The Cresswell house burned to the foundation in a winter fire that the report called accidental. The landline that had served it was disconnected the same week. Three years later, the phone company's own billing system logged nine outgoing calls from that number in a single night, each to a different recipient, none of whom had asked to be called.
The explanation, when it finally came, was entirely human — and far stranger than the ghost story the town had already decided to believe.
This case is closed. The full account of how the calls were traced and explained goes here.