The Secret Beneath the School: The Discovery That Shook a Small Town

By Sofia Delgado | Pacific Chronicle | March 18, 2021

For nearly two decades, the basement of St. Augustine High stood sealed, silent, and forgotten.
Until a renovation crew broke through a rusted door—and uncovered something that was never meant to be found.

1. The Forgotten Door

It was supposed to be a routine restoration.
In January 2021, St. Augustine High—a small Catholic school on the edge of Monterey County, California—was being remodeled after years of neglect. Contractors were working on the old west wing, a section unused since the late ’90s.

When one of the workers, Miguel Cortez, noticed a hollow sound behind the brick wall near the science lab, curiosity took over.
They tore through the plaster.
Behind it was a steel door, sealed with multiple locks, painted over several times.
No one on the staff knew it existed.

At first, they thought it led to a storage room or storm shelter.
It didn’t.

2. The Smell

When they finally pried it open, the first thing that escaped was the smell.

“Like old copper and mold,” Miguel recalled. “Something that had been trapped for a long, long time.”

Inside: a narrow staircase descending into pitch-black darkness.
Dust and cobwebs hung thick in the air.
At the bottom—a large basement, filled with outdated equipment: desks, broken lab tools, a projector.
But in one corner, the concrete looked newer. Smooth. Recently poured—at least, more recent than the rest of the room.

The team called the site manager, who called the police.

3. What They Found Beneath the Floor

Two days later, forensic units arrived. They drilled into the patch of new concrete and found something beneath:
human remains.

The body was partially mummified by the cool, dry air.
A woman, estimated mid-30s.
Cause of death: blunt force trauma to the skull.

Next to the body, investigators found an old school ID card—the name barely visible under grime and time.

It read:
“Marina Valdez — Faculty, St. Augustine High — 1998.”

4. The Missing Teacher

To most of the current staff, the name meant nothing. But to older residents of the town, it brought back a ghost story.

In October 1998, Marina Valdez, a young science teacher at St. Augustine, disappeared after staying late to prepare materials for a student fair. Her car was found in the parking lot, keys still in the ignition.
At the time, police suspected a runaway or kidnapping.
But no suspect, no body, and no evidence ever surfaced.
Eventually, the case went cold.

Until now.

5. The Principal’s Secret

When the discovery made the news, one man was notably silent: Principal Arthur Green, who had led the school from 1985 to 2001.

He retired to Oregon years ago—but within 48 hours of the body’s identification, reporters found him.
His reaction? Panic.

Neighbors told local stations that police cars arrived at Green’s house the next morning.
He refused to answer questions.
But according to a source close to the investigation, a handwritten note was found in his possession.

It read:

“I tried to seal it away.
Some things were never meant to be uncovered.”

6. Whispers from the Past

In 1998, rumors had swirled among students about something strange in the basement.
A few remembered seeing lights flicker late at night, long after the building was locked.
Others claimed Marina had arguments with Green, often behind closed doors.

“She talked about reporting something,” said Ellen Chavez, a former student. “Said there were things going on in the school that weren’t right.”

When investigators reopened the old faculty records, they found disciplinary notes filed against Valdez in September 1998—signed by Green himself.
The note accused her of “unauthorized experiments” with chemical storage in the old basement lab.

But that lab had been decommissioned years earlier.
And no official report ever explained what she was doing there—or why Green let her continue working.

7. The Tape

During the new investigation, police combed through a storage unit once belonging to Principal Green.
Among stacks of boxes, they found a camcorder tape, dated October 10, 1998—the same night Marina disappeared.

The footage, grainy and silent, shows the basement.
Marina is there, wearing a white lab coat, speaking to someone off-camera.
Her lips move, but no sound records—except for one faint noise:
a metallic clank.
Then, static.

When the tape resumes, she’s gone.
Only the empty room remains—
and a single dark stain on the floor.

8. The Second Body

Three weeks after the discovery of Marina’s remains, the basement yielded another secret.
Forensics found a second body, buried beneath a collapsed section of wall near the heating ducts.

This time—a male skeleton, dressed in an old maintenance uniform.
Records confirmed the name tag: Thomas Briggs, school janitor, also missing since 1998.
For years, it was assumed he’d quit without notice.

Investigators now believe he didn’t quit—he saw something.
And someone made sure he never spoke.

9. The Diary

From a locked drawer in the old principal’s desk, police recovered Marina’s personal journal—its pages warped by moisture but mostly legible.
The final entry, dated two days before her disappearance, read:

“He told me to stop asking questions.
But the noise comes from below, not the pipes.
It’s like someone is down there—
crying.”

10. The Town That Forgot

When news broke, the community of Pacific Grove was stunned.
Parents who had sent their kids to St. Augustine in the ’90s began questioning everything they’d believed.

“How could nobody have known?” said one former parent.
“How could a teacher and janitor just vanish under a school and nobody dig deeper?”

The school board released a statement calling the discovery “a tragic and isolated incident,” pledging full cooperation.
But the building’s west wing remains cordoned off—
and no one’s allowed to enter the basement.

11. The Unfinished Story

As of March 2021, the investigation remains open.
No charges have been filed against Arthur Green, though he’s reportedly under “medical observation” after a mental breakdown.
In his home, detectives found dozens of letters addressed to “M.V.”, written over years. Most unreadable, all ending the same way:

“Forgive me. The noise won’t stop.”

Locals now say the old school is haunted.
Workers claim they hear voices echoing through the vents at night.
The janitor on duty refuses to stay after sunset.

12. The Final Note

Before police sealed the basement again, they placed a motion camera to monitor the space overnight.
The footage, reviewed the next morning, showed nothing for hours—
until 3:14 a.m.

The lights flickered.
A figure passed across the far wall, its outline faint but human.
When officers descended to check, the basement was empty.