Ghosts at old Crawfordsville hospital?

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WLFI) - Night falls on the former Culver Union Hospital on Binford Street, just a few blocks from downtown Crawfordsville.  With the equipment out, the work of the Wabash Paranormal Research Society is just beginning.

Lead investigator James Holsclaw said the main building was constructed in 1902 by the Sisters of St. Francis and closed in the early 1980s.

"It's very, very creepy," said Holsclaw.  "Just walking around the outside, knowing there was a morgue, a psych ward, a nursery, all in the same building."

Legend has it that a patient jumped from a front window and another person out a back window.

It may have been twilight outside, but it's pitch black in the basement during the initial walk-through.  Within minutes, a volunteer shows us a red mark on his back where he said he felt something push against him, even through his tactical vest.

Workers who are currently removing metal from the building to sell for scrap metal act as tour guides during the walk-through.  They report seeing strange shadows.  One even felt something tugging at his shorts so strongly, he won't go back.

"I'm kind of skeptical about it, what could happen," said Holsclaw.  "But I'm excited to get in here and crack down and see what we can find."

It starts with a flashlight placed on the ground of the morgue, set so any pressure turns it on.  The light flickers for several minutes.  But as investigators speak, at times, it appears to respond.

They ask to make the light very bright and it immediately turns does so.  

A few minutes later, Holsclaw said, "Shut it completely off if you want us to leave this area."  Exactly five seconds after he finished speaking, it did.

Holsclaw said of a dozen different places he's investigated, it's only the second time it's ever worked.  It makes him a believer of this hospital.

"I actually do because it was responding so quickly to our questions - 'turn it on, can you dim it for us, can you make it bright again, and then can you cut it completely off' - and it was just responding within five to ten seconds of us asking the question," he said.

Down the next hallway, a device called an ovilus starts to make noise.  It measures electromagnetic waves and uses a preprogrammed database of words to, at times, seem to have a conversation with the investigators.

Whether ghost or not, it's up for discussion.  Either way, there's one thing that everyone can agree on.

"When it actually was dark, it was really, really creepy in there," Holslaw said.  "You didn't know what to expect around each corner."

To learn more about the Wabash Paranormal Research Society, click here .