History & local legend
Radio news anchor Lisa Alexander heard stories about earlier tenants after moving into an apartment on North Lincoln Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny West neighborhood. The couple reportedly came home to find children’s shoes arranged in a row, and the wife once heard someone whispering for help at night.
Alexander invited John DuMaurier to investigate, with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Gretchen McKay accompanying the visit. From the second-floor living room, DuMaurier looked toward the dark stairwell and said he could picture a small brown-haired child in a corner.
Alexander’s friend Gracilynn Cloud also described the boy, imagining him as about five years old with trousers he had outgrown. McKay recorded their impressions and Alexander’s account of the former tenants in a February 22, 2000, article.
