Spooked · KQED and Snap Studios

Petrony - Classic

January 2, 2026·34 min·2 clips

The name “Petroni” matches the family sister Petronia, who died in the same house in 1922.

This episode gathers several eyewitness-style accounts around the sense that the dead do not stay far away. The opening voice stays rooted in family ritual and grief. Vanilla wafers, barbecue, and Asahi Superdry become anchors for memory. The speaker names a grandfather and brothers as if calling them back into the room. Speaking at all feels a little risky, as though language itself could reopen a doorway. Another storyteller describes stopping to ask about a little red-headed girl in yellow. The child appears in a yard near the barns and the back door. The homeowner insists nobody is in the house. The child runs around the corner, laughs, and then disappears in one impossible instant. The witness feels a jolt like an electrical shock. After that, belief is no longer theoretical. The story returns to the girl on other occasions, each sighting making her more specific and more unsettling. She has freckles. Her hair is combed straight back and parted in the middle. She looks, in every detail, like a real nine-year-old child. A third account shifts to recovery after a really serious car accident and a broken neck. The narrator is at home with an American bulldog named Pete and passes the time with a crossword puzzle and the History Channel. A creaking sound comes from upstairs, and Pete reacts. Across the stories, the episode keeps circling the same feeling: ordinary life can suddenly open onto the unexplainable, and once that happens, things do not quite settle back the same way again.

As heard by us

Ordinary details keep the hauntings personal and the unease lingering.

It leans on ordinary things like vanilla wafers, barbecue, Asahi Superdry, and a grandfather's voice, which keeps the hauntings close to the ground.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want ghost stories braided with family memory, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Spooked