In the episode of Midnight In The Desert from November 4, 2015, Art Bell discusses an array of topics with his distinctive intrigue, opening with a mysterious star event involving a potential alien megastructure. Art excitedly describes data suggesting an unusual triangular object dimming a distant star, potentially signaling alien life. He shares his insights and speculations with listeners, encouraging them to view charts on his website to see the startling observations from NASA and other astronomical institutions. Art contrasts media reports with government statements, exploring a theory that recent, assertive media coverage on a bomb possibly downing a Russian jet might be influenced by political motives, particularly with ISIS and Russia’s involvement in Syria.
The primary guest, Deborah Moffitt, joins to recount her harrowing experiences with a malevolent entity that haunted her family. Deborah’s story begins with strange occurrences in their home, attributed to a housekeeper’s Santeria practices. Over the years, eerie symbols, supernatural messages, and disturbing manifestations intensify, particularly around Deborah’s mother-in-law, who the entity claimed was a “promised” sacrifice from a previous life. Art listens with keen interest, occasionally interjecting with his thoughts on supernatural occurrences and their potential connection to dark rituals or entities. Deborah recounts the terrifying episodes, including cursed objects, apparitions, and relentless supernatural harassment that drove the family to seek assistance from famed paranormal experts, including Ed and Lorraine Warren and Dr. Evelyn Paglini.
Deborah continues detailing the chilling encounters with the entity, referred to ominously as “Mr. Entity.” Her family’s life was marked by continuous disturbing events, such as objects moving independently, cryptic symbols appearing around the house, and increasingly personal attacks. One eerie incident involved religious statues being desecrated; men’s underwear mysteriously appeared draped over a statue of Jesus by her mother-in-law’s bed. Despite the horror, Deborah explains that they initially dismissed the disturbances, suspecting either a prank or their tenant’s involvement. Yet when they confronted the tenant, he insisted he hadn’t touched anything, and soon after, he abruptly vacated the property without giving a reason.
After the tenant left, the strange events grew worse. Deborah describes an incident when, in the blink of an eye, every item on a shelf in the living room turned backward without anyone touching them. Her husband, who was deeply skeptical, tried to rationalize the events, suggesting someone might have entered the home. However, another incident involved furniture inexplicably being stacked in the living room within minutes while they were just a room away, leaving the family terrified and running out of logical explanations. Art presses for more details as Deborah explains how the entity seemed to gain strength, bringing with it an overwhelming feeling of dread and marking the beginning of a haunting they would battle for years.
As the haunting continued, the Moffitt family sought out help from several experts, but nothing seemed effective in ridding their home of the entity. One of their main helpers, Dr. Evelyn Paglini, was an expert in the occult and arrived with a reputation for handling difficult cases. Deborah describes how Paglini entered their home with confidence and courage, giving the family hope that she could save them from the haunting. However, despite her experience, Paglini admitted that she was unable to banish the entity, describing it as a powerful and ancient force. Paglini recommended a drastic approach: clearing out an upstairs room and dedicating it as a space for the entity, hoping this homage might appease it. She suggested that honoring the entity in this way could potentially protect the family, though she also cautioned that their mother-in-law’s life might still be at risk.
Ed and Lorraine Warren, the famous paranormal investigators, also visited the Moffitt household. Yet, even they were unable to expel the entity, adding to the family’s desperation. The situation became more threatening as the entity started using written communication, scrawling messages on mirrors with soap. Deborah recounts how it claimed that Deborah’s mother-in-law, Lee, was promised to it centuries earlier in a past life. This entity believed Lee belonged to it, pursuing her across time to finally claim her as a form of payment. Art listens intently as Deborah describes how the entity’s demands and presence became an unbearable aspect of their everyday lives, forcing the family to confront an entity they had no means to understand or control.
The torment escalated as Mr. Entity’s presence grew more intense and invasive, with daily occurrences that drained the Moffitt family both mentally and emotionally. The haunting began to span across multiple family homes, including those of Deborah’s in-laws and her husband. One of the most unsettling incidents involved Mr. Entity arranging objects—such as bobbleheads—in precise triangular shapes, a motif that recurred in various unsettling ways throughout their ordeal. Even personal belongings from the tenant would mysteriously appear in Deborah’s mother-in-law’s room, alongside other inexplicably transported items.
Deborah shares one instance when her mother-in-law found men’s clothing items, receipts, and even more disturbing symbols defiling religious statues near her bed. This repeated desecration of religious items seemed intended to provoke fear and disrespect their beliefs. Art, intrigued by the recurring patterns, listens as Deborah describes how Mr. Entity’s manifestations became more personal and deliberate, almost as if it was gaining satisfaction from their terror. The Moffitt family, now living in constant fear, found that every attempt to reclaim their homes and lives from Mr. Entity only led to more elaborate and terrifying retributions.
In their desperation, the Moffitts tried various methods to protect themselves, but the entity remained relentless. Deborah recounts how objects continued to move on their own, messages appeared unpredictably, and strange symbols began covering parts of their homes. Mr. Entity’s threats grew specific, often warning them of impending harm if they did not comply with its demands. Even when they attempted to ignore the phenomenon, the entity would find new ways to terrify them, sometimes in the middle of the night, shaking them from any sense of security. At one point, they reluctantly began leaving a room empty as Dr. Paglini had advised, with the hope that this “offering” of space would appease the force. However, while it seemed to calm the disturbances briefly, Mr. Entity soon resumed its ominous presence.
The messages became chillingly direct. Deborah explains that Mr. Entity wrote on the mirrors and other surfaces, often claiming it had been wronged and demanding that the family recognize its “ownership” over Lee due to an ancient agreement. It would often change its tactics, sometimes portraying itself as misunderstood, other times clearly threatening. This constant psychological manipulation wore the family down, keeping them in a state of tension as they braced for the next incident. Art is deeply engaged, noting how the story unfolds with a mix of psychological horror and supernatural persistence, leaving the Moffitts caught in a seemingly endless struggle with an entity that defied all conventional means of removal.
In the final stages of their ordeal, the Moffitts faced what felt like an inescapable siege. Mr. Entity began targeting not only their sense of safety but also their family bonds, creating tension among them as they struggled to cope with the unending disturbances. At times, the entity’s messages would mock their attempts to seek help or resist, intensifying their feelings of helplessness. Deborah describes how every expert they turned to, from religious figures to paranormal investigators, ultimately found themselves unable to drive the entity away. Despite the Moffitts’ efforts to follow every piece of advice—from exorcisms to symbolic offerings—the entity seemed firmly rooted, as if feeding off the family’s fear and frustration.
By the end, the haunting left a lasting impact on the Moffitts, reshaping their lives and forcing them to live with a new awareness of the supernatural. Deborah reflects on the trauma of the experience and the way it left them forever changed, constantly questioning the nature of the force they encountered and why it had chosen their family as its focus. Art closes the interview with deep empathy, noting the harrowing nature of their experience and expressing hope that the Moffitts may one day find peace from the entity’s influence.