Study Finds Ghost at N.C. Statehouse
The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 18, 2003; 9:48 AM
A haunted Statehouse? Paranormal researchers who set up shop in the state Capitol in November have released findings that include a sighting of a specter in Reconstruction-era clothing sitting in the third chair in the third row of the old House chambers.
Patty Ann Wilson of the Ghost Research Foundation documented the finding.
"I knew if I looked directly at him, he would disappear," Wilson said. "He wasn't in any way aggressive or threatening or scary."
The investigators also have photos of floating orbs of energy and a recorded whisper.
Durham's Rhine Research Center, one of the world's oldest institutions of paranormal study, invited Wilson and other ghost hunters to investigate suspected area haunts last year.
With their infrared video cameras, electromagnetic field detectors and thermal probes, they found enough to make longtime Capitol staffers suspect there might be something to the tales they've swapped of floorboards creaking and heavy doors squeaking.
"I don't know that I would say I'm a ghost-believer at this point," said Capitol historian Raymond Beck, "but there is some fairly compelling evidence that there is something paranormal going on here."