The Slaughter of Innocence

********************WARNING***********************

I don’t think I have been touched so hard by a location before. This is a horrible tragic story that must be told. The story you are about to read is a true story. In order to understand what had happened during our investigation you must know the history of the location.

This part of the story may be too much for you to read. If you would like to pass the gruesomeness of this story, then pass the warning section to the Haunting.

The History

On Sunday June 10th 1912 in a small Iowa town called Villisca, the Moore Family, parents Josiah and Sarah, their children, Herman, age 11, Katherine, age 10, Boyd age 7 and Paul age 5 left their church around 9:30 that evening to return home after a Children’s Day activities which the children were part of. They invited the Stillinger sisters, Lena age 12 and Ina age 8 to sleep over night at their house. Josiah had called the Stillinger family before they left, to let them know that Lena and Ina would be spending the night at their home. Even though Villisca had street lights, at that time, there was an argument between the city and the power company so the street lights were turned off until the matter was settled. After they said their good bys to friends by the lighted church entrance, the family walked into the darkness……never to be seen alive again. What had happened to them is a gruesome mystery that people still talk about it even though it’s been almost a hundred years from that fateful day……

I can envision the children merrily walking home with their friends chatting of the pageant they participated in and of the adventures they were planning for tomorrow. We know that they reached home about 10pm. Once again I can envision Mrs. Moore settling the children down to go to bed; Mr. Moore may have carried young Paul to his crib on the second floor. All the Moore children slept upstairs while Lena and Ina slept on the first floor together.