Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - The Summer Camp Tragedy We Were Never Told About Until It Was Too Late to Forget #57

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #campnightmare #lostinnocence #darksecrets #unsolvedtragedy #chillingtrueevents  What was supposed to be the best summer of their lives turned into a horrifying nightmare. The narrator uncovers the dark history of a summer camp where something unspeakable happened, and how the suppressed memories still echo in the silence of those woods.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, summerofhorror, darkcampsecrets, childhoodtrauma, chillingcampstories, hiddencrimes, unsolvedmysteries, nightmarefuel, sinistertruths, hauntingmemories, darkpastrevealed, eerieevents, lostchildhood, forgottenhorrors, terrifyingdiscoveries

There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter Sports Extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Don't let foot pain or discomfort hold you back.

At foot Solutions, we specialize in high-quality supportive footwear. And use the latest scanning technology to custom-make orthotics, designed for your unique feet. If you want to free your feet in joints from pain, improve balance or correct alignment, book a free foot assessment at footsolutions.com.com. Or pop-in store today. Foot Solutions, the first step towards pain-free feet. That one summer camp memory I wish I could forget, but can't. Okay, so this is one of those memories I honestly thought I'd buried somewhere deep down and out of reach.

Like, tucked so far into the corners of my brain that it would never crawl back out. But you know how memories work, totally unpredictable. One second you're doing something random like brushing your teeth or scrolling through pictures, and then, bam, it all comes rushing back. That's what happened here. I hadn't thought about this particular camp trip for a while, but something triggered it the other day and I've been stewing over it since. I figured maybe if I wrote it all out, it would help settle it back into whatever dusty mental shelf it came from. So, the story starts in the summer of 2022.

We're talking late July, that part of summer when the sun is almost offensively bright and everyone's either melting into lawn chairs or off doing something outdoorsy. I was signed up for a week-long church camp up in Michigan, and it wasn't my first time. I'd been to this camp a couple of times before. You know the kind, super nice cabins, well, tipies in our case, great food that didn't taste like hospital cafeteria mystery meat, and a killer lake that looked like it came straight out of a travel brochure. They had all the usual fun stuff, kayaks, paddleboards, floaty water trampolines, and even this ridiculous inflatable banana boat thing that got pulled around the lake by a speedboat.

Classic summer stuff. The camp itself was pretty big. It wasn't just our church group, there were kids from all over. Different churches, different states. They ran this layered schedule so everyone got a turn with the fun stuff without everything turning into absolute chaos. While our group, which was older kids, around 10 to 13 or so, was off playing games next to the rec center or doing whatever near our tepees, the littler kids, like the ones doing day camp, would be down by the lake. The system made sense. I mean, a waterfront crammed with dozens of hyper children is basically a recipe for a lifeguard's nightmare. Anyway, this all starts a few days into our retreat. I'm with my group, and we've just finished lunch in the dining hall,

which by the way sits right above the lake. It's got huge windows and this balcony thing that gives you the perfect panoramic view of the water. You can literally watch kids sit by on tubes while you're trying to shovel down mac and cheese. So, we finish eating and start walking back toward our tepees. Nothing seemed off at first. Down by the water, you could see the little kids hanging around, and across the lake, way on the far shore, the banana boat and the boat that usually pulls it were just kind of, there. Not moving. Parked. At a At first glance, nobody thought anything weird was happening. Boats stop.

Maybe it ran out of gas, or there was something wrong with the inflatable banana thing, like a leak or whatever. Stuff breaks. It didn't strike anyone as particularly unusual. But then things started getting, odd. Subtle, but odd. Out of nowhere, we were told to head over to the worship building, which wasn't in our schedule for that part of the day.

No games, no lake, no rec center. Just straight to the lesson building. Everyone was confused, especially because the timing didn't make sense. We get there and, next thing we know, we're not allowed to leave. Like, seriously. They weren't letting us go anywhere except to the restroom, which was in another small building about 10 feet away. And when I say, let us, I mean you had to ask. It was that controlled. Some of us started whispering to each other, trying to piece things together. That's when we started hearing rumors. A couple of kids said they saw some of the, Camel counselors, crying.

These were counselors who wore camouflage t-shirts, probably the older teen or early college kids who helped run games and keep things organized. Normally they were the upbeat, joking, try not to act like adults, kind. But now, they were visibly upset. Crying, pacing, clearly not okay. When a few of U.S. asked what was wrong, being nosy little kids, they brushed it off with, Oh, the water slides broken. We were like, huh, that was their excuse for all of it.

The waterfront being closed. The water slides broken. The banana boat being all the way across the lake and not moving. Yeah, the water slides broken, the crying councillors Also apparently because the water slide was broken Like, come on Even at age 12, we weren't that gullible The whole, no one leaves the building, thing went on for a bit

There were no fun activities No songs Just this... There's so much rugby on sports extra from Sky They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby.

For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam-packed with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra.

New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Don't let foot pain or discomfort hold you back. At foot solutions, we specialize in high. quality supportive footwear. And use the latest scanning technology to custom make orthotics designed for your unique feet. If you want

to free your feet in joints from pain, improve balance or correct alignment, book a free foot assessment at foot solutions.i or pop-in store today. Foot Solutions, the first step towards pain-free feet. Weird, awkward waiting game.

And even though we weren't near the lake from inside that building, you could feel the tension. Nobody wanted to say anything, and the adults were clearly trying to act normal, but their faces were way too serious. That fake cheerfulness. Yeah, it wasn't working. Later that same day, or maybe it was the next day during dinner. Honestly, that part's a bit blurry in my head, we went back to the dining hall.

This time when we looked out over the lake, something was definitely off. There was a police boat. like actual police. And they weren't just cruising around either. They had these huge nets, dragging them slowly through the water like they were searching for something. I remember asking my counsellor why there were police out there. She just said they were fishing. Technically, she wasn't wrong.

They were fishing, just not for actual fish. But she said it so casually, like they were just out for a relaxing afternoon with some bait and hook. That's when it all clicked for a lot of us. Something bad happened. Really bad. As the day went on, we were told to plug our noses whenever we walked past certain parts of the lake. The excuse was something about chemicals in the water not being safe to inhale.

Which, again, didn't make a lot of sense. If they had dumped chemicals into the lake, wouldn't the whole place be shut down? Why not just tell us the truth? But they didn't. Camp went on in this surreal, strange way. We finished the retreat, wrapped up the last couple of days, did our usual camp stuff with fewer smiles and more, just go along with it, vibes.

Eventually, the week ended and we went home. And that's when I found out the truth. I was talking with my mom about the whole weirdness of the camp week. I told her how we weren't allowed near the lake, about the police boat, about the chemical smells and the camel councillors crying over a supposedly broken water slide. She went really quiet at first, and then she nodded and said, yeah, it was awful. Apparently, while we were still at camp, all the parents had gotten an email from the camp officials explaining what really happened. Turns out, a little girl from the day camp group had been hit

by the boat that pulled the banana boat, and she died. She was hit on the lake, during what should have been a normal, safe summer activity. The moment we had seen that boat parked across the lake. That was after the accident had happened. The banana boat hadn't just broken or run out of gas. That's where the boat was taken after the accident. I remember just sitting there stunned when my mom told me. I didn't know how to react. It was like my brain just kind of stopped for a second. I was 12. I mean, sure, I knew what death was. But to know that a kid, someone maybe even younger than me, had died so close, doing the same exact things we'd been doing for days, it was a lot. It's weird. I don't remember crying. I don't remember feeling scared. I think it was

more like, confused, numb. It didn't feel real at the time. I didn't even know the girl. I never saw her face. But the fact that we were all right there, and no one told us anything, and we were expected to just keep doing tie-dye shirts and memorizing Bible verses like everything was fine, it messed with my head a little. Looking back now, I totally get why the camp staff didn't tell us right away. We were kids. How do you explain something like that to a group of fifth and sixth graders without creating absolute panic? Still, the way it was handled left a lot of unanswered questions. A lot of weird memories. The saddest part. That was the last year they ran that camp. I guess after the accident, the camp either shut

down completely or at least didn't do the waterfront activities anymore. I'm not really sure. I haven't been back, and honestly, I don't think I could go even if I had the chance. It's just one of those places that now carries this heavy, invisible weight. What was was once a place of excitement and summertime fun now just feels haunted, like a ghost of what it used to be. To this day, every time I hear about summer camps or boating accidents, my brain flashes back to that week. I still picture the boat across the lake, motionless. The police dragging the water. The quiet panic in the counsellor's eyes. It's one of those memories you carry without realizing how much space it's taking up, until it bursts through again. So you, you're

Yeah, that's the story. The camp trip I'll never forget. If you're still curious, you can ask me anything and I'll do my best to answer. I know there are local news stories about it too, somewhere out there on the internet. Maybe I'll dig one up and link it below eventually. But even without them, I remember enough. The end.