The Latoya Ammons Poltergeist (Gary, Indiana)
The Ammons family of Gary, Indiana, reported sustained poltergeist phenomena and possession-like behaviour in their two-year residency. The case is unusual in American paranormal literature for the level of professional witness corroboration — including DCS social workers, Gary Police Department officers, and a hospital staff.
In November 2011, Latoya Ammons moved with her three children and her mother into a rental property at 3860 Carolina Street in Gary, Indiana. Over the subsequent two years, the family reported sustained poltergeist phenomena including unexplained footsteps, doors opening and closing without cause, sightings of shadow figures, and three episodes in which the children reportedly exhibited possession-like behaviour requiring emergency medical attention.
The case is unusual in American paranormal literature for the breadth of professional witness corroboration. The phenomena were observed not only by family members but by Indiana Department of Child Services social workers, Gary Police Department officers, and Methodist Hospital staff who treated the children for what hospital records describe as “psychological emergencies” that resisted standard medical explanation. The contemporaneous documents — DCS case files, police incident reports, and hospital records — were eventually released through public records requests and were the basis for the Indianapolis Star’s extensive 2014 coverage that brought the case to national American attention.
The most-cited single incident, reported in the DCS case file, occurred during a child welfare visit on April 19, 2012. A DCS social worker and a Gary police officer were present when one of the Ammons children — a nine-year-old boy — reportedly walked backwards up a wall in their presence. The incident was documented in both the DCS case file and a written report by the police officer. The officer’s account stated that what he had observed was inconsistent with anything he had previously encountered in his career and that he had requested administrative leave following the incident. The DCS social worker’s account was substantially consistent.
The family received exorcism rites from Father Michael Maginot of the Catholic Diocese of Gary, who had been consulted by the Ammons family through Diocesan channels. Maginot conducted three minor exorcisms and one major exorcism on Latoya Ammons over a period of months. The Diocese formally documented the major exorcism, making the case one of relatively few American exorcism cases with formal ecclesiastical documentation in the contemporary period.
The Ammons family moved from the property in 2014. The 2018 Netflix Original The Deliverance (later released as Demon House) was filmed at the property with the family’s cooperation. The film’s commercial release was complicated by claims and counter-claims about the case’s authenticity and by the involvement of paranormal investigator Zak Bagans, who purchased the property in 2014 and later demolished it.
The case is notable in American poltergeist literature as one of the few where the contemporaneous documentation extends beyond family accounts to include independent professional witnesses operating in their official capacities. The DCS and police records remain the strongest single evidentiary record for an American poltergeist case from the twenty-first century to date.
Documentation
- Indiana Department of Child Services case file (released through public records requests)
- Gary Police Department incident reports
- Methodist Hospital records (referenced in subsequent reporting)
- Catholic Diocese of Gary exorcism documentation (Father Michael Maginot)
- Indianapolis Star extensive coverage (Marisa Kwiatkowski, January 2014)
- 2018 Netflix Original The Deliverance / Demon House (Zak Bagans)
- Witnesses: 12 (family, DCS social workers, Gary PD officers, hospital staff, clergy)
- Location: 3860 Carolina Street, Gary, Indiana (now demolished)
- Date range: November 2011 — 2014