BURRILLVILLE – It’s a case that includes all the sordid ingredients of a made for tv movie, from ghosts and celebrities, to decidedly odd behavior and intervention from a distant, estranged relative – and it’s all playing out in Rhode Island Superior Court as a lawsuit over Burrillville’s most famous haunted attraction moves forward.
The suit, filed in December by Elizabeth Greenhalgh of Utah, the older sister of Conjuring House owner Jacqueline Nunez, seeks to block the sale of the Round Top Road property to famed paranormal personality Jason Hawes.
Nunez, who purchased the 300-year-old farmhouse for $1.5 million in 2022, was denied a business license to operate the location as a tourist attraction last November following legal and other troubles in town. The house has sat vacant since and was headed to foreclosure sale this fall before Summit & Stone, an LLC started by popular YouTube content creator Elton Castee, purchased the underlying mortgage.
Last month, it was revealed that Nunez, who once offered tours and overnight stays at the house made famous by the 2013 horror blockbuster under business name Bale Fire LLC, had also entered an agreement in October to sell the property to Hawes, the star of Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters,” for $1.3 million.
Greenhalgh filed for a temporary restraining order in Rhode Island Superior Court to halt the sale in December, stating that Nunez was legally incompetent and not of sound mind when she signed the agreement.
Since the initial filing last month, attorneys representing both sides have filed additional motions, with legal arguments laid out in documents obtained this week by NRI NOW.
Hawes, through his attorney Nicole Labonte of Palumbo Law, initially filed an objection to the restraining order questioning Greenhalgh’s motives in the suit.
“That which really sparked this dispute is the so-called ‘interested party’ known as Summit & Stone, LLC,” the objection notes. “Although (the) plaintiff oddly has recently come out of the proverbial woodwork to suddenly become involved in this matter in commencing this lawsuit, the dispute concerning the purchase and sale of the property to Hawes actually first arose when Elton Castee and Matt Rife, after purchasing Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, which they announced publicly in or about April of 2025; then apparently desperately wanted to purchase the property in RI, given that it is the ‘Conjuring Home’ that is also known for the Warrens’ paranormal investigations.”
Hawes’s filing states that Castee formed the LLC in September for the specific purpose of buying the Burrillville property.
“Apparently after discovering that the property’s owner, Bale Fire, LLC, had been in foreclosure and had executed the P&S Agreement with someone else (Hawes), Castee, Rife, and the business entity under which they are acting, Summit & Stone, LLC, decided to try to obtain the property in another way,” the argument notes.
According to Hawes, a few days after he executed the purchase and sales agreement, Castee offered him $150,000 “for proof of who the current lender was,” which he rejected.
“Another Rhode Island YouTuber named Joshua Yozura, who also has ties to Rife and Castee, including from having appeared as guest on their podcast, Haunted Homies, was witnessed no less than three times on the morning of November 15, 2025 at Nunez’s home, after notifying a friend that he was going there to offer her $4 million to cancel her P&S Agreement with Hawes,” the filing states.
“This is the actual backdrop of the instant lawsuit, albeit that the case was strangely brought by Nunez’s long lost sister, the plaintiff, while simultaneously attempting to name the clear actors behind it, Summit Stone, LLC, merely as an ‘interested party,’” notes the argument. Accordingly, the very parties that plaintiff has named as merely ‘interested parties’ in this case Nunez, Bale Fire, LLC, and Summit Stone, LLC seemingly are the true actors behind this entire dispute and are indeed true and proper parties to this action.”
“Plaintiff’s claims of mental capacity are merely another attempt to take the property out from under Hawes, and plaintiff is clearly
conspiring with Summit Stone,” it adds.
Hawes’s arguments also state that it was Nunez herself who signed the agreement to sell the home, contrary to Greenhalgh’s initial complaint, which pointed to a power of attorney agreement she’d signed with Julia Demay, who the suit described as his associate.
Hawes ultimately agreed to the request for a temporary restraining order halting the sale, but has also filed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that Greenhalgh has no legal standing.
Nunez herself has seemed to steer clear of the recent proceedings following a year where both activity at the house and her personal troubles dominated headlines across New England, from an incident where she was allegedly caught drunk driving and eluding police in Burrillville, to a scandal where an employee at the house was fired because a ghost told her he was stealing.
Her charges in Burrillville remain outstanding, and the sole exception to her absence in the lawsuit comes in the form of an email provided in the court documents in which she denies signing over power of attorney to Demay in the sale.
“My sister Liz from Utah texted me about signing a revocation of a purported POA signed by me on October 9 of some year, giving a Julia DeMay (employee of General Dynamics) complete power to handle all of my financial matters including the sale of my real estate,” the email notes. “YIKES! I never signed any such document.”
Through her attorney Michael Resnick, Greenhalgh recently filed a “request for alternative service,” noting that efforts to serve Nunez, a Dorcester, Mass. resident, a summons for the case in person have failed six times.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, both parties met with the judge and reportedly agreed that the as yet un-filed deed transferring the property to Hawes could no longer be used in the case due to a paperwork issue. But other documents surrounding the potential sale, including the signed purchase and sales agreement and Demay’s power of attorney appear unresolved, with upcoming court dates scheduled for January 22 and 27.
If Greenhalgh prevails, any deal signed to sell the house in recent months could be void and unenforceable, in a suit she says is focused on protecting her sister’s interest amid a mental health crisis – and to stop her from selling the property for $225,000 less than she bought it for four years prior.
Hawes published a positive reaction to the dismissal of the deed on social media, noting his team agreed to the move.
“Today was a good day. Things are moving in the right direction,” Hawes noted. “There should be more information to share by the end of the month. For now, it’s about keeping everything ‘property, land, etc’ protected, looked after, and secure while this process runs its course.”
The post Attorney argues Castee, Rife conspired with plaintiff in suit over The Conjuring House first appeared on NRI NOW.
