Castle of Spirits True Ghost Stories

Missing Paranormal Podcasters Found - Castle of Spirits True Ghost Stories

• Vince and Jane Font • Episode 69

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On October 25, 2024, Vince and Jane Font, the husband-and-wife team behind the paranormal podcast Castle of Spirits True Ghost Stories, published their sixty-eighth episode... and then vanished without a trace. Six months later, they were found. The following is an account of what happened to them, as reported by Eldra Graves of Nightwatch News.

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Eldra Graves:

Hello and welcome to Nightwatch News, the only broadcast brave enough to report from both this world and the next. I'm your host, eldra Graves. Thank you for joining us. We begin tonight with breaking news from the eerie edge of the paranormal world. In a chilling twist worthy of their own show, the hosts of Castle of Spirits' True Ghost Stories podcast, affectionately known to fans as the Ghost Keepers, have been found alive and mostly well, after vanishing without a trace nearly six months ago. Well, after vanishing without a trace nearly six months ago, vince and Jane Font, the dynamic duo behind the popular Paranormal podcast, disappeared one week before Halloween 2024, right after releasing their last spine-tingling episode.

Eldra Graves:

Concerned listeners feared the worst. Had the ghosts finally gotten them? As it turns out, yes, sort of. The couple were discovered this week in the basement dungeon of their very own haunted castle, dehydrated, disoriented and extremely annoyed. According to early reports, the pair believed they'd been locked in by the very spirits whose stories they regularly share with the world. But in a haunting twist of irony, the door was completely unlocked the entire time. We feel really stupid, said co-host Vince Font, emerging from the cobweb-covered stone cellar, blinking at the sunlight like a mole who'd misplaced his reading glasses, his wife and co-host, jane Font, added helpfully, he thought he heard the door click. I told him to push harder.

Eldra Graves:

Fans, meanwhile, had grown increasingly alarmed over the couple's disappearance. I thought maybe they'd crossed over or just gotten sucked into a haunted mirror or something, said longtime listener Daphne R, who describes herself as a castlehead since 2019. I even hired a psychic on Etsy. She said they were surrounded by shadows. Turns out it was just poor lighting in the basement.

Eldra Graves:

Dr Hector Vane, a self-described spectrologist and author of Poltergeists, friends or Freeloaders, weighed in on the situation. Spirits are known tricksters, he explained. Some like to knock over picture frames, others apparently convince podcast hosts their perfectly ordinary door is locked Classic phantom mischief. The Ghost Keepers claim their time in the dungeon was filled with eerie whispers, the smell of old candles and what may or may not have been a ghostly poker tournament happening in the wine cellar. Unfortunately, they had no cell reception, podcasting gear or snacks a truly harrowing ordeal by modern standards. The good news Vince and Jane are now safe, slightly embarrassed and back above ground. Even better, they're resuming their podcasting duties immediately, eager to return to their rightful place, sharing listener-submitted tales of terror, mystery and the unexplained and welcome back to the Castle of Spirits.

Vince Font:

True Ghost Stories podcast. We are back. We are among the living kind of I mean, we're surrounded by ghosts all the time as it is anywhere.

Jane Font:

We're still among the dead.

Vince Font:

Indeed, we are.

Jane Font:

Who are you?

Vince Font:

My name is Vince, better known as the Ghost Keeper.

Jane Font:

And I am the Ghost Keeper, jane, also known as the Ghost Keeper, and I am the Ghost.

Vince Font:

Keeper Jane, also known as the Ghost Keeper Wait. That's what we said oh, together we are the Ghost Keepers.

Jane Font:

Man, we are rusty on this, aren't we? It's almost like we haven't done it for six months, but when?

Vince Font:

you live in a dungeon for six months, you get a little rusty. And one thing I wanted to say the news story that mentioned that we had no snacks is not true.

Jane Font:

We had lots of food to eat, Unfortunately, it was I thought we weren't going to talk about that?

Vince Font:

Well, I have to talk about it because people are going to say it's like if you were in the Andes for 13 weeks and you came out of it not starved, what did you eat? Everybody wants to know. Nobody's passing judgment, we just want to know what you ate. Well, remember that food, that we're always that ghostly ectoplasm, that we're feeding the ghosts. Yeah, well, we had to eat that.

Jane Font:

You get used to it after a while. At first it was really gross, the texture you cannot imagine. Those of you who have food texture issues like me. I don't recommend it. But you know, when there's nothing else you have to do it. And after a while it kind of grew on me. It was like that scene in Yellow Jackets. No, not like that at all. It was like that scene in peter jackson's movie bad taste, oh yeah yeah, you know what I'm talking about yeah at first it's like no, and then afterwards, it's like more alien vomit.

Jane Font:

No, don't say that. No, I wasn't going to say it.

Vince Font:

If they haven't seen it yet, that'll make them see it yeah it was Anyway another thing I have a bone to pick with you. Get it, Not a skeleton bone, but a chicken bone. I don't know it is the bone that it was suddenly my fault that we got locked down.

Jane Font:

It was.

Vince Font:

The door was locked.

Jane Font:

It was not locked, vince, there's not even a lock on the door.

Vince Font:

I looked afterwards. They could have been holding the door closed.

Jane Font:

Oh yeah, they were definitely holding the door closed, I mean.

Vince Font:

I pushed, I tried my hardest to get us out of there for at least half an hour and it did not work.

Jane Font:

Don't laugh.

Vince Font:

That whole six months. He gave it a good 30 minutes. Well, and then when they finally came and got us, we were very glad and we're back. We're back to resume our duties as the Ghost Keepers of the Castle of Spirits podcast and thank you for listening and thank you for all your support. When we were away, we came back, logged online and discovered we had a lot of people looking for us. One of them was our dentist because we were behind on a bill, but I successfully managed to evade that one, however-.

Jane Font:

But in all seriousness, the last six months, I think, have been extraordinarily stressful and strange for everyone.

Vince Font:

Not just the people underground.

Jane Font:

Right, primary reason we haven't been around for the last six months boils down to me because I was kind of experiencing a really delicious cocktail of burnout, anxiety and depression. And let me tell you, when you get those three together, gears just stop turning. You know things, things stop, and so I had a really hard time kind of doing a lot of things. But you know, I saw a doctor, I got rid of it. So a doctor got rid of it, got on some medication which has been enormously helpful, and that's not something I ever thought that I would do. I always kind of felt against that. For whatever reason, you're struggling with your mental health and you haven't reached out for help, because of whatever the myriad reasons are that we tell ourselves we're not going to or that we can't, or whatever. I encourage you to do so it's even just reaching out and saying you know what? I need some help. I can't handle this on my own.

Jane Font:

It's incredibly empowering and, um, you know, just knowing that you had the strength to do that is is enough to start making you feel at least a little bit better.

Vince Font:

So yeah, real talk. And it's not. It's not even always necessarily medical help. I mean, you should ask for help, but you know I wasn't immune from any of that myself.

Vince Font:

But you know, I wasn't immune from any of that myself, and what I did was I resumed my martial arts studies. You know, when I was 15, I took Taekwondo. 40 years later I picked it up again. But having something like that has been really helpful also. So it can you know. Self-help can take a lot of different forms. Mine just happens to be throwing my back out every time I do a back kick and I'm a purple belt now.

Eldra Graves:

So if you hold real.

Vince Font:

Still I could possibly harm you.

Jane Font:

Don't struggle too much and he could take you.

Vince Font:

That's right, but one thing that I really wanted to do when we got back is to sort of catch up with some of the people who actually reached out to us and expressed their genuine concern with what was going on, which I totally understand.

Jane Font:

Yeah, for sure, and we do have several messages in the lounge and if you guys have something you'd just like to say to us, say hi, provide a suggestion, tell us, we suck. Say hi to Mr Moon, whatever you want, just head to the lounge castlespiritscom slash lounge and you can give us a little chat. So this first message is from anonymous. There's no name, but they said I love the podcast but haven't heard from you in a while. I wanted to send a message to say that I hope the ghosts haven't done anything unspeakable to you. In all seriousness, I hope you're both well and doing all right physically, emotionally and spiritually, all of it. Happy holidays to you both and I hope your new year is a good one. And thank you and happy holidays to you as well. I'm sorry that we're like five months on and just getting back around to you.

Vince Font:

And I had a good back and forth with one of our listeners, Jeff Sovich. Hey, Jeff, he messaged us not too long ago. Thanks for noticing that. We're gone until March. Jeff, he messaged us not too long ago. Thanks for noticing that we're gone until March. Jeff, he said hey, Vince and Jane, is everything okay there in the castle? You've been pretty quiet lately. Well, you know, if we had known we could have gotten out, or if you'd come looking for us, we would have been here a lot sooner, oh shots fired.

Vince Font:

But yeah, thank you very much, Jeff, for the support and for looking for us.

Jane Font:

And Jeff. Just ignore Vince, he's just a grumpy old guy. We have a message from Austin, who says just an avid reader that enjoys hearing about the stranger side of our reality, Engineering student and paranormal aficionado. Science cannot explain everything and you're right, Austin, it can. And thank you for being here. We appreciate your message.

Vince Font:

Yeah, thanks, and I sorry, Jeff. I just realized that that message was sent to us in March of 2024. So oops. So it turns out we do this a lot.

Jane Font:

Okay, real talk for a minute here, vince. Yeah, we need to both, right now, make a pledge to our audience. Okay, we will not disappear again without some kind of explanation. Or yeah, we didn't. We didn't anticipate disappearing. It just kind of happened. And then the farther away we got from it, the the harder it was to find our way back to it.

Vince Font:

So we promise not to do that again if you promise never to stop listening, that's a contract yeah, see if we disappear again.

Jane Font:

Guys, please come look in the cellar.

Vince Font:

Yeah, yeah. If Jeff had come look in the cellar, we wouldn't have been.

Jane Font:

Oh, now it's poor Jeff. It's all laid at his feet again.

Vince Font:

However, Taryn did message us through Facebook saying I haven't seen anything new from you all, Are you okay?

Jane Font:

That was in all, are you okay? That was in January.

Vince Font:

She acted fairly quickly, only three months since we'd gone missing, but literally three months to the day since we'd gone missing. And she said glad the hungry ghosts haven't gotten you.

Jane Font:

Well, I mean they did, but-.

Vince Font:

Not in the way we're thinking.

Jane Font:

Right. So Lola also sent us a message. It just says hi, I love this place. Thank you, Lola. We love this place too, and we love it even more when you're here with us.

Vince Font:

And then in March we got a message over at Instagram. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Castle of Spirits, this one from Walter Figueroa, who is apparently a very cool artist. Did I say artists? He's just one artist, but he looks like he maybe has eight arms or something, because he's very talented. He said hi and hello, I've been a longtime listener to your podcast on Amazon and I haven't seen any new episodes since October of last year. Are you guys Okay, hope all is well. And I communicated with Walter. I said thank you very much and he said I was starting to get worried. I love listening to your podcast. Well, big hugs to you both and your kitties. Have a great weekend, thank weekend. And, of course, walter, you totally forgot our dog Freya. She's offended, she's pissed, she's coming after you, so I would just, if you come over here, bring treats.

Jane Font:

Yeah, Our good friend Amy sent us a message. Amy Duke. She says just let me know. This makes me feel really bad that we, that we ran off. Just let me know you guys are alive and well. I just discovered the podcast a few weeks ago and it's getting me through some tough times. I feel like you guys are people I would sit and chill with and giggle about the weirdness of life. I hope to see you guys return to the podcast in 2025. I just hope all is well. More, though, you guys are a spooky light in the darkness more than you realize. Take care and stay spooky. Oh, Amy, thank you, and we feel the same about you and all of our dear listeners. So, just to catch up with you guys like, what's been up? Seen any good movies, Read any good books? Anything good and creepy happen while we were away.

Vince Font:

I know I have one. I have one. We saw a really cool movie the other day. You guys I'm sure you've heard of it because it's playing right now. It's a big, big hit. As far as I know, it's a new Michael B Jordan movie, sinners so good and directed by Ryan Coogler, who did Creed 1, and he did Fruitvale Station. But he's also been doing a lot bigger things in the Marvel universe with Black Panther. But he proved that he can also take on horror, vampires, vampires. In this case. It's kind of like Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, but it takes place in 1930s America, in the South, at a juke joint.

Jane Font:

I kind of felt like it was a mix between From Dusk Till Dawn and the Color Purple.

Vince Font:

Yeah, I can see that.

Jane Font:

It's kind of an odd mix, but it worked.

Vince Font:

And typically I don't get excited about music. In movies I'm not. I mean, we've seen movies I don't know. Musicals are hit and miss for me.

Jane Font:

I wouldn't call it a musical.

Vince Font:

No, it's not a musical, but it's got-. It featured a lot of music, a lot of bluesy music, but also it's just good, yeah, and it's tasty. You should see it. It's something to sink your teeth in.

Jane Font:

I don't know if we had talked about it before we 86ed or not, but another movie we saw last year that we just could not get enough of is Late night with the devil oh yeah oh, so good, so so good.

Jane Font:

It's a like a kind of a throwback to 70s, 80s type late night talk shows, uh, with a a little demonic possession thrown in. Now I am not a fan of demonic possession stories, movies. It just all feels like it tries so hard and it's just like it's so in your face and it just bores me. It doesn't scare me, I just find demonic possession boring. But this one I loved. I loved it.

Vince Font:

And did we tell you about Deadstream? Oh yeah, we might have mentioned Deadstream.

Jane Font:

We may have Deadstream. It's like a mock YouTube live, where a guy's going into an abandoned house that's supposedly haunted. He's one of those shock YouTubers who gets banned and the audience turns against him, but it is hilarious.

Vince Font:

It's a bit of a grower because the first time we watched it we weren't sure if we liked it.

Jane Font:

Yeah, I didn't really like it all that much the first time we saw it. I liked the first half because it's just hilarious, and then we just kept talking about it and talking about it and quoting it and laughing about things. So we decided to watch it again and now it's one of our favorites. So I would definitely give Deadstream a try.

Vince Font:

In the intervening time. Also, David Lynch died.

Jane Font:

Oh, that was such a heartbreak.

Vince Font:

It was, but he had done his life's work.

Eldra Graves:

Yeah.

Vince Font:

With Twin Peaks of Return from 2017. Yeah, it stands as the greatest thing I have ever seen TV or movie.

Jane Font:

Yeah, I agree.

Vince Font:

Consider it like an 18 hour movie. I mean, even if you're not a fan of twin peaks, yeah, but if you're a fan of twin peaks, it's going to blow your mind. Obviously, a lot of people have seen it, but when he died it was like, oh, it's too bad that he'll never make another great movie again. But thank God that he made what he did when he did, at a time when most of the older members of the cast were dying, and the only thing that I can think would have made it better was if.

Vince Font:

David Bowie had been able to reprise his role as Philip Jeffries. Philip Jeffries, that's right, mm.

Jane Font:

Hmm. Yeah, philip Jeffries, philip Jeffries, that's right, mm-hmm. Yeah, you know so few filmmakers, musicians, you know, artists in those kind of media genres get, you know, have the ability to like culminate their entire career into a single moment, you know, kind of their magnum opus before they die. And I feel like everything in David Lynch's career was leading to that moment, you know, and it just felt like the cherry on top.

Vince Font:

And the serendipity of it all too, Was it in Twin Peaks Firewalk with me.

Jane Font:

Laura Palmer says I'll see you in 25 years.

Vince Font:

I'll see you in 25 years and damn, but that thing didn't come out. 25 years later that series and I love it when that kind of stuff works in that manner. Mm-hmm.

Jane Font:

So, since we've had quite a bit of time to think about the show when you're sitting down there in that cellar for six months you got a lot of time to think and we decided that we want to try and shake up the show a little bit, mix it up just a bit. Of course, we're still going to be reading stories. However, friends, real talk, if you don't submit your stories to us eventually-.

Vince Font:

Yeah, we're never going to hear about them.

Jane Font:

We're going to well and eventually we're going to run out of stories, so we can maintain this podcast as long as you are sending us your damn stories.

Vince Font:

I mean the website castle of spiritscom has like 4,600 submissions that have come over the last almost 30 years, yeah, but not all of them are great.

Jane Font:

And not all of them are readable on the show. There's many that are extraordinarily long, some that you know they're just not readable for one reason or another. We are looking at some other ways that we can use that content, you know, outside of just reading it. But yeah, we need you guys to submit your stories. But yeah, we need you guys to submit your stories. But also we thought we should start doing some little segments, maybe in between stories. You know, just fun, different things. So today we decided to use you as our guinea pigs on a brand new segment that we hope to bring to you every once in a great while, and that is Would you Rather Paranormal Edition? Oh no, I don't know that. I'm good at this. You're going to be good at it.

Vince Font:

All right, I've been around on the Earth, but I don't remember ever playing. Would you Rather yeah?

Jane Font:

Vince actually grew up on some other planet not Earth, because he is an alien, so we're going to teach him how to play. Would you Rather Paranormal Edition? And I have a feeling that mine are going to be better than his, so I'll go first. You ready?

Vince Font:

Okay, so you're going to ask me a hypothetical question.

Jane Font:

Yep, and you're going to tell me which one you'd rather, and you have to justify it.

Vince Font:

Oh.

Jane Font:

And then I'll tell you which one I would rather. Okay, good. All right. Would you rather be haunted by a ghost who smells like canned sardines or a demon who lives under your bed and sings Christmas songs all night long?

Vince Font:

Oh God, so you're making me choose between sardines and Christmas songs. Now, how bad are the sardine smells? Is it like an open can?

Jane Font:

of sardines. That's stuck under my nose. It's not a closed can of sardines.

Vince Font:

Now wait, what was it again Haunted by a ghost? Does he live in a special place in my house?

Jane Font:

No, it follows you everywhere. When you're in the house, all you smell is sardines.

Vince Font:

Oh, okay, so I can get away from it by spending time away from the house, but I can also do the same thing by sleeping elsewhere, so I don't have to listen to Christmas tunes.

Jane Font:

Yes, but you still have to live in the house. So which one do you choose?

Vince Font:

You know, sorry to everybody out there who loves Christmas songs, and there are some Christmas tunes that I dig.

Jane Font:

And you know, Vince, I'm on the same team as you. I love canned sardines. Sorry, our dog is deciding that she wants to wander around, so there's some bonking noises. I apologize. Yeah, I love canned sardines, and there's a thing called nose blindness. Would be less torture for me to smell sardines all the time than to listen to especially bad.

Vince Font:

I'm not going to name any contemporary artists because I don't want to upset anybody just imagine the voice of a demon under your bed singing christmas songs all night long. Okay, so it's. It's a demon. I forgot about that.

Jane Font:

Yeah, no, that sounds just awful Like. Don't shoot me during the snow, right, right, yeah, no, I'm not into that.

Vince Font:

I'll go with the ghost. With sardine smell? Yes, because occasionally I might enjoy eating the sardines. Can I eat them?

Jane Font:

No, it just smells like sardines. No, that's part of the torture. Torture Only smell, no sardines.

Vince Font:

All right, then I guess I'll go with choice number one. What do I win?

Jane Font:

The honor of knowing that we picked the same.

Vince Font:

Okay.

Jane Font:

So now it's your turn. You have to, would you?

Vince Font:

rather me. You better make it good, I got to think of something here, all right. All right, I think I got one, okay.

Jane Font:

Would you rather have a ghost lick your face randomly?

Vince Font:

throughout the course of the day and night, or have a zombie chew on your toenails when you're sleeping. Oh, I mean, I guess, more like nibble. Let's do nibble not chew?

Jane Font:

That's not even a question. I'll take the ghost licking my face.

Vince Font:

Really yeah With that ectoplasmic bad breath.

Jane Font:

Well, we just spent six months in the cellar.

Vince Font:

Yeah, I don't want to relive that.

Jane Font:

How many times did you get your face licked?

Vince Font:

A lot.

Jane Font:

It might have mixed things up if I had a zombie getting all toesy on me. Okay, but here's the thing. A we are already used to being licked in the face by ghosts, right? So that's, old hat B, what you're failing to realize about zombies chewing on your toenails. Zombies stink. They are rotting flesh.

Vince Font:

They smell bad. Also, they eat your body. They don't just eat your brains. That's just in the Return of the Living Dead universe, right? They eat flesh, so they would eat your feet. They don't just eat your brains, that's just in the Return of the Living Dead universe, right? They eat flesh, so they would eat your feet, I guess.

Jane Font:

Yes, toenails. They're not going to stop there, because toenails are non-nutritive for zombies.

Vince Font:

You give them a toe and they take a foot Right See.

Jane Font:

Ghost licking my face all day. What about you guys?

Vince Font:

Who oh them? Yeah, sorry.

Jane Font:

What do you choose out of our would-you-rathers? You should head over to the lounge and let us know.

Vince Font:

And if you have any would-you-rathers for us, we'll read your would-you-rathers on air. Yeah, guys, send me a good one to ask Jane, because I don't know that I can think of anything else cool like that.

Jane Font:

Give us those, would you rathers, and let us know if this is a segment that you would be interested in hearing more. If you have any other ideas for segments, we've got a whole list of things we'll be trying out. I'm here to tell you, guys, some of these segments are gonna be bangers, some of these segments are gonna be floppers fl.

Vince Font:

Floppers.

Jane Font:

So Floppers and bangers Just you know we appreciate you hanging in there with us while we navigate the bangers and floppers waters.

Vince Font:

Oh wow, would you rather navigate the okay?

Jane Font:

So, yeah, in our next episode we are going to be getting back to reading you stories and, you know, take it back to the spooky tip, and we really hope that you will come along for the ride. Also, I just want to remind you that we have a YouTube channel so you guys can find our podcast on all of the podcast platforms. You know, wherever it is you listen to podcasts, you can find us there, but we also have our podcast on YouTube. So if you do YouTube music or you just want to sit and look at some pretty cool graphics if I do say so myself and listen to us on your TV, there's that as well. So maybe just head over to our YouTube channel, castle of Spirits, and give us a subscribe.

Vince Font:

And also leave us reviews on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, for that matter. But I do recognize the fact that reviews at those two places can help drive up visibility for the podcast and we have shockingly few reviews at either of those places and I'm disappointed, not that you personally, you guys, but you know, I'm just disappointed in general.

Jane Font:

Oh, and when Vince gets disappointed.

Vince Font:

People get locked into cellars.

Eldra Graves:

Into the yeah, into the cellar to the seller.

Jane Font:

And then another idea that we have going forward is there are a couple of collabs with other people in the industry that we are looking at, so that's exciting.

Vince Font:

I can think of a couple of people I'd like to, I would love to do some sort of a collaboration with, just because we're fans.

Jane Font:

Yep.

Vince Font:

And there's also new acquaintances as well.

Jane Font:

So be on the lookout for that and, you know, if you have just any ideas, things that you would like for us to cover, maybe topics or you know, whatever ideas you have the more. I mean, you know, know, I know I'm putting a lot on you right now, but the more you guys uh, interact and give us ideas and send us your stories and things, the the longer we can continue to bring you these episodes also, if you know somebody who mows lawns, so I mean I'm not, I'm not going to go do it.

Vince Font:

No.

Jane Font:

And the ghosts are good for nothing.

Vince Font:

Hey, maybe we can get that zombie who likes to chew on toenails to go out into the backyard. In the front yard, ew and weed snap.

Jane Font:

Like in Stephen King's short story the Lawnmower man.

Vince Font:

Yeah.

Jane Font:

No, that's gross. So that's all I had for this episode. What about you events?

Vince Font:

interestingly, just in time, because you can hear the music coming down the hall I thought I heard that you all know what that means, and now that we know that we can be victimized by these ghosts, we have to snap to it. Yeah, so thank you for joining us on this edition of the Castle of Spirits True Ghost Stories podcast.

Jane Font:

And just a bit of parting advice stay out of the cellar.

People on this episode

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Jane Font

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Vince Font

Co-host