[keys clacking]
[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
- It's just so bizarre.
- The door is locked from the inside.
- You had a perfect vantage point,
Looking directly into my bedroom.
- 911, what are you reporting?
- There's a woman in my house...
- The noises started to get louder.
♪ ♪
Am I losing my mind?
- Man found hiding between a family's walls.
- Intruder secretly living inside her attic.
- Man slithers out from under home.
- Make sure your crawl spaces are locked.
- I hear footsteps.
I'm vulnerable, naked, and someone is in my house.
- There was somebody violating my home.
- I want to believe it's in my head.
- It's a giant man's handprint.
- You came into my home, you invaded my privacy.
[person shrieks]
- We had a phrogger in our house.
♪ ♪
- 2017, I was living in a little town
In southern connecticut--
Very kind of sleepy town, a lot of horse farms around,
Very sort of bucolic connecticut countryside.
♪ ♪
We moved into this particular house in 2016.
It was my daughter, who was ten at the time,
Myself, and my then second husband.
So we moved into this house because it just was so lovely.
It had such a remote and relaxing vibe to it.
I remember vividly the first time
We walked into this house.
There were lots of windows, lots of light coming in.
It just felt so bright and cheery.
It's on a big lot, so it feels very private,
To the point where, on a lot of the windows,
I didn't even have window treatments
Because I didn't feel the need to have them
Because there was no one to look in.
The house is two-story,
Though there's only one bedroom upstairs.
That's my daughter's room.
On the ground floor, there are, you know,
Living room, kitchen, a nice entry hallway.
Down a longer hallway, there are two bedrooms,
One we used as a spare tv room.
And then the bedroom at the end of the long hallway
On the ground floor is my bedroom where I sleep.
Our house is not a house
That you would just sort of, like,
Drive past or stumble across,
So you would have to be deliberately coming
To our house to get to our house.
And the adjacent property,
There was a home under construction there,
So nobody was living there.
There were workers there
Working on the house during the day.
But there was nobody there at night.
Our closest neighbor legitimately
Is a quarter of a mile away on the other side of our lane.
And it's just surrounded by a wooded area.
So it's quite remote.
It felt like a really happy home with a lot of good energy.
My daughter's father--
He and I split up when she was very young,
And we still have a very good and collaborative
Co-parenting relationship.
He works in the security field,
And he is certainly someone on whom I can rely.
I married my second husband in 2012
After we had been dating for a couple of years.
He worked in education,
And so he certainly made a concerted effort
To be a positive figure in my daughter's life.
But there's a lot that goes into a second marriage.
And it was clear in October of 2017
That ours was no longer a viable marriage.
Finally, I asked him to leave the house.
And so I was on my own again with my daughter.
♪ ♪
My daughter and I were snuggled on the couch together
Watching a movie, as we frequently did.
[roof crunching] and we heard--
I would describe it as like a--
[roof crunches]
Almost like a spatter of acorns or something--
And I say acorns because it just sounded small--
On the roof over where we were sitting.
And we both noticed it, and we hadn't ever noticed
Anything like that before.
[roof crunches]
And she looked at me, and she said, "mama what's that?"
And I said, "I don't know. It's October. It's autumn.
"probably just things falling from the trees, you know.
We don't need to worry about it--it's fine."
And it happened a couple more times
That evening, and I got her to bed,
And I didn't really think about it again.
And then the next night we were,
You know, sitting snuggled together again after dinner
And watching probably the end of the movie
From the night before.
[roof crunches] and we heard
The spattering of acorns again,
And she looked at me, and she said,
"are you sure that that's acorns?"
And I said, "sweetheart,
"I don't know what else it could be,
But I don't think we have to worry about it."
But it did catch my attention that time
Because it seemed to be happening
Exactly over the room that we were sitting in
And it was strange.
♪ ♪
These little noises were happening on and off
Over the course of maybe ten days.
[roof crunches] and it wasn't every night,
But it was frequent.
And my daughter started to really notice it,
And it was curious.
♪ ♪
I started texting my second husband
Because I didn't, quite frankly, know
Who else to text,
And, you know, he had lived in that house as well.
I guess I wanted, like, a gut check, sanity check
And, you know, even asked him,
"do you ever remember hearing anything like this
"when you were here?
Am I just noticing it because now you're not here?"
And he said, no, he had never noticed
Anything like that when he was there.
♪ ♪
[loud thud on roof]
The noises started to get louder.
Now it sounded like large branches
Being thrown onto the roof.
And that was very startling.
That was really frightening.
[loud thud on roof]
[child shrieks]
Now my daughter was getting frightened.
You know, she started actually sleeping with a light on,
Which she had not done since she was a toddler.
She was frequently having
Nightmares about what she said sounded
Like scratches on her window.
[clatter on roof] and then there was one night
That something hit the roof...
[loud bang on roof]
[object thuds]
And bounced and rolled,
And it sounded like the size of a baseball.
I started texting
My second husband from whom I was separated at this point.
I texted him, and I said,
"the noises on the roof are getting louder.
"I just heard something that I swear to god
Sounded like a baseball."
And he was like, "what? That's crazy.
"I can come by tomorrow and take a look
At the yard if you like."
♪ ♪
And I know that there had been a baseball in the yard.
So, you know, my daughter was in bed,
And I got my flashlight,
Traipsed out there with a flashlight
Into the pitch black with my heart
Absolutely hammering in my chest,
Because if somebody was out there,
Throwing things on my roof,
Presumably they were standing there
Watching me come looking around.
And I looked everywhere with that flashlight,
And I couldn't find a baseball anywhere.
And I was scared that I was going to be attacked,
And so I ran back in and locked the door.
[heartbeat pounding]
♪ ♪
The next day my second husband did come
To the house as he had said that he would,
And he texted me a photo of a baseball.
I was looking at the picture, thinking--
I remember texting him back, like, "what? Like, where?
"I was out there with a flashlight
For five minutes last night, and it wasn't there."
And he said, "well, it's here now.
Maybe you just missed it."
I kind of was wondering at this point,
Am I losing my mind?
Like, what are these noises?
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
So, after a few weeks of these noises on the roof,
Then a whole bunch of things sort of started happening
Kind of in rapid succession and simultaneously.
I had just actually bought a new pair of black pants.
I had worn them exactly once, probably about a week before.
I wanted to wear them again,
And I couldn't find them in my closet.
Did I leave them at the dry cleaner?
Did the housekeeper put them somewhere?
And I couldn't find them anywhere,
And I had just worn them.
Jewelry that I had worn was not where it should be.
Lingerie and bras and panties that I had worn
Were just disappearing right after I had worn them.
Honestly, I didn't know what to think.
The things were so strange
That I was doubting myself
And my perception of what was happening.
♪ ♪
The night of my daughter's holiday concert
At her school she was very excited.
She wanted me to, you know,
Make sure that she looked nice.
So I had just opened a new bottle of wine,
Poured myself a glass,
Put the bottle back in the refrigerator,
And we went down to my dressing room,
Where I curled her hair and put on a little makeup for her,
And she looked beautiful.
We went to the concert. Her father met us there.
You know, we sat together,
And that's actually when I started telling
My daughter's father what was going on.
And, you know, he certainly expressed some concern.
And after the concert, he took her to his house.
He was gonna have her for a few days.
So, when I went back home after the concert,
I was by myself,
And I am able to kind of exhale a little bit.
Went into the kitchen,
Going to pour myself another glass of wine.
And when I opened the refrigerator,
The bottle was exactly where I had left it,
But it was completely empty.
It had not spilled. It had not leaked.
There was no wine anywhere
In the refrigerator, on the floor of my kitchen.
It was just an empty bottle of wine.
And I absolutely panicked.
I actually called my best friend, and I said,
"I don't understand what's happening.
How does wine just disappear?"
And she said, "okay, you need to leave the house."
♪ ♪
[tense music]
- I drove around for a few minutes.
My best friend said to me,
"call your second husband and ask if,
"you know, maybe he came by to get some things of his
"because he knew you were gonna be at the concert,
"and he thought that would be the least disruptive time
To come and get some things."
And I was like, "you know what? Right, that makes sense."
My second husband said that absolutely not,
Under any circumstances, had he come to the house,
That he would not do that without letting me know
That he was coming.
So that's when one of my friends said,
"I think maybe you should call the police."
And I laughed,
Because I said, "and say what?
I can't find the rest of my bottle of wine?"
[chuckles] I don't know how well the police
Will receive a complaint like that.
And so I ended up actually just going back to the house.
I grabbed a 2x4 from the garage,
I stayed on the phone with my best friend,
And literally went room by room,
Closet by closet,
Just to make sure there was nobody in the house.
And there wasn't, and, you know,
That's when I sat down and just--
I cried.
I couldn't understand what was happening.
♪ ♪
You know, the next logical question, of course,
Is, who would be doing these things to me?
It did occur to me that there was a former security guard
At my then place of business
Who always made me uncomfortable.
There was the construction site next door,
So I wondered if possibly
It could have been someone from there.
But that felt like a stretch.
I couldn't come up with anyone.
♪ ♪
And then one day I came out of work,
And my tire-pressure light was on,
Which I thought was strange, but it was also very cold.
I thought, "well, I'll just get on the highway,
And the tires will warm up, and the light will go off."
And I was running late to pick up my daughter
From an after-school activity.
I said, "you know what? Let's just go grab a bite to eat."
I didn't really have it in me to make dinner that night.
So we had dinner and came out.
And when we got into the car, she said,
"mom, why is the car leaning?"
♪ ♪
And I got out, and I looked,
And sure enough, I had two flat tires.
She was clearly concerned.
And I just wanted to get her home and safe.
So I said, "sweetheart, there's a gas station right next door.
"we will go. I will fill the tires.
"and it's only two miles to home.
"I will get us home.
And I will deal with this in the morning."
So that's what we did.
♪ ♪
So the next day, I got the car into the dealership,
Where they told me
It looked as though they had been damaged on the sides.
"maybe you hit a curb," and I said "I feel like I would
"remember hitting a curb hard enough to blow out two tires.
Like, that doesn't seem right to me."
Of course, he told me I needed four new tires.
So I, you know, left the dealership
With four new tires.
I was certainly becoming very jumpy.
I was sleeping less.
I was not eating so much.
I didn't know what to think.
♪ ♪
One day I was pulling out of my garage to go to work,
And I noticed that there was a crushed beer can
Right at the edge of my garage,
Which was very strange.
It did occur to me that there was
The construction site next door,
So I wondered if possibly
It could have blown over from there,
But that felt like a stretch
Because the construction site was not very close.
♪ ♪
After that first beer can,
I actually found two subsequent beer cans--
Both the same brand, both crushed.
♪ ♪
One basically right on my front porch.
It felt like the perimeter
Was closing around me.
I knew at that point that it was evidence,
So I quickly ran out wearing gloves
And grabbed the beer can
And put it in a bag to keep for the police.
I started to feel like I was perpetually,
Constantly being watched.
I stopped sleeping pretty much altogether.
I lost a considerable amount of weight
Because I couldn't eat.
I really started to feel
Like I could barely function
And trying to show up for work every day
And show up as a strong mom every day.
And it was starting to feel like it was just too much.
[birds chirping]
The next day I wanted to go out and look in the yard.
And as I was walking through
The kind of wooded area,
I saw a crushed pack of cigarettes
And then another and then another.
And then as I looked further,
I noticed an entire ring of discarded cigarette butts
In this matted area.
And when I saw that someone had clearly been spending hours
Right in that spot, and I turned around,
And from that spot exactly...
♪ ♪
You had a perfect vantage point,
Looking directly into my bedroom.
I really felt like it was time for me
To go to the police at this point.
And I didn't want to call the police to my house.
I really didn't want to frighten my daughter
Any more than she was already frightened.
So I decided I would go to the police
And asked my second husband if he would be willing
To go to the police with me.
And he said yes, that he absolutely
Would go to the police with me.
It was awkward, obviously,
Because we were not in a good place
And he knew my intention was to get divorced,
But at the same time, he did show up
And try to be supportive to me.
So the next morning
I get my daughter off to school, get her on the bus,
And I get into my car in the garage
To go to the police
And the tire-pressure light is on again.
It's like, "you got to be [bleep] kidding me."
Like, "there's no way."
I got out of the car
And saw that the rear driver's-side tire
Was completely flat,
Completely flat.
I was scared. I was scared.
So I'm in the kitchen,
Waiting for roadside assistance,
And I hear... [loud banging on door]
This loud banging coming from the door
That leads to my garage...
Which means that somebody has come into my garage
Through the open garage door
And is now banging on the door to my house.
And in my head, I really, really, really thought,
"this is it.
"the person is here to kill me now.
"that's why they flattened my tire.
They're here to kill me now."
- My heart dropped into my stomach.
Somebody has come into my garage
And is now banging on the door to my house.
So I just shouted
In sort of the most aggressive voice I could muster...
[echoing] "what do you want?"
He said, "are you okay?
You have a flat tire. Do you need help?"
And I said, "I absolutely don't need your help.
You can go away."
And he said, "well, I'm just working
"on the house over there.
If you need some help, let me know."
And that was one of truly
The most terrifying moments of my life.
[tense music]
So I get my car into the dealership
To get the tire looked at.
The man at the dealership, he showed me
What were essentially six or eight stab wounds
Right in the tread of the tire.
It was becoming clear to me
That someone was deliberately doing these things to me,
And it felt like it was escalating.
And this particular tire being stabbed
Felt very angry, and it made me afraid.
♪ ♪
It's a little bit like wearing your central nervous system
On the outside of your body.
Everything made me jump.
It's a hypervigilance
That's, frankly, exhausting to live with.
My second husband and I had decided
We would go to the police after work.
And my daughter's father was coming
To take her out to dinner
So that she could have a nice evening.
And my daughter comes running into the kitchen
And says, "mom, mom, we got a christmas card.
Can I open it?"
And I said, "sweetie, just put it down.
You can open it when you get home."
So she was already sort of off, like, excited
To be with her dad.
So they left the house,
And quiet descends again.
And I'm left alone with my second husband and thinking
About this miserable task of going to the police.
♪ ♪
So I kind of absent-mindedly opened the card,
And someone had printed
And pasted into this card a note,
And the note read,
"dear blondie in the black car,
"you are a dirty, filthy whore.
"I watched you. I've seen you with him.
"don't touch him. He's mine.
You're a filthy whore. Merry christmas."
♪ ♪
My second husband was there, saying, "what? What is it?
What is it?"
He read it, and he said, "oh, my god.
Who would send this to you?"
I said, "I have no idea."
And my hands were shaking.
My whole body was shaking.
And I ran into the bathroom, and I threw up.
I couldn't go to the police that night.
I was way, way too upset, and I didn't--
I didn't want to show up looking frantic.
♪ ♪
My daughter came home,
And I told her father what had happened,
And I said that I wanted her to stay with him
For a few days while I sorted this out.
And he agreed.
At this point, I felt like I couldn't keep her safe
In my home.
And, clearly, this person was angry
And escalating,
And I didn't want my daughter anywhere near it.
[birds chirping]
And it was the next morning that I decided
I would go to the police by myself.
I was incredibly nervous.
I was relieved that the detective was a woman.
I was so relieved
To be finally saying it all out loud
To somebody who could maybe do something about it to help me.
- So I think the most important feeling I want any victim
Coming to the police department and meeting with me
Is to know that they're gonna be believed.
So, in this case, obviously, we wanted
To know who the suspects might be.
I spoke with courtney about her first husband
And then the second husband.
She absolutely assured me that there was no way possible
That they would ever be capable
Of committing this type of crime.
She had mentioned a security guard
At her place of employment,
But we had no idea who was,
In this very quiet part of town,
Committing such a horrific act.
- And then she told me she wanted to do a stakeout
At my house to see if they could catch
The person in the act.
- We used courtney as bait.
We wanted courtney to have
A normal evening in her own home.
And we were inside the home.
We had officers outside the home,
And we were just waiting.
- Which was a very surreal thing
To have two armed detectives in my bedroom,
But she wanted that it would look like
Everything was normal.
If he was going to show his face that night,
They were going to catch him.
- That night nothing happened.
There was no suspicious behavior whatsoever.
♪ ♪
- Things sort of started to actually settle down
After the stakeout.
But detective kerry never, ever, ever moved on.
- We had obtained thermal-imaging devices,
And our patrol officers
Throughout the night on the midnight shift
Were monitoring her home, even unbeknownst to courtney.
We had set up surveillance cameras in courtney's woods,
In the wooded area around her home.
- She was gonna get to the bottom of it,
And she said the evidence that they collected--
They took the remaining beer can.
They took the card, the cigarette butts, everything.
She said, "we'll send this out for fingerprints.
We'll send it out for dna."
♪ ♪
So now it's January,
And I heard from detective kerry
That they had actually found fingerprints on the card.
- I was notified by the lab that they had found
A palm print on the inside of the card.
From there, I needed to identify
Whoever it was that may have had
Innocent and legitimate contact with the card.
- So my daughter and I went in and had prints taken.
And my second husband also agreed to go in
And have his fingerprints taken.
Detective kerry said, "we got a match,
"specifically on the palm print over the glue spot
On the paper in the card."
And I said, "okay, who is it?"
- The lab was able to confirm that the palm print...
♪ ♪
Belonged to her husband.
♪ ♪
- And I just cried.
I just sat when I cried, and I couldn't
Wrap my head around it.
I couldn't wrap my head around how this man
That I entrusted with my child
Had been pursuing us so relentlessly
And with so much malice and for so long.
I mean, like, the acorns, the baseball,
Missing clothing, jewelry, and the wine,
The beer cans and the card and the tires.
And watching what it was doing to me,
Watching what it was doing to my daughter,
Watching my sanity deteriorate,
And just continuing to put the pressure on--
I just-- I couldn't believe it.
I still can't believe it.
- I was curious as to why he had done this to his wife,
And he told me that he wanted to scare her
So that he could be the hero.
He got what he wanted for a period of time.
In 2019, courtney's husband pled guilty
To misdemeanor crimes of threatening
And reckless endangerment.
♪ ♪
- There's not a part of your life that this doesn't affect.
With that said, my daughter--
She's doing great in school now.
I got another really intense job
That I'm doing quite well at.
But we're still healing from this.
♪ ♪
- My heart's racing. The door swings open.
[tense music]
- My name's davis wahlman.
In the summer of 2016, I'm 25 years old.
I'm living in the house I grew up in
In green lake, seattle.
♪ ♪
I was working at the local tv station
As a promotions producer.
As a promotions producer, I'm helping in the newsroom,
Doing teases for new shows and that sort of thing.
- I met davis a few years ago when he started working
At the same station that I currently work at.
He's a positive presence in the newsroom.
So he was someone who quickly went
From just being a co-worker to being a friend.
♪ ♪
- So, when I come home late at night from work,
I am the only one in this big house.
- The area where we live
Is real close to downtown.
- I like to call green lake the central park of seattle
Because it's such a great place--
Beautiful scenery, beautiful landscapes,
And just wonderful neighborhoods.
♪ ♪
- Our home was built in the early 1920s.
♪ ♪
- It's a house that has a lot of history.
My grandparents lived there.
My parents have lived there. I've lived there.
♪ ♪
- If you were to enter the house through the garage,
You come into the basement.
There's a bathroom and two bedrooms and a pantry.
♪ ♪
- As you go up the stairs and you take a right,
There's two bedrooms.
I'm in the bedroom to the far right,
Which is sort of in the corner of the house,
Which is directly underneath the attic
That is accessed by the study.
♪ ♪
- We raised six children in that house.
♪ ♪
With six kids, it was always busy,
And so there's lots of laundry.
So there's always loose change in the pockets.
And so I just started putting it in a jar
And called it my laundry tip jar.
♪ ♪
- As the youngest of six, I'm the baby.
So my three older brothers, they picked on me a little bit,
But I still love them very dearly.
♪ ♪
So, summer of 2016,
My parents are at our vacation home.
So it's just me living in this big house.
♪ ♪
Sunday night I get home and prepare to watch some tv.
I go upstairs,
And there's a light on in the master bedroom
Where my parents normally would sleep.
♪ ♪
It struck me as odd but not out of the ordinary.
My first thought is, "one of my family members
Came home and probably left the light on."
♪ ♪
I turn off the lights. I go downstairs.
I watch some tv...
♪ ♪
And then I go to bed,
And I don't think anything of it.
♪ ♪
The next day I wake up.
I go to work around 2:00 p.M.
Nothing is on my mind except going to work.
♪ ♪
It's 10:30 at night.
After a long Monday of work, I'm pretty ready to go to bed
By the time I pull in the driveway.
♪ ♪
[vehicle approaching]
♪ ♪
I opened the door from the garage.
♪ ♪
I go into the house.
I look to my left...
And there's a light on in the pantry.
♪ ♪
I did not leave that light on.
There's a couple emotions immediately invoked,
None of which are fear.
There's annoyance that this has happened twice.
♪ ♪
I turn off the pantry light and go upstairs.
As I get up to the third floor,
The master bedroom light is left on again,
Just like it was the night before.
What's going on here?
Could my brothers have left the lights on?
Probably not.
If they were gonna prank me like that,
They would have done something a little more extreme,
Like left a dummy in a chair or something along those lines.
♪ ♪
This is starting to get unnerving.
My first thought is,
"I better call mom because she knows everything."
- He says, "I came home,
And the light was on in the pantry."
And I said, "yeah.
Dad was home today, davis."
So then he said, "well, then, mom,
"I went upstairs,
And I saw that the light was on in your bedroom."
I go, "well, I'm sure dad was up there, too.
"you know dad doesn't remember to turn the lights off
All the time."
- I turn the light off in the master bedroom.
I'm doing sort of an informal survey of the house.
I look around-- I come to the bathroom
Across from my bedroom,
And a window has been left open.
I did not leave that window open.
♪ ♪
- So, when davis told me about the window,
I said, "dad would not have opened the window."
I said, "are you sure you didn't leave it open?"
He said, "no, I did not open the window."
I said, "okay."
At this point, I'm uneasy about the situation.
But I have no explanation,
And I don't know what to do, so I went to sleep.
- So the lights were on. There's a bathroom window open.
I'm suspicious. I'm a little surprised.
But I'm not completely hysterical.
So, at that point, I go to sleep,
Didn't think anything else.
♪ ♪
[birds chirping]
[floorboard creaks, footsteps approaching]
♪ ♪
The next morning
It sounds like someone is in my attic.
My first thought is-- I'm thinking,
My mother came home very early and didn't tell me
She was coming home super early.
I get out of bed.
I walk down the hall toward the study,
Where I know the entrance to the attic is.
The door is locked from the inside.
♪ ♪
I knock on the door. I say...
[echoing] "mom, you in there? Hello?"
The noises stop, and I don't hear my mom answer.
And at this point, I know this is an emergency situation.
♪ ♪
I go back to my room, grab my cell phone,
And I cue up 911, but I don't press call.
I got to try this one more time just to make absolutely sure
That my mom is not in there
Or someone I know before I hit call.
♪ ♪
My heart's racing.
I knock on the door one last time.
[knock at door]
Almost as soon as I knock...
The door swings open,
And I'm face-to-face with a woman...
♪ ♪
Who I've never seen before in my life.
I don't know who she is, or why she's in my house.
♪ ♪
Now I dial 911.
♪ ♪
Immediately when I hear "911 emergency,"
I haven't said a word to the woman
Who's directly in front of my face.
So, at this point,
I'm about to have two conversations at once--
Both with 911 and this strange woman.
I'm trying to give 911 the pertinent information
So they can respond quickly.
But I'm also trying to understand
Who this person is in front of me.
So I'm trying to ask her questions.
I want to know who she is, why she's in the house,
How she got into the house.
She tells me her name is sarah.
From my experience in news,
I just need to delay her for 90 seconds
Because then the police will arrive.
As I'm talking to 911, I'm feeling a ton of emotions.
I'm feeling frightened, scared,
But, honestly, kind of annoyed.
♪ ♪
[indistinct chatter]
Sarah, this woman, starts coming to me and saying,
"who are you? This is not your house.
"this is jimmy's house.
Jimmy said I could stay here."
♪ ♪
I've got a big family, but there are no jimmys.
Who the hell is jimmy?
I ask her, "how long have you been here?"
She says, "I've been here for three days.
Jimmy said I could stay here."
She could have been lurking just over my head
For a month, for all I know.
At that point, all of a sudden,
She starts calling for jimmy.
♪ ♪
That immediately gets me thinking,
"there's likely a second person in the house."
♪ ♪
That's when my emotions really blow wide open.
And I think,
"I'm really not alone here."
♪ ♪
A 5'10" woman in front of me is not immediately frightening
In the event of some sort of physical altercation.
But if you throw a man my size into the mix,
Then it's two on one.
That's not a situation that I was comfortable in having.
Let's be honest--
I'm afraid that I could be attacked,
Maybe by this woman,
Maybe by a second person that's in the house.
I'm scared.
I don't like the situation I'm in.
So my voice and tone reflect that in the 911 call.
Several minutes into the 911 call,
I'm still waiting for those police to show up.
Every second feels like an eternity
When you're waiting for help to arrive,
When you're feeling alone and scared.
So now she's sort of advancing toward me.
I'm slowly keeping distance
But letting her back me up down the hall.
And also, at the same time, worried
That jimmy might come up behind me
With a baseball bat or a weapon or something.
♪ ♪
And then she starts asking me, "can I use the bathroom?
Can I use the shower?"
And I'm saying, "no."
And she says,
"let me just have a cigarette on the porch."
And I'm thinking, "you know what?
"I just need a few more seconds, right?
And the cops are going to be here."
If I can get her to sit down with her back to me,
That's probably a best-case scenario.
So I say, "fine, do it."
At this point, I want to hear the police
Coming down the road.
I want to hear sirens.
But there was nothing.
So I kind of shepherd her, walk her out to the porch,
Where I think she's gonna sit down and have a cigarette.
♪ ♪
I look to my right,
And I realize the fire escape ladder
Has been thrown over the side of the deck.
And I realize there is a second person in the house.
And then I look back, and she's gone.
- I'm still on the phone with 911.
This sarah is now gone.
And the cops still aren't here.
[sirens approaching]
A squad car rolls up to my house.
I look down at my phone,
I've been on the phone with 911 for 18 minutes,
Not 90 seconds.
And I hang up with 911.
And at this point, I'm mostly frustrated.
When the police arrive, I give them
The whole story of what just happened.
[suspenseful music]
They do a sweep of the house.
♪ ♪
They go up in the attic,
But they don't find anyone up there.
Anyone who had been in the house was gone.
Jimmy could have escaped down that ladder
While I was talking to sarah.
♪ ♪
Because we didn't have a perpetrator on hand,
They said they'd take a look around the neighborhood.
But, ultimately, she's gone.
There's not much they could do.
♪ ♪
I call my mom, and I tell her what had happened.
- As I'm listening to davis tell the story,
I'm just totally astonished,
And I start feeling terrible
Because he knew something was off
And I discounted everything.
At the same time, davis is fine.
He's calm. He's handling the situation, I think, very well.
He's dealt with the police.
He's already called the locksmith.
So I felt he was
Very, very competent in the situation.
So that did put me at ease.
♪ ♪
- My first call was to my parents.
My second call is to nathan in the newsroom.
- Phone rings. Davis is on the other end.
And it's basically,
"you're not going to believe what just happened."
- I give nathan the best version of the story
As I had it in my head at that point.
- As I'm hearing the story, I'm wondering,
"is this davis playing a prank on me?
Or is this something that is actually happening?"
But as he talks more about it and he goes into the detail,
I realize this is a story.
It's gonna get people talking,
And it's gonna get people watching.
♪ ♪
So the reporter is out at the house,
And davis walks her through step by step
Exactly how this happened.
♪ ♪
- So, for the first time in my career, I'm on the other side
Of the news story, which feels a little strange.
- When davis wahlman got to his green lake home,
He noticed some lights on...
- Then the story airs, and by the next morning,
It's already going viral.
- Then a woman opened the door and was face-to-face with him.
- I think the reason this story is getting
So much attention is because it could happen to anyone.
♪ ♪
- So I get to the house.
I go into the attic.
♪ ♪
And I find the spot where this woman, sarah,
Must have been camping out.
And it was right above where davis was sleeping.
♪ ♪
It just really bothered me
That someone could be sleeping and living in my attic,
In my home right above davis's room.
It's just so bizarre.
♪ ♪
In the other attic, I have a box of foreign coins
That I had sorted into countries.
They had taken the majority of the baggies
With the foreign coins but not the entire box.
♪ ♪
When I was going to the laundry room,
I noticed the one thing missing
Was my laundry tip jar.
And they didn't just take the money.
They took the whole jar.
So, to me, that's weird.
♪ ♪
So then I start looking at the obvious things.
♪ ♪
Nothing that I would suspect would be taken was gone.
It seemed odd to me that the only items
That seemed to be missing were the laundry tip jar
And the majority of these old foreign coins
That probably had very, very little value.
♪ ♪
- This experience changed me.
Your security and your sense of security is robbed of you.
It rattles you.
It just makes you think twice
Anytime you're in a room alone.
♪ ♪
For about the next six months,
I slept next to a loaded shotgun.
- I'm afraid of--
Every time I walk in the house now,
I'm wondering if there's somebody hiding somewhere.
- I trust my instincts a lot more now.
And I want to believe that,
While I don't think this will happen again,
I'm not gonna be caught flat-footed if it does.
- To this day, I have no idea
How they got in, why they chose our house,
Or who they were.
My son faced a phrogger, and I'm very proud
With how he handled himself.
- You hear about phrogging.
You think it's an urban legend, but this really happened to me.
♪ ♪
- This is no animal--this is something more than that.
- It was clear to me that he was camped out there
For quite a while.
- I hear a blood-curdling scream.
[person shrieks] - it was so [bleep] up.
♪ ♪