Haunted Hospitals (2018) s01e05 Episode Script
Elevator from Hell
- I loved working at the hospital - I wanna be that person to help those kids.
I knew that's where I was meant to be.
- until these things started happening to me.
- I jumped out of my skin.
I was terrified.
- It was not of this world.
(roaring) - Nothing will change my mind.
It's definitely real.
(banging) - (child): Come play with me.
(theme music) (gasp and scream) (people screaming) (siren blaring) - (man on intercom): All nurses to the nurses' station.
- (narrator): In a busy hospital near the shores of Lake Erie, Security Officer Rebecca Yergen is celebrating her third month on the job.
- I loved working at the hospital.
I always have been a people person and liked to help people out, so I was really excited about working there.
(indistinct chatter) I was friendly with a couple of the cleaning ladies.
Oh! (laughing) I referred to them as Laverne and Shirley.
They were very sweet ladies.
- Rebecca is a mother of two with a degree in criminology.
- I worked the nightshift.
This way, when my children were awake, I was home with them.
Then after they went to bed is when I went to work.
There were a lot of buildings to walk through not only inside but also around the outside of the buildings as well.
And, um, it was about the equivalent of eight miles.
(creaking) - Rebecca's nightly patrol route takes her through a section of buildings abandoned for decades.
- While they were abandoned, they hadn't been torn down yet.
So it was really crucial to make sure that those buildings were secured.
It was always really dark, even during the daylight because the windows were blacked out or were boarded up.
- Back in the early 1900s, these buildings were used as a psychiatric ward and a morgue.
(child's laughter) - It was just an uncomfortable place to walk through.
It just gave me the willies.
I didn't like it.
- She just had bad feelings there.
Sometimes, when you go into a certain location, you just get feelings.
I'd been in locations where I just wanted to run out screaming because the feelings were so intense there.
(Rebecca gasping) (man screaming) There were coke addicts in the area that would use that to meet up with their connections or someone trying to break in to steal the copper piping for money.
So part of my job was shuffling someone out that didn't belong there.
- (narrator): But intruders are not the only thing that worry Rebecca.
(clanging) - I would hear doors close.
Or a light would turn on that I know that I had previously turned off.
(loud clanging) (heartbeat sound) I believe that there's an explanation for everything.
At least, I used to.
- As the days and nights pass, Rebecca finds herself less and less able to explain the small things away.
- I was a little more hesitant to go into certain areas of the hospital.
I had to really tell myself, "You need to go here.
This is your job, this is what you're paid to do.
" - One night, Rebecca's doubts boil over into fear.
- I was walking past a door and that's when I heard some rustling.
(child's laughter) I went in to check it out.
(clanging) This room was just very cold, chilly just I'm not sure how to explain how unnerving it was for me to be in there.
(heartbeat sound) (gasping) That's when I saw cockroaches everywhere: the floor, the ceiling, the walls.
(screaming) It really scared me.
- But then, something even more bizarre - When I turned my flashlight back there was nothing actually there.
It all disappeared.
There were no cockroaches anywhere.
What I saw were the walls, the floor, the ceiling, they were crawling with them.
And they cannot just scatter that quickly.
There was something going on that I couldn't explain.
I wanted to run, but I heard this voice.
- (child's voice): Come find me.
Come play with me.
- (Rebecca): It was a child's voice.
- (child's voice): Find me.
(child's laughter) - (Rebecca): It sounded like it was running away.
- (child's voice): Come play with me.
- It sounded like it wanted me to come play with her.
- (child's voice): Come play with me.
Play with me.
Play with me.
Find me.
(child's laughter) (child's laughter) Find me.
- If there was a child, that would not be a good place for them to be.
Being a mom, I know if your child is lost, you need to go find them, and that's a very strong urge as a parent.
I was afraid that this person was in danger.
(girl's laughter) - (narrator): But Rebecca soon comes to the terrifying conclusion that she is all alone.
- (Rebecca): The hair on the back of my neck was standing up.
The hair on my arms was standing up.
- (girl's voice): Come find me.
- But I heard this voice that said, "Find me.
" - (girl): Come play with me.
- It was now starting to sink in what could possibly be going on.
- (interviewer): Which is? - Which It was a ghost.
- (girl's voice): Here I am.
Come find me.
(beeping) - (narrator): Security Officer Rebecca Yergen fears the strange events happening at work may be rooted in the paranormal.
(girl's laughter) - If there is an entity there, they need energy to do whatever they're gonna do.
Maybe they need energy to speak, maybe they need energy to move something (clanging) so they will drain our electrical energy from our equipment to try to make themselves known.
- I felt fear.
- (girl's voice): Find me.
Come find me.
(girl's laughter) - As a security guard, it is my job to go explore and find out what's really going on.
(creepy girl's laughter) At that moment, I couldn't go any further.
I was too scared.
(girl's laughter) I ran out of the area.
(strange scream) And I cried.
'Cause that's how scared I was, it made me cry.
(Rebecca crying) - (narrator): Terrified, she calls her boyfriend.
- man: [Hello?.]
- Hey.
I was crying and I was just telling him what happened.
I really just wanted to go home.
I didn't want to be alone in that building anymore.
(Rebecca crying) - (interviewer): What was his reaction? Did he seem to believe what you were saying to him? - He did believe me.
He actually did show up probably half an hour after the phone call.
And he walked through the rest of the buildings with me the rest of the night and helped calm me down.
- Over the next few weeks, Rebecca tries to come to terms with what she saw and heard.
- I was really questioning my rationality in all of this because I didn't believe in things like that until these things started happening to me.
- That rationality was about to be tested again.
- man: [Yeah, this is base.
We have an alarm going off.
.]
- I got a call from the hospital operator stating that there was someone stuck in elevator D.
D as in David? - operator: [Correct.
.]
- Elevator D was in the closed-off section of the hospital, and this was after hours.
Even though the buildings were abandoned, the elevators were still functioning because Security had to use the elevator to get up to the top floor.
That was the only way to get up there.
- Unless you have a special key carried by the security guards, there's no way to activate the elevators.
- Anyone that would have broken into the building would not be able to use the elevators because the elevator doors were locked open when not in use.
The only way anybody could use that elevator is if they would have stolen my keys.
I was thinking that maybe someone was stuck in a different elevator, and not the D elevator.
Maybe the operator had just gotten it wrong.
- (narrator): Sure enough, her hunch seems dead on.
- The door's wide open, the way I left it after I used it from previously doing rounds.
And there is absolutely no one in it.
It's empty.
You said building D, elevator D, right? - operator: [Yeah, that's what my panel is showing.
.]
- (narrator): She checks the elevator's control panel for anything unusual.
- (Rebecca): So I think, "OK, maybe, somebody accidentally hit one of the call lights in the elevator.
" I found that it was on working condition.
- (narrator): Rebecca senses a presence, but knows it's not something she can report.
- man: [You there, Rebecca?.]
- Yeah, I have nothing.
I'm coming back.
- man: [Copy that.
.]
- I believe psych wards are more prone to paranormal activity only because there's a lot of energy there.
There may not be a lot of deaths depending on the type of psych ward, but there's a lot of emotional energy that could still be there from the patients.
(woman's scream) - I just go about the rest of my shift and just blow it off.
No, let's get one thing - An hour later while on break, Rebecca gets another call.
- operator: [I've got a situation here.
There's definitely.]
[someone on elevator D.
.]
- I get another call from the operator saying, "Hey there, someone's stuck in an elevator.
" I'm just thinking to myself, "I was just there.
" (unknown woman crying) - operator: [OK, OK, just calm down.
We'll send someone.
.]
- Then, I hear the voice.
- woman's voice: [Help me, I'm stuck.
.]
- It was the voice coming from the callbox, from the elevator.
I could hear it through the operator's phone.
- woman's voice: [Please.
Please, I need help.
- (Rebecca): I can hear this woman crying for help, asking, "Please come help me.
I'm stuck.
Help me.
" - woman's voice: [Help me.
.]
- Now, I'm thinking, "Somebody got back there "and they got stuck, "and I didn't know how I was going to get them "out of a stuck elevator that shouldn't even have been in use and they shouldn't even had access to.
" (unknown woman crying) Can you guys come with me? They saw that I was frustrated, but I was also scared at the same time.
And so, they came with me.
- operator: [Hey, Rebecca.
.]
- Is she still there? - operator: [No, I'm not hearing her now.
Are you close?.]
- We're almost at the elevators.
I didn't realise what I was actually encountering 'til I encountered it.
Hello? - (narrator): Less than 100 feet from the elevator, they are hit with a horrible smell, the stink of rotting flesh.
- Awful! - operator: [She's back, Rebecca.
Hurry.
.]
(unknown woman crying) - Come on, this way.
You could clearly tell that this person was frantic and scared.
- woman's voice: [Help.
.]
(woman crying) [Please.
.]
- Come on! Come on! Come on! Hello? - woman's voice: [Baby!.]
[Baby! Help me!.]
[The baby!.]
(unknown woman crying) - She kept saying, "The baby, the baby.
Help me.
The baby.
" Oh, my Gosh! - woman's voice: [Oh, God!.]
[Please, I need help.
.]
- To me, it sounded like she was pregnant and maybe in labour? Or maybe she just had a baby.
(unknown woman crying) Hello? I was really scared.
I was afraid that this person was in danger, and I wasn't able to help her.
- woman's voice: [The baby!.]
[The baby! Help me!.]
- And then, dead silence.
- They just kept looking at me and looking at the elevator, just like I was, and we were all confused.
(noise of moving elevator) - (narrator): The elevator starts to move.
- Without a doubt, there was something in that elevator.
- Then, it stops.
(woman in elevator crying and screaming) Rebecca comes to a terrifying realisation.
- The voice I heard was not of the living.
(beeping) - (narrator): Security officer Rebecca Yergen experiences strange and disturbing phenomenon at work.
- This was a lot like the experience I had with the cockroach room: that it wasn't actually of this world.
It felt like someone was there but there was no one there.
You ever get that feeling that when you're sitting somewhere and it feels like someone is staring at you and you turn your head and look and they're actually staring at you? But you didn't know that because you didn't see it.
You felt it.
And that's what it felt like.
(woman screaming) - This can be something that's actually residual.
It may have happened actually in that house or in that location at one time, and it was such a panicked event.
Think of a mother who's pregnant or she has a baby with her and she's trapped in that elevator, it would be a very traumatic event.
The energy of that event that is trapped in the location, and under certain conditions, the right moment in time, it will replay itself.
- You heard that, right? - operator: [Hey, who's this?.]
- It's Rebecca.
Elevator D.
You just sent me here.
- operator: [Sorry.
I don't know what you're talking about.
.]
(heartbeat sound) - (Rebecca): That operator had no idea what was going on.
That totally freaked me out.
There are things going on in this hospital that I cannot explain.
And fight or flight was taking in, and I couldn't get out of there quick enough.
- (narrator): On the advice of a supervisor, the police are brought in to investigate with negative results.
(indistinct police radio) - The one officer, when we walked through the building, his demeanour and his posture and the way he acted was, this was a prank and it was a big waste of their time.
- (narrator): Soon after, Rebecca is transferred to a different hospital.
- It was good to go.
I was glad to say goodbye to the hospital.
- But still seeking validation for what she saw she contacts a paranormal investigator.
- I just needed to talk to someone who would believe me and not think that I was, you know, going insane or hallucinating or whatever.
(creaking) - Veteran Investigator Greg Feketik answers the call.
- I met Rebecca outside the hospital, and you could tell that she was apprehensive about being there.
I wanted her to return to the hospital, so she could show me where her experiences occurred.
She was a trooper and she went in.
- I hesitated at first.
I really didn't want to go back in there again.
(heartbeat sound) My heart was starting to race.
My hands were getting sweaty.
- (Greg): She was shaking like a leaf.
I mean, she was trembling.
- I'm sorry.
Sorry, this just - (interviewer): It's OK.
Take your time.
- OK.
I stopped.
And I said, "That right there is the cockroach room.
" - (narrator): They focus on the area where Rebecca heard the child's voice in the hope of capturing its image on tape.
They bait the child with a toy.
- It is a piece of paranormal equipment that we use, and it has a REM POD in it that if anything gets close to it or tries to pick it up, there'll be an alarm that will sound.
(alarm beeping) - (girl's voice): Thank you.
- I heard an EVP of a young child saying, "Thank you.
" - (girl's voice): Thank you.
- The hair on my neck starts standing up again.
But then I broke down in tears 'cause it it just To me, it was kind of a closure.
It helped solidify that (clanging) what I saw, I did see those things.
I really did see those things.
I wasn't all just in my imagination.
There's no doubt in my mind of the things that I had witnessed and, uh I understand why people wouldn't believe, and that's how I felt too for the longest time, was, "Yeah, whatever, this isn't real," until it actually happened to me.
(weird scream) And now, nothing will change my mind.
- (girl's voice): Come back.
Don't go.
(buzzing) Please! (dripping noise) (scream) (banging on door) - (woman): When a trauma comes in, you know that it's arriving because you can hear the chopper coming down.
We're on the main floor, and that's on the eighth floor.
And you can hear the noise and you can smell the fuel from the helicopter.
You have to do your job at that spot and you have to do it perfectly.
- (narrator): ER Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam had one of the hardest jobs in the world.
- Stay with us.
Breathe.
Breathe.
You're doing great.
I worked over 20 years as a pediatric trauma nurse.
Doing great, buddy.
- Few jobs come with higher amounts of stress.
- It was quite grueling: the gravity of it, realising that this is life and death that you're doing.
Stay with us.
I worked for one of the busiest hospitals in Canada.
The halls were always full.
Busy, busy, busy.
Loud people running around everywhere.
Organized chaos.
(indistinct chatter) It was heartbreaking, but it was exhilarating in a sense because someone has to help these kids.
I knew that's where I was meant to be.
I want to be that person to help those kids.
- (narrator): Karen is a serious professional who faces extreme hardship and trauma every day so not much phases her.
But there is one place in the hospital that makes her nervous.
- There was a tunnel that connected us to another part of the hospital.
On the way back from transferring a patient, you have to push all your equipment back through the tunnel.
Oftentimes, you would go by yourself.
And this tunnel is sort of dark and dingy.
And it did have an ominous feel to it.
So I was walking through the tunnel by myself.
(strange squeaking) I felt like I was being watched.
(footsteps) It was an echo-y hallway, and I could hear footsteps.
(footsteps) But there was nobody there.
I felt freaked out.
I felt scared.
(woman's scream) (beeping) - Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam experiences strange and disturbing phenomenon at work.
(footsteps) (growling) (indistinct intercom message) (beeping) - After getting back on the floor, I felt incredible relief.
It felt like I was sort of back in the land of the living, so to speak.
I was happy to hear all the noises and the sounds and the feel.
(phone ringing) (indistinct chatter) Hey.
I consider myself a rational person, especially being a nurse - we're kind of scientific thinkers, we want facts and numbers - so I thought maybe there is something going on with my head.
I was imagining it.
- Here.
(beeping) - Oftentimes, we will get reports where people feel like they're being watched.
And when we can't explain it away, with things like electromagnetic fields, it can be very intimidating.
It's something that, if not addressed outwardly, can make you feel pretty self-conscious.
- I couldn't dwell on what just happened because my job is just too busy, too much at stake.
I had to put everything aside and just go right back into work mode again.
- (narrator): But whatever caused the footsteps in the tunnel is not ready to leave Karen Wickiam alone.
(unsettling soundscape) - There was an area in the emerge called observation.
It's the furthest part of the emerge.
After a child has settled, we have them in the room, so maybe they can have a good night's sleep and we can watch them until they're ready to go upstairs.
I didn't necessarily like working back in observation by myself at night.
It's quiet back there.
- (narrator): Small things begin to happen around Karen.
- So we started noticing that things would go missing: blood-pressure cuff, rolls of tape a stethoscope, some of your pans.
We were always blaming everybody for stealing them from the observation area.
And we would go try to hunt down another member and say, "Did you take our blood-pressure cuff?" Did you take this and that? And people would say, "I haven't even been back there today.
" When other nurses started talking about noticing that happening as well, we knew that there was something up, something strange going on.
- (narrator): Other types of strange events in the observation room keep Karen on edge.
(strange, high-pitched noise) (clanging) (growling) (girl's laughter) - (Rebecca): You would hear noises that were not from another colleague or a patient because there may not be someone in that room.
(buzzing and static) (short growling) (distant clanging) (creaking) I would hear the clanging noises of the bedrails and a curtain would move, but there wasn't any air conditioning or heat register that was causing it.
(suspenseful music) Your brain's always trying to be logical, so you just go, "The cleaners were in there and they didn't put it up properly," or "There is a breeze.
" The noises distracted me from what I was doing, which is the last thing I wanted.
I had to stay focused.
I had to do the job at hand.
I couldn't let anything take me away from my primary duty, which is taking care of these kids.
- But in another part of the observation area, these strange events become impossible to ignore.
- This is a room back in observation that we would generally try to keep empty because unfortunately, children do pass in the hospital, in the emerge.
We want parents to be able to spend some time with these children.
Staff would take naps in there.
Even though some of us didn't like it Hey, it's time to get up.
we would still go in there and hope that we could have a quick sleep.
Have a good night.
I had worked 5 12-hour nightshifts in a row, so I was absolutely exhausted.
We had a tiny bit of a reprieve to take a break, which almost never happens, and I knew I needed to lie my head down.
I was so relieved that I could have a break, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
- (narrator): Karen's sleep is disturbed by a sudden fluctuation in energy and a drastic change in temperature.
(clang) When I woke up suddenly, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was in the room.
I was thinking, "This doesn't feel right.
" It felt like someone had sat on the bed next to me.
- Who's there? - Help me.
(beeping) - (narrator): Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam experiences escalating and terrifying paranormal activity at work.
- Help me.
- I jumped out of my skin.
I was terrified.
I I had never experienced anything like it in my life.
It was real as real could be.
- Help me.
- She was maybe about 5.
She had long hair.
And she had almost like an older-timey nightgown on, but it had the little frillies and that, right down to the ankle kind of thing.
- (girl): Help me.
(banging on door) - Ah! There was something behind the door.
(growling) - (narrator): Suddenly, the ghost child disappears.
(banging on door) (growling) - There was something dark in that room.
Almost like if you opened that door, it would be like opening to a portal with hell.
(growling and clanging) - Hospitals are prone to have negative and positive energy.
(banging on door) There's lots of explanations and reasons as to why this might happen.
When we start to think about the chemical energy that it takes to be in extreme emotions, such as upset or death (banging on door) (Karen screaming) this is energy that gets projected out there.
When we see reports of negative entities being attached to these situations or rather manifested in these situations, we have to start to wonder if there is a connection between the two.
(growling) (banging on door) - I ran out of the room (gasping) ran back to the nurses' station and told them what happened.
Hey.
You know that room that we take our breaks in? Have you ever had anything weird happen there? Some of them laughed at me, but then some of them started to tell their own experiences and stories that they felt in that room themselves.
(buzzing and static) (machine beeping) This experience changed me.
Initially, it's hard for your brain to believe it, but then I thought, "The history and the type "of cases we've had, I believe that there was something more going on.
" (growling) - And in this case, this back room was often used for families that hast just lost a child, that were grieving, that were having to make some extremely difficult decisions in regards to their welfare, so I can only imagine the type of intense emotion that was released in a space like that.
(banging on door) (growling) - Ah! Looking back, I believe that there was a child spirit in there with me.
- (girl): Help me.
- I believe that there's something dark behind that door, that maybe is keeping that child in that room.
- Help me.
- One of my biggest fears is that when children pass, they don't just go over to a beautiful place, that they somehow get trapped here, and that experience left me with a feeling that maybe not all children get to move on.
(dripping noise) - (narrator): Nurse Joseph McKinlay moves to Canada and quickly lands a new job in the psychiatric wing of a small-town hospital.
- (with Scottish accent): In my capacity as the person in charge of the behaviour unit, I had the responsibility of making rounds to the four units on the ground.
(indistinct intercom message) Shift usually started 11:30.
Alright, man.
I'll get to it, OK? I usually left the office 'round about 12.
Then I would go to the other units to see how things were there.
And I opened the back door, and there I see this figure passing by.
Good evening.
I couldn't tell if it was a student nurse, a registered nurse, a charge nurse.
Though she wouldn't have been a student nurse because the training school had been closed for a year.
- (narrator): Joseph does not recognise the figure as any staff member he knows, and her uniform is out of date.
- She could have been from the 1950s.
She could have been from the 1960s.
Hey, man, you, uh seen anything weird out here recently? OK.
Never mind.
- We tend to find ghosts in places where there has been great emotion - positive or negative.
- Positive entities or human spirits or what we consider human spirits, oftentimes seek the attention of the living because they really enjoy the interaction.
They enjoy having that relationship.
- To me, it appeared as a nurse going for a walk, except for when she disappeared.
(beeping) - (narrator): After starting a new job, Nurse Joseph McKinlay sees a walking figure that cannot be explained.
- The nights that I was in charge of the unit, I would probably say I seen her about 50% of the time.
Whether this person was real or did I see 'em or didn't I see them, it was my choice.
Good evening.
- Others have spotted the mystery nurse before but her identity remains unknown.
And no one has seen her up close.
- (Joseph): She had a nurse's cap on, and she was wearing a uniform.
She looked like a black and white photograph.
- (narrator): And then Joseph sees something that defies any explanation.
- The face was a lighter shade of gray.
I, myself, think it was not of this world.
Most people try to rationalise what they have seen one way or another.
There was times I had a few doubts about what I had seen and what it could have been.
You're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Do you go and tell people that you know are gonna disbelieve you? Or people that believe you and think that there's a ghost? What do you do? And I can see some people say, "No, I never seen it and I ain't gonna do it because of what it's going to lead to.
- But this frightening figure is not the only mystery Joseph will encounter.
(noise of glass shattering) - After returning from making rounds and going into my office I noted a candle lying on my desk with the wick facing north and the base of candle, south.
And I thought, "Where did this come from?" - Then, something even stranger.
- I looked.
The window of the office, there is a nice hole.
The candle came right through it.
No glass (noise of glass shattering) except for this nice shape.
And I thought, "What is this?" Can you imagine a whole pane and there's only one hole that a candle comes through? Wouldn't you think that the whole pane would come through? - Poltergeists will move objects that actually have interactions with its environment in real time.
We'll get things appearing and disappearing, or it can actually be returning of items that have been lost.
- Joseph wonders if the candle is somehow connected to the mysterious figure.
- Somebody had to be on the south side of the building casting it, so that it came through the window to land on the desk.
- The mysterious figure often appears to Joseph on the south side of the building.
- (Joseph): I think that somebody was trying to communicate with me.
Hi there.
Can you come up to my office for a second, please? (indistinct answer) In Scotland, we have an oral tradition of tales and stories that are told on occasions that make people believe in supernatural beings.
- Hey.
What's going on? What's up? - I don't know.
I found this on the desk.
Personally myself, doing the subtraction of all the reasons for this candle to be on the desk, my upbringing led me to believe there's something supernatural in this candle.
I thought there is no physical way that this candle should be able to have landed on my desk.
I asked the supervisor to go check to see if they could find out where this candle came from.
They came back.
"We have no idea where this candle came from.
" - (narrator): Joseph worries that the candle is connected to the paranormal events.
Is someone or something from the other side trying to send him a message? The stress from frequent sightings becomes too much for Joe.
He decides to leave his job and never come back.
- As I got older, I think I would have reacted differently to this situation than I did.
I would have wanted to know more about whoever it was or what they were passing by for.
But I'm sorry, I never did it.
It's too late now to have regrets about it.
I should have stopped and tried to get her to Or I should have asked her questions about herself and not.
Too late now.
But why she came, I haven't a clue.
And she's never appeared since.
(dripping noise)
I knew that's where I was meant to be.
- until these things started happening to me.
- I jumped out of my skin.
I was terrified.
- It was not of this world.
(roaring) - Nothing will change my mind.
It's definitely real.
(banging) - (child): Come play with me.
(theme music) (gasp and scream) (people screaming) (siren blaring) - (man on intercom): All nurses to the nurses' station.
- (narrator): In a busy hospital near the shores of Lake Erie, Security Officer Rebecca Yergen is celebrating her third month on the job.
- I loved working at the hospital.
I always have been a people person and liked to help people out, so I was really excited about working there.
(indistinct chatter) I was friendly with a couple of the cleaning ladies.
Oh! (laughing) I referred to them as Laverne and Shirley.
They were very sweet ladies.
- Rebecca is a mother of two with a degree in criminology.
- I worked the nightshift.
This way, when my children were awake, I was home with them.
Then after they went to bed is when I went to work.
There were a lot of buildings to walk through not only inside but also around the outside of the buildings as well.
And, um, it was about the equivalent of eight miles.
(creaking) - Rebecca's nightly patrol route takes her through a section of buildings abandoned for decades.
- While they were abandoned, they hadn't been torn down yet.
So it was really crucial to make sure that those buildings were secured.
It was always really dark, even during the daylight because the windows were blacked out or were boarded up.
- Back in the early 1900s, these buildings were used as a psychiatric ward and a morgue.
(child's laughter) - It was just an uncomfortable place to walk through.
It just gave me the willies.
I didn't like it.
- She just had bad feelings there.
Sometimes, when you go into a certain location, you just get feelings.
I'd been in locations where I just wanted to run out screaming because the feelings were so intense there.
(Rebecca gasping) (man screaming) There were coke addicts in the area that would use that to meet up with their connections or someone trying to break in to steal the copper piping for money.
So part of my job was shuffling someone out that didn't belong there.
- (narrator): But intruders are not the only thing that worry Rebecca.
(clanging) - I would hear doors close.
Or a light would turn on that I know that I had previously turned off.
(loud clanging) (heartbeat sound) I believe that there's an explanation for everything.
At least, I used to.
- As the days and nights pass, Rebecca finds herself less and less able to explain the small things away.
- I was a little more hesitant to go into certain areas of the hospital.
I had to really tell myself, "You need to go here.
This is your job, this is what you're paid to do.
" - One night, Rebecca's doubts boil over into fear.
- I was walking past a door and that's when I heard some rustling.
(child's laughter) I went in to check it out.
(clanging) This room was just very cold, chilly just I'm not sure how to explain how unnerving it was for me to be in there.
(heartbeat sound) (gasping) That's when I saw cockroaches everywhere: the floor, the ceiling, the walls.
(screaming) It really scared me.
- But then, something even more bizarre - When I turned my flashlight back there was nothing actually there.
It all disappeared.
There were no cockroaches anywhere.
What I saw were the walls, the floor, the ceiling, they were crawling with them.
And they cannot just scatter that quickly.
There was something going on that I couldn't explain.
I wanted to run, but I heard this voice.
- (child's voice): Come find me.
Come play with me.
- (Rebecca): It was a child's voice.
- (child's voice): Find me.
(child's laughter) - (Rebecca): It sounded like it was running away.
- (child's voice): Come play with me.
- It sounded like it wanted me to come play with her.
- (child's voice): Come play with me.
Play with me.
Play with me.
Find me.
(child's laughter) (child's laughter) Find me.
- If there was a child, that would not be a good place for them to be.
Being a mom, I know if your child is lost, you need to go find them, and that's a very strong urge as a parent.
I was afraid that this person was in danger.
(girl's laughter) - (narrator): But Rebecca soon comes to the terrifying conclusion that she is all alone.
- (Rebecca): The hair on the back of my neck was standing up.
The hair on my arms was standing up.
- (girl's voice): Come find me.
- But I heard this voice that said, "Find me.
" - (girl): Come play with me.
- It was now starting to sink in what could possibly be going on.
- (interviewer): Which is? - Which It was a ghost.
- (girl's voice): Here I am.
Come find me.
(beeping) - (narrator): Security Officer Rebecca Yergen fears the strange events happening at work may be rooted in the paranormal.
(girl's laughter) - If there is an entity there, they need energy to do whatever they're gonna do.
Maybe they need energy to speak, maybe they need energy to move something (clanging) so they will drain our electrical energy from our equipment to try to make themselves known.
- I felt fear.
- (girl's voice): Find me.
Come find me.
(girl's laughter) - As a security guard, it is my job to go explore and find out what's really going on.
(creepy girl's laughter) At that moment, I couldn't go any further.
I was too scared.
(girl's laughter) I ran out of the area.
(strange scream) And I cried.
'Cause that's how scared I was, it made me cry.
(Rebecca crying) - (narrator): Terrified, she calls her boyfriend.
- man: [Hello?.]
- Hey.
I was crying and I was just telling him what happened.
I really just wanted to go home.
I didn't want to be alone in that building anymore.
(Rebecca crying) - (interviewer): What was his reaction? Did he seem to believe what you were saying to him? - He did believe me.
He actually did show up probably half an hour after the phone call.
And he walked through the rest of the buildings with me the rest of the night and helped calm me down.
- Over the next few weeks, Rebecca tries to come to terms with what she saw and heard.
- I was really questioning my rationality in all of this because I didn't believe in things like that until these things started happening to me.
- That rationality was about to be tested again.
- man: [Yeah, this is base.
We have an alarm going off.
.]
- I got a call from the hospital operator stating that there was someone stuck in elevator D.
D as in David? - operator: [Correct.
.]
- Elevator D was in the closed-off section of the hospital, and this was after hours.
Even though the buildings were abandoned, the elevators were still functioning because Security had to use the elevator to get up to the top floor.
That was the only way to get up there.
- Unless you have a special key carried by the security guards, there's no way to activate the elevators.
- Anyone that would have broken into the building would not be able to use the elevators because the elevator doors were locked open when not in use.
The only way anybody could use that elevator is if they would have stolen my keys.
I was thinking that maybe someone was stuck in a different elevator, and not the D elevator.
Maybe the operator had just gotten it wrong.
- (narrator): Sure enough, her hunch seems dead on.
- The door's wide open, the way I left it after I used it from previously doing rounds.
And there is absolutely no one in it.
It's empty.
You said building D, elevator D, right? - operator: [Yeah, that's what my panel is showing.
.]
- (narrator): She checks the elevator's control panel for anything unusual.
- (Rebecca): So I think, "OK, maybe, somebody accidentally hit one of the call lights in the elevator.
" I found that it was on working condition.
- (narrator): Rebecca senses a presence, but knows it's not something she can report.
- man: [You there, Rebecca?.]
- Yeah, I have nothing.
I'm coming back.
- man: [Copy that.
.]
- I believe psych wards are more prone to paranormal activity only because there's a lot of energy there.
There may not be a lot of deaths depending on the type of psych ward, but there's a lot of emotional energy that could still be there from the patients.
(woman's scream) - I just go about the rest of my shift and just blow it off.
No, let's get one thing - An hour later while on break, Rebecca gets another call.
- operator: [I've got a situation here.
There's definitely.]
[someone on elevator D.
.]
- I get another call from the operator saying, "Hey there, someone's stuck in an elevator.
" I'm just thinking to myself, "I was just there.
" (unknown woman crying) - operator: [OK, OK, just calm down.
We'll send someone.
.]
- Then, I hear the voice.
- woman's voice: [Help me, I'm stuck.
.]
- It was the voice coming from the callbox, from the elevator.
I could hear it through the operator's phone.
- woman's voice: [Please.
Please, I need help.
- (Rebecca): I can hear this woman crying for help, asking, "Please come help me.
I'm stuck.
Help me.
" - woman's voice: [Help me.
.]
- Now, I'm thinking, "Somebody got back there "and they got stuck, "and I didn't know how I was going to get them "out of a stuck elevator that shouldn't even have been in use and they shouldn't even had access to.
" (unknown woman crying) Can you guys come with me? They saw that I was frustrated, but I was also scared at the same time.
And so, they came with me.
- operator: [Hey, Rebecca.
.]
- Is she still there? - operator: [No, I'm not hearing her now.
Are you close?.]
- We're almost at the elevators.
I didn't realise what I was actually encountering 'til I encountered it.
Hello? - (narrator): Less than 100 feet from the elevator, they are hit with a horrible smell, the stink of rotting flesh.
- Awful! - operator: [She's back, Rebecca.
Hurry.
.]
(unknown woman crying) - Come on, this way.
You could clearly tell that this person was frantic and scared.
- woman's voice: [Help.
.]
(woman crying) [Please.
.]
- Come on! Come on! Come on! Hello? - woman's voice: [Baby!.]
[Baby! Help me!.]
[The baby!.]
(unknown woman crying) - She kept saying, "The baby, the baby.
Help me.
The baby.
" Oh, my Gosh! - woman's voice: [Oh, God!.]
[Please, I need help.
.]
- To me, it sounded like she was pregnant and maybe in labour? Or maybe she just had a baby.
(unknown woman crying) Hello? I was really scared.
I was afraid that this person was in danger, and I wasn't able to help her.
- woman's voice: [The baby!.]
[The baby! Help me!.]
- And then, dead silence.
- They just kept looking at me and looking at the elevator, just like I was, and we were all confused.
(noise of moving elevator) - (narrator): The elevator starts to move.
- Without a doubt, there was something in that elevator.
- Then, it stops.
(woman in elevator crying and screaming) Rebecca comes to a terrifying realisation.
- The voice I heard was not of the living.
(beeping) - (narrator): Security officer Rebecca Yergen experiences strange and disturbing phenomenon at work.
- This was a lot like the experience I had with the cockroach room: that it wasn't actually of this world.
It felt like someone was there but there was no one there.
You ever get that feeling that when you're sitting somewhere and it feels like someone is staring at you and you turn your head and look and they're actually staring at you? But you didn't know that because you didn't see it.
You felt it.
And that's what it felt like.
(woman screaming) - This can be something that's actually residual.
It may have happened actually in that house or in that location at one time, and it was such a panicked event.
Think of a mother who's pregnant or she has a baby with her and she's trapped in that elevator, it would be a very traumatic event.
The energy of that event that is trapped in the location, and under certain conditions, the right moment in time, it will replay itself.
- You heard that, right? - operator: [Hey, who's this?.]
- It's Rebecca.
Elevator D.
You just sent me here.
- operator: [Sorry.
I don't know what you're talking about.
.]
(heartbeat sound) - (Rebecca): That operator had no idea what was going on.
That totally freaked me out.
There are things going on in this hospital that I cannot explain.
And fight or flight was taking in, and I couldn't get out of there quick enough.
- (narrator): On the advice of a supervisor, the police are brought in to investigate with negative results.
(indistinct police radio) - The one officer, when we walked through the building, his demeanour and his posture and the way he acted was, this was a prank and it was a big waste of their time.
- (narrator): Soon after, Rebecca is transferred to a different hospital.
- It was good to go.
I was glad to say goodbye to the hospital.
- But still seeking validation for what she saw she contacts a paranormal investigator.
- I just needed to talk to someone who would believe me and not think that I was, you know, going insane or hallucinating or whatever.
(creaking) - Veteran Investigator Greg Feketik answers the call.
- I met Rebecca outside the hospital, and you could tell that she was apprehensive about being there.
I wanted her to return to the hospital, so she could show me where her experiences occurred.
She was a trooper and she went in.
- I hesitated at first.
I really didn't want to go back in there again.
(heartbeat sound) My heart was starting to race.
My hands were getting sweaty.
- (Greg): She was shaking like a leaf.
I mean, she was trembling.
- I'm sorry.
Sorry, this just - (interviewer): It's OK.
Take your time.
- OK.
I stopped.
And I said, "That right there is the cockroach room.
" - (narrator): They focus on the area where Rebecca heard the child's voice in the hope of capturing its image on tape.
They bait the child with a toy.
- It is a piece of paranormal equipment that we use, and it has a REM POD in it that if anything gets close to it or tries to pick it up, there'll be an alarm that will sound.
(alarm beeping) - (girl's voice): Thank you.
- I heard an EVP of a young child saying, "Thank you.
" - (girl's voice): Thank you.
- The hair on my neck starts standing up again.
But then I broke down in tears 'cause it it just To me, it was kind of a closure.
It helped solidify that (clanging) what I saw, I did see those things.
I really did see those things.
I wasn't all just in my imagination.
There's no doubt in my mind of the things that I had witnessed and, uh I understand why people wouldn't believe, and that's how I felt too for the longest time, was, "Yeah, whatever, this isn't real," until it actually happened to me.
(weird scream) And now, nothing will change my mind.
- (girl's voice): Come back.
Don't go.
(buzzing) Please! (dripping noise) (scream) (banging on door) - (woman): When a trauma comes in, you know that it's arriving because you can hear the chopper coming down.
We're on the main floor, and that's on the eighth floor.
And you can hear the noise and you can smell the fuel from the helicopter.
You have to do your job at that spot and you have to do it perfectly.
- (narrator): ER Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam had one of the hardest jobs in the world.
- Stay with us.
Breathe.
Breathe.
You're doing great.
I worked over 20 years as a pediatric trauma nurse.
Doing great, buddy.
- Few jobs come with higher amounts of stress.
- It was quite grueling: the gravity of it, realising that this is life and death that you're doing.
Stay with us.
I worked for one of the busiest hospitals in Canada.
The halls were always full.
Busy, busy, busy.
Loud people running around everywhere.
Organized chaos.
(indistinct chatter) It was heartbreaking, but it was exhilarating in a sense because someone has to help these kids.
I knew that's where I was meant to be.
I want to be that person to help those kids.
- (narrator): Karen is a serious professional who faces extreme hardship and trauma every day so not much phases her.
But there is one place in the hospital that makes her nervous.
- There was a tunnel that connected us to another part of the hospital.
On the way back from transferring a patient, you have to push all your equipment back through the tunnel.
Oftentimes, you would go by yourself.
And this tunnel is sort of dark and dingy.
And it did have an ominous feel to it.
So I was walking through the tunnel by myself.
(strange squeaking) I felt like I was being watched.
(footsteps) It was an echo-y hallway, and I could hear footsteps.
(footsteps) But there was nobody there.
I felt freaked out.
I felt scared.
(woman's scream) (beeping) - Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam experiences strange and disturbing phenomenon at work.
(footsteps) (growling) (indistinct intercom message) (beeping) - After getting back on the floor, I felt incredible relief.
It felt like I was sort of back in the land of the living, so to speak.
I was happy to hear all the noises and the sounds and the feel.
(phone ringing) (indistinct chatter) Hey.
I consider myself a rational person, especially being a nurse - we're kind of scientific thinkers, we want facts and numbers - so I thought maybe there is something going on with my head.
I was imagining it.
- Here.
(beeping) - Oftentimes, we will get reports where people feel like they're being watched.
And when we can't explain it away, with things like electromagnetic fields, it can be very intimidating.
It's something that, if not addressed outwardly, can make you feel pretty self-conscious.
- I couldn't dwell on what just happened because my job is just too busy, too much at stake.
I had to put everything aside and just go right back into work mode again.
- (narrator): But whatever caused the footsteps in the tunnel is not ready to leave Karen Wickiam alone.
(unsettling soundscape) - There was an area in the emerge called observation.
It's the furthest part of the emerge.
After a child has settled, we have them in the room, so maybe they can have a good night's sleep and we can watch them until they're ready to go upstairs.
I didn't necessarily like working back in observation by myself at night.
It's quiet back there.
- (narrator): Small things begin to happen around Karen.
- So we started noticing that things would go missing: blood-pressure cuff, rolls of tape a stethoscope, some of your pans.
We were always blaming everybody for stealing them from the observation area.
And we would go try to hunt down another member and say, "Did you take our blood-pressure cuff?" Did you take this and that? And people would say, "I haven't even been back there today.
" When other nurses started talking about noticing that happening as well, we knew that there was something up, something strange going on.
- (narrator): Other types of strange events in the observation room keep Karen on edge.
(strange, high-pitched noise) (clanging) (growling) (girl's laughter) - (Rebecca): You would hear noises that were not from another colleague or a patient because there may not be someone in that room.
(buzzing and static) (short growling) (distant clanging) (creaking) I would hear the clanging noises of the bedrails and a curtain would move, but there wasn't any air conditioning or heat register that was causing it.
(suspenseful music) Your brain's always trying to be logical, so you just go, "The cleaners were in there and they didn't put it up properly," or "There is a breeze.
" The noises distracted me from what I was doing, which is the last thing I wanted.
I had to stay focused.
I had to do the job at hand.
I couldn't let anything take me away from my primary duty, which is taking care of these kids.
- But in another part of the observation area, these strange events become impossible to ignore.
- This is a room back in observation that we would generally try to keep empty because unfortunately, children do pass in the hospital, in the emerge.
We want parents to be able to spend some time with these children.
Staff would take naps in there.
Even though some of us didn't like it Hey, it's time to get up.
we would still go in there and hope that we could have a quick sleep.
Have a good night.
I had worked 5 12-hour nightshifts in a row, so I was absolutely exhausted.
We had a tiny bit of a reprieve to take a break, which almost never happens, and I knew I needed to lie my head down.
I was so relieved that I could have a break, I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
- (narrator): Karen's sleep is disturbed by a sudden fluctuation in energy and a drastic change in temperature.
(clang) When I woke up suddenly, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was in the room.
I was thinking, "This doesn't feel right.
" It felt like someone had sat on the bed next to me.
- Who's there? - Help me.
(beeping) - (narrator): Trauma Nurse Karen Wickiam experiences escalating and terrifying paranormal activity at work.
- Help me.
- I jumped out of my skin.
I was terrified.
I I had never experienced anything like it in my life.
It was real as real could be.
- Help me.
- She was maybe about 5.
She had long hair.
And she had almost like an older-timey nightgown on, but it had the little frillies and that, right down to the ankle kind of thing.
- (girl): Help me.
(banging on door) - Ah! There was something behind the door.
(growling) - (narrator): Suddenly, the ghost child disappears.
(banging on door) (growling) - There was something dark in that room.
Almost like if you opened that door, it would be like opening to a portal with hell.
(growling and clanging) - Hospitals are prone to have negative and positive energy.
(banging on door) There's lots of explanations and reasons as to why this might happen.
When we start to think about the chemical energy that it takes to be in extreme emotions, such as upset or death (banging on door) (Karen screaming) this is energy that gets projected out there.
When we see reports of negative entities being attached to these situations or rather manifested in these situations, we have to start to wonder if there is a connection between the two.
(growling) (banging on door) - I ran out of the room (gasping) ran back to the nurses' station and told them what happened.
Hey.
You know that room that we take our breaks in? Have you ever had anything weird happen there? Some of them laughed at me, but then some of them started to tell their own experiences and stories that they felt in that room themselves.
(buzzing and static) (machine beeping) This experience changed me.
Initially, it's hard for your brain to believe it, but then I thought, "The history and the type "of cases we've had, I believe that there was something more going on.
" (growling) - And in this case, this back room was often used for families that hast just lost a child, that were grieving, that were having to make some extremely difficult decisions in regards to their welfare, so I can only imagine the type of intense emotion that was released in a space like that.
(banging on door) (growling) - Ah! Looking back, I believe that there was a child spirit in there with me.
- (girl): Help me.
- I believe that there's something dark behind that door, that maybe is keeping that child in that room.
- Help me.
- One of my biggest fears is that when children pass, they don't just go over to a beautiful place, that they somehow get trapped here, and that experience left me with a feeling that maybe not all children get to move on.
(dripping noise) - (narrator): Nurse Joseph McKinlay moves to Canada and quickly lands a new job in the psychiatric wing of a small-town hospital.
- (with Scottish accent): In my capacity as the person in charge of the behaviour unit, I had the responsibility of making rounds to the four units on the ground.
(indistinct intercom message) Shift usually started 11:30.
Alright, man.
I'll get to it, OK? I usually left the office 'round about 12.
Then I would go to the other units to see how things were there.
And I opened the back door, and there I see this figure passing by.
Good evening.
I couldn't tell if it was a student nurse, a registered nurse, a charge nurse.
Though she wouldn't have been a student nurse because the training school had been closed for a year.
- (narrator): Joseph does not recognise the figure as any staff member he knows, and her uniform is out of date.
- She could have been from the 1950s.
She could have been from the 1960s.
Hey, man, you, uh seen anything weird out here recently? OK.
Never mind.
- We tend to find ghosts in places where there has been great emotion - positive or negative.
- Positive entities or human spirits or what we consider human spirits, oftentimes seek the attention of the living because they really enjoy the interaction.
They enjoy having that relationship.
- To me, it appeared as a nurse going for a walk, except for when she disappeared.
(beeping) - (narrator): After starting a new job, Nurse Joseph McKinlay sees a walking figure that cannot be explained.
- The nights that I was in charge of the unit, I would probably say I seen her about 50% of the time.
Whether this person was real or did I see 'em or didn't I see them, it was my choice.
Good evening.
- Others have spotted the mystery nurse before but her identity remains unknown.
And no one has seen her up close.
- (Joseph): She had a nurse's cap on, and she was wearing a uniform.
She looked like a black and white photograph.
- (narrator): And then Joseph sees something that defies any explanation.
- The face was a lighter shade of gray.
I, myself, think it was not of this world.
Most people try to rationalise what they have seen one way or another.
There was times I had a few doubts about what I had seen and what it could have been.
You're stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Do you go and tell people that you know are gonna disbelieve you? Or people that believe you and think that there's a ghost? What do you do? And I can see some people say, "No, I never seen it and I ain't gonna do it because of what it's going to lead to.
- But this frightening figure is not the only mystery Joseph will encounter.
(noise of glass shattering) - After returning from making rounds and going into my office I noted a candle lying on my desk with the wick facing north and the base of candle, south.
And I thought, "Where did this come from?" - Then, something even stranger.
- I looked.
The window of the office, there is a nice hole.
The candle came right through it.
No glass (noise of glass shattering) except for this nice shape.
And I thought, "What is this?" Can you imagine a whole pane and there's only one hole that a candle comes through? Wouldn't you think that the whole pane would come through? - Poltergeists will move objects that actually have interactions with its environment in real time.
We'll get things appearing and disappearing, or it can actually be returning of items that have been lost.
- Joseph wonders if the candle is somehow connected to the mysterious figure.
- Somebody had to be on the south side of the building casting it, so that it came through the window to land on the desk.
- The mysterious figure often appears to Joseph on the south side of the building.
- (Joseph): I think that somebody was trying to communicate with me.
Hi there.
Can you come up to my office for a second, please? (indistinct answer) In Scotland, we have an oral tradition of tales and stories that are told on occasions that make people believe in supernatural beings.
- Hey.
What's going on? What's up? - I don't know.
I found this on the desk.
Personally myself, doing the subtraction of all the reasons for this candle to be on the desk, my upbringing led me to believe there's something supernatural in this candle.
I thought there is no physical way that this candle should be able to have landed on my desk.
I asked the supervisor to go check to see if they could find out where this candle came from.
They came back.
"We have no idea where this candle came from.
" - (narrator): Joseph worries that the candle is connected to the paranormal events.
Is someone or something from the other side trying to send him a message? The stress from frequent sightings becomes too much for Joe.
He decides to leave his job and never come back.
- As I got older, I think I would have reacted differently to this situation than I did.
I would have wanted to know more about whoever it was or what they were passing by for.
But I'm sorry, I never did it.
It's too late now to have regrets about it.
I should have stopped and tried to get her to Or I should have asked her questions about herself and not.
Too late now.
But why she came, I haven't a clue.
And she's never appeared since.
(dripping noise)