10 Terrifying True Stories People Found Hidden Inside Their Walls

10. The Mummified Body of a Woman—Still in Her Chair

In 2013, workers renovating a house in Pontypool, Wales made a grisly discovery. Behind a false wall in a bedroom was the mummified body of the homeowner, Elvira Stevens, still sitting upright in a chair. She had apparently died years earlier and was hidden by a family member who didn’t want to report her death—possibly to continue receiving her pension.

Neighbors had assumed she had moved away. In reality, her body had been slowly drying out behind drywall, undisturbed and forgotten.

9. The Skeleton of a Murdered Child

In 2007, a family in Los Angeles was shocked to find a child’s skeleton hidden behind their walls. It turned out the bones belonged to a four-year-old boy named William, who had gone missing decades earlier. His parents had reported him kidnapped, but suspicions fell on his stepfather, a known abuser.

Forensic testing confirmed the child died from blunt-force trauma, and the wall had been sealed shortly afterward. The case remained cold until the grisly discovery—finally bringing justice to a long-forgotten victim.

8. Notes From the Past—and a Warning

When a couple in Detroit began renovating their 1940s-era home, they found a series of hidden notes tucked behind the bathroom tiles. One read: “Don’t trust the man in the basement.”

Thinking it was just a creepy joke, they continued the work—until they found an old, rusted meat hook and a sealed compartment that appeared to have been used to hide something… or someone. To this day, no one knows if the note was fiction or a warning from someone who escaped something terrible.

7. A Wall Full of Snakes

In 2010, a family in Rexburg, Idaho bought what they thought was their dream home—until they began hearing slithering noises in the walls. When they removed parts of the drywall, hundreds of garter snakes poured out.

Exterminators later found snake nests throughout the structure. Apparently, the house had been built on a den, and no amount of sealing could stop them. The family abandoned the home, which was later nicknamed “The Snake House” by locals.

6. Nazi Memorabilia—and Human Ashes

While renovating a home in Hamburg, Germany, a contractor stumbled upon a hidden storage space filled with old documents, propaganda posters, swastika flags—and a metal urn containing human ashes.

Historians believe the room was used by a Nazi official who hid evidence as the Allies approached. The ashes? Likely cremated victims from concentration camps, smuggled and kept for horrifying reasons. The home has since been turned into a historical site.

5. A Corpse Stuffed in a Wall for 27 Years

In Paris, a couple doing renovation work in their apartment in 2007 discovered the body of a man walled up behind a false panel. Authorities identified him as Jean-Pierre Renault, a worker who had gone missing in the 1980s.

Apparently, Jean-Pierre had gotten into an argument with a fellow laborer on the project—who killed him and concealed the body inside the building site. For 27 years, no one noticed the smell or suspected foul play.

4. Dolls With Human Hair and Eyeballs

A woman in Savannah, Georgia, uncovered something truly disturbing in her attic wall: dozens of handmade dolls sewn from rags—stuffed with animal bones and human hair, and some with real glass eyes.

Local folklore experts believed the dolls were part of an old Hoodoo ritual, possibly placed there as protection… or a curse. Paranormal activity spiked in the house after the dolls were removed.

3. The Message: “I See You” Carved Into the Studs

In 2015, a man in Topeka, Kansas tore down drywall in his basement to find a single sentence carved into the studs:

"I SEE YOU."

Beneath it was a tiny peephole drilled through the wall facing the bedroom. No one had ever seen it from the other side. The former owner denied knowledge, but neighbors later revealed he’d been questioned years earlier over voyeurism complaints.

2. A Hidden Room With a Cage and Chains

While flipping a foreclosed property in Cleveland, Ohio, a real estate investor found a small hidden room behind a storage closet. Inside were metal chains, a soiled mattress, and shackles bolted to the wall.

Police suspected the house had once been used in human trafficking. The room had no ventilation and was completely soundproof. The case remains unsolved, but the house was later demolished.

1. A Forgotten Mummy in the Chimney

In Brighton, UK, a homeowner removing an old fireplace found a horrifying sight: a human mummy stuffed inside the chimney, knees tucked under the chin.

Forensic experts dated the body back over 40 years and later identified it as a burglar who had gone missing in the 1970s. Apparently, he’d tried to break in through the chimney, gotten stuck, and died slowly and alone, completely unnoticed.