A GoFundMe campaign looking to raise funds to purchase the ”Conjuring House” in Burrillville, R.I., has raised more than $300,000.
Spearheaded by SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters” producer Jason Hawes, the campaign is looking to purchase the property before someone “whose only goal is to turn it into a money making machine,” according to the GoFundMe.
“We just crossed $300,000,” Hawes said in a post on Facebook. “Think about that for a second…. $300,000 raised by people who refused to let a piece of history slip away.”
The house was initially meant to be sold at a mortgagee’s foreclosure auction scheduled for Oct. 31 after previous owner Jacqueline Nuñez defaulted on the terms of the mortgage.
The GoFundMe’s raised funds were meant to be spent to purchase the property at the auction, but the auction was canceled weeks before it was supposed to be held. At the time of the auction’s cancellation, the campaign had raised roughly $67,000.
The cancellation was a result of a new mystery mortgage holder who bought out Needham Bank’s interest in the mortgage, halting the planned foreclosure auction. Though the property remains under the ownership of Nuñez, she now owes the $1 million mortgage to the new holder.
“They have to start the foreclosure process all over again,” Hawes told The Providence Journal. Hawes also told The Journal that he and deep-pocket friends would be able to pay the difference required to purchase the property.
In order to start the new process, the new holder must record an “assignment” in Burrillville’s land records and notify the public of they are the new lender who holds the mortgage. As of Oct. 30, no such assignment had been recorded at Burrillville Town Hall, according to the Providence Journal.
Hawes has not provided specifics on what is to follow in his long journey to purchase the famed “Conjuring House,” whose association with paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren inspired the 2013 film “The Conjuring.”
Though the future of their purchase endeavors is still uncertain, Hawes has urged supporters to “keep pushing” in a post on Facebook on Nov. 8.
“I know things have been quiet lately, that’s intentional,” Hawes said in his Facebook update. “Sometimes silence is the loudest way to protect progress. But make no mistake, this movement is alive, and it’s moving through the World like a Spark. Igniting every corner of the globe!”
If Hawes’ group is unsuccessful in purchasing the home, Hawes has assured supporters that all raised funds will be refunded to donors “unless a donor chooses to have their contribution directed toward other historic preservation efforts,” according to the campaign’s website.
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