The OES visited Palmer Road Crybaby Bridge on October 15, 2005 and July 30, 2006. Spanning the St. Mary's River in Mercer County, the bridge in itself is just another typical over truss country bridge. What makes this bridge different from the others are the legends that surround it. Known as the local Crybaby Bridge (almost every county in Ohio has one), there are several stories pertaining to the bridge. One states that a man threw his baby over the bridge and killed his wife. Another sates the man killed both his wife and his baby and then committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree at the bottom of the bridge. Yet another version says a family was under the bridge when the devil himself showed up, killed them, and took them to hell. Regardless of which legend is told, it is said that if you stop your vehicle on the bridge, turn off the engine and lights and roll down the windows, you will hear the cries of a baby. After a few minutes, a ghost will appear and move through the hood of your vehicle, disabling it until pushed off the bridge. It sounds like your typical crybaby bridge, right?

There may be something to these legends after all. An OES investigator happened to be in the area one evening and decided to give the legend a try. He followed the directions prescribed above and waited for something to happen. After waiting a few minutes without hearing or seeing anything, he tried to start his vehicle, and to his astonishment, the vehicle wouldn't start until he pushed it from the bridge! After his experience, an official OES outing was arranged and we visited the bridge in October 2005. We began by following the legend's ritual and then turned on our audio recorder to attempt an electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) recording. After waiting for a few minutes, we turned the car on with no problems and left the area. Upon playback of our audio recording, we discovered that we had recorded an EVP immediately after turning the recorder on of what sounds like a woman yelling "I will not deny my baby," followed by a cry. The EVP was so strong that it actually recorded over an OES investigator's opening remarks. We have returned to Palmer Road Crybaby Bridge numerous times, including July 2006 when we took some photographs, but have not been able to duplicate the results.