3 – The Methuen Water Demon – (1963)
The vast majority of hauntings in homes are normally explained away by witnesses having overactive imaginations. In famous cases such as Borley Rectory, the people involved confessed to making things up so what makes the Methuen Water Demon any different? It turns out that the affected family endured this seemingly demonic presence in three different properties for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained.
The Martin family first encountered the water demon in October 1963 when Francis Martin, his wife, and their children noticed a damp patch on the wall in the den. They watched in disbelief as the patch grew larger and eventually, it sprayed extremely cold water for about 20 seconds before stopping suddenly. Francis tried to rationalize the issue but knew it couldn’t be a case of frozen pipes because the temperature was too high. Besides, he recently had the pipes cleaned.
The very next day, the same thing happened in a different part of the house. The problem continued to occur in every room in the house at 15-minute intervals. The family’s furniture and floors were soaked, as were the Martins. A non-family member also witnessed the phenomena on at least one occasion.
Normally, ‘hauntings’ are confined to one home, but when the Martins moved to a relative’s house, the water jets started there too. They couldn’t believe what was happened and returned to their home where Francis switched off the water at the mains. This tactic did not work because the next day, water gushed from the walls from several spots at once. The Martin family moved away once again, but the problem followed them.
Eventually, they returned to Methuen, and the water ‘demon’ gradually eased off until one day, the water stopped spraying altogether. The official story was moisture build-up, but it doesn’t explain why the problem happened in three different locations.