A young couple bought one of America’s most terrifying homes last year – and found what appeared to be a human skeleton under their front porch.
Kyle Wheeler, 37, and Aleha Jane, 33, bought Bissell Mansion in St Louis for $205,000 without ever seeing the inside.
The historic house, one of the oldest in the city, has caught the attention of the HGTV series Scariest House in America, which seeks to identify the most haunted home in the nation.
During the first week after purchasing the mansion, the couple encountered a nuisance as a motion detector alarm in the basement was triggered nightly. They installed a camera to monitor the area, yet nothing unusual was ever recorded.
‘The weird thing is when I would get there, it would stop,’ Wheeler told the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
The alarm kept going off every night until the couple disabled it.
Wheeler also reported hearing footsteps from the second floor while on the ground floor.
In June, while renovations were ongoing after HGTV completed filming their episode, Wheeler stumbled upon what seemed to be a human skeleton beneath the old front porch.
The Bissell Mansion is one of the oldest brick houses in St. Louis
The house was built between 1812 and 1820 by Captain Lewis Bissell who served in the War of 1812
Kyle Wheeler, 37, and his wife, Aleha Jane, 33, purchased the Bissell Mansion last year for $205,000 without ever seeing the inside
He called the police, who told him to seal the area until an investigation could be carried out.
But the creepiest phenomenon might be the mysterious man who stands in a corner which visitors to the mansion over the years have reported seeing.
Contractors working on the house in recent weeks have also reported seeing a man dressed in black standing at the window.
Wheeler’s wife, Jane, admits she does not feel entirely comfortable when she is in the house alone.
The Bissell Mansion sits atop a hill in St. Louis’ College Hill neighborhood.
At least 13 fatalities have been confirmed within this house, originally constructed by Captain Lewis Bissell between 1812 and 1820, making it one of the city’s earliest brick structures.
This house, over two centuries old, functioned as the central part of a slave plantation owned by Captain Bissell, a War of 1812 veteran. Some individuals who passed away there might have been buried in the front yard, as the property once included a private cemetery.
Today, the mansion in fairly poor shape and in need of serious renovations.
Since the Wheelers purchased the house, they have experienced a series of creepy incidents
The creepiest phenomenon might be the mysterious man who stands in a corner which visitors to the mansion over the years have reported seeing
A local historian suggests that despite Captain Bissell owning slaves, a series of caves beneath the house might have been utilized as part of the Underground Railroad.
The owners of the winning house on HGTV’s show will receive a $150,000 prize, which the Wheelers said would be helpful but the house will need much more work than the sum can pay for.
The Bissell mansion used to be the site of a murder mystery dinner theatre, where Hercule Poirot style comedic shows were performed along with a meal.
Before that, it was a fruit-growing plantation with six slaves and two Irish indentured servants. Because of the many mulberry trees in the surrounding area which used to be part of the 16,000 acre plantation, Wheeler thinks they probably grew the fruit.
Captain Bissell was injured in the War of 1812 in the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, one of the bloodiest engagements of the war. He built his house on a fortified position at the top of a steep hill.
A hole in the basement used to lead to caves beneath the house, but it has long been sealed. There are rumors that the caves led all the way to the Mississipi River.
A local historian told the Wheelers that the house and caves may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Although the Bissells owned slaves, some abolitionists did so as a cover.
The Bissells sold the mansion in 1882 to the Kraft family. Three of their children died of diptheria just 11 days later, and a fourth died after another year.
The house was passed off between owners several times afterwards before becoming a rooming house.
In 1953, there was a plan to knock it down to make room for an expressway, but the Landmarks Association of St. Louis saved it from demolition in 1957.
It then briefly became a restaurant before it was turned into a murder mystery dinner theater.
When COVID hit, the theater closed in March 2020 and never reopened. The Wheelers bought it four years later in 2024.
The couple hopes to restore the mansion to its former grandeur. They expect renovations will take two years, and they hope to revive the murder mystery dinner theatre and open rooms on the second floor for people who want to spend the night.
