Turnbull Canyon

Back home, there is a famous area among the mountains called Turnbull Canyon. There are quite a few houses among the main roads, but there are also several houses and areas down winding dirt roads that are usually hidden from view from the trees. I know, I’ve been there. First some background information should be established. The area is well known for its racing drifting accidents as well as its housing of a Satanic cult, complete with ritualistic human sacrifices. These events weren’t just rumors as they often made the pages of the newspaper, so I decided to ask a friend who lived on Turnbull Canyon Road about the different incidents that’s happened there and whether anything weird has happened to him over the years.

“… Ever since I can remember, there’s been tons of accidental deaths in the area. Car crashes, animal attacks, fire victims, and even a plane crash once. Once in awhile, the police find an unidentified body, a John Doe. Everyone knows that famous story of some cultists murdering a teenage girl. She was tied to the back of a car and they just sped off. It was said she was dragged for miles before they finally left the body on Turnbull Canyon Road. I had nightmares about it for years. I know you’re asking for ghost stories, but all these events, they’re connected to each other. Back in the hills there’s many different places that have been explored. Among the findings, its reported that there are Hell’s gates back somewhere in the mountains. In the middle of nowhere, there are old rusted gates that have worn down stone pillars on either side. Beyond it is just some dirt road that leads somewhere out of sight, but there’s always an eerie feeling and silence about the place that makes people want to get out of there. It’s said that the place beyond the gates could be a source of the deaths in the area. As you might’ve guessed, ghost stories circulate because of it too. Turnbull is just a scary place. There’s supposed to be a rundown insane asylum back here too where after one patient hung himself, the other patients started following suit, even if they had been getting better. The staff simply had to get rid of all the sheets and everything so that they wouldn’t have access to anything which they could use to harm themselves. Well, after this rundown asylum closed, there’s been a lot of sightings of people hung by their necks, dangling from the branches of the trees. I wouldn’t say it’s true, but I think I saw it myself. I was driving down Turnbull at night with a few of my friends, and to get to my house, I just drove down a super winding road. On one side was basically a slope where you could see a few houses at the top, and on the other side are trees that block your view. I was just driving along, blasting music, when I spotted something in the window of the houses. The light was on in the window, but the curtains or whatever was closed. A shadow of a person STOOD at the window, looking out. You couldn’t see the person, so it was just a shadow. I quickly pointed it out to my friends. Only one of them said they saw the same thing I did, and the rest of them were telling me that it was nothing. It really creeped me out so I turned the music up even more as I continued to drive along Turnbull. I continuously scanned my surroundings looking out for anything else. I started looking at the trees. Huge mistake. I swear I see a body hanging from a tree. Arms limp, face contorted, feet dangling in the air like twenty feet off the ground. I couldn’t believe it, I almost swerved off the road! I looked again, desperately trying to confirm that I was just imagining things. Nope, no body. However, by this time, my friends were quiet too. They looked scared and I asked them if they saw it too, without expressly saying the body from the tree. A few of them nodded. After hesitating a little, I continued driving down the road as fast as I could until I reached my house.”

After hearing the tales and the hype of Turnbull Canyon, I cannot say that I was not scared. I do believe this friend’s story as I had actually been there. I was one of the friends who saw the body. Although I still do not know whether I really believe what I saw, I do still avoid that road today. Whenever I go over to this particular friend’s house, I take a different route from the one that we had taken that night.