Tina Resch Poltergeist — Columbus Teenager Photographed Sending Phone Flying

In March 1984, reports emerged from Columbus, Ohio of a 14-year-old foster child named Tina Resch who appeared to be the focus of intense poltergeist activity. Objects throughout the family home were thrown across rooms, lamps flew through the air, and electrical devices turned on and off spontaneously. A Columbus Dispatch photographer who came to cover the story captured a photograph of Tina sitting on a couch with a telephone cord flying through the air toward her face—an image that was widely published. Parapsychologist William Roll, who specialized in poltergeist phenomena, investigated and concluded that the disturbances were genuine and recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK) associated with Tina's emotional state. Telephones were a particular focus—they flew from walls, dialed numbers on their own, and were thrown across rooms. A television crew caught footage of a lamp flying across the room when no one was near it. Roll documented over 250 separate incidents during his investigation. The case became controversial when skeptic James Randi claimed a television camera had caught Tina pulling a lamp off a table when she thought cameras weren't rolling. Tina and investigators maintained that the bulk of the phenomena were genuine and the single staged event was caused by pressure and frustration. Tina's later life was marked by tragedy. The case remains one of the most heavily documented poltergeist cases in American history.