Sitting around at one of our weekly team meetings, we were discussing some of the more interesting local legends. Not surprisingly, the first place that came up was Egypt Valley.

A wide variety of ghosts and other creatures of the night are said to roam Egypt Valley, but the primary legend from which the others probably evolved is well known and time-honored in Kirkwood Township: the restless ghosts of Thomas Carr and Louiza Catharine Fox, respectively the first murderer hanged in Belmont County, and his victim.

It's a ghost story with an unusually firm basis in historical fact. Louiza Fox was a thirteen-year-old girl in 1869, when she lived with her family in this corner of the Ohio Valley. Back then Belmont County was sparsely populated and extremely remote. Aside from businesses catering to travellers on the National Road, just about the only industry in the area was mining coal.

Louiza was being courted by Thomas D. Carr, a "notorious character" and local coalminer, when she was still an adolescent. He had met her when she'd come to work as a domestic servant at the home of Carr's employer, Alex Hunter. He wanted to marry her, and her parents apparently consented, but Louiza's parents later broke their promise and the wedding was cancelled. Their minds were changed by Carr's reputation and propensity for violence, as well as the fact that he was much older than she.

Thomas Carr had been born in Sugar Hill, West Virginia--just east of Wheeling--on March 6, 1846. He enlisted in the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the age of fifteen by lying on his papers and saying he was four years older. He hadn't seen much action when he was captured later that year at Cheat Run, WVA, and held for a time in a Confederate POW camp. He was released in time to serve a little more before the end of the war, after which he lived and worked in Tuscarawas and Harrison Counties.

Carr was enraged when he learned that Louiza wanted to end their engagement, so on the night of January 21, 1869, he waited behind a fence corner on the road she took home from work. Eventually she walked by with her little brother Willy. Carr approached them and sent Willy on home while he talked to his ex-fiance. He kissed her goodbye, then slit her throat with a razor and stabbed her fourteen more times. He finally deposited her body in a ditch nearby. That night he spent in a coal bank while the Foxes, alerted by Willy (who saw the whole thing from a distance), got a posse together to search for him.

Carr made a halfhearted suicide attempt the next morning by slashing his own throat and even trying to shoot himself, but it wasn't enough to do the job. When he was found and arrested his wounds were treated.

An "intensely exciting" five-day trial ensued, conducted before Judge Way. Carr, who was apparently a pretty scary character, laughed when his death sentence was read aloud and said he did "not care a damn if it was to be tomorrow." In his sentencing, the judge described Carr as "petulant, ill-natured, irritable, of a nervous temperament and possessed of a heart fatally bent on mischief."

On March 8, 1870, while waiting to be hung, Carr made a full confession, which included the admission that he'd murdered fourteen other people in his life and attempted at least five. If true this makes him a fairly prolific serial killer, but it's presumed that he was exaggerating to some degree. His confession was published in pamphlet form and widely read throughout this part of the state. He checked on the gallows as it was being built, doing acrobatics on it. Interestingly, before his death sentence was carried out, he entertained two teenage girls who had big crushes on him--murder groupies. He gave them copies of his picture and rings and told them they would meet in heaven. His execution took more than a year to happen because of "a legal technicality" which earned him a stay. Finally, on March 24, 1870, Thomas D. Carr became the first person legally hung in Belmont County.

Of course, we were excited with this prospect. Just two weeks ago, a reader of this website submitted a sighting that detailed a "young girl walking the road, only to vanish when approached." - we were absolutely excited. So, the next day, we packed up and hit the roads.

We took several series of photographs during our night investigation, but none turned up anything. All of which were hard to make out for some unknown reason, therefore they were not posted here. We do, however, have photos of Fox's murder site and grave marker.

Following our daylight survey, we headed back into town to grab a bite to eat. Aftewards, it was in the area of 7:30 PM - darkness was setting in.

During the investigation, we utilized our digital cameras, audio recorders and EMF meters. At her murder site, the K2 meter had several interesting hits, that actually appeared to some what repond to questions being asked. Other than that, we witnessed no outward manifestations or out of the ordinary EMF readings. Toward teh end of the investigation, Investigator Black, stated that he felt a brief cold spot; however, our digital thermometer was unable to detect any such spot.

We wrapped up and called it a night.

The next day, we analyzed the evidence and didn't come up with anything anomalous. In any case, due to the sheer number of reports we've received, we are inclined to consider this an "open & ongoing investigation."

Until the next time...