Dennis and Caroline
Years ago, my father lived in a suburban neighborhood that ran alongside the Manasquan River. His house was on the inland part of it, but down the street from him were a series of beautiful waterfront homes. One of them was on sale at the time for only four hundred grand.
In the State of New Jersey, it is impossible to buy decent property on the water without being a millionaire. And Dad is no longer around, so I can’t ask him to provide more details on the story he once told me about why that house was so cheap.
There was a couple who lived there when Dad first moved into the neighborhood, following his split with Mom. The boyfriend Dennis worked with Dad for a few months. They had a job doing construction together that paid in cash.
Dennis’ girlfriend Caroline came from a wealthy family who supposedly bought the house for them, expecting them to get married. Caroline really wanted that to happen but Dennis was reluctant. His reluctance caused a number of fights between them and one thing eventually led to another.
The short version of this is that Dennis murdered Caroline in the house. But as a former co-worker, Dad knew enough about him to speculate why.
Apparently, Dennis spent his whole life living and working under the table. He didn’t even have a social security number according to Dad, and he did all this to avoid paying taxes for decades. Dad believes that Caroline confronted Dennis one night and said “If you don’t marry me, I’m ratting you out to the IRS and you’re going to jail.”
Dennis killed her with a steak knife in the kitchen. After that, he went out to their garage and connected a tube from the exhaust pipe of his car to the car’s interior. Then he got inside and turned it on.
Dad knew something was wrong when Dennis stopped showing up to work without saying anything to anyone. Soon his boss broke the news, and not too long later started paying his employees by the books with actual paychecks.
But the story of this house on the river doesn’t end here. In the aftermath of Caroline’s murder, efforts were made to renovate and resell the property. The carpenter who did all the flooring there was a friend of Dad’s from high school who he stayed in touch with over the years.
The kitchen had a hardwood floor at the time of the murder, and during renovations, a tile floor was put in. But they didn’t even take out the floorboards. They just put the tile on right over it. So Caroline’s dried-up blood still remains in the house.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much else about the situation and couldn’t find anything online. Again, I wish my father was still here to tell me more. It’s been so long since I’ve heard the story and this whole piece was written based on memory.
I do know one thing though. Dennis and Caroline’s house has been bought and sold four times in the last twenty years; a waterfront home for four hundred grand. If that place isn’t haunted, I’ll await a better explanation.