They Built a Neighborhood Over Graves

Sam Haney was getting ready to put a swimming pool in his backyard when a longtime local resident stopped by with a strange warning. He remembered a grave being somewhere on the property, possibly right where Sam was planning to dig.

Sam and his wife, Judith, lived in a fairly new neighborhood in Crosby, Texas. They had bought their home in 1981, and nobody had ever mentioned anything about a graveyard.

Sam started asking questions, and what he learned was troubling enough to make him reconsider his plans for the backyard.

The Neighborhood Had a Forgotten Cemetery

The subdivision was called Newport, and parts of it had been built over an old African American burial ground known as Black Hope Cemetery. The cemetery had served local Black families for generations. Among those buried there were people who had lived through slavery and the difficult years that followed.

Over time, the graveyard had fallen into disrepair. Its markers were disappearing, the land had become overgrown, and there was little left to show that people had once been buried there.

When developers began building houses in the area, the old cemetery was gradually covered by the new neighborhood. But some longtime residents still remembered where the graves had been.

The warning Sam received in April 1983 was enough to make him investigate. That September, the Haneys had their backyard excavated, and workers uncovered two human graves.

The couple had been planning a swimming pool. Instead, they found themselves dealing with the remains of people who had been buried there long before their house existed.

Someone Had Warned the Builders

The discovery became even more troubling when the Haneys learned what had happened during construction. According to testimony that later appeared in Texas court records, someone had warned the developer’s field superintendent, Al Summerlin, that a grave might be on the property.

Summerlin went to look and found a short fence surrounding the area, along with a stick bearing a cross. He later said he wasn’t sure whether a person or an animal was buried there.

Rather than investigate further, he told a tractor operator to remove the markers. The fence and other debris were hauled away, and construction continued.

Years later, the Haneys were digging up human remains in their backyard. The developer arranged and paid for the bodies to be moved to another cemetery.

But Sam and Judith were furious that they’d purchased a house without knowing what had once occupied the land. They began looking into their legal options, while strange things were reportedly happening inside their home.

Judith’s Red Shoes Disappeared

One of the strangest stories involved a pair of Judith’s red shoes. Judith said she had been home alone one evening when she heard what sounded like Sam’s voice. She thought she heard the sliding glass door open and someone asking what she was doing.

But Sam was away at work, and the door was locked. She couldn’t understand where the voice had come from.

The next morning, Judith went to get her red shoes from the closet and discovered they were missing. She searched the house but couldn’t find them anywhere.

When Sam came home, he helped her look. Eventually, he went outside toward the area where the graves had been uncovered.

According to the couple, the missing shoes were sitting there, neatly arranged side by side near the old burial site. Neither could explain how they had gotten from the bedroom closet to the backyard.

The Haneys weren’t the only family reporting strange experiences. Across the street, their neighbors were dealing with problems that were becoming increasingly frightening.

The House Across the Street Was Even Worse

Ben and Jean Williams had moved into the neighborhood in 1980. They were excited about their new home, but that excitement soon gave way to confusion.

The toilets reportedly flushed by themselves, and their electric garage door sometimes opened and closed without anyone touching the controls. They also heard footsteps when nobody was walking around.

Outside, the couple described repeated problems with ants and snakes. Strange depressions appeared in their yard, sometimes forming rectangular shapes that reminded them of graves.

They filled the holes with dirt, only to find them appearing again. Around the house, they also reported strange smells, unexplained cold spots, and objects that seemed to move on their own.

At first, Ben and Jean tried treating the incidents as ordinary household problems. They arranged repairs and looked for anything that might explain what was happening.

But the experiences continued, and the couple became increasingly frightened. After learning about the cemetery, they began wondering whether their house had been built over graves too.

The Families Took Their Fight to Court

In February 1984, Sam and Judith Haney filed a lawsuit against the developer, Purcell Company. They argued that the company should have told them about the burial ground before selling the property. Their claims included fraud, negligence, and violations of consumer-protection laws.

The legal battle dragged on for years. A jury originally ruled against the Haneys, and the couple appealed.

In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court sent the case back for further consideration. But the appeals court eventually ruled against the family again in 1990.

The Haneys never got the outcome they’d hoped for. The court proceedings did, however, bring to light the warning that had been given to the construction supervisor years earlier. Meanwhile, the Williams family had decided they’d had enough of living in Newport.

The Neighborhood Became a Horror Story

By 1987, Ben and Jean Williams had moved away. Their experiences eventually became the subject of a book published in 1991. It was called The Black Hope Horror, written by the couple with John Bruce Shoemaker.

The book described years of frightening incidents, family problems, and unexplained events that the Williamses believed were connected to the old cemetery. Their story reached an even larger audience when it inspired the 1992 television movie Grave Secrets: The Legacy of Hilltop Drive.

Suddenly, people across the country were hearing about a Texas neighborhood where families claimed their homes were haunted by the people buried beneath them. The publicity brought plenty of attention to Newport, but the neighborhood continued growing. Other families moved into the houses, and daily life carried on.

And not everyone who lived there had the same frightening experiences.

The Next Owners Had a Different Experience

In 2007, a Houston-area newspaper interviewed Tom Hunt, who was living in the Haneys’ former home. Hunt knew about the cemetery and believed more graves might still be somewhere nearby. But he said his family hadn’t experienced anything strange inside the house.

For Hunt, the old stories were an interesting part of the property’s history rather than something that made him afraid to live there. The Haneys and Williamses had described years of frightening experiences, but Hunt was perfectly comfortable staying in the same neighborhood.

He still thought there might be graves beneath the surrounding properties.

And with people continuing to live, build, and dig in Newport, there was always the possibility that somebody else would find one.