In the early hours of the morning, she felt “something just ain’t right”, she said at the time. Tracy thought “there was some poltergeist stuff going on”, but was far more horrified by what she actually found.

It wasn’t a ghoul, it was her ex-partner who had spent two weeks living in her attic after being released from prison.

Tracy had been in contact with the former partner while he was in prison, exchanging letters in which he claimed to have changed, but she’d never considered getting back together.

She believed he had returned to Charlotte, North Carolina, after his most-recent arrest.

It was Tracy’s adult sons and her nephew who discovered the unwelcome guest cowering at the back of the attic.

“They found a man. He had packed all the old coats and jackets into the heating unit and was sleeping in the heating unit,” Tracy said.

When he was rumbled, the ex-boyfriend ran out of the house before police arrived.

He had been using large cups to relieve himself, with several of them discovered filled with feces and urine.