We returned to this area in April 2022 after having previously explored a house next to it in the winter. This one was difficult to tell if there was anyone living inside, it looked like it could go either way. I walked up to the front door and peered inside. I observed some Harvey’s fast food leftovers on the kitchen table. With that, we noped right out of there.

A short while later I decided I wanted to have another look at this house. I walked around the back and looked inside. There was an absence of furniture and the basement was empty. All the doors were locked. I then tried the garage door, which opened. I crawled underneath and moments later was inside!

I was expecting someone to appear at any moment but when they didn’t, I grew more couragious and ventured further in the house. There were boxes of cereal and cooking supplies on the kitchen counter. The kitchen had something puddled on the floor by the fridge, which indicated there was nobody around to clean it up. To clarify whether someone was living here or not, I opened the fridge. The putrid smell that permeated the immediate area, told me that the food was rotten. The smell lingered for the duration of our visit.

The house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The highlight of the house is the wooden staircase and the French doors. The last listed asking price was $1.5 million.

Kelly’s Story

Meet 50 year old Kelly. Kelly is a realtor.

In July of 2018 Kelly met a man named Peter and they began dating. As they got to know one another, Peter eventually told Kelly that he’d been in prison but explained that it had been a miscommunication with an ex-girlfriend over a credit card. He also had a son that he was attempting to get custody of.

In September of 2020, Kelly and Peter moved out of her condo and signed a two-year lease on a new home. Kelly paid first and last month’s rent because Peter said his money was tied up in the child custody case.

(TWP: This house was their new home. I was able to match photos of the home decor business with photos that I took inside the house.)

Things began to disappear over the next couple of years including a friend’s Rolex watch during a cottage weekend. Kelly’s parents were missing a thousand dollars in U.S. money, a Tiffany necklace and two wedding rings. The cleaning lady was initially suspected, and when confronted, she became insulted and quit.

Eventually a friend of Kelly’s informed her that she’d found Peter’s photos on a dating website. The name on the profile belonged to a man who had a court judgement against him for two children. Kelly only knew about Peter’s one child. Kelly hadn’t even met Peter’s child yet because he kept prolonging it, saying he wanted the custody case to be finalized first. Peter said that he knew nothing about these judgements and that if they were his children, he’d certainly be fighting to see them – Kelly believed him.

Peter knew people who were selling a home decor business which had closed during the pandemic. Because Kelly was a realtor, she knew home design and how to sell. Their home had a large basement with a separate entrance that could serve as a showroom. Kelly bought the home decor business for $10,000 plus the company’s $40,000 loan. She made Peter the director. The business was operated out of the basement.

Peter began using the company debit card for personal purchases but explained that he’d lost his own company card and would reimburse Kelly the funds.

By summer of 2021, Kelly was suspecting that her partner was cheating. Peter had begun to withdraw and refuse to attend family gatherings together. He claimed to be exhaused when he arrived home. By August of 2021 Peter was disappearing for days at a time. He agreed to couple’s therapy but showed up sporadically.

Kelly was eventually able to use a password to log into his email account. What Kelly found shocked her! There were years worth of dating profiles from various dating websites created under a variety of false names. She found an old Kijiji listing for her mother’s missing rings. By Googling one of the names that Peter had used, Kelly found that there’d been a news article written about him 10 years prior with regards to him being a romance scammer.

Kelly moved into her parent’s condo. She attempted to have the lease broken but Peter wouldn’t sign the paperwork. Eventually her landlord contacted her to say that he hadn’t been paying rent and was going to be evicted.

Kelly sat down and created a speadsheet of the finances. She learned that Peter had owed thousands in utilities and hundreds of dollars in phone bills and credit card charges. It’s estimated that her family is out $200,000. When she sold the bed she’d purchased for his son’s bedroom, she discovered social assistance receipts and documents that indicated the custody case had been settled two years prior.

Peter had left the house saying that he needed space. In reality, he had moved in with another woman. Peter hacked Kelly’s business website, which explains why the home decor website is offline today. He disabled and threw away the alarm system that protected the house. In fact, while exploring this house I found parts of the alarm in an upstairs bedroom. Peter also allegedly stole from her home business and sold the items online.

Kelly’s company’s website is now offline and her last business Facebook post was December of 2021. It would be around this time that the woman moved what remained of her home business and put it into storage. I was able to find her Facebook profile where I watched a particularly heartbreaking video of her crying.

As for Peter, it turns out he had been married in 2003, had two children (2004 and 2006). In 2007 his wife asked for a divorce and Peter punched his fist through a wall. His wife fled with the children. He sent his wife messages that he was going to kill himself. He even drank bleach and turpentine in front of his wife. Police took him on a 48-hour hold. She filed a restraining order and sought sole custody. Peter in turn contacted CAS and claimed that she’d left a giant bruise on his son’s neck. The photo turned out to be doctored.

Peter never did gain custody of his children. In 2012 he was sentenced to 30 months in jail. When he was released in 2014, he found another woman on a dating website. They had a son together. Credit cards, jewelry and money went missing. He was kicked out. The woman found a receipt for a pawn shop ring, which turned out to be her grandmothers. It had been missing for a year. She gained sole custody of their son.

Please don’t ask the real names of those in this story. This is one of those explorations where I think the privacy of the individuals trumps our own curiosity.

Explored in April of 2022.

While searching for another abandoned house, we passed by this one. This house had ‘the look’ and so we stopped to take a closer look. The driveway had weeds, the grass was overgrown, and the roof was in rough shape. I walked around doing a cursory inspection and made my way to the back. The door opened!

The kitchen countertop had used utensils on it. A garbage can was filled with food. The fridge was working and inside were pizza boxes and a case of Heinekin. I didn’t check for any expiry dates. In an adjacant room were several liquor bottles. This could have gone either way… the house looked like maybe someone lived here but it also looked like it could be in use as a ‘hang out’ for youth.

Another room had a virtual golf simulator. The appearance could either be that of a lived in home, or a vacant house. There was really only one way for me to be certain…

I walked slowly upstairs. I wanted to see if there were any beds and clothing. I discovered a mattress but no bed sheets and very little furniture. I surmised that the house was vacant and only being used by kids or squatter.

This house is a mid-century ranch-style home containing four bedrooms and three bathrooms. According to information found online, it’s been vacant for over 10 years now. I can find no reference to what the house’s address or who the former occupants may have been.

The front door is broken off the hinges allowing elements inside. Sections of the roof have deteriorated and collapsed into the house. There’s black mold throughout. There are numerous boxes of wicker furniture new in packaging. One theory is that the owners operated a business out of the house, while another is that it was used for storage. 

In the rear of the property are two outbuildings, a pool and tennis court. The west side of house contains a three car garage. For the forseeable future there seem to be no plans for demolition of the property.

This was an alleged licensed grow operation. On my first visit, I could observe that the electricity had been altered. HVAC tubing had been run from the basement up to the bedrooms. The attic had remnants of plants and shake. Most much every room in this house was altered to grow marijuana. The only room left untouched was the kitchen.

During my second visit on May 23, 2022 I found that most of the interior has been gutted down to the studs. The kitchen is completely gone.

This house has now been demolished as of 2022.

 

May 23, 2022 Photos

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This house is located in North York, Ontario. The Toronto area is filled with similar properties that have been purchased by development companies with the intention to build new condo housing. This will be the future home of a three storey building with 7 condos. As with many developer properties, the electricity is still working.

This house was a random find as we were ending our exploration day in May 2022. It was next to a gas station in Kleinburg that we stopped at for fuel. The black and white tiled room reminds me of the text adventure game Miser (Mansion). The red stained glass in the front room lit up the hallway in bright red rays. Nothing very exciting about this find. There are some derelict trucks outside.

 

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This property was found in King, Ontario. Outside there was an in-ground swimming pool, pond, guest house and large barn. The property may have been used to board horses.

The house was built in 1891 and is was included in Ontario’s heritage property list. Additions were made to the house over the years to both sides of the house and shed dorners added to the roof. After renovations to the house, it was removed from the Ontario Heritage Listing. The property offered privacy as it was situated away from the road at the end of a long driveway.

As I made my way to the stairs leading into the basement, I observed mold on the walls. Over time, the basement had flooded to about two feet of water and the entire room was now filled with mold. The basement contained a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table and a very old Mason & Risch piano from the early 1900’s.

The surrounding land is used for farming. In fact on the same day we drove past here, we observed a truck go down the driveway. We waited for it to leave and then parked off-site.

GPS: 43.947432 -79.516483

This house was built in 1979 and is situated on 39,000 square feet of land. It was listed for sale at $5,500,000. There’s an outdoor tennis court, five bedrooms, seven bathrooms. The house has an almost commercial appearance to it, and lacks the warmth of a residence. It was last in use as a private Christian school by the name of Heritage International School. They are listed as offering grades 7 through 12 with a strong academic curriculum as well as Arts programs in Visual Arts, Drama (Musical Theatre), Music (Band, Orchestra), Physical Education, and extra-curricular program. The students are primarily Korean.

The MLS listing indicates there’s an indoor pool but on my visit, it was covered over with plywood. Several of the bedrooms have panic buttons, leading me to think this was some sort of residential setting for youth. Out back is a children’s tree house.

In 2018, a developer applied for a permit to build nine, three storey townhouses with rooftop terraces on the land. Since that time, the property has remained untouched.

An online blog post from 2020 shows a much different house, one that appears ready for occupancy. My exploration photos are from 2019. It appears that the house has once again been relisted for sale, this time for $5,800,000.

 

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This house was built during the 1950’s. The interior has remained relatively untouched since that time, an architectural time capsule. The belongings on the other hand are modern day.  When I returned to this house in late 2019, it had been stripped down to the studs.