2. Leakin Park, Baltimore, MD, 71 Bodies Discovered to Date
With mentions on Serial and The Wire, Leakin Park is one American killing field that you may have already heard about. Baltimore residents summed up the grounds to Serial host Sarah Koenig by saying, “If you digging in Leakin Park to bury your body, you’re going to find somebody else’s.”
For anyone working in law enforcement or media in and around Baltimore, Leakin Park is more or less a graveyard. Police who comb the area regularly are reminded to only look for bodies matching the description of their victim, lest they end up lost in the charnel house of bodies for an entire day.
In 1968, the area of urban wilderness had its fate locked in, when the bodies of four young boys were discovered there. From then on, the bodies just kept coming.
The woods seemed to be the favored location for criminals, Black Panthers and drug lords alike. The body count continued to rise until one Baltimore resident took it upon herself to create a digital archive of the victims: the Bodies of Leakin Park.
The park itself has many access roads that lead discreetly in and out of the woods, causing many Baltimore residents to call for the roads’ shut down. Some have even suggested creating a bicycle path along the periphery, which, theoretically, would make it a less desirable place for criminal activity.
Despite its reputation, Leakin Park is enticing to bikers and hikers alike, and the volunteers who care for it are passionate about what it offers the city. Many Baltimore residents can overlook the eerie graveyard feel, but law enforcement is still challenged to solve many of the murders that ended within its confines.
The park, they say, is safe. The murders, however, happen elsewhere. Still, for the victims’ families, the final resting place in Leakin Park is just the beginning of a long search for closure. The park has, in its passivity, allowed many to get away with murder.
