THE HAUNTING AT ROSE ACRES LANE
Edit: xx
The Haunting on Rose Acres Lane
In February 2010, 37-year-old Deanna Dudley was brutally killed inside a small home on Rose Acres Lane in Felton during an alcohol-fueled argument with her boyfriend, Richard Chavez. Chavez was arrested and charged with her murder. Contemporary reporting confirmed that Dudley suffered multiple blows to the head and later died at the hospital.
Within months of the killing, Porter spoke directly with Chavez about what happened that night. Their conversation gave Porter a firsthand account of the circumstances surrounding the argument, including Chavez's confirmation that alcohol had played a
role. But this isn't the story of the murder.
This is her ghost story...
Five months after Dudley's death, the small one-bedroom home was rented again to an unsuspecting couple and their young child.
It wasn't long before the family began experiencing things they couldn't explain. Lights turned on and off by themselves. Strange tapping noises were heard inside the home. Cabinet doors opened on their own in the kitchen, the stove would mysteriously turn on when no one was near it.
The family also described a heavy feeling of being watched, particularly while they slept...a shadowy presence loomed from the bedroom closet and the presence of pressure upon the bed after their retired to the bedroom, and then there was the child. The three-year-old daughter to the tenants, repeatedly kept saying a name that was completely unknown to the family.
“D-...Dee-Dee...De-na.” while pointing throughout the house at random corners of emptiness. At the time, the family had no idea who the name Dena was in reference to, they certainly didn't know that a woman had been killed inside their home, that knowledge would come later.
Months into their tenancy, a family member searched the home's address online. What they found changed everything. Newspaper articles revealed on February 28, 2010, a woman had been brutally killed inside the very home where they were now living. The tenants had unknowingly moved into the scene of a homicide; and after approximately six months of living with unexplained activity, the family contacted Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters, hoping the team could determine what—or who—might still be inside the house, the family already had a theory. They believed they were being haunted by Deanna Dudley.
The First Investigation
Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters began investigating the residence, documenting the reported activity while keeping an open mind about its possible causes. The tenant told the team that the activity seemed to follow a pattern. It appeared to intensify in the bedroom at approximately 8:32 p.m., around the time investigators understood the confrontation between Deanna and Richard had begun. The team noticed activity increasing after 8:00 p.m., particularly in the bedroom.
The tenant also reported that by approximately after 9:00 p.m., when she surmised that Richard would most likely have been in the back seat of a police car, the activity in the bedroom would calm and seemingly shift toward the living room; according to the tenant, this pattern repeated.
The team documented the activity and continued looking into the history of the home and the circumstances surrounding Deanna's death.
The Second Investigation
June 10, 2011, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters' historical researcher and paranormal investigator Maryanne Porter, along with Sarah Porter and a rookie field investigator, returned to the Felton residence for a second investigation. This time, the activity would be triggered and increased threefold.
Using K-2 meters, a spirit box, digital recorders and a simple flashlight, the investigators attempted to communicate with the presence in the home. According to the tenant, the flashlight had become one of the ways the activity seemed to routinely communicate with her. The team also noticed particularly heavy activity in the closet located next to the bedroom. The area repeatedly drew their attention as they moved through the home and monitored the activity.
There was an unsettling irony to that; Richard Chavez had reportedly used a large, heavy flashlight to repeatedly strike Deanna in the head, causing the injuries that resulted in her death.
SCGH later learned that Chavez had claimed Deanna started the fight. He alleged that she initially grabbed the flashlight and attempted to swing it at him before he took it from her and ultimately struck her with it multiple times. Law enforcement affiliates would later reveal the final occurrence would be in the bedroom closet near the adjacent door to outside. According to sources, the argument allegedly started while Dudley was cooking in the kitchen and Chavez was in the shed out back watching the Olympics, before Dudley went to the shed to call upon Chavez. Persons that knew the couple routinely said the couple argued frequently, but they also had love for one another.
The team decided to ask the presence whether Chavez claim, alleging that she initiated the argument was true. Not to cast blame, but to see what the reaction to this statement would be. The question was asked more than once and each time, the equipment produced what appeared to be a stronger response then before.
It could not prove what happened that night. But to the investigators, it was an unsettling response to a very specific question. SCGH also learned that both Deanna and Richard had struggled with alcoholism and had reportedly been in and out of recovery. According to the information available to the team, the couple had resumed drinking, and alcohol ultimately played a role in the argument that turned deadly. During the investigation, the tenant also discovered personal belongings left behind by Deanna and Richard in the basement, including the barbecue pit visible in the original crime-scene photograph.
The Third Investigation
In late June of 2011, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters returned for our final investigation of the location, this time Porter consulted and invited a friend and colleague, from Alameda to assist in the investigation, Nancy Bowman, a psychic and medium with Global Paranormal Society (GPS) and Para Rock TV'. Best known for her appearances on Ghost Adventures, her work aboard the USS Hornet and frequent live streamed paranormal shows filmed from the famed Brookdale Lodge.
The investigation included a live web broadcast, with the tenant participating as well, but the goal was different this time. Rather than simply documenting the activity, the two teams wanted to attempt communication with the apparent presence believed to be Deanna and, if possible, help her move on. Between both teams we were able to establish communication and eventually convince the spirit of Deanna that it was okay to move to the other side where her loved ones waited for her.
After that investigation, the tenant reported no further disturbances attributed to Deanna. The activity appeared to have stopped.
A Letter From Richard Chavez
The story, however, took another unexpected turn.
In 2014, Porter reached out to Richard Chavez while he was serving his sentence. Chavez expressed deep regret for his actions and for the loss of Deanna's life. He told Porter that he had deeply loved Deanna and that there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't wish he could take back that horrific day.
But Chavez had also been wondering about something else.
In a handwritten letter to Porter, he explained that for years he had wondered what had actually happened during the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigation. In 2011, while incarcerated in the Santa Cruz County Jail, he had heard bits and pieces about the investigation from people coming in and out of the jail.
When he first heard about the Maglite, he thought it was a joke.
Then, in late June of 2011 while incarcerated, something happened that made him think differently. Shortly after hearing about the investigation, Chavez was moved to another housing unit. When the door to the new unit was opened, one of three large lights directly overhead suddenly exploded, filling the area with sparks and fumes. At the time, Chavez wasn't thinking about anything paranormal.
However, what caught his attention were the pieces left behind. He noticed wire nuts and fragments of wire scattered across the floor. To Chavez, that meant this wasn't simply a light bulb burning out or even bursting. The fixture itself had blown apart. That detail was particularly significant to him because, as he explained in his letter, he was working in the trades and had a working understanding of electrical systems and how things worked. The incident simply didn't make sense to him.
There was another problem, the idea of someone tampering with the light. According to Chavez, the fixture was approximately 30 feet above the ground. So, this was unlikely. He couldn't explain what had happened. But the following day, something else happened that was even harder for him to dismiss. According to Chavez he was sitting on his bunk in a one-man cell, facing the wall, when he suddenly felt someone holding his hand.
He froze.
The sensation felt so real that he said:
“Dena, is that you?”
His first thought was of her.
The feeling lasted for several more seconds before disappearing, and then it never happened again. Later, that night during mail call, Chavez received a letter informing him that his grandmother had suddenly died. He mentioned he later contemplated if it was Deanna or if it was his grandmother, or perhaps it was a combination of both. Regardless, Chavez couldn't explain what had happened. But the experience clearly stayed with him, and the timing was difficult to ignore.
His account took place in 2011, while he was incarcerated and shortly after he had begun hearing about the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigation and the strange activity reported at the home he and Deanna had once shared. It was also during the same period when SCGH, together with the Global Paranormal Society and Nancy Bowman, was attempting to communicate with the presence believed to be Deanna and help her move on.
Because the timing of Chavez's experience coincides with the timing of the final investigation of S.C.G.H and the G.P.S team, it raises an unsettling possibility; was the exploding light simply an unusual electrical failure? Or was there something significant about the timing? If the activity at the home was directly connected to Deanna, could the strange occurrence have been part of her final attempt to communicate with Chavez, before moving on? Perhaps both experiences were nothing more than coincidence. Or perhaps, they were everything but...
The House Falls Silent
In 2016, the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters team learned that the tenant had moved from the home approximately a year after the team's investigations. No further paranormal activity has been reported at this residence since the releasing events of 2011.
Another Tragic LossOn January 6, 2023, Aubrey Newell was struck by a vehicle near Rodriguez Street and Main Street in Watsonville. She was only 27 years old. Aubrey did not survive her injuries.
For her family, the pain of losing Deanna came rushing back. They had already known what it meant to lose someone they loved far too soon. Now they were facing that loss all over again.
For her brother Stewart, it was another devastating loss. Although the two did not always see eye to eye, as siblings sometimes do, they shared memories that belonged only to them—memories of growing up together, moments of laughter, and years of life that could never be repeated. There was love between them. Her death left a great hole in his life, filled with words left unspoken, but also with memories that will always be cherished.
But perhaps in grief, solace can be found in - the knowing that Aubrey's story did not end with death alone. When she crossed over, the mother she had missed so deeply for thirteen years was waiting for her, arms wide open. The years of separation were finally over. Mother and daughter were together again, reunited in a place where there would be no more goodbyes.
The Haunting on Rose Acres Lane
In February 2010, 37-year-old Deanna Dudley was brutally killed inside a small home on Rose Acres Lane in Felton during an alcohol-fueled argument with her boyfriend, Richard Chavez. Chavez was arrested and charged with her murder. Contemporary reporting confirmed that Dudley suffered multiple blows to the head and later died at the hospital.
Within months of the killing, Porter spoke directly with Chavez about what happened that night. Their conversation gave Porter a firsthand account of the circumstances surrounding the argument, including Chavez's confirmation that alcohol had played a
role. But this isn't the story of the murder.
This is her ghost story...
Five months after Dudley's death, the small one-bedroom home was rented again to an unsuspecting couple and their young child.
It wasn't long before the family began experiencing things they couldn't explain. Lights turned on and off by themselves. Strange tapping noises were heard inside the home. Cabinet doors opened on their own in the kitchen, the stove would mysteriously turn on when no one was near it.
The family also described a heavy feeling of being watched, particularly while they slept...a shadowy presence loomed from the bedroom closet and the presence of pressure upon the bed after their retired to the bedroom, and then there was the child. The three-year-old daughter to the tenants, repeatedly kept saying a name that was completely unknown to the family.
“D-...Dee-Dee...De-na.” while pointing throughout the house at random corners of emptiness. At the time, the family had no idea who the name Dena was in reference to, they certainly didn't know that a woman had been killed inside their home, that knowledge would come later.
Months into their tenancy, a family member searched the home's address online. What they found changed everything. Newspaper articles revealed on February 28, 2010, a woman had been brutally killed inside the very home where they were now living. The tenants had unknowingly moved into the scene of a homicide; and after approximately six months of living with unexplained activity, the family contacted Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters, hoping the team could determine what—or who—might still be inside the house, the family already had a theory. They believed they were being haunted by Deanna Dudley.
The First Investigation
Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters began investigating the residence, documenting the reported activity while keeping an open mind about its possible causes. The tenant told the team that the activity seemed to follow a pattern. It appeared to intensify in the bedroom at approximately 8:32 p.m., around the time investigators understood the confrontation between Deanna and Richard had begun. The team noticed activity increasing after 8:00 p.m., particularly in the bedroom.
The tenant also reported that by approximately after 9:00 p.m., when she surmised that Richard would most likely have been in the back seat of a police car, the activity in the bedroom would calm and seemingly shift toward the living room; according to the tenant, this pattern repeated.
The team documented the activity and continued looking into the history of the home and the circumstances surrounding Deanna's death.
The Second Investigation
June 10, 2011, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters' historical researcher and paranormal investigator Maryanne Porter, along with Sarah Porter and a rookie field investigator, returned to the Felton residence for a second investigation. This time, the activity would be triggered and increased threefold.
Using K-2 meters, a spirit box, digital recorders and a simple flashlight, the investigators attempted to communicate with the presence in the home. According to the tenant, the flashlight had become one of the ways the activity seemed to routinely communicate with her. The team also noticed particularly heavy activity in the closet located next to the bedroom. The area repeatedly drew their attention as they moved through the home and monitored the activity.
There was an unsettling irony to that; Richard Chavez had reportedly used a large, heavy flashlight to repeatedly strike Deanna in the head, causing the injuries that resulted in her death.
SCGH later learned that Chavez had claimed Deanna started the fight. He alleged that she initially grabbed the flashlight and attempted to swing it at him before he took it from her and ultimately struck her with it multiple times. Law enforcement affiliates would later reveal the final occurrence would be in the bedroom closet near the adjacent door to outside. According to sources, the argument allegedly started while Dudley was cooking in the kitchen and Chavez was in the shed out back watching the Olympics, before Dudley went to the shed to call upon Chavez. Persons that knew the couple routinely said the couple argued frequently, but they also had love for one another.
The team decided to ask the presence whether Chavez claim, alleging that she initiated the argument was true. Not to cast blame, but to see what the reaction to this statement would be. The question was asked more than once and each time, the equipment produced what appeared to be a stronger response then before.
It could not prove what happened that night. But to the investigators, it was an unsettling response to a very specific question. SCGH also learned that both Deanna and Richard had struggled with alcoholism and had reportedly been in and out of recovery. According to the information available to the team, the couple had resumed drinking, and alcohol ultimately played a role in the argument that turned deadly. During the investigation, the tenant also discovered personal belongings left behind by Deanna and Richard in the basement, including the barbecue pit visible in the original crime-scene photograph.
The Third Investigation
In late June of 2011, Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters returned for our final investigation of the location, this time Porter consulted and invited a friend and colleague, from Alameda to assist in the investigation, Nancy Bowman, a psychic and medium with Global Paranormal Society (GPS) and Para Rock TV'. Best known for her appearances on Ghost Adventures, her work aboard the USS Hornet and frequent live streamed paranormal shows filmed from the famed Brookdale Lodge.
The investigation included a live web broadcast, with the tenant participating as well, but the goal was different this time. Rather than simply documenting the activity, the two teams wanted to attempt communication with the apparent presence believed to be Deanna and, if possible, help her move on. Between both teams we were able to establish communication and eventually convince the spirit of Deanna that it was okay to move to the other side where her loved ones waited for her.
After that investigation, the tenant reported no further disturbances attributed to Deanna. The activity appeared to have stopped.
A Letter From Richard Chavez
The story, however, took another unexpected turn.
In 2014, Porter reached out to Richard Chavez while he was serving his sentence. Chavez expressed deep regret for his actions and for the loss of Deanna's life. He told Porter that he had deeply loved Deanna and that there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't wish he could take back that horrific day.
But Chavez had also been wondering about something else.
In a handwritten letter to Porter, he explained that for years he had wondered what had actually happened during the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigation. In 2011, while incarcerated in the Santa Cruz County Jail, he had heard bits and pieces about the investigation from people coming in and out of the jail.
When he first heard about the Maglite, he thought it was a joke.
Then, in late June of 2011 while incarcerated, something happened that made him think differently. Shortly after hearing about the investigation, Chavez was moved to another housing unit. When the door to the new unit was opened, one of three large lights directly overhead suddenly exploded, filling the area with sparks and fumes. At the time, Chavez wasn't thinking about anything paranormal.
However, what caught his attention were the pieces left behind. He noticed wire nuts and fragments of wire scattered across the floor. To Chavez, that meant this wasn't simply a light bulb burning out or even bursting. The fixture itself had blown apart. That detail was particularly significant to him because, as he explained in his letter, he was working in the trades and had a working understanding of electrical systems and how things worked. The incident simply didn't make sense to him.
There was another problem, the idea of someone tampering with the light. According to Chavez, the fixture was approximately 30 feet above the ground. So, this was unlikely. He couldn't explain what had happened. But the following day, something else happened that was even harder for him to dismiss. According to Chavez he was sitting on his bunk in a one-man cell, facing the wall, when he suddenly felt someone holding his hand.
He froze.
The sensation felt so real that he said:
“Dena, is that you?”
His first thought was of her.
The feeling lasted for several more seconds before disappearing, and then it never happened again. Later, that night during mail call, Chavez received a letter informing him that his grandmother had suddenly died. He mentioned he later contemplated if it was Deanna or if it was his grandmother, or perhaps it was a combination of both. Regardless, Chavez couldn't explain what had happened. But the experience clearly stayed with him, and the timing was difficult to ignore.
His account took place in 2011, while he was incarcerated and shortly after he had begun hearing about the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters investigation and the strange activity reported at the home he and Deanna had once shared. It was also during the same period when SCGH, together with the Global Paranormal Society and Nancy Bowman, was attempting to communicate with the presence believed to be Deanna and help her move on.
Because the timing of Chavez's experience coincides with the timing of the final investigation of S.C.G.H and the G.P.S team, it raises an unsettling possibility; was the exploding light simply an unusual electrical failure? Or was there something significant about the timing? If the activity at the home was directly connected to Deanna, could the strange occurrence have been part of her final attempt to communicate with Chavez, before moving on? Perhaps both experiences were nothing more than coincidence. Or perhaps, they were everything but...
The House Falls Silent
In 2016, the Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters team learned that the tenant had moved from the home approximately a year after the team's investigations. No further paranormal activity has been reported at this residence since the releasing events of 2011.
Another Tragic LossOn January 6, 2023, Aubrey Newell was struck by a vehicle near Rodriguez Street and Main Street in Watsonville. She was only 27 years old. Aubrey did not survive her injuries.
For her family, the pain of losing Deanna came rushing back. They had already known what it meant to lose someone they loved far too soon. Now they were facing that loss all over again.
For her brother Stewart, it was another devastating loss. Although the two did not always see eye to eye, as siblings sometimes do, they shared memories that belonged only to them—memories of growing up together, moments of laughter, and years of life that could never be repeated. There was love between them. Her death left a great hole in his life, filled with words left unspoken, but also with memories that will always be cherished.
But perhaps in grief, solace can be found in - the knowing that Aubrey's story did not end with death alone. When she crossed over, the mother she had missed so deeply for thirteen years was waiting for her, arms wide open. The years of separation were finally over. Mother and daughter were together again, reunited in a place where there would be no more goodbyes.
|
|
|
|