5 chilling details about Chris DiCesare case as shown in True Haunting season 1

Netflix’s True Haunting, which premiered on October 7, 2025, explores the case of Chris DiCesare, who experienced a strange haunting in his dorm room at SUNY Geneseo. The first three episodes of the show, titled, The Eerie Hall Haunting, follow DiCesare’s terrifying encounters with an entity called “Tommy” who haunted him constantly during the early days of his stay at SUNY Geneseo.

Blending dramatic reenactments with real-life interviews, True Haunting retells the true story of the alleged haunting of DiCesare. The following two episodes of the series explore the case of a family that was terrorized by supernatural entities while renovating their Victorian home.

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True Haunting season 1: 5 details about Chris DiCesare's case

1. A voice in the C2D1 in Erie Hall

In the fall of 1984, college athlete Chris DiCesare arrived at SUNY Geneseo on a track-and-field scholarship, and he was assigned to room C2D1 in Erie Hall. Within days of moving in, Chris began hearing his name being whispered softly when no one was there.

At first, he dismissed it as stress or imagination, but the whispers grew persistent and personal, following him even when he tried to study or sleep. Soon, other strange disturbances began to occur, such as doors opening by themselves, objects shifting, and a sudden chill in the air. Chris’s unease turned into dread when he realized the voice always called him at night.

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2. An apparition in the room

The haunting escalated after Chris DiCesare and his roommate, Paul, attended a campus lecture by famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. When Chris approached them afterward, Lorraine refused to shake his hand. Eleven days later, the whispering grew louder, accompanied by an overwhelming sense that something dead was in the room.

Chris’s neighbor, Jeff Ungar, decided to help by trying to photograph the phenomenon. On February 14, 1985, Jeff encouraged Chris to call out the ghost. The dorm door suddenly creaked open, revealing a pale, human-like face. When Jeff tried to take the picture, the apparition vanished. But moments later, they claimed to capture an image of a skeletal figure hovering by Chris’s bed.

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3. The haunting turns violent

Over the next several weeks, the supernatural activity intensified. Objects were hurled across the room, lights flickered violently, and the sound of footsteps echoed through empty hallways. Chris kept a journal documenting every encounter, and his roommate began witnessing the same events, confirming that Chris was not hallucinating.

On March 13, 1985, while showering, Chris DiCesare was suddenly slashed by invisible claws down his back. He screamed, and when his friend Jeff arrived, he found Chris collapsed on the floor, bleeding and trembling. From that day on, Chris referred to the entity as “Tommy.”

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4. The discovery of “Tommy’s” identity

Chris DiCesare continued to hear voices (Image via Netflix)

Chris began researching the college’s history to figure out what was happening to him. With the help of his father, Vito DiCesare, and local historians, he discovered that the land beneath Geneseo once served as a Revolutionary War battleground. A campus plaque honored two fallen soldiers, Lieutenant Thomas Boyd and Sergeant Michael Parker, who were captured, tortured, and killed near the site.

During one of his runs, Chris realized that the “torture tree” mentioned in historical accounts stood along his jogging route. Moreover, Boyd’s first name matched the ghost’s nickname, Tommy, and Chris learned that one of his ancestors had reportedly discovered Boyd’s remains centuries earlier.

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5. A confrontation with the spirit

With the help of Father Charles Manning, a campus priest, a blessing ritual was performed in Erie Hall. Though the atmosphere calmed temporarily in his dorm room, the haunting never fully ceased. It was only when Chris one day ran to the site of the old battlefield, stood beneath the tree, and spoke directly to the spirit, acknowledging its presence, that the haunting finally stopped.

Chris DiCesare finished college quietly after that, and years later, his story resurfaced through interviews with the SyFy series School Spirits. The case is finally being covered in detail on Netflix’s True Haunting.

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Catch True Haunting for more about Chris DiCesare's case.

Edited by Sneha Haldar