Capital Area Paranormal Society

I was on my phone scrolling down on Facebook, feeling agitated by the number of useless pushy ads, when I happened upon a blurb about the Indiana State Sanitarium that made me pause. It had been sold recently and the doors flung open for investigators. I consider it to be a paranormal playground, offering access to multiple buildings for those interested in the unknown. To say the property is enormous is an understatement.

Built in 1908, it was operated for many years as a tuberculosis hospital. It reopened in 1976 as a private mental hospital, the Lee Alan Bryant Healthcare Center. They expanded the facility even more by building a connecting nursing home. It was all suddenly shuttered in 2011, leaving behind an eerily sizable amount of equipment, patient information and personal property. With so much death and despair attached to the site over so many years, including murder and suicide, it takes no stretch of the imagination to believe it may be indeed haunted. Indiana has been a recurring destination for many of our most active paranormal investigations, and this seemed like it could be a perfect addition.

CAPS signed up for Monday, October 10th at 5pm, we would have access to the site until noon the next day. We elected to stay at a local Rockville hotel…excuse me…. motel the Sunday before so that we would all be well rested for the investigation. I’m not sure how much sleep Dan and Dave got, as their room seemed to be active with footsteps and a door opening and closing on its own…. (We may need to go back and investigate that motel at some point!)

Anyway, back to the sanitorium, we decided to get there a little earlier in case we got lost. Fortunately, it was easy to find. We were greeted by an onsite guide who was extremely gracious, willing to give us a tour of the site. The location is so massive that even the hour and a half tour could not cover it all.

During the initial tour of the Superintendent home, Dan saw a figure peeking out from a doorway in the basement, made his hair standing on end. We noticed a silver hose hanging down was swaying quite a bit but unsure what caused it since there didn’t seem to be a breeze coming through there. The video camera that was operating later that night did not capture a recurrence.

We opted to rent the sleeping rooms located in their commercial building, which would also work as our command center. It is the sole public building that is fully powered with electricity, meeting rooms, a kitchenette, and restrooms. Other paranormal groups that had used that space had experienced activity like walking into the women’s restroom and finding the faucet running. I hoped that would happen, but really wasn’t counting on it.

Since there were only four of us and so much ground to cover, Jim first took the car around the complex so he could get all our camera set up. We could then grab a quick dinner before hiking our way all around the estate. We decided to don white lab coats for this investigation as it would help us identify fellow investigators. In hindsight, considering how many people don’t like doctors…it may have been considered provoking!

While Jim and I were alone by the nursing home station, my flashlight suddenly went out, (even though I ‘d tested everything). I repeatedly pushed the on/off button; it was dead. When we moved from that spot however, to my surprise it suddenly started functioning again, but several minutes later, when I returned to the same area it went out again, at least it was more briefly that second time. While we were wrapping up for the night my camera also died while taking pictures in Adam’s Hall. It eventually came back, just like my flashlight in the Nursing Home.

We had a lot of K2 action on the fifth floor of the Mental health care building (Adam’s Hall), which seemed to be interacting with Jim and responded to his questions. We heard movement behind him as the meter was lighting up and at the same time the Ovilus Dave was holding said “Jim”. It reacted quite strongly to the moment when Jim asked if they wanted us to leave. It went to red, and we left…but reminded whoever they were that we would be back for the video camera. As we were leaving, I heard something walking behind me and a voice. The sound of someone following happened on several occasions throughout the night. I just kept hoping I wouldn’t turn around to see a Jack Nicholson lookalike or worse… Nurse Rached!

While Dave and I were on the top floor of the Administrative Building, we thought we heard some sort of conversation. Jim and Dan had already left us to go to the Superintendent home, so we knew it wasn’t them. Dave and I also heard a thumping noise and a female voice saying “Hello” a couple of times. Multiple times I saw a flickering white light at the end of the hall. Dave saw the same thing in a lower level. Later that night, as Jim and I were gathering equipment, we witnessed flashing light coming from that same area.

When we all met up again, we sat on the bench seating area at one end of the Nursing Home. We heard a very loud cracking noise next to us, but couldn’t figure out the cause. Shortly afterwards we heard a whispery voice and Dan heard what he described as a phone ringing.

We followed up by going to the dining area at the other end of the Nursing Home. While doing an EVP session there Dave and I both heard a screechy female voice yelling in the room. Dave also witnessed a floating light on the wall behind me. The recorder picked up what sounded like footsteps about the same time he saw the light.

The Adam’s Hall dining room is located a short walk from there. It reminded me more of a café. I sat on one end of the room with a door blocking my view to the other side where Dave, Dan and Jim were sitting. I heard several sounds on my end. One of the most interesting moments was when we all heard a tapping. Dan asked for them to do it again and he was knocking as an example for them…or so I thought! Turned out it was not Dan; he said he was going to but decided to wait because he thought he heard Dave starting to move. The tapping was very loud and clear, and Dave assured us…he hadn’t moved!

When we finally got back to the commercial building, I went into the women’s restroom. I was awestruck (and a bit giddy) to find the faucet was on! Knowing I was the only female using that bathroom that night, it was certainly a perfect ending to the investigation.

The Indiana State Sanitarium is indeed an amazing location; a labyrinth of connecting buildings, plus so many outbuilding locations, I simply don’t have time to describe them all. The only thing I would do differently would be to make sure I had some paranormal equipment running at the motel. So, Facebook you won this round… Actually, was something I was interested in…