Does the spirit of a police officer haunt Friant Road?

It amazes me that after researching stories in the Fresno area that I am still discovering new ones. The fact that this story has been around for over 10 years and I have never heard of it until last Saturday night amazes me even more.

I was with a group of friends heading up towards Lost Lake Park to investigate the area. Unfortunately when we got to the park, it was already closed. Deciding we would come back when it was open later (it closes at 7:00 right now, but starting April 1 it closes at 10:00) we headed back down Friant towards Fresno. As we were driving back I brought up the fact that there were multiple traffic related deaths on the road and wondered if anyone could possibly haunt it. One of my friends asked me if I had ever heard of the police officer who died on the road and now haunts it, pulling over anyone who was speeding or driving dangerously. This was the first I heard of it and asked him how he had heard the story. He told me his dad had encountered the officer himself. This is what happened according to his dad:

His dad was driving down Friant late one night, speeding as the road had hardly any traffic. He took a turn when he saw the familiar red and blue lights of a patrol car flashing behind him. He pulled over and waited for the officer to approach him. When the officer got to the window he asked the driver if he knew how fast he was going and said that he should be more careful as there are always traffic accidents on that stretch of road and he could have been killed taking a turn too fast. But he was in a good mood and decided to write a “warning” ticket and let the driver go on his way. Confused as to what the ticket was for, he went to the station the next day to find out. When he showed the ticket to the officer at the front desk, the officer was surprised and asked him where he got it from as they haven’t used that particular one in years. He told them he was pulled over by a police officer and was given the ticket as a warning. They decided to check the badge number to see who had wrote it. When the officer looked it up, there was a look of shock on their face. That particular officer had died on Friant Road several years ago. It seemed even in death he was patrolling the road to make sure no one met the same fate he did.

I found the story interesting, particularly because their was a piece of actual evidence (my friend is trying to get in touch with his dad about the ticket). Curious as to if there was any credence to the story, I posted on Facebook the next day posing the question as to if Friant Road was haunted given all the accidents that have occurred over the years. So imagine my surprise when two separate people told me the almost exact same story. That a phantom police officer was pulling over people for driving too fast and issuing them a warning. When they would inquire about the officer they were told he died on that road. Just out of curiosity I contacted a friend who is a local police officer and he too had heard the story. Now we have a legend, someway, somehow this story was getting around. The question is whether there is any validity to it or not.

Researching deaths, I did find one officer died on Friant, but it was in 2011 and he was off duty. When I went back to Lost Lake on Monday to take some photos I noticed that there was an officer memorial sign as I passed Willow Ave. Could this be the name of the ghost? I was able to find the officers obituary and he did die in 2003, but not on Friant but near Fowler. Could these two stories have some merged into one? Don’t believe so as the first story I was told occurred before 2011.

So is there any truth to this story? As usual it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. This story has to have a genesis as all and somehow it grew bigger and bigger, having a life of its own. The best course of action right now is to research the road and see if any other officer died on it or if possible to get the ticket mentioned to me from the other night. But even I can’t find anything concrete, could there still be some truth to this story? Have people actually been pulled over on Friant Road late at night by a phantom police officer, one who is trying to prevent the same fate that occurred to him on that road years ago? It’s hard to say, but given what I've been told I wouldn't be surprised.

Stanislaus County town plagued with occult activity during the mid 1980's

In the mid 1980's Stanislaus County was witness to several cult related crimes, including Satanic rituals and the desecration of a body at the Denair Cemetery.

In 1985 several Modesto residents received ominous letters signed by a "Natas" (Satan spelled backwards) that said "Watch out for when you hear footsteps at night, and see SHADOWS on the WALL, and then the ghostly sounds of SILENCE as the MIST begins to fall and a scream goes out like THUNDER and SATAN calls this number 666 'AND FOR YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE, FOR HE SAID IT MUST BE DONE." Also scribbled on the type written letters were upside down crosses representing the antichrist and swastikas representing forces turned against nature.

Nearly a year later the small town of Denair was shocked when sheriff's deputies found the town's small cemetery was the site of a satanic ritual that including digging up and desecration of an interned body.

According to deputies the grave robbers left two unmistakable telltale signs that they were practicing some form of devil worship, a fire blackened circle on the ground near where the body was unearthed. The other was that the body was partially dismembered, though details weren't given about the dismemberment besides stating that body parts were missing. Deputies said the markings on the ground were consistent with satanic rituals and that they stand inside the burned circle as part of the ritual to protect them from harm. Evidence at the scene suggested there were at least six people involved.

Local residents were both shocked and outraged at what happened. Though people had their suspicions as to who the culprits were, no one was ever arrested for these crimes. At the time agencies in the area said they were convinced that the incident was part of a growing trend of devil worship.

Despite the fact that the Modesto Bee said this was one of several occurrences of cult activity in the area, I couldn't find anything else mentioned besides some random posts of someone's dad seeing figures in black robes on the side of a road nailing a dead cat to a stop sign, or of a severed goat's head found in Stockton. I do find it funny that the article then goes on to blame heavy metal artists like Ozzy Ozzbourne and Motley Crue (Motley Crue is heavy metal?) for the rise of interest of Satanism in teenagers.

Still it's interesting that there was a rash of cult activity in Stanislaus County. I wonder what happened to the members. Did they just grow out of this phase of their lives? Or did they just disappear into everyday society and took their cult activities underground and are still practicing this day? No one may ever know.

Paying your respects from a drive-thru funeral home

I came across a video yesterday while at lunch of something that's a bit different than what I normally see and post here on Weird Fresno. It was an interview of a woman who owned a funeral home in Compton and it had a unique feature of a drive-thru viewing window. One would be able to drive up to the spot where the body was being viewed and you could either stay in your car or step out and view the body and sign the register.

This isn't the only drive-thru funeral home in the country. There is one in Chicago and another in Louisiana. But the owner of Robert L. Adams Mortuary, Peggy Scott Adams, believes her's to be the only one in Southern California.

At first I thought this was a bit weird. But as I watched the video I began to warm up to the idea. There are some people who can't attend the funeral of the person and this gives them a chance to pay their last respects. Another interesting thing I found was that people who were walking by would sometimes go up to the viewing window and pay their respects, even if they didn't know the person.

Now I doubt this concept will catch on everywhere, but it is something unique and not morbid in the least. In a culture that seems to fear death, it's comforting to know that not everyone out there is afraid of it and wants to pay their respects to the dearly departed.

The LA Times did an article on the funeral home and it can be found here.

Strange reptilian bird found in Mexico

Given that this video is entirely in Spanish and my understanding of the Spanish

language is lacking to say the least, I have no idea what the hell is really going on in this video. All I know is that some strange reptilian-like bird was found in Mexico and it looks mean. Surely this has to be some known species of bird, but I've never seen one with a mouth/beak like that. Can birds get mange like dogs? Maybe it's a flying Chupacabra sighting? Still, it's weird whatever in the hell it is.

Satanic cult sacrificed victims then ate them.

Seven young members of a satanic sect have gone on trial in Russia accused of four gruesome murders in which they "ritually sacrificed" their victims before cooking and eating parts of them.

Prosecutors say the murders took place on 29 and 30 June 2008 in a remote forested area close to Yaroslavl with two victims killed per night.

The self-styled devil worshippers, which included a young teenage girl, lured three girls and a boy aged from 15 to 17 to the spot by plying them with alcohol and inviting them to sit round a bonfire.

hey then killed them in a sacrificial ceremony, stabbing them 666 times each in homage to the so-called Number of the Beast.

Prosecutors say the young killers then dismembered their victims' bodies and cooked certain body parts such as the hearts and the tongues before consuming them.

They buried the rest of the remains in a giant pit which they marked with an inverted cross topped with a dead cat. Investigators say the sect was formed in 2006 and gleaned its knowledge of Satanism from the Internet, initially killing cats and dogs before graduating to homicide.

The case has shocked inhabitants of the historic city of Yaroslavl some 150 miles north-east of Moscow which is one of Russia's 'Golden Ring' tourist destinations and better known for its beautiful churches and monasteries than grisly ritual killings.

The defendants' young age - four of the accused were under eighteen at the time of the murders - and the sheer cruelty of their crimes combined with the fact that none of them came from poor families has left many locals struggling to understand their motives.

The case is being held behind closed doors but local media say all seven defendants admit their guilt. They are officially charged with murder, theft and the desecration of human remains.

They would typically be jailed for life but the fact that four of the defendants were minors at the time means they are likely to get off more lightly.

Link to the original article can be found here.

Who or what are the shadow people?

Shadow people are paranormal shadow-like creatures that people usually see in their peripheral vision. Reports suggest that they do not appear to reflect light and that their appearance is essentially a silhouette in black.

They usually have no discernible features beyond the general outline of their form. However, shadow people have been reported to have shifted into a more human form and in these instances it is said that sometimes features such as glowing eyes and sometimes mouths or nostrils are discernible.

Reports of shadow people, sometimes called shadow folk, shadow men, or shadow beings, have many similarities with ghost sightings, so many similarities that many paranormal experts consider ghost and shadow people one and the same.

However, other experts disagree and claim that shadow people are a separate phenomenon from ghosts for a variety of reasons.

First, they claim that the movement of shadow people is said to be quick and jerky, sometimes with stops, starts, and changes of direction, not at all like the smooth floating motion often associated with ghost sighting. This is apparently the primary reason they are usually seen out of the corner of the eye.

Second, some people report being able to discern that the shadow people are wearing a fedora style hat like a 1930’s-era gangster or a cloak.

Third, shadow people usually appear quite solid, unlike the ephemeral appearance of ghosts.

Fourth, there are very few reports of positive interactions with shadow people.

Unlike the friendly ghost sightings that are fairly common, encounters with shadow folk are almost always frightening or shocking. In fact, even the experts that view shadow men as a subset of ghosts, usually concede that shadow men are a malignant beings.

The supporters of shadow people as a separate and unique phenomenon offer all sorts of speculation about the nature of shadow people using ideas from religion, parapsychology, metaphysics, and the occult.

One of the many ideas is that shadow people represent a Thought-form, ghost or demon that was created by extraordinary pain, suffering, and trauma in a dying persons life. Others suggest that shadow folk have been purposefully summoned from another realm through black magic or other occult practices.

The fact that they do not seem to reflect light has led some to theorize that they are from an alternate universe with different laws of physics or perhaps they are caught in a trap between two physical universes. David Icke has proposed that shadow people are related to Grey aliens, or to the Reptilian humanoids.

The theories about the nature of shadow people are almost endless, but they are certainly quarry that should only be sought out by experienced, well equipped ghost hunting teams – never by solo hunters.

Original article can be found here.

Island of Dolls, the creepiest place in the world?

I don't know the entire history of this island, just that it lies near Mexico City. The man seen in the video strung up dolls to protect himself from the spirit of a girl that reportedly drowned there years ago. According to rumors the dolls began to take on the girl's spirit. Visitors to the island reported hearing the dolls whispering to them and some felt drawn to come to them.

After this video was shot, the owner of the island was found dead by his nephew in the same canal that the girl reportedly drowned in. Now the nephew takes care of the island, continuing the practices that his uncle started.

Real video of a ghost, most conclusive evidence ever.

Scroll down.

April Fools!

Man has 12 fingers and 14 toes

An Indian man is proud of the 12 fingers and 14 toes which have put him in the record books.

Rather than feel self conscious about the way he was born, Haramb Ashok Kumthekar has always celebrated his extra digits.

The 24-year-old business graduate was born with six fingers on each hand and seven toes on each foot.

This means he is the unofficial record holder for the most recorded number of fingers and toes on a living person.

However, he does not hold the Guinness world record which is held by fellow countryman Devendra Harne, who has 12 fingers and 13 toes on his feet.

Haramb does not hold the official record because, technically, some of his fingers are attached and are not classed as separate digits.

However, he is recognised by the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records, the Limca Book of Records.

Haramb's extra fingers and toes are caused by the medical condition polydactlyism, which comes from the Greek for "many fingers".

While each of Haramb's extra fingers and toes have separate bones, they don't all boast nerve endings and he is unable to move them or feel them all properly.

And while he is proud of his extra digits, Haramb admits that it can be frustrating at times, especially when it comes to finding shoes for his feet or gloves for his hands.

Original story can be found here.

Korean man marries pillow

Lee Jin-gyu fell for his 'dakimakura' - a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character printed on the side.

In Lee's case, his beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the 'magical girl' anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

Now the 28-year-old otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between 'obsessive' and 'nerd') has wed the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. Their nuptials were eagerly chronicled by the local media.

'He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,' said one friend.

'They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,' they added.

The pillow marriage is not the first similarly-themed unusual marriage in recent times - it comes after a Japanese otaku married his virtual girlfriendNene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS gameLove Plus, last November.

Original story can be found here.

Wichita man pays crack dealer with Monopoly money

Normally I try to stick with just paranormal or weird stories, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this story. Apparently a man was assaulted in Wichita, Kansas by his drug dealer after trying to buy some crack with Monopoly money.

Police in Wichita, Kansas are investigating an odd crime that involves drugs, assault and Monopoly money.

It started as a routine traffic stop in a Wichita neighborhood Thursday evening.

When police pulled over the car they found a 33-year-old man bleeding from the head and telling an unusual story.

The victim said a couple of weeks ago he bought several hundred dollars of crack-cocaine with Monopoly money and now the dealer was ready for pay back.

"The man from whom he had bought the drugs was upset and invited him over to his house and upon arrival struck him in the head several times with a handgun and other people jumped into the fray," said Gordon Bassham with the Wichita Police Department.

The victim was able to get away and escape serious injury.

At this point police say he's being uncooperative.

Despite the unusual circumstances, officers still want to arrest the attacker.

"That was not a get out-of-jail-free card," Bassham said.

The victim's injuries were not life threatening.

Original story can be found here.

The goat woman, Chinese grandmother has horn growing from her forehead.

An elderly Chinese woman has stunned her family and fellow villagers by growing from her forehead a horn than resembles a goat’s.

Grandmother Zhang Ruifang, 101, of Linlou village, Henan province, began developing the mysterious protrusion last year.

Since then it has grown 2.4in in length and another now appears to emerging on the other side of the mother of seven’s forehead.

The condition has left her family baffled and worried.

Her youngest of six sons, Zhang Guozheng, 60, said when a patch of rough skin formed on her forehead last year ‘we didn't pay too much attention to it’.

‘But as time went on a horn grew out of her head and it is now 6cm long,' added Mr Zhang, whose eldest brother and sibling is 82 years old.

‘Now something is also growing on the right side of her forehead. It’s quite possible that it’s another horn.’

Although, it is unknown what the protrusion is on Mrs Zhang’s head, it resembles a cutaneous horn.

This is a funnel-shaped growth and although most are only a few millimetres in length, some can extend a number of inches from the skin.

Cutaneous horns are made up of compacted keratin, which is the same protein we have in our hair and nails, and forms horns, wool and feathers in animals.

They usually develop in fair-skinned elderly adults who have a history of significant sun exposure but it is extremely unusual to see it form protrusions of this size.

The growths are most common in elderly people, aged between 60 and the mid-70s. They can sometimes be cancerous but more than half of cases are benign.

Common underlying causes of cutaneous horns are common warts, skin cancer and actinic keratoses, patches of scaly skin that develop on skin exposed to the sun, such as your face, scalp or forearms.

Cutaneous horns can be removed surgically but this does not treat the underlying cause.

Original story can be found here.

Octomom Nadya Suleman says house is haunted

She’s got fourteen kids and now the Octomom Nadya Suleman thinks she may have one more "little one" living at her home in La Habra, CA – a child ghost!

In an exclusive (and yes, bizarre) new interview with RadarOnline.com, Nadya says a few days ago, she heard a soft whisper saying “mommy.”

"There are no such things as ghosts”, Nadya says, “but that really did scare me."

Nadya also shows us the room where she thinks the spirit lives -- a room that was supposed to be quarters for her nannies -- but instead, is used only to store toys.

“It’s unusually cold in here,” she says, opening the door to the room

“I never, ever want to be alone really in this house. I don’t want the children in this house ever,” she says.

Nadya also says a friend told her she felt something pulling at her leg in the Octo-home.

And, as if that’s not strange enough, Nadya says one of her nannies heard a noise and saw a small child run into a room upstairs, but when she looked around, no one was there.

“This is something you’re not supposed to believe in if you are a believer in God, but it’s something that I’m a little worried about. But when you’re scared, you keep praying and ask it kindly to leave politely, and pray and hopefully that will work.”

Just in case it won’t leave on its own, Nadya says she’s going to place up to 20 Bibles around the home to ward off any spirits.

Original story can be found here.