Ghosts on the Coast

Ghosts on the Coast 🔎 Investigating and documenting creepy history, cemeteries, ghosts, myths, legends, & true crime.
đź“Ś Based in New Jersey. Est. 2015.

Ghosts on the Coast is a New Jersey-based paranormal investigating team and web-series, and also a fundraising partner with the Strauss Mansion Museum. Episodes can be found on YouTube. The group has close connections to history and historic sites-- the founder is a historian and lecturer at Brookdale Community College, while the entire team volunteers or serves on the Board of Directors of the At

lantic Highlands Historical Society, which is housed at the 1893 Strauss Mansion Museum. The group is available for investigations at your location as well as paranormal workshops and lectures.

06/02/2026

So how does such a large cemetery become abandoned? Cedarwood in Hazlet, New Jersey has no official owner after their board of trustees dissolved several years ago. ⬇️

There was not enough funds to maintain the site and fix a retaining wall that was estimated to cost over a million dollars.

With nearly 2,000 burials dating to 1804, there have been only four interments in the last 10 years. The cemetery is maintained entirely by volunteers, namely the Union Beach Fire Department, who mow lawns, w**d, fill in fox holes, and reset fallen headstones.

While the location is technically abandoned in the legal sense, the community has come together to keep it in good condition. The story was so noteworthy that it made Eyewitness News in 2022.

There are numerous graves of fire department and armed forces veterans, the latter of which includes Thomas Carhart who fought at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. This is easily accessible near Route 36 and is on the border of two other cemeteries: Rosemont and Shoreland Memorial Gardens.

Why do we spend so much time researching these stories? Because they mean something to us. Every single member of our te...
06/02/2026

Why do we spend so much time researching these stories? Because they mean something to us. Every single member of our team lives in Monmouth County-- for either the entirety or majority of their lives. We are Middletown, Belford, Leonardo, Atlantic Highlands, Highlands, Holmdel, Red Bank, Hazlet, and Tinton Falls.

Some stories are happy. Most are sad or tragic. There's cemeteries, true crime, myths, legends, and even some ghost stories sprinkled in. They range across war and peace, recent and far into the past.

These do not belong to any one person-- they are for us to experience as a community. We thank our followers for trusting us to delve into these tales, and even though we have been doing this in one form or another since 2015, we feel like are just getting started. Stay tuned.

06/01/2026

Mary Ann Klinsky was 18 years old and in her senior year at Raritan High School in Hazlet, New Jersey. She was last seen sitting alone on the Keansburg boardwalk on the evening of September 15th, 1965 after walking to the post office to mail a letter. She lived on 7th Street in West Keansburg.

Sometime between then and the next morning, she was abducted and murdered by serial killer Robert Zarinsky. Her body was found near Garden State Parkway exit 116 in what was then Telegraph Hill Park in Holmdel. It took until 2016 for DNA to determine who did it (he had already died in prison in 2008). At the time, it was the oldest case solved by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. She is buried at Shoreland Memorial Gardens.

Klinsky was one of Zarinsky’s three Monmouth County victims. The other two were Jane Durrua (13) of East Keansburg in 1968 and Rosemary Calandriello (17) of Atlantic Highlands in 1969, whose body remains unfound to this very day.

The M.O. was the same for all three: he drove around quiet neighborhoods, apparently at random, attempted to lure girls to his car, and then sexually assaulted and killed them. We will not get into specifics, but Klinsky's death was noted as "especially vicious".

Zarinsky routinely taunted police and claimed to be responsible for at least 10 murders, though only four have been confirmed. He also is/was the prime suspect in three more deaths of teenage girls farther north in New Jersey.

By the time he was being looked at for involvement with Calandriello’s case (which he eventually went to jail for), he was under investigation for five more sexual assaults and/or attempted kidnappings. He also killed a police officer in Rahway in 1958.

🎥 This is part of an ongoing series of companion videos to Greg's newest lecture, “Murdered in Monmouth County: 1609-1972”, which is being offered at various local libraries. We have previously covered the Rosemary Calandriello murder in 2024-- those videos can be found in our Atlantic Highlands playlist on Instagram.

05/30/2026

Unlike many people who become murderers or rapists, New Jersey serial killer Robert Zarinsky did not have a childhood of trauma. In fact, he was loved and protected by his mother Veronica at almost unnatural levels. ⬇️

He was never physically abused, but instead abused others. He frequently beat up his sisters and attacked his father who he worked with in the family produce business. Robert eventually took financial control and gave his father a barely livable allowance. When he complained, Zarinsky beat him even more. When not terrorizing his family, he was killing and torturing animals and cutting the heads off of birds. 

His mother apparently knew all, but showered him with praise instead of scorn.  When she died in 1995, she left all her money to him (an estate over $100,000) and not his sisters even though he was never getting out of prison. 

In 1958, his aggression increased when he got into a shootout with a police officer during a car burglary and killed him. He went to his mother who pulled out the bullets with pliers and sewed him up with a needle and thread. She harbored him until he recovered and swore the family to secrecy. 

Zarinsky went on to murder definitely three and most likely three more teenage girls in the 1960s as well as commit multiple sexual assaults. He died in prison in 2008, only ever being convicted of one single murder.

🎥 This is part of an ongoing series of companion videos to Greg's newest lecture, “Murdered in Monmouth County: 1609-1972”, which is being offered at various local libraries. We previously covered the Rosemary Calandriello murder in 2024-- those videos can be found in our Atlantic Highlands playlist on Instagram.

05/29/2026

Did you know there was a zoo where Mt. Mitchill Scenic Overlook is? The Welcher Animal Research Center (a.k.a Welcher’s Zoo) was a popular attraction in Atlantic Highlands in the 1940s and 50s. ⬇️

It had peacocks, ostriches, sheep, buffalo, llamas, coyotes, flamingoes, raccoons, and a sacred cow from India. However, in September 1948, a monkey escaped and walked into town. It traveled all the way down Ocean Boulevard to Third Avenue, where it made its home in a tree belonging to the Murtha family. At first, residents were scared and outraged, and numerous attempts were made to contact the zoo’s owner, Dr. Howard Welcher. He also owned the nearby Log Cabin Inn restaurant.

There was not much interest from him or his employees to retrieve the creature. Welcher was a bit of a shady character himself, frequently in trouble with the law and FBI. He allegedly had ties to organized crime and was convicted of tax evasion and performing illegal abortions.

The situation went on for weeks. Residents eventually took to liking the monkey, regarding him as a neighborhood mascot. One even offered to adopt him if he was still there by winter. There is no record of what became of the shifty primate, but apparently, he was captured and returned to the zoo.

05/28/2026

Fans of the macabre and bizarre definitely need to check out the Mutter Museum at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. Established in 1858, this massive collection of human specimens was originally used for teaching at the college. ⬇️

At first, only students and fellows were admitted, but it later opened to the public and became one of Philadelphia’s most unique attractions.

The museum contains hundreds of skulls, numerous skeletons including the world’s tallest, and samples of human organs and body parts relating to all manner of illnesses and deformities, such as the world’s largest colon. There is an entire body that turned to a soap-like substance rather than decompose.

This museum is not for everyone, though the exhibits are tasteful and educational, not assembled for shock value. Out of respect to the human remains on display, no photography is allowed in the exhibit areas. Visitors may film or take pictures in several other rooms which are expansive and beautiful.

Depending on how crowded it is, allow at least an hour to walk through and take it all in. There is also an outdoor garden but it was raining so we did not explore that.

Address

27 Prospect Circle
Atlantic Highlands, NJ
07716

Website

https://www.amazon.com/Legends-Hauntings-Jersey-Bayshore-Americana/dp/162545136

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