Stepp Cemetery – Martinsville
Stepp Cemetery has a long reputation for being haunted. Today, the grounds are tucked away five miles inside the dark Morgan-Monroe State Forest. The cemetery was originally a pioneer cemetery started in the early 1800s.
Locals tell the sad story of a woman who tragically lost her baby son during the mid-1930s and had the baby buried in the nearby Stepp Cemetery. She then became a recluse, spending most of her time at the cemetery watching over her baby’s grave and singing to it. She, too, eventually passed on, and that is when the accounts of ghosts began to roll in. Around the mid- 1950s, visitors to the cemetery began to report seeing a woman in black sitting on a tree stump in the cemetery near a baby’s grave. People would witness her sitting there one second and being gone the next. Rangers have said they’ve heard the cry of a woman in the woods, but upon inspection, they found nothing. Also, there have been reports of a black ghost dog, watching over the baby’s grave and protecting it.
Being five miles back into a huge, dense forest doesn’t always make for the easiest investigation of a two-century-old cemetery. PROOF Paranormal had seen photos of a gate in front of the path to the cemetery and we were thrown off a bit because there are actually two almost identical gates that are about a quarter mile from each other. At the second/correct gate that marks the path to Stepp Cemetery, we proceeded down the path for about 200 yards or so before we started seeing the first of the headstones. History and possible hauntings aside, this place is very impressive. A feeling of walking back into the past is in the air as you stroll into the clearing deep within the woods.
During a second investigation of Stepp Cemetery, we captured a strange, red glow in one of our numerous photos. Strange noises were heard throughout the investigation, as well as several footsteps passing by at least one member. This was, interestingly enough, in the same area of the cemetery as we had previously experienced a cold spot. Maybe we were hearing the infamous Black Lady on her nightly walk to her favourite spot by the child’s grave?
Written by — Justin Hammans and John-Michael Talboo Co-Founders, PROOF Paranormal
STEPP CEMETERY
MORGAN MONROE STATE FOREST
SOUTH OF MARTINSVILLE, INDIANA
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SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places -Ghostly Locales from around the World – Compiled & Edited by Jeff Belanger – Copyright 2005 by Jeff Belanger