I was on a road trip with my husband when this happened. We were newly wed and too poor to go on a honeymoon, so we were driving to Florida for 5 days. It wasn’t much, but I was excited for it. We were driving on a dimly lit highway with no other cars nearby. It was a bit eerie and I was a bit scared, so we were relieved to finally see the bright neon sign of the gas station on the otherwise pitch black highway. I pulled over, and while my husband got out of the car to refill the tank, I leaned over to adjust the radio frequency on the car (the station we were listening to didn’t have great coverage in rural Florida). I was going through the frequencies, and heard something weird. I could hear shouting and screaming. At first, I was confused. I could hear some dialogue, but I couldn’t make it out. As my husband got back into my car, I started the engine and tried to locate the source of this radio frequency. I figured that my car must be picking up on somebody’s walkie talkie. As a reporter and true crime fan, I really wanted this scoop. This was an oppurtunity to finally be recognised by my manager.
I kept going until about an hour later. The voice was clearer than ever. The only building nearby was an old abandoned farm house, so we got out of the car to investigate. I turned on the flashlight on my iPhone and walked over to the front door of the house. The door was unlocked, so I opened it and stepped through. It was cold, damp and I could hear two men talking beneath me. I told my husband to wait outside but he wouldn’t listen. I walked over to the basement door and opened it and started to descend the stairs. I opened the camera app on my phone and started to record what I saw.
“So when is the doctor coming?” one man asked.
“Tommorow morning. We gotta keep ‘em alive until then and we get paid. Did you get the ice?” another man answered.
“Yes. I’ll bring the second group in now.” The man’s footsteps started to get louder, so started to retreat back into the ground floor of the house. As I stepped back, the floorboard I stepped on creaked.
“Who is there?” one of the men shouted. We ran back up to front door. It was locked. We ran upstairs to find a place to hide. I saw a bathroom and ran into it, hoping the door had a lock. The bathroom was covered in plastic saran wrap, which was covered in blood. My husband locked the door behind him. The men started to bang on the door.
“OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!” one man shouted.
“We need to get out of here now!” I said to my husband. My husband opened the window and looked down.
“The drop is about 10 feet,” he told me. “You go first.” i jumped out of the window and landed on my arm.
“Shit!” The pain was excruciating, but it was the least of my worries. My husband came down a few seconds later and we ran back to the car.
I reported it to the police immediatley after getting back in the car, while my husband drove away. I stayed on the phone with them for over an hour later, but they covered their tracks pretty well. The police didn’t find anything.