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The Blair Witch History
The township of Blair was located
in North Central Maryland, two hours from
Washington, D.C.
February, 1785: Several children
accuse Elly Kedward of luring them into her home
to draw blood from them. Kedward is found guilty of witchcraft,
banished from the
village during a particularly harsh winter and presumed dead.
November, 1786: By midwinter
all of Kedward's accusers along with half the town's
children vanish. Fearing a curse, the townspeople flee Blair
and vow never to utter
Elly Kedward's name again.
November, 1809: "The Blair
Witch Cult" is published. This rare book, commonly
considered fiction, tells of an entire town cursed by an outcast
witch.
1824: Burkittsville is founded
on the Blair site.
August, 1825: Eleven witnesses
testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and
pull 10-year-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body
is never recovered,
and for 13 days after the drowning, the creek is clogged with
oily bundles of sticks.
March, 1886: Eight-year-old
Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties
are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties
does not. Their
bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock, tied together at
the arms and legs and
completely disemboweled.
November, 1940 - May, 1941:
Starting with Emily Hollands, a total of seven children
are abducted from the area surrounding Burkittsville, Maryland.
May 25, 1941: An old hermit
named Rustin Parr walks into a local market and tells
the people there that he is "finally finished." After
police hike for four hours to his
secluded home in the woods, they find the bodies of the seven
missing children in
the cellar. Each child has been ritualistically murdered and
disemboweled. Parr
admits to everything in detail, telling authorities that he did
it for "an old woman ghost"
who occupied the woods near his house. He is quickly convicted
and hanged.
October 20, 1994: Montgomery
College Students Heather Donahue, Joshua
Leonard and Michael Williams arrive in Burkittsville to interview
locals about the
legend of the Blair Witch for a class project. Heather interviews
Mary Brown, an old
and insane woman who has lived in the area all her life. Mary
claims to have seen the
Blair Witch one-day near Tappy Creek in the form of a hairy,
half-human, half-animal
beast.
October 21, 1994: In the early
morning Heather interviews two fishermen who tell the
filmmakers that Coffin Rock is less than 20 minutes from town
and easily accessible
by an old logging trail. The filmmakers hike into Black Hills
Forest shortly thereafter
and are never seen again.
October 25, 1994: The first
APB is issued. Josh's car is found later in the day parked
on Black Rock Road.
October 26, 1994: The Maryland
State Police launch their search of the Black Hills
area, an operation that lasts 10 days and includes up to 100
men aided by dogs,
helicopters and a fly-over by a Department of Defense Satellite.
November 5, 1994: The search
is called off after 33,000 man-hours fail to find a
trace of the filmmakers or any of their gear. Heather's mother,
Angie Donahue, begins
an exhaustive personal search for her daughter and her two companions.
June 19, 1995: The case is declared
inactive and unsolved.
October 16, 1995: Students from
the University of Maryland's anthropology
department discover a duffel bag containing film cases, DAT tapes,
videocassettes, a
Hi-8 video camera, Heather's journal and a CP-16 film camera
buried under the
foundation of a secluded cabin. When the evidence is examined,
Burkittsville Sheriff
Ron Cravens announces that the 11 rolls of black-and-white film
and 10 Hi-8
videotapes are indeed the property of Heather Donahue and her
crew.
December 15, 1995: After an
initial study of the bag's contents, selected pieces of
film footage are shown to the families. According to Angie Donahue,
there are several
unusual events but nothing conclusive. The families question
the thoroughness of
the analysis and demand another look.
February 19, 1996: The families
are shown a second group of clips that local law
enforcement officials consider to be faked. Outraged, Mrs. Donahue
goes public with
her criticism and Sheriff Cravens restricts all access to the
evidence, a restriction that
two lawsuits fail to lift.
March 1, 1996: The sheriff's
department announces that the evidence is inconclusive
and the case is once again declared inactive and unsolved. The
footage is to be
released to the families when the legal limit of its classification
runs out, on October
16, 1997.
October 16, 1997: The found
footage of the "filmmakers" last days is turned over
to
the families of Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams.
Angie
Donahue contracts with Haxan Films to examine the footage and
piece together the
events of October 20-28, 1994.
 to:
[Review of The Blair Witch Project]
[Review of Blair Witch 2] [Movie Page]
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