Woodland Cemetery, Dayton Ohio
Possibly one of Dayton Ohio’s better-kept secrets is an historic and picturesque cemetery that overlooks the city. Nestled in tree shrouded rolling hills, Woodland Cemetery is serenely beautiful, with elaborate and richly ornate monuments and massive iron gated vaults. Many of these impressive tombs mark the final resting-place of several of Dayton’s more well known citizens, such as Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and the Wright Brothers. Woodland is also the final resting-place of several individuals who do not rest so soundly. There are many well-known and well-documented stories about Woodland Cemetery and it’s spectral inhabitants, here is something more recent.
Woodland Cemetery is bounded on its southwest side by the University of Dayton. In the fall of 1992, three young men were returning from one of the many off-campus parties that give U.D. a less then welcome “party-school” reputation. Since the boys had consumed their fair share of cheap beer, they wanted to avoid taking the long walk along public streets back to their dorm. They knew, that if they cut through the deserted cemetery they could crawl through the fence right behind the dorm, and sneak quietly into the building. While each was privately apprehensive about walking through the large, darkened cemetery there was no way they’d admit it to each other. They slipped into Woodland through a gap in the ornate iron fence and started up-hill.
As they labored up and over the first set of hills in the older gothic section of the cemetery, the boys began to notice the eerie silence of the graveyard and a distinct chill in the air. While the moon was full, the old and stately trees broke the moonlight into sharp shafts of pale light that cut through the chilled mist, giving the massive monuments a surrealistic if not ominous appearance. To keep their courage up, each taunted the other as they stumbled trough the cemetery. Not fully realizing how large Woodland is, and that their dorm was over a half mile away, the boys began to get disoriented, and stopped to talk.
As they argued over direction, one boy spotted something or someone moving through the mist few yards ahead. “Hey” he blurted, “there’s a babe over there.” The others didn’t believe him at first but, then convinced themselves that a couple of girls had the same idea they did. After all, the girl’s dorm backed up to the cemetery too. Even though they all didn’t see her, the boys decided to head in the direction of the sighting. Approaching a massive stone vault, the boys were aware of soft crying then the uncontrollable sobbing of a young woman. The boys looked at each other, they called out, “Hey, are you alright? Are you hurt? Where are you?” The crying stopped. “Don’t be afraid,” one boy said. “If you’re hurt we can get help.” The boy’s calls were met with silence. They waited, after a few minutes of silence they started to move on, thinking who ever it was, was just messing with them. They walked a few yards.
The crying started again. They turned to look behind them. Sitting on a large stone step leading up to the massive bronze and stained glass gate of the vault, was a young woman. She sat slumped forward with her head in her hands, long blond hair streaming down her back and shoulders. She sat in a shaft of pale moonlight and wept uncontrollably.
The boys were startled, but realized she must be in serious trouble. “Can we help?” one boy called out as he stepped forward. The young woman looked up. She had a startled look on her face, her tear streaked cheeks glistened in the moonlight. She stood quickly, and nervously looked at the boys. One of the boys held out his hand toward her and said, “are you lost, com on we’ll help you get out of here.” Without turning, the young woman quickly drifted backward and passed completely through the heavy bronze gate, into the darkness of the massive stone vault. Stunned, the boys starred at the large tarnished lock on the bronze gate. They nearly crippled each other as they wheeled around to run. Never looking back the boys found their way through the hills and gravestones to the main entrance to the cemetery. Attempting to get out, they made so much racket at the gate that the university police and a grounds keeper were called to let them out. The campus police officer decided to cut them a break and wrote it off as some college boy nonsense. The grounds keeper simply said, well you’re not the first to meet her.