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THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT
1600 - 1994
Blair Township is founded in Maryland in the early 1600's. 1785
- Elly Kedward is accused and convicted of witchcraft. Her accusers are several small children who claim she lured them to her home and drew blood.
o Documentary description of Elly KedwardKedward dies when she is banished to the woods during a particularly harsh winter and, according to most accounts, is tied to a tree and left to perish in the bitter cold. But does she perish?
1787 - Many of the town's children, including all of Kedward's accusers, disappear. Was it Kedward's doing? The townspeople believe it is, and they abandon Blair. Most of them fear the town is cursed. They vow never to utter Elly Kedward's name again.
1800's - The legend of the Blair Witch is well-known. It is first documented in print in The Blair Witch Cult, published in 1809. The book is supposed to be fiction, but it tells of an entire town cursed by an outcast witch. Sounds familiar.
1824 - Burkittsville is founded on the Blair site. 1825 - Ten-year-old Eileen Treacle drowns in Tappy East Creek. According to eleven witnesses, a pale hand or arm reaches up out of the water and pulls the girl under. Incomprehensibly, her body is never found, even though the water is only two feet deep.
1886 - Another child disappearance. This time it's eight-year-old Robin Weaver who vanishes, and a search party is sent out. While they're gone, Robin returns--but the search party doesn't. Their bodies are eventually found at Coffin Rock, tied together at the arms and legs and completely disemboweled.
May 1941 - Rustin Parr, an old hermit, confesses to having abducted seven children from Burkittsville, supposedly luring them with candy. He admits to police that he ritualistically murdered and disemboweled the children in the basement of his secluded house in the woods, claiming that "an old woman ghost" told him to do it.
1942 - Parr is hanged, and a year later his house mysteriously burns
to the ground. Only one of Parr's victims survives-nine-year-old Kyle Brody.
Brody tells police that he was forced to stand in the corner and watch
as Parr tortured and murdered the other children. He lives out the remainder
of his life in a mental institution
1994 - Present
October 1994 - My cousin Heather Donahue arrives in Burkittsville to make a documentary about the Blair Witch for her college film class. Her crew consists of two other students: Joshua Leonard as cameraman and Michael Williams on sound. After interviewing various local people, Heather, Josh, and Michael hike into the woods. They document virtually every moment of their journey on film and video tape. As the video tapes eventually reveal, they soon become disoriented, lost, and ultimately terrified.
Heather and her crew are never seen again
Following an exhaustive 10-day search of the Black Hills area,
authorities give up, and the case is declared inactive and unsolved.
1995 - Students from a nearby university anthropology class hike into the Black Hills and-coincidentally-began excavating near the burned-out foundation of what used to be Rustin Parr's house. They discover Heather's duffel bag containing her film and video tape footage, her journal, and a camera.
When the footage is viewed it provides a terrible glimpse of the last days and hours of Heather's life. It also raises numerous unanswered questions-questions I'm still trying to solve.
March 1996 - Launch of www.theblairwitchfiles.com-the website I created to search for information about the evil that lives in the Black Hills.
1999 - Artisan Entertainment releases The Blair Witch Project, pieced together from my cousin Heather's footage by Haxan Films. The film is distributed by Artisan Entertainment (www.artisanent.com).
August 2000 - THE WITCH'S DAUGHTER and THE DARK ROOM, the first two Blair Witch Files, are opened and published in book form.
October 2000 - THE DROWNING GHOST published, case file opened. Present - My search continues. For more information, consult: BlairWitch.com and Artisanent.com.
Visit Blair County---->BLAIR WITCH MAP
