Halloween haunted house for terminally ill girl reopens at new location after problems with first address
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - The Caitlin Manor Haunted House in San Bernardino has reopened at a new location after city officials shut down the previous location due to a permit issue.
The haunted house is now hosted out of 648 W. 4th Street in San Bernardino. The haunted house was previously hosted at the house of Augie and Maria Cowan since 2014. It raises money to support medical bills for Andrea Cowan, Augie and Maria's 14-year-old daughter who is battling Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, a rare terminal illness.
"It's all for the love of Andrea, so it's awesome. A lot of this with my daughter and everything we've gone through is about fighting, fighting for her life, and she's so strong," said Augie.
On October 5, city officials from the San Bernardino City Council officially announced at a meeting that the haunted house would be shut down due to a few complaints from neighbors about the noise and crowds, and a permit issue.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Halloween haunted house used to raise funds for terminal San Bernardino girl shut down
However, the Cowan family said the same city officials who shut it down helped bring it back to the new location right in time for a Halloween weekend opening.
"Ben Reynoso and Nathan Freeman both helped get this building and even though it took a few weeks to get it, they came through. We didn't want to let anyone down and they didn't want to let our daughter down and so one thing led to another and now we got this going in San Bernardino," said Augie.
Augie said the building came at no cost to their family and they had just six days to put the haunted house together in the space. With the help of their family and community members, the haunted house was ready for opening night Thursday.
"We had to tear our haunted house down [at the house] and bring it here. We actually had a lot of stuff donated like the lumber and stuff like that and people would just come in off the street and start helping. The fact that we got this done, I wasn't sure about it because every day was like a week's worth of work. I feel so honored that people care about my daughter and our family so much that they would do that. We had a guy, Eddie, build the bar and it's bigger than the one back home. It looks perfect," said Augie.
Maria said she is also very thankful to the community.
"I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to every single person, and they became friends. We didn't even know these people, just strangers walking in saying we want to help, we want to donate our time," said Maria.
This year likely marks the 10th and final scare for the event because Andrea is not expected to live much longer.
"She's [Andrea] now in hospice so we wanted to do this last final scare for her, to help fundraise the money for the medical stuff too. I'm just happy we have the chance to fundraise for my daughter," said Augie.
The haunted house will be open Friday-Monday from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The times of 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. are called "no scare" and are recommended for younger children. The cost is $13 at the door for general admission and $20 for the express line.