Over in Lafayette, Colorado, in Lafayette Municipal Cemetery, just north of the edge of town, you can find the “vampire grave.” The headstone reads “Mr. Fodor Glava,” who – according to the etchings – was from Transylvania, and died in December 2018. Not much more information can be found on the old grave marker (or in official records, for that matter).
The mystery of who Mr. Glava of Transylvania was – and his gravestone, which he bought in the middle of the pauper’s graveyard – has helped spur local legends about him being a vampire who’s been buried in Lafayette for, well, as long as the grave has been around. Those legends started in part because it’s odd to see someone who was from Transylvania, home of Dracula and, uh, other vampires, buried in a small town Colorado cemetery.
It hasn’t helped that the grave is the only one in the vicinity to have been marked with crude writing. The words on Glava’s grave marker appear to have been etched in a hurry, and by someone who was far from a professional. The grave is also impossibly hard to locate, and at one point, there was a tangled rose bush growing out of the grave, right above where the vampire’s (or human’s) heart would be. According to local legend, the red of the roses are from the vamp’s fingernails, which have continued to grow long after his death.
The folks in Lafayette have long been creeped out by the grave, and the kids – and perhaps adults – like to dare each other to stand near or touch the grave. Adding to the mystery are the reports that people have seen a tall, thin man with dark hair and long fingernails sitting on top of the grave stone while dressed in a dark coat. Even weirder is that the former Lafayette chief of police allegedly told people he found a doll with a pin stuck through its heart on top of the grave.
Perhaps it’s all nonsense and Mr. Glava traveled there from Transylvania for work, only to meet his demise. It wasn’t uncommon for out-of-towners to land in Lafayette back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the town was a bustling hotspot for miners, and men from across the globe traveled to there to snag a mining gig.
Or perhaps the local legends are true, and he’s really a vampire who has a rose bush growing out of his corpse. Who knows. What we do know is that the grave of Mr. Fodor is a pretty big attraction on Halloween, and those creepy ass sightings don’t help clear up any rumors.
Is this really a vampire grave? We don’t know, but you should still take a trip to Lafayette to check it out. We’re sure Mr. Glava would appreciate the visit. Just don’t touch the headstone, or that visit might become eternal. That one’s on you, boo.
Angelica Leicht
