Shepherdstown Police Chief Michael King stands on one of the properties Thursday in Shepherdstown that have had repeated reported ghost sightings and paranormal activity.
SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — An experienced police chief always has some interesting stories to tell. Over his or her career they have seen bank robbers, killers and all types of fugitives. Shepherdstown Police Chief Michael King can top most of them. Some of his calls involve ghosts, or at least what some people believe are ghosts.
The small town has had far more than its fair share of ghost sightings, so many in fact that a television production crew, along with paranormal investigators Nick Groff and Bill Hartley, psychic medium Lorie Johnson, historical researcher Dana Mitchell and investigator Elizabeth Saint moved into the town to film episodes for the series “Ghosts of Shepherdstown.”
When the Shepherdstown Police Department gets a call for a ghost in the house, they normally look at the caller for any type of alcohol or drug use. If they don’t find that to be the reason for the call, they look for an explanation that will show a bump in the night was just the cat or the wind. When that and all other options have been exhausted they write it up as unexplainable.
“We get calls at times where someone says ‘there is somebody in my house, I can hear them walking around and I’m locked in the bedroom.’ You get there and there is nobody there. The house is locked up completely. Or somebody says ‘there’s somebody in my house because I just saw the light turn on and I’m now in this room.’ And you get there and sure enough, the lights are on. I don’t have an explanation for it,” King said.
Many people do not believe in ghosts. Others do and some believe that satanic worship opens the community to a realm of strange sightings and demons.
“Would I find it surprising that there is somebody who does satanic worship? No, that would not surprise me because I think you have far more of that, it’s just somewhat underground right now,”King said.
The police chief did note that someone who claims to have a ghost in their house has very little to gain, in fact, it could be just the opposite if they are mocked or their reputation is ruined. King believes the callers have seen or heard something that is beyond the scope of normal investigation techniques.
“I don’t proclaim to be an expert in any of this,” King said.
That’s where the television crew steps in. With a full team assembled they began investigating ghost sightings in and around Shepherdstown. As the episodes aired on television, many people were watching and some had advice for the police chief, who also was a regular in the series.
“I call it my Monday morning advisory. If the show has aired Sunday, my phone would blow up the next morning with people who consider themselves experts calling me and saying, ‘you should have done this or you guys should have done this and this is what is going on here.’ I had a gentleman call me from Florida that watched the show and he claims to be an expert in the paranormal and said the problem with Shepherdstown is, and he claims to have done research, that there is a paranormal class that the (university) has offered and they are opening portals using the spirit board. He claims this is the cause of our problems in this town,” King said.
According to King, some areas are possibly more haunted than others.
“I can tell you this, I think the next to last episode that occurred down at the river, it’s going to be mentioned again in this episode, but (Johnson) swears there’s some very wicked stuff going on down there. There are upside down crosses on some of the rocks down there, things like that,”King said.
Other strange things have happened throughout Shepherdstown. A small, old tombstone with only the word ‘Baby’ was left at the police station.
“At 5 a.m. it showed up propped against our front door. There’s no note, there’s no nothing. I have been in touch with all the churches around and I cannot find out where it came from,” King said.
The latest episode, along with all the others, will air today on TLC.
“(Today) on TLC they are running a marathon from 2 to 9 p.m. The last episode will be the new one from 8 to 9 p.m., and they’re running them in order, the whole series. There was some stuff on there that made my hair stand up, on the (new) episode,” King said.
However, it hasn’t all been scary for the town.
“We’ve had a lot of people that have visited the town because of the show. We had people from Florida, New York, Virginia, Texas, even people from the West Coast have been here because of the show, (but) the show was not done for a publicity stunt. We really had no idea it would bring people to town,” King said.
That type of tourist revenue is exactly what the state had in mind with their film tax program.
“We hope the end result of any of these productions that film in the state is to drive tourism,” said Pam Haynes, director of the West Virginia Film Office.
King has become somewhat of a local celebrity, although that status is not what he seeks. According to King, he is a lawman first and foremost, but he still has people that want to meet him. During BooFest in Shepherdstown there will be a meet and greet on Saturday at The Opera House.
“I know of three of us who are going to be there. There is going to be myself and Heartly and Mitchell,” King said. “I’ve never seen a ghost, but honestly, I’ve never seen a million dollars either, but it’s out there.”
Staff writer Jeff McCoy can be reached at [email protected].
