Reder Road Investigation

Located in Griffith, Indiana; this five mile road once connected Griffith to Merrillville. It has been closed since the 1970s. Take I-94 and get off on Cline Avenue South (exit #5). Take Cline Avenue for almost a mile and a half. Turn left onto US-6 also known as Ridge Road. Go a mile down Ridge road and turn right onto Colfax Street. Go just over two and a half miles and then turn left onto Reder Road. Follow Reder Road for about half a mile and you will come to a gate. That's were Reder Road used to follow, but now it's just a dead end.

GPS: 41 30.704 x 87 24.595

A girl named Elizabeth Wilson drowned in a swamp after the car she was riding in went off the road into a swamp. An engineer fell off a train and was killed and an old church was existed in the woods.

Hauntings: People say that if you drive down the road at night you can see Elizabeth waiting on the side of the road waiting for a ride back to her house down the road. People who claimed to give her a ride back to her house get as far as Ross Cemetery (41 31.661 x 87.23073) before she disappears; the same cemetery that she was buried in 1955. However, there is no official burial in Ross Cemetery of anyone named Elizabeth Wilson.

There are also reports of visitors hearing the sound of a congregation apparently screaming from a phantom church that is never seen due to an insane pastor that killed them all. Others have heard the sounds of female whispers as they walk down the trail.

A visible apparition of a man dressed in black or a shadow figure is often seen walking along the railroad tracks that parallel Reder Road but only after dark. He is sometimes seen carrying a lantern and is thought to have been engineer who fell from a train sometime in the 1940s. Eerie lights have also been reported along and near Reder Road.

There are local legends that “the mob” used to throw dead bodies along this very desolate stretch of roadway in the 1930s. Nothing has ever been uncovered to substantiate that claim. There are also rumors that a number of suicides took place in the 1980s and 1990s.

The GRS investigated Reder Road on June 27, 2016 and the team included: Stan Suho, Kathie Para, Marge Sucha, Gregory Kos, Jim Piscopo, Chuck Williams and Dale Kaczmarek.

Equipment setup: No equipment was set up. The group used handheld devices; SB-11 ghost box, Ovilus X, digital recorders and cameras.

Experiments performed: A Ghost Box and Ovilus session was conducted by the train tracks where a shadow figure sometimes holding a lantern was encountered.

Personal experiences:

Gregory Kos: The boys walked the Road with nothing out of the ordinary noted. Chuck did a brief voice box session at the RR tracks where the woman died...no results

Jim Piscopo: We arrived at Reder Road about 1:30 pm. It was very hot so we took our time walking the road. We did an EVP session on the road and one by the railroad tracks. I took some pictures with my digital camera. Didn't feel anything odd along the road.

Chuck Williams: Equipment: Go Pro Camera, FS Digital Camera, Zoom Recorder

Personal Experiences: None noted.

Dale, Stan, Jim, Greg & I went on this excursion. Kathie P. had a torn meniscus (Undiagnosed at the time) so she and Marge stayed in the park. We didn’t walk the length of the less than 2 mile road due to a number of reasons; bugs, summer heat, physical issues.

No investigation was held at this site, just an excursion to the cemetery Elizabeth Wilson is supposed to be interred in. I have walked the whole cemetery, and have not found evidence of her grave. Her story is of the vanishing hitchhiker variety.

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a location that I have wanted to visit for quite a number of years partly for curiosity but more importantly its connection to possible paranormal encounters. We visited the road on one of the hottest days of the summer and found the trek to be a bit overbearing at times due to the heat, insect population and length of our walk.

The road did vaguely resemble the trail leading into Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery at times and even though it was broad daylight, it did seem a little creepy and odd.

The forest fought us almost with every step we took as though it was trying to prevent us from uncovering its secrets.

I could imagine eerier this road would be at night but unfortunately it would probably be illegal to visit after dark. I came away from this location with a better understanding of the haunts, history and local legends that have made Reder Road the most haunted road in northern Indiana.

Evidence collected:

I thank you reder.MPG – while conducting a Ghost Box session by the train tracks, the Ghost Box says, “I thank you.”

Reder Road.MPG – video clip of the GRS team walking down Reder Road.

Reder Road opinions.MPG – video clip with Suho and Piscopo opinions of Reder Road.

Yes reder.MPG – while conducting a Ghost Box session by the train tracks, a question was asked, “Does anyone know Elizabeth Wilson?” The Ghost Box responds with, “Yes.”

Conclusions: This wasn’t a formal and complete investigation of Reder Road but actually more of a scouting party. One EVP session using the SB-11 and Ovilus X was conducted near the train tracks; most of what the team did that afternoon was walk down this spooky road and try to have any personal experiences. None were forthcoming.

It would be interesting to have collected some pictures when the road was in use and have actually interviewed eye witnesses that had encountered something unusual when visiting the site. I personally believe that most, if not all, the stories that circulate this forgotten highway to be that of urban legends since none were able to be validated. No burial records of an Elizabeth Wilson could be found in Ross Cemetery, no evidence of an old church in the woods even though there are forums and websites that claim the contrary and no history could be located of an untimely death of an engineer.

It still is a fascinating place and worth a look around however a cooler day might be more comfortable.