Debbie Glatzel and Arne Cheyenne Johnson gave first-hand recollections of the events that were portrayed in the "Where Demons Dwell" episode of A Haunting on the Discovery Channel. According to them, their father saw demonic possession. Debbie and Johnson both insisted on believing the Warrens' version of events. They claimed that as they went to clean up a rental home they had recently purchased, ghostly activity started. David remembered that he was startled and pushed by an elderly man who arrived out of nowhere. David told the couple that the elderly guy had threatened to hurt the Glatzels if they moved into the rented house, despite their first suspicion that he was using the man as a pretext to avoid cleaning. In one of David's dreams, the elderly guy materialized as a demonic beast who mumbled Latin and threatened to take his soul. David was the only one who ever saw the elderly man, despite the family supposedly hearing odd noises emanating from the attic.
Following David's unusual behavior, night terrors, and mysterious scratches and bruises, the family sought the assistance of a Catholic priest who tried to bless the house. The frightened family decided that the house was bad and decided to stop renting it. Even during the day, David's images grew worse. The family called in demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren to help twelve days after the initial occurrence. As a sign of a hostile presence, Lorraine saw a black mist appear beside David. Debbie and her mother informed the Warrens that they had witnessed invisible hands beating and strangling David, and that red scars later emerged on his neck. David had begun to hiss, growl, talk in unearthly accents, and repeat Bible or Paradise Lost passages.
The Glatzels described how a family member would stay up with David every night while he had convulsions and spasms. Following the Warrens' forecast of several possessions, David underwent three "lesser exorcisms." Lorraine claims that David exhibited supernatural precognition, levitated, and even temporarily stopped breathing—specifically, in reference to the manslaughter that Johnson would subsequently commit. The Warrens alerted Brookfield police in October 1980 that things were getting out of hand.
Witnesses claim that while Arne Johnson was involved in David's exorcisms, he forced one of the demons, allegedly inside David, to take possession of him. This is where A Haunting departs from the accounts of Johnson's possession given by others who were involved. The show claims that a few days after Johnson encouraged the demon to continue during the exorcism, the demon attacked him quite severely, purportedly taking control of his automobile and crashing it into a tree. Despite this, Johnson was unhurt.
Following this encounter, Johnson went back to the rental home to investigate an ancient well that was said to be the demon's home. Johnson claimed that this was his last experience with the demon while fully conscious in both the dramatized version and his own story. He became possessed after meeting the devil at the well and looking it in the eye. Although their caution was not addressed in A Haunting, the Warrens said they warned him against doing this.
Debbie and Johnson, who had been residing in her mother's house, decided it was time to move out as David's condition continued to deteriorate. Alan Bono, a newcomer to Brookfield, hired Debbie to groom dogs. Johnson and Debbie started renting an apartment near her workplace. Debbie began to worry that Johnson had also become possessed after he moved in since he began to behave strangely and remarkably like David. Debbie claims that Johnson would go into a trance-like state in which he would snarl and experience hallucinations, but he would later forget about them.
Along with his sister Wanda and Debbie's nine-year-old cousin Mary, Johnson joined Debbie at the kennel where she worked on February 16, 1981, after calling in ill from his job at Wright Tree Service. Debbie's boss at the kennel and the couple's landlord, Bono, purchased lunch for the group at a nearby bar and then got very drunk. The party went back to the kennel after lunch. Then, expecting trouble, Debbie took the girls out for pizza but insisted they come back right away.
Bono, who was now drunk, became upset when they got back. At Debbie's insistence, everyone exited the room, with the exception of Bono, who grabbed Mary and wouldn't let go. After returning to the apartment, Johnson gave Bono the order to let Mary go. Wanda told the police what happened next. Debbie tried to defuse the situation by putting herself between the two guys, but Mary fled for the car. Wanda made an unsuccessful attempt to yank Johnson away. Johnson then pulled out a 5-inch (13 cm) pocket knife and repeatedly stabbed Bono while snarling like an animal. A few hours later, Bono passed away. Bono had sustained "four or five tremendous wounds," primarily to his chest, and one that extended from his stomach to the base of his heart, according to Johnson's attorney.
Sgt. Gordon Fairchild of the Brookfield Police Department claimed to have assisted in Johnson's arrest on an assault charge after he was found two miles (3.2 km) from the scene of the murder (while Alan Bono was still being treated at the hospital). He claimed Johnson informed him he couldn't recall anything and didn't mean to damage anyone. Johnson remarked, "I need help because I've got a drinking problem," as Fairchild escorted him into a police cruiser. According to Fairchild, Johnson went into coherence and then dozed off for 20 to 25 minutes after being told that Bono had died at police headquarters.
After informing Johnson of his rights, Police Detective Sgt. John Lucas charged Arne Johnson with first-degree murder and placed him under $125,000 bond at the Bridgeport Correctional Center. This was Brookfield, Connecticut's first recorded illegal killing.
The trial received international media coverage and has gained some reputation as a result of the many literary and television portrayals of the events. On August 31, 2006, Where Demons Dwell, a live-action TV prequel, was released. Later, the narrative was adapted into a movie called The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021), and in 2023, it was the focus of a documentary called The Devil on Trial.