Paranormal investigation team searches campus for ghosts
By Joseph Roman Flis
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: Culture
On the nights of April 4 and 5, a paranormal investigation team conducted a search into UTC's well-documented haunted history, to see if evidence could be found to support the ghostly sightings in Hooper Hall and Patten Chapel.
Tennessee Paranormal Investigation Team is a group of private citizens, one of which is a UTC student, that has conducted several searches around various possible haunted locations in Tennessee, according to Joe McKeel, founder of the team.
According to McKeel, the team uses several devices to search for the paranormal: digital cameras, night-vision video cameras, digital voice recorders, infrared illuminators and an Electromagnetic Field Detector. He said they set up a command center where someone can monitor the video cameras during the investigation, and DVD recorders capture the video data from each camera.
"We are a debunking style team," McKeel said. "We are not out to prove a place is haunted. We are out to disprove."
According to Georgiana Kotarski, author of "Ghosts of the Southern Tennessee Valley," there have been several reports of strange happenings in Hooper Hall. She said faculty, custodians and campus police have witnessed abnormal activity in the empty building at night such as doors slamming, footsteps, elevators ascending to the top floor for no reason and strange drops in temperature in certain spots.
For further investigation, Chuck Cantrell, assistant vice chancellor of university relations, said he gave a psychic a piece of paper with "615 McCallie Ave." written on it. Cantrell said the psychic told him a man named John had committed suicide in a room in the building that was filled with chemicals. After looking through some old newspapers, Cantrell discovered that indeed on January 7, 1924, a grounds keeper named John Hockings had gassed himself in a chemical store room in Hooper Hall, which at that time was the science building.
According to Kotarski, there have also been reports in Patten Chapel of people hearing organ music coming from the chapel in the middle of the night, slamming doors, footsteps and a woman in white seen at the chapel.
Tennessee Paranormal Investigation Team is a group of private citizens, one of which is a UTC student, that has conducted several searches around various possible haunted locations in Tennessee, according to Joe McKeel, founder of the team.
According to McKeel, the team uses several devices to search for the paranormal: digital cameras, night-vision video cameras, digital voice recorders, infrared illuminators and an Electromagnetic Field Detector. He said they set up a command center where someone can monitor the video cameras during the investigation, and DVD recorders capture the video data from each camera.
"We are a debunking style team," McKeel said. "We are not out to prove a place is haunted. We are out to disprove."
According to Georgiana Kotarski, author of "Ghosts of the Southern Tennessee Valley," there have been several reports of strange happenings in Hooper Hall. She said faculty, custodians and campus police have witnessed abnormal activity in the empty building at night such as doors slamming, footsteps, elevators ascending to the top floor for no reason and strange drops in temperature in certain spots.
For further investigation, Chuck Cantrell, assistant vice chancellor of university relations, said he gave a psychic a piece of paper with "615 McCallie Ave." written on it. Cantrell said the psychic told him a man named John had committed suicide in a room in the building that was filled with chemicals. After looking through some old newspapers, Cantrell discovered that indeed on January 7, 1924, a grounds keeper named John Hockings had gassed himself in a chemical store room in Hooper Hall, which at that time was the science building.
According to Kotarski, there have also been reports in Patten Chapel of people hearing organ music coming from the chapel in the middle of the night, slamming doors, footsteps and a woman in white seen at the chapel.
