Would you buy a house that somebody had been murdered in?

[lucy889]

Around 12 years ago, an awful murder involving a child and parent happened a few miles from our house, it was such a shock and the house has been empty ever since.

It's now on the market, I personally could never buy it or live there and I feel sad every time I drive by.

Would you buy it given the history if it was perfect for you?

Possibly, it may actually depend on what happened.

I think that we pass through places where horrible things have happened all the time. Lonely deaths, car accidents, violence, accidental deaths etc. We cope with this.

Yes, of course I would.

Adults can rationalise - or choose to ignore an issue or favour a narrative or whatever - but I don’t know if kids can be expected to process something like that in the same way. So I’d be concerned because it’s a fairly horrible story which I’d imagine made news and it’s still within living memory of people who’re kicking about locally. So when your child gets older someone at school might start yapping about it, and then it’d freak them out or they might get hassle for living in the ‘murder house.’ Some kids can be very unpleasant.

I don't think people who don't like the idea of it, object because they are worried about ghosts. It's got nothing to do with superstition. It's because the house is associated with a horrific murder.

No, because I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about what had happened. Don't beleive in ghosts or bad energy or any of that nonsense though.

Absolutely not. Houses have vibes. Our first home was very neutral vibed. Not positive or negative.

Our current house has very good vibes. I don’t know how to describe it but I think the previous occupant is still here and he is happy.

Yes, nothing to do with woo. I would just feel uncomfortable living in a space knowing a horrific murder had taken place there.

No I don’t think so. I don’t believe in ghosts (my own mum died in my house) but I would be wondering what happened where. If I could knock it down and rebuild, or completely refigure maybe, but that would mean I have plenty of money to buy something else anyway.

Absolutely not.

No. Because there are lots of other houses where such things haven't happened, and I'd rather have one of those. I am not at all spooky-minded, but some of my guests would be; nothing puts a downer on a cheese and wine soiree like twitchy Woos who won't go to the loo on their own or someone's 'psychic' pal going off into a swoon in the camembert.

In my home town (york),there was a murder of a 4 year old girl called Norma Dale (21st Sept 1947)

She went out to play,didn't come home and they found her a few weeks later wearing her red shoe (it's known locally as 'the red shoe murder')

My father says she heard something she shouldnt have heard,it was a wet time of year,she'd been 'stored' in a coal scuttle before being dumped less than 60 yards from her home (I know that area well-it was wasteland at this time and an environmental centre now)and they left it too late to call in Scotland yard-they never found who did it

The house she lived in in Rawdon crescent is known as the 'unlucky house' (it's a council house)

I grew up just up the road and used to live in the next street along as an adult and someone would move in,last about a year or so and move back out,the next tenants would move in,live there a max of 18 months,rinse and repeat

My friend used to live next door but two along and we've both been in the 'unlucky house'

It's got such a weird vibe,I can't explain it,just 'unfriendly' and it has a 'shadow' as you walk past

(I know this is a bit different to buying a house but it's still people living there)

A lot of people say they wouldn't live there but can't explain why-she wasn't murdered there,she only lived there

You could pay me enough to live there myself-its got awful vibrations

(I've not lived in york for the last ten years so as far as I know,whoever lives there now could have been there ages and be perfectly happy-im going by the 36 years i lived in the area)

I remember being asked that question once by an estate agent who we'd engaged to sell our house. We weren't potential buyers for the house in question, as it was in the same area and we were moving to a different part of the country. I suppose he was just getting some opinions on what kind of reaction to expect once it was put on the market.

Yes very much so. I definitely couldn’t get past that (especially every time I used the loo 😱)

It's really interesting to read everyone's different perspectives.

I don't think anyone would particularly remember it from the news so I doubt anyone would be standing outside taking photos of the house etc.

I know the neighbour sold up within a couple of years of the murder as she heard it happen and called the police, it happened in the middle of the day and I still remember trying to get home from work and that way was gridlocked due to road closure, police and crime scene presence.

It was the child's grandmother who posted on Facebook what had happened and there was a memorial service at the local church for the child. For a good few years after flowers would appear on the gate.

It's very sad and like I said, I feel really heavy when I drive past especially with my daughter in the back of the car.

I'm interested to see how quickly it sells.

No.

I live in 3 places. Not a rich lady, it's because my work is kinda peripatetic and two of the places I stay in come with the job. None of them is less than 500 years old, one of them considerably older in parts.

I sometimes think of the things that the places have seen - how many people must have been born or died in them.

I'm more likely than not to be alone - including overnight. It has never bothered me, even in the really old place. Locals are sure it's haunted.
I always greet the places as I arrive and tell them when I'll be back. One day I won't be. The houses will go on waaaay longer than me. Maybe I'll join the ghosts!

So many houses in the UK are over 100 years old - very likely that people have died in most of our homes. This doesn't bother me, but knowing about a violent death or suicide would I think.

@TallulahBetty - Nilsen's place was in Cranley Gardens, N10 - there's a piece about it here - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/would-you-live-in-a-house-of-horrors-muswell-hill-flat-where-serial-killing-necrophiliac-dennis-nilsen-butchered-victims-goes-up-for-sale-8763510.html

Actually you can still see the rightmove listing if you click on the link, quite an odd selection of photos they showed?! Obviously the flat would have been occupied again and renovated after the awful murders, but I wonder if they only showed limited pictures for a reason?

It wouldn't bother me. But there was one in our village and in 50 years it never sold, so it does put a lit of people off.

No way!

I would cleanse the energy, but yes, I'd buy it.

Yes I would but then I'm classed as 'woo' because I have a small ceremony for the house and land whenever we've moved.

Yes, certainly.

Aah right. Interesting. I’d imagine someone who WASN’T familiar with what went on there has bought it? Maybe not from the UK? Or maybe someone who has a stronger stomach and a less vivid imagination than me

People don't always know when horrible things have happened in houses they buy.

I drive past that flat all the time. Looks v normal obvs tiny bit shabbier than its neighbours but otherwise a nice road / flat.

I’m a rational person so don’t believe in the woo element, but I don’t think I’d be comfortable living somewhere that a child had been murdered. Especially if it was recent. My mind would dwell too much on the sadness, and I wouldn’t want that in my own home.

I lived in a flat at university where someone had taken their own life the year before, and I didn’t dwell on that. I think I probably had less empathy when I was 18, though.