Changewater Murder Victims Memorial
Route 57 vicinity, Washington, NJ 07882
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public cemetery during daylight hours.
Access
Limited Access
Grass with uneven historic stones
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1800 · 19th Century Burial Ground · Warren County History
Washington Cemetery sits along Route 57 in Washington Borough, Warren County, New Jersey. The cemetery contains burials primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is a typical small-town New Jersey burial ground in form and function.
The attribution of the Changewater Murder victims to this cemetery in the Shadowlands narrative does not align with the documented historical record. On May 1, 1843, in the village of Changewater (now part of Warren County's Lebanon and Washington Township areas), local farmer John Castner, age 37, was lured from his home and killed with what was likely a hatchet. His wife Maria Parke Castner (42), their three-year-old daughter Mary, and Maria's brother John B. Parke (64), were killed inside the house. Farm hand Jesse Force survived a serious attack. The Castners' two sons, ten-year-old Victor and six- or seven-year-old John, were hidden by a cot and survived.
Joseph Carter Jr. and Peter W. Parke were tried and convicted of the crime; both were executed in August 1845 after a trial that ran more than two years. Parke maintained his innocence to his death. The four murder victims are buried side by side in Mansfield Cemetery in Warren County, where their well-preserved markers remain. Carter and Parke, denied burial in consecrated ground per the period custom for executed criminals, were interred at a crossroads near what later became a Warren Rail Road cut, a site now sometimes called Murderers' Crossroads.
The Shadowlands attribution of this case to Washington Cemetery appears to be a venue error in the original entry rather than verified history.
Sources
The folklore associated with the Changewater Murders is among the more durable pieces of Warren County true-crime history. The Castner family graves at Mansfield Cemetery feature epitaphs invoking divine judgment on the perpetrators and reflect the long-running local conviction that Joseph Carter Jr. and Peter W. Parke may not have been the actual murderers. Parke's deathbed Protest of Peter W. Parke maintained his innocence and predicted future exoneration.
The Washington Cemetery itself, separate from Mansfield, has not generated a body of independent paranormal accounts in published sources. The Shadowlands attribution is a venue confusion. Visitors interested in the Changewater material should plan their visit to Mansfield Cemetery, where the documented graves of the victims and the historical interpretive context are located.
Notable Entities
Visit the cemetery off Route 57. The Shadowlands narrative attributes the Changewater Murder victims' graves to this cemetery, but the documented burial location for John Castner, Maria Castner, three-year-old Mary Castner, and John B. Parke is Mansfield Cemetery in Warren County, not Washington Cemetery. The Castner family victims' graves should be viewed at Mansfield Cemetery instead.
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