In October 1994, movie students Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams and Joshua Leonard set out to make a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville, Maryland, which the town was used to be called Blair. They interview people living in the local area about the legend of the Blair Witch. The local people tell them of Rustin Parr, a hermit who kidnapped seven children in the 1940s and brought them to his house in the woods, where he tortured and killed them. Parr brought the children into his home's basement in pairs, forcing the first child to face the corner and listen to their companion's screams as he murdered the second child. Parr would then murder the first child. Eventually turning himself in to the police, Parr later pleaded insanity, saying that the spirit of Elly Kedward, a witch hanged in the 18th century, had been terrorizing him for some time and promised to leave him alone if he murdered the kids. The three students also interviews Mary Brown, a local eccentric who tells them that she had encountered the Blair Witch as a child.