Perron Family Haunting

perron family haunting

the Perrons

In January 1971, the Perron family moved into a 14-room farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, where Carolyn, Roger, and their five daughters began to notice strange things happening almost immediately after they moved in. It started small. Carolyn would notice that the broom went missing, or seemed to move from place to place on its own. She would hear the sound of something scraping against the kettle in the kitchen when no one was in there. She’d find small piles of dirt in the center of a newly-cleaned kitchen floor. The girls began to notice spirits around the house, though for the most part, they were harmless. There were a few, however, that were angry.

The Farmhouse

Carolyn allegedly researched the history of the home and discovered that it had been in the same family for eight generations and that many of them had died under mysterious or horrible circumstances. Several of the children had drowned in a nearby creek, one was murdered, and a few of them hanged themselves in the attic. The spirit that was depicted in the film, Bathsheba, was the worst of them all. “Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position,” said Andrea Perron, the oldest of the five girls.

Bathsheba

It turns out there was actually a real person named Bathsheba Sherman who lived on the Perron’s property in the mid-1800s. She was rumored to have been a Satanist, and there was evidence that she had been involved in the death of a neighbor’s child, though no trial ever took place. She was buried in a nearby Baptist cemetery in downtown Harrisville.

The Perrons believe that it was Bathsheba’s spirit that was tormenting them.

According to Andrea, the family experienced other spirits as well that smelled like rotting flesh and would cause beds to rise off the floor. She claims her father would enter the basement and feel a “cold, stinking presence behind him.” They often stayed away from the dirt-floored cellar, but the heating equipment would often fail mysteriously, causing Roger to venture down.

The Seance

Over the ten years that the family lived in the house, the Warrens made multiple trips to investigate. At one point, Lorraine conducted a seance to attempt to contact the spirits that were possessing the family. During the seance, Carolyn Perron became possessed, speaking in tongues and rising from the ground in her chair.

Andrea claims to have secretly witnessed the seance.

“I thought I was going to pass out,” Andrea said. “My mother began to speak a language not of this world in a voice not her own. Her chair levitated and she was thrown across the room.”

After the seance, Roger kicked the Warrens out, worried about his wife’s mental stability. According to Andrea, the family continued to live in the house due to financial instability until they were able to move in 1980, at which point the spirits were silenced, and the hauntings ceased.

Want More Paranormal?

Become a Member of the Warren Inner Circle for Exclusive Member-Only Access to photos, investigations, video footage, case files, literature, and more.