Spirits at New Bethel Cemetery: A Personal Experience

As we drove along Hawk Mountain road the full moon illuminated the sky, as a thin vapor of fog began to come across the mountain. When we made the turn onto New Bethel Church road all of our pulses sped up for a fleeting moment. We all began to feel our trip was about to get more exciting.

I pulled the car into the New Bethel Church parking lot. Cemeteries rest on either side of the parking lot, that's why we were here. Pennsylvania's first known serial killer, Mathias Schambacher is buried in this rural church graveyard. Many late night visitors have witnessed strange flying lights flickering throughout the area, and felt a strange abnormal presence nearby.
Mathias was known to have killed at least a dozen people during the mid 1800's. Many believe these lost spirits may still be roaming the area, as well as the spirit of Mathias himself.

I hopped out of the car to take a look around for Mathias' gravestone, while my passengers sat admittedly frightened in the vehicle. I stepped into the older of the two cemeteries with only the moonlight guiding me along the path. As I strolled around amongst the dead, I felt a presence around, but nothing overwhelming. While meandering about I spotted colored lights reflecting off a tombstone in the far. The lights seemed to change from red, to blue, to yellow. As I attempted to whisk off and investigate I was directed to return back to the automobile. Gradually approaching the car my passengers were reporting hearing strange noises and wanted to leave immediately. Before we could leave I needed my cohorts to verify the flashing lights I had observed, both passengers exited out of the vehicle to substantiate my findings. We all stepped back into the vehicle to maneuver ourselves on our way.

As we approached the exit I decided I wanted to take a few photos of the historic church. As I attempted to snap some photographs my camera seemed to keep malfunctioning. Every picture taken was showing up as total blackness, the church is completely unrecognizable in every photo. Once back in the car my traveling companions were in even more of a panic, the strange noises they heard earlier were back, and louder this time. I was ordered to exit out of there immediately. I proceeded to put the vehicle into drive and steer us back into some civilization. We merged back onto the road when a loud gasp was exhausted by both riders. I slowed us down to a halt, "what?" I exclaim! A light just flashed across the road they remark. I question their sincerity, both of their imaginations have been on overdrive all night. I immediately dismiss their sighting and continue down the road. Then it happened! A flashing light flew right across the road, into the trees and vanished. I glanced around hoping to see some sort of explanation as to what had just occurred. All of our pulses were now pounding, heartbeats sped up, and adrenaline began to pump through our veins.

We advanced slowly down the backwoods road, fear and tension building to an overwhelming high in the car. Was the evil spirit of Mathias Schambacher right here in our grasps. Every stone flying off the road caused a little more unease in my guests, I began to speed up the pace after seeing the paleness in their faces. An overcoming sense of fear had crept into all of us at this point. As my brain raced trying to calculate an explanation, there it was. It appeared before all of us. We sat in a bewildered state of disbelief, none of us spoke, for none of us were prepared for what we were witnessing. Finally the answer to our strange mystery was right there before us, something we are surely not to forget anytime soon...

two men in a pick-up truck spotting deer!