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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask if you'd live in a house where someone was murdered

230 replies

TheCatsBlanket · 12/02/2020 23:22

Just finished watching 'White House Farm' and wondered to myself what happened to the property. Did someone buy it and now lives in it or has it remained empty? I know a google search would prob tell me but my question is, would you live in a house where a murder had taken place? I'm not religious but I think that I'd be scared to be alone in a place with a violent past, in that I'm sure it would harbour sinister vibes.

OP posts:
SaskiaRembrandt · 13/02/2020 06:40

I grew up in an Elizabethan house part of which had been rebuilt in the nineteenth century after an entire family died in a house fire. They were buried close by. I always thought it was very sad - they had six children, the youngest was only three. The house wasn't at all creepy.

I've lived in other old places over the years, currently somewhere that dates to the 1830s, I'm sure lots of horrible things have happened here, but also lots of lovely ones.

GinnyStrupac · 13/02/2020 08:55

If pp Buddywoo is right, and I sadly suspect they probably are, can you imagine actually booking a house viewing just so that you could gawp?!

Clawdy · 13/02/2020 09:00

I definitely wouldn't. Not because I'd feel it was haunted, but I know the murder scenario would never really get out of my head, and I'd always be thinking about it.

GinnyStrupac · 13/02/2020 09:04

Also, why is there always someone who can't wait to be the bearer of potentially very bad news? I think it's absolutely right to be honest about the history of a house before someone decides whether to rent or buy it. That way they can make an informed decision about whether it would bother them or not before proceeding. To tell someone of their new home's horrible history after they've moved in though? And risk ruining it for them and disturbing their peace of mind, especially if children are present? No, don't do that.

MadamePewter · 13/02/2020 09:08

Yes, but it would depend on the type of murder. A one off of an adult probably ok. Serial killing, torture or child killings, no. Stored or hidden bodies, no.

lynsey91 · 13/02/2020 09:12

No I definitely wouldn't. Also surely it is worse if it was members of your family?

I think it strange that Jeremy Bamber's cousin lives there and moved in quite soon after the murders

MatildaTheCat · 13/02/2020 09:14

A very barbaric murder and attempted murder happened in a house very close to mine about 3 years ago. I believe it’s still empty though has been up to let.

I’m quite strong of stomach but wouldn’t want to set foot in the place, it’s just chilling.

Mermaidkisses · 13/02/2020 09:16

in my part-time job as a viewing agent for an Estate Agent locally I was asked to show a particular property, during the viewing I felt very uncomfortable as if I was somewhere I shouldn't be. When I returned to the office the owner of the business told me that 2 young girls had been murdered by their mother in that house ... the energy was definitely "off" there, we never did sell it.
I have lived in a house with a spirit in it, but this was a friendly rather nosey spirit who enjoyed turning on the bath taps at night :)

billysboy · 13/02/2020 09:19

I have refurbed a ton of houses over the years and for the last 10 or so we have been getting a colleague to lay down on floor and spraying a white line around them before we put wooden floor or carpet down
as if it were a body at a crime scene
poor taste I know but funny as well

pooopypants · 13/02/2020 09:25

I grew up in a house where someone was murdered. I didn't know anything about it until after I'd moved out though, it was kept quite under wraps by my family

MinesaPinot · 13/02/2020 09:28

There is no way I could, my mind would go into overdrive. Similarly I couldn't live in a converted church or chapel. Gives me the creeps.

My mum is very 'tuned in' to all things spiritual as it were. She always says that the house next door to her is a 'bad house'. The lady who lived there when we were kids committed suicide and since then whoever has lived there has had some form of bad luck or unsettled feeling there.

GinnyStrupac · 13/02/2020 09:29

poor taste

Definitely, and not a nice trick to play on the person who discovers it in the future, especially if they have children with them. Not content to just make money from them then? I'm all for a laugh, but.

OkayThenIGuess · 13/02/2020 09:30

Depends why.

Is it a bad area where someone might murder us? Nope.

Is it a house targeted by a serial killer who repeatedly murders there? No thank you.

Was someone killed due to something unlikely to affect us? Sure, don't see why not.

Bonus, MIL believes in ghosts and oh, the fun we could have Grin

Bananacake20 · 13/02/2020 09:33

I couldn't do it! I mean I wouldn't go out of my way to find out whether someone had been murdered or not. It may have happened in my current home or the one I'm about to move into but I don't know so I'd never go looking into it just to check. However if I literally knew that someone had been murdered in a property especially recently I'd feel a bit Hmm purely because I'd think about it all the time and it would creep me out. When I was a child, maybe 8 or 9, a lady who lived in the next steet to us was stabbed to death by her partner in front of their children in the kitchen. The house stayed empty for years in the end and when we played outside it was always known as the ''murder house'' and it scared us to walk past it. Strangely enough I'd almost forgotten about this until I was looking at a property down this same street a few months ago online. I liked the look of it but suddenly ''murder house'' came into my head and I'd messaged my sister with a picture of the house to ask her if it was the same one as I couldn't quite remember! It wasn't the same house, it was a few doors down. I didn't go for the property anyway due to other reasons but had it been THAT house I wouldn't have even considered it. I feel like i give things more thought than neccesarry and id constantly think of the kitchen as ''the room that women was stabbed in'' Confused

CanIHaveATiaraPlease · 13/02/2020 09:34

I grew up in a Victorian house. My current house is 1930’s I’m sure there must have been births & deaths in both.

CanIHaveATiaraPlease · 13/02/2020 09:35

But I accept that’s different to a violent death.

CazM2012 · 13/02/2020 09:37

The previous owner of our house was arrested for his first wife’s murder, it happened in the kitchen we were told once we had moved in. It was ruled as a suicide eventually but neighbours still talk Confused

1moreRep · 13/02/2020 09:37

would not bother me but i've been to loads of murder scenes with my job. Most houses have had someone pass away in them.

2CatShapurr · 13/02/2020 09:38

A few years ago serial killer Dennis Nilson's flat was on the market where he not only killed several people but kept the bodies there for months then disposed of them in the drains system which blocked it up. The listing said something like "We advise potential viewers to research the history of the property". It made the press so I assume it got sold but must've had loads of viewings just for the notoriety. Despite it being fully refurbished and years ago there's no way I could convince myself the blood or tiny bits of body weren't still in the floorboards, let alone the bad vibes. I just read an article about a couple who bought one of his other notorious properties and didn't care, and were very happy about getting a bargain though (won't link as it's from the S*n)

Bubblemonkey · 13/02/2020 09:39

Eh. Why not. I used to live on a old hospital site & there was a cemetery a stone throw away from my old house. No weird happenings 🤷🏼‍♀️

bbyj2019 · 13/02/2020 09:42

I’ve watched American horror story not a chance

MurrayTheMonk · 13/02/2020 09:45

Someone was murdered in our house, which is an old 15c inn. Her skeleton was found bricked into the back of the fireplace in about 1975 I think...it was hundreds of years old by then.
We had some ghost hunters pop up randomly and they held a sort of Seance where they apparently spoke to her. She said she had been killed by a 'bad man' (which isn't too much if a stretch Grin).

There is a sort of presence in our house but it feels quite kindly and benign. We chat to it sometimes Grin. The garden however is a different story. All four of us separately, and then DP and I together, have at random times felt inexplicably terrified and have had to run back to the house. The Dogs are a bit spooky about going in one particular corner. No evidence found anywhere about anything having happened in the garden, so it's weird.

I do wonder what has gone on in all the rooms here as obvs lots of different people have stayed here (some of them famous-Dick Turpin was alleged to have had a secret assignation with his wife here whilst on the run,and Elizabeth the 1st once allegedly dined in what is now our living room). Our house is very 'vibey' I suppose is the word.

My Mum lived near a house where a whole family was murdered. It was a beauty of a house but empty for years. The family that eventually bought it got it very cheap!

LaurieSchafferIsAllBitterNow · 13/02/2020 09:45

we converted an old cottage and steading and the previous tenant had hanged himself in the stable in front of the horses.

farmer down the road had found him when he was a teen! Shock

before we bought I took the dogs round with me, and they never turned a hair, and once we had finished and moved in we had a bit of a bash and the farmer came up and asked for a daunder about...and came back reporting all to be fine!

I cannot remember if we told the people we sold it to

adviceneededon · 13/02/2020 09:48

I live very near this house:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2002559.stm

The house took a few years to sell but did go eventually. It's a big beautiful house and no doubt someone got a bargain.

GinnyStrupac · 13/02/2020 09:50

Many years ago murders and other awful crimes were committed in a house across the moors from us. It was before my time but still in living memory. Recently there was publicity about it. I thought how dreadful it was to rake it up again after all those years, almost certainly to the detriment of the survivor, and to the current owners who might not even have known about it. The house went up for sale not long afterwards, and I wondered if that was why. Someone just wanted to make some money out of the story.