Miranda and Bridget Jane are murdererous sisters and lovers. They are characters in Roanoke primarily portrayed by Jenna Doolittle (Miranda) and Areana Cirina (Bridget). In My Roanoke Nightmare, they are portrayed by actresses Maya Rose Berko and Kristen Rakes, respectively.
Background
In 1988, the two sisters worked as nurse aides in an assisted living facility in Rochester, New York. They were believed to have been responsible for the deaths of at least two patients during their employment. Though these suspicions were never proven, the women resigned from their positions and left Rochester to avoid impending arrest. In 1989, the two women wound up in Martin County, North Carolina and came upon the Roanoke House, presumed by Dr. Elias Cunningham as having been drawn by its ominous history.
Once established, the Jane sisters converted the dwelling into their own assisted living facility that drew in a myriad of applicants for its inexpensiveness. The sisters, however, were very particular about whom they would accept; they only took patients who would not be missed by their families and, oddly, only those whose name began with certain letters. Unknown to the outside world, Miranda and Bridget used their clients as a sort of game in which they would torture and kill their tenants in increasingly gruesome ways, and then used the first letter of their names to spell out their favorite word - "MURDER" - on one of the walls of the home.
This went on for some time until a concerned relative notified the authorities after the phone went unanswered after three weeks. Upon investigation, however, all that could be found were the bodies of their victims and the word 'MURDER' still unfinished, missing its final letter. Any attempt to conventionally mask the word proved unsuccessful, as it would bleed through any attempted covering at a preternatural rate.
The state police and neighboring jurisdictions were alerted, but the sisters were never found. It was later deduced that they left the Roanoke House and fled the country to avoid capture. Some, however, such as Cunningham, doubted the accuracy of this verdict and believed that their desertion was resultant of something more sinister.
Personality and Appearance
Cunningham claims that Miranda and Bridget were nothing short of psychopaths, a claim which their actions seem to confirm wholeheartedly. The two took a fanatical and horrifying interest in the torture and murder of the helpless, and regarded their actions in the Roanoke House with a childlike giddiness. Regardless of their bloodthirsty tendencies, however, they are also considered by Cunningham as less wicked than the other spirits on the estate and, therefore, feared them greatly in life.
Perhaps the only thing they held in any regard aside from their craft was each other, as they were apparently capable of genuine love for one another. This was evident in both Cunningham's analysis and in their execution, as Bridget was more distraught over her sister's death than her own imminent demise, as was noted by the Butcher. A subtext in the former implies an incredibly intimate, perhaps incestuous, relationship existed between the two.
Bridget was a woman with a slender body and severe facial features. On the other hand, Miranda had completely brunette hair and hazel eyes. In life as in death, both sisters wear a nurse uniform.
Story
Shelby notices the nurses first as they walk past her in the hallway and make their way to the library. But when Shelby goes in, no one is in there. Matt first meets the nurses indirectly in what he originally assumes to be a dream. He witnesses the two shoot their first victim - a patient named Margaret - in the head for refusing the take her medicine, which they had poisoned. The women laugh manically and paint the first letter of her name on the bloodstained wall, Bridget remarking gleefully, "M' is for 'Margaret'!" Later on, both Matt and Shelby find Cunningham's documentation of their crimes in his bunker outside the house. The two are also among the shades that appear to Lee during her lapse in sobriety.[1]
Upon meeting Elias Cunningham for the first time, Matt and Shelby learn the truth behind their disappearance. True to his theory, the sisters greatly feared the spirits of the Roanoke House but refused to vacate until they were confronted personally by The Butcher during the Dying Grass Moon. As punishment for their continued lingering, both women were taken to the forest outside the house and brutally slain by the settlers, condemned by The Butcher to spend eternity serving her in death. Their ghosts appear later with those of others who met a similar fate, playing with Flora and Priscilla in a clearing and fleeing when Cunningham approaches them.[2]
While the Jane sisters are not amongst the Butcher's mob, they are amidst the spirits to reappear during the second occupation of the Roanoke House. Upon reencountering Rory Monahan, the nurses - far more decayed than their reenactment counterparts - stab him and use his name to finish their insignia on the dining room wall.[3] They later appear to Dominic and Shelby alongside the spirits of the Chen family before the two flee upstairs.[4]
Notes
- Miranda and Bridget's murders were inspired by the case of real-life serial killers Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood.
- A couple of spectral homicidal nurses (Gladys and Maria) also appeared in the first season of the anthology series, Murder House, though less violent than Miranda and Bridget. A lesbian love affair has been hinted for both couples.
Gallery
References
Template:Navbox/Character