Author’s note: This is the third of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
A black shadow walked along the drive outside Lari Bollinger’s house. During full daylight, Lari has seen the thing through the windows of his home.
“A black shadow outside my home appears to be walking from the driveway across the window to the door,” he said. “This is a repeating thing seen in the daytime, by my wife, my seven-year-old granddaughter, my six-year-old grandson and myself.”
Since this scene repeats itself often, Bollinger believes it is a ghost, and not something more dangerous, like the “black mass” family members have reported seeing in their home.
“I have seen (a black mass) only twice and was terrified by it,” he said. “It rose up instantly from the floor to its full height and seemed to be a dark black and cloaked figure that emanated evil and dread.”
Bollinger’s granddaughter told him the night after he saw the first entity in his new house that the house was haunted.
“I dismissed her and her claim quite like my mother had me, not wanting her to see these things,” he said. “She is a determined little girl and told me about what she had seen. She described a black mass that rose up from the floor then disappeared, just as I had seen the night before. She saw the reaction on my face and looked at me and simply said to me, ‘you see Papa, I told you this house is haunted,’ and walked away.”
But ghosts and shadow people, he thinks, are different.
“The last time I have seen a shadow person I awoke like any other day, getting the grandkids up for school,” he said. “We all sleep in same room since we have seen the black mass.”
Bollinger was playing “tickle monster” with his grandson when he felt something was watching them.
“The hallway door was open and my wife was giving my granddaughter a bath in the hall bathroom,” he said. “When I looked up I clearly saw a male shadow that was standing still and watching Nathan Junior and me playing together. I was able to see him for a moment before he walked into the living room.”
The entity was six-feet tall, male and looked almost human.
“It was a complete human form from head to toe,” Bollinger said. “With fully formed legs and feet as well as arms and hands, torso neck and head.”
After seeing these things for decades, Bollinger thinks he knows what they are: shadow people are earthbound spirits, and the black masses are demonic. And he thinks an experience as a youth has shown him a way to protect his family.
“I was 15 and a troubled youth who went to a local counseling center in Manteca, Calif.,” he said. “I went there one day to see if anyone was there, as I was distraught and found the door was open. I spoke to a young woman who told me she had been waiting for me. We talked for about a half hour of my current troubles and woes. When I asked her who she was. She told me she was a guide sent to help me. I felt much better after talking to her.”
Bollinger later went to the senior counselor to comment the woman, and was surprised at what he found.
“The senior counselor told me no one by that description worked there, volunteered there and that the office was closed and locked,” he said. “He was very distraught thinking someone had broken into the office.”
Bollinger and his family stay together now, especially when the light fades and night sweeps over their home.
“I realize now that we are … spiritually oppressed, and possibly demonically oppressed,” he said. “This also creates a full house for us and we have decided to sleep in the same room together to help us to stay strong and not be singled out by these beings. I believe I was warned of this be my visitor at a very young age to help me to defend my family and myself. I have spoke to a person when I was a teenager who told me she was my guide. She was very helpful to me.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
A Haunted Man -- Part 2
Author’s note: This is the second of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
In the 1960s, Lari Bollinger’s father brought a Ouija board home to him. It wasn’t long after that the young Bollinger discovered the board was dangerous.
Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are sold as toys but are often used as tools for people to make contact with the world of the dead. And the dead don’t always play nicely with the living.
“Things escalated after that very quickly,” said Bollinger, who often saw shadow people flittering through his house. “Murmuring voices from the other room would wake me in the mornings.”
Things often happened in the morning. One morning, Bollinger woke to find someone in his bedroom – watching him.
“I was visited one morning by my brother who was as I looked up, standing at the foot of my bed,” Bollinger said. “He said he wanted to visit with me.”
His brother David stood before him, wearing black jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. The things David said were strange.
“He started to tell me things that would come to pass in my lifetime, as I got older,” Bollinger said. “He told me I would have a son and he would die before me. He told me I would have a broken back and be crippled later in life. There was more, and while I did not feel threatened, the whole thing was so surreal.”
Then he realized that this entity standing before him wasn’t David.
“This was in no way my brother, and I told him so,” Bollinger said. “He then looked somewhat startled and stated, ‘I have to go now,’ and he swept under the foot of my bed as if his feet were pulled out from underneath him.”
Bollinger remained in his bed, shaking in fear.
“I sat huddled and motionless for about 10 minutes before I gathered enough courage to go and confront my brother who was sleeping in his room down the hall and tell him how that scared me,” Bollinger said. “He was asleep when I went into his room and truly did not know what I was talking about.”
With shaking legs, Bollinger walked into the kitchen to find his parents.
“When I reached the kitchen, I saw the previous year’s school picture of my brother David, in which he was dressed in the same black jeans and black checked shirt I had just seen him in,” Bollinger said. “I told my mother this and demanded my brother be punished for scaring me, and she told me that me did not have that shirt anymore and could not have been wearing it that morning.”
Later in life, Bollinger underwent regression hypnosis to remember exactly what happened that morning.
“But I was too scared I would hear when I was to die and did not want to know how long I was going to live,” he said. “I deeply regret that now. I may have been able to save my son.”
Next week: My grandchildren are seeing these things.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
In the 1960s, Lari Bollinger’s father brought a Ouija board home to him. It wasn’t long after that the young Bollinger discovered the board was dangerous.
Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are sold as toys but are often used as tools for people to make contact with the world of the dead. And the dead don’t always play nicely with the living.
“Things escalated after that very quickly,” said Bollinger, who often saw shadow people flittering through his house. “Murmuring voices from the other room would wake me in the mornings.”
Things often happened in the morning. One morning, Bollinger woke to find someone in his bedroom – watching him.
“I was visited one morning by my brother who was as I looked up, standing at the foot of my bed,” Bollinger said. “He said he wanted to visit with me.”
His brother David stood before him, wearing black jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. The things David said were strange.
“He started to tell me things that would come to pass in my lifetime, as I got older,” Bollinger said. “He told me I would have a son and he would die before me. He told me I would have a broken back and be crippled later in life. There was more, and while I did not feel threatened, the whole thing was so surreal.”
Then he realized that this entity standing before him wasn’t David.
“This was in no way my brother, and I told him so,” Bollinger said. “He then looked somewhat startled and stated, ‘I have to go now,’ and he swept under the foot of my bed as if his feet were pulled out from underneath him.”
Bollinger remained in his bed, shaking in fear.
“I sat huddled and motionless for about 10 minutes before I gathered enough courage to go and confront my brother who was sleeping in his room down the hall and tell him how that scared me,” Bollinger said. “He was asleep when I went into his room and truly did not know what I was talking about.”
With shaking legs, Bollinger walked into the kitchen to find his parents.
“When I reached the kitchen, I saw the previous year’s school picture of my brother David, in which he was dressed in the same black jeans and black checked shirt I had just seen him in,” Bollinger said. “I told my mother this and demanded my brother be punished for scaring me, and she told me that me did not have that shirt anymore and could not have been wearing it that morning.”
Later in life, Bollinger underwent regression hypnosis to remember exactly what happened that morning.
“But I was too scared I would hear when I was to die and did not want to know how long I was going to live,” he said. “I deeply regret that now. I may have been able to save my son.”
Next week: My grandchildren are seeing these things.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Haunted Man -- Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
The terror started with black, moving shapes in Lari Bollinger’s house 40 years ago – his encounters with the paranormal only got worse.
“When I was young, it was more of a peripheral vision type of thing,” Bollinger said. “I would glimpse a darting dark mass out of the corner of my eye. This happened most in the house where my haunting started.”
Bollinger’s family lived in Fremont, Calif., in the early- to mid -1960s, and although he could see these black blobs, he soon found others around him couldn’t.
“I had always been a little different with what I was able to see, but I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “When I compared these things with my brother David, he would shrug it off or tell me I was loony, so I began to keep these happenings to myself.”
Shadows, some in the form of humans, started appearing more and more in Bollinger’s direct line of sight. And he began to see what they could do.
“They would be moving quite quickly from one side of the room to another,” he said. “Walls were not obstacles to these beings and they would dart through one wall across the room and out the other wall with a considerable rate of speed.”
As Bollinger saw more of these things move through his house, he talked about them again.
“I would tell my mother about these things I saw and she would dismiss them to me,” he said. “However, the look on her face did indeed tell me there was something more to this.”
Lari’s brother and mother telling him he wasn’t seeing thee things only caused him to work harder to see the entities, but then he realized they could see him, too.
“I started to try to see these things … not hunting them or anything like that, just living in a heightened awareness,” he said. “I found I could feel when they were there. It is like knowing you are not alone.”
When Bollinger started to focus on the entities, he would see them standing in the room, looking at him.
“I believe at this point that I had been noticed while noticing them,” he said. “I believe I became ‘in tune’ with the paranormal at this time. I firmly believe that a person can choose to be receptive to it or simply turn it off as they wish.”
After a while, Bollinger decided to “turn it off” and no longer saw the entities. Then tragedy struck his family and things changed.
“Only since my son has passed have I chosen to become ‘aware’ again,” he said. “We all have this ability and only some embrace it.”
But Bollinger’s story only began when he realized the entities could see him, too. It’s never ended.
“After I had to begun to be noticed by these shadow people,” he said, “I became a haunted person.”
Next week: That’s not my brother.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The terror started with black, moving shapes in Lari Bollinger’s house 40 years ago – his encounters with the paranormal only got worse.
“When I was young, it was more of a peripheral vision type of thing,” Bollinger said. “I would glimpse a darting dark mass out of the corner of my eye. This happened most in the house where my haunting started.”
Bollinger’s family lived in Fremont, Calif., in the early- to mid -1960s, and although he could see these black blobs, he soon found others around him couldn’t.
“I had always been a little different with what I was able to see, but I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “When I compared these things with my brother David, he would shrug it off or tell me I was loony, so I began to keep these happenings to myself.”
Shadows, some in the form of humans, started appearing more and more in Bollinger’s direct line of sight. And he began to see what they could do.
“They would be moving quite quickly from one side of the room to another,” he said. “Walls were not obstacles to these beings and they would dart through one wall across the room and out the other wall with a considerable rate of speed.”
As Bollinger saw more of these things move through his house, he talked about them again.
“I would tell my mother about these things I saw and she would dismiss them to me,” he said. “However, the look on her face did indeed tell me there was something more to this.”
Lari’s brother and mother telling him he wasn’t seeing thee things only caused him to work harder to see the entities, but then he realized they could see him, too.
“I started to try to see these things … not hunting them or anything like that, just living in a heightened awareness,” he said. “I found I could feel when they were there. It is like knowing you are not alone.”
When Bollinger started to focus on the entities, he would see them standing in the room, looking at him.
“I believe at this point that I had been noticed while noticing them,” he said. “I believe I became ‘in tune’ with the paranormal at this time. I firmly believe that a person can choose to be receptive to it or simply turn it off as they wish.”
After a while, Bollinger decided to “turn it off” and no longer saw the entities. Then tragedy struck his family and things changed.
“Only since my son has passed have I chosen to become ‘aware’ again,” he said. “We all have this ability and only some embrace it.”
But Bollinger’s story only began when he realized the entities could see him, too. It’s never ended.
“After I had to begun to be noticed by these shadow people,” he said, “I became a haunted person.”
Next week: That’s not my brother.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Red Eyes in the Darkness
Two red lights stare at Chris Black's motion-controlled camera from an impossible vantage point. Click on the picture to get a closer look. The lights are in the upper center part of the photograph.
Dry brown leaves cover the floor of deer hunter Chris Black’s wooded property near Park Hills in Southeast Missouri. Black keeps a small camper there during deer and turkey seasons and, while he sleeps in the camper to get an early start, motion-controlled digital cameras strapped to trees take photographs of, hopefully, deer.
He captured lights on those cameras in 2006, lights that shouldn’t have been on his property miles away from roads. He captured more this year.
Black thinks something highly strange is happening on his property.
“The same property, right before deer season, and more strange lights,” he said. “This time with three deer in the photo and these lights are fire red.”
A daytime photograph (above) shows two deer, one grazing and one apparently startled, maybe by the noise from the camera. Behind the deer is a plain of dead leaves and young trees. All normal.
Then there’s the night picture.
Three deer, one in the foreground, stand looking at the camera, their eyes shining with the flash reflection. But about 10 feet off the ground are two red lights set apart like eyes.
“They aren’t that hard to see,” Black said. “Right above the deers’ heads, they look like two red eyeballs without a face.”
Taillights? No. The trees in the night picture match the trees in the day picture. There’s no room for taillights in these images and the lights are much higher than any truck. But Black sees more than just the lights.
“There are a number of things in this photo which disturb me,” he said. “The first thing is the odd-looking expressions on the deer themselves. They look as if someone just screamed, ‘hey.’”
All three deer in this picture are looking directly at the camera.
“And they all looked at the camera at once,” he said. “None of the other photos taken during this three-day time frame show all the deer in the background looking in the direction of the camera at the same time.”
Black’s camera took 65 pictures, many of which have multiple deer in a frame.
“Usually, there will be one or two with their heads down feeding, and maybe one looking in the general direction of the camera, but never directly into it,” he said. “To me it looks like they are all focused on one thing and sort of mesmerized by it.”
After Black downloaded the photographs onto his computer, he took a closer look at the red lights – that one frame the only one with the red lights – and didn’t like what he found.
“When you zoom in on the red light on the left; now this is going to sound off the chart, but I swear when I zoomed in on it, I can see a face in the light,” he said. “It’s not at all hard to see. Plain as day there is a little face inside the glow. To me it resembles (a) little devil face.”
Black and his father stayed in the camper most of the first week of deer season, Black’s brother came the fourth day. That night Black’s brother slept in a bed against the far edge of the camper next to the canvas wall. The next morning, something was bothering Black’s brother.
During the night, something happened. While Black’s brother slept with his arms above his head against the canvas, he something touched his arm.
“He said he didn’t move because he thought it might be a deer’s nose pushing against the canvas of the camper,” Black said. “He said he wasn’t asleep but he felt something solid touching or pushing against the canvas and against his arm. He said it moved from one side of his arm, towards his head, then back along his arm.”
The brother froze, not wanting to startle whatever was outside.
“Then he fell back to sleep,” Black said. “It was only then that I told him about capturing the lights on my trail camera. I just think it’s awful strange that he would experience something weird like that in the same weekend that I captured more weird (stuff) on my camera.”
But Black wouldn’t have considered a paranormal explanation for the two red eyes staring at his deer camera if it wasn’t for the lights he captured two years ago.
“It seems like there are just too many things to pass off as imagination, or coincidence,” he said. “I’m convinced that this property is haunted. In some way, by something, but I don’t know what. But when it gets caught on camera that’s hard evidence that I’m not seeing things.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A Haunted College –- Part 2
Author’s note: In From the Shadows 54 (October 2007), 88 (July 2008) and 106 (last week), I brought you three of the better-known haunted buildings at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. Here I explore another Northwest ghost story that isn’t as well known … but just as spooky.
Deep concrete and brick stairwells lead into the basement of Wells Hall. This thick structure, built as a library in 1939, is almost soundless as you walk its halls, tricking students and faculty in the building after hours into thinking they are there alone – they never are.
Mold built up over 70 years drifts through the air of this structure that houses the departments of Mass Communication, Speech Communication and Foreign Language, and – in the basement home of Student Publications – the ghost of Amos Wong.
Wong seems to be somehow attached to the old library.
Dominic Genetti, a reporter for the student newspaper The Northwest Missourian, sat in the newsroom when he saw Amos in 2008.
“I turned and looked out the corner of my eye and I could have sworn I saw somebody in a button-down blue shirt,” he said. “Not a royal blue, just blue. And I couldn’t really get the body type out of it, but it was definitely a person I saw walk by in jeans.”
When Genetti looked, expecting someone to turn the corner toward him, no one did.
“I walked into the hallway and there’s no one in the basement,” he said. “There were times in the Convergence Lab that the light above me will flicker. There will be a reflection in the Mac computer that looked like someone walked behind me. And I looked behind me and no one was there.”
The Convergence Lab is special; before digital cameras, it was the darkroom.
Amos Wong, a photographer for the school yearbook, The Tower, died in a 1991 car accident as he traveled to California to visit his parents. Assistant Professor Laura Widmer, student publication adviser, said Wong joined the yearbook staff because of his passion for photography.
“He was just on staff for a year,” Widmer said. “He was an international student that enjoyed photography and joined the yearbook staff. He was a go-lucky kind of guy. Wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just a little mischievousness in his eye.”
But soon after his death, student publication staffers began to notice something strange in the basement.
A student who had worked on staff with Wong told Widmer, “‘You know, Amos is back in the darkroom,’” Widmer said. “I’m not sure he ever saw Amos, but there are things like music going on and lights going on. Just strange occurrences. Photographers would say there was someone in the darkroom with them. It just felt like someone.”
Scott Jenson, Northwest graduate and newspaper adviser for Platteview High School, in Springfield, Neb., worked with Wong on the yearbook staff and said Wong’s personality might have kept him around.
“Once he broke out of his shell he was one of the guys,” Jenson said. “We spent many evenings in the darkroom so there was always jokes and pranks going on. I will agree with Laura that he was a great kid and mischievous.”
But current students don’t see Wong that way. Tower editor-in-chief Katie Pierce gets “creeped out” in the Wells Hall basement, and Genetti is uncomfortable alone in the bowels of the building.
“There are times where you just get that feeling you don’t want to go to the other end of the basement,” Genetti said. “There are times I just don’t want to go down there.”
At certain times of day, sunlight shines though the door and brightens Amos’s photo on an award in his honor, a reminder to all that Amos is still around.
“I don’t want to walk through the dark,” Genetti said. “I just get that feeling. I just don’t want to do it when you know the history of that stuff down there.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Deep concrete and brick stairwells lead into the basement of Wells Hall. This thick structure, built as a library in 1939, is almost soundless as you walk its halls, tricking students and faculty in the building after hours into thinking they are there alone – they never are.
Mold built up over 70 years drifts through the air of this structure that houses the departments of Mass Communication, Speech Communication and Foreign Language, and – in the basement home of Student Publications – the ghost of Amos Wong.
Wong seems to be somehow attached to the old library.
Dominic Genetti, a reporter for the student newspaper The Northwest Missourian, sat in the newsroom when he saw Amos in 2008.
“I turned and looked out the corner of my eye and I could have sworn I saw somebody in a button-down blue shirt,” he said. “Not a royal blue, just blue. And I couldn’t really get the body type out of it, but it was definitely a person I saw walk by in jeans.”
When Genetti looked, expecting someone to turn the corner toward him, no one did.
“I walked into the hallway and there’s no one in the basement,” he said. “There were times in the Convergence Lab that the light above me will flicker. There will be a reflection in the Mac computer that looked like someone walked behind me. And I looked behind me and no one was there.”
The Convergence Lab is special; before digital cameras, it was the darkroom.
Amos Wong, a photographer for the school yearbook, The Tower, died in a 1991 car accident as he traveled to California to visit his parents. Assistant Professor Laura Widmer, student publication adviser, said Wong joined the yearbook staff because of his passion for photography.
“He was just on staff for a year,” Widmer said. “He was an international student that enjoyed photography and joined the yearbook staff. He was a go-lucky kind of guy. Wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just a little mischievousness in his eye.”
But soon after his death, student publication staffers began to notice something strange in the basement.
A student who had worked on staff with Wong told Widmer, “‘You know, Amos is back in the darkroom,’” Widmer said. “I’m not sure he ever saw Amos, but there are things like music going on and lights going on. Just strange occurrences. Photographers would say there was someone in the darkroom with them. It just felt like someone.”
Scott Jenson, Northwest graduate and newspaper adviser for Platteview High School, in Springfield, Neb., worked with Wong on the yearbook staff and said Wong’s personality might have kept him around.
“Once he broke out of his shell he was one of the guys,” Jenson said. “We spent many evenings in the darkroom so there was always jokes and pranks going on. I will agree with Laura that he was a great kid and mischievous.”
But current students don’t see Wong that way. Tower editor-in-chief Katie Pierce gets “creeped out” in the Wells Hall basement, and Genetti is uncomfortable alone in the bowels of the building.
“There are times where you just get that feeling you don’t want to go to the other end of the basement,” Genetti said. “There are times I just don’t want to go down there.”
At certain times of day, sunlight shines though the door and brightens Amos’s photo on an award in his honor, a reminder to all that Amos is still around.
“I don’t want to walk through the dark,” Genetti said. “I just get that feeling. I just don’t want to do it when you know the history of that stuff down there.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Haunted College –- Part 1
Author’s note: In From the Shadows 54 (October 2007) and 88 (July 2008), I brought you two of the better-known haunted buildings at Northwest Missouri State University. In this first of a two-part series, I explore two ghost stories that aren’t as well known … but just as spooky.
The Northwest Missouri State University campus, a usually tranquil garden of well-trimmed grass that stretches under the 1,300 trees of this state arboretum, is home to its share of triumphs – including a pair of Division II football national championships.
But it’s the tragedy that lingers long after the seasons are over, and students have gone home for summer. Like at any school, students have died while attending Northwest, but here some still walk down its majestic halls.
Phillips Hall
The dormitory was quiet the night Resident Assistant Shane Sherwood, a friend Rachel Ost, and a smattering of others were posting homemade decorations on doors welcoming new students to Northwest. Students would arrive in a few days, on Aug. 26, 2007, but as Sherwood and Ost discovered, someone was already there.
Ost pealed Scotch tape off a role and attached another piece of colored paper to a door, the rip on the adhesive loud in the lonely hall. Ost was the only person on the floor, an odd enough feeling when in a building that would soon house hundreds of students, but she soon found she wasn’t really alone.
“Shane and the other RA were on rounds, or something like that,” she said. “There was no one on the floor except for me.”
Nonetheless, something moved and Ost froze as she watched it move past her.
“I was hanging up door decs and there’s this pair of legs,” she said. “This pair of legs runs by. No torso. There’s just feet. I said, ‘what the (heck) was that?’”
The translucent legs ran down the hallway and disappeared. Although Ost never told Sherwood of the encounter, he would soon meet his new hall mate, too.
The night before hundreds of freshman would pour into Phillips Hall, Sherwood and the other RAs worked to finish posting door decorations. Sherwood was alone on the sixth floor, the only other person authorized to be on the floor was his fellow RA, but he was on the opposite side of the building and out of sight.
That’s when Sherwood saw someone move.
“I just saw something walk behind me,” he said.
He looked around, but there was no one in the hallway. Sherwood started looking into the nearby rooms and found nothing – until he walked toward the open door of Room 626. Something there was different. The windows in the room, like in all rooms in the dormitory, were closed and the air conditioning was still off for the summer, but the air in Room 626 was cold – cold enough to staple a note onto Sherwood’s memory.
“I went into Room 626 and there was somebody sitting in the corner,” he said. “I couldn’t really make out his face.”
Startled, Sherwood backed away from the room, and it’s inhabitant, and went to find Hall Director Aimee Rea.
“I went to see if she knew anything about it,” he said. And she told him the story.
In April 1999, Northwest student and Phillips Hall resident Kevin Bayer, 19, of Sutton, Neb., died from injuries received in a car accident, according to the campus newspaper archives. And, according to the culture passed from RA to RA over the years, Bayer is supposed to haunt the dormitory.
Rea said it’s people who keep the ghost story around – not a ghost. She’s not convinced the story’s true.
“Supposedly, his spirit resides in the halls and spends a lot of time in the (hall director) apartment,” she said. “I have not experienced anything paranormal and believe that my friends made up the stories just to see if I would get spooked.”
But people have encountered strange things in Phillips Hall, like cabinets opening and shutting on their own, pets reacting to something their owners cannot see, and the feeling of being watched. Many people have reported seeing Bayer’s ghost – like Sherwood.
“There’s a picture downstairs in the trophy case of a student who died in a car crash,” Sherwood said. “He was wearing the same clothes as the guy I saw.”
Next week: Wells Hall.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The Northwest Missouri State University campus, a usually tranquil garden of well-trimmed grass that stretches under the 1,300 trees of this state arboretum, is home to its share of triumphs – including a pair of Division II football national championships.
But it’s the tragedy that lingers long after the seasons are over, and students have gone home for summer. Like at any school, students have died while attending Northwest, but here some still walk down its majestic halls.
Phillips Hall
The dormitory was quiet the night Resident Assistant Shane Sherwood, a friend Rachel Ost, and a smattering of others were posting homemade decorations on doors welcoming new students to Northwest. Students would arrive in a few days, on Aug. 26, 2007, but as Sherwood and Ost discovered, someone was already there.
Ost pealed Scotch tape off a role and attached another piece of colored paper to a door, the rip on the adhesive loud in the lonely hall. Ost was the only person on the floor, an odd enough feeling when in a building that would soon house hundreds of students, but she soon found she wasn’t really alone.
“Shane and the other RA were on rounds, or something like that,” she said. “There was no one on the floor except for me.”
Nonetheless, something moved and Ost froze as she watched it move past her.
“I was hanging up door decs and there’s this pair of legs,” she said. “This pair of legs runs by. No torso. There’s just feet. I said, ‘what the (heck) was that?’”
The translucent legs ran down the hallway and disappeared. Although Ost never told Sherwood of the encounter, he would soon meet his new hall mate, too.
The night before hundreds of freshman would pour into Phillips Hall, Sherwood and the other RAs worked to finish posting door decorations. Sherwood was alone on the sixth floor, the only other person authorized to be on the floor was his fellow RA, but he was on the opposite side of the building and out of sight.
That’s when Sherwood saw someone move.
“I just saw something walk behind me,” he said.
He looked around, but there was no one in the hallway. Sherwood started looking into the nearby rooms and found nothing – until he walked toward the open door of Room 626. Something there was different. The windows in the room, like in all rooms in the dormitory, were closed and the air conditioning was still off for the summer, but the air in Room 626 was cold – cold enough to staple a note onto Sherwood’s memory.
“I went into Room 626 and there was somebody sitting in the corner,” he said. “I couldn’t really make out his face.”
Startled, Sherwood backed away from the room, and it’s inhabitant, and went to find Hall Director Aimee Rea.
“I went to see if she knew anything about it,” he said. And she told him the story.
In April 1999, Northwest student and Phillips Hall resident Kevin Bayer, 19, of Sutton, Neb., died from injuries received in a car accident, according to the campus newspaper archives. And, according to the culture passed from RA to RA over the years, Bayer is supposed to haunt the dormitory.
Rea said it’s people who keep the ghost story around – not a ghost. She’s not convinced the story’s true.
“Supposedly, his spirit resides in the halls and spends a lot of time in the (hall director) apartment,” she said. “I have not experienced anything paranormal and believe that my friends made up the stories just to see if I would get spooked.”
But people have encountered strange things in Phillips Hall, like cabinets opening and shutting on their own, pets reacting to something their owners cannot see, and the feeling of being watched. Many people have reported seeing Bayer’s ghost – like Sherwood.
“There’s a picture downstairs in the trophy case of a student who died in a car crash,” Sherwood said. “He was wearing the same clothes as the guy I saw.”
Next week: Wells Hall.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Which Aspect of the Paranormal is the Most Unbelievable?
Each week in this space I explore the world of the paranormal. Ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot and Shadow People; these topics are all mysterious, frightening and usually dismissed by science.
Since these topics are unproven, I recently I asked this question on my blog (from-the-shadows.blogspot.com), “Which aspect of the paranormal is the most unbelievable?” My loyal readers answered the question, and here’s what they said:
The most unbelievable: Nineteen percent; faked Moon landing. There are people, and I know a few, who believe the Apollo missions never went to the Moon – the landings, they say, were faked by the United States government. Regardless of the fact that the U.S. government can’t hide its incompetence on a daily basis, the evidence purported by hoax theorists (humans can’t survive the Van Allen Radiation Belt, the American flag flapping in the breeze, stars missing from photographs, etc.) has all been dismissed by scientists.
However, researcher Keith Mayes, who addresses “theories with problems” on his Web site www.thekeyboard.org.uk, doesn’t think people who believe the hoax will ever be convinced.
“The thing is, (the moon landing) wasn’t a hoax, it actually happened,” Mayes said. “Those that think it was a hoax will continue to ignore all the evidence no matter what is put before them, which makes it all a bit of a waste of time.”
Ten percent; Werewolves. Traditional Hollywood werewolves … unbelievable. An undiscovered canine … eh, maybe.
Eight percent; Time travel. Ignoring the fact that physicists – including Albert Einstein – have said time travel, in some respect, is theoretically possible, readers ranked it as the third most unbelievable paranormal topic.
Seven percent; Vampires and Bigfoot. Although the evidence for vampires is limited to first-person accounts, the amount of evidence for an unidentified ape tramping through the forests of North America (hair samples, eyewitness testimony, footprints and, in one case, a butt print) is enough for a conviction in a court of law.
Six percent; Ghosts. Although every culture on the planet has ghosts as part of its belief system, these spectral visitors ranked fifth on the most unbelievable list.
Four percent; UFOs, Alien abduction, Artifacts on Mars. Sure, the evidence is sketchy. First-person accounts – some acquired through hypnosis – photographs, strange marks in a wheat field. But, much like the evidence for Bigfoot, people have gone to prison for less.
Three percent; Shadow people (two-dimensional human-shaped, blacker-than-night entities that wander your house at night), Chupacabra (the three-feet-tall, red-eyed creature from Puerto Rico that sucks the blood from livestock), Demonology (the study of demons). All these rank as more believable than ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot and, most probably, unbiased news reporting.
Two percent; Remote viewing, Lake monsters, Psychics, the conspiracy of the Knights Templar, Near death experiences.
One percent; Lost civilizations, Astral projection.
Of course, 10 percent of readers agreed, “it’s all crap.” Do you have an opinion about these paranormal topics? I’d love to hear it.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Since these topics are unproven, I recently I asked this question on my blog (from-the-shadows.blogspot.com), “Which aspect of the paranormal is the most unbelievable?” My loyal readers answered the question, and here’s what they said:
The most unbelievable: Nineteen percent; faked Moon landing. There are people, and I know a few, who believe the Apollo missions never went to the Moon – the landings, they say, were faked by the United States government. Regardless of the fact that the U.S. government can’t hide its incompetence on a daily basis, the evidence purported by hoax theorists (humans can’t survive the Van Allen Radiation Belt, the American flag flapping in the breeze, stars missing from photographs, etc.) has all been dismissed by scientists.
However, researcher Keith Mayes, who addresses “theories with problems” on his Web site www.thekeyboard.org.uk, doesn’t think people who believe the hoax will ever be convinced.
“The thing is, (the moon landing) wasn’t a hoax, it actually happened,” Mayes said. “Those that think it was a hoax will continue to ignore all the evidence no matter what is put before them, which makes it all a bit of a waste of time.”
Ten percent; Werewolves. Traditional Hollywood werewolves … unbelievable. An undiscovered canine … eh, maybe.
Eight percent; Time travel. Ignoring the fact that physicists – including Albert Einstein – have said time travel, in some respect, is theoretically possible, readers ranked it as the third most unbelievable paranormal topic.
Seven percent; Vampires and Bigfoot. Although the evidence for vampires is limited to first-person accounts, the amount of evidence for an unidentified ape tramping through the forests of North America (hair samples, eyewitness testimony, footprints and, in one case, a butt print) is enough for a conviction in a court of law.
Six percent; Ghosts. Although every culture on the planet has ghosts as part of its belief system, these spectral visitors ranked fifth on the most unbelievable list.
Four percent; UFOs, Alien abduction, Artifacts on Mars. Sure, the evidence is sketchy. First-person accounts – some acquired through hypnosis – photographs, strange marks in a wheat field. But, much like the evidence for Bigfoot, people have gone to prison for less.
Three percent; Shadow people (two-dimensional human-shaped, blacker-than-night entities that wander your house at night), Chupacabra (the three-feet-tall, red-eyed creature from Puerto Rico that sucks the blood from livestock), Demonology (the study of demons). All these rank as more believable than ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot and, most probably, unbiased news reporting.
Two percent; Remote viewing, Lake monsters, Psychics, the conspiracy of the Knights Templar, Near death experiences.
One percent; Lost civilizations, Astral projection.
Of course, 10 percent of readers agreed, “it’s all crap.” Do you have an opinion about these paranormal topics? I’d love to hear it.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A Haunting in Maine -- Part Four
Author’s note: This is the last of a four-part story on the haunting of Sheryl Rackliff of Rockland, Maine. Rackliff’s troubles began by using a Ouija board at a friend’s apartment and, when she went home, something followed her.
What’s in my home? Sheryl Rackliff wondered during the days and weeks after she investigated her friend Alicia’s haunting. She felt drained, emotionally and physically.
But more so, she felt she was not alone.
“I blessed myself with holy water, sage and strong prayers for protection from this thing,” she said. But her energy was gone, and a creeping sickness had gripped her. “I feel as I no longer have an immune system as I am always getting sick now and I got worse after I started investigating her home.”
As she sat at her 18-year-old daughter Amanda’s computer before bed one night, she heard someone say her name.
“I heard my daughter and her boyfriend and my stepdaughter and her boyfriend call my name quietly,” she said. “I listened to be sure it was them calling my name because I hear my name called in here often. I then heard my daughter’s boyfriend say ‘no one is in the kitchen,’ then they called my name much louder.”
As Rackliff approached the kitchen, she heard the cupboard doors and silverware drawer opening and closing loud and fast. When she arrived, no one was there – but Rackliff felt there was.
“I kept feeling like someone is watching me,” she said.
Soon, as the boyfriends prepared to leave, the noises began again.
“I was standing near my basement door and we all heard the sound of someone playing pool on my pool table,” she said.
“Oh, my gosh,” Rackliff later wrote in her journal about that night. “I hear footsteps coming down or going up stairs right now! Sounds like it is upstairs as I can hear walking. I still hear it, now it's coming back down!”
Exhausted, Rackliff soon went to bed, but her sleep was restless. The sound of pots and pans banging rang from downstairs. Amanda heard it, too.
“It seems to be moving all around this house,” Rackliff later wrote. “What type of spirit or evil am I dealing with? This has done it tonight as to putting fear into my daughter big time. Everything that has happened here this night has her very scared.”
Night after night the cupboard doors and kitchen drawers slammed open and shut, and something pushed Rackliff’s boyfriend’s daughter to the floor. Lights started going on and off, latched doors opened and the mouse on Amanda’s computer moved on its own.
Then Rackliff’s world exploded.
Amanda’s friends stayed the night to get up early for a trip when Amanda began pounding on Rackliff’s bedroom door. One of her friends was acting strangely.
“Jen had woken up and looked at Jofi and started talking about her grandmother saying (she) hated her, then Jen's eyes closed,” Rackliff said. “They assumed that Jen was sleep talking until then she opened her eyes again and started to growl and hiss.”
Jen kept growling and hissing and began pulling her hair. By the time Rackliff reached the room, the others were holding Jen down.
“I ran to her side knowing that she was being possessed,” Rackliff said. “I started screaming her name.”
When Jen pulled her eyes open, Rackliff could only see the whites.
“Her eyes were so evil looking,” she said. “They were … very bloodshot, they were very glassy and her pupils were very small. I started screaming for whatever was doing this to her to get the hell out of her body.”
Then Jen fell forward. They laid her down and Rackliff demanded to know what happened.
“I said ‘Jennifer,’ do you know where you are and tell me who is with us in the room,” Rackliff said. “She said in her own very weak, frail voice ‘Sheryl,’ then her head turned up towards Jofi. She stared at him and her eyes were creepy looking again then her fists tightened and she started to growl and hiss again and then in her own voice but more so like she was a man she said, ‘I am going to (expletive) kill her.’”
Jen began fighting but couldn’t break the hold. Rackliff demanded whatever had Jen to release her and Jen collapsed. After the girl awoke, the teens left Rackliff’s house and slept somewhere else.
“I am scared and scared very bad,” Rackliff said. “What do I do? Whatever I am dealing with – evil, possibly demonic – I honestly feel it wants me dead.”
Rackliff’s house is still active. She’s contacted people familiar with hauntings and hopes they can rid her home of whatever is terrorizing her family.
“Nothing evil will shake my faith in God,” she said. “Please pray I get my strength back and have the power to quiet it down until the team comes.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
What’s in my home? Sheryl Rackliff wondered during the days and weeks after she investigated her friend Alicia’s haunting. She felt drained, emotionally and physically.
But more so, she felt she was not alone.
“I blessed myself with holy water, sage and strong prayers for protection from this thing,” she said. But her energy was gone, and a creeping sickness had gripped her. “I feel as I no longer have an immune system as I am always getting sick now and I got worse after I started investigating her home.”
As she sat at her 18-year-old daughter Amanda’s computer before bed one night, she heard someone say her name.
“I heard my daughter and her boyfriend and my stepdaughter and her boyfriend call my name quietly,” she said. “I listened to be sure it was them calling my name because I hear my name called in here often. I then heard my daughter’s boyfriend say ‘no one is in the kitchen,’ then they called my name much louder.”
As Rackliff approached the kitchen, she heard the cupboard doors and silverware drawer opening and closing loud and fast. When she arrived, no one was there – but Rackliff felt there was.
“I kept feeling like someone is watching me,” she said.
Soon, as the boyfriends prepared to leave, the noises began again.
“I was standing near my basement door and we all heard the sound of someone playing pool on my pool table,” she said.
“Oh, my gosh,” Rackliff later wrote in her journal about that night. “I hear footsteps coming down or going up stairs right now! Sounds like it is upstairs as I can hear walking. I still hear it, now it's coming back down!”
Exhausted, Rackliff soon went to bed, but her sleep was restless. The sound of pots and pans banging rang from downstairs. Amanda heard it, too.
“It seems to be moving all around this house,” Rackliff later wrote. “What type of spirit or evil am I dealing with? This has done it tonight as to putting fear into my daughter big time. Everything that has happened here this night has her very scared.”
Night after night the cupboard doors and kitchen drawers slammed open and shut, and something pushed Rackliff’s boyfriend’s daughter to the floor. Lights started going on and off, latched doors opened and the mouse on Amanda’s computer moved on its own.
Then Rackliff’s world exploded.
Amanda’s friends stayed the night to get up early for a trip when Amanda began pounding on Rackliff’s bedroom door. One of her friends was acting strangely.
“Jen had woken up and looked at Jofi and started talking about her grandmother saying (she) hated her, then Jen's eyes closed,” Rackliff said. “They assumed that Jen was sleep talking until then she opened her eyes again and started to growl and hiss.”
Jen kept growling and hissing and began pulling her hair. By the time Rackliff reached the room, the others were holding Jen down.
“I ran to her side knowing that she was being possessed,” Rackliff said. “I started screaming her name.”
When Jen pulled her eyes open, Rackliff could only see the whites.
“Her eyes were so evil looking,” she said. “They were … very bloodshot, they were very glassy and her pupils were very small. I started screaming for whatever was doing this to her to get the hell out of her body.”
Then Jen fell forward. They laid her down and Rackliff demanded to know what happened.
“I said ‘Jennifer,’ do you know where you are and tell me who is with us in the room,” Rackliff said. “She said in her own very weak, frail voice ‘Sheryl,’ then her head turned up towards Jofi. She stared at him and her eyes were creepy looking again then her fists tightened and she started to growl and hiss again and then in her own voice but more so like she was a man she said, ‘I am going to (expletive) kill her.’”
Jen began fighting but couldn’t break the hold. Rackliff demanded whatever had Jen to release her and Jen collapsed. After the girl awoke, the teens left Rackliff’s house and slept somewhere else.
“I am scared and scared very bad,” Rackliff said. “What do I do? Whatever I am dealing with – evil, possibly demonic – I honestly feel it wants me dead.”
Rackliff’s house is still active. She’s contacted people familiar with hauntings and hopes they can rid her home of whatever is terrorizing her family.
“Nothing evil will shake my faith in God,” she said. “Please pray I get my strength back and have the power to quiet it down until the team comes.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Monday, October 20, 2008
A Haunting in Maine -- Part Three
Author’s note: This is the third of a four-part story on the haunting of Sheryl Rackliff of Rockland, Maine. In part two, after a group of paranormal investigators stir up something in her friend Alicia’s apartment, Sheryl invites Alicia and to her home. That’s when the haunting gets more personal.
After a quiet night, Alicia and her children went back to their apartment, taking with them Alicia’s three-year-old granddaughter Dashia.
Dashia soon finds they’re not alone.
“Dashia screamed to Alicia, ‘Grammie, a man was whispering in my ear and breathing loud and made my ear hot,’ she said. “‘I screamed at him and told him to stop breathing in my ear.’”
The little girl’s claim was only the first incident of the day. Sheryl later stopped by Alicia’s apartment with her boyfriend and Meredith and found the activity had just started.
“We arrived just after Brie (Alicia’s daughter) had walked out of the kitchen and a pen came flying across the kitchen at her,” Sheryl said. “Then … we smelled burning coming from the kitchen.”
They rushed in to find the stove’s small front burner glowing red although that burner had never worked while Alicia had lived there. Alicia turned it off then noticed the refrigerator door open. Although she’d never had trouble with the door, it now wouldn’t close.
“She said, ‘what on earth? It always closes on its own,’” Sheryl said. “She repeatedly (tried to) show us.”
But the door wouldn’t close. Sheryl, her boyfriend and Meredith soon went home.
Days later, they lost contact with the paranormal team that investigated Alicia’s apartment.
“We could not find them any longer,” Sheryl said. “So I searched … only to finally find them working (in) Pennsylvania. I was extremely upset as it was such a bad feeling of abandonment.”
After researching the tools paranormal investigators use, Sheryl decided to handle her friend’s apartment herself.
“I had purchased everything any paranormal investigator would need and started conducting my own investigation,” she said. “This left me knowing why the (original team) never returned back. Evil. Pure evil. Possibly demonic.”
Alicia’s building, Sheryl found, had a sinister past.
A family of seven had once lived in the house. Soon after they moved in, something unseen began throwing the five children into the walls and the father supposedly became possessed, locking his children in the house and setting it on fire, killing four of the children.
Shortly after Alicia had moved into the building, Sheryl had a fascination with a pile of rocks in the basement and she soon found why.
“I have had this very strong fascination with some boulders and rocks piled up in the basement and just above them were charred beams from a fire,” she said. “There was a big mystery that lies below those boulders.”
During her investigation, she started moving the rocks – and found that something in the house didn’t like it.
“My EVP recorder came up with lots to hear such as it telling me to, ‘Beware,’ repeating my name over and over, lots of growling and hissing, swearing, you name it. All in a male’s voice,” Sheryl said. “I can say I was shocked but seemed to love it and grew more obsessed.”
Then, on another visit, she found something she wishes she hadn’t.
“Once I started investigating, activity started happening at my new home,” Sheryl said. “Each time I investigated the more drained of energy I became and the more irritable I became, which is not my nature.”
As she moved rocks from the pile, with Meredith and Alicia close behind, the basement doors slammed down by themselves.
Alicia tried to open the doors with no luck. She requested help and the doors opened.
“I am still tossing away and notice some sort of white material, so I moved a big rock and flipped it over, then Meredith screams, startling me a bit,” Sheryl said. “‘A hand. Sheryl, look at the bottom of the rock. A handprint.’”
A bloody handprint glared out from the stone Sheryl had moved. The white she had seen was a young girl’s skirt.
“I grabbed my stuff, leaving a few things behind to pick up the following day,” Sheryl said. “We just wanted out.”
When Sheryl arrived home, she discovered the skirt was in her equipment bag.
“I had asked everyone if they had put it in the bag and they said no, they did not want it removed from the basement,” Sheryl said. “Things started up very bad at my home. I put everything away not wanting to look at them any longer.”
The days went by and she grew increasingly weak.
Next: It’s in her home
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
After a quiet night, Alicia and her children went back to their apartment, taking with them Alicia’s three-year-old granddaughter Dashia.
Dashia soon finds they’re not alone.
“Dashia screamed to Alicia, ‘Grammie, a man was whispering in my ear and breathing loud and made my ear hot,’ she said. “‘I screamed at him and told him to stop breathing in my ear.’”
The little girl’s claim was only the first incident of the day. Sheryl later stopped by Alicia’s apartment with her boyfriend and Meredith and found the activity had just started.
“We arrived just after Brie (Alicia’s daughter) had walked out of the kitchen and a pen came flying across the kitchen at her,” Sheryl said. “Then … we smelled burning coming from the kitchen.”
They rushed in to find the stove’s small front burner glowing red although that burner had never worked while Alicia had lived there. Alicia turned it off then noticed the refrigerator door open. Although she’d never had trouble with the door, it now wouldn’t close.
“She said, ‘what on earth? It always closes on its own,’” Sheryl said. “She repeatedly (tried to) show us.”
But the door wouldn’t close. Sheryl, her boyfriend and Meredith soon went home.
Days later, they lost contact with the paranormal team that investigated Alicia’s apartment.
“We could not find them any longer,” Sheryl said. “So I searched … only to finally find them working (in) Pennsylvania. I was extremely upset as it was such a bad feeling of abandonment.”
After researching the tools paranormal investigators use, Sheryl decided to handle her friend’s apartment herself.
“I had purchased everything any paranormal investigator would need and started conducting my own investigation,” she said. “This left me knowing why the (original team) never returned back. Evil. Pure evil. Possibly demonic.”
Alicia’s building, Sheryl found, had a sinister past.
A family of seven had once lived in the house. Soon after they moved in, something unseen began throwing the five children into the walls and the father supposedly became possessed, locking his children in the house and setting it on fire, killing four of the children.
Shortly after Alicia had moved into the building, Sheryl had a fascination with a pile of rocks in the basement and she soon found why.
“I have had this very strong fascination with some boulders and rocks piled up in the basement and just above them were charred beams from a fire,” she said. “There was a big mystery that lies below those boulders.”
During her investigation, she started moving the rocks – and found that something in the house didn’t like it.
“My EVP recorder came up with lots to hear such as it telling me to, ‘Beware,’ repeating my name over and over, lots of growling and hissing, swearing, you name it. All in a male’s voice,” Sheryl said. “I can say I was shocked but seemed to love it and grew more obsessed.”
Then, on another visit, she found something she wishes she hadn’t.
“Once I started investigating, activity started happening at my new home,” Sheryl said. “Each time I investigated the more drained of energy I became and the more irritable I became, which is not my nature.”
As she moved rocks from the pile, with Meredith and Alicia close behind, the basement doors slammed down by themselves.
Alicia tried to open the doors with no luck. She requested help and the doors opened.
“I am still tossing away and notice some sort of white material, so I moved a big rock and flipped it over, then Meredith screams, startling me a bit,” Sheryl said. “‘A hand. Sheryl, look at the bottom of the rock. A handprint.’”
A bloody handprint glared out from the stone Sheryl had moved. The white she had seen was a young girl’s skirt.
“I grabbed my stuff, leaving a few things behind to pick up the following day,” Sheryl said. “We just wanted out.”
When Sheryl arrived home, she discovered the skirt was in her equipment bag.
“I had asked everyone if they had put it in the bag and they said no, they did not want it removed from the basement,” Sheryl said. “Things started up very bad at my home. I put everything away not wanting to look at them any longer.”
The days went by and she grew increasingly weak.
Next: It’s in her home
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Haunting in Maine -- Part Two
Author’s note: This is the second of a four-part story on the haunting of Sheryl Rackliff of Rockland, Maine. In part one, after a Ouija board session in her friend Alicia’s apartment went bad, Alicia threw the board in a Dumpster. Before Sheryl left, she retrieved the board and took it home.
Sheryl Rackliff’s bedroom was usually colder than the rest of the apartment, but never as cold as it became when she brought the Ouija board into her building.
She thought something ghostly may have followed her home from Alicia’s apartment, so she took pictures.
“Nothing really happened other than catching a face in my back window,” Sheryl said. “I take my pictures in sets of three… In the three pictures I saw something getting larger and larger. Once I downloaded it to my computer and could really examine it, I could make out a face forming much better from picture (to picture). It looked like a devil.”
But Sheryl didn’t have the time to worry about her home just yet; she was trying to help her friend Alicia. But the haunting at Alicia’s apartment was escalating.
“As time went on things were only getting much worse at Alicia’s home,” she said. So Sheryl called a team of paranormal investigators. They agreed to come to Alicia’s apartment on Feb. 18, 2006, but before they arrived, the fun had already started.
“We went to Alicia’s bedroom,” Sheryl said. “It was too light as Alicia will not allow the hall lights to be shut off due to her fear.”
Sheryl and a friend, Meridith, went into the room and closed the door halfway.
“Her room was freezing cold,” Sheryl said. “We asked the spirit or spirits to please show its presence somehow, with a knock, touching one of us on the shoulder, moving the curtains or turning on the television.”
Nothing happened.
They asked again, and on the third try the bedroom door closed.
“We heard it latch,” Sheryl said.
She opened the door a little more than halfway and it slowly closed and latched again.
“It was done in a manner like someone quietly closing the door to a child’s bedroom so as not to wake the child,” Sheryl said. “But when I went to open the door, it didn’t open as easy as the first time.”
It felt like someone was holding the knob from the outside. The door tugged away from Sheryl, “like it was playing with me. I then freaked out.”
When the paranormal investigators arrived, the activity got worse.
“As we were in the living room we heard a loud crash and smash in the kitchen,” Sheryl said. “Then we heard one of the men … say, ‘here we go guys.’”
Something ripped the man’s audio recorder from his hands and smashed it into a kitchen wall. Throughout the night, Alicia’s cats played with things no one else could see, and a disembodied male voice spoke to the group, although no one could understand what it said.
The ghost hunters started packing up at about 1:10 a.m.; the psychic in the group saying the Ouija board had brought evil into the house.
“After everyone left I stayed with Alicia,” Sheryl said. “It was just the two of us.”
The sound of someone dragging their feet down the hallway scraped through the apartment, and Alicia screamed when she saw a black figure.
“I was not really scared through any of this,” Sheryl said. “I still to this day will walk into Alicia’s bedroom alone in the dark waiting for the door to close on me. But finally, after more different sounds, Alicia agreed to my pleading with her to come stay at my home. She decided to.”
Next week: A demonic entity.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Sheryl Rackliff’s bedroom was usually colder than the rest of the apartment, but never as cold as it became when she brought the Ouija board into her building.
She thought something ghostly may have followed her home from Alicia’s apartment, so she took pictures.
“Nothing really happened other than catching a face in my back window,” Sheryl said. “I take my pictures in sets of three… In the three pictures I saw something getting larger and larger. Once I downloaded it to my computer and could really examine it, I could make out a face forming much better from picture (to picture). It looked like a devil.”
But Sheryl didn’t have the time to worry about her home just yet; she was trying to help her friend Alicia. But the haunting at Alicia’s apartment was escalating.
“As time went on things were only getting much worse at Alicia’s home,” she said. So Sheryl called a team of paranormal investigators. They agreed to come to Alicia’s apartment on Feb. 18, 2006, but before they arrived, the fun had already started.
“We went to Alicia’s bedroom,” Sheryl said. “It was too light as Alicia will not allow the hall lights to be shut off due to her fear.”
Sheryl and a friend, Meridith, went into the room and closed the door halfway.
“Her room was freezing cold,” Sheryl said. “We asked the spirit or spirits to please show its presence somehow, with a knock, touching one of us on the shoulder, moving the curtains or turning on the television.”
Nothing happened.
They asked again, and on the third try the bedroom door closed.
“We heard it latch,” Sheryl said.
She opened the door a little more than halfway and it slowly closed and latched again.
“It was done in a manner like someone quietly closing the door to a child’s bedroom so as not to wake the child,” Sheryl said. “But when I went to open the door, it didn’t open as easy as the first time.”
It felt like someone was holding the knob from the outside. The door tugged away from Sheryl, “like it was playing with me. I then freaked out.”
When the paranormal investigators arrived, the activity got worse.
“As we were in the living room we heard a loud crash and smash in the kitchen,” Sheryl said. “Then we heard one of the men … say, ‘here we go guys.’”
Something ripped the man’s audio recorder from his hands and smashed it into a kitchen wall. Throughout the night, Alicia’s cats played with things no one else could see, and a disembodied male voice spoke to the group, although no one could understand what it said.
The ghost hunters started packing up at about 1:10 a.m.; the psychic in the group saying the Ouija board had brought evil into the house.
“After everyone left I stayed with Alicia,” Sheryl said. “It was just the two of us.”
The sound of someone dragging their feet down the hallway scraped through the apartment, and Alicia screamed when she saw a black figure.
“I was not really scared through any of this,” Sheryl said. “I still to this day will walk into Alicia’s bedroom alone in the dark waiting for the door to close on me. But finally, after more different sounds, Alicia agreed to my pleading with her to come stay at my home. She decided to.”
Next week: A demonic entity.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
A Haunting in Maine -- Part One
Author’s note: This is the first of a four-part story on the haunting of Sheryl Rackliff of Rockland, Maine. Sheryl’s troubles began at a friend’s apartment and whatever was there followed Sheryl home.
Alicia’s new apartment in Rockland, Maine, was cold. Unnaturally cold.
She moved into the apartment Dec. 31, 2005, with her children Brieanna, 15, and Buddy, 13, and immediately knew something there wasn’t normal. Although they slept in different bedrooms, that first night they all woke at 4:21 a.m.
“They thought it was rather freaky that all of them were awakening at the same time but let it go,” said Alicia’s best friend Sheryl Rackliff – although Alicia didn’t confess her experience to Sheryl for weeks. “After three nights of this and being awoken at 4:21 a.m. they all started hearing noises. Light taps, scratching sounds and the feeling of being watched.”
The bedrooms also grew colder; too cold to sleep in.
“Cold enough they could slightly see their breath,” Sheryl said. “Alicia and the kids went into the living room to all sleep together and they noticed it was much warmer than the two bedrooms that were adjoined.”
After three nights sleeping in the living room, they began seeing the shadows of a black, human figure near the bedrooms. After that, Alicia decided they needed help.
“Alicia neglected telling myself and our other best friend Meredith as she thought we’d think she was loosing her mind,” Sheryl said. “Meredith and I were very understanding and set up a night to do some investigating of our own.”
A few nights later, Sheryl and Meredith went to Alicia’s home with cameras and a Ouija board. When they got settled in, Alicia’s children sat over the board.
“The kids wanted to be the ones doing it as we asked it questions,” Sheryl said. “The darn thing answered questions that there is no way those kids would know.”
The answers were friendly, at first.
“It said it was many of lost loved ones with us,” Sheryl said. Not placing much stock Ouija boards, she wandered the apartment inside and out taking pictures. When she returned to the apartment, the board was more active.
“Everyone was still playing with Ouija Board. They were freaking out thinking they were really talking to loved ones,” she said. “Maybe they were, or maybe they were not. The spirits could have been playing tricks on us all.”
At that time, the spirits were genial, so Sheryl asked it a question.
“I asked for some of my close friends that passed if they were there,” she said. “It said ‘no’ to all my questions. Then I asked if anyone I loved was with me – it went to yes.”
The board then spelled Todd. No one knew about Todd.
“Todd was my best friend since we was four years old,” she said. “We were always inseparable.”
Throughout Todd’s numerous moves from Maine to Connecticut from fourth grade to high school, they kept contact. But when Todd moved back to Maine when he was a freshman in high school, his mood changed. He started talking about suicide.
“He was not the same Todd I remembered,” Sheryl said. “He was not happy with life, always very quiet, told me how he wished he could just die.”
The next year, Todd’s mother, divorced, moved back to Connecticut. Years past, the two graduated, married others and had children. Then Todd, divorced, tried to initiate a romantic relationship.
“I was in an abusive relationship and spent lots of time talking with Todd who tried and tried to get me out of the relationship,” she said. “I finally did it. One month latter, after turning Todd down, he shot himself in the head.”
“Ouija board Todd” told Sheryl he had not yet crossed over, and couldn’t until she was with him.
“He said lots of stuff that really freaked me out,” Sheryl said.
Then the Ouija board turned bad.
“The board went from talking friendly to evil,” Sheryl said. “It said it was in the hallway. We asked ‘who is in the hallway?’ It replied back, ‘all of us.’”
After another half hour of abusive talk, the planchette shot across the board and fell to the floor. Sheryl and Meredith soon left and Alicia threw the Ouija board in a Dumpster.
Next week: A paranormal team investigates.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Alicia’s new apartment in Rockland, Maine, was cold. Unnaturally cold.
She moved into the apartment Dec. 31, 2005, with her children Brieanna, 15, and Buddy, 13, and immediately knew something there wasn’t normal. Although they slept in different bedrooms, that first night they all woke at 4:21 a.m.
“They thought it was rather freaky that all of them were awakening at the same time but let it go,” said Alicia’s best friend Sheryl Rackliff – although Alicia didn’t confess her experience to Sheryl for weeks. “After three nights of this and being awoken at 4:21 a.m. they all started hearing noises. Light taps, scratching sounds and the feeling of being watched.”
The bedrooms also grew colder; too cold to sleep in.
“Cold enough they could slightly see their breath,” Sheryl said. “Alicia and the kids went into the living room to all sleep together and they noticed it was much warmer than the two bedrooms that were adjoined.”
After three nights sleeping in the living room, they began seeing the shadows of a black, human figure near the bedrooms. After that, Alicia decided they needed help.
“Alicia neglected telling myself and our other best friend Meredith as she thought we’d think she was loosing her mind,” Sheryl said. “Meredith and I were very understanding and set up a night to do some investigating of our own.”
A few nights later, Sheryl and Meredith went to Alicia’s home with cameras and a Ouija board. When they got settled in, Alicia’s children sat over the board.
“The kids wanted to be the ones doing it as we asked it questions,” Sheryl said. “The darn thing answered questions that there is no way those kids would know.”
The answers were friendly, at first.
“It said it was many of lost loved ones with us,” Sheryl said. Not placing much stock Ouija boards, she wandered the apartment inside and out taking pictures. When she returned to the apartment, the board was more active.
“Everyone was still playing with Ouija Board. They were freaking out thinking they were really talking to loved ones,” she said. “Maybe they were, or maybe they were not. The spirits could have been playing tricks on us all.”
At that time, the spirits were genial, so Sheryl asked it a question.
“I asked for some of my close friends that passed if they were there,” she said. “It said ‘no’ to all my questions. Then I asked if anyone I loved was with me – it went to yes.”
The board then spelled Todd. No one knew about Todd.
“Todd was my best friend since we was four years old,” she said. “We were always inseparable.”
Throughout Todd’s numerous moves from Maine to Connecticut from fourth grade to high school, they kept contact. But when Todd moved back to Maine when he was a freshman in high school, his mood changed. He started talking about suicide.
“He was not the same Todd I remembered,” Sheryl said. “He was not happy with life, always very quiet, told me how he wished he could just die.”
The next year, Todd’s mother, divorced, moved back to Connecticut. Years past, the two graduated, married others and had children. Then Todd, divorced, tried to initiate a romantic relationship.
“I was in an abusive relationship and spent lots of time talking with Todd who tried and tried to get me out of the relationship,” she said. “I finally did it. One month latter, after turning Todd down, he shot himself in the head.”
“Ouija board Todd” told Sheryl he had not yet crossed over, and couldn’t until she was with him.
“He said lots of stuff that really freaked me out,” Sheryl said.
Then the Ouija board turned bad.
“The board went from talking friendly to evil,” Sheryl said. “It said it was in the hallway. We asked ‘who is in the hallway?’ It replied back, ‘all of us.’”
After another half hour of abusive talk, the planchette shot across the board and fell to the floor. Sheryl and Meredith soon left and Alicia threw the Ouija board in a Dumpster.
Next week: A paranormal team investigates.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Do Shadow People Control Casey's Dreams?
Shadow People – blacker-than-night, two-dimensional, human-like figures that seem to appear and disappear at will – have been reported worldwide. The reports, like “From the Shadows” read Casey’s, are never good.
“I've experienced this Shadow figure, the same one, numerous times,” he said.
It was December 2007 when Casey first met the Shadow Man. Right before Casey – a high school student – dreamed of the entity, his girlfriend broke up with him then his brother was in a car accident. As Casey lie in bed one night, the Shadow Man came into his sleep.
“I was in a car in the back as two girls were in the front,” he said. Both girls had brown hair, but Casey couldn’t see who they were. “They were driving and the thing that sat beside me was a Shadow Person.”
The Shadow Man kept motioning Casey to come closer to him, but he didn’t.
“I was feeling a little scared but then the girls are saying to me, ‘we need to get you and your friend away from here now far away as possible,’” he said. “I look at the Shadow thing and all it did was motion faster and faster and it was getting angry at me, signaling at me to come over.”
Then Casey’s vision went white, he heard the car crash, the girls screamed and he woke up confused. But later, Casey realized his dream might mean something.
“My ex-girlfriend that broke up with me dyed her hair brown a few days before I had this dream and so did her mom,” he said. Her car had the same interior from his dream, and there was his brother’s car accident …
“I started to put stuff together like this Shadow Person is running my dreams and he’s using things that hurt me when I'm awake to hurt me in my dreams,” Casey said.
His next Shadow dream was in February.
“This time me and this Shadow were like best friends,” Casey said. “We were laughing walking down the street. Then all of a sudden this little boy ran by with a bloody knife, crying.”
Casey and the Shadow Man caught the boy.
“He told me that his mom stabbed his dad in the chest and he grabbed the knife and now the cops were after him,” Casey said. He recognized the boy – he was a friend with a past Casey never knew.
“The little boy was my friend but grown up,” he said. “His mother stabbed his dad and the cops thought he did it. When I woke up I looked around fast and saw nothing. I thought that something wanted to help me through my old mistakes – but it was torturing my mind.”
A week later, the Shadow dream visited again.
“I was a old man working at a high school as the janitor,” he said. “I was retiring and I was happy and I saw that Shadow Guy just watching me. This time he just stood there and he was shaking like a laughing way. I didn't know why but I looked around and everyone started talking about my brother saying, ‘what if he hit a deer?’ ‘what if he was just too drunk?’”
Casey had heard those rumors and knew the Shadow entity was using them to hurt him.
“I felt confused and inferior to this thing. I woke up screaming that night,” he said. “Right then I knew it was out to get me. I was scared of going to bed and not waking up or waking up somewhere else.”
His last dream encounter was in June.
“I was dreaming of the first day of school,” he said. “I get to first period and these Army troops burst into the school speaking some language I didn't know.”
The soldiers took the students to a large, desolate, fire-damaged building with steel garage doors.
“They only gave us pillows,” Casey said. “I laid there and beside me sat this Shadow guy in a Indian-style sitting (position) staring at me.”
Casey’s best friend was there, along with his ex-girlfriend.
“I flipped out screaming at her saying, ‘what do the hell do you want from me?’” he said. “When I did this a guard came over telling me to get up.”
Casey stood, but his friend jumped up to protect him and was shot in the arm.
“This Shadow guy ran up and got into the soldier’s face yelling at him telling him that he can’t have me that he needed me for something,” Casey said. “The soldier laughed at him and said, ‘why?’ The Shadow got up really close and whispered something to him and all I got out of it was, ‘brother.’”
Casey wonders if the Shadow Man isn’t just torturing him in his dreams – but outside his dreams.
“Right now I’ve been scared and confused,” he said. “I don't know what to do but my doors do open by themselves now and my lights do turn off by themselves and I sense there’s something in my spare room that stands there. I can’t go in there without getting really cold and the chills like something right behind me is breathing on my neck.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, black-eyed children, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“I've experienced this Shadow figure, the same one, numerous times,” he said.
It was December 2007 when Casey first met the Shadow Man. Right before Casey – a high school student – dreamed of the entity, his girlfriend broke up with him then his brother was in a car accident. As Casey lie in bed one night, the Shadow Man came into his sleep.
“I was in a car in the back as two girls were in the front,” he said. Both girls had brown hair, but Casey couldn’t see who they were. “They were driving and the thing that sat beside me was a Shadow Person.”
The Shadow Man kept motioning Casey to come closer to him, but he didn’t.
“I was feeling a little scared but then the girls are saying to me, ‘we need to get you and your friend away from here now far away as possible,’” he said. “I look at the Shadow thing and all it did was motion faster and faster and it was getting angry at me, signaling at me to come over.”
Then Casey’s vision went white, he heard the car crash, the girls screamed and he woke up confused. But later, Casey realized his dream might mean something.
“My ex-girlfriend that broke up with me dyed her hair brown a few days before I had this dream and so did her mom,” he said. Her car had the same interior from his dream, and there was his brother’s car accident …
“I started to put stuff together like this Shadow Person is running my dreams and he’s using things that hurt me when I'm awake to hurt me in my dreams,” Casey said.
His next Shadow dream was in February.
“This time me and this Shadow were like best friends,” Casey said. “We were laughing walking down the street. Then all of a sudden this little boy ran by with a bloody knife, crying.”
Casey and the Shadow Man caught the boy.
“He told me that his mom stabbed his dad in the chest and he grabbed the knife and now the cops were after him,” Casey said. He recognized the boy – he was a friend with a past Casey never knew.
“The little boy was my friend but grown up,” he said. “His mother stabbed his dad and the cops thought he did it. When I woke up I looked around fast and saw nothing. I thought that something wanted to help me through my old mistakes – but it was torturing my mind.”
A week later, the Shadow dream visited again.
“I was a old man working at a high school as the janitor,” he said. “I was retiring and I was happy and I saw that Shadow Guy just watching me. This time he just stood there and he was shaking like a laughing way. I didn't know why but I looked around and everyone started talking about my brother saying, ‘what if he hit a deer?’ ‘what if he was just too drunk?’”
Casey had heard those rumors and knew the Shadow entity was using them to hurt him.
“I felt confused and inferior to this thing. I woke up screaming that night,” he said. “Right then I knew it was out to get me. I was scared of going to bed and not waking up or waking up somewhere else.”
His last dream encounter was in June.
“I was dreaming of the first day of school,” he said. “I get to first period and these Army troops burst into the school speaking some language I didn't know.”
The soldiers took the students to a large, desolate, fire-damaged building with steel garage doors.
“They only gave us pillows,” Casey said. “I laid there and beside me sat this Shadow guy in a Indian-style sitting (position) staring at me.”
Casey’s best friend was there, along with his ex-girlfriend.
“I flipped out screaming at her saying, ‘what do the hell do you want from me?’” he said. “When I did this a guard came over telling me to get up.”
Casey stood, but his friend jumped up to protect him and was shot in the arm.
“This Shadow guy ran up and got into the soldier’s face yelling at him telling him that he can’t have me that he needed me for something,” Casey said. “The soldier laughed at him and said, ‘why?’ The Shadow got up really close and whispered something to him and all I got out of it was, ‘brother.’”
Casey wonders if the Shadow Man isn’t just torturing him in his dreams – but outside his dreams.
“Right now I’ve been scared and confused,” he said. “I don't know what to do but my doors do open by themselves now and my lights do turn off by themselves and I sense there’s something in my spare room that stands there. I can’t go in there without getting really cold and the chills like something right behind me is breathing on my neck.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, black-eyed children, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Ghost of Yeater Hall
The red brick walls of Laura J. Yeater Hall stand amongst the trees that surround its entrance. A single window pointing from its attic looks toward the center of campus.
Generations of college students at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg have whispered about a woman sometimes seen looking out from that window, a window inaccessible by the students who live there. Yeater Hall, they say, is haunted.
That’s what I was told more than 20 years ago when I was enrolled at the school – and students are still talking about it.
Yeater was built in 1940 and named after the former head of the college’s Latin and Greek department. While Yeater taught there, from 1901 to 1914, she pushed for women’s housing on campus. By 1940 she raised enough money to build the first the school’s first women’s dormitory.
Over the decades since Yeater’s death, many residents of the hall have reported mysterious footsteps, the sounds of moving furniture, blankets ripped off beds and strange lights. Maybe Yeater put so much of herself into the construction of the dormitory she couldn’t bear to leave.
I met director of residence and Greek life Alan Nordyke and custodial worker Carol Mullins at the entrance of Yeater Hall. It was late summer.
“It’s a very old myth that Laura Yeater, her ghost supposedly is here,” Nordyke said. “I’ve never heard any encounter that couldn’t be explained.”
Mullins, however, is more certain of the unexplained.
“Oh, there are ghosts,” she said. “The first three years (I worked here) I hadn’t experienced anything that would convince me that there were ghosts here. But there’ve been enough the past two years to convince me something’s here.”
Hard wood floors run through each room and windows look out on either a tree-lined path or a spacious courtyard. Banquets and dances were once held in the large rooms downstairs, and sororities lived on the upper floors.
But I wasn’t concerned with dances or sororities. I wanted to see the third floor where footsteps, scooting furniture and unexplained lights have been reported. A metal latch and padlock hold tight the entrance to the third floor. No one has lived there since Spring 2001.
“It’s closed because of electrical problems and the decline in occupancy,” Nordyke said as he open the lock with one of a very few keys on campus that open that door. “The only people who’d have access are employees. Students don’t have access.”
Some ceiling lights were on as we walked down a dusty hall lined with doors.
“I thought there were electric problems,” I said, pointing toward the lights.
“Some lights are left on,” Nordyke said.
On an abandoned floor with electrical problems?
Strange lights have been seen coming from the third floor of Yeater, such as lights in rooms 337 and 343 that occasionally come on after 10 p.m.
“The lights have been going on for 20 years,” Mullins said. “Nobody’s going to (play a joke) for 20 years.”
As we walked by room 337, I stopped and noticed the ceiling light was on.
“This shouldn’t be,” Nordyke said.
He switched the light off, blaming the light on maintenance workers, then we walked a few doors down to 343.
“The light comes on when no one is here,” Mullins said about room 343. “I had (another maintenance worker) lock the door and I duct taped the light switch. When I came back up the doors were still closed, but they were unlocked. When I went in, the duct tape was pried open to turn the light on.”
Finished, we turned to leave and, as we walked back by 337, we stopped. The light was on again.
We had been in full view of the only door into room 337, and no one had been in or out. I poked my head into the room – the light switch I had watched Nordyke turn off, was in the “on” position. No electrical problem could have caused that. Maybe Laura Yeater was just telling us she’s still around.
As we turned to leave the third floor, Mullins said, “Thank you, Laura,” as Nordyke padlocked the door shut again.
“There’s too many stories,” Mullins said. “Even though I love this building, sometimes it gives me the heebie jeebies.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Generations of college students at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg have whispered about a woman sometimes seen looking out from that window, a window inaccessible by the students who live there. Yeater Hall, they say, is haunted.
That’s what I was told more than 20 years ago when I was enrolled at the school – and students are still talking about it.
Yeater was built in 1940 and named after the former head of the college’s Latin and Greek department. While Yeater taught there, from 1901 to 1914, she pushed for women’s housing on campus. By 1940 she raised enough money to build the first the school’s first women’s dormitory.
Over the decades since Yeater’s death, many residents of the hall have reported mysterious footsteps, the sounds of moving furniture, blankets ripped off beds and strange lights. Maybe Yeater put so much of herself into the construction of the dormitory she couldn’t bear to leave.
I met director of residence and Greek life Alan Nordyke and custodial worker Carol Mullins at the entrance of Yeater Hall. It was late summer.
“It’s a very old myth that Laura Yeater, her ghost supposedly is here,” Nordyke said. “I’ve never heard any encounter that couldn’t be explained.”
Mullins, however, is more certain of the unexplained.
“Oh, there are ghosts,” she said. “The first three years (I worked here) I hadn’t experienced anything that would convince me that there were ghosts here. But there’ve been enough the past two years to convince me something’s here.”
Hard wood floors run through each room and windows look out on either a tree-lined path or a spacious courtyard. Banquets and dances were once held in the large rooms downstairs, and sororities lived on the upper floors.
But I wasn’t concerned with dances or sororities. I wanted to see the third floor where footsteps, scooting furniture and unexplained lights have been reported. A metal latch and padlock hold tight the entrance to the third floor. No one has lived there since Spring 2001.
“It’s closed because of electrical problems and the decline in occupancy,” Nordyke said as he open the lock with one of a very few keys on campus that open that door. “The only people who’d have access are employees. Students don’t have access.”
Some ceiling lights were on as we walked down a dusty hall lined with doors.
“I thought there were electric problems,” I said, pointing toward the lights.
“Some lights are left on,” Nordyke said.
On an abandoned floor with electrical problems?
Strange lights have been seen coming from the third floor of Yeater, such as lights in rooms 337 and 343 that occasionally come on after 10 p.m.
“The lights have been going on for 20 years,” Mullins said. “Nobody’s going to (play a joke) for 20 years.”
As we walked by room 337, I stopped and noticed the ceiling light was on.
“This shouldn’t be,” Nordyke said.
He switched the light off, blaming the light on maintenance workers, then we walked a few doors down to 343.
“The light comes on when no one is here,” Mullins said about room 343. “I had (another maintenance worker) lock the door and I duct taped the light switch. When I came back up the doors were still closed, but they were unlocked. When I went in, the duct tape was pried open to turn the light on.”
Finished, we turned to leave and, as we walked back by 337, we stopped. The light was on again.
We had been in full view of the only door into room 337, and no one had been in or out. I poked my head into the room – the light switch I had watched Nordyke turn off, was in the “on” position. No electrical problem could have caused that. Maybe Laura Yeater was just telling us she’s still around.
As we turned to leave the third floor, Mullins said, “Thank you, Laura,” as Nordyke padlocked the door shut again.
“There’s too many stories,” Mullins said. “Even though I love this building, sometimes it gives me the heebie jeebies.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Zig-Zagging UFOs
The green ball of light moved horizontally across the sky as I drove home. The time was around 10 p.m. on a winter day in 1999 as I pushed my Dodge Stratus down a straight stretch of rural highway in the flat Missouri River bottomlands.
The light wasn’t an airplane, I thought. It moved – for the moment – like an airplane, but the color was wrong. It seemed to fly slowly, almost paralleling my car. Then it changed course, suddenly shooting up at a right angle and disappearing from view within seconds.
What was it?
Flying? Of course. Unidentified? To me, yes.
Do other people see these lights in the sky that move unlike any aircraft we’re used to? Yes, they do. Here are three stories.
The Crescent Moon
“From The Shadows” reader Garrett was driving from Olathe to Kansas City at about 9:30 p.m. in August 2007 when he saw the lights; three or four “strange lights” hovering.
“These lights were in a crescent moon shape and were disappearing randomly then appearing again in another area of the sky,” he said. “They were also moving in ways that a normal aircraft could not.”
The lights moved side-to-side, zig-zagged and flew in circles.
“Did anyone else see these things?” he asked.
More zig-zags
“Shadows” reader Simon saw lights like Garrett’s numerous times in 1988 when he was eight years old in Pennsylvania.
“I saw a light in the sky moving quickly in a zig-zag formation,” Simon said. “The light was bigger and brighter than a star, and it continued to move at very high speeds, back and forth across the sky.”
Simon never told anyone about these sightings except his brother – because his brother saw them, too.
“He saw it with me from our backyard the third and final time I witnessed this phenomenon,” Simon said. “He and I still do not know how to talk about what we saw.”
A Diamond in the Night
A “Shadows” reader who goes by the name Prairie Girl saw something one night in the cold North Dakota sky in October 2007. She and her nephew were outside looking at the Northern Lights when she saw a shooting ball of light.
“We noticed a light going across the sky in the north through the Northern lights,” she said. “Then it suddenly stopped and shot straight down to the north below the horizon. Then another light appeared and weaved through the sky back and forth again, through the Northern lights.”
Another light appeared. Then another.
“They eventually all went out of sight, zig-zagging across the northern sky,” she said. “And we just sat there a little flabbergasted.”
Then Prairie Girl’s nephew shouted, “look.”
“I look straight up where he is looking and there above us is a very large diamond-shaped light,” she said. “Very, very bright. It hurt my eyes to look at it.”
The light was much larger than a star, but smaller than the moon.
“We just sat there staring up at this thing and really marveling over the whole experience, maybe two minutes in all,” she said. “And then all of a sudden I got a rush of fear run through me, and as soon as I felt that fear the light started to move away from us.”
The light moved north, slowly zig-zagging across the sky.
“But what's really weird is I don't remember how it disappeared after that or how long after that we could watch it,” she said. “The last thing I remember is watching it zig-zag its way to the north.”
The next day, her eyes ached – so did her perception of what is real.
“There is no one on God’s green earth that can tell me that we are alone,” she said. “Unless it is some kind of government technology that we don't know about.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The light wasn’t an airplane, I thought. It moved – for the moment – like an airplane, but the color was wrong. It seemed to fly slowly, almost paralleling my car. Then it changed course, suddenly shooting up at a right angle and disappearing from view within seconds.
What was it?
Flying? Of course. Unidentified? To me, yes.
Do other people see these lights in the sky that move unlike any aircraft we’re used to? Yes, they do. Here are three stories.
The Crescent Moon
“From The Shadows” reader Garrett was driving from Olathe to Kansas City at about 9:30 p.m. in August 2007 when he saw the lights; three or four “strange lights” hovering.
“These lights were in a crescent moon shape and were disappearing randomly then appearing again in another area of the sky,” he said. “They were also moving in ways that a normal aircraft could not.”
The lights moved side-to-side, zig-zagged and flew in circles.
“Did anyone else see these things?” he asked.
More zig-zags
“Shadows” reader Simon saw lights like Garrett’s numerous times in 1988 when he was eight years old in Pennsylvania.
“I saw a light in the sky moving quickly in a zig-zag formation,” Simon said. “The light was bigger and brighter than a star, and it continued to move at very high speeds, back and forth across the sky.”
Simon never told anyone about these sightings except his brother – because his brother saw them, too.
“He saw it with me from our backyard the third and final time I witnessed this phenomenon,” Simon said. “He and I still do not know how to talk about what we saw.”
A Diamond in the Night
A “Shadows” reader who goes by the name Prairie Girl saw something one night in the cold North Dakota sky in October 2007. She and her nephew were outside looking at the Northern Lights when she saw a shooting ball of light.
“We noticed a light going across the sky in the north through the Northern lights,” she said. “Then it suddenly stopped and shot straight down to the north below the horizon. Then another light appeared and weaved through the sky back and forth again, through the Northern lights.”
Another light appeared. Then another.
“They eventually all went out of sight, zig-zagging across the northern sky,” she said. “And we just sat there a little flabbergasted.”
Then Prairie Girl’s nephew shouted, “look.”
“I look straight up where he is looking and there above us is a very large diamond-shaped light,” she said. “Very, very bright. It hurt my eyes to look at it.”
The light was much larger than a star, but smaller than the moon.
“We just sat there staring up at this thing and really marveling over the whole experience, maybe two minutes in all,” she said. “And then all of a sudden I got a rush of fear run through me, and as soon as I felt that fear the light started to move away from us.”
The light moved north, slowly zig-zagging across the sky.
“But what's really weird is I don't remember how it disappeared after that or how long after that we could watch it,” she said. “The last thing I remember is watching it zig-zag its way to the north.”
The next day, her eyes ached – so did her perception of what is real.
“There is no one on God’s green earth that can tell me that we are alone,” she said. “Unless it is some kind of government technology that we don't know about.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
A Ouija Experience in India
The Ouija experience isn’t all Milton Bradley and slumber parties. Sitting around a Ouija board, fingers on the planchette, asking for spirits to show themselves may seem harmless, but all too often it’s not.
And, as Jake Kayen discovered, Milton Bradley doesn’t even have to be involved.
“I’m from India and I’d like to narrate my one and only Ouija experience,” Kayen said. “It was nothing dramatic, mind you – very plain, simple and straightforward.”
Kayen was an undergrad in Poona, India, when early on a winter’s morning he and three friends sat on the floor around a Ouija board Kayen had drawn.
“I enquired as to why these early hours,” he said.
A friend, Surya, “ever the joker,” thought the question was funny.
“You’ll probably get fresh (spirits),” Surya said. “Maybe one who died while exerting in the toilet.”
The group laughed and they prepared for their séance. Someone lit an incense stick and collected smoke under a bottle cap they placed on the board as a planchette.
“We touched (it) with the tips of our forefingers,” Kayen said. “Gaurav, the senior in the group, got into a meditative mood and intoned in a solemn sonorous voice, ‘Any spirit close by, please come here and answer our questions.’”
Gaurav said this three times. Then said, “If you are here, please give us a signal. Move the cap to ‘Yes.’”
The cap started moving.
“I was sure it wasn’t me,” Kayen said. “Kumar looked at me suspiciously. Modi was looking around half-expecting a joke, but did not want to disturb the experience. Even Surya was silently watching the board.”
Members of the group asked a number of questions that the cap moved to answer.
“Satisfactory answers were given,” Kayen said. “At least to my questions. What’s my pet’s name? It (answered) correctly, spelling out each alphabet, ‘K-u-t-t-a-n.’ Well, I was satisfied as this was an unusual name for a dog.”
Anxious, Modi asked the board, “Will I win the Nobel Prize?” The board answered, “No.”
“There were snickers,” Kayen said. “Surya cracked a rude comment and Modi shot an angry glance at him.”
After a while, the cap started moving erratically.
“Oh spirit, do you want to go away?” Gaurav asked.
The cap moved to, “Yes.”
“We shall count to 10 and remove our fingers from the cap, OK?” Gaurav asked.
The cap again moved to, “Yes.”
“Go in peace, o spirit,” Gaurav said. “Our thanks.”
And the cap stopped moving.
“We had a good laugh afterwards over tea,” Kayen said. “Modi was talking about the spirit not knowing anything, deliberate sabotage by us, and the ‘polygon of forces,’ the resultant vector being a pure reflection of our subconscious, etc. We teased him a lot on his Nobel Prize afterwards.”
But Kayen wasn’t finished with the spirit world. He soon found his cousin had made contact, too.
“I related this incident to Manu, my cousin, when I visited Bombay,” Kayen said. “Apparently, he and his friends had organized a tryout of the Ouija board for himself in an apartment in his building that had been empty for some time.”
The board was the one Kayen had drawn.
“They started around midday, following the same procedure till a spirit had come,” he said. “They asked the spirit it’s earthly name – apparently that’s something prohibited – and it replied ‘Kulkarni.’”
Manu and his friends were surprised at a response.
“They had a lark, but soon tired of it,” Kayen said. “When they asked whether it wanted to go away, the spirit would point to, ‘No.’ This happened twice. Then one of them asked, ‘What would happen if we just got up and left?’”
The cap slowly spelled something vulgar … and threatening.
“When the meaning of this arrangement of letters dawned upon them, they realized the spirit, or whoever it was, seemed quite earnest in its interest and could endeavor to be with them somehow,” Kayen said. “With a yell and a bang, they broke up the meeting, threw away the Ouija board and quickly vacated the premises.”
Manu and his friends have since avoided both the apartment and the Ouija board.
“Ah, the way I laughed,” Kayen said, although he knows his contact with the spirit world was anything but funny. “After that one Ouija session, I felt kind of, dirty, soiled, sad. I’ve never ventured into such stuff again.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
And, as Jake Kayen discovered, Milton Bradley doesn’t even have to be involved.
“I’m from India and I’d like to narrate my one and only Ouija experience,” Kayen said. “It was nothing dramatic, mind you – very plain, simple and straightforward.”
Kayen was an undergrad in Poona, India, when early on a winter’s morning he and three friends sat on the floor around a Ouija board Kayen had drawn.
“I enquired as to why these early hours,” he said.
A friend, Surya, “ever the joker,” thought the question was funny.
“You’ll probably get fresh (spirits),” Surya said. “Maybe one who died while exerting in the toilet.”
The group laughed and they prepared for their séance. Someone lit an incense stick and collected smoke under a bottle cap they placed on the board as a planchette.
“We touched (it) with the tips of our forefingers,” Kayen said. “Gaurav, the senior in the group, got into a meditative mood and intoned in a solemn sonorous voice, ‘Any spirit close by, please come here and answer our questions.’”
Gaurav said this three times. Then said, “If you are here, please give us a signal. Move the cap to ‘Yes.’”
The cap started moving.
“I was sure it wasn’t me,” Kayen said. “Kumar looked at me suspiciously. Modi was looking around half-expecting a joke, but did not want to disturb the experience. Even Surya was silently watching the board.”
Members of the group asked a number of questions that the cap moved to answer.
“Satisfactory answers were given,” Kayen said. “At least to my questions. What’s my pet’s name? It (answered) correctly, spelling out each alphabet, ‘K-u-t-t-a-n.’ Well, I was satisfied as this was an unusual name for a dog.”
Anxious, Modi asked the board, “Will I win the Nobel Prize?” The board answered, “No.”
“There were snickers,” Kayen said. “Surya cracked a rude comment and Modi shot an angry glance at him.”
After a while, the cap started moving erratically.
“Oh spirit, do you want to go away?” Gaurav asked.
The cap moved to, “Yes.”
“We shall count to 10 and remove our fingers from the cap, OK?” Gaurav asked.
The cap again moved to, “Yes.”
“Go in peace, o spirit,” Gaurav said. “Our thanks.”
And the cap stopped moving.
“We had a good laugh afterwards over tea,” Kayen said. “Modi was talking about the spirit not knowing anything, deliberate sabotage by us, and the ‘polygon of forces,’ the resultant vector being a pure reflection of our subconscious, etc. We teased him a lot on his Nobel Prize afterwards.”
But Kayen wasn’t finished with the spirit world. He soon found his cousin had made contact, too.
“I related this incident to Manu, my cousin, when I visited Bombay,” Kayen said. “Apparently, he and his friends had organized a tryout of the Ouija board for himself in an apartment in his building that had been empty for some time.”
The board was the one Kayen had drawn.
“They started around midday, following the same procedure till a spirit had come,” he said. “They asked the spirit it’s earthly name – apparently that’s something prohibited – and it replied ‘Kulkarni.’”
Manu and his friends were surprised at a response.
“They had a lark, but soon tired of it,” Kayen said. “When they asked whether it wanted to go away, the spirit would point to, ‘No.’ This happened twice. Then one of them asked, ‘What would happen if we just got up and left?’”
The cap slowly spelled something vulgar … and threatening.
“When the meaning of this arrangement of letters dawned upon them, they realized the spirit, or whoever it was, seemed quite earnest in its interest and could endeavor to be with them somehow,” Kayen said. “With a yell and a bang, they broke up the meeting, threw away the Ouija board and quickly vacated the premises.”
Manu and his friends have since avoided both the apartment and the Ouija board.
“Ah, the way I laughed,” Kayen said, although he knows his contact with the spirit world was anything but funny. “After that one Ouija session, I felt kind of, dirty, soiled, sad. I’ve never ventured into such stuff again.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
UFOs, Roswell and an Eight-Year-Old Boy
The e-mail message was cryptic. “Hello. I might have some information you will want to hear.” No further explanation; just a telephone number.
“Any hints?” I wrote back.
Three hours later a second e-mail waited in my inbox. “What? Sorry. I thought you wanted information. UFO. No reply is necessary.” The man sent his telephone number again, and his name. At his request I haven’t used his real name; he’ll go by Marty.
Marty answered the telephone, his voice that once sang with a Navy choir was scratchy and weak. Doctors removed half of a lung from cancer and damaged his vocal chords removing a lump from his thyroid. Marty is 67 years old.
But he didn’t want to talk about himself; he wanted to share something he’d kept hidden for 59 years.
Marty was eight years old in 1949 when his father took him to the Pickwick Hotel at the corner of 10th and McGee Streets in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The hotel sat next to a Trailways Bus Company station; a high school friend of his father was stopping there on his way through town.
Marty doesn’t remember the name of the man who walked into the hotel and greeted Marty’s father, but he remembers he was in uniform.
“This man was in the service,” he said. “I can’t tell you what branch.”
The three went to a room in the hotel and, as the adults sat at a table and talked, Marty sat on the bed and tried to entertain himself. After awhile, he started paying attention to the conversation, and the men noticed.
“They said, ‘whatever you hear, stop remembering,’” he said.
Then Marty heard things – classified things.
The man had worked at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; site of the atomic bomb test. He said whenever the military tested a new missile there, Unidentified Flying Objects would appear to observe the launches.
“He said when they shot a missile up to test it this thing would come up to it and fly around it,” Marty said. “These things would come up, circle it and – swish – go away.”
Then Marty’s father asked a question and his friend’s voice dropped to just above a whisper. But Marty heard everything.
“Pretty soon my dad said, ‘I heard a rumor about Roswell and a (UFO) crash,’” Marty said. “My dad’s friend got real serious and he said, ‘I can’t talk about that.’ But he said it did happen and it was real. This man talking to my dad positively confirmed what crashed in Roswell was true and legitimate.”
Soon after, Marty and his father went home and didn’t discuss that night for months.
“After that my dad – six months later – said, ‘I want you to come with me tonight,’” he said.
Marty’s father took him to a UFO meeting in Kansas City.
“Those people were as squirrelly as squirrels,” Marty said. “My dad just sat there and chuckled. He said, ‘what you saw tonight was horse hockey. You know the truth and we can’t talk about it.’ And he never mentioned it again. He wanted me to know the truth and what isn’t the truth.”
Marty’s father died at 51 in 1961 and neither he, nor Marty, ever mentioned the strange conversation in the Pickwick Hotel.
“This happened years and years ago and I was sworn to secrecy,” Marty said. “I’ve never talked about it.”
Until now.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“Any hints?” I wrote back.
Three hours later a second e-mail waited in my inbox. “What? Sorry. I thought you wanted information. UFO. No reply is necessary.” The man sent his telephone number again, and his name. At his request I haven’t used his real name; he’ll go by Marty.
Marty answered the telephone, his voice that once sang with a Navy choir was scratchy and weak. Doctors removed half of a lung from cancer and damaged his vocal chords removing a lump from his thyroid. Marty is 67 years old.
But he didn’t want to talk about himself; he wanted to share something he’d kept hidden for 59 years.
Marty was eight years old in 1949 when his father took him to the Pickwick Hotel at the corner of 10th and McGee Streets in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The hotel sat next to a Trailways Bus Company station; a high school friend of his father was stopping there on his way through town.
Marty doesn’t remember the name of the man who walked into the hotel and greeted Marty’s father, but he remembers he was in uniform.
“This man was in the service,” he said. “I can’t tell you what branch.”
The three went to a room in the hotel and, as the adults sat at a table and talked, Marty sat on the bed and tried to entertain himself. After awhile, he started paying attention to the conversation, and the men noticed.
“They said, ‘whatever you hear, stop remembering,’” he said.
Then Marty heard things – classified things.
The man had worked at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; site of the atomic bomb test. He said whenever the military tested a new missile there, Unidentified Flying Objects would appear to observe the launches.
“He said when they shot a missile up to test it this thing would come up to it and fly around it,” Marty said. “These things would come up, circle it and – swish – go away.”
Then Marty’s father asked a question and his friend’s voice dropped to just above a whisper. But Marty heard everything.
“Pretty soon my dad said, ‘I heard a rumor about Roswell and a (UFO) crash,’” Marty said. “My dad’s friend got real serious and he said, ‘I can’t talk about that.’ But he said it did happen and it was real. This man talking to my dad positively confirmed what crashed in Roswell was true and legitimate.”
Soon after, Marty and his father went home and didn’t discuss that night for months.
“After that my dad – six months later – said, ‘I want you to come with me tonight,’” he said.
Marty’s father took him to a UFO meeting in Kansas City.
“Those people were as squirrelly as squirrels,” Marty said. “My dad just sat there and chuckled. He said, ‘what you saw tonight was horse hockey. You know the truth and we can’t talk about it.’ And he never mentioned it again. He wanted me to know the truth and what isn’t the truth.”
Marty’s father died at 51 in 1961 and neither he, nor Marty, ever mentioned the strange conversation in the Pickwick Hotel.
“This happened years and years ago and I was sworn to secrecy,” Marty said. “I’ve never talked about it.”
Until now.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Mom’s Ghost is Still Watching
As Alzheimer’s disease slowly deconstructed the mind of Denise Gedlund’s mother, she forgot her family – everyone but Denise.
Denise was her mother’s youngest child, and that may have been why.
“I come from a large family of two boys and three girls, of which I am the baby,” she said. “All my sibs grew up almost a generation before me and I was like an only child.”
Denise’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005 and died in February 2008.
“Much of the upsetting details of her last few months in life were kept from me by the family, for which I am grateful,” she said. “I was very, very close with my mother. The past three years were very difficult for the family.”
During the last few times Denise saw her mother, she didn’t know Denise’s name, but knew who she was.
“She knew that I was her baby girl,” Denise said. “In fact, for a long time I was the only person she recognized.”
As Denise and her siblings watched their mother fade from life, they sometimes saw flashes of her old self.
“To the last my mother had a great and wicked sense of humor,” Denise said. “Even two days before her death she was teasing the nurses to bring her booze with her ice water.”
Denise’s mother died at 6 a.m. Feb 1.
“I am still having difficulty,” Denise said.
But Denise soon found her mother isn’t really gone because she comes to visit.
“About a week after her passing I was lying in bed reading when I heard footsteps come into the room and felt a heavy weight sit on the end of the bed,” she said. “I thought it was my boyfriend but when I looked he was not there, but I did see a definite butt print on the sheets.”
However, she wasn’t afraid because she knew who had visited her. After several similar visitations, Denise began calling out, “Mom’s here.”
“But the most stunning event occurred a couple of months ago,” Denise said. “Years ago she had given me a special fluorite crystal pendant and for the past couple of years it had been missing. Turning the house topsy-turvy several times never produced the gem. I was distraught as my mom had had a special purpose in mind when she gave me the gem.”
One night Denise’s mother visited her in a dream. Denise told her mother she was upset that she couldn’t find the pendant and her mother promised to find it.
“When I got up the next morning and went into the kitchen for coffee, I spied something on the floor that hadn’t been there the night before,” Denise said. “It was my fluorite pendant.”
Denise called out to her boyfriend who was also surprised because he hadn’t seen the pendant there earlier.
“There was no other explanation for the sudden appearance of the stone other than Mother really did find the stone for me as promised,” Denise said. “I began to cry and said out loud, ‘Thanks Mom.’ I gazed up at her photo on the wall and I swear she winked at me.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Denise was her mother’s youngest child, and that may have been why.
“I come from a large family of two boys and three girls, of which I am the baby,” she said. “All my sibs grew up almost a generation before me and I was like an only child.”
Denise’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2005 and died in February 2008.
“Much of the upsetting details of her last few months in life were kept from me by the family, for which I am grateful,” she said. “I was very, very close with my mother. The past three years were very difficult for the family.”
During the last few times Denise saw her mother, she didn’t know Denise’s name, but knew who she was.
“She knew that I was her baby girl,” Denise said. “In fact, for a long time I was the only person she recognized.”
As Denise and her siblings watched their mother fade from life, they sometimes saw flashes of her old self.
“To the last my mother had a great and wicked sense of humor,” Denise said. “Even two days before her death she was teasing the nurses to bring her booze with her ice water.”
Denise’s mother died at 6 a.m. Feb 1.
“I am still having difficulty,” Denise said.
But Denise soon found her mother isn’t really gone because she comes to visit.
“About a week after her passing I was lying in bed reading when I heard footsteps come into the room and felt a heavy weight sit on the end of the bed,” she said. “I thought it was my boyfriend but when I looked he was not there, but I did see a definite butt print on the sheets.”
However, she wasn’t afraid because she knew who had visited her. After several similar visitations, Denise began calling out, “Mom’s here.”
“But the most stunning event occurred a couple of months ago,” Denise said. “Years ago she had given me a special fluorite crystal pendant and for the past couple of years it had been missing. Turning the house topsy-turvy several times never produced the gem. I was distraught as my mom had had a special purpose in mind when she gave me the gem.”
One night Denise’s mother visited her in a dream. Denise told her mother she was upset that she couldn’t find the pendant and her mother promised to find it.
“When I got up the next morning and went into the kitchen for coffee, I spied something on the floor that hadn’t been there the night before,” Denise said. “It was my fluorite pendant.”
Denise called out to her boyfriend who was also surprised because he hadn’t seen the pendant there earlier.
“There was no other explanation for the sudden appearance of the stone other than Mother really did find the stone for me as promised,” Denise said. “I began to cry and said out loud, ‘Thanks Mom.’ I gazed up at her photo on the wall and I swear she winked at me.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
There Are Strange Things Over Kansas City (So Why Don't More People See Them?)
There are things in the sky – unidentified things. Some hovering, some flying, some triangular, some round.
The Mutual UFO Network takes hundreds of reports of UFOs each month. But maybe the strange part of these reports isn’t the people who see Unidentified Flying Objects; it’s the people who don’t see them.
Janice Vaughan of Des Moines, Iowa, was a Kansas City, Mo., teenager in 1986 when she and her mother were driving to the mall.
“We stopped at a red light,” Vaughan said. “Glancing out my window on the passenger side, I saw a huge silver disc with lights rotating around the middle hovering above the building on the northwest corner of Antioch and Englewood Road.”
The disc dwarfed the buildings at this busy intersection. It just hung there silently.
“I said something like, ‘Mom, look,’” she said. “We were both stunned by what we were seeing.”
While they watched, the object glided silently over the road and briefly hovered over a movie theater.
“Then it whooshed off to the west and disappeared from our sight behind some houses,” Vaughan said. “We turned right onto Englewood Road, abandoning our original errand, and drove around the neighborhoods hoping to see it again, but we didn’t find it.”
Then Vaughan and her mother drove home.
“We told my step-dad about it and watched the news that night for any mention of it,” she said.
But there were no news reports on the UFO that night or in the newspaper the next day. Vaughan doesn’t understand how no one else saw the object, but she knows she did.
“It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “If my mom hadn’t been with me I think I would have convinced myself by now that it didn’t really happen. Once in a while my mom and I will talk about it again, and I’ll ask her to tell me what she remembers about that day, just to verify my memories of it.”
Jim Johnson, Kansas City Section Director for the Mutual UFO Network said this type of sighting – a singular witness over a busy area – is all too common.
“Many of the reports I have received over the last decade-and-a-half with MUFON are from high-traffic areas,” Johnson said. “I was able to get to one of the scenes within an hour or so of the sighting event.”
The witness of this 1997 event, Johnson said, was convincing.
“Whatever she saw, she wasn’t making it up,” Johnson said. “(She) took me back to the locations where she turned off at Southwest Trafficway at 34th Street (another busy intersection) traveling north.”
The oblong object, roughly shaped like a rugby ball, moved slowly over a television tower then toward a second television tower about a mile away before it “blinked out.”
“It lasted a couple minutes,” Johnson said. “Her impression was that others were seeing it as well, as cars were slowing down and pulling to the right lane, but she was the only one who stopped.”
Like the other UFO sighting, there were no news reports about it the next day. So, why is it no one else saw these UFOs moving slowly over busy streets in the middle of the day?
“I have come to believe that in many cases, the people who are supposed to see flying objects, see them repeatedly, and the rest of us see them rarely, if at all,” Johnson said. “Keep in mind that most people aren’t looking for them and don’t want to get involved even if they do see them. The rest of us keep looking up.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The Mutual UFO Network takes hundreds of reports of UFOs each month. But maybe the strange part of these reports isn’t the people who see Unidentified Flying Objects; it’s the people who don’t see them.
Janice Vaughan of Des Moines, Iowa, was a Kansas City, Mo., teenager in 1986 when she and her mother were driving to the mall.
“We stopped at a red light,” Vaughan said. “Glancing out my window on the passenger side, I saw a huge silver disc with lights rotating around the middle hovering above the building on the northwest corner of Antioch and Englewood Road.”
The disc dwarfed the buildings at this busy intersection. It just hung there silently.
“I said something like, ‘Mom, look,’” she said. “We were both stunned by what we were seeing.”
While they watched, the object glided silently over the road and briefly hovered over a movie theater.
“Then it whooshed off to the west and disappeared from our sight behind some houses,” Vaughan said. “We turned right onto Englewood Road, abandoning our original errand, and drove around the neighborhoods hoping to see it again, but we didn’t find it.”
Then Vaughan and her mother drove home.
“We told my step-dad about it and watched the news that night for any mention of it,” she said.
But there were no news reports on the UFO that night or in the newspaper the next day. Vaughan doesn’t understand how no one else saw the object, but she knows she did.
“It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. “If my mom hadn’t been with me I think I would have convinced myself by now that it didn’t really happen. Once in a while my mom and I will talk about it again, and I’ll ask her to tell me what she remembers about that day, just to verify my memories of it.”
Jim Johnson, Kansas City Section Director for the Mutual UFO Network said this type of sighting – a singular witness over a busy area – is all too common.
“Many of the reports I have received over the last decade-and-a-half with MUFON are from high-traffic areas,” Johnson said. “I was able to get to one of the scenes within an hour or so of the sighting event.”
The witness of this 1997 event, Johnson said, was convincing.
“Whatever she saw, she wasn’t making it up,” Johnson said. “(She) took me back to the locations where she turned off at Southwest Trafficway at 34th Street (another busy intersection) traveling north.”
The oblong object, roughly shaped like a rugby ball, moved slowly over a television tower then toward a second television tower about a mile away before it “blinked out.”
“It lasted a couple minutes,” Johnson said. “Her impression was that others were seeing it as well, as cars were slowing down and pulling to the right lane, but she was the only one who stopped.”
Like the other UFO sighting, there were no news reports about it the next day. So, why is it no one else saw these UFOs moving slowly over busy streets in the middle of the day?
“I have come to believe that in many cases, the people who are supposed to see flying objects, see them repeatedly, and the rest of us see them rarely, if at all,” Johnson said. “Keep in mind that most people aren’t looking for them and don’t want to get involved even if they do see them. The rest of us keep looking up.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Chased Shadow Man With a Gun
Light from the television bathed the bedroom in a soft, white glow, the sound of Conan O’Brien’s monologue keeping Scott Donaldson company.
“It was in late August of 2003 on a average night,” Donaldson of Price, Utah said. His wife lie sleeping next to him, his children asleep in other rooms.
But the night slowly turned grim as Donaldson realized there was someone else in the room.
“I noticed in the corner shadows of the closet area something dark begin to move,” he said. “It did not scare me at first because I thought it may be a cat. But, as I looked more it was a tall shadow in the shape of a man with a hat.”
As the Shadow Man began to slowly snake its way toward the bed, the flickering TV betraying its presence, Donaldson felt not frightened, but curious.
“For the first few minutes it was like a game,” he said. “The presence was trying to move slowly. It was like as if he did not know if I was asleep or not.”
The entity’s steps brought it within inches of the bed, then Donaldson’s curiosity changed to fear.
“I was not scared until it came next to my bed and was looking over my wife,” he said. “She was sleeping. It would then look at me. It would move as if it did not want to be noticed.”
Even though the entity was so close, Donaldson couldn’t make out its face, only blackness and the hat.
“The angle of the hat gave me clues on which way it was looking,” he said. “It started to move to my side of the bed and I kinda of moved. My instinct was to grab the gun.”
Donaldson, a youth corrections officer, keeps a handgun next to his bed for safety.
“When I moved it was to position myself to be able to quickly grab and load the gun,” he said. “That is when it stopped and did not move for about 45 seconds. I stared hard at the Shadow Man but I could not see his eyes.”
Then the thing moved back toward the shadowy corner near the closet.
“For a moment I thought it was going to go back from where it came from, but it started to head towards my children’s room,” Donaldson said. “That is when my threshold could no longer give into the curiosity.”
He grabbed the gun, slapped in a loaded clip and leapt from the bed.
“It ran into the darkness before I could hit the bedroom lights,” Donaldson said. “It was like watching ‘Cops.’ I woke up my wife and checked the closet with my gun in raised.”
Donaldson’s wife screamed, asking what was happening, but he wasn’t ready to answer.
“I told her to grab the phone but not call 911 yet,” he said. “Nothing in the closet. I checked the kid's room and awoke them. I checked every inch of the house.”
All doors were locked, none of the movement-based security lights outside had been triggered and Donaldson could find no one in the house.
“My wife did not call 911,” he said. “I had to kind of lie to her and the kids about what had just happened because they were scared to death. I just told them that I thought someone was in the house but it was probably just a cat.”
But Donaldson knows it wasn’t a cat. Donaldson had seen a Shadow Person.
“Bottom line is that I did encounter what seems to be a Shadow Man,” he said. “I am open minded and observed what took place. I did not feel an evil presence or negativity. Just a curious figure who was looking interested in us.”
A few days later, Donaldson, also a musician, wrote and recorded a song about the experience. If you’re interested, you can hear Donaldson’s Shadow Man encounter set to music by e-mailing him at confusingadam@yahoo.com or going to www.myspace.com/confusingadam.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“It was in late August of 2003 on a average night,” Donaldson of Price, Utah said. His wife lie sleeping next to him, his children asleep in other rooms.
But the night slowly turned grim as Donaldson realized there was someone else in the room.
“I noticed in the corner shadows of the closet area something dark begin to move,” he said. “It did not scare me at first because I thought it may be a cat. But, as I looked more it was a tall shadow in the shape of a man with a hat.”
As the Shadow Man began to slowly snake its way toward the bed, the flickering TV betraying its presence, Donaldson felt not frightened, but curious.
“For the first few minutes it was like a game,” he said. “The presence was trying to move slowly. It was like as if he did not know if I was asleep or not.”
The entity’s steps brought it within inches of the bed, then Donaldson’s curiosity changed to fear.
“I was not scared until it came next to my bed and was looking over my wife,” he said. “She was sleeping. It would then look at me. It would move as if it did not want to be noticed.”
Even though the entity was so close, Donaldson couldn’t make out its face, only blackness and the hat.
“The angle of the hat gave me clues on which way it was looking,” he said. “It started to move to my side of the bed and I kinda of moved. My instinct was to grab the gun.”
Donaldson, a youth corrections officer, keeps a handgun next to his bed for safety.
“When I moved it was to position myself to be able to quickly grab and load the gun,” he said. “That is when it stopped and did not move for about 45 seconds. I stared hard at the Shadow Man but I could not see his eyes.”
Then the thing moved back toward the shadowy corner near the closet.
“For a moment I thought it was going to go back from where it came from, but it started to head towards my children’s room,” Donaldson said. “That is when my threshold could no longer give into the curiosity.”
He grabbed the gun, slapped in a loaded clip and leapt from the bed.
“It ran into the darkness before I could hit the bedroom lights,” Donaldson said. “It was like watching ‘Cops.’ I woke up my wife and checked the closet with my gun in raised.”
Donaldson’s wife screamed, asking what was happening, but he wasn’t ready to answer.
“I told her to grab the phone but not call 911 yet,” he said. “Nothing in the closet. I checked the kid's room and awoke them. I checked every inch of the house.”
All doors were locked, none of the movement-based security lights outside had been triggered and Donaldson could find no one in the house.
“My wife did not call 911,” he said. “I had to kind of lie to her and the kids about what had just happened because they were scared to death. I just told them that I thought someone was in the house but it was probably just a cat.”
But Donaldson knows it wasn’t a cat. Donaldson had seen a Shadow Person.
“Bottom line is that I did encounter what seems to be a Shadow Man,” he said. “I am open minded and observed what took place. I did not feel an evil presence or negativity. Just a curious figure who was looking interested in us.”
A few days later, Donaldson, also a musician, wrote and recorded a song about the experience. If you’re interested, you can hear Donaldson’s Shadow Man encounter set to music by e-mailing him at confusingadam@yahoo.com or going to www.myspace.com/confusingadam.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Fishing With Grandpa -- One Last Time
Bennett Spring in south-central Missouri pours 100 million gallons of fresh water into the tree-lined Spring Branch each day on it’s way to the nearby Niangua River. Spring Branch is stocked with rainbow trout for the thousands of fly fishermen who visit the spring each year.
“It is absolutely breathtaking,” said hunter and fisherman Chris Black, of Park Hills, Mo. “The water comes straight out of the ground, boils up from the unknown depths below, and fills this magnificent spring full of water.”
But in 1998, something other than fishermen visited Bennett Spring – something otherworldly Black wants to believe is true.
Black fishes at the spring a couple of times a summer, picking a three-day weekend and “basically making a holiday out of it.”
“This one particular weekend was no different than the rest,” he said. “I called and made my reservations like I normally do, got to my room, dumped all my junk, and went fishing.”
At the spring, Black put on his waders and stood in front of one of his favorite fishing holes. After a while, he realized he wasn’t alone.
“While standing there, fishing but not catching, an elderly man walks up beside me,” Black said. “I really didn't think that much about it at the time because I rarely look around. I'm so focused on catching fish, that I don't care who's around me, I just do my own thing.”
But as the man stood next to him in complete silence, Black grew curious.
“As I fished, I kept looking a little further to my right and finally got a glimpse of the old guy next to me,” he said. “My knees buckled, and I almost went down in the water.”
The man standing next to Black was his grandfather, or at least looked like his grandfather – his late grandfather.
“He was the exact spitting image,” Black said. “I could not believe what I was seeing.”
“Are you OK?” the old man asked.
“I stammered for a moment, I guess with my jaw wide open,” Black said. “I murmured a ‘yes, I'm fine.’ Then we began to talk.”
Black asked the man about his family, where he was from, and what he had done in his life, but the old man didn’t answer – he just gave Black his name.
“I came up with nothing,” Black said. “The strange thing about this whole incident was that he said that his name was Walter Black.”
Black’s late grandfather’s name was Walter Black.
“That really threw me,” he said. “I went through the whole family routine, and he didn’t know anyone in the family.”
Eventually the old man just walked away, leaving Black to stand in the stream alone.
“At the start of this, I (felt) that it was a beautiful day, and what a day that I would love to spend with my grandpa,” Black said. “I guess maybe I had.”
Black walked back to his truck, silent tears washing his cheeks.
“I had to go sit in my truck for a minute and contemplate what the hell had just happened,” he said. “Had he visited me? I would like to think so.”
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“It is absolutely breathtaking,” said hunter and fisherman Chris Black, of Park Hills, Mo. “The water comes straight out of the ground, boils up from the unknown depths below, and fills this magnificent spring full of water.”
But in 1998, something other than fishermen visited Bennett Spring – something otherworldly Black wants to believe is true.
Black fishes at the spring a couple of times a summer, picking a three-day weekend and “basically making a holiday out of it.”
“This one particular weekend was no different than the rest,” he said. “I called and made my reservations like I normally do, got to my room, dumped all my junk, and went fishing.”
At the spring, Black put on his waders and stood in front of one of his favorite fishing holes. After a while, he realized he wasn’t alone.
“While standing there, fishing but not catching, an elderly man walks up beside me,” Black said. “I really didn't think that much about it at the time because I rarely look around. I'm so focused on catching fish, that I don't care who's around me, I just do my own thing.”
But as the man stood next to him in complete silence, Black grew curious.
“As I fished, I kept looking a little further to my right and finally got a glimpse of the old guy next to me,” he said. “My knees buckled, and I almost went down in the water.”
The man standing next to Black was his grandfather, or at least looked like his grandfather – his late grandfather.
“He was the exact spitting image,” Black said. “I could not believe what I was seeing.”
“Are you OK?” the old man asked.
“I stammered for a moment, I guess with my jaw wide open,” Black said. “I murmured a ‘yes, I'm fine.’ Then we began to talk.”
Black asked the man about his family, where he was from, and what he had done in his life, but the old man didn’t answer – he just gave Black his name.
“I came up with nothing,” Black said. “The strange thing about this whole incident was that he said that his name was Walter Black.”
Black’s late grandfather’s name was Walter Black.
“That really threw me,” he said. “I went through the whole family routine, and he didn’t know anyone in the family.”
Eventually the old man just walked away, leaving Black to stand in the stream alone.
“At the start of this, I (felt) that it was a beautiful day, and what a day that I would love to spend with my grandpa,” Black said. “I guess maybe I had.”
Black walked back to his truck, silent tears washing his cheeks.
“I had to go sit in my truck for a minute and contemplate what the hell had just happened,” he said. “Had he visited me? I would like to think so.”
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Voices in the Darkness
The air at the California ranch was calm the night Darren Hullstrunk took a group of friends to his family’s property near Fresno.
The calmness didn’t last.
“We’ve all heard, seen, felt something in this ranch house and heard all the stories from the parents and how scared they have gotten,” he said.
Darren and friends who’ve been at the ranch before – Brittany, Audrey, Mike, Mark, and Mike’s brother Richie – pulled down the drive and arrived at the ranch house on the evening of June 22. The night had started to cool, but the trip, to this point, was normal.
“Audrey, Richie and I went for a walk and we went the same route the walk always goes,” Darren said. “We got back to the house and we all stood outside because it was cooler then the house was.”
Richie sensed something was wrong, but nobody realized that – yet.
“Richie zoned out and stared at a large dog statue for almost a good five to 10 minutes,” Darren said. “It wasn’t ‘til Mark had moved the statue that Richie snapped out of it and looked behind him. He didn’t know what happened.”
Hungry, the group moved inside and discussed dinner. The women volunteered to go to the grocery store.
“As they left, Richie suddenly sprung up and pulled up a blind and just stared outside,” Darren said. “Mike moved his finger in the way and Richie just pulled it down.”
Darren ran outside and looked in the direction Richie was staring but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He could, however, still see Richie staring out the window.
“His head went to an angle as if he was following something, but nothing was there,” Darren said. He went back inside and everyone was now looking out the window. “Mike opened the blinds fully and we all looked out and saw nothing.”
Then Richie told what he’d seen.
“Richie said he saw a shadow that ran towards the car,” Darren said. “But didn’t know if it followed the (women) or went into the grape vineyard or the other side of the road.”
As the men sat around the living room, Richie “zoned out” again.
“This time as if he was trying to write out something with his finger,” Darren said. “He snapped out and didn’t remember a thing.”
They called Richie’s family to pick him up, but didn’t know the depth of Richie’s fear until he got on the telephone.
“As he was talking on the phone they told him to say a prayer over and over,” Darren said. “After the first time he said it, he got a headache and said he couldn’t say it again. He started crying and saying he has to get out of here, it’s going to get him.”
What it was, Richie didn’t say, but when they walked Richie outside to Mike’s car, he panicked.
“Richie started freaking out,” Darren said. “‘It’s out here, it’s going to get me,’ he went on.”
Darren looked around them, but saw nothing.
Mike took Richie home and as soon as they drove off the property, Richie felt better, but couldn’t remember anything that had happened. But, before he left, Richie told everyone about the voices.
“He said if he didn’t leave it was going to kill all of us and it didn’t want him or Mike there,” Darren said. “Richie told Mike he was hearing two voices, the evil one and another one telling him how to counter the evil. He made Mike promise to leave a light on.”
By the time Mike and Richie left, Audrey and Brittany had returned. After supper, Darren and Audrey went outside.
“We had noticed (earlier) there was no moon outside and no clouds with only a few stars,” he said. “When Mike got back there was a moon and it was blood red.”
Although, unnerved, Darren is fascinated by the encounter.
“I’m going to be checking the area for sightings for the next few weeks,” he said. “I want to see if I can find out what happened.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The calmness didn’t last.
“We’ve all heard, seen, felt something in this ranch house and heard all the stories from the parents and how scared they have gotten,” he said.
Darren and friends who’ve been at the ranch before – Brittany, Audrey, Mike, Mark, and Mike’s brother Richie – pulled down the drive and arrived at the ranch house on the evening of June 22. The night had started to cool, but the trip, to this point, was normal.
“Audrey, Richie and I went for a walk and we went the same route the walk always goes,” Darren said. “We got back to the house and we all stood outside because it was cooler then the house was.”
Richie sensed something was wrong, but nobody realized that – yet.
“Richie zoned out and stared at a large dog statue for almost a good five to 10 minutes,” Darren said. “It wasn’t ‘til Mark had moved the statue that Richie snapped out of it and looked behind him. He didn’t know what happened.”
Hungry, the group moved inside and discussed dinner. The women volunteered to go to the grocery store.
“As they left, Richie suddenly sprung up and pulled up a blind and just stared outside,” Darren said. “Mike moved his finger in the way and Richie just pulled it down.”
Darren ran outside and looked in the direction Richie was staring but saw nothing out of the ordinary. He could, however, still see Richie staring out the window.
“His head went to an angle as if he was following something, but nothing was there,” Darren said. He went back inside and everyone was now looking out the window. “Mike opened the blinds fully and we all looked out and saw nothing.”
Then Richie told what he’d seen.
“Richie said he saw a shadow that ran towards the car,” Darren said. “But didn’t know if it followed the (women) or went into the grape vineyard or the other side of the road.”
As the men sat around the living room, Richie “zoned out” again.
“This time as if he was trying to write out something with his finger,” Darren said. “He snapped out and didn’t remember a thing.”
They called Richie’s family to pick him up, but didn’t know the depth of Richie’s fear until he got on the telephone.
“As he was talking on the phone they told him to say a prayer over and over,” Darren said. “After the first time he said it, he got a headache and said he couldn’t say it again. He started crying and saying he has to get out of here, it’s going to get him.”
What it was, Richie didn’t say, but when they walked Richie outside to Mike’s car, he panicked.
“Richie started freaking out,” Darren said. “‘It’s out here, it’s going to get me,’ he went on.”
Darren looked around them, but saw nothing.
Mike took Richie home and as soon as they drove off the property, Richie felt better, but couldn’t remember anything that had happened. But, before he left, Richie told everyone about the voices.
“He said if he didn’t leave it was going to kill all of us and it didn’t want him or Mike there,” Darren said. “Richie told Mike he was hearing two voices, the evil one and another one telling him how to counter the evil. He made Mike promise to leave a light on.”
By the time Mike and Richie left, Audrey and Brittany had returned. After supper, Darren and Audrey went outside.
“We had noticed (earlier) there was no moon outside and no clouds with only a few stars,” he said. “When Mike got back there was a moon and it was blood red.”
Although, unnerved, Darren is fascinated by the encounter.
“I’m going to be checking the area for sightings for the next few weeks,” he said. “I want to see if I can find out what happened.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
The Haunting of Roberta Hall
The red brick sorority house, Roberta Hall, sits at the east edge of the Northwest Missouri State University campus in Maryville, a sea of well-trimmed grass stretching out under some of the 1,300 trees that shade the university.
Roberta Hall wasn’t always a sorority house, and it wasn’t always called Roberta. In the early days it was the only women’s residence hall on campus and was simply known as Residence Hall. That changed after the explosion.
Railroad tracks once ran behind the building and, on April 28, 1951, a gasoline storage tank on the tracks exploded, sending a steel beam crashing into the building and causing a fire. Thirty women were injured, four of them critically, including a student named Roberta Steele.
“Roberta was in the shower when the explosion hit,” Cathy Palmer, archivist at Northwest, said. “She wouldn’t come out for help because she was naked.”
Roberta died a year and a half later and, over the decades, her spirit is said to haunt the building.
Linda Beatty of Kansas City attended Northwest from 1984 to 1988 and lived in Roberta Hall in 1987.
“I was on the first floor,” Linda said. “(My roommate and I) were just lying there watching TV … and we heard the crickety old doorknob move. We thought someone was coming in.”
Linda even said, “come in,” but no one did – and the doorknob kept turning.
“I got frustrated and opened the door and there was no one there,” she said.
Then Linda turned the doorknob on the hallway side of the door. That doorknob moved. The doorknob inside the room did not.
“Somebody was moving the doorknob on the inside,” she said.
Jane Costello went to school with Roberta and thought the legend of the haunting was fitting.
“She was lots of fun,” Jane said in a summer 2000 interview for Northwest’s Oral History program. Jane died in 2005. “She’s being credited with the scaring – the haunting of Roberta Hall – and I had to laugh because you know if anybody’s going to do it, it would be Roberta. She had a really terrific sense of humor.”
Sarah Wayman, who graduated from Northwest in 2005, was a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority and lived in Roberta Hall from fall 2002 to spring 2003. Sarah said that although she only experienced flickering lights and strange noises while she lived there, Robert got the blame for anything out of the ordinary
“Anything wrong that happened was blamed on Roberta,” Sarah said. “We discovered one morning that, hey, we can’t get in our bathroom. We called each other saying ‘did you lock the door to the bathroom?’”
They couldn’t have, because the doors locked on the inside.
“We blamed it on Roberta.”
Towels fall off their racks in Robert Hall, pictures fall off the wall, stereos turn on and off, and drawers fly from dressers.
Amanda Root, former president of the Phi Mu sorority, lived in Roberta Hall for two years before graduating in 2006.
“I was looking in the mirror getting ready and I saw my roommate’s drawer shoot out of the dresser and it really kind of scared me,” she said. “I turned and was like ‘what the hell was that?’ I grabbed my bag and left.”
But the flying drawer wasn’t enough to prepare her for an unwelcome late-night visitor.
“I had gotten up because I’d heard someone walking around and I thought it was my roommate, but I looked over and she was in bed,” Amanda said. “I hadn’t encountered anything like that but when I heard somebody walking around, it really freaked me out. Our floor is really squeaky. I was really scared. I put the covers over my head.”
Although Roberta has never harmed anyone, many sorority sisters have tried many things to keep her out of their rooms to no avail. Robert continues to make herself known to residents of the hall that bears her name.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Roberta Hall wasn’t always a sorority house, and it wasn’t always called Roberta. In the early days it was the only women’s residence hall on campus and was simply known as Residence Hall. That changed after the explosion.
Railroad tracks once ran behind the building and, on April 28, 1951, a gasoline storage tank on the tracks exploded, sending a steel beam crashing into the building and causing a fire. Thirty women were injured, four of them critically, including a student named Roberta Steele.
“Roberta was in the shower when the explosion hit,” Cathy Palmer, archivist at Northwest, said. “She wouldn’t come out for help because she was naked.”
Roberta died a year and a half later and, over the decades, her spirit is said to haunt the building.
Linda Beatty of Kansas City attended Northwest from 1984 to 1988 and lived in Roberta Hall in 1987.
“I was on the first floor,” Linda said. “(My roommate and I) were just lying there watching TV … and we heard the crickety old doorknob move. We thought someone was coming in.”
Linda even said, “come in,” but no one did – and the doorknob kept turning.
“I got frustrated and opened the door and there was no one there,” she said.
Then Linda turned the doorknob on the hallway side of the door. That doorknob moved. The doorknob inside the room did not.
“Somebody was moving the doorknob on the inside,” she said.
Jane Costello went to school with Roberta and thought the legend of the haunting was fitting.
“She was lots of fun,” Jane said in a summer 2000 interview for Northwest’s Oral History program. Jane died in 2005. “She’s being credited with the scaring – the haunting of Roberta Hall – and I had to laugh because you know if anybody’s going to do it, it would be Roberta. She had a really terrific sense of humor.”
Sarah Wayman, who graduated from Northwest in 2005, was a member of the Sigma Kappa sorority and lived in Roberta Hall from fall 2002 to spring 2003. Sarah said that although she only experienced flickering lights and strange noises while she lived there, Robert got the blame for anything out of the ordinary
“Anything wrong that happened was blamed on Roberta,” Sarah said. “We discovered one morning that, hey, we can’t get in our bathroom. We called each other saying ‘did you lock the door to the bathroom?’”
They couldn’t have, because the doors locked on the inside.
“We blamed it on Roberta.”
Towels fall off their racks in Robert Hall, pictures fall off the wall, stereos turn on and off, and drawers fly from dressers.
Amanda Root, former president of the Phi Mu sorority, lived in Roberta Hall for two years before graduating in 2006.
“I was looking in the mirror getting ready and I saw my roommate’s drawer shoot out of the dresser and it really kind of scared me,” she said. “I turned and was like ‘what the hell was that?’ I grabbed my bag and left.”
But the flying drawer wasn’t enough to prepare her for an unwelcome late-night visitor.
“I had gotten up because I’d heard someone walking around and I thought it was my roommate, but I looked over and she was in bed,” Amanda said. “I hadn’t encountered anything like that but when I heard somebody walking around, it really freaked me out. Our floor is really squeaky. I was really scared. I put the covers over my head.”
Although Roberta has never harmed anyone, many sorority sisters have tried many things to keep her out of their rooms to no avail. Robert continues to make herself known to residents of the hall that bears her name.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
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