Baby Wakes Up With Scratches, Then Mom Notices Strange Figure On Camera

When strange things started happening in her home in Michigan, one mother became set on getting to the bottom of things. She heard noises at night, and before long, something drove her over the edge. Even though she started blaming her fiancé, he denied everything. Now that she had it, all she had to do was watch the footage, but she was not ready for what she discovered.

The Video From The Monitor

In their daughter’s room, they had set up a baby monitor to film what was actually going on. She could not believe their daughter scratched herself at night, but Joshua denied knowing what was happening when she questioned him. She sat down to watch the footage, ready to catch him red-handed. However, as she watched it, her skin started to crawl because she knew right away that it was not her fiancé who was caught on video.

Scratches On Her Face

Heather Brough and Joshua Higgins lived in a guesthouse in Michigan owned by Joshua’s mother. The couple, together with their 1-year-old child, Lily, had been living in the home for a little over a year when one day, something made the family want to move out as quickly as possible. Everything began when Heather took Lily out of the crib and noticed scratches on the little one’s face. At first, the mom did not put much thought into it but more marks appeared after the scratches had healed. She knew she needed to approach him.

Everything Changed

Heather and her fiancé had a stable relationship and were living together. They lived the life of a young couple in a quiet town with all their dreams coming true, and at that moment, everything was perfect – they were in love, had a beautiful baby girl, and lived in a cozy little home. One day, however, everything changed. Heather was sleeping when she started to hear strange noises inside the house: thumps on the floor, the squealing of a door, and even what seemed like footsteps in the kitchen. Then, she discovered strange scratches on her one-year-old’s face in the morning and decided she has had enough.

Things Began To Get Tense

She asked her fiancé whether he was the one getting up at night and even asked him if he had gone to Lily’s room the previous night. She also questioned him about the scratches on Lily’s face. Would their fairytale relationship end here? Things between them began to get tense, with Joshua denying everything, so Heather decided to catch him red-handed. She had no idea that what she was going to see would be much worse than what she have suspected.

Had To Do Something

She knew that she had to do something; she could not continue living like that. Her fiancé denied everything and she was wondering whether she was going crazy and just imagining everything. Heather thought that perhaps an animal kept getting in, but she knew she always made sure to close all the windows and doors before she went to sleep. It had to be something or someone that was already in the house.

Getting Answers

She knew this could possibly end the loving relationship she had with Joshua, so Heather had to find answers. The couple finally decided to buy a baby monitor that they could set up in Lily’s room. They positioned it at an angle that is focused on the crib. Joshua was quite sure it was just Lily scratching herself at night and he pointed it out that babies can graze their faces while they sleep because of their nails. However, it was still happening even if Heather was careful to keep their daughter’s nails well-trimmed after the first incident. Needless to say, Heather was not prepared for the truth.

Finding Out The Truth

She really wanted to uncover the truth, so she set everything up. The couple even purchased a state-of-the-art baby monitor called Logitech Circle 2, which has night vision, so that they could solve the mystery. Sure enough, there were scratches on Lily’s face again in the morning, so it was time to watch the footage to find out what was doing this. However, when Heather finished watching the video, her own home became her worst nightmare.

A Figure

A man’s blurry figure appears in Lily’s bedroom. She thought that she had figured it out – Joshua had been walking around their home at night while Heather slept. The question was why he did not tell her and why he kept it secret. Was it some kind of joke or was Joshua sleepwalking? She needed to keep watching so that the truth would be revealed, but what she saw next shocked her to the core.

Someone Else

The grainy shadow walks past Lily’s crib, and Lily, aware that someone is in the room, sits upright. She then slowly holds the side of the crib, pulls herself up to a standing position and curiously looks around. Then, the man turns towards the monitor, and Heather knew at this point that this man was not the person she initially thought he was.

Spine-Chilling Realization

Heather’s breath stalled and her scalp prickled. Her heart thudded louder at the realization that the man was a total stranger. She could not take her eyes off what she was watching and continued to look at the mysterious intruder. This stranger went on roaming around Lily’s room and Heather’s stomach knotted. At that point, the question was who exactly the man was.

Need To Get Out

Now Heather knew why she heard strange noises at night and where Lily’s scratches came from. She kept replaying the clip again and again, and at one point, the man becomes totally transparent as he moves by Lily. Then it dawned on Heather that this was not a man and what she was looking at was not human. Chills ran through her body and she pulled her daughter closer. She needed to tell Joshua and they needed to get out.

The Truth Revealed

Joshua also watched the footage and he recounted, “It was chilling… It was literally a chill down your spine, like that ‘what if’ factor — Is this what I just saw?” Heather said, “Seeing Lily’s face with the scratches was so bizarre and frightening.” She added, “I was crying, ‘What happened to you?’ I grabbed her jacket and ran over to my mother-in-law’s house. Nobody knew what happened. We wondered if she’d scratched herself, but when we put her hands up to the scratches it did not match up.”

Calling The Authorities

After watching the footage, chills chased up Joshua’s spine and there was a ball of terror in his stomach. He was completely terrified; he needed to take his family out of the house as soon as possible. Gasping, he ran outside with Heather and Lily and called the police right away. He was referred to the Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Michigan – what they found rattled him even more.

Getting The House Investigated

Scientific Paranormal Investigations of Michigan co-owner Mike Priest sent out a team right away to investigate the home. However, what they discovered just made Joshua and Heather even more determined to leave. After they reviewed the evidence, they came to the conclusion that the main house, as well as the guest house which was attached to it, could be haunted.

Other Strange Occurrences

There were other strange occurrences in that house. In an interview, Heather said “I woke up to get ready for work one morning and it felt like someone was choking me,” and she continued, “It shook me to the point where I decided to buy our camera.” Because she knew Joshua wouldn’t have believed her, she had not told him about this incident. She added, “There have been times where me and my fiancé would wake up in the morning and I would hear an angry male voice — like someone had stubbed their toe.”

Strange Sounds

“I definitely believe there is something going on at this house,” Mike Priest said. “We are looking forward to checking out this one as well.” He said that he and his team were able to record strange sounds in the home after he came in at Joshua’s request. “We heard something say, ‘Oh here we go. Oh yeah.’ I heard it as plain as day,” Mike recounted.

Set To Return

Mike Priest, together with his team, is set to go back to the house soon in order to do a full-blown paranormal investigation. According to Mike, their goal is to see whether they can replicate the footage or find some logical explanation for it before they chalked it up to paranormal activity. He hopes to find what it was that the camera had recorded in Lily’s room. Joshua’s mother, Kris, has owned the home for 11 years, so she might be able to shed light on who was possibly haunting the family.

Previous Residents

“I was told when we bought the houses 11 years ago the lady who owned the property died in the main house,” Kris explained. “It’s an old farmhouse and according to her niece… she fell down the stairs, broke her hips and laid there for a very long time before she passed away. She said that the guesthouse was built for the lady’s brother who was schizophrenic.” However, Joshua’s father, Jim, has a different theory.

A Dark Past

Jim is convinced the man terrorizing Joshua and Heather is a previous guesthouse tenant. “The gentleman that lived here originally… (jumped) out this window, which is one story down,” Jim explained to WXYZ-TV Detroit. Heather and Joshua may not be any closer to learning who is stalking around Lily’s room at night, but they know what they can do about it.

Leaving As Soon As Possible

“It scares us that it could do something else,” Heather explained. “It’s not physically just going after her, it feels like it’s going after myself too… This has made us want to leave as soon as possible. As soon as possible we’re out of here. This is a spirit. I don’t know what its intentions are, but at this point it’s becoming physically harmful.”

Some Skeptics

The video, which Heather and Joshua released on social media, has gone viral and has chilled a lot of viewers to the bone, but there are some skeptics as well. Some people do not really believe the video shows an apparition and they say that there is probably a very simple explanation for what was recorded.

An Observation

Kenny Biddle from the Skeptical Inquirer wrote this: “There’s something else I noticed right away – the ghost was casting a shadow, two actually. This tells me the figure is a solid, physical object able to reflect light. In the first milliseconds of the video, as the figure is moving to the left, you can see its shadow move across the ceiling right by the ceiling fan.”

A Plausible Explanation

He adds: “I would surmise either (Heather) and/or (Joshua) had been watching television and had reason to get up out of bed, perhaps go down to the kitchen for a drink/food or a visit to the bathroom, paused the video and walked across the room not realizing they were being recorded. At a later, unspecified time, they reviewed the footage and due to a lack of understanding of video cameras, concluded the distorted figure was a ghost.” However, why does Lily have scratches on her face?

A Possibility

“Aside from the technical issues, it is not uncommon for babies to scratch themselves. We know from her statements that (Heather) discovered the scratches after waking the baby up from a nap,” Kenny also wrote, “… but there’s nothing to rule out the possibility Lily scratched herself while sleeping.” When Kenny dug deeper into the story, he discovered something interesting.

The Motivation

“I’m not sure exactly what the motivation behind these claims is, but I do have my suspicions,” Kenny explained. “I went to Heather Brough’s Facebook page earlier today and noticed that she posted her first public post since November of 2018; it was a link to a GoFundMe account she had created that day (March 26, 2019) with a goal of $5,000. She was asking for this amount to help her move out of the guest house, citing her daughter’s safety from all the paranormal activity as the main reason for the fundraising.” He then reached out to Heather with a Facebook message.

The Message

“Hello, my name is Kenny Biddle, and I’ve been investigating paranormal claims for the last 20+ years. Your video of what is believed to be a ghost walking in your house was brought to my attention by several paranormal groups. After taking a look at it, I was wondering if there was a longer clip – perhaps footage showing the few minutes leading up to (and including) the clip that was shared on ABC Action News. The clip that has been shared starts with the figure already in motion, and I was hoping to see where it originates,” Kenny wrote in his message.

Waiting For A Response

“I noticed the TV was on, so being able to confirm it wasn’t someone (living) watching TV and perhaps got up to get something, would be beneficial. I’m not saying this was a hoax, I’m just trying to get as much information as possible to understand what the video is showing. I appreciate your time in reading this. I hope to hear back from you. Have a good day.” According to Kenny, he is still waiting for a response from Heather.