Imagine looking out your window and seeing your three-year-old daughter walking through the backyard, holding one little hand in the air as though someone much taller were walking beside her. She's smiling, talking, and occasionally looking up as if listening to a response. But there's nobody there.
When you ask who she's talking to, she tells you it's her friend, Mr. Gordy. He's a nice old man who likes to push her on the swing.
Now imagine discovering that Mr. Gordy was a real person who had died fourteen years before your family moved into the neighborhood.
For the Wyrick family of Ellerslie, Georgia, encounters like these were only the beginning. What started as an innocent childhood friendship would eventually become one of Georgia's most fascinating reported hauntings, inspiring paranormal investigations, television documentaries, and a Hollywood horror film.
Heidi Wyrick's Mysterious Visitors
In 1988, Andy and Lisa Wyrick moved into a home in rural Georgia with their young daughter, Heidi. Shortly afterward, Heidi began talking about people her parents couldn't see. At first, they assumed she had imaginary friends, but Heidi's descriptions were unusually detailed.
One of her visitors was an elderly gentleman she called Mr. Gordy. She described him as tall and slender, with gray hair, a suit and tie, and shiny black shoes. According to Heidi, he enjoyed spending time with her outdoors, pushing her on the swing and even helping her learn to ride a bicycle. Lisa sometimes watched her daughter walking through the backyard with one arm raised, apparently holding the hand of someone invisible.
Another visitor was a man Heidi called Con. Unlike Mr. Gordy, Con had a rather disturbing appearance. Heidi described him as having white hair, wearing a bloodstained T-shirt, and having one hand wrapped in a bloody bandage. Surprisingly, she didn't seem frightened by him. Lisa, however, worried that a seriously injured stranger might be approaching her daughter.
The family searched for an explanation, but nobody matching Con's description could be found.
Then came a remarkable discovery.
The Men Who Had Been Dead for Decades
While investigating the history of their property and surrounding homes, the Wyricks discovered that a man named James S. Gordy had once lived nearby. People who remembered him described a tall, slender gentleman with gray hair who wore suits, ties, and polished black shoes. The resemblance to Heidi's descriptions was striking.
James Gordy had died in 1974, more than a decade before Heidi was born.
The family's discovery about Con was equally mysterious. When shown old family photographs belonging to a former neighbor, Heidi reportedly recognized a man she identified as Con. His actual name was Lon Batchelor.
Years earlier, Lon had suffered a terrible accident involving a cotton gin, losing one of his hands. Although he survived the accident and lived for decades afterward, he died of cancer in 1957. Heidi's description of a blood-covered man with a bandaged hand seemed to echo an injury that had occurred long before her birth.
How could a little girl seemingly know the names and appearances of people who had died decades earlier?
For Heidi, the answer didn't seem particularly important. Mr. Gordy and Con were simply familiar visitors, and she continued interacting with them without fear.
But that would soon change.
When the Wyrick Family Haunting Turned Dark
Around 1993, while Lisa was pregnant with her second child, Heidi began reporting a new presence in the house. Unlike her familiar visitors, this entity appeared as a dark, faceless figure lurking in the hallway. Its appearance terrified her.
Soon, the family began experiencing unexplained physical injuries. Heidi reportedly awakened with deep, claw-like scratches on her face. Her father, Andy, later described discovering similar painful marks across his side, back, and chest, sometimes accompanied by a burning sensation.
Then, shortly after the birth of the family's second daughter, Jordan, in February 1994, something even more frightening reportedly occurred.
According to an April 23, 2002, report in the Ledger-Enquirer, a niece who was babysitting discovered a ribbon tied tightly around the infant's neck. The ribbon reportedly contained eight knots. The babysitter quickly cut it away, and Jordan was unharmed, but nobody could explain how it had gotten there.
Heidi also described experiencing the terrifying sensation of a pillow being pressed over her face by an unseen force.
What had once seemed like an unusual but harmless connection to the spirit world now left the Wyricks fearing for their children's safety.
Paranormal Investigators and Unsolved Mysteries
Desperate for answers, the Wyricks eventually sought help from Dr. William G. Roll, a respected parapsychologist who had spent decades studying hauntings, apparitions, and other unexplained phenomena.
Roll traveled to Georgia to investigate Heidi's experiences. During one test, Heidi was presented with several photographs and asked to identify Mr. Gordy. According to Roll's account, she successfully selected the photograph of James Gordy.
The results intrigued Roll, although the investigation did not establish exactly how Heidi had obtained the information or what was responsible for the family's frightening experiences.
In 1994, the Wyrick family haunting was featured on Unsolved Mysteries, bringing national attention to Heidi's remarkable story. Unfortunately, the publicity came with a price. Heidi reportedly endured teasing from classmates who called her "Ghost Girl," and as she grew older, she became increasingly reluctant to discuss her experiences.
Yet the unusual activity reportedly continued. In 1999, Roll returned to investigate additional disturbances, including reports that Heidi's younger sister had begun seeing apparitions of her own.
An Eight-Foot Winged Creature on the Expressway
Perhaps one of the strangest experiences Heidi ever described occurred when she was a teenager.
In a 2002 interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, Heidi recalled traveling along the Manchester Expressway when she spotted an enormous winged creature near the highway. She described it as approximately eight feet tall, black and gray in color, with large wings.
According to her account, the creature swooped down and landed on a building near the road. One of its wings obscured its face, preventing her from seeing what it looked like.
Nobody else in the vehicle reportedly saw it.
The description raises some fascinating questions. Was this another apparition, something resembling the legendary Mothman, or an entirely different kind of unexplained encounter?
Whatever Heidi believed she was seeing, her experiences were clearly no longer confined to the family home.
Did the Haunting Follow Heidi?
Over the years, the Wyricks increasingly turned to their religious faith for comfort and protection. Their pastor believed they might be dealing with a malevolent spiritual presence, and the family participated in prayer sessions and other religious practices. Eventually, they reported that the more disturbing activity had decreased.
Their story became the subject of the 2002 television documentary A Haunting in Georgia and later inspired the 2013 horror movie The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, which incorporated fictional elements alongside the family's reported experiences.
But moving away didn't necessarily mean leaving the unexplained behind.
In a 2008 interview with WTVM, Heidi, then 22 years old and living away from her childhood home, reported that she was still seeing spirits. She had married and begun building an ordinary adult life, but the unusual encounters apparently continued.
That may be the most unsettling part of the Wyrick family haunting. If Heidi continued experiencing apparitions after leaving the house, perhaps the mystery was never entirely about the property.
Perhaps it was about Heidi herself.
What Was Really Happening to Heidi Wyrick?
Most haunted house stories begin with frightening footsteps, unexplained noises, or shadows moving through dark rooms. The Wyrick haunting began with something entirely different: a little girl making a friend.
Mr. Gordy was a kindly old gentleman who pushed Heidi on the swing, held her hand, and seemed to enjoy spending time with her. For years, she apparently had no reason to fear him or the other mysterious visitor she called Con.
Then came the faceless figure, the unexplained injuries, and encounters with something far more sinister.
Was Heidi somehow able to see people who had died? Were the encounters connected to the house, or did she possess an unusual sensitivity that followed her into adulthood? Nearly four decades after her earliest reported experiences, the story continues to raise questions.
Perhaps the most disturbing possibility isn't simply that Heidi could see the dead.
It's that she might have been able to see something else entirely.
And whatever it was, it might have been looking back at her.
Listen to the Wyrick Family Haunting on You Two Scare Me
Join Feliz and Andi on the You Two Scare Me Podcast as we explore Heidi Wyrick's extraordinary story, the paranormal investigations, and the terrifying encounters that made the Wyrick family haunting famous.
Plus, in our Somebody Told Me segment, we share an emotional firsthand account from David, whom we met at Obscuracon, about a remarkable experience at the haunted Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, shortly after his mother's passing.
What do you think? Was Heidi Wyrick really seeing ghosts, or was something else happening in that Georgia home?
Want to know more about spooky kids?
Check out our episode on Black Eyed Children! So scary!
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