Est. 1794 · Colonial-Era Burying Ground · Connecticut Paranormal History · New England Society for Psychic Research
Stepney Cemetery occupies a parcel adjacent to Stepney Green in the village of Stepney within Monroe, Connecticut. The land was donated by Noah Burr and James Burr Jr. in 1794, and the cemetery was formalized as a community burying ground that year. The oldest legible headstone belongs to Nathaniel W. Knapp, who died in 1787, indicating that the site was already in use as a family graveyard before the formal donation.
The cemetery contains a substantial number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Monroe-area stones, including those of farming families who settled the surrounding land in the decades before and after the Revolutionary War. Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel sits immediately adjacent, and the chapel parking area is the typical access point for visitors today.
The cemetery's contemporary visibility derives almost entirely from one set of burials. Ed Warren, founder with his wife Lorraine of the New England Society for Psychic Research in 1952, died in 2006 and was buried at Stepney. Lorraine joined him following her death in 2019 at age ninety-two. The couple's monument is engraved with the inscription N.E.S.P.R. founded 1952 above a cross and an image of Saint Michael the Archangel.
The Warrens' archive of investigations included the Annabelle doll case, the Amityville Horror investigation, and the Perron-family hauntings at the Old Arnold Estate that later inspired the Conjuring film series. The Warren Occult Museum operated from their Monroe home; following Lorraine's death, the museum's future has remained uncertain. The grave has become a destination for paranormal-history visitors and for fans of the Conjuring films, and the Monroe community has periodically asked that visitors respect the surrounding family burials.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepney_Cemetery
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15499641/ed-warren
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/grave-of-ed-lorraine-warren
ApparitionsCold spotsPhantom footstepsEquipment malfunction
The Warrens themselves identified Stepney Cemetery as one of the haunted sites in the surrounding Monroe-Easton region. Their published accounts describe a White Lady, a young woman described as having long dark hair and wearing a white nightgown and bonnet, who is said to travel between Stepney Cemetery and Union Cemetery in nearby Easton. Local tradition attributes her presence to a death in childbirth in her late twenties.
The White Lady narrative predates the Warrens' investigation by several decades within Monroe and Easton oral tradition. Subsequent investigators visiting the cemetery have reported intermittent equipment anomalies, particularly at the Warrens' own monument, where visitors leave coins, rosary beads, and handwritten notes. Reports of audible footsteps and unaccountable cold drafts have appeared in regional paranormal blogs and on podcasts dedicated to the Warren legacy.
Visitors should approach Stepney as a working cemetery rather than as a tourist attraction. The Monroe-area community surrounding the Warren family has periodically requested that the grave be treated with the dignity due any family resting place. The substantive paranormal-history interest of the site rests on the Warren burial; the White Lady tradition remains regional folklore rather than independently documented investigation.
Notable Entities
The White Lady
