Couple doing up new home get sick before horror ‘death’ discovery in their walls

Kaija Bretius and her husband Bryan spent 6,500 on a dilapidated property but they were in for a scare when they moved in. It was then that the unsettling reality of their new abode began to unravel

A family’s dream home quickly turned into a house of horrors after they stumbled upon a series of grim discoveries within the property’s walls. Kaija Bretzius, a mother of three, purchased the house in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, with her husband Bryan, primarily because they believed it wouldn’t necessitate extensive renovations.

Kaija explained: “We didn’t want to do a lot of home improvements. We didn’t have a large budget. This house was by far in the best condition for all the ones that we had looked at at the time.”

However, it soon became evident that the semi-detached property’s insulation needed an overhaul, prompting Bryan to start dismantling some of the walls. It was then that the unsettling reality of their new abode began to unravel.

As Bryan entered the attic to inspect the insulation, Kaija remembered: “He says that he can see some things are shoved down in the wall. And he comes back with some old bottles.”

Kaija expressed delight over the vintage bottles and curiously asked her husband what else was hidden up there. He reluctantly revealed that there were several adult magazines from the 1980s, reports the Mirror.

But a far more disturbing discovery awaited them.

The couple decided to delve deeper into the gap between the building’s inner and outer walls to uncover what else might be concealed. “We got a flashlight, because it was hard to see,” she shared on the What It Was Like podcast.

Among the next items they unearthed from the dark, dusty cavity in the wall was an old sack. “I thought horribly, initially, I thought that it was possibly a baby in the wall,” Kaija shared.

She explained her grim assumption was due to previous discoveries of infant bodies beneath another nearby property. She added: “I just couldn’t think of like what else it would be in, and what you would wrap in a burlap sack and put down in the wall.”

However, the reality of Kaija’s find was less macabre but arguably even stranger. She revealed: “It was a chicken carcass. It was wrapped up and shoved down into a wall in this burlap sack. And a chicken’s about the same size as a baby.”

Further exploration uncovered at least 20 chicken carcasses, along with the remains of several other small creatures. Some of the bones were wrapped in newspaper, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s.

Regrettably, Kaija and Bryan hadn’t taken sufficient precautions for handling long-deceased animals. She confessed: “We got fevers, we were acutely sick. We inhaled something and it made us sick, for three or four days.”

She clarified that the mummified chicken remains had “aerosolised” as they were being extracted from the wall – releasing countless dormant bacteria.

Kaija hypothesises that the animal remains may have been used in some form of occult ritual, which she refers to as “a pow-wow, or Dutch magic.

“We were shocked, horrified and disgusted,” Kaija told WNEP. They had arranged a survey prior to purchasing the property, but there was no indication that the house had been linked to witchcraft.

She continued: “We got the radon inspected, we did everything. But we didn’t know we had to look for chickens.”

The pair have been forced to have all the walls entirely stripped out and reconstructed – at enormous cost. The renovations haven’t been covered by their insurance, meaning they’ve had to source $20,000 (approximately £15,000) thus far, with work still continuing.

The person who carried out the strange rituals improved their skills over time, Kaija alleged. “It seemed like whoever was doing this was doing this over years and years and years, just building up layers,” she explained.

“And then he was sharpening his technique.”

Family members of the house’s 1920s occupant still reside in the town, and have shared tales of him employing his magic to cure conditions such as fevers and whooping cough.

However, Kaija maintains that the evil the healer extracted remains embedded within her home’s walls. During her pregnancy, her heightened sense of smell allowed her to detect a particular stench emanating from the walls.

“It just smelled like death,” she revealed.

“If you ever have a mouse die in your wall, and then your house kind of stinks for a month until it dries out. So it was not a good smell.”

These occult artefacts form part of a nearly forgotten chapter in American history. A majority of them are now housed in a local museum, but due to the risky nature of the dried animal remains, it’s possible that the items from Kaija’s walls may never be exhibited to the public.

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