The Children Buried Under The Road

[00:00:00] And that was when you realized the children were not looking for playmates. They were looking for someone to join them to become a permanent part of their ghostly game. Get ready for a Campfire Story. I'm Edwin.

[00:00:18] I'm Michelle, and we'll share spooky stories with playful banter that'll keep you up at night. So throw some wood on the fire and put a wiener on a stick. We're telling you a campfire story tonight. Wait, Michelle. So where are we? What's going on?

[00:00:41] Well, we've decided to move the show out of the studio and we're going live on location, live in quotation marks. But we've decided to really keep with the scary ambiance and the surprise really to a campfire. And that is why we will now be known as Campfire Story.

[00:01:03] Campfire Story. So what a better place to tell a scary story than by the campfire at night. Agreed, agreed. And for the longest time, this is how stories were shared. So it fits. I like it.

[00:01:17] Me too. We'll both share a story and then also we'd love it if our audience also contributed to our themes. Like our theme this week is haunted highways. Let's do it. Energy down. Let's go.

[00:01:34] Energy down. Energy down. Here we are in the woods playing around by a campfire singing our songs. I'm sure everyone appreciates that, Michelle. Anyway, back to just roads in general and how spooky they are. I think we've all experienced, you know, driving down a road at night alone.

[00:01:57] And my campfire story goes like this. There was a freeway in a town not too far from here where the locals never spoke of it. It was said that at night, the road came alive with the echoes of children's laughter.

[00:02:17] It was the laughter that sent shivers down your spine. A young man named Edwin who was new to town scoffed at these stories. He was a rational person and didn't believe in ghosts. You can relate to that, right Edwin? Yeah.

[00:02:35] So one night Edwin decided to take that freeway home dismissing the warnings of his neighbors. As Edwin drove the night grew darker and a thick fog began to roll in blanketing the road. The street lights flickered as if struggling to maintain their glow against an unseen force.

[00:03:00] Edwin's car headlights cut through the mist but he could barely see a few feet ahead of him. Suddenly he heard it, the faint sound of children giggling. He shook his head thinking it was just his imagination but then he saw them.

[00:03:21] Apparitions of children running across the road, their faces pale and their eyes hollow. They were playing a game of tag darting in and out of the fog coming dangerously close to this moving car. Your heart race as you tried to focus on the road.

[00:03:41] You told yourself they weren't real just figments of your tired mind, you know, you're tired. But then a little girl appeared right in front of your car staring right at you with sad eyes that seemed to plead for help.

[00:03:58] You swerved to avoid her nearly losing control of the vehicle but you regained your composure and as you look in the rearview mirror the children had vanished. The laughter however grew louder and more menacing. And that was when you realized the children were not looking for playmates.

[00:04:22] They were looking for someone to join them to become a permanent part of their ghostly game. So you hit that accelerator desperate to escape the haunting chorus of giggles and as you left that fog behind the laughter faded and the freeway returned to normal

[00:04:40] and you never took that road at night again. And whenever you hear children's laughter you're reminded of that eerie night on that road. Geez, okay. Something about kids giggling. It's some of the kids but here's the thing. You wouldn't think that's real, right?

[00:05:02] Like that's total fabrication. Why would kids be in a freeway? But now I'm going to tell you the story of a killer who's long dead but his crimes echo every time you drive on the Ventura Highway or Route 23.

[00:05:19] Yeah. So the serial killer, Mac Ray Edwards, was a child molester and serial killer who molested and murdered at least six children in Los Angeles County, California between 1953 and 1970. He was sentenced to death and he hanged himself in prison. So he's long dead.

[00:05:41] One of the scary things about him is that he worked for Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation. Oh wow. And he worked on the freeway construction sites during the 50s and 60s. And one of the bodies of Edwards known victims was actually found underneath the Santa Ana freeway

[00:06:06] and he claimed to have disposed of others under the Ventura freeway. Here's the thing. Edwards may have committed other murders but his own accounts were inconsistent. He had claimed to like an inmate or a prison guard that he'd killed between 18 and 22 children

[00:06:26] but he's only officially, he said six. Like there's a quote. Six is all there is, just six. But he has at least five other suspected victims of kids that went missing at that time and even now the police are still looking and as recently as 2008 and 2011

[00:06:49] the police conducted two separate searches following up on potential victims buried under freeways. What? The cadaver dogs got hits on places in the freeway but there wasn't enough evidence to excavate for those bodies.

[00:07:06] Just remember next time you get stuck in a fog and you hear a giggle, that wasn't your imagination. Ready for another road story? I mean I love a good haunted road. Alright. Should we keep trucking down the road?

[00:07:26] So here's a story that I bumped into recently that made me think about the whole ghostly hitchhiker urban legend except this one has actual stories behind it. Imagine this Michelle, you're driving along the road with your husband heading up to San Francisco.

[00:07:44] It's February 26th 1940 and you're both on a cool looking Ford. Its engine is roaring as you drive along the road through beautiful black and white scenery. Because it's the 1940s. But then you spot a woman on the side of the road.

[00:08:02] Oh Michael Jack, you say to your husband, please pull over to help this poor young lady. Certainly he says as he slows the car down and the woman greets you both with a solemn look, opens up the door and gets in the car.

[00:08:17] You keep driving trying not to make it awkward because you keep trying to make conversation with this woman which is frowns, looking very sad. She keeps looking out the window.

[00:08:28] Eventually you get to Dunbarton Bridge toll where back then they charged you based on the number of people that were in the car and not by car. You give 3 cents for 3 people. The attendant looks at you and says, oh my, it appears to me that you have overpaid.

[00:08:46] There were only two of you in the car. There was no one in the back seat. What? This specific story, I mean it's very specific right? Like you pick someone up and go to the toll.

[00:08:57] But this type of urban legend has been told over and over and over like for generations. And it's usually well accepted that they're just rumors. Stories that are just told forever. But this specific ghost called the White Witch just won't die. I've never heard of the White Witch.

[00:09:14] Oh, this is good. It's a creepy one because it's up in Northern California and it's a very specific area. It's the 7 mile stretch of Niles Canyon Road. There was this article that SF Gate did, but they did a very good report on the story which I'll link to.

[00:09:30] But it followed the story of this man who was driving down the road and had an encounter with his ghost. And in my research I found this Facebook post that you know around Halloween 2023 just recently. Ray Palomino posted this Facebook group called Fremont and Niles California Memories.

[00:09:49] He posted this picture of a ghost in the middle of the road. He asks, so what's the actual story behind the Phantom Hitchhiker, AKA the White Witch in Niles Canyon? And the post got flooded with responses.

[00:10:03] A girl having an accident on her way to prom night was one of them. Always. A woman heading to her wedding and dying. Always. The tragic story mentioned by this guy, Brian Wing, about an article in the daily review that said

[00:10:18] that there was this man who was driving to Fremont when he saw a woman along the road near Palomino's road. He didn't stop. He just kept driving. But when he looked in the rearview mirror, the woman was sitting in the car seat behind him. No! That's a nightmare.

[00:10:35] No! He freaked out, stepped on it. He got to a place called Big Daddy's, appropriate name for a driving up there. And then he called the police. It was said that the girl's mother eventually heard the news and rushed to meet with the guy.

[00:10:51] When she got to see the car, she said that it smelled just like the same brand of perfume that her daughter used to wear. She had been killed in the canyon walking home from a broken down car incident. The whole post is about old people sharing memories.

[00:11:11] I loved it. I went through everything. There was one that mentioned the white witch, finally. But it turned out that it was not the white witch that I'm talking about along the road. But there was this phone number that you could call on the phone.

[00:11:25] And this witch would answer your questions that you had. Young kids would call this number and get freaked out. Like, ooh, I'm going to call it.

[00:11:32] And then this actually one of the comments on here said that this woman called and she freaked out because, oh, an old woman answered. So they hung up and that was that. Hello? I've fallen and I can't get up. Where's the beef? Oh, where's the beef lady?

[00:11:50] Like, oh man. Anyway, so a couple of posts actually mentioned that the white witch in Skyline Oakland Hills, they actually called her. And supposedly it was a daughter who was supposed to get married when she was killed by her husband to be. So like, classic.

[00:12:06] That's what they say that this white witch is. I mean, it's like a traditional lady in white. Right? But anyway, among all these posts, there's this one by Daniel Mesiki who says, quote, yep, she was in the back seat of my car in Niles Canyon back in 1979.

[00:12:22] I got off work at Reynolds Canyon plant at three o'clock in the morning driving back to Livermore. I was 20 years old driving back to Livermore in Niles Canyon, driving as fast as a 20 year old would and hit a curve too fast. She touched my shoulder.

[00:12:38] I looked in the back seat and saw her. He was interviewed like he was they made an article the whole story of like what happens experience. Turns out he was driving along the road in his 77 Toyota Celica.

[00:12:52] When he felt a hand on his shoulder, he stopped completely in the middle of the road at night pitch black and complete silence. And he looked back, but there was nobody in his car and he looked around. There's no one there.

[00:13:08] Now again, SF gate is a publication in San Francisco looked into this story and he talked to Daniel Mesiki, the guy and his story held up. The same details, same everything. Although it is a typical hitchhiker vanishing hitchhiker story.

[00:13:23] This one is said to appear only on February 26th and has been in the newspaper articles consistently known as the ghost girl of Niles Canyon or the white witch.

[00:13:36] Now, one of the reporters for this article actually has been known as a deadliest road is very dark and quiet has sharp turns. A lot of areas where you can fall off and crash.

[00:13:48] And one of the reporters literally bumped into a car driving on the wrong side of the road and totaled the reporters car. Totaled.

[00:13:56] And some of the articles talk about how in 1948 they actually sent a photographer to Niles Canyon and search for the ghost girl during her annual February 26th return. The photographer didn't see a ghost, but he did take a few pictures of the canyon.

[00:14:14] And when he developed the photographs, he was stunned to find an ethereal young woman in one of them. She was draped in white and gazing ahead into nothingness. The first paper that ran the image was in 1948. Then again on February 24th 1950.

[00:14:33] But this time it was captioned for those who believe in ghosts we present the above picture. Two days later on February 26th 1950 a ghostly figure did appear on a railroad trestle alongside Niles Canyon Road, spooking drivers as they passed by.

[00:14:55] Now, when you look at the image it looks fake. It looks like this double, what do they call it? Double exposure. Yeah, double exposure. Yeah, which is what they do with a lot of spirit photography is so double negative.

[00:15:07] Yeah, however, digging more into it I found out about the prank. Basically because you know February 26th was the ghost girl's day to come out. There was this white figure that actually appeared there but it turned out to be 19 year old Clarence Chivers wearing a white sheet.

[00:15:29] Alameda County Sheriff's deputies responded and they actually went there and fired warning shots. Jesus. And then arrested Clarence, yeah they arrested him. What if you actually became a ghost while you were pretending to play a ghost? What happens? See that's the thing inside.

[00:15:45] But are you still dressed as a ghost now that you're a ghost? Good question. I mean this feels like inception. Yeah, I'm curious. I'm curious to know what would happen. What if you're in a Halloween party and you're dressed up?

[00:15:58] Yeah, and you die as like the wolf man. Or a clown. Yeah, and then you're just stuck in your clown costume for the rest of what you're like, what happened? Oh man.

[00:16:07] There was this guy who posted some details on the whole white witch phenomenon that keeps going on along that road. And 10 years after he published his research I guess in a short blog post, he got in contact through email from this guy named Mike Chivers,

[00:16:25] who was a nephew of the late Clarence, the guy who did the prank. Oh, okay. And he said yeah, his uncle did indeed stage the prank. And they actually talk about it in family parties and such.

[00:16:38] He was actually arrested, like the guy that did the prank was arrested. I'm not surprised he was arrested. It seems like that would really stress people out. So you'd need to arrest whoever was doing it. Yeah. You think this is funny, but we don't think it's funny.

[00:16:53] Yeah, just creeping people out. But yeah, the story stays alive and even despite the prank and it's confirmed that it was a prank, people still believe it. And you can tell by all these posts of the people that lived around the area talking about their memories

[00:17:06] being scared by this ghost entity that lurks at Niles Canyon Road. So even though some of these stories of vanishing hitchhikers might be made up in just rumors, they're always surrounded by some truth.

[00:17:22] And in this case, maybe there were warnings because this road happened to be one of the deadliest. So you might be the next one. Just a heads up, keep your eyes on the road everybody. Well, Edwin, do you believe in haunted roads? I do.

[00:17:36] And that's because of my experience at the Pacheco Pass. There's an eerie vibe that you get there, but I like that thing. I go after that. Like I chase that like, that thrill.

[00:17:44] I feel like I'm safe in the car, but now after finding out that, you know, they can go into the car. Ghosts can go in wherever. They're just popping in. They don't need locks. Yeah, that that creeps me out. What about you?

[00:17:57] I'd say once again, I'm more scared of people outside on the road that I am of ghosts. I used to live out in Apple Valley and so that lots of desert stretches of road without any sort of like lighting.

[00:18:09] So fairly, I loved speeding on those roads at night. But like out in that same area, that family got murdered and buried out there. You know, those family that went missing? That sounds familiar. That sounds familiar. Do you remember that? It was like a San Diego family.

[00:18:24] They were like buried up one of those roads that I used to just go up and down like speeding around on. Isn't that weird? Wow. So once again, I think I'm more scared of like a random person. I get it. Logical.

[00:18:39] It makes sense to be afraid of things that could kill you. I don't think ghosts can kill you unless they scare you to death and then. I mean, I guess a ghost could scare you into an accident and that could be their intent if they wanted to.

[00:18:50] Send in your comments, you guys. Reviews, DMs. We're going to start reading them live on the air. Do it! Harmony says, first off, if they had to prick a ghost president to appear in their home, it would be George Washington. Ooh.

[00:19:09] They're asking if we can do the story of Teresa Fidalgo. Is it true that Teresa Fidalgo was sleep by your side? Oh. Like a ghost unmasking the enigma of Teresa Fidalgo's tragic legend. Okay, we have to do this at least. Oh, that sounds great. All right.

[00:19:27] Well, I think I'm calling it. This has creeped me out thoroughly. I guess it's time to put out the fire and head home. Will you be able to make it to the next campfire story? Good night. Good night. Oh.

[00:19:45] Campfire story is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Cooverubias. This podcast was edited and sound designed by Sarah Voorhees Wendell, a VW sound.