Congratulations to Kylee Dahlene of West Allis, who won the Cult of Weird Milwaukee Paranormal Conference giveaway package. Cult of Weird challenged readers to share their creepiest Wisconsin experiences, and Kylee wrote about an eerie encounter in Grant Park, right here in Milwaukee. She won a Cult of Weird bookmark, Milwaukee Para Con sticker and certificate for a free Milwaukee Para Con t-shirt (check ’em out HERE), a signed copy of Monster Hunters by Tea Krulos, and a ticket for a photo in the Search for the Yeti Photobooth. You can read Kylee’s winning story below…but you might want to leave the lights on!

An Encounter at Grant Park

There’s probably a ton of stories about Grant Park but one evening my fiancé, his friend, and I went to walk around for a little bit and hang out at the beach. Everything was peaceful and going great until about 8pm. Before we crossed the bridge going down to the beach Trent heard a mans voice say “over here.” He looked at me, asked if I heard anything. I said “no.”

He shrugged it off (told us about it later of course) and we kept walking. I rested my hands on the bridge before going down, and they were off talking. I seen something out of the corner of my eye and looked down at what I thought I saw In the water, but to my dismay saw nothing. Few seconds later a flash, like a dream while being awake, flashed into my head of a teenage girl face down, just a whirl of dark brown hair… tank top… and jean shorts, and a small stream of blood in the water following the small current. I immediately took my hands off and walked off the bridge. Our friend Andy looked me over and asked if anything was wrong, because my face was void of color. I blew it off… said nothing. We proceeded to walk down the beach until it started raining…bout 20 min went by.

As we was walking back into the woods we took a different route and ended up getting kinda lost. At 8:24… All of our phones froze for a whole minute. At 8:25 Trent and Andy’s phone went back to normal, but my phone didn’t do anything for hours. Woke up the next day and it was still frozen. I had to shut off my phone and reboot it. Going back to the park… it felt like we was being followed the whole time. Walking back Trent told his story and I braved up and told mine. After my story I got really angry and fearful. I assumed it was just because I couldn’t figure out what I saw. I woke up the next day, restarted my phone, and got out of the covers and noticed a bruise on my knee. Four small bruises on one side (different sizes) and one big bruise on the other. Needless to say… I was freaked out. Trent called Andy to tell him and we agreed to make a night to go down there again. I, of course, was skeptical.

We went back but this time we took our skeptic friend Ryne and an EVP machine or whatever you use to pick up voices. It cost him $50.00. We went after hours when we shouldn’t have, bout 10pm. Spent a couple hours in there, didn’t get any weird vibes. Got out and was busted by the cops who all thought we was at an underage drinking party nearby, by the way. We all came clean and received park tickets. Trent and I went back during the day with our friend TJ when he came to visit. We went out as far as the barge and I seen the time 8:24 etched in the cement. Those barges have to be over 20, 30 years old, falling apart at the seams. I became really fearful, so we decided to head back before it had gotten dark. The whole time I felt I was being followed and was going to be pushed over the edge and down the hill to the beach. The woods were quiet that day. I never seen a man, but I felt him.

Haven’t been back there since. A couple months after, we was there with Andy. We sat down with him and his computer and EVP and listened to it. Only thing we caught was on that bridge and we hear a woman’s voice say what we thought was “he’s coming.” Only way I’ll go back is during noon hours and with a big group of friends. It’s been 2 years since I was down there. Chances are I’m really sensitive to this stuff and I don’t ever want to see that man. I have a feeling he killed some girl there some time ago. I don’t wanna find out for sure.

They say when a person dies, residual energy can be left over for years on end. Maybe that’s true. Very sad.