Behind its beautiful, shady paths and sunny clearings, the Freetown State Forest is actually hiding one incredibly dark reputation. It has long been a hotspot for terrifying real-life occurrences and plenty of rumored supernatural happenings. Part of the fabled "Bridgewater Triangle," this haunted forest in Massachusetts appears to be a magnet for the weird and horrifying. Its haunted reputation is based on more than just rumor and speculation. The Freetown Forest is the site of numerous documented tragedies and crimes.
In November of , the corpse of Mary Lou Arruda was found tied to a tree in the woods. She was a local year-old who had been recently abducted from the nearby town of Raynham about two months prior. James M. Kater was tried four times for the kidnapping and murder of Arruda and eventually convicted.
In , police were investigating a murder near the forest. They were approached by a number of locals who claimed to have witnessed Satanic cult activity in the woods. Some believed that these reports were connected to the so-called "Fall River Cult Killings" that occurred during the same period. Suspicious clearings, stained with animal blood, were found in the Freetown Forest.
The curiously arranged carcasses of cattle were later discovered in the woods, lending more steam to the rumors of ritual sacrifice within the forest.
The forest was also the site of three more murders. In , a homeless man was somehow mistaken for an undercover police officer and killed in the forest. In , two men were found riddled with bullets on Bell Rock Road, which winds through the woods.
