'Housecreep' website chronicles homes' dark secrets

Three Ottawa roommates examine the permanent stains on their basement floor where a murder-suicide happened more than 50 years ago.

An Ottawa-based website is helping homeowners, and those in the market for one, learn the dark secrets such as murders, meth labs and arsons that may be lurking in their histories.

Housecreep.com crowdsources information from personal stories, as well as news reports, and plots the information on a searchable map. Homeowners can search the database or submit an article or event. The service has information about 25,000 addresses across North America including more than 2,700 in Canada.

Among the recently updated listings are a Toronto home where a 69-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his dwelling, an Ottawa apartment where a missing woman was found dead, and a Saskatoon house where a woman committed suicide.

"I encourage everyone to become a creep, everyone I meet," Housecreep.com co-founder Albert Armieri told CTV Ottawa. "There's a lot of information that is publicly available, but it's that task of bringing it all together and consolidating all the information."

The site helped three Ottawa roommates figure out what the dark permanent stains are on their concrete basement floor. More than 50 years ago, a woman was shot and killed by her estranged husband who then killed himself. The two bodies were found in the basement the next day.

"There were two people murdered, there are two mysterious red stains. So two and two," occupant Pete Johnson told CTV Ottawa.

"It's kind of surreal to hear something like that about the place where we live," occupant Jordan Sheldrick told CTV Ottawa.

Of course, with all of this information now much more easily searchable, it begs the question, would you want to know?

Two of the roommates are embracing living in a murder-suicide scene and even held a séance to reach the previous owner. The third roommate said he will is hoping to move as soon as the lease ends.

On the positive side, living in a murder house may be a real benefit on Halloween.

With files from CTV Ottawa's Eric Longley.