I attended Leota Jr. High about 16 years ago, which is about 5-10 miles or so from Paradise Lake Rd. It was a “known” story among all students regarding the cemetery. Not many people had the courage to actually make it up there especially at night. However, everyone heard about the happenings after someone made the trip up. Now, I know that information does get stretched among kids. But, I have heard of horrible satanic rituals that did take place there at one time. At least many years ago. That kind of energy never leaves, no matter how much development occurs in the area. I would never go!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy halloween… and if you head up to Maltby for a few frights, be careful about it. Also don’t litter or vandalize. Maltby has a history, and continuing generations should be able to have the rights to go up there to get scared sh*tless!

I grew up in Monroe, which is only a couple miles from Maltby, and I will convey my experience with the 13 steps as they happened to me. Two friends of mine and I had heard about the 13 steps to hell and decided to try and play chicken by going to the Maltby cemetery on Halloween, 1989, and see who would be the first who wanted to leave. I don’t think any of us had any real expectations of finding the 13 steps and since we were 15, 15 and 16 years old, it was more of a teenage machismo thing I think. Anyways, there was Geoff, Jason, Russell, Mitch and myself, and we all met up at Geoff’s place, hung out until it was dark but Russell and Mitch decided that they didn’t want to be out so late on a school night, Tuesday I think, so they took off home around 9 pm. We left shortly after they did. It took us about 30 minutes to get to dirt road leading up to the cemetery. We started driving up the road and noticed that along the side of the road were abandoned cars. Many of the cars were all shot up, probably by kids like us with a shot gun wanting to just shoot stuff. We got to where the road ended. There was another car up there that wasn’t all shot up so we figured someone else had come up for the same thing and sure enough as soon as we parked 2 guys and a girl about our same age came walking out of the woods on the other side of their car. We ask ‘How’s it goin?’ and got to know each other. They were from Lynnwood. They were worried that we were the sheriff when we first pulled up, but they were up for the same reason we were so we decided to look for the steps together. We had been told that there was a groundskeeper or someone who looked after the grounds that lived near the cemetery who could be a little aggressive. Not sure if that’s true but it did make us wary, but I think we were mostly scared of what we were looking for. The sky was very dark and streaked with clouds and only a sliver of moon was visible and at the risk of sounding cliché’ there was a think fog that was forming. We had brought flashlights but didn’t want to use them unless we had to because we would be easily seen from a distance. So we just kind of hung out until our eyes adjusted to the dark and the little bit of moonlight was just enough to find our way around. It only took about 5 minutes to get to the cemetery from where we parked our cars. We didn’t know exactly what we were looking for so we decided to split up into our respective groups of friends and if either of us found something we’d whistle to let the other group know. I was getting a little nervous and kind of wanted to go but Geoff convinced me to stay. We started joking around when we didn’t find anything. Awhile later we saw a flashlight turn on in the direction that the other group went. Then one of the guys said, ‘HEY!’ fairly loudly. We all got quiet, and I got nervous again. We walked over there and there were the 2 guys and girl standing there, I think the girl’s name was Sarah, and next to where they stood was a rough, uneven slope going down into a deep hole, like an open grave. The slope did look like steps but were so worn and uneven I’d hardly call them steps. One of the guys was shining his light down in the hole. And it just kind of ended there, about 8 feet deep, at the bottom. Jason asked something to the effect of ‘who’s going down?’ I remember suggesting that maybe we should go home. Then one of the guys from Lynnwood said, “f*** it!” and started walking down into the hole. About half way down he started laughing and called us something similar to ‘wussies.’ It was at this time we heard a loud voice yell, “hey!’ behind us. We turned to find a flashlight in our face. We took off running towards the car, got in, and hauled tail. We never looked back. I never went back to the cemetery, and neither did Jason or Geoff as far as I know but I did see that Sarah girl at the Lynnwood mall around Christmas time. She told me that she ran back to the car too along with one of the other guys but said that her other friend stayed in the hole. They waited at the car until morning because the car belonged to the guy that went in the hole so they were stuck. He never came back to the car and they had to walk to a nearby house and use a phone to get some one to come pick them up. She said later she found out that he was taken out of school by his parents. He apparently was found lying in the cemetery after having had some kind of nervous breakdown. She said he never spoke again and ended up passing away a month later around Thanksgiving. Whether you choose to believe this or not is up to you,and as far as whether or not the cemetery is even still there I don’t know but do I know that there are four other people besides myself that live with the truth of what happened that night. Happy Halloween.

We wet up there tonight around 8 o clock. it was pitch black. we found the cemetary, we were very respectful and made sure to leave everything as it had been when we got there. its basically a set of three terraces with graves on them. we found the broken up slab with the headstone on it. it looks like the slab was a piece of something bigger as there were several other pieces of large rock in the same area and on a lower terrace. I’m pretty sure this is not where the 13 steps are. If you are one of the few who know where the site of the 13 steps was, please tell me, growing up in this area it really intrigues me and I’d like to know the truth about this piece of history. e-mail me at downhillracer3@hotmail.com. thank you.

Tyler,
The “13 Steps to Hell” are no longer visible from above ground. We bulldozed them, which was at that time the Doolittle Family Crypt, years ago. So many years in fact, that I cannot recall the exact location within the cemetery. The steps would not make anybody go crazy, teenagers would just get drunk and fall down the steps. As for the comment by Seen It!, the cemetery is still in use and that could have been an open grave in which that boy might have fallen down and gotten himself seriously hurt. The man who lives behind the cemetery is very protective of the place, and, like I, is a descendant of occupants of the Doolittle Family Crypt.
,Frank Doolittle

Just to back up what tyler said….
We found graves that were not on the official listing

Looking back at the video we taped, I found that perceptions were slightly altered…. a small (3 ft) jump over a grave seemed very big to us

Text messages that we sent to each other did not reach the person until AFTER we left the cemetary

There are some skips and static in the video, and it was filmed with a fairly decent video camera, and its never done this before

also, we heard some weird low moaning sounds, really hard to describe, sounded like a combination between a howl and the sound powerlines make

Also, Mr. Doolittle, would you mind answering a couple of questions?

Why are certain graves not on the official document?
Can you confirm or deny any mention of satanism in your family (no disrespect, and i can understand if you want to refrain from answering this question)

also, can you provide links to newspaper articles from the past years about incidents at Maltby?

Thank you for your time
respectfully,
Nathan

Dear Nathan,
No, there us no satanism in my family. I don’t know of any newspaper articles. The reason why some graves are not on the official listing was because at the time the official listing was done, the cemetery was in bad condition, therefore, some of the grave markers were not visible. Phosphorous from the decaying bodies will explain why the text messages and such are not coming through. I cannot explain the moaning, I must hear it for myself to understand what it may sound like.
,Frank Doolittle

Dear Nathan,
No, there is no satanism in my family, we are strict christians. I don’t know of any newspaper articles. The reason why some graves are not on the official listing was because at the time the official listing was done, the cemetery was in bad condition, therefore, some of the grave markers were not visible (the man behind the place did not live in a close enough range to keep it clean). Phosphorous from the decaying bodies will explain why the text messages and such are not coming through. I cannot explain the moaning, I must hear it for myself to understand what it may sound like.
,Frank Doolittle

phorphorus? thats far fetched. but you can’t see where the 13 steps were? i’d just like to see the site so i can put my curiosity to rest, i’ve heard from some people that they never existed.

Yes, phosphorus is very far fetched, but it has been scientifically proved to temporarily scramble technology. I cannot remember where the steps were, for they were bulldozed in years ago. . .I wish that I could move the graves (and maybe even recover the crypt, for it is basically an underground room since the entrance was bulldozed) to a conventional cemetery, so anyone could enter and study them.

i pissed on fredrick coopers tombstone it felt so good

Now why would you do that? I ought to contact law enforcement on you. It wouldn’t be hard since you left your full name!

Dont you have anything better to do than check this website every 30sec??

I check this web-site every two days. Don’t you have anything better to do at 2:38 am? I recommend sleeping.

I’d love to see a team like GhostHunters go there and tape an episode!! That way I could have the “experience” on my nice, safe couch…:)

I think that we should all have a big meeting at Maltby with a ton of strippers and blow up big tubs of gasoline!!!!

That sounds great! I’ll invite the police! Or perhaps the man who lives behind the place and his 12-gauge shotgun! Never, ever urinate on one of my family member’s graves! Do it, and I will find you, and make sure you get locked up in a some juvenile district court. You’re probably some twelve year old with nothing better to do.

First off, it is not called the Maltby Cemetery, it is called the Paradise Lake Valley Rural Community Cemetery. All of the early farmers in that area would bury their dead in there so they wouldn’t have to worry about the protection of their each individual family cemteries. There used to be a small house in the cemetery that was home to the caretaker. I believe he is buried there as well. Second, WE aren’t friends with the local police department, I don’t even know any Dustin Cooper or if he really IS a descendant of anyone buried in the cemetery, but I am a member of THE police department, it’s not local to the cemtery though. I do not OWN the cemetery, therefore I cannot do anything about it. All I can do is petition. It is all private property, and vandals/trespassers WILL be and HAVE been prosecuted.

I have a couple questions for you Frank
When we were out there, we filmed some footage of the cemetary, and audio. I would like to put this together into a short documentary (10 minutes ish) about the cemetary, along with some of the information from this forum. I figure if we can show people what this place is, some of the hype will die down.

However, I can understand if you don’t want the name of the cemetary in the video. I will NOT provide directions to the cemetary, just a video of the cemetary itself.