The students at Mansfield University may go to the North Hall Library alone to read or study. But they may not be alone after all.
In this segment of “Paranormal in the Twin Tiers,” 18 News reporter Julio Avila and the Elmira Volunteer Paranormal group venture into the library. Rumor and legend has it that it’s haunted by spirits.
“I always thought there were ghosts. It wasn’t until I started working here that I actually realized indeed they do exist,” David Guinn, the library and archives technician for the library, said. “I had a couple of experiences up on the fourth floor. The first one dealt with a leg that came out from behind a column while I was working at the desk.”
Guinn said as soon as he got up to see it, the apparition was gone. He spoke of another experience a few years later.
“I heard footsteps approaching the door to the archives,” Guinn said. “I turned around thinking it was my boss, the director, and there was no one there.”
It’s said the library is haunted by two spirits named Sarah and Harold Straight. Sarah was said to be a student who fell from one of the floors in the library’s atrium- unclear whether by accident or intentional. Though there’s no records indicating this, there are records of Harold- he was a local businessman.
Students, you get a wild range of stories. Some students will say they were working in the book stacks and the next day they come and books are on the floor,” Guinn explained. “They see apparitions on the stairwells, dressed just like them and just dissapear when they get up to the next floor.”
The group began to investigate after a small tour of the building was given. That tour being the third and fourth floors.
Mike Pangallo and Michelle Wheet, two investigators, split up from Julio and Adam Nichols, the lead investigator. Julio and Adam first walk into a room with boxes and drawers full of documents.
“Sarah, if you’re here…What’s the name of the guy?…Harold,” Nichols said. “Harold. If you’re here, Harold, let us know.”
Later in the evening, the group goes through one of the book stacks. Nichols said he thought he saw something.
“Well first I saw it, like up towards the end. Then I saw something on that wall…Where it sections off over and then you got the hallway. That’s the wall, but down that hallway I thought I saw something.”
Shortly after, Adam’s walkie-talkie app sounds. Wheet said her K-2 meter was acting “wierd.” The K-2 meter detects electromagnetic energy in a given area.
“It keeps going off, but there’s nothing to show anything paranormal,” Wheet said. “We’ve ruled out cellphones, the camera, the lights, but it only happens in like the bookshelves area.”
Roughly an hour-and-a-half later, in another part of the library, Adam thought he heard a whisper. He asks if it was Julio, to which he replies, no.
“Thought I heard something,” Nichols said. “Coming from your way as a mater a fact”
Overall, it seemed like a peaceful night, but some of the recordings the group got may have shown otherwise.
Find out what the recordings said on the grand finale segment of “Paranormal in the Twin Tiers.” That’s next Tuesday, Halloween night, on 18 News at 11 p.m.
