A Liverpool man was left questioning his own reality after surviving a horrific car crash only to wake up in hospital and be told the wife and children he remembered did not exist.
Steve Jones had vivid memories of his family. He remembered coming home to his house in Childwall after work. He remembered his wife, heavily pregnant with their fourth child, and his teenage daughter Emma. He remembered his seven-year-old son Damon proudly showing him drawings from school. He even remembered the family dog, a Great Dane called Leo. But after the crash, nobody else remembered any of them.
The bizarre case, researched by Liverpool writer Tom Slemen, is described as one of the strangest stories he has ever investigated.
The Crash and the Confusion
According to the account, the events unfolded in Liverpool in 1978, although names and some details were changed. Steve, 45, had returned home to his family in Childwall after a hectic day at his office in the city. His dog greeted him in the driveway before his seven-year-old son Damon came running out of the house with a bundle of drawings he had made at school. Steve looked at the pictures and praised his son before going inside.
His wife was heavily pregnant, while their 15-year-old daughter Emma told her father that her mum had been having contractions. At first Steve panicked, but his wife insisted Emma was mistaken and that she had only experienced a slight cramp. The family settled down for tea. Then suddenly, his wife stood up and said: "Steve; I think it's time; oh God."
Steve rushed her to the car and headed towards Oxford Street Maternity Hospital despite the baby not being due for almost another month. As they travelled up Childwall Valley Road, Steve kept reassuring his wife. Then, at the Fiveways Roundabout, everything changed. Their car was hit by a lorry, which suddenly pulled out in front of them. The impact sent the vehicle rolling onto its roof for about 60 yards before a taxi crashed into it as well.
Steve's last memory before losing consciousness was seeing his apparently lifeless wife inside the wreckage with blood trickling down her forehead and with what appeared to be a broken neck.
No Trace of a Family
He woke up at Walton Hospital's neurological department, where he had undergone emergency brain surgery to remove fragments of his skull. When the surgeon asked him who he was, he gave his name. Then he immediately asked about his wife. He said: "Where's my wife? Where's Barbara?"
The surgeon reassured him that everything was fine and told him to rest, but outside the ward Steve's brother, Bob, was stunned by what he had heard. He told the surgeon something was wrong. Steve wasn't married. As far as Bob knew, his brother was not even seeing anyone called Barbara.
As Steve began recovering, he continued talking about the events before the crash. He described his wife, talked about Emma and Damon, and remembered their home and their family dog. But Bob insisted none of them existed. Bob said: "Steve. You're a bachelor, mate. You've got no family."
Steve refused to believe him, convinced everyone was playing some cruel joke, and he demanded a telephone so he could call home. If Emma answered, he reasoned, she could prove that he was right. The phone rang but nobody answered. Then Steve called a neighbour. An elderly woman named Mrs Steele picked up. At first, Steve was relieved. Finally, someone would confirm his story, but when he asked her about his family, the conversation took another disturbing turn. She knew Steve, she knew about the crash, but she had no idea who Damon was. When Steve reminded her that she had recently given his son some toffees, she became confused. She said: "I thought you didn't have a family Steve." The phone call ended abruptly.
A Mysterious Visit
Steve was left convinced that something extraordinary had happened, and doctors believed he was suffering from confusion following his severe head injury, but Steve insisted otherwise. He wanted to leave the hospital and return home to prove his family existed, but he was kept in the neurological department. Later that evening, something happened that appeared to provide the proof he had been desperate for. A young girl entered his room and gently stroked his face. Steve opened his eyes. It was Emma. His daughter was standing beside his hospital bed holding a bouquet of flowers. Steve said: "Emma! Oh I thought I'd imagined you! Where's your mum?"
Emma told him his wife was in hospital after having the baby. For Steve, it seemed the nightmare was finally over. Perhaps the conversations with his brother, the nurses, and the neighbour had all been the result of his injured brain. Emma even told him that he had been present at the birth and had passed out during the Caesarean, hitting his head on the bed. Then someone called Emma from outside the room. She walked into the corridor. Steve followed her, but when he opened the door, she was gone, and the corridor was empty.
He collapsed and lost consciousness again. When he woke several hours later, he was still in the hospital. The surgeon asked him who had visited. "Emma did," Steve insisted. He pointed towards the flowers sitting on the bedside cabinet. A nurse suggested that his brother had left them. Steve refused. Emma had brought them. Then the nurse noticed the card attached to the bouquet. It read: "Get well, Dad. Love from Mum, Emma, and Damon."
An Empty House
For Steve, it appeared to be the evidence he had been waiting for, but it did not solve the mystery. When he was eventually discharged, he returned to the Childwall home with his brother and a cousin. The house was exactly as he remembered it, but his family was nowhere to be found. Emma's bedroom was empty, and so was Damon's. There was no trace of his wife in their bedroom, no makeup, no clothes. Nothing. Even the large kennel he remembered building for Leo the Great Dane had disappeared.
Steve tried to find evidence that his family had existed. He contacted the vicar, who he believed had married him and Barbara. The call was treated as a crank call. He went to the address where he believed Barbara's parents lived, but the elderly couple there said they knew no Barbara. Schools had no record of Damon or Emma. Even the vet who Steve remembered treating Leo had no recollection of the dog.
Eventually, Steve underwent psychiatric observation and later left the Liverpool area because it was filled with memories of a family which, as far as everyone else was concerned, had never existed. For Steve, the most frightening possibility may not have been that his family had died. It was that, in the world around him, they had apparently never existed at all.
This article is part of the ECHO's ghost story of the week series.
