Red Handprints on the Church Basement Door: St. Mary's, 1990

In July of 1990, red handprints streaked the locked basement door at St. Mary’s Church in Dunmore, Pennsylvania-five prints, child-sized, pressed in a pattern as if someone trapped inside was begging to get out. By noon, parishioners had scrubbed the door until it gleamed, but the next morning, fresh handprints bled through the white paint, in exactly the same places. Soon, whispers spread that the night janitor had heard scratching from the door, and even saw the handle turn while the church was empty. Guests at afternoon weddings started reporting faint, bloody smears on the backs of their hands after using the hall's restrooms, always shaped like a child’s palm. The pastor brought in painters, then a priest for blessings, but the marks kept returning, as if sinking deeper into the wood each time. For months, nobody ventured past that door, and even police who investigated left their fingerprints in crimson stains. It wasn’t until they pried up the warped floorboards that they found a faded Sunday dress and a schoolbook from 1956-each marked with the same handprint, pressed in dried red clay from the old church grounds.