2008 Woodie Awards
Ghost hunt turns up little
By: Kim Nolan
Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: LifeStyle
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Sometimes, seeing is believing. Through a light rain and mist I could make out the silhouettes of the camouflaged members of the Missouri Paranormal Research group (MPR). The meeting spot Oct. 22 was the Wabash Pacific, Frisco and Pacific Railroad in Glencoe, Mo. The mission was to reveal the truth behind urban legends surrounding the area, known as Zombie Road.
The group only confirmed one death - a local woman who got hit by a train walking the tracks over a century ago.
"We know for sure that Dee Hamilton got killed on these railroad tracks in the 1880s," said Greg Myers, member and administrative coordinator for MPR. "Supposedly in the late '60s or early '70s a rock climber fell and was left for dead."
MPR member Nancy Campbell, who remembers hearing of a student dying of a drug overdose in this area when she was in high school, confirmed another urban legend.
"I was a good student at Parkway West and didn't understand how someone could overdose off of an inhalant," Campbell said.
Campbell is considered by the group to be a more "sensitive" person, one who is able to detect the paranormal by relying on her senses and intuition. She didn't have a crystal ball or tarot cards. To me, she just seemed like an introverted, gentle woman.
The Missouri Paranormal Research Group began as a forum for people to share experiences about being haunted, spoken to by spirits, thrown across rooms and other unexplainable events. What I didn't understand was why people who claimed to be so traumatized from ghosts would want to re-expose themselves to more paranormal activity.
MPR does private investigations and public outings. Our walk down Zombie Road was also open to non-members. Approximately 18 adventurers went on a two-mile hike in the Rock Hollow Park area off of Old Fawler Road along the Meramec River to document any paranormal activity.
Most people in our group were equipped with digital cameras in hopes of having an orb appear in a photograph. Myers, appearing more like a deer hunter than a ghost buster, is the electronic voice phenomena expert of MPR. He uses an IC recorder, a $35 hand-held audio recorder, to capture the sounds and voices humans may or may not be able to hear.
The group only confirmed one death - a local woman who got hit by a train walking the tracks over a century ago.
"We know for sure that Dee Hamilton got killed on these railroad tracks in the 1880s," said Greg Myers, member and administrative coordinator for MPR. "Supposedly in the late '60s or early '70s a rock climber fell and was left for dead."
MPR member Nancy Campbell, who remembers hearing of a student dying of a drug overdose in this area when she was in high school, confirmed another urban legend.
"I was a good student at Parkway West and didn't understand how someone could overdose off of an inhalant," Campbell said.
Campbell is considered by the group to be a more "sensitive" person, one who is able to detect the paranormal by relying on her senses and intuition. She didn't have a crystal ball or tarot cards. To me, she just seemed like an introverted, gentle woman.
The Missouri Paranormal Research Group began as a forum for people to share experiences about being haunted, spoken to by spirits, thrown across rooms and other unexplainable events. What I didn't understand was why people who claimed to be so traumatized from ghosts would want to re-expose themselves to more paranormal activity.
MPR does private investigations and public outings. Our walk down Zombie Road was also open to non-members. Approximately 18 adventurers went on a two-mile hike in the Rock Hollow Park area off of Old Fawler Road along the Meramec River to document any paranormal activity.
Most people in our group were equipped with digital cameras in hopes of having an orb appear in a photograph. Myers, appearing more like a deer hunter than a ghost buster, is the electronic voice phenomena expert of MPR. He uses an IC recorder, a $35 hand-held audio recorder, to capture the sounds and voices humans may or may not be able to hear.