A Brief History of Bucarno Park

Bucarno Park is a neighborhood in the forests of Knightstown, Indiana. It is known for being the site of a mass disappearance in 1995 which made international headlines. All 64 residents of the neighborhood vanished on March 30, 1995, and there is still no explanation for their whereabouts. The neighborhood is preserved exactly as it was left, and is now a tourist hotspot.

Background

Bucarno Park was built in 1950 as a housing development for low-income farmhands working in Knightstown. The homes are small, the biggest one can only hold a family of five. In the seventies, it became a low-rent neighborhood that poorer families from the Greater Indianapolis area fled to to escape high rental rates. Like the rest of Knightstown, it is secluded in the forest, but remains a reasonable distance from the town center.

Approximate Timeline of Events on March 30, 1995

At 8:50 AM on March 30th, neighborhood resident John Halley, 59, stepped out to the corner of Timothy Street. According to CCTV footage, he walked to the corner, and his throat suddenly ripped open and blood sprayed everywhere. Witnessing the horrific incident across the street, Hannah Parker, 10-years-old, jumped off of her bike and vomited. Both her rusted bike, and fossilized pale orange vomit, are still attached to the street corner.

First suspecting that the man slit his own throat, investigators rewound the footage, but saw no implication of the man slitting his own throat, or having it slit by someone else. It simply ripped itself open.

After Parker vomited, she ran the opposite direction for help. But CCTV footage shows her disappearing in midair. Halley seized for several minutes before his body decayed quickly into a pile of blood and organs.

A 911 call was placed at approximately 8:59 AM by Betty Lockhart, claiming her husband was behaving strangely. During the call, she can be heard screaming and swearing. According to dispatch notes, her words were “He ripped out his eyes!” There was static before the call dropped.

Because of the neighborhood’s rural and sometimes difficult to find location, it took a long time for emergency teams to arrive. They finally arrived at 9:50 AM--one hour after the strange incidents started. Upon arrival all of the people in the neighborhood were outside, being torn limb by limb by an invisible force, their eyes rolled back into their heads, and many were choking on their own spit. An unknown officer on the scene attempted to restrain an elder resident who was tearing his own skin off, but the officer was quickly swallowed by a rip in midair.

After emergency personnel tried and failed to help the neighborhood, a dark green cloud reportedly descended on the neighborhood. A rain of pure acid ensued, burning all of the individuals. The green cloud lowered to the horizon and dissipated, leaving the neighborhood completely empty and void of life.

After no follow-up was reported, more emergency teams were dispatched to the neighborhood, arriving at around 12:24 PM. All homes were thoroughly inspected, as well as the surrounding forest, but no sign of life was found--though plenty of evidence of a collective struggle remained.

Theories on Disappearance

Occult

Upon investigation of the residents in Bucarno Park, it was discovered that neighborhood resident Edgar Matthews, 52-years-old, was keeping an occultist shrine in his cellar. His notebook was full of cryptic messages, and his bookshelves littered with the likes of Lovecraft, Crowley, and stanzas from Dante’s Inferno were carved into his wall.

His desktop computer, once seized by police, showed emails communicating with an anonymous person, addressed only as Black Crystal. In one email Matthews inquired to Black Crystal about a seance he had just held with his three friends from Carmel, Indiana--in which he was approached by a schoolgirl named Sherri who “had no eyes, only two more mouths filling up her ocular cavities” and warned him about “the hellcloud” that was about to stir up chaos “beyond anything you’ve ever imagined”

Black Crystal never responded to these emails, and all emails in Matthews' inbox had been deleted, so nothing has ever become known of Black Crystal or their identity. However, one email sent by an email address called simply [email protected], was received on the day of the disappearances, just one minute before it started. All the email read is "See you soon." Police reports say the email appeared to have never been opened by Matthews.

All that remains of Edgar Matthews now is his shadow embedded in the wall of his living room.

Nuclear Testing

Because Matthews’ remains, as well as the remains of at least five other residents, were simply shadows--the same as those still found in Hiroshima years after the first atom bomb dropped--there has also been speculation that the “cloud” was actually a smaller scale atomic weapon. It would explain why no bodies remain--just the aftermath. A nuclear testing site in nearby Raysville had been built earlier that year, which has led to many claims that the Bucarno Park disappearances are simply the result of a nuclear test gone wrong.

However, emergency services called to the site found no trace of radioactivity, rendering this theory to be false.

Fabric of Space

Cosmologists have suggested that the sudden disappearance of the residents in Bucarno Park was due to a rip in the fabric of space which occurred just over the location of Bucarno Park. It was noted that the day prior to the mass disappearance, a comet was seen flying in reverse just over the neighborhood.

Dr. Ray Gunn wrote in his book The Melting of the Multiverse, that “a reverse comet is not an unusual occurrence. But when it does happen, people in the general vicinity of the comet may experience a slightly altered reality to what they are used to. This is because reverse comets are thought to join the threads of the universe together, causing parallel universes to overlap. Think of it as two separate legs on a pair of pants finally being sewn together and creating an entirely new entity. For example, a town in Michigan that hadn’t seen rain for forty days, suddenly got a hail of colorful beads after a reversed comet was seen the previous night. Women in the town also started experiencing sudden menses that flowed like violent water through a power washer--rather than slow and steady like a gentle rain. Because those universes overlapped, this is now the norm for the residents in that Michigan town. After moving to a new town, most of the women who had previously lived in that Michigan town claimed they no longer had ‘horror movie menses’ after leaving. However, women who still reside in that town, do. That town will forever exist on a different astral plane.”

The reverse comet seen passing over Bucarno Park the night before the disappearance was slightly bigger than the others, Gunn noted, saying “The bigger the comet, the bigger the outcome. That’s just, like, common sense, right?” Gunn says that there is a possibility of the residents still existing, but on a different astral plane, unseen by people in this dimension. “You ever feel like someone’s watching you, but there’s no one else around? Maybe hear someone call your name, but no one did? That’s the sign of people in a different dimension being at your exact coordinates.”

Bucarno Park Today

After media coverage of the strange disappearance died down, Hercule Monat, CEO of Tetra Incorporated--an amusement park company--bought the neighborhood and turned it into a museum/amusement park. The houses are still up, the blood and bodily fluids are still stained in the houses and on the concrete, something Monat wanted to preserve. But to liven up the neighborhood’s morbid backdrop, he has also installed a ferris wheel, a roller coaster, actors who dress up as neighborhood personnel--with extremely graphic and realistic re-enactments of events peppered throughout the day--and concession stands. “Our most popular concession is our Acid Cloud Cotton Candy--colored the same dark green of the cloud that sprayed pure acid onto the residents. It has a citrus punch to it, so the park-goers can really experience the burn the residents, felt as that cloud rolled by.”

Of course, the park’s opening was not without controversy. A relative of one resident, Julian Mohan, called the amusement park “sickening” and joined a small protest on the day the park was dedicated. However, people’s curiosity at seeing the site won out over the protestors’ pleas. “All that remains of my cousin is his liver,” the relative said, “and while they promised not to touch anything, they moved his liver to a glass case in the park’s center for everyone to gawk at and take pictures with. It’s truly horrifying.” In recent years, protests and objections to the site have quieted down. One former protester, Adrienne Hawk, admitted that she and other protesters were bought off by Monat. "I don't like what the park does," she says, "and I don't think Hercule Monat is a good person. But these are hard times, and I could barely afford to feed my kids, what was I supposed to do?"

Park-goers admit the park is morbid, and even a little disrespectful. “It’s definitely not in good taste,” one park-goer said, “but they definitely made it more palatable for the general public, and I think that’s good. It helps them learn about what happened, while also making sure it doesn’t depress them too much. I went to Chernobyl a few summers ago and it was way too bleak. If there had been something like this to make it less depressing, that would have been great!”

“I like the horror factor,” one park-goer said, “like something really bad actually happened here. So obviously it would be really disturbing to walk into it with a somber face. But now it’s really fun! My favorite part is the photo op with Hannah Parker’s vomit. It’s really a conversation starter. In fact, at the gift shop, they have plastic vomits and green cloud plushies with cute little faces on them. I love it here! I’m going to bring my nan next time!”

Legacy

The park’s average annual income is $1.2 million. Knightstown businesses have been flourishing with the influx of tourists. The town is now more lively and bustling than ever.

The mass disappearance served as inspiration for Rodger Lichens’ musical, Alone in the Park, which features the hit song, “Where Did My Body Go?”

The names of the residents who disappeared were previously enshrined on the gate outside the park. However, through weather damage, the names are barely legible. In 2020, Monat announced plans to paint this gate “iridium colored” and decorate it with “verses from Dante’s Inferno, just like the ones that can be found in Edgar Matthews’ cellar. I think people will really appreciate the homage.”

Monat is currently looking to buy Sandy Hook Elementary and give it the same treatment as Bucarno Park. Despite the many protests, Monat is determined to do this. “People need to learn about these horrible, horrible tragedies. But people also have short attention spans. Why watch a two hour documentary on the subject when you can go and experience everything first hand and get into the shoes of the victims? It's about empathy, if you think about it. People are hands on, they like things that grab their attention. It’s just how people are.” The current faculty at Sandy Hook have declined to speak on the matter.