WINDBER

December 16, 2006

    It was a cold winter evening when several members of the Ghost Research Foundation went to Windber to investigate the Grand Midway Hotel owned by Blair Murphy.  Patty Wilson, the founder of our group, is the only person who knows the details of the site that we are going to investigate.  She does this so that hearing the stories before we work the site does not taint us investigators.

    I, as well as several others in the group, are sensitive and pick up feelings and impressions.  Others work strictly with the equipment.

    Blair took us on a tour of the hotel.  I began to feel that it was going to be an active night!  I like to write down my impressions and feelings when working on site, and that is what I did that night.  Several of the impressions that I felt were as follows:    

1. I felt a lot of female presence.  I instructed Blair to answer my questions with a “yes “or” no” so that he did not give me too much information.  I asked him if this  hotel was used by ladies of the evening at one time?  He said that it was. 
2. The second floor is very active.  The room that Blair uses as an office has a man in it that calls himself “the Professor.”  “The Professor” likes to visit Blair and check up on him, “The Professor” likes to stand in front of the bookcase in one particular spot and look at the books on the shelf.  I noted that the author of the books was Anne Rice.  Blair said that “The Professor” was once married to her. 
3. The next area that I found very interesting was the basement.  Blair, Scott Crownover and I went there so that  Scott could try for EVP.  As we moved deeper into the basement, I had an overwhelming feeling that at one time a body or bodies were buried there!

     As we left the basement and entered the back of the bar, I felt the presence of a man that haunts that area.  Later in the evening, Blair asked Linda Imler and I to check Room #3 on the second floor-- also referred to as the “Canopy Room.”  As Linda, Blair and I entered the room, I felt an intense cold, and was very uncomfortable!

    Throughout the hotel, Blair has several Halloween props in the rooms and hallways.  In this room there is a Ouija board leaning against the wall on the floor near a table.  I said to Blair, “The board is not just a prop, it has been used recently, hasn’t it?”

 
            Blair replied, “Yes, several weeks ago two girls that were staying in the room used it!”

            I told him that they should not have done that. 

     As I stood by the bed, the feelings of cold and an evil presence intensified!  It became so cold that I had to leave the room.  In the hallway Blair said that he could feel the cold radiating off of me.  He asked how many spirits were in the room.

            “Too many to count,” I replied.

     Linda was still in the room telling them to leave when suddenly one of them spoke through me and said, “We are not leaving!” 

      I reentered the room as Linda continued telling them to go.  I could feel them backing away, but they didn’t leave.

      As we were getting ready to leave the room, I placed my right hand on the closet door.  Blair said that the closet was empty.  I agreed, but the spirits entered the room through it.  I told him so.

     Linda and I both strongly urged Blair to get rid of the Ouija board.  These are only a few of my impressions of the hotel.  I feel that it is very active and requires further investigating.  

     At the end of the evening, Patty reviewed my notes, as well as Linda’s, and said that we hit on a lot of the things.  As Blair concluded the evening by telling us some of the stories about the hotel, he confirmed what I felt and sensed was real!

Charley Helsel —GRF Investigator