HAUNTED: Lake Lanier

Just an hour outside of Atlanta, Georgia, lies Lake Lanier—a man-made reservoir that’s become a vacation destination for locals. What many don’t know is beneath its murky waters lies a disturbing past. Stories of racial violence, forgotten cemeteries, and underwater buildings have fueled rumors of restless spirits and hauntings. Perhaps explaining why it’s one of the most deadly lakes in America, even today.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Stop. This is SimpliSafe. Police are on the way.

• 0:09Speaker 00

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• 0:32Rasha Pecoraro?

  All of us have our happy place. For me and Yvette, it's going back home to Hawaii, where the air smells different the second you step off the plane. The sun glistening as it sparkles off of the ocean, the beauty of the aina, the land wrapping you in its embrace. Think about it for a moment. What's your happy place? The place you yearn to go back to the second you leave? It might not be the Hawaiian Islands for you. It could be anywhere that makes you happy, a place you have created beautiful memories. Have you ever stopped to ask what your special place looked like before you got there? Who stood on that land 50 or even 100 years ago? What happened there before it became

• 1:17Rasha Pecoraro?

  a picture-perfect postcard in your mind? And if you did know the history, would it change the way you feel about that place? Would you still long to go back? Because when we started researching today's topic, which to the naked eye seems like a peaceful, fun, inviting vacation spot outside of Atlanta, Georgia, we had no idea just how much the past could color these picturesque destinations we get so attached to.

• 1:47Yvette Gentile?

  Rush is talking about Lake Lanier, which is about 60 minutes outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Its shoreline stretches across 700 miles, wrapping around quiet coves, thick Georgia pines, and wooden docks that glow at sunset. It's been a destination full of happy times and good memories for a lot of families. But not everyone knows the lake's heartbreaking and brutal, dark history.

• 2:15Yvette Gentile?

  And what truly lies beneath it. There have been numerous sudden drownings and horrific accidents at Lake Lanier. But there are also deeper stories that don't appear on the accident reports. Because Lake Lanier holds a hidden, blood-soaked chapter in American history. One that's been literally washed away. Which is why the lake is said to attract spirits, curses, and evil forces. All lingering just below the surface. I'm Yvette Gentile.

• 2:52Rasha Pecoraro?

  And I'm her sister, Rasha Peccarero. Let's dive into another episode of So Supernatural.

• 3:28Yvette Gentile?

  Before we begin, this episode contains discussions of racial brutality and lynchings, sexual assault, and murder. So y'all, please, listen with care.

• 3:44Rasha Pecoraro?

  Picture this: You wake up one Saturday morning. You don't have any plans. The sun is shining and the day is warm. All you can think is how nice it would be to have a picnic by the water. Maybe go swimming, or even rent a boat or a jet ski. So you hop in your car, go for a quick drive, and spend the day at the most beautiful lake you've ever seen in your life. For those who live in the Atlanta area, this isn't just a pleasant fantasy. It's a typical weekend escape. Because just 60 minutes outside of the city limits is Lake Lanier. It's a major tourist attraction with roughly 14 million visitors every single year.

• 4:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  This makes it comparable to Niagara Falls or even the Louvre in Paris in terms of foot traffic.

• 4:31Yvette Gentile?

  And that fact alone should tell you that Lake Lanier is a very big deal. It not only draws people from nearby Atlanta, but also vacationers travel from all over the world to take a dip in its waters. It has 700 miles of shorelines with some shallow beaches. But at its deepest point, the lake goes down 200 feet, which makes it great for water sports. People can go swimming or rent boats and jet skis. There are public barbecues that are set up on the beaches for people who want to grill. And there's even an amusement park full of water slides. So if you're feeling extra adventurous. The water itself is dotted with 160 islands, some of which are very small, but some are enormous.

• 5:17Yvette Gentile?

  And that water park is one of them.

• 5:20Rasha Pecoraro?

  So whether you want to swim, nap in the sun, or rent a boat, Lake Lanier seems like a tiny slice of heaven right in Georgia. But appearances can be deceiving. And beneath those still waters lie dark and murky secrets.

• 5:39Yvette Gentile?

  To understand the lake's legacy, we have to tell you about its history. Because thousands of years ago, Lake Lanier didn't exist. Instead, two major rivers snaked across those plains, the Chattahoochee and the Chestahtee. Storm water from the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains fed these rivers. And occasionally during rainy seasons, there would be dangerous floods.

• 6:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  Two indigenous communities lived in the area, the Cherokee Nation and the Creek. This was their home for thousands of years. But in the 1820s, a group of miners discovered gold in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Suddenly, people from all over the country poured into the area, hoping to strike it rich. However, the prospectors didn't want to share their wealth with those who actually owned and lived on the land. So they campaigned for the federal government to remove the Cherokee and Creek people from Georgia altogether.

• 6:43Rasha Pecoraro?

  And in 1829, President Andrew Jackson sided with these claim seekers. He signed the so-called Indian Removal Act that said every indigenous person who lived east of the Mississippi River had to relocate to a reservation in the West.

• 7:02Yvette Gentile?

  The mass migration didn't happen overnight, though. It took roughly two decades for everyone to gather all of their belongings, leave their ancestral lands, and make their way along what was called the Trail of Tears. The journey was long, brutal, and heartbreaking, and many indigenous people became ill while traveling. Others didn't have access to clean water or food, and the indigenous communities were accompanied by army soldiers, who beat and tortured them if they showed signs of resistance. Anytime someone refused to leave their beloved home, the army would

• 7:42Yvette Gentile?

  try to evacuate them by force. If the soldiers couldn't threaten or drag them off, they'd kill them right there on the spot.

• 7:53Rasha Pecoraro?

  It's so heartbreaking to me. Between 1830 and 1850, roughly 60,000 Cherokee people were forcibly kicked out of their homes, and another 4,000 were killed. A fifth of their total population died on the Trail of Tears. An additional 3,500 Creek people died before they could reach the reservations in the West. And once all the indigenous people had been evacuated from the Blue Ridge region, the settlers moved in. This included miners who wanted to dig gold out of the hills, and farmers who hoped the floods had left nutrients in the soil that would make a great

• 8:36Rasha Pecoraro?

  harvest. But the farmers needed laborers to work on their plots of land. Luckily for them, there was a huge influx of new settlers in the region in the late 1860s.

• 8:49Yvette Gentile?

  The Civil War had just ended and many formerly enslaved black people had no home, no job, no formal education, so they wandered through the South looking for work. And many of them settled outside of Atlanta because they could find paid jobs there. Some moved into a community called Oscarville. It sat right on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, close to the farmland. The town had both white and black residents, and while the black residents were outnumbered, they took great pride in building their homes, planting trees and gardens, and investing in local businesses. Which sounds great, except for the fact that racial tensions in Georgia

• 9:33Yvette Gentile?

  were very high at that time, and they got worse with each passing year. That was especially true in the early 1900s, when the economy was in a slump and many white residents couldn't pay their bills or cover their mortgages. Some farmers who lived outside of Atlanta for generations were losing their family homes. In spite of that, Oscarville's black community was thriving. Work was still plentiful and the residents were living comfortable, secure lives. If anything, this only made their white neighbors in town jealous and angry. And that tension came to a head on the evening

• 10:17Yvette Gentile?

  of Sunday, September 8th, 1912.

• 10:21Rasha Pecoraro?

  That evening, an 18-year-old white woman named May Crowe went missing from her home in Oscarville. Her parents had no idea where she was. So all day and all night, May's parents and her siblings wandered through the neighborhood, calling her name. They also searched the woods around their house, thinking she might have just gotten lost. The family was still looking for her well after midnight, when on the morning of September 9th, someone else found May, and she was in bad shape. May was lying near the banks of the Chattahoochee River, partially hidden under some large pine tree branches. She was covered in cuts and bruises. Someone had beaten her badly, but she was still alive.

• 11:07Rasha Pecoraro?

  May's family took her home and called for a doctor, but they weren't able to wake her up. For the next two weeks, May was in a coma. Finally, she passed away from her injuries at the end of September. And since she never woke up, she was never able to tell her family who hurt her or why. But that didn't stop the locals from speculating.

• 11:32Yvette Gentile?

  Just a few days before May's attack in early to mid-September, another white woman fell victim to a violent crime. It happened about 20 miles outside of Oscarville. She survived, but she was sexually assaulted. That woman's attacker hadn't been identified by the time of May's death, but based on her statement to police, it was supposedly a black man. Now, there was no evidence whatsoever that her sexual assault had anything to do with May's death. But lots of white residents thought that the same black man must have committed both crimes. And when the local papers wrote about May's homicide,

• 12:16Yvette Gentile?

  they reported that she was also sexually assaulted before she died. But it's unclear where they got that information or if it's even true. Still, the police turned their attention to four young black people who all lived together in Oscarville: 18-year-old Oscar Daniel and his 22-year-old sister Jane, their 16-year-old cousin Ernest Knox, and a 24-year-old friend named Robert Edwards, or Big Rob. Even though there was no evidence linking Oscar, Jane, Ernest, or Big Rob to the attack on May, nothing. This reminds me of the five young African-American teenagers who were wrongfully accused of a crime

• 12:58Yvette Gentile?

  they didn't commit in Central Park, New York, back in 1989. They served years in prison, but were finally proven innocent. We now call them the Exonerated Five. Sadly for Oscar Jane, Ernest and Big Rob, the only thing tying them to the case was that the four of them lived in a house near the spot May was found beaten. In the police's eyes, that's all the proof they needed to arrest the four roommates and charge them with sexual assault and murder. Then, they began building a case to bring to the judge.

• 13:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  Except this didn't satisfy the accusers. They didn't want to wait for a fair trial. They wanted blood. And they wouldn't be satisfied until someone, guilty or innocent, paid with their life.

• 13:58Speaker 00

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• 14:28Yvette Gentile?

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• 15:11Yvette Gentile?

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• 15:28Yvette Gentile?

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• 15:59Yvette Gentile?

  On September 9th, 1912, May Crowe was found beaten near her home in Oscarville, Georgia. The police didn't know who had hurt her, but they arrested four black locals and charged them with the crime, despite zero evidence against them. And then, on September 10th, three days after May was found, an angry mob assembled outside the local jail. Among them were a few Klansmen, stoking the crowd into a frenzy. Once their anger was at a boiling point, they broke into the jail and searched the cells for the four prisoners. But they only found one, Big Rob. The others were being held at a county facility.

• 16:44Yvette Gentile?

  The townspeople dragged Big Rob out of his cell and beat him with crowbars. Then he was shot to death before they strung up his body. And the mob didn't stop there. That night, they marched and rode their horses up and down the streets of Oscarville. Each time they passed a house where a black family lived, they set it on fire. The mob did the same to the churches the black community attended and the stores they shopped at. Men and women and children were woken in the middle of the night, smelling smoke and hearing

• 17:29Yvette Gentile?

  flames crackling outside their bedrooms.

• 17:33Yvette Gentile?

  They had to jump out of the windows and race out of their back doors trying to get to safety. But when they got outside, there was often a gang of Klansmen and their own white neighbors waiting for them with guns and knives. They drove their victims to the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and another group of violent locals blocked the only bridge across it. Many frightened black families had no choice but to swim in the dark in their pajamas, because it was the only way to get out of town alive.

• 18:11Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is so heartbreaking to me. By the time dawn arrived on September 11th, many families had fled and the mobs began to disperse, many of them going to tend to their farms. But when night fell, they assembled again, and they went right back to terrorizing the black neighbors who were left. The same thing happened the night after that and the night after that. The attacks continued for weeks, well into October.

• 18:42Yvette Gentile?

  That same month, Jane, Oscar, and Ernest went on trial for May's sexual assault and murder. While Jane was found not guilty, Oscar and Ernest were both convicted without a shred of evidence against them. After their verdict came down, another mob assembled to lynch the two men. And after that, the nightly attacks still continued. By mid-November, Oscarville's black community had completely disappeared. There were 1,100 black people living in the town before May's murder. Now, there were none. Everyone had either been killed or run out of town.

• 19:29Rasha Pecoraro?

  Which meant there was no one to stop the white residents from taking all their land, their houses, and their businesses for themselves. Farmers began planting their crops on their stolen plots of land. Families moved into newly abandoned houses. They all built their lives in a community that didn't belong to them. And this was where things stood for the next 30 years or so. By the mid-1940s, the descendants of those white farmers were still living on the same land. However, a new threat was looming. A natural one this time. The Chattahoochee River.

• 20:10Yvette Gentile?

  The river had still been flooding on a regular basis, but it was now considered a major problem. Because Atlanta was a growing city with lots of suburbs, and those floodwaters were a threat to newly-built houses, highways, and businesses. And when you have more people, you need more drinking water. So Atlanta was in desperate need of more reservoirs for its residents. Which is why in 1946, the US Congress funded the construction of a reservoir. And they decided to build it right on top of Oscarville.

• 20:45Rasha Pecoraro?

  The federal government offered the residents there a deal. They'd buy the land from them for much less than what it was actually worth. But because many of the farmers were uneducated, they accepted the payouts, only to realize after the fact that they couldn't even afford a place anywhere else with that cash. Once everything was bought and paid for, the government built dams and channels in and around the town of Oscarville, which sent river water onto the streets, the parks, and the lawns that were once part of the town. They didn't remove the homes, the trees, the businesses, or even the graves in the local cemetery. So each time it rained,

• 21:28Rasha Pecoraro?

  and every spring when the snow melted, enormous amounts of water raced down city streets. Lawns and sidewalks flooded. Park benches, picket fences, and big trees were all swallowed up. It took 10 years in total, but by 1956, Oscarville was almost completely underwater.

• 21:51Yvette Gentile?

  We say "almost" because there are some tall hills that aren't completely submerged. They form those 160 islands we mentioned earlier. But now, the region was officially a lake. And to make it even more controversial, they named that lake after a Confederate soldier turned poet named Sidney Lanier. Tragically, there was no sign of the thriving town that once stood there, at least not above the water. But Oscarville's secrets hadn't disappeared. They were only submerged. And before long, whispers said that something dark and supernatural

• 22:33Yvette Gentile?

  was lurking just beneath the lake's surface.

• 22:37Rasha Pecoraro?

  The gossip begins about two years after the lake was created in 1958. That's when two young women go out dancing in the Atlanta area. Their names are Delia Mae Parker Young and Suzie Robert. They end up having a great time. But once the night is over, they need to drive back home. And their route takes them on a bridge that stretches right over Lake Lanier. Except that night, the bridge seems to be slicker than usual. Because the women only make it part of the way before their tires start sliding and they end up losing control of the car. It plunges straight into the lake. And neither of them makes it out alive.

• 23:21Yvette Gentile?

  Sometime in the following year, a fisherman finds Delia's body floating. She's in the same blue dress she wore on her night out. And she's missing her hands. Nobody knows how she ended up in the water because no one witnessed the accident. Plus, the lake is too muddy for anyone to see the car sitting at the bottom. But that changes 31 years later in 1990. That's when rescuers finally discover her car on the lake bed. And her friend Suzie's remains are still belted into her seat.

• 24:00Rasha Pecoraro?

  Ever since Delia and Susie's deaths, visitors have regularly reported seeing a strange figure walking on the shoreline, or even standing on the bridge. They describe her as a young woman in a blue dress who doesn't have any hands. Local legend says this is Delia's restless spirit, and they've given her a nickname: "The Lady of the Lake." Rumors claim she's angry enough to lash out at anyone who crosses her path. Plus, there are a ton of stories of people going swimming in Lake Lanier just for them to see a woman beneath the water, wearing a blue dress.

• 24:43Rasha Pecoraro?

  If anyone gets too close to her, it's said she will pull them under the surface. But according to local legend, the Lady of the Lake isn't the only ghost haunting those shores. Apparently, Lake Lanier is crawling with spirits, like reports of a man known only as Mr. Brown.

• 25:06Yvette Gentile?

  Eight years after Delia and Susie's deaths on Christmas Day 1964, Mr. Brown got behind the wheel of a passenger van after drinking. He was on a road trip with his wife and four children and another family they were friends with. He lost control of the van while on the same bridge that Susie and Delia had fallen from, and his vehicle and its 11 passengers plunged into the water. Four people managed to escape, but the other seven, including Mr. Brown, died. It's said his restless spirit still lingers on the bridge today. He's not always visible, but if someone is carrying an electromagnetic field reader

• 25:51Yvette Gentile?

  or other ghost-hunting equipment, they can detect his presence, especially if they offer him booze.

• 26:01Rasha Pecoraro?

  Supposedly, there are a lot of other spirits at Lake Lanier that can't be identified. Which makes sense. Since the lake was created, roughly 700 people have died in its waters. This includes people who have drowned while swimming, those who've been injured in boat crashes, and individuals who've gone to the lake and then disappeared, never to be seen again. As of this recording, more than two dozen people have gone missing in the lake and have since been declared dead.

• 26:33Yvette Gentile?

  Which only adds to the legends and ghost stories about Lake Lanier, because people say there are a lot of spirits with unfinished business, some of which are supposedly angry and violent. But other spirits are rumored to be helpful, too. For example, a woman named Chastity Blunt shared this story on her TikTok. In June or July of 1997, she went to Lake Lanier with some friends. They all decided to go swimming. Chastity was a Florida native who'd grown up right by the shore, so she considered herself a strong swimmer. But during that excursion, she got tangled in the branches of a submerged tree.

• 27:14Yvette Gentile?

  Her head was stuck underwater, and even though Chastity should have panicked in that moment, she didn't. She had an odd feeling of calm wash over her. And then she heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to her. It was a man's voice, and his words were as clear as day. He said, and this is a quote, "Chastity, you're underwater." Next, the voice told her to extend her arms, as though she was flying like Superman, so she did just that. That's when she said a man pulled her from the lake and carried her back toward shore. Chastity didn't recognize him. He wasn't even dressed like a lifeguard or a first responder.

• 27:59Yvette Gentile?

  And she never got a chance to thank him, because once her friends and some bystanders surrounded her, she lost sight of the guy. To this day, it's unclear if this was just a good Samaritan who saved her, or if it was a friendly ghost. And I also have to say, I watched a documentary with Chastity, and this still affects her to this day. When she speaks about it, she has no clue how she got out of that water. But she's very thankful that she did.

• 28:34Rasha Pecoraro?

  And they knew her name.

• 28:35Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah.

• 28:35Rasha Pecoraro?

  They said her name. So it couldn't have been just a bystander. How would they have known that her name was Chastity?

• 28:42Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah.

• 28:43Rasha Pecoraro?

  Well, there are plenty of reports of paranormal activities that aren't so uplifting. In the summer of 2025, one boat carrying a family of seven caught fire for no apparent reason. Luckily, they all managed to escape. Plus, some swimmers say they feel hands grabbing their feet and bodies, trying to yank them deeper into the water. Which might explain another odd feature of the lake. There are a ton of drownings there every single year. And some of their stories are so bizarre and so unlikely, they almost have to be supernatural.

• 29:30Speaker 00

  Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that.

• 29:37Speaker 01

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• 29:39Speaker 00

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• 29:55Speaker 01

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• 30:00Yvette Gentile?

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• 30:42Yvette Gentile?

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• 31:13Speaker 04

  Hi, I'm Ashley Flowers.

• 31:15Speaker 05

  And I'm Britt. And if you're on the edge of your seat listening to this show, Crime Junkie needs to be your next listen.

• 31:21Speaker 04

  Every Monday, I dive into a new true crime case that our reporting team has been on the ground looking into. From lesser-known disappearances to the most chilling cases hitting the headlines, and I'm gonna walk you through it the way I tell my best friend, because, well, that's what I'm doing.

• 31:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, that's me. And I'm right there with you as we listen together, react to every wild detail, and of course, I ask all the questions.

• 31:44Speaker 04

  And I'm gonna have the answers, because we have case files. We're talking to detectives and family members, and we're gonna stay focused on the facts.

• 31:51Speaker 05

  So if you're not already listening to Crime Junkie, what are you waiting for? There are over 300 episodes available right now.

• 31:58Speaker 04

  And you can listen to new episodes of Crime Junkie every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• 32:09Yvette Gentile?

  Since its creation, over 500 people have died at Lake Lanier. Many of those deaths were in freak accidents that nearly defied explanation.

• 32:21Rasha Pecoraro?

  Take the story of Thomas Milner. In the summer of 2023, he was 24 years old and living in the Atlanta area. On Thursday, July 27th, he and his family went to Lake Lanier for a day of swimming and relaxation. Almost as soon as they arrived on the shore, Thomas ran toward the water and jumped right in. Then, he started screaming. His family didn't know what was wrong. They'd been to the lake countless times before. Thomas definitely knew how to swim, but now he was begging for help and not getting out. His family members were hesitant to follow him into the water, not knowing what the issue was. But eventually, someone worked up the courage to jump in after him.

• 33:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  And the moment they landed with a splash, they felt a tingling, burning sensation. The rescuer eventually pulled Thomas back onto dry land. His uncle performed CPR while other relatives called 911. An ambulance carted Thomas off to a hospital, but the doctors there determined his internal organs were severely burned. Eventually, his heart had stopped, and he died of those injuries the very next day.

• 33:33Yvette Gentile?

  It gets even crazier than that, because two years later, another bizarre incident claimed a life at Lake Lanier. This time, it was a 27-year-old named Ramon Diaz Soria. On June 14th, 2025, he was at the lake celebrating a friend's birthday. He and his pals rented a boat, and Ramon and his friends were taking every precaution. He was wearing a life vest, and he was surrounded by friends who were keeping an eye out on him. At one point, Ramon jumped into the water. And even though he had his life jacket on, he sank like a rock. His friends were so stunned, it was like Ramon just vanished right in front of their eyes.

• 34:16Yvette Gentile?

  They swam around yelling his name each time they came up for air, but they didn't find any sign of him. Not until a few seconds passed and his life vest floated to the surface. But Ramon wasn't in it. Some friends called 911 while the others kept looking for him, but nobody found Ramon until the next day. He had drowned to death, and his waterlogged body was 60 feet under the lake's surface. Again, another tragic accident.

• 34:50Rasha Pecoraro?

  So it's probably no surprise to hear that Lake Lanier is known as one of the deadliest lakes in all of the United States. Some lakes are more popular and get more visitors, and yet, they have just a fraction of the fatal accidents Lake Lanier does. Clearly, something makes this lake especially dangerous. In fact, to this day, professional search and rescue divers try to avoid going into the lake. If someone is trapped underwater and needs help, they'll send submersible drones instead.

• 35:25Rasha Pecoraro?

  That policy went into effect in the year 2022. It was partly to raise awareness about how dangerous Lake Lanier truly is. Because frankly, very few people knew about its dark history until one tragic event brought the lake into the spotlight.

• 35:43Yvette Gentile?

  It happened in July of 2012, when the Glover family drove from their Atlanta home to visit the lake. This included an 11-year-old boy named Kyle. At one point, the family attached an inflatable inner tube to their boat and sped around with the tube behind them, and Kyle took a turn riding the waves. He was having a blast, until a jet skier appeared out of nowhere. The jet ski was going 60 to 70 miles per hour, and it was on a collision course with the boat. There was no time to slow down or stop, so he swerved to avoid the vehicle and slammed into the inner tube, carrying Kyle instead.

• 36:26Yvette Gentile?

  Kyle was immediately rushed to the hospital, where doctors determined he had severe brain damage from the collision. They hooked him up to life support and prayed he'd wake up. But two weeks went by with no signs of improvement, which is when Kyle's mother made the difficult decision to say goodbye to her son. Now, there's one detail that sets Kyle's story apart from all the others we've told, because it had a celebrity connection. Kyle's mother was married to the rapper Usher, and even though Usher wasn't Kyle's biological dad, and he was going through a divorce with Kyle's mother, his stepson's death hit him hard.

• 37:11Yvette Gentile?

  Afterward, Usher spoke publicly about the accident that took Kyle's life. And the more news coverage he got, the more people learned about the other deaths that happened over the years, the hundreds of drownings, disappearances, and freak accidents on the lake. For a lot of people, this was completely shocking. They'd lived in Atlanta their whole lives. They'd been visiting Lake Lanier every summer without ever suspecting that they were in danger. And many of them didn't know about the lake's blood-soaked history until now.

• 37:50Rasha Pecoraro?

  I remember that clear as day when that was happening with Usher and his soon-to-be ex-wife. It was so heartbreaking.

• 37:58Yvette Gentile?

  Yeah, that was devastating. Well, naturally, some people wondered if all of the tragedies in the past were linked to the ones in the present day, as though the modern deaths were some sort of spiritual payback for the historic injustices. A local tour guide named Dave Kahn fully buys into this theory. Dave knows a lot about Lake Lanier's history. During the day, he educates visitors on historical events, and at night, he leads haunted tours around the lake. And he believes the lake is cursed because it sits on what he calls, quote, "a triangle of dark energy."

• 38:39Rasha Pecoraro?

  Dave knows there are three huge injustices in Lake Lanier's past. The expulsion of the original Cherokee and Creek residents from their ancestral lands, the attack on Oscarville's thriving Black community, and the exploitative buyout 30 years later. In other words, the land was stolen from the people who lived on it three different times. And as Dave put it, quote, "I'm not going to say that I believe in ghosts. I'm going to say I believe in bad juju, and there's enough of it here to go around." So perhaps the history of death and destruction has changed the lake in some supernatural way.

• 39:25Yvette Gentile?

  I mean, you and I definitely believe that. But there's also a natural explanation for all of the deaths. Like in the story of Thomas Milner, who died after swimming in the lake. After his death, the authorities learned there was a power box which generates electricity on a dock nearby. These are designed to be used around the water, and they're usually pretty safe. But due to some technical glitch, that day, one of the power boxes on a nearby dock turned Lanier into an electrified death trap. Then there was 27-year-old Ramon Diaz Soria, who went swimming with his friends in the summer of 2025 and drowned.

• 40:10Yvette Gentile?

  After an investigation into his death, the authorities concluded that Ramon must not have put on his life jacket properly. So when he jumped into the lake, it possibly popped off, and that's why he drowned.

• 40:26Rasha Pecoraro?

  It turns out, a lot of these accidents could have been prevented. And local officials are finally starting to recognize that. As we mentioned before, Lake Lanier is a huge tourist destination. It brings in a lot of money to the region and local officials want to do everything they can to attract visitors. So, up until 2013, they had a policy that literally anyone could rent a boat or a jet ski. It didn't matter if they were a legal adult, if they had a boating license, or if they even knew how to operate it safely. Basically, if you could afford the rental fee, you could operate a boat or a jet ski.

• 41:07Rasha Pecoraro?

  Which meant the lake was full of inexperienced tourists operating dangerous vehicles and trying not to crash into one another. That was a major factor in the death of Kyle Glover. The man he collided with had never ridden a jet ski before. He didn't realize it didn't have brakes, not until it was too late. So a year after Kyle's death in 2013, lake officials changed the policies. Georgia residents couldn't rent a boat or jet ski unless they had a license and passed an aquatic safety class.

• 41:45Yvette Gentile?

  But the law doesn't apply to out-of-state visitors, meaning tourists from all over the country and the world can still borrow vehicles that they don't know how to drive. They can actually hit the water after just watching a short 10-minute training video. There are also loose regulations around disposing trash in Lake Lanier, even when the litter is something really big, like a boat. It's unclear how often this happens, but apparently, it's quite common for people to buy boats, take them out on the lake, then the vessel springs a leak, and instead of paying to have it hauled out of the water and repaired, the owners just let it sink.

• 42:28Yvette Gentile?

  Other times, drivers lose control of their cars and trucks, or aren't paying enough attention, and drive straight into the water.

• 42:39Yvette Gentile?

  Even if they manage to get out before they drown, they may be unwilling or unable to haul it to land. So they just leave it behind. Which is why the bottom of the lake has a lot of abandoned trucks, cars, boats, fishing poles, I mean, etc. Plus, the remains of an entire town. Everything that used to be a part of Oscarville. Trees, houses, buildings, souls.

• 43:11Rasha Pecoraro?

  The lakebed is also very uneven. There are sudden drops in shallow areas that aren't visible above the waves. So it's very hard for swimmers to know if they're about to do a breaststroke through open water, slam into a shallow muddy area, or get tangled up in a web of underwater branches.

• 43:29Yvette Gentile?

  There are also huge catfish in the lake, and some grow to be 50 pounds. They can't tell the difference between the smaller fish and insects they like to eat and people's toes and fingers. So sometimes, the catfish will bite someone as they swim by and then drag them deeper. To be clear, this usually isn't a life-threatening situation. After a second or two, the fish realize that the person isn't food and spit them out. But this could explain all those stories people tell about watery spirits grabbing their feet and dragging them under.

• 44:05Rasha Pecoraro?

  Okay, some of those theories kind of make sense to me, but I am still not buying it. Before we let the mystery carry us too far, it's important to pause. Because ghost stories and the supernatural can be so compelling. Legends can be mesmerizing. But whatever theories swirl around Lake Lanier, it's not all folklore. It's real, documented history.

• 44:35Yvette Gentile?

  The land beneath that water holds stories of racial terror and forced displacement of people. When the lake was created, an entire community and history was erased. And in the decades since, there have been devastating accidents, sudden drownings, boating tragedies, families whose lives have been changed forever. Real people, real loss, real grief. For many residents of Atlanta, yes, the lake is a place of joy, of summer rituals and family memories, and that's valid too. Because beauty and pain can live in the same space.

• 45:19Yvette Gentile?

  But for others, the history of the land sits heavy. The knowledge of what happened there, before and after the water came, is enough to make the shoreline feel different, quieter, sobering. And you don't always need a ghost story to feel that weight. Remembering and respecting the past of the Ina, the land, and our ancestors is powerful because beauty and pain are often rooted in the same soil. The ground remembers, and so should we.

• 46:02Yvette Gentile?

  And this episode is dedicated to our friend Monique, who shared the true history of Lake Lanier with us, and especially to the indigenous communities of the Cherokee Nation and the Creek, to the African-American families of Oscarville, and to every single human being who has tragically lost their life at Lake Lanier.

• 46:38Rasha Pecoraro?

  This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod and visit our website at SoSupernaturalPodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all-new episode.

• 46:58Rasha Pecoraro?

  I think Chuck would approve.

• 47:03Speaker 06

  When the nights grow longer, the shadows start to stir, and that can only mean one thing: Full Body Chills is back. This season, step inside original tales where every doorway leads somewhere darker, every stranger carries a secret, and nothing is ever quite what it seems. Each story takes you somewhere new, but be careful: you never know what might follow you home. So gather round, listen close, and stream Full Body Chills wherever you get your podcasts.