Revised September 2024

The story of Olivia and Aiden Mabel from Texas emerged in 2016 and is very intriguing. Was it an incredible supernatural story from Texas or, as several online bloggers suggested, a well-constructed hoax and a fictional fabrication by a film company called ElfTree Media? ElfTree had a Kickstarter project to produce a film called “Thoughtform”.

The Olivia Jane Mabel mystery

Olivia Jane Mabel lived with her husband, Travis and their seven-year-old son, Aiden Travis, on the 13-acre Footlights Ranch they owned near the town of Celina in Texas.

On March 13, 1990, Aiden was found dead in a pond on the property as a result of an accidental drowning. As a result, Olivia disconnected from society on this news. She stopped seeing friends and family, stopped going to work, and eventually divorced her husband, Travis, in early 1991. Travis moved to New England soon after and remarried. Olivia was last seen in person in September 1991.

Over three years later, at around 9:30 p.m. on February 27, 1994, police responded to several silent 911 calls coming from a house that was identified as Olivia’s residence.

The police crept through the empty and dusty house, and then they moved to search the bedrooms. Upon entering one of the bedrooms, which used to belong to Aiden, they were shocked by the scene they encountered.

Unlike the rest of the neglected house, this room was clean and tidy and within it lay the body of Olivia Mabel sitting upright in a rocking chair with a hand-crafted stick doll in her decomposed hand.

Doll found at Foolights Ranch Texas — Doll found at Footlights Ranch Texas

Against the far wall of the room, there was a crudely constructed and decorated altar surrounded by hand-drawn images and many letters from Olivia to her dead son. On the front of the altar were words written in Tibetan and Sanskrit, translating as “Construct” or “To Build."

One of the letters on the altar, with a date that the house was searched (2-27-94)

My Aiden,

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

I should have never let it get like this.

I’m leaving.

I will not let you keep me you ViLE, EViL CREATURE.

Mommy’s coming for you, Aiden, my sweet Aiden.

Mommy loves you.

Sgt. Terry Goldscher, the lead investigator, said, “Nobody had seen her in years. Almost three, I think. She clearly passed her time in some pretty unhealthy ways. The negligent damage to the house, the obsession with her deceased son, and the clearly pagan symbols and altar were all signs of something seriously wrong with her mental health. Which is understandable after the death of a child like that, but she just balled up. Ran her husband out. Never went back to church. See if she had reached out, her brothers and sisters in Christ would have supported her. But she left the flock and became the devil’s prey, plain and simple.“

The first officer on the scene, Francesca Santiago, describes the scene on entering the house, “I spent a lot of time in El Paso and had an uncle that was into some really dark occult stuff. I recognized it immediately. When I walked into that room and saw the symbols and the photos on that altar, I felt a strong, angry presence looming over me. It was honestly the last thing I expected to see in this town. One of the oddest parts for me is the date on the last letter we found. Dated the very day, we kicked that swollen door down. The city concluded that she post-dated everything, but I don’t believe she was alone in that house. And I don’t believe her spirit wasn’t still in the room with us that night. But then that makes me the crazy one, right?”

Based on translations of the Sanskrit found on the altar, locals believed that Olivia had tried to create a supernatural entity of her son. A being that is known as a Tulpa in Tibetan or English a “thought form.”

Years after the discovery of the body, rumors that evil spirits inhabited the house grew so persistent that the owner of the property at the time, Christopher Hagen, hadn’t been able to sell it. In 2005, in an attempt to debunk the supernatural stories, Hagen hired an Austin-based paranormal investigator, Drew Navarro, to visit.

Drew said, “I’m not even sure this was ever on our physical plane. In the hundreds of locations I’ve studied, I’ve never felt such an imposing force. I couldn’t breathe; my heart was constantly racing. Its energy kept changing, but none of it felt inviting. Whatever is in there, it’s extremely possessive and behaves so erratically, like a jealous child throwing a tantrum. As far as I’m concerned, that house and that entire property should be avoided. It needs a serious intervention because I’m not sure what we’re dealing with.”

The case was closed with no clear explanation of what had happened in the house and what had killed Olivia.

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Read other strange stories from Texas

The mysterious death of Lindsay and Hailey Gardner in Fort Worth

The strange disappearance of Lauren Colvin Thompson near Rockhill in Texas