GREENE COUNTY — Greene County’s own Chris Woodyard is the author of multiple books containing spooky tales, including the Haunted Ohio series. She said she and her family have always had the ability to see and sense spirits of the dead, but drew her initial inspiration for writing the narratives from Beavercreek librarians after they told her that they were in need to Ohio ghost stories.
“You never know where you’re going to find a ghost story,” Woodyard said. “It’s quite surprising.”
She earned her degree in medieval and renaissance studies, which taught her how to research and track down sources for whatever projects she has in the works. Woodyard finds her information from historical sources, such as newspapers, magazines and personal memoirs.
“Once people heard that I was writing the first ‘Haunted Ohio’ book, I got calls from folks telling me stories,” Woodyard said. “For example, … a house in Fairborn, and the bride of Trebein Road — those were people who called me up and said they had a great story. Others have come out of historic newspapers.”
Her favorite stories are those that seem bonkers, but turn out to be true. She once learned of a bridge in Toledo that is haunted by a father and son; as it turns out, a man hung himself in a public fashion off that bridge, and later when officials retrieved the materials he used to do so, his son hung himself with the same rope. Woodyard at first couldn’t believe it was true, but found documentation to prove of such a happening.
“I don’t try to reach out to [ghosts], but I think they notice I can see them so they want to reach out and tell me [who they are],” she said. ” … So many of them seem to get lost, because they don’t realize they’re dead. I don’t know how that happens, but it does seem to happen.”
She senses plenty of activity within the National Museum of United States Air Force, but isn’t exactly sure why.
“A lot of those planes weren’t in crashes or nobody got killed, but they’re war planes,” Woodyard said. “Sometimes there’s emotions attached to that. There are dead people – I don’t like going over there because there’s always someone standing behind me while I’m trying to read the labels. It’s pretty unsettling.”
To keep up with her current works in progress, her website is found at hauntedohiobooks.com, and her Facebook page is found by searching for Haunted Ohio by Christ Woodyard.