Paranormal Case: Don Decker "Rainboy"

I haven't seen this case posted here and I find it fascinating for anyone who is interested in possession or the paranormal. Although it's a bit old, it is still good. What's better is the amount of credible witnesses on the case.

The Inside Geek

In 1983, Don Decker of Stroudsburg, PA was released from the Monroe County jail on furlough to attend the funeral of his grandfather. What Don had never told anyone, however, was that his grandfather had sexually abused him since he was seven years old. After the funeral, tired of hearing his parents glorify his demented grandfather, he made the decision to stay with his friends Bob and Jeannie Keiffer.

While he was at the Keiffer house enjoying the evening something came over Don and he appeared to go into a trance-like state. The Keiffers, who were busy occupied with other things, didn’t take notice to Don’s state until a strange thing happened – it started to rain in their living room.

At first the Keiffers assumed that a pipe had broken causing water to leak from their ceiling and down their walls. They called their landlord Ron H. Van Why to come and investigate the issue.

When Ron got to the house he was baffled by the water, as there were no pipes in that area of the house. To make things even more strange, he noticed that the water was not only dripping from the ceiling downwards, but it was even flowing upwards and horizontally.

At a loss, Ron called the local police who he thought may be able to get a handle on the situation. Officers Richard Wolbert and John Baujan arrived at the scene and were amazed by what they were witnessing. Unable to do anything more than Ron could, they went to get their chief of police while Don and the Keiffers went to grab some food across the street.

Ron and his wife stayed behind and were astonished to see that the rain had mysteriously stopped as soon as the trio had left.

Continue to Part 2 >>>

Here is the Unsolved Mysteries episode which featured Don Decker.

I'm going to have to watch the video and come to my own conclusion but yikes! Just wanted to give you a little bump too since people are flagging and not commenting.

It's definatley interesting,but a big part of me believes that all this is just a story. There's just something not quite right about it. Not to mention the article is poorly written. I didn't watch the videos,as I'm sure it's over dramatized for tv. I'm gonna have to research this a bit more before I comment further...thanks for posting though.

reply to post by nightstalker78


Definitely check the videos out. The article is based on the video for anyone who couldn't watch, but in the video there is testimony from like 5 police officers.

I'm about to watch the videos...but the thing that sticks out to me is them calling the cops? Really? For what? Makes no sense at all.

There is a ton of eye witness testimony, i just can't understand why nobody thought to grab a camera.

reply to post by lokdog


I agree.
1983 wasn't that long ago not to have a camera around, but maybe that has a little to do with it.
I've been searching for real photos and I'm coming up empty

lol. I don't believe this guy or his story for one minute. Cops are people too, probably were all trying to gain recognition in hopes of making money similar to a John Titor type.

reply to post by mnmcandiez


So, four cops, a jail warden, a reverend, and the numerous witnesses that testified on video were all in it to make money? That sounds even more unbelievable than the actual case.

reply to post by mnmcandiez

Very fascinating. Not sure what to believe. The witnesses seems trustworthy. Since it happened at home, in the bar and at the prison, strange why nobody took pictures or filmed it.

reply to post by xEphon


Cops don;t come to your house and put crosses on you. It's just not in their nature. I question the validity of their testimony.

"Once there, officer William Davies tried a little experiment. He covered Don’s head with a paper bag and had him hold his hands out. Officer Davies placed a cross into Don’s hand which again caused severe pain to him. Offier Davies even claimed that the cross was still hot when he went to pick it up."

reply to post by mnmcandiez


That's what the officer reported.
If you find the paranormal impossible to believe, then there's really nothing that I can say to change your mind. The fact remains that we have 4 cops, a warden, numerous other witnesses and even a reverend who testified on video to what happened. I suppose they were just all in cahoots.

reply to post by xEphon


I don't find the paranormal impossible to be true. I've seen a "ghost" before, with multiple people present all seeing the same thing. I actually grew up in a "haunted house". But this story just sounds fake and the guys facial expressions seems as if he is lying to me.

All people lie. Regardless if you are a cop, teacher, reverend or prisoner. They are all human, they all lie within the same trust level.

reply to post by xEphon


Why didn't he return to jail after the funeral? That makes no sense.
If he is an inmate he can't just choose to stay at a friends house and then the cops get called there? The cops likely would have been at the funeral with him and then taken him right back to jail.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


It was said he was granted a weekend furlough, which explains the situation...

I remember seeing this on unsolved mysteries when it first came out, most in my family was a bit scared by it ..

I believe it is a factual account of what actually happened to the victim..I have seen enough things in my own life to justify the belief in the realm of evil being a reality.

Having read the story & watched the videos on this I have to agree with nighstalker in concluding that something about this whole case seems decidedly dodgy. I've given some thought to my main points of contention and they are as follows:

1. The spontaneous manifestation of 'rain'.
I've read & seen plenty of reports on a wide spectrum of the paranormal and never encountered anything else which even suggests this is possible. I'm open minded enough to admit that it could have happened without it being reported before but given its spectacular nature I find that difficult to believe.

2. Levitation, claw marks & burning via crucifix.
These three elements sound like they were pulled straight from the script of some cheap Hammer Horror film and woven into an elaborate fiction. When I put them together with the whole rain thingy my willing suspension of disbelief was stretched to the point where it broke into tiny pieces.

3. The lack of any photographic, video or audio evidence.
This has already been pointed out but I want to draw special attention to the three officers who gave the Keystone Cops a bad name. They turn up to investigate Don, knowing in advance that there's a good chance they'll witness something beyond explanation, and not one of them thinks to take a camera or tape recorder? That's almost as illogical as putting a paper bag on Don's head before giving him a crucifix.

Overall it just all feels too good to be true and the number of witnesses pushes it further in that direction. With the exception of UFO reports the number of cases which have more than three witnesses is very small.

My guess is that the story originally started as an idea of a message to highlight why sexual abuse perpetrated by a family member should be reported as soon and as fully as possible that got out of hand.

Fyi...this case was featured on SyFy's "paranormal witness" program tonight.....insane. They had all the cops, the friends Don stayed with, the pastor, the warden, and landlord on the show, and I have to say that they all looked and sounded highly credible.

I will say that I also cant understand the lack of ONE single photograph exixting of the rain. The guy was a party gag in jail, and yet not one of the guards even took a photo? The landlord of it raining in his rental? Im a guy raised in the 80's and even I took photos of everything back in the day.

Set your DVR's. I love this show.

reply to post by amongus


Oh wow I'm going to have to check that out! Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks for the thread - I'd never heard of this one before this morning - listening to the videos now.

Sure, I'm wondering what's up with the 'no photo evidence' - but - that doesn't mean I don't believe it.

peace

Added note: Gotta look beyond those cheesy actors - their participation makes it tough to believe - but, I've seen things no one can explain or understand sooooo yeah, look beyond those cheesers.

On the other hand the one waitress is completely credible.

Very interesting!