As a child, Valerie Foulem would wake up in the middle of the night, jump out of bed, point at random objects and scream. She remembers seeing white, hazy entities in her room.
Foulem had night terrors. She said they now contribute to her being prone to seeing ghosts.
“It was like waking up in the middle of a nightmare, that’s why I get really scared, really quick.”
Foulem, a 19-year-old psychology student, lives in Vanier Hall residence at St. Thomas University, where tales of ghosts and spirits haunt students.
In an interview, Foulem revealed a few of Vanier Hall’s dark legends.
One of the most infamous involves Mr. Plaid Jacket, a patient who allegedly escaped from a Fredericton mental hospital. He escaped capture by hiding in the city’s “secret” underground tunnels, one of which leads to a door in Vanier Hall. When officials checked the door, all they found was his plaid jacket. He is assumed to remain at-large.
Another prominent story says when nuns stayed in Vanier Hall, they took in orphan children, and adopted one young boy. He would play with his marbles on the floor and roll them down the hall. The boy became sick, then died suddenly. Now, during the late night hours, some claim they can hear marbles rolling down the halls of Vanier.
During STU’s study period, the residents undergo 21 quiet hours. When the 21 hours were over, students go outside and scream obnoxiously to conclude the period. Rumor has it a female resident at Vanier was having trouble with her boyfriend. She let him in residence before quiet time concluded. After the study period, while students screamed, her boyfriend strangled her. No one could hear her cries.
Foulem and her friends tried to debunk the legends of Vanier Hall. They couldn’t find the door leading to the underground tunnels. Anybody can roll marbles down a hallway. And how will a girl’s ghost scream for help if she’s being strangled?
So Foulem bought a Ouija board for $5. Her friends gathered, lit candles, shut some lights off, and attempted to connect with the other side. They asked questions and the dial moved. It appeared they were communicating with other entities. They asked questions, it answered back, revealing itself as female. On one occasion, the door slammed shut and a lamp shut off.
“The dial moving could be debunked. It could have been one of us. But we could not explain the light shutting off, or the door slamming shut,” said Foulem.
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Erin Bond and Marvin Nash are the co-founders of the Paranormal Researchers of Fredericton (PROF). Along with two other members, they have set out to investigate any possible paranormal activity in the region.
For Bond, the paranormal realm has been a life-long curiosity. She now works on a case-by-case basis for commercial and private residence.
“At the same time, we are solving a bit of our own curiosity.”
Nash respects the opinions of others, but remains skeptical about religion.
“If I saw a spiritual being come and talk to me, then I will believe in a life-after-death.
“If my house ever tells me to get out, I will.”
Bond and Nash say ghost hunting is looking for evidence. They use a full spectrum of sensitive devices during an investigation. The electronic voice phenomena (EVP) is a digital recorder. It records frequencies, which the ear cannot. Voices and tapping are the typical responses recovered. They also use infra-red (IR). It is connected to a digital recorder and can see in the dark. The electric magnetic frequency meter (EMF) records anything that emits an electronic field. According to the paranormal researchers, ghosts need to collect energy to move things. The Ghost Box sweeps radio frequencies. It creates a white-noise background that manipulates energy.
This fall, PROF was contacted by the soup kitchen, in downtown Fredericton, which used to be Fredericton’s morgue. Most of the staff there revealed similar stories of seeing apparitions in the kitchen or nurses in the hallway. PROF could not debunk the eyewitness accounts, so they conducted a full investigation.
They set up their gear in the kitchen and took a tour of the building. From eyewitness accounts, they decided which areas would be most active, then placed cameras and took photos. They took base readings in the office, hallways and kitchen to establish the normal conditions of the building.
By 8 p.m. the investigation was underway. Nash carried the EMF meter through each room without picking up any spikes. Suddenly, he felt a pressure close around both sides of his arm. He messaged Bond from his walkie-talkie. She went to his location with another EMF meter and got a big spike for 10 seconds.
“There was no need for a bleep,” said Bond. “But it went haywire.”
They did EVP tests in other parts of the building without picking up any readings.
In the kitchen, they performed the flashlight test. They placed a turned-off flashlight on the kitchen table and asked a series of yes-or-no questions. According to Bond and Nash, the flashlight turned on-and-off in response to their questions. “The spirit” claimed to be female, between the age of 25 and 30.
They gave the data to the owners. Nash says the pressure on his arm was only a personal experience and could not be validated. But the EVP spike and flashlight test could not be explained. PROF does not say the soup kitchen is haunted, nor does it give a conclusion.
“But there was definitely some sort of activity there,” says Bond.
“We just return the data from the investigation and let them decide.”
For Foulem, Vanier Hall’s legends remain unsolved. She plans on contacting PROF to investigate her dormitory. PROF is open to all possible paranormal accounts, and an investigation is likely in the new-year.
