Athens Lunatic Asylum (The Ridges)

Ohio · USA · Asylum

A patient was found dead after 42 days, and the imprint of her body is still visible in the floor.

Athens Lunatic Asylum in Ohio opened on 9 January 1874, designed according to the Kirkbride plan with its characteristic bat wing layout and lavish Victorian architecture. The institution closed in 1993, after which the site was renamed The Ridges.

The most notorious story attached to the place is that of Margaret Schilling. The patient disappeared on 1 December 1978 and was not found until 42 days later, on 12 January 1979, by a caretaker in a locked, long abandoned ward once used for patients with infectious diseases. Although she had died of heart failure, she lay completely naked, with her clothes folded neatly beside her body.

An imprint of her hair and body is still visible in the floor, despite repeated attempts to remove it. A forensic team that examined the stain in 2007 found that the imprint had most likely formed through adipocere, the process by which body fat breaks down into a substance resembling soap during decomposition.

Students at nearby Ohio University have claimed to see a woman staring down from the attic window where Margaret was found, and others have seen a shadow figure trying to escape the room. In the adjoining cemetery, where hundreds of patients lie buried beneath numbered stones without names, there are accounts of disembodied voices and cold spots. Her spirit is said to walk the building at night, a restless soul in a place weighed down by the dark legacy of institutional care.

Source: legendsofamerica.com + thepreservationworks.org + ohioexploration.com + thelittlehouseofhorrors.com

FAQ

Hvor ligger Athens Lunatic Asylum (The Ridges)?

Athens Lunatic Asylum (The Ridges) ligger i Ohio, USA.

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