Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA 3-mile rural road through West Hills County Park on Long Island, carrying legends of a woman in white, a headless police officer, and a school bus full of children — the bus crash never happened, but the 1976 unsolved murder of a 13-year-old girl on the road is documented.
Sweet Hollow Road, West Hills, NY 11743
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public road through West Hills County Park. No admission fee.
Access
Limited Access
Rural road through wooded county park; unlit at night; no sidewalks along most of the route
Equipment
Photos OK
Located within West Hills County Park, Huntington Township, Suffolk County · 1976 unsolved murder: 13-year-old girl found strangled near the road · Multiple teenage deaths at Northern State Parkway overpass, 1970s · One of Long Island's most widely-circulated haunted road legends
Sweet Hollow Road runs north-south for approximately 3 miles through West Hills County Park in the town of Huntington, in western Suffolk County. It connects Jericho Turnpike in the north to Broadhollow Road in the south, passing under the Northern State Parkway via an overpass bridge that features prominently in local legend.
The road's documented dark history includes a 1976 unsolved murder: a 13-year-old girl was found strangled near the road. In the 1970s, teenagers also died at the Northern State Parkway overpass in incidents that combined with the earlier murder to give the road a reputation for genuine violence before the legends took over.
The wooded terrain, minimal lighting, and isolation made Sweet Hollow Road a natural setting for local legend-telling. Accounts accumulated through the 1980s and 1990s, drawing on older New York folklore patterns — a woman in white, ghostly children, a murdered police officer — and attaching them to the road's specific geography. The road now appears regularly in Long Island ghost guides and national lists of haunted roads.
Sources
Sweet Hollow Road's legend cycle follows patterns common to American urban legends but localized to specific points on the road.
The school bus legend is the most widely repeated: a school bus full of children went off the Northern State Parkway bridge above Sweet Hollow Road, and the children's spirits push stalled cars forward when put in neutral under the bridge. No school bus crash at this location has been documented in any local news archive or official record. This is folklore.
The woman in white appears in at least three contradictory versions: a woman named Mary who burned in a hospital fire near Mount Misery Road; a woman pushed from a moving car by her boyfriend who was then struck by oncoming traffic; and a witch hanged in the area in the late 1600s. The Mary figure also appears in New Jersey legends under similar circumstances, suggesting a traveling legend template.
The headless police officer legend describes an officer who pulls over cars parked on the road, appears normal at first approach, then turns to reveal a bleeding uniform and the back of his head missing. Local accounts claim an officer died on the road but no specific date or name has been confirmed.
The documented tragedy involves a 13-year-old girl found strangled near the road in 1976. The murder was never solved. This case predates the legend cycle and is rarely incorporated into the ghost-story versions that circulate today.
A black Labrador, a ghostly horse, and a dog-like creature are also reported on the road — nonhuman ghost accounts that appear in a minority of Sweet Hollow tellings.
Notable Entities
A 3-mile rural road running north-south through West Hills County Park in western Suffolk County. The Northern State Parkway bridge underpass is the focal point of the school bus legend. Mount Misery Road intersects nearby. Best experienced by slow drive or walk at dusk.
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