Please note that the study of ghosts and hauntings is mostly a look into witness testimony and folklore at the outset. These two things can be subjective and are truly in the realm of the individual that passes them along to us.
We at Torontoghosts see ourselves as documentarians with witness experiences first, then folklore, history, and scientific observation of possible causation if possible after. It is on this note that we do warn readers that they should understand that because personal experiences and folkloric tales can be interpreted differently from person to person, they note that we do our best to be fair and honest and let you know what we hear or find out.
What you read here may not be "iron clad facts" and people can interpret sites, areas, experiences, and stories differently... and although we do our best to post rebuttals (when possible and when stated with courtesy to other witnesses,) as well as corrections, what you see posted as "from a witness" is from that witness... and may be imperfect or something you do not agree with. Please respect that this is their interpretation of things and again, we're only posting the data in terms of documenting their account to us.
Also, please note that in this particular story, (Old Finch Road,) we have always admitted (right here on the first page below,) that the stories and accounts are not based on historical data that we could confirm... and many of the experiences reported do have possible normal (natural or man-made) causation... and we cannot stress that although some may feel they've had experiences, and some may venture to this site to try and have their own experiences, the stories and reports are not solid from an evidential standpoint and that the area is (for the most part) private property and those who trespass or venture onto property without permission from the owner(s) can face police action up to and including criminal charges.
Thank you for reading...
The Torontoghosts Administrators
One of our readers shares the following:
"I have read your description of the old finch ghost story and I have some information for you.First I would like to let you know that I have lived on Old finch for years and my family has been residing there for generations.The story of the girl murdered there on her birthday is familiar but there are a few things I would like to point out . Her name was Kim Tracey not Candy and she was decapitated after being murdered and her head was used to write Happy Birthday Kim Tracey on the west side stone wall. To this day it still reads Happy Birthday Kim Tracey. On numerous occasions I have witnessed parks and rec cleaning the wall but for some strange reason it keeps appearing."
About the church at the top of the hill, you have the wrong church. Its actually on Bear rd. not the one on old finch near the zoo. The church on bear rd is actually much much older than the church on old finch."We received the following in April 2011 in response to the previous update:Just wanted to comment on the latest update for ‘Old Finch’. I live fairly close to that location and I can assure you there is no church on Beare Road (not Bear Road as in the article) and there never was. If the author of that report is to be believed then he would know that, as his family ‘lived there for generations’ and I assume he grew up in the area. The only church is the Hillside Methodist church, circa 1877. The story of a murderer writing with the murdered girls head also stretches credibility.
Our family has seen the large boulder that used to sit north of the Bailey bridge on Sewells Road, I believe. It was spray painted in red with ‘Happy Birthday Sue’ on it or ‘R.I.P. Sue’ at one point. It took some effort as it was quite large and at least 4 feet high and it was removed by, I assume, the City at least four years ago. I guess they got tired of removing the gruesome graffiti. I don’t know what wall ‘he’ is talking about. I’ll have to look again when I go that route, but there may be a stone railway bridge over Sewells.The stone support abutment may be the ‘wall’ he is referring to with all the graffiti. There was no murder of a girl by that name, so the removal was not for the sake of respect to her family.There were farms in the area but all have been expropriated for Rouge Park. It is pretty sparsely populated with only a few homes east of the Hillside Methodist church and a few homes clustered where Old Finch dead ends at the Rouge Valley. It continues on the other side where Beare Road ends.There is no rail line that crosses Old Finch either. Where the rail line passes north of Old Finch it is on elevated stone bridges that are quite old, making the school lbus crash impossible the way it’s told. The rail line does have level crossings on Reesor and Beare Roads, both again well north of Finch.While I’m not on a mission to correct inaccuracies, this one hit ‘close to home’ and was so obviously sensationalized. Like your report concluded, the whole Finch Road stories seem to be the product of overactive teenage imaginations.