Ghost Adventures: One Episode Was So Horrifying, It Destroyed A Star's Marriage
The team behind paranormal investigation reality series "Ghost Adventures" has managed to spin purportedly real attempts at finding and identifying ghosts into more than 260 episodes across 24 seasons and counting. Of course, most viewers are going to view "Ghost Adventures" with some degree of skepticism, whether that's a belief that the entire show is fake, or even just that certain moments are embellished for the sake of maintaining such a lengthy TV show. That said, the production of a feature-length Halloween special that aired on October 29, 2016 titled "Route 666" had undeniable real-life consequences for one of its stars when an incident caught on camera led to the dissolution of a marriage.
In the episode in question, which is one of the 30 best "Ghost Hunters" episodes, the team visits three haunted sites across Texas. Their trip concludes with the investigation of a notorious paranormal site known as Old Alton Bridge, nicknamed Goatman's Bridge. The so-called Goatman is allegedly the spirit of a Black farmer named Oscar Washburn who raised goats nearby. One day a group of Klan members are said to have attempted to murder him on that bridge only for his body to disappear, sparking rumors that his spirit now haunts the location.
Ultimately — whether incited by paranormal phenomena, severe stress, or something else entirely — the "Ghost Hunters" investigation into Goatman's Bridge culminated in the end of host Jay Wasley's marriage to on-set photographer Ashley Richardson.
Goatman's Bridge deeply affected Ashley Richardson
Jay Wasley publicly details the dissolution of his marriage to Ashley Richardson in Episode 3 of retrospective spinoff show "Ghost Adventures: Screaming Room," which premiered on January 16, 2020.
In the "Route 666" special, Richardson appears deeply affected by Goatman's Bridge, acting in a manner that suggests she's possessed and even sustaining what appear to be mysterious injuries. Wasley claims in this "Screaming Room" episode that the experience genuinely changed Richardson. Notably, she stopped working for "Ghost Adventures" after filming the episode, and the Goatman's Bridge incident remained a sore spot in their marriage for years after the fact. Finally, Wasley reveals, the hold Goatman's Bridge maintained on the two of them was too much, culminating in their divorce.
Whether genuinely paranormal or not, the Goatman's Bridge investigation appears to have been plenty harrowing for Richardson, given the altogether real violence she experienced. It's perhaps unsurprising, then, that getting injured on the job created a wedge between her and a man she presumably met while working on the very show that put her through this ordeal.