Xara the Zombris
By Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective

Halo Paranormal  Investigations

Drawing Explained: Before I was a paranormal investigator, I was part of the comic book industry. Luckily, I still associate with some of the artists of that great industry. Here is a drawing by artist Richard Vasseur depicting Asterix the Gaul and Marvel's Thor. I always wondered what would happen if these two teamed up. Concept by Paul Dale Roberts.

Today is August 28, 2009, Friday and Shannon 'Ms. Macabre' McCabe has an assignment for me. She sends me out to meet a woman that encountered a zombie while she was visiting friends in Biloxi, Mississippi. The lady is Julie Lemos, a tall lean blonde with sparkles in her eyes. I met her at Starbucks and we start talking about her encounter. The zombie she encountered is known as Xara the Zombris. Yes, I know there is no such word as Zombris, but that is what the locals call her. The feminized the word for Zombie.

Julie went to Biloxi in March 2009 and she remembers driving down the road towards her friend's house, when she saw a dark haired woman in a white flowing gown walking alongside the road. She looked through her rear view mirror and saw that this lady had no pupils and her skin was ash white. Finally the woman faded away into nothingness.

Julie definitely has an incredible story to tell, but the story at first sounded like a ghost story, I was somewhat confused. Also, as I talked with Julie, it appears that she may be able to be in tune to the deceased.

Case example, she tells me how a road in Placerville, there is a dark entity that walks in front of cars at 1am or later. The entity comes from an auto body shop and onto the road. People, who have encountered this ghost, call it 'Joe the Ghost'. Julie has encountered Joe. On another occasion, she may have been in tune with her deceased grandfather, because he started turning the lights off and on, when Julie was around. He also acted like he wanted her attention, by moving a puzzle piece back onto the puzzle that was missing that one piece.

When Julie lived in a home in El Dorado, she learned about a little girl that once lived there and enjoyed playing with matches. One day she burned down the 1965 home and died in the flames. Julie was able to pick up on this little girl that would yell out "daddy". She also picked up on a male entity in the house. She found the doors opening and closing on their own. All doors in the home that were locked would now be fully open. Footsteps would be heard in the stairwell. There is a new home that is built over the home that was burned down. The wine cellar is the only original part of the 1965 home. The entities may have been attracted to Julie, because on one night, a cold breeze swept through the house and the breeze sounded like a locomotive.

These are incredible stories, but I had to ask Julie how was it that the ghost she saw in Biloxi was also a zombie? Julie said that she did her own investigating and started talking to people on the streets about her encounter and she ran into Jeff Dyer - 52 years old male that was hanging out in a Goth shop. Jeff told Julie that the ghost that she saw on the road side is Xara the Zombris. Jeff says that Xara when living in the early 80s was practicing Santeria, she was from Nicaragua. Legend has it that she traveled to New Orleans to obtain various ointments and potions from a Voodoo priest. The Voodoo priest and Xara became entangled in an affair. When the Voodoo priest discovered that Xara was cheating on him with his own brother, he poisoned her with toxins from the puffer fish. With various rituals, he was able to turn her into a zombie.

Xara became a zombie prostitute on the streets on New Orleans. Her mind was under the complete control of the Voodoo priest turned pimp. Eventually the Voodoo priest released Xara and she returned to Biloxi. Xara was never the same again. She always seemed like she was in a daze. The last time anyone saw Xara is when she was picked up by a trucker in a Mack truck. Xara was never seen or heard from again. Many people thought she was killed by a trucker serial killer.

One year later, Xara was seen walking the road side, staring blankly ahead and if you watched her long enough, she would dissipate into nothingness.

It appears that Xara the Zombris is now a restless spirit, seeking out the man that snuffed out her life. The story gave me a few chills down my spine and Julie was able to quickly talk about her upcoming cruise to Catalina Island and Encenada and her love for Kayaking and Zumba dancing. As she drove away, she was playing 'Ready to Run by the Dixie Chicks'. Julie tried to change the mood when she left, but the thought of zombies still remained in my mind.

I left Starbucks wondering if Xara the Zombris is still a tormented soul. May she find rest soon.

As I head home, movies like The Serpent and the Rainbow came to mind. I remember after watching that movie, I took the zombie phenomenon seriously. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is a movie in which living human beings fight for survival against hordes of zombies. These types of zombies are known to go into a feeding frenzy when the delicacy is human brains. I don’t believe the zombies that do exist are as threatening as zombies you will find in films like ‘I am Legend’; ‘The Omega Man’ or ‘The Last Man on Earth’. But, when you think of zombies, you think of blood thirsty dead people who wish to rip you apart and eat your brains without the Fava beans! Because of these thoughts, I had to fight my nightmares this night. A night with famous zombies surrounding my bed. On this nightmarish night, the Demon Warrior was going up against the Marvel Zombies, Simon William Garth from Marvel’s Tales of the Zombie, Tor Johnson the Zombie of Plan 9 from Outer Space and all of the nasty zombies of Resident Evil.

Guess what, the Demon Warrior won!