The Columbus Poltergeist Kid

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On October twenty third, nineteen sixty
nine, a child came into the world

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and straight into a life raging with
difficulty. Christina Boyer's mother was a drug

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addict, and when she found herself
suddenly responsible for another fragile human life,

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she decided that she couldn't take care
of it. When she was just a

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baby, the Franklin County Children's Services
removed Christina from her family home and sent

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her to live with John and Joan
Resh. By that point, John and

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Joan were experienced foster parents. They
were established within the community and became a

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home for over two hundred and fifty
children in need throughout the years. At

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one point they even had six foster
children living with them at once. Christina

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was only about two years old when
she moved into their busy but strict household.

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As she grew, she came to
view Thereshes as her own family and

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started going by the name Tina Resh. But tragedy was not far on the

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horizon. When Tina was only twelve
years old, one of her older foster

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brothers began molesting her. Like many
victims, especially when their children, it

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took a while for Christina to find
the courage to confide in the people that

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she saw as her parents. But
what she says happened then was anything but

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the reaction a loving Foster family would
provide. Finally, I did tell them,

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but they didn't believe me and slapped
my face, Christina later said,

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and the trust between them all was
broken. Only two years later, Christina

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began talking about another strange and unnatural
experience that she was having, experiences that

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she described as something like telekinesis.
According to Christina, whenever she got angry,

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upset, or had big emotions,
objects around her would start moving on

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their own. It was possible Christina
thought that she had the supernatural ability to

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move things with her mind, or
it was possible there was something else going

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on entirely. An astonishing number of
people believed Christina and believed that she had

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this gift. As the word got
out the media, parapsychologists and paranormal investigators

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arrived by the dozens, all for
their chance to examine the Columbus poltergeist kid.

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She was even featured on the popular
TV show Unsolved Mysteries. They're about

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to meet a young woman with an
extraordinary story to tell. Her name is

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Tina rush On. Tina was just
fourteen years old, she found herself at

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the center of frightening vortex. Her
objects moved to their own accord, an

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ordinary household appliances took on a life
of their own. Were poltergeist to blame,

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demonic possession or was it all an
elaborate hoax? At least one noted

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parapsychologist believes the truth lies elsewhere in
the mysterious power of the mind. I

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did say poltergeist because it was now
mostly accepted that Christina was haunted by a

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poltergeist who was in turn, reacting
to her anger and frustration by moving inanimate

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objects around her. One parapsychologist and
his assistant believed in Christina so much that

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they ended up actually moving into the
rash family home. Bill Roll was determined

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to get to the source of Christina's
powers, and later wrote that Christina had

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one of the most convincing cases of
poultergeist activity he had ever seen. Desperate

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to not lose what he believed to
be one of the biggest investigations of his

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life, Bill then invited Christina to
come and live with him in his home

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in North Carolina. Christina was only
fifteen years old when Bill approached her with

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this proposition, and like any teenager, she was vulnerable and was having a

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hard time with her foster parents.
My adoptive father had stopped speaking to me

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and my adoptive mom and I argued
all the time. Bill was like someone

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who was saving me from drowning in
my own family, she later said,

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and she agreed to move in with
Bill. There, Christina found herself at

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the center of attention once more.
Bill first introduced her to Genie Lagel,

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a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist, and together
they began to medically examine Christina, test

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her abilities and took her to parapsychology
conferences. But then the Russias asked Christina

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to come home. Christina agreed,
but only for a moment. Shortly after

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arriving back at the rash family home, and when Christina was only sixteen years

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old, she i met and married
a man named James Bennett some when she

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later described as a complete monster.
James would beat Christina until she lost consciousness.

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He would often gag and rape her. Whenever Christina would try to run

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away, he would chase her down, beat her again, and threaten her

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life. At one point, he
even burned all of her clothing in an

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attempt to make it impossible for her
to leave him again. When Christina finally

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did manage to escape, James continuously
stalked and harassed her. Understandably, all

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of this was too much for Christina
to bear, and she became very ill.

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She couldn't eat, she couldn't sleep, and when she couldn't even keep

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water down, she ended up going
to the hospital. There, she was

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confronted with the startling news, news
that would forever change the course of her

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life. The then nineteen year old
Christina was told that she was pregnant.

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Others may have viewed this pregnancy has
another hardship to contend with, especially considering

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who the child's father was and how
they came to be, but to Christina,

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it was a blessing. She later
said that finding out she was pregnant

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actually saved her life. She was
no longer fighting to keep herself alive,

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but she was fighting for her child, and that made everything so much clearer.

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Christina was now determined to do better
and be better so that her child

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wouldn't have to go through the same
hardships that Christina had growing up. She

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got herself a job and her new
place to live, and shortly after that

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she welcomed her daughter, Amber Gail
Bennett into the world. Christina then met

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and married a man named Larry Boyer, But what had looked like a fresh

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start and a new hopeful beginning quickly
turned sour. A familiar pattern began to

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emerge when Larry turned abusive. By
this time, Christina didn't stick around long

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enough for things to get worse.
When Larry was in jail one night,

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Christina packed up Amber and their things
and moved to Carroll County, Georgia.

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It was a quiet and highly conservative
town. The people there thought that Christina

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was a wayward sinner, or at
the very least, an incredibly unusual woman

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who'd shown up without her husband and
with a team of parapsychologists hot on her

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tail. Bill Roll and Genie Lagel
actually ended up following Christina to Carroll County,

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still determined to get to the bottom
of this poltergeist activity that supposedly was

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still happening all around her. But
Bill and Jeanie brought their own problems with

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them, problems that Christina found herself
caught in the middle of. Genie claimed

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to have been taking on most of
the workload while Bill hogged the limelight.

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He allegedly started going to parapsychology conferences
without Genie, claiming all of the research

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and all of the evidence they had
collected together was his own. But the

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final straw came when Genie found out
that Bill had been writing a book about

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Christina behind her back, and it
was after that that Genie did decided to

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take matters into her own hands.
She approached Christina and struck up a deal

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where Jenny could write her own book
about Christina and their research, and Christina

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agreed to help her. In return, Genie paid Christina five dollars per hour

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to type up her research notes and
the two of them got to work.

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The extra money helped Christina out around
the house, and it was a house

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that now had more mouths to feed. Somewhere along the way, Christina had

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met David Herron, a man who
also had her daughter the same age,

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Zamber. When he and his child
moved into Christina's trailer, they brought with

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them a fresh start and a new
sense of opportunity. David could now look

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after the children, and Christina could
pick up more hours working with Genie both

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typing up her research notes and working
on the book that they hoped to later

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sell, but they were still trouble
on the horizon. Christina later said that

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she would often have to remind David
that Amber was different from his own daughter.

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Amber was in energetic, almost hyperactive, and often got herself hurt because

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of it. Amber would get the
usual bumps and bruises that most toddlers do,

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but in the spring of nineteen ninety
two, she also took a dive

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out of the back of the car
when she was over excited about getting out

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of her car seat. Amber hit
the pavement and ended up with a large

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swollen forehead that had Christina desperately calling
her foster mother, Joan for advice about

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Joan told Christina that Amber was probably
fine and to just keep an eye on

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the swelling and on her behavior.
Christina breathed a sigh of relief and went

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about her days. As the swelling
went down, she felt comfortable enough to

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leave Amber alone again with David and
head out to work, but when she

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came home later that day, David
was standing in the driveway. He told

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her that something was wrong with Amber, and she wouldn't wake up. Christina

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rushed inside to find her daughter unconscious, her skin already turning a sickening shade

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of gray. By the time they
reached the hospital, it was already too

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late for little Amber. Christina was
distraught, but within moments she was escorted

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down to the local police station,
not to give a statement, but to

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be questioned about her daughter's death.
It turned out that Amber's death had not

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been an accident, but a result
of another blow to the head, a

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blow that was later determined to have
happened while Amber was at work and more

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than likely the result of a beating. The question that investigators put to Christina

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was if she'd known that David had
been abusing her daughter or not. Christina

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denied everything and denied that David had
ever hurt Amber. The authorities didn't believe

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her, and prosecutors later argued that
if Christina had taken Amber to the hospital

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sooner, like when she first started
showing signs of bruising, it was more

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than likely that Amber would still be
alive. They said that Christina had a

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role to play in her daughter's death, one that revolved around protecting her daughter's

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abuser instead of her own shope.
The death penalty was now on the horizon

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for Christina. Not wanting to risk
it, her lawyers advised her to take

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an offered plea. This is a
plead that people can make where they plead

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guilty without actually saying they're guilty of
the crimes are being charged with. Essentially,

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they're saying that they're innocent, but
they would rather go to prison than

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risk going to court being found guilty
and sentenced to death. Christina was put

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away for life and is still behind
bars to this day. David Herron was

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somehow found not guilty of murder,
but was sentenced to twenty years for child

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cruelty. He was released in twenty
eleven. That's ten minute Murder for today

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