Hey weirdos, it's Ash.
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Hey, weirdos, I'm Ash.
And I'm Alayna. And this is morbid.
This is Morbid, and today it's gonna be like a strange story.
More strange than anything.
Tragic, but strange.
I'm down for strange.
I'm not super excited for tragic, but here we are on Morbid.
Yeah, you know? I mean, after Fred and Rose West, I need...
You need a beat. We had listener tales.
We had my case, which was pretty rough.
Also pretty rough. So now Strange.
I'll take Strange. This one's Strange.
There's definitely tragedy in this one.
Yeah, I mean, again, it's morbid.
It's a fascinating case for sure.
And it's not, you know, this isn't going to be a super long one, but it's got some stuff.
I love that. Do you have anything else that we should chat about before we get into it?
Yeah, let's chat for a second, everybody.
I love when we have like a little down low with you guys.
Yeah. It just feels wrong sometimes to go right into the case I know it's not for everybody But it's for me It's for me And I like it What did Trixie and Katya say?
We're really going for it They say because it's our show And not yours And pose and pose and pose I just think it's funny that Trixie and Katya say that I like when they say And pose and pose I like that I think we can just kind of chat for a second and don't worry we'll get into it um katya just went back she like just came back on the show with trixie and she was like i um like discovered again how good i am at singing and she wrote like this screamo song about diarrhea running down your leg and it's hilarious and trixie's face throughout the whole thing is literally just like like what like
what i love them so i love them a lot i love them a lot with most of my heart oh that's amazing yeah love that no i just hear that echoing in my head um yeah we we got to go on a another ghost hunt yeah recently with our besties our um ghost girls brothers colton coven thank you our ghost girls brothers colton coven besties corinne and sabrina from two girls one ghost yep it was so fun you gotta go listen to them if you're not already like what's going on um but yeah it was a blast i love i love investigating haunted shit with corinne and i love it so fucking much and sabrina brought pain lindsey
who is a sweetheart as well and it was so fun to finally meet him in person because i feel like he's been like part of our morbid journey like he's always been supporting in the in the bleachers yeah he's always been supportive and so and mikey got to come and mikey was there it was a whole it was a whole gaggle of of ghoulies there yeah we can't say exactly where we went because i think we're gonna like do something because we'll don't worry you'll find like there's more coming but we got to do a lot of cool shit i did the s days method and that was one of the scariest things i've ever done in my
life ash is really good at it because she hears things that um none of us hear and also doesn't get as as overstimulated by noise apparently as i do it got overstimulating at the end and then also in one session because i did it twice and i like almost gave up because i kept feeling like i was hearing somebody say my name yeah and i like really panicked going off the deep end at that point yeah but oh and if you don't know what the sts method is if you're not in the know if you're not we didn't know what it was either until sabrina and corinne showed us uh but you wear where like noise canceling
headphones, you get blindfolded and they connect the headphones to a spirit box, which scans through like radio stations and you say out loud what you hear.
And so like the people around you can ask questions of the spirits in the room.
And then some, and a lot of times the things that are said answer your questions and it's very spooky.
Very scary, but it was a lot of fun.
It was so much fun.
I'm telling you if you guys can go to a haunted location and hunt some ghosties yeah do it do it man go for it we're already trying to figure out where we're gonna go next yeah it's a lot of fun and it gets you ready like spooky season is so close I know and I know it's not so close but it's so close no it in my heart it's close I can't wait and it just makes me feel that way like when I do something like that I'm like oh it's it's a part I know I feel like don't you I feel like my socks are kind of Halloween -y today.
They are a little bit.
They're tie -dye Halloween -y because they're like tie -dye orange and block.
Orange and block. Orange and block.
But yeah, so that was fun.
And, you know, pre -order The Butcher Game.
Obviously. Coming out September 17th.
There's no tiny URL, so I can't say it.
There isn't. You can go to thebutchergame .com, though, and it's all there.
It is. That's exciting.
And that would be really sick of you to do, and many of you have done it.
And I appreciate every single one of you.
You make me smile. mile.
And if you haven't, I'll appreciate you when you do.
Exactly. And you know what?
I still appreciate you, but I will appreciate you even more.
Buy it. It's really good.
I liked it. I mean, I'm totally biased, but I really liked it.
You genuinely loved it.
I loved it even. So go do that.
And a lot of you have been buying The Butcher Game for the first time and reading it, which has been really fun to see.
The Butcher and the Run.
Look at you getting your novels is confused you were like no no the other novel yeah a lot of you have been buying the The Butcher and the Wren first and they're you're buying it now and seeing it now and reading it now and telling me about it and it's been a lot of fun to see a lot of fun so thank you for doing that thanks for the support I appreciate you you fucking rock oh my god never change the appreciation in this room you know it's it's everywhere I'm adjusting my mic so sorry if you hear like thumping noises.
It is what it is. The sun is in my, hello?
The sun is in my fucking eyeballs.
You always end up in the sun in this room.
No matter where we put your ass, you just end up in a ray of sunshine.
It's because I'm just so lively and colorful.
I am never in the sun and I love it.
That checks. I know.
But why don't we get to the nitty gritty?
So today we're going to be covering the story of the lost children of the Alleghenies.
I don't know this I've heard a lot I've heard like bits and pieces of this so much Really?
And finally I was like this isn't a long tale Yeah And like you know we have as many details as we have because it's from 1856 but Oh shit It's a fascinating and really sad tragic tale Okay Which has like somewhat of a of a no it really doesn't have a good ending but there's there's some good along the way Okay So like I said It's weird. It's tragic.
And it's definitely solved.
Like it's not technically a crime, but it has like a very strange element to it where people thought a crime had occurred at one point.
Oh, okay. Now it takes us way back to April 24th, 1856, which you know is my favorite times.
I know. It's so funny because you were telling me just that you were doing this and like a couple of key details.
And I, for some reason, it didn't hit me until now that it was the 1800s.
Yeah. And I should have known.
Because I do know you.
Yeah, it's my favorite of times.
And it's not my favorite of times because it was great back then, but because it wasn't great back then.
And it's really fascinating to see how everyone existed in old timey times.
It's even fascinating to see how they were able to solve crimes with little to no knowledge of forensics or science as a whole back then.
They were working with nothing.
Just good old detective work.
Now, today is not one of those times where we're going to solve something with some like fancy forensic thing or anything like that.
Darn. But you'll see why.
So back in April, 1856 in Spruce Hollow in the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania.
I want to go to there.
It reminds me of Stars Hollow.
Agreed. And I really, my favorite, quick little sad drag show.
Always. It might be one of those episodes.
It's one of those days.
Speaking of Stars Hollow, it kind of made me think of like when they they have an episode about like the founding of stars hollow and why it was named stars hollow yeah and it's like these two lovers like end up like taking shelter in a hollow and they looked up and saw all the stars and they were like stars hollow and it's just the cutest little thing that's gorgeous and I whenever I see a hollow I always think like stars hollow you know spruce hollow it's cute but it's in the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania um and shit was wild back then can I say something wild sure I feel like I didn't
realize that Pennsylvania had mountains I mean where is Pennsylvania it's like yeah I guess that makes sense I was like can I point to it yeah I don't know I don't know why I thought that yeah it's pretty close yeah it's not far at all I don't know why in my head I was like mountains Mountains?
You're a liar. It's crazy.
It's not mountains.
I love that. Yeah, that is pretty wild, but I love you for it.
Thank you. But honestly, shit was wild back then.
Everything was wild.
Literally wild. The Alleghenies were really dangerous to pass through and were considered the most treacherous in all of Pennsylvania.
Damn. There was a lot of places in the forest where rocks changed and had formed into really large and really steep gorges and ravines and inclines.
Oh, that's freaky. And there was a lot of erosion from running water.
So like these things would take like sharp dips and stuff like it was just naturally forming that way.
So traversing this place was no easy task for even the most skilled and equipped of people.
Yeah. And in fact, a little sidetrack here, according to explorepahistory .com.
Yeah. Charles Dickens came on through in the early 1840s.
Shut up. a decade and a half before this happened.
And he was really unimpressed by the whole thing.
He didn't think it was that cray cray?
Real unimpressed. Well, I mean, I guess a decade before it got worse as it went.
Well, it wasn't that he thought it wasn't crazy.
He was just like he didn't like it.
Oh, he said. He was like, I don't really like it.
He traveled on the Portage Railroad, which was used to traverse through these steep inclines and all that stuff to get to the other side of the mountain yeah and this is what he wrote about oh god he said occasionally the rails are laid upon the extreme verge of the giddy precipice he's a writer yeah of course and looking down from the carriage window the traveler gazes sheer down without a stone or scrap of fence between into the mountain depths below and then he called it all sufficiently disconcerting sufficiently disconcerting is a new insult of mine thank you charles dickens you are sufficiently
Sufficiently disconcerting.
I love that. So he was not, he wasn't into it.
He was like, a little scary for me, not into it.
Don't want to do this again.
I love that. I also like that you called it a side trek.
Yeah. While everybody's trekking through.
That wasn't lost on me.
I love that that wasn't lost on you.
I knew you would pick that up.
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Hey there my weird weirdos.
I want to take a minute to recommend another podcast called Who Took Misty Copsey?
In September of 1992, 14 -year -old Misty Copsey leaves the Washington State Fair with her best friend and is never seen again.
Her body is never found.
At the time, western Washington is home to prolific serial killers like the Green River Killer, which leads to different theories on who's responsible for what happened to Misty.
Over the course of eight episodes, host and cold case investigator Sarah Kalin speaks with Misty's friends and family, looks at police records and different anonymous tips to try to figure out if Misty's disappearance is the work of a serial killer or someone who knew her.
No suspects are ruled out.
After 33 years, Sarah Kalin hopes to answer the question, who took Misty?
You guys are going to love this.
If you listen to Morbid, we know that you love a cold case, and we always tell you, a cold case is never cold.
So definitely give this a listen.
Definitely look into the case.
Listen to Who Took Misty Copsey wherever you get your podcasts.
But in 1856 in these very mountains, there lived a family.
A family? A small family.
They inhabited a small cabin surrounded by forest, and their names were Susanna and Samuel Cox.
They had, from what I could gather, three children.
Okay. But we only hear about the two sons that went missing.
Oh, no. They had two sons, one named George, who was seven years old.
Seven? Yeah, and Joseph, who is five years.
Five? Yeah. I told you it's going to be tragic.
So they, you know, cute little family living in this little, like, surrounded by mountains and forest and living that kind of life together.
Oh, here. Dad was out there hunting dinner.
Mom was in there cooking dinner.
It was one of those situations.
Right. Now one day in April, Samuel, Joseph, and George, so the father and the two sons were all eating together from when i gathered i couldn't determine whether they were eating outside or they were eating inside but it feels like they were eating a meal outside together because context clues and also it was the 1800s and i feel like eating outside was probably better because fresh air less pollution was probably preferable back then picnic vibes yeah there was no airwick plugins to cleanse rooms back then so i'm sure it was like Like, let's just eat out there.
Yeah. And it's mountain air.
It's probably scenic as fuck.
Yeah. Like, that's where you want to sit and eat.
Now, during their meal at some point, their dog started getting riled up.
Like, something was in the woods, started barking and snarling and ran into the woods.
That's scary. And you could still hear the dog snarling, barking as he ran.
So Samuel was like, well, shit, there must be something good out there.
Yeah. And he was like, I should follow.
Like, maybe I can get fucking dinner for the rest of the week for us.
Let's go. Yeah. So he grabbed his rifle and he said, kids, I'm running into the woods after the pup.
And he ran into the woods.
Hopefully I come back with dinner.
And mom is in the house.
So he was like, I'll be right back.
I don't know what he found when he found the dog.
But after he found whatever was there, like whatever the dog had gone after, he came back home.
Okay. And when he came back home, George and Joseph were not out there.
Oh. Not where he had left them.
Okay. Okay. So sources say he was gone for less than two hours.
That's still a long time.
Yeah, it definitely is.
But mom was inside, like you said.
Mom was inside. So Susanna came outside and Samuel asked where the boys are.
Where's George and Joseph?
And Susanna immediately said, I didn't see them leave. And then she was like, wait, I thought they went with you.
Like, what do you mean?
She was like, I looked out and saw none of you.
I thought you all went together.
other so they must have followed him like pretty soon after that's the thing it's like so one each parent thought they were with the other parent this wasn't even like this wasn't like neglect like 1800s neglect it was like one of them thought like was just like oh they're with their dad and then the dad was like oh they're with the mom and he went inside and said like i'm going too so it's like she it sounds like she went right out there and then was like oh like they must just finish what i'm doing in here and she said she when she realized they weren't out there when and she looked out.
She was like, oh, they followed their dad.
Samuel said, no, they absolutely did not follow me.
And then they both started panicking.
Oh, no. Now, they went searching themselves immediately.
They were screaming for George and Joseph, hoping they would hear them and come running, but nothing.
They saw no sign of them.
They didn't even see footprints from them.
They could not figure out where they had gone.
What? No sign the boys were anywhere.
So they ran around for a long time together, searching thoroughly.
And finally, Samuel was like, Like, we got to go to the neighbors.
We got to get more people.
So they went to the neighbors, told them what happened.
The neighbors were fucking amazing.
They all banded together.
When I was reading about this, it said, like, laborers left their work to come help.
Like, everyone banded together.
And within a day, there were more than 200 neighbors searching.
All from the surrounding community and all the neighbors searching to help.
That's on community.
and I mean like the forest was full of people just spending hours and hours searching for these boys screaming their name going in all different directions they went all through the night searching with torches they lit fires hoping that the boys would come towards the fires and they would light them on like peaks like higher points so that the boys would hopefully see them and come towards it and it was like these are like experienced hunters experienced experienced gatherers like they're people who live and have grown up in these parts so they're going for it it's not like they're just people
like like treking through the woods like these are people that will go in the woods and they know what to do yeah they were never giving up on these boys they just kept going it was a such a community effort and it snowed during all of this too oh god it was really cold at night which did not help the search and it also didn't help the chances of finding them alive no now this search went for days and days evenings back to back and people didn't stop and they didn't give up and there seemed to be a perimeter that they could follow near samuel and suzanna's home because there was a stream that was flooded
like way over flooded i think from most of the snow melting and stuff yeah and it made a very treacherous this stream and they all decided there was no way the boys could have been able to cross this river and their family was like they wouldn't have tried to cross it yeah like they know that that's dangerous and they were like if they had they would have drowned so then they all started looking in the stream right hoping not to find them in the stream yeah and they searched every bit that they could have that stream they couldn't find them anywhere they weren't in there okay so no one wanted
to believe that that would have been the outcome here so they used it they ended up using this stream as kind of like a natural boundary line where they would search within because they were like, they didn't go over this.
Now, after a few days, it was starting to dawn on everyone that these boys were not likely to be found alive because nights were getting freezing.
Right. It snowed. Yeah.
Despite the great efforts and despite the fact that they believed they couldn't have traveled that far, the morale started to wane, the exhaustion setting in, and things took a little bit of a turn oh see now people started looking at suzanna and sam and they said how exactly did these two boys wander off with both of you covering the two areas on either side of where they would have gone okay which is a natural thing for people to do when you can't find any conclusion you obviously you don't want this to be something that happens where everybody turns on the parents but it's a fair enough question to
ask like i don't want everyone to like come out with their pitchforks but exactly to question like they're wondering like can you tell me the story again yeah kind of thing fair enough um and after all they said you know sam samuel was in the forest like wouldn't he have heard or seen them follow at some point suzanna was at home she didn't see them leave or notice their absence for such a long time and with both of them on either side of where these children likely wandered to like literally covering the two ends of where they would have gone, how could they just disappear in the middle somewhere and never
be found? So suddenly, fingers were pointing at them, and neighbors, who were so eager to help them before and offer support, were now accusing them of hurting their children and covering it up with a sob story.
And we're also accusing them of trying to get money out of their neighbors for this, which I was like, fuck.
Oh, man. Now, they turned on them.
They surrounded the cabin.
They searched it high and low.
They were turning everything inside out, searching for any evidence of the boys deaths they searched the surrounding property they were digging up the gardens looking for buried bodies like ruining their fucking homestead one neighbor went as far as to pull up the floorboards in their home to look for children's bodies underneath they found nothing pulled up the floorboards nothing there was not a shred of evidence to suggest that these people did anything and now they've lost their two children and their their fucking home is like destroyed yeah because that's not just like ransacked that's destroyed
pulling up floorboards and dinging up gardens and shit oh that's awful like and it's like while they're going through this and it doesn't sound like they're a family that like has a lot and no it's like they're living in the 1800s in a in the forest in a cabin right like jesus so that happened and things stalled for a minute and the community you know and the community as well as the Cox's really had no idea where to go next, what to do.
So a local farmer named Jacob Dybert was, he lived nearby the Cox cabin.
Yeah. And he was distraught at this whole situation.
I mean, the whole community was.
He had children of his own.
He just couldn't imagine this, like thinking how terrible it would be to lose children and have them vanish without a fucking trace like the Cox had dealt with.
Right. So he was like, it was like really weighing on him.
Yeah. And the the whole community had been talking about this involved in the searches it was like overtaking everybody's lives because they just wanted to find these kids yeah so on may 2nd he said to his wife that he wished he could find them he was like i just wish i could come across them and then he said i wish i could just dream of where joseph and george are wow and that same night he had a dream and that dream involved him in the woods and he was walking through this area that he didn't really recognize and he said he came across a dead deer okay and he said when he saw the dead deer he
saw that there was a fallen log over a stream all right and so he crossed that fallen log to cross the stream and after that log after he got to the other side he came across a child's shoe oh no and he said and then he looked up and he saw joseph and george at the bottom the base of a birch tree snuggled into the roots of the birch tree together and he He said it was a very specific birch tree that apparently the top had been cut off in some odd, strange way.
So it was just a very, like, he remembered it.
Yeah. So he woke up shook.
Yeah. But attributed it to the fact that, okay, I've been heavily involved in worrying about the children like most of the community.
I was just talking about it.
You know, searching, talking about it.
But how weird to say you wish you could dream something and then you literally manifested that dream.
and that's so he discussed it with his wife Sarah but you know they didn't alert the authorities or the Cox family because they didn't want to send them on a wild goose chase or upset them don't want to sound crazy you know that's the thing and he's like I also don't know where this is yeah like I don't know where this area is so I'd be like I don't know a stream there's tons of streams like I all I have is the tree yeah you Happy Egg believes in spreading happiness through the simple pleasure of high -quality and delicious eggs.
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So his wife agreed that it was, you know, likely from all the stress of the searching, talking about it, saying he wanted to find them to her.
She was like, you know what?
It sounds like you just kind of manifested that idea because you really want to.
Yeah. But that next night, same dream.
No. Same exact dream.
And he even attributed that one because he was not a superstitious guy.
this is not a woo guy who's sitting there being like this is a message from beyond like you know what i mean but like still same dream two nights in a row two nights never happened so he's sitting there and he talks to his wife and his wife is like i don't like that's kind of strange and he's like yeah you know but i talked to you about it today yesterday same exact dream and then like maybe my mind is just really thinking about how strange it is so it's kind of just giving me the same things puzzled together sir so he was like you know what so he goes to sleep on the third night same dream a third
night stop it and that's when he said nah this is something he was like something is different here yeah so he ended up calling his brother -in -law Harrison and he told him and I think his last name was Y song okay and he told him the situation and suddenly he Harrison and his and Jacob's wife Sarah who were brother and sister okay they suddenly realized together this place that Jacob was describing wait that's actually really familiar to us because all of a a sudden they were both like, wait a second, I know that birch tree.
And they said it was a place near our childhood home, about five to seven miles away from here.
It's a very specific birch tree near a stream.
Stop it. And they were like, the top is cut off.
Right. So Jacob and Harrison were like, we got to go.
We got to go to this place just to get it out of my mind, at least we got to go.
So Harrison was like, I think I know where it is.
I can bring you there.
So they go. They see a dead deer no they see a fallen log across the stream and jacob is like off are you kidding me and i bet that's what he said they go across the stream they cross it they see a child's shoe everything and when they see the child's shoe they look up and see that same birch tree with the top cut off and at the base of it huddled together in the roots were george and joseph no And unfortunately, they had passed away.
It had been more than, I think it had been like 13 days since they had gone missing at this point.
And you said it was like so cold at night.
They're five and seven.
Like they don't know how to survive in the woods.
Yeah. It was definitely so...
Oh, my God. Now, according to a website I found called catbirdlife .com, it looked like the younger boy had died first because it appeared his brother had placed his own hat down for his brother to lay on as a makeshift pillow.
and they were like huddled together oh that's gut -wrenching oh my god now word was sent back to the cox family immediately like they sent harrison harrison went to get samuel and jacob stood and protected the boys bodies himself until the family arrived oh my god absolutely devastated and they said when samuel came he just fell onto his boys weeping of course i can't imagine no and you just in the you know he's sitting there thinking like how did this happen Yeah.
How did this happen?
And nobody... How did they...
How did this happen?
Like what... Yeah. And when they were examined, it appeared very much so that George and Joseph Cox had passed away due to exposure to the elements, like hypothermia, which is horrifying in its own right.
They were literally found huddled together under in the roots of the tree.
And how far were they from their own home?
They were like not that far, but I think they were in like a...
They were far for little boys.
Far enough, yeah. that's for sure and i think they just got turned around they just didn't know where they were they had crossed over that stream when they didn't think they would oh they did but it was because the log and i was like no one saw the fallen log yeah like what the fuck i don't know if it was at a different end of the stream where they just didn't cover as much or what and you're just like like no one heard them in the woods that's what i so so they must have wandered outside of where the searchers had obviously set up the boundaries yeah they all believed that the The boys could not have gone
across the stream so they didn't search there.
Which again, like you said, not one person went across the stream or even had thoughts to go across the stream.
I know you set up that boundary.
The boys didn't see the fires or anything like that?
That's the thing. Where were they while everyone was searching?
There were thousands of people at one point searching.
Even just the fact that they went into the woods alone.
It sounds like maybe they were just like, well, maybe we should go see what dad found.
yeah i think that's what people say that like maybe they saw how excited their dad was like running into the woods to go after the dog but i'm like but then that would lead me to believe they followed directly after him right and at that point they would not that wouldn't have happened they would at least come across but maybe they did just get turned around really quickly and just started traveling in the complete opposite direction of where they just wander out after like you know like they saw him go in and they're like oh and then they talked it through and decided to go in after you know
i think it must have been later then i also think of the ages and i'm like seven and five like i have eight year olds and a four year old yeah so pretty similar but i'm also like we don't live in the 1800s in the woods yeah on a mountain in a cabin well who knows how often they went in the woods even well that's these kids were very they grew up in the woods they were outdoorsy because when i first read this i looked at it through my, like, 2024 bias of sitting there being like, my girls would never wander into the woods at that age.
Like, they'd be like, fuck no. Like, they'd just like, I'm not going in there.
Right, but these are boys too.
But these are like little boys in the 1800s who are taught everything about the woods.
Yeah. And then I'm sitting there thinking, well, and you know what?
Maybe kids in other parts of the United States would do the same thing.
Who are raised in the woods and hunting and gathering and fishing and doing all that stuff like maybe they would wander into the woods I can't I just can't base it on my own I initially went to base it on mine I was like that's silly to base it on your own but I see what I mean I see why you would because I was just trying to figure out like why did they wander and then I'm like it kind of it makes sense it makes sense that they would and I think they just got turned around or maybe they saw something cool they both ran after it to go look and then they realized I don't know where we are like
we went off the path It was just a simple kind of thing.
So it's still strange that no one – I'm like, did they hear people calling to them?
Yeah. Because people went out immediately.
Right. Their own parents did, all the neighbors, the whole community, screaming their names.
Nobody heard them. They didn't hear anybody.
Like where – but again – That's the weird part.
But I mean, I guess, are the woods dense?
That's exactly what I was saying.
I was like, okay, maybe – they are dense.
so it's like maybe it's one of those things where it just we don't realize how the sound gets like muffled yeah in that place like you think they're gonna hear it but it's like if it's a canopy of of trees it's gonna keep that sound it's like okigahara forest it's like it stifles all the sounds forests are fucking scary they are they're fucking terrifying they are and also you're like and then like the fires being lit and stuff i'm like then i wonder i'm like did they try to get to those fires and they couldn't get to them like it breaks your heart but then the fact that they weren't very far
from yeah i don't i don't know i don't know exactly how far they were but i don't think they were as far as they thought they were but obviously the initial thought is how the fuck did this guy know where these boys are oh did people yeah because it's they they're not like they're not like yeah you manifested a dream bro yeah like crazy i will say at first everybody was kind of like what like i don't know which i feel like i want that i might You might have the same reaction, though.
Yeah, like you're at least going to be like, wait a second.
And once it became clear, though, that they had died of exposure, that it was kind of one of those things where it's like, you can't argue that he did something.
I mean, they died of exposure.
It's not like there's any foul play here.
He wouldn't just...
This random farmer who's a father himself wasn't going to lead these boys into the middle of the woods just to be like, bye.
That doesn't seem like normal.
And so now it's kind of hard to argue anything anything but a prophetic dream but it's just he saw it he wanted to see it and he saw it three nights in a row three nights in a row and see the dead deer the fallen log the child shoe and then the bird's dream every time and that is the exact state and it's there's a plaque up I mean this is like real this isn't like folklore it's like this happened and in fact the reward The reward money was given to Jacob and Harrison, the brother -in -law and the farmer, because they found the boys.
I mean, yeah. And they immediately gave it back to Samuel and Susanna.
Are you kidding me?
They said they wanted to help pay for the gravestone for the boys.
Oh. So they didn't take a cent of it.
So they're like good -ass people.
They're like good -ass people.
Like, that's the thing.
Like, he literally.
Because I'm sure, like, you were saying, like, this is like a pretty, like, normal community.
Like, they could have used that money.
That's the thing. that like they are good dudes who just wanted this family to be able to pay for to bury their children which the the uh boys were buried in the in a casket together oh so they have one gravestone fucking ruin yeah dude now in 1906 the community came together again oh they raised money enough money for a few years later to have a completely like a rectum monument in for the the boy's honor.
Wow. And it's placed right now in the exact site where Joseph and George were found.
Oh, wow. Like the exact spot where the tree was.
Oh, that's so haunting.
I know. But like, it's really awesome that they did that.
Yeah. And they all raised money to do it.
Wow. The community came together.
Oh, that poor family.
And on the monument is the story of the boy's tragic disappearance and deaths.
And there's also a photo of Jacob Dibert.
Oh, wow. Like, Like, it's like a little sassy photo of him at his Sunday best, you know?
But imagine you're just, like, hiking and you see that and read that story.
And you're like, this is where they found two little babies.
Yeah. Like, the heaviness of that site.
If any of you have been there, like, tell me about it because I'm like.
Oh, no, I'm interested to hear.
I can't imagine how heavy that would be.
No. And people can travel there today.
It's a place to see.
And there's always, like, toys and flowers and such that people leave for the boys.
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But now there's also a structure built around the monument, like a roof and it has like a chain link fence around it.
Yeah. Because humans are literally garbage and they have vandalized it before.
Literally? What is wrong with people?
And in fact... You gotta be real fucked up to vandalize a monument where a seven and a five -year -old were found dead.
Yeah. Like do some inner work.
It does make you sit there and be like, Like, well, it's you see the two separate sides of humanity in this story.
You see Jacob Dibert and the whole community coming together.
Being like, let's give them the reward money.
And then you see piece of shit humans from 2000 and, you know, whatever, vandalizing the memorial that those people worked so hard to erect.
Yeah, we love humans.
Like, we haven't done a whole lot of growing here.
We're going, it seems like we're going backwards.
It sure does. In fact, the sign leading to the monument says, Lost Children Memorial.
It's a sign that says it.
It is literally riddled with bullet holes, that sign.
What? Yeah, assholes just shooting at the sign.
Like, do better, people.
What is wrong with people?
Do fucking better. It's like you're just wasting your own shit to ruin something.
Did that do something for you?
Did it do something for you to shoot at a sign that says, Lost Children's Memorial?
you should go to therapy did you go home after that and talk to another human being who didn't know that you had just done that like what the fuck is wrong with you that's wild that's truly like that's really like just barbaric behavior i'm like you gotta get it together yeah or like chain yourself up away from society that's a good plan nobody really wants you there yeah it's just like that's so gross to me i don't understand people who do that shit no now in the area where the boys were found and where the memorial sits people report a lot of strange feelings they oh i believe it very heavy
there people say they hear kids like giggling and they'll hear kids talking they'll hear kids like running around at least you hear them like happy yeah i hope they're just playing together in the woods yeah like you know and people will like see if it snows they'll see like footprints of little kids around the memorial yeah so So it's a Blair Witch type shit.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure.
Now, also, interestingly enough, a bluegrass song was written about this story called Jacob's Dream.
Oh, cool. And it was written by John Pennell, I think it is, and Julie Lee.
And it was performed by Alison Krauss about this tragedy.
Wow. It's a gut -wrenching song, to be honest. The chorus is written from the boys' perspectives.
And I can't. Please don't.
Yeah, I'm not even going to read them because I'll cry.
Yeah, I can't. You can look it up, though.
Yeah, feel free. Julie Lee, one of the writers, said of the song, I am distantly related to Jacob Dybert on my mother's side by marriage.
Oh, shit. So all my relatives up in this small area of Bedford County, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny Mountains know this true story.
Everyone in that area knows the story of the lost Cox children or the lost children of the Alleghenies.
The lost children of the Alleghenies is such a haunting statement.
Isn't it a haunting, haunting title?
It really is. I can see why you were like, I need to know everything about this.
Yeah, it's just like, I was like, I need to know about this.
And I'll give you like, because I know I was like, oh, this song and it's really sad and I'm not going to tell you anything about it.
I'll give you a little bit.
So the story, the song basically like tells the story.
Yeah. And then the chorus is where they get to like the children's perspective.
Are you going to sing that to me?
And the chorus says.
She really is. I'm going to give you the last chorus because it's when they were found.
Okay. because the other ones are like when they're saying like why can't you hear our cries i'm gonna i'm gonna do a self -soothing exercise while you do this it says oh mommy and daddy look past the tears you cry we're both up in heaven now god is by our side as you lay us down to rest in the presence of the lord know that we will meet you here at heaven's door oh my god isn't that just like gut wrenching my body just went warm that's it's that's just like oh god it's because they're babies like those are babies i have chills everywhere scared little babies just like but i the song is like a really
it's a it's just like a retelling of what happened kind of thing it's not like uh you know it's not like a really upsetting song in any other way like they i think they did a proper tribute to it yeah and that's a that's a perfect uh way to say a tribute now Now, the last little strange thing that I was like, huh.
Yeah. Now I'm like, Jacob Divert, are you like a wizard?
Like, what is going on?
So there is a story from 1887 that talks about a woman named Sydney Griffith who left Portage, which is in the same area.
Yeah. And was walking home waiting to be picked up by her horse and buggy.
Loves it. And I think it was like her brother was coming to pick her up in the horse and buggy.
Yeah. She was wandering a bit.
she kind of like lost where she was on the trail and she got lost in the cedar swamps oh god she was gone vanished without a trace they could not find her for two full days they searched no one could find her same kind of thing no sign of her whatsoever and they were like how the fuck did she wander off like that what happened so they were thinking foul play someone kidnapped her right and on the second night she was missing a man had a fucking dream dreamed about where to What?
What? What? What? I was like, Jake Isaac.
You're like, what the fuck?
What the fuck? He led a rescue team to the area and she was found alive and rescued.
Can you imagine? Like, obviously he grew up his whole life hearing his story.
Absolutely. His father's story.
and then to have the exact same motherfucking powers yep do you believe in magic what the fuck yeah oh my god yep dude that isn't that nuts i've read that last part and i was like shut the front door that's on some familial warlock shit that's the thing that's really cool and And people burned witches.
Look what witches and warlocks are capable of, you stupid fucks.
Look at them doing it.
I mean, they burned people that weren't even witches.
Yeah, exactly. But, like, it's like people like this who, like, him saying, I found them because I dreamed three nights in a row of where they were was pretty ballsy to the wallsy of him, to be quite honest. I mean, he had no other thing to say.
He was like, I don't know how else I would have stumbled upon them.
That's just what it is.
I'm going to be honest. And look at that guy just being honest. He's like, I dreamed about it.
yeah and here they are like and he was also like jacob was like devastated to find them like he was like i didn't and then like for a little while he was like i i when i said i wanted to find them like i wanted to find them alive for their parents like i felt like you like didn't like he didn't want to manifest them being dead and finding them somewhere you know like so he was like devastated to find them and when and everybody that was there said he protected those boys bodies until the the parents came like that's incredible like stood over them guarding them that's a straight up hero yeah and it's
like that's fucking crazy though and imagine that's your dad that's your dad imagine your dad did that and then you do that and then you do that and it's kind of like beautiful too that like first of all he was ever able to do it but then that that woman was found alive yeah and his dad like always felt sad that he hadn't found those that he wanted to find them alive and it's like oh it just it got me that's bonkers bro it just got me like this story first of all it's tragic it's just so sad to think of these two little boys and it also like kind of taught me not to look at a situation in this time
frame kind of thing through my own yeah lens because my initial first reaction was trying to figure out how these boys got lost and i was like no why did a seven -year -old and a five -year -old run into the woods that's wild behavior it makes sense but I'm like no that was normal behavior for these boys like I'm sure this was not a thing that they were worried about and you just have to think like you were saying earlier like region to region is so absolutely back then in the region in the place that they were living they're living on like a mountain you know you mean like in the forest that's all
they know it's not like they're just walking down the road it's like they're in the middle of a forest they want to go anywhere they're going through a forest that's so these boys were probably very very confident, and the parents were probably pretty confident.
I'm also like, what did the dad find in the forest?
I know. I'm like, did you find...
He had thought that maybe the dog had found like a...
It could have been like, you know, some kind of fox or a squirrel or something that they could eat, I suppose.
Maybe. But... What's going on in that forest?
I don't know. He didn't seem upset about what he found in the forest. Oh, okay, that's good.
Like, he didn't come out and be like, oh my god, I found a mythical beast. What if he didn't find anything though and yeah we don't know maybe i know because i'm like what was the dog freaking out about that's what i mean yeah because it's just like they freak out at animals there was no foul play here so it's like or no foul play that they found here yeah so it's like we also have to look at it as it's the middle of the forest in pennsylvania in 1856 so i'm like did they not know that there was foul play did they miss something oh god i hope not and that's It's not me being like, somebody killed
those kids. No. Like, I think they genuinely, I think, unfortunately, and very tragically died of exposure.
I really do. I think it was hypothermia.
What a strange story, though.
But the story just, I know it's like a shorter one and just kind of strange.
But it felt like one that I was like, I just got to talk to you guys about this.
Well, and every now and then people like a shorter episode to like just ponder a strange story.
This is for your drive home.
You're welcome. You know, hopefully you pulled in your driveway.
Go hug somebody that you love.
Eat a good dinner inside.
Yeah. Or outside if you prefer.
Just don't go running into the forest. And then be a good neighbor.
Yeah. Pull up people's floorboards because that's absolutely insane.
Yeah. Insane. That's insane, Madison.
That's insane, Madison.
And I guess there's like a lot of reports where like the neighbor who pulled up the floorboards is named as like, I think, Charlie Ross.
But from what I've read, don't go after Charlie Ross hundreds of years later because I don't I think he was mistakenly identified as being the guy who did it.
How shitty is that?
But I just wanted to throw that out there in case you come across that.
I think it's a case of mistaken identity.
So don't send your bad vibes his way.
Don't besmirch Charlie Ross just yet.
We don't know. Yeah.
We don't know about him.
Things got lost through the grapevines of centuries.
It's been a little while.
It does happen. But just in case you come across that, just take it with a grain of salt.
Yeah. For old Charlie Ross.
damn it's a crazy story it's a sad story poor Samuel and Susanna just breaks my damn heart it really does but yeah that's the story of the lost children of the Alleghenies Joseph and George Cox there's a spooky strange story for ya we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird and do keep it so weird that you have prophetic dreams because that's fucking baller.
That is baller. Go Jacob.
Generational prophetic dreams. Thank you.
Excuse me. Whoa. I'm going to put that at the end.
I'm going to put that at the end.
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