DATE: 6.22.11
TIME: 9.50pm till 10.13 pm
LOCATION: Kitchen
In June 2011 we conducted an investigation at a private residence in a location that was reported to have some subtle activity occurring for a few months. The activity was reported to take place primarily under the kitchen table. The residents stated that the young child (2 years old) in the house sometimes acted uneasy while near the table and spoke of a little ghost boy named Jimmy that she would talk to from time to time. It was also reported that doors would often open or close on their own and sometimes it felt as if someone or something was watching you.
The table with the activity
Before we set up for the investigation we took precautions and all windows were closed to minimize outside noise/air and temperature. The central air was also turned off to prevent any air currents. All TVs and electronics were turned off and the house was thoroughly inspected to make sure no one else was in the house and no animals were present.
This location has been shrouded in mystery despite it's history being well documented by historians. It is located on Rancocas Road in Westampton, New Jersey, right off of exit 45 near 295, but for years it had the infamous name of "The 1754 Mount Holly Farmhouse Massacre", but of course it resides in Westhampton and not Mount Holly. Some say this was to fool and mislead vandals and teens away from the location so they do not turn it into a party spot and further destroy this historical landmark.
The location was on the 1681 Woolman tract and was built in 1754 by Asher Woolman, the younger brother of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman. It has not been confirmed, but according to locals they state that the last farmer to reside here was Ed Friend.
Interior view of one of the bedrooms
According to the Courier Post article by Carol Comegno dated July 6, 2014:
"The Asher Woolman farmhouse was the only tri-county site listed in this year's (2014) annual Preservation New Jersey endangered list.
Woolman House in better times, date unknown
"Our goal is to bring awareness to cherished sites that have been a vital part of a community that, without intervention, would fade from existence," said PNJ President Michael Hanrahan.
The Woolman site, vacant since the 1970s, is owned by a real estate developer who declined to sell it years ago to the Rancocas Historical Society. Now the building is enveloped by vegetation; its windows are broken and its roof leaks.
The house, on a hill surrounded by fields along a I-295 ramp at Rancocas Road, replaced an earlier Woolman home built in 1754. A dated stone commemorating the earlier house was incorporated into the present structure.
John Woolman's book
Asher's brother, John, was an influential Quaker preacher and antislavery advocate in Burlington County. "The plight of the Asher Woolman homestead is a reminder that many absentee owners allow valuable historic properties in New Jersey to deteriorate," Hanrahan said."
The legend and lore portion of this location is as follows: Many years ago a family lived here at this location. One of the children was mentally deficient and was the bane of the area. Then one day when the disturbed youth was a teen, he snapped pre-Columbine style and bludgeoned his family to death. He even took his infant brother and bashed him against the bricks of the chimney. When the townsfolk discovered what he had done they ransacked the house and beat the teen to death in the backyard. Legend has it that the ghosts of this family still haunt the grounds.
We traveled to this location on two separate occasions and acquired video and photos to document the house before it falls into decay and Nature reclaims it. The house apparently has been used by squatters over the winter since we found some blankets, bottles, trash and other artifacts to indicate this. While venturing through the house I was unsure if we were alone and I had the feeling that behind one of the doors awaited a homeless person or a junkie. We carefully proceeded to enter all the rooms and even venturing into the dirty, dark, dank basement proved that we were alone. Maybe it was the disturbed spirits of the family that lived here all those years ago?
Despite all the stories that center around this location, our end conclusion is that we did not come across any ghosts, we didn’t hear any screams nor did we acquire any EVPs; also all the photos were free from orbs.
(1) source Courier Post Carol Comegno July 6, 2014
(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)
It seems that just about every town in New Jersey has some sort of lore and urban legend associated with them. Mantua New Jersey is of no exception; off of Route 45 there is a little side road named Boody Mill Road and has a gruesome story attached to it.
The partially flooded road
The day we visited this location it was a sunny day with blue skies and huge billowing clouds overhead, the previous few days were rainy and over cast, so this was a welcomed change. Traveling down the road, we passed several nice homes on a very twisting and narrow road, yes, truly a one laner.
Back in 1989 there was some controversy started:
"......The road served as a dam for the lake. When the heavy rains poured into Gloucester County July 5, the old spillway pipe under the road cracked and gave in. The road's gravel, sand and blacktop caved in around the break, and the lake poured over it. Now, in place of the road is a gully 40 or 50 feet deep though which a stream rushes." (Excerpt from Philly.com August 16th 1989)
A few hundred yards in we hit a dirt road that went on for several hundred more feet, and we started encountering deep mud puddles and didn't want to get the car stuck so we got out and continued on foot. After a short hike we found an opening on the side of the road and entered. Several bags of trash and hundreds of beer cans greeted us....along with several shelter shacks and shanties..looked more like a homeless hang out or a teenager party spot. The legendary house in the stories was gone, the trailer also. Not much here was left other than what looked like a party spot for wayward teens. One of the eeriest thing about this place was the lonely baby car seat left behind...
The lone baby car seat, one wonders how it found it's way here
THE HISTORY/LEGEND:
Back in 1992, a guy and his wife got into an argument which resulted in her leaving him and his kids behind. He reportedly went insane over this new arrangement, so one night while his kids were sleeping, he torched the house with them inside of it, killing them all, and then went out back, sat in his truck, and shot himself in the head. Ever since this incident, the torched house supposedly remained haunted. Legend has it, everything in the house was burnt to a crisp except for a table with a bible sitting on top of it.
Narrow dirt section of the road
The bible is a little blackened, but in no way burnt up as you would expect in a fire, and still is legible. Across from the charred house is an open field, and if you park your car on that field at night and face it towards the house, you will see things. Supposedly if you are quiet, you can hear the sound of little kids playing out in that field, but why would young kids be playing outside past midnight? Sometimes you will hear something tapping on your car, and other times you might get a quick glimpse of somebody's face in your rear view mirror.
A video concerning Boody Mill Road
The remaining structure
Of courses as stated above, most of the components of this story no longer exist so we did not experience anything told in the tales. Have you been to this location? Have you any stories to tell concerning this legend?
Google Map, red X marks the location
Since we released this story a few years back many people contacted us asking us to retract the story since they live on the street and are tired of the endless sightseers that trespass on the property and are not respectful to the residents of the street. We ask that whenever you venture anywhere to please respect the privacy of the people that may live in the area. Take nothing but photos and leave nothing but footprints.
Here, The Cursed Website, we have more photos concerning Boody Mill Road along with other locations filled with Legend, Lore and History.
(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, has a black cat named Jynx, 2 rats named Phantom and Opera, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)
ELISA LAM
Born: April 30, 1991
Disappeared: January 31, 2013
Died:February 1, 2013 (aged 21)
Body Found: February 19th, 2013
A quote that Elisa seemed to favor and placed on her various social media profiles:
“You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” — Chuck Palahniuk
The unexplained death of Elisa Lam has fascinated the American public and the world in general because of its bizarre circumstances. On January 31st, 2013, a 21-year-old Canadian student named Elisa Lam was reported missing. She was staying in the Los Angeles hotel, The Cecil Hotel, which is known to have a notorious past. Two weeks later hotel guests complained about the water tasting funny and coming out of the facets black (just like in the movie DARK WATER 2005 (1) ), a maintenance worker was inspecting the rooftop water tanks on top of the Cecil Hotel and discovered her body.
Dark Water the movie 2005
Elisa Lam full video 4 min (Courtesy of Dennis Romero, posted 2-13-13)
Surveillance footage from the hotel's elevator which is the last known whereabouts of Elisa
Upon watching the video several times, Elisa does exhibit strange behavior. She enters the elevator, acts suspicious, keeps peeking out of the doors and hides in the corner as if she is hiding from someone. When the elevator door starts to shut, she presses the door open button. For a brief moment she steps out of the elevator and appears to be hesitant to get back in. When she does get back into the elevator she appears to press all the buttons. Some say she was trying to either trick someone that might be following her or she was playing the elevator game (2). There appears to be about 1 minute edited out of the video prior to being released to the police and then to the public.
Others state that she either had mental issues or was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She did suffer from documented bipolar disorder and the results of her toxiology report are to follow.
Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. She had been prescribed four drugs—Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor to deal with the condition. According to her family, she had no history of suicidal idealizations or attempts, although one report claims she had, in fact, briefly gone missing at some earlier time as well.
After Lam was removed from the tank, her body was taken to the county coroner's office to be autopsied. Two pathologists, Jason Tovar and Yulai Wang, spent four hours that afternoon dissecting her body and examining her internal organs. On February 21, the coroner's office reported that they had found her death to be an accidental drowning.
Four months later, in June, their full report was released after being postponed several times. They reported that her body had been found naked in the tank, about three-quarters full of water, with the clothes she appeared to have been wearing in the elevator video floating in the water alongside her, coated with a "sand-like particulate".
According to her autopsy report, the following items were found in the water tank with her:
1) red hooded sweatshirt; front zippering; American Apparel brand' size sx
2) green shirt; a t-shirt, light green, short sleeved, with crew neck JJM brand, size l/g
3) black shorts; Saxon brand authentic game wear, men's size m/m
4) black panties; black lace trim; Calvin Klein brand, size s/p
5) pair sandals; Birkenstocks brand, with three black fabric straps having small white dot pattern overall and two buckles; labeled with numerals that may indicate code for European sizing: 39, 55, 250, l8, m6
6) watch
7) hotel room key
The elevator in question is on the left
Lam's body was moderately decomposed, bloated and mostly greenish, with some marbling evident on the abdomen and skin separation evident. Her body was not clothed when it was found and that could lead to the speculation of sexual assault. Tovar and Wang had a rape and fingernail kit done and reported that they found no evidence of physical trauma or sexual assault.They also stated that they found no evidence to suggest that Lam had committed suicide.
Toxicology tests were done on her blood where a sufficient quantity was available. Some metabolites and traces of her prescription medication were found, consistent with blister packs and loose pills of those drugs found among her belongings, along with some nonprescription drugs such as Sinutab and ibuprofen. She had venlafaxine and metabolized buproprion in her system and both can cause halluinacions in bipolar patients.
No alcohol or recreational drugs were found in her system. Details regarding this can be found here: Click to read autopsy report
Interestingly enough, some of the kits used bore the name ELISA KITS (3 )
Obviously with any "mysterious" murder or missing persons case there is a great amount of speculation associated with it. Some think that she may have been killed by a hotel guest or an employee. While watching the video clip it appears that Elisa was playing some sort of hide and seek game with someone not visible in the video. This could either be a willing game or maybe she was in danger and trying to hide from someone.
Others interject that she may have committed suicide based on her writings on her online blog and diaries. But skeptics state that the water tower lid may have been too heavy for a slight girl to lift, climb in and then close it behind her.
The Cecil Hotel is a well known seedy place full of bad stories and a shady past. The location was the last place the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, was seen before her death back in 1947. The serial killer Ricahrd "Night Stalker" Ramirez also called the hotel home for a time period. Here is a brief piece concerning the hotel:
Elizabeth Short
Of course the conspiracy theories do not stop there, they further spiral into tale of the Illuminati. A quick check of of Google Maps does show that The Invisible Light Agency does reside in the building and that Anthony V, produces weapons. Their company logo is also made up of triangles as does the Illuminati's.
The Invisible Light Agency on Google Maps
The Invisible Light Agency's logo
Julie Ann Paige had this to say, "Around the time of the Elisa Lam disappearance I lived at The Alexandria Hotel, another sketchy nefarious place. I remember seeing Elisa walking up 7th crossing Spring going up towards Main. She seemed strange and out of place and caught my eye for some reason. I wondered if she was on drugs. I was shocked to later see her on the news reported as missing. I remember hearing all the sirens that Feb morning and could tell it was around the Cecil. I had this sense of dread I just knew they found her there dead."
Revisiting the suicide theory, lets take a look at some of her writings; Elisa Lam recorded some of her depression in her blog:
"Thursday
this is a lazy post
Things are going fairly well in that I am leaving the house and got myself a part time job. My room is still a mess. I haven't actually done any school work and I berate myself for being such a lazy person. Ah yes laziness.
If I weren't so lazy I would exercise.
I believe the biggest reason why I got depressed was because I stopped running in my last year of high school. Up until that point I was on the cross country and track and field team. Mind you I wasn't very good runner, but I did it. I lacked the discipline to actually train. And now I am still lacking the discipline to run or do any sport of sort.
I make up excuses. Right now the excuse is "It's too cold outside." Fair enough, I could however go to a gym. Then the excuse is "I'm self-concious and I have no idea how to weight lift."
I am not terribly self conscious of my body. I've accepted it's simply the way I am. However I am terribly self conscious of my legs. I find them disproportional to the rest of my body making me look chunkier than I am. And no matter how much I exercised, they never became any leaner. If I am not too careful, I fall into the trap of cankles.
I'm sick of the cold weather and wish for warmer weather. Warmer weather meaning dresses. Oh wait, no I don't like dresses because that means exposing my legs.
Right.
But this cold in mid March makes me eat so horribly. I have been living off of junk food and if I weren't so lazy I would actually go try to learn how to feed myself.
And if I weren't so lazy I would go learn how to do something.....like coding or whatnot. I'm falling into a pattern of going on tumblr and it's not giving me any joy actually. It's just something to do. Idling by."
One of the Illuminati connected theories was that she was investigating an invisibility cloak, as seen on her blog post from 1-12-13, and they had her killed. Do not that The Invisible Light Agency does reside within the building.
Some say that the below post to her blog is a clear indicator of her suicide intentions:
expexto patronum (4)
Depression sucks.
I have no control over my emotions. I will be angry for two minutes and then sad again. I will be happy for half an hour and then emotional again.
So far all I've done is lay on my bed and watch episodes of Chopped.
Im just waiting for it to pass."
An excerpt from her blog with a heading from a spell in the Harry Potter film
I do find it interesting that for a person that liked to write, read and blog...that if she did commit suicide, she did not leave a note.
So still to this day there is no definitive answer as to who or what may have killed Elisa. Speculation builds and grows and no light has shined down on this girl who lost her life back on that cold January day.
Here are some links to her personal social media sites:
(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)
