Lululemon murder also known as The Yoga Store Murder

The Yoga Store Murder

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‘You’re one hell of a liar, ma’am,” declared Judge Robert Greenberg during the sentencing hearing for Brittany Norwood, convicted of the shocking first-degree murder of her co-worker Jayna Murray at Bethesda’s Lululemon Athletica store in March 2011. The judge’s remark captured only a small measure of the outrage and incredulity sparked by this horrific crime, the reporting of which had overrun the Beltway and captured the nation's attention.

Lululemon Athletica, the company that sells leggings and other athletic apparel that are now staples in many closets around the globe, was founded in Vancouver, Canada in 1998. By the early 2010s, the brand’s popularity was skyrocketing. But in March 2011, the company made headlines for a different reason — murder.

Norwood planned and carried out the gruesome attack known as the Lululemon murder after Murray caught her stealing a pair of leggings. She then created an elaborate lie for police, claiming two masked men had entered the store and raped both women before murdering Murray and leaving Norwood tied up.

But police were suspicious of Norwood’s story from the beginning. The evidence on the blood-soaked scene pointed to an inside job.



Brittany Norwood Lured Jayna Murray Back Into The Store To Kill Her

Jayna Troxel Murray, a 30-year-old graduate student at Johns Hopkins University, accepted a job at Lululemon Athletica so she could meet other active people and attend seminars that would help her as she pursued a Master of Business Administration degree.

She met 29-year-old Brittany Norwood while working at the store, and fellow employees said there were never any issues between the two women.

On March 11, 2011, Murray and Norwood were both working the closing shift at the Lululemon in the upscale Bethesda Row shopping center. According to the Baltimore Sun, the two women checked each other’s bags at the end of the night, as per store policy. Murray found a pair of stolen leggings in Norwood’s belongings.

They left the store at 9:45 p.m., and six minutes later Murray called a store manager to tell her about the leggings. Soon after, Norwood called Murray and told her she’d accidentally left her wallet in the store and needed to go back inside and get it.

At 10:05 p.m., the pair re-entered the store. Moments later, employees at a neighboring Apple store heard a commotion.

According to WJLA, Apple employee Jana Svrzo heard a woman’s voice say, “Don’t do this. Talk to me. What’s going on?” followed by ten minutes of shouting and grunting. The same voice later said, “God help me, please help me.” The Apple employees did not call authorities because they thought it was “just drama.”

The next morning, manager Rachel Oertli walked into Lululemon and discovered a gruesome scene. She called 911 and told the dispatcher, “There’s two people in the back of my store. One person seems dead, and the other person is breathing.”

Police arrived on the scene to discover Jayna Murray lying face-down in a pool of her own blood and Brittany Norwood bound with zip ties in the store’s bathroom. After freeing the seemingly shaken Norwood, investigators listened to her odd tale of what had happened the night before.

A Twisted Tale About The Lululemon Murder

According to Norwood, when she and Murray entered the store to retrieve her wallet, two masked men slipped in behind them. The men raped both women before killing Murray and tying Norwood up while calling her racial slurs, supposedly letting her live because she was more fun to have sex with, according to the Washington Post.

Police initially treated Norwood as a victim in the Lululemon murder case. They began a manhunt for the perpetrators, asked local stores if any customers had purchased ski masks recently, and even followed a man who matched Norwood’s description of the killers.

However, investigators quickly became suspicious. Detective Dimitry Ruvin, who questioned Brittany Norwood several times, later said, “It’s just this little voice in the back of my head. Something’s just not right. The way Brittany’s describing these two guys — they’re racist, they’re rapists, they’re robbers, they’re murderers — it’s like the worst human being that you could possibly describe, right?”

Each time police spoke with Norwood, they noticed inconsistencies in her story. She told police she had never been in Murray’s car, but detectives had found her blood on the vehicle’s door handle, gear shift, and steering wheel. On March 18, 2011, Norwood was arrested for Murray’s murder, and police unraveled the truth about what really happened the night of March 11.

The Truth Comes Out At Trial

All the gory details of what the media had dubbed the Lululemon murder emerged at Brittany Norwood’s trial.

Mary Ripple, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland, told jurors that Jayna Murray had no fewer than 331 injuries on her body that came from at least five different weapons. Her head and face were badly bruised and covered in cuts, and the blow that had ultimately killed her was likely a stab wound on the back of her neck that severed her spinal cord and went all the way through to her brain.

“That area of your brain is pretty critical to you being able to function,” Ripple testified. “She wouldn’t have lived very long after that. She would not have been able to have any voluntary movement to defend herself.”

Murray’s injuries were so gruesome that her family was not able to have an open casket at her funeral.

After using items from the store’s tool kit to brutally murder Jayna Murray, including a hammer, a knife, a merchandise peg, a rope, and a box cutter, Brittany Norwood left the store and moved Murray’s car to a parking lot three blocks away.

She sat in the car for 90 minutes trying to come up with a plan to cover her crimes.

Then, Norwood went back into Lululemon and put her plan into action. She took money from the cash registers to stage a robbery, sliced open her own forehead, and cut a gash in Murray’s pants to make it seem like she had been sexually assaulted.

Norwood then donned a pair of size 14 men’s shoes, jumped in a puddle of Murray’s blood, and walked around the store to make it seem as if male attackers had been inside. Finally, she tied her own hands and feet with zip ties and settled into the bathroom to wait for morning.


Throughout the course of the investigation, it was also revealed that Brittany Norwood had a habit of stealing and lying. She had previously left a hair salon without paying for services after claiming someone had stolen her wallet out of her bag.

Norwood’s former soccer teammate Leanna Yust said, “She was my best friend in college. We had a falling out because the girl was like a klepto.” Yust claimed Norwood had stolen money and clothing from her.

Reportedly, Norwood’s managers at Lululemon had suspected she was shoplifting, but they couldn’t fire her without direct proof. When Murray had finally caught her in the act, she paid for it with her life.

During the six-day trial for the Lululemon murder in January 2012, Norwood’s defense team did not deny that she had killed Jayna Murray. They did, however, argue that the murder was not premeditated. They successfully argued that the information about the stolen leggings was irrelevant to the trial because it was hearsay, so Murray’s attorneys were not able to tell the jurors the true motive for the killing.

Defense attorney Douglas Wood stated, “That day there was nothing going on between Jayna Murray and Brittany Norwood. The absence of a motive is an indication it’s not premeditated. That is not a crime of motive. That is a crime of passion.”

But the jury didn’t fall for the defense’s trickery. According to one juror, “I asked who thought it was first-degree, and everybody’s hand just went up.”

Brittany Norwood was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was sent to the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women.

Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said of Brittany Norwood, “Her cunning and ability to lie is almost unparalleled.” Though Norwood will likely be behind bars for the rest of her life, those involved in the case will never forget the brutality of the Lululemon murder.

The Sumners Case - Tiffany Cole Florida woman who buried couple alive could be spared death sentence

 

Retired couple, Reggie and Carol Sumner were only 61 years old when they died. Carol and Reggie met in high school but it wouldn’t be until later in life when they would fall in love. After serving time in the Navy, Reggie got married and found work with the railroad. Carol also got married and had children of her own.

Carol was unlucky in love as her first marriage ended in a divorce. Her second husband was extremely abusive. Forty years passed before Reggie and Carol met again and rekindled an interest in each other. In 2000, Reggie was working at a cable television company when a phone call came in. Carol was on the other end of the line. The schoolmates began a long-awaited relationship and soon started spending all of their time together. A year later they got married.

They first settled down in Ladson, SC before making the move to Jacksonville, FL. Reggie suffered from diabetes and finally decided moving to Florida would be the best for his health. Carol agreed and they began preparing for the move. They sold their Chevrolet Lumina to Tiffany Cole, the stepdaughter of a neighbor who lived just down the street. She started making monthly payments to the Sumners for the vehicle.

Tiffany Ann Cole knew the Sumners as they were neighbors in South Carolina. The couple offered her a place to stay if she was ever in the Jacksonville area. Cole and her boyfriend, Michael Jackson, traveled to Jacksonville to visit their friend Alan Lyndell Wade, and the Sumners happily agreed to give them a place to sleep.

During their stay, the Sumners had mentioned selling their South Carolina property for $99,000. This is when the plan to commit a crime started to form. Jackson took note of the belongings and furnishings that they had in their home and began plotting a robbery.

Initially, he considered the idea of breaking into the home while the couple was away, but shortly the plan evolved into killing the couple.

In June of 2005, Wade rented a car to drive to Jacksonville to visit his friend Bruce Kent Nixon. He told Nixon he had plans to rob someone but didn’t give any details at that time. Two days before the murders, it is alleged that all four members of the group got together to prepare.

Nixon had stolen shovels from around his neighborhood for them to use. They drove across state lines into Georgia and chose a largely remote, wooded location to dig a hole. The group also purchased tools they would need such as disposable gloves, plastic wrap, duct tape, and a toy gun.

On July 8th, the group left in the rental car, a Mazda RX-8, around 10:00 p.m. and drove to the Sumner home. While Cole and Jackson waited in the parked vehicle, Wade and Nixon knocked on the door and Carol answered. Under the ruse of needing to borrow her phone, the two entered the home and aimed the toy gun in their direction.

The couple was terrified, dressed only in pajamas, and weak from failing health. Carol had been undergoing treatments for liver cancer and Reggie was wearing an ankle brace. They had no way of fighting off their attackers.

Jackson entered the home to assist in the robbery and started searching for any important financial statements. Reggie owned a coin collection which was also taken. Wade and Nixon then directed the Sumners to get into the trunk of their own Lincoln Town Car. Jackson and Wade drove the Lincoln into the woods where the pre-dug hole was waiting.

After forcing the victims out of the car, they obtained the PIN to the couple’s bank account. Then they were killed.

Cole and Nixon were waiting up the road in the Mazda. The foursome drove the Sumner’s vehicle to Sanderson, Florida where they removed all evidence by wiping down the surfaces inside of the Lincoln and leaving the car there, with the shovels still inside the trunk.

On July 10th, Rhonda Alford, Carol’s daughter, called the Jacksonville sheriff’s department to report that she hadn’t heard from her parents recently. When law enforcement arrived to check on the couple, they noticed the car was missing and dinner was left on the stove. Detectives began investigating and two days later found the abandoned Lincoln Town Car.

Back in Jacksonville, the four killers found an ATM and withdrew money from the Sumner’s bank account. That evening they stayed in a hotel, but not before returning to the home and stealing a computer and jewelry they had left at the scene. They spent the night celebrating in a limousine, taking selfies with the stolen goods, and flashing cash and bottles of champagne.

During the course of the investigation, detectives received a call from Jackson, posing as Mr. Sumner, where he told police that he and his wife had gone to Delaware and were having difficulties using their bank card. When police asked to speak to Mrs. Sumner, Cole answered the phone. As she pretended to be Mrs. Sumner, the detectives started to triangulate the suspects’ calls.

Financial records revealed the ATM withdrawals and one of the security cameras captured Jackson’s face with the Mazda behind him. GPS and the Mazda rental directed police to South Carolina, where three of the defendants had fled. Tracking the bank account activity, police were led to a motel where the group had been hiding out since the murders.

Police apprehended Wade, Cole and Jackson in the South Carolina hotel room on the 14th of July. Inside the room, they found Carol’s car keys, a suitcase containing the Sumner’s financial documents, and receipts for items purchased using the murdered couple’s money. They also discovered driver’s licenses belonging to Reggie and Carol, as well as their credit cards and chequebooks.

Items stolen from the couple’s home were pawned off. Only $1,000 in cash was withdrawn from the ATM. It was discovered that $8,000 had been made payable to Wade from the Sumners’ bank account.

In Cole’s car, police found Reggie’s coin collection and while searching the Mazda, which had never been returned to the rental agency, found a magazine addressed to the victims with Wade’s fingerprint on it. A roll of plastic wrap was also found with fingerprints on it belonging to Cole and Jackson.

On the 15th of July, Nixon was also located and taken into custody. He agreed to lead officers to the missing victims. An excavation was performed by law enforcement. A roll of duct tape used during the commission of the crime was found nearby.

Trial and Verdict

Bruce Nixon pled guilty to second-degree murder and testified against his co-conspirators. As he had been the one to take investigators to the gravesite, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The other two men, Michael Jackson and Alan Wade, received death sentences for their roles in the crimes.

Tiffany Cole was the sole connection between the victims and all four of their murderers. She was responsible for bringing her friends to the scene of the crime. Her trial took place in October of 2007 where the jury found her guilty of first-degree murder, but could not come to a unanimous vote on the death penalty. The judge sentenced her five months later to life in prison for the kidnappings and two death sentences for the homicides of the Sumners.

During her trial, Cole stated that she had only agreed to the theft and was unaware of the plot to kidnap and murder.

Cole testified that Jackson was the one who pushed the couple into the grave after retrieving their bank PIN. Prosecutors emphasized to the jury that Cole was in fact in attendance when Wade, Jackson, and Nixon dug the hole in Georgia.

It is alleged that not only was Cole was present when the grave was dug two days prior to the murder, but that she even held a flashlight to assist her co-defendants. Circuit Judge Michael Weatherby points out that Cole also participated in shopping for the crime supplies and impersonating Mrs. Sumner on the phone to detectives.

Her defense attorney insisted that Cole was controlled by Jackson, who was believed to be the mastermind for the entire series of events that fateful night. The jury deliberated and their verdict was 9–3 for the death penalty. On the 6th of March, 2008, Tiffany Cole was sentenced in Duval County for the role she played in the double homicide. She was taken to Lowell Correctional Institution where she sits on death row.

Alan Wade, sentenced to death for the robbery, kidnapping, and murder of the Sumners, was featured on an episode of the reality tv show, Love Don’t Judge, where it was revealed that he had met a woman online and was now married with a child.

The woman, Sigrid, was writing to inmates from death row when she met Wade and sparked a romantic relationship through their letters. Despite knowing what Wade was in prison for, Sigrid married him and somehow managed to get pregnant, though conjugal visits are not permitted at Union Correctional Institution where he is being held.

The 39-year-old mother, who is originally from France but now lives in the state of Florida, was interviewed on the show about the struggles of being married to a death row inmate and raising a child without a father.

A year after they began corresponding, Wade proposed while Sigrid was visiting him at Florida State Prison. She says her family and friends do not approve of her relationship and many people in her life have disappeared since the marriage. Sigrid and Wade are only allowed to talk on the phone once a month. She frequently sends him videos of their son.

“People stigmatize you just for being in a relationship with me. But I know people who judge you that way are a waste of skin anyways.”
— Alan Wade to his wife, Sigrid

The Sumner’s children admitted that they were hoping for closure with the conviction of their parents’ murderers, but even after sentencing, the pain remained. The loving couple, who found each other late in life and were finally able to experience happiness, had shown only hospitality and kindness to their killers.

Top Famous Haunted houses

 Top 3 haunted houses

   1. The Lizzie Borden House

It shouldn’t have happened here, in this austere raw-boned structure on 2nd street. Implausible that it occurred in broad daylight at one of the busiest times with horses, buggies, and street traffic only mere feet from the front door with the number 92 tacked to its column. And yet, it did. Two people, Andrew and Abby Borden, both in their golden years by that era’s reckoning, were mercilessly hacked to death with a hatchet; Abby as she cleaned the upstairs guest room, and Andrew as he lay napping on the sitting room couch downstairs. Not a sound had been heard by the myriad pedestrians outside, but the house, now stained with blood, had witnessed it all.

Andrew Borden bought the home in 1872 and immediately had it remodeled from a two-tenant dwelling into a place his small family could call home. He chose the house due to its pragmatic location—a short walking distance to his businesses on main street, one block over. It sat amid other businesses, horse stables, stores, a laundry, and a make-shift restaurant.


Andrew’s wife kept house and took pride in it, while his two daughters Emma and Lizzie looked about at the heavily floral-covered walls as a prison. A young Irish maid, Bridget Sullivan, was the only other inhabitant. There were no hallways in the house, with the exception of an upstairs landing. One had to go through one room to get to another. As a result, locks abounded. Locks that would play an invaluable role in the murder mystery that would captivate the world after that fateful morning of August 4, 1892.

Today, the house is just as it was. The furnishings retain their rightful place, the décor has been painstakingly duplicated, and the original hardware and doors are still intact. Artifacts from the murder case are displayed while memorabilia from the era line shelves and mantel tops. A visitor is literally transported back to that morning when a perfect storm of events culminated in a double murder.

https://lizzie-borden.com/

2. The Haunted House of the Seven Gables

They say that there is no house in Salem more haunted than the Turner-Ingersoll, better known to many as the House of the Seven Gables. With its Gothic-inspired cross-gables and dark-as-coffee wood clapboards, Turner and Ingersoll’s infamous House of the Seven Gables looks like something out of a Hansel and Gretel spin-off.

And we all know what happened to them--the breadcrumbs worked only for so long.

But while Hansel and Gretel faced their own fate, the Turner-Ingersoll has been given a variety of fates over the years; a variety of identities, too, depending on the century and on the owner.

Once the home of a hat and shoe merchant, this historic property on Salem’s Derby Street now belongs to the House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association along with several other centuries-old homes. Today, it functions as a museum and event location, welcoming all through its doors to learn about the Salem-born author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and life during the 1840s.

As for the ghosts of the Turner-Ingersoll, it depends upon who you ask as to whether or not they exist. Will you believe in the haunted House of the Seven Gables?

https://7gables.org/

3.The Salem Witch House

Just fifteen miles north of Boston sits a four-hundred-year-old structure as foreboding as it is famous. The Witch House is thick with black timber, two-and-a-half stories tall. Located at 310 Essex Street in the McIntire Historic District of Salem, the house stands in testimony to the Witch Trials of 1692. The Witch House is the only surviving structure with direct ties to Salem’s Witch Trials — architecturally extraordinary, historically essential. Yet the haunts of the house extend past the hysteria. Purchased in 1675 by Judge Jonathan Corwin, magistrate of Salem’s Witch Trials, the Witch House remained with the Corwins until the mid-1800s. The “Corwin Curse” marked the house by 1718; eight Corwin lives were lost to premature death, catastrophically crippling the Corwin estate.

Rumor once held that the Witch House was used for the trial’s preliminary examinations, though this was later disproved. The Witch House itself harbored no witches, though Judge Jonathan Corwin did execute nineteen charged with witchcraft. Even the mason of the house was accused, and acquitted, of witchcraft. But is the Witch House, now a “Historic Home” of Essex County, haunted? If so, by whom?

https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/jonathan-corwin-house/

Hoia-Baciu Forest Romania

Some call this eerie forest of crooked trees the "Bermuda Triangle of Romania." 

WARPED TREES FILL THIS FOREST, their skeletal figures twisting and spiraling, making it seem as though they’re contorting themselves to reach out and touch you. An eerie silence fills the air, interrupted only by the footsteps of unseen figures.
Given its eerie atmosphere, it’s no wonder the Hoia-Baciu Forest is said to be one of the most haunted forests in the world. As such, it’s a place that lends well to stories steeped with darkness. Some even call it the “Bermuda Triangle of Romania.”
According to local legends, ghosts and spirits lurk among the crooked trees. 
Of course, the forest has so much more to offer than just a dark thrill. It’s a perfectly pleasant recreation area, letting locals and visitors take a break from urban Cluj-Napoca. There are hiking and biking paths that wind through the unusual trees, and the woods teem with a rich variety of animal life.

    Stories from the Hoia-Baciu Forest

The forest covers over 250 hectares and is known as Romania’s Bermuda Triangle and as the “World’s Most Haunted Forest” because of all the freaky and unexplainable events that have happened in the forest. Aside from strange events, this forest has very odd vegetation. The trees look straight from a sci-fi movie or some kind of dystopian parallel universe.

The trees do not grow straight up, but bend and spiral, almost as if they were twisting their limbs to reach out and touch you. Even weirder is that all the trees turn in a clockwise direction. Scientists have been out to the forest to examine the tree growth patterns, but have been unable to figure out why the trees grow in such an erratic fashion.

Besides the spiraling trees, the other weird thing about the vegetation of the forest is what is known as the “dead zone.” One section of the forest, almost a perfect circle, is an area where no vegetation can grow. The soil has been sampled, and it is unknown why nothing grows in this area. Moreover, this dead zone is where quite a bit of paranormal activity has been spotted.

One of the legends surrounding the forest is that a young girl entered the forest and was lost for many years. Then, supposedly, she reemerged from the forest five years later, appearing unaged and unable to remember where she been. Another story that the locals tell is of a shepherd and his flock of 200 sheep. He entered the forest with his flock, never to be seen again – his sheep and their remains were never found either.

There are also stories of alien sightings in the Hoia-Baciu forest. Actually, the forest first became famous in 1968 when military technician Emil Barnea was out in the forest with his girlfriend and a few friends. It was a sunny August afternoon, and his girlfriend told him that she saw something weird. He walked over to where she was standing, and he saw it too: a shining silver disk in the sky. Luckily, he had his camera with him, and before the object bolted away, he was able to capture four photos.

The four of them only saw the UFO for about two minutes, but Barnea then developed his film and his pictures live on.

Barnea’s photos were published in local papers, and many people were very skeptical. Some said it was probably a couple weather balloons shot in odd circumstances or odd lighting. Investigators looked into weather balloons, blimps, or anything else that might have been in the sky in that area on that day, but nothing could be found to explain the photos. The photo negatives were also examined to see if Barnea had altered the images, but no evidence of tampering could be found.

Still other strange events have occurred in this forest. Many people who walk in just for a quick scare walk out with unexplainable symptoms. People claim that as soon as they walk in, they suffer from severe anxiety and feel like there is somebody watching them. Others walk out with scratches or bruises, having no idea where they came from.

Some people believe that the forest is haunted by peasants who were murdered there a long time ago. The forest holds a lot of history, as there is evidence of a settlement there, dating all the way back to the Neolithic period. Evidence suggests that people originally settled there in 6500 BC, making it the oldest settlement in all of Romania. Who knows how many people have lived and died in the area that is now the Hoia-Baciu Forest!

Ghosts and other sightings of paranormal activity have been spotted here too. Sometimes people hear voices in the forest, giggles of women or screams of young girls.

People have also heard the sounds of deer or horse hooves, even when there were none to be seen. Some see orbs floating near the trees, or they will take photos and when they look at the photos, faces or orbs that were not seen in person are seen in the photos. Occasionally, people see faces right in front of them, with their naked eye. Sometimes people see glowing green eyes, staring at them from a distance. If you visit the forest, you will have to let us know what you see out there!

 

Know Before You Go

Please be respectful of the environment and stick to the set trails. Local guides frequently offer both daytime and nighttime tours.

Jatinga Bird Deaths

The Mass Suicide Of Migratory Birds In Assam Every Year?

Jatinga is one of the places where mysteries and unsolved events used to occur every year in the late monsoon season.

Many migratory birds in Assam including tiger bittern, little egret, black bittern, pond heron, Indian pitta and kingfishers are affected by the mysterious phenomenon at Jatinga. Species of birds including black drone, hill partridge, green pigeon, emerald dove, and necklaced laughing thrush amongst others used to come to this place and mysteriously die by suicide in large numbers.

Dima Hasao district, 330 km south of Guwahati and nine kilometres from the Haflong town, inhabits a population of 25,000 people. The train ride to Jatinga is itself an adventure, as it is one of the scariest routes in the entire world. Jatinga is famous for the mystical suicide of migratory birds, which happens in the months of September to November every year from between 7pm and 10pm. For this phenomenon to occur, the air must be foggy, cloudy or misty.


But Why?

Now the question arises: why do the birds come every year, at the exact same time, only to die? This question has caught the eye of many ornithologists and conservationists. It is believed that the birds get bewildered by the late monsoon season in the midst of wind and intense fog.

According to the famous ornithologist Anwaruddin Choudhury, as analysed in his book The Birds of Assam, “the majority of birds are juvenile and local migrants are disturbed by the high-velocity winds at their roots.” In an article by The Sentinel, Choudhury says that when the disturbed birds fly towards the light as refugees, they are struck with bamboo poles, killed or injured.

The late naturalist E.P Gee brought this occurrence to global attention in the 1960s, when he drove to Jatinga with renowned ornithologists the late Salim Ali. The results analysed were within uncertain conditions at high altitudes and high-speed winds due to extensive fog quality at that time.

Many studies say that most birds die during the months of September to November because during this time, water bodies in Assam are flooded and the birds lose their natural habitat. Their nests get broken down, and so, it becomes mandatory for them to migrate to other places, and Jatinga falls on their migratory path.

Theories have also come up suggesting that a combination of high altitude, high winds and fog leads to disorientation among birds. As a mode of stabilisation then, they get attracted to the lights of nearby villages. Another theory suggests that the climate of the area leads to a “change in the magnetic qualities of the underground water”, causing the bewildered state of the birds.

One possible explanation of the mysterious suicide is usage of high power searchlights on the hilltops in the area, which in turn attracts the birds flying at that time. Birds plunge down towards the lights and get killed upon landing on bamboo poles. However, not all long-distance migratory birds are affected by this incident.

Many natives believe that evil spirits flying in the sky are responsible for bringing down the birds in that area. Busting these superstitions, it is said that the birds are wan by the lights of the nearby houses and floodlights of watchtowers during times when fog, drizzle and south-westerly winds come together on a moonless night.

This is how villagers of Jatinga get the opportunity to trap the birds and consume them for meals, as the arrival of birds is considered a “gift of Gods”. Now, ornithologists and conservationists have been working hard to educate the locals and have achieved significant success.

Pishacha

Pishacha creature of Hindu mythology.

Pishacha are another sort of vampire creature of Hindu mythology. They are flesh-eating demons, typically associated with being feminine. They are described as having red, swollen eyes and bulging veins. These creatures are nocturnal, of course.

They are said to haunt cremation grounds, like many of the other demonic beings of Hindu lore. Some legends describe the pishacha as being created by Brahma himself. Brahma is one of the Hindu Trimurti, and a Creator god, one of the most powerful gods in the Hindu pantheon.

Another legend claims the pishacha were the sons of Krodha. The word Krodha means “anger” or “wrath” in Sanskrit, and may have related to an actual person or deity at some point.

Other legends tell of the pishacha being created from Daksha, who was another Creator in Hindu myths, part of the Prajapati; “creator gods.” The pishachas are classified as being a separate race from humanity. Humans do not become pishachas, though they can be possessed and controlled by one. The pishachas are even believed to have their own language called Paishachi.

The pishachas can change their form, according to some mythic traditions, and some accounts also say they have the ability to become invisible. Other accounts say that they can enter the body of living humans, and use them to feed on others. Or they can create illnesses in those that they possess, or make their human hosts go insane. Anyone who sees a pishacha is doomed to die within nine months, according to some myths.

The Hindu traditions do have beliefs about driving away or ways of protecting against the pishacha. Chanting certain mantras can exorcise a person possessed with a pishacha. Mantras can keep away these demons. Also, giving offerings and participating in religious rites like the puja can keep a household safe from demons.

Haunted places in India

Top 10 Haunted places in India

1. Kuldhara, Rajasthan

Located near Jaisalmer, Kuldhara has been deserted since 1825 and is known as an abandoned ghost village. Only the remnants of a once thriving village can be seen here. As per a legend, the cruel king of the village fell in love with the chief’s daughter and threatened the villagers with heavy taxes if they failed to get them married. The villagers, seeing no other choice, suddenly disappeared one night. It is supposed that they cursed the village before leaving.

2. Bhangarh Fort, Rajasthan

Bhangarh Fort tops the list of most haunted places in India. The government has restricted the entry in the fort after sunset. There are many scary stories linked to this place. And, one of them claims that a dark magician fell in love with the town’s princess and tried to cast a spell on one of her cosmetic products to make her reciprocate. The princess became suspicious and threw the product on a huge stone boulder. Affected by the dark magic, the stone boulder crushed the magician to death. Before dying, he cursed the entire town, sealing its unfortunate fate. And, the town is believed to become a haunted spot ever since.

3. GP Block, Meerut

Many sightings of ghosts of four men drinking alcohol and a young girl in red dress have been reported in GP Block, Meerut. There are many witnesses to these strange phenomena. Anyone who was brave enough to go closer claimed that the ghosts suddenly disappeared.

4. Dumas Beach in Surat

Gujarat’s Dumas Beach is counted amongst the top haunted places in India. The beach was a burial ground for a long time and is known to house numerous tortured souls. There have been many incidents of people mysteriously disappearing at night. Others have admitted to hearing strange whispers when they were alone on the beach at night.

5. Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad

Accounts of several paranormal activities have been reported in Ramoji Film City. Many times, spotlights fell off on their own, light men were pushed by some invisible force, clothes of females mysteriously got torn, strange marks were seen on mirrors, and food was found scattered. Locals believe that the place where the film city stands was a war ground during the Nizam rule. And, the souls of the dead soldiers are believed to haunt the place.

6. Shaniwarwada Fort, Pune

Shaniwarwada Fort is one of the scariest haunted places to visit in India. Paranormal activities in this fort are at their highest on a full moon night. As per some stories, a 13-year-old prince, Narayanrao, was brutally murdered in the fort. His body was dismembered and thrown into a river. According to the Hindu customs, if an individual’s cremation is not done as per rituals, the spirit remains trapped in the place of death. Since the prince’s body was disposed off in an unceremonious way, his tortured soul is still trapped within the fort’s walls and his cries for help can still be heard at night.

7. South Park Cemetery, Kolkata

Built in 1767, South Park Cemetery has graves of several British soldiers. Many people have admitted to seeing strange shadows and outline of a girl dressed in white. Once, a group of four friends visited the cemetery and felt dizzy and ill. One of them also had an asthma attack despite being perfectly healthy.

8. Jatinga, Assam

Jatinga is a village in Assam that is popular for its eerie phenomenon of mass suicide of birds. Every year in the months of October and September, the migratory birds fall dead on the moonless nights between 6:30 pm and 9 pm without any reason. This unexplainable event has spooked many tourists and inhabitants of this village.

9. Charleville Mansion, Shimla

Charleville Mansion is an ancient abandoned castle in Shimla and is known to be haunted by a poltergeist. The authenticity of these rumours was tested by a British officer who lived there with his wife. He locked the room that had the highest level of supernatural activity and when he opened it an hour later, the room was in shatters.

10. Sindhrot, Ahmedabad

Sindhrot is the scariest place in Ahmedabad. Locals have witnessed many spooky and creepy things around the area. Many people have seen a scary-faced lady dressed in a white kurta roaming around the town. Many tourists have even heard strange whispers warning them to leave the town immediately and to never return.