Mineral Springs Hotel
The Mineral Springs Hotel in Alton, Illinois has a long, rich history of hauntings. Stories of the Lavender Lady that fell to her demise after being pushed down the hotel staircase, the rumors of the deaths of long ago hotel visitors that perished in the hotel pool, and several others are echoed through the halls of the now office building and café.
St. Louis Ghost Hunters were very excited to have an opportunity to investigate the old hotel. Upon arrival STLGH were met by Steve, a fellow paranormal enthusiast and affiliate of the Hotel. Steve provided very in depth tour of the Hotel. He showed us the “hot spots” found during previous investigations and shared with us the folklore and facts of the horrific history of the Mineral Springs.
Darron House, Collinsville, IL
Ms. Darron contacted St. Louis Ghost Hunters after she inherited the residence in Collinsville, IL. Ms. Darron explained that she, and others, had experienced a number of noises and feelings while in the home. She told STLGH that she had heard footstep in other rooms and other levels of the home while cleaning the home. Her husband told us of a basket that had appeared in the middle of the kitchen without explanation. He noted that he had thrown away the basket on a number of occasions and each time the basket returned to its original location. She also advised that in several situations trinkets were found in rooms that had been previously cleaned. Ms. Darron expressed her concern to be alone in the home and told us that none of her friends would return to the property with her.
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Group History
The story of St. Louis Ghost Hunters began during the summer 2008 when a small group of paranormal enthusiasts decided to turn their dreams of ghost hunting into something more serious. Eric Bequette came first, then Jen Leggett and then Lindsey Piech. We soon discovered that paranormal investigation was an expensive and time consuming hobby but we were excited to meet the challenges head on!
In the beginning, we dubbed ourselves “STL Ghost Hunters” and drummed up places to investigate through friends, our MySpace page and posting advertisements on Craig’s List. (Yes, we’ve sure come a long way since then!) We overcame many challenges and learned a lot of valuable lessons during our early days and we’re now a stronger team because of it. Eric, Jen and Lindsey made a firm commitment to hold the team to the highest standards possible and to never accept anything less than the very best the group was capable of achieving.
With the invaluable help from our friend Ray Derousse, we first established our web-presence in October 2008 at www.stlghosthunters.com. (The site is no longer active but we’ve held on to the domain for sentimental reasons!) By spring of 2009, word was staring to get around and our case load started to increase. We began to realize just how many families and businesses were impacted by possible paranormal activity and firmly committed ourselves to helping and reassuring as many people as we could.
During summer of 2009, Eric, Jen and Lindsey had reached a turning point. We’d spent our first year establishing ourselves and working out the kinks. Our dream was now a reality and we were ready to take the group to the next level. During July of 2009, we began planning for a new look and new equipment. When we discovered that www.stlouisghosthunters.com was available, we quickly jumped on the opportunity and Ray began the painstaking task of redesigning our look and transferring our material to the new site. In August of 2009, we purchased a new 4-channel DVR and IR camera system and updated our collection of equipment. In September of 2009, we created our fan page on Facebook, updated our logo and started collecting applications for new members. By the end of September 2009, STLGH welcomed Adam Gummersheimer to the team.
Our more “searchable” new name helped people find us more easily and generated increased interest and web traffic. In January of 2010 we made our first media appearance on Riverfront Radio’s Chaos Show with Meagen Mercy and Tracy Trist. By the end of January, cases were booked nearly every two weeks for several months out and STLGH was again looking to add a member to the team. In April 2010, we invited Josh Taylor to join the group. By the end of April, STLGH was featured as the cover story in the Riverfront Times in St. Louis and made a late-night appearance on John Carney’s Radio Show on KMOX.
Eric, Jen, Lindsey, Adam and Josh enjoy serving our clients and helping them “explain the unexplained.” We’re so proud of our accomplishments with STLGH and look forward to helping many more people with their paranormal concerns in the future.
Barnes’ Residence
St. Louis Ghost Hunters were contacted to investigate the home of Mr. Dan Barnes. Mr. Barnes reported that he and other residents of his home have heard the whispering of their names, the opening of the external porch door as well as footsteps, sounds of doors opening and the sound of an old time radio in the basement.
