“Hot bed of paranormal activity”: TLC airs ‘Paranormal Lockdown’ TV episode featuring St. Ignatius Hospital

Boots, a wheelchair and a crutch were set up in the hallway of the St. Ignatius Hospital during the initial round of ghost hunts in October 2015. Several items found in the abandoned building were staged around the hospital during the tours.

When The Learning Channel's Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman traveled to Colfax last August to spend 72 hours locked in the St. Ignatius Hospital building, they were not quite sure what to expect. The hosts of ‘Paranormal Lockdown’ met Colfax’s Unified Executive Director Valoree Gregory and former hospital employee Duane Wood outside of the hospital when they arrived.

TLC’s episode of Paranormal Lockdown featuring St. Ignatius aired nationally Friday, Jan. 6.

Gregory and Wood are seen at the beginning of the episode taking Groff and Weidman on a tour through the hospital, where Gregory shared with them a story from one of the several tours conducted at the building in the last year. Gregory recounted how while a group of six was standing in one room and she was in the hallway with a scared tour participant, the group suddenly came running out of the room.

Gregory said the participants had seen a hand.

“All six of them said that there was a hand, a human hand, on that window from the other side,” Gregory said.

The participants thought Gregory was messing with them and had put her hand on the window while she was not in the room with them. But Gregory told Groff and Weidman that the room where the hand had been seen from was completely full of bed springs at the time, so nobody would have been able to get in to even stand at the window.

“I could have physically not gotten into that room,” she said.

Before leaving Groff and Weidman to stay locked down in the hospital for 72 hours, Gregory asked them to conduct an investigation to find out the ghost or spirit who was scratching and terrifying everyone.

“Why are they attacking us, or are they just doing it to get our attention?” she asked them. “It’s happened so many times.”

It did not take long for Groff and Weidman to start commenting on the state of the hospital building once they started conducting their investigation.

“I think this is probably the grittiest location that Nick and I have ever stayed in,” said Weidman.

The two wandered the hallways with cameraman Rob Saffi following after them.

“It’s so creepy walking through a hospital by yourself when it’s abandoned and this decrepit,” said Groff.

One of the first areas explored in the building was the third floor. The duo entered room 311, dubbed “Rose’s room.” Rose was a former resident of the room, and she had an angry personality, according to Gregory. In Rose’s room, they used equipment to attempt to pick up the voices of possible spirits present, and when they asked Rose if they could remain, a voice on their recording equipment told them to “go away.”

They left the room.

In the hallway, Groff started to ask about the spirit who was scratching everyone. A voice responded, “him.” When Groff asked who “him” referred to, a voice responded “Rich.”

At the end of the 72 hours, Gregory was able to tell them who “Rich” was.

“I just got the chills,” she said when they told her of hearing the name. “Richard used to live here, he was on the third floor because he was higher functioning. He was a nice guy; he would just kind of joke with everyone.”

Groff spent his first night in the hospital sleeping on a cot in the hallway, while Weidman slept on a cot in one of the rooms. Weidman explained to the camera her feelings about the place before going to bed.

“Absolutely the worst place we’ve been to so far,” she said.

Groff and Weidman were joined by bats throughout much of their exploration, and the bats kept managing to scare them whenever they showed up.

On the morning of day two, they decided to start their investigation in the morgue. Gregory had told them that a man had died there when he fell down the elevator shaft, and Groff and Weidman wanted to explore it to see what activity they could pick up. They were not disappointed.

Noting that an elevator went down into the morgue, Weidman realized that several dead bodies had moved through the morgue over the years.

“All the bodies came through here down the elevator to the morgue,” she said. Gregory told them that thousands had died at the hospital during its history.

Groff decided to jump into the elevator shaft, causing Weidman to become concerned that the elevator, which had not been serviced in 13 years, would collapse on him.

“It’s really dangerous,” she commented.

Groff used his ghost equipment to attempt to detect voices.

“Give you a warning,” a voice said, preceding a scream coming through the equipment.

“There’s something here with me, Katrina,” Groff said.

“Watch out,” the voice said.

Groff decided to get out of the elevator shaft before any more activity could be picked up, but he felt the elevator might prove to be a breeding ground for ghost activity. Proceeding to the third floor, he opened the elevator door there to try to pick up more activity.

“Who’s screaming in the elevator?” he asked.

A voice responded, “Rose.”

As Groff and Weidman attempted to get more information from their ghost equipment, a sudden noise alerted them to activity at the end of the hallway. A dust cloud arose behind them, seemingly from nowhere.

“It came up right here,” Groff said, pointing to the spot.

Groff and Weidman quickly noted that the dust cloud arose in the same room where the tour group Gregory had mentioned had allegedly seen a human hand on a window.

Though they were unable to find out what had caused the dust cloud, Groff was excited nonetheless.

“To me, this is groundbreaking,” he said. “I haven’t been in a location in a long time where the daytime hauntings are more active than at nighttime. This is why we live in the location, because of activity like this, not missing a second.”

Groff also called the location “a hot bed of paranormal activity.”

When night fell, they decided to start their investigation where they had spotted the dust cloud. They pulled out their 3D mapping camera and thermal camera to attempt to document ghost activity.

Weidman stood in the hallway, asking the spirits to come stand next to her. As she did so, cameraman Saffi felt something grab him at his right side.

When no more activity was discovered, Groff and Weidman decided to call it a night and decided to sleep next to the elevator to see if they could detect more activity while they slept. With Weidman retiring to the second floor and Groff on the third, Weidman suddenly heard a loud bang. She stated that it shook the whole building. She ran upstairs, and Groff was already investigating.

“It’s there again!” he exclaimed, pointing to the very spot the dust had arisen from earlier. He said that something had been thrown. No object could be found.

“We don’t know what’s going on here yet, and we’re running out of time to try to get Val answers,” said Weidman.

On the final night of their investigation, Groff and Weidman decided to take a different approach. They separated, sending Weidman to the first floor, Saffi to the second floor to monitor both of them and Groff to the third floor.

On the first floor, Weidman made a request of the spirits, asking them to direct all of their energy into having Groff feel the same pain they felt in their lives. On the third floor, Groff was suddenly in back pain, stating that he felt as though cold hands were pushing against his back.

Groff decided to go into room 310 and laid down on the bed. He stated that he felt as though he was connecting with the spirit there. The next thing he knew, Weidman and Saffi were at his bedside. He woke up, not even realizing he had fallen asleep.

That concluded their investigation. At the end of the 72 hours, they reported to Gregory, telling her that there was activity in the building, but they did not think it was of an evil design.

Groff concluded, “I just think it’s a spirit that wants our attention.”