"Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I was inside the mansion shortly before its demolition. I'm a photographer of abandoned/vacant places and I suppose my morbid curiosity got the better of me. It took almost a year of waiting, but eventually the conditions became right for me to sneak inside. The power to the house had been cut, construction hoarding went up and the high-tech security cameras that TPS had installed earlier around the property had all been taken down.
I went alone during the day. I wasn't expecting to get inside, but I was happy to find the garage door leading to the basement was unlocked. I rolled it up and went inside. Not wasting any time, I rushed through the dark garage area. I knew the pool was somewhere in the basement, but I wasn't quite ready to experience that just yet. I made my way up a spiral staircase leading to the ground floor instead.
I had already seen the real estate photos before so I had some idea of what to expect inside. Marble floors, nice light, a distinct 80s vibe. I assumed the place would be more or less empty. I figured a lot of stuff would have been taken out by TPS, sent to an auction house or saved by family members, but that wasn't really the case. There was stuff everywhere: furniture, clothes, artwork, books, personal letters, memos, photos of the deceased, the works. Pretty much every room I stepped into had me saying jesus christ out loud to myself, wondering wth I was getting myself into.
That's not to say everything was intact. It was clear that someone else had been through the place looking for items of value or hidden stashes of money. Everything in the master bedroom was overturned with massive holes punched through the walls. The contents of drawers were strewn out on the floor. The main bathroom upstairs had also been ransacked. Piles of cosmetics and clothing strewn all over the floor. The sight of a messy wig is one of those things that I can't unsee.
In an adjacent area, I came across a notepad on a desk in which someone had written out events occurring the during the days leading up to the murders. "(house) showing at 3:30pm" , "dinner at Barberians", etc. It seemed strange that such a thing would still be there and not a room at TPS headquarters along with other items of evidence.
Most of the stuff in the house, including electronics, was from the 80s or 90s and the majority of it was pretty cheap-looking, some of it quite tacky. I didn't come across the sculptures in the basement. In fact, I don't even recall seeing that room, but granted it was pretty dark down there. Some light came in through the garage doors, but that was about it. I did a quick run through the pool where the bodies were found. Needless to say, it isn't something I'd ever want to do again. Such terrible energy. The fact that was in now in complete darkness only made the whole scene that much more sinister. I left shortly after and still get creeped out whenever I think about it.
I only took a handful of photos that day, mostly of the rooms that had been ripped apart, and a few of the areas that don't look much different than the ones depicted in the real estate listings. I'm not sure I'd ever share them online. I'm still a bit rattled by the experience of it all. I'm also still wrestling with my conscience a little because I feel like I crossed a line into something that's far darker than what I'm usually interested in, both as a photographer and as a human being.
TL;DR: I snuck into a murder mansion and saw a bunch of dead people's stuff. "
