In 1882, a man by the name of Webber homesteaded and built a house some two miles south of Mancos.

He had no neighbors, but only a few years later Mormon families, who had traveled through Hole-in-the-Rock and spent a few years in Bluff, Utah, began settling and building homes around him.

It was a beautiful fall morning when Stanley Webber donned his hunting clothes and told his wife he would be back around dark. The day didn't go as he had planned and came back a little before five in the afternoon.

Stanley strode through his home until he came to the bedroom. He yelled out "Janice" and the he realized she was in bed with another man. He raised his rifle and shot twice killing Janice and Hyrum.

He quickly moved his wife's body into the pantry and was standing over Hyrum's body when a couple of neighbor men who had heard the shots rapped on the east entrance door.

"I'm coming."

"We heard shots. Is everything OK?"

"I caught one of your good Mormon sons in bed with my wife and without thinking I shot and killed him."

The two men went back home and brought a large piece of canvass to wrap Hyrum's body in and took the body to their Zufelt home. Richard felt uneasy about the blood he had seen in the Webber bedroom and said to his brother William, "It looked like to me that Mr. Webber also shot his wife. There was blood in the wrong places for it to have been only Hyrum who was shot.

Stanley stayed only a couple more years in what was already being called Webber Canyon. He sold out to John and Lavina Hammond. Lavina suffered from having their home burn down and then a brick home was built that also burned down.

With the help of neighbors John was able to build a new brick home. When it was finished Lavina said, "Hopefully that woman's presence won't hang around in this home too."

The Hammonds old out to Nathaniel Alvin and Emma Morris Decker. It wasn't long until Emma found herself confronting a woman's presence. Emma and Nathaniel died only weeks apart in June 1929.

Later the home became the residence of the Earl and Louise Decker family. Since my mother was a Decker we would quite often go to family dinners there. We kids would be placed in a north bedroom after the meal and I soon realized why. I would crack the door open and listen as two subjects were discussed. The Mountain Meadow Massacre in which Mormon men killed the men and women of the Fancher wagon train was a quiet and hushed discussion as various names were brought up and discussed. It seemed to me they wondered who in the valley and on over to Red Mesa might have been involved in the killing. The second subject was the killing of Hyrum and Janice. Over the years the presence of a woman had persisted and the grownups wondered why she was still here instead of going to her eternal reward.

One Saturday afternoon my mother and I were part of a small group that was given a tour of the Decker home. We were upstairs when my mother said, "I'm getting the shivers. I've got to get out of here."

I stayed put as the rest of the group walked down the stairs. I began to feel a heaviness in my chest but struggled to not let it overcome me. I managed to say a few words. "Why are you still here"

"Hyrum I have fun He no right kill us.

"I can handle that but it is no reason to hang around here."

"My home I not leave"

I shook my head and walked down the stairs. It was only months later that the house was sold to a young couple with two children. Even though they were living in a modern house to the south, the man called me one day and wanted to know what he could do about the female presence in the upstairs of the old home.

I answered, "Try to go there every day but act as though she isn't there. It may take up to three months but when she realizes she is no longer able to get a reaction to her presence she will give it up and go on to where she belongs."

Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].