Woman stabbed 16 times by man hiding in basement for 26 hours says ghost saved her

Eilish Poe, 25, was stabbed 16 times in the neck, torso and arms by her ex-boyfriend who had refused to accept the relationship was over and then took his own life following the horrific attack in Colorado

A school teacher who was stabbed 16 times by her ex-boyfriend has claimed she was saved by the ghost of a woman who died in her hometown and says she’s seen “shadow people” ever since the attack.

25-year-old Eilish Poe, from Fort Collins, Colorado, opened up about her traumatic experience during a podcast series. She also spoke about the paranormal activity she has faced ever since.

On November 4, 2020, Eilish was stabbed repeatedly in her neck, torso and arms during a vicious attack by her suicidal ex-boyfriend, Jonathan Crossley. The 25-year-old had broken into her home while she was at work and had lay in wait for 26 hours in her crawl space.

He pounced on Eilish, who was dressed in pink flamingo-patterned pyjamas and matching slippers when she went to check on her pet rabbit. Eilish recounted what happened to police, but left out one detail.

During what she thought were her final moments, she claims to have seen three “crystal clear” ghosts of people who had died in her lifetime. She also said one of them helped her reach her phone as she struggled to stay alive.

Crossley had turned up at the home with a backpack full of snacks, water and books before jumping on Eilish as she walked down the stairs. He attacked her without saying anything or showing any expression, and hours later he jumped 150 feet from a cliff edge.

Eilish tried fighting back, screaming as Crossley slammed her head against a wall and stabbed her. She’d lost huge amounts of blood and was pleading with him to stop when she tried her last resort – playing dead.

She lay in a pool of her own blood, crying for several minutes until she was sure her ex had left, telling officers she managed to find her phone and call 911 despite having lost the ability to use her arms.

Almost three years after the horrific attack and 10 surgeries later, Eilish has opened up about her paranormal experiences in a five-episode series of the Otherworld podcast, hosted by Jack Wagner. She explained how a three-month “summer fling” with Crossley, at the time two years older than her, turned into a near-death experience.

She said she believes that her brush with death has opened the door to “another world” inhabited by “shadow people”. Eilish, originally from Fate, Texas, said she and Crossley first met two years before when they were both working with children at a summer camp.

The relationship was initially “light and fun”, but Eilish said Crossley soon began demanding something more serious, which she, just 23 at the time, was not ready for. Eilish said she was “very upfront with him from the start”, but their relationship turned “sour” with him yelling at her and his friends over small disagreements.

Things started taking a more sinister turn when Eilish tried to break up with Crossley. He refused to accept their relationship was over and would constantly turn up at her house with chocolate and flowers and leave her chilling voicemails saying he loved her.

A few months later, Crossley appeared to have given up and Eilish thought she was in the clear. But on November 3, 2020, the day before the vicious attack, he texted Eilish saying he wanted to reconcile still.

She was unaware that at the time Crossley was sending her these messages, he was lying in wait in her home, conspiring to kill her having broken in through a ground-floor window. Eilish said: “I got home from work and realised the basement door was open, which was weird at first… but I really didn’t think it was too bizarre that it was open. I just closed it, I really didn’t think too much of it.”

Eilish said she went to change into her pyjamas and went to check on her pet bunny, Boomer. Then, she heard a noise and turned around to see Crossley charging toward her.

He attempted to put her in a chokehold, and Eilish fought back – striking him with her elbows and knees, aiming for the groin. She said: “He then pushed me down the stairs and I hit my back pretty bad…

“He grabbed me by the back of my hair… He shoved my head into the wall five or six times. After that he took out a knife, like a normal kitchen knife… it was like four inches long probably… he overpowered me.”

Eilish said it was at this moment time seemed to slow down, and she screamed at her ex to try and make him stop. he said: “I tried to get into his head and I was being very specific with what I was saying… calling him by name because he was so detached.”

She then had what she called “one of the most disturbing thoughts I’ve ever had”, which was: “I’m going to have to kill him.”

Eilish went for the knife, but grabbed hold of the blade slicing her hand “to the bone”. She switched up her tactics and tried making emergency calls using ‘Siri’ on her phone and her housemate’s Amazon Echo – but was not successful.

As the attack continued, Eilish resorted to her final plan, which would save her life. So she stopped fighting, letting her arms flop into her lap as she lay on her back defenceless. She said: “He stabbed me one final time. This was the deepest one, directly under my right collarbone. It actually ended up puncturing my lung, I’d find out later.”

The puncture created a “big exhale” sound as she rolled onto her side, which Eilish believes convinced Crossley she was dead.

“As quickly as he started he just stopped,” she said. “He stared at me still on his knees. Time was so strange during this thing, it felt like five minutes, but realistically he probably just stared at me for like 10 seconds.”

With her eyes slightly open, she saw her ex leave, letting the door hit her body on his way out. Eilish began a frantic search for her phone, but soon realised her left atm “didn’t work” and she could only use the fingers on her right.

She knew her chances of survival were slipping away. She lay back, feeling that she was at death’s door, and that’s when “some strange stuff started happening”.

She recalled seeing a “carousel of people” appear in a doorway two feet from where she was lying in a pool of her own blood. Among them, she saw three “ghosts” of people she had lost within her lifetime.

“My paternal grandmother was standing right there…” she remembered. “She was standing there just kind of quaintly smiling at me. She didn’t wave or anything like that.”

Eilish said she felt “comforted” and even “joyful” to see her grandmother, Jeanie, who she never got to say goodbye to. She said her grandmother was “standing tall” and “just, there, so clearly there.”

“And then she wasn’t,” she continued. “She was just gone. And a second later, as if Jeanie faded out, the next person faded in.”

Eilish’s high school best friend, Vicky, who had taken her life in February 2020, appeared next. She said: “She was also just standing there, and the same as Jeanie she had this comforting smile on her face.

“I felt so f**king happy to see her, because she committed suicide. I am still grieving for her three years later, but it felt like a bonus time, even just for five seconds, or however long it was, to see her and be near her again.”

The third ghost, however, was less comforting. 32-year-old Alyssa Burkett was murdered by her ex-boyfriend who stabbed and shot her in “broad daylight” just a month before.

“When I saw her I felt no comfort,” Eilish said, “I felt just an overwhelming sense of urgency, of she is here to warn me – do not let this be you, this can’t be you…

“She was there for a reason, she was there to get me out of there. The other two were smiling and happy, but when I saw Alyssa her eyes were like bulging out of her head, she looked frantic, it was urgent.”

Eilish said Alyssa “pushed the air” with her hands. Continuing: “When that happened it felt like her energy was passing through me.

“The next thing I know, she literally pulled me up, and I was sitting upright…” Eilish managed to get hold of her phone and tried to type in the number for emergency services, but she said: “My fingers were so soaked with blood that I couldn’t type anything, it wasn’t sensing my touch on the screen.”

She remembered how to pull up an Emergency SOS option, pressing in the volume and lock buttons. However, she was unable to use the slider due to the blood covering her hands, so, she resorted to using her nose.
When she finally heard the call go through she said: “I just rolled onto my back so relieved.”

Eilish said people have “a lot of opinions” on what she saw, but, she said: “in reality, they weren’t there. They don’t know.”

Months after her attack, Eilish began seeing what she called “shadow people” which others around her can’t see. She said: “I started seeing these shadowy figures, they used to only be in the corner of my eye.

“Then it kind of escalated to seeing them in front of me as clear as can be, but also not clear because it was a staticky type person, a figure always in the shape of a human.

“I’ve seen them probably between 50 and 100 times – like a lot. They never approach me apart from one specific time, and the second I start to walk towards it or acknowledge it, it’s just gone.”

Eilish has dismissed that what she sees is a result of PTSD, saying: “I think because I almost crossed over, because it was so close, maybe those shadow people are people who are in the between of crossing over and they’re in the middle of somewhere, maybe that’s why I can see them.”

Her experience has left her believing in an afterlife of some form. Eilish said she’s always been “open to the idea of something paranormal” or “something out there after death” but is “even more open to it now.”

“I definitely don’t have it figured out, but I think seeing two of my favourite people in the entire world, in that really really dire moment opened up everything more, and made me feel like people and souls are out there for us in ways that we don’t understand,” she said.

Eilish has said as she recovers from the mental and physical scars of her ordeal, she’s been haunted less frequently by the “shadow people”.