Hell Hollow Road, Voluntown CT
What: Hell Hollow Road, a twisty track through the darkling woods of Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown.
Why you should know it: Word has it, it's haunted. This is where, more than 300 years ago, British soldiers killed a little Pequot girl. To this day, hikers and hunters say you can hear her screams.
“Screaming Maud”: She is known by this name (or Maude), though no one can say how an Indian girl would come by such a moniker. But then, as with so many local legends, what really happened here is lost in the mists of time.
Another Maude? And, in fact, there is another story of another Maude, a witch, who was hanged and buried here.
Investigations: Several teams of ghost hunters have visited this place and what is believed to be the site of Maud's grave. Some have filed reports of their findings online. Check out the Web sites of Creepy Connecticut (“Skeptically Believe!!!” drazor1.tripod.com/id58.html) or PIG-NE, the Paranormal Investigations Group of New England (www.pig-ne.com/031107.html).
Being watched: Mike of Rhode Island, who prefers his last name not be printed, led a team there in the dark of night. “We didn't hear any screams,” he says, but he and a friend felt “an ominous presence” as they walked through the woods in the dark. It was, Mike says, as if someone were following and glaring at them.
Night lights: Mike's team also took a lot of pictures of strange orange lights in the branches of the pitch-black forest. He can offer no explanation for these.
The “goosebump factor”: Mike and his friends assigned the place a goosebump factor of 65, which places it somewhat above “moderate goosebumps on the arms” but slightly below “goosebumps all over the body.” A goosebump factor of 100 would be “full-blown spine-tingling dread.”
EVPs: When members of PIG-NE visited Maud's grave, they reported mysterious drops in temperature (down to minus 4 degrees) and several “EVPs” (Electronic Voice Phenomena) in which the dead whispered into their tape recorders, saying such things as “Wait a minute” and “It's OK, Mommy.” Also, several members reported feelings of ineffable sadness and shortness of breath.
Some debunking: Another visit to Maud's grave, by a group called GHOST (for Grim Hauntings Or Skeptic's Truth) determined that Maud's tombstone — a shattered thing on which the date 1647 (or 1654) is barely legible — was made of modern poured concrete. (Goosebump factor: 0.)
Other apparitions: Several visitors to this place have reported seeing specters of “a lady,” “a hooded figure” and a Civil War soldier. Also, a small yellow ball that looked like a flame. Some have said that if you stand on Maud's grave and say her name, your car will break down.
Off the record: This reporter, being a weenie, visited Hell Hollow Road in broad daylight and so can report no screams. He did leave his digital tape recorder on to capture voices from the grave, and even invited Maud to comment, but the recorder captured only the immense silence of the woods — not one bird song — and his footsteps crunching through the snow. Which raises the question: Are ghosts nocturnal? Do they sleep?
Where's Maud? Maud may haunt this place, but to find her grave, you have to follow Hell Hollow Road into Sterling and cross Route 49 onto Cedar Swamp Road. Just down on the right is a small cemetery, and just beyond that, a path into the woods. Follow this path. Shortly after you cross a stream, you will see a massive, gnarled dead tree on your right (very spooky) and, on your left, the stone foundations of a small shed. Maud's grave is at the center of this. Treat her with respect.
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=998f2f2c-5fd1-440f-b1c1-3bce6a8b6c42
2 Year old found wandering streets in mid-teen weather
Thank God for those two men walking who found her. If they had cared just a little less, they could have just kept walking. If they had, it makes me shudder to think who else could have found her. A rapist, a child molestor, no one...,she could have been hit by a car.
New London — When the man found her, the 2-year-old's fingertips and toes were hurting from the cold.
“We looked outside, we saw this man holding this little girl who only had on a pair of underwear and T-shirt,” said Kasy Daignault, who was working at Shaw's Cove Deli on Hamilton Street Friday morning when a man walked in with a little girl wrapped in his coat.
The child had scratches all over her and was crying, Daignault said. She was grasping a sippy cup and calling for her mother.
“He said, 'Do you know who she is? Do you know who she belongs to?' And that's when we were like, 'Oh, God,' ” Daignault said.
New London police arrested the girl's mother following a two-hour search in which police canvassed the neighborhood, knocking on doors and showing people a Polaroid photo of the girl.
New London Police Capt. William Dittman said two men spotted the girl walking alone near Shaw and Hamilton streets about 8:30 a.m. in temperatures that had dipped into the teens. One of the men brought her into the deli, where three women took care of her and dressed her in warm clothing until police arrived with an ambulance.
“Everybody we could spare was sent down there to try to locate a parent,” Dittman said.
Daignault rode with the girl in the ambulance. Police said they believe the girl walked more than 80 yards on her own and was outside for about 20 minutes.
“We didn't know her name. We didn't know anything,” Daignault said. “ ... The saddest part is, her name is Precious, and we couldn't understand. She was trying to tell us.”
Dittman said police knocked on every door they could, walking house-to-house on Shaw Street and up neighboring side streets. One woman finally saw the picture and recognized the girl, Dittman said, pointing to a house at 159 Shaw St. that police had already visited. They had gotten no answer.
Officers returned to the house and rapped loudly on the door until somebody finally woke up and came to the door, Dittman said.
The girl's mother was not in the house, but a woman there contacted the mother by phone. When the mother returned, police arrested her.
Dittman said the mother claimed she had gotten up to take her son to school in the morning and had awakened another woman in the apartment and asked her to watch the 2-year-old.
Dittman said the woman's story and the mother's story didn't match up.
The mother, Tracey Spencer, who told police she lives at 94 Blinman St., was charged with risk of injury to a minor. She was held on $25,000 bond and is expected to appear in court next week. A resident at 94 Blinman St. said Friday that Spencer does not live there.
The woman on Shaw Street questioned by police was at home Friday but refused to comment. Another resident who answered the door said Spencer was just staying overnight and did not live there.
Dittman said the child was treated at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital and released in good health to the custody of the state Department of Children and Families. Agency officials were looking for a family member Friday to care for the child.
Kelly Anthony, spokesman for L&M, said in cases of neglect or abuse of children, hospital workers keep the child under their protection until DCF officials arrive and the child can be safely transferred into their care.
Gary Kleeblatt, spokesman for DCF, said he could not say where the child would be housed, only that the agency would ensure that she received proper care.
“We're very lucky that those two men stopped,” Dittman said. http://theday.com/re.aspx?re=a2f47d92-3465-4fa2-ba08-4ac195448d46
Norwich Man Returns $185,000 Check He Found
NORWICH, Connecticut - Reggie Damone just wanted to jot down a phone number when he picked up what he thought was litter on a sidewalk this week. But what he found was an envelope containing a $185,000 check.
Damone, who receives government-issued food stamps for low-income workers and works at a McDonald's fast food restaurant, said he did not think twice about trying to cash it. Instead, the 47-year-old took a bus Monday from his Jewett City home to a bank and returned the check to the niece of the landlord to whom the check was written.
She thanked Damone with a $50 bill.
Damone said that although he knew $185,000 could pay his rent and other bills for a long time, he was never tempted to try to cash it and splurge.
He says he remembered his mother's words: If you take something, you lose three times that amount —and if you do something good, something good comes back to you.