Aurora Cemetery is a square, garden-like cemetery at the southwest corner of Route 14 and West 14 Road, north of Aurora in central Nebraska. The grave of Susan A. Gavan sits in the northwest corner of the cemetery, surrounded by iron posts that formerly held up heavy chains. Historically, Susan died in 1882 at the age of 40 and was buried with her 7-month-old daughter, May. Oddly, her husband and she were married on Halloween in 1861. Every Halloween, on their wedding anniversary, local teens venture out to her grave and dare each other to step on it. Susan, they say, was a witch who put a curse on the town before she was executed. Anyone who steps on her grave will either die within nine years, or by the age of 21. In reality, however, Susan was a respected woman. Her obituary read, “the community realizes that from our midst in life has gone an estimable lady, and extends heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family.” That has not stopped generations of local children from making nighttime journeys to the infamous Nebraska “witch’s grave.”
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