HomeFairfax General ForumArrest/Ticket SearchWiki newPictures/VideosChatArticlesLinksAbout
Fairfax County General :  Fairfax Underground fairfax underground logo
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Pages: PreviousFirst...23456789101112AllNext
Current Page: 8 of 12
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Kalla in pound va ()
Date: November 03, 2013 07:18PM

Sitting on my bed looking out upon the bridge that connects the forks together I saw what seemed to be a 7 year old girl in a white gown standing by the bridge. I thought nothing of it assuming it could have been anything.That night my friends decided to come and visit me. As I walked down my hill all alone I heard weird noises. I finally got to the bottom where the bridge was when I started hearing a faint scream. The longer I waited the louder it grew. They finally arrived after about 15 minutes of me standing outside. When my friend looked at me she said I was as white as a ghost. As soon as she said that a small figure ran right across the bridge terrifying us to death.

I will never go down to that bridge ever again.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: joeydude19 ()
Date: November 06, 2013 06:54AM

I used to live on Courthouse road in Stafford. The house was demolished because the land was needed for the new Stafford Hospital. When I was younger me and my family would hear very loud noises in the house. One time we heard what sounded like a dresser falling down the stairs. That was very disturbing. We could not find where the noises came from. Also another day we heard what sounded like glass breaking every 10 seconds in the garage. Nothing was found. Also our two next door neighbors belonged to an older brother and a sister. The sister lived to the left and the brother to the right. They both passed the same year and their houses were abandoned.

One day a friend dared me to sneak into the sister's house. The door was unlocked. I entered. Her furniture was still in it. I was really scared; something did not seem right. As I walked in the house with my flashlight I heard a noise upstairs. As I got halfway upstairs I heard what sounded like an old fashion radio playing. I was overcome with fear and ran back home. The house is still there and abandoned.

One other thing to note, in our backyard where the new Stafford Hospital is built there were big holes in ground which used to be where Civil War soldiers lived. I know this because me and my dad metal detected the holes and found lots of Civil War artifacts in them. I am a firm believer that they built the hospital on sacred haunted land. I wonder if there are any stories from within the hospital. If so or have any questions contact my email joeydude19@yahoo.com.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: dawnlojmg ()
Date: November 06, 2013 07:21AM

joeydude19 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used to live on Courthouse road in Stafford. The
> house was demolished because the land was needed
> for the new Stafford Hospital. When I was younger
> me and my family would hear very loud noises in
> the house. One time we heard what sounded like a
> dresser falling down the stairs. That was very
> disturbing. We could not find where the noises
> came from. Also another day we heard what sounded
> like glass breaking every 10 seconds in the
> garage. Nothing was found. Also our two next door
> neighbors belonged to an older brother and a
> sister. The sister lived to the left and the
> brother to the right. They both passed the same
> year and their houses were abandoned.
>
> One day a friend dared me to sneak into the
> sister's house. The door was unlocked. I entered.
> Her furniture was still in it. I was really
> scared; something did not seem right. As I walked
> in the house with my flashlight I heard a noise
> upstairs. As I got halfway upstairs I heard what
> sounded like an old fashion radio playing. I was
> overcome with fear and ran back home. The house is
> still there and abandoned.
>
> One other thing to note, in our backyard where the
> new Stafford Hospital is built there were big
> holes in ground which used to be where Civil War
> soldiers lived. I know this because me and my dad
> metal detected the holes and found lots of Civil
> War artifacts in them. I am a firm believer that
> they built the hospital on sacred haunted land. I
> wonder if there are any stories from within the
> hospital. If so or have any questions contact my
> email joeydude19@yahoo.com.

I also uused to live in Stafford, over by Aquia Harbour on Pinta Cove. My mother Jody has made comments on this site as well. Let me tell you.. We moved into a newly built home in the 90s and the weirdest things would happen and no one believed me. I was an only child at the time. When I would fall asleep something would pet my head. Eventually I started to sleep with my head under the blanket and the covers clutched in my hand during the night only to wake up in the middle of the night freezing with the creepiest feeling in the room. My bed covers had been peeled off me and neatly laid on the floor below my bed. My sister was born soon after and my parents came home from a weekend vacation. My mom went upstairs to lay my sister down in her crib and her mobile started going around and playing music. No one was in the house the entire weekend. Another time my sister was in her crib and my mom heard a man's voice singing a lullaby to her over the baby monitor. She said it was in a different language. She researched it and someone told her the Irish Brigade had been stationed in Aquia Harbor several hundred years ago. My brother's Matchbox car also floated in midair off the kitchen counter in front of everyone. I also used to have dreams about bodies buried under the basement. Maybe that's why there are no cemeteries. The houses were built on top of them.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Random Person ()
Date: November 07, 2013 07:37AM

That's creepy. Me and my wife were driving on White Oak Rd in King George / Stafford area and we were driving from MD. There was an on coming car, Jeep Wrangler, and I saw something human shaped like a shadow person run from left to right go across the road. On the left side is a sharp 15-25 drop to nothing and on the right side there was about a 3ft dirt bank.

I was to myself thinking what was that then I said 'that was a little weird' out loud, then my wife said OMG I saw that too. But she thought that maybe was something in her eye. I went hell no, that was something that wasn't a person about 15 yards away from us.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Weyers ()
Date: November 10, 2013 05:33PM

While passing the Deno's gas station Route 11 Fort Defiance one winter night at around 12:30 am in 1995 my friend said did you see that girl sitting with her hands around her knees at the gas pump. I was looking at the gas pumps but saw nothing. Heading south on Route 11 about 100 yards down the road this guy pops up from nowhere standing along the road in a black cape with a white face that had no facial characteristics. No eyes, no nose etc.

I about jumped over into the drivers seat. One of the scariest things in my life.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Linda ()
Date: November 16, 2013 09:10PM

Linda Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nico Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Linda Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Where specifically in Great Falls?
> >
> > on a small bridge crossing a crek near the park
>
> Near Great Falls Park? Can you be more specific?
> Georgetown Pike area? Beach Mill? There are a few
> bridges in GF.
>
> Thx!

Ah, you are talking about River Bend Road I believe. It's the road before the turn into the park itself (Old Dominion). You'd take a right onto that road if you were coming down Georgetown Pike.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Hobart ()
Date: November 18, 2013 05:17AM

I recently was doing the field work toward by thesis on whether or not Liverworts (an aquatic zone plant) can tolerate heavy siltation in flooding at Hidden Pond. While there early one morning, with my field partners (girlfriend Mimi and my dog), we became aware of being watched. It was woman, in 19th century clothing, she just stood and watched us, then walked away, or rather faded. Being scientist, I don't believe in ghosts, or anything, however, I cannot explain this. My girlfriend Mimi says that the place has a reputation for the paranormal. I just think it was a case of poor light refraction but does anyone know anymore about the area?

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Ghost Hunter ()
Date: November 18, 2013 06:59AM

Hobart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I recently was doing the field work toward by
> thesis on whether or not Liverworts (an aquatic
> zone plant) can tolerate heavy siltation in
> flooding at Hidden Pond. While there early one
> morning, with my field partners (girlfriend Mimi
> and my dog), we became aware of being watched. It
> was woman, in 19th century clothing, she just
> stood and watched us, then walked away, or rather
> faded. Being scientist, I don't believe in ghosts,
> or anything, however, I cannot explain this. My
> girlfriend Mimi says that the place has a
> reputation for the paranormal. I just think it was
> a case of poor light refraction but does anyone
> know anymore about the area?

Hobart, there have been alot of reports of paranormal activity in that area. If you go up the Fairfax Underground search feature and do a search on "Hidden Pond", you'll find alot of ghost stories. In fact, many of them are in this very thread.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: gainesville2013 ()
Date: November 20, 2013 06:44AM

Not in fairfax but close by in gainesville. I was walking around some condos, when I first walk through them I felt fine but when I was coming back everything felt different. When I got closer I started to hear crying and weeps. I didn't pay much attention to it. As I got closer to that condo I didn't hear the crying and weeping anymore but I could hear what clearly was a woman's laughter. As I came around the corner I saw what I thought to be a girl playing on the ground just outside of the condo. At the moment I saw her everything changed, the environment, the wind, myself. Now this was around 11:30 pm. So I thought it was it was kind of strange that there was a little girl playing at this time.

As I walked past her she started to change. When I was across the street from her it's like she grew she looked bigger. Once I was behind and far from her I looked back. She looked like an old woman. Hair completely white, she was wearing a white dress. There was something behind her, a thick black mass. As I move away from her or it the black mass changes size and moved around. I decide to just keep walking. When I was faraway from the condo everything went back to normal I felt safe again, I kept walking on the side walk. A car went past me at the same time a small black thing went across my face almost hitting me.

Could this black thing be the same black mass behind the strange woman or just a bird, I don't know I'm not sure and honestly I don't want to know.
Submitted by anonymous

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: asdfasdfasdfasdf ()
Date: November 20, 2013 07:26AM

sufferkate Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aside: This is not really a ghost story. It's
> about something strange that happened to me years
> ago. I am not psychotic, or crazy, nor was my
> roommate. This is my strange story:
>
> I went to work in New York City during the late
> summer and early fall of 1995.
>
> My brother had died in an accident the previous
> Easter, and I was finding it difficult to
> concentrate in Memphis, where so many people, it
> seemed, knew about it.
>
> My roommate and I decided that we both needed a
> change of scene, and as she was from New Jersey,
> we easily secured positions at clubs in the Nanuet
> area.
>
> For the term, we had rented a suite of rooms in a
> hotel that, although part of a chain, was rather
> seedy and not at all up to the usual standards of
> said chain. What did I care, though? I was gone
> from a place where everyone I ran into wanted to
> tell me how very, very sorry they were “to hear
> about Jason.”
>
> I’d end up sobbing in the dressing room, the
> entire night a wash.
>
> ASIDE:
>
> I'm writing this from the other side of a passage
> of years, and although we are not in touch now, I
> want to stress that we were once very good
> friends, and that I cared about Emily a great
> deal.
>
> We had been through a lot together. She was with
> me when I received the news about my brother, and
> she held me up - literally - several times over
> the weeks that followed.
>
> She had witnessed some high strangeness while we
> lived together, and even though she wasn't
> comfortable with it (nor was I), she'd learned to
> take a lot of it in stride.
>
> When everything was over, though, we couldn't get
> far enough away from one another.
>
> RETURN:
>
> The suite Emily and I rented was paid for by her
> sugar daddy, a much older man she’d met at a
> club in Memphis - and with the understanding that
> I would repay half the amount as I earned it.
>
> It was set up so that as one entered, the bathroom
> door was to the immediate left, with the closet
> recessed in an alcove behind the door. A few steps
> brought you into the living room, with the bedroom
> area through an archway to the right. To the left,
> a desk and chair sat against the bathroom wall.
> There were three telephones in the suite. One on
> the desk, one on the bedside table, and the other
> on the table next to the sofa.
>
> The bedroom was furnished with an armoire
> containing another television, a king-sized bed
> with a padded dressing bench at the foot, and a
> full length mirror. The armoire was angled so that
> one could see the television from the living room.
> There was a larger television in the living room,
> with a large refrigerator next to it. A microwave
> sat atop it.
>
> On the night I will describe, Emily and I had been
> out with her friends. We had been working in N.Y.
> for a week, and so felt justified in taking a
> night off to hit the town. That had been the plan,
> but Emily had been taken ill right after dinner,
> so we returned to the suite after telling her
> friends good-night.
>
> We had argued in the cab on the way back, and when
> she said she was going to shower, I simply nodded
> and said nothing. She went into the bathroom and
> shut the door, and I sat down on the edge of the
> bed. I wasn't upset with Em, because I knew she
> really was not feeling well, and I'd known her
> long enough to put aside anything she might say in
> anger - or sickness.
>
> The lights were on in the living area of the
> suite, so I didn't turn on either of the two lamps
> in the bedroom. There was plenty of light to see
> by.
>
> Glancing at the phone to make sure we had no
> pending messages, I opened the armoire doors to
> turn on the television. I planned to put Emily to
> bed as soon as she came out of the shower, and I
> wanted to see if there was anything on she'd like
> to watch.
>
> Movement on the surface of the television screen
> caught my eye, and I realized that the blank,
> darkened screen essentially functioned as a
> mirror, reflecting the archway to the living room
> and the space beyond.
>
> What I was seeing in the 'reflection' did not
> immediately register, but it seemed there was
> someone else in the suite with us! I spun around
> to look at the doorway, and the desk/chair area.
>
> You guessed it. Nobody there.
>
> I turned back to the television. There WAS someone
> standing there! A woman! A woman in a very
> familiar black dress, with long platinum hair. The
> figure stood in front of the desk, evidently in
> deep thought.
>
> She looked just like me, in fact, and was wearing
> my favorite dress.
>
> Even though the night had been warm - muggy, even
> - I suddenly felt very cold.
>
> I kept looking at the television, and turning my
> head to look at the empty space where the figure
> stood in the reflection. I leaned in very close,
> thinking to change the angle and hopefully, figure
> out what was making me think I was seeing myself
> one room over.
>
> It was still there.
>
> Dimly, I realized that I could still hear the
> shower, and though I wanted to call out for Emily
> - to scream for her, if you want the truth - I
> could not make a sound. I was freezing and my
> teeth were clenched, and all I could manage was a
> choking whimper.
>
> I wanted to run, to barricade myself in with
> another human being, but I could not even go to
> the door of the bathroom. I would have to pass
> right by the thing I saw in the reflection,
> wouldn't I?
>
> Somehow, I knew I didn't want to catch its
> attention. The 'not-me' in the reflection didn't
> seem to be aware of the observer me, and that was
> a tiny relief.
>
> Then the figure moved, pulling out the 'chair.'
> The real chair beyond the archway did NOT move,
> and that's a good thing. I don't know what I'd
> have done, but the mind has ways to cope with
> stress like that.
>
> I think it's called 'going crazy,' and I was
> nearly afraid of that as I was the apparition in
> the reflection.
>
> The 'not-me' walked slowly around the chair, then
> sat. It seemed to be studying something on the
> desk, but I couldn't make it out.
>
> By then I was as close to the television screen as
> I could get, because that was as far away from the
> doorway - and the 'not-me' - that I could position
> myself. It occurred to me that I might be seeing a
> possible future, and if that were the case,
> 'not-me' would never know I was there.
>
> The 'not-me' stood up from the chair and turned,
> facing me, although it was still looking down, as
> though searching for something on the floor. 'Her'
> hand pushed back her hair, and she slowly turned
> in a circle.
>
> I watched, horrified, but fascinated. It circled
> the chair, still absorbed in its search.
>
> I was terrified that 'it' was going to look up and
> 'see' me, and I really, really did not want that
> to happen. I was filled with a sense of dread, and
> I shut my eyes.
>
> The room was still chilly, and I heard the shower
> go off. Emily would spend up to twenty additional
> minutes lotioning herself, combing her hair,
> flossing her teeth - we'd lived together for a
> while, so I knew her habits.
>
> This time, the bathroom door jerked open, and she
> stormed right out, drying her hair with a towel.
>
> Giving me a quizzical look, she said, "What? What?
> Why were you screaming my name?"
>
> Was I? I didn't think so, although I knew I'd been
> screaming for her in my head for at least ten
> minutes.
>
> "Just, can you come in here for a minute?" I
> responded. "Come sit here on the bed and look at
> the t.v. Then tell me what you see."
>
> I didn't look at anything while she passed by the
> 'not-me.' She sat on the bed, close to my original
> place, and for a minute or so, Emily did not say
> anything. She shivered, and I noticed I could see
> her breath. She turned her head as well, looking
> back and forth several times from the screen to
> the archway.
>
> Finally, she spoke. "Oh my GOD, that's YOU!"
>
> So she saw it, too. I was momentarily relieved
> that I wasn't going crazy, unless Emily was
> meandering down the same psychotic path. I'd heard
> of mass hypnosis, but we'd each had one glass of
> red wine at dinner. Her friends finished the
> bottle, and it sat at the table from the moment of
> uncorking.
>
> Nobody had dosed us, in other words.
>
> "What does this mean? That IS you, isn't it? Are
> you somehow doing this?" Emily kept on, giving
> voice to the questions I wasn't calm enough to ask
> myself.
>
> WAS I somehow doing this? Projecting an image of
> myself, like a - like some shamans can? Is this
> what I was capable of, in moments of emotional
> distress? I hoped not, but I had only read about
> it, and I had no idea if there was another
> explanation.
>
> "I don't know," I managed. "I don't think I could
> do this. Let me try something."
>
> I moved a little on the floor so that I could see
> 'not-me.' She was holding on to the back of the
> desk chair, and seemed to be - dancing? - swaying
> to music we couldn't hear.
>
> Basically, I thought that if I was somehow
> responsible for this, I could either predict its
> next move, or control it. Couldn't I?
>
> Fixing on the eidolon, I tried to make it sit down
> again. For a moment, nothing happened. The figure
> went on gently undulating to some ghostly melody.
> Then it walked around the chair again, and sat,
> palms on its knees, back ramrod-straight.
>
> "Oh, my gawwwwd," whispered Emily. "Jesus, it's
> YOU - you're doing this, aren't you?"
>
> I still did not know.
>
> Answer the phone, I thought.
>
> The figure stirred, and her hand went to the
> receiver on the desk phone. Her posture and
> movement was indicative of the silent
> 'conversation.'
>
> Emily's face was now less than an inch from my
> own.
>
> "Are. You. Doing. That?" she spat, condensation
> fogging the air with her every word. Her eyes were
> huge.
>
> "I think so," I replied. "I don't know why this is
> happening, Emily, I promise," I went on. "I'm
> going to try to make it go away."
>
> I peeked at the screen again. 'Not-me' was still
> on the 'phone.'
>
> GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY. Leave NOW. Get up and GO...out
> the door, or however you have to. YOU'RE NOT
> WELCOME HERE.
>
> I kept my eyes trained on the 'not-me,' directing
> as much force as I could into my thoughts.
>
> JUST GET OUT. NOW.
>
> 'Not-me' slowly lowered the phone to the cradle
> and stood, smoothing her dress.
>
> "Push the chair in," I muttered through clenched
> teeth.
>
> It pushed the 'chair' back under the desk, and
> slowly walked past the archway into the hall by
> the bathroom.
>
> We waited. The room felt slightly warmer. I
> thought it was gone, but did not know for sure.
>
> "Is she gone?" whispered Emily.
>
> "I don't know. How would I know? I didn't exactly
> hear the door," I grated. I was fed up, and
> drained. We were a tableaux: A waxworks display of
> Damsels in Distress.
>
> Then the phones rang. We sprang apart as though
> hit with a cattle prod. Emily ran one way -
> straight for the desk phone through the arch. I
> reached the bedside phone, first.
>
> "Ye-hello?" I panted.
>
> Silence. Not a buzz nor a click; not a hint of
> static.
>
> Emily had the extension to her ear, and I could
> hear her breathing.
>
> "Hello?" she tried. "Who IS this?"
>
> "It's nobody, Em. Just put it down, it's just more
> weird ****," I said, cradling my own handset.
>
> Emily, though, had had enough. She was dressing
> with the intensity and concentration of somebody
> late for work, hopping around to put her pants on;
> crashing into things.
>
> "Oh no it isn't, it's somebody ******* with us!"
> was her explanation. "Come on, right now. We're
> going to the desk."
>
> To the desk? The front desk? As though the night
> clerk could explain what just happened?
>
> I thought it was a bad idea, imagining the
> smirking and eye-rolling on behalf of the hotel
> employees. Hell, if she went ballistic, we'd be
> thrown out - this, I knew from experience.
>
> I couldn't let her go down there alone, though.
> Who knew what she might say? I grabbed my bag and
> followed her out the door. Too impatient to wait
> for the elevators, we charged down the stairs,
> emerging into the lobby at full speed.
>
> Three clerks were on duty, and all three stood at
> the counter, heads turned to peer out the glass
> doors into the darkened parking lot. The doors
> whooshed open, then shut, again and again. For a
> moment, Emily and I stood on the other side of the
> counter, observing this strange phenomenon.
>
> Those doors were moving far too quickly for a
> person to get through them without injury. What
> the hell was happening here? Why did the clerks
> look like someone goosed them?
>
> "Uh, hi," I began. Three heads snapped around,
> fixing Em and me in a classic 'deer-in-headlights'
> gaze. Nobody said anything for a second.
>
> I cleared my throat, and tried again.
>
> "Some strange things are happening on the top
> floor, and I was wondering if there would be a way
> for the phones in our suite to ring without ya'll
> putting a call through."
>
> There, that seemed nice and innocuous.
>
> The doors continued to open and close off to my
> left. Emily had walked quite close to them, and I
> thought she might be trying to determine whether
> she could make a run for it.
>
> The clerk licked her lips, glanced at the other
> two. "We're having some electrical problems right
> now," she finally said, eyes on the counter in
> front of her.
>
> "Like this?" I indicated the doors. Three heads
> nodded. "Anything else?" I asked, curious.
>
> The male clerk spoke then. "Ma'am, if you wish to
> exit, you should probably use that other door,"
> and he pointed across the room, to a single,
> non-electric door which probably led to another
> part of the parking area.
>
> Turning to me, he continued, "The elevators are
> malfunctioning, and the security cameras are not
> working properly."
>
> For the first time, I noticed the bank of monitors
> beneath the top level of the counter. I leaned
> over to get a closer look. Two or three of the
> seven had gone completely black, while another
> seemed to be showing a recording of a couple
> walking up and down the second floor hall. The two
> would approach and pass under the camera, and a
> second later, would re-appear walking backwards,
> away from the camera. Then again, forwards,
> beneath the range of sight.
>
> "These things record and play back?" I sputtered.
>
>
> "No, not usually," replied the third clerk,
> another woman. "The tape loops to a reel in the
> security office, which is locked unless a guard is
> on premises. We save them for twenty-four to
> forty-eight hours, then record over them. This
> hasn't ever happened before," she admitted.
>
> "Is the guard here?" I asked, interested in
> hearing his take on the situation. The woman shook
> her head. "We're short-handed tonight," she said.
>
> "Those people on the screen," I began, pointing.
> The monitor abruptly went black. "I was going to
> ask if they were current guests," I finished
> lamely.
>
> Back at the counter beside me, Emily opened her
> mouth. I kicked her foot gently, a warning against
> reporting our strange 'visitor.'
>
> "Well, we came down because the phones rang, and
> no one was there," I explained. "Did one of us
> have a telephone call within the last half hour?"
>
>
> Much shaking of heads in the negative. The other
> woman said, "This just started happening about
> thirty, forty-five minutes ago. The phones haven't
> worked properly since then."
>
> Now the younger woman rejoined the discussion.
> "Right after you came in tonight, right about
> then, I think." Oh, really?
>
> "Have you called someone about this?" I asked,
> pointing at the doors again. Three heads nodded.
> Those clerks were scared, or they'd never have
> offered up so much information.
>
> One of the female clerks walked back up the stairs
> with us, and on the way, Emily gave her a brief
> rundown of what we'd experienced. The clerk was
> well and truly freaked out by our story. However,
> nothing prepared the three of us for what had
> happened to our suite in the interim.
>
> As we rounded the corner, I casually inquired how
> many guests shared the top floor with us. At the
> same time, I heard the unmistakable 'bzzz-click'
> of an electronic lock opening, and right in front
> of our eyes, our suite door cracked itself open an
> inch or two.
>
> I halted so abruptly that Emily ran into me, and
> the clerk grabbed my arm to steady me. I looked at
> her.
>
> "Does THAT happen often?" I asked. She shook her
> head and said, "I think you're the only two guests
> in a suite up here right now."
>
> So! Back down to the lobby we went, returning with
> the male night manager and the clerk who had
> originally accompanied us.
>
> This time, the suite door was firmly shut.
>
> "I'm not going in there," Emily stated. I think we
> all shared that sentiment, but hey, we had Mr.
> Night Manager there for that very reason.
>
> He cracked the door, then pushed it open most of
> the way. In the hallway, we three brave women
> stood together in a huddle, peering in.
>
> The living room was trashed. Completely wrecked;
> lamps on the floor, furniture turned over. The
> microwave was also on the floor, and the fridge
> was on its side.
>
> Unbelieving, I stepped forward and pushed the door
> open wider.
>
> There were clothes from both our suitcases
> scattered everywhere. Costumes, underthings, and
> t-shirts hung from the sprinklers mounted on the
> ceiling. Worse, the lock on Emily's travel trunk
> had been - well, crushed - and all the designer
> things she was so proud of were also thrown
> everywhere. There was a Fendi sandal in the
> toilet, and the curtains over the window at the
> far end of the living area were torn from the
> mounted rods and were lying in a heap on the
> floor.
>
> Emily and I stared at each other, open-mouthed.
>
> "Was it like this when you came downstairs?" asked
> Mr. Night Manager, rather idiotically. Still
> staring around us, we shook our heads. The female
> clerk had entered by then, and stood there,
> looking shocked.
>
> "Well, what about when the door opened the first
> time you came up here?" he went on.
>
> The female clerk answered him this time. "They
> don't know," she snapped. "We didn't look in, we
> just left."
>
> Emily had begun picking up clothing and shoes,
> accessories and makeup. Several small eyeshadows
> had been broken and scattered, then ground into
> the carpet.
>
> "Who could have done this?" I asked. "Does anyone
> else have access to a pass-key around here?"
>
> The clerks exchanged a look that I'd have missed
> if I blinked.
>
> "No," they answered, simultaneously.
>
> The phones rang again. We all looked at one
> another. Mr. Night Manager answered the phone
> closest to him.
>
> "Suite ***, this is Stan." Then, "Yeah. Nope,
> nobody. The suite's been wrecked, though. No,
> probably not. Yeah, I know. Will do." He hung up,
> turning to face us.
>
> "That was Lisa, down at the front. We're going to
> switch suites for you tonight. Do you want us to
> help you get your things together?"
>
> "No, but please don't leave us here alone for
> another second," I blurted.
>
> The other clerk was helping Emily toss our stuff
> any which way into the suitcases. Everywhere I
> looked, I found more broken, torn up personal
> items. My journal was halfway shredded, with what
> looked like bite marks on the cover.
>
> "Who could have done this?" I asked again.
>
> Nobody had an answer (not even [especially!] the
> police officer who took the report), but a day or
> so later, in the hallway leading to the fitness
> room, I encountered the female clerk. She wanted
> to talk to me, and had, in fact, been looking for
> me or for Emily.
>
> We sat on the steps while she talked. What
> happened to Emily and me in our suite had occurred
> before, she thought, but not while she worked
> there.
>
> She had heard things, as all old, decrepit hotels
> have histories, but she'd largely disregarded a
> lot of it as just...fantastic ghost stories.
> Tales, told and re-told among third-shifters to
> pass the boredom of another long night.
>
> The suite we had been in was at the crux of most
> of the problems, she went on to tell me. As
> nothing had happened in her six years there, she'd
> assigned it without a second thought. From the
> moment we arrived, she said, there had been
> electrical malfunctions at the switchboard.
>
> Malfunctions? Like what?
>
> Well, such as every single line lighting up, calls
> coming in from rooms that were unoccupied as well
> as the occupied ones. Nobody was on any of the
> inbound lines. There was a bank of pay phones in a
> hallway off the lobby, and they'd ring
> simultaneously. The security guard had attempted
> to answer them, more than once.
>
> More problems with the doors, as we'd observed
> from the lobby. The people we'd both seen on the
> monitor downstairs had not been guests at that
> hotel since June, she thought. There was no way to
> explain why they hadn't been taped over, or why
> that particular loop had keep repeating.
>
> Worse, their security guard had actually quit that
> night. He just walked out, she explained, right
> before the doors started acting weird. They were
> still waiting for another to be assigned.
>
> We were interrupted then by another clerk I had
> never seen before; an older woman who gave off the
> 'management' vibe. My new friend jumped up
> guiltily and went off with her to attend to
> whatever needed doing, and I went to find Emily.
>
> We were blowing this crazy joint, hell or high
> water.

This is just downright creepy.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: asdfasdfasdfasdf ()
Date: November 20, 2013 07:28AM

I found this and thought it was worth sharing. Not part of Fairfax, but still very relevant to the area....

MANASSAS NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD, VA
http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories07/manassas.html

In the war between the states, the North and South met up twice in what is known as the battles of Bull Run. June 1861 and again in August 1862. Around 24,000 men died in those two conflicts. I think some of them still think it's still going on.

In April 1964 me and two of my friends went camping up on a wooded area of the park. My oldest sister owned a house not more then a 1/2 mile from the park. It was Easter break from school and we had four days of camping and hiking to do. She picked us up and took us back to her house. We told her about where we were headed and off we went. We went about a mile or so and found the spot we wanted for the night. It was up on a small rolling hill and had a wonderful view of the area.

We set up the tent and got the campfire going. After we cooked our food it started to rain so in the tent we headed. As a bunch of 12 year old boys would do we started talking about the girls at school and what ever else 12 year olds talked about. Not once did the subject of ghost come up. We all started to dose off when we heard what sounded like Jug band music. By this I mean someone blowing on a jug and playing a harmonica. I had never heard the tune they were playing but it was foot tapping. You could hear men talking and clapping along with the music.
We at first thought some other group of people had camped close to us. We got out of the tent and could see a campfire down the hill from us about 100 or so feet. There seem to be about 10 or more people that we could see around the campfire. They were glowing blue in color. That might have been from the flames of the fire. You could see what looked like rifles, some had crossed in their arms. As we were looking down the hill everything went dark. There was no campfire or music or people in blue.
I think we all felt fear at the same time. We started running as fast and hard as we could. We took nothing with us. We ran the wrong way hitting trees and each other and when we did get back to my sisters house we all were shaking in her hallway next to her bedroom.

After the sun came up we went to get our stuff. We decided to go down the hill to see about the campfire and people we had seen just hours before. The underbrush was too much to have had a camp there and we could not find any traces of a campfire.

We stayed at my sisters house the rest of the time, and went hiking only. No more camping for that trip.

I had never been so frightened in my life, but could not have asked for a better camping trip. What an adventure that was.

I have not seen my friends in twenty or more years as we all went different ways and I no longer live in Virginia but the last time I saw one of them was around 1986, the camping trip was brought up and relived once again.

I still wonder if they were Northern or Southern troops and if they were reliving a happy night before their last battle.

Whatever it was, it sure got me thinking about ghosts and wanting to find out more.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Ooooscary ()
Date: November 20, 2013 07:47AM

Also the Skyline Towers in falls church is haunted as hell. I used to live there when I was a kid and there were so many suicides in that building for some reason. 1 man jumped off his balcony from the 6th floor. There's also said to be a black widow that walks along the hallways of the building. I have never seen her but security in the building has. They change security alot because they eventually get scared. The last guy that was there before I moved was found in the hallway from the building utility loading dock passed out and covered in blood from a nose bleed because he saw her I was told. Or maybe he just tripped and banged his nose LOL. Either way he didn't come back.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Ghost Hunter ()
Date: November 20, 2013 07:58AM

Ooooscary Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Also the Skyline Towers in falls church is haunted
> as hell. I used to live there when I was a kid and
> there were so many suicides in that building for
> some reason. 1 man jumped off his balcony from the
> 6th floor. There's also said to be a black widow
> that walks along the hallways of the building. I
> have never seen her but security in the building
> has. They change security alot because they
> eventually get scared. The last guy that was there
> before I moved was found in the hallway from the
> building utility loading dock passed out and
> covered in blood from a nose bleed because he saw
> her I was told. Or maybe he just tripped and
> banged his nose LOL. Either way he didn't come
> back.

Wow, that's very interesting. There was a recent murder/suicide there as well...

Two Die in Apparent Murder-Suicide in Fairfax County
http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/1219468/1220574.html#msg-1220574

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Jasper ()
Date: November 20, 2013 08:12AM

I've had some pretty spooky unexplained things happen to me. In 1990 my first son was born. My wife and I had put him in his crib bundled (he was a newborn) and we went to sleep. In the middle of the night I heard the baby cry so I got up from the bed as I saw my wife didn't and went to go pick him up. I gently lifted him and starting walking back and forth patting his back and humming to him. Then I hear my wife say Honey, what are you holding? The baby's right here. As I turned my head towards her and see the baby in her arms and quickly throw whatever I had to the other side of the room and the blanket just collapsed flat on the ground. I never found an explanation but I've never been more freaked out. My second experience was 3 years after that. I ran into a family friend of mine I haven't seen in a while and he invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them. The night went good and it was time for everyone to eat at the table. I went into the kitchen to get some things and as I walk in I already felt as something wasn't right. I then heard a child's voice saying help me help me please. It was coming from a corner door in the kitchen. All the children were at the table already but you never know so I get closer to the door and the voice gets louder. As I open the door I see stairs to go down and it was dark. I thought "why would there be a basement in the kitchen" then the voice got deeper. My senses said walk away. So I closed the door. Suddenly the knob started shaking. When I quickly opened it again the "stairs" disappeared. It was just a kitchen spice closet. I'll never know what that was and if I would have gone down those stairs what would have happened.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: FuuuuckNo ()
Date: November 20, 2013 08:52AM

Oh my god... I don't fuck with Skyline appts. My friend invited me for a sleep over like 6 years ago. I was sleeping in one of the beds and something just grabbed me by my ankles and started pulling me toward the bottom of the bed. As i was being pulled i could see my friend and the other girl sleeping in the bunk beds across from me. I couldn't speak I just couldn't do anything. All I did was pray. It let go of me and I scooted back up, crossed my legs Indian style and covered myself completely with the blanket. I fell asleep praying. They never said anything to me the next day nor did I because I didn't wanna sound crazy. I sleep in the same position till today

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Skyline Towers ()
Date: November 20, 2013 10:35AM

Found this article on Skyline Towers and it seemed relevant to the conversation:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE DAY THAT SHOOK BAILEY'S CROSSROADS
http://tbwb.blogspot.com/2006/11/day-that-shook-baileys-crossroads.html

[November 29th] -- I was thinking about the Senators the other day, and got to thinking about my time growing up as a kid in an area from roughly T.C. Williams High School (it wasn't there yet) to Seven Corners Shopping Center. I saw a lot of things happen from 1960-1974 -- some I remember, some I don't. But I do remember that day in March, 1973.

The Skyline Apartments in Northern Virginia is today one of the most attractive complexes that were built in the mid 1970's. It has been renovated several times to keep up with the times, and provides a warm and attractive place to live

I doubt that many people know today that one of its buildings collapsed, killing several workers.

The construction of the Skyline Towers began in the early 1970's. The site was just north of Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia, on the site of the old "piper cub airport." It had a more proper name, the "Washington-Virginia Airport." It sat on a prime piece of real estate that bordered both Seminary Road and Rout 7. Because of it's location, the Pentagon often used it for helicoptor and small aircraft trials. I remember the Goodyear blimp landing there sometime in the early to mid 1960's, and heard about some old WWII planes dressed up as Japanese fighters landing there on their way to stardom in the movie "Tora Tora Tora." By 1970, however, the encroachment of housing and telephone lines made it difficult for pilots to safely land there, and the airport that was built on Mary Cornelius’ property during World War II was sold to developers for apartment construction.

I lived on the 7th floor of the Woodlake Towers Apartments, and once the building's construction reached the third floor, I could see the towers grow from our balcony. By my senior year, 1974, the skeleton for the first building had just about reached its apex. Although the buildings began to loom over the area, we didn't give them much thought.

That is, until "that" day.

I was riding school bus #724 home from J.E.B. Stuart High School when a police car whizzed by, siren on, very unusual in Fairfax County. Within a few moments, another squad car shot past the bus heading down Columbia Pike towards Bailey's Crossroads. Suddenly, the local fire company blared its siren and its fire engines and emergency vehicles shot in the same direction. We knew something was happening, but we weren't sure what.

I entered my apartment, turned on WTTG channel 5 and made my favorite post school-day snack, a cheese sandwich with sesame crust bread. I lounged on the couch for a couple minutes and then walked by the balcony and glanced in the direction of the Skyline Towers. Something seemed different. Instead of just one building, there were two. I didn't understand. I pointed my telescope towards the building and the story became painfully clear. Part of the top floor caved in, in turn forcing each concrete slab down on the lower floor, beginning a downward domino effect that tore the building in two. Dust was still in the air and helicopters were circling the building. It was horrendous.

If memory serves, 11 men died when the concrete floors pancaked on their way down. A few months later, it was determined that the general contractor used substandard materials and to make matters worse, didn't use enough rebarb in the poor quality concrete. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Today, the towers are beautiful and serve their tenants well. But 30 years ago, the first building suffered a loss of both integrity and lives. I'd bet this story would come as a surprise to most living in the community today.

"Screech's Best Friend" From "Nats 320" left a comment that said in part, "There is a Burke & Herbert Bank located on Seminary Road, which, at the time of the airport's existence--was on the south side of the runway. ToyRUs was on the North Side of the runway on Rte 7--Leesburg Pike. Even today, that Burke & Herbert Bank has the RED RUNWAY LANDING LIGHTS on top of its building--lining up with the NW-SE Runway that existed at that time. TRU later moved back--onto the site of the actual runway, and still exists there today." There you go, Screech. I found pictures of the bank showing the landing lights. Thanks for pointing that out.
Attachments:
Skylinep.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Skyline Towers ()
Date: November 20, 2013 10:36AM

There has been rumors for years that 2 bodies were never found and their ghosts haunt the parking deck under the East Tower. Never believed it.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Ghost Hunter ()
Date: November 20, 2013 10:37AM

This poor guy tried to rent his apartment at one point. No one would because there were "too many ghosts there".

http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read.php?2,313660,313791,quote=1

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: gloria46231 ()
Date: November 20, 2013 02:08PM

gainesville2013 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not in fairfax but close by in gainesville. I was
> walking around some condos, when I first walk
> through them I felt fine but when I was coming
> back everything felt different. When I got closer
> I started to hear crying and weeps. I didn't pay
> much attention to it. As I got closer to that
> condo I didn't hear the crying and weeping anymore
> but I could hear what clearly was a woman's
> laughter. As I came around the corner I saw what I
> thought to be a girl playing on the ground just
> outside of the condo. At the moment I saw her
> everything changed, the environment, the wind,
> myself. Now this was around 11:30 pm. So I thought
> it was it was kind of strange that there was a
> little girl playing at this time.
>
> As I walked past her she started to change. When I
> was across the street from her it's like she grew
> she looked bigger. Once I was behind and far from
> her I looked back. She looked like an old woman.
> Hair completely white, she was wearing a white
> dress. There was something behind her, a thick
> black mass. As I move away from her or it the
> black mass changes size and moved around. I decide
> to just keep walking. When I was faraway from the
> condo everything went back to normal I felt safe
> again, I kept walking on the side walk. A car went
> past me at the same time a small black thing went
> across my face almost hitting me.
>
> Could this black thing be the same black mass
> behind the strange woman or just a bird, I don't
> know I'm not sure and honestly I don't want to
> know.

Are they the condos across from the elementary school? Please email me and let me know @ gloria46231@yahoo.com.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Brandon Kriner ()
Date: November 21, 2013 07:30AM

Skyline Towers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Found this article on Skyline Towers and it seemed
> relevant to the conversation:
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> THE DAY THAT SHOOK BAILEY'S CROSSROADS
> http://tbwb.blogspot.com/2006/11/day-that-shook-ba
> ileys-crossroads.html
>
> [November 29th] -- I was thinking about the
> Senators the other day, and got to thinking about
> my time growing up as a kid in an area from
> roughly T.C. Williams High School (it wasn't there
> yet) to Seven Corners Shopping Center. I saw a lot
> of things happen from 1960-1974 -- some I
> remember, some I don't. But I do remember that day
> in March, 1973.
>
> The Skyline Apartments in Northern Virginia is
> today one of the most attractive complexes that
> were built in the mid 1970's. It has been
> renovated several times to keep up with the times,
> and provides a warm and attractive place to live
>
> I doubt that many people know today that one of
> its buildings collapsed, killing several workers.
>
> The construction of the Skyline Towers began in
> the early 1970's. The site was just north of
> Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia, on the
> site of the old "piper cub airport." It had a more
> proper name, the "Washington-Virginia Airport." It
> sat on a prime piece of real estate that bordered
> both Seminary Road and Rout 7. Because of it's
> location, the Pentagon often used it for
> helicoptor and small aircraft trials. I remember
> the Goodyear blimp landing there sometime in the
> early to mid 1960's, and heard about some old WWII
> planes dressed up as Japanese fighters landing
> there on their way to stardom in the movie "Tora
> Tora Tora." By 1970, however, the encroachment of
> housing and telephone lines made it difficult for
> pilots to safely land there, and the airport that
> was built on Mary Cornelius’ property during
> World War II was sold to developers for apartment
> construction.
>
> I lived on the 7th floor of the Woodlake Towers
> Apartments, and once the building's construction
> reached the third floor, I could see the towers
> grow from our balcony. By my senior year, 1974,
> the skeleton for the first building had just about
> reached its apex. Although the buildings began to
> loom over the area, we didn't give them much
> thought.
>
> That is, until "that" day.
>
> I was riding school bus #724 home from J.E.B.
> Stuart High School when a police car whizzed by,
> siren on, very unusual in Fairfax County. Within a
> few moments, another squad car shot past the bus
> heading down Columbia Pike towards Bailey's
> Crossroads. Suddenly, the local fire company
> blared its siren and its fire engines and
> emergency vehicles shot in the same direction. We
> knew something was happening, but we weren't sure
> what.
>
> I entered my apartment, turned on WTTG channel 5
> and made my favorite post school-day snack, a
> cheese sandwich with sesame crust bread. I lounged
> on the couch for a couple minutes and then walked
> by the balcony and glanced in the direction of the
> Skyline Towers. Something seemed different.
> Instead of just one building, there were two. I
> didn't understand. I pointed my telescope towards
> the building and the story became painfully clear.
> Part of the top floor caved in, in turn forcing
> each concrete slab down on the lower floor,
> beginning a downward domino effect that tore the
> building in two. Dust was still in the air and
> helicopters were circling the building. It was
> horrendous.
>
> If memory serves, 11 men died when the concrete
> floors pancaked on their way down. A few months
> later, it was determined that the general
> contractor used substandard materials and to make
> matters worse, didn't use enough rebarb in the
> poor quality concrete. It was a disaster waiting
> to happen.
>
> Today, the towers are beautiful and serve their
> tenants well. But 30 years ago, the first building
> suffered a loss of both integrity and lives. I'd
> bet this story would come as a surprise to most
> living in the community today.
>
> "Screech's Best Friend" From "Nats 320" left a
> comment that said in part, "There is a Burke &
> Herbert Bank located on Seminary Road, which, at
> the time of the airport's existence--was on the
> south side of the runway. ToyRUs was on the North
> Side of the runway on Rte 7--Leesburg Pike. Even
> today, that Burke & Herbert Bank has the RED
> RUNWAY LANDING LIGHTS on top of its
> building--lining up with the NW-SE Runway that
> existed at that time. TRU later moved back--onto
> the site of the actual runway, and still exists
> there today." There you go, Screech. I found
> pictures of the bank showing the landing lights.
> Thanks for pointing that out.

There is a Burke & Herbert Bank located on Seminary Road, which, at the time of the airport's existence--was on the south side of the runway. ToyRUs was on the North Side of the runway on Rte 7--Leesburg Pike. Even today, that Burke & Herbert Bank has the RED RUNWAY LANDING LIGHTS on top of its building--lining up with the NW-SE Runway that existed at that time. TRU later moved back--onto the site of the actual runway, and still exists there today.

As amazing as it may seem--My brother, Michael and I were at the Jack In The Box with some TC WIlliams/Hammond HS friends, less than 500 yards away, east of RTE 7, when the building collapsed. The sound was EARTHQUAKE LIKE. That Jack In The Box, is now a Popeyes Fried Chicken.

There has been rumors for years that 2 bodies were never found and their ghosts haunt the parking deck under the East Tower. Never believed it.

You'll be pleased to know that the Seven Corners and Bailey's Crossroads areas are still firmly entrenched in the 1960s and 70s...kind of run down at this point, actually. And yes, and its true, Baileys CrossRoads and Seven Corners are just part of the strip mall set the area has become.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: timbo ()
Date: November 21, 2013 07:37AM

Me living in Virginia now for 18 years has never been as amazing and memorable than living in Baileys Crossroads. My friend use to live in Skyline plaza and said that they wanted to move because of they scary things they were hearing at night (they lived on the basement floor). I went to Baileys Elem, Glasgow and am now a Senior at J.E.B. Stuart HS. I love Baileys CrossRoads.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Bob Taylor ()
Date: November 21, 2013 07:46AM

I read this thread and it brought back many memories. I was working there that day. I worked for Charles E. Smith Building Corp and ran the "Man Lift" (another name for personnel elevator) for the site. I could talk for hours about that day and it would take me weeks to put that down in printed words, so I'll just make a few comments about the article and a couple of the comments.

It didn't collapse in 1974. It collapsed on Mar 2, 1973.

It was not the first building constructed. It was actually building 3. The first set of 2 buildings was completed and building 1 was already occupied with building 2 about to be occupied. (This I know because I was dating a girl who lived in building 1 and I'd visit her for lunch).

It was said that 11 men died. It was really 14. 3 men were in the garage that collapsed. Of the 11, a company called Mayfair Drywall from Rockport MD lost it's entire crew on site that day. They were working on the 5th floor and never heard any warnings from all the workers scrambling to get out.

Someone else said they were stripping the concrete from the top floor. Then top floor was the 23rd and was the one being poured. the 22nd floor was the one being stripped. The labor crew for Robert Miller Concrete Constr. had been on the 20th floor that morning stripping under the 21st floor which they finished just before lunch. It was Friday afternoon just after lunch when they moved to the 21st and began cutting the steel column bands. It was then that they noticed the concrete columns holding up the still uncured 22nd floor had started to expand and the ceiling was sagging. They evacuated. The crane operator (last name Taylor, but no relation to me) noticed the crane was beginning to list to the side and climbed down. As everybody on the top floor ran one way, Mr Taylor and a labored named Butch ran in the other direction. The building then collapsed in the middle, leaving the 2 of them atop the now skinny tower that now had no stairway. They spent close to man hour on that swaying tower before a helicopter from Ft Belvoir picked them off the top.
I also remember half of a stairway surviving intact with my foreman Martin "Shorty" Lawton crawling out from it alive and covered entirely in gray concrete dust from head to toe. It was just weird to look at.

After the head count at our trailers. I wandered over to the FairLanes bowling alley next door to make a phone call to my family up in the Boston area because they were sure to hear it on the news that night. A waitress walked up to me as I was dialing, put a cold beer in my hand, and said, "This is on me".

The rest of the story would take hours to retell, so I'll just leave it that.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: BrentJ ()
Date: November 21, 2013 08:25AM

Before moving overseas in August, I lived the last 5 years in the Skyline Square condo complex, which is one of the four Skyline complexes. The story of the collapsed tower and the fact that the whole place is on the site of a former airport is well-known and soon reported to newcomers in Skyline Square, at least. Possibly because we still have a fair number of original owners that moved in when the complex was new. I even had the airport lights on the bank pointed out to me early on.

But help me on this, I thought the building that collapsed was actually part of what today is the Skyline PLAZA condo complex, on George Mason Drive at Rt 7, instead of Skyline Towers apartment buildings on Seminary Rd at Carlin Springs road. Wasn't Skyline Plaza the first of the four complexes to be built on the site? I know mine was built in 1982, and that was one of the later ones.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Radfordgurl2010 ()
Date: November 21, 2013 08:27AM

I once saw a man walk out on the lower structure of the railroad bridge here and when he got to the middle he jumped. Before he hit the water below he vanished into thin air and there was no splash. I though it must be a trick of my mind or something.

I asked around and someone told me that there have been others who have seen the same thing. Does anyone know if there have been any suicides on this particular bridge that could explain this haunting.

If someone who reads this has seen this as well please post your experience.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Herndonite ()
Date: November 21, 2013 08:30AM

I'm visiting my mother here in Danville, me and my 3 year old boy. He was playing in our room laughing, he was alone in there. We asked who he was talking to, he said his friend.. While we were sitting here a phone had been dead in my purse for a month wouldn't cut on.

We hear a little boy singing from my purse, the phone was on and fully charged. There were no songs or anything on this phone.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Bob Taylor ()
Date: November 21, 2013 08:31AM

BrentJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Before moving overseas in August, I lived the last
> 5 years in the Skyline Square condo complex, which
> is one of the four Skyline complexes. The story of
> the collapsed tower and the fact that the whole
> place is on the site of a former airport is
> well-known and soon reported to newcomers in
> Skyline Square, at least. Possibly because we
> still have a fair number of original owners that
> moved in when the complex was new. I even had the
> airport lights on the bank pointed out to me early
> on.
>
> But help me on this, I thought the building that
> collapsed was actually part of what today is the
> Skyline PLAZA condo complex, on George Mason Drive
> at Rt 7, instead of Skyline Towers apartment
> buildings on Seminary Rd at Carlin Springs road.
> Wasn't Skyline Plaza the first of the four
> complexes to be built on the site? I know mine was
> built in 1982, and that was one of the later ones.


Did a little bit of checking and and I have to correct myself on a couple of points. It was the 24th floor that was being poured, the crew had moved to the 22nd floor and was stripping the underside of the 23rd floor.

I see people referring to Miller and Long Construction Co, but I still remember the name Robert Miller Concrete Constr. Maybe I'm wrong or maybe it was a division of Miller and Long. The crane operator's name was Joe Taylor. Besides myself and Joe, there was another Taylor on the job. Charlie Taylor was the job's building superintendent for Charles E Smith.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Danville Confederate prison ()
Date: November 23, 2013 04:06PM

Went to the old Danville Confederate prison and captured this image on the 3rd floor where almost 1000 soldiers died.
Attachments:
104008_20131120s.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Steve ()
Date: November 26, 2013 06:56AM

Boo Boo Jeff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was over at Hidden Pond playing tennis the other
> evening with my girlfriend when we decided to walk
> over to the water fountain on trail towards the
> nature center. While there we saw a misty figure
> just float across the meadow into the brush.
>
> My girlfriend was scared but I followed it some
> and it just vanished.

Jeff, I found an old map while doing an Eagle Scout project at the park, that place called Morris road was on it-it is now a new development that I don't think was there back in the 70s. While working on the trail at the park (there is a wooden bridge there but the ranger who runs the place said there used to be an old metal pipe with a dirt road over it.

Did Morris road run up to where Greeley is and the park entrance? Because it sure looks like an old road. The rangers said that it shows up on an old post office route map from the early 1900s. Anyway right by the wood bridge (built by Eagle Scouts) there is a pile of bricks like a caved in building - was there an old brick building there as well?.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: sandra levy ()
Date: November 26, 2013 08:56AM

Love reading these stories and made me think of our own paranormal experiences in our family. My family has lived in Seaford Va since 1963. We moved to Back Creek from Crockett Road
(which has it's own ghosts!! ) in the late 1970s. We were the first non family to own the Montgomery house on Back Creek Road. It is haunted as all get out! First dad put a porch swing
up in front of the picture window. You always felt that someone was staring at you and annoyed with you when you were on the swing. Something evil lives in the garage!! You can feel it
just seething!

I hated the garage even in the daytime with all the overhead doors open!! At night I would run past it into the house! After we moved in we would hear huge ''crashes'' daytime or nighttime
like a dresser fell over we would run upstairs and nothing. We would find the bathroom door locked and the water in the sink turned on with the drain stop closed. We frequently realized this
was happening when the water started to come through the light fixture in the kitchen. Last but not nearly least I felt pressure on my feet one night and woke up and Mrs. Montgomery was
sitting on the end of my bed. I literally could not breathe. We found out later that Mrs. Montgomery would always sit in a chair by the picture window...

She was the one who was irritated that we blocked her view when we were on the swing. Seaford has a ton of haunted properties and areas as it has been around since the early 1700s. We could
tell stories all day about that place. Everything we found out about the people that lived in our house matched up with everything we experienced. If you buy an old family home the spirits
recognize the difference between strangers and relatives..It stirs them up! Beware!!

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Boo Boo Jeff ()
Date: November 26, 2013 09:02AM

Steve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Boo Boo Jeff Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I was over at Hidden Pond playing tennis the
> other
> > evening with my girlfriend when we decided to
> walk
> > over to the water fountain on trail towards the
> > nature center. While there we saw a misty
> figure
> > just float across the meadow into the brush.
> >
> > My girlfriend was scared but I followed it some
> > and it just vanished.
>
> Jeff, I found an old map while doing an Eagle
> Scout project at the park, that place called
> Morris road was on it-it is now a new development
> that I don't think was there back in the 70s.
> While working on the trail at the park (there is a
> wooden bridge there but the ranger who runs the
> place said there used to be an old metal pipe with
> a dirt road over it.
>
> Did Morris road run up to where Greeley is and the
> park entrance? Because it sure looks like an old
> road. The rangers said that it shows up on an old
> post office route map from the early 1900s. Anyway
> right by the wood bridge (built by Eagle Scouts)
> there is a pile of bricks like a caved in building
> - was there an old brick building there as well?.

Steve, I think Morris road did run up to where Greeley is and the park entrance, but I can't be sure.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: deannah ()
Date: November 26, 2013 09:20AM

My family and I moved onto Fort Belvoir, Virginia on June 23, 2011. We were assigned this beautiful Victorian style home. It's new construction but the neighborhood has been here for quite some time so who know's what was here before us. George Washington's Mount Vernon is right down the road from the back gate by our neighborhood so it makes me wonder if this property possibly belonged to Mount Vernon at one time.

Anyway we wanted to get out of the hotel even though we had no furniture yet so we bought some air mattresses and decided to make due until our furniture was delivered. We walked through the house checking out every room, our dog was right along with us sniffing it all out. I noticed that Bandit (our dog) seemed uneasy while we were upstairs, her hackles were up almost the entire time we were up there. That's not like her at all, and her hair stayed like that until we came back downstairs. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so I just brushed it off.

My hubby and kids decided to go run over to the store and pick up a desk for our laptop and tv we just bought. I stayed behind and decided to call my dad to let him know we got the house and were out of the hotel. We didn't have any chairs so I sat on the stairs while we talked, my dog was laying at my feet as usual. It was a pretty short call since he was working so when I hung up with him I planned to call my mom at home.

I hung up the phone and then I heard whispering coming from upstairs. My dog heard it too and she stood up, her hair went back up, and she just stared up the stairs. I sat there for a second thinking it must have been coming from outside, maybe in the neighbors back yard. But before I could get up to look I heard it again. It sounded like a little boy's voice. My dog looked at me and then up the stairs, and at this point I'm a little creeped out.

I got up and went to the backdoor and didn't hear or see anyone out there so I came in and went to the front door and checked and there wasn't anyone outside at all. The whole time my dog was right behind me, not letting me get very far from her. It made me wonder if that was why she was so nervous when we were upstairs earlier. Maybe she saw or sensed that was something up there.

We had only had the house for about an hour when the activity started. I'd never been in a place and had things start happening so fast. I didn't say anything to my family because I wanted to see if anything else happened to anyone other than myself before I told them what I heard.

Last week we were all sitting down having dinner at the table. My bedroom is directly above the dining room where our table sits. We were talking while eating and everything was good when we heard the floor up above us creak as if someone was walking around. These weren't big steps, but like a small child almost running. This time it wasn't just me that heard it, everyone did and they just looked up at the ceiling. It wasn't the dog because she won't go up there alone and we were all at the table with no one else in the house.

So I told my husband and kids what had happened the day we got the house. All of them weren't too surprised given some of the strange things that have happened over the years.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: skyline towers ()
Date: November 26, 2013 09:23AM

Skyline Towers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Found this article on Skyline Towers and it seemed
> relevant to the conversation:
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> THE DAY THAT SHOOK BAILEY'S CROSSROADS
> http://tbwb.blogspot.com/2006/11/day-that-shook-ba
> ileys-crossroads.html
>
> [November 29th] -- I was thinking about the
> Senators the other day, and got to thinking about
> my time growing up as a kid in an area from
> roughly T.C. Williams High School (it wasn't there
> yet) to Seven Corners Shopping Center. I saw a lot
> of things happen from 1960-1974 -- some I
> remember, some I don't. But I do remember that day
> in March, 1973.
>
> The Skyline Apartments in Northern Virginia is
> today one of the most attractive complexes that
> were built in the mid 1970's. It has been
> renovated several times to keep up with the times,
> and provides a warm and attractive place to live
>
> I doubt that many people know today that one of
> its buildings collapsed, killing several workers.
>
> The construction of the Skyline Towers began in
> the early 1970's. The site was just north of
> Bailey's Crossroads in Northern Virginia, on the
> site of the old "piper cub airport." It had a more
> proper name, the "Washington-Virginia Airport." It
> sat on a prime piece of real estate that bordered
> both Seminary Road and Rout 7. Because of it's
> location, the Pentagon often used it for
> helicoptor and small aircraft trials. I remember
> the Goodyear blimp landing there sometime in the
> early to mid 1960's, and heard about some old WWII
> planes dressed up as Japanese fighters landing
> there on their way to stardom in the movie "Tora
> Tora Tora." By 1970, however, the encroachment of
> housing and telephone lines made it difficult for
> pilots to safely land there, and the airport that
> was built on Mary Cornelius’ property during
> World War II was sold to developers for apartment
> construction.
>
> I lived on the 7th floor of the Woodlake Towers
> Apartments, and once the building's construction
> reached the third floor, I could see the towers
> grow from our balcony. By my senior year, 1974,
> the skeleton for the first building had just about
> reached its apex. Although the buildings began to
> loom over the area, we didn't give them much
> thought.
>
> That is, until "that" day.
>
> I was riding school bus #724 home from J.E.B.
> Stuart High School when a police car whizzed by,
> siren on, very unusual in Fairfax County. Within a
> few moments, another squad car shot past the bus
> heading down Columbia Pike towards Bailey's
> Crossroads. Suddenly, the local fire company
> blared its siren and its fire engines and
> emergency vehicles shot in the same direction. We
> knew something was happening, but we weren't sure
> what.
>
> I entered my apartment, turned on WTTG channel 5
> and made my favorite post school-day snack, a
> cheese sandwich with sesame crust bread. I lounged
> on the couch for a couple minutes and then walked
> by the balcony and glanced in the direction of the
> Skyline Towers. Something seemed different.
> Instead of just one building, there were two. I
> didn't understand. I pointed my telescope towards
> the building and the story became painfully clear.
> Part of the top floor caved in, in turn forcing
> each concrete slab down on the lower floor,
> beginning a downward domino effect that tore the
> building in two. Dust was still in the air and
> helicopters were circling the building. It was
> horrendous.
>
> If memory serves, 11 men died when the concrete
> floors pancaked on their way down. A few months
> later, it was determined that the general
> contractor used substandard materials and to make
> matters worse, didn't use enough rebarb in the
> poor quality concrete. It was a disaster waiting
> to happen.
>
> Today, the towers are beautiful and serve their
> tenants well. But 30 years ago, the first building
> suffered a loss of both integrity and lives. I'd
> bet this story would come as a surprise to most
> living in the community today.
>
> "Screech's Best Friend" From "Nats 320" left a
> comment that said in part, "There is a Burke &
> Herbert Bank located on Seminary Road, which, at
> the time of the airport's existence--was on the
> south side of the runway. ToyRUs was on the North
> Side of the runway on Rte 7--Leesburg Pike. Even
> today, that Burke & Herbert Bank has the RED
> RUNWAY LANDING LIGHTS on top of its
> building--lining up with the NW-SE Runway that
> existed at that time. TRU later moved back--onto
> the site of the actual runway, and still exists
> there today." There you go, Screech. I found
> pictures of the bank showing the landing lights.
> Thanks for pointing that out.

Excellent writeup on Skyline. You might want to check out The Solomon Scandals (Twilight Time Books, 2009), my novel inspired by Skyline and related events. You can order from bn.com or borrow the book from some Fairfax County Library branches. The Web site is at solomonscandals.com, and a Skyline page is at http://www.solomonscandals.com/?p=249. - David Rothman, davidrothmanNOSPAMpobox.com.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: rachelciceraro ()
Date: November 26, 2013 09:28AM

sandra levy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Love reading these stories and made me think of
> our own paranormal experiences in our family. My
> family has lived in Seaford Va since 1963. We
> moved to Back Creek from Crockett Road
> (which has it's own ghosts!! ) in the late 1970s.
> We were the first non family to own the Montgomery
> house on Back Creek Road. It is haunted as all get
> out! First dad put a porch swing
> up in front of the picture window. You always felt
> that someone was staring at you and annoyed with
> you when you were on the swing. Something evil
> lives in the garage!! You can feel it
> just seething!
>
> I hated the garage even in the daytime with all
> the overhead doors open!! At night I would run
> past it into the house! After we moved in we would
> hear huge ''crashes'' daytime or nighttime
> like a dresser fell over we would run upstairs and
> nothing. We would find the bathroom door locked
> and the water in the sink turned on with the drain
> stop closed. We frequently realized this
> was happening when the water started to come
> through the light fixture in the kitchen. Last but
> not nearly least I felt pressure on my feet one
> night and woke up and Mrs. Montgomery was
> sitting on the end of my bed. I literally could
> not breathe. We found out later that Mrs.
> Montgomery would always sit in a chair by the
> picture window...
>
> She was the one who was irritated that we blocked
> her view when we were on the swing. Seaford has a
> ton of haunted properties and areas as it has been
> around since the early 1700s. We could
> tell stories all day about that place. Everything
> we found out about the people that lived in our
> house matched up with everything we experienced.
> If you buy an old family home the spirits
> recognize the difference between strangers and
> relatives..It stirs them up! Beware!!


My family has owned this house since 1996. We have had far scarier experiences. The longer we lived there the more evil the presence.
We own this house to this day an I am grateful now as an adult that I've moved out. My daughter refuses to stay the night with her grandma
because of the tall faceless shadow figure that watches her sleep. We've had stuff move right in front of us, light switches go up and down.
Heavy footsteps walk the stairs and the upstairs hallway.

My brothers and I were going into the attic to retrieve Christmas decorations teasing each other about the ghost that we named Isabel,
the light bulb hanging in the attic closet shattered as if someone squeezed it. To many scary stories to even think about. I've heard
rumors that someone committed suicide on the front porch by lighting themselves on fire. Would be interesting to hear the stories of
who lived there before us. Feel free to email me at rachelciceraro@gmail.com.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Williamsburg trip ()
Date: November 27, 2013 09:52AM

While visiting Old Williamsburg in November 2013 with my family we took the candle light ghost tour. I witnessed many things, one of which I will share here. At the last stop on the tour at the house where the former occupant curing Colonial times had her carriage reassembled on the back porch I noticed lights. The lights were above and to the left of the roof of the house. They appeared to be lining the drive going up the hill behind the house. It appeared to be white rope lights with a number of yard stick lights. After the tour I asked the guide about the lights on the hill, and she informed me that there were no hills there and went on to tell me that I had a special experience.

My oldest grandson and I both saw and felt many supernatural events during the tour. My seven-year-old grandson's experience was the one that touched me the most. The guide had shared the story with us about the lady attending a ball and became upset. She broke her shoe, so she pulled up her skirt so she could run faster. She then entered the home, ran up the stairs, turned around, and flung herself down the stairs killing herself. After the tour the guide and

I heard my grandson say ''stepped on foot. '' She asked him if someone had stepped on his foot. He responded ''no, the lady. '' She asked if someone had stepped on a lady's foot. At this point he got frustrated and with insistence said ''the lady stepped on her own foot. '' She asked him what he meant and he told her ''the lady with the real long dress stepped on her own foot and fell down the steps. She didn't mean to hurt herself, it was an accident. ''

At no time during the tour had anyone talked about the appearance of the attire people wore in days gone by. The guide looked at me bewildered and said ''now we know the truth. '' I feel very blessed with my abilities, but I feel even more blessed by my oldest and youngest grandsons' ability to see hear and feel the supernatural.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: A Haunting in Haymarket ()
Date: November 27, 2013 11:10AM

I lived in Fairfax County for much of my life, and recently moved out to Haymarket about 2 years ago. We rent a house out in Piedmont and I think its haunted. Some of our roomates say they have seen or heard spirits moving around downstairs during the day when no else in home. The owner has a satellite clock that automatically corrects it’s time when syncing up to the satellite in orbit. This one is very odd, because once and a while, it will be waaaaay off by about 8 to 10 hours. It’s pretty creepy to see the arms of the clock moving quickly to correct itself. I myself have dreams about a witch in our closet, coming out and saying scary or odd things to me. All in all though not much has happened since we’ve been there, that is until last night.

We have a young son that is 18 months old, last night he was playing with the roomates downstairs in the large family room we have. The napkin holder in the kitchen jumped off the kitchen table and landed on the floor next to my son. (See the attached picture below). As you can see it’s of pretty solid weight and is flat, so it wouldn’t tip over. The only other thing is that one of the teenagers that lives with us, says that she feels like a creepy presence has started to follow her. She said that she was in Walmart one day and he felt the presence there in the store standing right next to her (too close). We take pictures all the time in the house and nothing unusual has showed up on them. However, there does seem to be some negativity in air (some of the roomates lately in the past 6-8 months) haven’t been getting along and get into yelling matches usually over nothing.

The owner is an Asian man, and the reason I say that is, the house has several “Feng Shui deflectors” on it (see picture below). I looked them up and A “Feng Shui deflector” contains a small Bagua mirror in it’s center. The Bagua mirror protects and adjusts negative Chi directed at the house from outside forces and repel evil spirits and people with bad intentions towards you. There are at least 4 to 5 of them on the house that I have seen all on the outside (according to tradition it’s very bad to hang them up inside). I’ve asked him if the house is haunted and he didn’t come out and say yes, nor did he say no. He did admit that there were some small occurances that he couldn’t easily explain, but they were very few and far between. He raised a family in the house and later he and his wife moved to Maryland.
Attachments:
Photo-0373.jpg
Feng Shui deflector.png

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: ????? ()
Date: November 27, 2013 02:05PM

A Haunting in Haymarket Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I lived in Fairfax County for much of my life, and
> recently moved out to Haymarket about 2 years ago.
> We rent a house out in Piedmont and I think its
> haunted. Some of our roomates say they have seen
> or heard spirits moving around downstairs during
> the day when no else in home. The owner has a
> satellite clock that automatically corrects it’s
> time when syncing up to the satellite in orbit.
> This one is very odd, because once and a while, it
> will be waaaaay off by about 8 to 10 hours. It’s
> pretty creepy to see the arms of the clock moving
> quickly to correct itself. I myself have dreams
> about a witch in our closet, coming out and saying
> scary or odd things to me. All in all though not
> much has happened since we’ve been there, that
> is until last night.
>
> We have a young son that is 18 months old, last
> night he was playing with the roomates downstairs
> in the large family room we have. The napkin
> holder in the kitchen jumped off the kitchen table
> and landed on the floor next to my son. (See the
> attached picture below). As you can see it’s of
> pretty solid weight and is flat, so it wouldn’t
> tip over. The only other thing is that one of the
> teenagers that lives with us, says that she feels
> like a creepy presence has started to follow her.
> She said that she was in Walmart one day and he
> felt the presence there in the store standing
> right next to her (too close). We take pictures
> all the time in the house and nothing unusual has
> showed up on them. However, there does seem to be
> some negativity in air (some of the roomates
> lately in the past 6-8 months) haven’t been
> getting along and get into yelling matches usually
> over nothing.
>
> The owner is an Asian man, and the reason I say
> that is, the house has several “Feng Shui
> deflectors” on it (see picture below). I looked
> them up and A “Feng Shui deflector” contains a
> small Bagua mirror in it’s center. The Bagua
> mirror protects and adjusts negative Chi directed
> at the house from outside forces and repel evil
> spirits and people with bad intentions towards
> you. There are at least 4 to 5 of them on the
> house that I have seen all on the outside
> (according to tradition it’s very bad to hang
> them up inside). I’ve asked him if the house is
> haunted and he didn’t come out and say yes, nor
> did he say no. He did admit that there were some
> small occurances that he couldn’t easily
> explain, but they were very few and far between.
> He raised a family in the house and later he and
> his wife moved to Maryland.

Piedmont as in the gated community? How can there be a ghost there? The place has only been around what? 10-15 years?

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Haunted - Sarver Hollow Shelter ()
Date: November 27, 2013 02:40PM

Haunted Hikes
http://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/hiking/haunted-hikes/

Think about all of the things that have happened in the Southern Appalachians: Cherokee history, the frontiersmen history, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War. You also have two predominant cultures—Cherokee and the Scotch-Irish—with rich storytelling traditions.

It’s a recipe for ghost tales. And even if you don’t believe in ghosts, you’ve got to love the tale. We’ve found five spooky hikes that center around abandoned cemeteries and gravesites, each of which comes complete with its own ghost story. Hike to one of these cemeteries after dark and recount the legends of the area, and even non-believers will get a tingle up their spine.


Sarver Hollow Shelter
Appalachian Trail, Va.

The Sarver Hollow Shelter is relatively new, built in 2002 by the Roanoke Appalachian Trail Club to fill in a 22-mile gap between resting spots for thru-hikers trekking between Roanoke and Blacksburg. But, like all good horror stories surrounding new construction, this shelter was built near the site of an old homestead that, according to legend, has been haunted for decades. Henry Sarver built his family a two-story cabin in the 1850s and his family scratched out a life from the rocky terrain for more than 70 years, living in the cabin from the Civil War to the Great Depression. A family cemetery near the home site shows that many of the Sarver children died young. One of the only gravestones that you can read belongs to Mary Sarver, who died in 1909 at the age of 9. It seems that after the Great Depression, the Sarvers abandoned their home in the mountains, leaving it essentially intact. For years before the shelter was built, thru-hikers would camp inside the dilapidated Sarver home. Some time during the 90s, the roof collapsed on the home. Today, the cabin is completely in ruins, but you can still find the stone chimney and the family cemetery.

Hikers tell of a ghost that walks the woods after dark and often shakes campers awake in the middle of the night. Some say the ghost even shows up in photos they’ve taken of the home. Other hikers claim they’ve heard footsteps in the woods around the shelter. For whatever reason, hikers have named the ghost “George,” even though the Sarver patriarch’s name was Henry.

The Hike
It’s a 2.5-mile hike heading north from Va. 630 to the blue trail leading to the Sarver Cabin. Along the way, you’ll pass the Keffer Oak, a 300-year old live oak, the biggest on the Southern portion of the A.T. Along the ridge of Sinking Creek Mountain, you’ll also get to take in views of Sinking Creek Valley and Craig Creek Valley. It’s a steep drop from the ridge down to the homestead and shelter. The Sarver home site is downslope from the shelter. From there, scope the woods and small fields for the cemetery. If you’ve got the guts, spend the night at the shelter and wait for George to visit.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Sam from Crozier ()
Date: December 02, 2013 08:33AM

Last friday night I had just gotten back from Washington DC. with my dad. He dropped me off at my mom's house where my cousins were staying. Lain and Liam my cousins said there had been a hooded white figure crouched in the back of the field by the abandoned restaurant. It had been sitting for hours. I said it was ''no way!'' until I went back and saw it for myself. It was motionless. We ran into the house. Then ten minutes later we went back out. It had moved to the right about three yards towards our house. We then went in for the night.

Then next day we went out by Conway's tombstone. He was a six-year-old who died in 1839. His grave is in the field. Then we took a video and went to the abandoned restaurant. We saw or heard nothing. We then looked through the video. A static voice that we did not hear said Conway. We still have the video. We then all of the sudden looked out the window and saw a black hooded figure. He disappeared into the woods.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: History Buff ()
Date: December 02, 2013 08:44AM

????? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A Haunting in Haymarket Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I lived in Fairfax County for much of my life,
> and
> > recently moved out to Haymarket about 2 years
> ago.
> > We rent a house out in Piedmont and I think its
> > haunted. Some of our roomates say they have
> seen
> > or heard spirits moving around downstairs
> during
> > the day when no else in home. The owner has a
> > satellite clock that automatically corrects
> it’s
> > time when syncing up to the satellite in orbit.
> > This one is very odd, because once and a while,
> it
> > will be waaaaay off by about 8 to 10 hours.
> It’s
> > pretty creepy to see the arms of the clock
> moving
> > quickly to correct itself. I myself have dreams
> > about a witch in our closet, coming out and
> saying
> > scary or odd things to me. All in all though
> not
> > much has happened since we’ve been there,
> that
> > is until last night.
> >
> > We have a young son that is 18 months old, last
> > night he was playing with the roomates
> downstairs
> > in the large family room we have. The napkin
> > holder in the kitchen jumped off the kitchen
> table
> > and landed on the floor next to my son. (See
> the
> > attached picture below). As you can see it’s
> of
> > pretty solid weight and is flat, so it
> wouldn’t
> > tip over. The only other thing is that one of
> the
> > teenagers that lives with us, says that she
> feels
> > like a creepy presence has started to follow
> her.
> > She said that she was in Walmart one day and he
> > felt the presence there in the store standing
> > right next to her (too close). We take pictures
> > all the time in the house and nothing unusual
> has
> > showed up on them. However, there does seem to
> be
> > some negativity in air (some of the roomates
> > lately in the past 6-8 months) haven’t been
> > getting along and get into yelling matches
> usually
> > over nothing.
> >
> > The owner is an Asian man, and the reason I say
> > that is, the house has several “Feng Shui
> > deflectors” on it (see picture below). I
> looked
> > them up and A “Feng Shui deflector” contains
> a
> > small Bagua mirror in it’s center. The Bagua
> > mirror protects and adjusts negative Chi
> directed
> > at the house from outside forces and repel evil
> > spirits and people with bad intentions towards
> > you. There are at least 4 to 5 of them on the
> > house that I have seen all on the outside
> > (according to tradition it’s very bad to hang
> > them up inside). I’ve asked him if the house
> is
> > haunted and he didn’t come out and say yes,
> nor
> > did he say no. He did admit that there were
> some
> > small occurances that he couldn’t easily
> > explain, but they were very few and far
> between.
> > He raised a family in the house and later he
> and
> > his wife moved to Maryland.
>
> Piedmont as in the gated community? How can there
> be a ghost there? The place has only been around
> what? 10-15 years?

That's where the Piedmont Country Club is instead that gated community. Piedmont has some smaller satellite communities around the area, but they are outside the gates. The whole thing is located down the street from the Manassas Battlefield, so you know that Union/Confederate troops must have died on that soil, either from battle or from wounds after the battle.

Piedmont Country Club
http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/Piedmont-Club-Haymarket/Our-Story/Life-at-the-Club
Attachments:
Haymarket_Driving_Range_560x310_rotatingGallerySub.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: lbss82bruin ()
Date: December 03, 2013 10:27PM

I remember the building collapse at Skyline. The building that collapsed was Skyline Plaza North. That is the one that is colsest to Rt 7 and S George Mason Drive. Skyline Plaza South is next to it and Skyline House are the 2 buildings next to that. Skyline Square and Skyline Towers are over on Seminary Road. I had freinds that lived on the 7th floor of the north building and I also worked security there in the late '80's.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: sooowhaz ()
Date: December 03, 2013 11:37PM

Yo so I was pulled over and cops found a crumb of weed on me. You think I'm gonna get anal raped when I go to jail. Let me know I wanna make sure my butthole is stretched... don't wanna tear a glute.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: skyline memories ()
Date: December 04, 2013 08:10AM

lbss82bruin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember the building collapse at Skyline. The
> building that collapsed was Skyline Plaza North.
> That is the one that is colsest to Rt 7 and S
> George Mason Drive. Skyline Plaza South is next
> to it and Skyline House are the 2 buildings next
> to that. Skyline Square and Skyline Towers are
> over on Seminary Road. I had freinds that lived
> on the 7th floor of the north building and I also
> worked security there in the late '80's.

I had always heard that it was the fact that the concrete had not set enough to build on top of it. Wasn't it the Fairfax Journal that did a lot of reporting on the story? There was a lot of speculation that the owners pushed to get the towers up too fast, as I remember.

Options: ReplyQuote
hitchiker ghost of walney road
Posted by: Walney Road Chantilly VA ()
Date: December 11, 2013 08:44AM

It is said that many years ago before the windy road was paved a man was killed while hitchhiking. On Wednesday or Thursday nights at 11:30 if you drive down Walney and you see a hitchhiker, it is recommended that you stop. He appears up to three times to give you the chance to pick him up. If you still don`t pick him up by the third time, a car will come out of nowhere and kill you.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: an1742 ()
Date: December 11, 2013 08:49AM

haha i live on waleny road and have driven past the place this supposedly happens at a hundred times, both late at night and during the day. never seen a "ghost hitchhiker" before.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: dillan7713 ()
Date: December 11, 2013 08:59AM

an1742 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> haha i live on waleny road and have driven past
> the place this supposedly happens at a hundred
> times, both late at night and during the day.
> never seen a "ghost hitchhiker" before.

I didn't know this ghost existed I swear. I was just doing some reading on haunted areas of Virginia and came across this Walney Rd ghost. I used to work at American Medical Labs, now Quest Diagnostics, which is right off Westfields Rd. I would take Walney off of 28 then go left onto Westfields. One morning, not Wed or Thurs Night and I don't remember what day of the week it was, I was taking my normal route and a woman in the car in front of me started swerving for no obvious reason. She swerved left, then right, then hard left, then really hard right and ended up in the grass up a hill. I didn't stop, but as I passed she didn't seem to be injured, just really shaken. I've always wondered why she swerved so hard as there was nothing in the road..... now I'm thinking I know why.... crazy

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: meghan ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:02AM

Interesting topic. I lived there since '95 I would take that road to go to Lifetime Gym. On a clear Thursday night there was an accident a man was crushed and his head was found 10 yars away from his car. There have been more deadly accidents on Thursday night. It is a very creepy road!!

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Hollywood ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:07AM

I've heard two different stories about Walney Road. One was the famous hitchhiker story and the other about the ghost of a girl that died in a house fire there. Where did the girl one come from? I've lived in the area all my life and the hitchhiker one has been around for decades.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: truckerjohn ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:09AM

Once on a thursday night I had just returned north carolina and I got onto walney from 66. I went up the road and came to a police road block. On the other side of the road block there was a crashed car that was upside down at the end of the wooded section of the road. It was so random and it was the only car. It was practically impossible for that to happen right there...It makes you think that it has something to do with the story.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: asdfadfasdfasdfadsf ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:19AM

Hollywood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've heard two different stories about Walney
> Road. One was the famous hitchhiker story and the
> other about the ghost of a girl that died in a
> house fire there. Where did the girl one come
> from? I've lived in the area all my life and the
> hitchhiker one has been around for decades.

I found this in a blog, but nothing about a ghost girl.

Ghost Stories of Northern Virginia: Walney Road
http://supernovarealty.blogspot.com/2012/03/ghost-stories-of-northern-virginia.html

Northern Virginia is a place filled with history. Being so close to the capital of the United States and part of one the first states will do that, and as a place filled with history there are plenty of ghost stories. There are your run of the mill Civil War ghost stories like seeing Civil War soldiers crossing a bridge near Bull Run battlefield, but then there are the real interesting ones. Take for instance this one out of Chantilly, Virginia.

Down route 50 right before the exit to 28 lies Walney Road. It is an unassuming road like man that will be found in Northern Virginia. It has an Anita's on the corner and leads down to an industrial park, but it wasn't always part of a built up area. There was a time before Chantilly was built up that Walney road didn't lead to the Dulles Expo center and wasn't even paved.

Walking down an unpaved road on a bleak night is safer than walking down the middle of 95 but it still comes with dangers, and one dark night a man found out this lesson. He had somewhere to go and a place to be or else he wouldn't have been hitchhiking. Hitchhiking can be dangerous enough under street lights or in daytime but under the cover of night far from civilization does nothing but increase the dangers.

When a car finally does come the hitchhiker must have been overcome with a mixed feeling of joy and urgency. If this car didn't stop it could be morning before another car comes along. This since of urgency combined with the driver's surprise at seeing a person out this far and this late must have lead to the accident.

It is unknown when this person was killed or who they were but now if a person drives down Walney Road late at night and sees a hitchhiker they are given three chances to pick them up. If they do not then a mysterious car will come out of nowhere and make them wish that they had stopped. Or at least that is how the legend goes.

There are even more fascinating stories of ghosts and supernatural happenings in Northern Virginia and as a Realtor in the area it is useful to know them. What person doesn't like a good haunted tale every now and then, and who knew there was a haunting along Walney Road in Chantilly, Va.

I learned something new in real estate everyday
so you don't have to
David Huzzard
www.SuperNoVaRealty.com

Options: ReplyQuote
Is Wakefield High School haunted?
Posted by: Hmmmm.... ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:38AM

Is Wakefield High School haunted? I've heard some stories from people recently and I did a google search and found this...

When sitting in the theatre at night when the school is closed and your alone you can hear sounds of piano being played, students have also said they've seen spotlights shining on the stage even though no one is there to operate them.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: hitchiker ghost of walney road
Posted by: Ghost Walker ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:40AM

Walney Road Chantilly VA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is said that many years ago before the windy
> road was paved a man was killed while hitchhiking.
> On Wednesday or Thursday nights at 11:30 if you
> drive down Walney and you see a hitchhiker, it is
> recommended that you stop. He appears up to three
> times to give you the chance to pick him up. If
> you still don`t pick him up by the third time, a
> car will come out of nowhere and kill you.

This article says that the ghost comes out on Saturday nights, not thursdays.

NoVA is known to have its fair share of ghosts, like the Bunny Man at Bunny Man Bridge in Clifton. However, one ghost will be sure to make an appearance Saturday night—the Walney Road Ghost.
http://www.northernvirginiamag.com/game-plan/2012/12/24/ghost-stories-in-the-park/

As the story goes, a car hit and killed a man walking along the road on a midnight walk. It is said that anyone who drives on Walney Road at night may see a ghostly hitchhiker wandering the road. NoVA is also known to have been a battleground and passing point during the Civil War. Many Civil War ghosts have been known to frequent the park

After hearing these chilling stories, the group will do a headstone rubbing. Long ago Ellanor Lawrence found and kept a unique headstone on the house grounds. The headstone has no name and is believed to belong to an unknown child. Now, the headstone rubbing is used as a keepsake for tourists.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Is Wakefield High School haunted?
Posted by: class of '75 ()
Date: December 11, 2013 09:43AM

Hmmmm.... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is Wakefield High School haunted? I've heard some
> stories from people recently and I did a google
> search and found this...
>
> When sitting in the theatre at night when the
> school is closed and your alone you can hear
> sounds of piano being played, students have also
> said they've seen spotlights shining on the stage
> even though no one is there to operate them.

Yes. It's is said that a piano can be heard from time to time when no one is playing one or if there isn't one around. A boy fell from the catwalk and died in the 60's. He now can be seen walking up there and sitting up in the balcony. Spotlights turn on and off by themselves, and there is a really depressing feeling in the control box above the auditorium felt by those who work there.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: ohrilllay ()
Date: December 11, 2013 11:02AM

10 years ago I lived in a townhouse in Burke (across the street from target on Roberts) that was definitely haunted. It did not seem to be hostile, but somethign was definitely present. Pets would freak out for no reason, lights and other electronics would turn on and off on their own, and a remote control jumped across the room on its own in front of our eyes. I have daydreamed about stopping by to see if this stuff still happens there.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Hmmmm.... ()
Date: December 11, 2013 11:42AM

ohrilllay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 10 years ago I lived in a townhouse in Burke
> (across the street from target on Roberts) that
> was definitely haunted. It did not seem to be
> hostile, but somethign was definitely present.
> Pets would freak out for no reason, lights and
> other electronics would turn on and off on their
> own, and a remote control jumped across the room
> on its own in front of our eyes. I have daydreamed
> about stopping by to see if this stuff still
> happens there.

Did you have any history on the townhouse? Was the ghost limited to your townhouse or your neighbors too?

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: dgfdsgdfgdgdfggf ()
Date: December 11, 2013 02:05PM

>
> Did you have any history on the townhouse? Was the
> ghost limited to your townhouse or your neighbors
> too?

I do not have any additional history but nothing unusual comes up when I search the address, and it is not on the 'unnatural death' map. I am not sure about the other townhomes, but something was definitely going on there.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: The Occoquan Inn ()
Date: December 11, 2013 03:40PM

Curious to see if anyone has any ghost stories about staying at the Occoquan Inn?

Occoquan Inn
http://www.occoquaninn.com/our-ghost-story/
Attachments:
darkstairs.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: The Occoquan Inn ()
Date: December 11, 2013 03:47PM

Some interesting information on this ghost's tribe (Doeg, also spelled Doages, Dogues, Taux, Dogi, Tacci, etc.)

Doeg tribe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doeg_tribe

Doeg History
http://doeghistory.blogspot.com/

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: RMariotte@AOL.com ()
Date: December 12, 2013 08:41AM

Lurker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another Reston Ghost story. Apparently many
> people claimed to see this gilr ghost over a
> weekend period -
>
> The Reton Ghost -- isn't that the tortured soul of
> a dotcom company that met an untimely death last
> year? :)
>
> Seriously, I think it's supposed to be the spirit
> of Gwen Ames. As I recall she was strangled near
> the canal section of Lake Anne while all the
> people who lived around there were at some concert
> on the plaza.

We lived in Reston from 1967 until 1972. There were less than 3,000 people there then. We were among the first residents of Golf Course Island, had a great condo. 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 4 level, was on house tour several times and was also written up in Washington Post because we had moved there from Paris and had all French antiques so was different from a modern house with modern furniture. I have so many memories, some good and some bad.

The bad were the first murder, a teenage girl, Gwen Ames, the mystery was never solved but it was really a big thing as everyone knew her and her family, and they were much loved. The second bad thing was that a small girl, think she was about 3 fell through the ice in Lake Anne and drowned. I still remember the sound of the drilling through the lake all winter trying to find the body. The day in the Spring when they finally found her her brother was at our house practicing in a band with our son, Michael. Band was Underground Current I think, they were very popular at the time. It was a very sad winter.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Gary Cox ()
Date: December 12, 2013 08:53AM

RMariotte@AOL.com Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lurker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Another Reston Ghost story. Apparently many
> > people claimed to see this gilr ghost over a
> > weekend period -
> >
> > The Reton Ghost -- isn't that the tortured soul
> of
> > a dotcom company that met an untimely death
> last
> > year? :)
> >
> > Seriously, I think it's supposed to be the
> spirit
> > of Gwen Ames. As I recall she was strangled
> near
> > the canal section of Lake Anne while all the
> > people who lived around there were at some
> concert
> > on the plaza.
>
> We lived in Reston from 1967 until 1972. There
> were less than 3,000 people there then. We were
> among the first residents of Golf Course Island,
> had a great condo. 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 4 level, was
> on house tour several times and was also written
> up in Washington Post because we had moved there
> from Paris and had all French antiques so was
> different from a modern house with modern
> furniture. I have so many memories, some good and
> some bad.
>
> The bad were the first murder, a teenage girl,
> Gwen Ames, the mystery was never solved but it was
> really a big thing as everyone knew her and her
> family, and they were much loved. The second bad
> thing was that a small girl, think she was about 3
> fell through the ice in Lake Anne and drowned. I
> still remember the sound of the drilling through
> the lake all winter trying to find the body. The
> day in the Spring when they finally found her her
> brother was at our house practicing in a band with
> our son, Michael. Band was Underground Current I
> think, they were very popular at the time. It was
> a very sad winter.


I grew up on West Ox Road and remember driving with my family up lawyers road to see the bulldozers cut down the first trees for what would be called "The 60 Foot Road". Lawyers was wide and just trees all the way to Rt. 7. Then the the weekend sightings of "The Reston Ghost."

I was at Lake Anne the night Gwen Ames was murdered. I was playing in a band at the center. The center was packed for a big event going on. Later we heard someone was strangled under the little bridge on the path along the center back where townhouses surround the lake. It shocked everyone.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Doris H ()
Date: December 12, 2013 09:36AM

As some of you mentioned I also remember when Gwen Ames was murdered. There is so little information on her murder and I am wondering if there is anyone out there that knows the year she was killed. I know where she is buried in the columbarium across the road from Herndon High School but would prefer not to have to go there to look.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Rob Morris ()
Date: December 12, 2013 11:19AM

Doris H Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As some of you mentioned I also remember when Gwen
> Ames was murdered. There is so little information
> on her murder and I am wondering if there is
> anyone out there that knows the year she was
> killed. I know where she is buried in the
> columbarium across the road from Herndon High
> School but would prefer not to have to go there to
> look.

There was much talk at the time about the Gwen Ames murder, which I believe happened about '72. She was at my school bus stop but rode the high school bus. A lot of people said they knew who did it, but as far as I know, the murder was never solved.

Options: ReplyQuote
Gwen Ames murder / Reston Ghost?
Posted by: The Reston Caper ()
Date: December 12, 2013 01:16PM

chenault Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 345 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I looked in depth for more info on the Gwen
> Ames
> > murder. Anyone got any sources of info on it?
>
>
> Gwen was a drug addict that got clean. She had
> been clean a year when the Reston Festival
> happened. She went to the festival and on her way
> home she was strangled. It was believed by law
> enforcement and everyone that it was her former
> dealer,but the police were afraid of him. This
> dealer pretty much ran Lake Anne Plaza. I saw him
> one night and he told a girl I was with, that if
> she didnt take off her cross she could end up the
> way Gwen did. We left the Washington Plaza
> Baptist church and him and his friends had a human
> chain across the road trying to stop us. It was
> frightening. They have never made an arrest in
> her death, that bothers me. Makes me a little
> nervous to write this, but there you go.

and this article from the Washington Post...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401319_3.html

Interesting conversation on the The Reston Ghost sightings being tied to the Gwen Ames murder (or the other girl drowning) and the lack of information on the murder investigation.

I found this other link that would seem to link Gwen Ames murder with that of a suicide of another Reston girl (both were heroin addicts).

http://www.halexandria.org/sol224.htm

The author was interesting in writing a fictional story called, "The Reston Caper by Sol Aris", based on the real life murder and began a real-life investigation of sorts. Here's what she found...

The story revolves around the murder of an 18 year-old girl named Gwen Ames, in downtown Reston, Virginia. And it would appear that today is a most opportune time to be writing about this. I have a couple of different accounts as to the exact date of the murder, but it happened either on June 21 or July 13 of 1972 - so we're right in time for the 35th anniversary. (Addendum: for the sake of exactitude, after these words had already been published on the Internet it was discovered that the murder actually took place on June 4th that year.) Maybe that is what's making me finally try and at least put together this summary - because the feeling that I have to write something down about it has been seriously nagging me for the past two weeks.


Gwen Ames' body was found strangled a mere fifty feet away from the front door of her house, next to a little decorative bridge over a side estuary of artificial Lake Anne in the center of town. The narrow estuary separated Gwen's exclusive neighborhood from Lake Anne Plaza, the commercial and social heart of Reston, where on that day the annual three-day Reston Festival was winding down with the main and final show. The Festival was being organized that year, like every year before and since then, by Gwen's mother - a Ms. Priscilla Ames, one of the socially leading and most likely also the richest citizens of Reston. (Gwen's father never enters the picture and my sources had no idea who he was, Priscilla was a single mother.)


Gwen was only 18 when she died, yet she had evidently been a regular user of heroin for something like two or three years already. This in itself is a bit unusual but not overly so - as teenage users of heroin are known throughout the US. Gwen however, did not hail from the ordinary social strata of young users, who come mostly from poor working-class or welfare families and inner-city ghettos. Not a rich and exclusive suburban household like Gwen's.


Remember we're talking about Heroin here, the "killer drug", well known as such among all drug users. It's nowhere near the same as other "social drugs" which were much more prevalent among many groups of young people in the late sixties and seventies - mostly marijuana and LSD. Aficionados of the latter two had always been completely different people than the heroin users, and the two groups seldom intermix, despite the lies being spread about this by the "war on drugs" people. Most everybody is aware of how dangerous and deadly heroin can be, and relatively few actually try it, usually only those who don't really care about life so much.


Gwen's body carried no other signs of violence, so this was a "straight murder", not an attempted rape or robbery. The perpetrator was never caught, and according to the reports I heard, the murder was never properly investigated, but instead was apparently rather hastily moved back from the list of urgently pending cases. This was a bit strange, because Gwen's mother certainly had the social and political pull to see the investigation all the way through, had she really wanted it. On the other hand, she also had the pull in that little town to slow it down or shut it up altogether.


Therefore, my initial reaction when I first heard about this affair four years ago, was that Priscilla Ames didn't really care if the affair was investigated. The junkie Gwen may have become a serious embarrassment to her wealthy socialite mother. Maybe relations between the two had really grown strained towards the end and no love left between them at all, and it deteriorated to the point where the mother was actually relieved to see her go before things got really bad. Moreover, maybe the socialite mother got pregnant by mistake in the first place and never wanted this girl to begin with, which is what led fatherless Gwen to start using the death drug at an early age.


I even played around with the idea that Priscilla herself may have engineered the "unwanted daughter's" removal, hired some contract killer. That was of course far-fetched and had no evidence for it except the curious lack of investigation. Nonetheless, I felt that my psychological theory about the mother-daughter relationship here seemed to be reasonable and I would've left it at that, except for one little thing. It seems that little Gwen was far from being the only one with this problem in Reston.


The town of Reston is a very special case in Virginia, and in the entire US. It happens to be the "first planned suburban community" planned from scratch as such, and it formed the basis of thousands of like places throughout America. It was founded in 1961, when a New York investor named Robert E. Simon bought all the farm-land in the area for 13 million dollars, and decided to build a "model community" there. (By the way, this was not the first attempt to build a planned community on the spot - in 1892 a "Dr. Carl Wiehle" also drew big plans to create a Utopian Town there, which never properly took off.)


According to what the history books say, the name of Simon's town was created from his initials RES, which he turned into a clever pun on the word "rest", as the town was supposed to be a place of refuge for busy Washington DC people returning home from work. So this particular town is named after its owner/founder. (It's said that he originally played with names like "Simontown", and it's unclear who suggested the Reston pun to him.)


In any case, it turns out that this Robert Simon also had a young daughter, named Margot. And from what I've been able to ascertain, Margot Simon had also died in the year 1972 at the age of 18. Her death appears to have been entirely veneered over, and nobody can tell me anything about it. My main informant about these events said that back then everyone thought for the longest time that Margot had gone away to a boarding school.


How's that for a coincidence - the daughters of the two leading citizens of this "model town", both dead the same year in the prime of their youth, when they should've been becoming very welcome debutantes at social parties around the high-ranking DC crowd. But unfortunately the coincidence did not end there. Margot Simon was also a heroin user, a fact known around town, and she was found in her apartment dead of a heroin overdose.


The apartment was located on the 13th floor of the famous "Heron House." Robert Simon started his "Reston Dream" by building this tall apartment building, and it's widely considered "the first existing example of Modern Virginian architecture." Simon said he was not superstitious and lived on the entire thirteenth floor, where his daughter also had her separate place. The Heron House stands on the south-west side of the Lake Anne Plaza "harbor", on a wide embankment leading south of the Plaza which is for some reason called "the Boardwalk" (though it's not on boards, just a regular paved avenue.) The House is located not two hundred yards away from the cottage in which Priscilla and Gwen Ames lived.


So we have the two leading young ladies of this little town, both of them hooked on heroin and dead the same year at age 18? Even if my witnesses got some of the facts wrong after all this time about the dates and ages of the victims, it was still a very chilling coincidence, to say the least. I began asking some more questions about the town and its residents, and quickly discovered that Gwen and Margot were merely the tip of the iceberg.


Information about this was not easy to come by, everyone seemed to want to forget about that time and leave it in the past. I was getting all my answers on the particular point of drug-use only from one specific source. This person was living back home in Reston at this time and asking people questions, but finding it extremely difficult to get any answers. What eventually evolved however, was that the use of heroin among the young people in that town back in the late sixties - early seventies was *extremely* widespread, it was like every other teenager was on it, and possibly even higher than that.


Many of these people managed to drop their habit later and came back to life, and some of them even still live in the Reston area - these are the ones that I wouldn't want to get hurt today for their "stained" past. But I have also been able to amass a list of about twenty people, all of them from approximately the same age group, and ALL OF THEM from Gwen Ames' immediate crowd of close friends - who have all died from heroin or heroin-related causes between then and now. It's like, there is really nobody left alive now, aside her aged mother Priscilla Ames, who knew Gwen Ames personally and can tell us anything about her. The same can be said about Margot Simon - all her old cronies and friends are dead, but her old father Robert Simon is still alive (and apparently well) at close to 90.


This little statistic certainly gave me pause and made me consider all this a lot more seriously. Mind you, we're talking about a town of less than ten thousand residents in those days, with just one regional High School there that served three settlements. Their graduating class was probably not more than a hundred - hundred and fifty kids tops! And suddenly something like twenty percent of that graduating class is dead from heroin? And not just "any" twenty percent, but the Leading Percentile, people who should have by all rights become the foremost citizens of that town when their time came.


This whole thing was really becoming to sound very unusual. What the hell happened in that particular little town, that did not happen at other places, to make heroin use so prevalent there among the teenage rich and famous? Nobody could tell me this, and the only way to continue investigating was to search for further anomalies or unusual things in that town and in the surrounding area.


And at this point, I think I'll turn this story into installments, because it's really way, way too long. So let me just mail this first part off and catch some necessary z's at this time, but I promise to be back very soon with more, as the time has apparently come to put it all down.


Regards for now,

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Gwen Ames murder / Reston Ghost?
Posted by: Ghost Hunter ()
Date: December 13, 2013 06:59AM

The Reston Caper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gwen Ames' body was found strangled a mere fifty
> feet away from the front door of her house, next
> to a little decorative bridge over a side estuary
> of artificial Lake Anne in the center of town. The
> narrow estuary separated Gwen's exclusive
> neighborhood from Lake Anne Plaza, the commercial
> and social heart of Reston, where on that day the
> annual three-day Reston Festival was winding down
> with the main and final show. The Festival was
> being organized that year, like every year before
> and since then, by Gwen's mother - a Ms. Priscilla
> Ames, one of the socially leading and most likely
> also the richest citizens of Reston. (Gwen's
> father never enters the picture and my sources had
> no idea who he was, Priscilla was a single
> mother.)
>
>
> Gwen was only 18 when she died, yet she had
> evidently been a regular user of heroin for
> something like two or three years already. This in
> itself is a bit unusual but not overly so - as
> teenage users of heroin are known throughout the
> US. Gwen however, did not hail from the ordinary
> social strata of young users, who come mostly from
> poor working-class or welfare families and
> inner-city ghettos. Not a rich and exclusive
> suburban household like Gwen's.
>
>
> Remember we're talking about Heroin here, the
> "killer drug", well known as such among all drug
> users. It's nowhere near the same as other "social
> drugs" which were much more prevalent among many
> groups of young people in the late sixties and
> seventies - mostly marijuana and LSD. Aficionados
> of the latter two had always been completely
> different people than the heroin users, and the
> two groups seldom intermix, despite the lies being
> spread about this by the "war on drugs" people.
> Most everybody is aware of how dangerous and
> deadly heroin can be, and relatively few actually
> try it, usually only those who don't really care
> about life so much.
>
>
> Gwen's body carried no other signs of violence, so
> this was a "straight murder", not an attempted
> rape or robbery. The perpetrator was never caught,
> and according to the reports I heard, the murder
> was never properly investigated, but instead was
> apparently rather hastily moved back from the list
> of urgently pending cases. This was a bit strange,
> because Gwen's mother certainly had the social and
> political pull to see the investigation all the
> way through, had she really wanted it. On the
> other hand, she also had the pull in that little
> town to slow it down or shut it up altogether.
>
>
> Therefore, my initial reaction when I first heard
> about this affair four years ago, was that
> Priscilla Ames didn't really care if the affair
> was investigated. The junkie Gwen may have become
> a serious embarrassment to her wealthy socialite
> mother. Maybe relations between the two had really
> grown strained towards the end and no love left
> between them at all, and it deteriorated to the
> point where the mother was actually relieved to
> see her go before things got really bad. Moreover,
> maybe the socialite mother got pregnant by mistake
> in the first place and never wanted this girl to
> begin with, which is what led fatherless Gwen to
> start using the death drug at an early age.
>
>
> I even played around with the idea that Priscilla
> herself may have engineered the "unwanted
> daughter's" removal, hired some contract killer.
> That was of course far-fetched and had no evidence
> for it except the curious lack of investigation.
> Nonetheless, I felt that my psychological theory
> about the mother-daughter relationship here seemed
> to be reasonable and I would've left it at that,
> except for one little thing. It seems that little
> Gwen was far from being the only one with this
> problem in Reston.
>
>
> The town of Reston is a very special case in
> Virginia, and in the entire US. It happens to be
> the "first planned suburban community" planned
> from scratch as such, and it formed the basis of
> thousands of like places throughout America. It
> was founded in 1961, when a New York investor
> named Robert E. Simon bought all the farm-land in
> the area for 13 million dollars, and decided to
> build a "model community" there. (By the way, this
> was not the first attempt to build a planned
> community on the spot - in 1892 a "Dr. Carl
> Wiehle" also drew big plans to create a Utopian
> Town there, which never properly took off.)
>
>
> According to what the history books say, the name
> of Simon's town was created from his initials RES,
> which he turned into a clever pun on the word
> "rest", as the town was supposed to be a place of
> refuge for busy Washington DC people returning
> home from work. So this particular town is named
> after its owner/founder. (It's said that he
> originally played with names like "Simontown", and
> it's unclear who suggested the Reston pun to him.)
>
>
>
> In any case, it turns out that this Robert Simon
> also had a young daughter, named Margot. And from
> what I've been able to ascertain, Margot Simon had
> also died in the year 1972 at the age of 18. Her
> death appears to have been entirely veneered over,
> and nobody can tell me anything about it. My main
> informant about these events said that back then
> everyone thought for the longest time that Margot
> had gone away to a boarding school.
>
>
> How's that for a coincidence - the daughters of
> the two leading citizens of this "model town",
> both dead the same year in the prime of their
> youth, when they should've been becoming very
> welcome debutantes at social parties around the
> high-ranking DC crowd. But unfortunately the
> coincidence did not end there. Margot Simon was
> also a heroin user, a fact known around town, and
> she was found in her apartment dead of a heroin
> overdose.
>
>
> The apartment was located on the 13th floor of the
> famous "Heron House." Robert Simon started his
> "Reston Dream" by building this tall apartment
> building, and it's widely considered "the first
> existing example of Modern Virginian
> architecture." Simon said he was not superstitious
> and lived on the entire thirteenth floor, where
> his daughter also had her separate place. The
> Heron House stands on the south-west side of the
> Lake Anne Plaza "harbor", on a wide embankment
> leading south of the Plaza which is for some
> reason called "the Boardwalk" (though it's not on
> boards, just a regular paved avenue.) The House is
> located not two hundred yards away from the
> cottage in which Priscilla and Gwen Ames lived.
>
>
> So we have the two leading young ladies of this
> little town, both of them hooked on heroin and
> dead the same year at age 18? Even if my witnesses
> got some of the facts wrong after all this time
> about the dates and ages of the victims, it was
> still a very chilling coincidence, to say the
> least. I began asking some more questions about
> the town and its residents, and quickly discovered
> that Gwen and Margot were merely the tip of the
> iceberg.

Interesting theory, and there are some important points that you make. The mother was prestigious in the Reston Community and yet the investigation went nowhere and there's very little information about the murder at all. Almost like it was swept under the rug.

I read in this Washington Post article that Fairfax County's chief prosecutor for 40 years, Robert F. Horan Jr. was retiring.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401319_3.html

"Of those that have not been solved, the one that bothers him the most is the death of Gwen Ames, 17, who was found strangled near Lake Anne Plaza in Reston in 1972."

Very sad, I'll bet he and the investigating officers have alot of information, but probably just not enough for an arrest or conviction.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Interesting... ()
Date: December 14, 2013 08:38PM

GMU Hokie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Perhaps it is the ghost of her sister . . .
>
> http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/art
> icles/living/remembering-tasha
>
> I always thought it was the Bush Patrol bullies
> who killed Tasha.
>
> Jean Harris wrote in her memoirs that girls had
> tied others to trees using chains.
>
>
> 345 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > "The Auditorium at Madeira school in Great
> Falls.
> > I'm a skeptic myself but ive heard shit from
> > credible sources."
> >
> > Any details?

I had never heard of this one until I found it today.

http://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity-lifestyle/articles/remembering-tasha


When the phone rang in my house in London last month, I answered it abruptly, assuming it was a telemarketer. The voice sounded hesitant. "This is the Madeira School," a woman said slowly. "I thought you would want to know that John Gilreath died today."

What do you say when someone tells you that the man who brutally — no, sadistically — murdered your 14-year-old sister on her school campus over 30 years ago has died?

I'm so glad you called?

I just stared straight ahead. John Gilreath was 22 years old when he killed my sister, and nearly 7 feet tall. Two months before the school called, in a bizarre catharsis exercise at a weeklong psychological and spiritual retreat, I had battered his "body" (a cushion) to pieces with a plastic baseball bat. I then buried it and spit and trampled on its grave over and over again. The bashing exercise took me the better part of an hour and left me with several blisters on my hands.

My sister's murder is a chapter of my life I try and close, but every time I do, something comes along to open it up again. The therapists at the Hoffman Institute, in Kent, where I attended the retreat, felt that this painful exercise was a necessary part of closure and that my beating Gilreath to death would somehow atone for the way he beat my sister to death. When the call came to say he was actually dead (he was 58 and had been ill), I didn't know what to think. If you believe that the universe listens to your messages, this was proof. But for me, the call just served as a trigger. Now everyone else concerned, including the administrators and students at the school where she was killed, could "move on," as everyone likes to say. Tasha could finally be forgotten.

Grief, particularly the kind that comes with murder, never fades. You can ignore it, bury it, sublimate it, deny it, or bash it. You can busy yourself with work, but whenever you stop, it comes right back. And each time, the pain feels brand new.

But who am I to complain? My father, who had the worst time of us all, has his own unspeakable anguish. Then there was my eldest sister and my younger brother's pain to think about and, of course, Tasha's. Does writing about my pain mean I am going to give them more of it? If I speak out (because it helps me to do so), does it violate others' silence? Is there a hierarchy of pain? We never spoke about the murder as a family. We had no counseling, and to this day I fear bringing it up. I have not yet told my family about this article. Had they objected, I know I would have dutifully scrapped it. But this is part of my problem. Children of bereaved parents suffer a double bereavement. They lose their sibling and their parents at once. What's more, they're too worried about their parents' agonizing pain to mention their own.

Tasha would be 50 today. She would probably have children. She was a loving, fearless girl with big blue eyes, wavy blonde hair, and a deep love of animals. I imagine she would now be living on some farm in Connecticut with lots of dogs and children. I grieve every summer in Long Island when I see large extended families sitting together on the beach surrounded by children. I think, That could have been me. I am still angry that the forces of darkness chose us and not someone else. Tasha's death could have been prevented in any number of ways. How does one get over that?

I remember very little about my childhood prior to Tasha's murder except that I was euphorically happy. My parents described me as "calm" and "obedient." My father was an American diplomat who, after years of serving in Germany, France, and Russia, returned to Washington, D.C., for a four-year home tour. My Russian mother (who died of stomach cancer a few years ago) was an interpreter for the Nixon White House.

I was 12 on the day that Tasha died. My two sisters both attended the elite Madeira School, a private secondary school in McLean, VA, not far from our house in Arlington. I was still in elementary school. On the morning of October 29, 1973, my sisters left our house on the school bus. I only know the events that followed from a letter written to the Virginia parole board by Susan Craig, a classmate of Tasha's. (Each year, friends and relatives were asked to write letters to protest Gilreath's annual application for parole.) I only read this letter for the first time five years ago. It shocks me even now.

"On Monday, October 29th, Tasha had gone to the Chapel that crisp fall day for a mandatory meeting just before lunch," it says. "She had taken the time to walk a school bike up the steep hill to the Chapel. All of us knew that it was best to stash a bike in the bushes to be sure it was available for the ride down to the dining hall for lunch after chapel. Tasha was probably hungry and thinking of the afternoon schedule when she went to retrieve the bike." She never made it to lunch.

I returned from school that afternoon to find my mother in an agitated mood. Tasha had missed the school bus home. The first call was to the headmistress, who turned out to be absent that day. (Had she been there, she would have sounded the alarm bell much sooner.) My parents called all the friends Tasha might have gone home with. There were no cell phones in those days but also no school shootings. They didn't panic immediately.

We ate dinner as a family, but my parents were growing anxious. They called the police, who wrote it off as typical teenage behavior, and, tragically, only came to investigate several critical hours later. By nightfall, my parents were terrified. I went to bed and said my prayers.

The rest happened as I slept. When the police did finally arrive at the campus at 9 p.m., all they found were Tasha's bicycle and satchel of books near the thick forest that surrounded the school. It had rained heavily, covering any trace of scent for the dogs. The search was called off. My exhausted and worried parents, who had already been to the campus once, apparently fought over what to do next. My mother urged my father to return with Tasha's beloved golden retriever, Tilly. Finally, at 6 a.m., after being up all night, my father drove to the school. Tilly didn't need any time. She found Tasha's body within minutes.

"On Tuesday, October 30th, Tasha's battered, bruised, scraped, and dirt-stained body was found nude from the waist down by her father and family dog," Craig's letter says. "Tasha's hands were bound by blanket scraps and tied to a tree. Her hands were blackened by the tightness of the bonds. Her screams had been silenced by a gag stuffed in her mouth. There were dozens of cross-marked puncture wounds on her back and lower chest that were thought to have been inflicted by a pointed sharp instrument. He had probably used a Phillips-head screwdriver to puncture her flesh." I can hardly type the next few sentences. "Tasha's had been a particularly brutal murder as numerous cuts and bruises on her face and body clearly indicated prolonged torture," it says. "But she had put up a furious resistance. She had bled profusely. The temperature had dropped to 30 while she had been bound. She died from shock, exposure, and fatigue. She had endured 10 hours of agony before she died." I subsequently learned that she was not raped, but there were huge open wounds on her ankles from desperately trying to set herself free. My father found her in the forest, just 400 feet behind the Chapel. What happened next I have never been able to ask him.

Tasha weighed only 90 pounds and was barely 5 feet tall, the size that my 15-year-old son is today. Did my father carry her in his arms? How long were they alone together? I can't help but imagine myself in my father's shoes. I don't want to, but the mind doesn't care what you think.

I woke up the next morning and was packed off to school. Nothing was said. That afternoon, I was called out of class and told to return home. I remember the moment well. A woman from the office walked in with that awkward face that we all know comes with bad news. This bit is very hazy. My parents told us Tasha was dead, and then we were dispatched to my Russian grandparents' house in Maryland to get away from the dozens of reporters camped outside our home. From then on, it's a blur until the funeral.

My Russian Orthodox mother chose to display Tasha's body in the coffin as is customary in a religious funeral. As she stood up to kiss her, I began to shake. I was next in the line. I went up and kissed Tasha's cold face, which was covered in thick costume makeup to hide the bruises. I found it strange that she was dressed in a party dress. (Tasha had always been a tomboy.) Her body was the most grotesque sight I will ever see. Afterward, she was buried on a cold, wet day in an inner-city cemetery in Washington, D.C. When her body was lowered into the ground, I saw my father choke up with tears for the first time. It was also the first time I cried.

John Gilreath should never have been at large. He had been convicted of seven sex-related assaults. He once jumped out at a woman, hit her over the head with a brick, and after she screamed, threw her into the Potomac River. "He then abducted and molested another 14-year-old student at Madeira for two hours," writes Craig. "Gilreath received a suspended 20-year sentence for this attack. Less than two months later, he was arrested back on the school grounds." Gilreath said at my sister's murder trial that he had returned to prove that he had suppressed "irresistible" impulses to assault girls.

"Gilreath was released from state penitentiary by Judge William G. Plummer, who ordered the sentence later be suspended on condition that Gilreath be confined to a private mental institution until such time as the judge approved the release," wrote William Raspberry in The Washington Post on November 9, 1973. But in a succession of shocking legal errors, Gilreath's treatment was suspended, he was released by the Psychiatric Institute without the judge or parole officer's approval, and the Fairfax police never notified the school of his release. So on October 29, Gilreath returned to Madeira and murdered my sister with a screwdriver as her classmates sat a few hundred feet away.

My parents did not attend the trial at which Gilreath was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison. But only two weeks after Tasha's death, they testified before a House subcommittee (sitting next to a portrait of Tasha painted by my mother) to amend Senator Walter Mondale's Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to cover child molestation and to provide grants to teach children self-defense. I have the newspaper clipping in front of me. Both look much older than their 40-some years. My mother's eyes look heavy and puffy.

My parents received thousands of letters. The phone rang hundreds of times a day. Camera crews were parked outside our house, but I wasn't aware of any of it. We were cocooned in my grandparents' tearful embraces, which I now realize is the reason the three of us survived those initial weeks. Years later, when I started consulting experts, I learned from David Trickey, a chartered consultant clinical psychologist and trauma expert, that "bereaved children don't need a lot of fancy therapy or anything special. What they need is to feel safe."

Last summer, I took my two boys, ages 15 and 13, to Berlin, where my family had moved shortly after Tasha's death and where we patched up what little we had left of family life. I decided this was the time to finally tell my children what had happened to us. "For kids, not talking about things makes them think, What is it that they're not talking about?" says Trickey. "They often assume it's worse than it was." I had to explain why I need constant reassurance that they have arrived safely at their destinations and why, even now that they are teenagers, they are not allowed to go into the ocean unless I am close by. The story spooked them (I spared them the details), but my closest friend from Berlin, who lost a child himself, said, "Better it comes from you than from someone else."

Berlin is where I had reinvented myself as a happy girl with two siblings and a dead cousin. When asked who the blonde girl was in the family photo, I would reply that it was my cousin who died in a horseback-riding accident. I didn't know anything about post-traumatic stress disorder or delayed grief then. What I did know was that you can't be 13 and stick out. So I killed Tasha off. She only came back into my life at age 16, when I watched the movie The Deer Hunter. The moment Christopher Walken holds the gun to his head in the Russian roulette game and we don't know whether he will live or die was the first time I had felt anything in years. The idea that you can die for any stupid reason at any time profoundly resonated with me. I had to be taken out of the movie theater because I was choking with tears.

It was only 13 years ago that I found out what really happened to Tasha. At the time, I didn't even know the name of her murderer. By then, I had married an Englishman and moved to London. After having just given birth to my second son, in a state of exhaustion, anxiety, postnatal depression, and extreme guilt (for my good fortune), I decided to see a psychiatrist who specializes in bereavement. Dr. Mark Berelowitz, a member of the department of child psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital in London, explained that murder is the messiest crime of all because the victim is dead and the murderer is probably lying. He suggested I call the Madeira School, go through all the facts, and think about it. The idea, he said, was to kick-start the grieving process I had skipped because I had been too terrorized to feel. Disassociation or numbness, he said, is a common side effect of trauma. After learning the truth about what had happened to Tasha, I spent weeks sobbing and worrying that something equally sinister would befall my children.

About eight years later, still suffering from anxiety, I consulted Chris Brewin, professor of clinical psychology at University College in London. I had read about his latest research on PTSD. He explained that my amnesia around the events before and after Tasha's death was there for a reason. He wasn't sure that living the event over again, or even talking about it, would help. In fact, the psychological debriefing that is now routinely administered after any sort of trauma may not help at all. Going over the horrific details of my sister's death, he argued, might have caused more harm than good.

Why can't I, a happily married woman with two lovely teenage boys, just decide to forget a bit, or at least stop thinking about Tasha's death so much? I think it's because you can't live a happy life when the life of someone you loved ended so unhappily. It's because psychic pain is simply stored, waiting to come back again. Anke Ehlers, a professor of experimental psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, explained to me the psychology of traumatic memories. These memories are so overwhelming, she says, that they have not been fully processed in the brain and keep intruding on everyday life. "The trauma feels as if it's in the here and now," she says. Tasha's murder keeps interfering with her death. "Traumatic memories get in the way of grief," says Ehlers. "All survivors remember is what the victim went through. They're still dealing with life and death." This is also called "pattern matching." When scared, your brain immediately sets about matching it to another scary event in the past.

In my case, I believe all scary moments must end in death. I think the worst possible scenario will always happen: The plane carrying my children to Maine will crash; the school's swine flu outbreak will be fatal. When things are really going well is when it gets really ugly. If my husband gets a promotion, I assume he will have a car accident. Happiness makes me feel anxious because I fear the punishment. I think, Why should I be so lucky?

When my youngest son went away to boarding school, I put away his photographs. I identified with childless or bereaved couples. The pain was so overwhelming that I dosed myself with wine every night and then sobbed in the bathroom. When it didn't stop after four months, I decided I wasn't just another mother missing her children. It was old grief coming to haunt me.

This is when I checked into the Hoffman Institute, where I was awakened to the possibility of a spiritual life and to the idea that if you sit with a painful feeling long enough, it passes. Avoiding difficult thoughts, says Ehlers, only makes them come at you more frequently. I found this extremely helpful. Trauma is like an illness: The more you know, the less scared you are of the symptoms. Even now as I type Tasha's name, I feel she was real and not some flashback from a horror movie.

I have also recently found hope in reading about something called post-traumatic growth. Several studies have found that trauma can be a force for good. "These changes," the study says, "include improved relationships, new possibilities for one's life, a great appreciation of life, greater sense of personal strength and spiritual development."

A grief counselor told me that it's probably too late for me to have any sort of proper "intervention." I can, however, change my mental outlook and even repair some damage (this is called neurogenesis) by improving my general emotional and physical health. This takes work. To create new, positive neural pathways means putting some brakes on my lifestyle. It means accepting that my nervous system will always be dodgy. Yoga, exercise, breathing exercises, rest, and nutrition are just part of it, but so is avoiding physical "triggers," such as the woods, for example, which terrify me. Alcohol, the PTSD sufferer's favorite self-medication, can make everything flare up again — particularly anger. It covers the pain momentarily only to make it much worse later.

About a year-and-a-half ago, I started a self-help book group with six girlfriends, which helps me feel supported and connected. I still worry too much, but I now remind myself that it's more likely to be a tripped switch (or neural leftover from 1973) than an actual emergency. In short, it really helps to know that what I think, feel, and fear is all perfectly normal, given the abnormality of what happened when I was 12. "Think of it as a permanent limp," says Trickey. "What happened to you is going to color your world, but it doesn't have to color your world too much."

I'm never going to get over Tasha, but I might eventually get used to living with her.
Read more: Remember Tasha - Helen Kirwan-Taylor - Marie Claire
Follow us: @marieclaire on Twitter | MarieClaire on Facebook
Visit us at MarieClaire.com

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: FRANKLIN FARMS IS HAUNTED ()
Date: December 15, 2013 05:28AM

wE have a close relative that lives in Herndon VA Franklin farm development on thorngate Dr. For years I've know the house is haunted. My many visits to to house and I have also resided there for the last few years.

My experience has been shared with other family member. First case once I was in the house alone about 19 years ago as I sat in the family room I hard loud and clear someone heavy footsteps come up out of the basement into the foyer and open the front door.I yelled out expecting a reply and no one did. I got up and search front door was locked. I was so scared I wanted to leave then and there. Second occurrence was I conversing with two relatives in the kicten and one the owner of the house and suddlenly a huge 30lb picture slammed from the dining room wall now the picture hung over a a credenza which had a lot of glassware, and wine decantors the huge picture was found by myself lying on the dining room floor flat on it's face between the dining table and the credenza not a single glass item broken.

It was though something had slammed it down. I also witnessed a wedding picture hurl from a bookshelf mid air to the floor third event my child and her cousin witness a tall dark shadow floating from the upstairs to the living during a thanksgiving dinner prayer.

At night I hear and see the hall light go out and also footsteps in the early morning (unexplained). My sister recently stayed here and she just told me that she woke and saw a lady in a red flowing dress who she though was me. She reached out and called my name and the lady disappeared like a cartoon. She was so shaken she slept with the light on all night. I can go on and on but you get the picture. I would love to know the history of Franklin farm and why it is so active at this location.

If anyone else has a experience who lives here please let me know about it.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: gabe ()
Date: December 17, 2013 07:58AM

I used to live in Clifton Forge, Allegany Street and in my room I used to wake up to a shaking sensation then looked up and saw a black figure standing over me and looking down at me. Also me and my friend were in what we called the play room and we saw a coffin appear and disappear seconds later. Also my cousin and I were playing in my room then later cut off the lights and played hide and seek. I ran to hide under my covers and saw four dark figures go through the play room door carrying a coffin then disappeared when they went to my door.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: gabe ()
Date: December 17, 2013 07:58AM

I used to live in Clifton Forge, Allegany Street and in my room I used to wake up to a shaking sensation then looked up and saw a black figure standing over me and looking down at me. Also me and my friend were in what we called the play room and we saw a coffin appear and disappear seconds later. Also my cousin and I were playing in my room then later cut off the lights and played hide and seek. I ran to hide under my covers and saw four dark figures go through the play room door carrying a coffin then disappeared when they went to my door.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Olde Towne Inn ()
Date: December 17, 2013 08:27AM

Miss Lucy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Olde Town Inn Hotel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A place you might want to check out is Olde
> Town
> > Inn Hotel. They say there is a ghost named Miss
> > Lucy who haunts rooms # 50 to 54. It is said
> that
> > she sometimes holds people a few inches in the
> air
> > over their bed, moves things in the room, turns
> on
> > water faucets or turns off lights. They say she
> > loves to play pranks on whomever sleeps in one
> of
> > those rooms. Before the place had its
> reputation
> > for being haunted my kids and i stayed in room
> 54
> > ..the only thing that happened to us was the
> > lights kept going off and on periodically, and
> the
> > kids ( they were all under 5 at the time)..
> would
> > say they saw someone briefly and the the
> 'someone
> > ' disappeared...also you got this strange
> feeling
> > that you were being watched.) Whether that was
> > Miss Lucy or not i have no clue....but it was
> > kinda cool staying there...lol.
>
> Manassas Hotel Keeps Frightening Guests
> http://potomaclocal.com/2012/10/02/manassas-hotel-
> keeps-frightening-guest/
>
> MANASSAS, Va. – Manassas is a small city teeming
> with landmarks and a harried history that dates
> back to before the Civil War. One of these
> historical landmarks, the Olde Towne Inn, has its
> share of haunted history and paranormal activity
> that will make even the biggest skeptic a
> believer.
>
> The Olde Towne Inn on Main Street in Old Town
> Manassas has been a local hot spot for residents
> to grab a bite or a drink, or for tourists staying
> in the Washington area. And while people may have
> come to expect great service and a good night in
> Manassas, what they may not expect is a ghost
> showing them a good time.
>
> Inn employees and guests alike have reported
> strange sounds and sites on the property, with
> many of the reports coming from rooms 50, 52 and
> 54. One recent report of activity took place in
> room 54 at the hotel.
>
> “The wife reported the sound of something
> crashing to the bathroom floor, but said when she
> and her husband rushed to the door, absolutely
> nothing was broken. Although they felt uneasy,
> they tried to get some sleep,” said Lisa
> Sievel-Otten of the Manassas Museum.
>
> While they may have tried to shrug it off, the
> spirit had other ideas, waking the couple by
> tugging on their mattress, which immediately
> alerted the couple, who searched the room to find
> it empty. Their initial reaction was that it may
> have been an animal in the room but could find
> nothing. Again shrugging off what had happened,
> the wife returned to the bed where she witnessed
> her husband levitating, before falling on to the
> floor from the bed.
>
> And who is the ghostly perpetrator responsible for
> these reports? Many believe it to be from a Miss
> Lucy, a young and playful spirit from the time of
> the Civil War – a key time period in Manassas’
> history.
>
> The next morning, the couple reported the
> occurrence, and the staff replied, “‘Oh,
> that’s Miss Lucy up to her old tricks. She
> usually stays in Room 52, but sometimes she
> wanders into rooms nearby,’” said
> Sievel-Otten.
>
> Was this the presence of a Civil War period
> other-worldy spirit, amusing herself by
> interacting with guests? Or is it simply an
> overreaction to a long night and a need for rest?
> Take a trip to see the Olde Towne Inn, and you may
> be able to discover the truth for yourself.
>
> Want to hear more about the local haunts of
> Manassas? Then consider taking a Spirited Past
> Tour during the Halloween season, hosted by the
> Manassas Museum. The tours will take place at the
> end of October.

You might find this interesting...

http://www.haunted-places.com/virginia.htm

Another Virginia paranormal hotspot is the Old Town Inn in Manassas, just outside Washington, DC. Recently, a family vacationing from Griffith, Indiana, were caught in a violent thunderstorm one evening and sought lodging at the inn. They were assigned Room 54 of the century-old hotel. The thunderstorm had knocked out TV reception, so the husband, wife, and ten-year-old son sat in their room, talking about their trip. Suddenly they heard the sound of something crashing to the bathroom floor, but when they investigated, they could find nothing wrong. Again they were interrupted by the sound of breaking objects in the bathroom. Again, they could find nothing broken. Shortly after going to bed, the wife was awakened by a strange tugging on her mattress. The odd sensation continued, and she decided to wake up her husband. She told him there was something strange going on and insisted they trade beds. Before long, her husband was experiencing the same sensation. He jumped out of bed, searched around the room, and found nothing. He told his wife that there must be mice in the room, crawled back into bed, and soon fell asleep. His wife lay in the dark, trying to sleep. Then, in amazement, she watched her sleeping spouse levitate off the bed and fall to the floor. She tried to explain to her dazed husband that some force had thrown him to the floor, but his incredulous stare made her drop the subject and get back into bed.They got up the next morning, hoping to get an early start. The husband was putting his clothes on, and his wife had already dressed and was busy blow-drying her hair. The man walked to the window and peeked out: it was pitch black outside. He looked at his watch and realized it was only 1:30 A.M. The bewildered couple undressed and went back to bed. Finally came the light of morning. The family dressed and went downstairs to the inn's restaurant. After breakfast, the husband stopped at the front desk to ask if there was a problem with rodents at the inn. He related what had happened to manager Janie Pugh, who smiled and said: "Oh, that's Miss Lucy up to her old tricks. She usually stays in Room 52 but sometimes wanders into rooms nearby." Miss Lucy's antics had been witnessed by both employees and guests alike. Meanwhile, his wife and son waited at their table in the restaurant. A lady wearing an old overcoat and a nightgown came up to them and asked where to get food to go. The wife pointed to the cashier. The lady came back in a few minutes to thank her for being so kind. Curious about the lady's odd behavior, she watched her walk away and brush past her husband, who was returning to their table. "That old lady who just walked by you is weird," the wife said. "What old lady," replied her husband, "I didn't see anyone."

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Olde Towne Inn ()
Date: December 17, 2013 08:28AM

Olde Towne Inn

A ghost called Miss Lucy is said to haunt rooms 51 through 54. She is rumored to levitate guests and frequent the tavern.

Address:9403 Main St Manassas, VA 20110
GPS:38.75140866547702, -77.47144323432389

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: How about Shirley Plantation? ()
Date: December 17, 2013 12:10PM

A famous haunt in Charles City, Virginia, is Shirley Plantation. The stories there center around a haunted painting that now hangs in a second-floor bedroom. The portrait is of Martha Hill, daughter of the man who built the house in 1723.

The painting is about all that remains of Martha, because most of her belongings went with her to England where she died. But by 1858, family descendants started noticing an unusual property of her painting. Whenever it was removed from its spot on the second-floor, the frame would start shaking violently. They moved it to a bedroom on the third floor, stored it in the attic, hung it on the first floor, but the portrait was never "happy" unless it was back in the second-floor bedroom.

In 1974, the Virginia Tourist Office put the touchy painting on display at Rockefeller Center in NY, along with other items related to psychic phenomena in VA. Martha Hills’ portrait created quite a sensation. People walking by on the street reported it moving constantly. It swayed back and forth so violently that other exhibits were also vibrating, and the phenomenon was documented on the NBC Nightly News.

The painting caused such hysteria that it was removed from the display, though that did not dampen Martha’s spirit. Dozens of office workers near the storeroom in which the painting was locked heard incessant knocking sounds coming from the room. When officials retrieved the painting, its frame was so badly damaged, that it had to be sent to Linden Galleries in Richmond for repair. The same eerie vibrations were reported by workers there. Finally, the portrait was returned to Shirley Plantation, where it hangs today, peacefully, above a mahogany chest in Martha’s second-floor bedroom.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: More info ()
Date: December 17, 2013 12:58PM

Olde Towne Inn Wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
> Another Virginia paranormal hotspot is the Old
> Town Inn in Manassas, just outside Washington, DC.
> Recently, a family vacationing from Griffith,
> Indiana, were caught in a violent thunderstorm one
> evening and sought lodging at the inn. They were
> assigned Room 54 of the century-old hotel. The
> thunderstorm had knocked out TV reception, so the
> husband, wife, and ten-year-old son sat in their
> room, talking about their trip. Suddenly they
> heard the sound of something crashing to the
> bathroom floor, but when they investigated, they
> could find nothing wrong. Again they were
> interrupted by the sound of breaking objects in
> the bathroom. Again, they could find nothing
> broken. Shortly after going to bed, the wife was
> awakened by a strange tugging on her mattress. The
> odd sensation continued, and she decided to wake
> up her husband. She told him there was something
> strange going on and insisted they trade beds.
> Before long, her husband was experiencing the same
> sensation. He jumped out of bed, searched around
> the room, and found nothing. He told his wife that
> there must be mice in the room, crawled back into
> bed, and soon fell asleep. His wife lay in the
> dark, trying to sleep. Then, in amazement, she
> watched her sleeping spouse levitate off the bed
> and fall to the floor. She tried to explain to her
> dazed husband that some force had thrown him to
> the floor, but his incredulous stare made her drop
> the subject and get back into bed.They got up the
> next morning, hoping to get an early start. The
> husband was putting his clothes on, and his wife
> had already dressed and was busy blow-drying her
> hair. The man walked to the window and peeked out:
> it was pitch black outside. He looked at his watch
> and realized it was only 1:30 A.M. The bewildered
> couple undressed and went back to bed. Finally
> came the light of morning. The family dressed and
> went downstairs to the inn's restaurant. After
> breakfast, the husband stopped at the front desk
> to ask if there was a problem with rodents at the
> inn. He related what had happened to manager Janie
> Pugh, who smiled and said: "Oh, that's Miss Lucy
> up to her old tricks. She usually stays in Room 52
> but sometimes wanders into rooms nearby." Miss
> Lucy's antics had been witnessed by both employees
> and guests alike. Meanwhile, his wife and son
> waited at their table in the restaurant. A lady
> wearing an old overcoat and a nightgown came up to
> them and asked where to get food to go. The wife
> pointed to the cashier. The lady came back in a
> few minutes to thank her for being so kind.
> Curious about the lady's odd behavior, she watched
> her walk away and brush past her husband, who was
> returning to their table. "That old lady who just
> walked by you is weird," the wife said. "What old
> lady," replied her husband, "I didn't see anyone."


Olde Towne Inn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Olde Towne Inn
>
> A ghost called Miss Lucy is said to haunt rooms 51
> through 54. She is rumored to levitate guests and
> frequent the tavern.
>
> Address:9403 Main St Manassas, VA 20110
> GPS:38.75140866547702, -77.47144323432389

You might be interested in this...

Dinner and Spirits: A Guide to America's Most Haunted Restaurants, Taverns ...
By Robert James Wlodarski, Anne Powell Wlodarski
Attachments:
Olde Town Inn.png
Old Towne Inn story.png

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Shirley Plantation ()
Date: December 17, 2013 02:46PM

How about Shirley Plantation? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A famous haunt in Charles City, Virginia, is
> Shirley Plantation. The stories there center
> around a haunted painting that now hangs in a
> second-floor bedroom. The portrait is of Martha
> Hill, daughter of the man who built the house in
> 1723.
>
> The painting is about all that remains of Martha,
> because most of her belongings went with her to
> England where she died. But by 1858, family
> descendants started noticing an unusual property
> of her painting. Whenever it was removed from its
> spot on the second-floor, the frame would start
> shaking violently. They moved it to a bedroom on
> the third floor, stored it in the attic, hung it
> on the first floor, but the portrait was never
> "happy" unless it was back in the second-floor
> bedroom.
>
> In 1974, the Virginia Tourist Office put the
> touchy painting on display at Rockefeller Center
> in NY, along with other items related to psychic
> phenomena in VA. Martha Hills’ portrait created
> quite a sensation. People walking by on the street
> reported it moving constantly. It swayed back and
> forth so violently that other exhibits were also
> vibrating, and the phenomenon was documented on
> the NBC Nightly News.
>
> The painting caused such hysteria that it was
> removed from the display, though that did not
> dampen Martha’s spirit. Dozens of office workers
> near the storeroom in which the painting was
> locked heard incessant knocking sounds coming from
> the room. When officials retrieved the painting,
> its frame was so badly damaged, that it had to be
> sent to Linden Galleries in Richmond for repair.
> The same eerie vibrations were reported by workers
> there. Finally, the portrait was returned to
> Shirley Plantation, where it hangs today,
> peacefully, above a mahogany chest in Martha’s
> second-floor bedroom.

Several years ago when my mother and I were visiting old Virginia homes, we went to Shirley Plantation along the James River. Beautifully preserved, Shirley is well worth a visit. While there, we saw the painting of Aunt Pratt which has been the subject of odd occurrences at Shirley, and elsewhere, depending on where the portrait is hung. It seems ‘Aunt Pratt’ prefers a certain back bedroom, though the guide wasn’t certain why.

Shirley Plantation and the story of Aunt Pratt were part of the inspiration behind my light paranormal romance Somewhere My Love, released a year ago this month. In honor of the anniversary of Somewhere My Love, I am reposting that most interesting piece.

Shirley Plantation is home to a famous ghost called “Aunt Pratt.” To quote their website: “Aunt Pratt” was Martha Hill Pratt, the daughter of early Shirley ancestor Edward Hill III. Her portrait in the bed chamber of Shirley’s Great House is the subject of intriguing stories which have been retold by noted author L.B.Taylor, Jr. in his book, Ghosts of Virginia, Volume I. Mr. Taylor is also author of Haunted Houses, published by Simon and Schuster, as well as five regional Virginia ghost books, including Civil War Ghosts of Virginia.

The story of “Aunt Pratt” is included in Lori Haskin’s Book - Spooky America: Four Real Ghost Stories

A reviewer of the book describes the tale:
Picky Aunt Pratt
Shirley Plantation, Charles City, Virginia
January 2002

Martha Hill Pratt must have been an extremely strong woman when she was alive, that’s the only way she could have a ghost that could command so much attention. Martha Pratt was born at the plantation but married and moved to England, the portrait of her hung in the first floor gallery for years, overlooking the family cemetery. In the mid 1800’s the family decided to redecorate and moved the painting to the attic.

Night after night, family members could hear a tapping noise coming from the attic, puzzled they realized the only thing that was moved to the attic was the painting so they decided to move it to the third floor. The tapping continued so they tried the second floor.

That didn’t seem to work either so they returned the painting to the first floor where it originally hung. After that, everything was quiet again. That is until 1974 when family members shipped the painting to New York City for a display of haunted goods. Martha didn’t like it, not at all; the painting rumbled and rattled until they decided to put it in a closet for the night. The family decided that Aunt Pratt had enough, they had the frame fixed [it was damaged when it was in the closet] and hung it back in it’s original location where it still hangs a little crooked to this very day. The last line sums it up perfectly: “It’s just a friendly reminder from Aunt Pratt…leave me alone!”

For more on Shirley Plantation and Aunt Pratt visit: http://www.shirleyplantation.com/aunt_pratt.html

To explore other historic ‘haunts’ in Virginia check out:
http://www.virginia.org/site/features.asp?FeatureID=52

http://www.hauntedtraveler.com/haunted_virginia.htm

To purchase Pamela Kinney’s non-fiction book, Haunted Richmond, Virginia or her newest book, Haunted Virginia, visit http://www.schifferghosts.com/
Attachments:
somewheremylove_wrp_2024_3002.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: joey ()
Date: December 18, 2013 03:34PM

My grandma lives in Fairfax Station, VA. I visit her every week but her house is very unsettling. One day my grandpa had cancer and died in that house. About a few months later we started hearing unusual knocks and seeing shadows. I knew it was my grandpa, my grandma does research on the house and finds out the house was built in 1926 and 2 people killed themselves and 3 were murdered. So a total of six people had died in that house. With scared me because I visit that house every week. And every week there is at least something paranormal going on in that house. The scariest encounter with a ghost was when my family was in the living room and all of a sudden we heard a loud thud in the attic, scared the daylights out of us. And found out someone hanged themselves in the attic. And that is my ghost encounter in Fairfax Station, VA.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Chuck72 ()
Date: December 18, 2013 03:46PM

Has anyone seen the ghost of Eva? She was brutally murdered in the woods around Burke on August 4, 1918. She's supposedly buried in the Lee Chapel Cemetery next to her father who died 15 years later.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Uh.... ()
Date: December 18, 2013 03:56PM

Chuck72 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone seen the ghost of Eva? She was brutally
> murdered in the woods around Burke on August 4,
> 1918. She's supposedly buried in the Lee Chapel
> Cemetery next to her father who died 15 years
> later.

There are multiple threads on the "Ghost of Eva" including this one. Just do a search on her name and you'll see.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Chuck72 ()
Date: December 19, 2013 08:08AM

Uh.... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chuck72 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Has anyone seen the ghost of Eva? She was
> brutally
> > murdered in the woods around Burke on August 4,
> > 1918. She's supposedly buried in the Lee Chapel
> > Cemetery next to her father who died 15 years
> > later.
>
> There are multiple threads on the "Ghost of Eva"
> including this one. Just do a search on her name
> and you'll see.

I tried doing a search on "eva" and nothing came up. I think it's because eva is only three letters. For most search engines you need something like four letters.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Uh.... ()
Date: December 19, 2013 08:15AM

Here...

Seeking more info on the ghost of Eva
http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/969228.html

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: More info on Ghost of Eva ()
Date: December 19, 2013 11:06AM

Uh.... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here...
>
> Seeking more info on the ghost of Eva
> http://www.fairfaxunderground.com/forum/read/2/969
> 228.html

From that thread...

Inquisitor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't really believe in ghosts, but this story
> is intriguiung, and I wonder if there is any way
> to access police reports from that far back in
> order to figure out what happened to this poor
> kid. From what I have found out:
> - Lou Hall was caught after a lengthy pursuit with
> bloodhounds. It is unclear whether he was running
> or whether he was just far away and it took the
> dogs a while to find him. Residents of the county
> were going to lynch him, but Sheriff Allison
> guarded the prison and threatened to shoot anyone
> who showed up to take him. His exoneration was
> ultimately due to the fact that the belt use to
> strangle Eva was too small to be his, and that the
> murder scene showed evidene of a terrific
> struggle. Hall, evidently, was a huge man and he
> was extremely strong, so it was reasoned that Eva
> couldn't have given him the kind of fight that the
> murder scene portrayed. Hall's wife ratted on him,
> but apparently she was batshit crazy so nobody
> believed her, and the "blood" on his shirt was
> later ruled to be tobacco juice.
> - A soldier who went AWOL from Camp Humphrey (
> which I believe was is now Belvoir) was seen
> passing through the area of the murder at roughly
> thee time of the murder. He was arrested in
> Charlottesville shortly thereafter (I don't know
> how long it took to get to C'Ville back then, but
> it must've taken a while). The soldier did have
> what looked like scratch marks on his face, and
> they exhumed Eva's body to look at her
> fingernails, but it was determined that her
> fingernails were too short to have inflicted
> scratches, and the walk to C'Ville was through
> areas of lush vegetation, so the soldier was let
> go.
> - Someone named RUbin, who was a prisoner in DC,
> confessed to the murder. He was moved from a DC
> prison to the Farifax prison, but the police never
> bought his version of the story. Peter ROy, Eva's
> father, visiten Rubin in jial, and Rubin recanted
> his admission after that. In fact , he said that
> he had only confessed to the crime because he
> thought it would be easier for him to escape from
> a Fairfax jail than from the DC jail. He made good
> on his thought process and escaped from the
> Fairfax jail by sawing through the bars.
> - Two teenage boys, one a black kid from Clifton
> named Wilson and one a white kid from Fairfax
> named Robertson, were also brought in for
> questioning, but as far as I can tell , they were
> never arrested.
>
> Apparently Eva was a very popular kid and it
> really shook up the county, which at the time was
> populated by mostly farmers and woodchoppers.
> Again, I would be interested to see if the
> criminal records or the ME'S records from way back
> then could be found. It must have been so easy,
> relatively speaking , to get away with this kind
> of thing back then.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: liz1993 ()
Date: December 19, 2013 02:22PM

My family built a big, blue house on an 11 acre plot of land on Fletcher Chapel Road in Kenbridge, Virginia. It was supposed to be our dream house. We sank every last dime into the house, but there must have been something attached the land that did not want us around.

I was maybe 11 or 12 (making it August of either 2004 or 2005) when we finally got to move into our new, big house. It was beautiful and perfect. But it quickly became creepy. At first I thought it was just the transition from living in town to living back in the woods that made it frightening - it was very dark all of the time - but there seemed to be something more. Every night for the first few months, my siblings and I would see tall, dark figures that appeared to be cloaked walking past our doorways at night. The first time we all saw it, we thought it was our dad. My brother and I came out into the hallway to see what he was doing, but when they rounded the corner and went downstairs, it disappeared. After that, we were always afraid of the cloaked man. We all started sleeping with our doors closed so he wouldn’t look at us. At the time, I was very religious. We told our parents what we had seen. Mom and Dad walked around the house sprinkling Holy Water and telling the ''demons'' to get out. Things quieted down for a while. Some time later, my brother and I were out playing the woods near our ¼ of a mile long driveway. We saw the dark figure again in the woods. Terrified, we ran back to house as fast as our feet could carry us. My brother was convinced it was Bigfoot. I didn’t know what it was. Mom brushed it off as a bear, but I’ve never seen a bear that looked like that ever.

We had a small shepherd dog named Aaron. He was maybe 4 years old when we moved there. He would be walking through the hall and suddenly stop. His face would start to focus on an area where there was nothing. Sometimes he would follow whatever he saw that we couldn’t to the wall. He looked like he was in trance. In February of 2008, our healthy dog suddenly became violently ill and passed away. We blamed it on the land - we called it ''cursed''. The dog wasn’t the only one who got sick. My 6 month old cat suddenly became paralyzed from the waist down and died during the night. He looked like he had fallen over trying to walk and just died where his body collapsed. Dad also became very angry. Mom became agoraphobic and lost her job since she became ill whenever she tried to leave the house. My parents started to fight all of the time, and for a good while we had no income. My older sister started acting bizarrely, behaving badly and clearly depressed. My brother developed a severe anxiety disorder and could no longer be around other people. I also became very depressed and developed an eating disorder. I would go days only drinking one glass of milk a day. I think now that all of these horrible things were the negative spirits living on the land attacking us, trying to break us apart.

We got a new puppy. One night he started gagging and gasping horribly. It sounded like someone was trying to strangle him to death. We took him to the vet, thinking something was stuck in throat. The vet refused to see him that night.
We brought him home, and he started vomiting blood along with the sounds of being choked. I thought he was going to die. When the vet finally saw him the next morning, he said there was nothing there. He said there was no reason for him to have been choking on anything.

Finally we got an opportunity to get out of the house. As soon as we left, everyone got better. Everything turned back to the way it used to be before the house made us sick. Unfortunately poor Aaron and Blackie (my kitten) weren’t so lucky to have escaped. I caution anyone who sees this house to head for the hills!

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: SPC. Green ()
Date: December 19, 2013 02:33PM

Really? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Lady of Belvoir Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > In the spring, the daffodils still bloom, but
> > Belvoir is no more. Long ago, the charred ruins
> of
> > the lovely mansion crumbled to the ground along
> > with its memories of candlelit balls and the
> > sounds of coaches on cobblestone. Yet a love
> story
> > remains. It is little known and less spoken of,
> > but still an integral part of America’s
> colonial
> > history. It is a chapter in the life of the
> > American hero, George Washington, who loved,
> > passionately, the lady at Belvoir his neighbor
> and
> > the wife of his best friend, George William
> > Fairfax. Proper credit has never been given
> Sally
> > for the important role she played in
> > Washington’s early life. Instead, she has
> been
> > regarded mainly as a flirtatious Southern belle,
> a
> > brainless beauty. Untrue!
>
> I did not know that. Oh wow, Washington had the
> hots for Sally?

Fort Pickett, VA is a beautiful post, but there is definitely some ghostly activity going on here. I am currently staying in one of the older buildings on post,
and I have had some contact in just the two nights that I slept here. Just to be clear, I am not talking about just bumps and creaks in the night (as would
be expected in these older buildings).

The first night I slept here I had trouble falling asleep because of the sounds made by my dead roommate. It sounded like it was banging on the walls really
hard. He was turning electronic things off and on (the heater and the printer), and I think that I even saw him once or twice (that I cannot say for certain;
the dark plays tricks on your eyes).

Last night while I slept here it didn't bang on the wall or anything. It opened and closed some doors and, while I was asleep, moved a few chairs around. It
has been a little unsettling, but what am I going to do? I guess we just have to get over it and be cool with each other.

Options: ReplyQuote
Westfields Golf Club -- A Hauntingly Fine Golf Experience
Posted by: Westfields Golf Club ghosts???? ()
Date: December 19, 2013 03:27PM

Anyone ever seen ghosts out at Westfields in Clifton? I found this article today and this was the first I had ever heard of ghosts being seen there.


Westfields Golf Club -- A Hauntingly Fine Golf Experience
By Jeffrey A. Rendall,

CLIFTON, VA -- In the Mid-Atlantic region, there's little doubt that spirits of the past are neighbors of ours -- in one form or another. Without getting into belief systems, there are battlefields, stately Colonial mansions, shipwrecks, museums, parks, relics and cemeteries -- monuments to what happened here. There's a tangible connection to bygone years that few other places in the country share.

It's also well noted that many of the area's golf courses share in that heritage, either through name or occupation of historic property. The number of layouts with some sort of "history" is too many to name here.

The elevated, undulating green on 13 will give you fits if you don't hit it close.

But some even carry intangible connections with them. Westfields Golf Club in the upscale Clifton neighborhood of Northern Virginia is such a place. Westfields opened in October of 1998, a Fred Couples/Gene Bates signature course featuring the best in parkland style golf, with tree-lined fairways, elevation changes, panoramic views and exquisitely manicured playing surfaces.
It's also got some entities you probably won't get to see. Gene Bates, Fred Couples' design partner, explains: "One of things I found most fascinating when building Westfields was the land's history. There's an old Confederate fort to the right of the driving range area, which we subsequently donated to the county to serve as a park. The land also served as a field hospital during the Civil War. Locals say there've been a lot of ghost sightings around the fort. The land's being haunted because of the hospital and all the things that took place there."

Bates ought to know, having spent a significant amount of time in the neighborhood. Bates has earned the reputation of being a very hands-on course designer, and still makes frequent visits to recheck and tinker with the layout.

David Finocchiaro, Westfields' Head Golf Professional, didn't mention the "apparitions" on the property, but did discuss some of its other historic ties: "The thing most folks remember is the Civil War era cemetery on the right side of #13, but seeing as there was a fort here during the war, there're also extensive rifle pits and trenches found all over the place. A couple were even incorporated into the golf course design, on holes 10 and 18."

The driving area is wider than it looks off the 6th tee, but you'd still better hit it straight.

Both Bates and Finocchiaro said an archeological dig turned up a plethora of Civil War accoutrements, such as bullets, buttons and cannon balls. No bones, though. The men aren't there anymore, and their fort's remains are basically a series of earthen mounds, but they've left behind a legacy of physical reminders.

And although their ghosts might patrol the land, there's no getting away from the fact the golf course is 'hauntingly' well done. Bates said there are several things he really likes about Westfields: "I think the bunkering is outstanding. We hear from folks who've flown over the course heading into Dulles -- 'Oh, you're the course with the unique bunkers.' Fred and I wanted to depart from a neat, free flowing form of bunker style -- we wanted bunkers with a lot of peaks and capes and bays... almost like a potato chip style."
With as deep as some of those bunkers are, we're glad he didn't make it a rippled dip chip style.

Bates continues, "Then, we really tried to save as much of the tree cover as possible, without making the course too narrow or tight. We had semi-mature stands of woods to work with -- which in the densely populated northern Virginia, isn't easy to find (at least on a large tract of land). We knew there wouldn't be any houses around the site, so we had the luxury of keeping the trees, so we did."

It's one of the distinguishing characteristics of the property. You're not far from civilization, but you feel like you're in the Virginia forest. Finocchiaro expands on the notion: "I think the fact we have only one home directly next to the course makes it nice to be out there in the woodlands without a lot of outside disruptions. It's nice to not have to worry about hitting into someone's backyard or having a dog barking during your backswing or something like that."

So not only is there an absence of humanity surrounding the course (at least of the living variety), the tree buffers also give a sense of privacy you wouldn't necessarily expect from a site of this smallish size. Bates said after donating the fort parcel, allowing land for a maintenance facility and creating some distance from power lines on one side of the property that they were left with only about 150 acres to lay out the course. Westfields' golf course is a textbook exercise in spatial land management, because you only get the "parallel fairway"feeling on a couple holes.

And as noted before, it's not like it feels tight. "Fred and Gene did a great job making ours a friendly golf course. There's plenty of difficulty if you choose the right tee settings, but if you play the right tees, you're not going to get beat up too badly," Finocchiaro said.

A big drive certainly doesn't guarantee par on the 8th hole.

Bates says one reason why it's such a player-friendly layout is they didn't know what type of market it would serve when they first started: "We knew we wanted to build an upscale type course, but we didn't know if it was going to be a private club, a resort-type course or an upscale daily fee. So we kind of made it appealing to all those types of markets."

"Too many times these days, designers are making courses too difficult. For a resort course or a daily fee, we try to make it look difficult but play easier. You're going to want people to want to come back, and a lot of that will come from having an enjoyable golf experience," Bates said.

Another way to get folks to return is to kill 'em with kindness, and that's Finocchiaro's department: "We look at our golf course as providing a service, and we want our players to go away thinking 'what a fun golf course, what a fun day.' With all the events going on in the world, there are a lot of things more important than golf -- so when people come here, we're trying to help them get away from whatever it is that might be on their minds."

The approach shot on nine calls for a carry over wetlands to a well-bunkered green.

"It's a fun golf course, we have a friendly staff, and I want people thinking 'the guys know what they're doing out here. They provide a fun day for the golfers, and we'll come back.' If we accomplish that, we've done our job," he added.

Yes indeed. But the totality of the experience should be enough, which certainly includes the golf course itself. Number three is Westfields' signature hole (at least according to the yardage book). It's the hole you'll first see when driving on to the property, with beautiful rock outcroppings hugging the front of a large, L shaped green, protected by a pond in front. Tough hole, too, at 223 yards from the back tees.

Six and eight are probably the heart of the front nine -- two long and difficult par fours at 473 and 467 yards respectively. Finocchiaro says they're inspiring to look at, and difficult but fair to play. "From the tee, you'll see that there's a lot out there, but the challenge is right in front of you. They both require a good drive to get home, and second shots that require some thought. You need to think about the best side of the fairway to hit, then leave a good angle into the green."

On the backside, holes thirteen through eighteen will leave an indelible impression -- and might be what you remember most about Westfields. Thirteen and fourteen are short par fours -- and thirteen's noteworthy for the cemetery that comes into play on the right side off the tee (you get a free drop if you're in it). Fourteen's potentially drivable at 285 yards, but you'll need to shape it left to right in order to make the green.

Fifteen's a beautiful par five, 554 yards and uphill. I wouldn't have thought it reachable, but Finocchiaro made it in two from the blue tees. Impressive hole.

Sixteen, seventeen and eighteen make up an excellent closing stretch. Sixteen is a short but challenging par four at 384 yards. The second shot's over a pond to a very shallow green, protected by a bunker in front and thick rough long. The green is extremely wide, so expect a long putt if you miss on the wrong side.

Seventeen's a wonderful short par three at 160 yards, with challenges in the water and sand variety. It's also pleasing to look at.

It'll be hard to forget Westfields' 17th hole. Straight out of Fred Couples' imagination.

Eighteen's the hardest par four on the backside. Long at 443 yards, and the second shot must carry wetlands to reach the putting surface. Nothing like a challenging forced carry for your last iron shot of the day. Couples certainly wants you to earn your par on the final hole.

Westfields is a true gem in Northern Virginia, and its interesting history and ghostly part-time inhabitants only make it more so. The conditioning of the course, the beauty of the clubhouse and the nature of the land combine for a great day of golf.

Almost a hauntingly good time.

Details:
Westfields Golf Club
13940 Balmoral Greens Avenue
Clifton, Virginia 20124
Phone: 703-631-3300
FAX: 703-648-0999
Website: www.westfieldsgolf.com
Course Designers: Fred Couples/Gene Bates
Head Golf Professional: David Finocchiaro
Tees Yardage/Slope
Boom-Boom 6897/136
Blue 6811/132
White 6308/130
Green 6308/130
Red 5229/120
Rates:
Mon-Thurs, $75; Fri-Sun: $95.
Twilight rates (after 3:00 p.m.):$50; Fri-Sun: $55. Replay rates: $39.
All rates include tax, greens fee, cart fee, and practice balls.
Westfields Golf Club is affiliated with the Marriott Westfields Resort & Conference Center. Phone: 1-703-818-0300; Fax: 1-703-818-3655
Reservations (from U.S. and Canada): 1-800-635-5666; Sales: 1-703-818-0400

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: bluenavy ()
Date: December 19, 2013 03:36PM

SPC. Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Lady of Belvoir Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > In the spring, the daffodils still bloom, but
> > > Belvoir is no more. Long ago, the charred
> ruins
> > of
> > > the lovely mansion crumbled to the ground
> along
> > > with its memories of candlelit balls and the
> > > sounds of coaches on cobblestone. Yet a love
> > story
> > > remains. It is little known and less spoken
> of,
> > > but still an integral part of America’s
> > colonial
> > > history. It is a chapter in the life of the
> > > American hero, George Washington, who loved,
> > > passionately, the lady at Belvoir his
> neighbor
> > and
> > > the wife of his best friend, George William
> > > Fairfax. Proper credit has never been given
> > Sally
> > > for the important role she played in
> > > Washington’s early life. Instead, she has
> > been
> > > regarded mainly as a flirtatious Southern
> belle,
> > a
> > > brainless beauty. Untrue!
> >
> > I did not know that. Oh wow, Washington had the
> > hots for Sally?
>
> Fort Pickett, VA is a beautiful post, but there is
> definitely some ghostly activity going on here. I
> am currently staying in one of the older buildings
> on post,
> and I have had some contact in just the two nights
> that I slept here. Just to be clear, I am not
> talking about just bumps and creaks in the night
> (as would
> be expected in these older buildings).
>
> The first night I slept here I had trouble falling
> asleep because of the sounds made by my dead
> roommate. It sounded like it was banging on the
> walls really
> hard. He was turning electronic things off and on
> (the heater and the printer), and I think that I
> even saw him once or twice (that I cannot say for
> certain;
> the dark plays tricks on your eyes).
>
> Last night while I slept here it didn't bang on
> the wall or anything. It opened and closed some
> doors and, while I was asleep, moved a few chairs
> around. It
> has been a little unsettling, but what am I going
> to do? I guess we just have to get over it and be
> cool with each other.

Our first house was a little blue house that was
built in 1948 for Navy housing. (The house was close to the base.)

The air conditioner was loud when it was turned on, and I remember
that anytime I was lying in bed, in our bedroom, I heard what sounded
like a radio when I knew there wasn\'t one on. I got up a few times
checking what my husband was listening to on TV, and the TV wasn\'t on or
the programming didn\'t match what I was hearing. Could never make out
what they were saying...my husband said it may have been UFOs (he
sounded like he was almost positive of it. I wasn\'t convinced.)
When my son was around 9 months old, I accidentally locked myself out
of the house when the front door closed behind me when I went outside
for some reason. I don\'t even know how that happened. I frantically
tried to open the front door to no avail. I ran to the back sliding
glass door. Locked tight. My son was in his playpen at this time playing
happily, but I was hysterical. No one was home at the houses on either
side of my house and there was no house across the street. I was too
afraid to leave my baby that long. I ran around to the front door,
trying again. No good. Ran to the back again, and cried out for my
deceased grandmother (who I was very close to ) to please help me. A
second later, that heavy sliding glass door finally opened, and I was on my
hands and knees praising God, and thanking my Grandma. I had never
been so scared in my life.

We are now in our third home, and have stayed in other places with
loud air conditioners, and I haven\'t heard \"voices\" like I heard at
that little blue house.

I used to think I may have been picking up radio signals, because that
is how they sounded!

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Peanuts ()
Date: December 20, 2013 02:12AM

Blue navy, I hear the same kind of noises coming from the fans in my bedrooms. Sounds like a radio as well as people talking, or just different kinds of music. Once I heard a voice say my name through a bedroom fan. And for those who claim that our brains just interpret white noise as words, explain this...one night the fan next to my bed was "talking" and next thing I know it got louder and louder and then the radio next to the fan turned itself on and picked up where the fan left off. The alarm was set to go off but not for several more hours.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: bluenavy ()
Date: December 20, 2013 06:02AM

Peanuts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Blue navy, I hear the same kind of noises coming
> from the fans in my bedrooms. Sounds like a radio
> as well as people talking, or just different kinds
> of music. Once I heard a voice say my name through
> a bedroom fan. And for those who claim that our
> brains just interpret white noise as words,
> explain this...one night the fan next to my bed
> was "talking" and next thing I know it got louder
> and louder and then the radio next to the fan
> turned itself on and picked up where the fan left
> off. The alarm was set to go off but not for
> several more hours.

Once we moved we never heard it again thank god!

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Jeffrey ()
Date: December 20, 2013 06:44AM

SPC. Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Lady of Belvoir Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > In the spring, the daffodils still bloom, but
> > > Belvoir is no more. Long ago, the charred
> ruins
> > of
> > > the lovely mansion crumbled to the ground
> along
> > > with its memories of candlelit balls and the
> > > sounds of coaches on cobblestone. Yet a love
> > story
> > > remains. It is little known and less spoken
> of,
> > > but still an integral part of America’s
> > colonial
> > > history. It is a chapter in the life of the
> > > American hero, George Washington, who loved,
> > > passionately, the lady at Belvoir his
> neighbor
> > and
> > > the wife of his best friend, George William
> > > Fairfax. Proper credit has never been given
> > Sally
> > > for the important role she played in
> > > Washington’s early life. Instead, she has
> > been
> > > regarded mainly as a flirtatious Southern
> belle,
> > a
> > > brainless beauty. Untrue!
> >
> > I did not know that. Oh wow, Washington had the
> > hots for Sally?
>
> Fort Pickett, VA is a beautiful post, but there is
> definitely some ghostly activity going on here. I
> am currently staying in one of the older buildings
> on post,
> and I have had some contact in just the two nights
> that I slept here. Just to be clear, I am not
> talking about just bumps and creaks in the night
> (as would
> be expected in these older buildings).
>
> The first night I slept here I had trouble falling
> asleep because of the sounds made by my dead
> roommate. It sounded like it was banging on the
> walls really
> hard. He was turning electronic things off and on
> (the heater and the printer), and I think that I
> even saw him once or twice (that I cannot say for
> certain;
> the dark plays tricks on your eyes).
>
> Last night while I slept here it didn't bang on
> the wall or anything. It opened and closed some
> doors and, while I was asleep, moved a few chairs
> around. It
> has been a little unsettling, but what am I going
> to do? I guess we just have to get over it and be
> cool with each other.

Ft. Pickett, VA, next to Blackstone, VA building on W. 10th Street is definitely haunted. Knocking on doors where there is no one around, footsteps, doors opening repeatedly, physical contact from ghost, items moving etc..
I call him Charlie, he likes newcomers and pretty ladies. I spent over two years working mostly at night in this building, I know what I saw, heard, and felt.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: bingo ()
Date: December 23, 2013 07:21AM

I don't like in Fairfax, but Bealeton VA and I had an encounter with a ghost that I will never forget. I was walking with my dog in the daytime. Suddenly my dog stopped walking and turned around. I tried to get him to move but he stood firm. He began to growl and as I turned around I saw a misty figure standing behind me.

I had heard that a man was murdered there before from my neighbor who was living there for all her life. Over 50 years. Her parents and grandparents before her also inherited that house. She said that man was her deceased uncle.
The figure was misty and I could make out a trench coat with a long chain dangling in his hand. My neighbor said that her uncle had a beloved clock that he kept with him. I think that misty figure that freaked the hell out of my dog was her uncle.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: NorthArlington ()
Date: December 23, 2013 07:51AM

My grandmother's old house of 30yrs, the house I grew up in is on North Harrison Street, in North Arlington. It use to be a double family home back during the civil war. Now, it's a mini manision. In 1983 the family was all at church on Christmas Eve, only my uncle was home with my nephew and he said he saw a little boy hop down the hallway bouncing a ball and disappeared into the kitchen. My other uncle said he felt a dark presence in the basement. All of us grandkids always felt a weird not good presence follow us whenever we walked up the stairs, but ended as we hit the top of the stairs.

My cousin who was 2 at the time actually saw the little boy and said the boy touched his forehead. My uncle said he woke up from a nap and the little boy was at the edge of the bed asking him to come play with him.

When the old house was torn down for reconstruction, the workers dug into a marker and it scared the crap of them. They stopped working on the house for 2 weeks. The little boy, 12yrs died and was buried right out front of the house. No one knows of the other dark presence in the house.

Oh yeah, both my grandparents died in that house. So there are probably 4 presences in that house now. We sold the house about four years ago. Wonder if the new owners are experiencing any paranormal activity.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Ghost Hunter ()
Date: December 24, 2013 06:51AM

NorthArlington Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My grandmother's old house of 30yrs, the house I
> grew up in is on North Harrison Street, in North
> Arlington. It use to be a double family home back
> during the civil war. Now, it's a mini manision.
> In 1983 the family was all at church on Christmas
> Eve, only my uncle was home with my nephew and he
> said he saw a little boy hop down the hallway
> bouncing a ball and disappeared into the kitchen.
> My other uncle said he felt a dark presence in the
> basement. All of us grandkids always felt a weird
> not good presence follow us whenever we walked up
> the stairs, but ended as we hit the top of the
> stairs.
>
> My cousin who was 2 at the time actually saw the
> little boy and said the boy touched his forehead.
> My uncle said he woke up from a nap and the little
> boy was at the edge of the bed asking him to come
> play with him.
>
> When the old house was torn down for
> reconstruction, the workers dug into a marker and
> it scared the crap of them. They stopped working
> on the house for 2 weeks. The little boy, 12yrs
> died and was buried right out front of the house.
> No one knows of the other dark presence in the
> house.
>
> Oh yeah, both my grandparents died in that house.
> So there are probably 4 presences in that house
> now. We sold the house about four years ago.
> Wonder if the new owners are experiencing any
> paranormal activity.

Very interesting story and just in time for the holidays! I'd love to take a look at it.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: gary at fort monroe ()
Date: December 26, 2013 04:28AM

SPC. Green Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really? Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Lady of Belvoir Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > In the spring, the daffodils still bloom, but
> > > Belvoir is no more. Long ago, the charred
> ruins
> > of
> > > the lovely mansion crumbled to the ground
> along
> > > with its memories of candlelit balls and the
> > > sounds of coaches on cobblestone. Yet a love
> > story
> > > remains. It is little known and less spoken
> of,
> > > but still an integral part of America’s
> > colonial
> > > history. It is a chapter in the life of the
> > > American hero, George Washington, who loved,
> > > passionately, the lady at Belvoir his
> neighbor
> > and
> > > the wife of his best friend, George William
> > > Fairfax. Proper credit has never been given
> > Sally
> > > for the important role she played in
> > > Washington’s early life. Instead, she has
> > been
> > > regarded mainly as a flirtatious Southern
> belle,
> > a
> > > brainless beauty. Untrue!
> >
> > I did not know that. Oh wow, Washington had the
> > hots for Sally?
>
> Fort Pickett, VA is a beautiful post, but there is
> definitely some ghostly activity going on here. I
> am currently staying in one of the older buildings
> on post,
> and I have had some contact in just the two nights
> that I slept here. Just to be clear, I am not
> talking about just bumps and creaks in the night
> (as would
> be expected in these older buildings).
>
> The first night I slept here I had trouble falling
> asleep because of the sounds made by my dead
> roommate. It sounded like it was banging on the
> walls really
> hard. He was turning electronic things off and on
> (the heater and the printer), and I think that I
> even saw him once or twice (that I cannot say for
> certain;
> the dark plays tricks on your eyes).
>
> Last night while I slept here it didn't bang on
> the wall or anything. It opened and closed some
> doors and, while I was asleep, moved a few chairs
> around. It
> has been a little unsettling, but what am I going
> to do? I guess we just have to get over it and be
> cool with each other.


I lived inside the moat on Bernard Rd in the early 90s as a child when my father was stationed there. Doors opening and closing by themselves, footsteps in the hall at night when me and my sister and parents were in bed were a couple of the things we had to deal with.

A couple of times my mother called the MPs and they would search the house and leave telling us there was not anything they could do. I do not remember which house it was and when me and my sister went back on the former post for a visit she could not remember either.

We are both only in our 30s and both of us could take you to every house or apartment we have ever lived in. Except for the one at Ft Monroe.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: anymoose ()
Date: December 26, 2013 10:58PM

Late one night I was driving alone through the area just outside Bluefield known as Wright's Valley. The curvy road there crosses the railroad tracks several times. When approaching one crossing I noticed that the signals beside the track were red--indicating trouble ahead. When I got to the tracks there was nothing unusual, so I just started across. Suddenly I spotted the shadow of a man (or woman) wearing a baseball cap on my left next to the tracks. I was so startled that I slammed on my brakes and looked around. The figure had disappeared. There was no cover for a person to hide behind or duck under. I was shaken, but I continued my drive. About five minutes later my courage had overtaken my fear, so I decided to turn around and drive across the same tracks again. There was nothing there. The signals had changed back to green.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Double Church road ()
Date: December 28, 2013 01:47AM

My family and I have lived in Stephen city for many years. In an old abandoned house off of this old road called ''Double Church'', you can see this gigantic abandoned farmhouse that is said to be possessed. A tall black figure with red eyes has been spotted there numerous times and people who like to bring Ouija boards are told that if they search the ''subwall'' they will get a reward...

However I myself have experienced this. The subwall contains an approx. 6 foot drop to a pile a extremely sharp metal scraps. The same message has been given to a lot of my friends who have tried this.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: anon223 ()
Date: December 29, 2013 10:24PM

The most haunted home in Woodbridge VA can be found behind the Grayson estate on Grayson Rd. No one in the area wants to go near this home. I would give you the address but I need to respect the owners (no one lives in that home anymore for obvious reasons).

If you take a left on Longview drive onto Grayson Rd the house is on the left - unmistakable. So many things happened in that home and the residents finally had enough and left after nearly 10 years there.

Here is what happened when I visited there for a weekend. I can only speak for what I saw. I was asleep on the sofa and heard someone violently running up the stairs. I sat up and called out my friend's name.

She came downstairs and told me that the walking happens nearly every night. I was freaked out so I slept upstairs. The same night I woke up again to see a man walking around and could hear a weird hissing sound.

I sat up and her dogs started barking uncontrollably. My friend woke up to ease my fears telling me she is used to it and it's all harmless. She had been living there so long that it didn't bother her much anymore.

I wanted to get a hotel room on rt 1 but decided to stick it out one more night. As I was getting ready for bed someone swiped the back of my neck while I was trying to brush my teeth. I ran out and she said the ghost does that.

I pleaded with her to leave this house but she ended up staying

there for another 4-5 years. When she married he moved into the home. He didn't know anything but that the house had ''activity''.

He reported the same things but also that a giant orb stood by her and floated over her body before laying next to her as she slept. She was pregnant at this time. He said he had to leave this home asap and they did so not long after the baby was born.

If you go to this home at night you can go into the yard and take EVPs and photos. It never fails to disappoint. Lots of orbs voices screams and even images of faces hands and legs. It was the creepiest experience I ever had in my life.

This home is the most haunted in Woodbridge. Drive by

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: ashton ()
Date: December 30, 2013 01:31PM

I live near bloom (old bridge road) in Woodbridge. There is a clump of abandoned houses over there and I (because I'm stupid) convinced my guy friends (all of whom are terrified of these houses) to take me to them with my camera. We took a video that had a lot of paranormal footage stuff we missed when we walked around. If anyone knows what happened in those abandoned houses on Smoketown it'd be great for us to know! We'll be posting our videos on youtube and I'll do another ghost report then.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Catherine.Spalding@gmail.com ()
Date: December 30, 2013 02:11PM

ashton Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I live near bloom (old bridge road) in Woodbridge.
> There is a clump of abandoned houses over there
> and I (because I'm stupid) convinced my guy
> friends (all of whom are terrified of these
> houses) to take me to them with my camera. We took
> a video that had a lot of paranormal footage stuff
> we missed when we walked around. If anyone knows
> what happened in those abandoned houses on
> Smoketown it'd be great for us to know! We'll be
> posting our videos on youtube and I'll do another
> ghost report then.

I used to live in one of those houses growing up and I am very curious to see what you have. Contact me via email. Catherine.Spalding@gmail.com

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: ghost in reston ()
Date: January 05, 2014 08:58PM

RMariotte@AOL.com Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lurker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Another Reston Ghost story. Apparently many
> > people claimed to see this gilr ghost over a
> > weekend period -
> >
> > The Reton Ghost -- isn't that the tortured soul
> of
> > a dotcom company that met an untimely death
> last
> > year? :)
> >
> > Seriously, I think it's supposed to be the
> spirit
> > of Gwen Ames. As I recall she was strangled
> near
> > the canal section of Lake Anne while all the
> > people who lived around there were at some
> concert
> > on the plaza.
>
> We lived in Reston from 1967 until 1972. There
> were less than 3,000 people there then. We were
> among the first residents of Golf Course Island,
> had a great condo. 4 bedroom, 4 bath, 4 level, was
> on house tour several times and was also written
> up in Washington Post because we had moved there
> from Paris and had all French antiques so was
> different from a modern house with modern
> furniture. I have so many memories, some good and
> some bad.
>
> The bad were the first murder, a teenage girl,
> Gwen Ames, the mystery was never solved but it was
> really a big thing as everyone knew her and her
> family, and they were much loved. The second bad
> thing was that a small girl, think she was about 3
> fell through the ice in Lake Anne and drowned. I
> still remember the sound of the drilling through
> the lake all winter trying to find the body. The
> day in the Spring when they finally found her her
> brother was at our house practicing in a band with
> our son, Michael. Band was Underground Current I
> think, they were very popular at the time. It was
> a very sad winter.

I didn't know this one had a story attached to it... but some people in Reston claim to have seen a young girl sitting in the old wooden swing that sits at the end of the canal off of Lake Anne. Just a few feet away from the swing is a contemporary art statue with two holes that roughly resemble binoculars. They say that if you look through these holes early in the morning you can sometimes see the girl playing around a tree. Sometimes she's been seen hiding a piece of paper in the tree.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: The Ghost Who Wants His Ashes ()
Date: January 05, 2014 09:01PM

Another one about REston I had never heard before...

The Ghost Who Wants His Ashes Back

Following the Civil War, the land that was to become Reston was put up for auction to satisfy back taxes. It was sold to Dr. Carl Wiehle and William Dunn for $20,000. Wiehle envisioned building a new town on the site, complete with a hotel, industry, parks, and a community center. Although only a few of the streets were ever laid out, many of Wiehle’s plans were completed; unfortunately he died at the young age of 50 and plans for continuing the town were abandoned.

However, six or seven families built homes in the town. This is the story of an old man named John, who frequently visited one of these families.

During his last visit, John had an aneurysm and soon after he died. In the next few weeks, John's brother and the family that lived in Wiehle got into a bitter fight over what to do with John's ashes.

You see, John had always said that when he died, he wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread at dusk from a canoe in the middle of the Potomac River. It had come to him in a dream that that was what he should do. But after he died, his brother fought the idea. Eventually they decided to split the ashes. The family in Wiehle took a canoe out onto the river and when they reached the middle, they tossed their half of John’s ashes into the wind.

But John's brother kept his half of the ashes in a small urn that he eventually buried in his backyard. To this day, when the tide is low, John’s ghost returns from the river to the site of his brother's house, searching for the urn that held his ashes.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: carol ()
Date: January 12, 2014 07:47PM

A week after Christmas of 2013 my nephew rented a large cabin with beautiful views off hwy 58 in Hillsville Va. On one afternoon I stayed at the cabin with my 4-month-old grandniece while everyone explored. Suddenly a rocker on the back deck began to rock by itself. You could say it was wind, but the 4 other rockers were still. My daughter took a video of my 2-year-old granddaughter and 5-year-old grandniece playing in the living room, and 2 orbs swirled into view. The whole time my 4-month-old grandniece was there she couldn't sleep.

My youngest daughter and her boyfriend occupied an upstairs bedroom in which they had trouble sleeping due to the feeling of being watched by what
felt like a male presence. I too had this feeling one night when I was downstairs making a trip to the restroom. When I came out returning to bed walking under that very room I felt this eerie feeling of being watched by a male. I think the orbs and this male presence were different. Some of the family did come up on an old headstone while exploring. It was dating to the 1700s. There were numerous rocks set up nearby to represent headstones we believe.

I'm very curious to hear if anyone knows of any hauntings in the area. I grew up in a haunted house, but the spirit was calm and not threatening. This male at this area seems like he doesn't care for visitors. We weren't there long enough to find out.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: OldSage ()
Date: January 12, 2014 09:37PM

Rockledge Inn in Occoquan is supposed to be haunted by the spirit of a cival way soldier.
My home was haunted when I first moved in. I moved into a used house in Springfield. Nothing scary, I my house was home to a very young child spirit. I did not pay much attention to it until my very young children told me about their friend, Bob.
Bob just wanted to play with them. I assumed it was iminagations at work here until I sent my kids away to spend time with their grandparents in Tennessee. We had no children in the house and wanted to paint and do work on the house.
My husband and I were in the basement painting when we heard a child's heavy footstomps run across the living room which was over our heads. We looked at eachother, and I told my husband, that is Bob. Bob plays games with me, he actually moved all my dishes in my dishwasher to one side of the dishwasher, the other side was empty. He was messing with me.
As my children aged, Bob faded away. I actually told him to leave and go find his mother. My house is quiet now, Bob left, but I kind of miss him.

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Occoquan Haunts ()
Date: January 13, 2014 07:59AM

OldSage Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rockledge Inn in Occoquan is supposed to be
> haunted by the spirit of a cival way soldier.
> My home was haunted when I first moved in. I moved
> into a used house in Springfield. Nothing scary, I
> my house was home to a very young child spirit. I
> did not pay much attention to it until my very
> young children told me about their friend, Bob.
> Bob just wanted to play with them. I assumed it
> was iminagations at work here until I sent my kids
> away to spend time with their grandparents in
> Tennessee. We had no children in the house and
> wanted to paint and do work on the house.
> My husband and I were in the basement painting
> when we heard a child's heavy footstomps run
> across the living room which was over our heads.
> We looked at eachother, and I told my husband,
> that is Bob. Bob plays games with me, he actually
> moved all my dishes in my dishwasher to one side
> of the dishwasher, the other side was empty. He
> was messing with me.
> As my children aged, Bob faded away. I actually
> told him to leave and go find his mother. My
> house is quiet now, Bob left, but I kind of miss
> him.

Rockledge Mansion
http://rockledgemansion.com/ghosts

Rockledge Mansion - John Ballandine, a local industrialist, built this Georgian mansion in 1758 with the help of master builder, William Buckland. The ghost here is that of a friendly Confederate Solider.
Attachments:
4539748-Rockledge_Mansion_Occoquan_Occoquan.jpg
Rockledge-Photo.jpg

Options: ReplyQuote
Re: Ghosts/hauntings in around Fairfax County
Posted by: Stormtrooper ()
Date: January 16, 2014 07:46AM

Ft. Mcnair, in Washington DC, which is the home of the US War College and the 3rd US Infantry's A Co.; The Old Guard. This also happens to be where the Lincoln conspirators were held and later hung. Every winter there is a trail through the snow on the lawn, where the conspirators marched to their doom. Snow should fall on that part of the lawn but for some reason there never is any. Very strange. Also the room where the woman was kept has a foggy window and no other windows fog.

There are other reports of A Company's basement having had open grates at one time which led to the underground passageways underneath DC, called the catacombs. They have since been sealed up, but several soldiers while I was stationed there saw what looked like hands come up through the grates a couple times.

Options: ReplyQuote
Pages: PreviousFirst...23456789101112AllNext
Current Page: 8 of 12


Your Name: 
Your Email (Optional): 
Subject: 
Attach a file
  • No file can be larger than 75 MB
  • All files together cannot be larger than 300 MB
  • 30 more file(s) can be attached to this message
Spam prevention:
Please, enter the code that you see below in the input field. This is for blocking bots that try to post this form automatically.
 **      **  ********    *******   **    **  ******** 
 **  **  **  **     **  **     **  ***   **  **    ** 
 **  **  **  **     **  **     **  ****  **      **   
 **  **  **  **     **   ********  ** ** **     **    
 **  **  **  **     **         **  **  ****    **     
 **  **  **  **     **  **     **  **   ***    **     
  ***  ***   ********    *******   **    **    **     
This forum powered by Phorum.