The Ladue Horror

Chapter 3

The deaths of Dawn and Geoff Crenshaw would later be referred to as "The Ladue Horror" after their bodies were found, surrounded by great mystery and controversy. Some claimed it to be a double homicide, others will guarantee you it was a murder-suicide, while others swear it was a demon that took them both to their graves. Either way, people with means had never been found dead like that in Ladue, and the Crenshaw estate became something of local legend for housing one of the juiciest and most mystifying bits of news that ever passed county borders.

For years the Crenshaw estate lay barren, no one dared to live inside unless they wanted the company of the dead. That was true, of course, until Scott Crenshaw took his first trip to the estate when he was in his twenties. His parents and grandparents rarely ever spoke of the old estate, they thought it brought disgrace to the family name which was once held so highly in Ladue. Scott, not being a believer of the supernatural and always looking for a good deal, decided he would convince his father to let his family be the first to live in the Ladue estate in generations. Eventually, despite his efforts, his father caved and passed the keys to the estate over to his son after the birth of his first granddaughter, Marie.

Scott and his wife, Sadie, were basking in the warmth and excitement of their new daughter in Norfolk, VA when they got the news they would be moving into their family's estate. Scott was a banker and could work remotely, his wife had given up her career as an accountant when she found out she was pregnant and they decided to live off of one income and have Sadie stay home to raise the children. Sadie also would have her hands full keeping up with the estate and begged Scott to let them get a housekeeper. Scott was shrewd when it came to saving money and said they would have to figure it out once they lived there for a while. Sadie had no trouble reminding Scott that she was in peak pregnancy years and if they wanted to continue having children as planned that she might need an extra hand during the day. Scott, knowing the history of housekeepers in his family, tabled the issue again. He was incredibly excited to live at such a property, but couldn't completely shake the cobwebs history had left on the house.