Case 10: Forest Park Cemetery

This cemetery in Troy, New York has long been talked about as one of the most haunted cemeteries in the state. Many a brave or reckless ghost hunter has ventured inside even with the risk of being caught for trespassing to take a glimpse at the cemetery and the haunts within.

The earliest graves on the site date back to 1856, although the cemetery as we know it was incorporated in 1897. At the time, a group of wealthy businessmen purchased two hundred acres of land with the intent of making a large and extravagant resting place. However, things did not pan out financially, and the corporation that ran the cemetery went bankrupt in 1914. One of the few signs of their plans is the now-decrepit receiving tomb, a building meant to house bodies during the winter so they could be buried in the warmer months due to how difficult it was (and still is) to dig into the ground in cold temperatures. A new corporation was established, and it sold all but twenty-two acres of land to keep itself afloat, although this too eventually went bankrupt in the 1930s.

Between 1918 and 1961, a local man named William Christian volunteered to be the groundskeeper of the cemetery, doing so without pay until his death. The last burial for a while took place in 1975, and from then on, the cemetery was all but abandoned. In 1987, the Town of Brunswick, where the cemetery was physically located, purchased the land and began an attempt to clear out excessive plant growth. A few burials even took place here, with the last taking place in 2005. In 1988, the cemetery made local headlines when a partially exhumed grave was found by several local teenagers who went inside to explore. Despite a shovel, a pick, and several beer cans being left at the crime scene, no one was ever arrested.

The beginning of the cemetery’s reputation as being haunted is a bit of a mystery. It was said that Life magazine had featured the cemetery in an article about haunted locations in the United States, but despite this, no article has been found. Despite our own research, we were unable to find the origin of the legends surrounding the cemetery. However, we did find plenty of stories from people who visited the cemetery. From stories of apparitions appearing and then vanishing within seconds to unexplained voices and even screams to reports of statues and graves bleeding, there were many tales to comb through.

As with the Saratoga County Homestead, trespassing and vandalism has been an issue. Several graves have been desecrated by unkind visitors, including statues who have had their heads removed. For your own sake, do not do this if you ever visit Forest Park Cemetery. Not only is it illegal and disrespectful to the dead, but it may lead to backlash from any spirits inside.

For this investigation, we had new equipment that would make our hunts even easier than before, especially in a larger site like this. We now had three portable radios plus a third video camera, meaning we could split into two teams of two plus one solo investigator, which would be our plan for tonight.

…

We arrived at the cemetery on the night of August 25. The surroundings were lush with trees, and it was almost impossible to see up into the night sky with how dense the forest was within the cemetery. While normally trees would be cleared out before they could spread like this within a burial ground, this was very much not the case with Forest Park.

“Okay,” I said to the group as we pulled out our cameras, our digital voice recorders, and our EMF meter. “We’ll split into a group of three. I’ll investigate the receiving tomb alone. Marie and Yukiko will be Team 1, and Jared and Ashley will be Team 2.”

“Sounds good to me,” Yukiko replied as she took a radio and turned it on. “Let’s see what this place has to offer.”

Marie asked me, “When do you want to meet up back at the front entrance?”

“It’s 9:45 right now,” I replied as I checked the clock on my phone. “How about we meet up back here at 11:45? Two hours will be enough to get some evidence in. I’ll set an alarm on my phone for 11:30.”

“Works for me,” Jared agreed as he picked up a second portable radio and turned it on, handing it to Ashley. “Here.”

“Thanks,” she replied. “I’ve heard a lot of stories about this place, so I’m pretty excited for tonight.”

With that, we all split up and went to different areas of the cemetery. While Teams 1 and 2 walked the grounds, I would focus on the ruined receiving tomb, which has been the site of much of the activity in the cemetery according to legend. One legend recalls how people would go in and find there to be no coffins, but this could easily be debunked by the fact that the receiving tomb was only meant to temporarily house bodies for the winter before they could be buried in warmer weather. However, other tales could not be as easily debunked, such as screams coming from the building at night despite no one being inside or near the tomb.

…

In the receiving tomb, I turned on our new third video camera and began to walk around. The stone walls of the building were covered in moss and some graffiti, and any of the glass had long since been broken or otherwise removed. Additionally, several sections of the walls had either toppled over or otherwise had been removed. To say it was in ruins would be an understatement. It was clear the building had not been used in decades, especially with modern technology making wintertime burials easier in all but the harshest climates.

To start things off, I set my video camera down on a toppled stone and pulled out my phone to begin taking photographs of the building. It was a beautiful night to do so, and honestly, the photos would have come out looking great even if I did not capture any spirits. As I finished taking the first twenty or so photos, however, I began to feel a chill in the air. Because we were outside, we could not prove this was supernatural, but it was odd given how warm this night was. As I began to take a second set of photos, I said to myself, “Man, we lucked out tonight with this weather.”

Just as I said that, I heard footsteps from near the entrance to the tomb and turned around. The footsteps were also captured on the video camera I had left behind, and were louder since it was closer to the entrance. I definitely felt like I was being watched, and as I went over to retrieve my video camera, it captured a whispered male voice followed by a snarl, neither of which I heard as I picked it up.

“Is there anyone here with me? Can you give me a sign you’re here?”

It was at this point that the camera captured something I did not realize until after I had reviewed the tape. As I was filming an archway leading out of the receiving tomb, the camera caught a glimpse of a shadow figure standing beside a stone pillar. When the camera went back to the same spot just a few seconds later, the shadow figure was gone.

Finding nothing and not knowing about this shadow figure, I set the camera back down and picked up the digital voice recorder to begin an EVP session. “Is there anyone here with me?” Pause. “If you have something to say, you can tell me. I can record your voice.” Pause. “Are you buried here?” Pause. “How do you feel about people visiting this cemetery?”

Before I could even think of another question, I heard a voice yell out a response to this question from behind the tomb: ‘No!’

I turned around and asked, “Was that you?” Truth be told, if this had happened to me earlier in my time as a ghost hunter, I would have been scared out of my mind, but by now, this was relatively tame. “Do you like me being here?” Pause. “Do you want me to leave?”

At that moment, Marie came over the radio and told us, “Guys, did any of you see that white ball of light that just shot across the cemetery?”

I radioed back, “No. What did you see?”

“This ball of light just flew past us,” she replied. “It scared the shit out of me.”

Jared then chimed in, saying, “Wait, that wasn’t a car or a flashlight?”

As Marie and Jared kept talking over the radio, I decided to play back the recording to see if I got any responses. Indeed, I got several, including one that chilled me to my bones when I realized what it was. The first response was to my question about if the spirit I was talking to was buried here, which was a male voice saying ‘Right here.’ The second was the ‘No!’ I heard with my own ears. The third was in response to me asking who talked, which was the same male voice: ‘It is me…’

It was the fourth and final answer that caused me to leave the receiving tomb. In response to being asked if the spirit liked me being inside the ruins, an aggressive and angry growl was heard. Although I could not make out what it said, it creeped me out enough to make me leave early. For the remainder of the two hours, I walked around the whole cemetery, taking in the surroundings as I photographed as much as I could. In a way, this helped me clear my mind after what had transpired in Harukawa.

…

As I was investigating the receiving tomb, Marie and Yukiko had conducted an EVP session with no results to start their part of the investigation, and had been taking photos of the graves in their half of the cemetery while talking among themselves. As Yukiko snapped a photo of a statue whose head had been removed by a vandal, she asked Marie, “How have you been since we got back from Japan? Do you think you got an attachment?”

“I’ve been fine,” she insisted. “In fact, I haven’t had to deal with whatever attached itself to me at that house in Leesville since my trip to Japan. I hope it stays that way.”

“I was really scared. I didn’t know what was gonna happen when you got possessed. When I looked into your eyes during that, I could tell it wasn’t you behind them. Do you even remember anything?”

Marie shook her head. “I don’t remember a thing. I feel like I blacked out the whole time I was possessed. If anything… It felt violating. To have someone else take control of my body… Looking back at it, I truly feel violated.” Clarifying what she meant due to how she said it, she added, “Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t me saying it was like rape or anything, because it’s not, but… I still feel wronged by it.”

“No, no, I get it,” Yukiko assured her. “I hope it never happens to me.”

“I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else in the group. There’s no telling what could happen when you get possessed.”

Yukiko, curious about Marie’s sensitivity towards spirits, then asked her, “How do you feel about us being here?”

“Huh?”

“Like, you’re like a psychic or something, right? You can sense when spirits feel a certain way. What does a cemetery like this make you feel?”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a psychic,” Marie replied. “But to answer your question, I do feel a sense of sadness coming in here. This cemetery has not been taken care of, even with the best efforts of the Town of Brunswick. The spirits here feel like the years where the cemetery was neglected disturbed them, and they also feel sad. They’re glad some work is being done, but damage still lingers.” She then pointed out the headless statue. “Like that, for example. People really shouldn’t be coming in here to vandalize this place. Not to get too preachy, but even beyond the fact it pisses off the ghosts of those who were laid to rest here, it’s so disrespectful to their families, like, what the Hell is wrong with these people? Sorry I got all preachy or something, but it really pisses me off.”

“It’s fine. I completely agree, Marie.” Yukiko sighed as she looked, taking in her surroundings. “This honestly is a beautiful place. It’s a shame it was neglected for so long.”

“Yeah, it is. I can see why people wanted to be buried he-“ She then looked over Yukiko’s shoulder and noticed something odd in the trees. “Uh… Yukiko, behind you.”

“Huh?” Yukiko turned around, her jaw dropping as she found what Marie was looking at. “What the Hell…?”

This was the white ball of light they would later tell me and Team 2 about over the radio. Based on the video footage and the testimony of Marie and my sister, this white ball of light traveled in a jagged and irregular pattern above the graves of the cemetery, zipping past trees and statues before it then hovered over a set of four graves in particular for a few seconds. Then, it sped off in the direction of the other end of the cemetery.

Both Marie and Yukiko watched the proceedings in stunned silence. “Holy shit,” Marie said to her partner when the ball of light finally disappeared from view. “Did you get that on video?”

“I got most of it,” Yukiko replied. “What the fuck was that?”

“I gotta tell the others about this,” Marie said as she grabbed her radio to tell us, leading to the brief conversation we all had above.

…

While all of this had been going on, Ashley and Jared had had the least success of the group so far, capturing nothing of note even after the ball of light had been seen by Team 1. Nothing they had done had gotten any evidence of the paranormal. Not even the EMF meter Ashley carried got any unusual readings.

After talking with the rest of us by radio, Ashley remarked, “Man, this night’s been a bust for us.”

“Tell me about it,” Jared replied, somewhat annoyed by how the two of them had gotten no evidence, especially given what Marie had reported. “I know I shouldn’t expect a lot of activity any time I go on a ghost hunt or something, but this is unusually slow for us.”

“Especially with all the local legends surrounding this place,” Ashley pointed out. “Maybe we’ll end up wrapping up this investigation early if the others aren’t getting a lot of evidence, either.”

“Wouldn’t be a bad idea. Troy’s pretty far from where we live.” Jared then zoomed in on a grave in the distance with his camera, and as he did, he noticed something next to it that would end up being some of the most compelling footage and photos of a full-bodied apparition ever captured. “What the…?”

“What i-?”

“Shhhh.” Jared then waved for Ashley to look through the viewfinder on the camera. He whispered, “Look at that.” As they watched the grave with night vision, they both saw what looked like a woman in a dress standing next to the grave. “Holy shit…”

“No way,” Ashley whispered as she quietly set down the EMF meter and grabbed her photo camera, zooming in as best as she could and snapping three photos of the figure as it got up and began to walk away from the grave. “Oh my God. I got it on camera.”

“Me too… Did you see a face or anything? Like, any features, Ashley?”

“No, at least not in the viewfinder.”

Jared then pointed at the grave and remarked quietly, “Whatever it was, it’s gone now.”

“Of course I had to mention activity being slow,” Ashley sighed. “Now it’s picking up.”

“I still can’t believe we got all that. Oh my God, dude.”

Ashley remarked with a chuckle, “I know, right? Takeo’s gonna love it when he sees thi-“ My girlfriend was interrupted when they both heard a high-pitched scream echo through the area of the cemetery they were in. The scream did not resemble anyone else on the team, and neither Ashley nor Jared spoke when the scream was happening. “Oh my God…”

“What the fuck was tha-?” Jared was interrupted when they heard what sounded like footsteps coming towards them, almost as if someone was running in their direction.

Ashley turned around, but found no one, asking her partner, “Jared, what’s going on?!”

“We gotta go,” Jared then told her. “Now.”

“But-“

“Come on!” Jared then began running as fast as he could towards the entrance to the cemetery, scared off by the scream. Ashley soon picked up the EMF meter and followed him, and as they began to retreat, they heard what sounded like laughter coming from behind them and ran even faster. “What the Hell?! Who is that?!”

“I don’t know!” Ashley stuffed the EMF meter in her pocket and grabbed the radio, frantically calling out, “Team 2 to Team 1 and Takeo, we’re backing out! We just heard a scream and laughter over here!”

I responded to them first, replying, “Are you guys running?”

“Yeah! I think we’re being chased!”

“God damn it,” I replied. “Team 1, head back to the front entrance. We all gotta regroup.”

“Received,” Marie replied to my command. “We’re on our way!”

As Ashley and Jared continued to run, Jared briefly turned the camera around, which managed to capture a brief glimpse at something that would later horrify us: A black shadow figure chasing after them that neither of them could see with their own eyes up until that point. As he turned the camera back around, he told Ashley, “We gotta get out of here! I don’t give a shit anymore! We gotta leave”

“Right behind you,” Ashley affirmed. “Let’s go!”

…

We met up at the front entrance and conferred among ourselves after Ashley and Jared calmed themselves down. They also showed us the incredible video and photos of the apparition among the graves. All of our jaws were on the ground (proverbially of course) when we watched the video, and especially when we saw the photos, which showed the same apparition in motion. It is rare as it is for a full-bodied apparition to be filmed, and it is extremely rare for any spirit of any shape or kind to be captured on two separate pieces of visual media at the same time.

After some talking, and largely due to the insistence of Ashley and Jared, we decided we would head out and go back home. It would be a long car ride back to Volendam, and we had to prepare for our next investigation soon anyway. The end of the summer was approaching, and that meant less free time for our ghost hunting activities.

We analyzed all the photos taken, and found a few more pieces of evidence. In two separate photos Marie had taken, a white mist had been captured near the grave of a young child. No one on our team smoked or vaped, and obviously it was not cold enough for our breaths to be visible given it was late August. Finally, in a photo unrelated to the ones involving the full-bodied apparition, Ashley captured a shadow figure standing in front of a mausoleum that she swears she did not see when she took the photo.

Overall, while this investigation was unexpectedly short, it still yielded some good quality evidence of the paranormal, in particular the full-bodied apparition Ashley and Jared captured. This would not be our last foray into cemeteries, as our next investigation would involve a road with three of them on it.