The story of Mr. Gordy is a well known case and is considered to be one of the top ten ghost cases in the USA by many paranormal investigators.

In the late 1980’s, Andy and Lisa Wyrick bought their first home in Ellerslie, Georgia. The home had been foreclosed on after being abandoned by its previous owner. The home was in need of many repairs, which would have to be completed before they, along with their young daughter, Heidi, could move in. The house didn’t seem eerie in anyway, and nothing unusual happened while the renovations were taking place, but all that would change within two months after the family moved in.

One day in February of 1989, little Heidi Wyrick was out in her backyard playing, when her mother, Lisa called her in for lunch. When Heidi came in, she excitedly told her mother about the man outside who wanted to play with her and push her on the swing. Lisa was alarmed and kept questioning her daughter, but also trying not to frighten her. When asked what the man looked like, Heidi described him as an older man with grey hair, a tall hat, and shiny black shoes. She described him so well, there was no doubt in Lisa’s mind that someone was out there, and that he possibly wanted to kidnap her daughter.

Lisa instructs Heidi to stay in the house, while she grabs a butcher knife from the kitchen, the phone to call Andy at work to come home, and goes out to confront the stranger.  She finds no one around their home. Andy arrives minutes later and goes out around the neighborhood asking their neighbors if they knew anyone who fit the description of the man Heidi had told them about. No one knew who this mysterious man could have been. Having no luck, Lisa and Andy wonder if perhaps this is just someone Heidi made up.

Even so, after this incident, Lisa was very cautious about letting Heidi outside and would often go out with her as a precaution. Within a week, the man returned again and Heidi said that his name was Mr. Gordy. Heidi began spending a lot of time alone in her room playing. Lisa could hear her in there carrying on a conversation with someone, but of course she never heard anyone answer back. Often, Heidi would ask Lisa for an extra plate of food, or milk, or cookies, and tell her they were for Mr. Gordy. Lisa had taken Heidi to her doctor and her doctor assured her it was quite normal for children Heidi’s age to have imaginary playmates, so whenever Heidi requested extra food or a drink for Mr. Gordy, Lisa played along and gave it to her.

Mr. Gordy was a daily companion to Heidi. Lisa would often watch her daughter as she played outside and could see her reach her hand up, as if taking someone else’s hand and being led, and she could hear her talking to someone she herself couldn’t see nor hear. Mr. Gordy and Heidi had many conversations and he would push her on the swing in the backyard whenever she was outside.

Shortly after she had seen Mr. Gordy, Heidi told her mother about another man she had seen. She said his name was ‘Con’ and that he had blood all over his shirt and a bandage on his hand. Lisa didn’t know what to think.

Lisa’s sister, Joyce, had bought the property next door to the Wyrick’s from a woman whose family had owned it for many years. The property had been her grandparents, parents, and then hers. In June of 1990, the previous owner had come across a warranty deed for the property and took it to Joyce. As they were talking, Joyce happened to glance down at the deed and saw the signature of ‘James S. Gordy’. She asked the woman who he was and was told that he had been the executor of her mother’s will. She told her he had at one time been a realtor and had owned a lot of property in the area. She and her family had known Mr. Gordy for years and when asked what he looked like, she described him exactly as Heidi had, and she told Joyce that Mr. Gordy had passed away in 1974. Joyce was shocked and couldn’t wait for the woman to leave so she could go and tell Lisa, and as soon as the previous owner left, Joyce took the deed and ran to her sisters.

Lisa was stunned when she saw the signature on the deed. They both wondered if this could indeed be the same Mr. Gordy that Heidi saw. Andy, however, didn’t believe any of it. He had come from a family who didn’t believe in anything supernatural, Lisa on the other hand had come from a family who did. Lisa herself had had a few experiences with seeing family who had passed away when she was a child.

The previous owner later brought over family pictures. There was one in particular that Heidi picked out and identified as ‘Con’.  The previous owner, Catherine, told them that this was her Uncle Lon and he had had an accident that took his hand before he was twenty years old. He had died in 1957.

As time passed, Heidi continued to see Mr. Gordy, but she had never been afraid of him or the man she called ‘Con’, and things seemed to calm down somewhat until 1993, when Lisa became pregnant with youngest daughter, Jordan, then, and especially after her birth, things really began heating up. At this time Heidi started seeing a dark figure; it had no face or features, but was more of a silhouette. When Heidi first saw him, she was hysterical.

Two weeks after Jordan was born, Lisa noticed deep scratches on Heidi’s face. Andy figured she had accidentally scratched herself during the night, but two nights later, he himself woke up to a burning sensation on his side. When he looked, there were three scratches, much like those that Heidi had. This would happen to him again the following two nights. It was at this point that Andy believed what his wife and sister in law had been saying all along.

Andy and Lisa had discussed moving, but they really weren’t in a position to do so, and besides that, would it even put a stop to the things their daughter was seeing and experiencing?

Once Joyce’s daughter had been in the house babysitting baby Jordan when she heard the baby, who was in her crib, choking. She rushed in to find a ribbon knotted repeatedly around the infant’s neck. She picked up the baby and ran with her, screaming to her mother’s house.  The ribbon was knotted so tightly, the child was beginning to turn blue. Joyce had to take a very small pair of scissors and cut it off the baby’s neck. There had been a teddy bear in the crib with the baby at the time, but there was no way the baby could have removed the ribbon and knotted it around her own neck. She was much too small to have done it herself.

The family felt that the dark spirit Heidi had been encountering was responsible, and since moving was not an option, they decided they were going to stay and fight whatever was there. After all, it was their home, and for sixteen years that is exactly what they did. They called the local library to enquire about finding some help from a parapsychologist. Besides Mr. Gordy and Con, many other entities had visited Heidi. There were many times that the family would flee the home in the middle of the night with Heidi terrified and screaming. Sometimes she had been scratched or had her hair pulled, but it was the dark figure that she saw often, that would appear at her bedside and terrify her so badly. Both Heidi and Andy began to hate the house.

Many nights, as Lisa lay in bed, she would hear voices just above and to each side of her, as if two people she couldn’t see were hovering over her. They would carry on conversations in deep, gravelly voices and Lisa felt they were discussing her, although she could not understand what they were saying.

Their dog would often bark and growl at something they couldn’t see, and the family was plagued with illnesses and each had multiple surgeries. Lisa felt this had something to do with the dark entity. They were put in touch with Dr. William Roll, a parapsychologist and also the TV show Unsolved Mysteries. The show was able to get in contact with Mr. Gordy’s daughter and obtain a photograph. The photograph was mixed in with many others, but Heidi was able to correctly identify Mr. Gordy.

Heidi always felt like Mr. Gordy was like a protector. She felt like he was always around, even when she couldn’t see him, and that even though he wasn’t there when the bad spirits were, she felt that perhaps he had kept them from doing more than scratching and pulling her hair.

The last time she saw Mr. Gordy, she was eight years old, and it was right before the Unsolved Mysteries filming. She said she had just gotten a new bicycle, and had been in the backyard. Mr. Gordy helped her on her bike and that was the last time she saw him.

The family did eventually move from the house in Ellerslie, and there was one night in their new home that Heidi had been lifted by her legs and dangled in mid-air. Today, Heidi is happily married, and the mother of twins, a boy and girl. She still sees spirits from time to time and occasionally the dark entity that terrified her as a child.

Source: http://truehauntings.fanfusion.org/articles/the-wyrick-haunting

Author: Kourtney

This is an interview with Joyce Cathey, Heidi's aunt, from http://georgiamysteries.blogspot.com

GM:Why do you think what happened did happen to your family?
JC: We do not know why these things happened. This questions is asked a lot and believe me, we have searched for answers for the past 20 years and are still searching. I don’t think we will ever know for sure.

GM:What more can you tell me about Heidi's interaction with Mr. Gordy?
JC:Heidi began talking to Mr. Gordy at the age of three. Her initial interactions consisted of almost daily visitations and she’s had many conversations with him. She has memories of him pushing her on the swing and helping her learn to ride her bike. But after the Unsolved Mysteries episode aired she became the target of comical antics from her school mates and was treated very badly through her middle school years. Heidi eventually stopped talking about Mr. Gordy. She hated the fact that she was gifted, if you will, and tried to shut it out and as time progressed his visits became less frequent.

GM:Were there any negative vibes associated with Mr. Gordy?
JC: There were never any negative vibes from Mr. Gordy. She always did, and still does, feel that he was her protector of sorts.

GM:Have you or anyone else associated with the haunting ever contacted or been contacted by the Gordy family?
JC: My sister, Lisa’s mother, talked with Mr. Gordy’s daughter on a few occasions and also kept contact through letters. She visited with Heidi on a few occasions but lived in Florida. She asked Heidi to tell her dad that she loved him. Mr. Gordy’s daughter is recently deceased.

GM: Do things continue to happen now?
JC: Things still continue to happen although not as frequent as when she was younger.

GM: How does the family handle these things?
JC: Things were very difficult for the Wyrick family in the beginning because no one knew what was happening. As you know, it was several years before the connection was made and his identity was confirmed. The Wyrick’s had a lot of support through their family, friends, and also their extended church family. My mom was raised in north Georgia and a place known as ‘Hainted Holler’. She, too, was born with a veil and has always been able to see things, though her abilities were not as strong a Heidi’s. So we were always familiar with stories of the spirit world and believed that there was something beyond our own dimension.