Cemeteries After Dark: Creepy Happenings at Cemeteries

 

Cemeteries close at sunset and there's a reason. Anyone at a cemetery at night is not up to any good. In fact, it's illegal to enter after dark. Anything that happens then, is bound to be criminal. Here's some cases -

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Thousands of partially cremated human bones were discovered in open pits at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Bisbee, Arizona, in September and October 2010. The cemetery owner and operator, Paul Parker, admitted to dumping the remains in the pits to save money. The bones were from a Tucson medical research facility and were supposed to be fully cremated and pulverized, but Parker instead dumped the unpulverized, partially cremated remains over a period of years.

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A body was found buried near the top of a pre-existing or freshly dug grave in a notable Arizona case when a homicide suspect hid a victim's remains inside an active cemetery plot. In 2004 in Phoenix at Resthaven Park Cemetery, a murder confession revealed that a suspect snuck into the graveyard at night and placed a victim's body (Michael Martin) four feet deep into a freshly dug grave directly above an existing woman's coffin.

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It has been known through the centuries that, in order to teach medical students, they needed cadavers. In the olden days, families were superstitious and would not contribute to the studies when they lost family members. Graverobbing became an often task in order to acquire what they needed.

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Long ago, in the death-obsessed Victorian Era, there were many rumors that people were buried in great haste and sometimes those people were not dead. This led to the invention of a warning device consisted of a string tied to the finger or toe of a dead person that led to a bell that was placed above the grave. 

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Man-made lakes are usually the result of damming and creating a body of collected water. Lake Lanier in Georgia has long become associated with hauntings and there may be a reason. Towns that were drowned by the process left cemeteries intact, now deeply resting in water. 

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In 1991 in Falls Church, Virginia, a cemetery was being used by practitioners of Santeria were making animal sacrifices. Police found candles, ritual objects, and slaughtered animals on the grounds. 

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This last August 2026, a hurricane hit Hawaii. 

Flooding during the storm unearthed and washed away burials at Nāʻālehu Cemetery. A concerted effort led by the Hawaiʻi National Guard to document displaced burials has identified 69 sets of human remains in the area. Some remains were found as far away as a mile.

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As a ghost investigator, I'm often asked by folks, "why would you go to a cemetery to look for a ghost?" No, spirits would not hang around their bodies. Bigfoot is often seen there and shadow people, but neither seem to want to be seen by humans, so it might be a place they know no humans are going to be after dark. 

As an investigator, the thing I did find is that newly visited graves with fresh flowers and balloons and such, you have a location where a loved one sat, focused on that missing person, catching them up on their life, missing them, feeling intense emotions and those would be what draws a spirit.

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If your spooky Halloween self is now wanting to visit a cemetery at nighttime and know you can't, just sit back and enjoy some films that bring it to you - 

Cemetery Man 

Night of the Living Dead

One Dark Night 

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 

Now and Then 

Phantasm 

Pet Sematary 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 

The Serpent and the Rainbow

The Midnight Hour 

The Omen

Poltergeist 

Here's some of my favorite photos I've taken at cemeteries I attended as the sun was prepping for sunset as it casts long shadows. 

When I visit cemeteries, I bring a trash bag and clean up. I also bring flowers. I leave a flower on a very old grave, one that has no one alive who knew them. I say their name out loud, as it may not have been spoken of in a long time, and leave a flower. These are beautiful peaceful memorials and we need to maintain that as the generation of keepers. 

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One cemetery, I was locked inside of. I was there on the far end, heading to my car parked by the gate and the keeper locked the gate - with my car right there! My son and I had to climb the gate and walk to a store to use a phone to get help. While there, we found cats lived there and likely stalked the birds. It was dark by the time we got to my car and I noticed a cat atop a headstone with reflecting eyes. 

Happy Spooky Season, y'all!