"Murder House Flip" Renovates The Home Where Child Star Judith Barsi Was Murdered
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An exclusive interview with Mikel Welch of Murder House Flip is featured in season 2 of Dark House. Listen to the episode here.
Imagine that you just moved into a new house with your partner and 10-year-old child. It's the family home of your dreams, within your budget, and is situated in a nice, safe community. Then, a neighbor asks you if you knew about the murders that took place inside your home over 30 years ago... Suddenly, the strange (paranormal, even?) occurrences start to make sense. Freaked out yet?
Well, this was real life for Francisco Bernal and his family back in 2001, and the latest episode of haunted house podcast Dark House features an interview with the designer and Murder House Flip co-host Mikel Welch, with new details about the Bernal's experiences in the home and how he helped them turn it into a happier home. Out of all the "murder houses" he and his design team (Joelle Uzyel and Sarah Listi) have flipped for the hit home makeover show, Welch says this one "was the heaviest... I get chills just thinking about [it]."
Child star Judith Eva Barsi, who charmed the world with her roles in Jaws: The Revenge, The Land Before Time, and All Dogs Go to Heaven, was earning over $200,000 annually by the time she was a young grade school. This allowed her parents, József and Maria Barsi, to purchase the California home they lived in. The two often disagreed on how to raise their burgeoning movie star daughter, and József according to a relative and others close to the family, frequently made violent threats against both his wife and daughter. Maria filed a police report against him in December 1986, but "police found no visible injuries" the LA Times reports, which eventually persuaded her not to prosecute.
By May 1988, Maria was renting a small apartment to escape to during the day and brought Judith to a child psychologist who identified signs of emotional and physical abuse, alerting Child Protective Services. Around this time, she told friends she planned on beginning divorce proceedings. In July 1988, József's abuse escalated to a horrific murder-suicide in the home. Using a gun, he killed his wife in the hallway, his daughter in her bedroom, and himself in the garage. A neighbor, Eunice Daly, heard the gunshots and called emergency personnel. When they arrived, they discovered he tried to burn all the evidence.
13 years later, the Bernal family moved into the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Canoga Park, California. They knew very little about the property’s history when moving in (read this if you're curious about disclosure laws surrounding stigmatized properties), but were informed by a neighbor that their home was the site of a Hollywood tragedy involving two murders and one suicide. From there, they discovered the sad story of the event that turned their home into a crime scene back in the 1980s.
When the family first moved in, they said they felt a dark presence: the garage door would mysteriously open and close, there would be random cold spots in the home, and footsteps were heard in the hallway. Their daughter Gaby, who was 10 years old at the time, had trouble sleeping, as she often felt like she was being watched—which would haunt her into adulthood. As it turns out, her bedroom was also the bedroom of Judith Barsi's. Gaby says she has never been able to sleep facing toward the window, as that's how Judith was positioned when she was killed. Gaby also started hanging dreamcatchers on her wall to help ward off the nightmares that developed. But even more eerie, is a story the family told Welch when he was learning more about their situation. The parents "told us that when [Gaby] was maybe two or three years old, she'd be laughing and the parents [asked] 'What are you doing?'And she's like, 'I'm sitting here talking to Joseph,'" Welch said on the podcast. They later realized that was the name of the killer. "She does not like to go back to her parents' house. We had to do some serious convincing to even get her to do the show," he added.
"You know, people are addicted to true crime, and for us to take something that's so horrific and then put a positive twist on it... that's why we do well," Welch says. He and his team were happy help the Bernals make peace with their home by renovating it and shifting the energy, so to speak. "We had to do some drastic redesign," he said. They gutted the hallway where Maria was murdered and the bedroom where Judith was murdered. Gabby was feeling bad energy from the window in her room, so the team replaced it with french doors that lead directly into the backyard. They also gave her new carpeting, furniture and decor, and switched up the arrangement. Gaby’s childhood bedroom was transformed into a chic retreat—"an adult bedroom," she later exclaimed at the reveal.
The backyard was their next task. Now that Gaby had a full view of it from her room, they wanted to make it feel like a sanctuary. Outside, they planted a new garden, added a dining area, and replaced the existing pergola with one that would allow optimal sunlight to shine through the home's windows. Lastly, the hallway got a new coat of paint, its light fixtures were swapped out for recessed lighting, and some statement pieces were added to complete the look.
The Bernals' were ecstatic over their home reno. "It looks like a magazine cover, it looks so beautiful," Gaby said of the backyard. Welch and Uzyel also gifted her a purple amethyst crystal, known to promote healing, to keep in her bedroom. "I felt bad energy here, but now I feel it has dissipated," she says of her new space. The family, along with Welch and Uzyel, celebrated the new home with drinks in the backyard. “One of the most satisfying jobs we've done to date,” Welch says. "In this instance, we can see how design does have a healing power."
Stream Murder House Flip on Roku and listen to Dark House on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts.
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