Scary True Stories Told In The Rain | Ep. 490

Scary Stories and Rain

This episode presents an anthology of unsettling stories ranging from real-world tragedy to supernatural encounters. It begins with a harrow

Key takeaways

A custodian at Disney World witnessed the death of Ray, who fell 60 feet from the Skyway platform.
In Louisiana, a truck driver was pressured by a stranger to carve his name into cypress wood using a knife with a human jawbone handle.
Mia Cavanaugh's friend Emily was kidnapped and sent Snapchat clues leading to her eventual death in her own home.
The kidnapper used surveillance cameras to monitor Mia's movements during the search for Emily.
An office worker experienced a supernatural event where the break room door vanished and an old corded phone appeared.

Main topics

Disney World tragedy
Louisiana folklore
Kidnapping via social media

Notable quotes

It was just a horrible twist of fate.

Conclusion

The episode provides a diverse anthology of horror that blends real-wo

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Hey, welcome to Scary Stories and Rain. Do you want to listen ad-free? Just subscribe on Spotify for $2.99 a month. Now turn out the lights, enjoy the stories, and enjoy the rain. Speaker 1 (0:17) Back in 1999, I used to work at Disney World down in Orlando, Florida. I was a custodian, which is really just Disney World's fancy way of saying janitor. We mostly worked when the park was closed to clean the place up, empty the trash, and treat all the water features around the park with cleaning chemicals to keep them from getting stagnant and smelly. But there was also a little guest interaction involved too, including things like giving directions, helping guests plan their day, and answering the millions of questions they'd have about the park. So I suppose my job was 70 % janitor and 30 % walking information point. There were major perks, but there were huge downsides too. I'd get disgruntled guests come up to me and complain about the stormy weather. as it meant that some of the rides were closed for a few hours. So I'd have to deal with that, just smiling and nodding and sympathizing, but sometimes, I swear, it was like they wanted me to clap my hands and just magically disappear the clouds above our heads, as if I had the power to do it. Like, it's not my fault that you chose to visit Disney World during a hurricane season. Make better choices. I had to deal with lost children a few times too. and I also had to take valuable items to Lost and Found in Main Street, which was kind of fun, as it meant you could wander through the Magic Kingdom on your way to Lost and Found. That was one of the good things about being a custodian. You're allowed to walk all over the park within reason. For instance, if a guest wanted directions to Space Mountain, I could walk them over to Tomorrowland instead of just telling them how to get there. This worked well when trying to communicate with guests who didn't speak any English. I had a lot of good times during that job. The whole team was like one big family. But I suppose that's why what I'm about to tell you happens to be probably the worst thing that's ever happened in my life. And why it still kind of messes me up 21 years later. So this happened on the second weekend in February of 99. The actual park opened at 11 a.m. So we used to spend the first two or three hours of our shifts basically doing cosmetic cleans, testing rides, and generally making sure the park was ready to go for the day. The morning section of my shift involved helping out with cleaning and prepping Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. So at one point... I'm walking through the park and I see this guy, Ray, up on the platform for the Skyway in Fantasyland. He is sweeping away, whistling to himself, generally being the cheerful guy that he was. Ray was in his 60s at the time and had already been with us for like a year. Everyone liked him. He was older than most, but he was super chilled out and friendly and always willing to help out his fellow cast members. Like I said, we were one big family like that. We worked together, partied together, and some of us even lived together. I called up to him like, Hey, morning, Ray Ray. He just smiles down at me, returns the greeting and waves a little before going back to his sweeping. It was a beautiful morning. Everyone was in a good mood. It was another day in literal paradise. So I'm walking towards Tomorrowland for a few more minutes when I hear this like slow, electric whirring sound above my head. The sound of the skyway starting up as the four-person gondolas started moving along the track. I still feel terrible that it took me as long as it did to realize what was so wrong about the situation. It was a Sunday morning, and I was pretty tired and slightly hungover from going out drinking the night before with a few of the other cast members. Honestly, it took me a little while to stop blaming myself for not having prevented what happened, because I figured that if I had been a little sharper, I'd have been able to really help. But then it hits me. The gondolas are moving. Pretty fast, too, on their first test loop. And Ray is still up on the platform. Someone had switched on the skyway, and they hadn't checked if the thing was clear or not. So I just start running back the way I had walked, following the platform of the skyway, and hoping that I would catch up to Ray before the gondolas reached him. I was running as fast as I could trying to catch up with the lead gondola, but I just couldn't seem to close the distance in time. I look up and see Ray whistling away to himself with his back to the gondolas, just not seeing them at all as they are approaching. So I started shouting up to him and trying to warn him before the gondolas knocked him off the skyway, which are like 60 feet up in the air. He hears me, turns around, and is obviously horrified to see that someone has turned on the ride before checking that it was clear. He has this mix of anger and fear in his voice as he turns back around and starts moving as quickly as he can away from the gondola. But he just couldn't move fast enough. The thing caught up with him pretty quickly, but it didn't knock him off like right away. Ray grabbed onto the gondola and tried to pull himself inside of it to stop himself from falling. But he just wasn't strong enough. And all of a sudden, I'm watching him dangling from the thing. in danger of falling the whole 60 feet onto the concrete below. I'm just shouting up to him, Hang on, Ray, just hang on! But there was nothing I could do. I just had to watch him struggle to hold on to that gondola as it moved along the skyway, knowing that it was only a matter of time before he lost his grip and fell. I can see Ray looking over his shoulder and down at the ground below him every so often, and I will never, ever forget the look of absolute terror on his face, or that feeling of pure helplessness I felt as I watched the whole thing unfolding. Then the gondola starts passing over these flower beds instead of just pure concrete. I figured the soil and the plants would have to be a better option to fall onto. It had to be, so I just started shouting, Jump, Ray, jump! The flower beds! Go! Then, I don't know if he deliberately let go or lost his grip, but he fell 60 whole feet down. and landed with an audible thump in the flowerbeds below. Watching him fall was like slow motion or something. He seemed to fall so slowly, but I guess that's just because he had such a long way to fall. He was in a bad, bad way when I reached him. He wasn't moving at all. He just lay there among the flowers, all glassy-eyed, and he wheezed and groaned in agony. And in the moments before I ran off to get help, I saw him spit up blood onto his bottom lip and chin. I was in tears by the time I found another cast member to help out, begging them to call 911 so we could get an ambulance out there as fast as possible. Emergency services got there less than 20 minutes later, and they carried Ray out of the park on a stretcher before driving him over to Orlando Regional Medical Center. We all prayed that he would be okay, and it brought us all a great deal of hope. that he had actually landed in the flowerbeds and not onto straight concrete, which definitely would have killed anyone who had fallen that far. But a few hours later, we got word that he did not make it. That his injuries were so bad that he had passed away despite what the hospital staff had done for him. The fall just caused too much trauma. Too much internal bleeding. And he had slipped away after they had operated on him to drain the blood from his lungs. Speaker 1 (8:45) We were all absolutely devastated to have lost such a cheerful, charming, dedicated cast member. Ray made all of our days just that little bit brighter, and it would be impossible to really replace him. I felt for his family. I felt for his friends. But I really felt for the cast member who had turned on the gondolas before making sure the skyway was clear. Technically, Ray should have been done with his sweeping by that time in the morning. But like I said, he was dedicated. The kind of guy who didn't finish a job until it was properly done. The person who had turned on the skyway, who I won't name, was totally inconsolable. So much so that they had to be put on leave before they eventually quit. They blamed themselves for Ray's death, saying they should have checked the cameras. Done a walk around to make sure the platform was clear. It was no one's fault. I've come to terms with that. It was a simple breakdown of communication. And it could have happened to anyone. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't Ray's fault. It wasn't the Skyway operator's fault. It was just a horrible twist of fate. Speaker 1 (10:09) Everyone that could get time off attended Ray's funeral. We all wanted to be there for his family as best as we could, to assure them that their husband and father was one of the sweetest guys we had ever known. Ray was the first cast member to die in the park in over ten years, and a little memorial was put up backstage for him, so that we could all remember him at his best, with a smile on his face, instead of scared and broken. Rest in peace, Raymond Barlow. We love you, and we miss you, every single day. I have been a long-haul truck driver for a good few years now. I find it pretty enjoyable, to be honest. It just suits my lifestyle. I have never been the most sociable person, so I actually really like the whole thing of it just