In April of 1991, Christopher Case, age 35, a music executive from Seattle, Washington was found dead in his apartment. The coroner would immediately determine at the scene that Christopher had died from heart failure. However, as the weeks progresses and more information came to light, and it became apparent something strange had happened to Christopher before his death.
In the week leading up to his death, Christopher had called numerous friends panicking that he had a curse placed on him by a witch and would be dead by the end of the week. Furthermore, at the crime scene there were a number of books on the occult, as well as salt spread around, as if he was attempting to repel something. In this article, we will examine this bizarre case with its many unanswered questions.
Christopher case originally grew up in Richmond Va and was a small-town radio DJ. He was healthy, intelligent and a well-liked young man who was passionate about personal fitness. He took vitamin supplements daily and was known for being a gym rat.
Sometime in his early 30’s, Christopher decided to pursue his dream of becoming a music executive, so he moved from Richmond to Seattle, Washington.
Once he landed in Seattle, Christopher started working for MUZAC Holdings. Chris was doing in well in his job, he had been promoted several times and was well liked. Despite this, he had been single for many years. Christopher didn’t prefer to go out and socialize, he would rather stay in and listen to music. His work kept him busy and travelling around the world too.
Then a trip to San Francisco in 1991 would change his life forever.
On April 11 of 1991, Christopher took a business trip to San Francisco to meet with other record executives. The night of the 11th, one of Christopher’s coworkers called a friend who lived in the area. The woman brought along another woman. This woman was attractive, demanding and around 20 years older than Chris. Still Chris and the woman bonded as they shared a passion for music of the ancient world, such as Egyptian Music.
As the two began conversing, Chris was excited as the two had much in common. The two would talk for hours, but Chris wasn’t interested in the woman romantically, he viewed the woman in a platonic sense. However, the woman didn’t reciprocate those feelings and it was obvious to Chris that she was interested in him.
As the night was coming to end, the woman asked Chris to come back to her place, located just down the road. Chris politely declined, but the woman was persistent asking multiple times. After rejecting her offer several times the woman became enraged and what would she told Chris next would truly be shocking.
Chris stood up and the angered woman said that she was actually a witch and would put a curse on him. The woman told Chris he would be sorry and that he would be dead within the week.
Chris of course didn’t believe the woman and thought she was crazy.
The next day, on April 12, Chris flew back to Seattle and called His friend Sammy Sauder. Both of them laughed at the situation and agreed that it was a crazy experience and that he made the right call getting away from the woman.
The next day on April 13th Chris would return to his normal routine and seemingly forgot about the crazy experience.
However, that night, the curse would begin.
As Chris went to sleep, he began to hear strange whispers outside the door. When he went to investigate no one was there. On multiple occasions, Chris would go and lay down in bed and as soon as he did, he heard whispering somewhere in the apt.
As soon as he went to go check the whispering in the room, it stopped. Then, he heard whispering in another part of the house. Again, when he went to check, crickets. This happened again and again.
Chris was convinced initially someone broke in the house, but things would only get worse when Chris began seeing shadows moving around. He would see them out of the corner of his eye darting across the rooms. Eventually, in his small apt, Chris turned on all the lights but still whispers persisted. All night long, Chris heard and saw things he couldn’t explain. He would stay up all night terrified.
The next morning, on April 14th, a panicked Chris called Sammy and recalled the story. Suddenly, the curse didn’t seem like a laughing matter. Chris was an atheist and considered by his friends as someone who didn’t believe this type of stuff. He was a skeptic and always looked for the rational explanation.
The night of the April 14th would bring more strange activity in Chris’s apartment. Like the night before, he kept hearing whispers and seeing strange shadows again. It would be another frightening, sleepless night for Chris.
However, paranormal activity was just beginning.
On the night of April 15th, things would get even worse for Chris. After two sleepless nights, Chris was able to finally fall asleep. Then in the middle of the night Chris woke up paralyzed and began hearing whispers. He heard them outside his door, and then from the closet. He wasn’t able to move and thought it could be a dream.
Then things got even more terrifying. Chris watched in horror as black figure stood next to his bed, then hovered over him and began strangling him. He couldn’t breathe and the figure lifted him off the bed and threw him back down.
Chris then noticed his mattress was stained with blood and there were cuts on his fingertips. His neck was tender, and he had red marks on it.
Completely terrified, he called Sammy again. Sammy suggested going to the police, but Chris was embarrassed and doesn’t know how to explain the situation. Sammy wanted to help Chris but wasn’t sure how. She was multiple time zones away and couldn’t come over and just spend the night.
Chris decided that something was going on, and he was convinced there was something to this witch’s curse, so he decided to visit a bookstore, named Evangel Incorporated. There, Chris came in and grabbed all the crucifixes and asked the store’s manager, Rodney Higucci , about where all the books on demonic possession and witchcraft were. Chris told Rodney what had been happening to him, and Rodney provided some suggestions for Chris.
After buying crucifixes and many books, Christopher headed back to his apartment and scattered salt throughout the apartment, including piles in the corners, as well as putting crucifixes in every room. It was clear to Chris at this point what was happening, and he was trying everything to ward off whatever was attacking him.
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Despite his efforts to rid the evil, Chris would seemingly continue to be tortured. On the evening of April 16th, Chris abandoned his apt in the wee hours of the morning and checked into a hotel. We don’t know exactly what happened that night that terrified him so much.
On the morning of April 17th, Sammy continued calling Chris but couldn’t reach him as he was at the hotel. Scared, Sammy decided to call the police to have them check on Chris. The police did a welfare check, but as the door was locked to the Apartment, they couldn’t do much. They informed Sammy to call back if she didn’t hear from him in a day or two. This day, Chris would also go and speak with a priest and return to the bookstore in hopes of defeating the evil.
That same day, Sammy went to work, and she returned home to hear the last message she would ever hear from Chris. He sounded defeated and at a peace with his fate. He said that he was under attack and tonight he was going to be killed. He said there’s nothing I can do about it.
Sammy knew the police wouldn’t be able to help so she decided to go to bed and try calling Chris tomorrow. Chris didn’t go to work on the 18th and eventually Sammy was notified. She called the police again and asked them to visit his apartment as she was very worried. The police went over and this time the door was unlocked.
Then, the police went inside and discovered Chris’s body in his bathroom. The scene was extremely bizarre with burned candles throughout the apartment as well as salt lines and crucifixes everywhere. Chris was in the bathroom fully clothed and there were no signs of foul play. On the scene, the coroner ruled it as a heart attack, natural causes.
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The death of Christopher Case is truly a strange case. Christopher Case exercised religiously and had an extremely successful career. His friends and family disputed the claim that he could have died from myocarditis. Myocarditis deaths often involved people feeling lethargic for weeks ahead of time. Like many others, they are convinced something else happened.
Over the years there’s been many theories and questions surrounding this strange case.
The first theory is that the woman did indeed use some sort of curse on Chris. Christopher called several different people telling them disturbing things that were happening to him. This rules out someone like Sammy, making up or exaggerating the story. Several friends and others stated he was convinced something was after him.
So, it’s evident that Chris truly believed something supernatural was happening to him. Before the incident Chris was a self-described atheist and didn’t believe in the supernatural. Yet something clearly happened to this man that made him fearful for his life.
It also appears that there could be multiple supernatural elements that could be at play. Several questions around this include:
1. Did the curse create some sort of a thin place around Chris that allowed entities not of this world to pass over and get him?
2. Another question concerns whether he was attacked by shadow people? He said while paralyzed, that a black shadow came and sat on his chest. This is eerily similar to other people who experience attacks while paralyzed while sleeping
3. The other question concerns the woman herself. Was she a demon or some sort of evil entity herself? Perhaps she wanted lure Chris back, kill him and when he said no the entity decided to go after him a different way.
There are of course theories that suggest everything is explainable. One suggests Chris had a psychotic break. Perhaps the nutritional supplements he took had some sort of strange side effect?
Also, there is the placebo effect, maybe upon hearing this strange line from this woman Chris started thinking about it and started to believe it was true when in fact all was normal. Proponents of this theory believe that he imagined the noises and shadows. As he became more tired, paranoia set in, and he started to hear and fear more. After not sleeping for days, he became more susceptible and suddenly his heart couldn’t take it anymore.
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Perhaps the biggest question in this case though concerns the woman. Who was this woman? Could she be tracked down? Or was she interviewed? Some reports indicate it was a co-worker’s friend’s friend. If that’s the case, then we should be able to get a name and possibly background information on her. Perhaps the police investigated this angle, determined they didn’t want people harassing the woman, and kept her name private in the reports. It could also be the case, no one bothered to follow up on this lead, as there were no signs of foul play.
While discovering this woman’s identity would be interesting to know, we must also consider that this could ruin an innocent woman’s life. She might be harassed by true crime fans and blamed for his death.
The woman would have been in her 50’s in 1991 since it was reported she was 20 years older than Chris, so she would probably be in her 80’s today if she is still alive.
Another interesting angle not well explored is that Sammy, Chris’s friend, according to a 1991 Seattle times news article, she was a psychic. Psychics allege to be able to converse with the other side and supposedly have abilities most people do not. That said, she would have had the unique ability, possibly, to hear and see what Chris was experiencing. It’s understandable that she couldn’t see him though, as she was on the other side of the country.
Overall, the death of Christopher Case is truly a fascinating one and still has many unanswered questions.
