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Macomb, IL -

home of Western IL University (WIU)

This is my hometown, actually. I currently live about 30 miles from there. Most of the alleged hauntings occur at WIU in the dorms and one in an academic hall. There are known activities at the Super 8 Motel, too.

WIU:

• Bayliss Hall - Room 1117 - It has been reported that a girl who once lived in this room still haunts it today. As the story goes a freshman girl was pregnant but didn't want her parents to find out and so she delivered the baby in her room and then threw the evidence (including the child) down the trash chute. The girl then returned to her room and hung herself in the closet. Today the cries of the baby and the moans of the devastated girl can still be heard.
  
  
• Bayliss hall - Room 501 - Story has it, a girl stayed alone in her room all weekend while her roommate went home. This girl suffered from severe depression. During the weekend, she hung herself in her closet. Her roommate then found her upon returning for the weekend. Strange occurrences now happen such as occasional lights turning on and off, strange noises, and cold spots.
  
  I remember this one. It happened sometime between 1999 and 2001. I'll have to find out for sure what the correct date is. I believe the girl was 18 years old.
  
  
• Simpkins Hall - This building is the second oldest on campus, built between 1937 and 1938. Originally, it was a teacher's college and an elementary and high school all under one roof. It became the English building in the late 1960s and renamed Simpkins Hall, after the former head of the Department of Education, Rubert R. Simpkins. There is a janitor that haunts the third floor. Many professors have claimed that the janitor turns off their office light and closes the door while they were still working within. A little girl roams the 1st floor. You can here her little running footsteps and an occasional giggle. If you're lucky she asks if "you want to play".
  
  Note: I took several classes here when I attended WIU and I did not experience anything. Chris Fleming, from "Dead Famous", visited Simpkins Hall fall 2007, but I have not heard anything from that hunt.
  
  
• Tanner Hall - In this building, there is a ghost on the twelfth floor. In 1972 a young man ran into the elevator door during a water fight. He fell to his death in the elevator shaft down to the fourth floor. Many occurrences such as people being touched and seeing a mysterious male on the floor have been reported.
  
  
• Thompson Hall - In the girls room 931, there are banging and knocking noises that are heard-both walls, ceiling, window, and door. Every few minutes it seems as if someone is trying to open the door. Nobody lives in either of the rooms next door to 931. Knocking on the window happens occasionally.
  
  

Macomb Super 8 Motel:

I have experience with these hauntings. From March 1992 - August 1993, I worked 2nd shift as a front desk clerk at the Super 8.

What I experienced:

1. The main telephone lights would all come on (about 50 or so) for a few seconds, then shut off. Yes, this could have been a phone flaw, but I just don't think it was. :)
2. Whistling in my work area - when I would get up to see who it was, there was never anyone there.
3. The manager's apartment was off of the front desk area, although the manager at the time did not reside in it, so it was empty. One night my front desk phone rang. I could tell from the ring, it was coming from a room. I looked to see what room and I about had a heart attack. It was coming from the apartment!!! I knew nobody was in there. Curious me answered the phone but of course, nobody was there. I believe that happened one other time.
4. And speaking of the manager's apartment - one night I heard the shower on! Again, nobody was in that room. I was too freaked out to go investigate, and it finally turned off.

What others have experienced:

1. Lights turning on and off in the rooms.
2. Doors opening and shutting by themselves.

The only thing I know occured there happened when I was employed at the motel. A middle aged woman committed suicide in one of the main level rooms. I believe it was room 106. It was one of the rooms that had an outside entrance, too, that faced the parking lot. But the paranormal experiences I witnessed occurred before this woman's death. If anyone knows the history of that land, let me know. Prior to the Super 8, there was a pizza place and a bar. I'll have to do local research to see what else was there and if anything happened.

There is a catholic cemetary behind the motel. I had a sighting there once. It was while I worked at the motel...summer 1993. I was pregnant with my first child. My now ex-husband and I were checking out the cemetary. I had never been through it before. There is only one way in and out of this cemetary and we were the ONLY ones visiting it. My husband went his own way looking at headstones and I stayed closer to the road, looking at the headstones there. I remember I squatted down to read a headstone. When I stood back up, I glanced to my right, and there was this old man there! At first I just thought he came in when I wasn't looking (although I was facing the road), but then I realized there was no car! This cemetary is along a busy highway and the only thing next to it is a bar and frat house. He was picking flowers on a bush and puttng them into a wicker basket that was lined with cloth. He was only about 25 feet from me. He was probably in his late 70s, early 80s and was wearing khaki pants and a short sleeve khaki shirt. I could not help but stare and then he turned to look at me and smiled. Now, 99% of the time, if someone is that close and smiles, I smile back and say hello. I just remember I could not say anything, because I was absolutely 100% sure he was a ghost. I saw him just like I see anybody else. He was not transparent at all. And when he smiled at me, it was almost like he was saying, "I know something you don't know." I looked all around me and there is no way he could have come in without me seeing. But it gets even weirder...I finally turned away from him to look at where my husband was. When I looked back where the man was, he was gone! Not only that, but those flowers he was picking? There no flowers at all on this bush. I had to take a double look and walk over to it, because when the old man was there, I could see tons of flowers. Stunned, I walked over to my husband and asked, "Did you see that old man over there by the bush?" He said, "What old man?" I said, "You didn't see that old man over there?" He said he had not. He thought I was off my rocker when I told him the story. That was probably by far my biggest, coolest sighting to date!