Paranormal investigator leads other worldly tours of old Tooele hospital

It was the night of Friday the 13th, and the rooms in Tooele’s old hospital sat eerily quiet. A few empty beds in each room were the only reminders of the hustle and bustle that used to run up and down the halls of this former home to both life and death. Tour guide Tom Epperley, manager of Asylum 49 — a haunted house open during Halloween — takes his group to the emergency room where many lost their lives and to the delivery room where life was ushered into existence.

Epperley stops at Room 20, opens the door and recalls visiting this room as a young child, where his grandmother passed away.

Wasatch Paranormal Investigators and Asylum 49 have teamed up to give the public a unique look at Tooele’s old hospital.

Built around 1949, the old Tooele hospital at 140 E. 200 South has been closed for about 10 years. Rocky Mountain Care converted the bulk of the old hospital into a nursing home.

The western portion of the hospital — consisting of the original entrance, admitting facility, emergency rooms, maternity ward and nursery, hospital lab, and doctors lounge — remained vacant and unused until 2006 when Tooele resident Kimm Andersen founded Asylum 49.

“In the last few years since we opened Asylum 49 I have experienced enough unexplained phenomena that I believe that the hospital is really haunted,” Andersen said.

Now the public, the curious, the skeptical, and the serious ghost hunters have a chance to explore the old hospital during several dates in April and May. Guests will have the chance to see and feel if there is something to the haunting stories of the old hospital.

Asylum 49 and Wasatch Paranormal Investigators are offering guided tours of the hospital along with the opportunity to wander the halls and rooms of the old hospital independently and conduct their own research after the tour.

Wasatch Paranormal Investigators was founded a year ago and is comprised of about 20 individuals who take paranormal experiences seriously and conduct investigations using scientific tools to help explain mysterious phenomena, according to Tom Carr, founder of Wasatch Paranormal.

“We are not into the occult, witches or devil worship,” said Carr, of Tooele. “We just investigate the paranormal as a hobby. Most of the spirits that we encounter are friendly. Often times they are confused. They don’t realize they are dead and that we cannot see them.”

While Wasatch Paranormal is fairly new, Carr’s experience chasing ghosts goes back more than 21 years when, as a high school student, he claims he picked up an electronic voice phenomena that said, “What are you doing here?,” while walking through a cemetery in West Jordan.

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are voices picked up on an a recording that were not audible at the time of the recording, but are heard later when the recording is played back.

The EVP recorder is just one tool in the bag of the modern ghost hunter.

Along with EVPs there are also vocal phenomena (VP) — sounds or voices that are audible to the investigator’s ear. Investigators may carry with them an electromagnetic field (EMF) detector. The theory, according to paranormal science, is that ghosts or entities create a magnetic field.

A K2 meter is a more sophisticated EMF device that has lights that go from red to green according to the strength of the magnetic field.

Carr said he has used the K2 meter to carry on a conversation with unseen entities. When the meter detects the presence of an electronic field he asks yes or no questions and invites the entity to make the meter turn red if the answer is negative.

Investigators also use infrared cameras that are sensitive to heat, as well as hand-held infrared thermometers to detect possible ghosts.

A regular camera also comes in handy for capturing unexplained shadows and floating orbs — round balls of light that change direction of travel. Carr claims all of these have been experienced at the old hospital in Tooele.

He said he has seen the interest in the paranormal increase in the last few years.

“With the reality show ‘Ghost Hunters’ that documents the investigations of The Atlantic Paranormal Society to the fictional television shows ‘Ghost Whisperer’ and ‘Medium,’ it seems that the paranormal is moving into mainstream society,” Carr said.

That observation may explain the crowd of 50 people who showed up for the first tour on Friday, March 13.

Andersen heard strange stories from the staff of the former hospital after he started the Halloween haunted house at the old facility.

On the tour last Friday, Andersen, who was one of the tour guides, related a story he heard from the nurses at the labor and delivery station.

According to Andersen, nurses told him at night they would hear moans, groans and cries for help coming from the delivery room, even when it was empty. The nurses bought an old television, placed it in a chair near the door to the delivery room and would turn the volume up to drown out the noise.

Andersen said the ghost of a 4-year-old named Jessica is also said to hang out in another room.

He said people working or touring the old hospital have reported feeling somebody tug at their coats or pants in the same room at the old hospital.

Nurses at the Rocky Mountain Care Center then told him about a haunted house they set up in the old hospital the first year they were in the facility.

In the room where people felt tugging they set up a maze by hanging old hospital bed sheets from the ceiling. As people left the haunted house the staff at the care center would ask how they enjoyed the haunted house. Quite often they would comment on the maze room and ask about the little girl who was running around, playing, laughing and tugging at coats.

Anderson said the staff did not have a little girl or anybody else in the maze room.

The reaction to the tour on the Friday the 13th was mixed.

“I grew up in Tooele,” said April Larson, who now lives in Layton. “I came to this hospital as a little girl. I heard about the ghost tour and thought it would be interesting. It was, but I did not see any ghosts.”

Lindsay Wharton, a member of Wasatch Paranormal who has been investigating the paranormal for over 10 years, said she felt and heard something during the tour.

“My ear became warm and I heard a voice say something like, ‘Hey,” Wharton said.

Wasatch Paranormal and Asylum 49 are sponsoring more tours in April and May. Visit www.wasatchparanormal.com for more information. A portion of the proceeds goes to Rocky Mountain Care, helping them provide care for low income elderly.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com