Est. 1868 · Unsolved True Crime · Iowa History · 1912 Axe Murders
The Moore family home in Villisca, Iowa was built in 1868 and purchased by Josiah Moore, a farm implement dealer, in 1903. On June 9, 1912, the family attended a Children's Day program at the Presbyterian church; Ina May Stillinger (8) and Lena Gertrude Stillinger (11), who lived on a farm outside town, joined them and were invited to stay the night.
Between midnight and 5 a.m. on June 10, all eight occupants were killed. Josiah Moore's own axe, found afterward in the Stillinger girls' room, was used as the weapon. The murderer struck the master bedroom first, then moved methodically through the house. Cloth had been placed over the mirrors. A gas lamp burned at reduced light.
Investigation was complicated from the outset. The crime scene was contaminated within hours, with local residents walking through before authorities arrived. The forensic tools of 1912 were inadequate to the task. Several suspects emerged: Reverend George Kelly, an itinerant preacher who had been in Villisca, faced two trials, the first ending in a hung jury and the second in acquittal. Frank Jones, a state senator and Moore's former employer, was investigated but never charged. Other theories have accumulated over the following century, including hypotheses connecting the murders to a broader early-20th-century axe murder series.
New owners purchased the house in 1994 and restored it to its 1912 condition — stripping the plumbing and electricity that had been added over the decades. They began offering guided tours and eventually overnight stays. The site attracted documentary productions including Ghost Adventures, Dead Files, Paranormal Witness, and Ghost Brothers.
The murders remain officially unsolved.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villisca_axe_murders
- https://murderhouse.com/the-house-and-murders/the-murders/
- https://allthatsinteresting.com/villisca-axe-murders
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/ghost-hunter-stabbed-himself-villisca-axe-murder-haunted-house/
- https://thehorrorcollection.com/villisca-axe-murder-house-haunting/
- https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/villisca-ax-murder-house-iowa/
ApparitionsPhantom soundsDisembodied laughterCold spotsPhantom footstepsPhantom voices
The Villisca house generates consistent reports across independent overnight visitors who arrive without prior knowledge of each other's accounts. The children's rooms on the second floor carry the highest frequency of activity: giggles, the sound of small feet moving across bare floors, an occasional impression of figures at the foot of the beds. Visitors in the Stillinger room — where the two sisters died — report a drop in temperature near the floor in the early morning hours, sometimes accompanied by a low mist.
The master bedroom carries a different quality. Reports here emphasize visual phenomena — shapes at the doorway, a figure in period clothing observed briefly before disappearing — and a heaviness in the air that multiple visitors describe independently.
Ghost Adventures filmed an investigation that introduced the house to a national cable audience and contributed to a substantial increase in overnight bookings. Dead Files, Paranormal Witness, and Ghost Brothers followed. The volume of investigation activity has created an unusually dense record of cross-referenced accounts.
The unresolved nature of the murders is the site's emotional core. The children died in their beds without explanation, the killer was never definitively identified, and the house was restored to its 1912 appearance in 1994. That specificity is what separates Villisca from generic haunted house experiences.
Notable Entities
Josiah MooreSarah MooreIna May StillingerLena Gertrude Stillinger
Media Appearances
- Ghost Adventures
- Dead Files
- Paranormal Witness
- Ghost Brothers
