A thriller writer has revealed the chilling tale behind her 300-year-old home in Massachusetts – and why many locals consider it haunted.
Tracy Sierra, an attorney and mother originally from Colorado is the author behind the debut novel Nightwatching, which is based off of the harrowing truths she’s uncovered in her mysterious house.
Sierra said the house that has been around for three centuries was originally passed down to inherited family members before she purchased it.
She said the last owner ‘was apparently a real piece of work’ that was not well liked by locals.
‘The story goes that folks finally kind of noticed that he hadn’t been showing up in town at all, so they came to the house, knocked and no one answered,’ Sierra said in a TikTok video.
The 300-year-old colonial style home in Massachusetts has been considered a haunted house by long-time residents who said it was abandoned for 40 years
Tracy Sierra, an attorney, mother and author is the new owner of the mysterious home and did some digging into the past owner of the house
After digging out more information from historical society records, Sierra uncovered the man was later found in the well just outside of the colonial-style home.
‘It was not clear if he jumped in there on purpose [or] if he fell in there. No one really knew what happened. It had been quite a while,’ Sierra said, noting the man had a substance abuse issue.
People in town told the author they considered the home to be haunted based on how the past owner was found and because the property remained abandoned for 40 years after his peculiar death.
She told Newsweek a historical pamphlet mentioned the man’s death was the result of suicide, though other records surrounding the past family called it an accident.
In one of her videos, Sierra showed the well the man was found inside and said it has since been closed off.
She also showed the property’s graveyard site, which has an unmarked gravestone for the victim.
Sierra said that though it is hard to know for sure what took place in her home, a man in his 90s was the first to approach her when she moved in and claimed she lived in a ‘haunted house.’
Sierra discovered that a ‘really crotchety old man’ once lived in her home and was found dead inside this well. She has since closed off the well
Sierra’s debut novel Nightwatching is set to be released in the US on February 6 and is based off her new found truths of her 300-year-old home in New England
‘Kids would dare each other to sneak into the old, abandoned house, swearing they saw the man’s ghost,’ Sierra said.
The residence was eventually renovated by the prior owners and Sierra admitted she has never had a run in with a supernatural experiences in the home.
‘Our feeling has always been that all places have history, visible or not. And by tending to and caring for the land and the home, by making it a home and showing respect for the history, everyone is happy,’ she said.
Don Allison, a ghost hunter, told Newsweek if the previous homeowner was found dead in the well, then ‘haunting may or may not take place at or near the well.’
Allison added other parts of the property might raise haunted suspicions if the former owner dwelled in those places frequently.
‘In my personal experience hauntings are harmless, although at times annoying,’ Allison said.
The home also has a graveyard site, which has an unmarked gravestone for the victim
Sierra said she has never had a run in with a supernatural experiences in the home. ‘Our feeling has always been that all places have history, visible or not,’ she said
Sierra shared the story of her home not just on social media but in a new novel as well.
Her thriller book Nightwatching is set to be released in the US on February 6, and is about a mother who hears mysterious footsteps in an old home that she is in with her young children during a blizzard.
The mother soon starts to see the figure of a man as she becomes overcome with fear and tries to protect her kids.
‘Nightmarish–you won’t be able to look away,’ Shari Lapena, a New York Times bestselling author, said in a review of the upcoming thriller.
‘I wanted this story to explore the primal fears and impossible expectations that come with being a mother, as well as examine the way women doubt themselves and are doubted,’ Sierra told The Bookseller.