I heard this a few years ago in fact, during a trip to Connecticut, United States.

I spent some time studying about the time of the witch hunts, which if you are even a little familiar with general culture, it will surely sound familiar to you.

A sad and very unfortunate period in the past of humanity, surrounded by ignorance, discrimination and countless deaths of innocents. But also… mysticism.

Some interesting legends that still resonate among lovers of the paranormal were inspired by this series of events: rare creatures, cursed towns, demons lurking in the night, the image that would become the dogma of witchcraft. There is no lack of the classic story of the woman whose accusations were perhaps not unfounded and who did have the power to do inexplicable things, sometimes harmless, sometimes macabre.

Connecticut has several such legends, and I was there to meet them. I ended up arriving in Hartford, where I met a man who ran a book store and he was the one who introduced me to the inconceivable place we are going to talk about, the scene of the most incredible stories I have ever heard of in the entire state.

Gravesfield.

Don't worry if that name don't sound you, I didn't know the place existed either.

It turns out to be a small town deep in the state of Connecticut, very little frequented, to the point that it does not even appear on most maps.

Perfect to disappear from the world if what you want is a quiet life, secluded and away from the hustle and bustle of the big crowds. Typical place where almost everyone knows each other, where information spreads easily, and where it is generated like this... bubble, which creates a micro world in which they lock themselves in and live their own events exempt from the outside.

The little tourism that it has is focused on this; those rumors that are told among neighbors, stories that in few places you can hear something similar, a gold mine for myth hunters.

Paranormal phenomena, unexplained disappearances, sightings of unknown beings; are some of the examples of the anecdotes that you can hear in that remote place.

What is this all about? What makes Gravesfield different from other towns? The answer may vary depending on how superstitious you are.

For a normal person, really nothing, just another town that has coincidentally experienced an above average rare event rate.

A skeptic would tell you that there is nothing unusual about Gravesfield, just fraudulent people and a lot of misunderstandings.

Now, if you ask a resident who has been there for many years, they will probably tell you that it has been that way since it was founded; maybe, or maybe not, because of a particular event that marked its history from the beginning, founding the most famous urban legend of the town.

It all begins in the 17th century, in the midst of the colonization of America.

A wave of English settlers moves into the future state of Connecticut, attracting the attention of a family of great renown in England.

The Wittebanes.

Seeing this as a golden opportunity to extend his political and financial influences, proceeding to establish himself within the new continent. A group of immigrants follow the march, hoping to get a slice of living in the vicinity of such an important family. It was guaranteed prosperity.

The Wittebanes founded Gravesfield in 1635, not too far from the other major settlements in the region.

A few decades later, between 1640 and 1670, the first large-scale witch trials seen in the American colonies took place here in Connecticut, long before the famous Salem witch trials.

The people of the different settlements were extremely paranoid about it, they were all scared of the presence of some witch among their inhabitants; fear that would soon reach the little Gravesfield.

There is no record of when exactly this starts to happen, nor when it ends, you can only calculate a time close to the margin that I just gave you, 1640 to 1670.

It happens that among some residents of Gravesfield certain… rumors begin to circulate.

People who claim to have seen a woman wandering the streets of the town late at night, for no apparent reason, dressed completely in black, with nothing more than a small candle to light her way.

In the records of the time there is the testimony of a man who says he confronted her to ask her what she was doing. He expresses not being able to recognize the woman when he saw her up close; she didn't look like anyone he had ever seen in the village. A few seconds later he panics and desperately runs away after realizing that what she had in her hand…wasn't a candle.

What the woman was actually holding, if we can put it that way…was a sphere.

A sphere that emitted light floated slightly above his open palm.

Like this, other testimonies of people who swear to have suffered similar experiences are beginning to come out, which is escalating, passing from mouth to mouth, instilling a fear that would spread like wildfire throughout the town.

There was a witch, in Gravesfield.

There is something that I found very curious about this case and it differentiates it from all the other witch legends that I have heard.

No one was able to identify her.

Most of the villagers couldn't even see it, in fact, there was nothing to firmly ascertain its existence. The only thing was these few testimonies, where everyone agreed that they had no idea who the woman they had seen doing witchcraft in the middle of the night was; apparently enough to convince the entire town that there was indeed a witch, and they had to hunt her down before she did something terrible. Whoever she was, a Gravesfield inhabitant or a foreigner, they wanted her out, or dead, whichever came first.

After an intense search that did not give results, more than pure false accusations ending in conflicts and mistrust. More than one innocent woman was about to end up on the gallows, or at the stake.

In the end, suddenly one day, as suddenly as they appeared, the sightings of the witch stopped completely.

Did the threats work, the curfews, the prayers, the night patrols? Had they really managed to drive the witch away?

Gravesfield celebrated.

Once again, the church had defeated the devil... The pleasure did not last long.

That same night, the town hall went up in flames. How or why is unknown, but by the time the fire was brought under control… it was too late.

A tragedy had occurred in the heart of the Wittebane family; two brothers, disappeared without a trace.

Philip and Caleb Wittebane.

Of these two brothers it stands out that they were two young inventors, and they seem to be very good.

They weren't very well known yet, but those who knew about them agreed that they were two of the greatest minds of the decade, who would mark history, and would be the real people responsible for putting Gravesfield on the map.

His disappearance devastated the town.

No matter how much they searched for them, they couldn't find the slightest trace of them. It was just as if they had vanished into the air…just like the witch had.

It didn't take long for the rumors to spread once again.

People said that the witch had tempted them with her demonic arts, and she had taken them as a kind of barter in exchange for leaving them alone.

Gravesfield never recovered from this loss.

The Wittebane family ordered to build a statue in the center of town in memory of the two visionary brothers and the great change they could have brought to this world, from those snatched away by dark forces beyond comprehension.

Powerless the villagers, the only thing they could do was pray that the souls of Philip and Caleb were at peace, because they were never seen again, nor were their remains ever found. They just evaporated into nothingness itself, and the witch of Gravesfield never disturbed the peace again.

Over time the Wittebane family lost their influence. His business deals did not turn out well, his deals were cancelled, his fortunes declined, ending in the dissolution of his family name. Control of Gravesfield would pass entirely into the hands of the mayor's office.

Almost 400 years have passed.

The town still exists, you can visit it, if you know how to find it. Back to what was said, very few know of its existence.

They certainly didn't get the big name they anticipated, whether or not this event had anything to do with it. But, it is rich in history and urban anecdotes; this would become known as the legend of the Gravesfield witch.

I am told that the statue of the late Wittebane brothers can still be seen, and their family emblem is still displayed on various monuments, such as the former city hall, now a historical society.

I was investigating on my own and found out that the case was recently reopened with the idea of determining what happened to the Wittebane brothers, through the means and knowledge that we have now.

The investigation did not yield a certain result. No remains were found, but they did find a pattern in the documents that collected the event.

The same thing that I was commenting on and that is now much more obvious. No one knew who the witch was.

But literally, her image is an absolute zero, which now, when reviewing the records in much more detail, became evident.

There is not a single document that can verify the existence of this woman, no one ever saw her in person and could prove the fact with evidence. There are no descriptions of her appearance, no names, nowhere is it certified that has ever made an appearance in public.

What's more, in Gravesfield you can get books and tapestries that illustrate her; but in none of the pictures look the same, because even the artists who painted her had no idea what she looked like, so they drew her based on stereotypical images of witches.

The verdict reached by investigators is that there never really was a witch in Gravesfield, and it was all about mass hysteria.

People were paranoid about the trials being held in the surrounding big neighborhoods, so it was just a matter of a couple of crazy people, or someone naïve, jumping to a conclusion and starting talking on the streets that there was a witch, to cause a tidal wave of panic.

About the brothers. The official theory was that they simply got distracted for some unknown reason during the town hall fire and got lost in the woods, falling victim to starvation or some wild animal.

It was not ruled out that it was a murder disguised with the witch, to divert attention and that no questions be asked. Someone jealous of the family, some settling of scores, inheritance disputes. If so, no reliable suspects could be determined.

The case was closed in this way, debunking the idea of a witch 400 years ago.

Most of the people in Gravesfield were satisfied with the proposed explanation and dropped the matter.

But of course, many others refused to believe that a legend so characteristic of their home was a lie.

I don't blame them.

Especially taking into account that academics familiar with witch hunts appeared, who pointed out certain details of the official version that were not entirely... convincing.

Of course the lack of remains of the two brothers.

If they were lost in the woods, with all the searches that were carried out, it would be difficult to nothing of their bodies would be found, as was the case. Besides, it would be naive to think that two great scholars of the time, as they are described, would simply be lost in such an absurd way. At the very least they would have made sure to leave some kind of trail or sign so that they could be found. Something, anything. But nothing.

They also emphasize the testimonies that were recorded from the witnesses who said they saw the witch. They describe something… too specific.

Floating spheres of light? In what other witchcraft story has something like this been said?

If it were the product of collective hysteria, the crazy people who said they had come across with her would have said something more topical; like turning into animals, speaking in an unknown dialect, or performing rituals over a bonfire, if you know what I mean.

This, on the other hand, something so strange… to a certain extent, it gives it truth.

Those villagers may have seen something strange in the middle of the night. Not necessarily a witch, but something that they couldn't understand.

A woman who knew how to do unusual things, and that no one recognized.

Why? why did everyone agree on that?

It's weird, undeniably weird for it to be an illusion of society. It would be so easy to argue her absence from the records by simply saying she kept out of the public eye by going out only at night, until one day she left and never came back.

Was it a witch?

Was she the one who burned down the town hall and kidnapped the Wittebane brothers to do who knows what with them?

Despite the new official theory, there are still those who continue to believe in the legend of the Gravesfield witch.