Report: Interstate Built Over Graves
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Ghostly apparitions have been seen and photographed on a small stretch of Interstate 4 known as "the I-4 Dead Zone" in which hundreds of people have been killed or injured in crashes, according to a Local 6 investigation.
Since 1963, nearly 2,000 accidents have been reported on a stretch of Interstate 4 in Central Florida located between Daytona Beach and Orlando, the report said.
Over the years, people have reported seeing strange things on the stretch of road, according to the report.
"People are claiming to see all kinds of things -- orbs floating across the highway, apparitions on the side of the road hitchhiking, phantom trucks, you name it," book author Charlie Carlson said. "There are dead people beneath interstate 4."
Local 6 reported that the road where the crashes happened cradles the graves of a family of four.
The graves date back to the 1880s and a settlement called St. Joseph’s Catholic Colony, the report said. One of the German families fell victim to a yellow fever epidemic.
"It is two adults and two children buried on the very spot that has been shrouded in mystery," Holfeld said.
"They are still there," Carlson said. "In fact, when I-4 came through in 1960, the graves were roped off and marked for removal but they never removed the graves. Instead, they dumped fill dirt on top to elevate the new highway."
Carlson said he remembered seeing the graves as a child and warned not to mess with them.
Susan Christensen, who is a medium, said she feels an unhappiness and a presence from a family of four.
Christensen said she has seen orbs on the highway.
"Twice I have seen four orbs cross I-4," Christensen said. "They’re earth bound and they feel that their lives were taken away from them."
"There were more accidents per year in such a small quarter-mile section of highway than all the other sections of highway between Daytona and Tampa," Carlson said.
Sanford Historian Christine Best said she deals with fact but admitted that "you can’t help but to wonder."
"Hearing so many of the stories certainly make you stop and think about it," Best said.
"Reasonable people would put the Dead Zone accidents in the column of pure coincidence," Holfeld said. "But the stories continue to add to this legend. Legend aside, there is one undisputed fact that the graves remain under the I-4 Dead Zone."
The Florida Highway Patrol is working with Local 6 to develop new information in the case, Holfeld reported.
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