I investigated ghost who terrorised my childhood home… it led me to a murder, a Hollywood star & dark family secret
GROWING up Tristan Redman didn’t believe in ghost stories and dismissed spooky experiences in his teenage bedroom as his sister playing a prank.
But when others came forward decades later with “disturbing” claims of paranormal activity from the same home in Richmond, Surrey, he was forced to rethink everything.
Terrified former occupants told Tristan, 43, a Paris-based journalist, about their beds "shaking vigorously" without explanation.
One lady claimed she had to fight off an "invisible force" that grabbed her legs, while the ‘spirit’ appeared as a "faceless woman" to another resident.
Chillingly, as Tristan investigated what might be behind the hauntings, it led him to a tragedy closer to home that he could have never imagined.
His wife Kate's great-grandmother, Naomi Dancy, who had coincidentally lived next door to the house more than half a century earlier, was murdered in 1937 after being shot twice in the face.
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It led Tristan to question whether the "faceless” spirit could be his deceased in-law, and to him probing the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.
In a new Wondery podcast, , Tristan explores whether the "faceless” spirit could be his deceased in-law and hires a team of crack detectives to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.
Speaking to The Sun, Tristan tells us: “There are two tracks to this story, with these extraordinarily confusing and compelling set of coincidences.
“On the one hand, we have very experienced detectives, who have solved hundreds of murders, taking apart the case of my wife's murdered great-grandmother and giving us their assessment of who they think committed the crime.
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“And the second track is following the clues to the ghost story, speaking to people who have been associated with the house and this crazy set of coincidences."
'Faceless woman'
Tristan was 16 when his family moved into the ‘haunted’ home in 1996 and says the spooky incidents occurred “for five or six years”.
He recalls his bedroom lights “flashing on their own”, waking up to find objects had moved and having an “uncomfortable feeling when alone in the house”.
Tristan says: “My sister used to live on the top floor with me and I used to ask her, ‘Have you been moving things around my room?’ Basically, are you messing with me?
“She always used to deny it and then I forgot about it until other people spoke to me about their experiences in the house. It gripped me and made me wonder what was really going on.”
Tristan’s family moved out in 2006. He didn't think any more about it until his former neighbour Charles told him about other paranormal events in the home.
Charles told him about an American who showed up at the home and asked the new residents: “Do you still have that ghost in the top bedroom?”
The occupant was said to have gone “completely white” because it reminded her of claims made by her 10-year-old daughter.
Charles said: “This struck a chord because the daughter had always insisted there was a ghost in her bedroom, which would manifest itself on occasions and sit on her bed.
“She said to me, 'My daughter told me about some goings on, some faceless woman who sits on my bed' and she says, ‘I always batted them away…’”
Now, Tristan was aware of “three completely unconnected families” with “strange, inexplicable experiences” about the top floor and started to investigate.
'Jealousy killing'
Tristan questioned whether the “faceless woman” haunting his old home could be the deceased relative of his wife Kate Dancy – whose brother is Hannibal and Downton Abbey star Hugh Dancy.
The couple met at university and shared a flat together as friends. One night, before they had started dating, Tristan was visiting his family home and invited Kate and her grandad along - only for the latter to make an incredible revelation.
Kate recalls: “My grandad walked into the house and before he said anything else, he said, ‘My mother was murdered in the house next door.’”
Details of the murder were not spoken about by the family and younger relatives believed Naomi Dancy died a “natural death”.
In reality, she died after being shot in the face twice.
The family believed she was killed by her brother, Maurice Tribe, “out of jealousy” as he battled alcoholism and PTSD from World War 1.
Maurice was blind in one eye following an injury in the war and due to his declining health, worsened by drink, was losing his sight in the other.
It was claimed he gunned Naomi down after developing “jealousy over his sister’s beautiful eyes”.
In a statement to police, Naomi’s husband John Dancy - also known as 'Feyther' - claimed Maurice had threatened her multiple times before and once “specifically threatened to shoot her eyes out”.
In the early hours of November 23, 1937, John said he heard three gunshots and raced out of a room to find Maurice pointing a revolver at his head.
“I realised he meant to shoot me,” John said. "I switched the light out and dropped to the floor. He shot as I fell and the bullet whizzed by my ear and went through the back window. I laid quite still and pretended that I was hit.”
Maurice then locked himself in the bathroom and when John urged him to open it, he yelled: “Stand away from those panels or I’ll shoot you like a dog.”
John ran into the bedroom to find his wife “had been shot through both eyes" and described "blood spurting from one of her eyes”.
He returned to the lavatory and after forcing the door open found Maurice slumped over, saw a razor fall from his hand and discovered he had no pulse.
While police believed the account of John - whose memoir entries theorised his brother-in-law might have been after a valuable insurance policy - others didn't.
Detectives were sent two “barely legible” letters accusing Naomi’s husband of the killing.
One read: “Believe me, I’m not the only person over here who believes he murdered his wife and brother-in-law myself.”
Cover up?
In the podcast, Tristan brings in former detectives to look over the case and they discover multiple discrepancies.
They include Maurice’s hands being “suspiciously clean” and not covered in blood from his suicide and the razor that fell to the floor being found in his hand by police.
Among the experts was Jackie Malton, the homicide detective who inspired Dame Helen Mirren's character Jane Tennison in the ITV show Prime Suspect.
She accuses police of not investigating the case properly and taking John’s account as “gospel truth” with little-to-no evidence to back up his claims.
Jackie says there was no proof that Maurice threatened to kill Naomi, nor that he killed her and tried to kill John to inherit £6,500 - roughly £370,000 today – from their insurance policy.
Those who knew Maurice, including his sister-in-law, also claimed the supposed killer would have “never threatened anyone” let alone “harm anyone”.
The theory that John “committed the perfect crime” and blamed Maurice is heavily investigated in Ghost Story.
Tristan also wonders whether he was haunted by Naomi to inspire him to investigate the case - and whether she had a hand in his love life.
He asks: “Did I end up marrying a family because a ghost wants me to solve a case that everyone has got wrong for nearly 100 years?”
Tristan says the "faceless woman" could have been present when he and his wife Kate went from friends to lovers.
He tells us: “We were both like, ‘Hang on, it was in that room that we got together. Does that mean that your great-grandmother was in the room?’
“It seemed such an absurd, totally ridiculous idea… that we were somehow being manipulated from the other side.
"But then the idea kept on coming back... It became one of the driving questions… Did we get married because of some kind of cosmic intervention?”
Family backlash
Tristan admits delving into such a “traumatic” part of his in-law’s family history wasn't easy and risked them “disowning” him.
In the podcast, one relative said: “If you come out with a piece that says he (John Dancy) is a murder I’ll be sorry we ever said we would contribute to it.”
Tristan’s wife Kate even admits the family will be “more traumatised by this podcast than we were the murder”.
He says it's been “a hard road” to get to the bottom of the case but he felt compelled to investigate because "something didn't feel right" about the official account.
Tristan says: “When you have a feeling there may be an injustice that has been committed in some way, you want to get to the bottom of what actually might have happened."
Reluctant to give away spoilers, he tells us he is still on speaking terms with his in-laws and his findings were "surprising".
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Tristan adds: "I think we've got to a place now where everyone is kind of at peace with where we've landed, but it hasn't been easy all the way along."
Ghost Story from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios launches on October 23. Listen on Wondery+, Amazon Music and other streaming platforms.
