Summary
Nessa Pike finds herself trapped inside a coffin as part of a disturbing ritual at the Mirfield Fellowship, a bereavement retreat. During a phone call with a team from the Blackwood Institute for Paranormal Investigations, she pleads for help, revealing that she is being buried alive as part of a service that promises to reconnect participants with lost loved ones. The team, consisting of Conrad, Roxy, and Eddie, rushes to her aid after uncovering the sinister practices at the retreat, which involve manipulating grief and using participants as vessels for spirits.
The investigation reveals that the retreat has been using a special bell and wax impressions to conduct these ceremonies, which have left participants like Nessa and Len Berridge in a state of distress and confusion. The team discovers that the bell is central to the process, as it holds the impressions of the deceased, allowing for a connection that can become dangerously controlling. As they race against time, they manage to free Nessa from the coffin just as the soil begins to be placed on her, thwarting the ritual and exposing the retreat's unethical practices.
In the aftermath, Nessa and Len begin their recovery, supported by their friends and family. The investigation leads to the revelation of a larger network behind the retreat, with ties to a group known as the Brotherhood, which has been exploiting grief for profit. The team documents their findings, ensuring that the retreat's operations are halted and that the individuals involved are held accountable. As they reflect on their harrowing experience, they emphasize the importance of recognizing and addressing the manipulation of grief in such vulnerable situations.
Show Notes
Nessa Pike calls from inside a coffin. Someone has fastened the catches, and the first soil is striking the lid.
Earlier that day, a bereavement retreat brought Conrad, Eddie and Roxie to a family home, an abandoned chapel and the grounds of Merefield House. A brass bell offers the grieving one last conversation with the dead. What it takes in return becomes a race to understand the ritual before another guest disappears into it.
Three weeks after The Rookery, the Blackwood Institute follows a new trail through the Brotherhood's experiments. A full-cast occult horror drama with a complete case and a continuing conspiracy.
From The Unexplained Company. Explore our website: https://www.unexplained.co Get the app: https://www.unexplained.app Subscribe on your favourite podcast platform for the next Blackwood investigation.
Original fictional audio drama with AI-assisted character voices, narration, sound effects, transition score and cover art. Opening theme supplied by the producer. Content notes: burial alive and claustrophobia, bereavement and manipulation, possession and coercion, fire and physical restraint.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/strange-tales-of-the-unexplained--6458041/support.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
More from Strange Tales of the Unexplained
A missing electrician leads Conrad Blackwood, Eddie Szabo and Roxie Boudreau to a shuttered guesthouse before dawn. Inside, two more people are trapped with something that should not exist. As the team searches for a way out, the evidence points to someone who intended the house to stay occupied.
When the familiar turns predatory, even the safest places become evidence. In this episode of Strange Tales of the Unexplained, a sun-drenched backyard, a remote Alaska hotel, a corrupt translator, and a childhood game all reveal the same dark truth: ordinary routines can be weaponized by something patient, hidden, and wrong.
When ordinary places start enforcing hidden rules, the result is not just fear — it is a trap. In this episode of Strange Tales of the Unexplained, a wedding chapel seals itself around the single guests, a backyard excavation reveals a rusted figure with a familiar face, an apartment building quietly erases a bedroom, a child’s invisible weight becomes physically crushing, and a red button aboard the battlecruiser Caliban seems to choose its own consequences.
A birthday party can be lonely enough when nobody shows up. But in this episode of Strange Tales of the Unexplained, an empty backyard, a child’s drawing, and a blond boy named Noah turn a simple act of kindness into something far stranger than grief.
A quiet neighborhood, a child’s bedroom, a house everyone swore was haunted, and a buried archive of the past all begin with the same dangerous assumption: that ordinary places are safe because they look familiar.