Tillie’s Last Walk



On the evening of April 8, 1886, 18-year-old Matilda Smith, known to her friends as “Tillie,” is having a lively night out at the local dance hall with a close girlfriend. Tillie has just begun a new job as a potato peeler at Centenary Collegiate Institute (known as Centenary College today), where she is also a boarder.  The girls who live in the Centenary are expected to be back by curfew, which is set strictly for 10:00 PM.  But Tillie has found a way around that rule.  Worried that she might miss curfew, Tillie has asked James Titus, the quiet, married, mild-mannered Centenary College janitor, to leave the back door of the building unlocked for her, in case she’s running late. Tillie is last seen at 10:10 PM, making her way to the back door of the building by the man who walked her home from the dance hall. The next morning, her lifeless body is found in a field bordering the Centenary College. She has been brutally murdered.  Her story captures the attention of newspapers all over the US and the community demands that a killer be brought to justice. It’s not long before James Titus is arrested and found guilty of her murder.

As the years go by, students of Centenary College begin to report strange events—doors opening and closing, lights flickering, and even sightings of a “woman in white” wandering the campus. In 2013, a paranormal investigation led by David Rountree and Tracy Ray uncover a presence on the campus, and clues that suggest Tillie Smith was not killed by James Titus…but someone else. Is Tillie still haunting the halls of her school still seeking justice for her death?

SUBMIT A TIP
" " Download a transcript of this episode

4 Comments

  1. johnny

    come on – this one was so bad. how can you say with a straight face “this is what happened” because some lady said that she imagined it. please. why can’t she do that on the S tattoo lady? because it’s too recent and would be insensitive. psychics are garbage please
    keep this show to the facts.

    Reply

    • brian massey

      You know Johnny for the life of me I would purely predict that the young man that Tillie walked home with that night had killed her out of a sexual act. This man had to be upset with her bc she turned him down after he wanted to get fresh with her. To think it was a serial killer or total stranger I just cannot see that happening sense it was late at night on a college campus and people thought soo differently back then due to security catching them on school grounds after 10pm. You know a school friend of mine from Spring Hill Kansas in 1996 did the exact same thing to a girl he liked and tried to get fresh with her and she turned him down in the town cemetary and he killed her close to my Great Grandparents Grave. Soo whenever I visit my GP’s grave I feel unsettled bc of knowing what happend to her about 50 feet from their grave. It’s hard to imagine why my friend wanted to harm this girl in cold weather after midnight out of a sexual act.

      Reply

    • James

      Totally agree. This is outlandish nonsense.

      Reply

  2. Jennifer Oberting

    Interesting!! Very Good!!

    Reply