Today is Halloween, a time when many students decorate their dorms or apartments with ghosts, skeletons, monsters and other Halloween items.

But are there really ghosts lurking around OU? Many students brush tales of ghostly encounters off as simply urban legend. Some, however, believe there is something more to the stories.

Jack Hobson, counselor at the university's International Student Exchange Program, said he was responsible for doing historical research about OU for the historical markers outside many of the buildings on campus.

In the process of researching OU's history, he came across several ghost stories, such as people who reported strange activity in Ellison Hall, a local sorority house, Holmberg Hall and the Cate Center, he said.

David Annis, director of University Housing and Food Services, also said he heard stories from employees that strange things sometimes happened at the Cate Center cafeteria, though he had never personally experienced anything.

Annis said in the summer of 1988, a 14-year-old boy who was involved with a non-university affiliated group using the Cate Center, was decapitated by a dumbwaiter which had been used to carry food from the basement to the kitchen area.

Apparently, Annis said, the boy had overridden the safety feature on the dumbwaiter which prevented it from turning on if the door was open. Annis said somehow the dumbwaiter was activated while the boy's head was in it, killing him.

Lt. David Donihoo, an OU Department of Public Safety officer, said he was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene and confirmed that a person had been killed in the basement of the Cate Center after the person's head had been caught in the dumbwaiter. Donihoo also said there is a police report on the incident. However, the report was not available at press time.

Annis allowed members of the Oklahoma City Ghost Club, who have gone on more than 100 paranormal investigations and charge no money for investigations, to go into the kitchen area of the Cate Center on Tuesday night to investigate the reports of ghostly activity. The team of four was accompanied by a reporter and photographer from The Oklahoma Daily.

Team members present that night were Director of OKCGC Scott Smith, Laura Smith, Justin Faulk, who is also a member of the Stillwater Paranormal Research Group, and Jenni Boutz.

According to the OKCGC's mission statement, the club searches for "real and solid evidence of life after death" and is "not looking for psychic impressions."

Scott Smith said the team must enter every investigation with a skeptical mind in order to be able to document the cases properly.

"Our mission is to gain scientific data and to back up the existence of paranormal activity," Smith said. "You have to approach as a skeptic in order to prove it. That's what we believe."

The OKCGC used fairly technical equipment while searching for activity in the basement of the Cate Center, including a digital camera, audio recording, a night-vision video camera and electromagnetic field detectors.

All lights were turned off in the basement and special low frequency flashlights were used so none of the cameras could be susceptible to tricks of light.

Though nothing showed up on the team's digital photographs, or the electromagnetic or temperature readings, Smith said he did record what he thought may be the voice of a child on one of the audio tapes that said, "get some ice." Also, The Daily photographer did capture a rather strange picture. The picture shows a bright orange light that appears to have a vague human shape. There was no one present and no light in the room at the time, and it is not a development error since the anomaly is present on the negative and all other exposures turned out normal.

Smith said it could not have been a flashlight since the flashlights used were at a lower light frequency, almost like a blacklight, than what was photographed.

"It looks like something toward the camera is moving," he said. "It almost has an aura around it."

Smith also said that for the evidence to be conclusive, more research may be needed.

"We definitely need to follow up on it," he said. "One photo and a possible voice isn't enough. It's enough to raise the question, but not give the answer."
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