In the back roads of Broad Ripple Village, there is a place little known to the public, situated perfectly along a stream once written of fondly by James Whitcomb Riley. This place is commonly referred to as "The Falls" and it’s located amazingly close to the seven foot tall, 50 foot wide waterfall that powerfully surges through the spot. Mainly a secret location, known to few hobby fishermen and high school students, it is also the host of a more dark and traumatic past.

The Background:

While once knows as a bountiful spot for men hoping to spend the day fishing, or as a relaxing refuge from a stressful day at school by teenage students, The Falls (like so much else in life) became corrupted and tarnished.

This story takes place more recently in history. In October of 2000, it gained its first blemish as it became the site of a gruesome double murder. Two homeless men who lived nearby were found by an early morning fisher, beaten to death and robbed, their bodies nearly lying on top of each other. Official police reports suspected high school students out looking for a cheap thrill, yet no suspect were ever brought in for questioning or arrested. Eventually, the story was forgotten.

Then in April 20th, 2002, tragedy struck again in the form of a suicide. A young high school student, fed up with problems and personal demons, hung herself from a tree branch extending over the waterfall. She was later found by other students, who promptly called the police. Medical reports which were relayed by eye witnesses reveal that it wasn’t a quick departure. While her neck was indeed broken, due to an incorrectly tied noose, it didn’t deliver the fatal blow. She swung, breaking her leg on the wall, and instead suffocating and clawing at her neck to free herself but did not succeed.

Our Investigation:

The night was chilly to begin with, and the wind whipping mist from the surging waterfall only worsened the situation by freezing us to the bone. Fingers numb with exposure, we continued on regardless, determined on conducting our business. The area has been recently developed, with a lot of land cleared around the area, which left a nice soft layer of loose dirt and mud for us to trek through in order to reach the location. Even with shortcuts discovered beforehand, it was still unavoidable and frustrating. Nevertheless, we arrived and immediately started collecting data.

Cary monitoring readings in the location where two bodies were discovered.

Day and night time pictures from "The Falls." For more or full sized pictures, please feel free to request them via email.

The Results:

Sad to report, there was no real paranormal activity while we were there investigating. Our EMF detectors, Geiger counter, gauss meter and official Ghost Finder all registered nothing. There were also no noticeable temperature drops or unexplainable noises.

The only thing worth mentioning would be a couple EVPs we captured. They are Class C in quality, making it almost impossible to understand the garbled speech. Everyone who listened to them heard something completely different being said. Nevertheless, the unedited recordings, along with more pictures will soon be made available on our website.

The Conclusion:

This is by far one of the easier decisions we’ve ever made. There was absolutely no evidence captured that we could interpret as paranormal activity, aside from the indistinguishable EVPs. Even in the most obscure instances, the things we encountered were easily explainable and normal. In our opinion, the most exciting thing about "The Broad Ripple Falls" is the anxious and intense feeling you get in your gut when working by moonlight, only inches away from a 40 foot shear wall which could easily deliver you to your death. That feeling in itself is the only thing we were able to take away from this investigation.