Does the ghost of a murdered girl haunt an oak tree near Sanger?

A reader shared this with me last week about a weird encounter that happened to his cousin outside of Sanger late one night. This is what he sent me:

"Alright so here's a true story that happened to my cousin. He's about 14 years older than me, I'm 35. This happened to him in the early 90's. He was going to college and was working graveyard part time at one of those convenient gas stations that's open 24 hours. He lives in Parlier but he used to work that job in Sanger. This happened one night in the winter. He got off around 1 in the morning and he would take Newmark to get from Sanger to Parlier. He was driving and it was foggy so he was going slow. He was going down Newmark when he sees what looks like a young girl walking down the side of the road. My cousin is genuinely a good guy, a good Samaritan type. He pulls over and lowers the window and asks "hey did you need a ride" the girl keeps walking and doesn't even turn around. He tries one last time, and he asks again "are you okay, do you need a ride." He said he turned the light on in his car for whatever reason, but after he asked that 2nd time, she poked her head in the car and repeated verbatim what he asked her. He said she had the ugliest face ever, like someone over did it or got crazy with black make up. After she spoke she started laughing and he said that laugh sent shivers down his spine. He freaked out and sped off. He said after that he NEVER took Newmark to get home when he was getting off late." 

Creepy story to say the least and it reminds me of the stories I've heard that happened on Channel Road. Talking to the person some more they told me of a local Sanger story of a young girl that was supposedly raped and killed by an oak tree on Newmark and Central and haunts the road where she was killed. He thinks this is what his cousin saw driving on Newmark late that one night.

The oak tree in question. Just south of Newmark and Central.

Looking at a map I saw this was very close to Snake Road. I'm still researching this story, but if it's true could this be the actual origin for the Snake Road ghost? Granted they are very different stories, but is it more than just coincidence that two haunts are near each other? I've already been on record saying that I think the Snake Road story is nothing more than a retelling of La Llorona. But I've witnessed weird things on that road and know others who have as well. Could the things I and others have witnessed actually be this poor woman haunting the area and people used her story to spin a cautionary tale for Snake Road? Or is Sanger cursed with two ghosts that both share tragic, but different tales?

Want to go ghost hunting with Weird Fresno?

For a while I've talked about some of the places in the Fresno area that are rumored to be haunted and what, if any, experiences I have had at them. Also I've mentioned some of the techniques and equipment that one could use to get started. Well now I'm going to be offering something else to anyone who is interested in the paranormal. A chance to go ghost hunting with Weird Fresno.

While on the Dirty Dowdy podcast last week, Chris Dowdy had mentioned how he want to check out a local haunt and possibly bring a few listeners along and record it for a future podcast. I talked to him last night and he said it was definitely going to happen and asked for me to post something.

A date has not been worked out yet as he's trying to get a psychic to go along with us, but we are planning are taking a trip to Channel Road one night this month and see if we can see the ghost of the mother that lost her children wandering up and down the road. Both Chris and I will be recording for future podcasts, so whoever goes has to be ok with this.

Later today at the 4:00 hour, Chris will be on New Rock 104.1. He will go into detail on what's going to occur. Listen then to find out how you can join us as we investigate Channel Road.

Return to Snake Road

Last Saturday night I was bored and itching to do a bit of ghost hunting so I decided I'd take a drive to Channel, or Snake Road, in Sanger (which is in the eastern part of Fresno County) as it had been a couple of years since I had been there and I wanted to shoot some video for the website. Now normally I wouldn't advise anyone to go alone, so I let a few people know where I was at in case something happened.

For those who don't know the legend, basically it says that a woman and her two children were driving down the very windy road (this is where it gets the nickname Snake Road) and she took a turn too fast and drove off into the river. She was unable to get out of the car and drowned there. Her two children were able to get out, but they drowned downstream. Supposedly the mother wanders up and down the road at night looking for her two children. I did a more lengthy post here, explaining how I felt it was more urban legend than anything else. Still I wanted to check it out.

I left the apartment with both cameras fully charged. But when I got there, my video camera was nearly drained and had maybe four minutes left on it. I have no idea what caused this, but I have been on investigations before where electronic's would suffer battery drain similar to this when there was paranormal activity around.

Still I was able to shoot this bit of video. I apologize for the first part as it's pitch black, even with the night vision turned on. I decided to leave it in as you can hear the confusion in my voice regarding the battery drain. The latter part is me driving down the road as I wanted to show how windy it actually was.

I don't know what caused the battery drain. I did check my camera the next day after recharging it and there were no problems (even used it that night with no problems). Maybe the charge didn't take for some reason. Or maybe there was something out there that didn't want me filming. I think a second trip may be warranted in the near future.