A team of paranormal detectives conducted a daring investigation into an old building in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl was found by a caretaker in the 1990s.
Since its construction in 1884, the building at 312 W. 17th St. has been home to the Knights of Pythias – a secret fraternal society active since the 1870s.
Although membership in the shadowy community has dwindled, it still exists and has around 50 loyal members.
In the 1990s, a janitor named Mike was cleaning the stage of the Knights of Pythias meeting room and discovered that a section of the floor had come loose.
The caretaker got down on his knees to investigate, thinking that the old floor just needed to be repaired. But what he found shocked him.
In the dusty old building where the secret society met – in the heart of their meeting room – there was a hatch that led under the stage.
Way Out West Paranormal was founded by Aaron BlackBurn and his wife Gina
The paranormal investigators investigated a building in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the headquarters of the secret brotherhood The Knights of Pythias is located.
In the 1990s, the skeleton of a 15-year-old girl was found in a trapdoor leading under the stage
The janitor surveyed the room. He found something that made his blood run cold. There was an old dust-covered chest. And there was something in it.
Later, members of the Knights of Pythias arrived and opened the coffin. Inside they found a skeleton, which forensics later determined belonged to a 15-year-old girl.
She had been dead for about fifty years and lay quietly rotting in the coffin under the hatch.
No one knew who the girl might have been, not even the oldest member of the Knights of Pythias. Investigations into missing persons reports from the time when the girl allegedly disappeared turned up nothing.
It is a macabre and blood-curdling story that works like a magnet for paranormal investigators.
In 2010, the Paranormal Investigations Team Wyoming investigated the building and claimed to have captured a photo of a shadowy apparition lurking at the top of the stairs.
And in late March, Way Out West Paranormal, a team of paranormal investigators founded by Arron BlackBurn and his wife Gina, visited the haunted building.
Way Out West has released a video of their investigation, in which they explore the basement of the building, which is converted into a haunted house every year to raise money for scholarships in the community.
The paranormal investigators hoped to discover the name of the dead girl, whose identity has remained a mystery
When the skeleton was discovered, forensic experts determined that it had been languishing under the stage for fifty years
The Way Out West Paranormal team was armed with all kinds of technology to help them communicate with ghosts
The video, which was recorded on a night vision camera, showed members of Way Out West Paranormal in the dark, with each person operating a special device in an attempt to contact the spirits.
The basement was full of fake tombstones, torn sheets and plastic skeletons: remains of the haunted house.
But one item in the basement was real: the coffin containing the skeleton of the 15-year-old girl.
BlackBurn, who has spent wedding anniversaries ghost hunting with his wife, told the story Cowboy According to Daily, the area where the coffin is kept in the basement is an occasional hotspot for paranormal activity.
In the video, researchers looked at an iPad that measures supernatural activity.
“We’ve never seen meters go so far for so long,” one person commented. They tried to lure the shy ghost out of his shell by playing London Bridge is Falling down.
One of the researchers noted that he had heard a ghost “audibly running down the hallway.”
Blackburn said the part of the building where they recorded the most activity was the stage area.
Video recorded by investigators showed the team investigating the building’s basement
The basement is converted into a haunted house every year, and in addition to the fake tombstones and plastic skeletons, there is also a real haunted house: the coffin in which the skeleton lay.
Using their tablets, the researchers were able to measure the presence of nearby spirits
A series of lights near the stage flashed several times, even though no one was around.
BlackBurn informed other members of his paranormal party that he had previously heard voices on stage, including one that may have belonged to a woman. The voice cryptically told him that their name began with the letter ‘V.’
But before BlackBurn could talk to her, a male voice appeared, silencing the female voice. She hasn’t spoken again.
During their investigation, BlackBurn’s team used their electronic devices to communicate with some ghosts. In response to one of BlackBurn’s questions, the ghosts said: ‘military’, ‘civil servant’ and ‘doctor’.
Blackburn believed that perhaps several ghosts had not answered that question, and that it had been one individual ghost who had provided the answer.
He speculated that the ghost could be FE Warren, a former senator from Wyoming and member of the Knights of Pythias. During its heyday, which lasted from 1930 to 1960, the Knights of Pythias attracted many influential figures, including other politicians such as Wyoming Governor Stanley Hathaway.
Over the course of their investigation, the team communicated with several ghosts, including one that may have belonged to a deceased senator and member of the Friends of Pythias.
They also distinguished the words “birthday” and “whiskey” at some point during their research
Aaron Blackburn told the rest of the group that he had once heard of a female ghost in the building. The ghost told him that her name started with the letter ‘V’, before being silenced by a male voice
Earlier in the day, a ghost informed investigators that he was Warren.
And during a session in the association’s billiard room, where the air is still heavy with the smell of tobacco and smoke, the researchers picked up the words “birthday” and “whiskey.”
“I think the spirits want to communicate with us,” BlackBurn said.
“There is a connection between our side and their side, and hopefully at some point we can find out more about how that works,” he said.