Pinewoods Cemetery

Living in New York for many years I have come across some interesting sights. One of these that has always plagued my mind was that of a cemetery thought to be haunted by everyone I met and knew up in New York. This cemetery is called Forrest Hills Cemetery, but everyone knows it only as Pinewoods cemetery because of the location being on Pinewoods Road. While tresspassing on this site has been an offense since the 1930's the location has drawn in the public on a quite regular basis and it is a sort of right of passage to the kids living in this area of New York. Being that it was only about 15 minutes from my house and after hearing unsettling stories told by friends, I had decided to venture into the cemetery at about 2 am one night.

Previous to my night I had heard many stories and discovered through a radio station that Life magazine had announced Pinewoods as one of the top 10 most haunted cemeteries in the United States! Now, I have heard numerous detailed accounts of activity at Pinewoods and after doing my research have discovered that others have encountered very similar experiences. My friend Evan even went on to test out a theory about the "bleeding statue" that excretes a red liquid from her eyes during the night but that will not be photographed. I can attest to the stained eyes of the statue when I was there and a light red liquid was in fact, dripping from her eyes down her face. Evan had decided to bring in his camcorder and two packs of un opened batteries to get a clear shot. He traveled into this place and turned on his camera only for it to immediately drain of battery and shut off. He then opened a new pack of batteries and the same occurrence happened for all of the new batteries. While looking up people's testimonies online, I have seen this same incident repeated by numerous people.
When my sister was looking for excitement with her friends, she found herself at the same statue, which is deep into the cemetery and had a very eerie encounter. Her friends were gazing at this statue and trying to find the source of this liquid coming from its eyes when they heard a voice and turned around. A little girl was supposedly standing behind them saying that she had gotten lost and couldn't find her way out. They then heard a rustle in the woods and being spooked turned to identify it, but when they turned back the girl was gone and they could not find her again. This occurrence too has been posted on numerous blogs by people on the internet which makes you wonder if something is going on.
The real question at hand is whether or not the cemetery could in fact be haunted or if people have overactive imaginations leading them to believe what is not real. Most would take the route of assuming the latter without wanting to believe in this paranormal activity, however I can attest that if you spend just a short amount of time in this cemetery you would be a believer. When I ventured into the cemetery with a few friends trying to get an adrenaline rush, we found just that. We had gotten into the cemetery undetected by the police who make it a point to heavily patrol the area through the night, being that this attraction draws in many customers. It is said that once you enter the mosoleum, you will feel a pull that makes you not want to leave and that the mausoleum itself is a gateway to hell. People re-tell stories of this pull to the mosoleum and photographs of the inside are almost unheard of with many cameras not working in this location. Anyway not to get off track, once inside the cemetery we came across a group of individuals who called themselves witches who were on a journey to do a seance at the bleeding statue. This fact alone freaked me out but I followed out of pure curiosity. They were a weird bunch telling us that they frequent the cemetery and that as long as you respect the dead, they will not be violent...creepy! So as I walked into the woods and the seance began I felt fear and decided I had seen enough. The statue was in the middle of the night with liquid coming from its eyes and fully opened and bloomed flowers at its feet. I then began on a path to get out when my group heard a rustle in the woods around us, like some Blair Witch stuff. I saw a small figure run through the woods and disappear, then reappear and sprint through the woods again. Everytime one of us tried to shine a light on the situation, there would only be trees, but with the lights off there it was again, a small shadow taunting us on our unguided path out of this place. There was a feeling as if we were being watched that came over the entire group. Once we got out there was a sense of fresh air along with a sigh of relief from being out of the whole situation and I have never stepped foot inside the place again.
Some potential consequences of this action taken by many people both believers and not would be a possible tresspassing ticket, a true haunting, or a potential drive to want to stay in the cemetery, especially the mausoleum, who a girl I worked with frequented weekly saying she had to go. The purpose for me was to find out if the place was actually haunted or if it was a big let down and I can say honestly the feeling the cemetery gives you is unreal and it instills fear into most who travel into it. The only conclusion I can give is that for many people this is an actually haunted cemetery with something unnatural occuring even if there is no scientific proof of the paranormal activity. The cemetery has been closed since the 1930's and has become overgrown with trees and weeds etc. Maybe I will send this blog post to Ghost Hunters and see if they will get a permit from the city and do some real testing. Now that you are all freaked out I will post a picture of a famous statue in the cemetery of an angel whose head went missing, along with all of the missing bodies in the mausoleum. Oh and I will post a picture of the outside of the mausoleumwhich apparently can be photographed.