Central Avenue and Lamar St., Spring Valley, San Diego - 1980- Noose still hung from tall tree...

by Lara Dunks
(San Antonio, Texas, USA)

There was something that happened to me as a small child of 8 years old, in Spring Valley, San Diego, CA - 1980; And I never forgot it. As a matter of fact, there are still occurrences that happen to me ever since this day I am about to share with you.

I went to my friend, Carrie Clark's house (on Lamar st), of which was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my house (3180 Central Ave I believe was the address). Carrie's parents had quite a large plot of land for being in a city neighborhood. She had a horse, a pool, pidgeon cage house, and a big tall tree that had a noose tied around the limb. This tree seemed gigantic to me, as I was a little girl... however, I recall the limb that the old noose dangled from was so high, it would have required either a crane or fire truck to cut down. In addition to the height of the noosed limb, the rope had been there so long, the bark was growing around it. I can only guess her parents never had it removed because it was practically unreachable.

On this beautiful sunshiney day, Carrie and I were out at the pidgeon cages located inside a type of 'bird house' (that provided covering for the cages). There was a brees way entrance where we could stand directly in front of the cages and be under the roof of the birdhouse. The beforementioned tree was located just a stone's throw from where we were. I couldn't tell you what Carrie and I were talking about as we looked at the pidgeons, all I remember is the creepy, eerie feeling arriving amongst her and I. The birds began to flutter violently as if in fear. Feathers flew everywhere in their panic. My friend and I looked at each other and did not think twice about running to the house as quickly as possible.

In our fear, it seemed like we'd never reach the house...and of course, the undeniable feeling of being chased grew stronger, the longer it took. We finally arrived at the house, and we ran inside, finding a place to hide in her bedroom. I don't remember how long we crouched below her bedroom window so as to not be seen by something that could peer through the glass. But within a short period, we decided to look carefully out the window. As we did, I saw a white cloud pass by. Could this have been dust from us running? Perhaps... but what started happening to me after this day is what has me questioning this incident.

After this experience, I began to awaken to a cowboy standing in my doorway. He would watch me. As soon as this cowboy figure knew I knew he was there, he would begin to walk closer to me. As you can imagine, this scared me half to death.... and the screech of my scream would summons my mom to come comfort me. This happened on a regular basis until we moved away from this home. From this home, we moved to Hawaii. Of which , the home we lived in there, was on a military base...and had been built prior to WWII. During my time in this house, I experienced similar sightings, but with three figures. And after this many more stories. The longest appearance was a man that stood next to my bedside for 12 years. Each time, same experience. He stood at my bedside until I awoke. As soon as he knew I knew he was there, he bent over and came close to my face. Every sighting ended in me screaming bloody murder and pulling the covers over my head, doing my best to make them go away.

I am aware of the condition 'sleep paralysis'. The experience seems similar, but I am not paralyzed, nor am I asleep during these moments. As a matter of fact, I will sit up to assure I am fully awake and not just seeing shadows. In addition, it is my understanding that this condition heightens during stressful times in life. I cannot enforce enough how much my childhood was stress free. And during some of the most stressful times in my life, there will be a pause in visitations.

That day, I believe strongly that Carrie and I felt a ghostly presence. The birds felt the ghostly presence. And I think there has to be some kind of history behind that old noose. I looked today on Google maps to see if the house is still there. It appears that this land has been developed with duplexes now. However, I see a portion of the land still undeveloped... which seems like the area where this haunting noose was (it was the back portion of the property).

I sure would like to know the history of this area. And perhaps, at least put to rest, what happened on this land.