3 True Beach Horror Stories To Give You Chills
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A little over 20 years ago, I decided to make a major life change. After graduating college, I packed up all of what I had and drove across the country to start a new life in San Diego, California. At first, I was fascinated with the idea of it being warm during winter and the allure of the beach. Having newly arrived and not yet employed, I would spend time drinking a few beers at night

listening to the waves crash on sunset cliffs while contemplating my future. One night, I believe it would have been February 5th, 2001, I was there drinking my beer alone when I was approached by an elderly man, I'd say late 60s. He had been watching me for a while before he approached and initiated conversation. It started out with him asking basic questions like where I'm from, what I do, did I come alone, and so forth.

This didn't concern me because he didn't seem threatening and I could take him down if he tried anything anyway. Then he seemed to get more excited and asked me if I was there because it was the anniversary of the murder. I had no idea what he was talking about and he continued to regale me with a detailed story about a double murder that occurred here in 1964. He deemed it very important to tell me all of the details about what the area was like that night, how the current pier was just being built,

but there was a small metal pier the foot of which was where we stood. He told me about how the killer came down just over there and shot the couple, showing me where and how it happened. I found this very interesting and had no prior knowledge of it. He said the killer did this for no reason at all and added that some speculate it was an early work of the Zodiac Killer, which it felt like he said somewhat teasingly before strolling off back in the direction that he had come from. He told me to look into it,

and I assured him that I would. He bid me a goodnight warning to be careful, citing, "There are a lot of crazies out there." It didn't occur to me until sometime later that killers often return to the scenes of their crimes to relive the adrenaline or whatever. In particular, Zodiac was known for his interest in the anniversaries of his murders, mailing taunting letters to the police and press on specific dates. As I remember back,

The man was the right age and seemed to have an uncommon interest and detailed knowledge about this incident that had occurred so many years prior. The particular murders he was referring to are often called "The Honeymoon Murders." In retrospect, I believe that that fateful night when I just happened to be alone on the anniversary and sight of a murder led me to having possibly a conversation with the Zodiac Killer himself. I can't verify it, obviously,

but I haven't ever been able to shake this feeling. For those interested, he was about 5 feet 10 inches tall, medium build, not obese, nearly 70 years old, wearing normal clothes, not in a uniform or fancy business attire, nor trashy homeless. He had glasses like the type President Bush, the father, used to wear, and that overall kind of appearance. This whole interaction lasted maybe 10 minutes at the most. He didn't physically linger,

But his thought hasn't left me alone since. A big thanks to our friends over at Peloton for sponsoring this episode. I've been using Peloton for a while now, and I've got to tell you, it's not just a workout. It's my workout. Whether I've got 20 minutes for a quick power ride, or an hour to really push myself, there's always a class that fits my day, and with a lineup of instructors who know exactly how to keep me motivated.

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Again, that's 10 free meals just by going to HelloFresh.com/Free Malevolent Mischief, and you'll see why. HelloFresh is America's #1 meal kit. This story is about a bad experience that I had when I went camping on the beach in the summer with my boyfriend. We had this wonderful idea of camping on the beach instead of going to a hotel, since I always wanted to fall asleep to the sounds of waves hitting the shore, to see the night sky whenever I wanted.

and just lived this experience at least once in my life. We were supposed to stay in our tent for a week. The area had public restrooms with showers and restaurants, so the matter of hygiene and hunger weren't an issue. We bought all the supplies we needed for such an adventure: a two-person tent which was blacked out, meaning the sun rays wouldn't come in, an inflatable mattress, a first aid kit, lanterns for the tent, as well as anything else that you could think two people might need for such a trip.

The first nights were no issue, we actually enjoyed every moment of it. When we'd go out, we would take our valuables with us in backpacks in case anything bad were to happen to our tent. Think phones, chargers, wallets, etc. We weren't the only people that camped in the area, there were plenty of other people, either single campers, couples, or even families, which even included people behaving less than appropriately. When nighttime would come,

You would occasionally hear people laughing, partying, dancing, listening to music, smoking weed, taking drugs, or drinking lots of alcohol. We didn't mind it, as nobody had bothered us personally for the past four days and nights. People were having fun as they knew best, and no one was being aggressive up to that point. Well, on one of our nights, we stayed out later than usual around 1am, just wandering around the lively streets to listen to street performers, eating out.

enjoying the vibes, when we stopped in front of one such street performer who seemed to have a lot of people circling him and listening to his music. We realized then he wasn't the main character that the people had been gathered for. In the middle of the crowded street, with live traffic mind you, was a middle-aged woman dancing completely naked, clearly affected by the abuse of alcohol and/or consumption of drugs. She was incoherent, randomly flirting with people,

all the while taking time to expose herself while dancing to the music, despite the disgust of the musician and those passing by. We didn't look much into it and decided to head back to our tent and just have a drink in silence while watching the stars and falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean. While drinking ourselves, we hear some lady shouting in the distance. It's the same woman we had seen before, but now she wasn't alone. She had friends with her, two men and two women.

They had a camp set up on the same beach as us, a few tenths of a distance away, but not far enough off so that we couldn't hear or see them, even in the dark. They lit a fire on the beach and continued to drink, smoke, and dance all around it. She, of course, is still nearly naked, although by this time she's wearing a see-through skirt. She goes off into the ocean for what seems to be an eternity. I remember thinking, how is she not cold? That water must be freezing.

My boyfriend just shrugged and told me not to be bothered. If we don't engage with her or them, they wouldn't bother us. So I did as told, but even so, I couldn't quite ignore the feeling that we were being watched. I put my thoughts aside. We decided to go to sleep, but being a beautiful night coupled with the warm air, we thought of not closing the tent completely, just zipping the mosquito cover so the air would circulate inside the tent.

and we'd have the sunshine in the morning to wake us up early. I don't recall how long I had been sleeping for, but I remember being awoken by the sounds of footsteps circling our tent, and a womanly voice humming a song softly. Our tent was not very thick. You could hear everything outside of it, and even see things if they were to cast a shadow. I was too afraid to look out. Heck, I was too afraid to even change my position as to not indicate to the outsider

that I had noticed their presence. All I could do was stay still and peer outside through the mosquito cover, when at that moment, I hear the footsteps stop above my head and the voice whispering through the tent, Don't be afraid. I only want to sing you a lullaby. And the footsteps began again to circle the tent. I see feet in front of our tent just passing by, noticing the very familiar, long, see-through skirt blowing behind her.

Having a belligerent person attempt to come into your camp and serenade you is already unsettling enough. But it was when she leaned down so that I could very clearly see the lower half of her face from my vantage point that nearly sent me into a panic. And when she said, I know you're awake, in a gruff and angry voice that was about as far from her sing-songy sound she had had only moments prior, I nearly pissed myself right there. I was still frozen.

Grasping at my boyfriend who, of course, slept through this entire thing, I wasn't sure what she was about to do. I didn't put it past her to crawl right into our tent and force whatever issues she was intent on instigating. But after lingering at the mouth of our tent for a few moments longer, she simply straightened up and walked off back towards her group. I didn't hear any more footsteps the rest of the night, and I would have if they returned, because I don't think I blinked for the remaining hours of darkness.

The next morning, after sharing what happened with my boyfriend and thoroughly draining his face of color, we packed our tent and moved far down the beach, as far away as possible from that woman and her friends. We positioned ourselves in a way that when the sun set, we could still see the faint glow of their fire and hear the sounds of their party, but they could no longer see us, which is how we preferred it from that point on.

This story dates back to the spring of 2016. At the time, I was in my late 20s, young and fit, with very long blonde hair, a total hippie chick that had quit her job to travel the U.S. with my ex at the time, pre-pandemic, before the van life, tiny home movement really took off. We left our home in the Midwest in January that year, after holiday celebrations saying goodbye to friends and family. By sometime in April or early May...

We made it to southern Texas and decided to check out the Padre Island National Seashore. For those of you unfamiliar with Padre Island, it's a seashore that you can drive right onto with your vehicle. My now ex and I were in a 26-foot Class C 1976 Chevy motorhome. We drove onto the island during the late evening hours, and waking up the next morning was the most insane and phenomenal experience of my life.

The ocean was a mere 15 feet away. I mean, the visual was absolutely breathtaking. I'll never forget it. We arrived on a Thursday or Friday, and the beach was beyond pack. Another thing for people unfamiliar with Padre, it's where many Texans, high schoolers and college kids mainly, flock for their spring break. Spring break was just a week prior to when we got there, or maybe even still going on. Either way, it was busy.

and we had an awesome weekend just partying away. During this weekend, we noticed that workers for the park would often drive down the beach. They're very protective of their sea turtle population there, and would slowly drive by in marked vehicles a few times a day. By Monday morning, we awoke to find the entire island emptied out. When I tell you we were literally the only ones when you looked left or right down the shore, we were the only ones for what seemed like miles.

It was a gorgeous morning, so I took our dog out for a quick walk before coming back inside to sit at our pop-up dining room table to do some journaling. My ex was asleep on the very back couch. We were backed in with the windshield facing the ocean, so of course I took a seat looking towards the beautiful view. Maybe 15 minutes after I sat down, a grey beat-up pickup truck drove by our spot kind of quickly, heading towards the direction of the park entrance.

That was the first activity I had seen on the island that morning, and thought nothing of it. However, maybe 10 minutes later, the same truck came driving back past our RV, this time much slower. The man driving the pickup was going so slow, in fact, that we made eye contact for several seconds as he went back by. He also seemed to drive closer to our vehicle than before, given the interaction we had just shared. I can only assume it was to get a better look inside of our motorhome.

Alarm bells should have been ringing loud and clear at this point, but I kind of just shrugged it off. I was very much in my free spirit phase and was not easily off-put. This is where it really gets creepy though. So obviously, this guy needed to turn back around since he was now driving away from the park entrance again. But I was honestly minding my own business and I had almost immediately put him out of my mind. But yes, several minutes later, the man came back,

This time, he pulled directly up to our RV with his truck, essentially nose-to-nose at a 45-degree angle, boxing us in. It was at this point my heart dropped, and I began to feel uneasy about the situation. I screened my ex's name, and up he jumped from the couch. I know he could hear the panic in my voice. I'll never forget how quickly he got up and how he had his arms spread while he ducked down to see through the windshield. He was 6'5", very bearded,

and I'm 1000% sure the only reason that the man in the grey beat up truck sped off like a bat out of hell. It took several minutes for my heart rate to return to normal. My ex and I just looked at each other, both noting that that was the most unusual encounter on our trip yet. Surprisingly, we stayed another week after that, in the same spot. The idea never entered my head that the man could bring reinforcement and come back for me or us.

I was so very foolishly fearless and naive back then. Anyway, it wasn't until later that day that another fact had dawned on me. When my ex and I had arrived over the weekend, we only pulled out one camping chair. That one camping chair was in plain sight next to our RV outside. Prior to this spot, we had never done that. We always got both chairs out, but we ended up using driftwood to sit on when we had our bonfires. And so that was the biggest indicator for me.

The scary man in the gray truck no doubt thought I was a young girl all alone, and I still wonder to this day, almost 10 years later, just what all he had in mind for me that morning. Just out of curiosity, after reminding myself of this occurrence, I googled Padre Island National Seashore Murder. It didn't take long to parse through the first few results and learn that apparently, a couple who had been camping on the shores in their own RV in 2019 were brutally slain

before being buried nearby in shallow graves. The two individuals that went on to be charged in this crime admitted that the only reason they took the lives of the couple was to take their recreational vehicle. While I don't believe this case had anything to do with my own strange experience, I won't deny that it certainly sent shivers down my spine.

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