Plot Synopsis

Executive produced by Zak Bagans, DESTINATION FEAR is a one-hour reality series that follows paranormal explorer and documentary filmmaker Dakota Laden, his sister Chelsea Laden, and best friend Tanner Wiseman, as they travel across America in an RV to spend the night in the most haunted abandoned locations in United States. Pursuing paranormal evidence, the team must first overcome fear itself. In each 60-minute episode, Dakota, Chelsea and Tanner travel to a different destination -- from asylums to prisons and more. The location remains a surprise to all but Dakota. Not knowing the haunted horrors that await them, it's a road trip driven by suspense and fueled by excitement. The team explores each haunted location together, zoning in on areas of reported paranormal activity and using scientific equipment to try and capture evidence. Then, the luck of the draw determines where each one will sleep overnight -- separated and alone. Armed with cameras and dread as their only companions, the team members will test the limits of their own fears in an effort to ultimately understand the paranormal. "My sister Chelsea and I grew up in a house with paranormal activity and it's gripped us, and my best friend Tanner, ever since," said Laden. "The three of us have always loved exploring haunted locations but began to realize how much our fears of the unknown affected us and held us back from getting answers. So we're hitting the road in a terrifying attempt to confront and overcome these fears head-on, night after night, as we sleep inside America's scariest abandoned buildings." Laden spent the last few years investigating the frightening unknown with the GHOST ADVENTURES crew.

The second season of DESTINATION FEAR premiered on Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 10pm ET/PT on Travel Channel. Brother and sister duo Dakota Laden and Chelsea Laden and best friend Tanner Wiseman, along with camera operator Alex Schroeder, confront their fears once again, as they pile into their RV and hit the road on a nail-biting cross-country journey to pursue paranormal evidence, spending the night inside America's most haunted abandoned buildings over six hour-long episodes in the second season. Lured by the unknown and with a greater understanding of fear, the crew explores a whole new set of abandoned locations with grim haunted histories and restless spirits lurking within. Only this time the destinations remain a surprise, not just to Chelsea and Tanner, but to Dakota as well, as they each take turns picking a haunted hot spot, challenging each other in unique ways. After exploring reports of paranormal activity, they separate to sleep alone in the dark ... and that's the moment when fear really takes over. In the season opener, "Nopeming Sanatorium," Dakota surprises Chelsea and Tanner by taking them back to where it all began: Nopeming Sanatorium in Duluth, Minnesota, a frightening location that loomed menacingly near their childhood homes. Dakota has been itching to investigate this 118-year-old building for years, but never had the courage to set foot inside. The site of 1,500 deaths, Nopeming's history runs rampant with murder, suicide and sinister spirits. Now, the team will finally confront their childhood fears as they explore and spend the night inside one of Minnesota's most paranormally active locations. What happens to the group during their overnight is an experience they will never forget, replete with poltergeist activity and a chilling encounter with the disturbed spirit of a former maintenance man. Later in the season, the team makes stops at the Yorktown Memorial Hospital in Yorktown, Texas; Old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana; Hill View Manor in New Castle, Pennsylvania; Cambria County Jail in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania; and the Sheboygan County Insane Asylum in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they will be the first paranormal team to spend the night inside a building that has never before been investigated on television.

Season 3 of DESTINATION FEAR premiered on Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and the same day on discovery+. Across this season's eight one-hour episodes, the fear-chasing foursome are driven to the edge of endurance. Exploring under the harshest conditions they've ever faced, and using sensory deprivation tactics to augment their paranormal experiment, this trip will test their mental, emotional and physical strength to the extreme. Venturing inside notoriously haunted locations such as Ohio State Reformatory, the Villisca Axe Murder House and Odd Fellows Home, the team confronts intense supernatural forces -- and they quickly learn these entities do more than go bump in the night. In the season opener, "Waverly Hills Sanatorium," Dakota takes the team to one of the most frightening and infamous places in America: Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. The death rate was so high at this former tuberculosis hospital that a "body chute" was created to hide the constant flow of deceased bodies from those who were living in the facility. Dakota, Chelsea, Tanner and Alex have dreamed of visiting this location for years, but they've always been too afraid to confront the sinister forces lurking within, until now. Facing a dark history of brutal deaths and paranormal violence, the team is taunted by several tortured souls still looming within the abandoned halls. Physical afflictions and ghostly apparitions put the group through the ultimate test of strength and endurance.

New episodes of DESTINATION FEAR returned beginning Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and streaming the same day on discovery+. In this latest quest for answers about fear and the paranormal, the group tackles new frontiers -- literally, exploring in locales they have not gone before and buildings that have never been investigated, such as the Indiana State Sanatorium. Using sensory deprivation tactics to augment their fear experiment and investigating under the harshest conditions they've ever faced, the team is put to the test mentally, physically and emotionally. And in an epic excursion, Dakota, Chelsea, Tanner and Alex will head overseas to Ireland's stormy coast -- where they face ancient evils they've never seen before. It's a whole new level of fear inside Loftus Hall, a 14th century mansion that has been cursed since the beginning and Spike Island -- one of Ireland's most haunted and notorious prisons. In the premiere episode, the foursome head to Twin Bridges Orphanage in Twin Bridges, Montana, an abandoned orphanage with a tragic and horrific history.
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DESTINATION FEAR returned for its fourth season on Friday, November 25, 2022 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and earlier in the day on discovery+. This season, paranormal explorers Dakota Laden, Chelsea Laden, Tanner Wiseman and Alex Schroeder level up their fear experiment in their darkest, most terrifying road trip yet. After experiencing hauntings in Europe last season, the likes of which they've never seen at home, Dakota is now taking things to an even darker level -- literally. Not only is he challenging the team with darker hauntings and locations, but he shocks them with the most disturbing experiment yet: removing flashlights from their armor and forcing them to blindly face the shadows of the night in true darkness. It's the first of many twisted and unnerving new experiments that will test their paranormal theories from the most uncomfortable of situations. This season's eight hour-long episodes and latest tour de terror take Dakota, Chelsea, Alex and Tanner to the infamous Winchester Mystery House, the "swear they'd never return" Ashmore Estate, a mysteriously deserted Tennessee hospital, a haunted abandoned junior high school, the sprawling Cresson Sanatorium and Prison and more.

The season opens with a one-two punch: the massive Cresson Sanatorium in rural Cresson, Pennsylvania, the largest location the team has ever explored. A trifecta of terror, the decaying 20-building property was once a sanatorium, mental hospital and prison, marked by death in every corner. In a place this large, Dakota, Chelsea, Tanner and Alex will each have to explore their own building...alone and, in their most terrifying experiment, without flashlights. But when they encounter an entity that's known to mimic the voices and sounds of people exploring the building, the crew is left shaken beyond belief.

Episodes include:

"Cresson Sanatorium and Prison (Part 1)" (Premieres Friday, November 25 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): The team faces a trifecta of terror at a decaying sanatorium in rural Pennsylvania. If a ghostly mimic and child spirits aren't enough to shake up the crew, Dakota Laden has a dark and twisted experiment up his sleeve to amp up the fear at this foreboding facility.

"Cresson Sanatorium and Prison (Part 2)" (Premieres Friday, December 2 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): Dakota Laden's diabolical dive into darkness continues when he blindsides the team with a double dose of terror at an abandoned Pennsylvania sanatorium. Can they handle a night in the cell block where one of America's most horrific serial killers was housed?

"Defiance Jr. High School" (Premieres Friday, December 9 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): The team learns the true meaning of "school spirit" at a vacant junior high school in Ohio. From jangling keys luring them to a ghostly custodian's lair to a mind-boggling encounter in the gym, Dakota Laden and crew are the victims of a non-stop haunted hazing.

"Old Historic Harriman Hospital" (Premieres Friday, December 16 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): Tanner Wiseman may have found the G.O.A.T. of all haunted locations when he picks out a deserted Tennessee hospital for the next stop. Rumors of bizarre hauntings swirl around this eerie, unexplored facility, but nobody can explain why. Can the team unlock its disturbing secrets?

"Winchester Mystery House" (Premieres Friday, December 23 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): Chelsea Laden pulls the team out of the darkness and into the California sunshine ...but only for a minute as she plunges them into the haunted madness of a legendary mansion. The crew takes a shot in the dark to see what energy is at play behind its walls.

"Ashmore Estates" (Premieres Friday, December 30 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): Alex Schroeder has a big surprise in store for Dakota Laden, Chelsea Laden and Tanner Wiseman when he takes them back to a decrepit Illinois poorhouse so scary that they swore never to return. But will tragic new information about this location force the team to re-evaluate the haunting?

"Mid-Orange Correctional Facility" (Premieres Friday, January 6 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+)The team falls deeper into the darkness at a deteriorating juvenile detention center near a quiet New York village. Dakota Laden is eager to establish a close bond with the youthful spirits, but quickly discovers to be careful what you wish for in this nightmarish facility.

"Norwich State Hospital" (Premieres Friday, January 13 at 9pm ET/PT on Travel Channel and Streaming on discovery+): Dakota Laden saves the darkest, bleakest location for the last stop of one twisted road trip. This infamous psychiatric hospital in rural Connecticut is so diseased with dark history and demonic energy that it may be the final nail in the coffin for the "Destination Fear" team.