One evening, Stephanie Canada awoke to the crackling sound of her television set. As she groped her way through the cold, dark house, Canada stumbled to the TV and firmly pressed the power button. But the set simply switched channels. Over and over again, Canada pounded the power button, only to be frustrated by the eerie changing of channels. She eventually ran to get her husband, who finally turned the TV off by unplugging it.
What caused this bizarre occurrence? According to Canada – ghosts.
There have been a total of four wrongful deaths in the couple’s Lake Highlands home, and Stephanie Canada says these wrongful deaths have produced spirits who haunt her house.
The most notorious of the deaths happened Feb. 27, 1985, when Koby Sandovsky and Lesia Kahl were murdered in the house during a drug deal gone wrong.
According to Canada, a Dallas attorney had a cocaine addiction, and Sandovsky was his dealer. The attorney felt wronged by Sandovsky and hired some men to rough him up. The situation turned fatal when the hired men panicked and killed both Sandovsky and Kahl by beating them with a hammer.
Many aspects of the murder case stunned the public. The attorney was well-known. Kahl was a Playboy model who had just moved to Dallas to propel her modeling career. On the evening of the murders, the attorney was entertaining guests on the first floor of what is now Canada’s White Rock Lake home, while Kahl and Sandovsky died upstairs.
“I went and researched and found all the paperwork on the murders and the trial,” Canada says. “It was big news in 1985.”
And, because real estate agents must notify potential buyers of past deaths in the house, Canada learned of the house’s other unfortunate incidents.
“There has been a wife who shot her wandering husband, and a suicide,” Canada says.
Yet even with its scandalous past, Canada was eager to move into the old house and neighborhood.
“My husband grew up one block from the house, so he knew the neighborhood,” she says. “It had the things we wanted: a fireplace and yard. The pool was an added advantage.”
But, she says, she immediately noticed strange occurrences.
“We heard footsteps the first night we moved in,” she says. “We have also seen shadows and have had little things moved from one place to another.”
“When I first moved into the house, we had a strictly inside dog,” she goes on. “The dog looked up at the bedroom, turned and looked at me like he was saying, ‘You are crazy.’ He then refused to come into the house again.”
One day Canada received a painting that belonged to a deceased friend who also left strict instructions to hang the painting at the entrance of one of the house’s rooms. After hanging it out of immediate view, the picture flew off the wall in the middle of the night. Canada is convinced the spirits in her house threw the picture from the wall because it was hung in the wrong place.
Think Canada has a rich imagination? To back up her claims, she says she invited paranormal researchers to visit the house and says they backed up her claims, saying they also sensed spirits.
They also identified and explained ways to recognize these spirits.
According to Canada, the paranormal researchers pointed out orbs that can be seen in photos when spirits are present.
“You can take pictures and have orbs show up in photographs,” she says, “and we have that occur a lot in here. You’ll see these bubble-looking things.”
The researchers also told Canada that her home’s spirits were friendly.
“They are more playful and are extremely content,” she says. “They have never bothered anyone and basically keep to themselves.”
Because of the paper trail documenting the deaths in the house, as well as the activities her family has experienced, Canada believes her house is the most haunted in Dallas.
But would she ever move because of the spirits?
Not a chance, she says.
“As far as I’m concerned, bury me in the backyard,” Canada says. “I love the neighborhood and am completely comfortable. I intend to stay here.”
