Jeff Ungar In True Haunting: Where Is Erie Hall Survivor Now?

Spooktober begins on Netflix with James Wan’s horror docuseries, True Haunting, and the first segment of it, consisting of three episodes, focuses on New York’s Geneseo College’s infamous Erie Hall haunting, which took place during 1984-1985. While the segment mainly focuses on the prime victim of the case, Chris Di Cesare, and his life-altering experiences, the crucial role his close friend in college, Jeff Ungar, played in the entire ordeal cannot be understated. From supporting Chris in tough times to uncovering the mystery involving the haunting, and most importantly, documenting everything with his camera to provide key evidence, Jeff Ungar proved himself to be quite the unsung hero. Like what happened with Chris, the future course of Jeff’s life was also shaped by the incidents and his experience of the Erie Hall haunting. 

The biggest challenge Chris faced during the initial phase of his paranormal experiences in the Erie Hall was to make others understand that he was not lying about his very real trauma. Thanks to the unconventional nature of the problems that he was facing, people were quick to judge and dismiss Chris’ issues by simply generalizing those as drug-induced malarkey or elaborate tryhard pranks. Chris could only trust Jeff, who was more accepting of the idea of a spiritual infestation and was actually willing to help him by any means necessary. Even before knowing about Chris’ predicament, Jeff was intrigued by the thoughts of the afterlife, and one of his core memories from younger days was responsible for that. 

As Jeff confesses in the docu-series, back when he was fifteen years old, while acting as a paperboy in his hometown of Webster, he stumbled across a car while following his paper route. He saw a man in the car, who was on the verge of dying. There was nothing Jeff could have done to help him as the man writhed in agony and passed away right in front of him. The experience got imprinted in Jeff’s mind, creating his lifelong fascination with death and beyond. This was also the reason as to why Jeff gravitated more towards paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren’s method of investigating the spiritual infestation, documenting it in order to have a better understanding of the situation. 

Jeff’s passion for photography came in handy when Chris, and later their friends Beth and Linda, who experienced a series of paranormal activities in the Erie Hall premises. The photos Jeff took of the occurrences act as evidence to validate the experience of the survivors of the C2D1 haunting. When the infestations upon Chris took a violent turn and were going increasingly out of control, it was Jeff who helped him to decipher the root cause of the paranormal activities by researching the past connection of Boyd Memorial. It should be mentioned that, as shown in the docuseries, Jeff’s often nerding out about moments involving the paranormal activities temporarily led to his friendship with Chris going through a rough patch, but the friends reconciled pretty soon. Time and again, in all his public interviews, Chris has highlighted how much of a safe space Jeff had provided to him in the worst phase of his life. With Netflix’s docu-series, a number of Jeff’s previously unseen photographs convey the gravity of the experience of the viewers during the C2D1 haunting. Following the traumatic incidents, Geneseo’s sophomore batch of 1985 drifted apart, with Jeff’s photos acting as the only reminder of the strong bond they shared with each other. It’s up to the viewers whether they believe in ghosts or not, but it can’t be denied that the way Jeff’s presence and assurance helped Chris to get through the crisis he faced, was inspirational, to say the least. Forty years have passed since the events of Erie Hall, and Jeff and Chris are still good friends.

After graduation, Jeff was able to pursue his passion of photography and shaped his professional life around it as well. At present, he works as a special collections and rare books cataloger at Penn State University. Very recently, his photographs were published in the Artmeld album cover series and have paid homage to inspiring musicians and artists. Jeff has been married to musician/filmmaker Mara Katria, who is extremely supportive of his attempt to raise awareness for the victims of the C2D1 haunting. Like Chris, the past experiences have not left Jeff either, and he has decided to use his role as an archiver of the incident to let the plight of the survivors be known to the rest of the world. Back in 2012, Mara directed the movie Please Talk With Me, which chronicles the events of the C2D1 haunting in a detailed manner, and both Chris and Jeff contributed to its creation. The movie acts as a backbone to the Erie Hall segment of True Haunting, and interested viewers must check it out. Originally from Webster, Jeff now lives in State College, Pennsylvania, and occasionally appears in symposium conferences involving Erie Hall haunting to share his experiences as a survivor.