Starved Rock State Park is a treasure in Northern Illinois. It is filled with beauty and rock formations and wildlife. Starved Rock also has a dark history. A haunted history. I have traveled to St. Louis Canyon in Starved Rock many times to investigate the Starved Rock murders that took place in 1960. On March 14th, 1960. three women were sexually assaulted and beaten to death by a man that still to this day proclaims his innocence. My belief is that the man that perpetrated this act is the man that is in the Illinois Department of Corrections rotting in his cell. I believe that they got the right man. Where does that leave the spirits of the three women that were so brutally beaten to death with a branch from a tree and their bodies shoved into a cave not to be found and removed until days later? I set out to find those answers. To try and give those women a voice. I believe that we have. The first time I entered St. Louis Canyon I was overwhelmed with the high rock walls that surrounded it. The soft and melodic sound of the waterfall that drains into the canyon gently finding it's way to the canyon floor into a small pool. The birds flying from tree to tree singing their songs of Spring. I also felt the heavy feeling of anguish and despair. The first time I entered the cave where the bodies were found and recovered, I felt sadness. I felt as though there was someone there that was crying out. I felt that there was someone there trying to give me an account of their last moments of life....their last breaths of air....as the life was beaten out of their bodies. I decided that as Ghosthunter Dan, I would try to give those women that voice. The voice that was never given after being snuffed out and covered by heavy snow so many years ago. The first thing I did after my initial visit to St. Louis Canyon was purchased the book, "The Starved Rock Murders" that was available in the gift shop of the lodge that is nestled on one of the bluffs at the park. I read the book, I looked up information on the internet, and I researched the murderer. When I returned for my first investigation of the cave, I was with my good friend Randy Deacon. We lugged our equipment down the narrow paths and trials along the ridges that allowed access to the canyon. After our nearly mile and a half hike, we broke out our gear and began our investigation of the cave and surrounding area. We spent about an hour at the site, and other than a couple of K2 hits that I can't explain....we got nothing. I felt beaten as we trudged out of the deep canyon hauling our equipment with us. I felt as though I had given those women a chance to communicate with us, and they hadn't taken that chance. "Would the spirits ever tell their story?" I thought. It was on our second visit to St. Louis Canyon that I would receive my answer. I was again joined by my friend Randy and we had repeated the same tests as before. This time we didn't even get the K2 meter to spike. Feeling defeated, I sat with my back in one of the corners of the cave. I thought to myself, "Is there anyone of these women that want to give me an answer?" Just then, from behind me, I heard a woman's voice whisper, "Help me!" I asked Randy if he had heard the voice. He said he heard a whisper, but was not sure what it had said. I had heard her voice. I had heard her loud and clear. It was a cry for help. The sound of a dying voice muttering the last two words that would ever cross that woman's lips. I had heard the disembodied voice pleading for me to help her. That is what I was going to try to do.
To be Continued..................Ghosthunter Dan
To be Continued..................Ghosthunter Dan
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