Castleton Spartan

Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Matthew Sargent Tom Gatta pans tha basement with one of Stacy Jones' video cameras

"Are you scared?" a male student asked a female friend. She just nodded, her arms tucked close to her chest.

Words seemed unnecessary; of course she was scared. Everyone was scared. It was about 10 p.m. on Wednesday Oct. 24 and there were a dozen students in the front hallway of the Old Chapel.

The building was warm, and felt like a place that had been waiting for its nightly visitors with an unsettling, quiet, patience. Leading the students was Stacey Jones, professional paranormal investigator, and for her the lonely chapel was just another day on the job.

The students felt otherwise.

Jones was on campus to give a presentation on paranormal investigation, and later to conduct an investigation of the chapel. She decided to invite some willing students to tag along.

She handed out digital cameras, she set up infrared cameras in the dark hall upstairs, and she gave students audio recorders,

"You're asking any spirits to communicate to you through these," she instructed. "Guide them to speak into the red light. They probably have no idea what one of these things is."

Are there spirits in the Old Chapel?

That was the question the students and Jones had set out to answer, and if there was anything dwelling in the chapel from beyond the grave, they were going to find it. Everyone broke off into groups. Jones remained by her computer and wirelessly monitored the cameras she set up on the second floor of the chapel.

The groups were generally small, three or four students, each with a different kind of technology for 'hunting' ghosts. Some spoke meekly into the voice recorders, "I want to know who you are? What is your name?" they would ask the silent spirits.

Up and down the dark staircases the students traveled, cameras snapping from down the hall, in other rooms, could be heard throughout the chapel. Melissa Paradee was alone in the chapel's conference room. A large table surrounded by glass cases held bits of Castleton's dark past. She read the ancient newspaper articles, some with headlines like, "grave robbers at Castleton."

One told the story of the mutilation of a stolen woman's body. After her corpse was robbed, she was decapitated to prevent any sort of police identification.

Continued...

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