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Is Clyde A. Erwin High School Haunted?
If the classic 1980s horror film “Poltergeist” scared you, you may want to scroll past this blog post. According to multiple published reports and interviews, a high school in North Carolina is often visited by spirits, and they may be the spirits of people who were disturbed from their graves on the property the school was built on. Clyde A. Erwin High is located in Asheville, N.C., which in my personal experience, seems to be a hotbed of supernatural activity. Here’s the backstory on this high school and why many think the school is home to multiple spirits. Back in 1973, the Buncombe County Board of Education decided they wanted to upgrade and…
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The 5 Minutes of True Crime Series
I’ll be perfectly honest. I have a hard time watching myself on video. Is that really what I look like talking to people in person? You don’t want to know the thoughts that race through my head when I see myself on camera! But I also know so many people who are trying to promote themselves or a product they’ve created venture into places like IGTV and YouTube with videos designed to raise awareness for their work. With deep trepidation, I began this process slowly. First, I created a YouTube channel but only put one teaser trailer video on it. Then I began realizing how much content I write that people may never…
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Update: “Mostly Harmless” Hiker Identified
Back in November, I shared a post about an unidentified hiker who passed away in the summer of 2018 in the Big Cypress Yellow Preserve in south Florida. His case was mysterious because many people had encountered him on The Appalachian Trail during his journey and described him as friendly, but reserved. He told people to call him “Denim” and “Mostly Harmless” and also used the alias “Bill Bilemy.” When discovered, he appeared to have died of starvation and had more than $3,000 cash on him. What he didn’t have in his possession was any identification, a cell phone or credit cards. His story gained national media attention and internet sleuths were determined…
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Book Review: Last Act by Christopher Pike
One of my most treasured possessions as a teen was my collection of well-worn paperbacks from the author Christopher Pike. I considered them my “comfort” books, or books I could read in one sitting and escape to a world of thrills, unknowns, suspense and supernatural occurrences. Sometime after college, I either lost that collection (20 or so books) in a move or donated it. Christopher Pike was the pen name of a man named Kevin McFadden, and I recently came across this interview a fan girl turned adult writer such as myself conducted. If you were ever a reader of Christopher Pike’s YA literature, this is a great deep dive into how the…
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How Do We Diversify our Home Libraries?
This article originally appeared in the January 2021 issue of Lake Norman CURRENTS. There is a concept discussed in educational circles called “Mirrors and Windows.” Put simply, a mirror is a story that reflects your own culture and helps you build your identity. A window is a resource that offers you a view into someone else’s experience. It is critical to understand that students cannot truly learn about themselves unless they learn about others as well. On Jan. 19, Dr. Tehia Starker Glass, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Elementary Education at UNC-Charlotte, will lead a parent advisory discussion to parents at the Community School of Davidson (via Zoom) on the topic of…
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The Murder of Realtor Margo Dilemon
Margo Dilemon was a 39-year-old real estate agent living in Clearwater, Fla. when she mysteriously vanished on the job. She had an appointment to show some prospective homes to buyers on Oct. 3, 1981. But when the couple came into the real estate office where she worked, her colleagues hadn’t see her, even though her car was still in the parking lot. Dilemon was estranged from her husband Bob at the time and had a teenage daughter who lived with her grandparents in Texas. Her co-workers made a few calls and discovered Bob was out of town in New York and he had last spoken to her the night before she went missing…
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A History of Homes
This letter originally appeared in the January issue of Lake Norman CURRENTS. In my lifetime, I’ve owned three homes with my husband. They have all been uniquely different, and they all represent important touchstones in the history of our marriage. We purchased our first home in the spring following the year we got married. At the encouragement of some friends of ours, we checked out an older, more established neighborhood in High Point, N.C. At the time I was working in Winston-Salem and Daniel was working in Greensboro, so High Point seemed like a natural place to set up a home in between. The neighborhood had craftsman and Tudor-style homes built in the…
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The Murder of Karen Styles
It was Halloween of 1994. Karen was a 22-year-old recent graduate of Western Carolina University, which is located in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Due to its location in the Western North Carolina mountains, the school attracts thousands of students each year who love exploring all the area has to offer. Styles had probably run in wooded trails while in college numerous times without a second thought. But on this day in 1994, she never returned from her 8 a.m. run in the Pisgah National Forest, just a few miles away from where she had been staying at her parents home in nearby town of Candler. Her car was found later that evening in the…
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Wrapped Up with a Bow
This letter originally appeared in the December edition of Lake Norman CURRENTS. This time of year always brings back a rush of memories from when I worked in the retail industry in my teens and early 20s and the oh-so valuable life lessons I learned. My first memory that stands out is my time working at Belk Department Store. Now, if you’re a woman and you’ve never worked at Belk or shopped there, you can’t really consider yourself southern, in my opinion. When I was in high school, our local store at The Asheville Mall interviewed a number of teenagers from the surrounding high schools and then selected a handful of us to…
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How Visine Drops Contributed to Stacy Hunsucker’s Death
Most people wouldn’t think of Visine, a common over-the-counter eye drop product used to treat itchy and dry eyes as a murder weapon, but one Gaston County man awaiting trial is accused of using it as just that. On September 23, 2018, Stacy Robinson Hunsucker, a 32-year-old Charlotte preschool teacher and mother of two young daughters, passed away suddenly at the home she shared with her husband. Stacy had suffered from heart problems in the past and actually had a pacemaker implanted not long after the birth of the couple’s second daughter. Her husband, 35-year-old Jonathan Lee Hunsucker, refused to authorize an autopsy after her death, attributing his wife’s sudden passing to “myocardial…