Long after the vampire manic swept through New England, a grave of a young girl with a curious epitaph became accused of being the grave of a vampire. Now it is said that Nellie Vaughn is haunting her grave now removed because of vandalism, trying to clear her name.
Deep in the woods of West Greenwich, Rhode Island, where the wind moves with a whisper and moss grows thick on broken stones, was a grave marked with one of the eeriest epitaphs in New England:
“I Am Waiting and Watching For You.”
That chilling inscription, paired with the tragic story of a 19-year-old girl named Nellie Vaughn, has birthed decades of eerie folklore, ghost stories, and whispered warnings. But the truth? It’s not about a bloodthirsty vampire rising from her grave—it’s about a girl caught in the shadow of another legend, and a ghost story that may say more about us than about her.
A Girl in a Grave, a Town with a Legacy
Nellie Louisa Vaughn, also spelled Nellie Louisa Vaughan, died in 1889, just 19 years old, and was laid to rest in the Plain Meeting House Cemetery in West Greenwich. At a glance, her story seems tailor-made for gothic folklore: a young woman, tragically taken in the prime of her life, buried beneath a cryptic and spine-tingling epitaph.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from USA
But her death was not accompanied by accusations of vampirism. Decades after her death, there were rumors that no plants would grow on her grave and that the grave itself was looking to sink into the ground. Was something crawling in and out? Was it perhaps something supernatural about her death and her grave?
By the 1970s, she was a well known local legend, her grave vandalised and her story made the newspapers.
The Vampire Panic of New England
To understand how this happened, we have to rewind just a few years and drive a few miles east to Exeter, where a young woman named Mercy Brown died of tuberculosis in 1892—just three years after Nellie. Mercy’s family had already lost several members to the same wasting illness. When her brother Edwin began to fall ill, the townspeople demanded action. They exhumed Mercy’s body and found it, preserved in cold storage, with “fresh” blood in the heart.
Read More: The Mercy Brown Vampire Incident in Rhode Island
The solution? They removed the heart and liver, burned them, and fed the ashes to Edwin in a desperate effort to save him. It didn’t work—but the story exploded. It was reported in newspapers across the country and even overseas. Some say Bram Stoker himself read about it while writing Dracula.
That gruesome tale became the definitive American vampire legend. But what does it have to do with Nellie?
Mistaken Identity—or Manufactured Mystery?
Fast-forward to the mid-to-late 20th century. A curious thing began to happen: Nellie Vaughn’s grave started attracting attention. Visitors began whispering that she, not Mercy, was Rhode Island’s real vampire. Her grave was vandalized. Her name was spoken on ghost tours. Paranormal thrill-seekers claimed to feel her presence, hear phantom whispers, or see flickers of movement in the trees near her resting place.
Some say that she was buried alive, that she got a stake through her heart and that she was one of the undead from the New England Vampire Epidemic.
But here’s the kicker: there is no historical evidence that Nellie was ever considered a vampire by her contemporaries.
Folklorist Michael Bell, author of Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires investigated what really was going on with the lore. Bell has spent decades researching the vampire panic and says Nellie Vaughn’s legend is pure folkloric conflation—a mash-up of Mercy Brown’s well-documented case, Nellie’s proximity in age and location, and the spine-chilling line carved on her gravestone.
There is a story about a teacher at the local high school in Coventry that told about the Mercy Brown legend in the 1960s. But saying nothing about the specific name or grave, the students stumbled across Nellies’ and said it was this. There have been numerous attempts to track down the teacher, but they have been unsuccessful.
From Human Tragedy to Urban Legend
Nellie Vaughn was a real person, not a creature of the night. She died young, likely of pneumonia or a similar illness on 31 March in 1889—tragic, but not supernatural. She was first buried on her family farm, but in October that year, her mother was given permission to move her remains to the public cemetery.
There is not really much to indicate that her family or anyone believed her to be a vampire in that time, and the legends came after. The earliest documentations for the legend are the newspaper articles from the 70s.
The vandalism of her grave, the repeated breaking of her headstone, and the ghost-hunting theatrics are the unfortunate side effects of myth overtaking memory. In the end they had to remove her tombstone to protect it from the vandals and now, she is hidden in an unmarked grave.
Her story, like many ghost tales, is less about the dead and more about the living: our obsession with mystery, our fear of death, and our irresistible urge to turn sorrow into spectacle.
The Ghost of Nellie Vaughn
After the vampire legends started to stop, the ghost legends took over. People have now reported about hearing her voice close to her gravesite close to the large crypt, saying: I am perfectly pleasant.
There has also been said that a woman wearing Victorian clothes has been seen but vanishes. In most stories she is said to say either, I am perfectly pleasant or I am happy.
Ghost tours mention her name. Paranormal groups claim her spirit haunts the woods. Some say that she came back as a ghost in order to clear her name. Or are we still just profiting on the tombstone of a girl that happened to die during a Vampiric Mass Hysteria?
Nellie Vaughn deserves better than the chains of folklore forged around her grave. She was not exhumed. She was not accused. She was not a vampire. But her story reveals something powerful: how easily we can reanimate the past, and how quickly history can become horror.
Because of the vandalism she suffered, the graveyard had to remove her tombstone in the 90s. Now the grass is growing freely and there is no problem with it sinking into the ground. When the people wandering over it stopped, so did the signs of the legend.
Newest Posts
- The Lady of Soria Moria Haunting Villa Fridheim
Soria Moria: The Villa Fridheim is often called the Soria Moria castle, a name from Norwegian folktales about the hidden castle where the hero will find the princess. It has also now turned into an expression for expectations about a great place. - Dun Dreach-Fhoula – The Blood-Soaked Castle of the Reeks
Said to be found deep in the mountain range MacGillycuddy’s Reeks in Kerry, Ireland, the ruins of Dun Dreach-Fhoula castle is said to be the home of bloodthirsty fairies of the Otherworld. Question is if it’s an ancient legend or a modern hoax. - The Woman Waiting and Haunting Struten Lighthouse
After being stranded on their little island at Struten Lighthouse in stormy weather with the waves crashing in, a woman succumbed to her illness and has since then been haunting it, still waiting for the help that never came. - The Womanizer of Room 315 Haunting at Sauda Fjordhotel
The once stately Sauda Fjordhotel is said to be haunted by a remorseful colonel, who took his own life when his womanizing ways lost him the love of his life. - The Ghost of the Captain Smith from the Titanic
After the Titanic sank in 1912, people started talking about seeing the ghost of Captain Smith around the world. Even after all these years, his death and afterlife have an air of mystery surrounding it and he has become one of the most well known ghosts from the Titanic tragedy. - The Haunted Legends from Wailua in Hawaii
How big can a haunted area be? Can the whole of Wailua on Kauai Island be haunted? The place certainly seems steeped in tales of Night Marchers and a procession of the dead, making their way down the river to the afterlife. - The Amalanhig: The Undying Hunters of Visayan Folklore
Rising from their graves, the vampiric Amalanhig from the Philippines are after your flesh and blood. But where did these creatures come from? - Doyle’s Pub: The Hangman’s Shadow in Phibsborough
Said to be haunted by the people from the funeral home that used to be next door, the Doyle’s Pub in Dublin is said to have more than living patrons having a drink. - Fredriksten Fortress and the White Lady of Halden
In the bordertown of Sweden of Norway, Fredriksten Fortress has seen more bloodshed than many places. But who is the White Lady said to be haunting it, soaring around the clock tower in the night? - The Haunted Shelbourne Hotel and the Ghost of Mary Masters
According to staff members and guests, paranormal investigators and even celebrities, the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin is haunted. Legend has it that a young cholera victim called Mary Masters has been haunting the place for centuries. - Room 407 and the Gentle Ghost of Fleischer’s Hotel
As the first hostess of the hotel in Voss, Norway, the ghost of Magdalene at the historic and majestic Fleischier’s Hotel is said to linger inside of Room 407. - Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case
Advertisements Teresa Prieto, known as the Witch of Jove, has captivated the imaginations of many through the centuries as the first recorded case of a vampire in Spain that reached the court. What was she? A witch? A vampire? Or was she one of many innocent women accused of something supernatural. Long before the vampire … Continue reading Teresa Prieto The Witch of Jove and Spain’s First Vampire Case
References:
Nellie Louisa Vaughan (1870-1889) – Find a Grave Memorial
The Unexpected Vampire Case of Nellie Vaughn – Locations of Lore
Nellie Vaughn: The Vampire who Wasn’t a Vampire | Skeptical Humanities
One thought on “The Ghost of a Misunderstood Girl: Nellie Vaughn and the Vampire That Never Was”