Kindred Spirits

This has always been a haunted space.

You know the phrase if these walls could talk?

- Mm-hmm. - They want to talk.

Someone hanged in this space?

Something trying to get in this door. Oh, wow.

And it's so loud. They're screaming bloody murder.

- I summon the past. - Yep.

It's obvious what they were trying to do.

You've got old people, you've got sick,

you've got bat **** crazy people.

Who's down there?

Look on the right side.

- Oh, what the ****? - Whoa.

Bruni: The dead want a voice.

We just want to help this family.

Berry: The living need our help.

Have you always been here?

He was watching already.

wow, we're in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, yeah. That building is large.

There it is. Randolph county infirmary.

We're talking about a building that stood for 120 years.

That's incredible.

Hundreds of people were brought to this building

because there was no hope for them.

They had no money. They had nowhere to go. Right.

Some of them were sick, some of them were elderly. Yeah.

Some of them were kids just dropped off at the doorstep. Mm-hmm, yeah.

Most people, they came in here

and I'd say probably over half of them died within its walls.

there's even a unmarked, like, pauper cemetery in the back. Mm.

So there's like 50 or 60 graves back there with no markings.

These were people that were unclaimed.

Oh, my god. Yeah, isn't that wild to think about?

Yeah, that's insane.

Dan, who is the owner has known

this has always been a haunted space.

They've been investigating here for years.

What's changed is that in recent months,

there's been something a little bit darker happening.

There was an incident where these kids felt

as though something was trying to bang down the door.

So these poor little girls are terrified.

They won't go back in the building. Yeah.

And they found what they believe to be sigils -- yeah.

...Which are basically, like, markings

that someone put on the walls and window sills.

He's wondering if if this kind of uptick in activity

has something to do with those.

But I mean, that's just one aspect of the investigation.

We have hundreds of possibilities

as far as who could be haunting the place -- right.

...And it's just -- we're gonna have to figure out

like who's causing the more dark, scary activity.

okay, should we go and meet dann?

Yeah, let's go meet dann.

- hi. - Hello.

- I'm amy. - Nice to meet you.

- Adam. Nice to meet you, sir. - Nice to meet you.

- Wow, this place is -- - it's crazy.

- ...Incredible. - Yeah.

So when did you buy this building

and why did you buy this building?

I bought it about three years ago.

And I kept driving by, seeing it slowly deteriorate.

So I called one of the county commissioners

and they said "well, if you have a good plan,

they'd be interested in selling it."

I told him "I want to leave it as-is."

and you don't have to destroy the inside. Mm-hmm.

You can leave the inside and outside as-is

and then you can bring kids in and stuff like that

and say this is the way they used to live.

- Yeah. - You're preserving history.

- Yes. Right. - Mm-hmm.

Did you have any idea it was gonna come with ghosts?

I didn't know until I had an experience in the basement.

You know the phrase, if these walls could talk. Mm-hmm.

They want to talk.

All right, so explain to us the building

that we're standing in right now.

- It was completed in 1899. - All right.

58,000 square feet.

- Wow. - Wow. Okay.

It ran as multi uses.

- So it used to be an asylum -- - mm-hmm.

...An infirmary,

and then later on it just kind of became a poor farm as well.

A lot of families were raised here.

Oh...

And then retirement home.

Okay.

I mean, this seems to me

like a typical, you know, turn of the century house.

the front part was where the caretakers stay,

the whole family. - Oh.

And if you notice how from the doors back -- uh-huh.

...What a difference once you go through there. Right.

Right, suddenly you're in a hospital -- 1899.

now what's this on the wall right here?

That we found up in the attic.

What is it?

That is a wooden leg.

Oh, okay.

- And it's original. - Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And is this connected to it or is this a cane?

That's a cane.

- So that's separate. - Was that found with it?

And that was found in the attic, too. Oh, so that was together.

I mean, I feel like they probably

belong to the same person. - Could have.

That would be my hunch.

- That's really interesting. - That is incredible.

- Yeah. - Okay.

All right, well, we'll follow you this way. Okay.

now this is ida gunkle's room.

- She was going crazy. - Mm-hmm.

To the point where they knew

they couldn't really do anything with her. Mm-hmm.

And the ones they can't really help anymore,

they put in the basement. - Right.

One day she asked for a broom to clean up her room. Mm-hmm.

She got some ticking off her bed.

It is how they used to soften the mattresses

underneath the mattresses in the day.

- Okay. - Oh, okay.

And tied the ticking around the broom that they got -- mm-hmm.

...The other round her neck and stuck the broom

up between the pipes like so. - Wow.

And then jumped off the bed.

Wow.

What are some of the things people have experiences in here?

You do get a sense of panicking.

And down here is where I had my experience.

I'm over here with my cellphone --

- mm-hmm. - Yeah.

...And I see somebody walking up behind me. Mm.

...And they walk up real quick.

I swear they're gonna hit me right in the back.

I just went to knock them off their feet like that.

And the person was gone.

- That's crazy. - Wow, okay.

You saw something so real and so, like, palpable

that you went to hit the person

to be like I'm gonna get them for trying to scare me.

Oh no, not scare me. I thought they -- ...Oh, to get you.

You thought you were, like, about to be attacked.

Get me in the back with a knife or hit me or something. Something.

I thought it was aggressive.

And then they just -- so they just disappeared.

- Wow. Okay. - Did you hear something?

Yeah, I heard like a footstep or something inside here.

That's where it came from.

And do you ever -- do you hear footsteps often here?

- All the time. - All the time?

I don't know how many people tell me

they hear somebody walking up behind them.

- Nobody there. - Yeah. Wow.

- So it's still happening. - Okay.

- We can head to the next spot. - Okay.

see all the rooms basically looked the same.

The women was on the north side

and then the south side's the men's.

Bruni: Oh, okay.

Down here we have the women's bathroom

where they found some symbols. - Mm-hmm.

And they were found down in here.

And I didn't think that other people

should be, you know, dealing with symbols. Mm-hmm.

So I just wiped them off.

- Okay. - Yeah.

They were really all over, all along here,

and you can still see it a little bit.

Oh, so they were all over that door? Kind of --

they're all over the place.

And is there anybody that,

like, would have pictures of them or...

Yes.

- Oh, yeah. - Oh, yeah. Look.

I've never anything like that. Mm-hmm.

This room had all along the doors -- really?

...The jams, just full.

Do you know who did it?

I'm not sure.

So what if the symbols that they're drawing

is supposed to see if they can summon up these spirits?

Looking at these weird markings that are around the building,

I don't know why someone would do that.

I don't know if they're trying to conjure up something,

but it's all about intention.

And we say that all the time.

Are we going into a place where someone has basically

put a negative intention on the space?

We just need to figure out what these markings are.

So this is a major point for us.

We have to come back and look more into like this, right?

And which was the room that the kids had their experience?

Over in this room here,

this would've been a family room type thing.

Okay. All right.