Crying in the Darkness

This is something that happened in the late 80s near to where I used to live in Hartley Wintney Hampshire in the UK. The story is quite gruesome and disturbing so please note I am only telling you what I have been told. There are two ends to this story, one I know for a fact is true, and the other I am not sure about which I will explain in the following.

In around 1988-1989 a rumour started to circulate that sounded more like an Urban Legend than a ghost story, but I remember it well because of the sheer creepiness and sadness that both accompanied the tale.

One night in or around the autumn, around 11PM a man in his late 30s who was walking home along the famously dark B3016 road from Winchfield station to the A30 Junction into Hartley Wintney was about to uncover a mystery that would later turn into a macabre nightmare, that would haunt the poor man probably to this day.

He was on his way home in Hartley Wintney from his friends house in Winchfield, after a night of gambling and a few drinks. The walk from his friends house normally only took about half an hour to 40 minutes, but it was always a boring one (and I know because I have walked it). Half way down the road he started to hear the faint sound of what he thought at first was the trees creaking in the wind. He was having trouble staying in the middle of the road as it was a moonless night and the trees arched over the road making it as dark as a blackboard, so the only thing visible to him as a guide are the slight white painted lines in the middle of the road, that he walked along to avoid walking into ditches that ran down both sides of the road. As he walked on the noise of what he thought were creaking trees in the wind became louder, but as he got even closer, to his horror he realised it was the sound of a baby crying, he wondered why on earth a baby would be out at gone 11 on a windy and dark night like this so he began to walk faster to get to the cry, after a few minutes of what was now a jog he realised the babies voice was now a little behind him, so he had ran a little to far, so he backtracked a little desperately trying to look for the baby, he eventually came to the point where he was at the side of the road, and could not see a thing, and was footing his way gently patting his foot in front of him, he was confused as he could hear the baby directly below him as if he could reach down and pick the baby up, but could not feel a thing but leaves and brambles. After around 20 minutes of trying, he decided to run into the next village which was Hartley Wintney where he lived to alert the authorities, he got home and the police where called, he then took the officers to where he heard the crying, the police searched and searched with there torches (flashlights), but found nothing, the police thinking the man had just had to much to drink, said they promised to come back the next day at dawn just to make sure, to put the mans mind at rest, which they did, but what they found was beyond anything they might have expected. To the polices horror they found a babies severed head by the side of the road, and the body a few yards away in the ditch, the place was sealed off and the body taken away.

Now that was the part I can not say for certain actually happened in that exact same way, except for the police finding the body of course as that did happen, but the following is definitely true because I remember seeing it on the local TV news (Meridian News)

The next day it was on the news about the babies body being found, and because of this a young women from Reading, 30 or so miles away from where the baby was found, gave her self in to the police. Apparently she had killed and decapitated the child because she wanted to hide that she had been pregnant and just “lost her mind“ she was arrested obviously and questioned. The women described what she had done and why she did it, but the strange thing about this was that she said she claimed to kill her baby at around 2 or 3 pm, 8 or so hours before the man heard the babies cries. Which was confirmed later by an autopsy, so the man walking home heard these cries 8 hours after the baby was killed, and about 7 hours after the babies body was disposed of, as the women had driven the body out of town.

Now I am quite aware that a morbid Urban Legend may well have started because of the women killing her child in such a brutal way, but if that is true about the guy hearing that, it sends shivers up my spine.

Whatever happened it’s a tragic case that is for sure.

That's creppy
Maybe the baby's spirit was crying for help?
Or maybe some spiritual entity saying "hey, someone was murdered here, can you help us solve the case?".

Weeeird and sad.

Yeah, someone else suggested that, as the baby crying led to the chain of events that made the women turn her self in, so maybe it happened to insure his or her body was found.

Pretty wierd story. I would imagine that the story may be an urban legend; although there have been such incidences where the deceased's spirit helps in solving a case.

[edit on 28-9-2006 by SpeakerofTruth]

I agree Seeker.

It might not be exactly the same, but its similar to a crisis apparition, although an apparition was not seen, only heard.