I got married when I was 19 and my husband and I had no clue what to do with our new life together. We dropped out of college and our studio apartment was too expensive. We thought it was the ideal time to travel and have adventures before settling down.

We came across a post on the internet from a man who was looking for workers on his horse ranch. He would provide all meals and lodging in exchange for labour around the ranch. It looked like just the solution for us. He claimed to be very knowledgeable in trades, and would teach us to build machinery, woodworking, welding (we actually did learn to weld, which is pretty cool), etc.

The pictures were beautiful. The log cabin he built was spacious and we would have a nice big bedroom. There were lots of other people in the photos, and in our correspondence with him, he always mentioned other people and referred to himself as "we". He advertises on multiple platforms and everything looked really legit. We booked our flight.

There was nobody else there. He was in his 60's, but mentally and physically very fit. One of the first things he said to us was "I never judge people based on their past. Do you believe people can change? I sure do. " Seemed harmless enough. He took us grocery shopping and told us to pick and whatever we wanted. We immediately got the vibe that his kindness was forced and that he was being over generous.

I'm going to get right into listing the weird stuff we noticed. He built the house himself, and his bedroom had a door to the only upstairs bathroom, which didn't lock from the inside.

He would invite us into his room, and on his table was an old video camera, with about 30 little tapes strewn about.

He would always talk about how much he loved the Japanese, how he specifically marketed toward them, and had a few Japanese ladies stay in the past.

He often brought up people who had stayed with him before, and all of them had left suddenly and maybe unexpectedly.

One day, he told us to get in the truck, because we were going to the city. We were way out in the country, so it was a long ride, but he was really excited about going. He asked us to walk around and ask young people to come with us and work on the ranch. This made us super uncomfortable. We are introverts, and it just felt very odd to approach people and ask them to get in the truck. He got upset by our disapproval, so we got out and pretended to look for people to talk to. He went to talk to people on his own.

As the days went on, his welcoming nature began to give way to a very temperamental and aggressive one. I didn't really find him creepy, but intolerable. I didn't like him at all. He seemed extremely socially inept and said inappropriate things. It was also extremely apparent that he did not view women as equal , or anywhere near equal, to men.

He had military training and was a big, strong man. Cunning. Always thinking.

Now, our parents never wanted us to go. They realized it to be a potentially dangerous situation, but we thought we had done our due diligence. However, we never even thought to google this guy's name.

I get an email from my mom one day freaking out and telling me to do a google search then get on the next plane home. A quick search showed his arrest record--strangling and sexually assaulting a young woman--followed by headlines reading "Do NOT go to this horse ranch!" "This man is dangerous!" We were thoroughly creeped out, and booked a flight home.

We were then presented with the dilemma of how to tell a potentially dangerous man that we wanted to leave. I forgot to mention that he would tell us daily about how we could live there permanently and start a family. He would fantasize about Christmas's with our future children and raising them on the ranch. We thought it was established that this was a very temporary thing, and we had families back home who missed us.

This is the weirdest part for me. I made up a lie about an emergency back home, and when I told him, it was like he could see right through me. I'm convinced that he not only knew I was lying, but he knew I was going to lie about needing to leave before I even opened my mouth. This look came over him that I have never seen on a person before. He was angry, but hiding it.. he was hiding so many thoughts and emotions that I couldn't tell if I should be frightened or relieved. Before I finished my sentence, he said "when do you need to go to the airport." monotone. I told him right now.

He took us, and put on his friendliest personality, and told us that if we ever wanted to come back, he would buy our tickets. We said we would be in touch.

Just recently I googled his name again, and discovered a page, a forum, for people who had gone to his ranch. Mostly couples like us with eerily similar experiences. They spoke about how he says not to judge people on their past, the grocery store, the bathroom (and how they heard him listening behind his door during their midnight bathroom trips), the video tapes ( and how they watched them and saw young Japanese girls flexing their arms..?), looking through his search history and seeing nothing but Japanese pornography. They talk about how he would made rude remarks to the girlfriends and about creepy rituals in the woods (which we experienced. it was like a full moon ritual inside a circle drawn on the ground). They spoke about being driven to the city and asked to jump out when thin young ladies walked by, and tell them to come back to the ranch. i could go on and on.

He is still operational. This forum I found was aimed at gathering stories and preventing future visitors to the ranch. The police do not have enough evidence to convict him of anything.

I know i left a lot of creepy deets out. I didnt want this to be too long, and I'm not a great story teller. I'm unsure whether it would be appropriate to name the man or the ranch, but the blog where all the others have written about their encounters is probably much creepier than my story. We got away with much less weirdness because I don't believe I was his "type" and he may have feared my husband. If anyone is interested, i may be able to give a few hints so it can be found.