SIGHTINGS
"After the '95 homicides everyone lost their goddamn minds (at least it felt that way to me). You think they'd have more sense than to go in the woods but they were thrill-seeking I think. During my freshman year at Linfield I would come home and babysit my kid neighbor on the weekends. It was mid-November and my mom called telling me I should stay on campus that particular weekend. I asked why but she wouldn't give me a straight answer. I called my neighbors and they were beside themselves because their kid wasn't in bed that Wednesday and her window was open. It came out later that her friends planned a game of flashlight tag out by one of those old country roads but the friends said she never showed. I know my infamous former classmate who got away with the murders a few years ago moved back East so I don't think it was them. There's just a lot of creeps getting worked up and courageous enough to do awful things. I hope Kimberly comes back some day or we at least find her body."
- Victoria Bishop, 1998
(posted on a since-deleted website)
"It was the most muggy part of August, the part when your clothes stick to you if you're outside for more than 2 minutes. My cousins and I were playing flashlight tag at Ed Grenfell Park with my uncle, I think it was at least 10:00PM because the sun was clear down already. Two of us were hiding in the trees and it got really cold. It felt nice for a moment. But the cold seeped into my bones like honey into toast. Taylor kinda slumped over. I was scared it was her blood sugar, it was before the time we had those patches you could put on your body for insulin. I tried shaking her awake but it didn't do anything. I caught glimpse of something a stone's throw deeper into the woods. I looked and I saw this shape, kinda like those little stone statues of the Mother Mary, but it was like the light was being sucked into it. It kinda went white like when you look at the sun too long and it goes blue. I woke up in my uncle's SUV. He was giving glucose tabs to Taylor. I asked her if she saw anything weird but she didn't remember anything. I still don't like going to the park at night.
- Kitty Thomas, 1985
(excerpt from the News-Register's "Local Spooks" column in their Halloween issue)