The Haunted House Incident

In August 2006, just before the start of their senior year of high school, a group of girls were driving through their hometown of Worthington, Ohio. That dull night became much more exciting when they decided to visit what the local children called the "haunted house," a ruined house with a covered patio that was located across the street from the cemetery. The teenage girls thought it was abandoned. And they were, unfortunately, quite wrong.

Ohio's "Haunted House," as it appeared in 2007, a year after the shooting. 

It wasn't the first time Allen S. Davis, a 41-year-old inmate living in the house with his elderly mother, had been bothered by unwanted guests: he had already foiled a couple of robberies in 2006. He had a rifle for protection, and when he heard the girls outside, he decided to fire some warning bullets, as he had done other times. But this time, a bullet ended up in Rachel Barezinsky's head, 17.

Miraculously, he survived, and the ensuing case divided the community. Some people thought Davis probably had some form of mental illness, but he still had the right to protect his property. But as Fox News reported in 2007:

Police determined that the girls were not invading the property because they had not gone far enough and no clearly visible signs had been placed.

Davis said in several interviews in jail that he had no intention of hurting anyone. He finally pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal assault to avoid endless investigation into his personal life.

In 2009, Davis' mother died in that house while her son was in prison serving a 19-year sentence. In 2013, Barezinsky's family said the young woman was "90 percent recovered" from her injuries. That same year, the "haunted house" was purchased at auction by new owners who were determined to completely renovate the place. A Google Earth search proves they did an amazing job, although they haven't been able to do anything to hide those views of the cemetery.

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