Hospital Hauntings

By Kristina Hacker 

khacker@turlockjournal.com 209-634-9141, ext. 2004

POSTED:  October 29, 2010 8:11 p.m.

The Journal accompanied American Paranormal Investigations during their trip to the Sierra Building in October 2008. The following is the story published about that investigation.

Back in the days of flappers and Model T Fords, when a local boy fell out of a tree and broke his leg the family would make their way to the Lillian Collins Hospital.

The Lillian Collins Hospital, originally located in the Sierra Building at 331 E. Main St., took care of Turlockers’ injuries and ills in the early 1920s. Although today the Sierra Building houses Coldwell Banker Endsley & Associates, some of the hospital’s visitors and staff may not have left.

When Bob Endsley bought the two-story downtown property in 1994 he remodeled the downstairs into a modern office, but left the upstairs untouched. Aside from a few rooms used for storage, the over 20 vacant upstairs rooms that were once used for the hospital and then professional offices, only saw visitors during the annual haunted house event put on by local charities.

Turlock Downtown Property Owners’ Association director Trina Walley remembered how “spooky” it felt setting up the rooms for the haunted house that ran from 1994 until sometime in the early 2000s.

“One year the kids were getting the haunted house ready and left for a few minutes. When they came back all their paint cans and stuff had been moved. When they asked the other groups working in different rooms, they said they didn’t know anything about the stuff being moved,” Walley said.

Other unexplained happenings such as event organizers feeling sudden cold breezes in the hallways and “uncomfortable” feelings when entering certain rooms, were also reported.

Although Endsley never experienced any unusual events in the rare times he ventured upstairs, he has heard footsteps coming from the second story when no one was supposed to up there and has had the security motion sensors go off for no known reason.

Due to these reports of strange occurrences, Endsley sought the expertise of American Paranormal Investigations.

The API team, based out of Sacramento, recently investigated the Turlock Mercantile and was more than happy to check out another downtown Turlock landmark building.

After a preliminary interview, the API team brought their investigators and equipment to the Main Street site for an in-depth look at what might be causing the unexplained happenings. Fourteen investigators, along with a film crew shooting footage for an upcoming Web series based on API, went from room to room taking electro-magnetic field and radiation readings. Photographs were taken of every corner of every room, along with audio recordings. Just as they did at the Mercantile building, API asked questions such as “Is anyone here with us?” while recording and waited for a response. Later on the team listened to the audio recordings noting any electronic voice phenomena. Electronic voice phenomena are voices or noises that cannot be heard at the time they were recorded, but after using a computer program to amplify higher and lower frequencies can be heard.

API investigators also photographed every room and reviewed the pictures taken for any anomalies such as orbs, shadows (when none should be present) and unexplained light. Two sensitives walked through the building and gave their impressions while a team of debunkers investigated looking for natural causes for unexplained happenings. After more than seven hours of investigating, API returned to Sacramento to review their evidence.

What they found was a host of paranormal activity.

Every picture taken by each of the 14 investigators showed multiple bright orbs in motion which, according to API Case Manager and Lead Investigator Ann Overhiser, corresponded with personal experiences. They also captured on video a sudden rise in electro-magnetic field readings after an investigator asked for any spirits in the area to step closer to the EMF device. Overhiser also said that the Geiger counter readings they took fluctuated in different rooms going from zero to 17, then back to zero within a few minutes in the same spot.

The most incredible evidence API captured was an audio recording of a woman singing a lullaby in French.

“The voice was so beautiful,” Overhiser said. “It sounds like a Florence Nightingale voice.”

The recording of the lullaby lasts 11 seconds and was recorded by an investigator who was alone in the room at the time.

“It was amazing to me,” Overhiser said. “Things never go on for that long. I went through (the recording) a couple of times because I just couldn’t believe it. Nobody in our group can speak French or sing like that, which gives the recording more credibility.”

After the lullaby, a different woman’s voice is heard saying “Mr. Watson?” followed by a male voice saying “Huh?”

Other sounds that API recorded and view as paranormal include a whisper heard at the beginning of every electronic voice phenomena session and footsteps that sounded to the investigators as if someone was walking down the hallway, and a male voice saying “behind you.”

Several investigators reported seeing shadow people throughout the building. Others found themselves suddenly feeling sick, a phenomenon that went away when the investigators went downstairs.

The API debunking team came up with their own evidence including many areas that allowed for drafts to go through the building and places of water damage. Due to the debunkers’ findings, Overhiser does not give any paranormal credibility to reports of investigators feeling cold spots or sudden breezes.

API’s overall impressions of the Sierra Building are that it has quite a bit of residual activity, as well as intelligent spirits in residence.

“On tape, it sounds like a hospital in the 1920s,” Overhiser said.

The fact that API found the upstairs of his building alive with paranormal activity doesn’t bother Endsley.

“I find it intriguing,” he said. “It’s nice to know the upstairs is not totally empty. I have no negative feelings about it.”

To contact Kristina Hacker, e-mail khacker@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2004.