The township of Blair was located where the city of Burkittsville is in north central Maryland, two hours from Washington, D.C. Click here for a map of Burkittsville.

February, 1785 Several children accuse Elly Kedward of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. Kedward is found guilty of witchcraft, banished from the village during a particularly harsh winter and presumed dead.

November, 1786 By midwinter all of Kedward's accusers along with half the town's children vanish. Fearing a curse, the townspeople flee Blair and vow never to utter Elly Kedward's name again.

November, 1809 "The Blair Witch Cult" is published. This rare book, commonly considered fiction, tells of an entire town cursed by an outcast witch.

1824 Burkittsville is founded on the Blair site.

August, 1825 Eleven witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull 10-year-old Eileen Treacle into Tappy East Creek. Her body is never recovered, and for 13 days after the drowning, the creek is clogged with oily bundles of sticks.

March, 1886 Eight-year-old Robin Weaver is reported missing and search parties are dispatched. Although Weaver returns, one of the search parties does not. Their bodies are found weeks later at Coffin Rock, tied together at the arms and legs and completely disemboweled.

November, 1940 - May, 1941 Starting with Emily Hollands, a total of seven children are abducted from the area surrounding Burkittsville, Maryland.

May 25, 1941 An old hermit named Rustin Parr walks into a local market and tells the people there that he is "finally finished." After police hike for four hours to his secluded home in the woods, they find the bodies of the seven missing children in the cellar. Each child has been ritualistically murdered and disemboweled. Parr admits to everything in detail, telling authorities that he did it for "an old woman ghost" who occupied the woods near his house. He is quickly convicted and hanged.

October 20, 1994 Montgomery College Students Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams arrive in Burkittsville to interview locals about the legend of the Blair Witch for a class project. Heather interviews Mary Brown, an old and insane woman who has lived in the area all her life. Mary claims to have seen the Blair Witch one-day near Tappy Creek in the form of a hairy, half-human, half-animal beast.

October 21, 1994 In the early morning Heather interviews two fishermen who tell the filmmakers that Coffin Rock is less than 20 minutes from town and easily accessible by an old logging trail. The filmmakers hike into Black Hills Forest shortly thereafter and are never seen again.

October 25, 1994 The first APB is issued. Josh's car is found later in the day parked on Black Rock Road.

October 26, 1994 The Maryland State Police launch their search of the Black Hills area, an operation that lasts 10 days and includes up to 100 men aided by dogs, helicopters and a fly-over by a Department of Defense Satellite.

November 5, 1994 The search is called off after 33,000 man-hours fail to find a trace of the filmmakers or any of their gear. Heather's mother, Angie Donahue, begins an exhaustive personal search for her daughter and her two companions.

June 19, 1995 The case is declared inactive and unsolved.

October 16, 1995 Students from the University of Maryland's anthropology department discover a duffel bag containing film cases, DAT tapes, videocassettes, a Hi-8 video camera, Heather's journal and a CP-16 film camera buried under the foundation of a secluded cabin. When the evidence is examined, Burkittsville Sheriff Ron Cravens announces that the 11 rolls of black-and-white film and 10 Hi-8 videotapes are indeed the property of Heather Donahue and her crew.

December 15, 1995 After an initial study of the bag's contents, selected pieces of film footage are shown to the families. According to Angie Donahue, there are several unusual events but nothing conclusive. The families question the thoroughness of the analysis and demand another look.

February 19, 1996 The families are shown a second group of clips that local law enforcement officials consider to be faked. Outraged, Mrs. Donahue goes public with her criticism and Sheriff Cravens restricts all access to the evidence, a restriction that two lawsuits fail to lift.

March 1, 1996 The sheriff's department announces that the evidence is inconclusive and the case is once again declared inactive and unsolved. The footage is to be released to the families when the legal limit of its classification runs out, on October 16, 1997.

October 16, 1997 The found footage of the "filmmakers" last days is turned over to the families of Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael Williams. Angie Donahue contracts with Haxan Films to examine the footage and piece together the events of October 20-28, 1994.

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