Stepp Cemetery

Stepp Cemetery is a true ghost story about a haunted graveyard located in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest, north of Bloomington, Indiana. According to the legend, it is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman in black.

Stepp Cemetery is a small historic graveyard that has a creepy ghost story associated with it. Near the south end of Stepp Cemetery, next to an old tombstone, there is a worn tree stump that seems to be in the shape of a chair. Over the years, many people who have visited the graveyard at night claim to have seen a ghostly woman dressed in black sitting on the old tree stump. They say she waits there night after night, silently watching over the grave.

According to the legend, there was a woman who came to Indiana and settled down with a local man. The woman gave birth to a daughter and her husband found work at the local quarry.

One afternoon, there was an explosion at the quarry and the man was killed. After she buried her husband in Stepp Cemetery, her daughter became her entire life. The woman was terrified that she would lose her daughter as well and watched over her constantly as she got older.

The daughter met a young man and fell in love. One rainy night, the young couple went out on a date. They were so involved with each other that they lost track of time and didn’t realize how late it was. The boy started the car and drove as fast as he could, trying to get his girlfriend back home before her curfew. The car skidded on the wet roads and crashed into a tree, decapitating the girl and also killing the boy.

The girl’s body was buried in Steep Cemetery. Afterwards, her mother was completely devastated and never recovered from the tragedy. She blamed herself for the horrible death of her only daughter. Every night, the grieving woman would head out to the cemetery and sit for hours on the tree stump beside the graves of her husband and daughter.

People who passed by the cemetery at night would always see the woman sitting there, dressed from head to toe in black, weeping softly and talking to her dearly departed loved ones as if they were still alive. If anyone tried to approach her, the woman would run off and hide in the woods until they were gone. Soon, local residents began to avoid the graveyard, because they believed the woman was crazy.

Eventually, the woman was driven mad from the grief and committed suicide on her daughter’s grave. When her body was discovered, she was buried in the cemetery as well, alongside her husband and daughter.

However, they say her spirit could find no rest and today, her ghost still lingers in the graveyard, watching over the remains of her family. When the moon is full, the woman in black returns to the stump in Stepp Cemetery and those who have ventured into the graveyard say they have witnessed a black figure rise from the old tree stump and turn toward them in the darkness. The most chilling encounters are when some people claim to have spotted the woman in black sitting on the stump, cradling her daughter’s bttered and bloody severed head in her arms.