Aaron Mahnke

It wouldn't be another 10 years before their act was exposed as a fraud.

To the Venoms and the Roths, and especially to Dr. Stevens, these things were real and possible and undeniable.

To our modern minds, though, there's a lot to question.

Laurence had to have known her neighbors prior to that day.

She'd most likely heard the tragic story of Mary Roth, if not from their own mouths, then from others in town.

Surely, at some point in her childhood, someone looked at her and said, Oh, you live next door to the Roths.

It's not a story that you forget.

But there were things that are harder to dismiss.

Being able to name out-of-town friends was one of them, but the woman claiming to be Mary Roth could do a lot more than that.

She had dozens of conversations with old friends, people who had known Mary well before her death.

And in each of those chats, she mentioned details and events that no one other than Mary could have known.

One day during this time, Mary walked into the Roth's sitting room and pointed to the velvet headdress sitting on a table.

Mrs. Roth had pulled it out of Mary's things and left it for the young woman to discover.

When Mary saw it, she lifted it up and described how she had worn it when her hair was short.

Mrs. Roth nodded in disbelief.

Another time, Mary approached Mr. Roth and told him that she had sent him a note once through a medium he had gone to see.

She told him the date and he confirmed it with others.

How she knew it, though, was a mystery.

Unless, of course, she really was Mary, back from the dead.

All of this went on for over 15 weeks.