Shoe Tree

The Haunting

The shoe tree (previously mentioned in Salem) was on Thirteen Mile Rd. in Novi a quarter mile from Walled Lake, and from the site of the old Walled Lake amusement park. A child killer (the infamous Walled Lake Child Killer) kidnapped the children from the park, and buried their bodies in the nearby field around the tree. He threw their shoes into the tree. When the many dangling shoes were investigated, the bodies were found (but, the killer never was). If you went to the field at night, you could see and hear the clumps of tall grass moving around you, and you could hear the children cry for their mothers! Witnesses report very distinct, audible cries. The cries were not distant but, from just a few feet away. As you walked to where the cries came from, they seemed to move around. Not moving farther away, just around, sometimes back to where you were just standing. Just walking by the field would make your hair stand on end. The land was developed within the past couple of years. A subdivision now stands on this land. But, the field was on the south side of Thirteen Mile Rd., between Meadowbrook Rd., and Decker. The amusement park was later closed down. Not because of the murders but, because it rested on an old Indian burial ground (many in the area). It was where Novi Rd., 13 Mile Rd., and Southlake Dr. all meet, right on the lake.