Fortean Photography: The Ghost Girl in the Woods

The image of the purported ghost girl.

A trail camera recently picked up a picture of what appears to be a ghost girl running through the woods near Cambridge, New York.  The image quickly went viral on social media in late March of this year. The spooky image caused a local stir, and paranormal groups hinted at the possibility that the subject of the trail camera photograph could indeed be supernatural, even as locals came forward to share legends of a little girl said to have died in the forest.

I’m going to cut right to the chase--it has been confirmed that the alleged ghost girl is in fact a real, breathing, living human child. Cambridge Police chief George Bell received a call from a local businessman who said that he recognized the girl in the image. The man mentioned that he and his granddaughter were taking a walk through a four-wheeler trail at the time the image was captured.

Now that we’ve solved the mystery, let’s talk about why that image is eerie. For starters, trail cameras are not equipment with the best technology. Their slow frame rate is not capable of capturing motion particularly well, which is why there is a blur that makes the subject look semi-translucent and “spirit-like.”  The image quality is very low-resolution which explains the loss of detail in the photograph. The fact that the image is black and white also adds to the supernatural aesthetic, which is associated with paranormal tv shows through their use of nightvision cameras.  With that in mind, is it also possible people automatically had seen the girl as a ghost initially due to the increased popularity of these television shows? It is something to think about.

Whoever that little girl is, I wonder if she’ll look back at that image as an adult and laugh at how she spooked so many people by simply frolicking through the woods. I know I’d get a good laugh out of it if I were in her shoes.

Unusually Yours,

Emily