelunker got stuck upside down in a narrow cave for 26 hours. Crews tried to pull him out with pulleys, but had to be careful not to break his legs, because that could be fatal with the circumstances he was in.

Rescuers even almost dislodged him, only for an anchor to fail at the last second, plunging him back into the crevice. He eventually died, and they sealed the cave shut with him inside.” — CaptainNoBoat

60 hours underwater

“A guy in a sinking ship found an oxygen bubble and only drank a sip of diet coke every 7 hours. He was rescued after 60 hours after being under constant danger from drowning and even sharks.” — NoLiferBg

Alison Botha

“Alison Botha. On December 18 1994, Port Elizabeth resident Alison Botha was abducted, raped, stabbed and left for dead by Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger.

They slashed her throat 17 times, so deep she had to hold her own head on as she crawled to the road for help. With her other hand she had to hold in the organs spilling from her stomach, where she had been stabbed more than 30 times.

By some miracle the knife thrusts had missed her main arteries, so she did not bleed to death and was able to breathe through her severed trachea.

There is a documentary that is on Amazon Prime called, Alison.” — SatisfiedHuman

Timmy Evans

“In 1949, Timothy Evans was wrongly executed for murdering his pregnant wife and daughter.

The actual murderer, John Christie, was a prosecution witness at Evans’ trial.

After Evans was executed, Christie went on to kill four more people. Had the police handled the forensic evidence properly, Christie would have been caught when they were investigating Evans, and those four people would still be alive.

The government didn’t acknowledge that Evans was innocent until 2004.” — epsonabcdefg

Polar bear liver

“Explorers like a century or two ago went to look about the Arctic but had their supplies accidentally destroyed and soon, they all ran out. They hunted a polar bear and ate the insides of it. Noone at the time knew about how deathly a polar bear’s liver was. Because of the high amounts of Vitamin A, which can be bad for skin too, toxicity made him and his crew deathly ill and when one of them felt that they’re foot was wet, he took it out and the lining of his skin came off with the boot. True story.” — peachie_bongo

Do not try to find us

“This isn’t a scary story, but it’s spooky and always captured my imagination. One day a bunch of, I think they were police in training, explored some of the catacombs under Paris. A lot of them are completely unmapped. They entered an area and heard dogs barking and snarling. They continued going and saw there were speakers mounted on the wall, playing prerecorded dog sounds and cameras. They continued. They came into this huge opening and found a cinema. It was lavishly decorated. It had projectors and a mix of old and new movies. It even had electricity running and three phone lines. The police marked where they were and went back outside. The next day the returned to try and investigate further with more experienced officers. Everything was gone. All the wiring had been ripped out, all the furniture was gone. All that remained was a note that said “Do not try to find us”. As far as I know, they never figured out who was there.” — Fabulous_Feruchemist