Meems Bottom Covered Bridge and the Birth of an Urban Legend

Happy Friday 13th!

This post describes a macabre real-life event so you may want to stop reading if you’re squeamish about death and murder. It’s also a look at how urban legends are created.   

Meems (or Meem’s) Bottom Covered Bridge is the longest covered bridge in Virginia (204 feet). It’s also the only covered bridge in Virginia that allows regular traffic through it (there are size and weight limits). 

The bridge was built in 1894 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It spans the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. 

It was last rebuilt after vandals set fire to it on Halloween 1976. 

The bridge is located in a peaceful and bucolic area with rolling hills, flower-filled meadows and lumbering livestock. There weren’t really any ghost stories associated with it, unlike other historic sites … until 2003, with the murder of Brenda Paz.

Paz was the girlfriend of an MS-13 gang member. She was killed on July 13, 2003, after she became a police informant. She was stabbed 16 times and her throat slit. Her body was found along the banks of the Shenandoah River near the bridge. She was only 17, and four months pregnant.  

Four MS-13 members were charged with Paz’s murder. Two were acquitted, and two convicted. 

Paz’s murder is now tied to the bridge’s history. A local legend has sprung up about a pregnant woman murdered under or near the bridge (shared mostly on Reddit). Neither her baby nor the murderer was ever found (not true in Paz’s case). They say that when you drive through the bridge after nightfall, you will see eerie shadows and hear strange sounds. Some people also feel dread. 

According to the lore, the woman is still searching for her baby. At night when the wind is just right and you listen very carefully, you can hear the baby crying for its mother.