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Sara Schaefer - FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - When our story aired about this mystery tunnel, Rita Musser already knew what we were talking about.

"People have called it different things over the years. Sometimes it's a wine cellar. Or 'the hole' or the abyss," she said. Musser used to live in the house that revealed all of this during its demolition.

She says the family knew something was down there before they moved in. In fact, the kids secretly sent their 8-year-old sister down to check it out. In a bucket they lowered her down through a hole, with a rope tied around her waist.

"She was the littlest one so they figured they could pull her out in case there was a problem," Musser said.

After that, they were forbidden to go back down. Her niece later lived in the home and the underground room became a play room. People to this day still tell Musser they remember being down there. But only now do they know exactly what it is. Records at the Allen County Public Library trace the land back to John M. Riedmiller, a beer enthusiast.

"His 1870 plat map showed Eagle Brewery," Creager Smith, a Historic Preservation Planner, said. Eagle Brewery is listed in records on Taylor and Eagle Streets. Eagle is now Thompson Avenue. There's a long line of history on this land but it was largely owned by the Riedmillers.

Records show, years after Riedmiller died of necrosis of the liver, his widow separated sections of the land into for sale spots. Sometime shortly after that this house showed up.

"It appears that the Riedmillers demolished the brewery but did not demolish the cellars," Smith said. The suspicion is the house and the one next to it were moved to the land, because they appear even older than 1906 and that was common back then. We don't know what will happen next. But the answer to the underground mystery has surfaced. Rita Musser says she and her old neighbors won't ever forget the underground room.

Bruce Wendel says his father owned the home until around 2004. He said they used to go down to the cellar and hang out while target practicing. By this time, there was a ladder to get down to the room. The man who lives next door, Jeff McAlexander, said he knows Wendel and remembers going down in the cellar.

"They would just go down there to hang out and it was just so neat we always thought it was cool," he said.

Records show different owners over the years, most recently Mahasena Bounna S and Pedroza Jose in 2015. The bank gave the house to the state for demolition. A representative with the DNR was on site Wednesday doing their portion of research. The state will decide what happens next.