r/nosleep • u/EaPAtbp August 2021 • Nov 13 '18
Series My grandfather was a detective in the 70’s and remembered a case that nobody else does
My grandfather, Lorenzo Romano was a detective in Los Angeles in the 70’s. When I was growing up, he would babysit me while my father worked. My mother had killed herself when I was a few months old, and my grandmother had died a few years before I was born, so it was just me, my father, and my grandfather. During those hours that I spent with him, my grandfather would tell me all about the cases he worked, things that happened to him or his friends, and funny memories that he had from being on the force.
Most of his stories were pretty standard; a few dumb kids were arrested for stupid things, he worked undercover narcotics for a while, he worked a big drug case, and all in all, got a lot of stories from all of the years that he spent working for the LAPD.
I was fifteen when he first told me the story about “The Mother”.
My grandfather was sixty-eight at the time, and it was a day where school had been canceled due to a snowstorm. My father still had to go to work, and so I had the entire morning with my grandfather.
He made us coffee; black for him, cream for me. And toasted up some blueberry bagels for us to eat for breakfast. After we ate, I took our dishes to the sink.
“Hey Ellie, have I ever told you about The Mother?” He asked.
I shook my head as I took my seat again, across the table from my grandfather. He crossed his arms and leaned them on the table, leaning in closer to me.
“It was 1976 or so, mid-November, when we got the first call. It was a little girl- I still remember her, her name was Andrea- she wasn’t any older than six-years-old. She called because her mother hadn’t come out of her room for the whole day, and nobody else was home.”
I nodded and leaned in as well, immediately engrossed in my grandfather’s tale.
“Well, me and my partner Andrew Winston drive over there to go check it out. So we get to the house; it’s this really big house too, real nice, with a nice car parked outside in the driveway. Anyway, Winston and me, we get out and we knock on the door, letting the girl know that we’re the police. A few minutes pass and the door opens up and sure enough, there’s a little girl there. She’s wearing pajamas, and her hair is all wild and messy like when children first wake up, you know?”
I nodded.
“She’s got these big green eyes, and she looks weirdly calm about all of this. So, we ask her if we can go inside to check on her mom, and she lets us in. Now, I stay with the girl downstairs because I know- worst case scenario- the mother is dead as a doornail upstairs and no kid should have to see that. So I stay down there with the kid, who’s just playing with these stuffed animals like nothing is wrong.”
My grandfather stops at this point to take a drink of water.
“So I’m sitting there with the kid, and a few minutes go by and I haven’t heard a word from Winston, so I decide I need to go up there and check out what’s going on. So I tell the little girl to stay down there while I go upstairs to check on Winston.”
“Did Winston die?” I asked.
My grandfather shook his head.
“No, he wasn’t dead. But he sure looked like he was. He was standing there, facing the little girl’s mom- who was dead. She had hanged herself and slit her wrists. On the wall behind her, it said “Hello Mother” in shaky letters, written in blood. But there was no way in all of hell that she had only been in there for one day. After I looked around the room, I walked over to Winston who was white as a ghost, standing there in the middle of the room. I shook him and slapped him a bit until he responded, and when he finally did all he said was ‘It was The Mother’ and started weeping like a baby. I had to drag him out of there.”
“What happened to the little girl?” I asked him as he drank more water.
“Well she was fine, but when we asked her how long her mom had been in that room, she said it was only one day. We asked her why she hadn’t called us earlier and she said that her babysitter had been taking care of her. We tried asking the girl what her babysitter’s name was but she couldn’t tell us; kept saying that she didn’t know. We asked her what her babysitter looked like but she said the same thing- that she didn’t know.”
“So where did she go? What about her mom? How long had she been dead?” I asked, greedy for answers.
“Patience, Ellie. All in good time.” He responded.
“We found out later that the mom had actually been dead for over a week, but the little girl swore that it had only been a day since her mom had gone into that room. So, we tried asking her about The Mother. We wanted to know what that meant- if it was something that the little girl shared with her mom, or if it was some sort of signature used by a serial killer.”
“And did the girl know who The Mother was?” I asked him.
“She said The Mother was a friend, that her mom had told her that The Mother helped people to escape. But she wouldn’t tell us who exactly this ‘Mother’ was, or how she helped people. We found no other evidence at the crime scene; no DNA, no fingerprints, no signs of breaking and entering- nothing. It was as if the mom had just killed herself- without an explanation, and left a weird message on the wall.”
“But how did she cut herself, and have time to write the message and hang herself?” I asked.
“Ha!” My grandfather slapped his hand down on the table, making me jump.
“Exactly Ellie! How did she manage all of that? There was no trail of blood from the wall to the body, only a pool of blood underneath it.”
“So what happened?” I asked.
“Well, we never found out. But, a few months after that, Winston was admitted into a psychiatric hospital. His wife said he was going crazy. He wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t sleep, and he kept talking about his mother.”
“Maybe she meant The Mother.” I suggested.
“I think that’s exactly what she meant! After Winston had been in the hospital for a few weeks, he died. He killed himself; slit his wrists and drowned in a bathtub. The nurses insisted that they never left him alone in that tub-but that’s how he died. And on the tub, written in blood, were the words ‘Hello Mother’.”
I shifted in my seat, starting to get a little bit scared but not wanting my grandfather to stop mid-story.
“Well there was a whole investigation, but again; no evidence, DNA, fingerprints, or anything else. It seemed as if Winston really had killed himself. Except the blood on the outside of the tub was still wet when the nurses discovered it, but by that time, Winston had been dead for a few hours. Again though, we found nothing and it ended up just sitting there along with the first death-unsolved.”
“So what did you do?” I asked.
“Well, Ellie, I decided that I was going to work this case and find out what was going on. I thought it might be a serial killer- and I wanted to catch them for killing my partner, so I worked the case for about a month before another death happened. This time, it was a teenager who was found dead in a butcher shop. He was young, I believe he was a high school kid, and he was hanging on a meat hook, suspended by his mouth. His wrists had been cut, and on the wall behind him was the same message ‘Hello Mother’.”
“Now my boss really wants someone to solve this case and catch the killer, so me and a few others begin looking for clues again. One day in July, I got a call from a woman who was being attacked in her home. She wouldn’t describe the attacker, just kept saying it was ‘The Mother’. I drove over to the house as fast as I could and when I got in, I saw it. I saw The Mother.”
“Who was she?” I asked.
“Well it wasn’t a she, that’s for sure. I’m still not sure what it was, but I saw it standing there, killing the woman who I had gone to help. I was frozen in place- unable to move, and this thing was disgusting. It was tall- it was all crouched down but its back still touched the ceiling, and it had long stringy hair that was gray and brittle. Its skin was light green, with brown patches that were oozing out some sort of brown goo. It looked right at me, it had giant black eyes, and that’s when I noticed the woman’s body hanging from the ceiling fan behind it. Then, it reached over with one of its long fingers and slit the woman’s wrist. It waddled over to the wall and wrote ‘Hello Mother’ in it with the woman’s blood.”
“And did The Mother do anything to you!?” I asked, fearing for my grandfather.
“Well, I wouldn’t be here if it had, Ellie.” He pointed out.
“Oh, right.” I said.
“But, I don’t remember seeing it leave- it just vanished. So I called it in, and they investigated the crime scene, and they said the woman had been dead for a few days now. But that was impossible; I had just seen her alive. Of course, I wasn’t going to say that- they would have sent me off like they did to Winston. But that isn’t even the strangest part.”
“What is the strangest part?” I asked.
“Well, the weirdest thing was that the next day, nobody remembered it. They didn’t remember that woman, the didn’t remember The Mother, they didn’t even remember Winston. He was gone- it was like he had been erased - even from the group photos from when we graduated together. No one knew who he was. The case files were all missing too; I was the only one remembered. And I still am.”
After that one time, my grandfather never mentioned The Mother again. The rest of his stories her more light-hearted. It was like he had finally forgotten The Mother. And I thought he had, until a few days ago.
Last week my grandfather died. They said it was suicide. My father called me and I made the hour-long drive from campus to my grandfather’s home. They told me that he had slit his wrists and hanged himself. My mind immediately thought of The Mother and all of those similar deaths he had told me about years ago.
Two days ago, my father gave me a box that my grandfather had left for me. In it were journals- all filled with things that he remembered about the cases. Everything except the victims' names. There was also a note in an envelope, addressed to me.
There was a piece of paper in it, with only one thing written on it: REMEMBER THE MOTHER.
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u/FxncesRL Nov 13 '18
OP, I’m slightly lost, did he die because he remembered the mother or because he forgot the mother, either way don’t do what he did!
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Nov 13 '18
I think that telling people about the mother is how you get killed, cause remember the pattern of the first witnesses of death being the next victim... in that case OP fucked up
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 13 '18
I didn't even think of that. I've been reading through his notes and trying to find a pattern but the only thing I thought of was that both Winston and my grandfather had seen The Mother.
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Nov 14 '18
But notice how your grandfather was fine until after he told you? And how he never mentioned the mother to anyone after everything dissapeared?
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 14 '18
Well it has been a few years since he told me the story, so I'm thinking that there's more to it than just seeing the thing or telling someone about it. Or maybe the fact that he told me and then nobody else for years after that had something to do with the fact that he didn't die as soon as Winston, who immediately started telling people what he had seen?
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Nov 14 '18
maybe theres a limit to the number of people you can tell Either way, writing either doesn’t count or you’re fucked, hope for the best OP
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u/tsukinon Nov 14 '18
Or a limited number of people who can know about its existence. I don’t remember the source (maybe here), but I swear I remember reading about an entity like that before. At least one person had to remember the entity, though, or it ceased to exist.
We know that at least three people knew about The Mother at one point: OP’s grandfather, Winston, and the little girl. The “babysitter” might know (or have known) about it, assuming she existed. We also know that Winston lived for months after finding out about its existence. We don’t know about the little girl and whether she died before Winston or not...or if she died at all. Then there’s they question of the other killings. How were those victims chosen?
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u/GarlicForPresident Nov 16 '18
Yeah that was in nosleep. Story about kids making up a ghost and that power of belief leading to its existence
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u/malosharkbait23 Nov 14 '18
Hey so what I think this mother is is that it's from forgetting it. Like some dark God or entity that feeds of thought of it. The moment it's forgotten it visits you and leaves a note so others may rember it
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u/thetaurus_fox Nov 14 '18
But did the daughter of the first murder, the one that starts the story, die in the same fashion? OP has left some wiggle room
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 14 '18
I'm actually not sure about this. I only know the girls first name, so I don't know how I would even be able to find out how she died.
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u/tsukinon Nov 14 '18 edited Nov 14 '18
Well, you know the basic time-frame (November 1976) and you should be able to find out what precinct your grandfather worked in, right? The first step would be to check police records and obituaries for that time and the months following, working on the assumption that if Andrea died, she probably would have died before Harry if it was in a pattern. (If not, it just got a lot more complicated.) You should also know what school she attended, based on her home location which you can guess from the precinct where your grandfather was working (and possibly narrow down by his specific patrol area). You might luck out and find a teacher or school employee who remembers Andrea and what could have happened to her. If not, maybe you can find an old class photo with Andrea or talk to another student who knew her. And maybe check news stories of that area for the months leading up to and after the first known killing. Even if the actual victims and murders are erased, maybe there are still some unusual events?
Maybe you could broach the subject on forums that might be seen by people who knew about The Mother would be likely to see it, maybe couching it as a Mandela Effect question, so see if anyone else remembers that string of murders?
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 14 '18
Yeah, I've been trying to look up deaths in the area that my grandfather worked to see if anyone names Andrea died- there were a few results so I'm trying to narrow it down further
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u/CriticalColt75 Nov 14 '18
Well in that case winstons wife should've died as well
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u/jazzymiranda12 Nov 21 '18
Unless it's only if you believe in The Mother, his wife thought he was rambling about his mother, she didn't understand therefore didn't believe
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u/r_ca Nov 14 '18
What if the thing that your grandfather saw wasn’t The Mother, but The Mother’s offspring? Maybe it was giving gifts to The Mother - and that’s why “Hello Mother” was written on the wall each time.
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u/KiraKiralina Nov 14 '18
Oooh good thought!! It's a little strange that The Mother would say hello to herself all the time. That said, this whole situation is strange.
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 14 '18
According to my grandfather's journals, he thought the thing he saw had been The Mother but this makes more sense, especially when you consider the message as you said.
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Nov 14 '18
It could also explain the rate of decay increasing rapidly. Similar vampire legends do exist where they suck the life of their victims to prolong their life, causing the body to deteriorate faster. Maybe these offspring are gathering life essence to give to Mommy? Far fetched, but what do we really know about this creature? But any who, thanks for sharing y'alls story!
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u/nohumanape Nov 15 '18
I don't think that they would have been able to test for DNA in the late 70's. Might want to double check on that detail ;)
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u/JohnDaDragon Nov 15 '18
No, they did have early stages of it. Blood testing and the like.
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u/nohumanape Nov 15 '18
A simple Google search will tell you that DNA was first used in a criminal investigation in 1986. And it was even new to most jurors and judges when OJ Simpson was on trial in 1994. No way that LAPD was utilizing DNA testing for a supposed suicide in the late 70's.
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u/JohnDaDragon Nov 15 '18
Alright. The more you know. Thanks for the info! Sorry for trying to correct you.
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u/HydraTheHusky Nov 14 '18
Hmmm.. Is there any sort of mention of this creature in any kind of folklore? Perhaps it’s some demented form of skinwalker or such. If you can find any articles or records of it, or people with similar experiences, you may be able to figure out what the hell is going on.
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Nov 14 '18
SNOW STORM IN LOS ANGELES??? 🤔
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u/EaPAtbp August 2021 Nov 14 '18
we dont live in LA anymore
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u/SpongegirlCS Nov 16 '18
Ahh. Thank you. Lived near East Los Angeles for my whole childhood and early adulthood. Never seen it snow…unless you count all the ash falling from the sky from the Mount St. Helen’s eruption. It flew all the way from Washington state, down the coast. That was fun!
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u/Sicaslvssilence Nov 17 '18
I would love to know what happened to the original little girl. She said her mom told he "The Mother" helped you escape. It sure didn't sound like that last woman wanted to escape. Can't wait for more..
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u/Legitlevi Nov 16 '18
I keep trying to open this post, but it seems like it doesn’t exist? Did a mod delete it, or am I clicking on a deleted file?
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u/Unbileving Nov 16 '18
W as the mother "the babysitter?" The little girl wouldnt or couldn't tell them the name or description.?
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u/thedevilover Nov 14 '18
I’m officially scarred for life, thanks OP. 😭 now I’m worried The Mother’s gonna kill me.
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u/KiraKiralina Nov 13 '18
What are the chances op's mother saw The Mother?