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Great Hill Ghost
Along a winding, narrow, forested mountain road lie the
markers for 26 year old Brian W. Tuzik of Seymour, who died on Friday, March 18, 2005 in a terrible vehicular accident.
The markers tell a tragic story of the premature death of this young man, but other more sad stories have arisen, regarding
Brian.
The History
According to the stories, a few years ago, a man was killed
on his motorcycle while going around a sharp turn down Great Hill Road. Today, people have seen the ghost of the cyclist
along the side of the road near to this spot. These stories often tell of cars stalling when the ghost is spotted.
The Evidence
Great Hill Road is, indeed, a very winding, narrow, and
potentially dangerous road. It runs along, up and down the mountains between Oxford and Seymour, changing briefly into
Holbrook Road for about a half mile or so before changing back to Great Hill Road.
As you're traveling in a southerly direction, passing Seymour's
famous Great Hill Cemetery on your left along Holbrook Road (otherwise known as Hookman's Cemetery) the observant
driver will note that very soon, there is a steep downward lefthand turn. On the right side of the road, near the middle
of this turn, you can see the roadside markers showing where Brian W. Tuzik was killed.
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| Two markers actually make up the site |
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| This marker shows Brian's date of death |
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| A last goodbye from Brian's family |
Creepy Connecticut
has uncovered some interesting facts about Brian's death. According to official records, Brian was riding
as a passenger in the car of Ronald J. Onderko, Jr., 27, of Shelton. Onderko was apparently "traveling unreasonably
fast" and "veered off Holbrook Road" striking a tree at 1:48 a.m. Onderko was arrested and charged with second-degree
manslaughter with a motor vehicle.
GHOST members have exhaustively attempted
to uncover any information regarding a motorcycle crash on this road and have found nothing of the sort. In over 1,960
reference record checks, there appears no mention of any motorcycle accident involving a death. What can be gleaned
from this information is that people in the local area who were not aware of this case, may have assumed from the markers
that the man was riding a motorcycle and crashed. This is the only recorded death by motor vehicle on this road and
the markers are quite easy to find. As for stalling cars, our vehicle ran perfectly fine here, and so did the multitude
of vehicles that passed us by in both directions while we took photos. The road is very busy.
Conclusion
We suspected that the story of the motorcycle and the death of Brian
Tuzik were linked, but we are more inclined to think that they are merely coincidental. The story of the motorcycle
has been listed on Shadowlands before Brian's accidental death and that leads us to believe that, since there were no other
recorded deaths in this area, that the motorcycle ghost tale is simply an urban legend. Interestingly, there is also
a mention of stalling cars in the Hookman's Cemetery tale as well and that may be an underlying proponent of this story.
Regardless, the motorcycle ghost appears not to exist.
GOOSEBUMP FACTOR: 0
Barry A. A. Dillinger
April 17th, 2006
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