"We’re in front of the cabin where Jason Zapinski took a picture. Cabin 13 of Arrow Lake Campground," Ken Abbott says, opening his arms out to the sides to indicate the small wooden cabin behind him. "To many people, it looks like just any of the other cabins throughout the campground. But this is not just another cabin. Jason, his cousin Gregory, and their friends came here for a reason. To see this particular cabin.
“That's because Arrow Lake Campground, a small section within the park, is no idyllic summer camp. This area is no stranger to tragedy and horror. Three years before the four boys went missing, a little girl by the name of Violet Montgomery disappeared while vacationing at this campground with her parents. They were staying right in this cabin. Two months after her disappearance, her body was found in the woods, in a cavern in the mountains. Some say it was an accident, that she just wandered away and ended up succumbing to the environment. Others say it was impossible for her to find the cavern where she was discovered. Some experts also say her body didn't show signs of being out in the woods for any amount of time. Mystery continued to surround her disappearance. Park authorities undertook a full investigation, but they never found any evidence of foul play.
“One year later to the day, Logan Boyer and Jimmy Grant, both aged 14, disappeared from this campground. They were staying at Cabin 12, just next door to the cabin where the Montgomerys had been staying. Several weeks later, Logan Boyer was found strangled. His body had been placed in his sleeping bag as if he was just camping in the woods. Jimmy was never found.
“This horrific pattern continued for one more year. Once again, exactly on the anniversary of Violet's disappearance, three teenagers ventured into the woods. Terrence Walker, age 16, Dustin Connelly, age 15, and Brianna Ferrell, age 17. Terrence’s body was found by an old swimming hole, strangled in the same manner as Logan Boyer from the year before. Dustin suffered a more gruesome fate, with his body ripped apart by animals and scattered throughout the woods. Some of it has not been recovered. Just like Jimmy Grant, Brianna is still unaccounted for to this day. Those events caused the campground to be shut down. No one was allowed to camp here, and the lake was to remain empty.
“Of course, that didn't stop the curious from venturing to Arrow Lake to find out what might be happening. But it wasn't until the four, Jason, Gregory, Ben, and Julian, came at the anniversary, that the curse seemed to strike again.
“Who, or what is causing the tragedies throughout the Arrow Lake Campground?
“The abandoned campground has been sleeping for years. But tonight is the thirteenth anniversary of the final disappearance. We are going to be here all night to investigate reports of screaming, wailing, splashes coming from the lake, lights in the cabins, and shadow figures. If the curse of Arrow Lake wants to make itself known, and I believe it will, we will be ready for it.
“Let's get started."
Ken stepped inside the cabin and looked around. His flashlight beam bounced off a dirty floor and a sagging, forgotten couch. He could smell the damp, dirty fabric and the stagnant air. Behind him, Elsie stepped in and headed for the other corner of the room to let her own light slice through the darkness that had gotten very comfortable with being there.
It had been years since that door closed. The inside of the cabin seemed to know that. It didn't want to be found.
The team moved around the small cabin, examining it to get a feel for where they were.
"Those of you who have seen our investigations before might notice we're handling things a little bit differently. Usually, someone familiar with a location meets with us during daylight and gives us a tour, so we know where the most important spots are. Tonight, we're on our own. No one was willing to participate in this investigation and give personal insights into what happened. We have permission from the proper authorities to be here; other than that, it's just us. We'll have to go on our instincts and what we know about the horrible things that happened here to find out everything we can."
When they were finished exploring with the flashlights, they turned them off and spoke directly to any spirits that might be in the area, using their equipment to try to capture voices. He was hoping for one of the screams that campers from other regions of the park had reported.
The scream was from her. Violet. He knew it was. He'd read through the information made public from the case files so many times he could recite the interviews. One of them had been with the neighbor, Adrian Slatton, who’d told Detective Fitzgerald he’d heard a scream while he was taking trash out to the back of his cabin. He’d thought it was just children playing, but after he heard about the missing little girl, he realized it might not have been so harmless.
The team finished their investigation inside Cabin 13, then moved to the back of Cabin 10, where Adrian Slatton had been staying. It was more rustic than the one where the Montgomery family had stayed. They hadn't upgraded this one as much, adding only electricity rather than the bathroom and kitchenette, as in the other. That meant it was only a square open space instead of having individual rooms. At the back, the heavy metal trash canister was still there. When the campground was in use, this kind of container prevented bears from coming in and rummaging through to find what the humans cast aside.
Now, it was empty except for a few cast-aside beer cans. At least the trespassers who managed to come this way and get out alive had been courteous enough to throw away their trash rather
