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Ghosts Of Murdered Highway Patrol Officers

 

This event happened when I was maybe three years old.

My mom was cleaning around the house, when I came out of my room and asked her to come to the bathroom with me, because I had to potty and "there's a man in there." So she went with me, and she couldn't see anyone, but she asked me to describe the man. I told her the man was a policeman. She asked me what color his uniform was, because she knew the colors worn by the different law enforcement agencies--Sheriff's Department, local police, and Highway Patrol. (Before I was born, my mother had been a dispatcher and deputy for the Sheriff's Department where we lived in northern California.) I said the man's uniform was tan, which meant Highway Patrol.

As we left the bathroom I pointed into my bedroom and said, "There's another one in there." I described how the men had been "shooted with a shoot-gun," one in the elbow and stomach, one in the knee (as well as other places--I don't remember exactly where, unfortunately). From the fact that two murdered CHP officers appeared to be hanging around in her house, my mom knew exactly who they had to have been--after all, she didn't know very many people who had been murdered! (I'm not writing their names because I don't know if there could be an legal fallout from doing so--I can't think why there would be, but just to be on the safe side...)

Some time passed, and my mom told this story to a friend of hers, who still worked for the Sheriff's Department. The fact that one officer had been shot in the elbow was one of the details that was withheld from the public as the cops investigated the crime. Even my mother hadn't known about that, but because of that she was able to confirm her guess about the the identities of the dead officers.

On December 22, 1978 the two officers, one of them a friend of my mother's, had made a vehicle stop on a stolen car. The driver somehow managed to get control of their weapons, shot one in the knee and one in the elbow, disabling them, and killed both with their own service revolvers. The officers were not expecting a fight and were caught off guard, and theirs was the only CHP car in the county that night, due to state-mandated cutbacks in nighttime patrols. At the time I saw the ghosts, the case would have been just going to trial.

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, chimchim, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

marshall (2 posts)
 
11 years ago (2013-02-19)
Hi chimchim,

This is a VERY intriguing story that we might be interested in covering for a possible TV show about ghost stories relating to crimes. Would you be able to email me at ghost.stories.research [at] gmail.com and talk about it more?

Thanks,
Marshall
chimchim (5 stories) (6 posts)
 
11 years ago (2012-10-06)
Hi everyone, sorry it took me so long to respond! I forgot I don't get automatic email updates when there are comments.

I am very lucky that my mother believed me! I think of that every time I hear of some poor kid who nearly went crazy trying to convince people, or even being blamed for things done by ghosts. In fact, just recently we were watching some ghost story on TV where exactly that happened, and I told my mom, "I don't think I could ever forgive you if you had done that," and she said, "I wouldn't blame you!" My memory of this event is very hazy, because I was so young. Nowadays I don't see ghosts with my physical eyes (at least, I haven't yet!) but I can feel them. It's sort of a combination of a physical and an emotional feeling.

Javelina--yes, your description of that causeway is right on! It's also very dark out there, because there are just rice paddies and fields on either side of the highway.

Pjod--That's a good question about the color tan. My mother is very definite on that point, so I take her word for it that I probably said tan. The only thing I can think is that I was very into colors and coloring, and I could already read a bit at that age. I might have learned colors from my crayons. I can remember from when I was a little older that whenever I was coloring or drawing pictures, I would read the name of the color on the crayon wrapper so that I would know which one exactly I had used. Or, I might have heard my mom mention the color in connection with her friends who were CHP officers. I'll have to ask her more about that.

Isandhu (or is it Lsandhu? I can't tell if that's an I or L with this font!) --I've always thought maybe they showed up like you said, because I was young and innocent enough to see them. Freeman was the one who was my mother's friend, so he might have been checking in. I think maybe because the trial was starting, the people who had known these two officers were thinking a lot about them, and maybe that attracted them?
H2olily (5 stories) (158 posts)
 
11 years ago (2012-09-28)
Oh, how sad. It sounds like you don't remember the incident yourself, probably for the best.
Javelina (4 stories) (3749 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-22)
I remember when this happened. It was right when I was getting ready to go off to basic training (Air Force). One of my older sisters lives in Sacramento and she was going to be taking care of my daughter while I was in basic. We had gone up to visit for the Christmas holidays. I recall seeing the reports of it on the news. It was absolutely horrific. And yes, I do believe it had a lot to do with the statewide cutbacks in Law Enforcement that this incident was able to occur. The area where it happened, if I recall correctly, was a causeway between Davis and Sac that had no on or off ramps. If there had been more of a police presence, this may not have resulted in the tragedy it had.
I'm glad your mother listened to you about this. You can read so many of these stories and see how rare that is. I was also blessed with a mother who knew about these things. The validation alone, in my opinion, is proof enough for me.
Thank you for sharing.

Jav
MizMiMi02 (guest)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Isandhu-I went back and read it, and I can see where I misread. Thank YOU for clarifying. 😉
lsandhu (2 stories) (360 posts)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
BTW, thank you for the link MizMiMi. What a senseless waste of life. Kind of makes one reconsider the death penalty, doesn't it? A point of clarification, it doesn't actually say they were both shot once in the head. It just says Blecher was.
moravian (1 stories) (171 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Amazing story. I hope they have moved on. Thanks for sharing this.
lsandhu (2 stories) (360 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Very sad. I wonder why they chose to visit you at that particular time. Perhaps because a) you could see them b) at least one of them knew your mom and c) the trial was about to start. Newspapers are notoriously inaccurate, even when details aren't withheld. I have had occasion to have inside information about a couple of news items recently and was shocked at how inaccurate the articles were. They don't check facts and seem to just make things up that sound good.
owensnee1 (guest)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
MizMiMi02, I went to the EXACT same site after reading this! I was definitely looking for a description of an injured elbow but obviously got none. It makes sense, I guess, because it "was one of the details that was withheld from the public as the cops investigated the crime." Very interesting story, Chimchim!
looney85 (3 stories) (188 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Chimchim,

Thank you for sharing your story.
Im glad your mom was able to find who this two spirits were. What happened to them was awful.

Please don't hesitate to share more stories.

❤ Looney.

P.s. Thanks MizMiMi02 for posting the link! 😁
MizMiMi02 (guest)
+1
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Can I post a link? If not, go ahead and remove it, my bad! I did some searching, and there were in fact 2 officers killed by gunfire, on that date in 1978. Only difference it that it states they were both shot once in the head. Could these be your ghostly officers? Here is the link, it goes by year so you will need to scroll down.
Http://www.odmp.org/agency/504-california-highway-patrol-california
Pjod (3 stories) (978 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
I enjoyed reading your account. I am curious though, at such a young age (3) - how were you able to describe the color Tan to your mother? A minor detail, I know- but the color description of the uniform did play a part in ID-ing the spirits at your home.
sds (14 stories) (1436 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
Nice narration chimchim. It is indeed great of your mother that she did not brush off what you said and tried to put some reason to it. Now that you are old enough, can I ask you something. Do you still possess the ability to hear, see the paranormal. If you do and have any further encounters/experiences,please do share with us. Thanks for sharing this one.

Regards and respects to you.

SDS
Unexplained (2 stories) (122 posts)
 
12 years ago (2012-09-21)
An excellent account. Thanks for sharing and sorry to hear about the loss of the police officers. I find it interesting how your mother didn't just wave off what you could see. Children seem to have an ability to see things that adults often cannot. It is a scientific fact that children can hear sounds that older people cannot. The ability to hear certain frequencies diminishes as we grow older, so why not certain frequencies of light - types of light which reveal ghosts and spirits.

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