The Ghost Upstairs

As we are in the early days of Halloween season, I thought I'd share a ghost story for everyone.

This story involves my own family.

Between 10:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. on February 22, 1974, Ivan Verner Via was murdered in his Rowan County, KY home by his wife Vesta Wilson Via.

Now the story that was reported by the local newspaper varies just a bit from those who were actually present.  Knowing the people that were actually present, I'm going to go with what they said.

The Via's house was owned by Mr. & Mrs. Cooper. I'm omitting their first names because I don't want people flocking to the house in hopes of getting a scare.

Anyway, according to the Coopers', Vesta came to their house for a visit that morning. As they were sitting there talking Vesta jumps up and says "I just heard a gunshot! I bet Ivan has shot himself!"  In reality, what she was trying to do was create an alibi. 

The Coopers, who apparently never heard the shot, responded, "maybe we should go see!" or something close to that.  So they, accompanied by Mrs. Via, arrive at the Via home. Sure enough, they find Ivan dead of a gunshot wound.

Ivan Via, taken years before his death.

Kentucky State Police officers Jack Evans, Alonzo Hensley, and Marvin Jennings responded to the scene, where it was determined that Ivan was killed with a single shot to the head from a .22 caliber pistol. The incident apparently stemmed from a family dispute.

Mrs. Via was taken into custody and charged with murder and lodged in the Bath County Jail. The following Monday she appeared before Rowan County Judge Ott Caldwell, where she was advised of her rights and an attorney was appointed for her. 

After appearing before Judge Caldwell, Mrs. Via was taken to Eastern State Hospital in Lexington where she underwent treatment.

At the trial, Mrs. Via was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. But in March 1975, that conviction was reversed on the fact that the lower court failed to conduct a hearing on whether she was mentally competent to stand trial.  

The high court noted testimony by a psychiatrist that three days after the killing, Mrs. Via was behaving in a "bizarre and aggressive manner" and thought the psychiatrist was trying to kill her.

Little is known about Mrs. Via between 1975 and 1977. But on October 16, 1977, she jumped to her death from a seventh-floor window of the YWCA in Louisville, Kentucky. She died instantly of multiple injuries and the death was ruled a suicide.

Sometime after the Via murder, a Stacy woman moved into the old house where the murder happened. And she discovered that an upstairs bedroom had been completely sealed off . When she got into the room, she found all of Mr. Via's belongings still there, just as he had left them.   I don't know much more than that about her time in the house.

In 1977, my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle moved into the house.  The first couple of years, nothing out of the ordinary happened.  But in 1979, that would all change.

My Aunt & Uncle came home from work one evening. And as they opened the door of the house, they said that a noise came from upstairs that sounded like someone had lifted the iron bed they had and dropped it onto the floor.  Thinking they had a burglar, they ran upstairs and all through the house but found no one. They were the only ones there.

A few days later my Grandmother and her fiancé were found dead.

The "iron bed dropping" occurred numerous times after that. And each time it did, there would be a death in our family within the next few days. It was as if it was a warning of some type.

But that was not the only strange activity that occurred in that house. Numerous guests who spent the night upstairs in Mr. Via's old room reported having an old man come to their bed and try to pull the covers off them.  This was reported by members of My Aunt's side of the family as well as by members of my Uncle's side of the family - and these were folks that did not even know one another, so there was no way of it being made up.

My Uncle was terrified of the house right up until he died several years ago. If my Aunt had to be gone overnight for any reason, he made sure I came and spent the night with him.  Just for the record, I have spent several nights in that house and in Mr.Via's old bedroom and I never once experienced anything other than the feeling of being watched in that bedroom. When you were in that bedroom, you knew that you were not alone.  But I never once felt threatened by whatever was there.

My aunt passed away seven years ago.  Just a few months before she passed, she was home alone, lying on the sofa watching TV. And a picture that she had hanging on the stairway came off the wall and flew out into the middle of her living room floor. It didn't just fall. It was lifted and thrown probably 7 or 8 feet out into the floor. I'm not sure if anything else ever happened in the house after that or not.

The old house is vacant now and is tied up in probate court, or at least was the last I heard. It may be vacated by humans, but I'd almost bet that whatever was haunting it, whether it be one of the Vias or someone else, is still hanging around. 

The House

As a side note, the Vias' only son committed suicide in 1983; so tragedy seemed to plague that family.