JOAN Vollmer was tied to a chair in a violent exorcism that put her town on the map. Visiting the site is now a rite of passage.

Joan Vollmer, pictured outside the house which was wrapped in cling wrap as she died a violent and terrifying death during an ‘exorcism’ to rid her of demons.Source:Supplied

THE house has laid abandoned on a lonely road in the tiny Victorian outback town of Antwerp since it was encased in cling wrap and Joan Vollmer was tied to a chair in the living room for a terrifying and violent exorcism.

Boarded up and unoccupied for two decades it has become the place for terrified teenagers to visit as a dare and hold seances.

So far, none of them have been able to reach into the afterlife for Joan, the 49-year-old housewife subjected to deprivation, pain, bizarre rituals and eventual death at the hands of an extreme religious group 23 years ago.

The house has been sold at least twice, but no-one has moved into it.

Secretly visiting the house where Mrs Vollmer died has been a “rite of passage” for local youths, who enter through a hole kicked through one of the walls.

“The verandas have been taken off, and kids get into it from time to time,” said Ivan Polack, a long-term Antwerp local who knew Joan Vollmer and her husband Ralph.

“They’re all scared of it, not me of course, it’s just a house. But the people who own it don’t want to live there. They feel it’s not right.”

What went on over several days at the house, which lay on the flat plains of the Wimmera District half way between Adelaide and Melbourne, made international headlines.

“It put Antwerp on the map so to speak,” Mr Polack told news.com.au. “People still talk about what happened in that house.”

Wrapped seven times in cling wrap during the violent and bizarre three day long exorcism, the house (above) is now “haunted” and a rite of passage to visit.Source:Supplied

Joan Vollmer at the Antwerp house with her beloved garden which was torn up during her violent exorcism to expose demons. Picture: Rob Baird.Source:News Corp Australia

Seen from above, the house lies off an isolated stretch of road by the Wimmera River in outback Victoria. Picture: Google maps.Source:Supplied

Ralph Vollmer (above) outside the house where he conducted the exorcism which killed his wife Joan. Picture: News CorpSource:News Corp Australia

The extraordinary saga began in January 1993, when pig farmer Ralph Vollmer became convinced his second wife Joan had become possessed by demons.

He told friends in the local district who were members of an ousted church group that evil spirits were making Joan dance outside, use bad language, act “like a prostitute” and behave like a pig or dog.

Vollmer, 55, tried tying Joan to their bed or locking her in the basement, but she became hysterical and screamed through the night.

Calling on his neighbours John Reichenbach, 31, and his wife Leanne, and their spiritual leader 78-year-old expelled Lutheran, Leah Clugston, Vollmer and the group concluded that 10 demons were living in Joan’s body.

Vollmer and Leanne Reichenbach tied Joan down and, denying her food and water so as not to feed the beasts inside her, started praying.

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