Now a Cold Case Canada Podcast: Halloween Special – Three Ghost Stories and a Murder
For over six decades a large white house stood at the corner of Williams Street North and Portage Avenue in Chilliwack. The stately old manor had a three-storey tower with a turret topped off by a witch’s hat roof, and for a while, the house put the town on the tourist map.
Hetty and Douglas Fredrickson unknowingly bought the haunted house in 1965, and it wasn’t long before strange things starting happening. One upstairs bedroom was particularly active. Drawers opened and slammed shut; a heavy old iron bedstead moved around by itself, and the Fredrickson’s heard footsteps in the room, when the rest of the family were gathered downstairs.
Neighbours told her two stories about the house. One said that a man committed suicide there in 1956. Another said a woman was murdered and cemented in the chimney.
Hetty found a hidden door, a boarded over passageway and a small undiscovered turret room. And if that wasn’t weird enough, things were about to get worse.
She saw an illuminated mist that reeked of perfume, and then she began to dream about a ghost. In these dreams she’d see the shape of a terrified woman in a red dress with yellow flowers.
Hetty, an artist, decided to paint the ghost.
“It was not easy,” she said. “Every time I tried to paint, the face would start out as a man even as I tried to paint a woman. But I really concentrated and at last painted a likeness of the woman.”
In 1966 the Chilliwack Progress wrote about Hetty’s ghost. The national media jumped on the story and it was reported in papers as far away as Japan.
But even scarier than the changing painting and the rumoured deaths, was the public reaction. One Sunday, 700 people turned up at the Fredricksons to try to catch a glimpse of the ghosts. They broke the front steps, prompting the couple to put up a “no sightseers” sign.
It was all too much for Douglas, a logger, and the couple left for Vancouver Island in 1968.
The next owners moved into the house with their eight kids and the family dog. Known only as Mrs. X in the media, the owner told a reporter that while she didn’t believe in ghosts, there were at least three sharing the house, including a mother ghost who liked to watch television with the family. Her husband, who didn’t believe in ghosts either, slept with a gun under his pillow.
In 1973, a clever realtor decided to embrace the poltergeist. The house he said was available for $23,000 and included six bedrooms, a new roof, and a very old ghost.
“It used to be that selling a haunted house was a real estate man’s nightmare,” the realtor said. “Today haunted houses seem to attract more interest than those that are not.”
Two years later the house burned down.
For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:
S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder
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16 comments on “The Chilliwack Hostess with the Ghostess”
Do they know what caused the fire Eve?
Oh good question Sandra. I honestly can’t remember if I knew that or not. I’ll see if I can find that file
They believe it was a faultt hot water tank that caused the fire to the house
To Answer your question, it was a hot water tank that exploded and caught fire as it was mixed with some paints and thinners that had been stored in the basement near to the hot water tank. There were a husband and wife home at the time, sleeping, with their 5 children. The Father and Mother had to lower the 3 younger children aging from 10 to 13, by holding their arms and dropping them into the arms of the waiting neighbours. The older boy aged 16 escaped from his lower first-floor bedroom window wearing only a blanket, he wrapped himself in. It was thought that there was the sixth child, which due to neighbours informing fireman that only 5 children had escaped the fire, the family actually had 6 kids. A fireman tried to reenter the home to look for the sixth child, believed to be still in the house, and ended up being severely burned on his hand. Which made him have to retreat from the house. It was later discovered that the sixth child was away at a friend’s house. The Mother of the home received severe smoke inhalation and had to be rushed by ambulance to the Chilliwack Hospital, and was released later that evening. The home was completely gutted, and only a few items were salvageable by the family.
It was later discovered that the Local Fire Chief, who lived 4 blocks away from the home, had arrived on scene within a short time of the fire being discovered. As he stated that he woke to sounds of Rick Trehearne, screaming Fire, Fire, Fire, Help us!!!
I hope this answers any questions you may have had.
Hi Cheryl, thanks so much for all this information
I remember this fire. But the 6th child who they could not locate was actually up at the Columbia Valley Bible camp, on a week long camping trip that alot of students in grades 6 and 7 went on. He was in my class at school. And I lived down the street. I remember him at camp, being quite sad and withdrawn. And also, Hetty Frederickson lived close to us in Kelsey Bay, on Vancouver Island. Coincidence that we ended up moving to Chilliwack and living so close in a town quite far from Kelsey Bay. My parents knew her.
IT was a faulty hot water tank. that blew up in the basement, and there was paint stored nearby which caught fire.
They believe it was open paint cans stored too close to the hot water tank.
I lived in this house in 1971 we rented it from hetty fredrickson,there were painting of hers hung in the trees in the driveway.my dad worked at chilliwack taxi and hetty son had work there before him.the employees told him stories of the son climbing the fire escape at the back of the house and flushing the toilet and his foreign wife would go running out of the house afraid because no one was home but her.apperently he thought it was funny.beautiful home ,I miss looking down williams and seeing it.
Would have loved to have seen this house! Thanks so much for adding to the story
This old house has another significant fact attached to it! In early 1968, it was occupied by a local group of young musicians and artists, and unofficially became the catalyst of the burgeoning Hippy movement of the times. Moved by the mistaken idea that being empty and uninhabited, it was considered fair game for squatters. Also, someone in the group who was close to Hetty was convinced that she had O.K.’d them moving in. The occupation only lasted 3 or 4 days before the police evicted everyone, but it brought together a number of like minded people and the Chilliwack Hippies sub-culture emerged as a result. That’s them in the photo. I’m the one sitting half way down the stairs, to the right.
That’s amazing Ken! Thanks so much for adding some depth to the story
My mother Hetty Fredrickson was visiting me in Holland in 1968.
These people broke in and destroyed personal belongings, stealing all sorts of stuff and left the walls smeared with paint and hateful slogans. My mother was in tears when she came home. They were
not hippies or musicians, but ordinary hooligans! Some of them I knew personally, I will not mention names, but would like the real story to be known. Thank you!
I think this was the same house my late husband and his brother were foster children in Their room was at the top of the stairs and My late husband always said there was a sound of a lady laughing and a baby crying Also at night it was real cold in their room and record player would play and the bed would move and the blankets move up and down .They were so scared it would literally make them sick They were only kids so it had to be in the late 1940 as he was born in 1939 He also said there was a picture of a man who eyes would follow you .He said the people who were fostering them name was Frank’s
He told this story many times until one day He told it to someone up country in BC And he said he knew the house He had work for the Pinkerton guard and a realtor hired them to take dogs into there because it sold so many time saying it was haunted Well the dogs wouldn’t go any further than halve way up the stairs a shepherd and Doberman They had their hackles up and were growling My late husband bedroom was at right top of stairs So as then story went from there they did find a body of a old lady in the wall but never found the baby
After fire the chimney must have been taken down! No results? No mention….forget the story’s truth!!
Let’s say the exploding hot water tank was the cover story and the actual fire starter was something different? To destroy the house of demons. Something Sam and Dean may do from Supernatural to destroy the haunting once and for all?