South Bend Cemetery Investigation

South Bend Cemetery is also known as Dark Bend Cemetery and Wilkerson Cemetery. There are Native American Indian graves at the far end of the cemetery. One above ground burial in a tiny sarcophagus has been broken into in the past by late night visitors. Due to this discovery, owners of the cemetery have forbidden any future burials in those locations.

Address: South of E 50^th Street between N 2150 & N 2200^th Streets, in Jasper County, near Rafetown, Illinois 62475

GPS: 38°51’414”, 87°58’266”

Hauntings: A ghost of a Native American Indian on horseback with a lantern has been reported. There was a skull found protruding from the far end of the cemetery and found by some local teenagers that took it back home with them. After getting in trouble with their mother over this grisly souvenir and some strange activity beginning in their house, they brought it back and pushed in back into the ground where they had found it.

People hear and see strange things all the time especially at night. A lot of activity has been encountered around a grave with the name Mary M on it. A past investigator said that after he had investigated there and tried to communicate with the spirit, he claimed that a woman followed him home and began haunting him. The grave has been busted and broken into small pieces.

The Ghost Research Society investigated South Bend Cemetery  on August 28, 2020 and the team members included: Mike Rosario, Kelly Griffey and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Jason Dickerson, Courtney Mendenhall and Ed Reese from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunter's Society

Equipment setup: A Sony Nightshot IR camcorder was deployed to videotape the EVP sessions that were conducted here. Digital recorders and cameras were used along with the Ovilus X with DTD screen and a Sangean Ghost Box sweeping the AM frequency.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X and Sangean Ghost Box sessions were conducted near the Mary M grave, the Boggard’s graves, Menacher graves and the broken up gravestone.

Personal experiences:

Mike Rosario:  The following equipment that I used to investigate with here were: a K-II Meter, a Sony Night Shot Handy-Cam DCR-TRV13 NTSC 560 Digital-8 20X Optical Zoom Video Camcorder, an Amzdeal Tri-pod, a Green Laser Grid, a Philips Voice Recorder, an iPhone8 Cellular Phone (for pictures and video), and a Police Security Elite Blackout 615 Lumen Hands-free Heavy-Duty Head Strap Flashlight.  I wanted to bring the extra nighttime equipment if the weather turned grim or if the daylight were to fade at any moment during the investigation. I photographed a few known hotspots within the cemetery, and I believe also Jason did a Facebook Live session here as well. Evidence consisted of a Phasma Box audio clip that was taken at South Bend where a soft-spoken male voice had mentioned the name “Menchner” or “Metzner” during an EVP session. Upon hearing that, I immediately sprung to my feet, because I had read a name like that on a stone somewhere before on the cemetery grounds.  I immediately searched all around for this name that sounded like Mencher or Metzner, and had found it.  It was a beautiful stone and family plot with the name “Menacher” on them.  There were at least five or six stones pertaining to that name alone.  So, I took it as “Menacher” that this one male voice was trying to convey.

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a daytime visit to this location which probably should have been investigated at night due to all the claims of ghostly Indians and other strange sounds. We did get some full sentences coming through the Sangean Ghost Box while quickly sweeping the AM band. One of the last sentences that came through said, “Would you please leave?” This was right before I was to ask the question if the spirits wanted us to stay or leave. It was like whoever was there, read my mind in advance.

My name was called out as well as what sounds like “Metzner” when we were near a bunch of markers with the name “Menacher” on them. We asked for a name and “Metzner” came through!

A few of us heard what sounded like a growl or moan but we couldn’t determine the direction of the sound and nobody claimed the sound. A little while later several of us heard the boom-boom sounds of an Indian Tom-Tom!

Evidence collected:

Dale Southbend.MP4 – while conducting a Sangean Ghost Box session sweeping the AM band near the Menacher graves around 4:14pm, “Dale” was called out.

Metzner Soutbend.MP4 – while conducting a Sangean Ghost Box session sweeping the AM band near the Menacher graves around 4:14pm, a question was asked, “Can you tell us your name?” The device responded with what sounds like, “Metzner.”

What the hell Southbend.MP4 – while conducting a Sangean Ghost Box session sweeping the AM band around 4:28pm, the device said in a clear male voice, “What the hell!”

Would you please leave Southbend.MP4 – while conducting a Sangean Ghost Box session sweeping the AM band around 4:28pm, the device blurted out, “would you please leave?’ (This came just before I had asked the question of whether you wanted us to stay or leave.)

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: corner, circle, float and never; Phonetic Mode: Yang, go out, here are and earlier.

Words spoken by the Sangean Ghost Box sweeping in the AM band: Metzner, Dale, help, what the hell, can’t wait and would you please leave.

Conclusions: Again these was an interesting location and probably, in my opinion, should have been visited after dark to get the full effect of possible paranormal phenomena and the use of our Nightshot and IR binoculars capability.

I believe we received what could be called intelligent responses to some of the questions asked. I think more research should be conducted as to the burials of Native American Indians on the property and what tribe they would have been.

A lot of the secluded cemeteries that we visited in our 2020 trip to downstate Illinois were extremely hard to research as to when they were started, the owners and exact addresses. GPS coordinates were employed to found these locations because they are often on rural dirt roads and canopied by trees and other foliage. Another trip here after hours would be ideal in the future.