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There’s nothing like coming back to the comfort of our own home after a long vacation away or a rough day at work. Our homes become our safe havens where we can change into our comfies, wash our makeup off, settle in & truly be ourselves. But what if your safe haven wasn’t yours alone?
Imagine you’ve just moved into your dream home in paradise, ready for a fresh start with your family. In this exceptionally chilling episode, we uncover the Campbell family’s nightmare—mysterious noises, misplaced belongings, and a horrifying realization that will make you double-check your locks tonight.
In 2019, the Campbell family consisted of 36-year-old James, 37-year-old Brittany & their two young sons. Brittany & James had only just gotten married in Vegas the year before despite the fact that they’d known each other & briefly dated during high school. The pair reconnected later in life after spending many years apart in between.
Their contrasting personalities perfectly balanced the couple; Brittany was very outgoing & carefree while James was mellow, level headed & analytical. James had two sons from a previous relationship & Brittany was both excited & terrified to start her new adventure as a wife & mother of two while James described her as a wonderful stepmom to his boys.
As if her new marriage & motherhood wasn’t enough of a change, in April 2019, the Campbell family was also in the process of relocating to Hawaii where James was stationed in the U.S. Navy. They made their move with their cat & as they settled in, they added a new dog to the mix & the family of four were all happily adjusting to their new surroundings.
They settled into a modest two-story house at the end of a quiet suburban cul-de-sac not far from the airport in Honolulu. They were all looking forward to starting a new chapter of adventures together in the beautiful landscape of their new home. The house was situated with the living space downstairs & the bedrooms upstairs, with the two boys sharing a bedroom. As you reached the top of the stairs, the boys’ bedroom was to the left while the primary bedroom was to the right with a bathroom situated between the two rooms.
It wasn’t long after they settled in that spine tingling occurrences began happening inside their home, things that initially, only Brittany noticed.
During a typical evening at home in June 2019, Brittany headed out to the garage in search of something that she needed that was still packed away in a moving box. As she stepped into the garage, she was immediately confused when she noticed that the boxes, which had been previously neatly stacked, were now tipped over with the contents strewn out. James’ music gear was also moved around. Oddly, the contents seemed to be deliberately arranged in a way that made no sense to Brittany & it looked like someone had gone through & sorted the items.
Brittany just brushed this instance off, assuming that one of her sons must have been going through the items, looking for something or even potentially playing a prank. However, as the days went by, more & more things began happening that left her with an increasingly uneasy feeling.
One week after the incident in the garage, Brittany was home alone, getting ready for the day in her bathroom when she was startled by the sound of the front door slamming shut. It was Brittany’s routine to get ready at her vanity while watching makeup tutorials on her phone, something she was doing that morning. She was so jolted by the sudden bang from the door that she nearly poked her eye while applying eyeliner. She initially assumed that it was only her husband or sons unexpectedly coming back into the house after maybe forgetting something, but when she called out their names, she was met with only silence.
She got up from her vanity to investigate, but Brittany had no explanation as to how or why the door slammed, but since there was no explanation, she had no choice but to move on & shake it off. Regardless, her instincts told her that something was just not right as she made her way through the house, ensuring that all of the doors & windows were latched & secured. When she spoke with James about the boxes being moved in the garage & the unexplained slamming door, he tried to reassure that there was likely an innocent, logical explanation.
Not long after, while the family was asleep one night, Brittany was jolted awake to the unmistakable sound of the doors downstairs opening & closing. She immediately woke James, but he brushed the noises off to something typical like a draft, the house settling or the family dog moving about the house. He groggily assured her that when he came up to bed that night, he was positive he locked the door.
James was starting to get the feeling that Brittany was just being paranoid, maybe from the stress from their major move & being in an unfamiliar location with family & friends back home. At the time, he actually found himself growing a little frustrated with his wife as he wasn’t seeing or hearing the things that she’d experienced.
Brittany remained unsettled & unconvinced that James had locked the door so she climbed out of bed to double check that the windows & the doors were secured & as she reached the front door, she found it unlocked. Brittany immediately marched back upstairs to confront James & they got into a little argument about it. She couldn’t understand why he would tell her the door was locked when it wasn’t & even questioned if maybe one of the boys had been sneaking out at night. A normally trusting person, Brittany was upset with herself & began doubting herself, wondering if she was losing her sanity.
Later that same night, the couple, who were still upstairs, heard the back sliding door open & slam shut. Just as with the front door, James was also positive that when he checked the door before heading up to bed, it had been locked. But after Brittany asked him to go down to investigate the noise, he found that not only was the slider unlocked, but the screen door had been pulled open despite the fact that he recalled it being closed. At this point, James was still convinced that there had to be a reasonable explanation for the recent events while Brittany just assumed that the stress of her life was catching up to her with all the changes she’d recently gone through.
Shortly thereafter, James sat practicing at the piano in the living room one afternoon when a strange feeling washed over him & he had the sensation that he was being watched. As he looked up from his seat at the piano, he was startled by a shadowy figure on the other side of the curtains. He wondered if maybe someone was walking by & stopped to hear him play, but by the time he got up, the person was gone. He felt unsettled, but chalked it up to a nosey neighbor or someone who was irritated with the noise from the piano.
During another day, James was home alone with his boys when he glanced over at the wall calendar & noticed something written: Your rehabilitation starts today. Do as I did. Choose a house, clean it, setup all devices. James had no idea what this meant, but figured that it must have been something inspirational that Brittany had written. Being a logical person, he just questioned that maybe she wanted him to clean the house & with this, he got up & began to tidy up.
On another evening, the Campbell family decided to go for a family outing to see a movie at the theater & as they were preparing to head out the door, Brittany went to grab a blanket they routinely used when they relaxed on the couch. However, she was puzzled when she didn’t find the blanket in its usual spot on the couch & James & the kids claimed they hadn’t touched it. Brittany continued to look around the house, irritated that she couldn’t find it despite the fact that supposedly no one had touched it. With the movie start time approaching, they were forced to leave the house without the blanket.
On their return home from the theater, the family came in through the front door & were shocked to see the blanket, neatly folded on the couch where it usually was. This was the first time James admitted that something strange might be going on which was a tremendous relief to Brittany that her feelings were being validated. Regardless, he continued to try to make sense of what was happening & wondered if one of the boys had quickly snuck back in to put the blanket there, fearing they might get in trouble for being dishonest.
During another night, Brittany woke up & noticed that the light on her laptop’s webcam was on so she got up & turned it off.
By September, strange occurrences had been going on for about three months when things suddenly came to an astonishing head. The Campbell family took a flight on September 13, 2019 to visit family on the mainland for a week-long vacation. When the trip came to an end, they took an earlier flight back than originally planned & landed on September 20. As they pulled up to their house, Brittany was surprised to see her husband’s expensive road bike lying on the driveway. Because James knew that he hadn’t been using it before they left for the trip, he had no explanation as to why it was there. After they pulled into the driveway, Brittany & James climbed out of the car & instructed the boys to wait inside.
As the family pressed the button & watched their garage door rise open, they were horrified to see that their entire garage had been ransacked. The boxes stored within had been torn apart with their contents strewn about the entirety of the room, their belongings shredded as if a wild animal had gotten into them. Immediately, James believed that their home had been robbed while they were away so he grabbed a sledgehammer from the garage before he walked toward the front door.
As he reached the front door, James slid his key into the lock & began to push the door open when he felt resistance. As James continued to push, the door cracked open & he was stunned when he saw a man standing on the other side of the door, inside his home, peeking through the opening.
The man continued to push the door forward, preventing James from getting inside as he calmly said, This is not your house. This stranger continued to insist that they were at the wrong house as Brittany screamed at him to let them in as she dialed 911.
James, stunned, confused, with adrenaline coursing through his body, managed to push the door open & pull the man out of the house. After he dragged him out into the front yard, James noticed that the man was wearing his clothes. When he asked him what he was doing in their home, the young man told him he had nowhere to go so he assumed that he was likely homeless, on drugs & realizing that their house was empty, used his opportunity to squat there.
In the meantime, the boys had climbed out of the car, indicating that they needed to use the bathroom. James wasn’t sure how the situation was going to play out or potentially escalate before law enforcement had the chance to arrive & he was hoping he wouldn’t be forced to bludgeon this man with the sledgehammer in front of his children. With this, he shouted for them to get back into the car. By this point Brittany thought of the family cat, Mr. Franklin, who was inside the home & worried for his safety, but the man told her that the cat was fine since he’d been feeding & caring for him while they were gone.
While James had the man at bay outside in the lawn, Brittany ran inside to check on the cat. She was immediately startled by what she found in her living room. It looked as if he had been doing inventory of their home, items, much of it James’ music equipment, was lined up as if it were on display at a yard sale.
Mr. Franklin was in the kitchen in a crate that the family used for the puppy’s training; he had no water & it was obvious that the man had been trying to feed him dried apricots, but he otherwise looked physically unharmed.
Brittany ran back outside & found the man standing calmly in the yard. It wasn’t long before authorities arrived & James explained that they’d just come back from vacation only to find this strange man inside their home. The man remained very calm as he spoke with the police & Brittany had the sense that he wasn’t understanding that what he’d done was insanely odd & wrong. Officers placed the man in handcuffs & drove him away in their car without incident.
With the man now gone, Brittany & James were able to go inside & investigate the state of the interior of their home & discovered that their once tidy house was now in absolute shambles. Pots & pans were piled on the stovetop, items littered every surface & James’ piano keyboard sat on the couch. Even stranger, there were prescription medication bottles filled with an unknown substance scattered about the living room & kitchen. None of these bottles belonged to the Campbell family. Disgustingly, there were also bodily fluids all over the furniture.
As they entered the boy’s bedroom, they found the room to be a stark contrast to the rest of the home. The man had done the boys’ laundry & made their beds, leaving the room pristine.
When Brittany entered their upstairs primary bedroom, like the rest of the house, with the exception of the boys’ bedroom, the room was in disarray. She was horrified to find a collection of knives arranged neatly on their bed, lined up on a towel.
A laptop that they no longer used sat open on the bed & when Brittany woke the computer, she found a document that was titled, The Omnivore Trials that had a subtitle that read, A Rehabilitation for Rat-like People.
The writings resembled journal entries which Brittany began to read that seemed to be straight out of a bizarre nightmare. The writings were observations about the family that only someone who had been closely watching them would know.
In the story, Brittany was referred to as the creature while the rest of the family were known as specimens. The entry detailed the family’s routines & private conversations about trying to have a third child. The entries indicated that Brittany should give up on trying to conceive a child & focus on the two children that she already had. The fact that they were wanting to have a third child was something they hadn’t even yet shared with their family members.
As the document came to an end, the author wrote a declaration to rehabilitate the Campbell family. In order to rehabilitate them, they would have to undergo surgeries that included hand amputations & gender reassignment surgeries, procedures that he’d looked up how to do online. He wrote about the equipment he would need that listed nine items, including a jaundice treatment light, a hospital bed that can stretch up to 6 feet, heart monitors, blood pressure cuffs, a blood transfusion machine, colonoscopy/endoscopy equipment & life support machines. He wrote about his desire to make the family into his vision of ideal humans that he called omnivores.
As Brittany & James finished reading the alarming document, they glanced at the knives lined neatly on their bed & realized that these were the tools that the author intended to use on them in order to rehabilitate their family.
In addition to this laptop, Brittany also had a laptop which she regularly used that she kept on her makeup vanity. When she began looking through this computer, she found a video file that depicted the man discussing ways that you can change your outer appearance. He titled the video cosmetology & as he sat naked at Brittany’s vanity, he drew a line using her eyeliner down his neck that was supposed to demonstrate a spiritual transformation.
Brittany also got the feeling that he was mocking her as he made the video, recreating the moments she would sit & do her makeup while watching tutorial videos. She was terrified & immediately thought back to the night she woke to find the light on her computer indicating that her webcam was on. She could only wonder how long this stranger had been watching her family & all their private, intimate moments.
Things started to fall into place as they recalled all of the strange occurrences that had been going on from the items in their garage being rearranged & sorted, noises they’d heard from inside the house to the missing blanket, other items being moved & the dog randomly barking during the night.
Brittany & James soon learned that the man in their home was 29-year-old Ezequiel Zayas who ended up being charged with felony burglary. They were shocked & alarmed when they learned that within days of his arrest, he was granted supervised release. James was furious that this man was allowed to walk free & potentially harm his family, but it was short-lived as only weeks later he was arrested again, this time for burglarizing a Buddhist center near the University of Hawaii at Manoa & his supervised release was revoked.
While Zayas was in custody, it was 2020 & the peak of the pandemic & after he contracted COVID he was sharing a quarantine cell with two other inmates. He went on to kill his 62-year-old cellmate, Vance Grace on August 31, 2020 in an unprovoked attack. Zayas pummeled the man with his hands, knocking him unconscious before he stomped on his head until he died. Guards were unable to open the cell door while the attack occurred due to allegedly faulty locks.
After the emergency release was activated & Zayas was hauled from the cell, Grace lay on the cold floor for a significant length of time until a locksmith was called in to open the door. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital & his family has since filed a lawsuit against Hawaii & the Department of Public Safety.
Vance Grace had been only weeks away from release after spending 34 years behind bars for theft & drug offenses. On his release, he hoped to reconnect with his family & start a Koi pond business
During a psychological exam, Zayas showed extreme callousness toward his victims & the doctor concluded that he posed a high risk to future victims. Medical records proved that he was preoccupied with raping children, Satanism & various forms of assault.
After Zayas had been taken into custody, James & Brittany learned the full horror of what had been going on. It’s unclear how he got into the Campbell’s home or how long he’d been lurking there, but the family believed it had been there for some time based on the things that had been happening & the information he knew about the family.
It turned out that Zayas had been living, undetected, in a crawl space above the second-floor bathroom. From his hiding spot, he was able to listen to the family & then sneak down & roam freely through the house when they left or at night while they were asleep. In the meantime, he was crafting his nightmarish manifesto, The Omnivore Trials, A Rehabilitation for Rat-like People. Based on the details of his writings, he planned to carry out these procedures that would transform them into ideal humans or omnivores after he got his tools & necessary supplies ready.
The Campbell’s lives were completely flipped upside down as they tried to psychologically recover from their terrifying ordeal. At the same time, they were exceptionally grateful that they had been physically unharmed & they realized that things could have turned out far worse. The fact that they came home from their vacation early, that the boys hadn’t run into the house ahead of them & that they caught the man during the daytime rather than the man attacking the family during the night as they slept.
Brittany felt disgusted & completely violated as if nothing in her space was sacred or hers any longer. The fact that a stranger had been living in their home with sinister intentions chilled her to the core.
In May 2023, Zayas pleaded guilty to four charges as a part of a plea deal that protected him from a life sentence without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder rather than the lesser offense of manslaughter.
In August 2023, Zayas was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter, 10 years for first-degree burglary, five years for second-degree burglary & an additional five years for second-degree assault. The sentences will run consecutively for a total of forty years. The Department of the Attorney General prosecuted the manslaughter case while the three other cases were handled by the Honolulu Department of Prosecuting Attorney.
Zayas’ lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the man, who was raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut, had been treated for mental illness before he arrived in Hawaii & should have been placed in an isolation cell rather than the shared quarantine cell. He apparently had no previous criminal record prior to the burglary & the prison attack.
In 2022, Lifetime released a true crime show, Phrogging: Hider in My House that examines the crime known as phrogging which is when a stranger secretly lives in someone’s space for days, weeks or even months. Episode one details the Campbell’s terrifying ordeal.
The term phrogging is said to originate from frogs that leap from place to place & unlike squatters, a phrogger is not deterred by a home’s occupants. They might move about the house, blending into the background like a ghost. Homeowners might be completely unaware until the moment they come across evidence that someone is invading their sacred space; they might notice a handprint or a footprint or find evidence of the intruder on a surveillance camera.
After Ezequiel Zayas’ sentencing in August 2023, the Campbell family left Hawaii behind, seeking solace in a quieter life on the mainland. They traded their once-cherished home for a fresh start, but they understandably struggled to fully shed the echoes of their ordeal —every creak a reminder, every shadow a question. James and Brittany focused on rebuilding, leaning on each other and their boys, determined to reclaim the safety stolen from them. Though Zayas remained behind bars, his presence haunted their world, a chilling lesson that even the most sacred spaces can hide the unthinkable & some doors, once opened, may never fully close.
References:
- Plex: Phrogging: Hider in My House: S1, E1: Bump in the Night
- Spectrum News: ‘Phrogger’ sentenced to 40 years for burglary, prison killing
- New York Post: ‘He wanted to play doctor on us’: Terrifying stranger secretly lived in our home
- Medium: He secretly documented this family’s every move, preparing for his sinister ‘surgeries’
- KHON 2: ‘He violated our home,’ says family that came home to find stranger living there
- Honolulu Civil Beat: Man who killed his OCC cellmate gets 40 years in prison on multiple charges
- Daily Mail: Exclusive: My dad was killed by an insane satanist ‘phrogger’ who secretly lived in stranger’s home – I want justice
