01x04 - The Lady of the Lake

[bunniefuu]

- It was September 2018.

Me and my girlfriend and
one of my best friends,

we were going up
to Tallulah Falls.

It's a state park.

It was supposed to be a
good sunrise that morning.

The energy in the air
was different that morning.

There was some low fog
and moisture in the air.

You know, this is an old road,

and it was just eerie.

We were coming up
to Browns Bridge,

probably going 40 miles an hour.

You know, bam,
just saw this figure

walking toward
the bridge, totally,

totally out of the place.

I have never seen anybody
walking towards the bridge

like that in 20 years.

We had to turn around
to come back

and see what it was, right?

So, yeah,
we come back over the bridge.

The figure was gone.

There's really nowhere
for that person to go.

I mean, it's a two-lane road.

It's pitch black.

There's no lights.

There's no houses around here.

Given the fact that we had
turned around so quick,

we would have saw something.

It just kind of disappeared.

It was like,
you know, what was that?

I have often heard
the ghost stories

of the Lady Of The Lake.

People have always said
she's an angry spirit,

an unrested soul.

She's been haunting
the lake since the '50s,

walking the shorelines
in a blue dress.

She has no hands,
but if she gets hold of you,

she'll drag you
to the bottom of the lake.

Every year, it seems like
there's a lot of unfortunate

deaths on Lanier.

You know, seeing
what I saw that morning,

it really made me question...

are the stories true?

- I was sheriff
here in Hall County

for 12 years, three terms.

Being sheriff
with a lake involved,

it's challenge,
to say the least.

People have stolen cars
and run into the lake.

Boats that they've
stolen and then

don't want to be discovered
for it,

and they sink the boat.

And then... then every
now and then,

you'll get a ghost story about
somebody seeing something

walking on the water.

There's no way
to substantiate it,

and there's no one else
who's really seen it.

So it's really hard to say for
sure, you know, what happened

or what it was.

People describing something
they see on the water,

the ones I've had
has been in a mist.

I have seen mist
build up on this lake.

I've seen it come up,
and it's just a...

It's a weird kind of feeling
and a weird kind of look.

There are a lot of drownings.

I think the most we
had in any one year was 20.

People read about it
or hear about it in the news

and hear about a drowning.

And they will ask
me point blank,

you know, how did that happen?

You don't have
a solid explanation

as to how it happened.

And I've had some drown
that there was no...

No reason and no reason.

Strong, young, athletic
people swimming in Lake Lanier

suddenly drown.

And their comment often is
the Lady Of The Lake got 'em.

Yeah, she's got 'em.

The myth behind the
Lady Of The Lake

is that she would
in some way come

up and pull you underwater.

If you'd been there and seen
it and seen the expression

on witnesses' faces
that saw the drownings,

you'd swear up and down
something like that happened.

The people just sink and had
wives stand there and say,

I've seen my...
I seen my husband go down,

and he just kept going.

His eyes are open.

He'd see me and just sink.

How do you explain that?
How do you explain that?

You can't.

- Police say a man in his
'40s drowned in Little

River on Lake Lanier.

- Fishermen found
a decomposing body

floating in Lake Lanier.

Investigators told us
the victim is a female.

- Swimming, tonight
crews are investigating

a drowning on Lake Lanier.

- He didn't know
that last Friday

when he came over it was the
last time she saw him alive.

- Most people seemed unaware
of the grim discovery on what

for all appearances looked like

a typical day on the lake.

- There's been a
number of people that

have drowned on the lake,
and we average

about seven people a year.

- All good?

- If they're in
relatively shallow water,

they'll usually float,
because the gas

builds up inside the body,
and they'll

come back to the surface.

But if they're in deep water,
the pressure is too great,

and they're never
going to surface.

And if you don't find the body,

it'll stay there forever.

- You, you?

You're all good.

- There's 364 shoreline
miles on this lake,

and I think I've seen
every cove there is.

We get called by the families
when their loved ones

are still on the bottom
of the lake and they

want them to come back.

It is not something
for the faint of heart.

It weighs on you, for sure.

I don't like to actually
keep up with the number,

because I just don't think
it's a good statistic

to keep up with in my mind.

I've done four in the past year.

We don't like to leave
anyone on the bottom.

Since we've been working cases,

we haven't left anyone
on the bottom.

But there are some people
that are still missing,

and they'll probably
never be found.

So I've heard it was 28
that haven't been found.

I've heard another one
that said it was 34.

Of course, everyone's heard
the story

of the Lady Of The Lake.

But I think it goes
back to the '50s.

Two girls were driving and
ended up coming off the road

and into the lake,
and they drowned.

One was wearing a blue dress.

And they say that the lake
is haunted because of her.

- The Lady Of The Lake
is the best-known ghost

story in...
At least in Hall County.

The whole incident
is based on real events.

It's an actual happening.

The two women, Susie Roberts

and Delia Parker Young,

they were together,
as last reported in 1958,

coming out of Dawson County
in Susie Roberts' car,

car, which was a 1952 Ford.

Susie was 38 years old.

She was a waitress
here in Gainesville

at a local restaurant.

And Delia was 22, and she worked

over at a military
academy here locally.

Both were mothers.

They had gone
to what we call one

of the speakeasies-type
houses that

were available at that time.

Sometimes they didn't shut
down till midnight, 1:00,

maybe later.

Both of the girls were going
to go back to Gainesville

and headed for Hall County.

And they never returned home.

Nobody knew for sure
which way they had gone

or what had happened to them.

And there was some
speculation the vehicle went

off a bridge into the lake.

I'm sure as time went on the
families became more and more

aware that the possibilities
of being somewhere else

were being eliminated.

But nobody knew which bridge.

The girls were in Dawsonville.

There are three
basic ways that you

can come in to Hall County.

You can come on Thompson Bridge
Road, which is Highway 60.

You can come in
on Browns Bridge Road,

and you can come in
on the Dawsonville Highway,

which is 53.

Every one of these roads,
these three roads,

cross Lake Lanier.

And as you can see,
the Dawsonville Highway

crosses it twice.

- I was a reporter.

I started working for "The
Gainesville Times" in 1957.

It was a small paper
we published daily.

There were always stories
going around about people

seeing the Lady Of The Lake.

People would say that they...

They would hear voices
from beneath the lake saying,

"Come help me; help me."

And occasionally
somebody would say

that they had seen a ghostly
figure walking on the bridge.

When you hear
these ghost stories,

they say it's a woman
in a blue dress.

And she has no hands.

Back in those days,
it was big news if a body

was found in the lake.

More than likely would
make the front page.

I've got the article
when they found

the body of a woman.

It's November 15, 1959.

About 18 months after

the two women went missing,

And they found the body
of a woman.

It was found by a fisherman,
partially decomposed.

And it was wearing a blue dress,

and Delia Young was the
one that was wearing

the blue dress to the dance.

They said that she had no hands.

When the body floated to the
surface, she has no hands.

- They recovered the body,
but they

never were able to identify
who the individual was.

Ward's Funeral Home here locally

kept the body until 1970.

No one claimed the body,
and they

had a funeral later and
buried her with no naming,

without a name.

Nothing happened for years
and years

and years, until 1990.

They needed a new bridge.

The bridges that were
in there currently

were built back in 1956.

And those bridges
were becoming less than safe.

So they left
the old bridge in place

and built a new bridge
next to it.

- 7835.

Code six.

105 North Avenue 52.

- I remember getting the call.

I was in my office at the time,

and they told me
that the construction workers

had struck a car.

And so my immediate reaction
was to contact the dive team,

then I came out and took a look.

They were in the process of
trying to pull the car out.

I could tell this was
an older model Ford.

They took to two or three
hours just to get all the mud

and stuff out of there.

And that's when they
discovered bones.

The cause of death was drowning.

And that situation
had to be pure terror.

They identified the vehicle

and identified
the license plate.

I knew pretty much then we
had the Lady Of The Lake.

- It was quite a big
deal when they found

the car and the body inside.

Here it is.

These are just clippings.

There's some pictures
in the folders, too,

like this picture when
they were pulling the car out.

And notice the tires are still...

The white sidewall tires
were still intact after they

washed some of the mud off.

This was two days after the
car was found in the lake

and identified that this
belonging to Susie Roberts.

And the body that they
had previously found

had been unidentified and
buried in an unmarked grave.

They identified it
was Delia Young.

They had a service
for her, and they also had

a service for Susie Roberts.

For the community at large,
the people that had followed

the story over the years, I
felt like they believed this

then was the end of the story.

That solved the mystery
of the Lady Of The Lake,

put it to rest.

But some stories don't go away.

- I'm feeling a little
nervous heading back to Lake
Lanier.

I haven't been back
here since the incident.

One of my buddies
just called me up,

saying that one of his
friends had a lake house.

And it was just like,
it was a really hot day.

I didn't have
anything better to do.

So I was like, why not?

And it was just supposed
to be all smiles,

you know, just doing teenager
things like just having fun.

Yeah, like, I'm getting
goose bumps thinking about it,

like literally.

Like, it's definitely
not something that I'm...

Like, I'm still a little
uncomfortable talking about it,

because I could have lost
my life in this very lake.

I've never driven
a jet ski in my life.

I'm driving.
I'm like, wow,

I'm going so fast.

I have this under so much
control, and, you know,

I really didn't.

I really didn't
know what happened.

I just remember
right before I hit.

And the next thing I know,
I'm just floating in the
water.

I'm in the middle of the lake.

I'm really alone.

It's no one around.

And I could have sworn I
heard something like a
screech

or like a yell,

a noise I've
never heard of in my life.

At that time,
I felt something grab me.

I felt myself being pulled.

It was like a force that
was kind of sucking me down.

I felt like I was
about to drown.

If that life jacket wasn't
on, I would have been under.

I just freaked out.

I'm like, I got to
get out of this water

as fast as possible.

Never again.
Never again.

I see it as a warning
of don't come back.

Like, that was my warning,
and it's definitely cursed.

It can't not be cursed.

- The Hall County
Fire Department's

marine rescue boat
crew recovered the body

near the Gainesville...

- trying to help a friend
in a lake is being called a
hero.

His death is the ninth so
far this year on Lake Lanier.

- Around 7:30 in the evening,
game wardens from the Georgia

Department of Natural
Resources were

called there of
a possible drowning

at a home in Little River.

Bystanders...

- On July 4th weekend,
yet another person

died at Lake Lanier.

I have told you guys for years
to stay away from Lake Lanier.

My little brother, Mansir,
was 16 years old at the time,

almost drowned at Lake Lanier.

He's not the type of person
to make something like this
up.

And he was like, you need
to get on social media

and warn people about this
lake, not to go there.

I think the first thing that
I Googled was "Lake Lanier

deaths," and something
that popped up

was one of the deadliest
lakes in the United States.

And people keep going to it.

And I was like, what the heck?

Why are people still
going to this lake

if they understand that
people continue to die here?

Y'all, does this
place look familiar?

It looks like a wonderful,
awesome summer hangout

where people go and drink
and have fun on Lake Lanier.

However,
the real story of Lake Lanier

is something that is more
dark and more cynical

than you ever learned.

Delved into the
history of this lake,

yet people are
still choosing to go

to a lake that's haunted.

Doesn't make sense.

- And another person
has drowned.

- The first video that
I started went viral,

got millions of views.

Stay the heck...

This one had 3 million views...

Away from Lake Lanier.

A lot of people in
the comments were

kind of expressing things
that happened to them

or saying they had family
members drown there.

It's all similar experiences
to what my brother,

Mansir, had described to me.

I believe that's a
supernatural experience.

I mean, it seems
very simple to me.

People don't just drown
there because they're

horrible swimmers, and people
don't just drown there,

you know,
because it just happens.

It happens because
that lake is haunted.

There's an entire
graveyard under there

and buildings
that are under there.

U.S. Army Corps actually
created this lake

by flooding an entire town.

- The town was much smaller
when I grew up here.

A lot of the
old-timers around here

know the history of the lake,

but of course
they are fading out.

And then you have
a lot of newcomers.

They don't probably
know much about how

the lake was created,
the why it was created.

Lake Lanier is a manmade lake.

The federal government bought
the land along the river.

The creation of the lake was
not unanimously appreciated.

There was a lot of
land that had been held

by families for generations.

They were reluctant
to give up their land,

you know, at any price.

And that's why a lot of it
went through

the court process.

There was a lot of tree cutting

and tearing down of buildings.

They had to tear down
barns and other structures,

and some homes were demolished.

It was a strange experience
to watch the river become a
lake

and then flood
all these bottom lands,

where there had been cornfields

and some cotton fields.

- I don't think
a fraction of the people

have any idea what's
underneath the water here.

They think it's a
sandy bottom, and it

must have been all farmland
for miles and miles and
miles.

I mean, nothing can be
further from the truth.

- This is the old Fouts house.

It was made out of
granite by the farmer

who wanted to build a house that

was impervious to a tornado.

- Yeah.

Looking down this
sonar right here,

you can actually see the rooms.

You can actually see how
the house was shaped.

And we have a before
picture from the '20s when

the house was originally built.

This is all that's left
of it now.

So you can see, looking
at the sonar right here,

this is a cluster of trees.

The trees that you see
on the side of the lake

right here right now
are still standing below us.

So anything below
35 feet of water,

there's full-grown
trees down there.

The only thing that's
different is all the leaves

and stuff are gone, but the
branches are all still there.

When someone drowns,
sometimes people

will get caught in the trees,

and they'll be stuck
in the limbs.

One of the most dangerous
lakes I've ever been in.

I've never seen
anything like this.

- Here's your bridge.

The stuff's missing off of it.

You can see part of
the wooden bridge here.

I just zoomed in on it here.

So you can see the
roadbed running,

and here's where
the little bridge

that goes on across the lake.

It does show you the
roadways and stuff that fed

up here towards Oscarville.

So this is one of the main roads

that came into that town.

And there's nothing left of it.

Oscarville is nothing
more than a concrete pad.

All the buildings were bulldozed

down when they built the lake,

and there was nothing left
of it.

- When I started to dig
deeper into the history of
Lake

Lanier, the formation
of the lake,

how evil the initial
formation was,

I truly understood why the
lake would be haunted.

Oscarville was
a thriving Black community

of farmers that acquired
this land post-Civil w*r

in the late 1800s.

They had churches.

Hell, they had schools,

people that were
basically starting

their own Black communities
that had self-determination.

In 1912 was when an
18-year-old girl named Mae Crow

was r*ped and badly beaten.

They were Black boys that
were accused of doing this.

They were beaten
just unmercifully.

They were marched
to their deaths,

and they were hanged in front
of hundreds of people.

There were 1,100
Black people that

resided in Forsyth County.

After these incidents
happened, they were all,

virtually all,
driven out by violent force.

They just drove these people
out and took their land,

and there's no shame.

If we fast-forward to the
1950s and the flooding

of Lake Lanier, this land
was sold to the government.

They sold land that
wasn't rightfully theirs.

And all eventually
to make way for Lake Lanier,

a lake where people
go and drink booze and swim.

The reason why I think that
the supernatural element

is there is because
you still have bodies

of people that were not moved.

Oscarville had
their own cemeteries.

They tried to move
all the graves,

but they were unable
to move some of the graves.

And those graves were people
from the pre-colonial period,

so Native Americans,
from the antebellum period,

Black people that were enslaved,

and then from
the Civil w*r period.

That's a lot of bloodshed.

That's a lot of people that
were wronged in society whose

graves you just flooded over.

Absolutely I believe
the lake is cursed.

I've heard a lot of people talk
about the Lady Of The Lake,

how there's just one
person doing the hauntings.

But I personally believe
that it's multiple spirits.

I think those
spirits want justice.

I think those spirits
want people to stop swimming

on top of their graves,
and they've

been craving it for years.

I feel that if the
spirits don't get justice

or accountability
there's going to continue

to be regular drownings,
regular sightings.

I think there's going
to continue to be

paranormal activity there.

- The fact that people think
this is cursed or haunted

is just absolutely ridiculous.

It's not.

But unfortunately because
it is such a big lake,

you know, with 364 shoreline
miles and 10 million visitors

every year, there are bound
to be accidents

and things are going to happen.

The reality is they just
panic and they don't

know how to swim very well.

I mean, that is the truth.

They think they're better
swimmers than they are.

So I think just
overconfidence a lot of times
and thinking,

oh, I don't need a life jacket.

Most people can't
tread water for more

than a few minutes at best, and
they get tired and exhausted.

And when that happens,
fate has a cruel way

of catching up with you.

This is actually
the location where

one of the drownings occurred.

They decided to go
for a swim out here

in the middle of the lake
without life jackets,

and they'd got in trouble.

Passing boat came by, saw
that they were all in
trouble.

He came over and
rescued two of them,

but the third individual
unfortunately drowned.

He was on the
bottom for 86 days,

and we found him at 112
feet caught in the trees.

And that was a tough one.

It's never easy to do.

I mean, you talk about
finding a drowning victim,

it's never easy,
and it's never fun.

It's just about making
sure that we bring them

back and provide the
family with some comfort

in knowing that they can have
a proper funeral and service.

You can't unsee it.

And you never forget it.

But it brings closure
to the family,

and that's what matters.

- I really do empathize with
the families that have lost

their loved ones at that lake.

And that's why I try to warn
as many people as possible

do not go because angry
spirits do not discriminate.

And that's just the unfortunate
aspect of vengeance.

Sometimes it can be blinding.

My brother could
have become a victim.

I'm glad that he
got a second chance,

but I think that if he
would not have gotten

that second chance
he would have just

been another news article...

"16-year-old boy
drowns at Lake Lanier,"

you know, and I would
have been covering

that on my social media.

From what he tells us, it
was a near-death experience,

and it's one that
still haunts him.

- When I found out about
the history of the lake,

my heart sunk.

Like, when I tell y'all,
it was just like, what?

Like, I was just sitting in
this water like, literally.

And then after that, I mean,
my first reaction was like, OK,

it makes sense why,
you know, this happened.

Like, this lake is messed up.
Like...

Definitely think it's cursed.

It's no way these bodies just
keep popping up, you know.

And it can't not be
cursed because that's

a lot of bad energy.

I think that I could
have been a victim.

I think, you know, whether
people believe it or not,

I think God saved me.

That day, I think God saved me.

He could have let me go,
but he didn't.

You know, I could have died.

I didn't.

- I suppose I've
recovered around 15

bodies from the lake.

I think the ones that
stick with me the most

is a young man,
a very strong athlete.

He was swimming back and
forth across one of the
coves.

He got in the middle of
that little cove and sank.

Why did that happen?

I don't know.

I don't know why it happened.

Just drowned, I mean, like that.

The body that was found in
1959 under Dawsonville
Bridge,

I don't believe was
the Parker young lady.

I don't believe
that that was her.

There's just too much time
lapse between the two.

You're looking at a year
to a year and a half.

Uh-uh, not in this lake.

I don't want to be gross, but,
I mean, catfish will get you.

I mean, if you're down
there and a body is down there

any period of time at all,
the catfish will get you.

The turtles will get you...
One or the other or both.

So the body that was located
under Dawsonville Highway

was not Parker Young.

My feeling is that she
is still in Lake Lanier.

The Lady Of The Lake
is still down there.