‘Phrogging: Hider in My House’ Is Lifetime’s Absolutely Terrifying New True Crime Series
Your home is supposed to be your sanctuary. But what if a stranger invaded your space, and you didn’t even know they were there? Lifetime’s unsettling new true crime series Phrogging: Hider in My House looks at real-life cases where people discovered another person living inside their home, and it’s sure to make your skin crawl.
Truth is stranger than fiction in Lifetime’s new series ‘Phrogging: Hider in My House’
Phrogging – pronounced “frogging” – sounds like an urban legend. It describes a little-known but all-too-real phenomenon where a person secretly takes up residence in a person’s home without their knowledge.
When executive producer Jesica Everleth initially started working on the project, she thought finding victims of this weird crime would be difficult. But tracking down cases to profile for the show was much easier than she expected.
“I thought it was an interesting mystery,” she told MediaVillage. “Then I thought, ‘Is this really common? How hard is it going to be to find stories?’ To my shock and amazement, I found something like 200 stories very quickly.”
A family in Hawaii deals with a creepy stalker in the show’s first episode
Each episode of Phrogging: Hider in My House features two stories. In the series premiere, which aired July 18, a family living in Hawaii began to notice some odd things happening in their house. Boxes in the garage were opened and had been riffled through. Items were disappearing from their home. The family heard strange noises and discovered previously locked doors had been unlocked.
Brittany Campbell, who lived in the house with her husband James and their two kids, felt she was going crazy. But when the family returned home after a week-long vacation, they realized that the strange goings-on weren’t just in their imaginations. A man was actually living in their house. Police arrested him, and evidence – including diary entries on one of the family’s old computers – revealed he’d been in the house for some time. Even more disturbing, it seemed that he’d been plotting to perform DIY surgeries on the Campbells.
Upcoming installments of the 10-episode series include stories of a couple who finds a person living in the crawl space under their dream home and three men living in a college dorm who thought they had a ghost as a roommate, but who ultimately realized they weren’t dealing with the supernatural.
Some people didn’t want to share their phrogging stories
While Everleth said she had no problem tracking down real-life cases of phrogging, not every victim was willing to go on camera and share their story.
“Some people did not want to come forward, even though the phrogger had been prosecuted,” she said. “There was a case we found, and didn’t do on the show, because it was so traumatizing for them to relive. It really depended on their story. Others were glad to talk.”
In the meantime, Everleth urged people to check the hidden places in their own homes.
“The takeaway is I think people should look,” she said. “We find new stories every week, so there’s no shortage.”
Phrogging: Hider in My House airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
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