You’re walking through a small country cemetery in Illinois when one grave catches your attention.
It doesn’t look like the others.
Instead of a simple headstone, there’s a large stone sphere resting above what looks almost like a pile of logs.
Then you notice something else.
The grave doesn’t face the same direction as most of the others.
You step closer.
Four members of the Barnes family are memorialized there.
And beside the name Caroline Barnes, you find a date.
February 31, 1882.
You read it again.
February 31.
A day that has never existed.
According to local legend, that wasn’t a mistake.
Caroline Barnes was a witch.
And the people who buried her were terrified that someday she would come back.
So they gave her a death date that would never appear on any calendar.
Because if the anniversary of her death could never arrive…
neither could she.
The Witch’s Grave of St. Omer
St. Omer Cemetery sits near Ashmore in rural Coles County, Illinois.
Once, there was an entire community here.
St. Omer was established during the nineteenth century and grew into a small settlement of several dozen families. But like many little towns of its time, St. Omer eventually faded away.
The houses disappeared.
The businesses disappeared.
The town itself disappeared.
What remained was the cemetery.
And one very strange grave.
The Barnes monument marks the resting place of four members of one family: Granville and Sarah Barnes, their son Marcus, and Marcus’s wife, Caroline.
But it’s Caroline whose name became attached to the legend.
Because according to the stories told about St. Omer Cemetery, Caroline Barnes wasn’t an ordinary young woman.
She was a witch.
Who Was the Woman Behind the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer?
Caroline Barnes was only twenty-three when she died in 1882.
She had been married to Marcus Barnes, whose family lived in the small community of St. Omer.
Tragedy struck the Barnes family repeatedly within a remarkably short period.
Marcus died in a sawmill accident in December 1881.
Caroline died only a couple of months later.
Then Granville Barnes died just days after Caroline.
Eventually, all four family members—including Sarah Barnes, who had died several years earlier—would share the unusual Barnes monument.
But somewhere along the way, Caroline’s death acquired a much darker story.
According to local legend, Caroline had been accused of witchcraft.
And the people of St. Omer decided she had to die.
What Happened to the Witch of St. Omer?
This is where the story changes depending on who tells it.
One version says Caroline was hanged.
Another says she was burned.
And one particularly disturbing version claims the townspeople tried to hang her…
but she wouldn’t die.
So they buried her alive.
Whatever happened in the legend, the people of St. Omer were supposedly left with another problem.
Killing a witch didn’t necessarily mean you were finished with her.
What if Caroline came back?
And according to the story, there was one particular night when that might happen.
The anniversary of her death.
So someone came up with a solution.
February 31, 1882
Look closely at the Barnes monument and you’ll find Caroline’s death date carved into the stone.
Feb. 31, 1882.
There’s just one problem.
February has never had thirty-one days.
According to the legend, that was exactly the point.
Caroline could supposedly return from the grave on the anniversary of her death.
But if the anniversary never came…
she could never return.
No February 31.
No anniversary.
No witch rising from her grave.
And perhaps the people of St. Omer could finally sleep at night.
The impossible date became one of the central pieces of the Witch’s Grave legend and helped turn an otherwise forgotten rural cemetery into a place people still seek out today.
But the date isn’t the only strange thing about Caroline’s grave.
The Grave That Faces the Wrong Way
Walk through an old cemetery and you’ll usually notice a certain order.
Rows.
Paths.
Headstones generally facing the same direction.
Then there’s the Barnes monument.
Accounts of the cemetery note that many of the surrounding graves are oriented east to west.
The Barnes grave faces north to south.
That difference has naturally become part of the legend.
A witch buried differently from everyone else.
A grave turned away from its neighbors.
And an impossible date carved into the stone.
Then there’s the monument itself.
The Crystal Ball Above the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer
The Barnes monument doesn’t look like an ordinary gravestone.
At the top sits a large stone sphere.
Beneath it are forms resembling stacked logs.
And once the witch legend became attached to Caroline, people began seeing something else entirely.
A crystal ball resting above a funeral pyre.
The symbolism fits the story almost too perfectly.
A witch.
A crystal ball.
Fire.
And according to local folklore, the stone sphere doesn’t always remain dark.
Some stories claim that on certain nights, the ball glows.
Imagine standing in that little cemetery after sunset.
The town that once surrounded it is gone.
There are no houses waiting beyond the graves.
No general store.
No blacksmith.
Only headstones and trees.
Then you look toward Caroline’s grave.
And the stone ball is glowing.
Strange Photographs at the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer
The stories don’t stop with the monument.
Visitors have also passed down tales about photographs taken around Caroline’s grave.
One version claims that traditional film photographs of the Barnes monument simply won’t develop.
Other stories are even stranger.
People have reported mysterious figures or shadows appearing in photographs even though no one was standing there when the picture was taken.
One account describes a photograph that seemed to show a man wearing an old-fashioned derby hat standing behind a nearby grave.
He hadn’t been noticed when the photograph was taken.
Then there are reports of unexplained shadows appearing near the Barnes monument.
Maybe you wouldn’t notice anything while standing there.
Maybe you’d walk through the cemetery, take a few pictures, and leave.
It wouldn’t be until later that you’d see it.
Something standing behind the grave.
Something Near Caroline’s Grave
Another account comes from people responsible for maintaining the cemetery grounds.
In one retelling, a man and his wife were mowing at St. Omer when his wife suddenly saw something near the Barnes grave.
Whatever she saw frightened her enough that she abandoned the mower and hurried away from that part of the cemetery.
She reportedly refused to mow near the grave again.
Another cemetery worker described an unexplained shadow appearing in photographs taken around the site.
And perhaps that’s the kind of story that sticks with you most.
Not someone arriving at midnight hoping to see a ghost.
Not a paranormal investigation.
Just someone doing an ordinary job in broad daylight.
Mowing grass.
Then seeing something that makes you decide:
Someone else can finish this part.
The Candles Left Behind at the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer
Caroline’s grave has attracted visitors for years.
Some come because they’re interested in local history.
Others come because of the legend.
And apparently, some visitors leave things behind.
Coins have reportedly been placed on the monument.
More intriguingly, melted candle wax has been found on the stone sphere, suggesting that people have lit candles or perhaps performed some sort of nighttime ritual around the grave.
Exactly what they were trying to accomplish is another question.
Maybe they wanted to contact Caroline.
Maybe they wanted to see whether the stories were true.
Maybe they were simply trying to frighten themselves.
But if the legend says an impossible date was carved into Caroline’s grave specifically to keep her from coming back, trying to call her out seems like a questionable idea.
Some things are probably better left sleeping.
A Witch Buried in a Ghost Town
There’s another detail that makes the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer particularly eerie.
St. Omer is gone.
The little community once had homes, businesses, a post office, a blacksmith, and families going about their daily lives.
Eventually, the settlement disappeared.
Today, the cemetery is one of the few reminders that St. Omer was ever there.
Which gives the legend an almost perfect setting.
A town disappears.
Its cemetery remains.
And among the graves is one woman supposedly accused of witchcraft.
Her monument faces differently from the others.
A strange sphere sits above her name.
And her death date is a day that can never arrive.
If someone invented a setting for a ghost story, they might have trouble coming up with anything better.
What Happens If February 31 Ever Comes?
Of course, that’s the heart of the legend.
Caroline can’t return on the anniversary of her death because her anniversary doesn’t exist.
February ends before the thirty-first.
Every year.
Which means whatever is supposed to happen on February 31 remains safely out of reach.
But folklore has a way of making you think about impossible things.
What if the date isn’t meant to keep Caroline from returning?
What if it’s a warning?
What if the people who buried her weren’t trying to fool a witch?
Maybe they were trying to tell everyone who came later that Caroline Barnes should never be given a day to come back.
There’s no ritual you need to perform.
No name you need to repeat into a mirror.
No door you’re supposed to knock on at midnight.
Just a date carved into stone.
A date that never comes.
And perhaps that’s exactly how everyone wants it.
Other Creepy Cemetery Legends
The Black Angel of Iowa City
The Black Angel of Iowa City stands over a grave in Oakland Cemetery, surrounded by stories of curses and death.
According to legend, touching or kissing the dark statue can bring terrible consequences, and some versions claim its appearance changed after it was erected.
Whatever you believe, there’s something unsettling about a cemetery monument people have spent generations warning each other not to touch.
Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery
Hidden near Chicago, Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery has become associated with an extraordinary number of ghost stories.
Visitors have reported phantom vehicles, strange lights, disappearing figures, and the famous apparition often called the White Lady or Madonna of Bachelor’s Grove.
It’s the kind of cemetery where the stories seem to multiply the longer people keep visiting.
Stull Cemetery
The tiny Stull Cemetery in Kansas became the center of one of America’s darker cemetery legends.
Stories claim a hidden entrance to Hell lies somewhere on or near the grounds and that supernatural activity becomes especially intense on certain nights of the year.
Some versions even claim the Devil himself visits.
Resurrection Mary
For decades, drivers near Resurrection Cemetery outside Chicago have told stories about a young woman dressed in white appearing beside the road.
Known as Resurrection Mary, she sometimes accepts a ride before mysteriously disappearing near the cemetery.
Other witnesses claim to have seen her standing behind the cemetery gates.
The Devil’s Chair
Several American cemeteries have monuments nicknamed the Devil’s Chair, often old stone mourning chairs surrounded by local dares.
Sit in one at the wrong time, according to some legends, and you might hear strange voices, encounter something supernatural, or attract attention you’d rather avoid.
And just like Caroline Barnes’s grave, the warning is simple enough.
Maybe don’t test it.
Final Thoughts
Most gravestones tell you when someone was born.
When they died.
Maybe who they loved.
Caroline Barnes’s grave gives you something else.
A question.
Why February 31?
Maybe that’s why the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer has survived in local folklore for so long.
You don’t need to hear the story first.
You can walk into the cemetery.
Find the monument.
Read the date yourself.
And immediately know that something isn’t right.
February 31, 1882.
A day that never happened.
A death anniversary that will never arrive.
And according to legend, a witch who can never return because the calendar itself is keeping her in the grave.
So if February somehow ever does gain a thirty-first day…
you might want to stay away from St. Omer Cemetery.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer
Where is the Witch’s Grave of St. Omer?
The grave is in St. Omer Cemetery near Ashmore in Coles County, Illinois. The cemetery is one of the few remaining traces of the former community of St. Omer.
Who is buried in the Witch’s Grave?
The unusual Barnes monument memorializes four members of the family: Granville Barnes, Sarah Barnes, their son Marcus, and Marcus’s wife, Caroline Barnes. Caroline is the person at the center of the witch legend.
Why does Caroline Barnes’s grave say February 31?
According to local legend, the impossible date was deliberately placed on Caroline’s monument so she could never return from the dead on the anniversary of her death.
What is strange about Caroline Barnes’s grave?
Along with the impossible February 31 date, the Barnes monument is oriented differently from many surrounding graves and topped by a large stone sphere. Folklore has transformed the sphere and forms beneath it into a witch’s crystal ball sitting above a funeral pyre.
Is St. Omer still a town?
No. The small settlement disappeared during the late nineteenth century, leaving the cemetery as one of the primary reminders that the community once existed.
About the Author
Karen Cody is the creator of Urban Legends, Mystery, and Myth, a blog exploring eerie folklore, strange history, and the mysteries behind the world’s most chilling stories. From haunted places and supernatural creatures to ghost stories, horror films, and modern myths, she examines the legends—both ancient and modern—that continue to fascinate and frighten us.
© 2026 Karen Cody. All rights reserved.