Reports of floating orbs of light on Cuba Road in the vicinity of the White Memorial Cemetery make the area one of numerous suburban sites associated with paranormal activity. Local residents have discouraged visitors from coming to the area because of the narrow road and reduced visibility at night. (John Starks | Staff Photographer)
By Marni Pyke | Daily Herald
For years, it was “a rite of passage” for Northwest suburbanites to check out supposedly haunted Cuba Road at night, actor/filmmaker Jon Lee Brody explained.
So it made perfect sense for the Palatine native, who now lives in Los Angeles, to borrow his mom’s Volvo when he was a teen and set out to prove himself one evening in 2001. As Brody and a carload of friends drove down the dark road near Barrington, a cluster of small green orbs appeared and surrounded the vehicle, he recalled.
Some of his passengers shrieked, others “tried to play it cool. I’m just trying to make sure we don’t crash,” Brody recalled.
The lights were one thing. “But then we saw a car drive into the cemetery,” he said. They followed it to White Memorial Cemetery also on Cuba Road and “we saw there was no car.”
“That was weird to me. To this day, I can’t explain what that was,” added Brody, co-host of the “That Was Pretty Scary” podcast with Freddie Prinze Jr.
Some may scoff. But local folklore is full of strange, inexplicable things happening in suburbia.
Phantom children on Munger Road in Bartlett. Mysterious noises at the Bull Valley police station. A Civil War specter in Volo.
As the witching hour of Halloween approaches, here’s a list of (reportedly) supernatural suburban spots, courtesy of Daily Herald archives and local sources.
Read more here.