Category: Paranormal/Urban Legends

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: November 23, 2025

In the very haunted city of Charleston, South Carolina, we attended catholic mass at the beautiful Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. Five blocks away we grabbed brunch at one of the hundreds of old Charleston historic buildings. The restaurant was named Poogan’s Porch, named after a friendly, stray dog named Poogan, who guarded over the house for seven years greeting guests. Poogan is buried there, his grave is by the front entrance steps.

Once a stately house, built with Southern-style knotted pine floors and porches in 1891, later transitioning to a restaurant. The food was delicious as Rosie had a tomato pie omelet and I enjoyed eggs and biscuits & gravy. The restaurant is frequented by celebrities, politicians, locals and tourists.

As for paranormal claims, one waiter told me that staff have been pushed coming down the stairs by an unseen ghost. Women have seen an apparition in the woman’s restroom or in the mirror. Going back in history, a woman named Zoe St. Amand or Zoey, lived and died in the house as well as her sister Elizabeth. Both were unmarried spinsters and Elizabeth died nine years before Zoe. Her sister’s death caused Zoe to mentally take a turn for the worse. People believe Zoe’s spirit still roams the house searching for her sister.

Other claims include bar stools being turned over, coffee cups disappearing and returning, voices on the second floor when no one is up there and shadow figures of a woman in the upper windows when the restaurant is closed.

I wandered around the restaurant as best as possible since it was a very busy morning. I managed an EVP session outside of the woman’s restroom obtaining no evidence. No ghost pushed me down the stairs. I really didn’t have the opportunity for a good investigation. The building is charming, nostalgic, and southern appealing so perhaps Zoey is still hanging around the premises although Poogan no longer is.  

We left the restaurant and walked an hour past horses pulling carriages and hundreds of historic houses in the lower city district, eventually stopping at Kermit’s Key Lime Shop. We consumed delicious slices of fresh key lime pie and key lime cookies in city market area.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: November 23, 2025

The historical fort was the site of the opening shots of the Civil War fired on April 12, 1861. Originally, the fort was built in 1829, one of a series of coastal fortifications built by the US after the War of 1812. A mortar shell fired from Fort Johnson in Charleston burst over Fort Sumter igniting the conflict. After a 34-hour fight with no fatalities, the Union troops agreed to terms of evacuation. During Union bombardment of the fort in 1964 & 1865, 52 Confederate soldiers were killed in the fort.

Paranormal claims include phantom gun smoke rising from the air, the smell of fresh gunpowder, unexplained sounds (marching and cannon fire), apparitions of soldiers and general feelings of unease. Ghostly faces of two soldiers killed at the fort, Daniel Hough and John Bird, have appeared on a battle flag that flies at the fort.

During my tour of the fort, I interviewed both veteran park rangers sand they told me that neither had any personal paranormal experiences The rangers always worked at the fort in daytime and only worked one night at a special training and nothing unusual transpired. One ranger’s theory was there was not a lot of trauma/deaths at the fort so perhaps that is why they experience no daytime ghostly encounters.

I toured the fort taking photos and performed several EVPs. I specifically spent some time taking photos and did a long VP session in the casement/former barracks area where the powder magazine in the corner of the barracks exploded on December 11, 1863, killing 11 and wounding 41 Confederates. None of the EVP sessions or photos yielded any paranormal evidence. Still, as previously mentioned, there have been many alleged ghostly reports from the public. Are these just urban legends and folklore?

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: August 6, 2025

Forney is a rural road meandering and winding east and west through the township. The urban legend associated with the road is it that a young man had a fatal car accident while racing along Forney Road. Supposedly, if you stop your car on the road at the location that he died, the deceased man’s car headlights will appear and follow you until you turn off Forney Road.

My first step was to research the Dayton Daily News/Dayton Herald archives. After much searching going back to 1910, I could find no articles indicating a fatal accident along Forney Road. Giving it a grain of salt, perhaps the accident did not make the newspapers. Scanning the internet I also found nothing about a fatal car accident on Forney Road although back in May 2014 a dead body was found stuffed inside a discarded carpet and dumped along the 9000 block of Forney.

Since there was no specific starting point where the car accident occurred, to begin my investigation I drove to a logical “haunted” site along the road – the Forney Road Cemetery. The cemetery was not very large and was just off a turn in the road surrounded by many trees. Forney Road was not a very long rural road and was very tight, lined mostly with trees and gave me a very isolated feeling. 

No “real” cars came by during the ten minutes that I parked by the cemetery at dusk, nor did headlights follow me down the road as I drove away. I repeated the experiment at a different part of Forney Road, and had no ghostly lights follow me.  If anyone reading my post has any factual information about the alleged fatal car accident, please contact me so as to help add some legitimacy to this urban legend.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: July 13 & 17 , 2025

Little Sugar Creek was a beautiful, peaceful early afternoon setting as it wound its way through a group of trees on each side. Here and there sunlight sparkled off the slow-moving water. Several mothers relaxed in folding chairs as a dozen children played in the ankle high current. Very tranquil, in fact when you enter the park you may not even know that this creek exists as the tree line shields the creek from the parking lot and the road.

However, at nighttime the trees on each side of the creek block out any light as the area is creepy and mysterious. Sitting Creekside, it is easy to conjure up sounds and dark visions of the urban legend that people claim happen here.

So, what is the paranormal legend of this creek and park? Around the 1880’s, a young servant girl had an affair with her master, a prominent politician of Bellbrook. She became pregnant and was dismissed from the home. After the baby was born, she walked the streets singing softly to the baby. She eventually returned to the politician’s house and begged for help. She was rudely turned away. With no one left to help her, she sang to her baby and walked to the bridge overlooking Little Sugar Creek. Holding the baby, she jumped in. Her dead body was soon found gripping the baby blankets, but the body of the baby was never found.

Visitors to the creek at Magee Park have seen walking along the bank a woman with an otherworldly quality, that is delicate, transparent and softly sings a song while holding a bundle in her arms. She is seen and heard more often on foggy nights in the month of June.

So that is the historical urban legends about the creek and park area. During my afternoon visit to the park as I walked along the creek a seven-year-old boy was sitting and sketching. He greeted me and told me that his family visits this park a lot. He said that sometimes he hears a voice or a whistling sound but doesn’t see anyone around other than his family. That motivated me enough to make a return trip a couple evenings later. The park closes at 8:30pm so as not to arouse suspicion, I parked down the road a bit and hiked over. I used a flashlight sparingly so as not to attract after-hours suspicion. The tree areas along both sides of the creek were very dark. I tried a few EVP’s but got no evidence. The gentle rush of water was very serene and calming and besides an occasional bird crying, all was silent except for an occasionally passing car out on Little Sugar Creek Road. It would have been easy to dose off there except for the hounding mosquitoes. No evidence was gathered to substantiate this haunted urban legend during my time creekside.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Matt Miller

Date: April 2022 & April 14, 2025

Located at 2421 Princeton Road, this cemetery was established in 1929. The urban legend is that of a young woman in 1950’s clothing seen hitchhiking in front of the cemetery. She has been picked up but suddenly vanishes into thin air in the car. Others have reported that they passed by the hitchhiker, turned around immediately and came back but she had vanished. Another version has the girl going to the prom but was killed along the road on the way.

My son Matt, a nearby Police Sargeant, had a nighttime investigation at the cemetery back in April 2022 (Photo #2 – #5). Matt and a fellow officer that he was training drove through the cemetery around 10pm responding to a call.  They found a door unlocked to the large mausoleum (a building that has above ground tombs, crypts and niches). With guns and flashlights trained forward they silently combed the mausoleum halls looking for a trespasser. Matt found another open door and they ascended down steps to a dark room where Matt saw a furnace looking device. He thought that was where bodies were cremated (the reduction of the body to ashes with extreme heat). His fellow officer was freaking out. Fortunately, they found no trespassers, homeless people or drug addicts in the building.

On April 14, 2025, my investigation began by going right to the source with my questions. I entered the cemetery office and spoke to the receptionist. She gave me a list of famous people buried there (such as former Cincinnati Red Joe Nuxhall) and said that the cemetery had almost 27,000 burials to date. She had not heard of the ghost but did say that they had a crematorium in the large mausoleum building but it is now inactive. She called two female managers to come talk to me. One lady was not aware of the claims, but the other lady had heard of the ghostly hitchhiker although none of them had any personal sighting or personal experiences to tell me.

So, naturally after talking to the cemetery staff, I headed to the mausoleum. The doors were unlocked so I toured the vacant mausoleum and its quiet hallways in daylight (Photo #6 – #8). It was quite unnerving.

I parked by the entrance for thirty minutes but had no visual sightings of a female ghost trying to hitch a ride. As for the legend of the ghost, I did not find any evidence that day but perhaps a return trip at night might be more appropriate.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: April 15, 2025

This two-story tavern was built in 1827 by Elisha and son William (known as the father of Yellow Springs) Mills. Back then it was called Elisha’s Tavern. The hand-hewn logs are clearly seen in the back of the building. It was the only Yellow Springs structure on Route 68 at the time.

Our waiter Duane told us of two recent paranormal experiences. We were seated at a corner table, very tight and next to a brick wall and fireplace. Duane told us that recently a lady sat there looking at a menu. Her drink suddenly flew from the table and smashed against the brick just to her right. Rosie reenacted the scene by sitting in the same place (Photo#2). If the woman had accidentally knocked the drink off it would have fallen down to the floor and broke. Instead, the glass flew horizontally and into the brick wall.

Duane also said that the owner Don Beard has video of three glasses moving on their own and falling off of the bar shelf (photo#4).

His wife Christine, stated that when she cleaned the then-upstairs bathroom, that often she would see the form of a woman in a late 1800’s blue dress walking down the hallway. It appears the ghost wears its hair down and seems sad.

A former owner Francis Haffner who died in 1895 (Photo?) only wanted food sold and no spirits is believed to be one of the ghosts that haunt the bar. Haffner’s teenage niece is suspected to be a blond woman wearing a white nightgown seen on the lower floor multiple times over the past ten years by the bartender. The witnesses say that the downstairs ghost appears happy.

I managed to go upstairs (now used mainly for storage) and took many photos around the restaurant. I liked the “Caution Mind Your Head” sign due to the low wood ceiling above an inner door. I could not perform an EVP this trip but would like to investigate this pub further on another occasion.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: March 8, 2025

As I researched paranormal reports before flying to Hawaii, I found the following several odd urban legend reports through the years. One clear windless night a Mrs. Macomber was driving at normal speed near the timberline and lava when a force pushed the tarpaulin in. Both her and her husband could not push it out. He felt a solid force, no wind. They saw two lights approaching from the distance. The lights disappeared although there were no crossroads. Farther on they spotted two red lights, possible taillights that disappeared also. When they returned home a force kept Mrs. Macomber and her daughter in the truck. The husband rushed into the house, returned with salt and threw it into the truck releasing them.

Another time school and county officials returning to Hilo from Kona saw unexplained yellow -red lights glowing. Both cars observed this, but the lights disappeared.

Another report, a man was fixing a flat tire along Saddle Road when he heard a sound on the other side of the car. He walked around and saw no one. He returned to find his wrench had moved two feet from where he dropped it.

Several other scary stories along Saddle Road – a car rolling backwards up a hill. And a large lizard-like creature damaged a car.

After landing at Kona Airport, we drove across the big island of Hawaii. The 101-mile drive took about two hours as we headed past Hilo to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A large part of the drive was across Saddle Road (State Route 200) which gets its name from its location between the towering volcanoes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, often referred to as the “saddle”.

The drive had many beautiful views, but the drive was very desolate and isolated, with long stretches of road between seeing a building or another car. As darkness crept in, the clouds hung low as we gained altitude (up to 3,500 feet) and did look rather eerie although we did not encounter anything out of the ordinary. I guess we chalk this up to Hawaiian lore.

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Jim Hall, Shannon Blessing, Lisa

Date: November 5, 2024

Jim and I met Shannon Blessing and her friend Lisa at dusk at Fairview Cemetery in downtown Englewood. I had met Shannon at a Ghost Hunting talk that I gave to the Vandalia Senior Citizen Club a few weeks earlier. Shannon said that she had a unique talent, possibly stemming from when she was in a coma shortly after she was born. Shannon had the ability while walking or driving through a cemetery to take photographs on her cellphone and then later when viewing the photos, many would show spirits or ghosts. Shannon texted us hundreds of photos and provided Jim and I with a box of printed photos showing her finds over the years. Shannon invited us to meet her at the Englewood cemetery for an investigation. We accepted the invitation.

On this particular Tuesday evening, we walked through Fairview Cemetery, a cemetery that was rare because it did not lock its gates at night. Due to a lack of sidewalks along Union Road and National Road (two borders of this rectangular shaped cemetery), neighbors often cut through the cemetery road or walked their dogs there in the evening. During our investigation we encountered several walkers and skateboarders who scared us as they appeared out of nowhere in the dark.

Shannon took dozens of photos as did Jim and I. Shannon reviewed her photos, circled what she identified as possible spirits and texted dozens of photos to us. A few of her photos are (Photos#2, #3 & #4). Photo #5 looks like a small boy. What do you think?

From Shannon’s previous cemetery visits she sent me Photo #6 of what appears to be a woman spirit being assaulted/strangled. I researched the name on the closest tombstone (Victoria Hughes 1998-2012) but found no evidence in the Dayton Daily News archives. Photo#7 looks like a boy being attacked near a tombstone (F.M. North 1862-1923) but again I found no supporting evidence in the newspaper archives.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: 2021 & 2024

To see the famous Figi Mermaid, I stopped by the Clark County Historical Society & Museum in Springfield. In a glass case was the urban legend, a mummified relic that looked like half fish and half monkey woman. The mermaid was donated to the museum in 1906 by a Navy sailor who had purchased it in Japan. A couple years ago the figs mermaid was loaned to Northern Kentucky University’s radiology department as they used CT scans and X-rays to examine the creature to try to determine how it was constructed.

The results, the hands looked more amphibious like an alligator or lizard. Also, materials used to attach the specimen together were metal, wood and cotton.

The history of this urban legend scam first surfaced around 1820. A sea captain purchased the mermaid in Japan and was told it was found near the island of Figi. Oddly, many fake “mermaids” were sold in the far east by fishermen turning a good profit. The famous P.T. Barnum displayed an original Figi Mermaid in 1842 in New York City. The mermaid became a featured attraction at circus sideshows and carnivals. Photo#4 Shows a fake mermaid I saw in 2024 at the Uranus, Missouri side show.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller

Date: August 3, 2024 & September 6, 2024

As we bicycled two miles north of the Milford Trailhead along the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail near milepost 47.5 at Miamiville, we noticed historical kiosks talking about a Civil War raid and a train disaster at this location. The bike path is a former railroad track. This rails to trail bike trail is the third longest paved trail in America. After research I discovered that this site has paranormal activity. First, the history story.

Confederate Gen. John Morgan’s 2,000 cavalrymen pulling wagons and artillery, forded the Little Miami River on July 14, 1863. A half mile southeast of Porter’s Mill Ford, they cut telegraph lines and sabotaged the Little Miami Railroad by piling railroad ties and wedging them into the cattle guards. As a passenger train pulled by the locomotive “Kilgour” with 115 Union raw recruits headed south toward Camp Dennison, it went too fast around a blind curve (named Dangerous Curve) and struck the The ghost has been seen on the bike path, on a nearby road and sometimes watches a farmer plow his field. boobytrap damaging and rerailing several train cars. One train fireman Cornelius Conway was killed and the engineer seriously injured.

Later that day, Morgan’s calvary slashed across the Little Miami River at Porter’s Mill to capture a bridge ¾ mile west of Miamiville. They succeeded. They then galloped into Miamiville to destroy the Little Miami Railroad Bridge. Union Lt. Smith’s 200 militiamen arrived by train and drove the Confederates to the north bank of the river before the bridge could be blown. A long-range firefight began. After a three-hour battle, another Union squad attacked the Confederates from the rear and drove the Confederates away saving both bridges. The Confederates had six men killed, the Union one killed and one missing.   

My research revealed that there have been several sightings of a ghostly apparition dressed like a trainman who was killed in the train wreck by Morgan’s Confederate raiders. Due to the deadly trauma of his death, is it possible that railroad employee Cornelious Conway still haunts this area near the train crash? Reports began shortly after Conway’s death of an apparition walking along the tracks.

In 1905 when trains still operated on the track, a young man was walking home on the foggy track when he saw 20 feet ahead a figure holding a lantern. He told his dad it must be the ghost of Conway warning travelers of the fog-obstructing safe viewing distance ahead on the track. People who fish at night on the Little Miami River sometimes see a misty figure holding a lantern on foggy nights.

In the summer of 1932, a night passenger train out of Cincinnati was speeding through the area when the engineer saw a man walking in the middle of the track with his back to the train. He blew the whistle, stopped the train, got out but found no man nor a body.

In more recent times the ghost has been seen on the bike path, on a nearby road and sometimes watches a farmer plow his field. My brief investigation consisted of taking many photos and doing EVPs, but I did not produce any evidence of the paranormal claims. I would like to return and do another investigation some foggy evening.